The ritual of burning stuffed animals

Excerpt from the book “Red Easter”: the celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution and the political culture of the Civil War ”

On November 7, the Constituent Festival of the Soviet Union, far from immediately established itself in its usual form: it was preceded by the struggle between the scenarios of various political forces. With the involvement of previously unknown documents, the book of historian Konstantin Godunov tells about this. We publish an excerpt dedicated to the practice of symbolic burning of the enemies of the revolution in the city squares of the young state.

Starting from February 24, 2022, we were all in the face of the advancing barbarism, violence and lies. In this situation, it is extremely important to preserve at least the remnants of culture and support the values ​​of humanism - including for the sake of the future of Russia. Therefore, the editorial office of Gorky will continue to talk about books, reminding our readers that the world remains in the world and fiction.

Konstantin Godunov. “Red Easter”: celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution and the political culture of the Civil War. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the European University in St. Petersburg, 2023. Content

The roots of custom to destroy the scarecrow of enemies James Fraser saw in the rituals of homeopathic (imitative) magic:

... Ent attempts to harm the enemy or destroy it by many peoples in different eras or destroy it by causing a damage to its image or destruction of the latter in complete confidence that the person against whom these magical actions are directed will experience the same suffering or die.

How did the ancient custom use the organizers of the celebrations that describe themselves as carriers of modern ideology? What meanings did they invest in these ceremonies and how did these meanings change under the influence of political circumstances? What figures had to symbolize the enemies of the revolution? How did the specificity of the burning of symbolic figures in various cities manifest? By answering these questions, we will get closer to understanding the mechanisms of creating images of enemies with artistic means.

One of the opinions about who should personify the enemies of the revolution was indicated in the note dated October 23, 1918. The author of the document was the People's Commissar for Military and Marine Affairs L. D. Trotsky, and the addressee was the chairman of the Moscow Council L. B. Kamenev. I will quote this remarkable document completely:

I think that it is necessary to expand the agitation against the culprits of the intervention as widely as possible, giving agitation the most popular and accessible to popular nizam. It is necessary to popularize the figure of Wilson in the country. I propose during the festival of November 7, do not forget about Wilson, Lloyd George, Mikado, Clemanso, and so on. I think that it would be nice to burn Wilson on the Squares and put a radio about this world. Such a rite can impress a democratic American bastard. Of course, the destruction of Wilson should have a folk plebeian character.

Kamenev made an appointment to the telegram: “I ask you to take into account and implement, adding Milyukov, Skoropadsky, Culman and Chernin.”

The document shows that prominent Bolsheviks treated the burning of stuffed enemies as an important political action. Trotsky proposed organizing a spectacle, which was supposed to affect both the "people's bottoms" and the international audience - the "democratic American bastard." At the same time, Trotsky resorted to “reception of personification” - specific politicians symbolized the intervention.

It is important to consider that the initiators of this action showed a different understanding of the whose image was to symbolize the main enemy of the revolution. Calling as the main enemies of the heads of England, Japan, France, Trotsky paid special attention to the figure of the American president, it was he who personified imperialism, was the main threat to the revolution. Kamenev proposed expanding the repertoire of enemies: in addition to the leaders of the Entente, the leader of the cadets, the Ukrainian hetman, and the diplomat, who headed the German delegation in Brest-Litovsk, the Austro-Hungarian diplomat and the military, also associated the Brest world, should be subjected to symbolic destruction. Kamenev’s position, in the past of the leader of the “right -wing Bolsheviks”, was explained, in all likelihood, by the desire to reconsider the terms of the Brest Peace Treaty in a situation of growing a revolutionary crisis in Germany. It is noteworthy that in the list of Trotsky, supplemented by Kamenev, there were no such important images of enemies for Bolshevik propaganda as a white general and a clergyman.

The absence of a single position regarding who should personify the enemies of the revolution affected the organization of shares of burning. On October 30, 1918, a “lively debate” took place at a meeting of the October Committee, after which the proposal of the chairman of the communication and information section V. N. Podbelsky was adopted. The commissions organizing a holiday in the areas of Moscow were provided with a certain initiative: they were invited to “elect the central assembly point in their area - one of the main areas of the district. Declare the publication of the proletarian districts, which is at 9 o’clock. Evenings on November 6, the old imperialist system and the birth of a new one will be burned on this square. ” Images were to “personify the old system in all its manifestations. All the foundations of the old system should be here: capitalists, priests, police, guns, shells, guns and so on. The main place among the emblem of the old system should be occupied by the figure of a modern pillar of international imperialism. ”

