"Now 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 the second pole."
S. Kara-Murza, political scientist.
History Cold war is not only a history of rivalry between two ideologies, but also a history of rivalry between two economic systems, which in essence were antipodes to each other. What is remarkable 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 used earlier in the theater - the iron curtain, which, in order to protect the auditorium from fire, was lowered onto the stage in the event of a fire on it. were used 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 XVIII century. "
Vadim Serov.
It is generally accepted that the well-known "iron curtain" descended 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 the mud would not fly from the west. I'm afraid to disappoint some, but this is not the case.
The country of the Soviets existed, developed and no self-isolation, and it did not have closeness, on the contrary, the Soviet government made every effort to eliminate this closeness. For this, famous writers, people of art 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 that the West enveloped us, and to make it possible to assess what is happening in our country more or less truthfully.
In addition to writers and artists, the USSR was visited by ordinary people: 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 baggage of information about the country of the Soviets.
But the Western powers did not give it of great importance, they no longer saw a serious enemy in Russia 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 Western-style civilization - the least organized and the most shaky of the great powers - is now a modern civilization in extremis. ... History knows nothing like a collapse If this process continues for another year, the collapse will become final. Russia will turn into a country of peasants; cities will become empty and turn into ruins, railways will be overgrown with grass. With the disappearance of railways, the last remnants of central power will disappear. "
H.G. Wells, 1920
However, the shock rates of growth of the USSR frightened the West very much, showing them that they had miscalculated on our account, even taking into account the insertion of sticks into all our wheels and casters.
Then, the trump ace of the West, Adolf Hitler, was pulled out of his sleeve (you can read more about this in the article - "") and a grandiose in its scale war was unleashed, hitherto unseen by mankind.
"If the Germans gain the upper hand, then we need to help the Russians, and if things turn out differently, then we need to help the Germans. And let them kill each other as much as possible."
G. Truman, " New York Times ", 1941
As they say (in the West) - "nothing personal, just business."
Bear trap.
"Who controls the money of the country is the absolute master of all industry and commerce."
James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, 1881
In July 1944, in the midst of the war, the International Bretton Woods Conference was held in the United States (New Hampshire). The meaning of this conference was reduced to two main points: the dollar is the only currency that is now allowed to have gold content, all the other countries should refuse to provide gold for their currencies, introducing dollar security instead (buying a dollar to print their currency), and the second point - the dollar becomes the main settlement currency (all international trade should now be conducted only for 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 shows once again that US presidents are just pawns in a big game.
"We were closest to equal cooperation when Roosevelt was in America and Stalin was here."
S.E. Kurginyan, political scientist.
Here are the words of Roosevelt:
"Under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the Russian people have shown such an example of love for their homeland, firmness of spirit and self-sacrifice, which the world has not yet known. After the war, our country will always be happy to maintain good-neighborliness and sincere friendship with Russia, whose people, saving themselves, help salvation the whole world from the Nazi threat. "
Personal message to Stalin following the results Tehran Conference (took place: November 28 - December 1, 1943):
"I believe the conference was very successful and I am confident that it is a historic event that confirms our ability not only to wage war, but also to work for the future peace in full harmony."
"Expressed simple language, I got along well with Marshal Stalin. This person combines a huge, unyielding will and a healthy sense of humor; I think the soul and heart of Russia have their true representative in it. I believe that we will continue to get along very well with him and with the entire Russian people. "
"Since the last meeting in Tehran, we have been working in really good cooperation with the Russians, and I think 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 24 minutes after the death of Roosevelt, his place is taken by the Vice President of the United States and an ardent anti-communist Harry Truman. Literally into Russian, "Truman" translates 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, any friendliness can be forgotten.
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 still incomplete, but the results seem satisfactory and are already exceeding expectations.". It was the message about the successful test of the atomic bomb. And on July 21, US Secretary of War Stimson, who accompanied the conference Truman , receives photographs of the tests 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 as follows: “We stood in twos and threes before we parted. I was perhaps five yards away and followed with keen interest this important conversation. I knew what the president was going to say. It was extremely important to know what impression this would make on Stalin ".
A little later Churchill would approach Truman: "How did everything go?" I asked. "He did not ask a single question," the president replied. ".
And on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States makes two nuclear attacks 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 people and young people, were killed indiscriminately by atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation from the explosion ...
These bombs used by the Americans, in their brutality and terrifying effects, far exceed poison gases or any other weapons, the use of which is prohibited.
Japan protests against the US trampling on internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both by the use of the atomic bomb and by previously used incendiary bombings that killed the elderly, women and children, destroyed and burned Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, residential areas, etc. . d ..
They are now using this new bomb, which is far more destructive than any other weapon used until now. This is a new crime against humanity and civilization. "
According to an American report from 1946, there was no military necessity for the use of atomic bombs:
"Based on a detailed study of all the facts and after interviews with surviving Japanese officials, according to this Study, definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely 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 on Japanese islands neither planned nor prepared. "
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans planned the subsequent atomic bombing of Japan, but later decided that it would be more expedient not to waste bombs as they were created, but to start accumulating them.
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| Stocks of nuclear weapons in the world. |
On September 4, 1945, the US Joint Defense Planning Committee prepared Memorandum No. 329: " select approximately 20 of the most important targets suitable for strategic atomic bombing USSR and on the territory controlled by it". As the arsenal grew, the number of cities was planned to increase. By this time, the USSR did not have not only such weapons, but even a strategic bomber capable of long-range flights.
December 1945 came. The USSR refused to ratify the Bretton Woods agreement on the cut.
But atomic strikes against the USSR did not follow. 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, about 2,400 P-63 "Kinkobra" fighter-attack aircraft, the best American fighters at the end of the war, were delivered to the USSR, which were a modification of the aforementioned P-39. In the war with Germany, "Kinkobras" failed to participate, and in the war with Japan, practically the same.
Thus, it turned out that by the end of the war we were armed with a full set of the latest American fighters (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 have protected us, from ourselves.
America had no opportunity infight us in a fair fighteven joining forces with Europe. By this time, the Soviet Union was too tough for them. So the West is beginning 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, however, had only to strengthen its air defense and accelerate 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 effective prevention of war, nor permanent expansion of the influence of the World Organization can be achieved without the fraternal alliance of the Anglophone peoples. special relationship between the British Commonwealth and the British Empire and the United States.From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended on 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 population in their areas fell within the limits of what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them in one form or another subject not only to Soviet influence, but also to significant and increasing control of Moscow.
Almost all of these countries are run by police governments,<...>there is no true democracy in them. "
But Churchill was not the first to introduce the Iron Curtain to the Soviet Union. He borrowed this expression from an article by the Reich Minister public education and German propaganda, Joseph Goebbels:
"If the Germans put down their weapons, the Soviets will occupy, according to the Yalta Conference, the entire eastern and southeastern Europe, together with for the most part Reich. The iron curtain will fall for the whole gigantic territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which the peoples will be exterminated.
<...>
All that will remain will be human raw materials, a dull 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 further destiny the world.
With his article, Goebbels tried to bring seeds of discord into the ranks of the allies (anti-Hitler, naturally) 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 its fury will cover all of Europe."<...>Everything will be decided by us or not at all. That's all the alternatives. "
Goebbels' article had its effect, but only after the fall of Germany and the death of its ruling elite. It was then that Churchill took the words of Goebbels for his speech at Fulton.
"If Churchill had dig 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" heretical ideas "coming from the East."Valentin Falin, Dr. East. sciences.
