Iconarmia

The idea of ​​creating the “Orthodox squads”, put forward by the Movement “Holy Rus'” and the Congress of Russian communities and ardently supported by the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as the Krasnodar governor Tkachev, who called for the formation of Cossack squads to displace the “foreigners” from the region, will probably be sympathetically met by the residents who were longing for the Soviet past. They associate it with voluntary folk squads, created in the Khrushchev times. Today, few people remember that this phenomenon was as massly as useless, since the effectiveness of the DND in the fight against crime was close to zero. Millions of people for the jacks were lit up for hours from idleness. However, it did not do without ideology. I remember when I studied at the university, he himself was a warrior, and we were instructed: "If you see an icon on the wall of the room during patrols, ask you by chance:" Do you believe? "And remember the room number and let us know."

Even fewer people know that their genealogy squads of this kind are leading from much more old times, and this genealogy, mildly, inconspicuous. For at the beginning of the 20th century, its "Orthodox squads" formed the "Union of the Russian People". The current creators of the Orthodox squads are very close to the ideals of this organization. The fact that the squads of KRO is proposed to be called "squads of interethnic consent" does not mean that someone is going to accept Chechens, Dagestanis or even Orthodox Georgians and Ossetians in their composition.

Under the pretext of maintaining order and preventing accidents during the revolution of 1905-1907, under the "Union of the Russian People", self-defense squads were organized, which the police armed with firearms from their and army arsenals. The warriors tried to make bombs, but usually failed: failed a low educational level. But the Black -Hundred fighting combat squads received the Rifle weapons easily (it happened that the Socialist -Revolutionaries used it - they signed up in the squads of the SRN to get a revolvers). In fact, these squads openly carried out the Black -Hundred terror. One of the largest was the Odessa squad, numbering about 300 people and unofficially called the "White Guard". There were also numerous squads (several hundred, and in the capitals - several thousand people) in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Vologda, Gomel, Eaterinoslav, Kyiv, Chisinau, Tiflis, Sevastopol and Yaroslavl. Of these cities, the most cruel Jewish pogroms in 1905-1906 occurred in Gomel, Ekaterinoslav, Kyiv and Odessa.

I don’t know whether Mr. Tkachev is known that the “White Guard” was organized on the principle of the Cossack army and shared six hundred with its “punished chieftain”, “Esauls” and “tenants”. Hundreds had their own names - for example, "Evil Hundred" - and the warriors had nicknames in a Cossack spirit: Ermak, Platov, etc. In some cities, there were no officially squads at the SRN departments, but there were detachments of several dozen “patriots” armed with rubber batons, sticks, castrates and Finnish knives, which turned out to be quite enough to organize small pogroms.

If various social layers (peasants, artisans, workers and even the intelligentsia and students) were presented in the "Union of the Russian People" as a whole), then declared elements, including criminals, prevailed among the warriors, especially in Odessa and St. Petersburg. Therefore, in the public consciousness, the image of the Black Hundred was firmly associated with bandits and lumpen who supplied the main shots for conducting Jewish pogroms. Reception in the combatants was furnished with a peculiar ritual: the blood entering the squad signed the obligation to faithfully serve the king. But they served by no means disinterestedly, but for a regular monthly fee, and through blackmail they sought to increase it. Low discipline and the lack of police experience were made by squads absolutely useless to combat criminal crime. They were suitable only for pogroms and murders of political opponents. The Black Hundreds, in particular, fought with the militants of the Bolsheviks, Socialist -Revolutionaries and other parties, as well as with Jewish self -defense units, and both sides carried losses calculated by dozens of people a year. Such prominent political figures as members of the Cadet Party Central Committee Mikhail Herzenstein and Grigory Iollos, Trudovik Alexander Karavaev died at the hands of the Black Hundreds, an unsuccessful attempt on the former Prime Minister Witte was organized.

Sometimes the squads performed purely security functions, and also did not allow street demonstrations and maintained order at striking enterprises, protecting the strapbraikers. Often they dispersed the gatherings at universities, for which they received a student uniform and tickets from the police in order to freely penetrate the territory of the educational institution. Sometimes they acted without notifying the police, which caused the authorities discontent. So, the police department reported that the combatants in Tiflis "themselves began to perform various investigative actions, searing and detaining at their discretion, without any control of police and gendarme ranks." In Odessa, the authorities were also not enthusiastic about the activities of the White Guard. In cities outside the settled man, the warriors smashed not Jews, but members of the revolutionary parties. They also made raids to identify establishments that are impatiently trading vodka.

If in today's Russia Orthodox squads are indeed created to protect public order, then they will most likely follow both the Black Hundred and Soviet traditions. They can participate in the pogroms of "foreigners" and "revolutionaries." And if weapons are given to them, then it will easily fall into the hands of both criminals and political extremists from combatants. Barrymen can also arrange attempts on oppositionists so that no one, if something that happens, accuses the special services of involvement in extrajudicial reprisals. They can disperse demonstrations and prevent strikes. And they can also follow whether there are Orthodox icons in the apartments. And make lists of those who do not have icons.