Flag Day - Russia

August 22, 2008 at 4:41 am (Russia, Russia/CIS, holidays)
Tags: , , ,

They’re waving the red, white and blue over in Russia today, though not necessarily in that order. The white-blue-red Russian tri-color flag dates back to the 1660s when Czar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered ships to fly a similar banner for identification. Historians speculate it may have been inspired by the Dutch flag, the oldest remaining tri-color national flag.

Dutch flag

Dutch flag

In the 1880s Czar Alexander III declared the tri-color flag the official flag of Russia. After the October Revolution of 1917, the tri-color was replaced by the red Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag.

The Soviet flag flies over the Berlin Reichstag at the end of WWII

The Soviet flag flies over the Berlin Reichstag at the end of WWII

Flag Day marks the anniversary of the end of the failed 1991 “August Putsch”, a coup which attempted to stem Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist policies of the 1980s, but which led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union instead.

Subject 110 and The Gang of Eight

In early to mid-1991, Gorbachev–one of the two most powerful men in the world–was placed under surveillance, not by a foreign power, but by his own KGB.

The head of the KGB, Vladimir Kryuchkov, was fearful of the liberal Russian president’s attempts to modernize the country through the decentralization of power. Gorby was working with leaders of the separate Soviet republics on a treaty that would increase the sovereignty of the republics, a move he deemed necessary to sustain the unity of the whole. Hard-liners opposed to the treaty.

In July Khryuchkov overheard a conversation between Subject #110 (Gorbachev) and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (Though the terms ‘Soviet Union’ and ‘Russia’ were used interchangeably, Russia was technically one of the many Republics that made up the Soviet Union, like Azerbaijan or Lithuania, only much, much bigger.) in which it was suggested that they replace old school party members like Kryuchnov and his cronies with more liberal ones.

Needless to say, Kryuchkov was not down with this. Nor were his seven cronies, henceforth know as the “Gang of Eight.”

On August 18, some of the Gang of Eight paid Gorbachev a friendly visit while he vacationed at his dacha in the Crimea, during which the concerned visitors ensured the Soviet leader’s rest and privacy by cutting off all channels of communication and placing him under house arrest. The following day they attempted to assume control of the country, due to Gorbachev’s “illness”.

A quarter million handcuffs and arrest forms had been ordered. Prisons were emptied to make room for agitators. Independent newspapers were shut down, and tanks prepared to roll into the capital to seize control of the Russia’s parliament building, the “White House”.

The Russian White House

The Russian "White House" (note the barricades)

Boris Yeltsin and other leaders urged the military not to support the coup. They called for a general strike and demanded that Gorbachev be allowed to address the nation. Citizens surrounded the White House and barricaded it with whatever they could–street trolleys, street sweepers, homemade barriers–to prevent the military from attacking.

Boris Yeltsin (left) during the 1991 coup

Boris Yeltsin (left) during the coup

On August 21, at 1 AM, tanks and army vehicles moved in. A pivotal moment was when Spetsgruppa A (Alfa Group), the military unit entrusted with entering the White House and killing Boris Yeltsin and company, analyzed the number of civilian deaths such an action would require, and refused to carry out their mission.

The hard-liners knew they were in deep. They attempted to strike a deal with Gorbachev. He refused to meet with them. That evening communications were restored at the dacha; Gorbachev denounced the actions of the Gang of Eight, ordered their dismissals, and resumed control of the country.

The following day, August 22, the Russian legislature chose to fly Russia’s historic tri-color flag rather than the hammer-and-sickle flag of the Soviet Union.

It was only a piece of cloth, but the symbolic gesture of raising the pre-Soviet flag was tantamount to Russia declaring its own independence from the Soviet Union. And without Russia, there could be no Soviet Union.

Between August 20 and August 30, Estonia, Kyrgyztan, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan declared independence. In September, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Tajikstan, and Armenia did the same.

Russian troops pull out of Gori, Georgia

Russian troops pull out of Gori, Georgia

This week Russian troops pulled out of Gori, Georgia (above), the town where former dictator Joseph Stalin once went to elementary school before becoming the Soviet Union’s most powerful leader.

