What is the fifth column? Fifth column in Russia. What is a “fifth column”? What is 5th column
The term "fifth column" originally arose during the Spanish Civil War and denoted a network of pro-fascist elements that undermined the defense capabilities of the Republicans from within. Later, the term “fifth column” was firmly attached to the fascist networks that operated in various European states during the period of the dominance of the Third Reich.
Subsequently, the term "fifth column" lost its connection to specific events or the ideology of fascism/Nazism and became a generally accepted designation for internal subversive elements acting in the interests of a foreign state.
Here you need to understand the following - the fifth column is not a thing in itself. She does not exist on her own; she always acts in someone else's interests. Therefore, when talking about the fifth column, one should indicate whose fifth column it is. In whose interests does she act?
If subversive elements act in their own interests, then this is no longer a fifth column, but something else.
When talking about Russia, you can most often find the United States in connection with the term “fifth column”. Accordingly, if we talk about modern threats to Russia, then we primarily mean the fifth column of the United States, that is, a certain network structure conditionally including legal, semi-legal and illegal organizations created and operating within network structures, as well as individuals acting in the interests of the United States. Therefore, in the future, in the text, the “fifth column” should be understood as the fifth column of the United States.
What tasks does the US fifth column face?
1. Replacement of the existing government. There are different degrees of control. With all the obvious claims against the current elites, the United States requires an even more controlled course associated with the removal from power of those parts of the elite that are exerting one or another opposition.
In simple terms, the pro-Western course of Putin-Medvedev should be replaced by an even more pro-Western course in the spirit of Yeltsin-Kozyrev or Gorbachev-Shevardnadze. Obviously, if we consider these three “tandems,” the first two were much more profitable than the last.
Therefore, it is in the interests of the United States to install in Russia a government that is more dependent, weak and controlled. There is no purpose here to glorify Putin or his puppet Medvedev.
An analysis of the foreign policy course of the Russian Federation over the past 10 years indicates that, along with a long series of direct or indirect concessions on the part of Russia, in a number of episodes the position of the Russian authorities indicated that due to certain circumstances (even based on fear of internal discontent ), the country's leadership one way or another resisted the US strategy. In the current conditions, such selective dependence of the Russian authorities is unacceptable for the United States, and that is why we see both increased external influence, such as the promotion of missile defense and drawing the Russian Federation into an arms race in conditions that are obviously unfavorable for the Russian Federation, and the activation of the American fifth column aimed at weakening the foundations of the regime from within. In the minds of citizens, such fragmented protection of national interests on the part of the current authorities gets along poorly, which reasonably gives rise to mass dissatisfaction with such a policy.
2. Why does the United States need a change of power in Russia? First of all, for the weakening/dismantling of the Russian Federation, including the separation of a number of territories from it. For example, with all the claims to the current government, it opposes (no matter how or why it does it) the separation of the Caucasus and the Kuril Islands from Russia. Accordingly, from the point of view of the task of separating the Caucasus from Russia, a change of power in the country with the arrival of more dependent persons to the first posts seems necessary.
Of course, the weakening of the Russian Federation as a task includes not only the exclusion of certain territories - Kaliningrad, the Kuril Islands, the Caucasus, the granting of broad autonomy to Tatarstan / Bashkiria, but also the acceleration of the processes of deindustrialization, atomization of society, dismantling of systemic social institutions - education, medicine, science , army - that is, the complete destruction of all structures that bind the population into a people. The policy of the current regime, for all its destructiveness, is extended over time and, within the framework of a changing world, no longer suits the United States, even with all the levels of dependence of the Russian Federation on the world hegemon.
Politically, this is a transition from dependence to complete control. Putin is a dependent figure, but not controlled. The same dependent, but not controlled figures were/are Mubarak, Gaddafi, Assad.
Therefore, the US requires a controlled figure instead.
Therefore, from the point of view of achieving US goals, the fifth column must seek the overthrow of Putin (which will mean the complete destruction of the existing political system in the Russian Federation) in order to replace him with a controlled figure. Moreover, we must understand that the United States needs a very specific controlled figure within the framework of the processes that they control. The United States absolutely does not need a repetition of the situation with the Bolsheviks. For example, the establishment in Russia of an anti-Western military dictatorship, an anti-Western nationalist regime or some kind of left-wing revolutionary dictatorship in an attempt to overthrow Putin is just as unpleasant for the West (if not more) as the failure in attempts to remove Putin. There is a risk, instead of a dependent politician or a controlled PNS, you will get someone like Chavez or Ahmadinejad with a heavy Russian accent, or worse, some new Lenin or Stalin, after which you will have to fight long and hard with the unexpected consequences of the “color revolution” in this mysterious Russia .
Participation in the fifth column has an important feature - it is conscious participation - that is, a person/group of people acting in the interests of the United States is aware of what they are doing and why. This is their conscious choice. They may have their own goals of a lower level - power, property, fame, ideological dogmas, etc., but in relation to the interests of the organizer and sponsor of the fifth column, these goals are of a subordinate nature.
Who does the fifth column consist of?
1. Citizens of foreign countries.
2. Citizens of the Russian Federation.
a) Creation of an initial network of controlled discontent, its expansion to the level of self-functioning.
b) Organizational support for the activities of the created network - financing, recruiting, promotion of leaders, media support, legalization.
c) General management of ongoing field operations.
This activity has 3 levels. Legal, semi-legal and illegal and carried out within the framework of control functions in relation to the domestic component of the fifth column.
The main line of control is, first of all, money, without which the full functioning of the fifth column is impossible. The basis of funding is made up of various NGOs and private foundations, through which US government agencies (the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency) provide financial support to individuals and organizations carrying out controlled subversive activities in Russia.
The distribution of these funds is carried out both by foreign citizens who control the flows of funding and distribute these same flows, as well as by especially close local persons who, in terms of their level of trust and professionalism, are suitable for such delicate matters.
Some of these financial flows are transparent, some are not.
Also playing a serious role are employees of special services engaged in undercover and subversive work and acting in coordination with other structures and persons exercising organizational and financial control of the fifth column.
The second category, consisting of Russian citizens, plays the role of extras (organizing and conducting public actions promoting the public part of the fifth column ideologies to the broad masses + the most banal propaganda through controlled media and the Internet) with partial self-government (implementation of organizational and management functions of lower and middle management, where along with a subordinate function in relation to the goals of the United States, there are also their own goals, views, positions that the participants of the fifth column are trying to realize along with the main goal. Their activities are also legal, semi-legal or illegal. It must be clearly understood that those actions or the actions of the fifth column, which end up in the media, represent only part of the picture, and the part that is de facto the least dangerous, since publicity not only allows the fifth column to promote subversive ideas to the masses, but also reveals their destructiveness, which for the majority of society unacceptable. Actually, those characters who are mediators of the fifth column in the field of public non-systemic opposition are in some ways even convenient for the authorities, since by scaring society with them, it is very convenient to “not notice” the real existing discontent, attributing it to the machinations of the fifth column. But this is more a public media position of the authorities than a deep internal conviction, since the authorities perfectly understand the difference between the fifth column and ordinary dissatisfied people, although this in no way prevents them from playing the traditional card of a “besieged fortress” or intimidating society with “Kyrgyzstan”.
