Born in 1896, Belarus, Grodno province, Slonim district, village of Bobynichi; Belarusian; Parochial school; Arrested: December 15, 1952

Source: Krasnoyarsk Society "Memorial"

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik(May 22, 1896, Bobynichi village, Slonim district, Grodno province (now Slonim district, Grodno region) - June 18, 1967, Moscow) - figure in the USSR security agencies, head of I. Stalin’s personal security, lieutenant general.

Member of the RCP(b) since 1918. Expelled from the party after his arrest in the doctors' case on December 16, 1952.

Biography

Born into a poor peasant family. By nationality - Belarusian. He graduated from three classes of a rural parochial school. He began his working career at the age of thirteen: as a laborer for a landowner, as a navvy on the railroad, as a laborer at a paper mill in Yekaterinoslav.

In March 1915 he was called up for military service. He served in the 167th Ostrog Infantry Regiment, in the 251st Reserve Infantry Regiment. For bravery in the battles of World War I he received the St. George Cross. During the days of the October Revolution, being in the rank of non-commissioned officer, he and his platoon went over to the side of Soviet power.

In November 1917, he joined the Moscow police. From February 1918 - in the Red Army, a participant in the battles on the Southern Front near Tsaritsyn, and was an assistant company commander in the 33rd Rogozhsko-Simonovsky Infantry Regiment.

In September 1919, he was transferred to the Cheka, worked under the direct supervision of F. E. Dzerzhinsky in the central apparatus, was an employee of the special department, senior representative of the active department of the operational unit. From May 1926 he became the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU, and from January 1930 he became an assistant to the head of the department there.

In 1927, he headed the Kremlin's special security and became the de facto head of Stalin's security.

At the same time, the official name of his position was repeatedly changed due to constant reorganizations and reassignments in the security agencies. From the mid-1930s - head of the 1st department (security of senior officials) of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, from November 1938 - head of the 1st department there. In February - July 1941, this department was part of the People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR, then it was returned to the NKVD of the USSR. From November 1942 - First Deputy Head of the 1st Department of the NKVD of the USSR.

Since May 1943 - head of the 6th directorate of the People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR, since August 1943 - first deputy head of this directorate. Since April 1946 - Head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security (since December 1946 - Main Security Directorate).

In May 1952, he was removed from the post of head of Stalin’s security and sent to the Ural city of Asbest as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Arrest, trial, exile

On December 16, 1952, in connection with the doctors’ case, he was arrested because he “provided treatment to members of the government and was responsible for the reliability of the professors.”

“Until March 12, 1953, Vlasik was interrogated almost daily (mainly in the doctors’ case). The investigation found that the charges brought against the group of doctors were false. All professors and doctors have been released from custody. IN Lately The investigation into Vlasik’s case is being conducted in two directions: disclosure of secret information and theft of material assets... After Vlasik’s arrest, several dozen documents marked “secret” were found in his apartment... While in Potsdam, where he accompanied the government delegation of the USSR, Vlasik was engaged in junk... "(Certificate from the criminal case).

On January 17, 1953, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found him guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the rank of general and state awards. Sent to serve exile in Krasnoyarsk. According to the amnesty on March 27, 1953, Vlasik’s sentence was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned and his criminal record was expunged. He was not restored to his military rank or awards.

On June 28, 2000, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 verdict against Vlasik was canceled and the criminal case was terminated “for lack of corpus delicti.”

Head of Stalin's security

Vlasik long years was Stalin's personal bodyguard and held this position the longest. Having joined his personal guard in 1931, he not only became its chief, but also took over many of the everyday problems of Stalin’s family, in which Vlasik was essentially a family member. After the death of Stalin's wife N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, practically performing the functions of a majordomo.

He N. S. Vlasik] simply prevented Beria from getting to Stalin, because his father would not let him die. He would not wait for a day outside the doors, like those guards on March 1, 1953, when Stalin “woke up”...

N. S. Vlasik’s daughter Nadezhda Vlasik in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” dated 05/07/2003

Vlasik is assessed extremely negatively by Svetlana Alliluyeva in “20 Letters to a Friend.”

In his memoirs, Vlasik wrote:

I was severely offended by Stalin. For 25 years of impeccable work, without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he handed me over to the hands of his enemies. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin.

According to his wife, until his death, Vlasik was convinced that L.P. Beria “helped” Stalin die.

Awards

• St. George's Cross 4th degree
• 3 Orders of Lenin (04/26/1940, 02/21/1945, 09/16/1945)
• 3 Orders of the Red Banner (08/28/1937, 09/20/1943, 11/3/1944)
• Order of the Red Star (05/14/1936)
• Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (02/24/1945)
• Medal of the XX years of the Red Army (02/22/1938)
• 2 badges Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (12/20/1932, 12/16/1935)

Special and military ranks

• State Security Major (12/11/1935)
• senior major of state security (04/26/1938)
• State Security Commissioner 3rd rank (12/28/1938)
• Lieutenant General (07/12/1945)

(1896 , village Bobynichi, Slonim district, Grodno province. - 1967 ). Born into the family of a poor peasant. Belarusian. In KP with 11.18 .

Education: parochial school, Bobynichi 1910 .

Day laborer for a landowner, Slonim district 09.12-01.13 ; excavator on the Samara-Zlatoust railway. d., Zhukatovo station, Ufa province. 01.13-10.14 ; laborer at the Kofman and Furman paper mills, Ekaterino-slav, Nizhny Island, Dneprovsk 10.14-03.15 .

In the army: ml. non-commissioned officer 167th infantry. Ostrog Regiment 03.15-03.17 ; platoon com. 251 spares infantry shelf 03.17-11.17 .

Policeman of the Petrovsky Police Commissariat, Moscow 11.17-02.18 .

In the Red Army: pom. com. company 33 Rabochiy Rogozhsko-Simonovsky infantry. shelf 02.18-09.19 .

In the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD-MGB from 09.19: co-workers OO; completed and Art. completed active department of operations. dept. OGPU USSR 01.11.26-01.05.29 ; Art. completed 2 departments of opera. dept. OGPU USSR 01.05.29-01.01.30 ; pom. beginning 5 department of opera. dept. OGPU USSR 01.01.30-01.07.31 01.07.31-? (mentioned) 02.33 ); pom. beginning 1st department of operations. dept. OGPU USSR 1933-01.11.33 ; pom. beginning 4 departments of opera. dept. OGPU USSR 01.11.33-10.07.34 ; pom. beginning 4 departments of opera. dept. GUGB NKVD USSR 10.07.34-? ; beginning department 1 department GUGB NKVD USSR ?-19.11.38 ; beginning 1 department GUGB NKVD USSR 19.11.38-26.02.41 ; beginning 1 department (security) NKGB USSR 26.02.41-31.07.41 ; beginning 1 department NKVD USSR 31.07.41-19.11.42 ; 1st deputy beginning 1 department NKVD USSR 19.11.42-12.05.43 ; beginning Exercise 6 NKGB USSR 12.05.43-09.08.43 ; 1st deputy beginning Exercise 6 NKGB-MGB USSR 09.08.43-15.04.46 ; beginning Ex. Guard No. 2 of the USSR MGB 15.04.46-25.12.46 ; beginning Ch. ex. security of the USSR MGB 25.12.46-29.04.52 ; deputy beginning Ex. Bazhenovsky ITL Ministry of Internal Affairs 20.05.52-15.12.52 .

Arrested 15.12.52 ; was under investigation for 01.55 ; Convicted by the USSR All-Russian Military Commission 17.01.55 according to Art. 193-17 “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for 10 years of exile and deprived of the rank of general and awards; exiled to Krasnoyarsk, where he was until 1956 ; Under the amnesty, the term of exile was reduced by half. Pardoned Post. PVS USSR from 15.15.56 , released from serving his sentence with his criminal record expunged; military rank has not been restored.

Ranks: Major GB 11.12.35 ; Art. Major GB 26.04.38 ; GB Commissioner 3rd rank 28.12.38 ; lieutenant general 12.07.45 .

Awards: badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)” 20.12.32 ; badge "Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)" 16.12.35 ; Order of the Red Star 14.05.36 ; Order of the Red Banner 28.08.37 ; medal "XX years of the Red Army" 22.02.38 ; The order of Lenin 26.04.40 ; Order of the Red Banner 20.09.43 ; Order of the Red Banner 03.11.44 ; The order of Lenin 21.02.45 ; Order of Kutuzov 1st degree 24.02.45 ; The order of Lenin 16.09.45 .

