The “Iron Curtain” has loomed over Russia’s borders: it’s time to remember the USSR. The "Iron Curtain" is a political cliché. The term "iron curtain"

“Nowadays they often say “unipolar world”. This expression is absurd, since the word “pole” in its meaning is inextricably linked with the number two, with the presence of a second pole.”

S. Kara-Murza, political scientist.

The history of the Cold War is not only the history of the rivalry between two ideologies, but also the history of the rivalry between two economic systems, which were essentially antipodes to each other. What is remarkable about this topic? It illuminates the beginning of what we will all witness in our lifetime.

What am I talking about?

Read between the lines. For he who has eyes, let him see...

Background.

“The iron curtain - this expression was given life by a device that was previously used in the theater - an iron curtain, which, in order to protect the auditorium from fire, was lowered onto the stage in case of a fire on it. This was very appropriate in an era when the stage was forced to be illuminated were to use open fire - candles, oil lamps, etc. For the first time, such an iron curtain began to be used in France - in the city of Lyon in the late 80s - early 90s.I century."

Vadim Serov.

It is generally accepted that the well-known “iron curtain” fell on the country of the Soviets in the 1920s, roughly speaking, as soon as the USSR was created, they immediately covered it with a curtain so that dirt would not fly from the west. I'm afraid to disappoint some, but this is not so.

The country of the Soviets existed, developed and there was no self-isolation, and it did not have any closedness; on the contrary, the Soviet government made every effort to eliminate this closedness. For this purpose, famous writers, artists and other figures from all over the world were invited to the USSR. The purpose of all this was to break the veil of lies with which the West shrouded us, and to make it possible to assess what was happening in our country more or less truthfully.

In addition to writers and artists, ordinary people also came to the USSR: some of them were invited as specialists for a large salary, and some came on their own, for ideological reasons (people wanted to build the society of the future with their own hands). Naturally, after some time, returning to their homeland, they all brought with them a wealth of information about the country of the Soviets.

But the Western powers did not attach much importance to this; they no longer saw Russia as a serious enemy for the coming decades, although they did not stop their attempts to snatch an extra piece from us (the campaign of 14 states).

“Russia, which was a civilization of the Western type - the least organized and most shaky of the great powers - now represents a modern civilization in extremis (lat. at its last gasp - author's note). ... History knows nothing like the collapse ", experienced by Russia. If this process continues for another year, the collapse will become final. Russia will become a country of peasants; the cities will be deserted and turned into ruins; the railways will be overgrown with grass. With the disappearance of the railways, the last remnants of the central government will disappear."

H.G. Wells, 1920

However, the rapid growth rates of the USSR greatly frightened the West, showing them that they had greatly miscalculated on our score, even taking into account the insertion of sticks into all our wheels and wheels.

Then, the trump card of the West, Adolf Hitler, was pulled out of his sleeve (you can read more about this in the article - “”) and a war of a grandiose scale, hitherto unprecedented in humanity, was unleashed.

“If the Germans gain the upper hand, then we must help the Russians, and if things turn out differently, then we must help the Germans. And let them kill each other as much as possible.”

G. Truman, " New York Times", 1941

As they say (they, in the West) - “nothing personal, just business.”

Bear trap.

“Whoever controls the money of a country is the absolute master of all industry and commerce.”

James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, 1881

In July 1944, still at the height of the war, the international Bretton Woods Conference was held in the USA (New Hampshire). The meaning of this conference boiled down to two main points: the dollar is the only currency that is now allowed to have a gold content, all other countries must refuse to back their currencies with gold, introducing dollar backing in return (buy the dollar in order to print their currency), and the second point - the dollar becomes the main currency of account (all international trade must now be conducted only in dollars).

The USSR signs the enslaving Bretton Woods agreement, its ratification (approval) is scheduled for December 1945.

April 12, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is assassinated. The reason for the murder was his friendly relations with the USSR and Stalin personally. This event once again shows that US presidents are just pawns in a big game.

“The closest we were to equal cooperation was when America had Roosevelt and we had Stalin.”

S.E. Kurginyan, political scientist.

I will quote Roosevelt's words:

“Under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the Russian people showed such an example of love for the motherland, fortitude and self-sacrifice, which the world has never known before. After the war, our country will always be glad to maintain relations of good neighborliness and sincere friendship with Russia, whose people, by saving themselves, help save the whole world from the Nazi threat."

Personal message to Stalin following the results Tehran Conference (held: November 28—December 1, 1943):
"I believe that the conference was very successful, and I am confident that it is a historical event, confirming our ability not only to wage war, but also to work for the cause of the coming world in complete harmony."

