A town that does not exist…

Print Polina Naumenko , Yulia Rybalkina

The city that doesn't exist... [1]

There was a time - they gave it in gold [2]

This summer our city froze in anticipation: will he come or won’t he come? Everything was cleaned, swept, prepared for the meeting. Where necessary, new asphalt was laid, trees were whitewashed, and road markings were updated. There was a lot of talk and discussion about President Putin's upcoming visit to Rostov and, possibly, Novocherkassk. The city was flooded with policemen from all over the region, traffic was blocked, documents were checked everywhere. Then they said: “He won’t come, but maybe his wife will come to see the cathedral.” In the evening, a huge number of people gathered around the cathedral, but Lyudmila Putina did not stop by in Novocherkassk. And in connection with all this fuss and the failed visit of the president, I remembered my mother’s stories about how her grandmother and her sister saw the last Russian Tsar during his visit to Novocherkassk. The great-grandmother talked about this as one of the most significant events of her life [3] .

Therefore, we took the last visit to our city by Nicholas II on December 5, 1914 as the starting point for our story about Novocherkassk at the beginning of the twentieth century. We want to present the city at the time of his arrival in Novocherkassk, “follow” his route, show what he saw or could see, what places he chose for his visit and what remained outside his attention [4] . In memoirs, Novocherkassk appears very different. There are idealized memories of Cossack emigrants, and there are memories of the philosopher Alexei Fedotovich Losev, who spoke not very flatteringly about Novocherkassk. The city lived a very different life, it was the life of a provincial city and the life of an urban “lower class”. The life that the king saw, and the life that he did not want to see.

In our city, “Nizovka” is the name for the streets that run along the foot of the hill on which the city stands, past the railway, the Aksai and Tuzlov rivers. Far from being the wealthiest residents of our city settled there. The life of the “nizovka” flowed according to its own laws, different from the central part of the city.

The royal visit was a one-day, as they say, “working” visit. He was the latest on a long trip around the country. Nikolai traveled through Orel, Tula, Smolensk, Ekaterinodar, Vladikavkaz, Samashkinskaya, Elisavetpol, Kharkov, Tiflis. The trip was of a propaganda, mobilization and, to some extent, financial nature. Novocherkassk was one of the last on the route. The diary mentions him very sparingly, in a few lines: “I arrived in Novocherkassk at 10 o’clock. Straight to the new huge cathedral and then to the ataman’s house, where the honorable man was. guard of the local team and the last graduation of warrant officers from the school. I visited two hospitals and had breakfast on the train. I visited more hospitals and then attended an officers' meeting for a cup of tea. I saw wounded Don officers. I was in a cadet corps, an institute and an orphanage. At 7 o'clock I left Novocherkassk. In the evening I played dominoes . " But for the townspeople it was a significant event, and everyone was eager to see the emperor and then tell their children and grandchildren about it.

In our family, where the ancestors on my grandfather’s side are the Don Cossacks (my great-great-grandfather was an ataman of the village of Starocherkasskaya), Nikolai’s arrival is remembered as follows: “In 1914 they met the Tsar, all the atamans were at the reception, women with children were not allowed in, but Fanya (my great-grandmother. - P.N.) begged the guard, so Fanya and Panya (her sister) still saw the king.”

The Azov Region newspaper reports: “ On the morning of December 5, 1914, Nicholas II arrives at the railway station in the city of Rostov-on-Don. There he is met by the Military Punishment Ataman Pokotilo Vasily Ivanovich [5] , from there they proceed to Novocherkassk. At the railway station of Novocherkassk [6] the Emperor was awaited by the Chief of Staff of the Don Army, Lieutenant General A. A. Smagin, Senior Assistant to the Military Ataman for Civil Affairs, Major General M. A. Turoverov, Regional Leader of the Nobility N. I. Polyakov, City Commandant Novocherkassk, Major General Kostin and others. Around the station and along the railway there were trellises of students and troops enthusiastically greeting their Monarch. Nicholas II, accompanied by the Military Ataman V.I. Pokotilo and hundreds of cadets from the Novocherkassk Cossack School, got off the train and moved by car up the Epiphany Descent to the Military Ascension Cathedral. On the trip he was accompanied by the head of the Emperor’s secret guard, General A.I. Spiridovich.” [7] .

Fig.

Noteworthy is the fact that among those greeting there were mainly persons of the military class, including the assistant to the Military Ataman for the civil part, Major General M. A. Turoverov, and only one civilian - the regional leader of the nobility, while there was no head of the City Duma [8] .

A special feature of Novocherkassk was that until 1914, the entire power in the city was vested in the Military Ataman. The management of city improvement and economy was entrusted to the Management Committee. The committee was headed by the assistant to the military ataman for civil affairs. The committee consisted of “the regional leader of the nobility, an indispensable member, his comrade, the police chief, his senior trustee from the Cossacks of the trading society, two representatives from the city inhabitants, as well as city residents: an engineer, an architect and a doctor. Representatives from the city's inhabitants are invited by the Military Ataman: one from among the persons of the military class who own real estate within the city of Novocherkassk, and the other from nonresident persons living in the city and paying any monetary fees to its income. Representatives are confirmed as committee members by the Minister of War for a period of 3 years. City: an engineer, an architect and a doctor participate in meetings only on matters related to their specialty, according to their affiliation; at the discretion of the chairman, outsiders can also be invited to the presence of the committee, from whom, due to the nature of the cases under consideration, useful explanations can be expected. These persons do not have the right to vote when deciding a case. An indispensable member of the committee and his comrades are appointed: the first by the Minister of War, on the proposal of the Military Punished Ataman, and the second by the Military Punished Ataman, on the proposal of the chairman of the committee.

The subjects of the Committee's department include the following matters: orders for the arrangement and maintenance of city streets, squares, sidewalks, pavements, ditches, sewers, gardens, boulevards, bridges, as well as city lighting; management of city monuments, water supply, cemetery, theater and all generally buildings belonging to the city; measures to ensure food supply for the people, the organization of markets and bazaars, as well as a collection of reference prices, on the basis specified for city governments; caring for public health and taking measures against cattle deaths, fires and other disasters; care for the development of local trade and industry, the organization of fairs, the organization and maintenance of city weights and measures, as well as the issuance of certificates for the production of crafts permitted by law; approval of plans and facades for buildings erected in the city, issuance of permits for the reconstruction of private buildings in the city, monitoring the implementation within the city of the rules prescribed by the construction charter; permission to establish purchased baths, factories, plants and other industrial and commercial establishments in the city; drawing up estimates of income and expenses, etc.” [9] .

We can conclude that the Military Ataman was in charge of “everyone and everything” in the city: the Management Committee created to help him was formed under the leadership of the Ataman and was subordinate to him. This was the “managerial originality” of the Cossack capital. Naturally, the ataman and the military department did not want to part with such power in the city. Of course, along with questions about the construction of bathhouses, bridges and sewage pipes, the right to grant permission to open new enterprises, control over the market, the development of trade, etc. went out of control. Only as a result of prolonged pressure from the city community and The persistence of State Duma deputies from the Don Army Region succeeded in achieving the transition of civil government of the city to an elected City Duma, as was the case in other Russian cities since the reforms of Alexander II.

On the eve of the First World War, in the summer of 1913, the City Committee for the Management of Novocherkassk was replaced by the City Council together with the city mayor, as well as the City Duma, elected for four years. But, as we see, these representatives of the city government were not invited to the emperor’s meeting. Despite the agreement to introduce civil government in the city, for Nikolai the ataman and his assistant remain in the foreground. Perhaps this choice was supposed to show who is the real “master” of the city.

On that winter day, Nikolai did not have to walk up the Kreshchensky Descent from the station. In summer, this road is quite picturesque, but this is how A.D. Grekov [10] , a graduate of the Platov Gymnasium, describes the Epiphany Descent: “It was quite steep, so it was a little difficult to walk even in good weather. But in winter, when sometimes severe frost set in after a thaw, Kreschenka was covered with a solid crust of ice. It was difficult for us guys to crawl along it, but it was hard to watch how the poor horses and oxen were tormented and maimed, trying to overcome this pile on the slippery ice. And such icy conditions happened almost every winter here” [11] .

From the station, Nikolai's car moves up to the cathedral. At the top of Kreshchensky Descent, he passes a beautiful carved arch, erected in 1887 for the arrival of Alexander III and his family. I wonder if Nicholas remembered this trip when he was in the city for the first time, while still heir to the throne? After the revolution, the arch was demolished. Behind the arch opened Cathedral Square with a monument to General Baklanov and the Military Ascension Cathedral, consecrated in 1905. Nicholas was amazed by the cathedral, although he saw it for the second time.

The cathedral, as they would say now, played an important role in the patriotic education of youth. All young Cossacks had to go through the “hall for small talk”, decorated with paintings from the history of the Cossacks. The subjects for the paintings were not chosen by chance. “The lampshades and arches of the conversation hall are richly painted in the style of ancient Russian towers according to the drawings of the artist V. M. Lopatin. The intertwining golden ornament on delicate colored backgrounds awakens memories of royal Moscow and those Russian sovereigns with whose high names the centuries-old history of the Don is closely connected... The visitor is involuntarily transported in thought to the times of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, under whom the Don Army was first awarded the Highest Certificate... . to the era of the tsars from the House of Romanov, who cared a lot about the well-being of the Quiet Don... On the cheeks of the arch leading to the conversation hall, two immediate events from the history of the Don Army are depicted: on the left cheek - “The foundation of the cathedral and the city of Novocherkassk by Ataman Platov in 1805", on the right "Meeting of Ataman Platov upon his return from Paris in 1814". The northwestern niche in the conversation hall is occupied by a painting by artist F. S. Kazachinsky “Ermak’s preparations for a campaign in Siberia.” On the opposite wall is depicted by the artist D. N. Kardovsky “The award of the royal banner to the Don Cossacks by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1614.” After these two paintings, there is a painting made by the artist Maksimov based on a sketch by D. N. Kardovsky, “Peter the Great’s Assemblies near Azov in 1696.” And other paintings" [12] .

After visiting this hall, those pages from the history of the Army that were associated with serving the Moscow kings remained in the memory of the young Cossack. The Don should not have been perceived as a place where free people lived, where anti-government uprisings began. This is how “patriotic education” was conducted.

