Easter Rising (Irl. Éirí Amach na Cásca, English Easter Rising) - an uprising raised by the leaders of the Irish independence movement on Easter 1916 (from 24 to 30 April), during the First World War.
During the centuries of British rule in Ireland, the Irish freedom movement was built on the basic principle: the agony of Britain is a chance for Ireland. With the entry of Britain into the First World War, a split began in the IRB. Some felt that the moment had come for a new uprising: the empire was stuck in the worst war in the history of mankind for a long time, millions had already died, millions were yet to die in this bloody massacre, the economic situation was rapidly deteriorating, and confidence in the government was also rapidly falling, throughout In Ireland, one after another, new and new recruiting sets are passing, which by no means add to the popularity of the authorities. From the point of view of others, on the contrary, the country was not ready for an uprising, too many Irish went to fight in France, and in relation to them it would be a kind of betrayal ...
Proclamation for the beginning of the Easter Rising

The goal was to declare the independence of Ireland from Britain. Some of the leaders of the uprising also wanted to place Joachim, Prince of Prussia, a representative of the German Empire at war with the British, on the royal throne of Ireland, although in the end the Irish Republic was proclaimed by the rebels. At the same time, one of the leaders of the uprising, Sir Roger Casement, maintained contacts with the German government and counted on the military support of the Central Powers, as well as the help of the Irish in German captivity.
Irish rebel leaders

Among the opponents of the uprising was Owen McNeill (Owen McNeill), head of staff of the Irish Volunteers (ID). His main argument was the lack of the necessary number of weapons in the hands of potential freedom fighters. He believed that as long as Britain did not try to forcibly disarm them or, conversely, draw them into hostilities on the continent, it was inappropriate for the Irish Volunteers to enter into open confrontation.
In the end Pierce and the other leaders of the Volunteers, together with Connolly and his Irish Citizen Army, decided to mount an insurrection on Sunday 23 April 1916, under the guise of long-planned ID maneuvers for that day. McNeill was not privy to their plans. He was only informed on Thursday, and at the first moment he agreed, his decision influenced by the hopeful news of the arrival of a transport of weapons from Germany for the rebels. But when, following the good news, came the discouraging news of Sir Casement's arrest and the loss of all precious cargo.
Sir Roger Casement

German weapons intercepted by the British for the Irish rebels

McNeill, by his order, canceled the maneuvers and, in an address to Volunteers throughout the country, declared that there would be no uprising. But it was already too late.
With the exception of Plunkett, who was in the hospital, the rest of the War Council (Pierce, Connolly, Clairk, McDiarmud, Kent, and McDonagh) met at Liberty Hall on the first day of Easter to discuss the situation after the loss of a shipment of weapons (weapons intended for the rebels went to the bottom at Donts Rock), the arrest of Casement and Sean McDermot. They decided not to cancel the uprising, but to postpone it until Monday afternoon in order to contact most of the volunteers across the country and report that the Rebellion had begun. Most of the IRA members, about 1,000 Irish Volunteers and many members of the Women's League (led by Countess Markevitch), gathered outside Liberty Hall at noon on Easter Monday.
Field kitchen during the Easter Rising. Women sit in a room peeling potatoes and boiling them in a large pot on the stove. Countess Markevich, leader of the "Women's League", stirs the brew in a saucepan. The Countess was sentenced to life imprisonment.

They took out of the premises all the weapons, ammunition, homemade bombs and grenades that were stored there. At noon, they left the building to occupy their predetermined targets. Liberty Hall was empty, but the British, believing the building to be a rebel stronghold, shelled it on Wednesday.

Fireplace in Liberty Hall, Dublin. Here the soldiers found documents containing evidence of Sinn Féin's terrorist plans in London to organize bacteriological warfare.

British troops occupied Professor Hayes' house. This professor developed typhoid bacilli to infect military and police milk.

Leaving Liberty Hall, the rebels broke up into detachments and moved to pre-planned objects to be captured. Pierce and Connolly, absolutely clearly realizing what a hopeless business they started, at the head of their supporters marched along the main street of Dublin (Sackville Street - for loyal citizens, O Connel Street - for true patriots), reached the Post Office (General Post Office, GPO ) and barricaded themselves there.
The Post Office building before the Easter Rising

Post office on Sackville Street, which became the headquarters of the rebels.

Then they sent to Liberty Hall for a flag; after a while the package was delivered. Wrapped in brown paper was a green flag with a gold harp and the words "Irish Republic" in gold, and another, tricolor, green-white-orange.

They both hovered over the Post Office as, at 12:04 p.m., Pierce read the Declaration to a bewildered crowd of onlookers that had gathered in the square in front of the building:
"Irish and Irish!
In the name of the Lord and the departed generations..."
Rebel group that took over the Post Office

When Pierce had finished, a beaming Connolly grabbed his arm and shook him vigorously. The crowd responded with languid applause and discordant cheers; on the whole, Pierce's statement on behalf of the Provisional Government of the newly established Republic was received without enthusiasm. No cheers, nothing reminiscent of the excitement that went through the crowd in France before the storming of the Bastille.
Two volunteers in the Post Office building during the uprising

The Irish, who had gathered on a day off in front of the Post Office, simply listened, shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment, chuckled, looked around, waiting for the police... Young people handed out copies of the Declaration to everyone, one copy was placed at the foot of Nelson's column. Gradually, onlookers began to disperse, someone came closer to Nelson, someone's attention was attracted by unusual flags on the roof of the Post Office (green - on the left, above the corner of Princes Street, tricolor - on the right, above the corner of Henry Street), someone was generally bored with everything this action, they just turned around and wandered about their business ...
The destroyed Post Office, where the rebels settled. The troops were forced to use artillery, May 1916.

