From pagan riots to social protest. Anti-Church uprisings in Rus'

Popular uprisings in the 60s and 70s. XI century

Massive popular protests swept across Kievan Rus in 1068-1072. The most powerful uprising was in Kyiv in 1068. It broke out as a result of the defeat suffered by the sons of Yaroslav (Yaroslavichs) - Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod - from the Polovtsians.

In Kyiv on Podol, in the craft part of the city, a meeting took place. The people of Kiev asked the princes to issue weapons in order to fight the Polovtsians again. The Yaroslavichs refused to hand over weapons, fearing that the people would turn them against them. Then the people destroyed the courts of the rich boyars. Grand Duke Izyaslav fled to Poland and only with the help of Polish feudal lords returned to the Kiev throne in 1069. Massive popular uprisings took place in Novgorod, in the Rostov-Suzdal land.

Uprisings of the late 60s - early 70s of the 11th century. demanded vigorous action from the princes and boyars. “Russian Truth” was supplemented by a number of articles called “The Truth of the Yaroslavichs” (in contrast to the first part of the code - “The Truth of Yaroslav”). The purpose of the additions is to protect the property of the feudal lord and his patrimony. From “Truth of the Yaroslavichs” we learn about the structure of the estate. Its center was the princely or boyar court. On it were located the mansions of a prince or boyar, the houses of his entourage, stables, and a barnyard. At the head of the management of the estate was the prince's butler - the fireman (from the word "firehouse" - house). In addition to him, there was a princely entrance appointed for collecting taxes.

The wealth of the estate was the land, so the princely boundary was protected by an extremely high fine. Dependent smerdas and slaves (slaves, servants) worked on this land. The work was supervised by ratay (field) elders, to whom the slaves were subordinate, and by village elders, who monitored the execution of the work by smerds. There were also artisans and craftswomen on the estate.

“Pravda Yaroslavichy” abolished blood feud and increased the difference in payment for the murder of various categories of the population, reflecting the state’s concern for protecting the property, life and property of feudal lords. The largest fine was paid for the murder of senior warriors, firemen, and princely servants, whose lives were valued at 80 hryvnia. The life of the free population - people (husbands) - was estimated at 40 hryvnia; life of village and military elders, as well as artisans - 12 hryvnia; the life of smerds who lived in estates and slaves - 5 hryvnia.

From pagan riots to social protest

The second half of the 9th and 10th centuries in Russian history became a time of tremendous changes, primarily in the socio-economic and political sphere. Offensive private property and the private owner in the free world of the past radically changed the fate of people. The adoption of Christianity by Russia meant the beginning of the collapse of the old pagan faith, which had dominated the souls and thoughts of people for many centuries.

All these changes took place almost simultaneously, although their pace was slow compared to a number of Western European countries due to common geopolitical reasons for the development of the East Slavic lands. But by the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century, they became more and more tangible, bringing completely different colors to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. These changes were especially painful during periods of acute social upheaval - severe princely civil strife, foreign invasions, natural disasters - droughts, famines, fires. These days, ordinary troubles aggravated, old grievances surfaced, misfortunes united people on the basis common interests, hatred of those whom they considered guilty for all their sorrows and humiliations.

For a long time, our science was dominated by the class approach to social phenomena, highlighted by Marxism. It was this approach that was intended to explain the course of history by the struggle of antagonistic classes in society, although it seems that the founders of Marxism, as true dialecticians, did not at all strive to find the simplest logical master key that would explain all the most complex vicissitudes public life from ancient times to modern times. And such a master key was projected by their so-called followers, who made the struggle the meaning of their lives. And how to explain the increase in social confrontation in Ancient Rus' at a time when class structure feudal society was just taking shape when completely different motives raised people to social confrontation." Moreover, the social motive was only one of many that influenced the social behavior of people,

Human nature, human life and human society are arranged in such a way that contradictions between individuals, between groups of people welded together by the same interests, between entire estates and classes are inevitable. The inevitability of these contradictions is explained by many reasons. Firstly, the fact that people are different from birth different abilities. This does not allow them to perceive the world in the same way and, under equal conditions, gain equal opportunities. Secondly, the inequality of these conditions themselves, determined by the social status of people (prince, warrior, smerd), in which even those more gifted by birth are forced to occupy the lower steps of the social ladder. Thirdly, a combination of various life situations, in which people go through their life path. Essentially, the fate of each person is unique, just as he himself is unique. A person very rarely realizes his true value, which is determined both by his innate abilities and the objective conditions of his existence and thereby the objective possibilities of his self-expression. But every person, even very limited mental abilities, perfectly understands and feels the superiority of another and, first of all, in the sphere of social status. This is what brings very close different people into large interest groups: in one case, according to infringed interests, in the other - to protect their already won privileged position. This has always been the case, in all societies, and will continue to be so as long as the human race lives.

