November 4 is a memorable date in Russian history. On this day 406 years ago, October 24, 1612 (old style), the Russian militia, led by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, after the storming of Kitay-Gorod, forced the Polish interventionists, locked in the Moscow Kremlin, to surrender.

Turning point in history

Russia greeted the 17th century at a difficult time for it. The war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was unsuccessful, natural disasters and crop failures led to hunger and impoverishment of the peasants, the crisis of anarchy (or, better said, an uncompromising and bloody struggle for power) affected all layers of Russian society. It is not for nothing that this period in our history received the name. Taking advantage of the situation, the Polish interventionists were able to deal a heavy blow to our country.

For more than ten years, wars and conflicts within the country with the participation of foreign invaders and constant Tatar raids on Russian lands did not subside. Only the famous Second People's Militia of Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, gathered in Nizhny Novgorod, was able to put an end to the Polish intervention. This was truly a turning point in Russian history. The militia was of a national character; it included representatives of all classes that existed in Russia at that time. In honor of the victory and liberation of Moscow, the temple of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was founded.

First day of national unity

After the liberation of Moscow, the Zemsky Sobor was convened to elect a new tsar. Peasants, nobles, and representatives of all possible classes took part in it. Representatives from all Russian cities came together. Many historians characterize the Zemsky Sobor of 1613 as a truly national and reconciling event for all residents of the country. On February 7, 1613 (old style), Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected tsar, founding a new royal dynasty of Russia. By his decree, the day of October 22 (November 4, new style) became the feast of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God and was celebrated as the day of the deliverance of Russia and Moscow from the Poles in 1612 until.

We are one!

During the Soviet period, for objective reasons, the celebration of November 4th ceased. In 2005, on the initiative of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, festive events were held in honor of National Unity Day. This name was given to the revived holiday, designed to remind Russian citizens of the great exploits of their ancestors. On November 4, 2005, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky was unveiled in Nizhny Novgorod, exactly repeating the monument on Moscow’s Red Square, opened in 1818. On November 7, 1941, Red Army soldiers defending Moscow passed by this monument. The example of Minin and Pozharsky inspired Soviet soldiers who went to defend the capital.

Every year, festive events become more and more widespread. Under the auspices of November 4, 2016, a monument to the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir was unveiled on Borovitskaya Square in Moscow. The opening ceremony was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top officials of the state. And opposite the monument, on the facade of one of the buildings on Borovitskaya Square, there is a large wall graffiti dedicated to the heroes of the Second People's Militia Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, created by the Russian Military Society. Meetings, rallies and other official festive events are held, which are not political, but exclusively public and social in nature.

Scientific Director of the Russian Military Historical Society Mikhail Myagkov notes: “I think that every year National Unity Day is becoming an increasingly important, significant holiday for Russians. Why is this happening? Firstly, more and more people are becoming aware that statehood, state power, a strong state, a state that takes care of its citizens are extremely necessary. The turmoil that we had at the beginning of the 17th century actually destroyed all the foundations of the state and statehood and threw the country to the edge of the abyss. The agenda was not just the survival of the state, but the survival of the people. Popular forces, popular unity, national unity then made it possible to avoid catastrophe and ultimately bring the country onto the path of development.”

The memory of how the entire people of Russia were able to unite to save their Motherland and defend their freedom and independence must exist. On November 4, we celebrate the belief that we remain a united people who can overcome any difficulties and, united, pass any tests!

By the way, they did a nice thing on November 7 - now this day officially marks the anniversary of the famous Parade on Red Square in November 1941. Then the parade seemed to have been started in honor of the 24th anniversary of the same October Revolution, but contemporaries remembered it more for another reason - a demonstration of military power in Moscow, which was besieged by the Nazis and outright lost the first months of the Great Patriotic War. However, let's return to the November 4 holiday - it's time to see why our legislators chose this date.

