Memories. Colossal quotes about memories Who is the author of memories that began with a small ripple

Harry remains in his apartment as unremarkable little things, scattered here and there in different corners of small, dark rooms. His lighter is forever lost among old books on narrow shelves, and dust never gets under a forgotten cup of tea on the coffee table. Every day and every second, the Sun moves slowly along the ecliptic around the Earth. They live in the Age of Aquarius, and Harry, wrapping his arms around Louis's neck, touching his smooth skin with cool fingers, tells him that this good sign. At this time - in their time - everything will be different. Better. Tighter. Happier. Harry looks at him carefully with his moist green eyes, barely audibly asking: “Isn’t that true, 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 doesn’t even lose its rhythm for a second. Harry leaves his apartment with a suffocating smell of hope, penetrating into every crevice, soaking into the furniture, into the yellow, faded curtains on the dark windows and Louis. There is no escape from it, and even the gray smoke of cigarettes cannot stop it. Louis buries his head under the blankets and just remembers, remembers, remembers. Not of my own free will, but because I can’t hide from memories - just like from dense air. Something slowly squeezes in his chest and scratches from the inside with its nails. Is it conscience? Louis closes his eyes tightly, trying to get rid of this out of place annoying feeling and from a quiet voice persistently whispering right in his ear: “Isn’t that true, Louis?” Every night, Harry laughs loudly, throwing his head up, causing his hair to fall in soft waves down his back. Harry laughs, and his laughter spreads through the forest, scaring rare birds. The fuss 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 digging into his skin, even through his clothes. He pulls Harry towards him, intertwining his fingers and inhaling - unusually so strongly and deeply - Fresh air with the smell of wet grass. Harry looks at him with a long, trusting gaze, from which - Louis knows - there is nowhere to hide, even if you close your eyes. It eats deep into the skin, leaving a bitter aftertaste of despair and cheap coffee on the tongue. Harry looks at him and asks, barely audible: “Isn’t that true, Louis?” Louis is drowning in promises that are as empty as air balloons. He loses count of them, and hardly remembers what Harry asks this time, but he still nods, lifting the corners of his lips in an almost sincere smile. And Louis wakes up every night, short sighs filling his lungs with heavy air, saturated with memories. It tickles your nostrils, making your already truly tired heart beat quickly. It’s as if the hard bark is still digging into his back, and the laughter just doesn’t want to leave his head. Louis sits up in bed, listening to the steady breathing next to him. Harry remains in his apartment as unremarkable little things, scattered here and there in different corners of small, dark rooms. His lighter is forever lost among old books on narrow shelves, and dust never gets under a forgotten cup of tea on the coffee table, but only things in the closet are gradually replaced by strangers, and the empty cup is no longer his. Louis runs his hand over his face, closing his eyes and nodding automatically. Just like that, into the void. Out of habit. They live in the Age of Aquarius, and everything will definitely be fine with them, except that the adverb “together” does not fit into this sentence. Really, Harry?

Memoirs of actual state councilor Konstantin Dmitrievich Kafafov .

Lawyer by training (graduated from St. Petersburg University with a Ph.D. degree) to the top civil service Kafafov rose 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 councilor. For the next 25 years he worked in the judicial department, in prosecutorial supervision, as a judge, and as a member of the judicial chambers. In 1912, a new stage of his career began, associated with service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On April 2 he was appointed Vice Director of the Police Department. He did not have any experience in political investigation, and he was entrusted with purely bureaucratic functions; mainly, as a vice-director, he was responsible for departments related to legislative activities, and as a member of the minister’s council, he represented the Ministry in various interdepartmental commissions and meetings. His most serious work was done in the Workers' Insurance Council.

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

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

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

“I’m 66 years old, I’m old. Much has been lived and much has been experienced,” these are the words that begin the memoirs of one of the heads of the Internal Affairs Department in last years Russian Empire, actual state councilor Konstantin Dmitrievich Kafafov.

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

My story is humble.

I spent the summer after liberation from the [Peter and Paul] Fortress in Petrograd, since I was obliged by subscription not to leave 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 intensive requests, this permission was finally given to me, and they took away from me a signature that I undertake to appear in Petrograd at the first request of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry. September 11, 1917 My family and I went to the Caucasus.

