Shooting on the Lena River - a "black" page in the history of pre-revolutionary Russia

37
April 17 is one of the “black” days of the Russian stories, whose events were interpreted for political and ideological purposes, both in the West and in the Soviet Union. The tragedy on the Lena River in the goldfields of 1912 for a long time was covered exclusively as the atrocity of "rotten tsarism." However, there are moments in this story that unwittingly prompt certain thoughts.

Shooting on the Lena River - a "black" page in the history of pre-revolutionary Russia
Nadezhny mine. Morgue Lipaevsky hospital could not accommodate the corpses of the executed. 1912. Photo by V. P. Koreshkov. Collection of the author (from the collection of the State Historical Museum)

The situation in pre-revolutionary Russia in 1912, of course, was rather tense, Nicholas II and the current government already had poor control over the situation in the country. If in the capital the state apparatus could work smoothly and quickly, then on the outskirts the control system was decomposed. Bribery, red tape and lawlessness flourished in the state. The situation in Siberia and the Far East was especially difficult. The situation of workers, even with the existence of existing laws on working conditions, duties and restrictions of the employer, became terrible. In practice, the laws were simply not applied, and numerous complaints were either not accepted or not considered. In addition, the level of wages in the whole country was extremely low, and the peasants in areas deprived of fertile land, eked out a miserable existence. The class of workers was invariably replenished, since in some cases hiring was the only means of survival during the crisis period. Poverty and the degradation of local bureaucracy were fertile ground for the development of radical leftist views and propaganda.

Few people know that the real “gold rush” has begun in 1840 in Russia. The richest reserves of gold sand and native gold were discovered in the areas of the Lena River and its tributaries. The people that had flown to the mines were initially very well enriched; even simple workers were able to accumulate capital. According to the stories of the pioneers of the “Russian Klondike,” the atmosphere in this region was in many ways like the Wild West. There were bathing in expensive champagne and scandalous cabarets, and all the attributes of the first stages of the gold rush. Morals quickly fell, prostitution flourished, theft, fraud, there were other signs of social disintegration. However, the situation soon changed radically.

People flocked to Lena from all over the country. Climatic conditions affected the performance, and geological exploration was virtually absent. Soon, the gold on the surface dried up, in order to extract the necessary volume, it was necessary to work in the mines. Organize the process of gold mining could only businesses that naturally did not intend to share profits with the workers. Salaries have fallen sharply. The rock strata needed to be warmed up, and to pump out the melt water. People worked in the water, and then went to the village in the cold and penetrating wind. Against the background of rapid impoverishment in the workers' settlements, places of entertainment disappeared, and the wives of the workers openly engaged in prostitution. The administration often supported immoral behavior and took into account the presence of women while sharing single men. Executives systematically used the wives and daughters of their subordinates as concubines or free labor. In addition, gold miners consumed a large amount of alcohol, which was exchanged for gold. In a society at the mine developed alcoholism, and the alcohol business flourished. For deliveries to the villages of the deadly potion, underground groups were formed, which by the 1860 years showed open resistance to the guard units and even to the Cossacks.



Gold mining became increasingly unprofitable, small enterprises went bankrupt, they expressed a desire to acquire the Ginzburg. Partly shares of the largest gold mining company, formed as a result of the consistent buying and capture of small mines, owned by Russian businessmen, as well as the state. The State Bank credited the main company in the Lenzoloto mines.

After short negotiations and trades, a significant part of the gold mining enterprise “Lenzoloto” belonged to British businessmen, therefore the working conditions were dictated from Misty Albion. Of course, with the well-known property of the British to follow the prescriptions of law and custom, one should not argue, however, it seems that the quality is manifested only for business in the UK itself. In Russia, things were done differently. Very soon, the management of the partnership "Lenzoloto" found out that the wages established at first were very high for the Russian people. There was no shortage of people who wanted to be employed in the mines; besides, government agencies were also involved in recruiting staff. The Board has begun a systematic reduction in salary payments. Gradually, the partnership monopolized transport, and then began to pay part of the salary in coupons, which could only be sold in specialized stores. Products in local shops were poor quality and expensive. Sometimes workers received unfit products for their work.

Under the contract of employment, men were not allowed to bring their families to the mines, so the position of women and children depended entirely on the administration. Family members were involved in labor, but the payment was disproportionately lower than that of men. There are proven cases of total refusal to pay for work performed. The duration of the shift was considered equal to 11 hours, but could be reduced by the administration at discretion. The opinion of the workers was not taken into account, even when bringing them to work on holidays and weekends. Theoretically, people had one day off per week, but in practice they could have excluded him.

Funds for the arrangement of workers life were not allocated. The barracks soon became dilapidated and no longer met even the minimum requirements for residential premises, the medical staff was practically absent. Safety systems and industrial sanitation did not exist in the mines, according to statistical data 7 people from 10 were injured. The injured in the process of work and those who lost their ability to work were simply dismissed without any allowance. The laws of the empire in the sphere of labor were completely ignored, work in the mines more and more resembled slavery. However, all this seemed unimportant compared to the ability to make a huge fortune. The key condition of the contract of employment was additional work, the result of which was allowed to be sold in local shops for buying up nuggets and precious sand. Theoretically, a healthy man could earn about 1000 rubles for a year, so employees suffered all the inconvenience and lower wages.

It is wrong to say that the management intentionally worsened the living conditions of the workers, since labor productivity dropped significantly due to illness, alcoholism, injuries and other things. The transfer of mining from the surface to the mines, as well as the most difficult climatic conditions, made the extraction of gold unprofitable. The British tried in every way to reduce the cost of production. It should be noted that to a certain extent they succeeded. Thus, in the “English” period, the shares of Lenzoloto for the first time exceeded their nominal value at the exchange more than twice. However, the unstable position of the partnership provoked unpredictable fluctuations in the value of shares, which led to the ruin of many exchange participants.

