След в истории массовых типов личности - англ

Благодарю художника, который нарисовал эту замечательную иллюстрацию.
Прошу читателей использовать английскую версию статьи. При использовании русского перевода Google, он неправильно интерпретирует некоторые особенности текста (род профессора Грейвза).   

  Здравствуйте дорогие читатели. Многие из Вас познакомились с моей статьёй "След в истории России массовых типов личности". Я считаю что она весьма важна в осознании исторических событий в нашей стране. Ведь поверхностное знакомство с ними, очень часто приводит людей к неправильным обобщениям. Чтобы правильно судить об сложных процессах, надо глубже познакомиться с их причинами. Я уверен, что эта статья их и раскрывает. Чтобы люди, не говорящие на русском языке, могли с ней познакомиться, я осуществил её перевод на английский при помощи Google Переводчика и выкладываю её на Прозе.ру.

               The trace in the history of Russia of mass personality types
                Evgeny Radomyselsky

In pre-revolutionary Russia there lived people with different social and material conditions. Moreover, this difference was huge. Thus, education ranged from primitive elementary to higher professorial. The material condition ranged from beggary to millions. Social status ranged from passportless tramps to the king and his ministers. The question arises, what kind of people lived at the very bottom of the social pyramid of the Russian state?

Of course, we can turn to the literary evidence of writers of that time (which we will do later), but it is better to find out the opinion of specialist sociologist Claire Graves, who studied this issue using a huge life example.

“Claire Graves has spent almost 30 years observing the sociocultural conditions, values and moral compass of people from different countries and cultural backgrounds.

  Based on a study of the behavior and motives of MORE THAN 50 THOUSAND. MAN, he came to the conclusion that any living system (person, society, company or country) goes through approximately the same levels of development.

He substantiated the theory of emergent (English from emergent “emerging, unexpectedly appearing”] in systems theory - the presence of properties in a system that are not inherent in its components individually; the irreducibility of the properties of a system to the sum of the properties of its components. Wikipedia.) cyclic levels existence (The Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory, ECLET). According to Graves, this provides important clues to understanding the life goals and priorities of each person throughout his life, explaining why a person lives.

Graves based this study of different types of human thinking on the premises of Maslow's well-known pyramid of needs. Graves conducted research and observed what factors (value, cultural and psychological) influence human development in addition to satisfying his biological needs.

    The initial assumptions of this theory are based on the following premises:

1. nothing is static, every living organism is constantly developing;
2. we constantly adapt to external circumstances (namely the environment plays a major role in the formation of an individual worldview, forces you to go further, or stay where you are);
3. there is no final state in the value system (each person can either develop higher or degrade to lower levels).

Clair Graves himself formulated 8 levels of development of dynamics in this system, and his views were complemented by his successors - Don Beck and Chris Cowan, therefore today it is customary to distinguish 9 levels of development of spiral dynamics, of which only seven are most often used in practice.

The main conditions of the human development system

   Graves called the levels of development themselves “memes.” Each level or meme is characterized by a set of its own clear value qualities, beliefs and priorities that prevail in the group at this level. They denote a way of thinking, important life goals at the moment, rules of behavior in society. The formation of each system is influenced by several decisive factors:

environment;
motives;
self-realization.

    Therefore, by understanding what character traits and values are manifested in an individual’s behavior, one can determine how to talk to a person, what to emphasize, and what arguments can convince him.

    The transition to the next level is carried out after saturation with certain qualities of a particular level and the emergence of a conflict of one’s own emotions and beliefs at this stage, the desire for new achievements. Therefore, a person does not so much pass from one level to the second as accumulate the properties and experience of each level (this is why the system has an emergent character, that is, absorbing).

    So, for example, each of us may not notice, but exhibit clear properties of the third or fifth level. They will not be the main priorities in life, but can often unconsciously influence the formation of life goals.

    Of all the inherent levels of Graves' dynamics, leadership can manifest at each of these levels, and there will be leaders with a different set of qualities. Therefore, the type of thinking of each leader will be enormously different from others.

    Another important internal feature of the development of Graves' dynamics itself is its spirality. Throughout its development, from the first level to the last that a person can achieve, development occurs on the principle that first you need to fill yourself, and only then does the desire to give and help others appear. And this alternation of internal and external development of a person can be clearly traced through the entire dynamics of Graves.

