There is an opinion that the Revolution would not have taken place as it is if the country had not been drawn into the Great War. Here everything depends on the details. The murder of Grigory Rasputin could be just such a component. So, the Russian man, whose whole wine, according to the yellow press of that time, consists in a certain predilection for alcohol and women, as well as the emergence of once a month and a half, in the circle of the royal family, the noble noblemen are killed and do not bear any punishment for this.
It was believed that the monarch’s decisions are affected by the harmful advice of a person from the “dark people”. Here, the “bad” Grigory Rasputin is destroyed. But, the actions and statements of Nicholas I after that become even more inconsequential. Now it is finally clear to everyone: morally ethically, intellectually, the monarchy is shamelessly naked.
Sane film on the topic, with a completely plausible depiction of entourage, the main actors of the revolution, at least in some episodes and somewhat prolonged - the film of American director Warren Beatty "The Reds" (1981).
In March 1917, under pressure from the top of the military command (including his close relative, ex-supreme commander-in-chief, Nikolai Nikolaevich (“Lukavoy” – “Sly”)), Nicholas II abdicated. The vacuum of power is filled by the Provisional Government-the Soviets (originated from the outset as the organs of managing strikes) from the Cadets and Social Democrats, to which both the Bolsheviks and the tsarist ministers belong. Trying to unite such diverse social formations under one roof, does not bring success. Soldiers return from the front with weapons, so as not to miss the division of the earth. The proletarians of Petrograd go into euphoria, eagerly await the similarity promised by L. Trotsky to paradise on Earth: the reduction of the working day to four hours, while doubling wages twice. On the front from the Urals, large quantities of ammunition arrive, but to fight, give lives, health, to please England, France, etc., the population of Russia is not at all motivated. The attempt to organize an offensive on the German front, under the new government, fails, does not become a new, unifying achievement. The parade of sovereignties begins – Ukraine, Byelorussia, and other former gubernias are separated, right up to the newly-formed Kuban republic. In October 1917, the Provisional Government withdraws peacefully enough, and, having access to the means of the Central Bank, operates semi-legal, engaged in current economic activities. The Constituent Assembly, expected by the masses, with a certain enthusiasm, is called to rally the different parties. But after the historical phrase “The Guard is tired” by the anarchist Zheleznyak, said at 5 am on January 6, 1918, the deputies find the gates of the Tauride Palace locked in a big castle. The main sense of what is happening seems to many just such a small technical blot. On January 6, Bolshevik delegates refuse to attend the meeting, respectively, there is no quorum expected, because the last coalition government continues to hold the plenipotentiary assembly as long as possible. Most citizens-comrades have a persistent feeling that a sailor, belted crosswise with ribbons with cartridges, or a brave soldier with a “screw” is much more important than a subject in civilian clothes, whose invisible weapons are a thought and a word.
…This very moment can be proposed as the date of a real Socialist Revolution.
The Civil War begins.
The Bolsheviks conclude the Brest peace with Germany; it costs Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic republics, and some other territories that the Germans have seized at their discretion. After the defeat from the Entente, faced with the most ferocious resistance of the peasants (20,000 Austro-German soldiers, among those invited by the newly formed Kiev «Radà» (Duma, Congress) troops) were killed, Germany withdraws its units from Ukraine. On all fronts of the Civil War, the «reds» win. The government headed by Lenin seems that luck is always with them.
The vacuum of power after Petlyura and German rule in Ukraine is filled with dreaming of a confederation «from sea to sea» by Poland, by April 25, 1920, seized Kiev. The Red Army knocks out Polish units from Ukraine, pursues them to Warsaw, but, having stretched out the rear, it suffers a severe defeat. About 140,000 people are taken prisoner, 80,000 of them subsequently die of hunger, bullying and executions. A significant part of Byelorussia and Ukraine departs to Poland.
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1. The first Soviet money, made according to the typographical clich;s of the Provisional Government, was called «pentacles», named after the chief commissar of the People’s Bank, G. Pyatakov.
