Shulgin years. Monarchist who deposed the king

Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin (January 13, 1878 - February 15, 1976), Russian nationalist and publicist. Member of the second, third and fourth State Duma, monarchist and member of the White movement.

Shulgin was born in Kyiv in the family of historian Vitaly Shulgin. Vasily's father died a month before his birth, and the boy was raised by his stepfather, scientist-economist Dmitry Pikhno, editor of the monarchist newspaper Kievlyanin (replaced V. Ya. Shulgin in this position), later a member of the State Council. Shulgin studied law at Kiev University. A negative attitude towards the revolution was formed in him at the university, when he constantly became an eyewitness to the riots organized by revolutionary-minded students. Shulgin's stepfather got him a job at his newspaper. Shulgin promoted anti-Semitism in his publications. Due to tactical considerations, Shulgin criticized the Beilis case, since it was obvious that this odious process played into the hands of only the opponents of the monarchy. This was the reason for criticism of Shulgin by some radical nationalists, in particular, M. O. Menshikov called him a "Jewish Janissary" in his article "Little Zola".

In 1907, Shulgin became a member of the State Duma and the leader of the nationalist faction in the IV Duma. He advocated far-right views, supported the Stolypin government, including the introduction of courts-martial and other controversial reforms. With the outbreak of World War I, Shulgin went to the front, but in 1915 he was wounded and returned. He was shocked by the terrible organization of the army and the supply of the army, and together with many Duma deputies (from the extreme right to the Octobrists and Cadets) participated in the creation of the Progressive Bloc. Blok's goal was to ensure supplies to the army through the efforts of Russia's largest industrialists, since it was obvious that the government could not cope with this task.

Shulgin fought against the revolution, although he believed that autocracy in Russia had no prospects. Together with Alexander Guchkov, he was present at the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, since he, like many representatives of the upper strata of society, considered the constitutional monarchy with Tsar Mikhail Alexandrovich to be the way out of the situation. After that, he supported the Provisional Government and the Kornilov uprising. When the hope of anti-Bolshevik forces coming to power was lost, Shulgin first moved to Kyiv, where he took part in the activities of the White Guard organizations, and in 1920 emigrated to Yugoslavia. In 1925-26. he secretly visited the Soviet Union, describing his impressions of the NEP in the book Three Capitals. In exile, Shulgin maintained contacts with other leaders of the White movement until 1937, when he finally ceased political activity. Author of a number of books about anti-Semitism, the nature and origin of Ukrainians (“Ukrainians and Us” (1939) and other books, in particular, “Days” (1927), as well as memoirs “Years. Memoirs of a former member of the State Duma” (1979).

In 1944, Soviet troops occupied Yugoslavia. Shulgin was arrested and sentenced to 25 years for "anti-Soviet activities". After serving 12 years in prison, he was released in 1956 under an amnesty. After that, he lived in Vladimir (in 2008, a memorial plaque was installed on his house on Feygin Street). In his last books, he argued that the communists were no longer enemies of Russia, since their goal was not to destroy the country, but to protect and exalt it. In 1965, Shulgin acted as the protagonist of the documentary "Before the Judgment of History", in which he told his memoirs to a Soviet historian.

Shulgin about Jewish pogroms in 1919 (an excerpt from the article "Torture by fear" in the newspaper "Kievlyanin"):
"At night, a medieval horror sets in on the streets of Kyiv. Amid the dead silence and desertion, a soul-rending scream suddenly begins. These are the screams of the" Jews ". They scream in fear. huge multi-storey buildings begin to howl from top to bottom. Entire streets, seized with mortal horror, scream with inhuman voices, trembling for life. It is terrible to hear these voices of the post-revolutionary night. Of course, this fear is exaggerated and takes on ridiculous and humiliating forms from our point of view. But that's all but this is genuine horror, a real “torture by fear”, to which the entire Jewish population is subject

We, the Russian population, listening to the terrible cries, think about this: will the Jews learn anything in these terrible nights? Will they understand what it means to destroy a state not founded by them?...
Surely this "torture by fear" will not show them the true path?"

Shulgin on the reception of deputies in 1907 ("Days" - The Last Days of the "Constitution" (March 2, 1917)):
Someone who represented us called me, saying that I was from the Volyn province. The emperor gave me his hand and asked:

"- It seems that you, from the Volyn province, are all right? - That's right, Your Imperial Majesty. - How did you manage it? Russian landownership, and the clergy, and the peasantry marched together like Russians. On the outskirts, Your Majesty, national feelings are stronger than in the center ... The sovereign apparently liked this idea. And he answered in a tone, as if we were simply talking I was struck: - But it's understandable. After all, you have many nationalities ... boil. Here both Poles and Jews. That is why Russian national feelings in the West of Russia are stronger ... Let's hope that they will be transmitted to the East ... "

Shulgin Vasily Vitalievich

Shulgin Vasily Vitalievich (January 13, 1878 - February 15, 1976) - Russian nationalist and publicist. Member of the second, third and fourth State Duma, monarchist and member of the White movement.