The time of troubles begins

At the end of the 16th century, Russia entered one of the most unstable periods in its history. In 1598, the last tsar from the Rurik dynasty, Fyodor Ioannovich, died, leaving no heirs. The country was devastated - the countless aggressive campaigns of Ivan IV the Terrible had an effect, and the Livonian War was especially difficult for Russia. Historians wrote that ordinary people in those years were mortally tired - both from wars and from the authorities, which, after the cruel oprichnina, they simply stopped respecting. A serious factor of instability was crop failure, which provoked a terrible famine of 1601-1603, which killed up to 0.5 million people.

The authorities, represented by the new monarch, former boyar Boris Godunov, did not sit idly by. People flocked to Moscow in droves, where they were given bread and money from state reserves. But Godunov’s kindness played against him - the chaos only intensified due to the peasant gangs formed in the capital (they included serfs and servants expelled from noble estates due to the landowner’s lack of money and work).

The Time of Troubles began due to the spread of rumors that the legitimate heir to the throne - Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich from the Rurik dynasty - was still alive and not dead, as was commonly believed before. But the rumors were spread by an impostor who went down in history under the name “ False Dmitry" Having enlisted the support of Polish aristocrats and converted to Catholicism, in 1604 he gathered an army and set off on a campaign against Moscow. What helped him win was not so much his own talents as the failures of the authorities - the betrayal of governor Basmanov and the death of Godunov. On June 20, 1605, Moscow greeted False Dmitry with jubilation. But the boyars and ordinary Muscovites quickly realized that the new tsar was very focused on Poland. The last straw was the arrival of False Dmitry's Polish accomplices in the capital - on May 16, 1606, an uprising broke out, during which the impostor was killed. The country was headed by the representative of the “Suzdal” branch of Rurikovich, the noble boyar Vasily Shuisky.

However, it did not become calmer. The first two years of the new government were seriously threatened by the rebel Cossacks, peasants and mercenaries of Ivan Bolotnikov - there was a time when the rebels, angry with the boyar arbitrariness, stood near Moscow. In 1607, a new impostor appeared - False Dmitry II (also known as the “Tushinsky thief”) - a year later, seven significant Russian cities were under his rule, including Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Kostroma. In the same year, the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Tatars decided to raid Russian lands for the first time in many years.

Together with False Dmitry II, Polish troops came to Rus' (until unofficially). Even for the interventionists, they behaved, to put it mildly, defiantly - they plundered cities (even those that voluntarily agreed to the rule of the new “tsar”), imposed excessive taxes on the local population and “fed” in them. A national liberation movement arose, and it was supported by the authorities - Russia concluded the Vyborg Treaty with Sweden, according to which, in exchange for the Korelsky district, it received a 15,000-strong detachment of mercenaries. Together with them, the talented Russian commander, a relative of the legitimate Tsar, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, inflicted several sensitive defeats on the invaders.

But here Russia was unlucky again. Tsar Shuisky and his brother Dmitry, frightened by the popularity of Skopin-Shuisky, poisoned the young military leader (otherwise the power would be taken away!). And then, as luck would have it, the Polish king Sigismund III declared war on his neighbor, exhausted by internal problems, and besieged the powerful fortress of Smolensk. But in the battle of July 4, 1610 at Klushino, the Russian troops, led by the mediocre Dmitry, were defeated by the Poles due to the betrayal of German mercenaries. Having learned about the successes of the Polish army, False Dmitry II came to Moscow from the south.

In the capital itself there was already a new government - the boyars lost the last remnants of trust in the “boyar tsar” Shuisky and overthrew him. As a result, a council of seven boyars came to power, which went down in history as the Seven Boyars. The new rulers immediately decided who would become their king - the choice fell on the Polish prince Vladislav.

