Now, 1896. Here is the cinema, it is the “Magic World”, in one of the cities of Russia. New entertainment for people from all classes. On a white canvas with a dazzling beam of light, pictures of another life are projected. Let’s try to feel the colorful time, to be embodied in the past, go inside, meet someone, and get tickets for a session… Already this night

Nizhny Novgorod, presumably 1909. A scene from the life, a fistfight in front of the windows of a doss house. Behaving quietly turns out not always with us. By and large, there is no other kind of entertainment among the people, besides the cinema mentioned above – “The Magic World”. Society constrained caste system. Merchants, aristocracy, industrialists are not available even for the simplest of communication. If you try to say something, say hello, you will get a cold answer like a dog’s nose. Learn to be embodied in the past, friends – please tell everything in detail. It is very difficult to invent something, to open a business, to get rich – what is usually fun in Europe and America, for the “common man”. Among other things, even the word “rich” in Russia still has a clear negative connotation. The song, which you will surely hear from the fighters who have made peace under the windows of the hotel, on a deaf night – “There were happy days” (in our time – “Golden Ring”, listen) …Бывали дни веселые, Золотое кольцо, слушать

One of the villages of the Novgorod province of Tsarist Russia. The peasants organized a wooden spoons production association. Open-air production is a place for easy communication and creation of folklore works (songs, fairy tales, ditties). Hut, at least sometimes sagging, seem to be sturdy and roomy. Go beyond the ordinary mind. What if you go around the corner of the house? Songs that are sung here in the evenings, if you wish, you will now find them by keywords and hear them. “According to the wild steppes of Transbaikalia” (known since the 1890s), let the performer in our case be Jeanne Bichevskaya. She will perform for us “My dear little one” (1911). “The Glorious Sea – Sacred Baikal” (from the 1850s), the choir of trade unions in the city of Oryol, “A cook merchant rode from the fair” (1859). …“По диким степям Забайкалья”, “Миленький ты мой”, Жанна Бичевская, “Когда б имел златые горы”, Надежда Кадышева …слушать

Vagrancy alone or in groups, from one eminent church to another, in search of a miracle, interesting conversations and food – an integral part of the pre-revolutionary Russia. Quite a few Russian writers of the new century, such as Maxim Gorky (Peshkov), have passed this way. Sometimes the church is a bottomless world that reveals your secrets. More often the temple is just such a building.

The Minister of Finance under Alexander the Third and Nicholas II – Sergey Yulievich Vitte. In a photograph taken in 1905, during negotiations with the Japanese delegation, he is third right in a row of representatives of the Russian Empire. Witte’s main idea is an economic “big leap” by any means. In 1897, Russian industrialists and merchants were deprived of protectionism by the state. Moreover, at the suggestion of the Dutchman Witte, it is foreign owners who now enjoy the benefits of doing business. The country is flooded with foreign capital. As a result, 90% of the country’s industrial enterprises are transferred into the hands of foreign owners. In the eyes of the original inhabitants of Russia, the state loses as much as the image of the majestic patriarchal family formed by Alexander the Third.

However, the industrialization of the country really has a place to be. The symbol of industrial growth (first place in the world in terms of development rates) is the railways. In a year, across the country, exactly where it is necessary, 2 thousand kilometers of railways are laid. The maximum achievement of the communist period, in the early 1950s, is one and a half thousand kilometers. Useless tracks like Salekhard-Igarka highway does not count. And, in the first case, the construction is carried out by the forces of self-confident, civilian workers, without false slogans, executions and torture. The photograph shows the locomotive “G”, which was produced for the Petersburg-Moscow railway in 1845—1849. abroad In 1860, this machine is upgraded. Since 1901, Russia begins to produce its own, quite high-quality steam locomotives.

Nikolay Romanov, at the age of twenty, the future emperor of the Russian land. His favorite occupation is quite up to, probably a mature age – playing hide and seek with royal relatives. According to the characteristics of S. Witte “An insignificant, and therefore insensitive emperor. Loud phrases, honesty and generosity exist only for show, so to speak, for the royal exits, and within the soul is petty cunning, childish cunning, fearful deceit.” General Wrangel, the last head of the White Army: “The king had neither precisely defined vices, nor clearly defined qualities. He was indifferent. He did not love anyone or anyone.” The post of the leader of a nation, the emperor, the tsar is not so much a central element of the organization as an example for general imitation. Consciously, or unconsciously, society adopts the subtlest features of the image of a ruler. Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century is a fairly well-established technical state. But there is an acute lack of living water of love and understanding in it. When the level of this life-giving fluid reaches a critical lower point, people no longer sympathize with each other. The fire of war of all against all breaks out

