tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53166747025881343702024-03-13T01:46:39.126+00:00De Rebus Antiquis Et NovisArticles about history. Articles about Russia. Sometimes both.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger348125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-56410980639335393922012-03-20T06:43:00.001+00:002012-03-20T06:43:22.173+00:00Soviet television shows California (1976)<p>What did the Soviet people know about USA? How did they see America? <a href="http://cccp.tv/video/California_today/" >California Today</a> is a short documentary (26 minutes) made in 1976 by the Soviet television. Nature, American working class, banks, roads and cars, Hollywood, military-industrial complex, Berkley university, students protests, conservatory and rock music, beaches, immigrants, Disneyland. </p><br />
<br />
<p>Music includes "My Beautiful Balloon" and "One of These Days". </p><br />
<p>The web-site <a href="http://cccp.tv" >CCCP.TV</a> is an online archive of Soviet TV programs: political, for kids, concerts, sports, travel, party congresses... See, for example, one-hour long <a href="http://cccp.tv/video/Pervomajskie_torzhestva_na_Krasn/" >the First of May parade in Moscow in 1974</a> or <a href="http://cccp.tv/video/Khokkej_CCCP_Canada/" >ice hockey match USSR-Canada</a> in 1960.</p><br />
<p>The archive is not a large one, but I do hope they will grow. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-20465817785969764842012-01-03T20:00:00.003+00:002012-01-03T20:28:48.826+00:00Two blogs you really have to look at<p>The first one is a brilliantly erratic <a href="http://riowang.blogspot.com/">Poemas del río Wang</a>. Multilingual, colorful, aimless, meditative and absolute must read.</p>
<p>The second one is in Russian, but in most cases all you need to read is the year in the post title. <a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/">Visual History</a> (a.k.a. "Photo archives to the people!") is a collection of old photographs. Mostly, but not exclusively, Russian, including the famous photos by <a href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/">Prokudin-Gorsky</a> and equally brilliant images made in USSR by journalists of the "Life" magazine Howard Sochurek and Carl Mydans. Absolute must see.</p>
<p>Here are some links to articles in Visual History:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/38519.html">Nizhny Novgorod in 1958</a> (by Sochurek) </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/37694.html">Travel of an Americal along Volga in 1958</a> (by Sochurek)</li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/36407.html">Sports parade in Moscow in 1945</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/39166.html">My hometown, Samara, in 1958</a> (Sochurek again)</li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/40580.html">Post-war Byelorussia</a> (1950s) </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/41913.html">Moscow in 1959</a> (by Mydans) </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/42549.html">Pskov around 1960</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/35990.html">Rostov: modern and Prokudin-Gorsky's photos</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/34881.html">Travel from Moscow to Rostov in 1964</a> (by Jacques Dupâquier) </li>
<li><a href="http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/34187.html">Soviet cars on the Expo 1958 in Brussels</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>P.S.: while writing, I found also this collection of photographs: <a href="http://kcmeesha.com/old-photos/">Kansas City with a Russian accent</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-47069502290806388592011-10-02T19:00:00.004+00:002011-10-03T09:26:07.245+00:00Illustrations to War and Peace<p>I've found an old album of watercolor illustrations to “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy. The illustrations were published in 1893 as a free supplement to magazine “Sever” (North). The titles are (in order): </p>
<ol>
<li>Battery of captain Tushin near Schoengraben</li>
<li>Napoleon and emperor Alexander I meeting in Tilsit</li>
<li>The first ball of Natasha Rostova</li>
<li>Rostovs hunt with hounds in Otradnoye</li>
<li>Rostovs go to Melyukovs on yule</li>
<li>Napoleon and Lavrushka during the march from Vyazma to Tsarevo-Zaimische</li>
<li>Kutuzov on Polkonnaya mount before the war council in Fili</li>
<li>Count Rostopchin and merchant's son Vereshchagin near the governor's house in Moscow</li>
<li>Natasha Rostova and Andrey Bolkonsky in Mytishchi</li>
<li>The French execute arsonists in Moscow</li>
<li>Death of Petya Rostov</li>
</ol>
<p>Below you can see a preview of the album (all 20 pages):</p>
<embed src="http://embedit.in/IuCZDoqDcc.swf" height="400" width="466" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true">
<p>Press the icon in the lower right corner of the preview to switch to fullscreen.</p>
<p>To download the full PDF file, right-click in the preview window and select Download document...</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-77948192360204828762011-09-27T18:42:00.003+00:002011-09-27T18:50:40.960+00:00How we almost killed each other<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_6aU550XJTTSyLhQ0CsxDpWQn-jJVhitFGsm1Tes_SDfi2T4dsO7lsNJspCTo0Yo01QenGg-5-vuz_m1_Xl8qMpMtd0N1L7hberU9m7Fl5JY2IQYCmJHpzLpyoZEV_vU-22cUcj-l5k/s1600/NATO.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 305px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_6aU550XJTTSyLhQ0CsxDpWQn-jJVhitFGsm1Tes_SDfi2T4dsO7lsNJspCTo0Yo01QenGg-5-vuz_m1_Xl8qMpMtd0N1L7hberU9m7Fl5JY2IQYCmJHpzLpyoZEV_vU-22cUcj-l5k/s320/NATO.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657113547200672370" /></a>
<p>In 2009, I wrote about a fictional occupation of the USSR by the USA: <a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2009/03/world-war-that-never-happened-us.html" >The World War that never happened</a>. Recently, I learned about some more wars that never happened. Or was it the same war? </p>
<p>The article was published at OrientalReview.org: <a href="http://orientalreview.org/2010/04/22/britain-planned-to-attack-ussr/" >Britain Planned to Attack USSR on June 12, 1941</a> </p>
<p>The first potential war took place in the early 1940, when Britain and France planned an invasion into the Soviet Union. Yugoslavian, Romanian, Greek and Turkish armies, directed by British and French governments, had to attack Soviet Caucasus and from the Balkans. Perhaps, this was why <a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-book-based-on-declassified.html" >they had rejected the Soviet proposal to join forces to contain the Nazi Germany</a>. </p>
<p>The goal of the second potential war (June-July 1940) were Soviet oil fields: “Baku bombing would put the Soviets into the critical situation, as long as Moscow requires every single drop of oil that is produced today in order to provide the fuel for the Soviet motorized units and the agricultural equipment”. </p>
<p>The Soviet oil fields worried the European allies even in 1941: “On the 12th of June Heads of Staff Committee decided to assume the measures that would allow to conduct the strikes against the oil refining plants in Baku using the average bombers from Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan without any delays” </p>
<p>Some years later, when the Soviet Union recuperated after the WWII, the Soviets managed to retaliate. At least, in the same potential way. The <a href="http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/index.cfm" >“Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security (PHP)”</a> features a huge amount of Warsaw Pact documents, including some war plans, like <a href="http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/collections/colltopic.cfm?lng=en&id=16239&navinfo=15365" >this 1964 plan</a>: “This war plan provides describes the operations of the Czechoslovak People's Army in wartime. Under the scenario, the NATO countries launch surprise nuclear strikes against the main political and economic centers of Czechoslovakia. It also assumes that the combat actions of both NATO and Warsaw Pact troops in the initial period of war will have the character of forward contact battles. It offers conclusions as to the anticipated opposing NATO units and enemy war aims. The document lists the specific tasks and lines of advance for major elements of the Czechoslovak People's Army, with the main axis of attack concentrated in the direction of Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Strasbourg, and Epinal, and with the aim of holding the areas of Langres, Besançon, and Epinal one week after the outbreak of war.” </p>
<p>As far as I can understand, the Soviet war plans were based on the premise that NATO would attack first. The NATO plans seem to agree. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-65300494226464945332011-03-05T21:32:00.000+00:002011-03-05T21:33:44.744+00:00Rodric Braithwaite on the Afghan war 1979-89<p>Rodric Braithwaite, former U.K. ambassador to Russia and the author of
the book “Afgantsy. The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89” was
interviewed by Olga Smirnova from the BBC Russian Service. The
original text of the interview is here: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2011/03/110303_afghantsy_book_braithwaite.shtml?print=1" >"Афганцы": новая книга бывшего британского посла в Москве</a>. I could not find the English text, so below is an <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Frussian%2Frussia%2F2011%2F03%2F110303_afghantsy_book_braithwaite.shtml%3Fprint%3D1" >automatic translation made by Google</a>, where I fixed the most obvious errors, trying to make the text a bit easier to understand.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The book "Afgantsy. The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89" by Sir Rodric Braithwaite, British ambassador to Moscow from 1988 to 1992, was published in Britain.</p>
<p>After 1992, Rodric Braithwaite was, in particular, advisor to Prime Minister John Major on international affairs and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>"Afgantsy" is the third book of Braithwaite. The previous one, "Moscow 1941: the city and its inhabitants," was devoted to the Battle of Moscow. The new book continues the theme of the people at war. BBC correspondent BBC Olga Smirnova interviewed the author.</p>
<p>BBC: Why did you choose this topic for the new book?</p>
<p>Rodric Braithwaite: I think there are few good books, especially in the West, about what really happened in Afghanistan. And I am very sympathetic to the Soviet soldiers who fought there. They were strongly criticized outside the Soviet Union and in Russia.</p>
<p>As in my previous book on Russia, I wanted to explain to the Western reader that there is nothing unusual in Russians and that they are people just like us. They are no worse and no better than us. And you can understand Russian politicians, Russian soldiers, Soviet women who served in Afghanistan, and there were many - they can be understood in human terms.</p>
<p>I would like to amend the myths about the Afghan war, which existed during the Cold War.</p>
<p>BBC: What do you think were those myths?</p>
<p>RB: In the West there are two main myths about the Afghan war. The first - that when invading Afghanistan, the Soviet Union pursued imperial aims, that is, that they wanted to expand the Soviet empire and would jeopardize the supply of oil to the West from the Gulf countries.</p>
<p>Of course, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan for very different reasons. The Soviet Union launched the Afghan campaign for defensive purposes. Their concern was the instability in Afghanistan, which bordered on the USSR. The Soviets were concerned, probably wrongly, that Americans would use Afghan territory against the interests of the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>The Soviet leaders were also worried by drug trafficking from Afghanistan.</p>
<p>And it is true that the Soviet leaders hoped to build a better society in Afghanistan.Similar hopes were in Western countries before the recent invasion of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>A second major myth is associated with the reasons why the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. It did not happen because the Soviet Union was defeated in this war. Nobody won a victory over the 40-th army. The army itself left Afghanistan, because it became obvious that the war was futile, it clearly did not achieve the goals.</p>
<p>The third myth is that a major role in the Afghan war was played by Stinger anti-aircraft guided missiles supplied by the Americans to the Mujahideen. This is totally wrong. Gorbachev invited the Afghan leader to Moscow in 1985 and told him that the Soviet troops are going to withdraw from Afghanistan, and the first Soviet helicopter was show down by a Stinger only 11 months after this conversation. So the weapons supplied by the U.S. had no effect on the political decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Well, probably, the last myth is that the war in Afghanistan was a particularly brutal war. Yes, the Soviets bombed villages, killing many civilians. But what happened in Afghanistan was no worse than what had happened in Vietnam. War is always cruel. And all military interventions are particularly brutal, especially when combined with the civil war, as it was in Vietnam and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>BBC: When writing the book you talked to a lot of veterans. What's new did you discover talking to them?</p>
<p>RB: I was most surprised that the veterans are returning to Afghanistan, where they were fought. They meet the people they fought against. I did not expect it. They return to Afghanistan as tourists.</p>
<p>On YouTube you can watch films they made in Afghanistan. They return to the outposts, where they served for many months. They come to Afghanistan because they love this country and love the Afghans.</p>
<p>BBC: In 2008 you visited Afghanistan. How do they now recall the war of 1979-89?</p>
<p>RB: In 2008 I asked the Afghans, when it was better in Afghanistan - with the Russians or now?</p>
<p>And Afghans always answered: "Why do you ask such a stupid question? Of course, it was better when the Russians had been here."</p>
<p>Even one of the Mujahideen, with whom I spoke told me that "At least, the Russians fought as honest soldiers, and Americans simply destroy us from the air."</p>
<p>BBC: In your book you intentionally avoid comparing the Afghan war of 1979-89, and the current war?</p>
<p>RB: Of course, intentionally, because between there is a big difference between the wars. My book is historical one, not political, and I'm not trying to enter in controversy.</p>
<p>While there are parallels between the two wars, may the readers themselves think about it.</p>
<p>Western politicians are now saying that we will prevail in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>We say that we will leave there, when a strong government and a strong Afghan army will appear in Kabul and then things will be fine in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Soviet leaders told the same, but after they had stopped supporting the government of Najibullah, the Afghan civil war started.</p>
<p>One has only to read Clausewitz to realize that military victory does not mean much without a political victory.</p>
<p>BBC: In the book you often rely on the memoirs of Soviet politicians. How reasonable is this, considering that in memoirs the events are often distorted?</p>
<p>RB: Of course, a memoir is an unreliable source of information. But the story in general can not be completely impartial.</p>
<p>Even the archival documents can not be objective, as is thought by historians.</p>
<p>I am a former civil servant, and I know how the documents are written and why. It's not that simple.</p>
<p>BBC: Some of the Afghan Mujahideen claim that the world should be grateful to them, since they, when waging a struggle with the Soviet Union, caused the downfall of communism. In your opinion, are they right?</p>
<p>RB: This is a huge exaggeration. I do not want to belittle the achievements of the Mujahideen. But they failed to win the 40 th Army, which left Afghanistan on their own will, in an organized way.</p>
<p>The Soviet Union dissolved because of many, many factors. And the Afghan war is just a small factor.</p>
<p>It is true that the war in Afghanistan has helped to undermine the faith of ordinary Soviet people in their government. I do not know whether this is true, but Chernobyl had even more influence on public opinion.</p>
<p>BBC: In recent years, several films about the Afghan war were made in Russia, there was a number of publications, particularly during the celebration of the 20 anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Do you think Russia is still trying to comprehend the war?</p>
<p>RB: There are few good films about the Afghan war. Among those the veterans like, a really good movie is "Afghan Breakdown", filmed in 1991. Мне кажется, что он достоверно изображает войну. It seems to me that it portrays the war accurately. Veterans do not like the "Ninth company", which enjoyed success in Russia and abroad.</p>
<p>As for the comprehension of the war, many those who served in Afghanistan, say more and more often that when Yeltsin cancelled the supply of weapons, fuel and food to the Afghan leader Najibullah, it was a betrayal, and led to Najibullah's downfall.</p>
<p>BBC: During the war years of 1979-89 up to half a million civilians were killed in Afghanistan, and three million have become refugees, which is a large figure for a country with 15 million people. В популярных книгах о войне часто происходит обезличивание местного населения вражеской страны и его страданий. In the popular books about the war the local population of enemy countries and their suffering are often depersonalized. And this leads to the fact that cruelty against this faceless population becomes more acceptable. When paying attention mainly to Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, don't you do the same?</p>
<p>Р.Б.: Я написал эту книгу, потому что Запад обезличил русских солдат в Афганистане. RB: I wrote this book because the West deprived of individuality the Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. And I wanted to repay it, pay attention to them and portray them as people and not as an enemy.</p>
<p>I did not write about the Mujahideen, because many have already written about them before me.</p>
I hope that the reader does not have the impression that I was demonizing the Mujahideen. They were brave fighters. Yes, sometimes they showed the cruelty, as well as Russians did.
