In St. Petersburg, the court sentenced the activist of the youth movement "Spring" Artem Goncharenko, who was detained in the city the day before, on February 25, before a rally in memory of oppositionist Boris Nemtsov
Global Look Press
In St. Petersburg, the court sentenced the activist of the youth movement "Spring" Artem Goncharenko, who was detained in the city the day before, on February 25, before a rally in memory of oppositionist Boris Nemtsov. This was reported on the movement’s account at https://twitter.com/spb_vesna /status/968074932268748800" target="_blank" >Twitter.
Goncharenko was found guilty of repeated violation of the procedure for holding rallies (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), Fontanka reports. The court sentenced him to 25 days of administrative arrest. Thus, the oppositionist will be released after the Russian presidential elections, scheduled for March 18, the media notes.
Goncharenko’s case was considered by the Smolninsky District Court. The charge was about a violation allegedly committed by an activist during a rally by supporters of Alexei Navalny, which took place in the Northern capital on January 28.
On Twitter "Vesna" https://twitter.com/spb_vesna /status/967800407539011585" target="_blank" >it is reported that the protocol stated “about the demonstration of the candidate Duck from the window of the apartment.” “Goncharenko demonstrated an inflatable duckling from the window of a house nearby with Area Proletarian dictatorship, where (Navalny’s) rally took place,” Bogdan Litvin, federal coordinator of the “Spring” movement from St. Petersburg, confirmed to Interfax.
https://twitter.com/spb_vesna " > Movement Spring @ spb_vesna
Artyom Goncharenko is left in police custody overnight. As far as we know, the protocol refers to the demonstration of candidate Duck from the apartment window on January 28. Photo: David Frenkel.
The OVD-Info website reported that the police then tried to break into Goncharenko’s apartment, but they failed. Almost a month later, on February 25, the activist was detained leaving his house when he was going to a rally in memory of Nemtsov. Goncharenko's trial took place the next day. Before that, he spent the whole night in the police station.
Let us remind you that the yellow inflatable duck has become a symbol of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation at the instigation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Navalny, which a year ago published an investigation into the “secret empire” of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev entitled “He’s not your Dimon.” The FBK investigation mentioned a duck house in the middle of a lake in one of the country estates in the vicinity of the city of Ples - the alleged residence of Medvedev.
Since then, government officials have reacted quite painfully to almost any images of ducks. So, in June last year, at a mass rally in St. Petersburg, the police seized a large yellow duck from the protesters, recognizing it as a means of propaganda. The police reports stated that “some had a means of visual propaganda in the form of a yellow toy duck, that is, they participated in an uncoordinated rally.”
On March 7, 2017, in St. Petersburg, the police detained protesters for the resignation of Medvedev, who sang the rhyme “Quack! Quack! Dima, you’re stealing in vain.”
And in August 2017, in Arkhangelsk, the “Duck Race” charity event - a swim on rubber ducks, planned in the Amusement Dvor park - was canceled. According to the organizers of the event, the city administration demanded that the park management either cancel the event or replace the ducks with any other character.
Biathlon shooting at the site of repressions - a false dilemma in Yekaterinburg?Test site on the Moskovsky tract in Yekaterinburg, which is a deputy Dmitry Sergin considers it a place for execution of repressed people, they want to build it up; a biathlon center named after Anton Shipulin should appear nearby. According to Sergin and a number of other political and public figures, it is unacceptable if biathletes shoot at the scene of executions. However, a deputy objected to them today at a meeting of the City Duma Alexander Kolesnikov. He said that “the Soviet government did not shoot anyone at the firing ranges.” This information was confirmed by the head of the Archives Department Sverdlovsk regionAlexander Kapustin.
Alexander Kolesnikov advised colleagues making similar statements to study history; he said that “neither here nor in Moscow did the Soviet government shoot people in the fields.” According to him, such versions were invented by anti-Soviet propaganda.
“I was outraged by the fact that we only talk about the victims of “terror”, why don’t we talk about the victims Civil War? Then many more people died on both sides. Why do we condemn only communists, and not condemn the same war criminal Kolchak? Kolchak has not been rehabilitated; he is a war criminal by all laws, because he tortured many people. There were victims in the “Great Terror”, no one denies this, but let’s not interfere with the concept - executions were not carried out at the firing ranges,” Kolesnikov said.
The fact that people were not shot in the forests and fields during the “Great Terror” was confirmed in a conversation with the head of the Sverdlovsk Region Archives Directorate, Alexander Kapustin.
"They were shot in other places, there were specially equipped rooms for this. These are all fairy tales, of course, that they were taken to the training ground, forced to dig graves and shot. This did not actually happen, they shot differently, but they shot. They shot those whom the court and the judicial authorities sentenced. By the way, the "troika" is also a judicial official body, not an extrajudicial body, as was commonly believed. The "troika" included a prosecutor - so this is also a judicial decision, according to court decisions They were shot," said Alexander Kapustin.
Let us remind you that a memorial was built at 12 km of the Moscow Highway; on its website it is said that on the territory of the “12th kilometer” there are supposedly the remains of almost 21 thousand people, “we know practically nothing about the vast majority of them.” At the same time, it is immediately indicated that the names of 18,475 people are inscribed on the memorial plaques, but those who were shot not in this place, but in Sverdlovsk and subsequently rehabilitated. Meanwhile, a state expert was working at the construction site of the future biathlon center; as reported on the website of the government of the Sverdlovsk region, no remains were found there. Kapustin explains this by saying that the burials were not laid in an “even layer” around the entire perimeter, but they are located “compactly” somewhere - it is probably impossible to establish where exactly. The main thing is that, in fact, no people were shot at the training ground.
At the same time, the expert says that it is known for certain that the victims of political repression are buried exactly at 12 km, Kapustin is convinced of this, but another thing is that the number of those buried differs from the number mentioned at the memorial complex, and there is a logical explanation for this.
“How many of them are buried there - this needs to be counted and researched, no one has seriously looked into this. We have written down everyone who is in our “Book of Memory”, 12 km is just a memorial place, there is a monument dedicated to the victims of political repression "We simply mentioned everyone who was shot according to the documents that are in our archives, but this does not mean that they were buried there," he says.
To establish who exactly is buried on the Moscow Highway, it is necessary to conduct autopsies and examinations or look for relevant documents that are not in the archives of the region. Also, the expert cannot say where exactly the bodies are located. “The place that was designated as a monument to victims of political repression - remains were found there, and it is generally accepted that these were politically repressed people. But once again I want to say that no one was involved in research, this memorial place was simply immortalized,” - Kapustin said in a conversation with.
