Why do childhood memories disappear? Flowers for algernon

P. N. Pertsov. Memories.
The life story of a Russian entrepreneur who built the famous house in Moscow. Peter Nikolayevich was born into a poor noble family. But he chose to work in a promising area - railways. Memories begin with childhood happy years in a small estate in the province, then a gymnasium, the Institute of Railways, work on state railways. A small salary and the difficulties of promotion force them to move into the commercial sphere after a while. And things went well. Railways are developing, revenues are growing. There are lengthy passages in the book listing all sorts of business relationships. But interestingly, Pertsov did not engage in corruption or kickbacks in his business, he won competitions thanks to a low price or a good reputation. Although he mentions that there were crooks. Pertsov survived the revolution also in business relations. This distinguishes him: no matter what problem appears, it is necessary to solve it according to the circumstances.

Nina Anosova. While the light is still bright.
The book is of interest as a description of childhood in the early twentieth century. The author grew up in a "middle class" family, where there were good times and her stepfather's big earnings, and there were also times without work, forced savings. Petersburg, a girl goes to Kindergarten, but it is expensive, with a private gymnasium. Elder sister gets into a good institute, which is attended by Empress Maria Feodorovna. Interesting description summer trips to visit relatives. A gymnasium in Mariupol, where the family is forced to move in search of work. Revolution and Civil War in the south of Russia. It is very tragic - how ties with relatives and friends are lost. People flee from the war, wander, hide, and nothing is known - what happened to their beloved aunt or best friend. At the end of the book, the author, a fifteen-year-old girl, feels responsible for the fate of the family. We have to leave hope for the best and go abroad.

Olga Lodyzhenskaya. Peers of a difficult age.
The author was born at the turn of the twentieth century in a poor noble family. Father died early, mother rented apartments. The legacy from my grandfather is an old manor that needs repair. Relatives paid for Olga and her sister to study at a women's institute in Moscow. Perhaps the dreary atmosphere there, the tedious rules, created a "protest mood" among the girls, as they say now. Both girls and their mother, still a young woman, loyally met the revolution, and even began to support the Bolsheviks. In the suburbs, where they lived, there were no horrors of the revolution. And the Bolsheviks they met were neutral, even fair. The family left the estate voluntarily, because they did not want to engage in agriculture. Soon the girls get jobs in Soviet institutions, and then mom too. They are interested new life. And they decide to go with the Red Army to help establish Soviet power. The memoirs end in 1927. "Then it only got worse," the author writes.

Today on the site Mnogo.ru in the section of the interactive quiz "Quote of the Day" there was such interest Ask: "Memories that started as small ripples wash over me in a ten-point storm?"

To whom can this phrase belong, and who is the author of these words?

Suggested answers:

Ray Bradberry is a famous American writer, the author of the film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. In his life he created more than eight hundred various works, including fairy tales, poems, poems and so on.

Erich Maria Remarque - the greatest German writer, one of the authors of the so-called " lost generation"along with Ernest Hemingway and Richard Aldington. Known as the author of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front."

Daniel Keyes is an American writer and philologist. He passed away quite recently, in 2014. Known for the novel Flowers for Algernon. It was based on the picture "Charlie", for leading role in which actor Cliff Robertson won an Oscar. Worked as a professor fiction at Ohio University, received an honorary professorship.

• It is Daniel Keyes who owns arepetition of these lines from quiz question, and this will be the correct answer, for which you will receive 5 points.

Harry remains unremarkable trifles in his apartment, scattered here and there in different corners of small, dark rooms. His lighter is forever lost between old books on narrow shelves, and dust never gets under a forgotten cup of tea on a coffee table.

Every day and every second, the Sun slowly moves along the ecliptic around the Earth. They live in the Age of Aquarius, and Harry, wrapping his arms around Louis' neck, touching his cool fingers to smooth skin, tells him it's a good sign. At this time - in them time will be different. Better. Stronger. Happier.

Harry looks at him carefully with his wet green eyes, barely audible asking: "Really, Louis?"

Louis knows nothing about astrology and is unlikely to be able to find at least one constellation in the sky, but he nods, touching his lips to Harry's forehead, and closes his eyes. His heart beats dully in his chest and does not even for a second lose its rhythm.

