Patrice Lumumba is famous for what he did. Patrice Emery Lumumba: biography

), Katanga Province

The consignment: National Movement of the Congo Awards:

Patrice Emery Lumumba(fr. Patrice Emery Lumumba, July 2 - January 17) - a Congolese politician of a left-wing nationalist persuasion, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the declaration of its independence in June, a national hero of Zaire, a poet and one of the symbols of the struggle of the peoples of Africa for independence. Founder () and leader of the National Movement of the Congo.

Removed as Prime Minister by the President of the Congo, then arrested in the Congo Crisis in September. Killed January 17, 1961.

Biography

Since Tshombe promised to end the rebellion if Lumumba was removed from power, the president removed the prime minister on September 5, 1960 and placed him under house arrest. In response, Lumumba announced on the radio that the removal was illegal, as he was supported by Parliament. On September 6, the leaders of the main parties that made up the government coalition declared their support for Lumumba, but at that time, UN troops seized the radio station and closed access to members of the government. On September 7, the Chamber of Deputies, by a majority of ¾ votes, annuls the decision to remove Lumumba from power. On September 8, the Senate confirmed this decision, but the UN continued to ignore the government and keep the captured airfields and radio station. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Lumumba, on September 12 he was imprisoned, but was released by soldiers.

In the final report, the commission concluded that King Baudouin of Belgium was aware of the plans to assassinate Lumumba. It was also found that the Belgian government provided transport, financial and military assistance to forces hostile to Lumumba. Much of the blame was attributed directly to King Baudouin, who supposedly bypassed the country's political institutions and pursued his own colonial policy.

Several meetings of the US National Security Council were devoted to the “Lumumba problem” in the summer of 1960, on August 18, 1960, US President Dwight Eisenhower approved the CIA’s recommendations to eliminate Lumumba, later CIA specialists developed options for killing Lumumba from firearms and with the help of poison, as a result was The plan for Operation Blue Arrow was approved.

The 2000 documentary Colonial Murder (dir. Thomas Gifer) investigates the events of those days based on interviews with many former employees and officers of the CIA and the Belgian security service. In an interview, many of them admitted for the first time that they personally participated in the murder and subsequent elimination of the remains of Lumumba and his associates (including with the help of acid). One of the officers still keeps Lumumba's front teeth, which he presented to the camera.

In a farewell letter to his wife, Patrice Lumumba wrote: The only thing we wanted for our country was the right to a dignified existence, to dignity without hypocrisy, to independence without restrictions ... The day will come when history will have its say».

In March 2010, it was reported that Patrice Lumumba had been ousted from his post and murdered with the participation of an employee of the British Secret Intelligence Service MI-6, Baroness Daphne Parke. In March 2013, the British newspaper Telegraph, citing Lord David Edward Lee (David Edward Lea), reported that British intelligence officer Mi-6 Baroness Daphne Park, from 1959 to 1961, the former consul and first secretary in Leopoldville, shortly until her death in 2010, confessed to organizing the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba. The reason for Lumumba's liquidation was his pan-African nationalism, leftist sympathies and pro-Soviet sentiments.

Memory

The Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University was named after Patrice Lumumba from 1961 to 1992. On February 5, 1992, the university was renamed the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, and the dedication to Lumumba was removed from the name.

Streets are named after Patrice Lumumba in the Ukrainian cities of Kerch, Sevastopol, Lubny, Kyiv, Odessa (prospect, now renamed Admiralsky), Donetsk, Kremenchug, Smela, Bakhmut, Letichev, in Kyrgyz Bishkek, in Kazakhstani Almaty, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Taraz, Chimkent (now renamed), as well as Cheboksary in Russia.

J.-P. Sartre wrote a preface to a collection of his papers. Aimé Cesar wrote a play about him called A Season in the Congo. Poems were dedicated to him by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Ivan Drach, Maxim Tank, Pimen Panchenko, Serafim Popov, as well as poets from Finland, Libya, and Tanzania.

In the north of Angola, around the figure of Lumumba, a messianic movement arose in the early 60s of the 20th century. The so-called "Mary's War". His name remains a popular political banner in the Congo. The ruling People's Party of Reconstruction and Democracy appeals to his ideas. Lumumba's son Patrice Jr. ran for president of the Congo in 2008, but received less than 10% of the vote. His brother François recreated his father's party, the National Movement of the Congo. Curious facts: the name Lumumba means "heir to the doomed to death." The famous American comedian Patrick O Neil was named after Lumumba. The famous black activist Angela Davis went to the Patrice Lumumba club in her youth. Che Guevara went to the Congo to avenge "the great idealist Lumumba." Personality assessments by the Russian Africanist Apollon Borisovich Davidson: “Of course, Patrice Lumumba was a very inexperienced politician. But how could he have had a lot of experience? The situation then was very difficult. But as a person he could be truly respected. He was never involved in corruption or anything like that, he acted as a very honest person - this is beyond any doubt. US black Muslim leader Malcolm X called Lumumba "the greatest black man ever".

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Notes

Literature

• Khokhlov N. Patrice Lumumba. - M .: Young Guard, 1971. - (ZhZL).
• Ponomarenko L.V. Patrice Lumumba: Living for African Freedom. - M .: Publishing house of the Peoples' Friendship University, 1989.
• Slobodin A. Belgium apologized for Lumumba. In vain they killed him. // News time, February 7, 2002 (No. 22).
• Alekseev V. A. Diamond Edge: The Tale of Patrice Emery Lumumba. - M .: Politizdat, 1988. - 333 p., ill. - (Fiery revolutionaries).
• Patrice Emery Lumumba (People and Events) // Modern Times. - M ., 1960. - No. 28. - S. 9.

Links

• Yu. Zhukov.

Predecessor: post established

Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo June 24 - September 20

Successor: Joseph Ileo

An excerpt characterizing Lumumba, Patrice

This order on the left flank made Pierre even more doubtful of his ability to understand military affairs. Listening to Bennigsen and the generals who condemned the position of the troops under the mountain, Pierre fully understood them and shared their opinion; but precisely because of this, he could not understand how the one who placed them here under the mountain could make such an obvious and gross mistake.
Pierre did not know that these troops were not sent to defend the position, as Bennigsen thought, but were placed in a hidden place for an ambush, that is, in order to be unnoticed and suddenly strike at the advancing enemy. Bennigsen did not know this and moved the troops forward for special reasons, without telling the commander-in-chief about it.