A detachment of the British military, who appeared some time later on Sackville Street and tried to nip the rebellion in the bud, was driven back by the fire of the insurgents.
The post office building after the defeat of the uprising

The army command chose the Post Office as its main target, none of the other fortifications of the rebels was subjected to attacks and bombardments of such power. As a result of the shelling, the entire Sackville Street area adjacent to the Post Office was destroyed, and a fire started in the building itself.
Damage at the Post Office

A crowd of onlookers near the ruins of the Post Office after the suppression of the uprising

Sackville Street, after the fall of the Easter Rising.

Devastation on Sackville Street, May 1916

About 2,500 British soldiers were stationed in Dublin, and on the day of the uprising, Monday, the officers went on the run, for example, and in the whole city there were only about 400 soldiers under arms guarding four barracks. The British military turned out to be completely unprepared for the uprising, and their reaction on the first day was generally uncoordinated.
Spears used by the rebels

The first delegation sent against the insurgents, cavalrymen, who were instructed by the commander to ride along Sackville Street directly towards the GPO, were shot in cold blood, four were killed, then a column of infantry returning from the exercises, with guns, but without cartridges, was caught - five killed. In the afternoon, British reinforcements began to arrive in the city, collected from wherever they could, the first came from Athlone and Ulster, on Wednesday two infantry brigades sent by sea appeared, pleasantly surprised that the inhabitants of Dublin greeted them enthusiastically, brought tea, cakes, biscuits, even chocolate and fruit, "so you could have breakfast ten times if you wanted."
A barrel barricade set up by British soldiers during the Easter Rising

One of the rebel groups attacked Magezin Fort in Phoenix Park and disarmed the guards in order to seize weapons and want to blow up the building as a signal that the uprising had begun. They planted explosives but failed to get hold of the weapons.
Another group, from the fighters of the Civil Army, entered Dublin Castle without resistance. But instead of taking this strategic point and a symbol of British rule, the fighters left the castle as undefended as it was before their arrival, but captured the neighboring candy factory. What made them do this is unknown, perhaps the absence of any serious rebuff and the ease with which they managed to penetrate the stronghold, they regarded it as a trap, although they shot the sentry policeman and soldiers in the guardhouse. The rebels occupied Dublin City Hall and adjacent buildings. They were also unable to capture Trinity College, which was located in the center of the city and was defended by only a handful of armed students.
One of the leaders of the Rebellion Eamon de Valera

Another detachment of the Citizen Army under the leadership of Michael Mullin and a group of women and Boy Scouts from the Warriors of Ireland under the command of Countess Markevich occupied St. Stephens Green and the College of Surgery (St. Stephens Green Park, College of Surgeons). Lawns, flower beds, fountains - all this contrasted sharply with what was happening ... The rebels, in order not to attract attention to themselves, entered the park in small groups of two or three people through eight different entrances. After the walking public was removed from the park, the Civil Army soldiers began digging trenches, and the detachment of Countess Markevich organized a medical aid station for the wounded (which were expected in large numbers).
Countess Markevich


Edward Dale's men, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph McGuinness, seized the Four Courts building, the stronghold of Irish justice and jurisprudence. The rebels in the amount of twenty people approached the entrance from Chancery Place, demanded the keys from the policeman on duty there and took control of the building.
Building of 4 Courts

The 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, led by Commander Edward Daly, occupied the building and adjacent streets on the north bank of the River Liffey, a mile west of the Post Office.
Commander Edward Dale.

It was a strategically important part of the city, since it was possible to control all movements between the military barracks in the west of the city and the Post Office from here.
Rebels on a makeshift barricade at 4 Courts, assembled from furniture, May 1916.

An impromptu barricade near the building of the 4 Courts

The 1st Battalion was involved in the most brutal battle of the Rebellion. The first exchange of fire took place on Monday afternoon, when the volunteers got the better of the English Lancers escorting trucks loaded with ammunition.
A detachment of cavalrymen in the area of ​​4 ships. 1916

On Wednesday, the Volunteers captured two enemy points in the area between the prison and the barracks. By Thursday, the area was tightly surrounded by the South Staffordshire and Sherwood regiments. A fierce battle took place on the north end of King Street, where many civilians died.
The building of the 4 Courts during the uprising. 1916

They held him for six days, after which they managed to get out of the encirclement and escape.
The building of the 4 Courts after the fighting during the uprising

On April 24, 1916, the 4th Dublin Battalion of the Irish Volunteers, under the leadership of Eamonn Kent, captured several buildings in the South Dublin Union area, a distillery on Marrowbone Lane, Watkin's Brewery located two miles from the post office and held them for Eamonn Kent's right-hand man was Cathal Brugha, who was badly wounded in street fighting and later became famous during the Revolutionary War.,
The place was built as a labor camp in the middle of the nineteenth century; in 1916 it housed a hospital with about 3,200 beds, with a large staff of doctors, nurses and auxiliary workers. Under the circumstances, his choice to use the building as a citadel was unacceptable. Nurse Margaret Keogh was accidentally shot during the battle. Having received news of the surrender of the defenders of the Post Office, the headquarters of the rebels, Thomas McDonagh, who held the Jacobs confectionery factory, made his way to South Dublin Union to Eamonn Kennt, and, having come to the conclusion that the situation was hopeless, they made a joint decision to surrender. Eamonn Kennt was sentenced by a military tribunal to On May 8, 1916, he was executed and executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol.
Commander Kennt

Deputy Commander Catal Bruga

There were at least two incidents, at Jacobs and Stephen Green, in which insurgents shot and killed civilians who tried to attack them or dismantle their barricades.
The only significant action on the first day of the uprising took place in South Dublin, where a picket of the Royal Irish Regiment collided with an outpost of Eamonn Kent in the northwest corner of South Dublin. The British troops, having suffered some casualties, managed to regroup and make several attacks on the positions before being able to break in and force the small band of rebels to surrender. However, this part of the city as a whole remained in the hands of the rebels.
Three men from the unarmed London police in Dublin were killed on the first day of the uprising and were removed from the streets by the commissioner. Partly as a result of the withdrawal from the streets of the police, a wave of robberies has risen in the city center, especially in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bO "Connell Street. A total of 425 people were arrested after the uprising for looting.
Searching for valuables in the ruins after the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, May 1916.

