September 29 in Russian history. Trams. Babi Yar

1907

The first tram line was opened in St.Petersburg. By that time trams already worked in more than a dozen of Russian cities: in Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinoslav, Kursk, Vitebsk, Moscow, Riga, Kazan, etc., but in St.Petersburg the introduction of trams was delayed by the opposition of horsecar owners. Ten first trams were bought in Britain, they were made by Brush Electrical Engineering Company. Interestingly enough, the first electric tram in the world was tested in St.Petersburg, thirty years earlier. On 3 September, 1880, Fyodor Pirotsky used electric engine to move a two-deck horsecar. The test continued for the whole month, but were stopped due to the financial problems. So, Pirotsky lost the title of the inventor of the electric tram to Werner von Siemens, who was the first to organize a commercial tram line in Berlin.

In 1982, the workers of Vasileostrovsky tram depot reconstructed one of these first Brush trams and you can see it running along the streets of St.Pete (on the photo).

1941

On 29 September the German Nazis killed the first party of Jews in Babi Yar in Kiev (I wrote about Babi Yar in April 2007).

One day before, the following was announced in Kiev:

All Jews of the city of Kiev and its environs must appear on Monday, September 29, 1941, by 8:00 AM on the corner of Melnіkov and Dokterivsky streets (near the cemetery). You are to take your documents, money, valuables, warm clothes, linen etc. Whoever of the Jews does not fulfill this order and is found in another place, shall be shot. Any citizen who enters the apartments that have been left and takes ownership of items will be shot

In September-October 1941, about 50,000 Jews were killed there. Altogether, during the WWII Babi Yar became the grave for 70,000 to 120,000 people.

I thought to write more and post some photos, but then I thought I couldn't do it in the way I wish I could. Just look at the photos here.

Yesterday's papers: 26 September 1908

One more selection from 100-year ols newspapers, taken from Starosti.ru.

Russkoe Slovo

Zagreb, 25 September

A deputation of Bosnian christians and muslims leaves to Constantinople to attend the opening of the first Turkish parliament. In Constantinople they will hand in a memorandum demanding to return Bosnia and Herzegovina under the governance of the Ottoman empire.

Berlin, 25 September

The central committee of social-democrats issued a proclamation to the proletariat of Northern and Southern Germany, inviting them to join the protests against the financial reform that would raise the taxes by 43%. As opposed to these protests, the government plans to run a number of public meetings, where the ministers will defend the reform.

Syzran, 25 September

Today, the 7th Revel infantry regiment and 1st reserve cavalry regiment with two choirs met the troop train with the German soldiers returning from China via Russia. The officers and soldiers were offered a breakfast in the barracks of the cavalry regiment, decorated with German and Russian flags.

Tula, 25 September

Peasants of the village Stroyki opposed the sale of their property on the order of the court after they lost the case against their landlady Glaznova. The agitated crowd killed Glaznova and seriously wounded police officer Ostrikov. The public prosecutor and the governor started to Stroyki with the Cossacks.

Golos Moskvy (Voice of Moscow)

Electric clock

Some new wall clocks powered by electricity were installed in the central building of the Moscow telegraph. They are extremely precise and checked every day by telegraph from the Pulkovo observatory. Similar clock will be installed above the main entry, instead of the mechanical one.

Russkoe Slovo

100th anniversary of the Russian veterinarians

100 years ago the proposal of the minister of home affairs to establish a college of "animal medicine" in St.Petersburg received the Highest approval. It was the first Russian law where the word "veterinary" was used. It was on 31 December 1807.

In the next year, 1808, the college was founded. Until then, there were no veterinarians in Russia. In cases of diseases the people referred to sorcerers or just prayed. The tsar Alexey Mikhailovich ordered to separate the ill cattle from the healthy and it was the first step taken by the government to prevent epizooties. Peter I, who waged incessant wars with Swedes, Persians, Turks, understood the necessity of veterinarians for the cavalry. In 1713 he ordered to teach a group of people the art of veterinary. But they only worked for the army, while the other animals were treated by charlatans.

The decrees of the Senate demonstrate the low state of veterinary in the times of empress Elizabeth. The ill animals freely roamed the streets of St.Petersburg and died there. Rotting corpses infested the air and clouds of flies carried the infection all over the city. The infested meat was often sold. So, the Senate ordered that the police dispose of the dead animals by burying them in holes covered with lime outside the city. The job was performed by arrested criminals. Another order of the Senate instituted the permanent control over the quality of meat in slaughterhouses and markets. However, these measures were insufficient. There were no veterinarians.