Shulgin was born in Kyiv in the family of historian Vitaly Shulgin. Vasily's father died a month before his birth, and the boy was raised by his stepfather, scientist-economist Dmitry Pikhno, editor of the monarchist newspaper Kievlyanin (replaced V.Ya. Shulgin in this position), later a member of the State Council. Shulgin studied law at Kiev University. A negative attitude towards the revolution was formed in him at the university, when he constantly became an eyewitness to the riots organized by revolutionary-minded students. Shulgin's stepfather got him a job at his newspaper. Shulgin promoted anti-Semitism in his publications. Due to tactical considerations, Shulgin criticized the Beilis case, since it was obvious that this odious process played into the hands of only the opponents of the monarchy. This was the reason for criticism of Shulgin by some radical nationalists, in particular, M. O. Menshikov called him a "Jewish Janissary" in his article "Little Zola".

Witnesses to the abdication: Count V. B. Frederiks, General N. V. Ruzsky, V. V. Shulgin, A. I. Guchkov, palace commandant V. N. Voeikov, Nicholas II. State Historical Museum.

On February 27, 1917, the Council of Elders of the Duma V.V. Shulgin was elected to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which took over the functions of the government. The Provisional Committee decided that Emperor Nicholas II should immediately abdicate in favor of his son Alexei under the regency of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
On March 2, the Provisional Committee sent V.V. to the tsar in Pskov for negotiations. Shulgin and A.I. Guchkov. But Nicholas II signed the Act of Abdication in favor of the brother of the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. 03 March V.V. Shulgin took part in negotiations with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, as a result of which he refused to accept the throne until the decision of the Constituent Assembly. April 26, 1917 V.V. Shulgin admitted: "I can't say that the entire Duma wanted revolution entirely; all this would be untrue... But even without wanting it, we created a revolution."
V.V. Shulgin strongly supported the Provisional Government, but, seeing its inability to restore order in the country, in early October 1917 he moved to Kyiv. There he headed the "Russian National Union".

After the October Revolution, V.V. Shulgin created the underground organization "Azbuka" in Kyiv in order to fight against Bolshevism. In November-December 1917 he went to the Don to Novocherkassk, participated in the creation of the White Volunteer Army. From the end of 1918 he edited the newspaper "Russia", then "Great Russia", praising the monarchist and nationalist principles and the purity of the "white idea". When the hope of anti-Bolshevik forces coming to power was lost, Shulgin first moved to Kyiv, where he took part in the activities of the White Guard organizations (Azbuka), later emigrated to Yugoslavia.

Shulgin Vasily Vitalievich

In 1925-26. he secretly visited the Soviet Union, describing his impressions of the NEP in the book Three Capitals. In exile, Shulgin maintained contacts with other leaders of the White movement until 1937, when he finally ceased political activity. In 1925-1926. illegally arrived in Russia, visited Kyiv, Moscow, Leningrad. He described his visit to the USSR in the book "Three Capitals", summed up his impressions with the words: "When I went there, I did not have a homeland. Now I have it." From the 30s. lived in Yugoslavia.

In 1937 he retired from political activity.

In custody

In 1944, Soviet troops occupied Yugoslavia. In December 1944, Shulgin was detained, taken through Hungary to Moscow, where on January 31, 1945 his arrest was formalized as "an active member of the White Guard organization" Russian All-Military Union "", and after an investigation into his case, which took place for more than two years, he was sentenced under articles 58-4, 58-6 part 1, 58-8 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR by a resolution of a special meeting at the MGB dated July 12, 1947 to 25 years in prison for "anti-Soviet activities." Asked before the verdict whether he pleads guilty, Shulgin replied: “There is my signature on every page, which means that I, as it were, confirm my deeds. But is it fault, or should it be called in a different word - leave it to my conscience to judge. The verdict shocked Shulgin with its severity. He recalled: “I did not expect this. The maximum I expected was three years.” Historian A. V. Repnikov explained the imposition of just such a sentence by the following circumstance: The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 26, 1947 “On the abolition of the death penalty” proclaimed the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime. The same decree established that for crimes punishable by the death penalty under the laws in force, punishment was introduced in the form of imprisonment in a forced labor camp for a period of 25 years. Thus, as Repnikov believed, the elderly Shulgin should have been sentenced to death, and he was saved only by the fact that at the time of his sentencing, the death penalty in the USSR was abolished. Shulgin was even more fortunate if we recall that already on January 12, 1950, the death penalty in the USSR was restored for "traitors to the Motherland, spies, subversive bombers."

Violin Shulgin V.V.

Shulgin served his term, among his cellmates were Mordechai Dubin, philosopher Daniil Leonidovich Andreev, Prince P. D. Dolgorukov, biologist V. V. Parin, Bolshevik leader M. A. Tairov, Wehrmacht generals and Japanese prisoners of war. On the night of March 5, 1953, Shulgin had a dream: “A magnificent horse fell, fell on its hind legs, resting its front legs on the ground, which it filled with blood.” At first, he connected the dream with the approaching anniversary of the death of Alexander II, but soon learned about the death of I.V. Stalin. After twelve years in prison, Shulgin was released in 1956 under an amnesty. The entire term of imprisonment, Shulgin worked hard on his memoirs. The museum, which opened in the Vladimir Central after the collapse of the USSR, has a stand dedicated to Shulgin. Among the exhibits there is an inventory of one of the parcels that Shulgin received from his former cellmate - a German prisoner of war: the usual contents of the parcels were food, but the parcel to Shulgin consisted of two kilograms of writing paper. Unfortunately, most of these records were destroyed by the prison administration. Only fragments about meetings with remarkable compatriots remained. The political part of the memoirs later served as the basis for the book Years.

