Who stays in power for a long time and promotes radical upheavals, revolutions and changes, sooner or later becomes a target for assassination attempts by opponents who do not agree with the chosen course. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - the world famous, legendary leader of the revolution, was no exception, like Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet and other odious historical figures. His life was repeatedly encroached upon by those who did not agree with the chosen political course and the way it was implemented.

Why is Kaplan famous?

The assassination attempt on Lenin, which took place in 1918, although unsuccessful, received wide publicity. This incident is described in many history books, and as the main culprit, a certain Ms. Kaplan, a 28-year-old terrorist, is indicated there. Her unsuccessful attempt on Lenin led to the fact that the girl was caught and executed 3 days after the incident. But many historians doubt that Kaplan was able to invent and organize everything on her own. To date, the circle of those who could probably be involved in the assassination attempt has been greatly expanded. At the same time, the very personality of Fani Kaplan is of great interest to both professional historians and ordinary people.

Lenin: short biography

The man who became the leader of the revolutionary movement and created by his political activity a powerful support, thanks to which the years were realized in Russia, was born in 1870. He was born in the city of Simbirsk. His older brother, Alexander, was opposed to the tsarist regime. In 1987, he participated in an unsuccessful one. This fact greatly influenced Vladimir's future political position.

After graduating from a local school, Ulyanov-Lenin decided to enter the Faculty of Law at Kazan University. It was there that his active social activity began. He strongly supports the People's Will circle, which at that time was officially banned by the authorities. Student Volodya Lenin also becomes an active participant in any student unrest. A brief biography testifies: studying at the university ends with the fact that he is expelled without the rights of restoration and is assigned the status of “unreliable person”, common at that time.

The stage of formation of a political idea

After being expelled from the university, he returns to Kazan. In 1888 Ulyanov-Lenin became a member of one of the Marxist circles. It is finally formed after studying the works of Engels, Plekhanov and Marx.

Impressed by the studied works, Lenin, who considered revolution the only possible way to put an end to the tsarist regime, gradually changes his political views. From clearly populist, they become social-democratic.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov begins to develop his own political model of the state, which in time will become known as Leninism. Approximately during this period, he begins to actively prepare for the revolution and is looking for single-minded people and assistants in carrying out a coup d'état. Between 1893 and 1895 he actively publishes his scientific works, in which he describes the need for a new, socialist order.

The young activist unfolds powerful activities against the tsarist autocracy, for which in 1897 he is sent into exile for a year. Despite all the prohibitions and restrictions, while serving his sentence, he continues his activities. While in exile, Ulyanov officially signs with his common-law wife, Krupskaya.

revolutionary period

In 1898, the landmark first congress of the Social Democrats took place. This meeting was held in secret. It was led by Lenin, and despite the fact that only 9 people took part in it, it is believed that it was he who initiated the changes in the country. Thanks to this first congress, almost 20 years later, the revolution of 1917 took place in Russia.

In the period 1905-1907, when the first mass attempt to overthrow the tsar was carried out, Ulyanov was in Switzerland, but from there he collaborated with Russian revolutionaries. For a short time, he even managed to return to St. Petersburg and led the revolutionaries. At the end of 1905, Vladimir Ilyich ended up in Finland, where he met Stalin.

Rise to power

The next time Lenin returned to Russia only in the fateful year 1917. He immediately becomes the leader of the next outbreak of the uprising. After the long-awaited coup d'etat took place, all the power to govern the country passes into the hands of Ulyanov and his Bolshevik Party.

Since the king had been eliminated, the country needed a new government. They became which Lenin successfully headed. Having come to power, he naturally begins to carry out reforms that were very painful for some. Among them is the NEP, the replacement of Christianity with a new, unified "faith" - communism. He created the Red Army, which participated in the Civil War until 1921.

The first steps of the new government were often harsh and repressive. The civil war that broke out against this background continued almost until 1922. It was scary and really bloody. Opponents and those who disagreed with the advent of Soviet power understood that it would not be possible to simply get rid of such a leader as Vladimir Ilyich, and began to prepare an assassination attempt on Lenin.

A number of failed attempts

Attempts to remove Ulyanov from power by force were made repeatedly. In the period from 1918 to 1919 and in subsequent years, V. I. Lenin was tried to be killed several times. The first assassination attempt was carried out shortly after the Bolsheviks gained power, namely on 01/01/1918. On this day, at about half past seven in the evening, they tried to shoot the car in which Ulyanov was driving.

By chance, Lenin was not alone on this trip. He was accompanied by Maria Ulyanova, as well as a well-known representative of the Swiss Social Democrats - Fritz Platten. This serious attempt on Lenin turned out to be unsuccessful, because after the first shot was fired, Platten bent Vladimir Ilyich's head with his hand. At the same time, Fritz himself was wounded, and the leader of the Soviet revolution was absolutely not injured. Despite a long search for the perpetrators, the terrorists were never found. Only many years later, a certain I. Shakhovskoy admitted that he acted as the organizer of this assassination attempt. While in exile at that moment, he financed the terrorist attack and allocated a colossal amount for that time - almost half a million rubles - for its preparation.

Failed coup

After the power of the Soviets was established, it became clear to all opponents that the new regime could not be overthrown as long as its main ideologist, Lenin, was alive. The assassination attempt in 1918, organized by the Union of Knights of St. George, failed before it even started. On one of the January days, a man named Spiridonov applied to the Council of People's Commissars, who introduced himself as one of the Knights of St. George. He said that his organization had entrusted him with a special mission - to hunt down and kill Lenin. According to the soldier, he was promised 20,000 rubles for this.

After interrogating Spiridonov, the security officers found out the location of the central apartment of the Union of Knights of St. George and visited it with a search. Revolvers and explosives were found there, and thanks to this fact, the veracity of Spiridonov's words is beyond doubt.

Attempt to rob the leader

Speaking of numerous attempts on the life of Ulyanov, it is necessary to recall one strange incident that happened to Vladimir Ilyich in 1919. The official details of this story were kept at the Lubyanka in case No. 240266, and it was strictly forbidden to disclose its details. Among the people, this event became known as the robbery of Lenin, and many facts in it are still not entirely clear. There are several versions of what exactly happened that evening. In the winter of 1919, Lenin, accompanied by his sister and driver, was on his way to Sokolniki. According to one version, there, in the hospital, was his wife, who suffered from an incurable disease at that time - autoimmune thyroiditis. Just in time for her in the hospital, Lenin was heading on January 19.

According to another version, he went to Sokolniki to the children's Christmas tree to congratulate the children on Christmas Eve. At the same time, it may seem strange that the main ideologist of Soviet communism and atheism decided to congratulate children on Christmas, moreover, on January 19th. But many biographers explain this confusion by the fact that a year earlier Russia switched to and all dates were shifted by 13 days. Therefore, Lenin actually went to the Christmas tree not on the 19th, but on the 6th, on Christmas Eve.

The car with the leader was driving to Sokolniki, and when armed people of clearly gangster appearance suddenly tried to stop him, none of those present in the car had any doubts that another attempt was being made on Lenin. For this reason, the driver - S. Gil - tried not to stop and slip through the armed criminals. Ironically, Vladimir Ilyich, being at that time absolutely confident in his authority and that ordinary bandits would not dare to touch him, having learned that Lenin himself was in front of them, ordered the driver to stop.

Ilyich was forcibly pulled out of the cab of the car, pointing two pistols at him, the robbers took away his wallet, identity card and Browning. Then they ordered the driver to leave the car, got into the car and left. Despite the fact that Lenin gave them his last name, because of the loudly working carburetor in the car, the bandits did not hear him. They thought that in front of them was some businessman Levin. The robbers came to their senses only with time, when they began to examine the seized documents.

A gang of bandits was led by a certain thieves' authority, Yakov Koshelkov. That evening, the company planned to rob a large mansion and an apartment on the Arbat. To accomplish their plan, the gang needed a car, and they decided to just go out into the street, catch the first car they met and steal it. It so happened that the first on their way they met the car of Vladimir Ilyich.

Only after committing the robbery, after carefully reading the stolen documents, did they understand who had been robbed, and since not much time had passed after the incident, they decided to return. There was a version that Koshelkov, realizing that Lenin was in front of him, wanted to return and kill him. According to another version, the bandit wanted to take the leader hostage, in order to later exchange him for his fellow prisoners who were in prison. But these plans were not destined to come true. In a short time, Lenin and the driver reached the local Soviet on foot, informed the Cheka about the incident, and in a matter of minutes security was brought to Vladimir Ilyich. Koshelkov was captured on June 21, 1919. During the detention, he was wounded by a carbine and soon died.

Legendary Kaplan

The most famous assassination attempt on Lenin, the date of which falls on 08/30/1918, occurred after his speech at the Michelson Moscow plant. Three gunshots were fired, and this time the bullets hit Ilyich. According to the official version, well-aimed shots were made by Fani Kaplan, who is called nothing more than a “Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist”.

This assassination made many people worry about Lenin's life, since the injuries received were really serious. History remembered Kaplan as a terrorist who shot the leader. But today, when the biography of Lenin and his entourage has been carefully studied, many facts from the history of that assassination seem strange. The question arises as to whether Kaplan really shot.

Brief historical background

This girl was born in Ukraine in the Volyn region in 1890. Her father worked as a teacher in a Jewish school, and until the age of 16, her daughter bore his last name - Roydman. He was a deeply religious man, very tolerant of power and could not think that one of his daughters would ever choose the path of terror.

After a certain time, Kaplan's parents emigrated to America, and she changed her last name, and then began to use someone else's passport. Left unattended, the girl joins the anarchists and begins to participate in the revolutionary struggle. Most often, she was engaged in the transportation of thematic literature. In addition, young Kaplan had to transport more serious things, for example, bombs. During one of these trips, she was detained by the royal secret police, and since at that moment Fanny was a minor, instead of being shot, she was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Considering Kaplan as the main person in the assassination attempt on Lenin, it is important to note the fact that the girl had very serious vision problems (which will later make many researchers doubt whether well-aimed shots could have been fired by the hand of a half-blind, short-sighted woman). According to one of the existing versions, she began to lose her sight after she suffered from the explosion of a homemade bomb, which she made with her common-law husband in an underground apartment. According to another version, Fanny began to go blind as a result of a head wound that she received even before her arrest. The problem with the eyes was so serious that Kaplan, serving hard labor, even wanted to commit suicide.

After an unexpected amnesty in 1917, she received a long-awaited freedom and went to one of the Crimean sanatoriums to improve her health, and then went to Kharkov for an operation. After that, her vision was allegedly restored.

While in exile, Fanny became very close to the SRs serving their sentences. Gradually, her views changed to social democratic. She took the news of the October coup critically, and further actions of the Bolsheviks led her to disappointment. Later, testifying under investigation, Kaplan will say that the idea to kill Lenin as a traitor to the revolution visited her in the Crimea.

Returning to Moscow, she meets with the Social Revolutionaries and discusses with them the possibility of an assassination attempt.

Strange attempt

On the fateful day of August 30, 1918, M. Uritsky, the chairman of the Cheka, was killed in Petrograd. Lenin was one of the first to be informed of this, he was strongly advised to abandon his planned speech at the Michelson plant. But he ignored this warning and went to the workers with a speech without any protection.

After completing his speech, Lenin was heading to the car, when suddenly three shots rang out from the crowd. In the ensuing chaos, Kaplan was detained as someone in the crowd shouted out that she had fired.

The woman was arrested, and at first she denied her involvement in the incident, and then, during another interrogation at the Cheka, she suddenly confessed. During a short investigation, she did not hand over any of the possible accomplices and claimed that she had arranged the assassination attempt on her own.