The cathedral was also supposed to demonstrate the special metropolitan status of Novocherkassk, because in size it ranks third after St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. It would seem why a fairly small city needs such a huge cathedral, especially since it took about 100 years to build it and was built only on the third attempt, spending a lot of money.

On the one hand, the Cossacks wanted to have a cathedral that they could be proud of. It is no coincidence that he was called the “Second Sun of the Don.” On the other hand, the Military Ascension Cathedral and Cathedral Square served as the center of the most important events that took place on the Don and in Novocherkassk. These included, first of all, the Military Circles held annually in October.

Fig.

This is how one of these Cossack circles is described by Sergei Vladimirovich Boldyrev, a historian, writer and Cossack colonel - the first Don officer awarded the Order of St. George for bravery in the Great War (1914-1918): “A quiet autumn morning. The capital of the Don, Novocherkassk, is shrouded in a light haze of October fog. The powerful sounds of the bell of the Military Cathedral resound smoothly in the air. In the city, decorated with flags, from the very morning you can already feel some special solemnity. There are officers, military officials, and students on the streets; everyone is dressed in full dress uniform. Here and there the scarlet uniforms of the Life Cossacks and the blue uniforms of the Life Atamans flash. There are many gray-haired old men in strange uniforms, with crosses and medals for previous wars, with high notches... What a majestic and proud appearance they have: like in ancient Cossack engravings. The Don Cadet Corps and the hundred of the Cossack Military School (Cossack cadet school), high school students, realists and military units, all with their orchestras, proceeded to the cathedral in full force.

Dressed ladies and generals with silver epaulettes, with stars shining on their chests, orders and wide ribbons over their shoulders, gathered in their own carriages and cabs; officers in full dress, city nobility. The cathedral bell rings with a solemn ringing. There is a sea of ​​people around the majestic cathedral; the gray-haired Donskoy Archbishop Hermogenes descends along the long blue carpet from the cathedral doors with a cross in his hand. The military chieftain venerates the cross. The Bishop sprinkles holy water on the ruler of the Don. Having received a blessing from the Lord, the ataman, followed by troops and townspeople, follow into the huge cathedral... Finally, the long bishop's service ended. And troops and townspeople emerge from the cathedral in decorous rows, and again the square is flooded with a sea of ​​people, silence, commands are heard, units are taken “on guard.” The ancient bell of the cathedral, which once called the Cossacks to the Maidan, rings with a long hum, and holy icons and banners are brought out to the square. Ahead is the holy icon of the Don Mother of God, the heavenly patroness of the Army." [13] .

The area around the Cathedral looked different on weekdays, when the steps to it were occupied by beggars and beggars. Even then it was a real business. Here’s what A.F. Grekov tells about his feelings: “As a kid, I was just scared to pass by. They cried out for alms in different voices. Here a compassionate pilgrim comes out, walks past them to the bagel seller, also sitting here near the cathedral, and buys a dozen or two small ones, 1/2 kopeck each. bagels and begins to give to the poor, moving from one to another.

“For the repose of Ivan, for the repose of Peter...” she says at the same time.

“Remember, Lord, your servant Ivan,” the beggar mutters quickly, hiding the bagel, and at the same time hisses at her neighbor. - What are you, bitch, grabbing from your hands? Do you want to take everything for yourself?

- Give me some alms. - there are now pious and now scolding exclamations. Having collected a dozen bagels, the beggar (beggar) sells them right there to the same merchant

and from her again he goes to the benefactors. And so several times, confirming the eternity of substances and the cycle of things in nature. There were so many types here! And freaks, presenting their ugliness in greater relief, and old, and sick, and simply trying to present themselves as such. The same beggars, you see, around the corner, are pulling through the neck from half a bottle a cleaned one, purchased with the pennies they collected, and sometimes such a squabble begins among them that it would be just right for the dockside porters” [14] .

On December 5, with a large crowd of people on Cathedral Square, the Emperor visited the Military Church. There he was met by Archbishop Vladimir of Don and Novocherkassk. He addressed the king with a short speech and blessed him with the icon. Then a thanksgiving prayer took place, after which the sovereign went to the Ataman Palace.

His path lay through Cathedral Square past the monument to Ermak - once Nikolai’s consent was asked for its construction [15] . (Note that in Novocherkassk at the beginning of the twentieth century there were only three monuments, all of them were built to emphasize the military role of the Cossacks. Near the cathedral there were monuments to General Baklanov and Ermak, in the center of the city there was a monument to Ataman Platov.) He proceeded past the Assembly of the Nobility and along Platovsky Avenue. He passed the building of the Theological Seminary, which stood out among others with turrets and carved decorations, a military guardhouse, and the Museum of the History of the Don Cossacks, opened in 1897 [16] .

And again a memory! A little further in, right behind the museum, was the building of the Mariinsky Gymnasium, one of the most beautiful in the city. Nikolai was there on his first visit with his parents and brother Georgiy. His car drove past a huge three-story building, where all the services of the Trial Chamber and the District Court were located [17] . On the side of Atamanskaya Street, the building had the inscription “Judicial Establishments”, and on the side of Platovsky Prospekt - “Judicial Chamber”. Now there is a city theater and a cultural center here.

This whole journey, even if driving slowly, hardly took more than 10 minutes. Then Nikolai’s car drove to the central square of the city to the monument to Platov and the Ataman House [18] .

The construction of the Ataman House is also connected with Nikolai Alexandrovich’s first visit to Novocherkassk. One can even say that it was completed precisely in order to amaze and surprise the heir - rooms were specially decorated for him. Nowadays the Ataman House is more often called a palace, but it was built precisely as a house, a place where the atamans lived. They began to call it a palace out of a desire to emphasize that we also have our own palace, just like in the capital.

One evening I suggested that my grandfather take a walk around the city, look at the cathedral, the Ataman Palace, the House of Culture and the theater. Grandfather was very surprised when I said “palace”. He asked if I knew the history of this building? From the school course “History of the Don” I knew that this was the house where atamans and their families used to live. Grandfather smiled: “That’s right, granddaughter, this is a house, not a palace.” He said that a house cannot be a palace. Moreover, the atamans did not try to stand out - the title already distinguished them. To some extent, grandfather is right, although on a postcard published before the revolution, it is still called a palace.

In the Ataman Palace, an honor guard and 200 old Cossacks, representatives from the Don villages, were already waiting for Nicholas. Nicholas spoke with the old men, let the convoy pass in front of him in a ceremonial march, and entered the palace, where he received various deputations. Here he was greeted by deputations “from the Don Army, the nobility of Novocherkassk, the village of Novocherkassk, and the Society of Don Trade Cossacks. Here, Archbishop of Don and Novocherkassk Vladimir handed over to the Sovereign Emperor 20,000 rubles collected by the Don clergy for the needs of the Russian army fighting Germany and its allies. The Emperor responded to those present with a word of gratitude” [ 19] . It seems that raising funds for the war was one of the important components of this trip. Probably, the collected money was presented in each of the cities where Nicholas II stayed.

Fig.

On the road from the Ataman House, Nikolai passed by students of the Platov Gymnasium lined up in lines. Professor of the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute Georgy Ivanovich Popov in his memoirs describes this moment as follows:

“The arrival of Emperor Nicholas II in the fall of 1914 was a big event for the city. He traveled more and more to hospitals. He rewarded and was interested. When he arrived in Novocherkassk, he had to visit the gymnasium, part of which was occupied by a hospital. The gymnasium, of course, made preparations - tricolor flags at the entrance, paths on the stairs, everything as it should be. But he didn't come. They said that our director was “at odds” with the appointed ataman, who “put a screw on us.” But we still saw the Emperor, and from a distance of 3-5 meters, no more. Having visited the Ataman Palace, he drove past the square with the monument to Platov. In this passage they lined us up, the entire gymnasium. And so he quietly, very slowly, drove past us in an open car. There was no security, the driver was sitting, next to him was an adjutant officer, Nikolai himself was in the back seat in an ordinary brown soldier's, or officer's, overcoat and a gray hat. Without any escort. He sat and looked ahead. There was no parade in his honor, only a guard of honor from the local team and a graduation ceremony for ensigns (junkers).” [20] .

Now even the mayor of our provincial city does not go anywhere without security. It cannot be said that the townspeople, for example, are making an attempt on his life. I think that in the understanding of power, security is a kind of annex to privileges. They believe that they are much higher than ordinary people. To some extent this is true, but it probably shouldn’t be so obvious and demonstrative.

After the start of the war, Don began to form Cossack regiments and divisions. During the entire period of hostilities, 125 thousand Cossacks left the Don for the front. At the initial stage of the war, about 100 thousand Cossacks were mobilized, of which 75 thousand fought on the fronts of the World War (data as of January 1, 1915) [21] . In the Cossack units, significantly fewer losses were noted than in other branches of the army; there was absolutely no desertion in them. Memorial services were served for all the deceased Cossacks (“those who were out of action,” as the representatives of the Cossacks themselves said), and they were buried with military honors. Unlike subsequent wars, information about the dead, wounded, missing, and captured was reported in the press.

In August 1914, the equestrian patrol of the 3rd Don Regiment, in which Kozma Kryuchkov fought, accomplished his feat, destroying 11 enemy soldiers in this battle and becoming the first holder of the St. George Cross among the lower ranks of the Don Cossacks. Much has been written about this, his name was used in various propaganda materials, but local newspapers are full of stories about the exploits of other heroes, their awards, careers, and miraculous salvation. Here are some stories from that time:

"WITH. V. Boldyrev is only 24 years old, but he has already received baptism of fire and distinguished himself... S. V. Boldyrev was awarded the Order of St. George. His companions also received insignia. The distribution of awards was also accompanied by a military celebration. The entire regiment marched in front of the war heroes, after which numerous congratulations were offered” [22] .

“On November 6, the Petrograd Telegraph Agency reported that the captain of the Cossack regiment, Khokhlachev, was awarded the St. George weapon. To this short message we can add that the captain and his hundred Cossacks had the difficult task of repelling the advance of a German detachment, which he accomplished with great success. In the midst of the battle, he was wounded and picked up on the battlefield by the Germans. All the time, Captain Khokhlachev was considered to have died from his wounds. His relatives and especially his wife experienced many anxious days, until finally a letter was received from him from Germany stating that he was alive, in captivity and recovering from his wounds” [23] .

“Esaul Ivan Fedorovich Odnoglazkov with his hundred Cossacks took an active part in one of the last battles with the Germans in East Prussia, was wounded and is currently in one of the Moscow hospitals” [24] .