We arrived in Tiflis on September 17th. Autumn this year was unusually good. But the revolution greatly affected the life of the city. There was no bread. Instead of bread, they had to eat some kind of pulp made from bran and straw. Even corn, which is usually quite abundant in the Caucasus, was scarce this year. The cost of other products grew by leaps and bounds, and to top it all off, the most unceremonious robberies began in the city. They robbed us on the street during the day. For example, robbers meet a well-dressed lady on the street, silently accompany her to her apartment and, approaching her entrance, unexpectedly invite her to undress - they take off everything of any value from her, not excluding boots and silk stockings, then they themselves they ring the bell at the entrance and quickly disappear 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, ordinary apartment robberies have become more frequent. Hooliganism has also become extremely frequent. There was continuous gunfire in the streets. The authorities were unable to cope with this.

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

Meanwhile, the revolutionary movement in Russia deepened more and more. Soon after my arrival in Tiflis (at the end of October 1917), information was received from Moscow about the seizure of power there by the Bolsheviks. The complete collapse of the army began. Mutinous bands of soldiers reached home from the front in a disorderly, noisy armed crowd, threatening the safety of the cities lying along 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 declare their independence. Yesterday's representatives of the Georgian people in State Duma, and during the revolution - in the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Chkheidze, Chkhen-keli and Gegechkori, convinced internationalists - Social Democrats, Mensheviks, unexpectedly turned into ardent nationalists-patriots in their homeland. The Constituent Assembly was urgently convened. The independence of Georgia was proclaimed, basic laws were developed - 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. While paying tribute to the demands of the revolution, they were able, however, to direct all these demands in the sense desired by their leaders. So, for example, according to the example Central Russia and they formed a council of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies, although in Georgia there are actually few workers at all, and almost no factory workers, since there are only 2-3 tobacco factories there, and at first there were no soldiers at all. Nevertheless, infection is stronger than logic - and such a council was formed. But the leaders of the Georgian independent movement managed to virtually seize this revolutionary institution into their own hands. In essence, members of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, members of the Constituent Assembly and, finally, members of Parliament - if they were not the same persons, then in any case they were political like-minded people who not only did not interfere with each other, but on the contrary mutually supporting each other.

Of the Georgians, the Imeretians turned out to be the most energetic and militant workers. Georgians are divided into several tribes: the Kartalians, living in the lower reaches, mainly in the Tiflis province, the Imeretians, Mingrelians and Abkhazians, living in the Kutaisi province. Of these, the Kartalians are the most civilians Georgia. Imeretians and, in general, residents of mountainous areas have a hotter temperament. IN Peaceful time The Imeretians were mainly engaged in latrine trades, to which they were prompted both by the poverty of their nature and by their innate entrepreneurial spirit. The best cooks and servants both in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus were predominantly from Imereti. When socialist teachings and the revolutionary movement began to penetrate into Transcaucasia, the Imeretians turned out to be their most receptive followers. They also captured the revolutionary and independent movement in Georgia. All Georgians share the basics of the language, but each tribe has its own characteristics, its own pronunciation and its own turns of phrase. They understand each other relatively freely. Almost all surnames in Kartalinia end in “shvili” - Mgaloblishvili, Khoshiashvili, etc. “Shvili” translated means “son”, Imeretian surnames end in “dze” - Chkheidze, Dumbadze, Dzha-mardzhidze, etc. “Dze” by -Imeretian also means “son”. Thus, the surnames seem to come from a representative of the clan, but, in addition, in Imereti there are many surnames, the origin of which can probably be explained by the fact that their ancestors came to the Caucasus in long ago times from the west, for example : Orbeliani, Zhordania, etc. As is known, 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, local authorities were created. A permanent parliament was elected, ministries were formed, and the old social democrat Noah Jordania, who had previously been a minor employee of the oilman Nobel in Baku, became the head of the government. Nightgowns with ribbons instead of ties were removed, and members of the new government put on starched collars, dressed themselves in business cards and covered their Social Democratic heads with bourgeois top hats. The most talented of them, Gegechkori, who took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, turned out to be a special dandy. One of his first diplomatic steps was to bow down to the Germans. The newly minted diplomat turned out to be a bad politician and believed in the invincibility of the Germans, being, obviously, at heart a big fan of the German armored fist. However, there was information about relations between some Georgian groups and the Germans back in 1914, at the beginning of the war. But these rumors were not given any significance at that time due to the fact that the representatives of the Georgian nobility close to the court, and after them all the 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 of the administration and police, as the ministers of the Provisional Government did. 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 Internal Affairs, shown by him in the fight against the enemies of independent Georgia and order in it, could be envied by Plehve himself. Arrests and expulsions rained down from the socialist cornucopia, regardless of any principles and problems of freedom, which these Social Democrats were shouting about so recently from the rostrum of the Russian State Duma.

