Nikolai Vlasik Stalin personal life. Vlasik's biography

Stalin's chief bodyguard Aleksandr Nikolayevich Kolesnik

(Court case of I. S. Vlasik)

(Court case of I. S. Vlasik)

In the life of the head of any state, the head of personal security occupies an important place. He, like a shadow, is always there. He opens the car doors, moves a chair during negotiations, gives glasses, a pen, holds an umbrella, accepts gifts ...

Among the Soviet leaders, only two people held out in such a position for many years - N. S. Vlasik for twenty-one years in the protection of I. V. Stalin and A. T. Medvedev in the protection of L. I. Brezhnev, Yu. V. Andropov, K. U. Chernenko and M. S. Gorbachev. About A. T. Medvedev, the Stern magazine wrote: “The one who was trusted by four politicians and who for decades remains physically healthy and easy-going, would be so authoritative in the West that books would be written about him.”

Probably so. But I think that General I.S. Vlasik, who knew all aspects of his master's life, is of no less interest.

The daughter of I. V. Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, testified in her memoirs: “... nowhere did the state, semi-military spirit rule so much, not a single house was so completely under the jurisdiction of the GPU - NKVD - MGB, like ours, because we had no mistress of the house , and in others, her presence somewhat softened and restrained bureaucracy. But, in essence, the system was the same everywhere: complete dependence on state funds and civil servants, who kept the whole house and its inhabitants under the supervision of their vigilant eye.

Having arisen somewhere about the beginning of the thirties, this system became more and more strengthened and expanded in its scale and rights, and only with the destruction of Beria, finally, did the Central Committee recognize the need to put the MGB in its place: only then did everyone begin to live differently and breathe freely - the members governments just like all ordinary people...

Sergey Alexandrovich Efimov, who was the commandant of Zubalov during my mother's time, stayed longer in our house, and then also moved to the Middle, to Kuntsevo. Of all the "bosses" he was the most humane and modest in his own needs. He always warmly treated us, the children, and the surviving relatives, in a word, he retained some elementary human feelings for all of us as a family - which could not be said about other high ranks of the guard, whose names I don’t even want now and remember ... These had only one desire - to grab more for themselves, taking root in a warm place. All of them built dachas for themselves, started cars at state expense, lived no worse than the ministers and the members of the Politburo themselves, and now mourn only their lost material wealth.

Sergei Alexandrovich was not such, although, due to his high position, he also used a lot, but "in moderation." He did not reach the level of ministers, but a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences could envy his apartment and dacha ... This was, of course, very modest on his part. Having reached the rank of general (MGB), Sergei Alexandrovich in recent years lost his father's goodwill and was removed, and then eaten by his "collective", that is, other generals and colonels from the MGB, who turned into a kind of courtyard under his father.

We have to mention another general, Nikolai Sergeevich (Sidorovich - A.K.) Vlasik, who stayed near his father for a very long time, since 1919. Then he was a Red Army soldier assigned to guard, and later became a very powerful person behind the scenes. He headed all 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" - so as he believed that he knew and understood them well. And the leaders listened to and followed this advice. And not a single festive concert at the Bolshoi Theater, or in the St. George's Hall at banquets, was compiled without Vlasik's sanction ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists - whether he "liked it" - whether it was a film or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction at that time ... It would not be worth mentioning him at all - he ruined the lives of many, but he was such a colorful figure that you couldn’t pass him by. In our house for “servants”, Vlasik was almost equal to his father himself, since his father was high and far away, and Vlasik could do anything with the power given to him ...

During the life of my mother, he existed somewhere in the background as a bodyguard, and in the house, of course, there was neither his foot nor the spirit. 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 appeared in Stalin's guard in 1931 on the recommendation of V. R. Menzhinsky. Initially, he was only the head of security. But after the death of N. S. Alliluyeva, he was already a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure, a financial and economic distributor, whose vigilant eye kept all the inhabitants of the Stalinist house under supervision.

N. S. Vlasik solved almost all of Stalin's everyday problems. In 1941, in connection with the possibility of the fall of Moscow, he was sent to Kuibyshev to control the relocation of the government there. The direct executor in Kuibyshev was the head of the Main Construction Directorate of the NKVD, General L. B. Safrazyan.

N. S. Vlasik suffered the fate of many of Stalin's entourage. In 1952 he was arrested and only in 1955 was convicted. Apparently, the death of the “owner” still did not allow him to be crushed. The archives preserved his testimony given during the trial on January 17, 1955.

The presiding judge, opening it, announced that a criminal case was being considered on charges of Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik of committing crimes under Article 193-17 p “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, and asked the secretary to report on the appearance of the defendant and witnesses at the hearing.

Secretary. Defendant Vlasik was brought to the court session by an escort and is in custody. Witnesses Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg and Vera Gerasimovna Ivanskaya, summoned to court, appeared and are in the courtroom.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, your government surname, first name, patronymic, year of birth, place of birth, party membership, last position you held.

Vlasik. I, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, born in 1896, a native of the village of Bobynichi, Slonimsky district, Baranovichi region, Belarusian, former member of the CPSU from 1918 to 1952, lieutenant general, former head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, arrested in this case on December 15, 1952. The indictment was received on January 11, 1955.

presiding. What awards and honorary titles did you have?

Vlasik. I was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Paint Star, Kutuzov I degree, medals “20 Years of the Red Army”, “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Victory over Germany”, “In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow”, “ 30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy. He had the honorary title of "Honorary Chekist", which I was awarded twice with a badge. As far as I remember, the first time I was awarded such a title was in 1926-27, and I don’t remember when the second time.

presiding. Witness Stenberg, your government surname, first name, patronymic, year of birth, place of birth, party membership, position held.

Stenberg. I am Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg, born in Moscow in 1899, Russian, citizen of the USSR, in 1933 admitted to Soviet citizenship, non-partisan, artist.

presiding. What kind of relationship did you have with the defendant Vlasik?

Stenberg. Relationships are normal and friendly.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, what kind of relationship did you have with the witness Stenberg?

Vlasik. Relationships are normal and friendly.

presiding. Witness Ivanskaya, your government surname, first name, patronymic, year of birth, place of birth, party membership, position held.

Ivanskaya. I, Vera Gerasimovna Ivanskaya, born in Dvinsk in 1911, Russian, citizen of the USSR, member of the CPSU since 1941, actress.

presiding. Witness Ivanskaya, your relationship with the defendant Vlasik?

Ivanskaya. Normal.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, what kind of relationship did you have with the witness?

Vlasik. Relationships are normal.

presiding. I warn the witnesses that they must show the court only the truth. For knowingly false testimony will be liable up to Art. 95 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, about which they give the court a signature.

Comrade commandant, remove the witnesses from the courtroom.

Defendant Vlasik, I explain to you that you have the right to testify in court both on all the materials of the case and on individual episodes. Ask questions to witnesses, as well as make petitions before the court both before the start of the judicial investigation and during it.

Vlasik. I understand my rights, I do not currently have a petition before the court.

presiding. I announce the composition of the court in this case. The presiding judge is Colonel of Justice Borisoglebsky, members of the court are Colonel of Justice Kovalenko and Colonel of Justice Rybkin, Secretary of the court session Captain Afanasiev. I explain that you have the right to challenge both the entire composition of the court as a whole and its individual members. Do you have withdrawals?

Vlasik. No, I don't have any withdrawals.

presiding. I announce the beginning of the trial. Comrade Secretary, read out the indictment.

(The secretary reads the indictment.)

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, do you plead guilty to the charge and do you understand it?

Vlasik. I understand the accusation. I plead guilty, but declare that I had no intent in what I did.

presiding. From what time and until what time did you hold the position of head of the Main Directorate of Security of the former MGB of the USSR.

Vlasik. From 1947 to 1952.

presiding. What were your job responsibilities?

Vlasik. Ensuring the protection of the leaders of the party and government.

presiding. This means that you have been given special confidence by the Central Committee and the government. How did you justify this trust?

Vlasik. I took every measure to ensure this.

presiding. Did you know Stenberg?

Vlasik. Yes, I know him.

presiding. When did you meet him?

Vlasik. I don't remember exactly, but it's about 1934. I knew that he was working on decorating Red Square for the festive holidays. At first, our meetings with him were quite rare.

presiding. Were you already in government security at that time?

Vlasik. Yes, I have been assigned to the protection of the government since 1931.

presiding. How did you meet Stenberg?

Vlasik. At the time, I was courting a girl. Her last name is Spirin. This was after I separated from my wife. Spirina then lived in an apartment on the same staircase with the Stenbergs. Once, when I was at Spirina's, Stenberg's wife came in and we were introduced to her. After a while we entered the Stenbergs, where I met Stenberg himself.

presiding. What brought you closer to Stenberg?

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

presiding. Did he have a comfortable apartment for that?

Vlasik. I rarely visited him.

presiding. Did you conduct official conversations in the presence of Stenberg?

Vlasik. Separate official conversations that I had to conduct on the phone in the presence of Stenberg did not give him anything, since I usually conducted them in very monosyllables, answering on the phone: yes, no. Once there was a case when, in the presence of Stenberg, I was forced to talk with one of the Deputy Ministers. This conversation concerned the issue of the construction of one airfield. I then said that this issue did not concern me and suggested that he contact the head of the Air Force.

presiding. I read out your testimony given at the preliminary investigation on February 11, 1953: “I must admit that I turned out to be such a careless and politically narrow-minded person that during these carousing, in the presence of Stenberg and his wife, I had official conversations with the leadership of the MGB, and also gave instructions in the service of his subordinates.

Do you confirm these statements of yours?

Vlasik. I signed these testimonies during the investigation, but there is not a single word of mine in them. All this is the wording of the investigator. I said during the investigation that I did not deny the facts of my conducting official telephone conversations during drinks with Stenberg, but stated that it was impossible to understand anything from these conversations. In addition, please take into account that Stenberg worked on the design of Red Square for many years and knew a lot about the work of the MGB bodies.

presiding. You declare that your words are not in the protocol. Does this apply only to the episode we are considering or to the whole case as a whole?

Vlasik. No, it cannot be regarded as such. The fact that I do not deny my guilt in the fact that I had conversations of an official nature on the phone in the presence of Stenberg, I also stated this during the investigation. I also said that these conversations may have touched on issues that Stenberg might be familiar with and might learn from. But the investigator wrote down my testimony in his own words, in a slightly different formulation than the one I gave during interrogations. Moreover, investigators Rodionov and Novikov did not give me the opportunity to make any corrections to the protocols they wrote down.

presiding. Was there a case when you spoke with the head of government in the presence of Stenberg?

Vlasik. Yes, such a case took place. True, the conversation was reduced only to my answers to the questions of the head of government, and Stenberg, apart from who I was talking to, could not understand anything from this conversation.

presiding. Did you call the head of government by his first name, patronymic or last name?

Vlasik. During the conversation, I called him by his last name.

presiding. What was this conversation about?

Vlasik. The conversation was about a package sent to the head of government from the Caucasus. I sent this parcel to the laboratory for analysis. The analysis required time and, naturally, the package was delayed for some time. Someone reported to him about the receipt of the parcel. As a result of this, he called me, began to ask the reasons for the delay in sending the parcel to him, began to scold me for the delay and demanded that the parcel be immediately handed over to him. I replied that I would now check the state of affairs and report to him.

presiding. Where did this conversation come from?

Vlasik. From my country house.

presiding. Did you call on the phone yourself, or were you called to him?

Vlasik. They called me to the phone.

presiding. But you could, knowing with whom the conversation will be, remove Stenberg from the room.

Vlasik. Yes, of course he could. And it seems that even I closed the door to the room from which I was talking.

presiding. How many times have you given Stenberg a seat on a security plane owned by the Security Department?

Vlasik. Seems like twice.

presiding. Did you have a right to it?

Vlasik. Yes, I had.

presiding. What, it was provided for by some instruction, order or order?

Vlasik. No. There were no special instructions in this regard. But I considered it possible to allow Stenberg to fly on the plane, since he went on a flight empty. Poskrebyshev did the same, granting the right to fly in this plane to the employees of the Central Committee.

presiding. But doesn’t this mean that, in particular, your friendly and friendly relations with Stenberg have taken precedence over your official duty?

Vlasik. It turns out like this.

presiding. Did you issue passes for passage to Red Square during the parades to your friends and cohabitants?

Vlasik. Yes, he did.

presiding. Do you admit that this was an abuse of power on your part?

