Не знаешь, что делать? Читай эту книгу.
Пока не запретили
Do not you know what to do? Read this book
Not yet banned
Эта книга публикуется на нескольких европейских языках, в надежде, что, кроме России, ее увидят и поймут в Европе и Северной Америке. Необходимо объединение двух культур, даже цивилизаций; российской и европейской (американской). Произойдет это, может быть в не освоенной до сих пор по-настоящему Сибири или на Дальнем Востоке. Вымирающие деревни, депрессивные города, или же развалины лагерей ГУЛАГа в расчет справедливо не идут.
Ныне иммиграционная политика правящей верхушки России имеет глубочайший, даже, катастрофический перекос в сторону Азии. Именно оттуда, с Юга, от стран — потомков древних сатрапий пришла привычка угодничать перед властями, и считать коррупцию обычным делом. Именно оттуда некогда пришла Орда, которая во многом отбросила Россию в ее устремлении к европейскому варианту развития.
Мы могли бы приглашать жить у нас иностранцев — белых европейцев и американцев. Именно, людей, не связанных с тайным или явным мировым правительством — любителей приключений, рабочих, людей дела, тех, кто могли бы поднять бизнес, и, зная в совершенстве право, культурно и эффектно сразиться с местными бюрократами- вампирами. С теми неприятными особями, которые в общем, давно уже и не наши…
И вот, во многом такие же как мы, но сколько то и непохожие Джон, Франц, Теодор, Жан, Ричард, Джулия, Эмма, могли бы помочь нам построить настоящую русскую мечту — задуманное издавна справедливое, изобильное, и не скучное Беловодье.
Нужно привести видение Истории к единому формату. Возможно, полезно было бы создание Музея — Книги, популярно излагающей все-все-все, что когда либо происходило.
sattelit45@yandex.ru
Данная книга — малый первый шаг на этом пути.
Сожаления и извинения за электронный перевод.
This book is published in several European languages, in the hope that, except for Russia, it will be seen and understood in Europe and North America. It is necessary to unite two cultures, even civilizations; Russian and European (American). It will happen, maybe in the still not really mastered Siberia or the Far East. Endangered villages, depressed cities, or the ruins of the camps of the Gulag are fairly not taken into account.
Today, the immigration policy of the ruling elite of Russia has a profound, perhaps even catastrophic, bias towards Asia. It was from there, from the South, from the countries — descendants of the ancient satrapies, that the habit of pleasing the authorities came, and that corruption was considered a common thing. It was from there that the Horde once came, which in many ways rejected Russia in its aspiration for a European development option.
We could invite foreigners — white Europeans and Americans — to live with us. Namely, people who are not connected with the secret or explicit world government — adventurers, workers, business people, those who could raise business, and knowing the perfect law, culturally and effectively fight with local vampire bureaucrats. With those unpleasant individuals who, in general, have long been not ours…
And so, in many ways the same as we, but how many and unlike John, Franz, Theodore, Jean, Richard, Julia, Emma, could help us build a real Russian dream — a long-time fair, abundant, and not boring Belovodie.
It is necessary to bring the vision of History to a single format. Perhaps it would be useful to create a Museum — a book that popularizes everything, everything, that ever happened.
sattelit45@yandex.ru
This book is a small first step along the way.
Regrets and apologies for the electronic translation.
There will come a time when you can not find the truth in reality. Reminds all printed text.
Read and save.
The story is as follows; while leafing through the pages, it is clearly visible. If you remove the book, the image disappears. Close your eyes — what’s there? Darkness, colored white circles. Try creating text with pictures in it. Does not work? Human memory is arranged differently than the computer board, it is analog, chemical, in this there are advantages and serious shortcomings.
Attention is focused on one object, our «RAM» works with only five or seven characters. Following the questions and associations that appear in the course of the research, we will outline the main point. We fix the backbone of History, focusing on which you can resurrect the whole of her body.
We will outline the contours of History, in order to do everything right today.
Let’s turn to the Wikipedia files in different languages — illuminating events as impartially as possible — at least from different angles of view. Say «thank you» to the authors — people are not on the content of the state, but, if they are enthusiastic, they present the object of general curiosity to us as completely as possible.
We would like to express gratitude to the authors of the photos sent to the Google resource as the Public Domain — with a license for use and modification.
Figures and facts are all that is needed to make a step from the title of dilettante to the status of a professional. And, a little inconceivable, imperishable — an ingredient, without which the constructions, based only on iron logic, crumble.
The Time Machine is in front of you, in an uncomplicated but effective psychological exercise. Take it as a game, if you want, before deep immersion in History:
Put on your dinner table food products of the century you are interested in. Now Canteen is your Time Machine. Place here the artifacts that correspond to the epoch — those that you can find in numismatists, in the ancestors’ storerooms, or with your own archaeological excavations. In the center, place this book, drawings, photographs — two, three, four time layers. Reduce the light to a single candle installed on a massive stone stand. Drink — one, or with Friends, gleaming in her light, a little heated water. Now — turn on the psychological Time Machine.
Press in order, indicated by the numbers, the virtual keys of the Console Table, with the animating motion vectors. At some point you will notice that the world has changed. There is no more time.
Now — or later, in dreams, and the very course of your life, you have progressed into History itself.
Time Machines — we ourselves. The commonwealth of independent cells, the delicate ligature of their fields, are ideally set for immortality. They will connect you with those who were before and, with something similar to us, our additions to eternity. It is only necessary to depart from the temporal reality. In this you will benefit from a psychological exercise — the dialing of a virtual phone number. The higher the number of persistent sets, and the more friends who agree to repeat these strange actions with you, the more accurate the result.
Here, the table — Time Machine looked up from the clock on the wall, went beyond the space and fled, along with you into the past. Do not stay there for long. This is against the yet unsolved rules of nature.
Cover your face with your hands.
You see? Yes, so clearly, as if in an inverted binocular…
Check if everything is the same as in the text — and follow.
Your findings are very important.
Book One
Big Bang
Geological eons
Qatarhei, Archei
Proterozoic
Phanerozoic
Stone, Bronze, Iron Age
History of Antiquity
The Sumerians. Ancient Egypt
Greece and Persia
Ancient Rome
Ancient China
Ancient Rome from Octavian Augustus
The Incas. Mayan. Aztecs
Overview of world religions
European Middle Ages
The French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte
Dynasties of England and Great Britain
Dynasty of Genghisides
Russian dynasty
Habsburg and Hohenzollern
American Presidents
Latin America. Africa
The Formation of Science
Science — classical physics and inventions
Science — Biology and New Mathematics
Twentieth Century. History in the battles
Russia
The First World War (Great)
The Great October Socialist Revolution (coup)
Formation of the Third Reich
The Civil War in Spain
The military conflict between Japan and the USSR on the Halkin Gol
The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939—1940.
The entry of the Baltic states into the USSR
The Second World War
Occupation of Poland
Benelux countries
Invasion of France
Yugoslavia and Greece
Clash of the Titans. The invasion of the Axis countries into the Soviet Union
War with militaristic Japan
Japan vs. the United States. The war in the Pacific
The Soviet Union against Japan
Book Two
The Cold War
The Arab-Israeli war of 1947—1949.
The Korean War of 1950—1953.
The finale of the life of JV Stalin
Soviet and American Air Force in the Korean War
China under Mao Zedong
Civil War in Colombia 1948–2016…
The Hungarian Uprising of 1956
The Vietnam War of 1960—1975.
The Suez Crisis of 1956 (Second Arab-Israeli War)
USSR 60-ies. Hopes and disappointments
Russian ally in the war and competitor in the world — United States of America
Six Day War of 1967
Events in Czechoslovakia in 1968 («Prague Spring»)
The Civil War in Cambodia in 1967—1975.
The War of Doomsday 1973
Space race. Man’s landing on the moon
The war in Algeria in 1954—1962.
The Board of Jean Bokass and Idi Amin
The Afghan War of 1979—1989.
The Iran-Iraq war of 1980—1988.
Armed conflict between Britain and Argentina in 1982
The war in Lebanon, 1982.
The fall (disintegration) of the USSR
The first war in the Persian Gulf 1990—1991.
The first Chechen war of 1994—1996.
The Second Chechen War of 1999—2000 (2009).
Wars of the post-Soviet period outside the Russian Federation
The Civil War in Somalia in 1988…
The war in Yugoslavia, 1991—2001
The Second Iraq War, 2003—2011.
The war in Syria in 2011…
The war in Libya in 2011…
Armed conflict in South Ossetia 2008
Armed conflict in the Donbass in 2014…
Anglo-Scottish armed conflict
Overview of some countries of interest to us
Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania
Byelorussia, Vietnam, Germany
Georgia, Denmark, India
Israel, Ireland, Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan, Korea North, Korea South
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
Poland, RUSSIA, Saudi Arabia
Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Finland, Japan… Norway and Somalia
Book Three
Running in Paradise. The history of a possible future.
Big Bang
The Big Bang is the generally accepted theory of the origin of the universe. Of course, this is an area of scientific legends and fantasies. At first, all that is now in the world (including this light itself, and even, it seems, the very time) was in the so-called proto-Egg — a region of space, about the size of an atom, with a density of 10 to 90 degrees kg / cm³. For unknown reasons, this Egg explodes. At first, one plasma passes into the other, and back with an unthinkable speed, emitting uniformly in all directions of the so-called «plasma». relic shortwave radiation. After 380,000 years, everything is more or less calming down. The first stable hydrogen atoms appear.
After another 400 million years, gas nebulae arise. Thanks to the force of gravitational attraction, the gas concentrates in the stars and, with billions of luminaries, galaxies.
Our Galaxy (with a capital letter), otherwise — the Milky Way (Latin — via lactea) is formed 13 billion years ago, and has 200 to 400 billion stars. The age of the Solar System is 4.5 billion years. It has 8 recognized classical planets, as well as 5 so-called dwarf ones, including now also «expelled» from group «A» Pluto.
Geological Eons
Qatarhei, Archei
Our Earth, according to a widespread theory, originated from a protoplanetary disk, around this time. Strangely enough, the first, primitive forms of life, nuclear-free cells, prokaryotes, appeared almost almost immediately after the termination of the devastating asteroid bombardment (the eon of Qatarhei, 600 million years), as well as education, as a result of a terrible sliding strike on our planet, an object the size of Mars, the future companion of all lovers, the Moon. However, for another long and a half billion years, the stage of development, called Archean, life forms do not develop much. The top of this demiurgic process is unicellular eukaryotes and already relatively complex algae visible to the naked eye.
All these organisms, presumably, have a single, universal common ancestor. The genetic set of all living things on Earth is the same. Their DNA is assembled from four nucleotides (biological molecules) — adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.
Proterozoic
Рroterozoic — (other Greek approximately as «earlier life») — the longest geological period, 2 billion years, starts a little more than 2.5 billion years ago. For one reason or another, oxygen accumulates in the atmosphere — and it leads to the extinction of almost all anaerobic creatures. The ozone layer is formed. The next trouble for the already accustomed organisms to new conditions is the great Huronian glaciation (2.4—2.1 billion years ago). Methane combines with oxygen, forms carbon dioxide (which contributes much less to the greenhouse effect), as a result — the Earth turns into a huge «snowball». At the equator, it is almost as cold as in modern Antarctica. Life is preserved in relatively small polynyas and ponds with melt water.
Volcanoes gradually increase the level of carbon dioxide and methane. A new perturbation is being prepared. For a thousand years, significant areas are freed of ice, and the planet’s climate, on the whole, returns to the norm known to us.
The second option, explaining the presence of signs of ancient glaciers in the equatorial regions of the planet — a fairly rapid turn of the poles of the Earth, followed (300 million years) by their return to the site.
Somehow, sea sponges appear, that is, aquatic multicellular animals that lead an attached lifestyle, as well as mushrooms, essence, eukaryotic communities that combine the signs of plants and animals. As a result of their vital activity, soil appears.
The single continent of Rodinia splits into two parts, which diverge to the poles. The northern half is Laurasia, the southern half is Gondwana.
The sun, meanwhile, increases luminosity by 12%. The Age of Precambrian or Cryptozoic, the «Hidden Life», (sometimes called the eons of Archean and the Proterozoic together) ends.
Phanerozoic
Multicellular creatures, animals, higher plants, are 580 million years ago, thus assuming the onset of the turbulent Phanerozoic («clear life») eon — in which we live, too. His first era — Paleozoic («ancient life»). It is divided into six periods: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. They last for 20 to 60 million years.
In the Cambrian organisms, first of all, learn to build strong skeletons, according to which they are detected by paleontologists. The star of this period is trilobite, a pretty pretty arthropod, a prototype of modern cancer. There are also those that, with some stretch, can be classified as cephalopods — reminiscent of octopuses and squid. Their flowering falls on the Ordovician. The Silurian, which lasts «only» 25 million years, is marked by two mass extinctions (up to 50% of the marine life). One of them, which occurred 443 million years ago, the so-called. Ordovician-Silurian is probably due to the movement of Gondwana to the South Pole, as well as a sharp drop in the ocean level. Especially got, already was prosperous brachiopods (something like oysters), bivalve molluscs, bryozoans (colonies of small worms) and corals. The Devonian period is characterized by terrestrial vertebrates, famous brush-trotter fish, insects, as well as gymnosperms («bare» seeds hide in cones), fern-like and horsetail. Racoscorpions and fish appear. Trilobites, on the contrary, with such an abundance of predators, are rapidly dying out. However, the massive sea at the end of the Devonian, affects more than half of the entire marine life and flora; the reason for this, perhaps — the notorious comet.
A fairly long (60 million years) Carboniferous period, or carbon begins 359 million years ago, it is characterized, as the name implies, by intense coal formation. The gymnosperms are developing and thriving: coniferous, cordaite (trees resembling these very conifers), and cicadassia (a cross between palm and fern), mussels and horsetails. In warm bogs amphibians prosper (stegocephalus, they are labyrinthodontes resembling crocodile-newt), ripidity (even larger, 8-meter crocodile), in the seas — sharks reaching 13 meters in length. In the air hover mega-moves — dragonflies with a wingspan of up to 65 cm. This air itself is characterized by an elevated — up to 35%, oxygen content (now 21%).
In the Perm period (Perm, the name of the Russian city in the vicinity of which this stage is allocated) the continents unite again, somewhat differently, forming a single Pangea — washed by the unified world ocean of the Pantalassa. Later, in the Jurassic period of the next era, it will split into six continents known to us. This geological process is characterized by a decrease in the area of inland water bodies, the onset of deserts. Sandy barkhans cover almost the entire territory of present-day Siberia. Carboniferous deposits (coal) overlap with Triassic (motley sandstone, shell limestone).
The successes of the speciation of Perm are rather modest — several new species of insects. The period ends with the largest in the history of the Earth, the Permian-Triassic extinction (English The Great Dying), 252 million years ago. In less than 60 thousand years, 96% of marine species, 70% of terrestrial vertebrates and 83% of the whole class of insects perish. The main hypotheses of the causes of the event: 1 — the fall of an asteroid a few tens of kilometers in diameter. The crater near Wilkes land (Antarctica, a site with a 300 km ring anomaly opposite Australia) seems to confirm this version. 2 — the release of greenhouse gas from, until the rest at the bottom, at the earth’s poles, frozen methane hydrates. In this case, the world ocean boils, permeated with bubbles, like champagne, freed from cork, giving out about 4 trillion tons of methane to the atmosphere in less than a period of ordinary human life. The weather is going crazy, sharp (more than 6Сº per year) warming is replaced by cold snaps, and this is completely out of the question for all the inhabitants of the planet. 3 — anoxia (suffocation). The waters of the oceans, seas, lakes come into contact with hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen chloride (HCl), volcanos suddenly released into the atmosphere (including so-called Siberian traps, flooding huge areas of hot lava), acidify, lose oxygen. The remains of animals also give off the notorious H2S, which aggravates the tragedy that is taking place.
Be that as it may, cute trilobites, and with them Paleozoic himself, come to an end.
The restoration of the biosphere takes five million years. The Triassic, the first period of the Mesozoic Era, opens.
Among the surviving (diapsidic) reptiles are archosaurs («initial lizards», classified by some features of the skull, nasal septum, jaws) — which become the ancestors of modern birds and crocodiles, as well as the entire family of now extinct dinosaurs. Belemnites appear, a distant analogy of squid, ammonites, with shells twisted into a spiral, gastropods (gastropods), ie, snails, and also well-known to us bivalve mollusks — oysters.
Of the shellfish with ganoid scales (rhombic plates with hook-shaped protrusions, which are connected by them in the likeness of an external skeleton), the bony ones, in fact, the same ray-fish, stand out.
Formed a classic turtle. Synapsides, they are the theromorphs, they are the same animal-like, namely, their suborder cynodonts of the group of theriodontes (zverozuby lizards), become the ancestors of mammals. This lizard has four unusually long paws (legs), laying eggs (like some modern mammals), most likely has a wool, judging by the structure of the nasal septum, warms the inhaled air, and the cold-blooded reptile in general, is now not.
Trias lasts almost 50 million years, and ends 200 million years ago, another global catastrophe, the so-called. Triassic-Jurassic extinction of species. Causes may be the same as that which marked the arrival of a new era. The result — the extinction of half of the species, the release of many ecological niches — which without delay occupy dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs, that is, «terrible lizards» differ from ordinary reptiles for that time only by their gigantic size. There is no fundamental difference. But, as you know, size — often it matters. The largest representative of this order, a group of herbivorous sauropods (four-legged) — seismosaurus, reaches a length of 36 meters, in height — as far as could raise the neck — 20 meters, with a weight of 140 tons. Titanosaurus weighs «only» 50 tons, but is more widely represented in fossil remains. Theropods (reindeer, moving on two legs), as a rule — predators. Their champion is tyrannosaurus rex, height to the end of the thigh (trunk) is 4.5 meters, length is 13 meters, weight is 8 tons. A slightly smaller mass can boast of a modern African elephant.
The Jurassic period (Jurassic, according to the name of the mountains in Switzerland) is characterized by limestones, detrital rocks (sharp stones), shales (rocks with layered fusion of minerals), magmatic rocks (basalt — friable gray stone with yellow-green crystalline impregnations, granite,), clays and sands. All this is evidence of the rapid disintegration of Pangea into continental blocks, with the concomitant formation of many shallow warm seas. Tree-like ferns («vascular plants») are widely spread, with branches lying in the same plane forming a kind of leaf, and also similar to them — as well as modern palms, slightly less lush 10—18 meter long cycads. Reef communities formed from the Triassic, coral polyps are formed.
Archeopteryx, a dead end of evolution, appears — an «ancient bird», the size of a crow, rather clumsy, as paleontologists say, planning from tree to tree. Actually, the scientific community has not yet developed a generally accepted theory of bird origin. In any case, it is in the Jurassic, pterosaurs, flying warm-blooded lizards, conquer the air. The most famous representative of this genus (the suborder of pterodactyli), the hero of the film «The Jurassic Park» is Pteranodon, with a wingspan of 7 meters, but also known in North America is the Quetzalcoatl, 12 meters wide — which corresponds to the size of the light bomber of the Second world war. Their weight is up to 200 kg. — contradicts the conclusions of those biophysical scientists who prove the impossibility of a free flight for the beings of such a mass (under terrestrial conditions).
The cretaceous period (chalk), which began 145 million years ago according to a rather arbitrary decision of scientists, is characterized by abundant sedimentary deposits of the writing chalk — formed from the remains of invertebrate marine animals — mainly ammonites, already remembered by us on twisted shells. Extensive areas of land, in particular, Africa and South America, India and Australia diverge from one another further, forming new water spaces, warm shallows and islands. Appear flowering plants, they are angiosperms — with a flower as a reproductive organ and quite complex, the so-called. double fertilization (an embryo sac of several cells and, in fact, an ovum).
This pleases insects, becoming the main pollinators. Their diversity increases many times. In the sky, along with pterodactyls, more like bats, real, that is, flying birds fly.
All this idyll is over 65 million years ago, during the most famous, small-Paleogene great extinction. The main version is the fall of the celestial body, which caused the appearance of the Chicxulub Crater near the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). The diameter of the asteroid is 10 kilometers, the depth of the crater is 17—20 km. the width is 180 km. Thus, the impact force is 2 million times higher than the energy released during the testing of the powerful hydrogen bomb AN 602 on Novaya Zemlya in 1962.
Perhaps, the impact is supported by the fall of the second celestial body, an asteroid or a comet — which gave rise to the oval Shiva crater near the western coast of modern India — 400 kilometers in the narrowest part. Apparently, after the first outbreak of extinction, some species of dinosaurs existed one to two million years.
Be that as it may, the deposition of chalk separates from the rocks of the next period a layer of monotonous clay, sand and lime. A new era — Cainozoic («new life»). Starts with the Paleogene. This geological period is distinguished by an even tropical climate, the dominance of mammals, birds, the first cetaceans, and also bony fishes. Some cephalopods get rid of shells, turn into known octopuses, cuttlefish and squid.
Neogene is fastened 23 million years ago. Whales are completely formed.
Their basis, incidentally, is a detachment of mesonichia, now extinct (existed 63 to 28 million years ago), one of the few predators among ungulates. Some of them, for example, the genus Mesonix, resembled a wolf, others — Andrewsarch — a bear, while the length of the body was 3.7 meters. Representatives of other (related) genera are quite similar to cave lions.
…Placental, that is, viviparous mammals dominate. The entire fauna of the period is already clearly similar to the modern one.
Quaternary period, he is anthropogen («creating man») begins 2, 588 million years ago. It is separated from the previous epoch by the paleomagnetic Gauss-Matuyama boundary: the S-N poles of the Earth change places, which is determined by the studies of the primary magnetization of the lava of the corresponding time. The first epoch — Pleistocene (from other Greek words «numerous» and «modern») — the time of great glaciations and interglacial periods, ends 11.7 thousand years ago. There are a lot of animals, including those that are not found now-woolly rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers, cave lions, marsupials, mammoths and diprotons (some kind of marsupial grizzly ones), mastodons (extremely simplified — short-haired mammoths with a special structure of jaws). Hard cooling (glacials), during which glaciers occupy up to 30% of the land area last an average of 40 thousand years, are replaced by 20 — thousand-year interglacials (interglacials).
The last glacial epoch, the Wurm glaciation begins 110 thousand years ago. From Norway, across Eurasia, a horrifying glacial shield disintegrates. On the whole, the coverlets of Antarctica are formed (there is a version, it happened later, almost 10 thousand years BC). The last glacial maximum ends precisely in time. The level of the World Ocean, which was less than the modern one at 120—135 meters, is gradually rising.
Everything seems to be good. But, why did the fossil animals adapted to many perturbations die out? There is evidence, a good reason for this — the fall of a large meteorite, in fact, an asteroid in the area of present-day Canada (the neighborhood of Quebec), or Mexico, associated with that sharp, during the day, global, although relatively short (a thousand years) cold snap.
One way or another, the Holocene begins («whole» and «new»), the last interglacial known to us, continuing to this day.
Actually, man stands out from the animal world three million years ago, in the Paleolithic (the first landmark of the Homo scale), roughly coinciding with the Pleistocene. About 150,000 years ago, Homo habilis appeared, the so-called. a man of skill, capable, albeit primitive, but of thinking, creating, using stone, bone and wooden tools.
People, almost indistinguishable from modern ones, Homo sapiens are formed 35—40 thousand years before us. These numbers are very controversial, but we can represent them as a basis for subsequent reasoning. Their skills — the production of ceramics, fishing, hunting, tools, clothing, bone, leather, wood.
There are the first, as yet primitive religious rituals.
It is generally believed that, at that time, Neanderthals literally co-existed side by side and Neanderthals were co-existing, and Cro-Magnon people — in some way initially very developed hominids. This theory is obvious, smells of Nazism, it is controversial, but as a fetish of academic science, we can consider it.
Stone, Bronze, Iron Age
The late Holocene (otherwise, the Upper Paleolithic) is marked by a transition to the next stages of human formation. Neolithic, or stone age, lasts from the beginning of the Pleistocene to, in fact, (relatively) late Holocene. It is preceded by the Mesolithic, when during 3—4 thousand years the skills of joint hunting accumulate, speech is improved, understanding of social norms, taboos, traditions is developed.
In the Neolithic, in addition to everything, the domestication of a dog and a horse occurs. The last, we will notice, in both Americas, 12 thousand years ago, alas, completely die out.
Modern, officially recognized scientists publicize the first archaeological (human) culture — the so-called. The «Hamburg», which appeared on the territory of the modern Netherlands and Germany. About it testify, in particular, stone tips of spears with a lateral notch and stone incisors. The oldest city of the Earth, Jericho (in Arabic — «Ariha», Greek — «Jericho», located in the territory of the Palestinian National Authority, 30 km north-west of Jerusalem) is mentioned in the annals.
Layer of time from 6, 5 thousand years ago, characterized by the transition of mankind to the bronze (in the New World, rather, copper-obsidian) century. By the 13th century. BC. this era of human development, characterized by the general, peaceful coexistence of tribes and peoples, the development of trade relations, the improvement of the psyche of people, ends. Some sources point to the split of the «single proto-Indo-European community», the grandiose resettlement of peoples, the loss of the old culture.
Recall: classical, so-called. «Bell» bronze is an alloy of copper with tin, in the proportion of 8 to 2. It is characterized by high hardness, which is not inherent in any of these metals individually, although at the same time it is also brittle.
Is this due to the peculiarities of the matter, iron or not, but the next century of civilization is marked by a series of turbulent military conflicts, at the same time, rapid technological development — the so-called pre-war. «Bronze collapse». For two or three centuries (this is still inexplicable), mankind falls into the abyss of oblivion, only vaguely defined great misfortunes, a general decline. Some speculations are the eruption of the Heucla Supercolcane in Iceland, 1159 BC, or Santorin, who is not inferior to him, a total drought, or, in the end, the appearance of a miracle of weapons (iron) and the unprecedented activation of the military class.
This is the official story. To complete it, a fairly elegant, durable building, recognized by the international community, scientists select only those stones, that is, archaeological finds that do not spoil the overall picture with their sharp corners. Let us all the same, once again look at a few such specimens:
1. This formation on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean was found by sonar hydrographic expeditions. The image was transferred to Google Maps. It is easy to find by coordinates: latitude 31° 33'5.10 «N longitude 24° 24’16.75, using the most common Internet resource, or, even easier — find on the satellite map the Western Sahara, to the left — the Canary Islands (for example, Santa Cruz de-Tenerife), then a little bit higher and even more to the west — take a look to the foot of the majestic submarine ridge.The sides of an almost regular rectangle, dotted with parallel lines — about 120 and 140 kilometers. Obviously, these are the remains of an ancient metropolis, city-state, somehow to compare with which could be Only the Cambodian Angkor, at the time of its highest flowering, is somewhat embarrassed by the width of the lines or streets — three kilometers, but this can also be explained by imagining, for example, majestic canals or dense stripes surrounded by extensive gardens on the hills.
What will happen if we continue this journey to the west? The view finds several, located «horseshoe» underwater hills. One of them is Mount Amper, to study it in 1974—1980, Soviet ships sailed many times, with a solid baggage of scientific equipment. Yes, at a depth of 80—200 meters, expeditions found, including visually, strictly the same stone slabs, located along straight lines, sometimes intersecting at an angle of 90º.
It should be added, all these attractions are located exactly there — 550 kilometers to the west, kilometers 200 south of Gibraltar, where the Antolithic location was pointed by the Ancient Greek (probably very knowledgeable about everything) philosopher Plato. The legendary state was lost, descended to the bottom, according to the same source, about 12 thousand years ago. Note that the same date modern scientists suggest as a milestone Holocene, marked by the massive extinction of fossil animals now.
But, the mind, or rather the subconscious, of both scientists and ordinary people, rejects everything that does not enter into the foundation of the already constructed building of World History. The outlines of the ancient city-state are announced by the blot of hydrographs, the research of the peak of Mount Amper is blundered. Money is on everything — only not for new research. Otherwise, perhaps, the academicians would have to answer for their detailed works, in which it is firmly pointed out that twelve thousand years ago a man could hardly build a hut, heathed a silicon scraper and built a fire.
2.3. Monument of Yonaguni. Underwater shooting and reconstruction. Yonaguni Island itself, the possession of Japan, is located near Taiwan (south-east coast of mainland China). The sides of the structure are 150 by 183 meters high and 42 meters high. The summit of the complex is 25 meters below the surface of the ocean. According to scientists, the Monument (thoroughly) was finished by people from a suitable limestone rock from 10 to 16 thousand years ago.
Other researchers persuade; what we see in these photographs is just a bizarre play of the forces of nature.
4. An interesting finding is found in 1997 by the Swedish research group Ocean X Team on the bottom of the Baltic Sea (in the middle between Sweden and Finland). A disc of 60 meters in diameter, towering above the level of the bottom by 4—5 meters, with two parallel ribs, manholes, segments, in all respects perfectly fits the definition: «alien spaceship». Divers equipped with special equipment, immersed in 85 meters — and not at all disappointed by what they saw. Sonar does not deceive. It really is a real, classic, flying saucer. The surface of the object is covered with something like soot and stony lava flows.
Based on the materials of the expeditions, numerous reports are published, films are shot (including from the highly respected Discovery channel), articles are published. Then the information noise subsides.
What are we talking about?
Here, a genuine, real, is found, quite, by the way, a large artifact. But, the mental apparatus of the average person discards this incredible news aside. It’s not some malignant agents of the secret World Government trying to hide something from the people, but in this our property. What is vital is not necessary, quickly suppressed.
This also happens with the entire History of the World. Until then, of course, while, somehow, its comprehension in the whole volume, will not become really, vitally important.
…From the Iron Age — a little more detailed:
History of Antiquity
The Sumerians. Ancient EgyptTHE
Four and a half thousand years deep into Time from the twenty-first century. The territory of southern Iraq. Cuneiform, wheel, brewing. As a small village, Babylon is formed. The Sumerians are dissolved in foreign nations. The Babylonian kingdom rises, flourishes for several centuries, but is ruined by the Hittites (the territory of the south of modern Turkey). The Hittites are at war with Egypt, they clean up its provinces, but, unable to survive the bronze collapse — the loss of writing and skills, they lose to the «peoples of the sea» who came from the Balkans and Asia Minor.
Emerging from the nomineum of Ashur (center of Iraq) Assyria absorbs the territories of modern Turkey, Syria, Israel and Egypt. Babylon preserves autonomy, raises an uprising, perishes and is rebuilt in seventy years. Assyria is tired of fighting, the Scythians, descended from the mountains, are wandering through its territory, without encountering resistance. Media and Babylon gather armies, destroy the capital of Assyria, Nineveh, and all this is an unparalleled cruel military state.
The bloodthirst of the Assyrians (perhaps somewhat biased) is narrated by the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament):
«All who have heard the news of your death will applaud, for to whom did not your malice constantly spread?»
Ancient Egypt (Lat-Ayguptus, Hebrew-Mizraim, Arabic-Masr, self-name Ta-Kemet, Ta-meri, Black Earth) was founded five thousand years ago by Menes and his people who arrived, presumably from the coast of Western India. Remember: Early kingdom, Ancient, Middle and New. Pharaoh Psammetich expels Assyrians, but independence does not last long: in the fifth century BC Egypt is captured by Persia. In the third century BC, the Hellenic Ptolemaic dynasty began to reign in the country. In total, along with it, Egypt is ruled by 32 succeeding dynasties — more than monarchs from other countries, in their entire history.
In the first century BC, with the death of the son of Cleopatra and Caesar, Caesarion, Egypt passes into the hands of the Romans, since the beginning of the eighth century AD, it has been dominated by the Arabs.
Until the Late Period, the Egyptians do not know coins: they are replaced by bags of grain, just over 40 kg., And the so-called debins — ingots of copper or silver in 91 grams.
The kitchen, as a rule, does not have a roof, has a simple millstone for grinding grain, and an oven. The basis of the diet — wheat buns with a variety of additives. In honor — beer «hake», sweetish, 10 degrees, with the addition of mandrake, anise, saffron, other psychedelic drugs.
The temples of Egypt are not meant for mass meetings; Only the priests are engaged in worship. The basis of religion is the need to collect after death its disconnected «aspects» in order to continue to exist in a spiritual form.
Greece and Persia
Thousand hundred years BC — the beginning of the so-called. polis period, the invasion of the Dorians from the north (in pure form, the Spartans), the high achievements of culture and social order. Sparta for some time dominates the Greek world with Athens on a par with. Persia concludes with the Greeks a world that Sparta must follow for observance.
By the time (492 BC), Darius the First founded the Achaemenid empire, including Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, reaching to India. Accusing the Greeks of violating the union treaty (framed by the «small text» as the protectorate of the Asian state), he invades Greece, but gets repulsed (Marathon battle, 20 years after the battle of Thermopylae, Salamis battle, Plataeus — the expulsion of his son Xerxes).
In the First Peloponnesian (Civil) War, Sparta gained the upper hand, captured Athens, completed the golden age of democracy by the accession of its own oligarchy, devoid of any creative origin. This ceases to please numerous colonies. Eventually, the troops of Thebes (a policy somewhat north of Athens) and the revived Athens themselves, reconcile, unite, free the helots, push the Dorians to their peninsula — where they become, in their own way, a relic, gradually evolving into ordinary Greeks.
Macedonia (the northern part of the Balkans), up to that time, being an ally of Xerxes, places its garrisons on all the still sovereign Greek policies, is preparing to attack Persia.
Alexander of Macedon conquers Persia in 330 BC; in another seven years the state breaks up into Seleucia, Parthia and Egypt. In Egypt, Ptolemy reigns, becoming a new pharaoh.
1. Assyria is an unparalleled cruel military state, perhaps the first super-drajava in history. Destroyed Scythians, Medes and Babylonians.
2. Developed incredibly, swallowed Israel and Egypt, the Babylonian kingdom.
3. The state of things before the attack of Darius on Greece (which is nominally part of his empire). Let’s pay attention: Macedonia is an ally of Persia.
The beginning of the Chinese civilization. Twenty-eight centuries BC. The first state covered by written sources is Shan-Yin. In the seventh century BC. conquered by the commander of Wu-Wan, now called Zhou. The heyday of Confucianism (the fourth century BC) and Taoism. Zhou is divided into seven belligerent states — Qin, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Yan, Chu. In the two centuries before our era, Emperor Qin Shihuandi conquers them and unites the Qin empire. The parts of the walls of individual northern kingdoms also unite, forming the Great Wall of China. The dictator rules by cruel methods, destroys scientists burns books, however, soon after his death, this entire order, together with the state (and dynasty) Qin, is disintegrating.
Ancient Rome
Seven centuries BC — the foundation of the capital. Two centuries — the royal period. Then — the Republic, invasion of the Gauls, geese, «grief defeated». The war with Great Greece — King Pyrrhus and the catastrophic Pyrrhic victory.
The First Punic War. The struggle with Carthage for Sicily, the foundation of the fleet after the model of a Carthaginian ship thrown ashore by the storm. The action is transferred to Africa, where the victories of the Romans entail euphoria, and then a serious defeat. Remnants of the army are evacuated, on the way back the fleet dies in a storm.
Actions are transferred to Sicily, where the troops of Carthage are commanded by Hamilcar Barca. The forces of the parties are depleted, the Carthaginian fleet is defeated by the curtain. Carthage pays a solid indemnity and renounces Sicily.
The Second Punic War — two centuries BC — Hamilcar Barca perishes, leaving three sons — Hannibal, Magon and Hasdrubal. Hannibal crosses to Italy through the Alps, defeats the Romans at Cannes, after a year tries to take Rome, but for some reason (a thunderstorm interpreted by both sides as the wrath of the gods, or the fall of a meteorite) the battle will not take place. The Romans seize the allied Carthage of Syracuse, and the great scientist of antiquity, Archimedes, dies. The Thirty-thousandth Corps of the Romans, under the command of Scipio of Africa, lands in Africa, makes alliances with local Libyan tribes, and defeats Carthage’s army. Hannibal runs to the king of Antioch, to the south of modern Turkey, takes part in battles against Rome, the second time after the battle of Zama, personally meets Scipio. Then he moves to become Armenia, independent of the Seleucids, where he leads the construction of the capital near modern-day Yerevan, then Bithynia (northern Turkey). The Bithynian king, wishing peace, decides to extradite Hannibal, but the Carthaginian general accepts the poison.
Fifty years of peace, all contributions paid, in 149 BC. the third Punic war begins. Violating the terms of the treaty, the Carthaginians rebuff the local tribe of the Libyans, the official ally of Rome. The thought of Cato the Elder, «Cartago dilindum ess» — Carthage must be destroyed, «repeated every time at a meeting of the Senate, becomes one of the motives for the existence of the Romans. Landed in Africa, the troops begin a siege. Three years later Carthage was taken, burned, plowed, covered with salt for 17 days, so that even the spirits of its former inhabitants could not appear here. The capital of the new Roman province of Africa is the city of Utica, located a few kilometers from the former capital of the eastern power, formerly a stronghold of Roman legionaries. The civilization of Puno-Phoenician Canaanites is almost completely destroyed.
…The Roman Republic, undergoing the tyranny of Sulla and Gaius Maria, hardly reflects the new invasion of the Gauls and Teutons. Then comes the rebellion of Spartacus. Ten years after the suppression of the mutiny, the Caesar-Pompeii-Crass triumvirate is created. Crassus, along with seven legions, perishes in Parthia, (modern Iran and Turkmenistan) formed from the Seleucid state.
Fifty years BC. — the rise of Caesar, the war in the territory of modern France, a brief invasion of Britain. With the death of his wife Pompey, daughter of Caesar, the relative and spiritual ties break down, the commander crosses the Rubicon River, captures Rome. Civil war takes more than a quarter of Roman male citizens. Pompey is trying to hide in Egypt, but is dying off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea under unclear circumstances.
Caesar starts a romance with the heiress of the pharaohs Cleopatra, which, in the end, leads to the inclusion of Egypt in the composition of Rome.
Ancient China
Two hundred years BC. — After the death of Shihuandi in the Han empire, Confucianism is reborn (jusue, school of scribes) — a philosophy that replaces China with religion. Han exists for six hundred years, it is replaced by the Jin dynasty. With it, in the fourth century, North China is captured by the Huns. Two centuries, the Chinese assimilate them, turning into themselves, so that the next dynasty restores the state in full.
…A new series of wars, enlargement of kingdoms, crushing, eventually leads to the emergence of a flourishing, very advanced Tang Empire (636—907), in the east of modern China. The dynasty controls part of Central Asia — Sogdiana, the territory of present-day Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A native of these regions, the border governor of the «tszedushi» in the service of the emperor, An Lushan persuades the latter to replace a significant number of officers of the «titular nation» at the court with the mercenaries who were loyal to the Sogdian. The further move is the almost unhindered formation of our own army, a campaign to the capital of Chang’an (now the sub-provincial Xian, the location of the famous terracotta army of Qin Shihuandi). Next — a series of intrigues, battles, invasions, wars of all against all, for the emperor, the idea, finally just for food. Soldiers, or simply murderers, are women and children. The greatest city of that time, with a million population, because of the specially thought-out layout of the quarters resembling a chessboard, Chang’an turns into a pile of ruins. All roads of the country are filled with corpses. Water in the lakes for months retains a purple color. According to pedantic census-takers and tax collectors, China’s 50 million people of that time are losing 36 million of their inhabitants. Perhaps some of them do not die, but simply move to another area, however, the An Lushan revolt is considered the largest (after World War II) armed conflict in terms of the number of victims in the history of mankind.
Under the Song dynasty, in the 12th century, China captured the South Manchurian tribe of the Jurchens, bringing the country to a new round of assimilation. In the beginning of the 13th century, almost 300 thousand army invaded the Middle Kingdom from the North. With each new campaign, the Mongols are moving farther south. Powder charges, rockets, primitive artillery are widely used, many millions die. The capital of Zhunda (Dadu) — modern Beijing was invaded in 1264, after 16 years, the whole of China is surrendered. The grandson of Genghis Khan, Khan Khubilai proclaims the creation of the Yuan dynasty, otherwise — Their Yuan Uls is the Great Yuan state. At the same time, four ulus of the Mongols emerge from under one government.
Expeditions to Japan and Vietnam are not successful: in the first case, in part, due to irresistible external (weather) reasons. For the first time in the world, paper banknotes of chao are massively and successfully introduced. The economy, however, is greatly feverish: most Chinese are enslaved, lose their skills and any enthusiasm, agriculture and trade are in decline, the most complicated irrigation system ceases to function.
In the middle of the fourteenth century, the secret organization White Lotus organizes the people to fight the invaders. The Mongols are pushed to the north, to their steppes. One of the leaders of the insurrection — the son of a peasant Zhu Yuanzhang — comes to power and establishes the Ming dynasty. This period is marked by the flowering of science, crafts, shipping, etc. Organized in particular, a huge ocean expedition led by Admiral Zheng He. The «Golden Fleet» consists of 40—60 «treasure trove» baochuan, 117 meters long, 48 wide, and 200 escort ships of more modest size. The staff of the expedition is 27—28 thousand people.
A total of seven voyages, after which the ships are dismantled, the reports are destroyed. China adopts a strictly isolationist policy.
Meanwhile, the Jurchen from South Manchuria recall the past: at first they stop paying tribute to central China, then unite with Inner Mongolia and organize mass raids on the former metropolis. Moving farther south and west, they capture the last bastion of resistance — the island of Taiwan in 1683. Now China is named after the Manchurian dynasty and empire — Qing. Aliens try not to allow mixed marriages, but they do not oppose their culture to the local, and quickly become Chinese. By the beginning of the 19th century the population of Qing was 300 million people.
Chinese goods are in great demand in Europe, however, the Chinese recognize only silver and gold as payment, as well as Russian fur and Venetian glass. This approach to doing business is completely unhappy with the British, who bring into China from India a product that is becoming more and more popular among all segments of the population — opium. Sun-dried milky juice of immature bollocks of opium poppy contains morphine, codeine, narcotin and another 17 alkaloids. By 1830 the sales volume reaches 1500 tons, 35% of the population become drug addicts. The Chinese emperor introduces a ban on this simple happiness, after which his empire is attacked by the main drug dealer — Great Britain. China loses the war, pays a huge contribution, passes the winner to Hong Kong Island (formally rented for 99 years).
In 1851, the Taiping uprising is taking place, organized by the Chinese Christian Hun Xucuan. The idea is the expulsion of the Manchus, the foundation of the Taiping Kingdom of Heaven (Taiping Tian Guo), or, otherwise, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Tranquility (or «Welfare»). The millionth Christian army of the Taiping is distinguished by its iron discipline, at the same time, by the humane attitude to the local population, the absence of robberies and cruelties. The basis of society in the occupied territories is a community of 25 families, other hierarchies and estates, as well as religions, are being eliminated.
After twelve years of this confrontation, marked by the emergence of new foci of insurgencies, the Second Opium War is taking place — approximately in the same scenario, and with a similar result. In everything there is both bad and good; for example, China is completely out of international isolation.
Hong Xiu-chuan, hardly from the very beginning of the Liberation campaign, withdraws from worldly affairs, gives himself up to prayers and meditations. Meanwhile, his generals continue to struggle, including, among themselves. Also, considering Europeans as brethren by faith, the Taiping can not figure out why those — English and French — turned against them with weapons. Recall, the army of the Kingdom of Heaven, categorically prohibits smoking opium and, moreover, zealously destroys everything connected with Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Eventually, the besieged capital of the Taiping, Nanjing, disappears in a huge fire, Hong Xiu-suan commits suicide, his son, the young heir to the throne, ends his life on the block. The last units of the Heavenly Kingdom, after a desperate attempt to storm Peking, perish on August 16, 1868.
In total, during the Taiping uprising, 20 to 30 million people were killed. The Chinese authorities, up to the present day, are trying to limit the spread of Christianity. So, in 1900, during the uprising of theirs, the supporters of traditional beliefs, as a rule of Buddhism, destroyed almost all Christians of Beijing (the Chinese). At the same time, China occupies the forces of Germany, Russia, Japan, win, receive an indemnity of 450 million silver lans (ingot in 31 grams), open the Celestial world even more fully.
In 1908, the throne rises two-year-old Emperor Pu I. Three years later flashes the so-called. Wuchang Uprising, which, in the end, leads to the collapse of the Qing Empire and the proclamation of the Chinese Republic. Then Tibet and Mongolia depart from China.
Aisingoro Pu Yi, who was Henry, as the European teacher called him, and Xundi — «The Forsaken Emperor» — since 1932 the emperor of the puppet republic Manzhou-go, formed by the Japanese. In 1945, captured by a Soviet airborne near Mukden, was held in a prison camp near Khabarovsk, testified at the Tokyo trial as a witness. Returned to China, 9 years re-educated through the system of Mao Zedong, then released. He worked in Beijing, first in the botanical garden, then modest archivist in the national library
1. Compass Lo-Pan, the tool of the ancient method of correctly determining the state of things, in all senses. Feng Shui (lit. — «wind and water»), the science that has gone through the ages determines, in particular, with the help of an appropriate compass, which sectors in the house correspond to the energies of the head of the family, mistress, children, where to spend leisure, or to work. The simplest — the South, the zone of glory, should abound in red, lights, heat. Water symbols are forbidden in it, it is not recommended to place figures of birds of prey, pictures of battles, weapons themselves, blue, black, purple… So in all sectors, with some reservations and amendments. This is only a science, there is no religious component in it. The school of the form pays less attention to the location of the room relative to the magnetic lines of the Earth and regulates a number of simple things. On the person should not be directed sharp edges, edges of overlappings, floors, etc., beds should be placed head to the capital wall, double beds — to provide independent their departure in both directions. You can not sleep with your feet to the door, sit with your back to the exit. Mirror should in no case «look» at the bed, etc., etc.
2. Banner or coat of arms with the motto, the symbol of Taipin’s «Heavenly Kingdom.»
3. The first running paper money in the world, promissory notes-banknotes of the Chao, the Song dynasty, the 11th century. The circulation of the banknote is limited to a time interval of three years.
Ancient Rome from Octavin Augustus
A little earlier than the beginning of our era. Octavian Augustus and Marcus Antonius divide Rome into the East and the West. Mark falls under the influence of Cleopatra, who does not mind becoming the queen of Rome itself, gets involved in the war with the Senate and Octavian Augustus. Alternating feasts with military preparations, he misses the blows of the metropolis, and, in the end, commits suicide. The charms of the thirty-nine-year-old Cleopatra do not work for the winner, the heiress of the pharaohs has to follow the example of Antony. She has four children; seventeen-year-old Caesarion, the son of Caesar, by order of Augustus, killed, two twins from Antony are brought up by Augustus’s sister, nothing is known about the fate of the fourth.
The emperor Tiberius, stepson and heir of Augustus, is allegedly strangled personally by his great-nephew, his successor, during an attack of illness. Having risen to the summit of power, Caligula builds bridges from ships, luxurious floating palaces, deals with senators — and he is loved by the people for the lack of hypocrisy. Zarezan own bodyguards. The new emperor, Claudius is memorable for Messalina, who has become the nominal image of a lascivious wife. His next wife is Agrippina, the middle sister of Caligula, who already has the son of Nero. Her plot reaches its goal; Nero becomes emperor. However, his reign does not like the mother, who is going to lead to power the son of Claudius and Agrippina, Britannica. Nero in time feeds the opponent with poisoned mushrooms. The mother tries to poison, too, but she takes the invention of the eastern king, Mithradates Evpator, in time, an effective antidote. Unable to drown the mother during the staged shipwreck (in the past hobby of Agrippina — diving for sea sponges), Nero directs the text to order the naval officer to stab it.
Nero’s policy of reducing taxes brought him popular popularity. But, after the death of Agrippina, the emperor falls into depression, loses his former administrative grip. Restoration of Rome after the fire, the construction of the Golden Palace an area of a kilometer and a half (with a giant pool-pond in the middle), digging a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, as well as constant orgies drain the treasury. Legions rise in the provinces, and on one remarkable morning Nero does not find in his palace any of the Praetorian guards. The emperor runs to the country house, realizing that everything is over, asks a freedman to help him commit suicide. The last phrase of Nero — «what an artist dies» — «Qualis artifeh pere».
Next come the brutal but well-made emperors Titus and his son Vespasian (suppressed the uprising in Judea), Vespasian’s younger brother, Domitian, deified himself and family members, persecuted the Stoics and Christians, killed by his own servant for the execution of Nero’s assistant in suicide.
After the Emperor Galba, the «Golden Autumn of the Empire» comes, five worthy rulers come to power — Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Ver and Marcus Aurelius. After them, the epoch of «soldier emperors», chosen by the troops and the Praetorian guard, opens. The coming to power in 323 of Constantine the Great, the victorious competitor, one of such soldiers’ choices marks the transition of the state to Christianity. Forty years later, Julian (the Renegade) is trying to reanimate paganism, he calls on the priests of Jupiter to be as pious as the Christian priests, but these efforts prove to be useless. The last emperor — Romulus Augustul, still a boy, sent to the exile by the German leader Odoakr; He knows little about his fate, except that he may have become a monk. Year 476 is considered the last year of antiquity, although Odoakr ruled the remnants of Western Rome — Italy and part of Gaul by formal permission of the emperor of the Eastern Empire.
1. The Roman Empire of its heyday (around 177 AD). Since 180, the death of the last worthy emperor of the era of the Golden Autumn of the Empire, Marcus Aurelius, in fact, the era of the legendary Antiquity, spectacular productions, is coming to an end. Rome is waiting for the extinction of the old institutions of power, a series of defeats, the loss of the sense of the existence of a superpower and a change of religion.
…Spartacus (Latin Spartacus), 110—70 years old. BC, the leader of the risen gladiators in the territory of modern Italy. No images; by the decision of the Senate, the Romans tried to forget memory (Damnatio memoriae — damnathio memorial) about such an amazing and unpleasant event for them.
In the youth of great Rome, (fifth-second century BC), slaves (servus) are quite rare, sometimes they have the status of family members. The second-first centuries BC, the beginning of a new era, are marked by an increase in the number of prisoners of war, as well as debtors from provinces unable to pay a high Roman tax, usurious interest, and also receiving an appropriate stigma. Over time, the ratio of the number of free people to servants in Italy is 2.5: 1, in the whole of Rome about 10: 1, and the situation of the latter is substantially deteriorating. Still, in many cases slaves have a hope of improving their situation, a free certificate from the master, his family name and further, practically unlimited movement on the social ladder. At least two emperors of Rome, at the beginning of their career, were ordinary slaves. Such an institution of ascent allows you to cut off unnecessary national ambitions (i-de marcoman, cimbri, volsk, frank, etc., my tribe is the best, the rest are worthless) and create — a trader, architect, military leader, teacher — patriots of great Rome.
The price of a slave in the first century BC. is 4—400 denarii, depending on the degree of success of the last war. At the same time, the daily salary of a legionary is 1 denarius, (otherwise, 4 sesterces or 16 asses at a time), including bonuses; for this amount you can buy 20 loaves of bread, or, at your option, 4 liters of ordinary wine, or a liter of beautiful Falern.
If you count on gold, whose price, as an opportunity to purchase basic material goods, surprisingly, almost unchanged, the soldier earns 35,000 rubles a month (2016).
Gladiator games last until the reign of the last emperor of the integral Roman Empire — Flavius Theodosius (370—395). The very institution of slavery comes to naught gradually, with a general softening of the morals of slaveholders and lawyers — usually taking the side of oppressed servs. But, alas, the baton of this low phenomenon is intercepted by serfdom. Under Diocletian (284—305) a law is issued, attaching peasants — both colonies (tenants) and landowners, as well as artisans (blacksmiths, merchants) or to the place of residence, or to a certain profession that is now inherited.
2, 2a. Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin Gaius Iulius Caesar), 100—44 BC. Ancient Roman statesman, dictator, great pontiff (lit. «The builder of bridges»), high priest. Representative of the patrician class. In his youth he avoids the unleashed Sulla, the civil war, and also the execution, as a relative of one of the enemies of this dictator. It is not known for certain whether Gaius Julius participated in suppressing the uprising of Spartacus; according to some reports, he, a military tribune (one of six in the legion, ruling for two months), prepared recruits. 63 BC. — thanks to connections, popularity and money, young Caesar becomes a great pontiff. 60 BC. — the creation of a triumvirate («union of three husbands»); Pompeii-Crassus-Caesar. 58 BC. — the beginning of the Gali war; it kills about a million Gauls (including civilians). 49 BC. — the beginning of the civil war in ancient Rome; Caesar and ambition, against Pompey and the corrupt Republic. 45 BC. — Battle of Mund (Spain), the hardest of all, conducted by Caesar. The 30,000 rebellious Pompeians are killed, the dictator for the first time in history holds a triumph after the victory of the Romans over the Romans. In the same year on coins for the first time appears the image of a living person — of course, Caesar.
44 BC. — Guia Julia is murdered by conspirators, led by Mark Brutus (possibly the illegitimate son of the dictator), the body burns the people — at the stake from their own mourning clothes, judges’ chairs, benches, etc., after which the Civil War in a bloodless country flares up with renewed vigor.
2a. Guy Julius Caesar, the only authentic, lifetime sculpture, quite different from the generally accepted images of a relatively young Caesar (2).
3. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, the adopted son of Caesar, his successor, who finally won the Civil War, the first virtual Roman emperor.4. Guy Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula), 12—41 gg. AD, the second emperor, by definition of Lucius Seneca «boundless depravity combined with unlimited power.» Eight months after the ascension to the throne, the initially peaceful Caligula becomes ill, perhaps encephalitis, having recovered, she becomes an insane dictator. Favorite expression — «Let them hate, if only they should be afraid» — Oderint, dum metuant (observer, doom mit (y) guy). In 41, the conspirators surround the emperor in one of the underground passages from the theater to the baths. The last thing that Caligula hears — the formula used in the sacrifice — hoc age — «Do this» (ok aje) — after that gets a sword in the chest from his bodyguard.
Together with Caesar, Praetorians kill his wife and two-year-old daughter.
5. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 37—68, the Roman emperor, the last of the Julius-Claudian dynasty, the persecutor of Christians, nicknamed them «Antichrist.»
6. Flavius Aetius, commander of the Western Roman Empire, 390—454, according to historians-contemporaries «The Last (Great) Roman». The winner of Atilla in a two-day battle at the Cataluun Fields, in 451 (180,000 killed on both sides). Three years later, the Emperor Valentinian the Third, fearing the ambitions of his best diplomat and commander (he wants to extradite his daughter for the son of the ruler), kills Aetius right in the palace, at the audience. A year later, Rome, the former great capital, is captured and robbed by vandals (Vends). Twenty years later, the entire Western Roman Empire is fragmented into a number of barbarian kingdoms.
7. Roman legion (legionis — military collection) of the heyday of the Empire. Modern reconstruction. The army consists of 5—7 thousand, later about 4,5 thousand infantry and auxiliary units. Heavy cavalry (equities) — 300 people, divided into divisions (turmas) for 30 people. Archers — 200 people; They act from the flanks, releasing arrows along the line of raised shields. Great — from the lat. velox — «fast» — several hundred fighters — irregular infantry, usually recruited from local allied tribes, or the youngest legionaries. Armament is a round shield, with a diameter of 90 cm, a «Parma», a helmet, several darters of the «Gasta velitaris», a length (with an iron tip of 30 cm) 120 cm and a short (50 cm.) Roman sword — «gladius». The highest glamor of a daring warrior is a wolf’s hide over his helmet. The main defense against arrows, and other weapons — their own agility. In a free, open formation, evading enemy jets with jumps, they are ordered to throw their spears into the formation of the enemy and quickly retreat for the ranks of the heavily armed infantry.
The first line, in fact, built for the battle of the legion — hastati (Roman hastati, spearmen), soldiers aged 20—25 years, who so need combat experience. Arms — chain mail, or, in the era of the Empire — plate armor, rectangular shield scoot, sword of gladia, dagger pugio, two two-meter dart — piluma.
The second line is principles, (Latin princeps — the first). Warriors in the prime of life, 25—35, sometimes 40 years. Giving the young men the opportunity to gain experience, they let the gastata into the intervals between maniples and continue the battle to the victorious end.
On the third line there are triarius (triarius, lat. «Third») soldiers of 40—45 years old, veterans, the main reserve of the legion. Their main armament is long percussion javelins.
The army is governed by six tribunes (people’s representatives) and, as a rule, a representative of the tribal aristocracy — the legate.
The Legion in the Republic epoch consists of 30 manipuli («handful» or «hand»), two centurions (centum — one hundred) in each. Despite the name, the century has 60 to 120 people. Manipuls are combined into ten cohorts (Latin cohors, «fenced place») for 360 people. One of the cohorts (First) is considered praetorian, elite, has a doubled composition.
During the time of the Empire, the manipulation of the tactical unit disappears, leaving a cohort of 6 centurions.
Turned out of the marching legion follows the battlefield with a complex system — manipuli or centurions, staggered. So it’s easier to move around on rough terrain. Then squares composed of fighters are converted into three lines. «Brothers» toss the pilus, sometimes turning the enemy to flee this one with a dagger volley, close shields and draw swords…
8. Classic armor of the Roman legionary of the era of the heyday of the Empire «Segment of the Segment». The picture is redrawn from the illustration of the book of the Italian historian Peter Konolli, a professional artist, for the author’s article in the children’s magazine «Lefty».
9.10. Contours of details, fastenings and decorative elements, made on own reconstruction «Segmental Segments». The size of the cage in the figure of armor of 15 mm., Decorative elements and fasteners (including the belt «balteus» not shown here) is 4 mm. Shoulder plates are fastened with folding hinges with figured overlays. The parts are jointed by screws 3 mm, and, after fitting — with rivets.
1 — a strap for the front strap, 2 — a circle for the decorative element (8), 3,4 — straps for the fastening straps, 5 — the arrow for the apron (4), 6 — the apron badge (40), 7 — the lower badge of the apron (4), 8 — plates that cover the belt of the belt (12), 9 — fastenings on the plates 14 and 15, at an angle (6), 10 — elements of the joints of the shoulder and waist parts of the armor: wire hooks on top of them, 11 — fasteners on the plates 16 and 17, and below, except for the lower two rows (16), 12 — skipping, illustrator error, 13 — looping (16), 14 — front loop for the hook of the waist part of the armor (2), back hook loop (4).
Inca, Maya, Aztecs
The names of these peoples, the locations of their states are often confused. Historians, despite their neighborhood, believe that they developed completely independently.
The Incas. The state is Tawantisuyu. The west coast of South America, starting from the northern territories of modern Chile up. One thousand two hundred years BC. — the first ruler of Manko Kapaka, the latter, who led the revolt against the Spaniards — Tupac Omar (1570—1572). The Inca banner was like a rainbow. There is no monetary system, the benefits are distributed according to the established order.
Aztecs (the name of the mezika, hence the current «Mexico»). They came to the south of Mexico from the North of the continent, in the thirteenth century. The Aztecs (North American Indians are not at all savages like the colonialists-Europeans) built Tenochtitlan, the future Mexico City on a kite-ridden island, became rulers of local tribes. But in 1519 the Aztecs saw the Spaniards, and six years later their empire ceased to exist. Presumably, by this time the Indians were 95% chopped smallpox and chickenpox imported by Columbus in 1492, and spread to both continents. A huge, equal in culture to Egypt, an unknown, literally Martian world, moved to the region of legends.
For a warrior and a priest it is quite permissible to consider writing, at leisure, sublime verse. Listen to three excerpts of the author’s hymns of the ethno-linguistic group Nahua — to which our Aztecs also belong:
May our land be forever!
Yes, the mountains are unbreakable!
so says Iyokuan Kuezpaltsin
Here, in Tlaxcala, in Wesoszinco
Let them satisfy everyone without withdrawing
and ruddy maize, and cocoa.
May the Earth be forever!
(author Ayokuan Kuezpaltsin)
We got intoxicated, mezhiki, in Michuacan
We were invited to a feast, we went after the prey
we came and finally got drunk from the fight
…And they saw how our warriors fled
as the gold trembled and faded banners from the feathers of ketsal
If only warriors become prisoners it does not happen to hurry — so this was not with you
If young warriors become prisoners,
they will sacrifice them, they will doom to the slaughter
if it happens, what will we do?
We’ll bark fiercely, like jaguars
we, the eagles, the old people, with the eagles
avoid the same captivity, fear the slaughter
Hurry up — so it was not with you!
(«The Song of the Old Men», the author of the warrior Aishakatl)
I came, I get up, and now I will sing songs
I will raise songs for you, my friends
I am the voice of God, I own flowers
I am Temilocin, and I have come
make friends here
(Temilocin from Tlatelolco)
Mayan. The territory is slightly to the south of future Aztec possessions. The beginning of civilization — a thousand years BC. e. By the ninth century, the Maya society is in decline, the cause of which, as follows from the conclusions of geologists, is the long-term drought caused by the change in ocean currents. Remained truncated pyramid temples, a complex irrigation system and a perfect calendar.
1. The city of Incas, Machu Picchu, the territory of modern Peru, the height of the location is 2.5 km. Typical polygonal masonry — stones of different shapes are precisely adjusted to each other, like puzzles or mosaic. The Incas also built pyramids, but, these temples never reached the splendor of similar Mayan buildings.
2. One of the many Mayan pyramids, in present-day Mexico. Apparently, initially they were not meant for committing bloody rituals. However, the Aztecs who came to these lands used them (as claimed by the Spaniards) for the mass executions of prisoners of war, the broadcast of horror throughout the range of habitats.
3. For comparison — the classical Egyptian pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). The name «pyramid» — from the Greek word combination «fire inside». What is this «fire», and why he was needed inside this cult, the building, we do not know. In ancient times, the Egyptian pyramids were surrounded by walls, and located, apparently, in the middle of an artificial lake.
4. Angkor (Angko-Khmer, «City of Capitals»), the territory of present-day Cambodia. It was built in the beginning of the 9th c. AD, existed as a settlement until the 15th century. The largest city in the world in the Middle Ages (and now, in size, comparable only to American Los Angeles), covers an area of 24 by 8 km. 200 sq. M. km., or even, according to some modern studies, 3000 square meters. km.
Each new governor justifies the new center of the capital, marking it with a huge five-tower temple, symbolizing the sacred Medu mountain Meru, the abode of Hindu gods, Eden, until finally the construction depletes all the tufa and sandstone in the country. In 1431, the Khmer State lost the war to neighboring Siam. Almost a million inhabitants of Angkor scatter in the jungle or, in a short time, die at the hands of enemy soldiers.
Angkor Wat — the palace and temple complex of the capital — now, despite all the efforts of archaeologists and reenactors, is sheltered by vegetation, and almost uninhabited.
5. One of the centers of the capital, reconstruction on a reduced scale. A real Angkor Wat (a paradise model for the elite, a palace and temple complex dedicated to the god Vishnu) surround the garden of a square layout, 2 by 2 km, and, along its perimeter, a system of wide (190 meters) canals.
Overview of world religions
The end of Antiquity in the chronology of some history schools is the emergence of Islam. The Messenger of the New World Religion, the Prophet Mohammed is born on April 20, 571, in Mecca (Saudi Arabia), in the influential tribe of the Kurdsit, loses his parents, receives testimonies of his mission (signs on the body). At twenty-five, he marries a forty-year-old Khadija, engaged in trade, escorting caravans and construction (in particular, repairing the Kaaba). At forty, almost every evening, Mohammed ascends a mountain near Mecca, where he prays in a cave that has survived to this day. He has enlightenment, which is performed in the surahs (verses) of the Quran. A new religion, Islam («submission to God»), accept the wife and several relatives. The first preaching by the Kaaba causes a mockery among the crowd, then Mohammed finds the right words, and the situation is somewhat straightened. For three years, the Muslim community recruited about a hundred people. After the death of his uncle, the influential Abu Talib, the patron of Mohammed, the Islamists are forced out of Mecca (the preacher claims that even his most beloved relative, since he did not convert to Islam, falls into hell, this position is not pleasant for the majority of Quraysh). The community moves to the city of Medina, where it suffers many difficulties (seven or eight dates per person per day of work). At the same time, raids on trade caravans and the struggle for the spread of faith begin. The first battles Muslims lose, but their perseverance brings fruit, and the army of Mohammed enters without a fight in Mecca. It follows a series of wars for the unification of tribes, raids on the mighty Byzantium. During the capture of one of the cities, in order to avoid the consumption of wine by the soldiers, a sura, prohibiting alcohol, is adopted.
Mohammed dies in Medina, his body finds peace in the central Mosque.
The division of Muslims into Shiites and Sunnis occurred when the exclusive right to the power of the son-in-law (father of the wife) of the prophet, Ali Talib, challenged another imam. The battle ended in a truce, but after Ali they were killed. Muslims who believe that the authority in the Caliphate should belong only to the descendants of Ali Talib (the Alids) are Shiites, those who recognize it as worthy of any, the chosen Muslim are Sunnis. The Shiites believe that Imam Muhammad, who once disappeared under unexplained circumstances, is present in their midst; he observes people and is preparing to become a new messiah.
The aggravation of the struggle between the two branches of Islam occurs during the steep rise of the Ottoman Empire: the sultan needs a good reason to attack one of the Muslim countries. Prior to this, the differences between Shiites and Sunnis were not considered as significant at all.
The idea of Islam is one God (Allah). The difference from Christianity is not acceptance of the principle of the Trinity of God, in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In addition, Muslims suggest that Issa (Jesus) did not die on the Cross for the redemption of the sins of mankind, but… then follows a complicated story, how He escaped it. Meanwhile, the idea of Christianity is precisely the earthly life of the god-man, as a result of which God the Father, which is too majestic for people’s understanding, exchanges with people a clear enough, although not completely revealed, so that immortality, wisdom, and force can be given to them. The resurrection of the integral part of God, which has now absorbed the human essence, presupposes the possibility of familiarizing all who are like the resurrected. The Holy Spirit (something like a female hypostasis, as some theologians believe) is an ethereal weightless glue holding the Father, Son and people together.
The basis of the Fundamentals is Love, as a special state, in which people feel the presence of God, they understand the meaning of Eternal Life, exchange thoughts without words (understand all the languages of the world), perform miracles, speak and do exceptionally right things.
In Islam, a paradise full of carnal pleasures (for men), Garden — Jannat is shown quite fully. Women are from among former spouses, and also, being in the morning beautiful, every time virgin gurii. Children, despite their intense sex life, are not born. Buildings — from gold and silver bricks with a scent of musk. Paradise has several levels, the upper one of which is the Firdaus garden; above is only the Throne of Allah.
Islamic theologians do not always agree with this idea of paradise and believe that these descriptions reflect only ideas about it at the level of modern concepts.
All this is not present in the Christian Eden, which is, however, somewhat vague. «The Revelation of John the Theologian» represents the City of God, the New Jerusalem, as a crystalline Cube, with a side of 2,400 kilometers. However, the Apocalypse itself is considered by many Christian theologians to be an apocrypha — a work on a biblical theme, unreliable, and not fully recognized by the Church.
The third world religion is Judaism (the Old Testament, the starting point of Christianity and, to some extent, of Islam, little like its continuations). This principle does not suggest, surprisingly, any intelligible posthumous, except for the chapters of the Bible on the evocation of spirits. The Old Testament eschews the ideas of the wandering of a weightless soul and broadcasts only about prolonging a person’s life in his carnal children.
1. Catholic church.
(Consistently) Narthex (the porch). Annex in front of the entrance to the temple, checkpoint. It is located on the west side of the main building. The usual place for penitents, «listening» to the few, heretics and pagans.
Naos. The main part of the temple. On the left, closer to the entrance is located, separated by an impenetrable grille, a room for confession reception.
Nave (from the Latin navis — ship) — separated by columns, having the form of elongated rectangles, parts of the interior.
Belltowers. Are located at the entrance to the temple, on either side of the entrance, or above it (in the singular), are usually merged with the building. The main purpose — the convocation of the church service, the celebration of time and special events. In the Western tradition, often used carillon — a mechanical tool that performs on the bells any melody. In modern Catholic churches, bells can be replaced with metal rods, the vibrations of which are amplified by electronics.
The chapel (chapel). Dedicated part of the temple, annex, to accommodate an additional altar with a throne, for worship. Thanks to the side-chapel, in one temple it is possible to perform more than one liturgy (from the Greek «common cause») per day. This rule is the same for the Catholic and Orthodox churches. It can be said that after the main worship, this altar must accumulate a special strength for at least 24 hours.
Saddledness. The intersection of the main nave and the transept (transverse nave). Usually it is crowned by a dome or a tower.
Transsept (from Latin «for» and «fence»). Cross nave, crossing the main longitudinal nave at a right angle, outside the main building forming protuberances — apses.
Apse. In Western European architecture, a semicircular ledge, or a similar in form internal part of the temple, which contains an altar complex.
Crown of chapels. A number of chapels surrounding the apse, radiating from the rays and separated from the choir bypass (de-ambulant).
Chorus (from other Greek group dance). The space before the main throne, where the chorus of singers is placed. Now it includes the Presbytery (Latin Presbyterium — a place for the elect), where only priests could previously go. In some Catholic churches, and now the place of the choir is fenced off by a low balustrade — or is provided for a free tour to all visitors. There may also be a wind organ, a priest-musician, a pulpit, a table and chairs for the preacher.
Deambulary (from the Latin ambio — walking around all around). Semicircular bypass gallery around the altar part of the temple. Allows parishioners to bypass the presbytery to pass to the chapels, respectively, small altars or sacred relics, and also (through the patterned lattice) to survey the shrines that are in the main altar part of the cathedral.
2. Symbolic significance of the architecture of the Orthodox church:
1) The porch. The face of the earth’s being.
2) The stages of the ascent from the earthly to the heavenly.
3) The heavenly realm of earthly existence
4) Visible Sky
5) The main part of the temple
6) Amvon — the region of representation (meeting) of each other to Heaven and Earth
7) The dome above the altar is a symbolic and real Kingdom of Heaven
8) The throne is the throne of the Heavenly King
The internal structure of the Orthodox church is detailed in the section «Russian dynasties», for the best adjustment for this era.
Protestant churches (temples), despite their influence (the United States, England, in all around the world 800 million people), usually do not differ richly decorated. There is no icon-worship, veneration of the relics of the saints: accordingly, there are no icons in the building, or arches with relics. Attitude to the saints, at the same time, respectful. The building of the church can be any leased public building. In the altar there is a table stretched across the hall, with books of the Old and New Testaments, and lamps. Here, with the sermons of the Padres (the Father), the liturgy, communion and baptism are held. The two sacraments are the only ones recognized by this denomination. Much attention is paid here to solving the worldly problems of parishioners, unraveling family conflicts, quarrels of neighbors, etc. (faith without deeds is dead). Protestants (from Latin «publicly proving») are usually not in some kind of confrontation with the Jewish religion, such as the Orthodox and Catholics, see the state of Israel as an important field of God’s activities until the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The priest, as a rule, is elected, from among the most respected parishioners. Apostolic succession (elevation to the rank through ordination, that is, consecration) is absent.
3. The synagogue (other Greek «meeting», or Hebrew, bate knes — «house of assembly», it is also «meadat meat» — «small sanctuary») — the place of public worship, the center of religious life (Jewish) community.
1) Entrance, a place for a washbasin (washing of hands). On the door frame is attached a case with a fragment from the Torah, mezuzah — before it the parishioner should be touched. This case can be recognized by the initial letter Ш, one of the names of God — «Shaddai». This (but not necessarily mandatory) rule extends to private Jewish dwellings. Married women enter the sanctuary, usually with something covered (wig, headscarf, etc.) head and. Women’s pants, calling clothes, neckline — are not welcome. Men are wearing a headdress in the synagogue (and, in general, outside it): it is a symbol of recognizing the power of God.
2), 3). Prayer rooms on the edges of the prayer hall. Sacred texts, relics, memorable photographs can be placed here. This interior helps to increase the useful area of the walls of the sanctuary, and also creates conditions for more confidential communication among parishioners, including discussions on earth affairs, etc. Men and women, usually only during prayer, gather separately. This custom does not work during a festive meal or a concert (once again, yes: the synagogue, in spite of its high sacral value, is not the Temple, but only the House of Assembly).
4) Bima or Almea. The elevation in the center of the synagogue, with a table where the chosen minister (rabbi, hazzan, or another worthy parishioner) reads the Torah and (usually the final public reading) excerpts from the book of the Prophets — Gaftary. Sometimes readers (called by parishioners) can replace each other. The main provisions of these texts: an indication of the Lord’s faithfulness to his promise, a request for the restoration of Zion, the coming of the Messiah and the confirmation of the throne of David, gratitude for the gift of the Torah, the Prophets and the Sabbath or the feast.
5) In some cases, the bima has a fenced passage to the synagogue ark (6), or merges with it. In this place are located lamps.
6) The Synagogue Ark, Hebrew. aron kodash. The symbolic reflection of the Ark of the Covenant, the cabinet in which the Torah scrolls are located. When you open the doors of the ark, those present, if they sit, stand up. The most important prayers are pronounced before the open (Celestial Gate) cabinet.
7) Above the ark is the Unquenchable lamp, ner-tamid, the symbol of the Menorah, the oil (golden, seven-barrel) lamp of the Temple. Neramid, ideally, should burn all night, just like the Menorah in the Temple, and (preferably) also a day. The Menorah itself symbolizes at the same time the unity and diversity of human nature. The branches of the lamp resemble a tree and, thus, symbolize (the root of the Heaven) the Tree of Life.
4. Mosque (Arabic «place of worship») — Muslim prayer (liturgical) structure. The first mosque is a cubic building in Mecca, Kaaba (Arabic «Cube»), or also «Beitou-Llah» — «House of God». During the annual hajj (pilgrimage), believers seven times bypass the sanctuary (ritual tawaf — «circumvention»), pronouncing prayers, asking for mercy and forgiveness.
Inside the Kaaba there are three columns; two lamps, a table, to put on it any objects, for example incense; The walls and floors are made of marble. The upper inner walls of the Kaaba are closed by a curtain on which the shahada is written. Shahada, the symbol of the faith of Muslims, reads word for word: «I testify that there is no other God besides Allah, and I also testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.»
The meaning of the last words is the rejection of other beliefs in the same spirit, from the multitude of other preachers who preach their teachings in pre-Islamic times, and so interfere with each other.
1) Pond for bathing before prayer (prayer).
2) The main prayer hall (for men). Ahead are the venerable elders, then to the entrance — middle-aged people and youth. The floors are carpeted. On the walls are excerpts from the Koran. Images of living beings are forbidden. Namaz includes waist and earthly obeisances (sitting on the knees), praising Allah («Allahu Akbar»), lifting palms to the sky, while the thumbs touch the earlobes, reading the suras of the Koran…
3) For women, a separate room is set up, or a balcony with an opaque curtain.
4) Minbar — tribune, the department with which the imam reads Friday’s sermon. The Imam — «the one who lies ahead, the one who leads the prayer» is also «an example for imitation» — a clergyman who manages the mosque, which produces common prayers and tribes.
Trebas are sacred actions and prayers, performed by a priest at the request (request, order) of individual parishioners.
Imam in prayer can be any worthy Muslim who knows the Koran well, regardless of his social status. In Turkey, the imams are elected by parishioners, and (secular) authorities claim. This service (usually without interruption from the conduct of any other activity, which gives daily bread) promotes the multilateral development of man. Imams are often teachers (mentors), interlocutors, writers, etc.
In Shiites, the imam (the supreme imam), who has the right to interpret the Koran and guide believers, can only be (blood) heirs of the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, Abu Talib. «Small Imams», ie, in the Sunni tradition, imams are appointed fuqaha (people who have a special theological education for service in the mosque). Hereditary right and appointment instead of elections are practiced, first of all, in Iraq, among Shiites, and also part of Saudi Arabia.
Mulla is a connoisseur of the Muslim ritual, the teacher of the madrasah and, also, the imam.
Muezzin («screaming in public») is an assistant to the Imam. Being on a high minaret, the muezzin calls on Muslims to perform compulsory prayer.
Kadi has the status above the imam of the mosque, and is the head of the Muslims of the city or region. In addition to worship, the kadi deals with litigation, family conflicts, the investigation of various kinds of crimes, and the punishment of the perpetrators. Kadi may be elected, or appointed, depending on the specifics of the state.
5. Mihrab. The niche in the wall of the mosque, indicating the direction to Mecca, giving the impression of an infinite deepening, serving as a focal point of the views of the parishioners. Usually the mihrab is richly decorated, well lit, has two columns and an arch. In the very hollow, he has the right to perform prayer, first of all, the imam.
6. Minaret (the Arab «manara»), a high narrow tower for the call of Muslims for prayer. Early minarets have a circular staircase from the outside, more modern ones — inside.
7. Park with ponds (fountains) for rest, a frequent addition to the mosque.
Confucianism in Chinese is called Pinyin, the «School of Educated People», and does not contain the name of the founder, philosopher and politician of Confucius, that is, Kun-Fu-tzu (the real name is «Teachers of the Kun clan» — Zhong-ni, 551—479 BC). Several secondary Pentateuch, written on fragments of memories that survived the most severe persecutions in the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi, scientists contains descriptions of the rites of veneration of ancestors, temples created in their honor, morals, the history of a fictional ideal country. In general, the idea of the One Creator (Great Sky), hell, paradise, immortality of the soul is present, but not explicitly expressed. Heaven is seen as a resonator, a source of moral senses, reacting to the behavior of people and sending them signs. In a sense, Confucianism coincides with the Chinese people’s religion (also Pinyin), numbering more than 500 million followers. After Heaven, an important component here is the Qi-like energy, as well as the reality of the souls of the ancestors (who, under certain conditions, can be heeded).
Hinduism, although it was recognized in many European countries and the United States, as an unusual course of psychotherapy, is still localized primarily in native India. There, in fact, this complex of philosophical ideas, ethical norms, traditions is called (in Sanskrit, the ancient language of the higher caste), Sanatana-Dharma («Eternal Law»). The sacred texts — the Vedas, the Upanishads, the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, like the set of books of the Old Testament in many respects (albeit much less realistically) reflect the history of the formation of the universe, and of the native country. With some caution, as the supreme God of Hinduism, one can define the concept of Brahman (originally — «Prayer»), the soul of the world, the primordial nature of things and phenomena. He can be worshiped as any form that the individual imagines in his mind. Supporters of Vaishnavism serve the Absolute in the guise (avatar) of the Vishnu-Keeper of the Universe, and also whether it is more understandable, humanlike and active reflections — Krishna and Rama. Shivaites worship Shiva, the essence of the static male origin of the universe, the creator of rebirth, sometimes destructive. The general meaning of service, observance of accepted norms — merging with the Absolute, while preserving, however, and some of its individual beginning, the improvement of personal status, including material, with each subsequent rebirth. Brahma (Brahma) — the god of creation, you can say, is the first among equals, together with Shiva and Vishnu is Trimurti (triad), in fact, the spiritual beginning of the All — Brahman.
Buddhism also claims to be a world religion, a very controversial, but all the more worrying, mind of the continuation of Hinduism. The founder is the Buddha Shakyamuni, ie, in Sanskrit, the «Awakened Sage» (623 — 543 BC). Actually, the buddhas before Shakyamuni, according to sources, there are several, but he is the most famous. The future awakened Teacher of mankind, under the guidance of which people will lead exclusively a holy life — Maitreya (Skt. «Loving», «Benevolent»). The main idea is non-resistance to evil by violence, passive resistance to adversity, acceptance of the world as it is. Because of this behavior, the higher rational being (that is, the Buddhist monk, who received the higher enlightenment in the cycle of his rebirths) must leave the system of the world, more precisely, the captivity of his consciousness, which created such a mosaic image of him. No gods, One Mind, Paradise, Hell, as a natural area of attraction of a religious ascetic, Buddhism does not presuppose (although it does not deny their very existence). The only goal is the «fading of the candle» of consciousness, nirvana in spirit, and not the body (paranirvana), total and final death.
Shamanism, although not a recognized world religion, was once distributed throughout the Earth. Now it is localized in some tribes of South, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Siberia and the Far East. The origin of the term, perhaps, from the Sanskrit scraman (śramaṇa) is a wandering hermit, an ascetic ascetic. The second version is the Tungusic-Manchurian Sam-man, that is, the «lover of knowledge». The shaman introduces himself into trance by tambourine strikes, dances, special singing, and lays for a long time, not reacting to external influences. In an anxious dream, traveling on the branches or roots of the archetypal World Tree, he visits the middle, higher, or lower worlds. Higher — are inhabited by enlightened good essences, the lowest — by evil creatures. Schemes of other worlds are very individual, therefore can not be reduced to a common, acceptable for the creation of a classical religion, a picture.
One of the varieties of shamanism is voodoo (Voodoo). Basic beliefs — the world is inhabited by a multitude of spirits, loa (from the French loi — «law»), which can be contacted, and receive some help. Sacrifices are laid out on the altar (sweets, alcohol, killed animals, priest) (a hungan, a mambo (woman)), enters into a trance, opens a conversation with the other world, such cults are untied from high morality, are based on the principle of simple trade: «you to me, and I to you.» Traditional world religions affirm the possibility of having a temporary distance between the act of man and retribution. A believer can endure life all his life, while diligently complying with moral norms — and not gain material prosperity. The award is given in Heaven.
Not everything is so straightforward. Working people, patience, patient, loving each other, and God’s, parishioners, as a rule, achieve success in their earthly existence. You can compare the standard of living in, built on the Christian principles of Europe and the United States, and, let’s put the Voodoo Haiti, whose inhabitants demand everything at once — there is a difference.
European Middle Ages
With the beginning of the Middle Ages, some historians associate changes in the calendar, up to the removal of three centuries from it. It is not so difficult to do this — only the monks could write and read, as well as some responsible persons under the kings. There was a ringing of swords everywhere — the people of philosophy did not indulge. In the seventh century there was only a little to correct the common, complex and incomprehensible Roman figures. So it is or not, it is still unknown, but it is clear that from the middle of the sixth century to the beginning of the tenth, there is a void in the calendar.
The Eastern Roman Empire flourishes until the thirteenth century, but history and development disappear in it, so that even the laziness of leafing through the biographies of its emperors is marked by provocations prepared for competitors rather than by great, if not always plausible, accomplishments.
At what time and where would you like to go? Ashur? Sparta? Ancient Rome? Where would be nice to your heart, what era will fill life with a special new meaning? Talk about the Time Machine is not at all empty. It, to some extent, already exists, it can be created — but for this people should have a conscious aspiration. The person has planned a carpet-plane, a magic mirror, — means of air transport and communications have appeared strictly according to these wishes. For any need necessarily there are methods of its implementation. But, it is necessary to prepare the soil. Express an urgent need for such a journey. Preliminary study of the subject of dreams.
People, that is, we, must remember and voice all the ancient languages. At one time I did a lot of work, finding in Wikipedia and other sections of the Internet samples of the sound of ancient words, texts with Russian transcription. Alas, there were usually textbooks and dictionaries for specialists, with numerous rules of conjugation, arranging the endings, syllabograms, and the most necessary and simple things were not found. I do not like the desire of some authors, at all costs get money for their research. Its very specific texts should be given, so that they are read by someone, rather than trying to get hold of.
Something was found. The Babylonian (Akkadian) language is very soft, affectionate, a kind of analogue of the present French, rightly revered by the language of love. Unlike, for example, the Old Assyrian language — terribly squeaky, hard, I would say, bony. So the ruler of Mordor, the Dark Lord could speak from the epic Tolkien.
Latin is wonderful. Unfortunately, again, there is no Russian transcription, even the most popular sayings. Authors writing about Medieval Europe, cramming in Latin on behalf of their learned husbands, disdain to give an example of their sounding in Russian. The hint that what they say, it would be nice to do so for the convenience of the reader, causes rejection. In order to get some idea of Latin, you can use a Google translator: this resource is able not only to translate, but also to sound, though without any expression.
Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant — Ave Caesar, moritouri de salutant — Caesar, going to death, greet you!
Ave ac vale — Ave az (and) viale — Hello and goodbye.
Avibus bonis — Avibus bonis — In a good way (with good omens).
Bacchum Nymphis temperare — Bakum (a) him (y) fis tempera — Dilute wine with water.
Barba non facit philosophum — Barbara non fatip philosopher — Beard does not make a philosopher.
In nominee Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. «In the name of Patrice, this filly at Spiritus Sancti.» Amen. — In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Beati pauperes spiritu — Beati pauperis (e) spirit — Blessed are the poor in spirit
Beati possidentes — Beati posside (s) ntis — Happy possessing
Bellum internecivum — Bellum internet (i) vum — War before extermination
Bellum omnium contra omnes — Bellum omnium contra omnis — War of all against all
Bona fama divitiis est potior — Bona fama divitis est pot (and) or — Good fame is better than money
Bono sensu — Bono senseu — In a good way
Bonus ver semper tiro est — Bonus of the faith semper tiro est — A decent person is always a beginner (it’s easier to hold an honest one).
Bruta fulmina — Bruta fulmina — Empty Threats
Cadit quaestio — Quidstill quid — the question disappears
Caritas omnia credit — Caritas Omnia loan — Love for all believes
Caro est qui securis est — Caru est qui securis est — Who is with an ax, that’s with meat
Carpe diem — Carpe diem — Catch the day (time)
Casus incurabilis — Incasibillis incidents — Incurable case
Causa bibendi — Causa bibendi — the reason for drinking (celebration)
Causa finita est — Causa finita est — The question is settled
Causa justa — Causa Justa — A good reason
Censor morum — Censor morum — Warden of morals
Ceterum censeo — Chetverum chenseo — For all that, I think…
Cognatio spiritualis — Conniato Spiritualis — Spiritual affinity
Damnatus est — Domnatus est — Found guilty
Debes, ergo potes — Deibes, ergo poses — Must, then you can
Deus conservat omnia — Deus conservativ omnia — God preserves everything
Dictum factum — Dictum Factum — Said-done
Dura lex sed lex — Dura lex, sad leks — Surov law, but the law
Dignus est intrare — Dignews es intrate — Worthy to enter
Est deus in nobis — Est deus in noobis — God in us
If you want to get into some country, the situation, the circle of communication, the layer of Time, you need to surround yourself with things corresponding to them. And, even, put them in yourself; knowledge of languages, and cuisine will help.
Unfortunately, there are no restaurants of ancient recipes, I would have found the time to go there to try the Time itself for a taste. Cooking yourself? I was able to produce the likeness of the Lucas sausages, mentioned by Arbiter Petronius in the Satyricon. Dry sausage, crushed, filled with soy sauce, imitating an ancient sauce, created not from rotten rice, but rotting fish. That’s all. You can also add onions and peppers.
To get the famous Mulsum, he is drunk in the TV series «Spartacus. Gods of the Arena», you need to mix the wine with honey in proportion from one fourth to the tenth. It is useful to reheat a little, for example, in a microwave oven, adding ginger, cloves and, or cinnamon. This is not mulled wine. This method allows even a cheap packet wine to get a pleasant, softening heart drink.
Pulse — thick, to the consistency of bread, porridge from polba, cooked on water or (sheep, goat) milk. Polbu can replace, in the near approximation, wheat.
Pisco — water with wine vinegar. In ordinary water, add the vinegar, so that it turned out a pleasant sour, but not acid, we put the crushed seeds of coriander. This is useful if you are not sure about the quality of water — vinegar kills germs. In some cases, the poska contains raw chicken eggs and honey.
…Before frying the meat, boil it. It is this way of cooking (in the absence of a sane dentistry) known to the ancient Roman cuisine.
So, we are waiting for the appearance of a dictionary with commonly used phrases, in all languages — I hope a philologist or linguist, this idea will interest. But the sound of the ancient language can not be accurately conveyed. The simplest example — Caesar — is «Caesar», if you look even deeper — «Sise». By the way, the word «king» came from the «ksar» — Caesar. It is necessary to eat what they give.
It would be good if archeologists found among the manuscripts, say, Ancient Babylon, a diary of a simple man. How would it look?
…I, Shuma Sin-or live on the very outskirts of Babylon. My house is a (description of rooms, kitchen, courtyard), I have to shoot it from Mr. Liblut. Today, overcoming the embarrassment, I went to the administrative building, which is located at the temple of the goddess Ishtar, to complain about the exorbitant rent. To put in order thoughts, strolled along the fortress wall. The guards are very friendly. They have a ceremonial form (description), because today payroll. On the way Nupta met, I tried to talk to her, but she, hardly glancing, passed by, probably hurried to (description of a local entertainment center for girls). Probably, this is because I have not enough money, but I need more (drawing of the monetary system, financial possibilities of worker Babylon).
Then I looked into the tavern to drink a strong beer and talk with Ea-iluta-bani, who knows everything about everything. I was alarmed by the excessively warlike moods of Egypt, but even more — by the neighboring Assyria, which intends to teach us a lesson, because we do not like all of its rough, over-the-counter aggressive hooligans. Drinks and food (a list of dishes) was served by Tabatum, which, if there are no more suitable candidates, I will make an offer.
…And, this sketch would be no less interesting, like the epic «Tale of Gilgamesh.»
The chance to know the world through an ordinary person from the past is quite high. Emotional charge from such a mental invasion can be obtained no less than at the entrance to the nervous system of a certain king. In any case, it is useful to have in your head a general picture of the structure of the main European dynasties. Let’s look at it, as if in the present, not changing, extended time.
We enter the Middle Ages, emerging in the nineteenth century, the era of science and the couple.
…The European Union began the Middle Ages. France, in the recent past, Gaul — the core of the ancient «EU». Merovingians. The founder of the dynasty is the leader of the Merovei, who ruled the Franks from the beginning of the fourth century of our era. Grandson Chlodwig pushes the boundaries, produces sons, bequeaths everyone a fragment of his kingdom and tells him to live peacefully. Fighting with each other, offspring are accepted to unite their allotments. The winner again divides the state according to the number of male children. In the final of this production the true rulers of the country are accountants of the royal court, enterprising majordomo. One of them raises his heir, the future father of Charlemagne, the founder of the Carolingian dynasty (born 747) to the throne.
In the seventh century, Charles expands the empire, on four sides of the world, to modern Spain, the middle of Italy, the shores of Normandy and Poland, partly part of the Hun Empire.
After two hundred years, France, Italy, Germany gain independence, but still, they are considered a single Holy Roman Empire until the beginning of the nineteenth century, retain a cultural community, expose troops for the Crusades and repel the onslaught of the Ottoman Empire. Behind the behavior of the rulers is the Vatican, if the behavior of a certain king goes beyond the limits, the spiritual authority, in cooperation with other monarchs, can correct it.
…In France, after the childless king of Louis Fifth Caroling, Count Hugo Capet comes to power, having established the Capetian dynasty (kapa is the mantle of the priest, whom the nobleman loved to wear).
Capetip Philip the Fourth The most beautiful is best known for having crushed the first transnational corporation, the richest, somewhat isolated in the awareness of its own superiority, the Order of the Templars. He himself and his three sons after a short time, strangely die, leaving no direct heirs.
The cousin of Philip the Beautiful, Philip the Sixth French establishes the Valois dynasty, the younger branch of the Capetians, on the throne, but he has no sons, so to speak, initially, which is the reason for the beginning of the Hundred Years War.
A few more rulers of the Valois dynasty, and the hero of Dumas’ novels, Henry of Anjou, bursts into the stormy stream of history. His sister — Queen Margot (Margarita), extradited, one of the brothers — Charles Maximilian, he is the incumbent King Charles the Fourth, the mother is a connoisseur of poisons, the leading politician of Europe, Catherine de Medici. For a while, Henry of Anjou became a Polish king, preparing for a dynastic wedding on Anna Yagellonka, which, under a different scenario, could become the wife of Ivan the Terrible (who demanded many territories for dowry). But, having learned about the death of his brother Charles, he imperceptibly leaves his residence and hurries after the more prestigious French crown. In Paris, however, the candidature of the Catholic Duke Henry de Guise is now popular. Henry III succeeds in luring the brothers Gizov, the duke and bishop to negotiations, where they, along with bodyguards, are pierced with swords.