It is known that the emperor visited hospitals. Infirmaries are a special page in the history of the city. In Novocherkassk there were about 6 infirmaries located in various institutions and gymnasiums. In 1914, the Azov Region newspaper published an article entitled “Curiousness.” The author considers it curious that the City Commission on the Wounded does not want to “allow representatives of public groups into its case, and if they are in very limited numbers relevant to the case, it is only because ... they were brought in almost by force, conditioning their sacrificing the indispensable participation in the work of their representatives.”

And this is in war conditions, when you need to work together. The author is also concerned about the following fact: “The Executive Commission, by the way, appointed responsible stewards to the infirmaries and elected trustees there, and this is the picture that emerged from these actions for three, for example, infirmaries. Infirmary No. 2 (city): responsible manager - A. S. Dronov (commission member), trustee: M. G. Dronova (his wife) and O. I. Ginzburg. Infirmary No. 2 (general land): responsible manager - M. I. Karpov (commission member). Trustees: E. A. Karpova (his wife) and A. V. Frolova. Infirmary No. 4 (general land): responsible manager - V.V. Kalmykov (commission member), trustee: M.I. Kalmykova (his wife).

. .. It is unlikely that this family principle can withstand criticism from the point of view of generally accepted norms of conducting public affairs. And members of the commission, and heads of hospitals, and trustees, who are obliged to work together, are no less obliged to mutual control in preventing possible errors. And this mutual control can be fully exercised only if the employees are not connected by friendship, kinship, or other other conditions. And finally, is it really possible that in a city with a population of seventy thousand, the members of the executive commission do not see suitable people for the job and elect themselves, their spouses and close people for work that requires deliberate scrupulousness? [25] .

Then two more articles were published in the same newspaper every month. They said that on November 4, Don doctors discussed a project to establish a Society for Doctors on Night Duty at hospitals, and on December 1, the Society of Don Doctors [26] decided to organize night shifts for doctors at public hospitals. 17 people signed up, they were obliged to provide assistance to those in need from 9 pm to 7 am with a reward of five rubles for duty. The city provided funds.

A month later, an article about the officer’s hospital was published: “The officer’s hospital, apparently, is not destined to fulfill its purpose. Wounded Don officers arriving in Novocherkassk, despite all the amenities this hospital has, still strive to get to their family or relatives. The officer's hospital has been formed for more than two months, and there are not a single wounded person in it. Furniture and beds are supposed to be used for wounded soldiers, and in the military assembly there will be a Red Cross workshop for sewing things for sick and wounded soldiers, located in the house of the Society of Don Trade Cossacks.”

The main organizer of assistance to the wounded during the First World War in Russia was the Red Cross Society. One of its branches was located in Novocherkassk. It was the Red Cross infirmary that Nicholas II visited.

The areas of work of the Red Cross changed in accordance with the requirements of the time. Here is an extract from the Annual Report on the activities of the society in 1914: “First half of the year. The department was engaged in helping disabled military ranks and the families of those killed, providing benefits in proportion to the need of each applicant. The second half of the year, due to the unexpected outbreak of war with Germany and Austria, and subsequently Turkey, brought enormous worries and caused intense activity.”

Fig.

The Office of the Red Cross Society has developed measures aimed at solving these problems. According to reports, fundraising mechanisms were as follows: “donation circles” were set up in shops, banks and other public places; subscription sheets were sent to administrative and public institutions of the Don Army region and “receipt books” to all treasuries to accept donations; a “warehouse of donated items” was formed at the Society of Don Trade Cossacks. The Red Cross Society was active and very successful in collecting donations. In total, from August 1914 to January 1, 1915, the Don District Administration of the Red Cross received 100,567 rubles for military needs. 13 kopecks

There were a huge number of public organizations in Novocherkassk. The most famous and powerful are the Don Guardianship of the Poor [27] , the Don Philanthropic Society [28] , the Society for Benefiting Poor Don Students [29] , the Novocherkassk Mutual Credit Society, the Society of Don Doctors [30] , the Society for the Distribution of Useful Books in the Don Army Region [31] , Commission for the organization of public readings in Novocherkassk, Don Agriculture Society, Novocherkassk Mutual Fire Insurance Society, Public Library, Don Diocesan Aksai-Virgin Brotherhood, Don Department of the Russian Society for the Protection of Animals, Don Racing Society, Novocherkassk Musical and Dramatic Society etc.

The newspaper “Priazovsky Krai” reports on November 24, 1914: “The ladies’ circle, organizing a one-day circle gathering and sale of special badges on November 22, issued a special appeal, which says: “Our sacred duty, our indispensable duty to take care of loved ones fighting for us native Cossacks with the onset of cold weather are already suffering many difficulties, and although it will partially ease their battle path, thereby inspiring them to new exploits. The ladies' circle for organizing Cossack Day appeals to residents of the city of Novocherkassk to donate as much as they can to the circles. With the money collected in this way, the ladies' circle will prepare a sufficient amount of warm clothes, linen, tobacco, sugar and tea and send it to the active army for the Don Cossack regiments, batteries and individual hundreds. ...All kinds of warm things for soldiers, Don Cossacks, will be accepted with gratitude in the office of the regional leader of the nobility: Cathedral Square, house No. 8. In conclusion, the ladies' circle invites ladies who want to work in the organization to collect donations to register in the same office of the leader nobility" .

And another article from the same newspaper: “The collection of warm and other things for the army exceeded all expectations. By evening, over 15 vans of various things had been collected in the first section. Many donated warm sheepskin coats, sweatshirts, underwear, and socks. There were many donations of tea, sugar and even sewing machines. The value of everything donated is determined in thousands of rubles. A warehouse of things is opened in Nektarova’s house, opposite the private theater . ”

Helping refugee children was very important. Therefore, a shelter of the Committee of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna was opened in Novocherkassk, designed for 60 children [32] . More than 60 children could not be accepted because there were no premises. The monthly maintenance was 1,300 rubles.

Here is the shelter’s estimate: “Cost of devices - 250, equipment - 3,919, maintenance - 15.13, schedule. - 3.800, results - 23.16.

Nutrition. Breakfast: tea with bread and milk. Lunch: soup or borscht, porridge. Dinner: tea with bread. Twice a week lunch with meat, 2 days - lean, 2 days - lard. For one person - 7 rubles. 50 kopecks For a month - 74 rubles.”

The food is not very plentiful, but in that situation for the children this could have been a salvation. Moreover, they received their primary education at the orphanage. When the inspector of public schools found out that there was no primary school in the orphanage, he issued a loan for equipment - 830 rubles for 40 people. On July 4, a resolution was adopted to release funds to expand the equipment of a one-class school.

Another area of ​​assistance from charitable committees to the population during the war was the opening of “nurseries” for soldiers’ children. This was very convenient since the mothers worked. The maintenance of one child was 3 rubles per month.

Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, Novocherkassk was a city of pupils and students. As the capital, it was the center of formation of the Don Army Region, which means that a huge number of young people flocked to the city. In terms of the number of educational places per capita, Novocherkassk was at the level of the largest cities in Russia. In 1914, there were 107 educational institutions operating in the city [33] . Primary and lower secondary education was available to all children in the city. A special feature of the city was its developed system of women's educational institutions. One of the most interesting was Petrova’s gymnasium - both boys and girls studied there together.

With the beginning of the war, hospitals were set up in men's gymnasiums and schools in Novocherkassk; in women's gymnasiums, during handicraft classes, girls made gifts for the wounded or sewed for children from an orphanage.

From the minutes of the meeting of the Don regional branch of the Committee of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna dated April 4, 1916: “Reported: on the receipt from the private gymnasium of A.D. Duvakina of a new batch of dresses made with the funds and efforts of the gymnasium students for distribution to the poor families of those called up for war. It was decided: to express gratitude to the headmistress and students for the donated dresses, which should be distributed” [34] .

And here is what a former student of the Platovsky gymnasium, Georgy Ivanovich Popov, recalls: “We followed the progress of the war in newspapers and magazines. Some of my comrades and I made thematic albums on the war: we cut out illustrations from magazines and pasted them into large notebooks, usually intended for drawing. <...> The war began to take its toll already in 1915. In some places, soldiers destroyed shops, etc. Railway communications began to be disrupted, which led to food difficulties. I remember my first line at the shop at the Haymarket for sugar. They gave either a pound or two. There were about 10-15 people standing, which was something extraordinary” [35] .

Fig.

Of the many educational institutions in the city, Nicholas II visited the Don Mariinsky Institute [36] . Among the schoolgirls who met the Emperor was Matryona Firsova, daughter of Averky Firsov. He himself graduated from the Platov Gymnasium. He had his own house in the city and, like many townspeople, a dacha with a garden (on the Malo-Nesvetaevsky farm).

His notebook allows you to understand what was important and interesting to an ordinary city dweller on the eve of the World War. Here, along with notes for all occasions and records of an economic nature, Averky carefully records statistics on the Balkan wars:

“Second Balkan War: Bulgaria - 60,000 people lost, military expenses 350,000,000 rubles. Serbia - 40,000 people lost, military expenses 180,000,000 rubles. Greece - 30,000 people lost, military expenses 100,000,000 rubles.

If we add to these figures the number of deaths from the cold and other diseases, the total number of deaths will be at least 400,000 people. Military expenses amount to at least 2.5 billion rubles.

In total for the first and second war: Bulgaria 900,000,000 rubles Serbia 480,000,000 rubles Greece 230,000,000 rubles Montenegro 7,000,000 rubles <Total> 1,617,000,000 rubles.

During the Balkan War, 400,000 people were killed, of which Bulgaria 120,000, Serbia 70,000, Greece 10,000, Montenegro 8,000 and Turkey 100,000. First Balkan War:

Bulgaria: mobilized 350,000 people. 80,000 people were out of action. Military expenses 550,000,000 rubles.

Serbia: mobilized 250,000 people. 30,000 people were out of action. Military expenses 300,000,000 rubles.

Greece: mobilized 150,000 people. 10,000 people were out of action. Military expenses 130,000 rubles.

Montenegro: mobilized 30,000 people. 8,000 people were out of action. Military expenses 7,000,000 rubles.

Türkiye: mobilized 450,000 people. 100,000 people were out of action. Military expenses 700,000,000 rubles.”