Vlasik. Then I did not attach much importance to it. Now I regard this as an abuse I have committed. But please note that I gave passes only to people whom I knew well.

presiding. But you gave a pass to Red Square to a certain Nikolaeva, who was connected with foreign journalists?

Vlasik. I only now realized that I committed a crime by giving her a pass, although I did not attach any importance to this at the time and believed that nothing bad could happen,

presiding. Did you give tickets to the stands of the Dynamo stadium to your cohabitant Gradusova and her husband Shrager?

Vlasik. gave.

presiding. But where exactly?

Vlasik. I don't remember.

presiding. I remind you that, using the tickets you gave them, they found themselves on the podium of the Dynamo stadium in the sector where there were senior officials of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers. And then they called you on this argument, expressing bewilderment at the indicated fact. Do you remember it?

Vlasik. Yes, I remember this fact. But nothing bad could happen as a result of my actions.

presiding. Did you have the right to do so?

Vlasik. Now I understand that I had no right and should not have done so.

presiding. Tell me, have you, Stenberg and your cohabitants been in the boxes designed to protect the government, available at the Bolshoi Theater and others?

Vlasik. Yes, I have been to the Bolshoi Theater once or twice. Together with me there were Stenberg with his wife and Gradusova. In addition, we were two or three times at the Vakhtangov Theater, the Operetta Theater, etc.

presiding. Did you explain to them that these lodges are for government security personnel?

Vlasik. No. Knowing who I am, they could guess for themselves.

Court member Kovalenko. I read out an excerpt from Vlasik’s testimony dated February 26, 1954: “Stenberg and cohabitants were not only not supposed to be in these boxes, but also to know about them. I, having lost all sense of vigilance, myself visited these boxes with them and, moreover, committing a crime, repeatedly instructed to let Stenberg and cohabitants through in my absence in the box for the secretaries of the Central Committee.

This is right? Were there such cases?

Vlasik. Yes they were. But I must say that members of the government have never been to such places as the Operetta Theatre, the Vakhtangov Theatre, the circus.

presiding. Did you show Stenberg and your cohabitants the films you shot about the head of government?

Vlasik. It took place. But I believed that if these films were shot by me, then I had the right to show them. Now I understand that I should not have done this.

presiding. Did you show them the government dacha on Lake Ritsa?

Vlasik. Yes, I showed from afar. But I want the court to understand me correctly. After all, Lake Ritsa is a place that, at the direction of the head of government, was provided to thousands of people who came there on an excursion. I was specially given the task to organize the procedure for sightseeing sightseeing of this place by sightseers. In particular, boat rides were organized, and these boats kept their way in the immediate vicinity of the government dachas and, of course, all the sightseers, at least most of them, knew where the government dacha was located.

presiding. But not all the sightseers knew which dacha belongs to the head of government, and you told Stenberg and your cohabitants about it.

Vlasik. Her location was known to all the tourists, which is confirmed by numerous intelligence materials that I had at that time.

presiding. What other secret information did you divulge from your conversations with Stenberg?

Vlasik. None.

presiding. What did you tell him about the fire at Voroshilov's dacha and about the materials that died there?

Vlasik. I don't remember exactly, but there was some talk about it. When I once asked Stenberg for lights for a Christmas tree, I somehow told him in passing what happens when the electric lighting of a Christmas tree is carelessly handled.

presiding. Did you tell him what exactly died in that fire?

Vlasik. It is possible that I told him that valuable historical photographic documents were lost in the fire at the dacha.

presiding. Did you have the right to tell him about it?

Vlasik. No, of course he didn't. But I did not attach any importance to it then.

presiding. Did you tell Stenberg that in 1911 you went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the government?

Vlasik. Stenberg also returned from Kuibyshev at that time, and we had a conversation about my trip to Kuibyshev, but I don’t remember exactly what I told him.

presiding. You told Stenberg how once you had to organize a deception of one of the foreign ambassadors who wanted to check whether Lenin's body was in the Mausoleum, for which he brought a wreath to the Mausoleum.

Vlasik. I don't remember exactly, but there was some talk about it.

Court member Kovalenko. I announce the testimony of the defendant Vlasik dated February 18, 1953: “I blurted out secret information to Stenberg only because of my carelessness. For example, during the war years, when Lenin's body was taken out of Moscow, and one of the foreign ambassadors, deciding to check whether it was in Moscow, came to lay a wreath at the Mausoleum. This was reported to me by phone at the dacha when Stenberg was with me. After talking on the phone, I told Stenberg about this incident and said that in order to deceive the ambassador, I had to accept a wreath and put up a guard of honor at the Mausoleum. There were other similar cases, but I don’t remember them, because I didn’t attach any importance to these conversations and considered Stenberg an honest person.

Is this your correct statement?

Vlasik. I told the investigator that there may have been a case when they called me on the phone. But whether Stenberg was present during the conversation on this topic, I do not remember.

presiding. Did you tell Stenberg about the organization of security during the Potsdam Conference?

Vlasik. No. I didn't tell him about this. When I arrived from Potsdam, I showed Stenberg a film that I had filmed in Potsdam during the conference. Since in this movie I was filmed in the immediate vicinity of the guarded, he could not help but understand that I was in charge of the organization of security.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, tell me, did you disclose to Stenberg three secret agents of the MGB - Nikolaev, Krivova and Ryazantseva?

Vlasik. I told him about Ryazantseva's intrusive behavior and at the same time expressed the idea that she might be connected with the police.

presiding. I read out the testimony of witness Stenberg dated October 22, 1953: “From Vlasik, I only know that my friend Krivova Galina Nikolaevna, who works in the trust for the external design of the Moscow Council, is an agent of the MGB, and also that his cohabitant Ryazantseva Valentina (I don’t know my middle name) is also cooperates with the bodies of the MGB. Vlasik didn’t tell me anything more about the work of the MGB bodies.”

Vlasik. I told Stenberg that Ryazantseva called me on the phone every day and asked to meet with her. Based on this and the fact that she was working in some food stall, I told Stenberg that she was "yapping" and, in all likelihood, was collaborating with the criminal investigation department. But I didn’t tell Stenberg that she was a secret agent of the MGB, because I didn’t know about it myself. I must say that I knew Ryazantseva as a little girl.

presiding. Did you show Stenberg the undercover file against him, which was conducted in the MGB?

Vlasik. This is not entirely true. In 1952, after returning from a business trip from the Caucasus, Deputy Minister of State Security Ryasnoy called me to his place and gave me an undercover file on Stenberg. At the same time, he said that in this case there is material against me, in particular, about my official telephone conversations. Ryasnoy told me to familiarize myself with this case and remove from it what I considered necessary. I didn't know the whole thing. I only read the certificate - a submission to the Central Committee for the arrest of Stenberg and his wife. After that, I went to Minister Ignatiev and demanded that he make a decision regarding me. Ignatiev told me to summon Stenberg and warn him about the need to stop all meetings with inappropriate people. He ordered the case to be archived and, in the event of any conversation about it, refer to his instructions. I called Stenberg and told him that a case had been opened against him. Then he showed him a photograph of one woman, which was in this case, and asked if he knew her. After that, I asked him a few questions, inquiring about his meetings with various people, including a meeting with a foreign correspondent. Stenberg replied that he met him by chance at the Dneproges and never saw him again. When I told him that there were materials in the case showing that he had met with this correspondent in Moscow, having already known me, Stenberg burst into tears. I asked him the same thing about Nikolaeva. Stenberg cried again. After that, I took Stenberg to my dacha. There, to calm him down, I offered him a drink of cognac. He agreed. We drank one or two glasses with him and began to play billiards.

I never told anyone about this case. When I was removed from my post, I sealed the Stenberg case in a bag and returned it to Ryasny without removing a single piece of paper from it.

presiding. I read out the testimony of witness Stenberg dated October 22, 1953: “When I came late in the evening, at the end of April 1952, on Vlasik’s call to his service in the building of the USSR Ministry of State Security, he, offering to smoke, told me:“ I have to arrest you, you are a spy “. When I asked what this meant, Vlasik said: “Here all the documents for you are collected,” pointing to a voluminous folder lying on the table in front of him, and continued: “Your wife, as well as Stepanov, are also American spies.” Further, Vlasik told me that Olga Sergeevna Nikolaeva (Vlasik called her Lyalka), during interrogation at the MGB, testified that I had been to embassies with her, and also visited restaurants with foreigners. Vlasik read out Nikolaeva's testimony to me. They talked about some Volodya, with whom Nikolaeva, along with foreigners, went to restaurants.

Leafing through a voluminous folder, Vlasik showed me a photocopy of the document on my transition to Soviet citizenship. At the same time, he asked if I was a Swedish subject. I immediately reminded Vlasik that, at one time, I told him in detail both about myself and about my parents. In particular, I then told Vlasik that until 1933 I was a Swedish subject, that in 1922 I traveled abroad with the Chamber Theater, that my father left the Soviet Union for Sweden and died there, etc.

Looking at me materials, Vlasik showed me a photograph of Filippova and asked who she was. In addition, in this case, I saw a number of photographs. Vlasik also asked if my wife Nadezhda Nikolaevna Stenberg and I were familiar with the American Lyons, if my brother was familiar with Yagoda, who gave me a recommendation when entering Soviet citizenship, etc.

At the end of this conversation, Vlasik said that he was transferring the case against me to another department (Vlasik named this department, but it was not preserved in my memory) and asked me not to tell anyone about the call to him and the content of the conversation.

... Vlasik told me that "they wanted to arrest you (meaning me, my wife Nadezhda Nikolaevna and Stepanov), but my boyfriend intervened in this matter and delayed your arrest."

Is the testimony of the witness correct?

Vlasik. They are not entirely accurate. I have already shown the court how it all really happened.

presiding. But you told Stenberg that only your intervention prevented the arrest of him and his wife.

Vlasik. No, it didn't.

presiding. But by showing Stenberg the materials of the undercover case against him, you thereby revealed the methods of work of the MGB bodies.

Vlasik. Then I did not understand this and did not take into account the importance of the misconduct.

presiding. Did you tell Stenberg that the Potsdam Conference was being prepared before it was officially known to everyone?

Vlasik. No, it didn't.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, did you keep secret documents in your apartment?

Vlasik. I was going to compile an album in which the life and work of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin would be reflected in photographs and documents, and therefore I had some data in my apartment for this. In addition, I found an intelligence note on the work of the Sochi city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and materials related to the organization of security in Potsdam. I thought that these documents were not particularly secret, but, as I see now, I had to deposit some of them with the MGB. I kept them locked in the drawers of the table, and my wife made sure that no one climbed into the drawers.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, you are presented with a topographic map of the Caucasus marked "secret". Do you admit that you did not have the right to keep this card in the apartment?

Vlasik. Then I did not consider it secret.

presiding. You are presented with a topographic map of Potsdam with points marked on it and a conference security system. Could you keep such a document in your apartment?

Vlasik. Yes, I didn't. I forgot to return this card after returning from Potsdam, and it was in my desk drawer.

presiding. I present to you a map of the Moscow region marked "secret". Where did you keep it?

Vlasik. In a drawer in my apartment on the street. Gorky, in the same place where other documents were found.

presiding. And where was the secret note about the people who lived on Metrostroevskaya Street, the secret note about the work of the Sochi city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the government train schedules kept?

Vlasik. All this was stored together in a desk drawer in my apartment.

presiding. How do you know that these documents were not the subject of inspection by anyone?

Vlasik. This is out of the question.

presiding. Are you familiar with the expert opinion on these documents?

Vlasik. Yes, familiar.

presiding. Do you agree with the conclusions of the examination?

Vlasik. Yes, now I understand all this very well.

presiding. Show the court how you, using your official position, used the products from the kitchen of the head of government to your advantage?

Vlasik. I don't want to make excuses for this. But we were placed in such conditions that sometimes we had to ignore the costs in order to provide food at a certain time. Every day we were confronted with the fact of changing the time of his eating, and in connection with this, part of the previously prepared products remained unused. These products were sold by us among service personnel. After the unhealthy conversations around this appeared among the employees, I had to limit the circle of people who used the products. Now I understand that, despite the difficult time of the war, I should not have allowed these products to be used in this way.

presiding. But your crime lies not only in this? You sent a car to the government dacha for groceries and cognac for yourself and your cohabitants?

Vlasik. Yes, there have been such cases. But sometimes I paid money for these products. True, there were cases that they were delivered to me for free.

presiding. This is theft.

