Last week federal Service Russian Guard has declassified the archive of General Nikolai Vlasik, who served as chief of security for Joseph Stalin from 1931 to 1952, reports Newsru.com. Vlasik's memoirs, dedicated to his life next to the leader, are published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
As Vlasik said in his notes, he was instructed to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka and the Kremlin, as well as pay special attention to Stalin's personal protection, after a bomb was thrown into the commandant's office building on the Lubyanka in Moscow in 1927.
According to Vlasik, before he headed the leader's security, only one employee was responsible for his safety - the Lithuanian Ivan Yusis. At the dacha near Moscow, where Stalin rested on weekends, there was a complete mess. Vlasik began by sending linen and dishes to the dacha, hiring a cook and a cleaner, and also arranged for the delivery of food from the GPU state farm located nearby.
Described Vlasik and Stalin's way of life in an apartment in the Kremlin. The housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna and the cleaning lady kept order there. Hot meals were brought to the family from the Kremlin canteen in tins.
According to the general, Stalin then lived with his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, daughter Svetlana and sons Vasily and Yakov very modestly. Stalin walked in an old coat, and Vlasik's proposal to sew new outerwear was answered with a categorical refusal. As Vlasik wrote in his notes, he had to sew a new coat for the leader by eye - he did not allow me to take measurements. Nadezhda Alliluyeva was just as modest, according to the general.
As Vlasik recalls, Stalin usually got up at 9 am, after breakfast by 11 o'clock he arrived at the Central Committee building on Staraya Square. Dined at work. The leader worked until late at night. He often returned from work to the Kremlin on foot with Vyacheslav Molotov.
After Stalin's wife committed suicide in 1933, the care of the children fell on the housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna. According to Vlasik, when the children grew up, part of the responsibility fell on him. And if there were no problems with Svetlana, son Vasily studied at school reluctantly, and instead of preparing for classes, he was fond of something extraneous like horse riding. On the behavior of Vasily Vlasik, according to him, "reluctantly" reported to Stalin.
As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, Stalin annually went on vacation to Sochi or Gagra for two months at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn. There he read a lot, rode a boat on the sea, watched movies, played skittles, towns and billiards.
Another hobby of the leader was the garden. In the south, he grew oranges and tangerines. At the initiative of Stalin, Sochi was planted a large number of eucalyptus trees, which, according to the idea of the leader, was to reduce the incidence of malaria among the local population.
As Vlasik admitted, in the 30s, when Stalin arrived on vacation in Tskaltubo at the dacha intended for employees of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of Georgia, it turned out to be so dirty there that, in his words, “the heart bled” when the leader was nervous, demanding to clean up.
According to Vlasik, Stalin loved the head of the Leningrad Party Organization of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Kirov, "with some kind of touching, tender love." Kirov, arriving in Moscow, stayed at Stalin's apartment, and they did not part. The assassination of Kirov in 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev, instructor of the historical and party commission of the Institute of History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, shocked the leader. As Vlasik noted, he traveled with Stalin to Leningrad to say goodbye to Kirov and saw how he suffered, experiencing the loss of his beloved friend.
As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, in the summer of 1935, Stalin himself survived the assassination attempt. This happened in the south, where he was resting in a dacha not far from Gagra. The boat, sent from Leningrad by the then head of the NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, on which Stalin was, was fired upon from the shore. According to Vlasik, he quickly put Stalin on a bench and covered him with himself, after which he ordered the minder to go out to sea. In response, Stalin's guards fired machine gun fire along the shore.
According to Vlasik, a small and non-maneuverable boat was sent by Yagoda "not without malicious intent." Obviously, the chief of the NKVD assumed that on a big wave the ship would inevitably capsize. Fortunately, this did not happen. The assassination case was referred for investigation to Lavrenty Beria, who was then Secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia.
During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat was with an unfamiliar number, it seemed suspicious to him, and he opened fire, writes Vlasik. In fact, as historians write, the appearance of Stalin's boat in the protected area was not formalized by the relevant documents, and the border guards acted in strict accordance with the instructions. The commander of the frontier post department, Lavrov, demanded that the boat stop with shots in the air. The warning shots had to be repeated as the boat did not respond to the signals.
