The opening of the memorial plaque to Karl Mannerheim. Ivanov: the installation of a memorial plaque to Mannerheim was not a mistake. Ax as a discussion tool
An epic stretching for four months with the installation of a commemorative plaque in St. Petersburg Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim, completed.
On the evening of October 13, workers using special equipment dismantled a memorial sign from the wall of the Military Academy of Logistics of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on Zakharyevskaya Street, after which they took it away in an unknown direction.
Since there was no information about the purpose of what was happening, there was an assumption that the board was sent for restoration after numerous attacks on it.
However, then a message appeared on the website of the Russian Military Historical Society, from which it follows that the dismantling of the sign is final.
“Memorial sign to Karl Mannerheim, previously located in St. Petersburg on the building of the Military Academy of Logistics named after General of the Army A.V. Khrulev, transferred by the Russian Military Historical Society to the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve. Now,” the post reads.
Gustav Mannerheim in 1918. Photo: Public Domain
Homage to the organizer of the blockade
As emphasized in the statement, the sign will be kept in its current form, without restoration - "as a symbol of historical disputes in modern Russian society."
Carl Gustav Mannerheim, a former commander of the Russian army, after Finland gained independence, actively participated in the Civil War in this country, which ended in the victory of the local "whites". A short but bloody conflict ended in mass terror against the "Reds", to which Mannerheim had a direct relationship.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, and then during the Great Patriotic War, Mannerheim was the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army. In this capacity, he took part in the blockade of Leningrad, the victims of which were hundreds of thousands of civilians. In Karelia, occupied by Mannerheim's troops, concentration camps were organized for the Karelian and Russian population.
It was these circumstances that caused a wave of protests against the opening of a memorial plaque to Mannerheim in the city on the Neva.
Gustav Mannerheim in 1942. Photo: Public Domain
Ax as a discussion tool
The first attempt to install the board was made in 2015. It was supposed to take a place on the facade of house number 31 on Galernaya Street, where the military intelligence of the Russian Empire was located before the October Revolution. However, literally on the eve of the planned ceremony, all events were canceled.
As a result, the board was opened on June 16, 2016 on the facade of house No. 22 on Zakharyevskaya Street, where the building of the Military Engineering and Technical University is located. Until 1948, this place was the church of the Saints and Righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment in which Mannerheim served.
Participated in the opening ceremony Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky and then Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia Sergei Ivanov.
Almost from the first day of its existence, the memorial sign to Mannerheim was attacked. He was doused several times with paint, feces, acid, attacked with an ax.
"No one's" memorial
At the same time, a lawsuit was filed with the court demanding the dismantling of the commemorative sign.
The Council for Memorial Plaques under the Government of St. Petersburg refused to recognize this commemorative sign as a memorial plaque due to several violations. The St. Petersburg Committee for Culture cited technical errors, incorrect data, and the lack of permits.
At the same time, the authorities stated that they could not dismantle the board, as they did not know who it belonged to.
There was a truly unique situation - a memorial sign was solemnly opened, which, according to the authorities of St. Petersburg, belonged to no one knows who and no one knows on whose initiative it was installed at all.
Surrender
The apotheosis of this theater of the absurd was the decision of the Smolninsky District Court, which rejected the claim of the city dweller Pavel Kuznetsov to the authorities on the recognition of the illegal installation of a memorial plaque to the first president of Finland, Carl Gustav Mannerheim, and its dismantling.
The reasoning for the judge's decision was as follows: since the city authorities say they did not install the board, it means that there were no illegal actions. Consequently, there is no reason to demand that the administration of St. Petersburg remove the board.
The miracles of jurisprudence, however, did not confuse the opponents of honoring the memory of Mannerheim. On October 13, it became known that the Kuibyshevsky District Court accepted for consideration a new lawsuit for dismantling, this time from the blockade Flora Gerashchenko.
On the same day, a group of activists tried to hang an “alternative” sign next to the memorial, with the inscription “In memory of the most cowardly governor of St. Petersburg.” The protesters were arrested and taken to the police station. They explained that they wanted to protest against the position of the city authorities, who refuse to interfere in the situation with the scandalous sign.
It became obvious that the expectation that passions would subside over time did not work. And, finally, on the evening of October 13, the memorial sign left St. Petersburg.
