On a warm summer night I happened to drink vodka in a park in the middle of Old Square.

Two famous film playwrights Vitaly Moskalenko (“Shirley Myrli”) and Yuri Perov (“Truckers”) did me the honor of inviting me as the third... And in the midst of a dispute about the relationship between what is necessary and what is sufficient in politics and art, a young long-haired “poodle” suddenly approached, clearly not taught to eat politically correctly and muttered: “Grandfathers! Actually, you have to pay to rent the territory!” Vitaly instantly jumped up from the grass, commanding “Circle!” turned the “guest” back to himself and gave the sufferer a powerful kick. After which the young man flew a decent distance away, barely able to stay on his feet...

Yura and I chased after the others.

When the “poodles” were gone, our conversation came down to the fact that, perhaps, the main thing is to give a kick to an aggressive opponent in time.

Look, life will get better!

All summer, TV channels regularly regaled us with touching stories about meetings of the Guarantor of the Constitution with young people. They say that the “crows” from the liberal media are vilely slandering our impeccably raised children, saying that the children are supposedly fighting for some kind of “radical changes.” They are good guys and tomboys and, first of all, they think about how to quickly make a career. The only thing they need from the Guarantor is to help them break through by creating a unit in the “vertical of power” that guarantees a Bright Tomorrow even for those whose “ancestors,” alas, are not members of the Security Council or even analysts from court research institutes, who have connections then there is nowhere except MGIMO and the Higher School of Economics!

The kids know for sure that Russian reality in every step does not correspond to the declared laws. That new owners of what was once “national property” are still being appointed. And Khodorkovsky’s mental anguish over the conspiracy that was PriKhvatization, which he shared with Vedomosti on September 22, 2014 (allegedly the oligarch “did not realize that a huge number of people simply could not use the opportunities that it seemed there were them too”) nothing more than senile coquetry.

The fugitive oligarch admits that the elites are dissatisfied with the president and are allegedly even looking for a possible replacement for him... But the “inner circle” is extremely heterogeneous. And he really doesn't like risk.

The oligarch recalled that “in the late 80s and early 90s, power was demolished by the hands of hungry people.” But now the elite is “starving”

A businessman who took part in the election of the President of the Russian Federation is ultimately deprived of the opportunity to acquire contracts and partners in the West, and “the authorities,” the oligarch believes, “are not ready to provide their adherents with money for the rest of their lives.” Allegedly smart people began to distance themselves from decision-making.

The intensity of the oligarch’s feelings is well characterized by the remark that, they say, “if the people rally a little more around the leader, they will strangle him.”

According to Khodor, the opposition needs to “Show the West that Russia does not end with the Kremlin,” and the Russians that the problems in foreign policy can be resolved not in many decades, but tomorrow or the day after tomorrow by specific people.”

The philosopher Berdyaev liked to repeat that the world is not a struggle between good and evil, but a struggle between good and good. A wolf is chasing a hare: if it catches up, the hare will die; if it doesn’t catch up, the wolf cubs will die of hunger. This collision permeates the entire existence of nature and man.

But it’s somehow painfully disgusting to feel like a hare in your own homeland, desperately trying not to fall into the wolf’s jaws of a cosmopolitan oligarch!

And the fact that the mouth is supposedly “democratic” does not make the fangs any less sharp.

In order to at least slightly spoil the image of Putin that had already formed in the souls of Russians, they even shook off the dust from the fugitive KGB general Oleg Kalugin, who gave a huge interview to Kyiv(!) journalist Dmitry Gordon.

The fugitive general (our president once began his service in the KGB directorate for Leningrad, which was led by Mr. fugitive!), will face a 15-year imprisonment for high treason in his homeland.

"Courtesy for courtesy"

His Excellency has been taken out of mothballs and he is trying very hard to be interesting. Although I could only read or hear about many things from not always truthful sources.

Encroaching on the image of the president as an intelligence officer, beloved by millions, the general claims that Putin allegedly “never served in intelligence.” And his work in Dresden was just an internship in the GDR, which was never considered “abroad.”

They say, a poor loser, who did not show himself to be a normal professional in Dresden, returned from a business trip with an inferior Trabant car and earned his living as a private driver. He couldn’t even find the previous position he held before his internship in the GDR. On behalf of Mayor Sobchak, he famously exchanged oil for food for St. Petersburg. This allowed him to move to Moscow to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, where there were almost no such professionals.

And a little later, it was allegedly Putin who organized a video recording of how “a man who looked like the prosecutor general” was engaged in the most pleasant activity with naked sex workers.

If the video had not been shown on TV in Russia and on Western TV channels then, we would have “woke up in another country.”

Parliament demanded that prosecutor Skuratov be removed.

And Yeltsin allegedly said, “What a man!

And Putin became president, from time to time reminding young people “They don’t leave a sick mother’s bedside!”

And the specialists keep leaving and leaving!

So how do you order to form in young minds a willingness to serve the country that was once saved by the “grandfathers” and disappeared on August 19, 1991?! To the accompaniment of speeches about readiness to “love and protect the inheritance inherited from heroic grandfathers”, delivered mainly on May 9?!

And what exactly do you order to “love and protect” if the Constitutional Court recognized that any foreigner has equal rights to land in the Russian Federation with a citizen of indigenous nationality?! They say that the foreigner today is not the same, non-aggressive, there are only “partners” all around.

We've seen such “partners”!

Once at the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, guests from First Med came to the Department of Computer Science with a proposal to create a mathematical model of a person. In the conference room they hung posters with a cross-section of the human body and began asking guests questions: “If this organ shuts down, how will this and that organ behave?!” And if this one passes out, what will happen to the others?!”

“Oh, we study each organ on its own!”

And when the “organs” function on their own (this has always been the case with us!), a “color” revolution simply cannot help but happen. “Color-blind people” from the “power vertical” simply won’t notice it.

Just like “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, which declared the capital riots of August 1991 as “First Colored”.

Supposedly completely selfless.

“They didn’t notice” the “singing revolution” in Estonia, which happened before the Moscow party at the White House and was paid for in dollars from the Tallinn branch of Vnesheconombank of the USSR on orders from Moscow. 15 years before Yulia Tymoshenko mastered the prepayment of the Maidan, banker Valentin Porfiryev personally handed out briefcases stuffed with currency to the leaders of the first Popular Front in the USSR...

Revolutions cannot be made without money!

And if “at the dawn of foggy democracy” George H. W. Bush’s assistant Condoleezza Rice approved ministerial candidates in the Russian government, it would not be too much of a slander to suggest that the money for the change of power in Moscow in August 1991 also came from Washington, or at least by order of this city...

In any case, so far no one has even tried to refute Alexander Korzhakov, who divulged that the sponsors of the 1996 presidential campaign were Clinton and Kohl, and Berlusconi even donated a billion “as a sign of ardent sympathy for Boris.”

This is possible only with an established “investment” mechanism and a firm conviction that the money invested will give a “predictable gain.”

The old people, who in 1996 went to the polling stations as if into battle and chose (as Mr. Medvedev once let slip, not Yeltsin at all!), fought not only with the schemers from the Electoral Commission, but with the entire colossus of World Capital.

It’s just a pity, the old people are almost dead, and there’s no one to replace them.

But to the long-tired dreams out loud that supposedly “the dollar is about to collapse,” sweet dreams about a civil war in the United States that is quite capable of breaking out before ours have just been added. Having fifty states each with its own legislation, it is easier to tear a country into pieces than having eight Federal Districts!

True, this could distract the overseas uncompromising knights - fighters against corruption - from the readiness declared in the fresh Law on Anti-Russian Sanctions to force the oligarchs and officials of Russia to unite and remove Putin from the Kremlin.

Under the threat of confiscation of everything acquired through backbreaking labor.

For many years it was drummed into our heads that any attempt to take away what was stolen from the “foremen of Perestroika” would result in a sea of ​​blood and a full-scale civil war. Therefore, you need to endure everything!

