Almost the only conductor of the Revolution of 1905 is Alexander Apollonovich Gapon (Agafon), a native of the Poltava province, a priest who decided to establish a paradise on Earth, entirely by earthly means. In his youth, Alexander tried to establish something like a church order dedicated to serving the people, but received no blessing, and actively began to create the prototype of trade unions, in cooperation with both the authorities and the parties of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. During the events of Bloody Sunday he is going to hand the petition directly to Tsar Nicholas II (later — «Bloody») so that it «is not put under the cloth.» The soldiers are greeted with a stream of gunfire, two hundred people are killed. The priest-passionary is wounded in the hand. The protesting workers, at Gapon’s request, do not even carry penknives, but with the refusal of the tsar to accept the petition, the petitioner intended to «wave with a red kerchief,» which would mean the beginning of a major uprising. To avoid arrest, Alexander Apollonovich emigrated to England, where he published The History of My Life, dreams of overthrowing the existing system, and purchases money with weapons, possibly of Japanese origin, with weapons for St. Petersburg workers. Over time, Gapon somewhat cools and begins to reflect on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between the people and authorities, develops the idea of consumer cooperatives as an alternative to trade unions. One of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party accuses A.G. in receiving 100,000 rubles from the security department, takes out and executes a death sentence.
After strikes and skirmishes throughout the country, during which 18,000 people die, the authorities are becoming a bit softer to the people, but soon the distortion of the agreements reached by them has to be distorted. Only the monarchist people are recruited into the Duma. Published since Catherine II, the law on the Pale of Settlement is still in force; he forbids unbaptized Jews to live anywhere except for assigned places, thereby contributing to the growth of radicalism, and, a kind of «messianism» among the representatives of this people. Since 1901 (the tsar’s speeches about his exclusive powers), about two thousand people, mostly government officials of different ranks, and policemen perish from explosive devices and militant bullets a year. The aristocracy, like the British and French nobles, does not intend to «camouflage» among the bourgeoisie and, especially, the working class, and therefore always on the sights of the avengers, whose memory is full of impressions of the «recently abandoned» over «from the lordly shoulder» and for a lot of money, serf slavery. Publishers and printers are also in the field of terrorists, they are forced to publish sympathetic articles in their address, and even print leaflets. Many private individuals voluntarily, or under duress, donate their money to revolutionaries. Some counteraction to terrorists is provided by the pro-monarchist «Black Hundred», but its actions are spontaneous, in comparison with, say, the punctual work of «death squads» (los escuadrones de la muerte), created by police officers of Latin American countries, and no significant influence on the course of events. render.
Everything can be corrected, improved: shorten the working day, increase the salary, and abolish censorship. So, it seems, very soon, by 1915, with the submission of the Duma, the government will introduce universal education, and the industry is bursting upwards at an unprecedented pace. However, in the air hangs the question: for the humiliation of the people in serf slavery must be paid with blood. Sooner or later, but this — the nobility, the intelligentsia (somehow connected with the aristocracy), in general, all the rich people whose ancestors, most likely, also participated in the slave trade, will have to do. Actually, the question is not whether to cancel such a fee, but only «how, in fact, it will look like?».
Theoretically, the blood can be replaced with gold. Only, you need a lot of gold. But, aristocracy does not want to remember the dark past and, moreover, to share the acquired riches with the «common people».
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1. George Apollonovich Gapon (Agafon), priest, politician, trade union leader. Birth — 1870, with. Belikov, Poltava province, the family of a well-to-do peasant (volost clerk). Training in the Poltava theological seminary, fascination with the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, after completing the course — work in the Zemstvo statistics, partial private lessons. Marriage to a merchant’s daughter, ordination first to the deacon, then to the priest. The first, very successful sermons — crowds from the surrounding parishes are flowing into the church of George Apollonovich. After the death of his wife — admission to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, disappointment in the «dead scholasticism», not giving an answer to the question of the meaning of life. Speech preacher in the church on Vasilievsky Island. Creating a system of mutual assistance. Agathon does not want to break with the government (which is still, nominally Christian), or with numerous revolutionary organizations. In «Bloody Sunday» he receives a bullet wound in his hand, experiences a strong emotional shock, comes to the idea of armed struggle. For a short time Gapon approaches the Bolsheviks, meets personally with Lenin, makes a favorable impression on that, then «leaves» for the Socialist-Revolutionaries. But, George’s individuality is too extensive, he creates his own «Workers’ Union», where the main place is given to the self-management of workers (who create «a state in the state»), and not some intellectuals who are torn from life and who scribble «Materialism and empirio-criticism.» The idea of Agafon about the armed seizure of St. Petersburg is hardly embodied, but the transport purchased with the means collected by it runs aground in the Gulf of Finland.
