Arrest of Poskrebyshev and Vlasik

Not a single modern historian has yet considered the arrest of Stalin's personal secretary A.N. Poskrebyshev and the head of security N.S. Vlasik as links of one chain that preceded the elimination of the leader. The task is rather difficult, but we will try anyway. To begin with, let's turn to the memoirs of P. A. Sudoplatov.

Lieutenant General Vlasik, - said Pavel Anatolyevich, - the head of the Kremlin guard, was sent to Siberia to the post of head of the camp and secretly arrested there. Vlasik was charged with concealing the famous letter of L. Timashuk, which Ryumin used to start the "doctors' case", as well as in suspicious ties with foreign intelligence agents and secret collusion with Abakumov.

After the arrest, Vlasik was mercilessly beaten and tortured. His desperate letters to Stalin about his innocence went unanswered. Vlasik was forced to admit that he abused his power, that he allowed suspicious people to attend official receptions in the Kremlin, Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater, where Stalin and members of the Politburo were, who, thus, could be exposed to terrorist attacks. Vlasik remained imprisoned until 1955, when he was now convicted of embezzling funds for the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, and then amnestied. Despite the support of Marshal Zhukov, his requests for rehabilitation were denied.

The dismissal of Vlasik did not mean at all that Beria could now change people in Stalin's personal guard. In 1952, after the arrest of Vlasik, Ignatiev personally headed the Kremlin Security Directorate, combining this position with the post of Minister of State Security.

Even before the conversation with P. A. Sudoplatov, I learned that Vlasik was arrested on December 15, 1952. But his trial took place two years after Stalin's death - on January 17, 1955.

Excerpt from court testimony:

presiding. When did you meet the artist S.?

Vlasik. In 1934 or 1935. He worked on the decoration of Red Square for the festive holidays.

presiding. What brought you closer to him?

Vlasik. Of course, the rapprochement was based on joint drinking and meeting women ...

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, you exposed secret agents of the MGB before S. He testified: “I learned from Vlasik that my friend Krivova is an agent of the authorities, and that his cohabitant Ryazantseva is also cooperating.”

Recognizing this, Vlasik shows:

But in matters of service, I was always in place. Drinking and meeting women was at the expense of my health and in my spare time. I admit, I had a lot of women.

Did the head of government warn you about the inadmissibility of such behavior?

Yes, in 1950 he told me that I was abusing relationships with women.

You showed that Sarkisov reported to you about Beria's debauchery, and you said: "There is nothing to interfere in Beria's personal life, we must protect him."

Yes, I got away from this, because I thought that it was not my business to interfere in this, because it is connected with the name of Beria.

How could you allow a huge overspending of public funds in your administration?

My literacy suffers greatly, my whole education consists in three classes of the parish school.

Defendant Vlasik, tell the court what of the trophy property you acquired illegally, without payment?

As far as I remember: a piano, a grand piano, three or four carpets.

What can you say about fourteen cameras? Where do you get crystal vases, glasses, porcelain dishes in such quantity?

It's enough. Pianos, carpets, cameras - this is nothing more than an excuse. The main thing is completely different. And A. Avtorkhanov speaks about this main thing, referring to the situation in the early fifties: “Two people are regaining their former importance: Lieutenant General A. N. Poskrebyshev and Lieutenant General N. S. Vlasik. No one can have access to Stalin without these persons, not even members of the Politburo. There were exceptions, if Stalin himself called someone, most often for drinking dinners. Stalin not only managed current affairs through these two persons, but he entrusted them with his personal security. An outside force could sneak up on Stalin only through the crisis of this ideal service of his personal security. In other words, no one could remove Stalin before they remove these two persons. But no one could remove them either, except Stalin himself.

Avtorkhanov gave an unflattering description of Poskrebyshev. Yes, by nature a helper. Yes, not an independent figure. What was another temporary worker of Stalin, General Vlasik? According to the researcher, it was Arakcheev and Rasputin in one person: a soulless martinet and a cunning peasant. In the Russian and Soviet armies, A. Avtorkhanov writes, this is probably the only case when an illiterate, simple soldier, bypassing all sorts of courses and schools, reached the rank of lieutenant general. Moreover, he acted as an interpreter of Stalin's views on cultural issues. Vlasik broke the record for the duration of his service with Stalin - he is the only one who managed to hold out from 1919 until almost until Stalin's death.

Chechens say: a wolf marching to a mountain top risks his life. So many "Stalin's wolves" died - at the hands of Stalin himself. But, sacrificing such wolves as Poskrebyshev and Vlasik, Stalin did not know that for the first time in his life he had become an instrument of someone else's will.

The opinion of a foreign political scientist of Soviet origin, who, by the way, never saw Vlasik, and the opinion of Stalin's daughter, although she knew her father's main bodyguard from childhood, do not differ in many respects:

General Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik stayed near his father for a very long time, since 1919. Then he was a Red Army soldier assigned to guard, and then became a very powerful person behind the scenes. He headed all of his father’s guards, considered himself almost the closest person to him, and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years he went so far as to dictate to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin” ... And the figures listened and followed these tips ... His impudence knew no bounds ... It would not be worth mentioning him at all - he ruined the lives of many - but before that he was a colorful figure that you would not pass by him. During my mother's lifetime, he existed somewhere in the background as a bodyguard. At his father’s dacha, in Kuntsevo, he was constantly and “supervised” from there all the other residences of his father, which over the years became more and more ... Vlasik could do anything with the power given to him ...

Significant details in the portrait of N. S. Vlasik are added by the writer K. Stolyarov, who, judging by his works, studied the Lubyanka characters well:

Protecting Stalin was a troublesome and nervous task, because, according to Vlasik, there were always intriguers nearby who tried to remove him from this work. The first such attempt took place in 1934. And in 1935, he, Vlasik, covered Stalin with his body when the pleasure boat was fired upon from the shore by a border guard post, and, not at a loss, organized a return machine-gun fire, after which the shots at the boat stopped. The leader was imbued with confidence in Vlasik, for ten years Nikolai Sergeevich was not disturbed by intrigues, and then the unrest began again ...

However, Vlasik himself spoke about this episode in a letter from the places of punishment: “In 1946, my enemies slandered me, and I was removed from the post of head of the Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. But Comrade Stalin reacted to this with all sensitivity, he himself figured out all the charges against me, which were absolutely false, and, convinced of my innocence, restored my former confidence.

In 1948, Fedoseev, commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, was arrested. The investigation was led by Serov under the direct supervision of Beria. Testimony was taken from Fedoseyev against me that I supposedly wanted to poison Comrade Stalin. T. Stalin doubted this and personally verified it by summoning Fedoseyev for interrogation, where he stated that this was a lie, which he was forced to sign by beatings. The Fedoseev case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the MGB ...

