"Izvestia" summer 1919
“You poke into the White, you poke into the Black, into the Caspian, into the Baltic,
- wherever the ship goes, the end of the ride.
Stands the mistress of the seas, bulldog Britain.
From all ends of the blockade the ring and the guns are staring us in the face.”
"Fine". V. Mayakovsky
- wherever the ship goes, the end of the ride.
Stands the mistress of the seas, bulldog Britain.
From all ends of the blockade the ring and the guns are staring us in the face.”
"Fine". V. Mayakovsky
Unknown Wars. We continue to publish materials from the “Unknown Wars” series, and today we continue the topic: the events of the summer of 1919 in the materials of the Izvestia newspaper. The newspaper was very large in format, and it contained a lot of information. However, certain thematic areas in it were constant. In particular, the section “Latest News”, in which they published news from all over the country and from abroad, which were received by telegraph.
And here are the events of June 14-15, for example, that the Izvestia newspaper wrote about:
And this is already news from August...
These short information blocks should also be classified as news. We received them through ROSTA (Russian Telegraph Agency under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee)
From the very beginning of the civil war in Russia, a section “In the camp of the counter-revolution” appeared in Izvestia, and it was regularly updated with news.
Material from June 1, 1919
Beginning of August. But such materials were published in almost every issue of this newspaper.
Truly, newspapers must be read! Not in any textbooks stories I have not seen any mention of someone throwing a bomb at Ataman Semyonov. But it turns out they abandoned...
The message about the battles for Ufa directly visibly echoes the second episode of the film “Red Square” (1970), in my opinion, perhaps the best Soviet film about the Civil War. In one of the reviews I read that this is “a masterpiece out of tune with its era", and we can completely agree with this!
Very interesting material that explains why in the Civil War, despite all their efforts, the whites were not destined to defeat the reds. The whole question was about the land and the old and new relationship to it...
But on the Don the Reds had serious problems with the Cossacks. The fact is that the Cossacks en masse supported the anti-Bolshevik forces. And it is clear that the most severe measures were taken against him. The policy of the Soviet government towards the Cossacks was reflected in a secret circular letter from the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to the party organizations of the Don and the Urals dated January 24, 1919, according to which it was assumed
“to carry out merciless mass terror against all Cossacks who took any direct or indirect part in the fight against Soviet power.”
And with regard to the rich Cossacks, their total destruction was planned. And the vagueness of the main wording of the document made it possible to interpret it very broadly, which, among other things, also opened the way to settling personal scores. It was assumed that there would be an equalization of Cossacks and non-residents and a mass resettlement of the peasant poor from Central Russia to Cossack lands. That is, it was a policy of forced de-Cossackization, which naturally pushed most of the Cossacks into the arms of the White Guards.
A large article was published in Izvestia about the difficult situation on the Don. Part 1
On March 16, 1919, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), they nevertheless decided to suspend this resolution, but it had already fallen into the hands of the whites. It was published in the White Guard press in April 1919, and needless to say how much it helped discredit the Soviet order and caused a massive influx of Cossacks into the White Army.
Part 2
Moreover, despite the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Don Bureau of the RCP (b) continued the previous terrorist line. Thus, in the decision of the Donburo of April 21, 1919 it was stated that “the existence of the Don Cossacks... faces the proletarian government with the constant threat of counter-revolutionary actions", What
“poses as an urgent task the question of the complete, rapid and decisive destruction of the Cossacks as a special everyday economic group, the destruction of their economic foundations, the physical destruction of the Cossack officials and officers, in general all the top of the Cossacks, actively counter-revolutionary, the dispersion and neutralization of ordinary Cossacks and the formal liquidation of the Cossacks. »
It got to the point that in some places even the word “Cossack” itself was prohibited from being spoken out loud!
Part 3
True, there were those among the Bolsheviks who understood the futility of such actions. In particular, V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko wrote on July 18, 1919 in his letter to the Central Committee:
“You did not take into account the full strength of the Cossack traditions on the Don and Kuban. You decided to go ahead. Comrade [H.G.] Rakovsky told me that you decided to eradicate the Cossacks, introducing the poor from the center to the Cossack lands, destroying every shadow of Cossack privileges. You did not take into account the balance of forces, you did not try to reach an agreement with the working Cossacks. You sent your armies on a campaign under a banner that caused an almost universal uprising against us on the Don and an almost universal rise of the Kuban people. This is the main reason for our temporary defeat in the south, and this reason was created by you.”
And all this happened, by the way, because of excessive haste. There was no need to rush into exterminating the Cossacks. They would not have left it anywhere after the final victory of Soviet power. It is not without reason that it is said that in all matters one must hurry slowly. But in this case this wise rule was forgotten.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the Cossacks dealt very cruelly with the communists who fell into their hands, since it was in them that they saw the cause of all their troubles
Readers of VO once complained that in this series little was written “about the atrocities of the whites,” but in fact, until the summer of 1919, although they actually wrote about them, but... less than now. And then one material after another began to appear.
Here is one of the materials on this topic. It is not clear why those flogged with rods were smeared with sour milk. Maybe some of the VO readers know? I would understand if they were then sprinkled with salt, as the ancient Egyptians did. But sour milk... it’s unclear
Here is another ROSTA material on the same topic...
And further…
And monuments were erected to the workers who died at the hands of the Czechoslovaks and speeches were given at the same time
Also in the summer of 1919, Izvestia published a large amount of material about kulaks, and placed it in the “Controversy” section. Like, the editors don’t agree with the author on everything, but let him speak out.
The whole thing didn’t even fit into the lens... But in general, you can understand what this material is talking about
Continuation of the material about fists
But this is extremely interesting material, compiled on the basis of peasant letters to the newspaper. By the way, one of the cornerstones of PR is feedback from the audience in order to take their interests into account in a timely and correct manner!
And these are “peasant letters”. It’s very interesting what’s written here about the middle peasant Mikhailov...
Continuation of the material about the middle peasant Mikhailov...
Well, this is a note based on Kaganovich’s report about how peasants are deceiving their native Soviet power. Moreover, the peasants seem to be loyal to her. And what? They got the land, what more could they want? Free travel abroad? Ha ha!
In addition to external enemies, Soviet Russia had a lot of enemies within. And they constantly conspired, which Izvestia also reported...
One of these conspiracies ended in a mutiny at the Krasnaya Gorka fort. What the newspaper reported in its article dated June 17. However, there is very little information about this historical fact in the newspaper. Therefore, we will try to cover this event in as much detail as possible in a special material, which is currently being prepared by one of the readers and authors of our site
To be continued ...
Information