But this does not mean that people are in constant struggle with each other. People, groups, estates, classes need each other, and at the same time, the individual interests of people, their social interests are sometimes directly opposite. Personal interests of a person are the engine of society, but the interests of people are at the same time an explosive “material” that can blow up this society if the intensity of contradictions turns into an intensity of passions, which intensify if they capture large masses whose interests coincide.

Ancient Rus' was no exception in this sense.

The first major public struggles in the nascent state arose when Kyiv was crushing other tribal principalities. The Drevlyans, Vyatichi, and members of other tribes were united by the desire to defend their independence and freedom. And here the interests of, say, the Drevlyan prince Mal and the unknown Drevlyan smerd converged. Raised several times in the 10th century. uprising against Kyiv by the Drevlyans, Vyatichi; independent path historical development Polotsk residents were looking for. Tribal separatism was the main social feeling that united people and raised them to fight.

By the end of the 11th century. Rus', it seems, was no longer disturbed by tribal or regional strife and nothing disturbed its internal state peace. But this was a deceptive impression. Yes, there were no more fires, such as tribal uprisings, but the embers of political separatism, which went back to the past tribal life, smoldered constantly. This was felt in the constant gloomy wariness of the Vyatichi, in the special position of Polotsk, which for decades from generation to generation of its Rog-Voldovich princes waged an endless war with Kiev, and in the eternal opposition of Novgorod, which had not forgotten its past liberties from the Varangian era.

As social relations developed in Rus', the emergence of rich and poor, the formation of the princely-boyar-squad elite, and the beginning of its attack on the lands of free peasants, tribal separatism retreated into the shadows. But other contradictions came to the fore.

Since the end of the 10th century, since the introduction of Christianity in Rus', contradictions have appeared between those who were devoted to the old pagan faith and the bearers of the ideas of Christianity. Paganism was strong, as already mentioned, in the north and northeast of the country. It was in the Novgorod north, in the Vyatichi northeast, that the first fires of disobedience broke out. The reluctance to accept Christianity as a new religion went hand in hand with old tribal traditions. And the aggravated social relations, the loss of freedom by part of the population, the increase in tax burden on the part of the state and private owners only complicated the general situation in these parts of the country.

A number of riots occurred in connection with the introduction of Christianity on Novgorod land.

In 1024, in the northeast of the country, in the Suzdal land, a new uprising of the people took place. It was a time of great famine. There was a rumor among the population that rich people were hiding bread. People rushed into the courtyards of the rich, began to beat them and look for bread. The movement was led by the Magi - pagan priests. Thus, social, religious and tribal motives were intertwined in this rebellion. It took the intervention of the great Kyiv prince Yaroslav himself. He came to the Suzdal land with a squad, captured and executed the leaders of the rebellion - the Magi, and calmed the region.

In 1068, another major social upheaval occurred in the Russian land. It all started with the defeat of the Russian army from the Polovtsians, commanded by the Grand Duke Izyaslav himself, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, and his brothers Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. Defeated and battered in open battle, the princely squad locked itself behind the Kyiv walls and fearfully awaited the appearance of enemies. It was at this time that fermentation began among the townspeople. They demanded weapons from the prince and were ready to defend the city. On the mountain, the townspeople gathered in groups, in the crowd they said that the princes had betrayed them, that the governor Kosnyachko was deliberately not giving them weapons, fearing that they would turn against the rich people. The craft and trade Podil was buzzing. There was an endless party going on there. People demanded the release from prison of their rival, the fearless warrior and talented commander of the Polotsk prince Vseslav, who had been treacherously captured by the sons of Yaroslav. The people demanded to put him at the head of the army in the fight against the Polovtsians. At the same time, voices were heard about the abuses of princely governors and administrators, about the oppression of the people, and unfair exactions. In Podol, slaves rebelled and tore to pieces the Novgorod bishop Stefan, who was in Kyiv, who tried to calm them down. From Podol, hundreds of people moved to the princely palace, to the court of the hated governor Kosnyachko. The other part headed to the prison where the Polotsk prince Vseslav was languishing.