The troops of the two Heinrichs — Navarre (Bourbon), nominally become the husband of Margot and, at the same time, the Catholic, and Anjou, besiege Paris. The scout beats the knife of Henry III, only one movement interrupting the dynasty of Valois. A month later, the crowned Heinrich the Fourth of Navarre was already dying from the dagger of the fanatic Ravaglik. His own kingdom, Navarre (somewhere closer to Spain), is gradually strengthening in the composition of France. So, quite unexpectedly, the younger branch of the Capetians comes to power in France, the Bourbons (French «thrushes»). The son of Henry of Navarre, Louis the Thirteenth, also a famous hero of the novels of Dumas, after some time marries Anne of Austria, with him ruled by Cardinal Richelieu.
To consolidate the material, better immersion in History, we will sing the ancient Breton (Brittany — the region in the north of France) song. Her intricate, but sticky melody, you probably heard more than once:
What will we drink for seven days in a row?
What we will drink, because the thirst is so great
What we will drink seven days in a row
What will we drink, because the thirst is so great?
But we have enough for everyone
We drink everything together, roll out another barrel
We drink everything together, and nobody alone
But we have enough for everyone
We drink everything together, roll out another barrel
We drink everything together, and nobody alone
Since the middle of the seventeenth century, more than seventy years, the sun-king is prospering on the throne of Louis the Fourteenth, known for his saying «The State is Me.» His son Louis the Fifteenth, is more famous for his mistress, charmer and, according to rumors, a true witch, the Marquise de Pompadour.
In the era of Louis Fifteenth in France begins the production of the first paper money.
1. Symbol of the European Middle Ages, donjon (Fr. Donjon — «Lord’s Tower», from medieval Latin «dominionus»). The central tower is placed in the castle walls, or separately, serves, as a rule, as a storehouse of weapons and food supplies, includes a well but, above all, is a symbol of the domination of a dynasty or a certain community over a given territory. In Japan at that time, the analogue of the donjon is the Tenshu castle (the Protector of Heaven), in the Muslim world — a rectangular dwelling-fortress called ribat (an Arab «hotel»), often becoming a haven of Islamic monks — the Sufis.
2. Philip the Fourth Beautiful, 1268—1314. In 1313 he defeated the Knights Templar; in France, 538 knights were arrested, and Cyprus — 75. They fought and were defeated, 25 knights of the island of Mallorca. Also subjected to repression are 20,000 employees of the Order, servants and squires. A year after the accident on the hunt, perhaps from a stroke, he himself dies, not so handsome as the greedy, French king
3. Marguerite de Valois (Fr Marguerite de Valois), she is «Queen Margot», the daughter of Henry II and Catherine de «Medici, 1553—1615 g. Was married on August 18, 1572 for the 18-year-old Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre, one of the leaders of Protestants. The wedding passed to the St. Bartholomew’s Night in six days, Margarita refused to formalize the divorce under the vehement pressure of her relatives, thereby saving her husband and several other nobles. She died of pneumonia, surrounded by friends — poets, musicians and scientists.
4. Catherine di Romolo de Medici, daughter of the Duke and Countess of Florence, Queen of France from 1547 to 1559, the most powerful woman (or rather, ruler) in Europe of the sixteenth century.
In the circle of her communication is the most famous doctor, astrologer, fortuneteller Michel Nostradamus. His own drugs, according to rumors, help, who thought the barren, barren, to become pregnant. In total, she has 10 children, up to 62, quite a respectable age, Marguerite lives out.
The «black queen» is dying (Catherine did not remove mourning for thirty years, since the death of her husband in a knight tournament) from pleurisy, at the age of 70.
5. Henry the Third, Anjou, the beloved son of Catherine de Medici, the last monarch of France of the Valois dynasty, also the king of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania.
6. Henry the Fourth (Henri IV) of Navarre, Bourbon, King of France, the husband of Marguerite Valois. With age, his features become less severe than in a rebellious youth. Accepted Catholicism; Henry is credited with the famous expression «Paris is worth the mass.» In the memory of the people remained as «le bon roi Henri» — «Good King Henri».
7. Cardinal Armand Jean du Plussi Richelieu, the hero of the novels of Dumas, (1585 — 1642).
8. Louis the Fourteenth, Bourbon, «The King-Sun» (1643 — 1715). Despite his love, he has only one legitimate son, married to Maria Theresa of Spain (the daughter of the Spanish king). Louis the Great Dauphin dies under rather mysterious circumstances in 1711, at the height of the struggle for the Spanish inheritance (theoretically, he united the crowns of France and Spain). Equally unintelligible, officially from measles, aggravated by profuse bloodletting, other heirs to the throne also perish. In the end, it survives, the French throne is occupied only by the great-grandson of «The Sun King», Louis the Fifteenth (Beloved).
9.10. The first paper (European) money, the bank of Stockholm, 1666. Banknotes are successful, primarily in England, where, by the time (1694), the oldest in the world, the crediting government (private) bank appears. «Monetary factory» massively issues notes worth from 5 to 100 pounds, as well as bills (as the only legitimate payment and credit documents). Here (10) is a denomination of the 1814 sample. The design, as well as the way these bills work, are quite similar. England has the opportunity to collect military coalitions in continental Europe, to attack their enemies with them, and to pay for their blood with new lots of colored paper.
At that time there is still no clear understanding of the fact that paper notes can not be issued indefinitely. Their first printer in France, John Lowe, has to flee the country (1720), after, due to a natural or artificial breakdown of the system, the population undergoes a three-fold poor turnaround (while maintaining the infrastructure of production of material goods). After the final awareness of the need to limit emissions, remove all external obstacles, paper money becomes a very popular means of payment.
1. Marie Antoinette of Habsburg-Lorraine, the youngest daughter of Emperor Franz I. and Maria Theresa (1755 — 1793). The main meaning of existence is all kinds of entertainment; gambling, skating, balls. Decapitated by the Convention, buried in the same place where 139 people were found dead, who died once at her stormy wedding.
2. Louis Karl (Louis-Charles) The seventeenth, the Dauphin (the descendant of the reigning king) of France (1785 — 1795). According to some rumors, the son of a monarch suffering from phimosis is not. He is brought up in a foster family of workers, then placed in the Temple (prison) where he dies of tuberculosis and malnutrition.
3. Marat Jean-Paul, «Friend of the people» (1743 — 1793). Pinned in his own bath, the aristocrat Charlotte Corday, allegedly brought to the signature of new rescriptive lists. The main idea carried by the former physician to the masses: «when a person lacks everything, he has the right to take away from another the excess surplus he has…»
4. Maximilian Robespierre, who is also «Incorruptible» and «Mad Hyena» (1758 — 1794). The seventeen-year-old boy read out a greeting to the king and queen of France, later — the death sentence, in the style: «To the republic live, Louis must die.» The founder of the «Great Terror.» Guillotineed by his own Convention, without trial and effect, as a result of some sudden vague changes in the mood of the masses, or a conspiracy of Englishmen who submitted rescriptions to interested persons, is not exactly known. Until now, in France, there is not one street bearing the name of Robespierre, and not a single monument.
5. Georges Jacques Dunton, Attorney, Minister of Justice of the First French Republic, Chairman of the Committee of Public Salvation (1759 — 1794). Executed by the Convent, then run by M. Robespierre, a former comrade-in-arms and friend. The accusation is not brought, the main meaning is some «softness» of the minister.
Louis XVI long delayed the reforms, called, at last, to collect taxes from the nobility and the clergy. Infinitely maneuvering between estates, sometimes simply ignoring the realities, he finally becomes entangled in everything, throws the steering wheel of state administration. After the capture of the Bastille, the king is condemned by the national Convention, is guillotined along with his wife Maria Antoinette, who quite frivolously offered the hungry people, with a general lack of bread, there are cookies. Execution of the Queen especially does not like the German (all-European) dynasty of the Habsburgs, whose representative is Antoinette Habsburg-Lorraine. The last direct heir of the Bourbons, recognized by all the monarchies of Europe as King Louis XVII, dies of malnutrition and maltreatment, ten years old.
French revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte
Liberty, Igaliti, Fraternity — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood. The guillotine, approved by the king as the most humane instrument of justice, verified in the matter, Convent, the capture of the Bastille and the cult of the Supreme Being instead of Christianity. Jacobin club with branches throughout France, the law on suspicious, Marat, Robespierre and Danton. Friends of the people become enemies, and vice versa, with kaleidoscopic speed.
Between the village and the city a gaping social abyss opens up. Recruitment of recruits in the province of Vendee fires a spark in this powder keg. Twelve «hellish columns» of the Republic are tormenting civilians, launching a large-scale «Franco-French genocide». It seems that the goal of the revolutionary French is now the complete annihilation of the peasants, the creation of agrarian towns from the «conscious», ready to participate in all the adventures of the Convention, which do not prevent the withdrawal of bread, etc., citizens. A total of 30,000 republican soldiers and 175,000 peasants die, every sixth or seventh inhabitant of the department. Thermidor, a counter-revolutionary coup: the astonished leaders are dragged from the rostrum during their next performance, and are taken to a meeting with a guillotine
Directory — five elected omnipotent directors. Council of Five Hundred. Only exclamations from the audience, in chorus, in response to the proposal to intensify terror: «Justice for All!», Stop the work of the guillotine.
…Officer Napoleon manages to pay a considerable debt to his father, Carlo Bonaparte. Referring to the disease, he avoids the dubious honor of a participant in the suppression of the uprising of the peasant Vendee. However, he succeeds in standing out. The field of major players is cleared, the countries of the monarchical coalition strive to impose the world on France by war, and every enterprising active person is now extremely in demand. Captain Napoleon shows himself at the shooting of the insurgent Toulon, is promoted to divisional generals, and becomes a brigadier general (which is ranked higher) after the use of artillery in the «golden youth», on the streets of Paris, with arms in hand seeking the restoration of the monarchy. After the Italian and Egyptian companies, the last of which is intended to create a springboard for the invasion of the Indian possessions of England (ex-French), the general finds popular popularity, even though he leaves his wounded to the massacre of the Turks. The Council of Five Hundred, when it sent an ambitious officer to foreign campaigns, it also dispersed. The Code of Napoleon (Civil Code) is adopted, combining Roman law and revolutionary conquests, which has been practiced everywhere in Europe to this day.
In 1803 Napoleon makes an unexpected proposal to the American government (President Jefferson); to purchase Louisiana, the vast territory of North America, three weeks before it officially transferred to France by Spain. The point, if it exists here at all, is that, in the event of war, England is able to easily seize these overseas lands. It is also Bonaparte who is willing to fight with Britain in Europe. One way or another, the idea of Great France in the New World is not being realized. In just $ 15 million, on May 2, 1803, the Jefferson government acquires land equal to almost a quarter of the current US area. Further, approximately for the same amount (7 cents hectare) step by step; Beads, knives, canvas for tents, fire water, the territory is redeemed from the leaders of the Indians.
In 1804, Napoleon is crowned by the Pope and as if suddenly ceases to be a revolutionary general. The first French Republic imperceptibly changes itself and becomes an Empire; which, in general, is very close to the monarchy.
Bonaparte wins at Austerlitz the troops of the third monarchical coalition and gives out the kingdoms of Europe to his relatives. The battle of Preisish-Eylau (not far from Koenigsberg) with the combined German and Russian troops of the fourth coalition horrifies the experienced military: the loss of twenty-five thousand only killed, a tie, and a temporary lull.
Portugal refuses to take part in the blockade of England. Napoleon discusses with the Spanish king the transfer of troops to her, during the negotiation process declares the monarch and his son prisoners. The attempt to expel the young children of the king to France leads to a general uprising and partisan war. The throne of Spain is taken by Napoleon’s brother Joseph.
Napoleonic troops are entering Rome, annexing papal possessions. Dismissed from power, in turn, excommunicates Bonaparte from the church (1809), which does not contribute to the popularity of the emperor among the Catholics.
Napoleon’s Russian campaign, in addition to the desire for fame, booty and new territories, is a reaction to the participation of Alexander the First in all coalitions against Republican and then Imperial France. Exodus from Moscow along the already ruined path (while an alternative to him opened after the battle of Maloyaroslavets) was marked by frequent cases of cannibalism. Of the six hundred thousand army alive (without taking into account the prisoners, many of whom remained in Russia in the honorary position of tutors), twenty-three thousand survive, who have taken refuge in the allied Poland. The emperor assembles a new army, wins a series of victories over the troops of the Sixth Coalition, which includes the former German allies. But, soldiers, officers, even ambitious marshals are tired of fighting. After the unexpected surrender of Paris to the Russian troops, Napoleon signs an act of abdication and in a moment is again called «General Bonaparte».
France returns to the royal army led by Louis the Eighteenth, the place of heroic revolutionary officers is occupied by noblemen who have come from nowhere. And, the Bourbon emblem — a red lion surrounded by eight blue shells, flaunts on official documents for very little. Against the background of general discontent, Napoleon returns from the island of Elba, where he had, among other things, an artillery battery, battalions of loyal guardsmen and eight ships for pleasure walks. «Again the emperor» collects a battle-worthy army from the royal military units sent for his capture.
After the disaster at Waterloo (you can not sleep during the general battle, and send the infantry marching to the guns too) there is still hope for the continuation of this whole story. With the remnants of the army and young recruits, a total of one hundred thousand people, Bonaparte wins a series of minor victories and arrives in Paris. The workers’ suburbs support Napoleon, the National Chamber under the leadership of Lafayette and the big bourgeoisie — no longer. The Emperor never sought to rely on the French working class or the Russian serf peasantry to consolidate the gains, at first, truly revolutionary, bearing freedom and equality. In addition, having lost 1.2 million of its soldiers, the 28 millionth France is simply exsanguinated. To Paris, all the new Allied forces are striving, their number reaches one million. With two frigates, the emperor tries to leave for America, to meet new adventures, but at sea he blocks the English squadron. This time Napoleon does not enter into battle, surrenders to the British at Bellerophon, and, according to official history, ends his days on St. Helena in 1821. When the body is reburied to the Paris Invalides’ House, many inconsistencies in the description of burial are found, underpinning the mythology of the emperor-fugitive. According to one version, the present Napoleon is mortally wounded by the sentry in 1832, in Vienna, when he incognito tries to visit his son, Napoleon Francois, alas, terminally ill.
1, 2. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 — 1821).
3. Josephine Beauharnais, the first love and the wife of the emperor. By modern standards — not a model (1763 — 1814).
4. Louise-Maria of Austria, daughter of Franz II, a relative of Marie Antoinette (1791 — 1847). Some historians notice that, after her marriage to her, in 1810, Napoleon squandered the great empire created up to that fifteen years, the great empire, redirected energy to the sexual channel.
5. Napoleon Francois, he’s «Eaglet», the beloved (only) son of Napoleon, the unloved child of Maria of Austria (1811 — 1832). De jure, ruled 14 days, therefore officially considered to be Napoleon II. Supposedly poisoned by those monarchic circles (Bourbons), to which he delivered a lot of trouble only by his existence.
6. Napoleon the Third, Charles-Louis (1808 — 1873). This portrait is already a photograph. The first president of the French Republic, then the emperor. Son of the brother of Napoleon the First and the stepdaughter Bonaparte. The last monarch (the emperor of all the French). Nominal idea — «one manages by the will of the people.» In 1859, in a bloc with Sardinia and the Garibaldians, he seized the territorially Italian provinces of Nice and Savoy from the (fragmented) Austria. With the Allied England, he made two unsuccessful attempts to seize Mexico. Provoked a war with the united Germany in 1870 — which led to the uprising of the Paris Commune and the occupation of the country by foreign troops. He died in England, after being in captivity, from kidney disease.
Dynasties of England and Great Britain
After the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, the northern German tribes of the Angles and Saxons, led by the chiefs — the kings, are landed in England. The base of the conquerors is the southwestern part of England, almost a peninsula, Wessex. Local Britons, the Celts, during the time of «Pax Romana» of an abundant Roman order, almost forgotten how to fight, migrate to the north of France. Or, having received the humiliating name of «curl», they remain to serve the new-found lords — «the grain masters.»
…The Wessex dynasty reigns the kingdoms of the foggy Albion from the eighth to the middle of the tenth century and, after a series of fierce battles, is interrupted by a Norman native William the First Conqueror.
Through the century, the Saxons lose their original liberties and turn into classical serfs, the so-called «serfs». villans. Thanks to diligent military service, some of them become free people, that is, «Fremen» and, in particular, «freeholders» — «free farmers».
In 1100, elected King with some violations of the feudal inheritance rights, to attract the sympathies of the feudal lords of the church, and all free people, Henry the First presents the first edition of the Volunteer’s proclamation. The rights, privileges of representatives of different sectors of society, mutual obligations of the state and the individual, litigation, various monetary payments, duties, are strictly regulated. The proclamation is a success, overgrown with additions to the next kings, until the appearance, in 1199, on the English throne of John the Landless. His reforms ultimately lead to the establishment of royal arbitrariness, the collection of all new taxes for war (sometimes even not started), various, astonishing fines, restriction of movement, disregard for established customs and, in fact, civil society. In 1207, the outcast monarch expels, appointed by the Pope Innocent III, the head of the English church of the cardinal, and receives an interdict (prohibition of church actions and claims) throughout the country, and, later, personal excommunication from the church. Unchecked children, illegitimate marriages, and untimely dead bodies exert a proper action on the English. The struggle with the Roman Church, as well as with its people (far from immediately), the top of the earthly power is losing. In fact, thanks to this kind of opposition, by 1215, England becomes the first country of law and law on the planet.
The basis of the English (universal) right to this day is the principle of the subordination of power to law under the threat of legitimate armed rebuff on the part of the population
…Plantagenets. The most famous representative of this dynasty is Richard the Lionheart. The third crusade allows Richard to come close to Jerusalem, already panicked, inclined to unconditional surrender. But, preoccupied with internal political problems, hardened from the slaughter of captives in Acre, the king does not believe in the favor of heaven and misses his chance.
After the first defeats the Arab tribes are rallying together, the role of discipline sharply increases in their troops, it becomes increasingly difficult to fight the crusaders.
The dynasties of England and France are mixed. To say: «At such and such a period England is ruled by the Plantagenet dynasty» is not entirely correct. Thus, for example, the Hundred Years’ War at one hundred and sixteen years with interruptions was initiated by the English King Edward the Third, because of his belonging to, rather French, Capetians, who have the right to the throne of France.
The main battles of the war — the battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Azencourt, are quite similar. French troops overtake a relatively small British invasion army. The weary knights, urged by the orders of the impatient king, come into battle with the march; they are shot from two-meter yew bows with arrows with the tips of the «nidlbodkin» and finish off the archers.
After a decade of slaughter, the epidemic of the plague bursts (the peak of the epidemic in 1348); residents are extremely constrained in the besieged cities, they do not care about the hygiene of the body in principle, the streets are full of sewage and rats. «Black Death» takes up to half the inhabitants of Europe, shattering its rigid social hierarchy (including serfdom), and even religious principles.
After such a terrible respite, the fighting is resumed.
Many residents of northern France are already beginning to consider themselves to be English. French nobles impose additional taxes, which leads to Jacqueria, the uprising of «Jacobs-simpletons», much more powerless than the English farmers — squires. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the morale of the French is resurrected by Joan of Arc. England gradually loses possession on the continent, the latter loses the port of Calais, near the narrowest part of the Channel.
But, the English, whose country, unlike the two-thirds of France’s population, is in perfect order, wish the continuation of the lists. The branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, Yorkie, disputes the crown at the Lancaster house. The thirty-year rivalry of the red (Lancaster) and white (Yorkie) emblematic roses begins.
…In the middle of the fourteenth century, after the death of the last king in the battle from the Lancaster, Richard III and the announcement of the heir to the house of the Yorkers illegitimate, Henry the Seventh Tudor is crowned. In his veins there are drops of Lancaster blood, he marries Elizabeth of York (of course, York), and thus unites the feuding dynasties. The new Tudor emblem combines red and white colors in a single complex rose. These twenty-four years of the reign are celebrated in the patrimonial memory of the English as a universal, cloudless idyll. Peasants become massively free, serfdom is replaced by land: the volume of state obligations is strictly fixed. The estates seem to find a common language among themselves, on the basis of religion and financial success, live in sweet harmony. However, the era of Old Good England ends with the ascent to the throne of the prototype of Bluebeard, Henry the Eighth. For the sake of marriage with her concubine Anna Boleyn and a light divorce with a bored old wife, the king issues a law on the change of state religion. The principle begins to work: cujus regio, ejus religio — whose authority, that and faith. In Russian transcription, this questionable rule sounds something like this: kujus irejjo, eidus ereligio
The head of the Church of England, more Protestant than Catholic, becomes the monarch himself, and this situation is still preserved. Catholic churches, monasteries, including the now fascinating Glastonbury Abbey, even with its ruins, are demolished and put on rubble for paving roads. The policy of enclosing the former monastic lands leads to the fact that agriculture is redirected to the production of wool, and the multiplied sheep «eat people». Where two hundred peasants lived comfortably, only three or four shepherds remain. Unemployed, «paupers», without unnecessary proceedings are sent to hard labor or a gallows. In total, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, seventy-two thousand people were executed, three percent of the population of England.
Maria, the daughter of Henry, the first lady who has been on the throne for a long time, restores Catholicism, reconciles with the Pope, and for a time receives the support of the people. But, bonfires, rampant executions, including the massacre of their timid predecessor, the «queen of ten days», sixteen-year-old Jane Gray, do not increase the popularity of the monarch; as well as a dynastic marriage with the prickly Spanish Prince Philip. Mary, now «Bloody» is dying of fever, leaving no direct heirs to the country…
1. The emblem of the Lancaster is a scarlet rose.
2. Rose of York.
3. The combined red-white rose of the Tudor dynasty.
4. Henry Seventh Tudor, King of England and the Sovereign of Ireland by right of conquest, founder of the dynasty (1457 — 1509).
5. Henry VIII (Henry VIII), the third child of Henry the Seventh, «The Bluebeard,» the head of the Church of England (1491 — 1547). With two wives from six divorced, two executed on charges of treason, one died herself, the latter remained quite a happy widow. By the end of life because of obesity could move only with the help of special mechanisms. The last three marriages are childless.
6. Anna Boleyn, «impregnable mistress» for seven years, later — Henry’s second wife, who taught him, for the sake of a new marriage, to change the old Catholic ritual (1501 — 1536). A very well-known character in world history. Kaznena together with four friends — poets and musicians, on the accusation of adultery.
7. Maria Tudor, she is Bloody Mary, Maria Bloody, the daughter of Henry the Eighth from the first marriage, considered invalid (1516 — 1558). The first crowned queen of England. In Britain there is not a single monument to this, marked by bloody reprisals, the monarch.
8. Elizabeth the First, the youngest daughter of Henry the Eighth from a marriage with Anna Boleyn (1533—1603). This marriage is also annulled, but this time the child born in it becomes a full (and very successful) monarch. Elizabeth’s psyche was influenced by the tyranny of her father, the execution of her mother and the penultimate wife of the «Blue Beard,» Keith Howard, who became her good friend. However, Elizabeth did not shy away from fashion, watched her appearance, looked young, and, in particular, was fond of putting on the face of all the new layers of powder. Time of reign and never married a queen-virgin is considered the golden age of England.
Stewards. A dynasty of descendants from Scotland. England and Scotland for the first time become a single kingdom under the leadership of James the First, son of the executed in England, the Scottish Queen Maria Stewart. His son, Karl the First, experiences an inexplicable antipathy for his former homeland, regards it as a cash cow, and, after the death of Duke Buckingham (George Villiers), his father’s adviser and lover, loses control over what is happening. The British Parliament decides to decapitate the arrogant king.
…The dynasty of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, has only two rulers. A year after the death of his father, Richard Cromwell understands that he can not cope with the management of the state that has not cooled down after the hot civil wars and, recalling the sad story of Charles Stewart, resigns.
…The son of the head of the king who has lost his head, Charles II returns to the throne. The classical monarchy is restored.
…Wilhelm Third of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands, won the sympathy of the inhabitants of Great Britain, invited them to the office of king. With him, culture (Swift), science (Newton) and the social order (Bill of Rights) are experiencing an unprecedented rise. Among other things, Wilhelm meets Peter the Great in both his possessions, England and the Netherlands.
1. Mary I Stuart, Queen of Scotland, since 16 years of the wife of the King of France, Francis II. Granddaughter of the best King of England, Henry the Seventh. The second marriage, after the death of Francis from the disease — in 6 years, with a cousin, nineteen Henry Stewart. The second husband disappoints the queen, as a result of some unresolved events, he dies. The third marriage — with the likely murderer of the king, a certain Count of Botvel, deprives Maria Stuart of authority among her subjects. The Lords raise uprising, Botvell withdraws, the Queen signs a renunciation in favor of the (only) son from the last spouse, Jacob the Sixth. Then she gets involved in a new confrontation with the Scottish lords, loses and flies to England, behind the protection of Queen Elizabeth the First. Here she is kept with a considerable staff of servants, in honor and contentment, however, is involved in correspondence with people who want to physically eliminate Elizabeth. The conspiracy is revealed.
Maria, who continues to insist on her rights to the throne, is executed at the age of 44, but, judging by the death mask, she «perfectly preserved» for her time.
2. Charles the First, the first executed by the people and the parliament king (1600 — 1649).
3. Oliver Cromwell, Lord General, Lord Protector, «People’s Politician» of England (1599 — 1658). He died of malaria and typhus.
4. Wilhelm Hendrik, Prins van Oranje, the English king, according to the assurances of British historians, the best of its kind (1650 — 1702). On the mother — sister of Charles the Second, Maria Henriette — the son of the Stuarts, on the father — belongs to the Oran dynasty (the Netherlands). He is married to his cousin, again, to Maria Stuart. Children in this marriage do not. He died from pneumonia.
5. George Villiers, title — Duke of Buckingham (1st Duke of Buckingham), 1592 — 1628. Favorite of Jacob the First. It is called by the king in intimate letters that «wife», then «husband». Zakolot John Felton, the English puritan, the prototype of the hero of the popular novel A. Dumas, for some of their moral and ethical considerations.
6. Queen of Great Britain and Ireland Victoria (Victoria), 1819 — 1901. Under her reign, the British Empire reaches its climax. England — at the forefront of the attack of the civilizing actions of the white man, protecting the native population from his even more cruel rulers. Victoria expresses the passionate aspirations of her subjects with these words: «It is not in our customs to annex countries, if we are not obliged and forced to do so.»
7. Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain since 1952 (same time and picture). The husband is Prince Consort of Great Britain Philippe, Duke of Edinburgh, Field Marshal. Refused the title of Prince of Greece and Prince of Denmark, accepted British citizenship. In 2016 he will be 96 years old.
…Hanoverian House. According to the new Act on Succession to Throne, the path to the throne is blocked by Catholics, who are in some kind of kinship with the Stuarts. In these conditions, the representatives of the German family of Welfs, who for a long time ruled Braunschweig and, accordingly, his capital, Hanover, are called upon. The names of the first four kings are «Georg», so the time of the reign of this dynasty is called the Georgian era.
After experiencing several attempts, Queen Victoria, the last of this dynasty, reigns longer than all monarchs, sixty-four years old. Nine children of the «grandmother of Europe», princes and princesses, confirm the agreement between the majority of European dynasties. The Victorian era, from the first third to the end of the nineteenth century, is the golden age of Great Britain. A kind of anthem of the passionate colonialist and missionary activities of the Anglo-Saxons («The burden of the white man») is the poem known to us most of all by Mowgli, the English writer Rudyard Kipling «If».
…The son of Victoria and the German Prince Albert, Edward the Seventh, becomes the founder of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothic dynasty. In 1917, during the war with Germany, the foreign dynasty name, for obvious reasons, was changed to Windsor, from the name of Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of George the Sixth, as of 2016, is in good health, married to the Greek prince Philip, has four children located to continue the dynasty.
Dynasty of Genghisides
Temujin («Blacksmith»), Genghis Khan, the year of birth of 1055 or 1062 — the founder of the largest in the history of the continental empire. Recall: the largest, distributed across the planet colonial empire — British, 1918, an area of 42.75 million square meters. km. (despite the fact that a century earlier, under its control, the United States came out), the greatest continental monarchy — Russia — the territory of 23.7 million square meters. km in 1866. The area of the Mongolian empire is 38 million square kilometers.
Childhood of the future conqueror is marked by adversity, captivity, humiliation. The main stages of growing up are fraternizing with a certain Jamuqa, then a long struggle against this named brother, a victory, the proclamation of Temujin by the great khan — Kagan. At the same time, the conqueror obtains the title «Genghis Khan» — «Lord of the boundless sea». New orders are mixed by clans, tribes, nomads; According to Yasa, the people are divided into hundreds, thousands and tugens (tens of thousands). People, now called in one word — «arats», are attached to the ground and, in effect, are enslaved. In 1207, the southern part of Siberia was conquered. 1213 was marked by the invasion of China (state and dynasty — Jin). The next target is Central Asia, Northern Iran, and the Caucasus. The Baghdad Caliphate and the state of Khorezmshah are entrenched. On the river Kalka (present Donetsk region), the combined Russian and Polovtsian forces are defeated. Then, subjected to attacks from ambushes, the Mongolian troops are defeated in the so-called. The Volga Bulgaria. Six years later they return and restore their reputation.
The goal of most military campaigns at that time was simply war, self-expression of the individual through destruction and murder. Often to substantiate large-scale incursions, embassies are used from people sentenced to death for any crimes; they are supposed to provoke an enemy army to destroy their own delegation. The killing of ambassadors is the best reason for unleashing a conflict.
In 1225, the most famous son of Genghis Khan, Juchi, is killed, accused of treason. The next year Temujin passes with the army once again over Western China, finally conquers the Celestial Empire, but, in 1227, dies. The successor is the son of Ugedei, from his first wife, Borte.
The son of Juchi, Batu (Batu), almost completely destroys Southern Russia, turning it into the «Wild Field» for centuries, lays tribute to the northern Russian principalities, invades Eastern Europe. He is conquered by Poland, Hungary, part of the current German lands. Then, deciding that the Mongolian troops in Europe is too crowded, Batu turns back.
In 1320, during the reign of Khan Uzbek, Islam became the official religion of the Empire. Gradually, the state breaks up into the Golden, Blue, White, Great, etc., the Horde.
…The descendants of Genghis Khan from his first marriage (four sons, five daughters), the so-called Chingizids, rule the gradually shrinking, self-consuming Mongol Empire until the twenties of the twentieth century. Altogether Temujin has 26 official wives, from the princes of conquered peoples (four are «senior»), and 2 thousand concubines.
The empire of Genghis Khan is insanely great. However, the conquerors do not build anything new, more perfect. From their capital — the Karakorum, to this day there are only a few mounds and stone turtles, next to several unpretentious modern buildings. The state system of the eternal military is dull enough, it denies any social or cultural activity of the so-called «common man». Therefore, after a hundred years, the Empire of the Mongols is exhausted, and the borders of all new states are drawn in its body.
1. Mongolian Empire mid-thirteenth century, the area exceeds the territory of Ancient Rome era of its heyday almost doubled.
2. The superpower of Amir Timur, who destroyed the majority of flourishing Muslim states, extremely weakened the Ottoman Empire.
Tamerlane (Iron Chromec), or Timur ibn Taragai Barlas (from the Turkized Mongolian tribe barlas) is one of the new conquerors, and the most famous. The founder of the dynasty of the Timurids, 1336—1405. He was born in the territory of modern Uzbekistan (south-eastern part of the country), according to legend, from a wolf who entered the mother’s bedroom. For some time, Timur is involved in a series of internecine wars in the territories of modern Iran and Afghanistan, where he loses two fingers on his right hand, damages the knee cap of his right leg. In 1370, he gained a number of major victories and, taking as his wife the captive widow of the defeated enemy, Emir Hussein, the daughter of Genghis Khazan Khan, Sarai-mulk khanim, adds to his name the title «kurgan», i.e. «Khan’s son-in-law». From now on, it is almost equal to Chingizids, although, nevertheless, the «Khan», according to existing rules, has no right to be called. However, it seems, he is quite satisfied with the title of the Great Emir («Lord»).
The capital of the new state of Turan (lit. — «Unification of the tribes») is Samarkand.
Tamerlan continues his campaigns and, by 1384, captures almost all of Persia. In the North, in the struggle of the Blue, White, Golden Hordes, he supports the Khan Tokhtamysh, however, he, having strengthened, takes a very hostile attitude towards his patron. For some time, Timur rushes between the still not conquered western Persia and the Golden Horde, on the Irtysh and the Volga, smashing enemies in 1389. Since 1392, a new large-scale expansion follows. Tamerlan’s troops are stormed by Baghdad, occupy Persia, fall on the Transcaucasus. In the Daryal Gorge — «Gateway of the Caucasus», constrained by rocks, the soldiers of Timur are defeated. Iron Chromete abandons this direction, for the third time it breaks the army of Tokhtamysh, now on the Terek River, pursuing the enemy, it invades Ryazan and reaches the present Tula region. However, on August 26, 1395, for an unknown reason, Timur turns back.
The Russian lands, thoroughly ruined thirteen years ago by Tokhtamysh, are not the primary goal of the Great Emir. In the book of his victories «Zafar-name», Moscow was also noted, but perhaps it is only a sign that the city sent the appropriate gifts in time.
Timur captures, destroys the city of Tana (Azov), Saray-Batu, Astrakhan, Kafu (Theodosia) and, in 1396 returns to Samarkand. After resting for two years, he goes to India, where he captures Delhi, executes «one hundred thousand prisoners of Indian soldiers» just in case, reaches the banks of the Ganges and, without establishing, in effect, his strong power, returns to Samarkand with a rich booty.
Not everything is in order and left without personal supervision of the Great Emir to Iran. In fact, the former power is restored there. Timur sweeps along the rebellious Persia, then storms Damascus (1401), captures all of Syria. A year later, on the outskirts of modern Ankara, a grandiose battle will be waged with the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid the First Lightning. Tamerlane lures out the 85,000-strong Ottoman army to the plain, to its 140,000-strong army, mostly hardened in cavalry battles. The outcome of the battle: the Turks (and also the number called the vassal Serbs) lose 15—40 thousand people, while killing 15—25 thousand soldiers of Timur. Bayazid is captivated, the Ottoman Empire is falling into the abyss of civil strife and peasant war. The kings of England, France and Castile congratulate Tamerlane.
In 1404 Timur prepares a march to China, begins a slow advance, the construction of fortresses and warehouses, but, because of the cold winter, stops. February 1405 is marked by the death of the Great Emir.
Timur wished, above all, to become the sole ruler of the Muslim world. However, in essence, destroyed it. Yes, a number of masters, scientists, collected Khromtsom in his beloved Samarkand. However, on the remaining lands of the Empire tens and hundreds of years more ruined in the rain and wind of the ruins of great cities, and the fields with skulls remain uncultivated.
In the middle of the fifteenth century, the empire is shrinking, but somewhat stabilized. At this time, together with his father, ruled by a great scientist, mathematician and astronomer, Timurid Ulugbek (exact name is unknown, this title). He is overthrown by his own son, but a year later he himself is deprived of life. Timurid Abu-Seyid, seeking to suppress internecine strife, invites nomadic Uzbeks to the state. Those obey the will of the Timurids for a short time and, in 1501, seize Samarkand, displacing the last representative of the dynasty, Babur.
Babur has to look for a new homeland. In 1504 he seized Kabul and, using it as a military base, undertook a campaign to India. Fifteen thousand well-trained soldiers with unusual guns for that time are enough to frighten elephants, crush twice the size of the army of the Sultan of Delhi. Actually, Islam in India is spread from the eleventh century, except for some southern regions, so that the soil for fresh, not noted in internal conflicts, the Muslim dynasty, is here fully prepared.
Great Moguls, they are Baburids and, to some extent, Timurids, (real) rule India until the middle of the eighteenth century. Padishah Jahan the First is fighting with Persia, trying to beat off the homeland of his ancestors, but fails. His much more famous act is the mausoleum of the Taj Mahal, dedicated to the memory of the beloved wife of Mumtaz Mahal.
Jahan’s son leads even more long and unsuccessful wars. Finally, the adherents of Hinduism rebel, they are defeated, but they pass to guerrilla actions and widespread latent sabotage. The descendants of Babur degenerate; commanders, courtiers are straightened out with their nominal rulers, as soon as they feel the slightest attempt to free themselves from their «guardianship.» Persians break into India, Afghans, devastate whole areas, take the inhabitants into slavery.
In September 1852, the British stormed Delhi and announced the liquidation of the Mughal Empire.
Russian dynasties
Since the fifth century of our era, most of Russia, except Pomerania, is designated on ancient maps as part of the empire of the Atilla Hun. What happened here before and until the ninth century, when there are corresponding references in the annals, until the emergence of new special methods of penetration into the past, is still unknown.
1. The Empire of the Huns (434—453 AD). It is formed on the site of the Sarmatian settlement (Sarmatiya-Crimea, the territory to the north, and somewhat south), the Scythians (Scythia, east-south from the peninsula), in part — East Germany and the Balkans. The highest flowering reaches during the rule of Atilla.
The Huns themselves are nomads of the north of China, who fought with the Celestial Empire and the Mongols in the first century AD, who did not achieve much success there, seeking adventures and prey to the West. In the fifth century, they conquered Germany, France, northern Italy, imposed a tribute to the Roman Empire. After the battle with the powerful combined Roman and German troops in the Catalaun fields (an uncertain outcome), Atilla somewhat slows down, a year later dies. His sons quarrel with each other, and nothing clever for the salvation of their state, can no longer do.
The territory of the empire is declining, by 530 this state education, as a whole, ceases to exist.
In Germanic heroic tales, such as «The Song of the Nibelungs,» the ruler of the Huns looks very worthy, an enlightened ruler whose state structure does not particularly differ from the European one. More about the old order in the territories after all, the future of Ukraine (Kievan Rus) and partly of Russia, we do not know anything.
…The Avarian Kaganat, composed of the following, mighty Asian wave of migration, sprawls from the line (approximately) from the Crimea to the north, to the borders of modern France, capturing part of the Balkans. For some time now, the domination of the so-called. Avars (obrov) finally bored the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles the Great. The active king organizes an extensive coalition of nations, including scattered Slavic tribes and many Black Sea Bulgarians who suffered from their neighbors.
In 805 the Khaganate suffers a catastrophic defeat. Abras, red-haired, strong, ferocious and proud, as the chronicles testify, disappear everywhere, throughout the entire former residence.
…One more, the Khazar Khaganate has a center in modern Dagestan, it occupies part of the former Hun Empire, controls some territories of the future Russia, part of the Crimea, the Volga region and Kazakhstan. In 660, he disperses the troops of the neighboring (and partly with the kaganate of the crossing) Great Bulgaria. The tribes are settling: some form the well-known Black Sea Bulgaria, others go to the Volga and the Kama, forming the Volga Bulgaria, becoming the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars and Chuvashes. Tatars convert to Islam, fighting against the Kaganate hoping for the help of their co-religionists from Persia. Some groups remain in place, and the Khazars are paid tribute (usually one silver coin from the plow).
In 964, the Russian prince Svyatoslav defeats the Khazar army, places the White Tower in a strategically important place on the Don River (now at the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir), captures Sarkel (Tmutarakan, the present Taman Peninsula). Finally, a new wave of nomads from the East, the ubiquitous and tireless Polovtsians, is pressing the Khazars.
Much later, in the 13th century the Polovtsi will become part of the Golden Horde, they assimilate, they will give their (Kipchak) language to the Mongol conquerors. The Khazars are scattered throughout the earth, possibly making up some of the European Jewish communities.
Since 576, the Turkic Kaganate, a reflection of the Khazar Khaganate, but decently shifted to the East, towards China, is tearing away part of the Crimea and the North Caucasus from Byzantium.
…Information about all these state entities is very sketchy. Often the Kaganate are combined, both territorially and on a chronological scale. It is clear only that they occupied a significant part of the future Russia, as they interacted with the Slavic tribes — they fought or joined alliances. The state religion of the Avar and Khazar Kaganates is Judaism, more or less fancifully mixed with pagan customs, Turkic — shamanism and Buddhism.
2. Old Russian state in 10—12 centuries. We pay attention: the city of Vladimir in Volhynia is the essence of Vladimir-Volynsky.
…Ninth century. Varyag (Viking, Norman), or, perhaps, the Prussian Rurik reigns at the invitation of the People’s Veche in Veliky Novgorod, the north-west of modern Russia, with his two brothers — Truvor and Sineus. A ruler with a good pedigree, an effective manager outside of local strife — a worldwide practice to this day.
The word «Rus» is raised by some researchers to the ancient Icelandic Róþskarlar — «sailors, oarsmen», others define themselves as the self-name of the ancient Baltic (Slavic) people of the Prussians. There is also a version, deriving «Rus» as the ancient Iranian ruksi — «white, light.»
The name of the individual representative of this people initially sounds like «rusin».
.. Prince Oleg regent son of Rurik, Igor, on behalf of the latter, moves to the south, seizes the center of trade routes, very prosperous Kiev. Then he goes with the embassy to Byzantium, on other sources to war with it, for the first time is called the Grand Duke in synchronized Byzantine and European sources. Oleg prophetic, according to folk epics, from the snake bite.
Prince Igor was first recorded by Byzantine chronicles as a Russian commander, attacking Constantinople, and significant, — one thousand forty rooks, by forces. The Byzantine squadron uses Greek fire, which destroys most of the Russian fleet. Draw. Peace treaty with the Emperor of Byzantium, Roman the First Lakapin, the establishment of trade, political and religious ties.
Where was the fleet base? Perhaps in the Russian enclave, Tmutarakan — on the present Taman Peninsula, or, in the area of modern Kerch (other Russian «Korchev»). East Crimea at this time is managed precisely from Taman, although part of the peninsula (Chersonese, or, in other words, Korsun, within the boundaries of the present Sevastopol) is controlled by Byzantium.
The prince dies from his greed, trying to re-collect the tribute: however, all the circumstances of his death are greatly entangled.
Igor’s favorite wife, Olga, the first name of Beautiful, is baptized personally by the Byzantine emperor, Constantine the Seventh, builds the country’s government, redeems his sins, and educates the son of Svyatoslav, the one who later says: «I’m going to you».
Svyatoslav, in turn, is at war with Bulgaria, then turns his arms toward the Byzantine possessions in Thrace. In 970, the troops of Emperor John the First Tzimisce compel the prince to retreat. Returning, he, with his army, falls into an ambush of the Pechenegs (known to the middle of the 11th century nomadic tribe) and perishes.
The next prince deserving special attention is Vladimir the First Svyatoslavovich, he is also Vladimir the Sacred (the epic «Red Sun»), the fruit of Svyatoslav’s connection with some alms-giving distributor, Malusha. Bastard is brought up under the supervision of Princess Olga.
In 988, another war with Byzantium will take place. Vladimir captures Korsun (Chersonesus Tavrichesky, whose remains are now somewhat south of modern Simferopol), concludes a peace treaty.
To enter into a dynastic marriage with the sister of Byzantine Emperor Basil the Second, Anna, here, in the city he captured, the prince is baptized (hundreds of pagan wives are exempted from duties).
The first Metropolitan of Kiev, witnessed by written sources — Theophylacte, translated by Emperor Basil II in Rosia from the Byzantine province of Armenia Second, the city of Sevastia (the northeast of modern Turkey, or rather its center), which took the origin of the four episcopses — Belgorod, Novgorod, Chernigov, and Polotsk. There is little information on the activities of the metropolitan, he leaves his high post Theophylact in 1018.
Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko is known for his participation in the voluntary and forced change of state religion. The character of many folk tales. With it, a church statute is introduced, a hierarchy of priests is built, the chasing of «srebreniki» begins; high-quality classic coins, which replaced the extended silver hryvnia. Around 980, Vladimir kills Rogvolod, the prince of the Polotsk principality (the territory of modern central and northern Belarus), his daughter, Rogneda, wields power by force. Three sons from her become a branch of the Rurik, Izyaslavichi Polotsk, or, in other words, Rogvolodovichi.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich Wise, son of Vladimir, prince of Novgorod, Kiev and Rostov. The heyday of the Russian kingdom. The introduction of a set of laws — «Russian Truth». Princes and princesses from Yaroslav and his wife, the daughter of the Swedish king, Indigerda, are fully welcomed in France, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Poland and Austria.
Three centers of power — Kiev, Vladimir and Veliky Novgorod. Here you can add Polotsk, the capital of the future Belarusia (or, if its modern «king» — «Belarus» demands). Kiev is an outpost of Russian civilization: to the south, immediately behind the system, it is unknown who, two centuries before the era of the Zmiyiv ramparts erected, are the possessions of the Polovtsians and Mongols, with the island of Russian possessions, Tmutarakan, located on the site of the present Krasnodar Territory, and partially dependent on it by the eastern Crimea.
The next popular ruler (according to the «lestive» principle of the seniority of the princely family, most often from brother to brother) is Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, ie. «Edinoborets», (1113—1125), the grandson of the fifth son of Yaroslav the Wise and the Emperor of Byzantium Constantine Monomakh; Prince of Rostov, Chernigov, Pereyaslav, Grand Duke of Kiev. It is known primarily for the exclusion of the Polovtsians from the borders of Rus (1111, a kind of «Crusade» to the Great Steppe), interesting autobiographical texts («Instruction to Children», «Chronicle of Life»), restriction of tyranny of usurers from ex-Khazars in Kiev — decrease, so to speak, the discount rate from 200% to 50%, the release of purchases — dependent debtors, and similar measures.
The war of the prince with powerful Byzantium, for the interests of the husband of his daughter, the impostor of «Leo Diogenes» (1116—1122), and then his son (his grandson) are somewhat less familiar to us, to mass readers. There is an opinion that in a series of fierce and, in general, unnecessary fights, Vladimir completely depleted the potential of his country, prepared it for the subsequent period of fragmentation and decline.
In the twelfth century, after the death of the last strong ruler, Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, with the skirmishes of the princes Andrei Volynsky and Yuri Dolgoruky, Rostov, a civil war begins. Daughters of Mstislav marry the prestigious European kings — Norway, Hungary, Denmark, then the popularity of matchmaking in these parts of the royal blood falls sharply.
Rus splits into fifteen or eighteen principalities, with its dynasties, and without them. In the absence of external enemies, such a separation, for a time, is permissible. Great Novgorod, on the decision of the mixed boyar and people’s veche, invites to itself worthy princes. His example is followed by three more princedoms, choosing to reign the remaining inferior sons of the main dynasty. In Kiev, the thrones governing this or that land work side by side, somewhat resembling the present, consisting mainly of governors, or their deputies, the Russian Senate (Federation Council). Variety works in a plus, if fragments can be collected and divided by virtue of some of their natural causes. As part of a single body, parts should breathe, have «play» — experimenting with forms of the world order, absorbing vital energy in large volume, while remaining in communication with each other. So that in a state of solidarity to assimilate the best achievements of friends-allies. But, this time the union comes from outside, when the state organism is most susceptible to external influences.
In 1240 the Russian princedoms were captured by the Mongol conquerors, a half-million-strong army, who shortly before conquered the Chinese empire of the Jin dynasty. The northern fragments of Rus are free from direct invasion, but they pay Batu a heavy tribute of property, money and people. The question of whether the Rusyns could unite for an irreconcilable struggle, in principalities-bastions, hidden in the North, remains open. Alexander Nevsky prefers to «make friends» with the Golden Horde, willy-nilly introducing in Asia its Asian customs and customs, rather than being measured with it, hardly reaching fifty thousand relatively regular troops.
Polotsk avoids the Mongol invasion, but falls into the composition of the Lithuanian principality — in fact, Western Russia, nominally ready to fight the Horde. Many Russian princes who disagree with the conciliatory doctrine of Nevsky leave for Livonia (not to be confused with modern Lithuania!), Together with their squads, experience the effect of two centers of gravitation — Moscow Rus and Poland. Separated from the Horde by the Wild Field, and also already regularly paying tribute to the Russian state, they are more or less left to themselves.
To the current Lithuania this state education has only indirect. The tribes of the Zhmudy, Zhemut, Auschayt, etc., indeed, were the tributaries of the great (for the most part — Russian-speaking) principality. After their conquest by German orders, as if as moral compensation, the northern nationalities borrowed the names «Lithuania». The very same Lithuanian principality, united with Poland, largely adopted Catholicism, was eventually called the «Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth».
Due to their geographical position, mainly the steppe southern principalities are subjected to the most powerful blows, lose their former significance and are unable to recover independently. Since the thirteenth century, Kiev is run by the Baskakov of the Nogai ulus, little-known local stewards, who do not even need to come to the Khan’s bid for the label’s approval. The city ceases to be the residence of the metropolitan. In the middle of the fourteenth century, Kiev captures the Principality of Lithuania, although for this he has to fight, and with the Horde troops somewhat weakened in a series of internecine strife.
The money is again becoming less expressive with two hundred-gram oblong ingots; in the North, because of the custom to cut such money into several parts, the name «ruble» appears.
The era of Dmitry Donskoy, the second half of the fourteenth century, is very controversial. The victory over the troops of Mamai, father-in-law of the supreme ruler of the Horde, Berdibek, who imagined himself to be there chief, in 1380, does not change anything particularly. Remains of Mamai troops, gaining strength in the Crimea, «presses» the legitimate heir of Genghis Khan, Khan Tokhtamysh. Mamai lives near Kafa, gets involved in the struggle with the Genoese who shelter him, and loses his head. This is a character buried in Russian community memory, which is buried in Russian community memory, as the excavations carried out in 1941 near Feodosia in the village of Aivazovsky (Sheikh Mamai) confirm that for me, now leafing through encyclopedia files is an amazing discovery.
Yagailo (Yakov), a potential ally of Mamai (if you believe the annals), he is also Vladislav Second Jagiello, prince of Vitebsk, Grand Duke of Lithuania, later — King of Poland, in one way or another, participating in the epic battle, on the side of the Horde does not accept. Later, in 1384, on one of the fractures of History, the question is solved: a union with Poland, or an alliance with Russia. As a result, as is known, the second variant falls out. Two years later, the Lithuanian principality passes into the Catholic faith, the Grand Duke marries the 13-year-old Polish princess Jadwiga. His descendants (from the second and fourth wives) form the dynasty of Jagiellons, ruling the Commonwealth until 1572.
Vasily First Dmitrievich, the eldest son of Dmitry Donskoy (1371—1425) — is held hostage in the Horde, flees to the Moldavian principality, successfully marries the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitold, Sophia, in 1389 gains a label, becomes, among other titles, Prince of Moscow. Vitold, in the meantime, decides to compete with the force already shaken in internecine quarrels by the Golden Horde, refuses extradition, deprived of the post of Khan Tokhtamish, to another applicant of this high rank, Yedigei. The maximum task is to plant Tokhtamysh in the Horde, with the help of his own, who became a very powerful protege, to occupy the throne of the sovereign of all Russia. The forces of the parties: Vytautas, knights of the Teutonic Order, Tokhtamysh — 38 thousand soldiers. The Golden Horde — 90 thousand soldiers. The battle will take place on the River Worksla (north of present Ukraine, in part — Russia). The interest of the Order is the promised by Vitovt, in case of victory, of course, Pskov. The heavily armed knights pursue the feigned retreat of the enemy, then their horses, weakly protected by armor, are bent out of bows and crossbows. On the shoulders, now quite sincerely retreating the Teutons, the Horde crash into the enemy infantry and complete the rout. Litvinov lost about 18 thousand, Horde people — it is not known, there are also such estimates as «very few» in the sources.
Several times recovered from the defeat of Vytautas, along with a fellow competitor, the Polish King Jagiello still dreams of becoming a unifier of the East Russian lands. In 1408, the (first) standing on the Ugra River occurs (somewhat north of present-day Kaluga). For some reason (the attack of the units of Yedigei in the territory of Russia and of Lithuania itself, etc.), in the face of an even more formidable opponent, the battle does not take place. At the same time, the Horde, displeased with the delay in the payment of tribute, approaches Moscow, ravages the neighborhood and, apparently, has received a substantial otkupnye, returns to its steppes.
Obliged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by his initial advancement, his wife, and still unknown what, Basil I quite easily concedes to the western neighbors Vyazma, Smolensk, and many other Russian lands.
Vasily II Vasilyevich (Dark), 1415—1462, the son of Basil the First and Sophia Vitoldovna. He spends a lot of time in a viscous muddy battle for the throne with many competitors, one of which is the little-known prince of Zvenigorod, Yuri Dimyevich Shemyaka («Sheemyaka», that is, one who can easily namet the neck — a generic nickname), the son of Dmitry Donskoy, also his own, the eldest son, Vasily Yurievich (nickname «Kosoy»), as well as his younger son — Dmitri Y. Shemyaka. The court of the Golden Horde, in such a dubious dispute about inheritance, issues a label to Vasily Vasilievich. Then follows a series of conflicts, battles against external and internal enemies, with an uncertain outcome, repressions against opponents of opponents, giving rise to the secret «fifth column», and new coups. Actually, all the characters designated here take up the Russian throne for some time. Basil II is the only one who manages to stay on it a little longer than the others.
The second success — perhaps, Prince Dmitry Yurievich. Having lost the Moscow reign, he immediately leads the prestigious Novgorod republic. But, in the end, the people of Basil the Dark are bribed by the prince’s cook (nicknamed «The Gangbang») and that «armor» greens (apparently, arsenic) in the chicken that the ruler gives.
The confessor of Basil II, Martinian Belozersky, after learning about what happened, takes the prince a severe penance, but, as a result, he is only deprived of the post of hegumen of the Trinity Monastery.
The right of inheritance becomes direct, not «lestivichnym» («On the stairs») as before, that is, from father to son, bypassing all younger brothers.
An important event of the time — the Russian Church becomes autocephalous, that is, completely independent. In 1435, Metropolitan of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (formally — Kiev and All Russia) on the proposal of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Greek by origin, Isidore (Kiev), is proclaimed. In Moscow, he convinces, not at all kindly welcoming the innovations of Basil II, the importance of convening the Ecumenical Council, where the contradictions between Catholics and Orthodox are necessarily blurred. The prince gives the metropolitan a hundred men of the suite, who need money for wandering, and sends them to Italy, with the order something like: «That nothing new should happen to us.» In March of 1441, after a lot of misunderstanding in Europe, Isidore returns to Moscow, the message of Pope Eugene the Fourth with the request to the Metropolitan in an important matter for the reunification of the Catholic and Russian churches. During the episcopal service in the Assumption Cathedral, among the priests of the Church, Isidore mentions the Pope. Three days later, on the orders of Basil, the Metropolitan is taken into custody, is the Chudov Monastery. In the same year, probably with the prince’s secret permission, flees to Europe, Byzantium, then Rome, where he manages the revenues of the Holy College of Cardinals. In 1452, together with a small squad of soldiers arrives at the Constantinople, surrounded by Turks, reminds the priests of the (formal) union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Participates in the defense of the city, unrecognized falls into captivity, flees, returns to Rome, where he receives a titular (without the appropriate jurisdiction and material base) of the patriarch of Constantinople.
So, we see how the first serious misunderstanding in Russia between the power of the church and the secular, (outwardly) ends in the victory of the earthly ruler. Vasily II, through a partially controlled cathedral of Russian bishops, in 1448, asserts on the spiritual throne of the long-conceived unquestioning patriarch Ion. Russia loses its spiritual connection with Europe, refuses any burning disputes at all, stops in its development, which leads to the next two centuries later, the too hasty and fierce reforms of Nikon, which has not healed the Dissolution of the Orthodox Church.
It should be mentioned and the failed predecessor Isidore, hieromonk Gerasim, bishop of Smolensk, at the will of the Prince of Lithuania Svidrigailo (Rus-2), who went to Constantinople to beg the patriarch for the saint of the metropolitan of «all the Russian land.» He gets the San, but, within the limits of the Lithuanian Principality (Vitebsk), falls into the disgrace of an extremely suspicious prince, and is extremely cruelly killed.
Any violent actions against members of the elected government — whether spiritual or secular, echo in the whole society with a loud echo. In the end, we see how the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually loses its meaning, becomes a province, joins Russia, where the attitude towards the leaders, even if they are recognized as disagreeable, and excommunicated, is at least somewhat more humane.
1. Rzeczpospolita (Poland-dependent Ukraine + Grand Duchy of Lithuania) within the borders of 1619 in comparison with the borders of modern states. 1) The Kingdom of Poland (Crown), 2) The Duchy of Prussia is the Crown vassal, possession of the Teutonic Order. Before that, it’s the so-called. (the motto: Help-Protect-Heal), which emerged from the Order of the Hospitallers, was reborn, almost in its opposite, repeatedly attacked the principality of Lithuania, but in 1410 suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Grunwald from the Polish-Lithuanian (Russian) troops under the command of Jagiello and his cousin Vytautas. 3) — the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 4) the Duchy of Zadvin, the condominium of Lithuania and the Crown, 5) the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the vassal of Lithuania, from 1569 — the Commonwealth.
2. Location of the Russian «Gulyai-city» in the Battle of Molodia, August 11—15, 1572. Photo of the author. Behind the residential buildings one can see the Resurrection Church (1703 years of foundation), in which, alas, there are no steles, plates, other signs of the great event that took place here. According to the testimony of the old-timers, burial mounds of the heroes of the battle could be seen until the 50s of the last century: after that, beets were either plowed up for sowing or built up.
3. Fragment of Gulyai-city («Walking city»). Historical reconstruction.
4. Picture, corresponding to the spirit of the beginning of the 17th century: «Messengers. Early in the morning in the Kremlin», the artist Apollinari Vasnetsov.
5. Vasnetsov’s painting «Medvedchiki» (a wandering circus with bears), the period of the beginning of the 18th century.
…Ivan the Third Great ruled in the Principality of Moscow from the middle of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. At this time, the Moscow Kremlin is being built, strong, complex, impressive to this day. A final release from the almost devoured itself, thoroughly battered by Tamerlane of the Golden Horde, is achieved. Reflected the invasion of the Crimean Khan Mehmet Giray First. Confidential, almost friendly, diplomatic and trade relations are established with the powerful Crimean Khanate. The wars with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in which, for their part, as the allies of Russia, the omnivorous Crimean Tatars are taking part) are bursting and extinguishing, there will be marches on Smolensk (then — the Lithuanian principality), Novgorod, Kazan and Pskov. Son, Basil the Third in the contract with the Holy Roman Emperor, perhaps with the support of his mother, Sophia from the Byzantine dynasty of Paleologes, is for the first time called Caesar (king). In a marriage with Elena Glinskaya, daughter of the Lithuanian prince (who leads the genus from Mamaia’s temnik), Yuri and Ivan, the future Grozny, are born.
A week after the death of Basil the Great, the boyars kill Yuri, the main pretender to the throne. Five years later, possibly from the Shuisky poison, the mother who has taken over the reins dies. Another eleven years of board of trusteeship council, and Ivan the Fourth (1530—1584) is crowned on the kingdom in the Assumption Cathedral. The era of princes, equal in the European table of ranks only to princes and dukes, as a whole is completed. The title is recognized by England and the Holy Roman Emperor, but is rejected by the Vatican, who in the thirteenth century appropriated the title «Rex Russiae» to the prince of the lands of Southern Rus Daniil Galitsky, with the condition of spreading Catholicism. The dynasty in the South is not developed. Relations with the Pope are broken.
Further events:
…Taking Kazan, the destruction of the capital of the Golden Horde, located eighty kilometers from Astrakhan, Saray-Berke. The beginning of the mental degradation of the king, perhaps under the influence of doses of mercury, oprichnina and terror, over the course of forty years eight thousand people were killed (comparatively little for that epoch, according to European standards).
The second half of the sixteenth century. Invasion of the troops of the Crimean Khan Devlet Giray. Before that, in alliance with the Turkish sultan, the Tatars conquer the Genoese colony, the Feodoro mountain principality on the western coast of the peninsula, populated by 200,000 Christians, and now the khanate is ready for long-range raids. Burning suburbs and the capital, except for the Kremlin and China-city. A year later, the second campaign, the Battle of Molody, a hundred and fifty kilometers south of Moscow — a catastrophic frontal attack on the Russian «Gulyai-city» («Walking city») made up of wagons reinforced with wooden shields. The extermination of the 120,000-strong Turkish-Tatar army leads to the fact that the Crimean Khanate loses most of the male population, for a while becomes relatively peaceful. However, the Russian state still has to pay him a «wake», a tribute, that is, after all, probably a tribute, until the era of Peter the Great.
Destruction of the oprichnina, which was not justified in its struggle against external enemies. The capture of Isker, the capital of the Siberian Khanate, in alliance with Ermak, the entry of the remains of the ulus Juchi into Rus. The capture of Polotsk and (before that of Smolensk), while it goes without saying that life under the rule of an unbalanced tsar as a whole does not become better, creates a threat to the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, determines not very convenient consequences: the practical creation of a union state — Polish-Lithuanian (partially — ethnically Ukrainian) of Rzeczpospolita.
The King of Poland, the prince of Lithuania, formally the vassal of the Ottoman Empire, Stefan Batory reclaims Polotsk, moves swiftly into the depths of Moscow Rus, but gets stuck in the siege of Pskov (1581—1582). About 16,000 defenders of the fortress are confronted by 50,000 besiegers. There is a fierce struggle — in the course of huge mobile tours, large-caliber artillery, digging and mines galleries. In the end, the Polish-Lithuanian-Swedish army loses 20 — 24 000 people, and removes the siege of the city (the Yam-Zapol Peace Treaty is signed).
The last six years of life the king is not able to walk independently because of illness and moves on stretchers. Presumably, Ivan the Fourth «corrupted one thousand virgins and killed as many of his children» (from the words of the English ambassador Jerome Gorsay, with whom the king allegedly communicates) is treated for syphilis usual for the Middle Ages and the beginning of our days, with mercury ointments.
By the way, the recipe is this. Mercury is mixed with animal fat, sulfur and rubbed into the legs. As an option, general mercury is carried out, placing the patient in a closed room, with a cup of heated mercury. If a person does not die (in 80% of cases) a positive result is shown. Mercury is an antiseptic, and the causative agent of the disease, treptoneema, is very sensitive to it.
Historians do not recognize the «New Chronology» shamelessly shortening the dynasty, sometimes to a single ruler, bringing historical dates closer to the present, so that the building of the Moscow Kremlin is attributed almost to Stalin. But, you can notice an extraordinary similarity in the reign of Ivan the Third and his grandson. The campaign to Novgorod, Pskov, clashes with the troops of the khan and even the most patronymic, ideally coincide.
People travel through the points of view of spiritual ancestors, the psychological Machine of Time acquires an unusual popularity, one should be prepared for such unexpected turns of the Chronology.
Ivan the Terrible suddenly dies, on the throne, according to the decision of the Zemsky Sobor his middle son Fyodor, «a fast and silent, a saint on the throne», rises. He reigns for 14 years, establishes a great peace in the Russian land with his endless prayers, while his guardian, Boris Godunov, in fact is in charge. At forty years (1598), the king is represented, leaving no heirs (the only daughter dies in infancy) and, referring to the will of God, at least of any written will. Seven years earlier, as a result of an accident, the youngest son of Grozny died from a seventh marriage, not consecrated by the church, in fact, illegitimate, and not having rights to the throne, Prince Dmitry. Would he be a good king, turn a knife in his hands, during an epileptic attack otherwise? Unknown. According to the testimony of a foreign traveler D. Fletcher, he liked to beat a gob of geese and chickens until they were exhausted, he found pleasure in watching how cattle were slaughtered. However, anyway, Dmitry Ioannovich canonized by the ROC (the patient who touched the sarcophagus died, since then access to the relics has been discontinued). The dynasty of the main, Moscow branch of the Rurik, is interrupted. The wife of Tsar Feodor, Irina — Godunov’s sister, a week after the death of her husband announces the desire to get a haircut in a monastery and, indeed, leaves for Novodevichy, freeing the way to the throne to his brother. The beginning of the reign of Godunov is quite successful, however, the prayers of his predecessor seem to be lacking; in 1601—1603, after a lot of rains and early frosts that destroyed crops, a strong famine begins. The cost of grain grows a hundred times, but many household gentlemen, as well as monasteries, keep it in barns, expecting further price increases, and the tsar does not dare to order bread for sale. Dying to half a million people.
In 1604, with a small detachment of Cossacks and Poles (about 14,000 people) begins a campaign from Poland to Moscow, False Dmitry First. The government army under the leadership of Vasily Shuisky, incl. three hundred guns with literate artillerymen, trained by alternating shooting archers, smash the army of the impostor. All is well, but next year, after a plentiful meal, the last time having examined Moscow from the tower, Godunov feels «faint», and «losing his tongue» dies. The king becomes a sixteen-year-old son Fyodor (Second), with the regency of his mother, Maria Godunova (Skuratova), by the way, the daughter of the attorney of Ivan the Fourth Grozny in all matters, Malyuta Skuratov. The Tsar does not have time to get married to the kingdom, part of the army takes the oath of allegiance to False Dmitry.
The «elected tsar», ie, Godunov, and his successors, in the opinion of the Russian people, is not equal to the tsar «hereditary, ruler of God’s will, and not human will.» For this reason, as well as the fact that the tsarist troops unleashed cruel reprisals against the impostor’s supporters on the ground, Muscovites, in their mass, are opposed to a new, at least reasonable and kind ruler. After spending a month and a half Fyodor and Maria Godunova, they perish at the hands of traitors («the people are silent»). Patriarch Job, an ally of the failed dynasty, loses his rank, goes to the monastery. His place is occupied by Archbishop Ignatius of Ryazan. Xenia Godunova, the sister of a young monarch, is rumored to become a concubine of False Dmitry for a short time, then also refers to a monastery.
So, in June 1605, False Dmitry the First, having coordinated the details with the Duma, solemnly enters the Kremlin and meets with the mother of Dmitry, Maria (in monasticism of Martha) Naga. She recognizes in her new «anointed» son, believably, with sobbing, perhaps to leave the walls of the disgusted monastery. Henceforth, Dmitry calls the Duma the Senate, and himself — the emperor («Caesar»). In general, his reign goes to the country for good — many boyars return from exile, the serfdom of peasants is suspended, taxes are reduced, and the economy rises. The obstacles to movement within the state, and beyond, are removed. The Polish king does not receive the promised Russian lands. At the same time, the plans of the war with Turkey, the still ardent Crimean-Tatar Crimea (recently on the walls of the capital the next raid is reflected), the personal guard of the king, recruited entirely from the Germans, and also some frivolous European orders are not popular among the masses.
All this would be, again, not so bad, quite tolerably, but, in mid-May 1606, at the wedding of Dmitry and his long-time lover, the daughter of Polish voivode Marina Mnishek comes two thousand Poles. During the festival, drunken haiduk soldiers grab passers-by, break into houses, attack women. This is enjoyed by the boyar Vasily Shuisky, summoning the people allegedly to protect the tsar from them; but, on the move, however, the action flows into its opposite. Escaping from the crowd, the wounded Dmitry falls into the hands of the detachment of the streltsy of the external guard, they are some time in confusion, before they join the defeating side. They send again for Maria Naga, but something comes from the mouth of the incoming messenger; «Martha answered, her son was killed in Uglich.» False Dmitri First, he, or Dmitry, is not exactly known until now — dies. On the grave of the king ominous signs are noted, because the body is digging, burning, mixing the dust with gunpowder and firing in the direction of Poland.
The crowd of adherents «calls» Vasily Shuisky (Suzdal branch of Rurikovich) king, and that he becomes, on June 1 of the same year. The Patriarch is changing, from Ignatius to Hermogenes. A new, even less legitimate ruler is expected from the very beginning to be severely tested — in October 1606, Moscow was besieged by a 100,000-strong army of the authorized representative of the next False Dmitry (Second) — the former galler oarsman, «serf», now voevoda Ivan Bolotnikov. In the camp of the insurrection a split is brewing — the boyars and runaway peasants are not able to form a stable union. Muscovites are ready to surrender, they only need to show the figure only somehow similar to the real prince, but that at the «voivode Dmitry» I. Bolotnikov at the moment is not. Mikhail Molchanov, one of the killers of Prince Fyodor, once a confidant of False Dmitri, who, incidentally, retains the royal seal and, finally, an imposter, refuses to take part in a risky fight personally. The hastily taken, in October, Bolotnikov failed to storm the capital. The army of the peasant leader, suffering in the way of defeat, retreats to Tula. It is possible to accumulate new forces, up to 38 thousand people, regroup and carry out a second campaign against Moscow. A hundred kilometers south-east of the capital, near Kashira in June 1607, there was a battle with the army of the Tsar himself, Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky). Peasant rebels are well organized, they have effective artillery, they are one step away from victory; but, a certain Tula governor with a 4-thousand detachment changes Bolotnikov, strikes the rear of the militia and sows panic. The uprising is coming to naught, however, many militiamen are involved in the struggle of the parties, for or against, the impostors of Dmitry II and the Third.
…The backlog of Mikhail Molchanov with False Dmitry for Ivan Bolotnikov’s army was, in fact, true, but the search for a real person for this role was too long. Yes, for a while, in Poland and Ukraine (actually, the protectorate of Poland), the role of the prince was played by Molchanov himself. But, in Moscow he was well known. Only at the beginning of 1607, in Byelorussia, also then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the name of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the calka from Latin res publica — «Republic»), was found suitable for the figure, age, other basic parameters, man. In a halo of mystery, first as a relative of the tsar, Andrei Nagoy, False Dmitry II appeared before the Russian people only at the end of the spring of 1607.
False Dmitry did not have time for either the first or the second campaign of Bolotnikov to Moscow. He also goes to Tula, where, on October 10, Shuisky’s troops, having changed the direction of the river to the city, forced the rest of the peasant army to surrender. But, in any case, now under his name is collected 27 thousand people — Poles, Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, archers, nobles and fighting serfs. False Dmitriy wins several battles, but Moscow, surrounded by stone white walls (by the current Boulevard Ring) can not be taken. Having settled in Tushino, False Dmitry II tries to completely block the capital. He manages to intercept Marina Mniszek, and, after some persuasion, marry her. At the same time, the «deputy king» succeeds in attracting Metropolitan Philaret to his side — becoming from now on the understudy of the Moscow patriarch. There comes a dual power — Shuisky and False Dmitriy II (more precisely, his Polish bodyguards who believe that they control the owner) rule the country in parallel. Vasily the Fourth achieves some successes, with the help of the governor Skopina-Shuisky (whom he later, according to most historians, will poison) and some participation, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Catholic Poland, Protestant Sweden. Polish mercenaries openly show disdain for their Russian «tsarik,» and, after all, climbing into the cart under the matting, False Dmitry runs away from them to Kaluga.
In this city the spirit of the Bolotnikov uprising is still very strong. Only here the impostor begins to play an independent role, enjoys the respect of the people, finds a second wind. The Tushino camp, which remained without the tsar’s name, loses the original meaning of the second capital, is set on fire by former masters; The arrogant Polish army is dispersed.
False Dmitry is besieging Moscow already with a new army. In the milieu of boyars, the «overturners» are ripening the idea: simultaneously remove from the political field both Vasily Shuisky and the impostor, and then by the whole world choose a new king. In Moscow, the nobles of the Zemsky Sobor, indeed, overthrow Basil the Fourth, forcibly shear the king into monks and await response from the near False Dmitry II. But, they do not hurry to fulfill this promise, because now their positions are remarkably strengthened. To fill the vacuum of power, the interim government, Semiboyarschina, chooses the king of the Polish prince Vladislav Vaz, the eldest son of the Polish king Sigismund the Third. Gradually Russian society is polarized: to the False Dmitrii, pushed back to Kaluga, the poor and humiliated poor people, Cossacks and Cossacks, flock to Vladislav, or rather, his representatives in Russia — the nobles.
Without a sufficient number of representatives of the nobility, outside the hierarchy, too homogeneous masses of people enter the power of their dark instincts. The notion of justice, as such, ceases to exist. The wheel of senseless terror is developing to all the more suspicious and «wrong» people. Moreover, False Dmitry II expects to call for Crimean and Nogai (Astrakhan) Tatars, who are already moving to Central Russia, as well as Turks, in order to Moscow, so that they can quickly correct all their affairs. But, his plans are not destined to come true; in retaliation for one of the victims of terror, an impostor kills his own bodyguard.
So, Vasily Shuisky tonsured monks, along with two brothers he is kept in a castle, 100 kilometers from Warsaw. His own children do not have a former king. The three-year-old son of Mary Mniszek, Ivan, can claim the throne, but, nevertheless, he is still too small. Tsar Vladislav is unpopular among the people, in addition, he does not risk personally leaving Poland for Moscow, and himself, it seems, is cooling to the idea of becoming the ruler of Russia. The soil for the appearance of the third False Dmitri is still fertile.
And it is announced, (January 1611) — in the besieged Swedes of Ivangorod (150 kilometers west of present-day Petersburg). False Dmitry III manages to gather the militia in Pskov, and even drive away the conquerors. However, having come to power, the impostor is slow to move to Moscow, embarks on a dissolute life, commits violence against the townspeople and, imperceptibly, loses popularity. The conspirators who were betrayed to him by the Cossacks were removed from Pskov, allegedly to fight the Swedes that besieged the suburbs. False Dmitriy feels something is wrong, tries to escape; they catch him, put him in a cage and take him to Moscow. According to some information, the impostor is killed on the way, on others — executed in the capital.
Moscow, meanwhile, is occupied by the Poles, as the 15-year-old Vladislav Vaz, the son of the Polish king, nominally becomes king. He is elected, but not crowned. Here, a relatively independent Orthodox church shows itself with the best of luck; Patriarch Hermogen (number one), initially loyal to the foreign ruler, realizing the intentions of the occupiers, frees the people from the oath, sends letters from Moscow with appeals for resistance. The diplomas find a response, first of all, in Ryazan, where the first national militia is being formed. The Poles are sent to suppress the insurrection and the ruin of the Ryazan towns, the Little Cossacks of the Little Russians, dependent on them. Some of them die, a part — goes to the side of the people’s militia. Meanwhile, Nizhny Novgorod is rising to fight; two main resistance centers are formed. In mid-March 1611, their forces are connected near Moscow, increasing to one hundred thousand people. The occupying forces — five thousand Poles, two thousand Germans, carry out large-scale repressions in the city, set fire to houses to cope with the outraged people even before the storming — about seven thousand people died from fire and steel. In alliance with the Poles, there are some Russian boyars, and the courtyard serfs dependent on them.
To storm high white-stone walls the militia does not dare, creates its Zemsky Sobor and the system of state power. However, between the two forces — the nobility, seeking to restore statehood and serfdom, and the Cossacks, who want to preserve their liberties, there is some kind of discord. This is used by the Poles: their forgery testifies that the Ryazan leader of the Lyapunov militia is determined to destroy the Cossacks. The Cossacks call him «on a circle,» where without trial and trial, on pure emotions they kill the leader of the insurgents. As a consequence, most noblemen leave the camp. Dying of hunger in the capital (the dungeon of Chudova monastery), Patriarch Hermogen urges the people now not to obey the orders of the governor of the Moscow region, D. Trubetskoi and I. Zarutsky. However, the archimandrite of the influential Trinity-Sergius monastery, Dionysius, stands for solidarity precisely under their command. The large Cossack detachment remains on the siege of Moscow until the middle of the summer of 1612, but, with the approach of the detachments of the second militia, flees to the Ryazan lands, Astrakhan, and does not participate in further combat operations with the interventionists. Zarutskiy has a trump card — Marina Mnishek with the son of False Dmitry II, the ataman wishes to use it later for his own purposes. At the walls of the capital are the forces of Trubetskoi, directly in the murder of Lyapunov not involved.
1. Sigismund plan, 1610, before the destruction of 1612. The north here is on the right. In the bend of the Neglinka River (then it could catch a wonderful fish) — the Kremlin.
It is interesting that the towers and walls of the Kremlin are not exactly as they are on the map, although the architectural complex was formed already under Ivan the Terrible and his father, the sovereign of all Russia, Vasily the Third.
2. This picture, as it is felt, conveys the atmosphere of the reign of Moscow princes, until the era of Peter the Great.
3. The liberation of Moscow from foreign invaders, 1612: an artistic reconstruction, quite suitable for tuning travel in Time.
4. Patriarch Hermogenes, an icon that faithfully reflects not only the appearance of the shepherd, but also the very mood of the time.
5. Red Square. Comparison with modern time. A guide for travelers on the Four-dimensional World. View of the Main Universal Store (GUM), built in 1896 on the site of dilapidated shopping arcades.
There is such a book, a fantasy; «The land of lost souls,» the American writer Neil Shusterman. In some other world, modern buildings are combined with significant, in the spiritual plan, buildings of past eras. Perhaps this combination of the past and the present gives rise to a peculiar volume of being, gives a new meaning to existence, opens up unusual prospects for life, opens up new sources of psychic energy for the soul.
6. Red Square, a site near the St. Basil’s Cathedral. The temple itself consists of nine separate churches, respectively, with their holy altars. It was built in 1555–1561, by the order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The most famous name is the Pokrovsky (Troitsky) cathedral named after the holy fool and Saint, St. Basil the Blessed (Naked), who was buried here.
Until 1813, at the Pokrovsky Cathedral, along the Kremlin wall (where the Mausoleum is now located), a defensive moat, filled with water from the Neglinka River, stretches. Behind the Kremlin wall, a photograph of the end of the nineteenth century shows the domes that were demolished in 1932 by the Chudov (Miracle) Monastery. Later there is the administrative 14th building of the Kremlin. In 2014, the President of Russia, looking at the renovated building (already spent 8 billion budget rubles, or 250 million US dollars at the rate), drops the phrase that it would be nice, in principle, to restore the monastery complex in its old form. As a consequence, the 14th Corps (which has also earned a certain historical significance) is destroyed «with a view to further possible development of the territory.» Now, ie, by the beginning of 2018, on the site of these two essential structures, there is an ordinary lawn.
7. Street Nikolskaya, in the early twentieth century, and now. The direction to the Lubyanka Square (the building of the state security bodies, the Cheka-NKVD-KGB-FSB, as well as the Central Department Store «Children’s World»).
8. Nikolskaya Street. View of the Nikolsky (now closed) gates of the Kremlin, to which, before the appearance of the Red Square, at the end of the 15th century, the highway led directly.
9. Prechistenskaya embankment. Metro Kropotkinskaya, down, along the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and to the right. On the way you can see «The house on the embankment», it is also the «House of Government», built in 1931, known primarily for a large number of repressed residents — major statesmen.
In the photo, as you can see here, Moscow, the Kremlin, the bridge are almost unrecognizable — although this is exactly the place where the photographer took the photo. The stone staircase disappears, the elevation, the solid lantern, the scale of the streets and buildings is changing. What is it is the deception of vision, the property of optics of photographic apparatuses, or the actual anomalous property of space and time.
In general, there is a feeling that Moscow of the beginning of the twentieth century differs from the current capital in the same way as the ruddy, brisk, loving outfits and entertainment the girl differs from some pale who does not understand what she herself wants, a melancholic lady.
7. Orthodox church.
1) Throne (altar, from the Latin altarium, «high», pommel of the altar). The name is common in the Orthodox tradition. Initially (in the pre-Christian era), the altar is constructed from the earth, clay, and stones (if possible, a solid stone block) in the places where the interaction with the higher force has most clearly occurred — at the creek, in a clearing, in a grove, at the top of a mountain. In Ancient Greece, the altar (a powerful stone foundation) is essentially the temple itself. The Throne of the Eastern Church is approximately equal to the altar of the Western Church.
The Orthodox throne is a square table, the place of the mysterious presence of God. Here are the sacred relics. (1) — antimins, scarf, with the sign of the cross, with stitched parts of the relics of some great martyr, and also the signature of the bishop of the diocese, to which the temple belongs. Antimins is a kind of document permitting the performance of the liturgy. When the service is performed, the antimension unfolds, a chalice and a discus are placed on it — vessels for wine and bread, necessary for communion. Only the priests in full service clothes can touch the scarf, or (at the time of out-of-worship service) with a ribbon trimmed (Greek επιτραχήλιον — that around the neck). In certain cases, due to its strength, the antimension can replace the throne itself.
(2) The Gospel (New Testament).
(3) One, or more often two, of the altar cross. Crosses are used for the celebration of the Liturgy, for the blessing of those praying to leave the temple at the end of the divine service, the consecration of water for the Epiphany, and especially solemn prayers.
(4) The tabernacle (kiwot). The sacred vessel, the casket, where the holy Gifts are stored — the Body and Blood of Christ, used for communion (Eucharist, from other Greek εὐ-χᾰριστία — thanksgiving, honor, gratitude). The body is round, somewhat bifurcated, as a sign of the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, reminiscent of the seal of a piece of bread, a prosphora (προσφορά — «offering»), is made from wheat flour, with yeast, water and salt. Wine — in Orthodoxy usually red, sweet (Cahors). In the Latin rite, liturgical bread is called unleavened bread, a guest (Latin hostia — «sacrifice»), or a robe (Latin oblatio — offering, offering, gift), it is baked exclusively from flour mixed with water, and resembles a thin coin. Wine, as a rule — white.
A consecrated, functioning temple, ideally — a place where the contradiction between the spiritual and the material is removed, the heaven descends to earth, God incarnates in the world. You can add that the difference between the temporary and the transcendent, the eternal, disappears, one can feel the infinity of taste, so that he begins to like it.
The sacraments of the Eucharist consist of a) proskomedia (Greek «offering»), when the priest, after reading the prayers for the sending of the Holy Spirit, in the presence of many believers, but also with the closed Royal Gates, prepares the Blood and the Body on the Throne. Wine is mixed with water and poured into the chalice. Prosfora is cut with a special copy — a ritual double-edged knife with a triangular blade. b) Liturgies of catechumens (taught in the faith, and also penitent and excommunicated). In the great litany (the Greek «extended prayer»), global (then first) global, then smaller, general church and social, then personal petitions are raised. c) Liturgy of the faithful (there are only persons who have accepted baptism). The prepared Holy Gifts are solemnly transferred from the altar to the throne through the North Gate: before the iconostasis, believers. After that, the Royal Gate closes, the altar curtain is pulled up. The remaining priests read the eucharistic prayer anaphora, after which the Woof (lifting upward) of the Holy Gifts takes place. At this moment, mysteriously, wine and bread are converted into the Blood and Body of Christ.
The priests take communion, then they receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the laity.
In the Roman rite the Eucharistic Liturgy is called the Mass (perhaps from the Roman missio — mission, message). There are no fundamental differences. The service is conducted in Latin.
2) The altar. A quadrangular table, hidden in the same «clothes» as the throne, to the left of the high place (the northern part of the temple). The location of the sacred vessels, as well as bread and wine — gifts of Christians, suitable for the celebration of the Eucharist. In the intervals between the services, the veil is closed.
The upper part is a part of the Orthodox church opposite the throne, near the central part of the eastern wall. In a small niche, on a certain elevation there is a pulpit (throne, a high altar) for the bishop. The throne is surrounded by a semi-circle of seats (synthron) of priests of lesser rank. In some parish churches, the place is designated more only by an icon lamp, or by a tall candlestick with candles.
3) Altar. The space between the semicircular (eastern) wall is an apse and the iconostasis.
4) Ponomar (northern), it is sometimes «paradise», because of the usual themes of the painting, the door in the iconostasis.
5) Sacristy (a storage room, a deacon). Place in the altar, several cabinets, or a separate room for storing the liturgical garb of priests and church utensils.
In the sacristy lead the southern, otherwise, the deacon’s doors of the iconostasis.
The spiritual person in charge of the sacristy is a sacristan. In Catholic churches, the sacristy is also called sacristy (Latin sacrum — sacred utensils). Mass begins with the solemn release of the clergy from sacristy. Here you can privately talk with a clergyman.
Ponomar — other Greek. παραμοναριος — «gatekeeper», he is an altar boy, sexton, a servant of the Orthodox Church, obliged to ring bells, sing in the choir (elevations on the sides of the salt), monitor the order, serve during worship.
Deacon — from other Greek. διάκονος is a minister, a person passing service at the first, inferior priesthood degree. Below him in the church hierarchy is only the clerk, the subdeacon is a cleric (he is a true believer, but not ordained as a parishioner). The deacon does not have the right to perform the sacraments himself. Appeal to the deacon in solemn cases, usual, but not registered in the church protocol of the ROC: «Your evangelism», «Your loud voice», or «Your God-love».
6) The iconostasis. In Orthodoxy — the altar partition, consisting of rows of icons, separating the temple (parishioners) from the altar, respectively, the priests, and the ritual of the priesthood. In the Western tradition, there is no such clear separation of the people from the hierarchs.
7) Clears (from other Greek κλῆρος — getting a place or land by lot). Elevation, sometimes partially enclosed, for singers or readers. Sometimes the choir of choristers is also called the «choir».
8) Salt (from the Latin solum — flat place, foundation). Raising the floor before the altar barrier or the iconostasis. In the front part of the saltwater there is the pulpit (another Greek ἄμβωνος — «ledge, elevation») with the chair (other Greek καθέδρα armchair, throne), a symbol of the authority of the bishop, or, in the Catholic and Protestant temples — sacred texts.
9) The middle part of the temple. A place for parishioners. In orthodox (orthodox) churches, the service is accepted standing, in Roman Catholic and Protestant — sitting on benches (sometimes, on the sign of the priest, rising).
10) The porch (from the Latin praetorium, place for the praetor tent, later — the central square of the city). Passage part of the temple, vestibule. In the pre-Niconian Orthodox Church, the vestibule is usually very capacious, designed for a joint meal, gathering people during any emergency, heating the wanderers during the cold season (days), etc.
11) Candle box, literally — a church shop. Theoretically, trade here does not happen, but donations are made to the temple. In theory, in case of extreme need, you can ask for a candle for free. Practically, (nowadays) trade in various goods (wine, candles, books), including quite secular calendars, pictures are kept in the middle part of the temple.
12) The porch (from the Latin atrium, ater — «smoked», «black», the room blackened by soot, or from the Latin pauper — «poor») — a roofed platform in front of the inner porch of the church, in which in the first centuries of Christianity stood weeping and penitent. The first temple elevation. Usually in the middle of the porch there was a pool in which believers washed their hands and face, before entering the church. The usual place for beggars, begging for parishioners.
8. Standard peasant hut (from the word «isba» — «source»). The usual «footage» — 25 square meters, in the absence of clearly defined rooms («studio»), is designed to accommodate seven or eight people.
In the pre-Christian era, before the building of the dwelling, the masters must sacrifice any animal, best of all — the horse; which thus gives the structure its reasonable, perfect form. An echo of the belief is the strengthening of the wooden horse’s head on the roof.
1) Furnace with a stove (polotyami). The base is 2 × 1.5 m., The height is about 1.5 m. Until the beginning of the 18th century, smoke is selected through the doors and windows in the walls («in black», in the so-called «hut»), then on a wooden box, … a pipe made of fireproof bricks. In the body of the furnace there are numerous excavations (stoves, grills) for cooking or drying clothes. There is also a tub with water and a towel for washing. On the floor, you can climb up two or three high steps — offensives. Cook, fry the dishes, bake bread at the mouth of the stove, in front of burning fuel, or a little further, in the furnace (furnace) of the melted or cooling furnace. The oven is usually melted once a day, in the morning, at the same time the food is cooked: some of it is kept warm (languishing) until lunch and dinner in the grooves. According to popular belief, the space under the stove, or behind it — is a legitimate habitat for a brownie.
2) Oven (baby’s corner, he’s a kut, tinyushka, sunshine). Located between the mouth of the furnace and the opposite wall. Sometimes it can be called a closet, although it is usually a room in the passage, for storing some things, or sleeping on warm days. It is covered with a curtain or a board, not reaching the ceiling, with a partition. Owning women and, above all, the eldest (by age) of them in the house.
3) The ship’s shop. Location of household utensils and blanks for cooking. Household items, tools, etc. are also located on shelves that run along the entire inner perimeter of the hut (except for the Red corner)
4) Holy (red, anterior, corny) corner. It is located diagonally from the stove, usually on the eastern side of the hut. In this version, the door, canopy and podklet are on the left (the rest changes almost nothing). An analogue of a church altar in a dwelling. In addition to the icons on the shelves of the Red Corner, there are: a vessel with consecrated water, candles, and branches of the Easter pussy willow. In the upper row there are, separated by curtains from benches, the icon of the Savior (center), to the left of the viewer — the Virgin, on the right — usually, Nikolai the Sinner. Old believers protect the faces of icons from prying eyes with white cloths, the so-called. evangelists. The composition of the other saints (personal icons) is selected at the discretion of family members. Outsiders enter the Red Corner, in the norm of generally accepted behavior, are free only at the special invitation of the hosts.
5) Conic. A wide bench, also a trunk with a folding flat lid. It is fenced off from the entrance door by a vertical board-back, usually made in the form of a horse head. For a woman sitting on a conic (man’s place), except for some special cases, is considered indecent. A place of honor for male guests.
6) Dining table. It is considered «the hand of God», which serves food, is located in the Red corner. The host man sits under the images, the eldest son on the right side, next on the left, and so on. Except in special cases, the food is served in a common (usually wooden) bowl. Eating takes place in deep silence. On holidays, a massive table (with the ability to slide on skids) is exposed in the middle of the hut. In the presence of a significant number of guests, women feast separately, in their own sun.
7) A long shop. A long bench running from the Red corner along the entire facade. By and large, it is considered a female place, prenaznachennymi for spinning fabrics, embroideries, etc.
8) Kutniy corner. The location of the tub with drinking water or kvass.
9) Primost. Wooden flooring for sleeping. It is usually supplemented by a second tier — poloty, essentially being a continuation of the furnace stoves. As a rule, the dwelling of children and single youth. The bed below is intended for the owners of the dwelling — husband and wife, their parents, or (in the cold season, when you can not spend the night in the hall or cage) of young couples. It is considered normal to sleep on straw mattresses, near a door or stove, without any flooring. In the summer time, you can relax on the bank — a log hut attached to the walls for a strong fortress and heat-saving, grass-covered pile of land.
10) Chest.
11) The canopy. A tambour, a cold storage room, a guest room in a warm period. Combined with short or long halls, living quarters, outbuildings, barns, etc., form the notorious mansions.
12) The cage. Pantry, summer home, bedroom. Pokljet — a cellar, a cellar, covers usually space and under the whole house. Over the cage can be arranged a room — an unheated living room with large windows on all sides, a sign of a rich house. Sometimes here there can be a stove, round or quadrangular, with tiles, following the Dutch pattern. Similar to the upper room of the light-tree — but it definitely does not have a furnace, at least its furnace part. Heating (to a small extent) is made by the oven side, or plastered chimney.
The upper rooms and the luminaries are designed to carry out female handicrafts, other works, storage of something, and also, probably, the dreams of unmarried girls, about something so vaguely good.