Soon Serov summoned Orlov, the new commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, for interrogation and also demanded that he sign a false protocol against me, but Orlov refused. And Serov could not get a sanction for the arrest of Orlov ... "

“Big troubles befell Vlasik in the spring of 1952,” we read from the writer K. Stolyarov, “when the commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, chaired by G. Malenkov, revealed egregious outrages: taking advantage of the lack of control, the faithful bodyguards of the Kremlin elite at the master’s dachas ate black caviar with centners and balyks intended for nomenclature stomachs! In response to the question: “Where did you look?” - Vlasik explained that, due to his illiteracy, it was difficult for him to engage in financial and economic activities, so he entrusted control over this side of the work of the head office to his deputy. As for those cognacs and balychki that were brought from Stalin's dacha for his personal consumption, Nikolai Sergeevich answered: “Yes, there were such cases, but sometimes I paid money for these products. True, there were cases when they got it for free.

Apparently, Nikolai Sergeevich had no idea why he was being pestered because of some fish ?! If, according to his position, for decades he had been eating for free with Stalin, then - mother-to-be! - Is there a big difference: will he eat half a kilo of caviar in front of the leader, or will he take the same caviar with him, so to speak, "dry rations"?

In fairness, I note that there was no clear regulation in this regard, except for the old lackey rule: servants are allowed to take for themselves only what the owners themselves and the persons invited by them did not eat at the table - fruit from vases, salmon cut into petals, salmon, ham , although full, but already uncorked bottles of alcoholic beverages, etc. But, on the other hand, was General Vlasik obliged to be guided by the norms of behavior for lackeys, since he himself had long ago turned from a poor day laborer, if not into a socialist count , then at least a baron or a viscount, because he had his own chic state dacha with a personal chef, whom Nikolai Sergeevich terrorized in a uniform way and with whom, according to the testimony of witness P., “he spoke exclusively with the use of a selective obscenity, not embarrassed by the women present” ?

According to K. Stolyarov, they didn’t want to label Vlasik as a non-sent, but they punished him approximately by expelling him from the party and shamefully appointing him not to a general, but to an officer’s position as deputy head of a forced labor camp in the Urals, in the city of Asbest. He served there for only six months, and in December 1952 he was arrested for treason - it turns out that it was he, Vlasik, who in 1948 did not properly respond to Lydia Timashuk's denunciation about the villainous murder of A. Zhdanov.

When it turned out that the killer doctors were only doctors, but by no means murderers, Beria, as already mentioned, was in no hurry to release Vlasik. Those who replaced Beria did the same. During the investigation, some facts were discovered that made it possible to call Vlasik to account. For example, during a search in his house, they found a trophy service for 100 people, 112 crystal glasses, 20 crystal vases, 13 cameras, 14 photographic lenses, 5 rings and - as it is written in the protocol - a “foreign accordion”, which Vlasik acquired illegally without payment. In addition, Vlasik admitted that in 1945, at the end of the Potsdam Conference, “he took three cows, a bull and two horses out of Germany, of which he gave a cow, a bull and a horse to his brother, a cow and a horse to his sister, a cow to his niece; the cattle was delivered to the Slonim district of the Baranovichi region by train of the Security Department of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR.

But that is not all. The investigation found that Vlasik was morally decomposed, systematically drank and cohabited with women who received passes from him to the stands of Red Square and government theater boxes, and also kept in touch with persons who did not inspire political confidence, disclosed in conversations with them secret information regarding protection of the leaders of the party and the Soviet government, kept official documents in his apartment that were not subject to disclosure.

Despite the fact that Vlasik fervently argued that drinking and countless relationships with women occurred only in his spare time, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on January 17, 1955 issued a verdict:

“Vlasik Nikolai Sergeevich be deprived of the rank of lieutenant general, on the basis of Article 193-17, paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, using Article 51 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, exile for 10 (ten) years in a remote area of ​​the USSR. By virtue of Article 4 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 on amnesty, to reduce this punishment by half, that is, to 5 (five) years, without loss of rights.

To deprive Vlasik of medals: “For the defense of Moscow”, “For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”, “In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow”, “XXX years of the Soviet Army and Navy”, two badges of honor “VChK - GPU."

File a petition before the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to deprive Vlasik of government awards: three orders of Lenin, four orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Kutuzov 1st degree and the medal "XX Years of the Red Army".

The verdict is final and not subject to cassation appeal.

The hastily incriminated article on treason was absent in the verdict, it was replaced with abuse of office. Vlasik soon fell under an amnesty and returned to Moscow. He failed to achieve rehabilitation, despite the intercession of such influential people as the famous marshals Zhukov and Vasilevsky.

And here is the conclusion that A. Avtorkhanov came to: “In the decisive moments, there was no one near Stalin: neither the“ old guard ”of Stalin - the Molotovites, nor the“ most faithful squire ”Poskrebyshev, nor the life guard Vlasik, nor the devoted son Vasily, not even Vinogradov's personal doctor. The death of Stalin guards and regulates Beria with the constant presence of his three accomplices - Malenkov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, who betrayed Stalin, Beria, and themselves.

And now about another person closest to Stalin - A. N. Poskrebyshev, without whose report no one could enter the leader's office. Says the former employee of the Kremlin guard S. P. Krasikov:

The personal office of the leader - a special sector - for a long time was headed by Major General Alexander Nikolaevich Poskrebyshev, whom the owner called "chief", thereby making it clear that all issues relating to himself should first be agreed with Poskrebyshev.

About a year before Stalin's death, Beria, with the help of Malenkov, disbanded the well-coordinated personal guard of the leader. Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik was accused of squandering public funds and trying to embezzle and conceal important government documents. After one of the meetings of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which took place at Stalin's dacha in Volynsky, Vlasik, examining the premises, found a top secret document on the floor and put it in his pocket in order to pass it on to Poskrebyshev. But, by order of Stalin, when leaving the house he was detained and searched, then suspended from work. Whether the leader himself threw incriminating material to Vlasik or at the prompt of someone, but the car was given a move. Poskrebyshev was accused of losing his vigilance...

And now about one tenacious legend. After the death of Poskrebyshev, there were rumors that he left either diary entries about the years of work with Stalin, or almost completed memoirs. During the years of my work in the Central Committee of the CPSU, I was interested in many old-timers whether this was so. I remember one of the veterans of the general department retold the words of his former boss K. U. Chernenko:

Poskrebyshev could not keep diary entries due to the specifics of working for “himself” and because of the peculiarities of his secretive nature. After his death, we found nothing. And if I don’t know, our department was engaged in the seizure of archives at that time.

Konstantin Ustinovich at that time was in charge of the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

However, this does not mean that Poskrebyshev really did not leave any memoirs behind him. The fact that they have not yet been discovered is not yet evidence that they do not exist.

