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, ...
He spent many years next to the Generalissimo. Who was this bodyguard of Stalin, what is the real story of Nikolai 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 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 the 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 turned into an indispensable and especially trusted person for Stalin. 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 “himself” “liked” it, whether it was a film , or the 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 he was not restored to military rank and awards. 
“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 as “the cult of personality” appeared ... 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 were brave people transferred to Rus'? - 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".
Not a single modern historian has yet considered the arrest of Stalin's personal secretary A.N. Poskrebyshev and the head of security N.S. Vlasik as links of one chain that preceded the elimination of the leader. The task is rather difficult, but we will try anyway. To begin with, let's turn to the memoirs of P. A. Sudoplatov.
Lieutenant General Vlasik, - said Pavel Anatolyevich, - the head of the Kremlin guard, was sent to Siberia to the post of head of the camp and secretly arrested there. Vlasik was charged with concealing the famous letter of L. Timashuk, which Ryumin used to start the "doctors' case", as well as in suspicious ties with foreign intelligence agents and secret collusion with Abakumov.
After the arrest, Vlasik was mercilessly beaten and tortured. His desperate letters to Stalin about his innocence went unanswered. Vlasik was forced to admit that he abused his power, that he allowed suspicious people to attend official receptions in the Kremlin, Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater, where Stalin and members of the Politburo were, who, thus, could be exposed to terrorist attacks. Vlasik remained imprisoned until 1955, when he was convicted now for embezzling funds for the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, and then amnestied. Despite the support of Marshal Zhukov, his requests for rehabilitation were denied.
The dismissal of Vlasik did not mean at all that Beria could now change people in Stalin's personal guard. In 1952, after the arrest of Vlasik, Ignatiev personally headed the Kremlin Security Directorate, combining this position with the post of Minister of State Security.
Even before the conversation with P. A. Sudoplatov, I learned that Vlasik was arrested on December 15, 1952. But his trial took place two years after Stalin's death - on January 17, 1955.
Excerpt from court testimony:
presiding. When did you meet the artist S.?
Vlasik. In 1934 or 1935. He worked on the decoration of Red Square for the festive holidays.
presiding. What brought you closer to him?
Vlasik. Of course, the rapprochement was based on joint drinking and meeting women ...
presiding. Defendant Vlasik, you exposed secret agents of the MGB before S. He testified: “I learned from Vlasik that my friend Krivova is an agent of the authorities, and that his cohabitant Ryazantseva is also cooperating.”
Recognizing this, Vlasik shows:
But in matters of service, I was always in place. Drinking and meeting women was at the expense of my health and in my spare time. I admit, I had a lot of women.
Did the head of government warn you about the inadmissibility of such behavior?
Yes, in 1950 he told me that I was abusing relationships with women.
You showed that Sarkisov reported to you about the depravity of Beria, and you said: “There is nothing to interfere in personal life Beria, we must protect him.
Yes, I got away from this, because I thought that it was not my business to interfere in this, because it is connected with the name of Beria.
How could you allow a huge overspending of public funds in your administration?
My literacy suffers greatly, my whole education consists in three classes of the parish school.
Defendant Vlasik, tell the court what of the trophy property you acquired illegally, without payment?
As far as I remember: a piano, a grand piano, three or four carpets.
What can you say about fourteen cameras? Where do you get crystal vases, glasses, porcelain dishes in such quantity?
It's enough. Pianos, carpets, cameras - this is nothing more than an excuse. The main thing is completely different. And A. Avtorkhanov speaks about this main thing, referring to the situation in the early fifties: “Two people are regaining their former importance: Lieutenant General A. N. Poskrebyshev and Lieutenant General N. S. Vlasik. No one can have access to Stalin without these persons, not even members of the Politburo. There were exceptions, if Stalin himself called someone, most often for drinking dinners. Stalin not only managed current affairs through these two persons, but he entrusted them with his personal security. An outside force could sneak up on Stalin only through the crisis of this ideal service of his personal security. In other words, no one could remove Stalin before they remove these two persons. But no one could remove them either, except Stalin himself.
Avtorkhanov gave an unflattering description of Poskrebyshev. Yes, by nature a helper. Yes, not an independent figure. What was another temporary worker of Stalin, General Vlasik? According to the researcher, it was Arakcheev and Rasputin in one person: a soulless martinet and a cunning peasant. In the Russian and Soviet armies, A. Avtorkhanov writes, this is probably the only case when an illiterate, simple soldier, bypassing all sorts of courses and schools, reached the rank of lieutenant general. Moreover, he acted as an interpreter of Stalin's views on cultural issues. Vlasik broke the record for the duration of his service with Stalin - he is the only one who managed to hold out from 1919 until almost the death of Stalin.
Chechens say: a wolf marching to a mountain top risks his life. So many "Stalin's wolves" died - at the hands of Stalin himself. But, sacrificing such wolves as Poskrebyshev and Vlasik, Stalin did not know that for the first time in his life he had become an instrument of someone else's will.
The opinion of a foreign political scientist of Soviet origin, who, by the way, never saw Vlasik, and the opinion of Stalin's daughter, although she knew her father's main bodyguard from childhood, do not differ in many respects:
General Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik stayed near his father for a very long time, since 1919. Then he was a Red Army soldier assigned to guard, and then became a very powerful person behind the scenes. He headed all of his father’s guards, considered himself almost the closest person to him, and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years he went so far as to dictate to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin” ... And the figures listened and followed these tips ... His impudence knew no bounds ... It would not be worth mentioning him at all - he ruined the lives of many - but before that he was a colorful figure that you would not pass by him. During my mother's lifetime, he existed somewhere in the background as a bodyguard. At his father’s dacha, in Kuntsevo, he was constantly and “supervised” from there all the other residences of his father, which became more and more over the years ... Vlasik, with the power given to him, could do anything ...
Significant details in the portrait of N. S. Vlasik are added by the writer K. Stolyarov, who, judging by his works, studied the Lubyanka characters well:
Protecting Stalin was a troublesome and nervous task, because, according to Vlasik, there were always intriguers nearby who tried to remove him from this work. The first such attempt took place in 1934. And in 1935, he, Vlasik, covered Stalin with his body when the pleasure boat was fired on from the shore by a border guard post, and, not at a loss, organized a return machine-gun fire, after which the shots at the boat stopped. The leader was imbued with confidence in Vlasik, for ten years Nikolai Sergeevich was not disturbed by intrigues, and then the unrest began again ...
However, Vlasik himself spoke about this episode in a letter from the places of punishment: “In 1946, my enemies slandered me, and I was removed from the post of head of the Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. But Comrade Stalin reacted to this with all sensitivity, he himself sorted out all the charges against me, which were absolutely false, and, convinced of my innocence, restored my former trust.
In 1948, Fedoseev, commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, was arrested. The investigation was led by Serov under the direct supervision of Beria. Testimony was taken from Fedoseyev against me that I supposedly wanted to poison Comrade Stalin. T. Stalin doubted this and personally verified it by summoning Fedoseyev for interrogation, where he stated that this was a lie, which he was forced to sign by beatings. The Fedoseev case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the MGB ...
Soon Serov summoned Orlov, the new commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, for interrogation and also demanded that he sign a false protocol against me, but Orlov refused. And Serov could not get a sanction for the arrest of Orlov ... "
“Big troubles befell Vlasik in the spring of 1952,” we read from the writer K. Stolyarov, “when the commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, chaired by G. Malenkov, revealed blatant outrages: taking advantage of the lack of control, the faithful bodyguards of the Kremlin elite at the master’s dachas ate black caviar with centners and balyks intended for nomenclature stomachs! In response to the question: “Where did you look?” - Vlasik explained that, due to his illiteracy, it was difficult for him to engage in financial and economic activities, so he entrusted control over this side of the work of the head office to his deputy. As for those cognacs and balychki that were brought from Stalin's dacha for his personal consumption, Nikolai Sergeevich answered: “Yes, there were such cases, but sometimes I paid money for these products. True, there were cases when they got it for free.
Apparently, Nikolai Sergeevich had no idea why he was being pestered because of some fish ?! If, according to his position, for decades he had been eating for free with Stalin, then - mother-to-be! - Is there a big difference: will he eat half a kilo of caviar in front of the leader, or will he take the same caviar with him, so to speak, "dry rations"?
In fairness, I note that there was no clear regulation in this regard, except for the old lackey rule: servants are allowed to take for themselves only what the owners themselves and the persons invited by them did not finish at the table - fruit from vases, salmon cut into petals, salmon, ham , although full, but already uncorked bottles of alcoholic beverages, etc. But, on the other hand, was General Vlasik obliged to be guided by the norms of behavior for lackeys, since he himself had long ago turned from a poor day laborer, if not into a socialist count , then at least a baron or a viscount, because he had his own chic state dacha with a personal chef, whom Nikolai Sergeevich terrorized in a uniform way and with whom, according to the testimony of witness P., “he spoke exclusively with the use of a selective obscenity, not embarrassed by the women present” ?
