Online reading of the book Requiem by Anna Akhmatova. Requiem

The prerequisites for the “Great Terror” include the murder of Sergei Kirov on December 1. On December 1, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution “On amendments to the existing criminal procedural codes of the union republics” with the following content:

Make the following changes to the current criminal procedural codes of the union republics for the investigation and consideration of cases of terrorist organizations and terrorist acts against employees of the Soviet government:

1. The investigation in these cases should be completed within no more than ten days;
2. The indictment must be served on the accused one day before the hearing of the case in court;
3. Hear cases without the participation of the parties;
4. Cassation appeals against sentences, as well as filing petitions for pardon, should not be allowed;
5. A sentence of capital punishment shall be carried out immediately after the verdict is passed. Resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on December 1, 1934

During the investigation of the murder of Kirov, Stalin ordered the development of the “Zinoviev trail”, accusing G. E. Zinoviev, L. B. Kamenev and their supporters of the murder of Kirov. A few days later, arrests of former supporters of the Zinoviev opposition began, and on December 16, Kamenev and Zinoviev themselves were arrested. On December 28-29, 14 people directly accused of organizing the murder were sentenced to death. The verdict stated that they were all “active participants in the Zinoviev anti-Soviet group in Leningrad”, and subsequently in an “underground terrorist counter-revolutionary group” led by the so-called “Leningrad Center”. On January 9, at a Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR in the criminal case of the “Leningrad counter-revolutionary Zinoviev group of Safarov, Zalutsky and others,” 77 people were convicted. On January 16, 19 defendants in the case of the so-called “Moscow Center”, led by Zinoviev and Kamenev, were convicted. All these cases were grossly fabricated.

Over the next few years, Stalin used Kirov's murder as a pretext for the final reprisal of former political opponents who led or participated in various opposition movements in the party in the 1920s. All of them were destroyed on charges of terrorist activities.

In a closed letter from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, “Lessons from the events associated with the villainous murder of Comrade. Kirov”, prepared and sent to the localities in January 1935, in addition to bringing repeated charges against Kamenev and Zinoviev for leading the “Leningrad” and “Moscow centers”, which were “essentially a disguised form of the White Guard organization”, Stalin also reminded about other “anti-party groups ”, existing in the history of the CPSU (b) - “Trotskyists”, “democratic centralists”, “workers’ opposition”, “right-wing deviationists”, etc. This letter on the ground should have been considered as a direct instruction to action.

In the period 1936-1938, three large open trials took place against former senior functionaries of the Communist Party who were associated with the Trotskyist or right-wing opposition in the 1920s. Abroad they were called “Moscow Trials”.

The defendants, who were tried by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, were accused of collaborating with Western intelligence services with the aim of killing Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dissolving the USSR and restoring capitalism, as well as organizing sabotage in various sectors of the economy for the same purpose.

• The first Moscow trial of 16 members of the so-called “Trotskyist-Zinoviev Terrorist Center” took place in August 1936. The main defendants were Zinoviev and Kamenev. Among other charges, they were charged with the murder of Kirov and conspiracy to assassinate Stalin.
• The second trial (the case of the “Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center”) in January 1937 took place over 17 smaller functionaries, such as Karl Radek, Yuri Pyatakov and Grigory Sokolnikov. 13 people were shot, the rest were sent to camps, where they soon died.
• The third trial in March 1938 took place over 21 members of the so-called “Right-Trotskyist bloc”. The main accused were Nikolai Bukharin, the former head of the Comintern, also the former chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Alexei Rykov, Christian Rakovsky, Nikolai Krestinsky and Genrikh Yagoda - the organizer of the first Moscow trial. All but three of the accused were executed. Rakovsky, Bessonov and Pletnev were also shot in 1941 without trial.

A number of Western observers at that time believed that the guilt of the convicted was certainly proven. They all confessed, the trial was open, and there was no clear evidence of torture or drugging. The German writer Leon Feuchtwanger, who was present at the Second Moscow Trial, wrote:

Later, the prevailing point of view became that the accused were subjected to psychological pressure and confessions were extracted by force.

In May 1937, Trotsky's supporters founded the Dewey Commission in the United States. At the Moscow trials, Georgy Pyatakov testified that in December 1935 he flew to Oslo to “receive terrorist instructions” from Trotsky. The commission argued that, according to the testimony of the airfield personnel, no foreign aircraft landed there on that day. Another defendant, Ivan Smirnov, admitted that he took part in the murder of Sergei Kirov in December 1934, although at that time he had already been in prison for a year.

On July 2, 1937, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to send the following telegram to the secretaries of regional committees, regional committees, and the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics:

“It has been noticed that most of the former kulaks and criminals, who were expelled at one time from different regions to the northern and Siberian regions, and then returned to their regions after the expiration period, are the main instigators of all kinds of anti-Soviet and sabotage crimes, both in collective farms and state farms, and in transport and in some industries.

The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks invites all secretaries of regional and territorial organizations and all regional, territorial and republican representatives of the NKVD to register all kulaks and criminals who returned to their homeland so that the most hostile of them would be immediately arrested and shot as part of their administrative execution. cases through troikas, and the remaining less active, but still hostile elements would be rewritten and sent to the districts on the instructions of the NKVD.

The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks proposes to submit to the Central Committee within five days the composition of the troikas, as well as the number of those subject to execution, as well as the number of those subject to deportation.” The telegram was signed by Stalin.

On July 16, 1937, a meeting was held between Yezhov and the heads of regional NKVD departments to discuss issues related to the upcoming operation. There is evidence of individual participants in the investigative cases against People's Commissar N.I. Ezhov and his deputy M.P. Frinovsky - testimony of S.N. Mironov (head of the NKVD for the West Siberian Territory), A.I. Uspensky (People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR), and N.V. Kondakov (People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Armenian SSR) and others. S.N. Mironov testified: “Yezhov gave a general operational-political directive, and Frinovsky, in development of it, worked on the “operational limit” with each head of the department (see: Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation. Arch. No. N-15301. T. 7. L. 33), that is, the number of persons subject to repression in a particular region of the USSR. S.N. Mironov, in a statement addressed to L.P. Beria, wrote: “... in the process of reporting to Yezhov in July, I told him that such massive, broad operations on district and city assets... are risky, since, along with actual members of a counter-revolutionary organization, they very unconvincingly indicate the involvement of a number of individuals. Yezhov answered me: “Why don’t you arrest them? We won’t work for you, put them in prison, and then you’ll figure out who there won’t be evidence for, then weed them out. Act more boldly, I have already told you many times.” At the same time, he told me that in some cases, if necessary, “with your permission, department heads can also use physical methods of influence” (see: Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation. Arch. No. N-15301. T. 7. L. 35- 36). Former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Armenia N.V. Kondakov, with reference to his former head of the Yaroslavl department of the NKVD A.M. Ershov testified: “Yezhov made the following expression: “If during this operation an extra thousand people are shot, there will be no harm in that at all. Therefore, one should not be particularly shy about arrests” (CA FSB RF F Zoe Op 6 D 4 L 207). “Heads of departments,” A.I. showed. Uspensky, - trying to outdo each other, reported on the gigantic numbers of those arrested. Yezhov’s speech at this meeting boiled down to the directive “Strike, smash indiscriminately.” Yezhov directly stated, he continued, that in connection with the defeat of the enemies, some innocent people would also be destroyed , but that this is inevitable” (CA FSB RF F Zoe Op 6 D 3 L 410). To Uspensky’s question what to do with arrested 70- and 80-year-old old people, Yezhov answered “If he can stand on his feet, shoot” (CA FSB RF F Zoe On 6 D 3 L 410).

