SOCIAL UPHEAVALS OF THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN THE MEMOIRS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RUSSIAN NOBILITY

СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ ПОТРЯСЕНИЯ ПЕРВОЙ ЧЕТВЕРТИ ХХ ВЕКА В ВОСПОМИНАНИЯХ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЕЙ РУССКОГО ДВОРЯНСТВА

Черпаченко Татьяна Александровна

магистрант, Белгородский Государственный Национальный Исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Abstract. The article examines the economic and social state of Russia during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The memories of the Russian nobility helped to restore the picture of the events of that time. In the memoirs of representatives of the nobility there is information about what events they encountered and how they adapted to the new realities.

Keywords: Russian social upheavals of 1917, the life of the Russian nobility after the Revolution, memoirs of the Russian nobility, social upheavals of first quarter of the twentieth century.

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of social upheaval in Europe and Russia. The history of Russia in the first quarter of the twentieth century is often portrayed as a time of crisis. The first Russian revolution of 1905 did not lead to the overthrow of the emperor. However, this event marked the lack of a stable electorate. In 1905, the emperor managed to divert the attention of capitalists and representatives of the middle class by promising a constitutional monarchy in his October manifesto.

Nevertheless, it can be said that the ruler of the Russian Empire continued to distrust these groups because of their role in the events of 1905 and because he did not want to recognize the limitations of his role as an absolute monarch. For almost three centuries, the Romanov dynasty did not share authority in Russia. Their centralized state apparatus dominated the country, mainly consisting of serfs, agricultural workers who lived on the land of the nobles and had to work for their landlords.

The nobility profited from this agreement and was overrepresented in the upper echelons of the civil service, the army and other state institutions. The emperor could take noble support for granted. Nobles, as well as rich peasants, officials, merchants, shopkeepers, policemen and clergy came out in defense of absolutism in 1905, uniting in counter-revolutionary and anti-Semitic groups called the Black Hundreds («черносотенцы»).

Their street pogroms were a standard feature of the events of 1905, at which time Nicholas II still managed to stay in power largely due to control over the army. It was clear that this was not enough to preserve absolutism in the long term. When the uprising of the working class in Moscow was suppressed in December, the emperor began to back away from his promises regarding constitutional reform, announcing a set of reforms that were different from those previously interpreted.

The four parliaments that sat between 1905 and 1917 were created in order to increasingly follow the interests of the ruling dynasty. The First Duma, boycotted by the Social Democrats and Socialist revolutionaries, met from April to July 1906. But, due to the fact that too many liberals and representatives of the peasants were elected, the first Duma was dissolved. Then the emperor appointed the inveterate conservative Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin as prime minister.

The activities proposed by Stolypin were supposed to renew the agricultural sector of the Russian Empire without taking the land of the nobles, that is, by creating a new class – rich capitalist farmers. However, Pyotr Arkadyevich faced another «hostile» Duma, in which there were 65 deputies- Social Democrats. In order to carry out land reform, the emperor made changes to constitutional issues without the support of the Duma.

In the summer of 1907, the electoral law was changed, limiting the votes of the popular classes and non-Russians. Stolypin's reforms worked only up to a certain point: they reduced rural poverty, but they failed to create a fully capitalist countryside or even a core electorate for absolutism among the peasants.

The industrial boom occurred in 1909-1913, it was the result of strengthening the purchasing power of citizens after the abolition of redemption payments in 1906, as well as reforms in the agricultural sector (1906-1910). The Russian nobility, which emerged in the 14th century, essentially ruled Russia until the October Revolution of 1917. As in other countries, the nobility was a status, a social category.

After the socialist revolution of 1917, the life of the country underwent significant changes [6]. To a large extent, the consequences of the First World War and social upheavals within the country affected the economy – the national income of 1921 was equal to only one third of 1913. The country's production capacity has significantly decreased, economic reserves have been exhausted, the state of railways – the main means of transporting goods, was in an unstable state. Mass unemployment continued to grow, and such a thing as "disguised unemployment" appeared.

Workers went on shift despite the shortage of materials and equipment and received state subsidies to support the working class. In difficult times, workers took factory products instead of wages. It was during this period of time that large cities were «depopulated». The remaining urban residents were forced to heat their homes with furniture, books and live on food rations. In 1921, in conditions of almost complete stagnation of production, the nobility was subjected to enormous pressure from the state authorities in the person of the Bolsheviks.

Relatively recently, there have been works devoted to the study of the life of representatives of the elite of that time. Gradually, a full-fledged research direction was formed, connected with the daily life of «former» people, who included the estates of nobles, representatives of the clergy and entrepreneurs. The fate of privileged families was also of interest to specialists in historical sociology. Research on this topic was carried out by specialists: S.A. Chuikina, N.I.Roma, M.S.Surinskaya, O.B.Klyushkina.

The researches are based on the methodology of T.Z. Protasenko, a senior researcher at the Sociological Institute, who, in turn, supported the ideas of V. B. Golofast – the head of the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the course of the study, a standard sociological toolkit was used – an oral survey of the descendants of the Russian nobility.

The researchers focused on the peculiarities of the behavior of representatives of noble families after the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. Researcher S.A. Chuikina analyzed memoirs of former nobles, memoirs of descendants of St. Petersburg noble families, private archives, was able to recreate the peculiarities of the lifestyle of nobles after the change of power, their ways of adapting to a new life [7].

Memoirs of representatives of the Russian nobility confirm the difficult times that have become a real test for the aristocrats. [2; 3; 4; 5]. In most of the memories, the period from 1917 to 1921 turned out to be the most difficult, and many representatives of the Russian nobility described their lives exclusively in gloomy tones.