Deputy Kolesnikov says that a number of officials are trying to “promote themselves” on the topic of mass executions and “great terror.”
“Of course, these are all horror stories about how people were shot in the fields,” confirms Kapustin. “When in the film “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev” a guard shoots a prisoner, this is a fiction, and a malicious fiction. This never happened, because if a guard killed a prisoner, then the next one would be put against the wall. A prisoner is a person, this is a workforce, no matter how we talk about the regime now. But even those people who were convicted and those who served their sentences - they represented a certain value for the state. No one would allow anyone to waste this value,” he noted.
According to him, there was “terror”, but how big it was has already been documented - just look at the speech of the FSB director, who gave an interview on the eve of the centenary of the service, where the numbers were clearly mentioned, and not to Solzhenitsyn, who calls 60-70 million, or even hundreds of millions. “The NKVD bodies of the 30s can be accused of anything, but not of hiding statistics. The statistics were absolutely accurate, and these figures, which were named by the director of the FSB, can be trusted,” noted Alexander Kapustin.
Let us recall, as the director of the FSB noted Alexander Bortnikov, back in the late 1980s, a certificate from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1954 was declassified about the number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary and other especially dangerous state crimes, including banditry and military espionage, in 1921-1953. - 4 million 60 thousand 306 people. Of these, 642 thousand 980 were sentenced to capital punishment, and 765 thousand 180 were sentenced to exile and deportation.
It’s interesting if “the country has lost a valuable gene pool, an elite part of society that was created over centuries: the best officers, professors, thinkers, writers, doctors, scientists, musicians left” - it turns out that those who are howling about this are people with good faces, like the recently deceased Mark Zakharov - descendants of the worst officers, professors, thinkers, writers and the list goes on. In a word, genetic waste.
https://rg.ru/2013/10/13/zaharov-arhiv.html
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Mark Zakharov: Personally, I have nothing to thank him for, although I understand: the appearance of this subject in our country was not accidental. Until 1917, Russia remained a fairly healthy state, carried out Witte’s reforms, strengthened finances, and fed Europe with bread. At the same time, the disease was ripe, the revolution was approaching. Maybe the country would have passed this dangerous zone, but every organism has a margin of safety. Any analogy is lame, and my comparison is probably a bit crude, but let's imagine a patient who has lost a liter of blood. The internal reserve, the strength of healthy cells, is enough to recover. It is no longer possible to compensate for the loss of two liters on your own. There is a limit beyond which there is no escape. 1917 was a terrible, severe shake-up of the entire social and government structure.
Have those same two liters of blood been sucked out of the country?
Mark Zakharov: Yes. A mass exodus from Russia began. According to various sources, about three million people left their native land in two years. They moved to Europe, Asia, and scattered around the world. The country lost a valuable gene pool, an elite part of society that had been created over centuries: the best officers, professors, thinkers, writers, doctors, scientists, musicians left... Following the exodus, Lenin organized a forced deportation of his own free will. The remaining flower of the nation, those who refused to leave Russia, were forcibly expelled. Berdyaev recalls how Dzerzhinsky summoned him for questioning and found out the degree of intellectual competence of his interlocutor. Making sure that in front of him there is a very clever man, Felix Edmundovich included the philosopher on the list of passengers on the first German steamship, which carried many prominent people from Russia...
Like, don’t you smart guys teach us how to live, we ourselves have a mustache?
Mark Zakharov: Exactly. The deportation lasted a long time, there were many ships... For Russia, all this meant new significant blood losses. The next painful, almost fatal bloodletting was the destruction of the class of tillers. Lenin saw in the peasants a threat to the state of the victorious proletariat; he understood that a well-working and earning peasant would certainly begin to expand own production and eventually become bourgeois. The peasants were subject to extermination, which Stalin subsequently did. Not a single dictator, with the possible exception of Pol Pot, touched the peasants. Agriculture has not yet been restored in Russia...
Since the early 30s, blood has been pumped out of the country. The terror of 1937, mass repressions, the Gulag... The figures indicating the extermination of people are sky-high, terrible. A score of tens of millions of lives. I am afraid that the health of the nation has been completely undermined. After all, almost every family suffered!
As a result, it turned out that half of the people are in one way or another connected with the prisoners, and the second half - with the guards.
Did you also burn your membership card twice in front of television cameras?
Mark Zakharov: You know, after years, I’m ready to honestly admit: it was a stupid, spontaneous act, which I bitterly regret. The act of burning the red book took the form of unbridled and completely unnecessary theatricality. With the Communist Party Soviet Union they should have parted in a completely different way - calmly and with dignity. I really liked how Yeltsin did this at the 19th party conference. He put his membership card on the presidium table and left the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. The audience sat, not daring to move. And only when Boris Nikolaevich approached the door, they began to hiss and hoot at his back. They were afraid to meet his gaze, afraid to say something to his face...
How long did you spend in the party?
Mark Zakharov: Joined in '73 and left in '91...
You left voluntarily, but you entered?
Mark Zakharov: An acquaintance who worked in the department of culture recommended: if you want to get independent work, and not always be under one of the artistic directors, write an application: there was a certain quota for non-party theater managers, and I did not get into it. Indeed, a day after the end of my candidacy, they called me and told me to put on a modest tie and appear at the bureau of the Moscow City Party Committee, where I was confirmed as the chief director of the Lenin Komsomol Theater.
Strictly speaking, do you owe your current job to your membership card?
Mark Zakharov: Yes, and also to comrades Grishin, the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, and Suslov, the main party ideologist. The latter supported the play “Destruction,” which was under threat of closure. Suslov came to the theater and gave a standing ovation to the artists, after which a laudatory review appeared in Pravda. I didn’t even understand then that my directorial destiny was hanging by a thread.
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The Cheka sentenced Kaplan to death. The execution took place in the Kremlin: the procedure was entrusted by the security officers to Commandant Malkov. The sentence was carried out at about 16:00 on September 3, 1918. Kaplan's body was doused with gasoline and burned in a metal barrel.
And the day before, an investigative experiment took place on the territory of the Mikhelson plant - a picture of an assassination attempt was simulated. The event was held by prominent revolutionaries Viktor Kingisepp and Yakov Yurovsky, who returned from the Urals after the massacre of the royal family.