But here the people had already opposed - no one wanted a Catholic ruler. People decided that it was better to have “their” False Dmitry than Vladislav. One after another, even those cities that had previously fought desperately against him began to swear allegiance to the impostor. The Seven Boyars were afraid of False Dmitry II and took an unheard of step - they allowed Polish-Lithuanian troops into Moscow. The impostor fled to Kaluga. The people were on his side - people really didn’t like the way the Polish interventionists behaved in the country. The self-proclaimed Rurikovich really began to fight the Poles - he liberated several cities and defeated the army of the Polish hetman Sapieha. But on December 11, 1610, he quarreled with the Tatar guards and was killed. It became clear that no one except the Russians themselves would save the country.

People's militias

There were two of them. The first was headed by the Ryazan nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov. His power was recognized by former supporters of False Dmitry II: Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy, Grigory Shakhovskoy, and the Cossacks of Ivan Zarutsky. The Poles knew about the conspiracy and were nervous: as a result, they mistook a domestic quarrel in the market for the beginning of an uprising and massacred thousands of Muscovites. In China Town alone, the number of victims reached seven thousand...

At the end of March 1611, the First Militia approached Moscow. The militia took several districts of Moscow (White City, Zemlyanoy Gorod, part of Kitay-Gorod), and then elected a “provisional government” called the “Council of the Whole Land”, led by Lyapunov, Trubetskoy and Zarutsky. But at one of the military councils of the militia, the Cossacks rebelled and killed Lyapunov. The two remaining members of the council decided to keep the Kremlin with the Polish garrison entrenched in it under siege until the Second Militia arrived.

Problems followed one after another. After a long siege, the Poles took Smolensk, the Crimean Tatars ravaged the Ryazan region, the Swedes turned from allies into enemies - Novgorod fell under their onslaught. And in December, Pskov was captured by the third False Dmitry... Soon the entire north-west of Russia recognized the next impostor.

The second militia arose in September 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod. Its basis was made up of peasants from the northern and central regions of Russia, as well as city dwellers. It was headed by the Nizhny Novgorod zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin. He was supported first by the townspeople, and then by everyone else - service people (military) and governors, the clergy, the city council. At a general gathering of townspeople, Archpriest Savva delivered a sermon, and then Minin himself called on his fellow citizens to liberate the country from the occupiers. Inspired by his speech, the townspeople decided that every resident of Nizhny Novgorod and the district would transfer part of their property to the maintenance of the “military people”. Minin was entrusted with distributing income - trust in him was one hundred percent.

For military leadership, he invited Prince Pozharsky. It was difficult to think of a better candidate - the nobleman was Rurikovich, in 1608 he defeated the troops of False Dmitry II, remained faithful to the Moscow kings, and in March 1611 took part in the battle for Moscow, where he was seriously wounded. The people of Nizhny Novgorod also liked his personal qualities: the prince was an honest, disinterested, fair person, and he made thoughtful and rational decisions. A delegation from Nizhny Novgorod went to see Pozharsky, who was healing his wounds, on his estate 60 km away several times - but the prince, according to the etiquette of those times, invariably refused and agreed only when Archimandrite Theodosius came to him. There was only one condition - Pozharsky was ready to cooperate only with Kuzma Minin, whom he trusted unconditionally in economic matters.

Pozharsky arrived in Nizhny Novgorod at the end of October 1611. Quite quickly, he managed to increase the number of militias from 750 to 3,000 people - the ranks of the liberators were supplemented by servicemen from Smolensk, Vyazma and Dorogobuzh. They immediately began to be paid a salary - from 30 to 50 rubles a year. Having learned about this, Ryazan, Kolomna, Cossacks and archers from outlying cities began to join the militia.

Good organization of work (both with money and with people) quickly led to the fact that the Second Militia - more precisely, the Council of the Whole Land created by it - became a “center of power” along with the Moscow “Seven Boyars” and the Cossack freemen of Zarutsky and Trubetskoy. At the same time, the new leaders - unlike the leaders of the First Militia - clearly knew what they wanted from the very beginning. In a December letter addressed to the population of Vologda, they wrote that they wanted to end civil strife, cleanse the Moscow state of enemies and not commit arbitrariness.