On July 31, 1937, Yezhov signed NKVD Order No. 0447, approved by the Politburo, “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements.”

It said:

“Investigation materials in cases of anti-Soviet formations establish that a significant number of former kulaks settled in the village, previously repressed, hiding from repression, fleeing from camps, exile and labor settlements. Many formerly repressed churchmen and sectarians, former active participants in anti-Soviet armed uprisings, settled. Remained almost untouched in the village, significant cadres of anti-Soviet political parties (Socialist Revolutionaries, Gruzmeks, Dashnaks, Mussavatists, Ittihadists, etc.), as well as cadres of former active participants in bandit uprisings, whites, punitive forces, repatriates, etc. Some of the elements listed above, having left from villages to cities, penetrated into industrial enterprises, transport and construction. In addition, in the villages and cities there are still significant numbers of criminals - cattle thieves, repeat thieves, robbers and others who have served their sentences, escaped from places of imprisonment and are hiding from repression. The inadequacy of the fight against these criminal contingents has created conditions of impunity for them, conducive to their criminal activities. As has been established, all these anti-Soviet elements are the main instigators of all kinds of anti-Soviet and sabotage crimes, both on collective and state farms, and in transport and in some areas of industry. The state security agencies are faced with the task of most mercilessly defeating this entire gang of anti-Soviet elements, protecting the working Soviet people from their counter-revolutionary machinations and, finally, once and for all putting an end to their vile subversive work against the foundations of the Soviet state... 1. CONTINGENTS SUBJECT REPRESSIONS. 1. Former kulaks who returned after serving their sentences and continue to conduct active anti-Soviet subversive activities. 2. Former kulaks who fled from camps or labor settlements, as well as kulaks who fled from dispossession and are engaged in anti-Soviet activities. 3. Former kulaks and socially dangerous elements who were members of rebel, fascist, terrorist and bandit formations, who served their sentences, fled from repression or escaped from prison and resumed their anti-Soviet criminal activities. 4. Members of anti-Soviet parties (Socialist Revolutionaries, Gruzmeks, Mussavatists, Ittihadists and Dashnaks), former whites, gendarmes, officials, punishers, bandits, bandits, ferrymen, re-emigrants who fled from repression, escaped from places of imprisonment and continue to conduct active anti-Soviet activities. 5. The most hostile and active participants in the currently liquidated Cossack-White Guard insurgent organizations, fascist, terrorist and spy-sabotage counter-revolutionary formations have been exposed by investigative and verified intelligence materials. Elements of this category who are currently in custody, the investigation of whose cases have been completed, but the cases have not yet been examined by the judicial authorities, are also subject to repression. 6. The most active anti-Soviet elements are former kulaks, punitive forces, bandits, whites, sectarian activists, churchmen and others, who are now held in prisons, camps, labor camps and colonies and continue to conduct active anti-Soviet subversive work there. 7. Criminals (bandits, robbers, repeat thieves, professional smugglers, repeat offenders, cattle thieves) engaged in criminal activities and associated with the criminal environment. Elements of this category who are currently in custody, the investigation of whose cases have been completed, but the cases have not yet been examined by the judicial authorities, are also subject to repression. 8. Criminal elements located in camps and labor settlements and conducting criminal activities in them. 9. All the above-mentioned contingents currently located in the countryside - on collective farms, state farms, agricultural enterprises and in the city - in industrial and commercial enterprises, transport, in Soviet institutions and in construction are subject to repression. II. ABOUT PUNISHMENT MEASURES FOR THOSE WHO ARE REPRESSED AND THE NUMBER OF THOSE SUBJECT TO REPRESSION. 1. All repressed kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements are divided into two categories: a) the first category includes all the most hostile of the elements listed above. They are subject to immediate arrest and, upon consideration of their cases in troikas, to EXECUTE. b) the second category includes all other less active, but still hostile elements. They are subject to arrest and imprisonment in camps for a term of 8 to 10 years, and the most malicious and socially dangerous of them are subject to imprisonment for the same terms in prisons as determined by the troika.

Troikas considered cases in the absence of the accused, dozens of cases at each meeting. According to the recollections of former security officer M.P. Schrader, who worked in senior positions in the NKVD system until 1938 and was then arrested, the order of work of the “troika” in the Ivanovo region was as follows: a summons was drawn up, or a so-called “album”, on each page of which The first name, patronymic, last name, year of birth and the committed “crime” of the arrested person were listed. After which the head of the regional department of the NKVD wrote a large letter “P” on each page with a red pencil and signed it, which meant “execution”. The sentence was carried out that same evening or at night. Usually the next day the pages of the “album-agenda” were signed by other members of the troika.

The minutes of the troika's meeting were sent to the heads of the NKVD operational groups to carry out the sentences. The order established that sentences under the “first category” are carried out in places and in an order at the direction of the People's Commissars of Internal Affairs, heads of regional departments and departments of the NKVD with the obligatory complete secrecy of the time and place of execution of the sentence.

Some of the repressions were carried out against people who had already been convicted and were in camps. For them, “first category” limits were allocated, and triplets were also formed.

In order to fulfill and exceed the established plans for repression, the NKVD authorities arrested and transferred to the troikas the cases of people of various professions and social origins.

The heads of the NKVD, having received an allocation for the arrest of several thousand people, were faced with the need to arrest hundreds and thousands of people at once. And since all these arrests had to be given some semblance of legality, the NKVD employees began to invent all kinds of insurrectionary, right-wing Trotskyist, spy-terrorist, sabotage and sabotage and similar organizations, “centers”, “blocs” and simply groups.

According to the materials of investigative cases of that time, in almost all territories, regions and republics there were widely branched “right-wing Trotskyist spy-terrorist, sabotage and sabotage” organizations and centers and, as a rule, these “organizations” or “centers” were headed by the first secretaries of regional committees, regional committees or the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics.

Thus, in the former Western region, the head of the “counter-revolutionary organization of the right” was the first secretary of the regional committee, I. P. Rumyantsev; in Tatarstan, the “leader of the right-wing Trotskyist nationalist bloc” was the former first secretary of the regional committee, A. K. Lepa; the head of the “anti-Soviet terrorist organization of the right” in Chelyabinsk region was the first secretary of the regional committee K.V. Ryndin, etc.

Request from the secretary of the Kirov regional committee Rodina to increase the limit for the “first category” by 300 people, and the “second category” by 1000 people, instructions from I.V. Stalin in red pencil: “Increase the limit for the first category not by 300, but by 500 people, but by second category - for 800 people"

In the Novosibirsk region, the “Siberian POV Committee”, “Novosibirsk Trotskyist Organization in the Red Army”, “Novosibirsk Trotskyist Terrorist Center”, “Novosibirsk Fascist National Socialist Party of Germany”, “Novosibirsk Latvian National Socialist Fascist Organization” and others were “opened” 33 “anti-Soviet” organizations and groups.