<p>I think that in any war demonization of the enemy is inevitable.Then it is easier to get soldiers to fight.</p>
<p>I hope that my book makes it clear my attitude to the war - that war is horrible, but that, unfortunately, the desire to fight is an innate human trait.</p>
<p>I do not think the wars will ever stop, which means that we will continue to demonize the enemy. It's human nature. </p>
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-79414410163120584472011-01-24T17:27:00.004+00:002011-01-24T17:37:15.613+00:00Autobiography by Grigory Grigorov<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXY4iAIuMJEu4aUk74lxPqALdkAgVCGny1rx3Etwc0nioAWYzCzQxXDmUwhf42ArO7_3_Lmtj3wg6oHDCfsBTC1vv88kKb6_PsAguSysQQoiMR2yNivKSsQAXgFT4lWe0bPAxyW29Fg6o/s1600/grigorov1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXY4iAIuMJEu4aUk74lxPqALdkAgVCGny1rx3Etwc0nioAWYzCzQxXDmUwhf42ArO7_3_Lmtj3wg6oHDCfsBTC1vv88kKb6_PsAguSysQQoiMR2yNivKSsQAXgFT4lWe0bPAxyW29Fg6o/s320/grigorov1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565806136367268130" /></a>
<p>I can't say I enjoy reading about that scary period of the Russian history called the Civil War, but I often read memoirs about those years. I often think about their authors: what did they think, what did they feel, what did they hope for, what made them join one or the other side in that war. The war must have started subtly, creepingly, insensibly. Some of them were, probably, afraid of the German army, but then the Reds or the Whites came to the city and the people faced a simple choice: they could join that army or become, well, subjects of preventive actions. Had I lived in 1919 or 1920, I would, probably, try to avoid both sides, but, of course, I dislike the bolsheviks more. Could it have been the other way round if I really lived then? I believe, yes. Because I am sure that the communists were not all bloodthirsty maniacs. Like Whites, the Reds fought for a better life for the people. Well, some of them did. </p>
<p>Recently, I finished reading memoirs of Grigory Grigorov. He was born in 1900 in Ukraine, in a family of a poor tailor. The book starts in 1905, when his family lived in Aleksandrovsk, with one of his first recollections, a pogrom. In 1911, he graduated from a five-year Jewish school and started working: at a footwear factory, as a newspaper boy, an assistant at a barbershop... In 1915 he made acquaintance with a couple of students who ran education groups for workers and who helped him find good books, and he started learning. In just two years, Grigory managed to prepare for the gymnasium exams, which included math, geography, history, physics, chemistry, biology, German and Latin languages. In 1917, he was already reading Caesar in Latin and Schiller in German. At the same time, he read philosophy books, books about religion, classical Greek literature, Shakespeare's works. What's more important, these two students who became his close friends, were socialists. They introduced him to Marxism. By that time Grigorov was working at a factory, and the choice of socialism was quite natural for him. </p>
<p>He mentions some people, like young turner Bondarenko or foundryman Likhachov, who told him unanimously that the revolution, should it happen, would fail, because the workers would not be able to keep the power. "Either bourgeois, or opportunists would exploit the movement of the Russian proletariat", they told. Grigorov was not that pessimistic, so he joined the socialist party. In 1919, he worked as a spy on the territory occupied/liberated by the White Army. He was caught and put to jail, but liberated by anarchists of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Makhno" >Nestor Makhno</a>. Since then, he treated anarchists with respect. For a year he fought in the Red Army, but for some personal reason he prefers not to tell a lot about this period. In 1920, he decides that he has had enough and goes to Moscow. He always wanted to learn, so he enters the Moscow State University, where he studies philosophy and social sciences. In 1922 he entered the philosophical department of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Red_Professors" >Institute of Red Professors</a>. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2_Lo0eJqXT1gyrHMVV_T0km71cki4QzVPOkF0CgSGo4cc3e-10qSkHaKitGrg-mNeq7aav_wHXYAosgimsp7gnMLmgzpCg9DToCrxQL5BnyMAVyRdLUrPeyTpg8RtATmXTSnI15v1cbA/s1600/grigorov2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2_Lo0eJqXT1gyrHMVV_T0km71cki4QzVPOkF0CgSGo4cc3e-10qSkHaKitGrg-mNeq7aav_wHXYAosgimsp7gnMLmgzpCg9DToCrxQL5BnyMAVyRdLUrPeyTpg8RtATmXTSnI15v1cbA/s320/grigorov2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565805935309536162" /></a>
<p>It was a magnificent period for him, when he met a lot of great figures of the Russian culture: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayakovsky" >Mayakovsky</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski" >Stanislavsky</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feodor_Chaliapin" >Chaliapin</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesenin" >Yesenin</a>, when he was lectured by famous scientists and talked to influential politicians. In 1923, the bell rang. Someone reported to the party Central Committee that he promoted anti-Marxist views. As a warning, he was sent as a lecturer to a small town, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, then to Siberia: to Tomsk and then to Novosibirsk. </p>
<p>The first volume of the memoirs, the only one I had, ends in 1927. The other volumes were not published in Russia, but, fortunately, I found a blog of Grigorov's grand-daughter (<a href="http://russian---history.blogspot.com/" >Russian History</a>). You can find <a href="http://russian---history.blogspot.com/2010/12/from-international-newsletter-of.html" >a short synopsis of the whole book</a> in a much better English there. Besides, that blog features large extracts from the books, so I will not go into further details. The blog authors told me they had published the second and the third volumes in Israel. These volumes cover Grigorov's life from the first arrest in 1928, return home in 1930, second arrest in 1934, twenty years in prison and all the following life in USSR. In the foreword to the first volume, the author promises some interesting news in the following books. So, he tells about a group of army officers who in 1926 met with Trotsky to propose a putsch to overthrow Stalin... </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Pk8YayEo1-GbFKXs5DZcY_gItDdC-J_IPOVkF90CjSoSPK9HSY6Un5iWKQMEnKACeB6i9K0IWmk0sAoO-tizf867BAZ9ftl0H31rqmWVFTJA8mETvpgxuaIFQOYKH2Hoh2Io-Nr1b_0/s1600/grigorov3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Pk8YayEo1-GbFKXs5DZcY_gItDdC-J_IPOVkF90CjSoSPK9HSY6Un5iWKQMEnKACeB6i9K0IWmk0sAoO-tizf867BAZ9ftl0H31rqmWVFTJA8mETvpgxuaIFQOYKH2Hoh2Io-Nr1b_0/s320/grigorov3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565805738849513250" /></a>
<p>What is so interesting about this book? Firstly, it's a detailed description of life in the early USSR. Secondly, it is one of few biographies written by the people from the other side of the revolution. And, finally, to a certain degree, it has explained to me the way of thinking of the people who fought in the Red Army for the bolsheviks. Grigorov, like many others, was disappointed with the way the things went. I'd say he should have listened better to the wise people, like Bondarenko and Likhachov. There's a bunch of things where I would disagree with Grigory Grigorov, but he had made his choice and the book is a frank justification of that choice. </p>
<p>A bit later I read another book of memoirs, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Golitsyn" >Sergei Golitsyn</a>, son of prince Mikhail Golitsyn, who, of course, disliked the bolsheviks. Actually, he never even tried to oppose them, but he hated them with all his heart. Paradoxically, this book has also helped me understand what brought people to the camp of the revolutionaries. Golitsyn's aristocratic arrogance and disdain towards all those who belong to the lower classes really made me feel what the bolsheviks must have called "the class feeling". So, Grigorov was not really that wrong when he joined the revolution, I believe. His books is a valuable source of information and I hope it will be made available in English soon. At least, Russian edition is already available in the library of Harvard university. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-36966798492561111952010-11-21T11:04:00.005+00:002010-11-21T11:17:40.518+00:00A quotation from Leo Tolstoy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd5p9ZtsDknkXHf8Hivx7NY8Kdw7IjzSMuRj8OJzcUmWMkffz7CFpE_fWg2HWxtdKo7LJlsOtsU4whBdi36eKJOUQM04aJyAOUaNVSs1-kZwqrBAU8gp0WDja0S1n6Ync-ZOxWt1KQfE/s1600/tolstoy-officer.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd5p9ZtsDknkXHf8Hivx7NY8Kdw7IjzSMuRj8OJzcUmWMkffz7CFpE_fWg2HWxtdKo7LJlsOtsU4whBdi36eKJOUQM04aJyAOUaNVSs1-kZwqrBAU8gp0WDja0S1n6Ync-ZOxWt1KQfE/s320/tolstoy-officer.jpg" border="0" alt="Leo Tolstoy"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541960118683710274" /></a>
<p>One more post to commemorate 100th anniversary of the death of count Leo Tolstoy. Below is a quotation from L. Tolstoy's essay <a href="http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html">“The kingdom of god is within you”</a>. In spite of the title, this is not a study in religion. It's a strong political statement, absolutely modern even though it was written 120 years ago (from July 1890 to May 1893).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Governments and the ruling classes no longer take their stand on right or even on the semblance of justice, but on a skillful organization carried to such a point of perfection by the aid of science that everyone is caught in the circle of violence and has no chance of escaping from it. This circle is made up now of four methods of working upon men, joined together like the limes of a chain ring.</p>
<p>The first and oldest method is intimidation. This consists in representing the existing state organization--whatever it may be, free republic or the most savage despotism--as something sacred and immutable, and therefore following any efforts to alter it with the cruellest punishments. This method is in use now--as it has been from olden times--wherever there is a government: in Russia against the so-called Nihilists, in America against Anarchists, in France against Imperialists, Legitimists, Communards, and Anarchists.</p>
<p>Railways, telegraphs, telephones, photographs, and the great perfection of the means of getting rid of men for years, without killing them, by solitary confinement, where, hidden from the world, they perish and are forgotten, and the many other modern inventions employed by government, give such power that when once authority has come into certain hands, the police, open and secret, the administration and prosecutors, jailers and executioners of all kinds, do their work so zealously that there is no chance of overturning the government, however cruel and senseless it may be.</p>
<p>The second method is corruption. It consists in plundering the industrious working people of their wealth by means of taxes and distributing it in satisfying the greed of officials, who are bound in return to support and keep up the oppression of the people. These bought officials, from the highest ministers to the poorest copying clerks, make up an unbroken network of men bound together by the same interest--that of living at the expense of the people. They become the richer the more submissively they carry out the will of the government; and at all times and places, sticking at nothing, in all departments support by word and deed the violence of government, on which their own prosperity also rests.</p>
<p>The third method is what I can only describe as hypnotizing the people. This consists in checking the moral development of men, and by various suggestions keeping them back in the ideal of life, outgrown by mankind at large, on which the power of government rests. This hypnotizing process is organized at the present in the most complex manner, and starting from their earliest childhood, continues to act on men till the day of their death. It begins in their earliest years in the compulsory schools, created for this purpose, in which the children have instilled into them the ideas of life of their ancestors, which are in direct antagonism with the conscience of the modern world. In countries where there is a state religion, they teach the children the senseless blasphemies of the Church catechisms, together with the duty of obedience to their superiors. In republican states they teach them the savage superstition of patriotism and the same pretended obedience to the governing authorities.</p>
<p>The process is kept up during later years by the encouragement of religious and patriotic superstitions.</p>
<p>The religious superstition is encouraged by establishing, with money taken from the people, temples, processions, memorials, and festivals, which, aided by painting, architecture, music, and incense, intoxicate the people, and above all by the support of the clergy, whose duty consists in brutalizing the people and keeping them in a permanent state of stupefaction by their teaching, the solemnity of their services, their sermons, and their interference in private life--at births, deaths, and marriages. The patriotic superstition is encouraged by the creation, with money taken from the people, of national fêtes, spectacles, monuments, and festivals to dispose men to attach importance to their own nation, and to the aggrandizement of the state and its rulers, and to feel antagonism and even hatred for other nations. With these objects under despotic governments there is direct prohibition against printing and disseminating books to enlighten the people, and everyone who might rouse the people from their lethargy is exiled or imprisoned. Moreover, under every government without exception everything is kept back that might emancipate and everything encouraged that tends to corrupt the people, such as literary works tending to keep them in the barbarism of religious and patriotic superstition, all kinds of sensual amusements, spectacles, circuses, theaters, and even the physical means of inducing stupefaction, as tobacco and alcohol, which form the principal source of revenue of states. Even prostitution is encouraged, and not only recognized, but even organized by the government in the majority of states. So much for the third method.</p>
<p>The fourth method consists in selecting from all the men who have been stupefied and enslaved by the three former methods a certain number, exposing them to special and intensified means of stupefaction and brutalization, and so making them into a passive instrument for carrying out all the cruelties and brutalities needed by the government. This result is attained by taking them at the youthful age when men have not had time to form clear and definite principles of morals, and removing them from all natural and human conditions of life, home, family and kindred, and useful labor. They are shut up together in barracks, dressed in special clothes, and worked upon by cries, drums, music, and shining objects to go through certain daily actions invented for this purpose, and by this means are brought into an hypnotic condition in which they cease to be men and become mere senseless machines, submissive to the hypnotizer. These physically vigorous young men (in these days of universal conscription, all young men), hypnotized, armed with murderous weapons, always obedient to the governing authorities and ready for any act of violence at their command, constitute the fourth and principal method of enslaving men.</p>