Nonetheless, direct violations of the imperial laws regarding the workers were manifested in all aspects of the company's activities, they were also discovered by the state commission, which arrived at the scene shortly after the tragedy. The local authorities, including the governor, judges and other representatives of the state, who were called upon to protect the legitimate interests of the workers, did not react to the statements, as they were fully fed by the monopolist. Dissatisfaction, accumulated over the years, finally broke out in the largest strike. As a pretext today, three versions are considered related to the provision of workers with food. The most popular is the one that tells about giving out rotten meat to people.

Fresh graves in the cemetery where the victims of the Lena shooting are buried. 1912. Photo by V. P. Koreshkov. Collection of the author (from the collection of Yu. A. Andrulaytis)

February 29 strike was declared at the Andreevsky mine, and then seized all the other working groups engaged in gold mining. More than six thousand people demanded from the administration in their March 3 letter:
• refuse to pay wages in the form of commodity coupons;
• resettle single and family workers;
• Eliminate sexual harassment of women and the practice of sexual slavery;
• Introduce a rule to provide retired persons with a free ticket to Zhigalovo;
• organization of normal living conditions and food supply, as well as the establishment of an 8-hour working day and limitation of involvement in work on weekends and holidays.
The demands of the strikers were eighteen points, in addition, there were additional issues that needed to be resolved.

The strike led an already unprofitable company to multi-million dollar damage. The behavior of the workers provoked fury among the leadership, since the demands were literally imbued with a revolutionary spirit, which confirmed the conjecture about the vigorous activity among the gold miners of the left-wing radical parties. April 3 strike organizers were arrested.

However, among the strikers, there were still quite a few determined propagandists. As a result, on April 17 a large-scale march was launched in protest. The order for the shooting was given by the Tereschenkov gendarmerie captain, which came as a surprise to the demonstrators. The number of victims of the tragedy has not been precisely established; the following figures were indicated in the Zvezda newspaper: 196 demonstrators injured, 170 killed.

In the Duma, the news of the shooting of the peaceful demonstration was greeted in different ways, the right-wing deputies supported the actions of the local authorities, and the representatives of the left expressed indignation. A commission to investigate the incident was established. More precisely, they organized two commissions: a government headed by Manukhin and a public one headed by an unknown Kerensky. As a result of their work, flagrant violations and crimes were revealed by the Lenzoloto administration, as well as local authorities. Tereshchenkov was degraded, but none of the actual perpetrators of the tragedy were punished. The work of the company continued even in Soviet times.

In the kitten sits executioner Treschenkov, who carried out a bloody massacre of the Lena workers. 1912. Collection of the author (from the collection of Yu. A. Andrulayis)

Is it possible to lay the blame for the tragedy solely on tsarism? Any event in the socio-political life in Russia in the first quarter of the twentieth century was due to several conditions and many reasons. Lensky shooting is no exception. Excessive self-confidence of the leaders of the demonstration, the neglect of the basic needs of people by the Lenzoloto administration and the mindless pursuit of profit and the desire to avoid losses at all costs, as well as complete indifference, even criminal negligence of local officials - these are only a few reasons for what happened. The tragic confluence of a number of factors, rather than the mythical decision of an abstract subject, referred to in Soviet textbooks as "tsarism," led to such a bloody denouement.
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  1. +14
    April 17 2012 07: 48
    The impudence and impunity of officials is a permanent scourge of Russia. Bureaucracy is the main enemy of the Russian people at all times.
    The author is a big plus for the article - decent material.
  2. Brother Sarych
    +6
    April 17 2012 08: 19
    Can tsarism be blamed for the execution? And who else? Stalin is to blame or who else?
    Who allowed such a predatory prey, the arbitrariness of "entrepreneurs"? Soviet authority?
    This provision. which has developed in the Lena mines is normal for CAPITALISM ...
    There will always be a captain who, without hesitation, will apply the full power of the suppression apparatus after appropriate payment ...
    I am sure that the article is replete with a lot of errors and inaccuracies, but to check laziness ...
    1. +6
      April 17 2012 08: 22
      In this case, we are waiting for a more accurate and "objective" article from you.
  3. +5
    April 17 2012 08: 53
    the Lenzoloto enterprise (with Brinan owners) worked under the USSR, until Stalin took power
  4. +9
    April 17 2012 09: 02
    Particularly indicative is the passage "The Right in the Duma supported the shooting of the demonstrators." In any case, this article shows that the myth about the Great pre-revolutionary Russia with "a nice officer who will kiss the ladies' pen" is just an invention of modern court jesters. Oh, it's not in vain that the revolution burst and the truth was for what ...
  5. +1
    April 17 2012 10: 04
    The Lena execution shows all the falsity of the "Bolsheviks" in relation to the rotten tsarism, it is silent about the guilt of its owners Windsor and Rockefeller!
    Now compare the situations that arise in today's Russia. At the Volkswagen plant, a strike of workers dissatisfied with the terms of payment has recently ended. The German administration was surprised by what was happening and turned to the regional administration.
    Apparently part of the payment passed by the pockets of workers.
    As a result, the workers won.
    Bribe and greed during the time of the Lena execution and during the Novocherkassk and Krivorozhsky executions in 1962 and naturally, at the present time there was a place to be.
    As a result, their bribe takers are worse than any enemies and liberals.
    1. +8
      April 17 2012 10: 20
      The Lena execution shows all the falsity of the "Bolsheviks" in relation to the rotten tsarism, it is silent about the guilt of its owners Windsor and Rockefeller!
      ----
      i.e. harassment with rejection of complaints organized "Bolsheviks"?
      I quote- "
      The local authorities, including the governor, judges and other representatives of the state, called to protect the legitimate interests of workers did not respond to statements, as they were completely “fed” by the monopolist.

      how are you brainwashed
    2. +7
      April 17 2012 12: 20
      Quote: Vlaleks48

      The Lena execution shows all the falsity of the "Bolsheviks" in relation to the rotten tsarism, it is silent about the guilt of its owners Windsor and Rockefeller!