Putilov defense plant, St. Petersburg, the beginning of the twentieth century. Employees of defense enterprises earn up to 160 rubles a month, with an average salary in the country of 27 rubles. The length of the working day at state-owned enterprises is 12 hours, for a private trader, depending on his ideas about humanism, 12—16 hours. The pay of librarians, primary school teachers is 20 rubles, qualified mechanics, turners 50, doctors 80, officers, depending on rank, 80—500, governors 1,000 rubles. Military spending, reaching 30% of the budget, exsanguinates the country. They also become a source of a real internal threat. The price for renting a modest room is 3—5 rubles per month. Lunch, pancakes with caviar in a tavern, to the dump – 1 ruble, 0.5 liters of vodka 15—17 kopecks, potatoes 5 kopecks. kg., loaf of bread 4 kopecks., beef 25 kopecks, cheese 70 kopecks, black caviar 3 rubles 20 kopecks per kilogram. You can live. A cow, a horse, depending on the success of bargaining 40—80 rubles. Further, a shirt is 3 rubles, men’s boots are 7 rubles, a short fur coat is 15 rubles. If you want to attract beautiful women and live luxuriously: the accordion 7.50 p., Gramophone 20—40, a car without bells and whistles 2000 rubles. A chic Russian “Russo-Balt” series K (1909, see photos on the web) will cost the reader traveling by time with the power of thought 5,500 rubles. However, even a very well-to-do young worker, no matter what songs he sang, the chance to win favor with a noblewoman tends to zero

Be that as it may, the Russian Empire produces its steam locomotives, various railway equipment, warships, transport ships, airplanes, automobiles, artillery and rifle systems, electrical wires, pipes, … eventually, gramophones and gramophones, as well as all the necessary to the population hardware. The quality of goods is at a high European level. Railway workers (in the photo) are the elite of the working class. In subsequent revolutions, highly qualified, cohesive corporate ethics, secured “white collars” are reluctant to participate.

Vladimir Ilyich (or even Ivanovich) Ulyanov, later known as “Lenin”, was born in 1870. Hometown – Simbirsk, since 1924 – “Ulyanovsk”. According to the official history, Vladimir is the son of a serf peasant son in the village of Androsovo, Nizhny Novgorod province, and the daughter of a baptized Kalmyk. As is customary in such cases, the versions of the origin of any famous person are seriously different. The official Soviet historian, Marietta Shaginyan, claims that the maternal revolutionary grandfather is a Ukrainian. What is the “Ukrainian” in the Russian Empire? Other researchers put forward versions of the Russified German or the Jew – Alexander Blanca. The true parent of the number two Ilyich may be the home doctor Ulyanov, abandoned by all, and blind by the end of his life, Ivan Pokrovsky. Be that as it may, Ilya Ulyanov, the nominal father of Lenin, moves up the career ladder, and is seeking the rank of state councilor (major general). This status allows you to grant hereditary nobility to all family members. Photography is the house-museum of Ulyanovs. What is it like to imagine Lenin, to pull the door handle towards yourself? To adjust, see the photos of the interior. You have this opportunity. The revolution is understandable. But what could revolutionaries present as the final result of activity? Futuristic utopias in Russian literature – the cat cried. Is, Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?”. Volodya Ulyanov read. The fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna: “… But now, the work is over, everyone goes to the building. “We will enter the hall again, let’s see how they will have lunch,” says the older sister. They enter the largest of the huge halls. Half of it is occupied by tables, – tables are already laid, – how many are there! How many diners will there be? Yes, a thousand or more people: “This is not all; to anyone, they dine especially at their place”; Those old women, old people, children who did not go out to the field prepared all this: “to prepare food, do housework, tidy up the rooms is too easy work for other hands,” says the older sister, “it should be done by those who have not yet can or cannot do anything else.” Great table setting. All aluminum and crystal; in the middle lane of the wide tables are arranged vases of flowers; the dishes were already on the table, the workers came in, everyone sat down for dinner, and they, and those who prepared dinner. “And who will serve?” – “When? during the table? what for? After all, only five or six dishes: those that should be hot, put on such a place that does not cool down; you see, in the hollows there are boxes of boiling water, “says the older sister. “You live well, you love a good table, do you often have such a lunch?” – “Several times a year.” – “They have this ordinary: anyone, he has a better, whatever, but then a special calculation; and who does not demand for himself much against what is being done for all, so there is no calculation. And so it is: that everything can be done according to the means of his company, for which there are no calculations; for each particular thing or whim – the calculation. “This is all instructive reading. There is a future planet. Eat together. With aluminum cookware. Work together. Conflicts over partners, money, and who does not have to take out the trash. There are no unusual desires. There are no risky projects. There is no war. Populated by robots