According to K. Stolyarov, they did not want to hang a label on Vlasik as a non-sent, but they punished him approximately by expelling him from the party and shamefully appointing him not to a general, but to an officer’s position as deputy head of a forced labor camp in the Urals, in the city of Asbest. He served there for only six months, and in December 1952 he was arrested for treason - it turns out that it was he, Vlasik, who in 1948 did not properly respond to Lydia Timashuk's denunciation about the villainous murder of A. Zhdanov.
When it turned out that the killer doctors were only doctors, but by no means murderers, Beria, as already mentioned, was in no hurry to release Vlasik. Those who replaced Beria did the same. During the investigation, some facts were discovered that made it possible to call Vlasik to account. For example, during a search in his house, they found a trophy service for 100 people, 112 crystal glasses, 20 crystal vases, 13 cameras, 14 photographic lenses, 5 rings and - as it is written in the protocol - a “foreign accordion”, which Vlasik acquired illegally without payment. In addition, Vlasik admitted that in 1945, at the end of the Potsdam Conference, “he took three cows, a bull and two horses out of Germany, of which he gave a cow, a bull and a horse to his brother, a cow and a horse to his sister, a cow to his niece; the cattle was delivered to the Slonim district of the Baranovichi region by train of the Security Department of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR.
But that is not all. The investigation established that Vlasik was morally decomposed, systematically drank and cohabited with women who received passes from him to the stands of Red Square and government theater boxes, and also kept in touch with persons who did not inspire political confidence, disclosed in conversations with them secret information relating to protection of the leaders of the party and the Soviet government, kept official documents in his apartment that were not subject to disclosure.
Despite the fact that Vlasik fervently argued that drinking and countless relationships with women occurred only in his spare time, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on January 17, 1955 issued a verdict:
“Vlasik Nikolai Sergeevich be deprived of the rank of lieutenant general, on the basis of Article 193-17, paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, using Article 51 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, exile for 10 (ten) years in a remote area of the USSR. By virtue of Article 4 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 on amnesty, to reduce this punishment by half, that is, to 5 (five) years, without loss of rights.
Deprive Vlasik of medals: “For the defense of Moscow”, “For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic war 1941–1945”, “In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow”, “XXX years Soviet army and Fleet", two badges of honor "VChK-GPU".
File a petition before the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to deprive Vlasik government awards: three orders of Lenin, four orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Kutuzov 1st degree and the medal "XX Years of the Red Army".
The verdict is final and not subject to cassation appeal.
The hastily incriminated article on treason was absent in the verdict, it was replaced with abuse of office. Vlasik soon fell under an amnesty and returned to Moscow. He failed to achieve rehabilitation, despite the intercession of such influential people as the famous marshals Zhukov and Vasilevsky.
And here is the conclusion that A. Avtorkhanov came to: “In the decisive moments, there was no one near Stalin: neither the“ old guard ”of Stalin - the Molotovites, nor the“ most faithful squire ”Poskrebyshev, nor the life guard Vlasik, nor the devoted son Vasily, not even Vinogradov's personal doctor. The death of Stalin guards and regulates Beria with the constant presence of his three accomplices - Malenkov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, who betrayed Stalin, Beria, and themselves.
And now about another person closest to Stalin - A. N. Poskrebyshev, without whose report no one could enter the leader's office. Says the former employee of the Kremlin guard S. P. Krasikov:
The personal office of the leader - a special sector - for a long time was headed by Major General Alexander Nikolaevich Poskrebyshev, whom the owner called "chief", thus making it clear that all issues relating to himself should first be agreed with Poskrebyshev.
About a year before Stalin's death, Beria, with the help of Malenkov, disbanded the well-coordinated personal guard of the leader. Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik was accused of squandering public funds and trying to embezzle and conceal important government documents. After one of the meetings of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which took place at Stalin's dacha in Volynsky, Vlasik, examining the premises, found a top secret document on the floor and put it in his pocket in order to pass it on to Poskrebyshev. But, by order of Stalin, when leaving the house he was detained and searched, then suspended from work. Whether the leader himself threw incriminating material to Vlasik or at the prompt of someone, but the car was given a move. Poskrebyshev was accused of losing his vigilance...
And now about one tenacious legend. After the death of Poskrebyshev, there were rumors that he left either diary entries about the years of work with Stalin, or almost completed memoirs. During the years of my work in the Central Committee of the CPSU, I was interested in many old-timers whether this was so. I remember one of the veterans of the general department retold the words of his former boss K. U. Chernenko:
Poskrebyshev could not keep diary entries due to the specifics of working for “himself” and because of the peculiarities of his secretive nature. After his death, we found nothing. And if I don’t know, our department was engaged in the seizure of archives at that time.
Konstantin Ustinovich at that time was in charge of the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
However, this does not mean that Poskrebyshev really did not leave any memoirs behind him. The fact that they have not yet been discovered is not yet evidence that they do not exist.
And yet Poskrebyshev, for all the importance of his post, was a "paper" general. Documents for signature, regulation of visitors. Another thing is Vlasik, who was directly responsible for the safety of the leader. Why was it removed? Who was the developer of the ingenious multi-move?
S. P. Krasikov, while preparing his notes for publication, talked with people who were well aware of this very mysterious matter, but who did not want to disclose their names. He gives one of these conversations in his book "Near the Leaders" in the form of questions and answers.
Question. Were the abuses of the “nine” (the Ninth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, which was responsible for the security of the top Soviet leadership) so strong? N.Z.), that it was necessary to arrest the head of the personal guard of the leader N. Vlasik?
Answer. The reason for his dismissal was the “doctors' case”. Vlasik was accused of hiding a letter from Lydia Timashuk since 1948, where Voroshilov, Mikoyan and Molotov were to become the main defendants.
Question. Don't you think that Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov deliberately disarmed his benefactor in order to doom him to defenselessness and loneliness? Did Beria help him in this? I remember that on the eve of the leader's illness, his personal guards were disbanded into different units. And some were even sent to where, as they say, Makar did not graze calves. Those who tried to resist lawlessness were shot on the spot. And all this while Joseph Vissarionovich was alive.
Answer. I remember. All the main guards were then discouraged by such a turn of events ... The veterans of the security service were dispersed, and the fledgling youth were only able to tremble before the members of the Politburo, and not demand from them the impeccable observance of the rules of official regulations. According to the stories of Colonel S. V. Gusarov, who at that time served in the protection of I. V. Stalin, the sudden death of the leader, who had felt quite tolerably the day before, gave rise to various rumors. One version of his sudden death was a premeditated murder.
The same Colonel Gusarov did not exclude the possibility that this heinous act was committed by someone from his inner circle.
Question. But who could be interested in this? Beria? At that time he was on the hook of Malenkov and knew that his every step was being watched, or Khrushchev? There was no reason for Malenkov to send the father of the leader to the forefathers, who, in fact, handed over to him the leadership of the party and the country ...
Answer. It seems that he bequeathed something, but he did not give it away. He teased his appetite, but he lives and gets on well, rules the country, leads the party. It is not known when it will turn up. Georgy Maximilianovich is beyond suspicion, he holds the cards in his hands.
Question. A game not for life, but for death, love and hate?
Answer. Don't know. But on the night of February 28 to March 1, Sergei Vasilyevich Gusarov stood at his post at the entrance to main house dacha, saw Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev leaving at about four o'clock in the morning. He remembered that Malenkov then breathed a sigh of relief, and they all went home.
Question. What are you implying? Imagine breathing a sigh of relief. What follows from that?
Answer. Nothing. However, some heaviness from the soul, it turns out, Malenkov removed. Which one? ... When Molotov was asked the question: “Could it be that they (Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev) poisoned Stalin when they drank tea with him on the last day before the illness?” - he answered without a shadow of a doubt: “Could be. It could be ... Beria and Malenkov were closely connected. Khrushchev joined them and had his own goals ... "
Question. But Khrushchev, in his memoirs, claims that the only person interested in Stalin's death was Lavrenty Beria.
Answer. In this situation, G. M. Malenkov was also interested in Stalin's death. It was not Beria who dispersed the Stalinist guards and brought Vlasik and Poskrebyshev under arrest, namely G. M. Malenkov, but, as cunning fox, did it with the hands of L.P. Beria, so that the mosquito would not undermine his nose. And as soon as Stalin went to the forefathers, he immediately concocted a case against Beria and got rid of him.
Question. Terrible suspicions. Could it be?
Answer. There are more than enough reasons for this, in my opinion. During the interrogation by the chief of the KGB L.P. Beria, the head of Stalin's personal guard Vlasik, Nikolai Sergeevich got the impression that Beria knew thoroughly about his purely personal conversations with I.V. Stalin. Which once again gives reason to assume that the services of L.P. Beria were listening to the office and apartment of the Secretary General. By the way, the son of Lavrenty Pavlovich Sergo Lavrentievich mastered the eavesdropping system to perfection, about which he shared his memories in the book “My father is Lavrenty Beria”.
It is appropriate here to cite the answers of L. M. Kaganovich to the questions of the writer F. Chuev:
It seems that Stalin was killed?
Can not say.
Molotov was inclined to this. Do you know what he told me?