In 1808, the minister of home affairs prince A. B. Kurakin organized the veterinary school in the St.Petersburg medical academy. In the first year, 720 students entered the college. Because of the large number of students, another college was established in Moscow. Four years later, the first veterinarians graduated.

So, now we celebrate the 100th anniversary of both these veterinary colleges, the first in Russia. Since then, new veterinary institutes were established in Kharkov, Kazan, Warsaw and Yuryev.

St.Petersburg

Well known Russian inventor Tatarinov signed a contract in London with the company William Holder and sons. The British company bought the right to manufacture in Britain the pistonless hydraulic press invented by Tatarinov. A new company was founded with the capital of one million rubles.

September 5 in Russian history. The Decree on Red Terror.

1918

The Council of the People's Commissars issued the Decree on Red Terror. I couldn't find its full text in English translation and I thought it might be interesting for you to see it.

The Council of the People's Commissars

Decree

5 September 1918

On Red Terror

The Council of the People's Commissars, having heard the report of the Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption on the activity of this commission, finds that in the current situation securing the back areas by terror is an absolute necessity; that to intensify the efforts of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption and to increase the planned element in this activity it is necessary to delegate to this commission as many responsible party comrades as possible; that it is necessary to secure the Soviet Republic from the class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps, that all persons participating in the White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions must be executed by shooting, that the names of the executed and the reasons of the execution must be made public.

The People's Commissar of Justice D. Kursky

The People's Commissar of Home Affairs G. Petrovsky

The Administration Manager of the Council of the People's Commissars V. Bonch-Bruevich

September 27 in Russian history

1802

Emperor Alexander I restores the privilege the Magdeburg rights in Kiev. Russian cities were self-governed since the earliest times. I described the structure of their self-government in Russian history 20 and Russian history 26. After the fall of the Kievan Rus, the power of the local knyazes increased and the republican structures were dismantled. However, when a large part of the territory of modern Ukraine was controlled by Lithuanian and Polish rulers, they started to promote the cities' self-government by granting them the Magdeburg rights: Vladimir-Volynsky in 1324, Syanok in 1329, Lviv in 1352, Galich in 1367 and so on. Kiev was granted the Magdeburg rights in 1494. In XV-XVI centuries the Magdeburg rights were used in many cities, but only Lviv, Kamenets and Kiev enjoyed the full set of these rights, while in the other cities they were limited in favor of the Polish and German rulers.

The autonomy survived the re-union of Ukraine and Russia and Peter I confirmed the rights of Kiev. In 1775 the empress Ekaterina II issued the decree "On the adjoining of Kiev to Little Russia" (Little Russia was the name of the lands of modern Ukraine in the Russian empire) and since then the city was governed by the governor of Little Russia. In 1796 and 1797 emperor Pavel I restored the self-government in Kiev, but only formally. At last, in 1802 Alexander I officially confirmed the Magdeburg rights of Kiev.

Kievans collected money and by 1808 the chief architect of the city A.Melensky erected the monument as a gratitude to the emperor. It is still there, on the place where in 988 knyaz Vladimir baptized the Kievans. The monument is a column with two inscriptions: "To Saint Vladimir, the Enlightener of Russia" and "Built by the efforts of the citizens of Kiev for the confirmation of the rights of this ancient capital by the Emperor of the all Russia Alexander on September 15, 1802"

By the way, Alexander didn't know about the plans of the Kievans and was rather displeased when he finally learnt of the monument. He even issued a decree prohibiting erection of new monuments without the approval of the emperor and wrote a letter to the general-governor of Kiev A.Fensh: "As pleased as I was to see the efforts of the citizens of Kiev in the erection of the monument to the Saint Great Knyaz Vladimir, I was extremely surprised that I did not received any notifications from you on this matter... Nevertheless, I ask you to express my gratitude to the citizens of Kiev."

The Magdeburg rights of Kiev were cancelled in 1834 and the magistrate was replaced by the city Duma. Since then, the people preferred to call the monument the St. Vladimir's column, or the monument to the baptizing of Russia

1817

190 years ago, a monument to the Russian soldiers who defended Riga in 1812 was opened in this city. The Russian army that opposed Napoleon, fought in Latvia, too. They included a certain number of the native population, including Latvian partisans. In 1915, when the German troops were moving close to Riga, the monument was dismantled. The metal parts were taken to Russia, and the column was moved to Viestura garden. In 1990 the city authorities planned to erect it on the Jekaba square, but instead it was transported to a distant location, where it is still lying on the open air, covered by garbage and painted by graffiti "artists".