...The Second Militia is gathering in Nizhny Novgorod. Formation of his forces was initially based on the union of the representative of the nobility — the profound prince Pozharsky and the peasantry — the economic zemstvo headman Minin. From voluntary donations, a treasury is created, which is well, without delay, paid for the help of experienced service people. Near the walls of Moscow, the strength of the army reaches ten thousand men — about ten times less than the First Militia; at the same time, it is incomparably better organized and internally coordinated. In early September 1612, after the deposition of False Dmitriy III, he managed to repel the convoy with food for the besieged, to liberate most of Moscow and, in October, to occupy the city of China. Remains the Kremlin, in the walls of which the Poles and Russian boyar families are already everywhere engaged in cannibalism. Having placed his regiment at its walls, Pozharsky defends the boyars and one of two large Polish detachments. The second formation of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison falls into the camp of the Cossacks of Trubetskoy, and is completely exterminated by those. The troops of Minin and Pozharsky enter the Kremlin on November 6, 1612, a solemn moleben is held at the Place of Execution in honor of their victory. The new Polish army, which is halfway to Moscow, after news of these events reaches Sigismund and Vladislav, stops at Volokolamsk.
In January 1613, an all-meeting meeting was convened, including the peasants, the Zemsky Sobor, whose purpose was to elect a new tsar and dynasty. Among the contenders are Pozharsky, Trubetskoi, Swedish Karl Philip, Vladislav, and Ivan, the son of Maria Mnishek. The fate of this child is sad; in 1615 from Astrakhan he was sent to the capital, where he was executed together with the ataman Ivan Zarutskiy.
The election is won by the sixteen-year-old son of Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail F. Romanov. Patriarchs are not supposed to have a family and, in general, to live a sexual life, but Fyodor Nikitich Romanov and his wife Xenia Ivanovna did not always have a monastic order. They had to go to the monastery under Boris Godunov, who saw them as candidates for the throne, but by that time they already had a son, Mikhail. In 1611, Filaret becomes a «betrothed» patriarch in the Tushino camp, parallel to Moscow’s Hermogen, then taken out by the Poles to Poland, but finds ways to communicate with the Zemsky Sobor.
So, to Mikhail Fedorovich and his mother, Martha, who is hiding from the persecution of the Poles in the Ipatievsky Monastery (Kostroma), the embassy of the Zemsky Sobor from Moscow arrives from Moscow and informs the important news. A shy young man becomes the first king of the Romanov dynasty. He and his entourage are, in particular, to give an unpleasant instruction about the execution of a young son False Dmitry. This sacrifice seems to seal the entrance to new impostors, but remains a stain in the history of the Russian people — as long as, perhaps, historians prove that this never happened.
Three years later the Polish troops, together with the Zaporozhye Cossacks of the Orthodox nobleman Peter Konashevich (Sagaidachny), are trying to restore the rights of King Vladislav Vazu, they are storming Moscow, but unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, according to the so-called. Deulin world, concluded in 1618, Russia loses 26 cities, including the key Smolensk, Chernigov and Putivl — together with the population, except for the clergy and nobility, who are allowed to move to Russian lands. Vladislav still claims the Russian throne.
At the age of 20, Mikhail the First is going to marry, and, examining the bride’s structure, he chooses Maria Khlopova. But, the girl does not like his mother, according to her suggestion, doctors conclude that «Maria Khlopova to tsar’s joy is fragile.» Other healers come to a completely different conclusion, however, the final word is still for the nun Martha. After a while, with the assistance of his father, Patriarch Filaret, who had returned from the Polish captivity, Michael almost already marries Khlopova, but the mother’s influence again outweighs. In the end, the king enters into a marriage with Evdokia Streshneva, the confidante of one of the boyars who came to the bride’s eyes. Marriage is quite happy, except for the fact that, even under royal care, six out of ten children die before they reach adulthood (the usual statistics of that time).
In 1636, Michael declared war on Poland, his troops besieged Smolensk. However, incompetent governors lose initiative, they return to Moscow from 8000 people with an initial number of 32000. The status quo is preserved, the only plus is the King of Poland (otherwise — the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the association of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, indeed, Poland itself), Vladislav refuses, finally, claims to the Russian throne.
In 1645, the son of Mikhail, Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishy) became the king. In his reign there are: the formal reunification of Ukraine and Russia, the Copper and Salt riots and, especially, the church schism. The fault of the patriarch Nikon is that he could not carry out the reform of church rituals gently, with all the necessary explanatory work. His discord with the king is not due to concern for the people, but, solely, his own pride. The Church Council of 1666 supports the reform of Nikon, betrays the curse (anathema) of the Old Believers (therefore, casts doubt on the religiosity of their ancestors) and, whatever, condemns the rebellious patriarch for imprisonment in the monastery. Open resistance to such a godlessly introduced religious statute lasts at least until the capture of the Solovetsky Monastery by troops in 1676; 14 monks from 500 remain alive. In 1654, in connection with the annexation of the Hetmanate, or, more precisely, the troops of Zaporozhye (Zemsky Sobor of 1653, Pereyaslav Rada), another Russian-Polish war begins. The combined forces of Buturlin and Khmelnytsky achieve considerable success, they are already fighting in the territory of ethnic Poland and Lithuania; but the entry into the war of Sweden, which threatens both states, snatched Warsaw and Krakow from under Russia’s nose, forces the parties to the conflict to sign the Vilna truce. And, in addition, there is an interesting prospect of electing Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Tishaishim) to the throne of Poland.
Let us note, by the way, that Ukraine then, in colloquial speech, and in all official documents, is called exclusively Minor Russia, or the Hetmanate. The treaty between the Russian Tsar and Cossacks is compiled in the «Belarusian language». Moscow Russia at that time is often called the «White»: later this toponym is shifted to the West, and denotes current Belarus (Belarus).
From the oath of the Cossacks Zaporozhye Moscow Tsar:
«… The King of Tours is a Busurman; you all know how our brethren, the Orthodox Christians, Greeks suffer, and in what essence from godless oppression; Khrimsky Khan is also a busurman, whom we took in need and friendship, what unbearable misfortunes we took! What captivity, what merciless shedding of Christian blood from the Polish Panos of oppression, does not need to tell anyone; you yourself all know that the Jew and the dog are better than the Christian, our brother, they revered. And the Orthodox Christian Grand Sovereign, the King of the East, is with us the one pious Greek law, one confession, one and all the body of the church by the Orthodoxy of Great Russia, the head of the property of Jesus Christ.»
In 1658, the war continues, but now without the deceased Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
His former secretary, Ivan Vygovsky, who himself became the «hetman of the Grand Duchy of Russia,» conducts mass reprisals among dissatisfied Cossacks by his rule, concludes with the Polish-Lithuanian Common Land a separate treaty under which the Hetmanate becomes a federal unit of Poland; makes other decisions that divide Ukraine into the Right Bank (western) and left-bank (eastern). In the same year, Vygovsky brutally punished Poltava, rebelling against him (the uprising of Barabash and Pushkar, the influential Cossack elders, who inquired as to where the royal money allocated for the maintenance of the Zaporozhye army was).
In 1659, Vygovsky succeeded in attracting the Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray of the Fourth with a 30-thousand-strong army to his side; together they defeat the elite Russian detachment of Alexei Trubetskoy, besieging the city of Konotop. Loss of about seven to seven thousand. Nevertheless, in Ukraine, against Vygovsky, new uprisings are breaking out. The next hetman is the 18-year-old son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Yury, who has reached his legal age, who formally left Vygovsky’s care. He is by no means the continuer of the cause of the famous father, speaking, in general, against the unification of states. However, in fact, the offspring of Khmelnytsky is a protege of the Poles, then of the Ottomans, and does not pursue an independent policy.
Realizing that the hetman was not for him, he cuts himself into monks… gets to the Tatars, then the Turks… who, in the end, are executed.
In the autumn of 1663 the Polish army (plus the Crimean Tatars and detachments of the Principality of Lithuania), led by King Jan Kazimir, is making the last major operation. With heavy fighting, it takes a half dozen cities, bypassing the fortress with numerous Russian garrisons (Kiev, Pereyaslav, Chernigov). Russian commanders are awakened by a sensible initiative, competently guiding troops, they are making deceptive maneuvers, blocking enemy units, making deep raids along their rear lines. On the side of Russia, at the moment, many talented Little Russian commanders, such as Ivan Serko (author of the «letter to the Turkish sultan»), who, according to contemporaries, have remarkable paranormal abilities. There are also foreign officers in the Russian army — after the relatively recent Thirty Years’ War, the market for professional mercenaries in Europe is simply overcrowded. The Polish-Lithuanian army retreats, suffering hunger and deprivation, losing three quarters of its original composition. In 1666, right-bank hetman Peter Doroshenko raises a rebellion against Poland, already quite openly declaring himself a vassal of the Turkish sultan. To help his 15 thousand Cossacks come 20—30 thousand Crimean Tatars. The turmoil lasts five years, after all, Poland regains the status quo, but it exhausts forces completely. January 30, 1667 between Russia, without the participation of Cossacks, and Poland signed the Andrusov Truce. The Commonwealth recognizes the accession of the Left-bank Ukraine, Smolensk, the Chernihiv Province, a number of small towns, preserves the Right-Bank Ukraine and Byelorussia. To retain some large territorial acquisitions Russia is not yet able, and the king understands this.
1. Vasily the Fourth (Shuisky), 1552—1612, the last representative of the Rurik dynasty on the throne. He died in Polish captivity, for an unknown reason, almost simultaneously with his brother Dmitry, also a prisoner.
2. Michael (Fedorovich), 1596—1645, the first monarch of the Romanov dynasty. He was elected to the tsar by the Zemsky Sobor on February 21, 1613. As the contemporary testifies, he dies of melancholy, «twisted sculls» and «many seats». There are six children from marriage with the unloved, or at least not chosen by them, Evdokia Streshneva.
3. Alexei Mikhailovich, Russian Tsar, father of Peter the Great (Velikii), 1629—1676. The monarch is completely good-natured, peacefully combining the Russian and Western orders, keen on astrology and European music, the founder of the regiments of the «new order» — the Reiters, soldiers, dragoons and hussars.
4. Peter the First, the last king, the first emperor of the Russian state, 1672—1725.
5. Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Nikon (Nikita Minin), reformer of the Russian Church, 1605—1681g. At first he is the representative of the so-called. white clergy, but, after a family drama, persuades his wife to take a monastic vows, becomes a monk himself and thus exits from a former, not presupposing church career, condition.
The first reforms, for example, the return of the church sermon from the pulpit, are clearly perceived as positive, but the subsequent cause a number of serious questions. The technical detail in essence — baptism with two or three fingers, generates a deep split in the church and flock.
The patriarch establishes in New Moscow the New Jerusalem (Resurrection) monastery, which simultaneously becomes both the personal property of Nikon and his residence.
After the final disagreement with the Quiet Tsar, the patriarch is deprived of the priesthood, sent to the Belozersky Monastery. In 1681 he, severely ill, was allowed to return to the New Jerusalem Monastery; and on the way to this monastery, Nikon dies.
6. Bogdan Mikhailovich Khmelnitsky, Hetman of the Army of Zaporozhye, statesman. Birth — 1595, the village of Subotov, Cherkassy region of Ukraine, a family under age. She studies at the Kiev fraternity school, then at the Jesuit College in Yaroslav and, probably, in Lviv, where she comprehends the art of rhetoric, works, as well as Polish and Latin. Travels to European countries. Participates in the Polish-Turkish war, falls into captivity, literally, working as a slave on galley, incidentally learns Turkish and Tatar languages. Redeemed relatives, enlisted in the registered (in the service of Poland) Cossacks. Marries, receives the rank of centurion. Participates in the siege of the Poles of Smolensk, saves King Vladislav from captivity, according to studies of some historians, awarded a gold saber for bravery. In 1648 there was a quarrel with Poland. A certain aged Chaplinsky attacks Khmelnitsky’s farm, takes away the woman Bogdan used to live after the death of his wife, and his son is marked with rods (at least, since then there have been no mention of him anywhere in the annals). The centurion seeks truth in the royal court, the Sejm, intercedes for the king, but, for this activity, still strictly in the legal line, at first ridiculed, then confined by local authorities to prison. Having been freed only thanks to the intercession of the influential patrons of the Cossack foremen, Khmelnitsky arrives in Sich (then located near the modern Nikopol), smashes the Polish garrison controlling it, and seeks the consent of the registered Cossacks for action against their mother country. Also, the new hetman sends a delegation to the Crimea, attracts to his side the Tatars of the Perekop Murza.
The Poles are used against the army Khmelnitsky registered Cossacks, but they immediately pass to his side. There are a number of defeats crowned hetmans Pototsky — under the Yellow Waters, Korsun, almost the entire regular Polish army — 20 thousand people. As a side effect of victories, the main forces of the Crimean Tatars of the Third Girey arrive in Ukraine, without fights they seize a huge amount of yasir (esir — prisoner of war), other booty, and triumphantly return to the Crimea.
In the same year, a battle will take place near Pilyavtsi. The forces of the troops of the Sich and Tatars — 80 thousand, Polish-Lithuanian noblemen and jolners (cadre infantrymen), as well as the German reytars — about 50 thousand (not counting 30 thousand of various kinds of servants). At night, the Cossacks and Tatars attack the Polish camp; there is confusion, the Poles come into battle with scattered detachments, the leadership is retired, panic flares up. The result of the battle: the loss of Cossacks and Tatars 2—3 thousand, the Crown troops — about 50 thousand, killed and captured, as well as 90 guns (equated to regimental banners) and 100 thousand supply carts. Most of the production, however, goes to more pragmatic Tatars, which causes discontent in the camp of Khmelnitsky. To, as they say, «to repel money losses», Cossacks are taken for the robbery of the local population.
The next destination is Lviv. Khmelnytsky receives solid payoffs and besieges the Polish fortress Zamosc (song «Zamoscie»), which prevents direct movement to Warsaw. Meanwhile, the fighting spirit of the army, which has already tasted a rich booty, falls. The hetman conducts sluggish negotiations with the new Polish king and, without waiting for their end, actually dissolves his irregular army. He expects a triumphant reception in Kiev, ode and salute, as well as the returned saber wife, Elena (now) Chaplinskaya.
With some indecision, Bohdan Khmelnitsky takes the official letter of hetmanship from the King of Poland. Actually, Bogdan «on horseback», he is the winner, the possible founder of the dynasty of the South Russian principality, what else? But, apparently, the hetman feels that centrifugal forces are still very strong in his people, aspiration for anarchy and «patchiness», there is no well-functioning administration apparatus, or even at least a clear self-government.
In July 1649 the army of Khmelnitsky — militiamen from all parts of Ukraine and Cossacks, with a total of 130 thousand, are speaking to Poland. They unite with the Crimean Tatars and storm for several months, the fortress Zbarazh, defended by the 15 thousandth Polish garrison. King Jan Kazimir with a 20,000-strong army approaches the besieged, and suffers a catastrophic defeat. Bogdan stops the battle when he notices that Crimean Tatars, Muslims, can get, even hostile, but still, a Christian monarch.
The Poles are negotiating with representatives of the Crimean Khan, to which Bogdan Khmelnitsky is not invited. The so-called Zboriv peace treaty is signed. Tatars receive how many hundreds of thousands of golden thalers, vast tracts of steppe for nomadic, and Cossacks — the autonomy of the three regions and an expanded to 40 thousand register. In fact, yesterday, even proud militiamen with weapons, are again disenfranchised serfs, under the control of all the same gentry. Poles with the troops of the servants, not paying attention to some restrictive lines, are scouring all over Ukraine, searching for their now unarmed, yesterday’s offenders, and severely punishing them. Khmelnytsky, on the other hand, does not hinder anything to the gentry, on the contrary, wishing to observe the concluded agreement on points, severely punishes peasants who dared to defend themselves.
At the end of the summer of 1650, the crown hetman Nikolai Pototsky («Bear’s Paw») returned from Tatar captivity, and immediately announced mobilization throughout Poland. In response, Khmelnitsky, whose popularity among the people has catastrophically decreased, again sends a request to the Crimean Khan. Tatars, already fed up with prey, do not want to fight yet. Bogdan acts through the Turkish sultan as a vassal of his empire, and he, weighing the «pro» and «contra», gives the troops of the khan an order to join the Cossacks. The Tatars are reluctant to obey. Forces parties: Cossacks, along with the militia, the ratio of one to one — 100 thousand, the Tatar cavalry 20 thousand. Poland: 100 thousand Poles, Lithuanians, 12 thousand German, 8 thousand Romanian mercenaries, and about 40 thousand servants, «servants for everything». June 20, 1651 between the armies are fastened skirmishes. Shot by the Polish artillery the Crimean-Tatar army (under Islam-Gireem the horse is killed) unexpectedly is removed from a place, strips a flank and goes unknown where. In an effort to understand the meaning of what is happening, Bogdan with a small retinue catches up with the Tatars. Instead of explanations, the Crimean Khan takes Khmelnitsky and his secretary Vygovsky with him.
Cossacks fall into the encirclement in the camp, bordering the swamp. The Poles are trying to destroy the gati, they meet them, at night, a two thousandth detachment of a new voivode is being put forward. Kozaki, believing that the hetman throws them, rush after them, and, with their whole mass, destroy the ferries. The Poles take advantage of the moment, attack the camp from the field side. In the end, 35,000 Cossacks manage to escape. The loss of the Poles is 15—20 thousand.
After spending a month in the Crimean Tatar captivity, Khmelnytsky returns to his thin army. In addition, he is experiencing a family drama. His son, who disliked his stepmother, and suspected her of adultery, without the order of the hetman, executed her along with the alleged lover. Nevertheless, pretty soon Khmelnitsky takes control of himself, marries again, an agitated population flocking under his banner. A full-scale guerrilla war is unfolding, during which militiamen and Cossacks show unimaginable cruelty to the captives of the gentry. The Poles nevertheless occupy Kiev burnt by its inhabitants, they arrange total terror throughout the country. They are now helped by the Crimean-Tatar Horde. There is a famine, epidemics break out. Ukraine is losing half the population. Neither side wants to come to its senses, to show the advantage of its branch of faith by the unilateral termination of a series of bloody crimes. People run north to Russia (Moscow Rus), or to Moldova, try to take refuge in sparsely populated areas of the left bank of the Dnieper.
The transition of the peasants (otherwise, pospolityh, ready to mobilize, but still sedentary Cossacks) on the Left Bank Ukraine causes overpopulation of the territories, as well as the development of such a malicious phenomenon as «renting». People are becoming increasingly dependent on the «masters» of the land, the influential Cossack sergeant and monasteries. Landlords arbitrarily increase «obedience», require new taxes and services. The villagers complain to the hetman, but, as a rule, they do not receive permission. Starting from Mazepa’s rule, 27 articles of section 9 of the Lithuanian statute are applied, prohibiting the purchase of anything without the will of the Pan. The next step — the «masters» by force keep the people off the transitions.
Since 1727 (Hetman Daniel the Apostle) time after time, the chief of the sergeant-major calls on St. Petersburg to officially forbid the transitions of its peasants. And, in 1783, by the decree of Catherine II, serfdom in Minor Russia is formalized legally.
On January 8, the Rada (Supreme Council) meets in Pereyaslavl, where the issue is being resolved; one of the four princes to receive; Khan of the Crimean, the Turkish Sultan, the King of Poland, or the Muscovite Tsar. They choose the tsar of all Russia — at that time Alexey Mikhailovich (Tishayshey). As one of the results of this decision, the Russian-Polish war starts, a series of battles, often with an uncertain outcome. A real strong world, albeit with a nasty taste of serfdom, comes only during the reign of Catherine II.
Bogdan Khmelnitsky dies in 1657 (61), in all probability, from a hemorrhage to the brain. In 1664 the Polish voivode, whose name will not tell us anything, seizes Subotov farm, orders to dig up the hetman’s ashes and throw it to scold.
7. Ivan Dmitrievich Serko (Gray, i.e., «Wolf»), the ataman of the Zaporozhye Sich, a «character» who possesses clairvoyance, insensitivity to pain, also the ability to bring back to life the recently deceased comrade, to force the enemy to see instead of stuck in land of stakes, grove, etc. Reconstruction according to Gerasimov. The image is not represented; Photo is not in the database with a license to use and change. Birth — 1610, the village of Merefa Slobozhanshchyna (present Kharkiv region). Many data about the ataman have been lost, since 1644 he may have served the French king, participated in the European Thirty Years’ War, besieged Dunkirk under the prince of the blood of de Conde.
The oath of the tsar does not give an oath, however, acts on his side when, in particular, in 1659 he raids the Nogai uluses (the north-west coast of the Caspian Sea) and forces the Tatars to leave the main part of Ukraine. Together with the tsarist fighters, G. Kosagova raids the Crimea and Poland. One of the episodes is the destruction of 3,000 prisoners, their compatriots who accepted Islam. It is fighting for Peter Doroshenko, who declared Ukraine a vassal of Turkey, then against him. Wanting to become a hetman, organizes intrigues, goes into exile (Tobolsk), but in view of the upcoming Chigirinsky campaigns he receives a royal pardon. The wife and two sons are killed at the hands of the enemies, there is no one to give the gift, the ataman feels a sharp decline in strength. Ivan Serko dies in 1680, in the place of Velikiy Lug (vast territory of river fluvial and reed thickets), which is now at the bottom of the Kakhovka water reservoir. According to legend, the right hand of the koshevoye was used for a long time by the Zaporozhye army as a talisman in battles and campaigns, and in 1812 it was used to drive the French out of Moscow.
…In the summer of 1672, the Ottoman Empire attacks Poland. By this time, the Turks and their vassal Petro Doroshenko belong to the whole of the Right-Bank Little Russia, there are established the corresponding orders — Islamization, the conversion of churches into mosques, the recruitment of boys into janissaries, girls and, again, boys into harems, and the like. Fearing the invasion of the Ottomans to the Left Bank Ukraine, not wishing for their excessive elevation, as well as the humiliation of the Christian world, including the Greek Catholic, Russia enters the war with Turkey. Relations with Poland are warming up at once. Cossacks and Cossacks (usually Zaporozhye Cossacks called through the first vowel «O») are given an order, or rather an offer, to attack the Crimean and Turkish possessions from the sea. Russia is trying to form an anti-Turkish coalition and even become its head; it fails, but, at least, this attempt is assessed in Europe favorably, the fighting is covered in detail by the European press.
Poland loses the war of Turkey and officially gives Right-Bank Ukraine to the Ottomans. Alexei Mikhailovich believes that this is the reason for extending his power to the whole of Little Russia (in case of victory over the mighty Porta, of course). Events, however, do not develop quite as the Russians want: they fight with the Turks and Crimean Tatars, they intensify repression against the local population, the population falls away from the Ottomans and betrays the already established, quickly restored Polish administration. A significant part of the inhabitants also flee to the Russian Left-bank Ukraine. A special place in the Ukraine of that time is occupied by the city of Chigirin, it is the unofficial capital of the Hetmanate, a large camp of Cossacks and covers a strategic crossing across the Dnieper. The Russian-Ukrainian army seizes him, forcing Doroshenko to swear allegiance to the Russian emperor and withstands, with interruptions, two Turkish sieges. The second of them (1678) is affected by the lack of experienced artillerymen, while Ottoman guns shoot almost without a miss. Four guns are «super heavy», 32 buffaloes are required to transport each. The ratio of forces is 1:10. Turks lose 30 thousand people from 120 thousand troops, the Russian-Ukrainian coalition, according to averaged data, 15 thousand of the original 65 thousand people. In the end, the troops of Romodanovsky, subsequently charged with treason and lynched, having built up in a huge square, retreat to the Dnieper, and are evacuated to the Left Bank of Ukraine.
The war is at an impasse. Right-bank Ukraine, in any case, is built largely on the Polish model, to win and retain it without an alliance with Poland is almost impossible. The Poles themselves as a condition for such a union require huge sums to maintain their troops. In the end, according to the Bakhchsarai Peace Treaty (1680), the Port recognizes the entry of the left-bank Ukraine and Kiev into Russia. Right-Banked Little Russia is now ruled by a Turkish vassal, Moldovan ruler George Duka (Yuri Khmelnitsky arrested and sent to Turkey). Zaporizhzhya Sich becomes independent of Moscow. Russia continues to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan (or a similarity of reparations).
In 1676, announcing the heir of his fifteen-year-old son Fyodor (mother — Maria Miloslavskaya), the king dies of a heart attack. Fedor the Third rules quite happily, but not for long, only five years, not leaving after the death of the heirs. Great, albeit a terrible emperor, of course, is not he, and not his own brother Ivan the Fifth, and the married one with his second wife, Natalia Naryshkina, the half-blooded Peter the Great.
Clan Naryshkins announced that, when he died, Fyodor personally handed over the royal scepter to Peter. Miloslavsky raise the archers with rumors that the Naryshkins have strangled Tsarevich Ivan; the military, despite the fact that they are represented by both princes, kill several noble boyars, including the queen’s brothers, Natal’s regent. However, to deal with Peter himself, they do not dare.
As a result, representatives of the Miloslavskys and Naryshkin families are crowned in 1682 at the same time; for them even arrange a throne with two seats. Actually, an active daughter is governed by the first marriage of Alexei Tishaish, the second regent of royal brothers, Sophia.
In 1686, the queen signs «Eternal Peace» with Poland; For the Russian kingdom, Kiev is assigned (146 thousand rubles are paid for it), Zaporozhye, Smolensk, Chernigov. A number of ruined lands during the Ruin are included in neutral, buffer territories. In addition, Russia joins the countries that are at war with the Ottoman Empire, so-called. The Sacred League. In fulfillment of allied obligations, the First and Second Crimean campaigns are undertaken. Both end in approximately the same way: a 100,000-strong army, suffering privations in supplies, water, having lost pastures for horses as a result of the steppes falling out of the Tatars, returns back. In the first case (1687), the army only reaches the Konki River, possibly the legendary Kalki, located 150 kilometers south of Dnipropetrovsk, near the Dnieper flood. In the second (1689) — reaches the fortifications of Perekop. The idea of building fortresses for the accumulation of supplies is not implemented. However, the troops of the more initiative and successful Grigory Kosagov take strategically important Ochakov (Kara-Kerman, Black Fortress), located on the Black Sea coast, near the mouth of the Dnieper. Only then, finally, the Russian state ceases to pay tribute to the Crimean khan.
The first Crimean campaigns can hardly be called unsuccessful, but they are also brilliant; historians express an opinion that this, in a number of other circumstances, served as the reason for the overthrow of the princess.
The first, Nerchinsk Treaty with China is concluded, which is considered by the majority of historians to be equal. In general, Sofia’s rule is not marked by special events: Russia is accumulating forces to withstand the era of the great deeds of Emperor Peter the Great. May 30, 1689, Tsar Peter turns 17, and he, at the insistence of his mother, marries Evdokia Lopukhina, becoming, among other things, the last Russian queen, an equally non-alien wife of the Russian monarch. Love lasts about a year, afterwards the king finds consolation in the arms of the daughter of goldsmiths from the German suburb, Anna Mons. Despite the beginning of a completely adult life, virtually no one in Peter’s circle does not take his orders seriously. Rumors of an impending assassination attempt reach the Tsar. Together with his mother, close relatives and confidants, Peter takes refuge in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, sends orders from the commanding regiments to appear with a dozen elective people in person. Arriving from Moscow archers waiting for sovereigns of mercy: vodka, feasts, but Peter himself leads the exemplary life of the Moscow Tsar. In the end, Sophia is deprived of all influential supporters, she has to retire to the Novodevichy Convent, although she does not become a real nun before the suppression of the Strelka uprising. Brother Ivan the Fifth meets Peter at the Assumption Cathedral and in fact gives him all power. After settling in the manor, far away from Moscow and all the turbulent events, conducts a measured family life, becomes, in particular, the father of Anna Ioannovna, the future Russian empress, and dies at 30 years, strangely enough, from the collapse of power.
Until 1700, the Boyar Duma still exists — in fact, a government that does not have independent power, like that; «The king decided, and the boyars were sentenced.»
Peter likes to fight. In 1695 the First Azov campaign was carried out. More than 30 thousand troops get down the Don to Azov (the very top of the Sea of Azov), on transport ships and overland, and it turns out that it is impossible to take it without combat ships. Capture only two overlapping river fortress towers.
Before that, in 1637, when the Turks focused on the war with Iran, the fortress, which was also a large slave market, was captured by Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. Almost for four years Azov became a free trade city. Then the Ottomans dragged to him the main forces, including the detachments of his vassal, the Crimean Khan, and began a siege. The famous «Azov Siege Seat» was distinguished by a remarkable balance of forces: 120,000 Ottomans and Tatars against 5,000 Cossacks. The besieged defended themselves with the greatest skill, destroying more than a third of the enemy’s troops, while losing three thousand. However, of course, they could not fight with all of Turkey and, in 1642, after the temporary withdrawal of the Turks, they left the fortress. The troops of the Don and Zaporozhye offered Azov under the rule of the Russian Tsar, but then, under Mikhail the First, the very beginning of the Romanov dynasty, Russia was not ready to accept such a dangerous gift.
In the village of Preobrazhenskoye, on the banks of the Yauza River, not far from Moscow, all new large, transport and warships are being built in a wild hurry, being dismantled and transported to Voronezh, to the Don, where they meet again. The strength of the army reaches 70 thousand people. In May 1696 Azov was again besieged. In July, after massive shelling, the garrison surrenders, according to the pre-requisite, the Ottomans leave the city with families and movable property. Voevoda Shein becomes the first Russian generalissimo. According to the Constantinople Peace Treaty of 1700, Russia is officially released from paying tribute to the Crimean Khan, Azov and a number of adjacent territories are handed over to it. But, the main goal — access to the Black Sea, at least through the Kerch Strait, is still not achieved.
In 1697, Peter, who a year ago became an autocratic king, for some informal communication presented as a «regent of the Preobrazhensky regiment,» travels to Europe. The goal of the «Grand Embassy» (about 60 people) is the acquisition of new allies in the struggle against Turkey, the purchase of tools, weapons, the hiring of masters. Often the king is ahead of the Embassy itself, in general, for this period of his rule there are many inconsistencies, as if Peter is at the same time in several places. At personal meetings with the English King Wilhelm the Third in Utrecht (Holland), the ruler of Austria Leopold the First, as well as with Newton, Leibniz, Leuvengueck, Halley (thus, in honor of which the comet was named), etc., «Secret». It comes to the point that some historians believe that Peter the Great at the Grand Embassy did not participate at all.
Whatever it was, according to official history, it was not possible to reach an agreement with Austria and Holland about a sacred alliance against the Ottomans. Vienna even refused to recognize the transfer of Kerch and the corresponding strait to Russia, even if they were captured by it. General understanding and personal friendship of the young (25 years old) king are formed only with the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus the Second, a contemporary, an ethnic Austrian — to elect his nominee for the Polish Sejm Peter at one time exerted certain efforts and resources.
All kinds of herbariums, tools, ships, 15,000 small arms are purchased.
In the summer of 1698, after the news of the rebellion of the streltsi, the tsar returns to Moscow. The rebellion had already been suppressed, the instigators were punished — the troops of Generalissimo Shein, almost one artillery was defeated by a squad of 2,200 people with archers. Tsarevna Sofya, the main reason for the rebellion, convinced that her brother was replaced, now becomes a full-fledged nun, and sent to the Novodevichy Convent, under guard. A few months before the windows of her cell are several executed archers. Manages reprisals, according to the definition of Prince B. Kurakin «… a kind of monster, the temper of an evil tyrant, the great unwillingness of good to anyone, drunk all the days,» the ruler of Russia in the absence of Peter, the prince-Caesar Fedor Romodanovsky (aka, the head of the Preobrazhensky search warrant). The Emperor, however, needs more sacrifices. Muscovites for the first time see the Russian Tsar in the guise of a cruel executioner. He not only personally kills the heads of the archers, but forces the boyars to do the same. Some insurgents lose their lives by the progressive «overseas» method — the wheel. A total of 2,000 people were executed, 600 minors were beaten with whips, branded and sent to Siberia. The Streltsy regiments who did not participate in the uprising were disbanded.
1. Fedor Yuryevich Romodanovsky (1640 — 1717), the prince-Caesar, the actual ruler of Russia during the foreign tour of Peter the Great. Rurikovich in the 23rd knee, according to the testimony of a completely independent contemporary: «the sight of a monster, drunk all the days, the greatest unwillingness of good to anyone.»
2. Menshikov Alexander Danilovich (1673—1729) Count and even, by decree of Peter the Great, «Duke of Izhora». Origin — from the ruined Belarusian, or Lithuanian nobles. Batman, the right hand of the tsar, the actual ruler of Russia after the death of Peter the Great.
3. Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa (1639—1709), hetman of the Zaporozhye Army on both sides of the Dnieper. Memorable, in particular, a love affair 65-year-old hetman and his 16-year-old godfather Matryona (Motry). The girl’s bloody father, Judge Kochubei, after this incident, begins sending allegations to Moscow. However, the unsuccessful bridegroom turns out this time the winner — for «slander» Peter the First Kochubei executes. The continuation of the novel and the fate of Motry is unknown.
Moreover, historians are interested in the causes of Mazepa’s treason to the Russian Tsar. It all boils down to what Ivan Stepanovich himself utters; I will not swear an oath, «Until I see that the king’s majesty can not protect not only Ukraine, but all of its state from the Swedish potency.» In fact, Carl had by then disposed of Poland (the main offender of ethnic Ukraine), like a cook with potatoes, Peter in every possible way evaded an open battle. And, only Poltava put everything in its place.
It should be noted that, up to a relatively recent time, in the broadest layers of the population of Ukraine, Mazepa meant an abusive word, a synonym for the word «traitor», «sly», etc.
4. Carl the Twelfth (1682 — 1718). A fan of wars, but not alcohol and women, which, perhaps, determines his failure as a European politician. In 1713, under the pressure of the Ottomans, the king leaves the camp in Bendery and goes to Sweden, where, in general, no one is particularly waiting. Not wishing to appear in Stockholm with disgrace, the king joins his troops in Norway and, at the siege of one of the fortresses, receiving a crazy bullet in the temple, perishes.
…Then a significant number of Russians decide that Peter the First (or the one who became of them) is «the beast that emerged from the abyss», the Antichrist himself and Miroed.
There are doubts about the origin of Peter and, in fact, the line of the Romanovs, (so to say, cruelty of morals and unbalanced psyche), so to speak, originally. The height of Peter the Great is 203 cm, and this is in the century when the average male is considered to be 160 cm, the size of the shoe is 38, the figure is 48. These parameters do not even approximate any of the supposed royal ancestors.
…Confirmation of this opinion are regularly convened on the island in the middle of the Yauza «All-Comprehensive Cathedrals», where the parodies of Catholic and Orthodox rites are parodied. The naming of church rites, rituals, are altered using profanity. The «pontifex» chosen by the cathedral floats in a ladle in the middle of a vat of alcohol, and the participants, naked men and women of the highest boyar surnames, drink this wine and sing out obscene songs on the motif of church hymns.
Reforms occur in the field of time. Thus, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Russian-Byzantine calendar) becomes the year 1700 according to the Julian calendar, in addition, the New Year is celebrated now not on the day of the autumnal equinox, on September 22—23 according to the new style, but on the first of January.
Russia is part of the Northern Union, created on the initiative of the rulers of Saxony and Poland. The general direction of the treaty is the war with Sweden, whose king, the fifteen-year-old Karl Twelfth, seems to other monarchs not sufficiently experienced in military affairs. Aspirations of Peter — Karelia and Ingria (it’s Ingermanlandia, the future Leningrad region), besides, it is motivated by a personal insult — a cold reception in Riga, then still Swedish, during the Great Embassy.
In 1700, Russian troops, numbering 35,000 people, mostly recruits, with only light and disagreeable, more than 25 calibers, with artillery, with obviously insufficient supply, besieged Narva. Once that city was intended to take Ivan the Third, even built in front of him the Ivangorod fortress. He achieved success, however, 80 years later, the Swedes repulsed Narva and, combining the fortifications of the two cities with a fortified bridge, created a powerful citadel.
Meanwhile, Karl Twelfth, promptly forcing the allies of Russia to withdraw from the war, from the landing side in Reval (Riga) rushing to the aid of the besieged. Spermetyev’s detachment clashes with the advanced units, and the prisoners, according to preliminary agreement with the king in this case, declare the strength of the entire Swedish army of 50 thousand people. Perhaps believing this information, Peter leaves the army — either in order to call more quickly to the place of the future battle other regiments, whether to meet his ally, the Polish king, or, after all, out of cowardice. To command the Russian army remains the Dutch duke, a certain de Croix.
The actual strength of the army of Charles is 8—9 thousand people. On the flanks, the king builds soldiers with solid columns, and so attacks the Russian army. The latter is exhibited by the duke with a six-meter thin line, five or six rows, within the camp. The columns of the Swedes pierce it like a crowbar. In the ranks of the regiments the cry «Germans are traitors!» Is heard. Fearing beating by soldiers, foreign officers surrender. Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovsky regiments, fenced off with wagons, have stubborn resistance. Later they will be allowed to leave — one part with banners and weapons, but without transport and artillery, others — without all of the above. Losses of the Swedes — 700 people, Russian — 9 000, as well as all, except for 5 cannons from the 184’s, artillery. Carl the Twelfth is a good general, but a weak strategist and politician; Instead of consolidating victory, an immediate offensive against Moscow, he turns his eyes to Poland and Saxony. In the meantime, the troops of Boris Sheremetyev, elderly for those times (50 years), but very experienced, begin to learn martial art in practice, breaking up separate detachments from the 15,000-strong Swedish garrison left in Ingermanland and Livonia (present-day Lithuania). Gradually, all the Narva is in the hands of the Russians and, at its mouth, in the territory of Fomin Island, two and a half by four kilometers, with a village of thirty households and forty residents, on May 27 (according to the new style) 1703 Peter the First founded St. Petersburg.
Polish friend of Peter, Augustus the Second loses Karl the Twelfth Fraustadt battle, in which the auxiliary Russian corps participates. In battle, Russian soldiers die 4,500 (all 500 prisoners of war were executed by Swedes), allied Saxons 700, plus «an immense number of prisoners,» and 450 Swedes. August with a 12-thousand army at this time stands idly 25 kilometers from the battlefield, and does not take part in the battle. In February 1706, the 20,000-strong Swedish army besieged the 40,000-strong army of Russians and Saxons under the (Great Belarusian, now Belarusian) Grodno. Peter gives commander Menshikov an order «not to take in a clear battlefield.» During the siege, retreat and crossing the Neman, the Russian army loses 17 thousand people, but because of the ice break, the troops of Karl miss it. In advance, the Polish king who left Grodno concludes the Altranstaedt peace, breaks the alliance with Russia, renounces the throne. The entire Great-Lithuanian army is at the disposal of the Swedish protege in Poland, Stanislaw Leszczynski. In June 1708, the Swedish monarch began to implement a long-planned large-scale campaign to the East. Its goal, according to the opinion of one group of historians, is the total annihilation of Russia’s state independence, its division into specific princedoms, the separation of Pskov, Novgorod, etc., the annexation of Ukraine and other West-Russian territories. Another version — Karl Twelfth plans to establish a buffer Pskov-Novgorod republic in the north, to return all territories seized by Peter, and to establish a direct Swedish protectorate over Eastern Ukraine.
By the beginning of the Russian campaign, the army of Karl reached 120 thousand people, of which 38 thousand — the army of the invasion. The number of regular forces of Peter is 200 thousand people and, in addition, 100 thousand in irregular troops of Cossacks, and Asian nationalities. Defense spending amounts to 78% of the budget, the entire country is militarized, grain is taken to the cities, they are declared fortresses. The Moscow Kremlin once again becomes a full-fledged stronghold, bastions are built on it, the ditches, dried from the seventeenth century, are filled with water from the Neglinka River.
The campaign of the Swedish king begins from the vicinity of Minsk. Both armies quickly eat up supplies of the local population. Menshikov decides to burn before the invaders of the city — Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, etc.
In the nine months before the Battle of Poltava, on October 9, 1708, a new battle will take place at the village of Lesnaya (east of modern Belarus), with a 12.5-thousand Swedish-Finnish detachment accompanying a huge, more than 7,000 wagons with equipment, artillery and ammunition. The so-called «Corvolant» — the «flying squad» of Peter the Great has about the same number of soldiers and officers, but this is the guard; hungry nobleman cavalry, Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, other eminent Russian divisions. The Swedes in the majority here are not fully motivated recruits: Finns, Karelians, residents of the territories of the modern Baltic states. Nevertheless, the battle is very fierce. Losses of the parties: the detachment of General Lewenhaupt — 4,000 killed, 800 prisoners, 1,500 — deserted. To Carl the Twelfth replenishment of just over 6,000 fighters comes — practically without artillery, ammunition and food. Russian troops irretrievably lose 3000 people.
In view of the lack of food, the Swedes are turning to the south, to the Seversky region (North-Eastern Ukraine). Hetman Mazepa (who had put down the symbols of the hetman’s authority under the feet of the Swedish king, the banner, the mace and the army seal) now openly promises the support of the Cossacks to Charles the Twelfth. In the city of Baturin, he collects huge supplies of food, ammunition and three hundred so necessary Swedish army guns. Very irritated Peter gives the order to Menshikov to betray the city to the fire, so that on November 2, 1708, it is unquestionably carried out. At the same time, defenders are dying — 5—7 thousand Cossacks (serdiuk), 4—5 thousand inhabitants, and 4 thousand besiegers. In March 1709, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich pass to the side of the Swedes. Actually, the Sich, from the word of the notch, the fence, fortified settlements constantly change their location; depending on the situation. In total, for the history of the existence of this tradition, colorful military towns, there are ten. Chortomlytska Sich, in question, is located on the right bank of the present Kakhovka water reservoir, in the Dnipropetrovsk region. On May 14 of the same year, the tsarist detachment seized her with an attack and destroyed it.
The army of Karl, already somewhat discouraged, for a while circling around Little Russia, then, obeying the caprice of his king, begins to besiege Poltava. They are confronted by 5 thousand military men and (not confirmed) 2,5 thousand local residents. Three assaults, preceded by explosions of underground mines, fight off; in addition, the lack of the Swedes in artillery and gunpowder affects. The army of Karl loses 6 thousand soldiers and officers, suffers deprivation, when, on June 6, Sheremetev arrives at Poltava with the main army, and a week later Peter the Great himself.
When reconnaissance, on his birthday, Karl gets injured in the foot of his left foot; Perhaps this also affects the clarity of thinking during the future battle. His plan is to attack early in the morning, more precisely, even at night, when the advantage of the Russians in artillery almost vanishes. At 2 o’clock in the morning, somewhat delayed during the construction, the Swedish army advances to the battlefield.
The idea of Sheremetev, the leading commander of the Russian army, is a novelty of military affairs of that time — the creation between the two forests of a chain of six gunfire fortifications from each other. Two more transverse redoubts are being constructed behind this line. Attackers would have to either, with heavy losses, storm them, or go forward, to the main army of the enemy, substituting flanks under the fire. An innovative, though somewhat dubious, idea, with the irritation and self-confidence of the Swedish monarch, is quite manageable.
About 3 o’clock in the morning the cavalry of Charles the Twelfth slips between the redoubts almost without loss and gets into a fight with the Russian cavalry, which expose the enemy to the weapon and artillery fire of the longitudinal fortifications. Trying to help her, the Swedish infantry gets stuck in the redoubt attack and is bombarded from the camp. Peter gives the order to recall the cavalry, that, turning in the enemy’s sight, gallops 3 kilometers gallop to break away from the pursuit. This maneuver creates in the camp of the Swedes the impression of defeat of the Russian army.
Both sides take a timeout to regroup and continue the battle. At nine o’clock the Swedes attack again. This time the captured or blocked redoubts do not share the army. The forces of the opponents are: Russians — 25,400 infantry, 9—12,000 noble cavalry, with 72 guns, Swedes — 8,300 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, 4 cannons, used mainly for signaling. Next is the usual frontal three-hour battle.
Personnel infantry of Charles the Twelfth sees in the battle his supreme destination, the Puritans, accustomed to adversities, march into battle, singing in unison religious hymns. At one time Protestant Swedes are the best fighters of Continental Europe.
Important, if not decisive role in the battle is the Russian core, breaking the stretcher of the Swedish king, generating a rumor about the death of the commander. The Swedes retreat, first to the baggage train, where, in reserve, there are 7,000 cavalry and several thousand Cossacks, then to the Dnieper crossing. Ahead of the retreating Charles with 2,000 soldiers, then several dozen approximate; he manages to withdraw to the Ottoman allies, now the Ukrainian Bendery. The remaining army in the number of 12,575 military and 3,000 non-combatants falls into the encirclement, and surrenders.
Losses of the parties in the battle: Swedes — 9224 people killed, 2,993 prisoners, in addition 12,575 combatants after the battle. The Russian army — 1345 people. The captured Swedes are subsequently held along the streets of Moscow. Home they will return, in view of the ongoing war, only after many years, or even decades.
In 1710, not waiting for the end of the thirty-year armistice, wishing to return Azov rather quickly, and in response to Peter’s too zealous demands for the expulsion of Karl Seventh from Bendery, Turkey declares war on Russia.
Peter the Great comes to mind that the peoples of Wallachia and Moldavia will be very happy, having got rid of the Osmanians, accepting its protectorate, and even total absorption, and, in March 1711, taking, besides the 80,000-strong army, the girlfriend of the heart, Ekaterina Alexeevna in the position, goes to the Prut march. Many officers also take their wives with them. Already in mid-July from the raids of the Tatars, diseases, lack of food and water, the army is reduced to 56 thousand. July 19, even before the start of major battles, it becomes clear; it’s time to retreat. The 170,000-strong Turkish army, plus a 20,000-strong detachment of Crimean Tatars, presses Peter’s army to the Prut River, 160 cannons are subjected to continuous bombardment of the camp. The Grand Vizier is rather complacent, and, according to sources, for a bribe, agrees to the terms of peace proposed by Peter the Great. It is possible to bargain out even more than the tsar expects, already fully agreeing to the loss of the northern conquests: «just about» the return of the Turks to Azov, the ruin of Taganrog and other Russian settlements near the Sea of Azov.
The best ships of the southern fleet manage to sell Porte, the rest are burned.
In 1712, the wedding of Peter with his mistress, from 1703, Martha Skavronska (Latvian or Lithuanian), the widow of the Swedish dragoon, now Catherine.
In 1717, Khan Tauke, the nominal head of the Kazakh families bogged down in wars with the Kalmak Jungars (present-day Kalmykia and part of China) appealed to Peter for a protectorate — however, without payment of tribute (jasaka), execution of duties and preservation of the supreme power of the khan. The solution of this issue stretches for a century and a half, finally everything will be settled only under Alexander II.
In 1718 the son of Peter the Great, Alexei takes refuge in one of the castles of Naples. The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire allows you to talk with the prince one of the emissaries of Peter. He persuades him to return to Russia, presents false evidence that the extradition of Alexis by the Austrian government is a perfectly settled matter. The prince agrees, not knowing that his request for help to Carl the Twelfth has been approved by the king; the heir could be granted a Swedish army. In the homeland of Alexei immediately arrested, he dies in prison from torture, apoplexy, or exacerbation of tuberculosis, is not known. Together with him three priests are killed, with whom he ever consulted, including a confessor. The Tsarevich abdicated in favor of Peter the Great’s son from a marriage with Catherine, Peter, who later, alas, would die at the age of four. His only son from marriage to the German princess Charlotte, also Peter, would later become a Russian emperor.
In the same year, the first full-fledged census («audit») of the entire population starts. In one list are entered and peasants, and powerless yard serfs. The idea, as if, is to raise the latter to the level of the former. But, it comes out somewhat differently. The landlord must pay a poll tax from each of his siblings. It’s clear. But peasants, who have their own means of production, as well as labor skills, which make it possible to earn anywhere else, now have to pay the state «cesarean» through the landowner. A person is exempted from the need to personally lay out for himself and his sons one and a half rubles a year, some related official red tape — but falls into real slavery to the head of this all nobleman. This is how the current tax system in Russia is structured in the same way (it received its highest development in the USSR). Contributions to the PF and other social organizations for an employee is paid by an employer with a well-developed accounting department. If a person wants to go to a more or less free state of an «individual entrepreneur» in order to earn and pay for himself, he encounters a lot of pitfalls, surprises, like the need to pay «social», even if he is in a deep minus. To re-integrate into the role of the employee, the IP must be closed, passed instances, again parted with the money, and the like. A person becomes entangled in a viscous documentary web and more, usually, does not seek liberation. In Western countries there is a single and fairly simple tax system, a citizen is mobile, that is, he is free, and, importantly, he is well versed in the work of the financial mechanisms of the state.
…Peter the First approximately understands what happened, it seems even he does not like this course of events, but to stop it, in view of the numerous landowners’ fronts, the mighty sovereign is no longer able.
In 1721, the Nystadt peace treaty was signed between Russia and Sweden — Russia returns the conquered Finland, compensates for the remaining northern territorial acquisitions. At the same time, Pyotr Mikhailovich took the title of Russian emperor.
In 1722, Peter, after extensive exploration and mapping, begins the Persian campaign. Reason — attacks on merchants and advanced reconnaissance Russian detachment. The global goal — having seized the Caspian and adjacent territories, to restore trade routes to Central Asia and India. Forces — 30 thousand people, 200 guns, 270 transport ships. More or less successfully captured Derbent, Baku; territory of modern Dagestan and Azejbardjan.
In 1732—1735, in order to avoid a new war with Turkey, all these areas return to Persia.
Peter begins to think about successors. There are no more sons with him and his brother Ivan. The new decree, which allows the emperor himself to appoint any worthy person to be the heir to the throne, including a woman, causes ferment in society. In the same year of 1724, the kidney stone disease worsened. Catherine, a co-ruler of the Emperor, is suspected of adultery (the alleged lover, brother of the mistress of King Anne Mons is executed on charges of bribery), her candidacy falls under the question mark.
On February 8, 1725, Emperor Peter the Great dies as a result of narrowing of the urethra.
Two years after him reigns Catherine the First, widow of the king, exhausts forces in balls and feasts, gets an abscess, i.e., decay of the lung and, in 1627, leaves this world.
On the throne enters the last representative of the Romanov family in a straight male line, the eleven-year-old Peter Alekseevich, the grandson of Peter the Great, full of his namesake, the son of the deceased in prison, Tsarevich Alexei.
Almost immediately, Menshikov, the «half-sovereign ruler,» betrots him with his 16-year-old daughter Maria.
The capital is transferred back to Moscow. The navy and the army are declining. The boyars and the Supreme Privy Council are ruled, and not capricious, and lazy, prone to wine since childhood, heir. By and large, on the ground and in the center of the state everyone does what comes to their mind.
In 1730, Peter II died of hypothermia and heat, which complicated the disease with smallpox.
Dolgoruky represent on the Privy Council false counterfeit emperor; give the rights to the throne of the second bride of Peter II, Catherine Dolgoruky, but, at the meeting, the powerful Golitsyn simply ridicule them. The empress becomes Anna Ioannovna, the daughter of Brother Peter I, Ivan the Fifth, the widow of Courland (territory of modern Latvia) Duke.
In 1735 the war with Turkey and the Crimean Khanate begins. Captured Azov and Ochakov. With an interval of one or two, three campaigns are made to the Crimea, the army even reaches Bakhchisarai, the capital of the khanate, but each time it comes back because of a lack of provisions and water. Here the general inability of several, as they say, frozen «chicks of Petrov’s nest» (in particular, Kh. A. Minich), to establish at least some kind of trusting relationship with local residents, is affected. The epidemic of cholera that erupted in 1736 reduces a significant part of the army, as well as the entire population of the peninsula. European allies are emerging from the war. According to the Belgrade Peace Treaty of 1737, Russia loses all the gains, except for Azov, on condition that all its fortifications are ripped off. Exit to the Black Sea and trade are allowed only on Turkish ships.
Laughing at the Dolgoruky, trying to make the monarchy manageable, the Golitsyn brothers fall into a stern disgrace on charges of high treason.
In 1740 Anna Ioannovna died of an attack of urolithiasis. Under her will, the emperor becomes the great-grandson of Ivan Fifth, the son of the sisters of the empress, the two-month-old John Antonovich. Formally, with the regency of the mother and the care of Biron, the baby is ruled by a year. Further, on the throne, with the help of the guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment, who do not want to fight in cold Finland against the Swedes, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great, born two years before her marriage, Ekaterina Skavronska, rises. All portraits, church books, passports, other documents, coins depicting a young king are withdrawn. Ivan the Sixth, together with his parents, goes first to Kholmogory, then to the Shlisselburg fortress, where, playing with spiders and rats, is kept in solitary confinement, outside of any communication with people.
In 1741, Sweden, not yet realizing that it had become second-rate militarily European powers, wanting to return its Northern territories, declares war on Russia. The main activities are all in the same Finland. A year after the accession to the throne, Elizabeth inclines to the Russian side the people of these lands (under a rather tough Swedish protectorate) — he is offered the opportunity to create his own state. The forces of the parties are approximately equal. The losses are almost the same: the Russian army has 10,500 people, the Swedish army has 12—13,000. Eventually, the Swedish army surrenders, leaves for the homeland, leaving almost all of its artillery to the Russians.
In 1757, as part of the coalition, Russia began fighting against Prussia. Together with the Austrian troops, during the Battle of Kunersdorf, it is possible to defeat the army of Frederick II — out of 48 thousand, in his own words, there are only 3 thousand. Allies get confused in the orders coming from the capitals and, instead of immediately marching on Berlin, are dispersed. Now we can only assume that such actions are connected with the German Catherine, the future Russian Empress and her approximate commanders — the commander-in-chief Apraksin, Chancellor Bestuzhev, who lead their game at the court of Elizabeth. The second «miracle of the Brandenburg house», which was repeated for the third time by Hitler later, occurs in January 1762 — Peter III, an ethnic German, admirer of Frederick who ascended to the throne, breaks the treaty with Austria and concludes a separate peace.
In 1671, the childless and unmarried Elizabeth dies, from an unidentified illness, after sudden throat bleeding. She is succeeded by the grandson of Peter the Great, the son of his daughter Anna from the second marriage and the duke of Holstein, the Holstein-Gottorp (German) ducal dynasty. Actually, according to the rules of inheritance, Anna completely joins this kind, her children can no longer be «Romanovs», but, under the conditions of a political crisis, they do not pay attention to this «trifle». The main thing now is at least a fraction of the «royal» Russian blood itself.
So, Carl Peter Ulrich, who is also Peter Third Fedorovich, occupies the Russian throne. Health and upbringing is affected by the fact that at one time the prince was seized, kneeled on peas, and subjected to more sophisticated tortures. The young man is inclined to military affairs, but he attaches importance not to military training, maneuvers, material support, but mainly to his external, parade form. At 17, already at the Russian court, Peter is married to Sofia Frederick Augustus, a native of the German (now Polish) city of Stettin, the future Catherine the Second, and even attach new mentors — an exemplary married couple. But, it does not help — instead of fulfilling the duties, in this case, according to the testimony of contemporaries, the prince continues with enthusiasm to play in the tin soldiers. Peter is surprised when, in 1754, Catherine nevertheless gives birth to his son Pavel (the future Russian emperor); however, a certain spiritual connection between the spouses persists.
Under Peter the Third some useful laws are introduced, but these are, rather, house preparations of influential noblemen. The initiative of the unincorporated monarch is a separate peace, the return of East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast) for four years already in the Russian Empire, to its former owner, Friedrich II. Another, not fully implemented idea — the sequestration of the property of the church, the abolition of monastic land ownership, even the banning of icons. The third idea is a dynastic war with Denmark, a long-time ally of Russia, along with Prussia, for the Schleswig (territory in the south of Denmark, now an interstate EU entity) taken away from its German ancestors.
Peter III thinks about his marriage to his favorite, Elizaveta Vorontsova, speaking directly, between us, terrible in appearance. At the same time, of course, relations with his lawful wife, Catherine, are deteriorating. In particular, the emperor considers it possible to call her «fool» in the presence of the court, diplomats and foreign princes, for refusing to listen to the toast while standing.
A palace coup is being prepared. For such things, usually cash in hand is required. Catherine addresses the French and the British. The French try not to understand the subtle hints of the Empress, but reasonable Englishmen easily give the requested amount: 100,000 gold rubles.
Peter somewhat hesitates with a campaign to Denmark, wishing to celebrate his name-day (June 28, 1762) in Peterhof. However, having arrived at the palace, he does not find here the official organizer of the holiday — his wife Catherine. She is already in St. Petersburg, takes the oath at the Synod, the Senate, the Guards regiments and part of the population. Again, disastrously lingering, the monarch rushes on a yacht to Krondstadt, to the forces of the navy, however, the garrison of the fortress island has already sworn allegiance to the Empress Catherine. The last way to save the throne and myself is the army in East Prussia, but, the emperor is already tired of these throwings. Peter lowers his hands, returns to his residence and signs a decree on abdication.
The only royal desire now is that his wife allow her husband to go back to his native Holstein. Theoretically, this is possible. Practically — no longer. The situation requires complete certainty.
Peter the Third is held in the palace of the town of Ropsha (neighborhood of Petersburg), under the supervision of the Orlovs. Officers do not dare to kill the emperor with their own hands. In the end, they find a way out: Grigory Teplov, senator and Fedor Volkov are involved in the operation. He is an actor, director, founder of the Russian Theater, once recognized as a stage genius by Peter the Third. The latter, as follows from the research of historians, is the most likely murderer of the emperor.
The Russian throne goes back to Catherine II, the Catherine’s epoch, the Golden Age of the Nobility begins. Yes, the Empress is a German woman, a representative of the Gottorp House of the Oldenburg dynasty, who took the throne through a palace coup. But, it is the precariousness of the situation that forces Catherine II to observe the interests of many parties, find balance and harmony, and scrupulously study the processes taking place in society. She, by the way, is not a regent with the son of Paul, but, contrary to the established rules, «at the request of all our loyal subjects, explicit and unfeigned,» a full-fledged empress.
One of the innovations is the secularization of the monastic lands. Previously, the collection of taxes, the management of villages belonging to the church, engaged in church ministers. Farmers worked off the corvee, performed a lot of inputs simply, «in friendship», natural duties, fell into debt bondage. Now the peasants, numbering a million, and this is only a male, are exempt from church feudal lords, acquire, neither much nor little, personal freedom, many legal rights are called «economic», and they pay one and a half rubles per capita tax per year. Their villages are under the supervision of retired officers. Monasteries, whose number has now been reduced by a factor of three, left small gardens, vegetable gardens, paid for maintenance from the state treasury.
In addition, the new government is pursuing an active foreign policy. The influence of Russia in Poland is growing. Polish and Lithuanian magnates — the Confederates openly oppose the legally elected (1764) monarch Stanislav Poniatowski, but his side is taken by Russia, and, at the invitation of the king, introduces his military contingent to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Suffering defeat for the defeat of the troops of A. Suvorov, as well as his own, humiliated and generalized «claps», the Confederates find nothing better than to address the Ottoman Empire, promising her help for Volhynia and Podillya.
1. Catherine the First (Marta Samuilovna Skavronska, in the first marriage — Kruze, after the adoption of Orthodoxy — Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova), 1684 — 1727. Mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. She was born in Latvia or Lithuania, perhaps in the family of serfs. For correct actions and women’s wisdom, first of all (now you can safely say — not for model appearance) was received first by Field Marshal Sheremetev, then Alexei Menshikov. In 1703, during a visit to his friend, Peter the First notices the friendly Martha, and takes with him. In 1725 he died on her hands.
2. Peter the Second, grandson of Peter the Great, the son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the German princess Sophia-Charlotte (1715 — 1730). Entered the throne in 1727, at the age of eleven. Tended to wine literally from infancy (nannies used this remedy as soothing), did not show interest in public affairs, died of smallpox at fourteen.
3. Anna Ioannovna, Empress, the fourth daughter of Ivan the Fifth and Queen Praskovia Fedorovna (1693 — 1740).
4. Elizabeth (First) Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the Great, born two years before they entered into marriage (1709 — 1761). It gave rise to gallomania: dreaming of becoming related with the Bourbons, studied diligently the French language, and the entire imperial court soon passed to communication. It is believed that Elizabeth was in a secret church marriage with her lover, the Dnieper Cossack, a good singer, Alexei Razumovsky. For the child born in this marriage, Princess Tarakanova (self-name — Elizabeth of Vladimir) gave herself out (or even appeared to them).
5. Peter Third Fedorovich (1728 — 1762), Duke of Holstein, the Russian Emperor. Father — Carl Friedrich Holstein-Gottorp, nephew of the Swedish king, mother — Anna Petrovna, the second daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the First.
6. Catherine II Alexeevna the Great, nee Sofi Augusta Frederika Anhalt-Zerbstskaya (1729—1796). Place of birth — Prussian Stettin (now Polish Szczecin). Father — Christian Augustus, a branch of the Angals House, Governor of Stettin, mother — Johanna Elizabeth, from the Gottorp House.
7. Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, general-feldtsehmeister, favorite of Catherine II, native of the village of Lyutkino, Tver province (1734 — 1783). The unfortunate husband of the empress, the father of her illegitimate child Alexei, the ancestor of the Bobrinsky family.
8. Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky, native of the village of Chizhovo in the Smolensk Province, general-field marshal, founder of a number of cities in Ukraine and Crimea (Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Sevastopol), favorite of Catherine II (1739 — 1791). The developer, in particular, of the «Greek project», according to which the Ottoman Empire should be abolished, and its territory divided between Russia, the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic. The emperor of the revived Byzantine state was to become one of the grandchildren of Catherine, who was supposed to give the name of the founder of the capital (Constantinople) — Constantine.
Gregory Alexandrovich, the richest man in Europe, died during negotiations in Moldova, intermittent fever, at 52 years. «That’s all… nowhere to go, I’m dying! Take me out of the stroller: I want to die on the field!».
…Between wars, Catherine is also interested in non-open, still completely uninhabited territories. In May 1764, the tsarina, consulting with the famous scientist M. Lomonosov, detach the expedition to the North Pole. The commander of the six, equipped with the most advanced equipment of the time ships — Captain first rank V. Chichagov. The expedition stops northwest of Spitsbergen (Grumant Island in the designation of Pomors), reaching a latitude of 80 degrees and five minutes, in front of insurmountable ice. The second campaign, carried out in a year, wins only one geographical minute from the North. Thus, the hope of the ambitious Lomonosov that «the ice will disperse» and by sea the Russian ships will reach the shores of North America is not justified.
Taking advantage of a pretext, the Turkish authorities conclude Russian Ambassador Obreskov in the so-called. Seven-tower castle, which, according to Ottoman custom, means the beginning of the war. In response, November 29, 1768, the war declares and Catherine II. The Russian fleet is sent to the Mediterranean Sea, under the control of the Orlov brothers; the main goal is the incitement of anti-Turkish uprisings in the midst of the conquered Christian nations by the Ottomans. Crimean Tatars cross the border of Russia and attack Novorossia — the wheel of war is crippled. The Russian detachment occupies Azov and Taganrog, begins the re-creation of the Azov flotilla. On the other flank, Golitsyn provokes the Turks, departs for two months and waits, waiting for the extraction to come to him. Indeed, the Turks come, but, because of the corruption now reigning in the Ottoman society, they are hungry, demoralized and over-inflated. In 1770 follows a series of battles, of which we especially note the battle near the Cahul River, in the south of modern Moldova. The strength of the parties: the Russian army — 32 thousand people, 118 guns, the Turkish army — 150 thousand people, with 140 guns. A detachment of Tatars in 80 thousand fighters is preparing to attack Rumyantsev’s convoys; on their protection, the commander withdraws part of the troops, leaving for a general battle of 17 thousand people. On the night of August 1, soldiers are being built in a squad of 800 men and, at dawn, move towards the Ottoman army at an accelerated pace. Turkish cavalry, as well as cavalry in general, it is difficult to attack the personnel infantry prepared for battle, besides the Russian guns under the command of the experienced Mason Melissino are extraordinarily effective. Some confusion is caused by ten thousand janissaries appearing on the flank, but, after the intervention of initiative high-ranking officers, the queen puts himself in order, and continues the offensive. A detachment of Kurds in the Ottoman army, instead of helping the Turks, is taken to rob them mercilessly. The next day the Russian detachment attacks the crossing of the Danube, where, in complete disorder, on 300 ships, the remnants of the Turkish army are trying to evacuate. Losses of the parties: the Turkish army — «according to a moderate account» 8 thousand people, 140 guns, 4 thousand prisoners, the Russian army — 364 people.
Further, on August 5, almost without resistance, for the first time the strategically important fortress Ishmael was taken. Problems with the supply of provisions, the establishment of comprehensive relations with the allies are in the past, the army remains to winter in Moldavia and Wallachia.
The Russian fleet passes from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, losing about 40% of the materiel due to leaks and other incidents. For the occupation of Turkish fortified points, along with the Greek insurgents, landings are landed; in the beginning successfully, but, after the Greeks are cruelly cracking down on the prisoners, — no longer. In addition, at the head of a formally divided fleet, there are at once two equal in the status of an admiral, which can not but cause friction between them. Favorite Catherine, A. Orlov appears between them as a powerful arbitrator. Nevertheless, after a warm-up clash in the Chios Strait, where the losses of the parties are approximately equal, the battle of Chesme takes place. It develops simply: after a powerful artillery preparation, the Russians release four fire-ships against the Turkish fleet that has crowded into the bay. With two torpedo ships, the crew escapes on boats too early, at random, the third vessel stranded near the shore battery, preventing it from aiming. The fourth «torpedo» adheres to the battleship, lights it and, a few minutes after the team leaves the fire, explodes. The wreckage falls on other Turkish ships, causing a fiery storm. Burn, go to the bottom of 14 Turkish battleships, 6 frigates, a large number of small ships. Of the 15,000 Turkish sailors, 4,000 are being saved. The Russian fleet controls the entire Aegean Sea. The blockade of the Dardanelles begins — a series of straits between the islands off the western coast of Turkey; the main goal, in the future — the siege of Constantinople. Russian citizenship takes 27 islands of the Aegean Archipelago. The fleet number reaches 50 pennants. On August 5, 1773, the Russian squadron began the siege of Beirut (then belonging to Syria). In two months the city capitulates, it is passed on to the new allies, who have accepted Russia’s patronage. At the same time, 200,000 piastres of indemnity, according to the Sea Charter (the correct war!) are distributed between the ship’s crews.
In July 1774, Kyuchuk-Kainarji (a place in present-day Bulgaria) is a peace treaty. In comparison with the military successes of the Russian army, as well as the money spent, it is very modest: Russia acquires Kerch and part of the northern coast of the Crimea, with the right of navigation in the Black and Mediterranean seas (unobstructed passage through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) rubles indemnities. The Crimean Khanate becomes independent of Turkey, with a number of territories, including the fortress Ochakov, remain in the possession of the Porte. The population of the Dardanelles, Greeks and Albanians who accepted Russian citizenship has to be taken out on a dozen vessels to Kerch and St. Petersburg. In 1778, Alexander Suvorov organizes the resettlement from the Crimea to the Azov Sea 30 thousand Christians being persecuted.
The funds for the expedition are truly enormous. Catherine II, for the first time in the history of the Russian state, turns to external loans, generating an impressive external debt, which exceeds in many times the annual budget. Practically as always, inflating the territories (which in itself is not bad) and increasing the international authority of the monarch, does not bring any improvement to the life of the indigenous population. The cost of bread increases, in fact, and not at the rate of new paper money, 4—6 times, farmers often starve and, slowly but surely, become enslaved. Hundreds of thousands of state, virtually free peasants, are transferred by Catherine II into the possession of favorites, are sold, become real slaves.
In 1769 the first Russian paper money was issued. It is rather an obligation-receipt for the receipt of a coin (if you take copper pyataki, weighing about 20 kilograms). Very popular Katerynian banknotes, existed until 1843. A cow or a horse is worth a ruble and a half, as much as a tenth of the land, a gray coat (simple clothes) — 20—40 cents, an ax of 7 cents, a pood of rye — five cents. The most popular among the people are fifty-gram coppers. Gold coins are used usually for international settlements. The master at the state plant receives 120 rubles a year (33 kopecks a day), a simple (relatively free) worker — 20 rubles.
Under Catherine II the market of people is finally formed. At the prices of 1782, the standard inventory of the estate: «… In this courtyard yard people: Leonti Nikitin 40 years, according to estimates of 30 p. His wife Marina Stepanova is 25 years old, according to the assessment of 10 rubles. Yefim Osipov is 23 years old, according to estimates of 40 p. His wife Marina Dementieva 30 years, according to an estimate of 8 rubles. They have children — the son of Guryan for 4 years, 5 rubles, the daughter of the girl Vasilissa 9 years old, according to the estimates of 3 rivers, Matryona one year, according to 50 k. «A good village girl can be bought out by the landowner for 200 rubles, but all the same pedigreed puppies cost more — up to 10,000 rubles.
1. Catherine’s banknotes of fifty rubles.
2. Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, the leader of the peasant uprising (1742 — 1775). In the Seven Years’ War — a simple Cossack orderly. He was arrested, first for helping her sister and her husband escape from Taganrog to the Terek, or (?) Then, when the Terek Cossacks elected him as the stanitsa ataman, during a delegation to Petersburg asking for a salary increase (in Mozdok). As you can see, the data of independent sources vary, but sometimes it’s the same thing. The third time the fugitive was captured near Cherkassk (Rostov region), on the way to the Don. Further, from Poland and the new passport, all in the text given below.
3. Stepan Timofeevich Razin (1630—1671), the leader of the peasant uprising in pre-Petrine Russia. Place of birth; the village Zimoveyska (on-Don) of the present Volgograd region, according to other sources — Cherkassk (Cherkassy town). In 1665 the voevoda Y. Dolgorukov executed his elder brother, Ivan (allegedly he refused to take off his boots, or simply left in «wolf»), and Stepan Razin departs from the tsar’s service. He does not lower his hands. The main idea is to extend the Cossack military-democratic system to the entire Russian state.
On the Don, in the meantime, there was a stratification of the Cossacks on the «old», who officially served in the service of the tsar, who received their salaries, and «golubtvennye», ie, fugitives. The latter with monetary content had some problems. In addition, and in the conditions of peace they wanted to quickly obtain, military glory, so desired for this Cossack.
In 1667, Razin became their leader. «Thieves» march on the lower Volga and, through the Caspian Sea, to Persia. Here the fleet of Stepan Timofeevich unleashes the flagship of Admiral Mammad Khan to the bottom, and then seizes the lost ships, according to the inexplicable design of the naval commander, connected together by long chains. Among the trophies is the son and, notice, the daughter of the khan is the Persian princess, the heroine of the famous «folk» song (in the words of the Russian ethnographer Dmitry Sadovnikov). According to the legends, which can be quite reliable, the tipsy Cossack leader brought her (weighed down with rich furniture) to the Volga River for her «gloriously wearing a young man».
In the spring of 1670, Razin enters into an open confrontation with the tsarist authorities. The whole Volga is now under his control. The voevods are trying to solve the matter by peace, they are sending ambassadors to Stepan, but in the camp of the rebels only death awaits them. The Cossacks state that among them is the son of Aleksei Mikhailovich (Tishaishy), Alexei Alekseevich and the exiled patriarch Tikhon (who died before that at age 15). They kill the representatives of the central government, the merchants simply rob, introduce the Cossack system of communal life everywhere (which, as time passes, it must be said, is not liked by all peasants). Capture large cities — Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Saratov, Samara, and stop in front of Simbirsk. Here they have to fight with a rushing 60,000-strong tsarist army, under the command of Yury Baryatinsky. Razin is badly wounded, supporters take him to the Don, in the so-called. Kagalnitsky small town. Here the ataman is seized by the domed Cossacks, and given out to the tsar’s voevoda.
Astrakhan, the capital of the insurgents, will last a little less than a year.
Probably not all Russian citizens share Catherine’s conviction that she was elected empress «at the request of all …". It’s funny that both Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev were born, with a break about 112 years, in the same Cossack village of Zimoveyska (Zimoveyka). Now this village rests on the bottom of the Tsimlyansk reservoir, in the Volgograd region.
Pugachev participated in the Seven Years’ War with Prussia, the Russian-Turkish war of 1769—1774, becoming ill, asking for resignation, not getting it, and hiding from the authorities. He is arrested, but the Cossack flees to Novorossia (now the Lugansk region), from there, on the advice of the Old Believer, to Poland, where, declaring himself wishing to return to normal life as a schismatic, he gets a passport and a residence permit in the Mosque suburb (later — Saratov, near the Volga tributary). Here, in a conversation with a participant in the recently suppressed Cossack unrest, he, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, sees it in vain; «I’m not a merchant, but Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich, I was also in Tsaritsyn, that God saved me and kind people, and a guard of the guard was spotted instead of me, and an officer saved me in St. Petersburg.» According to the denunciation, Pugachev is arrested, he again runs to his long-time friend, a retired, therefore free soldier Stepan Obolyaev. Yemelyan is again called Peter the Third and asks Stepan to bring down the instigators of the past uprising. The people, displeased, in particular, by the addition of state (village) peasants to state and private factories. Catherine II forbids serfs to complain about the landlords. There is a rumor about the transfer of all the peasants «to the treasury,» where the living is indeed better, or even a decree of liberty drawn up by the repressed Peter III. In the fall of 1773 the first followers appeared. Together they are looking for a literate person to compose «royal decrees», but, in the Mosque Sloboda Pugacheva is identified. He manages to hide, although a friend, Obolyayev and taken into custody. At the agreed place, at the inn, the future driver of free people awaits new acquaintances, completely located to the beginning, or more precisely, the continuation of the egg revolt (the river Yaik later renamed the Urals) Cossacks. In their composition, with time, appear and ready to make decrees, literate people. Emelian Pugachev confesses suddenly that he is not at all Emperor Peter the Third, and receives the following answer: «… There is no need for me in this: you are a Don Cossack, only we recognized you already for the emperor, so, de and be. «The flywheel of rebellion begins to unwind. Pugachev himself can no longer lead the army «in manual mode,» the Cossack sergeants perfectly suit themselves. Often they completely exceed their authority, such as: they shoot the mistress of her leader, and her brother, the captive nobles, fearing that they will have some spiritual power over Pugachev. Over time, the Cossacks are looking for the «Tsar» bride from «their own» — Ustin Kuznetsov, and, in 1774, during the siege of Orenburg, after the wedding, she acquires the title of «Empress.» The insurgents seize convoys, break up separate detachments, seize military plants, but exhaust their forces in the siege of Ufa and Orenburg. Opens the period of defeat.
Government troops are approaching. They oppress the rebels, but the death of the commander-in-chief of the prince forces from illness gives Pugachev’s troops a month to regroup. There is, in particular, a connection with the formations of the 19-year-old Salavat Yulaev, the improvising poet, the leader of the uprising in Bashkortostan. At the peak of the uprising, the army reaches 40,000 people, Pugachev creates a Military Collegium to manage it, with military courts, and all the rest.
The peasant army captures most of Kazan (except the Kremlin). Here, in the prison of the Secret Commission, Pugachev discovers his first wife, Sophia, with three children. They carry them with them, separately, saying that it is a family of a Cossack «visited» for his name. He sometimes mentions his «son», Paul the First, carries the portrait of the heir with him, turns to him when he says the toasts.
«Tsar Peter the Third» spreads manifestos about liberty for the peasants, distributes stocks of salt and bread to the inhabitants, his army, greeted by the people with enthusiasm, blessings of village fathers, is approaching the Moscow province. Further, on August 7, 1774, the rebels, with a bell ringing and bread and salt, the Saratov opens.
Instead of an immediate attack on Moscow, Pugachev cautious and turns to Astrakhan — one version — to gain strength in the Don army, on the other — to finish this idea and dissolve in the boundless steppes. On the way, he is overtaken by a large government detachment. Because of the sudden raid of the cavalry, the insurgents immediately lose all 24 cannon. Artillery already in those days — the god of war, and the detachments of the advancing peasants are scattered by volleys of the tsar’s guns. Later, the Cossack colonels, wishing to earn their pardon, knit the peasant leader and give him out to General Suvorov, who came to the rescue of the uprising. The future generalissimo personally guards the cage with Emelian Pugachev. After the investigation, on January 10, 1775, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, the people’s tsar was executed by cutting off the head. Here, 104 years ago, Cossack and peasant leader Stepan Razin was quartered.
The insurrection of the peasants led by Pugachev can be compared with the serf riot in England that occurred, under the nominal start of Wat Tyler, four centuries ago — in 1381. During the Hundred Years War, in order to feed the army, King Richard II raises the tax for the lower classes-now 12 pence from each toiler. The people are indignant, rises, reaches the capital, thoroughly shakes all the Foggy Albion. Six months later, thanks to the troops, the deceit and the promises of the monarch to rectify the situation, the excitement subsided. Wat Tyler dies, as well as most other leaders. However, the central authorities make very correct conclusions. They declare guilty insatiable officials on the ground, proclaim a general amnesty, stop attempts to introduce illegal taxes. Large landowners resolve conflicts with their employees (yes, participants in the insurrection) as a rule, through the courts. When discussing the rent for the land, the peasants are not averse to recalling their combat past aloud…
By the fifteenth century, the institution of serfdom in England ceased to exist.
…To strengthen the administrative apparatus, the government of Catherine II disaggregates the province — instead of the 23 centers of power they become 56 (governors, gubernias, the essence of synonyms). Accordingly, the bureaucracy, the power block, doubles, and the costs for them are increased four and a half times.
As a result of the uprising, the situation of serf factory workers improves somewhat, but there are no conclusions about the allowances for the entire peasantry. And, this decision of the government, leads, in the first half of the twentieth century, to the collapse of the state and the physical destruction of the Russian nobility.
Many prominent enlighteners, generals, statesmen are united by Masonic lodges. Catherine initially is loyal to them, but after the French Revolution, organized, in many ways, by this community, radically changes its position. The Empress expels from the country, removes from the people (publisher Novikov, etc.) people for mere involvement in Freemasonry.
A year before the start of the Pugachev uprising, in 1772, the First Section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place. The Polish Saeima abuses liberum veto, the principle of declaring a ban on the discussion of the resolution by at least one dissenting party. The Russian Ambassador Repnin worked well on creating the pro-Russian stratum. The King of Poland, Stanislav Ponyatovsky, in the past — the lover of Catherine, her protege on the throne treats Russia fairly friendly, but he and his followers can no longer manage anything. The country is divided into many small «sejmics», enters a civil war even before centralized states pay attention to it. So, according to mutual agreement, contingents of Prussia, Austria and Russia join Poland. The troops of AV Suvorov occupy the ancient capital of this country, covered with mysticism Krakow, as well as part of the current Baltic and Byelorussian (Polotsk, Mogilev gubernias, six years later transformed into one Belarusian province). Actually, Prussia inherits the present West Prussia. Austria receives Galicia, without Krakow, Lviv and a number of adjoining lands. Further allies occupy Warsaw, and demand from the Diet to ratify legality of an event. For the quickest decision-making, the principle «Liberalum vito» is canceled, and most say «yes.»
A threateningly large, little less than the current EU, while internally unstable and contradictory, the Rzeczpospolita is now shrinking to a reasonable level.
In 1775, according to the decree of Catherine, finally eliminated (New, near the former Chertomlykskaya, from the 50-ies of the twentieth century on the bottom of the Kakhovka water reservoir) Zaporizhzhya Sich. Turkey is quiet, it is necessary to establish friendly relations with Poland. On the night of June 5, 50 assembled cavalry regiments approach the Novaya Sich, Don Cossacks, Hungarians, Wallachians, and up to 10,000 infantry. Kozaki, after discussions, accept an ultimatum and leave the fortress. After this, the fortifications are destroyed by artillery fire. Some of the Cossacks go to the Crimean Khanate (under the protectorate of Russia, but fairly independent), then to Turkey, to serve the Ottomans (Transdanubian Sich). Some remain in the service of Russia, the sergeant-major receive the nobility, the lower ranks, if they are able to withstand discipline, join the dragoon and hussar regiments, and the irregular «Army of faithful Zaporozhets» settles on the left bank of the Kuban.
The army Zaporizhzhya is colorful, covered with legends, but only in about 70% of cases it is loyal to Russia and actively supports it, while in 30% it opposes, or is relatively neutral. Separate detachments are not connected with hierarchy, reporting with a stable state center, therefore they allow unjustified cruelty when conducting military operations (and even in peacetime, with their own population, to recall even the popular song «Galya the Young»). About this artistically narrates N. Gogol in a famous work, Polish sources (Henryk Sienkiewicz, «Fire and sword») and, of course, the chief Kobzar, Taras Shevchenko (in particular, the poem «Gaydamaky»):
Uman lit
Neither in the house nor in the chapel
Nowhere is left
Everything fell.
…Haydamaky
The walls were broken down, —
Destroyed about stones
The priests were smashed
And schoolchildren in the well
Live buried.
Until the night, the foxes fisted;
…There is no soul left.
Blood me, blood!
Noble blood, because I want to drink!
In a calm environment, not on nerves, after reading the reports on the actions of his subordinates in the capture of some fiercely resisting city, the monarch is quite capable of severely punishing the commander who committed excesses with the civilian population. If only he is not Peter the First, although then it is possible. Well, and «their» guys «their», in a small free squad, are usually strictly not judged.
In 1777, the son of Alexander, the beloved grandson of Catherine II, was born to the heir to the throne, (23-year-old) Paul and German (divided into dozens of kingdoms and dynasties by Germany — the «breeding economy» of princesses for Europe) of Sofia-Dorothea of Württemberg.
On April 8, 1783, after two campaigns of Russian troops to the Crimea, in order to support the Russian protégé (the last raid was conducted by A. Suvorov), Catherine issued a manifesto on the annexation of the peninsula, and also the Kuban to the Russian Empire. All this together is now called Tavrida. The last khan, Shahin-Geray, a man of the European mindset, although the spender and despot, who could not build communication with the Russian authorities and the Crimean Tatar population, renounced the throne. Later, with a content of 200,000 rubles (a lot), he lives in Kaluga, asks the Russian government and Porto to return to their homeland. There, in the fortress of the island of Rhodes, the Ottoman authorities execute him and execute him. Thus, fallen out of the Old Russian state in 1223 after the attack of the troops of the Golden Horde (ulus Dzhuchi), Crimea again becomes Russian.
August 4, 1783 Eastern Georgia passes under the protectorate of Russia. St. George’s treatise does not provide for the entry of the kingdom into the Empire, and therefore, the defense by all means and means (although such a point is noted). The construction of the Military-Georgian road, and the Vladikavkaz fortress that covers it, begins. In 1787, for some ulterior reasons, Russia withdraws its troops, two battalions. Georgia will be further struck by the Dagestani Ummah Khan and the Persian shah Agha-Mohammed, before the document signed by Pavel the First and the strong Russian garrison, will give her lands a long-awaited peace.
In 1787, in the summer, with a three-thousand suite, in the company of Potemkin and representatives of foreign missions, the empress goes to the Tauride voyage across Novorossia and the Crimea. The procession takes place, in particular, Kiev, Kherson, Bakhchisarai, Sevastopol, Sudak, Stary Krym, Feodosia, Mariupol and Azov.
This fashion show did not go unnoticed in the Port, there is a revanchist mood. Sultan puts forward a note on Russia’s refusal from the Crimea. The Russian envoy, in turn, passes a demand to Turkey to stop the attacks on the borders of Georgia. In the end, the diplomat is put in the Seven-door castle, which means in fact, the beginning of the war. The fighting begins in August 1787.
By that time, Russia was already preoccupied with the creation of a military alliance with Austria. The troops of Suvorov and Potemkin besiege Ochakov. The commander-in-chief is procrastinating, he strengthens the siege buildings, referring to the care of people, however, it comes to winter, and the forays of the Turks bring tangible losses. We have to accept Suvorov’s plan — a decisive assault. The attack, from different directions, with six columns, must be conducted at 20-degree frost. Ochakov was taken and, on the orders of Potemkin, completely destroyed. Then the action moves to the territory of modern Romania (the river Rymnik), where Suvorov, also commanding Austrian troops, inflicts a number of serious defeats to Porte. Austria itself, who achieved the liberation of Belgrade, but also experienced the bitterness of defeat in several battles, after the change of emperors, leaves the war. In December 1790, Suvorov begins the assault on Ismail, who represents, according to him, «Fortress without weaknesses.» The forces of the parties: the Russian troops 31 thousand people, 600 guns, the Turkish garrison — 35 thousand people, with 260 guns, plus 10-meter walls of the fortress and moat. After two days of artillery preparation, at three o’clock in the morning, on the signal rocket, the columns storm fortifications. The night turns into a day, fifteen hundred horses, breaking out of burning stables, intensify confusion. To retreat to the Ottomans is impossible: the Sultan defined the execution as the only punishment for those who leave the fortress. The cannon fire of 20 cannons supporting the infantry cleans the streets, but every house has to be taken with a fight. Suvorov throws into action the huntsmen, who, acting mercilessly, with bayonets alone, complete the rout by four days.
Losses of the parties: Porta — 26 thousand people, 8 thousand prisoners, Russian empire 4,600 people. The corpses of Turkish soldiers have to be thrown into the Danube, since it is impossible to work earthworks in winter on such a scale.
According to the Treaty of Yaslav, Izmail returns to Turkey.
On the Black Sea, the Russian fleet disrupts the plans of the Turkish command to land troops in the Crimea (the battle in the Kerch Strait). The new Sultan Selim III can not approach the signing of the peace with at least one victory. The Treaty of Ias is concluded on January 9, 1791. After Russia, the Crimea, the Northern Black Sea Coast, and some other lands are assigned; they are based Odessa, Grigoriopol, Tiraspol. New lands — the Black Sea Region, Volgograd, as well as Volhynia, are inhabited by about 200 thousand ethnic Russians, who do not pay taxes at all, who are invited by Catherine.
In addition, Turkey refuses hostile actions against Georgia. Once formidable, Porta now evokes sympathy, the Russian ambassador, under his responsibility, strikes out of the peace treaty an item on a large, 7 million rubles, monetary indemnity.
Catherine’s dreams — the creation of New Byzantium, the continuation of Russia in the conquered Ottoman Empire, do not come true because of the position of the French, who in the East are already in a privileged position (the Union of the Lily and the Crescent), and the British, who do not want to violate the existing balance of power.
…Using the diversion of Russian forces to Turkey, Sweden (King Gustav III) is once again trying to recover the lost lands, and, June 21, 1788, begins fighting. The main idea is the landing of 20,000 troops in St. Petersburg, from where it is most convenient to dictate the terms of peace. The balance of forces: the Swedish army of 30 thousand, the Russian army, recruited urgently from local recruits — 14 thousand. On land, Swedes do not achieve success and retreat to their limits. Fighting takes place at sea; Fortunately, the whole Russian fleet has not yet gone to the Dardanelles. The Russian naval commander is the famous V. Ya. Chichagov, however, the Swedes have an advantage in the number of guns and warships. Battles are followed: the Gogland, the no man’s, the Eland — the Swedes retreat, the Rochensalme — the Russians are deprived of 2 ships, the Swedes 39, including the admiral frigate. In the Vyborg battle of 1790, Sweden loses 67 rowing ships and bids farewell to the dream of landing in St. Petersburg. But, on July 9, 1790, Gustav the Third receives an active long-awaited victory and approaches the signing of peace while retaining his face; In the Second Battle of Rocensalm, the Russian fleet is losing 52 warships, against 5 Swedish ships.
In total, the losses of the parties with people: Russians — 6 000 people, Swedes — 18 000. The Perpetual Peace Treaty of Verherry is signed — the status quo is preserved throughout the territories.
Meanwhile in Poland, again, the riot is ripening. The society is divided into supporters of the Targovitsky confederation, the friendship of which is bought by Catherine the First, and the «patriotic» party, which controls the Sejm. The first, roughly speaking, for the former feudal orders and alliance with Russia, the latter for some vague «Constitution of May 3», somewhat softening tough serfdom in Poland, and promoting the ideas of the Constitutional monarchy. The latter looks progressive, at the time, however, a sharp increase in the number of Polish troops, revanchism, the possibility, in the future, of aggression against Russia is attached to it, as it happened many times before.
New confederates, together with the allied Russian troops (the strength of the expeditionary corps of 96 thousand people), in a series of fighting clashes defect the supporters of the Constitution. Russia receives the remaining Belarusian lands, as well as Podillia and Volhynia, formerly part of Austria (now engaged in a war with revolutionary France). Prussia occupies Great Poland (the historical center of the Commonwealth) and a number of other territories.
Catherine II is distrustful of Jews, however, 67% of the world’s scattered people live in the annexed lands. For them it is necessary to invent such a thing as the Pale of Settlement — the border of populated areas, the so-called. places where Jews can live, except for some of their preferential categories, is prohibited.
The Grodno Sejm is called upon to approve the new redistribution of Poland. On the requirements of the Sejm Marshal to approve the treaty with Russia, the deputies are silent. Perhaps, it was then that the famous phrase was first pronounced: «Silence is a sign of consent.»
March 16, 1794 in Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, inspired by the population is elected dictator of the Republic Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The peasants totally destroy the representatives of the intelligentsia, the gentry (local nobility), just well-off people, repeating, in their own way, the events in revolutionary France. Everywhere there are attacks on the garrisons of Prussia and Russia; in Warsaw alone, 2500 Russian soldiers are killed. The military is cut out, unarmed, in houses that they consider friendly, at the signal — the bells ringing for matins on the Feast of Christ’s Resurrection (April 6). Parts of them manage to escape, bayonet attacks through crowds of the rampaging people, under a hail of bullets, logs, stones, anything that can harm, from windows and from roofs.
Lithuanians and Poles gather a body of volunteers, 23 thousand people, who are fighting to the capital with fights. In one of the battles Tadeusz Kosciuszko is captured by the Cossacks. Residents of the capital, encouraged by the recent slaughterhouse, nevertheless, demand the continuation of resistance, possibly hoping for help from revolutionary France. Counting 24 thousand people, Suvorov’s troops almost from the storm storm fortified suburbs (so-called Prague), defended by 25 thousand confederates. Sappers throw fascists a moat with stakes, arrows and cannons support them with fire. According to the testimony of the Russian participant in the assault; «… In my life, I was twice in hell — on the assault of Izmail and on the assault of Prague …". The rout of the Polish formation completes the explosion of the ammunition depot. Losses of the parties: Russian troops 600 people, insurgents 12 thousand.
However, this is not the end. Despite the fact that Suvorov specifically left in the reserve the regiments who suffered during the Warsaw morning, in order not to allow them to take revenge, their comrades also became bitter, and they wanted to punish the guilty. According to some reports, in order to stop their impulse, the commander-in-chief must even blow up the bridge that leads to Warsaw. Soldiers shoot at the crowd, indiscriminately, seeing in every human being only a traitor and murderer. According to later historical research, irregular cossacks are more guilty of excesses, although jury soldiers, remembering that the Poles sometimes spared officers, but the rank and file killed, also quenched their thirst for revenge. In total, while suppressing a riot in Warsaw itself, about 20,000 civilians are killed and, or combatants, a clear distinction can not be made between them.
The commanders-in-chief, as always, are indulgent towards the defeated enemy: Suvorov dismisses 6,000 of the militia, 4,000 regular troops are sent to Kiev, and soon, at the personal request of the Polish king, all officers are released.