      The Lena Gold Industry Partnership (Lenzoto) accounted for over a third of the total gold mining of the Russian Empire. Although the company was private, it was of strategic importance to the state: the gold reserve of the Empire was piling up here. After the introduction of the gold standard, the royal chervonets and imperial were minted from the Siberian noble metal. The treasury has provided Lenzoto with large loans more than once, and this was unlikely to be explained only by the lucidity of its owners, Gunzburg bankers. The mines were owned by the largest banking house in Russia, founded by the former holder of wine farms Evzel Gunzburg. After his death, the reins took over the son of Horace. Actually, he founded Lenzoto in 1896, and 12 years later, together with the English partners, he created the Lena Goldfields financial society. Direct management of the Lena mines was carried out by Lenzoto in the person of Horace Gunzburg. The board, elected in June 1909, included his son Alfred Gunzburg (managing director), board directors M.E. Meyer and G.S.Shamnanier, members of the revision committee V.V. Vek, G. B. Sliozberg, L. .F. Grauman, B.3. Fridlyandsky and R.I. Ebenau, candidates for the board of directors V.M. Lipin, B.F. Juncker and A.V. Guvelyaken.
      The owners did a lot to modernize the mines. New technologies have appeared, the first power station in the Lena basin, a telephone. But working conditions were difficult. At first, workers were assigned a salary of 55 rubles a month for successful recruitment — twice as much as in Moscow or St. Petersburg. From those who wished there was no end. Having achieved an excess of workers, the administration began to tighten the screws. Payment was cut, primitive barracks served as housing, one doctor per 2500 workers. Workers were forced to shop at the company’s shops, giving out part of their salaries with food stamps. At the same time, huge dividends went into the pockets of shareholders! The impression is that the mine administration deliberately aggravated relations with wage earners who came here from all over Russia. In early 1912, measures were taken to forcibly evict workers from housing. Almost gratuitous female labor was used to the fullest, although factory legislation prohibited it. The immediate cause of the explosion was the delivery of low-quality food products to workers.
      Siberia is the usual place of political exiles. There were many such in the Lena goldfields, and they persistently persuaded illiterate workers to exorbitant economic and political demands. In the ill-fated 1912, it was the Bolsheviks who formed the nucleus of the strike committee on Lenzot, although it included the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Anarchists, and the Mensheviks. Particular P.N.Batashev, a member of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation, who had already served penal servitude for participating in the military organization of the RSDLP (b), was particularly agile. “All these fiery revolutionaries,” writes historian Oleg Platonov in the book “Attempt on the Russian Tsar”, “wanted to use the discontent of the workers for their political goals.” In early March, a strike raised 6 workers to strike. For almost a month anarchy reigned in the mines. The government demanded order. Vodka was removed from state shops. The police were barely enough to guard the dynamite warehouses. By order from St. Petersburg, gendarme captain Nikolai Treschenkov took into custody part of the members of the strike committee. But others developed frantic agitation, and on April 4 a huge crowd gathered. About 2000 moved to Fedosyevsky mine, where the administration and the People’s House were with the arrested. Half a company of soldiers under the command of company captain Treschenkov and army officers Lepin and Sanzharenko blocked the march. About 300 soldiers.
      And then something happened about which neither then nor today there is complete clarity. The crowd of many thousands moved forward, threatening to sweep away the few ranks of the infantry, a tragic combination of circumstances happened. The situation could be resolved, as you wish. Apparently, Treschenkov made an erroneous decision, although he formally acted according to the charter.
      Be that as it may, at least, the share of blame for the Irkutsk tragedy lies with gold miners, greedy, as the newspaper Novoye Vremya wrote, "to Russian gold and who did not particularly value Russian blood." And also on politicians who, acting on the principle of “the worse, the better”, deliberately led the matter to a bloody denouement
      Who was punished? The Minister lost his post. Nikolai Treschenkov was demoted to the rank and file. By the way, in 1914, when the war began, he begged to send him to the front. There the hunted officer was clearly looking for death. Having raised the battalion to the attack, Lieutenant Colonel Treschenkov was killed by a German bullet in the forehead on May 15, 1915. He was posthumously awarded the St. George's Arms.
      Makarov A.A. was shot by the Bolsheviks, like many others from the state layer Ros. empire. Traces of P.N. Batashev was lost after 1939. But the Ginzburgs - perhaps the main culprits of the tragedy - the Cheka favorably allowed to go abroad, probably grabbing a bag with diamonds. They didn’t live, they died in their bed. In Soviet propaganda, the Lena tragedy of 1912 was one of the first in the series of “horrors of tsarism”. This did not stop in 1925, following Lenin’s precepts of concessions, to lease the Lena Goldfields company to gold deposits in Eastern Siberia. The share of power in the concession was only 7 percent.
      In 1930, the concession agreement was terminated ahead of schedule by the decision of Stalin, gold mining management was returned to the state. The state gold mining association "Lenzoloto" was transformed into a trust and began to actively develop the Bodaidinsky district. But 1937 came, and after it 1941. Many experts of the trust became victims of repression, the remaining went to the front. They were replaced by women and adolescents who had gone into the faces. For its invaluable contribution to the country's defense, the Lenzoloto Trust was awarded the highest government award, the Order of Lenin, on December 16, 1946. 126 employees were awarded with orders and medals.
      1. Brother Sarych
        +3
        April 17 2012 12: 27
        And since when in the half-mast already 300 bayonets?
        A crowd of 2 thousand is not so big against 300 soldiers ...
        Yes, they baited Treschenkov - from privates to lieutenant colonels!
        1. +2
          April 17 2012 12: 48
          For involvement in the criminal act, Captain Treschenkov was dismissed from service in the gendarme corps, demoted to privates and enrolled in the foot militia of the St. Petersburg province. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, after his insistent requests, he "The highest permission" He was admitted to the army. He served in the 257th infantry regiment of Yevpatoriya. “In a battle with the Austro-Germans on May 15, 1915 near the village of Paklo, he was killed by an enemy rifle bullet in the forehead, at a time when led his battalion to attack, going at the head of it. He was buried in a cemetery in the village. Podziyach. "
          Quote: Brother Sarich
          And since when in the half-mast already 300 bayonets?