But when YUKOS was sawed up, the home armies of its owners did not even try to overshadow their benefactors.

And in any part of the country they will gladly show you entire cemeteries with beautiful monuments to “those who were not overshadowed.”

The Americans are again ready to see us only through a gun. Despite the fact that they are passionately fighting for comprehensive democracy under their noses, tearing down monuments to one civil war and fanning the flames of a new one. It turned out that, despite the outward prosperity and decency in the “Great White Country”, since the war between the North and the South, no one has forgotten or forgiven anyone.

There are also many experts in our country who believe that the Civil War in Russia, which began in 1917, continues to this day, only changing its appearance. And a series glorifying the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of Red Russia is being filmed at a rapid pace throughout Civil War who had more power than the Council of People's Commissars and the Politburo.

“By order of Comrade Trotsky!”

"Eat!" - turned and disappeared quickly.

And only on the naval tape

The Red Army can be called a real phenomenon military history. Within a few years, it became one of the most combat-ready armies in the world. A lot has been written about it, but some facts still remain little known.

The Red Army should not have existed

Paradoxical as these may seem, Vladimir Lenin did not plan to create a regular army and believed that there was no need for it in the country of the victorious proletariat. In 1917, he wrote the work “State and Revolution”, where he advocated the replacement regular army universal arming of the people.

By the end of the First World War, the armament of the people was indeed close to universal, but not everyone was ready to defend the “gains of the revolution” with arms in hand. The voluntary principle of recruitment into the ranks of the Red Army showed its unviability.

Trotsky and decimation

Leon Trotsky is deservedly called the creator of the Red Army. It was with his submission that by decree of July 29, 1918, the entire population of the country liable for military service between the ages of 18 and 40 was registered and military conscription was established. Trotsky, by his example, showed how to instill discipline in the new army and applied the ancient Roman ritual of decimation (execution of every tenth person by lot) towards deserters. The measures turned out to be effective.

In September 1918, there were already about half a million people in the ranks of the Red Army - more than two times more than 5 months ago. By 1920, the number of the Red Army was already more than 5.5 million people.

Budenovka from Vasnetsov and Vtorov

Budenovka was the first headdress associated with the Red Army. It became a real cult thing for the history of the USSR. She was called both “Frunzenka” and “hero.” The top of the cap was jokingly nicknamed the “brain tap.” The Budenovka was introduced as part of the winter uniform of the Red Army in 1919 and until 1940 was invariably associated with the soldiers of the Red Army, but after the Finnish War it was replaced by a hat with earflaps. Sketches for the creation of the budenovka were created by Vasnetsov, and the first batch of the legendary “helmets” was sewn at the factories of Nikolai Vtorov, the richest man in the Russian Empire, who was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1918.

Tank from Renault

The role of “our Western partners” in the revolution and creation of the USSR has not yet been fully studied, but it is known that the first Soviet tank produced for the Red Army was the Renault-Russian. It was copied from the French light tank Renault FT-17 and was produced at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in 1920-1921 with a total production run of 15 vehicles. "Renault-Russian" was officially in service until 1930, although it never took part in hostilities. The tank was used for peaceful purposes - as a tractor, as it had a very powerful engine of 33.5 horsepower at that time.

Camels in the Red Army

In the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army included the 28th Reserve Army, in which camels were the draft force for the guns. It was formed in Astrakhan during the battles of Stalingrad. In total, 350 camels “fought” in the Red Army. Two of them, named Yashka and Mashka, reached Berlin.

Commissioner's propaganda

The Red Army would not have been created without active propaganda work. According to various sources, from 2 to 8 thousand former “tsarist officers” voluntarily joined its ranks. Rely entirely on “military experts,” as officers began to be called Imperial Army, they couldn't. The institute of commissars was introduced in the troops, looking after the “former” ones.

The commissars, all of whom were members of the RCP(b), took on political work with both the troops and the population. Relying on a powerful propaganda apparatus, they clearly explained to the fighters why it was necessary to fight for Soviet power “to the last drop of workers’ and peasants’ blood.” In the White Army, propaganda work was much worse, which was one of the reasons for its defeat in the Civil War.

Revolutionary bloomers

The episode from the film “Officers”, where the hero Georgy Yumatov is awarded “red revolutionary trousers” is quite historical - orders and medals in the Red Army did not immediately begin to be awarded. And the first awards were different from those we know. The first holder of the Order of the Red Banner, Vasily Blucher, received the award with serial number 114, since the orders from the first batch were of inadequate quality.

Young army

To the beginning of the Great Patriotic War The Red Army was young, literally and figuratively. Average age Soviet generals were only 43 years old.

Officers are banned

It’s not customary to talk about this, but for a quarter of a century the word “officers” was considered counter-revolutionary in the Soviet Union. On March 1, 1917, order No. 1 “On democratization” was issued former army and the fleet." He actually equalized the rights of soldiers and officers. It was only in the May Day order of the People's Commissar of Defense in 1942 that the word “officers” appeared again. At the beginning of 1943, with the introduction of shoulder straps in the Red Army, the word officer officially fell out of favor. The commanders from the platoon commander to the brigade commander began to be called differently.

Shoulder straps after a turning point victory

The return of shoulder straps to the Red Army took place as part of military reform and was not spontaneous. The return date was also not chosen by chance. A turning point victory was needed. Stalingrad became it. When it became clear that Paulus’s 6th Army would not have much time left, the project was approved by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on October 23, 1942. According to the order, it was necessary to switch to shoulder straps within half a month - from February 1 to February 15, 1943, but still Kursk Bulge in July of this year, some pilots and tank crews, as can be seen in the photographs, wore old buttonholes rather than shoulder straps.

Foreigners in the Red Army

During the Great Patriotic War, foreigners fought in the Red Army. For example, the American Joseph Beyrle, who was captured by the First Belorussian Front and continued to fight as part of a Soviet battalion. Greek Jean Zachary participated in the liberation of Ukraine, Poland, and liberated Warsaw. Awarded the medal "For Courage", the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. Spanish pilot Antonio Garcia Cano took part in the battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad.//

On January 15, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, headed by Lenin, issued a decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army "from the most conscious and organized elements of the working classes", but at the same time it was invited to join all citizens of the country who wanted to "give their strength , his life to defend the won October Revolution and the power of the Soviets and socialism."

Decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. January 1918

Its core was the Red Guard detachments that arose during the February Revolution, 95% staffed by workers, almost half of whom were members of the Bolshevik Party. But the Red Guard was not suitable for a war with a large, technically equipped army.

The Red Army was created as an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as an army of workers and peasants, the foundation for replacing the standing army with national weapons, which in the near future was supposed to serve as support for the coming socialist revolution in Europe.

Therefore, each volunteer had to submit recommendations from military committees, party and other organizations supporting Soviet power. And if they joined in whole groups, collective guarantee was required. The soldiers of the Red Army were promised full state support and, in addition, were paid 50 rubles a month, and from mid-1918, 150 rubles for single people and 250 rubles for families. Help was also promised to disabled dependent family members.

At the same time, the imperial Russian army was officially disbanded on January 29, 1918 by order of the revolutionary commander-in-chief former warrant officer Nikolai Krylenko. "World. The war is over. Russia is no longer at war. The end of the damned war. The army, which had endured three and a half years of suffering with honor, received a well-deserved rest,” said the radiogram sent out.

However, by this time only separate parts of the old army actually remained: the soldiers, who were extremely tired of sitting in the trenches, in the fall of 1917, having heard about the adoption of the decree on peace, decided that the war was over and began to go home,

At the same time, generals Mikhail Alekseev and Lavr Kornilov in the south of Russia created officer army, and called - Volunteer.

Opponents of the Soviet regime also thought that the armed confrontation would be short-lived. In Samara, the Socialist Revolutionary People's Army of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was initially recruited for only three months of service.

