Anatoly Fleitman - dalszöveg fordítás angol nyelvre

Year Nineteenth Jubilee

• 1. On February 23, 1917 Old style, (March 8, 1917 New style), Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, was overthrown as a result of the February Revolution. Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky came to power. On October 25, 1917 Old style, (November 7, 1917 New style), the Bolshevicks made the October Revolution and established their power. On the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, they executed Nicolas II, his wife, four daughters, son, and servants in Ekaterinburg in the Ipatiev mansion. Soviet propaganda always criticized him and his epoch for censorship, suppression of dissent, exploitation of labor-power by capital, defeats in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, economic obsolescence of Russia, etc almost until the collapse of the USSR.
• 2. In Russian Empire, the Jews were opressed, mass pogroms of the Jews took place in the 19th - early 20th century. Nicolas II is accused of not doing anything to prevent them to happen. Discrimination of the Jews in pre-revolutionary Russia is the real reason why many revolutionists from the Bolshevik party had Jewish names: they wanted to stop that.
• 3. In Russian Empire, there was a famine in 1891-1892 because of crop failure, 27 million people starved. After that, new famines happened until 1911.
• 4. When Joseph Stalin was the leader of the USSR, there was a cult of his personality, Soviet propaganda of that time idealized him. 'Father of Nations' was one of Stalin's titles.
• 5. Joseph Stalin industrialized the USSR widely using labor of the prisoners of the gulag. Working conditions of the prisoners were extremely hard. Today certain people justify Stalin's repressions by the fact that the Soviet Union eventually did become an industrialised country, got a strong army and an atomic bomb, they think it was impossible to avoid large human casualties during the industrialization.
• 6. In 1921, the Bolsheviks temporarily allowed private business in order to rebuild Soviet Russia after the devastating Russian Civil War, it was called 'new economic policy'. It gave good results, Soviet Russia had economic growth. But, in 1928-1929, the new economic policy was stopped, Stalin started collectivization and accelerated industrialization. People who had their own business were repressed as 'kulaks', their property was expropriated. The villagers were forced to work in collective farms. Collectivization led to famine in the Russian, Ukranian, Belarussian, and Kazakh Socialist Republics in 1932-1933, the USSR had to import crops from the USA.
• 7. lords (here): the so-called 'kulaks' who had their business during the new economic policy and were repressed for that.
• 8. Stalin died on March 5, 1953. His body was interred in Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow.
• 9. In 1956, on the XX Congress of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikita Khruschev, the next leader of the Soviet Union, delivered a speech with the title of 'About cult of personality and its consequences' in which he debunked Joseph Stalin's cult of personality and codemned him for repressions, defeats of the Red Army at the beginning of WWII, perversion of communism, conflicts with another socialist countries. Many political prisoners were released from prisons, many Bolsheviks punished by death during the Stalin era were posthumously rehabilitated, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's works about the gulag were published. Statues of Stalin in Soviet cities were demolished, all cities named after Stalin were renamed. In 1961, after the XXII Congress of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Stalin's body was carried out of Lenin's Mausoleum and buried in a grave near Kremlin wall.
• 10. During the Stalin epoch, no one could feel safe regardless of his or her political belief. Charged often were absurd, sentences were passed without proper investigation. During interrogations, people were tortured, pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit. The victims of repression were not only ordinary people, but also the Bolsheviks who organized the October revolution, officers of the Red Army, NKVD officers, European communists who came to the USSR, scientists, engineers, aircraft designers, actors, poets, writers, medics, clergymen etc. For example, the members of the Bolshevik party Alexander Zinoviev and Lyev Kamenev helped Stalin expel Lyev Trotsky from the Soviet union as 'a traitor'. After some time, both of them were accused of plotting a coup against Stalin and executed as 'traitors'. Nikolay Bukharin supported Stalin in his fight 'against traitors Zinoviev and Kamenev', was glad when they were shot, but later he himself was called 'a traitor' and got a death sentence. Genrikh Yagoda, the first NKVD head, who carried out Stalin's repressions, was arrested in 1937 and executed in 1938. Nikilay Yezhov headed NKVD after Yagoda and continued repressive policy, but he also was arrested in 1939 and executed in 1940, one of his counts was 'homosexualism for anti-Soviet purposes and personal gain.' Georgy Langermak, chief designer of rockets for MLRS BM-13 Katyusha, was arrested in 1937 and shot in 1938. Andrey Tupolev, chief designer of Tu aircrafts was arrested in 1937 and worked at closed prison-like engineering bureau. Sergey Korolyov, chief designer of the Vostok launch vehicle and Vostok-1 spacecraft on which Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space, was arrested in 1938, avoided a death sentence, was forced to work in the same conditions as Tupolev. Konstantin Rokossovsky, famous Soviet marshal of WWII, was arrested in 1937, in 1940 he was released. Stalin's propaganda did not hide the fact of repression, lists of executed 'enemies of the people' were printed in newspapers.