Today, June 16, a memorial plaque to the Finnish Field Marshal was installed in St. Petersburg. The ceremony was attended by the head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Ivanov, Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes.
Speaking at the opening of the memorial plaque, which is installed on the facade of the building of the Military Logistics Academy on Zakharyevskaya Street, Sergei Ivanov made it clear that this act should be seen as an attempt to overcome the split in Russian society associated with the October Russian Revolution of 1917 and its various interpretations. “As they say, you can’t throw words out of a song. Until the 18th year, Mannerheim served Russia, and to be completely frank, he lived and served in Russia longer than he served and lived in Finland, ”Ivanov emphasized.
He recalled that the general was twice wounded during the Russo-Japanese War, received high state awards, made a horse trip to China in 1906-1908 and made a lot of valuable military observations. Then he returned to St. Petersburg and continued his service, went through the entire First World War and participated in the Brusilov breakthrough. However, the political intransigence that arose during the Civil War, the tough ideological confrontation, reinforced by armed violence, made many thousands of extraordinary, energetic people forced emigrants. Their talents have not been able to serve in full force for the benefit of our country.
“We know what happened next, and no one is going to dispute the subsequent Finnish period of history and Mannerheim's actions, no one intends to whitewash this period of history. In general, everything that happened is another proof of how the October Revolution dramatically changed the lives of many people, the centenary of which we will celebrate in a year. But at the same time, we must not forget the worthy service of General Mannerheim, which he performed in Russia and in the interests of Russia,” said the head of the presidential administration. He recalled that Mannerheim served in the Russian army for 31 years. And in February 1918, the Soviet government granted the general a pension in the amount of 3,761 rubles - a lot of money at that time. “That is, if you call a spade a spade, General Mannerheim was a Soviet military pensioner,” Ivanov said.
Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, who took part in the ceremony, said that the memorial plaque was being installed in order to preserve the memory of a worthy citizen of Russia. “To those who are now shouting, opposing, I want to remind you: you don’t have to be holier than the Pope of Rome and you don’t have to try to be a greater patriot and communist than Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. He personally defended Mannerheim, ensuring his election and retaining the post of President of Finland for him, and managed to treat the defeated but worthy opponent with respect,” Medinsky said.
The minister also agrees that the plaque in honor of Mannerheim is yet another attempt by the Russian Military Historical Society to overcome the tragic split in our society on the eve of the centenary of the Russian revolution. “That is why we erect monuments to the heroes of the First World War throughout the country, who later ended up on opposite sides of the barricades,” he concluded.
Commemorative plaque in honor of Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim in St. Petersburg
June 18, 2016 in St. Petersburg on the building of the Military Engineering and Technical University (formerly Nikolaev Engineering School) a memorial plaque was opened in honor of Field Marshal of the Finnish Army Baron Karl Gustav Emil Mannerheim. The events held in St. Petersburg were decorated with state honors. The solemn ceremony of opening the memorial plaque was attended by: the head of the presidential administration Sergey Ivanov and Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. Obviously, this event, through the figure of Ivanov, is given the highest political significance (it coincided with the opening of the next St. Petersburg International Forum) and cultural - through the presence of Medinsky. Now we can state that the opening of the memorial plaque to Mannerheim had a heavy and extremely negative public response, both in St. Petersburg and throughout the country. Further we will leave the blockade aspect of the issue out of consideration. Enough has already been said about this. It's about something else, something more important.
First of all, the absurdity of the Mannerheim memorial, which is sometimes so characteristic of official Russia and quite described by the pen of the same Saltykov-Shchedrin or Gogol, attracts attention. First question. Excuse me, why did a memorial plaque in honor of Mannerheim decorate the building of the Military Engineering School - the modern successor to the Imperial Nikolaev Engineering School? After all, they studied here: Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev, hero of the defense of Sevastopol engineer-general Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, hero of the defense of Port Arthur, lieutenant general Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko, Writer Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, composer Caesar Antonovich Cui and, finally, if they really wanted, as Minister Medinsky said, to commemorate the First World War - the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and many, many other glorious names. Did Mannerheim study at the Nikolaev Engineering School? Was he a military engineer? No, his baronial Swedish brains from childhood were tuned to something else - to knights, horses, hunting, dressage, horse racing.