The order in this army was reminiscent of the times of Kerensky: the commanders had power only during the campaign and in battle, the rest of the time the “Comradely Disciplinary Court” operated.

Curiosities arose - among the officers there were no people willing to command the Samara volunteers. It was proposed to cast lots. Then a modest-looking lieutenant colonel, who had recently arrived in Samara, stood up and said: “Since there are no volunteers, then temporarily, until a senior is found, allow me to lead units against the Bolsheviks.”

This was Vladimir Kappel, later one of the best White Guard generals in Siberia.

After this, the core of the emerging army was no longer the Social Revolutionaries, but career officers who had not made it to the south of Russia and settled on the Volga. And a few weeks later, mobilization was carried out among the civilian population, and a month later - among the local officers.

The military registration and enlistment office system will celebrate its centenary in May

The influx of volunteers into the Red Army began to dry up. Seeing this, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, by a special decree, introduced universal military training of workers in the country (vsevobuch). Every worker between the ages of 18 and 40, without interruption from his main job, had to complete a military training course within 96 hours, register as a person liable for military service and, at the first call of the Soviet government, join the ranks of the Red Army.

But there were fewer and fewer people willing to join its ranks. Even the proclaimed shock week of the creation of the Red Army under the slogan “The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!” failed. from February 17 to 23, 1918. And the government, having temporarily put aside the slogan of “world revolution” and raised the old regime word “fatherland” to its shield, quickly moved to the forced formation of an army.

On May 29, 1918, a “forced” (as written in the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee) recruitment into the Red Army of persons aged 18 to 40 years was announced, and a network of military commissariats was created to implement this decree. By the way, the system of military registration and enlistment offices turned out to be so perfect that it still exists to this day.

The election of commanders was abolished, and a system of appointing command personnel from those who had military training or performed well in battle was introduced. The V All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution “On the construction of the Red Army,” which spoke of the need for centralized control and revolutionary iron discipline in the troops.

The congress demanded that the Red Army be built using the experience of the old military, although it seemed to many that there was no place for former “gold diggers” in the army of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But Lenin insisted that a regular army cannot be built without military science, and it can only be learned from military specialists.

The date February 23rd appeared by chance, but it was mythologized

The Red Army did not win any victories on this day in 1918. Therefore, there are a variety of different versions on this matter. For example, that the date was set based on a call published on that day in the Pravda newspaper for workers, soldiers and peasants to come out to defend the Soviet Republic from German shock battalions, called “German White Guards” in the appeal.

February 23, 1918. A still from a Soviet filmstrip showing a battle that never happened. “The timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is quite random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates,” admitted Klim Voroshilov in 1933

However, according to the ideological myth propagated in the 1930s and 40s, on February 23, 1918, the first, barely formed detachments of Red Army soldiers stopped the German offensive near Pskov and Narva. These supposedly “severe battles” became the Red Army’s baptism of fire.

In fact, after Trotsky actually thwarted the first attempt at peace negotiations with the Germans and declared that Soviet Russia was ending the war, demobilizing the army, but not signing peace, the Germans regarded this as an automatic “termination of the truce” and launched an offensive along the entire Eastern Front.

By the evening of February 23, 1918, they were 55 km from Pskov and more than 170 km from Narva. No battles on this day were recorded in either German or Russian archives.

Pskov was occupied by the Germans on February 24. And on February 25, they stopped the offensive in this direction: on the night of February 24, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR accepted the German peace conditions and immediately reported this to the German government. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.

Narva, the second city that has long been featured as the site of the heroic victory of the Red Army, was taken by the Germans without a fight at all. The Red Navy men of Dybenko and the Hungarian internationalists of Bela Kun, who were supposed to defend it, fearing encirclement, fled to Yamburg, and then further to Gatchina. Although after the Brest Treaty came into force, the Germans (who had many of their own problems) themselves stopped on the Narva-Pskov line and made no attempts to pursue the enemy.

For several years, no memorable date was remembered at all - until January 27, 1922, when the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR ordered to celebrate February 23 as the Day of the Red Army and Navy.

Klim Voroshilov himself in 1933, at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Red Army, admitted: « By the way, the timing of the celebration of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23 is quite random and difficult to explain and does not coincide with historical dates.”

The statement about the “victory at Pskov and Narva” first appeared in a material published in Izvestia on February 16, 1938 under the heading “To the 20th anniversary of the Red Army and the Navy. Theses for propagandists." And in September of the same year it was enshrined in the chapter of “A Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” published in Pravda. Wherein " Short course"edited by Stalin, does not mention Lenin’s January decree on the creation of the Red Army, issued in 1918, at all.

Later, in his order dated February 23, 1942, Stalin explained what happened on that day 24 years ago: “The young units of the Red Army, who entered the war for the first time, completely(italics mine – S.V.) defeated the German invaders near Pskov and Narva on February 23, 1918. That is why February 23, 1918 was declared the birthday of the Red Army.”

No one dared to object to this. It was this version that was included in school and university textbooks. And only on January 18, 2006, the State Duma of the Russian Federation decided to exclude the words “Victory Day of the Red Army over the Kaiser’s troops of Germany (1918)” from the official description of the holiday in the law.

The Russian Civil War was in many ways similar to the American one.

At the beginning of the American War of 1861-1865, the North and South also recruited volunteers into their armies. Both began mobilization only after a series of fierce battles, when it became clear that the war would not last a few months, but much longer. Johnny (as the opponents called the southerners) did it in April 1862, the Yankees (northerners) - in July of the same year.

Don Troiani. An Illustrated History of the American Civil War. That civil war has many parallels with ours.

Mobilization into the Red Army was announced on May 29, 1918. By this time, Denikin’s regiments had captured Yekaterinodar, the rebellion of the 40,000-strong Czechoslovak corps cut off the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia from the European part of the RSFSR, and Entente troops occupied Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The opponents of the Soviet Republic also switched to the mobilization principle when they realized that volunteers were not making up for losses.

The ideological attitudes of the opposing sides were also similar among Russians and Americans - whites, like the southerners, advocated the preservation of “traditional values,” while the reds, like the northerners, stood up for active changes and universal equality.

At the same time, one of the parties to the conflict refused shoulder straps - in Russia they were not worn by Red Army soldiers, in the USA - by soldiers and officers of the Confederacy opposing the federal government.

Tankers of a separate Tank Regiment of the Red Army against the background of their combat vehicles

Denikin’s men, like the soldiers of General Robert Edward Lee, despite the enemy’s superiority in manpower, for a long time inflicted defeat after defeat on the enemy, fighting in the Suvorov style - “not with numbers, but with skill.” One of their main trump cards at first was the advantage in cavalry.

However, the revolutionary forces learned quickly. And the advantage in weapons and ammunition was initially on their side, since (again, by analogy with the USA) behind them were industrial centers with the largest weapons factories and military warehouses. In Russia, Moscow, Petrograd, Tula, Bryansk, and Nizhny Novgorod were under Bolshevik control.

Like the southerners, the White Guards were supplied by Great Britain and France, but this assistance was clearly insufficient, which ultimately led to the strategic defeat of both Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Denikin’s AFSR.

There was another “argument” in favor of the Red Army: it was supported by part of the officer corps of the former tsarist army.

Tsarist officers fought for both the whites and the reds

The core of the Red Army became former officers, generals, military officials and military doctors, who, along with other categories of the population, began to be actively drafted into the Armed Forces of the RSFSR, although they belonged to the “hostile exploiting class.”

Lenin and Trotsky insisted on this. In 1919, at the VIII Congress of the RCP(b), a heated discussion took place regarding the attraction of military specialists: according to the opposition, “bourgeois” military experts could not be appointed to command posts. But Lenin urged: “You, being associated with this partisanship through your experience... do not want to understand that now the period is different. Now the regular army must be in the foreground, we must move to a regular army with military specialists.” And he convinced.