At the mausoleum on May 1, 1953, the last time Beria was, he told Molotov: "I removed him." “But Beria could not deliberately slander himself in order to give himself weight,” said Molotov. - And Beria said: “I saved you all!” - Above Molotov also hung ...
May be.
But you don’t admit, Lazar Moiseevich, that if Stalin had lived a little longer, they could have dealt with you, with Molotov ...
Can not say. You can’t do this: if yes, if only ...
And in conclusion - a fragment from the exclusive interview of S. I. Alliluyeva to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Sovershenno sekretno" Artem Borovik. The interview took place in London in the summer of 1998. It was already a completely different woman - tired, extremely sincere, weighing her every word.
When a stroke happened to him late in the evening, - she said, - in the morning of the next day they told me to come to the dacha without notifying me of what had happened. And the day before, I tried all the time to get to him. I felt like I should have been there. I think he called me somehow, without words. Some cry from the heart. I called the security guards several times. But since they knew he was unconscious, they didn't let me in. I tried to get through all night. Then, late at night, I went to the Shverniki, I didn’t know where to go. To the cottage. They played movies there. An old film with Moskvin "The Stationmaster". This completely threw me off track. Because the movie was silent. Silent Russian classic. Such a touching film about the love of an old father for his daughter, who was kidnapped by a passing officer and taken away. And the poor old man decided to go to the city and froze. Then, a few years later, a beautiful cab arrives. A beautiful metropolitan lady comes out of it and goes to the grave. And there she cries. I watched this movie that night. I was offered to stay overnight. But I couldn't. Went home quickly. And in the morning they called me. Turns out he had a stroke last night.
Protecting the first persons of the country is a very difficult task, and protecting the leader of a totalitarian state, with whom, moreover, half the world is at enmity, is doubly difficult. However, the security service of Joseph Stalin was considered one of the most reliable and efficient in world history. About how it was organized, how they guarded Stalin, and there will be our story.
The emergence and formation of protection
After the seizure of power, the leaders of the Bolsheviks did not really care about their personal safety. Either they were so fearless, or they intimidated the people with their terror. Even the Kremlin was guarded worse than a soldier's barracks. It cannot be said that they went alone, but there was no special guard at all. And only at the end of 1920, a Special Branch was organized under the Presidium of the Cheka, whose tasks included ensuring the safety of state leaders and protecting government facilities. They began to guard the Kremlin, the Central Committee of the Party, the Cheka, the Revolutionary Military Council, the Moscow Committee of the Party, the Moscow Council, the 1st and 2nd Houses of Soviets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Personal security was allocated to Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky. They also tried to organize the protection of rallies and meetings, where large Soviet officials were present. By the time of its formation in 1922, the GPU Special Branch had already numbered 24 people, and continued to grow.
In June 1927, by decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, OGPU special guards were attached to 14 leading Soviet workers. Among these leaders was Stalin. From that time on, Stalin began to be guarded by the Lithuanian Ivan Yusis, who had previously worked as the head of the bodyguard of the recently deceased F. Dzerzhinsky. He was recommended to Stalin by the head of the OGPU V.R. Menzhinsky, whom the future leader completely trusted. From sources open today, it is difficult to understand how many bodyguards were part of Stalin's guards at that time. Sometimes Yusis is also mentioned as Stalin's only bodyguard. Obviously, this impression was formed due to the fact that Yusis personally always accompanied the leader. In the documents of the Special Branch Yusis I.F. is listed as a commissar for special assignments, responsible for Stalin's personal protection, which implies the presence of some kind of staff of subordinates.
In those years, Stalin still lived in the Kremlin apartment and went out to the dacha only for the weekend, so perhaps there was not so much work for the guards, one Yusis was quite enough. The story of Ada Yusis, his daughter, testifies to the relationship between Stalin and the guard. She recalls that as a child she often visited Stalin's dacha, played with the leader's children. In 1928, Yusis moved to the Kremlin, practically under the same roof with the leader. In other words, there was no disregard for the guards on the part of Stalin.
At the beginning of 1930, the Special Branch was abolished, and its functions were transferred to the Operations Department of the OGPU, which was headed by K.V. Pauker. Now the 4th branch of the Operod, also called special guards, was engaged in the protection of the leaders of the state.
In early February 1931, Ivan Yusis died of a heart attack, and the functions of the head of personal security were transferred to Karl Pauker. He quickly gained confidence in Stalin, entrusting the head department, in addition to security functions, to taking care of the economic and domestic problems of the leader and his family. The Pauker unit, performing unusual functions, quickly expanded and concentrated in its hands the provision of food, clothing, cars, summer cottages, not only the needs of Stalin, but also the members of the Politburo. For them, he supplied purebred dogs, rare wines and radios from abroad, and for his wives he bought dresses, silk fabrics, perfumes and many other things in Paris, so pleasing to a woman's heart, and bought expensive toys for their children. Pauker became something like Santa Claus, with the difference that he delivered gifts all year round. It is not surprising that he was the favorite of the wives and children of all members of the Politburo. Even Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of the leader, speaks warmly of Pauker, while not favoring all the other courtiers.
In 1934, Kirov was killed, and although Pauker's subordinates were responsible for his protection, and the People's Commissar of the NKVD, Yagoda, noted sloppiness in the service, this did not affect his fate in any way. However, in 1937, Pauker was expelled from the party and dismissed from the NKVD, accused of attempting to assassinate Stalin and shot. Some sources claim that the reason for this was not a conspiracy, but the excessive talkativeness of the head of the bodyguards, who was privy to many personal affairs of the protected.
Despite Pauker's enthusiasm for economic issues, by 1935 he managed to significantly strengthen the special guard unit, remove it from the commandant of the Kremlin, and also evict numerous Soviet institutions from the Kremlin, where there was an inexhaustible, and therefore heavily controlled flow of visitors. He managed to remove from the Kremlin and the school named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which at the same time served as a military garrison numbering one and a half thousand people. It is clear that with such power inside the Kremlin, the military could easily stage a coup d'état.
While Pauker appeased the leaders of the proletariat, his subordinate Nikolai Vlasik, dealing with everyday issues of Stalin and his family, adopted the experience of protection and relations with Stalin from the still alive, but often ill Yusis, who saw Vlasik as his successor. Therefore, after the death of Yusis, Vlasik began to lead the personal guard of the leader. At the end of 1938, the special security guard, which by that time had undergone several reorganizations and renamings and is now called the 1st department of the GUGB, was headed by the head of Stalin's personal guard, senior major of state security N.S. Vlasik. From that time on, Vlasik began to create a separate empire as part of the state security, often in conflict with its leaders, to whom he was formally subordinate. Particularly hostile relations developed with the People's Commissar of the NKVD Beria.
A whole number of organizations closed on the head of the Main Security Directorate (GUO). Among them: the secretariat, party committees and committees of the Komsomol, planning and economic and organizational departments, personnel department, communication department and operational department, several departments. The most important among them were: the commandant's office of the Kremlin, the Okhrana-1 and Okhrana-2 divisions, the administration of the Black Sea recreation areas, the administration of the Kremlin's medical and sanitary services, the school of security guards, the center physical training and weapons training, the health service and a number of other small organizations. Four deputies helped Vlasik manage this colossus. In the course of performing his tasks, Vlasik had the right to appeal to the leaders of any law enforcement agencies who were obliged to follow his instructions.
In the first months of the war, Vlasik was responsible for preparing the possible evacuation of the leadership of the party and government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats. The Main Directorate of Security selected working premises and apartments for the government in Kuibyshev, provided transport and communications, and established supplies. He was also responsible for the evacuation of Lenin's body to Tyumen and its protection. In addition to protected objects (buildings of people's commissariats, state dachas, a complex of houses of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on Staraya Square, etc.), the GUO provided protection for especially important locations of the Stavka Supreme High Command General Staff Red Army. Interestingly, when Stalin went to the front, Beria forbade Vlasik to accompany him for reasons of secrecy. In the inner circle, it was believed that if Vlasik was in Moscow, then Stalin was also there.
In March 1946, the NKGB of the USSR was transformed into the MGB. The reforms also affected the special guards, which combined all the structures related to the guards, and even the commandant's office of the Moscow Kremlin.
After the end of the war, the "squabbling" between Vlasik and Beria resumed with renewed vigor. By the end of 1945, Vlasik "whispered" Beria and he was sent to lead nuclear project, removing from the post of People's Commissar. Successful test nuclear bomb returned Beria to the pinnacle of power. And by 1952, Beria's position was incredibly strengthened. There was a retaliatory strike towards Vlasik.
Vlasik spent a quarter of a century next to Stalin, protecting the life of the Soviet leader. Without his bodyguard, the leader lived only 10 months. The removal of Vlasik from office was organized by Lavrenty Beria. Initially, he made several approaches to Stalin with information about Vlasik's preparation for an assassination attempt on the leader, which he dismissed. Therefore, in 1952, Beria organized an audit of the activities of the Guo of the USSR Ministry of State Security. This time, unpleasant facts surfaced that look quite plausible. Allegedly, the guards and staff of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged orgies there, plundered food and expensive drinks. Later, there were witnesses who assured that Vlasik himself was not averse to relaxing in this way. In April 1952, on the basis of these materials, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his post and sent to the Urals as the deputy head of the colony. Later he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years with the deprivation of the rank of general and awards. Over time, Vlasik's term under the amnesty was reduced to five years. In 1956, he was pardoned with the removal of a criminal record, but the post-Stalin elite did not restore him to the rank, and also did not return the award. In his memoirs, Vlasik wrote: “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 anger in my soul against Stalin. His memoirs were declassified only in 2011. But is it all without bills? Vlasik died in 1967 in Moscow from lung cancer.