From book: N.V.Petrov, K.V.Skorkin
"Who led the NKVD. 1934-1941"

Three months before his death, I. Stalin repressed the head of his guard, General Vlasik, who served him faithfully for a quarter of a century

On January 17, 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Colonel of Justice V.V. Borisoglebsky and members of the court - Colonels of Justice D.A. Rybkin and N.E. Kovalenko, considered a criminal case against the former head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant General Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich and found him guilty of committing a crime under Art. 193-17, paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances).
According to the verdict, Vlasik N.S. was subjected to exile “to a remote area of ​​the USSR” for a period of five years, deprived of the military rank of “lieutenant general”, four medals, two honorary badges “VChK-GPU”, and later, on the basis of an instituted petition from the Supreme Commissariat of the USSR Armed Forces to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR , deprived of nine orders: three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Red Star, Kutuzov I degree and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”.
It was also “property acquired through criminal means was seized and turned into state income.”
On June 28, 2000, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, chaired by V.M. Lebedev, this verdict was overturned and the criminal case against Vlasik N.S. terminated due to lack of evidence of a crime.
Before me is an autobiography from the personal file of Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, head of the security of I.V. Stalin in the period from 1927 to 1952

See the original material on the “Top Secret” website: http://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/3335/.
Born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus into a poor peasant family. This clarification - “in a poor peasant family”, as well as “in a worker’s family”, “in a farm laborer’s family” - in the first years of Soviet power was like a start to a career. Someone used this as a “cover” for a non-proletarian biography. Vlasik wrote the true truth. At the age of three he lost his parents: first his mother died, and then his father. He graduated from three classes of a rural parochial school. At the age of 13, he began his career: he worked as a laborer at a construction site, as a bricklayer, and later as a loader at a paper factory. At the beginning of 1915 he was called up for military service and took part in the First World War. He was noted by his commanders and awarded the St. George Cross for bravery in battle. In 1916 he was wounded, after hospitalization he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and appointed platoon commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment in Moscow. In the first days of the revolution, together with his platoon, he went over to the side of the Soviet regime and became a member of the regimental committee.
In 1918, in battles on the Southern Front near Tsaritsyn, Vlasik was seriously wounded. Then he was sent to the Special Department of the Cheka to Dzerzhinsky, from there to the Operations Department of the OGPU. The young commander's zeal for service was noticed. And in 1927, he was assigned to head the special security of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, members of the government and Stalin’s personal security.
But he also had to be responsible for medical care for the country’s leadership, material support for their apartments and dachas, supply of food and special rations, construction and repair of office premises of the Central Committee and the Kremlin, organization of recreation for Stalin, his relatives and children at country dachas and in the south. And even control the studies and behavior of Stalin’s children, who were left without a mother in 1932. Stalin’s personal fund still contains documents that show that Vlasik, through employees appointed by him, monitored Stalin’s children, showing, frankly, maternal care.
But that was not all. Organization of demonstrations and parades, preparation of Red Square, halls, theaters, stadiums, airfields for various propaganda campaigns, movement of government members and Stalin around the country on various transport, meetings, seeing off foreign guests, their security and support. And most importantly - the safety of the leader, whose suspicion, as is known, exceeded all reasonable limits. Stalin more than once praised Vlasik for his ingenuity and generously showered him with awards. After all, it was Vlasik who came up with such a method of security as a cavalcade of ten to fifteen absolutely identical ZIS cars, in one of which sat I.V., and in the rest - “persons similar to him.” On rare flights, he prepared not one plane, but several, and which one to fly in was determined by Stalin himself at the very last moment. This is also security. Checking for the presence of poisons in food and generally monitoring Stalin’s diet was not a difficult task for Vlasik - there was a special laboratory.
In short, the chief of security had more than enough to do, and for all the years the leader did not have any troubles, although emergencies happened around him, and often: “blocs”, “centers”, sabotage, sabotage, the death of Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev, Gorky and his son Maxim, an attempt to poison Yezhov with mercury vapor, the murder of Kirov, Ordzhonikidze, the death of Chkalov.
By the summer of 1941, Vlasik already had the rank of general. During the war, concerns increased, and accordingly the staff grew - up to several tens of thousands of people. Vlasik was entrusted with the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats. The Main Security Directorate selected work premises and apartments for the government in Kuibyshev, provided transport, communications, and arranged supplies. Vlasik was also responsible for the evacuation of Lenin’s body to Tyumen and its protection. And in Moscow, he and his apparatus ensured security at the parade on November 7, 1941, at a ceremonial meeting that was held at the Mayakovskaya metro station the day before. In short, you can’t call his service “honey.” And then there are the “minor” questions.
Secret
DEPUTY HEAD OF THE 1ST DEPARTMENT
NKVD USSR
COMMISSIONER OF STATE SECURITY
3rd RANK
Comrade VLASIK N.S.
Conclusion on the state of health of Colonel Vasily Iosifovich STALIN
Comrade V.I. STALIN delivered to the Kremlin hospital 4/IV-43 at 11 o’clock due to wounds from a shell fragment.
A wound to the left cheek with a small metal fragment in it and a wound to the left foot with damage to its bones and the presence of a large metal fragment.
At 14:00 4/IV-43, under general anesthesia, prof. A.D. Ochkin performed an operation to excise the damaged tissue and remove fragments.
The foot injury is classified as serious.
Due to contamination of the wounds, antitetanus and antigangrenosis serums were introduced.
The general condition of the wounded man is quite satisfactory.
Head of the Kremlin Medical Center (Busalov)
Before reporting to his father about his son, N.S. Vlasik forced the Air Force command to submit a report on the circumstances of Vasily Stalin’s injury.
We didn't have to wait long for this.
SECRET. Ex. No. 1
Report of an emergency incident in the 32nd Guards IAP (fighter aviation regiment - Ed.)
The incident occurred under the following circumstances:
On the morning of April 4, 1943, a group of flight personnel consisting of regiment commander Colonel V.I. Stalin, Geroev Soviet Union Lieutenant Colonel Vlasov N.I., Captain Baklan A.Ya., Captain Kotov A.G., Captain Garanin V.I., Captain Popkov V.I., Captain Dolgushin S.F., flight commander Senior Lieutenant Shishkin A.P. . and others, as well as the regiment’s weapons engineer, Captain Razin E.I. I went to the Selizharovka River, located 1.5 km from the airfield, to go fishing.
Throwing grenades and rockets into the water, they drowned out the fish, collecting them from the shore with a net. Before throwing a rocket, the regimental engineer, Captain Razin, first set the detonator ring to maximum deceleration (22 seconds), turned away the chickenpox, and then threw the projectile into the water. So they personally had 3 rockets thrown at them. Preparing to throw the last rocket, engineer-captain Razin turned the chickenpox as much as possible, and the shell instantly exploded in his hands, as a result of which one person - Captain Razin - was killed, Colonel V.I. Stalin. and captain Kotov A.G. seriously injured.
With this report, the faithful Nikolai Sidorovich went to the leader, and he burst out with an order:
COMMANDER OF THE RED ARMY AIR FORCE MARSHAL COM. I ORDER NOVIKOV:
1) Immediately remove from the post of commander of the aviation regiment Colonel V.I. STALIN. and not give him any command posts until my order.
2) Announce to the regiment and the former regiment commander, Colonel Stalin, that Colonel Stalin is being removed from the post of regiment commander for drunkenness and riotous behavior and for the fact that he is spoiling and corrupting the regiment.
3) Deliver the execution.
People's Commissar of Defense
I. Stalin
May 26, 1943
But there were more serious matters. First of all, three conferences of the heads of the participants in the anti-Hitler coalition: Tehran (XI 28 – XII 1, 1943), Yalta (II/4–11/1945) and Potsdam (VII 17–VIII/2/1945).
And Vlasik was always next to Stalin - masquerading as a photojournalist. For the successful holding of the conference in Tehran, Vlasik was awarded the Order of Lenin, for the Crimean conference - the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, for the Potsdam conference - the Order of Lenin.
The war is over. The service continued. By decision of the Central Committee in 1947, funds were allocated for the construction and reconstruction of state dachas in the Crimea, Sochi, Gagra, Sukhumi, Tskaltubo, Borjomi, on Lake Ritsa and in the Moscow region. And again, all this was entrusted to N.S. Vlasik. Let me note: a person with a three-year education. But the Main Directorate had its own financiers, accountants, and construction specialists. So Vlasik himself, with his three classes, did not try to understand all this.
And trouble was not waiting for him here. As is known, he was subordinate to the leadership of the NKGB, and then to the MGB, and therefore to the well-known Beria, Merkulov, Kobulov, Tsanava, Serov, Goglidze. But Vlasik was the closest of them all to Stalin, and the leader sometimes consulted with him on MGB matters. This became known in Beria’s entourage. And it could not help but cause irritation, especially since Vlasik often spoke negatively about his bosses.
In 1948, the commandant of the “Near Dacha” Fedoseev was arrested. The investigation was conducted under the leadership of Serov. Under torture, Fedoseev testified that Vlasik wanted to poison Stalin.
Then the “Doctors’ Plot” arose. Testimony appeared that, together with doctors, Vlasik wanted to organize the treatment of A. Zhdanov and hatched the goal of killing Stalin. In May 1952, an in-depth audit of the financial and economic activities of the security department unexpectedly began. In addition to specialists, the commission included Beria, Bulganin, Poskrebyshev. Everything drunk, eaten and squandered was “pinned” on Vlasik and his deputy Lynko. They reported to Stalin. Lynko was arrested, and Vlasik was sent to the Urals, to the city of Asbest, to the post of deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Later, the general recalled in his diaries that “the hats flew off” the heads of so many of his subordinates.