We did not fight Hitler to transfer power to the Churchills.
Stalin immediately reacted 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. German represent a full-fledged nation.
Mr. Churchill also begins the cause of unleashing war with racial theory, arguing that only nations speaking English language are full-fledged nations, called upon to decide the destinies of the whole world.
German race theory led Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only full-fledged nation, should rule over other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations that speak the English language, as the only full-fledged ones, should rule over the rest of the nations of the world.
<...>
In fact, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the United States are presenting something like an ultimatum to nations that do not speak English: accept our domination voluntarily, and then everything will be in order, otherwise war is inevitable. "
The parable of the good Samaritan.
The meaning of the Marshall plan was to provide financial assistance to the countries affected by the Second World War.
A gesture of goodwill, you say. Alas no, in America "only business". Each of the countries that received assistance had to sacrifice part of their sovereignty.
Truman's doctrine, however, 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 aimed at returning the USSR to its former borders (the "doctrine of rejection" of socialism).
The founder of the "doctrine of containment" is considered to be the American ambassador to 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 some 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 must be defeated without entering into direct military conflict with it. The stake here was placed 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 the middle of 1947, two types of foreign policy orientation were finally formed on the world map: pro-Soviet and pro-American.
And on April 4, 1949, the countries that received economic assistance from the United States under the Marshall Plan signed the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). So much for a two-move combination.
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| 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, it was theirs. latest development... But, no matter how much they wanted 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" (super fortress).
In 1949, the Tu-4 entered 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, with bare hands, it was no longer possible to take us.
"Truman started the Cold War. And he started it out of fear, from weakness, not from strength. And why? After the Second World War, capitalism as a system turned out to be badly shabby. It was discredited in the eyes of millions of people. It gave rise to the Great Depression. war He gave birth to fascism and gas chambers.
In this sense, the Soviet Union was a real alternative. And this happened against the 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 45, they had 1.5 million people.
And so Truman and his entourage had a fear that Stalin would take advantage of the opportunities that opened before him. Moreover, there was a civil war in China, where the communists won. India continued to fight for independence. There were wars of liberation already in Indonesia and Vietnam, or 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, the American way of life. The Soviet Union had to be stopped. That 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 as 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 welfare of the population. This was expressed, for example, in large and regular price reductions (13 times in 6 years; from 1946 to 1950 bread became three times cheaper, and meat 2.5 times.) It was then that specific stereotypes enshrined in the state ideology arose mass consciousness: confidence in the future and the conviction that life can only get better.
The condition for this was the strengthening of the financial system of the state in close connection with planning. To preserve this system, the USSR went to important step: he refused to join the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and on March 1, 1950, he left the dollar zone altogether, 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 amount of these goods and services is constantly growing or decreasing (depending on the situation in the country, but it certainly does not stand still) and there is a money supply, the purpose of which is to serve universal exchange equivalent (DE - cash 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, this 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) constantly prints extra money, in other words creates 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?
And there everything was exactly the opposite: the number of goods was growing, while the Central Bank did not print money on the contrary, that is, it created deflation (TE> DE), and in order to equalize the "commodity-money" ratio, the prices of goods were reduced (i.e. the solvency of money grew)."The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism could be formulated roughly as follows: 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 satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of society; instead of the development of production with interruptions from rise to crisis and from crisis to rise, there is a continuous growth of production ... "Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States.
But why did the United States choose such an illogical and highly volatile financial system? The answer is not difficult - "just business". The Fed is private company and an inflationary financial system is just a way of making a profit for this company.
"The main features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated roughly as follows: ensuring maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of a given country ..."
And 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 (that is, there are 1000 rubles in total in the country's turnover), but here the Central Bank prints another 1000 rubles. And I have a question for you - how much money did 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 by 1000 rubles. This is the inflation system - by producing extra money, the Central Bank is simply robbing its population. But here we again remember that the FRS is a private office, and therefore it turns out that it is not robbing "its own population", but simply "population" (and no matter which country). " Nothing personal, just business".
"Goods and services that could have been purchased for $ 1 in 1913 are now worth 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 1913 value. that the government with its banking cartel, as a result of the incessant inflationary policy, stole 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 discontinued. Khrushchev abolished the gold content of the ruble by converting Soviet currency, following the example of all countries, into dollar security.
“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 the successful transfer of power from one individual or group of people to another.
The death of Lenin was the first such transition, and its consequences had a disastrous effect on the Soviet state for 15 years. After the death or resignation of Stalin, there will be a second transition. But even this will not be a decisive test. Due to recent territorial expansion Soviet power within the country will experience a number of additional difficulties, which the tsarist regime had once already subjected to severe trials. Here we are convinced that never, since the end of the civil war, the Russian people were emotionally so far from the doctrines of the Communist Party as they are today.
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 inner 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 meet the changing needs of the country, that is, to be flexible, but his followers did not understand this anymore, and that was what Kennan was talking about.
With collapse Soviet Union Many thought that the United States 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 ...
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And her allies. It seemed that a victory over a common enemy should rally the states of Europe and the world, which together withstood the ordeal of a terrible war. However, relations between the USSR and its allies (USA, Great Britain and other countries) only worsened. The leaders of the USSR tried to "protect the country from the pernicious influence of the West," and the Western powers - from the USSR. As a result, the expressions "iron curtain" and "cold war" arose, defining the relations of the most powerful state in Europe with some countries of the world.
Few remember that the Iron Curtain once really existed. Such a curtain began to be used in theaters at the end of the 18th century. The fact is that fire-hazardous candles and lamps were then used to illuminate the stage, so fires often happened in the theater. The iron curtain was lowered in the event of a fire on the stage, which, through it, was tightly separated from the audience, which allowed them to safely leave the room. Hardly anyone thought then that the expression "Iron Curtain" would soon acquire a political connotation.
For the first time, the expression "iron curtain" was used in a new capacity by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, speaking on March 5, 1946 in the city of Fulton (USA). Summing up the political results of the Second World War, he said that “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an“ iron curtain ”has descended on the continent, implying the policy of the Soviet Union to limit the influence of the capitalist powers.
Before Churchill, this expression in the same context was used by the Minister of Propaganda fascist Germany Joseph Goebbels (23 February 1945). He declared that if the Soviet Union wins the war with Germany, it will fence off Eastern and Southeastern Europe from the rest of it with an "iron curtain". In the USSR, this expression was also familiar: back in 1930, Lev Nikulin used it in the Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Indeed, the relations of the USSR with the capitalist countries of Europe and the United States after 1945 deteriorated sharply. The fact is that states have led too different policies, not wanting to make any mutual concessions. The Soviet Union tried to expand its sphere of influence in Europe, which the United States perceived very painfully. In the end, the conflict between the two leading powers of the world at that time led to the so-called "cold war".
Cold War
The term "cold war" meant the political conflict between the USSR and the United States in the period from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. During this period, the two superpowers fought for their influence in the world. It was a struggle not only between two states, but also between two ideologies. The main stages of the Cold War are considered the arms race, the struggle for dominance in space and the nuclear confrontation between the USSR and the United States.
The USA did not like the growing influence of the USSR in Europe and American politicians tried their best to limit it. The so-called “containment” policy was developed, that is, limiting the spread of communist ideology in the countries of Western Europe. It was expressed in economic, financial and military assistance to non-communist regimes. Foundations of the new foreign policy The United States was spelled out by President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947, in the American Congress. Some politicians consider this date to be the official date of the beginning of the Cold War, while others are of the opinion that it began after Churchill's speech in Fulton.