The rebel people captured and destroyed many courts of the princely boyars and governors. The princely palace was surrounded by an excited crowd. People close to Izyaslav advised the prince to send soldiers to the prison and kill Vseslav, but the prince hesitated. Time was lost. The people attacked the palace. The Grand Duke, his brother Vsevolod with his children and household, among whom was the future great Kyiv prince fifteen-year-old Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, fled.

The crowd destroyed and plundered the princely palace. Many gold and silver items and expensive furs were taken from there. Prince Vseslav was released from prison and elevated to the Kyiv table by the rebel people. Izyaslav fled to Poland.

Vseslav, the chosen one of the people, ruled in Kyiv for seven months. But the former rulers of Kyiv did not give up. By this time, Svyatoslav of Chernigov, the brother of the Grand Duke, defeated the Polovtsians and secured the Russian borders for a time. Izyaslav gathered a large army in Poland and moved towards Kyiv, with Polish troops marching with him. Vseslav and the people of Kiev came forward to meet them. The troops converged near Kyiv itself. But the battle did not take place. On the eve of it, at night, Vseslav secretly left the people of Kiev and fled to his home in Polotsk. The army left without a leader fled. Soon Izyaslav’s army was already near the walls of Kyiv. The rebellious city opened its gates to the Grand Duke and obeyed.

But Izyaslav did not immediately enter the city. First, he sent his son Mstislav there with his squad. He carried out a brutal reprisal against the rebels, killed about 70 townspeople - the instigators of the riot, those who participated in the liberation and enthronement of Vseslav, he ordered some of the rebels to be blinded, and punished others without even conducting an investigation. The city was defeated. Only after this Izyaslav entered Kyiv. He immediately sent an army to Polotsk and occupied it. Vseslav fled from the city into the forests.

Thus ended this first major uprising in Rus', in which social motives are already visible. New concerns begin to push past tribal and religious interests into the background.

The flames of rebellion that engulfed Kyiv spread to other Russian lands. The smerds rebelled around Kyiv itself. The population of the Smolensk land refused to pay tribute and taxes. The people in distant Beloozero rose up. From there, the confusion spread to the Rostov-Suzdal land, to the region of the Vyatichi. The rebellion was led here by two wise men, who called ordinary people to reprisal against the propertied.

The granaries, barns, and honey houses of rich people were plundered. The rebel detachment numbered about 300 people. It took considerable efforts on the part of the authorities to suppress the rebellion. The Magi were captured and entwined by the Grand Duke's commander, Jan Vyshatich.

In Novgorod in 1071, a rebellion began against the bishop and the Christian faith. And again the sorcerer stood at the head of the rebels. Essentially, the city was divided in two. The princely squad stood in the bishop's courtyard. The rest of the city fell into the hands of the rebels. And only the murder of the sorcerer during negotiations helped to decapitate the uprising and disperse the rebels.

Only by 1072 was order restored in Rus' and the three Yaroslavichs, Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod, took measures to calm the land. The brutal punishments that fell on the rebels were only part of these measures. Another part was the development of new legislation, since Yaroslav’s old “Russian Truth” no longer met the needs of the time.

Reasons: a) terror, with the help of which the Horde maintained power over Russia; b) tribute and taxes collected by the Mongols.

In order to register taxpayers, a population census was conducted. Started in the 40s. from Kievan Rus, then in Suzdal and Ryazan lands. People were divided into 10, 100, 1000, 10000. Novgorodians refused the census. They were led by the son of Alexander Nevsky, Vasily. But the boyars and Alexander Yaroslavovich himself were in favor of the census, because They believed that Rus' could not challenge the Horde. The rebels were brutally dealt with.

The uprisings that swept across North-Eastern Rus' in the 1260s became one of the reasons for the later abolition of the tax farming system and the transfer of tax collection into the hands of Russian princes. (The last Baskak in Rus' was Shchelkan, against whose actions there was an uprising in Tver in 1327).

