The uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962 occurred as a result of a strike by workers at a local electric locomotive factory, which was joined by other citizens. It was one of the most massive protests in the history of the USSR. Suppressed by the forces of the army and the KGB, all information about it is classified. In this article we will talk about the causes and results of the uprising, also known as the Novocherkassk execution.
Causes
In the early 60s, a critical economic situation developed in the USSR, which led to the uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962.
Modern historians note that due to strategic mistakes of the government, problems with food supply have arisen. By the spring of 1962, the shortage of bread had become so palpable that the first general secretary of the party, Khrushchev, took an unprecedented step for that time - the import of grain. The monetary reform of 1961 also played a role. There was an acute shortage of food.
In late May, it was decided to increase retail prices. Meat immediately rose by a third, butter - by a quarter. In the newspapers, all this was cynically presented as an answer to the requests of the workers. In addition to this, at the electric locomotive building plant (NEVZ), the production rate increased by a third, as a result, there was a decrease in wages.
Compared with other enterprises in the city, this plant was distinguished by technical backwardness. Living conditions were poor, mainly hard physical labor was used, a large staff turnover was maintained. Therefore, everyone was hired, even freed criminals. Especially many ex-prisoners have accumulated in the steel shop, which affected the severity of the conflict at the initial stage.
All of the above and became the cause of the uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962.
Factory conflict
The rebellion itself began on June 1. At about 10 a.m., two hundred employees of the steel shop went on strike, demanding higher rates for their labor. They headed to the factory office. On the way, they were joined by employees of other workshops. By 11.00, about one thousand people were on strike.
The director of the Kurochkin plant went out to the audience. He tried to reassure the workers. Noticing a pie trader nearby, he suggested that if there is not enough meat pies, there is a liver. According to another version, he noticed that everyone will now eat cakes.
It is believed that his phrases caused additional indignation among the workers. Insults poured into his address. Soon the entire plant was on strike. Workers of other enterprises and ordinary townspeople began to join. By 12.00 the number of protesters reached five thousand people.
During the strike in Novocherkassk, the railway was blocked. In particular, they stopped the train to Saratov. On the carriage they wrote: "Khrushchev - for meat!" Those who called for an end to the riots were beaten.
Actions of the authorities
The uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962 was reported to Khrushchev. He ordered to crush him in every possible way. A delegation of members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party arrived in the city. Marshal Malinovsky ordered the involvement of the tank division if necessary.
By 16 o’clock all the regional authorities had already gathered at the NEVZ Novocherkassk. At 16.30 they left with loudspeakers. The first secretary of the regional committee by the name of Basov, instead of explaining the situation, began to retell the official statement of the party. He began to boo and interrupt. Kurochkin, who took the word after him, was bombarded with bottles and stones. The assault on the factory began. At that time, the KGB and the police had not yet intervened in the situation, observing and secretly filming the rioters. Having closed in his office, Basov began to demand the introduction of the military into the city.
By 19 hours, about 200 police officers were pulled to the NEVZ Novocherkassk. They tried to oust the protesters from the enterprise, but failed. Three law enforcement officers were beaten.
It is known that three hours earlier, the deputy chief of staff of the North Caucasian military district Nazarko reported to the commander Pliev about the request of regional officials to use troops to suppress the uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962. However, he decided so far not to take any measures. At 19 o’clock, Minister of Defense Malinovsky called him, ordering him to raise formations to restore order, but not to withdraw the tanks.
Meanwhile, the rally continued. At the same time, the strikers did not have a single organization, many spoke on their own initiative. About 20 hours near the plant management appeared three armored personnel carriers and five vehicles with soldiers. They did not have live ammunition; servicemen lined up in cars. The crowd met them aggressively. The soldiers did not take any action, soon leaving. Their main task was to divert attention to themselves, while a group of KGB officers and special forces dressed as civilians led the regional leadership out of the blocked building through an emergency exit.
The rally in Novocherkassk, Rostov Region lasted all night. It is believed that an important role was played by a turner named Sergei Sotnikov, who had been very drunk since the morning. He proposed sending people to disconnect all Novocherkassk plants from gas. Several dozen workers led by him went to the gas distribution station. Under the threat of beating, they forced the operator to comply with their requirements. A significant part of Novocherkassk in the Rostov Region was left without gas. After that they went to the electronic factory, where they began to demand to stop the work.