After the expulsion of Vlasik from Stalin's guard, the doctors who looked after Stalin were also replaced. The personal assistant Poskrebyshev was also removed, who, like Vlasik, served as a devoted dog for 25 years. Thus, the leader remained surrounded on all sides by "conspirators" led by Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov ... Actually, the constant fear of a conspiracy on the one hand and unlimited power on the other hand caused the death of the leader. Having announced the need for a constitutional change in the role of the party and the transfer of power to the Soviets, Stalin signed his own verdict. He wanted to have time to eliminate the vicious system of governing the country he had created before his death, but the system was ahead of him.
Organization of personal protection
The direct protection of Stalin was carried out by a unit called Okhrana No. 1 of the GUO. The protection of all other members of the Government and the conduct of mass or one-time security measures were carried out by the Security Unit No. 2. Naturally, the number of Stalin's bodyguards was greater than in any other official. At different times, the number of units ranged from 400 to 600 people. Most of them had the rank of captain or major. Approximately 200 of them served as guards, the rest worked as support personnel. These included teams of cynologists with dogs, and employees of the economic supply and administrative departments of various military or paramilitary organizations, and intelligence officers and transport workers who served the Secretary General's dachas, both in the Moscow region and in the south, and also made sure that during the trips, nothing threatened him. Despite the fact that each object used by Stalin had its own leader - the commandant, who also supervised the protection of the object in the absence of the leader there, during his arrival, all the personnel became subordinate to the head of personal protection.
It should be noted that the children of Stalin, Vasily and Svetlana, were also provided with security, nannies, maids and other necessary personnel from among the employees of the GOU.
According to the memoirs of GOU veterans, the number of Stalin's direct bodyguards did not exceed 35 people. They worked in shifts, 9-12 people per shift, among which there were two drivers - one main, the second spare, following in the escort car with security. Bodyguards were forbidden to address Stalin with personal requests. There are different opinions about Stalin's attitude to the guards: from completely ignoring them, to simple human communication or an invitation to play a game of chess.
It is interesting to use Vlasik during the security measures of "twins-dolls" - people who look like Stalin. Apart from legends, there is no official information about this. However, their use was confirmed by Vlasik's daughter, Nadezhda Nikolaevna: “Twins were used. Practiced such things - substitution. Especially where it was not necessary to speak, but only to be present. I have an artist's eye, as a portrait painter, I can distinguish facial features well and notice the difference in appearance. All the tricks - how to divert attention - came up with my father. Similar methods of setting up a protected object have been known since the time of the Roman Empire. Used "dolls" and the Russian tsars. Whether Vlasik himself thought of this, or subtracted it, or suggested it, only for a “chick with a three-year education,” as many researchers put him up, this is too professional a move. There are versions that the actor Semyon Goldshab, an accountant from Vinnitsa Yevsey Lubitsky, and a dancer Felix Dadaev occasionally performed this role of a “doll”.
Did Stalin have a manic fear of assassination? Dozens of studies have not given a definite answer to this question. It can be argued that any person who comes to power through intrigue or a coup will always have a fear that they will do the same to him. On the other hand, personal protection, for its own purposes, instills more fear in the protected than confidence. “Psychology” works, and after many years of protection, the “object” itself is already afraid to go to the toilet. In addition, both Beria and the leaders of law enforcement agencies before him, in order to strengthen their own positions, actively misinformed the leader about constantly preparing conspiracies and assassination attempts. Huge impact on the formation public opinion about Stalin's fears were his associates, who tried after his death to blame the leader for all sins, including their own. Hence the debunking of the "cult of personality", and the strangeness in the behavior of the dictator, and many absurd fabrications that actually did not exist. The principle, denigrating another, whitewashes oneself, operates flawlessly. Many "revelations" came from the former guards of Stalin. The duties of one (Rybin) included guarding Stalin's box at the Bolshoi Theatre, the other (Vasiliev) stood at the gate of the "near" dacha. But these at least saw the leader alive. Others, listed as dachas, had an idea about Stalin only from newspapers, but they wrote this ... By the way, after the death of the leader, Beria “dispersed” all the bodyguards along the outskirts of the vast country. There were no memories left of them, either they kept loyalty to the leader or the oath, or no one was left alive.
At the same time, a number of facts clearly indicate that Stalin had no fear at all. If we compare Hitler's underground bunkers and the glass doors of Stalin's residences, then talk about the fear of assassination is meaningless. Stalin did not surround himself with devoted people, and even with those who had already worked with him for many years, he parted without regret. For example, the dismissal of Poskrebyshev's personal assistant, the head of security Vlasik, the expulsion of personal doctors. And the subordination of his guard to Beria, whom he did not respect and whom he did not trust, certainly does not speak of the fear of Stalin.
And in general, contradictory character traits easily coexisted in one Stalin. This is what allowed Stalin's entourage to manipulate him. And everyone who had access to the "body" used this - from the cook to the ministers. Eg. Being an ascetic in life, the leader bathed children in luxury, raising worthless people from both. Sometimes the leader's naivety bordered on childish stupidity. So, having brought the old overcoat to the holes, the leader did not allow to replace it with a new one, motivating it with an unnecessary waste of money. At the same time, he orders three dozen armored vehicles for himself, not taking into account the fact that their cost would be enough to sew an overcoat for every inhabitant of the country. Addicted to the Astrakhan herring, the leader is horrified to learn that it was delivered almost daily by plane from Astrakhan. For which Vlasik is expelled beyond the Urals. Stalin, using both himself and his comrades-in-arms from the Politburo, inexhaustible state benefits, was very jealous even of the imaginary personal enrichment of someone who did not belong to this circle. As soon as Beria “whispered into the topic”, the leader authorized the immediate removal of the offender from power. Lavrenty masterfully used this, removing people loyal to Stalin, and placing his own.
Thus, the close protection, perfectly organized against external threats, was completely useless against internal challenges.
Health protection
Court medicine in the Bolsheviks appeared before the guards. Already in 1918, six months after moving to the Kremlin, Vladimir Lenin himself appointed Dr. Alexandra Yulianovna Kanel, entrusted to him, as the chief doctor of the hospital, which was organized in the Poteshny Palace of the Kremlin. Naturally, it provided medical assistance to the entire Kremlin leadership.
In 1923, a decision was made to build a Kremlin hospital and an outpatient clinic at 6 Vozdvizhenka Street. In 1925, the outpatient clinic became an independent institution and received the name of the Kremlin polyclinic. In 1938, the construction of a polyclinic building on Sivtsev Vrazhek was started. And in 1947, the construction of the Zagorodnaya Kremlin Hospital, known today as the Central Clinical Hospital, began. Note that the medical service has never been directly subordinate to the leadership of the security service, but at the same time throughout Soviet history in the structure of the main state medical department, a special department was allocated to serve exclusively the country's leadership. And, of course, it was properly controlled by the Chekists, and then by the operational officers of the KGB of the USSR.
Polyclinic on Sivtsev Vrazhek. Now - Polyclinic No. 1 of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.
As a true Caucasian, Iosif Vissarionovich did not like the cold and dank climate near Moscow, in which diseases worsened and reminded of themselves more and more often over the years. On the recommendations of doctors, Stalin periodically had to treat his constantly aching left hand with hydrogen sulfide and radon baths at balneological resorts in Lower Matsesta, Tsaishi and Tskhaltubo. Stalin also had hypertension, chronic articular rheumatism, sciatica, and angina pectoris. On the recommendation of Kirillov's personal doctor, Stalin was mainly treated with balneology methods, and only much later did he begin to take medication.
Since Stalin chose the Crimean and especially the Caucasian resorts for treatment, rest in these regions soon became fashionable among party leaders. Active construction of state dachas began. And the leadership of the special guards, of course, had to solve the problems of ensuring the safety of protected persons in all their places of rest. For all engineering solutions, and especially for technical means security, special communications and operational support (recruitment, agents, etc.) were in charge of the leadership of the special guards.
Under special control was the supply of the Kremlin with food and drinks. For this, a large staff of microbiologists, chemists and toxicologists was used. Samples of everything that was intended for high dignitaries were analyzed or tested on guinea pigs and other animals. Not a single slice of fruit, not a single bottle of wine, not a single piece of meat or bread fell on Stalin's table until experts in poisons were finally convinced, after a thorough check, that all this was absolutely harmless. There was also a sector whose duty it was to take samples of the air that Stalin breathed. So, health protection was no worse than body protection.