“To put it simply, I got along very well with Marshal Stalin. This man combines a huge, unyielding will and a healthy sense of humor; I think the soul and heart of Russia has its true representative in him. I believe that we will continue to get along very well and with him, and with all the Russian people."

"Since the last meeting in Tehran, we have been working in really good cooperation with the Russians, and I believe that the Russians are quite friendly. They are not trying to swallow up all of Europe and the rest of the world."

The quotes speak for themselves.

Exactly 2 hours and 24 minutes after Roosevelt's death, he was replaced by US Vice President and ardent anti-communist Harry Truman. Literally in Russian, “Truman” is translated as “true man” =)), but this is a joke.

The first thing Truman does is prohibit the execution of any instructions from the previous Roosevelt administration.

“Enough, we are no longer interested in an alliance with the Russians, and therefore, we may not fulfill the agreements with them. We will solve the problem of Japan without the help of the Russians.”

From this moment on, you can forget about any friendliness.

On the eve of the Potsdam Conference (held: July 17 - August 2, 1945), Truman receives an encrypted message: " The operation took place this morning. The diagnosis is not yet completely completed, but the results seem satisfactory and are already exceeding expectations". This was a message about the successful testing of an atomic bomb. And on July 21, US Secretary of War Stimson, who accompanied the conference Truman , receives photographs of the tests performed and shows them to the president.

And Truman goes on the offensive.

During the conference, he tries to hint to Stalin that the United States has atomic weapons.

Churchill describes the scene this way: "We stood in twos and threes before going our separate ways. I was perhaps five yards away and was watching this important conversation with keen interest. I knew what the President was going to say. It was extremely important to know what impression it would make on Stalin ".

A little later, Churchill will approach Truman: "How did everything go?" - I asked. “He didn’t ask a single question,” the president answered.".

And on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States carried out two nuclear strikes on Japanese cities - on the city of Hiroshima (up to 166 thousand dead) and on the city of Nagasaki (up to 80 thousand dead).

"Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion...

These bombs used by the Americans, in their cruelty and terrifying effects, are far superior to poisonous gases or any other weapons, the use of which is prohibited.

Japan protests against the United States' violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both by the use of the atomic bomb and by earlier incendiary bombings that killed old people, women and children, destroyed and burned Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, residential areas, etc. ..

They were now using this new bomb, which had a much greater destructive effect than any other weapon used before. This is a new crime against humanity and civilization."

According to an American report from 1946, there was no military need for the use of atomic bombs:

"Based on a detailed examination of all the facts and after interviews with surviving Japanese officials, it is the opinion of this Study that definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR would not have entered the war, and even if the invasion of the Japanese Islands had not been planned and prepared."

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans planned subsequent atomic bombings of Japan, but later decided that it would be more expedient not to waste bombs as they were created, but to begin accumulating them.

Stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the world.

On September 4, 1945, the United States Joint War Planning Committee prepared Memorandum No. 329: " select approximately 20 of the most important targets suitable for strategic atomic bombing of the USSR and on territory controlled by it"As the arsenal grew, the number of cities was planned to increase. At that time, the USSR not only did not have such weapons, but did not even have a strategic bomber capable of long-distance flights.

December 1945 arrived. The USSR outright refused to ratify the Bretton Woods Agreement.

But there were no atomic strikes on the USSR. Stalin weighed the pros and cons too well.
One of the important reasons for the failed attack was the Americans themselves, namely their supplies to us under Lend-Lease.

And since mid-1944, approximately 2,400 P-63 Kincobra fighter-attack aircraft, the best American fighters at the end of the war, which were a modification of the aforementioned P-39s, were delivered to the USSR. The Kincobras failed to take part in the war with Germany, and practically in the war with Japan as well.

Thus, it turned out that by the end of the war we had a full complement of the latest American fighters in our arsenal (I think good relations with Roosevelt played a role here), and all atomic bombs, at that time, were delivered using long-range aviation, vulnerable to fighters.

So it turns out that the Americans protected us from ourselves.

America did not have the opportunity tofight with us in a fair fight, even joining forces with Europe. By this time, the Soviet Union was no longer too tough for them. So the West begins to build up its joint military power with all its might in order to bring it down on the USSR as soon as possible. The USSR could only strengthen its air defense and speed up work on its atomic program.

The curtain falls.

"The most important thing is to choose the right enemy."

Joseph Goebbels.

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton (USA), divided the world into two poles: those who are with us and those who are with them, the so-called bipolar world. President Truman also attended the speech.