For six months - until December 1952 - he worked in Asbest and “bombed” Stalin with letters in which he swore his innocence and devotion. And on December 16, he was summoned to Moscow and arrested in the “Doctors’ Case,” accusing him of covering up “hostile actions” of professors Egorov, Vovsi and Vinogradov.
As you know, the “doctors’ case” was terminated after Stalin’s death and all those arrested were released - everyone except Vlasik. He was interrogated more than a hundred times during the investigation. The charges included espionage, preparation of terrorist attacks, and anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Moreover, for each of the charges he faced a considerable prison sentence.
They “pressed” 56-year-old Nikolai Sidorovich in Lefortovo in a sophisticated manner - they kept him in handcuffs, a bright lamp was burning in the cell around the clock, they were not allowed to sleep, they were summoned for interrogation, and they constantly played a record behind the wall with heart-rending children’s cries. They even staged a mock execution (Vlasik writes about this in his diary). But he behaved well and did not lose his sense of humor. In any case, in one of the protocols he gives the following “confession” testimony: “I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them and the artist Stenberg, but all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my free time from work.”
He continues to be held in Lefortovo. And they are already accused of having a connection with the constructivist artist V. Stenberg, who allegedly engaged in espionage while designing festive events on Red Square.
On June 26, 1953, Beria, Kobulov, Goglidze, and Merkulov were arrested and executed on December 23 of the same year. The KGB was headed by I. Serov, who promised to grind Vlasik into powder during Beria’s lifetime. This figure is ambiguous. For example, Beria’s son Sergo writes: “I knew Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov, who headed the KGB of the USSR in 1954–1958, very well. He was an impeccably honest man who did a lot to strengthen the rule of law. Serov brilliantly graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and was sent to the disposal of the new People's Commissar of the NKVD. He spoke Japanese. Those who served under the command of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General I.A. Serov, remembered him as a talented, very courageous and extremely educated person.”
And Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Security V. Ryasnoy assessed the Colonel General somewhat differently: “... A Brandykhlyst, the likes of which the world has never seen. He will sneak everywhere, find, deceive, steal. With the help of Beria, he made sure that he was not overworked. As for sucking up to the top brass, Serov is irreplaceable, a very cunning person in this regard.”
In short, even under Serov, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was kept under arrest. They dragged me every other day, and mostly at night, for interrogations. Counter-revolutionary, that is, political, crimes disappeared by themselves, thefts “from the master’s table” - too. Such an episode also disappeared.
After the Potsdam Conference in 1945, Vlasik, among other junk given to him as a gift from the Red Army, took a horse, two cows and one bull from Germany in the NKVD train. And he delivered all these animals to Belarus to his sister Olga.
After his arrest in 1952, they began to deal with this too. They found out that in 1941 his native village of Bobynichi, Baranovichi region, was captured by the Germans. The house in which the sister lived was burned, half the village was shot, the sister’s eldest daughter was taken to work in Germany (she never returned from there), the cow and horse were taken away. Olga, her husband Peter and two children went to the partisans, and then, when the Germans were driven away, she returned to the plundered village. So Vlasik delivered from Germany to his sister, as it were, part of her own goods.
This was reported to Stalin, and he, looking at Ignatiev who was reporting, said: “What are you, oh... or what?!”
Vlasik himself recalled this at the end of his life. I don’t know if this was actually the case, but if so, then we must give the leader his due: he was right.
By the way, Potsdam is the residence of the Prussian kings. Germany was very lucky that Vlasik, leaving there, satisfied only his “animal husbandry” interest, and did not get carried away, say, by the works of Rembrandt.
From the verdict:
“...Vlasik, being the head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, enjoying the special trust of the Soviet Government and the Central Committee of the CPSU, abused the trust placed in him and his high official position...” And then the accusations follow:
"1. He became morally corrupt, systematically drank, lacked a sense of political vigilance, and showed promiscuity in everyday relationships.
2. While drinking with a certain Stenberg, he became close to him and divulged secret information to him and other persons. From Stenberg’s apartment he conducted telephone negotiations with the head of the Soviet Government, as well as official conversations with his subordinates.
3. Deciphered three secret employees in front of Stenberg. Showed him his agent file.
4. When communicating with people who “did not inspire political trust” and who maintained connections with foreigners, Vlasik gave them passes to the stands of Red Square.
5. Kept official documents in his apartment, in particular, the plan of Potsdam and the security system for the entire region of the Potsdam Conference (1945), as well as a memorandum on the work of the Sochi department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the special period of 1946, the schedule of government trains and others. documentation".
This was where the accusation ended. And the investigation lasted for more than two years!
Qualification – clause “b” of Art. 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (as amended in 1926).
"St. 193-17. a) Abuse of power, excess of power, inaction of power, as well as negligent attitude towards the service of a person of the commanding staff of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, if these acts were committed systematically, or for selfish reasons or other personal interest, as well as if they resulted in the disorganization of those entrusted to him forces, or the work entrusted to him, or the disclosure of military secrets, or other serious consequences, or even if they did not have the indicated consequences, but obviously could have them, or were committed in wartime, or in a combat situation, entail: imprisonment with or without strict isolation for a period of at least six months;
b) the same acts, in the presence of ESPECIALLY aggravating circumstances, entail:
HIGHEST MEASURE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION;
c) the same acts, in the absence of the signs provided for in paragraphs “a” and “b” of this article, entail: application of the Rules of the Disciplinary Charter of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.”
But here is the data from Vlasik’s criminal case, more precisely, from the minutes of the court hearing dated January 17, 1955:
“It’s a question of the court. What brought you and Stenberg together?
Vlasik. Of course, the rapprochement was based on drinking together and meeting women.
Question of the court. Did he have a comfortable apartment for this?
Vlasik. I visited him very rarely.
Question of the court. Did you issue passes to Red Square to a certain Nikolaeva, who was connected with foreign journalists?
Vlasik. I only now realized that I had committed a crime.
Question of the court. Did you give your partner Gridusova and her husband Schrager tickets to the stands of the Dynamo stadium?
Vlasik. Gave.
Question of the court. Did you keep secret documents in your apartment?
Vlasik. I was going to compile an album in which the life and work of Comrade would be reflected in photographs and documents. I.V. Stalin.
Question of the court. How did you purchase the radio and receiver?
Vlasik. Vasily Stalin sent them to me as a gift. But then I gave them to the Blizhnaya dacha.
Question of the court. What can you say about the fourteen cameras and lenses you had?
Vlasik. Most of them I received through my professional activities. I bought one Zeiss device through Vneshtorg, another device was given to me by Comrade Serov...”
The evidentiary part of the verdict is interesting. She is simply unique.
“Vlasik’s guilt in committing these crimes was proven by the testimony of witnesses interrogated in court, preliminary investigation materials, physical evidence, as well as Vlasik’s partial admission of guilt.” That's all.
Sentence: ten years in exile. According to the amnesty of March 27, 1953, this period was reduced by half, that is, to five years. This is stated here in the verdict.
And the fact that Vlasik served more than two years in Lefortovo? It does not count? And if this counts, then how? There is not a word about this in the verdict.
For some reason he is in custody until May 17, 1956, and that’s another year and four months. True, already in a “remote area of ​​the USSR” - in Krasnoyarsk. By way of pardon (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 15, 1956, signed by Klim Voroshilov) he was released from custody and from further serving his sentence.
Returning to Moscow, Vlasik asks for an appointment with Prosecutor General Rudenko - he did not accept him. Sends a request for rehabilitation to the Party Control Commission (CPC) to N. Shvernik, then to A. Pelshe - again a refusal. The support of Marshals G. Zhukov and A. Vasilevsky did not help either.
His apartment on Gorky Street (in the building where the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall is located) was turned into a communal apartment. All property was removed during the investigation.
On June 18, 1967, N.S. Vlasik died of lung cancer, having achieved nothing.
In 1985, Chief Military Prosecutor A. Gorny responded to his daughter’s repeated appeal for posthumous rehabilitation of her father.
Nowadays, justice seems to have been restored, but again there are problems. For about a year, Vlasik’s daughter Nadezhda Nikolaevna received a stream of calls and letters of explanation from the Rehabilitation Commission and the FSB that her father was not convicted under Art. 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (state crime), and under Art. 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (simple military crime), as a result of this, N.S. Vlasik is allegedly not a victim of political repression, just as his daughter is not a victim.
What can I say to all this? Article 3 of the Law “On Rehabilitation” of October 18, 1991 states: “Persons who, for political reasons, were: a) convicted of state and other crimes are subject to rehabilitation.”
N.S. Vlasik was convicted of “other” crimes. For political or non-political reasons? I think there can be no two opinions here.
Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik did not shoot or sign execution lists; he did not participate in “twos”, “troikas”, “special meetings”, he served conscientiously until he fell between a rock and a hard place.