On this clear August evening on the 25th, Prince Andrey was lying, leaning on his arm, in a broken barn in the village of Knyazkov, on the edge of his regiment. Through the hole in the broken wall, he looked at the strip of thirty-year-old birch trees with the lower branches cut off along the fence, at the arable land with smashed heaps of oats on it, and at the bushes, along which the smoke of fires - soldiers' kitchens - could be seen.
No matter how cramped and no one needs and no matter how hard his life now seemed to Prince Andrei, he, just like seven years ago in Austerlitz on the eve of the battle, felt agitated and irritated.
Orders for tomorrow's battle were given and received by him. There was nothing more for him to do. But the simplest, clearest and therefore terrible thoughts did not leave him alone. He knew that tomorrow's battle was to be the most terrible of all those in which he participated, and the possibility of death for the first time in his life, without any regard for worldly, without considerations of how it would affect others, but only in relation to himself, to his soul, with liveliness, almost with certainty, simply and terribly, she presented herself to him. And from the height of this idea, everything that had previously tormented and occupied him was suddenly illuminated by a cold white light, without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outlines. All life seemed to him like a magic lantern, into which he looked for a long time through glass and under artificial light. Now he suddenly saw, without glass, in bright daylight, these badly painted pictures. “Yes, yes, here they are, those false images that agitated and delighted and tormented me,” he said to himself, turning over in his imagination the main pictures of his magic lantern of life, now looking at them in this cold white daylight - a clear thought of death. - Here they are, these roughly painted figures, which seemed to be something beautiful and mysterious. Glory, public good, love for a woman, the fatherland itself - how great these pictures seemed to me, what deep meaning they seemed to be filled with! And it's all so simple, pale and crude in the cold white light of that morning that I feel is rising for me." The three main sorrows of his life in particular caught his attention. His love for a woman, the death of his father and the French invasion that captured half of Russia. “Love! .. This girl, who seemed to me full of mysterious powers. How I loved her! I made poetic plans about love, about happiness with her. O dear boy! he said out loud angrily. - How! I believed in some kind of ideal love, which was supposed to keep her faithful to me during the whole year of my absence! Like the gentle dove of a fable, she must have withered away from me. And all this is much simpler ... All this is terribly simple, disgusting!
My father also built in the Bald Mountains and thought that this was his place, his land, his air, his peasants; and Napoleon came and, not knowing about his existence, like a chip from the road, pushed him, and his Bald Mountains and his whole life fell apart. And Princess Marya says that this is a test sent from above. What is the test for, when it no longer exists and will not exist? never again! He is not! So who is this test for? Fatherland, death of Moscow! And tomorrow he will kill me - and not even a Frenchman, but his own, as yesterday a soldier emptied a gun near my ear, and the French will come, take me by the legs and by the head and throw me into a pit so that I don’t stink under their noses, and new conditions will develop lives that will also be familiar to others, and I will not know about them, and I will not be.
He looked at the strip of birch trees, with their motionless yellowness, greenery and white bark, shining in the sun. "To die so that they would kill me tomorrow, so that I would not be ... so that all this would be, but I would not be." He vividly imagined the absence of himself in this life. And these birches with their light and shadow, and these curly clouds, and this smoke of bonfires - everything around was transformed for him and seemed something terrible and threatening. Frost ran down his back. Rising quickly, he went out of the shed and began to walk.
Voices were heard behind the barn.
- Who's there? - called Prince Andrew.
The red-nosed Captain Timokhin, Dolokhov's former company commander, now, due to the loss of officers, the battalion commander, timidly entered the shed. Behind him entered the adjutant and treasurer of the regiment.
Prince Andrei hurriedly got up, listened to what the officers had to convey to him in the service, gave them some more orders and was about to let them go, when a familiar, whispering voice was heard from behind the barn.
– Que diable! [Damn it!] said the voice of a man who had bumped into something.
Prince Andrei, looking out of the barn, saw Pierre coming up to him, who stumbled on a lying pole and almost fell. It was generally unpleasant for Prince Andrei to see people from his own world, especially Pierre, who reminded him of all those difficult moments that he experienced on his last visit to Moscow.
- That's how! - he said. - What fates? That's not waiting.
While he was saying this, there was more than dryness in his eyes and the expression of his whole face - there was hostility, which Pierre immediately noticed. He approached the barn in the most lively state of mind, but, seeing the expression on Prince Andrei's face, he felt embarrassed and awkward.
“I arrived ... so ... you know ... I arrived ... I’m interested,” said Pierre, who had so many times that day meaninglessly repeated this word “interesting”. “I wanted to see the fight.
– Yes, yes, but what do the Masons brothers say about the war? How to prevent it? - said Prince Andrei mockingly. - What about Moscow? What are mine? Have you finally arrived in Moscow? he asked seriously.
- We've arrived. Julie Drubetskaya told me. I went to them and did not find. They left for the suburbs.