The situation of representatives of noble families who directly faced difficult times deserves special attention. The post-revolutionary period was characterized mainly by the lack of money and everyday problems. From the memoirs of a graduate of Higher women's courses, the daughter of a Voronezh teacher Zinaida Denisevskaya: «Life has become a continuous adventure on a desert island, a continuous struggle for existence, caring about clothes, food and a furnace. «She wrote these memories in her diary 1919-1921» [4].

Analyzing the memories of another representative of the noble class Nina Berberova, whose father was a major ministerial official from St. Petersburg, it is possible to identify the same motive of separation from the usual life: «I was quite clearly aware that there were shreds left of me, and of Russia – that small piece where we now lived, without the possibility of dating or correspondence with those who lived on the other side of the civil war front» [4]. Nina Berberova was a very young girl when the revolution happened, she turned 16.

The post-revolutionary period radically changed the life of the «former» elite, which included officers of the White Army, merchant classes, representatives of the clergy, officials, aristocrats and many other social groups. They had to adapt to new realities in order to survive in difficult conditions.

The cities were in chaos, there was no communication, transport problems worsened. The social infrastructure was in decline – important social facilities such as pharmacies, grocery stores, industrial enterprises were closed.

Nina Berberova wrote about 1917: «It is difficult and sad to break away in these years (sixteen years) from what he got used to: to break off friendship, to abandon books, to abandon the city, the beauty and grandeur of which in recent months have begun to darken from broken windows, boarded up shops, fallen monuments, removed doors and long gloomy queues» [4].

Sophia Clark, a relative of Savva Mamontov, a representative of the Mamontov merchant dynasty, 1917: «The silence in the city was grave. Everything is closed. There were no banks, no shops, and there was no money to buy anything. The future was completely unknown. Sometimes it seemed that «the worse, the better», that the Bolsheviks would not last long in power. Russian newspapers have run out of bourgeois newspapers: «the Russian Word», «the Russian Vedomosti». Only the news of the Council of Workers' Deputies was published. But there was little news in them. There was hunger and cold, there was no heating. Fortunately, we had firewood stacked in the yard, but they could not last for a long time for a large house. In the evenings it was scary to go out. In the dark, they stopped, took off their coats». Elena Dulova, daughter of Prince George Dulov, violinist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, about February 1919: «Moscow sank in snowdrifts… Thin, emaciated people walked quietly in the middle of the streets… Trams did not run» [4].

Zinaida Denisevskaya, a representative of the Voronezh educated elite, the daughter of a colonel, wrote in March 1922: «I am tired. And it is strange for me to come back to life from Death. I do not really know if it's worth going back to her. There is something unbearably ugly, ugly in the general atmosphere of life, namely the present Russian one – in these thin, hungry people losing their human appearance, in these rampant passions – profiteering, carousing and debauchery of the minority, in this swamp of illiteracy, ignorance, wild selfishness, stupidity of theft, etc.» [4].

The main problems for noble families accustomed to comfort were hunger and cold. The firewood quickly ran out, and subsequently cost like «gold bars». The situation reached a critical point: social facilities, including hospitals, were not heated, the temperature in the apartments was below zero.

Nadezhda Mandelstam, whose father was a sworn attorney, whose mother was a doctor, recalls that even elementary hygiene caused difficulty: «We washed standing on one leg and putting the other under the tap with cold water» [4]. During this period, public baths were closed due to lack of fuel. The poet Vera Inber recalled: «In those years I felt very bad: I completely stopped understanding what I was living for and what would happen next. Among other things, there was still nothing to live on. Things flowed out of the house uncontrollably, like water, we ate first with curtains, tablecloths, and finally with a piano» [4].

Lyubov Blok (nee Mendeeyeva) in the struggle «for daily bread» and in order to feed Alexander Blok, was forced to sell almost everything of value. Maria Belotsvetova, the wife of poet and anthroposophist Nikolai Belotsvetov, who later led the Russian anthroposophical group in Berlin in exile, wrote the following during the revolutionary years: «Today I was selling my grandmother's (on my mother's side) bracelet at the Smolensk market – the only thing that survived me… I did not feel sorry for her, just as I do not feel sorry for any of our philistine belongings at all. But I am sick to death of being in constant need» [4].

The new government achieved the embodiment of the main revolutionary slogan – to make all people equal, through the approval by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the decree "On the destruction of estates and civil ranks" on November 10 (23), 1917. Living conditions have equalized: aristocrats and servants, actors and laundresses, ladies-in-waiting and peasant women.

The revolution of 1917 eventually became one of the landmark events of the early twentieth century. Its consequences still resonate in everyday life and culture. In modern Russia, it is difficult to identify a certain attitude to these events in the mass consciousness, since the iconography of the revolution and its leaders is still confused. Guests of Moscow can still pay their respects inside the marble mausoleum on Red Square. However, across the street from the founder of Russian communism, a department store attracts wealthy Muscovites to its expensive fashion departments.

The last tsar and his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, and yet the Moscow metro station still bears the name of Pyotr Voikov, the man responsible for organizing their execution.

In 1991, a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka (the predecessor of the KGB), was demolished in the center of Moscow. Leningrad was given back its imperial name – St. Petersburg. There is still a monument to Lenin on the main squares of most cities, many streets have retained their Soviet names: there are streets of Lenin, Marx, Komsomol (Soviet Youth Organization), Red Partisan and Dictatorship of the Proletariat all over the country. There is an October cinema, Oktyabrskaya metro station and Revolution Square in Moscow.