Andrey Trofimov. How it was is what will be. 2

How it was is what will be. 2
Andrey Trofimov

Publication date: November 18, 2003

Continuation. For the beginning, see:www.russ.ru/netcult/20031112_trofimov.html .

Diagnostics of official structures

- When I heard about the State Emergency Committee, I came to the regional party committee and said: “Gather the communists, and let everyone express their opinion about what happened.” The answer was: “No, we did not receive any orders from the Central Committee on this matter.” Then I came to our Supreme Council with a proposal to urgently convene deputies for a session, and again I heard the familiar: “No, there was no command from Moscow.”

“The guy at the police checkpoint suddenly said: “No one here knows anything now. There are no orders from anywhere.” In general, it turned out that the police stood at their posts more out of habit. I knew what was needed, so I stood there.

- You can understand our leadership. They received orders from Yeltsin and the State Emergency Committee, the implementation of both of them threatened with big troubles. They tried not to do either one or the other.

- In response to all requests, he was sent to the office to Yanaev, and there they answered that they were not doing this.

- There was a feeling that the mechanism of state leadership was completely lost...

Conclusion: the state hierarchy is an extremely effective thing when it responds to familiar signals. An unexpected challenge leaves the state at a loss. And the paralysis of the state is immediately felt by an active minority of the population. And it begins to act on its own.

The Pull of the Network

- After work, I started getting ready to go outside. My wife follows me: “Don’t go!” I even got a bottle of vodka from somewhere and made up a reason. Did not help.

- There have never been so many people on Kirov Square in Petrozavodsk. People came to hear objective information; it was difficult to do this on television back then.

- I immediately went to the White House... I had to be with my readers... I felt that I had no right to be even in the building of the Supreme Council.

- I realized that this was a coup. I went to the chairman of the Chelyabinsk City Council... Other deputies began to approach.

- Surprisingly, I immediately determined the purpose of the trip - the White House. True, I vaguely imagined his whereabouts... Now the unconscious “for” is expressed in statements: I went to defend freedom and democracy, but then I simply could not sit at home.

- I went to the “scoop” to look for my own people - there were no punks. Then I met a partygoer from the Anarchist Union, he was coolly equipped: a flag, food and a knife. From him I learned about the existence of the White House and went to the barricades.

- I am not a supporter of either Gorbachev or Yeltsin. I went to defend myself. I still have a long time to live in this country.

Conclusion: a lonely person self-determines and, if he is ready for action, begins to search the Network. That is why she is born. It is born from the instinct of collective self-preservation.

Network self-determination

One has only to delve into the essence of each historical event, that is, into the activities of the entire mass of people who participated in the event, to be convinced that the will of the historical hero not only does not guide the actions of the masses, but is itself constantly guided.

Lev Tolstoy

Morning of August 19th. "Swan Lake" instead of news. The roar and fuss of armored vehicles. Confusion and fear. A sleepy Yeltsin in slippers writes an appeal “To the citizens of Russia” at the dacha. And the Network is already working. It works with incredible efficiency.

- At 7 o’clock they called me from Memorial and told me the news, which was unpleasant, but expected. Having gathered, we distributed areas of work and immediately began to act.

- At 7.30-7.40 I was already in the Moscow City Council, where almost all the Moscow demoros had already gathered. Everyone was doing their own thing.

- By 8 o’clock in the morning it became clear to me that our organizational structure was functioning normally, and those who held the information network in their hands were free and actively working.

- By 9.00 we prepared a statement from the PST Political Committee and began transmitting it through our channels. We contacted Kazakhstan, Lithuania...

- Immediately we installed additional faxes on the communication center and sent out the resolution to all exchanges. We cut off all the loose ends, not yet knowing about the decrees of the President of Russia.

- Less than two hours had passed since the adoption of the address “To the Citizens of Russia”, and the center of Krasnoyarsk was already covered with printed texts.