And yet Poskrebyshev, for all the importance of his post, was a "paper" general. Documents for signature, regulation of visitors. Another thing is Vlasik, who was directly responsible for the safety of the leader. Why was it removed? Who was the developer of the ingenious multi-move?

S. P. Krasikov, while preparing his notes for publication, talked with people who were well aware of this very mysterious matter, but who did not want to reveal their names. He gives one of these conversations in his book "Near the Leaders" in the form of questions and answers.

Question. Were the abuses of the “nine” (the Ninth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, which was responsible for the security of the top Soviet leadership) so strong? N.Z.), that it was necessary to arrest the head of the personal guard of the leader N. Vlasik?

Answer. The reason for his dismissal was the “doctors' case”. Vlasik was accused of hiding a letter from Lydia Timashuk since 1948, where Voroshilov, Mikoyan and Molotov were to become the main defendants.

Question. Don't you think that Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov deliberately disarmed his benefactor in order to doom him to defenselessness and loneliness? Did Beria help him in this? I remember that on the eve of the leader's illness, his personal guards were disbanded into different units. And some were even sent to where, as they say, Makar did not graze calves. Those who tried to resist lawlessness were shot on the spot. And all this while Joseph Vissarionovich was alive.

Answer. I remember. All the main guards were then discouraged by such a turn of events ... The veterans of the security service were dispersed, and the fledgling youth were only able to tremble before the members of the Politburo, and not demand from them the impeccable observance of the rules of official regulations. According to the stories of Colonel S. V. Gusarov, who at that time served in the protection of I. V. Stalin, the sudden death of the leader, who had felt quite tolerably the day before, gave rise to various rumors. One version of his sudden death was a premeditated murder.

The same Colonel Gusarov did not exclude the possibility that this heinous act was committed by someone from his inner circle.

Question. But who could be interested in this? Beria? At that time he was on the hook of Malenkov and knew that his every step was being watched, or Khrushchev? There was no reason for Malenkov to send the father of the leader to the forefathers, who, in fact, handed over to him the leadership of the party and the country ...

Answer. It seems that he bequeathed something, but he did not give it away. He teased his appetite, but he lives and gets on well, rules the country, leads the party. It is not known when it will turn up. Georgy Maximilianovich is beyond suspicion, he holds the cards in his hands.

Question. A game not for life, but for death, love and hate?

Answer. Don't know. But on the night of February 28 to March 1, Sergei Vasilievich Gusarov stood at his post at the entrance to the main house of the dacha, saw Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev leaving at about four o'clock in the morning. He remembered that Malenkov then breathed a sigh of relief, and they all went home.

Question. What are you implying? Imagine breathing a sigh of relief. What follows from that?

Answer. Nothing. However, some heaviness from the soul, it turns out, Malenkov removed. Which one? ... When Molotov was asked the question: “Could it be that they (Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev) poisoned Stalin when they drank tea with him on the last day before the illness?” - he answered without a shadow of a doubt: “Could be. It could be ... Beria and Malenkov were closely connected. Khrushchev joined them and had his own goals ... "

Question. But Khrushchev, in his memoirs, claims that the only person interested in Stalin's death was Lavrenty Beria.

Answer. In this situation, G. M. Malenkov was also interested in Stalin's death. It was not Beria who dispersed the Stalinist guards and brought Vlasik and Poskrebyshev under arrest, namely G. M. Malenkov, but, like a cunning fox, he did it with the hands of L. P. Beria so that the mosquito would not undermine his nose. And as soon as Stalin went to the forefathers, he immediately concocted a case against Beria and got rid of him.

Question. Terrible suspicions. Could it be?

Answer. There are more than enough reasons for this, in my opinion. During the interrogation by the KGB chief L.P. Beria of the head of Stalin’s personal guard Vlasik, Nikolai Sergeevich got the impression that Beria knew thoroughly about his purely personal conversations with I.V. Stalin. Which once again gives reason to assume that the services of L.P. Beria were listening to the office and apartment of the Secretary General. By the way, the son of Lavrenty Pavlovich Sergo Lavrentievich mastered the eavesdropping system to perfection, about which he shared his memories in the book “My father is Lavrenty Beria”.

It is appropriate here to cite the answers of L. M. Kaganovich to the questions of the writer F. Chuev:

It seems that Stalin was killed?

Can not say.

Molotov was inclined to this. Do you know what he told me?

At the mausoleum on May 1, 1953, the last time Beria was, he told Molotov: "I removed him." “But Beria could not deliberately slander himself in order to give himself weight,” said Molotov. - And Beria said: “I saved you all!” - Above Molotov also hung ...

May be.

But you don’t admit, Lazar Moiseevich, that if Stalin had lived a little longer, they could have dealt with you, with Molotov ...

Can not say. You can’t do this: if yes, if only ...

And in conclusion - a fragment from an exclusive interview with S. I. Alliluyeva to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Sovershenno sekretno" Artem Borovik. The interview took place in London in the summer of 1998. It was already a completely different woman - tired, extremely sincere, weighing her every word.

When a stroke happened to him late in the evening, - she said, - in the morning of the next day they told me to come to the dacha without notifying me of what had happened. And the day before, I tried all the time to get to him. I felt like I should have been there. I think he called me somehow, without words. Some cry from the heart. I called the security guards several times. But since they knew he was unconscious, they didn't let me in. I tried to get through all night. Then, late at night, I went to the Shverniki, I didn’t know where to go. To the cottage. They played movies there. An old film with Moskvin "The Stationmaster". This completely threw me off track. Because the movie was silent. Silent Russian classic. Such a touching film about the love of an old father for his daughter, who was kidnapped by a passing officer and taken away. And the poor old man decided to go to the city and froze. Then, a few years later, a beautiful cab arrives. A beautiful metropolitan lady comes out of it and goes to the grave. And there she cries. I watched this movie that night. I was offered to stay overnight. But I couldn't. Went home quickly. And in the morning they called me. Turns out he had a stroke last night.

I had an absolute feeling that he was calling me, that he wanted me to be there, to have one of his own there.

And they didn't let me. They did what they wanted. They didn't let me in. Doctors were not called. It was a much greater crime that they did not call doctors. The doctor was in another room. They could have called, but they didn't.

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Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik - the head of Stalin's security from 1927 to 1952, whose duties included not only ensuring the security of the first person of the state, but also taking care of the life of his family, and after the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva - also about children. Just 10-15 years after his appointment to this position, he became a powerful figure in Stalin's inner circle, heading a huge structure with broad powers, a large area of ​​​​responsibility and large-scale tasks - the security department with a 170 million budget.

The thorny path of Nikolai Vlasik: from the parochial school to the Cheka

Left without parents early, Nikolai Vlasik, after graduating from three classes of the parish church school, gets a job as a laborer. Later he will master the work of a bricklayer. In 1915 he participated in the battles of the First World War. After being wounded, he serves in Moscow, commanding an infantry regiment. He joined the Bolsheviks, fought in the Civil War.