The first immediate concern of the Georgian government was the need to ferry Russian soldiers returning from the front without permission from the borders of Georgia as quickly and painlessly as possible. This responsibility was mainly entrusted to the former member of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies Chkheidze, he met the troops, made speeches, convinced the soldiers to quickly return home to their waiting families, and, just in case, pointed them to the towering right on the opposite side. -on the river bank Chickens on Davidovskaya Mountain, saying that a huge number of guns are concentrated there and in case of resistance, in an instant all the carriages with soldiers will be “turned into 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 with a rather high mountain rising 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, here once upon a time, when the entire mountain was still covered with forest, lived the hermit St. David. Here, in the fence of the church, the immortal author of “Woe from Wit” Griboedov is buried. It was on this mountain that the Georgians, in order to intimidate soldiers returning from the front, built a seemingly formidable battery of 2 cannons taken from the Russians.

With sweet speeches and cannon threats, the Georgian authorities managed to transport troops returning from the front outside of Georgia. The diplomatic attempts of the Georgian diplomat were no less successful. In the first half of 1918, I don’t remember the month now, a small train of German troops unexpectedly arrived in Tiflis with guns and music. And an amazing thing. The Germans arrived in the morning, and at noon they were stationed one at a time on the main streets. to a German soldier without guns with one cleaver, and in the city he immediately recovered full order; from that day on it was possible to return home in the dead of night without any fear of attack. 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 was located in one of the houses on Golovinsky Avenue. Every day, information about the progress of the war was posted near the headquarters doors. In the evenings there was music playing on Golovinsky Prospekt; but the days of the Germans were already numbered. Georgian diplomats were wrong.

After the breakthrough of the Solunsky Front in September 1918, the position of the Germans became difficult: their front still held out, but they felt an impending catastrophe. The allied forces, united under the overall command of Marshal Foch, were preparing for a decisive blow. In view of all this, the Germans hastily folded and left Tiflis. The Georgians, willy-nilly, had to change their orientation and turn to the British.

Soon the British arrived. Their arrival was not as solemn as the appearance of the Germans. Apparently, among 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 began intensively exporting oil from Baku and manganese from Georgia.

As soon as Georgia declared its independence, the Armenians and Baku Tatars. On the territory of the Erivan and part of the Elizavetpol province populated by Armenians, the Armenian Republic was formed, and on the territory of the Baku and other parts of the Elizavetpol province populated by Tatars, the Azerbaijan Republic was formed. Until that time, Azerbaijan was the name given to the part of Persian territory adjacent to Russia. Baku and its environs, before their conquest by the Russians, constituted a special khanate, ruled by the Baki Khans, who were vassals of the Persian shahs. On the shores of the Caspian Sea, above the present city, the Bakikhanov castle towered. The Khanate was poor, the inhabitants were engaged in cattle breeding and fishing.