However, the decision itself was made earlier. Back on March 19, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars decided to widely recruit military experts into the Red Army, and on March 26, the Supreme Military Council issued an order to abolish the elective principle in the army, which opened up access to the army for former generals and officers.

By the summer of 1918, several thousand officers voluntarily joined the Red Army. Among them were Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, Boris Shaposhnikov, Alexander Egorov, and Dmitry Karbyshev, who later became famous Soviet military leaders.

The longer the civil war went on, the more numerous the Red Army became, the greater the need for experienced military personnel. The principle of voluntariness no longer suited the Bolsheviks, and on June 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the mobilization of former officers and officials.

Until the end of the civil war, 48.5 thousand officers and generals, as well as 10.3 thousand military officials and about 14 thousand military doctors, were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. In addition, up to 14 thousand officers who served in the white and national armies were enrolled in the Red Army until 1921, including the future marshals of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov and Ivan Bagramyan.

In 1918, military experts made up 75% of the command staff of the Red Army. And their total number in the Red Army ultimately exceeded 72 thousand people, amounting to approximately 43% of the total officer corps of the tsarist army.

639 people (including 252 generals) from among the officers of the General Staff, who at all times and in all armies are considered the military elite, served in various positions, including key ones.

And the first commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR was the former General Staff, Colonel Joachim Vatsetis. And then he was replaced in this post by former General Staff Colonel Sergei Kamenev.

For comparison, during the Civil War, about 100 thousand officers, generals and military specialists fought in the ranks of the anti-Bolshevik formations, primarily in the Volunteer Army. That is, approximately 57% of total number tsarist professional military personnel. Of these, 750 are General Staff officers. More than in the Red Army, of course, but the difference is not so fundamental.

Detachments and penal units were introduced by Trotsky to strengthen discipline

One of the founders of the Red Army is Leon Trotsky, who during the Civil War was People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Military Council and head of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

Despite the fact that at the beginning of the bloody civil strife, Lev Davydovich had no military academies behind him, he knew firsthand what the army and war were.

L. D. Trotsky in the Red Army in 1918

During the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 (during which the Balkan Union - Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Romania - conquered Ottoman Empire almost all of its European territories) Trotsky, as a war correspondent for the liberal newspaper “Kyiv Mysl”, was in the combat zone and even wrote a number of articles that became serious information about what was happening for residents of many countries. And during the First World War, as a special correspondent for the same “Kyiv Thought”, he was on the Western Front.

In addition, it was under his direct leadership as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet that the Bolsheviks took power in Petrograd in October 1917 and repelled General Krasnov’s attempts to take the city by storm. The latter circumstance was subsequently noted even by his future worst enemy Stalin.

“We can say with confidence that the party owes, first of all and mainly, to Comrade. Trotsky,” he noted.

On March 14, 1918, Trotsky received the post of People's Commissar for Military Affairs, on March 28 - Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, in April - People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, and on September 6 - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.

He consistently advocates the widespread use of military experts in the Red Army, and to control them he introduces a system of political commissars and... hostages. The officers who were accepted into the service knew that their families would be shot if they went over to the enemy. Trotsky’s order declared: “let the defectors know that they are simultaneously betraying their own families: fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives and children.”

Convinced that the army, built on the principles of universal equality and voluntariness, turned out to be ineffective, it was Trotsky who insisted on its reorganization, the restoration of mobilization, unity of command, insignia, uniform uniforms, military salutes and parades.

And of course, the energetic and active “demon of the revolution” set about strengthening revolutionary discipline, establishing it with the most severe methods.

With his submission, on June 13, 1918, a decree on the restoration was adopted death penalty, canceled in March 1917. And already in June 1918, Rear Admiral Alexei Shchastny, who saved the Baltic Fleet from the Germans during the Ice Campaign in 1918, was executed. He did not admit his guilt, but was sentenced to death based on the testimony of Trotsky, who stated at the trial that Shastny claimed to be a naval dictator.

Penal units (which were initially called “discredited units”) first appeared in the Red Army not under Stalin in 1942, but in 1919 - by order of Trotsky. And the units that were officially called barrier detachments were back in 1918.

On August 11, 1918, Trotsky signed the famous order No. 18, in which it was written: “If any unit retreats without permission, the unit commissar will be shot first, the commander second.” And near Sviyazhsk, when the 2nd Petrograd Regiment voluntarily retreated from the front line, after the battle all the fugitives were arrested, tried by a military tribunal, and the commander, commissar and part of the regiment’s soldiers were shot in front of the line.

As a result, in the first seven months of 1919 alone, one and a half million Red Army soldiers were detained, of whom almost 100 thousand were recognized as malicious deserters, and 55 thousand were sent to penal companies and battalions.

Despite all the draconian measures, soldiers, often forcibly mobilized, continued to desert at the first opportunity, and relatives hid the fugitives.

Therefore, in one of his next orders, Trotsky provided for severe punishments not only for deserters, but also for the persons harboring them. In particular, the order stated: “For harboring deserters, those responsible are subject to execution... Houses in which deserters are discovered will be burned.”

“You cannot build an army without repression. It is impossible to lead masses of people to death without having the death penalty in the command’s arsenal,” asserted the People’s Commissar of Military Affairs of the RSFSR.

These measures made it possible to put an end to partisanship in the army and, ultimately, achieve a turning point in the war with the whites.

The Red Army failed to become a factor in the world revolution

In the logic of the revolution, such a victory should have been a prelude to new revolutionary wars, and ultimately, global changes. And it seemed that there was a real opportunity for the development of this scenario.

On April 25, 1920, the Polish army, equipped with funds from France, invaded Soviet Ukraine and captured Kyiv on May 6.

Red Army soldiers in Polish captivity. The story of thousands and thousands of prisoners turned out to be tragic

On May 14, a successful counter-offensive began by the troops of the Western Front under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, and on May 26 - by the South-Western Front, commanded by Alexander Egorov. In mid-July they approached the borders of Poland.

And then the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) set a new strategic task for the command of the Red Army: to enter the territory of Poland with fighting, take its capital and create conditions for the proclamation of Soviet power in the country. According to the statements of the party leaders themselves, this was an attempt to advance the “red bayonet” deeper into Europe and thereby “stir up the Western European proletariat”, push it to support the world revolution, one of the main hopes of the Bolsheviks in the first years of the existence of the RSFSR.

Tukhachevsky’s order to the troops of the Western Front No. 1423 dated July 2, 1920 read: “The fate of the world revolution is being decided in the West. Through the corpse of Belopa Poland lies the path to a world fire. We will bring happiness to working humanity on bayonets!”

It all ended in disaster. Already in August, the troops of the Western Front were completely defeated near Warsaw and rolled back. Of the five armies, only the third survived, which managed to retreat; the rest were destroyed. More than 120 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured, and another 40 thousand soldiers ended up in East Prussia in internment camps. Up to half of them died from hunger, disease, torture and execution.

In October, the parties concluded a truce, and in March 1921, a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in western Ukraine and Belarus with a population of 10 million people went to Poland.

Came into force and internal factors. The white movement was defeated, but the peasantry entered into a desperate struggle, giving rise to its own insurgent movement. It was a protest against the policy of food requisition and the ban on free market trade. In addition, the impoverished country simply could not clothe and feed the more than five million Red Army.

From the localities to Moscow (along with news of peasant uprisings) there were alarming messages: discipline was falling, the Red Army soldiers, due to the famine that had begun in the country and the deterioration of supplies, were robbing the population, and commanders were gradually beginning to return the old order to the army, even to the point of massacres. The party and the top army authorities decided to correct the mistake and prohibited the demobilization of communists, but in response, what Trotsky called spiritual demobilization began: Red Army soldiers began to leave the RCP(b) en masse.