In 1919, he was sent to work in the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Espionage, in the central apparatus headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. Since 1926 he has been working in the operational department of the OGPU, holding the position of senior commissioner.

Vlasik's "know-how", or what security measures the main bodyguard developed

In 1927, after a terrorist attack near the commandant's office in the center of Moscow, a special structure was created to ensure the security of the highest echelon of power. It was headed by N.S. Vlasik. Having accepted the post of head of Stalin's security, he thoroughly undertakes to ensure security and improve the life of the general secretary.

At first, Stalin resisted the innovations introduced by this native of Belarus, perhaps fearing accusations of philistinism from his associates in the revolution and the party nomenklatura. But soon he already looked approvingly at such changes - Vlasik organized for him not only an established life, but also security, about which one could say that "the mouse will not slip through."

The head of security worked almost around the clock, without holidays and days off. Stalin was bribed in him by honesty, truthfulness, rationality, the ability to thoroughly and sensibly organize the work entrusted to him.

Vlasik developed measures to ensure the safety of the first secretary during his stay in the Kremlin or in the country, trips around the country, various official events and summits with international leaders (including at the Potsdam Conference).

It was he who came up with a way to move Stalin in "encrypted escorts": several identical cars drove along different routes. In which of them was the general secretary, and in which of his doubles no one knew, except for the chief of security himself or the one to whom he instructed the departure of the chief secretary that day. It was the same with flights on a government plane - several flights were being prepared, but only Stalin himself at the last minute indicated which one he would fly. To control the food safety of the leader, a special laboratory was created, where food was checked for the presence of poisons.

Gradually, Vlasik organized several dachas in the Moscow region and in the south of the country, which were always in full readiness to receive the general secretary. Of course, these facilities were also protected and provided properly.

The incident near Gagra, or how Nikolai Sidorovich earned Stalin's trust

The incident in Gagra in 1935 only strengthened Stalin's confidence in his head of security. It was a simple pleasure trip on a boat, but, due to a misunderstanding, the ship was fired upon by border guards.

Vlasik covered himself with the head of the country. Both remained alive. The officer who gave the order to shoot was sentenced to 5 years, and in 1937 he was shot.

Clash with Chekists, trophy cows, arrest and exile

Numerous attempts to eliminate the leader of the peoples, undertaken by the inner circle and Western intelligence services, failed while Vlasik was responsible for his safety. However, Beria and other close associates from the party nomenclature could not forgive him for his closeness to Stalin, the power of his security empire. Consistently and relentlessly, they undermined Stalin's confidence in Nikolai Vlasik. In order to get to the chief of security of the first secretary, people from his inner circle were arrested (one of the first was the commandant of the "Near Dacha" Ivan Fedoseev).

For some time, Stalin resisted the attacks on Vlasik and did not believe in the accusations. But after the statement of a certain Timashuk about sabotage, the so-called "doctors' case" opens. Since the safety of the treatment of the first persons of the state was also Vlasik's area of ​​​​responsibility, he is accused of insufficient vigilance. Attempts by Nikolai Sidorovich himself to explain that he did not find any confirmation of Timashuk's version were unsuccessful.

Then a special commission of the Central Committee began a financial audit of the activities of the department headed by Vlasik. The responsibility for the revealed shortage of budgetary funds falls on the shoulders of the head of the department - he was removed from his post and sent to the Urals to the post of head of a forced labor camp.

In 1952 he was arrested, stripped of all awards and titles. In addition to previous accusations of financial violations, he was accused of illegal self-enrichment in the occupied territory of Germany, which was confirmed during a search of the general - carpets, crystal vases and valuable sets, cameras were found. In addition, he took out two horses, three cows and a bull for his relatives from Belarus. The village they lived in was burned down by the Germans, and the few survivors were in poverty.

Despite sophisticated torture, Nikolai Vlasik did not admit any charges against himself, except for embezzlement of funds, did not give false testimony to anyone. In 1955, the term of imprisonment was reduced to 5 years, and in 1956 he was pardoned and his criminal record removed. However, the awards and military ranks were not returned to him. By his own admission, despite what he experienced during his imprisonment, he never held a grudge against Stalin himself, because he well understood the degree of influence on him from Beria and other party comrades who hated not only Vlasik, but also himself Stalin.

Vlasik died in Moscow in 1967 from lung cancer. He was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery. It is interesting that in 2001 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rehabilitated Nikolai Sidorovich: the 1955 sentence against him was canceled. In addition, military ranks were returned to Vlasik.

The subsequent leaders of the USSR treated their guards with undisguised irritation. And some, like Khrushchev and Gorbachev,

Secrets of the life of the Kremlin celestials of the times of the great Stalin: night feasts, embezzlement of state property and love triangles.
- In general, she got into bed by force. Forcibly, both to Vlasik and to Beria.
But what was behind the elimination of the head of the leader's personal guard and other associates? Politics or male jealousy?
But this time he made a fatal mistake, he crossed the road to the owner himself. Private life of Comrade Stalin. When love becomes power, and power protects like love. Party intrigues, jealousy and revenge in the documentary series "The investigation was conducted ..." with Leonid Kanevsky. Love under the Kremlin stars. Watch right now.
Each fiery revolutionary had his mistress: Krupskaya with Lenin, Zhemchuzhina with Molotov, Ekaterina Davydovna with Voroshilov, Ashken Mikoyan, Zhenechka Vladun with Yezhov. These women often manipulated their husbands, influencing the politics of the entire state. Only Stalin was an exception and did not tolerate female power over himself. Maybe that's why he became a leader? At the top of power, everyone knows each other. Here, as in a village, there are love triangles, adultery, betrayal and even crimes based on love.

