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 mill.

In March 1915, Vlasik was drafted into the army and sent to the front. During the First World War, he served in the 167th 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.

At 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 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 at 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 story 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 initially 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, there was not even a telephone connection with Moscow at the dacha, and it appeared through the efforts of Vlasik.

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

The system for protecting important government facilities 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.

Stalin's bodyguard 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 caring for the children: Svetlana, Vasily and his adopted son Artyom Sergeev.

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

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

But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and the role of “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, in recent years he went so far as to dictate to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin,” since believed that he knew and understood them well...

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 that were being built 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 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 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.

N. S. Vlasik with I. V. Stalin and his son Vasily. Near dacha in Volynskoe, 1935.

During the war years, the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and people's commissariats from Moscow fell on Vlasik's shoulders. It was necessary not only to deliver them to Kuibyshev, but also to accommodate 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 firing 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. The officer who ordered the shooting was subsequently sentenced to five years. But in 1937, during the “Great Terror,” they remembered him again, held another trial and shot him.

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.

My sister and her husband joined the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, of which little remained. 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 Directorate of Security: an agency 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.

The all-powerful head of the Soviet intelligence services, Lavrentiy Beria, passionately wanted to get rid of Vlasik. Incriminating evidence on Stalin's bodyguard was collected scrupulously, bit by bit eroding the leader's trust in him.

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

Vlasik in the office.

In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was 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.

“He cohabited with women and drank alcohol in his free time”

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. There is a third assumption. It is known that during this period the Soviet leader began to promote young leaders, and openly said to his former comrades: “It’s time to change you.” Perhaps Stalin felt that the time had come to replace Vlasik too.

Be that as it may, very difficult times have come 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.”

In prison, Vlasik was interrogated with passion for several months. For a man who was well over 50, the disgraced bodyguard was stoic. I was ready to admit “moral corruption” and even waste of funds, but not conspiracy and espionage.

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

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 allow this.

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

In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of 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 and his criminal record was 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 apartment. 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 claim 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 no errors that needed to be pointed out?

What a threat Tsar Ivan IV was, but there were people to whom their homeland was dear, who, without fear of death, pointed out to him his mistakes. 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: “Having not 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 state I was in, no matter what bullying 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.”

Posthumously rehabilitated

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

Vlasik’s relatives have repeatedly made attempts to achieve his rehabilitation. After several refusals, on June 28, 2000, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 sentence was overturned and the criminal case was dismissed “for lack of corpus delicti.”

May 22, 1896 – June 18, 1967

member of the USSR security agencies, head of security I

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.

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.”

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 was Stalin’s personal bodyguard for many years and held this post 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.

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

In his memoirs, Vlasik wrote:

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)

Joseph Stalin's security service is rightfully considered one of the most reliable and effective in world history. In conditions of internal party struggle, provocations of foreign agents, and the hunt for the Soviet leader during the Great Patriotic War, the guards managed to ensure the safety of the protected person with maximum reliability. Until now, many experts argue that if Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik had remained the head of the Main Security Directorate (GUO), then Stalin would not have died (or, according to a highly conspiracy theory, would not have been killed) in March 1953 at his “nearby dacha” .

Step forward

From 1923 to 1929, a special department under the Presidium of the Cheka - the GPU (since 1926 - under the Collegium of the OGPU) was responsible for the protection of the leaders of the Soviet state. It is very important to note that on June 10, 1927, by decisions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, OGPU special security officers were assigned to 14 leading Soviet employees, one for each person protected.

Since then, the position of “attached” has become one of those fundamental system elements that are invariably present in the modern approach to ensuring personal security. Today it has moved into the sphere of private security, despite the fact that the work of bodyguards in Russia does not yet have its own legal framework. The best professional traditions do not require legislative approval, and the person assigned by virtue of his position is almost always, even by default, the head of the personal security.

Interestingly, in the 30s of the last century, a similar position also existed in the US Secret Service, but it was called “personal security officer”. This “personal officer” worked with the guard until he, for some reason, lost his high post. Or, as has happened more than once with American politicians, he was not killed...

After 1929, when Joseph Stalin finally established himself in power, the number of government security personnel began to increase, the mechanism for selecting and training personnel was improved, and the system itself for providing personal protection to state leaders was strengthened. So, on May 29, 1930, the Central School of the OGPU was created. Internal reorganizations of the special department were carried out, its material and technical support was increased, and the legal framework was expanded.

Another important milestone in the history of the formation of the state security system: in 1934, the OGPU became part of the NKVD of the USSR (formed from the NKVD of the RSFSR) as the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB).

The aspirations of those responsible for ensuring state security at this time were reduced to systemic centralization. The GUGB received a significant opportunity to maneuver forces and means under a single leadership, thereby gaining versatility and increasing its operational capabilities.

Since April 1936, a special unit appeared in the operative department (operational department) of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, which was responsible for ensuring the safety of protected persons. In November, it was reformed into an independent security department, and from December 25, 1936, when the state security departments were assigned numbers, this department began to be called the 1st department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR with its own school. In the same year, the Office of the Commandant of the Moscow Kremlin was subordinated to the NKVD of the USSR.