We had to urgently look for a solution to the peasant issue (punitive measures in combination with the NEP, the new economic policy). And in parallel - a reduction in the composition of the Red Army and the preparation of military reform. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic Trotsky wrote: “In December 1920, the era of widespread demobilization and reduction in the size of the army, compression and restructuring of its entire apparatus opened. This period lasted from January 1921 to January 1923. The army and navy were reduced during this time from 5,300,000 to 610,000 souls.”

Finally, in March 1924, the decisive stage of military reform began. On April 1, 1924, Frunze was appointed chief and commissar of the Red Army Headquarters. Tukhachevsky and Shaposhnikov became his assistants. The limit on the permanent strength of the Red Army was set at 562 thousand people, not counting the variable (assigned) composition.

For all births ground forces a single two-year service life was determined, for the air fleet - 3 years and the navy - 4 years. Conscription for active service took place once a year, in the fall, and the conscription age was raised to 21 years.

The next stage of the radical restructuring of the Red Army began in 1934 and continued until 1941 - taking into account the experience of military operations at Khalkhin Gol and the Finnish War. The Revolutionary Military Council was disbanded, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council was renamed the General Staff, and the People's Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs turned into the People's Commissariat of Defense. The idea of ​​an imminent “world revolution” was no longer remembered.

On the centennial anniversary of the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, we decided to remember exactly what historical events the date February 23, the current Defender of the Fatherland Day, is tied to. And, if we remember the era of the October Revolution and the Civil War, then we wanted to find out: how the Bolsheviks managed, out of practically nothing, in a state of severe political uncertainty, to create a military machine, the number of which in some periods reached five million people, and with its help to crush their numerous both foreign and domestic enemies? We addressed these questions to Konstantin Tarasov, a researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It should be noted right away: the Red Army, whose birth we are accustomed to celebrating on February 23, is not at all the same Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (RKKA), which won the Civil War, and then became the basis of the military power of the Soviet state and, having gone through a series of pre-war transformations, war and post-war times, existed until the collapse of the USSR. But to understand historical dates and their real significance, it is necessary to remember what happened in the last months of 1917 - the first months of 1918, when the question of who would defend the power of the Bolsheviks was being decided.

No peace, no war

During the October Revolution in Petrograd, and then in other cities, the Bolsheviks came to power and managed to retain it largely due to the fact that they were supported by soldiers, in whose lives revolutionary changes had already played an important role. It all started back in February - after the start of the first revolution of 1917, soldiers’ committees arose in many combat and rear units of the army that fought in the First World War. Thanks to the introduction of this essentially democratic instrument into the lives of soldiers, many issues began to be resolved by voting, on the principle of self-government, and the order of the old, tsarist army, with its unity of command and unconditional subordination of ordinary officers to officers, weakened in many ways and in some places even ceased to exist. The rank and file were interested in strengthening this “soldier’s democracy.”

Therefore, immediately after October, the Bolsheviks thanked the soldiers for their support, significantly expanding the range of democratic changes in the army. At that moment we were talking about the “final”, that is, complete, democratization of the army.

What did this mean in practice? The fact is that self-government in the troops after the February Revolution was still not complete. The officers sought (albeit not always successfully) to limit the functions of the soldiers' committees exclusively to economic issues. Accordingly, the election of command personnel in the first days of February was carried out in person, that is, roughly speaking, the army was purged of the officers most disliked by the soldiers. But in fact, officer positions in the army continued to be occupied by those former tsarist officers whom the soldiers trusted. At this stage, a soldier or non-commissioned officer could not become, say, a regiment commander. IN best case scenario a private could lead a company - and even under Kerensky, such people immediately received the sergeant major or other highest non-commissioned officer rank, simply so that it corresponded to their position.

What happens after October? Soldiers' committees received full power in their units and the right to complete self-government. The election of command personnel has become common practice. The word “officer” no longer existed; from now on, any person for whom the soldiers voted could apply for any position. A decree was even issued to equalize the rights of all military personnel. All insignia, shoulder straps, stripes, and so on - everything was abolished in November 1917. In fact, the Bolsheviks equated an officer with a private. The institution of commissar management also became part of the soldiers’ democratization - representatives of the central government appeared in the troops, whose task was to develop initiative from below, to push soldiers to active participation in the life of the army.

At the same time, the Bolsheviks, speaking about their armed support, assumed that it would not be the old tsarist army, and the new Red Guard, consisting of workers, is essentially an armed militia of the local militia type, which will rather keep order in the cities, and in case of external danger will also be able to take part in military operations. From Lenin's works of that time it is clear that, according to his plan, the new army was to be formed on class principles. Lenin dreamed of an army of workers, proletarians.

By the way, the idea of ​​universal armament and the widespread creation of police units at that time belonged not only to the Bolsheviks; it was supported, for example, by moderate socialists. No one cared about the regular army. The fact is that many were then under the influence of a kind of euphoria caused by the October Revolution. Let us remember that among the first decrees issued by the Bolsheviks was the Decree on Peace. It stated, in particular, that a democratic peace would be concluded between all the warring parties at that time, and that it would spread to all countries participating in the First World War. It was assumed that Germany was also on the threshold of a socialist revolution, which is why Lenin rushed his supporters to carry out a coup in Russia.

It is important to understand: the threat of continuing the war with Germany in the first days of November was not taken seriously. It was believed that a revolution was about to begin in Berlin, and this would be the prologue to the world revolution, and perhaps the revolutionary guard units of Russia and Germany would unite for mutual support against the imperialists. No one expected a full-scale war, or holding a huge front. That is why the Bolsheviks thought that they would have enough Red Guards who would become the support of the new state. Few understood that in the context of the essentially unfinished World War I, such an idea would not work.

But it quickly became clear that only Germany was ready to respond to the proposal for universal peace. And then, when the infamous negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk, it turned out that Germany was putting forward rather harsh conditions, demanding the separation of significant territories of the former Russian Empire. Therefore, the main tactic of the Bolsheviks at these negotiations was to delay time - waiting for the start of the revolution in Germany.

But since no one really believed in the continuation of the war, demobilization of the army began. According to the famous memoirs of Paul von Hidenburg, the commander-in-chief of the German army on the Eastern Front, who drove past the front line of the Russian army during the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, the trenches were half empty everywhere. Many soldiers by this time had actually deserted. Someone in the front-line zone helped the peasants implement another Bolshevik decree - “On Land”. That is, the soldiers were actually included in political life their country and no longer thought about the enemy.

Are you among the volunteers?

It was only when the delegation from Brest-Litovsk returned to Petrograd in December, during a break in the negotiations, that the idea of ​​creating a new Red Army arose. And not only workers, but also peasants. It was understood that reinforcements to the front would come in the form of detachments of Red Guards and reserve battalions, which were also considered the most revolutionary-minded, since they underwent political indoctrination throughout 1917. But the Bolsheviks actually did not have time to do any of this.

A particular difficulty was that the army had to be created in conditions where the soldiers did not want to fight, and the Bolsheviks had just won the support of the army thanks to promises of a speedy peace. And it was decided that the Red Army would be built on volunteer principles: let everyone who considers the ideas of socialism correct and is ready to defend the revolution with arms in hand, join the Red Army.

The decree on the creation of the Red Army was signed on January 15, 1918, so, in theory, we should be celebrating exactly this date. However, the bureaucratic machine was still rocking for some time, and in fact, enrollment in the new army began only in February. True, it should be recalled here that January 31 in the Russian Republic and the day following it began to be considered immediately February 14.

Meanwhile, negotiations in Brest-Litovsk reached a dead end. Trotsky proclaimed his famous formula: “We are not making peace, we are disbanding the army,” and returned to Petrograd. And then the Germans went on the offensive. The fact is that, according to the terms of the negotiations, if the parties fail to reach an agreement by a certain date, hostilities can be resumed. The German army's offensive on Petrograd began in February 1918, after all deadlines had passed and a peace treaty with Russia had not been concluded.