• 11. In 1954-1965, in order to increase crop production, by decision of Khruschev, the USSR ploughed and planted virgin lands in Kazakhstan, Volga region, Urals region, Syberia, Russian Far East, and Crimea. Ploughing of virgin lands was being done in a hurry, environmental conditions were not taken into consideration, infrastructure was bad. In general, Khruschev's idea of ploughing of virgin lands was a failure. At beginning, crop production in the Soviet Union did increase, but later it led to soil erosion and massive destruction of local flora and fauna. In parallel, sown areas in Russian fertile lands such as Non-Black Earth Region, the Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR and the Middle Volga Region were decreased by 1959. The Soviet Union had to keep importing crop from the United States of America and Canada. Of course, Soviet propaganda presented that Khrushchev initiative as a great achievement of socialism. Good workers were awarded the medal 'For the development of virgin lands', the most outstanding workers got title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
• 12. On January 2, 1959, the USSR launched the spacecraft Luna-1 to reach the Moon and land there, but did not succeed because of system failure. On September 12, 1959, after three unsuccessful attempts to launch, the Soviet spacecraft Luna-2 landed on the Moon. On October, 4, 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna-3 flew around the Moon and photographed its dark side. Since 1960, Sergey Korolyov was developing the N-1 launch vehicle for Soviet Moon Program. When he learned about success of American Apollon Program, he asked Khruschev, 'Are we flying to the Moon, or not?', Khruschev answered, 'Don't give the Moon to Americans! We will find as much money as necessary'. Since 1963, the Soviet Union sent E-6 series spacecrafts to the Moon to accomplish soft landing, but succeeded only on February 3, 1966.
• 13. In 1964, the group headed by Leonid Brezhnev, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, prepared a plot against Nikita Khruschev. On October 13, 1964, on the meeting of Politburo, Brezhnev blamed Khruschev for creating his own cult of personality, insulting the members of the CPSU, combining positions, dividing the Communist Party into industrial and agricultural parts, and mistakes in governing the country. Khruschev asked why nobody of that group ever objected when he was wrong when they worked with him, told that they themselves always supported all his initiatives and also were responsible for his failures, apologised for rudeness. On October, 14, Khruschev declared that he was not going to struggle for power and he was ready to voluntarily leave his post. After that, he signed the resignation letter 'due to old age and health' and was retired, Leonid Brezhnev was 'unanimously elected' tne new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR on October 15, 1964. After his resignation, Khruschev lived under house arrest at dacha in Usov, later he agreed to move to State-owned dacha near Petrovo-Dalnee village. He was not allowed to go outside his dacha unless he needed to visit hospitals. KGB security officers always followed him. In the last years of his life, Khruschev could visit different events, but only under escort by security and his relatives. Soviet literature and media of the Brezhnev era did not mention Kruschev's name. When he died in 1971, Soviet newspapers reported it in small articles printed in small font. His funeral was not as beautiful as Stalin's or Brezhnev's ones, mourning over his death was not declared. Khruschev's campaign against the cult of personality of Stalin was stopped and forgotten until Perestroika.
• 14. Gamal Naser was the President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970. He always maintained good relations with the USSR, Soviet goverment considered him one of the most important allies and supplied him military equipment for free(!). Khruschev awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Golden Star and the Order of Lenin on May 13, 1964.
• 15. The funny thing is that after Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, he also was accused for doing bad things. His faults were: creating of his own cult of personality, rising corruption, stagnation of Soviet economy, rewarding himself a large number of medals and titles he did not really deserve, intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968, start the Soviet-Afghan War in 1979.