On September 29, 1938, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria headed the GUGB, but two months later, on November 25, he was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. From that moment on, the “Beria perestroika” of state security agencies began, which was aimed at suppressing the unrestrained punitive practices of state security agencies carried out by his predecessors Yagoda and Yezhov.

Thus, by the end of the 30s of the last century, the security system for the top political and military leadership of the USSR acquired clear forms and professional qualities. In comparison with the selflessly devoted, but small and not always clearly organized Leninist guards, a huge step forward was made in ten years.

This strategic model, with minor modifications, formed the basis of the work of the USSR KGB until its disbandment in 1991.

Health protection

System centralization allowed the state security department not only to have access to the necessary operational information, but also to quickly operate with any additional (that is, not included in the security structure) forces and means. Thus, throughout the country, tasks to ensure state security were carried out by the state security departments of the regional departments of the NKVD.

Carl Pauker.

Here it is necessary to pay attention to another important touch to history, and most importantly, to the logic of the development of the state security service. As a true Caucasian, Joseph Vissarionovich did not like the cold and dank climate of the Moscow region, in which diseases worsened and became more and more common over the years. According to the recommendations of doctors, Stalin periodically had to treat his constantly aching left hand with hydrogen sulfide and radon baths at the balneological resorts in Nizhnyaya Matsesta, Tsaishi and Tskaltubo. Stalin also had hypertension, chronic articular rheumatism, radiculitis and angina. On the recommendation of his personal physician Kirillov, Stalin was mainly treated with balneology methods, and only much later did he begin to take medications.

Kremlin doctors have always played a huge role, not so noticeable to citizens, but quite tangible to the security officers, in the life of the political leadership of our country.

Going back a little, it must be said that in 1918, six months after moving to the Kremlin, Vladimir Lenin himself appointed the doctor entrusted to him, Alexandra Yulianovna Kanel, as the chief physician of the hospital, which was organized in the Amusement Palace of the Kremlin. Naturally, it provided medical assistance to the entire Kremlin leadership.

In 1923, a decision was made to build a Kremlin hospital and outpatient clinic on Vozdvizhenka Street, building 6. In 1925, the outpatient clinic became an independent institution and received the name of the Kremlin Polyclinic. In 1938, construction began on the clinic building on Sivtsev Vrazhek. Note that the medical service was never directly subordinate to the leadership of the security service, but throughout Soviet history, a special department was allocated within the structure of the main state medical department to serve exclusively the country's leadership. And, naturally, it was properly controlled by security officers, and then by operational officers of the KGB of the USSR.

Since Stalin chose Crimean and especially Caucasian resorts for treatment, vacations in these regions soon became fashionable among party leaders. Active construction of state dachas began. And the leadership of the state security service, naturally, had to solve the problem of ensuring the safety of protected persons in all their places of rest.

After Joseph Stalin in 1932, in a conversation with the chief architect of the economic administration of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov (Miran Oganesovich Merzhanyants), noted that “... my dacha should have the same rooms as in the Kremlin apartment,” great attention began to be paid to the dacha issue .

Simultaneously with the completion of the construction of the Red Army sanatorium named after Voroshilov, on the instructions of the Central Executive Committee, Merzhanov designed the “Bocharov Ruchey” complex of state dachas in Dagomys, which is currently a government residence. According to Merzhanov’s design, only one dacha was built in the 1930s - No. 17, and the other two appeared in 1948–1951. Now these three state dachas numbered 5, 6 and 7 are the residence of the Russian government, and a completely new complex called “Riviera-6” is assigned to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

In 1933–1934, Miron Merzhanov designed the first Stalinist state dacha, known as the “near”, or “object No. 1” - as it was listed in the documents of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, and it was there that Stalin would spend the last days of his life. The dacha has been perfectly preserved to this day; many books have been written about it and many television shows have been filmed. It is located in the Moscow microdistrict Davydkovo, 300 meters from Poklonnaya Gora (Volynskoe facility of the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation). It is interesting that the Bolshie Brody state dacha, built in 1938 on the peninsula of Lake Uzhin in Valdai, was an exact copy of Merzhanov’s in Kuntsevo.

At the end of 1934, Stalin, very pleased with the completed order, ordered Merzhanov to prepare a project for a state dacha in Upper Matsesta, now known as “Green Grove”. Soon the dacha was built on a rocky hill, surrounded by impenetrable bushes and forest. And already in 1935, on the Bagrypsta River, 11 km from Gagra, according to the design of the same Merzhanov, a two-story dacha was built into the mountain, called “Cold River”, or “Object No. 18”. According to the recollections of Joseph Stalin’s security guards, he loved this place very much.

It must be taken into account that the leadership of the GUGB was responsible for all engineering solutions and especially for technical security equipment, special communications and operational support (recruitment, agents, etc.).

Vasily Stalin, Nikolai Vlasik and Joseph Stalin. Near dacha in Volynskoe, 1935.

“Stop walking”

In the early 1930s, the work of the entire state security service was not only intense, but also very intense. In particular, because at that time Joseph Stalin and other members of the Politburo were still practicing walking in the center of Moscow. For example, from the Kremlin to the building of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to Old Square or to the Bolshoi Theater for party and government events. It is worth recalling that the Kremlin had not yet changed its pre-revolutionary appearance and was not in any way fenced off from the rest of Moscow. Naturally, the security of all movements of protected persons was secretly ensured by plainclothes OGPU officers, and not only them.