Vlasik. No, this is an abuse of his position. After I received a remark from the head of government, I stopped it.

presiding. Since when did your moral decay begin?

Vlasik. In matters of service, I was always on the spot. Drinking and meeting women was at the expense of my health and in my spare time. I admit that I had many women.

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

Vlasik. Yes. In 1950 he told me that I was abusing my relationship with women.

Court member Kovalenko. Did you know Sarkisov?

Vlasik. Yes, he was attached to Beria as a guard.

Member of the court Rybkin. Did he tell you that Beria is debauched?

Vlasik. It's a lie,

Member of the court Rybkin. But you acknowledged the fact that you were once informed that Sarkisov was looking for suitable women on the streets and then took them to Beria.

Vlasik. Yes, I received intelligence materials about this and handed them over to Abakumov. Abakumov took over the conversation with Sarkisov, and I got away from it, because I believed that it was not my business to interfere in this, because everything was connected with the name of Beria.

Member of the court Rybkin. You testified that when Sarkisov reported to you about Beria's debauchery, you told him that there was nothing to interfere with Beria's personal life, but that he should be protected. Did it take place?

Vlasik. No, this is a lie. Neither Sarkisov nor Nadaraya reported this to me. Sarkisov once turned to me with a request to provide him with a car for household needs, motivating this by the fact that he sometimes has to use a "tail" car when performing Beria's task. What exactly this car was for, I do not know.

Member of the court Rybkin. Defendant Vlasik, how could you allow a huge overspending of public funds in your administration?

Vlasik. I must say that my literacy suffers greatly. All my education consists in the 3rd grade of a rural parochial school. In financial matters, I do not understand anything, and therefore my deputy was in charge of this. He repeatedly assured me that "everything is in order."

I must say that every measure we planned was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR and only after that was it carried out.

Member of the court Rybkin. What can you show the court about the use of free rations by security officers?

Vlasik. We have repeatedly discussed this issue, and after the head of government gave instructions to improve the financial situation of the security guards, we left it the way it was before. But on this occasion, the Council of Ministers made a special decision, and I, for my part, considered this situation to be correct, since security workers were away from home for more than half the time a week and it would be inappropriate to deprive their families of rations because of this. I remember that I raised the question of conducting an audit of the 1st Department of the Security Directorate. At the direction of Merkulov, a commission chaired by Serov carried out this audit, but no abuses were found.

Member of the court Rybkin. How often did you arrange carousing with women you know?

Vlasik. There were no sprees. I was always on duty.

Member of the court Rybkin. Did shooting take place during the spree?

Vlasik. I don't remember such a case.

Member of the court Rybkin. Tell me, did you conduct official telephone conversations in the presence of Stenberg from your apartment or from his?

Vlasik. The conversations were both from my apartment and from his. But I considered Stenberg a reliable person who knew a lot about our work.

Member of the court Rybkin. I read out the testimony of the defendant Vlasik dated February 17, 1953: “In the presence of Stenberg from his apartment, I repeatedly had official conversations with the duty officer at the Main Security Directorate, which sometimes concerned the movement of government members, and I also remember that from Stenberg’s apartment I talked on the phone with the Deputy Minister State Security Council on the construction of a new airfield in the vicinity of the city of Moscow.

Vlasik. This is the wording of the investigator. In my official telephone conversations, which took place in the presence of Stenberg, I was very limited in my statements.

Court member Kovalenko. Do you know Erman?

Vlasik. Yes I know.

Court member Kovalenko. What kind of conversation did you have with him about traffic routes and guarded exits?

Vlasik. I didn't talk to him about this. In addition, he himself was an old Chekist, and without me he knew all this very well.

Court member Kovalenko. For what purpose did you keep the scheme of access roads to the dacha "Middle" in the apartment?

Vlasik. This is not a diagram of access roads to the cottage, but a diagram of the internal roads of the cottage. Even during the Patriotic War, the head of government, walking around the territory of the dacha, personally made his own amendments to this scheme. Therefore, I kept it as a historical document, and the whole point was that in the old arrangement of exit routes from the dacha, the headlights of the car hit Poklonnaya Gora, and thus the moment of the car's departure was immediately given out.

Court member Kovalenko. Were his instructions carried out as indicated in the scheme?

Vlasik. Yes, but once again I declare that all these paths were inside the dacha, behind two fences.

Court member Kovalenko. Did you know Shcherbakov?

Vlasik. Yes, I knew and was in close contact with her.

Court member Kovalenko. Did you know that she had connections with foreigners?

Vlasik. I found out about this later.

Court member Kovalenko. But, and having learned this, continued to meet with her?

Vlasik. Yes, he continued.

Court member Kovalenko. How can you explain that you, having been a party member since 1918, have reached such a level of filth, both in official matters and in relation to moral and political decay?

Vlasik. I find it difficult to explain this in any way, but I declare that in official matters I have always been in place.

Court member Kovalenko. How do you explain your act, which consisted in the fact that you showed Stenberg his undercover file?

Vlasik. I acted on the basis of Ignatiev's instructions and, to be honest, I did not attach any particular importance to this.

Court member Kovalenko. Why did you take the path of plundering trophy property?

Vlasik. Now I understand that all this belonged to the state. I had no right to turn anything to my advantage. But then such a situation was created ... Beria arrived, gave permission to purchase some things for the senior guards. We made a list of what we needed, paid money, got these things. In particular, I paid 12 thousand rubles. I confess that I took some of the things for free, including a piano, grand piano, etc.

presiding. Comrade commandant, invite witness Ivanskaya into the hall. Witness Ivanskaya, show the court what you know about Vlasik and his case?

Ivanskaya. It seems that in May 1938, my friend, an NKVD officer Okunev, introduced me to Vlasik. I remember they came to me in a car, there was another girl with him, and we all went to the dacha to Vlasik. Before reaching the dacha, we decided to have a picnic in the forest in a clearing. Thus began an acquaintance with Vlasik. Our meetings continued until 1939. In 1939 I got married. Okunev kept calling me from time to time. He kept inviting me to come to Vlasik's parties. I, of course, refused. In 1943, these invitations were more insistent, and Okunev was joined by the requests of Vlasik himself. For some time I resisted their insistence, but then I agreed and several times I was at Vlasik's dacha and at his apartment on Gogol Boulevard. I remember that at that time Stenberg was in the companies, once there was Maxim Dormidontovich Mikhailov and very often Okunev. Frankly, I had no particular desire to meet Vlasik and generally be in this company. But Vlasik threatened me, said that he would arrest me, etc., and I was afraid of this. Once, at Vlasik's apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard, I was with my friends Kopteva and another girl. Then there was some artist, I think Gerasimov.

presiding. How were these meetings accompanied and for what purpose were you invited?

Ivanskaya. I still don't know why he invited me and others. It seemed to me that Vlasik collects companies only because he likes to drink and have fun.

presiding. What was your purpose in attending these parties?

Ivanskaya. I rode them simply because of the fear of Vlasik. At these parties, as soon as we arrived, we sat down at the table, drank wine and had a snack. True, on the part of Vlasik there were encroachments regarding me as a woman. But they ended in vain.

presiding. Were you with Vlasik at the government dacha?

Ivanskaya. I find it difficult to say what kind of dacha we were at. It looked like a small rest home or sanatorium. There we were met by some Georgian who manages this building. Vlasik then told us about him that this was Stalin's uncle. It was before the war, in 1938 or 1939. The four of us arrived there: Okunev, Vlasik, me and some other girl. Besides us, there were several military men there, including two or three generals. The girl who was with us began to express special sympathy for one of the generals. Vlasik did not like this, and, having taken out his revolver, he began to shoot the glasses standing on the table. He was already "tired".

presiding. How many shots did they fire?

Ivanskaya. I don't remember exactly, one or two. Immediately after Vlasik’s shooting, everyone began to disperse, and Vlasik and this girl got into the general’s car, and I got into Vlasik’s free car. I persuaded the driver, and he took me home. A few minutes after my arrival, Vlasik called me and reproached me for leaving them.

presiding. Tell me, do you remember where this dacha was located, in what area.

Ivanskaya. I find it difficult to say where she was, but I remember that we first drove along the Mozhaisk highway.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, do you have any questions for the witness?

Vlasik. No. I just can't understand why the witness is lying.

presiding. Tell Vlasik, what kind of dacha are we talking about in connection with your shooting?

Vlasik. There was no shooting. We went with Okunev, Ivanskaya, Gradusova and Gulko to one subsidiary farm, which was in charge of Okunev. Indeed, we drank and ate there, but there was no shooting.

presiding. Witness Ivanskaya, do you insist on your testimony?

Ivanskaya. Yes, I showed the truth.

presiding. Defendant Vlasik, tell me, what is the interest of the witness in showing the court a lie? What, you had a hostile relationship with her?

Vlasik. No, we did not have hostile relations. After Okunev left her, I lived with her as with a woman. And I must say that she called me herself more often than I called her. I knew her father, who worked in a special group of the NKGB, and we never had any quarrels with her.

presiding. How long did you have an intimate relationship with her?

Vlasik. Quite a long time. But the meetings were very rare, about once or twice a year.

presiding. Witness Ivanskaya, do you confirm the testimony of the defendant Vlasik?

Ivanskaya. I do not know why Nikolai Sidorovich talks about the alleged intimate relationship between us. But if he was capable of male exploits, then this applied to other women, and, in all likelihood, he probably used me as a screen in this, since everyone knew me as the daughter of an old Chekist. In general, I must say that Vlasik behaved provocatively in relation to others. For example, when I tried to refuse to meet with him, he threatened to arrest me. And he completely terrorized the cook at his dacha. He spoke to him only with the use of obscenities, and was not shy of those present, including women.

presiding. Witness Ivanskaya, the court has no more questions for you. You are free.

Comrade commandant, invite witness Stenberg to the hall. Witness Stenberg, show the court what you know about Vlasik.

Stenberg. I met Vlasik around 1936. Before the war, our meetings were rare. Then, from the beginning of the war, the meetings became more frequent. We went to Vlasik's dacha, to his apartment, drank there, played billiards. Vlasik helped me in my work on portraits of members of the government.

presiding. During those meetings and drinks, were there women you cohabited with?

Stenberg. There were women at the same time, but we had no connection with them.

presiding. Did Vlasik conduct office conversations on the phone with you?

Stenberg. There were separate conversations. But Vlasik always answered only “yes”, “no”.

presiding. What did he tell you about the fire at Voroshilov's dacha?

Stenberg. Vlasik told me that as a result of careless handling of the electric lighting of the Christmas tree at Voroshilov's dacha, there was a fire during which a valuable photo archive burned down. He didn't say anything more about it to me.

presiding. Did Vlasik tell you that in 1941 he went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the Government?

Stenberg. I knew that Vlasik went to Kuibyshev, but for what specifically, I did not know. He only told me that he had to fight rats somewhere.

presiding. I read out the testimony of witness Stenberg: “In early 1942, Vlasik told me that he went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the government. At the same time, he said: “Here is a city, you cannot imagine how many rats there are. This is the whole problem – the war with them.”

Do you confirm these statements?

Stenberg. Yes, they are mostly correct.

presiding. Vlasik told you that you once had to deceive a foreign ambassador who was trying to find out if the body of V. I. Lenin was in Moscow?

Stenberg. As far as I remember, Vlasik once, in my presence, gave instructions to someone to put up a guard of honor at the Mausoleum. After talking on the phone, he explained to me what it was for. It was either in the country, or in Vlasik's apartment.

presiding. Did Vlasik tell you about the organization of the protection of the Potsdam Conference?

Stenberg. Much time after the Potsdam Conference, Vlasik told me that he had to go to Potsdam and restore "order" there. At the same time, he told the details: in particular, that he had to bring all the products there in order not to use locally produced products. From the local population, as he said, only live cattle were bought.

presiding. What films about members of the government did Vlasik show you?

Stenberg. I saw, in particular, films about the Potsdam Conference, about Stalin and members of the government, about the arrival of Vasily and his sister to Stalin.

presiding. Who, besides you, was present at the viewing of these films?

Stenberg. As far as I remember, there was one military man, as everyone called him “Uncle Sasha”, of the women there was Averina and Ponomareva. I introduced Vlasik to Averina in 1945, and Ponomarev was known to him earlier. I personally cohabited with Ponomareva.

New Trial Many progressive organizations in Holland protested Menten's acquittal, and a number of rallies and demonstrations were held. As a result, the verdict was protested by the prosecutor's office and overturned by the Dutch Supreme Court.