The "gunboat", converted from the fishing vessel "Helga", equipped with cannons and climbed up the Liffey, also participated in the suppression; they note the qualifications of the gunners who laid the shells along the mortar trajectory directly into the GPO building. The post office, engulfed in fire, had to be abandoned. On Saturday afternoon, Pierce and Connolly formally capitulated, a few commanders held out until Sunday, the last snipers and activists until Thursday.
Ruined Post Office

Both sides did not show miracles of strategic thinking: some Irish garrisons sat all week in prescribed positions, never having a chance to open fire, and the British army suffered heavy losses trying to pass the crossroads defended by 19 rebels - almost half of their total losses.
British improvised armored car "Guinness", built to suppress the Easter Rising in Dublin, April 1916

Another detachment of the Citizen Army under the leadership of Michael Mullin and a group of women and Boy Scouts from the Warriors of Ireland under the command of Countess Markevich occupied St. Stephens Green and the College of Surgery (St. Stephens Green Park, College of Surgeons).
Fighting in the streets of Dublin

Lawns, flower beds, fountains - all this contrasted sharply with what was happening ... The rebels, in order not to attract attention to themselves, entered the park in small groups of two or three people through eight different entrances. After the walking public was removed from the park, the Civil Army soldiers began digging trenches, and the detachment of Countess Markevich organized a medical aid station for the wounded (which were expected in large numbers).
British medical officers in Dublin

To reinforce the defenses of the park, Mullin posted several shooters in nearby buildings, a very commendable foresight, but for one thing: for unknown reasons, he ignored the Shelburne Hotel, a kind of dominating height on the north side of St. Stephen's Green. What the rebels did not occupy on the first day of the uprising, the British occupied on the second. A hundred shooters were stationed in the building and began to conduct aimed fire at the rebels in the park. After a three-hour battle, Michael Mullin gave the order to retreat to the College of Surgery.
A destroyed tram used by the rebels as a barricade

Very soon the predictions of the opponents of the uprising began to be justified. The authorities recovered from the shock caused by the actions of the rebels and tried to bring the situation under control. The rebels were to be opposed by the Royal Irish Constabulary and the regular British Army.
Martial law in and around Dublin

Failures with Dublin Castle and Trinity College greatly complicated the position of the rebels, limiting the possibility of interaction and communication between individual groups, and mobility, which was so necessary when fighting in urban conditions, was lost. The lack of support for the Dublin uprising in other parts of the country led to the fact that in a matter of hours powerful reinforcements were drawn to Dublin, and if the balance of forces on Monday was about 3:1, then by Wednesday it was 10:1, naturally not in favor of the rebels.
British administration announcement in Dublin

Twenty thousand British soldiers surrounded the city. However, both the police and the army met with an unexpected and fierce rebuff. The freedom fighters fought with true Irish determination and courage: on Wednesday, on the Mount Street Bridge, De Valera with twelve fighters repelled attacks by two battalions of the British army for nine hours.
Devastation in Princes Street, Dublin. Cars, bicycles, etc. were withdrawn from warehouses and used in the construction of barricades

The main events (the capture and defense of a number of key buildings) took place in Dublin, there were also skirmishes of a smaller scale in other counties. In Galway, a group of insurgents tried to capture the center of the city, but was scattered by artillery fire from a gunboat; several detachments successfully operated in rural areas.
Clearing the ruins after the Easter Rising

The last rebels laid down their arms the following Sunday. The rebellion was unpopular with the Irish, and great was the outrage at the killing and devastation caused by its organizers; when the participants sentenced to exile were led through the city to the harbor to be sent to Wales, the Dubliners threw stones at the escorted participants in the uprising, spat and knocked over the chamber pots, shouted "shoot them a little!".
Arrested volunteers are escorted to jail

The uprising was put down after seven days of fighting. The educator and poet, the leader of the Irish Volunteers, Patrick Pierce, who proclaimed himself in Dublin as the head of the Irish state, was captured and shot (May 3) by the verdict of the tribunal, like his brother William and 14 other leaders of the uprising (left-wing commander of the Civil Army James Connolly, McBride, McDonagh, etc.).
Commandant Sean McLachlin, one of the leaders of the rebellion. Killed during the suppression of the rebellion

Sir Roger Casement was stripped of his knighthood and hanged for treason in London.
One of the leaders of the Irish Republican Party (Sinn Fein), Michael Collins was arrested at his home in Dublin

The British government decided that only the leaders would be punished, and in ten days 15 were shot.
Easter Rising Ireland. A room in Dublin Castle where some Sinn Féin leaders were shot. Photography 1920

Connolly lost a leg and was shot in a chair.
Irish trade union leader James Connolly

Countess Markevitch was arrested outside the Royal College of Surgery

Countess Markovic in temporary prison

A group of prisoners at Richmond Barracks

Wounded volunteers at Dublin Castle

Joseph Plunkett with his brothers in custody

However, the massacre of the leaders of the uprising made martyrs out of them, then followed the story of an attempt to legalize conscription into the British army, met with strong opposition from citizens, and in the next elections the nationalists achieved great success. The Easter Rising is considered a prologue to the Anglo-Irish War of 1920-22.
Panorama of ruined Dublin

Destruction in Dublin

British patrols on the streets of Dublin

British soldiers on the ruins of the "Public Chamber" on Bridge Street in Dublin, burned by militants, May 1916.

British soldiers in Dublin searching for weapons and ammunition caches after the Easter Rising
British soldiers searching cars

Ulster Volunteer Corps

The funeral of nine British soldiers killed during the uprising.

Part of the text

Our theses were written before this uprising, which should serve as material for testing theoretical views.

The views of the opponents of self-determination lead to the conclusion that the viability of the small nations oppressed by imperialism has already been exhausted, that they cannot play any role against imperialism, support for their purely national aspirations will lead nowhere, etc. The experience of the imperialist war of 1914-1916 . gives actual refutation of such conclusions.