The militia left Nizhny Novgorod at the end of February 1612. Having reached Reshma, Pozharsky learned that Pskov, Trubetskoy and Zarutsky had sworn allegiance to False Dmitry III (the fugitive monk Isidore was hiding under his name). As a result, it was decided to temporarily stop in Yaroslavl. The ancient city became the capital of the militia.

Here the militia stayed until July 1612. In Yaroslavl, the Council of the Whole Land was finally formed, it included representatives of noble families - the Dolgorukies, Kurakins, Buturlins, Sheremetevs, but it was still headed by Pozharsky and Minin. Kuzma was illiterate, so the prince “had a hand” in his behalf. To issue Council documents—letters—the signatures of all its members were required. It is characteristic that, due to the custom of localism that existed at that time, Pozharsky’s signature was only the 10th, and Minin’s was the 15th.

From Yaroslavl, the militia carried out military operations (against Polish-Lithuanian detachments and the Cossack freemen of Zarutsky, cutting off the latter from communications), and diplomatic negotiations - they decided to pacify the Swedes by cunning, offering the king’s brother the Russian throne, and asked the Holy Roman Empire for help in exchange for throne for the emperor's protege. Subsequently, both the Swede Karl Philip and the German Prince Maximilian were refused. At the same time, work was carried out to restore order in the controlled territory and recruit new militias. As a result, the number of the Second Militia grew to 10,000 well-armed, trained warriors.

The time to act has come in September (new style). The 12,000-strong detachment of the Polish hetman Chodkiewicz tried to release the Polish garrison locked in the Kremlin. On September 2, the first battle of the Moscow Battle took place: from 13 to 20 pm the cavalry detachments of Pozharsky and Khodkevich fought. Prince Trubetskoy, who seemed to support the Second Militia, behaved strangely: having asked Pozharskaya for 500 cavalry, he did not allow them to take part in the battle and support the militia. As a result, the hundreds of cavalry attached to the prince left him without permission and, together with part of Trubetskoy’s Cossacks, helped Pozharsky first push the Poles back to their original positions, and then push them back to the Donskoy Monastery.

On September 3, a new battle took place. Prince Trubetskoy again chose not to intervene in the battle, as a result of which the Poles occupied an important fortified point and captured a garrison of Cossacks. The intervention of the cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Abraham Palitsyn, saved the militia from defeat - he promised Trubetskoy’s Cossacks that they would be paid a salary from the monastery treasury, and after that they nevertheless joined the militia.

The decisive battle took place on September 4. The militia fought with the Poles for 14 hours. During the battle, Kuzma Minin distinguished himself - his small cavalry detachment made a daring foray and sowed panic in Khodkevich’s camp. The scales tipped on the side of Pozharsky’s army - together with Trubetskoy’s Cossacks, he put the Poles to flight. The very next day, the hetman left Moscow with the remnants of his army.

The Polish garrison remained - two detachments of colonels Strus and Budyla, defending the Kitay-Gorod area and the Kremlin. Both the traitor boyars and the future Tsar Mikhail Romanov were in the citadel. After a month-long siege, Pozharsky invited his opponents to surrender and in return promised to save their lives, but the arrogant Poles responded with a categorical refusal. On November 4, according to the new style, the militia stormed Kitay-Gorod (we celebrate this date as National Unity Day), but the Kremlin remained under the control of the occupiers. Hunger reigned in the Polish camp - according to eyewitnesses, the interventionists descended to cannibalism. On November 5, they finally surrendered. Budila's troops were captured by Pozharsky, and the prince, as promised, spared their lives. Strus's detachment was captured by the Cossacks - and every last one of the Poles was slaughtered. On November 6, 1612, after a solemn prayer service, the troops of Prince Pozharsky entered the city to the ringing of bells with banners and banners. Moscow was liberated.