Malkov recalls:
“Retribution has taken place. The sentence was carried out. It was performed by me, a member of the Bolshevik Party, a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, commandant of the Moscow Kremlin Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov, with my own hand. And if history were to repeat itself, if again the creature stood before the muzzle of my pistol, raising its hand against Ilyich, my hand would not have wavered, pulling the trigger, just as it did not waver then...”
The murder of Uritsky and the attempt on Lenin prompted the Soviet authorities to switch to red terror tactics. The corresponding resolution on the legality of such a fight was issued by the government on September 5.
Despite the apparent seriousness of his wounds, Lenin recovered fairly quickly. Already on October 22, he held his first public speech after the assassination attempt.
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Kaplan testifies:
“I won’t say who gave me the revolver. I didn’t have any trade union card. I haven't served for a long time. I won’t answer where I got the money. I shot out of conviction. I confirm that I came from Crimea. I will not answer whether my socialism is connected with Pavel Skoropadsky (Hetman of Ukraine at that time - Gazeta.Ru). I have not heard anything about the terrorist organization associated with Boris Savinkov (one of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party - Gazeta.Ru). I don’t know if I have any acquaintances among those arrested by the Extraordinary Commission. I have a negative attitude towards the current government in Ukraine. I don’t want to answer how I feel about the Samara and Arkhangelsk authorities.”
Planetzerocolor
The detainee is brought to the office of the acting chairman of the Cheka, Yakov Peters. Sverdlov, the secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Varlaam Avanesov, who was present at the first interrogation of Dyakonov, and the People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR Dmitry Kursky, who begins to ask questions, are already present here.
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Kaplan is being transported from the Zamoskvoretsky military registration and enlistment office to the Lubyanka.
Even then, Bonch-Bruevich began to think about the need for red terror:“By late night, the political side of this whole event began to emerge. It became absolutely clear that the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat was under attack from all counter-revolutionary elements, no matter who they were. Everyone was here at the same time: the White Guards, the Cadets, the Socialist Revolutionaries, and representatives of foreign powers. It is clear that white terror was proclaimed against representatives of the workers' and peasants' government. The blow had to be responded to with a hundred times stronger blow. To white terror - red terror."
And again we turn to the memoirs of Bonch-Bruevich:
"The temperature has risen. Vladimir Ilyich was half-conscious, sometimes uttering individual words. Professor Mints, leaving, expressed his extreme amazement at the fortitude and patience of Vladimir Ilyich, who did not utter a sound even when he was undergoing a terribly painful dressing. Mints did not say anything definite about Vladimir Ilyich’s condition, saying only that this injury undoubtedly belongs to the category of very serious ones.”
Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov addresses the people with an urgent appeal. The letter is addressed to “all councils of workers, peasants, Red Army deputies, all armies, everyone, everyone, everyone.”
“A few hours ago a villainous attempt was made on Comrade Lenin,” writes Sverdlov. - The role of Comrade Lenin, his significance for the labor movement in Russia, the labor movement of the whole world, is known to the widest circles of workers in all countries. The true leader of the working class did not lose close contact with the class, the interests whose needs he defended for decades. Comrade Lenin, who always spoke at workers' rallies, spoke to the workers of the Mikhelson plant on Friday. While leaving the meeting, he was wounded. Several people were detained. Their identities are being revealed.
We have no doubt that here too traces of the right Socialist Revolutionaries, traces of British and French hirelings will be found. We call on all comrades to remain completely calm and to intensify their work in the fight against counter-revolutionary elements.
The working class will respond to attempts against its leaders by even greater consolidation of its forces, will respond with merciless mass terror against all enemies of the revolution.
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Official document from the case of the assassination attempt on Lenin.
Presidential Library
Bonch-Bruevich wrote very emotionally about what was happening at that time in Lenin’s apartment:“The thin naked body of Vladimir Ilyich, helplessly spread out on the bed - he was lying supine, slightly covered - his head tilted slightly to one side, his deathly pale, mournful face, drops of coarse sweat appearing on his forehead - all this was so terrible, so immensely painful that it was difficult to restrain yourself from the excitement that filled your heart... And thoughts rushed as usual... And in these moments I remembered my whole long life, the recent fiery revolutionary struggle, the joy of victories, deep hopes for the future... And all this is everywhere and always, with him and only with him, with this truly inspired, brilliant leader of those masses who immeasurably and infinitely believed in him everywhere, followed him and were ready to give their lives.”
Lenin's ward, where he was treated for his wounds several years later.
Sverdlov and members of the Council of People's Commissars gathered in the Kremlin. There is complete silence at the table. Information about Lenin's condition is received by telephone.
Photo of Kaplan after her arrest.
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Chairman of the Mikhelson plant committee Nikolai Ivanov, a direct witness to the assassination attempt, spoke about the condition of the victim Popova: “Long before the arrival of Comrade Lenin, a woman came to the rally, who was later wounded by the shooter. She behaved in a completely special way: she walked around excitedly and seemed to be trying to talk. One could assume that she was a party worker, but no one knew her. “...The wounded woman was taken to the hospital. When they came to the Peter and Paul Hospital to get linen for the wounded woman, it turned out that she was the hospital’s wardrobemaid... that she was a completely innocent victim of the terror of a bourgeois hireling.”
A bulletin from Kremlin doctors has been published: “There are two gunshot wounds. One bullet entered under the left shoulder blade, passed through the chest cavity and, hitting the upper lobe of the lung, got stuck in right side neck above the right collarbone. The second bullet hit the left shoulder. It fractured the bone and became lodged in the left shoulder area, causing internal hemorrhage.”
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Information about the assassination attempt on Lenin is leaking to the people. Moscow begins to seethe amid ominous rumors.
Having learned about what had happened, the leader's closest associate, Bonch-Bruevich, fearing an attack on the Kremlin, ordered the Kremlin commandant of the Kremlin, Malkov, to put the guards and all Red Army soldiers on alert, and to strengthen the security, to establish continuous duty at all gates, on the wall, at the entrances to the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. .
Word to Bonch-Bruevich:
“Running into Vladimir Ilyich’s small apartment, I first of all saw Maria Ilyinichna, rushing from room to room and repeating in extremely nervous excitement:
- What is it? How long will this be tolerated? Will this really be in vain for them?
“Take heart, Maria Ilyinichna,” I told her and, meeting her gaze, I understood all the stunning grief written in her concentrated eyes. - Calmness first of all... Let's give all our attention to him... Vladimir Ilyich was lying on his right side on the bed, which stood closer to the window, and was quietly, quietly moaning... His face was pale... His torn shirt exposed his chest and the left arm, on which two wounds were visible on the humerus. He was half dressed, without a jacket, in boots... On the other side of Vladimir Ilyich, with his back to the window, stood Comrade Vinokurov, who came to the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars earlier than others and who, having learned about the misfortune with Vladimir Ilyich, immediately came to his apartment, located on the same floor close to the Council of People's Commissars.