The officers wanted to take their leave, but Prince Andrei, as if not wanting to remain eye to eye with his friend, invited them to sit and drink tea. Benches and tea were served. The officers, not without surprise, looked at the fat, huge figure of Pierre and listened to his stories about Moscow and the disposition of our troops, which he managed to travel around. Prince Andrei was silent, and his face was so unpleasant that Pierre turned more to the good-natured battalion commander Timokhin than to Bolkonsky.
“So you understood the entire disposition of the troops?” Prince Andrew interrupted him.
- Yes, that is, how? Pierre said. - As a non-military person, I can’t say that it is completely, but still I understood the general arrangement.
- Eh bien, vous etes plus avance que qui cela soit, [Well, you know more than anyone else.] - said Prince Andrei.
– A! - said Pierre in bewilderment, looking through his glasses at Prince Andrei. - Well, what do you say about the appointment of Kutuzov? - he said.
“I was very pleased with this appointment, that’s all I know,” said Prince Andrei.
- Well, tell me, what is your opinion about Barclay de Tolly? In Moscow, God knows what they said about him. How do you judge him?
“Ask them here,” said Prince Andrei, pointing to the officers.
Pierre, with a condescendingly inquiring smile, with which everyone involuntarily turned to Timokhin, looked at him.
“They saw the light, your excellency, how the brightest acted,” said Timokhin, timidly and constantly looking back at his regimental commander.
- Why is it so? Pierre asked.
- Yes, at least about firewood or fodder, I will report to you. After all, we retreated from Sventsyan, don’t you dare touch the twigs, or the senets there, or something. After all, we're leaving, he gets it, isn't it, Your Excellency? - he turned to his prince, - but don't you dare. In our regiment, two officers were put on trial for such cases. Well, as the brightest did, it just became so about this. The world has been seen...
So why did he forbid it?
Timokhin looked around in embarrassment, not understanding how and what to answer such a question. Pierre turned to Prince Andrei with the same question.
“And in order not to ruin the land that we left to the enemy,” Prince Andrei said angrily and mockingly. – It is very thorough; it is impossible to allow to plunder the region and accustom the troops to looting. Well, in Smolensk, he also correctly judged that the French could get around us and that they had more forces. But he could not understand this, - Prince Andrei suddenly shouted in a thin voice, as if escaping, - but he could not understand that for the first time we fought there for the Russian land, that there was such a spirit in the troops that I had never seen, that we fought off the French for two days in a row, and that this success multiplied our strength tenfold. He ordered a retreat, and all the efforts and losses were in vain. He did not think about betrayal, he tried to do everything as best as possible, he thought everything over; but that doesn't make him any good. He is no good now precisely because he thinks everything over very thoroughly and carefully, as every German should. How can I tell you ... Well, your father has a German footman, and he is an excellent footman and will satisfy all his needs better than you, and let him serve; but if your father is ill at death, you will drive away the footman and with your unaccustomed, clumsy hands you will begin to follow your father and calm him better than a skilled, but a stranger. That's what they did with Barclay. While Russia was healthy, a stranger could serve her, and there was a wonderful minister, but as soon as she was in danger; you need your own person. And in your club they invented that he was a traitor! By being slandered as a traitor, they will only do what later, ashamed of their false reprimand, they will suddenly make a hero or a genius out of traitors, which will be even more unfair. He is an honest and very accurate German...
“However, they say he is a skilled commander,” said Pierre.
“I don’t understand what a skilled commander means,” Prince Andrei said with a sneer.
“A skillful commander,” said Pierre, “well, one who foresaw all accidents ... well, guessed the thoughts of the enemy.
“Yes, it’s impossible,” said Prince Andrei, as if about a long-decided matter.
Pierre looked at him in surprise.
“However,” he said, “they say war is like a game of chess.
“Yes,” said Prince Andrei, “with the only slight difference that in chess you can think as much as you like about each step, that you are there outside the conditions of time, and with the difference that a knight is always stronger than a pawn and two pawns are always stronger.” one, and in war one battalion is sometimes stronger than a division, and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strength of the troops cannot be known to anyone. Believe me,” he said, “that if anything depended on the orders of the headquarters, then I would be there and make orders, but instead I have the honor to serve here in the regiment with these gentlemen, and I think that we really tomorrow will depend, and not on them ... Success has never depended and will not depend either on position, or on weapons, or even on numbers; and least of all from the position.
- And from what?
“From the feeling that is in me, in him,” he pointed to Timokhin, “in every soldier.
Prince Andrei glanced at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in fright and bewilderment. In contrast to his former restrained silence, Prince Andrei now seemed agitated. He apparently could not refrain from expressing those thoughts that suddenly came to him.
The battle will be won by the one who is determined to win it. Why did we lose the battle near Austerlitz? Our loss was almost equal to that of the French, but we told ourselves very early that we had lost the battle—and we did. And we said this because we had no reason to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible. “We lost - well, run like that!” - we ran. If we had not said this before evening, God knows what would have happened. We won't say that tomorrow. You say: our position, the left flank is weak, the right flank is extended,” he continued, “all this is nonsense, there is nothing of it. And what do we have tomorrow? One hundred million of the most varied accidents that will be solved instantly by the fact that they or ours ran or run, that they kill one, kill another; and what is being done now is all fun. The fact is that those with whom you traveled around the position not only do not contribute to the general course of affairs, but interfere with it. They are only concerned with their little interests.
- At a moment like this? Pierre said reproachfully.
“At such a moment,” Prince Andrei repeated, “for them, this is only such a moment in which you can dig under the enemy and get an extra cross or ribbon. For me, this is what tomorrow is: a hundred thousand Russian and a hundred thousand French troops have come together to fight, and the fact is that these two hundred thousand are fighting, and whoever fights more viciously and feels less sorry for himself will win. And if you want, I'll tell you that no matter what happens, no matter what is confused up there, we will win the battle tomorrow. Tomorrow, whatever it is, we will win the battle!
“Here, Your Excellency, the truth, the true truth,” said Timokhin. - Why feel sorry for yourself now! The soldiers in my battalion, believe me, did not begin to drink vodka: not such a day, they say. - Everyone was silent.
The officers got up. Prince Andrei went out with them outside the shed, giving his last orders to the adjutant. When the officers left, Pierre went up to Prince Andrei and just wanted to start a conversation, when the hooves of three horses clattered along the road not far from the barn, and, looking in this direction, Prince Andrei recognized Wolzogen and Clausewitz, accompanied by a Cossack. They drove close, continuing to talk, and Pierre and Andrei involuntarily heard the following phrases:
– Der Krieg muss im Raum verlegt werden. Der Ansicht kann ich nicht genug Preis geben, [The war must be transferred into space. This view I cannot praise enough (German)] - said one.

Patrice Lumumba is a politician, the first Prime Minister of the Congo after its independence, a symbol of the African peoples' struggle for independence.

Patrice Emery Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925 in the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo, the son of a farmer, Francois Tolengue Otetchima, and Julienne Wamato Lomenji. At the birth of Patrice, who belongs to the people of Tetela, they named him Elias Okit'Asombo, which means "heir of the damned." Lumumba had three brothers (Emile Kalema, Ian Clarke and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba), as well as a half-brother Tolenga Jean.

Raised in a Catholic family, Patrice studied at a Protestant school, then at a Catholic missionary school and for one year at a public postal school, from which he graduated with honors. After leaving school, Patrice worked as a postal clerk in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo) and Stanleyville (since 1966 it has been called Kisangani).

In his youth, Lumumba became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment and. He also loved and wrote poetry, many of which had an anti-imperialist theme.

Politics

In 1955, Lumumba joined the Liberal Party of Belgium and began distributing party literature. After a three-week study trip to Belgium, Patrice was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzling money transfers. After Lumumba returned the money, his two-year sentence was reduced to 1 year.

On October 5, 1958, Lumumba, along with other young Congolese who received a good education and represented different ethnic groups, founded the National Movement of the Congo party and became its leader. The NDK fought for the independence of the country, the Africanization of the government, economic development and neutrality in international affairs.

Quite quickly, Lumumba became a popular personality - he was charismatic and had excellent oratory skills. In December 1958, Lumumba went as one of the delegates to the All-African Conference of Peoples in Accra (Ghana). At an international meeting hosted by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, Lumumba further solidified his pan-Africanist beliefs, and Nkrumah was greatly impressed by Lumumba's intellect and ability.

In October 1959, Lumumba was arrested for inciting anti-colonial riots in Stanleyville, during which 30 people were killed. Lumumba was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The start date of the trial, 18 January 1960, was the first day of the Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels to discuss the future of the Congo.

In December's local elections, the NDC won the majority of the vote, even though Lumumba was in prison. As a result of pressure from the delegates, Patrice was released and admitted to the Brussels Conference.