Lavrov was tried. Although he was threatened the death penalty, after the intervention of Yagoda, the commander of the outpost section was given only five years for "sloppiness." Lavrov, however, did not serve his term. In 1937, he was taken from the camp to Tbilisi, and after interrogation he was accused of a terrorist conspiracy and sentenced to death as an enemy of the people.
In his memoirs, Vlasik expresses the idea that the murders of Kirov, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky in 1934, Valerian Kuibyshev in 1935 and the writer Maxim Gorky in 1936, as well as the assassination attempts on Stalin and Molotov, were organized by the right-wing Trotsky bloc and became links in one chain. “This tangle was unraveled and thus neutralized the enemies of Soviet power,” the general states.
It should be noted that the circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son Maxim Peshkov were considered suspicious for a long time, but the rumors about their murder were never confirmed. At the 1938 trial, Yagoda was charged with poisoning Gorky's son. During interrogations, Yagoda stated that Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and he decided to liquidate the writer's son on his own initiative.
Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich was born in 1896 in the village of Babinichi, Sloma district, Grodno province, in the family of a poor peasant. In 1919 he entered the state security agencies. In 1919-1920 he served in a special detachment under the Cheka. In 1921 he worked in the operations department of the GPU. In 1931 he headed Stalin's bodyguard. From 1946 to 1952, he served as head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. In 1945, Vlasik was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
In May 1952, Vlasik was removed from his post as head of security and sent to the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region, where he received the post of deputy head of the Bazhenov Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Construction. In December 1952, Vlasik was arrested. In 1955 he was sentenced to 10 years of exile and deprived of his general rank and awards. Under the amnesty, the term of exile was reduced to five years.
In 1956, General Vlasik was pardoned and released with the removal of a criminal record without restoring his military rank. In 1967, Stalin's former security chief died. In 2000, he was posthumously rehabilitated, reinstated in rank, Vlasik's awards were returned to his family.
Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik
Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich (1896, Bobynichi village, Slonim district, Grodno province - 1967). head of security I.V. Stalin, lieutenant general (07/09/1945). The son of a peasant. He was educated at a parochial school. From 1913 he worked as a laborer and digger. In March 1915 he was drafted into the army as a junior non-commissioned officer. From Nov. 1917 policeman in Moscow. Nov. 1918 joined the RCP (b). In Sept. 1919 transferred to the authorities Cheka . Already on November 1, 1926, he became a senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU of the USSR, and then held senior positions in the Operations Department system. whose functions included the protection of the leaders of the party and the state. For many years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard; from 1932 he raised his son V.I. Stalin. In 1935-36 early. bodyguards of the Operational Department of the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR. From 1936 beginning. task force and departments of the 1st department of the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR. After joining the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria and removal from office of nominees N.I. Yezhov Vlasik 11/19/1938 was appointed to the beginning. 1st Division of the Main Directorate state security. In February-July 1941, the Vlasik department was part of the NKGB of the USSR, and then returned to the jurisdiction of the NKVD. 19.1 1.1942 Vlasik was transferred to the post of 1st deputy head. 1st department. After education in Apr. 1943 of the independent NGKB of the USSR, Vlasik's department was deployed to the 6th Directorate, but already on August 9. Vlasik again became not the beginning, but the 1st deputy. From March 1946 beginning. Directorate of Security N 1 of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. This department was engaged exclusively in the protection and provision of Stalin. On November 28, 1946, under the leadership of Stalin, Vlasik, who enjoyed exceptional confidence at that time, the Main Security Directorate (GUO) of the USSR Ministry of State Security was formed. which included the 1st and 2nd security departments, as well as the Office of the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin. On May 23, 1952, the GUO was transformed into the Security Directorate, and Vlasik was removed from work and transferred to the deputy. early Bazhenov labor camp in Asbest (Sverdlovsk region). 12/16/1952 arrested and charged with "indulging pest doctors", abuse of office, etc. In January 1955 he was sentenced to 5 years of exile in Krasnoyarsk, but in 1956 he was pardoned (with the conviction removed). According to his wife, Vlasik, until his death, was convinced that Stalin "helped" die L.P. Beria .
