Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
Via this article which appeared in regnum.ru
by Oleg Nazarov
On January 30, Channel One aired the documentary “The Romanov Case. Investigation found…” As a result of various and numerous examinations, it was concluded that the remains found in the Piglet Log near Yekaterinburg belong to the Romanovs and their servants.
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the basement of the house of the Yekaterinburg mining engineer Ipatiev, which after the revolution became the House of Special Purpose, the former emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia and son Alexei were shot. Doctor Yevgeny Botkin, a footman Alexei Trupp, a maid Anna Demidova and a cook Ivan Kharitonov, who were with the Romanovs, also became victims of the massacre.
The murder of ten people - members of the royal family and servants is a crime and has no justification.
The situation with Nicholas II is different. In modern Russia, the monstrous crimes committed during the years of his reign are not often remembered. But the number of victims of Bloody Sunday was in the thousands.
On January 9 (22), 1905, in different parts of St. Petersburg, pre-concentrated troops used weapons against peaceful processions of workers exhausted by problems. They went to Nikolai to tell about their troubles and aspirations. “The owner of the Russian land,” as Nicholas II called himself, answering the questions of the 1897 census, did not want to communicate with them. Instead of fatherly words, the workers and members of their families heard the whistle of bullets.
Ten days after the bloody massacre, on January 19 (February 1), the emperor received a working delegation, the composition of which was carefully selected. "Compassionate" Nikolai did not find anything better than to tell the workers that he forgives them ...
The entry made by the emperor in his diary on January 11 (24) is also noteworthy: “After breakfast, I received Rear Admiral Nebogatov, who was appointed commander of an additional detachment of the Pacific Ocean squadron.”
By that time, Port Arthur had already fallen, and the squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhdestvensky was stationed in Madagascar. In this situation, the Japanese fleet had a clear superiority in forces. Yes, and he was based in his ports. Nicholas II was not embarrassed. Rozhdestvensky received his order:
"The task entrusted to you is not to break through to Vladivostok with some ships, but to take possession of the Sea of Japan."
As a result, on May 14-15 (27-28) in a two-day battle near about. Tsushima, the Russian fleet suffered the most severe defeat in its history. In it, according to Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Nicholas II "could not blame anyone but himself ".
The loss figures are horrifying: the Japanese sank 21 out of 38 Russian ships, and captured seven. Six ships were interned in neutral ports. The Almaz cruiser, the Anadyr transport, the destroyers Grozny and Bravy broke into Vladivostok. Of the 16,170 sailors, 5,045 were killed, and 7,282 sailors, led by the fleet commander, were captured. However, these victims in Russia are remembered 1000 times less often than the execution in the Ipatiev house. But each of the dead had relatives and friends, many sailors had children.
The situation with the memory of the Lena massacre is even worse - in 2012, its centennial anniversary passed completely unnoticed. Meanwhile, the Lena massacre and what preceded it is an extremely interesting and instructive topic. It helps to get rid of illusions about how wonderful life was in Russia under the last emperor.
On the eve of the 110th anniversary of the Lena tragedy, it is worth telling about it in detail.
Lenzoto
Gold in the Lena basin, in the upper tributaries of the river. Olekma was discovered in 1843. The news of this aroused interest among the Siberian gold miners. Among them were two Irkutsk merchants of the 1st guild, who founded on November 4, 1855 the "Lena Gold Mining Association of Honorary Citizens Pavel Basnin and Pyotr Katyshevtsev." Each received 45 shares.
At first, things went well - the development of the Tikhono-Zadonsky and Pavlovsky mines brought the merchants big profits. However, other mines turned out to be much poorer, and the financial well-being of entrepreneurs was shaken. Since 1872, Katyshevtsev and the heirs of Basnin, who died in 1867, began to sell shares to outsiders. The agony dragged on for several years. As a result, in 1882 Baron Horace (Herschel) Gunzburg owned 68 shares, Evgraf Kanshin owned 8, and E.M. Meyer & Co."