In January 1613, the first all-class Zemsky Sobor in history was held in Moscow - it was attended by representatives of all classes, including the peasantry. The candidacies of foreign contenders for the Russian throne - Polish Prince Vladislav, Swede Karl Philip and others - were rejected. The delegates were also not interested in the “crow” - the son of Marina Mnishek and False Dmitry II, Ivan. But none of the eight “Russian” candidates, including Pozharsky himself, found full support. As a result, those gathered voted for a “compromise” option - the son of the influential Patriarch Filaret, Mikhail Romanov. The election that marked the beginning of the new dynasty took place on February 7, 1613.

The Time of Troubles in Russia, however, is not over yet. The new tsar had to deal with the rebellious ataman Zarutsky, the Swedes and a 20,000-strong detachment of Poles who, together with the Zaporozhye Cossacks, besieged Moscow in 1618.

Until 1640, the hero of the Time of Troubles, Prince Pozharsky, faithfully served the Romanovs - Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich trusted him with the most important matters.

The results of the Troubles were difficult. The Moscow state lost access to the Baltic for more than 100 years, and the strategic fortress of Smolensk for several decades. The amount of plowed land decreased by 20 times, and the number of peasants capable of working on it decreased by 4 times. Many cities - for example, Veliky Novgorod - were completely destroyed. But the most important result was still a “plus” - Rus', in conditions of external aggression and internal turmoil, retained its independence.

National Unity Day

National Unity Day is an official public holiday in Russia. Noted fourth of november, since 2005. The last holiday (non-working) day of the year in Russia.

Official status of the holiday National Unity Day in the Russian Federation

The holiday was established by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in December 2004 on the basis of the Federal Law “On the inclusion in Article 1 of the Federal Law “On the Days of Military Glory (Victory Days) of Russia”. Accordingly, for the first time Russians celebrated the holiday on November 4, 2005.

Brief information about the history of the holiday

National Unity Day is celebrated in memory of the events when the people's militia, led by Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, liberated Moscow from Polish invaders in 1612.

History of National Unity Day

- On October 22 (November 1 according to the Gregorian calendar), 1612, militia fighters led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky took Kitay-Gorod by storm, the garrison of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth retreated to the Kremlin.

— Prince Pozharsky entered Kitai-Gorod with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and vowed to build a temple in memory of this victory. On October 26 (November 5 according to the Gregorian calendar), the command of the interventionist garrison signed a capitulation, releasing the Moscow boyars and other nobles from the Kremlin at the same time.

— The next day (October 27) the garrison surrendered. At the end of February 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov, the first Russian Tsar from the Romanov dynasty, as the new Tsar.

— In 1649, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, October 22 (according to the Julian calendar), was declared a public holiday, which was celebrated for three centuries until 1917.

According to the Orthodox church calendar, this day marks the “Celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (in memory of the deliverance of Moscow and Russia from the Poles in 1612),” which falls on October 22 according to the Julian calendar. Due to the increase in the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars over the past centuries, this day has shifted to November 4th. It is this date - October 22 according to the Julian calendar, or November 4 according to the Gregorian calendar - that was chosen as the day of the public holiday.

Weekends in early November have become familiar for Russians. But surveys of citizens have shown that many people who are happy to take an extra day off have little idea of ​​why they don’t need to go to work or school. Even passers-by who pronounce the name of the holiday without hesitation cannot always explain its essence. Indeed, this is one of the controversial holidays in the Russian state calendar, but every citizen of the country should know about it.

The country's government established National Unity Day in 2004. The holiday was first celebrated in Russia on November 4, 2005, but its history begins much earlier - several centuries ago.

What is celebrated on November 4th

It is known that November 4 is a holiday that perpetuates the liberation of Moscow from Polish invaders in the difficult year for the Russian state in 1612. However, according to archival documents, November 4 is not the day of final liberation, since the walls of the Kremlin at that time were still besieged by enemy troops.