Used materials from the book: Zalessky K.A. Empire of Stalin. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000
VLASIK Nikolai Sidorovich (Sergeevich) (1896-1967). Lieutenant General, head of Stalin's security. Born in the Baranovichi region, Belarusian. Member of the RCP (b) since 1918. In the bodies of the Cheka since 1919. In Stalin's guard appeared in 1931 on the recommendation of V.R. Menzhinsky (S. Alliluyeva writes that Vlasik was Stalin's bodyguard since 1919). In 1938-1942. - head of the 1st department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR, in 1941-1942. - NKGB-NKVD of the USSR. In 1942-1943. - Deputy head of the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR. In 1943 - head of the 6th department of the NKGB of the USSR and head of the 1st department of the 6th department of the NKGB of the USSR. In 1946, he was authorized by the Ministry of State Security of the USSR for the Sochi-Gagrinsky District; in 1946-1952 - Head of the Main Directorate of Security of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR.
He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov I degree, and medals.
Vlasik lasted the longest in the protection of Stalin. At the same time, almost all the domestic problems of the head of state lay on his shoulders. In essence, Vlasik was a member of the Stalin family. After the death of N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure, an economic and financial manager. Stalin's summer residences, along with the security staff, maids, housekeepers and cooks, were also subordinate to Vlasik. And there were many of them: a dacha in Kuntsevo-Volynsky, or "Near Dacha" (in 1934-1953 - the main residence of Stalin,1 he died there), a dacha in Gorki-tenths (35 km from Moscow along the Uspenskaya road) , an old manor along Dmitrovskoye Highway - Lipki, a dacha in Semenovsky (the house was built before the war), a dacha in Zubalovo-4 ("Far Dacha", "Zubalovo"), 2 dacha on Lake Ritsa, or "Dacha on the Cold River" (in the mouth of the Lashupse River, which flows into Lake Ritsa), three dachas in Sochi (one is not far from Matsesta, the other is beyond Adler, the third is before Gagra), a dacha in Borjomi (the Liakan Palace), a dacha in New Athos, a dacha in Tskhaltubo, a dacha in Myusery (near Pitsunda), a dacha in Kislovodsk, a dacha in the Crimea (in Mukholatka), a dacha in Valdai.
After the Great Patriotic War three Crimean palaces, where government delegations of the allied powers stayed in 1945, were also "mothballed" for such dachas. These are the Livadia Palace (formerly the royal palace, where a sanatorium for peasants was opened in the early 1920s), Vorontsovsky in Alupka (where the museum was located before the war), Yusupovsky in Koreiz. Another former royal palace - Massandra ( Alexander III) also turned into a "state dacha".
Formally, it was believed that all members of the Politburo could rest there, but usually, except for Stalin and occasionally Zhdanov and Molotov,3 no one used them. Nevertheless, a large number of servants lived in each of the dachas throughout the year, everything was kept in such a state as if the leader was constantly there. Even lunch for Stalin and his potential guests was prepared daily and accepted according to the act, regardless of whether anyone would eat it. This order played a well-known conspiratorial role: no one was supposed to know where Stalin was now and what his plans were. .
December 15, 1952 Vlasik was arrested. He was accused of embezzling large sums of state money and valuables.4 L. Beria and G. Malenkov are considered to be the initiators of Vlasik's arrest. By a court decision, he was stripped of his general rank and exiled for ten years. But under an amnesty on March 27, 1953, Vlasik's term was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. Died in Moscow.
Svetlana Alliluyeva characterizes his father's favorite as "illiterate, stupid, rude" and extremely arrogant satrap. In life Nadezhda Sergeevna (of Svetlana’s mother) Vlasik was not heard or seen, “he didn’t even dare to enter the house” ... However, later the authorities corrupted him so much that “he began to dictate to cultural and art figures" the tastes of Comrade Stalin "... And the figures listened to and followed this advice. Not a single festive concert at the Bolshoi Theater or St. George's Hall was held without Vlasik's sanction. Svetlana is trying to convince readers of the amazing gullibility and helplessness of her father against people like Vlasik. At the same time, she repeatedly mentions Stalin's rare insight. The leader really knew the weaknesses and vices of Vlasik very well. And yet he remained under Stalin long years while others, honest and decent, fell into disfavor and were expelled. Obviously, it was Vlasiki who suited him ( Samsonova V. Stalin's daughter. M., 1998. S. 175-177).