On November 16, 1931, one chance meeting almost became fatal for Stalin. On that day, he, accompanied by his guards, was returning along Ilyinka to the Kremlin. In the area of ​​​​Gostiny Dvor, an inconspicuous man came out to meet them - a former white officer, assistant resident of British intelligence in Moscow Platonov-Petin, who had recently arrived in the USSR under the name Ogarev. Naturally, he immediately came to the attention of the security officers, which (and this is also natural) he did not even suspect.

Platonov-Petin has repeatedly entered and left the USSR over the past few years, and it was this time that counterintelligence decided to take him into development in a special way. An employee was “brought to him” - according to legend, the “cordial owner of the apartment” that Platonov-Petin rented in Moscow. According to sources, at the time of the meeting with Stalin on Ilyinka, it was this security officer who was walking with the saboteur.

This is what Platonov-Petin-“Ogarev” himself later openly revealed during interrogation: “We came together so closely on the sidewalk that I even touched his neighbor with my hand. My first thought was to grab the revolver and shoot. But that day I was not wearing a jacket, but a coat. And the revolver was in his pants pocket under his coat. I realized that before I fired, I would be captured. After walking a few steps, I thought about whether I should go back...” The testimony of the security officer indicates that Platonov-Petin “tried to snatch the revolver,” and it was this action that was stopped by the OGPU officer.

A few hours later, Secretary of the USSR Central Executive Committee I.A. Akulov reported to Stalin:

“Walking along Ilyinka with our agent, an English intelligence agent accidentally met you and made an attempt to snatch a revolver. According to our agent, he managed to grab the said Anglo intelligence officer by the hand and drag him along, preventing the attempt. Immediately after this, the said Anglo intelligence agent was secretly arrested by us. I will inform you in a timely manner about the progress of the investigation.”

The “Meeting on Ilyinka” was a very serious signal not only to the leadership of the NKVD of the USSR. On the OGPU note No. 40919 dated November 18, 1931, V. Molotov’s resolution appeared: “To the members of the Politburo. Comrade Stalin’s walking around Moscow must be stopped.” Below are the signatures of L. Kaganovich, M. Kalinin, V. Kuibyshev and A. Rykov.

After this directive, Stalin and the rest of the protected persons moved, each accompanied by his own guards, even throughout the territory of the Kremlin. The entire security system was organized accordingly. For example, for Stalin’s annual trips to the resorts of the Caucasus, both his literary train in Moscow and the corresponding motor ship in Gorky were simultaneously prepared. When he preferred to leave directly from Moscow, a train was used; in other cases, the ship went down the Volga to Stalingrad, and from there another special train delivered Stalin to Sochi.

No one knew in advance which option Joseph Vissarionovich would choose this time, nor the day when he would set off. His special train and special motor ship stood in full readiness for several days, but only in the last hours before departure did he finally inform his trusted persons what method of travel he was choosing this time.

In front of his armored train and behind it were two other trains with guards and auxiliary personnel. This unique train was so equipped that it could withstand a two-week siege. If necessary, the windows were closed with armored shutters. After Stalin’s death, this procedure for ensuring the safety of protected persons when traveling by rail, in a form adapted for its time, was formalized by a special order in the sixties and was in effect until 1991. There is no doubt that the same security principles that were established to protect Stalin's train were used to ensure the safety of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train in Russia in August 2011.

Nikolai Vlasik (left) and Kliment Voroshilov near the mausoleum of V.I. Lenin. Late 1920s-early 1930s.

Reprimand to the People's Commissar

One cannot lose sight of such an important element in ensuring the safety of top officials as the vehicle fleet. On June 2, 1932, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued Resolution No. 375 “On the Special Garage of the Kremlin.” By the end of 1932, there were 45 highly qualified workers in the GON. GON employees took part in operational and technical inspections and in the technical training of river and sea vessels used for recreation by state leaders.

A very remarkable motor rally at the highest level took place from July 18 to 26, 1933. Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov left Moscow for Leningrad in three main GON vehicles, accompanied by two security vehicles from the OGPU USSR under the command of the then first deputy chairman of the OGPU Genrikh Yagoda (note that the GON did not then provide security vehicles; the security officers had their own garage ). There they were met by Sergei Kirov (by the way, Kirov had his own personal driver - S.M. Yudin), and all the guards boarded the ship, visited the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and returned to Moscow by train. The amount of work performed by the security group and GON personnel was only capable of being carried out by a highly professional security service.

A very unpleasant episode with Stalin’s car occurred immediately upon arrival in Sochi after the White Sea-Baltic trip. At the entrance to the Riviera Bridge in Sochi, a truck crashed into Stalin's car. But this was not the first accident of the main vehicle in Sochi.

Three years earlier, on July 26, 1930, together with his wife N.S. Alliluyeva, S.M. Budyonny and Commissioner for Special Assignments of the OGPU Operations I.F. Yusis (logically, he performed the functions of an attached one) Joseph Vissarionovich got ready to go to Krasnaya Polyana. “When leaving the Puzanovka rest house, beyond the Vonyuchka river (as written in the document - RP), at 10:35 a Rolls-Royce car from the Special Purpose Garage collided with a car from the Red Storm rest house. The document did not say that Stalin’s left eyebrow was cut off by a piece of glass, but the very next day he felt well. Joseph Vissarionovich himself strictly ordered not to inform anyone about this fact and not to punish the driver.