The first stage of the Cold War was left to the Americans. Already in July 1945 (even before the start of the Cold War), the world's first atomic bomb was tested, and in early August, the United States demonstrated its military might to the USSR in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was clear that it was necessary to restore the nuclear balance in the world, so work on the creation of an atomic bomb in the USSR was accelerated, but it appeared only in 1949. After that, both countries began to actively build up their nuclear potential. In an effort to overtake the enemy, both states spent huge amounts of money on the production of weapons and military equipment. Over the years of rivalry, technical solutions have been found that have found application in civilian life. This is how nuclear power plants, jet passenger planes, the Internet and much more appeared.
At another stage of the Cold War - domination in space - the rivalry was waged with varying degrees of success, with the USSR's overall advantage. In 1957, the first artificial earth satellite was launched, and in 1961 the first man, Yuri Gagarin, went into space. First exit in open space also carried out by Soviet cosmonauts. Having outright lost the first stage of the space rivalry, the Americans recovered a little by being the first to set foot on the lunar surface.
However, the main stage of the rivalry took place on the ground. One of the tasks of the Cold War, like a conventional war, was to win over as many allies as possible to its side. One of the most notable conflicts on this basis occurred in Germany, which was divided into East and West. Thanks to the support of the United States, the latter developed faster economically, so the inhabitants of East Germany (GDR) began to move to the West. The German capital Berlin was also divided into West and East parts. To limit the outflow of residents from the USSR-controlled East Germany, the Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, dividing West and East Berlin. The creation of the Berlin Wall not only allowed the GDR government to stop the outflow of the population, but also to create more favorable conditions for the independent development of the republic. In October, the Americans tried to destroy the Berlin Wall, but Soviet intelligence knew about these plans and took countermeasures. A whole regiment of tanks and an infantry battalion came out from East Germany against three jeeps, ten tanks and bulldozers. As a result, the Americans had to retreat.
With the coming to power in the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who proclaimed "socialist pluralism", the conflict was practically exhausted. In the course of negotiations between the warring countries, agreements began to be concluded on the reduction of armaments, which both countries had accumulated over the long years of the Cold War. In the late 1980s, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, and East and West Germany became a single state. The economic and political crisis in the USSR no longer allowed the fight against the United States. On December 26, 1991, the Union Treaty was terminated, which put an end to the Cold War.
As a result, the United States achieved its main goal: the destruction of its main enemy in the struggle for influence in the world. The USSR broke up into several independent states, and even the largest of them - Russia - could no longer dictate its terms to the Americans. In addition, the communist countries that were left without the support of the USSR either completely ceased to exist, or found themselves in a deep crisis.
Alexander Podrabinek: On March 5, 1946, the leader of the British Conservatives, Winston Churchill, delivered a speech at Westminster College in the American city of Fulton, in which he said: "From Szczecin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, the iron curtain has descended on the continent." Then, from that day, the countdown of the Cold War began, and the term "Iron Curtain" itself entered the international political lexicon and was firmly entrenched in it, denoting a means of self-isolation of the Soviet Union from the free world. True, it should be noted that Herbert Wells wrote about the "Iron Curtain" in 1904 in his science fiction novel Food of the Gods, and in 1919, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau spoke of the "Iron Curtain" at the Paris Peace Conference.
The Iron Curtain is one of the most striking signs of a totalitarian regime. Not the only one, but very revealing. The ban on leaving the country is a safety net for the totalitarian dictatorship in case of mass popular discontent with the existing regime. In the Soviet Union, this system lasted until 1991, when the law "On the procedure for leaving the USSR" was adopted, which abolished the need to obtain exit visas at OVIRs - the visa and registration departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In the Soviet Union, as, indeed, in other countries of the socialist bloc, there was a system of exit visas. That is, in order to travel to another country, it was necessary to obtain not only an entry visa at the embassy of this country, as in many cases it is still necessary now, but also an exit visa from our own authorities. It was put into the Soviet passport, and before perestroika it was almost impossible for an ordinary person to get it. This was the privilege of the Soviet and party nomenklatura, and the issue of issuing exit visas to all Soviet citizens was also resolved with it.
The Soviet government viewed the intention to emigrate from the country as a betrayal of the motherland. True, this did not bother those who set themselves the goal of leaving the socialist paradise. Few have been able to do this legally.
The most massive category of Soviet emigrants were Jews who declared their intention to repatriate to their own historical homeland to Israel. V different years it was more difficult or easier to do this, but almost always the declaration of intention to repatriate entailed undesirable consequences. What troubles awaited people who applied to leave for Israel?
Head of the PR and Media Relations Department of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Roman Spektor reports.
Roman Spektor: The first is loss of work. And this is probably the worst thing. The second is arrest. It didn’t depend in any way on the quality of participation in any movement, it had nothing to do with the category of refusal. The Jews were by that time hostages, nothing depended on their desire. Some kind of strong KGB power decided how many Jews, when and for what reason. The very idea of a vacation was, of course, a reaction to the desire of the Jews to leave the country. At first, it was an expressed, deeply tempered Zionist will, which such heroes as Yasha Kazakov, now Yasha Kedmi, ignited the Jewry of the whole world, which began to fight for the right of Jews to leave for Israel. Since there was some procedure that depended on the feed, people served and fell into two traps. One of them was called a ban on leaving the country due to secrecy at work - these are the so-called "secretaries", the second is the relatives of those who were banned, the category of so-called "poor relatives". And the number, the region, all this was planned by the authorities only in order to somehow show that the Jews still have the right to leave, but there were very few such "lucky ones". People were arrested and under the GULAG when there was some kind of order, everything worked for us to please some kind of exaggerated figure, especially when such a department ordered it. Today's speaker of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Julius Edelstein, went to jail because he taught Hebrew. But Hebrew was taught by many other people, why Yulik ended up behind bars - this is a question that needs to be addressed not to me, but to those KGB officers who determined it.
A significant number of people who received permission did not go to Israel or used Israeli visas in order to end up in Austria, Germany, American states etc. There has always been a return flow, or remigration, as we call it. This is, in general, a fairly small trickle, which did not rise above 7-10%, depending on some circumstances. Since not all Jews were equally ideologically infected and in their behavior the craving for the Promised Land was not so pronounced, in search of a better life, they first went to Israel and some other countries, without gaining the necessary social status there, without finding the necessary work there and necessary earnings, they returned, enriched with language, new realities. And the smallest part of them joined the ranks of activists and by that time already established Jewish institutions in our country, here in Russia.
Alexander Podrabinek: Another category of legal emigrants were dissidents, more precisely, a small part of them, whom the Soviet government let go abroad. Why did she do it? Human rights activist Pavel Litvinov reports.
Pavel Litvinov: I think it’s just so that they don’t stay in Russia. It was believed that they would bring less harm to the Soviet authorities abroad, that they would be heard less there. They had a contradiction all the time: on the one hand, they wanted to get rid of dissidents, on the other hand, they did not want to be easy way emigrate, less degree of freedom. Were different periods... When the democratic movement began in 1967-1968, emigration was a pure abstraction, that is, no one left, we did not hear that someone left, no one returned. The communists could leave, and then not leave, but go, sometimes remain defectors. I remember we said that, in principle, there should be freedom of emigration, but all this had nothing to do with the matter. Then the KGB decided to use the Jewish emigration in order to push out some of the dissidents. But this was a completely new phenomenon, it began in 1970-71. I think that political émigrés played a big role, in particular, together with Valery Chelidze, we published the Chronicle in Defense of Human Rights magazine, republished the Chronicle of Current Events, and published books. I spoke on Radio Liberty, Voice of America. We corresponded with people in Moscow. Thus, we have created additional channels of information, the movement has become truly international. I think that it is unlikely that it will return to the past practice, but it is impossible to predict, the regime may become so much worse that these will be details of additional fascization of the regime. This seems unlikely to me.