The NKVD of the Tajik SSR allegedly uncovered a counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist organization. Her connections extended to the right-Trotskyist center, Iran, Afghanistan, Japan, England and Germany and the counter-revolutionary bourgeois-nationalist organization of the Uzbek SSR.

The leadership of this organization consisted of 4 former secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Tajikistan, 2 former chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars, 2 former chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the republic, 12 people's commissars and 1 head of republican organizations, almost all heads. departments of the Central Committee, 18 secretaries of the Republic of Kazakhstan Communist Party (b) of Tajikistan, chairmen and deputy. chairmen of district executive committees, writers, military and other party and Soviet workers.

The NKVD for the Sverdlovsk region “opened” the so-called “Ural insurgent headquarters - the organ of the bloc of rightists, Trotskyists, Socialist Revolutionaries, churchmen and EMRO agents”, led by the secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee I.D. Kabakov, a member of the CPSU since 1914. This headquarters allegedly united 200 military-style units, 15 rebel organizations and 56 groups.

In the Kyiv region, by December 1937, 87 rebel-sabotage, terrorist organizations and 365 rebel-sabotage sabotage groups had been “opened”.

Only at one Moscow aircraft factory No. 24 in 1937, 5 espionage, terrorist and sabotage groups were “opened” and liquidated, with a total number of 50 people (“right-wing Trotskyist” group and groups allegedly associated with German, Japanese, French and Latvian intelligence services). At the same time, it was indicated that “The plant is to this day clogged with anti-Soviet, socially alien and suspicious elements for espionage and sabotage. The existing count of these elements, according to official data alone, reaches 1000 people.”

In total, within the framework of the “kulak operation” alone, 818 thousand people were sentenced by troikas, of which 436 thousand people were sentenced to execution.

A significant category of those repressed were clergy. In 1937, 136,900 Orthodox clergy were arrested, of which 85,300 were shot; in 1938, 28,300 were arrested and 21,500 were executed. Thousands of Catholic, Islamic, Jewish clergy and clergy of other faiths were also shot.

On May 21, 1938, by order of the NKVD, “police troikas” were formed, which had the right to sentence “socially dangerous elements” to exile or prison terms of 3-5 years without trial. These troikas handed down various sentences to 400 thousand people during the period 1937-1938. The category of persons in question included repeat criminals and buyers of stolen goods.

At the beginning of 1938, the cases of disabled people sentenced to 8-10 years in camps under various articles were reviewed by a troika in Moscow and the Moscow region, which sentenced them to capital punishment, since they could not be used as labor.

The worst operations were in Ukraine - the worst of all was carried out in Ukraine. In other areas it is worse, in others it is better, and overall the quality is worse. In terms of quantity, the limits were met and exceeded, a lot was shot and a lot was imprisoned, and in general, if you take it, it brought enormous benefits, but if you take the quality, the level and see whether the blow was aimed, whether we really crushed the counter-revolution here - I must say that no...

If you take the contingent, it is more than sufficient, but you know the head, the organizers, the top, that’s the task. To remove the asset - the cream, the organizing beginning, which organizes, the leader. Is this done or not? - Of course not. Take this, I don’t remember which of my comrades reported to me, when they began to carry out a new accounting, it turns out that 7 or 8 archimandrites are still alive, 20 or 25 archimandrites are working at work, then all sorts of monks to hell. What does all this show? Why weren't these people shot long ago? After all, this is not something like that, as they say, but an archimandrite after all. (Laughter.) These are the organizers, tomorrow he will start planning something...

So they shot half a thousand and calmed down, but now, when they come up with a new count, they say, oh, my God, we have to do it again. What is the guarantee that in a month you won’t again find yourself in a position where you will have to take the same amount...

The role of propaganda and denunciations during the period of mass repressions of 1937-1938

Official propaganda played an important role in the mechanism of terror. Meetings where they denounced “Trotskyist-Bukharin scum” were held in work collectives, in institutes, and in schools. In 1937, the 20th anniversary of the state security organs was celebrated, each pioneer camp sought to be given the name of Yezhov.

The head of the Leningrad NKVD, Zakovsky, wrote in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper: “We recently received a statement from one worker that he was suspicious (although he does not have the facts) that the accountant is the daughter of a priest. They checked: it turned out that she was an enemy of the people. Therefore, one should not be embarrassed by the lack of facts; our authorities will check any statement, find out, and sort it out.”

Torture

Officially, torture of those arrested was permitted in 1937 with the sanction of Stalin.

When in 1939 local party bodies demanded the removal and trial of NKVD officers who participated in torture, Stalin sent the following telegram to the party bodies and NKVD bodies in which he gave a theoretical justification for torture:

The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party learned that the secretaries of the regional committees, checking the employees of the NKVD, blamed them for using physical force on those arrested as something criminal. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party explains that the use of physical force in the practice of the NKVD has been allowed since 1937 with the permission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. It is known that all bourgeois intelligence services use physical force against representatives of the socialist proletariat, and they use it in the ugliest forms. The question is why socialist intelligence should be more humane in relation to the inveterate agents of the bourgeoisie, the sworn enemies of the working class and collective farmers. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party believes that the method of physical coercion must be used in the future, as an exception, in relation to obvious and undisarmed enemies of the people, as a completely correct and appropriate method. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party demands from the secretaries of regional committees, district committees, and the Central Committee of the National Communist Parties that when checking NKVD workers, they are guided by this explanation.

I. V. Stalin (Pyatnitsky V. I. “Osip Pyatnitsky and the Comintern on the scales of history”, Mn.: Harvest, 2004)

The head of the Department of State Security of the NKVD of the BSSR, Sotnikov, wrote in his explanation: “Approximately from September 1937, all those arrested during interrogations were beaten... There was a competition among the investigators to see who could “split” the most. This directive came from Berman (former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Belarus), who at one of the meetings of the People's Commissariat investigators said: “Leningrad and Ukraine give out one album every day, and we must do this, and for this, each investigator must give at least one revelation in day" [cases of espionage were considered not by troikas, but by "twos", consisting of Yezhov and Vyshinsky, which considered them on the basis of the so-called albums - lists of the accused indicating their surnames, first names, patronymics and other identifying data, a summary of the charges brought and proposals of the investigation regarding the verdict].

Beating those arrested and torture, reaching the point of sadism, became the main methods of interrogation. It was considered shameful if the investigator did not have a single confession per day.

In the People's Commissariat there was continuous moaning and screaming, which could be heard a block away from the People's Commissariat. This is where the investigative department was particularly different.” (Yezhov Archive, inventory No. 13).

Former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Georgia Goglidze, who together with Beria led the development of terror in Georgia, testified at his trial in 1953.

Chairman: Did you receive instructions from Beria in 1937 about mass beatings of those arrested and how did you carry out these instructions?

Goglidze: Mass beatings of those arrested began in the spring of 1937. At that time, Beria, returning from Moscow, suggested that I summon to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia all the heads of the city, district, regional NKVD and People's Commissars of Internal Affairs of the autonomous union republics. When everyone arrived, Beria gathered us in the Central Committee building and made a report to those gathered. In his report, Beria noted that the NKVD of Georgia is fighting poorly against enemies, they are slowly conducting investigations, and enemies of the people are walking the streets. At the same time, Beria stated that if those arrested do not give the necessary testimony, they should be beaten. After this, the NKVD of Georgia began mass beatings of those arrested...