Case No. 3? 47?

CHAPTER 8 1924-1925 Wiedener's anger - To New York for trial - Rude language in the courtroom - Case in the hat - Trip to Corsica - Buying two houses in Calvi - Corsican friendliness - Case lost in court - Bolsheviks found our Moscow hiding place - New enterprises:

CHAPTER 5 Kyiv conference. The case of Pimenov and Weil. Lucy appears. Human Rights Committee. "Airplane Case" In July, I spent a month in the hospital, where I had a hernia operation. Having recovered, I decided to go to Kyiv for the traditional, so-called Rochester, international

CHAPTER 26 1979 Lucy's third trip. Case of Zatikyan, Baghdasaryan and Stepanyan. My appeal to Brezhnev. Two trips to Tashkent. New case of Mustafa Dzhemilev. Adventists. Vladimir Shelkov. Letter from the Crimean Tatars to Giscard d'Estaing and my new appeal to Brezhnev. Zbigniew

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Court session October 24, 2004 The already habitually tedious trip was marked by the same inconveniences that turn the near-by, in fact, transfers from pre-trial detention centers to courts into a painful test of endurance for prisoners. Key Highlights of Judicial Trips -

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What's the matter! “What awaits me at the factory?” - I thought, studying the materials about his activities on reports and reports. I had little experience in factory work - I worked mainly in laboratories. What will you face in the factory? – Rigorous compliance

FOREWORD

The authors of this book were close to Stalin for many years, observed his life and were at the center of the most important political events.
The head of Stalin's personal guard, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, was born on May 22, 1896 in the Belarusian village of Bobynichi. From the age of thirteen he worked at a construction site, then at a paper mill. During the First World War he was called up for military service. For his bravery he was awarded the St. George Cross of the 1st degree. After being wounded in 1916, Vlasik was sent to Moscow to the 25th reserve regiment - in the rank of non-commissioned officer, platoon commander. During the days of the February Revolution, a young officer joins his regiment with the rebels - without firing a shot. Since October 1917, Vlasik has been working in the bodies of the newly created Soviet police. In 1918, as part of the 393rd Rogozhsko-Simonovsky Regiment, he was sent to the Southern Front, to the 10th Army defending Tsaritsyn. After being wounded and subsequently treated in a Moscow hospital, Vlasik was assigned to the 1st Soviet Infantry Regiment. In the same year he joined the ranks of the RCP(b). The next year, 1919, marked a new turn in the biography of Nikolai Sidorovich: upon the mobilization of the party, he was sent to work in the Special Department of the Cheka, at the disposal of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, where the young security officer takes an active part in operations to eliminate the counter-revolutionary underground in the USSR (in particular, cadet), carries out the responsible instructions of the leaders of the Soviet counterintelligence.
In 1927, an event takes place that determined the fate of N. S. Vlasik for many years: after the famous explosion in the commandant's office building on Lubyanka, he was entrusted with organizing the protection of the Special Department of the OGPU, the Kremlin, members of the Soviet government and personal protection of I. V. Stalin. Since that time, the life and work of Vlasik is closely connected with the personality of Stalin, his activities, life, character traits. For almost a quarter of a century in various positions related to ensuring the protection of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, Nikolai Sidorovich went through all the steps of the career ladder of one of the important sectors of the domestic state security system. Since 1938, Vlasik became the head of the I department of the General Guard of the government. From 1947 to 1952, he directed the work of the Main Security Directorate of the MGB.

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Notes of N. S. Vlasik

BRIEF FOREWORD

HOW I WAS APPOINTED TO STALIN

In 1927, a bomb was thrown into the building of the commandant's office on Lubyanka. At that time I was in Sochi on vacation. The authorities urgently called me and instructed me to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, as well as the protection of government members at dachas, walks, trips, and pay special attention to the personal protection of Comrade Stalin. Until that time, only one employee was with Comrade Stalin, who accompanied him when he went on business trips. It was the Lithuanian Yusis. He called Yusis and went with him by car to a dacha near Moscow, where Comrade Stalin usually rested. Arriving at the dacha and examining it, I saw that there was a complete mess. There was no linen, no dishes, no staff. There lived one commandant at the dacha.
As I learned from Yusis, Comrade Stalin came to the dacha with his family only on Sundays and ate sandwiches that they brought with them from Moscow.

STALIN'S FAMILY, RHYTHM OF LIFE, LIFE

Comrade Stalin's family consisted of his wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, the daughter of the old Bolshevik S. Ya. Alliluyev, whom Comrade Stalin met when he was hiding in his family in an apartment in Petrograd, and two children - Vasya's son, a very lively and impetuous boy of five years old, and daughter Svetlana two years old. In addition to these children, Comrade Stalin had an adult son from his first marriage with Ekaterina Svanidze, Yakov, a very sweet and modest person, remarkably similar to his father in conversation and manners. Looking ahead, I will say that he graduated from the Institute of Railway Transport and lived on a scholarship, sometimes in need, but never turned to his father with any requests. After graduating from the institute, to the remark of his father that he would like to see his son in the military, Yakov entered the Artillery Academy, which he graduated from before the war. In the very first days of the war, he went to the front. Near Vyazma, our units were surrounded, and he was taken prisoner.
The Germans held him captive in the camp until the end of the war, in the camp and killed him, allegedly while trying to escape. According to the former French Prime Minister Herriot, who was with him in this camp, Yakov behaved with exceptional dignity and courage. After the end of the war, Herriot wrote about this to Stalin.
In the apartment in the Kremlin, where Stalin lived with his family, there was a housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna and a cleaner. They received food from the Kremlin canteen, from where K.V. brought lunch in vessels. By order of the authorities, in addition to the guards, I had to arrange the supply and living conditions of the guarded.
I began by sending linen and crockery to the dacha, arranging for the supply of food from the state farm, which was under the jurisdiction of the GPU and located next to the dacha. He sent a cook and a cleaner to the dacha. Established a direct telephone connection with Moscow.
Yusis, fearing Comrade Stalin's dissatisfaction with these innovations, suggested that I myself report everything to Comrade Stalin. This is how my first meeting and first conversation with Comrade Stalin took place. Before that, I had only seen him from afar, when I accompanied him on walks and on trips to the theater.
Comrade Stalin lived with his family very modestly. He walked in an old, badly worn overcoat. I offered Nadezhda Sergeevna to sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take measurements or take the old one and make exactly such a new one from it in the workshop. It was not possible to remove the measure, as he flatly refused, saying that he did not need a new coat. But we still managed to sew him a new coat.
His wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, a very modest woman, rarely made any requests, dressed modestly, unlike the wives of many responsible workers. She studied at the Industrial Academy and paid much attention to children.

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THE MURDER OF S. M. KIROV

I especially want to talk about Kirov.
Most of all, Stalin loved and respected Kirov. He loved him with some kind of touching, tender love. Comrade Kirov's visits to Moscow and to the south were a real treat for Stalin. Sergei Mironovich came for a week or two. In Moscow, he stayed at Comrade Stalin's apartment, and I.V. literally did not part with him.
S. M. Kirov was killed on December 13, 1934 in Leningrad. Kirov's death shocked Stalin. I went with him to Leningrad and I know how he suffered, experienced the loss of his beloved friend. Everyone knows what a crystal-clear man S.M. was, how simple and modest he was, what a great worker and wise leader he was, everyone knows.
This vile murder showed that the enemies of Soviet power had not yet been destroyed and were ready at any moment to strike from around the corner.
Comrade Kirov was killed by the enemies of the people. His killer, Leonid Nikolaev, stated in his testimony: "Our shot was supposed to be a signal for an explosion and an offensive inside the country against the CPSU (b) and Soviet power." In September 1934, an attempt was made on Comrade Molotov, when he made an inspection tour of the mining regions of Siberia. Comrade Molotov and his companions miraculously escaped death.

ATTEMPT ON STALIN

In the summer of 1935, an attempt was made on Comrade Stalin. It happened in the south. Comrade Stalin was resting at a dacha not far from Gagra.
On a small boat, which was transported to the Black Sea from the Neva from Leningrad by Yagoda, Comrade Stalin took walks on the sea. He had only security with him. The direction was taken to Cape Pitsunda. Having entered the bay, we went ashore, rested, ate, walked, having been on the shore for several hours. Then they boarded the boat and went home. There is a lighthouse on Cape Pitsunda, and not far from the lighthouse on the shore of the bay there was a border guard post. When we left the bay and turned in the direction of Gagra, shots rang out from the shore. We were being fired upon.
Quickly putting Comrade Stalin on the bench and covering him with myself, I ordered the minder to go out to sea.
We immediately fired a burst of machine gun fire along the shore. The firing on our boat stopped.
Our boat was small, river and completely unsuitable for sailing on the sea, and we had a great chat before we landed on the shore. The sending of such a boat to Sochi was also made by Yagoda, apparently not without malicious intent - on a big wave it would inevitably capsize, but we, as people not versed in maritime affairs, did not know about this.
This case was referred for investigation by Beria, who was at that time the secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia. During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat was with an unfamiliar number, it seemed suspicious to him and he opened fire, although he had enough time to find out everything while we were on the shore of the bay, and he could not see us.
It was all one ball.
The assassination of Kirov, Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev, as well as the assassination attempts mentioned above, were organized by the right-wing Trotskyist bloc.
This was shown by the trials of Kamenev and Zinoviev in 1936, the trial of Pyatakov, Radek and Sokolnikov in 1937, and the trial of Yagoda, Bukharin and Rykov in 1938. This tangle was unraveled and thus neutralized the enemies of Soviet power before the war. They could be the "fifth column".

MILITARY CONSPIRACY

Among the many accusations brought against Comrade Stalin after his death, perhaps the most significant is the accusation of the physical destruction of a group of military leaders of the Red Army headed by Tukhachevsky.
They have now been rehabilitated. At the 22nd Congress, the Communist Party of the USSR declared their complete innocence to the whole world.
On what basis were they rehabilitated?
They were convicted according to the documents. After 20 years, these documents were declared fake ... But how should Comrade Stalin react to a document that convicted Tukhachevsky of treason, handed over by a friend of the Soviet Union, President of Czechoslovakia Benes? I do not admit the thought that other evidence was not collected besides this. If all the military leaders, as it is now claimed, were innocent, then why did Gamarnik suddenly shoot himself? I have never heard of such cases when innocent people were shot while waiting for arrest. After all, revolutionaries, always living under the threat of arrest, never committed suicide. In addition, this group of military men was not shot, like 26 Baku commissars, without trial or investigation. They were convicted by the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court.
The trial, it is true, took place behind closed doors, since the testimony at the trial had to deal with military secrets. But the court included such authoritative people known throughout the country as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov. The report on the trial indicated that the defendants had pleaded guilty. To cast doubt on this message means to cast a shadow on such unsullied people as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov.
Speaking about this process, I would like to dwell on the personality of the head of the military group Tukhachevsky. Personality, of course, very bright. A lot has already been written about him, in particular, such a venerable writer as L. Nikulin wrote a book about him. I would like to say a few words about this book and another book - by Michael Sayers and Albert Kahn "Secret War against Soviet Russia". I want to dwell on the characterization of Tukhachevsky given by the authors of these books.
Their characteristics are exactly the opposite. Which of them is right? Who to believe? I personally met with Tukhachevsky, I knew him. It was known about him that he came from a noble landlord family, graduated from the Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School. But I never heard that his mother was a simple illiterate peasant woman. Nikulin writes that he received information about Tukhachevsky's childhood from a friend of his acquaintance, who tracked down a 90-year-old man who worked in his youth on the estate of Tukhachevsky's father. I recorded a conversation with him and sent it to Nikulin.
The source seems to me to be of little authority.
There is no doubt that Tukhachevsky was a highly educated person. Neither appearance, nor gestures, nor demeanor, nor conversation - nothing indicated in him a proletarian origin, on the contrary, blue blood was visible in everything.
Nikulin writes that Tukhachevsky was not a careerist, but according to other sources, after graduating from the Alexander School, Tukhachevsky said: “Either I will be a general at thirty years old, or I will shoot myself.” The French officer Remy Ruhr, who was in captivity along with Tukhachevsky, characterized him as an extremely ambitious person who stops at nothing.
Subsequently, in 1928, Remy Ruhr wrote a book about Tukhachevsky under the pseudonym Pierre Fervac.
Tukhachevsky escaped from German captivity and returned to Russia on the eve of the October Revolution. He first joined the former officers of the tsarist army, then broke with them.
Sayers and Kahn write that to his friend Golumbek, when asked what he intended to do, Tukhachevsky replied: “Frankly speaking, I turn to the Bolsheviks. The White Army is unable to do anything. They don't have a leader."