On January 27, 1960, the independence of the Congo was proclaimed at a conference. National elections followed in May, with the highly predictable result of a victory for Lumumba and the NDC. On June 23, 1960, 34-year-old Lumumba became the first prime minister of an independent Congo, and Joseph Kasavubu became president.

The June 30 Independence Day ceremony was attended by many dignitaries, including King Baudouin of Belgium. Lumumba delivered an impromptu speech announcing that the independence of the Congo was a victory gained in blood and sweat, and not a generous gift from Belgium. Patrice ended his speech with the famous words:

"We are no longer your monkeys!"

After the country gained independence, Lumumba raised the wages of all civil servants, except for the employees of the Force Publik (the gendarmerie created by the Belgian colonialists), which caused discontent in their ranks. On July 5, 1960, the Congo Crisis began with uprisings in Leopoldville and Stanleyville.

Lumumba announced on the radio that he had prepared thorough reforms in all areas, thanks to which, in a few weeks, everyone could see a different face of the Congo. Despite the efforts of the government, riots continued in the country.

On 8 July, in an attempt to alleviate the situation, Lumumba renamed Force Publik the "National Congolese Army" and attempted to Africanize the force by appointing Sergeant Major Victor Lundul as commander-in-chief and Joseph Mobutu as colonel and army chief of staff. These actions were carried out despite Landula's inexperience and rumors of Mobutu's ties to Belgian and American intelligence agencies.

All other European officers were replaced, but some were retained as advisers. The next day, riots spread throughout the country. It is estimated that about two dozen Europeans were killed during these days.

In early July, Belgium sent 6,000 troops to the Congo, ostensibly to protect its citizens from violence. A few days later, Lumumba sent a telegram to Nikita Khrushchev asking him to help with the situation in the province of Katanga, where the main white population and sources of minerals were concentrated. The leader of Katanga, Moise Tshombe, proclaimed himself president of the independent State of Katanga.

The decision to turn to the USSR excited the West, especially the United States. On July 24, Lumumba traveled to New York to meet with UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. At the meeting, Lumumba expressed his dissatisfaction with the Belgian troops in the Congo and asked the Americans for help. US Secretary of State Christian Herter confirmed that the US would help the Congo, but only as part of a larger UN effort.

After returning to his homeland, in August Lumumba declared a state of emergency and called for an invasion of Katanga. On the same day, South Kasai, a district adjacent to Katanga, announced its withdrawal from the Congo.

Lumumba immediately ordered the Congolese troops to put down the uprising in South Kasai - in this part of the Congo there were strategic railway lines necessary for the campaign in Katanga. The operation was successful, but the conflict soon escalated into ethnic violence. The army began to participate in the massacres of the peaceful people of the Luba. The inhabitants and leaders of South Kasai felt that the only culprit in this situation was Lumumba.

Then President Kasavubu publicly broke off the political alliance with Lumumba, declaring the futility of his ideas of building a unitary state. Meanwhile, Lumumba demanded that a UN peacekeeping force help put down the uprising, threatening to bring in Soviet troops if they refused. Kasavubu began to fear that a coup d'etat was about to take place in the country, and on the evening of September 5 announced on the radio that he had dismissed Lumumba and six ministers for the massacres in South Kasai and the involvement of Soviet troops in the Congo.

On September 14, Lumumba was placed under house arrest, from where he eventually managed to escape. But on December 1, with logistical support from the United States and Belgium, Mobutu's troops were able to capture Lumumba and take him to Léopolville. It was stated that Lumumba would be convicted of sedition in the army and other crimes.

The Soviet Union demanded the release of Patrice, his reinstatement as head of the government of the Congo, the disarmament of Mobutu's forces and the immediate evacuation of the Belgians from the country, as well as the arrest of Mobutu. Hammarskjold replied that if UN forces were withdrawn from the Congo, "everything would collapse". Virtually none of the members of the UN Security Council supported the USSR in their desire to save Patrice.

Personal life

Lumumba knew the Tetel language, spoke French, as well as Lingala (the language of the Bantu peoples), Swahili (the largest of the Bantu languages) and Luba (the language of the Luba people).

In 1951, Lumumba married Paulina Opangu, who bore him five children: François, Patrice Jr., Julien, Roland and Guy-Patrice. Prior to his imprisonment, Lumumba arranged for his wife and children to move to Egypt. Subsequently, the eldest son François moved to Hungary, where he received a higher education and a doctorate in political economy.

Lumumba's youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father's death, ran as a presidential candidate in the 2006 Congo elections, but received only 0.42% of the vote.

Death

On December 3, Lumumba and his associates Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito were sent to the Tisville military barracks in Hardy's camp, 150 km from Leopoldville, and from there on January 17, 1961 by plane to Katanga, to Tshombe. Upon arrival, Lumumba was beaten by Katangan and Belgian officers.

Later that night, Patrice was taken into the deep woods to be shot. Tshombe and two ministers were present during the execution; the shot was fired by four Belgian officers. The execution took place between 21:40 and 21:43. They later decided to get rid of the bodies - the corpses were exhumed, dismembered and dissolved in sulfuric acid, and the bones were ground and thrown away.

There was no official confirmation of Lumumba's death for 3 weeks, despite rumors. And only on February 13 it was announced on the radio that Lumumba had been killed by angry residents of one of the villages of Katanga three days after his escape from prison.

After the announcement of Lumumba's death, street protests took place in European countries, and in New York, a demonstration outside the UN Security Council turned into violent riots. In the eyes of the whole world, Tshombe appeared as a villain, and Lumumba as a martyr.

Subsequently, streets in European cities and in the cities of Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Tunisia, etc. were named after Lumumba. In 1961, a series of postage stamps with a photo of Patrice was issued in the USSR, and until 1992, the Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow bore the name of Lumumba.

In the post-war period, the Soviet Union actively supported the people's liberation movements in the countries of Asia and Africa, which fought for independence against the colonial oppressors. The names of many heroes of this struggle are imprinted in the national toponymy in the form of names of streets and squares.

Among the mass of unpronounceable names of revolutionaries, there is one that has become almost a household name - Patrice Lumumba. This is largely due to the fact that for three decades the name of Patrice Lumumba was borne by the most international university in the country - the Peoples' Friendship University.

However, not even all current students of this university know who the real Patrice Lumumba was.

Reproduction of "Patrice Lumumba" drawing by artist Naum Karpovsky. Photo: RIA Novosti

Patrice Emery Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925 in the Belgian Congo, in one of the Godforsaken corners of our planet.

This is not an exaggeration - at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, this region of Africa became the scene of one of the most brutal and little-known genocides. King Leopold II of Belgium, the ruler of not the largest and most influential European state, managed to turn this African territory, which had not come to the attention of major powers, into private property. As a businessman, the Belgian king turned out to be greedy and cruel: the local population was turned into slaves and exploited mercilessly. For non-compliance with work, the inhabitants cut off the hand. It is difficult to establish the exact number of victims of the enterprising king, but it is estimated in the millions. According to some reports, from 1885 to 1908, up to 10 million people died in the Congo as a result of the actions of the colonialists.