<p>By this method the circle of violence is completed.</p>
<p>Intimidation, corruption, and hypnotizing bring people into a condition in which they are willing to be soldiers; the soldiers give the power of punishing and plundering them (and purchasing officials with the spoils), and hypnotizing them and converting them in time into these same soldiers again.</p>
<p>The circle is complete, and there is no chance of breaking through it by force. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Translated by Constance Garnett, 1894. The full text of the essay is available here: <a href="http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html">“The kingdom of god is within you”</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-48236892267566124532010-11-11T21:54:00.008+00:002010-11-11T22:37:41.473+00:00Leo Tolstoy left his home 100 years ago. “War and Peace” and history<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnGUMI9Z3iYR5ULtK9Cd3xOY-LU762mQlvdElG9Uo2CaQKAfpHYdk-sgzFLrslr9eBIiB7xUGhTpleVs-Wr5_jgmE9rSBT42v93_mqDCgqLzU5YKnZJs7JQ6dQlMd-oGltqhoOQac4dE/s1600/tolstoy1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnGUMI9Z3iYR5ULtK9Cd3xOY-LU762mQlvdElG9Uo2CaQKAfpHYdk-sgzFLrslr9eBIiB7xUGhTpleVs-Wr5_jgmE9rSBT42v93_mqDCgqLzU5YKnZJs7JQ6dQlMd-oGltqhoOQac4dE/s320/tolstoy1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538414569120972770" /></a>
<p>When I started reading “War and Peace” one month ago, I didn't even remember about the upcoming hundredth anniversary of Tolstoy's death. Today, I finished reading it and it happens that this is the day when one hundred years ago (28 October Old Style, 10 November New Style), Leo Tolstoy left his home together with his personal doctor Makovitsky. Tolstoy planned to escape from the annoying life in the comfortable mansion and to spend his last years in poverty and honesty. The doctor didn't quite understand Tolstoy, he thought they are going to visit some family members and didn't take enough money. Tolstoy kissed his daughter, took the suitcase and they left. They took third class railway tickets and departed to Kozelsk. A lot of people smoked in the car and Tolstoy had to go outside for fresh air. He spent about 45 minutes outside and these three quarters of an hour were crucial. Ten days later Tolstoy died of pneumonia on the railway station Astapovo. So smoking killed one of the most famous Russian writers. </p>
<p>Well, the story of his life and death is more or less well known and you can read his biography in almost any language. I would like to talk today about his novel “War and Peace”. Tolstoy wrote later that the novel is fiction and that it may distort history to comply with the author's intentions. Indeed, there is a large number of inconsistencies, contradictions and anachronisms in the book. Let's have a look at some of them. </p>
<p>Do you know how the Russian text begins? Here's the first paragraph: </p>
<blockquote>— Eh bien, mon prince. Gênes et Lueques ne sont plus que des apanages, des поместья, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens que si vous ne me dites pas que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois) — je ne vous connais plus, vous n'êtes plus mon ami, vous n'êtes plus мой верный раб, comme vous dites
</blockquote>
<p>This is the original Russian text, and I mean it :) Later in the novel, Tolstoy also mentions some noble whose patriotic feelings made him learn speaking Russian. Of course, Russian aristocrats of the 19th century usually spoke very good French, but Tolstoy is wrong here. In the first decade of the century, foreign-speaking aristocrats were rare. Those who lived in Russia, had to talk to their servants (and sometimes they spoke in a folksy manner for this reason). Only those who were born in abroad, spoke some foreign language sufficiently well. And this language was hardly ever French, because after the revolution of 1789 very few Russian aristocrats visited the lawless and rebellious France, they preferred Germany. Strange enough, but French became popular in the aristocratic salons after the Napoleonic wars, when children grew up who were raised in 1790s-1800s by French tutors, who fled from the revolution to Russia. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4jTLNbqmE9UWYWDCl9ADGQKPPy8KVi-yDf3izxMM7sMupE6jAhDWkLr9sKhCwOpCn9wroSElDbFpvErSIZzOWYb7dEiMJ5LzPwSvBt11LNvBG-4xXnBPt8PaYzTgJ-TwW3hppDdw7Bo/s1600/tolstoy2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4jTLNbqmE9UWYWDCl9ADGQKPPy8KVi-yDf3izxMM7sMupE6jAhDWkLr9sKhCwOpCn9wroSElDbFpvErSIZzOWYb7dEiMJ5LzPwSvBt11LNvBG-4xXnBPt8PaYzTgJ-TwW3hppDdw7Bo/s320/tolstoy2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538414402090713970" /></a>
<p>The family of Kuragins is painted by Tolstoy in a rather strange manner. Tolstoy dislikes them and his feelings are seen even in the names of the family members. So, the name Hippolyte is outstandingly unaristocratic. This name was typical for bourgeoisie, especially Polish. The title “prince Hippolyte” must have sounded absurd in 1805. His sister's name is Helene. Her name looks French, but it wasn't used among French nobility because of its foreign, Anglo-German sound. In Russia of the early 19th century, the name associated with Russified Germans. Just as often the name may be found in the form “Länchen”, purely German (the name of the wife of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faddey_Bulgarin" >Faddey Bulgarin</a>). The brother of Hippolyte and Helene has the name Anatole. The name is neutral, but extremely rare in all countries of that time. </p>
<p>The novel begins in the aristocratic salon of Anna Scherer, maid of honor of the Empress. Another one of Tolstoy's errors. You see, maid of honour was not just a title. She was a maid, she could not be married. And maids absolutely could not invite guests, except for close relatives, and only during the day. So, a salon of a maid would be a flagrant violation of the public norms. </p>
<p>Besides, in July 1805 the guests of Anna Scherer would be out of the city, all of them. The royal family with all the courtiers would leave St. Petersburg to the summer residence. Army officers (including, for example, Dolokhov) would be in the summer camps. </p>
<p>Anatole Kuragin asks princess Mary for her hand in marriage, but he was only twenty years old. It was too early for him to marry. Later, he tries to run away with Natasha Rostova, even though he knows he cannot marry her (he had been married by that time). He should have known that Natasha was not a plebeian gal, she was a lady and ladies were not that defenceless. Firstly, Natasha's brothers would have demanded satisfaction. Secondly, Rostovs were a noble family and could have complained to the emperor himself, and his rage would have been quick and merciless. So, prince S. Trubetskoy was deprived of his title and property and sent to the army as a mere soldier when he tried to run away with a married lady. </p>
<p>Helene Kuragin wanted to divorce Pierre Bezukhov so much that she converted to catholicism, writes Tolstoy. Well, actually, she didn't have to. She could have divorced without much problems, because of the long time they lived separately. It was a legitimate reason for divorce. On the other hand, in 1812 the number of conversions to catholicism, always very small, dropped to zero. The problem was that the order of Jesuits was disbanded by the Pope in 1773 and restored only in 1814. In the meanwhile, the Jesuits found a shelter in Russia and their situation was so unstable that they would not risk losing the favor of the emperor by proselytizing. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEZvHsbaOsY48KAtBppW6vPK-SMgmWafgSlA4jBfTI9tQG0lM2VQ__MiJVvMfqNZ47sFLpIVgEjzuk0T2EaD0EiMD1RHH1g0ag_hQcTq1p4q1h5OQSYGdNnaNr_wlLs3fxenAQ_R_aEs/s1600/Kutuzov_warpeace.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEZvHsbaOsY48KAtBppW6vPK-SMgmWafgSlA4jBfTI9tQG0lM2VQ__MiJVvMfqNZ47sFLpIVgEjzuk0T2EaD0EiMD1RHH1g0ag_hQcTq1p4q1h5OQSYGdNnaNr_wlLs3fxenAQ_R_aEs/s320/Kutuzov_warpeace.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538414201871894466" /></a>
<p>Tolstoy writes about Prince Andrew: “After the Austerlitz campaign Prince Andrew had firmly resolved not to continue his military service, and when the war recommenced and everybody had to serve, he took a post under his father in the recruitment so as to avoid active service.” It was hardly probably, since <b>nobody</b> could make a Russian aristocrat to serve unless he wanted to. This freedom was granted by <a href="http://academic.shu.edu/russianhistory/index.php/Peter_III%27s_Manifesto_Freeing_Nobles_from_Obligatory_Service,_1762" >the 1762 Manifesto of Peter III</a>. </p>
<p>When Natasha Rostova visited her uncle, she danced in typical Russian manner, says Tolstoy: “Where, how, and when had this young countess, educated by an emigree French governess, imbibed from the Russian air she breathed that spirit and obtained that manner which the pas de chale would, one would have supposed, long ago have effaced? But the spirit and the movements were those inimitable and unteachable Russian ones... She did the right thing with such precision, such complete precision, that Anisya Fedorovna, who had at once handed her the handkerchief she needed for the dance, had tears in her eyes, though she laughed as she watched this slim, graceful countess, reared in silks and velvets and so different from herself, who yet was able to understand all that was in Anisya and in Anisya's father and mother and aunt, and in every Russian man and woman.” </p>
<p>But Natasha spent a large part of her life in village and she had to have seen the village girls dancing and, of course, she knew the folk style of dancing. </p>
<p>Now, Pierre Bezukhov. When he first appeared in the book, “Anna Pavlovna greeted him with the nod she accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room”, because he was a bastard, but the bastards were not treated this way even in the highest society. So, another bastard, N. Novosiltsev, the base son of the sister of the Count Stroganov, was one of the “young friends” of the emperor Alexander. </p>
<p>In the age of ten, Pierre left Russia and spent another ten years abroad, and yet, unlike Hippolyte Kuragin, he speaks Russian very well. </p>
<p>Pierre's ties with the freemasons do not look very trustworthy. By that time the old-fashioned rituals of freemasons were already looked upon sarcastically, their Golden Age was in mid-18th century. </p>
<p>The funny thing with all these (and many other) anachronisms is that even when you are aware of them, the novel remains a masterpiece. You understand the characters better, the storyline becomes straight and clear. After all, Tolstoy is still a great writer, even though his Russian style looks so awkward that many Russian readers turn to hatred. So, one of very good science fiction writers, Svyatoslav Loginov, agnrily criticizes “War and Peace” for the last fifty pages, where Tolstoy explain his philosophy of history. I agree, these final pages are unbearable (and I never read them to the end). And yet, the book is great. The battle scenes are overwhelming, the plot is absorbing, the characters are vivid and the language is unmistakably Tolstoyesque: awkward but precise. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jz4O_YAzmw_xvgYXc33kQQUUmy3ASjDn7WR5kSBHujo8HBnMlDGKNMqWFI_nRU7v72Y5HTebftVLvECzJ6EyiSCNAwRnRG3odqHMtPIDmW8Vp4o0vBqHUxSr1dXsx1M8TShfy0HCXvY/s1600/hepburn_warpeace.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7jz4O_YAzmw_xvgYXc33kQQUUmy3ASjDn7WR5kSBHujo8HBnMlDGKNMqWFI_nRU7v72Y5HTebftVLvECzJ6EyiSCNAwRnRG3odqHMtPIDmW8Vp4o0vBqHUxSr1dXsx1M8TShfy0HCXvY/s320/hepburn_warpeace.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538414056494025762" /></a>
<p>If you ask me, the best character in the book is Kutuzov, the master of zen war, who defeated Napoleon by escaping him. Oh, and the best reason to love “War and Peace” is not in the book. She is in the movie, and you know her name: Audrey Hepburn :). </p>
<p><i>This post is heavily based on the information borrowed from the article “Historical Context in Fiction: Aristocratic Society in the Novel ‘War and Peace’” by Ye. Tsimbayeva, published in the magazine «Вопросы литературы» 2004, №5. The full text is available here: <a href="http://magazines.russ.ru/voplit/2004/5/ci10.html">“Исторический контекст в художественном образе
(Дворянское общество в романе «Война и мир»)”</a></i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-1945615071359831122010-10-31T14:29:00.006+00:002010-10-31T14:39:25.053+00:00Report of Russian secret police on moral and political state in the country. 150 years ago, sorry<p>Since 1827, The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Section" >Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery</a> produced special reports for the tsar, describing the moral and political situation in the Russian society. Four years ago, a large share of these reports was published by the Russian State Archive. Below are some short excerpts from the report summarizing the events of 1860, 150 years ago. Five years had passed since the coronation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia" >Alexander II</a> and only one year remained till the most important act of liberalism in Russia in 19th century (the last three words were, probably, not necessary). </p>
<h2>Moral and political review of 1860</h2>
<h3>On revolutionary projects</h3>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzTqRhdzH2bO9LRGBN8o8uPt5s1CIGqrIbDZ7U8hWWXOup4uZBsUnuEaFdgr64uljFdh1lrxza2oWwy0XcgEtu3aqO04O_zrHv3jQNAkP5vbX8x7mW3RZ8cuymjwOW3EGKyu6xYHlOks/s1600/vassily-dolgorukov.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzTqRhdzH2bO9LRGBN8o8uPt5s1CIGqrIbDZ7U8hWWXOup4uZBsUnuEaFdgr64uljFdh1lrxza2oWwy0XcgEtu3aqO04O_zrHv3jQNAkP5vbX8x7mW3RZ8cuymjwOW3EGKyu6xYHlOks/s320/vassily-dolgorukov.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534219488423015474" /></a>
<p>For thirty years already, the aggregations of political emigrants in England, France, Belgium and Switzerland have constituted the source of all destructive projects in Europe. The revolutionary propaganda was led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Mazzini" >Joseph Mazzini</a>, the tireless advocate of the Italian freedom and the universal republic, in which this dreamer sees the future of the humanity... </p>
<p>The bombs, thrown in 1858 in Paris by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Orsini" >Orsini</a>, have proven the extreme danger of the ideas of the emancipation of Italy for the French throne... </p>
<p>Politicians see in the preparations for the popular resistance certain signs of the upcoming merge of the Italian question with the Hungarian, Polish and the Eastern questions. The future may confirm this guess, but it is already clearly seen that the tools chosen for these plans prove their revolutionary and democratic nature. </p>
<h3>On Polish expatriates</h3>
<p>The Polish emigrants include the expatriates of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_National_Committee_%281831%E2%80%931832%29" >1832</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_National_Committee_%281848%29" >1848</a>. The former, due to their number and influence, are more important than the latter, who mostly left Poland in young age, because of their inclination to life of leisure, without strict political principles... </p>