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A special place in the family of I. V. Stalin was occupied by General N. S. Vlasik. He was not just the head of security, under whose vigilant eye was the entire Stalinist house. After the death of N. S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure, an economic and financial manager.

In the Soviet and foreign press, with the light hand of Svetlana Alliluyeva, he will be called Nikolai Sergeevich, a rude martinet, a rude and imperious head of security who has been near Stalin since 1919. Is it all so? Let's turn to some archival documents.

“I, Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich, born in 1896, a native of the village of Bobynichi, Slonim district, Baranovichi region, Belarusian, member of the CPSU since 1918, lieutenant general,” he wrote in his autobiography. - He was awarded three orders of Lenin, four orders of the Red Banner, Kutuzov I degree, medals: "20 years of the Red Army", "For the defense of Moscow", "For the victory over Germany", "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow", "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy", I have the honorary title of "Honorary Chekist", which I was awarded twice with a badge.

In the protection of I.V. Stalin, N.S. Vlasik appeared in 1931. Prior to that, he served in the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU. He was recommended for this post by Menzhinsky. Until 1932, his role was invisible. Stalin preferred to move around the city without guards, and even more so in the Kremlin.

The main thing in his activity was the protection of the dacha. Since 1934, the servants of the dacha began to change, and all newly admitted were enrolled in the staff of the OGPU, and then the NKVD, assigning military ranks. Left without a wife, Stalin, with the help of Vlasik, began to improve his life. The dacha in Zubalovo was left to Sergei Yakovlevich Alliluev and his wife, where Sergei Alexandrovich Efimov was the commandant. A dacha in Kuntsevo, an old manor along the Dmitrov highway - Lipki, dachas in Ritsa, the Crimea, Valdai, together with the security staff, maids, housekeepers and cooks, were subordinate to Vlasik.

Most of all, two people held out in the protection of the Stalin family - the nanny of Svetlana Bychkova and Vlasik himself. The rest changed. For almost six years, the cousin of his wife L.P. Beria, Major Alexandra Nikolaevna Nakashidze, spent almost six years as a housekeeper, who went to theaters with her children, checked their homework and reported to Vlasik about this. Children were taken to and from school by car, accompanied by security officers, and this applied to everyone - Yakov, Vasily and Svetlana. This function was performed by I. I. Krivenko, M. N. Klimov and others.

Occupied by the servants of the Stalin family, the guards lived well, they did not stay in the ranks, there were no problems with food and housing. All this they received, with rare exceptions, quickly.

A. N. Nakashidze, after appearing in Moscow, soon enough became a major, dragged her mother, father, sister and two brothers closer to her, who received apartments and dachas.

All security personnel were provided with special food rations. This issue was sanctioned by I. V. Stalin himself and by a special decision of the Council of Ministers.

On the shoulders of N. S. Vlasik lay almost all the everyday problems of the head of state. In 1941, in connection with the possibility of the fall of Moscow, he was sent to Kuibyshev. He was entrusted with the control of the preparation of conditions for the government to move here. The direct executor in Kuibyshev was the head of the main construction department of the NKVD, General L. B. Safrazyan.

For I. V. Stalin in Kuibyshev, a large regional committee building, several colossal bomb shelters and summer cottages on the banks of the Volga were prepared, and for children - a mansion on Pionerskaya Street with a courtyard, where the museum used to be located.

Everywhere, N. S. Vlasik managed to almost exactly recreate the Moscow atmosphere that Stalin loved. The children of government members studied here in a special school.

Stalin's first grandson, Sasha, son of Vasily, was also born in Kuibyshev.

Children and relatives watched films, newsreels right at home, in the corridor, for which Vlasik was praised. Did Vlasik manage to become a skilled guardian for Stalin's children, and was he a good assistant to the latter? Judging by the memories of children and grandchildren, no.

On December 15, 1952, he was arrested. At this time, he served as head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. The trial took place on January 17, 1955. The materials of the court case give us the opportunity to understand the life, character, personality, moral character of Vlasik, the officials of his entourage and the so-called friends.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, do you plead guilty to the charges brought against you and is it clear to you?

Vlasik: I understand the accusation. I plead guilty, but declare that I had no intent in what I did.

Chairperson: From what time and until what time did you hold the position of head of the Main Directorate of Security of the former Ministry of State Security of the USSR?

Vlasik: From 1947 to 1952.

presiding; What were your job responsibilities?

Vlasik: Ensuring the protection of the leaders of the party and government.

Presiding: So, you have been given special confidence by the Central Committee and the government. How did you justify this trust?

Vlasik: I took all measures to ensure this.

Chairperson: Did you know Stenberg?

Vlasik: Yes, I knew him.

Chairman: When did you meet him?

Vlasik: I don’t remember exactly, but this refers to about 1934-1935. I knew that he worked on the design of Red Square for the festive holidays. At first, our meetings with him were quite rare.

Presiding: At that time, were you already in the protection of the government?

Vlasik: Yes, I have been seconded to the protection of the government since 1931.

Chairperson: How did you meet Stenberg?

Vlasik: At that time I was courting one girl. Her last name is Spirin. This was after I separated from my wife. Spirina then lived in an apartment on the same staircase with the Stenbergs. Once, when I was at Spirina's, Stenberg's wife came in and we were introduced to her. After a while we went to the Stenbergs, where I met Stenberg himself.

Chairperson: What brought you closer to Stenberg?

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

Presiding: Did he have a comfortable apartment for this?

Vlasik: I visited him very rarely.

Chairperson: Did you conduct official conversations in the presence of Stenberg?

Vlasik: Separate official conversations that I had to conduct on the phone in the presence of Stenberg did not give him anything, since I usually conducted them very monosyllabically, answering “yes”, “no” on the phone. Once there was a case when, in the presence of Stenberg, I was forced to talk with one of the deputy ministers. This conversation concerned the issue of the construction of one airfield. I then said that this issue did not concern me, and suggested that he contact the head of the Air Force.

Presiding: I read out your testimony given at the preliminary investigation on February 11, 1953:

“I must admit that I turned out to be such a careless and politically narrow-minded person that during these sprees, in the presence of Stenberg and his wife, I had official conversations with the leadership of the MGB, and also gave instructions on the service to my subordinates.”

Do you confirm these statements of yours?

Vlasik: I signed these testimonies during the investigation, but they do not contain a single word of mine. All this is the wording of the investigator.

I said during the investigation that I did not deny the facts of my conducting official telephone conversations during drinks with Stenberg, but stated that it was impossible to understand anything from these conversations. In addition, please take into account that Stenberg worked on the design of Red Square for many years and knew a lot about the work of the MGB bodies.

Presiding: You declare that your words are not in the protocol. Does this apply only to the episode we are considering or to the whole case as a whole?

Vlasik: No, this cannot be regarded as such. The fact that I do not deny my guilt in the fact that I had conversations of an official nature on the phone in the presence of Stenberg, I also stated this during the investigation. I also said that these conversations may have touched on issues that Stenberg might be familiar with and might learn from. But the investigator wrote down my testimony in his own words, in a slightly different formulation than the one I gave during interrogations. Moreover, investigators Rodionov and Novikov did not give me the opportunity to make any corrections to the protocols they wrote down.

Chairperson: Was there a case when you spoke with the head of government in the presence of Stenberg?

Vlasik: Yes, such cases took place. True, the conversation was reduced only to my answers to the questions of the head of government, and Stenberg, apart from who I was talking to, could not understand anything from this conversation.

Presiding: Did you call the head of government by his first name, patronymic or last name?

Vlasik: During the conversation, I called him by his last name.

Chairman: What was this conversation about?

Vlasik: The conversation was about the package that was sent to the head of government from the Caucasus. I sent this parcel to the laboratory for analysis. The analysis required time, and, naturally, the package was delayed for some time. Someone reported to him about the receipt of the parcel. As a result of this, he called me, began to ask the reasons for the delay in sending the parcel to him, began to scold me for the delay and demanded that the parcel be immediately handed over to him. I replied that I would now check the state of affairs and report to him.

Chairman: Where did this conversation come from?

Vlasik: From my country dacha.

Presiding: Did you call on the phone yourself or were you summoned to him?

Vlasik: They called me to the phone.

Presiding: But you could, knowing with whom the conversation would be, remove Stenberg from the room.

Vlasik: Yes, of course, he could. And it seems that even I closed the door to the room from which I was talking.

Presiding: How many times have you given Stenberg a seat on an official plane belonging to the Security Department?

Vlasik: I think twice.

Chairman: Did you have the right to do so?

Vlasik: Yes, I had.

Presiding: What, was this provided for by some instruction, order or order?

Vlasik; No. There were no special instructions in this regard. But I considered it possible to allow Stenberg to fly on the plane, since he went on a flight empty. Poskrebyshev did the same, granting the right to fly in this plane to the employees of the Central Committee.

Presiding: Doesn't this mean that, in particular, your friendly and friendly relations with Stenberg have taken precedence over official duty?

Vlasik: It turns out like this.

Presiding: Did you issue passes for passage to Red Square during parades to your friends and cohabitants?

Vlasik: Yes, he gave out.

Presiding: Do you admit that this was an abuse of your official position?

Vlasik: Then I did not attach much importance to this. Now I regard this as an abuse I have committed. But please note that I gave passes only to people whom I knew well.

Presiding: But you gave a pass to Red Square to a certain Nikolaeva, who was connected with foreign journalists?

Vlasik: I just now realized what I had done, giving her a pass, a crime, although then I did not attach any importance to this and believed that nothing bad could happen.

Presiding: Did you give your cohabitant Gradusova and her husband Shrager tickets to the stands of the Dynamo stadium?

Vlasik: Yes.

Chairman: Where exactly?

Vlasik: I don't remember.

Presiding: I remind you that, using the tickets you gave, they ended up on the podium of the Dynamo stadium in the sector where there were senior officials of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers. And then they called you about this, expressing bewilderment at the indicated fact. Do you remember it?

Vlasik: Yes, I remember this fact. But nothing bad could happen as a result of my actions.

Chairman: Did you have the right to do so?

Vlasik: Now I understand that I had no right and should not have done so.

Presiding: Tell me, have you, Stenberg and your cohabitants been in the boxes designed to protect the government, available at the Bolshoi Theater and others?

Vlasik: Yes, I was at the Bolshoi Theater once or twice. Together with me there were Stenberg with his wife and Gradusova. In addition, we were two or three times at the Vakhtangov Theater, the Operetta Theater, etc.

Presiding: Did you explain to them that these boxes are intended for security officers of members of the government?

Vlasik: No. Knowing who I am, they could guess for themselves.

“Stenberg and cohabitants were not only not supposed to be in these lodges, but also to know about them. I, having lost all sense of vigilance, myself visited these boxes with them and, moreover, committing a crime, repeatedly instructed to let Stenberg and cohabitants through in my absence in the box for the secretaries of the Central Committee.

This is right? Were there such cases?

Vlasik: Yes, they were. But I must say that in such places as the Operetta Theatre, the Vakhtangov Theatre, the circus, etc., members of the government have never been.

Chairperson: Did you show Stenberg and your cohabitants the films you shot about the head of government?

Vlasik: It happened. But I believed that if these films were shot by me, then I had the right to show them. Now I understand that I should not have done this.

Chairperson: Did you show them the government dacha on Lake Ritsa?

Vlasik: Yes, he showed from afar. But I want the court to understand me correctly. After all, Lake Ritsa is a place that, at the direction of the head of government, was provided to thousands of people who came there on an excursion. I was specially given the task to organize the procedure for sightseeing sightseeing of this place by sightseers. In particular, boat rides were organized, and these boats kept their way in the immediate vicinity of the government dachas, and, of course, all the sightseers, at least most of them, knew where the government dacha was located.

Presiding: But not all the sightseers knew which dacha belongs to the head of government, and you told Stenberg and your cohabitants about it.

Vlasik: All the excursionists knew her whereabouts, which is confirmed by the numerous intelligence materials that I had at that time.

Chairperson: What other secret information did you divulge in conversations with Stenberg?

Vlasik: None.

Chairperson: What did you tell him about the fire at Voroshilov's dacha and about the materials that died there?