After release

On January 2, 1918, Soviet power was finally consolidated in Gorokhovets and the district, and the Gorokhovets home for the disabled and the elderly was located in the premises of the former zemstvo council. This two-story wooden house, unfortunately, has not been preserved; in the 1990s, the Sberbank building appeared in its place.

Blagoveshchenskaya Street and the building of the Zemstvo Council (on the right) on a postcard from the beginning. XX century. From the archives of the Gorokhovets Museum

After his release, Shulgin was sent under escort in September 1956 to the city of Gorokhovets, Vladimir Region, and placed in an invalid home there. In Gorokhovets, Shulgin was allowed to return to literary work, and in a nursing home in 1958 he wrote the first book after his release, The Experience of Lenin (published only in 1997), in which he tried to comprehend the results of the social, political and economic construction that began in Russia after 1917. The significance of this book is that, not assuming that his contemporaries would be able to read it, Shulgin tried to describe Soviet history through the eyes of a man of the 19th century who saw and remembers "tsarist Russia", in which he played a significant political role. Unlike emigrants, who knew about Soviet life only by hearsay, Shulgin observed the development of Soviet society from the inside.
According to Shulgin's point of view of this period, the beginning of the civil war in Russia was initiated by the "obscene" Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which many citizens of Russia could not then regard otherwise than as a treacherous surrender and national humiliation. However, reflecting on the events of those days through the past years, Shulgin came to the conclusion that Lenin's position was not so unrealistic and irrational - by making peace, as Shulgin wrote, the Bolsheviks saved millions of Russian lives from destruction at the front of the First World War.
As a Russian nationalist, Shulgin could not help but rejoice at the growing influence of the Soviet Union in the world: "The Reds ... in their own way glorified the Russian name, ... like never before." In socialism itself, he saw the further development of the features inherent in Russian society - communal organization, love for authoritarian power; even to atheism he gave an explanation that it is just a modification of the Orthodox faith.
However, he did not idealize Soviet life, and some of his gloomy reflections turned out to be prophetic. He was concerned about the strength of the criminal environment, which he had to get acquainted with in custody. He believed that under certain circumstances (weakening of power), this "formidable" force, "hostile to any creation," would be able to come to the surface and "bandits would take over life." He also considered the national problem unresolved: “The situation of Soviet power will be difficult if, at the moment of any weakening of the center, all the nationalities that have entered the union ... of the USSR will be caught by the whirlwind of belated separatism.” A serious problem, in his opinion, was the low standard of living in the USSR, especially in comparison with the standard of living in the developed countries of Europe - he noticed that traits such as fatigue and irritability turned into national traits of the Soviet people. Summing up, Shulgin wrote:
“My opinion, formed over forty years of observation and reflection, boils down to the fact that for the fate of all mankind it is not only important, but simply necessary that the communist experience, which has gone so far, be brought to the end without hindrance.
What I am writing now is a feeble senile attempt, before completely, completely stepping aside, to express, as I understand it, the pitfalls that threaten the ship Russia, on which I once sailed.
- Shulgin V. V. Lenin's experience.
Historian D. I. Babkov believed that Shulgin came to understand and justify the “Lenin experience”, but, as before, from the standpoint of nationalist and conservative - “Lenin’s experience” must be “completed to the end” only so that the Russian people finally "got sick" and got rid of the "relapse of the communist disease" forever. Historians A.V. Repnikov and I.N. Grebyonkin believed that Shulgin could not be accused of wanting to curry favor or confirm his loyalty to the Soviet government in order to improve his own position. By writing the book The Experience of Lenin, Shulgin tried to analyze the changes that had taken place in Russia and force the authorities to heed his warnings.

Shulgin himself best described the beginning of his stay in the Gorohovets invalid home by writing in his diary on September 28, 1956, regarding the expectation of his wife's arrival: “Today I gave her a telegram to Budapest. What about telegram money? Given by the director of the nursing home. He offered irrevocably, but I wrote in the application: "mutually" - and asked for 10 rubles. The telegram cost 6 rubles. 92 kop. Together with the rest of the photo card, I now have 3 rubles. 92 kop. ... I’d better leave Mariyka for apples if she comes without a penny, what should we expect.
Soon, his wife Maria Dmitrievna, the daughter of the tsarist general D.M., came to Gorokhovets from Hungary to Vasily Vitalievich. Sidelnikova, teacher, translator, writer (literary pseudonym - Maria Zhdanova).
In 1956-58, on the streets of Gorokhovets and its environs, one could meet a tall, lean, gray-haired old man in a black hat and with a stick in his hands quietly strolling. His favorite places for walks were a floating bridge across the river. Klyazma and the hills, where the city park and Nikolsky Monastery are located. Sometimes he sat for a long time on the landings of the city stairs. I often visited the post office and the bookstore. Now, after so many years, many fragments of fleeting meetings with this person have been erased in my memory, and, nevertheless, I clearly remember his leisurely gait when he and Maria Dmitrievna walk along the gentle descent to the bridge or talk quietly, sitting on a bench opposite our house . It takes place on a warm sunny day May 1, 1957. A May Day demonstration was going on in the city, smart people were walking by, and he looked at them, leaning on a cane with both hands, probably for the first time observing this episode of Soviet reality, completely unknown to him. For him, it was a meeting with the new Russia, and our city for him became exactly the place where he began to learn and study it. He lived on the second floor, in a room of 12 square meters. m, located in the middle of the building next to the first-aid post. The windows of the room overlooked the courtyard.
Gorohovets historical chronicle. Issue 2” (Vladimir, 2002).