Consequences of the yoke:

1. The population has decreased (at least 10% of the total population of 10 million people).

2. The number of cities decreased (14 were destroyed, 15 became villages).

3. Complex types of crafts have disappeared (making cloisonne enamel, niello, granulation, polychrome building ceramics, glass bracelets, carnelian beads, filigree, foundry, metal stamping).

4. The established routes of communication (“from the Varangians to the Greeks” and the “Silk Road”) were disrupted, internal trade was reduced, and money circulation in the Russian lands was almost completely stopped. Strengthening the naturalization of the economy.

5. Connections with the outside world have been severed.

6. The process of development of feudalism slowed down.

7. Feudal oppression is intensifying. The old social order - a free society - has been destroyed (nobility and nobles must serve, townspeople and peasants bear the burden).

8. The process of gradual political consolidation of Russian lands was disrupted.

9. Kievan Rus split into Lithuanian Rus and Muscovite Rus. The united ancient Russian nation ceased to exist. Based on it in the XIV-XV centuries. Three new nationalities arose (Belarusian, Ukrainian on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russian in Muscovy).

10. The type of government has changed. The veche was liquidated. The sole unlimited power of the Moscow Prince is taking shape.

11. Cultural decline began.

The significance of the Tatar-Mongol invasion for the historical development of Russia

Karamzin, Kostomarov, “Eurasians”: The yoke made it possible to unite the fragmented principalities. After the invasion, Rus' developed into a special state in which the features of Europe and Asia were intertwined.

Soloviev, Klyuchevsky, Platonov, Pokrovsky: The yoke had little impact on the life and development of Russian society.

Pavlenko, Kobrin, Fedorov, Kuchkin: The yoke had a serious, but not decisive, influence on all spheres of life in Rus'. The consequences were negative and inhibitory.

Trepavlov: The estimates are mixed. On the one hand, devastation, on the other - Golden Horde became the ethnic cradle of the Turkic peoples; from there came religious tolerance; The role of individual power in Rus' increased.

Darkevich: it was a global disaster, the catastrophic consequences of which were incalculable. Old Russian civilization was thrown back in economic, cultural and political development 150 years ago. The gene pool of the Russian people has been undermined. The craft fell into decline. There was no tolerance. Rus' found itself cut off from Europe, Byzantium, and the Muslim East. Political passivity, long-suffering, and fatalism are emerging.

Gorsky: The Mongol conquest led to a radical change in the type of state development. It is not for nothing that they say: “pre-Mongol period” - precisely because at that time Rus' was characterized by the traditionally European path of feudal development (with certain regional specifics). And in the conditions in which Russia found itself in the 13th-15th centuries, under the influence of the need for accelerated centralization, a type of development of the country was formed that was distinguished by significant originality.

"The history of all hitherto existing societies was the history of class struggle. Free and slave, patrician and plebeian, landowner and serf, master and apprentice, in short, the oppressor and the oppressed were in eternal antagonism to each other, waged a continuous war, sometimes hidden, sometimes open a struggle that always ended in a revolutionary reorganization of everything public building or the general destruction of the struggling classes" (K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto Communist Party, M., 1956, p. 32), - this is what the founders of the great teaching K. Marx and F. Engels wrote in the “Communist Manifesto”.

The class struggle of the working masses also accompanies the emergence of feudal society in ancient Rus', the establishment of feudal forms of exploitation, which at the initial stages of the development of feudalism were not much different from slavery. Class struggle runs like a red thread through the entire history of Rus' period feudal fragmentation. It reflects the spontaneous discontent of the peasantry with the growing feudal oppression, developing and spreading in breadth feudal forms dependencies.

The class struggle of the peasants encourages the feudal lords to strive to create a powerful autocratic power capable of providing them with the “right” to the property and labor of the peasant, to himself. The class struggle takes on a threatening character for the ruling class during the period of the centralized Russian state, and especially in the 17th century, when the peasant wars led by I. Bolotnikov and S. Razin became its highest manifestation.

The 18th century was marked by a new aggravation of class contradictions, a new scope of the peasant movement, which resulted in the most ambitious and last peasant war in the history of feudal Russia - the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev. Created in Russia in 1859-1861. The revolutionary situation, caused by the gigantic scope of the peasant movement, forced the tsarist government to carry out peasant reform. In 1861, frightened peasant uprisings The ruling class of the nobility, in order to prevent the Russian peasantry from beginning to liberate itself “from below,” preferred to carry out the abolition of serfdom “from above.”