Alexander Podrabinek: Ethnic Germans and Pentecostals achieved some success in the struggle to leave the country, but in general, for most Soviet citizens, the border remained locked. However, there is no such lock that could not be broken. craftsmen... Fleeing across the border was dangerous, but not uncommon.
The easiest way was used by "defectors" - people who did not return from the West from tourist trips and business trips. It should be noted that defectors are an older concept than Soviet power. Also in early XIX centuries after the victory over Napoleon became defectors and more than 40 thousand lower ranks remained in the West Russian army... Alexander I even wanted to return them to Russia forcibly, but nothing happened.
Among the Soviet "defectors" one can name such famous people as world chess champion Alexander Alekhin and USSR chess champion Viktor Korchnoi, director Alexei Granovsky, singer Fyodor Shalyapin, geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky, Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, ballet dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev, historian Mikhail Voslensky, actor Alexander Godunov, pianist Maxim Shostakovich, Soviet ambassador at the UN Arkady Shevchenko, film director Andrei Tarkovsky, Olympic medalist and three-time world champion hockey player Sergei Fedorov, writer Anatoly Kuznetsov. This is the most famous one.
And there were also many people who, at their own peril and risk, fled from the Soviet paradise in various ways. Oceanographer Stanislav Kurilov, who was allowed by the Soviet authorities to explore the sea depths exclusively in the territorial waters of the USSR, took a ticket for an ocean cruise from Vladivostok to the equator and back without calling ports. This did not require an exit visa. On the night of December 13, 1974, he jumped from the stern of the ship into the water and with fins, a mask and a snorkel, without food, drink or sleep for more than two days swam about 100 km to one of the islands of the Philippine archipelago. Following an investigation by the Philippine authorities, he was deported to Canada and granted Canadian citizenship. And in the Soviet Union, Kurilov was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for treason.
Vladimir Bogorodsky, who was sitting with me in the same camp in the early 80s, to whom the Soviet authorities did not give permission to repatriate to Israel, told how he spat on legal ways to emigrate and simply crossed the Soviet-Chinese border. He demanded that the Chinese give him the opportunity to fly to Israel or meet with American diplomats in Beijing, but the Chinese communists were no better than the Soviet ones. They offered him an alternative: either stay in China or return to the Union. So instead of Israel or America, Volodya spent three years in Shanghai, and then relations between Moscow and Beijing warmed up, the fugitive was brought to the Soviet-Chinese border and handed over to the Soviet border guards. He received three years in a camp for illegal border crossing and was happy that he was not 15 years for treason.
The plane has always been the fastest and most comfortable means of transportation. Including from socialist camp to the free world. The daredevils, one way or another involved in aviation, fled abroad on airplanes, usually military ones.
Most of these escapes took place after the Second World War, but there have been cases before. So, for example, on May 1, 1920, four planes from the 4th fighter air group of the First Aviation Squadron of the Red Army took off from the Slavnoe airfield near Borisov in order to scatter leaflets over the territory of Poland, against which the Bolsheviks fought then. Only three fighters returned. Former lieutenant colonel tsarist army Petr Abakanovich flew in his "Nieuport-24-bis" to the Poles, landing at the airfield in Zhodino. Then he served in the Polish Air Force, twice got into plane crashes, during the Second World War he was in resistance, fought the Nazis, participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and after the war continued to fight the communist regime in Poland. In 1945 he was arrested, in 1946 he was sentenced to death, but then replaced death penalty life imprisonment. In 1948, he was beaten by a guard in Wronki prison.
In 1948, the Yak-11 trainer aircraft was hijacked to Turkey directly from the flight school in Grozny. Presumably, the cadet entered to study for a military pilot, already having clear intentions.
In the same 1948, pilots Pyotr Pirogov and Anatoly Barsov flew on a Soviet Tu-2 military aircraft from the Kolomyia airbase to Austria. The American occupation authorities in Germany granted them political asylum. A year later, Anatoly Barsov, for some unknown reason, returned to the USSR, where six months later he was shot.
On May 15, 1967, pilot Vasily Epatko flew on a MiG-17 plane from the Soviet airbase in the GDR to the territory of West Germany. He did not land, but ejected in the area of the city of Augsburg. He later received political asylum in the United States.
On May 27, 1973, aircraft technician Lieutenant Yevgeny Vronsky took off on a Su-7 combat aircraft from the Grossenhain Group airbase Soviet troops in Germany. Having minimal piloting skills obtained on the simulator, Vronsky flew the entire flight in afterburner mode and did not even remove the landing gear after takeoff. After crossing the border of the Federal Republic of Germany, Vronsky ejected. His car fell on a forest near the city of Braunschweig and soon the wreckage of the plane was returned to the Soviet side, and Lieutenant Vronsky received political asylum.
On September 6, 1976, Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko fled on a MiG-25 plane to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. After the study of the aircraft by American specialists, the aircraft in a disassembled state was returned to the Soviet Union. After this escape, a button appeared in the fighter's missile launch system, which unlocked the firing at its own aircraft. She received the nickname "Belenkovskaya".
But they fled from the Soviet Union not only on military aircraft. In 1970, 16 Jewish refuseniks from Leningrad planned to hijack the AN-2 civil aircraft, having bought all the tickets for this flight. It was supposed to land the plane in Sweden, but all the participants in the operation were arrested by the KGB at the airport, that is, before they had time to commit anything. Ultimately, all were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
What the Jewish refuseniks failed to do, Cuban refugees succeeded 30 years later. On September 19, 2000, 36-year-old pilot Angel Lenin Iglesias with his wife and two children took off in exactly the same AN-2 from the airport in the Cuban city of Pinar del Rio. All other passengers and the co-pilot were also relatives of Iglesias. There were 10 people on board in total. The plane headed for Florida, but it ran out of fuel and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. During a hard landing on the water, one of the passengers died. The rest were picked up by a passing Panamanian dry cargo ship, which delivered the rescued to Miami.
The joint Russian-French film "East-West" tells about the fate of a family who returned from emigration to the Soviet Union and faced the realities of the Stalinist dictatorship here. The prototype of the main character was Nina Alekseevna Krivosheina - a Russian emigrant of the first wave, the wife of a White Guard officer Igor Krivoshein, who was in Buchenwald under the Nazis, and in the GULAG under the communists. Unfortunately, the filmmakers did not bother to mention in the credits that the script was written based on the book by Nina Krivosheina "Four Thirds of Our Life". Nina Alekseevna's son Nikita Krivoshein, a former Soviet political prisoner sentenced in 1957 to a camp term for an article in the French newspaper Le Monde condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary, recalls his fellow prisoners who tried to escape from the Soviet Union.