From the point of view of security work, the facts about the attitude of the country's leadership to self-discipline and security are also very interesting.

In the minutes of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, No. 140 dated June 25, 1933, it was stated: “For gross violation of the Politburo resolution on the ban on flights of responsible employees - declare comrade. Mikoyan is severely reprimanded.”

But even after this reprimand, Anastas Ivanovich did not begin to pay due attention to the requirements of personal safety. He set the most difficult tasks for his personal GON drivers Stepanov and Timashev to arrive at the appointed place on time. Simply put, he forced them to drive the car at top speeds. What a familiar situation for modern bodyguards! Here came another warning from party comrades.

Protocol No. 11 of the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks from January 17, 1939 - January 20, 1939 “about comrade. Mikoyan.

1. prohibit comrade. Mikoyan drives a car at a speed of 80–100 kilometers per hour (in the draft - 100–150 km/h - RP)
1. Oblige comrade Mikoyan does not require his driver to exceed a speed of 50–60 kilometers per hour.
1. Comrade Vlasik to monitor the implementation.”

As former Stalin security officer Alexey Trofimovich Rybin recalled, Joseph Vissarionovich himself preferred a quiet ride - 40-50 km/h, no more.

Lavrenty Beria (in the foreground).

"Superiors" and "subordinates"

Now it’s time to move on to talking about personalities in the field of protecting top officials of the Stalin era. In December 1936, Karl Viktorovich Pauker was appointed head of the 1st department of the GUGB, and this was not a random choice. Pauker began his career in personal security on February 1, 1922 as Abram Belenky’s deputy, and on May 12, 1923, he replaced him as head of the operational department of the OGPU.

Former Soviet intelligence officer A.M. Orlov wrote: “Stalin liked Pauker... Absolutely everything that had to do with Stalin and his family passed through Pauker’s hands. Without his knowledge, not a single piece of food could appear on the leader’s table. Without Pauker's approval, not a single person could be allowed into Stalin's apartment or his country dacha. He studied Stalin's tastes and learned to guess his slightest desires... Noticing that Stalin, wanting to appear taller, preferred high-heeled shoes, Pauker decided to increase his height a few more centimeters. He invented specially cut boots for Stalin with unusually high heels, partially hidden in the back.”

Moreover, Pauker, who in his youth mastered the profession of a hairdresser, personally shaved Joseph Vissarionovich. The fact is that before this, Stalin often did not look very well shaven. His face was covered in pockmarks, and the safety razor he was accustomed to using left small islands of hair, making Stalin look even more pockmarked. Not daring to trust the barber's razor, Stalin apparently came to terms with this shortcoming. However, he was ready to stick his throat out to Pauker.

As one security officer said, “Pauker is closer to Stalin than a friend... closer than a brother!” Pauker, like no one else, knew how to lift the leader’s spirits by telling jokes or staging small performances. He drove his patron into colic, depicting Zinoviev, who was being dragged to be shot, showing how he hung on the shoulders of the guards and begged the party for mercy. Karl Pauker did not know that very soon, literally in just a few months, he himself would be led to execution. That same year he was arrested and executed as a “German spy.”

In 1937, truly tragic times came for those who were responsible for ensuring the security of the top officials of the USSR. Let us recall that Nikolai Yezhov was then People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. On April 15, Karl Pauker was removed from the post of head of the 1st department of the GUGB, which he held for only 120 days. On June 14, Pauker’s successor, Vladimir Kursky, was removed (he stayed in office for 60 days, three weeks after his removal he shot himself). Kursky was replaced by Israel Dagin, who managed to hold the post a little longer than his predecessors, but he too was arrested in early November 1938. Such a leapfrog clearly demonstrates how small the significance of this department was from the point of view of those who made management decisions.

Attached to the family

After Dagin’s arrest on November 19, 1938, the 1st Department of the GUGB was headed by Senior State Security Major Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik. It is worth telling about this man in detail, because it was he who managed to bring the leader’s security system to perfection.

Nikolai Sidorovich was born in 1896 in the Grodno province (Belarus), into a poor peasant family. He fought in the First World War and received the St. George Cross for bravery. In the very first days of the October Revolution, with the rank of non-commissioned officer, he and his platoon went over to the side of the Soviet regime. From 1919 he worked in the Cheka, and in 1927 he joined the Kremlin special security. As Nikolai Sidorovich himself writes in his memoirs, it happened like this:

“In 1927, a bomb was thrown at the commandant’s office building on Lubyanka. At that time I was in Sochi on vacation. The authorities urgently called me and instructed me to organize the security of a special department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, as well as the security of government members at dachas, walks, on trips, and to pay special attention to the personal security of Comrade Stalin. Until this time, Comrade Stalin had only one employee who accompanied him when he went on business trips. It was the Lithuanian Yusis. He called Yusis and went with him by car to a dacha near Moscow, where Comrade Stalin usually rested. Arriving at the dacha and examining it, I saw that there was complete chaos there. There was no linen, no dishes, no service personnel... I started by sending linen and dishes to the dacha, and agreed to supply food from the state farm, which was under the jurisdiction of the GPU and located next to the dacha. He sent a cook and a cleaner to the dacha. Established a direct telephone connection with Moscow.”