True, on the night of February 18-19, the Council of People's Commissars sent a message to the German headquarters that Russia was ready to make peace on any terms. However, the Germans did not stop the offensive. Up to a certain point, as long as they could move forward, they developed their success. Accordingly, those parts of the Russian regular army that still remained on the front line began to retreat deeper into the country. Somewhere they tried to organize resistance, but rarely, and in the northern direction the retreat under the pressure of the Germans reached Pskov.

And so, in this convulsive situation, when the question of life and death arose for the Bolsheviks, the need for the creation of the Red Army became acute. The first recruiting centers in Petrograd were opened on February 21. The famous decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger,” written on the same day and issued on February 22, urgently called on everyone to enlist in the Red Army to repel the German threat. On February 23, active rallies began in Petrograd, at which soldiers and workers were also encouraged to enroll in detachments and go to the front.

However, the response was insignificant. We must remember that significant forces of the Petrograd garrison - the first red detachments - at the end of 1917 headed to the front against Kaledin, against the Ukrainian Rada, in Finland, where by this time the Civil War had already begun. Therefore, now only a few of the various military units enlisted in the Red Army. The Petrograd garrison and other units stationed in Petrograd numbered almost 150 thousand people, but the Bolsheviks, with great difficulty, persuasion, and through pressure from the commissars, managed to scrape together six thousand volunteers. On the night of February 23-24, this reinforcement departed for Pskov, where the Germans were already present.

In official Soviet historiography, one can find two explanations for the fact that February 23 became Red Army Day. The first says that it was on this day that the Red Army underwent a baptism of fire near Narva and Pskov. True, on the 23rd there were no hostilities yet, and when they began, they ended unsuccessfully for the Red Guards - both Narva and Pskov shamefully surrendered to the Germans.

The second, more ceremonial, explanation refers to the decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger” and those rallies at which mass enrollment in the Red Army allegedly took place, although historical data does not confirm any enthusiasm from volunteers. Already in the late perestroika press one could find another version: supposedly the date of celebration was set a year later, in 1919, and it fell on February 23 for a prosaic reason, for convenience - it was Sunday. And then they continued to celebrate on this day simply according to tradition.

In any case, one must understand that the Red Army, which was created in the twentieth of February and entered into battle with the Germans near Pskov and Narva, was an army of a revolutionary type, consisting of volunteers who were held together by common ideas.

In the Red Army there will be bayonets and tea

Despite the victory at Pskov, the Germans never took Petrograd. First of all, for real great forces in this direction they had none. The German army was also not in the best condition, they also had to hold a huge front, and besides, the advancing units were advancing quickly, and this always creates additional logistical difficulties. Secondly, on the approaches to the city, in the Luga area, the remnants of the regular Russian army and new Red Guard detachments still managed to organize some kind of resistance. And on February 24, the Germans, without stopping the offensive, agreed to negotiations. The offensive only stopped when Trotsky arrived in Brest-Litovsk and on March 3 signed the shameful peace agreements that marked Russia's defeat in the First World War.

But it was after this that Trotsky headed the military people's commissariat and energetically set about building a new army, immediately and decisively abandoning all previous revolutionary ideas - the volunteer principle of recruitment, soldier self-government, democratic freedoms won February revolution. In essence, he proclaimed the idea of ​​a regular centralized army, the basis of which was conscripts. And, no less important, he turned to the help of military specialists, former tsarist officers, who agreed to serve the Bolsheviks.

Leon Trotsky - Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army

Everything happened very quickly. Already on March 4-5, literally the next day after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, Trotsky canceled all democratic innovations in the army. In mid-March, the formation of new leadership structures began. Trotsky made all decisions virtually single-handedly, or more precisely, with the support of those party leaders who initially did not support the creation of a volunteer army. On the contrary, as a result of the February failure, supporters of such an army lost positions in the leadership of the country, including quite large ones - for example, former military commissar Nikolai Podvoisky or Pavel Dybenko, who led the sailors near Narva and was defeated along with them.

Thus, universal conscription was introduced in person, by order of the military commissar, on the basis of the same January decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the creation of the Red Army - a very declarative one, which did not contain any clear instructions on the principle of recruiting the army. At the same time, the first volunteer detachments of the Red Guards were still somewhere on the fronts of the Civil War, and somewhere they continued to form - this revolutionary idea was not completely killed. But still, from March 1918, the backbone of the Red Army became different, and a new stage of its existence began.

It was this army, not an army of volunteers, that won the Civil War. True, the conscription age was significantly reduced in comparison with the requirements of the First World War - a significant part of the male population over 30 years of age was not called up for service during the Civil War. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks managed to mobilize significant masses of people. And the volunteers were increasingly criticized: “atamanism”, “partisanship”, that is, not a normal army, from Trotsky’s point of view, but some kind of gangs that obey no one knows who. This criticism was partly fair.

The new units of the Red Army were primarily territorial; they were formed in the provinces by revolutionary organizations. At the same time, the Bolsheviks adhered to the class principle and were very suspicious of former officers. Subsequently, when the Red Terror began, they, like other class enemies, were used as hostages. The elite of the Red Army were the workers, especially the Petrograd workers - they were valued and tried to attract first of all, these were people with a heightened sense of class.

It was more difficult with the peasantry. None of the peasants at this time wanted to fight. The desire of the soldiers of the Russian army to go home, which was felt already in 1915-16, reached its peak with the advent of the “green” formations, which were detachments of peasant self-defense: the peasants resisted any power that came. The desertion of peasants conscripted into the army on both sides was significant. In principle, the majority of the population never participates in civil wars, because they are peaceful and do not want to fight. A minority is ready to kill each other. The tragedy of the Civil War in Russia was that its main victim was the peasant population, who did not want to fight, but was forced to do so under pressure from the Reds or the Whites.

White Army, Black Baron

However, it cannot be said that the side that was able, through greater cruelty, to recruit more soldiers from among the peasants, won the Civil War. Still, the ideological component cannot be discounted. Moreover, the dominant role was played not so much by the idea of ​​socialism as by the idea of ​​justice. On the one hand, in some places the Soviet regime was enthusiastically overthrown, but when they learned what white power and the return of the landowners meant, sympathies returned to the side of the Reds. From a political point of view, the Bolsheviks turned out to be the only force that represented the interests, first of all, of workers and, albeit to a lesser extent, peasants.

A revolution is never carried out under pressure. In Russian society of that time there was great class antagonism, there was stratification in the countryside, which caused conflicts that manifested themselves during the Civil War. For example, this situation manifested itself very clearly in the North Caucasus, where the division into Reds and Whites, in fact, was not even class phenomenon, but a continuation of centuries-old enmity between the Cossacks and the highlanders. If the Cossacks are for the whites, then the local highlanders are for the reds, if the Cossacks are for the reds, then the highlanders are for the whites. The civil conflict mobilized many such local divisions, and both sides exploited them.

Ultimately, the ideological question turned out to be key. The white movement was united by one main idea: the Bolsheviks are German spies, that’s why we continue the First World War, we fight the henchmen of the German elite who seized power. The conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty only increased the influx of officers and other units of the old army loyal to the Provisional Government into the camp of opposition to the Bolsheviks. The conditions of peace were such that many were finally convinced of the betrayal of the Bolsheviks and decided to join the ranks of Kornilov’s formations in the south of Russia, where the Cossacks also rose up and where opposition to Soviet power was concentrated.

But when the First War ended at the end of 1918 World War, general peace was concluded and German troops left the occupied territories, the question arose: who are the Bolsheviks then? So, they are no longer supported by German bayonets? These questions essentially split the White movement and pushed many border territories that were subject to foreign intervention towards the Reds. It turned out that it was the Whites who were calling interventionists into Russian territory, and the Reds who were defending it. The memoirs and diaries of white officers clearly show how they began to understand what they were actually fighting for, who the real patriots were here. And someone began to join the Reds for purely patriotic reasons.

