A historical analogy was found for Ivleeva’s “naked” party: the participants were sentenced to death

The incident took place a century ago

Anastasia Ivleeva’s “naked” party “bang” so much that, what good, it may enter the top events of 2023. A week has passed, and circles around this specific event are still spreading. Its now repentant star participants are being obstructed, their concerts are being cancelled, and they want to cut them out of television programs. It even came down to filing a claim for a billion. But scandals similar to the current one have happened before, but those old lessons – and very harsh ones – have been forgotten. Let us recall at least one.

103 years ago in Odessa, which by that time had already been under the rule of the Bolsheviks for several months, an indecent party took place, which, by the standards of that time, was classified as a revelry.

Several documents have been preserved related to this scandalous event, which, as the country’s leaders then considered, could “cast a shadow” on Soviet reality.

The essence of what happened can be found out from the report sent on May 17, 1920 to Felix Dzerzhinsky, who headed the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, by the Administrator of the Chairman of the Cheka and the Chief Labor Committee K. Zilberman.

“…On May 15, during my stay in Odessa Gubchek, the chairman of the last comrade. Redens and the chairman of the Gubernia Communist Party, comrade. Jan arrested local responsible Soviet workers, members of the K.P.U. (Communist Party of Ukraine. – HELL.) Yanov and Khirgi, and the arrests of a number of other responsible workers are planned on charges of participating (and the above-mentioned two also in organizing) under the guise of a party, a night of revelry, in which about forty people took part, including persons from a definitely politically hostile camp and a group of international cocottes. According to witnesses, the revelry had the character of an Athens evening and should have cost several hundred thousand (up to half a million) rubles.

The evening was organized in the premises occupied by the Soviet institution (Representative Office of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs) and was accompanied by an orchestra of music. A detailed investigation is carried out by Gubchek at an accelerated pace in full contact with the Gubernia Communist Party in the person of its chairman, who insists on severe punishment for the perpetrators, up to and including execution…”

Comrade Zilberman’s report caused a very violent reaction among the Bolshevik leadership. One of the high-ranking security chiefs was sent to Odessa to deal with such an egregious case. This is evidenced by another document that has survived to this day.

“May 18, 1920 Mandate. The bearer of this comrade. Balitsky (Deputy Chairman of the Central Administration of Emergency Commissions, future People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR Vsevolod Balitsky. – HELL.) authorized:

Carry out the strictest investigation into the construction of the mountains by a group of party and Soviet workers. Odessa, led by Yanov and Hirgi, had a night of revelry with women, wine, an orchestra within the walls of a Soviet institution, spending hundreds of thousands of rubles of dubious origin.

Apply to all conscious participants in this feast, whose guilt is established, the most severe penalties, up to and including execution…

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the U.S.S.R. H. Rakovsky

Chairman of the V.Ch.K. F Dzerzhinsky

Beginning Tsupcherezkom of Ukraine V. Mantsev.”

A letter from Felix Edmundovich, written by him a few days later, on May 23, 1920, and addressed to the very chairman of the Odessa Gubchek Stanislav Redens, has also been preserved. In it, the head of the Cheka mentions sending Balitsky on a special emergency assignment to Odessa: “…With an iron hand you must eradicate… all kinds of disgusting responsible Soviet workers. Balitsky received instructions in this direction…”

Several people from among these “responsible workers” who were found guilty of organizing “bestiality” on May 15, that is, revelry with prostitutes, eventually joined the lists of more than 1,400 people shot by the Odessa Cheka in 1920 for criminal, political and economic crimes. Back then, such “hostile elements” were not treated on ceremony. As follows from the report of the Tsupchrezkom, “during an examination of the work of the Odessa Cheka, it became clear that there was a need for immediate unloading of places of detention from those arrested.”

Remembering this old story can cheer up the despairing participants in the current “naked party.” Rejoice that over the past century the humanization of our society has made such a significant step forward, and now you are only threatened with excommunication (probably temporary) from the television screen and the concert stage. But in the days of “Iron Felix,” they could, perhaps, have put you up against the wall for such “pranks” using immodest outfits.