A look-back at headlines of August 22: 1996 to present

August 22, 1996

“A cease-fire between Chechen rebels and Russian troops went into effect Friday, spreading relative calm over the war-torn region and raising the possibility of an end to the 20-month conflict. But how long, or whether the cease-fire will hold, remains the lingering question.” CNN

August 22, 1997

“…Mir appears to be the only game in town for gathering the science needed to build an international station planned for early in the 21st century…” CNN

“The Clinton Administration has been quietly pressing Russia for most of this year to stop Russian scientists and military institutes from helping Iran develop a new ballistic missile…” New York Times

August 22, 1998

“In the past two weeks, major Russian banks have been on the brink of collapse. Interest on bonds (payable in rubles) has risen from 35 percent to 100 percent, 200 percent, even 300.” People’s Weekly World

August 22, 1999

“Russia says its forecs have gained partial control of one of the villages seized by Islamist rebels two weeks ago in the southern republic of Dagestan.” BBC

August 22, 2000:

“Russia has declared the entire crew of the submarine Kursk lost at sea…” Strategy Page

“Poor nutrition, alcohol abuse and, to an increasing but not precisely measurable extent, intravenous drug use have produced a drastic reduction in life expectancy. Over half the teenage boys living in Russia today will not reach 60.” Guardian

August 22, 2001:

“A poll released in July said only 10 percent regarded [August 1991] as a democratic revolution that ended Communist power. Twenty-five percent look back at August 1991 as a tragic event whose aftermath was disastrous for the country.” NewsHour

August 22, 2002:

“Flags flew at half-mast and black arm bands were worn in Russia to mark the deaths of 116 servicemen killed when a military helicopter came down over Chechnya.” CNN

“Chechnya is Russia’s open wound, but it is like an illness that no one dares speak about.” New York Times

August 22, 2004:

“The daily death toll in Chechnya continues to mount as rebels and security troops battle each other.” Strategy Page

August 22, 2007:

“Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans to revive Russia’s military power and restore its role as the world’s leading producer of aircraft yesterday.” Guardian

“Regular flights of Russian strategic bombers do not pose a threat to other countries…an Air Force spokesman said Wednesday.” Novosti

August 22, 2008:

“Russia formally presented to the UN Security Council on Thursday its draft resolution endorsing a six-point cease-fire agreement on the Georgian crisis sponsored by France.” Xinhua

Comments

Russian Apple Spas

August 19, 2008 at 8:51 am (Russia)
Tags:

Before you grab your towel and get undressed, no, this has nothing to do saunas or back rubs, so put your pants back on. This is a family blog.

No. Spas in Russian means “savior”. The ‘Spases‘ are three folk holidays celebrated in August, that bring the Russian summer season to a close with style. And food.

August 14 (Gregorian) is mokryi Spas, or “Wet Savior”, but is more commonly referred to as Honey Spas (medovyi Spas), so named because it coincides with the late-summer gathering of honey.

The second, and most important of the three takes place today. Spas na gore/iablochnyi Spas, aka, “Savior on the Hill”/”Apple Spas”.

Apple Spas falls during the Feast of the Transfiguration in the Eastern Orthodox Calendar (August 19, Gregorian; August 6, Julian). Fruits and veggies from orchards and gardens are blessed today, and it’s considered bad luck to eat apples until now. More specifically, children in heaven are said to receive apples to eat this day, only if their living parents have not done so before Apple Spas.

The third Spas is orekhovyi Spas–Nut Savior–which once coincided with–you guessed it–the gathering of nuts at month’s end (August 29, Gregorian; August 16, Julian).

The Spas developed out of agrarian festivals during which the first spoils of the harvest were consecrated in honor of nature deities, in the hopes of a bountiful harvest and mild winter. Over the centuries the folk festivals became inextricably intertwined with Christian traditions.

The Apples Spas coincidentally falls on the anniversary of the start of the 1991 coup in which Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was kidnapped by hard-liners who disagreed with his reformist policies. The coup failed, and within days, five Soviet republics had declared their independence. By the year’s end, the 75 year-old Soviet Union had ceased to exist.

This is not Russian Spas but it looks like theyre having fun.

This is not Russian Spas but it looks like fun.

2 Comments

anti-Valentine’s Day in Russia?

July 8, 2008 at 9:02 pm (Russia)
Tags:

From Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays

“Russia’s First Lady, Svetlana Medvedeva, is chairing a comittee to celebrate July 8th as a Russian “anti-Valentine’s Day”, with emphasis on family, mariage and long-term faithfulness, rather than what she (and many in Russia) considers the shallowness of Saint-Valentine’s celebration of short-term infatuation.