In 1908, in Europe, journalists began to write about the dirty deeds of the Belgian king, and the European public experienced a real shock. After that, the Belgian Congo turned from private ownership into a colony of Belgium. However, fundamentally the life of local residents has not changed.

Revolutionary from the post office

This is the place where Patrice Lumumba was born in 1925. However, the boy from a poor family of the Tetela nationality was lucky - he was accepted into a school at a Catholic mission, after which he was taken to the courses of postal employees.

Patrice fell into that small stratum of the local population, whom the colonialists considered it necessary to educate, so that they would play the role of a kind of "clerk" under the white master.

After the end of World War II, an active struggle for independence began in the African colonies of European states. The Belgian Congo did not bypass this struggle, and the young Patrice Lumumba joined it.

Friends and enemies tell his biography in different ways. According to the former, faced with the injustice in which his homeland lived, Patrice, at the behest of his heart, joined the ranks of the revolutionaries. According to the second version, Lumumba was preparing to make a career in the colonial administration, but "got burned" on the theft of money transfers, for which he ended up in prison. And after that, offended by the "colonialists", he came to grips with politics.

One way or another, but by 1958 Patrice Lumumba became one of the most famous figures in the national liberation movement of his country and founded the National Movement of the Congo party, speaking from the left.

"We are no longer your monkeys!"

The growth of the protest movement led the Belgian authorities to understand that they would have to leave the Congo. And then the colonialists began to actively work with local politicians, hoping to maintain their influence in the country.

In this sense, Lumumba turned out to be the most inconvenient - he demanded the complete independence of the country and the departure of the exploiters from it. The Belgians, as well as the Americans who were closely watching the situation, were frightened by Lumumba's leftist views, which pushed him to cooperate with the USSR.

Reproduction of the linocut "Patrice Lumumba". Artist K.V. Turenko. Photo: RIA Novosti / Svetlov

In May 1960, the first parliamentary elections were held in the Belgian Congo, in which Patrice Lumumba's National Movement won. The 34-year-old politician became the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo.

Belgium, having officially recognized the independence of the former colony, hoped, with the help of the pro-Belgian elite, to maintain a situation in which all the resources of the country were under the control of the Europeans.

At a solemn ceremony on June 30, 1960, in the presence of the Belgian King Baudouin I, who visited the country The first president of independent Congo, Joseph Kasavubu gave a speech about national modernization, a multiracial society and cooperation with the former metropolis.

The speech of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was not so peaceful, but it expressed all the pain of the people who endured incalculable suffering under the yoke of the colonialists. "We are no longer your monkeys!" Lumumba literally shouted to the dumbfounded King of Belgium.

Uncomfortable Premier

The radicalism of the head of the government of the Congo did not suit too many. The Lumumba government tried to achieve real control over the country's resources, to take the path leading to economic independence. It was planned to create state planning, a public sector in industry and production and marketing cooperatives in the countryside, the introduction of fixed prices for essential goods and an increase in wages for workers. The export of capital abroad was prohibited. Lumumba announced the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church. In foreign policy, a course was taken towards non-alignment, the complete liberation of Africa from colonialism and racism.

Lumumba's course had enough opponents - President Kasavubu opposed him, an army mutiny broke out, and in the resource-rich province of Katanga protege of the Belgian company "Union Minier" Moise Tshombe and declared independence from the Congo.

Belgium also reacted by sending troops into the former colony "to restore order." Prime Minister Lumumba turned to the UN for help, but the Blue Helmets who arrived unexpectedly took the side of the opponents of the government, accusing the leader of the National Movement himself of destabilizing.

Then Patrice Lumumba turned to the USSR for help. However, time was lost - Lumumba's opponents were already in control of the situation. Moreover, in the United States, an influential left-wing politician was seen as an "African Castro" and considered necessary to get rid of him.

On September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu removed Lumumba from office and placed him under house arrest in exchange for Moise Tshombe's promise to end the rebellion.

However, the rebellion in Katanga never stopped, and Prime Minister Lumumba remained under arrest, despite the fact that parliament supported his return to office. The "blue helmets" introduced into the country de facto acted not as peacekeepers, but as occupiers.

Patrice Lumumba in captivity. January 1961 Photo: RIA Novosti

political assassination

Supporters of Lumumba took control of the northeast of the country. Released on September 12 by soldiers who rebelled in the capital, the prime minister decides to get to his like-minded people in order to continue the fight.

However, on the way to the northeast, Lumumba, along with his associates, was captured by his political opponents with the tacit consent of the UN representatives.

The details of the death of Patrice Lumumba became known only 40 years later, after a special investigation conducted in the Belgian Parliament.

As it turned out, Lumumba was handed over to his worst enemy - the head of the Katanga separatists, Moise Tshombe. Here he, along with two associates, was placed in a forest hut, where they were tortured. In the massacre of Lumumba, his local opponents played the main role, but they were led by the Belgian military and representatives of the secret services.

On January 17, 1961, after much bullying, Patrice Lumumba, along with his comrades-in-arms, was shot. The remains of Lumumba and his comrades were destroyed by the assassins.

It is known that the American intelligence services also had plans to massacre Lumumba, and they were personally approved by President Dwight Eisenhower. The reason is the same - leftist views, the desire for cooperation with the USSR. True, disputes about the involvement of the CIA in the murder of January 17, 1961 are still going on.

In 2002, Belgium admitted its involvement in the death of Patrice Lumumba, refusing, however, to continue to investigate all the circumstances of the murder.

"History will judge us"

The Republic of the Congo, after the assassination of the country's first prime minister, plunged into a decades-long civil conflict, a way out of which began to emerge only towards the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

In 1961, the name of Patrice Lumumba became a symbol of the struggle for freedom of enslaved peoples. In the Soviet Union, many streets and squares were named after him, as well as the Peoples' Friendship University.

True, in 1992, along with a change in political formations, the Peoples' Friendship University on behalf of Lumumba officially renounced, while remaining the "University of Lumumba" in common parlance.

In his last letter to his wife, Patrice Lumumba wrote: “No cruelty, bullying or torture has broken me and will not break me, since I prefer to die with my head held high, with unshakable faith and deep confidence in the future of my country, than to live in submission, trampling sacred principles. One day history will judge us, but it will not be a history pleasing to Brussels, Paris, Washington or the UN, but the history of countries liberated from colonialism and its puppets.”