Upon learning of the amnesty, the Polish detachments disperse to their homes. The third section of Poland is based on the analysis of flights. Prussia acquires territories inhabited by ethnic Poles, including «cherries on cake» — Warsaw; now they are called South, West and New East Prussia. Austria inherits historical Krakow and surrounding land. Russia receives the present Nemyrivsky (Ukrainian) region, Belarusian Grodno, part of Lithuania, and other, other, other. King Stanislaw Poniatowski — the one who could not keep his lancers and dragoons from the wrong step, gets a solid content, but is deprived of the crown. The Kingdom of Poland, Rzeczpospolita, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, just Poland, cease to exist.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, now a hero of Poland, is kept for some time in the fortress of Shlisselburg, under Paul the First, after taking the oath, like all the participants in the uprising, he is released, and leaves for the USA. Two years «Ted» gets acquainted with the situation, ties up with the president, Thomas Jefferson. Then he sails away to Europe, leaving his savings for ransom and the release of a dozen African Americans, including personal servants of the president. Jefferson is an opponent of slavery, but slaves on his plantations in Virginia is holding. In Paris Kosciuszko, says that he is free from the promise of Russia’s loyalty under the pressure and starts to form Polish legions for the French. However, he does not manage to find mutual understanding with Napoleon, whom he calls «the undertaker of the French Republic». Kosciuszko departs from violent revolutionary affairs and is devoted to literary writing. Towards the end of his life, Tadeusz is finally thinking of starting with himself-he writes a testament according to which 53 peasant families of his personal estate are exempt from serfdom. But, the latter already belongs to relatives, and the court rejects the last will of the revolutionary.
1. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov 1730—1800, Count, Prince, Generalissimo of Russia, General-Field Marshal of Austrian and Piedmontese troops. According to the pedigree legend, the Suvorovs originate from the ancient Scottish family name (Suvor), which originated in Russia under Mikhail Fedorovich (the first Russian tsar of the Romanov dynasty). In 1742, under Elizabeth Petrovna enlisted in the Musketeer regiment, 12 years later receives the first rank of lieutenant. The title of brigadier (intermediate between the colonel and the general) Suvorov was awarded in 1768, after the wars with Prussia and the capture of Berlin. There are a number of campaigns to «pacify» Turkey, Poland and the final consolidation of the Crimea within Russia. Suvorov fails to seize Emelian Pugachev (he is ahead of a certain centurion Harchev), but he is involved in suppressing the remnants of the peasant army.
He is married twice, in his first marriage two, the second — four children. Contemporaries note the strange custom at dawn to walk almost naked, while riding in dewy grass (supposedly this is very useful for health). Interesting remark of the King of France Louis XVIII, who knows Suvorov personally: «Cruel impulses, fearless by nature, he could calmly and calmly see the streams of blood, the conflagration of the destroyed cities, the desolation of the destroyed fields. It was a copy of Atilla, with his superstition, faith in witchcraft, in forebears, in the mysterious influence of the stars. … In a word, Suvorov had in himself all the weaknesses of the people and the high qualities of the heroes.»
Another eccentricity of the prince, thoroughly imprinted in the people’s memory, is the «Suvorov» method of marrying serfs (which the prince numbered about 15,000). If there were not enough girls for the boy in the Kobrin estate, Suvorov bought them in neighboring estates (the prince’s salary is 50,000 rubles a year). Twenty or thirty pairs of both sexes were built according to their height. Actually, this parameter (growth) was the main one in the selection of men and women for marriage; the priest immediately conducted a rite on them. Perhaps, this method will seem to the contemporary not quite human, but, it must be admitted that at that time the overwhelming majority of marriages were made exclusively by calculation. Errors here are unlikely to be more than in the case of matrimony «for love,» and the level of expectations is initially smaller — hence, there is no disappointment either.
To the place, or not, let us recall one of the Russian folk songs (where all the same, there is also some will):
When I had the golden mountains
And rivers full of wine
I would give all my cares for caresses
So that you own me alone
— Do not blame me unfairly
Tell the whole truth you’re the father
Then freely and happily
With prayer we will go to the crown
— Ah, me, your little dove, hand
I asked him more than once
But he did not understand my flour
And he gave me a severe refusal
— Well, honey, I’ll leave
Family and country?
After all, you will go to a foreign land
And throw me there alone
We have flown into a foreign country
And a year later he changed
He forgot the fatal oath
When another fell in love
And he told me, ashamed of betrayal
Go back to your father’s house
Leave, Maria, my walls —
And he escorted me from the porch
2. Tadeusz Kosciuszko, in Polish sounding — Andrzej Tadeusz Bonaventura Kosciusko (or Kosciusko), 1746—1817. Head of the Polish uprising in 1794. Place of birth — Mertsevschina, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, now Brest region, Belarus. He graduated from the Cadet Corps in Warsaw. He held the post of educator in the estate of the tycoon Juzef Sosnovsky. After an unsuccessful escape with the employer’s daughter, he moved to France, where he received engineering skills. Sailed to America, took part in the war with England, received the rank of brigadier general. He returned to Poland, limited the corvee in his estate, but then ceased to bring the necessary income, and the revolutionary got into serious debts.
…Kosciuszko applies for entry into the army, becomes a major general and a wealthy person. In 1794, the general leads the movement for Great Poland, receives blows with a pike and a sword, is captured by the Cossacks. On instructions from the tsar, he is released, writes letters to Napoleon with an appeal to establish a noble democracy in Poland, but he does not receive a reply. He enters into correspondence with the Emperor Alexander the First, but they do not develop cooperation on the issue of creating a tired, completely non-ambitious Poland.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko died on October 15, 1817, from a stroke.
…The Persian Shah Agha Mohammed Khan Qajar demands from the Georgian king Irakli II to break the alliance with Russia. The monarch refuses to fulfill this demand, then, in August 1795, the 35,000-strong Persian army invades Georgia. Georgians and their allies could gather a large army during the talks, but, expecting that Russia will fight for them, they do not do this. Persians are met only by 7 thousandth detachment. During the two-day battle, the Iranians force the Kura River and break the Georgians. Then they seize Tbilisi, the city is being destroyed, 22,000 residents, women and children are being enslaved. Losses of the parties: Shah’s troops — 15 thousand people, the king of Irakli the Second — 6850 soldiers (150 fighters can survive).
The Russian army is forming its corps here only next year. In response campaign, a detachment of 13 thousand people is sent to Persia. He seizes the fortress (now Dagestan) Derbent by storm, then Baku — the possession of the Persian shah, a number of other cities and, having received instructions from the new emperor, returns to Russia.
In 1792, a tripartite union of Russia, England and Austria was concluded, against revolutionary France. Convent, however, he himself wishes to declare war on Austria, on behalf of the still alive, albeit the arrested King Louis XVI. The reason is the Pilnicka Declaration issued by the European monarchs; Paris, in case of the death of the French king, they threaten complete destruction, the people — countless executions. Louis refuses to take part in this performance, but the Convention, acting on a preemptive strike, strikes Austria. The revolutionary army suffers from a lack of experienced noble officers, but it easily accepts useful new items of military science, such as; strikes by columns capable of quickly assembling out of loose order, leading the aim fire of the riflemen. The idea of the Allies — the dispersal of forces in garrisons, the siege of fortresses, does not lead to the solution of significant tasks, and these goals themselves are not exactly defined. France defends its borders, seizes new territories. The troops are stationed in the defeated countries, they feed themselves at their expense, and huge contributions contribute materially to the Republic itself. Despite the solid subsidies of England, which pays for the blood of soldiers of foreign armies, European monarchies are withdrawing from the war. In 1797 the First Anti-French Coalition disintegrates.
The prepared 60-thousandth Russian expeditionary force does not go beyond the limits of the Russian state for the following internal circumstances:
On the morning of November 5, 1796, in the Winter Palace (St. Petersburg), Empress Catherine II, having drunk coffee, retires to the toilet, lingers there longer than usual. The duty valet, sensing the unkind, opens the door slightly, and discovers the body lying on the floor. From the Empress’s throat there are faint rales. This is an apoplectic stroke, i.e., in the modern sense, a cerebral hemorrhage. She turned her leg, strangely burdened Catherine put on the floor, then transferred to the bedchamber. The heir, the son Pavel, comes urgently. He is already met as an acting emperor.
And, on November 6, at 9:45, he becomes it.
Paul the First enters the throne at age 42, a fully mature man. Previously, the reigning mother removed him from any serious business. According to rumors, a few more hours, and she would have issued a decree appointing Alexander’s beloved grandson the heir to the throne. Most likely, the father of the emperor was not the lover of Catherine, Count Saltykov, and yet, Peter the Third, and Paul is difficult to forgive his murder. In any case, he is going through the death of Catherine II quite calmly.
Paul takes care of ordinary soldiers, but reduces the liberties of the nobility, including the Guards who participated in too many palace coups. For the lower ranks, at last, a garment such as a cloth overcoat with sleeves, replacing the old sleeveless scoop, is introduced, and in especially cold weather, for guards, mandatory — sheepskin coat and felt boots. Those who receive a free certificate to retired soldiers and invalids are paid a pension (ruble or one and a half per year). Corporal punishment is strictly regulated. Mass construction of the barracks begins.
At the same time, having noticed that up to 90% of officers in peacetime are really in their estates, and not in regiments (paying for that with their commander’s salary), Paul tightens discipline. For the slightest mistake, immediate dismissal follows.
Large-scale audits are being carried out. For theft dozens (not hundreds, and not thousands) of the guilty are referred (for several months) to their country estates.
Nobles now pay a tax of 20 rubles per person. Perhaps it is their humiliation, as a symbol of some dependence on the treasury.
About 600,000 state peasants are transferred to the property of the landlords; Paul, very unreasonably, believes that so the first will live better.
Russia participates in the Second Coalition against revolutionary France and its allies.
United and commanded by A. Suvorov, Russian and Austrian troops inflict a number of defeats on the French, and force them out of Italy.
The meaning of all that is happening: France projects revolutionary moods on the cradle of Rome. In the region protests against the disgusting, very, very many, the Bourbon dynasty have long been brewing, and, accordingly, the desire for renewal of life, itself deeply entangled in the dense Middle Ages, is increasing. Squadron Ushakov, Suvorov’s troops contribute to the expulsion of the French to their homeland. The French are loaded onto their ships and leave the sunny coast. The sympathetic Republican Italians are left alone with the peasant army of the Sanfedi (Santa Fe — «The Army of the Holy Faith»), organized by the British and, to some extent, by the Catholic clergy. Of course, they lose, surrender under the guarantees of British admiral Nelson and, having left three of their fortresses, are destroyed by him (hundreds hang on the rim of the masts of English ships) — or are given to the wild violence of the crowd.
It should be noted, friends, the French officers at this time, no doubt, are the best officers of the World. Their origin is the working class, the bourgeoisie, or even the petty nobility. These soldiers are able not only to destroy, but also to create. They create — Europe, which is completely different from all that was on this place in the Middle Ages. They have something to offer — Italy, Spain, Poland. You yourself know how dramatically, almost beyond recognition, people who have passed at least a small path to success are changing. A few more years will pass, and their spirit will change. The military will acquire arrogance, ambition, disdain for «ordinary people». It is exactly the same thing, parallel, that happens to Napoleon Bonaparte himself. In this, already unattractive, French officers will enter Russia, instead of destroying slavery, they will plunder the Orthodox churches and, unfortunately, in less than six months, almost all will die.
The influence of Russia sharply increases in the liberated region. Fearing this, the Allies demand that the troops immediately move to Switzerland and, using this country as a foothold, invade France itself. Suvorov is forced to obey, although with some delay; left by him, in practice, despite the will of the Austrians garrisons, block the movement of French troops (still remaining in Genoa).
There is a strange castling; Austrian troops in Switzerland are urgently sent to Holland, to join with the Anglo-Russian landing force. Their place, in the country not yet liberated from the French, should be occupied by the Russian-Austrian national army. September 21, 1799, Suvorov’s troops begin the Swiss campaign — including the famous crossing over the Alps. Having overcome the path with incredible difficulties, having saved about 20 thousand soldiers, in the Swiss valley surrounded by mountains, the commander learns that the 60,000-strong army of Rimsky-Korsakov is defeated by the 75,000-strong corps of Massena. With a breakthrough from the Mutenskaya Valley, the 15,000-strong French detachment is half destroyed, the Russian troops are losing 700 people, Massena himself is barely escaping, leaving the epaulette in the hands of a certain brave non-commissioned officer. There is another difficult transition: 200 soldiers are killed, half of almost 3 thousand prisoners, the army is also deprived of all its artillery. At the end of September, troops leave for the valley, where people receive warmth, bread, meat and portions of alcohol. There is a connection with the half-reduced body of Rimsky-Korsakov. The army withdraws to the allied Bavaria, where Suvorov, without reacting to the proposals of the Austrian Emperor Franz the First (whom, together with his commander, Archduke Karl considers a traitor) to continue the fighting, waiting for the courier from Paul the First. Russian troops responded to Russia, Suvorov is waning to his estate Kobrin Klyuch (present-day Belarus), for a well-deserved rest. The commander is still vigorous, but the closest adviser to Pavel the First, Count Palen, slanders Suvorov, accusing almost of preparing the insurrection; in St. Petersburg an honest and decisive Generalissimo can prevent a real revolution.
The Anglo-Russian landing in Holland (on English ships) is landed in June 1799. The total number of about 45 thousand, of which 18 thousand — the Russian corps. Soldiers get stuck in numerous canals, spills, suffer from deprivation from the autumn weather. The number of supporters of the restoration of the monarchy in the Netherlands, it turns out, is not great. French troops have strong rear, popular support, excellent supply. Eventually, having lost about 7 thousand people, in hostilities and from diseases, the Allied army is evacuated by the sea. Benefit from the expedition gets only the UK: it manages to capture almost the entire Dutch fleet.
In August 1798, the united Russian-Turkish squadron under the command of Ushakov besieged the island of Corfu, captured by the French (now Greek). The garrison capitulates, the fleet commander is made into admirals. In this area, under the protectorate of Turkey and Russia, the Republic of the Seven Islands is being established, for several years becoming the main base of the Russian Mediterranean squadron. The fleet participates in the siege of Genoa, then relocates to Malta, and halfway receives the order of Paul the First to return to Sevastopol (Austria concludes a separate truce). Human losses of 400 people, all ships are saved.
So, Paul is dissatisfied with the fact that, located in Sicily Malta, the possession of the most ancient knightly order of the Hospitallers, the British not only cleared Napoleon’s troops, but also joined the UK. Russia itself was going to declare a protectorate over this island, with the prospect of becoming one of the provinces, and, at the same time, the erection of a large naval base here. Moreover, having received the regalia of the great master of the Maltese (Enkih French, as a rule) knights, Paul really considers himself so, considering it his personal duty to use all the resources of the Russian Empire for the liberation of the sacred island.
Knights expelled by Napoleon from their places of refuge, find shelter in St. Petersburg, have treasury, office, etc. in the Vorontsov Palace. However, they do not go deep into politics, do not go deep into politics, consider themselves above the subtleties of palace intrigues, and allow his nominal commander to die. Among their later achievements is the establishment of a prestigious Corps of Pages. Where the teaching of not only Catholics and Orthodox (Orthodox) is allowed.
In November 1801 Dagestan (Avar) Ummah Khan decides to support the Georgian prince Alexander Bagrationi in his struggle for the Georgian (Karli-Kakheti) throne. The legitimate monarch — George the Twelfth nominates another heir. Against the 14,000 people of the Avar and Georgian squad, there are: a Russian detachment of General Ivan Lazarev, numbering 1,500 soldiers and 6 guns, and about 7,000 Georgian fighters. The battle takes place on the outskirts of Tiflis, near the Iori River. Highlanders enter the battle without the command of Ummah Khan, the Russian-Georgian troops crowd, but fall under artillery fire and suffer serious losses. The battle ceases with the onset of the night, after which Ummah Khan gives the order to retreat.
Impressed by this battle, also afraid of the scale campaign that is being prepared by Persia, Georgii Twelfth expresses a desire to join Georgia as an autonomy with special rights. Emperor Paul the First, December 22, 1800 signs the appropriate manifesto. Further, the monarch asserts the kingdom of successor George, King David Twelfth. Later, David becomes Governor-General, with the title of king, and the Carly-Kakhetian kingdom, turning into a simple Russian province, is deprived of autonomy. At the beginning of the reign of Alexander the First, (1801), the Georgian king (who had entered into a struggle with potential dignitaries against St. Petersburg dignitaries) was suspended from power, General Ivan Lazarev, commander of Russian troops, became its manager.
The self-name of Georgians is kartveli, in the East they were called «gurj», from this in Russian «gurzin» was formed and, with the rearrangement of sounds, the modern «Georgians».
…Plans for the Indian campaign (with the British, former French colonial possessions) combined with Napoleon are recognized by most historians as a hoax, but the very fact that the rumor about him seemed true to contemporaries speaks of a turn of the foreign policy vector. With regard to Britain, Russia now maintains its armed neutrality, while others, seeing this, are imposing an embargo on trade with the «mistress of the seas,» and close their ports for it.
But, the British do not hesitate and, in 1801, through their ambassador, Winstvorte is handed over to participants in the unfolding conspiracy, in most of the masons who promoted each other to key positions, 2 million rubles. Yes, we can say that Paul favored the soldiers, but now there is not a single private soldier with him. But there is Count Palen, the Baltic German, the closest secret adviser and, in combination, the main coordinator of the coup.
And, on September 11, the plot wheel comes into motion. The Preobrazhensky regiment in the guard of the emperor is replaced by Semenovsky, who is in direct subordination to the heir Alexander (the future First), except for only one internal post. The initial plan, in words — custody of the feeble-minded and, like the hospital — Shlisselburg fortress. The deceived valet opens the door, two perplexed guard hussars receive heavy wounds of sabers. The fact that there were further four main versions. In all cases, officers bursting into the Emperor’s bedchamber are slow to leave, wanting everything to happen as though by themselves, without their direct participation. The first — Paul is half-hourly negotiating, already almost pitying the drunk conspirators, then one of them, calling for decisive action, deals the emperor with a golden snuff box in the temple. The second — the emperor exerts desperate resistance, dies in the ensuing struggle. Third, Paul signs all the conditions for abdication, but one of the leaders, Bennigsen, demonstratively leaves to another room, examines the pictures posted there for a long time. The rest perceive this gesture in their own way, they severely beat and (the Georgian prince Yashvil, the most likely murderer) suffocate the monarch. The fourth — Paul signs the act of abdication, all calms down a little, then the conspirators remember Anna Ivanovna and the Council defeated by her secret advice, express to the emperor sore, and, again, use the golden snuffbox. Apparently, such an end awaits many monarchs who are dissuaded by clever words or jokes, do not want to understand anything that «ordinary people» try to interpret to them, treat you frivolously, in the usual situation, although you know for yourselves that, in fact, you are right.
Empress Maria Feodorovna (Sofia Augusta), who is widowed, declares that she is crowned and should now reign, tears to the window with an appeal to the troops, but she is stopped (the same Palen), suggesting not to play a comedy. Later, she will take her, at least partially, sending the coup to their distant estates, removing them from power, etc.
On the throne rises her eldest son, Alexander the First. His first words are «… Everything will be the same with me as with my grandmother…»
The project of peasants’ emancipation by means of their gradual redemption with land from owner-landlords is being blamed, and is reduced almost to nothing. In newspapers it is only forbidden to publish, so shocking Europeans, announcements about the sale of people. The decree «On Free Farmers» comes out, declaring what seems to be taken for granted; the right of the landowner to let his serf to freedom. But, for the whole time of the existence of this document, hardly 1,2% of peasants could use it; landlords do not want to part with «movable property.»
By that time Alexander had been married for two years to Louise Maria Augusta, the daughter of the Crown Prince of one of the German kingdoms. In Orthodoxy, the spouse takes the name of Elizaveta Alexeevna. Both daughters die in early childhood. Further, the monarch is cold to his wife and finds solace in the arms of the main favorite — daughter lynched by the mob during the Warsaw uprising of the Polish nobleman, Maria Naryshkina (nee Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya).
In 1804, in response to the annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia, and incited by the leading English in Asia, the Shah of Persia Feth-Ali (Baba-Khan) declares war on Russia. In June and July, Russian troops, having defeated the Iranian detachments, besieged Erivan (Yerevan), but, because of the large losses, retreat. Under the rule of Russia passes the Karabakh, then the Shirvan (Shemakha, part of the present Azeybardjan) khanate. August 12, 1805, the Caspian flotilla anchors in Baku Bay, Russian General I. Zavalishin convinces Huseyngul-khan to accept the citizenship of the Russian Empire. After unsuccessful negotiations, the squadron bombarded Baku for 11 days, landed troops, broke the Khan’s forces that had left the fortress, but, due to serious losses and shortage of ammunition, removes the siege. January 30, 1806 follows the second act of submission: the Caspian fleet replenishing its reserves and the two thousandth detachment of infantry stand at the walls of the eastern capital. It seems that the transition of the Baku Khanate to the Russian Empire is a decided matter, but the cousin of the khan is included in the course of negotiations; his bodyguards are killing Russian parliamentarians. In the summer of the same year, in the final part of the action, the Russian troops break the forces of the Persian commander (son of the Shah) Abbas Mirza and join the Baku, Derbent and Cuban (part of present Dagestan and Azeybardzhan) khanate.
After the end of the Russo-Turkish war in January 1812, Persia tends to sign a peace treaty, but Napoleon’s invasion of Russia adds extra weight to the war party in the Shah’s yard. South Azebaryan becomes the place of formation of the 30-thousand army of invasion of Georgia. Further, on February 1, 1812, the 18,000-strong corps of the Persians, under the command of British officers, manages to encircle one of the Russian battalions to surrender, but this ends their fortune. A series of fierce battles ends with the capture of Lankaran (now belonging to Azerbaijan), a fortress built by British engineers. The five-day bombardment does not bring any special damage to the fortification. At dawn on January 1, 1813, a frontal assault is carried out: 1800 Russian huntsmen against 4000 defenders of the fortress. The rows of assault columns are thinning out, but a few grenadiers climb onto the wall, capture an enemy cannon, unfold it and open fire with a grapeshot, supporting the attack. In battle, 350 soldiers and officers are killed, as well as almost all defenders of the fortress. Among the trophies — 8 English guns.
October 24, 1813, the Gulustan peace treaty is signed in Karabakh, recognizing all the acquisitions of the Empire, except for the territory of Eastern Armenia — which is returning to Persia. The peoples of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia get rid of the threat of invasion by Persia and Turkey, but the constant friction on the racial and religious grounds in this region become some of the factors of the instability of the whole of Russia.
The third coalition against Napoleon and his allies — Spain, Bavaria, Italy, arises after the signing of the St. Petersburg Union Treaty by England and Russia (April 11, 1805). Later Austria, Sweden and Portugal join it.
Bonaparte is not helped even by the fact that he himself, in effect, becomes a monarch: on December 1, 1804, according to the results of a plebiscite poll among his people, with 0.07% of the votes «against» is proclaimed emperor. Russian and French rulers exchange insults. Alexander the First, protesting against the shooting, accused of conspiracy, the Duke of the neutral Baden Margrave, calls the French government a «den of robbers», Napoleon in response hints at Alexander’s participation in the overthrow and murder of his own father.
The UK is not fighting as much as it pays: 1 million 250 thousand pounds sterling for every 100,000 soldiers of the coalition each year. This is about 80 grams of gold, or 900 modern pounds per ordinary soldier.
Bonaparte is preparing a landing across the English Channel, against his main opponent, and so to speak, the «customer»; 180 thousand people cavalry and infantry. They need to transport 1700 barges in the first wave of invasion, 590 in the second. The French-Spanish fleet is sent from the Mediterranean Sea to support the landing force and, at Cape Trafalgar (vicinity of the Strait of Gibraltar), meets with the English Navy. The forces are roughly the same, three dozen battleships, but the British gunners are more adept, and mostly the noble officer corps of the «Lady of the Seas» did not suffer at all from the work of the revolutionary guillotine. The avant-garde of the Franco-Spanish column, nine pennants, breaks through, the lagging ships suffer crushing losses of manpower in artillery duels (4,500 against 450 killed by the British), are boarded and captured. The British do not lose a single ship, but their brave Admiral Nelson dies — in a barrel of rum (according to legend, drunk by sailors during the journey), the body of the commander returns to his homeland.
Meanwhile, the Austrians are going to attack the possessions of Napoleon in Northern Italy and Bavaria. Upon learning of their plans, Napoleon is like Vienna. To help allies rush two parts of the Russian army (about 200 thousand people). Alexander supposes to give battle even before the approach of additional forces. At Austerlitz, on December 2, 1805, 60,000 Russians, 25,000 Austrians, 350 guns and 74,000 French (including their allies) gather, with 250 guns.
The left flank of the Russian-Austrian army is gaining initial success, gradually shifting from occupied heights and getting bogged down in battle, then the reserves of Napoleon come out of the forest shelters and rapidly break through the center of the Allied forces. Maneuverable, extremely effective French artillery appears exactly where it is needed, immediately opens fire, sows horror and death. The army of Franz and Alexander disintegrates, as well as their retinue; For a while the sobbing Russian emperor is accompanied only by a single hussar.
However, the army of Napoleon is no longer able to pursue the retreating enemy. The Russian army receives a harsh lesson, retains two-thirds of the original composition and half of the artillery. Emperor Franz the First states to Alexander that resistance is meaningless, and concludes with Napoleon a separate peace. The third anti-Napoleonic Coalition disintegrates.
In 1806, however, a new, Fourth coalition — Russia, Great Britain, Prussia, is being formed. Napoleon breaks the Prussian army, enters Berlin. Further hostilities are taking place in Poland and East Prussia. The French emperor wants to impose the decisive battle of the Russian army, acting together with the surviving German troops (about 14% of the total). Occurring in the course of six months, three clashes of the winners do not reveal. The general battle takes place in January 1807 under the Prussian city of Preysish-Eylau (now Bagrationovsk). Beforehand, the armies maneuver for a long time, which, in conditions of severe winter and insufficient supply, leads to significant, up to 35% non-combat losses. In the end, on February 8, the Russian army in 67 thousand people, with 400 guns, leaving the city to the enemy, is built in two lines, on the frontline 4, 5 kilometers.
Napoleon has 64 thousand soldiers and 300 guns. There is a massive mutual bombardment. Some initial advantage among the French: their troops are covered with walls of houses, the gunners of Napoleon shoot more often and more accurately. Marshal Davout’s squad attacks the left flank of the Russian army, commander Bennigsen throws reinforcements to the battlefield, weakening the middle of the system. Noticing this, Napoleon gives an order to General Augerot’s corps (15,000 people) to strike at the center. The offensive is conducted on a snow-covered plain. The storm is rising, the disoriented French units are deflected to the left, and suddenly they find out, 120 meters away, the main battery of the Russians. Immediately 72 guns open fire, already without a miss, knocking out entire rows of soldiers. Within a few minutes, 5,200 enemy combatants are killed or injured. Bennigsen throws the cavalry and infantry into battle, in turn attacking the center of the army of the French.
The battle is already at the very stake of Napoleon (the emperor himself is watching the battle from the bell tower), but the 9-thousandth cavalry of Murat comes to her rescue, correcting the situation, saving his emperor. There is another desperate attack by a 4,000-strong detachment of Russian grenadiers, then the opponents retreat to their original positions. The artillery duel continues.
At noon, the fresh parts of Marshal Davout join the battle, they again press the left flank of the Russian army. 36 mobile (according to the French model, on horse traction, with the initial stock of charges) cannons are coming to their aid, 3 horse-artillery companies of General Ermolov, and also, the Prussian corps, which lasted for almost 100 kilometers a day. At nine o’clock the cannonade subsides, the opponents do not want to continue the battle and count the losses. On the Russian side of the killed and wounded — 26 thousand, Prussian — 800, the French — 24 thousand people. The Russian units retire to Koenigsberg, leaving the battlefield, corpses and broken weapons to Napoleon, but there are no winners and losers here.
After Eylau, the French soldiers are inclined to cry out no longer «Vive L’Empereur» (long live the Emperor), but «Vive Le Paix» (Long live peace). But, Napoleon is inclined to end the war on a victorious note. One can not call his subsequent actions at the Battle of Heilsberg, the June 10, 1807, when the emperor again and again sent cavalry to the fortified Russian artillery batteries. The French lose 12,500 soldiers killed and wounded (usually killed make up a fourth of the losses), the Russians — 8,000, and retain their positions. The decisive battle takes place June 14, 1807 near Friedland (now Pravdinsk Kaliningrad region, 46 kilometers southeast of Kenigsberg). The forces of the parties: the French — 80,000 soldiers, 118 guns, the Russians — 65,000 soldiers, 120 guns. Bonaparte forces launch a general frontal attack, bear significant losses from the Russian kartachi, then the emperor pushes forward fresh pieces. French guns resemble modern self-propelled guns, they swiftly move along the battlefield, along with a supply of gunpowder and lead in capacious boxes of the gun carriage, occupy a position eighty meters from the front of the enemy and immediately open fire. Perseverance, despite the high losses, well-trained mobile artillery, the strength of the army, as if inexhaustible reserves are doing their job — Napoleon wins. The Fourth Coalition disintegrates.
In the summer of 1807, the Tilzit world lies between France and Russia on the river near the city of Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region). Russia recognizes the conquests of Napoleon, the restoration of the statehood of Poland in the former Prussian possessions (the Warsaw Duchy), the power of France over the Ionian (now Greek) islands. At Napoleon’s insistence, the Russian Empire withdraws troops from the already-conquered Wallachia and Moldavia from Turkey (a year later relations are warming, Napoleon allows them to return, although it’s too late), participates in the naval blockade of England, recognizes three brothers Bonaparte — Joseph, Louis, Jerome, respectively, the kings of Naples, Holland and Westphalia.
Somewhat earlier, in 1806, on a minor, in fact, occasion — the removal of the ruler of Moldova without the prior approval of Russia, another Russian-Turkish war is being fastened. The Russian army, which once, storms Ismail, takes possession of Iasi, Bendery and Bucharest.
Further, Russia supports the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman rule. In 1804, after the «massacre of the princes» by the janissaries (formerly, at that time, opponents of the sultan’s authority), the Serbs, in cooperation with the troops, in fact, the legitimate ruler of Turkey, defeated the main forces of the rebellious Turkish guard. At the same time, they feel the embassies of Austria and Russia to support Serbia. Russia becomes a patron of the Serbs in the struggle, first for the autonomy of their Belgrade Pashalyk, and then complete independence. The rebels crush the 15-thousand Turkish detachment, occupy Belgrade, drive out the Turkish population and finally break off relations with the Porte. According to the conditions of the Peace of Tilsit, Russian assistance to Serbia is severely restricted. In 1809, during the Russo-Turkish armistice (fueled by British subsidies), the Ottomans inflict a number of defeats on the Serbs, but already in 1811—12 the militia, along with the detachment of M. Kutuzov, restore the situation, negotiate peace and autonomy. The fourth stage of the uprising — 1813 — the Turks, unilaterally reviewing the terms of the treaty, occupy Serbia, deal with the active participants in the uprising, but to the others, wanting the return of the numerous refugees from Austria, are already showing some loyalty. The national Serb administration is slowly but surely formed, the Turkish managers — spahi are in the village only to collect taxes.
Admiral Senyavin’s fleet is blocking the Dardanelles, landing troops on the islands, achieving success; in August 1807, with the mediation of Napoleon, with Turkey is a truce.
Active land hostilities are resumed in 1810, they boil down to a series of battles in the territories of Moldova, Romania and Serbia. In 1812, the peaceful Bucharest Treaty is concluded: the Besarabian region (part of present-day Moldova) departs to Russia, some territories of Transcaucasia, the border of Europe moves somewhat southward. The Danube princedoms, as well as Serbia, return to Turkey, while their wide autonomy is confirmed. Russia is emerging from the war with the Port hastily, with losses, on the eve of a large-scale Napoleonic invasion.
In 1807, Denmark declared England a continental blockade. In response, after a massive artillery and even rocket fire, destroying one-third of the city, the UK seizes Copenhagen, and the entire Danish fleet. Denmark is a long-time ally of Russia, Alexander the First, based on treaties of peace concluded earlier with Sweden, demands that the latter close its ports for the British. The Swedes do not agree, enter into a military alliance with the British, then the Russian emperor declares war on both of these states.
The war with England represents three or four fighting clashes, conducted without special bitterness. The Russian scientific vessel «Diana» is delayed in the South African port. On the Baltic Sea, an artillery duel lagging behind the main forces, the Russian 74-gun Vsevolod, with English, and also the 74-gun «Implacable», takes place near Hanko Island. «Vsevolod» loses 300 people killed, «inexorable» — 8 people. The Russian ship replenishes the team and participates in the next battle with the English «Centaur»; perished, according to averaged data, 5 English sailors and 40 Russian. «Vsevolod» runs aground, his team captives the English, the ship is burned. In the summer of 1809, also in the Baltic Sea, the British attack and capture 6 Russian gunboats (two guns, forty crew members) of boats. In the battle, 17 British and 56 Russian sailors perish.
In August 1808, in the bay of Lisbon (Portugal), the British blockaded the Russian squadron of Admiral Senyavin, seven battleships and one frigate, battered by storms and battles that had been repaired for the Baltic Sea after the end of the Russo-Turkish war. She is now confronted by 15 battleships, 10 frigates and a Portuguese coastal battery. The diplomatic Russian admiral is making concessions — the fleet is, as it were, transferred to storage; without changing crews, with raised flags, the year stands in British Portsmouth, and, after the end of the military conflict, September 9, 1809, returns to the port of Riga.
The military conflict with Sweden begins in fact, on February 9, 1808, when Russian troops cross the Finnish border (Finland at the time — part of Sweden). Formally, the war is declared on March 16. It is not popular either in Russia or Sweden, and it is developing rather sluggishly. The Swedes are smashing several small Russian detachments; helping them in this Finnish population. The Russian army will be anchored in Ostrobothnia, the middle part of Finland.
In accordance with the Napoleonic plan of the Russian command, the army, taking advantage of the rare phenomenon of the freezing of the Gulf of Bothnia, must pass to Stockholm by ice, capture it and destroy the Swedish fleet standing in the roadstead. The bold idea, in general, succeeds: off the coast Russian troops smash the vanguard of the Swedish army, seize 2,000 prisoners, 150 military and merchant ships, pose an immediate threat to Stockholm. The Swedes sit down at the negotiating table, sign a truce, the Russian army withdraws from the shores of Sweden.
In 1809, after the change of the ruler, the Swedes send additional forces to Finland, but attempts to restore the state of things are not at all effective. The Finns themselves are imbued with the idea of broad autonomy, which Alexander the First offers them and they stop their guerrilla war. Eventually, on September 17, 1809, a peace treaty was signed in Friedrichsham. The Swedes are taking the continental blockade of England, giving way to Finland and the Åland Islands to the eternal possession of the Russian Empire. Losses are almost equal; about seven thousand people on each side.
In 1808 and 1810, Napoleon, wishing to become recognized as a European court by the monarch, sends the Russian royal house proposals for marriage with the sisters of Alexander, respectively, first with Catherine, then Anna. This request is politely rejected. However, Bonaparte is deeply offended. He still marries, now on the Austrian princess, thereby, among other things, provides the French Empire with a strong rear, and military support.
Meanwhile, Russia is holding the continental blockade of Great Britain. The export of food stops, the price of bread falls by half. The domestic light industry is rising from its knees, in particular, the production of technically complex luxury goods. But, the nobility is already accustomed to the goods produced in England and therefore Russia trades with the «Lady of the Seas» through neutral countries. The French government knows this.
Napoleon proclaims the idea of expanding the Duchy of Warsaw to the borders of the Commonwealth, which is impossible without the rejection of part of Russia’s ancestral lands from Russia. The French emperor views the advance of Russian army units to the borders of the Duchy as an immediate threat to his vassal.
The main plan of Bonaparte is a huge allied (or, more accurately, dependent) Poland, which includes Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. A world with a diminished Russia. Full-fledged continental blockade of England, then the occupation of the whole of Great Britain. Theoretically, a trip to India, the return and increment of French colonial possessions (the First Empire), hypothetically — Napoleon becomes the ruler of the whole world. It is not so impossible — England owns 27% of the earth’s land, which, together with the colonies of France itself, as well as the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, which is included in the composition of the suzerain by the Commonwealth, is more than half the territory of the Earth.
This plan, however, does not fit the liberation of Russian peasants from serfdom. At the beginning of his career, Bonaparte is forced to serve the Convention and the Republic, introduces the progressive Civil Code, destroys the basis of the feudal system. However, he despises «ordinary people», and tries not to resort to their assistance, if possible. He is not at all a revolutionary and a benefactor of the people, rather, a French chauvinist. In parts of Belarus and Lithuania, at the beginning of the summer of 1812, Napoleon abolished serfdom. Peasants, first of all, are taken to plunder and destroy their former oppressors, landlords, and their families. To the French army at the same time, they do not become much more loyal. First of all, Napoleon is interested in supplying his troops. Three weeks later he returns the peasants to the landlords, provides protection, so that the grateful nobles themselves collect provisions and pass it to the French foragers. So, in general, it happens, although it should be taken into account that the aristocracy of the county counted on the revival of the Commonwealth, therefore it was quite hospitable to the conquerors. Counting his experience with the liberation of serfs unsuccessful, Napoleon projected his conclusions to the whole of Russia, not paying attention to the fact that the Russian nobles with their high position are quite satisfied. Yes, there is autocracy here, but it is limited, to the extreme case of landowner discontent, with an apoplectic blow (a snuffbox in the temple). Gold, saved during the expropriation of peasant stocks (it had enough in Bonaparte), the inclination to plunder churches and monasteries, arrogance, will subsequently turn into rivers of blood of French soldiers.
Napoleon’s army consists of: 20,000 Prussian soldiers-Prussia is offered some territories of the present Baltic states, 30,000 Austrians, 100,000 Poles, 21,000 Italians, 300,000 French, 8,000 former Russian prisoners of war who believe that they are liberating the country from serfdom, and also parts from other subordinate countries of the French Empire — only about 608,000 people (there are also large figures). The Russian army is divided into three parts, totaling 420,000 people.
Food stocks are calculated only for 50 days. Bonaparte expects to win a frontier general battle, after which his troops would almost seamlessly enter Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The invasion begins on the Neman river, near the city of Kaunas of present-day Lithuania, on the evening of June 23, 1812. In the north, the Prussian troops storm Riga. After the capture of this city, they would have to go to Petersburg, but the recent allies of Russia in the fighting are not particularly zealous.
The border battle is not impossible: on the eve of the war a huge fortified Drais camp is being built, in which Russian troops would have to restrain the 600,000th enemy army. Alexander the First declines to such a decision, but the higher officers urge the emperor to first abandon this plan, then leave the headquarters and go to St. Petersburg.
September 7 near the village of Borodino, 125 kilometers south of Moscow, there is a general battle. The number of the French army at this stage is 135,000 men, with 587 cannon, 15,000 non-combatants (helping to endure wounded, etc.) Russian — 120,000 people, 624 guns, plus 20,000 militias without firearms, usually performing a supporting role.
Napoleon’s plan is drawing a distracting blow to the center of enemy positions, an attack by the main forces on the left flank of the Russian army, its encirclement and destruction. M. Kutuzov, on the whole, all this foresees, and the troops on this site strengthens. The chief of staff, Bennigsen, somewhat distorts the commander’s intention, removing the reserve corps from the shelter too early, practically, under the fire of French artillery.
At noon, Russian troops on the left flank very successfully counterattack, while in the front ranks there is Marshal Bagration himself. A fragment of the core hurts the commander, the news of this instantly demoralizes the army. The retreat begins. The onslaught of the French is somewhat weakened after the raid on their rear by 2500 Cossacks General Platov. The troops regroup, Napoleon leaves the left flank of the Russians, rushes to the center, beats redoubts, at the cost of almost all the heavy cavalry, and stops. At seven o’clock in the evening the French emperor takes his troops from the battlefield.
At night, having collected almost all of his wounded, the Russian army departs to Mozhaisk, 105 kilometers west of Moscow. About 20 000 seriously wounded remain in the capital and later, in the majority, die in a huge fire.
Losses of the parties; Russian army 42 000 killed (30% of the composition), the army of Napoleon — 35 000 people (25%). Only in the autumn of 1812, after the exodus of the French from Moscow (who stayed there for 36 days), it becomes possible to bury, remaining until then unburied 54,000 bodies. Some of them are burned on huge bonfires. It is widely believed that the «General Frost» broke the colossal invasion army, but it should be noted that, at the beginning of the cold, only a third of the original composition remained from it.
After the battle of Maloyaroslavets, Napoleon realizes that he will not be able to gain a foothold in the south of Russia, and leaves the plundered by his troops, the Smolensk road. Only on November 14, evacuation begins for Berezina, but in a very inhospitable Vilna (modern Vilnius), several thousand soldiers and officers are killed from cold and hunger. About 30,000 people remain alive, including soldiers of the German corps of McDonald. Of the Imperial Guard, numbering at the beginning of the invasion 47 thousand people survive four hundred or five hundred. Prisoners and deserters more than 100 thousand, a significant part of them voluntarily remain in Russia after the fall of the empire of Bonaparte. The total losses of the Russian Empire at this stage are 120,000 military men and, probably, 300–400,000 peasants.
Pursuing the enemy, the Russian army occupies almost all the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815, according to the agreements of the Vienna Congress, it becomes part of Russia, the population is sworn in by the Russian sovereign. At the same time, some attributes of autonomy remain; so, for example, the Polish zloty will be replaced by the Russian ruble only in 1832. Formally neutral Dresden is seized, Leipzig and Berlin are liberated. In the battle of Lutzen, the troops of Napoleon fearlessly attack the Russian-Prussian troops, which are extremely full of artillery, bear twice the heavy losses (about 20,000), but force, as a result, the allies from Saxony to retreat. Two more such Pyrrhic victories followed, then Bonaparte calls for a truce. The Sixth Coalition, meanwhile, is being strengthened by Sweden, for its military services, Norway, which has bargained for itself (the Danish possession), and a number of other European monarchies. Under Leipzig, Napoleon offers peace in return for all the countries captured by his troops, with the condition only of the return of the French colonies. Numerous, confident allies reject such a decision and, on October 16, 1813, the grandiose multi-day battle of the Napoleonic wars, the Battle of the Nations, is boiling. Coalition forces — 300 thousand people, 1,400 guns, France — 200 thousand, 600 guns. The battle lasts until October 19, boiling down to a chain of fierce battles. German soldiers in the camp of Bonaparte are moving to the side of the Coalition, solving the outcome of the whole affair. Napoleon retreats, losing killed, wounded (who can not be evacuated) and captives 80,000 people, and 325 guns. The losses of the allies are 54,000, half of them are soldiers of the Russian expeditionary army. Six months later, on April 11, 1814, in the suburbs (captured) of Paris, Fonteblo, Napoleon signed a renunciation of the throne — for himself and his heirs.
…After a series of battles in the suburbs, which brought about an equal number of victims — 6—8 thousand people, and demonstrations of a formidable artillery battery, which had previously performed an unexpected maneuver, the Russian troops took Paris without a fight. There are almost no excesses with the civilian population. Officers pay for liquor through receipts, or put bottles under the table, thus deducing them from the field of view, writing out an account, not too picky waiters. Later for all this, the Russian emperor, or more precisely, the working people under his supervision, will pay. The imposition of «reprisals» or, in other words, military indemnities on France, is a perfectly reasonable offer of Great Britain, the «kindest» Alexander the First rejects.
Lower ranks go beyond the boundaries of the settlement, on the streets of the capital without the written permission of commanders is prohibited, under pain of arrest by the French National Guard, (with the filing of Alexander the First) and subsequent severe punishment. Nevertheless, (or even, including, for this reason) during the year and a half of the occupation, about 40,000 Russian soldiers desert, let’s say softer — leave their army, for the Victory has already been achieved, the French women at that time are very friendly, nice, well provided, local authorities welcome the emergence of new citizens; men, after the Napoleonic adventures, in France is not enough just catastrophically.
On the wave of successes in foreign policy Alexander the First believes that everything is fine in his state; does not in the least hurry with the abolition of serfdom and other major transformations. His opinion is shared by most of the Russian nobility.
In 1816 the Baltic peasants were liberated, however, without land allotments. As always, «lucky» only not completely loyal to Russia, the inhabitants of the outskirts of the empire. Initially free residents of the Russian Pomerania, the Caucasus, the Far East, Alaska, as well as parts of the Asian possessions, Finns and, to some extent, Cossacks.
Belarusian-Lithuanian (to modern Lithuania has no direct relationship), the Polonized nobility, counting on the restoration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, is subjected to the so-called «dissembling the gentry.» A certain number of people, as a result, lose their high status.
The new toy of the emperor — invented by him military settlements. Some of their similarity already exists in Germany — landwehr, a rural settlement in which a weapons warehouse for training is located, and the young villagers are trained by a retired officer in their spare time. At the same time, we note that there is a ban on any corporal punishment. In general, the landwehr is popular, the youth, who are exempt from conscription, consider these infrequent military exercises quite amusing. Almost half of the army in war time is made up of militiamen from the landwehr, they serve very well.
Remind military settlements and «arable soldiers», respectively, Cossack villages and Cossacks — but in the latter case, the organization and life are created by free people, at their discretion, and therefore are viable.
The emperor conveys his idea to the very executive officer, Count Arakcheev. He starts dealing with all his official zeal. To begin with, a battalion of lower ranks of the regiment settles in Novorossia, with wives and families. The servicemen who are completely weaned from agricultural work are resisting; then in the course go steeples and rods. But, these people are now not peasants in the full sense of the word — sowing, haymaking, harvesting, etc., are not performed when the time really comes, but according to the schedule approved by the higher-ups.
General Ermolov is trying his hand at the North Caucasus, in forging a peaceful life. Given the fanaticism of the mountain tribes, their hostile attitude towards the Russians, he decides that it is absolutely impossible to establish peaceful relations with them. The troops conduct a planned siege of the Caucasus — they build roads, cut through the woods clearings, and establish new fortresses. This activity is bearing fruit, but, in 1825, Nicholas I recalled Yermolov in connection with suspicion of ties with the Decembrists (they really assumed that the general would assume the post of minister of war) and would resign.
In 1818 under the patronage of Russia pass, first the Elder, then the Junior and Middle Kazakh Juzes (a kind of large clans). Since 1822, under the decree of Alexander the First, the khan’s power in zhuzes is abolished.
At the end of life, Alexander loses interest in politics, strikes mysticism, travels a lot and, on December 1, 1825, dies in Taganrog from a severe cold and «brain inflammation.» According to the legend, which can be authentic, the emperor dramatizes his death and begins a wandering life under the name of Fedor Kuzmich. The first documentary information about this person appears in the autumn of 1836; For vagrancy the 60-year-old elder receives 20 blows with a whip and is sent to Siberia. In Tomsk province, he acquires freedom of movement, teaches children to read and write, while taking only food as a payment. In 1850, the famous writer Leo Tolstoy visited the wanderer, spending the whole day in conversations with him. There is information about the correspondence of Kuzmich (initially completely illiterate) with Nikolay First and Alexander II.
Fedor Kuzmich is introduced in 1864 in Tomsk, leaving encrypted, and not read with all the authenticity of the note. In place of the crypt, a chapel is put, in 1936 it is destroyed. In place of the ruins are found relics, in 1995, they find refuge in the Kazan Church of the Tomsk Virgin Mary-Alekseevsky Monastery.
On November 27, 1825, the population of Russia, as well as the Senate and the Synod, was sworn in to the brother of Alexander the First, Constantine. But Constantine himself does not want to rule, suggesting that otherwise «… they will strangle me, as they strangled my father.» He is comfortable enough in Warsaw, the Kingdom of Poland, where the prince is in fact the governor of the Russian monarch. In addition, he does not have his legitimate children, he concluded a morganatic marriage with the Polish countess, which in the future can cause complications in the succession to the throne.
At the beginning of the reign, Nicholas the First had to give orders for the execution of five members of the uprising, the so-called Decembrists. More such orders are not required; for the lower ranks they are replaced by corporal punishment, which usually have the same sad result. That is why Nikolai Pavlovich receives from the Russian people the unofficial epithet «Palkin». If the coup succeeds, a civil war would most likely occur, but, as it seems, this blood would lead the great terror and revolution of 1917.
In 1817, Nicholas, then still not considered the main pretender to the throne, married Friederike Louise Charlotte of Prussia, the daughter of Prussian King Frederick William III. As usual, the bride takes Orthodoxy, the name of Alexander Fedorovna, teaches Russian, but this does not reach the degree of perfection of Catherine II, and, as a rule, prefers to speak German.
The Interregnum and the Decembrist uprising are seen in Persia as a convenient moment for unleashing a war against Russia, returning the lost lands. The main goal of the Iranian Shah is Tiflis (Tbilisi). The first blow, July 16, 1826 on the Russian territory is inflicted by the 16 thousandth detachment of the Erivan (part of the territory of present-day Armenia and Turkey) serdar (leader), supported by the Kurdish cavalry of 12 thousand people. Then, on July 18, the border river Araks is crossed by the 40,000-strong army of Abbas Mirza. Russian troops are few and scattered, individual posts can not contain the onslaught of the enemy. The local Muslim population joins the Iranians, Armenians find refuge in the mountainous terrain, or fortresses with strong enough garrisons. On September 15, the Russian detachment smashes the 18,000-strong avant-garde of the Iranian army on the approaches to Tiflis with a swift bayonet attack: the losses of the parties, respectively, 27 and 2,000 people. Furthermore, on October 13, a separate Caucasian corps crushes the 35,000-strong Iranian army near the city of Elisavetpol (Ganja, now Azerbaijan), losing 60 people against 2000. Erivan (Yerevan) is being liberated, the military forces of the Persians are being forced into Iranian Azerbaijan (the historical region of Iran). On February 22, 1828, the Turkmanchai Peace Treaty was signed — the possessions of Russia were confirmed, the Armenian region (including Karabagh-Karabakh) was created from the territories of the Nakhichevan and Erivan khanates, as well as the Eastern (Persian) Armenia, to which 30,000 Armenians were resettled, 20 million rubles in silver.
In 1828 another Russian-Turkish war begins. Before that, the united Russian-French-English fleet, helping the Greek national revolution, broke the Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the Navarino battle (1827). In the Ionian Sea (between Greece and Italy), after refusing to accept an ultimatum, the murders of an English parlementer, go to the bottom of 60 ships of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet, the allies do not lose a single one. Offended Turkey closes the Bosporus Strait, and this is the reason for declaring really large-scale military actions.
The Russian 100,000-strong corps, acting against the 200,000-strong army Ports on the territory of present-day Romania and Bulgaria, in a series of battles, sieges of fortresses, etc., is making significant progress. In Transcaucasia, in the east of modern Turkey, several originally Ottoman cities are captured — Kars, Poti and Bayazet. It also surrenders Adrianople, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire (west of Turkey), Russian regiments march unhindered to Constantinople. Sultan agreed to all conditions, September 14, 1829 in Adrianople (Edirne) signed the Adrianople Peace Treaty. The possessions of Russia are confirmed, for the Russian and foreign ships the Bosporus opens. Poti and Anapa become part of the Russian Empire. The Porte recognizes the autonomy of Serbia, as well as the Moldavian and Valassian principalities. The governments of these state formations are now being formed under the control of Russia.
But, between Turkey and Russia, there are moments of complete mutual understanding. In 1831, Istanbul was threatened with the seizure of troops by the former vassal of Porta, Muhammad Ali of Egypt. The Sultan requests assistance from Russia, then on the shores of the Bosporus a 10,000-strong corps of Russian troops is landed. It prevents the capture of Istanbul and the possible disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
1. Banknote 5 rubles, circulation 1830—1849 g. Signature of the cashier is made manually. She is the same: «blue-eyed, cyanosis, titmouse»
2. Banknote 10 rubles, circulation 1819—1849. Nicknames: «red, rubella, cancer». A live goose is worth a ruble twenty, a dozen eggs 23 kopecks, a kilogram of fresh 25 kopecks.
The salary of an official of the lowest, 14th grade (collegiate assessor) is 35 rubles per month (banknotes). The usual «fatness» of bribes at this level is 150 rubles a year. The sovereign is indulgent towards this phenomenon. However, there is practically no corruption at the highest level, and the officials are fully competent.
3. Nicholas the First Emperor of All-Russia, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland (1796 — 1855). The cause of death is a severe cold, or, against the background of failures in the Crimean War, the acceptance of poison.
4. Konstantin Pavlovich (Romanov), adjutant-general, emperor of several days, the nominal governor of the kingdom of Poland (1799 — 1831). He died of cholera.
5. Alexander Pushkin, poet, the founder of the modern Russian literary language. Birth May 26, 1799 according to the modern (Gregorian) calendar, in the family of a non-titled (not having generic titles, such as the baron, earl …) noble family — what is happening, according to legend, from Ratmir (Ratshi), servant and friend of Alexander Nevsky. The birthplace is Moscow, the German settlement, a settlement now dissolved in the Lefortovo and Baumanskaya streets. The younger brother — Lev — personal secretary of the writer, combat officer, sister — Olga… nothing special marked, except that in childhood she was very friendly with Alexander. Since 1811 — six years of study at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. The first issue of this educational institution is marked by a surge of manifested and flourished talents. Since 1817, the work of a collegiate assessor (which is roughly equivalent to the rank of lieutenant), in so far as — in the College of Foreign Affairs. Further succession — travel, quarrels, reconciliation, flirting with beautiful ladies (Natalia Goncharova — one hundred and thirteenth love), writing poems. The poet’s account is 32 duels, of which 29 are canceled. On one of the fights, the duelists miss, on the second — Pushkin, in which an opponent has already fired, refuses satisfaction. The third conflict — with J. Dantes, who spoke in defense of the adoptive father, the Dutch ambassador, Louis Heckern, ends tragically.
The duel is set by very strict rules. Opponents are twenty paces from each other and at a signal they converge to the barrier indicated in five meters, thrown by greatcoats. During the passage of this path, a shot is fired. Dantes wounded Pushkin in the stomach. Alexander changes the pistol, the barrel of which is packed with snow, pulling the trigger. The bullet punches his hand and stops on his chest — supposedly stopped by a massive button. It is widely believed that by the time of the duel, d’Anthes prepares a cuirass made of high-quality steel.
The Baron, as well as the adoptive father, is expelled from Russia. Subsequently, Dantes holds high positions in the government of France.
Nicholas the First covers all the debts of the poet from the treasury (138 thousand rubles, of which 94 thousand are card losses), takes part in the fate of four of his children — Alexander, Maria, Natalia and Gregory, in essence, forms the cult of poetry of Pushkin at the state level.
6, 6a Aboriginal Russian (somewhat already forgotten) dish — kulebyaka. For the Eaters of Time. A symbol of traditional Russian cuisine of the nineteenth century. The name comes from the words «kolob» — a small bread, or «kulebyachit» — «cook, roll the dough». The main idea: fresh pancakes separate the pie fillings, not allowing their taste to interrupt each other. As stuffing is used forcemeat of meat of all sorts, cabbage, buckwheat porridge, steep eggs, fish, mushrooms, onions. In shape, the ready-made pie resembles a loaf, as a rule, it is decorated with dyed pigtails from above. To the table, as a rule, it is served chopped into portions slices. Variety kulebyaki — holiday kurik, higher, rounded, reminiscent of the «cap of Monomakh», with stuffing from chicken, buckwheat porridge and eggs with onions — also separated fresh pancakes.
7. Pies. A traditional Russian dish, a patty with a hole from the top («unbuttoned»). In the open middle, right after baking, melted butter, meat or fish broth with shredded parsley is poured. The filling of red fish, or rice with onions and steep eggs is covered with a piece of Caspian sturgeon.
…A new Polish ripens, the so-called. «November» uprising, under the slogan of restoring the Commonwealth within the borders of 1772 (ie with Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Jews and Lithuanians). But not only exorbitant ambitions drive rebels. The reason for the discontent is preliminary censorship, the cancellation of the (Napoleonic) jury trial, as well as the rumors that Polish troops should become the vanguard of the Russian army in the invasion of Belgium (where a bloody religious conflict erupts). In any case, the deeply conspiratorial and ramified, Patriotic (Masonic) Society has long been formed, and it wants not to reason, but to act.
November 29, 1830 conspirators attack the army barracks. The six faithful oaths of the Polish generals die. Captures the Belvedere Palace, in which the failed monarch takes refuge, Konstantin Pavlovich, however, this bird flies away on time. Further, the passive governor refuses to take part in any hostilities, declares that the whole fight is a conflict exclusively between the Poles and his brother, Nikolay the First, dissolves the Russian regiments, retires beyond the Vistula.
Members of the Patriotic Club diligently clean the Polish government, so-called. The Administrative Council. More and more points of view are emerging, anarchy is reigning and, in this mess, a certain general, Josef Khlopitsky declares himself a dictator. The conditions of peace sent to St. Petersburg are reduced, practically to the same thing that Poland has under the Constitution of 1815; except for the point on the restoration, in fact, of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Russian monarch does not promise anything other than an amnesty. The Saeima makes a decree on the detonation of Nikolai the First (and his heirs) on the Polish throne. A full-scale war begins.
European countries hold benevolent neutrality, close their borders to supply the rebels with weapons, ammunition, etc. The most disturbed by what is happening in Poland is England — she sees here the continuation of the Jacobin and Napoleonic epics.
The dispersed Russian troops suffer at first a number of serious defeats, or, at least, achieve a draw result. Then the centers of the uprising in Volhynia and Lithuania are suppressed. The situation is somewhat straightened and, on May 26, 1831, a battle will take place near the Polish Ostroleka. The forces of the parties: the Kingdom of Poland — 30 thousand people, 74 guns, Russia — 35 thousand, 148 guns. An important role in this conventional frontal battle is played by artillery; Russian gunners take a more advantageous position, shoot more accurately and more often. Irrevocable losses of the parties: Poles — 9 thousand, Russians — 5 thousand people. Polish troops retreat to Warsaw. The besieged capital raises excitement, the government is replaced. Everyone understands what will happen soon, and absolutely do not want to participate in it.
During the negotiations for the surrender of Warsaw and surrender, the 32,000-strong Polish army promptly leaves the city, withdraws beyond the Vistula and disarms there by the Austrians. On September 7, Russian troops enter Warsaw solemnly. The poet Alexander Pushkin writes patriotic poems, which, as a rule, are not presented to the Soviet and Russian readers in poetry collections:
It happened — and on the day of Borodin
Again our invaded banners
In the breaks of the fallen Warsaw again;
And Poland, like a running regiment,
In the dust throws a banner bloody —
And the mutilated mutiny was silent.
Presenting a discord between the Poles’ striving for freedom and admiration for the executioner of the French Republic, Emperor Napoleon:
And you hate us…
For what? answer: for whether,
What is on the ruins of flaming Moscow?
We did not recognize impudent will
The one under whom you trembled?
On February 26, 1832, the Organic Statute appeared. According to it, the Polish Kingdom is declared an organic part of Russia, the Polish army, the Sejm, the national monetary system are abolished. Many Poles with families settle in different countries of Europe, spreading there seeds of enmity towards Russia. Polish women introduce, in their environment, a new custom — they wear black ribbons in their hair — «a sign of mourning for the lost Motherland».
Inside Russia, meanwhile, the world. Terrorism, as such, is not yet in sight. There is a strict regulation of everything, but the rules do not change on the move, and, having understood them, it is easy to conduct their business. The education system, industry, trade and banking system are strengthened. Corruption exists, mainly, only in the lowest levels of officialdom. The number of state, practically free peasants is increasing; they freely move around the country, buy, sell, conclude legally registered contracts. The state extends its protectorate to serfs, treating them primarily as citizens, sometimes arresting the estates of the landowners for inhuman treatment of their subordinates.
However, the firmness of this system gives rise to problems that arise in a military conflict. The very beginning of the Crimean War is an example of intransigence, inability to «unravel» the technical misunderstanding, which becomes casus belli first, the cause for war, and then a heavy defeat. So, in 1853, in order to exert pressure on Turkey in the matter of control over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Russia introduces troops to Wallachia and Moldavia. Nikolay the First absolutely does not wish to hear opinions of England and Austria in this occasion. Meanwhile, Britain, and without large-scale wars in the East, by means of cleverly drafted free trade agreements, etc., makes Turkey a dependent country, an important market for the sale of its industrial goods. The emperor is also not interested in the fact that Napoleon the Third, and the French people in general, is tired of the world, maybe wanting to take revenge for past defeats and to play with muscles. Moreover, Nicholas provokes the French monarch, pointing out in his congratulatory telegram: «Monsieur mon ami» («dear friend») instead of the permissible «Monsieur mon frère» («dear brother») protocol. In fact, the dynasty of Bonaparte is excluded from the succession by the Congress of Vienna, everything is correct, but, in this case, one could accept the state of things as it is. All these accumulated little things lead to the fact that on October 16, 1853 Turkey, and after a while two more world empires — France and England, also joined them Sardinia, the largest Italian kingdom, declare war on Russia. Knowing the outcome of the conflict in advance, one could suggest to the emperor: human rights in Wallachia, Moldova and Montenegro (where recently, in the suppression of the national uprising, Ottoman troops display unacceptable brutality) — that’s what you need to declare casus belli, and in colors to advocate the need for armed intervention throughout Europe. Then, give orders to enter the Russian expeditionary corps in the Danube princedoms, etc. But, there is no such adviser in the environment of the Russian emperor: only court flatterers have remained. Nikolai forgets that somewhere there are people who have their own opinion, and they also have loud guns.
From the war can not escape, but, at least, it needs an important reason not to lose face. In this military conflict, neither side looks like a fighter for the truth, neither for freedom, nor for faith.
November 30, 1853, the Sinop naval battle takes place. Near the town of Sinop (roughly the middle of the Black Sea coast of Turkey), the Port prepares forces for landing in Sukhumi and Poti. The detachment of ships P. Nakhimov blocks the bay, waits for the arrival of the main forces and makes an attack, trying to enter between coastal batteries and the Turkish fleet. The rest can be called «carnage» — without special military tricks, mixing ships and swapping volleys. Both sides have a novelty of military thought, bomb weapons — a cross between a large-caliber mortar and a mortar. Russian gunners for the first time in history, and quite successfully use a particularly large caliber, allowing the canopy to shoot 25 kg of explosive (with a high content of gunpowder) projectiles. The Turkish fleet and coastal batteries lose 3,000 people killed and wounded, and 200 sailors, including commander of the fleet Osman Pasha, are taken prisoner. Lit up, 7 frigates are thrown ashore, 3 corvettes, a steamer and a lot of small boats, down to fishing boats, 3 transport damage, 2 coastal batteries are destroyed. The Russian fleet loses about 150 people dead, 3 linear ships receive damage. In the battle, Russian steam-and-fregas (using propellers, speed at this point 15 km h) also participate, but they come to the end of the battle; Sinope battle becomes the swan song of sailing ships of the line.
In Europe, however, this victory is perceived very gloomily, indicating that, according to the rules of warfare, one can not attack ships at anchor in the port, especially the lower class and smaller displacement. But, most importantly, England and France pledged to observe armed neutrality only so long as the Russian Empire defends itself. When it moves to active military operations, on foreign territory, these two colossal colonial powers declare war on Russia. That’s it, March 27, 1854 is happening.
So, on April 22, 1854, the Anglo-French squadron evacuates consuls and foreign citizens from Odessa. One of the allied frigates, without the flag of the parliament, begins maneuvers in the immediate vicinity of the shore. He is fired from the port’s mole (according to one version, warning shots). Using this pretext, nine ships are on a raid in the harbor, subject the city and port to a large-scale bombardment. Rowboats, armed with small-caliber guns, almost approaching the shore, also take part in the bombardment. As a result, 250 city residents are dying, the buildings of the port and adjacent territories of Odessa are being destroyed, all Russian and neutral commercial vessels are sinking. The fire of coastal batteries damages 4 frigates, losses on them are 3—4 seamen.
In June 1854, allied forces — 34 battleships, 55 frigates (most of them — steam) block the Russian fleet — 14 linear sailing ships, 6 frigates and 6 steam-ship frigates in the bay of Sevastopol. Simultaneously, a landing of 62,000 landing troops is carried out, on 350 ships, in Evpatoria. Halfway to Sevastopol, he is welcomed by the 35,000-strong Russian army. The commander-in-chief, A. Menshikov, the great-grandson of Peter the Great’s companion, expresses the phrase becoming the common name — «We throw the hats off» and invites the inhabitants, as to the performance, to contemplate the forthcoming battle.
The French and the British advance separately, seeking to embrace the positions of Russian troops from the flanks. The first one is luckier — Menshikov’s regiments located near the sea fall under the crushing fire of ship artillery, and, having lost their losses, depart. British parts are mixed during the movement, however, hiding in the folds of the terrain, practically do not bear damage from the canister. Most Russian officers in the old manner are building their subordinates in, representing an excellent target, a dense square. Soldiers, now obeying the voice of their reason, are scattered from the columns, in some cases the pitying allies give them a close fight. The battle is now a series of random bayonet fights. Demoralized by the ongoing chaos, and, most of all, accurate shooting from long-range rifled rifles — the so-called. the Russian troops retreat. The Allies, believing that they fought not with the whole army, but only with its vanguard, stop, missing an excellent opportunity to seize Sevastopol from the course. Losses of the parties: allies (excluding Turkish troops) — 3,300 people, the Russian army — 5,700 people.
Admiral Nakhimov wants to go to sea, fight and die with honor. The commander-in-chief declines this proposal and orders the Russian fleet (the oldest ships) to be flooded along the fairway of the bay.
The base of the British expeditionary force is located 15 kilometers south-east of Sevastopol, Balaklava. October 25, 1854, a 16-thousand Russian detachment of Cossacks and the hussar, having fled Turks, attacks a number of structures that scouts erroneously mistaken for a fleet of artillery pieces. However, this is the camp of English dragoons and Scottish infantrymen. The dragoons retreat. To counter the broad front for the Cossacks’ attacks, the Scotsmen dressed in red uniforms line up with two rows instead of four, thus forming a «thin red line» bristling with steel. Quoted phrase, after the appearance on the pages of the newspaper «Times» becomes a widespread speech turnover, meaning defense by all means and the latest forces.
The troops occupy the starting positions, but then a new memorable event follows. The commander of the British forces, General Reglan (later named in his honor jacket), from the hill notices how the Russian cavalry evacuate the nine Turkish guns fired on the redoubts, orders them to intercept them. The order arrives in the elite elite Guards squadron located on the plain. From the words of the messenger and a short note, the commander can not in any way understand which guns he is talking about, and decides that he should attack a battery of heavy guns located at the very end of the valley, which is covered up practically by the whole Russian army. Six hundred people rush along the plain, under the frontal and flanking (roughly speaking — lateral) fire, get to the guns and retreat, losing half the composition during the battle, killed, wounded and captured, and almost all horses.
Attack becomes «legendary», is reflected in Anglo-Saxon literature and cinema. It is unlikely that she, however, would receive so much attention if the offspring of the most aristocratic families of England were not serving in her, and British officers, accustomed to think, as a rule, with their heads, did not show this time helplessness. By the way, in the British army, at this time, the custom of selling military ranks for money is common. Such an order can embarrass, but only at first glance. Presumably, people who have issued a large amount for the rank, hold on to it, take the initiative, constantly improve their competence. The same officers who get to senior positions already in old age, perhaps in peacetime, through complex intrigues or the usual linear advance, already do not want anything, except as a secured quiet old age.
In mid-May 1854, 67 Allied ships appeared on the roadstead in front of Krondstadt, luring mainly the sailing fleet of Russian (26 linear, 7 frigates, 7 steam-fouling) for the battle. Not having waited for this, and having convinced that in many places sea mines are exposed (only 600 pieces), squadrons leave. Later, in the spring of 1855, two British frigates would explode on the pyrotechnical explosive devices of E. Nobel. Ships will get rid of small damages — the charge of black powder is only 4, 5 kilograms, however, the psychological effect of using new weapons exceeds all expectations.
In July 1854, two British steamshopfregat, shelled out of 120 guns Solovetsky monastery — the proposed base for an attack on Arkhangelsk. They are answered by 10 old, caught in a monastery on storage, guns (invalid team of Gunners, 50 people). Attempt to land the naval landing is broken.
…August 29, 1854 in Petropavlovsk (now — «Kamchatkii») Anglo-French fleet landed 926 paratroopers. About 400 of them die or are taken prisoner, the losses of the Russian garrison are 40 people. In anticipation of a second visit, the whole city is dismantled by a log, civilians, ships, garrison, evacuated. Therefore, on May 20, reinforced to fourteen pennants squadron finds on the site of the administrative center of Kamchatka, only a deserted place, not at all suitable for long-term basing. The allied fleet is sent to pursue four transports with residents of Petropavlovsk and the military, as well as two linear warships, and locks them in the De-Kastri (now Chikhachev) bay from the south. At night, the convoy is anchored and leaves to the north, at the mouth of the Amur River. There, on the site of the border post, Nikolayevsky settlers founded a new Russian city — Petropavlovsk-on-Amur. The Allied fleet, whose captains do not know that Sakhalin is an island, still awaits the appearance of ships «from the Gulf» for a long time.
Then follow — November 5 — Inkerman battle, a futile assault on the heights near Sevastopol, 3,300 killed against 880 British and French soldiers. A small respite — on November 14, as a result of a severe storm, 53 ships of the Allies sink (including steam), 25 of them transports. On February 17, 1855, an attempt was made to unblock the captured Evpatoria. The besieged fight off the assault with artillery fire, inflicting damage on the Russian army of 750 people, losing their 300; Ottomans regain their former reputation, their fighting spirit is growing stronger. May 24, the Anglo-French fleet occupies Kerch, burns all ships and even fishing boats in the bay. August 16 — a battle against the Chernaya River, a senseless attack by Russian troops on little significant heights, 1,760 people killed and wounded by the Allies, 8,300 — soldiers and officers of the Russian army. Simultaneously, the Black Sea is traversed by the enemy’s steamfregas, sometimes firing the shore or engaging in skirmishes with each other.
In the Sea of Azov, the Anglo-French fleet bombards or burns, landing troops, coastal towns and villages, including Taganrog and Mariupol.
Sevastopol and its strategically important heights are subjected to massive artillery shelling. Further, on September 8, the French troops take Malakhov Kurgan. Russian units leave the southern, urban part of Sevastopol and pass to the fortified bay. Allies are sent to Nikolaev, the second strategically important base of the Russian fleet. At the mouth of the Dnieper, they are firing from the armored platforms of the coastal fortress of Kinburn, seizing it, leaving the garrison and descending for the wintering to Sevastopol.
All parties to the conflict are exhausted, criticized by civil society, and are fully prepared to negotiate peace. On March 18, 1856, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. Russia agrees on the freedom of navigation on the Danube, renounces the protectorate over Serbia, the Moldavian principality and Wallachia. Returns the Turkish city of Kars along with the surrounding territories, in exchange for «all other places occupied in the Crimea by the Allied forces.» The Black Sea is declared neutral; and Porte, and Russia, and any other state in peacetime is forbidden to have a navy here. The fortifications of Sevastopol are being destroyed.
Well, and, yes; The key to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem remains with the representative of France. Nicholas could have guessed himself that the moral right to patronize Christians from a man who rules the country where Christians are sold — even with the land, at least without, can not be.
Russia suffers a minimal loss of territory, but the Triple Alliance of Emperors-winners remains in the past, the primacy in Europe from Petersburg moves to Paris.
Losses of the parties: Russia — 140 thousand people, France — 97 thousand, the Ottoman Empire — 45 thousand, Great Britain — 22 thousand, Sardinia (a large island off the coast of Italy, the strongest then Italian state) — 2 thousand people. All losses of the allies — 166 thousand people.
The failure of Russia ruinously affects the health of the emperor. Raise his tone can send a message about the capture of Evpatoria, the initiator of the assault is the very Nikolay the First. But, on the evening of February 29, the courier brings news of the siege and heavy losses of the Russian army. The Emperor, as if intentionally accepting a review of marching battalions in a light uniform, already infected with the flu; the disease gives complications and, on March 2, 1855, the monarch dies.
On the same day, the throne is occupied by the son of Nicholas I, 37-year-old Alexander II. He is married to the 30-year-old princess of the Hessian house Maximilian Augustus Sophia, perhaps the receptionist, the daughter of the «Great» (this word prefix means the middle between the king and the duke) of Duke Ludwig II (Germany).
The fate of the Russian peasants to the new tsar, as follows from his speeches before the nobility, is not particularly interesting, however, the monarch points out that the need for the abolition of serfdom is overdue, and «it is much better that it happens from above than from below.» The emperor is offered such a solution: two-thirds of the landlord possessions are pledged, under the security of the loans taken from the state, it is necessary to pay only a small difference in order to redeem them, transfer the peasants attached to the estates into state ones, and then completely free them.
But such a brilliant plan of the manager of the state property of the official V. Kiselev, the tsar and the nobility is rejected. Too it would be for ordinary people nice, magical and clear. Get the freedom in a jiffy, yes even the estates of your former serf-owners in addition? Why, it is possible to avoid the revolution in the future, and to eliminate the nobility (physical)! The answer is no!
A very difficult to understand Manifesto of 17 acts «On the Most Gracious Granting to Free Serfs of the Rights of the Condition of Free Rural People» is published in Moscow on March 5, 1861. The main provisions: peasants are released, they are transferred to their movable property, as well as personal houses and buildings. From this moment the master does not have the right to sell people, to resettle them, to force them to make marriages, at his own discretion. The landlord allocates a certain field allotment to the rural society (namely, to the «world», a certain likeness of the Soviet collective farm). The community council distributes the land among the peasant participants at its own discretion. Further, attentively: a person has no right to refuse a given site within 9 years, even if he could immediately redeem it completely. While the legalized act of sale has not occurred, the plowman must work out the corvee or pay the rent, that is, be in a so-called temporary-obligated condition. What kind of punishment is envisaged in case of disagreement and then carry out the processing of this duty, the Manifesto does not disclose, as well as other details; obviously, accrual of arrears to the rural world, to an individual, a debt prison, and so on. In reality, a house, movable property, but not a means of production-land itself and draft animals-can be selected for arrears.
The peasant has the right immediately (or more precisely, in two years) to give up the right to purchase land; then he gets a quarter of the established minimum of the allotment and becomes free, albeit without any means of subsistence.
If, after 9 years, the head of the family refuses his land (usually 5 acres for the male soul, including children), he is released from any obligations to the landowner and the state.
When (not less than 9 years later) the peasant feels that he is ready to bear an increased financial burden, and wants to leave the site at his place, he applies to a state institution that pays out the money ransom to the landowner. The initial payment is 20% directly to the land owner. Since then, on the one hand, a person tears up all legal relations with the landowner, in effect, redeems himself and the family from slavery; on the other hand, he gets into debt bondage, paying the entire amount to the state for 49 years, from 6% per annum.
1. Ten rubles in 1854, i.е. the Crimean War. An adult healthy person is then, according to high metropolitan rates, 150—200 r.
2. Three rubles, in circulation 1898. In 1872, a cow costs 30 rubles, with an average salary of a skilled worker of 28 rubles a month. Inflation is low, because such prices go right up to 1914.
3. Fifty rubles, the issue of 1899, the «pay» of a lower-ranking official.
4. Alexander II Nikolaevich (Liberator), the Emperor of All Russia. Birth — 1818, Moscow, Bishop’s House (now destroyed) Chudova Monastery, Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna. In his youth — military service, long trips around Russia. The main milestones of the life journey: the refusal to expand into Alaska and the overseas territories, the necessary or not necessary joining (already, in general, thoroughly occupied) of Central Asia, the war in the Balkans, the unwieldy, cumbersome and predatory liberation of peasants from serfdom. He is married twice — the second time to Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova (a morganatic marriage), only six children.
Killed March 13, 1881, the explosive device activist «Narodnaya Volya» (sixth attempt).
5. Alexander the Third, Peacemaker (1845 — 1894). Believed that his father’s murder was the result of liberal reforms, and not their insufficiency. For some time he managed to «tighten the nuts» of safety valves, limit self-government and freedom of speech — but already ten years after his departure, the steam boiler of the state gives a catastrophic crack.
6. The symbol of time and new trends is Carl Heinrich Marx (1818—1883). The birth is in Trier, Prussia, the family of the lawyer Henry Marx, from the clan of rabbis, baptized into Lutheranism, so as not to lose the rank of judicial adviser. 1837 — marriage to Jenny von Westfallen, from an aristocratic German clan, born in 1814. Work as a journalist, conflict with the authorities, moving to Paris, joining revolutionary and simply radical circles, in one wonderful cafe acquaintance with a friend-for-all-life Friedrich Engels. In the end, moving to London, casual earnings, living on the verge of starvation, financial support from Friedrich, work on fateful «Capital.» The organization of the First International, or the «International Working Men’s Association.» After the death of his wife, with whom Marx lived for 40 years, he made seven children, of whom four, alas, died at an early age, the chief communist lives for two years and dies as a stateless person, on March 14, 1883, in London.
The content of «Capital» is a description of the activities of the monopolies, capitalist industries, etc., with an emphasis on the fact that all this is wrong. However, how to do everything well, Marx, and also Engels, do not indicate. In addition, in letters to each other, or scientific works, friends make entertaining observations of the lives of certain peoples. Characteristic lines are: «… The Poles have never done anything in history other than daring pugnacious stupidities. And there can not be a single point where Poland, even if compared to Russia, would successfully represent progress or accomplish something of historical significance. On the contrary, Russia does play a progressive role in relation to the East. Despite all its meanness and Slavic mud, Russia’s dominance plays a civilizing role for the Black and Caspian seas and Central Asia, for the Bashkirs and Tatars: and Russia has perceived far more elements of enlightenment and especially elements of industrial development than, by the very nature of its gentry-sleepy, Poland. The advantage of Russia is the fact that the Russian nobility, starting with the emperor and Prince Demidov and ending with the most recent boyar of the fourteenth grade, who only has that his «noble» background, is engaged in industrial production, flaunts, puffs up, takes bribes and improves all kinds of Christian and Jewish affairs. The Poles never knew how to assimilate foreign elements. The Germans in the cities remained and remain Germans. Meanwhile, every Russian German in the second generation is a living example of how Russia knows how to Russify Germans and Jews. Even Jews grow there «Slavic cheekbones…».
On the other hand, Marx and Engels agree that the Russian people, most likely creating territorial, rather than blood-related communities, are not historical; and therefore, sooner or later, he will have to leave many lands acquired. «Capital» is a dual thing, it is well suited to people who deny the clarity of definitions, responding to all the reproaches «You just misunderstood me.»
…Landowners from control over the redemption of land are exempted, this is the responsibility of the state bank. The former (and, to a large extent, real) slave owners, year after year, receive a solid rent from the treasury.
The first two years after the publication of the Manifesto, the world and the landlords draw up Charter Charters; they determine how many, to whom, who should, the amount of land available, the children of the male, the conditions for the release of individuals, etc. During this time, peasants and household people (6.5% of the total number of serfs) actually remain slaves, perform orders of the landlord, also subject to corporal punishment. Further, the landless domestic servant is completely emancipated. Temporarily-obligated peasants who use landed estates before they «stand on ransom» are in practically the same feudal dependence, with all its degrading attributes.
It is extremely advantageous for landowners to lease land to peasants. Not only that, in the end, they will receive for the site three to four times more than its market value, property, or at least an extremely dependent person, almost like «in the good old days» is also not decided «to stand on ransom «peasant. Therefore, the nobles are trying to surround the plots of farmers with their own, alienated within the same peasants’ slices, separating the first from the village, reservoirs, pastures, roads, etc., forcing them to rent, and then to buy them as well.
In 1881, the share of peasants who had not yet risen to buy land, an average of 20%. To accelerate this process, the government issues a decree on compulsory transition to redemption within 2 years. Most farmers are exempt from bondage, in fact, it ceases to be dependent on the state bank only in 1906, when insurgents burn up to 17% of landlord estates, and Cossack detachments for suppressing these unrest are no longer sufficient.
In the same year, in particular, the publication of educational and scientific literature in the Ukrainian language (Emsky ukaz) is limited, and the center of development of this branch of national culture moves from Kiev to Austro-Hungarian Lviv.
…In 1865 a small Russian detachment captured Tashkent, the capital of the Kokand Khanate. Kokand (future Uzbekistan and part of Turkmenistan) becomes a protectorate of Russia. A year later the emir of Bukhara (the territory of present-day Uzbekistan) confiscates the property of Russian merchants, insults the representatives of the Russian diplomatic mission. In early May 1866, numbering 3,500 people, with 16 guns, the Russian detachment approaches Samarkand. He is confronted by the Bukhara army of 45 thousand. As a result of a decisive attack, the emir’s army flees, leaving the gunners with 21 guns. Residents of Samarkand army of the emir in the city is not allowed.
In the capital remains a garrison of 600 people, most of them wounded. Initially loyal to the presence of Russian troops, after the departure of the main forces, the 65,000 population displays aggression. The detachment takes refuge in the citadel, which is subjected to a series of fierce attacks. Remaining loyal to the Russians, a local resident notifies the army of a riot, she returns and suppresses unrest. In the end, the Emir manages to find a common language, he gives Russian merchants freedom of movement, protection, and himself, later, uses the services of the tsarist army to suppress insurgencies. In 1872, Bukhara was reorganized into the Zeravshan District and was losing its independence. Approximately the same fate awaits the remaining khanates and emirates. The meaning of this accession of a significant part of Russian society is incomprehensible. The arguments of the Russian monarchs are unreasonable: the wars in Asia de prevent the participation of Russia in European conflicts.
In 1863, unrest began in Poland. Poles defiled Orthodox churches, knocked down written in Russian, and any other language, signs, overwhelmed ethnic Russians with threats. The Russian government makes concessions, restores the self-governing bodies adopted in the Kingdom of Poland, conducts liberal reforms, but the Polish underground organizes all new terrorist acts against the tsarist officers and civilians. Their main goal is the restoration of the Commonwealth within the borders of 1772.
Another viceroy is being decided on, perhaps, not the smartest step — to conduct a recruitment kit that includes 12,000 potentially dangerous young people. In response, since January 22 separate rebel units have been attacking Russian troops. A flywheel of terror is developing. The so-called «daggers», passing to the territory of Belarus, which is rather loyal to Russia (and has not become a real «Rzeczpospolita»), secretly or explicitly kill Orthodox peasants, as well as priests.
Russia concludes an agreement on mutual assistance with Prussia, for which Poland has long been a painful headache.
In the end, the insurgents lose 30 thousand people, the Russian troops — 3,500, while 2,000 civilians are killed as a result of terrorist attacks. Evacuated to Siberia 12 thousand people. The most active survivors of the insurrection are moving abroad, trying to propagate there in the spirit of the first wave of emigration, but they are almost not listened to there. In Poland, it is prohibited to use Polish in public places and business correspondence, wearing mourning (shocking ribbons in female hairstyles), all sorts of Polish differences.
By the mid-seventies of the nineteenth century, Europe’s public consciousness was already fully prepared for the severe condemnation of Turkey’s policy in the Balkans. A number of national uprisings (Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina) are suppressed by Oshmans-Bashi-Bazouks with unprecedented cruelty, causing the overwhelming majority of Europeans sympathy and anger. Porta no longer looks like a defenseless victim, and Russia — an instrument in the hands of the monarch, with the help of which he wants to acquire additional glory for himself. The new emperor behaves prudently, will coordinate important actions with the governments of other world powers.
In March 1871, taking advantage of changes in the international situation, with the support of the German Chancellor Bismarck. Russia restores the right to keep the Navy on the Black Sea.
In June 1876, Serbia, and then Montenegro, declare war on Turkey, suffer a series of devastating defeats, and appeal to European governments for mediation in the settlement of the conflict. The London protocol, signed by representatives of the six European powers, brilliantly rejects Porta, and thereby dismantles the provisions of the Paris Treaty, which protected it from the struggle with Russia one on one.
April 24, 1877 Russia declares war on Turkey.
In May, Russian troops enter the territory of Romania and, gathering allied forces, go to Constantinople. June 27, with the support of torpedo boats, they set up a pontoon crossing across the Danube, with a minimum (1,100 people) losses speeding up the river. The next goal is the fortified town of Pleven (Pleven) located at the crossroads of strategically important roads. The Turkish divisions (20,000 men, 57 guns) manage to occupy it somewhat earlier than the Russians. The first assault, despite initial successes, is unsuccessful. The second attack takes place ten days later, with the support of fire, 140 guns. The Turks lose 1,000 dead, the Russians 3500. The Romanian troops join the siege, receive reinforcements and Osman. The ratio of forces is now 83 thousand people, 424 guns against 34 thousand captured, with 72 cannons. The third assault, which took place on September 11, suffers a complete failure, the losses of Russian-Romanian troops after three attempts to capture the city reach 35,000 people killed and wounded.
Russian command passes to the tactics of the complete blockade of Plevna, with large losses captures a number of small fortresses, cuts communications. As a result, the 50,000-strong Turkish garrison is one on one with the 125 thousand Russian-Romanian army that surrounded it in the city walls. In the evening of December 10 exhausted by hunger and fever, Turkish troops are making an attempt to break through. The forward units pass 3 lines of trenches, capture 6 cannons, almost completely destroy the Siberian Regiment (1,700 people), but stop under the unbearable fire of hundreds of guns. Not retaining the attack of the reinforcements that have arrived, the Ottoman army is fleeing and capitulating. 43 thousand people fall into captivity.
Then 300 thousand Russian-Romanian army, almost without resistance, passes the Balkans, captures 30 thousand troops, disperses the remaining 150 thousand, captures the Turkish Adrianople. Seven days later, the fighting in this theater of operations is over.
In the Caucasus, the Turkish presence itself, as well as the active emissaries of the Porte, create unrest; rebel Dagestanis, Chechens and Abkhazians. Russian troops capture the cities of Kars, Arzurum, displacing the Turks from the Black Sea coast; after this, the excitement of the local tribes ceases.
The Tsar’s troops stop 100 kilometers from Constantinople. Demonstrating the undesirability of seizing the capital Ports of Russia, Britain and France send a combined fleet to the Straits. January 19, 1878, the San Stefan peace is signed, now celebrated in Bulgaria as Independence Day, but it proves to be only a preliminary agreement. Recently allied Romania, becomes in a position hostile to Russia, and in order to prevent possible excesses, Russian troops occupy Bucharest.
Further, Alexander II turns to the old secret treaties, gets mixed up in them, is nervous and, to a large extent, neutralizes the victories of Russian weapons. Perhaps the special gifts of Austria are due to the fact that the emperor himself is a representative of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, an ethnic German, like his wife. Union Bulgaria declines, in comparison with the territory indicated by the protocols of the San Stefan world three times. Its part — Macedonia, returns to Turkey without changes in status. Another province, Rumelia, becomes autonomous in the Porta. Not completely independent Bulgaria, continues to pay tribute to Turkey, although Ottoman troops and have no right to be on its territory (the next year the Bulgarians arbitrarily stop these payments).
After Turkey, Thrace and Albania remain.
Montenegro, Serbia and Romania receive independence.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is occupied by Austria.
As a result of the exchange of territories, Russia takes South Bessarabia from Romania.
Loss of 30 thousand people on each side killed in battle, not counting those who died from wounds and diseases.
In 1866, with the submission of the governor-general of Eastern Siberia, Count N. Muraviev-Amursky, whose portrait adorns the present five-thousandth note (the Motherland must know its «heroes»), the question of selling Alaska to the United States is being studied. In the end, on March 30, 1867, a territory of 1.5 million square kilometers, inhabited by 2,500 Russian and 60,000 Eskimos, is sold for $ 7,2 million (which is equal to the cost of a three-storey capital building). The money goes to the development of the network of railways (according to other sources, it comes to the personal property of the monarchical family).
In 1875, the St. Petersburg Treaty on the Territory Exchange was concluded with Japan (the Russian diplomat AM Gorchakov). The Land of the Rising Sun refuses territorial claims to Sakhalin, in exchange receives the entire chain of the Kuril Islands stretched out. Russia in fact is deprived of access to the Pacific Ocean. Japan has the opportunity at any time to begin the blockade of Sakhalin and the entire Far East (which it will use in 1905).
The government of Alexander II refuses to colonize Papua New Guinea, overseas territory goes to Austria and Australia.
The sparsely populated overseas colonies are an opportunity to create New Russia, in physical isolation from previous forms, to test effective methods of leadership and management, risky but necessary social projects. The Russian nobility rejected this possibility, and as a result left the stage.
The protest mood is growing in the country. Particularly active participants of underground organizations «Earth and Freedom», «Narodnaya Volya» («The will of the people») and (the left wing of the latter) «Black redistribution».
March 13, 1881 on the Ekaterininskaya Embankment of St. Petersburg, two explosions rumble — Alexander II, the bomber of the «Narodnaya Volya» Ignatiy Grinevitsky (an ethnic Pole), the Cossack of his Majesty’s Convoy and a 14-year-old boy from a nearby shopping mall.
The next day, the Russian throne is occupied by Alexander the Third, the second son of Alexander II from his first marriage. His elder brother, Nikolai, died suddenly of a spinal cord tuberculosis during his travels in Italy (21 years), and, in order to prepare for the succession of the throne, Alexander, in particular, studies an additional course of sciences, including. a series of lectures on Russian history S. Solovyov.
Alexander the Third is married to Maria Sophia Friederike Dagmar, the daughter of a prince, and then the King of Denmark Christian Ninth, in Orthodoxy she received the name of Maria Feodorovna (all foreign empresses are Fedorovna, in honor of the family icon). They have six children; the eldest is Nikolai, who later becomes the last (or, last but one) all-Russian emperor.
The first step of Alexander III as a monarch is the cancellation of the discussion of the «Constitution of Loris-Melikov». This Constitution (Minister of Internal Affairs, Count, ethnic Armenian) is the shadow of the Zemsky Sobor of the seventeenth century, a meeting of all estates to solve an epochal question. It could become the basis for the development of the ideas of the Constitutional Monarchy, maybe even the Republic. The authority of Alexander II during the last years of the reign was clearly unsteady, it is not known whether this project would be accepted by the conservative nobility. We know definitely only that under Alexander the Third the autocracy gained a second wind, so that the majority began to feel that there was absolutely no need to make any significant changes.
The dynasty is an attempt to concentrate important moral qualities in a certain circle, to carry out a certain selective work. Is it possible? Apparently, yes, although such delicate questions of genetics try not to sound. In the case of Russia, there is a dissonance: the bearer of the gene material, the mentality — from the dwarf princedom gets on Wednesday, where people are accustomed to think on other scales. Consciousness of the monarch, born in such a marriage, gives a break.
It’s another matter if Russia continued, as in the 11th (golden) century, to remain internally divided into large, legally independent but united by the mentality and economy of the kingdom states, always united in the face of an external threat. In a kindred spiritual environment, genetically divided dynasties, one could select princes and princesses for the common throne. The body consists of separate cells performing their symphony of reactions, but, they are a whole organism. Variety — in unity, this could be the slogan of Great Russia. Let’s notice, at that time Russian princedoms are so influential that the marriage union with representatives of dynasties of Novgorod, Kiev, is considered honorable in the countries of all Central Europe.
…The next step is the decree «On the reduction of gymnasium education» (circular about cook children). It recommends that principals of educational institutions accept only representatives of higher, well-to-do classes; thus «… gymnasiums and progymnasiums will be freed from the arrival of children of coachmen, lackeys, cooks, laundresses, small shopkeepers and the like, whose children… should not at all strive for secondary and higher education.»
On March 1, 1887, the emperor experiences an attempt on his person. Among the five participants of the terrorist act — Lenin’s elder brother, Alexander Ulyanov, a student of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University. They are all hanged in the Shlisselburg Fortress.