Mannerheim was a cavalryman. In St. Petersburg, he studied at the Nikolaev Cavalry School. Therefore, if you already decided to glorify Mannerheim, then it would be more appropriate to place a memorial plaque at Lermontovsky (Novo-Peterhofsky) Prospekt, house 54. It was here, in the St. Petersburg Kolomna district, that the Nikolaev Cavalry School was located, and it was here that Mannerheim studied in Russia. But the organizers of the Mannerheim memorial in St. Petersburg came up with the idea of linking Mannerheim with the Cavalier Guard Regiment. On the site of the modern building on Zakharyevskaya 22, where a commemorative plaque was now placed, until 1948 there was a house church of the Life Guards of the Cavalier Guard Regiment. Obvious nonsense. After all, in St. Petersburg in the city center on Potemkinskaya and Shpalernaya there are barracks buildings and an arena of the Cavalier Guard Regiment. These buildings have survived. Why was it necessary to mark the site of a non-existent church when there are preserved buildings related to the history of the cavalry guards?
Another nonsense. On an open memorial plaque we read the following text: "Lieutenant General of the Russian Army Gustav Karlovich Mannerheim served from 1887 to 1918." There is an obvious and significant inaccuracy here - Mannerheim served not just in the "Russian", but in the Russian Imperial Army. Mannerheim swore an oath to the service not of Russia, but of the sovereign emperor, the autocrat of the All-Russian and his imperial majesty of the All-Russian throne, the heir. In Russia, Mannerheim belonged to a category that two centuries earlier had been called "serving Germans." The peculiarities of personal service to the Russian emperor by foreigners created (such was the condition for circumventing the prohibitions of the Faith) both the official ideology of such service and the personal motivation corresponding to it, which was fully shared by the same Mannerheim. Therefore, it is natural and legitimate that in a situation of revolutionary collapse, Mannerheim "parted", as he said, with the Russian army and Russia, since his personal official connection with the emperor was broken. In his memoirs, he wrote: "In those days, thoughts of judgment day often came to me, and I was not at all surprised when on November 8 the newspapers wrote that Kerensky and his government had been overthrown." On a fictitious business trip order, Mannerheim left for Finland, which declared independence on December 6, 1917. In his memoirs, Mannerheim wrote: "I noticed that Soviet power [in Russia] was becoming more and more consolidated and becoming a threat to the young Finnish state." Such an act by Mannerheim in the logic of a “serving German” could not be considered desertion just because his oath to the emperor was no longer valid, and the imperial Russian army was falling apart before his eyes.
Mannerheim in a German-style Finnish uniform in 1918. Source: Wikipedia
Minister Medinsky said that the memorial plaque is being installed in order to preserve the memory of "a worthy citizen of Russia." But Mannerheim was never a "citizen of Russia." Note that in the Russian Empire there were no citizens at all, but there were subjects. And Mannerheim has always been a subject of the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was part of the Russian Empire through a personal union on the basis of broad autonomy with its own citizenship, taxes, budget, currency and a border protected from the rest of Russia. Finland as part of the Russian Empire was another state, however, deprived of sovereignty.
At the opening ceremony of the memorial plaque in St. Petersburg, the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, said that "no one is going to whitewash Mannerheim's actions after 1918, but until 1918 he served Russia." Well, firstly, as we have already pointed out, Mannerheim served the emperor and Russia only through him, and, secondly, if Mannerheim was not “whitewashed” “after 1918”, then what about Mannerheim in 1918, when he , being the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army of the Senate, by his own admission, he fought against Russia. Mannerheim's official interpretation and personal explanation of the events in Finland in 1918 is a "war of liberation" against Russia and internal Finnish traitors who sided with Russia. The events were interpreted in the category of national, but not class struggle. History moves through the struggle of ethnic groups, not classes. That is, the army led by the Senate of Finland fought first of all against the Russians and only then against the Finnish Reds. Military operations in the civil war in Finland in 1918 began with the disarmament of the Russian military units and garrisons stationed in Finland by the Finns. In his memoirs, Mannerheim wrote: “Military actions were directed against those Russian armed units that remained in Finland, despite the recognition by the Soviet government of the independence of our state. That is why the outbreak of war was a war of liberation, a struggle for freedom. This fact cannot change the fact that soon we were forced to conduct military operations not only against the Russians, but also against the rebels inside the country. Mannerheim in 1918, by his own admission, fought against the "Russian yoke". Mannerheim had a clear line regarding Russian volunteers who acted as military advisers or fought for the Finnish Red Guard - when arrested or captured, they were allowed to be shot on the spot. They were not recognized as combatants, unlike the Red Finns.