1938

Sergey Korolyov was sentenced to six years in prison and sent to the gold fields in Siberia. He was lucky, though. He was soon transferred to a "shabashka" (a research lab, where the the arrested scientists worked). Sergey Korolyov, the head of the Soviet space program, or simply the Chief Designer, played the absolutely crucial role in making USSR the leading country in space research. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky predicted in 1920s that the man will fly to the space in 100 years. Korolyov did this in 30 years. However, when Khruschev asked who was the designer of rocket that sent the first sputnik into space, Korolyov answered: "There is no such man. The rocket was built by the Soviet people." He was born on January 12 1907 and his 100th anniversary is celebrated by Russian and Ukrainian scientific and engineering community. Unfortunately (and inexplicably), not by the general public. In January, there was a celebration in Kremlin. Russian movie director Yuri Kara made a film Korolyov about his years in Gulag, and the premiere had to take place during this event in Kremlin, but it was cancelled.

Korolyov was a unique scientist and person and I promise to write a longer article about his life.

September 26 in Russian history

This will be a short post. Not that the events are unimportant or poorly known. On the contrary, there's nothing I can add to the Wikipedia articles, so I'll just remind of these events.

1898:

The second son was born in a Jewish family of Morris and Rose Gershowitz. They came to the USA from Russia. Moisha Gershowitz worked at a shoe factory in St.Petersburg. When he was 19, he met a 15-years old Rosa Bruskin, daughter of a furrier. One day, Rosa's father thought that the rise of anti-semitism in Russia was getting troublesome and decided to emigrate to the USA (Northern American United States, as the country was then called in Russian). Between 1880 and 1896, more than 1.5 million of Jews left Russia to America. Trying to avoid the threat of being drafted into the army, in 1892 or 93 Moisha follows his beloved Rosa and leaves St.Petersburg. On July 21, 1895, they married. Rosa was only 19 then, and Morris was 23. A year later, in December 1896, the first boy, Israel (a.k.a. Ira) was born. And in 1898, his little brother is born, Yakov. George Gershwin.

1983:

Russian lieutenant colonel with a rare last name Petrov saves the world. Due to a rare meteorological coincidence of events, the early warning system falsely identified a series of missile launches from one of the American military bases. 20 years later, he recalled: "You can't analyze anything in 2-3 minutes. Only intuition works. I had two arguments. First, rocket attacks don't start from one base only. Second, the computer is stupid by definition. Who knows what he might mistake for a missile launch. Stanislav Petrov is 68 now and he's a pensioner. He lives in Fryazino, near Moscow.

September 5 in Russian history

1919: Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev, the best known commander of the Red Army, was killed during the night raid of the White Army near town Lbischensk (now Chapayev) on river Ural in Kazakhstan. He was born in a poor family and his early years are not documented, so his biography is hopelessly incomplete, in spite of (and, in part, due to) the efforts of the Soviet historians. He was born in 1887 in village Budayka (now a part of the city Cheboksary), in the family of a carpenter, who never had enough money and moonlighted as a cabman. In 1897 they moved to Balakovo in Samara province (now in Saratov oblast). In 1908 Vasily returned to Budayka and married 16-year old Pelageia Metlina. They had three children. In 1915-16 he fought in the Western Ukraine and Romania, was wounded three times, became a sergeant-major, was awarded with St.George crosses and the St.George medal 4th class. In the end of the war, when soldiers were allowed to elect their commanders, he was elected the commander of the 138th regiment, which was located near Saratov. In 1917, Chapayev visited his wife, took his children and brought them into the house of his parents. When his friend Pyotr Kamishkertsev was killed, Chapayev took two his children into his own family. When in spring 1918 the Civil war began on Volga and Ural, the regiment joined the Red Army and fought against cossacks.

Chapayev was a gifted, charismatic and lucky commander. His friends recalled that he often read books about famous military leaders of the past: Hannibal, Suvorov, Napoleon. In September 1918, a division under his commandment defeated the Czech Legion and the troops of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. Then the division moved towards Uralsk and participated in the battle for this city. In November 1918, Chapayev was sent to the training courses of the General Staff of the Red Army. In January 1919 he left to Samara. Mikhail Frunze, a bolshevik military leader, highly estimated Chapayev's talents and appointed him the commander of the 25th division. This division defeated consequently 5 White divisions and captured Ufa. After this, the division was sent to the south, where they took Uralsk. On September 5, cossacks suddenly attacked the division headquarters locate near Lbischensk at night. According to the investigation held soon after his death, Chapayev drowned trying to cross river Ural being wounded. Some of his comrades said that he was lethally wounded, taken across the river by the soldiers and buried there. Since the area is now flooded, it's impossible to check this version.