It is highly suspicious that, apart from the confession of Fanny herself, there is no longer a single witness who would have seen that it was she who fired. At the time of the arrest, she also did not have a weapon with her. Only 5 days later, the pistol was brought to the Cheka by one of the workers of the plant, who allegedly found it in the factory yard. The bullets were removed from Lenin's body not immediately, but several years later. It was then that it turned out that their caliber did not quite match the type of pistol taken as evidence. The main witness in this case, the driver of Ilyich, at first said that he saw a woman's hand shoot, but during the investigation he changed his testimony about 5 times. Kaplan herself admitted that she fired at about 20:00, but at the same time, the Pravda newspaper published information that the assassination attempt on the leader was committed at 21:00. The driver said that the attempt took place approximately at 23:00.

These and other inaccuracies make many today think that in fact this legendary assassination attempt was staged by the Bolsheviks themselves. The summer of 1918 was characterized by a noticeable crisis, and the authorities were losing their precarious prestige. Such an attempt on the leader made it possible to unleash a bloody terror against the Socialist-Revolutionaries, while starting the Civil War.

Kaplan was executed very quickly, she was shot on September 3, and Lenin lived happily until 1924.

On the evening of August 30, Lenin was shot at in the courtyard of the Michelson factory. However, even the exact time of the assassination attempt is not known. Lenin's driver Stepan Gil, one of the few direct witnesses to the assassination attempt, during interrogation a few hours after he said that they arrived at the plant at 10 pm. For about an hour Lenin made a speech and then went out into the yard. Thus, the approximate time of the assassination is 23 hours. However, later, in the interests of the official version, the time of the assassination attempt was moved back a few hours - to 18 pm. This was necessary to avoid some inconsistencies.

The shooter was not seen directly at the scene of the assassination. And this is not surprising: at the end of August, the evenings in Moscow are very dark. In addition, at that time the policy of war communism was still in effect and there was almost no electricity. So it was impossible to see the shooter. Lenin was shot when he stopped a few steps from the car, talking with a factory worker.

In the canonical version of Bonch-Bruevich, the boys allegedly helped to detain the shooter, who ran after her and pointed their fingers at her. But this is a legend. The boys had nowhere to come from on a dark night in the yard of the factory. And no one was chasing the killer. After the first shots, panic began - and the workers fell to the ground.

Moreover, the worker Popova, who was talking with Lenin at the time of the shots, was initially mistaken for the killer. She complained to the leader of the party about the abuses of the food detachments. One of the bullets hit her, and she began to scream that she had been wounded. However, the crowd mistook her for the killer. Popova was arrested along with her family and held in custody for a month.

Batulin, assistant commissar of one of the Moscow divisions, detained a suspicious woman. He ran along Serpukhovka and saw a strange woman with an umbrella near a tree. He "class instinct" realized that a woman could be involved in the assassination attempt. When he asked her what she was doing here, she told him: "I didn't do it." Such a strange answer became for Batulin proof of her guilt, and he arrested the woman.

Fanny Kaplan

This woman was Fanny Kaplan, born Feiga Reutblat. During her revolutionary activities, she changed names more than once, in revolutionary circles she was known under the name Dora. At the age of 15, she joined the anarchists. Her mentor in revolutionary affairs and lover was Viktor Garsky, at that time known as Yakov Shmidman. Together with him, in 1906, they prepared an assassination attempt on the Kiev Governor-General Sukhomlinov. They kept the bomb right in the hotel where they rented a room. But due to negligence, an explosion occurred. Garsky escaped safely, but the heavily shell-shocked Kaplan did not have time to escape and was detained by the police.

As a terrorist caught in the act, she faced the death penalty. However, it turned out that she was a minor. The sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and then reduced to 20 years. In conclusion, she began to lose her sight "on hysterical grounds." Probably, Garsky's betrayal was a strong blow for her, although she did not betray her love during interrogations.

Vision then returned, then again disappeared after hysterical seizures. Kaplan spent ten and a half years in prison and was released after the February Revolution as a "political prisoner".

In the summer of 1917, Kaplan ended up in a Crimean sanatorium for political prisoners, where she met Dmitry Ulyanov, the younger brother of the Bolshevik leader. Unlike his brother, Dmitry did not have enough stars from the sky. Vladimir spoke of him very sarcastically: "Although we share the same last name with him, he is just an ordinary fool."

According to some reports, the brother of the future leader of the proletariat and Kaplan had a holiday romance. Ulyanov was a doctor by training and had good connections. He interceded for the girl, and she underwent an operation, after which her vision partially returned.

After her arrest, she initially denied involvement in the assassination attempt, but then unexpectedly admitted that she had fired. Although there was no evidence against her.

She denied being affiliated with any parties and claimed that she acted alone and had no accomplices or leaders. The SRs also denied Kaplan's involvement in their organization and demanded a full-fledged investigation. However, he was not. Already on August 3, Kaplan was shot, and not by the Cheka, but by the commandant of the Kremlin Malkov, who, in principle, should not have been involved in such matters. The body of the executed woman was immediately burned in a barrel of tar. Such a rapid investigation, which lasted only three days, raises certain doubts, since it contains too many inconsistencies.

contradictions

Numerous inconsistencies in the testimonies of witnesses immediately attract attention. The same people repeatedly changed their readings over several days, which is rather strange. Lenin's driver Gil, a few hours after the assassination attempt, reported that he saw a woman's hand with a pistol outstretched from the crowd. After the shots were fired, the woman was lost in the crowd. It is worth noting that it is rather difficult to determine in the dusk at a distance of several meters whose hand is male or female.

Three days later, Gil changes his testimony. Now he is talking about the fact that the shooter was not in the crowd, but a few meters from the car, near its left wing. Later, in his memoirs, he generally confidently described Kaplan's appearance from well-known photographs, but this is already a clear lie.

Changed testimony and Batulin. At first, he claimed that he had detained the suspicious Kaplan at Serpukhovka. And then he said that he detained her right in the yard, practically red-handed.

At first, the investigation did not even have the weapon from which they shot at Ilyich. Only on September 2, one of the workers of the Michelson plant brought a Browning, which he found in the yard, explaining that he had taken it with him, but, having read in the newspaper about the attempt on Lenin, he brought it to the investigators.

There are 4 rounds left in the seven-shot Browning. That is, if Kaplan really shot from him, then she fired three shots. However, four shell casings were found at the crime scene. In addition, much later it turned out that the bullets extracted from Lenin's body were fired from different pistols. That is, in addition to Kaplan, someone else shot? Or did she have two different guns?

It was also suspicious that the arrested Kaplan was not even involved in an elementary investigative experiment. In the interests of the investigation, the assassination attempt on Lenin was staged by investigators Kingisepp and Yurovsky, despite the fact that Kaplan was still alive at that time.

If Kaplan really sent the Socialist-Revolutionaries, then why exactly her? After all, the party had a whole staff of the most experienced assassins, terrorists and raiders with rich experience in assassinations. Why entrust such a responsible task to the half-blind Kaplan?

Why was she interrogated for only a day and shot three days later, while another suspect, the wounded Popova, was kept in prison for a month? In the end, the Uritsky poet Kannegiser, who had killed on the same day, was shot only after more than a month. But Uritsky was only the head of the Petrograd Cheka, and not the leader of the party and the head of state.

Finally, the testimony of Anzhelika Balabanova, a famous revolutionary who came to visit Lenin and Krupskaya after the assassination attempt, has been preserved. She wrote: “When we started talking about Dora Kaplan, the young woman who shot him and was executed, Krupskaya became very upset. I saw that she was deeply moved by the thought of revolutionaries condemned to death by the revolutionary authorities. Later, when we were alone, she wept bitterly as she talked about it. Lenin himself did not want to go into details on this subject. I got the impression that he was especially moved by the execution of Dora Kaplan."

But why is Krupskaya sobbing inconsolably over the execution of the man who tried to kill her husband? And why is Lenin excited? It is well known that he was not distinguished by sentimentality and humanism.

These numerous inconsistencies gave rise to several versions at once, explaining the assassination attempt in a different way.

dramatization

This version appeared after the collapse of the USSR. It is based on the fact that this assassination attempt turned out to be beneficial for the Bolsheviks. It made it possible to declare a merciless red terror against any opponents of the party, regardless of their platform: from monarchists to socialists.

A few minutes after the assassination attempt, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Sverdlov, ordered the publication of an appeal in which the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries were to blame for the assassination attempt.

Supporters of this version also point out that Lenin recovered from his wounds with amazing speed. Having received two severe gunshot wounds, he arrived at the Kremlin, calmly climbed the stairs to the third floor, undressed himself and lay down in bed to wait for the doctors. One of the bullets was reported to have shattered his shoulder, but further health bulletins compiled by attending physicians reported only a fracture.

Already in the evening of the next day he was cheerful, and a few days later received guests.

One convincing fact testifies against this version: in 1922, Lenin underwent an operation to extract one of the bullets. The second was extracted after his death, during the autopsy.

Someone from the party leadership was behind the assassination attempt

This version also appeared already in the post-Soviet period. Although even earlier, in the Stalin era, they tried to "hang" an attempt on Lenin's life on Trotsky. But Trotsky was not in Moscow at all then, he practically did not get out from the fronts.

Yakov Sverdlov is most often mentioned in connection with possible involvement in the organization of the assassination. At that time, he served as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - the main legislative body of the country. In 1918, Sverdlov, along with Lenin and Trotsky, was one of the three most influential leaders of the party. In apparatus influence, he even surpassed Trotsky.

The death of Lenin almost automatically turned Sverdlov into the head of the Soviet state. It is no coincidence that during Lenin's illness, it was Sverdlov who led the state on behalf of Lenin, signed decrees and resolutions, and also chaired meetings of the Council of People's Commissars. And just a few minutes after the assassination attempt, Sverdlov had already sent an appeal to the press accusing the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the assassination attempt. He showed amazing awareness and speed of reaction, considering that by the time the proclamation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee went to press, most of the Bolsheviks did not even know about what had happened.

Krupskaya recalled that when she found out about the assassination attempt on her husband and came to the Kremlin, she met Sverdlov in the room: “He looked serious and resolute. Looking at him, I decided that it was all over.“ How will it be now, ”- I dropped in. "We have arranged everything with Ilyich," he answered.

In all likelihood, Sverdlov really had some kind of agreement that in the event of Lenin's death, he would head the government. Already after Lenin's recovery, under the pretext of taking care of his health, Sverdlov made sure that Lenin left for Gorki for a month.

All this time, Sverdlov occupied his office in the Kremlin. Under the pretext of repairs in the apartment, Lenin was kept in Gorki, but he found out through Bonch-Bruevich that the repairs had already been completed and that he was simply being deceived, and severely reprimanded the Kremlin commandant Malkov for this, adding meaningfully: "Tomorrow I will return to Moscow and start work Tell Yakov Mikhailovich about this, by the way. I know who's instructing you."

Interestingly, the investigation into the assassination attempt on Lenin was actually controlled by Sverdlov's people. Dzerzhinsky was at that time in Petrograd, where he was investigating the murder of Uritsky, and he was informed that there was no need to return to Moscow. And his deputy, the influential Peters, was actually removed from the case after the first interrogations. The investigation was headed by Sverdlov's henchman Kingisepp. Even when Kaplan was at the Lubyanka, either Sverdlov himself or his trusted person, Avanesov, was present at the interrogations.