Chairman: Did Beria give instructions to beat people before execution?

Goglidze: Beria gave such instructions... Beria gave instructions to beat people before execution... (Dzhanibekyan V.G., “Provocateurs and the secret police”, M., Veche, 2005)

Thus, almost all Poles living on the territory of the USSR, as well as people of other nationalities who had any connection with Poland and the Poles, territorially or personally, were subject to repression. Under this order, 103,489 people were convicted, including 84,471 people sentenced to death. . According to other data, 139,835 were convicted, including 111,091 people sentenced to death. This is the most massive national operation of the NKVD within the framework of the Great Terror.

• August 17, 1937 - order to conduct a “Romanian operation” against emigrants and defectors from Romania to Moldova and Ukraine. 8292 people were convicted, including 5439 people sentenced to death.
• November 30, 1937 - NKVD directive on carrying out an operation against defectors from Latvia, activists of Latvian clubs and societies. 21,300 people were convicted, of which 16,575 people. shot.
• December 11, 1937 - NKVD directive on the operation against the Greeks. 12,557 people were convicted, of which 10,545 people sentenced to death.
• December 14, 1937 - NKVD directive on the extension of repression along the “Latvian line” to Estonians, Lithuanians, Finns, and Bulgarians. According to the “Estonian line”, 9,735 people were convicted, including 7,998 people sentenced to death; according to the “Finnish line,” 11,066 people were convicted, of which 9,078 people were sentenced to death;
• January 29, 1938 - NKVD directive on the “Iranian operation”. 13,297 people were convicted, of whom 2,046 were sentenced to death.
• February 1, 1938 - NKVD directive on a “national operation” against the Bulgarians and Macedonians.
• February 16, 1938 - NKVD directive on arrests along the “Afghan line.” 1,557 people were convicted, of which 366 were sentenced to death.
• March 23, 1938 - Politburo resolution on clearing the defense industry of persons belonging to nationalities against whom repression is being carried out.
• June 24, 1938 - directive of the People's Commissariat of Defense on the dismissal from the Red Army of military personnel of nationalities not represented on the territory of the USSR.

According to these and other documents, the following were to be subjected to repression: Germans, Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles, Finns, Norwegians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Pashtuns, Macedonians, Greeks, Persians, Mingrelians, Laks, Kurds, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Karelians and etc.

In 1937, the deportation of Koreans and Chinese from the Far East was carried out. The following were appointed to lead this action: the head of the Gulag and the NKVD department for the resettlement of people M.D. Berman, NKVD plenipotentiary representative for the Far East G.S. Lyushkov, deputy. the head of the Gulag I.I. Pliner and all of Lyushkov’s deputies and assistants. According to the recollections of Koreans who survived the deportation, people were forcibly driven into wagons and trucks and transported to Kazakhstan for a week; during the journey, people died from hunger, dirt, disease, bullying, and poor conditions in general. Koreans and Chinese were deported to camps in Kazakhstan, the Southern Urals, Altai and Kyrgyzstan.

“...During the mass operations of 1937-1938. for the seizure of Poles, Latvians, Germans and other nationalities,” the former chairman of the troika for Moscow and the Moscow region, M.I. Semenov, testified during interrogation, “the arrests were made without the presence of incriminating materials.” A. O. Postel, the former head of the 3rd department of the 3rd department of the NKVD in Moscow and the Moscow region, testified: “Entire families were arrested and shot, including completely illiterate women, minors and even pregnant women, and everyone, like spies, was taken to death... only because they are “nationals...” The plan launched by Zakovsky was 1000-1200 “nationals” per month.

So, for example, at the beginning of 1938, an operational group headed by the assistant chief of the NKVD of the Irkutsk region, B.P. Kulvets, went to the Bodaibinsky district of the Irkutsk region.

NKVD officer Komov testified: “On the very first day of Kulvets’s arrival, up to 500 people were arrested. The arrests were made solely on national and social grounds, without the presence of absolutely any incriminating materials.

As a rule, the Chinese and Koreans were arrested without exception, and everyone who could move was taken from the kulak villages.” (The Kulvets case, vol. I, pp. 150-153).

The testimony of NKVD officer Turlov states this: “The entire operational staff, at the request of Kulvets, presented their records. I gave Kulvets a list of people of foreign origin, about 600 people. There were Chinese, Koreans, Germans, Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Finns, Magyars, Estonians, etc.

The arrest was made on the basis of these lists...

The arrests of Chinese and Koreans were especially ugly. They were raided throughout the city of Bodaibo, their apartments were set up, people were sent for arrest with the intention of arresting all Chinese and Koreans without exception...

In March, Kulvets, coming to the office where Butakov and I were sitting, said: you reported to me that you had arrested all the Chinese. Today I was walking down the street and saw two Chinese and suggested arresting them.” (The Kulvets case, vol. I, pp. 156).

Vivid evidence of the operation being carried out is the report of Kulvets himself addressed to the head of the NKVD, which says: “German intelligence - I’m doing poorly on this line. True, the Schwartz residency has been exposed... but the Germans must take more serious matters. I'll try to dig it up. Finnish - yes. Czechoslavak - yes. For the complete collection I can’t find the Italian and the French...

The Chinese picked up all of them. Only the old people remained, although some of them, 7 people, are exposed as spies and smugglers.

I don't think it's worth wasting time on them. They are too decrepit. I took the most vigorous ones.” (The Kulvets case, vol. I, pp. 192).

Those arrested were beaten and testimonies against other persons were extorted from them. Based on these testimonies, without any verification, new mass arrests were made.

About how the investigation was conducted, witness Gritskikh testified: “Kulvets introduced a new investigative method, that is, the so-called “stand-up”. About 100-150 people were herded into one room, they were all placed facing the wall and were not allowed to sit down or sleep for several days until the arrested persons gave evidence.

There, among the arrested, there was a table and writing materials. Those who wished to testify wrote themselves, after which they were allowed to sleep.” (The Kulvets case, vol. I, pp. 142-143).

Along with the use of physical coercion against those arrested, gross falsification of investigative documents was practiced. The following testimony of Turlov is characteristic in this regard: “The situation was even worse with the interrogation of the Chinese, Koreans and other nationalities, whose mass and total arrests were made in March 1938. Most of these nationalities did not speak Russian. There were no translators, the protocols were also written without the presence of the accused, since they did not understand anything...” (The Kulvets Case, vol. I, pp. 157).

“Only today, March 10th, I received a decision for 157 people. We dug 4 holes. We had to carry out blasting work due to permafrost. He allocated 6 people for the upcoming operation. I will carry out the execution of the sentences myself. I will not and cannot trust anyone. Due to off-road conditions, it can be transported on small 3-4 seater sleighs. I chose 6 sleds. We will shoot ourselves, carry them ourselves, and so on. You will have to make 7-8 flights. It will take up a lot of time, but I don’t risk singling out any more people. So far everything is quiet. I’ll report on the results.”

“No matter what the typists read, I am not writing to you in print. According to the Troika’s decisions, the operation was carried out on only 115 people, since the pits are adapted for no more than 100 people.” “The operation was carried out with enormous difficulties. I will give you more details when I report in person. So far everything is quiet and the prison doesn’t even know. This is explained by the fact that before the operation he carried out a number of measures to ensure the safety of the operation. I will also report on them during my personal report.”