2. Money Denikin (one thousand rubles), the so-called. «Bell», the South of Russia.
3. The very first «money sign» actually, the production of the RSFSR, the ruble, the size of 33 by 43 millimeters, the beginning of release on February 4, 1919. 1 ruble was equated to 10 000 old (kerenki, dumki). The «Money Mark» is indicated, because at the time it was assumed that a communist society would soon emerge in the whole world, in which money would be absolutely unnecessary. There is no year and numbering.
4. A series of new «pyatakovok» in 1922, more often now called «moths.» The salary of the worker at this time is 20 rubles, a bottle of 38-degree vodka, «Rykovki» ruble, meat 42 kopecks, a loaf of bread 20 kopecks. If you count by sovznakam 1923, then, for example, a kilogram of potatoes costs 1,300 rubles.
5. The banknote of the bank of the Bukhara People’s Soviet Republic, 2500, 1922 — some marginal socialist letters still print their banknotes.
6. Twenty-five thousand rubles (or so, «signs»), a series of 1923, an example of hyperinflation.
7. Soviet chervonets — a denomination nominally provided with gold, 7.74 on the back — a white background. Inside the country there were also gold coins depicting a sower-there were not many of them, but they supported the citizens’ confidence in paper bills. It was issued in 1922, gradually replacing, with parallel circulation (and even release), «Soviet signs» in the ratio of 50,000: 1. The name «chervonets» is an attempt to find a socialist replacement for the name «ruble». The variant «Federal» was offered. In the end, the «ruble» known to us remained.
After the end of the NEP and the introduction of military-repressive methods of managing the economy, as well as the cessation of the circulation of gold coins inside the country, the course of the chervonetz falls, it ceases, as before, to freely exchange abroad. In 1937, new chervontsy were issued — with classics, portraits of Lenin, also circulating along the ruble. They existed, in turn, before the monetary reform of 1947.
8. The face of the era, a man, incidentally, holding all this money in his hands — Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet, 1895—1925 (photo of 1914). Birth — the village of Konstantinovo Ryazan province, a peasant family. At the end of the Zemstvo school and two classes of the parish school — moving to Moscow, working in a butcher’s shop, then the printing house M. Sytin. The publication of the first poems is in the children’s magazine Mirok. Acquaintance with the capital’s beau monde, development, public recognition. A typical example of creativity:
Sing, sing. On the accursed guitar
Fingers dance yours in a semicircle.
Choke in this frenzy,
My last, only friend
…1914 — acquaintance with Anna Izryadnova, proofreader of the printing house, civil marriage, the result is Yuri’s son; who will be shot in 1937, at the height of repression. 1917 — marriage to actress Zinaida Raich. In this alliance, two children are born, Tatiana and Constantine. 1921 — marriage terminated. Zinaida Raich will marry the great theater figure V. Meyerhold and will be killed 24 days after his arrest, in 1939.
Further — an acquaintance with Galina Benislavskaya, for a while becoming his personal secretary and close friend. Later, she will shoot herself (according to other sources, she hammered six bullets of «bulldog», striking) on the poet’s grave.
In 1921 — a marriage to the American dancer-innovative Dora Angela Duncan (Dora Angela Duncan), for some time received government support in the USSR. Marriage disintegrates in two years, but before that the pair manages to visit Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and (4 months) the United States. Yesenin travels the country, is engaged in book publishing, does not shun alcohol, and, increasingly, writes poetry. A new wife, Sofya Tolstaya-Yesenina (the granddaughter of Count L. Tolstoy) negotiates with Professor P. Gannushkin about her husband’s hospitalization in the psychoneurological clinic of Moscow University. Be that as it may, Esenin leaves the hospital, removes all the money from the savings book, goes to Leningrad. There he, living in room 5 of the Angleterre hotel, communicates with numerous literary friends. On December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found hanged.
Hotel Angleterre and its number 5 becomes a cult place. However, on August 18, 1987, at the initiative of the chairman of the Leningrad executive committee, a certain H., «Angleter» was blown up.