Already on February 11, 1918, Mannerheim gave the order that Russian civilians who participated in the activities of the Finnish Red Guard should be shot as spies, they were allowed to be killed on the spot. This order, in the conditions of the civil war in Finland, was interpreted by Mannerheim's subordinates very arbitrarily and affected people who did not participate in hostilities and had nothing to do with the Reds. This kind of punitive practice was “crowned” by mass executions in Vyborg, captured by the Finnish Whites, of Russians in general, often having nothing to do with the Reds, moreover, often anti-Bolshevik. Among the Russians shot in Vyborg there were even teenagers and women. Among those shot during the Vyborg massacre were not only subjects of the Russian Empire, but also Russians - subjects of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The extrajudicial executions of Russians in Vyborg were attended by Finnish huntsmen who arrived from Germany - subjects of the Grand Duchy of Finland, who at one time voluntarily went to fight on the fronts of the First World War on the side of Germany against Russia, although Finland, as part of the Russian Empire, was at war with Germany. Mannerheim's position as Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army of the Senate, after the arrival of the main part of the Finnish rangers from Germany, was so weak and conditional that he could not prevent excesses in Vyborg and could not investigate the war crimes of rangers and Finnish nationalist activists (1). None of the participants in the Vyborg massacre was punished, although unofficially all the killers were known. Therefore, the responsibility for this atrocity also lies with Mannerheim, as the commander of the army.
Ultimately, the logic of the World War in 1918 turned out to be stronger than Mannerheim. According to him, in 1918 he fought for the "freedom of Finland", by which he understood the independence of the country, and against the "Russian yoke", the "age-old oppressor" of Russia and the "centuries-old shackles". However, in April 1918, German units landed in Finland - the Baltic Division von der Goltz and brigade von Brandenstein. The German occupation of the country began. Finland fell into vassal dependence on Germany, which the Germans intended to secure by transferring the throne of the Grand Duchy of Finland to a German prince. This foreign policy course, oriented towards Germany, enjoyed the unconditional support of the leading circles of Finland who had won the civil war. The agreement with Germany, signed on March 7, 1918, led to the fact that the independence of Finland did not take place at that time, and Mannerheim, as a former Russian general, was no longer needed by the Finnish authorities. He resigned from the post of commander in chief of the army. The Finnish government concluded a series of enslaving treaties with Germany that effectively deprived the country of sovereignty. According to the March Treaty, Germany received the right to establish military bases in Finland, and the Finnish fleet was placed at the complete disposal of the German Admiralty. A month before the surrender of Germany on October 9, 1918, the Finnish parliament, on instructions from Berlin, elected a relative of the emperor as the king of Finland Wilhelm II Hessian prince Friedrich Karl. And only the defeat of Germany in the World War in 1918 prevented the transition of Finland from the Russian sphere of influence to the German one.
After August 1918, when the defeat of Germany became obvious, Mannerheim refocused on the victorious Entente. The Finnish government sent him to talks in London and Paris. As a former general of the Russian service, who fought against Germany on the fields of the World War, he was provided with the confidence of the allies. Such a turn provided Mannerheim with the post of regent of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Recall that this throne still formally belonged to the Russian imperial dynasty. The Russian Whites, who fought for the "united and indivisible" Russia, did not recognize the independence of white Finland. From their point of view, Mannerheim was a usurper of the Finnish throne and a separatist. Therefore, Mannerheim does not fit well into the Russian white movement, since the state interests of Finland dominated him.
Next, one should describe the anti-Russian role that the Entente prepared for Mannerheim and his subordinates in Finland and with which he agreed. Enough has been written in historical literature about the actions of Finnish nationalists in 1920-1922 in Russian Karelia (Eastern Karelia in Finnish terminology) in an attempt to seize this territory and annex it to independent Finland. As early as May 15, 1918, the Finnish government officially declared war on Russia. The first Soviet-Finnish war followed - 1918-1920.