The war was an epoch of crisis for the Western European nations, for the whole of imperialism. Every crisis casts off the conditional, rips off the outer shells, sweeps aside the obsolete, reveals deeper springs and forces. What did he reveal from the point of view of the movement of the oppressed nations? In the colonies there were a number of attempts at an uprising, which, of course, the oppressor nations, with the assistance of military censorship, did their best to hide. It is known, however, that the British brutally dealt with the uprising of their Indian troops in Singapore; that there were attempts at revolt in French Annam (see Nashe Slovo) and in German Cameroon (see Junius pamphlet); that in Europe, on the one hand, Ireland rebelled, which was pacified by executions by the “freedom-loving” English, who did not dare to draw the Irish into universal military service; and, on the other hand, the Austrian government condemned the deputies of the Czech Sejm to execution "for treason" and shot entire Czech regiments for the same "crime".

Of course, this list is far from complete. And yet he proves that the flames of national uprisings due with the crisis of imperialism flared up and in the colonies and in Europe, that national sympathies and antipathies have manifested themselves in the face of draconian threats and measures of repression. But the crisis of imperialism was still far from the highest point of its development:

See this volume, pp. 9-10. Ed.

53

the power of the imperialist bourgeoisie had not yet been undermined (the war "to the point of exhaustion" may bring it to this point, but it has not yet done so); proletarian movements within the imperialist powers are still quite weak. What will happen when the war brings it to complete exhaustion, or when, under the blows of the proletarian struggle, the power of the bourgeoisie in at least one power is shattered like the power of tsarism in 1905?

In the newspaper Berner Tagwacht, the organ of the Zimmerwaldists right down to some of the leftists, on May 9, 1916, an article appeared on the subject of the Irish uprising in the initials C. R. under the heading: "The Song Is Sung." The Irish uprising was declared, nothing less than a "putsch", because "the Irish question was an agrarian question", the peasants were calmed by reforms, the nationalist movement was now "a purely urban, petty-bourgeois movement, behind which, despite the great noise that it produced, not much stood socially.

It is not surprising that this appraisal, monstrous in its doctrinairism and pedantry, coincided with the appraisal of the Russian National Liberal Cadet Mr. A. Kulischer (Speech, 1916, No. 102, April 15), who also called the uprising a "Dublin putsch."

It is permissible to hope that, according to the proverb “there is no blessing without good,” many comrades who did not understand what a swamp they were sliding into, denying “self-determination” and disdainfully treating the national movements of small nations, will now open their eyes under the influence of this “accidental” coincidence of the assessment of the representative imperialist bourgeoisie with the assessment of the Social Democrat! !

One can speak of a "putsch", in the scientific sense of the word, only when an attempt at an uprising did not reveal anything but a circle of conspirators or ridiculous maniacs, did not arouse any sympathy among the masses. The Irish national movement, having centuries behind it, passing through various stages and combinations of class interests, expressed itself, among other things, in the mass Irish National Congress in America

54 V. I. LENIN

("Vorwärts", 20. III. 1916), who spoke out for the independence of Ireland, - was expressed in the street battles of part of the urban petty bourgeoisie and part of the workers after a long period of mass agitation, demonstrations, the banning of newspapers, etc. Who names such putsch insurrection, he is either a vicious reactionary or a doctrinaire, hopelessly incapable of imagining the social revolution as a living phenomenon.

For to think that conceivable social revolution without uprisings of small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts of a part of the petty bourgeoisie with all her prejudices, without the movement of the irresponsible proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against the landlord, church, monarchist, national, etc. oppression - to think so means renounce the social revolution, One army must line up in one place and say: "We are for socialism," and in another and say: "We are for imperialism," and this will be a social revolution! It was only from such a pedantically ridiculous point of view that it was conceivable to denounce the Irish uprising as a "putsch."

Whoever is waiting for a "pure" social revolution never she can't wait. That revolutionary in words, who does not understand the real revolution.

The Russian revolution of 1905 was bourgeois-democratic. It consisted of a series of battles all discontented classes, groups, elements of the population. Of these, there were the masses with the wildest prejudices, with the most obscure and fantastic aims of the struggle, there were groups that took Japanese money, there were speculators and adventurers, etc. Objectively, the movement of the masses broke tsarism and cleared the way for democracy, so class-conscious workers led it.

Socialist revolution in Europe can't be nothing else than an explosion of the mass struggle of all and sundry oppressed and dissatisfied. Parts of the petty bourgeoisie and backward workers will inevitably participate in it - without such participation not possible mass fight is not possible none revolution - and just as inevitably will bring into the movement their own

RESULTS OF THE DISCUSSION ON SELF-DETERMINATION 55

prejudices, their reactionary fantasies, their weaknesses and mistakes. But objectively they will attack capital, and the conscious vanguard of the revolution, the advanced proletariat, expressing this objective truth of the motley and discordant, motley and outwardly fragmented mass struggle, will be able to unite and direct it, seize power, seize the banks, expropriate the trusts hated by everyone (though for different reasons!) and implement other dictatorial measures which, in sum, bring about the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory of socialism, which will not immediately be "cleansed" of petty-bourgeois dross.

Social Democracy - we read in the Polish theses (I, 4) - "should use the struggle of the young colonial bourgeoisie directed against European imperialism to exacerbate the revolutionary crisis in Europe."(Italics in authors.)

Is it not clear that in this Is it least permissible to oppose Europe to the colonies? The struggle of the oppressed nations in Europe, capable of reaching uprisings and street battles, to the violation of the iron discipline of the troops and the state of siege, this struggle will immeasurably more "aggravate the revolutionary crisis in Europe" than a much more developed uprising in a remote colony. A blow of equal force dealt to the power of the British imperialist bourgeoisie by an uprising in Ireland has a hundred times greater political significance than in Asia or Africa.