I suggested immediately lubricating the opening of the wounds with iodine in order to protect against external infection, which Comrade Vinokurov did immediately.”
American historian Richard Pipes, referring in his work “Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power” to Semenov’s testimony obtained during the trial of the Social Revolutionaries, defended the version that Lenin was wounded by poisoned bullets. Allegedly, they were treated with poison, which was supposed to cause irreparable damage to the body. However, more convincing evidence of this was never found: poisoned bullets remained only an assumption.
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Driver Gil recalls:
“I drove straight to Vladimir Ilyich’s apartment in the courtyard. Here all three of us helped Lenin get out of the car... We began to ask and beg him to allow us to bring it in, but no persuasion helped, and he firmly said: “I’ll go myself”... And he, leaning on us, walked along steep stairs to the third floor."
Kaplan was taken to the Zamoskvoretsky military commissariat. After a thorough search in the presence of Batulin, Chairman of the Moscow Tribunal Dyakonov, Commissioner of Zamoskvorechye Kosior, Commissioner Piotrovsky and factory worker Uvarov, she makes her first official statement. “I am Fanny Efimovna Kaplan. Under this name she served hard labor in Akatui. She spent 11 years in hard labor. Today I shot at Lenin. I shot on my own impulse. I consider him a traitor to the revolution. I don’t belong to any party, but I consider myself a socialist.”
Wikimedia Commons
Pavel Kotlyar/"Gazeta.Ru"
By coincidence, a doctor named Polutorny turned out to be in the crowd, who immediately provided Lenin with first aid. They helped the leader to stand up and put him in the back seat of the car. Two workers sat nearby. After this, he is immediately taken to the Kremlin apartment. Gil drives the car at the maximum possible speed.
Reproduction of the painting "Attempt on V.I. Lenin on August 30, 1918." Artist Mikhail Sokolov (1875-1953)
RIA News"From Batulin’s testimony, published on the Presidential Library portal: “I heard three sharp dry sounds, which I took not for revolver shots, but for ordinary motor sounds. I saw a crowd of people, previously calmly standing by the car, scattering in different directions and saw Comrade Lenin behind the carriage-car, lying motionless with his face to the ground. I was not taken aback and shouted: “Stop the murderer of Comrade Lenin!”, and with these shouts I ran out to Serpukhovka. Near the tree I saw a woman with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands, who caught my attention with her strange appearance. She had the appearance of a person fleeing persecution, intimidated and hunted. I asked this woman why she came here. To these words she replied: “Why do you need this?” Then I, having searched her pockets and taking her briefcase and umbrella, invited her to follow me.”
Fearing that the woman would not be recaptured by her like-minded people and “she would not be subjected to lynching by the crowd,” Batulin asked the arriving Red Army soldiers to accompany them to the commissariat.
At a distance of 20 steps from Lenin during the shots, there was the assistant military commissar of the 5th Moscow Soviet Infantry Division Stepan Batulin. He instantly got his bearings, ran out into the street through the entrance and noticed a strange woman standing by a tree with a briefcase and an umbrella.
It was not difficult for Batulin to detain Kaplan, although he was not yet 100% sure of her guilt. The suspect was taken back to the plant. Then the committee members called a car in which the terrorist was taken to the Zamoskvoretsky military commissariat.
The driver of the Soviet leader, Gil, managed to notice a man in a sailor's uniform who was running straight towards the leader with his right hand in his pocket. It was Novikov. Only when he saw a revolver in the driver’s hands, pointed at his forehead, did the “sailor” change direction and disappear.
BANG-BANG, BA-BANG! Suddenly evening Moscow is shaken by gunfire. In the first seconds, no one understands where the gunfire is coming from. Lenin falls near the car, losing consciousness. A total of three bullets were fired. One hit the neck under the jaw, the other hit the arm, the third “got” to the housekeeper of the Pavlovsk hospital, Maria Popova...
Reproduction of the painting "Attempt on V.I. Lenin." Artist Pyotr Belousov (1912-1989).
RIA News"Lenin leaves the podium to applause. The audience applauds. He's pleased with himself. Now we need to go to the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, scheduled by Sverdlov for 9 pm. The driver Gil has already started the engine. However, right at the car, Ilyich is stopped by a woman. She complains that bread is confiscated at railway stations. The sensitive leader begins to listen carefully to the petitioner...
The rally begins. Theme: “The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat.” The people listen with fascination to the words of the Bolshevik leader. He himself is, as they say, on a roll. There is no security at the plant.
Lenin ends his speech with the words: “We will die or we will win!”
The head of the Council of People's Commissars arrives in Serpukhovka. The production of steam power machines was opened here by the British Hopper and Wrigley back in 1847. In 1887, the first underground Marxist circle was organized at the plant, which later turned into one of the main Bolshevik centers in Moscow. The plant received its legendary name from entrepreneur Lev Mikhelson, who bought it in 1916 to produce shells.
After the February Revolution, the plant was nationalized, and the Bolsheviks entered the local committee. In 1922, the plant was named after the leader of the revolution. Today, the Moscow Electromechanical Plant named after Vladimir Ilyich operates at Party Lane, building 1.
Pavel Kotlyar/"Gazeta.Ru"
Kaplan is waiting for Lenin at the Mikhelson plant. Walks in the crowd, listens to conversations, smokes cigarettes. Another militant, Novikov, dressed in a sailor’s uniform, is also nearby. He must insure the former convict and ensure her escape after being shot. Kaplan’s briefcase contains a ticket to Tomilino station, where the Socialist Revolutionary safe house is located.
Lenin on the road. Rides with good mood, feels satisfaction from talking with the working masses. The people believe the party, this inspires optimism before a new stage of the fierce struggle against the white armies of Anton Denikin and Alexander Kolchak.
Apparently, Kaplan is not the only hunter for Lenin's head. According to the testimony of the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist Grigory Semenov, given during the trial of 1922, a group of four perpetrators was formed when organizing the assassination attempt. The plan was considered uncomplicated, because Ilyich came to performances without security. For the first time, criminals “spotted” Lenin at a rally in the Alekseevsky People’s House on August 23, 1918, but the militant Usov, who was sent to the event, did not dare to shoot.