    Properties of Graves system levels

    Graves' development system can be used to analyze the development of both individuals and collective communities - cultural, political (and even business processes).

    Each stage is very important, moreover, if you try to skip or fail to grasp the essence of each level, according to the theory of the development of dynamics, there is a high probability of slipping and degrading to the skipped level.

     The normal, natural development of the transition to a new level is justified by the internal psychological state of a person and the desire to develop. But, despite the possible development, most of the planet's inhabitants usually only go through the first 3-4 levels.

    Each stage shows how we think and what motivates us. The transition occurs when the brain matures and a person wants to express himself in something else.

    The levels of development in the Graves system (special colors are used to distinguish them) are as follows: 1. - beige, 2. - purple, 3. - red, 4. - blue, 5. - orange, 6. - green, 7. - yellow, 8. - turquoise, 9. - coral.

    (Coral is a pink-orange color, its adoption in English dates back to 1513. Let us not be surprised by William Graves’ choice of the color level of a person’s personality development. This is the professor’s personal choice. I would prefer the 7 colors of the solar spectrum from red to violet and on the left of the spectrum - gray , and on the right is white. But, as they say, “the author has his say.” Note by Е.Р.)

     Beige, the first level, characteristic of the earliest periods of existence: human infancy and human survival in the wild. At this stage there is no sense of collective unity, only self-survival. The values of this level are basic physical needs and a sense of security.

    Purple, second level – tribal, collective, unity. At this stage, the desire to be accepted by society and the need for a family prevail. For the sake of a feeling of acceptance, any manifestations of individuality are abandoned. The main goal of this level is to maintain safety and comfort in the team, to be like everyone else, to adapt to existing norms, to form a common subculture, a mythical consciousness. The dominant beliefs and values at this level are related to the maintenance of the group.

     The red, third level is characterized by the beginning of the search for oneself, the formation of self-esteem, and the manifestation of individuality in everything. In the psychology of personal development, at this stage the child grows up and begins to show healthy aggression, cunning, and rebellion, which contribute to the growth of ego and self-confidence. Depending on the conditions at this stage, a person can develop either healthy self-esteem or fall into extremes of infantilism in the form of egocentrism or codependency (lack of attention to oneself so that self-identification is lost).

Despite the fact that the desire to show individuality is very strong, at this level self-esteem is very shaky, the need to establish yourself in the eyes of society remains very important. Therefore, the most important thing is not to lose face in front of society. The motives that drive a person at this level are benefits here and now; the sense of cause-and-effect relationships has not yet been developed.

    The main belief at this level is that only force can get what you want. At this stage, a person, striving for a goal, does not feel a sense of conscience and wants to achieve the goal at any cost. When the state of chaos oversaturates a person, he begins to realize that dominance cannot be maintained by force, and a transition to the next level occurs.”

    *I classified people of the first three levels into the first group (according to my classification) - “EARTHED” people (Е.Р.).
    I draw your attention, dear reader, that “mundane” are people who have not received a serious upbringing and education due to difficult living conditions. They are ready to blindly obey instructions, without experiencing the remorse characteristic of more well-mannered and educated people. Therefore, they welcome violence against “enemies” and are ready to participate in this violence themselves.

    I had not read Graves or known his work until 2019. However, my intuition (and some knowledge of literature and history) gave me the opportunity to determine, like him, the properties of people. I classified them about the same as Professor Graves from level 3 to 6 in his opinion (in my opinion, types 1 to 4 are mostly positive, and type 5 is negative, which Graves does not have). But, let's continue our acquaintance with the Graves system.

    “Blue, the fourth level, is a manifestation of discipline and order, which comes after a long period of rebellion and chaos of the previous period. A person begins to value not immediate desire, but rules and stability. The values of this level are order, norms, awareness of right and wrong behavior, discipline, and the emergence of a strong feeling of guilt. The main motive here is moral behavior and the presence of absolute truth. Unlike the previous level, hierarchy is highly valued at this level. The main belief is the need to maintain discipline.”

    *I called people of this level 2nd personality type, or “RESPONSIBLE” (Е.Р.).

   “The transition to the next level begins when a person thinks about the truth and necessity of established norms, understands the limitations of his capabilities and wants to break out of the stereotypes.