<p>According to the directions given in the speech [by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Jerzy_Czartoryski" >Adam Czartoryski</a>], instructions were sent to the Poles in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsardom_of_Russia" >Tsardom</a> to do nothing till the liberation of peasants [...] but that they should make the Polish peasants believe that the Polish aristocrats forced the Tsar to liberate them. </p>
<p>In the meanwhile, the hopes of the Polish emigrants in Paris and in London are based on the events being prepared in Hungary. They plan that either the rebellion in Hungary in which Poles would participate may become useful for their own rebellion, or that the Hungary, reformed by Austria, will provide them with the moral grounds to demand the reformation of Poland. </p>
<h3>On Russian expatriates</h3>
<p>In 1860, the number of Russians who left their Fatherland and explicitly joined the opposition, has grown. Some of the most important of them are: 1) Prince Peter Dolgorukov, the author of the book titled "La Verite sur la Russie". Having published the book in Paris, he departed to London, making acquaintance with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Herzen" >Herzen</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Ogarev" >Ogarev</a>. As far as we know, his book was recognized abroad as malicious vilification of the all Russian state and the ruling Dynasty and damaged his reputation among people of reason... </p>
<p>2) Prince Yuri Golitsyn, who fled from Russia due to the being justly punished for the improper correspondence withe Herzen. Because of his narrow-mindedness, he could not succeed in literature and has to earn his living by giving concerts in London and other cities... </p>
<p>3) Someone Kisleyev or Kisteltsev, young man in the age of 28, who calls himself doctor of medicine, while others think he is a clergyman... On 17 [29] November, on the day of anniversary of Polish revolution, Kisleyev was present on the meeting and spoke in favor of revolution. </p>
<p>4) Hierodeacon Agapy, who broke with the archimandrite and fled to London. </p>
<p>All mentioned above have joined the circle of Herzen and Ogarev, who continue their maleficent publications. According to secret information, there are other Russian citizens who did not proclaim their animosity towards the legitimate government but do participate in revolutionary projects. So, it is known that two Russians, <a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2007/08/august-29-in-russian-history.html" >retired officer Dietmars and retired state official Mechnikov</a>, fought in the army of Garibaldi. </p>
<h3>Poznan</h3>
<p>The constitutional rights of the Great Duchy of Poznan give their citizens right to advocate patriotic feelings in public, while promoting hatred to all things German... The government views it forbearingly, as if being afraid of decisive measures. While the Poznan Poles made no rebellious actions in this year, they took every opportunity to prepare the population for such rebellions. Their main weapon in this year was the accusation of police by deputy Niegolewski (probably, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Niegolewski" >Władysław Niegolewski</a>. DM), who suggested that the police was responsible for the sending of fake proclamations, putting Poles on political actions... On the other hand, the demands to allow usage of Polish language in courts never stopped. There were occasions when the prisoners refused to reply in German, pretending they do not understand. </p>
<h3>Galicia</h3>
<p>The patriotic sentiments were strongest among university students in Krakow, who demanded the lectures in Polish to be allowed by sending the deputy to Vienna, who beat the education inspector who tried to keep them inside the university to prevent demonstrations, who sang the songs from the 1830 rebellion during morning walks and often met in on of the city caffees. An anonymous letter was received, reporting that the students formed a secret society during these meetings. Investigations are underway. Among the people involved in the society, the most important seems to be the retired lieutenant of the Russian army <a href="http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcyz_Jankowski" >Narcyz Jankowski</a> (Link in Polish. DM) who was mentioned in the letter. In September, Jankowski was arrested on the border and delivered to Krakow. </p>
<p>Lieutenant Jankowski, son of a landlord from Kiev region, retired in 1857. For 3 years he lived in Warsaw, making acquaintances and hosting meetings with public book readings. During the arrest, Jankowski managed to destroy some papers. Among the papers found in his apartment were draft program of a Polish democratic committee in Paris, instruction to the secret societies to begin armed rebellion all over Poland and a note saying that 100 brochures of <i>"Przeglad rzeczy polskich"</i> were given to him to deliver to Warsaw </p>
<p>...</p>
<p>In December, a Polish review printed in Paris (<i>Przeglad rzeczy polskich</i>) published and article, where the author mentions the May demonstration in Krakow university and states that the Polish autonomy will be attained by the youth, and offers the younger readers to deepen their patriotic feelings, even though they have already been reproved by many older Polish authoritative thinkers. </p>
<h3>Emissaries</h3>
<p>The governor of the Polish Kingdom has reported that the Poznan police informed him of the arrival of a Polish emissary Lisecki to the Great Duchy of Poznan. He distributed inciting brochures and pretended he was sent by Miroslawski to investigate the chances of beginning a mutiny in Poznan or in Poland... From a letter sent on February 14 from Paris, it is known that the real name of Lisecki, a.k.a. Gnatowski, was Arthur Trok. </p>
<h3>The Polish Kingdom</h3>
<p>According to the news from the Kingdom, the Poles there sympathize the events in Sicily and Naples, the national movement in Hungary and Galicia, but remain calm, while awaiting for advantageous changes in the politics. In the meanwhile, they chose to assist the growth of the nation: enhancing the morality of the lower classes by fighting alcoholism and by attracting them to the churches; establishment of municipal banks to liberate the agriculture, especially from the destructive influence of the Jews and to enhance the arable farming. The primary instrument for this was the Farming society, established in 1859, which has grown immensely and established contacts with similar societies in Poznan and Galicia. Very soon the Farmin society started showin signs of maleficent for the monarchy political influence in the Polish Kingdom. So, it deemed necessary to close the provincial departments of the society, preserving the central department in Warsaw. This measure, though, produced dissatisfaction among Poles. </p>
<h3>Western districts</h3>
<p>(This chapter also described the unrest among Poles in other regions of Russia, including Vilno (modern Vilnius) and Kiev. DM). </p>
<h3>Finland</h3>
<p>In Finland, a secret society was formed of the people, who write for Swedish newspapers articles hostile to Russia, trying to incite Finns against her rule, especially the younger Finns, among whom destructive ideas were found in the Helsingfors University. These feelings were noted by Swedish politicians who find them useful for their goals. In the end of 1859 Dahlfeld was appointed the Swedish consul in Helsingfors. He made acquaintances among lesser writers, who are his instrument to spread ideas hostile to Russia. British and American consuls cooperated. </p>
<h3>On state reforms</h3>
<p>In 1860, just like in the previous three years, the most important matter of the Russian politics was the liberation of landlord-owned peasants from serfdom. It was expected that the question will be solved by the end of 1860, but in spite of the efforts of the government, it was impossible... Nobody, though, could underestimate the high moral and political goal represented by the liberation. The full freedom in the discussion, allowed by Your Majesty, helped the detailed investigation of all possibilities. Measures were taken to mitigate unrest when the decrees of Your Majesty were being published, and the measures gave positive results. </p>
<p>In the Baltic regions, where the aristocracy has exclusive rights to own the land they were afraid that their privileges may be violated during the liberation of peasants and that the peasants will have equal rights during the elections.</p>
<p>A part of peasants in the Baltic regions (mostly in Lifland and Estland) expressed their desire to move to new lands in Samara region. In spite of the resistance of some landlords, 400 peasants have moved. </p>
<p>In Crimea, a large number of Crimean Tatars have moved to Turkey this year. This resettlement threatens the landowners of the Crimean peninsula who might not have enough workers to continue cultivating their land. The aristocrats of Crimea gathered in Simpheropol to discuss possible replacement for the lost workforce and the introduction of new machines. </p>
<p>Together with the government's intentions to alleviate the life of peasants, certain private efforts took place in 1860. Mostly, by establishment of sunday schools and temperance associations. </p>
<p>Unnaturally fast growth of temperance associations in 1859 was explained by the rage of the lower classes against liquor stores owners. As soon as measures were taken to prevent violent actions, the growth stopped. </p>
<p>Sunday schools are getting extremely popular and the local education authorities are instructed to pay special attention to prevent dissemination of harmful teachings. </p>
<h3>On administration</h3>
<p>All credit institutions have been merged in one State Bank. It is too soon to make any conclusion on the effect of this measure, but the first impression of the merchants was that the activity of the new bank is limited by the responsibility and insufficient capital. </p>
<h3>On the internal political state of the Empire</h3>
<p>To conclude the report, we have to note that the spirit of the people of the Empire strives for the growth of the civil rights on modern liberal ground. These views are expressed in magazines, where, in spite of the efforts of the censorship, very often too liberal and even dangerous views are found. The liberal journalism incites the intellectual ferment and helps the illegally imported revolutionary magazines, directed against the existing state and monarchy. What is true for other countries, should be true for Russia: the unrestrained freedom of press is the greatest danger for the existing state, but the press can also be the best instrument in the hands of the government. </p>
<p>Besides the love towards liberal establishments, the dreams of restoration of independency of separate nations have also made their way into Russia. These dreams are insecure for the multinational Russian Empire. They can be observed not only in the Western districts, but also in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malorossia" >Little Russia</a> and Finland. The modern politics of the West gives more grounds to these dreams, especially to those of Poles, whose loyalty even earlier was doubtful. </p>
<p><i>Adjutant-general Dolgorukov</i></p>
<p><i>March 22, 1861</i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-63428892737552953332010-10-24T18:34:00.004+00:002010-10-31T14:40:56.661+00:00130th birthday of Alexander Railway Bridge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjia_8IpMgSlBq3umx4kglH_uQn_PtIqWKAxO5Mb9VnaNQoZNAXmrawxBYCBlIMCMBqNQa_1H5DpNyOHyqZ3a69clK3qv6OgaMjEvUlvgP26-6RKs-r2MgH0dPwjyXyx9xW83vVrOU0TU/s1600/alexbridge2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjia_8IpMgSlBq3umx4kglH_uQn_PtIqWKAxO5Mb9VnaNQoZNAXmrawxBYCBlIMCMBqNQa_1H5DpNyOHyqZ3a69clK3qv6OgaMjEvUlvgP26-6RKs-r2MgH0dPwjyXyx9xW83vVrOU0TU/s320/alexbridge2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531682970009766450" /></a>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzran_Bridge" >The Alexander Railway Bridge</a> was opened on August 30, 1880. <del>In the end of 19th century</del>By that time, it was the <a href="http://wikimapia.org/410206/ru/%D0%A1%D1%8B%D0%B7%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82" >longest bridge in Europe, 1436 meters</a>. It was also the last large bridge in Russia built from imported iron. Newspapers compared it to the Suez channel. The importance of the bridge was that it was the point of connection of the railroads from Moscow and Western Russia and the railroads of Urals and Siberia, including the Trans-Siberian Railway.</p>
<p>In 1918, two spans were exploded by retiring troops. After the revolution the bridge was renamed to Syzran Bridge, after a nearby city. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnl-hK7b71hb1HHXJPhgukG88J4YpWoUasVFoUWBn_bfnZRGgB8TEI0uhaJ-Cxpfr0OICOqyrpiXqdLBTICML8unQBkb8de0L1GgsUADiusewtX_0BuHa2IP3teic-8B8HTll89T5hW0/s1600/alexbridge1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnl-hK7b71hb1HHXJPhgukG88J4YpWoUasVFoUWBn_bfnZRGgB8TEI0uhaJ-Cxpfr0OICOqyrpiXqdLBTICML8unQBkb8de0L1GgsUADiusewtX_0BuHa2IP3teic-8B8HTll89T5hW0/s320/alexbridge1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531683117892924466" /></a>
<p>I cross Volga along this bridge every year and, I have to admit, every time I feel a bit scared: it's so long and thin and you see the running water below :) </p>
<p>Here you can find some old photographs of the Alexander Bridge: <a href="http://old.syzran.ru/html/most.html" >Gallery of Syzran</a>. In 2004, the bridge was reconstructed and now it looks differently: <a href="http://www.skmost.ru/objects/zhd/volga986km/" >Bridge reconstruction</a>. And I like <a href="http://www.locman.net/foto_17092__0l1341l0l0l0l0.htm" >this photo</a>.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-11362188122273470922010-09-03T11:10:00.005+00:002010-09-03T11:23:04.807+00:00Protests of African students in Moscow, 1963<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqm-ZahvCjTACx3Wq9ycS77hN5P5Mf0Bpy5cTNA031ndGr8w3837drZYIo4-TKbekLMBdXN_5NkQBllZRx0G9bWeq8gn90dTlBWD0bAe7vaDRbMyP1KiycuglWEGQcMDEDJL1rUCrFlI/s1600/1963Article_0000.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqm-ZahvCjTACx3Wq9ycS77hN5P5Mf0Bpy5cTNA031ndGr8w3837drZYIo4-TKbekLMBdXN_5NkQBllZRx0G9bWeq8gn90dTlBWD0bAe7vaDRbMyP1KiycuglWEGQcMDEDJL1rUCrFlI/s320/1963Article_0000.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512644299944311682" /></a>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.15450957983301317">On December 18, 2007, I wrote about </span><a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2007/12/december-18-in-russian-history.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">the march organized by African students in Moscow in 1963</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> as a protest against the murder of a student from Ghana. One of our readers, Mark Thorpe, wrote to me saying that he had found an old issue of Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wednesday evening, Decenber 18, 1963, number 172, published in Green Bay, WI) with an article about these events. Mark has kindly scanned and sent this article to me, and now you can read it below.