Harry leaves a suffocating smell of hope in his apartment, penetrating every crevice, soaking into the furniture, into the yellow, faded curtains on the dark windows and into Louis. There is no getting away from him, and even the gray smoke of cigarettes cannot kill him. Louis burrows his head under the covers and just remembers, remembers, remembers. Not of my own free will, but because memories - like dense air - cannot be hidden. Something is slowly clenching in his chest and scratching inside with nails. Is it conscience? Louis closes his eyes tightly, trying to get rid of this inappropriate feeling and from a quiet voice whispering insistently in his ear: "Really, Louis?"

Every night, Harry laughs out loud, tossing his head, causing his hair to fall in soft waves down his back. Harry laughs, and his laughter echoes through the forest, frightening rare birds. The hassle of their wings is lost somewhere in the green crowns of centuries-old trees, and Louis presses his back against the trunk of one of them, feeling the hard bark dig into his skin, even through his clothes. He pulls Harry towards him, intertwining his fingers and inhaling - unusually so hard and full - fresh air with the smell of wet grass.

Harry gives him a long, trusting look that Louis knows he can't hide from even if he closes his eyes. It eats deep under the skin, leaving a bitter aftertaste of despair and cheap coffee on the tongue.

Harry looks at him and asks in a barely audible voice: "Really, Louis?"

Louis is choking on promises as empty as balloons. He's losing count of them, and he doesn't seem to remember what Harry is asking this time, but he nods anyway, the corners of his lips twitching up in an almost sincere smile.

And Louis wakes up every night with short breaths filling his lungs heavy air drenched in memories. He tickles his nostrils, making his already really tired heart beat fast. It's as if the hard bark is still digging into his back, and the laughter doesn't want to leave his head.

Louis sits up in bed, listening to the steady breathing next to him.

Harry remains unremarkable trifles in his apartment, scattered here and there in different corners of small, dark rooms. His lighter is forever lost between old books on narrow shelves, and dust never gets under a forgotten cup of tea on a coffee table, but only things in the closet are gradually replaced by strangers, and an empty cup is no longer his.

Louis runs a hand over his face, closing his eyes and nodding automatically. Just like that, in the void. Out of habit.

They live in the Age of Aquarius, and they will definitely do well, except that the adverb "together" does not fit into this sentence.

Really, Harry?

Memoirs of the State Councilor Konstantin Dmitrievich Kafafov .

A lawyer by education (who graduated from St. Petersburg University with a candidate's degree), Kafafov rose to the top of the civil service from lower positions. On October 3, 1888, with the rank of collegiate secretary, he was appointed to the office of the Senate Department, and by 1892 he was appointed secretary with the rank of titular adviser. For the next 25 years he worked in the judiciary, in prosecutorial supervision, as a judge, a member of the judicial chambers. In 1912 began new stage his career associated with service in the Ministry of the Interior. On April 2, he was appointed Vice Director of the Police Department. He did not have any experience in the political search, and purely bureaucratic functions were assigned to him, mainly, as vice director, he was responsible for departments related to legislative activities, and as a member of the council of the minister, he represented the Ministry in various interdepartmental commissions and meetings. The most serious work was done by him in the Workers' Insurance Council.

In the days February Revolution 1917 Kafafov, like many senior officials of the tsarist administration, was arrested. On March 4, the Provisional Government established the Supreme Investigation Commission to investigate the illegal actions of former ministers, chief executives and other senior officials, renamed a few days later into the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry. On May 24, the Commission issued a resolution stating that “taking into account Kafafov’s age, his marital status and morbid condition”, as well as “by the very nature of the act”, his further detention appears to be an excessively strict measure. Conclusion in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress was replaced by house arrest, and on May 31 the case was reduced to a written undertaking not to leave Petrograd.

On August 24, Kafafov applied for permission to leave for Tiflis, and he was released. For three years he lived in Tiflis, in Baku, in the Crimea, and in November 1920 he emigrated to Turkey, then moved to Serbia, where he died in 1931.

In June 1929, Kafafov completed his memoirs, the pages of which, dedicated to his stay in the former Russian Transcaucasus, are given below with slight abbreviations.