The same thing happened to his accomplice Fedorov-Kozlov at the Bread Exchange on August 30. Perhaps the leader's fiery speeches made too much of an impression on the terrorists. From Fedorov-Kozlov’s statement at the court hearing:
“I did not dare to shoot at Lenin, because by this time I was convinced that the killing tactics that my leaders had chosen were wrong, harmful, and terrible for the cause of socialism...”
The performance at the Bread Exchange goes smoothly and takes 15-20 minutes. Immediately after, the head of the Council of People's Commissars with his personal driver Stepan Gil went to the plant without delay... In Moscow at that time, this was about 10 km by the shortest route. A car of that time would take the route in 40 minutes.
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Lenin goes to a rally in the Basmanny district. After the revolution, the House of Communist Education was located in the building of the Bread Exchange, later renamed Baumansky Orphanage culture. Lenin spoke here more than once. Today this is the building of the Moscow Drama Theater "Modern" on Spartakovskaya Square.
Kaplan is aware of Lenin's upcoming speech at the Mikhelson plant. She looks for the address and plans to disappear into the crowd of workers.
Lenin is having lunch with his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya in the Kremlin, having fun and joking during the meal. His wife, like his sister before, fails to persuade him from the fateful trip.
In Crimea, the terrorist met Lenin's brother, Dmitry Ulyanov. A doctor by profession, he became interested in a young blind girl. There were rumors that the younger Ulyanov even proposed marriage to her, but she refused. As a farewell, Dmitry left Kaplan a referral to the Leonard Girshman eye clinic, which was located in Kharkov and was one of the best in Russia.
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Kaplan brought freedom February Revolution. Having received an amnesty, the girl went to Moscow. There she settled with her former cellmate Anna Pigit, where she lived for a whole month. And by the summer of 1917, the Provisional Government opened a specialized sanatorium in Crimea for former political prisoners, where Fanny was given a voucher.
The girl was sent to the Akatui prison in the Nerchinsk penal servitude, which was rightfully considered hell on earth. The tests began on the way to the distant Transbaikalia - Kaplan, as “prone to escape,” had to walk to the place of detention, in hand and leg shackles, under guard. The details of Kaplan’s painful journey are unknown, but she only reached the Nerchinsk penal servitude on August 22, 1907.
Already upon arrival at the prison, it became clear that Fanny was not only blind, but also heard almost nothing. In addition, small fragments of the bomb embedded themselves under the skin of the arms and legs, which contributed to the development of rheumatism. The exhausted girl tried to commit suicide several times, but was prevented.
At the same time, Maria Spiridonova, who also became famous for her political crimes, was sitting in Akatui prison with Kaplan. They were first transferred together to the Maltsevskaya prison, and a few years later they were returned to Akatuy. Spiridonova took Dora under her wing and she abandoned anarchism, becoming a Socialist Revolutionary, which later played a decisive role in her life.
Kaplan's trial took place on January 5, 1907. Despite the fact that a blind miniature 16-year-old girl, less than 160 cm tall, appeared before them, the hearts of the judges did not waver - she was sentenced to death. It was possible to mitigate the punishment only due to the fact that Fanny was a minor - the gallows was replaced with lifelong hard labor.
At this time, a certain girl, 28 years old, a half-blind former convict, is wandering around Moscow. She has four first and last names. The most popular options in the Soviet tradition are Fanny Kaplan and Feiga Roitblat.
Kaplan began her terrorist activities back in 1905, during the first revolution. Then, together with like-minded people, she decided to organize an assassination attempt on the Kyiv Governor-General Vladimir Sukhomlinov. However, an attempted murder for the 16-year-old revolutionary, nicknamed Dora, resulted in arrest and hard labor. Due to an absurd accident, the homemade explosive devices made to assassinate the mayor went off earlier - right in the hotel, in the hands of Kaplan.
However, it didn't kill her. The blast wave threw the girl against the wall: she hit her head, damaging the optic nerve. Half-blind and frightened, Kaplan did not have time to escape from the crime scene, where the police immediately arrived.
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Lenin has two performances planned for the 30th: first at the Bread Exchange in the Basmanny District, then at the Mikhelson plant in Zamoskvorechye. Ilyich is resting, collecting his thoughts, getting ready.
The investigation carried out by Lenin's closest associate, the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, was not successful. “That same night, some distant, barely noticeable hints appeared that a military officer organization had formed in Petrograd, looking for an opportunity to kill Vladimir Ilyich. And after that, for several days, no matter how hard we tried, we could not clarify anything,” he wrote in his “Memoirs of Lenin.”
Another attempt failed in mid-January, when a certain soldier Spiridonov came to confess to Bonch-Bruevich, admitting that he had received the task of killing Lenin from the Union of St. George's Cavaliers. On the night of January 22, security officers arrested the conspirators. They asked to be sent to the front, but at least two joined the White movement.
Presidential Library
Although some, Lenin, really had something to fear. Before the ill-fated day, he had already survived two attempts on his life in 1918. The first attempt occurred on January 1. The leader of the proletariat himself was not injured, but his friend, the socialist from Switzerland Friedrich Platten, who was with him, received a slight bullet wound. The sister of the head of government, Maria Ulyanova, who was also at the scene, spoke in detail about the emergency. She quotes her words in her book “Riddles of History. Secrets of the Soviet Empire" Andrey Khoroshevsky.
“On January 1 (14), 1918, in the evening, Vladimir Ilyich spoke in the Mikhailovsky Manege in front of the first detachment of the socialist army leaving for the front. He was accompanied to the meeting by the Swiss comrade Platten and the writer of these lines. Coming out of the arena after the rally, we got into a closed car and drove to Smolny. But before we had even driven a few dozen fathoms, rifle bullets began to fall like peas into the back of the car. “They’re shooting,” I said. This was confirmed by Platten, who first of all grabbed Vladimir Ilyich’s head (they were sitting behind) and pulled it to the side, but Ilyich began to assure us that we were mistaken and that he did not think it was shooting. After the shots, the driver accelerated, then, turning the corner, stopped and, opening the car doors, asked: “Is everyone alive?” - “Did they really shoot?” - Ilyich asked him.
“But of course,” answered the driver, “I thought none of you were there anymore.” We got off happily. If the tire had been hit, we wouldn’t have gotten away. And even so it was impossible to drive very fast - it was foggy, and even then we were driving at risk.” Everything around was really white from the thick St. Petersburg fog. Having reached Smolny, we began to examine the car. It turned out that the body was perforated in several places by bullets, some of which flew right through, breaking through the front window. We immediately discovered that Comrade Platten’s hand was covered in blood. The bullet grazed him, apparently when he was moving Vladimir Ilyich’s head away, and tore off the skin on his finger.