http://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/3335/

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik

Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich (1896, Bobynichi village, Slonim district, Grodno province - 1967). head of security I.V. Stalin, lieutenant general (07/09/1945). The son of a peasant. He received his education at a parochial school. From 1913 he worked as a laborer and digger. In March 1915 he was drafted into the army as a junior non-commissioned officer. From Nov. 1917 policeman in Moscow. On Nov. 1918 joined the RCP(b). On Sept. 1919 transferred to the authorities Cheka . Already on November 1, 1926, he became the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU of the USSR, and then held senior positions in the Operations Department system. whose functions included protecting the leaders of the party and state. For many years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard; from 1932 he raised his son V.I. Stalin . In 1935-36 beginning. personal security of the Operations Department of the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR. Since 1936 operational group and beginning branches of the 1st department of the 1st directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. After joining the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria .

and removal from posts of nominees N.I. Yezhova Vlasik was appointed chief on November 19, 1938. 1st Department of the Main Directorate of State Security. In February-July 1941, Vlasik’s department was part of the NKGB of the USSR, and then returned to the jurisdiction of the NKVD. 19.1 1.1942 Vlasik was transferred to the post of 1st deputy chief. 1st department. After formation in April. In 1943, Vlasik’s department was deployed to the 6th Directorate of the USSR Independent State Clinical Hospital, but already on August 9th. Vlasik again became not the head, but the 1st deputy. From March 1946 beginning.

VLASIK Nikolai Sidorovich (Sergeevich) (1896-1967). Lieutenant General, head of Stalin's security. Born in the Baranovichi region, Belarusian. Member of the RCP(b) since 1918. Member of the Cheka since 1919. Appeared in Stalin’s security guard in 1931 on the recommendation of V.R. Menzhinsky (S. Alliluyeva writes that Vlasik was Stalin’s bodyguard since 1919). In 1938-1942. - Head of the 1st department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, in 1941-1942. - NKGB-NKVD of the USSR. In 1942-1943. - Deputy Head of the 1st Department of the NKVD of the USSR. In 1943 - head of the 6th directorate of the NKGB of the USSR and head of the 1st department of the 6th directorate of the NKGB of the USSR. In 1946 - Commissioner of the USSR Ministry of State Security for the Sochi-Gagrinsky region; in 1946-1952 - Head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, and medals.

Vlasik lasted the longest in Stalin's guard. At the same time, almost all the everyday problems of the head of state lay on his shoulders. Essentially, Vlasik was a member of Stalin's family. After the death of N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure time, and an economic and financial manager.

Stalin's dacha residences, along with the staff of security, maids, housekeepers and cooks, were also subordinate to Vlasik. And there were many of them: a dacha in Kuntsevo-Volynsky, or “Near Dacha” (in 1934-1953 - Stalin’s main residence,1 where he died), a dacha in Gorki-tenty (35 km from Moscow along the Uspenskaya road) , an old estate on Dmitrovskoe highway - Lipki, a dacha in Semenovskoye (the house was built before the war), a dacha in Zubalovo-4 (“Far Dacha”, “Zubalovo”), 2nd dacha on Lake Ritsa, or “Dacha on the Cold River” (in the mouth of the Lashupse River, which flows into Lake Ritsa), three dachas in Sochi (one is not far from Matsesta, the other is beyond Adler, the third is before Gagra), a dacha in Borjomi (Liakan Palace), a dacha in New Athos, a dacha in Tskaltubo, dacha in Myusery (near Pitsunda), dacha in Kislovodsk, dacha in Crimea (in Mukholatka), dacha in Valdai. After the Great Patriotic War, three Crimean palaces, where government delegations of the Allied powers stayed in 1945, were also “mothballed” for such dachas. These are the Livadia Palace (formerly royal, where a sanatorium for peasants was opened in the early 1920s), Vorontsovsky in Alupka (where the museum was located before the war), Yusupovsky in Koreiz. Another ex

Formally, it was believed that all members of the Politburo could rest there, but usually, except for Stalin and occasionally Zhdanov and Molotov,3 no one used them. Nevertheless, at each of the dachas lived a large number of servants, everything was kept in such a way as if the leader was constantly here. Even dinner for Stalin and his possible guests was prepared daily and accepted according to the act, regardless of whether anyone would eat it. This order played a certain conspiratorial role: no one was supposed to know where Stalin was now and what his plans were (Rise. 1990. No. 1. P. 16; Volobuev O., Kuleshov S. Purification. M., 1989. P. 96) .

On December 15, 1952, Vlasik was arrested. He was accused of embezzling large sums of government money and valuables.4 L. Beria and G. Malenkov are considered the initiators of Vlasik’s arrest. By a court decision, he was deprived of the rank of general and exiled for ten years. But according to the amnesty on March 27, 1953, Vlasik’s sentence was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. Died in Moscow.

Svetlana Alliluyeva characterizes his father's favorite as an “illiterate, stupid, rude” and extremely arrogant satrap. In life Nadezhda Sergeevna (Svetlana’s mother) Vlasik was neither heard nor seen, “he didn’t even dare to enter the house”... However, later the authorities corrupted him so much that “he began to dictate to cultural and artistic figures “the tastes of Comrade Stalin”... And the figures listened to and followed this advice. No one festive concert did not take place at the Bolshoi Theater or St. George’s Hall without Vlasik’s sanction.” Svetlana is trying to convince readers of her father’s amazing gullibility and helplessness against people like Vlasik. At the same time, she more than once mentions Stalin’s rare insight. The leader really knew Vlasik’s weaknesses and vices very well. And yet he remained under Stalin for many years, while others, honest and decent, fell from grace and were expelled. Obviously, it was Vlasiki who arranged it ().

Samsonova V. Daughter of Stalin. M., 1998. pp. 175-177

1) The dacha in Kuntsevo was designed and built by architect Miron Merzhanov on the instructions of Stalin in 1934. From that time on, Kuntsevo became the main residence of the leader and the real capital of the USSR. According to his daughter, the idea of ​​leaving the Kremlin was prompted by his wife’s suicide on November 8, 1932. “But, I think, another, more practical consideration was the desire to separate from the rest of the party leaders. They all lived in the Kremlin. He wanted to have his own special Kremlin (he loved conspiracy), and he built it. In gratitude, Merzhanov was sent to the camps for 17 years, and he miraculously came out alive” (Druzhnikov Yu.I. Russian Myths. M., 1999. P. 256).

2) Merzhanov also built other dachas for the Secretary General in the Caucasus and Crimea. After the death of the leader, they planned to open a Stalin museum in Kuntsevo.

3) The estate with a palace in the Gothic style in a deep forest near Moscow (near the Usovo station) belonged until 1917 to oil industrialist Zubalov. Stalin lived here during the summer months in 1919-1932. The dacha was blown up in October 1941, when there was a real threat of the capture of Moscow. Later a new residence was created there.

4) Those around Stalin also had their own favorite vacation spots. Molotov, for example, has the former Chaire estate in Miskhor (the tango “Roses are falling in Chaire Park” was once fashionable).

“I was severely offended by Stalin. For 25 years of impeccable work, without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he handed me over to the hands of his enemies. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what condition I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin” (Vlasik N.S. My biography // Loginov V. Shadows Stalin. M., 2000. P. 136).

Book materials used: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. Around Stalin.

It’s impossible not to say something about Vlasik. He was an ascetic who worked under Stalin from 1928, and from 1930 he was officially the head of the security. Then he was the head of the main security department. His main responsibility was to ensure Stalin's safety. This work was inhuman. Always take responsibility with your head, always live on the cutting edge. He knew both Stalin's friends and enemies very well. And he knew that his life and Stalin’s life were very closely connected, and it was no coincidence that when he was suddenly arrested a month and a half or two before Stalin’s death, he said that I had been arrested, which meant that Stalin would soon be gone. And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin did not live long.
What kind of work did Vlasik even have? It was day and night work, there were no 6-8 hour days. He had a job all his life and lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room.
He had a rare day off. You know, after such a load, such tension, a release is needed. Doctors and psychologists who work with sailors and people working in the field of space know this well. The burden of responsibility and situation puts pressure on a person. It does not fully recover, and in the end there may be psychological overload, when the psyche cannot stand it and the person goes into a breakdown.
What was Vlasik accused of? In order to tear him away from Stalin, enemies of Stalin and, therefore, enemies of the state said that Vlasik supposedly once took some food with him. But he didn’t have time to stand in lines at stores. Maybe he took something with him from Stalin’s house. Yes, Vlasik’s time was worth a hundred times more to waste on shopping. His life and his activities provided the state with enormous opportunities that are difficult to evaluate on the scale of banknotes.
He understood that he lived for Stalin, to ensure the work of Stalin, and therefore the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two supports for that colossal activity, not yet fully appreciated, that Stalin led, and they remained in the shadows. And they treated Poskrebyshev badly, and even worse with Vlasik.