The events of the prehistory of this war unfolded around the negotiations between Soviet Russia and Germany around the Brest peace. Mannerheim also participated in these events. On February 23, 1918, at the Antrea station, in a special address to the troops, he swore that he would not sheathe his sword until he liberated "Eastern Karelia". On February 27, 1918, the Finnish government sent a petition to Germany to consider Finland as an ally of Germany and demanded that Russia transfer Eastern Karelia to Finland at the negotiations in Brest. At Mannerheim's headquarters, meanwhile, a plan was being developed to organize "national uprisings in Eastern Karelia", which were supposed to provoke the Finnish military personnel. March 7, 1918 was followed by an official statement of the head of the Finnish state - Regent Per Evinda Svinhufvuda that Finland is ready to make peace with Soviet Russia in the event of the transfer of Eastern Karelia, part of the Murmansk railway and the Kola Peninsula to Finland. These claims were confirmed by the Prime Minister of Finland. On March 15, 1918, Mannerheim approved the so-called. "Wallenius plan", providing for the capture of Eastern Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. On May 10, 1918, that is, a week before the official declaration of war, Finnish detachments attacked Pechenga on the Kola Peninsula, but were repulsed by local Red Guards. The suspicious activity of the Finns on the Kolya, behind which, the Allies believed, stood Germany, provoked the intervention of the Entente in the Russian North. In March 1918, British troops first appeared in Murmansk, by agreement with the Bolshevik government, in order to guard the warehouses of military ammunition supplied by the Allies and protect the region from the Germans and Finns. In June, a large detachment of 1,500 British soldiers and hundreds of Americans landed in Murmansk. After that, the Bolsheviks broke off relations with the Entente in July 1918. The war between the Bolsheviks and the interventionists provoked, in turn, a bloody civil war in the territory of the Russian North, which lasted until February 1920. There were no internal prerequisites for this civil war in this territory. It was provoked from outside, and it was the Finns and Mannerheim with their claims to Kola who set fire to the first fuse.
During his contacts with the allies in Paris and London, Mannerheim probed their attitude towards Finland and the Soviet-Finnish war. He easily identified that the Allies had two approaches to the future of Russia. One position was represented by former British ambassadors to Russia, Lord Charles Harding and sir George Buchanan who believed that the former regime should be restored in the Russian state within its former borders. An exception was made for Poland, but not for Finland, for which the former broad autonomous status should be restored. Another trend in British diplomacy was embodied by the influential Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Robert Cecil. This one believed that Russia, after the appeasement and overthrow of the Bolsheviks, should be divided into parts. Obviously, it was this direction that was supposed to support the Finnish territorial claims regarding Russia. Mannerheim himself believed, as he diplomatically expressed in his memoirs, that the Russian state could be created only within new borders. In the spring of 1919, during negotiations with the British, Mannerheim asked for official approval of the ongoing Finnish war with Russia. As measures to establish peace, he demanded a plebiscite on the annexation of Eastern Karelia to Finland, the granting of autonomy by Moscow to the Arkhangelsk and Olonets provinces and the demilitarization of the Baltic Sea, i.e., the destruction of the Baltic Fleet.
It is significant that in 1920, as part of a book published in London "Atlas of peoples"(The Peoples Atlas Book) a map of Finland was presented with eastern borders according to the maximum Finnish requirements. Finland within these boundaries is presented not as a project, but as a real-life state. It should be noted that The Peoples Atlas Book was devoted to the geography of the World War and the post-war system. So, according to the aforementioned map, half of Russian Lapland with the most convenient non-freezing sea harbors in the Kola fiord went to Finland. It was planned that in addition to Pechenga with its ancient Orthodox monastery, Finland would receive the historical Russian city of Kola (founded in the middle of the 16th century) and the new city of Murmansk (Romanov-on-Murman, founded in 1916). Here we especially note that at present Russia has only the only open oceanic seaport connected by communications with the interior of the country - this is Murmansk. The proposed Finnish capturing territorial project, in fact, deprived Russia of the most convenient open outlet to the Ocean and a point convenient for control over the Arctic in the western initial part of the Northern Sea Route. In addition, let's not forget about the strategic military and communication position of the Kola Peninsula on the territory of Russia, which was completely determined during the First and Second World Wars and during the Cold War. Additionally, according to their project agreed with the British, the Finns intended to get Kandalaksha, as a result of which the White Sea turned from a Russian inland sea into an international body of water.