          I apologize for 150 bayonets.
          Noble piglets - Khitun Sergey
          MY CONVERSATIONS WITH A.F. KERENSKY IN 1966
          About tragedy on Lena
          We, the gymnasium students of the Chernihiv gymnasium, did not read newspapers. There was no need or habit. Reading newspapers was not prohibited, but the sensational language of reporters was not approved as cluttering the speech of young men, to preserve the purity of which it was recommended to read the classics.
          “As for politics, you will be doing this as students, by this time young people are ripening for contradictions and riots,” our Class Inspector once said bitterly, whose son, a student, was serving a link somewhere outside the Urals.
          But when I was in seventh grade and at the same time a graduate of the senior department of the Noble Pension, I read the local newspaper, quite carefully for the whole month, in April 1912.
          One day, my teacher called me to his office and, sitting next to him on the sofa, asked:
          - When did you receive the last letter from your father?
          “Three weeks ago,” I answered, a little surprised at his question.
          - Then you probably do not know about the disturbing news already announced in the newspapers. - And he, after a short pause, with a kind of wariness in his eyes, handed me the page of the local newspaper in which I read:
          "One hundred forty-five of the striking miners of the Lensk Gold Industrial Association, near the town of Bodaibo, were shot by soldiers of the local garrison" ...
          The following were the details of this tragedy:
          ... "After the incendiary speeches of the speakers at a long rally held at the Feodosievsky mine, an excited crowd of four thousand workers went to the Main Office of the Lena Association, located at the Nadezhdinsky mine, with demands for higher wages and better housing conditions.
          The gendarme captain Treshchenkov, appointed by the Minister of Justice Shcheglovitov as the representative of the State Security and Protection, who did not rely on the peacefulness of the crowd, summoned half a company of soldiers under the command of Staff Captain Sanzharenko from Bodaibo in advance; it was already built with a deployed front, along the embankment of the railway, (the narrow-gauge railway connected the mines with the city of Bodaibo for 60 versts.) blocking the way for the workers. It was in vain that the mediators sent by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and local officials asked the crowd to stop and send their representatives "to discuss their demands.
          As a last resort to stop the approaching mass of miners, the Government District Engineer Tulchinsky went to the strikers with the same insistent request - to disperse, having previously selected his representatives for negotiations with the Head Office Manager.
          His exhortations were in vain ... The crowd was five hundred paces from a group of administrative persons who had gathered for the soldiers.
          In addition to Justice of the Peace EM Khitun, Companion of the Prosecutor of the Irkutsk District Court N.I. Preobrazhensky, Deputy Chief Mining Engineer Teppan, two or three mining engineers managing individual mines, this group included a gendarme captain, police officer and officer Sanzharenko.
          All of them were not only alarmed by the formidable sight of the approaching crowd of thousands, but also scared. The brutal reprisals of the rebellious peasants over the landlords, the expropriation and murder of officials by revolutionaries still remained in their memory. This wave swept across Russia in 1905 ... Under someone else’s pressure, or perhaps on his own initiative, captain Treschenkov signaled to Captain Sanzharenko and he ordered the half-shot to fire a volley through the crowd.
          After the first salvo of 150 rifles, the strikers lay down, among them lay their admonitor the District Engineer Tulchinsky. When the shooting subsided, the crowd fled, leaving one hundred forty-five people dead and wounded in place.
          This is how the strike of miners and overhead workers at the mines of the Lensk Gold Industrial Partnership near the town of Bodaibo ended tragically in April 1912. "