With terrorism it is finished. The state renounces the practice of secret treaties, colonial wars and territorial acquisitions. The only clash in Asia during this period was the admonition of the Afghan emir, who wished a part of the Turkmen (Russian) lands. Railways, many large enterprises are nationalized and, guided by competent officials, begin to bring profit to the state. Thanks to economic growth and open policy, Russia is gaining a decisive voice in European affairs. A small omission — the fall of Bulgaria from an alliance with Russia, even its war with Serbia. It is interesting that the King of Serbia Milan the First, sending conscripts to the battlefield, stated that they are going to help Bulgaria against Turkey; but in the end they still had to shoot at the Bulgarians. Russia does not interfere in this anemic conflict — but acquires the friendship of the influential Porte.
Alexander the Third prevents the military conflict between France and Germany — declaring a «customs war» against aggressive Germans. In the end, the «iron chancellor» Bismarck concedes, the relations between Russia and France are rising to unprecedented heights.
In 1888, injuries sustained in the wreckage of the Tsar’s train, provoke Alexander’s development of kidney disease. And, on November 1, 1894, the king, sitting in an armchair, dies.
An hour and a half later, in Livadia Palace (Crimea), his son Nikolai the Second takes the oath of allegiance to the throne.
1. Nikolai Second Alexandrovich, the Emperor of All Russia, the King of Poland and the Grand Prince of Finland with his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Birth: 1868, Tsarskoe Selo (Petersburg), the eldest son of Emperor Alexander the Third and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Home schooling is thirteen years old. At the same time, eminent scientists who lecture do not have the right to ask questions to the student, and, therefore, to obtain comprehensible answers in order to verify the mastery of the material. Next — the service of a junior officer in the ranks of the Preobrazhensky regiment, a trip around the world on the cruiser «Memory of Azov», receiving two blows with cold weapons during a visit to Japan. The main credo of Nicholas II — Regis voluntas suprema lex esto (radis voluntas suprema lex esto) — «The desire of the king becomes law.» In combination with the conditions prevailing at that time, and the character of the «unrequited» monarch, by July 17, 1918, this principle leads him to the basement of engineer Ipatiev’s house (Ekaterinburg, in Soviet times — Sverdlovsk), under the bullets of the Chekists.
2. Alexey Romanov, Heir Tsesarevich and the Grand Duke. Birth — 1904, Peterhof, son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Since childhood, he has hemophilia: even a minor trauma, instead of the usual bruise, causes profuse internal bleeding, forming hematoma, the size of an apple. Often the joints of the hands and feet swell; in this case the heir is carried by the servant on his hands. Danger of nasal bleeding, while external cuts can be closed.
The people (and the whole world) do not know about the illness of the Tsarevich, they do not sympathize with the royal family; all this secrecy goes to the Imperial House in a minus.
The emperor and his family were canonized (ranked saints) in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (RZPTs), in 2000 they were glorified as martyrs by the decision of the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
3. Rasputin Grigory Efimovich, 1869 — 1916, a peasant, a friend of the Russian emperor’s family, a native of the village of Pokrovskoe of the Tobolsk province (now the Tyumen region). It is believed that he entered with women from the so-called «high society» into an intimate relationship, but there is no evidence to that. Actually, Gregory — the only man with whom you can talk — just talk about things, for the ladies of this circle considered the strictest taboo.
…The new emperor marries Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse (German Empire) Ludwig the Fourth and the Duchess of Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria of England. The name of the princess is composed of her own (Alice), the names of mothers and sisters. Suffering from remorse, now Alexandra Feodorovna, replaces the Lutheran faith in the Orthodox faith, but then, as it seems, is fully mastered. The wedding and the honeymoon take place less than a month after Alexander III’s death, on November 26, in an atmosphere of mourning and requiem. Subsequently, the spouses are born children — four daughters and who received a gene for hemophilia from Queen Victoria, son Alex.
Relations Alexandra (simply — Alix) with the Russian imperial court, in general, the surrounding people do not add up; The empress considers herself infallible, and intolerant of someone else’s opinion. A born Dane, popular in the world, the influential widow of Alexander III, dislikes the Germans (who at one time brought a lot of suffering to their historical homeland), this feeling also extends to the «daughter-in-law» who came after the coffin. At one time he did not approve of the German Emperor’s enthusiasm for the father, but Nikolai insisted on choosing, having threatened to renounce the throne, to accept a monastic order.
Nevertheless, becoming a monarch and not a monk, the young emperor in a speech before the deputies of his loyal subjects, points to «inadmissibility of meaningless dreams about the fate of zemstvo representatives in matters of internal management.» The speech of the «anointed» is greeted with applause, but it is this speech that becomes the starting point for the growth of discontent.
The coronation takes place on May 26, 1896, in Moscow. After 4 days, on May 30, the Khodynka field is organized, including the distribution of gifts, solemn events. Gingerbread, pound bread, sweets, 200 g of sausage, nuts, raisins, prunes and porcelain goblet are wrapped in a cotton scarf. At five o’clock in the morning on a field in a square kilometer are going to 500 thousand (according to other sources, up to a million) people. A rumor spreads through the crowd that the barmaids give out gifts «only to their own». The people rush to the wooden buildings, 1,800 policemen can not contain them. The direction of the flow of people — along the ravine and the pits, left from the dismantled pavilions. People fall into depressions, new human waves are rolling through them. The number of deaths, according to official figures — 1,383 people, according to unofficial — 4,000, in addition, about 1,500 injured and injured.
By noon, the place of the catastrophe has been cleared of traces of drama that has taken place. At two o’clock on the field comes Nicholas II, he is met by new crowds and sounds of the orchestra. In the evening, festivities continue in the Kremlin Palace, then crowned wives are dancing at the ball of the French ambassador. For reasons of the king, although the Khodynka disaster is the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the bright coronation holiday. The entry in the diary of Nicholas II; «I learned about this at 10 1/2 o’clock before the report of Vannovsky; A disgusting impression left of this news. … Skirting tables, went to the Kremlin. … Let’s go to the ball to Montebello. It was very beautifully arranged, but the heat was unbearable.»
The imperial family sacrificed 90,000 rubles to the victims (100 million were spent for the coronation all over the country) and 1,000 left after all the banquets and bottles of Madeira.
The principle of building relations between the royal family and the people is quite clearly represented from the correspondence of Alexandra Feodorovna with her grandmother, the British Queen Victoria:
Victoria: «I’ve been ruling for more than 50 years, and yet, every day I have to think about what I need to do to keep the love of my subjects and make it stronger… Your main duty is to win their love and respect.»
Alexander-Alisa: «You are mistaken, dear grandmother. Russia is not England. Here we do not have to do anything to deserve the people’s love. The Russian people revere their king as a divine creature.»
In March 1905, the long-standing dream of Nicholas II again comes to life: to go to monkhood, of course, with a good view of becoming a Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. This idea breaks out at a meeting with the metropolitans of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and also the deputy chief procurator of the Holy Synod, V. Sabler, at the very moment when the priests are promoting their own, also long-thought-out idea of the restoration of the patriarchate. The king suddenly proposes his candidacy: implying that at the same time there will be a renunciation of the throne in favor of Tsarevich Alexei. The Synods respond with silence.
The economy of the country is developing very well. Russia ranks first in the production and export of grain, butter, per capita GDP is 3, 3 times less than that of world leaders — Britain and the US, and this gap is constantly decreasing. The duration of the working day of «ordinary people» since 1903 is limited to «only» 11.5 hours, on Saturday — 10 hours. The average salary is 26 rubles, with a living wage of 21 rubles for an idle man; if transferred to gold, 27 modern (early 2016) thousand rubles. A kilogram of lamb or beef in 1915 costs 25 kopecks. A glass of vodka in the tavern 10 cents, a bottle of vodka «Moscow Special» — 17.5 kopecks, a loaf of bread 5 cents. Perhaps this is acceptable, but about 40% of the worker’s salary goes to arbitrarily assigned fines.
Budgetaries — officials, doctors, as well as engineers at state-owned plants, receive a state pension. Only to the most military in 1914, this cash grant, on the length of service or a serious illness acquired and ordinary workers. To get a «full salary» should work, in total, 35 years, half — from 25. Condition — labor activity throughout its entire length should be «immaculate». If the employee is «removed from office» by a court decision, a simple order from his superiors, or has served a sentence for a crime, the pension is simply reset. It can be earned again by settling on some other enterprise, but in this case the count of the service starts from the same scratch.
Russia produces a lot of grain, but its eaters also have a lot — 125 million. The government encourages the export of grain abroad, in the course put forward by Minister Vyshnegradsky the slogan «We will not eat, but we will take it out.» The peasants still have less land, the yield grows 1.25 times (three times less than in England). In 1891, the food crisis occurred in the Chernozem and Volga regions; a crop failure, in the absence of peasants significant stocks of bread (an average per capita rate of 190 kilograms of grain a year). At first the government does not believe in «panic-stricken zemstvos», then, it must be admitted, it is taking urgent measures to save people. As a result, about 300 thousand people die, not actually from alimentary dystrophy (hunger), but satellites of malnutrition — various diseases (mainly cholera and typhus).
In the reign of Nicholas II such a famine will not happen again, however, questions of grain exports, stripes, periodic malnutrition, are put, and the government has no answer to them.
In December 1904, Russian troops hand over the Japanese to Port Arthur. This news shakes Russian society, but his emperor at that moment is merry, laughs, listens to anecdotes, recalls scenes of past hunts.
Patriotic mood in the country is replaced by despondency, the popularity of the emperor is reduced to a critical level.
Meanwhile, the acquaintance of the imperial family with Grigory Rasputin will take place. Prior to that, the «holy old man» travels extensively through the sacred places of Russia, visits Mount Athos and Jerusalem. Further, he comes to Moscow, where he is received by Orthodox bishops, they spread a rumor about the extraordinary abilities of «God’s man.» News reaches the ears of the empress.
So, on November 1, 1905, on a tea party, the first meeting of the emperor and two high-society ladies with Grigory Rasputin takes place.
Further meetings, already with the whole imperial family, take place about once a month. It’s not that the king loved a pilgrim, but he’s the only one who can stop the hysteria of his Alix. Grigory publishes naive, but, for his time, perhaps, readable works — «The Life of an Experienced Wanderer,» «My Thoughts and Reflections.» Many are convinced; in the words of a wanderer, there is something like that. Among the prophecies, the main thing is a will: «… I feel that I must die before the New Year. But I want, nevertheless, to open the Russian people, the Father, Mother Russian and the Children, what they will. If I am killed by simple robbers, by my brothers — Russian peasants, then you, the Tsar of Russia, do not be afraid, stay on the throne and reign, and do not be afraid for your children, for they will reign for another hundred years and beyond that. If the nobles kill me, then my blood will remain in their hands, and 25 years (before 1941 — the author) they can not wash it off. They will have to leave Russia. Then the brothers will kill the brothers, and they will kill each other. And 25 years there will be no nobles in the state. … If your relatives lead to my death, then none of your family — neither children nor relatives will survive two years later. They will all be killed by the Russian people…».
There are also prophecies about the death of plants, that «a lot of spirits will return to earth and take the forms that they already had in the past.» Interesting is the prophecy, reminiscent of genetic experiments: «Irresponsible human alchemy, in the end, will turn ants into huge monsters that will destroy houses and entire countries, fire and water will be against them. In the end, you will see flying frogs, and butterflies will become vultures, and bees will crawl along the earth like snakes. And snakes will take possession of many cities… Mice and snakes will rule over the earth. Mice will hunt mice; and lost and stunned people will have to leave whole cities and villages under the onslaught of hordes of huge mice that will destroy everything and infect the earth.
…Plants, animals and people were created to be divided. But there will come a day when there will be no more borders. And then the person will become a half-human, half-plant. And the beast will become a beast, a plant and a man. In these boundless fields a monster, called a Cobaca…».
In 1912, the Second Balkan War began. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro enter into taste, squeeze Porto, strive to pinch a piece from each other. The forces of the parties — Turkey 475 thousand people, the Balkan Union — 620 thousand. The battles are fierce, for the first time combat airplanes are deployed, only 8 years after the flight of the Wright brothers’ fragile shelves; they drop bombs on warships. The Balkans besiege the primordially Turkish cities, get to Istanbul, bring confusion to the souls of the Ottomans, and create a political crisis in the Porte. Losses of the parties killed are approximately equal: for 30 thousand people. Turkey loses its possessions in Europe. True, Serbia never gets access to the sea: it is now hampered by the Albania formed from the «nobody’s» territory, as well as Austria-Hungary, which has sharply opposed this newly-formed country.
All this time Russia collects donations, provides the Balkan Union of volunteer pilots, makes diplomatic efforts, etc., but, by and large, does not interfere in the conflict. The reason for this is the influence on the decisions of Tsar Grigory Rasputin. It was his admonitions that put off the outbreak of World War II for two years.
July 12, 1914 in the village of Pokrovskoe, the insane Khionia Guseva, strikes Rasputin with a knife in the stomach. Three years later this woman will be released from the hospital, in 1919 she will commit an attempt already on the patriarch Tikhon; after which its traces in History are completely lost.
Sooner or later, the First World War begins. July 31, Russia is launching a general mobilization. Germany announces to the Empire an ultimatum: «Stop the deployment of forces,» and, not having achieved the desired, on August 1, 1914, declares war.
Rasputin is in the Tyumen hospital until August 17 and, this time, the king is no longer able to reason with the king. Its basic provisions sound unacceptable, insanely, for the greater part of society in this century: the rejection of foreign Poland and the Baltic countries, withdrawal from the Russian-British alliance, a separate peace with Germany, then still imputable. Somewhat later, on December 30, 1916, he died in the palace of Yusupov, from the bullets of Russian nobles and (a control shot in the head) by British agent Oswald Rainer, incidentally, the friend of the executioner prince in Oxford. England wants Russia to wage this war.
Alternative version — a bullet in the forehead of Rasputin sent Dmitry Pavlovich (Romanov), a cousin of Nicholas II.
The Empress Alexandra orders her arrest of the killers (except for the Englishman from MI6). But, all of them are inviolable as «higher» noblemen, and, after the intervention of Nicholas II, «not to provoke society» are released. They will not suffer any punishment afterwards.
…In 1906 agrarian unrest reached a menacing extent. Forests of the landowners consider themselves theirs and require a certain payment for using them. Peasants believe that this is legalized robbery, such as charging money for air, and produce unauthorized felling. They also «dismantle» estates, breaking up barns and dismantling supplies, inventory, and taking away cattle. The homesteads themselves are rarely burned — in most peasants still respect personal property.
The government cancels redemption payments, but this is too little. Then the Minister of the Interior PA Stolypin, ignoring the sluggish sessions of the Duma, in October of the same year, introduced a law on the sale of state lands to peasants. The farmer finally gets a release from the «tsarist collective farm» — restricting freedom and the private initiative of «peace.» He has the right to demand this. The community’s land is being developed, instead of a few strips located in remote locations, the peasant (not even his family as a willful «peace») receives a compact «cut». Here you can put the household. Thus, the village crumbles into the farmsteads that have been adopted in Europe.
The idea is gaining popularity, but, to implement it, it needs new clarifications, a staff of professional surveyors, lawyers, and banking services.
Hundreds of thousands of peasant families move to the Far East. 500 thousand farms are based in Kazakhstan. In the summer of 1916, the government of Nicholas II made an attempt to mobilize part of the Kazakhs and Turkmens for rear work in the frontline areas; it will cause an uprising of the autochthonous population, attacks on the colonists. In the end, 600,000 locals migrate to China; call succeeds 100 thousand.
In 1911 the agrarian reform was deprived of the chief conductor — Count Stolypin; although it does not slip noticeably, but loses its scope, capable, perhaps, of leading to the triumph of law and private property.
July 1914 marked the introduction of «dry law». Consumption of ethanol per capita is reduced tenfold, from 4.7 to 0.4 liters per year. Now, according to the Ministry of Health, 10 liters are drunk in Russia, taking into account the latent production and consumption — 15 liters, recommended by the World Health Organization (maximum) dose — 8 liters. Strong drinks are sold only in expensive restaurants. In 1917, already the Soviet government, prolongs the operation of this law. August 1923 — «dry law» is canceled, NEP comes. The civil war is over, the country is recoiling from the gap that has opened up in front of it.
Much later, on May 17, 1985, a decree «On strengthening the struggle against drunkenness» will be issued. And, again, the greatest state, overwhelmed by surpluses not calmed down by the oldest antidepressant of energy, self-destructs.
…In September 1915, Nicholas II assumes the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This decision is unconditionally supported by his wife, in all likelihood, approved by the German General Staff, but not by Russian ministers and generals. Germany by that time occupies a large part of Poland and the Baltic states — nominally the possessions of Russia. All the military failures of the Empire anyway, now directly undermine the authority of the king. Instead of establishing contact with elements of civil society, for example, active military-industrial committees, according to the ancient Russian custom, the suspicious Nikolai tries to ban everything. Of course, this does not suit him, and the people, for the good.
Still not so bad, the ambitious monarch overcomes dreams of the Straits and Constantinople, the shores of the Sea of Marmara and southern Thrace, the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. This is the alleged prize for the participation of the Russian Empire in the war. However, with all the clarity on this occasion, representatives of Britain and France at the Petrograd Conference of 1915, do not speak.
Soldiers do not understand what they are fighting for. Yes, Germany started the war, in response to the usually pre-emptive attack, the beginning of mobilization. But, all this could be prevented by diplomatic methods at the very beginning of the conflict. At least it was necessary — not to start active actions, to sit in dugouts, to drink «tsarist» 100 grams (suppose the emperor issued a popular manifesto on abolishing the «dry» law for the front). The Germans of the beginning of the century are quite normal people, why should they be killed? On paper, «hit the enemy» looks pretty beautiful, practice means kicking a bayonet into the stomach and a confused, horrible and painful look such as you are of a person. Even if the Germans occupied part of Poland and Lithuania — these are territorial entities and people alien to Russia, the Russian peasant, the soldier, personally, mentally, they are not needed.
At the end of 1916, irregularities with bread began. In the conditions of military hyperinflation, peasants massively hold grain, expecting further price increases (or maybe, somehow trying to bring their protest against the war to the tsar). All this leads to the fact that the government is beginning a transition to a surplus-purchase at firm prices. There are clashes with the police. The outreach practically fails. Instead of 772 million poods, only 170 poods can be collected. The rations for soldiers in the frontline zone (3 pounds of bread a day) are halved.
Something similar, however, is happening in other belligerent countries. In Germany, before the sea blockade, Britain imported up to a third of the food, «ersatzes» get a mass distribution — cheap substitutes for coffee, sausages and other products. In a broad turn — a rutabaga, a two-year-old plant of the Cabbage family (a vitamin tops with a heavy tuber).
Recipe for «Eaters of Time»:
Grigsbrot («Kriegsbrot») — «Military bread» — 55% of rye, 25% of wheat, 20% of potato powder, sugar and fats.
Pea sausage — pea flour with the addition of fat and beet juice. One measure of pea flour (crushed grain), two measures of water. Beat and put on a slow fire.
In a separate container mix a little water, vegetable oil, garlic, salt, pepper, beets or beet juice — to get the mass of the color of the doctor’s sausage. Beat. When pea mass turns into a thick mashed potatoes, mix with our pink sauce and slices of fat. Cook a little more, then pour into a container of cylindrical shape (a 0.5-liter plastic bottle with a cut-off neck).
We put the workpiece in the refrigerator.
From the sausage you can prepare sandwiches from the «First World», or cook a nutritious soup.
Erzac coffee. Acorns are calcined in the oven, peeled off, while hot scrolls in the meat grinder. Acorn minced meat is laid out on baking trays for further drying in the oven with the door open.
Option — a drink from roasted beets.
Despite all such substitutes, 800,000 people die from malnutrition and accompanying diseases, in Germany, from 1914 to 1918.
In England and France, receiving resources from their numerous colonies, the nutritional situation is much better, although it is also not up to par. In addition, the population of the country, in which the monarch, after all, waking up, immediately begins to wonder how he would again and again gain the sympathy of his subjects, initially widely consolidated.
In the course, among other effective measures to awaken the spirit of the nation, «the delivery of a white pen.» Are engaged in this girl-patriotic activists (sometimes just feminists). In the previously widespread in the United Kingdom cock fights, it was noticed that, as a rule, birds and white plumage usually show weakness and cowardice. The girl hands, to any young man in civilian clothes who has turned up on the street, a pen of the corresponding color — and this means that she shows him contempt for cowardice.
Later, the government comes up with breastplates for soldiers on leave or for medical treatment, indicating that they are honestly «Serving the King and the Country.» The unspoken public agreement works clearly. The British Volunteer Army is fully operational.
Such actions of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, cadets, other public organizations and unions are popular in Russia: handing out gifts to soldiers, caring for the wounded, sending collected food to the front, etc. But, yes, the state apparatus sees these unauthorized, exempted from clerical reporting, the more effective actions, the resistance to oneself, and tries to ban it all deafly.
This does not benefit the public consent that is so difficult to be born.
…Focussed only on his family, despising millions of his own kind, the emotionally obtuse monarch of the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, who imagines that everyone loves him, all these, in fact, now fiercely hate. In the midst of high-ranking officers, representatives of the bourgeoisie and ministers, the grain of the conspiracy is sprouting. The main idea is the renunciation of the lost charisma of Nicholas II (Bloody) from the throne in favor of a minor son. The regent is the younger brother of the tsar, Mikhail.
1. A popular banknote of that time, 25 rubles (a room in a working hostel, for six months.) A simple horse is also 25 rubles. One ruble is pancakes with fresh caviar in a tavern to a dump, the price of 1911.
2. 50 paper kopecks in 1915, five loaves of bread already risen in price.
3. One of the first tanks in the world (armored combat vehicles) — «Netopyr», a reflection of the technical thought of the time. The idea of caterpillars has not yet been mastered, the decrease in specific pressure on the ground is achieved by unnatural increase in the diameter of the wheels. Combat weight — 60 tons. Armament: two 76.2 mm. guns, 60 shots, eight 7.92 mm. machine guns «Maxim». Booking: board, forehead 10 mm. Crew — 15 people. The height of the building is 9 meters (fourth floor). Estimated speed along the highway is 17 km. h, a reserve of 60 km. Specific power 8.5 hp In 1915 one specimen was built, due to incorrect centering of the mass, it immediately stalled, it was not accepted for service. If this is a response to the advance of German troops, then the answer is incorrect. According to the «conspiracy theory» the project was sponsored by officials acting in the interests of Great Britain. They also stopped the project of Perekhovshchikov’s «Outlander», not quite considered, but promising, capable of becoming a wedge.
4. Caterpillar armored car «Austin-Kegress», he, according to the opinions of quite competent contemporaries and «light Russian tank.» Weight 5.8 tons, crew 5 people, vertical booking 8 mm., Roof 6 mm. Armament: two 7.62 mm. machine gun «Maxim». Specific power: 9 hp The speed on the highway is 25 km. h, the power reserve is 100 km. Ground pressure 0.3 kg. per sq. m. cm.
On tests the armored car shows itself from the best side. However, the production of military vehicles, which began in 1917, is frozen until 1919. Using the already available parts (in particular, about 200 ready-made propellers — the so-called «tapes»), workers at the Putilov plant collect 12 semi-track armored cars. Further, «Austin-Kegressy» with success (as far as it is possible at all under these conditions) is used by the Red Army in the battles of the Civil and Polish wars.
The designer of the caterpillar chassis is a French engineer-inventor, and also the manager of the garage of Nicholas II A. Kegress emigrates from Russia to his historical homeland after the October Revolution, works for Citroen, gives rise to a wide range of semi-track armored cars and tractors.
5. Heavy cannon-machine gun armored car «Putilov-Garford». Weight, depending on the modification of 8.6–11 tons, the crew of 8–9 people, circular booking of 7 mm. (protects from an armor-piercing rifle bullet from 70 meters). Armament: 76.2 mm. gun (fodder) with 44 shots, three 7.62 mm. machine gun «Maxim». Four-wheel drive. Two steering posts — front and rear. Engine power 30 hp, speed on the highway 18 km. h, the power reserve is 120 km. From 1915 to 1916, 48 cars were produced. Armored cars Putilov-Garford have high manufacturing quality, are actively used in the First World War, the Civil War and, even, according to some reports, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
Photos and characteristics of these types of military equipment in Russia are listed here separately to determine the overall situation with the military construction of the pre-revolutionary Empire. At the present time, the thesis that, without the October Revolution, the annihilation of millions of peasants, subsequently the intelligentsia and higher officers, the Soviet Union (the «Red Empire») would not have created a developed heavy industry, and a well-armed Army. This is not quite true. Pre-revolutionary Russia is a medium-developed capitalist state. This provision is clearly marked even in Soviet history textbooks, which tend to tarnish our entire pre-revolutionary period. A defense order, bad or good, takes precedence over all other aspects of the life of the Russian state. Under the tsar, defense plants produce high-quality armored cars of many types, good artillery systems, small arms, battleships, cruisers, submarines, and, since 1914, for the first time in the world — strategic (and so to speak) Ilya Muromets bombers. Yes, some weapons are bought abroad, but this is quite common in the conditions of a severe military campaign of practice. The Soviet Union also acquires significant amounts of weapons, vehicles and food in the United States and Britain, during World War II. The real reason for some military failures — the tsarist army, or the Soviet army, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War — the lack of consolidation of society, the creation of a false picture of reality, the desire to shift the individual labor of thinking to a single «higher» personality.
6. One of the people of the era — Alexander Blok, poet of the Silver Age, 1880—1921. The son of a professor at the University of Warsaw and the daughter of the rector of St. Petersburg University. He studied at the Faculty of Law, married the daughter of D. Mendeleev, and maintained contacts with other women. Adopted the revolution of 1917, working on wear and tear in the university, «I forgot how to write poetry.» In February 1919 he was arrested by the Petrograd Cheka on charges of an anti-Soviet conspiracy, released after the intervention of the People’s Commissar of Education, Lunacharsky, outwardly unscathed, but with a mental wound. Already after writing the «Twelve», at the beginning of «socialist construction,» Blok believed that «the world revolution is turning into a world chest toad.» He died in a Petrograd flat from inflammation of the heart valves.
Pre-revolutionary poems are popular now, they connect mysticism, life and, for example, impressions of the pilots seen on the performance:
…And the beast with the dead screws
Froze a frightening angle…
Look for faded eyes
Supports in the air… empty!
It’s too late. On the grass of the plain
Wing crumpled arc
In the wavers of wires of machinery
The hand is deadlier than the lever
7. Maxim Gorky — Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, Russian, Soviet writer, 1868—1936. He was born in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the town of Kanavino, in the family of a carpenter. Peshkov’s grandfather, a domestic tyrant, «Eh viii», colorfully depicted in «Childhood» — an officer demoted for ill-treatment of lower ranks. Traveling around Russia, working as a baker, cooker, etc., Gorky hones his literary talent, five times is nominated for the Nobel Prize, becomes a wealthy man, enjoys success with women. Sponsors the Bolshevik party, on the island of Capri, he establishes the God-building school — in which God is the quintessence of the organized human collective. These ideas are shared by two prominent figures of the RSDLP (b) — A. Bogdanov and A. Lunacharsky, one of the few who did not stain their name with murders.
In the twenties Alexei lives in Berlin, Marienbad (Czech Republic), Sorrento (Italy), returned to the USSR, where he is considered the founder of socialist realism. Again he leaves, appearing in the Soviet Union in 1928 and 1929. Then he visits the ELEPHANT (СЛОН) — Solovetsky special purpose camp, communicates with the prisoners (who read the newspaper «upside down» prominently) and writes a positive opinion about the regime.
Peshkov finally remained in the USSR since 1932. In 1934, after dinner with G. Yagoda, a son dies, Maxim Peshkov (the widow becomes the mistress of the NKVD People’s Commissar), two years later, at the dacha in Gorki, the writer ends his life. Four doctors are accused of poisoning Gorky with chocolate sweets and are being shot. Perhaps the writer was really poisoned by these very sweets, but on instructions from «above», on the eve of meeting with foreign (uncontrollable) writers, who were about to tell something unnecessary about the existing system. A more likely version is that Gorky gets cold when he visits his son’s grave (pronouncing something like «I was there, where it’s so difficult to come back») and dies of inflammation, and even stiffness, ie, calcification, lungs.
8. Parvus Alexander Lvovich — Israel Lazarevich Gelfand, another colorful brushstroke in the portrait of the era. The activist of the Russian and German Social-Democratic movement, a Marxist, whose main thesis is something like: «In order to defeat the capitalists, one must become capitalists themselves.» Birth — 1867, Berezino, Minsk province, the family of artisans. Study in Odessa, then Zurich, where Parvus converges (already a doctor of philosophy) with the group «Emancipation of Labor». Gelfand becomes a literary agent of M. Gorky, popularizes his plays in Germany and other countries, puts in his pocket a solid commission/
The peak of the work of the revolutionary was in 1915, when Parvus managed to organize a stream of Kaiser money from Germany to Russia. These funds «work» in Ukraine, the Caucasus (through Constantinople), in Finland and Siberia — wherever a national split is planned. Organized strike strikes with unrealistic demands, acts of sabotage and sabotage. Simultaneously, the media controlled by Parvus form in the Entente countries, the USA, a negative opinion towards Russia. The Marxist and the tycoon explains to the German command how best to strike his country (to the South, and not to Petrograd). Through the manipulation of rumors, the owner of a number of newspapers, brings down the ruble exchange rate. All this in some way correlates with the happiness of ordinary Russian workers…
In the midst of fiery revolutionaries, Parvus is regarded as a very muddy personality — but he wants to be involved, known — and, although not without difficulty, buys their friendship for 20 million German marks, and somehow, gold rubles.
After the October Revolution, her chief treasurer expressed Lenin’s desire to become finance minister, but, having done his job, the «moor» is answered, perhaps not without malice: «The revolution does not tolerate anyone who has dirty hands.»
Germany in his citizenship denied Gelfand. Nevertheless, he settles in Berlin, surrounded by pleasant luxury and, through his media, warns Europe against the «invasion of Bolshevism.»
Dies in 1924, at the age of 54, from heart disease.
9. Pyotr Arkadevich Stolypin (right). (1862—1911). Quotation about the Russo-Japanese War: «How can a man go joyfully into battle, defending some leased land in unknown areas? The war is sad and heavy, not colored by the sacrificial impulse…». As you know, Tsar Nicholas II meets the news of the murder of Stolypin (the 11th attempt) with a certain amount of satisfaction. The monarch believes that the prime minister conveys the «divine» power of the emperor of the bourgeoisie. It is not insane for the soap that the tsarist secret police performs the unspoken desire of the emperor to eliminate his active alter-ego. The bullets of Bogrov fall into the hands and liver of the Prime Minister. Pogreben PS in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, at the place of the murder. Later the grave was asphalted.
10. Mordko Mordechai Gershkovich «Bogrov» (1887 — 1911). Assassin Stolypin. One of the causes of the Civil War in Russia. The anarchist, at the same time, is the regular informant of the security department (a fee of 150 rubles a month, three times the number of highly skilled workers). The main idea is «protest against tedious routine». Quotation (after the death sentence): «Yes, I do not care if I eat two thousand more cutlets in my life, or I will not eat.»
11. Boris Viktorovich Savinkov, revolutionary, terrorist, political activist. Birth — 1879, Kharkov. One of the leaders of the militant organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries, an image of the time that evokes the idea of a romantic struggle against a colossal empire, combining living in expensive hotels, success with women, and killing «bad» officials. After the February Revolution — the head of the military ministry, the military governor of Petrograd. Emigration, return to Russia, arrest. At the trial, Boris Savinkov says something like: «I’ve committed so many terrorist acts, but you accuse me of something!?» The shooting is replaced by a ten-year sentence.
In prison, Savinkov has a separate well-equipped cell. According to the official version, he commits suicide by throwing himself out of the window (1925, Moscow).
The acting forces of Russia on the eve of the Revolution:
1. The Old Believers. According to the averaged data, there are 12% of the population in the country. Almost 90% of the richest merchants, industrialists, many soldiers are adherents of the pre-Niconian ritual. The reason for this state of affairs is the opportunity to conduct business in a circle of trusted people, without cobweb of documents, relying only on honesty, supporting «our» interest-free, sometimes, by agreement, irrevocable loans, advice and deed, full-fledged spiritual intercourse of lay people. Tempered by repressions of the tsarist regime, the ancient faiths are accustomed to surviving in the most difficult conditions, are in some opposition to the existing system, and are much aimed at «creating the Kingdom of God on earth» with their own head and hands. Communities («Accord», «Tolkas») of the ancient faiths are very diverse, independent (their representatives and without the priests of the state church, are able to serve in the church), they need free space for self-expression, and not a viscous state «n-n-e-t «To all their efficient suggestions.
2. The Cossacks. The beginning of this subethnos is believed to be the Great Famine of 1601—1603, when many people, from «perpetual work and slavishness of the non-volatile» flee to «Ukrainians», ie, very little populated lands of Russia. A term is derived from the Turkic word «kaz» — «goose», in this context meaning «free (like a bird) nomad». According to the census of 1897, there were three million Cossacks. It can be assumed that by 1918 — the time of the outbreak of the Civil War they were already three and a half million, 2.5% of the population of Russia. Russians, by and large, the Cossacks do not consider themselves, but they stay with the Empire in a fairly stable symbiosis. Sometimes they actively oppose the state (the first, recorded in the sources of the battle of the forces of the metropolis — in 1489, under Ivan the Third, against the Khlynov (Khlynov, Vyatka, modern Kirov) Cossacks, sometimes help him a lot in the struggle against external forces. Cossacks General Platov, successfully fighting against the forces of Napoleon.In the border (line) is not the peaceful North Caucasus, in particular impoverished noblemen («monogamy»), take roots, become very active and battle-worthy «linear Cossacks.»
Undoubtedly, the Cossacks are the main support of the Russian autocracy, a kind of analogue of the «Internal Troops». The fact that they do not fully identify themselves with the radical ethnos allows the tsarist government, without much thought, to direct them to «pacify» the peasants who are outraged by the landowners, the striking workers and students, and «small towns» in towns. However, a significant part of the Cossacks are fighting on the side of the «Red Empire». Therefore, on April 20, 1936, by the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, restrictions on the service of the Cossacks are removed.
In the Civil War, the «white» Cossacks show themselves more likely, the original «free nomads», rather than sensible state builders and saviors of Russia. It seems that the main thing for them now is to ruin the big cities of the center of the country, return to the original limits with trophies and organize their own isolated life. This is also the case during the «sovereignty parade» of 1991 — on November 20, a large «Cossack circle of the South of Russia» in Novocherkassk proclaims the merger of quasi-state Cossack entities into the Union of Cossack Republics of the South of Russia. However, this separatist undertaking, in a somewhat strengthened Russia, has no immediate continuation.
3. The Jews. As you know, most of them went to Russia at the partition of the Commonwealth, in the time of Catherine II. By 1880, the Empire has five million people, 67% of the entire Jewish population. At one time, a «Pale of Settlement» was introduced for them, which does not allow migrating from the borders of present-day Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine into the interior of central Russia. Exceptions are made for merchants of the first guild, retired recruits, people with higher education, and Central Asian Jews. Such «special» representatives of the genus «aspiring to Zion» number only about 200 thousand.
One way or another, the residence of Jews in Russia is limited to Ivan the Terrible. Of course, we can not regard this monarch as a high spiritual authority. But, other Russian rulers — Peter the First, Elizabeth, Catherine II, as well, somehow tried to exclude the Jews from the reality of their government. A possible reason is the too high social, economic, any other activity of these well-developed, comprehensively developed, but deeply cooperated, internally isolated people. Sometimes this hyperactivity leads to the oppression or even enslavement of the indigenous population of the country.
One of the representatives of the ethnos is Dmitry Grigorievich Bogrov, who is also Mordko Mordechai Gershkovich. As you know, this, in this photo, a seemingly very worthy young man shoots Pyotr Stolypin, a man who avoids Jewish pogroms, one might say, that is very sympathetic to Jews, in retaliation for something incomprehensible once happened to the Jewish population, which allegedly «Should have provided for.» He himself also perishes. The peasant reform is decisively decelerated. In the near future, Bogrov’s act turns into the most brutal genocide of Jews in Ukraine (100—150 thousand people), the Civil War, and in a somewhat distant projection — the broad offensive of the German fascist troops, Babi Yar, Buchenwald, Oswenim, and others.
An important figure of the Revolution is Yakov Sverdlov, Yoshua Solomon Movshevich, formal head of the RSFSR, Chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee (by education — pharmacist). In fact — the technical director of the Revolution, or indeed, the entire post-revolutionary Russia. It is believed that for some time he alone replaced the two most important ministries. It is also believed that Sverdlov is involved in the execution of the royal family. But, at the time when the families of peasants, workers, classes, villages and cities were being destroyed, he was not the only one he wanted.
It is believed that Sverdlov was also involved in the attempt on VI Lenin, a man who, in Yakov’s opinion, tasted too much unjustified popularity. The shooting and even the burial (probably) of the accidental figure of this action — eserkas F. Kaplan is suspiciously rushed. In addition, the fact that Y. Sverdlov occupies the Lenin cabinet immediately after the shooting at the Michelson plant — a gesture very symbolic.
Note that in England, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries that are considered to be basically «Anglo-Saxon», the attitude towards Jews is exactly what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed very precisely: «The British are not anti-Semites, because we do not believe yourself more stupid than Jews. «Indeed, the Anglo-Saxons, in large part, are very eager for everything new (with the preservation of old good traditions), appreciate oddballs, vigorously support compatriots in good, if risky undertakings, despite some external stiffness, create active «communities» (clubs, clubs on interests, public organizations). Here they are with the Jews on the same wave, in a pleasant mutual agreement, and that is why the axis of the British Commonwealth-US is in the lead on the planet Earth.
To be perfectly accurate, Jewish usurers were expelled (2000 people, that is, completely) from England under Edward the First, according to his edict of 1290, to Oliver Cromwell (1656). Jews were also expelled from Spain (if they refused to receive baptism in the three-month period) in 1492, 50—150 thousand people, Austria (1420), France (1182, again 1306), Germany, Portugal and the principality of Lithuania, in the 13—14 centuries. All of them settled in Poland, after the partition of which Catherine the Great and the German states, for the most part crossed the Russian Empire.
The Jewish religion and Protestantism, prevalent, primarily in the US (5.2 million and 160 million, respectively) have much in common. The Catholic and Orthodox churches are reluctant to recognize the very existence of the Old Testament, that is, the Hebrew Bible, and the fact that all the apostles and most of the early Christians are Jews. The theme of nationality, the whole complex long history of a certain Semitic people, represented in the 24 books of the Tanakh, seems to be something not so significant at all. Protestants (Baptists, Evangelists, etc. «denominations»), in contrast, pay a lot of attention to the study of the Old Testament. In many American films we see, here is how a certain person utters a quotation from Tanakh, and his interlocutor unconstrainedly indicates the chapter of the book and the number of the verse. So educated, educated in the Christian spirit, people recognize «their».
Of course, the general reverence for Tanakh, unites Protestants and Jews. Further, in the history of those and others there is exile, the Great Exodus (the resettlement of the persecuted «heretics» into the New World). Third — the desire for the future, no matter how complex it may seem, trembling, tonic waiting for Armageddon and the coming of the greatest Messiah.
Protestants and Jews do not have churches with a complex, multistage hierarchy. A parishioner can become a priest or mentor. There are disadvantages in this, but also pluses. There is a great risk of error, the committing of sin, which is always manifested when a new one is being created, as well as some kind of arrogance, the self-image is always right. On the other hand, a person learns to act and think independently, broadly, organize active communities and effectively manage them. In Orthodoxy and Catholicism, parishioners are led by hierarchs, beyond superfluous questions and non-standard actions. Byzantium, who imported faith in Russia, was killed precisely because of a lack of active, enterprising people; military and civil rulers, inventors, industrialists (indifferent attitude to the novelty of military affairs — artillery); from the general mood «So that everything remains as before.»
4. Workers. With a population of 155 million (without Finland), by 1914 there were about 15 million workers in various industries. Of these, 4 million work in large enterprises, including (rail) transport. According to the testimony of an educated contemporary: «These are people dressed in their own way; trousers in European style, shirt color rifle, over the shirt vest and unchanged jacket, on the head — a cloth cap; then — they are mostly skinny people, with an underdeveloped chest, with a bloodless complexion, with nervously running eyes, with a carefree ironic look and manners that the people are knee-deep and whose disposition is not forbidden…».
In the rooms of the workers’ hostels there are usually two or three families, sometimes up to seven. Places on the bunks are separated by curtains. Sometimes a semblance of a baby crib appears nearby — people manage to make love somehow.
In a somewhat better position are workers of state defense plants, earning up to 160 rubles. per month, with a moderate (11.5 hours) of working hours. However, further the beloved child — the military-industrial complex, in which he sees a panacea for all ills, the government does not extend care, giving citizens entirely to the power of the private entrepreneur. Those working hours are up to 18 hours a day literally. Money is given irregularly. And, above all, it is here, not in some foreign military ministries, that a hidden threat, a grain of hatred for the whole state, grows.
So, most of the factories work around the clock. Expensive, usually — written out from abroad machines, require the prompt return. A 12-hour working day is common. To be precise, it’s a whole day: two six-hour shifts. The sense of this schedule is that the proletarian, who has slept a bit, will work out in more than two outlets in more than one long shift. The working day at the same time loses its significance, the day, weeks and months blur into the gray haze of hopeless labor; the hail of the master, the spinning of the gears of the machine, and so on, to the like.
There are no vacations in principle. To at least somehow take a breath, the worker is forced to resign, change his place of work, wander around the country.
In 1905—1906 the owners of enterprises expose a large number of workers outside the gate, trying to protest, or simply, somehow, in a human way, to engage in a dialogue. Proletarians supplement the world of crime or the «flying squads» of insurgent-Socialist-Revolutionaries. The way back to highly skilled productive work for them, who are on the black list, is impossible. Since 1916, labor has been militarized. Protests are prohibited at all. Now the workers are no longer willing to give up their overtime orders, remaining at work for 18 hours quite officially.
There are now such clever people who proclaim: the worker must work as much as possible, but how else, after some time, everyone will be happily happy. But, one must think that every person on the planet considers himself to be a unique, unique personality, he wants to organize for himself a wonderful life, full of adventures, tests and unexpected turns. Attitude to yourself as a «cook’s son» (by the definition of Emperor Alexander III) or a cricket, due to know its own pole, causes internal tension, and readiness for large-scale social performances.
In addition, the economy is a very paradoxical thing. If the workers and peasants only work «like horses» day and night, they practically do not buy industrial goods (watches, furniture, beautiful utensils, conditionally, delicacies like coffee and sweets, «outfits,» books, cars), lose interest in anything other than simple food, and the market, without any special reason, is overstocked.This naturally leads the production in general, to a serious crisis.The working day of reasonable duration, the contractual capacity of the parties on wages and social protection, humane attitude to work tnikam — that’s what could prevent the horrific upheavals of a hundred years ago.
Orthodox Church. On the eve of the Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church is populated by 72% of the total population of the country. In exchange for abundant financial assistance, the state instructs the hierarchs of the church to conduct the propaganda propaganda, the formation of «loyalty feelings» among the population. In a word, the ROC, alas, falls into the heresy of phyletism (state religion), and catastrophically loses trust in «ordinary» parishioners, whose interests it should have defended in every possible way.
Before that, the Russian Orthodox Church has suffered two heavy blows. The first is the very moment of its appearance in Russia, from the presentation of not inspired prophets, monks-pilgrims, preachers, but the prince and his armed squad. The second is the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. As it suddenly turns out that for six and a half centuries people prayed and did not believe as they should. The Christian faith has taken root, has become universal, permeated the people’s soul, overgrown with numerous oral and written traditions. It could even be assumed that Vladimir’s baptism with «fire and sword» was an unfortunate misunderstanding, at the time when (988) the message spread that the Apocalypse would take place in the Millennium of the Nativity of Christ; and, therefore, the conversion of pagans into Christians should be accelerated by all means, for their own good. But no. The patriarch and the sovereign, after consulting with each other, again do everything their own way. Many poods of anathematized sacred Russian books are sent to the fire.
It must be understood that ritual has the highest value for people of the Middle Ages. The performance of the ritual in its original version seems to be akin, let’s say, to the control of the aircraft. Only when the pilot presses the buttons according to all instructions, the airplane flies, and delivers the person to the destination — in Paradise. Many people who want to save their souls depart from the latest regulations, even under pain of death. Sometimes the intensity of the struggle of the authorities with their own, sincerely believing subjects reaches the heat of persecution of heretics (and real sorcerers) by the Spanish Inquisition. In total, twelve or fifteen thousand ancient believers perish during the reign of the «Tishayshiy», Feodor and Tsarevna Sophia. Peter the First, in the Galantian century that has already opened, largely alleviates the fate of these persecuted, however, imposes a double tax on them, and still, under pain of cruel punishment, forbids building their own temples (and sending rituals to the already existing ones). A number of state fines for non-attendance of the confession, improper appearance during the hearing of the service, etc., charged by a «good man» attached to the temple are introduced. Church hierarchs are entitled to salaries from the treasury. If earlier the lower parish clergy were selective — parishioners chose from their environment a suitable person (usually from spiritual families) and were sent with a charter to be «put» to the local hierarch, now they are no more.
The colorful vagrant «sacrificial» clergy disappears completely — from the abbots of small parishes, at times freely engaged in the service of prayer at home, the blessing of the meal, the reading of Sorokoust, etc. The spiritual rank is now firmly attached to the place of service. And, finally, the priest is obliged to help the government in the search and catching those who do not approve of the king’s activities, even if this leads to the discovery of the sacred mystery of confession.
Monks are ordered to reside in monasteries «non-existent», any exit to the walls of the institution (two, three hours) can occur only on the written (with seals) permission of the abbot.
According to the «Spiritual Regulations» of Peter the Great, the spiritual schools of the seminary (from the Latin seminarium — nursery school) are being created. As we study the potential priests in such schools, we know, in particular, from N. Pomyalovsky’s book Essays on Bursa.
As a logical result, between the flock and the shepherds stands a wall of alienation and misunderstanding. The clergy is locked in itself, not refreshed by the influx of new forces from outside, it becomes just such an aspiring clan to survive.
To top it all off (not without the influence of Stolypin’s activities, obviously), the state is destroying the rural community, by and large, which is the original source of morality and religiosity.
Just as a branch of the state, the ROC supports an unpopular war with (far from being a fascist, quite Christian) Germany, urging the people to certainly bring it «to the victorious end.»
Before the October Revolution, there are 54,000 churches in Russia. But, most importantly, these are people. The parishioners, many of whom are languishing in total poverty, dull workers’ hostels, are leaving the church. A completely different cult awaits them.
The Russians. Admittedly, the common affiliation to this ethos does not at all alleviate the contradictions between the poor and the rich, educated and illiterate, nobles, the bourgeoisie, workers and peasants. Similar is possible in the countries of Central Europe — England, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland… The German worker in an interview with the capitalist, from which he intends to improve working conditions, also adds something like: «We are with you both soldiers, genosse …". It works. In Russia, the words «We are Russians» mean practically nothing. For many centuries, Russian kings have annexed large territories. Residents of the newly-acquired areas of the Empire at the same time (those who lost the war), at the caprice of the monarch, have freedoms, opportunities, in general, higher than the indigenous inhabitants of the central regions. A wealthy Caucasian mountaineer can easily buy a Russian girl for his use — quite decent — if only he had the money.
Strictly speaking, only noblemen have the right to acquire slaves, or merchants of higher guilds. But, at some desire, all the conventions can be easily settled with the help of intermediaries, transferring the living goods to the buyer so to speak, «in service.» The ethnonym «Russian» (it’s not even a noun, but an adjective, or a possessive pronoun «who are you?») Is probably spoken with some shame. Russians do not help Russians on the basis of such a cause as a given nationality, or at least they are not inclined to give each other at least any preferences; because in this country the victors are revered as the rulers of the less defeated.
So, the fact that most of the inhabitants of the Russian Empire belong to one nationality does not in the least prevent the beginning of the Civil War, and most importantly, the Great Terror following it. Slavdom, «Russianness» in this case — a very loose foundation for building strong statehood. The creation of a new race, practically from scratch, with its center of attraction (the distant analogue of Mount Zion), the principles of mutual aid, self-defense, communication with the outside world, taking into account the mistakes of all others who consider themselves messianic, is a potentially interesting new social experiment.
The Cadets. The Constitutional Democratic Party in Russia began the twentieth century (not to be confused with the Cadets, pupils of secondary military schools), it is also the «Party of People’s Freedom». The motto: «Ability and work for the benefit of the Motherland». It was founded in 1905, its leader, historian by education, Pavel Milyukov. Quote: in case the cadet is elected Minister of the Interior, Milyukov promises to put «guillotines in the squares and ruthlessly crack down on all those who are fighting against the government based on the people’s trust.» The Russian people, in the opinion of P.M. (by the way, a very expensive guest at the British Embassy), wants first of all, the continuation of the war with Germany.
In March-May 1917, as part of the Provisional Government (in fact, after the dissolution of the Fourth Duma, formed precisely by Pavel Nikolayevich), Miliukov occupies such a popular post. Guillotines in the squares he does not establish, but for reasons unknown to us he gives the Russian embassies the order to facilitate the return of immigrant revolutionaries to Russia. One of them is Lenin, known to the whole world today.
As is known, in October-November, even after the capture of the Winter Palace by revolutionary sailors, under the pressure of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, as if by inertia, and under the control of the Bolshevik MS Uritsky, preparation for the convocation of the «Constituent Assembly» continues.
In the all-Russian elections to this Constituent Assembly, on November 12 (25), 1917, the cadets receive 4.7 percent of the vote, that is, two million people, mainly the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia. By the way, the RSDLP (b) of Lenin acquires 24%, the RSDLP (m) Yu Martov (Tsederbaum) 2.6%, the Socialist-Revolutionaries V. Chernov — 40.4%. But, the Bolsheviks, who have real power over the rather numerous Petrograd garrison (the Petrograd Soviet of Workers «and Peasants’ Deputies), all these results are simply annulled.
The activities of PM, who invariably want war and the treasured Straits of the «hawk», a monarchist who attacks the monarchy itself, has made a deep split in the government, and contributed a lot to its overthrow. After the October Revolution, more precisely, the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, in May 1918, having moved to a somewhat more tranquil Kiev, Pavel Nikolayevich was already negotiating with the German command; which is now viewed as a potential ally in the struggle against the Bolsheviks…
The chief cadet, most likely, is not a traitor to his homeland, but a vivid example of a typical Russian statesman who has for some time been guided only by his own imaginary images and schemes, already torn away from real life.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries (rus. «Eseri»). The main idea is a peaceful transition to democratic socialism. The ideal state apparatus is a council of representations of organized producers (trade unions), consumers (cooperative unions), and also individual, enterprising and conscious citizens. The method is the development of socialism in the countryside, on the basis of rural communities, peasant brotherhoods (which should be given to the state land), and also political terror. The head is Viktor Chernov. The motto: «In the struggle you will find your right».
The fighting organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries is separated from the party itself, and is engaged in the murders of state officials. In the best years for it, it reaches the number of hardly a hundred people, but the effect of its militants on Russia is impressive. After the first Duma (1905) was convened, there were fervent discussions about the cessation of terror in, after all, the now constitutional country. In the end, by 1911 the militant organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries self-dissolves. This does not mean, of course, that many young people who want to change, calling themselves «Socialist-Revolutionaries», stop making attempts further.
By 1917 the party came to its short, but very rapid flowering. Eser A. Kerensky — Prime Minister, V. Chernov — Minister of Agriculture, N. Avksentyev — Minister of Internal Affairs, etc. The number of members is one million. The circulation of the party newspaper «Volya Naroda» reaches 300 thousand copies.
Perhaps it can be argued that with the military in the Socialist-Revolutionaries, whose militants killed 33 governor-general, 7 simply generals and admirals, as well as some representatives of law enforcement agencies, relations are not so good. And this circumstance predetermines unpleasant consequences for all of them.
After the dissolution, which worked for the whole day of the Constituent Assembly (in the absence of proper protection, only a small group of armed sailors was needed), the SRs form a coalition All-Russian Provisional Government based in Omsk. He, in his turn, disperses, then partially shoots (or allows his officers to do so), the adherent of the sole authority, the protege of the Entente, was already headed by the Mesopotamian fleet, Admiral A. Kolchak. The dictator himself is kept until 1920. In his reign, massacres are being committed against workers and peasants, who do not want to give up the land they’ve got again, from where the «bars» come from. In the end, the admiral’s half-thousand personal guard fled. Kolchak is issued by the Czechoslovak military SRs, then passes from them «red,» in exchange for the unhindered return of ex-prisoners to their homeland, and, according to the decision of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, is shot.
V. Chernov safely emigrates to Estonia, then Czechoslovakia, France, and settles in New York. Here our socialist revolutionary is engaged in scientific work, writes memoirs — until his very last on the Earth in 1952 year.
The criminal community. The main idea of a «thief-in-law» is born during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, the reforms of Nikon and the persecution of «schismatics». The persecuted recognize the state as «anti-Christian», refuse any cooperation with it. Participation in the census, military service, the acquisition of any documents, including certificates of marriage, the birth of children, are prohibited. The only way to somehow maintain their earthly existence is theft. A person who trades in that way calls himself a «thief, in the law of God.»
Later, the definition is reduced to «a thief-in-law».
«Lawyers» are developing their own, similar to the monastic, charter. The idea of a «thief-in-law» penetrates into Georgia — a Christian country, initially not related to the theme of the church schism. The point about principled apoliticality here does not work.
In this moral atmosphere, Josef Stalin, as well as many of his comrades-in-arms, also once the leaders of the national OPG (оrganized criminal grouping), is born, grows up (takes part in bloody «execs»). A significant part of the Central Committee, the power block of the Soviet Republic, is of Georgian origin (about 25%). Organization, strict hierarchy, aspiration for power are more important than the debates of the noble, dreaming of something vaguely good, intellectuals of Central Russia. For some time (with some mediation of ethnic Russians) this force fights against a no less organized group — the Jewish (43% of the entire state apparatus). Part of the latter is destroyed physically (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Kamenev, Yagoda, etc.), someone «leaves» as it were (a very strong figure — the «demon of the Revolution» who died under very dark circumstances, «Spaniak» poison Ya. Sverdlov, M. Uritsky, died of tuberculosis «Menshevik» Yu Martov), someone manages to subordinate to his will (Kaganovich, Litvinov, Abakumov, Mehlis, etc.) although the last of them, Stalin seems to be afraid to the very end.
To a large extent, the picture depicted here of the struggle of national groups of one degree or another of organization is the author’s speculation. Has got to all indiscriminately. And among those, and others, there were people who really wanted mankind of all kinds of good. And, most of all, those who wanted only to isolate themselves, far from any politics and new trends, were those who dreamed, praying, that «everything always remained as before», the criminal peasants who had been criminalized.
The peasants. General moods — «Involvement of the country in an unnecessary war, the call to the front of the only worker in the family, the requisition of working cattle, the suspicious behavior of the traitor — the queen of the German woman». Of course, no one «above» can hear the breadwinner of the Russian land. The only way to attract attention to one’s own opinion is not to give the state bread. And, it is, until quite pending.
The state apparatus does not consider it necessary to spend energy on propaganda within the «village». As a result, the army remains without bread, and the tsar and his «holiest» family, conditionally, are without heads.
At the time of P. Stolypin, the peasant community was almost completely defeated. The new class — «kulaks» (Fists) are not guided by any moral norms, they despise the landless «rednecks», cruelly exploit hired workers, and now see the highest value only the nearest economic benefit. Yes, these hard-working people we can be pitied, but in those days, judging by the opinions of contemporaries, there was no special love for rural capitalists in the rural «world». Love is the greatest power, and, also, a shelter. «Fists» renounce this strong defense. As a consequence, one way or another, a significant part of them — in a new, huge Vendee — Central Russia, Ukraine, Kuban, Kazakhstan, Siberia, is dying.
…At the end of February 1917, for various reasons, the capital is deprived of the delivery of bread, a general strike begins, five days later the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison join it. The capital, as well as many other major cities of the country, is in fact a huge infirmary and a trans-shipment base for troops sent to the front. Altogether, about 160 thousand are concentrated here, very unhappy with their situation, squeezed into barracks, military ones, designed for 20 thousand seats. In the hands of the population are 40 thousand rifles and 30 thousand revolvers. In Moscow something similar is also happening. The starving take the storm shops. The authorities throw Cossacks to disperse the poor. Still not believing in the seriousness of what is happening, Nicholas abolishes the meeting that has authority, the State Duma, but she continues to work in the «private meetings» mode. The monarch sends the commander of the garrison a telegram «… to stop the riots tomorrow,» but as it, in fact, does not indicate. To the explanations of the chairman of the State Duma that «… there is anarchy in the capital… there is random shooting in the streets… Any delay in the death is like…» does not react, declaring to the confidant: «Again the fat Rodzianko wrote me different nonsense, to which I will not even answer.»
The same «fat man» persuades the younger brother of the tsar, Mikhail, to take temporary command in St. Petersburg, but the latter rejects them under various pretexts. Not waiting at this moment of the answer, members of the Council of Ministers disperse to their homes.
The power passes to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, then to the Provisional Government, headed by Prince V. Lvov, and already known to us M. Rodzianko.
Called from the front for the suppression of the uprising, the parts fraternize with the rebels.
This is the so-so, first-roused civil society, the February Revolution.
In this situation, Nicholas II finds nothing better than leaving GHQ in Mogilev (where he has many armed people loyal to him) and go to Tsarskoe Selo, to his beloved family. The chief of the General Staff seems that he managed to persuade the monarch to stay, but he dramatically changes his decision, rushes into the car and leaves for the station. The departure is so hasty that the officers of the Imperial Convoy are barely able to drop into the Tsar’s train; Cossacks, their horses, property, remain in Mogilev.
The detachment of General Ivanov (the Convoy and the dowry units), following the chaos, follows the monarch in a different way, arrives in Tsarskoe Selo a little earlier. Rodzianko assures the commander that the revolutionary movement is under the control of the Duma, and offers no unnecessary movements.
In Pskov with Nikolay the First one of the members of the Provisional Government meets, General Ruzsky. He is long, energetic, although, of course, «without hands,» persuades the emperor to agree to the formation of a «responsible ministry», meaning a transition to a constitutional monarchy. In the end, the potential constitutional monarch agrees, and, tired of negotiations, falls asleep.
Meanwhile, the officers and ministers decide that the agreements reached are already too few. At two o’clock the next day three generals enter the carriage of the king with a heap of telegrams from the commanders. The general meaning is the demand for Nicholas to abdicate in favor of the heir, Tsarevich Alexei. Dispatches with expressions of devotion to the incumbent tsar, manifesting the doubts of the commanders, are not shown.
The Emperor agrees. And, this option, for some reason does not imply a transition to the Constitutional monarchy.
Further, on March 15, 1917, authorized representatives of the State Duma arrived in Pskov. After listening to them, Nicholas quite unexpectedly declares that he is making a decision to renounce his son. This is necessary in order not to be with Alexei in separation, because by the terms of the treaty the king must leave Russia to England with his family, through Murmansk, and then, once, live in the Livadia Palace. Nicholas the First proposes, and even, according to the still remaining right, orders the younger brother to become a monarch instead of him. On the same day, the rebellious Romanov draws up the next document — renunciation in favor of his son, demands sending new telegrams, but the former ones are no longer taken seriously. This train, for sure, has left.
But, on March 18, under the impression of stories about the sentiments among the masses, and having never received guarantees from the deputies about the preservation of their precious life, brother Mikhail also renounced the throne. To be precise, he proposes to approve him at his post sometime later, not yet called by the Constituent Assembly. Michael retires to the Gatchina estate, then (already under escort from the Bolshevik government) to Perm. Looking ahead, we can say that, in 1818, five workers, without agreement with anyone, kidnapped and shot Mikhail, as well as his personal secretary and friend Johnson, an Englishman. This action will be a signal for the destruction of other members of the royal family. … In fact, one or two March days in Russia are ruled by the last tsar, Mikhail II, the namesake of the first Russian monarch.
The Orthodox Church perceives the liquidation of the monarchy quietly. Introduced by Peter the Great, the Holy Synod attached the church to the state apparatus, and despite the rather generous funding from the treasury, it could not be perceived positively by ordinary Christians. The symbolic royal armchair is taken out «in the archive.» The post of chief prosecutor, ie, the «superintendent» of the Holy Synod, is abolished. The appeal «to trust the Provisional Government» is distributed. At the First Local Council on June 21, 1917, the Russian patriarchate is being restored. The head of the Orthodox Church is Metropolitan of Moscow, now patriarch, Tikhon (Bellavin). In 1923, the Bolsheviks practically already sentenced him to «vms» — «the highest penalty», for the active rejection of Soviet power, and so on. Formally (in accordance with the decision of the «manual» Second Council) the «curzon ultimatum» formally (by the decision of the «manual» Second Council) is a note by the British Foreign Minister George Curzon, where, in addition to the requirements for the release of British trawlers, the termination of anti-British activities in the countries of the East, the condition for the abolition of religious persecution in the USSR is contained.
Mikhail’s rejection of the throne produces a staggering effect on society. Theorizing and «breakfast» people do not accept. The monarchy, in his understanding, is eliminated, at the most critical moment for the era. Since this time the Revolution has no barriers.
1. Mikhail Romanov, the last Russian (the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty, the house of the Romanovs), the emperor.
2. Butchers Gabriel. The direct killer of the last emperor. In 1918 he was chairman of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. In the late twenties, after friction with the Soviet power, he fled from exile to Germany, then France. Works on a furniture factory. He writes the book «The Philosophy of Murder» (all social justice comes down to murder and expropriation). In 1945 he returns, at his own request, to his homeland, after 9 months he goes to the expense.
On March 20, 1917, at a meeting of the Provisional Government, the question of the arrest of the tsar, his wife and their maintenance under guard in Tsarskoe Selo (then, at Kerensky’s order, in Tobolsk) is being decided. This item was not registered in the treaty of abdication, but the ex-monarch, who dropped his hands, does not protest him. Nikolai bids farewell to the troops, bequeathing «to fight to the end, and to win». Many soldiers and officers expect that Nikolai will change the decision on abdication, but, you see, the word of the emperor is strong.
1. The famous «Kerenka», 20 rubles (came into circulation with uncut sheets, 20 banknotes) Have circulation until October 1, 1922.
2. Treasury note of the Provisional Government and the Duma, 250 rubles («Dumka»), with a swastika in the center — certainly not yet a symbol of fascism. Two-headed eagle without royal regalia.
The English hesitate: to accept or not the royal family. While Nikolay Romanov is under investigation, the answer is affirmative. When the king is released from the charges, the military attache Knox states something like: «England is not in the least interested in the fate of the Russian imperial family …". Indeed, she is more concerned about the sovereign’s foreign assets. However, all documents about these negotiations the Great Britain tried to hide.
In the meantime, the generals, wishing to suppress the unrest in Petersburg and Moscow, are setting in motion the troops. The head of the Provisional Government, appointed before the convocation, the imposing Mason Alexander Kerensky, suspecting that high-ranking officers are going to infringe on his personal power, declares them outlawed. A hitch occurs, serious forces neutralize each other, and the party of the RCP (B) fills the power vacuum.
Already under the Bolsheviks, in April 1918, the Romanovs were being transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. The Soviet power is still so weak, fragmented, that Moscow and the Urals are almost part of the force confrontation. The Bolsheviks of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee intend to take the royal family, the emperor, to the Mother See, when everything calms down a bit, the Ural Committee is inclined to settle the matter here, forever. At each station people want to kill the monarch personally. In Yekaterinburg, the personal (pro-Moscow, loyal) convoy of Nikolai Alexandrovich disarms, and even goes to jail. According to some reports, the commander of the detachment, a certain Yakovlev — a Whiteguard agent, or a German spy, really intended to take the king to Japan.
In Yekaterinburg, Nikolai reunites with a family brought by another. Part of the retinue of the royal family «put to the wall».
On the night of 16 to 17 July, the royal family and Nicholas (First) were executed. Four men of the retinue, from the words of the leader of the firing squad, declare to share their fate. The request is satisfied. Survive: a local boy — a cook, Alexei’s companion (he is sent home) and a valet in the hospital.
From this time, the flywheel of the Red Terror begins to gain full speed. Yes, the personality of Nicholas II raises many questions, but this person is definitely connected by invisible, and, nevertheless, quite real metaphysical threads with the entire Russian people. Ritual killing of the ruler, even if already in power, with all his potential heirs, as if producing a well that connects the earthly plane of being with the regions of hell, and his confused thought-forms.
Before that, for 8 months from the beginning of the Revolution, the account of the shot «political» throughout the country was counted «only» by several hundred. The terrible acceleration of the wheel occurs on September 5 of the same year, 5 days after the attempt on V. Lenin, and the death of the head of the Petrograd Cheka M. Uritsky. From the submission of Y. Sverdlov goes «Decree on the Red Terror», according to which are subject to isolation in concentration camps, or the shooting «… all persons who are involved in Whiteguard organizations, conspiracies and insurrections …". The order of admission to such persons is completely arbitrary. Among the workers to be eliminated are ordinary workers: those who do not agree to work forcibly, «just for it», branded «parasites», and only because they are considered unworthy to live.
The teaching of Karl Marx can be expressed in only three words: «It is not good to make a profit». There are no examples of a really correct life for the Communists. Thinkers of Europe and America in their time write all sorts of utopias (T. Campanella, T. Moore, etc.), run these ideas in the real communities of workers (phalanstery F. Fourier, «New Harmony» R. Owen). Some useful conclusions are drawn from this, it is believed, for example, that the system of trade unions begins. In Russia, there is nothing like this, even to the smallest extent, exactly what is proven in the case, until the October Revolution itself, no. The village community, Mir? This, of course, is interesting. But, unfortunately, definitely, the rural «World» is completely closed in itself, does not presuppose the development, inclusion in its composition of representatives of the intelligentsia, the nobility, and even urban workers.
The answers to the question «How to make good» are not given also by the most famous in the world of stateless persons, Karl Marx. What is the fate of people who do not want to part with their high position, system of views and «excess» property? Is there really a working scheme for reconciliation of parts of society? … It seems that the first six months of its existence, the new government, and a large, supporting part of the people painfully seeking an answer to the question «What to do?» From the famous triad «Freedom, equality, brotherhood» is chosen simply «Equality». How can we equalize beautiful and not-beautiful, rich and poor, loved and simply respected? The simplest answer is hidden in the depths of the subconscious. Death. That, indeed, reliably equates the king and the simple worker. This thought-form, no longer restrained by any previous prohibitions, breaks into the world, and produces many appropriate actions.
The newspapers of the Soviet authorities mention the shooting of Nikolai Romanov in passing, but they do not talk about the fate of the spouse, children and close associates, or throw in fragmentary information that they are «hiding in a safe place».
Habsburg and Hohenzollern
The founder of the dynasty is Guntram the Rich, northern Switzerland the tenth century. Grandson Radbot builds the Habsburg, «Hawkeye Castle,» from whose name he and the descendants receive a generic name. In the second half of the thirteenth century, another count is elected by the German princes as king and is named Rudolf the First. The Habsburgs subordinate Austria, losing at the same time their ancestral Switzerland. In the fifteenth century, under their control are the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany. At the end of the century the dynasty shows the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire — Frederick the Third. Dynastic marriage monarch joins the Netherlands and the Luxembourg principality. The slogan «Austria must rule the world» is born. And, with these statements the French Capetians, Valois and Bourbons disagree.
Between them and the Hapsburgs wars are waged.
The dynasty is divided into two branches; Spanish and Austrian. In order not to lose land, aristocrats marry each other, the so-called «insuht», which leads to the accumulation of genetic errors. The constant interaction of parts of the whole is inadmissible. As a result, the distinctive feature of the Habsburgs is the protruding lower lip and the protruding chin.
This feature does not prevent the Spanish King Philip the Second from marrying Maria the First Tudor, older than him, without the right to join the possessions. Children are not married. After the death of Queen Philip makes a proposal to Elizabeth the First, but she rejects it. The king sends «Invincible Armada» to the shores of England with thirty thousand soldiers, but some of the fleet let down the storm, part of it is the admiral and pirate Francis Drake. Philip is content with half of Latin America and Spain, swollen from cheap Inca gold, where he encourages the Inquisition, denunciations and corruption.
Close-knit marriages do their job, the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs breaks off on Carl the Second Bewitched. His coefficient of inbreeding reaches 25%, as with a direct incest sister-sister. The lower jaw is distorted, the king can not speak articulately, and also chew food. In the bouquet of diseases, along with epilepsy, dementia and diarrhea, impotence is present. The next rulers of Spain, in the early eighteenth century, are representatives of the Bourbon dynasty that rose during the Thirty Years War.
The Austrian, imperial branch of the Habsburgs, in the second half of the seventeenth century, gives the world another celebrity — Ferdinand II. At this time Protestantism spreads, a branch of Christianity that denies magnificent ceremonies, trade in indulgences and the moral disintegration of the detached clergy. The thesis is raised on the shield that every believer can interpret and preach the word of God, in addition to ordained priests. The New Testament, previously hiding from the majority of parishioners, who were presented with obscure rituals and sermons in Latin, became the basis of faith. Approximately at this time in Russia, under Aleksei Mikhailovich Romanov Tishaysh, Nikon’s church reforms are taking place; However, they concern, whether it is good or bad, the external form of ritual, and not its essence. There is suppression of the dissenters’ speeches, under peasants peasants lose the last breath of freedom: the «Jury Day» comes to an end (November 26 and the week following it).
The Emperor does not get along with Protestants (Calvinists, Lutherans), which leads to a devastating (up to 80% of the population of some of the 224th German states) Thirty Years War. The consequences are corrected by grandson Leopold, strengthening, in particular, serfdom in East Germany, but the Habsburgs lose many of their possessions. In 1711 Charles entered the throne of the Empire (just Karl (!), Without a number), the last heir of the eminent dynasty. He chooses the husband of his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, the Duke of Lorraine, the now defunct Lorraine in the north of France, Franz Stefan. Lorraine, she is an Alsatian dynasty, according to family tradition, considers herself a Carolingian; true or not, it is unknown, but, indeed, it is very influential. In the sixteenth century, the younger branch, Giza, almost took the French throne. On the orders of Henry the Third, the brothers of Giza, the duke and the cardinal were killed, the third, the Duke of Mayen Karl, defeated by Henry the Fourth of Anjou, fully complied with him.
So, in 1736 appears the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. Her first emperor, Joseph II joins part of Poland, but on this his success ends. In the era of the Napoleonic wars (1804), the Holy Roman Empire ceases to exist. There remains a great Austria, which includes Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Transcarpathia, Galicia, including part of Poland, Croatia, Bukovina, and the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. It is managed by all this farm from the German aristocratic Vienna, in such a way as to bring the population to one vocabulary and culture. Languages of the Slavic peoples are transformed beyond recognition or are reduced at all. History is transformed. The uprising in Hungary, already having experience of statehood, is suppressed with the help of the Russian corps. After the fight, Austria and Hungary are reconciled to the division of power one to one, as a union of states; The new empire is called Austro-Hungarian. In 1848 serfdom was abolished. Together, the Allies are at war, and together they roll into the abyss; six months after the outbreak of the First World War, the empire disintegrates.
The Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty is also divided, into the Imperial, Tuscan, Teshen, Hungarian and Modena dynasties. The last powerful Habsburg — representative of the Modena branch, the Archduke (above the duke, but below the king) Franz Ferdinand von Habsburg. His murder, together with his wife, the Czech Countess Sophia in Sarajevo, the Serbian terrorist Gavrilo Princip, gives rise to the First World War. Children, as born in a morganatic marriage (the Archduke had to confirm this before the wedding), the rights to the title and even more so, do not have a throne.
The Hohenzollerns (German Hohenzollern, «High Rock»). The founder of the family is the semi-mythical Count Tassilon, from Swabia (south-west, rather, the center of modern Germany). A reliable ancestor — the Duke of Burkhard the First, the owner of the castle Zollern, on a rock in 850 meters. The last crowned representative of the dynasty, Kaiser Wilhelm II, resigned on November 9, 1918, after Germany’s defeat in the First World War. Wilhelm the First, together with the «Iron Chancellor» Otto von Bismarck — the founders of the Second Reich — united in 1871, from many small principalities, Germany. The formation of the state was not without a major military conflict-the Seven-week or German War of 1866. Austria (Habsburgs) opposes Prussia (Hohenzollern) and loses — in the Battle of Sadow (modern Czech Republic). Here Prussia has 220 thousand soldiers, with 770 guns, Austria, its Italian and Romanian allies — 215 thousand, and 915 cannon. The rapid-fire extinguishing («needle») rifles of the Prussians are doing their job — the irretrievable loss of Prussia in relation to the Austrian — 2000: 9000. The Hohenzollerns receive carte blanche for uniting Germany under their banners. In 1870, France (Napoleon the Third), dissatisfied with the strengthening of Deutschland, provokes King William the First (rather, an ambitious Bismarck) to declare war on her. Germany, almost the only country in Europe that did not support the Franco-British-Turkish alliance in the Crimean conflict, enjoys the support of Russia, and confidently defeats France. The latter is not helped even by the advanced for that time state-funded Shaspo rifles. The empire loses 140 thousand soldiers killed (against 50 thousand from the Germans) and about 200 thousand civilians. Emperor Napoleon the Third falls into an honorable captivity. France pays 5 billion francs — which serves as the basis for the economic recovery of the German state, loses the historical regions of Alsace and Lorraine with 4% of all residents and 20% of the metallurgical industry.
The Empire becomes the Third Republic.
1. Philip the Second, King of Spain, husband of Maria Tudor (1527 — 1598).
2. Charles the Second Bewitched, the last representative of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs (1661 — 1700).
3. Ferdinand II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the era of religious wars, King of Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic (1578 — 1637).
4. Franz Ferdinand (1863) and his wife Sophia (1868), the first victims of the World Conflict.
5. Castle Hohenzollern, the cradle of Prussian militarism. It was founded in the 11th century. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, Prussia has been conducting extensive military reform. The first lessons were given to this country by Napoleon Bonaparte and his army. The notion of «military brotherhood» comes to replace the drill, the unthinking submission of the lower ranks to higher ones. The brotherhood consists of officers and soldiers, strict discipline is supplemented by mutual respect, awareness of the common goal and own maneuver. This spirit is carried over to the whole of society, it is the basis of many of Germany’s victories, although it contains the need for constant aggression outside. Fairly good German «military brotherhood» is shown in the book of E. M. Remarque «On the Western Front without Change».
The power of the Hohenzollerns 1871 — 1918) is identified with the Second Reich. The first Reich was the Holy Roman Empire (962—1806), and the third was Hitlerite Germany (1933—1945)
American Presidents
As is known, the first to overcome the raids of the Indians and the famine of the colony of North America was founded in 1606; this is Jamestown, Virginia. Imagine, the metropolis is now ruled by Jacob First Stewart.
…Virginian tobacco becomes the world standard of quality, the colony acquires a reliable source of income, it becomes clear to everyone that it is possible to live very well in America.
In 1619, a party of settlers from Angola was accepted, with long-term contracts that were not interrupted in any way, which, in fact, is the beginning of slavery.
In Central Europe, in addition to everything, the Thirty Years War begins, exterminating half of the population (8 million people), and up to 80% of men, so that, according to the edict of the Pope in Germany, polygamy is allowed for fifteen years (unverified information). The Germans massively sail across the ocean, accounting for a third of the inhabitants of the English colonies.
French Protestants after the Bartholomew night feel insecure, offended by the situation, also want to build a life away from the motherland and the Catholic mass.
So, thirteen colonies under the leadership of England are booming, taking to themselves all those who want novelty of sensation and freedom of religion. Soon the standard of living rises above the average European level. However, it is difficult to ascend the social ladder, officials and officers are all real British, in the army, in order to be promoted to a simple corporal, it is necessary to zeal for many years.
When England, among other things, begins to impose unpopular taxes, the population is divided into loyalists loyal to the crown of Britain, and patriots, «Whigs», otherwise, «sons of freedom.» Indians are trying to stay out of this conflict, although there have been cases of attacks by the Iroquois on settlers, from the submission and with the financial support of England. This is a mistake — the colonists undertake retaliatory punitive raids, banishing the natives of America to British Canada. Some of the blacks are fighting on the side of the insurgents, most of them, already not believing in the promises of freedom that are distributed from all sides, prefer to run away. In the end, losing five thousand people against fifty Americans and ten from the French, the metropolis yields. And, on September 3, 1783, it becomes the US Independence Day.
1. Produced at the beginning of the war for independence, its own «continental dollars» (sometimes «continents»), 1776, the forerunner of the modern world reserve currency. Removed from circulation after the conclusion of peace. A third of the dollar is presented. The first paper bills, issued in the North American continent in still British possessions, local pounds of yellow, Massachusetts, 1690.
2. Fifty-seven already formed continental dollars in 1779. There is a hint of the current one-dollar pyramid, true, without the all-seeing Eye.
3. Ten dollars of the Wildcat bank, one of many American, arbitrarily emerging and disappearing private banks that print their own money. This remarkable diversity reigned in the early to mid-1800s, before the Civil War between the North and the South.
4. One hundred dollars of the South (confederation).
5. The first, already classic ten dollars of the North of 1901, the basis of modern US dollars, until the appearance in 1913 of the Federal Reserve — the property of the United States. They get the unofficial name «greenbucks» — «green backs» because the seal on the back is made with green paint. Later the name is rounded to «bucks». According to another version, the «buck» in Old English is a deer or a rabbit, a game that can be easily repaid for any goods and services.
6. George Washington, originally a simple surveyor, then a militiaman, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, the first President of the United States. Father of the Fatherland. The only President for whom all members of the electoral college voted. The owner of 390 black slaves, most of whom received the surname «Washington». He died of pneumonia, received during a long hour horse ride in the rain with snow.
7. James Madison, the key author of the US Constitution, the fourth president of America. With him, the US fought with England for independence, and Washington was burned out; in the end, Madison managed to reduce everything to the status quo ante (bellum) — the position that existed before the war.
8. Abraham Lincoln. The son of a farmer, a postmaster, a surveyor, a lawyer. He opposed the granting of political rights to the negroes, and, especially, interracial marriages, did not approve of the introduction of the system of slavery in the developed territories. He won the election only thanks to the strong support of the northern states. The election of Lincoln as president gave rise to a split in the state and civil war. Its main idea — the union of states is eternal, it is not some kind of association of states; those. «… not one of the states has the right to withdraw from the Union solely on its own initiative …". The most important goal of Abraham is the united mighty of the USA and, let us note his words; «If I could save the union without releasing a single slave, I would do it.» The most important, perhaps, economic law of the 16th President is the «Homestead Act», according to which the settlers received land from public funds, 65 hectares, after paying a contribution of 10 dollars. If a person cultivated the land, erected buildings on it, then, five years later, he received it in perpetual possession.
Lincoln shot by a supporter of southerners, actor Booth in the theater, during the explosion of laughter of the audience, watching comedy.
9. Franklin Roosevelt. Initially, a lawyer, the undisguised freemason of the 32nd (highest) degree of dedication of the Scottish Charter. Since 1921 — is sick with polio, which binds him to a wheelchair. The circumstances of death in 1945 — the time when the most important decisions were made on the structure of the post-war world, cause many questions, the official conclusion — a hemorrhage to the brain.
10. Lost Russian America, the New World of Russia — Fort Ross. Annually, in the settlement of Russo, which has gone through two centuries of settling, pioneers are celebrating Anglo-Saxon Americans who, at this time, want to consider themselves great Russians. The city in California was intended, initially, to provide bread to the settlements in Alaska and, if possible, to drive out the Mexicans. Three years after the surrender, founded by the Russian partnership of Fort, Nikolay the First, in these places are found the richest deposits of original gold.
Somewhat to the east of California is Texas, a state of astonishing fate, and is still unique (but natural, given the general principle of freedom of North America) education in the United States. The name comes from an Indian friend, ally. Originally the territory belongs to Mexico-Spain. Because of anarchy, also the total oppression of the local population (including the initially European) by the greedy corrupt local «elites», as well as the bandits, the Mexicans become apathetic sheep, and easily yield to the numerous, freedom-loving immigrants from the United States. In fact, North America already annexes, in most Anglo-Saxon Texas from Mexico, with its consent, but from that (a higher level of democracy and leadership in general) everyone wins, including the original immigrants from Spain, and the Indians. To be precise, the latter, as «incorrigible», and «not amenable to civilization» are subsequently subjected to almost complete extermination, or eviction. Yes, they are not showered with subsidies, do not kiss, and do not enter the government. It is unlikely that something better was waiting for them and in the composition of Mexico. Among the reservations — the rich bowels of the state belong exclusively to the state itself.
.. The remains of the twenty-thousandth French corps of lovers of adventure and justice, led by the Marquis Lafayette, return to their homeland, where they contribute to heating, to the critical temperature, the boiler of the Great French Revolution. The participation of the ruthless, exterminated completely, the German corps in the British forces leads to the fact that the Americans, with a one-vote vote, abandon the idea of making the state language, at the peak of England, German.
The most notable presidents of the «American dynasty» until 1945:
George Washington, the former commander in chief of the Continental Army, receives all 100% of the electoral votes. In the heat of debates about the state structure almost becomes the king of the United States. It adopts the Bill of Rights (1791), formulated by his active assistant, James Madison, future, fourth president; ten amendments to the Constitution that provide for civil liberties. Many people heard something about them in the films, showed even some interest, but it was not possible to specify the time. We present it in a somewhat abbreviated form:
1. Freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, the right to file a petition.
2. the right to store and carry weapons.
3. The prohibition to place soldiers in private homes without the consent of the owner.
4. Prohibition of arbitrary searches and arrests.
5. The right to a proper trial, the opportunity not to testify against oneself, the guarantee of private property.
6. The rights of the accused, including the jury.
7. The right to trial by jury in civil cases,
8. prohibition of excessive taxes and fines, as well as unusual punishments.
9. The enumeration of rights in the Constitution should not be regarded as a derogation of other rights.
10. Powers that the Constitution does not assign to the jurisdiction of the United States are reserved to states and citizens.
The US president is chosen necessarily in conjunction with the vice president, who replaces him in case of death or resignation. The latter, even if formally, is headed by the Senate.
The president of the country can become a US citizen by birth, from thirty-five years old, who has lived in the US for at least fourteen years. The president can not be elected more than twice, no matter, in a row, or with a break. These conditions are superimposed on the vice-president, with the only difference being that his number of elections is unlimited.
In 1825, the US Supreme Court formulates the Doctrine of Discovery (Discovery Doctrine), according to which the right to land (the West of America, and any other side of the world) belongs to those who discovered them; The indigenous population retains the right to live on them, but not property. In particular, according to this provision, the Indians are forbidden to prosecute non-Indians. The state of the conqueror may not recognize the rights of Aboriginal people.
It turned out that the white man does not intend to tolerate the neighborhood of even peace-minded tribes and to put up with Indian claims to own these lands. Soon, autochthones, unable to join the «white» civilization, according to the Indian Removal Act are sent to the uninhabited land west of the Mississippi River. Indians have no place in law enforcement agencies and state bodies, their sphere of activity is folklore collectives and fishing in specially designated places.
At the level of local municipalities, rewards for killed Indians are practiced — for example, in Northern California, in 1855 «for a scalp or other convincing confirmation» are paid $ 5. In the course of the anti-Indian militia there is also such a thing as strychnine, which can be seasoned with water wells of settlements of autochthons. From 1500 to 1900 the number of Indians is reduced by 15 million. If you count with Latin America, and include in this number the deceased from the diseases brought by Europeans, we will get about 100 million. According to some reports, before the appearance of Europeans in North America, on the continent, in settlements of the level of the early European Middle Ages, 145 million Indians lived.
Approximately at the same time completely, i.e. until the last man is killed by the Maori tribe in New Zealand. In Australia, Aboriginal civil rights are limited until 1967; it can not be said that they are equal to the Europeans even now.
This is the Anglo-Saxon civilizational project. He is good or bad — it is difficult to judge. It is possible to compare the general level of life and social justice in these countries with those countries in which local people who are not loyal to the victors are introduced into the state administration bodies, without any probation period, grant special rights, pour money in the national republics, so that in the end, probably get eternal friendship. But, as a result, they have a war that has not ceased for centuries or a hidden threat.
Abraham Lincoln.
The founder of the Republican Party, the sixteenth president of the United States. The beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century. The elections won without the actual participation of the southern states, so that his election, coupled with the high cotton taxes established in Washington, signaled the start of the civil war of the North and the South. The northern, non-slave states are a population of twenty-two million people, the southern and northern slave states that declared themselves US, the Confederate States of America, with the capital in Richmond, Virginia are nine million and this includes three million black slaves. Indians, the number of which is not defined, were noted in the war a little, but, in general, they were loyal to southerners, who provided them with a very convenient reservation for their stay. After two thousand battles, the losses of the parties are almost equal, and, in total, six hundred thousand people are only killed. This is every fiftieth inhabitant of the North, about one in twelve adult healthy men; The relative losses of the South are higher — one of twenty all white citizens.
After Lincoln was murdered by Southerner Booth in his theater box, in the South, a real, uncompromising Reconstruction — reintegration into the state body of the United States — began. Previous local, yet not fully realized defeat, the government disbanded; Control over elections in the new apparatus of power is carried out by the army. However, the southerners keep somewhat apart and in modern America. Here, say, Mississippi still has in its coat of arms the flag of the Southern Confederation, locals and police listen to the accent, so that visitors from the northern states need to behave here reasonably enough.
Franklin Roosevelt, the first half of the twentieth century. During the reign of this president, America is declared war on Japan and Germany — and, in the end, somehow, lose it. The only one of all the rulers of the United States who are elected four times in a row: in 1948, the impossibility of such a series of presidencies is fixed constitutionally (the twenty-second amendment), in order to avoid the establishment of a single dictatorship.
Latin America. Africa
The name «Latin America» comes from a family of Romanesque, ie, derived from Latin languages, Portuguese and Spanish, on which, basically, the people of the continent speak. At one time the Spaniards were not interested in Guyana and Guyana in the north-east; The first settled the French, the second — the British. The latter left the colony after gaining independence, in 1967, leaving their language as official, the French retained the overseas department, and now they launch from there, from the equator, their missiles to the most advantageous orbit.
The national composition includes a significant percentage of the Indians, unlike the northern United States; 0, 2% in Brazil and 91, 9% in Paraguay. The heroic period is the beginning of the nineteenth century. The hero of the continent is Simon Bolivar, a Spaniard or, more precisely still, a Basque. Mason Scottish bylaw, as indeed, and most of the founding fathers of the United States. Trains law in Madrid. He takes part in the liberation of Latin America from the rule of Spain. First he fights against the Spaniards and the Llaneras, semi-wild shepherds, then at the head of the latter against the former. To combat the metropolis, it is possible to recruit mercenaries from the ardent rival of Spain and the United Kingdom. Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador are united for a short time, but the moment of luck melts: it is impossible to form the Southern United States, to realize the dream of Sur de Estados Unidos — Sur de Istados unidos. It’s not like that, the Latin American mentality, to fall in love with stable work, production discipline and centralization. After accusations of Bonapartism, subsequent uprisings, assassination attempts, Bolivar loses power and, abandoning everything, even the state pension, resigns, spends his time contemplating from the window of the mountains of Colombia. … His name is precious to every true Hispanic.
…Only two and a half centuries since the Inca empire, with its huge sparkling cities, pyramids, temples, a network of first-class roads, a complex organization of social life, ceased to exist, and it is almost never remembered. Llaneros, free shepherds, are very far from that. The surviving Indians also lose their ideas about their once great culture. Echoes are heard in the socialist movement named Tupaka Omaru, the last Inca ruler. But there is no system. Is it possible to apply the achievements of civilization, the development of which is so suddenly interrupted, in the present? The absence of commodity-money relations, the distribution of goods according to the notions of justice, the cult of the monarch chosen for the year in all respects…
In comparison with the Aztecs, the Incas are quite peaceful. Mass sacrifices (five to seven thousand prisoners of war per day) do not. Imagine: we are back there. Is there communication with the Mexican Aztecs — cultural, commercial ties? Are the Mesoamerican powers fighting each other? Two neighboring civilizations exist at the same time, and we know almost nothing about their relationship. Maybe, we do not even strive very much, and this, perhaps, is wrong.
Disclosure of this story will tell people a powerful emotional-motivating charge.
1. Simon Bolivar, President of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru (1783 — 1830).
2. The money of Bolivia. One boliviano of 1892. Consists of a hundred centavo. Modern Boliviano is approximately 12 rubles.
3. Ruins of the ancient Zimbabwe.
4. A common residence of people in modern Africa: one-story, dangerous and unsystematic.
Africa. Ancient Egypt, the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the period of settling the Punas does not count. It’s afloat. What is to the south, just horrific. No History, everything is drowning in a stuffy emptiness. In Eurasia, the Americas, Australia — monuments and memories, about those who have ever been. Not all, but many. Stone slabs, pyramids, steles, temples; stable memory centers.
Here, in Central and South Africa, a person dies imperceptibly, whether it is the leader of a large tribe or a child. Are there African pogosts, which number at least a couple of centuries, who saw them?
The body is filled with brown clay — that’s all! More often the body is left lying in the savannah. The ether barely noticeably swirls, and everything becomes the same. There was a certain Bantu-Mu, and no. They will forget about him in half an hour, they will sing and laugh. He was a child, passed the initiation ceremony, was able to dance with a spear, wore outfits of feathers, a distinctive feature — he caught flies with his hands. He took care of women, and achieved the location of one of them, whose name and face was also forgotten.
The earth has absorbed a huge amount of flesh, names, fates, like one another, like grains — and is silent about them.
Stone monuments of history are in Zimbabwe. Did they see them in the movie? Walls of untreated stone, in the corners of huge pitchers, a neck up. Watchtowers? But where are the doors and windows? Dwellings? Same question. And they are not blast. … Strange and terrible answers swim in the brain.
In Sudan, for the first time in Africa, iron was being processed. But, forges and now represent a hut with a large stone on the floor. Another cobblestone, crouching to the ground, the African batters iron. «You can improve this process,» the TV presenter notes. — «What for? As it was before, it should always remain that way.»
Round huts made of reeds, smeared with manure. Eating from milk with the blood of cows and flour. Circumcision in women — in order to deprive them of the opportunity to enjoy sex, therefore, the intent to change — it is still accepted, despite the huge mortality, in conditions of unsanitary conditions and the absence of painkillers.
Perhaps, indeed, wildness rules because there are no historical monuments, simple sustainable architectural forms? And people, like a fish devoid of memory, grab the fishing gear, again and again.
Development of science
Science — classical physics and inventions
It is quite arbitrary, although with some reasons, we will determine the date of development of modern science as the beginning of the era of firearms. For the first time, a controlled source of energy — gunpowder — is used massively. The idea of a force that can be controlled in its own way, gives the technical progress a speed that is not imaginable before.
Gunpowder — a mixture of pieces of coal, sulfur and saltpeter. Sulfur ignites ammonium nitrate, nitrate gives oxygen, coal powder emits a large amount of heat at intense burning. The first more or less reliable inventor of the explosive composition is the Chinese alchemist Sun Ssu-miao (seventh century AD). In the Celestial gunpowder, it is usually used for entertaining fireworks, less often in military matters, like missile-arrows.