It was on the initiative of Sverdlov that Kaplan was actually taken away from the Cheka and transferred to the Kremlin prison, where she was under the control of Avanesov and Malkov, who were directly subordinate to Sverdlov in the absence of Lenin. But why was it necessary to take Kaplan from the Lubyanka?

As the commandant of the Kremlin Malkov recalled, the order to shoot Kaplan was given by Avanesov "on behalf of the Cheka." However, the Chekists always executed their victims themselves and never asked outsiders to engage in executions, all the more strange that they asked the Kremlin commandant's office, which was not subordinate to them at that time, to do this. In addition, no decisions of the Cheka on the death sentence of Kaplan have been found to this day. This strange rush was reminiscent of the desire to get rid of the dangerous Kaplan as soon as possible.

But even if it is theoretically imagined that Sverdlov could be interested in eliminating Lenin, could he really turn to the half-blind non-professional Kaplan with such a delicate assignment? Or was she only in a support group, and the attempt was carried out by other people?

Victor Garsky

Oddly enough, but there is a thread that directly connects Kaplan and Sverdlov. This is Viktor Garsky-Schmidman - the very lover of Kaplan, because of whom she ended up in hard labor at the age of 16. After the revolution, he joined the Bolsheviks, and it is reliably known that they met at least once in Kharkov in 1917.

On August 28, 1918, two days before the assassination attempt, Garsky was discharged from the hospital in Odessa. Then he ends up in Moscow, where in mid-September he meets with Sverdlov. The non-party Garsky was given a great honor, he was not only received by a powerful leader, but also endowed him with his trust. Garsky is appointed commissar of the Central Directorate of Military Communications and is accepted into the party even without candidate experience, which was possible only for special services to the party.

Theoretically, Garsky could be the second participant in the assassination attempt. He had rich pre-revolutionary experience, was a militant, and participated in assassination attempts and raids on banks. For support, he could take with him an old and trusted partner Kaplan. However, there is no direct evidence of his involvement in the case.

Semyonov and Konoplyova

In 1922, a very high-profile political trial took place over the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who still remained in Soviet Russia. A lot of attention from foreign socialists was riveted to the process, so that deadly arguments were required. And they appeared. At the trial, members of the combat group Grigory Semyonov and Lyudmila Konoplyova testified against former comrades.

They reported that they personally organized and controlled, on the instructions of the party, the assassination attempt on Lenin. And they even sawed the bullets with their own hands to smear them with poison (which actually did not exist, but the myth of poisonous bullets survived until the collapse of the USSR). Semyonov also said that he had involved Fanny Kaplan in the case, who until then had allegedly acted alone.

However, the West did not believe the testimony. And the verdict was very strange. For the attempted murder of Lenin himself, Semyonov and Konoplyova were not only not punished, but they were accepted into responsible service. Semyonov then worked for many years in the line of Intelligence and rose to the rank of brigade commander.

There is every reason not to trust their testimony, since in reality both of them were agents of the Bolsheviks. They really were part of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, but at the same time they were agents of the special services. Semyonov, being a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, was simultaneously admitted to the Bolshevik Party. By a secret decree and without passing the candidate's probation, which testified to the high confidence in him. Even during the years of the Civil War, he performed various delicate tasks of the Bolsheviks, being introduced into the leadership of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. And the Social Revolutionaries themselves have always denied their involvement in the assassination attempt on the leader of the Bolsheviks.

And it’s hard to believe that a person who attempted on Ilyich himself could not be punished and even entrusted with the highest confidence and sent to serve in the Intelligence Agency. In addition, he was close to many Bolshevik leaders. His patron in the party was Leonid Serebryakov, one of Trotsky's closest associates, and Semyonov himself lived for some time with Bukharin's second wife.

The assassination attempt on Lenin was the only successful one in the entire 20th century. Never again did the conspirators manage to get so close to the first person of the state. And it still remains a mystery.

Fanny Efimovna Kaplan (nee Feiga Khaimovna Roitblat). Born on February 10, 1890 in the Volyn province - shot on September 3, 1918 in Moscow. Russian revolutionary Social Revolutionary, perpetrator of the assassination attempt on V.I. Lenin.

Fanny Kaplan height: 158 centimeters.

Fanny Kaplan was born in the Volyn province in the family of a teacher (melamed) of the Jewish elementary school (cheder) Chaim Roidman.

During the revolution of 1905, Kaplan joined the anarchists, in revolutionary circles she was known under the name "Dora".

In 1906, she prepared a terrorist act in Kyiv against the local Governor-General Sukhomlinov. While preparing for the terrorist attack, which was prepared by her common-law husband Victor Garsky(aka Yakov Shmidman), an improvised explosive device went off as a result of careless handling in the room of the Kupecheskaya Hotel (Voloshskaya St., 29). Kaplan suffered a head wound and partially lost her sight, after which, when trying to leave the scene, she was detained by the police. Garsky disappeared.

Fanny's police characterization looked like this: "Jewish, 20 years old, without certain occupations, has no personal property, she has one ruble with her money."

On January 5, 1907, the military district court in Kyiv sentenced her to death, which, due to Kaplan's minority, was replaced by life imprisonment in Akatui hard labor prison.

She arrived at the prison on August 22 of the same year in hand and foot shackles. Her accompanying documents noted her tendency to run away. In September, she was transferred to the Maltsev Prison.

In 1907, she needed an operation to remove fragments of a bomb from her arm and leg, she suffered from deafness and chronic articular rheumatism.

On May 20, 1909, she was examined by a doctor in the Zerentui prison district, after which she was found to be completely blind. In November - December was in the infirmary.

Until 1917, while in hard labor, Kaplan met the well-known activist of the revolutionary movement Maria Spiridonova, under whose influence her views changed from anarchist to SR.

Kaplan did not write a single request for clemency. She was ill and was in the hospital several times. Blind on hysterical grounds - as indicated in the medical report. She read with a magnifying glass.

One of the convicts recalled her: “In the cell with us was the indefinite Kaplan, blind. She lost her sight back in Maltsevskaya. When she was arrested in Kyiv, a box with bombs that she kept exploded. Thrown away by the explosion, she fell to the floor, was wounded, but she survived. We thought that the wound in the head was the cause of the blindness. First, she lost her sight for three days, then it returned, and with a secondary attack of headaches, she became completely blind. There were no oculists at hard labor; what happened to her, she will return no one knew whether it was vision or it was the end. Once a doctor from the regional administration went around Nerchinsk penal servitude, we asked him to examine Fani's eyes. He made us very happy with the message that the pupils react to light, and told us to ask us to transfer her to Chita, where she can be treated with electricity. We decided - come what may, but we must ask Kiyashko to transfer Fani to the Chita prison for treatment. Whether the young girl with blind eyes touched him, I don’t know, but only we immediately saw that we will succeed. After questioning our representative, he loudly promised to transfer Fanya immediately to Chita for testing.

In 1913, the term of hard labor was reduced to twenty years. After the February Revolution, she was amnestied along with all political prisoners.

After hard labor, Fanny lived for a month in Moscow with the merchant's daughter Anna Pigit, whose relative I. D. Pigit, who owned the Moscow tobacco factory Dukat, built a large apartment building on Bolshaya Sadovaya. They lived there, in apartment No. 5. This house would become famous in a few years - it was in it, only in apartment No. 50, that Mikhail Bulgakov would “settle” a strange company led by Woland.

The provisional government opened a sanatorium in Evpatoria for former political prisoners, and in the summer of 1917 Kaplan went there to improve her health. There she met Dmitry Ulyanov. Ulyanov Jr. gave her a referral to the Kharkov eye clinic of Dr. Girshman. Kaplan had a successful operation - vision partially returned. Of course, she could not work as a seamstress again, but she distinguished silhouettes, oriented herself in space. She lived in Sevastopol, treated her eyesight and taught courses for the training of zemstvo workers.

In May 1918, the Social Revolutionary Alyasov brought Fanny Kaplan to a meeting of the VIII Council of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. It was at this Council that Kaplan, through Alyasov, met the former deputy of the Constituent Assembly V.K. Volsky and other Social Revolutionaries from the Combat Organization.

Fanny Kaplan assassination attempt on Lenin

On August 30, 1918, a meeting of workers took place at the Michelson plant in the Zamoskvoretsky district of Moscow. He performed on it. After a rally in the yard of the plant, he was wounded by several shots. Kaplan was arrested right there, at a tram stop on Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street. She told the worker Ivanov who arrested her that it was she who shot at Lenin. According to Ivanov, when asked on whose orders this was done, she replied: “At the suggestion of the Socialist Revolutionaries. I have done my duty with valor and I will die with valor." When Kaplan was searched, they found Browning number 150489, a train ticket, money and personal belongings.

During interrogations, she stated that she reacted extremely negatively to the October Revolution, stood and now stands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. The decision to assassinate Lenin was made in Simferopol in February 1918 (after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly); considers Lenin a traitor to the revolution and is sure that his actions "remove the idea of ​​socialism for decades"; the attempt was made “on my own behalf”, and not on behalf of any party.

From the protocol of interrogation of Fanny Kaplan: "I arrived at the rally at eight o'clock. I won't say who gave me the revolver. I didn't have any railway ticket. I haven't been to Tomilin. I didn't have any trade union ticket. I haven't served for a long time. Where do I get the money "I will not answer. I have already said that my last name is Kaplan for eleven years. I shot out of conviction. I confirm that I said that I came from the Crimea. Is my socialism connected with Skoropadsky, I will not answer. I will not answer any woman I didn’t say that “it’s a failure for us.” I didn’t hear anything about the organization of terrorists associated with Savinkov. I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know if I have any acquaintances among those arrested by the Extraordinary Commission. I have a negative attitude towards the current authorities in Ukraine. As I relate to the Samara and Arkhangelsk authorities, I don’t want to answer "(Interrogated by People's Commissar of Justice Dmitry Kursky; Investigation file No. 2162).

Immediately after the assassination attempt, an appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee signed by Yakov Sverdlov was published: “A few hours ago, a villainous attempt was made on Comrade Lenin. Upon leaving the rally, Comrade Lenin was wounded. Two shooters were detained. Their identities are being clarified. We have no doubt that and here traces of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, traces of hirelings of the British and French will be found.

On the same day in Petrograd the SR-terrorist Leonid Kannegiser killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Moses Uritsky. The assassination attempt on Lenin was the signal for the beginning of the Red Terror on September 5, the taking of hostages by the Bolsheviks and their executions.

She was confronted with British Ambassador Robert Lockhart, who had been detained shortly before and accused of espionage.

Fanny Kaplan was shot without trial on September 3, 1918 at 16:00 in the yard of the auto-combat detachment named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee(behind the arch of building No. 9 of the Moscow Kremlin) on the oral instructions of the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov. To the sound of running cars, the sentence was carried out by the commandant of the Kremlin, a former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov, in the presence of the famous proletarian poet Demyan Bedny. The corpse was pushed into a tar barrel, doused with gasoline and burned near the walls of the Kremlin.

At the initial stage, Ya. M. Yurovsky, who had arrived in Moscow the day before from the Urals, where he organized the murder of the royal family, was connected to the investigation in the Kaplan case. Historian V. M. Khrustalev wrote that the cruelty of the execution of the death sentence and also what was done with the corpse of Kaplan suggests that, in relation to Kaplan, the experience gained by the Chekists in Yekaterinburg during the operation to kill and liquidation of the corpses of the royal family and their entourage.

Already in our time, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation officially closed the case of the attempt, insisting on the only version - it was Kaplan who shot at Lenin.