This speech was the official start of the Cold War.

"Neither the effective prevention of war nor the permanent extension of the influence of the World Organization can be achieved without the fraternal union of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and the British Empire and the United States.

From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain fell across the continent. On the other side of the curtain are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe - Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia. All of these famous cities and the populations in their areas fell within what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them in one form or another subject not only to Soviet influence, but also to the significant and increasing control of Moscow.

Almost all of these countries are run by police governments,<...>they don't have true democracy."

But Churchill was not the one who first introduced the concept of an “iron curtain” in relation to the Soviet Union. He borrowed this expression from an article by the German Reich Minister of Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels:

“If the Germans lower their arms, the Soviets will occupy, according to the Yalta Conference, all of eastern and southeastern Europe, along with most of the Reich. The Iron Curtain will fall over the entire gigantic territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which the peoples will be exterminated.
<...>

All that will remain will be human raw material, a stupid wandering mass of millions of desperate, proletarianized working animals who will know about the rest of the world only what the Kremlin wants."

This article was written by Goebbels on February 25, 1945, immediately after the Yalta Conference, at which the future fate of the world was decided.

With his article, Goebbels tried to sow seeds of discord in the ranks of the allies (anti-Hitler, of course) and desperately beg the West for a last chance for salvation, in the face of imminent death: “Now Bolshevism stands on the Oder. Everything depends on the steadfastness of the German soldiers. Will Bolshevism be pushed to the east or will its fury cover all of Europe.<...>Everything will be decided by us or not decided at all. That's all the alternatives."

Goebbels's article had its effect, but only after the fall of Germany and the death of its leadership. It was then that Churchill took Goebbels' words for his Fulton speech.

“Had Churchill dug deeper, he would have known that the term “Iron Curtain” first came into use in Scandinavia, where workers in the early 1920s protested against the desire of their rulers to isolate them from the “heretical ideas” coming from the East.”

Valentin Falin, Doctor of History. Sci.

We did not fight Hitler in order to transfer power to the Churchills.

Stalin immediately responded to the Fulton speech:

“It should be noted that Mr. Churchill and his friends are strikingly reminiscent of Hitler and his friends in this respect. Hitler began the work of unleashing war by proclaiming a racial theory, declaring that only people who speak the German language represent a full-fledged nation.

Mr. Churchill begins the work of starting a war also with a racial theory, arguing that only nations that speak English are full-fledged nations called upon to decide the destinies of the whole world.

German racial theory led Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only complete nation, should dominate other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations speaking English, as the only full-fledged ones, should dominate the rest of the nations of the world.
<...>

In essence, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the United States are presenting to the nations that do not speak English a kind of ultimatum: accept our dominance voluntarily, and then everything will be in order, otherwise war is inevitable."

Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The meaning of the Marshall Plan was to provide financial assistance to countries affected during the Second World War.

A gesture of goodwill you say. Alas, no, in America there is “only business”. Each country that received assistance had to sacrifice part of its sovereignty.

The Truman Doctrine contained specific measures against the expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence and the spread of communist ideology (the “doctrine of containment” of socialism), as well as those aimed at returning the USSR to its former borders (the “doctrine of discarding” socialism).

The founding father of the “doctrine of containment” is considered to be the American ambassador in Moscow (at that time). It was he who formulated and outlined in his telegram dated February 22, 1946, even before Churchill’s speech in Fulton, all the main trends of the future Cold War. The telegram was called "long", as it contained about 8,000 words.

Here are excerpts from the telegram:

You can read the full text of the telegram here (link) or at the end of the article, in the additional section. materials.

It was George Kennan who formulated the idea that the Soviet Union should be defeated without entering into a direct military conflict with it. The bet here was on the depletion of the Soviet economy, because the economy of the West was much more powerful (why was it more powerful? Yes, because it developed while we were at war, and ate our gold).

Thus, by mid-1947, two types of foreign policy orientation were finally taking shape on the world map: pro-Soviet and pro-American.

And on April 4, 1949, countries that received economic assistance from the United States under the Marshall Plan signed the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). Here's a two-move combination for you.

RDS-1.

A little about our bomber.

On August 3, 1947, three Tu-4 aircraft opened an air parade in Tushino, which was attended by foreign military representatives. At first, foreigners did not believe that Soviet planes were flying in the sky, because only the United States possessed such bombers; this was their latest development. But, no matter how much they didn’t want to admit it, the planes were Soviet. And the reason for the disbelief of foreigners was the similarity - the planes were exact copies of the American B-29 "Superfortress".