In 1896, the share partnership was transformed into the joint-stock company "Lenskoe gold mining partnership" (Lenzoto). However, he also had financial problems at the beginning of the 20th century. And then the State Bank came to the aid of the gold miners, which introduced Nikolai Boyanovsky to the board of Lenzoto and opened a large loan. Innokenty Belozerov was appointed chief manager of the mines.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry also showed favor to "Lenzoto", allowing him duty-free import of materials. The reasons for the concern of the ministry will become clearer if we take into account that the shareholder of the company was the Minister of Trade and Industry Sergei Timashev. According to the Soviet historian Kornely Shatsillo, over time, the mother of Nicholas II, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Sergei Witte (Minister of Finance in 1892-1903 and Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1905-1906), Vasily Timiryazev (Minister of Trade and Industry in 1905-1906 and 1909).
Thus, the financial interests of business, the highest bureaucracy and the Romanovs intertwined into a single tangle. They were soon joined by foreign shareholders. In order to attract their funds, in the summer of 1908, the owners of Lenzoto, together with the Russian Mining Corporation, established a joint-stock financial company Lena Goldfields Limited in London. The aforementioned Timiryazev became the chairman of his board.
Meanwhile, the distance separating St. Petersburg and London from the Lena mines was enormous. The path to them at the beginning of the 20th century was long and unsafe. From the nearest railway station Irkutsk to Bodaibo it was necessary to overcome 1710 versts (about 2 thousand kilometers). First, from Irkutsk, get to the Zhigalovo pier on the Lena, from where you go down more than a thousand kilometers to the Vitim, a tributary of the Lena, and then go up the Vitim for 300 kilometers to Bodaibo, the Lenzoto center. In winter, movement along the rivers was carried out on a sled on the ice (Vitim froze on October 10-18, opened on May 7-15). During the spring and autumn thaws, communication with the outside world was interrupted.
Honorary citizen of the city of Bodaibo, local historian Nikolai Nikolaevich Mungalov in his book “The Lena Execution of 1912. Historical essay”, noting that about 4 thousand people lived in Bodaibo in winter, and 6-7 thousand people in summer, stated:
“In terms of police, Bodaibo was under the jurisdiction of the mountain police officer of the Vitimsky mining district, in judicial terms - the justice of the peace of the 1st section of the Vitimsko-Olekma district. The city had a small wooden church, two hospitals, two parochial schools, a two-class city school, a post and telegraph office, a tax inspector's office, a branch of the State Bank with a savings and loan cash desk, and a gold-alloy laboratory.
In 1909, Lenzoto purchased a single-track railway from Bodaibo to the mines. Having bought the Leno-Vitim Shipping Company in August 1910, Lenzoto turned into a kind of state within a state. The company conducted gold mining predatory, but it got away with it, because the gold miners made deductions for the maintenance of the local administration. Even the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Leonid Knyazev, recognized "the unsightly dependence of government bodies on the discretion and autocracy of private entrepreneurs . "
But if the dependence of local officials on Lenzoto was still relative, then the workers who arrived at the mines fell into complete bondage.
Working conditions at Lenzoto mines
Workers who arrived after a long journey to Bodaibo often signed a contract of employment without really reading it. Then it turned out that there was no entry about the specialty of the worker, which allowed the administration to transfer him to another job.
From Bodaibo to the mines, the workers had to walk, covering 25 miles a day and receiving two pounds of crackers a day. According to the contract, the working day from April 1 to October 1 lasted 11.5 hours (the rest of the time - half an hour less). The travel time from the barracks to the mine was not considered to be a worker, whatever the distance. For example, a worker at the Andreevsky mine Baichuk went to work 10 miles away. With the "walk" his working day lasted 17 hours a day. It was often necessary to work hard in the mines under jets of mine water, and the way back to the barracks for people soaked to the skin (dryers were not provided) became a real torture. Especially in the cold season.