Of course, for the state and society. The greatest threat is posed by actions of a semi-legal or illegal nature:
a) Indirectly inciting discontent along the lines of national, social or religious hatred - the main task of the organizers is to present the situation in such a way that tension has increased in the short term on its own without external influence. The artificial growth of discontent (when it occurs not as a result of the policy of the authorities, but for reasons of an external nature), despite the obviousness of its man-made nature, should be as natural as possible, so that the masses, whose arousal such actions are designed to incite, perceive this artificial discontent as another factor indicating an imminent fall mode. In this regard, it must be pointed out that it does not fundamentally matter what factor it is - religious, national or social - within the framework of the actions of the fifth column, these issues are considered from the point of view of technology, where the main criterion is efficiency in achieving the goal.
b) Covert work with key public figures of ordinary mass discontent in order to attract certain individuals to the fifth column program project. At the same time, such individuals are actually reoriented towards new goals, while maintaining the previous rhetoric. In essence, this can be regarded as a variation of banal recruitment or re-recruitment, which is carried out, among other things, by intelligence structures.
c) Involvement in the project of persons embedded in the state management system and law enforcement agencies. This involvement can be carried out either voluntarily or compulsorily.
The ideological treatment of individual human elements of the system or the establishment of financial dependence (if there are deposits in foreign banks or the presence of unearned income) serve a single goal - in a situation of open implementation of the “color scenario”, such human elements of the system must either join the rebellion/revolution/coup, or and contribute to them by your inaction.
In all the “color revolutions,” without exception, we could observe how part of the administrative and security apparatus, which was supposed to ensure the stability and security of the regime, either directly supported the “color scenario” or completely withdrew from performing direct duties. As a result, at the moment of organized and controlled protest, not only the legitimacy of the authorities in its various manifestations, but also the actual supporting pillars of the current government sank simultaneously.
It must be understood that not all persons who sympathize with or are directly involved in the implementation of the goals of the fifth column are direct agents of foreign intelligence services. Not at all - rather, on the contrary, the majority of those who act within the framework of the implementation of the goals of the fifth column and built into the state management system or the power bloc - can do this quite voluntarily, since they may have their own ideological, commercial, political or other goals that they expect to realize by collapsing the existing state system.
The work of the State Security agencies includes, among other things, preventing as much as possible the penetration of such elements into government bodies and their own ranks, as well as monitoring the reorientation of those already there. But due to the specific nature of the activities of the fifth column, the effectiveness of the measures taken will always be fragmented, and therefore it is not surprising that during the next “color revolution” among the revolutionaries we see officials and employees of the State Security Service who quickly changed their colors. There is absolutely no guarantee that if the “color scenario” is implemented in Russia, there will be no acts of betrayal and sabotage on the part of persons already built into the public administration system or the power bloc (the simplest example is when active protests begin in one of the large cities of Russia, chief The local police, already built into the mechanism for implementing the “color scenario”, upon receiving an order to disperse a gathering crowd, withdraws from carrying out the order or gives the order not to resist. Moreover, if the “color scenario” is successful, this commander gets the opportunity for accelerated promotion and increased material security or simply moral satisfaction from the sight of higher-ups flying out of their chairs).
It must be understood that the level of penetration of such elements directly or indirectly interested in dismantling the existing regime can also reach the level of the Government of the Russian Federation, not to mention the leadership structures of the RF Ministry of Defense or the FSB.
But it is these individuals who pose the greatest practical danger, since at the moment of passing the bifurcation point, they, through their actions or inaction, reduce the ability of the ruling regime to resist. As the situation in Egypt or Libya showed, among the subversive elements were not only human rights activists or public leaders, but intelligence officers, law enforcement officers, middle and senior army officers, ministers and other high-ranking officials - who voluntarily or forcibly helped to collapse the existing regimes . You can be sure that after the active phase of events in Syria begins, we will see the same picture.
This, in my opinion, is the main intra-system element, which, along with objectively existing discontent, is capable, if properly united, of collapsing the entire system and ensuring the implementation of US goals. The task of the fifth column in this regard is transparent - to ensure the synchronicity of controlled speech and subversive actions within the existing vertical of power, attacking it simultaneously from the outside and from the inside.
You can often see confusion when everyone who disagrees with the current state of affairs, who criticizes the existing system in one way or another, is recorded as a fifth column. Here you need to understand the following.
1. Every fifth column is an artificial formation. It does not appear on its own, but is organized through appropriate legal, semi-legal and illegal work.
2. What is the fifth column made of? The fifth column is organized on the basis of one or another dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs in society. and within the regime. This kind of dissatisfaction is everywhere. It can be seen both in Russia and in the USA. It is dissatisfaction that comes first - therefore attempts to attribute the existence of masses of dissatisfied people to the machinations of external enemies deliberately distort reality.
3. As the “color revolution 2.0” scenario shows, the basic principle of overthrowing regimes that do not suit the United States is to identify critical points in the already objectively existing masses of dissatisfied people, assembling these critical points into a network, which, through its work, accumulates already existing discontent for the organized overthrow of the current government.
4. Thus, within the framework of dialectics, objectively existing discontent is the basis. The fifth column is the superstructure. The task of the fifth column is to implement a set of controlled processes in this basis in order to achieve the set goals. Therefore, the fifth column has never been, and cannot be, a comprehensive structure that includes the majority of the dissatisfied.
With regard to the factors of instability and protest sentiments in Russia, the US fifth column in numerical terms constitutes a certain percentage that is difficult to determine (since a significant part of the activities of the fifth column are not transparent, including to the State Security Bodies).
Its main distinguishing feature is the dominance of US goals over all other goals, because the US fifth column is aimed primarily at achieving US goals (it is organized by the US and financed by the US), and then at achieving the goals of all those participating and joining. Therefore, statements in the spirit of “anyone who criticizes the current government is an agent of the fifth column” is at best a delusion, which, among other things, plays into the hands of external forces interested in accumulating discontent around controlled individuals and structures.