“Yes, we got off happily,” we said, climbing the stairs to Lenin’s office.
Lenin's relatives, led by his sister Maria, tried to persuade him to cancel his speeches, but he refused, saying that “Comrade Sverdlov strictly demands that all leading officials participate in rallies and will strongly scold him for such a refusal.”
From the memoirs of Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov: “Relatives, having learned about the death of Uritsky, tried to restrain Lenin and dissuade him from going to the rally. To calm them down, Vladimir Ilyich said at dinner that maybe he wouldn’t go, but he called a car and left.”
“Vladimir Ilyich! I ask you to schedule a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars no earlier than 9 pm. Tomorrow there will be large rallies in all regions according to the plan that we agreed on; Warn all Council of People's Commissars that if you receive an invitation or appointment to a rally, no one has the right to refuse. The rallies start at 6 pm.”
Moscow promptly received shocking information from Petrograd. However, they did not cancel the planned speeches of members of the Council of People's Commissars at factory rallies. August 30th fell on a Friday - on this day in the new-old capital it was customary to hold “party days”, when the leaders of the state and the city met with ordinary people.
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The next day, August 31, Gleb Bokiy, in the future the organizer and curator of the Solovetsky camps, was appointed the new chairman of the Petrograd Cheka. Arrested and executed in 1937.
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Uritsky was buried on the Field of Mars. In the same 1918, Palace Square was renamed Uritsky Square, and the Tauride Palace was renamed Uritsky Palace. However, even before the end of the Great Patriotic War the historical name was returned to the objects.
Alexey Danichev/RIA Novosti
Modern historian Vasily Tsvetkov, specializing in the period of the Civil War, based on later evidence from members of the anti-Bolshevik forces, is inclined to believe that in fact Kannegiser was not a lone avenger, but was a member of a secret organization headed by his cousin Maximilian Filonenko, which aimed to eliminate the highest Soviet managers.
In 1919, this man emigrated to Paris, where, with minor interruptions, he lived until 1960, primarily engaged in legal activities.
“Krasnaya Gazeta” - about what happened: “Uritsky was killed. We must respond to the isolated terror of our enemies with mass terror...
For the death of one of our fighters, thousands of enemies must pay with their lives.”
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An investigation began, during which many friends and relatives of Uritsky’s killer were detained. He himself lived for about another month and a half until he was shot one October day. Kannegiser's parents, who were Orthodox Jews, were released to Poland after interrogation. The Zionist theme surfaced in the killer's proclamation, which he allegedly made immediately after his arrest. The words of the avenger were quoted in the essay “The Murder of Uritsky” by the publicist Mark Aldanov who knew him.
"I am Jewish. I killed a Jewish vampire who drank the blood of the Russian people drop by drop. I tried to show the Russian people that for us Uritsky is not a Jew. He is a renegade. I killed him in the hope of restoring the good name of Russian Jews,” Kannegieser allegedly said. However, modern researchers question the authenticity of this statement.
A car chase was immediately organized after the shooter. This moment is plausibly shown in the historical saga “The Fall of an Empire.” Overtaken by angry security officers, he got off his bike and ran into the entrance of house No. 17 on Millionnaya Street.
The door of one of the apartments was open - Kannegiser grabbed the owner’s coat hanging on a hanger, threw it over his jacket and, “disguised”, tried to walk past the security officers who had already run up the flight of stairs. The attempt failed. The young man was easily exposed, captured and arrested.
At the sound of a shot, employees come running. People gather in the foyer. All around - women's crying, swearing by security officers, turmoil. At first, no one pays attention to the slender young man in a jacket, who seems to have fallen into a daze.
He would like to blend in with the crowd - and then try, figure it out. However, Kannegieser panicked. The pistol remained in his hand, as if stuck. Having come to his senses, the killer ran out of the building, but did not walk away, which might not have been noticed, but got on his bicycle. And thereby made a fatal mistake. Both remain on the street while Uritsky himself enters the entrance...
Kanegisser parked his vehicle and inquired whether Uritsky was already receiving visitors. Having received information that the chief of PetroCheK has not yet arrived, the young man settles down on the windowsill in the lobby. He waits very briefly for the moment to carry out the main task of his life, from ten to 20-25 minutes.
Only the old doorman is on duty in the foyer. He doesn’t even think of suspecting something was wrong. Many petitioners, secret agents and simply informers come to Comrade Uritsky. The work of the recently created department has not yet been streamlined, weak points enough. No one checks Kannegiser’s documents, and he tries in every possible way not to show his own excitement. The hour is approaching...
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Between Saperny and the General Staff building, where the Extraordinary Commission was located, it is a little more than three kilometers due west. Along Pestel Street you need to cross Liteyny Prospekt, then Fontanka to get to Palace Square along the embankment of the Moika River.
One of these victims was officer Vladimir Pereltsveig. On August 21, he was shot in connection with the case of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. In the order published in newspapers to carry out capital punishment, Uritsky's name was listed.
Relatives of those executed considered the head of the Cheka to be clearly responsible for what the security officers had done. Although it was he - and there is a lot of evidence of this - who tried in vain to prevent the death of the Mikhailovites.
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Colleagues, friends and associates of Volodarsky demanded “blood.” The leadership of red Petrograd called for the most decisive measures against anti-Bolshevik forces. Smolny hesitated. And the only one who spoke out against the extrajudicial executions was the city’s chief security officer, Moses Uritsky. This man, who in the most difficult conditions of the summer of 1918 possessed exceptional power, is generally considered in the modern historical tradition to be, so to speak, a fair “humanist.” Even after the murder of Volodarsky, he rejected the practice of mass hostage-taking from among the urban representatives of the bourgeoisie, intelligentsia and the former government. It is believed that Uritsky categorically did not support repression - this issue remains one of the controversial issues today; this version has both ardent supporters and no less ardent antagonists. Uritsky allegedly released some of the detainees personally, without finding traces of a crime in their actions.
In any case, the flywheel of the Petrograd Cheka simply could not work so cleanly as not to affect hundreds, and even thousands of people not involved in any violent actions. Often, the entire “guilt” of the captured individuals consisted of a carelessly uttered word in public or belonging to “class-alien elements.”