The lack of ventilation was also detrimental to the health of the workers. On it, as well as on dryers, Belozerov and other "effective managers" of "Lenzoto" saved. They were not worried about safety, although industrial injuries were a mass phenomenon. It could not be otherwise, because the descent into the mines was carried out along almost vertically placed stairs. Because of the darkness and sticky mud, the workers fell down, dropped tools on the heads of people descending below. And although the administration did not report all accidents to the mining supervision, in 1911 they were registered 896 for 5442 workers.
The availability of medical care is eloquently evidenced by this fact. In 1911, Vasily Bushuev, having received a bruise in the chest, fell unconscious. He was not admitted to the hospital. If a sick or injured worker did end up in the hospital, what did he encounter? We find the answer in the statement of the workers of the Andreevsky mine, submitted on March 24 (April 6) to the district engineer of the Vitim mining district Konstantin Tulchinsky:
“Dirt and infection reign all around. Enter the department where the heating boiler stands, the dirt on the floor is ¼ arshin, and in this dirt the firewood has sunk and dried up. Apparently it hasn't been cleaned in months. The atmosphere is incredible. Upstairs there is a tank for water - in the baths and for washing dishes. At the bottom of this tank of mud is about 3 inches, and this water is used to wash the sick, who have various cuts and ulcers. Nearby are retirades, in which there is also dirt, and, moreover, when the patient defecates, it sprays all over him, since the bucket is very high. The patients are still lying in their underwear, which is why insects start up. Even by Easter they don't have sheets to cover their mattresses, and the sick are still lying on mattresses. There is not a single spitting cup. All this is so cynical…”
No less cynical is the attitude of “effective managers” towards the injured. In the statement of the workers of the Utesisty mine, received by the district engineer on March 6 (19), 1912, the following facts are given:
“Worker Shatokhin, No. 7383 (paybook number - O.N.), in the mine at work, the finger of his left hand was bruised, due to which he could not work and fell ill for 22 days. He was in the barracks. Didn't receive any payment.
Worker Zagainov. No. 7405, the index finger of the right hand was bruised in the mine. On January 5, he was not admitted to the hospital. They don’t pay any money, they force them to work, they don’t give food, and the finger still hurts.
On Sunday, December 18, the worker Shelkovnikov bruised his left knee at work in the mine, when they told the superintendent Sintsov, the latter replied that sick people were not entitled to pay for holiday bruises, and did not pay attention. No. 9143, worker Egor Vasiliev, received bruises on October 6, lay until March 1, 1912, was not admitted to the hospital, and the hospital fee was not paid. Sick at present.
Worker Stepan Ugryumov, No. 9164, had his head bruised by a stone in several places in the mine, but he was in the hospital until his wounds were sewn up, the rest of the time he lay in the barracks, forty-two days. No payment was made.
Worker Stepan Loshanov, currently No. 9069, and in 1911 - No. 7122, broke his leg with a flint and flint. Was in the hospital for six months. Didn't get sick leave.
Worker Matvey Dostovalov, No. 7495, while working in a mine, was bruised with the index finger of his right hand, and his left hand between his elbow and hand. To the statement made to the caretaker Sintsov, the latter replied: “You climb with every trifle,” accompanied by obscene language. With this trifle, Dostovalov was ill for 12 days without receiving any payment.
The living conditions of the workers of "Lenzoto"
In the barracks, where hungry and exhausted people returned after hard labor, according to the factory inspector, it was "so cold that wet boots freeze to the floor, the workers are forced to sleep in hats . " And the lawyer Alexei Nikitin, who visited the mines, testified indignantly:
“The workers' barracks were something out of the ordinary in terms of their unhygienic and inconvenience for those living in them. The very appearance of many of them aroused fear for the fate of those living in them: the walls were twisted and supported by supports, there were cracks in the walls and roofs, instead of fans - holes were cut in the walls, plugged with rags, windows with broken glass ... On the stove, iron pots with food, steaming linen, linen, diapers, footcloths, felt boots, wet work clothes are dried over the stove on poles. Dense vapors rise from the stove, combine with the evaporation of bodies, the air spoiled by breathing - and an impossible atmosphere is formed in the barracks.