          1. +2
            April 17 2012 13: 11
            For several weeks, I read in the local newspaper of Chernigov the details of the Lena events: reports, discussions, heated debate and accusations in the State Duma. The left challenged the right to a verbal duel with the following resolution:
            "The contract, according to which the miners and workers were hired by the Lensk Gold Industrial Partnership, exploited them to the limit of half-slavery. The workers were settled in barracks; they were given credit books to buy food in the stores of the Lena Partnership because private shops were only in the city of Bodaibo - 30- 40 miles from the mines.
            Yes, wages were twice as high as in European Russia, but the contract covers a six to seven month period of seasonal work, so the average annual wages of a worker are low. Food prices in the Company's stores are high and the quality of the goods is poor. During the strike, all underground and aboveground work was suspended. The Lenzoloto Main Directorate has applied to the Magistrate ("Golden Judge") (Position appointed by the Minister of Justice. Duties - Magistrate, Investigator and Notary in one person with the salary of the Comrade Minister. Only three such "Golden Judges" were in unusually extensive three gold-mining regions: in the Urals, Altai and Lena.) with a request to evict workers from the barracks they occupy, provided to them by the Partnership free of charge, insofar as they perform work according to the concluded contract.
            Judge Hitun, according to the law, signed the deed to evict the workers, but where was his "humanitarian ego"? What could the thousands of workers evicted from their apartments have done? Not everyone wanted to evacuate to other areas on barges offered by the Lena Partnership; not everyone wanted to leave their homes and, if happiness smiled, profitable places ... (The Company paid for the mined nuggets separately. A gold nugget weighing 3 pounds was found; a worker bought a gold mine from the miners (self-gold miners) and the nugget he found was placed in the Museum of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg.).
            In reality, the strikers did not bring any violence or damage to anyone or anything when they were shot at. It was clear that a mortally frightened group of administrators put pressure on the gendarme captain and he ordered the captain Sanzharenko to shoot at the crowd ... ".
            After heated discussions, a resolution was passed: "To appoint a young attorney at law, socialist AF Kerensky to carry out a rigorous investigation on the spot, to bring to justice those responsible for unnecessary mass bloodshed and punish them with capital punishment."
            The opinion of the right in the Duma about the execution of workers in the Lena goldfields, differed sharply from the conclusion of the left:
            “The miners' strike was political, not economic. The part of Siberia north of Irkutsk is full of political exiles who planted, supported and spread anti-government ideas among the population, which were in most cases ex-criminals in the settlement.
            As soon as the shooting ceased, the crowd fled, leaving bricks, stones, chains, iron rods, stakes on the field ... The recent extravagant, brutal massacres and lynching of the insurgent masses over State officials, landowners in the year 905, prompted a handful of representatives of the law and authorities, to take measures to their own safety and maintaining order.
            The strikers were repeatedly warned not to go with their whole crowd of thousands, but to send their elected representatives for negotiations.
            Wages and living conditions in the barracks were many times better than their Russian counterpart had ever had. The complaint that a dog's hind leg was found in a cauldron of soup in one of the barracks is just a provocative lie. "
            The leader of the majority of the right wing of the Duma, Markov II stated that: “Russia should not have granted a concession for the development of gold on the Lena to a group of British Jews - bankers who contribute to the" leak "of gold from the country; moreover, due to their excessive economy and practicality, discontent is created among the workers.
            It is not surprising that Judge Hitun played into their hand, signing the act on the eviction of workers from the Lenzoloth barracks: he himself was baptized "... (Hereditary Nobility was granted to the Hitun family by Catherine II" With the introduction of the Noble Genealogy of the Book into Part Three ..).
            The content of the resolution of the Rights was of a wait-and-see nature: "The final decision should be made after receiving reports from the field from Senator Manukhin (from the Government) and the socialist Kerensky" ...
            After returning with reports on what happened on Lena, both the right and the left continued to stubbornly defend their previously expressed opinions, condemnations and accusations. Lenzoloto slightly improved the living conditions of the miners and reshuffled the members of the administration. The gendarme captain Treshchenkov and the staff captain Sanzharenko were recalled to be investigated in St. Petersburg; their fate is unknown to me.
  6. +5
    April 17 2012 10: 14
    Such a position is extremely curious. Here is "tsarism" - the regime that created such conditions and tereschenkov, the shooting has nothing to do with it. So, the accompanying facts ... then what kind of actions of the NKVD officer Pupkin does everything roll over to Stalin, "sovok", the communists? not objectively, gentlemen.
  7. +5
    April 17 2012 10: 44
    Minus the article, the system is to blame - in this case tsarism, you still write that some bad officials and not the system are to blame for the corruption lawlessness in real Russia.
  8. dmb
    +8
    April 17 2012 11: 12
    Helena! Reading your articles personally, I have the feeling that the great Bolsheviks requisitioned a shop of colonial goods from your great-grandfather, and you can’t forget that. In recent years, in general, wherever you spit, you will surely fall into the descendant of a large cattle-farmer, or into the offspring of an old noble family by a strange whim of fate with the name Kantselboim. To verify the truth, the majority refers to those who scornfully called the Holodrans. At the same time, all these failed nobles and fishmongers completely forget that their ancestors wiped their snot with their sleeves, and they learned to read and write thanks exclusively to Likbez.
    1. cvet2010gordeeva
      +1
      April 17 2012 12: 04
      Fortunately, I am one of the "hicks". Contrary to your convictions, I am not so bad about the Soviets, just no matter how hard I try to be fascinated by the Bolsheviks, I cannot. She began to write, by the way, with a desire to highlight the crimes of "tsarism", but it turned out as always. So in this case, it seems that the left radicals have nothing to do with, but no, the roots of the tragedy are English and the propaganda among the workers is illiterate and thoughtless, noticeable.
      1. dmb
        0
        April 17 2012 13: 14
        There is no need to be fascinated at all. objective assessments must be made. You yourself write that impoverishment and merciless exploitation existed even before the British. So the roots of the Lena events are our natural ones. And what kind of power is it that allows foreigners on their own land to undermine the foundations of this power. And the captain Tereshchenkov by no means pulls the representative of the private security company. The order: "Shoot" he gave not on his own behalf, but on behalf of the notorious tsarism, which did not punish him strongly. At the same time, while you are already speaking, explain what was the thoughtlessness of the propaganda among the workers, and what it should be in your opinion.
      2. +1
        April 17 2012 13: 34
        Dear cvet2010gordeeva, your trouble is that you either did not understand the social situation that existed in the mines and in the villages, or you deliberately avoid this. The speech was spontaneous, and therefore the arrest of the leaders of the strike gave nothing! Most of the people participating in the spontaneous procession are immigrants (thanks to the Stolypin reform), i.e. people who turned out to be the will of fate in a territory where it is extremely difficult to survive, without housing, without a livelihood, with wives and children dying of hunger and disease.
        The government of Tsarist Russia, in order to reduce the intensity of discontent in the European part of the country, sent a large number of able-bodied people with families to Siberia, but did not provide them on the ground with neither conditions for normal adaptation, nor normal labor activity. And local officials were not ready to receive such a mass of people. But, now so praised, “successful managers” used this to fill their pockets. And they did not give bribes locally, in St. Petersburg.
  9. Chertanovets
    -2
    April 17 2012 12: 04
    Thanks to the author, to be honest, I have not even heard of this event before.
    I am sure that it is not "tsarism" that is to blame, but the local government, which did not comply with the laws. at that time it was almost impossible to control the local authorities in Siberia and the Far East. Corruption and greed of officials as it was 100 years ago and now remains!
    1. Brother Sarych
      +3
      April 17 2012 12: 29
      No offense - are you very young?
      Because in the USSR there was more than one lesson about this in the school about it, well, not quite about it, but it was mentioned more than once ...
      1. -2
        April 17 2012 12: 37
        A lie, in the textbooks the Lensky execution was mentioned in passing - exclusively as a crime of tsarism. We asked the teacher to tell why this happened, he only waved off 2 phrases of on-duty phrases, although I suppose he himself did not have sufficient material.
        1. Brother Sarych
          +1
          April 17 2012 14: 11
          Do you need a list of topics that you need to bring in confirmation of the repeated mention of this event? In which classes was this mentioned?
          Of course, everyone has never written about this, it was the "shooting at the Lena mines" that was heard repeatedly ...
          In principle, it’s not a particularly important event to consider in detail at school, now the whole history of the Great Patriotic War is passing through in passing ...
          1. 0
            April 17 2012 14: 27
            Brother Sarych
            Because in the USSR there was more than one lesson about this in the school about it, well, not quite about it, but it was mentioned more than once ...