Map of Finland from the British Atlas of Nations, 1920
However, this territorial expansionist plan promoted by Mannerheim was not destined to come true because of the position of the red Kremlin. The first Soviet-Finnish war ended with the Tartu Peace Treaty of October 14, 1920. Soviet Russia in Tartu made significant territorial concessions to Finland, but this was a meager part of what the Finns originally wanted. In the Arctic, Finland received the Pechenga volost (Fin. Petsamo), the western part of the Rybachy Peninsula and most of the Sredny Peninsula. Such a territorial concession became a retreat in the face of the Finnish claim to the better half of Russian Lapland. Such a turn of events became possible only because the Bolsheviks consolidated power, defeated their opponents in the civil war, and most importantly, won the civil war in the Russian North, forcing the Entente interventionists to leave this region. Soviet Russia spoke at the negotiations in Tartu from a position of strength, and this made it impossible for the Finnish project to seize the Arctic territories vital for it from Russia.
Mannerheim, among other things, was behind this project in Finland. As regent, Mannerheim was head of state of Finland from December 1918 to July 1919. Therefore, he is fully responsible for the first Soviet-Finnish war, and for the plans for Finnish territorial seizures in Russia. Already in 1918, Mannerheim showed himself to be the worst enemy of Russia, who wanted to inflict a strategic geopolitical defeat on her in the Arctic. This political plot with a strategic context once again emphasizes that Mannerheim in 1918-1919 was an enemy not only of the Bolsheviks, but also of historical Russia. Mannerheim never made a secret of what he sees as Finland's historical mission to "protect" Western civilization in the North. Therefore, in the light of the latest Arctic policy of Russia and the so-called. “Struggle for the Arctic” and the current confrontation of civilizations, perpetuating the memory of Mannerheim in the second historical capital of Russia by the highest state dignitaries of Russia looks like an inappropriate act, an act, in particular, that does not meet the current interests of Russian policy in the Arctic.
Whatever the circumstances and motives of the initiators of the installation of the commemorative plaque, various versions circulate, editorial joins the demands of the public to urgently dismantle it.
(1) On the Vyborg massacre, see Westerlund Lars. We were waiting for you as liberators, and you brought us death. St. Petersburg, Avrora-Design, 2013. // http://mitra-books.com/uploads/attachments/lars-vesterlund-431.pdf
Dmitry Semushin, editor
I studied with interest the issuance of Yandex for the word "RVIO".
The All-Russian public-state organization "Russian Military Historical Society" is a voluntary self-governing public-state association founded in 2012 by decree of the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin, whose activities, according to the declaration, are aimed at studying and popularizing the military history of Russia, as well as preserving military objects -historical cultural heritage.
On June 16, 2016, the self-government of the society led to the grand opening of the board to the Finnish Marshall Mannerheim in St. Petersburg, on Zakharyinskaya 22.
The Russian Military Historical Society was formed in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2012 No. 1710 and is considered the successor of the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society that existed in 1907-1914.
The Imperial Military Historical Society lasted only seven years and formally ended in 1917, although already in 1914 "everyone went to the front." I believe that the imperial society did not have time to mark the opening of a monument, or some kind of a board, say, Tamemoto Kuroki or Jezairli Gazi Hassan Pasha, and even none of the Napoleonic generals was properly commemorated, as far as I know.
One of the initiators of the creation of the society was the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Historical and Political Sciences Vladimir Medinsky, who was elected on March 14, 2013 on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow at the founding congress as its chairman. Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Philosophy, became the Chairman of the Society's Board of Trustees.
The company in a voluntary self-governing society crept up white, not to say monarchical. Sooner or later, some trick was bound to happen. In fact, the style was kept for more than three years.
According to the Charter of the Russian Military Historical Society, its activities are aimed at “consolidating the forces of the state and society in the study of the military historical past of Russia, promoting the study of Russian military history, countering attempts to distort it, ensuring the popularization of the achievements of military historical science, educating patriotism, raising prestige military service and preservation of objects of military-historical cultural heritage"
With Mannerheim, it didn’t work out very according to the charter. The consolidation of society was expressed in the unanimous indignation of society in response to the actions of the authorities, pouring green paint over the monument, then red paint.