</span><h2 id="internal-source-marker_0.15450957983301317"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">African Students Storm Kremlin in Racial Riot</span></h2><h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Med Student’s Knifing Death Causes Protest</span></h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">by Preston Grover</span>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hDtFjkA_-2KM2Fbhv8CQqebVmWdu2HYTozfKMbLKYWsntvBmZOgyQ1zxWpIheKVIwMq4Tqralhx0WNXqrPPP6R5qv68sz2Gneey_liqAKgzJUhkDyBKVWsTtBVXZbVZXK5VFASnBN7k/s1600/1963Article_0001.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hDtFjkA_-2KM2Fbhv8CQqebVmWdu2HYTozfKMbLKYWsntvBmZOgyQ1zxWpIheKVIwMq4Tqralhx0WNXqrPPP6R5qv68sz2Gneey_liqAKgzJUhkDyBKVWsTtBVXZbVZXK5VFASnBN7k/s320/1963Article_0001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512644763204228578" /></a>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MOSCOW (AP) — Several hundred students from Ghana and other African nations stormed into Red Square today right under Premier Khrushchev’s office windows, fought with police and tried to break into the Kremlin.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students said they were protesting the fatal stabbing of a student from Ghana by a Russian last Friday.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Africans broke past barricades into Red Square, where Russians march on May Day and on the anniversary of the October Revolution. But the scene was more reminiscent of the wild days of the revolution in 1917.</span>
<h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Moscow Like Alabama’</span></h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students bore a sign showing a knife plunged into the head of an African. Another sigh declared: “Friend today, the devil tomorrow.”</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Moscow is a second Alabama,” shouted one student.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students fought police all the way to the Red Square from the Ghanian Embassy a mile away where they first gathered.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They stormed over a barricade of Soviet trucks at the entrance to Red Square, fighting police on top of the trucks and underneath.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The big gates of Spasky Tower, the main entrance from the Kremlin into Red Square, banged shut as students rolled over police opposition and tried to get into the Kremlin.</span>
<h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Past Khrushchev’s Office</span></h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They stormed past the office of Khrushchev. They were separated from his office by the big red brick wall of the Kremlin. Whether he was inside his office was not known.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside the Kremlin, the Soviet Parliament was meeting, discussing the new budget.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Police apparently at no time used their guns to control the students. Instead they wheeled out loudspeakers appealing for them to go home.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Red Square is closed,” one of the sound trucks blared out. But the students payed no attention. Shortly after 2 p.m., crowds of shoppers who had swarmed into the square were ordered out along with foreign correspondents.</span>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrtjE_Y7n_NeVWwxUGSbYm-d4i6eI7vOHNRL1h4CFe1d2OCmeklqtFD_uMX7tkEFkUbNh3iiJJCLJEAu4XojLXq8EHjBtgojoUcLYDS-CFS1gUr4Y6GuSQefUirj7aRmSFfCOvIm7Akgw/s1600/1963Article_0002.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 100px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrtjE_Y7n_NeVWwxUGSbYm-d4i6eI7vOHNRL1h4CFe1d2OCmeklqtFD_uMX7tkEFkUbNh3iiJJCLJEAu4XojLXq8EHjBtgojoUcLYDS-CFS1gUr4Y6GuSQefUirj7aRmSFfCOvIm7Akgw/s320/1963Article_0002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512645498937238690" /></a>
<h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Riot Attracts Curious</span></h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">People continued to pile into adjoining streets, never having seen an angry demonstration of foreigners against Russians.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The students remained in the square for a time and were reinforced later by some 200 more who came, apparently carrying a message of protest.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They made their way to Spasky Gate, where a Kremlin official came out and said a delegation of 10 would be received by the Ministry of Higher Education. A group of the demonstrators then headed for the ministry with their petition of complaint.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By 3 p.m., Red Square had been cleared. The barricades were withdrawn and the demonstration was over.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was the first such demonstration by foreign students here directed at the Russians. Ghanian students demonstrated last February in Communist Bulgaria, claiming racial persecution.</span>
<h3><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Medical Student Killed</span></h3><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thousands of African students are studying in Communist schools, many of them with all expenses paid.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The dead man was identified as Asare Addo, who was studying medicine at Kalinin 100 miles northwest of Moscow. He was said to have been killed Friday.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some students said Soviet officials issued a statement blaming the death on natural causes, but the Africans disputed this.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emerging from a conference in the Kremlin, some of the students said Education Minister Vyacheslav Yelutin denied that the student, Asare Addo, was stabbed.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They said Yelutin told them Addo was drunk, had fallen down in the street, and died of cold. The minister told a full investigation had been ordered.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Several students who were at the conference told reporters they did not believe this report. They said they were informed that Addo wanted to marry a Russian girl and was killed by a Russian man who was opposed to the marriage.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students said they prepared for today’s demonstration by sending telegrams to Ghanian students in Odessa, Kharkov and other university towns, asking them to come to Moscow. Each was given a red head band, a sign of mourning in Ghana.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the outset, the protest was orderly.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When it became apparent that the students planned to carry their protest through the streets, police reinforcements were rushed in.</span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some rocked a police car, threatening to overturn it. Others forced their way between and under the trucks blocking the entrance of Red Square.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-83506587934889750232010-08-17T04:50:00.003+00:002010-08-17T05:22:05.370+00:00What Stalin said about Hiroshima<p>The text below is taken from the record of the meeting of Stalin and W. Averell Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to the USSR. Full declassified document is <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/57.pdf">available here</a>. The text was published in Russian by Sergey Oboguev in <a href="http://oboguev.livejournal.com/2238853.html">his blog</a>. Thanks to Sergey for the interesting find.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><u>Conversation</u>. 8:20, Moscow, August 8, 1945.</p>
<center><u>TOP SECRET</u></center>
<p>Present: W. A. Harriman, American Ambassador</p>
<p> George F. Kennan,
Minister Counselor</p>
<br>
<p> Generalissimus
Stalin</p>
<p> V. M. Molotov,
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs</p>
<p> Mr. Pavlov, Soviet interpreter</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>The Ambassador asked what he thought of the effects of the news of
the atomic bomb would have on the Japanese.</p>
<p>The Generalissimus replied that he thought the Japanese were at
present looking for a pretext to replace the present government with
one which would be qualified to undertake a surrender. The atomic bomb
might give them this pretext.</p>
<p>The Ambassador observed that it was a good thing we had invented
this and not the Germans. For long, he said, no one had dared think it
would be a success. It was only a few days before the President had
told Stalin about it in Berlin that we had learned definitely that it
would work succesfully.</p>
<p>The Generalissimus replied that Soviet scientists said that it was
a very difficult problem to work out.</p>
<p>The Ambassador said that if the Allies could keep it and apply it
for peaceful purposes it would be a great thing.</p>
<p>The Generalissimus agreed and said that would mean the end of the
war and aggressors. But the secret would have to be well kept.</p>
<p>The Ambassador said that it could have great importance for
peaceful purposes.</p>
<p>The Generalissimus replied, "unquestionably". He added that Soviet
scientists had also tried to do it but had not succeeded. They had
found one laboratory in Germany where the Germans had evidently been
working on the same problem but Russians could not find that they had
come to any results. If they had found it, Hitler would never have
surrendered. England, too, had gotten nowhere with these researches
although they had excellent physicists.</p>
<p>The Ambassador explained that the English had pooled their
knowledge with us since 1941. But it had taken enormous installations
to conduct the experiments and to achieve final results.</p>
<p>The Generalissimus remarked that this had been very expensive.</p>
<p>...</p>
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-55687541575876007042010-01-07T22:16:00.004+00:002010-01-07T22:39:41.407+00:00Photos from early Soviet years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBJxqu-5OlP6py302-tS6BI62wnv7Jru-Bs3P1wtpgbHIIcqWONxQTYz5rx9-_KKVJlGeGtqgQMHbLUg2gvvLayIsKM-bfABqgEnTW26w5v1ZXvyK1PQo3fCurYcILrGRlDPA1HH10kI/s1600-h/lilya-brik.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRBJxqu-5OlP6py302-tS6BI62wnv7Jru-Bs3P1wtpgbHIIcqWONxQTYz5rx9-_KKVJlGeGtqgQMHbLUg2gvvLayIsKM-bfABqgEnTW26w5v1ZXvyK1PQo3fCurYcILrGRlDPA1HH10kI/s320/lilya-brik.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424127533002167362" /></a>
<p>Recently, I stumbled upon a web-site on the art of photography, some pages of which were devoted to the classic photographers. The web-site features a large collection of shots made by these photographers in 1920s, 1930s and later. Lots of magnificent pictures and scenes from daily life. Here are some of those photographers and their web-pages (the text is in Russian, but never mind, the collections are title like "1924-1929", so you won't get lost):</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/25/">Alexander Rodchenko</a>, the author of that famous portrait of Lilya Brik at the top of this post. Rodchenko was a good friend of Lilya and Osip Briks and Vladimir Mayakovsky.</li>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/1/">Maxim Dmitriev</a>, one of the earliest enthusiasts of photography</li>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/5/">Boris Ignatovich</a></li>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/43/">Yevgeny Khaldey</a></li>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/45/">Ivan Shagin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://club.foto.ru/classics/46/">Arkady Shaykhet</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I found this web-site when I was looking for photos of the Russian/Soviet silent movie stars. While searching, I found another web-site called <a href="http://www.nemoekino.ru/index.html">"Silent Cinema Actors"</a>. The author has also made separate web-sites for the "brightest" stars of that era, like <a href="http://www.veraholodnaya.ru/">Vera Kholodnaya</a>.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-41164609870716738522010-01-04T18:13:00.003+00:002010-01-04T18:18:09.120+00:001908 video: Winter in Moscow<p>I thought it might be a good New Year's gift to the readers :)</p>
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M2ffhU8hcJA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M2ffhU8hcJA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-24124280165598206902009-03-20T13:29:00.002+00:002009-03-20T13:37:47.513+00:00Upcoming anniversary<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZX7XXYl5MbKur5oR9DsYrtB7DK9ZJYQyAfupFhH1pFD0kx96J-bq_ERKVg0Z6uzjx6tnlphRXwmHeGQRD7LOPNdBBf09pq65UKApGHG7xI2fljFeIPZ7ps90JTW5dyo_Ci6cBJjblSBU/s1600-h/gogol.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZX7XXYl5MbKur5oR9DsYrtB7DK9ZJYQyAfupFhH1pFD0kx96J-bq_ERKVg0Z6uzjx6tnlphRXwmHeGQRD7LOPNdBBf09pq65UKApGHG7xI2fljFeIPZ7ps90JTW5dyo_Ci6cBJjblSBU/s320/gogol.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315263588418196402" /></a>
<p>On April 1, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogol">Nikolay Gogol</a> will be 200. Unknown fans recently launched the web-site <a href="http://www.gogol200.ru">Gogol200.ru</a>. It's in Russian, but you can view a <a href="http://www.gogol200.ru/#/funart/">huge collection of illustrations</a> to Gogol's books. Explore them, while I'm away on business trip till next Friday :).</p>
<p>I have to warn that the web-site is built in Macromedia Flash and it may be very uncomfortable.</p><blockquote></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-4448396185669292782009-03-19T12:41:00.004+00:002009-03-19T12:53:25.472+00:00Stratfor report<p>These guys dig Russia. Or so it seems at the first glance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090302_financial_crisis_and_six_pillars_russian_strength">The Financial Crisis and the Six Pillars of Russian Strength</a>.</p>
<p>I've always been a bit skeptical about all those "objective" circumstances which supposedly define political, economical and cultural life of a country. Otherwise, the analysis is interesting.</p>
<blockquote>
While Russia’s financial sector may be getting torn apart, the state does not really count on that sector for domestic cohesion or stability, or for projecting power abroad. Russia knows it lacks a good track record financially, so it depends on — and has shored up where it can — six other pillars to maintain its (self-proclaimed) place as a major international player. The current financial crisis would crush the last five pillars for any other state, but in Russia, it has only served to strengthen these bases. Over the past few years, there was a certain window of opportunity for Russia to resurge while Washington was preoccupied with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This window has been kept open longer by the West’s lack of worry over the Russian resurgence given the financial crisis. But others closer to the Russian border understand that Moscow has many tools more potent than finance with which to continue reasserting itself.
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-7028813485712718492009-03-11T10:40:00.005+00:002009-03-11T11:34:53.768+00:00March 11 in Russian history. Armed neutrality. Barsov's grammar<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaND3bIPutdQyc3nvkjUzrPgkCFSMErbGbHEpzucc8jnbvPHY6Eku1V35WYQbCcjYbIu2h0lFcGMhji7jrK3T6thzD605g3zz6HrQisqq9CEdXdLIOg2ENUpYO3n8G9pzyDQLAHagLLwY/s1600-h/catherine-ii.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaND3bIPutdQyc3nvkjUzrPgkCFSMErbGbHEpzucc8jnbvPHY6Eku1V35WYQbCcjYbIu2h0lFcGMhji7jrK3T6thzD605g3zz6HrQisqq9CEdXdLIOg2ENUpYO3n8G9pzyDQLAHagLLwY/s320/catherine-ii.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311884608638944946" /></a>
<h2>1780</h2>
<p>(28 February Old Style)</p>