In 1906, Agathon was cruelly, somehow awkwardly, murdered by one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Military Organization, part-time agent of the tsarist security department, Yevno Azev, and his deceived people. Photo Jonah is not represented because of its completely negative action, and it is not clear at all how, at one time one could not see in the very appearance of this entity — traitor, executioner, provocateur and sadist.
2. S. E. Smirnov, senior physician of the battleship «Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky»: the one who did not want-to say-the truth.
3. E. N. Golikov, captain of the battleship Potemkin: the one who-considered-coward-coward. The usual punishments for sailors are fights, running in full equipment for 6—7 hours, until exhaustion, etc. Officers steal 54 rations of lower ranks a day: Golikov himself builds three luxury houses in Sevastopol for public money.
4. The battleship Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky; laid down in the stockpiles of the city of Nikolaev in 1898, a displacement of 12,500 tons, a speed of 16.7 knots (about 26 km), an autonomous navigation of 14 days (according to fresh water reserves for boilers). The main caliber is four 305 mm. tools. After the sailors’ uprising, it was renamed Panteleimon, participated in the First World War, was captured by the British during the Civil War and was partially destroyed by them. From 1923 to 1925 gg. is divided into metal in Sevastopol.
The history of the uprising on the battleship Potemkin is an essential component of the First Russian Revolution (1905). So, the nameless producer of non-explosive Russian shells gives rise to shame under Tsushima, which, in the application to the age-old contempt of the royal officers for the «gray cattle» who has been serving in the Navy for seven years now, and the «Bloody Resurrection», caused by Tsarist stupidity and Cossack zeal, the situation.
However, on the battleship «Potemkin» is still calm. The ship, accompanied by a little-noted media torpedo boat No. 267, is preparing for training firing, 180 km. from Odessa. The crew — 16 officers-nobles, doctors, the priest, and also 780 sailors. It can not be said that in Sevastopol, where the battleship came out, there is no propaganda, but in the circle of revolutionaries the «Potemkin» is listed, in this sense, hopelessly backward.
The handsome captain Golikov (pictured) sends the destroyer to Odessa to purchase provisions, the warrant officer Makarov, a senior procurement officer, leads the group into his friend’s trading house. Meat is purchased here, 28 poods, with «small white worms»; The offer to buy fresh produce from the peasants on Privoz is rejected, «because it will be more expensive.»
In the description of further events, the author of this book can no longer remain completely impartial.
The watch officer, the commander of the ship, does not take a sample from the borscht cooked for the team. The food is inspected by the senior doctor, S. Smirnov (physiognomists, please see the photo), and finds it good.
The team refuses to eat, and eats rusks, washing them with water.
This for some reason does not like the captain. He summons a general gathering at the stern (yute) of the ship, and begins to find out who will eat borscht and who does not. The senior doctor again tests the food without trying, and declares publicly that the «Team has been healed.» Finally, the commander proposes to stay on the yute to those who do not like the food, and calls the guard to arrest the guilty. The situation is perfect, I repeat, completely, absurd. About thirty sailors hesitate, and remain at the stern. The senior officer orders to bring a tarp. Fleet humor? The canvas is used for shooting, in a military setting, on the verdict of the tribunal, so as not to «spoil the deck». The victims become guilty, the injustice of what is happening tears the valves in the heads of sailors. Now officers for them are not older brothers or fathers-commanders playing the game «we are your supervisors, but really friends», but simply — pitchers. Undoubtedly, the psychic wave of this understanding is spreading throughout the fleet, and beyond.
So, the humor of the officer Gilyarovsky, if it was humor, the sailors do not appreciate. «Brothers, beat them, boors. Enough to be slaves. "With this cry begins a real, organized revolution of 1905, then 1917, no matter what the historians say about external, English, or German secret interference. All done by two people, nobles, jug-snouts — the senior ship’s doctor and the ship’s commander.