Notes
1) The dacha in Kuntsevo was designed and built by the architect Miron Merzhanov at the direction of Stalin in 1934. Since that time, Kuntsevo has become the main residence of the leader and the real capital of the USSR. The thought of leaving the Kremlin, according to her daughter, was prompted by the suicide of her wife on November 8, 1932. “But, I think, another, more practical consideration was the desire to separate from the rest of the party leaders. All of them lived in the Kremlin. He wanted to have his own special Kremlin (he adored conspiracies), and he built it. In gratitude, Merzhanov was sent to camps for 17 years, and he miraculously came out alive ”(Druzhnikov Yu.I. Russian myths. M., 1999. P. 256). Merzhanov also built other dachas for the Secretary General in the Caucasus and Crimea. After the death of the leader in Kuntsevo, they planned to open a museum of Stalin.
2) The estate with a palace in the Gothic style in a deep forest near Moscow (near the Usovo station) belonged until 1917 to the oilman Zubalov. Here Stalin lived during the summer months in 1919-1932. The dacha was blown up in October 1941, when there was a real threat of the capture of Moscow. Later, a new residence was created there.
3) The people of Stalin's entourage also had their favorite vacation spots. Molotov, for example, has the former estate of Chair in Miskhor (once it was fashionable to tango “Roses fall in Chair Chair”).
4) “I was severely offended by Stalin. After 25 years of impeccable work, without any reprimand, but only encouragement and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he gave me into the hands of enemies. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I did not have evil in my soul against Stalin ”(Vlasik N.S. My biography // Loginov V. Shadows Stalin, Moscow, 2000, p. 136).
Materials of the book were used: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. St. Petersburg, 2000
From the recollections of an eyewitness:
It is impossible not to say about Vlasik. This was an ascetic who had worked under Stalin since 1928, and since 1930 he was officially the head of security. Then he was the head of the main security department. His main duty was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the cutting edge. He knew very well both friends and enemies of Stalin. And he knew that his life and the life of Stalin were very closely connected, and it was no coincidence that when a month and a half or two before Stalin's death he was suddenly arrested, he said that I had been arrested, which means that soon there would be no Stalin. And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin lived a little.
What kind of work did Vlasik have in general? It was day and night work, there was no 6–8 hour working day. All his life he had work, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room.
He had a rare day off. You know, after such a load, such a voltage, a discharge is needed. Doctors and psychologists who work with sailors and people working in space know this well. The burden of responsibility and situation puts pressure on a person. He is not fully restored, and in the end there may be a psychological overload, when the psyche can not stand it, and the person goes haywire.
What was Vlasik accused of? In order to tear him away from Stalin, the enemies of Stalin and, therefore, the enemies of the state said that Vlasik allegedly once took some food with him. But he didn't have time to stand in line at the shops. Maybe he took something with him from Stalin's house. Yes, Vlasik's time was a hundred times more expensive to lose him shopping. His life, his activities provided the state with enormous opportunities that are difficult to assess on the scale of banknotes.
He understood that he was living for Stalin, in order to ensure the work of Stalin, and hence the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two props for that colossal activity, not yet fully appreciated, that Stalin led, and they remained in the shadows. And they did badly with Poskrebyshev, even worse with Vlasik.
Artem Sergeev
Sergeev A., Glushik E. Conversations about Stalin. Moscow, "Crimean bridge-9D". 2006.
Read further:
Persons in plain clothes(biographical guide).
The “great leader” repaid his most faithful person with black ingratitude
For 25 years he guarded Stalin and the entire party elite, was engaged in raising the leader's children, arranged their life and saved them from death more than once. The lieutenant general was arrested in December 1952. Then he uttered the prophetic words: "They removed me, which means that soon there will be no Stalin." Three months later, on March 5, 1953, Joseph Vissarionovich died.
From dirt to Kings
in the 1920s. Source: wikipediaThe famous guard of the leader was born in 1896, in a poor Belarusian peasant family, and from the age of 12 he was forced to work on an equal basis with adult men. He managed to finish only three classes. At the age of 19 he was drafted into the army.
There is a lot of evidence that Nikolai Sidorovich was very strong physically, savvy and courageous. During the First World War, he was awarded the St. George Cross, which he was proud of and wore even in Soviet time. After the revolution, Nikolai went over to the side Soviet power, served in the Moscow police, then went to the front, and in 1919 got to Dzerzhinsky to the bodies of the Cheka, which later turned into the NKVD.