Such interest in military statistics among the Cossacks is not accidental. Firsov understood perfectly well that war was approaching Russia. For him and for other residents of the city, this meant mobilization. In his notes we see confirmation that Novocherkassk was a militarized city, and the people who lived here saw all the hardships of the war and were interested in military expenses and the losses of their countries.

No less interesting are the recipes “for all occasions”:

“Quick drying of wet boots: to quickly dry wet boots and prevent them from bending, you need to sprinkle ordinary oats overnight, and in the morning they are ready.

Ingredients for lemonade: take 2 kneads of citric acid, slightly less acidic soda, 20 kneads of lemon sugar. All this is washed in a marble or porcelain mortar into a fine powder, sifted onto a clean sieve and stored in a sealed glass jar. For consumption, take a teaspoon per glass of boiled water.

from natural history and physics, music, information about household management. The awards at graduation were: silver, gold medals and a code - a gold monogram with the initials of the Empress. Those who received the code could be left at court. The discipline was strict. The uniform was green dresses with aprons. Earrings, rings and other jewelry, not to mention cosmetics, were not allowed.

A simple fixative for stomach pain: take a pinch of dry ordinary tea and grind it into powder, take it with water, preferably boiled. Repeat the intake 2-3 times a day.

Treatment of rheumatism with lingonberries: fresh leaves and roots of lingonberries in a teapot in the amount of one part to eight parts of water and drink three to five glasses throughout the day. This is the most effective remedy.

Preparation of ham: take saltpeter for 3.., rosemary for 3.., allspice for 3.., calendula for 3.., bay leaf for 1.. grind it into powder. First, take the garlic and grind it with salt, grate it thoroughly and sprinkle it for a day. After cooking, add salt to taste. Grind the entire composition, rub it and then pour it with the solution and turn it over every day, keep it for 12 to 14 days. If you use it now, then the solution is smaller, but if you dry it, then make the brine stronger.”

There is a recipe for what to do when cholera first appears, because it often and severely affected the Donets. “Add xyloform to a glass of water on the end of a spoon after 2 minutes. A wine glass of sakturin and 30 drops of Astrakhan drops or anticholera and 2 drops of hydrochloric acid. Place hot bottles mainly on the stomach and, in case of convulsions, scrub with alcohol and a brush.”

“How to eliminate insects from canary cells: take a 10 percent solution of anise oil in pure alcohol and wash the cage thoroughly with this solution. Then you need to ventilate thoroughly to eliminate the smell of anise.

Remedy for sweaty feet: finely grind burnt alum and sprinkle it on your feet, after washing and drying your feet. Put stockings or socks on the sprinkled feet and apply lubricant at night. After the second or third powder, the sweating completely stops after a few days.”

The notebook contained important notes about the construction work: how many carpenters worked, how much he paid them for their work, how much money was spent on building materials, revenue from the garden, how many pears and apricots were sold. The income from the garden, apparently, was small. There was a lot of fruit and they were cheap:

"1913. Revenue from the garden: July 12 apricot for 10 kopecks, another apricot for 68 kopecks, another apricot for 0.5 kopecks, July 15 apricot for 20 kopecks, July 16 apricot for 81 kopecks, another apricot for 15 kopecks. , another apricot at 35 kopecks, July 17: apricot at 50 kopecks, July 18: apricot at 20 kopecks, July 19 apricot at 46 kopecks, July 20: apricot at 5 kopecks, July 23 apricot at 30 kopecks. "

For August, the income is slightly higher, but it is only 21 rubles. 70 kopecks Apparently, the garden was more of a place for summer recreation.

But the expenses for studying were decent. For example: “1913. Books, notebooks, papers for Shura. Books and notebooks 5.60; more books and notebooks 1.30; more books and notebooks 1.20; more notes for music 2; for the right to study 20 rubles. Books and notebooks for Moti: books and notebooks 1.50.”

Shura studied at the Platov Gymnasium, Motya at the Mariinsky Institute for Noble Maidens. In 1914, no one could imagine what awaited them in the future. Averky will die in the first days after the revolution. He will take the treasury to the farm, they will kill him on the way. The family will be evicted from their house in Novocherkassk to a blacksmith shop in the courtyard. Two sons will die in the Civil War. One will die in Chernetsov’s detachment, the fate of the other is unknown, only one of the sons will remain alive and emigrate to Buenos Aires. Motya will remain in Novocherkassk and get married, but her husband, a white officer, will be repressed, and her son will die in 1945, a month before the end of the war.

At 18:00 the Emperor visited the Don Military Assembly. Now this is the building of the Central Library named after. A. S. Pushkin. To meet the Tsar, a special double-sided ticket on hard cardboard was issued: “For the right to enter the Don Military Assembly on the day of the visit of the meeting by His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor on December 5, 1914.” Dress code: g.g. for active service officers - military marching, for retired officers - ceremonial" [37] .

Here Nicholas “deigned to drink tea, listen to the military orchestra and choir of military singers, and graciously talked with the wounded officers. The Emperor walked around almost everyone present and talked with many. When Ataman made a short speech and toast for the Emperor and his family, the “hurray” did not stop for several minutes. The Emperor replied that he was happy to visit the old Don at this terrible time and ended like this: “I am glad to drain the spell for the glory of the valiant heroes of the Cossacks and for your health, gentlemen!”

Fig.

Two hours later, Nicholas II left Novocherkassk “with a huge crowd of people, shouts of “hurray” and the sounds of orchestras of educational institutions, on his order, all students of Novocherkassk were exempted from classes for three days” [38] .

It is difficult to say at which of these moments my great-grandmother and her sister saw the king, but, according to them, he seemed to them “red-haired and unsightly.”

Nicholas II drove through the central and busiest part of the city, where the best buildings and establishments were located. At the corner of Moskovskaya Street and Platovsky Prospekt there were two first-class hotels, “Central” and “Grand Hotel”. Relatively close, on the corner of Pochtovaya Street and Platovsky Prospekt, was the best restaurant in the city, Shishkin. At that time there were few restaurants in Novocherkassk, but there were a huge number of pubs, eateries, and pastry shops. The best beer hall was the Luyten hall on Platovsky Prospekt, opposite the Roller pharmacy.

Our library has a “List of subscribers for telephone messages in Novocherkassk”, March 1915. It lists city residents and institutions that had telephones. After looking through and studying the telephone directory, we were able to identify institutions and establishments that were located in Novocherkassk at that time.

6 pharmacy stores, 19 hospitals (including the All-Russian League for the Fight against Tuberculosis, a dacha for the insane, a mental hospital, a maternity hospital, a private surgical hospital, etc.), 3 newspapers (“Donskaya Zhizn”, “Priazovsky Krai”, “ Morning of the South"). Hotels: “Bolshaya Moskovskaya”, “Donskaya”, “European”, “Golden Anchor”, “Metropol”, “New York”, “Paris”, “Tsentralnaya”, “Yar” (all names with a claim to the capital). Stores: 33 grocery, gastronomic, fruit, vegetable and sausage stores; 8 haberdashery and jewelry; 15 manufactory and fur factories; 4 furniture and glass; 7 shoe and leather goods stores; 5 stationery and books; 3 dishes. And also 4 notaries, 2 hairdressers [39] , 3 funeral homes, 3 slaughterhouses, 13 insurance companies.

The existence of a theater in Novocherkassk is evidenced by the “Addition to the statistics, about some changes in the internal structure of the Don Army that occurred after 1822”: “Since 1825, a small theater has been established here, where a troupe of actors who come here from Taganrog at different times performs.” M.Yu. Lermontov, visiting the theater on his way to the Caucasus, spoke very unflatteringly about it, mentioning tallow candles that prevented him from seeing what was happening on stage.

On the side of the Alexander Garden, not far from the Ataman Palace, there was the Summer Theater, where visiting troupes from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Kharkov performed (mainly operetta). The Summer Theater had a large covered rotunda, in which a symphony orchestra played in the evenings. A large open-air summer restaurant also flourished.

There were several cinemas in the city: “Soleil” on Moskovskaya, on Platovsky Prospect - “Bomond”, “Palace” and “Pate”. Creative youth often gathered in the cafe of the Pate cinema, and poems by local poets were read. Next to the Summer Theater there was a summer cinema “Ideal”. There was also another cinema in the garden, which had the pretentious name “French Electrotheater”. It burned down in a fire in 1911. The history of Novocherkassk film distribution and the emergence of the first cinema is connected with the name of the founder of Russian cinema, Alexander Khanzhonkov [40] .

The musical culture of Novocherkassk was directly connected with the theater. In 1872, by order of Alexander II, the Military Band of the Don Cossack Army was created. Novocherkassk musicologist P. P. Nazarevsky wrote: “In 1879, a musical society was created, which was transformed in 1887 into music and drama classes.” The organizer of the musical society can be considered Fyodor Stepanovich Savchenko. On April 7, 1879, on his initiative, music lovers of Novocherkassk gathered and decided to create a musical society. On September 1, 1885, “Music classes with teaching piano and orchestral instruments for 50 kopecks” began operating in the city. for a lesson, theory and history of music, 25 kopecks.”

In 1879, in Novocherkassk, at the Donskaya Hotel (unfortunately, this building, located on the corner of Aleksandrovskaya and Pushkinskaya streets, has not survived), M. P. Mussorgsky gave a concert.

In the fall of 1908, a branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society was established in Novocherkassk, the founders of which were Fyodor Ivanovich Popov, Maria Akimovna Ginzburg and others. In addition to the piano school of V. O. Baranovsky, the music school of Eduard Ivanovich Ivansky emerged, uniting students of Ivansky himself and the violin class of Frederic Achillesovich Stadzhi.

The company fully developed its activities only a few years later:

“The Novocherkassk branch of the IRMO, opened at the request of a group of people, indigenous residents of Novocherkassk (Cossacks), on June 1, 1911, entered the second year of its existence in the reporting year... In the second reporting year, the Branch consisted of 84 members - 2 honorary (ataman Pavel Iv. Mishchenko with his wife Lyubov Alekseevna), 39 full and 43 visiting members; the contributions of these members amounted to 673 rubles.

... The artistic activity of the Directorate was expressed in the organization of six chamber evenings, one Clavier-Abend, one lecture and two concerts in favor of the “Fund for Underserved Music Students of the Department”... The Directorate considers it its duty to note the gradually increasing interest of the local intelligentsia to his artistic activity, which was expressed, first of all, in the overcrowding of the concert hall at chamber evenings.