Due to overcrowding, the air in the barracks was stale. Singles - "sons" - were placed in the closet with the family workers. Nikitin wrote:
“For the care of the “mother” (as the “sons” called the woman caring for them) receives 3 rubles each, increasing her husband’s meager earnings with her earnings. But, they say, on the basis of these services, completely non-maternal attitudes towards “sons” often arose ... Family workers always spoke with excitement about the institution of “sons”, and one of the demands of the strike was the division of the barracks into family and single ones.
A quarter of the wages of workers until the end of the operating year was in the turnover of "Lenzoto". 43.9% of the salary was given out with products and things from the Lenzoto shops, at inflated prices. Workers were cheated and weighed, and the goods often turned out to be of poor quality. The bread contained rags, sand, baked rats, and horse feces. To prevent the worker from buying goods on the side, part of the salary was forcibly issued in coupons. Change was not given, forcing buyers to redeem the amount indicated in the coupon in full.
Later, when discussing the reasons for the strike at the Lena mines, the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire admitted that “the darkest side of the matter at the Lena fields was the spirit of oppression and cold indifference that prevailed in them, which was imbued with managers and employees of the association, starting from the one who had been at the head for more than 10 years management of the Belozerov fisheries. This explains the inclusion in partnership agreements with workers of exceptionally difficult conditions for the latter, the wide, where possible, application of disciplinary sanctions against workers and the merciless expulsion from the fields of anyone who dared to complain to the mining authorities .
The rules established by the greedy and ruthless "effective manager" Belozerov jarred even some of the tsarist ministers.
Peaceful workers' strike
On February 29 (March 13), 1912, the workers of the Andreevsky mine went on strike. The reason for the protest was the issuance in the shop to the wife of the worker Zavalin, Stepanida, of frozen meat, in which there was a horse genital organ. It was this case that was the last straw that overflowed the cup of people's patience.
In a few days the strike swept through all the mines. In order to convey their demands to the company, the workers came to the acting chief manager of the mines, A. G. Teppan (Belozerov was away). He offered to present elected officials for negotiations with the administration. Which is what was done. Thus arose the Central Strike Committee. All its members, except for the Menshevik Eduard Dumpe, were non-party during the strike. Shortly after the start of the strike, the workers of each barrack elected headmen.
The workers did not put forward political demands. Moreover, speeches on political topics were immediately suppressed by the strikers. The working people sought: an eight-hour working day; establishing a ban on dismissal in the winter; a ban on forcing women to work; salary increase by 30% and its full monthly payment; cancellation of fines; removal of 26 most hated employees from the administration; polite address to "you"; immediate medical care at the first request of the patient; 100% payment for days missed due to injuries caused by Lenzoto; 50% payment for other cases of disability.
The “gastronomic” claims of the workers are noteworthy:
“Food from the kitchen should be distributed on equal terms with employees. All products in the kitchen must be issued in the presence of commissioners, who are appointed by the workers of the district in which the extract is to be issued. Meat should be divided into two grades. Kvass should be in the summer at the expense of Lenzoto. Rye bread should be seeded. Potatoes are a must. Cabbage should also be obligatory in view of the fact that it protects against scurvy.
On March 3 (16), a meeting of several thousand workers at the Utesisty, Andreevsky, Vasilyevsky, Proroko-Ilyinsky, Aleksandrovsky, Nadezhdinsky and Feodosievsky mines decided to stop work "until the demands of all workers are satisfied". Striking for better living conditions and compliance with laws and treaties, the strikers demanded that they be treated like human beings. The leaders of the strike, wishing to inform the public about the causes and course of the strike, sent letters to the State Duma, Siberian and central newspapers. They stressed that the strike was peaceful. So it was. Being unemployed, the workers responded to the request of the priest Nikolai Vinokurov and washed the ceiling and walls of the mining Church of the Annunciation. Drinking alcohol in the barracks during the strike was prohibited.