All other protest sentiments accumulate within other vectors:
1. Molecular discontent is the most widespread phenomenon and is usually associated with certain aspects of the domestic or foreign policy of the authorities, causing hostility both among individual citizens and entire social groups. This is the most fertile ground for subversive work, since atomization and amorphism make this mass of dissatisfied people most susceptible to manipulation and canalization. These are the classic “dissatisfied in the kitchens” or “dissatisfied on the forums”. As a rule, they are not members of any parties or organizations, do not participate in active protest or subversive activities, and as a rule, their dissatisfaction is only verbal.
2. Systemic discontent - structured discontent within the framework of development paradigms that are opposed to the current course. The largest of them today are the left-wing imperial project and the project of the national Russian state, expressed in various disparate organizational structures.
A molecular dissatisfied person (an abstract layman) is much more easily processed in the interests of fifth column goals than a systemic dissatisfied person. Roughly speaking, it is easier to use a molecular dissatisfied person (to come to an agreement) than a structural one, acting within the framework of a project that sets other goals.
Systemic dissatisfied people of the left or nationalist persuasion are essentially engaged in a competitive struggle both among themselves and with the fifth column to attract into their ranks the “molecular dissatisfied”, who seeks expression of his aspirations and protest sentiments in existing organizations that meet his views on resolving contradictions in society.
The task of organizations of structural discontent or the fifth column is to recruit people from the amorphous mass of molecular discontent in order to move the latter from verbal protest in kitchens or on the Internet to real practical activity (protest or subversive) - both in kitchens and all on the same Internet .
We must understand that, like the fifth column, both types of discontent actually undermine the existing system. But this is a different kind of subversive activity. At the moment, it is formulated in two common terms: “orange revolution” - “Russian rebellion”. The notorious “Russian revolt” (which can be understood as both a leftist and a nationalist revolution/coup) is fundamentally hostile to both the current course and the course towards a “color revolution” in the interests of the United States. But this does not mean that both currents cannot converge at certain points, because formally their goals - dismantling the regime - are identical. The goals of this dismantling of the natural differ. If the conditional sovereign patriots-Eurasians dream of, say, overthrowing the regime and starting the construction of a new Russian Empire, then the fifth column has a purely antagonistic goal for them - preventing any attempts to transform Russia into a new Empire through its dismantling. Moreover, there is a tricky point here - the current regime manages to both hinder plans for the direct dismantling of the Russian Federation and prevent the reconstruction of Russia into a new empire. This is where multidirectional discontent comes from - some are dissatisfied with the very fact of the existence of Russia as a state within its current borders, while others are dissatisfied with the fact that the authorities do not allow Russia to be the empire that it has always been.
It must also be understood that since the fifth column is a superstructure, playing a controlling function in relation to the base, it can include both individual representatives and entire organizations of dissatisfied people of the first or second category, actually carrying out the recruiting or recruiting process.
1. Open game (direct interaction) - people/organizations not included in the fifth column agree to cooperate with it, recognizing the dominance of the goals of the fifth column, expecting to realize their own goals. This is conscious collaboration. For example, some molecular or systemic dissatisfied people fully or partially agree with the thesis that Russia should be occupied by NATO troops, its resources should be controlled by “civilized humanity,” and the country should be governed by an external administration, since Russia cannot play serious civilizational role. At the same time, they expect that by implementing the US goals through the fifth column, they will receive a “free society”, “lustration of the Chekism”, “Russia transformed into a civilized state”. They are quite consciously ready to pay the above-mentioned price and therefore are direct allies of the fifth column, although they are not formally a member of it.
2. Game of the dark (indirect interaction) - people/organizations not included in the fifth column are used to achieve the goals of the fifth column. This is unconscious manipulation. For example, nationalists-reducers (without even taking into account direct agents and agents of influence) put forward theses for building a reduced Russia based on ethno-nationalism, cutting off a number of territories from the country. They may not even be in direct contact with the fifth column, but the goals of the nationalist-reducers are quite consistent with the main tasks facing the fifth column, so interaction takes place even if the reducers do not realize it.
3. Game of interception - there is also another way of interaction, when representatives of the so-called “Russian rebellion” try to use the fifth column for their own purposes, to weaken the existing government. The motive is clear - by playing along with the fifth column, they will ultimately seize control and implement their project. This idea is actively discussed in patriotic circles. There is also a historical example, namely the October Revolution of 1917, when such an interception was actually carried out, which, however, does not tell us in any way whether this is the rule or a historical exception. There are absolutely no guarantees of the success of such a project.
One way or another, it is obvious that a certain unspecified percentage of those dissatisfied with the existing regime, to one degree or another, carry out one or another interaction with the fifth column. You may consider a person who criticizes the authorities to be an agent of fifth column influence, although he may not be one. And vice versa - we can consider a person sincere in his criticism of the authorities, but in reality, this will only be a well-put on mask. This, in fact, is the main difficulty of separating the wheat from the chaff, which not only ordinary citizens, but even state security agencies often cannot cope with. For these reasons, I did not focus on specific names and organizations that can be interpreted one way or another, but focused on the mechanism itself.
Let's summarize.
1. The US fifth column is part of an objectively existing mass of public discontent.
2. It acts primarily in the interests of the United States, but may also have its own local goals and interests.
3. The main goal of the fifth column, within the framework of the US goals it implements, is to dismantle the existing regime and the Russian Federation within its current borders.
4. The main activity of the fifth column is the synchronization of a controlled surge of public discontent and subversive activities of fifth column elements integrated into the existing regime.
In my opinion, at the moment, the implementation of the “color scenario” in Russia is many times more likely than the “Russian rebellion” in all its forms and manifestations. The fifth column, despite the relative small number relative to the total mass of molecular or structural dissatisfied, has better funding, better organization, active external support, the widest media resource and support of direct/indirect agents or agents of influence built into the existing vertical of power. From the point of view of resources, the fifth column lacks only sufficient mass numbers in order to convert its resource base into practical results. The lack of mass participation of the fifth column is quite logical, since its goals (or rather, the US goals pursued through it) are by default perceived by the majority of citizens as destructive. And that is why the fifth column, using semi-legal and illegal methods, seeks to accumulate discontent without its visible participation, in order to subsequently ride the wave of the masses who have lost their bearings.
Thus, for the next few years, the main task of the fifth column (among others) will be precisely to gain mass participation in order to ensure that at the right moment people take to the streets to start the “color scenario”, after which external managers will actively and openly join in with the subsequent transformation of the leadership persons and structures of the fifth column in the Transitional National Council of the Russian Federation.