Recently, the French chauvinist press reported that the 80th issue of the illegal Free Belgium magazine had been published in Belgium. Of course, the French chauvinist press lies very often, but this report seems to be true. While the chauvinist and Kautskian German Social-Democracy did not create a free press for itself during the two years of the war, slavishly tearing off the yoke of military censorship (only left-wing radical elements published, to their credit, pamphlets and proclamations without censorship), - at that time the oppressed cultural the nation responds to the unheard-of ferocity of military oppression by creating an organ of revolutionary

56 V. I. LENIN

protest! The dialectic of history is such that petty nations, powerless as selfbody factor in the fight against imperialism, play a role as one of the enzymes, one of the bacilli that help to perform on stage real forces against imperialism, namely, the socialist proletariat.

The general staffs in the present war are carefully trying to use every national and revolutionary movement in the camp of their opponents, the Germans - the Irish uprising, the French - the Czech movement, etc. And from their point of view, they are doing quite right. One cannot take a serious war seriously without taking advantage of the slightest weakness of the enemy, without seizing every chance, especially since it is impossible to know in advance at what exact moment and with what exact force this or that store of gunpowder will “blow up” here or there. We would be very bad revolutionaries if in the great liberation war the proletariat for socialism failed to use any popular movement against individual disasters of imperialism in the interests of aggravating and expanding the crisis. If we began, on the one hand, to declare and repeat in a thousand ways that we are "against" all national oppression, and, on the other hand, to call a "putsch" a heroic uprising of the most mobile and intelligent part of certain classes of an oppressed nation against the oppressors, we would have reduced themselves to the level of as stupid as the Kautskyites.

The misfortune of the Irish is that they rose at the wrong time, when the European uprising of the proletariat more not ripe. Capitalism is not arranged so harmoniously that the various sources of insurrection merge of themselves at once, without setbacks and defeats. On the contrary, it is precisely the heterogeneity, heterogeneity, heterogeneity of the uprisings that vouches for the breadth and depth of the general movement; only in the experience of revolutionary movements, untimely, partial, fragmented and therefore unsuccessful, will the masses gain experience, learn, gather strength, see their real leaders, socialist proletarians, and thereby prepare a general onslaught, as a separate

RESULTS OF THE DISCUSSION ON SELF-DETERMINATION 57

Large strikes, urban and national demonstrations, outbreaks in the army, explosions among the peasantry, etc. prepared the general onslaught in 1905.

the national liberation uprising (April 24-30) against the rule of British imperialism; also known as the Easter Rising. The immediate cause And. there was dissatisfaction among the masses of the people with the delay in the implementation of the Home Rule Act of 1914 (See Home Rule) and the half-hearted nature of the act, repressions against participants in the national movement, new hardships that fell on the shoulders of the Irish workers in connection with the participation of Great Britain in the First World War of 1914- eighteen. The most active role in the uprising was played by the Irish working class and its armed organization, the Irish Citizens' Army, headed by John Connolly. Representatives of the petty bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia also took part in the uprising. The main scene of the uprising was Dublin, where on April 24 the rebels proclaimed the Republic of Ireland and formed the Provisional Government. Local outbreaks also occurred in Dublin and its neighboring counties, in the cities of Enniscorthy (County Wexford) and Athenry (County Galway) and in some other places. After 6 days of fighting, the uprising was crushed with exceptional cruelty: almost all the leaders of the uprising were shot, including the seriously wounded Connolly; ordinary participants were subjected to mass expulsion from the country. Despite the defeat, I. century. contributed to the development of the national liberation struggle in Ireland.

Lit.: Lenin V.I., Poln. coll. soch., 5th ed., vol. 30, p. 52-57; Remerova O. I., Irish uprising of 1916, L., 1954 (Author.); Kolpakov A. D., "Red Easter", "Questions of History", 1966, No. 4; Greaves C. D., The Easter rising as history, L., 1966.

L. I. Golman.

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Dublin uprising 1916

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CHAPTER II. REBELLION OF THE KYRGYZS IN 1916. CHRONICLE OF EVENTS

From the author's book

CHAPTER II. KIRGIZ RESISTANCE IN 1916. CHRONICLE OF EVENTS "History is a witness of the past, an example and lesson for the present, a warning for the future." Cervantes Saavedra Miguel de. (1547–1616) - world famous Spanish writer In the last five years, on the eve of 100

A century ago is considered to be an unstable and revolutionary time. And this concerns not only Russia. The pre-revolutionary Irish events have already passed 100 years. Then, in 1916, a well-known rebellion broke out among the Irish nationalists, which lasted the entire Easter week. And this performance went down in history under the name - Easter Rising.

The reasons

From the moment the two neighboring states of Ireland and England appeared on the map, their confrontation broke out. Over time, the "greens" came under the complete control of the banners of the Cross of St. George. And exactly from the same time the liberation movement of the "Celts" began. The split was supported by involvement in different Christian denominations, due to which the confrontation turned into real blood hatred.

The period of maximum activity of the Irish in the field of restoration of independence was the XVI-XVII century, and it was the same time that became the most cruel disappointment for the "nice" guys. Brutal defeats from the side Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell, coupled with serious persecution of Catholics throughout the UK and Ireland, for a long time forced local protest movements to bow their heads.

Late 18th and early-mid 19th centuries have become iconic for every Irishman. First, the uprising of the free people of Ireland, supported by the French, turned into another collapse and brutal suppression, and then the agrarian crisis on the islands caused a terrible famine, during which about 1 million people died, including the Irish. Add to this the constant oppression along national and religious lines, and you will understand how desperate the people of Ireland are. Just at that time, mass emigration of the inhabitants of the island began, the main refuge for which was North America. About 30% of the population left their homeland, within which prominent figures of the national and liberation persuasion were growing up. It was they who became the organizers of the protest actions of the middle and late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. Litmus test was the first World War, to which the Irish massively refused to be called up by British forces. Therefore, the angry militarized part of the Irish was in an explosive state.