But in the Gorohovets invalid home there were no conditions for family living, and in March 1958 the reunited family was transferred from Gorokhovets to the same boarding school, but only in the city of Vladimir, where conditions were better.

Life in Vladimir

In 1960, the Shulgins were allocated a one-room apartment in Vladimir (House No. 1 on Feygin Street, the Shulgins lived in apartment No. 1 on the ground floor from 1960 until their death.), where they lived under constant KGB surveillance. He was allowed to write books and articles, receive guests, travel around the USSR, and even occasionally visit Moscow. A real pilgrimage began to Shulgin: many unknown and famous visitors came who wanted to talk with a person who witnessed turning events in the history of Russia - writer M.K. Kasvinov, author of the book "Twenty-three steps down", dedicated to the history of the reign of Nicholas II, director S. N. Kolosov, who made a television film about the “Operation Trust”, writer L. V. Nikulin, author of a fiction novel-chronicle dedicated to the same operation, writers D. A. Zhukov and A. I. Solzhenitsyn, who questioned Shulgin about the events of the February Revolution, collecting materials for the novel "The Red Wheel" and the study "Two Hundred Years Together", artist I. S. Glazunov, musician M. L. Rostropovich.
In 1961, a book written by Shulgin, Letters to Russian Emigrants, was published in a hundred thousand copies. The book stated that what the Soviet communists were doing in the second half of the 20th century was not only useful, but absolutely necessary for the Russian people and saving for all mankind. The book mentioned the standard ideological set of that time: about the leading role of the CPSU, about N. S. Khrushchev, whose personality “gradually captured” Shulgin. Subsequently, Shulgin spoke with annoyance about this book: “I was deceived” (to write the book, Shulgin was specially taken around the USSR, showing the “achievements” of the communist government, which in fact were “Potemkin villages”) but from the main idea of the book - that a new war, if it begins, it will become the end of the existence of the Russian people, - he did not renounce until his death.

In 1961, among the guests, Shulgin attended the XXII Congress of the CPSU. In 1965, Shulgin acted as the protagonist of the Soviet documentary "Before the Judgment of History" (directed by Friedrich Ermler, the work on the film went from 1962 to 1965), in which he shared his memories with a "Soviet historian" (the real historian could not be found , and the role was assigned to the actor and intelligence officer Sergei Svistunov). Shulgin did not make any concessions, the goal of the film - to show that the leaders of the white emigration themselves recognized that their struggle was lost and the cause of the "builders of communism" had won - was not achieved, and the film was shown in Moscow and Leningrad cinemas for only three days: despite the interest of the audience, the film was withdrawn from the rental. According to KGB General Philip Bobkov, who oversaw the creation of the film from the department and closely communicated with the entire creative team, “Shulgin looked great on the screen and, importantly, remained himself all the time. He did not play along with his interlocutor. He was a man resigned to the circumstances, but not broken and not relinquishing his convictions. The venerable age of Shulgin did not affect either the work of thought or temperament, and did not diminish his sarcasm either. His young opponent, whom Shulgin caustically and maliciously ridiculed, looked very pale next to him.
All this - trips around the country, published books, an invitation to a party congress and the release of a film - were signs of the Khrushchev "thaw". But as soon as N. S. Khrushchev was removed and new leaders came to power in the USSR, the ideological policy changed, censorship was tightened. Attracting Shulgin to public life was recognized as erroneous at a meeting of the secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Shulgin never accepted Soviet citizenship. Living abroad, he also did not take foreign citizenship, remaining a subject of the Russian Empire, jokingly called himself stateless. On July 27, 1968, Shulgin's wife died. After seeing his wife on their last journey, Shulgin settled near the cemetery near Vladimir and lived there for 40 days, next to a fresh grave. The lonely old man was cared for by housemates.

Shulgin has always been a romantically minded person, showing an increased interest in the mysterious phenomena of the human psyche. All his life he kept an "anthology of mysterious cases" - those that happened to him or to his relatives and friends. He was personally acquainted with many prominent occultists (G. I. Gurdjieff, A. V. Sakko, S. V. Tukholka, etc.), until the end of his days he was fond of spiritualism. Towards the end of his life, his mysticism intensified. At the same time, he made a habit of writing down the content of the dreams that he had the day before in ordinary student notebooks every morning. In recent years, he could not see well and wrote almost at random, in a very large handwriting. Notebooks with records of his dreams accumulated several suitcases. The artist I. S. Glazunov wrote that, according to his information, from 1966 until his death, Shulgin wrote a diary book called "Mysticism". After Shulgin's death, the manuscript came to the artist and was published with slight cuts in 2002 in the journal Our Contemporary. Passion for mysticism was due to the fact that V.V. Shulgin increasingly painfully perceived his participation in the revolution and actual complicity in the tragedy of the Royal Family. “My life will be connected with the King and the Queen until my last days, although they are somewhere in another world, and I continue to live in this one. And this relationship does not decrease over time. On the contrary, it grows every year. And now, in 1966, this connection seemed to have reached its limit, ‒ Shulgin noted. - Every person in the former Russia, if he thinks about the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, will certainly remember me, Shulgin. And back. If anyone gets to know me, then inevitably the shadow of the monarch who handed me the abdication of the throne 50 years ago will appear in his mind. Considering that “both the Sovereign and the loyal subject who dared to ask for abdication were victims of circumstances, inexorable and inevitable,” Shulgin wrote: “Yes, I accepted the abdication so that the Tsar would not be killed, like Paul I, Peter III, Alexander II th ... But Nicholas II was still killed! And therefore, and therefore I am condemned: I failed to save the King, the Queen, their children and relatives. Failed! It's as if I'm wrapped in a roll of barbed wire that hurts me every time I touch it." Therefore, Shulgin bequeathed, “we must also pray for us, purely sinful, powerless, weak-willed and hopeless confusions. Not an excuse, but only a mitigation of our guilt can be the fact that we are entangled in a web woven from the tragic contradictions of our century ...