<p>In 1775, when British colonies in America began their war for independence, France and Spain supported the separatists and Great Britain had to look for allies. In June 1775, King George III asked Russian empress Catherine the Great to send troops to America to suppress the rebellion. For Russia, free trade was way more important than the alliance with the old rival, who attempted to blockade Spanish and French ports. American privateers also interfered with Russian-English sea trade, but the losses they caused were tiny compared with the consequences of the British blockade. Catherine II refused to join the war against American separatists. Instead, in 1780, she launched an international campaign for free maritime trade. From <a href="http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Armed-Neutralities-League-of-the-armed-neutrality.html" >Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Empress Catherine II of Russia] under pressure from Great Britain on the one hand to enter an alliance and from the northern powers on the other to help protect their neutrality, found her own shipping becoming more subject to interference from the belligerents. The result was the declaration of 1780, identifying the principles by which Catherine proposed to act and the means—commissioning a substantial portion of her fleet to go "wherever honour, interest, and necessity compelled"—by which she proposed to enforce those principles. Broadly, these principles were that neutral shipping might navigate freely from port to port and on the coasts of nations at war; that the property of subjects of belligerent states on neutral ships should be free except when it was classed as contraband within the meaning of the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1766; and that a port was assumed to be blockaded only when the attacking power had rendered its ships stationary and made entry a clear danger.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Armed-Neutralities-League-of-the-armed-neutrality.html" >(read more)</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>More about the League of Armed Neutrality from the POV of Russian history in <a href="http://www.neva.ru/EXPO96/book/chap5-1.html" ><i>The History of Russian Navy</i></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although the Declaration was enforced for only three years, it was, nonetheless, an original doctrine of major significance. It contributed to the understanding among nations of the inviolability of peaceful merchant vessels, their right to be free from the threat of piracy and harassment, and that wanton disregard of such rights would not be tolerated by Russia and its allies. Enforcement of the Declaration by the Russian Navy confirmed that a powerful naval fleet commanded international respect and that Russia had become a maritime power that was able to support its policies and punish offenders. In effect, the Declaration of Armed Neutrality served to elevate the reputation of the Russian Navy. The Baltic Fleet gradually strengthened. As early as 1777 Admiral Greig had suggested a new table of ship's proportions and the refurbishing of ship armaments. The 54-gun vessels vanished from use, replaced by more powerful ones; 66- and 74-gun vessels with larger-calibre cannon became the base of the fleet. The strength of the Baltic Fleet was additionally reinforced by eight 100-gun, three-decked ships of the line, the first of which was the handsome Rostislav. In the year 1784 the Rostislav's dimensions were impressive-55 metres in length and a displacement of 3,500 tons. The next ships to be built were the Saratov, the Three Saints and the Saint Ioann Chrestitel, which proved their worth against the best-equipped vessels in the British and Swedish fleets.</p>
<p>In 1761 the weaponry of the Russian fleet was updated. More powerful shell-firing guns were installed on the lower decks, and in 1788 effective short-range cannon (carronades) were placed on the quarterdeck and forecastle of larger vessels. New copper sheathing protected ships' hulls and increased their speed. The fleet was regularly provided with officers from the Naval Cadet Corps (Naval Academy), which graduated a hundred such officers annually.</p>
<p>Inasmuch as war against Sweden loomed on the horizon, Russia was well-advised to refurbish its Baltic Fleet. The Swedes were hesitant to concede their dominant position in the Baltic to Russia. Friedrick Chapman, considered one of the foremost shipwrights of his day, was commissioned by Sweden to build 64-gun ships of the line and 40-gun frigates with heavy 24- and 36-pound artillery on the lower-deck batteries. In addition, the Swedish rowing fleet was reinforced by well-armed smaller vessels-hemmems, turums, udems and light, maneuverable gun-boats. The King of Sweden, Gustav III, awaited an excuse to begin hostilities against Russia. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/league-of-armed-neutrality" >Encyclopedia of Russian History</a> adds an interesting conclusion to the article about the League of Armed Neutrality: </p>
<blockquote>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBFf58BD-2tSVwsaXvdTh0yE5WW4FEPqnO8GvXdZYPotsMwc2RLcgv9ICCTL5NDbJ-uTD7tgA8qSP5LJtOBZel0vWuEgsdTQUM7GvU0JpRdLKjk3BDkjbBBAuPXxoeFWSFMxG9ZA7xKw/s1600-h/2flags.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBFf58BD-2tSVwsaXvdTh0yE5WW4FEPqnO8GvXdZYPotsMwc2RLcgv9ICCTL5NDbJ-uTD7tgA8qSP5LJtOBZel0vWuEgsdTQUM7GvU0JpRdLKjk3BDkjbBBAuPXxoeFWSFMxG9ZA7xKw/s320/2flags.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311884479515106610" /></a>
<p>The league was remembered in the United States, somewhat erroneously, as a mark of Russian friendship and sympathy, and bolstered Anglophobia in the two countries. More generally, it affirmed a cardinal principle of maritime law that continues in effect in the early twenty-first century. Indirectly, it also led to a considerable expansion of Russian-American trade from the 1780s through the first half of the nineteenth century.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>1783</h2>
<p>The Commission of Peoples Schools entrusted Anton Barsov, professor of the Moscow University, with the task of writing a course of Russian grammar. </p>
<p>Among earlier works of Barsov were a chronology of Russian history, <i>"Collection of 4291 Ancient Russian proverb"</i>, translations of French, Greek and Latin works on politics and philology, including <i>"Cellarii Orthographia Latina"</i>, a method of Russia stenography <i>"De Brachygraphia"</i> and other works. He participated in the writing of the dictionary of Russian language. He finished work on the first volume of the dictionary when the new job made him to send all materials he had collected for the dictionary to the Academy and concentrate on the grammar course. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_dUSwgxp7RjBa273ysv9xKeyByXCyzDuFdbgFB2zEXZM5iCfyiYqoHAXRo3AA-Lh8bmWHdSEEMmdetSeHhwXY91NJEKCe1H0nmOuTg3cOezae_Sflm_ziQgno8yAlQ8ILmhE-9wB83s/s1600-h/russian4dummies.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 252px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_dUSwgxp7RjBa273ysv9xKeyByXCyzDuFdbgFB2zEXZM5iCfyiYqoHAXRo3AA-Lh8bmWHdSEEMmdetSeHhwXY91NJEKCe1H0nmOuTg3cOezae_Sflm_ziQgno8yAlQ8ILmhE-9wB83s/s320/russian4dummies.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311884305803846818" /></a>
<p>He was writing the course since 1783 till 1788, but the Commission of Peoples Schools decided not to publish it. It was lost and we can only use incomplete copies. Members of the Commission concluded that the course was overloaded with details and unsuitable for schools. Another possible cause was, probably, Barsov's ideas about the reform of the orthography. Some of those proposals were implemented in the 20th century, during the 1918 reform. So, he proposed to eliminate the hard sign "ъ" at the ultimate position after consonants, to exclude redundant letters "θ" and "И", in favor of their duplicates "Ф" and "I", correspondingly, and to replace "ъ" with an apostroph or the soft sign "ь" in the middle of words. He also offered to introduce a new ligature, "io", to denote the sound for which Karamzin later invented a new letter "ё", which is stil used in Russian alphabet. </p>
<p>His grammar was not published at that time, but now it is still in print, both <a href="http://www.libex.ru/detail/book13442.html" >in Russian</a> and <a href="http://openlibrary.org/b/OL18361752M" >in English</a>. Moreover, you can <a href="http://imwerden.de/pdf/barsov_rossijskaya_grammatika_1981.pdf" >download the full text in Russian</a> (1981 edition) as a PDF file for free (23.2Mb). </p>
<p>From the preface to <i>The Comprehensive Russian Grammar of A.A.Barsov</i> by Lawrence W. Newman: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This volume contains the first publication of the Comprehensive Russian Grammar of Anton Barsov (1730-1791). Written between 1783 and 1788 for use in schools, it would have needed to be shortened and simplified to fulfill its original purpose. Its publication helps fill an important lacuna in the history of the Russian grammatical tradition, as well as providing new information about eighteenth-century Russian. Barsov was professor of rhetoric at Moscow University for thirty years, including the period when he was writing the grammar. The influence of his university work was apparently great, to judge, for example, from Karamzin's testimony (cited here from V.V. Vinogradov, <i>Iz istorii izučenija russkogo sintaksisa</i>, Moscow: Moscow University, 1958, page 49): if, says Karamzin, he "knows how sometimes to pause over a word, how to be cautious, then he owes this advantage to this one extremely learned man." It is likely that the grammar, or at least lectures from which it was derived, was not completely lost, but played a minor role in the education of a generation of Russian intellectuals. </p>
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-929563048711609092009-03-10T10:47:00.006+00:002009-03-11T11:34:28.159+00:00March 10 in Russian history. Stoletov's research of photoelectric effect<h2>1888</h2>
<p>(26 February Old Style)</p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4I9AthNk_iEEO7MlDmuTYDt1jhLoqdGuDb3c5ZyxgkSkKLrGTAmFTFqgnFLcYiRvpd5NqcYnk58jlK5PVHpDUj4G-M0kshcWd4CY-xQA6uDTac6RvCrE2HPmT4Twsc5p9emzK42f4cc/s1600-h/stoletov.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4I9AthNk_iEEO7MlDmuTYDt1jhLoqdGuDb3c5ZyxgkSkKLrGTAmFTFqgnFLcYiRvpd5NqcYnk58jlK5PVHpDUj4G-M0kshcWd4CY-xQA6uDTac6RvCrE2HPmT4Twsc5p9emzK42f4cc/s320/stoletov.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311509323173984130" /></a>
<p>The experiment set by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Stoletov" >Alexander Stoletov</a> is finally successful. The photoelectric effect was first observed in 1839 by Becquerel, but its discovery is usually attributed to Heinrich Hertz. Stoletov, though, was the first who deduced the laws and patterns of this effect. </p>
<p>Here's a little biography of Stoletov taken from <a href="http://www.russia-ic.com/people/general/s/146/" >Russia-InfoCentre</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Born: August 10, 1839</p>
<p>Deceased: May 27, 1896</p>
<p>Eminent Russian physicist, Alexander Stoletov, was born to the family of a merchant in 1839. Alexander’s father owned a grocery shop and his mother, a well-educated woman, did her best to teach her children Russian language and arithmetic before they started attending a secondary school. Alexander was four when he learned to read and he spent days reading, since his health wasn’t very good.</p>
<p>In 1849 Alexander entered the gymnasium in Vladimir. He graduated it seven years after with a diploma of honours and gold medal for outstanding achievements in learning. Same year Alexander Stoletov was enrolled to the faculty of physics and mathematics of Moscow State University and received educational scholarship from the state.</p>
<p>In 1860 Alexander finished the university and passed master’s examination. However, master thesis defense had to be postponed, because Alexander Stoletov went to Europe for new knowledge. He spent three years in Berlin, Heidelberg and Gottingen, studying physics, and fascinated physicists with his talent. (He studied at Gustav Kirchhoff, who called Stoletov "his most gifted student" <i>DM</i>) </p>
<p>First scientific research Alexander Stoletov performed abroad. Young scientist found out that dielectric properties of water had no effect on electromagnetic interaction of conductors. In 1865 Stoletov returned to Russia and soon got a position of a teacher of mathematical physics and physical geography in Moscow State University. Physicist read brilliant lectures and prepared his master thesis, "The General Problem of Electrostatics and Its Reduction to the Simplest Form". Young scientist solved this problem and defended his master thesis in 1869. Following years were spent in effort to create his own physical laboratory – Moscow State University had no experimental facilities, and scientists had to go abroad to perform research. In 1871 Alexander Stoletov started working on his doctor dissertation and studied magnetic properties of iron. Creating a theory of how electric machines worked was an important task, since there was no such science as “electro-techniques”. Stoletov again went to Germany, where he discovered some important patterns in the magnetism of iron.</p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRpf1R9I1JxxC0UD1by9rTAnxhr5xUzr8B0fziECHphpjmD51HqOUhF4dYOHusYwIIGMkYFWr1J8lk0vmtC_3EF3bKt1gQ2SQ1pUZvPQDZZHw97II3In46l7t9GLuNzc7RP2yrIVV2gA/s1600-h/stoletov-exp.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 208px; height: 87px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRpf1R9I1JxxC0UD1by9rTAnxhr5xUzr8B0fziECHphpjmD51HqOUhF4dYOHusYwIIGMkYFWr1J8lk0vmtC_3EF3bKt1gQ2SQ1pUZvPQDZZHw97II3In46l7t9GLuNzc7RP2yrIVV2gA/s320/stoletov-exp.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311509100786604450" /></a>
<p>In 1872 Alexander Stoletov successfully defended his doctor dissertation, and the following year brought him a position of professor in Moscow University. Same year his physical laboratory finally opened – Russian scientists didn’t need to go abroad to perform experiments anymore. The physicist read popular lectures, wrote popular scientific papers and supervised a physical society. After defense of doctor dissertation Alexander Stoletov became a world-known scientist – he visited opening ceremony of physical laboratory in Cambridge in 1874, and represented Russian science at I World Congress of Electricity in Paris in 1881, where he reported on proportion factors between electrostatic and electromagnetic units of measure. Stoletov suggested using Ohm for electric resistance. In 1888 Alexander Stoletov started studies of photo effect, which was discovered by Hertz the year before. Elegant experiments resulted in a discovery of the law linking critical pressure, electromotive force of a battery and distance between the electrode and the net. Later this constant was named after him.</p>
<p>In 1893, three Academy members recommended Stoletov for becoming a member of the Academy of Sciences. However, the President of the Academy, Great Prince Konstantin, refused to sign necessary papers explaining himself with the “unbearable temper of Alexander Stoletov”. Such decision was a hard blow for the physicist, and many scientists sympathized with him due to that unfair situation. Health of the great scientist was weak since his early childhood, and in May 1896 Alexander Stoletov died of pneumonia. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some other important works of Stoletov include:</p>
<ul>
<li>On the Kohlrausch's measurement of the mercury unit of electric resistance;</li>
<li>Sur une méthode pour déterminer le rapport des unités électromagnétiques et électrostatiques;</li>
<li>On the electricity of juxtaposition;</li>
<li>On the critical state of bodies (4 articles);</li>
<li>Actino-electric research;</li>
<li>Ether and electricity;</li>
<li>Essay on the development of our knowledge of gases;</li>
<li>Introduction into acoustics and optics.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some Stoletov's achievements:</p>
<ul>
<li>Stoletov was the first to show that with the increase of the magnetic field the magnetic susceptibility of iron grows, but then begins to decrease. </li>
<li>He built the curve of the magnetic permeability of ferromagnetics, known as the Stoletov's curve.</li>
<li>Developed two new methods of measurement of magnetic properties of various materials. </li>
<li>He calculated the the proportion between electrodynamic and electrostatic units, producing a value very close to the speed of light.</li>
<li>Studied the outer photoelectric effect, discovered by Hertz.</li>
<li>Built the first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect and estimated the response time of the photoelectric current.</li>
<li>Discovered the direct proportionality of the intensity of light and the current caused by it (Stoletov's law)</li>
<li>Discovered the decrease of the solar cell's sensitivity with time (fatigue of solar cells).</li>
<li>Developed quantitative methods of the study of the photoelectric effect.</li>
<li>Discovered the Stoletov's constant (defines the ratio between the intensity of the electric current and the gas pressure under the maximum current).</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-12321203778703736362009-03-10T06:28:00.005+00:002009-03-10T06:40:45.158+00:00The World War That Never Happened: US Occupies USSR<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC_uZQDpj6Yi6IrvjkHOH1lws8nP8mGq0olojqfYUZ05e0H7wYYdKxu6SJeY0tpXfXPRblAgs92rnTIkKgKCj7QeAfWLyNgk4WM9lVOMnlp52v9L9aajNENrcKYqqPohsYu8goHaZGuD8/s1600-h/colliers.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC_uZQDpj6Yi6IrvjkHOH1lws8nP8mGq0olojqfYUZ05e0H7wYYdKxu6SJeY0tpXfXPRblAgs92rnTIkKgKCj7QeAfWLyNgk4WM9lVOMnlp52v9L9aajNENrcKYqqPohsYu8goHaZGuD8/s320/colliers.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311444180272940930" /></a>
<p>A little follow-up to the yesterday's article which mentioned two US plans of nuclear attacks on the USSR. Earlier this year the amazing <a href="http://strangemaps.wordpress.com">Strange Maps</a> blog published this article: <a href="http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/356-the-world-war-that-never-happened-us-occupies-ussr/">The World War That Never Happened: US Occupies USSR</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On 27 October 1951, the US magazine Collier’s devoted an entire 130-page issue to the theme of “Russia’s Defeat and Occupation, 1952-1960; Preview of the War We Do Not Want.” The cover showed an American soldier in a helmet emblazoned with US and UN insignia, reading MP (Military Police) Occupation Forces.</p>
...