Who is Patrice Lumumba? In order to answer this question, you need to delve into the history of the Congo in the middle of the last century. Shortly after the declaration of Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the crisis in the Congo. Patrice Lumumba has called on the United States and the United Nations to help fight the threat. But they refused to help the Congo, and so Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union. This led to growing tensions with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Chief of Staff Joseph-Desire Mobutu, as well as with the United States and Belgium.

The life of Patrice Lumumba ended very tragically. He was imprisoned by the state authorities led by Mobutu (his former supporter) and executed by firing squad under the command of the Katangan authorities. After his death, he was widely seen as a martyr who fell in the name of the ideals of the pan-African movement.

Early life and early career

The biography of Patrice Lumumba began on July 2, 1925. He was born to farmer François Tolengue Otetsime and his wife Julien Wamato Lomenja in Onnal, in the Catakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was a member of the Tetela ethnic group and was born with the name Élias Okit "Asombo. His original surname translates as "heir of the damned" and comes from the Tetela language words okitá / okitɔ ("heir, successor") and asombo ("cursed or bewitched people who soon to die"). He had three siblings (Ian Clarke, Emile Kalema and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba) and one half-brother (Tolenga Jean). Growing up in a Catholic family, he was educated at a Protestant elementary school, at a Catholic missionary school and finally at the Public Post Office School, where he completed a year's course with honors.Lumumba was proficient in Tetela, French, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba.

Outside of his regular school and university studies, the young Patrice Lumumba developed an interest in Enlightenment ideas by reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire. He also loved Molière and Victor Hugo. He wrote poetry, and many of his writings had an anti-imperialist theme. A brief biography of Patrice Lumumba could be expressed in a simple enumeration of the main events: study, work, rise to power and execution.

He worked in Leopoldville and Stanleyville as a postal clerk and as a beer salesman. In 1951 he married Polina Ogangu. In 1955, Lumumba became the regional head of the Stanleyville churches and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he edited and distributed party literature. After a study tour to Belgium in 1956, he was arrested on charges of embezzlement from the post office. He was sentenced to a year in prison and had to pay a fine.

Congolese nationalist leader

After his release on October 5, 1958, he took part in the founding of the National Movement Congolese Party (MNC) and quickly became the organization's leader.

The MNC, unlike other Congolese parties, did not rely on a specific ethnic background. This contributed to the creation of a platform that included independence, gradual Africanization of the government, state economic development, and neutrality in foreign affairs. Lumumba himself had great popularity due to his personal charisma, excellent oratory skills and ideological sophistication. This allowed him to gain greater political autonomy than his Belgian dependent contemporaries.

The country of Patrice Lumumba was on the verge of declaring independence. He himself was at that time one of the delegates who represented the INC at the All-Africa Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, Lumumba further reinforced his pan-African beliefs. Nkrumah was very impressed with the intellect and ability of Patrice Lumumba.

At the end of October 1959, Lumumba, being the head of the organization, was arrested for inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville. 30 people were killed that day. The young politician was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The start date of the trial - January 18, 1960 - was the first day of the Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels, at which the future of the Congo was finally decided.

Despite Lumumba's imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a landslide majority in the December local elections in the Congo. As a result of strong pressure from the delegates, dissatisfied with the trial of Lumumba, he was released and allowed to participate in the Brussels conference.

Independence of the Congo

The conference ended on 27 January with the Declaration of Congo's independence and fixed 30 June 1960 as the date of independence, combined also with the first national elections in Congolese history, which were held from 11 to 25 May 1960. On them, the MNC received the majority of votes. The homeland of Patrice Lumumba gained independence, and his party became the ruling one.

Six weeks before the independence date, Walter Hanshof van der Meersch was appointed Belgian Minister for African Affairs. He lived in Leopoldville, actually becoming a Belgian resident in the Congo, ruling it jointly with the Governor-General Hendrik Cornelis.

Rise to power

The following day, Patrice Lumumba was appointed by the Belgians as special informant and given the task of considering the formation of a government of national unity that included politicians with a wide range of views. June 16 was the deadline for its formation. On the same day that Lumumba was named prime minister, a parliamentary opposition coalition was formed. Lumumba was initially unable to make contact with members of the opposition. In the end, several opposition leaders were delegated to meet with him, but their positions and views did not change in any way. On June 16, Lumumba reported his difficulties to the Belgian viceroy Ganshof, who extended the term for the formation of a government and promised to act as an intermediary between the leader of the MNC and the opposition. However, as soon as he made contact with the opposition leadership, he was impressed by their stubbornness and rejection of Lumumba's figure. By evening, Lumumba's mission showed even less chance of success. Ganshof believed that the role of informant in Adul and Kasa-Vubu continued to increase, but was facing increasing pressure from Belgian and moderate Congolese advisers to end Lumumba's appointment.

Governing body

Independence Day and the three days that followed were declared a national holiday. The Congolese were intoxicated by the celebrations taking place in relative peace and tranquility. Meanwhile, Lumumba's office was seething with activity. Diverse groups of people - both Congolese and Europeans - hurriedly did their work. Some received specific assignments on behalf of Patrice Lumumba, although sometimes without explicit permission from other branches of government. Numerous Congolese citizens came to Lumumba complaining of various problems of a socio-economic nature. Lumumba, in turn, was preoccupied mainly with a large schedule of receptions and ceremonies.

Photos of Patrice Lumumba of that time recorded on his face a characteristic thoughtfulness and tension. On July 3, he announced a general amnesty for prisoners, which was never carried out. The next morning, he convened the Council of Ministers to discuss the unrest among the troops of the Public Group. Many soldiers hoped that independence would lead to immediate action and material gains, but were frustrated by the slow pace of Lumumba's reforms. The ranking showed that the Congolese political class, especially the ministers in the new government, were enriching themselves without improving the situation in the troops.

Many of the soldiers are also tired of maintaining order during elections and participating in independence celebrations. The ministers decided to set up four committees to study and, as a result, reorganize the administration, the judiciary and the army, as well as enact a new law for civil servants. Everyone had to pay special attention to ending racial discrimination. Parliament met to pass its first formal legislation by vote for the first time since independence, increasing the salaries of its members to 500,000 Congolese francs. Lumumba, fearing that the consequences would be related to the budget, was one of the few who objected to the adoption of the acts, calling this act of parliamentarians "disastrous stupidity."

Attempted military mutiny

On the morning of July 5, General Emil Janssen, commander of the Public Troops, in response to the growing unrest among the Congolese soldiers, gathered all the troops on duty in the camp of Leopold II. He demanded that the army maintain its discipline. That evening, the Congolese government fired a number of officers in protest against Janssen. The latter warned of this the reserve garrison of Camp Hardy, located 95 miles from Teesville. The officers tried to organize a convoy to send help to Leopold II's camp to restore order, but the men in the camp rebelled and took over the armory. Such crises were frequent during the reign of Patrice Lumumba.

