56 years ago today the Soviet authorities brutally crushed a rally in Novocherkassk, a southern Russian town. Locomotive factory workers protested against food price hikes, increased production quotas and the general worsening of living conditions. 1/7
Their signs said: "[Give us] Bread, butter, bigger wages!" The protest was sparked by a careless remark by the factory's director: "If you can't afford meat, eat liver pies." A crowd of workers was machine-gunned down by the army and KGB, 26 were killed and 87 wounded. 2/7 
The survivors, and even random people who just happened to be nearby, were quickly arrested, 7 were immediately executed and 105 shipped off to labor camps, convicted to 10 to 15 years each for "conspiring to overthrow the Soviet government." 3/7
There could have been far more casualties if not for one man, Gen Matvey Shaposhnikov, a war hero decorated with the highest honor, the Hero of the Soviet Union. He refused to move his tank platoon against the protesters and ordered the soldiers to unload their rifles. 4/7
The massacre wasn't publicized at the time and the general public was kept in the dark about the protests. Shaposhnikov attempted to raise awareness about the incident and wrote letters to Soviet officials. For that, he was expelled from the Party, a severe form of ostracism. 5/7
Then Shaposhnikov was charged with "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda", a grave crime punishable with up to 10 years of prison. Charges were later dropped, taking into account his bravery in war, although Shaposhnikov was only rehabilitated 20 years later, in 1988. 6/7
The inscription on the tombstone of a modest grave where Shaposhnikov is buried with his wife says: "Each has his own war and his own Novocherkassk, but only the Shaposhnikovs could part with them the way they did" The victims of Novocherkassk were only rehabilitated in 1996. 7/7
Read all about it here: meduza.io/en/feature/201… Thanks @KevinRothrock for translating!
"A technician in Moscow expressed his frustration: “How are we supposed to believe these official public announcements, if the lecturer tells us that the rumors about rising prices in the USSR are enemy propaganda spread by the BBC, and then it turns out that the BBC was right?”