Artem Sergeev

Sergeev A., Glushik E. Conversations about Stalin. Moscow, "Crimean Bridge-9D". 2006.

Read further:

Persons in civilian clothes(biographical reference book).

During the years of perestroika, when practically all people from Stalin’s circle were subjected to a wave of all kinds of accusations in the advanced Soviet press, the most unenviable lot fell to General Vlasik. The long-time head of Stalin’s security appeared in these materials as a real lackey who adored his master, a chain dog, ready to rush at anyone at his command, greedy, vengeful and selfish...

Among those who did not spare Vlasik negative epithets was Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. But the leader’s bodyguard at one time had to become practically the main educator for both Svetlana and Vasily. Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik spent a quarter of a century next to Stalin, protecting the life of the Soviet leader. The leader lived without his bodyguard for less than a year.

From parochial school to the Cheka

Nikolai Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus, in the village of Bobynichi, into a poor peasant family. The boy lost his parents early and could not count on a good education. After three classes at the parochial school, Nikolai went to work. From the age of 13, he worked as a laborer at a construction site, then as a bricklayer, then as a loader at a paper factory. In March 1915, Vlasik was drafted into the army and sent to the front. During the First World War, he served in the 167th Ostrog Infantry Regiment and was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery in battle. After being wounded, Vlasik was promoted to non-commissioned officer and appointed platoon commander of the 251st Infantry Regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.

During the October Revolution, Nikolai Vlasik, who came from the very bottom, quickly decided on his political choice: together with the entrusted platoon, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. First, he served in the Moscow police, then he participated in the Civil War, and was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the Cheka, where he served in the central apparatus under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.

Master of Security and Household

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU. As Vlasik himself recalled, his work as Stalin’s bodyguard began in 1927 after an emergency in the capital: a bomb was thrown into the commandant’s office building on Lubyanka. The operative, who was on vacation, was recalled and announced: from now on, he will be entrusted with the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, and members of the government at their dachas and walks. Particular attention was ordered to be paid to the personal security of Joseph Stalin. Despite the sad history of the assassination attempt on Lenin, by 1927 the security of the top officials of the state in the USSR was not particularly thorough. Stalin was accompanied by only one guard: the Lithuanian Yusis. Vlasik was even more surprised when they arrived at the dacha, where Stalin usually spent his weekends. There was only one commandant living at the dacha; there was no linen or dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.
Like all Belarusian peasants, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was a thorough and homely person. He took on not only the security, but also the arrangement of Stalin’s life. The leader, accustomed to asceticism, was at first skeptical about the innovations of the new bodyguard. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaner appeared at the dacha, and supplies of food were arranged from the nearest state farm. At that moment, the dacha did not even have a telephone connection with Moscow, and it appeared through the efforts of Vlasik. Over time, Vlasik created an entire system of dachas in the Moscow region and in the south, where well-trained staff were ready at any time to receive the Soviet leader. It’s not worth talking about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most thorough manner. The system of protecting important government objects existed before Vlasik, but he became the developer of security measures for the first person of the state during his trips around the country, official events, and international meetings. Bodyguard Stalin came up with a system according to which the first person and the people accompanying him travel in a cavalcade of identical cars, and only the personal security officers know which of them the leader is traveling in. Subsequently, this scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.

“Illiterate, stupid, but noble”

Within a few years, Vlasik turned into an irreplaceable and especially trusted person for Stalin. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin entrusted his bodyguard with the care of the children: Svetlana, Vasily and his adopted son Artyom Sergeev. Nikolai Sidorovich was not a teacher, but he tried as best he could. If Svetlana and Artyom did not cause him much trouble, then Vasily was uncontrollable from childhood. Vlasik, knowing that Stalin did not give permission to children, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate Vasily’s sins in reports to his father.
But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and the role of the “lightning rod” became more and more difficult for Vlasik to play. Svetlana and Artyom, having become adults, wrote about their “tutor” in different ways. Stalin’s daughter in “Twenty Letters to a Friend” characterized Vlasik as follows: “He headed his father’s entire guard, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, reached last years to the point that he dictated to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin”, since he believed that he knew and understood them well... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to the artists whether he “liked it” himself, whether either a film, or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings that were under construction at that time...” “He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin.” Artyom Sergeev in “Conversations about Stalin” expressed himself differently: “His main duty was to ensure Stalin’s safety . This work was inhuman. Always take responsibility with your head, always live on the cutting edge. He knew Stalin’s friends and enemies very well...What kind of work did Vlasik even have? It was a day and night job, there were no 6-8 hour days. He had a job all his life and lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin’s room was Vlasik’s room...” In ten to fifteen years, Nikolai Vlasik turned from an ordinary bodyguard into a general, heading a huge structure responsible not only for security, but also for the life of the top officials of the state.
During the war years, the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats from Moscow fell on Vlasik's shoulders. It was necessary not only to deliver them to Kuibyshev, but also to place them, equip them in a new place, and think through security issues. The evacuation of Lenin’s body from Moscow was also a task that Vlasik performed. He was also responsible for security at the parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941.

Assassination attempt in Gagra

For all the years that Vlasik was responsible for Stalin’s life, not a single hair fell from his head. At the same time, the head of the leader’s security, judging by his memoirs, took the threat of assassination attempt very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was sure that Trotskyist groups were preparing the assassination of Stalin.
In 1935, Vlasik really had to cover the leader from bullets. During a boat trip in the Gagra area, fire was opened on them from the shore. The bodyguard covered Stalin with his body, but both were lucky: the bullets did not hit them. The boat left the shelling zone. Vlasik considered this a real assassination attempt, and his opponents later believed that it was all a staged act. Judging by the circumstances, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not notified of Stalin's boat ride, and they mistook him for an intruder.

Abuse of cows

During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at conferences of the heads of countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition and coped with his task brilliantly. For the successful holding of the conference in Tehran, Vlasik was awarded the Order of Lenin, for the Crimean conference - the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, for the Potsdam conference - another Order of Lenin.
But the Potsdam Conference became the reason for accusations of misappropriation of property: it was alleged that after its completion, Vlasik took various valuables from Germany, including a horse, two cows and one bull. Subsequently, this fact was cited as an example of the irrepressible greed of Stalin’s bodyguard. Vlasik himself recalled that this story had a completely different background. In 1941, his native village Bobynichi was captured by the Germans. The house in which the sister lived was burned, half the village was shot, the sister’s eldest daughter was taken to work in Germany, the cow and horse were taken away. The sister and her husband joined the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, of which little was left. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for his loved ones. Was this abuse? If you approach it with strict standards, then, perhaps, yes. However, Stalin, when this case was first reported to him, abruptly ordered further investigation to be stopped.

Opal

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate: a department with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of thousands. He did not fight for power, but at the same time he made a huge number of enemies. Being too close to Stalin, Vlasik had the opportunity to influence the leader’s attitude towards this or that person, deciding who would receive wider access to the first person and who would be denied such an opportunity. In 1948, the commandant of the so-called “Near Dacha” was arrested. Fedoseev, who testified that Vlasik intended to poison Stalin. But the leader again did not take this accusation seriously: if the bodyguard had such intentions, he could have realized his plans a long time ago.

Vlasik in the office.

In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was created to verify the activities of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. This time, extremely unpleasant facts have surfaced that look quite plausible. The guards and staff of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged real orgies there and stole food and expensive drinks. Later, there were witnesses who assured that Vlasik himself was not averse to relaxing in this way. On April 29, 1952, on the basis of these materials, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his post and sent to the Urals, to the city of Asbest, as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Why did Stalin suddenly abandon a man who had honestly served him for 25 years? Perhaps the leader’s growing suspicion in recent years was to blame. It is possible that Stalin considered the waste of state funds on drunken revelry to be too serious a sin. Be that as it may, very difficult times came for the former head of Stalin’s guard... In December 1952, he was arrested in connection with the “Doctors’ Case.” He was blamed for the fact that he ignored the statements of Lydia Timashuk, who accused the professors who treated the top officials of the state of sabotage.
Vlasik himself wrote in his memoirs that there was no reason to believe Timashuk: “There was no data discrediting the professors, which I reported to Stalin.”

Could Vlasik extend the life of the leader?