Security at public events
Ensuring the security of a protected person at mass events - headache any protection. However, the specifics of the Soviet system and the position that Stalin occupied deprived the guards of such difficulties. The circle of people with whom Stalin met was extremely narrow. He had few personal relationships with anyone, not related to his official duties, and he never attended mass rallies. If he appeared in public, it was only at party congresses (in the period from 1939 to 1952 there was only one such forum), at sessions of the Supreme Soviet and at annual festivities on the occasion of May 1st and November 7th. held on Red Square. Moreover, he was present at the last two events, by no means always.
If you look at things soberly, then in reality the leader had to be guarded only in the Kremlin or at one of his dachas near Moscow, as well as during his annual trips to the south, where he regularly spent his holidays. Stalin never stayed in public places like hotels. Never participated in the election campaigns and thus avoided the need to make the inevitable trips with them and meet people. Never been to church or sporting events. Rarely visited relatives or friends. He did not hold press conferences, did not speak on the radio. If he took walks, then only inside the Kremlin or in the forest at one of his summer cottages. And even his episodic appearances on Red Square were in no way associated with a risk to life.
When Stalin deigned to look at the demonstration from the podium at the Mausoleum of Lenin, this did not threaten him in any way. After all, every right-flank in the ranks that marched past him, regardless of who marched in the ranks - whether workers, athletes, youth: or military personnel - was an employee of the state security. On the lower tiers of the Mausoleum, hidden by shields, stood, bristling with barrels, heavy machine guns, in addition to those that were located on the Kremlin walls, and on the roofs adjacent to Red Square, and in the buildings themselves, there were snipers. In addition, on the podium next to Stalin, one could see his bodyguards, this time dressed in officer uniforms, whom the demonstrators mistook for ordinary military men.
In the same way, the leader could feel completely safe at virtually closed official events. Even in those cases when he was supposed to be present at the Kremlin party congresses or sessions of the Supreme Council, the building in which they were held, and the buildings adjacent to it, were inspected in the most thorough way - from cellars to the roof, a few days before the start. Then they were taken on round-the-clock security, so that an outsider could not penetrate them. Persons were admitted to the events according to a pre-approved and verified list.
A visit to the theater, as a rule, Stalin visited only the Bolshoi, also took place according to a special procedure. The leader had a separate lodge, and nearby lodges were occupied either by guards or associates. Stalin appeared in the theater at the beginning of the performance, or the performance began when Stalin appeared, but in any case, the theater corridors were blocked by security, and there were no longer people in them. In the same way, Stalin left the theater while the audience was still in the hall.
The leader did not attend concerts. Usually favorite artists were invited either to dachas or to the Kremlin.
Security of Stalin's dachas
During his time in power, Stalin used about 15 state dachas. In addition to the dacha in Volynskoye, which received the name "near", Stalin used other dachas sporadically, mainly during his holidays. On average, the area of dacha premises occupied 200-300 square meters, and only the "near" dacha had 1000 square meters.
It should be noted that the “state dacha” is not at all what we are accustomed to imagine by the standards Soviet Union. In today's understanding, this is the residence of a billionaire with all conceivable and inconceivable infrastructure on a vast territory in a forest or park. Stalin's dacha, as a rule, had a fenced area of 50-100 hectares, most often with several types of fences - an internal wooden fence, 3-6 m high, an external decorative fence with a metal fence and an area with several rows of barbed wire or inconspicuous wire fences. The outer perimeter of the dacha, which began a few kilometers before the mansion and ended directly at the fence, was guarded by units of the NKVD, later the MGB. The inner perimeter was under the control of personal protection. She was also engaged in patrolling the territory of the dacha, often with the use of dogs. Stalin's bodyguards were guarding inside the building's mansion. The territory of the dacha was closed for flights and was guarded from the air by air defense fighters. Anti-aircraft units were on duty around the dacha along a multi-kilometer perimeter. The "near" dacha was guarded by about 100 people. During the war years, there were several installations of anti-aircraft machine guns directly on the territory of the "near" dacha in case of a possible German landing.
The complex of dacha buildings included one or more guest houses for the leader's comrades-in-arms who came to Stalin overnight. There were also premises for security and service personnel (maids, a hairdresser, a cook, waitresses, a nurse, drivers, gardeners, janitors ...). On the territory of the cottage there were also technical premises - a garage, a kitchen, a dining room, if necessary, a boiler room, a water tower with a well and everything else necessary for the autonomous functioning of a small "garrison". On average, the dacha served about 50 people.
Naturally, all the dachas were provided with telephone communications, both open and closed, classified. Roads, power lines were built for them, utility rooms were located nearby. agriculture. Products could also be transported from Moscow by plane. A paramilitary construction department specially created in the GOU built and repaired dachas. The furniture was made by a special Moscow factory.
The architecture of all the dachas, as well as their interior, were very similar, which was explained by the leader's conservatism, not the desire to change the situation. One more feature of all the dachas was their relatively small area and small working rooms. Stalin's ill-wishers explain this by fear of large rooms, fans - by disregard for luxury. At the same time, all dachas had fairly large dining rooms - Stalin did not like to eat alone. A feature of state dachas was that the kitchens were located in separate auxiliary buildings so that the smell of cooking food would not irritate vacationers. The staff of any dacha necessarily included a toxicologist and a mini laboratory, where products were checked for the presence of poisons.
It should be noted that all the windows in Stalin's rooms were kept tightly curtained. It was a security measure - no one outside could identify or see which particular room Stalin was in. The light in the dining room and in the offices was always on.
Stalin went to the Kremlin only once a day, at 17-18 hours, and worked until 22-23 hours and later. Long after midnight, sometimes after watching a movie, Stalin would leave for his "near" dacha, and often invited his friends and party comrades to a late dinner, which he called dinner. During the "lunch" the state problems were also solved. Went to bed at 3 or 4 am, got up between 10 and 11 am. After a light breakfast, I worked with papers, solved some problems by phone and talked with visitors called to the dacha. The plan for the current day, including dinners with invitations, Stalin made not the day before, but in the morning current day. Also, unexpectedly, he could decide to visit a theater or a cinema in the Kremlin. Each of these "activities" required different security measures. At the same time, Stalin did not like it when the guards were close to him. In the back office of the dacha, adjoining the rooms where Stalin lived, from 10 o'clock in the morning an employee for assignments, an assistant to the commandant of the dacha, and a waiter-castellan were on duty. There were also other employees here - cooks, a gardener, a librarian on duty, everyone to whom Stalin could turn with this or that request. During the war in 1941–1945, Stalin worked more at his dacha. It became, as it were, a branch of the Headquarters, and the staff of the General Staff often reported on the situation on the fronts precisely here.
Stalin's dachas are famous for the fact that they were the only places where the leader could meet with women. The fact that Stalin did not "fornicate" in foreign territory greatly facilitated the service of the guard. Actually, apart from moving from dacha to dacha, they were not puzzled by anything else. At first, when Stalin's wife was still alive, secret romances with famous actresses just took place in dachas near Moscow. It was rumored that ballerinas Olga Lepeshinskaya and Marina Semenova were his mistresses, and among the singers he singled out Natalia Shpiller and Valeria Barsova. But most long term relationship Iosif Vissarionovich was connected with the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Vera Davydova. This vivid novel was described by the famous journalist Leonard Gendlin in his book Confessions of Stalin's Mistress. Although the singer's relatives still refute the information contained in it. According to L. Gendlin, when the relationship began, Joseph was already 54 years old, and Vera was 28 years old. Allegedly, only proximity to Stalin can explain all the numerous titles, awards and prizes that the prima of the Bolshoi Theater was awarded in her life.
Vera Alexandrovna Davydova - People's Artist of the RSFSR (1951). Laureate of three Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1946, 1950, 1951).
The last mistress of the leader of the peoples was Valentina Istomina. From 1935 to 1953, she acted as Stalin's housekeeper: she was engaged in housekeeping, set the table, and solved other issues related to the life of Joseph Vissarionovich. The widower needed female support. Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote in her book “Twenty Letters to a Friend”: “New faces appeared, including a young snub-nosed Valya, whose mouth did not close all day from a cheerful, sonorous laugh. After working in Zubalovo for three years, she was transferred to her father's dacha in Kuntsevo and remained there until his death, later becoming a housekeeper ... ". Over the years of her work, Valentina became so close to Stalin that she was inseparably with him. He only trusted her to serve him food and medicine. Rumors that Istomina was the mistress of the leader, as they say, were confirmed in private conversations by Vyacheslav Molotov. After Stalin's death, Valentina was sent to a personal pension. A childless woman raised her nephew, whose father died at the front. She died in 1995 without telling anyone about her fate.
Valentina Vasilievna Istomina - sister-mistress under the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU I.V. Stalin.
Stalin's train security
Due to the Politburo's ban on air travel, Stalin mostly traveled by train. For this, a special composition was formed, which, according to Russian tradition, was called "literal". When moving along a railway line, the letter train has the highest priority: the movement of other trains (numbered) always adjusts to the schedule of the letter train. In addition, at stations and sidings, letter trains are served first. Often, as part of a letter train, there are special cars - saloon cars or armored cars. Such wagons, which were still left from the tsar-priest, were used by Stalin.