In January 1973, one of the first specialists in the field of "oral history" - V.D. Duvakin - recorded on audiotape four conversations with Shulgin, with a total duration of 610 minutes, in which he talked about his life in exile. The text of these notes was partially published by the researcher D. B. Sporov in 2007 in the collection Diaspora: New Materials.

Vasily Shulgin on his last birthday. Photo by I. A. Palmina

Back in 1951, while in prison, Shulgin rewrote "in the form of restoring the truth" a poem by Igor Severyanin, once dedicated to himself:
“He was an empty flower. It's all about
That as a child he read Jules Verne, Walter Scott,
And to the dear old days a great hunt
With a mirage future weaved awkwardly in it.
But still he was driven in vain
Of the Ukrainian brothers, those
Who do not understand the topic
He was a direct lover of the land."
Believing that he would die soon, he bequeathed the last line to be cut on the reverse side of his gravestone, and for its front side he composed the following epitaph for himself:
The last sheets are filled with blissful tears.
But do not be sad, pen, they will return to you again.
When the thunder strikes and the dead slabs rise,
I will sing immortal love again!

Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin died in Vladimir on February 15, 1976, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, at the ninety-ninth year of his life, from an attack of angina pectoris. As L. E. Marinina, his guardian, who lived with him for the last years and cared for the old man, recalled: “... he felt good all the time, but in January he had the flu ... on the night of February 15, he felt chest pain and took pills from angina pectoris, then in the morning at half past seven he went to bed, as usual he sat at night and slept during the day, and I went to the store ... I come, and he is already dead ... "
They buried him in the cemetery, next to the Vladimir prison, in which he spent 12 years. He was buried at the Baigushi cemetery. There were 10-12 people at the funeral, among them - A. K. Golitsyn, I. S. Glazunov. The KGB officers watched the funeral from a gas truck. They buried him next to his wife. Both graves have survived. A strict black cross was erected above them, mounted on a small pedestal, on which the names and dates of life are engraved.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Shulgin until the last days of his life retained a clear mind and a good memory and remained a Russian patriot.

According to the conclusion of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation dated November 12, 2001, Shulgin was fully rehabilitated.

Feigina street, 1.

In house 1 on Feygin Street in the city of Vladimir, a monarchist lived for several years, until his death. In 2008, on the house number 1 in Vladimir, where he spent the last years of his life, a memorial plaque was installed with the text: “In this house from 1960 to 1976. lived an outstanding public and political figure Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin.

In the 1965 novel "Dead Swell" by the writer L. V. Nikulin, Shulgin is shown as one of the participants in the KGB operation "Trust". In 1967, the novel was filmed by Sergei Kolosov under the title "Operation Trust"; the role of Shulgin was played by Rodion Aleksandrov.
In the film directed by F. M. Ermler "Before the Court of History", released in 1965 and dedicated to the events of the February Revolution, Shulgin played himself. Possessing the skills of an outstanding Duma orator, Shulgin, by means of acting, tried to convey to his descendants the emotionality of the Duma speeches, the speech manner and appearance of Emperor Nicholas II and other persons, his own perception of the historical events that he witnessed.

In 2016, a stone and a memorial plaque to Vasily Shulgin were installed in Gorokhovets.
The perpetuation of the memory of Shulgin in Gorokhovets is associated with the 40th anniversary of his death and the 60th anniversary of the beginning of his residence in the Vladimir region. The stone was installed on the site of the former Gorokhovets nursing home, in which Shulgin lived for 2 years.

Political activist, publicist. Born in Kyiv in the family of a history professor at Kyiv University. He graduated from the 2nd Kyiv Gymnasium and the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University (1900). Since his student years he was an anti-Semite, but he was against Jewish pogroms.

From 1907 he devoted himself entirely to political activity. He was a deputy of the II - IV State Dumas from the Volyn province. In the Duma, he soon became one of the leaders of the right - the monarchist group of nationalist-progressives and one of the best speakers. He welcomed the dispersal of the Second Duma, called it "a thought of people's anger and ignorance."

In the III Duma supported P.A. Stolypin and his reforms, advocated harsh measures against revolutionaries, defended the idea of introducing the death penalty.

In 1914 he volunteered for the front and was wounded. The unpreparedness of the Russian army for war, the retreat of the army in 1915 shocked him. He returned to the Duma as a determined opponent of the government.

In August 1915, the Progressive Bloc was elected in the State Duma, which set itself the task of creating a government responsible to the Duma. V.V. Shulgin was elected to the leadership of the Progressive Bloc. From the rostrum of the State Duma, he called "to fight the government until it leaves." On February 27, 1917, a revolutionary crowd broke into the Tauride Palace, where the Duma was meeting.

