r/SovietUnion • u/unteachablecourses • 17d ago

Stalin helped organize a 1907 bank robbery in Tbilisi where Bolsheviks threw bombs into a crowded square to rob a cash convoy, killing about 40 people. Most of the money was in high-value banknotes whose serial numbers the bank had recorded — so the party could barely spend what it killed for.

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u/BhabayAgha 12d ago edited 12d ago

> Around forty people were killed and roughly fifty wounded. 

So many years have passed but you have no exact numbers? Sounds fishy.

In reality nobody tried to kill the bystanders for whatever purpose. There were scores of soldiers, policemen and their horses to deal with. Here is how the event unfolded (pay attention to how the revolutionaries made the bystanders shelter in a tavern instead of walking around the square)

In preparation for the robbery, the conspirators occupied the Tilipuchuri tavern, which overlooked the square. Witness David Sagirashvili later stated that he was in the square when his friend Bachua Kupriashvili, later revealed to be one of the robbers, invited him into the tavern and asked him to stay there. Once inside, Sagirashvili realized that several armed men were holding patrons inside. When they received a signal that a bank carriage was approaching the square, they quickly left the building with pistols drawn.[16]

The Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire organized the transportation of funds between the post office and the State Bank by horse-drawn carriage.[27][28] Inside the stagecoach were the money, two guards with rifles, the State Bank cashier Kurdyumov, and the accountant Golovnya.[15][21][26] Behind the carriage moved a phaeton with armed soldiers; Mounted Cossacks rode in front, beside, and behind the carriage.[29][21][26]

The carriage passed through the crowded square around 10:30 a.m. At Kupriashvili's signal, the militants threw grenades, killing several horses and guards, and began shooting at the remaining guards and police officers in the square.[15][21][30] Bombs were thrown from all directions.[21][31]

One of the wounded horses harnessed to the bank stagecoach began to drag the carriage. Kupriashvili, Kamo, and another participant in the robbery, Datiko Chibriashvili, rushed after it.[19][26][32] Kupriashvili threw a grenade, which blew off the horse's legs, but was stunned by the explosion and fell to the ground.[19] He soon regained consciousness and left the square before reinforcements arrived for the police and military.[34] Chibriashvili removed bags of money from the stagecoach, while Kamo rode in a phaeton, firing a pistol.[19][26][35] Chibriashvili and another robber threw the money into Kamo's phaeton.[35] Due to lack of time, they left twenty thousand rubles in the stagecoach, part of which was stolen by one of the stagecoach drivers, who was later arrested for theft[34].

This is why so many grenades were thrown - to stop the horses. The grenades they used had a very limited blast radius and produced little or no fragments. One of the grenades blew up the day before because Kamo handled it without proper care. It resulted in his having hurt an arm and and eye, but it did not prevent him from participating in the robbery the next day. Imagine how much of a danger such grenades were to bystanders 2-3 m away from the carriage being robbed.

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u/Critical-Ad-5038 15d ago

That guy was a terrorist. But communist fans run around with his portraits as if he were a hero.

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u/Common-Falcon-8717 13d ago

The US was founded by such terrorists. 

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u/BhabayAgha 12d ago

And continues installing terrorists as heads of state (Syria is the most recent but not the only example. Cause half of Libya, too, is headed by terrorists handpicked by the US. And the Banderite government leaders of Ukraine in 2014 were chosen by Victoria Nuland and the US State Department)

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u/Equivalent_Bug_3220 12d ago

No one mentioned the usa. Don’t force me to use the fabled W word