During his tenure, he focused on improving the lives of people at the grassroots level and breaking the monopoly of power by the privileged class. As a result, he offended many people and was eventually ostracized and forced to step down.

In the history of the Soviet Union, relatively speaking, Khrushchev was a relatively enlightened leader. During his tenure, he focused on improving the lives of people at the grassroots level and breaking the monopoly of power by the privileged class. As a result, he offended many people and was eventually ostracized and forced to step down. However, even so, Khrushchev would inevitably leave some "stains" in his career, and the Novocherkassk incident in June 1962 was one of them.

Entering the 1960s, the top leaders of the Soviet Union sang loudly, claiming that they had made key achievements in socialist construction and that they would build communism by the 1980s. But in fact, Khrushchev's ambitious reforms were encountering setbacks at that time. Due to unreasonable policies, the Soviet economy experienced a certain degree of decline. As the world's leading grain-producing country, the Soviet Union even had to import grain in early 1962.

Unfortunately, it was the people who ultimately paid for the mistakes of the decision-makers: at the end of May 1962, the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers made a resolution to increase the average price of meat and various meat products by 30% starting from June. The prices of animal fats and oils and various products increased by an average of 25%. During that period, the lives of the people at the grassroots level in the Soviet Union were not considered wealthy. This was great. If they wanted to have a good meal, they would have to spend nearly 1/3 more money on something meaty. How could this be possible? Not annoying?

However, the simple rise in prices did not completely break the mentality of the people. The flattering style of local bureaucrats was the trigger of the incident.

It turns out that not long after the resolution was announced, some local units were very "cooperative" in reducing workers' wages, including the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Manufacturing Plant. The administrative department of the factory has re-established work quotas. Calculated, each worker's monthly salary will drop by about 30%.

Novocherkassk is a little-known small city in the western part of Rostov Oblast, Russia. To this day, the local population is less than 200,000, and its size is equivalent to an ordinary county town here.

During the Soviet era, Novocherkassk had an average status in the country and did not enjoy any "care" in terms of material supply. Therefore, when there was a shortage of domestic materials in the Soviet Union in 1962 and the supply had to be tightened, Novocherkassk was like this The cities in China are the first to bear the brunt. People have to queue up in front of stores in the middle of the night to buy potatoes. Some poor people can't even afford potatoes, so they can only pick up potato skins thrown away by others and roast them at home to satisfy their hunger.

Prices have increased by 30% and wages have dropped by 30%. After this, living standards have dropped by more than half; but for the workers in Novocherkassk, things are not just that simple.

Originally, wages were paid every month. After excluding rent and daily expenses, the workers had very little money left. Now, with such a hassle, everyone cannot even guarantee their basic life. Worried workers have reported their problems to relevant departments many times, but the answers they received were dumbfounding: Accepting a salary cut in difficult times, isn't this also an act to support the country? The problem of

cannot be solved, and negative emotions continue to grow and spread among the people.

On the morning of June 1, 1962, eight or nine dissatisfied workers gathered in the steel casting workshop of the motorcycle manufacturing plant to complain. As time went by, more and more workers joined in the discussion, and production work was affected. It quickly attracted the attention of the supervisor on duty. The director was well aware of the stakes and persuaded the workers to return to their jobs with good words. This only made some people even more excited. They came over and surrounded the director, calculating old and new accounts together. Not only did they complain about the low wages, but they also accused the factory of poor working conditions, Safety was not guaranteed, etc. All the problems that had been tolerated for a long time came out.

The workers are not unreasonable in saying this. It is worth mentioning that a safety accident occurred in the winding insulation workshop of the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant, resulting in the poisoning of more than 200 workers. As a result, instead of attracting the attention of the factory, the factory took high-pressure measures to suppress the matter.

At this time, the excited crowd was like a powder keg, and the spark that ignited it happened to appear unexpectedly.

It turned out that when the workers kept complaining, the factory director Kurochkin was nearby.This man is a typical "idiot". According to the information, he has a "serious bureaucratic style." As a manager, he doesn't have much talent and relies entirely on flattering his superiors to get to the top. As soon as Kurochkin appeared, his style immediately changed: he sternly reprimanded and ordered the workers to return to their posts immediately; some people tried to report problems to him, but Kurochkin not only refused to listen to a word, but instead said a strange sentence Words: "If you don't have money to buy meat and sausages, just eat pig sesame pies!"

