The Ballad of honest Soviet Commissar (Part One)
"This ancient world is ancient
My own law.
No rules, believe me,
He does not want to know.
Day and night in it, without smolka,
Crying sounds and laughter.
From what is missing,
Pies at all. "
("The Ancient World", a song from the movie "Dear Boy",
music D. Tukhmanova, sl. L. Derbeneva.)
My own law.
No rules, believe me,
He does not want to know.
Day and night in it, without smolka,
Crying sounds and laughter.
From what is missing,
Pies at all. "
("The Ancient World", a song from the movie "Dear Boy",
music D. Tukhmanova, sl. L. Derbeneva.)
In his book "1984" George Orwell prophetically wrote that a society of people was almost always divided into three groups whose goals were absolutely incompatible. The purpose of the higher group is to stay where they have already climbed. The purpose of the group of mediums is to take the place of the higher ones, since they are no worse. But the lower goal is completely idealistic: to abolish all social differences and create a society where all people would be equal and therefore happy.
Heinrich Yagoda on the podium of the mausoleum. Above it seems nowhere ...
However, they do not know how to achieve this, because they work hard and do not have the appropriate education, and therefore knowledge. For a long time, the higher ones seem to hold tightly the power in their hands, but then, sooner or later, a moment comes when they degenerate, or years of quiet life dull their grip, or both the first and second. The average, having noticed this, go to the lower ones, play the role of fighters for their freedom and universal justice, and thus attract them to their side. The lower ones die on the barricades, they rot in the trenches, and all in order for the middle ones to throw off the highest ones from their pedestal. But, having achieved the goal, the middle ones push the lower ones back, because universal equality is simply impossible. But then new medium ones appear, into which some of the lower ones also fall - not without it, of course, and the struggle begins again. As a result, only the lower never achieve their goals, even for a short time, and all the improvements in their lives are almost entirely and completely connected with the material progress of society.
The visibility of this provision is confirmed at all levels. However, it is probably best traced by the example of personalities. True, there are thousands and thousands of them, so you can’t tell everyone about them, but among them there are significant signs. One of them is Heinrich G. Yagoda, or Enoch Gershevich Yehuda, who was born in the 1891 year in the Yaroslavl province in the city of Rybinsk, in the family of a printer-engraver. The family was big: two sons and five daughters.
Interestingly, Yagoda's father, Gershon Filippovich, was the cousin of Mikhail Izrailevich Sverdlov, that is, the father of the future famous revolutionary Yakov Sverdlov. Yagoda himself was married to Ida Leonidovna Averbakh, who was the native daughter of Yakov Sverdlov’s sister Sophia Mikhailovna, that is, his second cousin. In 1929, their son Garik was born. The famous Soviet writer Leopold Averbach, was the brother of Ida.
When Enoch's family moved to Nizhny Novgorod, Yagoda met there with Yakov Sverdlov.
Although it is believed that much was forbidden to Jews in tsarist Russia, Enoch nevertheless received a secondary education and received a decent job statistics.
Already in 1904, Yagoda's father agreed that the underground printing house of the Nizhny Novgorod Committee of the RSDLP (b) was arranged in his apartment, well, it is clear that young Enoch took part in its work. In V.I. Lenin, as it is known, the elder brother Alexander died, but the elder brother, Michael, also died in Enoch (during the armed uprising in Sormovo in 1905).
At fifteen, he contacted Nizhny Novgorod Communist anarchists, and 1911 was given the assignment to go to Moscow and negotiate with the local group of anarchists for joint “expropriation” of the bank. He came to Moscow and began to live there on a fake passport, but ... was detained by the police, because, as a Jew, he had no right to settle in the First Throne. It was proved that he was associated with radical elements, but the court showed condescension towards him, since the young man had (seemingly!) The intention to convert to the Orthodox faith, that is, to dissipate. Therefore, he was punished ... for two years he was exiled to Simbirsk, where his grandfather ... had his own house.
Then followed on the occasion of the 300 anniversary of the house of the Romanovs amnesty, and the period of exile at Yagoda was reduced to one year. Yes, this is not the United States, where, during Sakko and Vanzetti, there was an iron slogan: “Bullets for the mob, a rope for the leaders!” He said he would accept Orthodoxy and give up Judaism - “a good boy”, but that he was preparing to rob a bank Well, I didn’t rob it. So Heinrich Yagoda became Orthodox, because atheism in Russia at that time was a criminal offense, as well as a way out of the Orthodox faith, in which you were born. Well, with a stamp in the passport about the "correct faith", he was able to live and work not anywhere, but in the capital itself, in St. Petersburg, where he settled in the 1913 year at the Putilov factory.