From August 25, 1937, when the first album was signed, and until November 15, 1938, in “album order” and by Special Troikas for all national operations, cases of 346,713 people were considered, of which 335,513 people were convicted, including In total, 247,157 people were sentenced to death, that is, 73.66% of the total number of convicts.

Some Soviet diplomats, military attaches and intelligence officers recalled to the USSR realized that they would be arrested and preferred to remain abroad. Among them were employees of the INO NKVD Ignatius Reiss, A. M. Orlov, V. G. Krivitsky, diplomat F. F. Raskolnikov. The most striking example of this was the flight to Japan of the NKVD plenipotentiary representative for the Far East, Genrikh Lyushkov, who, while in the Khabarovsk Territory, was asked to return to Moscow for a promotion.

In 1937-1941, the NKVD carried out a number of murders of these “defectors” abroad: Reiss was killed in 1937 and Krivitsky died in 1941 under unclear circumstances. Raskolnikov died in 1939, also under unknown circumstances. Perhaps he was poisoned. Relatives and assistants of L. D. Trotsky were also killed: in the summer of 1938, under unknown circumstances, his son died in France; in the same country in August 1938, his former secretary Rudolf Clement suddenly disappeared without a trace, after some time Clement’s body was found on the banks of the Seine River in the bushes, all brutally chopped up and cut up.

In 1936, in connection with the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, NKVD officers arrived there under the guise of anti-fascists. In fact, on the orders of the leadership of the USSR, they carried out a number of provocations there, as well as numerous murders of Trotskyists - people who fought against Franco and wanted to make a revolution in Spain. Thousands of anti-fascists and civilians died. This action was led by General P. A. Sudoplatov, intelligence resident, and later defector A. M. Orlov, journalist M. E. Koltsov and deputy. Head of the INO NKVD S. M. Shpigelglas. Sudoplatov in his memoirs called it a “war between communists.”

Terror in Gulag camps and special prisons

NKVD Order No. 00447 of July 31, 1937 provided, among other things, for the review by troikas of cases of convicts already in Gulag camps and prisons (prisons for special purposes). According to the decisions of the troikas, about 8 thousand prisoners of the Kolyma camps, over 8 thousand prisoners of Dmitrovlag, 1825 prisoners of the Solovetsky special purpose prison, thousands of prisoners of the Kazakh camps were shot. For many, by decision of the troikas and the Special Meeting, their terms of imprisonment were extended.

The end of the great terror

By September 1938, the main task of the Great Terror was completed. Terror has already begun to threaten the new generation of party-chekist leaders who emerged during the terror. In July-September, a mass shooting of previously arrested party functionaries, communists, military leaders, NKVD employees, intellectuals and other citizens was carried out; this was the beginning of the end of terror. In October 1938, all extrajudicial sentencing bodies were dissolved (with the exception of the Special Meeting under the NKVD, since it received greater powers after Beria joined the NKVD, including the imposition of death sentences).

In December 1938, like Yagoda, Yezhov was transferred to a less important People's Commissariat and took the post of People's Commissar of Water Transport. In March 1939, Yezhov was removed from the post of Chairman of the CPC as an “ideologically alien element.” Beria, who was the organizer of the mass terror of 1937-1938, was appointed in his place. in Georgia and Transcaucasia, and then was appointed first deputy people's commissar of internal affairs.

On April 10, 1939, Yezhov was arrested on charges of collaborating with foreign intelligence services, organizing a fascist conspiracy in the NKVD and preparing an armed uprising against Soviet power, Yezhov was also accused of homosexuality (this accusation was completely true, since at the trial he admitted only this). On February 4, 1940, he was shot.

The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus P.K. Ponomarenko demanded from the head of the republican NKVD Nasedkin - which he later reported in writing to the new head of the NKVD of the USSR Beria - to remove from official duties all employees who took part in the beatings of those arrested. But this idea had to be abandoned: Nasedkin explained to the First Secretary of the Central Committee that “if you go along this path, then 80 percent of the entire apparatus of the NKVD of the BSSR must be removed from work and put on trial.”

The removal of Yezhov did not mean the end of terror; the flywheel worked with unrelenting force.

Top secret. “On arrests, prosecutorial supervision and investigation”

The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee note that during 1937-1938, under the leadership of the party, the NKVD bodies did a lot of work to defeat enemies and cleanse the USSR of numerous espionage, terrorist, sabotage and sabotage cadres from Trotskyists, Bukharinists, Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, bourgeois nationalists, White Guards, fugitives kulaks and criminals, who represent a serious support for the foreign intelligence services of Japan, Germany, Poland, England and France.

At the same time, the NKVD carried out a lot of work to destroy the espionage and sabotage structure of foreign intelligence services, which were transferred to the USSR in large numbers from behind the cordon under the guise of the so-called. emigrants and defectors from Poles, Romanians, Finns, Germans, Estonians and others. Clearing the country of sabotage groups and spy personnel played a positive role in ensuring further successes of socialist construction.

However, one should not think that this is the end of the matter of cleaning the USSR from spies, saboteurs, terrorists, and saboteurs. The task now is to, while continuing the merciless fight against all enemies of the USSR, to organize this work using more modern and reliable methods. This is all the more necessary because the massive operations to defeat and uproot the Trotskyist-Bukharin bandits, carried out by the NKVD in 1937-1938 with a simplified investigation and trial, could not but lead to a number of major shortcomings and perversions, to the inhibition of the exposure of the enemies of the people.

Moreover, enemies of the people and spies of foreign intelligence services, who made their way into the NKVD, both in the center and elsewhere, continued to carry out their subversive work in every possible way...

November 17, by resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars. (Pyatnitsky V.I. “Osip Pyatnitsky and the Comintern on the scales of history”, Mn.: Harvest, 2004)

Moreover, in 1939-1941 massive operations were carried out against a number of nations in Belarus, Ukraine and in 1940-1941 in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Information about the fate of those executed

Order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00515 of 1939 ordered that in response to requests from relatives about the fate of one or another executed person, they should answer that he was sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps without the right of correspondence and transfers. In the fall of 1945, the order was adjusted - the applicants were now told that their relatives had died in prison.

Family members of the repressed

The famous phrase “The son is not responsible for his father” was uttered by Stalin in December 1935. At a meeting in Moscow of advanced combine operators with the party leadership, one of them, the Bashkir collective farmer Gilba, said: “Although I am the son of a kulak, I will honestly fight for the cause of the workers and peasants and for building socialism,” to which Stalin said: “The son is not responsible for his father.”

NKVD Order No. 00447 dated July 31, 1937 established that, in accordance with this order, family members of the repressed who are “capable of active anti-Soviet actions”, with a special decision of the troika, are subject to placement in camps or labor settlements. Families of persons “repressed under the first category” who lived in the border strip were subject to resettlement outside the border strip within the republics, territories and regions, and those living in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Baku, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog and in the Sochi regions , Gagra and Sukhumi - were subject to eviction from these points to other areas of their choice, with the exception of border areas.