Quite different was the mood of the administration of "Lenzoto". The company's board told the strikers that it was ready to improve the quality of food, medical care, and the lighting of the barracks, dismissing the rest of the workers' demands as "excessive and illegal." The Lenzoto administration had its own idea of legality. And all because the doors of many ministerial offices were open to gold miners. Refusing to raise wages and make other concessions, they began to demand that the local authorities take harsh measures against the workers. By March 13 (26), "Lenzoto" filed 1,199 lawsuits with the Justice of the Peace Khitun demanding that the striking workers be evicted from the barracks. In issuing money and passbooks to the strikers, the justice of the peace had to simultaneously file suits for eviction. Since there was no other housing, except for the barracks, in the mines,
The method chosen by the “effective managers” to resolve a labor dispute frightened the Irkutsk governor Fyodor Bantysh: the risks associated with suppressing the strike largely fell on him. He wrote to the Police Department:
“I categorically affirm that Lenzotto himself is primarily and most to blame for the strike, therefore the speedy termination of the strike depends solely on their good will.”
The governor, who visited the mines in the summer of 1911 and knew about the order that prevailed there, demanded that the company continue to distribute food to the strikers and forbade them to be evicted from the barracks.
And then the Minister of Trade and Industry Timashev intervened. On Bantysh's document, he drew words that were startlingly cynic:
“I do not entirely approve of this measure, it will only increase the stubbornness and pretentiousness of the workers. I know from my previous relations with Lenzoto that the workers there not only do not live in misery, but are extraordinarily spoiled. There is a direct luxury that demoralizes them. ”
P. M. Saladilov, a representative of Lenzoto, urgently left for Irkutsk. According to the press, he was honored with "a number of meetings with the local governor." It is not known what arguments the capital emissary brought, but he picked up the key to Bantysh. Reporting to the Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Makarov, the governor was full of compliments to "Lenzoto". He said that he had instructed the deputy head of the Irkutsk provincial gendarmerie department, captain Nikolai Treschenkov, in case of violation of the peaceful course of the strike, to use all measures - "up to and including military force . " The transfer from Kirensk to Bodaibo of a military team led by staff captain D.N. Sanzharenko testified that these were not just words.
Mission engineer Tulchinsky
By mid-March, more than six thousand workers were on strike at the mines. The official who tried to find a compromise between labor and capital was the district engineer of the Vitim mining district Tulchinsky. Arriving at the mines, he invited the elected representatives of the workers to come to his office at the Uspensky mine. On March 24 (April 6), more than fifty workers, including several women, came to see him. For seven hours they complained to the official, called upon to monitor the implementation of the law, about the hardships of life and the arbitrariness of employers. The wives of the workers addressed Tulchinsky with a separate complaint. Since the workers had the right to bring their wives and children with them only with the consent of the management of the mines, for this the company demanded the consent of the workers so that, at the first request of the administration, their wives and children went to work - hard and low-paid. They could drive out all women, including the sick and pregnant. Women wrote:
"2. You have to work more than 12 hours, as well as night work. In addition to our work, our body is also required of us.
3. When we do not give in, they do not spend our working time, we are expelled from the barracks, we are fined. Our husbands are told to inspire us to obey; so that they would “teach us a lesson” and, if our husbands didn’t teach us a lesson, then they were punished with all sorts of hardships ...
5. They were driven out to work with whips, tearing them away from babies.
6. Rough treatment that crosses all boundaries of morality.
To the question that worried the workers, “Who violated the contract?” Tulchinsky directly answered that "Lenzoto". The biggest issue was salary. The workers sought to raise it, which the gold miners did not go for. According to the memoirs of the elected, Tulchinsky said that Lenzoto “ cannot add wages, since it is not profitable for him, it is better to suspend work for an indefinite time, that almost all mines operate at a loss, and only the Feodosievsky mine justifies them ... He offered to go to work for a new hire ... advised me to work and sue . The official assured that if the workers go to work on April 1 (14), they can sue through the courts for violation of the Lenzoto agreement. He promised to “explore” the reduction of working time in wet slaughter, to prohibit the issuance of earnings by coupons, etc. The elected ones promised to think about it.