Documents G. Berries from the registration archive of the secret police of the year 1912.
The funny thing is, but not in this, but in the fact that in 1930, Yagoda’s deputy, someone Trilisser, an old party member who had spent ten years in tsarist penal servitude, decided for some reason to check the biography of his immediate superior. And it turned out that the biography that Yagoda wrote for the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee was not true. So he pointed out that he joined the Bolshevik Party in the 1907 year, and in the 1911 year he was sent into exile and then actively participated in the October revolution. In fact, he turned out to be a Bolshevik party only in the summer of 1917, and had no business with the Bolsheviks before.
In 1915, Heinrich Yagoda was called up for military service, fought, and even rose to the rank of corporal. However, having been injured in the fall of 1916, he was demobilized and returned to Petrograd. In the pre-revolutionary years, he met Maxim Gorky and then maintained friendly relations with him.
In the days of the October Revolution was in Petrograd and took part in it. From 22 November (5 December) 1917 of the year to April 1918 was the editor of the newspaper “The Village Poorness” - this is what for those years meant to have a high school diploma.
Then work in the Cheka followed, and in 1918 — 1919. He is already a member of the Supreme Military Inspectorate of the Red Army. In the 1919 year, Ya. M. Sverdlov and F. E. Dzerzhinsky noticed Yagoda and transferred to work in Moscow. From 1920, he became a member of the Presidium of the Cheka, then a member of the board of the GPU.
With wife Ida Averbach, September 30 1922.
Since September 1923, Yagoda has been the second deputy chairman of the OGPU. Finally, after the death of Dzerzhinsky and in view of the illness of V.R. Menzhinsky, Yagoda, who was his deputy at that moment, actually became the head of the OGPU. Career growth was supported by Yagoda and party success: in 1930 — 1934. he becomes a candidate member of the Central Committee, from 1934 onwards - a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). All this time during the factional inner-party struggle in the CPSU (b) he supported JV Stalin, and he also led the defeat of the anti-Stalin demonstrations that took place in October 1927 of the year. He successfully coped with the construction of the White Sea Canal, for which in August 1933 received the Order of Lenin.
G. G. Yagoda (far left) with V.R. Menzhinsky and F.E. Dzerzhinsky in 1924.
And here "Akela nearly missed." It all started with the fact that at the beginning of 1933 in the system of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture and the People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR, a spy and sabotage organization was discovered that spied in favor of ... Japan! Among the spies were about 100 well-known agricultural specialists, including the Deputy People's Commissar of Agriculture F. M. Konar and A. M. Markevich, and the Deputy People's Commissar of the USSR State Farms M. M. Wolf. During the trial, the 14 defendants refused their testimony. But all the same 40 people were shot as pests, and the rest were in the camps. From 23 accused of spying, an 21 man was sentenced to death. However, A. M. Markevich, who was not shot, managed to write a letter from the camp addressed to Stalin, Molotov and USSR Prosecutor I. A. Akulov, in which he pointed out that the methods of investigating his case were illegal.
Another statement was sent to the head of the complaints bureau of the Soviet Control Commission, MI Ulyanova, A. G. Revis, another one of the two surviving "Japanese spies", and the complainants were given a turn. 15 September 1934 was set up to study these statements by a Politburo commission, which included Kaganovich, Kuibyshev and Akulov, and she came to the unpleasant conclusion that both statements are true. Moreover, the commission revealed other violations of Soviet legality on the part of the OGPU and NKVD bodies - torture of the suspects and fabrication of their cases. A draft resolution was prepared, which provided for the eradication of such methods of investigation, as well as the punishment of all the perpetrators and a corresponding review of the cases of Revis and Markevich. But then Kirov’s murder happened just in time, “the class struggle in the USSR” suddenly became sharply acute again, and the draft resolution “above” was not adopted, and Henry Yagoda, respectively, was not punished.
Moreover, when the NKVD of the USSR was created in July 1934, this new People's Commissariat, and its most important part, the General Directorate of State Security (GUGB), was headed not by anyone but Heinrich Yagoda!
There is evidence, in any case, they are cited in various sources, that Yagoda seemed to be striving for the liberalization of the punitive policy of the Soviet state, and that Kaganovich and Voroshilov talked about this in a similar vein.
However, it was under the leadership of Yagoda that the GULAG was created, the network of Soviet forced labor camps increased dramatically, and the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal was begun by prisoners. 36 was invited by prominent Soviet writers led by Maxim Gorky to highlight this “building of communism”.