Between 1935 and 1940, “Requiem” was created, published only half a century later, in 1987, and reflecting the personal tragedy of Anna Akhmatova - the fate of her and her son Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, illegally repressed and sentenced to death, which was later replaced by camps.
"Requiem" became a memorial to all victims of Stalin's tyranny. “In the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina,” Akhmatova wrote, “I spent seventeen months in prison lines.” Hence - “I’ve been screaming for seventeen months, calling you home...”
And the stone word fell
On my still living chest.
It's okay, because I was ready
I'll deal with this somehow.
I have a lot to do today:
We must completely kill our memory,
It is necessary for the soul to turn to stone,
We must learn to live again.
Lines of such tragic intensity, exposing and denouncing the despotism of Stalinism, were dangerous and simply impossible to write down at the time when they were written. Both the author himself and several close friends memorized the text by heart, testing the strength of their memory from time to time. Thus, human memory for a long time turned into “paper” on which “Requiem” was imprinted. Without “Requiem” it is impossible to fully understand either the life, work, or personality of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. Moreover, without “Requiem” it is impossible to understand the literature of the modern world and the processes that have taken place and are taking place in society.
In 1987, the literary and artistic magazine “October” published “Requiem” in its entirety on its pages. Thus, Akhmatova’s outstanding work became “public.” This is an amazing document of the era, based on the facts of one’s own biography, evidence of the trials our compatriots went through.
...The funeral hour has approached again.
I see, I hear, I feel you...
...I would like to name everyone,
Yes, the list was taken away, and there is no place to find out...
...I remember them always and everywhere,
I won’t forget about them even in a new trouble...
Anna Andreevna deservedly enjoys the grateful recognition of readers, and the high significance of her poetry is well known. In strict correlation with the depth and breadth of her ideas, her voice never descends to a whisper and does not rise to a scream - neither in hours of national grief, nor in hours of national triumph. With restraint, without shouting or strain, in an epically dispassionate manner, it is said about the grief experienced: “Mountains bend before this grief.” Anna Akhmatova defines the biographical meaning of this grief as follows: “My husband is in the grave, my son is in prison, pray for me.” This is expressed with directness and simplicity, found only in high folklore. But it’s not just a matter of personal suffering, although that alone is enough for tragedy. It, suffering, is expanded within the framework: “No, it’s not me, it’s someone else who is suffering,” “And I pray not for myself alone, but for everyone who stood there with me.”
With the publication of “Requiem” and the poems adjacent to it, Anna Akhmatova’s work takes on a new historical, literary and social meaning. It is in “Requiem” that the poet’s laconicism is especially noticeable. Apart from the prosaic “Instead of a Preface,” there are only about two hundred lines. And “Requiem” sounds like an epic.
The text consists of ten poems, a prose preface called “Instead of a Preface” by Akhmatova, “Dedication”, “Introduction” and a two-part “Epilogue”. The Crucifixion included in Requiem also consists of two parts. The poem “So it was not in vain that we suffered together...”, written later, is also related to “Requiem”. From it Anna Andreevna took the words: “No, and not under an alien firmament...” as an epigraph, since, according to the poetess, they set the tone for the entire poem, being its musical and semantic key.
"Requiem" has a vital basis, which is very clearly stated in the small prose part "Instead of a Preface." Already here the internal goal of the entire work is clearly felt - to show the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina. And this is the story. Together with other sufferers, Akhmatova stood in the prison line.
She says: “One day someone “identified” me. Then a woman standing behind me with blue lips, who, of course, had never heard my name in her life, woke up from the stupor that is characteristic of all of us and asked me in my ear (everyone there spoke in a whisper):
- Can you describe this?
And I said:
- Can.
Then something like a smile crossed what had once been her face.”
This is how Akhmatova describes the depth of this grief:
Mountains bend before this grief,
The great river does not flow...
We only hear the hateful grinding of keys...
Yes, the soldiers' steps are heavy...
We walked through the wild capital...
And innocent Rus' writhed.
The words “Rus was writhing” and “wild capital” convey with utmost accuracy the suffering of the people and carry a great ideological load. The work also contains specific images. Here is one of the doomed people whom the “black marusi” take away at night, she also means her son:
There are cold icons on your lips,
Death sweat on the brow.
He was taken away at dawn. Dawn is the beginning of the day, and here dawn is the beginning of the unknown and deep suffering. The suffering not only of the person leaving, but also of those who followed him “like a takeaway.” And even the folkloric beginning does not smooth out, but emphasizes the acuteness of the experiences of the innocently doomed. In “Requiem,” a melody appears unexpectedly and sadly, vaguely reminiscent of a lullaby:
The Quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house,
He walks in with his hat on one side,
Sees the yellow moon shadow.
This woman is sick.
This woman is alone.
Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.
The motive of the lullaby with the unexpected and semi-delirious image of the quiet Don prepares another motive, even more terrible - the motive of madness, delirium and complete readiness for death or suicide:
Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And he drinks fiery wine,
And beckons to the black valley.
The "Epilogue", consisting of two parts, first returns the reader to the melody and general meaning of the "Preface" and "Dedication". Here we again see the image of a prison queue, but this time it’s kind of generalized, symbolic, not as specific as at the beginning of the poem:
I learned how faces fall,
How fear peeks out from under your eyelids,
Like cuneiform hard pages
Suffering appears on the cheeks...
And then there are these lines:
I would like to call everyone by name,
Yes, the list was taken away, and there is no place to find out.
I wove a wide covering for them.
From the poor, they have overheard words
Akhmatova’s “Requiem” is a truly folk work. And not only in the sense that it reflected and expressed a great national tragedy, but also in its poetic form, close to a folk parable. Woven from simple, “overheard,” as Akhmatova writes, words, he expressed his time and the suffering soul of the people with great poetic and civic power. "Requiem" was not known either in the 1930s or in subsequent years, but it forever captured its time and showed that poetry continued to exist even when, in the words of Akhmatova, "the poet lived with his mouth clenched." The strangled cry of a hundred million people was heard - this is the great merit of Anna Akhmatova.

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (1895-1940) was a prominent statesman and political figure in the USSR. For services to the country he received government awards: the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner. He was also awarded the “Honorary Security Officer” badge. On February 4, 1940, according to the verdict of the Military Collegium, Yezhov was shot. In January 1941, he was stripped of all titles and awards.

Fast rise and rapid fall. Hundreds of thousands of USSR party workers experienced this life scenario in the 30s of the 20th century. But Nikolai Ivanovich stands apart in this endless series of people. It was he who was entrusted with the mission to destroy the Leninist guard. When he completed it, he himself was destroyed.

Yezhovshchina- that’s what the years 1937-1938 were called. It was at this time that our hero was the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, the General Commissioner of State Security. It was in this high position that Nikolai Ivanovich implemented Stalin’s repressions. That is, in fact, he was an ordinary performer, a puppet in the hands of an experienced puppeteer. The same dolls were Khrushchev, Kaganovich, Beria, Kalinin, Voroshilov and many, many thousands of other communists. Those who did not want to be content with the role of a puppet shot themselves. An example of this is Ordzhonikidze.

Our hero did not shoot himself. Careerist motives outweighed moral and human values. Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich received almost unlimited power. He became the second person in the country, and, moreover, at the head of the entire punitive apparatus. All power structures, with the exception of the army, ended up in the hands of this short and pleasant-looking man. Where did he even appear on the political scene of those years?