But the old, serf-like forms of exploitation in post-reform times were replaced by semi-feudal - semi-bourgeois and capitalist forms of exploitation of the countless peasantry of the Russian Empire.

V.I. Lenin attached great importance to the class struggle of the peasantry. He emphasized that among the Russian peasants, “centuries of serfdom and decades of forced post-reform ruin have accumulated mountains of hatred, anger and desperate determination” (V.I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 15, p. 183). But VI . Lenin, Soch., vol. 17, p. 96). In those distant times, the peasantry fought against the entire serfdom system that oppressed them alone, opposing the organized forces of the feudal state - its army, church, law, in fact, only their boundless hatred. “The peasants,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “could not unite, the peasants were then completely crushed by darkness, the peasants had no helpers and brothers among the city workers...” (V.I. Lenin, Complete collection of works. , vol. 7, p. 194).

Only urban workers, only the industrial proletariat, monolithic, united, organized, led by its revolutionary workers' party, could, by leading the nation-wide struggle, lead the peasants to liberation. The greatest in the history of mankind, the October Socialist Revolution, was victorious because the hegemon and leader in it was the most revolutionary proletariat of Russia in the world. Having accomplished a victorious revolution, the working class led the long-suffering working peasantry of Russia onto the path of freedom and happiness.

Speaking at the 21st Congress of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev said: “Our young generation has not gone through that great school of life and struggle that befell the older generation. Young people do not know the horrors and disasters of the pre-revolutionary time and only from books can they have an idea of exploitation of the working people. It is therefore very important that our young generation knows the history of the country, the struggle of the working people for their liberation...” (N. S. Khrushchev, On development milestones national economy USSR for births 1959-1965. Report and final word at the Extraordinary XXI Congress of the Communist Party Soviet Union January 27 and February 5, 1959, M., 1959, p. 63).

In this book we will talk about the first manifestations of class contradictions in Rus', about the uprisings of peasants - smerds, as the oldest Russian code of laws - "Russian Truth" calls them, about how simple rural and urban people fought against the oppressors at the Dawn of the history of the Russian people and states.

The class struggle in those days took various shapes. It manifested itself in flight, when peasants literally fled from feudalism to those places where it had not yet penetrated. It takes the form of scattered, spontaneous, local uprisings. The class struggle is also expressed in the attempts of the villager to restore communal property. The rural community member considered his everything that was cultivated with his hands, watered with sweat, that was mastered by him, his father and grandfather, everything that, as peasants in Rus' later said, “from time immemorial” gravitated toward his yard, to his community, everything , “where the ax, the plow, the scythe went,” but what has now become the property of the prince, his “husbands,” warriors.

Smerd went into the forest to collect honey for the same berm harvests where he, his father and grandfather had long since collected honey, despite the fact that the bead tree, on which he knew every knot, was already marked with a sign of princely property freshly cut out on the bark. Smerd plowed with his “maple bipod” that piece of land that he himself “torn out” from under the forest, burning forest giants and uprooting stumps, despite the fact that the boundary laid by some rural princely or boyar servant had already included this watered his field then leads to the vast estates of a prince or boyar. He drove his cattle out to the field, where he grazed them with youth, but this field was already princely, boyar.

The ruling feudal elite considered these attempts by the rural people to restore their ancient communal right to own lands and holdings based on the labor expended as a crime, a violation of their “legal” rights. "Russian Truth" will subsequently take these crimes into account and establish punishments for them; but this was a crime only from the point of view of the ruling nobility.

For the rural “people” of Rus', who appeared in the 9th-10th and early 11th centuries. Most often, they were still only tributaries of the prince and community members, co-owners of their lands and holdings; this was a fair struggle for the restoration of their violated rights, for the return of what had belonged to them from time immemorial, since it had been mastered by their labor and provided the means to live. It was not easy for the smell to get used to the new order; he defended the old communal property, considering it fair, and, on the contrary, fought against private feudal property, being sure of its illegality. "Russian Truth" pays so much attention to crimes against private feudal property precisely because at that time the struggle against it by ordinary rural and urban people was something ordinary and everyday. A lot of time will pass before the Russian peasant, robbed and downtrodden, learns to strictly distinguish between his own and his master's, forgetting about the times when his ancestors owned everything.