Let's start with a definition. The term “fifth column” was coined by the Spanish general Emilio Mola, who commanded the Francoist army during the civil war of the 30s of the last century in Spain. Advancing on Madrid, he broadcast on the radio in early October 1936 an appeal to his dear Spaniards, who had not yet been fooled by the Republican Communists: they say that in addition to the four army columns at his disposal, he also has a “fifth column”. In Madrid itself! This decisive force will strike from the rear at the right moment.
Methods of action? The “fifth column” of the Francoists sowed panic, engaged in sabotage, espionage and sabotage. But even such actions of hers then had an exaggerated, purely “propaganda” success, because Republican Madrid held out against the Franco-fascists for two and a half years.
Foreign observers who were in Madrid at that time easily “deciphered” the composition of the Fifth Column: there were opponents of the republican regime and criminal elements hiding in the city. Most of them were hiding on the territory of the German embassy, which occupied an entire block. That is, they are the same fascists, only, like the Russian Maria Ivanovna, “from other doors.”
Something similar is happening now in Ukraine.
The process of forming our Fifth Column has already begun. According to our and foreign media reports, State Duma deputy, Supreme Ataman of the Union of Cossack Troops of Russia and Abroad, Viktor Vodolatsky, said: he is ready to send 15 thousand Cossacks to Ukraine! Well, of course, if a request for this comes “from the Ukrainian Cossacks.”
The number of the 5th column of “help for Ukrainians” from the Cossack formations of Russia seems considerable. It is believed that the registered Cossacks, who, for example, are led by the chairman of the Council for Cossack Affairs, a certain Alexander Belov, are “only” 760 thousand people. These guys are eager to support the current government and, of course, oppose the Kyiv Maidan. They have already shown what they are capable of in dispersing demonstrators in Lugansk, Donetsk and Zaporozhye.
Behind all this is some more organized force than the still operetta “Cossack Army”. In fact, this is the FSB and a significant part, alas, of the same Ukrainian special services. Both of these state intelligence services are the legal successors of the legendary KGB and operate using the same methods (remember the history of the “export of socialist revolutions” to third countries) and pursue the same goals. That is, the strengthening of totalitarianism and the restoration of the empire, its former power.
When I worked in Ukraine, in Poltava, for many years, I had to meet quite often and obtain information “for the public” from the press service of the local SBU department. The impression I got from this “office” was twofold. On the one hand, I don’t remember a case in these twenty-odd years of Independence of our state when Poltava SSB officers caught and put in a prison cell some venerable spy, saboteur, or, as they used to say, a “pest” of the national economy. Even if not a venerable one, but some low-life agent... On the other hand, these people, many of whom came to serve in the SBU after 1991, expressed patriotic sentiments and swore allegiance and devotion to the “cause of Independence.”
The actions of the SBU (as well as similar special-purpose organizations) must be assessed not by words, but by deeds. The affairs of our “knights of cloak and dagger” have always been quite secret. And the Poltava public, for example, learned about their exploits only from their own laconic newsletters and rare public appearances.
But based on indirect signs, it was possible to draw... um... rather unusual, paradoxical conclusions about the “patriotically oriented” activities of the secret agency.
Just take even the external surroundings. Red stars, a symbol of the Bolshevik evil empire, have been “hovering proudly” over the Poltava SBU headquarters for decades now! This is no less strange than the numerous Lenin monuments that decorate the squares of our cities - and as if they do not oblige anyone to anything or any special worship.
God be with them, with the monuments for now (or rather, to hell with them)!
But regarding the pentagram signs on all four turrets of our SBU, I even personally addressed one of the heads of this regional department. The answer was this. They say that for this - for the liquidation of the symbols of the totalitarian regime - the SSB men have no money, they say, they are a poor organization, budget-funded...
Then I waited for the moment when the roof of the SBU building finally began to be repaired. Have you finally found the money to even replace the façade? And I called the boss again. His answer was evasive. The stars remained on the towers.
According to some indirect answers from unofficial persons (I also have informants in this office), these stars, they say, if historical authenticity is to be restored (and before the revolution, the KGB-SBU building belonged to the Peasant Bank), they should be replaced with... cockerels! Our special services, of course, didn’t want to walk under the “cockerels”! And yet this whole plot seems symptomatic to me. And in this context, rumors and conversations about the ongoing close cooperation of former KGB agents of both post-Soviet republics seem non-random and natural. And it’s clear: SBU agents are unlikely to play for their own, for the Ukrainian “gates”; most likely, they carry out special orders from their “big brothers”...
From recent media reports...
Russians in Cossack uniforms managed to take part, together with the so-called “titushki,” in a raid on the local Euromaidan on January 27, the day before the above statement by the Ataman of the Russian Cossack troops. Their arrival is also expected in Sevastopol, where a group of representatives of the Russian biker club “Night Wolves” is already stationed. This public group is, in fact, one of the pro-Putin organizations. “Night Wolves” are ready to die on the Ukrainian barricades,” the club’s website reports. These militants from the Fifth Ukrainian Column have their own camp near Sevastopol. “We will do everything possible to prevent aggressive protest movements in Crimea,” the Wolves say.
A few days before these events, almost simultaneously, a propaganda campaign began in all Russian media, designed to justify such an invasion of Ukraine. One after another, materials began to appear that said: Ukrainians and Russians are one people. Like, Russia... well, it’s simply obliged to provide assistance to the Ukrainians in repelling the attempts of the “Bandera fascists” to seize power. And so on...
Fifth column
There is one more circumstance that should be examined before approaching the investigation of Goebbels' falsifications. Over time and under the influence of propaganda, priorities in society change dramatically. Previously, young and even well-educated people did not know what the French word “blowjob” meant, but everyone knew what the words “fifth column” meant. Today the opposite is true: I have more than once encountered fairly educated people for whom the words “fifth column” are an empty phrase. Therefore, we will have to pause to consider this concept.
It dates back to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. In the mid-1930s in Spain, leftist parties won in the usual parliamentary way and began a series of social reforms, in particular agrarian reform. The capitalist (self-described as “free”) world did not like this at all, and this world incited the Spanish army to revolt. The rebellion began in Spanish Morocco, then the rebel troops landed in Spain proper and marched on Madrid in four columns. At this time, supporters of the rebels in the Republican government of Spain and in its troops rebelled against the Republic in support of the rebels. General Franco, the commander of the rebel army, called these traitors to the republic his fifth column. Since then, this term has firmly come into use to name traitors within a country or organization. As for Spain, the rebels there won in 1939 during a bloody war thanks to this “fifth column”, which, by the way, included Trotskyists, of whom there were many in the USSR.
This does not mean that such a phenomenon as betrayal and support of the enemy did not exist before the Spanish events. It has always been there, it’s just that Franco gave this phenomenon a term accepted by the world. (True, sometimes the “fifth column” is called “quislings” after the traitor to the Norwegian people, Nazi supporter Quisling, but the Spanish name is still more common.)