<p>In the introduction, Collier’s proclaimed that it had chosen this theme: “To warn the evil masters of the Russian people that their conspiracy to enslave humanity is the dark, downhill road to World War III; to sound a powerful call for reason and understanding between the peoples of East and West — before it’s too late; to demonstrate that if the war we do not want is forced upon us, we will win.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another recent article at Strange Maps is here: <a href="http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/366-world-war-ii-if-maps-could-fight/">World War II: If Maps Could Fight</a>. Have a look at this funny story :).</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-23577567717758904872009-03-09T13:58:00.005+00:002009-03-09T14:14:18.546+00:00Two dates from space age<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhz8xHO4z84n607eyf_Ar5zlib0jvFdsGS35KYSWA7NU1RPd092abMYxiMIGZuRrXmLh740J3rjWEvjDsUsyez8oHiNnWTeZ8kJ-wtqHlqL3miHXlSBS4xsFT4TXJpVHHHIsIFe8yIl3M/s1600-h/gagarin1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhz8xHO4z84n607eyf_Ar5zlib0jvFdsGS35KYSWA7NU1RPd092abMYxiMIGZuRrXmLh740J3rjWEvjDsUsyez8oHiNnWTeZ8kJ-wtqHlqL3miHXlSBS4xsFT4TXJpVHHHIsIFe8yIl3M/s320/gagarin1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311188487235830274" /></a>
<p>Today, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin" >Yuri Gagarin</a> would be 75... </p>
<p>And two days ago Dmitry Kozlov, the designer of the carrier Vostok, that took Gagarin into space, has died in Samara. </p>
<p>Dmitry Ilyich Kozlov was born in 1919. In 1937 he entered the Leningrad military mechanical university. In 1941 he volunteered to join the Soviet army and fought near Leningrad. When in winter truck convoys began crossing the frozen Ladoga lake to bring food to the blockaded city, Kozlov was to guard one of the first trucks. Because of the wind he lost his cap, he jumped out of the car, and when he found it, the truck was hit by German shells and went under the ice. Kozlov survived, and in 1944 he was discharged after the explosion of a Finnish mine tore away his left hand. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wcwThZ4xWcVCf1w_FmxxTgpkNBMDDe5WbWFojLY2-iVEx4iJlSka5meHO3ySuFHajvNqRDssNM0h3_Klch5S6EV6tPa_4jayqVSj4trUInUpUWvUGTQtE23zkF49i4rC9FgaGr5s2n8/s1600-h/kozlov.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 235px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wcwThZ4xWcVCf1w_FmxxTgpkNBMDDe5WbWFojLY2-iVEx4iJlSka5meHO3ySuFHajvNqRDssNM0h3_Klch5S6EV6tPa_4jayqVSj4trUInUpUWvUGTQtE23zkF49i4rC9FgaGr5s2n8/s320/kozlov.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311188688082085490" /></a>
<p>in 1946 he was sent to Germany to research the remains of German V-2 missiles. Upon his return he was appointed the chief of the 3rd department of the NII-88 (scientific research institute 88), and began designing intercontinental ballistic missiles. He worked together with Sergey Korolyov, the demi-god of the Soviet space program. Korolyov developed the ballistic missile code-named R-7 and in 1958, when a new missile factory was started in Kuibyshev (Samara), Kozlov became the chief designer. "Only a beautiful rocket is a good rocket", he used to say. R-7 was the rocket that made the plans of mass strikes on the USSR, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dropshot" >Operation Dropshot</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Totality" >Plan Totality</a>, totally useless. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjDQoifgZa0ZZ_eSPJTPt0Tffr3NvIE3XGvchPO5Hajf43SeEkO7l0hd7n2gG2KsUho5v_dfnZ3RHjiRFuvKZ22B8kdJrpoHbMGn3SWmWqZlXjacsIAQhGffXmyCnH1DBq_mm9uX9OD10/s1600-h/r7-1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjDQoifgZa0ZZ_eSPJTPt0Tffr3NvIE3XGvchPO5Hajf43SeEkO7l0hd7n2gG2KsUho5v_dfnZ3RHjiRFuvKZ22B8kdJrpoHbMGn3SWmWqZlXjacsIAQhGffXmyCnH1DBq_mm9uX9OD10/s320/r7-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311190136669093218" /></a>
<p>The R-7 began its life as an ICBM, but it had a huge potential and most Soviet space carriers, including Vostok, Voskhod, Molniya and Soyuz (which means also the Chines Shenzhou) were heavily based on this Korolyov's project. Since 1964 the factory led by Kozlov became the leading organization of the Soviet space industry. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMI0h-qNOHzfvLRPJoJN0zfsb9v6ebUqTzwwYVh8mkvBjIaR6bk-a9EwGRVhGrTP5h4w3-QQSgNymAM1rctMFE2IKWwSssyY9DwjxTGeQU-nMwVLIvoVT8sFE5FmkX2rpllKZXtJqfClg/s1600-h/r7-2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMI0h-qNOHzfvLRPJoJN0zfsb9v6ebUqTzwwYVh8mkvBjIaR6bk-a9EwGRVhGrTP5h4w3-QQSgNymAM1rctMFE2IKWwSssyY9DwjxTGeQU-nMwVLIvoVT8sFE5FmkX2rpllKZXtJqfClg/s320/r7-2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311190287383052018" /></a>
<p>The same factory, now known as <a href="http://www.samspace.ru/ENG/CSDB_Progress/history.htm" >TsSKB-Progress</a> (literally Central Specialized Design Bureau), designed and built a huge number of Soviet satellites, military and intelligence, and civil Fram, Resurs-F1, Resurs-F2, Bion and Yantar. Yantar was able to produce the images of extremely high quality, and for some years NASA purchased the films made by Yantar from the USSR. A commercial modification <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurs_DK" >Resurs-DK</a> was named after Dmitry Kozlov. </p>
<p>Actually, not a single company in the world can compete with TsSKB-Progress. 1740 successful launches. More than 870 successful re-entries and langings. </p>
<p>In 2005, <a href="http://www.fai.org/awards/recipient.asp?id=30010" >Kozlov was awarded with the Gold Space Medal</a> by FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale): </p>
<blockquote>
Mr Dmitry I. Kozlov - Designer General of the State Research and Production Space Rocket Centre TsSKB "Progress", was a close colleague of Sergei P. Korolev. In the late 1950s, he played a decisive role in establishing the Central Specialized Design Bureau, one of the leading developers of space rocket technology, which under his supervision produced eight types of space systems, including "Soyuz-FG", "Molniya-M", "Soyuz-U", "Soyuz-2", in addition to many types of unmanned spacecraft for various purposes. Mr Dmitry I. Kozlov paved the way for international cooperation in space exploration, having produced highly reliable manned and unmanned spacecraft ("Soyuz" and "Progress"), thus ensuring the operation of the International Space Station. For his great contribution to the design, production and operation of many types of unmanned and manned spacecraft, and for the organization and development of fruitful international cooperation in space exploration, Mr Dmitry I. Kozlov is a deserving recipient of the FAI Gold Space Medal for 2005.
</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-83867996924533190052009-03-06T17:38:00.005+00:002009-03-11T11:35:30.743+00:00March 6 in Russian history. Without Stalin? Hurrah!<h2>1953</h2>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQuLLs0F1f8NBPTfEpl2Z3uBu9XseIpnZ1rfpMHzFB-2uathxXO6NL4zxJZNNlPtnn_v1lvJBs1m-xtZl0psSszFux74BuRaacNKiB8u_0eVcsVUXPt6AcFUWWP_1u3ewWCEaMI9bdIw/s1600-h/stalin-burial0.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQuLLs0F1f8NBPTfEpl2Z3uBu9XseIpnZ1rfpMHzFB-2uathxXO6NL4zxJZNNlPtnn_v1lvJBs1m-xtZl0psSszFux74BuRaacNKiB8u_0eVcsVUXPt6AcFUWWP_1u3ewWCEaMI9bdIw/s320/stalin-burial0.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310132104278080210" /></a>
<p>Changes in the Soviet government. G. Malenkov became the prime-minister. K. Voroshilov was appointed the chairman of Supreme Soviet. L. Beriya, whose name would be remembered for a very long time since then, became the minister of home affairs. This decision was taken one day before, forty minutes before Stalin's death. </p>
<p>Death of almost every dictator causes problems. With Stalin, it was a special case. For thirty years, he was the man who held in his hands the life of every Soviet citizen. Children grew up who were taught that Stalin is the pillar of the freedom of the working class all over the world, that he, with his godlike intelligence, foresees all problems and that using and developing the only true teaching of Marx and Lenin he steers forward, to the victory of communism in all the world. And so on, so on, so on.</p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAro078Eff4bMRrN0os36mk6KsE-T-QMiKXYS6EajBAXzZxgLoI03-fRK0Yn5lFFCmvUjsDgCoMeQrRB_Ri9-Q3-vjRJ_8Z7S33UD-PZL1-5jSyXZj4BPRthuFdqghBFA9OUgYrnbMcgc/s1600-h/stalin-burial1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAro078Eff4bMRrN0os36mk6KsE-T-QMiKXYS6EajBAXzZxgLoI03-fRK0Yn5lFFCmvUjsDgCoMeQrRB_Ri9-Q3-vjRJ_8Z7S33UD-PZL1-5jSyXZj4BPRthuFdqghBFA9OUgYrnbMcgc/s320/stalin-burial1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310132233097798146" /></a>
<p> On the other hand, they knew of the Black Marias that came at night. Many of them knew people who were sent to Gulag. But in spite of this, what they felt when they learned of the death of Stalin was not pure happiness. </p>
<p>I remember the death of Brezhnev, who ruled the USSR for less than twenty years. I grew up with him. He was always somewhere around: on TV, in newspapers, on radio. My feelings were mixed. I hoped for something new, for changes, but I was scared. I'm absolultely sure that the same sentiments prevailed among the Soviet people fifty six years ago. </p>
<p>Some of them expressed these feelings openly. The whistleblowers had a lot of work then. Below are some stories taken from their denunciations. </p>
<p>Unemployed F.Kosaurihin from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, being drunk, said that it was Zhukov, not Stalin, who won the war. He swore at Stalin and scanned anti-Sovet verses, while standing at a liquor store. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHwGoT8Cv5EQds7GXlstF2oy1rHfSf5zcelDm_XOZ8xz5GbDCbalAHI4GtNtQCE1pwhJgvnMnnk359sQIb7s45H4t4M__y4cNeeGYj33GUBPgmXMaMP2aGMXhHC28W8pzNwkcSD_7q1M/s1600-h/stalin-burial2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 271px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHwGoT8Cv5EQds7GXlstF2oy1rHfSf5zcelDm_XOZ8xz5GbDCbalAHI4GtNtQCE1pwhJgvnMnnk359sQIb7s45H4t4M__y4cNeeGYj33GUBPgmXMaMP2aGMXhHC28W8pzNwkcSD_7q1M/s320/stalin-burial2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310132419796208226" /></a>
<p>G.Briakhne, a carpenter from Tiraspol, came at work on 6 March singing a song. When the workers told him it was a day of mourning and he should not sing, he cursed and said that another chief will come to the place of the old one. </p>
<p>V.Lutsevich, a woman from Ashkhabad region, being drunk, said about Stalin's death that "it serves him right".</p>
<p>V.Sokolova, an old school teacher from Gorky region, retold the programs of Voice of America to other teachers, saying that Stalin was poisoned by his doctor. Besides, she was accused of "distorting the Soviet reality", when she said during a lesson in March 1952 that in 1928, during the construction of the paper mill, tools and engineers were brought from America. </p>
<p>S.Vasilyev, a railroad worker from Murmansk region, when he learned of Stalin's death, came to the foreman and said: "The chief has died. Now, we'll be free, and the kolkhozes will be disbanded and the land will be given to the peasants". On the 9 March, during the Stalin's funerals, he would joke with the girls standing nearby. </p>
<p>A.Ivanov, movie technician from Charjou in Turkmenista, being drunk, cried "For Stalin's death, hurrah!" during a show, when Stalin's face appeared on screen. </p>
<p>Prisoner B.Ustin said to the workers who were fastening Stalin's portrait on a wall on 6 March: "What the %^&$ you are hanging here..." Earlier, in 1952, he said that Stalin stole Lenin's works, that the country is not managed properly, that we need a war which was not finished in 1945 because of Stalin, that we have to finish with America, so our children would live in peace. </p>
<p>G.Nastasyuk, a kolkhoz worker from Moldavia, said on 6 March: "It would be great if not only Stalin, but all communists died in three days. Than there would be no kolkhozes". Earlier, he was reported to say that the kolkhoz workers are paupers, that in spring there'll be a war with America and the Soviet power will fall. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwZmu-e6M-rOJAeZrqmhROaI7Wy53Jz80wlgAbxC9Is6p-b6gweG2GOJ-RXIrGxhkdx7Fyd40KjW6HNcTN8F3-jcbWEP70WP4NQqHTLYeAOc5NRg8JjEXWv2cMr2lEBpuzHLlg2pYA2U/s1600-h/stalin-burial4.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwZmu-e6M-rOJAeZrqmhROaI7Wy53Jz80wlgAbxC9Is6p-b6gweG2GOJ-RXIrGxhkdx7Fyd40KjW6HNcTN8F3-jcbWEP70WP4NQqHTLYeAOc5NRg8JjEXWv2cMr2lEBpuzHLlg2pYA2U/s320/stalin-burial4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310132596658799810" /></a>
<p>I don't know what happened to these people, but there's one more story. 18-years old Larisa Ogorinskaya, a schoolgirl from Lvov in Ukraine, during the mourning meeting said: "He deserved it!". She was beaten by her schoolmates, Gukov and Gladkih, right on spot. Later, for this note she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Fortunately, very soon, on 17 June 1953, she was rehabilitated. </p>
<p>Boris Basov, medical worker from Kranoyarsk, being drunk, said in a pub: "Let him die, tens of other people can take his place". When someone else said: "These people won't be like him. Millions will mourn him", Basov replied: "Millions will celebrate his death!" He was detained and brought to police. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, but in April the sentence was changed to five years. Quite soon he was rehabilitated. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-45933955199871843742009-03-05T06:27:00.003+00:002009-03-05T07:16:49.903+00:00A little more on the 1991 referendum on preservation of the USSR<p>On <a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2008/12/december-25-in-russian-history.html">25 December I wrote about the 1991 referendum on the preservation of the Soviet Union</a>, where 76.43% of all citizens chose to keep the Union "as a modernized federation of equal sovereign republics, where the rights and freedoms of the people of all nationalities would be guaranteed". Some days ago one of the readers asked me what was the breakup by republics. I tried to post the table in the comments, but it turns out that Blogger.com does not support tables in comments, so I post it as a separate article.</p>
<p>Strangely enough, I couldn't find the referendum results in English. The table below was taken from <a href="http://www.vremyababurin.narod.ru/Num5_2001/N5_2001.html">here</a>. It includes the republics of the USSR and autonomous republics.</p>
<TABLE BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=3 WIDTH=677>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2 ROWSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Number of registered electors
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="16%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Participated in the referendum
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="16%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Votes "Yes"
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="16%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Votes "No"
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="15%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Invalid votes
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">%
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">%
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">%
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">%
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="CENTER">1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Russia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">105.643.364
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">79.701.169
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">75,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">56.860.783
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">71,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">21.030.753
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">26,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.809.633
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,3
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Ukraine
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">37.732.178
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">31.514.244
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">83,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">22.110.899
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">70,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8.820.089
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">28,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">583.256
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,8
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Byelorussia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">7.354.796
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">6.126.983
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">83,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">5.069.313
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">82,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">986.079
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">16,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">71.591
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,2
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Uzbekistan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10.278.938
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.816.333
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">95,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.196.848
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">93,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">511.373
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">5,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">108.112.