            In principle, it’s not a particularly important event to consider in detail at school,

            Then decide - it was not one lesson, it was not a particularly important event.
            Criticizing the material only on the basis of the principle that I could be better, but like what for it is necessary - this is not serious.
            You can minus if there are no other arguments.
            1. Dust
              0
              April 17 2012 15: 56
              What is determined? What is not a particularly important event? And there is! Did you mention this in more than one lesson? Remember the methodology of teaching history in high school during the Soviet era - the same events were considered at least twice, first in a smaller volume, then in a larger one. Some then and the institute went through the same thing ...
              For example, no one was interested in these events in our time, like that. took note ...
              A cheap trick to cling to words from scratch ...
              I criticize the material not because I could do better (and I can do better), but because I see specific shortcomings ...
            2. Brother Sarych
              -1
              April 17 2012 21: 48
              In the history of Russia there were so many things that the Lensky execution does not occupy a very important place!
              At the same time, the methodology of teaching history in high school involves the repetition of the previously discussed material in a more in-depth form in high school - that is why they say about the Lena execution several times ....
              Some, or rather all, studied the same events at the institute ...
    2. Tyumen
      0
      April 17 2012 12: 39
      Read * Sullen River * V.Ya. Shishkov, it will be interesting.
  10. Num lock U.A.
    0
    April 17 2012 12: 35
    Bribery, red tape, and lawlessness flourished in the state.

    dashing 90s does not remind?
  11. +2
    April 17 2012 12: 47
    All this is very much reminiscent of the current situation in our country. Therefore, when it explodes, it will be too late to scream that the rich are people too, you can’t do that with them ... DMB plus, I support 100%.
  12. George IV
    +1
    April 17 2012 14: 43
    Again the author of Gordeeva and again the tsar and the boyars are not to blame for anything, they are simply innocent victims, and among the propagandists there are a lot of agitators and provocateurs.
    Romantics are monarchists, they are communists like romantics, they all have one solid, bright past. It’s also impossible, dear.
  13. +3
    April 17 2012 15: 38
    This is the third article about the Lena tragedy that appears on the Internet, but with varying degrees of accusations against the Bolsheviks. True, the author, in a hurry, even poorly looked through the sources "Lenzoloto" is rather an attribute of the USSR, and the society was abbreviated as "Lenzoto" - the Lena gold mining partnership. In 1896 it was transformed into a joint stock company. More than 70 percent of the shares belonged to the English company Lena Goldfield ltd.
    But, apparently out of modesty, the author did not write, and who was part of this society. The structure of the London Board included the leaders of the International. and Rus.-Asian. Banks A.I. Vyshnegradsky and A.I. Putilov. Among the owners of the shares were large officials (S. Yu. Witte, S.I. Timashev, V.I. Timiryazev, and others) and some members. Tsar’s surname (Empress Maria Fedorovna).
  14. -1
    April 17 2012 19: 36
    “however, none of the real perpetrators of the tragedy was punished. The work of the company continued even during the Soviet era. >>
    This is in the best traditions of the Bolshevik scumbags of Type Leib Trotsky, who aroused noble indignation for the Lensky execution of workers and, on the basis of revolutionary necessity, immediately hung the blame for the Lensky execution on the tsar, having met with the full support of the Western liberal intellectual sheluponi entrenched in the Russian authorities circles and the media, and the British leadership of the company - the TRUE culprit for the execution of workers, was nothing to do with. And it was for the good of the workers that Trotsky, having come to power, allowed the same leadership to continue
    OVERCOME the same workers who have become, it seems, HEGEMONS! Well, of course, he must somehow pay off with the NAGLO-SRAKS, who brought him to power, so the "hegemon" as a slave force came up!
  15. 0
    April 18 2012 05: 13
    Quote: Ascetic
    Nikolai Treschenkov was demoted to the rank and file. By the way, in 1914, when the war began, he begged to send him to the front. There the hunted officer was clearly looking for death. Having raised the battalion to the attack, Lieutenant Colonel Treschenkov was killed by a German bullet in the forehead on May 15, 1915. He was posthumously awarded the St. George's Arms.