Previously, the “fifth column” in their country was hated by people all over the world and they had to fight it fiercely: if they couldn’t neutralize it before the war, then with the start of the war they would definitely deal with it (if they had time).
For example, the British are considered the inventors of death concentration camps, who created them at the beginning of the last century during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. The families of the Boers, the Dutch colonists of this state who fought against Britain, were imprisoned in these camps. Boer families were imprisoned in camps to deprive the Boer troops of intelligence and food. And this is not a whim, not some special malice of the British government: just think about how many lives of British soldiers, and even the lives of the Boers themselves, who were forced to surrender, were saved by this measure. This is the duty, this is the responsibility of every government that truly cares about its people.
The French are even more decisive in this regard. When at the beginning of the First World War the Germans approached Paris, the French, without any trial, simply on the instructions of Parisian police agents, shot all thieves, swindlers and even hooligans in the ditches of Fort Vincennes. Nothing changed by World War II; with its beginning, all Germans, even anti-Nazis, and all those suspected of having connections with them, were arrested and placed in camps in France.
The same was true in Great Britain. The Nazi "fifth column" was being tracked. Churchill writes: “It was known that at that time there were twenty thousand organized German Nazis in England. A furious wave of sabotage and murder as a prelude to war would only correspond to their previous behavior in other friendly countries.". In fact, Churchill means only the English supporters of Hitler, organized in the British Union of Fascists party of the millionaire Oswald Mosley. Membership in this party was secret, but the police knew that there were about 400 grassroots organizations with an average of 50 people.
Following them, 74,000 people from countries hostile to Great Britain went to the camps, and the British silenced their talkers and alarmists with an iron fist: “British citizens were also subjected to draconian punishments. On July 17, 1940, a man was sentenced to a month in prison for publicly declaring that Britain had no chance of winning the war. The man who advised two New Zealanders: “What is the point of dying in this bloodbath?” – received three months in prison. A woman who called Hitler "a good ruler, better than our own Mr. Churchill" has been sentenced to five years in prison. English newspapers were warned to beware of reckless statements. The editors were made very clear that the government would not tolerate “irresponsible” criticism; Moreover, it will itself decide which criticism is responsible and which is not.”, complains Len Deighton.
The Americans were not going to tolerate the “fifth column” in any way. After the Japanese attack on the United States, the Los Angeles Times editorialized: “A viper remains a viper, no matter where it lays its egg. So an American, born of Japanese parents, grows up to become Japanese, not American."(quoted from the Workers World newspaper, Nov. 29, 2001, p. 5). It’s rude, but it conveys the Americans’ fear accurately. A month and a half after the start of the war between the United States and Japan, Roosevelt ordered and the American army detained and put in camps all American citizens with Japanese blood, and to get into the camp, even 1/8 of such blood was enough. There were 112 thousand such people.
This is what all governments that serve their people do, and peoples with governments that do not put pressure on the “fifth column” pay dearly for this. In Norway, for example, at the time of the German landing, the “fifth column” paralyzed the work of the state apparatus and prevented mobilization; Quisling spoke on the radio as the head of the new government, causing confusion in the country and the army. The Norwegian army surrendered Norway to the weak German landing force almost without a fight. What do we care about Norway, haven’t we seen how the West destroyed and robbed the USSR? If Brezhnev had had the intelligence and will to repress all these Gorbachevs, Yakovlevs, Shevardnadzes, Kravchuks and their accomplices, then the Soviet people today, even in material terms, would live at least four times richer than they live today.
This is not very difficult to figure out. According to the Russian Statistical Yearbook, in 1990, 148 million people lived in Soviet Russia, and the gross domestic product was 1102 billion US dollars (the number is underestimated, but let's take it - the official one!). Per capita of the Soviet population of Soviet Russia there were 7,446 dollars. And in South Korea in the same 1990 - $5,917. That is, the average citizen of the RSFSR was 26% richer than the average South Korean. And in 1993, the average per capita gross product of Russia being robbed by the “fifth column” was $1,243 - six times lower than in 1990, and already six times lower than in South Korea in 1993! According to the CIA (now inflated), in 1999 Russia's per capita gross product was $4,200, and South Korea's was $13,300. If Russia had remained Soviet and within the USSR, there is no reason to believe that the 1990 ratio would have been significantly different. changed not in favor of the USSR. That is, today the average Russian citizen’s per capita gross domestic product would be a quarter higher than that of South Korea, or within $16,000, which is four times more than today’s $4,200. I hope it’s clear why in no country They don’t like the “fifth column”?
And before World War II, the government of the USSR was truly popular and, naturally, could not allow the existence of a “fifth column” in the USSR with impunity. American Ambassador to the USSR in 1937-1938. Joseph W. Davis, after the German attack on the USSR, wrote in his diary (July 7, 1941): “...Today we know, thanks to the efforts of the FBI, that Hitler's organs operated everywhere, even in the United States and South America. The German entry into Prague was accompanied by active support from Gehlen's military organizations. The same thing happened in Norway (Quisling), Slovakia (Tiso), Belgium (Degrell)... However, we do not see anything similar in Russia. “Where are Hitler’s Russian accomplices?” - they often ask me. “They were shot,” I answer. Only now are you beginning to realize how far-sighted the Soviet government acted during the years of purges.”.
Alas, Davis overpraises the Soviet government: yes, the “fifth column” was defeated, but they did not have time to completely destroy it by the beginning of the war. The most powerful damage to defense capability was subsequently caused by the forgiven future Marshal Meretskov, who grossly distorted the mobilization plan of the USSR, and therefore the Red Army entered the war with a lack of vehicles, divisional artillery, etc. The pre-war leaders of the Air Force left the Red Army aviation without radio communications and, accordingly, without established methods control of aviation in combat. The traitor, commander of the Western Front, General Pavlov with his staff exposed three divisions to the Germans in Brest, did not bring the front troops into combat readiness, which predetermined the heaviest losses of Soviet troops in the direction of the main attack of the Germans in 1941. Losses of the Soviet people from the sabotage of these “fifth column” fighters must number in the millions.
Major General of the Wehrmacht and SS Brigadefuehrer B.V. Kaminsky with soldiers of the Russian People's Liberation Army.
We can also recall minor figures. Above, I already wrote about the engineer Kaminsky, who created an SS brigade for the Germans, which “distinguished itself” during the storming of Warsaw in 1944. But before the war, Kaminsky was identified as a member of the “fifth column” and was even imprisoned, but not for long - he was released before the war. Estimate how many thousands of killed Soviet soldiers and Poles this “humaneness” of the Soviet court cost the USSR and Poland. How much more humane it would have been for the Soviet people to destroy Kaminsky and his volunteers before the war, and not when the Germans had already armed them.