In 1949, the Tu-4 was put into service and became the first Soviet aircraft to carry atomic weapons.

Thus, the position of the two forces in the world was relatively equalized. Now, it was impossible to take us with bare hands.

"Truman started the Cold War. And he started it out of fear, out of weakness, not out of strength. And why? After the Second World War, capitalism as a system turned out to be very battered. It was discredited in the eyes of millions of people. It gave birth to the Great Depression. It gave birth to a terrible war. It gave birth to fascism and gas chambers.

The Soviet Union was a real alternative in this sense. And this happened against a background when Europe was in ruins.

The Greek communists are about to come to power.

The Italian communists in 1943 had 7 thousand people. In 1945 they had 1.5 million people.

And so Truman and his entourage were afraid that Stalin would take advantage of the opportunities that were opening up to him. Moreover, there was a civil war in China, where the communists won. India continued to fight for independence. Liberation wars were already underway in Indonesia and Vietnam, or they were ready for it.

That is, the Soviet Union, as the Americans believed, could take advantage of this situation in order to create a real threat to American capitalism and the American way of life. The Soviet Union had to be stopped. This was the reason why the Americans started the Cold War."

A.L. Adamashin, Russian diplomat.

The Soviet system was dangerous for the West not so much from an ideological point of view, but from a methodological one. This mainly concerned the economic component.

“The principle of state policy (Soviet - author's note) was a constant, albeit modest, improvement in the well-being of the population. This was expressed, for example, in large and regular price reductions (13 times in 6 years; from 1946 to 1950, bread the price fell threefold, and meat by 2.5 times). It was then that specific stereotypes of mass consciousness emerged, enshrined in the state ideology: confidence in the future and the conviction that life can only improve.

The condition for this was the strengthening of the state's financial system in close connection with planning. To preserve this system, the USSR took an important step: it refused to join the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and on March 1, 1950, it completely left the dollar zone, transferring the determination of the ruble exchange rate to a gold basis. Large gold reserves were created in the USSR, the ruble was inconvertible, which made it possible to maintain very low domestic prices."

In each country there is a certain amount of goods and services (commodity equivalent, TE), the number of these goods and services is constantly growing or decreasing (depending on the situation in the country, but definitely does not stand still) and there is a money supply, the purpose of which is to serve universal equivalent of exchange (DE - monetary equivalent). The money supply is always attached to goods and should approximately correspond to their quantity (that is, TE = DE). If there is more money than goods, it is called inflation ( TE< ДЭ = инфляция ); if there is less money than goods, then this is called deflation ( TE > DE = deflation).

But the Central Bank (in this particular case, I mean the Fed) is constantly printing extra money, in other words, creating inflation (TE< ДЭ ) и для того, чтобы уровнять соотношение "товар-деньги", цены на товары и услуги растут. Вот и вся математика.

What happened in Stalin's USSR?

But there it was exactly the opposite: the number of goods grew, but the Central Bank, on the contrary, did not print more money, that is, it created deflation (TE > DE), and in order to equalize the “goods-money” ratio, prices for goods were reduced (i.e. the solvency of money increased).

“The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism could be formulated approximately this way: ensuring maximum satisfaction of the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the entire society through continuous growth and improvement of socialist production on the basis of higher technology. Consequently: instead of ensuring maximum profits, ensuring maximum satisfying the material and cultural needs of society; instead of developing production with interruptions from boom to crisis and from crisis to boom, there is a continuous growth of production..."

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the USA.

But why did the US choose such an illogical and extremely unstable financial system? The answer is not complicated - “just business.” The Fed is a private company, and the inflationary financial system is just a way for that company to make a profit.

“The main features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated approximately this way: ensuring maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of a given country...”

Now I will explain what inflation is, since many do not understand the essence of this term.

For example: 10 people live in the country, each of them has 100 rubles (i.e., the country’s total turnover is 1000 rubles), but then the Central Bank prints another 1000 rubles. And I have a question for you - how much money do these people have? Yes, they still have all the money, but their price (solvency) has been halved. In other words, the population of the country was simply robbed of 1000 rubles. This is the inflation system - by producing extra money, the Central Bank is simply robbing its population. But here again we remember that the Fed is a private company, and therefore it turns out that it is not robbing “its own population,” but simply “the population” (and it doesn’t matter which country). " Nothing personal just business".

"Goods and services that could be purchased for $1 in 1913 now cost $21. Let's look at this in terms of the purchasing power of the dollar itself. It is now less than 0.05% of its value in 1913. You could say that the government and its banking cartel, through its incessant inflationary policies, have stolen from us 95 cents of every dollar."