    damn yourself demoted for 3 years from private to lieutenant colonel
  16. +1
    22 March 2017 21: 20
    But the truth about the Lena execution, published on the website of the Working Way: “April 4 this year marks 105 years since the imperial troops shot the workers of the Lenzoloto joint-stock company - Lena Goldfields. This is a brutal crime of tsarism and the bourgeoisie, better known by common the name “Lensky execution”, served as a strong impetus to a new powerful all-Russian upsurge of the revolutionary struggle in the Russian Empire, which ended, as is known, at first overthrowing the tsarist autocracy, and then the transfer of political power into hands Russian working class.
    The essence of the Lena “case” and its modern falsification
    The gold mines of the Lena Partnership were jointly owned by English and Russian capitalists, and large tsarist officials. Through the Petersburg banker, Gunzburg had a decent share of shares in this office and the royal family. Foreign and domestic partners of Lena Goldfields annually received a total of over 6 million rubles of net profit. Against the backdrop of the economic upsurge that began in 1910, the greedy bourgeoisie and tsarism squeezed more and more gold from the labor force and bowels of the Lena mines. The company Lenzoloto reigned the most cruel exploitation of the workers, which combined with their complete lack of rights, bordering on the most natural slavery.
    The mines were located in the dense taiga of Eastern Siberia, 1700 km from the nearest railway. It was possible to get out of there only during a brief navigation along the rivers.
    The working conditions of the workers were determined by an enslaving agreement, and, in essence, by the unlimited arbitrariness of the mine administration.
    For example, workers had no right to quit work before the end of the term of employment, but at the same time they could be fired at any time for any misconduct and even for an oblique look.
    Wages were not handed out until full payment, but even with full payment, workers kept a fair amount of the money already earned. In exchange for earnings, the workers were given the products of the lowest quality, which they were obliged to buy, and those who refused to buy food at the owner's shop, while calculating, still kept the cost of what the worker did not buy, "but had to buy."
    The working day under the contract was determined at 10-11,5 hours, but the local administration often extended it at its discretion.
    The workers were in complete power and dependence on the managers of the mines and their closest assistants. The administration had the entire local state machine: police, gendarmes, prosecutors and factory inspection officials, judges, officers and generals - all of them were kept by the gold miners. Lena partnership "Lenzoloto" behaved in its vast possessions, like a cruel feudal prince. Belozerov, the field manager of the Lena partnership, was called the king of the taiga. Lenin wrote about the mines that they remained one of "such corners where serfdom was exactly yesterday."
    The hard working and living conditions of workers, delays in payments and large deductions from earned money, sale of low-quality products at exorbitant prices, violence and arbitrariness of the administration and the police, all this caused repeated unrest in the Lena mines. At the end of 1912, a strike began at one of the mining sites, where the situation of the workers was especially difficult. The administration of the mine was profitable in response to the strike simply to “close” production and to expel all workers. But for this it was necessary to violate the terms of the contract, the term of which expired only in September. In order to get a “legitimate” reason for mass layoffs, the mine administration itself began to provoke workers to protests and protests. The concrete detonator of the strike was the issuance by the workers of rotten horse meat. It was too much for even the most humble and clogged workaholic.
    Outraged workers went on strike, elected deputies from their midst and sent them to all the surrounding Lenzoloto gold mines. By March 1, a number of mines went on strike. Representatives of individual sections gathered together and decided to create a general strike committee, which was to turn local strikes into a general strike of the Lena mines. At all the mines participating in the strike, local strike committees were organized, and elders were elected in all working barracks. The organizational beginning of the strike was laid.
    The Lenzoloto Central Strike Committee has begun negotiations with the administration. On behalf of the board, negotiations with the strikers were conducted by the district engineer Tulchinsky. As a result of the negotiations, he managed to convince the Menshevik-minded workers' delegates to end the strike. From that moment on, the Central Strike was split in two: Bolshevik-minded members of the Strike Committee protested against the compromising position of some delegates and immediately launched agitation among the masses against the cessation of the strike.
    Since the opinions of the workers and the positions of the local strike committees were divided, it was decided to arrange a secret ballot on the issue of going to work. To do this, on the morning of March 25, two empty barrels were installed side by side on one of the mines, on which labels were glued: "I will go to work" and "I will not go to work." Voting workers lowered both hands into the barrels, in one of which a pebble was clamped. Inside the barrel, a palm with a stone opened. Soon the barrel with the inscription “I won’t go to work” was filled to the top, and only 17 stones were found in the barrel of the Compromisers.
    So, on March 27 the strike at the mines became universal. Over 6 thousand people participated in it. Under the leadership of Bolshevik-minded workers, the strike went on amicably and in an organized manner. Literally before our eyes, people changed. According to eyewitnesses, in dirty barracks, where yesterday “emaciated shadows, not people, crawled”, all possible order was put in place. People straightened up, washed, stopped swearing, began to turn to each other on “You”. “In thousands of eyes the inspiration was read, which happens with proud warriors who go to battle for a just cause.”
    Despite the peaceful nature of the strike, at the request of the government, a large detachment of soldiers was sent to the mines. The captain of the gendarme branch, Captain Treschenkov, arrested several members of the strike committee for a provocative purpose. The military unit, which arrived at the mines, was operatively subordinated to the gendarmes. Therefore, Treschenkov ordered the military “not to stop using force” against the workers if they tried to help their comrades out of custody.
    On April 4, 3 thousand workers signed a statement that they all went on strike deliberately, without any incitement or coercion, and went with this statement to the prosecutor in the Nadezhdinsky mine. Long strings of workers stretched to the office of the mine, merging on the road into one black ribbon stretching for 4 km. On one side of the road there was a steep cliff into the Bodaibo River, and on the other there was a pile of logs. The gendarmes knew in advance that the workers were going to go to Nadezhdinsky that day. Therefore, on the approaches to the mine, soldiers were built who completely blocked the road along which the workers moved. Their “old acquaintance”, engineer Tulchinsky, came out to the workers and began to persuade them to disperse. The front rows of the working column slowed down, and then stopped moving. But the three thousandth crowd, stretched out on a narrow road, continued to push. Instead of removing the soldiers from the road and letting the convoy pass, one after another the combat teams sounded: “Volley!”, “Volley!”, “Volley!”. Https://work-way.com/
    1. 0
      22 March 2017 21: 22
      "More than 500 workers were killed and wounded that morning. The new bloody atrocity of the autocracy caused a wave of indignation throughout Russia. Mass protest strikes began. In many cities, revolutionary demonstrations took place. At the request of the Social Democratic deputies, the State Duma was forced to organize an investigation commission and engage in discussion. events in the Lena goldfields: Minister of Internal Affairs Makarov, invited to the Duma for explanations, concluded his “explanations” with the words of a real tsar’s cannibal: “It was so, it will be so.”
      The huge political movement of the working class was a response to the execution and arrogant words of Makarov. Later, Lenin wrote: "Lensky execution ... was the most accurate reflection of the entire regime of the June 3 monarchy." He points out that it is not the struggle for individual rights, but general lawlessness that pushes the workers to a decisive struggle against tsarism. “It is this general lack of rights in Russian life, namely the hopelessness and impossibility of the struggle for individual rights, this incorrigibility of the tsarist monarchy and its entire regime that emerged from the Lena events so vividly that they lit the masses with revolutionary fire” [2].
      Emphasizing the historical significance of the bloody events in Lenzoloto, Stalin wrote in the May issue of the newspaper Zvezda: “Lena shots broke the ice of silence, and the river of the popular movement started. Started off! Everything that was evil and destructive in the modern regime, everything that long-suffering Russia was sick of - all this came together in one fact, in the events on the Lena River. That is why the Lena shots were the signal of strikes and demonstrations. ”
      All. A brief description of the Lena massacre is given, exact political conclusions are drawn. One could put an end to the article.
      And yet, the more documents and materials relevant to this matter passed through our hands, the clearer it became that it was impossible to put an end to it. There are at least two big reasons for this.
      The fact is that modern bourgeois historiography draws the circumstances of the present day to the ears of the events of 1912. She presents the Lena events as an attempt of raider seizure of Lenzoloto mines from competitors, gold miners. In this regard, the workers' strike is considered by its lackeys historians as a strike organized by raiders in order to “undermine the situation” in the mines, disrupt production, deprive the owners of profit for a more or less long period, and finally take Lenzoto to their hands. The legitimate owners of the mines simply supposedly protected their property from competitors, the workers were exposed to bullets by these dishonest rival raiders, and the workers themselves were to blame for believing these raiders, agreed to be a tool in their hands and did not appreciate the happiness they had "Old" owners. (Even a blind person will see here a clear allusion to the technology of "color revolutions" that have become a popular form of the drain of the revolutionary labor movement among the modern imperialist bourgeoisie.)
      Apparently, these “writers” from history did not really understand all the circumstances surrounding the execution. Or deliberately withhold them. They “forget” to say that at that moment any “raider” who encroached on profitable production, partly owned by the tsar’s family, partly the owners of 1/4 of the entire British economy, partly the largest Russian bankers, would instantly be erased. Such crazy capitalist "raiders" in Russia then simply could not exist. (This is about trying to pick up Gazprom from famous people now.)
      Further, bourgeois ideologists argue that the strike and execution in the Lena mines are the consequences of the criminal gangster undertaking of the workers themselves. Say, the working and living conditions in Lenzoloto were normal for that time, but the workers saw “living” gold, a lot of gold that went to the treasury. They decided that this situation was unfair, aroused and organized a gang with the aim of appropriating all the gold mined, which was kept in warehouses. But this was not enough for the workers, and they intended, like the once thief and robber Pugachev, to pick up someone else's producing property in the form of mines with the highest gold content. Government forces were expelled to fight fairly against such banditry and restore law. Worker bandits attacked these forces, but in a fair battle suffered heavy and well-deserved losses. Why cry about bandits now?
      These positions of the bourgeois falsifiers of history are the first reason why clarity should be brought into the Lena events.
      But there is also our position. When studying materials, we often came across facts and circumstances that were as if written off from recent notes by RP-Inform. Sometimes we said to each other: “look, this is the situation as it is now on Sabetta” or “the situation was similar at the Ordzhonikidze mine in the late 90s” or “a similar thing happened last year at Makeevugol when Zakharchenko ordered the arrest of those who did not go to work. ”
      We are against the mechanical parallels in history. Each situation is special, but at the same time it is necessary to see in a whole series of events that common that unites them. It would be foolish for today's class-conscious workers, and even workers' activists, to ignore the useful and concrete experience of the struggle of their predecessors. The historical materials on the Lensky execution will not be superfluous to those of us who conduct classes with workers in circles and sections, since without examples from real life and the working class of tsarist Russia, classes on the era of 1900-1917 become dry, heavy, not giving a deep understanding of theoretical material.
      Finally, it was necessary to take into account that many of our working people eagerly repeat the official lies and stupidity of the Lensky execution for bourgeois ideologists because of its primitiveness: on the right are the good tsar and good master capitalists, and on the left are criminal scumbags-workers. We believe that the consciousness of the working masses, warped by petty-bourgeois ideology, must be fought here and now. These are all our people, and we will not have others, immediately conscious, politically educated and ready to fight for socialism.
      Therefore, we considered it necessary to invite our readers with us - to where a real nightmare had erupted in the early 20th century.
      Welcome to the Lena Mines. "Https://work-way.com/
  17. 0
    31 March 2017 16: 04
    I read the article, read the comments ... 1912 .... and that? Unfortunately for the Russian people, NO! was still 1937 .... there the valiant falcons from the NKVD put to the people much more royal satraps ..
    A new era - new victims