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,1
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Kazakhstan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.999.433
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8.816.543
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">88,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8.295.519
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">94,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">436.560
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">5,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">84.464
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=18>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Azerbaijan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.866.659
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.903.797
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">75,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.709.246
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">93,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">169.225
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">5,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">25.326
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Kyrgyzstan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.341646
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.174.593
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">92,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.057.971
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">96,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">86.245
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">30.377
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,4
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Tajikistan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.549.096
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.407.552
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">94,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.315.755
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">96,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">75.300
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">16.497
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,7
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Turkmenistan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.847.310
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.804.138
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">97,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.766.584
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">97,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">31.203
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">6.351
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,4
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Bashkiria
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.719.637
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.221.158
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">81,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.908.875
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">85,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">269.007
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">12,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">43.276
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,0
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Buryatia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">668.231
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">535.802
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">80,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">447.438
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">83,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">78.167
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">14,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10.197
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Dagestan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.008.626
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">812.009
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">80,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">670.488
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">82,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">131.522
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">16,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.999
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,2
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="26%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Kabardino-Balkaria
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="10%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">489.436
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">372.607
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">76,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">290.380
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">77,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">77.339
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">20,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4.888
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,3
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Kalmykia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">204.301
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">169.124
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">82,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">148.462
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">87,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">17.833
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.829
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,7
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Karelia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">551644
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">418.101
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">75,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">317.854
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">76,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">92.703
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">22,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">7.544
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,8
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Komi
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">797.049
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">543.403
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">68,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">412.842
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">76,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">119.678
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">22,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10.883
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,0
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Mari El
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">525.685
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">418.599
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">79,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">333.319
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">79,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">77.239
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">18,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8.041
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Mordovia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">677.706
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">571.631
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">84,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">459.021
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">80,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">101.886
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">17,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10,724
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">North Ossetia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">428.307
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">367.858
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">85,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">331.823
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">90,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">32.786
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.249
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Tatarstan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.532.383
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.951.768
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">77,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.708.193
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">87,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">211.516
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">32.059
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,7
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Tuva
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">171.731
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">138.496
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">80,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">126.598
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">91,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.404
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">6,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.494
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,8
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Udmurtia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.103.083
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">819.140
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">74,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">622.714
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">76,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">180.289
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">22,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">16.137
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,0
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Chechnya and Ingushetia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">712.139
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">419.012
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">58,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">318.059
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">75,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">94.737
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">22,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">6.216
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,5
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Chuvashia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">900.913
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">748.420
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">81,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">616.387
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">82,4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">113.249
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">15,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">18.784
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,5
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Yakutia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">688.679
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">541.993
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">78.7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">415.712
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">76,7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">116.798
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">21,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9.483
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,8
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Karakalpak
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">584.208
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">577.717
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">98.9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">563.916
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">97,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10.133
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.668
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,6
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Abkhazia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">318.317
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">166.544
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">52,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">164.231
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">98,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.566
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">747
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,5
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Nakhichevan
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">174.364
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">35.866
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">20,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">31.328
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">87,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.620
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">918
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2,6
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="95%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=10>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">The governments of Baltic republics, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia boycotted the referendum, the central election committees were not created. A number of local election committees were formed, though, and some people participated in the referendum. The results are below (excluding the results from Soviet military bases):
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="CENTER">1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">4
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">7
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">9
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Georgia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">45.696
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">44.012
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">96,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">43.950
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">99,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="CENTER">-
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">53
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,1
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Lithuania
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">582.262
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">501.375
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">86,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">496.050
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">98,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4.355
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,9
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">970
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,2
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Moldova
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">841.507
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">700.893
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">83,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">688.905
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">98,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">8.916
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,3
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.072
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,4
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Latvia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">670.828
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">436.783
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">65,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">415.147
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">95,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">18.015
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3,621
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,8
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Armenia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4.923
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">3.549
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">72,1
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">2.549
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">71,6
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">966
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">27,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">42
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,2
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Estonia
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">299.681
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">222.240
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">74.2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">211.090
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">95,0
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">10.040
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">4,5
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.110
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">0,5
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Ajaria
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="69%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=7>
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Military detachments located in boycotting republics
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="25%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=2>
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.261.721
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.233.858
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">97,8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1.107.980
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">89.8
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">113.283
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">9,2
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">12.595
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="5%" VALIGN="TOP">
<P ALIGN="RIGHT">1,0
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<p>An even more detailed breakup by regions of Russia can be found here: <a href="http://www.electoralgeography.com/new/en/countries/r/russia/russia-march-referendum-1991.html" >Russia. March Referendum 1991</a>.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-47994513998134565122009-03-02T21:26:00.002+00:002009-03-02T21:40:11.338+00:00Some things common to Russia and UK<p>A little warm-up after the long absence :).</p>
<p>A phrase I heard today on Russian TV:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are two countries in Europe, where people, when saying "Europe", mean all European countries but their own: Russia and Great Britain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Which reminds me of a recent dialog. A friend of mine who just finished reading <i>The Great Game</i> by Peter Hopkirk, <a href="http://myridersdigest.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_19.html">summed up his impressions</a>: "Britain and Russia are enemies forever. It's a huge mystery how we managed to become allies in both world wars". I replied: "Look from a different angle. Russia and Britain always desired the same: to get a grip of Middle Asia, Afghanistan and Persia in the 19th century and to beat Germans in the 20th." We agreed that we would wait for the two countries to become the best friends in the 21st :)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-76583648013773640812009-01-23T13:59:00.001+00:002009-01-23T14:01:43.068+00:00Yesterday's papers: Russian newspapers from 1909<p>(From <a href="http://www.starosti.ru" >Starosti.ru</a>)</p>
<p>In 1909, just like in the previous three years, Russian major cities, especially Moscow and St.Petersburg, awaited for the 22 January (9 January Old Style) with anxiety. Four years ago, in 1905, on this day, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905" >first Russian revolution</a> began. On the next day, 23 January (10 January Old Style), <i>Golos Moskvy</i> wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This day, 9 January, was calm. Only some days earlier, the workers' groups discussed how they should commemorate the fourth anniversary of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gapon" >Gapon's</a> demonstration. The opinions split. A part of the workers proposed to stop working after dinner, but this proposal was rejected. The majority of the workers would rather forget Gapon then to commemorate him. Today, on 9 January, the life in the workers' quarters went on as usually. All plants worked full day, there were no demonstrations, nor even enforced police detachments. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The problems in Caucasus persisted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>From Vladikavkaz, 8 Jan 1909</i>. Son of the sheep-farmer Koshel, kidnapped on 26 November, was released by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrek" >abreks</a> without ransom. Earlier, his father refused to pay the 16,000 rubles ransom. Army was deployed in the Ingush villages. They threatened that the aborigines will carry the responsibility in case of the death of the victim of kidnapping. The released boy told that he was kept in the corn fields, than in the woods. Sometimes he was brought to villages with a bandage on his eyes and locked in barns. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, not always the local population caused these problems:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>From Rostov on Don, 9 Jan 1909</i>. The persons guilty of numerous recent train robberies along the Vladikavkaz railroad were identified and detained. The culprits were railroad workers. To commit the crimes, they used to disguise as natives. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While we're talking about trains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Today, on 9 January, at 10:15 a.m., the first express train will depart from Moscow to Berlin and Paris. The train will travel with the speed never heard of before, it will take only 54 hours to get to Paris. This is a <i>train-de-luxe</i>, it consists of only three first class carriages and a restaurant and it is modeled after the best European trains. It will depart once a week, on Fridays, and the arrival is scheduled on Wednesdays, to agree with the Siberian trains in Moscow and the St.Petersburg express in Warsaw. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>An interesting news came from the governorate of Livonia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>From Mitau (modern Jelgava in Latvia), 9 Jan 1909</i>. A whole eighth class of the aristocratic German gymnasium, the stronghold of the culture of the Baltic barons, decided to leave the gymansium and to pass the state exams in the Russian gymnasium. This decision produced a shocking impression in the German nationalist circles. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As for the other countries, the events were still moving incessantly toward the August of 1914:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>From Sarajevo, 9 Jan 1909</i>. The holiday of the saint Savva, the enlightener and the first apostle of the Serbs, will not be celebrated in this year in Bosnia and Herzegovina to mourn the current situation of the country. Of course, it is true only for schools. In churches, the St.Savva's day will be celebrated. </p>
<p><i>From Wien, 8 Jan 1909</i>. The journalists in Constantinople report that on last Sunday large anti-Austrian manifestations took place in Tripoli. The crowd attacked the Austrian consul and vice consul. At the same time, pro-Italian demonstrations were held.</p>
<p><i>From Zemlin, 8 Jan 1909</i>. A bloody conflict between Serbs and Hungarians took place in Southern Hungary. About 50 Hungarians attacked the Serbian monastery Raganica, planning to steal the shrine of Prince Lazarus. The monks defended the monastery. The peasants heard the sounds of shooting and hurried to the monastery. When the police and the army arrived, there were five people killed and about fifty wounded and the battlefield. </p>
<p><i>From Mostar, 8 Jan 1909</i>. Famine in Herzegovina. Delegates from villages come to Mostar and ask the Austrian authorities for bread. The authorities reply that they will help if the villages sign the petition agreeing with the annexion of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The peasants refuse. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A year ago I wrote about the <a href="http://minaev.blogspot.com/2007/12/december-28-in-russian-history.html" >participation of Russian sailors in the rescue operations in Italy</a>, after the earthquake in Messina. On 22 January 1909, the newspapers wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>From Odessa, 8 Jan 1909</i>. The captain of the steamboat <i>Catania</i> that arrived from Messina to Odessa, reported that a group of Russian sailors who saved three little children, whose parents died in the earthquake, asked the Italian royal couple for the permission to adopt the children. Russian sailors promised to bring them to St.Petersburg, to educate them and to provide for them till the end of their lives. The permission was granted. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I assume these children were around 10 years old then. So, eight years later, in 1917, they would be no more than 18. I wonder what happened to them... </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316674702588134370.post-39962548703185546432009-01-20T14:50:00.004+00:002009-01-20T15:02:02.334+00:00January 20 in Russian history. Cornelis de Bruijn. Execution in Moscow.<p>Sorry for the long silence. That flu is awful and it doesn't end. Poor doctors don't know what to do :). I've spent more time with them in January than in the previous five years, I think. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRAXsqEK3jXSzdeYv70XnYSJqWt-IrPj3WdPpiYOUmj6HmzrTBULKFa4PCpj0NlqJcXPOfsKgbjXylkcbcS917txbOKyMcCa7LndY_o0FT3Zhk45v1V-vn778VQT6ofjLB4upACNB3z4w/s1600-h/cornelisdebruijn.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRAXsqEK3jXSzdeYv70XnYSJqWt-IrPj3WdPpiYOUmj6HmzrTBULKFa4PCpj0NlqJcXPOfsKgbjXylkcbcS917txbOKyMcCa7LndY_o0FT3Zhk45v1V-vn778VQT6ofjLB4upACNB3z4w/s320/cornelisdebruijn.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293388861337375314" /></a>
<p>A little bit more than 200 years ago, in autumn 1701, a Dutchman came to Russia. He departed from the Hague in June and in September he arrived to Arkhangelsk. He spent two years in Russia, till July 1703. In 1707-1708 he visited Russia once again and in 1711 he published a book about his travels to Russia, Persia and India. Besides, he visited Egypt, Palestine, Ottoman empire, His name was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_de_Bruijn" >Cornelis de Bruijn</a> (other spellings include Cornelius de Bruyn, Corneille le Brun, Kornelius de Bruin, etc.). He was a painter and he was able to earn enough for his travel to Italy in 1674-1677. On the other hand, a number of historians are a bit skeptical about his talents and suspect he made money from espionage. This way or the other, from Italy he moved to Greece and Asia Minor. He spent many years travelling all along the Eastern Mediterranean till, in 1693, he came back to the Netherlands, where he published his first book, <i>Travels in the Principal Parts of Asia Minor</i>. In 1701, he received a proposal to make another journey and write a new book, this time about Russia and Persia. </p>
<p>His adventurous character made him to agree and in 1701 he left to Russia. He came to Arkhangelsk, visited Vologda and Yaroslavl and came to Moscow in early 1702. He made friends with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Danilovich_Menshikov" >Alexander Menshikov</a>, an associate of the tsar, and then with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_I_of_Russia" >Peter the Great</a> himself. In 1703, he resumed his journey, went down river Volga to Astrakhan and then to Persia, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. There, numerous diseases made him to abandon his earlier plans and to retrace his way back to Persia, Russia and then home to the Netherlands. </p>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNX42gdNchS90Zx5is0HozU3Kk0257RUl5e-ruzSV1cb9YhyphenhyphenrB3wNUL1WD36BCQwXNMeDKN0lXGB3qmkOQIv8Pln2Y2UYbaxekR6E0Li4jqSh5JL4XZbXgaPqtBwuSZ1BB83UzSUWw5Kk/s1600-h/cornelisdebruijn-inscription.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 274px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNX42gdNchS90Zx5is0HozU3Kk0257RUl5e-ruzSV1cb9YhyphenhyphenrB3wNUL1WD36BCQwXNMeDKN0lXGB3qmkOQIv8Pln2Y2UYbaxekR6E0Li4jqSh5JL4XZbXgaPqtBwuSZ1BB83UzSUWw5Kk/s320/cornelisdebruijn-inscription.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293388979800340386" /></a>
<p>De Bruijn died in 1726 or in 1727 in dire poverty. The only things left from him are some paintings, two books and a touristy inscription he scratched on the wall of the Achaemenid palace in Persepolis, which is still there. </p>
<p>De Bruijn's second book includes very interesting information about Russia. He wrote about the Samoyeds, who lived in Northern Russia, described many regions of the country, including my home town Samara and other cities along Volga, he analyzed the first periods of the Peter's reforms and wrote about the conflicts of the old Muscovy traditions and the new institutions of the newborn Russian empire, described the early years of the Russian fleet, left a topographical description of Moscow and so on. Many historians say that his <i>Voyage to the Levant and Travels into Moscovy, Persia, and the East Indies</i> is the best book about Russia written in the first half of the 18th century. </p>
<p>I have to admit that I don't know which calendar De Bruijn used in his book. The Gregorian calendar was adopted in the Netherlands about 120 years before De Bruijn. In Russia, the Julian calendar was in use, and the difference between them was 10 days in the 18th century. It might seem natural to suggest that De Bruijn used the Gregorian calendar, but it seems to me that either he used the Swedish calendar (the difference was 1 day with the Russian calendar) or the Russian 1873 edition of De Bruijn used the Old Style calendar. I assumed the latter. So, the following excerpt, dated by 9 January 1702, may or may not correspond to 20 January in New Style :). </p>
<h2>1702</h2>
<p>(9 January Old Style)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On the 9th day of this month a terrible execution of a fifty-years old lady, who killed her husband, was committed in Moscow. It was ruled that she should be buried alive up to her shoulders. I was curious enough to have a look at her and I found her half-buried, and she seemed to me rather fresh and pretty. A white towel was tied around her head and neck, which she asked to untie, because it very tight. She was guarded by three or four soldiers who received orders not to allow her to eat or drink, which could prolong her life. But it was allowed to throw some copecks (small coins) to the hole where she was buried, for which she thanked by bowing her head. The money is usually used to buy the wax candles to be put in front of the icons of the saints, to whom the convicts appeal, or, in part, to buy the coffin for them. I am not certain whether the guards take some of this money in exchange for giving some food to the convicts secretly, because some of them live quite a long time being buried. But the woman I saw died on the next day after I had seen her. On the same day, a man was burned, whose crime I am not aware of. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The story of this woman was later used by Alexey Tolstoy in his book <i>Peter the First</i>. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0