Fanny Kaplan (documentary)

P. D. Malkov about the execution of Kaplan: “Already on the day of the assassination attempt on Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, August 30, 1918, the famous appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “To everyone, everything, everyone”, signed by Ya. M. Sverdlov, was published, in which merciless mass terror was declared to all enemies of the revolution.

A day or two later, Varlam Alexandrovich Avanesov called me.

Go to the Cheka immediately and pick up Kaplan. You will place it here, in the Kremlin, under reliable protection.

I called a car and drove to the Lubyanka. Taking Kaplan, he brought her to the Kremlin and put her in a basement room under the Children's Half of the Grand Palace. The room was spacious and tall. The barred window was three or four meters from the floor.

I set up posts near the door and opposite the window, strictly instructing the guards to keep an eye on the prisoner. I personally selected the sentries, only the communists, and personally instructed each one myself. It never occurred to me that the Latvian riflemen might not see Kaplan, I had to be wary of something else: as if one of the sentries would put a bullet into her from his carbine.

Another day or two passed, Avanesov summoned me again and presented me with the decision of the Cheka: Kaplan - to shoot, the sentence to execute the commandant of the Kremlin Malkov.

When? I briefly asked Avanesov.

Varlam Alexandrovich, always so kind and sympathetic, did not tremble on his face not a single muscle.

Today. Immediately.

Yes, I thought at that moment, the red terror is not just empty words, not just a threat. There will be no mercy for the enemies of the revolution!

Turning sharply, I left Avanesov and went to my commandant's office. Having called a few people of Latvian communists, whom I personally knew well, I gave them detailed instructions, and we set off for Kaplan.

On my order, the sentry took Kaplan out of the room in which she was, and we ordered her to get into a car prepared in advance.

It was 4 p.m. September 3, 1918. Retribution is done. The sentence was carried out. I, a member of the Bolshevik Party, a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov, performed it - with my own hand. And if history were to repeat itself, if the creature that raised its hand to Ilyich again appeared before the muzzle of my pistol, my hand would not tremble, pulling the trigger, just as it did not then ...

The next day, September 4, 1918, a short message was published in the Izvestia newspaper: “Yesterday, by order of the Cheka, a shooter at comrade was shot. Lenin's Right Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Royd (aka Kaplan)." BP."

There is a second version that in fact Fanny Kaplan was not killed, as the workers were then told, in fact, she was exiled to prison and lived until 1936.

So, for example, witnesses claimed to have seen Fanny Kaplan in Solovki. This version is refuted by the memoirs of the Kremlin commandant P. Malkov, who quite definitely wrote that Kaplan was shot by him personally. Although the reliability of these memoirs in itself is questioned, but still the version of leaving Kaplan alive looks implausible - there are no reasons for such a step. In addition, there are memories of Demyan Bedny, who confirms that he saw the execution.

Currently, there is an active dissemination of the version according to which Fanny Kaplan was not involved in the assassination attempt on Lenin, which was actually carried out by members of the Cheka.

In particular, it was hypothesized that Fanny Kaplan was not a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and that she did not shoot at Lenin, because her poor eyesight would not have given her the opportunity to shoot accurately at the leader. Meanwhile, X-rays confirmed that at least three bullets had hit Lenin. In addition, according to this hypothesis, the bullets extracted from Lenin's body allegedly did not match the cartridges for the pistol system from which Kaplan fired. The gun was, as material evidence, in the Kaplan case.

This version became widespread after the collapse of the USSR; officially, Kaplan's guilt in the assassination attempt was never questioned.

Fanny Kaplan featured in the film "Lenin in 1918", the second part of the dilogy (after the painting "Lenin in October") by the director, created in 1939 (remounted in 1956). The film tells about the events of 1918 that took place in Moscow. In the midst of the Civil War, famine, devastation. In the Kremlin, the hard work of the government of Soviet Russia is going on.

At the same time, a conspiracy is brewing, which is revealed by the commandant Matveev. The conspirators, however, manage to escape and then organize an assassination attempt on Lenin during his speech at the Michelson factory. After Kaplan shot at Lenin, he fell ill for a long time, recovers and returns to work.

Actress Natalya Efron starred as Fanny Kaplan.

22.02.2015 1 18157

On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on the life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, whom, according to the official version, a socialist-revolutionary tried to shoot Fanny Kaplan. However, there are numerous inconsistencies in the case, which to this day leave the question of Kaplan's involvement in the crime open.

The name Fanny Kaplan in Soviet times was associated almost with universal evil, because she raised her hand against the leader of the world proletariat, whose authority was enormous. Nevertheless, she will forever remain among the "Lenin women" along with Nadezhda Krupskaya and Inessa Armand. Some researchers believe that her crime was not politically motivated, but was the revenge of a rejected woman. So who is Fanny Kaplan really and why did she shoot Lenin?

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAY

Feiga Khaimovna Roytblat (real name Fanny) was born on February 10, 1890 in the Volyn province in Ukraine in the family of a Jewish religious elementary school teacher. The character had a freedom-loving, conflict. In the family, which survived from penny to penny, in addition to Fanny, there were seven more children.

At that time, anti-Semitism was in full bloom in Russia, so it is not surprising that Feiga was drawn to the anarchists. It was in their ranks that the first Russian revolution found her. The girl received the party nickname Dora and went headlong into the revolutionary struggle. Youth is the time of love, and no political situation can interfere with this feeling.

Fanny's chosen one was fellow wrestler Viktor Garsky, aka Yakov Schmidman. There is an opinion that Garsky managed to make a decent capital on contract killings, that is, in fact, he was a robber and murderer, covering up his crimes with noble revolutionary ideals.

Common interests fueled a flared feeling in the girl. Together with Tarsky, in December 1906, they prepared an assassination attempt on the Kiev Governor-General Sukhomlinov, which ended in failure. This was Kaplan's first terrorist experience. During the explosion in the Kiev hotel "Merchant" Fanny was seriously wounded and fell into the hands of the gendarmes, and her lover, leaving her at the scene of the crime, fled. However, despite this, Kaplan took the blame for what she had done.

LIFE LIFE hard labor

The tsarist authorities at that time suppressed revolutionary manifestations in every possible way. And 16-year-old Fanny Kaplan was sentenced to death, but she was given a discount on her age, replacing the punishment with indefinite hard labor. Even under the threat of such a terrible sentence, Fanny did not betray the authorities either Tarski or other associates. So, a girl who did not have time to see anything in her life ended up in the most terrible Akatui penal servitude in Russia.

A serious injury and hard labor undermined her health, in 1909 Fanny became so blind that she needed Braille books. It was difficult to come to terms with this, and she made a suicide attempt, though unsuccessful. But in connection with the loss of vision, she was given some relief in her work, and only three years later her vision partially returned to her.

Thoughts about politics did not leave Fanny at hard labor, especially since there were many political prisoners with her. Under the influence of Maria Spiridonova, who in 1918 would revolt the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries against the Bolsheviks, Kaplan began to consider herself not an anarchist, but a Socialist-Revolutionary.

The February revolution brought her and many other political prisoners long-awaited freedom. But the best part of life: Fanny had already passed from 16 to 27 years old, and after the trials she looked like a deep old woman, almost blind and half deaf.

MEETING IN CRIMEA

In 1911, the Kaplan family moved to America, which is probably why those with whom Fanny went through hard labor became such close people for her, replacing relatives.

In 1917, to improve her health, she received a ticket to Evpatoria, where a rest home was organized for former convicts. The climate of the Crimea had a beneficial effect on Fanny, and it was there that she met with Dmitry Ulyanov, Lenin's younger brother, who served as People's Commissar for Health and Welfare in the government of the Crimean Soviet Republic. The house of convicts was in his charge.

They say that Dmitry had two passions: wine and women - and even appeared drunk at government meetings. Exhausted by hard labor, but surrounded by a revolutionary halo, the young woman attracted the attention of the minister.

Whether they had a love affair is difficult to say: the information of contemporaries differs on this issue.

Nevertheless, thanks to Ulyanov Jr., Fanny received a referral to the Kharkov eye clinic, where she underwent surgery and partially restored her vision. Paradoxically, it turns out that Kaplan was able to shoot her older brother thanks to her younger brother. It is not known why Fanny broke up with Dmitry, and a month later the same shot thundered. Quite possibly, it was the revenge of an abandoned woman.

In the Crimea, Fanny Kaplan got a job as the head of the courses for the training of workers of the volost zemstvos. Of course, this is not at all what the young Socialist-Revolutionary dreamed of. She kept hoping for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly with a Socialist-Revolutionary majority, but the revolution of 1917 destroyed all her hopes. For the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, terrorism was a familiar method of struggle, and for a former convict who had nothing to lose, risk was a common thing.

If at the dawn of her revolutionary career she did not kill the governor-general, then why not make up for this omission by killing Lenin. It is possible that the Socialist-Revolutionaries planned a meeting of young people in advance in order to provoke the woman to revenge. Or maybe these two events are in no way connected, because the revolutionaries were perfectly able to separate the personal from the duty.

CRIME OF THE CENTURY

At that time, the protection of top officials was far from modern ideas about security. Suffice it to recall a series of assassination attempts that took place then: Alexander II almost died from the bullet of the terrorist Karakozov; the death of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand; and Lenin himself was in danger more than once. In such conditions, in order to destroy a well-known politician, it was enough just to gain determination, and Fanny had plenty of this quality, besides, she had to shoot at close range.

That evening, Lenin was supposed to speak at two Friday meetings at factories: first in the Basmanny district, at the former Grain Exchange, and then in Zamoskvorechye, at the Michelson factory. Even the fact that Uritsky was killed on August 30 in the morning in Petrograd did not serve as a reason for canceling the leader's plans. After speaking to the workers of the Michelson plant, Lenin, surrounded by people, moved towards the exit.

He almost got into the car, but then a worker turned to him with a question, and while Lenin was talking to her, Kaplan came very close to him and fired three times. Two bullets hit the leader's neck and arm, and the third wounded his interlocutor.

However, the information that has come down to us illustrates the events of that day in a very contradictory way: a staging, a conspiracy, a second shooter, etc. Especially since the main character, Kaplan, pleaded guilty and again did not betray her accomplices during interrogation, explaining her actions by the fact that Lenin betrayed the ideals of the revolution and had to be removed as an obstacle to the advance of socialism.

For many years, the official version of the assassination attempt on V. I. Lenin did not cause any doubts among the Soviet people. Everyone believed that the crime was organized by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the performer was the fanatical Fanny Kaplan, who became one of the most famous women in the Land of the Soviets.

AMBULANCE

The investigation was outrageously short, only three days, which suggests that Fanny knew too much and was rushed to remove her. The reason could also be that the Bolsheviks, enraged by two terrorist attacks: the murder of Uritsky and the attempt on Lenin, announced the beginning of the Red Terror. And during the terror, as you know, the guilty are not on ceremony. On September 3, 1918, Sverdlov gave an oral order to execute Kaplan.

According to the official version, Fanny Kaplan was shot by a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, commandant of the Moscow Kremlin Pavel Malkov. The body of a woman was burned in an iron barrel, previously doused with gasoline. All this was done secretly - right under the windows of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin, in the Alexander Garden, to the sound of cars with running engines. Only a few people knew about the execution. Poet Demyan Poor became an involuntary witness.

To date, the Prosecutor General's Office has established that it was Kaplan who shot at Lenin. The well-known forensic prosecutor V. Solovyov says: “We took the protocols of interrogation drawn up in August 1918. The main subject of study was Browning, which was demonstrated for several decades at one of the stands of the Lenin Museum, and then kept in its funds. The weapon appeared to be in excellent condition. And then they decided to test it. The ballistic examination was carried out in one of the basements of the Lefortovo prison. Cartridges and cartridge cases were subjected to microscopic analysis.