The strikers thought and decided together. On the morning of March 25 (April 7), a general meeting of workers from several mines was held at the Feodosievsky mine. After listening to the information of the elected officials about the meeting with Tulchinsky, the audience came to the conclusion that the decision on the continuation of the strike should be taken by vote. As "ballot boxes" they used two barrels, the bottom of which was covered with straw. Passing between the barrels, everyone threw a stone at one of them. As a result, the barrel with the inscription “I will not go to work” turned out to be overflowing, and in the barrel with the inscription “I will go to work” there were only 17 stones ...
Bloody denouement
In those hours when the voting was going on, the governor of Irkutsk, Bantysh, received an order from the Ministry of the Interior to liquidate the strike committee. Bantysh delayed until April 2 (15), when he sent a telegram to Captain Treshchenkov, authorizing the arrest of the strike committee if this measure "will contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict . "
The attitude of Treshchenkov, who received cash handouts from Lenzoto, was different - the captain was burning with the desire to arrange mass bloodshed. Describing Treshchenkov, local historian Mungalov stated:
“In 1905, despite his low rank, he “revealed” himself during the massacre of Sormovo workers. Following this, on his orders, Nizhny Novgorod was shot down by artillery fire, where the vigilante workers were hiding.
On the night of April 4 (17), on the command of Treshchenkov, "instigators" were arrested - members of the Central Strike Committee Efim Mimoglyadov, Alexander Sobolev, Eduard Dumpe, Indrik Rozenberg, Timofei Solomin, Andrey Gerasimenko, Johann Budevits, Roman Marchinkovsky, Dmitry Zhuranov-Ivanov and Velyamin Vyazavov. The eldest of them is 43 years old, the youngest is 26 years old.
The arrest of elected officials, whom the workers considered "inviolable persons", led to the fact that from early morning people began to gather at various mines. The workers demanded the release of those arrested. At the Feodosievsky mine, about two thousand people came to the management office by 8 o'clock in the morning. Treshchenkov by telephone ordered to urgently send a military team by train from Bodaibo under the command of staff captain Peter Lepin (as the Latvian Peteris Liepinsh called himself in Siberia).
By 12 o'clock, Tulchinsky arrived at the Feodosievsky mine. He persuaded Treshchenkov to take the military team to the Nadezhda mine.
“The workers demanded from Tulchinsky the immediate release of those arrested, an immediate settlement, so that there would be no more arrests. Tulchinsky promised to intercede on these issues, and the workers promised not to do anything until 9 am on April 5. For this reason, the workers of the Feodosievsky mine did not get hit by bullets, ”Mungalov noted.
The fate of the three thousand strikers, who went to the Nadezhdinsky mine in the afternoon, turned out to be different.
“But we decided to go all together, and not send elected representatives, because we knew that elected representatives could be arrested,” recalled the worker Sennikov.
Since the "instigators" had to be rescued, the strikers carried a general statement to Tulchinsky and individual statements of the same type to the prosecutor's office. From them it followed that everyone was on strike of their own free will due to the violation of the contract by Lenzotho, and “there were no violent measures and incitements during the strike on the part of the workers . ”
Soldiers, Sanzharenko, Lepin and Treshchenkov, found themselves in the way of the people. Tulchinsky, who was also there, moved towards the procession. At that moment, when he approached the workers and spoke to them, a volley thundered. Tulchinsy shouted: “What are you doing, why are you shooting at the people, because these are not sheep!” The shooting continued, although some workers immediately fell to the ground, while others took to their heels. Tulchinsky, as the workers later said, "survived miraculously."
A total of 117 people were shot in the supine position, 69 in the back. The total number of victims, taking into account those who later died from wounds, reached 270 people. The exact number of wounded is unknown (far from all the victims reported on the wounds received).