From that moment on, Vlasik's career went uphill. Seven years later, he led the guards of party leaders and became a personal bodyguard. Stalin.
Strong business executive
The first days of June 1927. Several incendiary bombs and an explosive device were found in the house on Malaya Lubyanka, where the OGPU officers lived. Three days later, a bomb was thrown at the pass office on Lubyanka. After the second emergency, Nikolai Vlasik, who was vacationing in Sochi, was urgently summoned to Moscow. The 31-year-old senior officer of the Operational Department of the OGPU was seconded to head the Kremlin's special guard, party leaders and Comrade Stalin personally.
The peasant, who grew up in the village and was accustomed to doing everything soundly, set about arranging the life of the leader. At that time, Joseph Vissarionovich had one Lithuanian guard who accompanied him on business trips. It was he who took the new bodyguard to Stalin's dacha in Kuntsevo.
with son Vasily and daughter Svetlana in the Middle even in Volynsky, 1935. Source: wikipedia According to Vlasik's memoirs, he was shocked by how unsettled the life of the head of the country and his family turned out to be. There was no bed linen or dishes in the house. There was also nothing to cook on, so Stalin's wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva made sandwiches in Moscow, which they ate.
The new bodyguard immediately ordered a cleaning lady and a cook from the Kremlin, sent linen, dishes and other things necessary in everyday life. At the nearest state farm, he organized the delivery of food for Stalin's family. Soon a telephone connection appeared between Moscow and the dacha. And, of course, security was organized corresponding to the status of the head of the country. Later, Vlasik developed a whole system of government dachas in the Moscow region, Borjomi, Sochi, Gagra, New Athos, etc. Round-the-clock security, well-trained and well-trained staff, stocks of food and wine - every minute these dachas were ready for the arrival of the leader. But some of them Stalin did not visit for years, others never appeared at all. His favorite vacation spot was the Near Dacha in Kuntsevo.
He created a security system for government facilities, developed security measures during Stalin's trips around the country and abroad. The leader now moved in a cavalcade of absolutely identical cars. And only personal guards knew in which this time the leader of the country was traveling. They say that the scheme invented by Vlasik saved his life in 1969 Leonid Brezhnev who was attacked.
Before the start of the war, the country's chief guard received the rank of general. In the 41st, he organized the evacuation of the first persons of the state and their families. Arranged in Kuibyshev (Samara) their way of life and work. At the same time, he led the transfer of Lenin's body from the Mausoleum and ensured the safety of participants in the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.
Babysitter with shoulder straps
Signature: in his office, 1930s. Source: wikipedia On November 32, after the celebration of the anniversary October revolution, Nadezhda Alliluyeva shot herself. In his diaries, Vlasik wrote that Stalin was very worried about the death of his wife. The lieutenant general had to take up the upbringing of the leader's three children - Vasily,Svetlana and reception Artem.
Vlasik reported to Stalin about the behavior of the children, periodically covering them from the wrath of his father. Vlasik especially got it for Vasily, who did not want to study and always got into trouble. Unlike her brothers, Svetlana hated her nanny. Later, she described Nikolai Sidorovich as a rude, illiterate, stupid person, but at the same time he felt like a nobleman and had great power.
Alliluyeva also believed that Vlasik ruined the lives of many, in which he was almost “equal” to her father. On the other hand, there are memories that repeatedly say that Svetlana grew up harmful and even bitchy. She fell in love with her son Beria Sergo but he chose her friend, Martha Peshkov, granddaughter Gorky. And then Svetlana, in spite of everyone, started an affair with Alexey Kapler, a well-known screenwriter, is 23 years her senior.
Vlasik hid this novel from the leader as best he could. But when Stalin found out that his 17-year-old daughter was running on dates with a 40-year-old man, he demanded to deal with this urgently. The bodyguard suggested that the playwright leave Moscow until everything calmed down. But Kapler carelessly remained in the capital and in 1943 was arrested and sentenced to five years for anti-Soviet agitation.