Ron Paul, American politician, 2009

With the death of Stalin, the practice of lowering prices in the USSR was stopped. Khrushchev abolished the gold content of the ruble, transferring the Soviet currency, following the example of all countries, to dollar backing.

“The success of the Soviet system as a form of power within the country has not yet been conclusively proven. It must be clearly demonstrated that it can withstand the decisive test of a successful transfer of power from one individual or group of individuals to another.

Lenin's death was the first such transition, and its consequences had a disastrous effect on the Soviet state for 15 years. After Stalin's death or resignation there will be a second transition. But even this will not be the decisive test. As a result of the recent territorial expansion, Soviet power within the country will experience a number of additional difficulties that had already severely tested the Tsarist regime. Here we are convinced that never since the end of the civil war have the Russian people been emotionally so far from the doctrines of the Communist Party as at the present time.

In Russia, the party has become a gigantic and today successful apparatus of dictatorial rule, but has ceased to be a source of emotional inspiration. Thus, the internal strength and stability of the communist movement cannot yet be considered guaranteed."

What was Stalin's genius? He understood that the ideological component needed to be constantly changed to suit the changing needs of the country, that is, to be flexible, but his followers no longer understood this, which is exactly what Kennan was talking about.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many thought that the United States had emerged victorious in the Cold War, but the collapse of the USSR was not the end of the war, it was only the end of the battle. Today we can observe an information war - a new round, a new battle in one big war - the battle of empires...

Video

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“Permission to leave should be given only in exceptional cases”

The Iron Curtain: how our country cut itself off from the world and turned into a large concentration camp

Victor Tolochko/RIA Novosti

The feeling that the world is approaching a new stage of the Cold War and the reincarnation of the Iron Curtain has become increasingly clear over the past month. 20 days have passed since the UK’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats in connection with the case of poisoning of ex-GRU colonel Sergei Skripal. During this time, the United Kingdom has already been supported by 26 states, and 122 employees of the Russian diplomatic missions are to be sent home from their territory. The European Union and 9 other states recalled their ambassadors to Russia for consultations. In response, Russia announced the expulsion of 23 British and 60 US diplomats, as well as the closure of the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg, which had operated since 1972. These are the numbers.

Crimea, a hybrid war in the south-east of Ukraine, the victims of which in 2014 were 283 passengers and 15 crew members of a Malaysian Boeing-777, a doping scandal with Russian athletes, Syria - it seems that all this was just a preamble.

Kremlin.ru

Repeating the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, we can admit that the international situation has indeed become even worse now than during the Cold War. The system that General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan began to build in Reykjavik is collapsing. The system that the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, continued to develop and Vladimir Putin tried to maintain at the beginning of his presidency. Russia, like the USSR a century before, is again beginning to be positioned as a country with a “poisonous” regime, that is, dangerous for others. A country that lives on its own on the other side of the fence, a country that is spoken to only when necessary. Znak.сom invites you to remember how the “Iron Curtain” came down a century ago and what it turned out to be for the country.

“We will bring happiness and peace to working humanity with bayonets”

Contrary to popular belief, it was not Winston Churchill who introduced the term “Iron Curtain” into international use. Yes, delivering his famous speech at Westminster College in Fulton on March 5, 1946, he uttered this phrase twice, trying, in his own words, “to outline the shadow that, both in the West and in the East, falls over the whole world” “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic." Another common misconception is that the copyright for the term “Iron Curtain” belongs to Joseph Goebbels. Although in February 1945, in the article “Das Jahr 2000” (“2000”), he did say that after the conquest of Germany, the USSR would fence off Eastern and South-Eastern Europe from the rest of it.

Formally, the first was Herbert Wells. In 1904, he used the term “Iron Curtain” in his book Food of the Gods to describe a mechanism for limiting personal freedom. Then it was used in 1917 by Vasily Rozanov in the collection “Apocalypse of Our Time” dedicated to the theme of revolution. “With a clang, a creaking, a squeal, the iron curtain falls over Russian history. The performance is over. The audience stood up. It's time to put on your fur coats and go home. We looked around. But there were no fur coats or houses,” the philosopher stated.

However, the generally accepted meaning of the term was given to the term in 1919 by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. “We want to put an iron curtain around Bolshevism that will prevent it from destroying civilized Europe,” Clemenceau said at the Paris Peace Conference, which drew a line under the First World War.