A single bullet was also carefully examined. She was in the body of Lenin for several years. It was taken out only after his death. Such a detailed and thorough survey has never been carried out before. As a result, experts came to a certain conclusion: the attempt on Ilyich was made from this Browning. Thus, in August 1918, it was Fanny Kaplan who shot at Ulyanov-Lenin.

But another opinion is also interesting, which was voiced by the famous writer Polina Dashkova based on a study of archival documents: “By the way, why not immediately remove these bullets? The version that they were poisoned only arose in 1922, when the well-known trial of the Right SRs began. They called an expert and asked: “Can a bullet be impregnated with curare poison?”

To which the expert replied: “But how to impregnate it, it’s lead!” Is it possible to soak a spoon with tea? Suppose a bullet was cut and a piece of wax mixed with curare poison was stuck in it, but they did not calculate that the bullet heats up, and at high temperatures the poison is destroyed.

So: it does not collapse! From poisoned bullets, he would have died instantly! Four years later, they allegedly decided to remove one bullet, although if they were encapsulated there and do not interfere with health, why suddenly get them out? But at the trial it was necessary to present at least some material evidence. Why was it necessary to discharge the German doctor Borchard and pay him 220,000 marks for a trifling operation in which Dr. Rozanov, one of the best surgeons in the country, was only an assistant?

It is also strange that they decided to remove exactly the bullet that was sitting in the neck. It would have been more logical then to remove the second one, which is in the shoulder, everything is much simpler there: there are fewer vessels and arteries - but they did not do this. I don't think there were any bullets there at all."

WERE THERE SHOT?

For many years, the official version of the assassination attempt on V. I. Lenin did not cause any doubts among the Soviet people. Everyone believed that the crime was organized by the Social Revolutionaries, and the fanatical Fanny Kaplan was the performer, who became one of the most famous women in the Land of the Soviets - any first-grader knew that "this is the aunt who killed Lenin's grandfather." But since the beginning of the 90s of the XX century, publications began to appear in the press, refuting this version.

The testimony of the military commissar S. N. Baturin was preserved in the case: “I heard three sharp dry sounds, which I took not for revolver shots, but for ordinary motor sounds. And after these sounds, I saw a crowd of people, who had previously calmly stood by the car, running in different directions, and I saw behind the carriage the car of Comrade. Lenin, motionless lying face to the ground. The man who shot Comrade. I didn't see Lenin.

But on September 5, that is, 6 days after the assassination attempt, Baturin changes his testimony and claims that he caught up and detained Kaplan. But someone saw it differently: she stood huddled against a tree, watching how screaming people were running out of the gates of the Michelson factory, how sailors were rushing about and the boys were shouting: “Grab it!” She has an umbrella and a briefcase in her hands, her legs are bloodied by uncomfortable boots. In the afternoon, Kaplan went to the commissariat and there asked for a piece of paper - to put it in place of the insole, the nails so pricked the heels. She squints blindly, peering into the darkness. And then someone shouts: “Yes, it's her! She shot!"

The next controversial point is the main evidence of the crime - weapons. Chekist 3. Legonkaya recalled that nothing was found during the search of the woman: “During the search, I stood with a revolver at the ready. I watched the movements of Kaplan's hands. In the purse they found a notebook with torn-out sheets, eight hairpins, cigarettes.

But a year later, Legonkaya also changes her testimony and claims that they found a seven-shooter Browning from Kaplan, which the Chekist took (!) For herself. And in the case there is information that the gun was brought to the investigator by a factory worker Kuznetsov a few days after the assassination attempt. In addition, four cartridges were left in the Browning, and four spent cartridges were found at the crime scene, not three. It turns out that there could be two arrows.

It seems very strange that Sverdlov, immediately after the assassination attempt, signed the document “On the villainous attempt on comrade. Lenin”, which stated that this was the work of the right SRs. And this is an hour before Kaplan was interrogated. The next day, he generally ordered to stop the investigation, transfer the terrorist to the Kremlin, remove her from the Chekists and shoot her. In addition, the investigator in charge of the case was informed of Sverdlov's decision retroactively, after the execution of the criminal, on September 7.

When Fanny Kaplan was serving hard labor, she was only 16 years old and she was in love with Tarski. When, after a couple of years, Tarski nevertheless got caught in some kind of robbery, he suddenly wrote a statement addressed to the prosecutor general that the girl Kaplan was not to blame for the bomb explosion. But this paper went through the authorities and got lost. And it’s hard to imagine that a person who had an operation on his eyes at that time had his sight so that he could shoot in the dark and hit the target. Besides, how could she learn to shoot, being ten years in hard labor?

It is impossible to argue with medical documents. According to them, the bullet entered under Lenin's left shoulder blade and, passing obliquely, got stuck above the right collarbone, without damaging any organs. It turns out that the bullet went along a strange trajectory - in a zigzag, otherwise it must have hit either the heart, or the lungs, or, finally, important arteries and vessels.

If this happened, Vladimir Ilyich could hardly get to bed on his own. As for the second bullet, everything is simpler there: it crushed the humerus and got stuck under the skin. Bullet wounds are dangerous sepsis. There were no antibiotics then, but Lenin never even had a fever! Modern doctors believe that, according to these documents, a person could have died ten times already.

WHO DOES IT BENEFIT?

First of all, it was beneficial for Lenin and his associates to make Kaplan guilty. After all, this fully justified the subsequent Red Terror and the illness of the leader. This assumption is supported by the way Lenin reacted to events: he was not interested in the investigation, which seems rather strange given his punctuality and corrosiveness. Moreover, according to eyewitnesses, as soon as a conversation about Kaplan came up in his presence, he became gloomy and closed in on himself, and Krupskaya cried.

Some historians believe that at least three people were interested in Lenin's death: Sverdlov, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky. But these people would hardly have used the blind-eyed socialist-revolutionary as a weapon, they would have found a more effective way. However, who knows how it really happened. Perhaps, by coincidence, the wounds inflicted by Kaplan were not fatal.

They did not even put Lenin out of action for a long time, and he seems to have perfectly understood that his associates almost carried out a plot against him. In any case, already on October 8, seven new members were introduced into the Revolutionary Military Council, in which Trotsky wanted to gather his adherents - opponents of Trotsky, including JV Stalin.

If we talk about the version of the staged assassination, then here it was necessary to shoot so as not to hurt the vital organs, and this is much more difficult to do in the dark than to kill. Now that we are aware of so many inconsistencies, we can assume that
Kaplan was simply framed or used in the dark.

PARDON?

In the bowels of the Gulag in 1930-1940 there were persistent rumors that Fanny Kaplan remained alive and was seen on Solovki, allegedly she worked in the prison office. In the old criminal case, the protocol of the interrogation of a certain V. A. Novikov, who led the actions of Kaplan, was preserved. 20 years later, Novikov claimed that he met Fanny for a walk in one of the transit prisons in the Sverdlovsk region.

The NKVD began a large-scale check, but no trace of Kaplan was found. Nevertheless, rumors that Fanny Kaplan lived to a ripe old age still circulate to this day. If by some miracle she really escaped execution and burning, then only one person could cancel her murder by his secret order - Vladimir Lenin.

However, it is hard to imagine that the Jewish Socialist-Revolutionary who shot at the leader of the world proletariat was not executed by the Bolsheviks. The only thing that has not yet been established is the fate of Kaplan's remains.

Galina MINNIKOVA

The official version of the assassination attempt on Lenin in 1918 is well known, but the question of how true it is is still open. Relatively recently, in June 1992, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, having considered the materials of the criminal case against Fanny Kaplan, found that the investigation was carried out superficially, and issued a decision "to initiate proceedings on newly discovered circumstances."

There were so many of these "circumstances" that they are still being considered.

Apparently, the case hung for a long time, so let's try, if possible, to figure it out ourselves and understand what happened on August 30, 1918?

Mysteries of the history of Russia / Nikolai Nepomniachtchi. — M.: Veche, 2012.

Fanny Kaplan. Photo 1918

Immediately after the shots were fired at the leader, the appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, signed by Yakov Sverdlov, was published. “A few hours ago, a villainous attempt was made on Comrade. Lenin. Two shooters were detained. Their identities are being revealed. We have no doubt that traces of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, traces of British and French hirelings will be found here too.

One of the detainees was the former Left SR Alexander Protopopov. It is known that he was one of the sailors, that during the speech of the Left Social Revolutionaries in July 1918, he personally disarmed Dzerzhinsky himself. Most likely, this was precisely what they did not forgive him for, and after his arrest, without being engaged in empty interrogations and clarifications of where he was and what he did during the attempt on Lenin, they were quickly shot.

But the second detainee was a woman, and Batulin, assistant military commissar of the 5th Moscow Infantry Division, detained her. In testimony given again in hot pursuit, he stated:

I was 10-15 steps away from Lenin when he left the rally, which means I was still in the factory yard. Then he heard three shots and saw Lenin lying face down on the ground. I yelled, "Hold it! Catch” and behind me I saw a woman presented to me, who was behaving strangely ... When I detained her and when shouts began to be heard from the crowd that this woman had shot, I asked if she had shot at Lenin. The latter replied that she We were surrounded by armed Red Guards, who did not allow her to be lynched and brought her to the military commissariat of the Zamoskvoretsky district.

Only a week had passed, and Batulin spoke differently. It turns out that he took revolver shots for ordinary "motor sounds" and only then realized what was happening when he saw Lenin lying on the ground. And he detained the woman not in the yard, but on Serpukhovskaya Street, where the crowd, frightened by the shots, rushed, and everyone fled, and she stood, which attracted the attention of the vigilant commissar.

The most surprising thing is that when asked by Batulin whether she shot at Lenin, the woman, not being arrested and not being in the Cheka, answered in the affirmative, however, refusing to name the party on behalf of which she fired.

So who was brought on that fateful evening to the Zamoskoretsk military registration and enlistment office? What kind of woman took responsibility for the assassination attempt on Ilyich? She turned out to be Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan, also known under the names of Fanny and Dora and under the names of Royd and Roitman. She was brought to the Zamoskvoretsky military registration and enlistment office. There Fanya was stripped naked and thoroughly searched. They did not find anything worthwhile, except for pins, hairpins and cigarettes. There was also a Browning in the briefcase, but Fanya did not explain how it got there. Then she was handed over to the Chekists, who took her to the Lubyanka. There she was taken up much more seriously and, so to speak, professionally. The protocols of these interrogations have been preserved, let us read at least some of them.

I arrived at the rally at eight o'clock, - said Fanya. - Who gave me a revolver, I will not say. Where I got the money, I will not answer. I shot with conviction. I have not heard anything about the organization of terrorists associated with Savinkov. Whether I have any acquaintances among those arrested by the Extraordinary Commission, I do not know.

Fanny Kaplan and Vladimir Lenin

And what can be understood from this interrogation? Never mind. And here is the protocol of another interrogation, in which there is a little more information.

I am Fanya Efimovna Kaplan, under this name I was sitting in Akatui. I have been wearing this name since 1906. I shot at Lenin today. I shot on my own. I don't remember how many shots. What revolver she fired from, I will not say. I was not familiar with those women who spoke with Lenin. The decision to shoot Lenin was long overdue for me. I shot at Lenin because I considered him a traitor to the revolution and his continued existence undermined faith in socialism.