Members

The lessons of the past told the Irish Liberation Forces that going it alone was an outright act of suicide. For this reason, there was a unity of the once disparate and independent movements:

• Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)
• Irish Volunteers
• Irish Citizen Army
• Organization Cumann na mBan

As soon as the world war began, the IRB decided to declare war on Great Britain and agree to accept any help from Germany. May 1915 is the time of the formation of a special Military Committee within the Irish Republican Brotherhood. By the way, during the First World War, the Irish Volunteers were divided due to the support of one part of Britain. A smaller part, led by Patrick Pierce, firmly stood on separatist positions.

In parallel, negotiations were underway with the German authorities, who promised to rescue the Irish prisoners and either transport them to Ireland, or help gather paramilitary units among them on the side of Germany. But the main driving force the uprising was supposed to be the support of the population, so it was not in vain that Marxists from the Irish Citizen Army were invited for a common goal. Easter week was chosen as the date of the active phase of the operation.

Development of events

The first call for the Irish public and the English government was the maneuvers of the Irish Volunteers, led by Patrick Pierce. In fact, it was a provocation of future rebels to test the reaction of their implacable enemies. This happened just 3 days before Easter, therefore, before the start of the uprising.

Exactly at the same time, all hopes for large-scale support for the upcoming operation from Germany collapsed. The small number of issued weapons and money shocked the Irish. The chief negotiator between Ireland and Germany, Roger Casement, being in great disappointment, went to the "green" island on a German submarine and was arrested during the landing. There is the beginning of the collapse of the hopes laid down. And to top it all off, British intelligence intercepted communications between the US and German diplomatic corps discussing support for the coming uprising.

The only thing the British did not know was the exact date. Therefore, they quietly and peacefully prepared for large-scale arrests of the Irish opposition, waiting for official judicial permission. But by that time, an uprising had broken out.

James Connolly

Start of the Easter Rising

On Monday, April 24, 1916, 1,500 Irish Volunteers, the IGA and James Connolly's detachments simultaneously managed to occupy the center of Dublin. The main post office became the center of the uprising, and the main commanders were James Connolly, Patrick Pierce, Tom Clark, Sean McDermott, Joseph Plunkett. National Irish flags were raised above the building and a document on the creation of the Republic was read.

But then the problems started. Although radical protest spread throughout the city, the lack of weapons made itself felt. So the rebels failed to capture the strongholds of the British and Unionist forces: Dublin Castle, Trinity College, Fort in Phoenix Park. Skirmishes with unprepared British troops were successful at first, but the local population was not so loyal to the rebels, which is why the revolutionaries even opened fire on ordinary citizens.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the British, in their usual leisurely manner, began to pull additional forces towards Dublin. Martial law was declared in the country. The British army was particularly helped by the fact that the Irish were unable to capture either the port areas or the train stations, which meant that there was no communication with the rest of the rebellion zones, as well as the possibility of transporting weapons and provisions. And it was precisely at these locations that the reserves of the royal army began to be drawn, and at the same time the artillery. By Wednesday, there were 16,000 British and loyal soldiers in Dublin.

Streets of Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916

1 of 5

The numerical inequality was aggravated by the fact that the presence of artillery and long-range guns (including machine guns) practically excluded head-on collisions. Therefore, the Irish suffered huge losses without actually engaging in battle. The only exception was the feat of 17 Volunteers, who killed and seriously wounded more than 200 British soldiers in the crossfire in the Grand Canal area on Mount Street.

From Thursday, the royal troops received orders to crush the uprising with all their might, so the dead were not considered. The well-barricaded rebel forces, although noticeably leaner, suffered huge losses to the enemy side. The enraged British began to break into the houses of civilians, repressing those with or without reason.

But every Irishman already knew the fate of the uprising. A severe wound in Connolly's leg, the loss of headquarters at the Main Post Office, the death of one of the leaders Michael O'Rahilly, and most importantly, mass cleansing of the common population forced the leadership of the uprising to surrender.

End of the uprising

Local skirmishes in Dublin continued until Sunday, until information about the complete surrender of the rebels spread throughout the city.

The mobilized forces of Irish nationalists and those fighting for the liberation of the people from the English crown began to receive news from Dublin that the uprising had failed, and therefore everyone needed to surrender their weapons in order to save their own lives.

The most massive performances were recorded in the following cities:

• Ashbourne;
• Enniscorthy;
• Galway.

Immediately after the official end of the uprising, the British leadership immediately began to look for anyone and everyone who is in one way or another connected with the events that took place during the Easter week. The apogee of all the actions of the Crown was the execution of the leaders of the rebellion.

Patrick Pierce, Thomas J. Clarke, Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, William Pierce, Edward Daly, Michael O'Hanrahan, John McBride, Eamon Kent, Michael Mullin, Sean Huston, Conn Colbert, James Connolly were executed in succession in May and Sean McDermott. In August, the fate of like-minded people befell Roger Casement.

As it turned out, in view of high level conspiracies among the rebels, the masses did not understand the signal of support for the uprising. On the contrary, many residents of Dublin took hostility to the actions of the participants in the Easter riot. After the surrender and arrests, the rebels were censured, humiliated and insulted by their own countrymen. The level of destruction of the city, the death of the local population forced them to look for scapegoats, which the rebels became. But over time, the attitude towards the events of 1916 began to change, changing from abuse to admiration. People began to realize the true intentions of the nationalists, and hatred of the British only gained momentum.

Results

As a result of the Easter Rising of the Irish resistance forces, a total of about 450 people died on both sides, most of whom were native Irish, including those who sided with the UK. Participants in those events note that a quarter of all the dead represented the interests of the Crown, 1/8 of the total number of those who died on the streets of Dublin were rebels, and all other victims were civilians.

3430 people were arrested on charges of organizing, participating in or aiding the rebellion. About 1,500 people were distributed to the prisons of England and Wales, where the rebels got a lot of time at their disposal to think about further actions to overthrow the English rule over the holy Irish land.

