Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
Uprise at Nowotscherkassk!
On July 1, 1962, the largest workers' uprising in the history of the Soviet Union begins in the southern Russian city of Novocherkassk!
The day before, head of state and party leader Nikita Khrushchev...
...to get a supply crisis in the USSR under control once again, all food prices were increased by up to 35 percent.
Simultaneously with this, the Soviet leader decreed a 35 percent reduction in wages.
There are several reasons why there is a bang in Novocherkassk in particular: the city, once the capital of the autonomous region of the Don Cossacks under the tsars, is suspect to the authorities due to its predominantly Cossack population and is poorly supplied - to the detriment of the city of Rostov-on-Don - and the The population, for their part, is therefore not particularly on good terms with the authorities, especially with the party cadres, who are well looked after in Extra shops ("Kommersant").
Early in the morning, the workforce of the city's largest industrial company, the locomotive factory...
... unanimously on strike...
... and the workers march protesting to the city center...:
Delegations of locomotive workers rush to other factories and call on their colleagues there to go on strike as well. These calls are followed almost 100%!
Late in the morning, the protesting crowd counts by tens of thousands...
... the local population (mostly family members of the workers affected by Khrushchev's measures) show solidarity...:
The crowd shows Lenin pictures (they hang in every office, you just have to take them down from the wall!) and red flags to make it clear to the authorities that they are not against the system per se, but only against massive price increases along with wage cuts!
Nothing happens on the part of the state - except that additional militia units (police) are sent to Novocherkassk...:
The following July 2, strikes and demonstrations are repeated. However, not quite as peaceful as the day before:
A number of hotheads got the upper hand due to the lack of state countermeasures, some party and administration buildings, as well as stations of the militia (police) are stormed and police officers and other officials are beaten and ridiculed.
What the strikers and the protesters don't know:
The authorities actually wanted to strike back on July 1st and suppress the uprising with military force!
The commander in charge of the North Caucasus military district, General Issa Aleksandrovich Plijev...
...had the (Cossack-born!) military district commander on site, Lieutenant General Matwej Kusmich Shaposhnikov
...already given the order to deploy and fire.
But Shaposhnikov, a highly decorated World War II hero, had disobeyed his superior's orders! He did not let his soldiers shoot at unarmed demonstrators.
THAT had caused the delay in government countermeasures!
Shaposhnikov was immediately relieved and later transferred to the reserve - General Pliev personally took over the command.
Around 11 a.m. his troops start shooting at the demonstrators, tanks clear the streets..:
If you don't go, you'll either be shot or run over by the tanks.
Officially, 24 dead are admitted, sometimes 26 are spoken of - in truth it must have been far more! They are buried together...:
Towards evening there is cemetary peace at Novocherkassk...:
The usual trials against the alleged ringleaders will follow in the next few weeks. Seven death sentences are passed and carried out...:
Here are the names of those executed...:
ZAYTSEW Alexander Fedorowitsch
MOKROUSOV Boris Nikolajewitsch
KORKACH Andrej Andrejewitsch
Sotnikov Sergey Sergeevich
Kuznetsow Michail Alexejewitsch
SHUVAEV Vladimir Georgievich
CHEREPANOV Vladimir Dmitrievich
And here their pictures...:
Scores of other strikers receive lengthy prison sentences in prisons or labor camps. I've got the full list, but I'll spare you.
In 1966 Lieutenant General Shaposhnikov was also tried for "anti-Soviet propaganda"! He had previously been expelled from the CPSU, which amounts to social ostracism.
But the trial against the general ends surprisingly: no death sentence, no prison sentence, not even a demotion.
The charges are quietly and secretly dropped because of his war services!
In addition, high-ranking war comrades of Shaposhnikov must have campaigned massively for him behind the scenes - and the party needs it right now - it is the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis! - a loyal army!
In 1988 Shaposhnikov was rehabilitated and reinstated in the party.
All other convicts will be rehabilitated on June 8, 1996 by an ukase from Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
After the end of the Soviet Union, an unusually simple memorial stone was placed for the strikers in Novocherkassk on February 1, 2008 - our picture shows Russian President Vladimir Putin laying flowers there on the day of the inauguration...:
Direkt nach dem Aufstand bemühte sich das sowjetische Regime nach Kräften, die Vorgänge zu vertuschen und tot zu schweigen, was ihr fast gelungen wäre, denn im Westen ist der Aufstand von Nowotscherkassk - bis heute! - nahezu unbekannt.