In the USSR, members of the “fifth column” were searched for and neutralized, of course, continuously, starting from the Civil War. The capital punishment for state crimes in the USSR had two categories: the first was execution, the second was deportation abroad. For a long time, right up to the beginning of the 30s, they tried to expel the “fifth column” abroad.
But then the outspoken enemy of the USSR, Hitler, came to power in Germany, and the expulsion of the “fifth column” abroad began to take the form of mobilizing foreign legions for Hitler. Members of the “fifth column” began to be imprisoned, and when in 1936-1937. the top of the “fifth column” tried to carry out a coup with the goal of subsequently dismembering the USSR, then the top was destroyed and carried out what the American Ambassador Davis called "cleaning" countries. The Soviet government could not help but understand that with so many “fifth column generals” convicted in open trials in Moscow, there must have been tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the army of traitors in the country.
This is how this army was liquidated. Neither the people's courts nor the military tribunals, whose reliability due to their large numbers could not be verified, were entrusted with the repression of the “fifth column”. Special courts were created from people whose honesty and decency, it would seem, could be trusted. These courts consisted of three people and were called troikas. The troika was staffed by the highest leaders of the republic or region in which it was created. At first, the members of the troika, judging by some data, were appointed personally, but they necessarily included the secretary of the regional committee and the head of the NKVD, and then their composition was determined in the form of positions: the chairman was the head of the NKVD department of the region (People's Commissar of the Republic); members are the first secretary of the regional committee (Central Committee of the republic) of the CPSU (b) and the prosecutor of the region (republic). The troikas were asked to review the cases available to the NKVD against persons suspected of belonging to the “fifth column” and to convict them. At the same time, by order of the People's Commissar of the Internal Affairs N. Yezhov, the troikas were limited in repression by the maximum number of members of the “fifth column”, above which they had no right to condemn, and by the approximate number of traitors whom the troikas had the right to condemn to death.
However, the trouble was that the members of the “fifth column” were rarely workers or peasants, because all traitors are, as a rule, people thirsting for power, fame or money, which again gives power. Members of the “fifth column” settled in the party, judicial, prosecutorial and investigative bodies, i.e. the situation was exactly the same as today in Russia. And the members of the troikas were largely composed of the “fifth column”. As a result, a fairly large number of members of the “fifth column” managed to escape the repressions, but instead, in troikas, a large number of either innocent people or those who should not have been repressed were convicted. When the USSR government realized this and when it finally put L. Beria at the head of the NKVD, the troikas were abolished, and criminal cases were brought against many members of these troikas, which ended in the execution of these judges. By the way, the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, N. Khrushchev, was trying to become a member of this troika, but for some reason he was not included, perhaps due to being busy. Since under Beria almost all the members of the Moscow troikas were shot, it is, of course, a pity that Khrushchev was not among them. Without Khrushchev, the history of the USSR would have been different, brighter. But let's get back to the topic.
First we would need to estimate the number of those who fell under repression, but this is not easy to do. The fact is that when during the years of perestroika the “fifth column” destroyed the USSR, it stated that 40 and 60 million were shot during the “years of repression,” i.e. in 1937-1938. Therefore, the Goebbelsites give scattered figures from the archives, in pieces, so that it is impossible to present the overall picture. So, for example, in 1997, even the Memorial society - the military detachment of the "fifth column" - was given figures of repressions not for the entire USSR and not even for the entire RSFSR, but only for some regions and republics. But, having found the population of these regions in other sources, I made the appropriate calculations and found that on average less than two people out of a thousand people were planned to be subjected to repression, of which less than 5 people out of ten thousand were to be shot. Recalculated for the entire USSR, these numbers look like approximately 340 thousand repressed, of which about 80 thousand were shot.
As I just wrote above, the “fifth column” numbering approximately 94 thousand people was repressed in Great Britain, and with the population of Great Britain at that time being 47 million, this also amounts to 2 people per 1000 inhabitants. In the United States, with a population of 140 million, this number is less than 1, but one must understand that neither the United States nor Great Britain experienced the upheavals associated with the Civil War and the socialization of the earth on the eve, and there, of course, there were fewer potentially evil opponents.
There are two more points to consider. Order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov No. 00447 of July 30, 1937, setting the number of members of the “fifth column” subject to repression, demanded: "3. The approved figures are indicative only. However, the people's commissars of the republican NKVD and the heads of the regional and regional departments of the NKVD do not have the right to independently exceed them. Any independent increases in numbers are not allowed.
In cases where the situation requires an increase in the approved figures, the people's commissars of the republican NKVD and the heads of the regional and regional departments of the NKVD are obliged to submit to me the appropriate motivated petitions.".
And such petitions were submitted and granted. In addition, at the same time, the country was being cleansed of German, Polish and Japanese intelligence and sabotage networks: Germans, Poles and Harbin residents suspected of membership in the “fifth column” were arrested. Therefore, the actual number of those repressed must be greater than expected in Yezhov’s original order.
But what exactly the final figures were, the current “fifth column” is still hiding. I already had to make an estimate based on data (possibly exaggerated) reported by the former burgomaster of Smolensk under the Germans, Menshagin. Extrapolating the data from the Smolensk region to the entire USSR, we get the total number of repressed people in the country at 960 thousand people. Of which about 240 thousand were shot (if the proportion specified in Yezhov’s order was preserved). This figure is also confirmed by extrapolation from Moscow and the Moscow region, in which the number of the repressed “fifth column” was set in the order at 35,000 people, and this is more than 10% of all repressed in the Soviet Union. In total, from 1935 to 1953, 27,508 people were shot in Moscow and the Moscow region (some from other places in the USSR); in 1937-1938. – 20,675 people. If we extrapolate this number to the entire USSR, it turns out that from 1935 to 1953 about 270 thousand people were shot in the USSR, and in 1937-1938. approximately 210 thousand.
It should be added that in the USA and England, the repressed members of the “fifth column” also included citizens of the enemy’s nationality. In the USSR, such people were not put in either camps or prisons - they were simply resettled to the East. You have already seen that this is exactly what they did with the families of Polish officers when Poland declared war on the USSR - they were not put into camps like the Boer families, but, after spending a fair amount of money, they were resettled. The result was a result that was quite offensive for Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and many other peoples of the USSR. It was these peoples who bore the brunt of the war with the Germans on their shoulders; more than 26 million of them died at the fronts and under occupation; it happened to them in 1941-1945. a terrible demographic failure that reverberated forty years later. And at this time, Soviet Germans multiplied in Altai and Kazakhstan. And if in 1939 there were 1.2 million of them in the USSR, then already in 1959 there was a third more - 1.6 million.