They had no idea about oil at that time, and the gases escaping from the ground in places contributed to the creation of a religious cult of fire worshipers, who, thanks to these gases, maintained an eternal fire in their temples. After the Persians adopted Islam, this religion gradually began to spread among the Baku and other Caucasian Tatars and highlanders. The Bakikhanov clan ceased. The Baku and Elizavetpol provinces have long since entered not only the boundaries of the Russian state, but gradually began to join Russian culture. Representatives of the local population in most cases were already pupils of Russians educational institutions. They never even dreamed of independence, which, moreover, they, in essence, never had. But life is more fantastic than the richest human fantasy. And so the Baku Tatars suddenly had the opportunity to organize their own oil republic, and for greater importance they decided to invent ancestors for themselves - in the person of an independent Azerbaijan that supposedly once existed on their territory. Of all the newly-founded republics, the Azerbaijan Republic was the richest, thanks to its oil sources. Then came the Georgian one, 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 run-down provincial provincial town, which cannot be compared even with Baku, not only with Tiflis. All three republics, especially at first, lived exclusively on the legacy left from Russia in the form of all kinds of food warehouses, uniforms and weapons. They unceremoniously divided all this property among themselves, and the lion's share of everything went to the Georgians, because almost all the large warehouses were located in Tiflis and its environs.

Neither factory, nor factory, nor agricultural industry was developed in any way either in Georgia or in Armenia. Before the newly minted state entities The question of finding out the means of subsistence urgently arose. The financial authorities of the new republics first of all took up the search for these funds. First of all, they proceeded to 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 backing at least part of them with gold cash. They only indicated that they were provided with all the state property of the country, but the authorities themselves hardly knew what the value of these properties was. The authorities seemed to care more about the external beauty of the bonds, flaunting before each other fancy designs of the emblems of their state power on their credit signs, than about their actual creditworthiness. Oddly enough, but on the Transcaucasian Exchange - their quotation did not go further - Georgian bonds stood above the rest, followed by Azerbaijani ones and last 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 constructing public baths above these springs. These baths bore the names of their owners. So, there were baths: Iraklievskaya, which once belonged to Irakli, the Georgian prince, and which later passed to his heirs; Sumbatovskaya, which belonged to the Sumbatov princes; Orbelyanovskaya, which belonged to the princes Dzhambakuri-Orbelyanov, Bebutovskaya, which belonged to the princes Bebutov; Mirzoevskaya, which belonged to the rich Mirzoevs, famous at one time in the Caucasus, etc. The local population willingly visited these baths, and their profitability grew as the city’s population grew. In 1913, the Tiflis city government raised the issue of purchasing all these baths from private owners and, in view of healing properties them, about the establishment of a medical resort at their location. Negotiations even began with the owners, but the war prevented the implementation of this intention. The Georgian socialist government solved the issue more simply, it simply took away these baths with all the buildings and lands belonging to them from private owners - like natural resources bowels of the earth. The nationalization itself was also carried out without difficulty. 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 the tenants and announced to them that, until further notice, it would leave these baths in their lease and instruct them from now on to pay rent to the treasury, in view of the nationalization of the baths. Then it notified the owners about this, promising to pay them the cost of the buildings. However, until its collapse, nothing was paid to them.

Left without the owners and their constant monitoring of the cleanliness and order in the baths and unsure of the future, the tenants directed all their efforts towards the greatest possible exploitation of the property entrusted to them, without paying any attention to the condition of this property. As a result, after just a few months, the baths turned out to be 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 packed, with six people 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 carriages; they opened the compartment doors, examined the passengers and silently left the carriage. It turned out that these were Tatars from the surrounding villages, looking for Armenians on the train. Not long before this there were pogroms, first the Armenians destroyed the Tatars, and then the Tatars destroyed the Armenians. The passions did not have time to subside. On the train they reported that the day before the Tatars had taken two Armenians from the train and killed them right there at the station.

The next morning we arrived in Baku. I was immediately struck by the difference between Baku and Tiflis. Baku from outside remained the same as it was before the revolution. Russian speech, Russian people, Russian troops - the detachment of General Bicherakhov. Residents of Baku had to endure a lot after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. First of all, soon after the Bolshevik coup in Russia, the Bolshevik uprising broke out in Baku. With the assistance of workers, local Armenian and Russian Bolsheviks managed to seize power into their own hands. All privately owned oil fields were immediately nationalized. At this time, the Armenians carried out a brutal pogrom against the Muslims, 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. After the breakthrough of the Solunsky Front, the Turks, like the Germans, left the Caucasus. After their departure, a pogrom of the Armenians, organized by the Turks, soon broke out, its cruelty not inferior to the Armenian pogrom. In mid-1918, General Bicherakhov and his detachment arrived in Baku from the Persian front. Thanks to the presence of Russian troops, order was quickly restored in the city. By this time, the power in the newly formed republic had managed to be finally constructed. The government was headed by attorney-at-law Khan Khoyski. A parliament was formed, which included several Russian members. Then a coalition Council of Ministers was formed with two Russian ministers - a former member of the council under the Caucasian governor from the Ministry of Finance I.N. Protasyev as Minister of Finance and local businessman Lizgar as Minister of Trade and Industry.

