In Soviet times, it was declared that power in the country belongs to the working people. Therefore, the actions of people similar to those that took place under the tsarist regime are impossible. And the authorities, in contrast to the tsarist times, kept the people on a short leash. However, riots and uprisings in the USSR did happen. And the further, the more.
During Stalin's life, there were almost no uprisings - people were afraid. But Khrushchev's eccentricities, his impulsive decisions and "thaw" did their job.
Hunger riot
In the early 1960s, the food situation in the country worsened. For the first time since the war, the government introduced food ration cards, and in 1962 Khrushchev ordered the purchase of bread abroad. At the same time, prices for meat and sausage rose by 30% and for butter by 25% starting from June 1 "at the numerous requests of the workers".
To this "surprise" were added the quirks of the local kings. In Novocherkassk, the director of an electric locomotive plant, Boris Kurochkin, decided to increase the company's profit by lowering the prices for working operations. In fact, the manager got into the pocket of the factory workers, cutting their salaries. For the workers, this was akin to a shock: not only did prices rise by 30%, but also wages were cut by 30%. Overnight, they lost more than half of their already meager income.
On the morning of June 1, a group of steel workers decided to go to Kurochkin and ask: "How to live on?" The director began to explain, but when the woman asked him what to feed the children, he sarcastically snapped: “There is not enough money for meat - eat pies with liver. It's still cheap! " The workers interpreted his words as a mockery. Sensing the storm, Kurochkin disappeared into the plant management.
But the crowd had already started up. The loud signal of the factory whistle, as if in films about the revolution, spurred people to the rally. People came to the plant management not only from workshops, but also from nearby houses and enterprises. Realizing that it was impossible to come to an agreement with the local bosses, the people decided to seek the arrival of the Kremlin rulers. A crowd of five thousand blocked the railway and stopped the train. On the locomotive, someone wrote in large letters: "Khrushchev for meat!" The performance, which began as an everyday one, acquired the character of a political action.
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Bloody Saturday
In part, the workers got their way. Seven hours later, members of the Politburo arrived from Moscow - Kozlov, Mikoyan, Kirilenko. Upon learning of this, people wanted to communicate with them. But they did not want to talk with the proletariat, and the workers tired of waiting tore the portrait of Khrushchev from the building of the city committee and burned it. Only then did the secretary of the Rostov regional committee Basov come out onto the balcony and began to talk about the "party's decision." Then the floor was given to the same director Kurochkin, and stones and bottles were thrown at him.
Wanting to curry favor with the party bosses, the local authorities brought 200 militiamen from the city of Shakhty. But the crowd simply crushed them, seriously beating three of them. After that, the activists began to offer to send a delegation to the neighboring factories, turn off the gas, set up pickets and seize the State Bank and the Telegraph in the morning. In general, the analogy with 1917 was obvious.
On the morning of June 2, tanks entered Novocherkassk. True, people did not believe that the authorities would start shooting at the working people. Therefore, the demonstrators hit the tanks with heavy objects and even beat several soldiers. When the crowd with red banners and a portrait of Lenin began to approach the building of the Novocherkassk city committee, the Moscow bosses quickly left for the military town. And from there arrived the chief of the Novocherkassk garrison, Major General Oleshko, with 50 machine gunners. He already had the authority to open fire. Frol Kozlov, secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, insisted on this very measure.
Having lined up the machine gunners in a row, the general warned the people that he would shoot in the event of an assault on the building. Then the soldiers fired a warning salvo. Shouts were heard in the crowd: “Don't be afraid, they are shooting blanks!”, And people again went to the assault. A second volley into the air followed, and then the soldiers opened fire to kill. The crowd staggered and rushed from the square in terror. In addition to machine gunners, snipers fired at the instigators of the riot from the rooftops. According to official data, 26 people died in Novocherkassk. According to unofficial sources, the number of victims was about a hundred.
Gendarmes of people's power
By the way, the Novocherkassk revolt was not the first. On January 15, 1961, at a market in Krasnodar, a military patrol detained Private Grenia, who was selling boots and a hat. Deciding that the soldier was trying to earn money for food, the crowd became indignant. But the officer asked the vigilantes for help, and together they brought Grenia to the commandant's office. Soon a hundred people gathered outside her building, demanding that the soldier be released. To forestall the seizure of the commandant's office, the sentry fired a warning shot and accidentally hit the teenager in the head. The momentary shock of the murder gave way to anger.
The rebels put the corpse of the young man on a stretcher and carried it to the central square to the building of the regional committee. His bloody coat was hoisted on a stick like a banner, and, humming revolutionary pensions, people walked along the main street of Krasnodar. Having reached the regional committee, the activists staged a rally, where they began to express their claims to the authorities. And first of all to Khrushchev. In the end, the crowd broke into the regional committee and smashed the offices.
Upon learning of the riot, Khrushchev ordered to suppress it by any means. But with the onset of darkness, people began to disperse themselves, and the authorities did not use force. Nevertheless, the instigators of the riots were identified and received severe prison sentences.
The death of a worker, who was detained by the police on June 30, 1961 with a head injury, was the reason for the riots in Murom. The deceased needed help and instead was bleeding out in the cell. At the funeral, the factory workers decided that the guy had died as a result of beatings, and they came to seek the truth from the GOVD. There were shouts: "Hit the police!", "Hit the fascists!" Stones were thrown into the windows of the city department, and the demonstrators turned over the police car and began to use it as a platform for slogans. As a result, the rioters with shovels, axes and crowbars took the GOVD by storm, took away weapons from there and smashed the offices. Then the building was set on fire, and the firefighters who arrived were not allowed to extinguish it.
Riots broke out in the city, the authorities did not know what to do. Only closer to night, when 200 soldiers arrived in the city, order was restored. However, three weeks later, in the neighboring town of Alexandrov, where they had already heard about the Murom pogrom, local residents staged a new uprising. The reason was the same - people believed that the police beat the detainees. In Aleksandrov, the rebels not only burned down the police building, but also tried to storm the local prison, where dangerous criminals were kept. As a result, the guards opened fire, killing four people, but the rioters did not retreat. They tried to set fire to the prison. Only the introduction of the Dzerzhinsky division into the city allowed the authorities to take control of the situation.
Perhaps it was these riots that preceded Novocherkassk that caused Khrushchev's harshness, which led to the execution of workers. Indeed, after 40 years of Soviet rule, the rebellion in Novocherkassk has become a slap in the face for the Kremlin. But such cases were not publicized, so the people continued to be indignant.
In 1963, a "Stalinist revolt" broke out in Sumgait, when people refused to burn portraits of Stalin, whom Khrushchev had branded. In 1964, riots broke out in Bronnitsy and Stavropol, the reason was the harsh actions of the police. In 1967, riots took place in Frunze and Chimkent, again caused by the brutality of law enforcement officers. In the same 1967, in Stepanakert, a crowd recaptured three men accused of the death of a child from a convoy, beat them in the street, and burned their corpses.
A new round of popular anger happened already under Mikhail Gorbachev and was more of a nationalist shade.
new broom
After Khrushchev's displacement, popular performances began to fade away. The reason was the rise in the standard of living of the population and the reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the new minister Nikolai Shchelokov, who was appointed by Brezhnev
Alexey MARTOV