The investigation was conducted with Leonid Kanevsky Love under the Kremlin stars. (Start)

May 23, 1952. A black funnel flies through Moscow at night. Inside is a handcuffed man. It is impossible to recognize the once omnipotent General Nikolai Vlasik in him.
Nikolai Vlasik - head of the main security department of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Lieutenant general. For more than 20 years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard. Raised his son Vasily. The department, headed by Vlasik, provided protection for the entire leadership of the country.
Vlasik for many years led the guards of Stalin. He - one of the main close associates of the leader - had incredible power. And now the powerful general was arrested. During the search, Vlasik did not find anything interesting: personal belongings, documents. But the main value was here, in the general's notebook. On 40 pages there are more than 100 women's names, addresses, phone numbers, short notes, the Bolshoi Theater, the circus, GUM, a restaurant and even a library. The security officer who arrested Vlasik immediately realized that this was not a list of informants. Stalin's bodyguard has long been known for his amorous exploits. But this time he made a fatal mistake. Crossed the road to the owner himself. Vlasik used his official position without hesitation. It was said that he even had an adjutant for heart affairs, who got gifts for the chief's chosen ones and resolved other delicate issues. The General did not like long courtship. In his pocket there was always a pack of free tickets to the Dynamo stadium. Football in the post-war period was the most popular sport. In the 50th year, the star of the great goalkeeper Lev Yashin rises. Vsevolod Bobrov and Igor Netto shine on the football fields. There are many young girls among the fans. After the match, Vlasik again goes to a country house, where a chic table has already been laid. Exquisite products are brought, on the personal orders of the general, not from a store or even from a special distributor, but directly from the kitchen of Comrade Stalin. After all, Vlasik is not just the head of security. He is in charge of all the household of the leader. One day, Stalin accidentally saw an estimate for the maintenance of a nearby dacha in Kuntsevo. It turned out that 10,000 rubles were spent on one herring per year.
Herring - in the difficult post-war years, this fish replaced inaccessible trout and salmon on the tables of Soviet citizens. Naturally, under the herring was considered the most exquisite - the Atlantic from Norway. In free sale, this herring almost never met. One such jar was worth a third of the salary of the average worker. According to eyewitnesses, Stalin was furious when he learned that, according to documents, he ate 1,000 cans in a year. The father of nations shouted who ate the herring. I ate a herring? This power ate the herring. It seemed that the career, and, perhaps, the life of the head of security was over. But then Vlasik managed to avoid reprisals. After all, the anger of the leader fell upon the commandant of the nearby dacha Fedoseev. He was arrested and later shot. Fedoseev said during interrogations that Vlasik was going to poison Stalin. But the leader did not believe. And a few years later, Vlasik was first demoted, and then arrested for the approval of the owner. For what? The main version, the incredible suspicion of Stalin. He ceased to trust even the most devoted comrades-in-arms. But this is only part of the truth. General Vlasik knew perfectly well the real reason for his disgrace. It was a woman.
Olga Kuchkina: - It was a completely simple girl, plump, pretty, ruddy. Absolutely, of course, uncomplaining.
Stalin called her Valyusha. For many years, Valentina Istomina was not only the housekeeper of the nearby dacha in Kuntsevo, but also the closest person to the leader. It was she, according to many Kremlin historians, who became the real reason for the collapse of the all-powerful General Vlasik. In the spring of 1952, an incredible thing happened at Stalin's nearby dacha. A crime. The victim was Valyusha Istomina.
- in general, she got into bed by force, by force, to both Vlasik and Beria.
In 1935, Vlasik himself chooses a 17-year-old graduate of a medical school, Valentina Istomina, to work at government dachas. A real Siberian, a blonde with blue eyes, similar to the artist Tselikovskaya, he liked her at first sight. Of the things Valentina Istomina has only a small bundle. It contains a change of linen, several notebooks with notes, a postcard with a portrait of Comrade Stalin and a shawl. At that time it was a very expensive thing. It's made from pure down and is super warm. In winter, it serves as a fur coat and a hat, and in summer, a pillow and a blanket for a girl. This shawl was destined to play a role in the fate of Comrade Stalin's future housekeeper.
In November 1935, waitress Valentina Istomina was transferred to work at a secret facility, Stalin's near dacha in Kuntsevo. Iosif Vissarionovich is not in a good mood. He has a severe cold. Stalin throws away the pills that doctors bring, he is afraid of poisoning. One day, Valentina plucked up the courage to offer her owner her shawl. The girl herself wrapped him up for the night, and in the morning a miracle happened. The disease has receded.
Soon the head of Stalin's security received a report about his employees. Vlasik had not seen his master so lively and happy for a long time. Only Stalin allowed Valyusha to bring tea in the evening. She just made the bed for him. By the way, according to the testimony of relatives, the leader rarely took a bath, but slept on fresh linen every night. Stalin calls his waiter affectionately - Valyusha, Valechka. Vlasik, who looked at her earlier with lust, is forced to retreat. Under the influence of this girl, Joseph Vissarionovich changed his oldest habits. Previously, Stalin could not stand new clothes, he wore old ones to holes. The ruler of one-sixth of the land wore simple soldier's underwear with a government brand. Now he began to put on expensive silk.
Stalin's dacha was often visited by a family friend, member of the Central Committee of the KPP, Abel Yunikidze. He has long annoyed party leaders with his excessive love of luxury and women. A relative of Stalin's first wife, Maria Svanidze, spoke of Unikidze with contempt. Unikidze also draws attention to Valya Istomina. The reaction is immediate. In 1935, Yunikidze was expelled from the party for political corruption in everyday life and exiled to Kharkov as the director of an automobile chair.

Love under the Kremlin stars. (the end)
This is a Cossack officer's checker of the 1910 model. With such a sword, the fighters of the first icon cut with the whites on the fronts of the civil war. It was with this sword that First Marshal Klim Voroshilov met the NKVD detachment, which came to arrest his wife. The Chekists armed with revolvers fled. Upon learning of this, Stalin laughed and ordered the Voroshilovs not to be touched anymore. Stalin regularly receives a report from the secret services about the moral decay of some leaders of the Soviet state. The leader is informed that during a search of the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yegoda, almost 4,000 frivolous photographs and 11 films of completely obscene content were found. Many comrades openly cheat on their wives. Some have entire harems. The reports indicated the names of Avvakumov, Vlasik, Beria. Before the war, the wife of Stalin's personal secretary and the person closest to him, Poskrebyshev, was arrested and thrown into prison. Several times Poskrebyshev, who was in the rank of general on his knees, went into Stalin's office and, like a devoted dog, crawled to the Supreme's table, begging to let his wife out. But the leader was unshakable. It was not Comrade Stalin who arrested her, so it was not for him to let her go. 3 years later, it was Comrade Stalin who wrote the death sentence for Broneslava Posklebysheva. This paper was delivered to him by his personal secretary. In fact, the espionage charge against Poskrebysheva was fabricated by Beria. The woman, being a distant relative of Trotsky, tried to protect her relatives from repression. But Beria, to whom Broneslav turned for help, began to seek her. She refused. For which she paid with freedom and life.
Incredibly, after the death of his beloved wife, the personal secretary of Comrade Stalin, Voskhlebyshev, faithfully served the owner for several more years. During the war, Stalin spends a lot of time at a nearby dacha. His housekeeper Valyusha Istomina is always by his side. The leader became very attached to the girl. She gave him what he was deprived of in family life with Nadezhda Aliluyeva: the comfort of the hearth, care and unconditional support.
Boris Ilizarov: - In general, in essence. About communism, about socialism. They talk about losses. A servant, a girl who is also a concubine.