End of everything
For 25 years, Vlasik was next to the leader. During this time, he made a lot of enemies, and the most important was Beria. He collected bit by bit dirt on Nikolai Sidorovich, constantly sowed Stalin's distrust of him. In 1948, the commandant of the Near Dacha was arrested, who testified: Vlasik intends to poison Stalin.
At the beginning of 1952, a case of embezzlement from state dachas began. Allegedly, Vlasik, together with the guards and staff, organized real orgies there with drinking expensive drinks from the leader's storerooms, stealing food, etc. As a result, the all-powerful guard was sent to the Urals in the city of Asbest and was appointed deputy head of the colony. A few months later, on December 16, 1952, he was arrested.
There are several versions of why Vlasik fell out of favor with Stalin. According to one of them, the leader at the end of his life became extremely suspicious, a real paranoid. And the long-term "processing" of Stalin by Beria gave its results. According to another version, the head of the country decided to rejuvenate the party apparatus and thus began to get rid of old comrades. There is another version that concerns amorous affairs. They say that Stalin had a secret wife Valentina Istomina. She appeared at Stalin's dacha as a waiter (waitress), and then for 18 years, until the death of the leader, she was his closest person.
According to the recollections of the guards, Istomina was a very beautiful, good woman. No one knew who she really was, and all the men tried to woo her. Vlasik, who once took Valentina to work, also succumbed to her charms. There is an assumption that he managed to achieve what he wanted from Istomina, which was immediately reported to Stalin. After that, a link to Asbest happened, and then an arrest.
Vlasik was accused of supervising the doctors who treated the country's leadership, and then a whole conspiracy was revealed - the infamous "doctors' case". The general was mocked and interrogated almost daily for several months in a row, he survived two fake executions, humiliation and insults. Vlasik was sure that he had been removed for a reason.
He spent many years next to the Generalissimo. Who was this bodyguard of Stalin, what real story Nicholas Vlasik?
Nikolai Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus, in the village of Bobynichi, into a poor peasant family. The boy lost his parents early and a good education could not count. After three classes of the parochial school, Nikolai went to work. From the age of 13 he worked as a laborer at a construction site, then as a bricklayer, then as a loader at a paper mill.
In March 1915, Vlasik was drafted into the army and sent to the front. During the First World War, he served in the 167th Ostroh Infantry Regiment, and was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery in battle. After being wounded, Vlasik was promoted to non-commissioned officer and appointed commander of a platoon of the 251st infantry regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.
During the October Revolution, Nikolai Vlasik, a native of the very bottom, quickly decided on his political choice: together with the entrusted platoon, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.
At first he served in the Moscow police, then he participated in civil war, was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the bodies of the Cheka, where he served in the central apparatus under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.
Master of security and life
Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as a senior authorized officer of the Operational Department of the OGPU.
As Vlasik himself recalled, his work as Stalin's bodyguard began in 1927 after an emergency in the capital: a bomb was thrown into the commandant's office building on Lubyanka. The operative, who was on vacation, was recalled and announced: from that moment on, he was entrusted with the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, government members at dachas, walks. Particular attention was ordered to be given to the personal protection of Joseph Stalin.
Despite the sad story of the assassination attempt on Lenin, by 1927 the protection of the first persons of the state in the USSR was not particularly thorough.
Stalin was accompanied by only one guard: the Lithuanian Yusis. Vlasik was even more surprised when they arrived at the dacha, where Stalin usually spent his weekends. One commandant lived at the dacha, there was no linen, no dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.
Like all Belarusian peasants, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was a solid and well-to-do man. He took up not only the protection, but also the arrangement of Stalin's life.
The leader, accustomed to asceticism, at first was skeptical about the innovations of the new bodyguard. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaner appeared at the dacha, food supplies were arranged from the nearest state farm. At that moment, there was not even a telephone connection with Moscow at the dacha, and it appeared through the efforts of Vlasik.
Over time, Vlasik created a whole system of dachas in the Moscow region and in the south, where well-trained personnel were ready at any moment to receive the Soviet leader. It is not worth talking about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most careful way.
The security system for important government facilities existed even before Vlasik, but he became the developer of security measures for the first person of the state during his trips around the country, official events, and international meetings.
Stalin's bodyguard came up with a system according to which the first person and the people accompanying him move in a cavalcade of identical cars, and only the bodyguards know which one the leader is driving in. Subsequently, such a scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.