It was a difficult, complex situation. There were ideological opponents or supporters of the Bolsheviks, but there were fewer and fewer of them, because they were the first to die in the battles of the Civil War. Some gradually took one side or the other, others did it situationally. For example, the famous general Alexei Brusilov, who ended up in the ranks of the Red Army and became a symbol of the joining of old officers to the new government, had a son who was tortured to death by the Reds. If we analyze the reasons why former tsarist officers joined the Red Army, then simple logic that can be reduced solely to class antagonism will not be found there.

Dmitry Ivanov
Based on an interview with Konstantin Tarasov

Stalin invites Ribbentrop to drink to the Fuhrer's health

In the Yandex search box, the word “offers” immediately clings to the word “deny”. A chain is automatically built: “the deputy proposes to ban.” In this combination, the name Mizulina immediately pops up as one of the options - 171 thousand Internet links.

What else is prohibited?

The list of prohibitions proposed by Elena Mizulina, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, is very diverse. From the taboo on showing adult cartoons during the daytime to the promotion of same-sex love and oral sex (at any time). From restricting abortion and divorce to denying higher education to nulliparous women.

“Studying and doing science is not a woman’s business at all,” the deputy believes. “It’s a woman’s job to give birth and raise children.” We need Orthodox healthy girls, not pale feminists...

58-year-old Elena Mizulina is absolutely right. After all, she is responsible in the Duma for childbirth. And children are not born from oral sex - this is a medical fact. As for pale feminists, what kind of offspring can they produce? The same pale, “sick, later”...

Another deputy name that Yandex instantly gives out, coupled with various options The words “ban” have also been around for a long time. This is Irina Yarovaya, co-author of the bills “on libel,” “against rallies,” and “on foreign agents.”

As the chairman of the Duma Security Committee, Irina Anatolyevna proposes to introduce criminal liability for criticism of the Red Army and, in general, “the activities of the anti-Hitler coalition troops” during the Second World War.

According to Ms. Yarovaya’s idea, “dissemination of knowingly false information” about the coalition should be punishable by fines from 300 to 500 thousand rubles or imprisonment from 3 to 5 years.

It's a pity that this 46-year-old woman was born so late. In times of war, she could protect the Red Army. And all of it.

But the armored train left, and now Irina Yarovaya, at best, can only protect the good memory that the Red Army left about itself - “from the taiga to the British seas.”

Rude saying " Neither the star nor the Red Army" will probably be illegal. And for two reasons at once. Firstly, it implies an obscene word. And secondly, one of the participants in the anti-Hitler coalition is mentioned in a bad context.

Almost our entire bitter history of the 30s and 40s may also be outside the law. And then Stalin’s textbooks will return, where it will be said that small but evil Finland tried to enslave the Soviet Union in 1939. That there was no occupation of the Baltic states, and our troops entered there at the fervent requests of the working people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. And the Red Army, together with Hitler, captured Poland solely for the sake of peace on earth, and it entered Bessarabia because the Romanian clique oppressed local population.

And yet I would like to clarify the boundaries of the truth. In particular, the term “anti-Hitler coalition” itself is confusing. Are these only those who fought with Germany, or with its allies too? Explain whether it is possible to criticize, say, the United States for atomic bombing Japanese cities?

Also, chronology is important. What period of history is this referring to? If we take the fall of 1939 as the starting point - the beginning of World War II - then the participants in the anti-Hitler coalition were England, France, Poland, and Canada. Australia, finally. The list is long - even New Zealand is there. But the Soviet Union is just not there. For a very simple reason: the USSR at that moment was a member of a completely different coalition – Hitler’s. And while the Wehrmacht was destroying Western Poland, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was finishing off Eastern Poland. The “comrades in arms” celebrated their common victory with a joint parade.
All these are well-known facts. Another thing is whether they are known to Mrs. Yarovaya and that handful of deputies who decided to stand up for the honor of the Red Army?

Let's drink to the Motherland, let's drink to the Fuhrer

Stalin did not hesitate to publicly voice plans for cooperation with Hitler on the division of Europe. Back on August 19, 1939, Joseph Vissarionovich stated: “The first advantage that we will derive will be the destruction of Poland up to the very approaches to Warsaw, including Ukrainian Galicia... Germany gives us complete freedom of action in the Baltic countries and does not object to the return of Bessarabia to the USSR.” .

On August 23, 1939, Foreign Minister of the Third Reich Joachim von Ribbentrop flew to Moscow for negotiations with Stalin. The negotiations were so successful that the red leader became emotional and raised a glass to the Fuhrer’s health.
While the “father of nations” sipped his wine, Ribbentrop watched him, coming close. The minister was carrying out a secret order from Hitler - to carefully examine what kind of ears Stalin had. If the earlobes are pressed tightly to the skull, he is probably a Jew. If not much - Aryan. Too protruding is also bad: although he is not a Jew, he is a degenerate. The Fuhrer, who had put the whole of Europe on its ears, was very worried about this. He was a suspicious person.

Returning from Moscow, Joachim entered the boss’s office and the first thing he did from the threshold blurted out: “ They are not pinned down!»

As proof, the Reich Minister presented a close-up photo of Stalin: normal ears, small, hairy. Hitler was very happy. True, he didn’t slam his drink back, but he did send a friendly telegram to Stalin.

This is how the Fuhrer, obsessed with stupid prejudices, chose his allies. His colleague was much more practical in this sense.

Protocol of the “two wise men”

Giving a report on the Soviet-German Pact at an extraordinary session Supreme Council USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov said:

– August 23 should be considered a date of great historical importance. This is a turning point in the history of Europe.
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich looked into the water.

Having heard from Molotov that now the USSR and Germany “ceased to be enemies,” the people’s representatives, without knowing it, unanimously voted for the start of World War II. They didn’t even realize that there was a short, four-point appendix to the agreement - a secret additional protocol.

The protocol that decided the fate of Europe was so secret that the Soviet government itself refused to recognize it. And she recognized it only just before her death - in 1989. Only then did they find the original document in the archives of the Politburo of the Central Committee, the contents of which had long been known in the West. And in the Soviet Union it was considered a vile fake. At that time, they also gave a sentence for spreading “slanderous fabrications,” and even longer than what Deputy Yarovaya is offering today.

Yes, there was something to hide! The Additional Protocol is direct evidence of a criminal conspiracy between two aggressors - Stalin and Hitler. With the infliction of particularly grave damage to the world and humanity.

According to the protocol, the accomplices did not disdain “dismemberment.” Europe was butchered like a beef carcass. Stalin got Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, part of Romanian territory and half of Poland. We also agreed on the future border - along the line of the Narva-Vistula-Sana rivers. In addition, the red leader essentially received carte blanche to start a war with Finland (Suomi, according to the protocol, fell into the “sphere of interests” of the USSR).

Stalin did not object. In December 1939, he sent a telegram to Hitler: “ The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the USSR, sealed by blood, has every reason to be long and strong" By the way, Stalin, as befits an ally, did not forget to congratulate the Fuhrer both on the invasion of German troops in Norway and on the occasion of the capture of Paris - “a fair victory over French imperialism.”

Who's throwing a barrel at us?

In June 1940, units of the Red Army stationed in the southwest received a directive from Moscow on political work during hostilities: “The bourgeois-capitalist clique of Romania, preparing provocative actions against the USSR, concentrated large military forces on the border with the USSR, increased the number of border guards pickets up to 100 people..."

100 people on the border is, of course, cool! It was necessary to take some measures against the insolent Romanian military, which loomed menacingly over the peaceful Soviet homeland.

Our cause is just, and the German allies naturally approved of it: “ The German government fully recognizes the rights of the Soviet Union to Bessarabia" True, Ribbentrop suddenly became stubborn - for some reason he remembered about tiny Bukovina, which the Russians also decided to take over. “We didn’t agree like that! “- the minister was capricious.