Conclusion: at the moment of birth, the Network itself selects structuring points. In Moscow on the morning of the 19th, the Mossovet became such a point, then Manezhnaya Square. Only after the publication of the address “To the Citizens of Russia” did the White House become the point of structuring, and the Network acquired a personalized leader. It was not Yeltsin who led the resistance to the Emergency Committee, it was the Network that chose Yeltsin. If the entire Russian leadership had been arrested in the morning, the Network would have chosen another leader - there would have been someone to choose from.

Network structuring

Montag set off. He was walking north. Looking around, he saw that everyone was following him. Surprised, he stepped aside to let Granger go ahead, but he only looked at him and nodded silently.

Ray Bradbury

Units

“It was here, near the White House, that people emerged from a state of shock and uncertainty, found like-minded people, and believed their leaders.

- The beginnings of barricades. Endless, chaotic, "Brownian motion" of people.

- In the afternoon there was an element of organization. Dozens began to form. Creating a disciplined and effective force was quite difficult. Everyone was their own commander, but gradually we got used to it...

- Near the White House I met fellow Ukrainians representing Rukh. They accepted me into their team.

- At the Leningrad City Council I met with the guys from the Free Democratic Party, of which I am a member, and got involved in the work, distributing leaflets.

- We immediately began to form a resistance group “DemRussia” in the Perovsky district. At 19:00 we arrived at the House of Soviets in an organized manner.

- By evening, I began to gather punks, metal workers, and caught thrashers - there were about 100 people.

- Our brokers joined the defense of the White House, creating a “regular” brokerage hundred.

- I met some guys I knew from my school. Together with my friends, I ended up in the Central detachment.

Conclusion: when structuring the Network, it is impossible to immediately establish “direct, equal connections between everyone and everyone.” First, “everyone’s connections with those with whom it is easier” are established. Any clue works here: work colleagues, family, acquaintance, community, the calm face of the commander...

Squad leaders

- I quickly found my bearings. They began to organize dozens, and then detachments. Thank God the officers came to us. My experience and authority as an Afghan were probably taken into account, and I was chosen as the detachment commander.

- Together with everyone else, I built a barricade on the steps of the central staircase. While they were building, we met and united. I was chosen as commander. I divided the company (#303 - the number is given arbitrarily) into four platoons.

“The guys started coming up to me when they heard that I was gathering paratroopers. With a group of several people, I headed to the 20th entrance, where someone from the defense headquarters sent us to defend entrance 1-A. I received authority from him. We stood next to a group of Siberian Cossacks. We established interaction with them.

- The construction of the barricades was supervised by a lieutenant colonel of the engineering service. I, as a reserve officer, was appointed platoon commander.

- Our detachment was named “18th Brigade”. We later called it the “Brigade named after the 158th transition to our side of the Taman Division.” We were able to joke like that largely thanks to our commander... The theater director became the main organizer of the defense of the sixth entrance.

Conclusion: before it is born, the Network emerges from its amorphous state. Her personnel policy is incredibly effective: without questionnaires, tests or advanced training courses, she places everyone in their place in the emerging structure. And at the same time, it takes into account everything - emotional tone, life experience, psychological stability, etc. But first of all - capacity . In August 1991, the Network went through a period of anarchy in less than 24 hours.

Defense headquarters

- In the morning, informal people were hanging out at the White House. It’s such a mess that it’s impossible to describe. They began to look for the chief of the defense staff. By 5 p.m. they found two. Everyone insisted that he was in charge. They believed the one who had the card.

- We created an improvised command post near the central entrance in order to more or less control the situation, organize intelligence collection, and organize food.

- We started collecting money to buy food. A group of people formed around us and went about their business. They began to call us the food headquarters.

- At night I helped build barricades, then I realized that my knowledge as a military specialist would be useful: one of my developments was about fighting in the city. At about 10 o'clock in the morning I arrived at the White House. We had absolutely nothing except two phones. The first thing we started with was organizing an operations department, an intelligence department and an aviation department.