    Orange, fifth level - awareness that progress and change are necessary engines of existence and self-realization. The dominant belief of the orange level is that results and money are important in everything. Usually at this level there are people who create the rules for the previous one, and they also manage resources (both human and material) to achieve success. At this level, people are ready to go against the rules in order to achieve a goal, to suppress their own feelings for the sake of results. Behavior at this stage differs from the aggressiveness of the red level in that a person rationally weighs his steps and is ready to postpone immediate gratification.

    The orange level is characterized by the manifestation of healthy competition, rivalry and the desire to assert one’s own superiority. Therefore, pragmatism and rationalization are valued here above all. The level is aimed at filling yourself, satisfying your needs. When a person is satisfied at this level primarily with material goods, he moves further and is again ready to give.”

    *I called people of this level the 3rd personality type, or “PURPOSEFUL”. I identify this level of consciousness of people with Gumilyov’s “passions”. (Е.Р.)

    “The green, sixth level is manifested in the desire to make the world a better place not only for oneself, but also for those around us. At this stage, relationships, world peace, and environmental preservation are more valued, and in order to achieve this goal, a person is again ready to give up his own comfort. Therefore, at the green stage, spirituality and a desire for partnership in the name of the common good prevail. For a person at this level, status and hierarchy no longer have such a clear and important meaning as before; there is a transition from hierarchical to systemic thinking. The most striking example of this stage of development is the hippie movement, their belief in pacifism, the importance of friendship, the suppression of pride and ego”.

*I called people of this level the 4th personality type, or “SOFT-HEARTED PEACEMAKERS”. (Е.Р.)

    These successive levels are mostly creative people. They create and accumulate material, informational and social wealth.

    But people of the latter quality are bad educators. Their children grow up to be sybarites and playmakers. Therefore, when they gain power, the economy of families (as well as firms, cities, countries, empires) declines.

    I called such people the 5th personality type, or “SELFISH HEDONISTS”. The activities of this last type of people are sometimes so destructive that their descendants are forced to become “mundane”, since their fathers do not give them education, upbringing and material resources. At the same time, the cycle of improving people in a limited closed environment is closed.

    Professor Graves, on the other hand, considers the further, continuous improvement of people, while preserving all their benefits. Let's look at his further reasoning. (Е.Р.)

    “Yellow, seventh level – integral level. A person who has reached this stage of development usually breaks out of the patterns of previous types of thinking, and can also easily switch and conduct a conversation at the value level of the previous stages. This is a clear manifestation of flexibility of thinking, acceptance of the diversity of the world without value judgments. For a person at this stage, the most important thing is the opportunity for self-realization, a sense of mission, and not status in society.
Yellow level beliefs are a holistic perception of all levels, a sense of one’s own self-sufficiency and freedom of choice. People at this level have strong internal motivation and do not depend on the views of others.”

*This is the level of leaders and philosophers, leaving a significant positive example in history.


  “Usually the psycho-emotional transformation of a personality during the transition from levels 1 to 6 is carried out so deeply that it refuses to accept the truth and values of the previous level, proving the truth and importance of the current level. Therefore, it turns out that each person from different levels has his own truth.

    Understanding and flexibility in communication appears only at the seventh level, when a person ceases to be determined by hierarchy.” (4brain "Graves Spiral Dynamics: Pathways to Human Development")

    So, we have examined the proposed theory of increasing the properties of people and large groups consisting of people similar in their properties.

  How did this happen in the specific history of Russia from the beginning of the 20th century to its end?

              Reasons for the mass appearance of “earthlings” in Russia.

    According to the 1897 census, the entire population of the country, which is 125 million people, was distributed into several classes: of which nobles - 1.5% of the total population, clergy - 0.5, merchants - 0.3, burghers - 10.6, peasants - 77.1, Cossacks - 2.3%. The first privileged class in Russia was considered the nobility, the second was the clergy, the rest were not considered privileged.

    Those. By the beginning of the 20th century, peasants numbered ~96 million people.
The statistics most likely included adults. However, you can use statistics on the number of children at the beginning of the 20th century: 27% - children from 0 to 9 years old; and 21% are children from 10 to 19 years old. This is 48%.

    In connection with the development of capitalism, the once united peasantry at the turn of the century was stratified into poor peasants (34.7%), middle peasants (15%), wealthy peasants (12.9%), kulaks (1.4%), as well as small and landless peasants , together accounting for one third (~30%).