Talented generals were worth their weight in gold during the war. But an affair on the side could cost even brilliant commanders their heads. A former student of the seminary, Joseph Dzhugashvili, often used to say that the family is the main unit of the state. He forgave amorous adventures only to the closest associates. The rest knew they would have to answer for adultery. In 1943, Rokosovsky, then still a general, was on a report with Comrade Stalin. Suddenly, the leader asked if Comrade Rokosovsky knew whose wife was the famous actress Serova. The general turned pale. At that moment, he must have felt one step to prison. And what a prison Rokosovsky knew firsthand. Cold and damp, daily expectations of executions. Before the war, the marshal spent 2 years in prison. He was accused of spying for Japan and Poland. But when the war began, they were unexpectedly acquitted. Actress Valentina Serova was not only a star of Soviet cinema. She was the wife of the poet Konstantin Simonov, the leader's favorite. The amorous adventures of Rokosovsky and Serova became the property of the whole people. Stalin personally decided to stop them. Rokosovsky understood Comrade Stalin's hint. The next day, the brilliant general left the love front without a fight.
1952 Stalin is seriously ill. At the party congress, he asks to be allowed to retire. But the delegates are against it. It was at this moment that he was informed that the faithful chosen one Vlasik encroached on Valya. His Valyusha, who became the closest person for the leader.
- And when Stalin found out about it, he completely. Well, you can understand by yourself how we see his character, what happened to him.
Stalin refuses to believe what happened. Valyusha is silent and only cries. In desperation, the leader orders the dismissal of the long-term head of his guard and remove him from sight. But then, unable to bear the orders, arrest.
From the minutes of the court session: “Defendant Vlasik, how often did you arrange immoral amusements with women? Answer: There were no sprees. I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them. But all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my free time from service. Question to the witness: What can you say on the merits of the case? Witness: Vlasik soldered me, and when I fell asleep he cohabited with my wife.
Andrei Sukhomlinov: - He was not convicted of embezzlement, embezzlement. For this he was removed from office.
The general is sent to the colony of the distant Ural city of Asbest as deputy chief. But then they are returned to Moscow, tried and sent into exile for 10 years. After 5 years, he will be released under an amnesty. But he will never return to the organs. A few days after the arrest of Vlasik, the security officers appear at Stalin's dacha in Kuntsevo. They order the rampart to assemble. Valyusha Istomina was given 5 minutes to get ready. She left the nearby dacha with the same bundle with which she came here 17 years ago. It contains a postcard and an aged, shabby shawl that once brought them together. On a black funnel, she was taken to the Lubyanka inner prison. In solitary confinement, the woman nearly went insane. For several weeks, she was never summoned for interrogation. Three times a day, the feeder was opened, an invisible guard silently passed a mug of boiling water, a bowl of gruel and a piece of bread. Istomin with things on the way out - the guard shouted. Finally the door opened. Probably, at that moment, Valentina thought about the worst thing, they would be shot now. But the prisoner was wrong. Her once beloved woman of Stalin, without trial or investigation, was sent into exile in the most terrible place of the Gulag. To Kolyma. Soon after the arrest of Valyusha, the leader is smashed by a blow. Stalin brings mountains of pills. He throws them out. There is no Valyusha nearby. Only from her hands he was not afraid to take medicine. Trusting no one, he sometimes locks himself in a room and cooks his own food.
Alexander Sosland: - By far, the most plausible diagnosis according to the current classification is paranoid personality disorder.
A few weeks later, the leader realizes that he cannot live without a faithful housekeeper. Valentina Istomina barely makes it to Kolyma when the order comes for her release. On a military plane, a woman is taken to Moscow and brought to a nearby dacha to Stalin.
- And then, when she returned, when they met, they both cried.
On the morning of March 1, 1953, Stalin was found lying motionless on the floor. On March 3, his children and closest associates gathered at the body of the leader. Everyone was silent. Only the inconsolable Valya Istomina sobbed loudly. The secret wife of the leader was the only one in a close circle who sincerely mourned the death of this man. After Stalin's funeral, Valentina Istomina was transferred to another facility. She never married, remaining faithful to the only man in her life to the end. She died in 1995, taking with her many secrets from the life of one of the most formidable rulers of the 20th century.

Written by Robert Rovnik and Alexander Zaletov
Stage director Boris Fedorov
Composer Igor Nazaruk
Host Leonid Kanevsky
Director Lolita Khalikova
Produced by Erika Galimurza and David Hamburg

Wherever Stalin was, the faithful Vlasik was closest to him. Subordinating to the leadership of the NKGB, and then the MGB, General Vlasik, who has a three-year education, was always next to Stalin, in fact, being a member of his family, and the leader often consulted with him on matters of state security. This could not but cause irritation in the leadership of the ministry, especially since Vlasik often spoke negatively about his superiors. He was arrested in the "case of doctors", which was terminated after the death of Stalin and all those arrested were released - all except Vlasik. More than a hundred times he was interrogated during the investigation. Both espionage, and the preparation of terrorist attacks, and anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda were blamed. Moreover, for each of the charges he was threatened with a considerable period. They “pressed” 56-year-old Nikolai Sidorovich in Lefortovo subtly - they kept him in handcuffs, a bright lamp burned in the cell all day and night, they didn’t let him sleep, calling him for interrogations, and even behind the wall they constantly played a record with heart-rending children’s crying. They even staged an imitation of execution (Vlasik writes about this in his diary). But he kept himself well done, did not lose his sense of humor. In any case, in one of the protocols, he gives such “confessional” testimony: “I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them and the artist Stenberg, but all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my free time from service.”
And the strength of Stalin's personal bodyguard was not to occupy. They tell such a case. One day, a young state security operative suddenly recognized in the crowd on a Moscow street in a strong man dressed in an excellent coat, the head of the Main Security Directorate (GUO) of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant General Vlasik. The operative noticed that a suspicious type was spinning around him, obviously a pickpocket, and began to quickly move towards the general. But, approaching, he saw that the thief had already put his hand into Vlasik's pocket, and he suddenly put his powerful five on his coat over his pocket and squeezed the thief's hand so that, as the operative said, the crack of breaking bones was heard. He wanted to detain the pickpocket, who had turned white with pain, but Vlasik winked at him, shook his head negatively and said: “There is no need to plant, he can’t steal anymore.”