But, this weapon, although it has a pronounced psychological effect on the poorly prepared enemy, is itself capricious and not very effective. It seems that they can not be governed. The movement of the rocket depends heavily on the quality of the gunpowder, the skill of the archer himself, the humidity, the gusts of the wind and, it seems, the whims of the spirits. In this case, experience is never reproduced exactly — which contradicts the basic paradigm of modern science.
Secondarily, the gunpowder is opened by the German Franciscan monk Berthold Schwartz (in the world Konstantin Anklitzen), in 1330, perhaps in Cologne or Nuremberg. Schwartz — «Black» — the name given to Berthold for his irresponsible passion for alchemy. A random spark ignites the mixture in a mortar, an explosion throws the tolik away, forming a hole in the ceiling; and so, along with gunpowder, a classic firearm is born. The invention is quickly picked up. It turns out that experience with the use of a powerful energy source can be repeatedly and accurately reproduced. A shell, thrown out by a carefully measured charge and a barrel of a certain length, with this or that inclination of the gun, always flies to a strictly defined distance. All this is calculated, improved, implemented in mass production according to the established templates. To convict a professional warrior is now able to just learn how to charge a conscript draftee. And so, from the middle of the fourteenth century, the charm of the Middle Ages, with its clinking of swords and the singing of a string, knighted in armor and stern locks, begins to weaken.
Some changes in consciousness occurred a millennium earlier. This is monotheism, as an official religion. From now on the person is inclined to reflection, constant weighing of his bad and good deeds, tries to reduce the whole diversity of the world to one… two, maybe three basic Formulas. This is exactly what classical science is striving for. Moreover, let not immediately, but the value of human life increases. By the fourteenth century, the institution of slavery, in general, was disappearing. The same societies that do not abandon cheap forced labor doom themselves to trail behind scientific and technical progress.
Since the fifteenth century in Europe, the Renaissance era (ie, the Fr. — «Renaissance») is starting all over the world, the interest in ancient culture and Man as a free, wishing happiness, and comprehensively developed being is flourishing.
In Italy, which gave birth to the Renaissance, the Renaissance, as a whole, ends on May 6, 1527. The Roman Pope Clement the Seventh loses control over his hired 35-thousand army, the latter enters the ancient capital of the World, kills 40,000 of its civilians, robs the palaces of the cardinals, grandees, and, in fact, all that is worth plundering. As the situation can be resolved, but the authority of the Catholic Church catastrophically falls. As a result — Italian masters, writers and poets, saddened by such obvious manifestations of inhumanity, tend to the following artistic trends — Baroque and Mannerism. In the visual arts, Mannerism manifests itself as congested compositions, deformed figures, excessive tension, broken lines. Famous writers-Mannerists — Cervantes, Shakespeare; an abundance of details, a game of contrasts.
The next epoch — in art, science and life itself — is baroque. This word can be translated from Italian as «bizarre, prone to excesses», or Portuguese — «pearl of irregular form, ie, with vice.» Both these definitions are exact. Baroque also means «unnaturalness», «insincerity», «elitism» and «exaggerated emotionality» — in general, without a negative connotation. Practically all this means a desire for greatness and splendor, a combination of reality and illusion, exquisite, but not functional apparel; male wigs, ladies’ corsets, etc., beyond the measure of subtle, unnatural manners. Rejected traditions and rituals. God is now the Creator, from whom man should learn. The Higher Reason only observes. Prayers are not so important. On the forefront are natural scientists. What is happening is what happened before, in the era of alchemical exploration has never happened. Natural philosophers put rigorous experiments, enter into scientific correspondence, publish works, increase their social status and receive any, but still, money.
On the shoulders of the Baroque in the eighteenth «gallant» century enters the era of the Enlightenment. Her pillars are freethinking and rationalism. Science is for the first time an instrument for raising public welfare. Unlike alchemists and astrologers who formed closed societies, scientists of a new kind are eager to popularize all the knowledge they have gained.
At the same time, prominent figures of the Enlightenment (Voltaire, Rousseau) often come out with unjustifiably sharp criticism of the institution of the church. After the Thermidor (the completion of the coup) of the Great French Revolution, according to another definition, at the beginning of the Napoleonic campaigns (1800), the Enlightenment era — as not entirely productive in the moral and ethical sense, is curtailing.
Ahead is the era of the Scientific and Technical Progress (STS), the age of the couple and, on the whole, a prosperous spiritual improvement.
The first steam engine of a more or less modern type, with a continuous rotation of the shaft, is invented by the Scottish James Watt (Watt) in 1769. Appears and a unit of power — Watts. The system of measuring, documenting the operation of a certain apparatus is very important for all subsequent investigations and improvements. Watt (W, W) is the power at which work is performed for 1 second in 1 joule. Joule is equal to the work done when moving the point of application of force equal to Newton, at a distance of 1 meter in the direction of the force. Newton, in turn, is defined as the force that changes in 1 s. body speed, weight 1 kg per 1 m. The last unit, somewhat, perhaps simplistically, is equal to the pressure of a body weighing 102 grams per base. Now it’s even simpler — if you press a certain body like 102 grams of mass are pressed on the Earth, for a meter, for 1 second — then you give out a power of 1 Watt.
Thus, a new source of energy has been developed and formalized, to a much greater extent than an explosive powder that can be controlled.
Great Britain is prepared to the highest degree for the ensuing Industrial Revolution. Researchers believe that the main factor here is the conclusion of an unspoken social contract between business and society, which certainly guarantees that all parties to the pact will adhere to certain rules of conduct.
1. The first (steam) car, the military engineer Nicolas-Joseph Conjo, France, 1771 year. It was developed as a tractor of artillery pieces. Weight 2,8 tons, length 7, 5 m., Load capacity 5 tons, fuel — firewood, speed 3—4 km. h. Not quite a logical alignment on the front wheel leads, in the end, to the jamming of the control system and a serious accident. Nevertheless, steam cars are developing quite successfully, primarily in the UK, before the passage of a law obliging motorists to start ahead of the TS. a man beeping, waving a red flag.
2. The world’s first practically used Steamboat, Pyroscaphe, Clermont, or North River Steamboat of the ethnic Irishman John Fulton (USA, 1807). Maximum speed on level water is 9 km. h.
3. The first Russian steamship «Elizabeth», created in 1815, at the plant of Charles Byrd (Karl Nikolayevich), an ethnic Scotsman. Length 18, width 4.6, meters, draft 0.6 m. The side wheels — diameter 2, 4, width 1.2 meters. Steam engine power 4 l. from. The speed is 9.5 km. h. «Elizabeth», in the company of many, soon appeared, much improved pyroscaphes carries out regular flights on the line St. Petersburg — Kronstadt.
4. The first steam locomotive, «Penidarren», by the name of the inventor’s hometown, Richard Trevithick (Great Britain, South Wales, 1803). Own weight of 5 tons, the speed of empty 26 km. h., Linked with 5 wagons with a mass of 25 tons — 8 km. h. For their time, this is a tremendous opportunity. «Penidarren» shows, something that previously seemed not so obvious: a heavy steam locomotive with smooth wheels is able to move along the rails without skidding. Later, in public trials, where, probably, nothing ever goes smoothly, this positive result is questioned. In 1811, not having received support from large financiers, Trevithick is ruined.
5. The first completely payback locomotive creates in 1814 a mechanic, and concurrently also a watchmaker, George Stephenson. The engineer is in good standing with the management of the mining company, and therefore it is quite easy to get funds for the construction of a new locomotive. The time is quite suitable: because of the confrontation with Napoleon, in Europe the prices of feed for the main draft force-horses are rising sharply. The machine, called «Blucher», runs a train of 8 wagons, weighing 30 tons at a speed of 6.4 km. h, on the stretch of the road with a rise of 0.3º. Soon locomotives conquer the world.
6. The world’s first gasoline-powered vehicle, Vienna, Austria, 1864. The inventor is Siegfried Marcus. The basis of the body is a simple trolley without steering. The engine starts with the rear wheels raised up. The speed of this t.s. is unknown.
7. The world’s first commercially available, suitable for long-distance trips gasoline car «Motorwagen». The inventor, the production worker — Karl Friedrich Benz, the owner of a mechanical (bicycle) workshop. Weight of the machine is 265 kg., Engine power 0,95 hp, maximum speed 16 l. from. On the first copy of the car there is no gearbox (one single speed, engine speed control), but there is already a belt clutch. In August 1888, Carl’s wife, Bertha, is the world’s first motor rally for practical purposes — visiting relatives. A journey of one hundred kilometers back and forth, occupying, in one direction, a day (with two sons, on the heights of a pushing car) is quite successful, and he does everything possible to sell the first batch of cars — 25 pieces.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, gradually, at first in the form of amusing scientific popular views, a fundamentally new source of energy has been developed. Ladies and gentlemen receive electrical discharges from the first condenser-the Leiden Bank-created in 1745 by the Dutchman Peter van Muschenbruck, shudder, laugh nervously, and, of course, hardly realize what the real potential of the invention is. Further, in 1785 — the Frenchman Charles Coulomb gives a strict mathematical formula of the law of electrostatic interaction (rightly received the name of his discoverer). In 1791, a scientist (since he tries not to conceal, but to extend the knowledge he has gained) Galvani publishes a treatise on the effect of an electric current obtained by contact of the scalpel and electrolyte (preservative) metal on the muscles of the frog prepared by him. After 9 years, another curious Italian, Volta is the first galvanic element — a column of zinc and silver circles, separated by dampened paper in salted water. Experiments with electricity acquire a kind of instrumental, already really interesting look.
In 1820, a student at a lecture by the Danish professor G. Oersted (demonstrating the ability of the voltaic pole current to heat the wire) notes that the arrow of the compass, on top of which the wire was turned, is deflected each time the electrical circuit is closed. Metals acquire magnetic properties when electricity flows through them? Realizing this, having done some additional experiments, having published the appropriate scientific work, Oersted becomes rich (the Napoleon Prize, 3000 francs) and is famous.
Frenchman Andre-Marie Amper, without wasting time, in the same year puts a number of even more thoughtful experiments, displays strict, somewhat intimidating with its complexity formulas. It turns out in particular that parallel conductors with currents flowing in one direction are attracted, while in opposite directions they repel each other. The coil of the wire, through which the current flows, is equivalent to a permanent magnet. Strengthen the magnetic effect can be, if you place inside it an iron core.
A direct road to one of the greatest inventions of the 19th century opens — an electric telegraph. Actually, the galvanic telegraph was invented, tested at a distance of 3 km back in 1812. The essence of the 32 wires can be connected to the electrical circuit, at the opposite end of the communication line the bubbles in the acid solution are determined by the sign of the alphabet chosen by the sender — but, for practical use, it is not quite that. Before that, as early as 1774, we tested, we imagine, an electrostatic telegraph (some electrified balls were deflected), of course, with an even more incomprehensible utilitarian output.
Few suitable, although in general, workable are other, over-complicated families of telegraphs — until the invention and popularization (approximately) in 1840 of Samuel Morse’s apparatus.
…Michael Faraday, the pride of Great Britain, opens in 1831 the law of electromagnetic induction. A method of cheap and efficient electricity reception is found. This success is developed by D. Maxwell, also an Englishman, not a fan of practical experiments, but (in contrast to M. Faraday) a first-class mathematician. The electromagnetic wave propagation formulas, derived by him in 1873, determine the way to the creation of a fundamentally new communication device.
In 1885—1889 the German physicist Heinrich Hertz, striving at all costs to refute Maxwell’s theory and at the same time, to create his own, conducts a series of experiments; in which confirms the rightness of a talented Englishman. However, he becomes great himself. In fact, it is Professor Hertz who creates the world’s first radio. The transmission range of the signal is three meters, but increasing the given distance is now only a matter of technique.
Mankind realizes the importance of electromagnetism, generates generous amounts for its research, receives a solid profit in the form of all sorts of benefits. But, in the meantime, it is almost not noticeable, the development of yet another, very important source of energy matures, promising not so much convenience as a hidden threat — … atomic.
In 1897, the English scientist Joseph Thomson explored the so-called. the anodic rays (those, incidentally, which cause the glow of white light lamps), opens the electron and, at the same time, is selected to the idea of the dependence of energy on mass. This idea is picked up by a compatriot, Oliver Heaviside. A self-taught scientist derives the most famous formula: «E = mc2».
The energy of the body (material object) is equal to its mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light? Energy… that is, the ability of the body to perform work is equal to the mass and speed of electromagnetic waves? Is the horse equal to the elephant multiplied by the square of the pigeon? This can come up only by the English, natural eccentrics.
However, the formula becomes popular, in the works of the Dutchman Hendrik Lorentz acquires a mathematical justification; until, finally, it does not pay attention to the German (then Swiss) subject Albert Einstein. It is quite suitable for the Special Relativity Theory (SRT) he created. In 1905, the journal «Annals of Physics» publishes the work of the little-known clerk of the Patent Bureau «Towards Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies». And, one way or another, rather soon this relationship is called «Einstein’s equation.»
The theory of relativity is designed to solve two essential questions. The first is the observability of the speed of light (C), which is observed experimentally, including by an absolutely unarmed eye. The second — Maxwell’s formulas do not assume the relative motion of the source and receiver of electromagnetic waves. Otherwise, these «divine» relationships are incredibly distorted and lose all meaning.
In the universe is full of rapidly moving objects, this state of things does not fit into Maxwell’s equations, what can we do? SRT solves this problem, using such new concepts as «curvature of space», «changing the course of time» and also, «distortion of the dimensions of moving bodies.» Material objects have nonzero velocity, and at the same time seem to stand still (make negligibly slow mutual movements). Thus, the light flying relative to our Earth, as well as the stars revolving around its axis, can not be accelerated or slowed by the movement of this source. Otherwise, we would see at night in the sky not a scattering of luminous points, but blurred lines.
SRT decides and another important issue. What happens to a quantum, otherwise a photon, a particle of light emitted towards the observer by a source moving from the latter with a velocity practically equal to C? Not knowing about SRT, we could assume that the light freezes in space, it becomes some kind of corpuscle-like ordinary atom — which can be considered an electron microscope, maybe using certain special molecules in the construction, and so on. The theory of relativity shows; The photon remains a photon flying with C, although it has changed the length of its wave. So, in general, everything happens in reality. It is worth adding; in modern concepts the quantum of visible light is something like a disturbing thread, a length of three meters, which is invariably in motion. When absorbed, the photon turns into a tiny «ball». Light, that is, a quantum has no rest mass, but, nevertheless, it obeys the forces of gravity. When absorbing, in other words, stopping, this particle, like all the others, adds to its receiver «gravity».
…With the advent, at the beginning of the 20th century, of quantum mechanics, the visibility of physical processes goes far to the second, third, maybe even no plan. In the first place in physics — a powerful, closed to all uninitiated mathematical apparatus, indeed, capable of describing some processes — but nothing and they do not explain. One of the results of this status quo is the modern theory of the structure of matter. The simplest atom is a hydrogen atom, it consists of a proton, a «neutron» adhering to it and circling around this structure, an electron. Actually, such an intuitive model, representing the electron as a planet, whose coordinates are amenable to computation, although present in textbooks, is inferior gradually to formulas that represent particles by some «wave function». Precise measurements, determination of the «appearance» of the atomic structure, coordinates and speed are impossible in principle. There are only the probability of the appearance of something. We quote the catechism of physicists of the school of the «Copenhagen interpretation» of quantum mechanics: «… the probability of finding a particle at a given point of the configuration space at a given time is considered equal to the square of the absolute value of the wave function of this state in the coordinate representation.»
The proton, neutron and other subquantum particles consist of quarks. In its time, the theory of quarks was created by the Americans M. Gell-Mann and (independently, in the same year, 1964) by J. Zweig specifically to reduce the entire diversity of microparticles to one single kind of primordial, structureless «building blocks» of matter. It’s a good thing. But very soon it is found out that there are six kinds of quarks (or, in other words, «fragrances») — the so-called. lower, upper, strange, enchanted, charming, true. They have an electrical charge — a third of the electronic, or a multiple of it. There is a color charge — «red», «green» and «blue». For example, a proton consists of three quarks, two of which are the same. To overcome some specific repulsion (according to the Pauli principle, two identical objects can not coexist with each other), the quarks have necessarily different colors. Together they form a «white» particle.
There are also three «anti-colors» and «generations» of quarks.
Quarks are connected by exchanging one more type of particles — gluons, carriers, among other things, a color charge. There are six or eight species.
In the company of quarks, lawfully, there are leptons proposed by L. Rosenfeld in 1948. To these fundamental particles, in particular, belong some types of (almost imperceptible) neutrinos. Ironically, the «bricks» of matter, for example, tau lepton, can «weigh» twice as much complex compound proton.
According to quantum field theory, the mathematical apparatus of which simply can not be understood by an ordinary person, any interaction — electromagnetic, strong (between quarks, also neutrons and protons in the nucleus of the atom), weak, responsible for certain types of decay of atomic nuclei — is also carried out by particles; the latter may have energy, i.e., a mass that is much greater than the mass of the gluing objects. Another type of fundamental interaction, the fifth, which appeared relatively recently, with the launch of the LHC — the Large Hadron Collider — is the so-called Higgs field. The transponder of the interaction in it is the Higgs boson (Higgson, named theoretician, Peter Higgs) was discovered on July 4, 2012 in the already mentioned LHC. It has an energy of 125 gigaelectronvolts, which, we note, is about 130 times higher than the mass of the proton. This Higgson is formed at the confluence of two gluons. Interacting with this boson, all the elementary particles, in some special way, acquire their inert mass.
In quantum mechanics gravity is not squeezed. Actually, A. Einstein has already thoroughly worked here, and his numerous followers. SRT and GRT (General Theory of Gravitation) have their own grandiose mathematical forest. Roughly speaking, Einstein’s cause of interaction is a curved space, and in quantum mechanics — certain microparticles. In order to bring together the two theories, it is necessary (probably the word «probably») to quantize the space, to represent it, perhaps, by some miniature glomeruli. At distances comparable with the diameter of the atomic nucleus, the particles-carriers of interactions are quite imaginable. But how can we imagine the connection of planets, stars, galaxies with microscopic particles in the vast spaces of the Cosmos?
It seems to the uninitiated that some theoreticians just knock out money from the people to provide for themselves and their families, create conditions for dust-free honorary work — the results of which are still not understood by anyone. But, in any case, it is clear that there are also practices.
…In 1986, the French physicist Henri Becquerel discovers that the uranium salts are exposed to a photographic plate wrapped in opaque material. It turns out; some atoms do not have a completely perfect design. They can explode — themselves, or as a result of a relatively weak impact from the outside.
Further studies in this field the professor passes on to a graduate student, a Polish emigre Maria-Sklodowska (Curie), as well as her husband, Pierre. Spouses are aware of the importance of the discovery of Becquerel, manually reprocessing tons of ore, gaining international recognition, and at the same time, radiation sickness. Maria, survived her husband, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Curie’s records can now be read only by dressing in leaded clothes.
What explodes, whether it’s bad or good, is of particular interest to the little boys, men and governments of states. Scientific laboratories across the planet, secretly or explicitly, are deploying research on radioactive materials. In 1936, the employees of the Institute of Chemistry. Kaiser Wilhelm (Germany) O. Gahn and F. Strassmann discover the neutron induced by irradiation, the fission of uranium nuclei. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr develops the theory and, speaking at an international congress of scientists in the United States, popularizes the discovery. In 1943, from the Nazi-occupied Denmark, Bohr secretly crossed — first by boat, then by bomber — to England, then to the States, where, along with Robert Oppenheimer, a major American physicist, is working on the creation of an atomic bomb. The Manhattan project is headed by Brig. Gen. Leslie Groves, a military man who is able to determine priorities, organize supply, security, and communicate correctly with such a difficult contingent as great scientists.
In Germany, only 70—100 physicists work on such a project, with a general lack of funding and a decentralized leadership. It seems that they are simply embarrassed, with some reckless army resolve, to demand for their work a sufficient amount of materials and money.
In addition, Walter Bothe, a well-known German physicist, conducting a single experiment to determine the properties of graphite as a possible neutron moderator, commits a serious error. This, cheap, very affordable material, they are rejected. As a moderator, which deduces the energy level of neutrons to the resonance frequency of fission of uranium 235, extremely expensive deuterium oxide («heavy water») is proposed. In addition to the high cost and complexity, this choice involves the creation of either a huge stationary nuclear bomb or an atomic reactor — just for the needs of German energy.
…The first American atomic bomb «Gadget» explodes on July 16, 1945 in the desert of New Mexico. Before that, some scientists have expressed fears that the highest temperature and radiation can cause a chain reaction in the soil, throughout the earth, but everything, as you can see, cost…
The world’s first industrial nuclear power plant — the Obninsk nuclear power plant, with a capacity of 5 MW, was put into operation in 1954, was withdrawn in April 2002. Since 1956 (the time of the Khrushchev thaw), it is open for excursionists of Soviet (Russian) and foreign delegations.
…Is there any special source of energy being developed that can move humanity to new exciting heights and falls? I know little about this. People are ubiquitously occupied by the Internet — a resource that distracts the soul forces in advertising, entertaining films and all kinds of things, nothing for the development of the mind that does not give the game.
Science — Biology and New Mathematics
Biology has traditionally been somewhat separated from physics and chemistry. Perhaps, in the future there will be a symbiosis of sciences, but now it is not so.
1. Refresh our knowledge of the elementary unit of any organism — a living cell. This lump of flesh is capable of independent existence, as well as self-reproduction. Any cell of the body has a complete genetic material of the body, a potential for its manifestation. In other words, a person can be grown from any of his elementary living particles — a piece of skin, hair, a drop of blood — if you disable genes that differentiate cells.
The system of storing the information of the cell and the whole organism as a whole is known to be a DNA molecule (deoxyribonucleic acid). It represents two long chains of repeating molecular blocks — nucleotides, twisted together in a spiral. One turn occurs on every 10.4 bases. DNA can be twisted additionally, in the direction of normal turns (positively), or negatively. The length of the elongated strand of human DNA is just over five centimeters. The number of atoms is about 150 billion. The unit of information storage in this quaternary system of calculus is composed of one and a half dozen nucleotide atoms. So, one by one, one DNA stores 10 billion bits, or, even rougher — Gigabyte (two interesting one and a half hour films). The simplest cell with a nucleus — eukaryotes may contain a single DNA, but usually a cell contains several dozen complementary DNA. These molecules reside in the same (homologous) pairs, the so-called fission pairs, which are in the metaphase of chromosomes (visible in the ordinary light microscope of protein formations). sister DNA. At this innermost moment, the chromosome somewhat resembles the letter X. In the resting state of the chromosome, it is just a stick, however, with a centromere (the point at which chromatid separation will occur), «unraveled,» and not observed by means of a light microscope.
Cells of the human body contain 23 different chromosomes, more precisely, ready to divide the pair when dividing.
Each DNA of the eukaryotic cell has its support in the form of histones — globules, which it wraps. In the substance of chromosomes, the mass of histones reaches 40%. Replication, that is, doubling of DNA is carried out by means of an enzyme complex of 15—20 proteins, a replicoma that unravels the filament, rotating, and again twisting. Released from the close neighborhood of the homologous thread, the DNA chain, not fully studied, collects complementary nucleotides from the environment, obviously forming histones and a full chromosome (in the daughter cell). One of the strands is leading, the second addition of bases is jerky. As a rule, replication goes from two sides, its «plug» moves at a speed of 100,000 pairs of nucleotides per minute.
The replication of each new thread begins with a seed, if it can be said so, artificially created by enzymes. Subsequently, it is removed, but at the same time, a certain protective part of the end of the DNA is «bored». There are dozens of such sites, all together they are called telomeres. When the last piece of telomeres disappears, DNA acquires the ability to bind this end to other chromosomes, different proteins, loses its individuality and dies. In embryonic, sexual, lesser stem cells, telomeres restore a special enzyme — telomerase. Stem cells in division form one cell, suitable for differentiation (transformation into any necessary organism, composition of blood, skin, muscles, etc.) and one, again, stem. With the passage of time, however, the number of stem cells decreases.
It is not known exactly whether the inertia of telomerase in ordinary, somatic cells is an accident, an elementary deficiency of Nature, or a programmed mechanism of self-destruction of the organism in the name of the following, perhaps, more advanced generations. Telomerase is active in cancer cells — which can divide endlessly, but most likely, it’s not her fault, but some other mechanism of degeneration. The inertia of telomerase is also inherent in those animals (to a greater or lesser extent) that do not have cancer at all, so that the mechanism of its suppression can not be created by nature because of its fear of manifesting this dangerous disease. The acquisition of telomerase activity, according to some studies, does not in any way increase the risk of cancer.
Some bacteria have looped DNA that does not have a telomer, respectively, reproducible without a «Heflic limit» (50—70 divisions). Accordingly, in the absence of pernicious external influences, they are practically immortal.
So, the individual is not so valuable as the Society, therefore economical Nature and does not allocate enough resources for the existence of all his somatic cells.
DNA and, accordingly, chromosomes are not only a repository of information, but also an administrative center and a plant for the production of protein. Synthetic DNA is assisted by the DNA-related RNA macromolecule (ribonucleic acid). Actually, this RNA is formed by copying (transcription) by enzymes of this or that part of DNA. It consists of one chain of nucleotides, is capable of forming various spatial structures. RNAs can be matrix (mRNA) and transport (tRNA). Several mRNA plus an auxiliary enzyme form a ribosome — a miniature protein production plant. The molecules necessary for this, of course, provide them with tRNA.
Proteins are polypeptide molecules consisting of several thousand, or tens of thousands of atoms, which are catalysts for biochemical reactions, as well as for the entire material basis of the organism. The structural unit is an amino acid, a complex of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms. In total, there are 20 such standard amino acids. Scrolling through the globule of the ribosome, mRNA causes the corresponding amino acid compounds.
Most eukaryotic cells contain mitochondria. In essence, these are foreign bacteria that have entered into symbiosis, providing all the energy needs of the cell. The DNA of the mitochondria is a closed circular double-helix molecule. Part of the cell proteins is encoded by this particular DNA.
In addition, in the transfer of hereditary information, plasmids also participate. These are very small (only a few thousand pairs of bases), double-stranded peg DNA, separate from genomic chromosomes, capable of replicating autonomously. It is with their help that there is a horizontal transfer of genes, for example, in the formation of genetically modified crops. It is believed that in ancient times (millions of years ago), the exchange of genes between different species (namely, not vertically, to their descendants) was much more widespread.
Retroviruses are also responsible for the horizontal transfer of hereditary information. Retro — «reverse» means in this case that the genome of the virus is not DNA, and its mirror image — RNA. Retrovirus is able to penetrate the host cell, become part of its DNA, force it to reproduce itself, as well as some parts of its genome. The obtained «advanced» viruses can pass to another organism, again, it will be embedded in its cells, become part of their DNA — and transmit the hereditary information of the previous owner.
Infection with retroviruses is characteristic, first of all, for vertebrate beings. There is a theory according to which nations and individual human communities (circles of friends) are largely conditioned by the exchange of retroviruses. It is noticed that, for example, a European, permanently settling, we will put in China, acquires many characteristic external features of an Asian. Quite often, an amazing common similarity is acquired by the spouses who are in a long marriage, and so on.
The minus of modern microbiology is a departure from the explanation of how molecules find each other and make trips necessary for the meeting. These distances are sometimes macroscopic, that is, visible to the naked eye, which certainly exceeds the range of intermolecular bonds. After all, molecules, even thousands, dozens of thousands of atoms have no tentacles, legs, fins, eyes, and even the slightest nervous system. Actually, in the surrounding, rarefied space, they simply have nothing to rely on.
Nevertheless, the molecules easily find each other. In a known experiment, heterogeneous DNA was seeded into a neutral solution. After a while, the molecules of heredity gathered in groups — overcoming a few (huge for them) centimeters. Elementary. But how, Karl?!
The second problem of genetics is the obvious lack of information on the gene material for building the whole organism. You can imagine DNA and RNA surrounded by enzymes, it’s just such a brick factory. The enterprise produces several types of building blocks, and thus its function, in fact, is exhausted. But the body is a huge city, with a multitude of diverse buildings, acting by special rules of communication, transport and others. Genetics are able to change the type of bricks produced by DNA and yes, then the hulls built from them, also somehow, change. But this does not mean that scientists have «unraveled the code of life», they understood how Megapolis is built by what, or even by whom.
2 … Nerve cells (neurons) are highly differentiated, have many unique connections with other similar cells, and are not able to share (multiply, renew) according to an established scientific paradigm. Each neuron has one axon («ray» reaching one and a half meters) and hundreds of dendrites — outgrowths of a much shorter extent. All these parts of the cell have a kind of «suckers» and «relay stations» on the way of the propagation of the electrochemical signal — synapses. The neural network forms, in fact, the cerebral cortex, the thinking apparatus, and the mechanism of body control. The human brain consists of 86 billion neurons. Neurons of the spinal cord complete this number to 100 billion. Circulating signals on the network form memory mechanisms, patterns of reactions to various stimuli. According to some theories, all memory is not able to fit in the brain and is somewhere else out there — so does a personal computer included in the Internet.
3,4,5. An interesting branch of modern science, which has much in common with both pure mathematics and biology, is the study of fractal structures. Fractal (Latin Fractus — broken, broken) is a mathematical set possessing the property of self-similarity. In its most graphic form, this is perhaps the «Sierpinski triangle» (3). We take the usual equilateral triangle as the original figure. The middle of each side is connected by segments. Repeat the procedure with each new resulting triangle.
This figure, of course, can be voluminous. As a basis, you can take anything — visual objects, or mathematical relationships. From one relatively simple rule of finding the next point of the set, a colossal, repeating in separate elements and an absolutely unique Something comes. A practical mathematician, as well as a popularizer of science, an American of French (Jewish) origin Benoit Mandelbrot first uses a computer for his visualization. The results are amazing. The Mandelbrot set (4) is a classic of new practical mathematics, but almost any combination is possible, such as (5) and (6), for example. Mathematical objects are similar to structures of organic origin. In fact, the latter are organized in the same way — by the self-reproduction of living cells similar to each other (or, indeed, nucleotides). And just as suddenly there is a differentiation, the transition of simple into incredibly complex. Undoubtedly, the future is for the new mathematics. It can be said, intuitively — from self-similar, but not exactly the same events, the fractal structure of History itself develops.
The author has the right to add here something about his own experiences with the Time. The basis of modern science, as is known, is the reproducibility of a physical experiment. In equal conditions, at any time, wherever, the experience should give the same result.
It turns out that this is not quite true. Repeating an experiment, for example, a chemical reaction in one place, gives a different output over and over again. The first experience of the series is, as a rule, the most effective. Then there is a recession, a «plateau» and again raise, which, however, does not reach the original level. Each subsequent experience depends on the previous one — although there is no visible connection. More precisely, the relationship is not horizontal — between existing objects simultaneously, and the vertical — between what is, and the similarity that has already disappeared.
We can assume that the mechanism of aging is based on this effect. Repeated, accumulating in time biochemical reactions of the body lubricate each other.
Professor of Biology, Englishman Rupert Sheldrake, founder of the theory of morphogenetic fields, believes that the more exist (exist) organisms of one species, the stronger their common «M» field, and the higher the likelihood of such an organism in the future. The same applies to inanimate objects. For example, a certain type of crystals is grown with enormous difficulties, under specific conditions. As crystals grow larger, it becomes easier to grow them, with a wide spread of process parameters. Finally, the crystals appear spontaneously, at least in a suitable nutrient solution.
In fact, the crystals behave much more interesting. A real, not a speculative experiment presents many nuances. A solution prepared from one batch, for example, hyposulfite, gives a new result in each series. The structure of the next crystal depends to a certain extent on the previous one, which was destroyed. Several series in a row give less and less orderly formations. To get the right crystal again, you should wait at least a month — to proceed from all of the above, cleanse the connection of the experiments in time.
It is difficult to say how much Rupert liked such conclusions, however, the scientist welcomed the very practical nature of the experiments. In modern science, work is increasingly developed with the consolidation of quotations from the Internet. The real experience — in which there is always something wrong, and test tubes should be tediously washed, attention is paid less. Moreover, it is valuable.
What in our understanding is «The Future of Mankind? More robots, computers, automatic cafes, electronic chips implanted in the bodies of people? If we asked a similar question to an average person of the early nineteenth century, he probably answered so … «Oh, the trained horses, frightened, will not be galloping along the streets of the city, without a clear team of the driver. Vehicles — carriages, wagons, will acquire soft springs, will become much easier and more comfortable. The sails of ships can be deployed using the efforts of fewer sailors. The caliber of cannons will increase, they will start up nuclei with a diameter, probably as much as two meters.»
And all, that sort of thing.
We know that everything went wrong. A simple change in known values does not give an image of the future in the incredible era of scientific and technical progress.
…Let’s see once again the scheme of the experiments presented, with the impact of the already destroyed forms on the actual reality. You are not interested? But, how will you react when you learn that using objects of our present you can revive their close or distant similarities, any objects from the past? Precisely, in details, right up to the last atom? Anything. Madness?! But, the same man would say the same before last century, when we told him about cars, passenger liners, nuclear submarines and flights into space. Transformation of objects in the chosen likeness, the full resurrection of the past is now only a fantasy, and even more than mysticism. But this, you will agree, is fascinating, and, only for that reason, it is quite possible.
Eternal Motor… Also unthinkable? But, it’s a dream of a human being, a collective desire — and only because something like this must necessarily come true. The first law of thermodynamics tells us that a thermal equilibrium must be established between the bodies. Let even all so. But, even now it can be argued that thermal equilibrium is only averaged magnitude, energy exchange between objects occurs macroscopically. And, the more an object is internally segmented, the more intermittently its interaction with the environment. The temperature of the granular substance varies abruptly, with an anomalous amplitude. And, of course, using all this, we can receive energy in any volumes…
The constancy of the speed of light… This phenomenon can be fully explained by the well-known effect of Mössbauer. Atoms of relatively cold bodies, including our eyes, and many other measuring instruments, are not able to «see» photons having a velocity greater or less than the so-called «constant» C (300,000 km. s). If we «promote» this topic, science will open up to humanity a huge amount of new information, as well as many attractive opportunities.
But, it still looks fantastic. And, therefore, the third part of the book, The History of a Possible Future, was written in the genre of non-fiction. You will get acquainted with people from the laboratory «Lazaret»; desperate investigators exploring the Past, and creating the Desirable for us.
The twentieth century. History in the battles
The history of the twentieth, and the beginning of the twenty-first century, is marked by points of conflict with power lines stretching between them, still vibrating threads.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904—1905
The original psychological reason for confrontation — during a trip to Japan, at the age of twenty-three, the Emperor Nicholas II receives saber attacks from the samurai, who believes that the emperor is given excessive honors. The attacker dies three months after the sentence is passed (life imprisonment), but the emperor harbors anger at everything Japanese. The external reason is the unrestrained advance of Russian troops to Korea, the construction of military fortifications, despite all the agreements with Japan. In addition, the intention of the samurai to saddle China’s 450 million and put the foundation of a new world superpower with unclear goals, also causes a desire to somehow stop them.
…Before, in the First Sino-Japanese War (also, initially, for control of Korea), the Japanese acquire extensive practical experience of waging war on the sea with the most modern (for their time) armored ships. In the autumn of 1894, a battle will take place at the mouth of the Yalu River (northwest coast of Korea), approximately equal strength (12 and 18 pennants respectively). Japan has 4 ships seriously damaged, 100 people killed. China loses 5 cruisers sunk, and 650 sailors. In fact, the Qing empire wins the battle — drives the Japanese squadron away from its transport ships, however, the government of the Celestial Empire, fearing new losses, demoralizing the army, prohibits the fleet from entering the open sea.
In early 1895, the battle for Weihaiwei (now the administrative district of the PRC) will take place. The Japanese attack the encircled Chinese fleet (27 pennants, including two modern battleships of Italian construction), destroy it completely, together with 2,000 sailors, while losing «only» 200 of their fighters and 2 destroyers.
A serious defect of Chinese flotillas is the extreme shortage in their ammunition of high-explosive shells. Available armor piercing discs cause Japanese ships minimal damage.
And, as is typical, Russian naval officers do not bother with a detailed analysis of the very instructive battles of the «Asian powers».
In the winter of 1904, Japan begins the war, two days later officially informs about it. After the exhaustion of forces (the Japanese foreign debt is quadrupled, the Russian foreign is only one-third) and huge losses for those times — the Japanese army — 80,000 killed, the Russian army is 60,000, both sides are making peace with the mediation of the United States and personally Theodore Roosevelt. Japan receives half of Sakhalin, Korea and the territory of modern China.
The reasons for Russia’s defeat are the uncertainty of the purpose of the war for the people, and so possessing significant untapped territories. The lack of initiative of Russian naval commanders. Maneuvers, real combat training, they were considered by them usually as unworthy of a solid adult officer «playing the war»; the main thing is to keep the outer gloss and survive to retirement without any extra hassle. Dismissal in the Gunners reserve, for 7 years learned to shoot accurately — leaving them on a long-term service would mean charging higher salaries. Japanese artillerymen, training, shoot two gun barrels to the full wear and remain in service as the main value of the fleet. The content of explosives in Japanese shells is three times the mass of pyroxylin in Russian shells (48 kg against 15 kg of the main caliber), they unfold the armor not with their kinetic energy, but, above all, with a powerful explosion. Fuzes of Russian shells are set to explode only after the penetration of thick armor, (very) often fail when hit in a slightly armored shell or water. Correction of the fire in this regard is extremely difficult (the effectiveness of shooting is not evaluated by command in advance). And why, in fact, the projectile to explode inside, in a coal bunker? The greatest effect is given by a two-meter hole in the hull at the waterline, the pumps can not cope with pumping out the water with a hole diameter of more than 30 cm. Maybe the artillery engineer realized that he did everything wrong, but hid it, pinned papers to committee members with theoretical calculations, got money, and tried to forget everything? It would be interesting to know who he is.
In May 1905, the famous battle of Tsushima took place. About 85 ships of the Japanese fleet are attacked following 38 Vladivostok pennants of the 2nd Pacific squadron Admiral Rozhdestvensky. The flagship «Mikasa» receives 40 hits of large-caliber (305 mm.) Russian shells, but due to their «tight» fuses and overestimated «for the safety of travel in the tropics» humidity of pyroxylin, does not cause serious damage. Formed in the armored neat holes Japanese jam.
The ships of the Pacific squadron, after several discouraging collisions, one by one break through to their destination, fight, throw themselves on the shallows, or surrender. Only three of them come to Vladivostok. Admiral Z. Rozhdestvensky, the bearer and distributor of sacrificially-suicidal moods throughout the Russian fleet, rises aboard the Mikasa…
Japan loses two or three destroyers in this battle.
In total, in battles took from each side about one hundred main and auxiliary ships. Loss of the Russian fleet 64 ships, Japanese squadrons 24; most of them were destroyed by mines.
The Russian Revolution 1905
Almost the only conductor of the Revolution of 1905 is Alexander Apollonovich Gapon (Agafon), a native of the Poltava province, a priest who decided to establish a paradise on Earth, entirely by earthly means. In his youth, Alexander tried to establish something like a church order dedicated to serving the people, but received no blessing, and actively began to create the prototype of trade unions, in cooperation with both the authorities and the parties of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. During the events of Bloody Sunday he is going to hand the petition directly to Tsar Nicholas II (later — «Bloody») so that it «is not put under the cloth.» The soldiers are greeted with a stream of gunfire, two hundred people are killed. The priest-passionary is wounded in the hand. The protesting workers, at Gapon’s request, do not even carry penknives, but with the refusal of the tsar to accept the petition, the petitioner intended to «wave with a red kerchief,» which would mean the beginning of a major uprising. To avoid arrest, Alexander Apollonovich emigrated to England, where he published The History of My Life, dreams of overthrowing the existing system, and purchases money with weapons, possibly of Japanese origin, with weapons for St. Petersburg workers. Over time, Gapon somewhat cools and begins to reflect on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between the people and authorities, develops the idea of consumer cooperatives as an alternative to trade unions. One of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party accuses A.G. in receiving 100,000 rubles from the security department, takes out and executes a death sentence.
After strikes and skirmishes throughout the country, during which 18,000 people die, the authorities are becoming a bit softer to the people, but soon the distortion of the agreements reached by them has to be distorted. Only the monarchist people are recruited into the Duma. Published since Catherine II, the law on the Pale of Settlement is still in force; he forbids unbaptized Jews to live anywhere except for assigned places, thereby contributing to the growth of radicalism, and, a kind of «messianism» among the representatives of this people. Since 1901 (the tsar’s speeches about his exclusive powers), about two thousand people, mostly government officials of different ranks, and policemen perish from explosive devices and militant bullets a year. The aristocracy, like the British and French nobles, does not intend to «camouflage» among the bourgeoisie and, especially, the working class, and therefore always on the sights of the avengers, whose memory is full of impressions of the «recently abandoned» over «from the lordly shoulder» and for a lot of money, serf slavery. Publishers and printers are also in the field of terrorists, they are forced to publish sympathetic articles in their address, and even print leaflets. Many private individuals voluntarily, or under duress, donate their money to revolutionaries. Some counteraction to terrorists is provided by the pro-monarchist «Black Hundred», but its actions are spontaneous, in comparison with, say, the punctual work of «death squads» (los escuadrones de la muerte), created by police officers of Latin American countries, and no significant influence on the course of events. render.
Everything can be corrected, improved: shorten the working day, increase the salary, and abolish censorship. So, it seems, very soon, by 1915, with the submission of the Duma, the government will introduce universal education, and the industry is bursting upwards at an unprecedented pace. However, in the air hangs the question: for the humiliation of the people in serf slavery must be paid with blood. Sooner or later, but this — the nobility, the intelligentsia (somehow connected with the aristocracy), in general, all the rich people whose ancestors, most likely, also participated in the slave trade, will have to do. Actually, the question is not whether to cancel such a fee, but only «how, in fact, it will look like?».
Theoretically, the blood can be replaced with gold. Only, you need a lot of gold. But, aristocracy does not want to remember the dark past and, moreover, to share the acquired riches with the «common people».
1. George Apollonovich Gapon (Agafon), priest, politician, trade union leader. Birth — 1870, with. Belikov, Poltava province, the family of a well-to-do peasant (volost clerk). Training in the Poltava theological seminary, fascination with the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, after completing the course — work in the Zemstvo statistics, partial private lessons. Marriage to a merchant’s daughter, ordination first to the deacon, then to the priest. The first, very successful sermons — crowds from the surrounding parishes are flowing into the church of George Apollonovich. After the death of his wife — admission to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, disappointment in the «dead scholasticism», not giving an answer to the question of the meaning of life. Speech preacher in the church on Vasilievsky Island. Creating a system of mutual assistance. Agathon does not want to break with the government (which is still, nominally Christian), or with numerous revolutionary organizations. In «Bloody Sunday» he receives a bullet wound in his hand, experiences a strong emotional shock, comes to the idea of armed struggle. For a short time Gapon approaches the Bolsheviks, meets personally with Lenin, makes a favorable impression on that, then «leaves» for the Socialist-Revolutionaries. But, George’s individuality is too extensive, he creates his own «Workers’ Union», where the main place is given to the self-management of workers (who create «a state in the state»), and not some intellectuals who are torn from life and who scribble «Materialism and empirio-criticism.» The idea of Agafon about the armed seizure of St. Petersburg is hardly embodied, but the transport purchased with the means collected by it runs aground in the Gulf of Finland.
In 1906, Agathon was cruelly, somehow awkwardly, murdered by one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Military Organization, part-time agent of the tsarist security department, Yevno Azev, and his deceived people. Photo Jonah is not represented because of its completely negative action, and it is not clear at all how, at one time one could not see in the very appearance of this entity — traitor, executioner, provocateur and sadist.
2. S. E. Smirnov, senior physician of the battleship «Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky»: the one who did not want-to say-the truth.
3. E. N. Golikov, captain of the battleship Potemkin: the one who-considered-coward-coward. The usual punishments for sailors are fights, running in full equipment for 6—7 hours, until exhaustion, etc. Officers steal 54 rations of lower ranks a day: Golikov himself builds three luxury houses in Sevastopol for public money.
4. The battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky; laid down in the stockpiles of the city of Nikolaev in 1898, a displacement of 12,500 tons, a speed of 16.7 knots (about 26 km), an autonomous navigation of 14 days (according to fresh water reserves for boilers). The main caliber is four 305 mm. tools. After the sailors’ uprising, it was renamed Panteleimon, participated in the First World War, was captured by the British during the Civil War and was partially destroyed by them. From 1923 to 1925 gg. is divided into metal in Sevastopol.
The history of the uprising on the battleship Potemkin is an essential component of the First Russian Revolution (1905). So, the nameless producer of non-explosive Russian shells gives rise to shame under Tsushima, which, in the application to the age-old contempt of the royal officers for the «gray cattle» who has been serving in the Navy for seven years now, and the «Bloody Resurrection», caused by Tsarist stupidity and Cossack zeal, the situation.
However, on the battleship «Potemkin» is still calm. The ship, accompanied by a little-noted media torpedo boat No. 267, is preparing for training firing, 180 km. from Odessa. The crew — 16 officers-nobles, doctors, the priest, and also 780 sailors. It can not be said that in Sevastopol, where the battleship came out, there is no propaganda, but in the circle of revolutionaries the «Potemkin» is listed, in this sense, hopelessly backward.
The handsome captain Golikov (pictured) sends the destroyer to Odessa to purchase provisions, the warrant officer Makarov, a senior procurement officer, leads the group into his friend’s trading house. Meat is purchased here, 28 poods, with «small white worms»; The offer to buy fresh produce from the peasants on Privoz is rejected, «because it will be more expensive.»
In the description of further events, the author of this book can no longer remain completely impartial.
The watch officer, the commander of the ship, does not take a sample from the borscht cooked for the team. The food is inspected by the senior doctor, S. Smirnov (physiognomists, please see the photo), and finds it good.
The team refuses to eat, and eats rusks, washing them with water.
This for some reason does not like the captain. He summons a general gathering at the stern (yute) of the ship, and begins to find out who will eat borscht and who does not. The senior doctor again tests the food without trying, and declares publicly that the «Team has been healed.» Finally, the commander proposes to stay on the yute to those who do not like the food, and calls the guard to arrest the guilty. The situation is perfect, I repeat, completely, absurd. About thirty sailors hesitate, and remain at the stern. The senior officer orders to bring a tarp. Fleet humor? The canvas is used for shooting, in a military setting, on the verdict of the tribunal, so as not to «spoil the deck». The victims become guilty, the injustice of what is happening tears the valves in the heads of sailors. Now officers for them are not older brothers or fathers-commanders playing the game «we are your supervisors, but really friends», but simply — pitchers. Undoubtedly, the psychic wave of this understanding is spreading throughout the fleet, and beyond.
So, the humor of the officer Gilyarovsky, if it was humor, the sailors do not appreciate. «Brothers, beat them, boors. Enough to be slaves. «With this cry begins a real, organized revolution of 1905, then 1917, no matter what the historians say about external, English, or German secret interference. All done by two people, nobles, jug-snouts — the senior ship’s doctor and the ship’s commander.
Sailors break into the battery room, take over rifles and cartridges. Gilyarovsky shoots the leader of the insurrection, the sailor Vakulenchuk, but he himself does not live more than a minute after that. Another four officers are being killed. The commander of the ship finds nothing better than to blow up his own battleship, makes his way along with the helper to the crewing chamber, is identified, and is shot, and in some footmen (after lighting the Bickford cord, he was about to leave the ship through the porthole). The body of the grief-captain is thrown out to feed the fish.
Wilhelm Karlovich Ton, an artillery lieutenant, is also going to explode the artillery cellars. It is revealed. The leader of the sailors Matyushenko says: «Calm down, we will not kill you.» The mouths of the brethren open only to ejaculate obscene language. More on the mind of the officer, in this difficult situation, nothing good comes. In a minute the body of the master of foul language, stuffed with bullets, is thrown overboard.
A ship priest who was dragged from a shelter — a sailors «hatchet — who, during the execution of sailors, either peacefully breakfasted in the officers’ mess hall, or simply preferred to anything dangerous (for which one can lose tasty food), not to interfere.
Part of the officers, like rats, hides in the spaces of the ship, while others swim to the destroyer No. 267. Rebellious sailors, realizing that the escort ship, can torpedo them, plant troops, arrest commanders.
By two days the uprising wins. Sailors are preparing a normal dinner. The rebels are heading for Odessa. At night, a ship’s doctor is revealed in one of the rooms; a rat, with which, in fact, everything began and is thrown alive overboard, 180 km. from the shore.
In Odessa, the rebels, using the support of the population, are loaded onto the battleship, from the seized transport, coal. The Cossack units surround the port, without hesitation they shoot the men in the port trying to save themselves; As a result of fires and rifle bullets, 300 people are killed. The battleship gives three blank shots in memory of Vakulenchuk and two combat shots, out of 6-inch guns. One shell is not torn (usual statistics), the second damages the attic of the apartment house (instead of the intended purpose — the administrative building). There are no victims. Battleship, along with the ship «Milestone», turned into a hospital, leaves. What is happening inspires Vladimir Lenin, he is going to join the insurgents in one of the ports of Romania, but this course of history, for one reason or another, will not take place.
On June 17, the «Potemkin» discovers the approaching squadron, twice passes through it, without opening fire on either side; at the same time the battleship «George the Victorious» joins him. The officers of the ship are transplanted to the boat, which the destroyer No. 267 takes to tow, and sends it ashore.
A small squadron returns to Odessa, seizes transport with a load of coal. Here, the crews of «George» and «Milestones» are dominated by decadent moods, they surrender to the authorities. However, on June 19, the red banner of the insurrection (and simultaneously, the sign «open fire») is raised by the training ship «Prut». It does not catch the Potemkin in the port, goes to Sevastopol, is blocked by destroyers, and escorted to the base.
The rebellious ship travels to the Romanian Constanta, spreading the «Appeal to the whole civilized world» along the way, explaining that the goal of the sailors is to overthrow the autocracy, the Constituent Commission, freedom, equality and brotherhood. The Romanian government promises sailors freedom from deportation, personal freedom, but they refuse to supply the battleship with coal. The rebels leave the foreign port and go to Feodosia. Here, under the threat of bombardment of government buildings, the team demands to deliver water and provisions to the battleship. It is executed, but the coal branch responsible for it, the branch of power does not provide. The sailors try to seize the barges in the port, but fall under the gunfire. Six people die, several are taken prisoner. The battleship is anchored and, without making a single shot, after making a deceptive maneuver, leaves for Constanta. The destroyer «Swift» with a team of only vengeful officers, looking for him around the sea. On June 25, «Potemkin» together with comrade No. 267 arrives at the Romanian port. The sailors divide the ship’s cash desk, travel to the cities and villages of Romania.
The dead meat for the «gray scotch» is worth the tsarist government, unfortunately, for Russia itself, very expensive — economically and foreign policy. The prestige of the Empire is catastrophically falling. Turkey increases the fleet, builds additional coastal fortifications, England begins negotiations on the new status of the Straits.
Most of the sailors remain in Romania, some immigrate to Switzerland, Argentina and Canada. To travel outside the political asylum, you have to forge documents. Seaman Ivan Beshov, for example, moves to Ireland, where he becomes the founder of the network of popular fish restaurants Beshoffs («fish and chips»), and lives more than a hundred years, until 1987.
The First World War (Great
For the first time in history, the war involved several dozen countries, right up to the notorious Honduras. The reasons are still not precisely defined, it seems, the peoples of the Earth are simply tired of a prolonged peace. To the greatest extent, this applies to Germany, for whose citizens the war is akin to the national sport. Some interests of Germany and Austria-Hungary have in the colonies of France and England — Africa, Asia and Oceania.
In Sarajevo, a terrorist kills Archduke Ferdinand, his wife. From Serbia, Austria requires the admission of its police to the crime scene and the search for the perpetrators; this condition is not satisfied. Russia begins to mobilize, which becomes the basis for an ultimatum from Germany, and then (on August 1, 1914, after a series of telegrams asking Nikolai the First to explain his position) declaring war. London founded the Entente — «cordial accord», an alliance of France, England, Russia and a number of other countries to confront the bloc of Central Powers led by Germany.
Germany attacks Belgium, passes through its territory, defeats the French army in the Ardennes; on her part, 250,000 people die. Paris is preparing for surrender when the German troops, opening the flanks, are about to storm the capital; but the French troops do not show the expected passivity, and attack them under the Marne, seeking first success. The forces of opponents are compared, the front, facing the coast of the North Sea, stabilizes.
Russia (with which Germany has not fought until then) has launched an offensive in East Prussia, has had its initial success, then two armies of General Samsonov, who have flanked the flanks, are defeated and retreat to their original positions. In the south, Russian troops capture Lviv (Lemberg) and most of Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Japan becomes an ally of the Entente and a major supplier of weapons to Russia; she declares war on Germany and seizes German colonies in Samoa.
In the Black Sea, two German cruisers approach the shores of Turkey; Germany urges the Turkish Minister of Defense Enver Pasha to join the war on his side. Russia is deprived of the opportunity to communicate with the Allies through the Straits. The Germans and Austrians are on the offensive, which results in the «Great Retreat» of the Russian Army, the abandonment of Galicia and part of modern Belarus.
In Galicia, the Austrians provoke mass killings of Rusyns, ethnic representatives of «Chervonnaya Rus.» At least 60,000 people die. The region is becoming the most important training ground for working out methods of depriving Russian people of the so-called. «Ukraine» of historical self-consciousness — and turns into its opposite. Artificially created version of the Russian language, ie, «mova», was created by the Poles much earlier, but is fixed in dictionaries and textbooks by the same Germans, in the same place, in Galicia and Bukovina, in 1892. From the students of theological seminaries (literate speakers), they demanded, in particular, a receipt: «I declare that I renounce Russian nationality… I will not call myself Russian, but only Ukrainian, and only Ukrainian.»
Italy enters the war on the side of the Entente, but does not conduct active operations. The Entente organizes a landing of 80,000 people to Turkey, intending to capture the Dardanelles Strait, but fails. In 1916 the Germans intend to surround the grouping of the Entente forces under Verdun: in the course of a series of offensive operations that have not brought success to anyone, about one million two hundred thousand people die. This is followed by the Brusilov breakthrough, during which Eastern Galicia is backed by Russia, and the Battle of Somme, the victorious operation of the Entente, marked by a record number of aircraft (1000) and the relatively successful use of a new type of weapons — tanks. However, the use of tanks in itself does not bring success: «Nivel’s offensive» (spring 1917), during which the Entente used 128 Schneider combat vehicles with 11 mm armor, located outside the hull, with additional petrol tanks, a speed of 2—4 km. h., ended with the death of 340,000 British and French soldiers, and 163,000 German.
The French army is becoming more frequent cases of desertion, turning into riots, seizing trains and returning to Paris. The military Austro-Hungary is quite determined to surrender. Soldiers of the Russian army, who initially had no understanding with the officers, the descendants of those who changed their fathers and mothers to dogs, do not express the desire to continue the imperialist war. They retain the desire to fight (in the framework of a culture that declares military action to be the necessary stage of growing up), the English, the Anglo-Saxons-Americans who entered the war, and, in the most part, ethnic Germans.
Fighting against Turkey, the British, in addition, capture religious centers — Jaffa, Jericho and Jerusalem, as well as Palestine and Syria.
1. German airship — bomber. There are motor gondolas with engines and propellers, the crew compartment is located inside the hull. Apparatus lighter than air, with a rigid shell and soft ballonets inside are called «Zeppelins», named after Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, inventor, successful industrialist.
Guidance to the target could be carried out with the aid of an observer, flown down below the clouds in the basket on a long, hundreds of meters, steel rope. A more progressive method — the course radio beacons, the forerunner of the current «JEPS» and «Glonass», was used already at the end of the war.
Bombs, usually 100-kilogram, were suspended inside the hull, dropped through the hatches. In the course also 10 kilogram incendiary devices. The standard combat load Zeppelin — 2000 kg., By 1918 — 4200 kg. Machine guns of the type «Maxim», etc., were located in the side motor gondolas, as well as on the upper platforms (to them, through the body led shafts). The gondolas were connected by a keel corridor located inside the hull. In the first of them, since 1916 the pulling propeller was located, in the stern — three pushing, two lateral — driving screw motors. The average speed of Zeppelin is 80—100 km. h. The ceiling of the first models is 3.5 km. (this allowed us to withdraw from the fighters), more advanced — 7.5 km. The battle radius is 800—900 km. Crew of 16—20 people.
Bombings were raided by Paris, London, Liverpool, Antwerp, any met on the way, seeming commander worthy of attention to the goal. Bombing is usually «carpeted», non-targeted, by the area of large settlements, sometimes — to railway stations and factories. In the raids participated up to 14 Zeppelins. A total of about 200 tons of bombs were dropped on Britain; 560 people became victims of them, at least 100 buildings were destroyed. Approximately the same statistics for France. Air Defense, created by these countries to repel airship attacks — 120 thousand people, sophisticated technology, delayed the resources from more important areas.
…Internal pressure pressed the tissue of the cylinders to the body, so that the bullet holes in them did not match, this prevented the leakage of hydrogen. Later, 75-mm anti-aircraft guns, incendiary shells, bullets, missiles appeared; and, no matter how the air ships tried to hide in the clouds, to reach for the cold stratosphere, their era ended.
The usual flight time is a day. For the needs of the crew on board, there were exhaust gases from engine plates, hammocks suspended in the keel corridor, as well as a shower of rubber pelvis and buckets.
The German army and navy had 113 Zeppelin airships, of which 46 enemy air defenses were destroyed, the rest were injured as a result of accidents, were dismantled or destroyed by crews.
2. «Albatross» (Albatros D.I), the beginning of the line of increasingly sophisticated German fighters «biplane». The crew is one person. Armament: two 7.92 mm. machine gun. The maximum speed is 190 km. h., a range of 380 km., a practical ceiling of 5200 meters. Since 1916, 50 units have been built, followed by modifications of 290 and 1340 cars.
3. Morane-Saulnier L, a French parasol fighter, that is, having a wing raised above the fuselage, like an umbrella. Crew of 1—2 people. Armament: 8 mm. machine gun «Gochkis», shooting through a screw with angled reflectors of bullets. The maximum speed is 125 km. h, flight range 450 km., practical ceiling 4000 m. Since 1913 in France, produced 600 aircraft. Another 450 units, under license, were built by Russia.
4. English fighter «Sopwich» (Sopwith Camel Scout). The successor to a similar fighter with the nickname «Pup» — «Puppy». Own official nickname — «Camel». The crew is one man. Armament: two 7, 7 mm. machine gun, first in the wing console, then synchronized to the shooting through the screw. The maximum speed is 200 km. h, range 480 km., practical ceiling of 6400 m. Since 1916, 5500 machines have been produced.
5. English bomber Handley Page Type (O / 100). Crew of 4 people. Armament four-five 7.7 mm. machine guns, 800 kg. bombs. The maximum speed is 140 km. h. The range of flight is 1120 km. The practical ceiling is 2100 m. Since 1916, 46 units have been produced.
6. Ilya Muromets (P-22 «Ilya Muromets»), the world’s first serial multi-engine bomber. Crew of 5—8 people. Armament, depending on the modifications: 2—8 machine guns, 37 mm. gun (in combat it was not used), 350 — 1500 kg. bombs. The maximum speed is 105—135 km. h. The range of flight is 500 km. The ceiling is 3000 m. It was also used, for the first time in the world, as a rather comfortable (with a bathroom and sleeping places) passenger plane for 16 people, on the line Mosva-Orel-Kharkov. From 1913 to 1917 produced 76 airplanes.
7. English diamond-shaped tank Mark 1, it’s Mint Liquor, the first tank used in combat, a symbol of the First World War. Crew of 8 people. Armament: two 57 mm. (six-pound) cannon, 332 rounds, four 7.7 mm. the Vickers machine gun. Or: four 7, 7 mm. «Vikkkers», one 8 mm. «Gochkiss». Booking: forehead, side of the body 10—12 mm (counteracts the action of rifle bullets, without a reserve). Weight 28 tons. The speed on the highway is 6.6 km. h, power reserve 38 km, specific power 3.5 hp per ton (modern tank 22 hp), ground pressure 1.2 kg. see On the first photos «Mark 1» is visible with the «tail» of the turning wheels, in addition to the reverse track. Later, this management method was abandoned. The engine is located in the middle of the hull, on the sides there is space for the crew and weapons. The fuel tank — above, behind the thin armor (which is not good at shelling tanks from the hills), gasoline is fed by gravity. In the forward felling of the place of the commander-machine-gunner, the driver and assistant mechanic, who controls the on-board gearboxes. Eighteen cars show themselves well in the first battle, September 14, 1916, on the Somme; the number of losses among the British infantry is 20 times less than usual. The number of tanks produced in 1916 is of the same type, and amounts to 150 units.
8. The French tank Renault (Renault FT-17). The world’s first classic tank is a 360-degree revolving tower, a control room in front, a combat in the center and a motor rear. Crew 2 people. Weight 6.5 tons. Armament: 37 mm. gun with 237 shells or 8-mm. machine gun. Booking: the forehead, the side of the body 16 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower 16 mm. Speed on the highway 20 km. h, power reserve 65 km., specific pressure on the ground 0.6 kg. In France, from 1917 to 1918, 3,800 units were produced, in addition, by Soviet Russia, under license, in 1920 — 15 few efficient copies. Later, based on the «Russian Reno» in the USSR, the first serial Soviet tanks T-18, 969 units were produced. Soon they were driven out by the T-26, in insignificant numbers were used at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War.
9. The first German tank, the A7V assault armored vehicle (Sturmpanzerwagen A7V). The nickname of the German soldiers, for the heat up to 60º and the fumes inside — «heavy field kitchen». Index «A7V» — from the name of the Seventh Transport Department of the Military Ministry. Crew of 18 people. Armament: 57 mm. gun, 180 rounds, five 7.92 mm. MG 08 machine guns (the «Maxima» version for the German patron). Booking: the forehead of the case is 30 mm., The board is 20 mm. The speed along the highway is 10—12 km. h, power reserve on the highway 35 km. Weight 30 tons. Specific power 6.6 hp, pressure on the ground 0.6 kg. see In the years 1917—18, 20 items were produced.
10. The crown of the warring Austria-Hungary (1916). Money signs evoke the memory of past lives — or they set the wave of relatives who ever held these bills in their hands. Memorable standard pictures are a good thing to enter into episodes of History of interest to you. Do you remember anything special right now?
…Russia enters into a separate peace treaty, loses a third of its territories, pays a hundred tons of gold of indemnities, leaves the war. Germany, having freed a million people, attacks on the western front, achieves successes in the second battle on the Marne, but, exhausting resources, stops. With the mediation of the Americans, Chancellor Wilhelm II asks for peace and, on November 11, 1918, Germany will capitulate. Losses of all countries: 10 million military personnel, 12 million civilians; yet about 100 million people around the planet are dying from developing under conditions of malnutrition and stress, the mysterious flu is Spanish.
The code for this virus is the same as that of the relatively recent swine influenza pathogen, strain H1N1. However, at that time he had special properties — he quickly contacted the receptors of the upper respiratory tract, caused a violent reaction of the immune system, which kills more cells of his organism than «aliens». … Among the symptoms characterized by a bloody cough, pneumonia; sometimes the sick died the next day. In total, 26% of the Earth’s population was infected, the mortality rate reached 10%-20%, and strangely enough, healthy people aged from twenty to forty died. The epidemic appeared everywhere, but only in neutral Spain, unlike the media of the belligerent countries, the press loudly declared about it. No correlation was observed between the mortality of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people; The number of deaths among the vaccinated was even slightly above average. «Spaniard» is one of the greatest mysteries in the history of mankind and it seems that for some reason its very existence is being silenced.
In Russia (RSFSR), this disease killed 1.5 million people, in Spain 300,000, Germany 600,000, Britain 250,000, the United States 750,000, China 9.5 million.
The Great October Socialist Revolution (coup)
There is an opinion that the Revolution would not have taken place as it is if the country had not been drawn into the Great War. Here everything depends on the details. The murder of Grigory Rasputin could be just such a component. So, the Russian man, whose whole wine, according to the yellow press of that time, consists in a certain predilection for alcohol and women, as well as the emergence of once a month and a half, in the circle of the royal family, the noble noblemen are killed and do not bear any punishment for this.
It was believed that the monarch’s decisions are affected by the harmful advice of a person from the «dark people». Here, the «bad» Grigory Rasputin is destroyed. But, the actions and statements of Nicholas I after that become even more inconsequential. Now it is finally clear to everyone: morally ethically, intellectually, the monarchy is shamelessly naked.
Sane film on the topic, with a completely plausible depiction of entourage, the main actors of the revolution, at least in some episodes and somewhat prolonged — the film of American director Warren Beatty «The Reds» (1981).
In March 1917, under pressure from the top of the military command (including his close relative, ex-supreme commander-in-chief, Nikolai Nikolaevich («Lukavoy» — «Sly»)), Nicholas II abdicated. The vacuum of power is filled by the Provisional Government-the Soviets (originated from the outset as the organs of managing strikes) from the Cadets and Social Democrats, to which both the Bolsheviks and the tsarist ministers belong. Trying to unite such diverse social formations under one roof, does not bring success. Soldiers return from the front with weapons, so as not to miss the division of the earth. The proletarians of Petrograd go into euphoria, eagerly await the similarity promised by L. Trotsky to paradise on Earth: the reduction of the working day to four hours, while doubling wages twice. On the front from the Urals, large quantities of ammunition arrive, but to fight, give lives, health, to please England, France, etc., the population of Russia is not at all motivated. The attempt to organize an offensive on the German front, under the new government, fails, does not become a new, unifying achievement. The parade of sovereignties begins — Ukraine, Byelorussia, and other former gubernias are separated, right up to the newly-formed Kuban republic. In October 1917, the Provisional Government withdraws peacefully enough, and, having access to the means of the Central Bank, operates semi-legal, engaged in current economic activities. The Constituent Assembly, expected by the masses, with a certain enthusiasm, is called to rally the different parties. But after the historical phrase «The Guard is tired» by the anarchist Zheleznyak, said at 5 am on January 6, 1918, the deputies find the gates of the Tauride Palace locked in a big castle. The main sense of what is happening seems to many just such a small technical blot. On January 6, Bolshevik delegates refuse to attend the meeting, respectively, there is no quorum expected, because the last coalition government continues to hold the plenipotentiary assembly as long as possible. Most citizens-comrades have a persistent feeling that a sailor, belted crosswise with ribbons with cartridges, or a brave soldier with a «screw» is much more important than a subject in civilian clothes, whose invisible weapons are a thought and a word.
…This very moment can be proposed as the date of a real Socialist Revolution.
The Civil War begins.
The Bolsheviks conclude the Brest peace with Germany; it costs Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic republics, and some other territories that the Germans have seized at their discretion. After the defeat from the Entente, faced with the most ferocious resistance of the peasants (20,000 Austro-German soldiers, among those invited by the newly formed Kiev «Radа» (Duma, Congress) troops) were killed, Germany withdraws its units from Ukraine. On all fronts of the Civil War, the «reds» win. The government headed by Lenin seems that luck is always with them.
The vacuum of power after Petlyura and German rule in Ukraine is filled with dreaming of a confederation «from sea to sea» by Poland, by April 25, 1920, seized Kiev. The Red Army knocks out Polish units from Ukraine, pursues them to Warsaw, but, having stretched out the rear, it suffers a severe defeat. About 140,000 people are taken prisoner, 80,000 of them subsequently die of hunger, bullying and executions. A significant part of Byelorussia and Ukraine departs to Poland.
1. The first Soviet money, made according to the typographical clichés of the Provisional Government, was called «pentacles», named after the chief commissar of the People’s Bank, G. Pyatakov.
2. Money Denikin (one thousand rubles), the so-called. «Bell», the South of Russia.
3. The very first «money sign» actually, the production of the RSFSR, the ruble, the size of 33 by 43 millimeters, the beginning of release on February 4, 1919. 1 ruble was equated to 10 000 old (kerenki, dumki). The «Money Mark» is indicated, because at the time it was assumed that a communist society would soon emerge in the whole world, in which money would be absolutely unnecessary. There is no year and numbering.
4. A series of new «pyatakovok» in 1922, more often now called «moths.» The salary of the worker at this time is 20 rubles, a bottle of 38-degree vodka, «Rykovki» ruble, meat 42 kopecks, a loaf of bread 20 kopecks. If you count by sovznakam 1923, then, for example, a kilogram of potatoes costs 1,300 rubles.
5. The banknote of the bank of the Bukhara People’s Soviet Republic, 2500, 1922 — some marginal socialist letters still print their banknotes.
6. Twenty-five thousand rubles (or so, «signs»), a series of 1923, an example of hyperinflation.
7. Soviet chervonets — a denomination nominally provided with gold, 7.74 on the back — a white background. Inside the country there were also gold coins depicting a sower-there were not many of them, but they supported the citizens’ confidence in paper bills. It was issued in 1922, gradually replacing, with parallel circulation (and even release), «Soviet signs» in the ratio of 50,000: 1. The name «chervonets» is an attempt to find a socialist replacement for the name «ruble». The variant «Federal» was offered. In the end, the «ruble» known to us remained.
After the end of the NEP and the introduction of military-repressive methods of managing the economy, as well as the cessation of the circulation of gold coins inside the country, the course of the chervonetz falls, it ceases, as before, to freely exchange abroad. In 1937, new chervontsy were issued — with classics, portraits of Lenin, also circulating along the ruble. They existed, in turn, before the monetary reform of 1947.
8. The face of the era, a man, incidentally, holding all this money in his hands — Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet, 1895—1925 (photo of 1914). Birth — the village of Konstantinovo Ryazan province, a peasant family. At the end of the Zemstvo school and two classes of the parish school — moving to Moscow, working in a butcher’s shop, then the printing house M. Sytin. The publication of the first poems is in the children’s magazine Mirok. Acquaintance with the capital’s beau monde, development, public recognition. A typical example of creativity:
Sing, sing. On the accursed guitar
Fingers dance yours in a semicircle.
Choke in this frenzy,
My last, only friend
…1914 — acquaintance with Anna Izryadnova, proofreader of the printing house, civil marriage, the result is Yuri’s son; who will be shot in 1937, at the height of repression. 1917 — marriage to actress Zinaida Raich. In this alliance, two children are born, Tatiana and Constantine. 1921 — marriage terminated. Zinaida Raich will marry the great theater figure V. Meyerhold and will be killed 24 days after his arrest, in 1939.
Further — an acquaintance with Galina Benislavskaya, for a while becoming his personal secretary and close friend. Later, she will shoot herself (according to other sources, she hammered six bullets of «bulldog», striking) on the poet’s grave.
In 1921 — a marriage to the American dancer-innovative Dora Angela Duncan (Dora Angela Duncan), for some time received government support in the USSR. Marriage disintegrates in two years, but before that the pair manages to visit Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and (4 months) the United States. Yesenin travels the country, is engaged in book publishing, does not shun alcohol, and, increasingly, writes poetry. A new wife, Sofya Tolstaya-Yesenina (the granddaughter of Count L. Tolstoy) negotiates with Professor P. Gannushkin about her husband’s hospitalization in the psychoneurological clinic of Moscow University. Be that as it may, Esenin leaves the hospital, removes all the money from the savings book, goes to Leningrad. There he, living in room 5 of the Angleterre hotel, communicates with numerous literary friends. On December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found hanged.
Hotel Angleterre and its number 5 becomes a cult place. However, on August 18, 1987, at the initiative of the chairman of the Leningrad executive committee, a certain H., «Angleter» was blown up.
9. Tractor «Universal», a symbol of collectivization and industrialization of the USSR in the 1930s. The prototype is the American machine Farmall F-20. In the USSR, from 1934 to 1955, the Leningrad plant Krasny Putilovets and the Vladimir Tractor Plant produced 211,500 specimens. Weight 2.1 tons, engine power 22 hp, fuel — kerosene and gasoline. It is widely believed that the introduction of a system of state collective farms (kolkhozes) is justified by the need to introduce new land cultivation techniques, in particular, tractors. However, prior to the emergence of collective farms (all the time NEP fed), land development partnerships (TOEs) are already widely distributed, voluntary and therefore really effective. Means of production, including heavy equipment, by mutual consent, for a certain share of income, were socialized for the period of sowing, harvesting, etc.
10. A view of the building of the insurance company «Russia» (Bolshaya Lubyanka 2 street), which includes removable apartments, a bookshop, a sewing shop and even a beer shop. Since May 1919 (after eviction of tenants), the house is occupied by representatives of the NKVD, the Cheka, the OGPU, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Security Ministry, the KGB and, from 1996 to the present day, the FSB (Federal Security Service).
Since 1920, the building is the inner prison of the NKVD. The most famous of her prisoners: aircraft designers Tupolev A.N., Petlyakov V. M., the founder of Soviet rocket building Korolyov S.P., «the favorite of the Bolshevik Party» N. Bukharin, the poet O. Mandelstam, A. Solzhenitsyn, and many others. The main task of investigators: in exchange for some, perhaps, mitigation of punishment, «persuade» the arrested person to sign accusatory statements against many other (innocent) people. This is the principle of life of a cancerous tumor — to cause the body to suffer, in order to attract nutrients to itself — as a permanent wound that does not heal.
The shootings are carried out in the basement of the building (with the tractor motor switched on) and, according to some information, in the bunker located under the monument to Dzerzhinsky (until 1991 located in the center of the square).
In 1940 and 1980 the building is being reconstructed and, as can be seen in the presented photo, is changing beyond recognition.
…You can recall a few lines from the work of V. Vysotsky, certainly respected, good, and even, paradox, bad people in Russia and beyond:
…And they will be happy or gloomy
And will be in the role of evil clowns and good judges
But we will be offered wooden suits
People… People…
We can even offer and smoke
Ah, they will remember, you did not smoke for a long time
Yes, you have not yet begun to live
Well, then they will propose: either — or
…And will be polite and affectionate so
Offer a happy life on a platter
But we will refuse — and they beat violently
People… People…
...The Bolshevik government understands, in the end, that the point of luck is passed, and focuses on the centers of resistance within the country. The rebel army of Makhno, acting at that time with the Red Army, forces Sivash, despite a 30% loss, goes to the rear «white» and opens the way to the cavalry of M. Frunze. After the Crimea liberates them from Wrangel’s troops (November 17, Yalta), the Red cavalry suddenly attack the camp of their former allies, kill most of the anarchists, but miss their leader himself. «Father Makhno» fights against the Bolsheviks on the territory of Ukraine, but realizing the futility of resistance, goes to Romania, then Germany, where he is arrested for former attacks on the Germans, from there to Paris, where until the end of his days he works as a carpenter.
The call of the sailor’s uprising in Petersburg and the peasant wars prompt the Bolshevik government to switch from the romantic passionate «war communism» to many others for the NEP.
During the Civil War, 900,000 Red Army troops are killed, 650,000 are White soldiers, more than two million civilians are killed by terror, hunger and disease.
The dreams of the Cadets, anarchists, peasants and most of the workers about the self-government of the workers (the true «Soviets without Communists») are gradually being dispelled by a new system that does not tolerate arbitrariness. The Soviet Republic can not do without what seems already outdated: a strict hierarchy, social inequality, money and even banks. In the years of the NEP, there will be 16 of them.
Socialism still wins, precisely, on the whole planet, including, of course, the United States of America. The capitalist community clearly understands the importance of the Social Treaty, adopts the unofficial Code of Honest Entrepreneur, makes concessions to the working class, and at full capacity includes social elevators. The Revolution is replaced here by the Evolution.
…The first action of the New Economic Policy (NEP) — the abolition of foodstuffs, that is, expropriation TOTAL, except for the minimum necessary for survival, and the introduction of a fixed food tax. It seems that 70% of the seized, for the needs of the Communist Party and the working class of products — a number greater than 25–30%, however, reality has a completely different mathematics. So, the peasant pays a tax of 25% of the produced product, the rest can be left to itself, or sold; state, cooperative, or some private person. Somewhat later, the natural tax is replaced by a cash tax: in proportion to the area of the land plot (no matter how productive it may be). Such an approach, however paradoxical it may seem to Communists, in fact means a sharp rise in the production of agricultural products. From 1921 to 1927, grain supplies to the state increased from 6 million tons to 11.6 million. At the same time, the farmer (householder) himself and his family are quite full; and, it is necessary to think, are quite happy with the existing state regime.
In 1922, free trade was allowed, the creation of private enterprises with a number of employees of no more than 20 people. Later this ceiling rises, so that in some private factories there are already 200–300 workers. Up to 80% of retail trade, 25% of industrial production is in the hands of private traders — the so-called NEP men. The growth of the national income is increased by 18% per year.
A significant number of previously unprofitable enterprises are leased (concession) to foreigners, and, after the appropriate transformations, they begin to bring a solid income. To a greater extent, this applies to the extractive industry (for example, gold capitalists-concessionaires produce 30%, lead and silver-60%), slightly less — light industry (clothing, household goods — 22%).
All this gradually leads the population to the idea that, the less the state apparatus, and all the power and control agencies, the stronger the country becomes, their Motherland. It seems that spontaneous, but even more effective, cooperation, collective farms, the whole people, can quite do without the United Party of Bolsheviks.
Both the Communist Party and some, a considerable part of the population (romantically opposed to the dark forces of capitalism of boys and girls), such moods of the popular masses, definitely do not like.
In 1927–1928, the Politburo announced a «breakdown of grain procurement.» The state receives «only» 11 million tons of grain. The difference with the previous year is small — 0, 6 million tons, or something about 5%. There are objective reasons for this — drought, tactical errors in pricing, which can easily be eliminated. However, the government headed by the Secretary General, J. Stalin, declares the need for global industrialization and collectivization (under the state control, of course) of all agriculture. Dzhugashvili introduces the thesis of «aggravating the class struggle… as we move forward.» The law enforcement agencies receive the command «Fas».
Concessions that have become profitable enterprises, as it is now said, are «wrung out» from their former owners by raising taxes, and everything else. Syndicates, competing (and therefore very effective) state enterprises are transformed into a system of bureaucratic economic Narkomats.
In November 1931, private trade was banned altogether.
Throughout the country, the construction of heavy industry facilities is unfolding, beyond any dependence on their real need. In fact, this means full inclusion of workers in the system of state control. The justification for such enslavement is the same as during the centuries of serfdom: «All around the enemy, one must be afraid, only in this way one can make many, many weapons.»
In 1931–1932, from famine caused by total collectivization, at least four million people will die. Their dying thoughts, wishes to the state that allowed all this, will help in every possible way materialize the real, terrible external enemy.
...Since 1924, most owners of houses and apartments, landlords, as «people living on unearned income, such as: interest from capital, income from enterprises, income from property, etc., are deprived of their voting rights. They also can not claim the opportunity to occupy positions of responsibility, higher education, pensions. As a rule, they are deprived of any living space: henceforth they are called «disenfranchised».
People who have received accommodation in a «compact» apartment are forced to get along together. The main nightmare in this is: a general trash can, cleaning of a secluded place or a bathroom, other similar household «trifles». There is a constant exhausting war of nerves. Yes, that’s it; the neighbors just jot down the dirty trash in a full bucket, trying to shove something else in there, all showing that it’s still not time to endure it. Not for them… Uncle Gosh once again spreads some rubbish in the corridor, after all, after you, by kindness, removed his garbage, he believes that this is the place where all unnecessary disappears without any participation of a good person. Obligations are not clearly defined, the focus of opinions on the actualization of an action is blurred. All supposedly equal, and you can not give in, in principle, so that, by the way, do not accidentally «hide» in the yoke, which is not so easy to throw off. People want everything small to happen by itself, without a detailed calm discussion: while it is necessary to talk about something great: the World Revolution, the civil war in Spain, the construction of the White Sea Canal, etc. The rule is usually that who is louder screams, puts an opponent funny, it seems more developed physically. Almost every communal apartment finds a hidden polarization, gives negative energy to the noosphere. The sum of opposite poles generates tension, a kind of dark current in a huge state. There are no answers to the simplest questions of cohabitation with communism in the style of a la ryus.
…What could we suggest to mitigate the transition period from feudalism and capitalism to a new social society? Only a loud word of independent, but solidary with each other, certainly respected by all (and at the same time being at least in relative personal safety), people. An integral picture of the world, a collective intelligent dream is truly important.
Landowners, nobles — part with your titles, give 90% of the land and other possessions to the workers and peasants (their ancestors earned it all by hard bonded labor), abolish the «dry law», stop the war, the peasants — share bread with the soldiers, the military — keep the defense at established boundaries, workers — provide a military order (on the eve of a new bright world).
Madly? But, and where are all those, such clever people?
«If any of you think to be wise in this world, then be insane to be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. «John Chrysostom (1Cor.3: 18–19).
The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937—1945.
After an incident with a Japanese soldier who disappeared during a training in a Chinese city, Japan invades China and occupies up to 40% of its territory. During the massacre in the city of Nanjing, the Japanese military, for three days brutally destroy 300 thousand civilians. The Kuomintang (national workers’ party) and its opponents, the Chinese Communists, compelled to fight against Japan along with the bourgeois government, are assisted, respectively, by the United States and the USSR (pilots of military aircraft, ammunition, etc.). In a series of bloody battles, from 3.5 to 35 million military and civilian deaths (yes, such a statistical spread). The loss of Japan is 800,000 troops.
Formation of the Third Reich
The appearance of the Third Reich (empire), which he became for 13 years and 13 days, as some historians believe, is the merit of the only person — Adolf Hitler (Hydler). The surname is identical to the meaning «forester, caretaker». The only half-sister, Paula, the artist, lived until 1960, Angel’s half sister (by father), a housewife until 1949, her son Leo Hitler, was captured during the Battle of Stalingrad and was offered for exchange for his son Stalin, Yakov. Brother Edmund dies at a minor age.
As a child, Hitler was battered by his father, twice changed his school due to poor progress and bad behavior. The only teacher he relishes is the history teacher, who speaks the history of ancient Germany, inspiring the students with the idea of the superiority of the German people.
In 1908, Hitler failed examinations at the Vienna Academy of Arts. He does not want to engage in any kind of physical labor in principle.
Relations with women in Adolphus there are no, according to some testimonies — because of fear of infection with syphilis… or because of elementary hypertrophied shyness. The only school friend of Adolf, August Kubichek (future musician of the Vienna Conservatory) in his memoirs mentions the girl Stephanie, … a slender blond Valkyrie of 17 years. Hitler collects information about his beloved for four long years, experiences a certain lieutenant because of her enthusiasm, writes countless poems, such as «The Hymn of the Beloved», etc. However, despite the fact that A.G. there are certain chances (once, at the celebration of the flowers of Stephanie, with a smile throws the best flower in Hitler), Adolf considers himself above some kind of flirting. The lack of words and actions, only timid, even fanatical views — this is not exactly what the girls want.
The financial side of life sags with time. The future leader of the Third Reich stays on the streets, digs in garbage cans, in search of food, begs…
Since 1909, the sale of painted postcards with views of Vienna begins to bring Adolf a good income. Relations with women are getting better.
A.G. studies English and French in the amount sufficient to view the films of these countries in the original, is actively interested in arming the armies of the world and politics. He does not want to serve in the Austrian army «for the Czechs and Hungarians», but in 1914, with the beginning of the Great War, he makes an application with a request to serve in the Bavarian (German) army. In 1918, Hitler was poisoned by the gas of a chemical shell exploding nearby the English. Half lost sight, he leads the blind comrades from the firing zone. It was at this time, according to his testimony, along with the news of the surrender of Germany, that he found a revelation about the revival of the Reich and miraculously healed. According to mythology, possibly having real roots, Hitler (1) receives a suggestion from a doctor, a powerful hypnotist, that he is the Messiah of the German people, and, therefore, must see through. Or, (2) Concludes an agreement with a representative of the dark forces that he will be given power for 13 years and 13 days (January 30, 1933 — April 30, 1945) for the rise of the German nation.
In November 1923, the rate of the German mark is 4.2 trillion for the American dollar. In 1924, parallel to it, the unofficial monetary unit — the so-called. rental mark secured by a pledge of immovable property. The rate to the ordinary mark is one to one trillion. A few months later, a legitimate Reichsmark (RM) appears, equal to it at face value, and both these currencies remain in circulation in order not to undermine public confidence. The cost of one RM — 2.5 grams of pure silver, which at the current rate is about 150 rubles. The appearance of these denominations suspends hyperinflation (5000%, the issuance of wages — twice a day, people are starving).
1. Billion of German marks in 1923. Till this time, Germany was called the Weimar Republic. Somehow it turned out that the division of the country could be contained, providing hyperinflation (the Rhineland was preparing to secede). Prices doubled every three days, in circulation was the so-called paper stamp (Papiermark). A beer mug cost four billion. In 1924, inflation was stopped. By the mid-twenties, the republic had achieved certain economic and political successes, but since 1929 a new, though not so strong, recession had followed. In the end, the Germans decided that the way out of the situation was in the new leaders and the Third Reich.
2. Five trillion «paper» brands in 1923.
3. Rental stamp. Provided with industrial potential, real estate, very popular. The rate is one to a trillion of «pipermaroks».
4. Completely solid in design and execution of the Reichsmark of 1942 issue. A severe aesthetics of the new state order is visible. The salary of a German lieutenant (Obersturmfuhrer) is 220 marks a month. The purchasing power of the brand in the main set of products and services is about the same as that of the modern 7.5 dollars. The course towards the American currency, strangely enough, remained stable, until 1945.
5. The emblem of the Italian (primordial) fascism is a bundle of fascias (Latin fasces- rods), birch or elm rods, rods tied with a red ribbon, with a hatchet in them. This symbolism in Russia is not prohibited, it is used by such state entities as the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Federal Bailiff Service.
6. Emblem of the Spanish fascists, otherwise — of the Franco, Falangist, the party Falange Española. Arrows and yokes are symbols of the unifiers of Spain, the Catholic monarchs Isabella of the First Castilian and Ferdinand of the Second of Aragon. This form of fascism exists even after the end of World War II, until 1975 — the time of the natural death of dictator Franco Franco.
7. Lattice — a symbol of suffering for freedom, the emblem of the nationalist «Iron Guard» of Romania.
8. Symbol of the Polish Phalanx. The Poles are ardent nationalists, they do not recognize kinship with the Slavs, they are looking for their heroic forerunners in the semi-mythical tribe of the Sarmatians or even the Germanic tribes. Be that as it may, at the beginning of the Second World War, one nationalism almost completely destroys another, and this circumstance undoubtedly helps the Allies to win.
9. The symbol of the Croatian «Ustashi» (Horst «Ustaše» — «TheInsurrection»). The main idea of those who consider themselves descended is a mono-national state, anti-Semitism, serbophobia, nationalism, territorial claims to Serbia. Under the Germans, the Ustash, along with some Bosnian Muslims, form the Waffen SS corps, numbering about 113,000, physically destroying 400,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
The postwar policy of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito — «Forgetting everything bad» only leads to the fact that in the early 1990s, non-repentant Croatian nationalists go on relapse, and unleash a bloody Civil War.
10. Flag of the National Socialist Party of Hungary «Crossed arrows». In fact, the «Crossed Arrows» and its sole leader, Ferenc Salashi rule parallel to the government of Miklos Horthy. It is Horthy who initiates the entry of his state into the Second World War. The main goal, at the very beginning of the expansion, is the return of considerable territories, more than half of the country lost by Hungary under the Versailles Treaty. Further, the non-fascist formally Hungary, whether or not, is forced to participate in all military operations of Hitler’s Germany.
In October 1944, the Horthy government announced a truce with the USSR. A detachment of saboteurs Otto Skorzeni kidnaps Horty’s son. Under such pressure, the head of state transfers powers to Ferenc Salashi, and moves away from business.
The «Crossed Arrows» party rules until March 1945.
The way to power was determined after Hitler was sent to the army propaganda courses: his speeches were noticed by influential people. Fourteen years later, A.G. becomes simultaneously Reichspresident and Reichskanzlerom; These long names are shortened to the word «Fuhrer» — «leader.»
The first speeches of Hitler in this post are reduced to defining the world as an unconditional value, however, one way or another, its achievement follows from the return of lands lost by Germany after the Great War.
Landmark of the German Fuhrer — the movement of «blackshirts» in Italy. Since 1919, this southern country is experiencing a «red two-year». The workers organize election committees on the direct model of the Soviets in Red Russia, seize enterprises, and try to control them more or less efficiently. The example of the USSR that is formed in general, does not bring inspiration to the Italian proletariat: this is a civil war, the physical annihilation of classes, mutual embitterment, power structures that seem to be completely out of control, apparently to no one at all. The red two-year period is replaced by the second anniversary of black. In October 1921 the squadrist, a voluntary national security militia, in the number of about 5,000 people, organize a march to Rome. King of Italy Victor Emmanuel meets with the head of the fascists Benito Mussolini, confirms him as prime minister.
The main idea of the Mussolini duce is a corporate state, the unification of classes on the basis of a common nationality and awareness of the exclusivity of their state. Introduced in particular, the laws on the inadmissibility of mixed marriages of Italians with non-Europoid races. The dialectic of fascism rejects peace, tranquility as some absolute value, recognizes war, and other perturbations are an indispensable means of improving mankind.
In general, Italian fascism is much milder than Hitler’s National Socialism. Whatever it was, the corporate state gives its citizens stability, work, a piece of bread and some enthusiasm. It successfully fights with, it would seem, a national brand, and the disaster of Italy — the mafia. However, the payment for such a way of uniting the masses, albeit with some delay — participation in many bloody battles of the Axis bloc in the South and East.
The ideology of fascism, to a greater or lesser degree, takes possession of many European states: Spain, France, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Portugal, etc. In Japan, since 1938, in fact, the plan of «Great East Asia "- free from European influence, but under the direct control of the Land of the Rising Sun zone; which includes, among many other things, the whole of China. Militarism is not quite fascism, since it is not tied to a single charismatic dictator. This structure implies controlled tension in society, the creation of an image of an insidious external enemy, overstated by the military economy (albeit at the expense of the most important social programs), extensive external expansion.
The main idea of Hitler is the «People’s State», uniting all the Germans, regardless of the degree of their prosperity and titles, and also the notorious «Tough Vertical of Power». The national state does not at all provide for a true democracy, however, the «loophole» of opinions, a certain initiative of citizens are not punished so harshly and thoughtlessly as in the Stalinist USSR. The value of the blood of «full» Germans was initially large enough. Those Germans who somehow disagree with the policy of the NSDAP are subjected to reprisals only after several, quite intelligible cautions.
«Decisions by the majority are not provided, decisions are made only by responsible persons. Of course, every leader will have a staff of advisers at his disposal, but he will be the only one to decide… only he has the authority and the right to give orders. … It is impossible to do without the parliament, but its role is to give advice. The chambers are working bodies, not voting tools.»
Adolf Gitler.
The ideas of universal unification are inherent in Germany, first of all, since 1648, when the Westphalian world was concluded, which put an end to the terrifying Thirty Years’ War. The German world is divided into three hundred autonomous states, within each of which an unlimited dictatorship is now prescribed. Serfdom is being restored. Henceforth, the prince occupies the highest position in the local church hierarchy. Any electivity (spiritual Synod, collegium of hierarchs, flock) is absent in principle. The ruler creates only that which comes to his mind.