"Illiterate, stupid, but noble"
Within a few years, Vlasik became for Stalin an indispensable and especially trusted person. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin entrusted his bodyguard with the care of the children: Svetlana, Vasily and his adopted son Artyom Sergeyev.
Nikolai Sidorovich was not a teacher, but he tried his best. If Svetlana and Artyom did not cause him much trouble, then Vasily was uncontrollable from childhood. Vlasik, knowing that Stalin did not give up to children, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate the sins of Vasily in reports to his father.
But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and it became more and more difficult for Vlasik to play the role of a “lightning rod”.
Svetlana and Artyom, as adults, wrote about their "tutor" in different ways. Stalin’s daughter in “Twenty Letters to a Friend” described Vlasik as follows: “He led the entire guard of his father, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, reached last years to the point that he dictated to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin”, because he believed that he knew and understood them well ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists whether “he either a film, or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction at that time ... "
“He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin”
Artyom Sergeev, in Conversations about Stalin, spoke differently: “His main duty was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the cutting edge. He knew very well both friends and enemies of Stalin ... What kind of work did Vlasik have in general? It was work day and night, there was no 6-8-hour working day. All his life he had work, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room ... "
For ten or fifteen years, Nikolai Vlasik turned from an ordinary bodyguard into a general heading a huge structure responsible not only for security, but also for the life of the first persons of the state.
During the war years, the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats from Moscow fell on Vlasik's shoulders. It was necessary not only to deliver them to Kuibyshev, but also to place them, equip them in a new place, and think over security issues. The evacuation of Lenin's body from Moscow is also the task that Vlasik performed. He was also responsible for security at the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.
Assassination attempt in Gagra
For all the years that Vlasik was responsible for Stalin's life, not a single hair fell from his head. At the same time, the head of the leader’s guard himself, judging by his recollections, took the threat of assassination very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was sure that the Trotskyist groups were preparing the assassination of Stalin.
In 1935, Vlasik really had to cover the leader from bullets. During a boat trip in the Gagra region, fire was opened on them from the shore. The bodyguard covered Stalin with his body, but both were lucky: the bullets did not hit them. The boat left the firing zone.
Vlasik considered this a real assassination attempt, and his opponents later believed that it was all a production. As it turns out, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not informed about Stalin's boat trip, and they mistook him for an intruder. Subsequently, the officer who ordered the shooting was sentenced to five years. But in 1937, during the "great terror", they remembered him again, held another process and shot him.
Cow abuse
During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at conferences of the heads of participating countries anti-Hitler coalition and he did his job brilliantly. For the successful holding of the conference in Tehran, Vlasik was awarded the Order of Lenin, for the Crimean Conference - the Order of Kutuzov I degree, for the Potsdam Conference - another Order of Lenin.
But the Potsdam Conference became a pretext for accusations of misappropriation of property: it was alleged that after its completion, Vlasik took various valuables from Germany, including a horse, two cows and one bull. Subsequently, this fact was cited as an example of the irrepressible greed of the Stalinist bodyguard.
Vlasik himself recalled that this story had a completely different background. In 1941 his native village Bobynichi was captured by the Germans. The house where my sister lived was burned down, half the village was shot, the sister's eldest daughter was driven away to work in Germany, the cow and the horse were taken away. My sister and her husband went to the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, from which little was left. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for relatives.
Was it abuse? If you approach with a strict measure, then, perhaps, yes. However, Stalin, when this case was first reported to him, sharply ordered that further investigation be stopped.
Opala
In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate: an agency with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of many thousands.
He did not fight for power, but at the same time he made a huge number of enemies. Being too close to Stalin, Vlasik had the opportunity to influence the leader's attitude towards this or that person, deciding who would get wider access to the first person, and who would be denied such an opportunity.
The almighty head of the Soviet special services, Lavrenty Beria, passionately wanted to get rid of Vlasik. Compromising evidence on Stalin's bodyguard was scrupulously collected, drop by drop undermining the leader's confidence in him.
In 1948, the commandant of the so-called "Near Dacha" Fedoseev was arrested, who testified that Vlasik intended to poison Stalin. But the leader again did not take this accusation seriously: if the bodyguard had such intentions, he could have realized his plans a long time ago.