The ancestors - contemporaries of princes Igor and Vladimir, Yaroslav and Yaroslavich - could not recognize such a distinction. They still remembered well those times when not only their fathers and grandfathers, but they themselves owned lands and lands, and fought as best they could for the right to own them.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the country plunged into real chaos. The heir to the throne, Fyodor Ivanovich, was not capable of conducting political affairs in the country, and Tsarevich Dmitry was killed in infancy.

This period is usually called Time of Troubles. For several decades, the country was torn apart by potential heirs to the throne, seeking to gain power by any means. And only with the Romanovs coming to power in 1613 did the Troubles begin to subside.

What uprisings took place at this time, and is it possible to highlight their key moments?

As a result of several decades of the Time of Troubles, the situation in the country was worse than ever. Internal uprisings weakened the state, making Ancient Rus' a tasty morsel for foreign invaders. The establishment of power by a new royal family was inevitable, and after lengthy debates, the Romanovs were in power.

Ahead of the country lay 300 years under the rule of the Romanovs, technological progress and the Age of Enlightenment. All this would have been impossible if the Time of Troubles had not been suppressed and disputes over the throne had continued.

In the history of our country there have been many popular uprisings and riots that influenced the course of history. Even in Soviet times, people rose up. What was the reason for the anger of the masses and how did these uprisings end?

1648 "Salt Riot"

They say that the rebellion in Rus' is characterized by cruelty and mercilessness. He demonstrates a surge of discontent, long restrained by the patience of the people. The Salt Riot that occurred in 1648 can be proof of this. The cause of discontent among peasants, small artisans and traders was the exorbitantly high taxes raised by the government headed by Boris Morozov. The result of his actions was an increase in the price of salt. The crowd of rebels, joined by groups of royal archers, smashed everything in their path, burned estates, killed hated boyars, dealt with officials, and even reached the assistant to the head of government, Trakhaniotov. They demanded Boris Morozov. By decision of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the boyar was exiled to a monastery. Under the pressure of undying popular indignation, the tsar canceled the imposed duty on salt. Satisfied decisions taken, the uprising died down.

1662 "Copper Mutiny"

Due to the depletion of cash reserves after the war with Poland, Alexei Mikhailovich introduced copper money into circulation. They were supposed to replace the silver ones in terms of equivalence. But complications immediately arose: the financial system collapsed; coppers became easy prey for counterfeiters; While paying salaries in copper money, taxes were required to be paid in silver. Soaring prices, resulting from deep inflation, drove the common population to despair. A crowd of indignant slaves went to the tsar, trying to find fair protection from the oppression of the boyars. However, they were met by armed troops who opened fire on the rebels. Thousands of people became victims of the rebellion, many sympathizers were exiled to settle in Siberia. Copper coins were nevertheless withdrawn from circulation.

1905. “Bloody Sunday”

The deteriorating political and economic situation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century hit primarily the lowest strata of society. People still hoped for the king’s help, and set out a large number to convey your appeal to the ruler. They ran into the guards of the Winter Palace, and military reinforcements arrived in time and began shooting at the unarmed crowd. Many people died, which gave the name to the day when the uprising took place - “ Bloody Sunday" It became a harbinger of the revolution that took place 12 years later.

1921. “Rebel Kronstadt”

The inhabitants of the island, being supporters Soviet power, opposed the new orders introduced in 1921. In their opinion, they did not correspond to the democratic aspirations of the people who carried out the revolution of '17. The government considered the outrage to be an influence white movement and brutally suppressed the rebellion. The Kronstadters were forced to flee en masse to Finland, many were executed, and some received prison sentences. A year later, it was decided to evict the remaining residents of the rebellious island from their places of residence.

1963. “Novocherkassk execution”

A strike by workers at the Novocheskassk plant, which Soviet newspapers and TV did not report, took place in 1962. The plant workers were outraged by the reduction in wages, rising prices and the general situation at the plant. The last straw was the response of the head of the enterprise, who advised his subordinates to switch to eating pies with liver. Workers and citizens blocked railway tracks, trying to “reach out” to the authorities. The rioting crowd was suppressed by armed units of the KGB of the USSR. Shooting was opened, as a result of which more than two dozen people died. The leaders were sentenced to death, while ordinary supporters received prison terms. After the collapse of the Union, they were all rehabilitated, and the culprits were recognized as high-ranking officials who were not punished - they were simply no longer alive.