“I am in my 66th year, the age is great. A lot has been lived and a lot has been experienced, ”- with these words, the memoirs of one of the leaders of the department of internal affairs in last years Russian Empire, Acting State Councilor Konstantin Dmitrievich Kafafov.

... I will not describe the collapse of the Russian state. A lot has been written about this, both by those who contributed to this destruction in every possible way, and by outside observers.

My story is modest.

The summer after my release from the [Peter and Paul] Fortress, I spent in Petrograd, as I was obliged by a subscription not to go anywhere from my place of residence. In the fall, I submitted a petition to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission for permission to move to the Caucasus, to Tiflis. After strenuous requests, this permission was finally given to me, and a signature was taken from me stating that I undertake to appear in Petrograd at the first request of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission. September 11, 1917 My family and I left for the Caucasus.

We arrived in Tiflis on September 17th. Autumn this year was exceptionally good. But the revolution had a strong impact on the life of the city. There was no bread. Instead of bread, they had to eat some kind of pulp from bran and straw. Even corn, which is usually quite abundant in the Caucasus, was scarce this year. The high cost of other products grew by leaps and bounds, and to top it all, the most unceremonious robberies began in the city. Robbed in the daytime on the street. For example, robbers meet a well-dressed lady on the street, silently escort her to the apartment and, approaching her entrance, unexpectedly offer her to undress - they remove everything of any value from her, not excluding boots and silk stockings, then they themselves they ring the bell at the entrance and quickly hide with the loot, and the unfortunate victim, to the surprise of the servants or relatives who opened the door, comes home almost completely naked. Not only women, but also men and even children were subjected to this method of robbery. In addition, the usual robberies of apartments have become more frequent. Hooliganism has also become extremely frequent. There was continuous firing in the streets. The government was unable to deal with it.

However, in essence, there was no power. After the February Revolution, a coalition government of Transcaucasia was formed in Tiflis from representatives of Georgia, Armenia and the Baku Tatars. The coalition power, however, was not strong, as it did not have a cohesive unity and solidarity. In general, it was very difficult to reconcile the interests of the Caucasian Tatars and Armenians in the Caucasus, and it was not easy to reconcile the interests of the Georgians with the Armenians. There was constant enmity between Armenians and Tatars. This enmity had its origin in the distant past relations of the Turks with the Armenians, which periodically erupted with severe beatings of Armenians in Turkey. The hostile attitude of the Georgians towards the Armenians was explained by the seizure of all trade and city property in the Caucasus by the Armenians. In addition, the Georgians, as the most cohesive element and the most revolutionary, tried to dominate the coalition, but such a desire met opposition from both the Armenians and the Tatars.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary movement in Russia deepened more and more. Shortly after my arrival in Tiflis (at the end of October 1917), information was received from Moscow about the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks there. The complete collapse of the army began. Rebellious gangs of soldiers streamed home from the front in a disorderly, noisy armed crowd, threatening the safety of the cities lying on the way. Communication with the central Russian government ceased. At this time, taking advantage of the state of affairs, the Georgians decided to fulfill their long-cherished dream - to proclaim their independence. Yesterday's representatives of the Georgian people in the State Duma, and during the revolution - in the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Chkheidze, Chkhen-keli and Gegechkori, convinced internationalists - Social Democrats, Mensheviks, unexpectedly turned into ardent nationalist patriots in their homeland. The Constituent Assembly was urgently convened. The independence of Georgia was proclaimed, the basic laws were worked out, and Georgia turned into an independent socialist republic.

It must be admitted that the Georgians turned out to be experienced and sophisticated businessmen in revolutionary work. Paying tribute to the demands of the revolution, they managed, however, to direct all these demands in the sense desired by their leaders. So, for example, according to the model Central Russia and they formed a council of workers' and soldiers' deputies, although there are actually few workers in Georgia, and almost no factory workers, since there are only 2-3 tobacco factories there, and at first there were no soldiers at all. Nevertheless - the infection is stronger than logic - and such advice was formed. But the leaders of the Georgian independent movement managed to seize this revolutionary institution in fact into their own hands. In essence, the members of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the members of the Constituent Assembly, and, finally, the members of parliament - if they were not the same persons, then at least they were politically like-minded, not only did not interfere with each other, but on the contrary that mutually support each other.