In 1943, for the letter train, on which I. V. Stalin was supposed to go to the Tehran Conference, several special cars were made, including a semi-armored saloon car.
The composition and movement of the letter train looked as follows. As a rule, the letter composition moved at night. Three locomotives were involved in the movement. The first locomotive without wagons - the control one - was the first to leave the station along the route of the letter train. Exactly ten minutes later, a letter train, driven by two locomotives, followed him. At the same time, the movement of oncoming freight trains was stopped, not a single train ahead of the letter train was sent, and the movement of trains following the letter train was opened only after the letter train had overcome the next station. In the cab of the first locomotive of the letter train, there were always an instructor-engineer and two drivers, as well as a security guard who ensured the safety of the brigade. There were two drivers on the second locomotive. There was a direct telephone connection between the driver of the leading locomotive and the headquarter car of the train. After the second locomotive, there were three or four ordinary cars in the train (the so-called car cover). After them - a special government car. Outwardly, the special car practically did not differ from the usual one (the car had three-axle bogies and had increased stability). Before the passage of the literal composition, all the personnel of the security service involved in the events advanced to the places of service in three hours. All tracks were checked, and not only by track workers, but also by representatives of competent organizations and services. All stations on the way of the letter train were subjected to a thorough inspection.
This order of movement of letter trains was under Stalin, and it remains so to this day. Hence, all the stories of "competent persons" and "veterans of the guard" about armored trains, about three echelons following in a row, anti-aircraft platforms, and so on, are nothing more than the imagination of numerous researchers.
Flight security
There is an opinion that Stalin was afraid to fly. It is based not on concrete facts, but on the absence of open sources information about Stalin's use of aircraft for movement. Only many years after the death of the leader, in the memoirs, was mentioned the only case of Stalin's flight to Tehran and back to meet with Churchill and Roosevelt. Since the trip to Tehran itself was carried out in conditions of strict secrecy, there is not much information about it. Whether there were other flights of the leader or not is still unknown. However, the reason why Stalin did not use airplanes is known. There was a resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which prohibited the use of aircraft statesmen who held positions from the head of the People's Commissariat to members of the Central Committee. Its appearance was caused not by the fear of the leadership to fly, but by the frequent accidents of Soviet aircraft, in which the leadership of entire people's commissariats or design bureaus and factories perished. So, the red pilots who called domestic aircraft"flying coffins". For they began to become aircraft much later than the end of the war. By the way, Stalin did not dare to fly to Tehran on a Soviet product, but flew on an American Douglas C-47, and the fighters that accompanied him were also American.
However, it is wrong to assume that Stalin did not have "his own" squadron. Government flights were served by the 2nd Separate Special Purpose Air Division (2nd ADON), subordinate to the NKVD. In addition to transporting members of the Government, marshals, generals and officers, the division carried out the tasks of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and the command of the Air Force of the spacecraft to relocate units and formations of the Air Force, to drop paratroopers and paratroopers deep behind enemy lines, to deliver ammunition to partisans, to transport cargo for various purposes. Aircraft of this division provided transportation for the Tehran and Yalta conferences, flew from Moscow to San Francisco with delegates to the United Nations conference. Since October 1942, the division was commanded by V.G. Grachev, later Major General, Hero of the Soviet Union.
The basis of the air fleet of the division was the twin-engine military transport Li-2 and S-47. The flights of government members were carried out on specially converted aircraft of the same type. In particular, in June 1943, two new American C-47 aircraft and one of our Li-2s were converted into a passenger version with a luxury cabin. The salon was additionally soundproofed, insulated and divided into compartments with partitions. I. Stalin flew on one of these C-47s, and the division commander V. Grachev himself piloted the plane, who had almost 500 sorties.
During the flights of members of the Government, the planes were accompanied by air defense fighters. So, for example, the safety of Stalin's flight to Tehran and back was provided by two squadrons of fighters (24 units). The escort of other important passengers was more modest, usually one or two flights of fighters.
Security when traveling by car
Stalin had his first official car in 1917, when he was People's Commissar for Nationalities. At one time, a luxurious 6-cylinder 30-horsepower "Vauxhall" in 1914 was specially ordered in England for the mother of Emperor Nicholas II. The car was luxurious, but slow, which did not suit Stalin. In the years civil war when Stalin, as a representative of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, was sent to the Tsaritsyn Front. Here he was allocated a huge powerful 12-cylinder American car "Packard Twin Six", at one time purchased by the tsarist government for the military department. This was a fast car, capable of accelerating up to 130 km / h. It is alleged that it was this circumstance, combined with the massiveness of the car, that Iosif Vissarionovich liked. Returning to Moscow, Stalin got himself the same car from the Chekists.
However, soon Stalin had to change to the Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost, which means “Silver Ghost”, since it was decided that all government cars should be of the same type. Long, spacious cars with a 75-horsepower engine were distinguished by excellent reliability and durability. Therefore, the Bolsheviks bought 73 cars in England for their own needs. The Czech writer Chamberlain, in his memoirs, marveling at the wealth of officials in a poor country, noted: “I have never seen such a cluster of Rolls-Royces that I saw one evening on the embankment of the Moscow River.”
The Secretary General did not quite like the British Rolls-Royce, so after the death of Lenin, when the opportunity arose, he ordered the purchase of a batch of American cars, for which he began to feel special sympathy. Since 1925, Packard, Lincoln, Cadillac, Buick cars began to enter the country. Soon, Stalin moved to an 8-cylinder Packard 533, which, although inferior in power to the old Packard Twin-Six, was a more modern car with disc wheels and chrome bumpers.
In 1933, a novelty was purchased in the USA - several Packard Twelve cars with a 12-cylinder engine. One of the cars of the acquired batch with an open body phaeton was at the disposal of Stalin. He appreciated the excellent driving performance of the car, despite the massiveness and some heaviness.
In October 1935, the American ambassador Averel Hariman gave Stalin a gift from US President Franklin Roosevelt - an armored limousine "Packard Twelve". It was not just a luxurious and expensive car. It was the only, most perfect technical specifications model with a seven-seater body. Since the car was white, it was repainted in government black. The car was equipped with a 12-cylinder engine with a volume of 8.2 liters, with a capacity of 155 hp. With. With a mass of 6 tons (the weight of each door was 350 kg), the limousine could accelerate to 130 km / h. Stalin did not part with this car. With him, he made dozens of trips, including at the conference of heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam. From the window of this limousine Stalin inspected defeated Berlin in 1945.
In 1947, the Stalin Automobile Plant produced a series of armored six-seater limousines under the designation "ZIS-115" especially for Stalin, who personally set tasks for the designers. The 1941 Packard 180 model was taken as a prototype. The mass of the car exceeded 6 tons. A reinforced suspension was installed on the car, the engine was boosted from 140 to 162 hp, the speed did not much exceed 100 km / h. ZiS-115 were equipped with air conditioners. Inside the seats there was eiderdown, they were covered with cloth, and the front seats were leather. Booking is guaranteed to protect against automatic and machine-gun bullets, as well as fragments of grenades and mines. The production of the ZIS-115 was classified. A total of 32 limousines were produced. Stalin used this model as the main company car, but he did not refuse the beloved Packard. All issued ZIS-115 were at the disposal of Stalin. Two cars in Leningrad, about ten in Moscow and in suburban dachas, the rest in the Crimea, the North Caucasus, Sochi and Transcaucasia.
All government vehicles, incl. and Stalin's were in a special-purpose garage under the Administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From 1925 to 1953, Stalin's personal driver P.S. was in charge of the garage. Udalov.
Stalin's accompanying security car appeared only in 1932. She walked behind a Stalinist car. There were 3-4 people in it. With the advent of the leader of armored vehicles, he began to sit on a folding seat, called straponten. According to Vlasik, Stalin's head of security, the leader explained this placement as follows: "A bullet in front, you will get Vlasik, bullets in the back - to the sitting guards or guests invited to the car, and Comrade Stalin and comrades from the Politburo can still come in handy for the party." Stalin always expected an attack while the car was moving, and an attack at the corners, where the car was forced to slow down ...
During trips, three cars were also always used in the car - the head, main and tail. As a rule, the deputy head of the "palace guard" and several other employees sat in the head room. Stalin was located in the main car, Vlasik himself or one of the other leaders of the GDO took the seat next to the driver. The third car was driven by security officers armed with submachine guns and a spare driver for Stalin's car. With the advent of ZISs, two main identical cars began to be used in the column, which changed places during the trip. Thus, it was impossible for the guards themselves, and not just for a potential terrorist, to understand in which car the leader was. Another method of disguising Stalin's movement, invented by Vlasik, was also used - the departure of two motorcades of the same composition by different routes. In which of them Stalin followed, even the guards did not know. Where can saboteurs track the leader's trips? Stalin's cortege was moving at a speed of 50-60 km/h.
The streets and roads during the movement of Stalin's cortege in those days were not yet completely blocked. At traffic light regulation - a constant yellow light lit up in all directions. In the absence of traffic lights, traffic at intersections and junctions was controlled by traffic controllers. In addition, the cars of the motorcade were equipped with special sound signals, according to which the traffic controllers gave them priority in movement.