It is noteworthy that Vlasik was removed from his post on April 29, 1952 - less than 10 months before the murder of I.V. Stalin. The adopted daughter of Nikolai Sidorovich, in her interview to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper on May 7, 2003, noted that "his father would not let him die." This interview, as we will see below, turned out to be sad consequences for her.
Here is what Irina Shpyrkova, an employee of the Slonim Museum of Local Lore, said:
- Personal belongings of Nikolai Sidorovich were transferred to the museum by his adopted daughter - his own niece Nadezhda Nikolaevna (there were no children of her own). This lonely woman spent her whole life seeking the rehabilitation of the general.
In 2000, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dropped all charges against Nikolai Vlasik. He was posthumously rehabilitated, restored to his rank, and the awards were returned to his family. These are three orders of Lenin, four orders of the Red Banner, orders of the Red Star and Kutuzov, four medals, two honorary Chekist badges.
- At that time, - says Irina Shpyrkova, - we contacted Nadezhda Nikolaevna. We agreed on the transfer of awards and personal belongings to our museum. She agreed, and in the summer of 2003 our employee went to Moscow.
But everything turned out like a detective story. An article about Vlasik was published in Moskovsky Komsomolets. Many called Nadezhda Nikolaevna. One of the callers identified himself as Alexander Borisovich - a lawyer, a representative of the State Duma deputy Demin. He promised to help the woman return Vlasik's priceless personal photo archive.
The next day he came to Nadezhda Nikolaevna, supposedly to draw up documents. Asked for tea. The hostess left, and when she returned to the room, the guest was suddenly about to leave. She didn’t see him anymore, like 16 medals and orders, the general’s gold watch ...
Nadezhda Nikolaevna had only the Order of the Red Banner, which she transferred to the Slonim Museum of Local Lore. And also two pieces of paper from my father's notebook.

Here is a list of all the awards that disappeared from Nadezhda Nikolaevna (except for one Order of the Red Banner):
George Cross 4th class
3 orders of Lenin (04/26/1940, 02/21/1945, 09/16/1945)
3 orders of the Red Banner (08/28/1937, 09/20/1943, 11/3/1944)
Order of the Red Star (05/14/1936)
Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (02/24/1945)
Medal of the twentieth years of the Red Army (22.02.1938)
2 badges Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (12/20/1932, 12/16/1935)

During the years of perestroika, when a wave of all kinds of accusations rained down on almost all people from the Stalinist entourage in the advanced Soviet press, the most unenviable fate fell to General Vlasik. The long-term head of Stalin's guard appeared in these materials as a real lackey who adored the owner, a watchdog, ready to attack anyone at his command, greedy, vengeful and greedy ...

Among those who did not spare negative epithets for Vlasik was Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. But the bodyguard of the leader at one time had to become practically the main educator for both Svetlana and Vasily.

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik spent a quarter of a century next to Stalin, protecting the life of the Soviet leader. Without his bodyguard, the leader lived for less than a year.

From the parochial school to the Cheka

Nikolai Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus, in the village of Bobynichi, into a poor peasant family. The boy lost his parents early and could not count on a good education. After three classes of the parochial school, Nikolai went to work. From the age of 13 he worked as a laborer at a construction site, then as a bricklayer, then as a loader at a paper mill.

In March 1915, Vlasik was drafted into the army and sent to the front. During the First World War, he served in the 167th Ostroh Infantry Regiment, and was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery in battle. After being wounded, Vlasik was promoted to non-commissioned officer and appointed commander of a platoon of the 251st infantry regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.

During the October Revolution, Nikolai Vlasik, a native of the very bottom, quickly decided on his political choice: together with the entrusted platoon, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

At first he served in the Moscow police, then he participated in the Civil War, was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the bodies of the Cheka, where he served in the central apparatus under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.

Master of security and life

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as a senior authorized officer of the Operational Department of the OGPU.

As Vlasik himself recalled, his work as Stalin's bodyguard began in 1927 after an emergency in the capital: a bomb was thrown into the commandant's office building on Lubyanka. The operative, who was on vacation, was recalled and announced: from that moment on, he was entrusted with the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, government members at dachas, walks. Particular attention was ordered to be given to the personal protection of Joseph Stalin.

Despite the sad story of the assassination attempt on Lenin, by 1927 the protection of the first persons of the state in the USSR was not particularly thorough.

Stalin was accompanied by only one guard: the Lithuanian Yusis. Vlasik was even more surprised when they arrived at the dacha, where Stalin usually spent his weekends. One commandant lived at the dacha, there was no linen, no dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.

Like all Belarusian peasants, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was a solid and well-to-do man. He took up not only the protection, but also the arrangement of Stalin's life.

The leader, accustomed to asceticism, at first was skeptical about the innovations of the new bodyguard. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaner appeared at the dacha, food supplies were arranged from the nearest state farm. At that moment, there was not even a telephone connection with Moscow at the dacha, and it appeared through the efforts of Vlasik.

Over time, Vlasik created a whole system of dachas in the Moscow region and in the south, where well-trained personnel were ready at any moment to receive the Soviet leader. It is not worth talking about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most careful way.

The security system for important government facilities existed even before Vlasik, but he became the developer of security measures for the first person of the state during his trips around the country, official events, and international meetings.

Stalin's bodyguard came up with a system according to which the first person and the people accompanying him move in a cavalcade of identical cars, and only the bodyguards know which one the leader is driving in. Subsequently, such a scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.

"Illiterate, stupid, but noble"

Within a few years, Vlasik turned into an indispensable and especially trusted person for Stalin. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin entrusted his bodyguard with the care of the children: Svetlana, Vasily and his adopted son Artyom Sergeyev.

Nikolai Sidorovich was not a teacher, but he tried his best. If Svetlana and Artyom did not cause him much trouble, then Vasily was uncontrollable from childhood. Vlasik, knowing that Stalin did not give up to children, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate the sins of Vasily in reports to his father.

Nikolai Vlasik with Stalin's children: Svetlana, Vasily and Yakov.

But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and it became more and more difficult for Vlasik to play the role of a “lightning rod”.

Svetlana and Artyom, as adults, wrote about their "tutor" in different ways. Stalin's daughter in "Twenty Letters to a Friend" described Vlasik as follows:

“He headed all of his father’s guards, considered himself almost the closest person to him, and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years he went so far as to dictate to some artists the“ tastes of Comrade Stalin ”, since believed that he knew them well and understood ...

His arrogance knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists whether he “liked” whether it was a film, or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction at that time ... "

“He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin”

Artyom Sergeev in "Conversations about Stalin" spoke differently:

“His main duty was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the cutting edge. He knew perfectly well both friends and enemies of Stalin ...

What kind of work did Vlasik have in general? It was work day and night, there was no 6-8-hour working day. All his life he had work, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room ... "

For ten or fifteen years, Nikolai Vlasik turned from an ordinary bodyguard into a general heading a huge structure responsible not only for security, but also for the life of the first persons of the state.

N. S. Vlasik with I. V. Stalin and his son Vasily. The near dacha in Volynskoye, 1935.

During the war years, the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats from Moscow fell on Vlasik's shoulders. It was necessary not only to deliver them to Kuibyshev, but also to place them, equip them in a new place, and think over security issues.

The evacuation of Lenin's body from Moscow is also the task that Vlasik performed. He was also responsible for security at the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.