In the future, many, many Irish people were inspired by the audacity and courage of the daredevils of the Easter Rising, who, thanks to quick action and serious conspiracy, managed to challenge the entire empire with small detachments. It would seem that with the suppression of this uprising, the revolutionary fervor of the Irish should have faded. But the heroes of the April week of 1916 lit the fuse of the national sobering up of Ireland, and this fire could no longer be extinguished. They wrote and talked about him, remembered him and did not forget him.

Exactly one hundred years ago, on April 24, 1916, an uprising broke out in Irish Dublin against Great Britain, which had been carrying out a colonial policy on the Green Island for many centuries. These events determined the fate of both Ireland and Britain as a whole for almost a century ahead. What preceded the Easter Rising and what results did it lead to?

A struggle spanning the ages

The British established their power over Ireland (at least over part of it) back in the 12th century. In the next few centuries, the colonization of Irish lands intensified. In the 17th century, during the English Civil War, Irish Catholics supported the English royalists, who eventually lost to the "iron-sided" Protestants led by Oliver Cromwell. It is not surprising that after the final victory in civil war Cromwell came to a neighboring island to suppress resistance and take revenge. His troops marched on the "Green Island" literally with fire and sword - according to various estimates, in that war Ireland lost from 15% to 80% of the population.

It is not surprising that Cromwell is still hated in Ireland, and the integration of Irish Catholics into English Protestant society did not work out in the following centuries. New anti-English uprisings, led by revolutionary organizations, broke out regularly. The 19th century was the heyday of the Fenian movement - the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, founded in the USA in 1858 on St. Patrick's Day. The brotherhood's hand even reached out to British military units in Canada, which suffered from time to time from attacks by the Fenians.

The main method of fighting the Fenians against the British in the second half of the 19th century was terrorist acts. In 1867, while trying to free comrades from a London prison, the Fenians blew up from 90 to 250 kg of gunpowder. The explosion, which was heard for 40 miles, demolished a section of the wall in the prison, but the guards warned in advance took the prisoners for a walk earlier than expected - and no one escaped. In the surrounding houses, damaged by the blast, 12 Londoners died, and even more (up to 120) were injured. Since 1883, charges of dynamite have exploded at London Underground stations - fortunately, usually without casualties. And on May 31, 1884, even the building of the Department of Criminal Investigations - the legendary Scotland Yard - flew into the air. Dynamite was planted in the restroom, hoping to destroy the archives of the police, and at the same time the head of the Special Irish Department, Inspector Littlechild, the worst enemy of the freedom fighters of Ireland. However, again, by a happy coincidence for the British, there were no casualties.

Scotland Yard after the explosion
www.alphadeltaplus.20m.com

By the beginning of the 20th century, the question of home rule (home rule, self-government) in Ireland arose with an edge. Since 1800, Ireland has been governed by laws passed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1867, even Canada became a dominion - and Ireland was still entirely dependent on London. Liberal leaders such as William Gladstone tried more than once to appease the discontented by passing a Home Rule Bill, but they lacked the votes. In 1912, the government of Henry Asquith made another attempt to introduce a bill - but the House of Lords, for obvious reasons, again blocked it, although it could no longer completely stop the progress of the bill.

Meanwhile, the confrontation between Protestants and Catholics was unfolding in Ireland itself. In Ulster, in the north of the island, Unionist Protestants (supporters of unity with Britain), not wanting to submit to the Catholic majority in the near future, in 1913 created their own armed forces rapidly growing to tens of thousands of people. The Catholics did not stand aside - this is how the Irish Volunteers appeared. Both of them actively bought weapons in Germany with donations (!). The Unionists were more successful in this, bringing tens of thousands of rifles and millions of cartridges to Ulster under cover of night. The paradox is that the Unionists, loyal to London, with British officers at the head, seriously threatened their own government with an uprising.

rebels
independent.co.uk

It seemed that things were rapidly moving towards civil war in Ireland. Almost all Irish and British people were so focused on the problem of Home Rule that they did not notice the crises in the rest of the world. But then a world war broke out - and for some time all parties were occupied with the events that had fallen on their heads, as well as with a further choice.

Great War Adjustments

Irish men faced a difficult choice: fight and die "for king and country" (i.e. the United Kingdom) or continue to fight for the freedom of their own country - Ireland? During the first six months of the war, about 50,000 Irish chose the first path, volunteering for the front. The Irish Division fought with honor at Gallipoli.

However, another part of the Irish sought to defend Ireland - but not to help England against some distant enemy, to which the Irish had not the slightest claim. And if the position of the Unionists was predictable, then the volunteer movement split. A minority demanded an immediate transfer of power into the hands of the Irish government, but the vast majority decided that there was no need to advocate arbitrariness in the current conditions. The Home Rule Bill, although passed in September 1914, was delayed until the end of the war.

Leaders of the rebellion http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

By the end of 1915, the threat of conscription hung over rural Ireland: a worldwide carnage demanded more and more more people. The Pope called his flock to peace - and Bishop Dwyer openly asked why the peasants of Connaught (the poorest Irish province) should die for Kosovo. The fact that the sons of wealthy Protestants had not yet been called up added fuel to the fire. Meanwhile, 10,000 scattered in the country of the royal Irish constables, "the eyes and ears of Dublin Castle" (where the British administration was located), recruited not in Ireland, looked like a real occupying army. Part of the Irish revolutionaries hoped for help from Germany, but the Germans, expressing support in words, were in no hurry to recognize the Irish as a true ally.

The uprising begins

Gradually, in the ranks of the fighters for the freedom of Ireland, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcapturing and holding key buildings in the center of Dublin ripened - so that it would be possible, relying on the fact of owning the heart of the country, to proclaim its independence. And a few days later - with fighting to retreat from the city, if necessary. However, Dublin was bisected by the full-flowing River Liffey, which made it difficult to defend buildings on both the south and north banks at the same time.