Later V.V. Shulgin will convey the feeling of that moment: "Soldiers, workers, students, intellectuals, just people ... They flooded the bewildered Tauride Palace. ... But no matter how many of them, they all had the same face: vile - animal - stupid or vile - diabolically - vicious ... Machine guns - that's what I wanted.

On March 2, the Provisional Committee sent V.V. to the tsar in Pskov for negotiations. Shulgin and A.I. Guchkov. But Nicholas II signed the Act of Abdication in favor of the brother of the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

Best of the day

03 March V.V. Shulgin took part in negotiations with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, as a result of which he refused to accept the throne until the decision of the Constituent Assembly. April 26, 1917 V.V. Shulgin admitted: "I can't say that the entire Duma wanted a revolution entirely; all this would be untrue .... But, even without wanting it, we created a revolution."

V.V. Shulgin strongly supported the Provisional Government, but, seeing its inability to restore order in the country, in early October 1917 he moved to Kyiv. There he headed the "Russian National Union".

From the end of 1918 he edited the newspaper "Russia", then "Great Russia", praising the monarchist and nationalist principles and the purity of the "white idea". After the end of the civil war, he emigrated.

In 1925-1926. illegally arrived in Russia, visited Kyiv, Moscow, Leningrad. He described his visit to the USSR in the book "Three Capitals", summed up his impressions with the words: "When I went there, I did not have a homeland. Now I have it." From the 30s. lived in Yugoslavia.

In 1937 he retired from political activity. When in 1944 Soviet troops entered the territory of Yugoslavia, V.V. Shulgin was arrested and taken to Moscow. For "hostile to communism and anti-Soviet activities" he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served his term in the Vladimir prison, worked on his memoirs. After the death of I.V. Stalin, during the period of a broad amnesty for political prisoners in 1956, he was released and settled in Vladimir.

In the 1960s urged the emigration to abandon hostility towards the USSR. In 1965, he starred in the documentary "Before the Judgment of History": V.V. Shulgin, sitting in the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace, where the State Duma met, answered the questions of the historian.

He was a guest of the XXII Congress of the CPSU (October 1961), at which a new Party Program was adopted - a program for building communism. His memoirs belong to his pen: "Days" (1925), "1920" (1921), "Three Capitals" (1927), "The Adventures of Prince Voronetsky" (1934).

January 13, 1878 Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin (1878, Kyiv - 1976, Vladimir) was born in Kyiv, a man of a unique, unusually eventful fate. It's no joke to say: he was born during the reign of Alexander II, and went to another world under the late Brezhnev. He was not destined to see his father, Vitaly Yakovlevich Shulgin, he died a month before the birth of his son. Vitaly Shulgin (1822 - 1877), professor of history at Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr was the founder of the legendary Kyiv newspaper "Kiyevlyanin", or rather, he was in 1864. took up editing the government-founded, little-known moderate-liberal newspaper of the same name. The editorial of the first article, essentially the new newspaper, ended with the famous words “This is a Russian land, Russian, Russian!”, Which later became the motto of all life for Vasily Shulgin.

Soon after the death of her husband, the professor's widow married a young comrade-in-arms and like-minded spouse - Dmitry Ivanovich Pikhno (1853, Chigirinsky district of the Kyiv province - 1913 Kyiv). Crooked grins can be discarded immediately, everything was after the death of her husband. The memory of Vasily's father in the new family was sacred, the question of what surname to bear little Vasily did not arise. Dmitry Ivanovich Pikhno in 1877 started working in the newspaper "Kievlyanin" as a specialist in legal and economic issues, in 1879. took over the editing of the newspaper, fully continuing the editorial policy of the founder of the newspaper. For Vasily Shulgin, his stepfather became a truly close person for life, who raised him as his own son. By the way, Dmitry Ivanovich Pikhno was also born on January 13 (according to the new style), 1853. and this anniversary post is dedicated to him. Learn more about this wonderful man.

By the 90s of the 19th century, the newspaper "Kievlyanin" became the most popular and read newspaper not only in Kyiv, but also in the entire South-Western Territory. This newspaper was not an organ of any organization, while its leading employees were members of one of the most powerful and influential political organizations in pre-revolutionary Kyiv, the Kiev Club of Russian Nationalists.It was to these people that the words of Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin were addressed: “My sympathy and support is entirely on your side. I consider you and the members of your club in general to be the salt of this land.”

Here are excerpts from the biography of Vasily Shulgin, author Alexander Repnikov:

“In 1900 Shulgin graduated from the university. He spent one year at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. He became a zemstvo vowel and an honorary magistrate. At the same time, he was a leading journalist (from 1911 - editor) of "Kievlyanin". In 1902 he was called up for military service in the 3rd sapper brigade, in December of the same year he was transferred to the reserve with the rank of ensign of the reserve field engineering troops. After his dismissal from the army, he left for the Volyn province, where he was engaged in agriculture until 1905. Shulgin was already a family man when the Russo-Japanese War began. In 1905, he volunteered for the Japanese front, but the war ended and Shulgin was sent to Kyiv. After the publication of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, unrest began in Kyiv and Shulgin tried to restore order on the streets of the city along with his soldiers.