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“The air, as if after intense heat, suddenly smelled like a thunderstorm, strong thunderclaps were expected after a man in a work jacket fired six bullets from a Browning aimed at a representative of the authorities, Volodarsky,” wrote the legally published newspaper “Anarchy”, hot on its heels. . “Your red terror will be answered with black terror.” You will not know peace either day or night; the power with which you are intoxicated will be a burden to you. You will not be sure that when you go to bed, you will wake up, and when you go for a walk, you will return; you will also treat food, drink and tobacco with caution. Wikimedia Commons
The “first sign” that ultimately led to the Red Terror was the murder of Volodarsky, People’s Commissar for Press, Propaganda and Agitation, founder and editor-in-chief of Krasnaya Gazeta. Death overtook the prominent revolutionary on June 20, when he was heading in a car to a rally at the Obukhov plant in Petrograd. Reprisal against a colleague who, at the age of 26, played important role in the structure of the RCP (b), came as a shock to Lenin and other comrades. The murder was blamed on the Socialist Revolutionaries, who, however, categorically denied any involvement in the incident. In conditions of total confusion, the investigation into the murder case was not brought to its logical conclusion. It still holds a lot of mysteries. The motives that prompted worker Nikita Sergeev to grab the gun have not been thoroughly established. At the “trial of the Social Revolutionaries” In 1922, Grigory Semenov admitted to organizing the murder. However, there were rumors about Sergeev’s personal revenge...
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The end of the summer of 1918 was the most difficult period for Soviet power, which no one abroad even thought of recognizing. Hunger is rampant in the cities, devastation and legal chaos are in the villages. The torn state is blazing with thousands of fires of the Civil War. The situation on the front is very bad for the Reds. Under the onslaught of White Guard units and other anti-Bolshevik forces, they are losing colossal territories. By the beginning of September, the power of the Soviets in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East was completely eliminated.
In the south, Kuban comes under enemy control. In the north, the Reds surrender Arkhangelsk without a fight. Foreign invaders unfriendly to the Bolsheviks are landing on the outskirts of the former empire, pursuing their own goals. At the same time, the country was rocked by worker uprisings. Some of them are supported by the Bolsheviks' recent allies - the Socialist Revolutionaries. Representatives of this party become the number one enemy for the Reds.
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Hello, dear readers! A hundred years ago, dramatic events took place in Russia that seriously changed the course of the country's history. The murder of the head of the Petrograd Cheka, Moses Uritsky, and the assassination attempt on the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Lenin, on August 30, 1918 prompted the Bolsheviks to switch to the tactics of the so-called red terror, in the merciless millstones of which both ideological opponents of the new Soviet government and peaceful people who had nothing to do with the brutal political struggle fell people are wealthy peasants, former landowners, representatives of the clergy, retired military personnel, creative intelligentsia and many others.
Gazeta.Ru reproduces a fateful day in Russian history in a historical online broadcast.
— How are funeral rites formed? They don't grow on empty soil, do they?
- By itself. If we talk about the Russian funeral tradition (and we must remember that many peoples live on the territory of Russia and each has its own funeral tradition), then this is a contamination of ideas associated with Orthodox tradition, and some pre-Christian ideas about the posthumous existence of the dead.
In the 20th century, they are layered with atheistic ideology and changes in the way of life. In the 21st century, Soviet ideological pressure disappears, but a free market appears - oddly enough, this leaves a rather serious imprint, as, by the way, do all sorts of experiments with the vertical of power.
In addition, there are some global processes. Sometimes we think that some phenomenon is unique, but in fact it turns out that it is also observed in many other cultures.
The funeral rite has an important function - it prevents endless grief
— Psychologists say that there is a problem now: people lack the experience of experiencing drama.
— Yes, the problem of losing the skill of spiritually experiencing tragic events is absolutely obvious. The funeral rite, in addition to being based on ideas about the afterlife (or lack thereof), is a rite of passage. He (like any ritual life cycle) must formalize the transfer of all participants to new status- the deceased to the status of an ancestor, relatives - to a widow, widower or orphan, and so on. By and large, this is why society needs him.
In addition, it has another important function - it prevents endless grief. For example, tradition prescribes how long one can cry for a deceased person and how long one can mourn. And after mourning must begin new life. A situation where grief is endless is not normal.
Anna Sokolova Junior Researcher, Institute of Ethnology named after. N.N. Miklouho-Maclay RAS
Finally, in any culture there are certain spiritual skills for experiencing grief - in Russian traditional culture this is undoubtedly prayer: there are a huge number of prayers that must be read in the event of one or another death of certain people, there are special canons that regulate this.
During the Soviet period, this became a problem largely because the tradition of passing on religious knowledge, including within families, was interrupted. But there must be some kind of ritual to help cope with grief, which is why Soviet ideologists carried out a whole campaign to develop and introduce socialist rituals. The idea was expressed that the ritual is a pre-religious practice, so you can clear it of the religious component and leave a pure ritual that will somehow help people psychologically, somehow streamline their lives.
Everything turned out great with the wedding ceremony - the current wedding rituals (for example, the newlyweds visiting war memorials) were entirely inherited by us from Soviet times. The birth ceremony disappeared completely, but was replaced by discharge from the hospital. But there were problems with the funeral rites.
Even the developers themselves did not understand what they could offer people. You read the propaganda descriptions, and you can see that the body is taken away for cremation - and then there is a vacuum. Some living thread of the ritual has been lost. They tried to solve this problem, for example, by making special windows through which one could look at the fire of the cremation furnace, as if saying goodbye to a person. Later there were attempts to establish some kind of general days of remembrance - they tried to coincide with May 9, which is close to Easter. But one way or another, they could not solve this problem. Guidelines about how to conduct a funeral, the least has been preserved.
- Were they there? Any reminders, manuals? Who wrote them and for whom?
— There were special commissions that created these developments. For example, at the Institute of Scientific Atheism of the Academy social sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. They invented and described new rituals, and then introduced them through local cultural departments at district committees, city committees, and village councils.
But they were not implemented very successfully, because those who were supposed to be directly involved in this - ordinary employees of cultural departments - did not understand what needed to be done, what was expected of them. Weddings, namings, presentation of passports - this was clear to them. And they tried not to deal with funerals.
— Besides propaganda, what influenced changes in traditions?
— Urbanization. True, the first or second generation of people who moved to the metropolis from a village or even from a small town inherit old traditions. I interviewed young man, who now lives in Moscow, but was born somewhere in the provinces. He told how his friend was taken to her homeland to be buried. I asked: “Well, they probably cremated her? Were the ashes transported?” No, how is it possible? Cremation is completely unacceptable for the relatives of the deceased (and for this young man himself). If this woman had died abroad, she would have been brought from abroad.