“If this year’s first July 8 celebration of SS. Piotr and Fevronia (two 13th century Russian Orthodox Saints who were married and buried in the same coffin) is a success, Mrs. Medvedev has promised to make it an official public holiday in Russia.”

http://qppstudio-public-holidays-news.blogspot.com/2008/06/russias-first-lady-wants-july-8-public.html

Comments

Mothers Day - Georgia

March 3, 2008 at 2:34 am (Georgia, Russia)
Tags: ,

Today is Mother’s Day in Georgia — the country, not the state.

 

Perhaps the most famous of all Georgian mothers was Katerina Geladze Djugashvili. 

 

Katerina Geladze 

(Katerina Geladze) 

 

The daughter of serfs, Katerina married at age 17. She had two children—Mikhail and Georgi—who died as babies, before her third, Josef, was born. A devout Christian, Katerina made a vow to God. If this boy would survive, he would become a servant of the Lord.

 

Soso, as she called him—did live, but was often ill. Katerina nursed him to health through small pox, endless colds and coughs, and a case of blood poisoning that left one of his arms permanently injured. 

 

Soso’s father was a drunk who habitually abused his wife and son. The most merciful thing he did was to walk out on them to get a job at a shoe factory in the city, where he eventually drank himself to death.

 

young stalin 

(Young Soso) 

 

Katerina worked as a laundress and servant to raise money for her son to attend the Gori Parochial School. Though other boys picked on him for his ragged clothes, pockmarked face and hick accent, the boy graduated at the top of his class, and was accepted to the prestigious Tiflis Theological Seminary.

 

“To the Most Reverend Archemandrite Seraphim, Rector and Father,” wrote the boy… 

 

Having completed my studies at the Gori Church School as the best student, with the permission of Your Reverence I presumed to take the entrance examination for the Tiflis Theological Seminary even though I do not have the money to continue my studies. I was fortunate to be successful in this examination and was admitted among the students of the Theological Seminary. However, since my parents are unable to provide for me in Tiflis I am appealing with great humility to Your Reverence to admit me among those students who have half their tuition fees paid for them. I presume to mention here that throughout my studies at the Gori Church School I received assistance from the school funds. - Josef Djugashvili, October 1894 

Soso sang in the school choir, read voraciously, and began writing poetry:

 

 

“To the Moon”

 

Move on, O tireless one–

Never bowing your head,

Scatter the misty clouds,

Great is the providence of the Almighty

Smile tenderly upon the earth

Which lies outspread beneath you;

Sing a lullaby to Mkhinvari*

Strung down from the heavens.

And know that he who fell like ashes to the earth,

Who long ago became enslaved,

Will rise again higher than the holy mountain

Wing with bright hope

And as in former days

O beauty, you shone among the heavens

So now let your rays play in splendor

In the blue sky

I shall rip open my shirt

And bare my breast to the moon,

And with outstretched hands

Worship her who showers her light on the world.

Young Soso

 

 

(*Georgian name for Mount Kazbek in the Caucus Mountains, believed to be the spot where Zeus chained Prometheus for stealing fire from the gods.)

 

It was Soso’s appetite for reading that got him expelled just before graduation. He was caught with banned literature, including works by Darwin and Victor Hugo. His mother’s dreams were dashed to pieces.

 

Many years later, after Josef changed his last name to Stalin (much easier to pronounce than Djugashvili) he tried to explain to his mother what he did—leaving out all that paranoid, mass-murdering, genocidal dictator stuff. He was the leader, not of Georgia, but of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The single most power person in the world.

 

Katerina simply said—like any good mother—she was disappointed he never became a priest.

Comments

Defenders of the Motherland Day

February 23, 2008 at 11:13 am (Russia)
Tags: ,

Today Russia celebrates Defenders of the Motherland Day.

 

Russian Federation Flag 

 

On February 23 (Julian Calendar) 1917, Russian women in Petrograd celebrated the 7th International Women’s Day. In response to food shortages caused by the war with Germany, the women of Russia’s capital city “poured onto the streets,” demanding “bread for our children” and “the return of our husbands from the trenches.” 

www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1920/womens-day.htm

 

The protests gained momentum the following days when workers’ strikes forced the closure of hundreds of factories. On February 26 the Tsar, who was away conducting the war, ordered his general to disperse the demonstrators, now numbering in the hundreds of thousands, saying such disturbances were “impermissible at a time when the fatherland is carrying on a difficult war with Germany.” 