During the elections to the II State Duma in the summer of 1906, Shulgin proved to be an excellent agitator. He was elected as a landowner from the Volyn province (where he had 300 acres of land), first in the II, and then in the III and IV Dumas, where he was one of the leaders of the right, and then the nationalists. Speaking in the Duma, Shulgin, in contrast to another right-wing speaker, V.M. Purishkevich, he spoke quietly and politely, although he always ironically parried the attacks of his opponents, whom he once addressed with a caustic question: “Tell me frankly, gentlemen, do any of you have a bomb in your bosom?” Nicholas II received him several times. Shulgin repeatedly supported the actions of P.A. Stolypin, whose staunch supporter he remained until the end of his life, supporting not only the famous reforms, but also measures to suppress the revolutionary movement.

In 1913, in connection with the case of M. Beilis, Shulgin spoke in Kievlyanin on September 27 with sharp criticism of the actions of the government. Shulgin told that the top police officials were instructed to find the “Kid” at all costs; said, according to the investigator, that the main thing for the investigation was to prove the existence of ritual murders, and not the guilt of Beilis. “You yourself are performing human sacrifice,” Shulgin wrote. “You treated Beiliss like a rabbit that is placed on a vivisection table.” For this article, he was sentenced to 3 months in prison "for spreading deliberately false information about senior officials in the press ...", and the newspaper was confiscated. Those copies that have already sold out were resold for 10 rubles.

Shulgin met the First World War in Kyiv and hurried to the capital to take part in the meetings of the Duma. Then he went to the front as a volunteer. In the rank of ensign of the 166th Rivne Infantry Regiment of the Southwestern Front, he participated in battles. He was wounded, after being wounded, he headed the zemstvo advanced dressing and feeding detachment. In 1915, Shulgin, from the Duma rostrum, unexpectedly spoke out against the arrest and conviction of Social Democratic deputies under a criminal article, calling it "a major state mistake." Then, in August of that year, he left the Nationalist faction and formed the Nationalist Progressive Group.
February 27, 1917 Shulgin was elected to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. On March 2, he, together with A.I. Guchkov, was sent to Pskov for negotiations with the emperor and was present at the signing of the renunciation manifesto in favor of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, which he later wrote in detail in his book Days. The next day - March 3, he was present at the refusal of Mikhail Alexandrovich from the throne and participated in the preparation and editing of the act of renunciation.

On August 14, at the State Conference, Shulgin spoke out sharply against the abolition of the death penalty, elective committees in the army and the autonomy of Ukraine. Answering the opening speech of A.F. Kerensky, he emphasized that he wanted the power of the Provisional Government to be really strong, and that the Little Russians, "like 300 years ago," wished to "keep with Moscow" a strong and indestructible alliance. Shulgin, who arrived once again in Kyiv, was arrested on the night of August 30, 1917 by order of the "Committee for the Protection of the Revolution in the City of Kyiv." The Kievlyanin newspaper was closed (on September 2, the issue of the newspaper was resumed). Soon Shulgin was released, returned to Petrograd, but in early October 1917 he moved to Kyiv, where he headed the "Russian National Union". In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, his candidacy was nominated by the Monarchist Union of the Southern Coast of Crimea. On October 17, in Kyiv, under the chairmanship of Shulgin, a congress of Russian voters of the Kyiv province was held; accepted the order, which stated that one of the main tasks of the Constituent Assembly should be the creation of a solid state power.

In November 1917, Shulgin visited Novocherkassk, where he met with General M.V. Alekseev and took part in the formation of the Volunteer Army. With indignation, he received the news of the conclusion of the Brest peace. In January 1918, when the Reds occupied Kyiv, Shulgin was arrested, but soon released.
In February 1918, German troops came to Kyiv, and Shulgin, who fought them at the front, refused to publish a newspaper in protest, addressing the Germans who came to Kyiv in the last issue of Kievlyanin on March 10 in an editorial: the Germans were not invited, then we do not want to enjoy the benefits of relative calm and some political freedom that the Germans have brought us. We have no right to do this... We are your enemies. We may be your prisoners of war, but we will not be your friends as long as the war is on. The issue of "Kievlyanin" was resumed after the occupation of Kyiv by the army of General A.I. Denikin and discontinued in December 1919.

From March 1918 to January 1920, Shulgin became involved in illegal work, leading the secret organization "Azbuka" under Denikin's army. This name was given to the intelligence department at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the All-Union Socialist Republic.
In August 1918, having crossed to the Don, Shulgin arrived in the Volunteer Army, where, with the participation of General A.M. Dragomirova developed the "Regulations on the Special Meeting" under the Supreme Leader of the Volunteer Army. At the same time, he edited the newspaper Rossiya (Great Russia) in various cities, in which he promoted the "white idea".

1920 finds Shulgin in Odessa. The White armies left the Crimea, trying to break through the Dniester. Having moved to Romania, Shulgin, along with other soldiers and officers, was disarmed and expelled from Romanian territory. Having already returned to "red" Odessa, Shulgin lived there, in an illegal position until July 1920, then went to the Crimea, to the army of P.N. Wrangel. Upon learning that his nephew was arrested by the Cheka, Shulgin made another attempt to illegally enter Odessa, where he contacted the White Guard underground, but without finding his nephew (later shot), he again finds himself in Romania. Having lost his three sons and wife in the confusion of the civil war, he left for Constantinople. The "White Cause" failed in Russia. Trying to predict the future of Russia in the turmoil of the retreat, Shulgin comes to unexpected conclusions: “our ideas jumped over the front ... they (the Bolsheviks - A.R.) restored the Russian army ... Strange as it may seem, but it’s true ... The banner of United Russia was actually raised by the Bolsheviks ... someone will come who will take from them their "decree" ... Their determination is to take responsibility, to make incredible decisions. Their cruelty is the implementation of what was once decided ... He will be truly red in willpower and truly white in the tasks he pursues. He will be a Bolshevik in energy and a nationalist in conviction. It has the lower jaw of a lone boar... And "Human Eyes". And the thinker’s forehead… All this horror that is now hanging over Russia is only terrible, difficult, terribly painful… the birth of an autocrat.”