Nikita Krivoshein: I knew Vasya Saburov, who served in the border troops, took, got off the tower on the Turkish border and went to Turkey. Then he ended up in the United States. Then he was told that his homeland forgives him, cannot live without him, he returned and received 10 years. I knew Leva Nazarenko, a resident of Minsk, who took a train, went to Batumi station, had breakfast and walked across to the Turkish border. There he was met by two shepherd dogs. He got 10 years. I knew a Moscow student who, in those days it was possible, agreed with the Scandinavian crew that they would take him on board the plane. But being a good son, before leaving he said to his father: "Dad, goodbye. I want to go to Scandinavia this way." Dad played Pavlik Morozov the other way around and immediately called where he should be. The plane was landed in Riga, and it was sentenced to 10 years. Here are some examples for you, such examples are still plentiful, starting with the Solonevich brothers, who managed to escape from the Solovetsky camps and relocate to Finland, and then to Latin America, not to mention countless defectors.
Alexander Podrabinek: In the early 1990s, with the collapse of the international communist system, the Iron Curtain also came down. Departure became free, exit visas were canceled, whoever wanted - emigrated, the rest could freely travel to other countries to visit, study, work or rest during their holidays. Article 27 of the Russian Constitution, which states that "everyone can freely travel outside the Russian Federation," did not remain only on paper - it actually operated and guaranteed the right to freedom of movement.
The clouds began to gather a few years ago. In 2008, the country issued regulations prohibiting free travel abroad for certain categories of persons - debtors in administrative fines and taxes, defaulters of alimony, defendants in lawsuits. In all these cases, the legislation already existed mechanisms of collection and coercion - from the seizure of property to administrative and criminal cases. The issue of "closing the border" for a citizen began to be decided by a judicial act, but not in a court session with a fair competition of the parties, but personally by a bailiff. For example, in 2012, the bailiffs banned 469 thousand citizens from leaving the country. In the first quarter of 2014, 190 thousand Russians, mostly bank debtors, were banned from leaving the country.
The shadow of the Soviet Union looms behind all these decisions: the authorities regard travel abroad as a gift to citizens, and not as their inalienable right. Indeed, why cannot a person who has monetary debts to organizations or citizens temporarily go abroad, say, for medical treatment or to a dying relative? Will he certainly become a defector? Run away from debt and ask for political asylum? What else can our government suspect him of? That he will spend money on himself that he could return to pay off debts? How does it look from the point of view of the law and the right of citizens to freedom of movement?
Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov shares his impressions.
Vadim Prokhorov: Article 27 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, namely its first part, guarantees freedom of departure and entry from the Russian Federation. In development of this provision of the constitution, a federal law was adopted on the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation. In this law, in article 15, it is established whole line the grounds on which the exit of Russian citizens from the Russian Federation may be restricted. What are these reasons? There are 7 reasons indicated. The first reason is access to information constituting a state secret or top secret information. The second reason is the completion of urgent military or alternative civilian service. The third reason is the involvement as an accused or suspect in committing a crime, from my point of view, the most obvious reason for restricting travel, this is, in general, fairly fair. The fourth ground is those held in places of deprivation of liberty by a court verdict before serving a sentence. Fifth - this is the most slippery, delicate basis, as having some obligations of a civil law nature, as a rule, imposed by a court decision, including promissory notes, credit, unfulfilled obligations. The sixth reason is when knowingly false information was reported when applying for a passport. And finally, the seventh is the employees serving in the body Federal Service security, respectively, until the end of the contract. These are the grounds on which exit may be restricted. If we look in more detail at these grounds, it is clear that there is a certain conflict between the constitutional norm, which allows you to freely leave the country and enter it, and the requirements of the federal law, which allow you to restrict the corresponding exit. Some reasons seem to me quite logical. For example, those in custody or suspected or accused of committing crimes. How our law enforcement and judicial system works is another matter - a separate conversation. But in general, criminals or potential criminals should be appropriately restricted in travel before the issue is resolved. The most slippery ground is those who have civil obligations, that is, do not comply with the relevant court decisions, evade, including maliciously, from paying alimony, and so on. There really is a kind of subtle balance here, because on the one hand, it is the constitutional right to enter and exit. Why is it necessary to restrict a person in this? On the other hand, for example, as a practicing acting civil lawyer, I understand very well that, unfortunately, the legal and economic situation in Russia is such that people often deliberately evade the fulfillment of their civil obligations. There is really a problem here, whether it is possible to restrict the constitutional right of a citizen to leave by protecting the rights of his claimants, his creditors. It seems to me that the question is not obvious, it does not have an unambiguous answer, from my point of view. It is necessary to protect constitutional rights, on the one hand, on the other hand, unfortunately, the level of legal awareness of society is such that for some reason debts are often for some reason not considered debts. Yes, the travel restriction, like a kind of debt hole, can be called differently.
Alexander Podrabinek: Perhaps such a debt collection system is really effective. Likewise effective, for example, is the torture inquest against arrested criminals - under torture they quickly betray their accomplices. Even more effective is the blackmail of those arrested by the fate of their loved ones - there are few who can resist not to confess to the crimes they have committed, and even to those imperfect ones. but general question sounds like this: is it possible to protect the rights of some citizens, violating the rights of others for the sake of this? And if so, to what extent, and where is the border that cannot be crossed in a state governed by the rule of law?
In 2010, the ban on leaving the country affected the FSB. They were allowed to travel abroad only by special decision and only in the event of the death of close relatives or urgent treatment, which is impossible in Russia. The exact number of FSB officers is not known to the public, but according to different estimates it is not less than 200 thousand people.
In April 2014, intradepartmental orders banned employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Federal Drug Control Service, the Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Bailiff Service, the Federal Migration Service, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations from traveling to most countries. That is, those who are usually referred to as " power unit". In total, this is about 4 million people. And no matter what, and these are also citizens of Russia, who have the same constitutional rights as everyone else.
Why the authorities needed such measures against the support of their regime is not entirely clear. These regulations have not been published, there are no official comments. Some believe that this is a kind of revenge by the leaders of the security agencies, many of whom have come under Western sanctions in connection with Russia's intervention in the events in Ukraine. Others believe that this is only the first step towards a total travel ban for all Russian citizens. A kind of a sign of politeness for society: we start with our own, and then it’s your turn!
Former Soviet political prisoner Nikita Krivoshein living in France does not believe in the return of the Iron Curtain.
Nikita Krivoshein: I read that restrictions are imposed on civil servants, certain categories of civil servants, people working in the defense industry who have access to state secrets, but the same restrictions may not be the same, but similar restrictions still exist in France for similar categories. I read that restrictions are being introduced for defaulters of alimony and people who have not paid off loans - this already seems ridiculous to me, but one way or another I am convinced that the resorts of Turkey and Spain will not be empty.
Alexander Podrabinek: The assumption that the "Iron Curtain" may well return and cover the continent again is not as absurd as it might seem at first glance. In neighboring Belarus, for example, for several years now, some oppositionists have been banned from leaving the country.
After the seizure of Crimea this year, everyone who wanted to retain Ukrainian citizenship and did not want to take Russian citizenship became foreigners overnight. They now have to obtain a residence permit and cannot spend more than 180 days a year at home. To the leader of the Crimean Tatars, former Soviet dissident and political prisoner Mustafa Dzhemilev Russian authorities generally banned from entering Russia and the Crimea. Now he cannot return to his home in Bakhchisarai, to his family and to his homeland, which he and his people managed to defend under Soviet rule.
So, the prototype of the future "Iron Curtain" acts in both directions: someone, as always, is not allowed out of here, and someone is not allowed here.