Bicherakhov's detachment in the spring of 1919 he went to Denikin. The British came to replace him from Baku. The British treated the Baku residents quite favorably. They advised them to expand the coalition and provide two or one portfolio to the Armenians in the ministry. This advice was formally accepted, although in fact it was almost never implemented; the mutual hostility between the Armenians and Tatars was too great, especially after the recent mutual pogroms. After the arrival of the British, the Baku people grew stronger and the newly-minted Azerbaijani Republic began to gradually unfold. A significant part of the employees in Azerbaijani government institutions consisted of Russians. The attitude of the local authorities and the population towards them was the most friendly, and there is no need to compare these relations with the relations between Georgians and Armenians. It is interesting to note the fact that in the Azerbaijan Republic all paperwork 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 in parliament did they speak Turkish, and even then not everyone. It is quite difficult to establish exactly the legal nature of the Transcaucasian republics, since they did not have time to crystallize and were still in the organizational and revolutionary period.

Georgian Republic in its design - with parliament, with a responsible ministry - it fully corresponded to the principles of democracy. As for the Azerbaijan Republic, it was of a rather mixed nature. The ministers here were appointed not from members of parliament, in addition, the principle of a responsible ministry was not clearly implemented, because in their work they reported more to the head of government than to parliament. Some of the ministers, such as Russian ministers, did not go to parliament at all, but on the other hand, parliament was not only a legislative body, but also a governing and supervisory body and quite vigorously discussed all issues of life and government of the country , although sometimes with a 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 leader in Georgia was Noah Jordania, in Azerbaijan - Khan Khoisky, and in Armenia, if my memory serves me correctly, Khatisov. The special feature of the Azerbaijan Republic was its army, organized by the full general of the Russian service Mokhmandarov, a holder of two officer Georgies. This army was organized, armed and equipped according to the Russian model. General Mokhmandarov himself always wore Russian military uniform, with two St. Georges, and wore buttons on his uniform with eagles. Almost whole officers 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 according to 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 most Russians moved to Baku. The question of citizenship did not bother the Russians in Azerbaijan either, since this issue, at least in relation to the Russians, was not taken into account there. Russians, despite their citizenship, could hold all sorts of positions, up to and including minister. Although the law on citizenship was adopted by parliament, it was almost not applied in practice until the end of the days of the Azerbaijan Republic. While the Georgians managed to implement their law on citizenship. According to this law, by the way, all persons living within Georgia from known date(before Georgia declared its independence). At the same time, persons who did not want to transfer to Georgian citizenship were obliged to declare this within a certain period.

Of all the nationalities of the Caucasus, the Georgians were the most beloved in Russia; of all the nationalities of the Caucasus, after the revolution, the Georgians began to treat the Russians worst of all. And, oddly enough, the Tatars - Muslims - turned out to be the most grateful to Russia for what it did for them. At the same time, many Tatars sincerely declared that they did not rejoice in 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 spoken to me personally about this. Not only intelligent people thought so, ordinary people also thought so.

End of the article and its full version

Today on the Mnogo.ru website in the section of the interactive quiz “Quote of the Day” the following interesting question was asked: “Memories that began with a small ripple, are they overwhelming me with a ten-point storm?”

Who might this phrase belong to, and who is the author of these words?

Guitar, mushroom and milk soup

One of my friends told me about his first memories: he was lying in a cradle, he was a year and a half old, and a guitar was hanging above him. When he grew up and asked his parents about this guitar, they were very surprised, because at that age no one usually remembers himself. By the way, the young man was a musician. Maybe the first memory of the guitar influenced him that way?