By evening, it became clear to the protesters that the authorities would not take any measures. It was decided to disperse, so that the next day to gather near the city committee.
2 June
At night, tanks and soldiers were introduced into the city. Tanks ousted the remaining protesters from the plant. Several soldiers were injured. At night, leaflets condemning Khrushchev and the authorities began to be distributed around the city.
In the morning, Khrushchev was informed of 22 detainees. By this time, all strategic facilities were heavily guarded. The appearance of soldiers in factories outraged workers who refused to work in such conditions. Again, the movement of trains was blocked. A crowd moved to the city center from the Budyonny factory.
Trying to prevent the protesters from entering the city center, the military blocked the bridge on their way with tanks and armored personnel carriers. But part of the workers crossed the river, and the rest climbed over the equipment, as the soldiers did not interfere. As they approached the city, many drunk and marginalized people joined the crowd. General behavior has become aggressive.
The crowd reached Lenin Street, at the end of which were located the city executive committee and the city party committee. Finding out that the military did not stop the protesters, the city leaders left their jobs. They moved to a military camp, where the interim government headquarters was already located.
The remaining chairman of the city executive committee, Zamula, tried to address the protesters from the balcony, urging him to return to work. Sticks and stones flew into it. Some of the protesters broke into the building. Several officers and KGB officers inside were beaten. Having made their way to the balcony, the protesters hung out a portrait of Lenin and a red banner, and began to demand a reduction in prices.
Among the speakers were several marginalized individuals who began to call for pogroms and reprisals against the military.
The suppression of the uprising in Novocherkassk
Major General Oleshko arrived at the city executive committee with fifty gunners who began to push people away from the building. From the balcony, Oleshko turned to the crowd, urging them to stop the riots and disperse. After that, the military fired a warning salvo up from machine guns.
The people recoiled, but someone in the crowd shouted that they were shooting at idle, people again went to the military. Another volley was fired into the air, and then they started firing at the crowd. So began the Novocherkassk execution of workers.
On the area left to lie from 10 to 15 people. After the appearance of the first killed, a general state of panic appeared. Some eyewitnesses claimed that there were children among those shot, but there was no official confirmation of this.
Oil was poured into the fire by the previously convicted watchman Levchenko, who was pushing for an assault on the police department. Several dozens of people went there, among whom was a drunken Shuvaev, who urged the Communists to hang up and kill soldiers.
An aggressive crowd gathered near the police and the KGB building. She pushed aside the military, trying to break into the police department in order to free the allegedly detained. In the room they staged a pogrom, beat several soldiers. One of the protesters grabbed a machine gun, trying to open fire on the military. Private Azizov determined him, killing with several shots.
During the riots, four more protesters were killed. Many were injured. More than 30 people were detained. The dispersal of the demonstration was completed.
The victims
In total, 45 people turned to the city hospitals with gunshot wounds. At the same time, there were many times more victims: 87 people, only according to official information.
The victims of the uprising in Novocherkassk were 24 people. Two more were killed on the evening of June 2. The circumstances of their death are not fully established. All the bodies of the victims were taken out of the city the next night, buried in different cemeteries in alien graves. Burials were scattered throughout the Rostov region.
Only in 1992, documents related to this case were declassified. The remains of 20 dead were found at the cemetery in Novoshakhtinsk. Their bodies were identified and reburied at the New Cemetery of Novocherkassk.
End of strike
Despite the shooting of workers, unrest continued for some time in the city. Some protesters stoned soldiers, and attempts were made to block traffic on the streets.
There was no clear official information about what had happened. Terrible rumors spread around the city. They talked about hundreds of people shot from machine guns, tanks that crushed the crowd. There were calls to kill not only the leaders and representatives of the authorities, but all the Communists.
A curfew was imposed. Mikoyan’s recorded appeal was broadcast on the radio, which caused local residents only additional irritation.
On June 3, the strike was still ongoing. About 500 people again gathered in front of the city committee building. They demanded the release of comrades, since real arrests have already begun. By noon, mass propaganda began through loyal workers and combatants. It took place both in the crowd and in the factories.