The question of freedom of movement, the right to leave the country and return is by no means idle. Today it already has a clear practical meaning for many people. One question: leave or stay? Another question: if you leave, when?
If you ask the younger generation what the Iron Curtain is, difficulties may arise. Of course, when you have not witnessed certain events, it is difficult to imagine them. However, asking the same question to people born in the era of the late USSR - the answer will immediately follow. After all, they lived during this period, they know firsthand what the notorious Iron Curtain is. Let's try to uncover the veil of secrecy and tell in more detail why it arose when it ceased to exist, and also try to answer the rhetorical question - was it even needed?
Prerequisites for the appearance of the Iron Curtain
In 1945, the Second World War... Germany was defeated - the fascist troops were pursued from all sides - by the Americans and the British from the west, by the Soviet soldiers from the east. The countries occupied by the Germans at the very beginning of hostilities were liberated, and not by anyone, but by the Red Army. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary - the peoples received their freedom and the right to life thanks to Russian soldiers. Of course, the Soviet leadership pursued its own goals in the liberation of these states - it was necessary to create puppet governments, wholly and completely subordinate to Moscow, but apparently pursuing a policy pleasing to the citizens.
For the whole world, these countries were democratic, but in reality they were not. In most cases, coming to power the right people took place either through a coup or rigged elections. Soviet agents, "gray cardinals" who were appointed advisers, were in fact informers, executors of all the "black" work to eradicate dissent in the country. All parties, with the exception of the communist one, were disbanded and their activities were strictly prohibited. Thus, by the end of the 1940s, all of Eastern Europe was separated from the rest of the European part by the so-called Iron Curtain.
So what is it?
Of course, you shouldn't take this literally - there was no metal barrier between the states. The term "Iron Curtain" was first used by the British Prime Minister in his 1946 Fulton speech. However, in fact, this phrase was used much earlier - after the revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War in Russia. The philosopher Vasily Rozanov compared the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power with a theatrical performance, after which a curtain of iron comes down with a creak and clang. There was some truth in his words.
The period of the Civil War marked the beginning of the isolation of the young Soviet state (it intensified by the end of the 1930s). In addition, it was believed that the USSR itself contributes to its isolation, because it wanted to develop internally and not depend on external factors. Western countries believed that the life of Soviet Russia was short-lived, so you should not waste your time and energy on it.
However, they miscalculated - the USSR not only did not collapse after the end of the Civil War, but also began to develop at a rapid pace, which could not but worry the United States and Great Britain. And the Soviet leadership, trying to show that life in the country is good and convenient, invited many intellectuals from abroad, offering them housing and benefits. So to speak, splurge. But the enemy was not a bastard either - the United States did everything to suppress the opponent.
In 1944, the country declared its currency, the dollar, to be the only settlement currency, and after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, who was always loyal to the USSR and to Joseph Stalin in particular, became president, who stated that there could be no joint decisions with the USSR. Of course, such provocations could not be ignored by the Russian leadership. And in revenge on the USSR and friendly countries (read - conquered anew), the iron curtain fell.
What was he like
To a greater extent, these were the restrictions of citizens in one way or another. In 1946, Eastern Europe was called the Eastern Bloc (Soviet), which was subject to Moscow's policy (unofficially, of course). What was it? First of all, there were restrictions on leaving the communist country. It was incredibly difficult to go even on vacation to a capitalist country - in most cases, a refusal sounded for a person. The same applied to work in the Soviet bloc - foreign journalists were not allowed or were carefully checked, and the diplomatic corps was minimal.
Stalin went further and emphasized in one of his speeches that communism is superior to capitalism in many ways. In response, Churchill delivered his famous speech in Fulton, USA, where he noted that “all of Eastern Europe, from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, is hidden behind the Iron Curtain. All the ancient capitals with world history - Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest, Sofia - were again conquered by Moscow. This is not the liberated Europe we fought for. "
Of course, the USSR benefited from the communization of the liberated countries - the countries supplied raw materials and industrial resources to Moscow. It was especially hard for those who participated in the war on the side of Germany - Romania and Hungary. They were forced to sign a humiliating truce with the Soviet leadership. Already poor countries were plundered. Cars, grain were exported in tons to the USSR. Sometimes entire factories were dismantled and moved to the territory of Russia.
In addition, the Iron Curtain is not only an entry and exit blockade, but also a cultural one. The Soviet Union carefully monitored what information came to citizens, from where, who was the source. Do not think that it was different in the West - the countries also tried to protect their inhabitants from the pernicious influence of the communist infection. Any contact with foreign citizens must be under the control of the authorities. If something did not go according to plan - the Soviet citizen was punished, and quite severe. Let us recall at least the example of the legendary Soviet actress Zoya Fedorova, who paid for her love with her career and health.
In 1945, she met the American diplomat Jackson Tate. I got to know each other quite closely. So much so that in January of the next year she gave birth to a daughter from him. Of course, it would be a scandal, and the actress married another (a Soviet citizen, of course) so that the child would be registered with him. However, all the secret becomes clear, and Fedorova was sentenced to 25 years in a camp for "espionage". The term was reduced, but health was already undermined. It was not possible to restore the career.
If someone was able to overcome the Iron Curtain and go abroad, then the Soviet leadership worked out its own answer - deprivation of citizenship and the inability to return to the USSR until the end of life. Thus, many cultural figures - writers, poets, directors, actors - became "defectors". And, of course, the leadership carefully concealed the true state of affairs in the country, showing those foreigners who came to the country a beautiful picture of the good, well-fed life of the Soviet Union.
How long could the curtain last? It's hard to say, but it fell already in the late 1980s, when the policy of publicity was announced in the Union. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and this event, one might say, was the turning point that finally destroyed the Iron Curtain. It became a thing of the past with the fall of the USSR, a country that argued that communism was invincible. However, it only lasted for 70 years. But after so many decades of isolation, the new Russia was free. In all senses.
Was he needed? The question is rhetorical. On the one hand, the USSR developed successfully, relying only on its own strength, people lived in equal (if possible) conditions, not knowing what was happening “over the hill”. But there were also many restrictions. How many broken lives and broken families have happened because of the Iron Curtain. Therefore, let everyone answer for himself, was he needed, or is this another whim of the Soviet leadership?
The history of the Cold War is not only a history of rivalry between two ideologies, but also a history of rivalry between two economic systems, which in their essence were antipodes to each other. What is remarkable about this topic ?, it illuminates the beginning of what we will all witness in our lifetime. “The iron curtain - this expression was given life by a device that was used earlier in the theater - the iron curtain, which, in order to protect the auditorium from fire, was lowered onto the stage in the event of a fire on it. This was very expedient in an era when on the stage they had to use open fire for lighting it - 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 biennium XVIII century. "
Vadim Serov.
Let's remember how it was ...
"V. I. Lenin proclaims Soviet power ”. V.A. Serov, 1962
It is generally accepted that the well-known "iron curtain" descended 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 the mud would not fly from the west. I'm afraid to disappoint some, but this is not the case.
The country of the Soviets existed, developed and no self-isolation, and it did not have closeness, on the contrary, the Soviet government made every effort to eliminate this closeness. For this, famous writers, people of art 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 that the West enveloped us, and to make it possible to assess what is 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 baggage 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 Western-style civilization — the least organized and the most shaky of the great powers — is now a modern civilization in extremis. ... History knows nothing like the collapse experienced by Russia. If this process continues for another year, the crash will be final. Russia will turn into a country of peasants; cities will be deserted and turned into ruins, 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
A. Hitler. 1924 g.
However, the shock rates of growth of the USSR frightened the West very much, showing them that they had miscalculated on our account, even taking into account the insertion of sticks into all our wheels and casters.