Vlasik: I don’t remember exactly about it, but there was a conversation about it. When I once asked Stenberg for lights for a Christmas tree, I somehow told him in passing what happens when the electric lighting of a Christmas tree is carelessly handled.

Presiding: Did you tell him what exactly died in that fire?

Vlasik: It is possible that I told him that valuable historical photographic documents were lost in a fire in the dacha.

Presiding: Did you have the right to inform him about this?

Vlasik: No, of course he didn't. But I did not attach any importance to it then.

Chairperson: Did you tell Stenberg that in 1941 you went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the government?

Vlasik: Stenberg also returned from Kuibyshev at that time, and we had a conversation about my trip to Kuibyshev, but I don’t remember exactly what I told him.

Presiding: You told Stenberg how once you had to organize a deception of one of the foreign ambassadors who wanted to check whether Lenin's body was in the Mausoleum, for which he brought a wreath to the Mausoleum.

Vlasik: I don’t remember exactly, but there was some talk about it.

“I blurted out secret information to Stenberg only because of my carelessness. For example, during the war years, when Lenin's body was taken out of Moscow, one of the foreign ambassadors, deciding to check whether it was in Moscow, came to lay a wreath at the Mausoleum. This was reported to me by phone at the dacha when Stenberg was with me.

After talking on the phone, I told Stenberg about this incident and said that in order to deceive the ambassador, I had to accept a wreath and put up a guard of honor at the Mausoleum.

There were other similar cases, but I don’t remember them, because I didn’t attach any importance to these conversations and considered Stenberg an honest person.

Is this your correct statement?

Vlasik: I told the investigator that there may have been a case when they called me on the phone. But whether Stenberg was present during the conversation on this topic, I do not remember.

Chairperson: Did you tell Stenberg about the organization of security during the Potsdam Conference?

Vlasik: No. I didn't tell him about this. When I arrived from Potsdam, I showed Stenberg a film that I had filmed in Potsdam during the conference. Since in this movie I was filmed in the immediate vicinity of the guarded, he could not help but understand that I was in charge of the organization of security.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, tell me, did you reveal to Stenberg three secret agents of the MGB - Nikolaev, Grivova and Vyazantseva?

Vlasik: I told him about the annoying behavior of Vyazantseva and at the same time expressed the idea that she might be connected with the police.

“From Vlasik, I only know that my friend Galina Nikolaevna Grivova (working in the external design trust of the Moscow City Council) is an agent of the MGB, and also that his cohabitant Valentina Vyazantseva (I don’t know her middle name) also cooperates with the MGB.

Vlasik didn’t tell me anything more about the work of the MGB bodies.”

Vlasik: I told Stenberg that Vyazantseva called me on the phone every day and asked to meet with her. Based on this and the fact that she was working in some food stall, I told Stenberg that she was "yapping" and, in all likelihood, was collaborating with the criminal investigation department. But I didn’t tell Stenberg that she was a secret agent of the MGB, because I didn’t know about it myself. I must say that I knew Vyazantseva as a little girl.

Presiding: Did you show Stenberg the undercover file against him, which was conducted in the MGB?

Vlasik: This is not entirely true. In 1952, after returning from a business trip from the Caucasus, I was summoned by the deputy. Minister of State Security Ryasnaya and gave an undercover file on Stenberg. At the same time, he said that in this case there is material against me, in particular, about my official telephone conversations. Ryasnoy told me to familiarize myself with this case and remove from it what I considered necessary. I didn't know the whole thing. I only read the certificate - a submission to the Central Committee for the arrest of Stenberg and his wife. After that, I went to Minister Ignatiev and demanded that he make a decision regarding me, Ignatiev told me to call Stenbert and warn him about the need to stop all meetings with inappropriate people. He ordered the case to be archived and, in the event of any conversation about it, refer to his instructions. I called Stenberg and told him that a case had been opened against him. Then he showed him a photograph of one woman, which was in this case, and asked if he knew her. After that, I asked him a few questions, inquiring about his meetings with various people, including a meeting with a foreign correspondent. Stenberg replied that he met him by chance at the Dneproges and never saw him again. When I told him that there were materials in the case showing that he had met with this correspondent in Moscow, having already known me, Stenberg burst into tears. I asked him the same thing about Nikolaeva. Stenberg cried again. After that, I took Stenberg to my dacha. There, to calm him down, I offered him a drink of cognac. . He agreed. We drank one or two glasses with him and began to play billiards.

I never told anyone about this case. When I was removed from my post, I sealed the Stenberg case in a bag and returned it to Ryasny without removing a single piece of paper from it.

“When I appeared late in the evening at the end of April 1952 at the call of Vlasik to his service in the building of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, he, offering a cigarette, told me:“ I have to arrest you, you are a spy. When I asked what this meant, Vlasik said, pointing to a voluminous folder lying in front of him on the table: “Here all the documents for you are collected. Your wife, as well as Stepanov, are also American spies.” Further, Vlasik told me that Olga Sergeevna Nikolaeva (Vlasik called her Lyalka), during interrogation at the MGB, testified that I had been to embassies with her, and also visited restaurants with foreigners. Vlasik read out Nikolaeva’s testimony to me, they talked about some Volodya, with whom Nikolaeva, along with foreigners, went to restaurants.

Leafing through a voluminous folder, Vlasik showed me a photocopy of the document on my transition to Soviet citizenship. At the same time, he asked if I was a Swedish subject. I immediately reminded Vlasik that at one time I had told him in detail both about myself and about my parents. In particular, I then told Vlasik that until 1933 I was a Swedish subject, that in 1922 I traveled abroad with the Chamber Theater, that my father left the Soviet Union for Sweden and died there, etc.

Looking at me materials, Vlasik showed me a photograph of Filippova and asked who she was. In addition, in this case, I saw a number of photographs. Vlasik also asked if my wife Stenberg Nadezhda Nikolaevna and I were familiar with the American Lyons; whether my brother was familiar with Yagoda, who gave me a recommendation when entering Soviet citizenship, etc.

At the end of this conversation, Vlasik said that he was transferring the case against me to another department (Vlasik named this department, but it was not preserved in my memory), and asked me not to tell anyone about the call to him and the content of the conversation.

... Vlasik told me that "they wanted to arrest you (meaning me, my wife, Nadezhda Nikolaevna, and Stepanov), but my boyfriend intervened in this matter and delayed your arrest."

Is the testimony of the witness correct?

Vlasik: They are not entirely accurate. I have already shown the court how it all really happened.

Presiding: But you told Stenberg that only your intervention prevented the arrest of him and his wife.

Vlasik: No, it was not.

Presiding: But by showing Stenberg the materials of the undercover case against him, you thereby revealed the methods of work of the MGB bodies.

Vlasik: Then I did not understand this and did not take into account the importance of the misconduct.

Chairperson: Did you tell Stenberg that the Potsdam Conference was being prepared before it was officially known to everyone?

Vlasik: No, it was not.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, did you keep secret documents in your apartment?

Vlasik: I was going to compile an album in which photographs and documents would reflect the life and work of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, and therefore I had some data for this in my apartment. In addition, I found an intelligence note on the work of the Sochi city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and materials related to the organization of security in Potsdam. I thought that these documents were not particularly secret, but, as I see now, I had to deposit some of them with the MGB. I kept them locked in the drawers of the table, and my wife made sure that no one climbed into the drawers.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, you are presented with a topographic map of the Caucasus marked "secret". Do you admit that you had no right to keep this card in the apartment?

Vlasik: Then I did not consider it secret.

Chairperson: You are presented with a topographic map of Potsdam with the points marked on it and the conference security system. Could you keep such a document in your apartment?

Vlasik: Yes, I couldn't. I forgot to return this card after returning from Potsdam, and it was in my desk drawer.

Chairperson: I present to you a map of the Moscow region marked "secret". Where did you keep it?

Vlasik: In a desk drawer in my apartment on Gorky Street, in the same place where the rest of the documents were found.

Presiding: And where were the secret notes about the people who lived on Metrostroevskaya Street, the secret notes about the work of the Sochi city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and government train schedules?

Vlasik: All this was stored together in a desk drawer in my apartment.

Presiding: How do you know that these documents were not the subject of inspection by anyone?

Vlasik: It's out of the question.

Chairperson: Are you familiar with the expert opinion on these documents?

Vlasik: Yes, I know.

Chairperson: Do you agree with the conclusions of the examination?

Vlasik: Yes, now I understand all this very well.

Presiding: Show the court how you, using your official position, used products from the kitchen of the head of government to your advantage?

Vlasik: I do not want to make excuses for this. But we were placed in such conditions that sometimes it was necessary not to reckon with costs in order to provide food at a certain time. Every day we were faced with the fact of changing the time of his eating, and in connection with this, part of the previously prepared products remained unused. These products were sold by us among service personnel. After unhealthy conversations around this appeared among employees, I had to limit the circle of people who used the products. Now I understand that, given the difficult time of the war, I should not have allowed these products to be used in this way.

Presiding: But your crime lies not only in this? You sent a car to the government dacha for groceries and cognac for yourself and your cohabitants?

Vlasik: Yes, there were such cases. But sometimes I paid money for these products. True, there were cases that they were delivered to me for free.

Presiding: This is theft.

Vlasik: No, this is an abuse of his position. After I received a remark from the head of government, I stopped it.

Presiding: Since when did your moral decay begin?

Vlasik: 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 that I had many women.

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

Vlasik: Yes. In 1950 he told me that I was abusing relationships with women.

Court member Kovalenko: Did you know Sarkisov?

Vlasik: Yes, he was attached to Beria as a guard.

Member of the court Rybkin: Did he tell you that Beria is debauched?

Vlasik: This is a lie.

Member of the court Rybkin: But you acknowledged the fact that you were once informed that Sarkisov was looking for suitable women on the streets and then took them to Beria.

Vlasik: Yes, I received intelligence materials about this and handed them over to Abakumov. Abakumov took over the conversation with Sarkisov, and I avoided this, because I thought that it was not my business to interfere in this, because everything was connected with the name of Beria.

Member of the Court Rybkin: You testified that when Sarkisov reported to you about Beria's debauchery, you told him that there was nothing to interfere in Beria's personal life, but that he should be protected. Did it take place?

Vlasik: No, it's a lie. Neither Sarkisov nor Nadaraya reported this to me. Sarkisov once turned to me with a request to provide him with a car for household needs, motivating this by the fact that he sometimes has to use a “tail” car to complete Beria’s task. What exactly this car was for, I do not know.

Member of the court Rybkin: Defendant Vlasik, how could you allow a huge overspending of public funds in your administration?

Vlasik: I must say that my literacy suffers greatly. All my education consists in 3 classes of a rural parish school. In financial matters, I did not understand anything, and therefore my deputy was in charge of this. He repeatedly assured me that "everything is in order."

I must also say that every measure we planned was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR and only after that was it carried out.

Member of the court Rybkin: What can you show the court about the use of free rations by security officers?

Vlasik: We have repeatedly discussed this issue, and after the head of government instructed to improve the material situation of security officers, we left it the way it was before. But on this occasion, the Council of Ministers made a special decision, and I, for my part, considered this situation to be correct, since security workers were away from home for more than half the time a week and it would be inappropriate to deprive their families of rations because of this. I remember that I raised the question of conducting an audit of the 1st Department of the Security Directorate. At the direction of Merkulov, a commission chaired by Serov carried out this audit, but no abuses were found.

Member of the court Rybkin: How often did you have parties with women you know?

Vlasik: There were no sprees. I was always on duty.

Member of the court Rybkin: Did shooting take place during the carousing?

Vlasik: I don’t remember such a case.

Member of the court Rybkin: Tell me, did you conduct official telephone conversations in the presence of Stenberg from your apartment or from his?

Vlasik: The conversations were both from my apartment and from his. But I considered Stenberg a reliable person who knew a lot about our work.

“In the presence of Stenberg from his apartment, I repeatedly had official conversations with the duty officer of the Main Security Directorate, which sometimes concerned the movement of members of the government, and I also remember that from Stenberg’s apartment I talked on the phone with the Deputy Minister of State Security about the construction of a new airfield in the vicinity of the city of Moscow” .

Vlasik: This is the wording of the investigator. In my official telephone conversations, which took place in the presence of Stenberg, I was very limited in my statements.

Court member Kovalenko: Do ​​you know Erman?

Vlasik: Yes, I know.

Member of the court Kovalenko: What kind of conversation did you have with him about traffic routes and guarded exits?