Leadership in the Irish uprising was taken by James Connolly, a prominent socialist and head of a small Irish civilian army. Having studied the experience of his predecessors - fighters on the barricades of Paris in the 19th century and Moscow in 1905 - he decided that motivated "civilian revolutionaries" in urban battles could defeat regular troops. The streets seemed to him like mountain passes, easy to defend. However, Connolly lost sight of the fact that there are many more streets in the city. However, part of the Irish hoped that the British, shackled by the war, simply could not provide enough troops. The revolutionaries disguised their attack as the maneuvers of volunteers.

From the very beginning of things a The rebels did not go according to plan. The German transport with weapons, which the organizers of the uprising hoped for, was intercepted by two British sloops and driven into the harbor of Cork. Meanwhile, documents about the planned British preemptive strike leaked from Dublin Castle. The leaders of the Irish organizations were to be arrested, the most important buildings in the city were to be occupied by army patrols, and the inhabitants of Dublin were to be locked in their homes "until further notice." These documents hit the newspapers the very next day - and caused a long-awaited outburst of indignation for the revolutionaries.

However, the conspirators, seeking to coordinate the actions of the detachments inside and outside Dublin, issued two orders at once. The first order canceled on Sunday, April 23, all parades and processions in Dublin, the second - scheduled the start of the operation for Monday noon. As a result, chaos reigned on the ground, and Easter Sunday, according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses, was a day of sad inaction, despite the readiness of many fighters.

The next day, mixed groups of volunteers, often not fully armed and unaware of what lay ahead of them, nevertheless occupied some of their intended targets. The rebel weapons were a real zoo - from modern 7.7- and 9-mm rifles to Mausers of the 1871 model and single-shot Martini carbines, not counting revolvers and pistols.

Dublin Post Office after the fighting http://www.irishtimes.com/

The rebels began by seizing administrative buildings. About 400 fighters ended up in the Dublin Main Post Office and on the street next to it, another 120 - in the building of four courts. The Bank of Ireland and a number of other premises were also taken. Since the post office was clearly visible from afar, two flags of the new republic were hung on it: a green-white-orange tricolor and a flag with the traditional golden harp of Ireland on a green field. For the first time in 700 years, the flag of a free Ireland flew over Dublin. There, at the post office, Patrick Pierce, one of the leaders of the rebels, proclaimed the independence of the republic and the creation of the Provisional Government.

Meanwhile, around noon, 30 rebels attacked Dublin Castle. Having shot an unarmed policeman - the only one who stood guard over the castle, the fighters threw a grenade at half a dozen calmly eating soldiers. Although it did not explode, the defenders, led by Major Price, prudently retreated. The attackers did the same.

"Thin Red Line" shows the cordons of the British. The thick line is a "wedge" strike that cut the rebel positions (red circles) in two

Perhaps the rebels expected an immediate and tough British response - therefore, in some cases they behaved too cautiously. But, ironically, by Monday afternoon, the Crown forces had only 400 soldiers immediately ready - out of more than 2,000. However, the British soon set off in shock. Martial law was introduced in Dublin for the first time since the 18th century. According to this law, any man caught in the house from which the fire was fired could be considered a rebel. And three captured under a hot hand were really shot.

By railway soldiers were arriving for the British, plus a few 18-pounder guns and machine guns. And already on Wednesday an infantry brigade sent from England arrived. Now the superiority of the British in forces was overwhelming.

However, on the Northumberland Road, the battalion, marching in a column of four, with officers in front, came under fire from a small group of rebels - and the soldiers, having lost officers, huddled in a motionless target. Only a few hours later, with the arrival of fresh reinforcements, the British were able to advance further. A frontal attack on Mount Street also led to heavy losses - over 200 soldiers and officers killed and wounded. The soldiers did not take Lewis machine guns with them, so for a long time they could not realize the advantage in firepower. But the rebels also made a mistake, for some reason they did not send reinforcements to their advanced posts.

An improvised armored car based on a boiler and a truck chassis from the Guinness brewery
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Then the British still tried to push the machine guns forward - but failed. But they exhausted the rebels with round-the-clock sniper fire and improvised armored cars rolling back and forth. Hopes that the British would not destroy their own property did not come true. Instead of bayonet attacks, which the defenders expected, the British slowly squeezed the ring around the buildings captured by the Irish, "flooding" them with machine gun and cannon fire. Sometimes there were violent hand-to-hand fights. King Street was so well fortified that the British, even with the help of armored cars, had to make their way step by step, in the end - fighting inside the buildings.

Defeat equals victory

On April 29, the rebels decided to lay down their arms. Eamon de Valera, commander of the 3rd Battalion of Volunteers, was one of the last to surrender - and turned out to be the only notable rebel commander who was not executed. 16 leaders of the uprising were shot.

Dublin street after the uprising
www.rte.ie

The British lost 17 officers and 86 lower ranks killed, 46 officers and 311 lower ranks wounded, 9 people were missing. The losses of the rebels were about half that. During the same week of fighting, one division on the Western Front lost over 500 people only killed. Most civilians died - about 260. 3430 Irish were arrested, but almost half were soon released.

The Easter Rising became a watershed in relations between Ireland and Britain. The Commission of Inquiry stated that the administration of Ireland was "abnormal in quiet times and nearly inoperable in times of crisis". It became clear that it was impossible to live like this any longer - but the building of the British Empire had already cracked, and during the war they did not have time to repair it. Or they couldn't. De Valera in 1921 was elected president of the Irish Free State (Dominion of Britain). In 1959 (!) he was again elected president. One of the participants in the distant uprising remained in office until 1973 - unexpectedly becoming the oldest head of state in the world.

Sources and literature:

1. http://irishmedals.org/
2. http://www.glasnevintrust.ie/
3. http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/
4. http://www.paulobrienauthor.ie/
5. Bonner, David. Executive Measures, Terrorism and National Security: Have the Rules of the Game Changed? Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007.
6. Emancipation, Famine & Religion: Ireland under the Union, 1815–1870. http://multitext.ucc.ie/
7. Townshend Charles. Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion. Penguin UK, 2015.
8. Chernov Svetozar. Baker Street and environs. Forum, 2007