Probably, the discussion of the issue of whom the burned images should symbolize continued in the future. The author of the note in the newspaper Kommunar, discussing the importance of this element of the celebration, wrote: “Well, this can come out very entertaining and spectacular. To drag a large scarecrow of the priest to the square, a thick bourgeois, a crowned fool and popularly, during a suitable atmosphere, these scams are burned! .. ”Like L. D. Trotsky, the author of the note wrote about the leaders of the interventionists as the main enemies of Soviet Russia:“ For the present moment I would consider the most fasting figures of those who now personify the capitalist world, the capitalist world, now. Those who, having grinned predatory fangs, go to the young socialist republic. Scarecrow Wilson, Lloyd-Jordia, Clemanso and other rulers of the world cause in the hearts of Kommunar such a certain hatred that we could take the first and most honorable place on festive fires to the scarecrow of these gentlemen. ” It was the former allies of Russia who personified the enemies of the revolution.

On the second of November, at a meeting of the route and recruiting commission, one of the sections of the Committee on the Organization of Festive Celebrations, a different position was announced. The head of the commission A.V. Mandelstam said:

The Council believes that if the government authorized the burning of figures of such supporters of world imperialism as the burning of the figures of Wilson, Clemanso, Lloyd George and others, it would have a huge political significance and would be a great mistake. This cannot be done from above, another thing, if the people themselves, the bottoms wish to burn such figures.

Spontaneous acts of violence were expected from the participants, but it is not entirely clear how it should have been realized in practice - how the “bottoms” had to declare their desire to destroy one or another figure of the enemy. At the same time, according to A.V. Mandelstam, in a difficult military-political situation, a hostile action in relation to the leaders of the Entente could lead to unpredictable consequences.

This cautious position was connected, as it seems, with a changing international situation. The celebration of the anniversary of the revolution coincided with the period of the end of the World War. This circumstance could not but be reflected in some important political actions, in propaganda texts dedicated to the holiday. Various actors indicated the country's special position in the world arena and the danger that threatens the revolution from the former allies of Russia.

In a generalizing work on the history of the revolutionary era, R. Staitits noted that during the Soviet holidays "burned strawed stuffed white leaders and leaders of the intervention." This statement needs a comment: the idea of ​​interventions as the main enemies of the revolution did not find expression in any active actions during the celebration of the first anniversary of October in Moscow. Despite the fact that in the propaganda materials published for the holiday, the images of the interventionists occupied an important place, the attitude to the leaders of the Entente as the main enemies of the revolution was not realized in the solemn acts of burning - the scarecrow of the kulak was destroyed in the frontal place. A special context destroyed the script built by Trotsky and Kamenev an important propaganda action for the Bolsheviks. The organizers of the celebration showed the ability to improvise - they reacted more to changing political circumstances than acted in accordance with a pre -developed plan. The private plot recalls that the struggle for power that the Bolsheviks conducted during the civil war is also a history of compromises, retreats, adjustments to the political course, quick reactions to the dynamics of the situation.

Along with the designation of the main enemy of the revolution, the nature of the ceremony was determined during the discussions. The materials of the discussions show that the organizers of various levels showed the unity of opinions regarding what the style of burning was to be: L. D. Trotsky, A. V. Mandelstam appealed to the “Nizam”, and the Izvestia correspondent called the festive illumination of Moscow “a real red carnival”. Such an attitude determined the place of burning in the structure of the celebration - they were supposed to become a carnival action, preceding more ritualized and centralized festive ceremonies (parades, demonstrations).

On the evening of November 6, from Vagankovsky Lane, a procession led by a body with a stuffed fist moved to Red Square. The procession was attended by members of the newspaper Poor Narodnoye and representatives of the comables who went on a holiday from different parts of the country (primarily to participate in a meeting of the delegates of the poor committees).

The choice of space in which the burning took place had a symbolic meaning. The Poor Correspondent wrote: “In the frontal place where our comrades were once slaughtered and chopped, who dared to tell the truth before some barin or landowner. And now they burned a scarecrow here in the form of a fist or moonshine. ” Another representative of the poor committee discussed the role of a memorable place:

Until now, the poor place entered this frontal place only for execution. Many years ago, the bold leader and defender of the poor Stepan Razin was quartered here ... Last year, the bourgeoisie shot our wrestlers behind these very Kremlin walls ... But now the poor has entered this frontal place to finally destroy its enemies ...

Newspaper correspondents described the burning as a kind of act of revenge, and this idea was reinforced by the representation of the frontal place as a space of folk suffering. An attempt was made to change the significance of this space: the place of the public execution of the defenders of popular freedom was to become the place of the symbolic executions of the enemies of the revolution.

The symbolic execution of the fist in the frontal place was played as a ritual of gap with a pre -revolutionary order, was the moment of the symbolic denial of the former social hierarchies. This was clearly described by one of the representatives of the combined people: ““ He warmed his hands about us, and now we will warm about him, ”someone said, approaching the burning fist and putting his hands to the fire ...”