Vlasik: I did not talk to him about this topic. In addition, he himself was an old Chekist, and without me he knew all this very well.

Member of the court Kovalenko: For what purpose did you keep the scheme of access roads to the dacha "Middle" in the apartment.

Vlasik: This is not a diagram of access roads to the dacha, but a diagram of the internal roads of the dacha. Even during the Patriotic War, the head of government, walking around the territory of the dacha, personally made his own amendments to this scheme. Therefore, I kept it as a historical document, and the whole point was that in the old arrangement of exit routes from the dacha, the headlights of the car hit Poklonnaya Gora, and thus the moment of the car's departure was immediately given out.

Member of the court Kovalenko: Were his instructions carried out as indicated in the diagram?

Vlasik: Yes, but I declare once again that all these paths were inside the dacha, behind two fences.

Court member Kovalenko: Did you know Shcherbakova?

Vlasik: Yes, he knew and was in close contact with her.

Court member Kovalenko: Did you know that she had connections with foreigners?

Vlasik: I found out about this later.

Member of the court Kovalenko: But even after learning this, did you continue to meet with her?

Vlasik: Yes, he continued.

Member of the court Kovalenko: How can you explain that you, being a member of the party since 1918, have reached such a level of filth both in official matters and in relation to moral and political decay?

Vlasik: I find it difficult to explain this with anything, but I declare that I have always been in place in official matters.

Member of the court Kovalenko: How do you explain your act, which consisted in the fact that you showed Stenberg his undercover file?

Vlasik: I acted on the basis of Ignatiev's instructions and, to be honest, did not attach any special importance to this.

Member of the court Kovalenko: Why did you take the path of plundering trophy property?

Vlasik: Now I understand that all this belonged to the state. I had no right to turn anything to my advantage. But then such a situation was created ... Beria arrived, gave permission to purchase some things for the senior guards. We made a list of what we needed, paid money, got these things. In particular, I paid about 12 thousand rubles. I confess that I took some of the things for free, including a piano, grand piano, etc.

Presiding: Comrade commandant, invite witness Ivanskaya to the hall.

Witness Ivanskaya, show the court what you know about Vlasik and his case?

Ivanskaya: It seems that in May 1938, my friend Okunev, an NKVD officer, introduced me to Vlasik. I remember they came to me in a car, there was another girl with him, and we all went to the dacha to Vlasik. Before reaching the dacha, we decided to have a picnic in the forest in a clearing. Thus began an acquaintance with Vlasik. Our meetings continued until 1939. In 1939 I got married. Okunev kept calling me from time to time. He kept inviting me to come to Vlasik's parties. I, of course, refused. In 1943, these invitations were more insistent, and Okunev was joined by the requests of Vlasik himself. For some time I resisted their insistence, but then I agreed and several times I was at Vlasik's dacha and at his apartment on Gogol Boulevard. I remember that at that time Stenberg was in the companies, once there was Maxim Dormidontovich Mikhailov and very often Okunev. Frankly, I had no particular desire to meet Vlasik and generally be in this company. But Vlasik threatened me, said that he would arrest me, etc., and I was afraid of this. Once, at Vlasik's apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard, I was with my friends Kopteva and another girl. Then there was some artist, I think Gerasimov.

Presiding: What accompanied these meetings and for what purpose were you invited?

Ivanskaya: I still don't know why he invited me and others. It seemed to me that Vlasik collects companies only because he likes to drink and have fun.

Presiding: And what was the purpose of your attending these parties?

Ivanskaya: I rode them simply out of fear of Vlasik.

At these parties, as soon as we arrived, we sat down at the table, drank wine and had a snack. True, on the part of Vlasik there were encroachments regarding me as a woman. But they ended in vain.

Presiding: Were you with Vlasik at the government dacha?

Ivanskaya: I find it difficult to say what kind of dacha we were at. It looked like a small rest home or sanatorium. There we were met by some Georgian who manages this building. Vlasik then told us about him that this was Stalin's uncle. It was before the war, in 1938 or 1939. The four of us arrived there: Okunev, Vlasik, me and some other girl. Besides us, there were several military men there, including two or three generals. The girl who was with us began to express special sympathy for one of the generals. Vlasik did not like this, and, having taken out his revolver, he began to shoot the glasses standing on the table. He was already tipsy.

Chairperson: How many shots were fired at them?

Ivanskaya: I don't remember exactly: one or two. Immediately after Vlasik's shooting, everyone began to disperse, and Vlasik and this girl got into the general's car, and I got into Vlasik's free car. I persuaded the driver, and he took me home. A few minutes after my arrival, Vlasik called me and reproached me for leaving them.

Chairperson: Tell me, do you remember where this dacha was located, in what area?

Ivanskaya: I find it difficult to say where she was, but I remember that we were driving at the beginning along the Mozhaisk highway.

Vlasik: No. I just can't understand why the witness is lying.

Presiding: Tell Vlasik, what kind of dacha are we talking about in connection with your shooting?

Vlasik: There was no shooting. We went with Okunev, Ivanskaya, Gradusova and Gulko to one subsidiary farm, which was in charge of Okunev. Indeed, we drank and ate there, but there was no shooting.

Presiding: Witness Ivanskaya, do you insist on your testimony?

Ivanskaya: Yes, I showed the truth.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, tell me, what is the interest of the witness in showing the court a lie? What, you had a hostile relationship with her?

Vlasik: No, we did not have hostile relations. After Okunev left her, I lived with her as with a woman. And I must say that she called me herself more often than I called her. I knew her father, who worked in a special group of the NKVD, and we never had any quarrels with her.

Presiding: How long did your intimate relationship with her last?

Vlasik: Quite a long time. But the meetings were very rare, about once or twice a year.

Presiding: Witness Ivanskaya, do you confirm the testimony of the defendant Vlasik?

Ivanskaya: I don't know why Nikolai Sidorovich talks about the alleged intimate relationship between us. But if he was capable of male exploits, then this applied to other women, and, in all likelihood, he used me as a screen in this, since everyone knew me as the daughter of an old Chekist. In general, I must say that Vlasik behaved provocatively in relation to others. For example, when I tried to refuse to meet with him, he threatened to arrest me. And he completely terrorized the cook at his dacha. He spoke to him only with the use of obscenities, and was not shy of those present, including women.

Presiding: Witness Ivanskaya, the court has no more questions for you. You are free.

Comrade commandant, invite witness Stenberg to the hall.

Witness Stenberg, show the court what you know about Vlasik.

Stenberg: I ​​met Vlasik around 1936. Before the war, our meetings were rare. Then, from the beginning of the war, the meetings became more frequent. We went to Vlasik's dacha, to his apartment, drank there, played billiards. Vlasik helped me in my work on portraits of members of the government.

Presiding: During these meetings and drinking, were there women with whom you cohabited?

Stenberg: There were women at the same time, but we had no connection with them.

Presiding: Vlasik conducted office conversations on the phone with you?

Stenberg: There were separate conversations. But Vlasik always answered only “yes”, “no”.

Chairperson: What did he tell you about the fire at Voroshilov's dacha?

Stenberg: Vlasik told me that as a result of careless handling of the electric lighting of the Christmas tree at Voroshilov's dacha, there was a fire during which a valuable photo archive burned down. He didn't say anything more about it to me.

Presiding: Did Vlasik tell you that in 1941 he went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the government? -

Stenberg: I ​​knew that Vlasik went to Kuibyshev, but for what specifically, I did not know. He only told me that he had to fight rats somewhere.

Presiding: I read out the testimony of witness Stenberg:

“At the beginning of 1942, Vlasik told me that he went to Kuibyshev to prepare apartments for members of the government. At the same time, he said: “Here is a city, you cannot imagine how many rats there are. This is the whole problem - the war with them.

Do you confirm these statements?

Stenberg. Yes, they are mostly correct.

Presiding: Vlasik told you that you once had to deceive a foreign ambassador who was trying to find out if the body of V. I. Lenin was in Moscow?

Stenberg: As far as I remember, Vlasik once, in my presence, gave instructions to someone to put up a guard of honor at the Mausoleum. After talking on the phone, he explained to me what it was for. It was either in the country, or in Vlasik's apartment.

Chairperson: Did Vlasik tell you about the organization of the protection of the Potsdam Conference?

Stenberg: Much time after the Potsdam Conference, Vlasik told me that he had to go to Potsdam and restore "order" there. At the same time, he told the details, in particular, that he had to bring all the products there in order not to use locally produced products. From the local population, as he said, only live cattle were bought.

Presiding: What films about members of the government did Vlasik show you?

Stenberg: I ​​saw, in particular, films about the Potsdam Conference, about Stalin and members of the government, about the arrival of Vasily and his sister to Stalin.

Presiding: Who, besides you, was present at the viewing of these films?

Stenberg: As far as I remember, there was one military man, everyone called him “Uncle Sasha”, among the women there were Anerina and Konomarev. I introduced Vlasik to Anerina in 1945, and Konomarev was known to him earlier. I personally cohabited with Konomareva.

Chairperson: Did Vlasik show you the dacha of the head of government on Lake Ritsa?

Stenberg: When we were on Lake Ritsa, Vlasik, filming us on film during a walk, showed me the location of Stalin's dacha.

Presiding: Tell me, didn’t Vlasik’s behavior seem strange to you? Did he have the right to show you the location of Stalin's dacha, films about him and about members of the government?

Stenberg: There was nothing wrong with those films.

Presiding: But do you know the procedure for allowing such films to be viewed?

Stenberg: I ​​did not attach much importance to this then.

Presiding: How many times did Vlasik give you the opportunity to fly on a business plane?

Stenberg: Three times. The first time I flew to a resort in the Caucasus, the second time from Sochi to Moscow, then Vlasik got me a ticket for one conference and, so that I could catch it, he allowed me to fly on a business plane. Two days later, when the conference ended, with the permission of Vlasik, I flew back to Sochi on the same plane.

Presiding: Did Vlasik give you the names of Nikolaeva, Vyazantseva and Grivova as secret agents of the MGB?

Stenberg: Vlasik said that Nikolaeva and Vyazantseva are informants and report various information to the MGB. Regarding Grivova, he said that insofar as she is a member of the party, she is obliged to do this herself, on her own initiative.

“From Vlasik, I only know that my friend Galina Nikolaevna Grivova (who works in the external design trust of the Moscow City Council) is an agent of the MGB, and also that his cohabitant Valentina Vyazantseva (I don’t know her middle name) also cooperates with the MGB.”

Do you confirm these statements?

Stenberg: Perhaps, in giving such testimony, I expressed my conclusions.

Presiding: Tell the court how it was with your acquaintance with the undercover file, which was conducted in the MGB.

Stenberg: I ​​remember Vlasik called me on the phone to his place. When I came to his office, in the MGB building, he told me that he had to arrest me. I replied that if necessary, so please. After that, he, showing me some volume, said that there were a lot of materials on me, in particular, that I and Nikolaeva wandered around foreign embassies and met with foreign correspondents.

Presiding: Did he tell you that your and your wife's arrest was averted thanks to his intervention?

Stenberg: Yes, some time after the conversation I mentioned above, Vlasik told me and my wife that our arrest was prevented only by the intervention of him, Vlasik, and one of his “guys”.

Presiding: Tell me, did Vlasik show you the materials of this undercover case?

Stenberg: He asked me about my individual acquaintances and at the same time, showing a photograph of Filippova, asked who she was. Then he asked me when I became a Soviet citizen. I answered everything for him.

Presiding: And for what purpose was Filippova's photograph placed in this case?

Stenberg: I ​​don't know.

Presiding: What other documents from this case did he read to you?

Stenberg: None.

Presiding: Did you believe Vlasik that his intervention prevented your arrest?

Stenberg: Frankly, no. I regarded it more as his desire to boast of his "power".

Presiding: Tell me, were there many women with whom Vlasik cohabited?

Stenberg: I ​​find it difficult to say how many women he cohabited with, because it often happened that during our meetings at his dacha, he and this or that woman retired to other rooms. But what he did there, I do not know.

Presiding: I read out an excerpt from your own testimony.

“I must say that Vlasik is a morally decomposed person. He cohabited with many women, in particular, with Nikolaeva, Vyazantseva, Mokukina, Lomtionova, Spirina, Veshchitskaya, Gradusova, Amerina, Vera G ...

I believe that Vlasik also cohabited with Shcherbakova, with the Gorodniv sisters, Lyuda, Ada, Sonya, Kruglova, Sergeeva and her sister and others whose names I do not remember.