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin passed away. Even if we discard the dubious version of the murder of the leader, Vlasik, if he had remained in his post, could well have extended his life. When the leader became ill at the Nizhny Dacha, he lay for several hours on the floor of his room without help: the guards did not dare to enter Stalin’s chambers. There is no doubt that Vlasik would not have allowed this. After the death of the leader, the “doctors’ case” was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the rank of general and state awards. In March 1955, Vlasik’s sentence was reduced to 5 years. He was sent to Krasnoyarsk to serve his sentence. By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with his criminal record expunged, but his military rank and awards were not restored. “Not for a single minute did I have any grudge against Stalin in my soul.” He returned to Moscow, where he had almost nothing left: his property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal one. Vlasik knocked on doors of offices, wrote to the leaders of the party and government, asked for rehabilitation and reinstatement in the party, but was refused everywhere.

Secretly, he began dictating memoirs in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he committed certain actions, and how he treated Stalin.
“After Stalin’s death, such an expression as “cult of personality” appeared... If a person - a leader by his deeds deserves the love and respect of others, what’s wrong with that... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified the country that he led to prosperity and victories, wrote Nikolai Vlasik. “Under his leadership, a lot of good things were done, and the people saw it.” He enjoyed enormous authority. I knew him very closely... And I affirm that he lived only in the interests of the country, the interests of his people.” “It is easy to accuse a person of all mortal sins when he is dead and can neither justify himself nor defend himself. Why did no one dare to point out his mistakes during his lifetime? What was stopping you? Fear? Or were there not these mistakes that needed to be pointed out? Indeed, Tsar Ivan IV was formidable, but there were people who cared about their homeland, who, without fear of death, pointed out his mistakes to him. Or have there been no brave people in Rus'? - this is what Stalin’s bodyguard thought. Summing up his memoirs and his life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what condition I was in, no matter how much abuse I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin. I understood perfectly well what kind of situation was created around him in the last years of his life. How difficult it was for him. He was an old, sick, lonely man... He was and remains the most dear person to me, and no slander can shake the feeling of love and deepest respect that I have always had for this wonderful man. He personified for me everything bright and dear in my life - the party, my homeland and my people.” Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, posthumously rehabilitated, died on June 18, 1967. His archive was seized and classified. Only in 2011, the Federal Security Service declassified the notes of the person who, in fact, was at the origins of its creation.

Born in 1896 in the village of Bobynichi, Slonim district, Grodno province (Belarus). The son of a peasant. He received his education at a parochial school. Since 1913 he worked as a laborer and digger. During the First World War, in March 1915, he was drafted into the army as a junior non-commissioned officer. Since November 1917 he has been a policeman in Moscow. In 1918 - a Red Army soldier, participant in the defense of Tsaritsyn. In November of the same year he joined the RCP(b).

In September 1919 he was transferred to the Cheka. On November 1, 1926, he became the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU of the USSR, and then held senior positions in the system of the Operations Department, whose functions included protecting the leaders of the party and state.

Nikolai Vlasik appeared in Stalin’s guard in 1931 on the personal recommendation of the OGPU chairman V.R. Menzhinsky, after the death of Stalin’s chief guard I.F. Yusis. Later, however, a legend arose that Stalin, back in 1918, somehow liked the Red Army soldier Vlasik, whom he then took as his personal bodyguard. The legend became widespread. Even Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Vissarionovich, took her on faith in her memoirs. She also got into fiction, for example, in the historical and documentary novel by Vladimir Uspensky “The Leader’s Privy Advisor”. However, this legend was refuted by Nikolai Sidorovich himself in his unpublished notes, written by him at the end of his life for his family and friends: ordinary soldier Vlasik fought near Tsaritsyn, but member of the Revolutionary Military Council I.V. He had never seen Stalin then.

Initially, Nikolai Vlasik was only the head of Stalin's security. But after the tragic death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, he was already the teacher of the children - Vasily and Svetlana, the organizer of their leisure time, the financial and economic distributor, whose vigilant eye kept all the inhabitants of the Stalinist house under the supervision. N.S. Vlasik solved almost all of Stalin’s everyday problems. Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva wrote in her memoirs “Twenty Letters to a Friend”:

He headed his father’s entire bodyguard, 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 and followed these advice. And not a single holiday concert in Bolshoi Theater, or in the St. George’s Hall at banquets, was not compiled without Vlasik’s sanction... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists whether he “liked it” himself – be it a film, or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings then under construction... It would not be worth mentioning him at all - he ruined the lives of many, but he was such a colorful figure that you can’t pass him by. In our house, for the “servants”, Vlasik was almost equal to his father himself, since his father was high and far away, and Vlasik, with the power given to him, could do anything...

During my mother’s life, he existed somewhere in the background as a bodyguard, and, of course, there was neither his foot nor his spirit in the house. He was constantly at his father’s dacha in Kuntsevo and “directed” from there all the other residences of his father, which became more and more numerous over the years...”

A few years later, Vlasik becomes not only Stalin’s main security guard, but also one of the leaders of the entire security service of the top leadership of the USSR. In 1935-36, he was the head of the personal security of the Operations Department of the NKVD of the USSR. Since 1936 - head of the operational group and head of the 1st department of the 1st directorate of the NKVD of the USSR.

After joining the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria and the removal of N.I.’s nominees from posts. Ezhova N.S. On November 19, 1938, Vlasik was appointed head of the 1st department of the Main Directorate of State Security. In February-July 1941, Vlasik’s department was part of the NKGB of the USSR, and then returned to the NKVD. On January 19, 1942, Vlasik was transferred to the post of first deputy head of the 1st department.

In 1941, due to the possibility of the fall of Moscow, he was sent to Kuibyshev to monitor the government's move there. Responsible for guarding the residences of I.V. Stalin in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam.

After the secondary formation of the independent National State Clinical Hospital of the USSR in April 1943, Vlasik’s department was deployed to the 6th Directorate, but on August 9 Vlasik again became not the chief, but the first deputy. On July 9, 1945, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Since March 1946, he has been the head of security department No. 1 of the USSR Ministry of State Security. This department was exclusively engaged in the protection and provision of Stalin. On November 28, 1946, under the leadership of General Vlasik, the Main Security Directorate (GUO) of the USSR Ministry of State Security was formed, which included the 1st and 2nd Security Directorates, as well as the Directorate of the Commandant of the Moscow Kremlin.

In the last year of Stalin's life, with the progressive deterioration of his health, the struggle between various factions in the leadership of the USSR for Stalin's legacy intensified. At the same time, certain forces did not stop at speeding up the leader’s departure, and a necessary condition for this was the removal from Stalin’s inner circle of the people most devoted to him, which included Vlasik, who enjoyed Stalin’s exceptional trust. Yes - and not too literate, and too much of a lover of the fair sex, and, to put it mildly, not entirely conscientious in relation to state property. But at the same time, infinitely devoted to the leader! Stalin could easily trust him with his life.

On May 23, 1952, the Main Directorate of Defense was transformed into the Security Directorate, and General Vlasik was removed from work and transferred to the post of deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp in Asbest (Sverdlovsk region). December 16, 1952 N.S. Vlasik was arrested and accused of “indulging in sabotage doctors,” abuse of official position, etc. The investigation dragged on, and only in January 1955 he was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR (in a closed session) under Article 193-17, part “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (Abuse of Trust and Official Position) to 5 years of exile in Krasnoyarsk (term punishment was calculated from the moment of arrest). However, already in 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with his criminal record expunged and returned to Moscow. Apparently, the death of the “master” still did not allow him to be crushed. N.S. was rehabilitated. Vlasik was not there either then or later. According to his wife, until his death, Vlasik was convinced that Lavrentiy Beria “helped” Stalin die.

Lieutenant General N.S. Vlasik was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov first degree, the Order of the Red Star, medals “XX Years of the Red Army”, “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945”, “In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow”, “XXX years of the Soviet Army and Navy”, as well as two badges “Honorary Security Officer”. He was deprived of all of the above awards by a court verdict in 1955.

The daughter of General Vlasik, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Vlasik, fought for many years for the rehabilitation of her father, and in 2000, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation posthumously acquitted Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik “for lack of corpus delicti.”

In an interview given to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper in 2003, Nadezhda Vlasik said: “...father would not have let him [Stalin] die. He would not have waited for a day outside the doors, like those guards on March 5, 1953, when Stalin “he would wake up.” He would knock down all the doors, drive everyone out of the dacha territory, regardless of rank, and of course he would bring doctors.”

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik died in Moscow from lung cancer on June 18, 1967. He was buried in the new Donskoy cemetery, a few dozen steps west of the Great Patriotic War memorial.

At the end of his life N.S. Vlasik wrote memoirs that have not yet been published. A valuable historical source is the many things he did in different time photographs by I.V. Stalin and his inner circle, and in an informal setting. There is, among other things, a photo of a drunk Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, in a Ukrainian embroidered shirt, dancing the hopak at the Near Dacha.