I myself can’t figure out what my very first memory is. Here I am walking with my grandmother on a summer day through the village. I remember the houses, the lake, the sun. In hand - big mushroom which I brag about. I'm three years old. Or I sit on my mother’s lap while visiting. I remember a table with food and drinks and a man with a camera. Later I will find these photographs in the family album. Or I look down from the balcony (we lived on the fifth floor). Feeling of fear and height. But I can’t name a specific first memory.

I ask my friend. She also cannot name any specific childhood episode.

I remember how, when I was 4 years old, I asked about soup in kindergarten to see if I wanted to have lunch. They told me that today is milk day. And I said something like: “Well, then I’ll have lunch,” she says.

By the way, Leo Tolstoy described his first memories in sufficient detail. Maybe such ability is a sign of genius?

These are my first memories, ones that I don’t know how to put in order, not knowing what happened before and after. I don’t even know about some of them, whether it was in a dream or in reality. Here they are. I'm tied up, I want to free my hands, but I can't do it. I scream and cry, and I myself hate my screaming, but I can’t stop. Someone is standing over me, bent over, I don’t remember who, and all this is in semi-darkness, but I remember that there are two, and my scream affects them: they are alarmed by my scream, but they do not untie me, what I want, and I scream even louder. It seems to them that this is necessary (that is, for me to be tied up), whereas I know that this is not necessary, and I want to prove it to them, and I burst into screams, disgusting to myself, but uncontrollable. I feel the injustice and cruelty not of people, because they pity me, but of fate and pity for myself.

It's funny. Why did the brain leave these particular memories and how did they affect us? I’ll try to figure out why we completely forget everything that happened before the age of three (and some even begin to recall memories from the age of five).

Society and brain features

Inability to store memories from early childhood usually called infantile amnesia. The term appeared thanks to the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who coined the term “infantile amnesia” more than a hundred years ago. Here are the main points modern science to this problem.

Neural connections

Interestingly, all scientists indicate that children in infancy can effectively use memory and other cognitive functions. Every second, a baby forms 700 new neural connections and uses language learning skills that would be the envy of any polyglot. Even before the end of the first year of life, infants use top-down attention for visual search and also replenish lexicon during sleep. And some studies indicate that a child begins to train his brain in the womb.

An explanation for infantile amnesia may be that childhood neurons are intensively replaced in the brain and new neural connections are formed. Such complex processes actually erase memory. During maturation, death and formation of new nerve cells slow down significantly (but do not stop completely). Therefore, we remember best what happened to us already in adulthood, when all the same neurons with the same connections are used.

Features of our memory

The answer to this can be found in the work of the 19th-century German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, who conducted a number of pioneering studies on himself to reveal the limits of human memory. Through a series of experiments, he found that a person forgets what he has learned amazingly quickly. Without much effort human brain eliminates half of all new knowledge within an hour. By the end of the month, a person remembers only 2-3% of what he learned. Perhaps, during the period of mastering the most important skills, we forget everything that is not essential, concentrating on the skills that will ensure our survival in the future?

Society's attitude

Psychologist Qi Wang from Cornell University (USA) was also interested in this topic. She collected hundreds of memories from groups of Chinese and American students to determine the nature of this phenomenon. An interesting fact emerged: the Americans had longer stories, while the Chinese spoke more concisely and with an emphasis on facts. In general, Chinese students' childhood memories began six months later. During the analysis, she found that if memories of childhood were vague, then the parents and culture were to blame. If society lets you know that these memories are important to you, you will keep them. The scientist found that memories begin to form first among young representatives of the New Zealand Maori people, who are characterized by great attention to the past. Many people remember what happened to them when they were only two and a half years old.

Language

Some psychologists believe that events begin to be stored in a person’s memory only after he has mastered speech. Language helps us structure our memories, putting them into narrative form. Therefore, when we master language skills, it becomes easier for us to remember the past. But many psychologists are skeptical about this theory, since children who, for example, are born deaf or grow up without knowing the language, remember themselves from about the same age.

Another one interesting thing associated with first memories is our ability to invent them. We can allegedly remember those memories that either never happened to us, or we can reconstruct events from the stories of loved ones.

People can pick up ideas and begin to visualize them, making them indistinguishable from memories, says researcher Elizabeth Loftes.