The two Russian revolutions of 1917, the revolutions in Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1918, the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the uprising in Bulgaria, the instability in the Ottoman Empire (ending with the abolition of the Sultanate in 1922 and the formation of the Turkish Republic), events in India, where Mahatma Gandhi led an anti-British campaign of civil disobedience, strengthening the labor movement in Western Europe and America - Clemenceau, it seems, had reason to say this.

1919 French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau (left), 28th US President Woodrow Wilson (holding a bowler hat) and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (right) at the peace conference in Paris Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

On March 25, 1919, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George wrote to him: “All of Europe is saturated with the spirit of revolution. A deep feeling of not only dissatisfaction, but anger and indignation reigns in the working environment.”

Three weeks earlier, on March 4, 1919, the creation of the Third Communist International, the Comintern, was announced in Moscow, the main task of which was to organize and carry out the international proletarian revolution. On March 6, in his final speech at the closing of the founding congress of the Comintern, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) declared: “The victory of the proletarian revolution throughout the world is guaranteed. The foundation of an international Soviet republic is coming.” “If today the center of the Third International is Moscow, then, we are deeply convinced of this, tomorrow this center will move to the west: to Berlin, Paris, London,” Leon Trotsky then stated on the pages of Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. “For the international communist congress in Berlin or Paris will mean the complete triumph of the proletarian revolution in Europe, and, therefore, throughout the world.”

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

It was with this awareness of reality that the Red Army crossed the border of Poland in July 1920 (in response to the actions of the Poles who captured Kyiv and the left bank of the Dnieper). “The path to world conflagration lies through the corpse of white Poland. We will bring happiness and peace to working humanity with bayonets,” read the order of the commander of the Western Front, Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

Did not happen. Polish “class brothers” did not support the Red Army. In August 1920, an event known as the “miracle on the Vistula” happened - the Reds were stopped, and they began to rapidly roll back. According to the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were ceded to Poland. Soviet foreign policy set a course for peaceful coexistence.

“You and we, Germany and the USSR, can dictate terms to the whole world”

More precisely, Soviet Russia had to maneuver. For fellow members of the world communist movement, formally everything remained the same - no one removed the task of fanning the fire of the world revolution. The country itself began to take clear steps to recognize itself as a newborn on the international stage and emerge from global isolation.

Life pushed me towards this. The village, plundered by the surplus appropriation system, flared up in 1920-1921 with the Antonov uprising, then the Kronstadt rebellion happened. Finally, the terrible famine of 1921-1922 with its epicenter in the Volga region and the death of about 5 million people. The country needed food and other goods of first, second, and so on necessity. After the fratricidal frenzy, restoration was required. Even the Bolsheviks, for whom Russia was primarily a springboard and at the same time a resource base, realized this.

An interesting detail: of the 5 million gold rubles that were raised from the sale of church valuables confiscated in accordance with the decrees of 1921-1922, only 1 million went to purchase food for the starving. Everything else was spent on the needs of the future world revolution. But help was provided by dozens of public and charitable organizations of the enemy bourgeois world: the American Relief Administration, the American Quaker Society, the Organization of Pan-European Famine Relief to Russia and the International Committee for Relief of Russia, organized by polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, the International Red Cross, the Vatican Mission, the international alliance “Save the Children”. Collectively, by the spring of 1922, they provided food for about 7.5 million starving Russians.

In 1921-1922, about 20 million Soviet citizens starved, of which over 5 million died Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

It took the nascent Soviet diplomacy about two years to solve the first problem - to overcome isolation. The agreements signed in 1920 by the Soviet leadership with the limitrophes of Russia - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland - have not yet solved this problem. On the one hand, the Bolsheviks renounced their claims to the former imperial territories, thereby ensuring the security of their northwestern borders by creating a buffer zone of relatively neutral newly formed states. On the other hand, all this fit perfectly into Clemenceau’s declared concept of creating an “iron curtain around Bolshevism.”

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

The ice began to be broken in 1922 at the Genoa and Hague conferences. The first coincided with the Soviet-German negotiations, which ended with the signing of the peace treaty in Rapallo on April 16, 1922. According to it, both post-imperial states recognized each other and established diplomatic relations. By 1924, the USSR signed trade agreements and generally established diplomatic relations with England, Austria, Afghanistan, Greece, Denmark, Italy, Iran, Mexico, Norway, Turkey, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Uruguay.

The situation, however, remained precarious for a long time. Thus, in May 1927, the British government announced the severance of diplomatic and trade relations with the USSR (relations were restored in 1929). The basis for this was the suspicion of the British that the Soviets supported national liberation movements in the colonies of the United Kingdom, primarily in India, as well as in China, which the British considered their sphere of interests.