Further events developed so rapidly that there are simply no more or less reasonable explanations for them. Judge for yourself. The investigation is in full swing, and suddenly, on September 4, a completely unexpected message appears in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: “Yesterday, by order of the Cheka, a shooter at Comrade was shot. Lenin's Right Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Royd (aka Kaplan)."

A unique document has been preserved - the memoirs of the commandant of the Kremlin Pavel Malkov, who carried out the sentence. Here is what he writes in particular:

“According to the instructions of the Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Avanesov, I brought Kaplan from the Cheka to the Kremlin and put him in the basement room under the Children's Half of the Grand Palace. Avanesov showed me the decree of the Cheka on the execution of Kaplan.

When? I asked shortly.

Today, immediately,” he replied. - And after a minute of silence: - Where do you think it's better?

Perhaps in the yard of the auto-combat squad, at a dead end.

I agree.

After that, the question arose of where to bury. It was allowed by Ya. M. Sverdlov.

We will not bury Kaplan. Destroy the remains without a trace,” he ordered.

Having received such a sanction, Malkov began to act. First of all, he ordered several trucks to be rolled out and engines started, and a passenger car to be driven into a dead end, turning its radiator towards the gate. Then Malkov went for Kaplan, whom, as you remember, he left in the basement room. Without explaining anything, Malkov brought her outside. It was four o'clock, the bright September sun was shining - and Fanya involuntarily closed her eyes. Then her gray, radiant eyes opened wide to meet the sun! She saw the silhouettes of people in leather jackets and long overcoats, distinguished the outlines of cars, and was not at all surprised when Malkov ordered: “To the car!” - she was transported so often that she got used to it. At that moment, some command was heard, the engines of the trucks roared, the passenger car howled thinly, Fanya stepped towards the car and ... shots rang out. She no longer heard them, because Malkov discharged the entire clip into her.

According to the rules, during the execution of a death sentence, a doctor must be present - it is he who draws up the act of death. This time they did without a doctor, he was replaced by the great proletarian writer and fabulist Demyan Bedny. At that time he lived in the Kremlin and, having learned about the upcoming execution, asked for it as a witness. While they were shooting, Demyan was cheerful. He did not turn sour when he was asked to douse the woman's body with gasoline, as well as at the moment when Malkov could not light damp matches in any way - and the poet generously offered his own. But when the fire broke out and the smell of burning human flesh, the singer of the revolution fell into a swoon.

The news of the execution of a vile terrorist who attempted on the leader of the revolution was met with great enthusiasm by the progressive proletariat. But the old revolutionaries and former political prisoners saw in this act a violation of the highest principles, for the sake of which they rotted in the casemates, and even went to the scaffold. Kaplan himself reacted very peculiarly to the news of the execution: according to people who knew him well, “he was shocked by the execution of Dora Kaplan,” and his wife Krupskaya “was deeply shocked by the thought of revolutionaries condemned to death by the revolutionary authorities, and wept bitterly” .

That's it, Lenin is shocked, but he can't do anything to save Dora. Krupskaya is crying, but also completely powerless. So who then is the leader, who decides the fate of the country and the people living in it? This name is well known, but more about it later. In the meantime, about the anti-Leninist conspiracy that matured by the end of the summer of 1918. The position of the Bolsheviks at that time was critical: the membership of the party decreased, peasant revolts broke out one after another, and the workers went on strike almost continuously. And if we also take into account the brutal defeats at the fronts, as well as the deafening defeat during the elections to local Soviets, then it became clear to all sane people: the days of Lenin's supporters in power are numbered. It is no coincidence that it was then that Leon Trotsky met with the German ambassador Mirbach and told him with communist frankness: "Actually, we are already dead, but there is still no one who could bury us."

But there were many, many who wanted to do it! Moreover, all potential conspirators considered the physical removal of Lenin as an indispensable condition for coming to power. I must say that Ilyich knew about it, he even asked in one of his conversations with Trotsky: “Will Sverdlov and Bukharin be able to cope if the White Guards kill us?” If we replace the word "White Guards", who, of course, could not get to the Kremlin, with any other, then Lenin's anxiety can be understood, he either felt or knew that tragic events were brewing.

This is confirmed by the employees of the German embassy in Moscow. In August 1918, they reported to Berlin that the leadership of Soviet Russia was transferring "significant funds" to Swiss banks, that the inhabitants of the Kremlin were asking for foreign passports, that "the air of Moscow is saturated with assassination as never before."

And now let's compare some facts... Who signed the first appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee about the assassination attempt on Lenin and, before any facts were clarified, indicated the address where the organizers of the assassination should be looked for? Yakov Sverdlov. Who instructed Kingisepp to conduct an investigation into the assassination case? Sverdlov. Who, in the midst of the investigation, ordered Kaplan to be shot and her remains to be destroyed without a trace? Sverdlov again.

Is his name repeated too often in connection with this case? No, given that, according to contemporaries, by the summer of 1918, all party and Soviet power was concentrated in his hands. Concentrated in fact, but not officially - after all, Lenin remained the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, that is, the head of the government. The version that Sverdlov was the organizer of the assassination attempt, and not without the participation of Dzerzhinsky, sounds wild, of course, but that's the problem, so far it has not been possible to refute it convincingly. What is worth at least one inexplicable fact that surfaced only in 1935, that is, sixteen years after the death of Sverdlov.

The then People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Genrikh Yagoda, decided to open Sverdlov's personal safe. What he found there shocked him, and Yagoda immediately wrote to Stalin that they found in the safe: “108,525 rubles worth of gold coins of royal minting, 705 gold items, many of which are with precious stones. Blank forms of royal-style passports, seven completed passports, including one in the name of Ya. M. Sverdlov. In addition, royal money in the amount of 750 thousand rubles.

And now remember the messages of the German embassy about the inhabitants of the Kremlin, asking for foreign passports and transferring significant funds to Swiss banks.

But back to where we started. Facts - a huge number of versions - too. In principle, it is possible to understand them, but to draw conclusions... Only the Prosecutor General can draw conclusions. I would like to hope that he will still have time to get acquainted with case No. 2162 and he will finally decide whether Fanny Kaplan shot at Lenin or did not shoot. And if it turns out that she did not shoot, she will give instructions on the rehabilitation of Fanny Kaplan as a victim of political repression.

According to the materials of the newspaper "Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda"

WHO SHOT LENIN?

Nikolai Nepomniachtchi - 100 great mysteries of the 20th century...

The year 1918 for the Russian Empire began two months earlier - October 25, 1917, or November 8, according to the new style. It was on the night of 25/26 that a coup d'etat took place in Petrograd, later called the Great October Revolution. Waking up on the morning of the 26th, a frightened Petrograd inhabitant was surprised to find that many shops and institutions were not working, Kerensky's government had been overthrown, he himself had fled, and the Bolsheviks had seized power - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, headed by a little-known person at that time. time in Russia Vladimir Ulyanov. This red-haired, short, son of a teacher from the provincial Volga town of Simbirsk, a lawyer by profession, a revolutionary with twenty years of experience, was well known only to the tsarist secret police.

The last time Vladimir Ulyanov was arrested in 1895, exiled to Siberia, and after the exile went abroad, where he spent 16 years. More a theoretician than a practitioner, he, possessing enormous organizational skills, created a party abroad, which set as its goal the seizure of power in Russia.

Taking care of the party fund, Lenin did not disdain either the offerings of large manufacturers, or the robbery of his party terrorists who robbed banks and steamships - two of them went down in the history of the party: the legendary Kamo (Ter-Petrosyan) and the no less legendary Koba, aka Joseph Dzhugashvili , whom the whole world will know under a different name - Joseph Stalin. But all money eventually runs out. Meanwhile, the First World War began. Lenin makes an absolutely incredible and fantastic offer to the Germans: to withdraw Russia from the war. Germany kept 107 divisions on the Eastern Front, almost half of its troops. Who would refuse such a tempting deal, especially since Lenin did not look like a joker? And in two years - from 1915 to 1917 - according to the estimates of modern researchers, more than 50 million gold marks migrated to the Bolshevik party fund - a rather big amount!

Lenin kept his word. On October 25, 1917, the Bolsheviks, fed on German money, seized power by force, and on March 3, 1918, Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty with Germany, according to which 1 million square kilometers of the territory of our country departed to the Germans. Lenin also pledged to pay Germany 50 billion rubles in indemnity.

Once in power, Lenin began with populist declarations, promising world peace, land to the peasants, freedom and democratic rights to everyone else. But Lenin's party was not popular among the masses, but the other party, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, was well known among the people. It was the Socialist-Revolutionaries who mainly carried out underground work, raised peasant uprisings, organized strikes at factories, it was for them that the halo of fighters against tsarism was fixed in the public mind. Therefore, when in the autumn of 1917, already after the October Revolution, elections were held for the Constituent Assembly - the main, as it was supposed then, the legislative body of the new revolutionary Russia - the Socialist-Revolutionaries won a convincing victory in them, while Lenin's supporters gained only a quarter of the votes. On January 5, 1918, when the Constituent Assembly began its first meeting, the Bolsheviks suddenly realized that they had lost power...

It was a black day in Lenin's life. And then, without any sentimentality, he dissolved the Constituent Assembly. And to be more precise in the definitions - dispersed. The proletarian writer Maxim Gorky later claimed that this was done by the “conscious anarchist” sailor Anatoly Zheleznyakov, who, by his own admission, was ready to kill a million people, but, together with his drunkard brother, managed to shoot only 43 officers, assuring that after that “he himself , you know, it’s nice to do, and the soul is calm, like angels sing ... ". The Social Revolutionaries organized a protest demonstration, but the Bolsheviks immediately shot it.

Yesterday's comrades-in-arms in the struggle against the king in an instant became enemies. The Right SRs organized their government in Samara, on the Volga. Thanks to the uprising of the Czechs, they took power in the Volga regions, and captured most of the gold reserves of the former tsarist government. The other part of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, although offended by the Bolsheviks, remained in the government, in the Cheka (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Sabotage and Counter-Revolution, which was organized on December 7, 1917 and from which the KGB later grew) and in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, on the lowest floor of which the Soviets stood. These latter formally owned power, ever since the famous Leninist slogan "All power to the Soviets!". It will formally belong to them until the collapse of the red empire in 1991, although from the very first day of the revolution, power in Soviet Russia belonged only to the Bolshevik Communist Party, or rather its leaders: the big ones at the top, and the small ones at the bottom, in the localities.

To the internal troubles of the Bolsheviks, external troubles were added. In March 1918, the intervention of the former allies began - England, America and France. The Japanese landed in the Far East, the Turks invaded Transcaucasia, Kolchak seized power in Omsk, declaring himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. In the south, Kaledin and Denikin were gathering the anti-Bolshevik army. By the middle of the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks barely controlled one-fourth of all of Russia. It seemed to everyone that Lenin's power was living out its last days ...

On June 20, 1918, Moses Volodarsky, the Bolshevik commissar for the press, was killed in Petrograd. A month and a half later, on August 30, the head of the Petrograd Cheka, Moses Uritsky, was shot dead. On the same day, August 30, 1918, in the evening in Moscow, 4 shots rang out in the courtyard of the Michelson plant. A small man in a cap, who was standing near the car, twitched and fell backwards to the ground. The crowd that surrounded him shied away, the women screamed. They ran up to the fallen man, turned him over.

Did he get caught or not? the victim said in a low whisper. Nobody could answer him. An hour later, terrible news spread throughout Moscow: Lenin was killed ...