In the reporting year, as in the previous year, the heads of seven secondary educational institutions in Novocherkassk had a subscription for 20 students from each educational institution to all chamber evenings. The Directorate provided students with more than 200 free seats for the concert by Y. Iserle and the lecture by N.F. Findeisen” [41] .

Professor Alexander Vladimirovich Pozdneev, who studied at the Platov Gymnasium in 1902-1910, recalls some events related to the activities of the Novocherkassk Musical Society: “In the 1908/09 school year. I had to attend several concerts: in the fall - violinist Kostya Dumchev, Pirogov, the wonderful contralto singer Petrova-Zvantseva, prof. Auer, the then thundering Vyaltseva, the performer of ancient music on the harpsichord Wanda Landovskaya, the singer Shevelev... the mandolinist Ronko, the guslar Seversky, the violinists Metz and Erdenko (whose violin “cried”). <...>

At the concert at Ivansky’s school in the class of F.A. Stadzhi, all the high school students performed - violinists, his students... I was accompanied by Petrovskaya, the wife of lawyer Andrei Ivanovich Petrovsky, a former member of the State. Duma During the rehearsal I had to visit A.I. Petrovsky once and get to know him. I didn’t like their whole decor: a large table covered with snacks and bottles of wine. A little tipsy Andrei Ivanovich treated me to vodka and wine. Such treatment of a 7th grade high school student looked like flirting with young people. It was the first meeting with the chairman of the Kadet Party, which pushed me away from them" [42] .

Fig.

There was also a music store by E. Petrov in Novocherkassk, which, along with musical instruments and sheet music, sold gramophone records. And also the piano workshops “Froreich” (on Mariinskaya Street), “Slavin” (on Platovsky Prospekt). Now in the city there are not only workshops, but also a musical instrument store.

That Novocherkassk, which we wrote about in this part of the work, disappeared with the Aurora’s shot. In its place a new Novocherkassk appeared - the capital of White Russia, then Soviet Novocherkassk. But that quiet and at the same time proud Cossack city, which Nicholas II visited on December 5, no longer exists.

“And there, as in a fairy tale, in Novocherkassk!” [43]

May is probably the most beautiful month in Novocherkassk. The city, standing on a hill, is surrounded on all sides by water, and a huge cathedral rises at the top. It is clearly visible from the surrounding villages. The slopes of the hill are covered with a white and pink haze of flowering trees, and on the central avenues of the city the chestnut trees have already thrown out majestic white candles of their flowers. But many townspeople and those who found themselves in Novocherkassk for various reasons on that day had no time for the beauty of the city. On May 11, 1918, members of the provisional Don government and representatives of villages and military units began their work, declaring themselves the Don Rescue Circle. Many Cossacks imagined that the fate of Russia and the Don was being decided in Novocherkassk.

On May 16, elections for the Military Ataman took place. By 107 votes, 13 against and 10 abstentions, Major General Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov was elected to the post of Don Ataman. Under other circumstances, he had no chance of becoming an ataman, and as a result of the revolution he received the highest post in the Don. He immediately begins to implement his plan, which involved strengthening the power of the ataman and consolidating the independence of the Don.

Krasnov read out the “Basic Laws of the All-Great Don Army” at the Circle. By introducing the word “all-great” into the name, he thereby emphasized a return to old traditions. The “Basic Laws...” ensured the full power of the ataman for the period until the convening of the next Circle, guaranteed the inviolability of private property and repealed all laws and decrees issued after the abdication of Nicholas II. In addition, it said: “Until the restoration of Russia, the Don Army constitutes an independent republic, headed by me.”

Krasnov ended his speech at the meeting of the Circle with an ultimatum statement: “If the Circle makes any significant changes to the document, then I will resign from the post of ataman.” But he didn't take any risks. Pyotr Nikolaevich enjoyed the support of the Cossacks; he knew the history of the Cossacks very well, knew how to draw historical parallels, and understood how important it was to rely on Cossack traditions and how to give them a modern look. At Krasnov’s suggestion, the Circle begins its work by adopting the military coat of arms, anthem and flag. Don Wave publishes a report on this meeting of the Circle.

“First, in the forgotten treasures of antiquity, they found a coat of arms: “A deer pierced by an arrow.” After the familiar image of the two-headed king of birds, powerful and predatory, the image of a red deer bleeding seemed to them more touching and closer to the heart” [44] .

When they presented the coat of arms, they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t explain why this particular coat of arms needed to be adopted, what it meant, they had to come up with everything on the fly:

“Someone from the depths of the gray rows of the stalls, drowning in the twilight of meager lighting, asked: “Explain to us what it means?” The speaker replied: “I find it difficult to give historical information about the origin of this symbol.” And no one seemed to know where the origin of this image came from. Perhaps an ancient Greek master created it on some vase of the Scythian period. A private with a bandaged cheek came out of the gray ranks and explained: “How are you, a deer, not fast with your feet, but you can’t run away from a Cossack arrow... One way or another, in essence, they didn’t bother to sort it out.” I liked the explanation. The coat of arms was accepted" [45] .

The situation with the flag was worse. Serious and principled disputes broke out. The question of which flag to accept - Russian or Don - meant a choice for the future. If they accept the Russian flag, it means that the Don cannot imagine itself without Russia, and if it is their own, it means that the Don is ready to declare independence:

“We moved on to the flag.

“The commission for the development of basic laws unanimously decided: the all-Russian flag - white-blue-scarlet - should be considered the flag of the Don Army,” said the speaker, Pavel Ageev, especially emphasizing the unanimity.

“Once upon a time there was a great Russia... crumbled into pieces.” We, the Don Army, represent one of its fragments, but we think and declare out loud that this is temporary. “From now until...” We cannot believe, our hearts cannot accept this, that she has died forever, our great Russia.

..Only that thin layer represented by the intelligentsia on the Circle responded with approval and greeted the speaker. The mass remained silent. And when a speaker in a khaki shirt and trousers with stripes and in a not very smooth, disheveled speech came out onto the stage from its ranks, he said that the Cossack heart liked the new flag, the Don, cornflower-blue-golden-scarlet, and there, at the front, they follow him as if they were following a battle flag, the subsequent vote showed that the Don flag should be on the Don, and not the all-Russian one” [46] .

Then the anthem was adopted, which spoke about freedom and antiquity, and for some reason not a word about Russia. The anthem of the Don Cossacks looked like this:

The Orthodox Quiet Don stirred, became agitated, and obediently responded to the call of freedom.

***

In a terrible time of battle, In memory of grandfathers and fathers, The tribe of the Revived Donets became free again. Glory, Don, in our years too, In memory of the Free Antiquity In the hour of adversity, the honor of freedom Your sons will defend” [47] .

So, on this day in Novocherkassk a choice was made - they chose not only the ataman, but also the course towards Don autonomy. Naturally, such things angered the Bolshevik leaders in the Kremlin. In this regard, in the 7th issue of the new magazine “Don Wave”, published in Novocherkassk [48] , a political caricature of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky was placed. He was depicted without clothes, with tousled black hair, sitting on some kind of ledge, as if on a tribune. Above the drawing was written: “Mephistopheles from the Kremlin”, below it was a quote: “Leon Trotsky: “The French communists died precisely because they abandoned Versailles. We will wipe our Versailles-Novocherkassk from the face of the earth . ” This is the fate that the second person in the Soviet government after Lenin promised Novocherkassk.

But what about this very “Versailles-Novocherkassk”, which some wanted to wipe out from the face of the earth, and others wanted to exalt it to the capital of an independent state?

All flags will visit us

“Don Wave” writes about the transformation that happened to the city: “The city, which had peacefully dozed for decades behind a tulle curtain near the Don geranium flower, woke up, worried, lived. The city of pensioners, the city of small Don rentiers, picked up every word, every rumor” [49] .

The city “woke up” back in 1917, when Ataman Kaledin refused to recognize the power of the Bolsheviks and offered refuge to everyone who did not want to accept the new government. This is where resistance forces begin to form. General Denikin in his memoirs recalls an incident when “an entire platoon with weapons and machine guns under the command of Captain Kornilov fled to Novocherkassk . ”

“Officers, officials, and ordinary people flocked to the Don from Petrograd and Moscow. All apartments, outbuildings and even courtyard buildings were overcrowded. The indigenous inhabitants of the Cossack capital were forced to huddle and continued to shrink further and further, letting in more and more newcomers, strangers to the Don, who fled here from Soviet Russia. A variety of businessmen, bankers, industrialists, officials, public figures, members of the State Duma, merchants, artists, journalists, trade speculators, in general, an extremely diverse element arrived and settled in Novocherkassk every day" [ 50] .

In a short time, the city's population increased by almost half. Novocherkassk began to feel like a capital, an important city in Russia. Residents of Novocherkassk were pleased that the city was gaining such popularity, but at the same time, they were not very happy that the population had increased so sharply. Here is what Leonid Andreev wrote:

Fig.

“It was as if a hundred million demons were traveling to an unknown distance, as if there, in an unknown distance, something was promised to them. Hungry like Indians, angry like shepherds, and talkative like landowners, they swore at the top of their voices, cursing the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, the proletariat and the peasantry. It was gloomy and stuffy, like a crypt. It was creepy and scary, like on "A Man's Life". It was hungry, like during the Tsar Famine... And we arrived. As if at the Sorochinsky fair, there were mountains of bread, hams, lard, cigarettes, hay, knives and mittens. First they rushed to the mittens and bought three hundred pairs. We bought a cart of hay and three foreign dogs.

- Why do you need this?

- What about it? Here in St. Petersburg, you can’t get this for any money. And then they ate and drank, drank, ate, lived and were. And they said:

- How magnificent! How rich!

- Do you like dogs?

- God! Who doesn't love ham from a good purebred dog!...

But a heavy fate hung over them: they ate too much... Once upon a time, they ate too much on the Don” [51] .

There were more impressive guests. Many new faces have appeared in Novocherkassk. Residents tell each other news about who else they have seen in the city. Who, if you believe the rumor, has visited Novocherkassk: Miliukov, Guchkov, Kerensky, Savinkov, grand dukes, just princes, ministers, generals...