But Stalin grinned in response. They say that you and I are dividing up Europe on a large scale, and here you are interfering with some insignificant Bukovina.

What kind of Bukovina could it be if the Southern Front had already deployed its battle formations and avalanches of Red Army soldiers, supported by tanks, began to move? Comrade Ribbentrop realized it too late!

Romania was also an ally of Hitler (another paradox of history), who strongly advised it not to resist.

She didn't resist. There was, however, one daring attempt to stop the Red Army. Having ignited a barrel of diesel fuel, the Romanians wanted to set fire to the border bridge. But due to technical backwardness, they did not succeed in this either.

Having extinguished the only source of resistance in the form of a barrel, the red tankers pushed back the Romanian military and began to liberate foreign territory.

Soon, thousands of liberated residents of grape Moldova, as well as the Chernivtsi and Akkerman regions, were loaded into 29 trains and transported to Komi, Siberia, and Kazakhstan.

The results of the deportation were reported to Stalin in a document written in dry accounting language: “ The total number of unwanted items seized was 29,839.».

Some will die along the way. Others “seized” will die in the first severe winter.

Fair and free elections will be held among those who will not be sent to Siberia. 95-99 percent will vote for Soviet power.

Songs will be composed about the reunited peoples of the fraternal “twin republics”: “ And each twin is happy and joyful: their mother is the Constitution, Stalin is their father».

Goat in the garden

But at first the Balts did not understand their happiness; they rejected Stalin’s “fatherhood” and did not strive to join a brotherly family.

Stalin was again helped to resolve this delicate issue by his powerful ally Adolf Hitler. In fact, the Germans also had their eyes on Lithuania, but as a result of negotiations they agreed to exchange it from the Soviets for the Warsaw and Lublin Voivodeships. On September 25, 1939, the parties entered into a corresponding agreement “On Friendship and Borders”.

Meanwhile, on the border with the Baltic countries, rifle divisions and motorized brigades of the Red Army were already in full swing. It was a kind of “invitation” to peace negotiations.

Estonia was the first to surrender, signing a “mutual assistance pact” with the Soviet Union (again, on advice from Berlin). Praising the Estonian delegation of negotiators for their compliance, Stalin honestly said:

It could have happened to you like with Poland. Poland was a great power. And where is Poland now?

After these words, spoken with a kind smile, the Latvians and Lithuanians surrendered. Red Army soldiers entered the Baltic countries, and the cruiser Kirov entered the port of Liepaja.

As they say, they let the goat into town. But he didn't stop fighting.

By the way, back in April 1940, Germany printed maps where the Baltic states were painted in the colors of the USSR. The Germans knew everything in advance...

On June 14, 1940, Stalin presented an ultimatum to Lithuania, and two days later - to Latvia and Estonia. New demands: the creation of pro-Soviet governments in the Baltic states and the introduction of additional contingents of the Red Army.

The Balts agreed. Although this was no longer a concession, but a complete capitulation. But there was no need to wait for help: France was defeated, England was being bombed, and Germany was on the side of the Soviets.

Only one Lithuanian - President Smetona - tried to call for resistance. But he didn’t call anyone. But he managed to escape and thereby save his life. The heads of Latvia and Estonia, Ulmanis and Päts, were less fortunate; they fell into the clutches of the NKVD.

Before the arrival of the Red Army, there were about three hundred communists in the entire Baltic region. Nevertheless, in the elections held on June 14, 1940, the pro-communist blocs of the “working people” won in these three states. It's simple: other blocs were not on the electoral lists.

Stalin didn’t really worry about the cries about election fraud, he didn’t say - go to court and prove it. He himself was the court - the highest and fair.

On July 21-22, 1940, “people's parliaments” proclaimed Soviet socialist republics in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. On August 3-5 they were accepted into the USSR.

And where is the Baltics now? In the same place as Poland.

Wherever the liberators came, arrests and deportations immediately began. More than 10 thousand people were expelled from Estonia, 17.5 thousand from Lithuania, and about 16 thousand from Latvia.

And after the Germans were kicked out of the Baltic states, a wave of new wave deportations. In 1949, during the punitive operation “Surf”, another 100 thousand Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians were driven to Siberia.

The Baltic partisans - the “forest brothers” - were destroyed only in the early 50s.

Except Suomi

Only one country resisted the red aggressor - small but brave Finland.

The fate of Suomi, which, according to the secret protocol to the agreement between Hitler and Stalin, belonged to the “sphere of interests” of the USSR, seemed to be predetermined. Finland was offered the same scenario: conclude an agreement with the Soviet Union, allow the Red Army into its territory, hold “fair elections,” create a “people’s government,” and only then, as usual, begin executions and “seizure of undesirable elements.”

As a “cover story,” the Kremlin again used words about peace and security, which were boldly threatened by the Finnish military.

“We can’t do anything about geography,” Stalin joked (in fact, he could do anything). – And since Leningrad cannot be moved...

We need to move Finland! More precisely, its borders. Take away the fortified territory, at the same time create bases for the Red Army and Navy in Suomi.

Agree! And stop thinking! " Don't provoke a military conflict“, Vyacheslav Molotov warned the Finnish delegation.

Even the iron Marshal Mannerheim trembled, declaring in parliament that a compromise had to be sought - the regular Finnish army would hold out for a maximum of two weeks.

But the Finns did not want to compromise with the rapist, but instead mobilized reservists and deployed their entire powerful army, including 30 tanks and 130 aircraft. This is against Stalin’s 2,200 tanks and 2,5 thousand aircraft.

On the afternoon of November 30, 1939, incendiary bombs were dropped on the heads of civilians in Helsinki. On the first day, about 200 people died.

On December 1, the creation of a “people's government” led by the Kremlin puppet Otto Kuusinen was announced in occupied Terijoki. The goal is to “bring freedom to the oppressed workers” of Suomi. And bring it - on the bayonets of the Red Army. For the Red Army soldiers they immediately composed a song that sounded very paradoxical: “ Your homeland has been taken away more than once - we have come to return it to you».

« Suom residents"They didn't like these words - they responded with their song" No, Molotov!"and the "Molotov cocktail", which burned hundreds of Soviet tanks.

According to Khrushchev’s memoirs, Stalin sincerely believed that “if you only fire a cannon once, the Finns will raise their hands up.”

They didn't pick it up. On the contrary, they perked up. They launched a people's liberation war against the Soviet aggressors. As a result, although Stalin pinched off a piece of the Finnish pie, this piece was bloody. The 750,000-strong Red Army suffered heavy losses: 150,000 killed and died from wounds, 325,000 wounded. Finnish losses – 19.5 thousand killed, 43.5 thousand wounded (“History of Russia. 20th century”).

Finland never became a Soviet socialist republic. Moreover, we have acquired a potential enemy who will take revenge on us in a new war that was already on the threshold.

The inglorious Soviet-Finnish campaign had another consequence, truly fatal. It was based on the results of the “Winter War” that Hitler concluded about the weakness of the Red Army and the Soviet Union (“a colossus with feet of clay”) and made the final decision to attack the USSR.

Poisoned Bait

Two predators - Hitler and Stalin - laid claim to main role in the food chain. Therefore, their collision was inevitable. The whole question was how to find the right, strategically advantageous moment to attack first.

Poland, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia played the role of a kind of poisoned bait in front of the fox hole. By and large, Stalin gained nothing from their capture. On the contrary, digesting these territories, I lost valuable time. By the way, Churchill was cunning and understood this very well. Just as he understood the fact that in any European war twentieth century, the winner is known in advance. This is the United States of America.

But our “great strategist,” alas, let us down. The Soviet people paid a bloody price for his crazy adventures. And although many still consider Stalin to be a brilliant politician, in fact he was a clinical maniac obsessed with the idea of ​​world revolution: “ To the grief of all the bourgeoisie, we will fan the world fire!»

In this fire, fanned from both sides at once, millions of human lives were burned.