The study of history, in this situation, is rather forced: thousands of citizens got acquainted with the geometry of the blockade, the history of Finnish concentration camps for the Soviet population, the influence of the Finns on food supplies and their plans for the optimal position of the border when the city ceases to exist.
There is clearly no question here of counteracting distortion and popularization of the achievements of historical science.
You will be told about the upbringing of patriotism by photographs of the guard of honor, which salutes military honor to the murderer of your people.
The board of the company includes Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, head of the FSO Evgeny Murov, head of the Renova Group of Companies Viktor Vekselberg, the main shareholder of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov, one of the founders of Wimm-Bill-Dann David Yakobashvili, Nikolai Tokarev, Chairman of the Management Board of Transneft OJSC, and Vladimir Yakunin, ex-President of Russian Railways OJSC. The scientific council of the society is headed by the chairman of the CEC of Russia, Vladimir Churov.
RVIO has about 40 branches throughout Russia (40 people work in Moscow alone), one of the most active - Kirov - is headed by the local governor Nikita Belykh. Premises for branches of the military-historical society were sought at the expense of the Ministry of Culture.
In my opinion, everything is clear here. Creamy from the entire post-Soviet beau monde, from Shoigu to Nikita Belykh. I repeat, a major provocation from such a composition was just a matter of time.
Further, a section is of some interest, which lists more than twenty monuments that the RVIO installed in various regions of Russia and France. Actually, this impressive list of made me remember the quote that I put in the title image of the post.
The board with Mannerheim crosses out all the positive achievements of the RVIO over the three years of work. As if crossed out the future ...
It should be noted that the news about the opening of the board was not removed from the RVIO news feeds anywhere (http://rvio.histrf.ru/activities/news/item-2633).
Although on Twitter they preferred to hide behind a scan of the Red Star with the exchange of telegrams between Stalin and Mannerheim after the war.
Indeed, only 140 characters, you never know what they will say in a short form to the respected organizer of twenty monuments, who spat in the face of millions of patriotic compatriots.
The board was installed on house No. 22 on Zakharyevskaya Street - now there is the Military Institute (engineering and technical) of the Military Academy of Logistics named after. A.V. Khrulev, and once there were barracks of the Cavalier Guard Regiment of Empress Maria Feodorovna, where Mannerheim served. Here, on Zakharyevskaya, 31, he lived on the eve of the Russian-Japanese war.
Now the cadets of the Military Academy, it seems, have an outfit for "duty" near the blackboard. On a rainy St. Petersburg day, the memorial sign was covered with polyethylene. After that, under it, right in the red puddle, flowers appeared. Near the blackboard and under the visor of knowledge, vigilant cadets stand opposite. I'm trying to wait for a gust of wind to lift the polyethylene so I can take a picture of the board. The cadets appreciated my attempts, crossed the road and pressed the film against the board with a ladder that was nearby. “Guys, do you know if it will be opened again after it is restored?” I ask them. “We don’t know, we don’t know anything ...” - the guys make a helpless gesture. A solid black foreign car stops nearby, a window opens. The same respectable man, mistaking me for a tourist, reports: “This is a board to that same Mannreheim, you know, right? To him".
Despite the rain, the center of St. Petersburg seems to be heated from the proximity to the controversial monument. “Kadyrov bridge, Mannerheim board. Well, shame! Nothing connects him with Russia, except for the place of study. And then he fought against the Russians in general!” - says a local resident. “Do you know that he served the Russian Empire for 32 years? – I will cite in response the traditional argument of historians. “I fought in the Russian-Japanese war, I was friends with Brusilov, and if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have Brusilov’s breakthrough into the First World War.” "Yes? – the townsman answers with interest. - I did not know that".
“I don’t know who and why decided to hang this board now, because this is an unequivocal provocation,” says Vitaly Shtentsov, historian and head of the Colors of the North excursion project. – I don’t understand why it is indicated on the board that he served in the Russian army until 1918, although at that time he was already in charge of the white movement in Finland and his troops massacred Russians in Vyborg. It is known that Mannerheim was ready to join the assault on Leningrad in 1942. Hitler tried to earn his favor. Mannerheim, on the other hand, found himself between a rock and a hard place, between Stalin and Hitler, and he very successfully got out of this situation. It's just politics. You should not consider him so sentimental, he did not shell the city just because he did not have heavy artillery. So for St. Petersburg it is more bad than good, and in my opinion, it was not worth hanging this sign.