Of the Georgians, the Imeretians proved to be the most energetic and militant workers. Georgians are divided into several tribes: the Kartalians, who live in the lower reaches mainly in the Tiflis province, the Imeretins, the Mingrelians and the Abkhazians, who live in the Kutaisi province. Of these, the Kartalians are the most peaceful residents of Georgia. The Imeretins and, in general, the inhabitants of mountainous areas are distinguished by a hotter temperament. AT Peaceful time The Imeretians were mainly engaged in seasonal work, which was prompted by both the scarcity of their nature and the innate enterprising nature of their character. The best cooks and servants both in Transcaucasia and in the North Caucasus were predominantly from Imeretians. When the socialist teachings and the revolutionary movement began to penetrate into the Transcaucasus, the Imeretians turned out to be the most receptive followers of them. They also captured the revolutionary and independent movement in Georgia. The basics of the language are common for all Georgians, but each tribe has its own characteristics, its own pronunciation and its own turns of speech. They understand each other relatively freely. Almost all surnames in Kartalinia end in "shvili" - Mgaloblishvili, Khoshiashvili and others. -Imeretian also means "son". Thus, the surnames seem to come from a representative of the clan, but, in addition, there are many surnames in Imereti, the origin of which can be explained, probably, by the fact that their ancestors came to the Caucasus in long past times from the west, for example : Orbeliani, Zhordania, etc. As you know, almost all peoples passed through the Caucasus from east to west. There is no doubt that some of them settled in the Caucasus, retaining their type and some of the old customs. This can be especially observed in the mountains, in mountain villages.

Immediately after the declaration of independence of Georgia, a local government was also constructed. A permanent parliament was elected, ministries were formed, and the old Social Democrat Noy Zhordania, who had previously been a petty employee of the oilman Nobel in Baku, became the head of the government. Nightgowns with ribbons instead of ties were taken off, and the members of the new government put on starched collars, put on business cards and covered their Social Democratic heads with bourgeois top hats. The most gifted of them, Gegechkori, who took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, turned out to be a special dandy. Among his first diplomatic moves was to bow to the Germans. The newly-minted diplomat turned out to be a bad politician and believed in the invincibility of the Germans, being, obviously, a great admirer of the German at heart. armored fist. However, there was information about the relations of some Georgian groups with the Germans as early as 1914, at the beginning of the war. But these rumors were not given any importance then, because the representatives of the Georgian nobility close to the court, and behind them all Georgians, were considered selflessly devoted to the throne.

The Georgian ministers turned out to be both more cunning and more experienced than the ministers of the Provisional Government. They did not disperse all employees in the administration and the police, as did the ministers of the Provisional Government. On the contrary, all the Georgians who served in these institutions remained, and some even received more responsible posts. And the severity and energy of the Socialist Minister of the Interior, shown by him in the fight against the enemies of independent Georgia and order in it, could be envied by Plehve himself. Arrests and deportations poured out of the socialist cornucopia, disregarding all the principles and problems of freedom, about which these Social Democrats so recently shouted from the rostrum of the Russian State Duma.

The first regular concern of the Georgian government was the need to fuse the Russian soldiers arbitrarily returning from the front from the borders of Georgia as quickly and painlessly as possible. This duty was mainly entrusted to the former member of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Chkheidze, he met the troops, made speeches, urged the soldiers to return home as soon as possible to their families waiting for them, and just in case pointed out to them on the right towering on the opposite - on the bank of the river. Kura Davidovskaya Gora, saying that a huge number of guns are concentrated there, and in the event of resistance, in an instant, all wagons with soldiers will be "turned to dust."

As you know, Tiflis is located in a basin on both banks of the Kura River. On the left bank, the terrain is less elevated than on the right. The main branch of the Transcaucasian railway connecting Baku with Batum. The right bank of the Kura is significantly higher than the left and ends quite high mountain, towering above the city - this mountain is called Davidovskaya - after the church of St. David, built in the middle of the mountain near a small spring gushing out of the mountain. According to legend, once upon a time, when the whole mountain was still covered with forest, the hermit St. David. Here, in the fence of the church, the immortal author of "Woe from Wit" Griboedov is buried. Here on this mountain, to intimidate soldiers returning from the front, they built a seemingly formidable battery of 2 guns taken from the Russians.