It was Kurochkin's arrogance that angered the crowd. Some of the workers began to curse, which was echoed by many people. Seeing that the situation was not good, the factory manager, who was stern but had a soft heart, immediately sneaked back to the office in the chaos. Unexpectedly, the workers did not want to let him go and chased him all the way.

Near noon, hundreds of people gathered in front of the headquarters building of the locomotive factory. The workers also stopped a passing train. They blew the whistle and asked the factory director to come out and give an explanation. Not only that, the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Many top leaders of Rostov Region rushed to try to calm the situation. When they found that the public anger was overwhelming, they immediately hid in the factory building like Kurochkin. .

At around 4:30 pm, the crowd in front of the building had reached as many as four to five thousand people, including many citizens who came to watch the excitement. At this time, Basov, the top leader of Rostov State, finally agreed to talk to the masses. He used the radio to speak. However, when the workers realized that Basov's speech was still meaningless and "empty," they directly Broken speaker.

In the next two hours, no department maintained order. The anger of the workers continued to simmer, and the crowds gathered more and more. The situation was far beyond the control of the local government. At this time, the Rostov state government finally decided to request Soviet troops to intervene to control the situation.

At about 3 a.m. on June 2, 1962, Soviet officers and soldiers brought a large number of armored tanks to the scene, forcibly dispersed thousands of demonstrators, announced a curfew in Novocherkassk, and arrested the leaders. 22 people. However, the top management adopted a milder approach. They immediately released 20 of them after a simple interrogation, and only detained the two leading troublemakers.

In the next six hours, Novocherkassk seemed to have restored its previous order, and the Soviet top brass was also assessing the situation and considering whether to withdraw its troops. However, to everyone's surprise, the workers did not intend to give up. They even raised slogans such as "I don't want to work under gunpoint." Not only did thousands of workers at the electric locomotive factory regroup, they also actively moved around, Demonstrations were also held in several nearby factories.

html Around 10 a.m. on the 2nd, all the demonstrators gathered together and started from the motorcycle factory towards the city. The workers in the front row held up flowers and portraits of Lenin and Stalin, and forcibly broke through the first line of defense composed of the Soviet army's tanks; the North Caucasus Military District Command immediately ordered a second blockade in front of the Tuzlov River Bridge. line, but was still easily broken by the crowd.

What’s interesting is that before entering the city, the demonstrators have always maintained rationality and restraint. They did not focus on the issue and the person, but only shouted their demands. The soldiers also "work hard but don't work hard" and cooperate tacitly. Unexpectedly, after entering the city, the style of painting suddenly changed.

More and more citizens joined the parade. Some of them were well-intentioned and cheered for the workers, but most of them were thugs waiting for opportunities to cause trouble. When the demonstrators approached Moskva Street in the city center, the rioters immediately revealed their true colors. They threw stones at the state government department buildings, fought with guards, snatched guns, and rushed into the buildings along the street to steal property and furniture. Some thugs, under the guise of giving speeches, openly encouraged workers to take action against the military and police who were maintaining order, and the situation became chaotic. Finally, when the incited crowd began to attack the Soviet security department and the state police building, the soldiers opened fire on the crowd, and a peaceful march turned into a bloody tragedy.

According to the description of Soviet writer Solzhenitsyn: On the day of the Novocherkassk incident, the city was filled with crowds and fights were everywhere.Witnesses said that "the ground was full of injured and dead bodies," and the scene was horrific.

According to the report to Moscow by the leader of the Soviet State Security Service Peter Ivanovich Ivashutin: After the riot subsided, the army collected 20 bodies from the scene, including 2 women; in addition, 40 people were injured, and three people later died of serious injuries. More than 240 people were arrested. The Soviet high-level officials eventually characterized the incident as "a riot provoked by a small group of rogue criminals and self-interested individuals who took advantage of workers who made reasonable demands." In order to avoid adverse effects as much as possible, an order was issued News of the lockdown order. The army deployed a large number of manpower and used water cannons to clean the blood on the ground to maintain order and ensure that there would be no more riots.

The author believes that the summary of the Soviet authorities is very accurate. However, throughout human history, in quite a few major events that have been recorded in the annals of history, revolutionaries with truly firm beliefs are only a minority, and the majority are people who have mixed in with various purposes. It is precisely because of this that many things changed later on, and some efforts that were supposed to have a positive impact on historical development ultimately failed.

Wasn’t this the case in the Novocherkassk incident? The "stage" set up by workers to fight for their right to exist ended up letting thugs play the leading role. In the final analysis, this is caused by greed and selfishness in human nature.