Whether Kolchak said: “Do not touch the artists, prostitutes and Kucherov. Do they serve any power ”?

One of the leaders of the white movement is often attributed a phrase on the political unprincipled representatives of some professions. We checked whether such an attribution is correct.

Allegedly belonging to Alexander Kolchak, the statement exists in different formulations, and they differ in them not only the order of words or the type of verb, but also the profession mentioned in the quote. In some versions appear Priests instead of artists, someone Adds on the list of prison overseers, someone forgets About the Kucherov, etc. Be that as it may, the phrase attributed to Admiral Kolchak can be found on sites with collections of aphorisms (for example, Citaty.info And "Pearls of thought"), as well as in the publications of various celebrities: from the dancer and rector of the Academy. Vaganova Nikolai Tsiscaridze to the TV presenter and public figure Katya Gordon. No less popular quote became also with ordinary users "VKontakte", Facebook*, Twitter and other social networks.

The search for this quote attributed to Kolchak in any authoritative sources was unsuccessful. She is not mentioned in serious historical research, nor in the admiral in particular, nor in the talk about the events of the Civil War in Russia as a whole. Judging by the Google Books collection, the use of this statement is completely limited Mostly fiction and collections of aphorisms.

The most previously the use of the alleged quote from Kolchak that we managed to find is dated in the fall of 2014. In an interview with the Ukrainian publication "Today" poet Yuri Rybchinsky declared: “I believe that a man of art going into politics becomes not free. But the whole charm of a man of art is that he is over parties, above politicians, etc. This is his tremendous influence on the people that he represents. When Alexander Kolchak entered the Siberian cities, they always hung ads: "Do not touch the artists, Kucherov and prostitutes - they serve the same authorities equally."

A few months later, Rybchinsky used an almost identical expression and again mentioned Kolchak. In an interview with Dmitry Gordon in the spring of 2015, the poet, arguing about the Ukrainian artists who continued to perform in Russia, He emphasized: “The artist is not a political figure. Admiral Kolchak was right, who, entering the next city, hung an announcement: "Do not touch the artists, Kucherov and prostitutes - any power is equally needed."

Later, Gordon himself began to use the quote. So, in August 2015, the journalist on the air of the 112 Ukraine television channel commented on the actions of the Ukrainian singer Irina Bilyk, who visited the song “Children's“ New Wave ”” in the Crimea. "Admiral Kolchak, once occupying another city, said:" Do not touch the artists, prostitutes and Kucherov. They serve any power. " I believe that it is necessary not to start with the artists, but with the traitors who are sitting in our Ministry of Defense, in the SBU, in the General Staff, in the presidential administration and in all other places where they continue to work for Russia, ” - declared Then Gordon.

However, among users of social networks, quote Kolchak became far from immediately. For example, in VKontakte we discovered Its single references in the fall of 2015, but since the end of January 2016, the expression began to spread publics with an audience of several thousand subscribers: "Fat Politics" (January 29), “The events of the day. Patriot's gaze " (January 30), "Do Russian wars want" (February 4) and others. Judging by data The LJSearch service, a similar picture can be observed in Livejournal, where the first entries with the mention of the admiral quote appeared on January 30, 2016.

Then the alleged statement of Kolchak became appear and in the publications of Twitter users (before that it Used Only once-August 21, 2015, on the same day as Gordon on the air of one of the Ukrainian television channels). In general, according to a similar scenario, the phrase spread on Facebook*: at the end of the summer of 2015, it several times Mentioned In posts, one way or another related to the commentary of Gordon, and the next winter is a quote I went into independent swimming.

Thus, we could not find any reliable evidence that Admiral Kolchak (or one of his subordinates) really used the phrase “Do not touch artists, prostitutes and Kucherov. They serve any power. ” Judging by the available data, it became widely known in early 2016, and the poet Yuri Rybchinsky, and then journalist Dmitry Gordon, first before, popularized it shortly before. We could not establish information about the origin of this quote from Rybchinsky.

Addition of July 10, 2023: A quote similar to the attributed Kolchak was also distributed until the mid-2010s, but it was associated with another historical figure. So, in November 1999, the leader of the Chayf group Vladimir Shahrin at a press conference in Kyiv declared: "More Old Man Makhno He said: "Do not touch musicians and prostitutes! In any government!" "

The editors thanks the reader “verified” by Kirill Poznyak for the provision of additional materials.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, an extremist organization; Its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Incorrect attribution of quote

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