With sweet speeches and cannon threats, the Georgian authorities managed to transport the troops returning from the front outside of Georgia. No less successful were the diplomatic attempts of the Georgian diplomat. In the first half of 1918, I don’t remember the month now, a small echelon of German troops unexpectedly arrived in Tiflis with guns and music. And an amazing thing. In the morning the Germans came, at noon on the main streets one by one German soldier without guns with one cleaver, and complete order was immediately restored in the city; from that day on it was possible to return home late at night without any fear of attacks. So strong was the authority of the Germans in the east. The Germans behaved tactfully in Tiflis. They established complete order in the city. Their headquarters is located in one of the houses on Golovinsky Prospekt. Every day information about the course of the war was posted near the headquarters door. Music played in the evenings on Golovinsky Prospekt; but the days of the Germans were already numbered. Georgian diplomats made a mistake.

After the breakthrough in September 1918 of the Thessalonica Front, the position of the Germans became difficult: their front was still holding out, but they felt the impending catastrophe. United under the general command of Marshal Foch, the allied forces were preparing for a decisive blow. In view of all this, the Germans hastily fold and leave Tiflis. Willy-nilly, the Georgians had to change their orientation and turn to the British.

The British soon arrived. Their arrival was not as solemn as the appearance of the Germans. Apparently, among the Georgians, they did not enjoy such charm. And the British themselves treated the Georgians coldly and condescendingly. The British did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Georgians and, as always and everywhere, set out to extract more benefits from their arrival in the Caucasus. They intensively began to export oil from Baku and manganese from Georgia.

As soon as Georgia declared its independence, Armenians followed suit and Baku Tatars. On the territory of Erivan and part of the Elizavetpol province inhabited by Armenians, the Armenian Republic was formed, and on the territory of Baku and other part of the Elizavetpol province inhabited by Tatars, the Republic of Azerbaijan was formed. Until that time, Azerbaijan was a part of the Persian territory adjoining Russia. Baku and its environs, before they were conquered by the Russians, constituted a special khanate, which was ruled by the Baki-khans, who were vassals of the Persian shahs. On the shore of the Caspian Sea, above the present city, the castle of Bakikhanov towered. The khanate was poor, the inhabitants were engaged in cattle breeding and fishing.

At that time they had no idea about oil, and the gases knocked out of the ground in places contributed to the creation of a religious cult of fire worshipers, who, thanks to these gases, supported in their temples Eternal flame. After the adoption of Islam by the Persians, this religion gradually began to spread among the Baku and other Caucasian Tatars and highlanders. The Bakikhanov clan ceased. The provinces of Baku and Elizavetpol had long ago entered not only the boundaries of the Russian state, but little by little they began to join Russian culture. Representatives of the local population in most cases were already pupils of Russians. educational institutions. They did not even dream of independence, which, moreover, they, in fact, never had. But life is more fantastic than the richest human fantasy. And then the Baku Tatars suddenly had the opportunity to organize their own oil republic, and for greater importance they decided to invent their own ancestors - in the person of an independent Azerbaijan that allegedly once existed on their territory. Of all the newly appeared republics, the Azerbaijan Republic was the richest of all, thanks to its oil sources. Then came the Georgian, which had manganese mines and coal. The Armenian one turned out to be the poorest - it did not even have a single decent city. For its main city, Erivan, is a rather shabby provincial provincial town, which cannot be compared even with Baku, not only with Tiflis. All three republics, especially at first, lived solely at the expense of the legacy left from Russia in the form of all kinds of food depots, uniforms and weapons. They unceremoniously divided all this property among themselves, and the Georgians got the lion's share of everything, because almost all large warehouses were located in Tiflis and its environs.

Neither the factory, nor the factory, nor the agricultural industry was in any way developed either in Georgia or in Armenia. Before the newly appeared state formations, the question of finding out the means of subsistence urgently arose. In the first place, the financial authorities of the new republics took up the search for these funds. First of all, they start or print their own banknotes. Transcaucasian bonds issued by the triune government of Transcaucasia were soon replaced by bonds - Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani. These bonds were issued, of course, without observing the emission rules and without providing at least part of them with gold cash. They only indicated that they were provided with all the state property of the country, but what was the value of these properties, the authorities themselves hardly knew. The authorities seemed to be more concerned about the external beauty of the bons, flaunting to each other with fanciful drawings of the emblems of their state power on their credit signs, than their actual creditworthiness. Oddly enough, but on the Transcaucasian Stock Exchange - their quotation did not go further - Georgian bonds were higher than the rest, followed by Azerbaijani ones and the last ones were Armenian ones.