9. Tractor «Universal», a symbol of collectivization and industrialization of the USSR in the 1930s. The prototype is the American machine Farmall F-20. In the USSR, from 1934 to 1955, the Leningrad plant Krasny Putilovets and the Vladimir Tractor Plant produced 211,500 specimens. Weight 2.1 tons, engine power 22 hp, fuel — kerosene and gasoline. It is widely believed that the introduction of a system of state collective farms (kolkhozes) is justified by the need to introduce new land cultivation techniques, in particular, tractors. However, prior to the emergence of collective farms (all the time NEP fed), land development partnerships (TOEs) are already widely distributed, voluntary and therefore really effective. Means of production, including heavy equipment, by mutual consent, for a certain share of income, were socialized for the period of sowing, harvesting, etc.
The Bolshevik government understands, in the end, that the point of luck is passed, and focuses on the centers of resistance within the country. The rebel army of Makhno, acting at that time with the Red Army, forces Sivash, despite a 30% loss, goes to the rear «white» and opens the way to the cavalry of M. Frunze. After the Crimea liberates them from Wrangel’s troops (November 17, Yalta), the Red cavalry suddenly attack the camp of their former allies, kill most of the anarchists, but miss their leader himself. «Father Makhno» fights against the Bolsheviks on the territory of Ukraine, but realizing the futility of resistance, goes to Romania, then Germany, where he is arrested for former attacks on the Germans, from there to Paris, where until the end of his days he works as a carpenter.
The call of the sailor’s uprising in Petersburg and the peasant wars prompt the Bolshevik government to switch from the romantic passionate “war communism” to many others for the NEP.
During the Civil War, 900,000 Red Army troops are killed, 650,000 are White soldiers, more than two million civilians are killed by terror, hunger and disease.
The dreams of the Cadets, anarchists, peasants and most of the workers about the self-government of the workers (the true "Soviets without Communists") are gradually being dispelled by a new system that does not tolerate arbitrariness. The Soviet Republic can not do without what seems already outdated: a strict hierarchy, social inequality, money and even banks. In the years of the NEP, there will be 16 of them.
Socialism still wins, precisely, on the whole planet, including, of course, the United States of America. The capitalist community clearly understands the importance of the Social Treaty, adopts the unofficial Code of Honest Entrepreneur, makes concessions to the working class, and at full capacity includes social elevators. The Revolution is replaced here by the Evolution.
...Since 1924, most owners of houses and apartments, landlords, as “people living on unearned income, such as: interest from capital, income from enterprises, income from property, etc., are deprived of their voting rights. They also can not claim the opportunity to occupy positions of responsibility, higher education, pensions. As a rule, they are deprived of any living space: henceforth they are called “disenfranchised”.
People who have received accommodation in a “compact” apartment are forced to get along together. The main nightmare in this is: a general trash can, cleaning of a secluded place or a bathroom, other similar household “trifles”. There is a constant exhausting war of nerves. Yes, that’s it; the neighbors just jot down the dirty trash in a full bucket, trying to shove something else in there, all showing that it’s still not time to endure it. Not for them… Uncle Gosh once again spreads some rubbish in the corridor, after all, after you, by kindness, removed his garbage, he believes that this is the place where all unnecessary disappears without any participation of a good person. Obligations are not clearly defined, the focus of opinions on the actualization of an action is blurred. All supposedly equal, and you can not give in, in principle, so that, by the way, do not accidentally “hide” in the yoke, which is not so easy to throw off. People want everything small to happen by itself, without a detailed calm discussion: while it is necessary to talk about something great: the World Revolution, the civil war in Spain, the construction of the White Sea Canal, etc. The rule is usually that who is louder screams, puts an opponent funny, it seems more developed physically. Almost every communal apartment finds a hidden polarization, gives negative energy to the noosphere. The sum of opposite poles generates tension, a kind of dark current in a huge state. There are no answers to the simplest questions of cohabitation with communism in the style of a la ryus.
... What could we suggest to mitigate the transition period from feudalism and capitalism to a new social society? Only a loud word of independent, but completely solidary with each other, certainly respected by all people. A whole picture of the world is really important. Landowners, noblemen - part with your titles, give 90% of lands and other possessions to workers and peasants, abolish the "dry law", stop the war, peasants - share bread with soldiers, military - keep the defense, workers - provide military order (on the eve of the new light world).
Madly? But where did all those clever people go?
“If any of you thinks to be wise in this world, then be insane to be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”. John Chrysostom (1Cor.3: 18–19).
full text - "The history of almost everything", resource "Amazon"