... Six days before the assassination attempt, three people met on the boulevard near the Smolensky market: Dmitry Donskoy, Grigory Semenov and Fanny Kaplan. Donskoy, a military doctor by profession, also supervised the fighting groups of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. One of these groups was led by Grigory Semyonov, a member of the same party. Donskoy looked around nervously: all three of them could easily have been raked into the Cheka. Two days ago, Felix Dzerzhinsky returned to the chairmanship, having left his post after the events of July 6 in Moscow. Then the members of the Cheka, Blyumkin and Andreev, shot the German ambassador Wilhelm Mirbach, and Dzerzhinsky - he went to the Popov detachment, formally considered a detachment of the Cheka, to arrest Blumkin - disarmed and arrested himself. This infuriated Lenin: what kind of leader of the Cheka is he, who is being arrested by his own fighters?!

With Peters, who became chairman of the Cheka after the departure of Dzerzhinsky, Ilyich did not have a relationship. Felix ran to the Kremlin almost every day and reported everything in detail, consulted, followed instructions, while Peters only sent reports. Ilyich, on the other hand, preferred to keep the Cheka in the field of near vision. So he returned Felix to his place. Dzerzhinsky is now engaged in the liquidation of the "National Center", the Chekists are prowling around the city, and here on you - on a bench, Mr. Semenov himself is sitting, under whose leadership Moses Volodarsky was killed in Petrograd, and with him the notorious terrorist Fanya Kaplan and the military Socialist-Revolutionary leader Dmitry Donskoy . Good company!

Semyonov introduced Fanny to Donskoy - they were formally strangers - and gave her the floor. Fanya declared that she was ready to kill Lenin ...

To the portrait of Kaplan: “Open sheet number 2122. Compiled in the office of the Akatui prison in October 1913, 1 day. Kaplan Feiga Khaimovna, exiled convict of the 1st category. Dark blond hair, 28 years old, pale face, brown eyes, height 2 arshins, 3 1/2 inches, ordinary nose. Distinguishing features: a longitudinal scar 2.5 cm long above the right eyebrow. Additional information: from the philistines of the Rechitsa Jewish Society. Born in 1887. girl. Has no real estate. Parents left for the USA in 1911. Has no other relatives. For making a bomb against the Kiev governor, she was sentenced to death, he was replaced by life imprisonment. During the manufacture of the bomb, she was wounded in the head, she became blind in hard labor, later her vision partially returned. In prison, she wanted to commit suicide. According to his political views, he stands for the Constituent Assembly.”

From Donskoy's review of Kaplan: "A rather attractive woman, but, no doubt, crazy, in addition to this with various ailments: deafness, semi-blindness, and in a state of exaltation - complete idiocy." Note that Donskoy is a professional doctor ...

I didn't understand what you said? asked Fanny Dmitri Dmitrievich.

“I want to kill Lenin,” Kaplan replied.

- What for? Donskoy didn't understand.

“Because I consider him a traitor to the revolution, and his very existence undermines faith in socialism.

- What does it undermine? Donskoy asked.

I don't want to explain! Fanny was silent. “He removes the idea of ​​socialism for decades!”

Donskoy laughed:

"Go to sleep, honey!" Lenin is not Marat, and you are not Charlotte Corday! And most importantly, our Central Committee will never agree to this. You've come to the wrong place. I give good advice - get it all out of your head and don't tell anyone else!

Kaplan was discouraged by this response. Donskoy said goodbye to them and quickly began to leave. Semyonov caught up with him, talked about something, returned to Kaplan and unexpectedly announced that everything was in order.

- Donskoy approved my plan!

“But he said something completely different,” Kaplan did not understand.

“What do you want him to say to the first person you meet: go kill Lenin?! Conspiracy, my dear! I completely forgot in hard labor how it's done! Come on, now we need to get ready!

And they slowly moved along the boulevard towards the market ...

August 27, 1918. Kremlin. Lenin was working as usual in his office when Yakov Sverdlov came to see him...

To the portrait of Sverdlov: Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was born into a poor Jewish family in Yekaterinburg. 33 years. At the age of 16 he joined the party, was in underground work, in exile. In 1918 - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the main legislative body of the Soviet Republic. Sverdlov is accountable to the Cheka, the Revolutionary Tribunal. He is the second person after Lenin in the party hierarchy. Energetic, ambitious, smart, flexible, soberly assesses the situation. In his personal safe there are forms of royal-style passports - for a possible flight abroad (one of them is filled out in his name), as well as a large sum in the form of gold, diamonds and royal banknotes ...

Sverdlov brought Lenin an addition to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Today it was to be signed. After the assassination of the German ambassador in Moscow, the Germans tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Lenin, with great difficulty, managed to extinguish the conflict by agreeing to new, even more predatory conditions of the Germans. They had to give railways, oil, coal, gold mining into a long-term concession. In addition, Russia was obliged to transfer 245,564 kilograms of gold to Germany, with the first export scheduled for September 5th. Sverdlov, showing Lenin an addition, expressed concern: famine was approaching Moscow, there was no fuel for cars, resistance to the authorities and outright sabotage were growing. And this treaty will only add fuel to the fire and give the Socialist-Revolutionaries a trump card in the struggle against them.

“Saboteurs, conspirators, and even hesitators must be shot on the spot!” Lenin said temperamentally. “Let them form troikas on the ground and shoot everyone without any delay!” For possession of weapons - execution! For speaking out against Soviet power - execution! Arrest the unreliable and take them to concentration camps, which should be organized right outside the settlements: let everyone see what awaits them for such actions!

Ilyich got up from the table and began vigorously waving his hand, as if dictating another telegram. Sverdlov knew that many telegrams of this content were sent to Penza, Samara, Kostroma, Saratov. The chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was horrified when he watched this bloody hysteria of the leader.

“We are already shooting hundreds a day, and many who sympathize with our government are repulsed by these cruel methods, playing into the hands of Kolchak and Denikin. They have already become Bolsheviks to intimidate the people. In order for us to survive and defeat the counter-revolution, the sympathy of the masses is now essential, they must be won over to our side! Sverdlov objected.

- Here, drag it on! You are the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the head of the legislative branch, and I am a performer! I shoot saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries and all the rest of the bastards! And you solve problems on a global scale!

Lenin chuckled, not without malice. Sverdlov did not understand this Leninist absolute calmness. He once told Ilyich that their power supply would last only two weeks - that's how much food and kerosene remained in Moscow. Lenin was delighted: he thought that everything had ended long ago. But what to do next?

— Requisition the surplus from the rich! War communism! Share with a neighbor. If you don't want to share - against the wall!

“But the people will not understand us,” said Sverdlov.

— Really? Lenin was surprised. - It's a pity! We have just started this experiment! The people will not understand the villain. Therefore, we need to pretend to be orphans: they offend us, help! Here's something to think about!

Sverdlov thought. Gathered his secretaries - Yenukidze, Avanesov, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the All-Russian Cheka Kingisepp, the chairman of the All-Russian Cheka, Peters, the Chekist Yakov Yurovsky, who until recently, on behalf of Sverdlov and Lenin, liquidated the entire royal family in Yekaterinburg. They retired, took all precautions so that this conversation did not go beyond the walls of the office. Sverdlov took a firm vow of silence from everyone. And he proposed his own plan for saving power: unexpected, cunning and - forced ...

... The combat flying detachment of Semenov was the central group of the Right Socialist-Revolutionary Party. On June 20, a member of this detachment, Sergeev, shot Moses Volodarsky on Semenov's orders. The Central Committee of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, having learned about this act of terrorism, was outraged that Semenov carried it out without permission and publicly refused to take responsibility.

Thus, Semyonov actually turned into the leader of the gang, and the death of Volodarsky now lay only on him. He subsequently testified: “This statement was an unexpected and morally huge blow for us ... I saw and spoke with Rabinovich, and as a representative of the Central Committee, Rabinovich, on behalf of the Central Committee, told me that I had no right to commit an act.”

Semyonov was well aware that sooner or later Donskoy and Gotz, the leaders of the Right SR party, would hand him over to the Chekists without much spiritual trepidation. After the murder of Uritsky, it was dangerous to remain in Petrograd, and Semyonov, together with Sergeyev, moved to Moscow. Then he called here another militant of his group - Konoplyova.

On the eve of her arrival, Yenukidze invited him to his place. He was Sverdlov's secretary and dealt with military intelligence issues. They had known Semyonov since their youth. Yenukidze treated Semyonov to supper, and they drank some wine. And Yenukidze offered his old friend, about whom he knew almost everything, including his involvement in the murder of Volodarsky, to work for the military intelligence of the Bolsheviks. It was a delicate matter.

- And what's the matter, Avel Safronovitch? Semyonov asked.

“Attempts on Lenin and Trotsky,” Yenukidze replied. “We need you to kind of prepare these murders. I picked up a group, obtained the consent of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, found a suitable performer. Then all responsibility will fall on your Central Committee and this executor.

- Will there be an attempt? Semyonov asked.

"That's none of your business!" Yenukidze answered...

To the portrait of Semenov: Semenov-Vasiliev Grigory Ivanovich, was born in the Estonian city of Yuryev (Derpt, now Tartu), 27 years old, self-taught, from the age of 24 a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He was the commissar of the cavalry detachment, from the end of 1917 he was a member of the military commission of the Central Committee of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries, the head of the battle group of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries. The writer Viktor Shklovsky, who knew Semyonov, characterizes him this way: “A man of small stature in a tunic and harem pants, with glasses on a small nose ... A dumb person and suitable for politics. Can't speak."

... And Semenov began to work. The plan drawn up by him was "edited" by the investigator of the Cheka, Yakov Agranov. According to him, Moscow was divided into four districts, each of which was supervised by a certain militant. Other militants must take turns on duty at rallies where the leaders of the republic came to speak. As soon as Lenin appeared, the duty officer informed the district “curator” about this, and he appeared to carry out the terrorist attack ...

To implement this plan, Semenov needed a meeting with Donskoy. Not satisfied with her, he twice went to Gotz, who lived in a dacha in the suburbs, but was refused everywhere. However, when he came to the meetings of his battle group, Semyonov said that both Donskoy and Gotz approved of their plans. Four perpetrators were selected for the assassination of Lenin: Usov, Kozlov-Fedorov, Konoplev and Kaplan ...

... August 30 at 5 pm Lenin is having lunch in the Kremlin with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. In the afternoon, a message came that the head of the Petrograd branch of the Cheka, Moses Uritsky, had been shot dead in Petrograd. Lenin asked Dzerzhinsky to leave immediately for St. Petersburg and investigate this murder. The leader's appetite was not disturbed by this circumstance. He ate with pleasure, joked with his wife, who tried to dissuade him from speaking. Lenin planned two of them this Friday: at the Grain Exchange and at the Michelson factory. Topic: "The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat." In response to his wife's reminder that the district party committee forbade Lenin to temporarily speak at rallies, he jokingly remarked that Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov strictly demanded that all leading persons participate in rallies and would strongly scold him for such a refusal.

Around eight in the evening, Lenin arrived at the Grain Exchange. The car was driven by the driver Kazimir Gil. One of Semyonov's militants, Kozlov-Fedotov, was at the Grain Exchange. Later he will testify at the investigation: “I had a loaded revolver with me and, according to the decision of the detachment, I had to kill Lenin. I did not dare to shoot at Lenin, because I hesitated on the question of the admissibility of killing a representative of another socialist party. The explanation is very strange: a professional militant behaves like a schoolgirl. Lenin spoke at the Grain Exchange for 20 minutes, answered questions for another half an hour, after which he left. From the testimony of the driver Gil: "I arrived with Lenin at about 10 pm at the Michelson plant."