In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was established to verify the activities of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. This time, extremely unpleasant facts have surfaced that look quite plausible. The guards and personnel of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged real orgies there, plundered food and expensive drinks. Later, there were witnesses who assured that Vlasik himself was not averse to relaxing in this way.
On April 29, 1952, on the basis of these materials, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his post and sent to the Urals, to the city of Asbest, as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
"Cohabited with women and drank alcohol in his spare time"
Why did Stalin suddenly back down from a man who honestly served him for 25 years? Perhaps it was all the fault of the leader's growing suspicion in recent years. It is possible that Stalin considered the waste of state funds for drunken revelry too serious a sin. There is also a third assumption. It is known that during this period the Soviet leader began to promote young leaders, and openly told his former associates: "It's time to change you." Perhaps Stalin felt that the time had come to replace Vlasik as well.
Be that as it may, very difficult times have come for the former head of the Stalinist guard.
In December 1952, he was arrested in connection with the Doctors' Plot. He was blamed for the fact that he ignored the statements of Lydia Timashuk, who accused the professors who treated the first persons of the state of sabotage.
Vlasik himself wrote in his memoirs that there was no reason to believe Timashuk: "There was no data discrediting the professors, which I reported to Stalin."
In prison, Vlasik was interrogated with prejudice for several months. For a man who was already well over 50, the disgraced bodyguard held firm. I was ready to admit "moral decay" and even embezzlement, but not conspiracy and espionage. “I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them and the artist Stenberg, but all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my free time,” his testimony sounded.
Could Vlasik extend the life of the leader?
On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin passed away. Even if we discard the dubious version of the murder of the leader, Vlasik, if he had remained in his post, he could well have extended his life. When the leader became ill at the Near Dacha, he lay for several hours on the floor of his room without help: the guards did not dare to enter Stalin's chambers. There is no doubt that Vlasik would not have allowed this.
After the death of the leader, the "case of doctors" was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. The collapse of Lavrenty Beria in June 1953 did not bring him freedom either.
In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentenced under Art. 193-17 p. "b" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the rank of general and state awards. In March 1955, Vlasik's term was reduced to 5 years. He was sent to Krasnoyarsk to serve his sentence.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with the removal of a criminal record, but in military rank and the awards were not restored.
“Not a single minute did I have in my soul anger at Stalin”
He returned to Moscow, where he had almost nothing left: his property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal one. Vlasik knocked on the thresholds of offices, wrote to the leaders of the party and government, asked for rehabilitation and reinstatement in the party, but was refused everywhere.
Secretly, he began to dictate memoirs in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he did certain things, how he treated Stalin.
“After Stalin’s death, such an expression appeared as“ the cult of personality ”... If a person who is the leader of his affairs deserves the love and respect of others, what’s wrong with that ... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified a country that he led to prosperity and victories, wrote Nikolai Vlasik. - Under his leadership, a lot of good things were done, and the people saw it. He enjoyed great prestige. I knew him very closely... And I affirm that he lived only for the interests of the country, the interests of his people.”
“It is easy to accuse a person of all mortal sins when he is dead and can neither justify nor defend himself. Why, during his lifetime, no one dared to point out to him his mistakes? What hindered? Fear? Or were there no such errors that should have been pointed out?
What Tsar Ivan IV was formidable for, but there were people who cared for their homeland, who, not fearing death, pointed out to him his mistakes. Or transferred to Rus' brave people? - so thought the Stalinist bodyguard.
Summing up his memoirs and his whole life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Without a single penalty, but only encouragement and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison.
But never, not for a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I did not have anger in my soul against Stalin. I perfectly understood what kind of atmosphere was created around him in the last years of his life. How difficult it was for him. He was an old, sick, lonely man ... He was and remains the most dear person to me, and no slander can shake the feeling of love and the deepest respect that I always had for this wonderful person. He personified for me everything bright and dear in my life - the party, the motherland and my people.
Posthumously rehabilitated
Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik died on June 18, 1967. His archive was seized and classified. Only in 2011, the Federal Security Service declassified the notes of the person who, in fact, stood at the origins of its creation.
Relatives of Vlasik have repeatedly made attempts to achieve his rehabilitation. After several refusals, on June 28, 2000, by a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 sentence was canceled, and the criminal case was dismissed "due to the lack of corpus delicti".