Sailors break into the battery room, take over rifles and cartridges. Gilyarovsky shoots the leader of the insurrection, the sailor Vakulenchuk, but he himself does not live more than a minute after that. Another four officers are being killed. The commander of the ship finds nothing better than to blow up his own battleship, makes his way along with the helper to the crewing chamber, is identified, and is shot, and in some footmen (after lighting the Bickford cord, he was about to leave the ship through the porthole). The body of the grief-captain is thrown out to feed the fish.
Wilhelm Karlovich Ton, an artillery lieutenant, is also going to explode the artillery cellars. It is revealed. The leader of the sailors Matyushenko says: «Calm down, we will not kill you.» The mouths of the brethren open only to ejaculate obscene language. More on the mind of the officer, in this difficult situation, nothing good comes. In a minute the body of the master of foul language, stuffed with bullets, is thrown overboard.
A ship priest who was dragged from a shelter — a sailors ’hatchet — who, during the execution of sailors, either peacefully breakfasted in the officers’ mess hall, or simply preferred to anything dangerous (for which one can lose tasty food), not to interfere.
Part of the officers, like rats, hides in the spaces of the ship, while others swim to the destroyer No. 267. Rebellious sailors, realizing that the escort ship, can torpedo them, plant troops, arrest commanders.
By two days the uprising wins. Sailors are preparing a normal dinner. The rebels are heading for Odessa. At night, a ship’s doctor is revealed in one of the rooms; a rat, with which, in fact, everything began and is thrown alive overboard, 180 km. from the shore.
In Odessa, the rebels, using the support of the population, are loaded onto the battleship, from the seized transport, coal. The Cossack units surround the port, without hesitation they shoot the men in the port trying to save themselves; As a result of fires and rifle bullets, 300 people are killed. The battleship gives three blank shots in memory of Vakulenchuk and two combat shots, out of 6-inch guns. One shell is not torn (usual statistics), the second damages the attic of the apartment house (instead of the intended purpose — the administrative building). There are no victims. Battleship, along with the ship «Milestone», turned into a hospital, leaves. What is happening inspires Vladimir Lenin, he is going to join the insurgents in one of the ports of Romania, but this course of history, for one reason or another, will not take place.
On June 17, the «Potemkin» discovers the approaching squadron, twice passes through it, without opening fire on either side; at the same time the battleship «George the Victorious» joins him. The officers of the ship are transplanted to the boat, which the destroyer No. 267 takes to tow, and sends it ashore.
A small squadron returns to Odessa, seizes transport with a load of coal. Here, the crews of «George» and «Milestones» are dominated by decadent moods, they surrender to the authorities. However, on June 19, the red banner of the insurrection (and simultaneously, the sign «open fire») is raised by the training ship «Prut». It does not catch the Potemkin in the port, goes to Sevastopol, is blocked by destroyers, and escorted to the base.
The rebellious ship travels to the Romanian Constanta, spreading the «Appeal to the whole civilized world» along the way, explaining that the goal of the sailors is to overthrow the autocracy, the Constituent Commission, freedom, equality and brotherhood. The Romanian government promises sailors freedom from deportation, personal freedom, but they refuse to supply the battleship with coal. The rebels leave the foreign port and go to Feodosia. Here, under the threat of bombardment of government buildings, the team demands to deliver water and provisions to the battleship. It is executed, but the coal branch responsible for it, the branch of power does not provide. The sailors try to seize the barges in the port, but fall under the gunfire. Six people die, several are taken prisoner. The battleship is anchored and, without making a single shot, after making a deceptive maneuver, leaves for Constanta. The destroyer «Swift» with a team of only vengeful officers, looking for him around the sea. On June 25, «Potemkin» together with comrade No. 267 arrives at the Romanian port. The sailors divide the ship’s cash desk, travel to the cities and villages of Romania.
The dead meat for the «gray scotch» is worth the tsarist government, unfortunately, for Russia itself, very expensive — economically and foreign policy. The prestige of the Empire is catastrophically falling. Turkey increases the fleet, builds additional coastal fortifications, England begins negotiations on the new status of the Straits.
Most of the sailors remain in Romania, some immigrate to Switzerland, Argentina and Canada. To travel outside the political asylum, you have to forge documents. Seaman Ivan Beshov, for example, moves to Ireland, where he becomes the founder of the network of popular fish restaurants Beshoffs («fish and chips»), and lives more than a hundred years, until 1987.