By 1929, relations between the USSR and China itself had worsened. The founder of the Kuomintang Party and leader of the Second Chinese Revolution, Sun Yat-sen, who died in 1925 from cancer, who maintained relations with the USSR and accepted the help of the Comintern, is replaced by the anti-communist Chiang Kai-shek. In 1928 he took power into his own hands. Then, in the summer of 1929, the Chinese launched a conflict over control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which, according to the 1924 agreement, was under the joint control of China and the USSR. In November of the same year, Chinese troops attempted to invade the territory of the USSR in the Transbaikalia and Primorye regions.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Everything changed after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. On the one hand, it became important for Europe to prevent a possible link between Nazi Germany and the USSR. In particular, it was advocated by the same Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who wrote at that time: “You and we, Germany and the USSR, can dictate terms to the whole world if we are together.” His position was generally shared by the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov. On the other hand, the USSR was quite suitable for the role of a powerful counterweight or even a lightning rod in the east. Actually, anti-Hitler and anti-fascist, in a broad sense, rhetoric became a bond that made it possible to temporarily strengthen relations with the West. Since mid-1936, Soviet “volunteers” (mostly military experts) fought the fascists of General Francisco Franco in Spain. With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Soviet fighters and bombers fought in the skies of China against the Japanese, who enjoyed the tacit support of Germany.

It all ended in August 1939 with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the secret protocol of which Germany and the USSR divided spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. This, however, was preceded by the Munich Agreement of 1938. Great Britain, represented by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and France, represented by Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, agreed to the transfer of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany. And soon these countries signed agreements with the Third Reich on mutual non-aggression similar to the Soviet-German pact.

“It is impossible to lead the world labor movement from one center”

The Comintern’s goal of kindling the fire of world revolution remained unchanged right up to its dissolution. True, the concept itself of how exactly this should be achieved has undergone several adjustments. In the summer of 1923, Lenin at the third congress of the Comintern had to speak out against supporters of the “offensive theory.” Lenin's theses were now based on the fact that before this it was necessary to form the necessary prerequisites - a social base.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Another important moment happened in August 1928. At the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, the principle of “class against class” was proclaimed. The organizers of the world revolution abandoned the principles of the united front and focused on the fight against the Social Democrats as the main enemy. In 1932, this disunity led to a Nazi victory in Germany in the Reichstag elections: 32% voted for the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, 20% for the Social Democrats and 17% for the Communists. The votes for Social Democrats and Communists combined would be 37%.

The dissolution of the Comintern, the “headquarters of the world revolution,” was announced on May 15, 1943, simultaneously with the start of the Washington Conference of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, from whom a decision was expected to open a second front this year. On May 21 of the same year, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Joseph Stalin stated: “Experience has shown that both under Marx and under Lenin, and now it is impossible to lead the labor movement of all countries of the world from one international center. Especially now, in war conditions, when the Communist Parties in Germany, Italy and other countries have the task of overthrowing their governments and pursuing defeatist tactics, and the Communist Parties of the USSR, England and America and others, on the contrary, have the task of supporting their governments in every possible way for the speedy defeat of the enemy.”

This side of the Iron Curtain

As the “Iron Curtain” came into being, life in Russia itself became increasingly tougher. “Land and Freedom”, populists - all this is about the 19th century. Democracy ended between February and October 1917. They were replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Red Terror and War Communism. At the ninth congress of the RCP (b) in the spring of 1920, Trotsky insisted on the introduction of a “militia system”, the essence of which is “bringing the army as close as possible to the production process.” “Soldiers of labor”—this is how workers and peasants were now positioned. Peasants were given the right to receive passports only in 1974. Since 1935, they did not even have the right to leave their native collective farm. This is “serfdom 2.0”. And this is in the most just and morally strong state in the world, as Soviet propaganda positioned it on the other side of the fence.

There was, however, a short attempt to let go of the reins in 1922-1928. The New Economic Policy, “state capitalism in a proletarian state,” according to Lenin, was intended to help the Bolsheviks hold out until a new revolutionary upsurge in the world, settling in a country that was not yet ripe for socialism. But it just so happened that the years of the NEP became a prologue to the era of Stalinist totalitarianism.

Evgeny Zhirnykh / website

We will not describe in detail the tightening of the regime and the expansion of state terror after Stalin came to power. These facts are widely known: millions of people became victims of repression, including the Bolsheviks themselves. The power of the leader became almost absolute, the state lived in an atmosphere of fear, freedom ended not only at the political, but also at the personal, intellectual, and cultural level. Repression continued until Stalin's death in early March 1953. Almost all this time, the windows and doors through which one could escape from the USSR remained tightly boarded and caulked.