Unlike Pauker, Nikolai Vlasik did not like to joke and act. But he turned out to be an excellent security chief. He became not just Stalin's bodyguard, but also, in fact, a member of his family. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, he was involved in raising Stalin’s children (even checking homework), and solving economic and financial issues. Numerous country residences of the Secretary General, along with a staff of security guards, maids, housekeepers and cooks, were subordinate to him.

Like Vlasik himself, his subordinates were “attached” to the families of their charges in the same way and dealt with all issues of their life support: food, household chores, transportation by car and much more. This whole enterprise later received the name “security group”, which always had a “commandant”. How can one not remember Lenin’s commandant - sailor Pavel Malkov!

Nikolai Sidorovich recalls: “Comrade Stalin and his family lived very modestly. He walked around in an old, very shabby coat. I suggested that Nadezhda Sergeevna sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take measurements or take an old one and make exactly the same new one from it 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 managed to sew him a new coat.” They say that Joseph Vissarionovich pretended that he did not notice the substitution and did not say anything to anyone.

With such involvement of Vlasik in the life of the Stalinist family, it cannot be said that all its members liked him. Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva called him “an illiterate, rude, stupid and extremely arrogant satrap” who dared to dictate “the tastes of Comrade Stalin to some artists.” And artists had to not only listen to this advice, but also follow them. After all, not a single festive concert at the Bolshoi Theater or St. George's Hall took place without the sanction of Nikolai Vlasik.

Systems approach

In 1938, after Trotsky’s statement about the need to kill Stalin in order to defeat the USSR, the task arose not only to strengthen security, but also to bring it to a qualitatively new level. Nikolai Vlasik began to build this system for specific tasks. Naturally, in this case, his recommendations and demands were taken very seriously by the leadership of the NKVD. His experience and knowledge of the specifics of working with a protected person were beyond doubt. We can safely say that everything that was required was provided. But the concept of “everything” cannot be put on paper. What was needed were justifications, calculations, and staff skills in drawing up and maintaining official documentation. The party did not give money based on words; it was allocated for specific demands. As noted by the President of the National Association of Bodyguards (NAST) of Russia, Dmitry Fonarev, Vlasik’s main merit was that it was under him that a well-thought-out systematic approach was incorporated into the organization of security, which thereby served as an indestructible foundation for modern specialized solutions.

When developing documents, Nikolai Vlasik and his subordinates proceeded from a wealth of personal experience, professional skill and the basic requirements of life. We calculated what kind of material resources were required: how many cars and equipment were needed, how many people should accompany Stalin and other protected persons. As history has shown, the party did not spare funds for such an important “for itself” task.

One of Nikolai Sidorovich’s original operational decisions was to use several identical cars to move Joseph Vissarionovich, so that no one could find out which one the protected person was in. So Stalin was transported through the Arbat along the Mozhaisk highway to the “nearby dacha.” This operational technique is still used today in security, and not only by top officials of the state.

Another large-scale decision by Vlasik, concerning the protection of Stalin’s route, also became part of professional science. Firstly, all “unreliable families and individuals” were evicted from houses adjacent to the highway, and their apartments were occupied by “reliable families”, as a rule, from the ranks of the KGB and party ranks. Secondly, when Stalin was traveling along the highway, such a number of employees were involved in ensuring the safety of this operational event that, if necessary (in case of alarm), they could join hands... on both sides of the highway.

There were also structural changes. To prepare the personnel reserve in 1938–1940. In the Noginsk region (modern Kupavna), a training center and military camp were created, which still exist today. On January 20, 1939, the regulations on the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin were approved - this position has also been preserved to this day.

By the beginning of the 1940s, the Soviet system of protecting top officials had already taken shape. On the eve of the war, after the division of the NKVD of the USSR by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks into two independent bodies (NKVD and NKGB), on February 26, 1941, an order was issued by the newly formed NKGB of the USSR “On the organization of directorates and departments of the People's Commissariat of State Security and the appointment of the leadership of these departments and departments." Nikolai Vlasik ex officio headed the 1st Department of the NKGB. In modern language, the “first version” of the NKGB lasted less than six months: in July 1941, the People’s Commissariats of State Security and Internal Affairs were again merged into the NKVD.

In the first months of the war, Nikolai Sidorovich was responsible for preparing the possible evacuation of the leadership of the party and 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 and communications, and arranged supplies. He was also responsible for the evacuation of Lenin’s body to Tyumen and its protection. When Stalin found out that Nikolai Vlasik had sent his library to Kuibyshev, he said with firm confidence: “You did it in vain, we will never give up Moscow.”