- When I was introduced to Kobetsu, he asked what I would like to do. Having learned that I was an intelligence officer, he proposed creating something like an intelligence department.

- By the morning of the 21st, we had worked out a plan for organizing the defense of Moscow. Our plan was agreed upon with the mayor's office, and the district authorities were ready to begin creating rubble and barricades on the Garden Ring, along the ring road.

Conclusion: the structure of the Network is determined by the problem being solved. In August 1991, the Network defended itself and therefore delegated military personnel to its headquarters. If the Network were building a house or growing bread, the structure would be different. It changes on the Internet every minute.

Network Self-Defense

- Vodka was brought in the evening of August 19th. The media, controlled by the committee, spread allegations throughout the country about the accumulation of drunken people, so we did not allow alcohol to enter the barricades.

- Our task was not to allow drunk people or people with weapons to pass through. Women with children were advised not to come to the building.

- On the second day, we organized control over the approaches to the White House. An internal password was entered for each sector separately. At night, people who aroused suspicion were brought to us through the outer ring of barricades to the 20th entrance.

- I was at the White House at 18 o'clock. He walked around twice, but could not break through the defense ring. At the 20th entrance, a guy with a receiver, from which my voice was heard, did not want to let me through, until an employee of the press center of the Supreme Council, shouting “This is Echo of Moscow!” pushed me into the building.

- It is worth noting the general suspicion, fueled by rumors that hundreds of disguised KGB agents are wandering among the defenders.

- Inside the building with me were employees of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, the Khimki Department of Internal Affairs and others who came on their own initiative with standard weapons. They took everyone’s word for it and then checked it through their own channels.

- They reported that about fifty people were coming. One knows the password and has a pass. It turned out that these were not intruders or provocateurs. The commander with one pass led part of his squad to the toilet.

Conclusion: a structured Network can effectively protect itself from “strangers.” Alcoholics, drug addicts and psychotics are specifically persecuted. "Going out" is always free. The “entrance pass” is a recommendation from within the Network.

Network and information technology

It is necessary to explain to young readers that in 1991 the Internet was an unknown wonder, and mobile communications only worked in the cars of senior officials.

- At the DR headquarters there is only one telephone and few people. Another apparatus was provided by neighbors - the financial department of the district executive committee.

- Information came to the city through all possible and impossible channels. On the editorial computer of the newspaper "Your Voice" it was immediately printed out on a laser printer and replicated on floppy disks. Although, of course, running around with floppy disks and issuing leaflets for a person with the slightest understanding is childish babble. If computer networks and e-mail operated in Krasnoyarsk, the entire city, and even the region, would receive independent information immediately.

- A messenger came running from the outer ring of defense. He reported that an armored group of about ten BMP-2s had broken through the defenses on the Garden Ring...

- I took a turn at the phone, as it turned out, for a CNN correspondent, he was reporting live from the scene, guys ran up to him and reported the situation in broken Russian-English.

“We overtook the advanced column, got to the Mozhaisky motel and, using a pay phone, transmitted information to headquarters about the approach of the paratroopers.

- A message was received (like the previous ones - along the chain) about the movement of the Airborne Division along the Mozhaisk Highway.

- By the end of the second day we had several radio stations; in particular, three multi-band amateur radios provided information transmission, radio interception, and served for propaganda purposes. We transmitted the Appeal to the personnel via headset communication.

- I would like to say a lot of kind words about the activities of the DEMOS cooperative. Having extensive computer communications in our country and abroad, they organized the transmission of information about the state of affairs in various parts of the country.

- The use of satellite communications has made it possible to reliably transmit operational information and our assessment of the situation to foreign news agencies. In solving these problems, the main role belonged to the NPO "Krosna".

Conclusion: without communication there is no Network. All the latest technologies are immediately “sucked” into the Network and dramatically increase its efficiency. I wonder how long the State Emergency Committee would have lasted if everyone had cell phones in 1991?

The ending follows