And finally, the result of the purges is interesting. Since it is difficult to express it in numbers for traitors and traitors in the “fifth column,” let’s make a comparison for criminals. On July 10, 1937, Khrushchev reported to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks that 33,436 criminals were registered in Moscow and the Moscow region, the most dangerous of whom were also repressed along with the “fifth column.” Khrushchev asked to repress 11,772 people out of the total mass of criminals, of whom he asked to shoot 6,000. I do not know what the Central Committee decided, since in Yezhov’s subsequent order of July 25, Khrushchev was allowed to repress only 35,000 people, of which no more than 5,000 would be shot. Regardless, the outcome of such a fight against criminality is interesting.
In 1998, in Russia, with a population of about 140 million, 64,545 people were killed and 81,565 were injured as a result of crimes.
Three years later, Colonel General L. Ivashov reported: “... last year, 2001, 83 thousand people died as a result of murders, tens of thousands died later in hospitals after attempts on their lives, about 70 thousand disappeared without a trace”.
And in 1940 (after the “purge” of 1937-1938), with a population of 190 million people in the USSR, there were only 6,549 murders. If today we repeat the repressions of 1937 and achieve the indicators of 1940, then only in terms of criminal crime the population decline will be more than compensated in 5 years by preserving the lives of decent people. But the theft and destruction of Russia will still be stopped, and this is also a lot.
What else is important for you, the readers in the position of judges, to note and remember. If in the USA and Great Britain repressions were carried out indiscriminately - since the grandfather was Japanese, that means he was sent to a camp until the end of the war - then in the USSR not a single person was sent to either a camp or to the wall without a thorough assessment of his personal danger to society. No one was imprisoned or shot just because he was a Pole, that he was an officer and that he was German. From Khrushchev’s appeal to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, you saw that not all criminals were targeted for repression, but only those about whom the NKVD had information that they had not repented. At the very least, both the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the People's Commissar of the NKVD N. Yezhov in their orders demanded a careful consideration of the degree of danger of each person suspected of belonging to the “fifth column”. By order of Yezhov No. 00447 of July 30, 1937, former kulaks and socially dangerous elements who were members of rebel, fascist, terrorist and bandit formations, who had served their sentences, fled from repressions or escaped from places of imprisonment and resumed their criminal activities, were subject to repression. Members of anti-Soviet parties (Socialist Revolutionaries, Gruzmeks, Musavatists, Ittihadists and Dashnaks), former whites, gendarmes, officials, punitive forces, bandits, bandits, ferrymen, re-emigrants who fled from repression, escaped from places of detention and continue to conduct active anti-Soviet activities. The most hostile and active participants in the Cossack-White Guard insurgent organizations, fascist, terrorist and spy-sabotage counter-revolutionary formations that were being liquidated at that time were exposed by investigative and verified intelligence materials. The most active anti-Soviet elements were former kulaks, punitive forces, bandits, whites, sectarian activists, churchmen and others, who were then kept in prisons, camps, labor camps and colonies and continued to conduct active anti-Soviet subversive work there. Criminals (bandits, robbers, repeat thieves, professional smugglers, repeat offenders, cattle thieves) engaged in criminal activities and associated with the criminal environment.
The fourth section of the order read: "1. An investigative case is opened for each arrested person or group of arrested persons. During the investigation, all criminal connections of the arrested person must be revealed.
2. At the end of the investigation, the case is sent to the troika for consideration.
The following are attached to the case: an arrest warrant, a search report, materials seized during the search, personal documents, a questionnaire of the arrested person, intelligence records, an interrogation report and a short indictment.”.
The rest of the orders, in meaning, repeated order No. 00447, however, they also required thorough investigative work and careful consideration of cases in troikas, or at a Special Meeting of the NKVD, or at commissions consisting of the head of the regional or republican NKVD and the prosecutor of the region or republic .
Let's say, carrying out Yezhov's order No. 00485 of August 11, 1937 on the liquidation of the Polish espionage and sabotage network, NKVD workers arrested the future Marshal of the USSR, and then division commander, K.K. Rokossovsky, a Pole by nationality. This order prescribed: “Simultaneously with the deployment of the arrest operation, begin investigative work... Select a special group of workers to conduct the investigation”. Investigators of this special group conducted an investigation for more than two years, trying to confirm the previous slander, but found no evidence of Rokossovsky’s involvement in the “fifth column”, and he was released without trial, reinstated in rank and position with compensation for the time he was in prison of all kinds the monetary and clothing allowances due to him.
This should be noted: during repressions, Moscow always demanded careful consideration of individual guilt and never gave sweeping orders. On the ground, both investigators and judges, in order to distinguish themselves or with hostile intentions, could approach the matter formally or deliberately repress the innocent. There were enough such investigators and judges, and they were later shot along with their boss, People’s Commissar of the NKVD N. Yezhov, but the USSR government prohibited a formal approach to the fate of people, so no such documents could come from it. I ask you to note this because in the future, when considering the fakes concocted by the Goebbels brigade, it will help us.
This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Why Was Stalin Killed? author Mukhin Yuri Ignatievich“Fifth Column” But then, in those years, before giving Soviet citizens their freedom, Hitler had to conquer us. Today, almost all historians pay attention only to the fact that the Germans had powerful aviation and tank troops, and that, they say, only they led to
From the book “Baptism by Fire.” Volume II: "Struggle of Giants" author Kalashnikov Maxim“The Fifth Column” One part of it was scared half to death. Someone began panicky, inappropriate actions, plunging the country into senseless expenses and brainless steps in the arms race, one-to-one copying the American ones - including the outright bluff of the United States. Someone decided any
From the book Slandered Stalin author Mukhin Yuri Ignatievich“Fifth Column” But then, in those years, before giving Soviet citizens their freedom, Hitler had to conquer us. Today, almost all historians pay attention only to the fact that the Germans had powerful aviation and tank troops and that, they say, only they led to
From the book Mutiny of the Nomenklatura [Moscow 1991-1993. Book 1] author Saveliev Andrey NikolaevichFifth column Looking back into the past, it is difficult to understand why voters and deputies constantly vote for careerists, crooks and liars. It would seem that it is not so difficult to understand these people and at least take into account your mistakes. For some reason this is not
From the book Banderization of Ukraine - the main threat to Russia author Kozlov Yuri KTHE FIFTH COLUMN OF GLOBALISTS After the end of World War II, the OUN leaders switched to new masters - the US Central Intelligence Agency and the British Intelligence Service. All Ukrainian agents were placed at the disposal of these special services.