During the research, we found, for example, two stories about Kerensky’s arrival. Which of them is more truthful is unknown. But one thing is clear: Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky visited Novocherkassk. Here is the first story about his arrival: “In November, rumors stubbornly insisted that A.F. Kerensky himself came to Novocherkassk. Having paid a visit to Ataman Kaledin, he offered his cooperation, but the Ataman, through his adjutant, ordered him to tell the ex-premier that Don did not need his services. From Kaledin, Kerensky allegedly went to Bogaevsky, but the chieftain’s comrade repeated the chieftain’s words. ..Most likely, the outline for this story was a small episode that happened in the gloomy days of November in the Ataman’s palace. One morning, at about eight o’clock, they called M. P. Bogaevsky’s apartment. The maid opened the doors. A thin, shaven gentleman stood at the door and asked him to take him to Mitrofan Petrovich. The maid invited him to enter the living room and wait while she reported to Bogaevsky. The maid asked the gentleman to tell her his last name for the report. - Tell Mitrofan Petrovich that Kerensky wants to see him. The maid quickly woke Bogaevsky, he got dressed and went out into the lobby, but there was no one there. Only the Cossacks on duty stood at the door, as always... Bogaevsky shrugged his shoulders and went to Kaledin.

“Alexey Maksimovich, didn’t you have Kerensky?” Kaledin frowned and answered briefly:

- He has nothing to do here.

Rumors about Kerensky’s stay in Novocherkassk reached the Bolsheviks, when the Soviet troops entered Novocherkassk, they were looking for Kerensky. A gentleman who looked like the ex-prime minister was even arrested. He managed to escape from the lynching of the Red Army only thanks to the intercession of a sailor who personally knew Kerensky" [52] .

Another story is shorter: “Don Ataman Kaledin and General Kornilov did not accept A.F. Kerensky. Probably in connection with this, Alexander Fedorovich in his memoirs categorically denied his arrival in Novocherkassk, but there is some evidence of his stay in Novocherkassk. So, according to the testimony of Nesterovich-Breg, M. Bogaevsky told her: “Maria Antonovna, tell someone that Kerensky, disguised as a sailor, is found in Novocherkassk. I did not accept him and advised him to quickly get out of Novocherkassk” [53] .

However, the Cossacks so like to remember the old rule: “There is no extradition from the Don,” that even when they meet Lenin, they invite him to the Don if he is persecuted.

“Bykhov prisoners” were traveling from Bykhov to the Don. The Don Wave publishes a detailed story about their arrival in Novocherkassk. “One or two at a time, in the costumes of drivers, soldiers and officers, the “Bykhov prisoners” - Kornilov’s generals - rode to the Don from Bykhov. General Markov rode with General Romanovsky. Romanovsky was in the uniform of an ensign, and Sergei Leonidovich Markov was his orderly.

But at one of the stations, when General Romanovsky sat down to drink tea, the figure of Kornilov officer Gogosov rose next to him.

— I wish you good health, Your Excellency. The ensign hissed at Gogosov.

- Hush, hush, I'm traveling incognito.

Gogotov informed Romanovsky that he was going to the Don with a package to General Kaledin.

Then we agreed to go together, but in the meantime General Romanovsky invited Gogosov to sit at his table. As soon as Gogot sat down, a diligent orderly appeared in front of the table - a typical soldier from the cooking team with a kettle in his hand. Gogosov marveled at the affection of a soldier's orderly for an officer in our days and patted the soldier on the shoulder encouragingly.

- Well done, Ivan, continue to serve your officer like that.

The orderly smiled from ear to ear, the ensign smiled, and Gogosov was delighted with the general’s orderly. Nowadays... We sat down in the carriage together.

Only here Gogosov noticed the strange relationship between the general and his orderly.

He began to peer closely at the orderly and finally recognized Markov in him.

- Your Excellency... Trample me under your feet... How dare I. General Markov, through the laughter that was choking him, shouted at Gogosov.

- Hush, hush, don’t shout. After all, you will give us away.

Gogosov calmed down again and in the future was very reluctant to recognize General Markov as an orderly and kept losing his tone.

And anger was probably bubbling in my soul that the motherland was transporting military generals under the guise of orderlies” [54] .

In 1918, the Smolny Institute was evacuated to Novocherkassk. The visitors were accommodated at the Mariinsky Institute for Noble Maidens. So they lived together - Don Cossacks and Smolensk women. In Novocherkassk, Smolny is establishing a vegetable garden and opening a shoemaker's workshop. Along with studying foreign languages, etiquette, and dancing, the students of the institute have to master gardening. Various excursions are offered:

“Excursions of I - III classes - to the Central Water Supply or the Sericulture Department. June 9 - to Krasnokutskaya Grove June 10 - r. Aksai (Atamansky) June 14 - Khotunok (needle production) June 17 - candle factory June 21 - botanical garden June 23 - Art. Krivyanskaya, leather production" [55] .

They left St. Petersburg in a hurry, many did not have time to take the most necessary things with them, so the girls were allowed to go out into the city in uniform. There were many innovations. According to the decisions recorded in the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Trustees, the assessment of students using points is canceled, and the First of May becomes a holiday. The composition of the students is also changing. The Institute of Noble Maidens accepts the daughters of white officers who, by the will of fate, ended up in Novocherkassk. Girls could study for money or for free.

“On the determination of free maintenance for the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Vera Georgievna Samsonova-Dvoinikova [56] .

Petition

I ask to be transferred from the Poltava Institute to Smolny, due to the interruption of communications with Poltava, it is impossible to deliver her there, and for the second half of 1917-1918 she could not be delivered there and is with me in the volunteer army. My family has gone to no one knows where.” Of course, the girl had no place in the army; she was accepted into college. The file contains a note: “Complete course in 1919.”

In another personal file of the pupil there is a different note: “Died in December 1919.” The girl was 10 years old.

Fig.

“On the determination of the centurion’s daughter Victoria Pavlovna Gavrilova for paid education. Born in September 1909. I ask for the placement of my daughter Victoria in paid education in the 7th grade (500 rubles for six months)” [57] .

It is difficult to say how reasonable the transfer of the institute to Novocherkassk was. Of course, in 1918 this was considered a forced and temporary measure. Subsequently, some of the pupils were able to be taken back to St. Petersburg by their parents, who organized a “rescue expedition.” Some were evacuated along with the cadet corps and the cadet school to Novorossiysk, and from there abroad. But some girls and teachers still remained in the city. Some of the institutes got married in Novocherkassk and remained to live here.

After the arrival of the Reds, a boarding school was created on the basis of the institute, filling it with street children.

Before 1918, foreigners were a rare sight in the city. In 1918, people from different countries, mostly allies, came to Novocherkassk. The British, French, Italians, even a Scot have visited here. The latter made a lasting impression. As Professor A.K. Golosnitsky recalls: “Well, imagine - the powerful figure of an officer, a chic uniform, a button, and bare knees. Yes, the knee is such that you can kill a person with just one look. Powerful boots, checkered cap, small feather. Among the personal weapons, a dirk and a firearm may have been hidden somewhere, but not in plain sight. But there are no trousers, and no long johns either... So the boys followed this Scot in groups, waiting for the wind - there were a lot of people curious: what’s under his skirt?” [58] .

He also recalls the arrival of the British: “Even under Krasnov, the British allies sent their decommissioned guns. The trouble is that the entire sighting system was based on yards, while ours was based on inches. And recalculating every time is just a hassle. The task arose to train our Cossack artillerymen in English weapons. For this purpose, the British sent a platoon of beautifully dressed “Tommies” here. They taught our Cossacks and played football along the way. Our people followed them too. At first, in the heat of the moment, they played well, but in the end they were left in the cold. And then some Cossack broke the Englishman’s leg, deliberately out of frustration, with a blow to the leg. And the Cossacks were healthy men. The British protested, ours apologized, but the British did not play football with the Cossacks anymore, and soon this landing force left altogether” [59] .

But the greatest influence on the life of the city was made by the Russian officers who arrived in the Volunteer Army. A summer garrison meeting opens in the Novocherkassk Alexander Garden, where officers and their families came to dine. In the evenings, a military choir and orchestra performed there. Along with the Don officers, officers of the Volunteer Army also visited the Alexander Garden. Often, squabbles arose between them about who brought more benefit to Russia and the Don, ending in scandals and armed clashes. Dontsov officers of the Volunteer Army called the “merry Don army”. The Donets responded by calling Denikin’s officers “wandering musicians,” since they fought the Bolsheviks not at home, but in the Kuban and partly on the Don. In addition, there was hostility, reaching the point of hostility, in the personal relations of the Don Ataman P. N. Krasnov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army A. I. Denikin. Things got to the point that the ataman, by his order, recalled the Don Cossacks from the Volunteer Army, and the army headquarters was moved to Rostov.

New faces of Novocherkassk

New time - new heroes. Chernetsov becomes the idol of high school students and students. In 1918, Novocherkassk was the center of the formation of partisan detachments from student youth. The entire Platovsky gymnasium was excited, only the junior classes continued to study, since they were not accepted into the partisans until they were 16 years old. High school students began to leave for detachments. For them, classes stopped in January.

“In the vestibule of the gymnasium, right in front of the main entrance, there were tables at which officers were sitting... There was a poster on the wall: “Enroll in the detachment of Captain Chernetsov!” [60] .

Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov, a stocky, muscular young man with a dark face, on which a blush played, was the first Don partisan.

He took a preparatory class for partisanship at the front and brought to the Don not only Vladimir on his chest, but also experience. He was twenty-seven years old, but the glory gained during three months of the civil war would have been enough to turn his hair gray. At first he was the commandant at the Makeevka mines (coal mining). Attends rallies and speaks in the Council. In Novocherkassk, Chernetsov forms his partisan detachment. He called the Cossacks into a volunteer detachment and daredevils began to come to him, in whom “the blood flowed through their veins” [61] .

“The Chernetsov detachment consisted mainly of young people: cadets, gymnasium students - all these were young men of fifteen years old, united and united by Chernetsov’s concerns, and his courage gave every partisan the best inclinations of war. These volunteers were all as one.

They were more carefree about themselves and the future, which is characteristic of the character of young men. “Don’t forget that cheerful song of the partisans going into battle.”

With each battle there were fewer and fewer partisans, but the squad was a small family of Chernetsovites. No one cared as much about their wounded as they did, visiting their friends at the first opportunity... On the morning of March 21, a detachment of partisans died near the village of Smolenskaya” [62] .