On the eve of the parade on November 7, 1941, the head of Stalin’s security with the management entrusted to him ensured security at the ceremonial meeting held at the Mayakovskaya metro station. An interesting episode occurred there, which Vlasik described in his memoirs:

“Going down the escalator to the ceremonial meeting, Comrade Stalin looked at me, I was dressed in a bekesha and a hat, and said: “You have a star on your hat, but I don’t have one. Still, you know, it’s uncomfortable, commander-in-chief, and he’s not dressed in uniform. And there isn’t even a star on the cap, please get me a star.” Comrade Stalin made a report. He ended his report with the words: “Our cause is just - victory will be ours.” ...When Comrade Stalin was leaving home after the meeting, a red five-pointed star was already shining on his cap. In this cap and a simple overcoat without any insignia, he performed at the historical parade on November 7, 1941. I managed to photograph him successfully, and this photograph was distributed in large quantities. The soldiers attached it to their tanks and said: “For the Motherland! For Stalin!" - went into fierce attacks.”

The 1st Department, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Vlasik, ensured the safety of leaders when traveling around the country and going to the fronts. This period is described especially vividly in the memoirs of Alexei Rybin. 157 trips of protected persons to the front and front-line areas. 68 by plane, 59 by train and 30 by car. 118 trips around the country, 19 abroad, 15 visits by heads of foreign delegations to the USSR. In total, more than 800 security measures were provided during the war period.

After a radical turning point in the course of the war occurred, on April 14, 1943, the NKGB was again separated from the NKVD. On May 11, Nikolai Vlasik headed the 6th Directorate for the protection of leading personnel of the party and government of the newly created NKGB. The state security agencies, as the security officers began to be called, had other tasks that they solved professionally. Thus, in September 1944, in the Smolensk region, it was the state security agencies that detained the Tavrin-Shilova terrorist group, which was sent by the Nazis to the rear of the Red Army with the fanatical goal... to destroy Stalin.

Versatile personality

It was already mentioned above that in 1941 Vlasik successfully photographed Stalin. This was not an isolated episode: Nikolai Sidorovich was passionate about photography, and his hobby came in handy in a variety of situations. For example, at all three famous Big Three conferences in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam. There he not only brilliantly organized security, but also did an excellent job as a photojournalist. At all events, Vlasik, as expected, was next to Stalin, and at especially important historical moments he used his trusty camera. The footage he shot later ended up in national newspapers, and was seen by thousands of people in different countries.

On the eve of the Tehran Conference, Nikolai Sidorovich reported to Moscow that he had equipped 62 villas and a two-story mansion for Comrade Stalin with 15 rooms. He created a communications center, reserves of game, livestock, gastronomic and grocery products. He put 7 army regiments and 1,500 “operational personnel” under arms. The security scheme consisted of three rings of posts for various purposes. Tehran was filled with German intelligence officers and their agents, but they failed to “break” this triple ring. The famous saboteur of the Fuhrer Otto Skorzeny unsuccessfully tried to kidnap Roosevelt: the US President was under the most reliable protection of the NKGB of the USSR. For Tehran and Potsdam, Nikolai Sidorovich received the Order of Lenin, for Yalta - the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree.

It is interesting that when Stalin went to the front, Beria forbade Vlasik to accompany him for reasons of conspiracy. In the inner circle it was believed that if Vlasik was in Moscow, then Stalin was also there.

It is known that the Nazis, who came to power later than Stalin, looked at the Soviet security service for the country's leaders as a model for creating their own. Captured on May 2, 1945, Hitler's permanent chief of security (since 1933), Hans Rattenhuber, told during interrogation how it was arranged. It turned out that the Germans practically copied the Stalinist security system created by Nikolai Vlasik. Everything in the system coincided down to the smallest detail, from the organization of escorting the first person on foot and motorized, when attending public events, to the admission system, food, operational support, etc. and so on.

In March 1946, the NKGB of the USSR was transformed into the MGB. A month later, on the basis of the 6th Directorate, two security directorates were created in the USSR MGB - No. 1 and No. 2. The first was responsible for Stalin's personal security, the second ensured the safety of other Soviet leaders and the protected objects assigned to him. On December 25, 1946, both security departments, as well as the department of the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin (UKMK), were merged into the Main Security Directorate (GUO) of the USSR Ministry of State Security, which was headed by Nikolai Vlasik.

When in 1947, by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, 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, Nikolai Sidorovich was also entrusted with responsibility for all this.

From 1947 to 1951, under his leadership, the Main Directorate of Defense ensured the security of a number of public events. Among them were parades and demonstrations on Red Square, physical training parades at the Dynamo stadium, aviation festivals in Tushino, as well as individual events at industrial and agricultural enterprises and cultural institutions. Particularly difficult to carry out were: the International Conference of Foreign Ministers (March - April 1947), the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow (September 1947), the 70th anniversary of Stalin (December 1949), the preparation of facilities for holidays and .IN. Stalin, etc.

During this period, many trips of protected persons around the country and abroad were successfully carried out, and the security of foreign delegations was ensured during their stay in the Soviet Union.

Not a bad track record for an “illiterate” person; not every “literate” person can boast of that...