From the book Scum of History. The most sinister secret of the 20th century author Mukhin Yuri IgnatievichFifth Column There is one more circumstance that should be examined before approaching the investigation of Goebbels' falsifications. Over time and under the influence of propaganda, priorities in society change dramatically. Previously young and even well educated
From the book The Enemy Within. The defeatist “elite” is ruining Russia author Dugin Alexander GelevichFifth Column Some still believe in Russia's superpower potential. But this has long belonged to the fantasy genre. The question today may be: to remain as a subject of one’s own politics or to finally turn into an object of someone else’s politics.
From the book Perestroika: from Gorbachev to Chubais author Boyarintsev Vladimir Ivanovich“FIFTH COLUMN” In accordance with the definition given by the Small Soviet Encyclopedia, the “fifth column” is the fascist underground that operated in the rear of the Spanish Republic during the national revolutionary war of the Spanish people of 1936–1939. Spanish fascists who spoke out
From the book Anticultural Revolution in Russia author Yamshchikov Savva VasilievichOLD TESTAMENT “FIFTH COLUMN” The activities of the “fifth column” to destroy pre-revolutionary Russia followed three main directions: revolutionary-terrorist, Zionism and Freemasonry. A lot of money was invested in all three areas, but the most “effective”
From the book Destruction in the Heads. Information war against Russia author Belyaev Dmitry Pavlovich“FIFTH COLUMN” IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA After the student riots in Russia in 1861, students who “gave the best forces of their souls to the struggle for academic freedom, the struggle for the political liberation of Russia” went to Heidelberg (Germany), famous for its
From the book Economic War against Russia author Katasonov Valentin Yurievich“FIFTH COLUMN” IN THE USSR “As our national history shows, it is possible to form a “fifth column” everywhere, just skillfully use the base instincts of ambitious people who are dissatisfied with their position in society. There will always be such people... Let me emphasize: the formation of the “fifth
From the book Putin's New Formula. Fundamentals of Ethical Policy author Dugin Alexander Gelevich“Fifth Column” Every war is evil, mixed with human blood and the tears of mothers. Historians, however, divide wars into just and unjust, aggressive and defensive. From my point of view, there is nothing worse than dirty wars conducted not according to the rules of offensive
From the book Crisis Management in Russia. What will help Putin author Sulakshin Stepan StepanovichChapter 3. The Fifth Column In troubled times of hesitation and transition, different people always and everywhere appear. I’m not talking about those so-called “advanced” people who are always in a hurry before everyone else (the main concern) and although very often with the stupidest, but still with a certain more or less
From the author's book“FIFTH COLUMN” IN THE “ECONOMIC WAR” Every day new reports arrive from the front of the “economic war” that the West has unleashed against Russia. One of the latest developments on this front: the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard stopped without any notice
From the author's bookWho are the “fifth column”? (interview with A. G. Dugin for V. Pozner. Program “Posner”, 04/21/2014) Vladimir Pozner: The program “Posner” is on the air. The guest of the program is philosopher Alexander Dugin. Hello, Alexander Gelevich. Alexander Dugin, leader of the International Eurasian
From the author's bookPutin and the fifth column On March 18, 2014, Putin spoke publicly for the first time about the fifth column in Russia. This part of the speech of the President of the Russian Federation sounded like this: “We will obviously encounter external opposition, but we must decide for ourselves whether we are ready to consistently defend our
“Fifth Column” is a political term that refers to citizens who, in the interests of third states, act against the authorities of their own country.
Where did the term “fifth column” come from?
"Attention! The fifth column lies in wait! (Republican propaganda poster, circa 1936) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The term "fifth column" originated during the Spanish Civil War. On October 15, 1936, the nationalists were preparing to storm Madrid, which was then controlled by the Republicans hostile to them. To intimidate the population of the capital,
General Emilio Mola, commander of the Francoist army, made an appeal on the radio. In it, he announced that in addition to the four army columns at his disposal outside the city, he also had a hidden fifth, located in the very heart of the capital:“On the seventh of November I will have coffee in Gran Via... Four columns are with me, and the fifth is in Madrid,” Mola announced.
Following this, Mola's army launched an offensive and came very close to Madrid, occupying one of the airfields 10 km from the Spanish capital. But since the nationalists had much less people, as well as ammunition, fuel and weapons, than the Republicans, Franco and Mola decided not to storm the city of a million people. Therefore, whether there really was a “fifth column” in Madrid is unknown.
The news keeps talking about some kind of “fifth column”. I would like to know what this term means?
Answer
The phrase “fifth column” is widely used in political phraseology and journalism to refer to various types of internal enemy. In other words, the fifth column is people who cause alarm in the country and hide their foreign connections from the public. These could be saboteurs, saboteurs, internal enemies.
The term “fifth column” itself appeared in the 30s of the 20th century during the Spanish Civil War. At some point, rumors began to spread in Madrid about traitors operating in the country. The Republican government arrested thousands of actual supporters of General Franco, who led the anti-republican forces, and people who simply came under suspicion. Every morning, dozens of corpses were found on the streets of Madrid. There were rumors of the impending doom of the Republic's cause. Therefore, perhaps the accidentally dropped phrase fell on fertile soil.
It is believed that this term was first used by the famous Brigadier General Emilio Mola, commander of the nationalist troops. Speaking on the radio, he painted a picture of the fighting in four columns advancing on Madrid, and mentioned the presence of a fifth column that was already in the city and would begin the offensive. After this, the rebel army came very close to Madrid, but due to the limited number of soldiers and ammunition, they did not dare to storm. Therefore, whether Mola told the truth about the presence of a fifth column is still unknown.
The activities that came to be known as fifth column during the Spanish Civil War took place in a variety of countries during different historical periods. However, one of the most studied and famous is still the German fifth column of the Second World War. We are talking about Nazi agents in other states, which contributed to their capture by German troops.
Nowadays, the fifth columns of China and Russia are operating. And many Russian politicians say that a US fifth column operates in their country.
In Ukraine, the concept of a fifth column has been widely used since the mid-2000s. As a rule, it is used to refer to pro-Russian movements. In independent Ukraine, the fifth column is a number of political parties that support the foreign policy of the neighboring state. A striking example of their activities can be called the Severodonetsk congress, the main goal of which was the creation of a south-eastern autonomous republic.
During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict of 2014-2015, the term “fifth column” became even more widespread. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko repeatedly uses it in his public speeches and addresses.
The concept of the “fifth column” is also reflected in art. In 1938, Ernest Hemingway, who was stationed in Madrid as an American war correspondent during the Civil War, wrote a play about Republican counterintelligence called The Fifth Column. In 1960, the play's script was made into a film starring Richard Burton.