November 4 no longer symbolizes victory, but the unity of the people, which made the defeat of the invaders possible. On this day, the soldiers of the troops of Pozharsky and Minin prayed to the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, liberated Kitai-Gorod and entered it as winners along with the icon. Since then, the Kazan Icon began to be revered and worshiped; people were sure that it was the miraculous icon that helped them win.

Prince Dmitry Pozharsky built the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square specifically to store the miraculous icon. The date of construction of the temple is lost in history, but it is known for sure that it was consecrated in 1636. During the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, November 4 was proclaimed the Day of Gratitude to the Most Holy Theotokos, and in the church calendar the holiday was listed as the Celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. This significant holiday for the country was celebrated in Rus' until 1917; the Bolsheviks, who came to power, immediately removed it from the list of holidays.

Perhaps the prayers charged the fighters with new strength and helped them cope with the invaders, but the unity of people still played the main role. More than ten thousand militia soldiers fought under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky. Among them were people of various nationalities and classes. It is believed that it was on the 4th, during a joint prayer, that they rallied, were united by a single common goal and together moved towards the invaders. It was unity in goals that helped so many different people find a common language and achieve the long-awaited victory with an icon in their hands.

What was the reason for a new holiday

For eight decades, the Soviet state celebrated November 7 - the Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, its inherent values ​​were revised, and they wanted to remove the red day from the state calendar. However, people, accustomed to the November holiday, by inertia continued to celebrate the holiday, which had lost its relevance, for another 14 years after the collapse of the USSR, renaming it the Day of Harmony and Reconciliation.

The initiator of the establishment of a new holiday was the Russian Orthodox Church; the idea of ​​reviving a memorable day for Russians was voiced at the Interreligious Council of Russia. Patriarch Alexy II made a proposal to make November 4 a holiday; he asked to revive the Day of National Unity and Memory of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which was celebrated in Rus' for more than 250 years.

In December 2004, the State Duma approved amendments to the Labor Code, according to which the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, celebrated on November 7, was excluded from the official holidays, and a new holiday was added - National Unity Day, scheduled for November 4. Only the communists spoke out against the new amendments, but their votes were in a significant minority and did not influence the final decision.

National Unity Day in the new Russia

The first National Unity Day was celebrated magnificently in 2005. Nizhny Novgorod became the main center of festive events. The main event of the holiday was the opening of the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. A place was found for the new monument on National Unity Square near the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist.

Religious processions, charity events, rallies, concerts and other festive events were held in large cities. In the capital, the president of the country solemnly laid wreaths at the Moscow monument to Minin and Pozharsky.

The modern Day of National Unity is a holiday that calls on people not only to remember the most important historical events, but also to remind citizens of a multinational country the importance of unity. After all, only together, moving in the same direction, can we cope with difficulties and overcome obstacles.

Ecuadorian authorities have denied Julian Assange asylum at the London embassy. The founder of WikiLeaks was detained by British police, and this has already been called the biggest betrayal in the history of Ecuador. Why are they taking revenge on Assange and what awaits him?

Australian programmer and journalist Julian Assange became widely known after the website WikiLeaks, which he founded, published secret documents from the US State Department in 2010, as well as materials related to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it was quite difficult to find out who the police, supporting by the arms, were leading out of the building. Assange had grown a beard and looked nothing like the energetic man he had previously appeared in photographs.

According to Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, Assange was denied asylum due to his repeated violations of international conventions.

He is expected to remain in custody at a central London police station until he appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Why is the President of Ecuador accused of treason?

Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called the current government's decision the biggest betrayal in the country's history. “What he (Moreno - editor’s note) did is a crime that humanity will never forget,” Correa said.

London, on the contrary, thanked Moreno. The British Foreign Office believes that justice has triumphed. The representative of the Russian diplomatic department, Maria Zakharova, has a different opinion. “The hand of “democracy” is squeezing the throat of freedom,” she noted. The Kremlin expressed hope that the rights of the arrested person will be respected.

