The phrase "don't get ready for more than three" is familiar to modern Russians from fictional and historical films about the pre-revolutionary era. As a rule, in such works, this phrase is embedded in the lips of the police or gendarmes.
In modern society, it is already quite difficult to understand the true meaning of this expression, so it can be associated with completely different realities, not with those that gave rise to it in reality.
Who gets together in threes
The requirement “not to gather more than three” may well evoke an association with the custom of “thinking for three”. Traditionally, three men meet to drink a bottle of vodka, because drinking this alcoholic drink alone is considered a manifestation of alcoholism, which is undoubtedly condemned even by those who are quite loyal to alcohol abuse.
The question arises why it is necessary to drink vodka with just three, and not four or two, why two men will certainly try to find a third. This "custom" arose in Soviet times and was associated with the price of a bottle of vodka - 3, 52 rubles. This amount is much easier to divide by 3 than by any other number, so it was easy for a company of 3 to split the costs equally.
But the demand "not to gather more than three" is in no way connected with the custom of "thinking for three", this phrase appeared much earlier - in pre-revolutionary Russia, during the reign of Nicholas II.
Provisional Rules for Public Assemblies
Nicholas II went down in history as the last Russian emperor. Almost all of his reign was the "finish line" to the October Revolution. It cannot be said that the emperor did not try to do anything - one can recall, for example, the manifesto of 1905, but it was already impossible to stop this process. Society was literally "seething" with revolutionary sentiments, and the authorities had only one thing to do - to defend themselves against people opposed to the autocracy.
One of such attempts to defend oneself, to prevent possible unrest was the introduction in 1906 of provisional rules for public assemblies. In the corresponding decree, it was spelled out which meetings are considered public. As such, meetings were considered, which could be attended by an indefinite number of people, as well as people who are not personally known to the organizers of the event. The organizers were obliged to inform the local police chief about a public meeting at least three days before the event.
The police enforced these rules even more strictly than the decree required. Suffice it to recall the situation described in A. Brushtein's novel "The Road Leaves Into the Distance": even to invite guests to a party on the occasion of a girl's birthday, one had to obtain permission from the police station, although this event was not one of those by decree were recognized as public.
The police acted even more decisively when they saw the slightest hint of a "public meeting" on the street: when he saw at least a small group of people discussing something, the policeman began to disperse them with a truncheon, demanding "not to gather more than three." This phrase has become a symbol of dictatorship and police arbitrariness.