On August 9, Lumumba declared a state of emergency throughout the Congo. He then issued several controversial decrees in an attempt to consolidate his dominance in the country's political arena. The first decree outlawed all associations and associations that did not receive state approval. The second argued that the government has the right to ban any publication that contains material harmful to the government.

On August 11, the African Courier ran an editorial stating that the Congolese did not want to "fall under the second kind of slavery", referring to the activities of Patrice Lumumba. The newspaper's editor was arrested and stopped publishing the daily paper four days later. The press restrictions caused a wave of harsh criticism from the Belgian media. Lumumba also decreed the nationalization of all Belgian property in the country, setting up the Congolese Congress of the Press as a means of information warfare against the opposition and propagating his own ideas. On August 16, Lumumba announced the formation of a military militia within six months, also implying the creation of military tribunals.

Fatal mistake

Lumumba immediately ordered Congolese troops under Mobutu to put down the uprising in South Kasai, where there were strategic rail lines that would be needed for the Katanga campaign. The operation was successful, but the conflict soon escalated into ethnic violence. The army became the perpetrator of the massacres of civilians belonging to the Luba people. The people and politicians of South Kasai put Prime Minister Lumumba personally responsible for the army's crimes. Kasa-Vubu publicly declared that only a federalist government could bring peace and stability to the Congo, breaking the tenuous political alliance that had guaranteed relative stability in the young African nation. Entire nations rose up against the once adored prime minister, and the Catholic Church openly criticized his government.

Death of Patrice Lumumba

On January 17, 1961, Lumumba was forcibly detained before flying to Elisabethville. Upon arrival, he and his supporters were arrested at the Brouwes home, where they were brutally beaten and tortured with katangans along with Belgian officers, while President Tsombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

That same night, Lumumba was taken to an isolated place where three rifle squads were assembled. The Belgian Commission of Inquiry determined that the execution was carried out by the Katangese authorities. She also reported that President Tsombe and two other ministers were present, while four Belgian officers were under the command of the Katangan authorities. Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito were lined up against a tree and killed with single shots to the head. The execution is believed to have taken place on January 17, 1961, between 21:40 and 21:43 (according to the Belgian report). The Belgians and their colleagues later wanted to dispose of the bodies and did so by digging up and dismembering the corpses, then dissolving them in sulfuric acid while the bones were crushed and scattered around the area.

Political views

Lumumba did not support any single political or economic platform, be it capitalism or socialism. He was the first Congolese to articulate a national mission for the Congo that ran counter to traditional Belgian views of colonization by emphasizing the suffering of the native population under European rule. He formulated the idea of ​​Congolese national unity, regardless of the numerous ethnic groups inhabiting the state, proposed the basis for a national identity based on replicating the ideas of colonial victimization, national dignity, humanity, strength and unity. This humanism also included the values ​​of egalitarianism, social justice, freedom, and the recognition of basic human rights.

Lumumba viewed the state as a positive source and approved of its intervention in the life of the Congolese society, considering it necessary to ensure equality, justice and social harmony.

Personal life

The family of Patrice Lumumba is actively involved in contemporary Congolese politics. Patrice Lumumba was married to Pauline Lumumba and had five children with her. François was the eldest of them, followed by Patrice Junior, Julien, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba. François was 10 years old when Patrice was killed. Before his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move to Egypt.

Lumumba's youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father's death, was an independent presidential candidate in the 2006 election but received less than 10% of the vote. The Patrice Lumumba family is one of the most famous families in the Congo.

PATRICE LUMUMBA
Patrice Lumumba, genus. 07/2/1925, died 01/17/1961, statesman and politician, first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo (with its capital in Kinshasa, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Patrice was born on July 2, 1925 in the small village of Onalua in the province of Kasai, which was part of the then Belgian Congo, in the family of a poor peasant of the Batetela people. In 1936, Patrice was sent to a Catholic missionary school. While the father wanted to see his son as a church minister, the boy's uncle, a sergeant in the colonial troops, insisted on a military career. However, young Patrice did not choose either one or the other and at the age of 13 he independently entered the courses of orderlies.

Patrice was among the "evolue" (translated from French - developed, joined to civilization) - as the Belgians called Africans who received primary or secondary education. He participated in encouraged by the Belgians in the 40s. circles of educated citizens, in which the Evolue, together with the Europeans, could discuss the problems of culture, international politics, and questions of the further development of the colony. The atmosphere at these informal meetings was not easy, Lumumba would later write that "at every meeting, during every discussion, racism was felt, ready to break through in the speeches of both Europeans and Congolese."

In 1946, Lumumba arrived in the capital of the colony, Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), and entered the school of postal employees, after which he got a job in the Eastern Province. The work of a postal clerk and a clerk did not interfere with the study of political economy, jurisprudence, the latest history of Africa, and after a few months the opportunity arose to realize a cherished dream - to enter a university. Lumumba became a correspondence student at the Antwerp Law Institute. In Stanleyville, the main administrative center of the Eastern Province, Lumumba launched an active social and political activity, leading the Commonwealth of Postal Workers and the Congolese Staff Association for the Eastern Province.

Had Lumumba chosen a career as an official in the colonial administration, he could have considered June 1955 as his finest hour, when the young journalist and public figure was personally introduced to the Belgian King Baudouin, who was making a three-week trip to the Congo. In a conversation with the monarch, for whom Lumumba, by his own admission, had deep respect at that time, he directly raised the question of the need to legalize the activities of African socio-political organizations in the Belgian Congo, as was already the case in the neighboring colonies of England and France. The interlocutor made an impression on the king and a year later was invited to Belgium. Lumumba brought to Brussels the manuscript of his first book with the characteristic title "Congo: the land of the future under threat?", which contained an analysis of the socio-economic and political situation of the colony and criticism of racial segregation. Upon returning from Brussels, Lumumba was immediately arrested during a customs inspection - on a quickly fabricated charge of embezzlement of public money ("I thought I would die of shame," he would write later).

After leaving prison, Lumumba, whose authority only increased due to repression, led the work to create a national party. Lumumba came to the conclusion that the idea of ​​creating a "Belgian-Congolese community", which he defended in his early articles, was utopian. In October 1958, he was elected leader of a new political party, the National Movement of the Congo (MNC), which soon became the most massive independent social force in the country and declared its goal to grant independence immediately, without any conditions.