A recent study by British scientists confirms this feature. Researchers asked more than six thousand volunteers different ages talk about their first memory and found that almost 40 percent of them occurred before the age of three. According to the authors of the work published in the journal Psychological Science, at this age, episodic memory memories are not yet formed, from which we can conclude that they are fictitious..

American writer and philologist died on June 15, 2014. Daniel Keyes. He passed away at the age of 86. His popularity was brought to him by the novels “Flowers for Algernon” and “The Many Minds of Billy Milligan,” which I personally got to know three years ago. They left the most powerful impressions and many reasons for reflection. May Daniel Keyes rest in peace, let us honor his memory, and remember his novels. I have already written short reviews in honor of his creations, which I will share with you below.

Daniel Keyes is the only author to win two of English-language science fiction's most prestigious awards for two works with the same title. In 1960, the story “Flowers for Algernon” was awarded the Hugo Award, and in 1966, the novel of the same name, based on it, received the Nebula Award.

The Many Minds of Billy Milligan (1981) is based on real story and tells the story of a man who is acquitted of his crimes because he suffered from multiple personality disorder. Billy Milligan is one of the most famous people with a diagnosis of “multiple personality” in the history of psychiatry (24 full-fledged personalities)

"Flowers for Algernon"

This story is about a mentally retarded man. His name is Charlie. He is calm and peaceful and works in a bakery. His “friends” laugh at him all the time, but he is only happy because he brings them joy. Thinks they love him. So he lived carefree until they decided to conduct a neurosurgical experiment on him - the same operation was performed on a mouse named Algernon, with whom he became good friends. After that he really became smart. No. He became simply a genius! He always wanted to be like this, he tried very hard. But after that things weren't so simple.

“I’m learning to hold back my resentment, to be more patient, to wait. I'm growing. Every day I learn something new about myself, and memories that begin with a small ripple overwhelm me with a ten-force storm.”

Terrible memories from the past, a desire to find out everything. There are many life problems and difficulties with certain things: relationships, self-knowledge, friendship, love, sex, struggle with oneself. He needed to understand his “I”. Find out the main thing - who is Charlie Gordon really?

“Yes, I’m awkward, but only because I’ve never found myself in such circumstances before. How does a person know how to behave with another person? How does a man know how to behave with a woman? Books are of little use. Next time I’ll definitely kiss her.”

An incredible story in which you are completely immersed and feel the state of the main character. For the first time I see deliberate spelling errors used in literature - this helps to better understand what is happening to a person and how his personality develops. Everything is so touching that it is often impossible to hold back without shedding a tear. I recommend reading it. There is something for everyone here. It is not surprising that this book is included in the compulsory reading program in American schools.

This grandiose story has amazing psychological power and makes you think about many life values.

"The Many Minds of Billy Milligan"

At one time there were rumors about a popular book that told about real existing person with a split personality. And what’s wrong with that, I thought, there are thousands like him all over the world. But when I found out that this character has about two dozen of these “images”, he was surprised and skeptical about this information. But over time, I started reading Daniel Keyes’ book “The Many Minds of Billy Milligan.” Interest was fueled by information that this story is supported by a foundation with real-life events.

Billy's mysterious story is very interesting, read in one sitting. But it's still sad and scary. Just imagine that your body is controlled by 23 more personalities - and all this is outside your awareness. You don’t understand what happened to you the whole time you were “sleeping.” Even when one person can observe the actions of another, it is even more terrible, because you do not control anything and observe your actions as if from the side and through a fog. Daniel Keyes was amazing at describing everything - you can easily imagine these 24 personalities, each with their own experiences and views on life.

Kevin. One of Billy Milligan's personalities: “We know that a world without pain is a world without feelings... but a world without feelings is a world without pain.”

P.S. After the book was published, in 1991 Milligan was declared “in one piece” and released. In the 90s, he made films, painted pictures, studied programming, physics, and mathematics. He was a genius, but he was still a split personality (as he himself admitted). So I wonder what’s wrong with him now? What is he like now? They say that nothing has been heard about him and his exact location is unknown.

Work on the film "The Crowded Room" about the life of Billy Milligan has been constantly suspended and there is no reliable information about whether it will even be released. Something incredible and mysterious is constantly happening around this man.