Tony Cliff Lenin: All Power to the Soviets

 

Russian troops fired on the crowds, killing dozens of protesters. But the real problem for the Tsar was that many of the Tsar’s troops refused to fire on crowds and sided with the strikers. The clashes of February 24-27 claimed about 1500 lives on both sides. In the end the Tsar lost the support of his own troops, was forced to abdicate his throne.

 

But that’s not why the Russians celebrate on February 23. 

 

 

Nope, it’s because of what happened on February 23 the following year.

 

Nicholas II’s abdication gave way to a Russian Provisional Government, led by Social Revolutionary Alexander Kerensky. Under Kerensky the government declared Russia a republic, pronounced freedom of speech, made steps to encourage democracy, and released thousands of political prisoners.

 

But Kerensky, perhaps because he was the former Defense Minister, continued to keep the Russians engaged in the disastrous war against Germany. Bad move. Like the Tsar before him, the war would be his downfall.

 Kerensky

(Great article on Kerensky) 

 

How Russia got its Soviet:

 

The Russian word soviet meant “council.” Soviets were workers’ councils with little power, set up in the wake of 1905’s Bloody Sunday.

 

The Bolsheviks were an extremist minority party and as such could not hold much sway in a democratic assembly. Instead Lenin and the Bolsheviks bypassed the Provisional Government entirely and consolidated their power in these urban workers’ councils known as soviets, the most prominent one being the soviet in Petrogad. 

 

1917 their platform called for the seizure of land, property and industry by the peasantry and workers, for the transfer of power to the local workers’ councils, and for the immediate end of war with Germany.

 

In April few took the Bolsheviks seriously. 

 

By November they ruled the country.

 

What happened in 7 months?

 

Under Kerensky’s Provisional Government food and supply shortages worsened. Mass numbers of Russian soldiers continued to defect. And the drain of resources for the war effort strangled the economy. Even though most people were against the war, political parties would not withdraw. Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ opposition to the war bought them enough support to pull off the armed uprising later called the “October Revolution,” which occurred in—you guessed it—November. (Gregorian)

 

After the uprising the Bolsheviks put forth a resolution before the Provisional Government to transfer political power to the soviets.When the Provisional Government voted it down (What a surprise) the Bolsheviks walked out. The next day the Bolsheviks, with the support of 5,000 members of the Russian Navy in Petrograd, issued a decree dissolving the Provisional Government.

 

Lenin with Sunglasses 

(Lenin statue w/ shades) 

 

Lenin believed a standing army was a bourgeois institution and would not be necessary in a communist society; he was proved wrong. In order to ensure beneficial terms in an armistice with Germany, and facing a massive civil war, the Bolsheviks called for the establishment of a standing Workers’ and Peasants’ “Red” Army to replace the disintegrated Imperial Army. The decree was issued on January 28. 10 days later on February 23* assemblies were held across the country to recruit soldiers for the new army. The “mass meetings brought 60,000 men into the Red Army in Petrograd, 20,000 in Moscow and thousands more in other places around the country.”

The Red Army, 1918-1941 

 

*(On February 1, 1918 Russia switched from the old Julian Calendar, abandoned by the West in the 16th through 18th centuries, to the Gregorian Calendar. As a result, the date February 1, 1918 in Russia was followed by February 14, 1918.)

 

February 23 was declared Red Army Day. It was changed to Soviet Army Day by Stalin. And to Defenders of the Motherland Day following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 

Recently, according to dincarslan.blogspot.com, “the long reaching poisonous arms of capitalism have found a new virgin field to exploit and made this day a “Men’s Day” where the women gives (or should give) gifts to their fathers, brothers, boyfriends and male colleagues.”

 

So, ironically, the date on which the Russians once celebrated women, February 23, is now a holiday extolling men.

 

Defenders of the Motherland Day

 

Lyubov Tsarevskaya has a more traditional, patriotic view of the holiday:

“This is the ultimate reflection of one’s devotion and patriotism. As Jesus Christ said, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) The history of the army in Imperial, Soviet, and now, Russian times is replete in stirring examples of self-sacrifice and heroism.”