Lumumba made great efforts to organize the NDC along the lines of a national front. And he succeeded - the influence of the party grew. As the Belgian Minister for African Affairs Ganshof van der Meersch repeatedly noted on this occasion, "it is appropriate to recall that the party has a dominant position thanks to the personality of its leader, Patrice Lumumba." The popularity of Lumumba scared the Belgians. After the Stanleyville NDC Congress, which was accompanied by massive demonstrations of support in the surrounding villages and ended on October 30, 1959, Lumumba was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison "for inciting public disorder." In prison, Lumumba learned of the Brussels Round Table Conference that began in January 1960, at which the Belgian government, together with the leaders of the main political parties and a group of traditional leaders, wanted to determine the future of the Congo. The NDC delegation, which was joined by the majority of the Congolese representatives, unanimously refused to participate in the conference while the party leader is in prison. The Belgians did not expect such nationwide solidarity and were forced to retreat. When Lumumba was hastily released and taken to Brussels, traces of handcuffs were still visible on his hands. The unanimity of the Congolese forced the Belgian leadership to agree on the exact date of the declaration of independence of the Congo - June 30, 1960. The split among the Congolese occurred on a different issue. The leader of the Konakat regional party (Katanga province), Moise Tshombe, a Lunda by nationality, with the support of the Belgians, advocated a federal structure of the country, while the NDK, led by Lumumba, defended a unitary state structure. The division of the country into a federation of ethnic regions seemed to Lumumba a catastrophe, he considered it "reactionary separatism." In the end, the point of view of Lumumba won at the conference, the unitary principle of the state system was fixed, combined with the broad autonomy of the provinces. However, Belgium reserved the right to coordinate military assistance provided to the Republic of the Congo, as well as to act as an arbiter in conflicts between central and provincial authorities. Thus, a bomb was planted under the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Congo, which was not slow to explode soon after Patrice Lumumba headed the country's coalition government in June 1960. In this government, the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs went to the "man Tshombe" - Bomboko, a representative of the Konakat party. At the same time, at a meeting of both houses of parliament, Joseph Kasavubu, the leader of another ethnic-regional grouping, the Abako party, which expressed the interests of the Bakongo people, was elected president of the Congo. Lumumba, apparently, sincerely believed that on the basis of a coalition leadership it was possible to reach agreement even with the most stubborn opponents of the idea of ​​a unitary state.

The economic development project put forward by Lumumba provided for the creation of a strong public sector, which became another stumbling block in relations with the West and the regional opposition. At the same time, Lumumba cooled the hotheads of supporters of broad nationalization from his entourage.

Opposition to the government immediately manifested itself in the Congolese National Army (KPA), headed by the Belgian General Janssens. The prime minister removed the commander-in-chief, appointing to his post a sergeant from among the Congolese (there were no Congolese officers at that time), who was awarded the rank of general; Sergeant Joseph Desire Mobutu, who was urgently promoted to colonel, also became the chief of the general staff. Mobutu had previously taken part in the Round Table Conference in Brussels as part of the NDC delegation and showed himself to be an ardent supporter of Lumumba. It was announced that the Congolese - sergeants and soldiers - were given military ranks. After that, unrest intensified in the army, caused by the discontent of the European officers, who did not want to give up their places to the Congolese.

In such a situation, on the night of July 7-8, the Belgian military units stationed in the Congo, with the help of detachments of white mercenaries, began hostilities against the legitimate government of the country. On July 11, Tshombe declared a state of emergency in Katanga and proclaimed the province a "completely independent state." At the same time, he declared Lumumba "an agent of international communism." On the same day, the government of the USSR announced "a heavy responsibility that falls on the leading circles of the Western powers who unleashed armed aggression in the Congo" and demanded its immediate cessation. In this situation, Lumumba and Kasavubu turned to the UN Secretary General Hammarskjöld with a request for military assistance. However, the "blue helmets" that soon arrived in the Congo, in essence, played the role of a Trojan horse. They in no way prevented the Belgian paratroopers from keeping under control the strategic objects they had previously captured.

In the midst of the Congo crisis, Lumumba received an invitation to visit the United States. The trip began with a visit to the UN. However, Hammarskjöld limited himself to a breakfast in honor of Lumumba and soon flew to the Congo without even discussing the Blue Helmets' plan of action with the Prime Minister of that country. In fact, he never met Lumumba again. Negotiations with US Secretary of State Herter and his deputy Dillon proved fruitless. "They consider me a communist because I did not allow myself to be bribed by the imperialists," Lumumba said in an interview with France Soir, emphasizing that "the government of the Congo does not want to profess any imported ideology and seeks only the comprehensive liberation of its country." On September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu announced the removal of Lumumba and the appointment of "more loyal to the West" Joseph Ileo as prime minister. Parliament condemned the unconstitutional actions of the president, expressing support for the lawful prime minister. The Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Mobutu, in turn, after waiting five days, began disarming Lumumba's supporters. On September 14, Mobutu staged an open military coup and took power into his own hands. The most detailed mechanism that was launched to eliminate and physically punish Patrice Lumumba from the political arena was revealed in the 1975 US Senate Commission investigation into the activities of American intelligence services, including the participation of the CIA in the events in the Congo. It is noteworthy that Allen Dulles, when he was director of the CIA, categorically characterized Lumumba as a person "like Castro or even worse."

Lumumba was under house arrest. With the help of one of the UAR embassy advisers, Lumumba's sons Francois and Patrice and daughter Juliana were smuggled to Cairo. The youngest son, Roland, stayed with his parents. However, when Lumumba's youngest daughter Christina was born prematurely in November 1960 and soon died, Lumumba himself turned to the UN administration with a request to give him the opportunity to fly to his native places in order to bury the child according to national custom in his native land, but was refused. Nevertheless, Lumumba and his wife Pauline decided to take a chance. But near Stanleyville, on the orders of Mobutu, the suspended prime minister was arrested. He was held in a military camp in the town of Tiswil, where Senate President Okito and Youth Minister Mpolo were also taken.

On December 14, 1960, Lumumba's friend Antoine Gizenga, who was Lumumba's deputy cabinet minister and who formed the anti-Mobut government in Stanleyville, telegraphed Khrushchev, appealing for urgent help: "The landing of your aircraft in Stanleyville will be provided. Warn us of the day and hour of arrival. Please ensure if possible, an extraordinary consideration of this request. Please reply to us in Stanleyville no later than two days later, otherwise we will be taken prisoner. " Moscow managed to establish relations with the Gizenga government and began to provide him with assistance, despite the vast distances, opposition from the West and the negative role of the UN administration in the Congo.

Meanwhile, Lumumba had only a few days left to live. January 17, 1961 Lumumba, Okito and Mpolo were sent to Katanga. In 1965, a photocopy of Tshombe's order of 17 January 1961 to execute "three political prisoners" was published in the journal Zhen Afrik. As it became known from the conclusion of the UN Commission, the sentence was carried out on the same day.

In a final letter sent to his wife from the Tisville camp, Patrice Lumumba reflected on the path he had traveled: "The only thing we wanted for our country was the right to a decent human existence, to dignity without hypocrisy, to independence without restraint."