Departure is not possible

Now only our parents and grandparents remember how they traveled, or rather did not travel, abroad during the Soviet era. Holidays in Turkey, Thailand, European resorts, trips to the USA and Latin America - the older generation did not have all this. The “Golden Sands” of Bulgaria were, it seems, the ultimate dream and, despite the ideological proximity in the socialist camp, they were accessible only to a select few.

None of us who are now traveling abroad even think about learning the rules of conduct outside the USSR that were mandatory a quarter of a century ago: “While abroad in any area of ​​activity entrusted to him, a Soviet citizen is obliged to highly honor the honor and dignity of a citizen of the USSR, strictly observe the principles of moral Code of the Builder of Communism, conscientiously fulfill their official duties and assignments, be impeccable in their personal behavior, unswervingly protect the political, economic and other interests of the Soviet Union, strictly keep state secrets.”

Jaromir Romanov / website

It’s hard to believe that in the USSR, not to mention Tsarist Russia, this was not always the case. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the country was not closed from the world. The procedure for issuing foreign passports and traveling abroad in the RSFSR was established in 1919. The processing of passports was then transferred from the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and provincial Councils of Deputies to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID). The procedure for traveling abroad was adjusted again in 1922. By this time, the first foreign diplomatic missions began to appear in the young Soviet state. Foreign passports issued by the NKID now had to be affixed with a visa. In addition, in addition to the application for registration of the document, it was now necessary to obtain a conclusion from the State Political Directorate of the NKVD “on the absence of a legal obstacle to leaving.” But until the second half of the 1920s, the procedure for leaving and entering the USSR was quite liberal. The screws began to be tightened a little later - with the beginning of Stalin’s industrialization and collectivization, when there was a significant increase in those wishing to leave the country.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

On November 9, 1926, a monetary fee was introduced for issuing foreign passports. From workers (proletarians, peasants, employees, and business travelers) - 200 rubles, from “those living on unearned income” and “dependents” - 300 rubles. This is about one and a half average monthly earnings of a Soviet person in those years. The visa application cost 5 rubles, with a return visa - 10 rubles. Benefits were provided in exceptional cases and primarily to citizens of the “labor categories” traveling abroad for treatment, visits with relatives and emigration.

Kremlin.ru

In January 1928, the procedure for USSR citizens traveling abroad for training purposes was determined. Now it was permitted only if there was a conclusion from the People's Commissariat of Education on the desirability and feasibility of such a trip. Since July 1928, the NKVD order came into force on the need to require, when issuing passports to persons traveling abroad, “certificates from financial authorities stating that they do not have tax arrears.” These certificates were issued only to persons living in the area for at least three years. Those who lived for less than three years had to request a certificate from the authorities where they lived previously. But the most important thing is that by secret order from Moscow, local authorities were henceforth deprived of the authority to issue permits to citizens to travel abroad. Everything is done only through the NKVD.

Historian Oleg Khlevnyuk about what happens to despotic regimes - using the example of Stalin

In 1929, they began to sharply reduce the amount of currency that was allowed to be taken abroad. This norm now depended on the country of departure. For citizens of the USSR and foreigners traveling to the border countries of Europe, it amounted to no more than 50 rubles, to other European countries and border countries of Asia - 75 rubles. Family members, including dependent adult children, could claim only half of these amounts. In February 1932, the People's Commissariat of Finance once again cut the standards for receiving foreign currency. Persons traveling to the countries of Eastern Europe and Finland bordering the USSR were now allowed to purchase currency in the amount of 25 rubles, to other European and border Asian countries - 35 rubles, to the rest - 100 rubles.

How and why the Ural residents were shot in 1937. On the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Repression

Everything was completely cut off in 1931, when the following rule was introduced in the next Instruction on entry into and exit from the USSR: “Permits to travel abroad, for travel on private business, are issued to Soviet citizens in exceptional cases.” Exit visas soon came into use. The state, which purposefully closed the entire First Five-Year Plan to the travel of its citizens abroad, finally coped with this task. The Iron Curtain has fallen for 60 years. The right to see life on the other side remained only with diplomats, business travelers and military personnel. The country turned into one big concentration camp. The people who suffered the most from a state with a “toxic” regime were its own citizens.

The era of closed doors ended on May 20, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a new law “On the procedure for leaving the USSR and entering the USSR for citizens of the USSR.” But is it over?

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