Berry quite officially carried the amazing title of “the first initiator, organizer and ideological leader of the socialist industry of the taiga and the North”. However, according to the historian O. V. Khlevnyuk, the Stalinist line in the investigation on all these cases was not carried out by Yagoda, but by Yezhov, who “entered into a conspiracy against the people's Commissar of Internal Affairs ... and his supporters” Ya. S. Agranov - with one from the Deputy Berries.
In the year 1935, Yagoda, the first in the USSR, became the “General Commissioner of State Security”. That is, he received a title equal to the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union and an apartment in the Kremlin that the informal hierarchy of informal incentives that existed at that time spoke of the highest degree of trust. Already began to talk about the probable election of Yagoda to the Politburo. Year in August, 1936, with his active participation, passed the first indicative Moscow trial against the “enemies of the people” Kamenev and Zinoviev. But it was the peak of his career, since fate had already brought his heavy hand over him.
However, Yagoda did not even know that “everything is not as good as it seems”, did not think about anything “like that,” and was completely devoted to the “share of fortune” that fell on him. “The levity manifested by Yagoda in these months was ridiculous,” one of his subordinates later recalled. “He became interested in disguising NKVD employees in a new form with gold and silver braids and at the same time worked on a charter regulating the rules of conduct and etiquette of enkavedists.”
But he did not calm down on the introduction of the new form, and in addition decided to introduce another superform for the highest NKVD officials, which should have included a white tunic from gabardine with gold embroidery, blue pants and patent leather shoes. Something like all this creative aspirations of Marshal Goering, who is just as fond of creating uniforms for himself and his subordinates. Moreover, being the chief forester of the Third Reich, even in this case he invented for himself an impressive uniform "uniform" with a dagger on his belt! Paraphrasing the great Tolstoy, it is quite possible to say: “Smart people are smart in their own way, but stupid are stupid alike!”
It is interesting that since patent leather was not released in the USSR at that time, Yagoda gave the order to write out the necessary batch from abroad, having paid for it with currency. However, the main decoration of this elite superform was to be a small gilded dagger, similar to the dagger of naval officers fleet Russian Empire. "
The changing of the guard in the Kremlin, in his opinion, should have taken place in full view of the public and to the music, in the best traditions of the Tsar's Life Guards. By his order, they even formed a special cadet company, into which guys were chosen - real bogatyrs under two meters tall! In general, Heinrich Yagoda frankly reveled in the power he received, like a gourmet who ate delicious dishes.
Maxim Gorky and Heinrich Yagoda. Not earlier than November 1935 g. (RGASPI. F. 558. Op. 11. D. 1656. L. 9).
A. Orlov, who worked at that time in the office of the people's commissar, subsequently wrote that “Berry not only did not foresee what would happen to him in the near future, on the contrary, he never felt as confident as then, in the summer of 1936 of the year ... I don’t know like old foxes like Fouche or Machiavelli felt in similar situations. Did they foresee a thunderstorm that thickened over their heads to sweep them away in a few months? But I know well that Yagoda, who met Stalin every day, could not read in his eyes anything that would give grounds for alarm. ”
And what happened next was this: in the evening of September 25, 1936, Lazar Kaganovich was delivered a telegram addressed to him together with other Politburo members, signed by Stalin and Zhdanov. It read: “We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent to appoint Comrade. Yezhov for the post of Commissar. Yagoda was clearly not at the height of his task in exposing the troopist-Zinoviev block of the OGPU, he was late in this case for 4. This is indicated by all the party workers and most of the regional representatives of the Commissariat of Labor. You can leave Agranov as Deputy of Yezhov in the People's Commissariat ... ”
But the pill disgraced to the People's Commissar, of course, sweetened, and it was none other than Stalin himself. That is, he wrote one thing to his comrades in the Politburo, but 26 was completely different for the disgraced Commissar of September 1936:
“Comrade. Berry.
Narkomsvyaz is very important. This is the Commissariat of Defense. I have no doubt that you will be able to put this Commissariat on your feet. I beg you to agree to the work of the Narkomsvyaz. Without a good communication Commissariat, we feel like without hands. You can not leave Narkomsvyaz in its current position. It should be urgently put on its feet.
I. Stalin.
Two "stars": one ascending (left), and the one on the right should be about to roll forever!
But already on January 29, 1937, the CEC of the USSR decides on the transfer of the General Commissar of State Security G. G. Yagoda to the reserve. This was the second blow, signifying his actual removal from all power. At the same time he was expelled from the party, at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee of the same year subjected to harsh party criticism.
To be continued ...
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