    Those. by the beginning of the 20th century, 64% of the poor and small and landless peasants, i.e. ~62 million people. Of these, ~30 million are children.

    We can potentially classify these 30 million people as people with a low (primitive) consciousness due to fear of hunger ("mundane").

    Bourgeois and commoners ~15% of the population of Russia, i.e. 19 million people.

    Based on their social status (education and work), they can be classified as “responsible”. And some of them are considered “purposeful” ~0.5 million people.

   We know that it is the “purposeful” who leave the most significant mark in history with their activities. And the economic, literary... successes by 1914 are their merit.

              How do mass personality types appear in Russia?

    “Responsible” and “purposeful” are, as a rule, a family-psychological property of people, the result of traditions and educational priorities. But “down-to-earthness” becomes common in poor families during mass famine.

    After all, mass hunger in many regions gives rise to poverty and fear of starvation. Especially in children six to eleven years old.

When did mass famine visit Russia?

“At the beginning of the 20th century, there were famine years in Russia: 1901-1902, 1905-1908 and 1911-1912.

    In 1901 - 1902, 49 provinces went hungry: in 1901 - 6.6%, 1902 - 1%, 1903 - 0.6%, 1904 - 1.6% of the population.
    In 1905 - 1908, from 19 to 29 provinces went hungry: in 1905 - 7.7%, 1906 - 17.3% of the population.
    In 1911 - 1912, in 2 years, famine affected 60 provinces: in 1911 - 14.9% of the population.
30 million people were on the verge of starvation!


    An important reason for the famine in Russia was the very high export of bread abroad, the so-called. “hungry exports” and therefore a sharp drop in bread prices on the world market.” And for Russia this became the cause of hunger for huge masses of people.

   “Among the extreme phenomena of the late 19th century, meteorologists note a “thermal anomaly” - unprecedented cold in December 1899. They covered both Russia and Western Europe. In November in Western Europe, the temperature repeatedly dropped to minus 20 degrees; in Russia during this period there is a very cold December and a snowy February. In May there was a cold snap, which affected gardens and crops throughout almost all of Russia. The summer was dry, with frosts observed in August. The autumn was also dry, which adversely affected winter crops and the 1900 harvest.” Wikipedia.

   All this led to an increase in grain prices in the West. And since the main owners of grain reserves in Russia were grain resellers and landowners, they sent almost all the grain reserves to the Western market, causing a sharp drop in bread prices on the world market.

   Meanwhile, the Russian men were eating up their leftovers. And since grain traders sold their stocks, and peasants experienced crop failure for several years in a row, bread prices in Russia soared astronomically. That's why "30 million people were on the verge of death!" We can read that Leo Tolstoy and other compassionate people set up public canteens from their supplies to save people dying of hunger.

   The children of the poor in Russia, having received such a “hungry” lesson, and not having the opportunity to study, turned into real savages, remaining so until old age under the Tsarist regime.

The real story told by Ivan Vasilievich Babushkin

    Here are the memoirs of the revolutionary worker I.V. Babushkin, written by him at the request of V.I. Lenin.

    On Sunday, Babushkin and a friend, dressed in colorful factory clothes, went on an excursion to their hostel house.

    An excursion into the material and spiritual poverty of the “mundane”

     “The poverty (dullness) of this multi-storey dwelling was amazing. The stale, stinking air was especially disgusting. There were 4 beds in the small rooms. Each one slept 2 people.

...copper taps and nuts (fire extinguishing systems) could not smooth out the impression of bare, unkempt, crowded beds and of walls on which countless bedbugs were crushed and smeared.

    From behind you can hear a groaning roar in the corridor, disgusting air is constantly advancing from there, and more and more bitterness and hatred rises in the soul against the oppressors, on the one hand, and ignorance, on the other, which does not allow (them) to understand the reasons for what is little desired existence.

ABOUT! We need to bring as much knowledge as possible to these crowded places.
...
   Subsequently, in another place, factory life positively outraged me, and I was not able to explain to myself the endurance and insignificant needs that a person can limit himself to, while at the same time feeling satisfied with this miserable, beggarly, half-starved life.”

    These are the factory people I called “down to earth”, following the American sociologist and researcher William Graves.