One of the socialist measures of the Georgian government was the nationalization of natural resources. In Tiflis itself, there were hot sulfur springs, which were used by their owners, private individuals, by arranging public baths over these sources. These baths were named after their owners. So, there were baths: Iraklievsky, which once belonged to Heraclius, the prince of Georgia, and later passed to his heirs; Sumbatovskaya, which belonged to the princes Sumbatov; Orbelyanovskaya, which belonged to the princes Dzhambakuri-Orbelyanov, Bebutovskaya, which belonged to the princes Bebutov; Mirzoevskaya, which belonged to the wealthy Mirzoevs, famous at one time in the Caucasus, etc. The local population willingly visited these baths, and their profitability grew as the population of the city grew. In 1913, in the Tiflis city self-government, the question was raised about buying all these baths from private owners and, in view of healing properties them, about the arrangement at their location of a medical resort. Even negotiations began with the owners, but the war prevented the implementation of this intention. The Georgian socialist government resolved the issue in a simpler way, it simply took away these baths with all the buildings and lands belonging to them from private owners - as natural resources bowels of the earth. The very same nationalization was also carried out easily. Over time, the number of owners of individual baths has increased significantly. In view of this, for the convenience of managing them, these baths were usually rented out by a general meeting of their owners. The Georgian government invited tenants and announced to them that, until further notice, it would leave these baths on their lease and instruct them from now on to pay the rent to the treasury, in view of the nationalization of the baths. Then it informed the owners of this, promising to pay them the cost of the buildings. However, until his downfall, nothing was paid to them.

Left without owners and their constant monitoring of the cleanliness and order in the baths and not confident in tomorrow, tenants directed all their forces to the greatest possible exploitation of the property entrusted to them, not paying any attention to the state of this property. As a result, after a few months, the baths were extremely neglected and polluted.

I left Tiflis [for Baku] at the end of November 1918. There were a lot of people on the train: our compartment was full, six people were sitting on four-seater sofas. As soon as we crossed the Georgian border, animal-like faces armed to the teeth began to appear in the cars; they opened the compartment doors, examined the passengers, and silently left the carriage. It turned out that they were Tatars from the surrounding villages looking for Armenians on the train. Shortly before that, there were pogroms, first the Armenians smashed the Tatars, and then the Tatars of the Armenians. Passions did not have time to settle down. It was reported on the train that the day before the Tatars had removed two Armenians from the train and killed them right there at the station.

The next day in the morning we arrived in Baku. I was immediately struck by the difference between Baku and Tiflis. Baku from the outside remained the same as it was before the revolution. Russian speech, Russian people, Russian troops - a detachment of General Bicherakhov. After the seizure of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks, the residents of Baku had to go through a lot. First of all, soon after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, a Bolshevik uprising broke out in Baku as well. With the assistance of the workers, the local Armenian and Russian Bolsheviks managed to seize power into their own hands. All privately owned oil fields were immediately nationalized. At that time, a brutal pogrom of Muslims was staged by the Armenians, several buildings were destroyed and destroyed by fire, and many people were killed and maimed.

Bolshevism did not last long in Baku. Almost simultaneously with the arrival of the Germans in Tiflis, the Turks arrived in Baku. They quickly eliminated Bolshevism and restored order in the city, but the Turks did not stay in Baku for long either. After the breakthrough of the Thessalonica front, the Turks, like the Germans, left the Caucasus. After their departure, a pogrom of Armenians soon broke out, organized by the Turks, which in its cruelty was not inferior to the Armenian pogrom. In the middle of 1918, General Bicherakhov arrived in Baku from the Persian front with his detachment. Thanks to the presence of Russian troops in the city, order was quickly restored. By this time, the power in the newly formed republic had managed to finally take shape. Attorney-at-law Khan Khoysky became the head of the government. A parliament was formed, which included several Russian members. Then a coalition Council of Ministers was drawn up with two Russian ministers - a former member of the council under the Viceroy of the Caucasus from the Ministry of Finance I.N. Protasiev as Minister of Finance and local merchant Lizgar as Minister of Trade and Industry.