For some residents of the city, the adventurer Golubov and the leaders of the Don Revkom Fyodor Podtelkov and Mikhail Krivoshlykov become heroes. Viktor Sevsky describes the arrival of Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov in Novocherkassk on January 15, 1918: “Podtelkov, broad-faced, with swollen eyes from fat, dressed in a black leather jacket, seemed to be sleeping, in difficult cases he turned to his secretary Krivoshlykov and occasionally smiled, trying to show that you can’t fool him; but, while delivering his speech, he behaved calmly, with dignity, it was felt that the speech was thoroughly memorized.

Ensign Krivoshlykov, young, frail, fragile, with clear, attentive eyes, was obviously no small figure on the council; in terms of development, he was significantly higher than his comrades" [63] .

But the same fate awaited them all - death in the Don steppes. Understanding the significance of the events taking place leads to the first attempts to capture the names of heroes in monuments and the names of educational institutions. On September 5, 1918, the Seventh Military Circle decided, and the Military Government issued an order on the same day:

Fig.

“To erect in Novocherkassk on Cathedral Square a monument to the heroes of the liberation war, three martyred atamans - the chosen people of the people in the person of the Military Circle and who laid down their souls for the people - cavalry general A. M. Kaledin and Major General A. M. Nazarov, Donskoy’s assistant Ataman M.P. Bogaevsky, military foreman Voloshinov and the first Don partisan Colonel Chernetsov.

The circle decided to immortalize the names of the heroes of the Don White movement not only in the monument, but also in the names of educational institutions on the Don. So, they decided: the Don Polytechnic Institute will henceforth be called the “Don Polytechnic Institute named after the Military Ataman Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin”, the Don Veterinary Institute will be called the “Don Veterinary Institute named after the Military Ataman Anatoly Mikhailovich Nazarov”, the Teachers’ Institute in Novocherkassk will be called the “Teachers’ Institute named after those who fell for the liberation of their native the edges". The Novocherkassk mixed (coeducational) gymnasium, located in the building of the former private Duvakina women's gymnasium on Atamanskaya Street, was named after the partisan Colonel Chernetsov. No. 30" [64] .

However, these decisions were not implemented. There are still no streets or monuments to Kaledin and Bogaevsky, but Krivoshlykov Street and a monument to Krivoshlykov and Podtelkov on the site of the former Trinity Church have been preserved.

In Soviet Russia, Novocherkassk-Versailles was perceived differently. Balmont spoke well of the city. For him and many living in “terror, in a sea of ​​blood,” this is some kind of fabulous place that he dreams of while in the “country of the Soviet Deputies”:

• About Don's children now in love
• Like spilling poetry from a can -
• About the children of Don, son of Apollo,
• I apologize for my agility.
• In the Maori country I lived in favor,
• Forgetting grief and life's nonsense.
• And here in terror, in the bloody sea,
• With peace in a quarrel I hide like a thief.
• How ferocious life is in the country of the Soviets!
• Life is worse than a crypt! Above life is strong.
• Life is absurdly evil: two forty is a turnip,
• Life is three kopecks, thirteen is bread.
• And there, as in a fairy tale, in Novocherkassk!
• There is a magical life in azure paint!
• Bread is softer than caresses (eyes become cloudy),
• There is life without shaking and without offense.
• A poet's dream! Roll!.. Cutlet!
• And a cigarette! And santorette!
• And Marietta [65] ! And Marietta!
• I. V. Sevsky, Don poet! [66]

But Vladimir Mayakovsky reacted negatively to Novocherkassk. His poem, which few people know, declares what the Bolsheviks would like to do with Novocherkassk. In preparing this work, we looked through all the local publications dedicated to Mayakovsky’s visits to Novocherkassk and his poems about our city, but in none of them did we find a reference to this poem, which our Mayakovsky lovers either don’t know about or don’t want to remember.

• Hung with dogs.
• On Pavement
• Soviet republic
• Faces!
• Coming soon to Aksai
• they
• Which are called
• proletariat
• The Cossacks will come to you
• White bagels
• Let's bleed again
• Under the bones
• Crunch!
• Are we delusional?!
• Receive guests
• Krasnov's gangs,
• Ust
• And the Bear!
• Let be!
• Glad for the bloody mask
• Christ!
• Novocherkassk
• To be empty!
• I,
• Attila, before whom,
• With dead shame,
• For Don to become extinct.
• Without housing.
• And I conceived.
• I want so
• Mayakovsky Vladimir,
• A cloud in pants! [67]

These are the events that took place in 1918 in the capital of the White movement. It all ended on January 7, 1920. The Reds took the city.

---

[1] Work of 9th grade students of Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 6 of the city of Novocherkassk. Took first place at the Ninth All-Russian competition of historical research works for high school students “Man in History. Russia - 20th century", which is conducted by the international historical, educational and human rights society "Memorial" together with the Union of Local History of Russia and the Russian State University for the Humanities. Scientific supervisor Elena Georgievna Gubanova. Printed with abbreviations. — Note. ed.

[2] The chapter was written by Polina Naumenko.

[3] Today, those who heard the stories of their parents about the king’s arrival in our city are still alive. For example, the mother of Klavdia Sergeevna Bulavintseva (born in 1910) worked in a shelter and told her: “This shelter was where the military unit is now, where the Alexander Church is, the Cossack shelter house. Girls aged 13-17 were raised there. Tatyana Petrovna, my grandmother, worked there as a cook. There was no running water then, and my grandfather worked on a water truck. My mother worked as a cleaner in this orphanage since she was 7 years old. There were teachers who taught embroidery and cooking, and my mother learned there. She washed the bedrooms, helped by girl students who were assigned to be on duty. Mom received 5 rubles, grandmother 12 rubles and grandfather 12 rubles. There was a time when they gave us gold. Mom told me that the Tsar arrived in boots, he had a beautiful tunic, and a cap like the Cossacks wore. All the teachers came out and lined up the children. Nicholas II (apparently we are talking about the visit of Alexander III in May 1887, but for Klavdia Sergeevna this is not important, the main thing is that her mother saw the tsar!) didn’t even lower his feet, said hello, stood and left, but my mother I saw him." Many families retained royal visits in their memories, although under Soviet rule this should not have been a significant event.

[4] Newspapers for 1914 will help us with this (“Azov region”, “Don region”); diary of Nicholas II; economic records of Averky Firsov, ataman of the Malo-Nesvetaevsky farm; “Alphabetical list of streets and squares of the city of Novocherkassk”, published in 1904; “Annual report on the activities of the Don District Administration of the Russian Red Cross for 1914”; statistical collections of the region of the Don Army for 1913-1914; materials from the funds of the Don Regional Branch of the Committee of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna and the Don Regional Branch of the Committee of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna; publications in city newspapers; research by modern historians; memoirs of NPI professors Georgy Ivanovich Popov and Alexander Vladimirovich Pozdneev; memoirs of professor-microbiologist Alexey Dmitrievich Grekov, published in the collection “Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in Memoirs and Documents”; Cossack dictionary-reference book by G. V. Gubarev and others.

[5] Pokotilo Vasily Ivanovich - military ataman in 1913-1916, cavalry general. Descended from the Kuban Cossacks. At the end of 1916, he participated as the chief of army supply in a number of operations.

[6] The station building at that time was already made of stone and solid.

[7] Cossack dictionary-reference book / Comp. G.V. Gubarev. M.: Sozidanie, 1992 [reprint. reproduction ed. 1968].

[8] On January 1, 1913, the number of residents of both sexes of all classes in Novocherkassk reached 3,209,787 souls, of which 1,426,561 were from the military class.

[9] Alphabetical list of streets and squares of Novocherkassk. Novocherkassk, 1914.

[10] Alexey Dmitrievich Grekov (1873-1957) - microbiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, one of the founders of the anti-epidemiological service in Central Asia. He left memories “50 years of a doctor in Central Asia (1898-1948).”

[11] Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in memoirs and documents” / Comp. V. A. Lopatin. M.: Nauka, 1997. P. 89.

[12] Local history notes. Novocherkassk, 2005.

[13] Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[14] Ibid.

[15] The history of the creation of this monument is described in “Records of Local Lore” (Novocherkassk, 2005): “January 3, 1870 marked 300 years since Ivan the Terrible in 1570 sent a letter of commendation to the Don, which marked the beginning of the history of the Don Cossacks . After the Military Circle, the chief of staff of the Don Army, Major General G. A. Leonov, read a note to the heir about perpetuating the celebration by building a monument to Ermak Timofeevich, the conqueror of Siberia. The Cossacks asked for royal permission to erect a monument and open a subscription to raise the necessary funds. By the end of 1888, 55 thousand rubles had been collected. Simultaneously with the subscription, a competition for monument designs was announced, in which many famous artists such as Mikeshin, Antolsky, Kaminsky took part. Of the numerous projects, the emperor chose one of the options of Academician Mikeshin. By 1897, the collection of donations was completed, but Mikeshin died, and the construction was entrusted to Academician V. A. Beklemishev. Throughout the Don region, invitations were sent to the heads of cities and district chieftains to the opening of the monument, scheduled for May 6, 1904.”

[16] He was not there on Nikolai’s first visit.

[17] Built in 1909 according to the design of architect Beketov on the corner of Atamanskaya Street and Platovsky Prospekt.

[18] The Ataman Palace, or rather the Ataman House, was designed by the military architect Ivan Osipovich Valprede. The architect was faced with a difficult task: he had to compositionally complete the construction of the central part of the city, where a bronze monument to the military ataman Count M. I. Platov had already stood on a stone pedestal since 1853. The beautiful stone buildings of Gostiny Dvor spread out from the monument like wings. In October 1863, the Ataman House was built, 135 thousand rubles were spent. By the end of construction, it became known about the arrival of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, and it was decided to add another 8 thousand rubles and use these funds to build a cast-iron staircase, paint the walls of the palace and arrange a terrace in the courtyard. With the completion of the work, Novocherkassk received another beautiful building.

[19] Azov region. 1914. No. 321. December 5.

[20] Novocherkassk and Platovskaya gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[21] Ryzhkova N.V. For faith, fatherland and our friends: Don Cossacks in the Great War of 1914-1917. Rostov-on-Don, 1998.

[22] Priazov region. 1914. No. 295. November 10.

[23] Priazov region. 1914. No. 304. November 19.

[24] Ibid. 1914. No. 304. November 19.

[25] Ibid. 1914. No. 288. November 3.