    Few people know that only 26 years after the execution at the Lena goldfields, which became notorious, another tragedy occurred in those places, even more terrible in the number of victims. This is not surprising, because information about her got into the press only in the 90s of the last century. By the end of 1937 throughout the country, as you know, the elimination of "enemies of the people." Siberia lagged behind the planned mopping-up indicators, and NKVD emissaries were sent from the center to urgently rectify the situation. Boris Kulvets was sent to Bodaibo, who unleashed real terror in the mines. In total, about four thousand people were arrested, and if Kulvets had the will, he would have shot everyone, especially since in Bodaibo he was one in all faces: since the district prosecutor was also arrested, Kulvets himself made arrests, interrogated himself, drove those sentenced to the place of execution , he himself carried out the death sentences, and even in violation of the then instructions, he, instead of a doctor, stated death. Interrogation protocols had to be sent to Irkutsk for approval, and there, although they were interested in fulfilling the plan for stripping, nevertheless, they wrapped fake, sucked from the finger, poorly executed papers, and as a result, “only” 948 people were shot in Bodaibo. This is almost four times more than in 1912! The mass repressions of the Stalin era in the Lena goldfields led to the fact that the “bloody terror of the capitalists” that took place there at the beginning of the century, Soviet schoolchildren studied only in passing - despite the legend of the “Lena” origin of the pseudonym V.I. Lenin. Since that time, the phrase “Lensky execution” in the USSR was accompanied by an eloquent clarification: the words “1912” were added to it. Apparently, thinking about others ...
    1. 0
      April 12 2017 15: 20
      Sir, can you provide confirmation of the events you brought? preferably documentary.
      1. 0
        April 13 2017 07: 45
        Sir, what documentary evidence will suit you? with personal signature of Stalin? will arrange? I doubt that anything will suit you at all, the main thing is to be on the run, trend, as young people say today ... don’t get out of order, you will be brought to Butovo training ground when you become unnecessary by the authorities, like recruited hunveibins.
        1. 0
          April 20 2017 13: 25
          Yes, but you get there first!
          1. 0
            April 21 2017 13: 42
            a so-so consolation ... it betrays a worthless loser who, besides blood from his teeth, has nothing for his soul, it's empty ... it's sad ... but until your time has come .. I hope it will not come ... once the Bolshevik experiment is enough for Russia, as well as liberal revelry ...

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