Ecuador sheltered Assange because the former president had left-of-center views, criticized U.S. policies and welcomed WikiLeaks' release of secret documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even before the Internet activist needed asylum, he managed to personally meet Correa: he interviewed him for the Russia Today channel.

However, in 2017, the government in Ecuador changed, and the country set a course towards rapprochement with the United States. The new president called Assange “a stone in his shoe” and immediately made it clear that his stay on the embassy premises would not be prolonged.

According to Correa, the moment of truth came at the end of June last year, when US Vice President Michael Pence arrived in Ecuador for a visit. Then everything was decided. “You have no doubt: Lenin is simply a hypocrite. He has already agreed with the Americans on the fate of Assange. And now he is trying to make us swallow the pill, saying that Ecuador is supposedly continuing the dialogue,” Correa said in an interview with the Russia Today channel.

How Assange made new enemies

The day before his arrest, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristin Hrafnsson said that Assange was under total surveillance. “WikiLeaks uncovered a large-scale spy operation against Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy,” he noted. According to him, cameras and voice recorders were placed around Assange, and the information received was transferred to the Donald Trump administration.

Hrafnsson clarified that Assange was going to be expelled from the embassy a week earlier. This did not happen only because WikiLeaks released this information. A high-ranking source told the portal about the plans of the Ecuadorian authorities, but the head of the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, Jose Valencia, denied the rumors.

Assange's expulsion was preceded by the corruption scandal surrounding Moreno. In February, WikiLeaks published a package of INA Papers, which traced the operations of the offshore company INA Investment, founded by the brother of the Ecuadorian leader. Quito said it was a conspiracy between Assange and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and former Ecuadorian leader Rafael Correa to overthrow Moreno.

In early April, Moreno complained about Assange's behavior at Ecuador's London mission. “We must protect the life of Mr. Assange, but he has already crossed all boundaries in terms of violating the agreement that we came to with him,” the president said. “This does not mean that he cannot speak freely, but he cannot lie and hack.” ". At the same time, back in February last year it became known that Assange at the embassy was deprived of the opportunity to interact with the outside world, in particular, his Internet access was cut off.

Why Sweden stopped its prosecution of Assange

At the end of last year, Western media, citing sources, reported that Assange would be charged in the United States. This was never officially confirmed, but it was because of Washington’s position that Assange had to take refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy six years ago.

In May 2017, Sweden stopped investigating two rape cases in which the portal’s founder was accused. Assange demanded compensation from the country's government for legal costs in the amount of 900 thousand euros.

Earlier, in 2015, Swedish prosecutors also dropped three charges against him due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Where did the investigation into the rape case lead?

Assange arrived in Sweden in the summer of 2010, hoping to receive protection from American authorities. But he was investigated for rape. In November 2010, a warrant was issued for his arrest in Stockholm, and Assange was put on the international wanted list. He was detained in London, but was soon released on bail of 240 thousand pounds.

In February 2011, a British court decided to extradite Assange to Sweden, after which a number of successful appeals followed for the WikiLeaks founder.

British authorities placed him under house arrest before deciding whether to extradite him to Sweden. Breaking his promise to the authorities, Assange asked for asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy, ​​which was granted to him. Since then, the UK has had its own claims against the WikiLeaks founder.

What awaits Assange now?

The man was re-arrested on a US extradition request for publishing classified documents, police said. At the same time, Deputy Head of the British Foreign Ministry Alan Duncan said that Assange would not be sent to the United States if he faced the death penalty there.

In the UK, Assange is likely to appear in court on the afternoon of April 11. This is stated on the WikiLeaks Twitter page. British authorities are likely to seek a maximum sentence of 12 months, the man's mother said, citing his lawyer.

At the same time, Swedish prosecutors are considering reopening the rape investigation. Attorney Elizabeth Massey Fritz, who represented the victim, will seek this.