In other countries of Europe, the spiritual and earthly branches of the authorities are at least somewhat divided. Or else (England of the time of Henry the Eighth, the Suprematist Act of 1534, the King — the Head of the Church), the monarchy itself moves, even if in a very complicated way, towards constitutionality, and the principles of collegial decision-making. The exception, alas, is Russia, whose religious figures, since the time of the violent Baptism of 988, are getting used to compassion to the earthly authorities in every possible way.
…The church structures of Germany in the second half of the 1930s become a continuation of the state. Various terms of imprisonment are received by about 700 protestants pastors who do not agree with this state of affairs. The head of the alternative, Christian Confessionary Church, Dr. Nemmler, is taken into custody by the Gestapo in 1937, and is released by the Allied forces only in 1945.
Scientific and art are also subjected to universal unification. From now on, so little predictable currents of thought… insights, discoveries, are called to lead, as they say, «specially trained people».
You can argue a lot about the hidden springs of a gradually unfolding unthinkable action. One of them, usually not mentioned by historians, as something insignificant, is the massive use of German troops, the population and leadership of the Reich, psychotropic substances. Tobacco smoking is not welcome, although in a combat situation this is perhaps the best way to relieve stress. In the course of «Pills of cheerfulness», pervitin (methamphetamine), the official component of the combat diet of German soldiers. The narcotic, which generates a sense of omnipotence, impunity, a psychoactive drug, is a part of food products, for example «tank chocolate» and sweets. Massively applied since 1938. The Wehrmacht receives about 12 million tablets a month from Temmler and Knoll, with a recommended dose of 2 tablets per day. According to some reports, by the time of the invasion of France, production has reached 833,000 pills per day. Hitler does not smoke tobacco, but takes pervitin from his personal physician Theodore Morrell since 1936 (actually, the beginning of expansion); since 1943 — several doses per day.
This drug, in addition, mobilizes forces, as if the body received a signal of danger — although, in fact, there can be no threat. But, subsequently, after such energy stimulation leading to numerous injuries, nerve cells die hundreds of thousands per day. It is interesting that the drug is recommended for mass consumption, like a panacea, even, for example, to treat female frigidity, and to facilitate delivery. It can not be said that the German authorities specifically promote the spread of pervitin; but they do not interfere with its spread at all.
…In 1930, Germany produces 200 tons of heroin, deploys also the production of other, cheaper, synthetic drugs. Overseas territories have been lost, according to the Versailles Treaty, however, many Latin American countries are willing to supply raw materials. Initially, aspiring to sole authority over the consciousness of its citizens, the National Socialist Party of Germany (NSDAP) strongly opposes the use of opiates. The concept is introduced: «Your own body belongs, first of all, to the family and the nation», in contrast, it seems, really decadent thesis of the Weimar Republic: «Your body belongs only to you.» However, synthetic drugs, now called «energy stimulants,» thanks, in addition to everything, to Hitler, just drop out of the list of banned drugs.
In 1929, Nuremberg created the National Socialist Union of German Doctors, which, by the end of 1933, had 11,000 participants (23% of all German medical personnel). They, based on the data of their patients, create «files of heredity archives». The main idea — the mentally retarded people do not have a right to exist — which, for the sake of humanity and prosperity of the nation, should be broken off in one way or another. Already since 1933, representatives of this union occupy leading positions, informally dispose of a gradual reduction in the standards for supplying food to patients of care and medical institutions — up to a lethal outcome.
Since October 9, 1935, almost legal, the T-4 program starts (from the name of the street Tigartentstrasse, house 4, where the headquarters of this organization was located), designed to reduce the population of Germany by the formula 1000: 10: 5: 1. Out of a thousand people, ten are disabled — five of them should be assisted, one physically eliminated. Planck rises: it now follows «To destroy all those who are unable to work productively, and not only deprived of reason.» In total, before September 1, 1941, 70,273 of its citizens were killed in German hospitals: at least 885 million marks were saved for the Army and Government. At the same time, German doctors working in the program receive monetary allowance more than anywhere else in the Reich. For each «processed dossier», that is, the death of the patient, a fee of 100 Reichsmarks is paid — plus the use of the food stamps of the deceased remaining in the course of the month before the end of the month, the issuing of bills for his relatives to his relatives, within the specified time, and, gold crowns.
Also terminally sick children are destroyed, later — adolescents under 17 years old, diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, microcephaly, hydrocephalus, all kinds of malformations, paralysis and so on. The value of each child’s life is determined in accordance with economic criteria. Parents are informed of the death of children as a result of pneumonia, or other fictitious causes. The body is cremated anyway.
In addition, about 400,000 people with an arbitrarily diagnosed diagnosis (most often «schizophrenia»), sometimes simply — the political enemies of the Reich, from 1943 to 1945, are subjected to forced sterilization.
Thus, the hospitals of the Third Reich are exempt from former hospital patients. However, some hidden laws of retaliation come into effect, medical institutions are quickly replenished by the wounded, at the front, and as a result of increasing air strikes.
Such a policy of the NSDAP ceases to please even some of its influential functionaries. In the end, a very weighty message of ferment in the minds reaches Hitler’s ears by Hannah Reich, the personal pilot of the Fuhrer. By August 1941, the T-4 program in Germany is partially curtailed, its main structures, trained medical personnel, mobile gas chambers are moving to the East. Here, killing people is done by the introduction of barbiturates, more often by an elementary «lowering» of the diet to zero. In total, on the territory of the Soviet Union (including the Baltic States), as well as in Poland, German doctors kill a million «Ostarbeiters», and an unknown number of German soldiers with severe injuries…
…In 1934, 97% of Germany’s debts to Great Britain and the United States (total 23.3 billion marks) are written off. This act is prompted by a similar decision and other countries in Europe. Switzerland agrees to sell Reich gold for the Reichsmark; later she does not disdain to accept hundreds of kilograms of gold crowns from the concentration camps.
THE CIVIL WAR IN SPAIN
After the fall of 1931, the monarchy, the new Republican government of Spain abolished aristocratic titles, greatly reduced the armed forces, and selected surplus land from the landlords (over 200 hectares). Already not popular with the majority of the population, an overly politicized and biased church, is separated from the state.
All these reforms are carried out inadequately and cause strong opposition from a significant part of society. The rebellion begins on July 17, 1936 in Spanish Morocco. July 18, he throws himself in, in fact, Spain. On the side of the putschists — 80% of the highest officers, mostly ground forces. Since July 27, the rebels are beginning to receive military and technical assistance from Germany and Spain — the bombers SM-81, Yu-52, the CV3 / 33 tanket, as well as numerous volunteers. Only on October 16 the Republicans announce the establishment of their own, regular People’s Army, which includes Soviet military specialists and international brigades of anti-fascists. In mid-October, the first shipment of I-15 fighters, ANT-40 bombers and (300) T-26 tanks (with Soviet crews) arrives in Spain. Part of the military cargo goes by sea, at risk of being captured or destroyed (at the bottom there are three ships), part — by railroad through France. On the streets bombed by the Legion of the Air Force «Condor» in Madrid, two weeks are fierce battles, after the rebel-francists retreat. However, the government of Franco is recognized by Germany, Italy, Portugal, a number of Latin American states. In February 1937, there was a second battle for Madrid. The Francoists (Spaniards and Italians) are on the approaches to the capital, they are stopped by scattered parts of the Republicans and the Soviet armored brigade T-26 of General Dmitry (Pablo) Pavlov.
1. I-15 (Chato — «Pug-nosed»), a half-plane (the lower wing has a much smaller area) Polikarpova, four 7, 62 mm. machine gun, the speed of 370 km. h, the flight range is 750 km. On its basis, I-153 was created, a deep modernization of the I-15, «Seagull. Introduced retractable landing gear, appeared armored bump, the steel forms are more streamlined. Armament: four 7.62 mm. machine gun, 8 unguided missiles with 82 mm. shells, up to 200 kg. bombs. The speed is 410—430 km. h. The range of flight is 740 km. Put into operation by 1939 (after the war in Spain), quite successfully participated in the conflict at Halkin Gol. In the Finnish war proved to be mediocre. In the hot summer of 1941 it became finally clear that the development of the idea of biplanes, in addition to the short fuselage, of the wobbling «fatties» — Polikarpov’s big mistake. From 1939 to 1941, 3,427 aircraft were produced.
2. I-16 (nickname in the USSR — Ishak, Yastrebok, Spanish army, Franco — Rata — agile rapacious «Rat», Republicans «Mosca» — «Fly», in China — «Yanzi» — «The Swallow»). The first fighter is a low-grade aircraft in the USSR. Armament — four 7.62 mm. the ShKAS machine gun (the Shpitalniy and Komaritsky system, for the first time in the world, the rate of fire is 1,800 rounds per minute) or two 20 mm. guns and two 7.62 mm. machine gun. The speed at altitude is 450 km. h. The range of flight is 520 km. This is the maximum performance of an airplane with a single-row, star-shaped engine. The lantern of the cockpit can be closed completely, however, due to frequent seizures, the pilots keep it open (as can be seen in almost all the photographs). By 1942 inclusive (83 aircraft in the last year) produced 10 300 copies (not counting a few dozen, manufactured in Spain and China). Together with the «Seagull» brutal I-16 was the backbone of Soviet fighter aviation to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Led by an experienced pilot, he was not an easy prey, he tried to avoid maneuvering with him the aces of the Luftwaffe, saying that, they say; «You should not drive a rat into a corner.» However, the time I-16 passed.
3. Bf. (Me) — 109, Series B (Bruno), a fighter, was supplied to the Francoists in the second half of the Civil War. At that time had three 7.92 mm. machine gun. By the beginning of the Second World War Me-109 got four machine guns, or, in the other series, two machine guns plus 30 mm. a cannon with 60 shells. As an attack aircraft, he carried one 250 kg. the bomb. Speed — before modernization, during the war in Spain only 470 km. h, but by 1939, after replacing the engine (which became an unpleasant surprise, primarily for the British Air Force) — 570 km. h. In the mid-forties, its speed reached 620 km. h. The range of the flight is 480 km. In total, from 1937 to 1945, 34,000 Messerschmitts were produced.
4. Heinkel 51, the fighter of the Frankish first half of the war. Virtually had no chance against I-15. Armament — two machine guns 7,92 mm., Speed 310 km. h, flight range 550 km.
The rebels are changing the direction of the main attack and are crashing to the north of Spain — the Basque Country. April 26 German pilots destroy the city of Guernica. Strengthens his dictatorship Franco — his party «Spanish Phalanx» gets rid of internal opposition. At this time, the official Spanish government, which wants to achieve stability, completely purposely replaces a number of ministers. A single strong leader does not appear. The Republican army exhausts forces in fruitless frontal attacks of insignificant objects.
Organized according to the Stalinist patterns of the security service of the Republic, is being dealt with by prominent figures of the Marxist Party of Spain (Spanish POUM), is developing mass blind terror. Many Spanish Communists, as well as arrivals from all over the world interbrigadovtsy begin to get disappointed in their work, their morale is rapidly falling. The last successes Republicans achieve at the beginning of the offensive at the city of Brunet; (just west of the center of Spain), then they become entangled in contradictory orders, lose 25 thousand people against 10 thousand from the enemy, and together with them the original unity. On August 18, the republican units leave the front. 60,000 people are captured.
Italian submarines arrange a hunt for ships that supply goods still fighting in other theaters of military operations, Republicans. In early September, there is a sea battle; The Frankish flagship gets seriously damaged and departs from the convoy. Encouraged by this, insignificant in essence, success, the Republicans decide to hold a decisive offensive on land (Zaragoza, northeast of Spain). And again, their 80,000-strong group drains itself in unsuccessful attacks of secondary settlements, and then produces personnel personnel permutations that are also unnecessary to anyone. In early October, a new attempt is made to take Zaragoza. The main hope now is for 50 Soviet high-speed BT-5 tanks. Nationalists open floodgates of irrigation canals. Tanks bypass the appeared lakes, get bogged down in the mud, or far away from the accompanying infantry. The battle ends on October 17. Republicans lose 30,000 people killed and wounded, more than 30 tanks, francists — 20,000 people.
1. Wheel-caterpillar BT-5. Armament: 45 mm. gun, 115 shells, paired with a cannon 7.62 machine gun. Booking: the forehead, the side of the body 13 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower 13 mm. The speed along the highway is 52 km. h on caterpillars, 72 km. h on wheels. Crew of 3 people. Weight 11 tons. Power reserve on the highway on tracks 150 km, wheels — 200 km.; while the rubber rim wears out after 150 km. mileage. The specific power is 35 hp. (higher than that of modern tanks). Ground pressure 0, 65 kg. see with clad caterpillars, 5.65 kg. see on wheels. The number of vehicles produced from 1933 to 1934 — 1880. Most of the tanks lost in the first months of the war. Since 1942, the machines have basically been transferred to the rear, as training, a certain number of BT-5 has survived until 1945, participating, among other things, in defeating the Kwantung Army.
2. Waddress CV3 / 33 (Carro veloce CV-33), otherwise, by the name of the company — «Ansaldo». Armament: two 6.5 mm. machine gun. Booking: the forehead of the case is 15 mm., The board is 9 mm, the forehead of the felling is 15 mm, the board is felling 9 mm. Crew 2 people. Weight 3,5 tons. The speed along the highway is 42 km. h. The power reserve is 150 km. Specific power 12 hp There are 1400 copies produced.
3. T-26. Photo of the consequences of the late (1941) tank battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody. The first serial classic Soviet tank, which took part in many battles, was put into operation after many problems with non-working engines and assembly of hulls (including unarmored steel). Difficulties were removed after manufacturers were allowed to introduce changes into the original scheme related to the peculiarity of domestic technology, changes. Armament: the first series — 37-mm gun, 7, 62 mm. a machine gun in two towers, then, in a single-tower version of 45 mm. gun, two 7, 62 machine guns. Booking bulletproof: the forehead, the side of the body 15 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower 15 mm. The crew is three people. Weight 8 tons. Speed along the highway is 30 km. h, the power reserve is 120 km. I received the approving comments of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War — «for our time a good tank, without it we would have to be very difficult.» Prototype — English (two towers) six-ton «Vickers». Despite some difference in the reservation, he could hit his opponent, the German T-3 is almost as confident as he is his. But, the practical training of a Soviet tankman on a tank-boat is 6.5 hours (sometimes 300 meters, straight, and back to the hangar), German — 50—120 hours (practically, the armored car resource is burnt).
From 1931 to 1941, 11218 T-26 (half of the Soviet tank fleet at the beginning of the war) were assembled.
4. ANT-25. The aircraft, created in the USSR specifically for the establishment of world records (1933). The maximum flight duration is 75 hours, the range is 12 411 km., The speed is 240 km. h. Crew of three people. The military version is DB-1 (ANT-36), the cruising speed is 200 km. h, bomb load 1000 kg., combat radius of 2000 km. In this form, 24 cars were built, the air was rarely raised, and finally they were used as targets at the airfield.
June 18, 1937 ANT-25 with a crew from V. Chkalov, G. Baidukov, A. Belyakov takes off from the airfield Shchelkov (30 km from the capital) and makes a flight on the route Moscow-North Pole-United States of America. The landing takes place at Pearson Airfield, Vancouver, Washington (north-west of the USA), with a huge crowd of people. Later, the aircraft in disassembled form, on the ship gets back to the USSR, by our time finds shelter in the museum of Nizhny Novgorod. His double, who also flew to America, already under the control of the crew of M. Gromov, now resides in the museum of Chkalovsk (Schelkovo).
Due to his charisma V. Chkalov establishes a warm, trusting relationship with the Americans.
Returned back, became a world-class pilot, on the ship «Normandy», by coincidence, with the legend of the screen Marlene Dietrich, a German and American actress. Chkalov gives her bouquets of flowers, provides signs of attention, etc., up to the point where a steady rumor of a novel arises.
One thing is clear: such things as «soft power», records simply for the sake of records are often much more important for the security of the country than piles of expensive weapons and loud statements that «we will all beat you,» or: «Our friends — only the Army and Navy». The ANT-25 voyage contributed a lot to the creation of a favorable atmosphere for solving the issue of large-scale Lend-Lease deliveries in the critical year 1941 — without which, perhaps, the USSR would have lost the war.
After this, the Nationalists deploy an offensive in the North of Spain (the province of Asturias). Francists — 40 000 people, 100 units of armored vehicles, 250 aircraft, 250 guns, Republicans — 40 000 fighters, several self-made tanks, 20 aircraft, 80 guns. Nationalists apply their technique and human resources skillfully, without unnecessary losses, and achieve success. Their losses — 10 000 killed, against 30 000 irrevocable human losses of the enemy. But most importantly — the Republicans do not work the economy. The Communist leveling is negatively perceived by both farmers and highly skilled workers, not to mention the nominal owners of enterprises. Peasants do not care who levies from them an increased rent for land — landlords or bearers of bright ideals. Working committees eat government loans, hold rallies on any occasion, do not produce weapons for the army, preferring to him any useful, quickly sold goods. The salary of a militia fighter is 10 pesetas (plus food). In 1937, food prices rose sharply, albeit unevenly in different regions of the country. Kilogram of beef in Madrid costs 5, 75 pesetas, a dozen eggs 3.75, but also for these prices set by the republican government, it is almost impossible to «get it».
To top it off, the disappointed USSR and France recall their best military specialists. In the ranks of Republicans reign defeatism.
In the spring of 1938, a major offensive of the Francoists in the north-east of the country takes place. Italian air squadrons bomb Barcelona, the provisional capital of the Republic, capture part of the autonomous Catalonia, then turn to the south and cut the territory of the Republicans in half. In June, the nationalists are trying to develop success in the south, in Valencia, but run into a well-prepared line of defense, and bear significant losses.
At the end of November, Franco agrees that German companies will own 75% of the extractive industry capital in Spain and 100% in the colonies; after which Germany resumes large-scale military supplies. The republic also purchases equipment in the USSR on preferential terms, but France, after the Munich agreement, no longer wants to enter into a conflict with the Nazis, and stops military cargo on its border.
The Franco Armed Forces — 340,000 men, 300 tanks, 500 aircraft, are against the demoralized, badly armed 200,000-strong army of the Republic in Catalonia. Republicans do not accept the fight, they already have no bright ideals and interbrigades, along with 280 thousand civilian refugees they go to France.
After this, the nationalists without resistance occupy the remaining quarter of Spain. And, on April 1, dictator Franco declares the end of the civil war.
Irrevocable losses of the parties: francists (nationalists) — 130 000 people, Republicans — 320 000.
In addition, Spain loses 510 tons of gold reserves, settling in the USSR (declaring to the Spaniards much later that it was spent on them).
On the side of the Republicans fought about 2,000 volunteers — pilots, tankmen, sailors and military advisers. In battles and from various incidents, 189 people died, 56 received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. General Pavlov (Pablo) experienced «cleansing», defined the task of creating an exclusively caterpillar tank with a powerful large-caliber (simply — long-barreled) gun, but later, as the commander of the Western Front, swept between the broken armies and divisions, in 1941, was shot. Generals produced 22 pilots, 7 of them in the coming years were repressed. Unfortunately, their idea of replacing the unstable many cadets I-15 (and also the I-16 and the «Seagull») with a new class fighter, was perceived as alarmism, and the proper response from the supreme leadership was not found immediately. In addition, the practical The experience of the confrontation of the Spanish pilots with German aircraft, as always in this system, is strictly classified, and there is no influence on the course of combat training in the Soviet Air Force.
Mikhail Svetlov (Sheinkman) in 1926 wrote the poems «Grenada», put to music by composers of 20 countries, which became a hymn to the interbrigades, since 1956 — a cult Soviet, or rather folk song. The song is good, but, perhaps, in its minor mood, it programmed the fall of the Spanish Republic. The idea that the death of one fighter does not mean anything, the detachment of this loss simply will not notice, does not attach, if you think about it, a positive. Won not the states for which the little man should give everything, but those who are ready to sacrifice much for their citizen.
At the same time, the fascist march, the unofficial German hymn «Horst Wessel» («Banners upwards»), clearly possessing some spiritual power, shows that, they say, then their troops notice the loss of fighters, and they are invisibly marching in the ranks of the surviving storm troopers. The Republican cry — «No pasarán!» — «They will not pass» is also, definitely, passive. Nationalists replace him with their less known, but more active: "¡Pasaremos!» — «We will pass.» In the end, four days before the end of the war, dictator Francisco Franco proclaims something that is very difficult to object: «Hemos pasado» — «We have passed.»
As part of the interbrigade fought, was, among other things, George Orwell (Arthur Blair). In his famous works «1984» and «Animal Farm», he, not without bitterness, shows the degeneration of revolutionary principles, a totalitarian system based on universal fear, enslavement and denunciation.
Francis lives until 1975, after which the post of the head of the country is occupied by King Juan Carlos. The country passes to parliamentarism and constitutional monarchy.
…In March 1938 there was an anschluss, otherwise, annexation, annexation of Austria. Previously, the state apparatus of this country is full of officials receiving a second salary from Germany and pursuing the corresponding policy; At the decisive moment they give the command not to resist the invasion. As a result of the «blindfold war», without losses, the Reich receives an additional 17%, territories and 6.7 million people, as well as 1.4 billion marks in currency and gold reserves. Austria becomes an administrative unit, called «Ostmark».
After the «Munich Collusion» with one of the centers of power in Europe, Great Britain and Germany, Sudetes with all defensive structures, populated by 90% ethnic Germans, and then all of Czechoslovakia are transferred. Poland does not want to miss Soviet aircraft to help the Czech Republic. Resistance is rendered only by one garrison, with the commander of which the higher authorities did not manage to contact in time: twenty-four German soldiers were killed and wounded during a forty-minute battle. In addition to 3.5 million ethnic Germans, Germany receives Skoda factories and six hundred fully ready-to-use, fairly good 38 tanks at that time (25 mm armor, 37 mm cannon, suspension close to the Christie system). England returns to the occupied country (hence, already Germany), taken out before that for storage of gold reserves — 1.4 billion marks. Slovakia becomes an independent state after it transfers southern territories to Germany’s ally, Hungary, 87% inhabited by the Hungarians. At the height of the Sudeten crisis, Poland enters its troops in the Teshinsky region, which belongs to Czechoslovakia, where 80,000 Poles and 120,000 Czechs live.
1. Quite a good Czech tank 38 (t). The «pigeon people» of Czechoslovakia never let them go against the Wehrmacht. In total, the enterprises of Skoda produced 1400 of them. The crew is 3—4 people, the forehead of the body is 25 mm high, the bottom is 12 mm., The hull is 15 mm., The forehead of the tower is 25 mm., The side of the tower is 15 mm. Weight 10 tons. Gun 37 mm, ammunition 72 shells, two machine guns, speed along the highway 48 km. h, cross-country 15 km. h, a power reserve of 230 kilometers.
2. Japanese fighter Ki-27 (in the USSR it was designated as I-97). Armament: two 7.7 mm. a machine gun with 500 cartridges per barrel. The speed of the earth is 395 km. h, at an altitude of 444 km. h. The range of flight is 627 km. From 1938 to 1942 produced 3,400 units.
3. BT-7. Armament: 45 mm. gun, 172 shells, one or two machine guns 7.62 (paired with a gun and aft). Booking: forehead housing 22 mm., Board 15 mm. (plus an outer layer of 4 mm.), the forehead, the side of the tower 15 mm. The speed is 72 km. h on wheels, 52 km. h on the tracks. Power reserve, 460 km. and 375 km. respectively, Crew 3 people. Weight 14 tons. Specific power 28 hp, ground pressure 0,85 kg. see (caterpillars). When driving on wheels, the front pair of rollers becomes controllable, the rear pair driving. Crawler — the steering wheel is removed, the drive from the transmission is sent to the «stars», the control goes to the levers. The destruction of rubber bands — after about 100 km. mileage. The tank performed well in Khalkin-Gol, mediocrely — in the Winter War, differing in the worst side of the T-26 by its high fuel consumption, the noisiness, the complexity of the double drive. In the Great Patriotic War with varying success was used until 1942, after almost universally transferred to educational units. The last participation of BT-7 in military operations — the defeat of the Kwantung Army, 1945. From 1935 to 1940, 5330 vehicles were produced.
4. Ha-Guo, Type 95. Japanese light tank. Armament: 37 mm. gun, 75 shells, two 6.5 mm. machine gun. Booking: the forehead, the side of the body 12 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower 12 mm. speed on the highway 45 km. h, cross-country 25 km. h. Cruising range, respectively: 250 and 210 km. Crew of 3 people. Weight 7.5 tons. Specific power 16 hp, ground pressure 0,66 kg. See Manufactured 2300 machines.
5. ANT-40 (SB). High-speed (medium) front-line bomber, development of design bureau of AN Tupolev. Armament: four 7, 62 mm. machine gun ShKAS, 600 kg. bombs. Speed: maximum 450 km. h, cruising 375 km. h. The range is 2300 km. The crew is three people. Due to a fairly successful design, it was manufactured under license in pre-war Czechoslovakia: after annexation, all aircraft were placed at the disposal of the Reich and its satellites. Operated since 1936 in Spain, the Republican troops, where it was called «Katyusha» and (at the disposal of the francists) «Sofia», also in the Khalkin-Gol, in the Winter, Great Patriotic War.
Most of the Security Council was destroyed in the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War; In addition, the lack of armor protection for the crew and vital units, and the lack of training of the flight crew, were reflected. Further, the ANT-40 was used as night bombers, to transport saboteurs to the rear of the enemy, as well as various kinds of cargo; ammunition, food, mail, etc. 6656 units were produced.
6. TB-3 (ANT-6). Soviet heavy bomber. Armament: from 4 to 8 7.62 mm. Degtyarev’s machine guns, the bomb load — normal 2000 kg of bombs, the maximum — 5000 kg. The speed of the land is 200 km. h, at an altitude of 180 km. h. The chassis are not retracted. The flight range is 3100 kilometers. The crew of 6—8 people. Successfully applied in the battles on Khalkin Gol, for their intended purpose, day and night, with the Soviet air force in the air, also for the evacuation of the wounded (15—20 people aboard), the delivery of goods. In the Winter War proved to be mediocre. It made up 25% of the Bomb Air Force by June 22, 1941, was based deep in the rear, so it almost did not suffer from Luftwaffe attacks. When daytime bombing targets carried heavy losses, but as a night bomber proved to be the best side. The Red Army was used up to the Battle of the Kursk Bulge. From 1932 to 1938, 818 vehicles were produced, completely ANT-6 was decommissioned in 1946.
7. One of the characteristic persons of the Stalin era — border guard Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa, Hero of the Soviet Union. Birth — the village of Alekseevka, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine. Detained 338 violators of the state border. Personally, he destroyed «129 spies and saboteurs who did not lay down their arms.» In essence, this «right man» is a maniac killer of hundreds of unarmed Russian peasants who fled the Soviet regime and the GULAG abroad, possibly trying to explain the essence of their situation to the military detainee, but not receiving any response other than smirking or bullets.
Armed conflict between Japan and the USSR on Khalkhin-Gol
In the Japanese version, with Russian transcription, it sounds like «Nomon-khan jiken» — «The incident with Nomon Khan,» by the name of one of the local heights. Some historians consider fights at the river Halkin-Gol the Second Russian-Japanese war.
Since the twenties of last century Mongolia is a protectorate of the USSR and, nominally — a socialist country. Attacks on it are already considered a matter of the Soviet Union. Therefore, when in May 1939 militaristic Japan, unhappy with the demarcation of the border with the Mongolian People’s Republic, attacks Mongolian outposts near Lake Khasan, according to the Protocol on Mutual Assistance of March 12, 1936, the Red Army interferes.
Ground-based battles along the river Halkin Gol, considered by the Japanese as the «right» border with their puppet state on the territory of China («above» Korea and more than three times), are conducted with varying success. The main events unfold in the air. Since May 22, for two days the Soviet fighter regiment is losing 22 I-15s, the Japanese — one. On an urgent basis, the pilots who showed up in Spain, as well as the newest I-16 and Chaika fighters, are called to the place of the conflict. From June 22 to June 28, the Japanese Air Force lost 90 aircraft, the Soviet Air Force lost 38 aircraft.
Since July 2, the Japanese ground group is moving into a large-scale offensive near Mount Bayan-Tsagan. In the battles participate up to 400 tanks and 300 aircraft from both sides at a time. Soviet troops quickly commanded by G. Zhukov. He manages to rectify the situation, although L. Beria sends the 1st rank commissioner L. Mehlis (a serial killer of the higher officers of the Red Army) to «check» the commander of the group of troops. The army commander’s psyche is stronger.
The Japanese side is losing 9,000 killed, almost all tanks and most of the artillery.
At the end of July, the intensity of military operations on the ground is declining. Again, fighting is in the air. Japan loses 67 aircraft, the USSR — 20. This is a prelude to a decisive blow by Soviet and Mongolian troops on August 20. The forces of the parties: the USSR-Mongolia — 30 thousand people, 500 tanks, 580 aircraft. Japan — 20 thousand fighters, 120 tanks, 450 aircraft. The army of the country of the Rising Sun is surrounded, crushed and destroyed. The day of the truce, on September 15, is crowned with an impressive air battle — 207 Soviet aircraft against 120 Japanese. Finally, «de jure», the conflict ends in May 1942; the parties find a compromise on the basis of some geographic map found in the archives.
Losses of the parties: the USSR — irretrievable losses of 10 thousand people, 250 tanks, 210 aircraft. Japan and the Union of Manchukuo, according to the averaged data — 36 thousand people, 300 tanks, 400 aircraft.
The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939—1940
Ideas of Great Finland, uniting the peoples of the Finnish-Ugric group; Finns, Karelians, Estonians, from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Ural Mountains, are spreading with the separation of Finland proper from Russia in 1918. The Government of Suomi sends a petition to the warring Germany; conclude a Brest peace with the condition of joining Finland (an ally of the Austro-German Empire), East Karelia.
In the course of their own civil war, on April 29, 1918, the White Finns capture Vyborg, arrange the genocide of all people who do not speak Finnish (retired military, schoolboys in Russian uniforms, even Poles). Three thousand people die.
On May 15, 1918, the Finnish government declared war on Soviet Russia. Its troops occupy, in particular, the Russian, from the 16th century, Pechenga, rename the name of this village in «Petsamo». Later, large deposits of nickel ore will be explored here, since 1935 their industrial development by Anglo-American corporations will begin.
The Finnish military partially block Petrograd, contributing to the first great famine in this city (according to averaged data, one hundred thousand people become victims of it, as well as «red» terror). At the rate of Mannerheim, a plan for «national uprisings» is being developed, Finnish instructors are being allocated to create centers of insurgency. However, the plans of the Field Marshal to conquer East Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, the offensive against Petrograd, Germany does not support. After the Vyborg tragedy, any joint operations to overthrow the Bolshevik government along with the Finns, the White Army refuses to conduct either.
By May 1920, parts of the Red Army were eliminating the puppet North-Karelian state. In October of the same year, Finland and the USSR signed the Tartous Peace Treaty, according to which Russia was losing part of its territories. However, in 1921 Helsinki unleashed the second Soviet-Finnish war, by forces of «forest partisans» committing acts of sabotage and killing of supporters of Soviet power. The fighting ends in March 1922, a document is signed to ensure the inviolability of the Soviet-Finnish border. About 30,000 people dissatisfied with the new order go to Finland and, up to the end of the 1920s, armed groups formed from them, make raids on Soviet territory.
Whatever it was, the mood in Finland does not seem friendly to the Soviet government. His proposal — the removal of the border from Leningrad at the expense of Finland, in exchange for twice the size of the areas of East Karelia. Rent of the island of Hanko to create a Soviet military base. Disarmament and demolition of the «Mannerheim Line» on the Karelian Isthmus. Finland rejects these conditions.
Military operations begin after the delivery of an ultimatum, on November 30, 1939, from shelling (ships of the Baltic Fleet) and the bombing of Helsinki. The Soviet Union is excluded from the League of Nations. European countries supply Suomi with weapons, including free of charge (350 aircraft, 500 guns) and volunteers. For two months the columns of Soviet troops advancing along the forest roads are being cut by Finnish skiers, surrounded and destroyed. This is no longer the Halkin Gol. In February, having saturated the troops with heavy artillery and tanks, having increased the norms of food allowance, the USSR is making progress in the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line; On March 13, Soviet troops enter Vyborg. The world lies. Irrevocable, severe losses of the USSR — 130 000 people, 650 tanks, 640 aircraft; Finns — 26 000 people, with 450 000 refugees, 62 aircraft. From the Finnish captivity, 4,354 people return, and are being filtered by the NKGB GUGB. 450 of them are released, the rest receive from 5 to 8 years of camps.
This military operation could have a special meaning if the USSR kept Petsamo (Pechenga) with the reserves of nickel ore, much needed by Germany’s military industry. However, the international community, including, above all, the UK, is strongly opposed. The area Petsamo returns to the Finns, and they organize a large-scale supply of nickel to the Axis countries.
Pechenga will join the Russian Federation only in 1944.
Among the advantages in the combat training of troops, after such a harsh school, is the abolition of the institution of political commissars, the experience of breaking through long-term fortifications, the winter war as a whole, and the return to production of a submachine gun (PAP).
Cons, in addition to the hardest losses — the German government understands that, in principle, is able to achieve all-round success in the war against the «colossus on clay feet».
1. The Dot of the Mannerheim Line
2. Howitzer B-4, caliber of 203 millimeters. The main hero of the Finnish war. The nickname «Karelian Sculptor», for the fact that this instrument turns Finnish dots into a kind of avant-garde statues. The parameters of Finnish DOTs are «million»: the length is about 40 meters, the thickness of the walls of reinforced concrete is 2 meters. The result of action B-4 — if not the penetration of the walls, then the psychological impact on the defenders of the DOTs. Many of them, after a long bombardment of the D-4 went crazy.
The entry of the Baltic states into the USSR
In October 1940, the Soviet Union invites Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, under a mutual assistance agreement, to deploy a military contingent of 25,000 troops on their territory to defend themselves against Hitlerite Germany. It is already clear that the Red Army is inclined to achieve its goals, regardless of any losses. Two weeks later, the governments of these countries are accused of collusion with Germany (which is partly true), repressions against foreigners (Poles, etc.) and are shifting. In the summer of 1940, following the results of nationwide voting, the republics are formed by communist governments and adopt declarations of entry into the Soviet Union; which are immediately approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
According to the documents of the NKVD of June 17, 1941, in Lithuania, 5,663 people, mostly secret police officers and «classical capitalists», were subject to detention, 10,186 in Latvia, 5,624 and 9,547 in Latvia respectively, and 3,179 and 5,979 in Estonia.
President of Lithuania Antanas Smyatona wisely emigrates to Germany, then Switzerland and the United States. His Estonian counterpart Konstantin Päts is deported with his family to Siberia, receives 25 years of camps, since 1942 is kept in a prison psychiatric clinic, he died there in 1956. The head of Latvia, Karlis Ulmanis convinces the people that «friends have come», actively cooperates with the new, pro-Soviet government, and in particular, publishes the «Law on the fight against wrecking». Somewhat later he begins to understand the situation, asks the Kremlin for permission to travel to Switzerland, but eventually ends up in the NKVD camp near Krasnovodsk (Turkmenistan), where, in 1942, he dies.
The Second World War
Occupation of Poland
The territories of Poland, acquired by Germany at the expense of Germany under the Treaty of Versailles (West Prussia and part of Silesia), prevent the Reich from uniting with East Prussia, the «cradle of German militarism», its sacral center. After negotiations on the creation of a land corridor, or at least the transit of goods through Poland without bureaucratic obstacles, September 1, 1939, the invasion begins simultaneously from Germany, Slovakia and Prussia. The Polish Air Force, having existed for three days, shoots down 130 Luftwaffe aircraft. On September 22, the bombing of Warsaw begins: 1,150 aircraft drop 4,500 tons of bombs, and on September 28 the Polish military command (the civil government takes refuge in France) signs an act of surrender.
On September 17, Soviet troops enter Poland to restore Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, captured during the Russian-Polish war of 1920, to protect the Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews who are there, respectively. The main idea: if Poland shows enough courage in confronting Hitler, it is actively assisted by France and England, the Wehrmacht meets a worthy rebuff, the status quo is observed on the part of the USSR. The obvious victory of the Germans, inclined, of course, to occupy the entire territory, means the entry into the game of the Red Army.
Part of Poland — the Vilna (Vilnius) region with 490 thousand inhabitants are transferred to Lithuania. Some territories pass to the satellite of Germany — Slovakia. Refused to accept Soviet citizenship 78,000 refugees (including Jews) from Germany occupied by Poland, are deported back, or receive 20 years of camps.
Losses of the parties: Poland — irretrievably 63 000 soldiers and officers in the battles with the Wehrmacht, 420 000 in German captivity, 230 000 in the USSR (ordinary and non-commissioned officers are dismissed to their homes, in 1942 most of them, in agreement with England, bypassing Iran, joins the British forces, forming the army of General Anders or Sikorsky), as well as 357 aircraft of different types. Germany — 15 000 killed, as well as 319 armored cars and 285 aircraft (as a result of air crashes, air defense and fighter operations). Soviet troops (RKKA) — 2,000 dead, 17 tanks and 10 aircraft. Poland: irretrievable losses in battles with the Red Army — 3000. Slovak army: 18 people.
So, in the war included England and France, who acted as the guarantor of Poland’s security, but the first six months of fighting on their fronts are almost not conducted. Flyers prefer to scatter leaflets («confetti»), rather than bombs, over postings of the enemy, «We will not shoot at you if you do not shoot us».
Hitler is interested not so much in the island of the foggy Albion, as in the English dominions. Even if you capture London, the government will move to the territory of one of the colonies, and the fight will continue indefinitely. Honorary peace with the Anglo-Saxons, the Nordic race, equal, according to the Fuhrer’s admission, to the Germans themselves, the delineation of the territories of influence is what Germany wants.
Benelux countries
Denmark and Norway. They are threatened with the capture of two centers of power: England and Germany. Denmark tends to the protectorate of Germany, the leaders of the country give the order not to resist the invasion; which took place in March 1940, and cost the life of thirteen Danish and two German soldiers. The Reich acquired a good supplier of agricultural products, a dozen of warships, as well as a 6,000-strong volunteer corps, who fought on the Eastern Front until his disbandment in 1943.
In April 1940, German warships attacked the British-assisted Norway and, by June 16 of the same year, seized it. The irrevocable human losses of the opponents are approximately equal: the Norwegians have 1,400 men, and also 60,000 prisoners, the British 1800, French and Polish 500, Germans about 4000. Allied forces are deprived of a total of 15 warships, including the aircraft carrier, Germany — 34 large and 10 small; these losses make the landing operation in the UK questionable. As a result of the submarine war, England is losing 485 ships, which is one third of the merchant fleet: Germany exchanges them for its 9 submarines.
On May 10, 1940, Belgium and Holland receive an ultimatum from the German command with reproaches in violation of neutrality — the unhindered passage of British aircraft over their territory, as well as the construction of long-term fortifications facing Germany. The note calls on Holland not to prevent the German troops entering the country, not as enemies. which, however, by this time already are on the land of the Netherlands. The government of the country of dams and cheese requests assistance from the British and French, their expeditionary corps is being put forward to establish contact with the Dutch.
German paratroopers seize the strategically important bridge from Rotterdam, which allows German tanks to block all large Dutch infantry units. Under the threat of bombardment of Rotterdam, a demand is demanded for full surrender of the state. The ultimatum is accepted, however, as a result of a mistake, or deliberate action of 60 Heinkel 111 bombers, 97 tons of bombs are dropped on the city. Holland surrenders five days after the outbreak of the war. Losses of the Dutch side: 2330 soldiers and officers, 70 aircraft, (68 Typhoons lost by the British Air Force), as well as 2,000 civilians, German — about 3,000 military, 275 aircraft.
The idea of an ambitious German officer, Erich von Manstein, is to attack the Anglo-French army, superior in number (4 million to 3 million Wehrmacht fighters), through the mountain (Belgian) Ardennes, from the north, through the forces of a few but unified tank units, the Fuhrer.
Invasion of France
The battle continues to unfold in neighboring Belgium, where the combined French, English, Belgian troops, and Wehrmacht forces converge on May 10—11. The first, truly grandiose operation of the Germans begins almost a failure: in the vicinity of Luxembourg, a motorized column of 41,000 units of equipment, a bumper to the bumper, stands in a 250-kilometer traffic jam. However, the confused allies and do not subject this light, desired goal to the bombing. Finally, 1,100 tanks break away from the concentration of infantry and break through the mountain serpentines to Belgium. Three days later, steel cars, with carriages filled with primitin, almost unimpededly cross the borders of France.
Of the battles of this period, one should note the first major tank battle at Ann, where 623 German (mainly Panzer 1—2) and 415 French (Renault, Gochkis, practically the same) tanks came together. The shortcomings of German armored vehicles were revealed — thin, 14.5 mm. armor and weak 20 mm. gun, against 45mm. armor and 37 mm. Guns tanks, Gochkis, whose crews, incidentally, consist of only two people. The tactics of the Panzerwaffe — beating with a single steel fist, with clear coordination over the radio and the clear purpose of the operation being conducted, shows superiority over the manner of the opponents to place the non-radiofected tanks in a shaky line. Belgium surrenders on May 28, its armed forces are getting out of the fight. Places of battle are moving to French Dunkirk. The movement of the German panzerwaffe is hampered by the rugged terrain; They also do not aspire to enter the zone of action of the large-caliber naval artillery of the British. Surrounded by Anglo-French troops, taking advantage of the bad weather, interferes with the actions of aviation, they are evacuated by the sea, leaving all their heavy equipment to the enemy. The idea to create here a springboard, a splinter in the body of fascist Continental Europe, is not considered.
Italy enters the war on the side of Germany; although its 300,000-strong army does not have much success, it completely demoralizes the French, and, on June 21, in the Compiegne Forest, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed 20 years ago, France’s surrender is announced.
The loss of Belgium: 6,000 people irrevocably, 202,000 prisoners, as well as 112 aircraft, France 84,000 killed, 1.8 million prisoners (the majority are sent to forced labor in Germany), 50 aircraft. Great Britain — 68,000 people, about 1,000 aircraft, 64,000 vehicles, Germany — 18,000 soldiers and officers on German data and 45,000 according to estimates of English historians, 432 aircraft. In addition to the developed French economy, Germany receives 2,000 combat tanks (used against guerrillas or converted into ACS), 1,400 aircraft and a 7,000-strong French volunteer legion. Part of the navy, in order to avoid its seizure by the Germans, together with 1,200 sailors, was destroyed by British aircraft (Operation Catapult), the remaining ships were sunk by the French themselves in 1942. The Catapult, coupled with the British preference for its soldiers during the evacuation from Dunkirk, led to the unwillingness of the French military in the French colonies (Syria, Senegal, Lebanon), to join the struggle against the Axis countries, and, in some cases, active resistance to the allies.
Meanwhile, the gold of the French National Bank, on the battleship Richelieu, on June 19, 1940, leaves the port of Brest and is heading for Senegal. He is adjoined by precious metals from Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Later, this charm falls into the hands of the Americans, and returns only seven years later, according to the Marshall plan, in the form of loans to, exclusively American goods.
1. Occupation of France by Germany and Italy.
2. Flooding of a part of the French fleet of Vichy France by naval forces and British aircraft (Operation Catapult, also the Anglo-French War of 1940).
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On June 27, 1940, the government of the USSR sends an ultimatum to the Romanian government demanding the return of Bessarabia (rejected by Romania in 1920) and Northern Bukovina, as compensation for the exploitation of the population of Bessarabia. A few hours before the start of the Soviet invasion, the Romanian king accepts all his conditions. Territories are divided between Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. The population of Bessarabia, numbering 3.7 million people, indeed, which underwent many humiliations and terror from the Romanian authorities, as a whole is loyal to the Soviet government. Ethnic Romanians and Ukrainians (85%) Bukovina, 0.8 million people who did not feel this kind of attitude, regard annexation without enthusiasm.
Italy has its own interests, primarily in Africa, where it intends to win back British colonies — Egypt, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, part of Somalia. He wants to take also Greece, he puts forward an ultimatum demanding that it be given the opportunity to occupy certain strategic objects. To help the Greeks come Britain, Union Australia. Defeated, Mussolini asks for help, and, in February 1941, the expeditionary corps of General Rommel arrives in Libya. German troops beat off the British north-eastern part of this country (Cyrenaica), go to the borders of Egypt, after which the front stabilizes.
Soviet-German relations are cooled on November 12, 1941 at the talks in Berlin; Molotov is denied accession to the countries of the Triple Alliance (Axis) as a full partner with interests in Finland, Southern Bukovina, Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia, as well as Turkey (Straits).
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On June 27, 1940, the government of the USSR sends an ultimatum to the Romanian government demanding the return of Bessarabia (rejected by Romania in 1920) and Northern Bukovina, as compensation for the exploitation of the population of Bessarabia. A few hours before the start of the Soviet invasion, the Romanian king accepts all his conditions. Territories are divided between Soviet Ukraine and Moldova. The population of Bessarabia, numbering 3.7 million people, indeed, which underwent many humiliations and terror from the Romanian authorities, as a whole is loyal to the Soviet government. Ethnic Romanians and Ukrainians (85%) Bukovina, 0.8 million people who did not feel this kind of attitude, regard annexation without enthusiasm.
Italy has its own interests, primarily in Africa, where it intends to win back British colonies — Egypt, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, part of Somalia. He wants to take also Greece, he puts forward an ultimatum demanding that it be given the opportunity to occupy certain strategic objects. To help the Greeks come Britain, Union Australia. Defeated, Mussolini asks for help, and, in February 1941, the expeditionary corps of General Rommel arrives in Libya. German troops beat off the British north-eastern part of this country (Cyrenaica), go to the borders of Egypt, after which the front stabilizes.
Soviet-German relations are cooled on November 12, 1941 at the talks in Berlin; Molotov is denied accession to the countries of the Triple Alliance (Axis) as a full partner with interests in Finland, Southern Bukovina, Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia, as well as Turkey (Straits).
Yugoslavia and Greece
Yugoslavia. On March 25, 1945, the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia signed a protocol on the accession of his country to the Tripartite Pact; the same day in Belgrade is an 80-thousand demonstration against the alliance with Germany, which, in addition, is marked by the defeat of the German Information Bureau. A new government is being formed, and, on April 5, the USSR and Yugoslavia sign a treaty of friendship and non-aggression.
These events Hitler views as an excuse for an invasion. And, on April 6, the armed forces of Germany, Italy and Hungary enter Yugoslavia. On Belgrade, 2,000 tons of bombs fall, on April 16 the Yugoslav army surrenders, 344,000 people are captured (Croatians, Hungarians and Germans-Volksdeutsche are later released). Irreversible losses: Germany 165 people, 40 aircraft, 3 tanks. Italy 3300 people, 13 aircraft, 11 tankettes. Hungary 130 people, 1 airplane. Yugoslavia: 5,000 military, 57 downed, 150 aircraft destroyed on the ground.
Greece. For some political reasons, the seizure of Yugoslavia prompts Hitler to render more effective assistance to his Italian allies. And, on April 6, 1941, from the territory of Bulgaria, German troops invade Greece. Athens is captured on April 27, after another three days Greece will capitulate. A month later the Wehrmacht invaded the island of Crete, considered primarily as an airfield for control of the Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean. The large losses of paratroopers do not allow further operations to be carried out to capture Cyprus and the Suez Canal immediately. Losses of Greece: 14,000 killed, allies 900, with 14,000 prisoners, the Wehrmacht 1,450 killed, Italy — about 20,000 people.
It is believed that the need to seize Yugoslavia, as well as the stubborn resistance of Greece, delayed the start of the invasion of the USSR from May 15, 1941 to June 22, and these five weeks had a decisive effect on the course of the entire war.
Clash of the Titans
Count the forces of the warring parties. The population of the Soviet Union according to the results of the 1939 census is 170 million. It should be borne in mind that the leaders of the 1937 census, who showed the result of «only» 162 million for «undercounting» of the population, were shot. In 1940, territories with a population of 18 million people were annexed to the USSR, though not always loyal to the new system, having a different mentality. We assume that the results of the «shot» population census are the only correct ones, then by 1941 the population of the colossal state was 180 million people.
The Third Reich, 1941, ie, Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland and some other territories inhabited by ethnic Germans subject to conscription — 90 million people. Hungary — 9.3 million (there were 800,000 Hungarians killed on the Eastern Front), Romania — 20 million (453,000 people died). These two countries are the unconditional allies of Germany, whose human reserves it could dispose of as its own. The contingent of volunteers in 64 thousand was allocated by 44 million Italy (during the war years the corps was renewed several times, 374 thousand were killed), and 25 million Spain — 18 thousand hours (irretrievable losses of 15 thousand). Slovakia — 36 thousand hours, 3 thousand people died, Croatia 2,200 people, the number of dead is unknown, Finland — about 300,000 people, losses of 70,000 (against 108,000 Soviet losses on this front, including 18,000 people killed in captivity)
Wehrmacht also owned resources, the industry of France, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic.
The only ally of the USSR was at that time a 47-million United Kingdom with 1.2 million (including parts located in the colonies), battered after the Dunkirk army. Her war with Germany until 1944 is similar to a ritual battle, a knight tournament, where, according to established rules, knights with knuckled gloves and all sorts of ammunition seize. England had 1500 aircraft, a dozen aircraft carriers, many cruisers, destroyers and submarines. After Dunkirk, the British did not have more than 100 tanks, but thanks to the developed industry, their number constantly increased. I fought here rather, the technique, not the people.
The interest of Germany, whose people’s spirit is now ruled by the ancient German gods, lies in the Northeast. According to the plans of the Hitlerite command, German colonies on the territory of the USSR should be organized on the model of Ancient Sparta, with an autochthonous population reduced to 50 million, turned into slave-helots, respectively.
The beginning of the war. On June 22, 1941, Germany and Romania join the war with the USSR. The basis of military operations for Bucharest is understandable — the year-earlier exclusion of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. A day later, Slovakia entered the war. On 26 June, Kosice, which was Slovakia three years earlier, was bombed by unmarked aircraft, but, at that time, Hungary. 27 tons of bombs were dropped. It is still unclear whether this was the Soviet air force, bombed the city because of the confusion and obsolete maps, Germanic or even Romanian (to push the opposing ally to active action), but on June 27, Hungary declared the USSR a war.
Almost at the same time, on June 25, Soviet aviation strikes at several settlements and 18 Finnish airfields. On some of them, German planes were actually based, formally, Finland was one of the Axis countries. On the same day, Suomi declares war, and by the end of the year he occupies a large part of Karelia, including its capital, Petrozavodsk (which has become Einislinna). About 70,000 civilians (from non-Finn-related peoples, according to racial anthropological surveys) are taken to Finnish concentration camps. Later, one third of them will die from malnutrition, disease and ill-treatment.
Further on this topic: «I reject Christianity, because it is the product of Judaism, because it is internationalistic and because it preaches peace on earth.»
(Adolf Gitler).
In general, we can say that the entire people of the USSR, the Soviet Army (RKKA), are moving towards God during the war, and Germany (the Axis countries), on the contrary, step by step, move away from it. «God is with us,» the inscription engraved on buckles of belts becomes an empty formality. In the second half of the war, the funeral rites of SS men are most often conducted, according to the pagan custom of the Vikings, with the Lebens rune (the rune of life, something like an arrow pointing downwards, or a trident, or Toten-Rune, or Tyr-Rune) on the grave, instead of a cross.
On June 23, the battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody (320 km west of Kiev) starts. The General of the Army G. Zhukov, who came to the scene, rejects the idea of the Chief of Staff of the South-Western Front to withdraw troops and create a solid defense line. The new plan was an immediate strike by five mechanized corps in 2,800 (later 3,100) tanks for four (subsequently — five) German tank divisions of 720 tanks and 70 assault guns.
Wehrmacht connections, in addition to combat vehicles, include large units of infantry, artillery, and also highly skilled repair brigades. Bulky (about 400 tanks) mechanized corps make marches of 300 km, losing at least only a mechanical breakdown of at least a quarter of the machines.
The Soviet system of production of military equipment allegedly does not provide for the release, delivery, not even worth a half-word, of «small things» for repair, for example, gaskets or tank tract. Guidelines for driving and servicing the newest tanks, at this time — are classified even from potential mechanics. Sometimes, so carefully stored from the crews of the car, at the most crucial moment refuel not with diesel fuel, but with gasoline.
Approximately the same situation in the Air Force. In order to avoid any breakdown of equipment, getting accusations of wrecking, the most unfortunate consequences, the lower command is gradually sabotaging real military training. To realize how this or that thing works, one must at least break it down — it’s a simple, but an immutable truth. The fact that in the German educational units is punishable with salty jokes or a reprimand to a newcomer, the Red Army may end in execution.
Perhaps, it can be argued that in a society of formal equality and the «territorial organization of the community», any sign of distinction is qualified, no less than an accessory to a special caste. The Commander of the Red Army at all costs aspires to secede from the soldiers’ masses, although of course this does not go as far as in the Tsarist army. These maxims completely agree with the author’s observations during his time in the army of the Soviet, and then Russian. The German army from the middle of the nineteenth century implies, with (paradoxically) the strict observance of subordination, the attitude of the officer to the soldier as an equal to himself. Cohesion, a trusting relationship to each other, even, as it is said there, on the basis of blood ties, determines the high level of command and control.
So, there are counter tank fights near Kiev, sometimes successful, more often — no, massive frontal offensives on the positions of German anti-tank guns, maneuvering without communications and normal maps, separation from supply and repair lines. The result: by 30 June the Red Army loses 2,600 tanks, the Wehrmacht — 180 (irretrievably). The entire South-Western Front is crashing down.
Stalin realizes the reality of such a picture: he is confronted with a group of German generals, with Hitler, compelled to answer their questions, unimaginably small and pitiful. This Dzhugashvili does not like, and he, even if not immediately, begins to make more or less correct decisions. The principle of eliminating problems, before — to see only the good, to discard all that is not part of smart plans. If someone talks about dying of hunger — they should be made to confess to espionage to Britain, and the question is solved. Twenty years after the Revolution, the people live worse than in 1914 — let’s say that this is not true, and the end is the matter. In Moscow (supply in a special category), after the cards have been canceled, thousands of queues are snapping around the stores — comrades from the NKGB warn the townsfolk without proper registration, that their next visit to the capital will be punished by article for speculation — and the crowds quickly disappear. Why bother with the actual development of the production of this boring consumer goods? The Scout believes that the Finns will not take the bread and salt of the Red Army — he should be summoned to Moscow and eliminated. It is the same with reports of the situation with the preparation of troops, or Hitler’s plans for an invasion. Those who express unpleasant, should be removed — and everything becomes pleasantly quiet.
But, this time, if we do not see the armored columns of the Wehrmacht, they do not cease to exist, and the mental image: Stalin before the smiling German military is becoming more real.
The first orders are to «shoot». It does not get better from that. Earlier, it was possible to establish ubiquitous deathly silence. Now the clanking of the caterpillars of German tanks is becoming more and more distinct. The commanders are getting cold hands, blood is pouring from the brain, resentment is rising in the chest — nothing more.
Stalin has to set aside executions, empty slogans, and solve the problem, now delving into the essence of what is happening. The control system is reconstructed into a real solution of the problems. This works from the second half of 1942, to May 45th, and, for two and a half years, allows you to get away from almost complete collapse to victory.
In the absence of a threat to the personal well-being of the leader, in the second half of 1945, the former system of interaction of power with the people experiences, as they say, renovation. Collective farm barns are full of grain, but the winners’ children everywhere tear up trash heaps in search of potato peelings. Disabled amputees are loaded into freight cars and taken away, out of sight, into «closed boarding schools», in fact — the prison of the GUGB NKVD.
The international community is very sympathetic towards the Soviet Union, the call for help to such a fiercely fought country, would have found a response if, of course, it was. It is possible to prescribe doctors, medicines, medical equipment, wheelchairs, etc. from Europe, America, to extend food supplies, taking into account that all this would have been paid for by Germany after the restoration of its economy, and so on. But, such a tedious «trifle» as public health and dying of hunger children, as they say, «below the level of the Kremlin.» The threat of an iron cage in the Reich Chancellery for the head of the country has already ceased to exist. Not wishing to lose face before the world community, Stalin and others like him, prefers to keep silent as before, and, to justify his rule, he is looking for new enemies (or unreliable friends).
Unfortunately — the method of «silencing the problem», is still valid in Russia. But, what happened 75 years ago gives us hope. It is only for the people to start doing what they really need, stop spending energy and money on crazy state projects, listen only to the heart — and in just two and a half years we will reach the glorious heights..
On July 16 Army Group Center captures Smolensk and surrounds 24 Soviet infantry divisions. Approximate losses of the parties by that time — Germany — 95 000 dead against 760 000 (and 300 000 prisoners) of the USSR. It seems that resistance has ceased in the central direction, and panzer divisions are heading south — to seize Ukraine, and north, to Leningrad. An offensive against Moscow is supposed to be conducted by infantry divisions alone. The Soviet command is trying to seize the initiative, but ill-prepared attacks are only depleting mechanized corps. By that time, for all reasons, the Red Army lost about 12,000 tanks, the Wehrmacht — 700.
…August 13, the last train leaves from Odessa to the east. German-Romanian troops completely block the iconic seaside city. On the whole, defense is hasty, but the Stavka decides to withdraw troops to the Crimea, to strengthen Sevastopol. By October 16, the evacuation of 85,000 Red Army soldiers of the Primorsky Army, 15,000 civilian, 20 T-26 tanks and 25,000 tons of cargo is coming to an end. Irreversible losses amount to 18 thousand on each side.
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (operation «Consent») will be held on August 25. Without declaration of war, the forces of the British Empire attack the Shah army from the Persian Gulf, the Soviet units from the Transcaucasus. The main strike force of the Red Army is about a thousand T-26 tanks, the Caspian Flotilla, the British — the fire of ship artillery and the Air Force. Many large cities, including Tehran, are bombed. Hundreds of civilians die. In the time of peace, the Iranian army is densely packed with money, but it is even more corrupt. The Iranian divisions soon lose control (the higher officers try to leave the battlefields), crumble, surrender to more or less honorable captivity. Some parts intend to fight to the end, however, on August 29 the shah gives the order to lay down their arms.
On September 17, the Red Army and British units enter Tehran. A month later, having formed a loyal government (of course, now no one connected with the Germans) the allies withdraw their forces from the capital. The country is divided into Soviet and British zones of influence.
According to the peace treaty, Iran is declared an ally of Britain and the USSR. The parties undertake to withdraw all troops within six months after the cessation of all hostilities.
This operation has a prehistory — the occupation of Iraq by Great Britain. Action: May, 1941, landing of the expeditionary force in Basra, air force strikes against airfields, railway and other facilities. The Germans are trying to come to the aid of their allies, but, why not without due enthusiasm and scope. As a result, the British establish control over Iraq’s oil fields, and in the future — they are given the opportunity to conduct a stable corridor for military supplies to the USSR.
Losses of the parties in the Anglo-Iraq war. Britain — 1200 people, 30 aircraft, Iraqis — 8,500 troops, as well as 20 German, 4 Italian aircraft.
Losses during the occupation of Iran: the USSR — 50 people irretrievably, 3 aircraft. Britain — 25 people, 8 aircraft. Iran — 800 troops and 300 civilians.
The outcome of the operation «Consent» is the almost unimpeded delivery of more than 5 million tons of military cargo to the belligerent USSR. A small additional bonus to the Union — a significant part of the grain harvest of Northern Iran is spent on subsistence for the army.
…In March 1946, the Soviet tank columns moved to Tehran and the borders of Turkey. The idea of Stalin — the creation of a puppet «people’s government», the inclusion in the USSR of Iranian Azerbaijan. These acts, as well as the logical and rigid response of the Western countries, will be one of the reasons for the unfolding of the Cold War.
…But now, in the autumn of 1941, the seizure of a considerable country of the East — it seems only a small drop of honey in a huge barrel of tar.
In July-September, the encirclement of four Soviet armies near Kiev-irrevocable losses, including captives, 700,000 people, practically, their entire initial composition. Wehrmacht lost 30,000 soldiers and officers. In the northern direction, near Leningrad, the front is stabilizing, the USSR is losing 344,000 people against 60,000 German troops. September 30, with the participation of tank groups returning from the north and south, the offensive against Moscow is resumed. The forces of the parties: the USSR — 2 million regular army (including Siberian, ie, Far Eastern divisions), 0.2 million militias, 450 aircraft and 1,000 tanks. Army Group «Center» — 1.9 million people, 1,700 serviceable tanks, 780 aircraft. Germany is accompanied by a major initial success — in Vyazemsky Kettle captured 688,000 Soviet soldiers and officers, only 85,000 are able to escape. On October 15, the Defense Committee decides to evacuate Moscow, and on October 16, the capital encompasses a panic that ends on October 20, with the imposition of a state of siege.
…October 30 will be the first storm of Sevastopol. November 11, after shelling with coastal batteries, two cruisers and the battleship «Paris Commune», the Wehrmacht pauses. The wounded are evacuated by the sea, and on the Douglas (Li-2). The most effective here are submarines. German Heinkel He 111 torpedoes «Armenia» transport with 6 thousand wounded. 8 people are saved to escape.
On December 28, parts of the Transcaucasian Front, 40,000 fighters, with the support of the Black Sea Fleet ships, land the landing in Kerch, on December 29 — in the region of Feodosia. The only German division left Kerch, and the Kerch itself, throwing all heavy weapons.
Simultaneously, tactical diversions are landed — in Yevpatoria, on January 5—8, 700 people and Sudak, January 6—28, 1942, 3,500 airborne troops. At the same time, there is practically no interaction between the naval command and the ground forces. Such things as radio stations, although they are in the units, but are really used very rarely. Remaining without communication, assistance, in general, the sense of disembarkation (interaction with the main forces), the assault forces are destroyed.
Prisoners, as a rule, are shot.
It should be noted that the USSR:
1) In 1918, officially informs the International Red Cross that «international conventions and agreements relating to the Red Cross, recognized by Russia before October 1917, are recognized and respected by the Russian Soviet Government, which retains all rights and prerogatives based on these conventions and agreements». (the newspaper Izvestia No. 112 (376) of July 4, 1918). Here, in particular, refers to the agreements of the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of Warfare, including the paragraph on the humane treatment of prisoners.
2) On July 2, 1929, the representatives of the USSR signed the Geneva Convention on the humane treatment of the wounded and sick soldiers of the enemy, leaving behind the brackets of the healthy. Proposals are being made to abolish the mandatory separation of officers and rank-and-file officers, wearing insignia, money-making, etc. The published official Soviet document, on the whole, is even somewhat more humane than Geneva. The situation with the formulation of the second part of the International Convention, however, is being blown up by diplomats, is already considered to have been decided by itself, and hangs in the air.
3) According to Article 82 of the Geneva Convention: «If, in the event of war, one of the belligerents is not participating in the convention, nevertheless the provisions of this remain binding on all belligerents, the convention of signatories.» In other words, Germany would have to abide by this treaty already because it was adopted and ratified by itself.
Despite all this, the German leadership considers it possible to manipulate the non-signing of the USSR by the Geneva Convention, justifying the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war, or giving them 50% of food as compared to non-Soviet prisoners. They are echoed by modern Russian «khivi».
The actions of German soldiers are reminiscent of the actions of insects — those creatures that you can not tame, shake or appease. In the end, the very widespread thesis at the beginning of the war: «the Germans — the cultural nation» comes completely to nothing. And the attitude to the newcomers is also such as to harmful insects — they need to be insensibly destroyed.
The German Luftwaffe dominates the sky. In the afternoon, the ships of the Black Sea flotilla are dispersed far into the sea, approaching the shore usually at night or in inclement weather. Nevertheless, the bombers of 8 Von Richthofen air corps (300 aircraft) in addition to the forces of the 4th Air Fleet (one IV air corps, about 350 units of all kinds) collect their abundant harvest. Covered in concrete caponiers, Soviet planes enter air battles and attack ground targets rarely; their main meaning now, it seems — is the expenditure of German shells on the destruction of shelters.
Instead of assistance, the Crimean front as a whole seems to only distract the forces and supplies of ammunition from the besieged Sevastopol. Wehrmacht draws to the city 1,100 only large-caliber guns. The largest of them — installed on railroad tracks in the mountain tunnel «Dora», the diameter of the trunk is 800 mm., From a distance of 30 km. produces 53 unsuccessful malorezultativnyh shot (4-ton shell): and on that, her work ends. Two more 150-ton self-propelled tracked mortars «Karl», caliber of 600 mm, are more effective. They produce hundreds of 2-ton shells, smash the multi-meter walls of strategically important forts. It also shoots 420mm howitzer Gamma Mörser (projectile 1 ton), which has survived since the First World War. In addition, many hundreds of guns, 210 mm, 300 mm, contribute to the destruction of the city. and 350 mm.
On January 15, Manstein’s forces strike at the junction of two Soviet armies near the village of Vladislavovka, and capture Feodosia. Instead of a swift advance towards Sevastopol and Perekop, the Red Army is now following a viscous positional struggle; dozens of unproductive attacks on pre-prepared positions. Since the beginning of the landing, Soviet troops are losing 100,000 people. The front stabilizes on the Ak-Monai Isthmus (from the base of the Arbat arrow to the south, Primorsky, the former frontier of the Bosporus kingdom). The supply of three armies with a total strength of 420 thousand men, each with 250 T-34 tanks, 300 aircraft, is now carried along the ice of the Kerch Strait.
On December 5, the Soviet command decides on a counter-offensive near Moscow, which, even with the numerical superiority of German troops in technology and people, is generally successful. Irrevocable losses of the parties since the beginning of the offensive against Moscow from Smolensk: the Soviet Union — 940 000 people (including 200 thousand people’s militia recruited in the capital), the Wehrmacht — 120 000.
As the next stage, from January 8 to April 20, 1942, the Rzhev-Vyazma operation is carried out. The general plan is, with a shortage of artillery and, in general, heavy equipment, to cut and destroy enemy troops advancing through forests and ravines with infantry units. He failed, in particular, because of Stalin’s personal decision to attack immediately on all fronts, without concentrating forces on certain directions, with a clear goal. The result: the losses of the Red Army about 320,000 people killed and captured, the Wehrmacht is unknown, according to some sources, 90,000. Further, on July 30, the offensive continued as a Rzhev-Sychevskaya operation, now with massive use of tanks, and ended on October 1, approximately the same the number of losses from the Soviet side — 300 000 people, as well as 1,100 armored cars; the losses of the Wehrmacht are unknown.
From January 7 to April 30, 1942, the Luban offensive operation is conducted. The goal is the lifting of the siege of Leningrad, the liberation of Novgorod, the collapse of the entire German front in the North. Soviet armies have incomplete personnel, a quarter of the ammunition, inadequate supplies; they enter the breakthrough section two kilometers wide and spray the blow in different directions. Practically there are no radio stations, telephone cable, even sights for guns. At all levels of government — an amazing inconsistency of action. Four armies exhaust forces in attacks, the fifth, the 2nd Shock falls into the encirclement. When an order is issued to retreat, there remains 500—800 meters for the exit, which is permanently guarded by only six to eight tanks KV and T-34. For three days with interruptions, 12 thousand people pass through it, almost all the wounded and sick. Losses of the Soviet troops — 300 000 people, German — is unknown.
Unfortunately, not many songs are composed about this, there are almost no films and books «in the bull’s eye». About exploits and losses speak little, except for, say, speeches, such, it turns out, an intelligent historian on the «Echo of Moscow», accompanied by the giggles of his interlocutors. It corresponds to the spirit of the times «Leningradskaya zastolnaya», verses of the front-line correspondent P. Shubin:
…Let’s drink to those who commanded the companies,
Who was dying in the snow,
Who in Leningrad made his way through the swamps,
Throat breaking enemy
Of the relatively modern songs, you can recall, perhaps, only the works of the folk singer V. Vysotsky. Total war is a mixture of smells, sounds, memories; feelings, which can hardly be expressed in a logical order of words:
Kolos in the color of amber — will we have time?
No, it turns out that we sow
What is the color of amber shone there?
It’s in the field the fire is rushing
Dispersed all of the troubles in the parties
Songbirds are no more — crows
The forest rustles as always, with crowns
And the earth and water — are moaning
Even the clatter of hoofs — a tramp
If someone screams — in a whisper
…And love is not for us, it’s true
What is needed now is hatred
(Storks, Аисты)
It should be noted that the author of this book tries to distance himself from those fans of discussions at historical forums that emanate saliva, evil snickers-spit and bile, when it comes to the losses of the USSR in the first years of the war. For them, everything is initially bad — tanks, planes, people, in the humiliation of heroes or simply confused soldiers, they seem to see the greatness of their own personality. No arguments on them do not work, and you do not want to spend mental energy on those who can not be corrected. This text is intended for those who are able to deeply experience History, possesses the mind and heart, and wants to make a better future by breaking the past into small details.
…Simultaneously, on January 7, 1942, on the northern front, the offensive of Soviet troops begins in the vicinity of the city of Demyansk. On February 8, a cauldron with 6 German divisions, including Tottenkopf, with a total strength of 100,000 people, is being formed. The German Air Force is organizing an air bridge, which delivers up to 265 tons of cargo per day. (Approximately the same number in the air was received by the Second Shock Army in three weeks.) Here, in particular, they shoot down the Yak-1 with the legendary man Alexei Maresiev, the one who will later destroy 7 Luftwaffe aircraft flying with foot prostheses. On May 5, the blockade was lifted. Losses of the parties — the Red Army — 245,000, including 9,000 people who participated in the whole, failed Demian landing operation. Wehrmacht — 55 000 troops.
1. Map of the encircled Leningrad, 1942. To the south of the village of Mga, near the river Volkhov — the village Myasnoy Bor, near which was surrounded by the 2nd Shock Army.
2. The ruins of Kiev. During the fighting, the city and its main street, Khreshchatyk, suffer relatively little. But, on September 24, starting from the «Children’s World» a series of powerful explosions takes place, leading, in addition to the primary destruction, to a fire that destroys the historical center of Kiev. The fiery storm lasts two weeks. 940 buildings are turning into ruins. There is an opinion that the Germans organized the explosions in order to justify the subsequent total destruction of Jews in Babi Yar, but a documented version — the mining of buildings by special sections of the People’s Commissariat of State Security (NKGB), led by Colonel Alexander Goldovich. The chief of the engineer troops is Andrey Vlasov, the future collaborator, the head of the ROA.
It is not known how many invaders perished from this sabotage, what material damage was inflicted on the Wehrmacht. The meaning of this is when the owners are burned at home, leaving their homes beforehand — as happened in Moscow in 1812. Quite accurately, the action prompted many Ukrainians, who had already been shaken by the Holodomor of 32nd year to cooperate with Hitlerite Germany and the armed confrontation of the USSR.
In the so-called. Babi Yar — a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev, 1.5 km long, 50 meters deep, since autumn 1941. By 1943, the occupiers were shooting 150,000 Soviet POWs, Jews, including women, the elderly and children, who until the last wish to believe in the «census» and «resettlement», OUN members, A. Melnik’s groups who did not agree to cooperate, etc. an experimental soap factory, to make soap from bodies, but the Germans do not have time to put it into use. In 1950, the city (Soviet) authorities decided to fill the ravine with waste from neighboring brick plants. The mixture does not wish to solidify, and, in March 1961, breaking through the earth dam, rushes to the houses. As a result of the Kureniv tragedy (by the name of a neighboring village), one and a half thousand people die.
3. «Thin red line» near Moscow, autumn 1941.
4. Zoya Dmitrievna Kosmodemyanskaya, 1923 — November 29, 1941, a Red Army soldier, a subversive group fighter, Hero of the Soviet Union. Parents — teachers who escaped, or exiled to Siberia, grandfather — a priest, shot by the Cheka. 1940 — treatment in a sanatorium for nervous diseases, acquaintance with (writer) Arkady Gaidar lying there. The Komsomol member has a painful gap between the dream (about the universal brotherhood of people) and the harsh reality surrounding it.
Zoya is to the place of gathering of volunteers at the (Moscow) theater of the Colosseum, sent to a sabotage school. On November 27 in the village of Petrischevo, a group of three people set fire to three peasant houses, killing 20 horses. On November 28, Zoya, having missed his comrades, decides to continue arson, is seen by the master of the house, a certain Sviridov, who summons the Germans. The girl calls herself Tanya. She was driven for 4 hours in the cold, subjected to beatings. To tortures are joined by local residents, whose houses are burnt by partisans. One of them said before execution: «Who did you harm? My house was burned, but nothing was done to the Germans! «The last words Zoe roughly convey the demographic situation in the country «You do not outweigh all, we are 170 million.» Other sources, for better agreement with the second census of the population, distort words to «two hundred million».
The body remains in place of execution for about a month, subject to the outrages of German soldiers. Later it will be buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
The whole situation looks rather clumsy, just does not fit into the head, causes controversy to this day, releasing a certain psychic energy. In nonsense, a special meaning is born. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya did not show herself in a loud military success. But the more true it joins the pantheon of the people’s martyrs (to which, of course, officers can not belong, in full safety, mincing the «Children’s World»). The article in Pravda, January 27, 1942, produces an impact on Soviet citizens, comparable, it seems, with the advent of a battle-worthy tank corps. Kosmodemyanskaya is the same person as very many in the Union, somewhat confused, awkward, realizing that, after the disappearance (built at the expense of humiliation, sweat and blood of millions of people), the mountains of weapons, almost all the personnel of Stalin’s army, have to fight independently, at least somehow, almost from scratch.
5. Crew of the Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko, Soviet tank ace (leftmost). On the account of the initiative senior lieutenant of the Red Army (which was, at the same time as the T-34 at the same time, a gunner) 52 German tanks destroyed. The basis of tactics is a combination of actions from ambushes with sudden attacks of a small (3—4 cars) combat group, with well-conducted reconnaissance. These actions come into conflict with the Charter of the Red Army of 1941 — according to which one should always attack the enemy without hesitation, using tanks massively, like some kind of «all-destroying steel avalanche».
Lavrinenko dies on December 18, 1941, after 2.5 months of battles and 28 fights, from a fragment of a mine. Repeatedly presented to the title of Hero, honored him in 1990. The position of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, and personally, the head of the personnel department, I. Gusakovsky, prevents it: «Dmitry Lavrinenko’s relatives will demand special privileges.»
On May 7, 1942, the Wehrmacht attacks the Soviet troops, concentrated on the Kerch Peninsula (the front line from Kazantip Point to the Black Sea), bombard the previously known targets, never changing their location, and also the ways of retreat. Prior to this, the representative of the Stavka, L.Z. Mehlis completely suppressed the initiative of the commanders, forbidding the construction of defensive structures, even digging trenches, in order «not to bring down the offensive spirit.» Three armies are lined up, side by side, in a limited area of 18 to 6 km, with no reserves in Kerch. Some parts are being evacuated through the Kerch Strait to the Taman Peninsula (140,000), 55,000 people are dying, and 120,000 are taken prisoner. German and Romanian irretrievable losses amount to 10,000 people.
Until the beginning of the eighties, the tractor drivers refused to plow the isthmus of the peninsula between Feodosia and Kerch; The fields are dotted with bones, fragments and ammunition.
May 12, guided by Stalin’s order «to ensure that 1942 was the year of the final defeat of the German fascist troops,» the Red Army is conducting an offensive near Kharkov, with the aim of encircling the «South» grouping, pressing it to the Sea of Azov and destroying it. The blow is inflicted on the three armies of the enemy already prepared for their offensive, including one of the tank armies. The troops advance 20—35 kilometers, then the Wehrmacht tanks cut their weakly protected communications. Escape from the «Barvenkovskaya traps», by May 31 can only a tenth of the encircled troops. Losses of the parties: Red Army 170,000 irretrievably, 120—150 thousand prisoners, 1,240 tanks, Wehrmacht — 7,000 German and 3,000 Romanian soldiers, according to other sources, a total of 18,000 people.
Now the forces of the Axis countries practically do not meet resistance in the vast steppes, they occupy Rostov-on-Don, they reach the approaches to Stalingrad. In the North Caucasus, they manage to approach the city of Grozny (bombed oilfields), capture Krasnodar, Stavropol and Novorossiysk.
June 7 begins the third assault on Sevastopol. Before that, the Luftwaffe bombers liberated from the eastern direction dropped 2,500 tons of bombs of 1,000, 1,800 and 2,500 kg to the city. By June 17, the attackers come to Sapun Mountain: a hill with which it is possible to aim at the whole city and the water area of the Northern bay.
Because of the increased activity of artillery, aviation, German and Italian torpedo boats, the supply of ammunition becomes impossible. The last Sevastopol, in the morning dusk on July 27, leaves the leader of Tashkent, a high-speed destroyer (70 km at full speed), taking 2,500 people from the city, being attacked by 90 Luftwaffe aircraft; loses its course, is towed to Novorossiysk. On July 29 the Wehrmacht forces capture Malakhov Kurgan, set artillery on Sapun Mountain. This is the key point. The next day, the units of the Red Army and the Navy begin to destroy military equipment, supplies and funds. The commander requests permission to evacuate the Stavka, and receives it. The Supreme Commander, 222 people, and 49 wounded are taken to the Caucasus on the 13th, withdrawn from the concrete caponiers Li-2. Another 700 commanders are evacuated by submarines. Further, the command and rank-and-file officers mix on the shore and, in general, lose their status differences. They are taken away by high-speed boats, captains of which come ashore at their discretion, in any place, in the seemingly most suitable moment. So another three or four thousand people are saved.
The remnants of the Maritime Army withdraw to the Cape of Chersonese and (with only 1,000 shells) fight for three days. July 4th all ends. In the German captivity are 75 thousand soldiers of the Red Army.
The forces of the parties on June 6, 1942: the Red Army and the Marine Corps 118,000 men, 100 aircraft, 40 tanks, 450 guns of artillery, 150 coastal artillery guns (100—305 mm), 1,700 mortars. In this case, 305-mm cannons are only in the most effective 30th and 35th batteries, only 4 towers with two guns in each. Wehrmacht and the Romanian Armed Forces: 204 thousand fighters, 1,000 aircraft, 170 tanks (ACS, StuG III), 1,300 guns of various types, 700 mortars. Losses for 8 months of siege: the Soviet Union — 155 thousand killed, including city residents, 75 thousand prisoners, a dozen large surface ships, two submarines, about 70 aircraft (some transferred to the Caucasus). Wehrmacht and Romania: 65,000 irrevocably (three quarters of the losses are ethnic Germans), about 250 aircraft, 230 tanks (including captured from the Red Army) and ACS. The 13-division divisions of the German-Romanian troops who took part in the last assault are given a 6-week rest, they are transferred deep into the rear or to insignificant areas. Returning from vacation Manstein discovers that on the spot, in the Crimea there are only 4 of them. Thus, a swift move, planned by the Field Marshal through the Kerch Strait, to the Caucasus, to the oil fields of Baku, will not take place.
June 27 almost completely destroyed, deprived, by order of W. Churchill escort of warships, convoy «PQ-17»; the supply of food and arms has been stopped. Aviation and submarines sunk 22 ships of 35.
To this day, there is an opinion that, in fact, the ships in the caravan were initially less than the declared number; the incident was only an excuse for canceling supplies to a clear «outsider».
In June 1942, the human resources of the USSR, the large European part of which is in the zone of occupation, and Germany (especially the Axis countries) are equalized. Three of the four main industrial regions are captured. Almost the entire personnel Stalin army — 4 million military, in captivity.
What in such conditions can be at least a tiny, barely noticeable, but correct step to an apparent unthinkable victory?
…In 1931—32, the country was hit by a famine. They are affected by the Holodomor, first of all, Ukraine, the North Caucasus (Kuban), the Volga region. There was no drought. Some put forward such exotic versions as plant diseases — the so-called. rust, and even ergot. The harvest of 1932 was only 40% of the norm — this is a fact. Another version; in central Russia it was historically taken to plow on horses, and in Ukraine, and, generally, in the south, for this purpose, oxen were used. During the collectivization of 1930—31, almost all the personal livestock had to be given to the collective farm. Not wishing that their property was used by some strangers, in many respects hoping for «maybe», peasants pinched and ate their draft power. With horses, it was not customary to do this, both for ethical and nutritional reasons. Some fields in the south of the USSR remained unsown. The tractor purchased in America often had a number of difficult removable flaws. But the central authorities firmly demanded the fulfillment of the plan for grain procurement. Since the beginning of the thirties, grain has been ordered, under pain of severe punishment, to be stored in collective-farm elevators, where it can easily be confiscated for state needs. The volunteers of the new power, the pioneers, looked for someone who hid the «food surpluses», did not they plant potatoes in forest glades, looked around the fields from the towers-suddenly irresponsible persons gather grain spikes?
According to the resolution of the CEC «On the protection of the property of state-owned enterprises… and the strengthening of socialist property» as a «measure of judicial repression for the theft of collective-farm property — execution with confiscation of all property and with replacement under mitigating circumstances with imprisonment for a term not less than 10 years, with confiscation». Amnesty for the «law on the three spikelets» is not provided.
If the tax did not hand over one village, it was recorded in the black list of debtors, and its arrears were shifted to another. The accumulated burden fell on more or less prosperous farms, and simply crushed them with their own weight. Stalin believed that Ukrainian villages «drive the Italian», that is, the Italian strike, when people agree to work only when all formal rules are implemented — which, in reality, is simply impossible. Dzhugashvili fell into a raging anger when he learned, for example, that in the Dnipropetrovsk region collective farms were allowed to leave grain for sowing, even to fill in the insurance fund, demanding to punish the «cheaters of the party» as cruelly as possible. After three years of collectivization, the psyche of the southern peasants broke down, there was persistent indifference to work, threats, promises, and sometimes even their own lives. Collecting arrears government sent usually Jewish commissars, which did not contribute to the popularity of persons of this nationality in rural areas. Ukraine cordoned off from central Russia cordons of the NKVD with machine guns. People trying to escape in the less affected areas of the USSR, for the most part, had to return to their place of permanent residence. Identification of «outsiders» in the cities of the country was facilitated by the system of Soviet passports introduced with December 1932 with a residence permit, actually reviving serfdom.
In Kazakhstan, Stalin’s protege, Isai Isaevich Goloshchekin decided, simply, so, for the convenience of centralized power, to transfer the local population from semi-nomadic to a settled way of life. As a result, the mass mortality of livestock, which is the main source of nutrition, began; One and a half million Kazakhs and exiles died from the «Holoschekin» famine.
In central Russia, 380,000 families were dekulakized, a total of 1.8 million, of whom 90,000 died on the road, 300,000 from malnutrition and disease in places of exile. But, the habit of being a community, a «peace», worked out even under the tsars, helped the general mass of peasants survive even on collective farms.
You can always buy food for gold, currency, valuable property, antiques in Torgsin, (trade-with-foreigners); this system extorted from the population family heirlooms in an amount sufficient for the implementation of the «great construction projects», payment of contracts to American firms (basically, exercising technical control over the construction of industrial enterprises), but it hardly increased the level of sympathy of the population to the existing system.
The harvest of 1933 was good. However, two years later, with the murder of Kirov, which has popular popularity, which in many ways restrains the will of the Secretary, a new wave of repression is rising. The 17th Congress of Winners held in 1934, voted to remove the «leader of the peoples» from office (in particular, for wanting to condemn Bukharin, Rykov and other representatives of the «old guard»), but Dzhugashvili himself managed to count the votes. It is open to accusations against a person who turned the Soviets into a terrible parody of themselves, no one dares, besides, Soviet systemists have their own sins. Of the 1956 delegates 1108 do not survive the next three years, as well as 97 of the 139 elected members and candidates for the Central Committee of the party at the congress. This time Moloch devours the intelligentsia, leaders — civilians and military. In 1937—38, three of the five marshals of the USSR were shot by three, then: of the 5 commanders of the 1st rank — 3, 10 commanders of the 2nd rank — 10, 67 commanding corps — 57, 199 commanders — 125, 397 brigade brigade commanders — 200. In addition, only about 10,500 officers of different ranks, who were ever promoted to the posts by the above-mentioned commanders, were killed and buried, thousands were dismissed or convicted in other articles. The senior officer is the person who says — and people go and do it. To do this, we need increased energy from birth, or cultivated for decades. A commander can not simply be replaced by a graduate of a military school, which, perhaps, knows the theory, but has not yet accumulated a specific internal strength.
…The army, and the whole country, has become a trembling creature, avoiding any manifestation of initiative. In total, directly from hunger and terror, from 1932 to 1941 (in peacetime) killed 8.5 million people. Different scientists give different numbers, and I’m not a historian; the number is the mean between the extreme values, and it most corresponds to my inner sensations.
What in such conditions could induce people to continue (or, rather, all the same, the beginning) struggle?
…Stories of eyewitnesses of the German occupation. Yes, sometimes they are organized by commissars, but, what these people say is true, and not ordinary Soviet propaganda. There is definitely something implausible that is clear: those who go here are even worse, even worse than «their own». They intend to kill everyone.
You can now recall the current series «The Game of Thrones». To rephrase: «The Army of the Dead is coming from the West, and they do not accept any negotiations. We must fight together, despite the differences.»
On July 17, 1942, the first fighting clashes began at Stalingrad. The correlation of forces is not in favor of the Red Army: 187,000 people, 300 tanks, 500 aircraft against 270,000 soldiers and officers, 400 tanks, and 1,200 aircraft. On Aug. 23, Richthofen’s air fleet drops 2000 tons of bombs on the city, turning it into a heap of debris that is practically unsuitable for the movement of tanks. The maneuver war turns into a positional one. This is the first battle in which German soldiers admit they see more corpses of their «genossa» on the streets than an enemy soldier. By November the Wehrmacht lost 700,000 people, the Red Army 644,000.
For incomprehensible reasons, reconnaissance planes of the Luftwaffe cease to fly beyond the Volga; when such flights still take place, the German command simply does not have time to realize the scale of the approaching threat.
On November 19, the Red Army launched an offensive from the flanks: a 330,000-strong group of German-Romanian troops entered the encirclement ring. For their supply, the same officer, who six months ago successfully carried out the transfer of goods to the demyansky cauldron, is responsible for this, but this is another case. The Luftwaffe loses not less than 500 transport planes alone, in difficult weather conditions, from the work of Soviet air defense and deep tank raids to airfields.
In the historical literature it is widely believed that, here, «as many as seven Soviet armies clung to one German». However, in the first place, as a rule, the German units are larger than the Soviet one and a half times, and secondly, in addition to the 6th Paulus army, the following took part in the hostilities: the 4th Gotha Tank Army (one of the divisions was surrounded), the 8th Army, I the Italian army named Garibaldi, Hungarian 2nd Army, 3rd and 4th Romanian armies. You can also recall the troops of Guderian from the outside of the ring. The Magyars are distinguished by special military zeal and cruelty to the peaceful population, so they are not taken prisoner.
Paulus asks Hitler about the evacuation of «… individual specialists — soldiers and officers, who can be used in further combat operations. The order for this should be given as soon as possible, since soon the landing of aircraft will become impossible. Officers please indicate by name. Of course, I can not speak about me».
Hitler responds with a refusal. The spirit of the military brotherhood of Germany is now most important. Only the wounded are evacuated. At the same time the leader raises the title of Paulus from the colonel-general to the field marshal, expecting that this will somewhat brighten the officer’s health before shooting into the temple. But, as is known, the Führer’s favorite (as well as many other higher ranks of the 6th Army) will not justify his hope.
Later, the provision on the German military brotherhood is greatly shaken, and the officers, as the most valuable cadres of the army (as well as the SS men) are evacuated from the «boilers» in the first place.
For the first time it happens like this: with the dispassionate voice from the U-2 aircraft flying over the city at low altitude, through the loudspeaker, to the German soldiers, as defeated and worthy of pity, the Red Army agitators offer to lay down their arms. On January 31, the Southern grouping with Paulus surrenders, on February 2, the Northern group separated from it; 90,000 only German soldiers (total, according to some sources 200,000). The officers are separated from the rank and file; after the treatment, they are sent to the comfortable settlements in the docked cars. On February 2, a press conference will be held for Soviet and foreign journalists, with the participation of Field Marshal Paulus and 22 generals. Private soldiers have to learn the conditions of life in the Soviet camps, not yet fully adapted to receive such a large number of prisoners of war, but survivors subsequently become their elite. The total result of the battle: the losses of the Red Army: 1.1 million people, 4,300 tanks, 2,770 aircraft, the Wehrmacht 1,1 million people. (as well as prisoners), 1,700 tanks, 2,800 combat and transport aircraft.
Sent films on the topic: «Stalingrad» and «Iron Cross», the directors of Germany, as well as «Hot Snow» («Горячий Снег») of Bondarchuk. More made-of-the-soul and professionally Soviet paintings in the Great Patriotic War (with detailed battle scenes, etc.) for the present (summer 2017), according to the author of the book, does not exist.
An interesting idea for the film is in the book by Ilya Boyashov: «Tankman or» White Tiger.“ („Танкист или «Белый Тигр», автор Илья Бояшов)
Only James Cameron could understand the tankman communicating with the spirits of the tanks.
If you can, let him know…
1. IL-2. Crew of 1—2 people. The nickname in the German parts is the quite respectable «Butcher» («Fleischer») or «Black Death» («Schwarztodt»), and also «Cement Bomber». Armament — two 23-mm. guns, 150 rounds per barrel, two 7, 62 mm. machine gun, with 750 rounds, one 12, 7 mm. defensive machine gun in the rear cabin. Armor, covering the pilot (but not the machine gunner) and the main technical nodes — 12 mm. For the indecision of the pilot could be re-qualified as a rifleman. The standard bomb load is 400 kg., four 82 mm. or 132 mm. rockets (the total weight of the RS is about 80 kg). The speed of the land is 386 km. h, at an altitude of 1200 m — 404 km. h. Diving angle — up to 45 degrees. The range of flight is 720 km. The average percentage of losses — 2.8% (but until 1943 for 30 combat sorties the survivor was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union). 36 000 units have been produced. Currently, there is only one rebuilt and flying IL-2 — it is in the US.
2. Su-2. Soviet near bomber aircraft designer Pavel Sukhoi (born in Vitebsk region), the first aircraft of the famous line of Su models, taking part in hostilities. Crew 2 people, speed 470 km. h, range 900 km, small arms 2 SHKAS mobile machine guns (covered with the opening cockpit cover) and 4 fixed, 8 Nursa, bomb load 400 kg. From 1940 to the beginning of 1942, 893 cars are produced, after the evacuation of machine sets is exhausted, production ceases. By the beginning of full-scale military operations, the aircraft (profile, etc.) is classified from its troops, therefore, the Soviet air force is not uncommon in its attack. So, on June 22, the unidentified Su-2 is stymied by the future Soviet ace, Alexander Pokryshkin (the pilot is killed). Since mid-1943, having a cab with a high visibility, the aircraft is usually used as an air raid. So far, little is known about the role of the Su-2 in the Patriotic War. All surviving aircraft are cut to scrap metal, in the Volgograd Museum there is a single full-size copy.
Su-2 shows good results in the bombing of enemy troops, in addition, its losses are relatively low: 1 aircraft for 23 sorties, with an average ratio of losses of other bombers Air Force of the USSR in the first half of the war — 1:14.