Then, from the sleeve was pulled the trump ace of the West - Adolf Hitler (you can read more about this in the article - "Shock USSR. Chronicles of Stakhanov") and a grandiose in its scale war was unleashed, hitherto unseen by mankind.
“If the Germans gain the upper hand, then we need to help the Russians, and if things turn out differently, then we need to help the Germans. And let them kill each other as much as possible. "
H. Truman, New York Times, 1941
As they say (in the West) - "nothing personal, just business."
Bear trap
"Who controls the money of the country is the absolute master of all industry and commerce."
James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, 1881
In July 1944, in the midst of the war, the International Bretton Woods Conference was held in the United States (New Hampshire). The meaning of this conference was reduced to two main points: the dollar is the only currency that is now allowed to have gold content, all the other countries should refuse to provide gold for their currencies, introducing dollar security instead (buying a dollar to print their currency), and the second point - the dollar becomes the main settlement currency (all international trade should now be conducted only for dollars).
The USSR signs the enslaving Bretton Woods agreement, its ratification (approval) is scheduled for December 1945.
Here we will deviate a little from the main topic, since it is worth mentioning another important fact.
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 shows once again that US presidents are just pawns in a big game.
"We were the closest to equal cooperation when Roosevelt was in America, and Stalin was here."
S.E. Kurginyan, political scientist.
Stalin and Roosevelt in Tehran
Here are the words of Roosevelt:
“Under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the Russian people have shown such an example of love for their homeland, firmness of spirit and self-sacrifice, which the world has not yet known. After the war, our country will always be happy to maintain good-neighborliness and sincere friendship with Russia, whose people, saving themselves, are helping to save the whole world from the Nazi threat. "
Personal message to Stalin following the results of the Tehran Conference (held: November 28-December 1, 1943):
“I believe the conference was very successful and I am confident that it is a historic event that confirms our ability not only to wage war, but also to work for the future peace in full harmony.”
“In simple terms, I got along well with Marshal Stalin. This person combines a huge, unyielding will and a healthy sense of humor; I think the soul and heart of Russia have their true representative in it. I believe that we will continue to get along well with him and with the entire Russian people. "
“Since the last meeting in Tehran, we have been working in really good cooperation with the Russians, and I think 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 24 minutes after the death of Roosevelt, his place is taken by the Vice President of the United States and an ardent anti-communist Harry Truman. Literally into Russian, "Truman" translates 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.
On April 23, 1945, at a meeting of the White House, Truman will say: “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, any friendliness can be forgotten.
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 complete, but the results seem satisfactory and are already exceeding expectations. " This was the message about the successful test of the atomic bomb. And on July 21, US Secretary of War Stimson, who accompanied Truman to the conference, receives photographs of the tests and shows them to the president.
And Truman goes on the offensive.
The Big Three in Potsdam
During the conference, he tries to hint to Stalin that the United States has atomic weapons.
Churchill describes the scene as follows: “We stood in twos and threes before we parted. I was perhaps five yards away and followed this important conversation with keen interest. I knew what the president was going to say. It was extremely important to know what impression this would make on Stalin. "
A little later Churchill approached Truman: "How did it go?" I asked. "He did not ask a single question," the president replied. "
And on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States makes two nuclear attacks 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 people and young people, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion ... These bombs used by the Americans, in their cruelty and horrific effects, are far superior to poisonous gases or any other weapon, the use of which forbidden.
Japan protests against the US trampling on internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both by the use of the atomic bomb and by previously used incendiary bombings that killed the elderly, women and children, destroyed and burned Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, residential areas, etc. . d ..
They are now using this new bomb, which is far more destructive than any other weapon used until now. This is a new crime against humanity and civilization. "
According to an American report from 1946, there was no military necessity for the use of atomic bombs:
“Based on a detailed study of all the facts and after interviews with surviving Japanese officials, according to this Study, definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely 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 the subsequent atomic bombing of Japan, but later decided that it would be more expedient not to waste bombs as they were created, but to start accumulating them.
The bombings were an act of intimidation. The message to Stalin here is unambiguous: ratify the Bretton Woods agreement or bombs can fly to you, by accident.
On September 4, 1945, the US Joint Defense Planning Committee prepared Memorandum No. 329: "to select approximately 20 of the most important targets suitable for strategic atomic bombing of the USSR and on the territory it controls." As the arsenal grew, it was planned to increase the number of cities. By this time, the USSR did not have not only such weapons, but even a strategic bomber capable of long-range flights.
December 1945 came. The USSR refused to ratify the Bretton Woods agreement on the cut.
But atomic strikes against the USSR did not follow. 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.
From 1941 to 1943, the Allies delivered more than 4,500 Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters to the USSR.
And since mid-1944, about 2,400 P-63 Kinkobra fighter-attack aircraft have been delivered to the USSR, the best American fighters at the end of the war, which were a modification of the aforementioned P-39. In the war with Germany "Kinkobras" failed to participate, and in the war with Japan practically the same.
Thus, it turned out that by the end of the war we were armed with a full set of the latest American fighters (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 have protected us, from ourselves.
P-63 "Kinkobra"
America had no opportunity to fight us in a fair fight, even by joining forces with Europe. By this time, the Soviet Union was too tough for them. So the West is beginning 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, however, had only to strengthen its air defense and accelerate work on its atomic program.
The curtain falls
"The most important thing is to choose the right enemy."
Joseph Goebbels.
W. Churchill, 1940
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.
Fulton speech
“Neither effective prevention of war, nor permanent expansion of the influence of the World Organization can be achieved without the fraternal alliance of the Anglophone peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and the British Empire and the United States.
[...]
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended on 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 population in their areas fell within the limits of what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them in one form or another subject not only to Soviet influence, but also to significant and increasing control of Moscow.
Almost all of these countries are run by police governments, and they lack true democracy. "
But Churchill was not the first to introduce the Iron Curtain to the Soviet Union. He borrowed this expression from an article by the Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of Germany, Joseph Goebbels:
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)
“If the Germans put down their weapons, 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 materials, a dull 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 bring seeds of discord into the ranks of the allies (anti-Hitler, naturally) and desperately beg from the West for the last chance for salvation, in the face of imminent death: “Now Bolshevism stands on the Oder. It all depends on the steadfastness of the German soldiers. Will Bolshevism be pushed to the east or will its rage cover all of Europe? Everything will be decided by us or not at all. That's all the alternatives. "
Goebbels' article had its effect, but only after the fall of Germany and the death of its ruling elite. It was then that Churchill took the words of Goebbels for his speech at Fulton.
"Dig deeper, Churchill would know 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" heretical ideas "coming from the East."
Valentin Falin, Dr. East. sciences.
We did not fight Hitler to transfer power to the Churchills.
Caricature of Churchill in FultonStalin immediately reacted 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 war by proclaiming a racial theory, declaring that only people who speak German represent a full-fledged nation. Mr. Churchill also begins the process of unleashing war 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 fully-fledged nation, should rule over other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations that speak the English language, as the only full-fledged ones, should rule over the rest of the nations of the world.
In fact, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the United States are presenting to nations that do not speak English, something like an ultimatum: accept our rule voluntarily, and then everything will be all right, otherwise war is inevitable. "
The parable of the good Samaritan
Good Samaritan. Artist: S.V. Bakalovich
The Cold War was declared. The next two moves by the West were the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine (March 12, 1947) and the plan of the US Secretary of State, George Marshall (1947-1948).