On July 1, 1962, the largest workers' uprising in the history of the Soviet Union begins in the southern Russian city of Novocherkassk!
The day before, head of state and party leader Nikita Khrushchev...
...to get a supply crisis in the USSR under control once again, all food prices were increased by up to 35 percent.
Simultaneously with this, the Soviet leader decreed a 35 percent reduction in wages.
There are several reasons why there is a bang in Novocherkassk in particular: the city, once the capital of the autonomous region of the Don Cossacks under the tsars, is suspect to the authorities due to its predominantly Cossack population and is poorly supplied - to the detriment of the city of Rostov-on-Don - and the The population, for their part, is therefore not particularly on good terms with the authorities, especially with the party cadres, who are well looked after in Extra shops ("Kommersant").
Early in the morning, the workforce of the city's largest industrial company, the locomotive factory...
... unanimously on strike...
... and the workers march protesting to the city center...:
Delegations of locomotive workers rush to other factories and call on their colleagues there to go on strike as well. These calls are followed almost 100%!
Late in the morning, the protesting crowd counts by tens of thousands...
... the local population (mostly family members of the workers affected by Khrushchev's measures) show solidarity...:
The crowd shows Lenin pictures (they hang in every office, you just have to take them down from the wall!) and red flags to make it clear to the authorities that they are not against the system per se, but only against massive price increases along with wage cuts!
Nothing happens on the part of the state - except that additional militia units (police) are sent to Novocherkassk...:
The following July 2, strikes and demonstrations are repeated. However, not quite as peaceful as the day before:
A number of hotheads got the upper hand due to the lack of state countermeasures, some party and administration buildings, as well as stations of the militia (police) are stormed and police officers and other officials are beaten and ridiculed.
What the strikers and the protesters don't know:
The authorities actually wanted to strike back on July 1st and suppress the uprising with military force!
The commander in charge of the North Caucasus military district, General Issa Aleksandrovich Plijev...
...had the (Cossack-born!) military district commander on site, Lieutenant General Matwej Kusmich Shaposhnikov
...already given the order to deploy and fire.
But Shaposhnikov, a highly decorated World War II hero, had disobeyed his superior's orders! He did not let his soldiers shoot at unarmed demonstrators.
THAT had caused the delay in government countermeasures!
Shaposhnikov was immediately relieved and later transferred to the reserve - General Pliev personally took over the command.
Around 11 a.m. his troops start shooting at the demonstrators, tanks clear the streets..:
If you don't go, you'll either be shot or run over by the tanks.
Officially, 24 dead are admitted, sometimes 26 are spoken of - in truth it must have been far more! They are buried together...:
Towards evening there is cemetary peace at Novocherkassk...:
The usual trials against the alleged ringleaders will follow in the next few weeks. Seven death sentences are passed and carried out...:
Here are the names of those executed...:
ZAYTSEW Alexander Fedorowitsch
MOKROUSOV Boris Nikolajewitsch
KORKACH Andrej Andrejewitsch
Sotnikov Sergey Sergeevich
Kuznetsow Michail Alexejewitsch
SHUVAEV Vladimir Georgievich
CHEREPANOV Vladimir Dmitrievich
And here their pictures...:
Scores of other strikers receive lengthy prison sentences in prisons or labor camps. I've got the full list, but I'll spare you.
In 1966 Lieutenant General Shaposhnikov was also tried for "anti-Soviet propaganda"! He had previously been expelled from the CPSU, which amounts to social ostracism.
But the trial against the general ends surprisingly: no death sentence, no prison sentence, not even a demotion.
The charges are quietly and secretly dropped because of his war services!
In addition, high-ranking war comrades of Shaposhnikov must have campaigned massively for him behind the scenes - and the party needs it right now - it is the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis! - a loyal army!
In 1988 Shaposhnikov was rehabilitated and reinstated in the party.
All other convicts will be rehabilitated on June 8, 1996 by an ukase from Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
After the end of the Soviet Union, an unusually simple memorial stone was placed for the strikers in Novocherkassk on February 1, 2008 - our picture shows Russian President Vladimir Putin laying flowers there on the day of the inauguration...:
Direkt nach dem Aufstand bemühte sich das sowjetische Regime nach Kräften, die Vorgänge zu vertuschen und tot zu schweigen, was ihr fast gelungen wäre, denn im Westen ist der Aufstand von Nowotscherkassk - bis heute! - nahezu unbekannt.