In 1879—1887, the future Lenin studied at the Simbirsk gymnasium presented in the photograph. He ends his studies with a gold medal. Then Vladimir Ulyanov enters the law faculty of Kazan University. It should be noted that training in gymnasiums and universities of Tsarist Russia is conducted in order to select all free time and energy. Ancient Greek, Latin, two foreign languages, and much, much more are being studied. Ulyanov shows extraordinary successes, as he literally quotes Cicero’s speech against Catiline. Practical knowledge is taught on a residual basis. Students are deprived of the opportunity to frolic, communicate with girls, enjoy life and be somehow grateful for this happiness to the state. At the age of 17, including, under the impression of the execution of his brother, a romantic and essentially non-existent terrorist, Vladimir leaves Christianity. Then he enters the organization “Earth and will.” This group is headed by a certain Lazar Germanovich Bogoraz (from a rabbinical family, nominally a “cross”). There is no relief information about the personality of this extraordinary person, the spiritual father of the “leader of the proletariat”. Christianity becomes for Vladimir only at best, the subject of scientific study. In the last years of his life, Nathan Bogoraz headed the Museum of the History of Religions in Leningrad. It is interesting that after the death of a revolutionary – a potential killer of the monarch, Lenin’s mother is paid a state pension for her deceased husband – 100 rubles. Moreover, Vladimir Ulyanov externally enters the law faculty of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Such a state of affairs is unthinkable in the country of the victorious Revolution – where the relatives of the repressed are subject to destruction, or at least are affected in their rights. The photograph shows the building of the educational institution where V. Ulyanov studied in 1879—1887.

The house of Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashivili, preserved in the Stalin Museum, Gori, Georgia. Modern photography. Birth – December 21 or 18, 1978, Gori, Tiflis Province of the Russian Empire. Father – Vissarion (Beso) Dzhugashvili, a shoemaker by profession. A certain national group is engaged in this craft in Georgia. The surname “Dzhugashvili” literally means “the son of a Jew.” The term “juga” means the essence of “iron sold by a Jew”, or simply “Gorsky Jew”. The name “Joseph” is also definitely running Semitic. Rumors are widespread that Stalin’s parent number two is a researcher from Eastern countries, a Russian officer, Nikolai Przhevalsky. But, an insightful reader need only look at the photo of Vissarion to see the family affinity. The photo of Vissarion-Beso is not given in the book due to its negative effect. The mother of the future leader of nations is Yekaterina Georgievna… a laundress, an embroideress, house attendants. Actually, since Catherine (Keke) is not Jewish, then, according to the provisions of the Torah, her son cannot be considered a full-fledged Jew. Some time Dzhugashvili Jr. suffers from beatings in the family, is found with the company of hooligans. Then the teenager is sent to the Gori religious school. After graduating from it, a potential priest passes exams at Tiflis seminary. Song of Time – “Suliko” in Georgian (listen) …“Сулико” на грузинском, слушать

Tiflis (Tbilisi) Theological Seminary, the beginning of the twentieth century. Now it is a museum of art history. Much later, Joseph Stalin himself testifies in an interview with the German writer Emil Ludwig: “Out of protest against the mocking regime and the Jesuit methods that were in the seminary, I was ready to become and really became a revolutionary, a supporter of Marxism…” Institutions were so bad, or is it the slander of a supporter of Karl Marx? Let us recall in memory the Essays on Bursa, the Russian realist writer Nikolai Pomyalovsky. What happens in a school that prepares spiritual “… A party of about twenty people is going to, and they sneak through the courtyard into the class of parish pupils on November evening. … The parishioner, also sitting in the vestibule, didn’t expect anything., scatter the lean and skorimnye, skits and cuffs. Who beats? For what beats? God knows them and the devil wears them!.. Cry, cry, beating babies! On the desks and under the desks destroyed unhappy young parishioners. It hurts her. In these wild beatings of wickedness committed in the dark, there was, on the one hand, some kind of ridiculous prowess: “Get rid of your shoulder, swing your fist!”, And on the other hand, “Tremble, come, and submit!”. We see something similar in other works by Russian writers, such as the beginning of the “Viy” by N. Gogol (Kiev Seminary) … In the end, despite the desire to see her son as an Orthodox priest, Ekaterina Georgievna takes her son from school

Jacob Sverdlov, also known as Eshua Solomon Movshevich, was born in Nizhny Novgorod on June 3 or 4, 1885. It is interesting that since 1902 the elder brother of Sverdlov became the adopted son of the famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky (Peshkov). Since 1916, for a number of good reasons, Zinovy becomes a French officer, says goodbye to Russia, builds a career, and about his first family, literally: “… he does not want to know anything.” The second brother of Sverdlov, Veniamin, a party functionary, was shot in 1938 by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court as a Trotskyite. Jacob himself, the future “demon of the revolution” ends four classes of the gymnasium, is learning pharmacy business. In 1903, he became a professional revolutionary, a Bolshevik. The photo shows the birthplace of the Sverdlov family, the beginning of the twentieth century.