The Russian Federal Security Service declassified the general's archive Nikolai Vlasik, who served as Joseph Stalin's security chief from 1931 to 1952. Vlasik’s memoirs, dedicated to his life next to the leader, were published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

As Vlasik said in his notes, he was tasked with organizing the security of the Special Department of the Cheka and the Kremlin, as well as paying special attention to Stalin’s personal security, after a bomb was thrown into the commandant’s office building on Lubyanka in Moscow in 1927.

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

Vlasik also described Stalin’s way of life in his apartment in the Kremlin. The housekeeper Karolina Vasilyevna and the cleaning lady kept order there. Hot meals were brought to the family from the Kremlin canteen in boats.

According to the general, then Stalin lived very modestly with his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, daughter Svetlana and sons Vasily and Yakov. Stalin walked around in an old coat, and responded to Vlasik’s offer to sew new outerwear 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 let me take measurements. Nadezhda Alliluyeva was just as modest, according to the general.

He came to work late and walked back to the Kremlin

As Vlasik recalls, Stalin usually got up at 9 a.m. and after breakfast at 11 a.m. he arrived at the Central Committee building on Old Square. Had lunch 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 interested in something extraneous like horse riding. Vlasik, in his words, “reluctantly” reported to Stalin about Vasily’s behavior.

Stalin planted Sochi with eucalyptus trees

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

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

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

About the leader's love for Kirov and the assassination attempt on Stalin

According to Vlasik, Stalin loved the leader of the Leningrad party organization of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Kirov, “with some kind of touching, tender love.” When Kirov came to Moscow, he stayed at Stalin’s apartment, and they never parted. The murder of Kirov in 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev, an instructor of the historical-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, Stalin himself survived the assassination attempt in the summer of 1935. This happened in the south, where he was vacationing at a dacha near 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 the open sea. In response, Stalin's guards fired a machine gun along the shore.

According to Vlasik, the small and unmaneuverable boat was sent by Yagoda “not without malicious intent.” Obviously, the NKVD chief assumed that on a large wave the ship would inevitably capsize, the general assumes. Fortunately, this did not happen. The case of the assassination attempt was transferred for investigation to Lavrentiy Beria, who then held the position of Secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia.

During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat had an unfamiliar license plate; this seemed suspicious to him and he opened fire, Vlasik writes. In fact, as historians write, the appearance of Stalin’s boat in the protected zone was not documented with the appropriate documents, and the border guards acted in strict accordance with the instructions. The commander of the border post department, Lavrov, fired shots into the air and demanded that the boat stop. Warning shots had to be repeated because the boat did not respond to signals.

Lavrov was tried. Although he was facing the death penalty, after Yagoda’s intervention, the commander of the outpost squad 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 plot 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 attempts on Stalin and Molotov, were organized by the right-wing Trotskyist bloc and became links in one chain. “We managed to unravel this tangle and thus neutralize the enemies of Soviet power,” states the general.

Let us recall that the circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son Maxim Peshkov were considered suspicious for a long time, but 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 Trotsky’s orders, and he decided to liquidate the writer’s son on his personal initiative.

Under pressure from various “de-Stalinizers” from the “nano-democrat” Medvedev to Mlechin and the government commission to counter the falsification of history under the leadership of its permanent leader Svanidze, the Federal Security Service of Russia declassified the archive of Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik, including his diary and memoir entries. Vlasik was the head of Stalin's personal security for more than 20 years - from 1927 to 1952. In 1946, he became head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

The declassified documents, as planned by the klutzes of the de-Stalinizers, were supposed to “highlight” the vices and greed of the Generalissimo, so hated by them, and confirm the myth about the leader’s countless treasures. Notes of the General, published by " Komsomolskaya Pravda“, they depict the leader not so much as a statesman, but as a specific person with his own habits and principles inherent in him in everyday life, hidden from prying eyes. Yes, it probably couldn’t have been otherwise: as one of the people closest to Stalin, Vlasik knew the underbelly of Stalin’s life better than others. Inside out, figuratively and literally. In terms of clothes.

Quote: “Comrade Stalin lived very modestly with his family,” it is said, in particular, in the memoirs. - He walked around in an old, very shabby coat. I suggested that Nadezhda Sergeevna (Stalin’s wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva. - Ed.) sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take measurements or take an old coat and make exactly the same one in the workshop. It was not possible to take measurements, as he flatly refused, saying that he did not need a new coat. But we still made him a coat.”.

You read and are amazed. Was this really possible in our country (the USSR was also our country, whether anyone likes it or not), where power from time immemorial has been perceived, first of all, as a source of personal enrichment, as the basis of personal happiness, as a guarantee of personal comfort and prosperity? And suddenly you see a man, being at the pinnacle of power, at the very top (Stalin became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party back in 1922) and is not concerned with this very personal enrichment.

He even brushes off the offer to sew him a new coat: he says he looks like the old one. What about our country: in all of world history it is difficult to find a similar example where a person possessing such unlimited, more than monarchical power would be so indifferent to the personal and material side of the issue.

An exceptionally benevolent tone towards Stalin is maintained throughout Vlasik’s now published memoir. The Generalissimo appears before readers not as a wingless angel, but as a humble, hardworking and intelligent person.

That part of the audience that sees in Stalin only a “mustachioed, pockmarked cannibal”, naturally, immediately burst out with mockingly caustic comments: they say, Vlasik wrote his opus while Stalin was alive. What else, they say, besides obsequious praise could this “lack,” whose position and very life depended on the will of the Master, write? If, they say, the general guard tried to write something disrespectful or dirty, he would immediately be put up against the wall. Or until the end of his days he would chew camp bread in the polar latitudes. He would chew with the teeth he still had after interrogations. In general, all these declassified archives of yours are flattering lies, and that’s all. This is the logic. It's flawed, to be honest.

But alas, the theory of sycophancy does not stand up to criticism. In May 1952, Lieutenant General Vlasik was removed from his post as head of Stalin’s security and sent to the Urals as deputy head of a forced labor camp. In December 1952, less than three months before Stalin’s death, he was arrested in connection with the “Doctors’ Case.” In January 1955, he was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to 10 years in exile. By virtue of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 on amnesty, Vlasik’s sentence was reduced to five years. In December 1956, he was pardoned with his criminal record expunged. He was not restored to his military rank or awards. So Vlasik wrote his memoirs about the “bloody” tyrant after Stalin’s death, when the “cult of personality” was “exposed” at the 20th Congress...

The fact of Vlasik’s personal devotion to Stalin and the possible element of subjectivity present in his notes do not mean that what he wrote is a lie. They do not mean this a priori, no matter how much anyone might want the opposite. Subjectivity is generally an inevitable component of any diaries and memoirs, no matter who they were written by.

Quote: “I was cruelly offended by Stalin,” he wrote in his memoirs. - For 25 years of impeccable work, without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he (Stalin.) gave me into the hands of enemies. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin.”.

But subjectivity is an evaluative property. And there are facts. One such fact testifying to Stalin’s personal modesty and unpretentiousness is such a well-known document as the inventory of the leader’s personal property, compiled less than an hour after his death at the Blizhnaya Dacha on March 5, 1953. The inventory includes: a notebook, a notebook, a general notebook, smoking pipes, books, a white jacket - 2 pcs., a gray jacket - 2 pcs., a dark green jacket - 2 pcs., trousers - 10, underwear.“A savings book was found in the bedroom with 900 rubles written in it.”

(for comparison: the average monthly salary of workers and employees in the country at that time was about 700 rubles.). Skeptics always cling to the phrase appearing in the inventory“Other property belonging to Comrade Stalin was not included in the inventory”

. And they talk about countless luxurious dachas and residences that Stalin built for himself and his loved ones and which his daughter Svetlana, in particular, recalled with delight. But nothing is known about the palaces and treasures that, after the death of the leader, became the personal use of his immediate and non-immediate relatives. There are no such facts.

The dachas and cars that Stalin used during his lifetime were transferred to the service of other government officials after his death. Some of these dachas eventually became sanatoriums. As for Stalin’s closest relatives, his son Vasily died two years after his release from prison, where he worked as a turner. And daughter Svetlana, who emigrated in 1967, lived abroad mainly on money earned by writing: publishers’ interest in the memoirs of Stalin’s daughter, of course, was enormous. In this sense, Stalin provided for his daughter. But only in this sense. Diplomat Semenov wrote in his diary from the words of Mikhail Sholokhov that Stalin once remarked in a narrow circle that he did not want to build a dacha for his daughter, because “the dacha would be confiscated on the second day after his death.” When offended comrades “waved their hands,” Stalin allegedly said:.

“You will be the first to oppose me.”

In general, one way or another, Vlasik’s diaries did not report anything new or sensational about the personal modesty of the Generalissimo.

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt from testimony at trial:

Chairman. When did you meet the artist S?

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

Chairman. What brought you closer to him?