 

The Chechens regard February 23 in a remarkably different manner:

 

On Army Day Chechens Quietly Remember Mass Deportation

 

It Has Been 63 Years Since the Deporation of the Chechens and Ingush 

 

 

Army Day blunder

(A 2006 poster proclaiming “Congrats to the Russian Soldiers” mistakingly shows the USS Missouri.)

Comments

Sunday Bloody Sunday

January 22, 2008 at 9:46 am (Russia)
Tags:

 

“We, workers and inhabitants of the city of St. Petersburg, members of various sosloviia, our wives, children, and helpless aged parents, have come to you, Sovereign, to seek justice and protection…”

 

Thus began a petition to Nicholas II, Czar of Russia, protesting the working and living conditions in St. Petersburg. 

 

It didn’t work.

 

The peaceful protest was led by a Russian Orthodox priest named Father George Gapon, a “simple-hearted priest, with a rather childlike faith in God and Tsar,” according to Henry Woodd Nevison (The Dawn in Russia, 1906).

 

Father Gapon 

(Father George Gapon) 

 

A massive December strike at 174 factories, including the electricity plant, had paralyzed the city. Gapon led approximately 15,000 workers and their families to the Tsar’s Winter Palace with their list of grievances.  

 

According to Nevinson, “Father Gapon organized a dutiful appeal of the Russian workmen to the tender-hearted autocrat whose benevolence was only thwarted by evil counsellors and his ignorance of the truth.”

 

Father Gapon was the chief scribe of the petition to the Czar. It asked for an 8-hour work day, freedom of assembly to unionize, improved working conditions, medical aid, higher wages for women, freedom of speech, press and religion, and an end to the Japanese war. 

 

The petition ended: 

 

“If you do not respond to our prayer, then we shall die here, on this square, in front of your palace. We have nowhere else to go and no reason to. There are only two roads for us, one to freedom and happiness, the other to the grave. Let our lives be sacrificed for suffering Russia. We do not regret that sacrifice, we embrace it eagerly.”

 

Despite this claim, the workers and their families did not seem so willing to embrace their fate after 200 of their number had been slaughtered via bayonet and bullet by the Czar’s guards as they approached the palace. (Nevinson claims 1500 dead. The government’s official count was 100.) Hundreds more were injured.

 

Depiction of Bloody Sunday Depiction of Bloody Sunday 

(depictions of Bloody Sunday) 

 

The Czar didn’t get the petition.

 

Having been warned of the Sunday march Nicholas had skipped town.

 

Word circulated about the country, and the numbers of the dead increased with each telling. In Moscow and other cities angry workers rioted, demonstrations turned violent, and thus began the Russian Revolution of 1905.

 

Father Gapon was not killed in the massacre, though many  around him were. He sneaked out of the country, making his way to Western capitals such as Paris, London and Geneva, to garner international support for the cause.

 

Gapon was announced as a hero by both Leon Trotsky and the New York Times.

 

Strangely enough, word leaked that Gapon was not only a friend of labor, but also a double agent working for the Okhrana, the Czar’s secret police. The Okhrana clandestinely created or infiltrated union assemblies in order to snuff out the agitators and arrest them.

 

Gapon’s intentions before the massacre, whether he had any idea of the outcome, will never be know for sure. Nor will we know if, horrified by the events of Bloody Sunday, Gapon’s newfound anger toward the Czar was sincere. It may well have been.

 

What is known is that soon after his return to Russia, his dead body was found with a rope around his neck in an empty cottage outside the village of Ozerki, Finland.

 

And an unsigned letter published in a St. Petersburg newspaper read:

 

George Gapon had been tried by a workmen’s secret tribunal and had been found guilty of having acted as an agent provocateur, of having squandered the money of the workmen, and of having defiled the honor and memory of the comrades who fell on the “Red Sunday.” In consequence of these acts, of which he was said to have made a full confession to the tribunal, he was condemned to death, and the sentence had been duly carried out.  

(The Fall of the Russian Empire, Edmund Walsh)

 

 

Some say Bloody Sunday is still going on.

 

The Russian Revolution: through the Eyes of a Factory Worker 

Russian Police Kill Four Militants in Chechen Capital 

Russia Police Block Anti-Putin March, Detain Leaders 

 

 

 

1 Comments