Assassination attempt in Gagra

For all the years that Vlasik was responsible for Stalin's life, not a single hair fell from his head. At the same time, the head of the leader’s guard himself, judging by his recollections, took the threat of assassination very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was sure that the Trotskyist groups were preparing the assassination of Stalin.

In 1935, Vlasik really had to cover the leader from bullets. During a boat trip in the Gagra region, fire was opened on them from the shore. The bodyguard covered Stalin with his body, but both were lucky: the bullets did not hit them. The boat left the firing zone.

Vlasik considered this a real assassination attempt, and his opponents later believed that it was all a production. As it turns out, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not informed about Stalin's boat trip, and they mistook him for an intruder. Subsequently, the officer who ordered the shooting was sentenced to five years. But in 1937, during the "great terror", they remembered him again, held another process and shot him.

Cow abuse

During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at conferences of the heads of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition and coped with his task brilliantly. For the successful holding of the conference in Tehran, Vlasik was awarded the Order of Lenin, for the Crimean Conference - the Order of Kutuzov I degree, for the Potsdam Conference - another Order of Lenin.

But the Potsdam Conference became a pretext for accusations of misappropriation of property: it was alleged that after its completion, Vlasik took various valuables from Germany, including a horse, two cows and one bull. Subsequently, this fact was cited as an example of the irrepressible greed of the Stalinist bodyguard.

Vlasik himself recalled that this story had a completely different background. In 1941, the Germans captured his native village of Bobynichi. The house where my sister lived was burned down, half the village was shot, the sister's eldest daughter was driven away to work in Germany, the cow and the horse were taken away.

My sister and her husband went to the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, from which little was left. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for relatives.

Was it abuse? If you approach with a strict measure, then, perhaps, yes. However, Stalin, when this case was first reported to him, sharply ordered that further investigation be stopped.

Opala

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate: an agency with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of many thousands.

He did not fight for power, but at the same time he made a huge number of enemies. Being too close to Stalin, Vlasik had the opportunity to influence the leader's attitude towards this or that person, deciding who would get wider access to the first person, and who would be denied such an opportunity.

The almighty head of the Soviet special services, Lavrenty Beria, passionately wanted to get rid of Vlasik. Compromising evidence on Stalin's bodyguard was scrupulously collected, drop by drop undermining the leader's confidence in him.

In 1948, the commandant of the so-called "Near Dacha" Fedoseev was arrested, who testified that Vlasik intended to poison Stalin. But the leader again did not take this accusation seriously: if the bodyguard had such intentions, he could have realized his plans a long time ago.

Vlasik in the office.

In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was established to verify the activities of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. This time, extremely unpleasant facts have surfaced that look quite plausible. The guards and personnel of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged real orgies there, plundered food and expensive drinks. Later, there were witnesses who assured that Vlasik himself was not averse to relaxing in this way.

On April 29, 1952, on the basis of these materials, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his post and sent to the Urals, to the city of Asbest, as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Cohabited with women and drank alcohol in his spare time"

Why did Stalin suddenly back down from a man who honestly served him for 25 years? Perhaps it was all the fault of the leader's growing suspicion in recent years. It is possible that Stalin considered the waste of state funds for drunken revelry too serious a sin. There is also a third assumption. It is known that during this period the Soviet leader began to promote young leaders, and openly told his former associates: "It's time to change you." Perhaps Stalin felt that the time had come to replace Vlasik as well.

Be that as it may, very difficult times have come for the former head of the Stalinist guard ...

In December 1952, he was arrested in connection with the Doctors' Plot. He was blamed for the fact that he ignored the statements of Lydia Timashuk, who accused the professors who treated the first persons of the state of sabotage.

Vlasik himself wrote in his memoirs that there was no reason to believe Timashuk: "There was no data discrediting the professors, which I reported to Stalin."

In prison, Vlasik was interrogated with prejudice for several months. For a man who was already well over 50, the disgraced bodyguard held firm. I was ready to admit "moral decay" and even embezzlement, but not conspiracy and espionage.

“I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them and the artist Stenberg, but all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my spare time,” his testimony sounded.

Could Vlasik extend the life of the leader?

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin passed away. Even if we discard the dubious version of the murder of the leader, Vlasik, if he had remained in his post, he could well have extended his life. When the leader became ill at the Near Dacha, he lay for several hours on the floor of his room without help: the guards did not dare to enter Stalin's chambers. There is no doubt that Vlasik would not have allowed this.

After the death of the leader, the "case of doctors" was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. The collapse of Lavrenty Beria in June 1953 did not bring him freedom either.

In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentenced under Art. 193-17 p. "b" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the rank of general and state awards. In March 1955, Vlasik's term was reduced to 5 years. He was sent to Krasnoyarsk to serve his sentence.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with the removal of a criminal record, but he was not restored to military rank and awards.

“Not a single minute did I have in my soul anger at Stalin”

He returned to Moscow, where he had almost nothing left: his property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal one. Vlasik knocked on the thresholds of offices, wrote to the leaders of the party and government, asked for rehabilitation and reinstatement in the party, but was refused everywhere.

Secretly, he began to dictate memoirs in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he did certain things, how he treated Stalin.

“After Stalin’s death, such an expression appeared as“ the cult of personality ”... If a person who is the leader of his affairs deserves the love and respect of others, what’s wrong with that ... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified a country that led to prosperity and victories, wrote Nikolai Vlasik. - Under his leadership, a lot of good things were done, and the people saw it. He enjoyed great prestige. I knew him very closely... And I affirm that he lived only for the interests of the country, the interests of his people.”

“It is easy to accuse a person of all mortal sins when he is dead and can neither justify nor defend himself. Why, during his lifetime, no one dared to point out to him his mistakes? What hindered? Fear? Or were there no such errors that should have been pointed out?

What Tsar Ivan IV was formidable for, but there were people who cared for their homeland, who, not fearing death, pointed out to him his mistakes. Or were brave people transferred to Russia? - so thought the Stalinist bodyguard.

Summing up his memoirs and his whole life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Without a single penalty, but only encouragement and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison.

But never, not for a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I did not have anger in my soul against Stalin. I perfectly understood what kind of atmosphere was created around him in the last years of his life. How difficult it was for him. He was an old, sick, lonely man ... He was and remains the dearest person to me, and no slander can shake the feeling of love and the deepest respect that I always had for this wonderful person. He personified for me everything bright and dear in my life - the party, the motherland and my people.

Posthumously rehabilitated

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik died on June 18, 1967. His archive was seized and classified. Only in 2011, the Federal Security Service declassified the notes of the person who, in fact, stood at the origins of its creation.

Relatives of Vlasik have repeatedly made attempts to achieve his rehabilitation. After several refusals, on June 28, 2000, by a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 sentence was canceled, and the criminal case was dismissed "due to the lack of corpus delicti".