The youth of St. Petersburg, who oppose the blackboard, also uses historical arguments. “The blockade of Leningrad is the most terrible tragedy in the history of the city and one of the greatest tragedies in the history of mankind,” activist Alexander Polisadov begins with a sore subject. - The fighting under the command of Mannerheim against the defenders of the city continued throughout the blockade, including fighting against the formations that defended the Road of Life. His actions during the Great Patriotic War, often interpreted as nobility, either did not take place, or are explained by purely military reasons, more often associated with the successful opposition of the Soviet troops to him than even simply the rationality of the conduct of hostilities. At the same time, the activist categorically opposes vandalism and believes that the board should be removed legally.
But the famous writer, blockade survivor Daniil Granin spoke out for the board. Communicating with journalists, he noted that Karl Mannerheim, whose troops really were part of the blockade ring around Leningrad, never shelled the city with guns. Defends the position of the Finnish general and Finnish political scientist Johan Beckman, known for his pro-Russian views: “The main part of his life, until his 50th birthday, Mannerheim lived in Russia and served as a general in the Russian army,” said Beckman. - Like all great personalities, he is a controversial figure ... I am sure that Mannerheim, like most white generals, was an anti-Bolshevik, not a Russophobe. It is known that until the end of his life he kept a photograph of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna nearby. Until the end of his days, he remained faithful to the emperor and his family. I am sure that Mannerheim always missed his Russia and dreamed of returning to his Petersburg. This commemorative plaque is his posthumous return.”
A well-known political scientist is also in favor of perpetuating the memory of Mannerheim in St. Petersburg Alexey Makarkin, First Vice President of the Center for Political Technologies: Here is what he told MK:
At the bottom, someone carefully placed a flower.
Mannerheim was a guardsman and general of the Russian Empire, who participated in the Russo-Japanese and World War I, was awarded the Order of St. George of the fourth degree. In addition, being a Russian officer, he conducted a significant expedition to China, so he has no shortage of services to Russia, namely, he is connected with St. Petersburg by the fact that he is a cavalry guard.
As for the blockade of Leningrad, there are two opposing approaches, one of which is that Mannerheim was a war criminal, and the other that he saved the city by refusing to advance beyond a certain line. I think that Mannerheim should not be idealized, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Just as important is the fact that he led Finland in 1944 and pulled it out of the war, which allowed the Red Army to free up its forces for an offensive in other sectors of the front. It should also be taken into account that in the Soviet Union he was not considered a war criminal.
I am not opposed to Mannerheim's memory being immortalized in St. Petersburg, but there may be different formats for this. For example, the Military Historical Society could open a museum of cavalry guards, where he would be given a place of honor. At the same time, an attempt to perpetuate his memory in the regime of a special operation could not but cause a scandal. It was necessary to arrange a wide discussion of the installation of the tablet, so that each resident could express his opinion on this matter, and make the final decision taking into account their opinion. Now it is unlikely to be removed, as the authorities will go on principle. The sign will be cleaned and, perhaps, guards will be assigned to it.
The very appearance of the board in St. Petersburg was initiated by the local branch of the Military Historical Society. They were not able to promptly provide a comment on what they would do with the board next (after all, even at the Military Academy they succinctly stated that they were obliged to monitor the building, and not the commemorative plaque). Historians cited Mannerheim's merits to the Russian Empire as the main reason for installing the plaque. At the same time, the local committee on culture delicately kept silent about the proposal to leave a memorial sign also on house No. 31 on Zakharyevskaya Street, where Mannerheim lived. KGIOP (Committee for the Inspection and Protection of Monuments) no less delicately stated that the board was not a subject of protection and the committee would not deal with its clearing. By the way, the Finns also sometimes like to spoil the monument to Mannerheim near Tampere. According to the historian Shtentsov, Tampere was the “reddest” city in Finland, and the descendants of the murdered Finnish Red Army soldiers still live there, who pour red paint on Mannerheim. In St. Petersburg, local residents put a flower in a red puddle under the board. Probably, someone still believes in the sentimentality of the Finnish marshal.
Anastasia Semenovich, MK correspondent in St. Petersburg