In addition to his remarkable ingenuity, Nikolai Vlasik possessed enormous physical strength. In this regard, a characteristic episode was told. One day, a young state security operative saw Nikolai Sidorovich on one of the Moscow streets. The operative noticed that a suspicious guy who looked like a pickpocket was hanging around the head of the Main Directorate of Operations, and decided to warn him. To his misfortune, at that moment the thief had already put his hand into the pocket of the head of Stalin’s personal security, and he suddenly put his powerful hand on the coat over the pocket and squeezed the thief’s hand so that the crack of breaking bones was heard. The young officer wanted to detain the pickpocket, who was white with pain, but Nikolai Sidorovich winked at him, shook his head negatively and said: “There’s no need to jail him, he won’t be able to steal anymore.”

"Vlasik's Prophecy"

For 25 years, Nikolai Vlasik and his subordinates managed to ensure Stalin’s safety in any conditions, and they also saved the guard from several assassination attempts. But the principled Stalin did not want to protect his security chief from an inglorious end to his career and arrest.

In May 1952, an in-depth audit of the financial and economic activities of the security department unexpectedly began. Vlasik was removed from his post, expelled from the party and transferred to the Ural city of Asbest to manage a prison camp, and in December of the same year he was arrested for “indulging pest doctors,” embezzlement of government money and valuables, and abuse of official position.

According to many sources, during his arrest he said: “If there is no me, there will be no Stalin.” These words of Nikolai Vlasik, if, of course, he really said them, can be perceived as a prophecy: just a few months after his arrest, on March 5, 1953, Stalin died at a “nearby dacha.”

Historians have not yet been able to come to a definitive answer to the question of what caused the death. There are many versions, but they do not stand up to criticism due to obvious bias, the pursuit of sensation and the authors’ lack of understanding of how the leader’s security was structured.

Only Stalin’s security guards know exactly what happened at the “nearby dacha” then, namely the change of the assigned Mikhail Starostin. Alexey Rybin spoke about this partly from the words of his colleagues and friends in the documentary film by the Panorama studio (Lenfilm) “I served in Stalin’s guard.” The film was shot in 1989 in the wake of perestroika, then sold abroad, so few were able to see it. From Rybin’s words it follows that Joseph Vissarionovich died due to failure to provide him with timely medical care.

Despite the fact that Stalin was 73 years old and suffered from a number of ailments, “Kremlin” doctors were not on duty at the “nearby dacha”. Only Beria could give instructions on the admission of doctors to duty under Joseph Vissarionovich, but none of the current security leaders dared to approach him with such an initiative due to the leadership chaos that arose after Vlasik’s arrest and understandable considerations of their own safety. For “alarmism” they could have been shot.

After Vlasik’s arrest, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks assigned responsibility for protecting the country’s leadership to the Minister of State Security of the USSR S.D. Ignatiev, who immediately after his appointment as head of the USSR MGB (on May 23, 1952, the Main Security Directorate of the USSR MGB was demoted to the Security Directorate) unexpectedly and for a long time fell ill... His deputy, Lieutenant General V.S., was appointed interim Ignatyev. Ryasnoy. Ignatiev returned to his duties on January 27, 1953.

According to the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. Martynov was appointed head of the department of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. Apparently, Ignatiev was unable (or Beria did not want) to find a worthy candidate for the position of Stalin’s senior bodyguard. The senior security officers attached to Stalin remained Mikhail Starostin and Ivan Khrustalev, who from July 30, 1952 reported directly to the deputy head of the UO, Colonel N.P. Novik. In essence, Stalin’s decapitated security group was left to its own devices, and the top state security leadership withdrew from issues of protecting the leader.

Revolutionary pragmatism
Vlasik’s fate, according to his daughter Nadezhda, was decided by one circumstance: he “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 the night of March 5, 1953, when Stalin “woke up.” The statement is very controversial: it is unlikely that Beria had a need to remove Vlasik in order to kill Stalin. The fact is that the death of the elderly leader was already a matter of time, and soon. It was not discussed in the Kremlin for obvious reasons, and no one doubted its imminent arrival. Everyone prepared for it as best they could. And now this day has come... Well, the presence of Vlasik next to the sick Stalin, who, one must assume, really “would not have waited a day outside the doors,” could only delay his death. According to Dmitry Fonarev, Beria simply removed Vlasik, who was inconvenient for him, because he was his subordinate, but did not become “his man.” To understand the events of that time, you need to understand the role and place of Lavrenty Pavlovich in the leadership of the country. In July 1945, when the special state security ranks were replaced with military ones, Beria was awarded the rank of Marshal of the USSR (Nikolai Vlasik - Lieutenant General). Since March 1946, Beria, as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, has been one of the “Big Seven” members of the Politburo, which, headed by Stalin, decided almost everything in the state, including security issues.

In October 1952, by decision of the 19th Congress of the CPSU, Lavrentiy Beria was included in the Bureau of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, which transformed the “Big Seven” into the “Leading Five” at Stalin’s proposal. That is, after the unconditional success of the nuclear project, which he oversaw, Beria soared to the very heights of state power and only he could arrange the security forces as he saw fit.

In the systemic hierarchy of state security of the USSR in 1952, the positions of Beria and Vlasik are simply incomparable, not to mention their responsibility. For Vlasik, Beria was the direct and most important boss, whose decision no one could challenge.

As Dmitry Fonarev notes, Beria gradually reduced the sphere of influence of Lieutenant General Vlasik and his service, “pushing” him away from power. As already mentioned, in May 1952, the Main Directorate of Defense was reorganized into the UO - just a security department, no longer the main thing. Thus, his status was lowered. And security departments No. 1 and No. 2 were transformed into departments of the Administration - another decrease in the power hierarchy of state security.

