Former people

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In Russian language and culture, "former people" (Russian: Бывшие люди, romanized: byvshiye lyudi) are people who lost their high social status. The expression went into a wide circulation in the Russian Empire after the 1897 short story of Maxim Gorky, Бывшие люди, translated in English as Creatures That Once Were Men, about people fallen from prosperity into an abyss of misery. After the October Revolution, the expression referred to people who lost their social status after the revolution: aristocracy, imperial military, bureaucracy, clergy, etc.[1]

Background

While the "former people" of Gorky were the object of pity and compassion, from the very first days of the

Karelian ASSR from further 22,000 "formers". Further 8,000 were deported from the area during the so-called "passport operations".[4]

During the peak of the Great Purge, the cleansing of the country from the "former people" was explained by the necessity to eliminate the "insurgence base" in the case of a war.[5]

The 1939

dvoryans [Russian nobility], pomeshchiks (noble landowners), merchants and petty merchants, those who employ hired labor, industrialists, and others".[6]

The number of "former people" was in the millions. According to various estimates, in 1913 in Russia, there were between 22 and 35 million relatively wealthy people, counting both urban and rural population.[7]

Historian

Golitsyns and the Sheremetevs.[8] Additionally, Amor Towles' novel A Gentleman in Moscow
chronicles the tale of a former person imprisoned in the Moscow hotel Metropol for much of his adult life.

See also

References

  1. ^ Российский гуманитарный энциклопедический словарь. — М.: Гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС: Филол. фак. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. (in Russian), 2002
  2. ^ "О выселении контрреволюционного элемента из Ленинграда и пригородных районов в отдаленные районы страны"
  3. ^ Записка по прямому проводу Наркома НКВД Ягоды от 25 марта 1935 г. «Об операции по очистке погранполосы Ленобласти и Карелии от кулацкого и антисоветского элемента» (in Russian)
  4. ^ "Бывшие люди", операция НКВД, 1935 - 1936", Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg (in Russian), citing Иванов В.А. Миссия ордена. Механизм массовых репрессий в Советской России в конце 20-х - 40-х гг. (на материалах Северо-Запада РСФСР). СПб., 1997; Генрих Ягода: Сб. документов. Казань, 1997. С. 495 - 476
  5. ^ Н.Охотин; А.Рогинский. From the History of the German Operation of the NKVD 1937-1938 (in Russian). chapter 2 {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Приказ НКВД от 11.10.1939 № 001223 (in Russian) – via Wikisource, бывшая царская и белогвардейская администрация, бывшие дворяне, помещики, купцы, торговцы, применяющие наемный труд, владельцы предприятий и другие.
  7. ISBN 5-98308-002-4
    .
  8. ISBN 978-1250037794
    .

Further reading

  • Vladimir Markovchin [in Russian] (2013). Бывшие люди (in Russian). Kursk: издательство Юго-Западного госуниверситета.
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