3. U-2 (since 1944 — Po-2, named after the designer, Nikolai Polikarpov), according to the NATO codification — Mule — «Mule». The German nickname, because of the characteristic sound of the engine — «Nähmaschine» — «SewingMachine». Soviet multi-purpose biplane. The flying weight of the training airplane is 1012 kg, bomber and ambulance aircraft — 1400 kg. Engine power 125 liters. from. The speed is from 60 to 140 km. h. The main bomb load is 250 kg, and up to 500 kg. In some cases, the aircraft is equipped with 7.62 mm. a machine gun to protect the rear hemisphere. Takeoff and run at takeoff and landing — 100–120 m. Since 1927, 33 000 copies have been produced.
As a light-engine night bomber, the U-2 shows itself with the best of luck. The losses of Po-2 are relatively small, some pilots during the war make about 1000 sorties. The main idea: approach to the target with the engine off, dropping bombs on any light source in the area where the enemy forces are deployed. Overnight one biplane produces up to twelve bombardments.
U-2 is a difficult target for German high-speed aircraft precisely because of its weakness — low speed. So, for example, for «Messershmit-109» the maximum speed of Po-2 corresponds to the minimum speed of «stalling» the fighter.
U-2 can be equipped with additional gondolas under the wings, for the evacuation of 6 wounded. In February 1943, from the Osveya-Polotsk-Sebezh (Belorussia) region, to avoid destruction by Latvian and Ukrainian collaborators, Po-2 takes out several dozen children for the flight.
4. «Stuck», Sturzkampfflugzeug (German — dive bomber), he is also a «Laptevnik» because of non-retractable landing gear, Junkers-87. It has a window in the floor of the cabin, an air brake, a siren, for psychological impact, as well as determining by ear the speed of the aircraft when diving. At the moment of reset, the bombs are pushed out by the screw with a special mechanism, after which the aircraft is withdrawn from the peak. Crew of one or two people. Armament — in the anti-tank version two 37-mm. guns with shops for 6 shells of tungsten carbide, two 7, 92 mm. machine gun, the standard bomb load from 250 to 700 kg (depending on the modifications). The diving angle is up to 90 degrees. The maximum speed is 310 — 408 km. h, the flight range of 800 — 1165 km. 6500 units are produced.
There is an opinion that «Junkers-87» with 37-mm. the gun proved to be unusually effective against tanks. An example is the effectiveness of Hans Rudel, who, according to him, destroyed 519 Soviet armored cars, 800 trucks, 60 barges, etc. At the same time, he himself (who seems to have a considerable stock of lives) was shot down 32 times, completely disabling the aircraft. So, with the ratio of losses: one stormtrooper — 16 tanks, the pilot is awarded admission from Hitler and the Knight’s Cross with Diamonds. If we divide the victories declared by the Germans, at the suggestion of the British historians by three, one Junkers for 5 armored vehicles.
According to other sources, there are so many shelled-scratched Soviet armored vehicles in the entire 4th group of Hans Rudel, in 16—18 cars; according to the German tradition, they were all recorded on the account of the commander.
5. German semi-track armored personnel carrier Sd. Kfz. 251 Sonderkraftfahrzeug. Weight 9 tons, the crew of 2 people, as well as 10 paratroopers. Staffing: 1—2 MG-42 machine guns, and also, with minimal changes in design — mortars, guns (of various types, including captured ones), large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers. Reservation — the forehead of the body is 10—15 mm., The board is 8—14 mm., The roof (partial protection) and the bottom — 6—8 mm. The speed along the highway is 53 km. h, power reserve 300 km., specific power 10.3 hp. From 1939 to March 1945, 15252 units were produced. Together with Sonderkraftfahrzeug 250, similar in characteristics to the German armored personnel carrier, released in the number of 7326 copies, Sd. Kfz. 251 was the basis of a large family of machines for various purposes. The index «251» shows how many total there are series of half-tracked conveyors, by the sum of combat qualities, among other things, approaching the T-3 tanks (an approximate analogue of the Soviet T-26), or even T-4 first issues. The total number of such machines is difficult to calculate, in the first approximation one can safely voice the number «30 000».
In the Red Army (the Soviet Army) and, by and large, in the Allied forces, armored personnel carriers of mass distribution do not receive.
5a. Sanitary version of the German (here, probably — trophy) armored personnel carrier. Quite high profile, convenient rear hatch, partially open roof contribute to the high habitation of the machine, and therefore, the preservation of the combat potential of soldiers.
6. «Tiger» in Kharkov Street — the last successful large-scale counterattack of the German army.
7. Soviet submachine gun PPSh. Designed in 1940 by designer GM Shpagin, at the end of the same year it was adopted. The cartridge is 7.62 × 25 mm., The initial speed of the bullet is 500 ms. (almost twice as high as that of the distant analogue, the «gangster» Thompson), the rate of fire of 1000 rounds per minute. The aiming range is 200—300 m. The weight of the loaded 5.2 kg. Capacity of the drum shop is 71 cartridges, sector (carob, accepted in 1943) 35 cartridges. Possibility of conducting single shots. In 1942, tested, very similar to the Kalashnikov assault rifle, PPSh-2, but, he concedes (above all, over excessive weight) the PPS A. Sudaev. Until the end of 1941, 0.9 million units were produced, total, from 1941 to 1947 — 6 million. The Soviet military noted a slightly lower reliability of the PPS, in comparison with the German so-called. «Schmeisser», however, it’s just such a psychological moment. Alien, as a rule, always seems the best. German soldiers and officers on the contrary, believe the PPSh to be more accurate than the MR-40, the SS seek to equip their advanced elite units with captured Soviet automatic weapons. In addition to the PPSh, Mosin’s rifles and self-loading SVTs «work» on the front. «Self-charging» Tokarev — a good weapon, however, it requires a special relationship. To fully assess its potential only able to have passed into the infantry, accustomed to handling complex technology seamen.
8. German submachine gun MR-40 («Maschinenpistole» or, traditionally, «Schmeisser»). Designed by Heinrich Vollmer on the basis of MR-36 (with a wooden butt). Hugo Schmeisser has a patent for the store to the machine, which is evidenced by the corresponding inscription on the horn; and therefore the MR-40 acquires such a second name. The cartridge is 9 × 19 mm, the initial velocity of the bullet, depending on its purpose is 320—400 ms, the rate of fire is 540—600 rounds per minute. The curb weight is 4.8 kg. The magazine capacity is 20, 25, 32 (as a rule), 40, 50 rounds. The ability to fire single shots — by quickly pressing the trigger. From 1938 to 1945, 1.1 million units were manufactured.
The main weapon of the Wehrmacht infantry is the Mauser 98k rifle. Weight 4 kg, cartridge 7.92 × 57 mm., The initial speed of the bullet is 760 m.s, aiming range is 1500 m. The store contains 5 cartridges. The firing rate of 15 rounds per minute exceeds the similar characteristics of the Mosin rifle due to the bent trigger, allowing to shoot, without reducing the barrel from the line of sight. At the same time, the aiming range of the last shot, due to the higher velocity of the bullet (870 ms), is two kilometers above.
From 1935 to 1945, 14 million copies were produced. Some rifles are still in use, like hunting rifled weapons.
9. Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union. Birth — August 18 (Aviation Day), 1921, Moscow. From the age of 14 — classes in the flying club, getting a trip to one of the few aviation schools, taking girls — Kherson, returning to the capital, work at the Kalinin aeroclub (in place of the current microdistrict «Yuzhny»), training 45 pilots. Lydia’s father, a railroad worker, V. Litvyak, was shot in 1937 (when his daughter commits the first independent flight). This can be hidden for the time being. In 1942, the girl sought enrollment in 586 «female», created on the initiative, already very famous Marina Raskova fighter regiment. First, it is remembered by a fashionista who changes fur from the umb to the collar (and is serving for that day’s arrest), a lover of long scarves made of parachute silk, but since August 1942 — a very effective fighter pilot. In the sky of Stalingrad, Lydia shoots down two Yu-88s, two Me-109s and one D0—217, becoming the world’s first female pilot to personally shoot down the enemy’s plane. The nickname or, originally, the self-name of Lydia, who probably does not like the somewhat firm «D» in her name — «Lily». The image of the flower appears on the fuselage Yak-1. Sometimes a lily painted by a regimental artist is considered a rose, because the flying girl is alternately called the «White Rose (and, or Lily) of Stalingrad.»
After a while, the female fighter regiment is disbanded, and the pilots are assigned to the «regular» air regiments.
There will be an acquaintance, a wedding with Alexei Salomatin, by that time already a Hero of the Soviet Union, who has on his account 18 planes destroyed. His «Yak» comes back from the battle riddled, and, already at the airport (in front of Lydia) explodes.
Liliya shoots down 12 planes personally, 4 in group, becoming the most productive pilot-ace in history. August 1, 1943 at the turn of the river Miuss (Donbass), when returning from a combat mission, its «Yak-1» is pummeled by a German fighter emerging from the cloud.
There are rumors that Lydia was taken prisoner, she was seen in a car with German officers, and so forth, because the appropriation of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union is postponed indefinitely. The remains of Lydia were identified only in 1969. Unfortunately, the «Yak» found in the beam is cut into scrap metal a few days before the arrival of the search group.
This photo (5) is not in the search base as having a «license for use and modification», if you have a complaint, please contact the author.
In total, the USSR Air Force has three women’s aviation regiments (on the average, the air regiment is 36 cars, 3 squadrons): 586th fighter, Yak-1, 587th bomber, with Pe-2 dives, and, most notoriously, until the end of the war female, 588th light-bomber, on Po-2 planes («night witches»).
It is appropriate to give a list of the most effective aces of World War II:
Ivan Kozhedub — personally, La-5 and La-7 — 64 aircraft, plus two unreported American «Mustang», for unknown reasons attacked him in the zone of operation of Soviet aviation. There is information about the shooting down of several American planes on MiG-15, during the Korean War.
Alexander Pokryshkin (on the MiG-3 and Aerocobre) — 59 in person, 6 in the group. Another (first) aircraft, alas, a Soviet light-engine bomber, shot down by mistake. Soviet pilots have a custom to stimulate the slaves (covering the attack), giving them their victories. So does A. Pokryshkin, whose personal account is, obviously, 90 aircraft Luftwaffe.
Pokryshkin’s special merit consists in bringing to the superior command the advantages of German tactics of conducting air combat in pairs, not in troikas, in the so-called «free hunting» — «he saw from a height, attacked, disappeared». Such behavior is worth a lot of nerves to the pilot, temporary removal from office during the trial of the case in the tribunal, expulsion from the party…
Grigory Rechkalov («I-153», «Yak») — at least 56 (according to the specified data 61) personally, 6 in the group.
Thomas Pettl (born in South Africa, the British Air Force) — on the Gladiator, Hurricane, from 1940 to 1941, before his death in battle — 51 personally (primarily Italian aircraft), 6 in the group («separated»).
Richard Ira Bong (USA) — 40 shot down on the «Lightning» Japanese fighters «Zero» definitely, seven — probably.
Klosterman Pierre (France). On Spitfire and Hawker, during the service in the French and British Air Force — 19 independent, 14 divided victories.
Erich Harmann (Germany) — 352 wins, with the loss of 14 of his Messershmitt-109, as a result of fuel shortages, damage to debris from downed planes, and possibly from enemy fighter aircraft (which was concealed in order not to spoil the reputation). August 43 — getting into Russian captivity, imitating wound and incontinence, in order to cause pity for the soldiers, also to prevent a search, escape, return to service. At some point, the extraordinary effectiveness of Hartmann raises doubts even in the Supreme Staff of the Luftwaffe, accustomed to stamp heroes for the Reich, however, rewarding Oak Leaves and Swords to the Knight’s Cross at Hitler’s rate frees the pilot from unnecessary suspicion. So, fighting already on the Western Front, he declares the shooting down of 11 American Mustangs in just one day, on August 24, 1944.
In 1945, the Americans hand over the accused in war crimes, who surrendered to Hartmann (as he had fought before against the USSR), to the Soviet troops. In the camps, he rebels against coercing German officers into hard physical labor (which is a violation of the International Law on prisoners of war), requires special treatment, is generally sought, released under an amnesty in 1955. Hartmann then enters the Air Force Germany, commander of the squadron «Richthofen», repeatedly visits the United States, retired as a flight instructor, and leaves this world in 1993.
Hirooshi Nisizawa, Japan. On the Zero fighter, 87, or perhaps 147 downed American aircraft. From a certain point in the Japanese aviation they simply stop to conduct individual statistics. During the flight for new fighters, in October 1944 Nisidzawa died as a passenger of the transport «Makadzhima.»
Eino Juutilainen. Finland. During the Winter War, the Fokker FR-106 — I-16 and DB-3. Further, at Messerschmid-109, 92 Soviet aircraft were part of the forces of the Axis countries.
Occupation of Vichy France. According to Reich’s agreements with the collaborative (from French «cooperation») government of Henri Petain, part of France south of the established borders, about half of all territories, is managed quite autonomously. The capital of this part of Gaul is the city of Vichy (hence the name of the regime). The main point is that it is difficult for the Germans to manage the vast colonies of France in Africa, Indochina… even in far-flung Latin America, etc., local administrations, all ties are tied to the French. Parity is respected: we allow keeping the colonies to ourselves, leaving part of the country to the French, in return you keep subordinate state entities from actively assisting the Anglo-American allies.
Be that as it may, on November 8, 1942, the British and Americans quite successfully landed in Morocco and Algeria. The Nazi command now believes that with the game in «Free France» it is definitely time to finish. And, on November 11 (that is, a week before the beginning of the series of actions on the encirclement of the troops of the Axis countries near Stalingrad), an operation under the code name «Anton» is being developed. Parts of the two German and Italian armies, without special problems, occupy the French Riviera, as well as Corsica. Almost the only of the French generals, Latr de Tassigny, who gave the order for armed resistance, was immediately arrested by his own officers.
So, the 50,000th land grouping of French troops surrenders to the mercy of the victors. There is still a demobilized fleet in Toulon, about 90 pennants, including ships that survived the Anglo-Saxons’ devastating bombing raids near the town of Mers-el-Kebir (colonial Algeria).
At least just one percent, the Vichy government is still patriotic. From the capital to Toulon there are orders for the flooding of the fleet. German counterintelligence is confused to break communication lines, or to disavow reports. Sometimes commanders of ships require a strictly written instruction. German soldiers are already rising on some of the disarmed or defunct ships.
Nevertheless, the French sailors show courage, or at least discipline, and, on November 27, they blow up pre-mined vessels. To the bottom are 77 pennants, first-class warships. Germany gets 4 submarines and 3 destroyers. Three submarines and a ship of pilots leave for Algeria.
...The Second Rzhev-Sychevsky operation for the liberation of Rzhev lasts from November 25 to December 20; Soviet troops lose about 90,000 killed and 1,400 tanks, with German irretrievable losses of 40,000 people, 400 tanks and self-propelled guns. The city has been liberated, but it is, rather, the result of a successfully and skillfully conducted Battle of Stalingrad.
On February 2, Soviet troops launch a new offensive in the Kharkov direction, on February 15 they storm Kharkiv, they succeed, but the SS 2nd Panzer Corps uniting the elite divisions «The Dead Head», «Reich» and «Adolf Hitler» leaves the city with the intention to return soon. This is what happens: parts of the Red Army scatter forces in different directions, go forward while there are fuel in the tanks, then they are isolated and destroyed in parts. On March 14, the Wehrmacht forces surround Kharkov and the Soviet tank army, which, however, as a whole successfully, manage to get out of the cauldron. There comes a spring’s mudslides, and both sides take a break until summer. Losses of the parties: the Red Army 50—55 thousand killed, 1130 tanks, the Wehrmacht 15 thousand irreversible losses, 250 tanks.
What else is happening during this time?
In 1942, the German administration began to evict from the Polish-Ukrainian border of the Poles, and instill in them a place loyal to the new regime, who do not have the experience of their own statehood of the Ukrainians. The Polish partisan army Craiova (AK, the Patriotic Army, the total number of about 300 000 people) is responsible for the destruction of several hundred representatives of the Ukrainian rural elite. In any case, initially a strong peace between ethnically and religiously mixed villages, alas, no. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, about 20,000 people, as well as the villagers who joined it) kills at least 120,000 peaceful Poles (the so-called «Volyn Massacre»), most of them with cold steel. The Germans patronize the UPA. AK also destroyed the Ukrainian population, in the same area, according to various estimates, 20—24 000 people, and also, on occasion, escaped from German concentration camps of Soviet prisoners of war; if they were few, they did not have weapons, or they agreed to disarm.
A film that explains the subtleties of what is happening, weighted and recommended by the author of the book — Volyn, 2016.
On April 29, the ROA, the «Russian Liberation Army» under the command of General Andrei Vlasov, was created. Among its leaders are representatives of the White Movement, as well as of the Kuban Cossacks. The recruitment of volunteers is conducted in German camps, among the surviving prisoners of war. The formed units are sent, mainly, to Yugoslavia, to fight the partisans of Tito, or, subsequently, to France and Italy, against the Anglo-American landing. According to some reports, the commander of his units Vlasov could take part in the conspiracy of German generals against Hitler, in 1944. The largest number of ROA — 120 000 people. Some of the soldiers and officers managed to hide in the West, the rest were given to Stalin and, in the majority, they were shot.
In the Crimea, the German administration creates at least 10 volunteer battalions «Waffen SS» from the Crimean Tatars. The core of the national formations is the Tatar Mountain Chasseur SS Regiment. The collaborators in the partisan detachments desert, give out to the Germans or seize themselves, all the large food «tabs», actively cooperate with the new government. Many become guards in the death camps and are extremely proud of the German form. The mullahs pray for Hitler’s health.
The population of Crimean cities is subjected to severe repressions. The ethnic Russians, Jews, etc., who are fleeing from the Nazis, are trying to find shelter in nationally isolated villages — but «locals» issue them to the occupants, or deal with them themselves. Repression reaches such proportions that the Russian-speaking inhabitants of the Crimea sometimes turn to the German authorities for protection.
In all, there are 20,000 Crimean Tatars in the national formations (which, by the way, have a significant mental difference from Kazan), that is, every second adult man; they enjoy full support among their 200,000 people. About 65,000 Russians, Jews, etc. become victims of them; so the inhabitants who consider themselves «local» from the time of Batu liberated «living space» for themselves.
The modern Mejlis (2013) declares that it is not going to dissociate itself from the collaborative «National Committee», and does not consider its predecessors who collaborated with the Hitlerites to be traitors.
Strictly speaking, many Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians are traitors too, almost everyone whom the Germans temporarily define as an accessory to the «man of the highest race». The temptation to appear elected, to create everything on his whim, to command — for the average person is too great…
In 1944, the Crimean Turks, along with 70,000 ethnic Germans living here since the time of Catherine II, migrate to the regions of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (similar in climate to the Crimea); During this operation, about 200 people die from diseases, heart attacks, etc.
…On the territories seized by the Reich, the occupying Reichsmarks are still in progress, in order to avoid inflation in Germany itself, and also to save money on printing money, Soviet rubles. Their rate is set by the administration arbitrarily, on average, 10 rubles for such a mark. It turns out, for the 20 marks listed here, you could buy a loaf of bread (in the period of the highest successes of the Wehrmacht in 1942).
…By the beginning of 1943, Soviet troops practically stopped using the «weapons of desperation» — the so-called «anti-tank dogs».
In view of the extreme shortage of artillery and ammunition, 80% of which were lost in the first months of the war, the «friends of a man» who have passed a special training course become effective enough against enemy tanks. On the back of the «self-guided torpedo» is strengthened the charge of TNT, weighing 4.5 kg, and equipped with a 20-centimeter pin fuse. The dog is accustomed to the fact that the food it can find under the bottom (even of a moving and shooting) tank. In combat conditions, with the fuse removed, this means a powerful explosion, incorrigible damage to the tank, and, of course, the death of the animal itself. In total, 300 units were destroyed by «anti-tank dogs». armored vehicles — about one-twelve of the original number of Wehrmacht tanks on the Eastern Front.
The German answer is the creation of remote controlled miniature Golyaf tankers. Weight — 370 kg., With a combat charge weight of 65 kg., Armor 10 mm., Gasoline engine 12 hp, speed 10 km.ch. Since the summer of 1943, 7564 copies have been produced. The effectiveness of trying on tanks and infantry accumulations of this very expensive weapon is near-zero.
It can be said that, detached from the realities, wishing to create something exceptional, German engineering, military thought ceases to give anything really useful in the war. The only effective anti-tank weapon that arrived in the army by August 1943 — Faustpatrone — was copied from the American M-1 bazooka seized in Libya. In total, Fausts produced 8.2 million pieces, with low weight (3 kg), relative compactness (985 mm in length), armor penetration of 140 mm. they played a significant role in slowing the progress of the Soviet tank armies.
1. General for all occupied territories occupying 20 marks.
2. Money for the «Reichskommissariat» Ukraine. It was allowed to use also small Soviet bills (even with the image of the Red Army man).
3. In the occupation of settlements in Russia, Germans and their allies (except, sometimes, Italians), as a rule, expel local residents from homes. Leaving the occupied territories, Wehrmacht soldiers blow up or burn residential buildings, and other valuable buildings.
4. Since the beginning of 1942 (the «blitzkrieg» failure), 5 million people have been hijacked for forced labor in Germany. Of them 2, 4 million from Ukraine, 0, 4 million — Byelorussia, 2, 2 million — Central Russia. 2, 2 million died in captivity. 0.4 million, fearing reprisals, prefer to stay in the West. Remaining by order of Stalin are struck in the rights (inability to admit to higher educational institutions, to leadership positions, decent work, etc.). Also, the Stalinist Soviet Union renounces any reparations in favor of the repatriates (unlike the Jews of the Western countries, who quite easily received from Germany 108 billion full-weight dojchmarok).
On the ground, German troops practice, first of all, physical extermination of draft and pre-conscription youth from 14 years of age.
The battle for Dieppe. Anglo-American allies are trained to conduct real hostilities on land. August 19, 1942, at 5 o’clock in the morning there will be a sea landing in the occupied French port. The general meaning of the operation is rather vague; the destruction of coastal fortifications, the capture of prisoners, the collection of information and «evaluation of the reaction» of the enemy. A small fleet encounters an enemy convoy. The battle begins. The element of surprise is gone. About 6,800 marines, mostly Canadians, are attacked by already well-trained 1,500 Germans, bogged down in city battles, and lose their offensive impulse. In just 4 hours, under the strongest fire of the enemy begins disorderly evacuation. Result: 3,600 paratroopers are killed or taken prisoner. Allies lose 108 aircraft, 50 tanks «Churchill», mostly on the coastal strip, 33 barges and destroyer. Wehrmacht losses on land — 311 people (according to other sources — 4), 48 aircraft.
According to some reports, the disruption of the operation is also due to the inconsistency of the actions of the secret services of Great Britain. One of the parties in MI6, and the government itself, could directly oppose the too early, from its point of view, the opening of the Second Front (before the exhaustion of the USSR).
The Battle of El Alamein (Libya). The African corps of General Rommel, deprived of any steady supply of reinforcements, with the fourfold superiority of the English (commander B. Montgomery) in manpower and technology, who have no problems in supply, after some of his initial successes, is pushed back to Tunisia. There, on May 12, 1943, a grouping of German-Italian troops, numbering 250,000 people, is forced to capitulate. North Africa becomes a springboard for an invasion of Europe. Irreversible losses: Wehrmacht — 12,000 people (Italians and Germans), 232 tanks, 84 aircraft, Great Britain 8,000 people, 332 tanks, 97 aircraft.
In May 1943, the British Air Force was attacking the Ruhr dams using «jumping bombs.» This is about the survival of the UK itself, so the target is selected by the large military factories in Essen and Ruhr, still being «private property» of American and British corporations. After the war, the governments of these countries will pay off with the owners of the companies for the damage caused to their enterprises. Despite the relative success of individual point strikes, the idea of carpet bombing of large German cities ripens, for a plus or minus seven and a half kilometers of deflection of aerial bombs is already considered an accurate hit on the target. A decision is made on the strategic bombing of Germany, which will be fully deployed in July. Since 1940, luck is considered, if one of ten aircraft just reaches the target; In the future, thanks to an increase in bombing altitude and improved navigation instruments, the situation is straightened out. The basis of the Anglo-American air forces is the «Flying Fortress» B-17, the weight of the equipped bomber 24 tons, the crew of 10 people, 9—12 machine guns caliber of 12, 7 mm., The combat radius is 3,200 km., With a bomb load of 2.5 tons. Loss of 25% in unsuccessful «trial» flights, 3% according to statistics at the end of the war. Contribution to the destruction of German cities also makes the British high-rise «Mosquito», which has a fighter speed (and even higher) — 668 km. h, thanks to the extensive use of plywood in the design — little noticeable for radar, used generally without any small arms. Two person crew, 900 kg. bombs, 2,500 km. the combat radius of flight, 1.6% of the average statistical losses. During the years of the war, 2,7 million tons of bombs were dropped into Europe under the Axis powers, approximately 50 times more than Germany «delivered» to the UK.
1. Speed unarmed Mosquito.
2. B-17 (Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress), «Flying Fortress», American four-engine bomber. Total production of 12 726 units, in battle lost a third, while a rather high performance is shown. The maximum speed is 516 km. h., the ceiling is 10 km., the combat radius (round-trip) is 3200 km., the practical bomb load is 2500 kg. In the photo, the bomber returns after a raid on the Focke-Wulf plant.
3. Destroyed by the Anglo-American aircraft Cologne.
4. Lend-Liz bomber «Boston» (Douglas A-20 Havoc / DB-7 Boston). A total of 3,066 units were supplied to the USSR. Own armament — 6 12, 7 mm. machine guns (part — controlled by servos), bomb load 1100 kg. In general, it corresponds to the Soviet Il-4, but has the highest level of comfort for the crew (airtight cabin, heating, a bathroom under the seat of one of the pilots), a reliable radio station and a set of navigational instruments. The plane won the trust and respect of Soviet pilots.
5. Il-4, the Soviet long-range bomber, the speed of 430 km. h., a range of 3800 km., a crew of 4 people, a mass of 12 tons, a combat load of 1500 kg. Capricious takeoff, comparatively high non-combat casualties.
6. Pe-8 (TB-7), a Soviet heavy (strategic) bomber. Crew of 10 people. Takeoff weight up to 35000 kg. The bomb load is 2000 kg. (maximum 4000 kg., or 50 people) range of flight from 3600 km. up to 5800 km., depending on the type of engines, the maximum speed is 440 km. h. Defensive weapons — two 20 mm. guns SHVAK, two 12.7 and two 7.62 mm. machine gun.
Till now disputes are going on — whether there were raids of the Soviet bombers of long-range aviation to Helsinki in February, 1944 unsuccessful, or preventive, as they were called by Finns, «bombing for the sake of the world». A total of 2600 tons of bombs were spent on the capital of Finland, port facilities, ships, in three raids. In the center of the city were 5—7% of their number. In general, the Soviet Air Force, in order to avoid casualties among civilians, did not aspire to full-scale carpet bombing, limiting itself to the direct support of ground forces.
April 19 begins an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto — fenced three-meter wall area of the city. Living here people learn that under the guise of «deportation to the east» they are taken to the death camps (Treblinka) for destruction. The weapons can be purchased either on the «black market» or at the Army Krajowa — however, in this case the account goes to units of revolvers, machine guns and dozens of hand grenades. In the course are also improvised explosive devices and Molotov cocktails.
On the night of May 13—14, Soviet aircraft dropped about 100 tons of bombs on the SS barracks in the city, causing enthusiasm among the insurgents. There are victims among the Jews, but some of them, during the raid, manage to escape. The whole uprising was suppressed on May 16, this area of Warsaw was leveled literally. 7000 defenders were killed, 6000 were burnt as a result of arson of buildings by German soldiers, 15 thousand of the remaining inhabitants were sent to Treblinka. In total, from 1940 out of 450,000 inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto, about 37,000 remained alive. According to the report of the German officers, SS losses were 18 «Schutze», according to the Polish underground press, 400 and even 1,000.
In 1940, the Jews, who were in the power of the Hitlerite leadership, were not yet accepted by the free European countries, including the USSR, and also were not resettled to Madagascar, the colony of France. During the war, they were destroyed by special Einsatzgruppen recruited in the SS troops, the Wehrmacht, or by the local population, such as Croatia 20,000, Lithuania 140,000, Latvia — 70,000, and Western Ukraine 130,000 (at some point the Germans even made protection of the Jewish population) and Crimea (Crimean Tatars) — 22 000. In total during the Great War, more than 6 million Jews were killed.
The battle on the Kursk Bulge begins on July 5, 1943. In this direction, the Wehrmacht received 150 Tigers (T-6) and 200 Panthers (T-5), its T-4 workhorses covered themselves with screens against the cumulative shells and acquired a long barrel 76 mm. gun and broadened tracks, almost equaling in combat worth with the T-34. Participated in the battles also «Ferdinand», weighing 65 tons, and 380 units of all «trivia»; T-3 and even T-2.
In total, the Wehrmacht concentrated on the Kursk Bulge 850,000 people, 2,700 tanks and 2,000 aircraft.
There were light tanks and in the Soviet forces — 300 T-70 with 45-millimeter gun and 35-mm. armor. About 150 tanks were «imported», delivered in lend-lease, in particular, well-armored, but slow-moving «Matilda Mk. II», quite good though archaic in form» Churchill III» with a 57-mm gun and M3» Li», with a» Valentine’s». The basis was, of course, T-34-76, already with an improved transmission, «breaking», not aligned with the guns sighting sights, commander’s turrets and tuned radio stations. An additional advantage was given by the fantastic maintainability of the tank even in the field; interchangeability of parts with other types of combat vehicles, easily detachable units and assemblies, hardening of armor, in which, after hitting shells, cracks did not appear.
In all, the Red Army has 1.3 million combatants on this theater, 3,400 tanks of various types, mostly T-34-76 and KV, and, in addition to the armada of guns and brave combat calculations, 2,200 aircraft.
For the second time after Stalingrad, an inexplicable force fetters the consciousness of the German commanders, forcing them to attack the defenses prepared on a narrow eight kilometer section, without completing the previous extensive roundabout maneuvers. Tanks are bogged down in the minefields, they put the sides of the artillery batteries, they break without hope of being evacuated to the repair site. So, in the north of Dougie, German divisions, from July 5th to 11th, attacked the fortified point near the settlement of Ponyri, losing more than 200 tanks, 22 000 servicemen, against 33 000 Soviet soldiers and not a certain number of guns.
Traditionally, it is commonly believed that on July 12, 800 Soviet and 550—600 German tanks, including 43 Tigers, met on the field near Prokhorovka (on the southern facet of the Kursk Bulge) in a head-on battle. Such figures are used by British historians (including the consultants of the ВВС, Discovery), and they can not be considered, on the one hand, supporters of the Soviet government, on the other — great amateurs of Hitler Germany. The German chroniclers, if only because of their belonging to the people, who never realized the gravity of their crimes in the USSR, write about four or even three «their own» irretrievably lost tanks under Prokhorovka. For them, the war is something like a sporting contest in which the leader is the one who has the higher score of the destroyed human and material units of the enemy, with less of his own losses. And, if you manage to challenge the numbers of the lost match, the war can still be won. They are echoed also by some of their Russian accomplices, «khivi», whose purpose is already to create an information occasion and a desire to show off before television cameras.
…Perhaps the columns are already ready to enter the operational space of the 2nd Panzer Corps SS (three tank divisions — «Dead Head», «Adolf Hitler», «Great Reich») could become an excellent target for the IL-2, very effective 2.5 kilogram cumulative bombs, as it was at the beginning of the battle, we do not recognize this.
At the same time, the 5th Panzer Army Rotmistrova completes its motor life after a 300-kilometer march, making a dash deep into the enemy’s defense. The clash for both sides is unexpected. At the beginning of the battle, Soviet tankmen have an advantage: the rising sun blinds the optics of the advancing from the west, or the SS-men who hid in the hollows. Soon, the battle formations are mixed, so that sometimes it is more convenient to ram the enemy tank, and not to shoot at it, the field is covered by smoke walls, and in the sky the planes of the opposing sides, not seeing the targets on the ground, cling the claws to each other.
Strictly speaking, the battle of Prokhorovka on July 12 is divided into two districts; in one of them the intensity of the battle and the number of tanks is somewhat less. Perhaps the contradictions in the memories of veterans are connected with this circumstance.
Individual battles continue on June 13 and 14, and on the 17th, after a counterattack near Oboyan (in particular, with the effective use of heavily armored «Churchill» at the point of attack), Soviet troops are on the offensive, finally pushing the enemy from the battlefield. Evacuation of any significant amount of technology under such conditions Germans are not physically able; besides the main repair bases are located far enough in Kharkov and Kiev. Sappers blow up machines suitable for repair, some are transported for remelting. In total in the vicinity of Prokhorovka there are 330 skeletons of German tanks, as well as 500 Soviet tanks. The situation on the battlefield is not documented, for example, by aerial photography, so that until now one has to rely on the eyewitnesses’ memories, something like; «… There and there were groups of burned tanks, ours, and German’ — «Whose else is more?» — «I do not know, maybe German and more.» It should be noted that veterans of the Soviet Army are inclined to overstate their own losses a little, and ex-servicemen of the Wehrmacht do not recognize them at all. The latter write their memoirs roughly like this: «The hurricane artillery fire fell on the location of our regiment. We hardly got out of the shelling. Losses amounted to four wounded…». Only on some memoirs of the memoirist it is possible to understand that «the four wounded» — the sanitary loss is not the whole regiment, but actually, the division in which the narrator Hans, numbering eight or ten people, fought.
General loss of the parties; The Soviet Union — 250,000 dead, 3,000 tanks and self-propelled guns (in the process of fighting, military units were replenished with new machines), 1,500 aircraft. Wehrmacht: 120,000 people irrevocably, 1,600 tanks, 1,550 aircraft.
1. T-34-76. Armament: 76 mm. gun (several hundred tanks of the first issues received a 57-mm gun) with 77—100 shells, two 7.62 mm. machine gun DT. Confidently strikes «Tiger», «Panther» to 200 meters in the side and stern. The crew is 4 people, but the last issues had a three-seater tower. Booking: the forehead, the side of the hull is 45 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower — 45 mm. This protection allows you to reflect the impacts of projectiles the main German 37 mm. anti-tank gun and short-barreled guns of the first models of «Mark-4». Weight 28 tons. Speed along the highway 54 km. h, cross-country 25 km. h. The first models — shortcomings in the checkpoint; The movement is usually carried out in the second gear, up to 25 km. h., regulated by «gas», with the speed limiter removed. Cruising on the highway 380 km, cross-country 230 km. The specific power is 19.5 hp. The specific pressure on the ground is 0.62 kg. see From 1939 to 1944 released 52,000 units.
2. KB-1. Armament: 76 mm. gun, 90—114 shells, three 7.62 DT machine guns (course, paired with a gun, aft). Booking: the forehead, the side of the hull is 75 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower is 75 mm. (protection from an armor-piercing shell of a 50-mm German cannon further 200 meters). Crew of 5 people. Weight 48 tons. Common problems with the transmission. The troops dislike the tank because of its propensity to destroy bridges, and even roads. Speed on the highway 34 km. h, the reserve for cross-country terrain is 120 km. Specific power 11.6 hp, ground pressure 0.77 kg. see From 1939 to 1942 produced 2770 machines. One KV took part in the battle of Prokhorovka.
3. SU-152. Self-propelled assault gun. The surname — in the Soviet army «St. John’s wort», German — «Cannon knife», because even those who fell at an acute angle shells, having made a long furrow, break through the armor. Armament: 152 mm. gun-howitzer, ammunition 20 shells, plus personal automatic weapons of the crew. Booking: the forehead of the hull, the side of the hull is 60 mm., The forehead of the tower (felling) is 75 mm., The side is 60 mm. (adequate protection against a 75-mm German Pak 40 gun, except shells fired strictly on the normal). Weight 45 tons. Crew of 5 people. Speed on the highway 43 km. h. Cross-country 30 km. h. Cruising along the highway 330 km., cross-country 165 km. Specific power of 13.2 hp tons. In the battle of the Kursk Bulge, 24 vehicles (two subunits) took part, destroying at least seven «Ferdinand» and twelve «Tigers». In 1943, 670 units were produced, replaced by better-armored ISU-152 tanks (based on the IS tank).
4. T-70 (replacement of a similar T-60). Interestingly, according to some tradition, in parts with T-70, these tanks were given their own names, for example «Falcon». The second largest tank of the Red Army, (although it is very poorly represented in newsreels and memoirs), after the T-34. Armament: 45 mm. gun with ammunition of 70 shells, one 7.62 mm. a machine gun paired with a gun. Booking: the forehead of the case 35 mm, the board 15 mm., The forehead of the tower 50 mm, the board 35 mm. Crew 2 people. Weight 10 tons. The petrol engine (fuel tanks are taken out to the stern compartment). The speed along the highway is 42 km. h, cross-country 25 km. h. The power reserve on the highway is 400 km., the specific power is 15.2 hp. The pressure on the soil is 0.7 kg. see The Battle of the Kursk Bulge was attended by 370 vehicles, under Prokhorovka — 70. Some historians note a slightly smaller percentage of losses among these tanks, in comparison with the T-34 (40% and 60%), but it seems to explain only the fact that the commanders of enemy armored cars were looking for more worthy goals, and the tanker commanders did not want to be in vain. The effectiveness of the tank is determined not so much by its own small losses as by the ability to inflict maximum damage to the enemy. From the middle of the summer of 1942 to October 1943, 8200 T-70 was produced.
5. «Studebaker», «Studer», (Studebaker US6) — truck, gun tractor, platform for BM-13 — «Katyusha». Five-speed gearbox, top speed 72 km. h., drive on three axles, lifting capacity 3, 5 tons, fuel consumption 38.5 liters. on 100 km. In the USSR, 100,000 cars have been delivered.
«Katyushas» are available in different versions; from 14 and 16 guides on wheeled vehicles up to 48-m on caterpillar conveyors (in two or three rows). The length of the BM-13 rocket is 1.4 m, diameter 132 mm, weight 42 kg. Mass of explosive 5 kg., Special efficiency, so-called. «The power of the projectile» is achieved by detonating its explosives from opposite sides. The shooting range is 8.4 km, the lateral deviation is up to 50 m, the range is 250 m.
The German analogue is the towed six-barrel Nebelwerfer («Tumanomet»). The weight of the rocket is 35 kg, the diameter is 158 mm., The weight of the explosive (BB) is 2 kg. The firing range is 6.5 km., The dispersion at this distance is 80 m., And in the range of 90 m. The main disadvantages are low mobility, high visibility of the 270-meter smoke track, as a result of which installations and calculations are often exposed to the return fire of artillery batteries to their leaving the position.
6. Tank «Churchill» (Infantry Tank Mk. IV «Churchill»). Armament: usually 57 mm. gun, 50 shells, two full-time 7.92 machine guns, plus anti-aircraft «Bren» (the store is mounted on top of the receiver). Crew of 5 people, booking: the forehead of the case 102 mm., The board 76 mm., The forehead of the tower 88 mm., The board 76 mm. Speed on the highway 25 km. h. Cross-country 17 km. h. The cruising range along the highway is 250 km. Weight 38—43 tons (heavy tank). Specific power 8,8 hp per tonne (this is not enough). 5,640 copies were issued. The Soviet Union used (as combat vehicles for infantry support) 253 tanks «Churchill» of various modifications.
7. «Matilda» (Mk. II «Matilda II»). Armament: 40-mm cannon for shooting only armor-piercing shells; then replaced with 76 mm. gun-howitzer. Accordingly, the ammunition 92—67 shells. Paired with a gun 7, 7 mm. the Vickers machine gun. Booking: the forehead of the body is 78 mm., The side of the body is 70 mm. Forehead, side of the tower — 75 mm. Crew of 4 people. Weight — 27 tons. Speed on the highway 24 km. h, cross-country 15 km. h. Specific power 6.5 hp. The pressure on the ground is 1.12 kg. see (many). The cruising range along the highway is 257 km., Cross-country 129 km. Issued 2987 pcs., 918 tanks were operated in the USSR, 18 of them took part in the Battle of Kursk.
8. M3 «Lee» (M3 Lee). The surname in the USSR is BM-6, «The Common Grave for Six». Armament: 75 mm. gun in the side sponson, with 50 shells, 37 mm. gun in the top tower with 178 shots, three 7, 62 mm. machine gun. Booking: the forehead of the case is 58 mm., The hull is 38 mm., The forehead of the tower is 51 mm., The side is 38 mm. Crew 6 — 7 people. Speed along the highway 39 km. h, the power reserve along the highway is 193 km. Ground pressure 0, 88 kg. see From 1941 to 1942. produced 6258 cars, in the USSR until 1944, 976 tanks were used — for the first time at the Barvenkovskiy project, then the battle in the Caucasus, near Rzhev and on the Kursk Bulge.
9. «Valentine» (nicknamed «Valentine»). Armament: 40 mm — 57—75 mm. gun, depending on the modifications, ammunition 60 shells, one paired with a gun of 7.92 mm. a machine gun, plus an anti-aircraft «Bren» on the roof. Crew of 3—4 people. Booking — the forehead of the case is 60 mm., The hull is from 30 mm. up to 60 mm., the forehead of the tower is 65 mm, the side is 60 mm. speed on the highway 25 km. h. The power reserve is 150 km. Weight 16 tons. Specific power 9 hp per ton. At least 31 Valentine took part in the Battle of Kursk. In the USSR, 3,332 light tanks were delivered; for their mobility, low visibility and optimal reservation, they are considered the best of all received in Lend-Lease armored cars.
10, 11 «Sherman» (M4 Sherman), the first and later modifications. The surname in the USSR «Emcea», because of «M4», the American army — «Lighter» («Cricket»), German — «Stove for Tommy.» Armament: 75—76 mm. gun, ammunition 97 shells, two 7, 62 mm., one anti-aircraft gun 12, 7 mm. machine gun. The English, who failed to persuade the Americans to release tanks with a licensed British gun, themselves converted a number of M4 into their long-barreled gun; turned out to be Sherman Firefly, «Firefly», capable almost on an equal footing to fight heavy German armored cars. Booking: the forehead of the hull is 51 mm., The board is 38 mm., The forehead of the tower is 76 mm., The side of the tower is 51 mm. Crew of 5 people. Speed on the highway 48 km. h, cross-country 40 km. h, power reserve along the highway 190 km. Specific power 13 hp tons of weight 30 tons. Large internal volume, good habitation, low noise, gun stabilizer, with excessively high profile and rather high specific pressure (0, 96 kg. Cm) on the ground. 49 thousand different modifications were made, in the USSR 3664 units were used, of which about 70 tanks took part in the battle on the Kursk Bulge.
12. T-6 «Tiger» (Panzerkampfwagen VI «Tiger»). Armament: 88 mm. gun with 94 shells, two or three 7, 92 mm. a machine gun, an anti-mortar mortar, a shell firing at a height of 5—7 meters above the tank, a mortar for setting up a smoke screen. Booking: the forehead of the body is 100 mm., The side of the body is 80 mm., The forehead of the tower is 100 mm., The side is 80 mm. The standard Soviet is 76 mm. The armor-piercing shell hits the T-6 in the side at a distance of 300 meters with a probability of 30%. Crew of 5 people. Weight 56 tons. Speed on the highway 40 km. h., Cross-country 20 km. h. Steering, 11 transmissions, for the first time — blowing the barrel after the shot. The power reserve for rough terrain is 110 km. (8—10 liters of fuel per kilometer). Ground pressure 1,03 kg. see, the specific power of the engine is 12 hp. (average value). In the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, 148 of these vehicles take part, at Prokhorovka — 43, from the spring of 1942 to May 1944, 1,394 tanks were produced. In exchange, at already half-bombed Henschel factories, assembly of 75-ton «Royal Tigers» begins. There is an opinion that, like the replacement of the Wehrmacht’s workhorse, the modernized T-4 with the Tiger, and the reorientation of production from the perfectly balanced T-6 to the Königstiger (Tiger-2), was for the German command a large (or even fatal) error.
13. «Mark 4», «Panzerkampfvagen IV», T-4 with anti-cumulative screens. Armament: 75 mm. gun with a caliber, depending on the modifications 24, 43, 48. Caliber — the ratio of the length of the barrel bore to its diameter, but more often this term is used as a synonym for the word «diameter» of the projectile. Ammunition of 87 shots. Two 7.92 mm. MG-34 machine gun. Booking: the forehead of the body 80 mm., The board 30 mm., The forehead of the tower 50 mm., The board 30 mm. The tanks of the first issues had 30 mm. frontal, 20 mm. side armor, after the Polish campaign came out on respectively, 50 mm. and 30 mm. The last 3,500 tanks (from April 1943) received the protection characteristics already presented. Crew of 5 people. Speed along the highway is 30 km. h., the road — 17 km. h. The range of travel along the highway is 150—200 km. Weight 22,5—26 tons. The specific power of the engine is 13.6 hp. The pressure on the ground is 0.69—0.79 kg. From 1936 to 1945, 8686 units were produced (Panzerwaffe’s most massive tank). Operated in many countries around the world, including, among other things, Israel, until the 1970s.
14. T-5, «Panther» (Panzerkampfwagen V Panther). According to the German classification — the average, all other systematizations — a heavy tank. Armament: long-barreled 75 mm. gun, 81 shot, two 7.92 mm. MG-42 machine gun, and also 56 mm. melee melee. Booking: the forehead of the body is 60—80 mm., The side is 40—50 mm., The forehead of the tower is 110 mm., The side is 45 mm. Weight 45 tons. Since November 1944, the T-5 is equipped with night vision devices. Crew of 5 people. Speed on the highway 46 km. h., a lane 25—30 km. h. The cruising range along the highway is 250 km. Specific power 15.6 hp, ground pressure 0.88 kg. see In the Soviet troops fought two companies (that is, about 30) captured «Panther», the tankmen noted excellent front protection, first-class guns, at the same time relatively low driving performance, the complexity of maintenance, fragile and vulnerable airborne armor. From the spring of 1943 to 1945, 5,976 pieces were produced.
15. SAU «Ferdinand» (on behalf of the designer, F. Porsche, or Elefant — Elephant). Armament: long barrel 88 mm. gun, 55 rounds, in late versions — in addition, the exchange rate of 7.92 mm. MG-34 machine gun. The forehead of the body is 200 mm., The board is 60—80 mm., The forehead is 200 mm., The board is 80 mm. Weight 65 tons. Crew of 6 people: mechanic and radio operator ahead, separately, 4 people in the fighting compartment (cabin). Speed on the highway 25 km. h, a country road 5—10 km. h. Cruising along the highway 150 km., cross-country 90 km. Specific power 8.2 hp, pressure on the ground 1.2 kg. see Horizontal angle ± 26º. The main losses are from anti-tank mines and the destruction of the undercarriage during intensive firing, despite the fact that it is difficult to evacuate a heavy armored vehicle from the battlefield. There were no failures of Elefant on the forehead, however, the SU-152 high-explosive shells disabled the crew and technical units even without breaking through the armor. In 1943 92 FAU «Ferdinand» were manufactured on the chassis of F. Porsche, who did not go into the series of the «Tiger» version. Half of them remained under Kursk; according to the German General Walter Wenck, this is the average percentage of losses for all sides of the battle.
16. T-3, Panzer III. Armament, depending on the modifications — 37 mm., 50 mm. (since 1941), 75 mm. gun, with ammunition, respectively, 150, 84, 56 shells, as well as three 7.92 mm. MG-34 machine gun. Booking: the forehead, the side of the hull is 30 mm., The forehead, the side of the tower is 30 mm. Weight 19.5 tons. Crew of 5 people. Speed on the highway 65 km. h, cross-country 15 km. h. The power reserve along the highway is 195 km., the road is 95 km. Specific power 14 hp The specific pressure on the soil is 0.9 kg. see Parameters approximately correspond to the Soviet T-26 tank. From 1939 to 1943, 5,865 units were produced.
17. T-2 (Panzerkampfwagen II). Armament — 20 mm. automatic cannon, with shops of 10 rounds, 120—320 shells, (armor piercing with a tungsten carbide blanket 40 mm from 100 meters, 20 mm from 500 meters) one 7, 92 mm. machine gun. Booking — forehead, side of the body 14.5 mm., Forehead, side of the tower 14, 5 mm. The crew is three people. Speed on the highway 40 km. h. Cruising along the highway 190 km, cross-country 125 km. Specific power 15.7 hp, ground pressure 0, 62 kg. see Weight 9 tons. As the development of the T-2 was released 130 reconnaissance tanks «Lynx». In total from 1936 to 1943, 2000 Pz.Kpfw was produced. II.
18. Self-propelled artillery installation StuG III, «Sturmgeshyutts-3», otherwise «Art-Sturm». Armament: 75 mm gun, 54 rounds, horizontal angle of ± 12°(the gun is not fixed strictly in the vertical plane, as it seems), MG-34 machine gun from the commander’s turret. Booking: the forehead of the case 50 mm., Plus, fixed on bolts of 30 mm. armor plate (usually flew after hit the projectile), board 30 mm. Chamfer forehead: 50 mm. and 30 mm. plate, board 30 mm. Weight 23 tons. Crew of 4 people. Speed on the highway 40 km. h, cross-country 12—15 km. h. The power reserve, respectively, is 165 km. and 95 km. Specific power 13 hp, ground pressure 0, 94 kg. cm. From 1940 to 1945, 9,346 units were produced (the most massive Wehrmacht armored vehicle).
It is widely believed that the cessation of Operation Citadel was facilitated by the landing of the Allies in Sicily, for the battle against which considerable armored forces of the Wehrmacht were transferred to Italy, including the remains of the elite 2nd SS Panzer Corps. Indeed, some «politically reliable» units went there as if to «rest», but without heavy equipment, except for the unit of the 11 SAU Ferdinand, which in the rear were fitted with a machine gun in the rear. … For one reason or another (a game of intelligence, intricate diplomacy, or whatever, the Hitler command sends 10 divisions from Sicily to the Eastern Front, using this, the Anglo-American commanders undertake a large-scale landing operation on a fairly loyal island to them. Kursk battle, 1943, on the night of 9 to 10 July.
Forces of the parties. Anglo-American allies — about 450 thousand (along with all the rear units), ethnic Germans — two incomplete divisions, about 30 thousand people, 150 tanks, and, nominally, 300—320 thousand Italians who are not quite willing to fight.
Italy Northern and Italy South — not quite the same thing. The south of the country, and, above all, Sicily, lives its own life, far from the movements of the industrialized, and getting involved in some risky social projects, the North. You can say that the southern Italians are quite ready to surrender before any military-political force.
So, with the massive support of aviation and large-caliber ship artillery, the 8th British Army Bernard Montgomery and the 7th US Army George Paton are attacking. Despite the considerable losses of planes and gliders from the «friendly fire», and not fully coordinated air assault, they achieve some success.
Palermo, the capital of the island, surrenders after ten days.
On the seventeenth of August the Hitlerites were evacuated to mainland Italy.
Losses of the parties: allies — 7,000 dead, 19,000 taken prisoner. Germany — 5 000 killed, 12 000 prisoners, Italy — 22 000 killed and about 140 000 prisoners.
September 3, the Allies are making an invasion of the Apennine Peninsula. Ethnic (southern) Italians have practically no resistance.
On September 8, 1943, the Italian Duce of Mussolini is captured by rebel generals and, on the same date, in the city of Cassibile, announces a truce that Hitler perceives as a declaration of war. On September 11, the Wehrmacht command orders the disarmament and sending to the camps of Italian soldiers and officers who refused to swear an oath of nazi Germany. First, indeed, among the now-captured military, certain work is carried out, individual conversations, but then machine guns are used everywhere. In the outskirts of Lviv, 10,000 Italians were shot, 6,300 in the Balkans, 4,500 in the Mediterranean Kefallinia Islands, 22,600 camps for prisoners of war in Poland; only about 50 thousand.
Skorzeni’s paratroopers liberate the Duce on September 12, ten days later he is placed at the head of the government of the newly created Italian Social Republic. But, for obvious reasons, the former understanding between the allies is no longer there.
In early October 1943, the Anglo-American offensive stopped before the «Volturno Line», the first of several fortified lines of defense along a line that crossed Italy somewhat south of Rome. This state of affairs persists until May 1944 (the Battle of Monte Cassino, a loss ratio of 50,000 to 20,000, not in favor of the Allies).
April 8, 1944 begins the Crimean offensive operation. After the prelude, which took place three months earlier, marked by a high number of casualties, avalanches of Soviet troops advance deep into the peninsula from the «front door» — Perekop. They are clearing the way for mobile assault and subversive detachments. To avoid encirclement, the German units leave Kerch, go to Sevastopol, the commander-in-chief requests permission to evacuate. Hitler shifts the marshal, but this does not change anything at all. Under the attacks of Soviet aviation, which prevails in the air, unbearable artillery strikes, on all available boats the remnants of German and Romanian armies leave the Crimea. From April to May evacuate 60 thousand people. The storming of Sevastopol takes four days this time. The remnants of German compounds are pulled together to the Chersonesus cape, but the ships they expect will not come. The losses of the Axis countries — 120,000 dead, 20,000 prisoners (of the original 200,000), all combat equipment, including three quarters of the Black Sea Fleet of Romania, the USSR — 18,000 people.
Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya operation — the encirclement of the 65-thousand German grouping on the ledge, deeply penetrated into the location of the Soviet troops, will start on January 24, 1944.
About 1,000 senior officers of the Wehrmacht are evacuated by airplanes. The 45,000-strong mass of people left after the bombing, abandoning heavy equipment, rushes to the river crossings, beyond which it would rejoin the main forces. SS men, shooting their wounded (this practice in the retreating troops of the SS was strictly carried out), are at the head of two huge columns. On them, to some extent, accidentally, come out Soviet tanks and cavalry. In four hours, 20,000 German soldiers perish in the plain and in the ravines. Six T-34-76, caught in this place, shoot a mass of people crossing the river at point-blank range, but 25,000 people, demoralized for a long time and unable to take part in the fighting, manage to escape.
All that had happened was noted by the English military attaché who arrived at this place.
Losses of the parties: the USSR — 24 000 people, 600—800 tanks and self-propelled guns, the Wehrmacht — 65 000 irrecoverable losses, including the deblocking group, 400—500 tanks, 320 aircraft, 12 000 trucks.
The opening of the second front will take place on June 6, 1944. The Germans, now counting on passive defense, who spent huge amounts of money to create a continuous «Atlantic Wall» can be deceived. The landing of the Allies (Operation Overlord) occurs not in the Pas-de-Calais, or in Brittany, but in Normandy. The Wehrmacht command assumes that the absence of convenient ports here is critical for a large-scale landing; However, in the shipyards of Great Britain, in the atmosphere of complete secrecy, two fully functional floating harbors of Mulberry were built. German intelligence «eats» a well-prepared disinformation, despite even some of its cinematography — the body of a British officer with the relevant documents on the banks of the English Channel.
Five weeks before the invasion, the British and Americans are carrying out Operation Tiger, a training that ends with the death of three 150-meter landing ships with 750 military, from torpedoes of German boats. According to another version, all these people, or a part of them, fall under the fire of the English, playing the role of defending Germans, because of some unthinkable, incredible mistake shooting live ammunition. In any case, the radio frequencies of British and Americans are brought to the standard, the role of secrecy, the weight of soldiers with ammunition, their alignment are consistent with the capabilities of life jackets.
After a lot of unnecessary sacrifices, failures, mistakes that saturate Fortune, luck is now on the side of the Allies.
Anglo-American aviation (altogether 11,500 aircraft) discharges 10,000 tons of air bombs to the coast; in addition to the occupiers, 15—20,000 French are killed. For 1,000 gliders, 24,000 airborne troops land in various defense locations. The operation involved 7,000 ships and 30,000 assault craft. Numerous German mines designed to operate at high tide do not produce any action. With serious resistance, the allies meet only in one of the five districts — Omaha, where almost 4,500 marines and 45 floating tanks (run too far from the shore) are almost immediately lost. However, all difficulties are overcome in one way or another, and, in Day D, the bridgehead is occupied by 156,000 people. In the future, the number of combatants is brought to 1.2 million, they occupy France, break through the «Siegfried line» and invade the territory of Germany. Human irretrievable losses of the Allies during the landing — 10 000, the troops of the Axis countries — 8 000. All in Normandy, Germany and the allies lose 120 thousand people.
In the Right-Bank Ukraine, the South in general, the operations of Soviet troops are bogged down in a well-prepared German defense. The operation to force the Miuss River in the Donbas resulted in a series of bloody attacks, with a balance of losses unacceptable for the Soviet Union. The front is stabilizing.
In the north, in the beginning of 1944, the blockade of Leningrad is being lifted. German troops «squeezed out» for 180—200 km. from the Northern Capital. But this success is expensive. The Soviet Army is only learning to break into the defense, consisting of separate strongholds, inflicting an artillery blow into the void, being substituted for flanking fire. Irreversible losses of the parties: 80 thousand people, 600 tanks — the Soviet Army, 35 thousand soldiers, 250 tanks — the Axis.
Operation «Bagration» begins on June 22—23, 1944, after the Soviet command becomes clear that success should be developed in a new direction. The architect of the operation is K. Rokossovsky, who proposed, in order to prevent the armies from sticking into each other, to inflict two main blows at once on the flanks of the «Center» group. The common forces of the parties: the USSR — 1.6 million people, 5,600 tanks, 5,300 aircraft. Wehrmacht: 1.2 million people, 900 tanks, 1,200 aircraft.
The troops create the appearance of a transition to a deep defense. Subdivisions are assigned to the rear in turn to train tactical receptions in conditions that are as close to combat as possible.
…The retreat of German units loses organization, they are often mixed, communication is interrupted, and one boiler replaces another. Soviet troops deliberately leave a small area for retreat so as not to storm the fortified area into the forehead, then the columns of the retreating are destroyed by aviation or tank units. 100-thousand grouping is locked in almost completely destroyed since 1941 in Minsk. The command of the army flies to the west, the commander of the corps exercises control, which in vain calls on the radio to at least drop maps of the terrain. On July 8—9, resistance is broken, 35,000 survivors are being taken prisoner.
Rolling across the Baltic countries, the offensive continues in Poland and stops at the Vistula, short of Warsaw, around which five fresh German tank divisions have already concentrated: the resources of the engines are exhausted, the communications of the troops are extremely stretched. The battle of Radzymin, in which the advanced units of the Soviet Army are battered, is a bell that the point of fortune is passed. At the same time, on August 1, with the news that the Germans are going to deport all Poles from the city, the Warsaw Uprising begins. The rebels are helped both by the United Kingdom and the USSR — air gunners, weapons and ammunition are dropped on parachutes. The Polish government in London, through the British Embassy sends the dispatches of the Soviet Army, what it should do without presenting any obligations. At some point, contrary to the arrangements, the Polish underground workers leave a springboard on the western bank of the Vistula; it is immediately occupied by German troops and opens fire on the Soviet landing. More attempts are not made to help the rebels. Losses of the parties — the Resistance movement — 18,000 irretrievably, as well as about 150,000 civilians during the punitive campaign. Wehrmacht — according to the estimates of the Germans 3000 dead, 2 SAU and 1 tank, the information of the Polish insurgents — 17 000 people, 290 tanks, ACS and armored cars.
Losses of the parties in Operation Bagration, before the end of August: the USSR — 179,000 people, 3,000 tanks, 830 aircraft, the Wehrmacht — 340,000 people irretrievably, 150,000 prisoners, the combat equipment that was available for the beginning of the operation, almost all was lost.
…In order to whip up the hunting instinct in July 1942, the Supreme Command has been assigned payments: a shot down plane — 1000 rubles, a damaged tank — 500 rubles for the gun commander and gunner, the rest for 200 rubles. If the tank is destroyed by an infantryman, he is paid 1000 rubles, or 1500 equal shares to everyone who took part in it. The biggest prize is waiting for someone who managed to sink an enemy warship — 10,000 rubles. Salary to the military: ordinary 10 rubles, sergeant 100, lieutenant 625, regiment commander 1200, corps 2000. For comparison: the average salary in the industry is 573 rubles, the engineer 1200, the collective farm worker 150. Sometimes money is given up, often transferred to a «state ticket». Usually, the salary of an officer is received by his family, in the military registration and enlistment office, according to the so-called. financial certificates. The money is paid, 600 rubles and commanders of partisan detachments, rather, as an official recognition. A one-time benefit to the families of the dead lieutenant-colonels and majors — 10—20 000 rubles, generals — 50—100 000 rubles. The family of the dead infantryman of four people pays a pension of 200 rubles, two people — 100 rubles. Cost of goods on the market: a bottle of vodka 400—800 rubles, a loaf of bread — 200—500, potatoes 90 per kilo, fat 1500 per kg. But, of course, the basis of food in the rear and the army — issued rations and ration cards.
Historically in Russia, among the people it is accepted that the war is a dark, undesirable, organized by the state in its incomprehensible purposes, the case. If the tsar, wishing to raise his international authority, annexed certain territories, this meant that the central regions of the country would have to feed and cherish them. Defeated enemies should be cuddled, and sometimes from their midst the Emperor recruited himself a personal guard. This template is saved. The European way of thinking, since the times of Ancient Rome — military action is an interesting, although risky occupation; in case of victories soldiers are guaranteed prizes, and certainly they will not feed the vanquished. The metropolitan will ensure that the regions included in its structure are reorganized according to the established pattern, increased the efficiency of the economy and, thus, had the opportunity to pay taxes to the general treasury. Well, yes, it certainly will create a commission for the fair distribution of the seized good between all servicemen.
By 1944, the consciousness of Soviet soldiers had changed, and the excitement of a legionary was awakened in them. At the beginning of the war, here, you have a tank full of shells, and there — a German train under unloading. Your actions? Trying to contact the headquarters to get the order! The officer on duty went off somewhere, the train also diverted the couple and drove off. Wrong answer!
So, basically, the management system in Russia has been arranged — since the times of Vladimir, Ivan the Terrible, Nikolay the First and the Second, Stalin, Khrushchev… perhaps even to the present day. Most deify (at least at the beginning of the reign, his sovereign) and do not tend, usually, to think, dare and act independently. The commanders answer before the higher authorities — but not before the people entrusted to them. Iosif Vissarionovich, with the closest comrades — Mehlis, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Molotov, Voroshilov, Ulrich, (chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court), etc., the Great War manages to get rid of the enterprising military. Therefore, Comrade. Stalin has to explain to the soldiers and officers for a very long time that the fighters must get involved in air battles, the tanks must shoot at enemy cannons or, at least in the direction of the enemy, on the move, the units must help each other without dividing the front into» your «and» our». «Supreme» is part of the System, but it is on its top, and therefore, of course, in the answer for what is happening.
…The degradation of the Russian officer corps begins, or is aggravated, according to the author, since the beginning of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. Before that, the Russian army successfully fought against the Germans, the French, etc., in Europe, with an average loss ratio of 1: 1. The Napoleonic coalition army loses with the score (although this term is unlikely to be appropriate), 1: 4 in the benefit of Russia, whatever someone would say about «General Frost». However, under Nikolay the First, frightened by the failed palace coup, the system «The officer reports only to a higher authority, and the opinions of subordinates do not mean anything» is brought to the absolute. The concept of trusting communication between commanders and soldiers disappears in principle, it is replaced by an external gloss and daily exercises on drill walking. As a result, the Russian Army lost the Crimean War of 1853, with great difficulty defeated a dilapidated Turkey in 1878, suffered defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, gave away a fifth of its territories fighting on two fronts, the German Coalition in 1918. Some success accompanies Russia in the conquest of Asia, the Caucasus, and the suppression of uprisings in Poland. However, all these, sorry, transient victories are achieved in the main, by irregular Cossack units. Team spirit, trust communication between commanders and subordinates, military brotherhood in them, definitely, is. However, the bearers of some positive state system, suitable for establishing in new areas of the Empire, for centuries, the formation of the Cossacks are definitely not. If we continue our memories of the greatest Empire of Antiquity, a Roman officer, starting with the centurion (lieutenant, senior lieutenant), is also an engineer, statesman, and even a businessman. He is quite capable, with all knowledge of the matter, to lead the erection of Roman-style buildings, bridges, almost eternal roads, to organize elective local self-government in the Roman model, and also — to create primary, industrial and commercial enterprises. Such is the progressive ancient Roman command system. In addition, the Army and civil society are organized in Rome in such a way that, for example, the mayor (praetor) or some other «civilian» official can easily become an officer of the legion, and the military legate, on the contrary — move freely to the city government.
We can assume that the infusion of mobilized «civil» middle managers into the Red Army was the most beneficial for the latter. The responsible engineer at the plant firmly knows that, in order to achieve a certain goal, it is necessary to prepare the materials, make the necessary coordination, explain to the employees all their tasks, provide the tool. Moreover, he personally answers for the life and health of his «own» workers, and for him (unlike the average Russian officer) they are not at all some kind of «expendable material».
His two-year service in the Soviet, and then the Russian army, the author of the book deserved the right to such an insertion.
A striking example of a «civilian» man who did a lot for the Victory over the fascists was SA Kovpak, the chairman of the kolkhoz, who in the years of the war organized a large-scale guerrilla movement in Ukraine and in Belorussia, received the title of «Major-General.» Reports of hostilities often look like this. … The battalion of the Hitlerites is ambushed. «What are our losses… how many wounded?» — «There are no injured… Only the dead. (Pause) And then, only from the side of the enemy.»
So, in 1944 things are different: «Guys, there are three German tanks in the ravine, let’s burn them? We will act like this, so start the engines. «And it’s not just about money; there was an inner looseness, quite in line with self-discipline. A very dangerous combination for the dictatorship, and we can even assume that the post-war famine was organized in order to suppress the independence that had awakened in people.
The military spirit of the armies is also supported by agitation brigades, the press, radio, mobile film installations, etc. The most popular song in the Soviet Army, with pleasure performed by the soldiers themselves, is a march of artillerymen (author of the text poet and playwright V. Gusev, composer T. Khrennikov). A late version is presented:
Learn, dear mother, find out the wife-friend
Find out the distant house, and my whole family,
What is beating and burning the enemy is our steel blizzard
What will we carry to our homeland
The artillerymen, the exact order given,
Artillerymen, he calls Homeland us!
From hundreds of thousands of batteries, for the tears of our mothers
For our country — fire, fire!
From the post-war songs, one can single out the work on verses and music of the famous songwriter Bulat Okudzhava:
...The planet is burning and spinning
Over our Homeland smoke
So, we need one victory
One at all — we at a price will not stand
We are waiting for the deadly fire
And yet he is helpless
Doubt away, goes into the night separately
Tenth our landing battalion
Only the fight was extinguished
Sounds different order
And the postman will go crazy
Looking for us
The red rocket takes off
Beats machine gun tirelessly
So, we need one victory
One at all — we at a price will not stand
From Kursk and Orel
The war brought us
To the most enemy gates
Such, brother, circumstances
Someday we’ll remember this
And he will not believe himself
And now we need one victory
One at all — we at a price will not stand
The Germans and, to some extent, Americans, the song «Lily Marlen» is popular — the soldier’s remembrance of a date under a lamppost with some pretty girl.
In the armies of the United States and Great Britain, the song about the bomber «Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer» (author of the text Harold Adamson, composer Jimmy McHugh) is revered:
Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer
Though there’s one motor gone
We can still carry on
Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer
What a show, what a fight
Yes we really hit our target for tonight
How we sing as we limp through the air
Look below, there’s our field over there
With our full crew aboard
And our trust in the Lord
We’re comin’ in on a wing and a prayer…
1, 2 (diorama). T-34-85, 85-mm. gun, with ammunition 60 shells, 2 machine guns, triple tower, reinforced armor, (forehead, hull, 45 mm., forehead of the tower 90 mm., board 75 mm, top of the hull and tower 20 mm.) radio station R-113, reception and transmission at a distance of 10—13 km., up to 20 km. in open terrain, with 96 frequencies (up to that 3—5 km.) Crew 4—5 people. Speed on the highway 55 km. h, cross-country 25 km. h. Improved gearbox, with synchronizer. Cruising along the highway 250 km., Cross-country 220 km. Weight 32 tons. Specific power 15,6 hp The specific pressure on the ground is 0.83 kg. see In total, in the USSR, from January 1944 to 1950, 24,000 T-34-85 were manufactured. Taking into account the previously released modifications, as well as those manufactured under license, until 1958, the quantity of T-34 is 65, 8 thousand.
3. IS-2 (IS-122). It reminds the tank T-34-85, but without its inimitable charisma. Replacement of the out-of-date IS-1 from 85 mm. gun. Here — 122 mm. gun, ammunition 28 shells (recharge is only possible with a horizontal location of the trunk), 3 machine guns (12.7 mm zenith on the tower, coupled with the gun and the stern). Booking: the forehead of the body is 100—120 mm., The side is 90 mm., The forehead of the tower is 100 mm., The side is 90 mm., The roof is 30 mm. Cruising on the highway 240 km., Cross-country 160 km. Weight 46 tons, crew 4 people. 3500 pcs. were issued.
4. The Jagdpanther. German heavy ACS. Armament: 88 mm. gun, 71 caliber (barrel length 6776 mm.), 57 rounds, one machine gun MG-34 (loophole to the right of the gun). Guiding the gun horizontally — plus or minus eleven degrees. Booking: the forehead of the body 80 mm, the board 40 mm., The forehead of the felling 80 mm, the board 50 mm. Weight 45.5 tons. Crew of 5 people. Speed on the highway 46 km. h, cross-country 25 km. h, the power reserve, respectively, 210 km. and 140 km. Specific ground pressure 0.9 kg. see From 1944 to 1945, 415 units were produced on the basis of the Panther. The most advanced automatic control system in Germany. It can be assumed that (if one omits the arrogance inherent in the Nazis who refused to copy the T-34), along with the Soviet SU-85 similar to it, it can be a prototype of the future combat vehicles that connect the tank’s potential, ACS and BMP.
5. «The Royal Tiger» or «Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B «Tiger II». The height of the caterpillars in the front of the machine is just below the height of the adult male. The heaviest, mass-produced tank of all time and people, participating in the fighting — with a full load of 75 tons. More massive than him, only fired several times on the enemy, the self-propelled mortar «Karl» — 126 tons. Of the non-fought tanks by mass, it corresponds to the unfinished French twin-tower FCM F-1 — 145 tons, eight crew members and 185-ton German «Mauss» (six tankers, 200 mm armor) — Panzerkampfwagen VIII «Maus».
Armament: 88 mm. gun, 77—84 shells, two MG-34 machine guns, 26 mm. anti-personnel mortar. Reservations: the forehead of the tower 107 or 180 mm., Depending on the manufacturer, the side of the tower, 82 mm., The forehead of the body 120 mm., The board 82 mm. The roof of the tower and the shell — 40 mm. Speed along the highway is 38 km. h., Cross-country 13 km. h. The power reserve, respectively, is 150 km. and 70 km. Specific power 10 hp t. Ground pressure 1,02 kg. see Transporting a tank by rail, with the condition of changing tracks — is possible, but overcoming water obstacles — almost exclusively under water, outside bridges, using an air intake for the engine.
The effect of using the «Tiger-2» in battles was not great, in comparison with the existing excessive expectations. Most of these immobilized vehicles are abandoned by their crews. It is necessary to think, replacement of tracks «Tiger II» in the field is a very difficult task.
From 1944 to 1945, 489 Royal Tigers were produced.
On the chassis «Tiger 2» was also created a self-propelled artillery unit «Yagdtigr», 79 pieces. The caliber of the gun is 129 mm., The frontal armor is unthinkable 250 mm. This machine is represented in this photo.
5. STEN, surname. «Puncher», the most massive British submachine gun of the Second World War. The acronym (pronounced together abbreviation) is formed by the names of the main developers. The machine is a simplified version, in fact, the ersatz of the German (Hugo Schmeisser) MP28, quickly replenished the losses of small arms of the British army after the disaster at Dunkirk. The container is located horizontally (in which there is a peculiar chic) of the magazine 32 cartridges (in fact 28), the aiming range is 100 meters. Rate of fire 540 rounds per minute. Weight 2.95 — 3.27 kg. Disadvantages: overheating of the barrel, low reliability, inconvenience of using the «last chance» as a cold weapon in hand-to-hand combat, unsatisfactory balancing. Advantages: cheap and fast manufacturing. From 1941 to 1945, 4 million units were produced.
6. American self-loading rifle M1 Garand (Em-Ouen Garand), the main weapon of the US infantry of the times of World War II and the war in Korea. The recharging mechanism operates on the evacuation of the powder gases. The capacity of the holder (pack) is 8 cartridges, 7.62 × 63 mm. The aiming range is 550 m. Weight is 4.32 kg. 5, 4 million units were produced.
7. Soviet submachine gun system A. Sudayev (PPS). The fire mode is only automatic (as well as its analogue, the German «Schmeisser» MP-40). The magazine has a capacity of 35 cartridges 7.62 × 25 mm. Rate of fire 600 rounds per minute. Sighting range 200 m. Weight 3.2 kg. Only 2 million copies have been issued (in different countries). On the sum of combat qualities, PPS is considered the best submachine gun of the Second World War.
The Lvov-Sandomierz operation starts on July 13, 1944. The place of action practically coincides with that area — 300 kilometers west of Kiev, where three years ago the tank battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody was disastrous for the Red Army. The main idea is the encirclement of the German fascist troops, the liberation of Lviv. The forces of the parties: the Soviet Army — 1, 2 million people, 2,200 tanks, 2,800 aircraft. Wehrmacht, the Armed Forces of Hungary, the Ukrainian division of the Waffen SS «Galicia» — 0.9 million people, 900 tanks, 700 aircraft. By July 18, the German defense is breaking through in two places. Two armored armies (800 tanks and automatic control systems, plus auxiliary equipment and tank destroyers) are deployed in the breakthrough, which pass through 50—80 km. (already without ridiculous breakages) and close the ring of encirclement near the town of Brody. An isolated group of troops, eight divisions, 30,000 people are being destroyed on the ground by aircraft, artillery strikes and tank attacks, and 18,000 are surrendering.
In Lviv, the Poles raise uprising, unite with the advancing Soviet units, together, in a completely friendly way, cleanse the city of Germans. But, their idea is to make Lemberg again a Polish city, representatives of the USSR do not find any understanding. Part of the leadership of the local Army Krajowa is arrested, does not agree to cooperation, and is sent to Siberia.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front leave without delay to the territory of Poland, to the Vistula River and (by crossing it on a low-water bridge and using ferries) free Sandomierz. Here they, in particular, meet with the battalion of the new tanks «Royal Tiger» (20 units), seize three of them — with broken caterpillars, 13 — in fully serviceable condition (they complete their own advanced units). Having liberated a few more Polish cities, August 15, considerably stretched their supply lines, Soviet troops stop the offensive. Losses of the USSR — 65 thousand people irrevocably, Germany-Hungary-Ukrainian Nazis 54 thousand people, and 32 thousand prisoners, as well as almost all the tanks and aircraft available at the beginning of the offensive.
The Iasi-Kishinev operation begins on August 20, 1944 in Romania; Deep echeloned defense implies huge losses among the advancing troops. However, the artillery strike, backed by assault aviation attacks, is so strong that defensive lines simply cease to exist. The Romanian units are separated from the German army; the commander of the latter fled, abandoning his troops. By August 24, the Soviet mechanized troops are advancing 130—140 kilometers, closing a ring around 18 enemy divisions.
At the same time, an anti-government uprising broke out in Bucharest; The Romanian king arrested the premier Antonescu and the generals who support the Reich, declares war on Germany, asks for help from the Soviet Union. August 29, with the liquidation of the encircled troops and the exit to the port of Constanta, the operation is completed. The forces of the parties: the USSR — 1.3 million people, 1,900 tanks and self-propelled artillery systems, 2,200 aircraft, Germany-Romania — 0,9 million people, 400 tanks, 800 aircraft. Losses: USSR — 13,200 soldiers and officers, 75 tanks, 11 aircraft, Germany-Romania — 135,000 killed, 208,000 prisoners. Tanks T-34-85, coming from factories so much that it is customary to take on new, not repaired, vehicles.
The Ardennes operation. The forces of the parties: the United States and Great Britain — 84,000 people, 1,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, about 1,200 aircraft (all in this theater of operations the allies had 8,000 aircraft) Germany — 240,000 people, 1,800 tanks, 800 aircraft. Begins on December 16, in southwestern Belgium; the main purpose of the «fire Reich», Field Marshal Walter Model — to cut off the bridgehead of the Anglo-American forces advancing to Germany. Volunteers Otto Skorzeny, 2000 people, 150 of whom speak fluent English, are called to land in the rear, to destroy military leaders, to commit sabotage, to rearrange road signs, to sow panic. After the initial success, the tank units of the Wehrmacht begin to tie in positional battles. Airborne troops return through the front line to their troops. Saboteurs, when the initial plan is determined, are promptly identified and, after a short military court, they are shot (the military performing such operations are not considered combatants, the norms of international humanitarian law do not apply to them). The focus applied since the Anschluss of Austria, this time, in general, fails. The weather has improved, the tanks are subjected to powerful attacks of Anglo-British «Typhoons». German troops stop on December 25, before reaching their goal — the French port of Pas-de-Calais. Nevertheless, the situation continues to be serious, and on January 6, Churchill appeals to the Soviet command to begin the offensive on the Eastern Front ahead of schedule. Losses of the parties: Germany — 40 000 killed, 600 tanks, about 350 aircraft, the United Kingdom — the United States — 30 000 people irrevocably, 800 tanks, 400 aircraft (on land and in the air). Walter Model himself will end his life in April 1945, surrounded with his 300,000-strong group in the Ruhr; The «fireman of the Reich» issued direct orders for the destruction of the civilian population (including adolescents from the age of 14) in the USSR, and realized that he, as a war criminal, should not be expected.
1. La-5 (LaGG-5). Completed from a fairly «raw» plywood LaGG-3. The plane, in particular, the Soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub (64 wins only in single battles, in addition, 3 US fighter Mustang, invading the Soviet occupation zone with aggressive intentions, and not counted). On this fighter fought, achieved 7 victories, lost legs, Alexei Maresyev (before being shot down by Yak-1). La-5 is also known for the iconic Soviet film «Only old men are going to battle.» Created in the KB Lavochkin, with numerous obstacles from the Yakovlev Design Bureau and manufacturers, thanks to the persistence of designers and the stock of luck, stood all the tests. It is considered a competitor of the brand «Focke-Wulf», while the «Yak» family is the opponent of «Messershmit». Armament — two 20 mm. gun ShVAK, with ammunition of 200 rounds. The speed is 509 km. at the ground, 580 km. at an altitude of 6000 m., La5F, with a constantly forced air-cooling engine (which practically did not affect its resource) — 600 km. h. The range is 1200 km. — La-5, 760 km. — La-5F. The practical ceiling is 9500 meters. From 1942 to 1944, 9920 vehicles were produced.
2. Yak-3. Development of the Yak-1 concept. The most famous fighter of the Great Patriotic War. Armament is one 20 mm. gun, two 12.7 mm. machine gun. Cruising speed 600 km. h) (at 30 kmh higher than the maximum in the Yak-1), the maximum — 650 km. h. Water cooling engine. The practical range is 648 km. From 1944 to 1945. produced 4111 cars. Later on it will be based on the Yak-9, with approximately the same flight characteristics, but enhanced armament: up to 23 mm. or 37 mm. guns and two 12.7 mm. machine guns, in version «B» — with a compartment for 400 kg. bombs. In total, from 1942 to 1948, 16,000 Yak-9 were produced.
3. Aerocobra (Bell P-39 Airacobra). The machine of Soviet aces Alexander Pokryshkin (59 wins), Amet Khan Sultan (30), etc., is distinguished, above all, by powerful weapons: 37 mm. a cannon with 30 shells, two 12.7 mm. machine guns, 270 cartridges and four 7.62 mm. machine guns with 1000 cartridges in the wing. Can be used as a light bomber, with one 272 kg. bomb. The speed at an altitude of 4200 m is 585 km. h, at the land of 500 km. h, practical range of 990 km. The engine behind the pilot serves as an additional protection against firing, helps to avoid hooding when landing. This same feature of the layout increases the likelihood of entry into a tailspin, for which American pilots strongly dislike the P-39, preferring it to a more stable «Mustang». The side door improves comfort in everyday operation, but is a risk factor when evacuating the pilot sideways, rather than downwards (usually to throw out with a parachute enough to open the lantern, flip the plane and unfasten the straps). In total in the USSR from the beginning of 1942 4500 cars are delivered.
4. Lend-Lizovsky bomber «Boston» (Douglas A-20 Havoc / DB-7 Boston). A total of 3,066 units were supplied to the USSR. Own armament — six 12, 7 mm. machine guns (part — controlled by servos), bomb load 1,100 kg. In general, it corresponds to the Soviet Il-4, but it has the highest level of comfort for the crew (airtight cabin, heating, a bathroom under the seat of one of the pilots), a reliable radio station and a set of navigational instruments..
4. Focke-Wulf-190 (Focke-Wulf FW-190 «Würger»), German attack aircraft, fighter. The engine — with a star-shaped two-row arrangement of cylinders, with — very successful aerodynamics. Armament: two 20-mm. guns MG 151 / 20E at the base of the wings, 150 shots per barrel (the experimental models had 4 or even 6 guns), two 13-mm guns. a machine gun, 250 cartridges each. As an attack aircraft, Focke-Wulf was equipped with a 6-mm. armor, while he could carry two 250 kg. bombs. The speed at an altitude of 5700 m is 660 km. h., 3100 meters — 585 km. h., at the ground of 545 km. h. The flight range is 750 km. From 1941 to 1945, 20,000 units were built.
5. The fighter «Comet» (Messerschmitt Me.163 «Komet»). The commencement of flights — 1941, the first combat application-May 14, 1944. Armament: two 30 mm. guns with 60 rounds per barrel, or missiles. The maximum speed is 960 km. h. Rate of climb — a record, about 5 kilometers per minute. The operating time of the jet engine with a thrust of 1, 7 tons, with its own mass of the aircraft about 4 tons — 6 minutes. The number of cars produced was 470. During tests and trainings dozens of pilots were killed, hundreds of aces were diverted from the front for retraining. The result of combat use, for the entire operation — 9 Allied aircraft with the loss of 11 of their own. Me-163 is the clearest example of how a high level of technology, combined with extreme ambitiousness and stubbornness, leads to a dead end.
6. Messershmitt Me-262. The world’s first turbojet production aircraft. The speed is 820 km. h, flight range 1040 km., practical ceiling of 11500 m. Armament — two or four 30 mm. guns with 100 ammunition per barrel, as well as the ability to fire 24 unguided missiles on air targets. The pilots of the Luftwaffe destroyed 150 enemy planes on the Me-262, with a loss of about 100 of their own — which is not a special achievement. In general, jet cars did not show any special advantages over piston ones, at this stage of development, possibly by drawing Germany’s resources away from the more promising guided air defense missiles Wasserfal.
7. V-2 (V-2 — Vergeltungswaffe-2), the so-called. «Weapons of retribution» (whereas Germany needed, rather, in defense). The German ballistic missile, the first in the world. Combat charge — 800 kg. Ammotol, a mixture of ammonium nitrate and TNT. The maximum speed is 1.7 km. from. The range of the flight is 320 km. Weight starting 12 500 kg. Control is an autonomous gyroscopic system. The fuel is 3900 kg. of ethyl alcohol, 5000 kg. liquid oxygen. The running time of the engine is 65 seconds. The diameter of the funnel is 25—30 m., The depth is 15 m. The probability of falling into a circle with a radius of 10 km. — 50%. The height of the rise in the experimental launch is 188 km. The main goals are London, the ports of Belgium and, liberated by the US Army, Paris. Effectiveness: on average on the launch — one or two people, most likely not wanting to hide in the basement, a British pensioner. The cost of the missile — corresponds to the price of the best tank of the Wehrmacht T-5, the «Panther» (can be counted for twice as costly «Tigers»), refueling for 500 kilometers of rough terrain. The number of units produced since 1943 is 5976.
9. Soviet submarine S-13, 9th series-bis. Developed by German and Dutch designers, produced under their supervision at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, was launched in 1939. Index «C» — «Medium» or «Stalin». The home port is Kronstadt. Underwater displacement 1090 tons, weight 837 tons, length 77 m, width 6.4 m, draft 4 m. Surface speed 19.5 knots — 33 km. h, underwater 8.7 knots — 15 km. h. (speed of the bicyclist). The maximum depth of immersion is 100 m., The working depth is 80 m. The autonomy of navigation (fuel reserve, etc.) is 30 days. Crew of 42 people.
The characteristics of Soviet, British, American and German submarines of the Second World War are approximately equal. The German submarines of the XXI series, commissioned by the end of the war, did not participate in combat operations, they represent the modern level of diesel-electric submarines, and they have the following parameters.
The underwater displacement is 2100 tons, the length is 77 meters, the width is 7.7 meters, the draft is 6.8 meters, the surface speed is 15.6 knots, the underwater is 17.2 knots. The ability to go underwater on one battery is two days (the usual submarine of that time is 6 hours). The maximum immersion depth is 220 meters, the working depth is 130 meters. The crew is 58 people (unusually comfortable conditions, shower refrigerators, separate cabins, air conditioning, etc.).
Among the biggest catastrophes caused by hostilities, in addition to the following sinking of the liner «Wilhelm Gustloff» also:
March 18, 1944 — «Junje-Maru», a Japanese vessel. It is submerged by the British submarine Tradewind. 1400 English, Dutch, American prisoners of war, and 4,220 Javanese workers are killed. People are transported to the construction of the Thai-Burmese Iron «Road of Death», where, in the hilly jungle, with high probability, death awaits them too.
June 29, 1944 — Toyama-Maru, sunk by the American submarine Sturgeon, 5,600 dead.
April 16 — the sinking of the German transport «Goya» by the L-3 «Frunzevets» boat, 4,000—7,000 people, 157 people are being saved. Breaks in half after hitting two torpedoes, goes to the bottom within 20 minutes. The current number of victims may be more, and then in the world list of major sea accidents, «Goya» takes first place (then Wilhelm Gustloff).
May 2, 1945 — Re-equipped cruise diner «Cap Arcona». According to the order to «destroy all concentrated enemy vessels in the harbor of Lübeck,» English aircraft bombard ships, including with raised white flags, despite the clearly discernible striped robes of transported prisoners of concentration camps. The liner «Cap Arcona», the cargo ship «Thielbek», the ships «Athen» and «Deutschland» go to the bottom. People who are rescuing people are shot at the same time by SS security guards and British air forces. On the Cap Arkona alone, about 5600 people are killed, 300 are being saved. The next day the Germans surrender to the Montgomery troops.
The liberation of Norway by Soviet troops begins October 7, 1944 (after Finland leaves the war). The good organization of the landing parties and the active assistance of the local population made it possible to achieve a positive result with a relatively small superiority over the enemy in manpower — 1, 8: 1. The northern country is cleared of the 20th Mountain Army of Germans (56,000 men) by November 1. At the same time, the irrevocable losses of the Soviet Army amount to 6,000 fighters (according to other sources 11,000), German — 30,000.
In September 1945, according to the Yalta agreement, the Soviet troops leave the territory of Norway.
Vistula-Oder operation. The most successful series of actions of the Soviet Army. Wehrmacht is forced to transfer troops to the Ardennes and East Prussia, to the defense of Koenigsberg; the front on the Vistula, stabilized from the end of Operation Bagration, from the German side is weakened. However, there are seven defense lines on this section, separated by 300—500 kilometers; anti-tank ditches, barbed wire, solid minefields and trenches of the full profile. The forces of the parties: Poland — the 1st Army of the Polish Army — 52 000 people, the Army Craiova (preserves independence from the Soviet Army and saves forces for the subsequent confrontation of the USSR) 40—50 000. The Soviet Army — 2 million people, 7000 tanks, 5000 aircraft.
January 12 begins the artillery preparation, 300 barrels per kilometer; the blow is successful, since German artillery reserves put forward to the front line are in the artillery zone.
On January 17, German garrisons leave Warsaw, already almost surrounded by Soviet troops. On February 3, having overcome 500 kilometers in 23 days, Soviet troops leave for the Oder, on the territory of Germany; before them, throwing their wounded from trucks, on the corpses of the «genossa», the soldiers of the Wehrmacht retreat. Losses of the parties: the USSR — 43,000 people, SCPO (Polish Committee of National Liberation, uniting Polish military formations loyal to the Soviet Union) — 225 killed. Germany — 480,000 irretrievable losses, 150,000 people were taken prisoner.
On January 19, the troops were acquainted with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to prevent rude treatment of the local population. Completely prevent violence is not possible, but it is still restrained, but over time and reduced to a minimum. Same movie on the topic — «Nameless — one woman in Berlin» (2008). Also interesting is the film «Our Fathers, Our Mothers,» (Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter) produced by Germany. Unfortunately, it is necessary to illustrate the text with pictures of foreign production; domestic «masterpieces» — it’s just some kind of children’s, wooden hand-made articles.
On January 26, during the East-Prussian operation that began on January 19, Soviet troops leave for the Baltic Sea in the vicinity of Elbing and cut off the East Prussian group of Germans from the rest of Germany. There is an extrusion of the Wehrmacht troops, as well as those who deliberately spread rumors about the atrocities of the Soviet troops, refugees to the sea. The remaining are declared traitors, and often shoot their own. So the German troops do, to some extent, replenish the ranks of the Volkssturm (the «people’s militia»), but, at the same time, practically lose the opportunity to move around the crowded thousands of people, carts and horses to roads. Soviet tanks, if there is a need to immediately preempt the deployment of enemy forces, use the highway, despite the presence of any foreign vehicles on them. The struggle is complicated by the presence of many, even from the time of the founding of the Teutonic Order — fortifications, also lakes, pre-targeted roads, equipped enemy airfields. The forces of the parties: the USSR — 1.7 million people, 3,800 tanks, 3,100 aircraft. Wehrmacht: 580,000 sodat and officers, as well as 200,000 people. Volkssturm, 1000 tanks and automatic control systems, 550 aircraft. Losses: the Soviet Union — 126,000 people, 3,000 tanks (including recharges), 1,400 aircraft, German aircraft — 106,000 killed, 220 thousand prisoners, virtually all tanks, 360 aircraft.
The German fleet organizes the largest operation in the history of evacuation of the civilian population (and not involved in the battles of the military) Hannibal. About 1.6 million people move to central Germany or neutral Sweden. At the same time, about 25,000 people die during the evacuation.
On January 30, at 21.04, the submarine S-13, under the control of A. Marinescu, in the above-water position, from the shore, and from a distance of less than a kilometer, launches the first torpedo in German transport Wilhelm Gustloff. The captain of the liner says «Das war’s», which means «That’s all». The vessel is repainted in gray camouflage color and, above all, therefore, has no protection of the Hague Convention. The fourth cocked torpedo «For Stalin» is stuck in the torpedo tube, it is difficult to disarm and dive. An hour later the transport goes to the bottom, somewhere near the submarine lying on the ground (at a depth of 45 m). 10,000 people die. Saving succeeds about 600.
Among the passengers there are 918 cadets of the submarine training division, the rest are refugees, members of the families of high-ranking officials of the SD and SS.
On February 10, the same C-13 fires two torpedoes, the liner «General Steuben» bound for Kiel. At this moment, the captain believes that in front of him — a light German cruiser «Emden». Killed about 3,600 people — mostly wounded soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, are rescued 650.
A. Marinesco is the son of a Romanian sailor and a Ukrainian peasant woman. Dreams of the merchant fleet, but in the end, on the Komsomol voucher is sent to the courses of the comm