A member of the Central Committee of the CPSU Frol Romanovich Kozlov spoke, who laid the blame for the incident on marginals and hooligans. He presented the situation so that the shooting near the city committee began at the request of nine protesters who asked to restore order in the city. Moreover, he promised certain concessions in labor standards and trade.
Meanwhile, the arrests took place throughout the city. In total, 240 people were detained.
Concealment of the rebellion
By decision of the Communist Party, all information about the riots in Novocherkassk was classified. The first publications in the press about the events that occurred appeared only during perestroika in the late 80s.
A thorough study of eyewitness accounts and documents was conducted. No written evidence was found, some of the documents disappeared altogether. The medical records of many victims have disappeared. All this greatly complicates the accurate determination of the number of dead and wounded.
At the same time, a large number of documents in the KGB archives dedicated to the execution still remain undeclared. Moreover, even those papers that could be obtained disappeared. For example, when sending volumes of the Novocherkassk case from the military prosecutor’s office to the prosecutor’s office of the Soviet Union, photographs from criminal cases that were used to identify the protesters disappeared. Currently, only their photocopies exist, made by the military prosecutor Alexander Tretetskiy.
Court
At the same time, a trial began in Novocherkassk. They managed to identify the accused thanks to KGB agents who photographed the indignant crowd. Those who were especially active were called to answer, walking in the front row in the pictures. All of them were charged with organizing riots, banditry, and an attempt to overthrow the Soviet regime. All without exception pleaded guilty.
Seven people were sentenced to capital punishment by a court verdict and shot. These are Alexander Fedorovich Zaitsev, Andrei Andreyevich Korkach, Mikhail Alexandrovich Kuznetsov, Boris Nikolaevich Mokrousov, Sergey Sergeevich Sotnikov, Vladimir Dmitrievich Cherepanov, Vladimir Georgievich Shuvaev.
105 people received real terms of imprisonment - from ten to fifteen years in a maximum security colony.
After the resignation of Khrushchev in 1964, many convicts were released. But officially they were rehabilitated only during perestroika. Of the seven executed, six were fully rehabilitated. One was found guilty, but only in hooliganism. By law, he was supposed to have no more than three years in prison.
During the events in Novocherkassk, General Shaposhnikov, who was in the position of 1st deputy commander of the district, refused to carry out the order to attack the crowd with tanks. He was fired in the reserve, and then a criminal case was opened on charges of anti-Soviet propaganda. The basis was the letters seized from him regarding the Novocherkassk case. He tried to publicize the matter by sending Komsomol members to universities and Soviet writers. Before the arrest, Shaposhnikov managed to send six letters. As a result, the criminal case was terminated due to complete repentance and due to front-line merits. The general was a participant in the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union. Completely rehabilitated and exempted from criminal liability during the restructuring. In 1988, even reinstated in the Communist Party.
All convicts were rehabilitated in 1996 by the decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
A few years before that, a criminal case had been opened in the Russian Federation on the fact of the execution of workers. Its initiator was the military prosecutor. Khrushchev, Mikoyan, Kozlov and eight other high-ranking Soviet leaders were identified as defendants. The case was closed after some time due to the death of all the accused.
A memorial sign was opened in memory of the victims of the tragedy in Novocherkassk.
Mentions in popular culture
The events in Novocherkassk are featured in the feature films Wanted Dangerous Criminal, Lessons at the End of Spring, and many documentaries. The shooting in Novocherkassk is mentioned in the novel "Place" by Friedrich Gorenstein.
The first two episodes of the series Once Upon a Time in Rostov describe this tragedy in great detail. This is a criminal television movie by Konstantin Khudyakov, which was released in 2012. All the stories in it are based on real events that took place in the USSR.
In addition to the shooting of workers, in the series Once Upon a Time in Rostov, they talk about the crimes of a gang of Tolstopyatov brothers who actually kept the whole city in fear from 1968 to 1973.
In total, one season of the series consisting of twenty-four episodes was released. The main roles were played by Vladimir Vdovichenko, Kirill Pletnev, Sergey Zhigunov, Alena Babenko, Bogdan Stupka, Vladimir Yumatov.
The events in Novocherkassk became the most massive and bloody uprising. At the same time, in 1961 riots also occurred in Murom and Krasnodar.