On the emigrant steamer, Shulgin met the daughter of General D.M. Sidelnikova Maria Dmitrievna, half his age. A love affair began, which continued abroad. Here the former wife was found, but in 1923 Shulgin obtained her consent to a divorce and in the fall of 1924 he married his new wife.
From the autumn of 1922 to August 1923, Shulgin lived near Berlin. Since the formation of the Russian All-Military Union in 1923, he has been a member of this organization and fulfills the instructions of the head of the Wrangel counterintelligence E.K. Klimovich, on whose instructions he contacts the leadership of the underground anti-Soviet organization "Trust" and illegally visits the USSR. In the autumn of 1925, Shulgin leaves for Warsaw. On the night of December 23, 1925, he illegally crosses the border and arrives in Minsk, from where he moves to Kyiv, and then to Moscow. Living in a dacha near Moscow, he holds several meetings with A.A. Yakushev, as well as with other members of the Trust organization. In February 1926, with the help of Yakushev, Shulgin leaves for Minsk, crosses the border of Poland and from there departs for Yugoslavia, where he informs Klimovich about the results of his trip. Shulgin outlined his impressions of the trip to the USSR in the book "Three Capitals" (I give link to this book, it is quite voluminous, but if there are a few free evenings, then it is worth it to read it - my note).

After it turned out that Shulgin's arrival in the USSR, all his movements around the country and meetings were held under the control of the OGPU, the confidence in him among emigrants was undermined. In the same period, Shulgin was actively engaged in literary activities. From under his pen, in addition to the already mentioned book "Three Capitals", there appear "Days", "1920", "The Adventures of Prince Voronetsky". Some of Shulgin's works were published in Soviet Russia.

After long wanderings, Shulgin, moving away from active political activity, settled in Yugoslavia, in the city of Sremski Karlovtsy. Being himself a Russian nationalist (but by no means a chauvinist), Shulgin saw in Hitler's attack on the USSR not so much an opportunity to "get even" with former opponents as a threat to the security of historical Russia.
In October 1944, Sremsky Karlovtsy, where Shulgin lived, was liberated by the Soviet Army. On December 24, 1944, he was taken to the Yugoslav city of Novi Sad, and on January 2, 1945, he was detained by the detective of the 3rd branch of the 1st department of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant Vedernikov, at the direction of the head of the 3rd department A .AND. Chubarova. After the initial interrogation, Shulgin was taken first to Hungary, then to Moscow, where his arrest was formalized. After the indictment and the investigation, which lasted more than two years, Shulgin, by decision of the Special Meeting at the USSR Ministry of State Security, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was charged with a standard set of various parts of Art. 58. Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Shulgin served his term in the Vladimir prison (1947-1956).

On the night of March 5, 1953, Shulgin had a dream: “A magnificent horse fell, fell on its hind legs, resting its front legs on the ground, which it filled with blood.” At first, he connected the dream with the anniversary of the death of Alexander II, and only then did he learn about the death of I.V. Stalin. A different era came and in 1956 Shulgin was released. He was allowed to settle with his wife, who was brought from exile. At first, he lived in a nursing home in the city of Gorokhovets, Vladimir Region, then, in the city of Vladimir (the authorities allocated a one-room apartment to him and his wife).

In 1961, in the book “Letters to Russian Emigrants”, published in a hundred thousand copies, Shulgin admitted that what the communists do, defending the cause of peace, in the second half of the 20th century is not only useful, but absolutely necessary for the people they lead and even salvific for all mankind. With all the necessary reservations (the book mentions the leading role of the party and N.S. Khrushchev, whose personality “gradually captured” Shulgin), the book also contains reflections about God, the place and role of man on earth, and etc. Shulgin was a guest at the XXII Congress of the CPSU and heard how the Program for building communism was adopted. Then he took part in the feature film "Before the Judgment of History", directed by F.M. Ermler according to the scenario of V.P. Vladimirov, playing himself.

He was allowed to receive guests and even sometimes travel to Moscow. Gradually, a pilgrimage began to Shulgin. The writer M.K. met with Shulgin three times from August 1973 to August 1975. Kasvinov, author of the book "Twenty-three steps down", dedicated to the history of the reign of Nicholas II. Director S.N. Kolosov, who was filming a television film about the operation "Trust", L.V. Nikulin, author of a fiction novel-chronicle dedicated to the same operation; writers D.A. Zhukov and A.I. Solzhenitsyn, artist I.S. Glazunov and others. Suddenly, Shulgin's son, Dmitry, was found. They entered into correspondence, but the father wanted to see his son and Shulgin turned to the authorities with a request for a trip. After a long ordeal, the answer came: "It is not advisable."

Vasily Shulgin died in 1976. at the age of 99, he was buried in Vladimir next to his wife, whom, alas, he survived by almost 8 years.
History has preserved for us footage from Friedrich Ermler's film Before the Judgment of History. The film was shot in 1965, on these shots Vasily Vitalievich is 87 years old, in my opinion - a handsome man, God forbid everyone to keep such clear thinking and an excellent memory at such an age.

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