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

Chairman. Defendant Vlasik, you revealed MGB secret agents to S. He testified: “I learned from Vlasik that my friend Krivova is an agent of the organs, and that his partner Ryazantseva is also collaborating.”

Recognizing this, Vlasik shows:

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

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

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

You testified that Sarkisov reported to you about Beria’s debauchery, and you stated: “There is no point in interfering in Beria’s personal life, we must protect him.”

Yes, I avoided this, because I believed that it was not my place to interfere in this, since it was connected with the name of Beria.

How could you allow huge overspending of public funds under your management?

My literacy suffers greatly; my entire education consists of three classes at a parish school.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

General Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik stayed close to his father for a very long time, from 1919. Then he was a Red Army soldier assigned to guard him, and then became a very powerful person behind the scenes. He headed his father’s entire bodyguard, considered himself almost the closest person to him, and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years he went so far as to dictate to some artists “the tastes of Comrade Stalin”... And the figures listened and followed this advice... His impudence knew no bounds... 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. During my mother’s life, he existed somewhere in the background as a bodyguard. At his father’s dacha, in Kuntsevo, he was constantly present and “directed” from there all the other residences of his father, which became more and more numerous over the years... Vlasik with the power given to him could do anything...

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

Guarding Stalin was a troublesome and nervous task, because, as Vlasik claimed, there were always intriguers nearby who tried to remove him from this work. The first such attempt took place in 1934. And in 1935, he, Vlasik, covered Stalin with his body when the pleasure boat was fired at from the shore by a border guard post, and, without being confused, he organized return machine-gun fire, after which the shots at the boat stopped. The leader gained confidence in Vlasik, Nikolai Sergeevich was not bothered with intrigues for ten years, and then troubles began again...

However, Vlasik himself spoke about this episode in a letter from the places where he was serving his sentence: “In 1946, my enemies slandered me, and I was removed from the post of head of the Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. But Comrade Stalin reacted to this with all sensitivity, he himself sorted out all the accusations brought against me, which were absolutely false, and, having become convinced of my innocence, he returned my former trust.

In 1948, the commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, Fedoseev, was arrested. The investigation was conducted by Serov under the direct leadership of Beria. Fedoseev testified against me that I allegedly wanted to poison Comrade Stalin. T. Stalin doubted this and personally checked it by calling Fedoseev for questioning, where he stated that this was a lie that he was forced to sign by beatings. Fedoseev’s case was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the MGB...

Soon Serov summoned the new commandant of the Blizhnaya dacha, Orlov, for questioning and also demanded that he sign a false protocol against me, but Orlov refused. But Serov was unable to obtain a sanction for Orlov’s arrest...”

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

Apparently, Nikolai Sergeevich had no idea why they were pestering him because of some fish?! If, because of his position, he had been eating for free with Stalin for decades, then screw him! - is there a big difference: will he eat half a kilo of caviar in front of the leader, or will he take the same caviar with him, so to speak, as a “packed ration”?

To be fair, I note that there was no clear regulation in this regard, except for the age-old lackey rule: the servants are allowed to take for themselves only what the owners themselves and those invited by them did not finish at the table - fruit from the vases, salmon cut into petals, salmon, ham , although full, but already uncorked bottles of alcoholic drinks, etc. But, on the other hand, was General Vlasik obliged to be guided by the norms of behavior for lackeys, since he himself had long ago turned from a poor day laborer, if not into a socialist count , then at least a baron or a viscount, because he had his own luxurious state dacha with a personal chef, whom Nikolai Sergeevich formally terrorized and with whom, according to the testimony of witness P., “he spoke exclusively using choice obscenities, without being embarrassed by the women present” ?

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

When it became clear that the killer doctors were only doctors, but not murderers at all, Beria, as already mentioned, was in no hurry to free Vlasik. Those who replaced Beria did exactly the same. During the investigation, some facts were discovered that made it possible to call Vlasik to account. For example, during a search in his house they found a trophy service for 100 people, 112 crystal glasses, 20 crystal vases, 13 cameras, 14 photographic lenses, 5 rings and - as written in the protocol - a “foreign accordion”, which Vlasik acquired illegally without payment. In addition, Vlasik admitted that in 1945, at the end of the Potsdam Conference, “he took three cows, a bull and two horses from Germany, of which he gave a cow, a bull and a horse to his brother, a cow and a horse to his sister, a cow to his niece; the cattle were delivered to the Slonim district of the Baranovichi region on a train from the Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.”

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

Despite the fact that Vlasik passionately argued that drinking and countless relationships with women occurred only in his free time from work, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR passed a verdict on January 17, 1955:

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

To deprive Vlasik of the medals: “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”, “In Memory of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow”, “XXX Years of the Soviet Army and Navy”, two honorary badges “VChK - GPU."

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

The verdict is final and is not subject to cassation appeal.”

The hastily incriminated article about treason against the Motherland was absent from the verdict; it was replaced by abuse of official position. Vlasik soon fell under amnesty and returned to Moscow. He failed to achieve rehabilitation, despite the intercession of such influential persons as the famous Marshals Zhukov and Vasilevsky.

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

And now about the other person closest to Stalin - A.N. Poskrebyshev, without whose report no one could enter the leader’s office. Former Kremlin security officer S.P. Krasikov says:

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

About a year before Stalin's death, Beria, with the help of Malenkov, disbanded the leader's well-coordinated personal guard. Nikolai Sergeevich Vlasik was accused of squandering public funds and attempting to misappropriate and conceal important government documents. After one of the meetings of the Bureau of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, held at Stalin’s dacha in Volynskoye, Vlasik, while inspecting the room, discovered a top secret document on the floor and put it in his pocket in order to give it to Poskrebyshev. But, by order of Stalin, when leaving the house he was detained and searched, and then removed from work. Whether the leader himself planted the incriminating material on Vlasik or at someone’s prompting, the machine was set in motion. Poskrebyshev was accused of losing vigilance...

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

Poskrebyshev could not keep diary entries due to the specific nature of his work “himself” and due to the peculiarities of his secretive nature. We didn't find anything after his death. Should I not know - our department was in charge of confiscating archives at that time.

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

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

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

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

Question. Were the abuses of the “nine” really that strong (the Ninth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, which was responsible for the security of the top Soviet leadership. - N.Z.), that the head of the personal security of leader N. Vlasik should have been arrested?

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

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

Answer. I remember. The entire main security guard was then discouraged by this turn of events... The veterans of the security service were dispersed, and the fledgling youth were only able to tremble before the members of the Politburo, and not demand from them impeccable compliance with the rules of official regulations. According to the stories of Colonel S.V. Gusarov, who served at that time in J.V. Stalin’s bodyguard, the sudden death of the leader, who the day before felt quite tolerable, gave rise to various rumors. One version of his sudden death was a deliberate murder.

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

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

Answer. It was as if he had bequeathed it, but didn’t give it away. He has whetted his appetite, but he lives and lives, rules the country, leads the party. It is unknown when it will die. Georgy Maximilianovich is beyond suspicion, and the cards are in his hands.

Question. A game of life and death, love and hate?

Answer. Don't know. But on the night from February twenty-eighth to March first, Sergei Vasilyevich Gusarov stood on duty at the entrance to the main house of the dacha and saw Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev leaving at about four o’clock in the morning. He remembered that Malenkov then sighed with relief, and they all went home.

Question. What are you implying? Just think, he sighed with relief. What follows from this?

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

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

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

Question. Terrible suspicions. Could this happen?

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

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

It seems that Stalin was killed?

Can not say.

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

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

May be.

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

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

And in conclusion - a fragment from S.I. Alliluyeva’s exclusive interview with the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Top Secret” Artem Borovik. The conversation took place in London in the summer of 1998. This was a completely different woman - tired, extremely sincere, weighing every word.

When he had a stroke late in the evening,” she said, “the next morning they told me to come to the dacha without notifying me of what had happened. And the day before I kept trying to get to him. I felt like I was supposed to be there. I think he called me somehow, without words. Some kind of cry from the soul. I called the security guards several times. But since they knew he was unconscious, they didn’t let me in. I tried to get through all night. Then, late at night, I went to the Shverniks, I didn’t know where to go. To the dacha. There was a movie playing there. An old film with Moskvin “The Station Agent”. This completely threw me off track. Because the film was silent. Silent Russian classics. Such a touching film about the love of an old father for his daughter, who was kidnapped by a passing officer and taken away. And the poor old man decided to go into the city and froze. Then a few years later a beautiful carriage arrives. A beautiful metropolitan lady comes out and goes to the grave. And there he cries. I watched this film that night. They offered me to stay overnight. But I couldn't. I quickly went home. And in the morning they called me. It turns out he had a stroke last night.

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

But they didn't let me in. They did what they wanted. They didn't let me in. The doctors were not called. A much greater crime was that they did not call doctors. The doctor was in another room. You could have called, but they didn’t do it.

| |