The roads that the leader used constantly or quite often (to the dachas, to the Kremlin) were not only cordoned off, but also under constant guard. In residential buildings, the windows of which overlooked the routes of Stalin's movement, either law enforcement officers or "reliable" people lived. Various production facilities, retail outlets and other structures bordering the route were occupied by undercover employees: salesmen, janitors, etc. If the route passed through crowded streets or squares, they were saturated with GDO employees in civilian clothes in such a way that no one had access to the roadway. In total, from 1200 to 1500 people guarded the road from the Kremlin to the "near" dacha.
For reference, we note that today the price of the ZIS-115 at auctions starts from 8 million euros.
Security on the ship
The passenger two-deck motor ship "Maxim Gorky", which is also called the "Stalin's Yacht", was built in 1934 at the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard by order of I.V. Stalin. The ship's displacement is 605, length is 68.8 m, width is 13 m, draft is 1.3 m, height with raised masts is 12 m, speed is 30 km/h. The vessel is designed to receive 100 passengers, the crew - 19 people. For the ship, the hull and power plant of the Decembrist series submarine were used. On the ship there are banquet and music salons, a solarium. There are three cabins on board the ship. the highest category consisting of a bedroom, an office and a full bathroom with a bathtub. To finish the ship, the craftsmen used more than 17 types of wood, including such valuable ones as mahogany, plane trees, Karelian birch and others. All furniture and interior items were designed and created according to individual drawings.
There is a strong opinion that Stalin never rested on a ship. However, in many GDO sources it is noted that the leader sometimes used the ship when traveling south. He traveled to Gorky by train, then by boat to Stalingrad, from there again by train to the Caucasus. The lack of information about Stalin's campaigns on the ship is explained by the fact that both the ship and the crew were registered with the NKVD OGPU. And what was going on in the structures of this organization is still, for the most part, a mystery. How could ordinary people know whether and when Stalin was on the ship. The protection of the leader on the ship was carried out in the normal mode. And the patrol boats of the water police accompanied the ship along the entire route of its navigation. The ship survived the war in camouflage in Kuibyshev.
It is known that after the death of the leader, Beria, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Molotov, Malenkov, Khrushchev used the ship. In the 60s, the ship served foreign delegations of ministries and departments, foreign creative teams. In 1999-2003, the ship underwent modernization. The furniture has also been restored. After the repair, a cabin museum with wax figures of Stalin and other Soviet figures was opened on board. Since 2003 Maxim Gorky has been operating in Moscow. The ship was rented out and often took walks in the waters of Moscow and the Moscow region. Since 2014 it has been used exclusively as a restaurant.
The number and composition of the guard
The number of personnel of the Main Security Directorate was a state secret. It was not kept secret from the enemy, he could always approximately calculate the number of guards. They hid it from the people so that its "irresponsible" elements would not "speculate" on the exorbitant costs of maintaining the "top". IN different years the number of management has increased, then decreased. So in 1943, only the composition of the operational staff of the GDO totaled more than 1.5 thousand people. Since 1936, the Regiment has been guarding and patrolling the territory of the Kremlin around the clock. special purpose The NKVD of the USSR, over time, unofficially nicknamed the "Kremlin". And this is 1200 officers and soldiers. About 3 thousand people were listed in the intelligence network of management, who worked in various institutions, which Stalin visited more often than others.
In their "fat" times, the GOU in Moscow alone had about 16 thousand officers and ordinary employees - both men and women. In addition to the capital, employees of the department guarded numerous dachas, rest houses and sanatoriums of the country's top leadership, incl. and in the south of the country, incl. and directly intended for Stalin. And there were hundreds of such objects throughout the country. The GDO included security and service staff special trains, a fleet of vehicles and even the crew of a motor ship on the Volga. Directly GUO subordinated to the First Division. Dzerzhinsky and the Second Division of Internal Troops, each of which approximately numbered in its ranks from 10 to 12 thousand people. It should be noted that these are not combat divisions. Their staff was "trained" to carry out special security measures, although for the people such actions were called "maintaining public order." In exceptional cases, the head of the GDO could also involve army units in security measures. To do this, since September 1945, the Kantemirovskaya tank division was kept in the Moscow region. Thus, in the period from 1947 to 1953, the number of personnel involved in one way or another in the protection of the Government and Stalin reached 50 thousand people.
The selection of people in the security units was carried out very carefully. In order to get into the guard, the recommendations of the party and Komsomol bodies were required. Preference was given to those who served military service in the army. Preference was given to candidates from the border units, parts of the NKVD / MVD / MGB. Sometimes they took officers on the recommendation of the Central Committee of the party or the power ministers themselves. The requirements for applicants for the staff of the GDO were extremely stringent: excellent health, an impeccable past, the absence of relatives abroad, membership in a party or Komsomol. Only a specialist could be non-partisan, who, even in the guard, had to deal with his own specific business. At the same time, contact with the leader was excluded. The guards and relatives of diplomats who, for well-known reasons, lived abroad for some time, could not get into the guards. No exceptions were made, even if relatives were high-ranking officials. The selection was also based on nationality. For example, in the 30s there were quite a lot of Ukrainians in the guards. After the war, the situation changed dramatically. Due to the fact that during the war most Ukrainians lived in the occupied territory, after the war they were practically no longer allowed to guard. And in this case, no exceptions were allowed. Even if the applicant during the period of occupation was still a child. It goes without saying that the Balts and persons belonging to the repressed peoples were not allowed to guard. At the same time, Jews were subjected to the greatest discrimination. Until 1949, there were about one and a half hundred of them in the guard. But they were all fired overnight, and after 1950 there was an unspoken rule that forbade them from being hired.
Each candidate has been thoroughly vetted. For a long time he was under observation, the circle of his acquaintances and relatives was specified. If compromising data were received on anyone, the candidacy was immediately rejected without any explanation. The candidate was under the same control during his studies at the school of security guards. Moreover, everyone was obliged to go through this school, regardless of military rank and previous position. Many dreamed of getting into the guard, although the service in it was very difficult. That is why one year of service in personal protection was equated to three years - as at the front. For the rest of the employees, the term of service in the guard was counted as two. The official salaries of security guards were high and significantly exceeded the salary in the army. Uniforms were sewn only by individual order and High Quality. In addition, they were given several sets of civilian dresses per year. They did not seek to take people from higher education. Vlasik's deputy, General Goryshev, noted on this occasion: “The education of our employees should not exceed ten years: educated person thinking too much." The explanation can be found in the fact that the head of the Main Directorate of Defense, Lieutenant General Vlasik, had only three classes elementary school. He never learned to quickly print his first and last name on paper. The desire of security officers to improve their educational level. Vlasik himself especially did not like it.
And one more feature of the acquisition of the security service. First of all, they tried to take single people there or those whose wives were Muscovites. This was explained by a number of reasons. One of them: difficulties with apartments. The former can be placed in dormitories, the latter, as a rule, had a roof over their heads. Another reason: Muscovites were easier and easier to check for reliability. This explains the fact that, with rare exceptions, the "palace guard" consisted of Muscovites.
Assassination attempts on Stalin
Applying to the protection of the well-known theatrical rule of dramaturgy “If in the first act of the play there is a gun hanging on the wall, then in the last act it must certainly shoot,” we say: “If someone is being heavily guarded, there must certainly be an attempt on him.” In addition, any security structure, in order to justify its existence, in the absence of real assassination attempts, will surely arrange its staging. Stalin was no exception as a protected person. Researchers note 8 assassination attempts on Stalin, two of which were invented with the sanction of the leader himself. In addition, five incidents with the leader are noted that could have ended in death. Late delivery medical care Stalin, which was required either as a result of a stroke, or poisoning, which led to the death of the leader, can also be considered an attempt. Let's consider all these cases in more detail.
The first plan for the assassination attempt was timely revealed in November 1931, when Ogarev, a white officer recruited by British intelligence, planned to shoot Stalin with a revolver during his foot movement through the center of Moscow. The assassination attempts cannot be attributed to a real threat, since the potential killer was under the constant control of the Chekists. However, the security service received the "offset".
On August 26, 1931, a car with Stalin and Voroshilov in Sochi collided with a truck driven by a drunk driver. Neither Stalin nor Voroshilov were hurt.
On September 23, 1931, Stalin was resting at the Cold River dacha near Gagra. On the boat "Red Star" Stalin went on a boat trip to Cape Pitsunda. On the way back, when approaching Gagra, the boat was fired from a rifle from the shore. The bullets passed by, no one was hurt. It turned out that the border post was not informed about the delay of the government boat (which occurred due to bad weather). The commander of the border guard department, Lavrov, fired three warning shots at an unidentified vessel.
In 1933, in Georgia, Joseph Stalin almost died due to a bomb explosion that was planted under a bridge near the Lashupse River. But Stalin was saved thanks to the "foresight" of Lavrenty Beria, who advised him to transfer to another car. Stalin heeded the advice, and the car in which he was driving before exploded while driving across the bridge and fell into the abyss. The researchers attribute this case to the "improvisation" of the cunning Beria, who thus earned "points" from the leader.