[26] The Society of Don Doctors was inaugurated on December 18, 1871. Its goal was to compile a medical topography and sanitary map of the Don region, study the conditions of various diseases, find means to prevent them (prophylaxis) and limit their spread, collect and analyze statistical materials on diseases and mortality of the population, set up outpatient clinics (polyclinics), etc. .

[27] The Don Guardianship of the Poor, administered by the regional Order of Public Charity, was established on January 3, 1870 in honor of the tercentenary of the Don Army. The company's charter was adopted on December 29, 1872. The Guardianship of the Poor assumed the following obligations: to provide clothing, food and shelter to the poor, provided that they are unable to provide this for themselves; assist those in need in finding work, as well as in purchasing materials and tools for their work, and marketing their products; provide the poor sick with the necessary medical supplies and care; provide necessary assistance to orphans, as well as children of poor or unknown parents, etc. The Guardianship of the Poor also opened an orphanage.

[28] The Don Philanthropic Society set as its goal “the provision of all possible assistance to the needy class of the population, mainly young children, helpless women and unemployed fellow countrymen.” It cared for foundling children, as well as children whose parents were unable to provide for and feed them. Along with this, the Society set itself the goal of organizing at least temporary jobs for the unemployed, so that they could earn money, as well as overnight and daily food; organize mediation between employers and the unemployed in search of jobs for the latter; organize the issuance of one-time benefits to those in need during various disasters (fire, loss of livestock, illness or death of the breadwinner, etc.); organize “the provision of free and cheap medical care” to sick poor people and their families; organize, to the best of the Society’s ability, free legal assistance for the poor, etc. The weakness of the Society’s position was that it seriously hoped that all classes of the city’s population would respond to its call to collect the necessary donations for the benefit of the poor.

[29] The charter of the Society, approved on January 8, 1875, stated: “The Society aims to provide various types of benefits to the poor of both sexes, Don natives, who are being educated in higher and secondary educational institutions of the empire.”

[30] Opened December 18, 1871.

[31] The charter was adopted on June 16, 1876. The goal of the society: “to acquire and distribute useful and cheap books among the masses of the Don population, both Cossacks and peasants.”

[32] GARO. F. 444. D. 29.

[33] The following educational institutions were located in the city: Higher: Don Polytechnic Institute (5 faculties); Don Veterinary Institute (2 faculties: veterinary and zootechnical); Higher women's courses. Women's secondary educational institutions: Don Institute of Noble Maidens; Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium; Second and third women's gymnasiums; private women's gymnasium of Mme Duvakina; Don Diocesan Women's School. Men's secondary educational institutions: military men's classical gymnasium named after. Ataman Platov; Second and Third city men's gymnasiums; private men's gymnasium of engineer Stepanov; Alexandrovsky Men's Real School; Don Theological Seminary; Don Teachers' Seminary; commercial school of engineer Abramov; Agricultural School. Mixed secondary educational institutions: Don Trade School (8 years of study); private gymnasium of Mme Petrova. Special educational institutions: Ataman Technical School; religious school; land surveying school; Steiger School; midwifery school. Four-grade schools: Ataman Higher Primary School; City Men's School; First and Second City Women's Schools. Military educational institutions: Novocherkassk Cossack Military School (3 years of study); Don Cadet Corps; Novocherkassk military craft school (3 years of study); Novocherkassk military paramedic school (4 years of study). And also the preparatory boarding school of the Don Army, the private real school of A. I. Kuznetsov, the Novocherkassk Teachers' Institute, the Old Believer rural primary school, the Anniversary Trade School of the Don Trade Cossacks Society and another 32 lower primary and parochial schools, 25 private preparatory boarding houses, 20 children's shelters, 6 kindergartens.

[34] GARO. F. 444. Op. 1. D. 52.

[35] Novocherkassk and Platovskaya gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[36] The Don Mariinsky Institute was opened in 1853 and became the first secondary educational institution for women in the region of the Don Army. Initially, only “noble maidens” (daughters of hereditary nobles) were accepted into it, which was reflected in its name. The reforms of the 19th century also affected the social composition of the institute. From the mid-70s, daughters of merchants, merchant Cossacks and personal nobles (officers and officials) were admitted. At the beginning of May 1887, Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Fedorovna visited Novocherkassk. A new building for the institute was laid, and its students received portraits and gifts from the empress. In 1891, the institute moved to a new building on Poshtovaya Street. At first, the institute girls were boarders, and only towards the end of the century some of them became part-timers. There were 8 classes at the institute. Later, when preparatory classes were added and girls aged 6 began to be accepted, there were 10 classes. There were 35-40 students in the class. Graduates had the same rights as in women's gymnasiums: the right to be home teachers and the right to enter higher educational institutions for women. Curricula close to gymnasium ones differed favorably from them in the teaching of music, playing the piano, and the scope and methodology of teaching foreign languages ​​(German and French). In addition, the institute taught: the Law of God, Russian and French literature, arithmetic and concepts of measurements, the most necessary information

[37] This is mentioned by E.V. Kirsanov in the book “The Glory and Tragedy of Novocherkassk” (Novocherkassk, 2005. T. 1. P. 81).

[38] Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[39] Probably more, but only two had a telephone. In addition, there were private masters - 60 thousand of the population did not go around uncut.

[40] In 1905, a hereditary nobleman of the Don Army, a member of the reserve, Alexander Alekseevich Khanzhonkov, began the creation of his film empire with five thousand rubles - the reversal amount with which the Russian government provided the families of officers of the Don Army who were in the reserve before the age of 28. In 1907, in Moscow on Zhitnaya Street (house 29), he built the largest film factory in Europe, where domestic film production was immediately concentrated. “Strike”, “Battleship Potemkin”, and “October” will be filmed at the Khanzhonkov factories. Thanks to Khanzhonkov, popular science and educational cinema appeared in Russia in 1911. In 1911, by the highest permission of Emperor Nicholas II, he participated as a co-director in the production of the full-length film “The Defense of Sevastopol.” The king personally thanked him with a diamond ring from his hand. During Soviet times, Khanzhonkov’s talents were unclaimed. But after several years of working as a production manager in Proletkino, a criminal case was opened against him “for cost overruns and failure to fulfill planned obligations.” The criminal case was dropped due to lack of evidence, but the filmmaker’s “disenfranchised” status remained until the end of his days. Khanzhonkov left for Yalta. The Great Patriotic War broke out. The Germans, having heard about his merits, gave him two rooms in his former house on Botkinskaya Street. After the war, this gesture was regarded as a connection with the Nazis. They wanted to shoot him, but by that time he was already a completely immobilized person. And then they treated the legend of Russian cinema as an enemy of the people and deprived him of his bread card. A former millionaire died while rummaging through trash cans.

[41] Report of the Novocherkassk branch of the Imperial Musical Society and its music classes for 1911 - 1912 / Comp. F. I. Popov. Novocherkassk, 1912.

[42] Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[43] The chapter was written by Yulia Rybalkina.

[44] Military circle and Russia // Don Wave. 1918. No. 6. September 30.

[45] Military circle and Russia // Don Wave. 1918. No. 6. September 30.

[46] Ibid.

[47] Kirsanov E.I. Glory and tragedy of Novocherkassk. Novocherkassk, 2005. T. 1. P. 145.

[48] ​​The Don Wave magazine, edited by Viktor Sevsky, began publishing in 1918. Residents of Novocherkassk could subscribe to it (subscription fee: 1 month - 8 rubles, 2 months - 16 rubles, from issue 1 to the end of the year (29 issues) - 58 rubles).

[49] The Don Wave (1918, No. 16) published a letter allegedly written by an Englishman who visited Novocherkassk in the mid-19th century: “Dear wife! In your last letter you asked to talk about the Cossacks, these, as you say, wild people who live without getting off their horses, dressed in animal skins and eating raw meat. I visited their capital itself - Novocherkassk, but, really, I have never met such people. But what a city, my dear!.. When I entered it, it was already two o’clock in the afternoon, and the Strange inhabitants were still sleeping. Just think - go to bed at two o'clock in the afternoon!.. The green shutters of the small houses were tightly closed, there was not a soul on the streets, of course, except for two pigs and a five-year-old baby. And they were sleeping, snoring sweetly in the shade of the fence... It was hot, I was thirsty, and I woke up the boy to find out the place where I could find water. But the young gentleman opened his eyes and saw me, and with a wild cry he began to run. They must be afraid of sleepless people here, my dear!.. And I obeyed - I also went to bed next to the carriage. The sun was just above the horizon when I woke up. To my surprise, this fabulous city began to wake up. The shutters opened and sleepy inhabitants appeared on the balconies facing the street. And do you know what they did? They silently looked at each other, and silently spat in each other's faces!!!... (Oh, sunflowers, incomparable Cherkassy sunflowers, which so confused the European mind!). Shocking and shocking!.. What kind of morals are in this country!.. However, in all likelihood, this is a native custom - a kind of exchange of pleasantries, since these people were not at all offended, but on the contrary laughed merrily... Crazy city, crazy people! .. I’m finishing the letter, it’s time to hit the road again... It’s only ten o’clock in the evening, and these eccentrics are going to bed again. Twenty hours a day! no, this is too much - get out of here quickly! Oh, how I would like to know the answer to one question - to just one question: “When, finally, do these people work?”

[50] Don wave. 1918. No. 27. December 16.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Don wave. 1918. No. 3. June 24.

[53] White movement. The origins of the volunteer army. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2001.

[54] White movement...

[55] GARO. F. 486. Inventory 1. D. 81. Minutes of meetings of the Board of Trustees.

[56] GARO. F. 486. Op. 1. D. 25. “On the determination of free maintenance for the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Vera Georgievna Samsonova-Dvoinikova.”

[57] GARO. F. 486. Op. 1. D. 8. “On the determination of the centurion’s daughter Victoria Pavlovna Gavrilova for paid education.”

[58] Novocherkassk and Platovskaya gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[59] Ibid.

[60] Novocherkassk and Platov Gymnasium in memoirs and documents.

[61] Don wave. 1918. No. 10. August 12.

[62] Don wave. 1918. No. 20. October 28.

[63] Don wave. 1918. No. 27. December 16.

[64] Kirsanov E. I. Decree soch S. 148

[65] Marietta Shaginyan.

[66] Don Wave. 1918. No. 27. December 16.

67 Don Wave. 1918. No. 27. December 16.

Deputy Burgomaster From the diaries of 1932