In 1923, Dmitri Furmanov, ex-commisar in Chapayev's division, wrote a book Chapayev, which was made into a movie in 1934. The Soviets turned Chapayev into an icon of the Civil war and grew from a rather modest commander to a half-mythical figure. As a reaction to this hype, the people turned him and his friends, commissionaire Pyotr Isayev (Petka) and machine-gunner Maria Potapova (Anka) into characters of innumerable jokes, like this one: Petka asks Chapayev, "Why didn't you enter the military academy?", "You see, Petka, they asked me who is Caesar and I replied that this is a stallion from the second squadron." "Hey, of course, they couldn't take you! We transferred him to the fourth squadron while you were away!". Or another one: the Whites encircled the Reds. Chapayev hid in a barrel and Petka was caught. When the Whites were taking Petka to the execution, he kicked the barrel and said: "Get out, Vasily Ivanovich, we're betrayed!"

Since the body of Chapayev was never found, a lot of rumors appeared after his death. Most of them said that he had escaped, but was so ashamed of the blunder he made when set no guards around the headquarters, that he drank for a week or two and then came to Frunze. Frunze said: "You fight better as a legend than as a commander," or "We need you dead more than we needed you alive," or anything like that. Then Chapayev was either executed or sent to exile. Just legends.

Probably, more things were named after Chapayev than after any other person: villages and cities (a city near Samara was named Trotsk in 1927, but was renamed to Chapayevsk in 1929 when Trotsky turned out to be an enemy), ships and kolhozes, board games and computer games, cartoons and novels... The board game Chapayevtsy is similar to some games of the peoples of the world: you take a chess board and 16 checkers (8 for each player) and flick your checkers trying to push the enemy checkers away from the board. However, the Russian version has two immense advantage over other versions: first, it's played on a chess board (don't ask me why), and second, you can start playing checkers and, whenever you feel you're loosing, switch to Chapayevtsy.

1944: Government of the USSR proclaims the state of war with Bulgaria. In 1934, a pro-fascist dictatorship was established in Bulgaria by tsar Boris. In 1939, Bulgaria proclaimed neutrality in the World War, but continued to develop close ties with Germany and Italy. In 1940, Hitler forced Romania to sign the treaty of Craiova and to return the region of Southern Dobrudja, which was transferred from Bulgaria to Romania in 1913. This treaty was supported by USSR and Great Britain. USSR proposed an alliance to Bulgaria, offering to support the territorial claims to Greece and Turkey, but tsar Boris was consistent in his relationships with Germany and rejected the proposal. On March 1 1941, Bulgaria officially joined the Axis and the German troops entered Bulgaria to prepare to invade Greece. During 1941-1944, Bulgarian army occupied parts of Greece and Yugoslavia. Tsar Boris proclaimed war on USA and Britain, but refused to follow the example of Romania and to send Bulgarian soldiers to the Eastern front, in spite of the aerial attacks of USSR, USA and Great Britain. In 1943, various political forces of Bulgaria create the Fatherland Front, an anti-fascist resistance organization. In spring and summer of 1944, USSR some times offers the Bulgarian government to quit the alliance with Germany, but tsar Boris refuses to. Despite the persecutions, the Fatherland Front grew and by September 1944, included more than 30,000 people. On August 23, Romania officially quit the Axis block and allowed the Soviet troops to come to the borders of Bulgaria. Since August 26, the Fatherland Front begins armed rebellion in many parts of the country. Boris appoints a new prime-minister and proclaims neutrality, but continues support to the German army and then prohibits the Fatherland Front. For this reason, the Soviet Union proclaims war to Bulgaria. On September 9, the FF begins uprisal in Sofia, arrests members of the government and the royal family, establishes new government and takes power in various cities of Bulgaria. The army joins the insurgents. The Soviet army entered Bulgaria on September 8. Before the army crossed the borders, political commissars told the soldiers about the political situation in Bulgaria and about the historical ties and friendship between Bulgaria and Russia. The army marched across the country almost without a single shot, welcomed by the people. After this revolution, more than 300,000 Bulgarians fought against German and Italian fascists in Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria. 32,000 of them were killed or missing in action. In 1946, the Bulgarian Communist Party took control over the Fatherland Front. The FF continued to exist till 1989 as a purely communist organization.