Yezhov strangles the hydra of counter-revolution
It was in the “hedgehog gloves” that Nikolai Ivanovich was depicted in newspapers during the Yezhovshchina

The formidable commissioner of state security himself claimed that he was of proletarian origin. His father worked as a simple worker in the foundry shop of a metallurgical plant in St. Petersburg. Our hero decided to follow in his parent's footsteps and became a mechanic's apprentice. But the archives do not confirm this. In reality, everything was a little different.

Kolya’s father served in the police. The young man himself, upon reaching the age of 18, did not acquire any specialty, but in 1915 he was drafted into the army and went to the front. In the summer of 1916, he was wounded and was sent to the rear unit stationed in Vitebsk. In August 1917 he became a member of the RSDLP. Then he fell ill, received a long leave and went to his parents in the Tver province.

At the beginning of 1919, Nicholas was drafted into the Red Army. Taking into account his party affiliation, he was appointed commissar of the unit. From that time on, our hero’s party career began. In 1927, Nikolai became an instructor in the Organizational Department of the Central Committee. That is, he ended up in Moscow and began working in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the party.

Nikolai Ivanovich has always been distinguished by high discipline, diligence and conscientiousness. He was an ideal apparatchik and felt at home among papers like a fish in water. Thanks to this gift, he rose to the position of Chairman of the Party Control Commission, and then became Secretary of the Central Committee.

Why did Stalin place his bet on Yezhov? The leader had a great understanding of people and apparently saw in the character of the young secretary exactly the qualities that he needed to carry out the bloody mission. High responsibility and thoughtless execution of instructions are what attracted the Father of Nations. Stalin did not need a sadist, he needed a conscientious executor. Our hero was just that.

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov began his duties in the NKVD on October 1, 1936. He sat down in the chair of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and began to steadily carry out Stalin's will. But here we need to take into account the nuance that our hero has never in his life been responsible for any real business. He just prepared documents for his superiors and established control over the execution of these same documents.

That is, he was engaged in purely formal actions. I sent the paper, set deadlines, received a paper confirming that everything was done. Gave or did not give instructions to check execution. That's all the activity. Our hero simply didn’t know how to work any other way, and no one could teach him.

Therefore, Yezhov waged an irreconcilable fight against the “enemies of the people” sincerely, selflessly, but only in the best way he could. That is, on paper and formally. There are three correctly executed denunciations against a person - arrest. There is only one denunciation - leave him free. But what the essence of the denunciation is, why it was written and why - it doesn’t matter. The paper is drawn up correctly, which means everything is correct.

Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich (in the first row on the left) with NKVD officers. All these people were shot after the removal of the formidable People's Commissar

In his formalism, our hero went so far as to begin investigative actions even against Comrade Molotov, who regularly chaired the Politburo. Why not? Were there any properly executed denunciations against Molotov? Were. Therefore, you need to open a case, establish surveillance, and tap phones.

The investigators treated their work in the same way as their boss. They opened hundreds of thousands of cases, and Nikolai Ivanovich was only happy about it. After all, this is overfulfillment of the task, and in those years the whole country took on increased obligations. However, regular overfulfillment soon became the planned norm. Therefore, higher indicators and standards were lowered from above. In other words, the NKVD worked exactly like the entire Soviet industry. Only behind the victorious numbers were not tons of coal and steel, but living people.

The Yezhovshchina is considered the most powerful repression in the entire history of the USSR. 960 thousand criminal cases were opened against enemies and saboteurs. That is, for every hundred adult men and women, one was arrested. For the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that this figure cannot be compared with the victims of the Cultural Revolution in China or the Pol Pot regime. Which, however, in no way diminishes the guilt of Stalin and Yezhov.

Photo from a Soviet newspaper
Comrade Kalinin presents Yezhov with the Order of Lenin

However, everyone understands that unlimited power corrupts. Our hero could not resist excesses either. His hidden homosexual inclinations awoke, and a craving for noisy evening feasts, expensive things, and jewelry appeared. The inflexible Commissioner of State Security began to slowly and steadily degrade.

But by this time he had already completed his main task. The Leninist Guard was destroyed, and with it the fate of thousands of innocent people flew into the furnace of the revolution. All that remains is to once again state Stalin’s cynicism. In order to destroy a handful of political opponents, he carried out a massacre of hundreds of thousands of people. After all, it was necessary to somehow ideologically justify the reprisal against those who would never recognize him as the leader and genius of all times and peoples.

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov adequately completed the task assigned to him. At the same time, he went too far, because he began to arrest those people who were needed by Stalin. All this caused negativity from the leader and other members of the Politburo. The undivided power of the formidable commissioner also aggravated the situation. After all, all the punitive authorities were subordinate to him, and there was no counterweight to them.

Decline of career, November 1938

The Central Committee subsequently corrected this serious mistake. In February 1941, the NKVD was divided into two equal departments. The NKGB and NKVD were formed in a reduced form. After the war, the CPSU Central Committee finally secured its insurance. Within the country, he opposed the KGB to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in foreign affairs, the GRU became a counterweight to the KGB. In this way, the party leaders protected themselves from a coup. Otherwise, the minister of power could have taken power into his hands if no one had opposed him.

The clouds began to gather over the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs in April 1938. The first sign was the additional position of People's Commissar of Water Transport. In August, our hero was appointed a new deputy. It was Lavrentiy Beria. On November 23, 1938, Yezhov wrote a letter of resignation, and on December 9 he was relieved of his duties as head of the NKVD, leaving him in the post of People's Commissar of Water Transport. Thus ended the Yezhovshchina.

The former formidable People's Commissar and Commissioner was arrested on April 10, 1939. Accused of preparing a coup d'etat, as well as sodomy. In those years, homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, and terror was deprived of life. The execution sentence of the military board was read out on February 3, 1940, and the next day it was carried out. They say that a moment before his death, Nikolai Ivanovich shouted: “Long live Stalin!” Maybe this is true, because in the life of the once formidable People's Commissar this man meant almost everything.

About the creative style of the writer. About birth. Averchenko undergoes surgery to remove his eye. Satyricon. King of laughter. Irony. Rich. General history. Mixing. Books by Averchenko. Writer's humor. Perky "red-cheeked" humor. Averchenko as a teenager. Emigration. The story “Characters from the life of Pantelei Grymzin.” Reminder. Dates and titles. Adjutant. Encyclopedia of wit. Extract a quotation from the text. The beginning of literary activity.

"Alighieri" - Took an active part in the political life of Florence; from June 15 to August 15, 1300 he was a member of the government (he was elected to the position of prior), trying, while fulfilling the position, to prevent the aggravation of the struggle between the parties of the White and Black Guelphs (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). Selfishness is artificial poverty. Dante Alighieri Biography. Dante's family belonged to the urban nobility of Florence. The first years of Dante's exile are among the leaders of the White Guelphs, taking part in the armed and diplomatic struggle with the victorious party.

“Biography and creativity of Anna Akhmatova” - Personality. Statements about Anna Akhmatova. The Queen is a tramp. Funeral of A. Blok. Friends. God. Akhmatova. Statements of outstanding people. “The Royal Word” by Anna Akhmatova. The only name. Mercy is deadly. The dark-skinned youth wandered along the alleys. The main features of the lyrics. Family. Poets of the Silver Age. Gold rusts. Tsvetaeva. O. Mandelstam. The name is Anna Akhmatova. Portrait of Akhmatova. Half-nun. This is interesting.