Detachment Bicherakhov in the spring of 1919 he went to Denikin. The British came from Baku to replace him. The British treated Bakuvians quite favorably. They advised them to expand the coalition and give two or one portfolio to the Armenians in the ministry. This advice was formally accepted, although in fact it was almost never carried out, the mutual hostility between the Armenians and the Tatars was too great, especially after the recent mutual pogroms. After the arrival of the British, the people of Baku got stronger and the newly appeared Azerbaijan Republic began to gradually unfold. A significant part of the employees in Azerbaijani state institutions consisted of Russians. From-wearing to them local authorities and the population were the most benevolent, and it is not necessary to compare these relations with the relations of Georgians and Armenians. It is interesting to note the fact that in the Republic of Azerbaijan all office work and all official correspondence were conducted in Russian, which, by the way, was also the international language in relations between all three Transcaucasian republics. Only Turkish was spoken in the parliament, and even then not all of them. It is rather difficult to establish the exact legal nature of the Transcaucasian republics, since they did not have time to crystallize and were still in their organizational and revolutionary period.

Georgian republic in its design - with a parliament, with a responsible ministry - fully corresponded to the principles of democracy. As for the Republic of Azerbaijan, it had a rather mixed character. Ministers here were appointed and not from members of parliament, moreover, the principle of a responsible ministry was not clearly carried out, because in their work they were more accountable to the head of government than to parliament. Some of the ministers, such as the Russian ministers, did not go to parliament at all, and on the other hand, the parliament was not only a legislative body, but also a governing and supervisory body and rather vigorously discussed all issues of life and government of the country , although sometimes with great delay.

Armenian Republic was a cross between the Azerbaijani and Georgian republics. In all three republics there was no title of president of the republic, and his duties were performed by the head of government. Such a head in Georgia was Noy Zhordania, in Azerbaijan - Khan Khoysky, and in Armenia, if my memory serves me right, Khatisov. A feature of the Republic of Azerbaijan was its army, organized by the full general of the Russian service Mokhmandarov, the cavalier of two officer Georges. This army was arranged, armed and uniformed according to the Russian model. General Mokhmandarov himself wore a Russian military uniform, with two Georges, and wore buttons on his uniform with eagles. Almost the entire officer corps consisted of former Russian officers, as a result of which the command, at least at first, was conducted in Russian. No one was surprised by this and no one protested against it. And Mokhmandarov himself spoke Russian even in parliament.

In this respect, the Tatars were very different from the Georgians. In Georgia, from the very first days of the declaration of independence, in all institutions, not only correspondence, but also conversations began to be conducted in the Georgian language. The army was also organized on a special, Georgian, or rather, Western European, model, although it was all uniformed and armed with Russian uniforms and Russian weapons. The entire officer corps of the Georgian army was filled with Georgians who served in the Russian army. In general, there are very few Russians left in the Georgian service, which is why the majority of Russians moved to Baku. The Russians in Azerbaijan were not hampered by the issue of allegiance, since this issue, at least in relation to the Russians, was not considered there. Russians, despite their citizenship, could hold all sorts of positions, up to and including the minister. Although the law on citizenship was adopted by the parliament, it was hardly applied in practice until the end of the days of the Azerbaijan Republic. Whereas the Georgians managed to put into practice their law on citizenship. According to this law, by the way, all persons residing within Georgia from a certain period of time (before Georgia declared its independence) automatically became Georgian citizens. At the same time, persons who did not want to transfer to Georgian citizenship were required to declare this within a certain period.

Of all the peoples of the Caucasus, the most loved in Russia were the Georgians, of all the peoples of the Caucasus, after the revolution, the Georgians began to treat the Russians the worst. And, oddly enough, the Tatars - Muslims - turned out to be the most grateful to Russia for what she did for them. At the same time, many Tatars sincerely declared that they did not rejoice at their independence, did not believe in it, that they lived immeasurably better under Russian rule than under their independence. Many prominent Baku figures have repeatedly told me about this personally. So they thought not only intelligent people So did the common people.

The end of the article and its full version