Well, then all Beria had to do was find, as the operatives call it, an “invoice,” or, simply put, dirt on Vlasik himself. It turned out to be easy. On January 17, 1953, 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 - examined the 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). In fact, Vlasik was deprived of everything for financial and organizational miscalculations. With this verdict, he was destroyed as an influential person at the state level, who simply did not “fit” into the orbit of interests of the almighty Beria.

But why didn’t Stalin try to save his faithful guard? In December 1952, in addition to Vlasik, another close and long-time assistant of Stalin was arrested - Alexander Nikolaevich Poskrebyshev, secretary of the Presidium and Bureau of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. Stalin could not help but notice the disappearance of these two faithful comrades, but Beria decided their fate. Apparently, the leader of the peoples treated such “excesses” with revolutionary pragmatism. For him, there were never any “untouchables.”

In the entire history of his period, it is difficult to find a high-status person whom Stalin would actually protect from the “arbitrariness” of the punitive system. And this is not surprising, because back in 1923 Joseph Vissarionovich said: “If my wife, a party member, had acted wrongly and she had been punished, I would not have considered myself entitled to interfere in this matter.” He also did not protect his son Vasily, who was wounded in 1943, but not in battle, but during poaching fish with the help of explosives... Well, the head of security was for him the same ordinary Soviet civil servant, like everyone else ...

In March 1954, the KGB of the USSR was created, headed by Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov. For state personal security, a period of reorganization and the formation of new methods and forms of work has begun.

Well, the story of General Vlasik is an example of the true professional devotion of someone attached to his guard, which Nikolai Sidorovich will retain even after his arrest and all the suffering he endured. In his memoirs, he will write that, despite the cruel insult inflicted on him by Stalin, he did not hold any grudge against him in his soul for a minute. Vlasik died in 1967, without being rehabilitated during his lifetime. But the traditions he laid down in the security business remained strong for many years. Officers who have completed the GDO school will later become teachers for those who come to guard the country's subsequent leaders.

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. Recently, the investigation into Vlasik’s case has been carried out 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 USSR government delegation, 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 was Stalin’s personal bodyguard for many years and held this post 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 factories, 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 commander 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 5th 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. Security 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, worries 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 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, Heroes of the 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 windmill 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 service.”
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, 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 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 area 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 Vlasik was born into a family of very poor Belarusian peasants on May 22, 1886. In the village of Bobynichi, where his parents lived, he studied at a parochial school, this was his only education.

Vlasik’s work biography begins at the age of 13, when the boy went to work as a laborer for a landowner, then became a railroad navvy worker. The last place of work before being drafted into the army was the Yekaterinoslav paper factory.

Military service

In 1915 he became an infantryman. The First World War was going on, the young man showed courage in battles, for which he was awarded the St. George Cross. However, already during the October Revolution, he, like his entire platoon, sided with the revolutionaries.

He served in the Moscow police, in 1918 he returned to the army and continued to fight.

The young man showed himself well and already in 1919 he entered the service under the direct command of Felix Dzherzhinsky himself. At first he was an ordinary employee of the special department, then he headed it.

Head of Stalin's security

The biography of Stalin's security guard Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich took a turn in 1927, when he headed the Kremlin's special security forces. The official name of his position was constantly changing, but in fact he had been guarding the most important person in the state for all 25 years.

Remaining in the shadow of the leader, he ensured his safety 24 hours a day (even lived in the room next to him), always lived on the cutting edge and answered with his head literally for his every action. At the same time, he performed duties not only as the head of the security - he organized the food and life of the entire leader’s family. If Stalin himself or one of his children or wife went to the dacha, Vlasik personally checked those who worked there.

One of the most famous incidents in his work was the assassination attempt in 1935, when Stalin's boat was fired upon by border guards during a boat trip. Then the head of the border services, Lavrov, claimed that they acted strictly according to instructions, but he was still tried and sentenced to death.

Personal life

Despite being very busy, the general was still married to Maria Semnovna Vlasik (maiden name unknown). They did not have their own children; the couple raised their adopted daughter Nadya.

Arrest and exile

With gratitude for the fact that Nikolai Vlasik devoted a quarter of a century of his life to serving Stalin, he was removed from work, all his awards were taken away and he was sent into exile.

The general was accused of allowing unreliable persons to approach Stalin. However, already in 1953, a year after the guilty verdict, this charge was dropped, but another was added - theft of socialist property - he took livestock and valuables from Germany.

He is also believed to have links to British spy Vladimir Stenberg.

Finally, the final charge was brought against him in 1955 - then Nikolai Vlasik was sentenced to 10 years of correctional labor in Krasnoyarsk for abuse of official position. After the announcement of the amnesty, the term was halved, but he was released from prison in 1956, having cleared his criminal record.

Death and rehabilitation

Stalin's bodyguard died on June 18, 1967 in his apartment from complications caused by lung cancer.

In 2000, he was posthumously rehabilitated, all awards and titles were returned, and the medals were returned to his adopted daughter Nadezhda Nikolaevna in 2001.