In January 1935, in the Kremlin library, a young woman from the Orlov-Pavlov count family allegedly fired, but missed Stalin. The shooter was arrested and soon shot. The materials of this case have not been found so far. However, allegedly this case served as a pretext for checking the employees of the Kremlin commandant's office, as a result of which the "Kremlin case" or "Case of the tangle" was opened. The unraveling of this "tangle" led to the accusation of a number of Kremlin employees of high treason. Incl. Kamenev, Peterson, Yenukidze, Kork, supporters of Trotsky and opponents of Stalin, fell under attack. Thus, it is customary to consider both the case and the attempt to be falsified. By the way, these materials are still classified.
In 1935, during a visit to the city of Gori in Georgia, a conspiracy of old Georgian Bolsheviks was uncovered, who believed that Stalin had betrayed the cause of Lenin and that he must be killed by any means at the first meeting. The opinions of researchers on this fact are divided. Some believe that the conspiracy did take place, while others believe that Stalin carried out a cleansing of the opposition in Georgia.
On May 18, 1935, the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky aircraft collided with the I-5 aircraft piloted by pilot Blagin, both aircraft fell to the ground, all crew members and passengers died. In the USSR, everything was written off as an accident and negligence during testing. However, there is a version that the disaster was an attempt on Stalin and other leaders of the USSR, since there was a rumor that Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Ordzhonikidze and others should fly in Maxim Gorky. In September 1935, the Warsaw newspaper Sword published Nikolai's appeal Blagin, in which he wrote that he was going to deliberately ram the plane in order to contribute to the fight against Bolshevism.
In the documents of the French special archive, a French intelligence report was found, which reported that on March 11, 1938, an attempt was made on Stalin during a walk in the Kremlin. Lieutenant Danilov, a soldier of the Tula garrison, dressed in the uniform of an officer of the GPU troops, entered the Kremlin on forged documents and tried to kill Stalin. During interrogation, Danilov admitted that he was a member of a secret terrorist organization, the purpose of the assassination attempt was to avenge Marshal Tukhachevsky, who was shot.
A secret sabotage operation, codenamed "Bear", was prepared with the participation of the head of the Far Eastern Directorate of the NKVD, Genrikh Samoylovich Lyushkov, who fled to the Japanese in 1938. The goal was set - to kill Stalin in one of his southern dachas. The performers were supposed to be six White Guards from the Union of Russian Patriots. However, at the beginning of 1939, while crossing the Turkish-Soviet border near the village of Borchka, machine-gun fire was opened on a terrorist group, as a result of which three were killed, the rest fled. Presumably, the plans of the terrorists were reported by the Soviet agent Leo, who worked in Manchukuo.
The second attempt by the Japanese special services to kill Stalin also dates back to 1939. The terrorists intended to carry the time bomb to the Mausoleum, where it was supposed to explode on the morning of May 1, destroying the Soviet leadership standing on the podium of the Mausoleum. But the NKVD was again informed, apparently by the same source "Leo". These operations of the Japanese special services are written in the book by Hiyama Yoshiaki, published in Japan, "Japanese plans to assassinate Stalin."
On November 6, 1942, the deserter Savely Dmitriev, who hid on the Execution Ground of Red Square, opened fire on a government car that had left the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin. After he fired several shots, the terrorist was neutralized by the guards, no one was hurt. It is believed that Dmitriev mistook Mikoyan's car for Stalin's car. According to existing versions: Dmitriev wanted to take revenge or he was mentally ill.
In November 1943, a group of German paratroopers-saboteurs who planned to destroy the leaders of Great Britain, the USSR and the United States, who had gathered at the Tehran Conference, were allegedly neutralized. However, the version of the assassination attempt was just disinformation, launched by Stalin in agreement with Roosevelt, to give the President a reason to settle in a Soviet residence and negotiate without Churchill.
In the spring of 1944, SMERSH detained two German saboteurs equipped with a portable faustpatron, who were about to blow up Stalin's car on their way to the dacha. The operation was prepared by the reconnaissance and sabotage department "Zeppelin" of the VI Directorate of the RSHA using the prisoner of war Pyotr Ivanovich Shilo (German pseudonym Tavrin). The saboteur was made several sets of Soviet documents, of which the main one was a certificate addressed to the head of the Smersh department of the 39th Army, Major Tavrin. His appearance in Moscow was explained by his leave after being wounded and being treated in the hospital. To simulate healed wounds, experienced German surgeons performed plastic surgery - several incisions and former stitches. Tavrin was equipped with Soviet awards, of which, as they believed, the main ones were the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. They also provided for such details as copies of the Pravda and Izvestia newspapers, in which essays on exploits, award decrees and a portrait of the heroic Major Tavrin were mounted. Stalin's death would be, as was supposed, the signal for a large landing on the outskirts of Moscow, which would capture the "demoralized Kremlin" and put in power the "Russian cabinet" headed by General Vlasov. But it didn't work out...
There are many versions explaining some of the unusual circumstances of Stalin's death. It is often claimed that someone from his inner circle "helped" Stalin to die. However, it is only known for certain that when Stalin lost consciousness on March 1, 1953, the guards did not come to his aid for many hours. The doctors were subsequently called also with a great delay, since the guards asked for the sanction of the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, who were part of the "narrow leadership".
Summing up the above, we note that, despite the high assessment in the world of Stalin's security service, she did not fulfill her appointment. The guarded person turned out to be dead. The reasons for this are irrelevant. Although many researchers and experts believe that if Vlasik continued to lead Stalin's guards, Stalin's death could have been avoided. And then Stalin's security service would be considered effective, not allowing either an assassination attempt or the death of a protected person.
Reference: Hitler and the government were guarded by about 700 people. In the secret service (Secret Service) of the United States, which incl. guarded and Roosevelt, served up to 5 thousand people, including 1200 officers. Churchill had one bodyguard seconded from Scotland Yard.
Based on materials from sites: http://7arlan.kz; https://spetsialny.livejournal.com; http://www.e-reading.mobi; http://www.gunscity.ru; http://www.aif.ru; https://www.crimea.kp.ru; http://back-in-ussr.com; http://rusplt.ru; http://stalin-auto.my1.ru; https://pikabu.ru; http://www.teploxodik.ru; http://cruiseinform.ru
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Biography, life story of Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich
Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich - head of security.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Vlasik was born into a poor peasant family on May 22, 1896 in the village of Bobynichi (Slonim district, Grodno province). He received a modest education - he graduated from three classes of a rural parish school. Nikolay began to work at the age of 13. He was a laborer at the landowner, and a digger on the railroad, and a laborer at the Yekaterinoslav paper mill.
Service
In the spring of 1915, Nikolai Vlasik was called to military service. For courage and courage shown during the fighting of the First World War, he received honorary award- George Cross. During the October Revolution of 1917, non-commissioned officer Vlasik sided with Soviet power. In the same year he became an employee of the Moscow police.
At the end of the winter of 1918, Nikolai Sidorovich ended up in the Red Army. In the fall of 1919, Vlasik was transferred to the central office of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Soviet people's commissars RSFSR. In May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik received the position of senior commissioner of the Operational Branch of the Joint State Political Administration under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. At the beginning of 1930, he became a department assistant in the same department.
In 1927, Nikolai Sidorovich became the head of the Kremlin's special guard, in fact, the head of the personal guard. In the mid-1930s, Vlasik was approved for the post of head of the department of the first department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, and then the head of the entire first department. In November 1942 he became the first deputy head of the first department of the NKVD of the USSR; in May 1943 - head of the sixth department of the People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR; in August 1943 - first deputy head of the department of the People's Commissariat of State Security. In the spring of 1946, Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security (Main Security Directorate). In 1947, Vlasik became a deputy of the Moscow City Council, a deputy of the working people.
CONTINUED BELOW
For many years, Nikolai Sidorovich was a personal bodyguard. Very quickly he became close to the leader, practically a member of his family. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, wife, Vlasik took up raising their children and taking care of the house.
In the late spring of 1952, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his duties as head of security and sent to Asbest as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Family
The wife of Nikolai Sidorovich was called Maria Semyonovna (years of life - 1908-1996). The couple raised their daughter Nadezhda (born in 1935). She was an adopted daughter for Vlasik, but the relationship between them was truly warm and kindred.
In mid-December 1952, Nikolai Vlasik was arrested in connection with the pest doctors case (a criminal trial initiated against doctors accused of conspiring and killing Soviet leaders). The reason for the arrest was that it was Vlasik who provided treatment for members of the government and was responsible for the reliability of the professors. In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Sidorovich guilty and sentenced him to 10 years of exile and deprivation of state awards and the rank of general. In March of the same year, the term of Vlasik's exile under an amnesty was reduced to 5 years. Krasnoyarsk was chosen as a place for exile.
In December 1956, Nikolai Vlasik was pardoned by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The criminal record was removed, but in the awards and titles, it was decided not to restore it.
Nikolai Sidorovich was fully rehabilitated only in June 2000. The Supreme Court of Russia overturned the verdict against Vlasik for lack of corpus delicti. The confiscated awards of Nikolai Vlasik were handed over to his daughter Nadezhda in 2001.
Last years of life and death