The reaction of the authorities and the response of the people
On April 5 (18), the St. Petersburg newspaper Evening Time wrote about the bloody tragedy at the Lena mines. After that, the managing director of the company, Baron Alfred Gunzburg (the son of Horace, who died in 1909), told the editors of Birzhevye Vedomosti that the use of weapons was forced because the workers behaved defiantly. On April 6 (19), in an interview with Novoye Vremya, Gunzburg assured that the demands of the strikers had taken on a “sharply expressed political character ,” since “the workers were incited by the leaders . ”
But this interpretation of events did not become dominant. On April 6 (19), Vechernee Vremya accused Lenzoto of "turning the workers into slaves as a labor market monopolist . " On the same day, the newspaper Rech, the central organ of the Kadet Party, drew readers' attention to the fact that "the depressing number of victims seems especially incredible compared to the insignificant number of troops who were in the mines" :
“If, as the newspaper reports say, 3,000 workers made a serious revolt that justifies the decisive actions of the troops, then it is unlikely that 340 team members (in fact there were a little more than 100 - O.N.) were able to cope with them. But in reality, there was obviously no such rebellion, because no one was hurt from the military unit ... "
The next day, in the editorial of Rech, it was stated that "in the mines cut off from the whole world, every captain feels like Stolypin . "
The legal social-democratic newspaper Zvezda reacted to the Lena tragedy on 8 (21) April. She placed on the front page, framed in mourning, a list of 170 dead, as well as a list of 196 wounded strikers.
But the reaction of the authorities to the tragedy was emphatically calm. Opening on April 9 (22) the first meeting of the Third State Duma after the shooting, its chairman, the Octobrist Mikhail Rodzianko, informed the deputies about the death of one of their colleagues, about the death of a prominent French politician Eugene Henri Brisson, about the Titanic disaster, but, as he noted with surprise German historian Manfred Hagen, kept silent about the numerous "victims of the Lena massacre."
However, this time the game of silence failed miserably. On the same day, official inquiries about the Lena events were filed by deputies of three factions - the Octobrists, the Cadets and the Social Democrats.
On April 11 (24), Minister of the Interior Makarov ascended the Duma rostrum and began to exude streams of lies:
“The results of the idle wandering of a large crowd, agitated by instigators, appeared by this time in full force. The crowd, penetrating into police houses, carried out searches, stopped passenger trains, resisted attempts to evict on writ of execution, not allowing newly hired workers to go to work ... The preliminary investigation has now established that the purpose of the gathering on April 4 was to seize weapons , crush the troops and defeat the industries. Agree that such actions are unacceptable... When the crowd, which has lost its mind under the influence of malicious agitators, attacks the troops, then the army has nothing left to do but shoot. So it was and so it will continue to be."
The threat of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs only added fuel to the fire. Protests took place in different parts of the Russian Empire. On April 17 (30), an article by Joseph Stalin (under the pseudonym K. Solin) appeared in Zvezda. It said:
“After the Lena shots, strikes and protests across Russia… From a peaceful economic strike on the Lena River to political strikes across Russia, from political strikes across Russia to a demonstration of thousands of students and workers in the very center of Russia, this is what the authorities achieved in their fight against workers."
The first issue of the Bolshevik Pravda, published on April 22 (May 5), 1912, announced that the proceeds from the sale of the newspaper would be transferred to "the families of the workers killed on the Lena" :
“There, on the distant outskirts, in the remote Siberian taiga, a bloody drama broke out. Hundreds of working lives have been sacrificed to insatiable capital, stock market speculators.
On April 27 (May 10), Nicholas II entrusted a member of the State Council, Sergei Manukhin , with "investigating all the circumstances of the strike in the Lena fields."
Seven months later, Manukhin sent a report to the emperor on the results of the investigation. It admitted that the strike was not of a political nature and was caused by the most difficult living conditions of the working people. Nicholas II submitted the report to the Council of Ministers, where in January 1913 it was discussed. On May 15 (28), 1913, the emperor approved the report, but did not punish any of the perpetrators of the bloodshed. Thus, as the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy of the II Class, IA REGNUM columnist Mikhail Demurin rightly noted ,“Nicholas II clearly expressed his attitude to the crime committed. That is, he took both moral and political responsibility for it . ”
The last Russian emperor is responsible for both Bloody Sunday and Tsushima, for all the failures of his domestic and foreign policy.
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