On August 30 at 10 pm it is already getting dark outside. No one met Lenin, and he himself went to the factory shop, where the rally was taking place. At the rally, Lenin also spoke for half an hour. Answered questions for half an hour.

From the testimony of Semenov: "Kaplan, on my instructions, was on duty not far from the plant on Serpukhovskaya Square." This is about two hundred meters from the factory yard ...

Around 11 pm Lenin left the shop and went to the car. Together with Lenin, those who listened to the leader went out into the courtyard. He was about to get into the car when shots rang out. Lenin fell. Many in fear rushed to run from the yard to the street. Batulin, assistant commissar of the infantry regiment, shouted: "Stop the killer!" and also ran out into the street.

From the testimony of Batulin: “Running to the so-called“ Strelka ”on Serpukhovka, I saw ... near a tree ... with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands a woman who, with her strange appearance, stopped my attention. She had the appearance of a man fleeing persecution, frightened and hunted. I asked this woman why she came here. To these words, she replied: “Why do you need this?”. Then I, after searching her pockets and taking her briefcase and umbrella, suggested that she follow me. On the way, I asked her, sensing in her a face that attempted on Comrade. Lenin: “Why did you shoot Comrade. Lenin?”, To which she replied: “Why do you need to know this?”, which finally convinced me of the attempt on the life of this woman comrade. Lenin.

The absurdity of these statements is obvious. But it is important to note that Kaplan stood where she was placed. It is also obvious what follows from Batulin's testimony: he was ordered to identify Kaplan. Another thing is surprising: why did Kaplan admit that it was she who shot at Lenin? Perhaps, given her tendency to exaltation, the organizers of the assassination "calculated" this confession too - for she was already led as a murderer, the crowd roared, demanding lynching, and Bakulin himself says that he saved the terrorist from reprisal. Kaplan had a congenital neurosis since 1906, when she was sentenced to death, and then pardoned. It was precisely because of this that she immediately took all the blame on herself, categorically refusing to answer other questions. Her hysteria, sobs were replaced by a stone silence.

Not only the absurdity of Batulin's testimony proves that Kaplan was not involved in the shooting. During the search, a Browning was found on her, but, apparently, no one fired from it, because it was not included in the case. The decisive evidence in the case is another "Browning", which on September 2, the worker Kuznetsov brought to the Zamoskvoretsky military commissariat, assuring that this is the same "Browning" from which Lenin was shot. In the first statement - to the Commissariat - Kuznetsov wrote: “Lenin was still lying, a weapon was thrown not far from him, from which 3 shots were fired at Comrade Lenin (a weapon of the Browning system), raising this weapon, I rushed to run after that person, who was assassinated, and other comrades fled with me to detain this villain, and the comrades who ran ahead of me detained this man who made the attempt, and together with other comrades, I escorted this man to the military commissariat. Kuznetsov's words - "scoundrel", "this man" clearly indicate that the detainee was a man. But in a statement to the Cheka, made on the same September 2, instead of the words "scoundrel" and "man" Kuznetsov writes another word - "woman." And this was obviously done not without the prompting of "competent comrades."

Lenin himself also testifies about the male killer. Driver Gil recalls: “I knelt down in front of Vladimir Ilyich, leaned towards him ... “Did they catch him or not?” he asked quietly, obviously thinking that a man was shooting at him.

The same Gil makes an amendment in the protocol of interrogation: "After the first shot, I noticed a woman's hand with a Browning." This amendment is very remarkable and it was completed the very next day, when it became known that Kaplan had been arrested and confessed. It is possible that Gil was gently pressured to write down this amendment. Lenin’s remark “Did he get caught or not?” very important. This is not a stipulation. After the first shot, which wounded the woman who was talking to Ilyich, Lenin instinctively turned around. This saved his life. The doctor Weisbrod, who treated him, stated: "Only an accidental and happy turn of the head saved him from death."

Immediately after the assassination attempt on Lenin, Semyonov reported to the Central Committee of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries that this was done by a "combatant". Subsequently, at the trial of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, this detail will come up and take Semenov by surprise: he will not be able to answer who he had in mind then. And again, as in the case of Volodarsky, the Central Committee of the Right Social Revolutionaries publicly declares that it has nothing to do with this assassination attempt ...

At the rally at the Michelson plant on August 30, two SR combatants were present: Novikov and Protopopov. Novikov will later act as a witness at the trial in 1922 and say that he detained the crowd at the door, leaving the workshop after the rally, giving Kaplan the opportunity to shoot Lenin, but the same driver Gil will note that there was no crush at the door.

Even more curious is the figure of Protopopov. He was shot without trial or investigation on the night of September 1, 1918. Protopopov - a former sailor - was the deputy commander of the combat detachment of the Cheka (the same detachment of Popov, who took an active part in the mutiny on July 6). It was Protopopov who arrested Dzerzhinsky, who arrived at the detachment in search of the murderer of Mirbach, an employee of the Cheka, Blyumkin. After the suppression of the rebellion, Protopopov was arrested. An investigation began, it was led by Viktor Kingisepp - he also led the investigation into the assassination attempt on Lenin. But in the verdict of the court on the rebellion of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the name of Protopopov is no longer there. He disappeared, unexpectedly resurfacing only on August 30. And, most likely, he is the "scoundrel" who shot at Lenin. But, guessing who fired, we will not clarify the whole picture of the assassination if we do not answer the main question: who was behind Semenov, Kaplan, Protopopov?

... On the evening of August 30, Sverdlov's appeal appeared: “A few hours ago, a villainous attempt was made on Comrade. Lenin. Upon leaving the rally Comrade. Lenin was wounded. Two shooters were detained. Their identities are being revealed. We have no doubt that traces of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, hirelings of the British and French will be found here too.

The appeal is dated to a specific hour: 10 hours 40 minutes. "A few hours ago" means at eight o'clock. But Lenin arrived at the plant only at 10 pm, and finished speaking at 11.00. And who are these "two shooters"? Kaplan and Protopopov? The first fit better into the scheme conceived by Sverdlov. Therefore, Sverdlov had no doubt that "traces" would be found.

We have already mentioned that Victor Kingisepp led the investigation. At one time, Sverdlov introduced him to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Kingisepp was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and was directly subordinate to Sverdlov. The second investigator in the assassination case is Yakov Yurovsky, a fellow countryman of Sverdlov, also from Yekaterinburg, who shot the royal family on the orders of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Sverdlov appreciated the efforts of the Ural security officer and took him to Moscow. Sverdlov's secretary Avanesov was also present at the first and other interrogations of Kaplan.

Sverdlov did not let the matter out of his hands for a second. Semenov was in close friendship with another secretary of Sverdlov, Avel Yenukidze. Semyonov will be arrested on September 8, and soon he will become the most valuable member of military intelligence and the Cheka - and all this is through the efforts of Yenukidze. He will also give the organizer of the assassination attempt on Lenin a recommendation to the Leninist party. Stalin himself will read and edit Semyonov's main work, The Military and Combat Work of the Party of Social Revolutionaries in 1917-18. This work will be published in a separate pamphlet in Germany, and at the trial of the Right Social Revolutionaries in 1922, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the party, Bukharin, the first orator of the country of Soviets, will defend Semenov. After the process, Semyonov will be amnestied and sent to the south on a free ticket to rest. Touching concern for the main terrorist of the republic! All this suggests that even before the assassination attempt, Semenov was led by important people, such as, for example, Sverdlov and Yenukidze.

On September 1, on the orders of Sverdlov, the commandant of the Kremlin, Malkov, will take Kaplan from the VChK prison and transport her to the Kremlin, and on September 3, on the orders of the same Sverdlov, Kaplan will be shot and the body will be burned - in the same place, in the Kremlin, to the roar of motors, in the courtyard of the Auto-combat detachment. And this is one of the main pieces of evidence, indicating that Sverdlov was involved in the assassination attempt, because it was only profitable for him to quickly destroy the witnesses. After all, the investigation has only just begun. On September 2, they brought a Browning - Kaplan was supposed to identify it. Face-to-face confrontations were required with witnesses who were supposed to confirm her presence in the courtyard of the Michelson factory - after all, they shot at the leader not only of red Russia, but of the entire world proletariat! However, here Kaplan's confession, most likely, would have collapsed, because no one in the yard could see her. Moreover, Sverdlov was informed: hysterics, tears roll over Kaplan, the revolutionary fuse has passed, and she can not only refuse recognition, but also tell the true story of the assassination attempt. Then Semyonov, Novikov will be dragged in, they will start talking about Protopopov, why and who shot him, and then… Sverdlov is even scared to think about it. It was necessary to quickly hide the ends in the water. No Kaplan - no investigation.

A. Balabanova, who visited the leader's family in September 1918, gives a remarkable description: "I got the impression that he was especially shocked by the execution of Dora Kaplan ...". This phrase makes us understand that it was not Lenin who made the decision about this, but someone else (it is clear who: Yakov Sverdlov). And that Ilyich was not very happy with this decision. But Sverdlov managed to convince him, to subordinate him to his decision, which means that the degree of Sverdlov's influence on Lenin in some matters was very strong.

Krupskaya recalls what happened in the Kremlin apartment when the wounded Lenin was brought from the rally: “Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was standing near the hanger, and he looked somehow serious and resolute. Looking at him, I decided that everything is of course. “How will it be now?” I dropped. “We have arranged everything with Ilyich,” he replied. "It's done, it's over," I thought.

The very word "conspired" is curious. "Conspired" can be between two buddies, accomplices. “Contracted” means that a secret agreement has been concluded, about which no one can and should not know. But what was "conspired" between Sverdlov and Lenin? An attempt on Lenin, when it was supposed to fire blank shots, but someone fired live shots by mistake? Or is it “conspired” that Lenin, assuming the worst, handed over all power to Sverdlov? This is how Krupskaya understood Sverdlov. So, Sverdlov had another reason to eliminate Lenin - he was clearing his way to sole power.

We already spoke at the beginning about the reasons that prompted Sverdlov to come up with this "plan of salvation." Recently, versions have appeared that Lenin was not shot at all, and all traces of bullets are staged. This would be the original version, but there are too many documents that talk about bullets and operations. German doctors took part in the latter, and it was probably impossible to force them to lie. Therefore, we agree that there were still shots and a wound too. Another thing is that it really turned out to be easy. Lenin himself went up to his room in the Kremlin, undressed himself, and on September 5 he got up and began to work. For the sake of this “jewelry work”, the experienced shooter Protopopov was probably invited to stage this slight wound. According to the plan of the directors of the assassination, it probably should have been even easier - tangent, touching only the skin, burning ... But the excitement, Lenin's involuntary turn - and everything changed. The wound turned out to be more severe, the bullet almost grazed a vital artery. Therefore, the angry "directors" shot Protopopov ...

All this, of course, is just speculation, we are unlikely to ever know the true picture of those events: there are no witnesses for a long time, no evidence either. And if they are, they are unlikely to be made public soon. We can only name the scriptwriter and director of this interlude: Yakov Sverdlov. In 1919, as if by the retribution of fate, he died. This production was completed by his spiritual disciple Stalin.

"The Assassination of Lenin" is a really talented staging by the Bolsheviks. But thanks to her, the regime survived. Having defeated their comrades-in-arms in the revolutionary struggle, the Bolsheviks single-handedly began to rule the country. Lies, intrigues, conspiracies, executions, terror became the fertile soil on which Stalin's dictatorial regime flourished. The Red Empire entered the life of humanity in the 20th century like a great monster with its incredible experiments on the souls and lives of millions of people...

Material E. Latiya, V. Mironova