  Riot is a manifestation of the "mundane"

“...on the eve of Christmas 1894, the plant administration did not bother to pay the wages of the artisans. The next day after the work was completed, the artisans gathered at the factory around noon to receive money. They wait an hour, two, three, but still no money. Many complain that there is no money and therefore there is nothing to buy provisions for, and tomorrow, they say, they will not have time to manage it in one day; others complain that they wanted to go to the village, but now, perhaps, you won’t have time, etc.

    Almost the same story repeated itself on Christmas Eve. The day was approaching evening and the street was damp, lanterns were lit everywhere, and in the workshops candles were burning on workbenches, machines and other places. Anxious conversations were heard everywhere. The audience was excited and could neither stand nor sit in one place, and therefore flowed from the workshops to the courtyard, to the street, and from there again to the workshops.

    Near the stairs we came across a very excited master and said in a trembling voice: “Guys, don’t go out into the street. Now they will bring the money and distribute it, please don’t worry, I ask you to calm down.”

   Our entrance was being destroyed. Glass was broken and frames were broken. Stones and sticks were thrown from the street towards our gate, thrown with the aim of knocking down the lanterns and the eagle. The lanterns soon went out, the windows were broken, and it seems that the double-headed eagle was also significantly damaged.

    Next to the gate there was a long one-story building in which lived the manager of the plant, a man who aroused hatred among all the workers. It was he who the workers wanted to punish; but how to do that? They tried to open the door, but were unable to do so and decided to set fire to the front entrance.

...a crowd of workers headed to the factory owner's public shop. This shop was the scourge of the workers, where the fence worker felt contempt for himself not only from the scoundrel shop manager, but also from every clerk. The person taking the goods could not be demanding for his money; he received what was given to him, and not what he needed. This was especially felt when buying meat, when they only gave you bones, but if you talked, you would be thrown out of the factory. It is clear that during such a protest this shop, hated by everyone, could not survive, and, indeed, it was destroyed. Jars of jam were broken, many other goods were damaged; sugar and tea were thrown into the street, dishes were broken, etc., etc.

   The first savior for the manager was the fire department of the local police station, which, positioned near the gate of the manager's house, paralyzed the actions of the crowd at this point. Soon the Cossacks galloped up and stood along the street opposite the plant.”

    What is the difference between these workers and the miners of our time. They (the miners) were not paid for half a year in the 90s, and their chosen ones came to Moscow and banged their helmets on the highway. Because they were not “down to earth”, but “responsible”.

    “During the Christmas holidays, a lot of arrests occurred in the village of Smolenskoye, since our plant is located here; many were arrested on instructions of a rather dubious nature.
(How Professor N.N. Platoshkin was arrested in our time. E.R.)
All those arrested spent a long time before trial, and many were not sentenced so mercifully.”

    Historical manifestation of "responsible"

However, many of the plant workers (and even some of the factory workers) took pride in their skills and experience, which would allow us to call them “responsible.” After the Great October Revolution, it was they who restarted stopped production, restored steam locomotives... Many took up their studies. Educational programs, factory schools and workers' faculties were created.

    In 1922, the Putilov plant received a new name - “Red Putilovets”.

     In 1924, the first Soviet tractor “Fordson-Putilovets” was tested on it and its mass production began. Since 1934, the production of the new Universal tractor has been mastered. Until 1941, the plant produced about 200 thousand Fordson-Putilovets and Universal tractors.

    The role of the “mundane” in the history of the USSR.

    Can you imagine, dear reader, what kind of people lived in Russia at the time of the Great October Revolution? After a hungry childhood, the First World War and the Civil Wars, there were up to 30 million “grounded”. The social structure of Russia has changed dramatically. The slogan appeared: “He who was nothing will become everything!” (These are the final words of the first stanza of the poem (proletarian anthem) “The Internationale” by Eugene Potier from 1871). They became a significant social force of the revolution.

   In the film “The Rumyantsev Case,” the old driver, a communist since 1918 (Uncle Yasha) says (53 minutes of the film): “What about the investigative bodies? I myself was an investigative body in 1818. Do you think you weren’t mistaken?”
Uncle Yasha is a decent person, but how many were not decent? I am sure that the mistakes of “Uncle Yasha” did not lead to the death of innocents. And many “down-to-earth investigators” sent people to their deaths without a twinge of conscience.