Traditionally, funeral rituals in Russia were strongly influenced by the state. After the collapse of the USSR, for the first time the authorities became uninterested in her
— Why, by the way, do many people not accept cremation?
— I must say that for most Russians cremation is not available, because there are few crematoria. Although there is talk that cemeteries occupy vast territories and the responsible deceased would prefer cremation, late XIX century. This is simply not our tradition. In the Russian folk tradition - not just Orthodox, but specifically folk - there was no cremation. Judging by archaeological data, it once existed a very long time ago, but this is only based on archaeological data. And the fact that most people in megacities now take cremation so lightly is, of course, a Soviet legacy. This is both an achievement of propaganda and simply a loss of tradition, and very great efforts were made to make this happen. The first crematoria were not popular; a significant part of the first cremated people were either unknown or repressed.
For our tradition, cremation is the type of burial that was applicable to the most fallen people, to the worst criminals. And, by the way, it was not for nothing that the Bolsheviks burned Fanny Kaplan in a barrel. It's no coincidence that they came up with this.
— The 20th century ended, the USSR collapsed — what happened to the funeral?
— An unusual situation has arisen. The fact is that traditionally in Russia, funeral rituals were strongly influenced by the state. For example, in the 19th century, people who were baptized - and religious affiliation was a mandatory marker - could not be buried without the participation of a priest. Of course, there were some cases when this was technically impossible, but as a norm, a funeral service and the participation of a priest in the funeral train were necessary.
After the revolution the situation was the opposite. It was not always possible to have a funeral service even if there was a church in the village. At the same time, there was this new ritual, which they especially tried to instill during the second atheistic campaign under Khrushchev (in the 20s it was more of a revolutionary alternative “for those who are interested”).
And after the collapse of the USSR, there was no such force that would be at least somehow interested in who was burying what. And for our funeral ritual, this was a new condition that she had to cope with. Unattended state.
At the same time, funeral agencies are appearing on the market. And they begin to take a very active part in the funeral ceremony. At first, they are faced with the problem of access to the client, especially in the provinces - if someone died in the village, then the relatives in the village council received death documents and washed them themselves, made the coffin themselves, dug the grave themselves. Then, maybe a year later, they ordered a monument - or maybe they made do with a wooden cross, also themselves.
This is where the power vertical comes into play. In the early 2000s, the civil registry office system was reformed. The functions of civil registration are being alienated from village councils. And now, in order to obtain a death certificate, you need to go to the registry office, which is located in the regional center (this is not true everywhere, there are some subtleties and exceptions, but in most regions it is so). There, at the registry office, all the relatives of the deceased pass through one room, where the funeral agents “catch” them. And people who, perhaps, did not know about the existence of the market for funeral services, suddenly realize that they don’t have to do everything themselves - the only question is money.
People want this - this is a very big relief, although this, of course, leaves a certain imprint on the funeral rite. But, as it turns out, people are ready to give up traditions. This is partly due to the fact that there are very few young people in the village, the old people do not have enough strength, and relatives who come from the city for the funeral are reluctant to get involved in all this. Although sometimes the deceased is not immediately taken from the morgue to the cemetery, they are brought first to the house so that everyone can say goodbye, sometimes they are brought home the night before in order to have time to read the psalter over him. You won’t see this in Moscow anymore, but even in the immediate Moscow region they do it.
Recently, in one blog in the comments, I saw a serious discussion about how to fit a dead young woman into a coffin in a wedding crinoline
— Are there any innovations in funeral traditions? In addition to the widespread visiting of cemeteries on Easter.
“We can say that the traditional peasant way of life has been lost. In new social conditions, some new forms arise. What is visible to the naked eye is spontaneous memorialization when some tragedy occurs. Of the latter, this is a memorial near the Japanese embassy after Fukushima, a memorial in Kazan in the river port after “Bulgaria”, in Yaroslavl after the death of the hockey team.
They arise absolutely spontaneously and they are the same, they have many similar features. And this is evidence that for a certain number of people this is already a tradition. They don’t need to figure out what to do: if they understand that some tragedy affects them in some way, they already know that they need to bring candles, toys, flowers, and so on.
This new tradition, she is only ten years old. There was a memorial for the defenders of the White House in 1991, in principle there was something similar during Vysotsky’s funeral, when poems in memory of Vysotsky and photographs were hung on the walls and windows of the Taganka Theater, but still it was not of such a large-scale nature. Now, if a tragedy occurs, even if it does not affect us directly, it is the reason for such spontaneous memorialization - and this is an example of a new memorial ritual. It is probably not perceived by the participants as such, but that is exactly what it is. There had never been anything like this in funeral rites before.
Another innovation is monuments along the roads. This tradition is also clearly new. One could argue that its appearance is associated with an increase in the number of car accidents, but I am inclined to believe that it is primarily due to a change in consciousness. The fact is that in traditional culture, an accidental, tragic death is a “bad” death. They tried to distance themselves from such dead people; they were not even honored with full commemoration - there was one day a year when they were commemorated, and that’s all.
And then suddenly they not only do not lose the commemoration, but also receive it in double amount - in the cemetery and by the road. The grass is also cut there, food is brought there, and lit cigarettes are placed there. What people think is the question. It seems that this is some kind of shift in consciousness associated with the idea of the posthumous existence of the deceased. In traditional culture, the posthumous existence of the deceased is also associated with the place of death, but no one would think of visiting it, because nothing good happens there.
— Rites of passage were mentioned at the very beginning. Do funeral rituals have any similarities with others?
— There is a great similarity with wedding rituals. For example, the tradition is to bury unmarried people in wedding clothes - the funeral train in this case takes on some features of the wedding train.
— Is this ritual still preserved?
- Yes. In my field notes there is a story about a woman who died at 40 years old. She was unmarried, and when she was buried - this happened in the village - they made a veil for her. And recently in one blog in the comments I saw a serious discussion about how to fit a dead young woman into a coffin in a wedding crinoline.
Party card from the other world
The story took place during Soviet times. A woman has died. She was buried, but her husband remained. After some time, he realizes that he has lost his party card. What to do? I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I came to the party organization to repent. They treated him with understanding and offered to look further. At night his wife comes to him in a dream:
- Why are you so sad?
- Well, I lost my party card.
- And it’s right under my heart! When you said goodbye to me, you bent down and it fell out of your pocket.
One of the respondents told me the story.