The meaning of the Marshall plan was to provide financial assistance to the countries affected by the Second World War.
A gesture of goodwill, you say. Alas no, in America there is “only business”. Each of the countries that received assistance had to sacrifice part of their sovereignty.
Truman's doctrine, however, 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 aimed at returning the USSR to its former borders (the "doctrine of rejection" of socialism).
The founder of the "doctrine of containment" is considered to be the American ambassador to Moscow (at that time), George Kennan. 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 some excerpts from the telegram:
"Many foreign countries countries in Europe, in particular, are exhausted and intimidated by the experience of the past and are less interested in universal freedom than in their own security. They seek advice, not responsibility. We should be able to offer them such help better than the Russians. And if we don't, the Russians will. [...]
The Soviet regime is essentially a police regime that dates back to the time of tsarist political intrigue and is accustomed to thinking primarily in police terms. This must not be overlooked when assessing the motives of the USSR. (Here we see an example of a myth so actively imposed by the West that it has already become a dogma that does not require proof - "Russia is a prison of nations" - author's note)
It was George Kennan who formulated the idea that the Soviet Union must be defeated without entering into direct military conflict with it. The stake here was placed 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 the middle of 1947, two types of foreign policy orientation were finally formed on the world map: pro-Soviet and pro-American.
Division of the world Cold War, mapAnd on April 4, 1949, the countries that received economic assistance from the United States under the Marshall Plan signed the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). So much for a two-move combination.
RDS-1 atomic bomb of the USSRBut already in August (29th) 1949, the USSR successfully tests its first atomic bomb - RDS-1. And two years before that, at the beginning of 1947, a long-range aviation bomber capable of delivering nuclear warheads was created in the USSR. It was the famous Tu-4.
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 wanted 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" (super fortress).
Bombers Tu-4 and B-29. Tu-4 (left) and B-29 (right)In 1949, the Tu-4 entered 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, with bare hands, it was no longer possible to take us.
Dangerous Soviet Union
The bear hurts Uncle Sam“Truman started the Cold War. And he began it from fear, from weakness, not from strength. And why? After World War II, capitalism as a system turned out to be badly shabby. He was discredited in the eyes of millions of people. He gave birth to the Great Depression. He spawned a terrible war. He gave birth to fascism and gas chambers. The Soviet Union was in this sense a real alternative. And this happened against the 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 45, they had 1.5 million people.
And so Truman and his entourage had a fear that Stalin would take advantage of the opportunities that opened before him. Moreover, there was a civil war in China, where the communists won. India continued to fight for independence. There were wars of liberation already in Indonesia and Vietnam, or 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, the American way of life. The Soviet Union had to be stopped. That 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 as from a methodological one. This mainly concerned the economic component.
“The principle of state policy (Soviet - author's note) has been a constant, albeit modest, improvement in the well-being of the population. This was reflected, for example, in large and regular price reductions (13 times in 6 years; from 1946 to 1950, bread fell three times, and meat 2.5 times). It was then that specific stereotypes of mass consciousness enshrined in the state ideology arose: confidence in the future and the conviction that life can only get better. 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 left the dollar zone altogether, 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. "
S. Kara-Murza.
And now a little about price reductions.
Modern youth probably thinks that this cannot be so that prices are constantly falling, because everyone knows that prices should rise - because inflation and a lot of other things, with complex names that cannot be pronounced by an ordinary person.
But I have a question - who said that prices should constantly rise?
I will explain on my fingers why prices are rising.
Explanation on the fingersIn each country there is a certain amount of goods and services (commodity equivalent, TE), the amount of these goods and services is constantly growing or decreasing (depending on the situation in the country, but it certainly does not stand still) and there is a money supply, the purpose of which is to serve universal exchange equivalent (DE - cash 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, this is called inflation (TE DE = deflation).
But the Central Bank (in this particular case, I mean the FRS) constantly prints extra money, in other words, creates inflation (TE DE), and in order to equalize the "commodity-money" ratio, prices for goods were reduced (that is, the solvency of money increased ).
“The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism could be formulated roughly as follows: 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 the development of production with interruptions from recovery to crisis and from crisis to recovery, there is a continuous growth of production ... "
Here and the donkey understands that the Soviet model, of Stalin's time, is beyond competition, and therefore the only way to fight the Soviet system is to silence it, that is, the same notorious Iron Curtain.
Nothing personal, just business
"If the American people ever allow banks to control the issue of money, the banks and corporations that grow around it will take all property away from people until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States.
But why did the United States choose such an illogical and highly volatile financial system? The answer is not difficult - "just business." The Fed is a private company, and the inflationary financial system is just a way of making a profit for this company.
"The main features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated approximately as follows: ensuring maximum capitalist profits through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of a given country ..."
And 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 (that is, there are 1000 rubles in total in the country's turnover), but here the Central Bank prints another 1000 rubles. And I have a question for you - how much money did 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 by 1000 rubles. This is the system of inflation - by producing extra money, the Central Bank is simply robbing its population. But here we again remember that the FRS is a private office, and therefore it turns out that it is not robbing “its own population”, but simply “the population” (and no matter which country). "Nothing personal, just business."
Ron Paul, dollar depreciation, trend“Goods and services that could have been purchased for $ 1 in 1913 are now worth 21. Let's look at this in terms of the purchasing power of the dollar itself. Now it is less than 0.05% of its 1913 value. We can say that the government with its bank cartel, as a result of the incessant inflationary policy, stole from us 95 cents from every dollar. "
Ron Paul, American politician, 2009
With the death of Stalin, the practice of lowering prices in the USSR was discontinued. Khrushchev abolished the gold content of the ruble by converting Soviet currency, following the example of all countries, into dollar security.
“Now, when the documents of the first period of the Cold War have been published in the United States, it is obvious that it was precisely a war aimed at the destruction of the USSR and the Soviet state. The doctrine of war prescribed the conduct of two parallel programs: an arms race with the aim of depleting the Soviet economy and ideological indoctrination of the top of the party and state nomenklatura. "
S. Kara-Murza
As we can now see from history, the second program was a success.
He who has eyes, let him see. conclusions
Samsara wheelThe topic of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War in general is more relevant today than ever. As you know, history always repeats itself, it revolves in a circle, like the wheel of Samsara, which is why it is important to know history - one who knows the past is able to foresee the future.
In conclusion, I would like to cite one more excerpt from D. Kennan's "long telegram" (February 22, 1946):
“The success of the Soviet system as a form of power within the country has not yet been conclusively proven. It must be demonstrated that it can withstand the crucial test of a successful transition of power from one individual or group of individuals to another.
The death of Lenin was the first such transition, and its consequences had a disastrous effect on the Soviet state for 15 years. After the death or resignation of Stalin, there will be a second transition. But even this will not be a decisive test. As a result of the recent territorial expansion, Soviet power within the country will experience a number of additional difficulties, which the tsarist regime had already subjected to severe trials once. Here we are convinced that never, since the end of the civil war, the Russian people were emotionally so far from the doctrines of the Communist Party as they are today.
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 inner 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 meet the changing needs of the country, that is, to be flexible, but his followers did not understand this anymore, and that was what Kennan was talking about.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many thought that the United States 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 - a battle of empires ...
Let me remind you of a couple more historical moments: Remember these moments: and more recently The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is