   They became party leaders of districts, heads of administrations...
They asked for limits on execution lists. After all, the displacement from the first roles of the state of the lively pen of the revolution - David Trotsky (politically outdated, since the world revolution did not take place after the First World War), made all his admirers - Trotskyists and "enemies of the people." And they automatically became repressed by the decision of “down-to-earth” leaders.

    But it was not the “down to earth” people who took the helm of the industrialization of the USSR. Due to insufficient education, they were relegated to second place. The primacy in this matter began to be occupied by the “responsible” and “inspired”.

     The appearance and significance of the “winged” in the history of the USSR.

    In the USSR at that time there was a cheerful, heroic atmosphere. Perky songs of those years sounded from the loudspeakers:

We were born to make a fairy tale come true,
Overcome space and space,
The mind gave us steel wings,
And instead of a heart there is a fiery motor.

Chorus:

Higher and higher and higher
We strive for the flight of our birds,
And every propeller breathes
Peace of our borders.
...

or:

The morning greets us with coolness,
The river meets us with the wind.
Curly, why aren’t you happy?
A cheerful sound of a whistle?

Don't sleep, wake up, curly!
In the workshops ringing,
The country rises with glory
To the meeting of the day.
...

In this rhythm and enthusiasm, mass sports societies and social initiatives were born. Working conditions changed, Stakhanovites appeared. Young and old were carried away, until that time, by the unprecedented and unreal: dreams and lofty goals. I confidently called them: “purposeful” or “inspired.”

  Their successes are new cars, new planes, new instruments, new knowledge and new songs...

    This purely socio-psychological phenomenon swept the entire Union.

    The learned ethnologist Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov could not ignore this phenomenon. He called it "passionarity". Unfortunately, he was not a sociologist or psychologist, and he took the advice of some biologist that this was a manifestation of a mutation in the human energy system. Such a statement was fashionable at the end of the 20th century, but unproven.

    But every person probably experiences mental arousal when perceiving something sublime and pathetic without any mutation. Therefore, watching good films, listening to good songs, reading good books... encourages a person to do good. Someone’s passionate passion for something good gives rise to awe and a willingness to follow “a mentor and a beginner (a beginner is someone who began to master any type of activity or field of knowledge before others. Wikipedia.).”

    Such frantic “beginners” were Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev. Their example infected entire design bureaus and workshops with enthusiasm. People worked without smoking breaks and days off. But in the shortest possible time, technological miracles were created that allowed them to be the first to explore space and the vastness of the seas.

    Such is Nikolai Nikolaevich Platoshkin. He is both an erudite historian and a wonderful speaker. And I want to believe that the success of his social activities will be as fruitful as Korolev’s affairs in the field of space exploration.

    But that comes later. And then the task was to be ready for war with the fascists (the antipodes of the Soviet people).

   The remarkable designer Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin is the chief designer of the tank - Pobeda: T-34. He quickly created and prepared his brainchild for testing.

   The best designer of Soviet heavy tanks "KV" and "IS", as well as heavy self-propelled guns - the formidable "beast hunters" - Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin.

   Here is a galaxy of wonderful aircraft designers: Ilyushin, Lavochkin, Tupolev...

“The MiG-1 aircraft of Mikoyan and Gurevich was created within six months from the start of design work to the production of a prototype and showed very good flight characteristics.

The competition for the creation of a light single-engine bomber was won by Pavel Sukhoi's project "first short-range bomber" BB-1, which went into production under the designation Su-2.

Lavochkin and his associates built the LaGG-3 fighter. The first prototype of the aircraft entered testing in March 1940.

At this time, the Yakovlev Design Bureau was developing the famous Yak, the most popular fighter of the Great Patriotic War.

In the spring of 1940, Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev was given the task of designing a front-line dive bomber. Already in the fall, the famous Tu-2 was built, and tested in January 1941.

Before the war, V. Petlyakov created a well-known dive bomber - the Pe-2 dive bomber, a twin-engine, three-seater aircraft, which was significantly faster in speed than all previous aircraft of this type; The “pawn” served in the Air Force throughout the war.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov is the founder of the design of Soviet fighter aircraft I-15 and I-16. They were discontinued because they were inferior in speed to the famous German Me-109. However, Polikarpov's fighters took part in the battles of the first period of the Great Patriotic War, as they formed the basis of Soviet fighter aircraft. But one of Polikarpov's aircraft, the U-2 trainer (named Po-2 after Polikarpov's death in 1944), fought throughout the war, forming the basis of light night bomber aircraft. Seeing the Po-2 at the front, the Nazis at first laughed, giving the unsightly aircraft contemptuous nicknames like “Russian plywood.” But the small slow-moving aircraft turned out to be an excellent night bomber, especially in close contact with the enemy.

Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin was designing a completely new machine at this time - the attack aircraft (Il-2). The aircraft was intended to operate in the front line, in close cooperation with infantry, primarily against ground enemies, including enemy tanks." (Aviation industry of the USSR - Wikipedia)

   The USSR was rich in such “purposeful” or “inspired” people before the Second World War.

   And after the war, as I already said, remarkable designers of space technology and river and sea transport showed themselves.

   By the third quarter of the 20th century, the desire for peace between the USSR and the West intensified in the USSR. This was not so much the initiative of Brezhnev, but also the peaceful mood of the majority of the population of the USSR (many of them became “compassionate peacekeepers”).

   Here is a brief listing of the peacekeeping initiatives of the USSR leadership at that time:

“In the spring of 1972, US President Nixon visited Moscow. The Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM) and the Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (SALT-1) were signed. The number of inter-ballistic missiles and missiles launched from submarines was limited.

    In the summer of 1973, Brezhnev visited the United States, and a year later Nixon visited Moscow again. A number of cooperation agreements were signed in various areas: on environmental protection, the use of nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes, a joint space program, etc.

    In the fall of 1974, a meeting between Brezhnev and President Ford took place in Vladivostok. An agreement was reached to sign SALT II. (This treaty had a difficult fate. It covered a larger number of weapons: strategic bombers, multiple warheads. The Americans did not want to extend the treaty to new cruise missiles, the USSR - to the new bomber, known in the West as the Backfire. SALT-2 was signed in June 1979 in Vienna by Brezhnev and Carter, but was not subsequently ratified.)

    Thus, in 1972, the d;tente of international tension began. Trade with the West and the United States has increased 8 times. In 1975, a joint space flight was carried out on the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft. At the same time, meetings took place at the highest level of the leaders of the USSR with the leadership of England, France, and Germany.

    The crowning achievement of d;tente was the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1973, the first preparatory meetings were held in Helsinki and Geneva. On August 1, 1975, the Final Act of the meeting was signed in Helsinki. It was signed by 33 European countries, the USA and Canada. Brezhnev signed the Act on behalf of the USSR. It defined the principles of relations between states: respect for independence and sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, renunciation of the use of force and the threat of its use, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, etc. The Final Act included articles on the protection of human rights and freedom of information and movement." (Website "Foreign Policy of the USSR in the second half of the 1960s - early 1980s.")

    And finally - the collapse of the USSR and the plunder of its resources by the “new Russians” - “selfish sybarites”. (The writer and screenwriter Stanislav Sergeevich Govorukhin spoke about this in more detail in the narrative “Criminal Revolution”.

Many blame M.S. Gorbachev, B.N. Yeltsin, A.N. Yakovlev in the creation of this “revolution” in the USSR. Yes, they created favorable conditions for the adoption of laws convenient for “selfish sybarites.” But, if the population of the USSR consisted mainly of “responsible” and “creative-purposeful” people, and not of “compassionate peacemakers” and “selfish sybarites,” then these counter-revolutionaries would not have had a social basis for carrying out a counter-revolution, and it would have failed.

   It should be noted that by 1990 the number of members of the CPSU was 15.4 million people (this is a huge force with high personal qualities ["responsible" and "creative-purposeful" people] and the same high-ranking leader). But many party members and their leaders did not have the proper consciousness and determination at that time, especially in the Union Republics. Since 1990, no one has been able to resist M.S. Gorbachev, B.N. Yeltsin, A.N. Yakovlev and counter-revolutionaries in the Union Republics in an effort to destroy the USSR.
   Such degeneration of the population and ruling elites occurred many times in the history of states and empires, which led to their natural collapse.

   The 90s ended tragically for our country and our people. Firm power was established. “Selfish sybarites” faded into the background. Their place was taken by the oligarchs and United Russia. How successful their rule is is not for me to judge. I can’t say anything about the modern social structure of the Russian population. The word is up to sociologists.