Maintaining comradely relations with me, Vlasik soldered me and my wife and cohabited with her, which Vlasik himself later cynically told me about.

Do you confirm these statements?

Stenberg: Yes. Vlasik himself told me about some of them, but I guessed about others myself.

Chairperson: Did you know Kudoyarov?

Stenberg: Yes, I knew. I remember that Spirina once told my wife that Kudoyarov's sister was married to some American money "king", and when Kudoyarov went abroad on a business trip, his sister sent a blue express to the border for him. Once I saw Kudoyarov at Vlasik's dacha.

Court member Kovalenko: Did Vlasik warn you not to tell anyone about the case when he summoned you to his office at the MGB?

Stenberg: Yes, there was such a fact.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, do you have any questions for the witness?

Vlasik: I have no questions.

Presiding: Witness Stenberg, you are free.

Member of the court Kovalenko: Defendant Vlasik, show the court about your acquaintance with Kudoyarov.

Vlasik: Kudoyarov worked as a photojournalist V the period when I was attached to the guards of the head of government. I saw him on the set in the Kremlin, on Red Square, I heard about him as a great photographer. When I bought myself a camera, I asked him to give advice on the photo. He came to my apartment, showed me how to handle the camera, how to shoot. Then I visited him several times in a photo lab on Vorovskogo Street. And only a long time later I learned that his sister was abroad and was the wife of some American billionaire. Then I was told that during his business trip abroad, his sister really sent him a blue express to the border. As a result of this, I concluded that Kudoyarov was an employee of the authorities, and therefore did not attach much importance to everything.

Presiding: You heard here the testimony of the witness Stenberg, who told the court that you deciphered Grivova, Nikolaeva and Vyazantseva before him as secret agents of the MGB. Do you acknowledge it?

Vlasik: No. With regard to Grivova and Nikolaeva, these are Stenberg's inventions. As for Vyazantseva, I told Stenberg that she might have connections with the police. In addition, I warned Stenberg that Nikolaev had connections with foreigners.

Member of the court Kovalenko: Defendant Vlasik, show the court that from the trophy property you acquired illegally, without payment.

Vlasik: As far as I remember, I purchased a piano in this way, a grand piano, it seems, 3-4 carpets.

Court member Kovalenko: And the watch, the gold rings?

Vlasik: I did not acquire a single watch in this way, most of them were presented to me. With regard to gold rings, I remember that when we discovered a box with gold items and jewelry in one place, the wife exchanged one ring that she had for another from this box.

Member of the Court Kovalenko: How did you acquire the radiogram and the receiver?

Vlasik: Vasily Stalin sent them to me as a gift. But then I gave them to the dacha "Middle".

Member of the court Kovalenko: And what can you say about the fourteen cameras and lenses you had?

Vlasik: I received most of them through my official activities. I bought one Zeiss apparatus through Vneshtorg, another apparatus was presented to me by Serov.

Member of the court Kovalenko: And where did you get a camera with a telephoto lens?

Vlasik: This camera was made in Palkin's department especially for me. I needed it for filming I. V. Stalin from a long distance, since the latter was always reluctant to allow photography to be taken.

Member of the court Kovalenko: And where did you get the movie camera from?

Vlasik: The film camera was sent to me from the Ministry of Cinematography especially for the filming of I.V. Stalin.

Member of the court Kovalenko: And what kind of quartz devices did you have?

Vlasik: Quartz devices were intended for illumination during filming.

Member of the court Kovalenko: Where did you get crystal vases, glasses and porcelain dishes in such a huge amount?

Vlasik: In particular, I received a porcelain service for 100 items after the Potsdam Conference. Then there was an instruction to give the leading staff of the guard one service each. At the same time, several crystal vases and glasses were placed in the box without my knowledge. I did not know about this until the opening of the box in Moscow. And then he left it all to himself. In addition, when an order was placed for crockery for the “Middle” dacha, and subsequently for some reason this crockery could not be used for its intended purpose, I bought one wine set for myself. All this, taken together, created such a large amount of dishes in my house.

Presiding: Defendant Vlasik, the court has no more questions for you. What can you add to the trial?

Vlasik: I showed everything I could. I have nothing more to add to my testimony. I just want to say that everything that I have done, I realized only now, and before that I did not attach any importance to it. I thought it was all right.

Presiding: I declare the judicial investigation of the case completed.

Defendant Vlasik, you have the last word. What do you want to say to the court?

Vlasik: Citizens of the judge! I didn’t understand much before and didn’t see anything except the protection of the head of government, and to fulfill this duty I didn’t take into account anything. Please take this into account.

By a court decision, Vlasik was deprived of the rank of lieutenant general, subjected to exile for a period of 10 years. But in accordance with the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 on amnesty, this period was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. He died in Moscow shortly after Svetlana's failure to return to her homeland from India.

Time is a harsh judge. And only it pronounces the final verdict on the era and those who stood at the pinnacle of power. JV Stalin is just the figure who is both the personification of power and its leader. The time of his reign has already become history, painful, and tragic, and inspired, and striving forward.

Turning today to the fate of his family, we strive to penetrate deeper into the events of the time, to understand them in all their contradiction, as they were. No one can turn the wheel of history in a different way, as no one can cross out this page in the centuries-old history of our long-suffering Motherland.

Stalin's family bears the contradictory stamp of time in all its manifestations. Stalin himself was not given to become the happy head of the family. Both of his wives passed away very early, in different ways, unable to combine themselves with him. His eldest son, deprived of maternal affection in life, not always understood by his father, rejected by him with the harsh stigma of a traitor to the Motherland and sharing the terrible fate of millions of compatriots in captivity, decades later returned to us from oblivion as the personification of courage and fortitude, remaining the son of his land, his Fatherland . Before Vasily Stalin, it would seem, all the doors were open, any of his good thoughts could find a real embodiment in life. But the fragility of his character, the shadow of his father, and even more his entourage covered him so much that, after leaving prison eight years later, he could no longer find his place in life.

Stalin's beloved daughter, Svetlana, was given an excellent education, to become a mother, but happiness was not given in her homeland, despite the attempt to return.

In 1989, her things that she had once left at home were sent from the USSR to the USA. And it seems that now her fate has already been determined irrevocably, although there may still be zigzags here, as well as the fact that today everything that she wrote is available to us.

The grandchildren of Stalin living today are given a real opportunity to participate in the revolutionary events opened by perestroika, and we, without idle speculation and gossip, on the basis of documents, understand the issues of interest to us.

Last week, the Russian Federal Security Service declassified the archive of General Nikolai Vlasik, who served as chief of security for Joseph Stalin from 1931 to 1952, Newsru.com reports. Vlasik's memoirs, dedicated to his life next to the leader, are published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

As Vlasik said in his notes, he was instructed to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka and the Kremlin, as well as pay special attention to Stalin's personal protection, after a bomb was thrown into the commandant's office building on the Lubyanka in Moscow in 1927.

According to Vlasik, before he headed the leader's security, only one employee was responsible for his safety - the Lithuanian Ivan Yusis. At the dacha near Moscow, where Stalin rested on weekends, there was a complete mess. Vlasik began by sending linen and dishes to the dacha, hiring a cook and a cleaner, and also arranged for the delivery of food from the GPU state farm located nearby.

Described Vlasik and Stalin's way of life in an apartment in the Kremlin. The housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna and the cleaning lady kept order there. Hot meals were brought to the family from the Kremlin canteen in tins.

According to the general, Stalin then lived with his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, daughter Svetlana and sons Vasily and Yakov very modestly. Stalin walked in an old coat, and Vlasik's proposal to sew new outerwear was answered with a categorical refusal. As Vlasik wrote in his notes, he had to sew a new coat for the leader by eye - he did not allow me to take measurements. Nadezhda Alliluyeva was just as modest, according to the general.

As Vlasik recalls, Stalin usually got up at 9 am, after breakfast by 11 o'clock he arrived at the Central Committee building on Staraya Square. Dined at work. The leader worked until late at night. He often returned from work to the Kremlin on foot with Vyacheslav Molotov.

After Stalin's wife committed suicide in 1933, the care of the children fell on the housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna. According to Vlasik, when the children grew up, part of the responsibility fell on him. And if there were no problems with Svetlana, son Vasily studied at school reluctantly, and instead of preparing for classes, he was fond of something extraneous like horse riding. On the behavior of Vasily Vlasik, according to him, "reluctantly" reported to Stalin.

As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, Stalin annually went on vacation to Sochi or Gagra for two months at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn. There he read a lot, rode a boat on the sea, watched movies, played skittles, towns and billiards.

Another hobby of the leader was the garden. In the south, he grew oranges and tangerines. At the initiative of Stalin, a large number of eucalyptus trees were planted in Sochi, which, according to the leader's idea, was to reduce the incidence of malaria among the local population.

As Vlasik admitted, in the 30s, when Stalin arrived on vacation in Tskaltubo at the dacha intended for employees of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of Georgia, it turned out to be so dirty there that, in his words, “the heart bled” when the leader was nervous, demanding to clean up.

According to Vlasik, Stalin loved the head of the Leningrad Party Organization of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Kirov, "with some kind of touching, tender love." Kirov, arriving in Moscow, stayed at Stalin's apartment, and they did not part. The assassination of Kirov in 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev, instructor of the historical and party commission of the Institute of History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, shocked the leader. As Vlasik noted, he traveled with Stalin to Leningrad to say goodbye to Kirov and saw how he suffered, experiencing the loss of his beloved friend.

As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, in the summer of 1935, Stalin himself survived the assassination attempt. This happened in the south, where he was resting in a dacha not far from Gagra. The boat, sent from Leningrad by the then head of the NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, on which Stalin was, was fired upon from the shore. According to Vlasik, he quickly put Stalin on a bench and covered him with himself, after which he ordered the minder to go out to sea. In response, Stalin's guards fired machine gun fire along the shore.

According to Vlasik, a small and non-maneuverable boat was sent by Yagoda "not without malicious intent." Obviously, the chief of the NKVD assumed that on a big wave the ship would inevitably capsize. Fortunately, this did not happen. The assassination case was referred for investigation to Lavrenty Beria, who was then Secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia.

During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat was with an unfamiliar number, it seemed suspicious to him, and he opened fire, writes Vlasik. In fact, as historians write, the appearance of Stalin's boat in the protected area was not formalized by the relevant documents, and the border guards acted in strict accordance with the instructions. The commander of the frontier post department, Lavrov, demanded that the boat stop with shots in the air. The warning shots had to be repeated as the boat did not respond to the signals.

Lavrov was tried. Although he faced the death penalty, after Yagoda's intervention, the commander of the outpost section was given only five years for "sloppiness." Lavrov, however, did not serve his term. In 1937, he was taken from the camp to Tbilisi, and after interrogation he was accused of a terrorist conspiracy and sentenced to death as an enemy of the people.

In his memoirs, Vlasik expresses the idea that the murders of Kirov, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky in 1934, Valerian Kuibyshev in 1935 and the writer Maxim Gorky in 1936, as well as the assassination attempts on Stalin and Molotov, were organized by the right-wing Trotsky bloc and became links in one chain. “This tangle was unraveled and thus neutralized the enemies of Soviet power,” the general states.

It should be noted that the circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son Maxim Peshkov were considered suspicious for a long time, but the rumors about their murder were never confirmed. At the 1938 trial, Yagoda was charged with poisoning Gorky's son. During interrogations, Yagoda stated that Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and he decided to liquidate the writer's son on his own initiative.

Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich was born in 1896 in the village of Babinichi, Sloma district, Grodno province, in the family of a poor peasant. In 1919 he entered the state security agencies. In 1919-1920 he served in a special detachment under the Cheka. In 1921 he worked in the operations department of the GPU. In 1931 he headed Stalin's bodyguard. From 1946 to 1952, he served as head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. In 1945, Vlasik was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

In May 1952, Vlasik was removed from his post as head of security and sent to the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region, where he received the post of deputy head of the Bazhenov Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Construction. In December 1952, Vlasik was arrested. In 1955 he was sentenced to 10 years of exile and deprived of his general rank and awards. Under the amnesty, the term of exile was reduced to five years.

In 1956, General Vlasik was pardoned and released with the removal of a criminal record without restoring his military rank. In 1967, Stalin's former security chief died. In 2000, he was posthumously rehabilitated, reinstated in rank, Vlasik's awards were returned to his family.