“Writer Aksakov” - Valery Ganichev. Lesson on the works of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov. Mikhail Chvanov. "Notes on fishing." “A few words about early spring and late autumn fishing.” Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov was born on September 20. Memorial house - museum of S. T. Aksakov. Sophia Alley. Creative task. Anatoly Genatulin. Street named after Aksakov. Autobiographical trilogy "Family Chronicle". Memorial Aksakov sign.

“Aitmatov “Buranny stop”” - Legend. Space history. The problem of caring. Aitmatov's creativity. Communication problem. Boranly. Coming to literature. Buranny stop. Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov. Edigey Buranny. Problems of the novel. Poetry of the native hearth. The leitmotif of the novel. Introduction to literature. Titles and awards. Socio-historical problem. Memory problem. The problem of humanity and mercy.

“Innocent of Annensky” - Collection of poems. The seal of fragile subtlety. Biography. Annensky died on November 30, 1909. Natalya Petrovna Annenskaya. Critic. Artistic images. Poet of the Silver Age. Translations of French poets. First publications. Features of the poetic gift. Publications. Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky.

No, and not under an alien sky,
And not under the protection of alien wings, -
I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were.
1961

Instead of a preface

I spent seventeen months during the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina
in prison queues in Leningrad. Once upon a time someone
"identified" me. Then the woman standing behind me who,
of course, you've never heard my name, I woke up from
numbness characteristic of us all and asked me
ear (everyone spoke there in a whisper):
Can you describe this?
And I said:
I can.
Then something like a smile slid across that
was once her face.

Mountains bend before this grief,
The great river does not flow
But the prison gates are strong,
And behind them are “convict holes”
And mortal melancholy.
For someone the wind is blowing fresh,
For someone the sunset is basking -
We don't know, we're the same everywhere
We only hear the hateful grinding of keys
Yes, the soldiers' steps are heavy.
They rose as if to early mass,
They walked through the wild capital,
There we met, more lifeless dead,
The sun is lower and the Neva is foggy,
And hope still sings in the distance.
The verdict... And immediately the tears will flow,
Already separated from everyone,
As if with pain the life was taken out of the heart,
As if rudely knocked over,
But she walks... She staggers... Alone...
Where are the involuntary friends now?
My two crazy years?
What do they imagine in the Siberian blizzard?
What do they see in the lunar circle?
To them I send my farewell greetings.

Introduction

It was when I smiled
Only dead, glad for the peace.
And swayed with an unnecessary pendant
Leningrad is near its prisons.
And when, maddened by torment,
The already condemned regiments were marching,
And a short song of parting
The locomotive whistles sang,
Death stars stood above us
And innocent Rus' writhed
Under bloody boots
And under the black tires there is marusa.

They took you away at dawn
I followed you, as if on a takeaway,
Children were crying in the dark room,
The goddess's candle floated.
There are cold icons on your lips.
The mortal sweat on your brow cannot be forgotten.
I will be like the Streltsy wives,
Howl under the Kremlin towers.

The quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house.

He walks in with his hat on one side,
Sees the yellow moon shadow.

This woman is sick
This woman is alone

Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.

No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering.
I couldn't do that, but what happened
Let the black cloth cover
And let them take away the lanterns...
Night.

I should show you, mocker
And the favorite of all friends,
To the cheerful sinner of Tsarskoye Selo,
What will happen to your life -
Like a three hundredth, with transmission,
You will stand under the Crosses
And with my hot tears
Burn through New Year's ice.
There the prison poplar sways,
And not a sound but how much is there
Innocent lives are ending...

I've been screaming for seventeen months,
I'm calling you home.
I threw myself at the feet of the executioner,
You are my son and my horror.
Everything's messed up forever
And I can't make it out
Now, who is the beast, who is the man,
And how long will it be to wait for execution?
And only dusty flowers
And the censer ringing, and the traces
Somewhere to nowhere.
And he looks straight into my eyes
And it threatens with imminent death
A huge star.

Lungs fly for weeks,
I don’t understand what happened.
How do you like going to jail, son?
The white nights looked
How they look again
With the hot eye of a hawk,
About your high cross
And they talk about death.

Sentence

And the stone word fell
On my still living chest.
It's okay, because I was ready
I'll deal with this somehow.

I have a lot to do today:
We must completely kill our memory,
It is necessary for the soul to turn to stone,
We must learn to live again.

Otherwise... The hot rustle of summer,
It's like a holiday outside my window.
I've been anticipating this for a long time
Bright day and empty house.

You will come anyway why not now?
I'm waiting for you, it's very difficult for me.
I turned off the light and opened the door
To you, so simple and wonderful.
Take any form for this,
Burst with a poisoned shell
Or sneak up with a weight like an experienced bandit,
Or poison with typhus child.
Or a fairy tale invented by you
And sickeningly familiar to everyone, -
So that I can see the top of the blue hat
And the building manager, pale with fear.
I don't care now. The Yenisei swirls,
The North Star is shining.
And the blue sparkle of beloved eyes
The final horror is overshadowing.

Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And drinks fiery wine
And beckons to the black valley.

And I realized that he
I must concede victory
Listening to your
Already like someone else's delirium.

And won't allow anything
I should take it with me
(No matter how you beg him
And no matter how you bother me with prayer):

Nor the son's terrible eyes -
Petrified suffering
Not the day when the storm came,
Not an hour of prison visiting,

Not the sweet coolness of your hands,
Not a single linden shadow,
Not a distant light sound -
Words of last consolation.

Crucifixion

Don't cry to me, Mati,
I am in the grave.
I

The choir of angels praised the great hour,
And the skies melted in fire.
He said to his father: “Why did you leave me!”
And to the mother: “Oh, don’t cry for Me...”

Magdalene fought and cried,
The beloved student turned to stone,
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.

I learned how faces fall,
How fear peeks out from under your eyelids,
Like cuneiform hard pages
Suffering appears on the cheeks,
Like curls of ashen and black
They suddenly become silver,
The smile fades on the lips of the submissive,
And fear trembles in the dry laugh.
And I’m not praying for myself alone,
And about everyone who stood there with me,
And in the bitter cold and in the July heat
Under the blinding red wall.

Once again the funeral hour approached.
I see, I hear, I feel you:

And the one that was barely brought to the window,
And the one that does not trample the earth for the dear one,

And the one who, shaking her beautiful head,
She said: “Coming here is like coming home.”

I would like to call everyone by name,
Yes, the list was taken away, and there is no place to find out.

For them I wove a wide cover
From the poor, they have overheard words.

I remember them always and everywhere,
I won’t forget about them even in a new trouble,

And if they shut my exhausted mouth,
To which a hundred million people shout,

May they remember me in the same way
On the eve of my memorial day.

And if ever in this country
They are planning to erect a monument to me,

I give my consent to this triumph,
But only with the condition do not put it

Not near the sea where I was born:
The last connection with the sea is severed,

Not in the royal garden near the treasured stump,
Where the inconsolable shadow is looking for me,

And here, where I stood for three hundred hours
And where they didn’t open the bolt for me.

Then, even in the blessed death I am afraid
Forget the rumble of the black marus,

Forget how hateful the door slammed
And the old woman howled like a wounded animal.

And let from the still and bronze ages
Melted snow flows like tears,

And let the prison dove drone in the distance,
And the ships sail quietly along the Neva.