Аннотация: MMMDXLVIII. About Korneychuk, Lenin and Yevgeny Poddubny. A note on the issue of Russial customs. - September 30, 2024.
About Korneychuk, Lenin and Yevgeny Poddubny. A note on the issue of Russial customs.
Should war correspondents deliver (transport) a soap to soldiers on the front line?
I asked myself this question, and thoughts in my mind began to spin: about the independence of the media, about the new (fourth) power - the power of public opinion (the power of the media, of the press), about public control over bureaucratic structures.
However, I immediately stopped myself. It is necessary to remember about the heroic war correspondents of the Great Patriotic War. It is even ridiculous to talk about their control over the activities of the CPSU (b), or GKO, or over the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command.
Could any correspondent of some frontline or central newspaper have written an essay about how some major military commander is trying to stop the retreat with personal efforts? (I do not describe the details so as not to offend anyone, but not only the sticks (palki) of Nikolai Palkin (Nicholas I of Russia) and of Arakcheev remain in the common people's memory).
But, however, I recall Korneychuk, who wrote a play during the war (the play "Front", 1942), in which he described the replacement of military leaders of the Civil War era with military leaders of a new type. It was impossible to return Tukhachevsky, but Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky, and Chernyakhovsky appeared in high positions... Zhukov was removed from the post of Chief of the General Staff during the disastrous retreat of 1941 (July 29, 1941), but showed himself positively under other circumstances.
What did Korneychuk get for his play? He did not become a Hero of the Soviet Union (or a Hero of Socialist Labor), but he recalled receiving threatening phone calls. Such skilled people as Voroshilov had the ability to work for a long time (to work for endless periods) in the Kremlin walls.
That is, I want to emphasize that despite the Russial customs of absolute (and unconditional) support of the authorities from side of creative people, there was enough energy in the creative environment during the war to solve the most pressing public issues using creative methods.
Korneychuk's wife was Wanda Vasilevskaya. For some reason, I recall the young Lenin, (1) expelled from the university and passed his final university's exams externally, (2) tried his hand at law a little, (3) in organizing the functioning of the estate, (4) visited several workers' and social-democratic circles, (4) spent about a year in prison. He suddenly writes the book "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" in Siberian exile. Such a book immediately put forward a former student, a former assistant of lawer and a former novice landowner among the (intellectual) leaders of Russial social democracy. It can be mentioned that Nadezhda Krupskaya and her mother Elizaveta Vasilyevna (Lenin's mother-in-law) were next to Lenin in Siberian exile - they came from among the nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, from the population of Northern Europe. (Elizaveta Vasilyevna Krupskaya wrote the book "The Day of Child" in verse, with a dozen pictures. This book was published in Warsaw in 1874 in Russian and in Polish). In addition, Lenin both in exile and throughout his life appreciated the friendship of Gleb Krzhizhanovsky (1872 - 1959), who also visited "apartments" of a Siberian exile and communicated with Lenin in Siberia.
(In the 20th century: Lenin became the author and political creator of "War Communism". The results of "War Communism" were: the collapse of the economy, the famine and the Kronstadt rebellion. Krupskaya and Krzhizhanovsky implemented a broad program to overcome illiteracy in Russia, they created systems of upbringing for the younger generation, of a primary, secondary and higher education, a scientific system (effective for that time). These achievements were followed by programs of space research and space launches (the first in the history of mankind)... We should add that Gleb Krzhizhanovsky wrote the work "The main tasks of electrification of Russia" (1920), became the head of work on the creation of the GOELRO plan (state plan for the development of the electric power industry) and the author of several sections of this plan, the chairman of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia. In general, the impression is that the "puzzles are taking shape" ("the puzzles are harmoniously connecting with each other", "fit each other")).
Let's go back to Korneychuk. At a personal meeting with Stalin, he asked for his (Korneychuk) appointment to a responsible government position. He (Korneychuk) was appointed at the position of Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.
So, Korneychuk, during the war, in the conditions of the existing customs of submission to the authorities on the part of creative people, managed to create a very necessary and useful creative product. He did not become either a Hero of the Soviet Union or a Hero of Socialist Labor. Perhaps he received a prize - one of the prizes that were awarded for creative efforts. He was appointed to a high government post, too. (According to one of the electronic encyclopedias, Korneychuk became a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1967).
Speaking by analogy, can we expect the appointment of Yevgeny Poddubny (apparently, he created some kind of creative product that is especially useful to the country) to a high position? It seems that it was coming to the fact that someone at the very tops would be in charge of war correspondents? It can be expected that such function (concerns regarding war correspondents) will be assigned to one of the Deputy Ministers of Defense.
As for the soap.
I had the opportunity to observe in detail only one operation in which the Russian Armed Forces participated (other operations did not receive a publicly available detailed media coverage - with the exception of the directing of two UAV operators to the forefront line; they left a multi-page detailed story about their life near the front line).
So, one of the operations received detailed media coverage: it was an operation to restore the hydrological connection between the upper and lower parts of the Bureysky reservoir (on the Bureya River, in the Khabarovsk Krai) (2018 - 2019).
Various military units and officials participated in this operation (both the Deputy Minister of Defense and the Chief of Engineering Troops, as well as governors and many others). No mention of the lack of anything necessary, including soap, has ever appeared. On the contrary, all news and messages emphasized the excellent planning, the interaction of different units, and the trouble-free supply of everything necessary to a significant military contingent stationed, one might say, on the "other side of the Earth."
I do not know whom war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny feels himself like and whom he will feel like himself: a representative of the fourth power or a person who managed to create a necessary and useful creative product and who moved up the hierarchical ladder. In any case, I hope that he will make an effort, and there will be no need for war correspondents to occupy themselves with such an important matter as bringing soap to the troops.
September 30, 2024, 19:04
Translation from Russian into English: October 1, 2024 20:55
Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' О Корнейчуке, Ленине и Евгении Поддубном. Заметка к вопросу о российских обычаях '.
{ 3577. О Корнейчуке, Ленине и Евгении Поддубном. Заметка к вопросу о российских обычаях. - 30 сентября 2024 г.
MMMDXLVIII. About Korneychuk, Lenin and Yevgeny Poddubny. A note on the issue of Russial customs. - September 30, 2024.
Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского. }