The promotion in the frontal place became the central burning ceremony in the capital, it was it that was described in the most detailed press. At the same time, the correspondent of Pravda mentioned that “the burning of the emblem of the old system took place in the regions. It was accompanied by speeches and fireworks and everywhere gathered huge crowds of people. ” In the Butyrsky district, an “artistic burning of a scarecrow depicting Milyukov” was organized, and in the Khamovnichesky district - the “emblem of tsarist greatness”. In Yekaterininskaya Square, images of Nicholas II and Grigory Rasputin were burned. The shares of burning were distinguished by diversity: in different parts of the cities, various images of enemies were destroyed, there was no single idea of ​​who should symbolize the enemy among the organizers.

The translator O. M. Sheremeteva noted in the diary: “I write under shots, there is an illumination after burning the emblem of the old system. The city is decorated, Okhotnoy is painted by the students of the Stroganov school, they enveloped in a theater trees, sprinkled with blue and hung red palsy. In general, proletarian splendor. (Although I have not seen anything, my leg hurts, and I don’t go out.) ”Yu. V. Gauthier compared Moscow fireworks with a sacred action:“ In the evening [November 6. - K. G. ] was a kind of Easter night: in the XP [Ist] the savior burned the fireworks for about half an hour; Probably burned some stuffed animals; We were disgusted, and we did not go there, despite the proximity. ” Similar assessments of the political action of the Bolsheviks were obviously distributed among those Moscow intellectuals who were critical in relation to the authorities. At the same time, the burning of stuffed animals and fireworks had a certain resonance in the city - becoming the subject of rumors and conversations, they attracted the attention of those who were personally not present at the festival.

The burning of the stuffed enemies did not become an important part of the celebration of the anniversary of the revolution in Petrograd, although the possibility of including this element in the ceremony was discussed by the organizers of the celebrations. Representatives of the cultural and educational departments of the 2nd district of the city talked about the need to "arrange allegorical figures depicting two opposite worlds. One is the image of the world autocracy and the capitalist system represented by a group of persons. This figure, like an obsolete and rotten, is overthrown and burned. Another is an image of the universal world and brotherhood and universal education. This is a designation of new creation and creativity. ” The burning of a figure symbolizing the old system was supposed to take place "with flaming torches, singing and sounds of music." This plan was not implemented, but on November 8, 1918, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet organized the image of the image of the Bastille on the Neva.

Plans for conducting symbolic burning of stuffed enemies in Petrograd were developed earlier, until the anniversary of October. So, for the celebration on May 1, 1918, an attempt was made to organize a procession of a motorcade of two chariots personifying the old and new world. The old world symbolized the dragon with the inscription "Tsarism" and the chariot of the "Coat of the Old Belief" in the form of a two -headed eagle. Due to the lack of funds, the plan was not implemented, but it is obvious that the November burning in Moscow can hardly be considered “an interesting symbolic innovation of the celebration on November 7”-the Petrograd Bolsheviks attempted to use this ceremony already during the first major holiday of the Soviet era.

The stuffed enemies were burned in other places. A witness of burning in the village of Kotlei of the Yamburg district described the celebration as follows: in the festive arches “a fire was built from rulers and servants of the old system, below, like the foundation of the fire, there were 5 resin barrels, circles with portraits of former kings, ministers and generals, and two gypsum busters, well-known to the Kotelian peasants of the serpentine-pre-member “Alberta”, which was distinguished by the fact that he pushed the peasants in his stable. ” The burning of these images in the “Kostra of the Revolution” has become the central element of the holiday. The correspondent talked about what was happening:

The eyes of those present presented a long-unforgettable picture, when the gray-haired ones, who were killed from the stories of their fathers and grandfathers, all the horrors of the power of the feudal fees, had fun, like small children, seeing how fiery languages ​​relate to the images of the powerful world, on which they were accustomed to look at the deities, and when the whirlwind of fire was fraught with plaster images Albert’s serf and the bust collapsed from the pedestal into the sea of ​​fire, scattering hundreds of small particles, an enthusiastic hurray escaped from the chest of all participants, at the time of their agricultural and economic worries.

The joy, according to the author of the report, rally the participants of the holiday: “At that moment, everyone was as if soldered by the electric current of one celebration, the complete destruction of all the remnants of the old slave system, under the glow of the fire of the world revolution and the rising light of the new socialist system in long -suffering Europe.” As we have already seen on the materials telling about the Moscow burning, the time of the holiday became the time of repeated - symbolic - overthrow of the power of the landowners. The awareness of liberation from this power was to be soldered into a single community of the participants in the celebrations. Destroying the images of representatives of the former elite, celebrating had to feel social changes at the emotional level.