On whose corpses Andropov and Gorbachev came to power
Like all Soviet people, we lived with our cares and problems, performed the assigned work and did not particularly delve into what was happening “up there”. The permutations in the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers did not affect us, or even interested us. There was one member of the Politburo, instead another - well, God be with them. As stated in the joke of those times, "they have their own company, we have our own."
Only after many years, the damned questions began to arise. How could an ordinary talker Gorbachev reach the highest authority in the country, so that he could be betrayed later and given to his enemies to be torn apart? As the most stable economy in the world, providing all citizens of the USSR unshakable confidence in the future, suddenly rolled down? How did a literate, politically savvy people present their fate to rogues and fraudsters who served the people they had always known as vile and cruel opponents? For the third decade, these questions have kept millions and millions from sleeping.
In no case, without pretending to the ultimate truth, I will try to give my own vision of the events of the last decades, which began with my transition to the Literary Gazette.
The main intelligence services of the world, primarily the British, have a proven method of achieving the interests of their state. In the state, against which they work, they nominate their collaborators and remove the opposing. The most famous episode is the attempt on Lenin in 1918. If this attack of the British succeeded, then the head of Russia would be their (and international Zionist) agent Trotsky. Their next victims were Dzerzhinsky, Kirov.
In 70-80-ies, political figures of this magnitude were not visible. Stalin’s prophecy came true two months before his death: “The time of geniuses is over, the time of fools begins.” So it became easier to move the pieces on the great chessboard.
The main pawns who, with subtle moves, steadily moved to queens, were Andropov, and then in parallel with him Gorbachev. What powerful forces counted and carried out these moves - I do not even have any guesswork. Great is this mystery.
Otto Wilhelmovich Kuusinen
Andropov's godfather was his mentor from the time of his work in Karelia Kuusinen. Otto Wilhelmovich is a very interesting figure. In his youth, he rotated on the political Olympus of Finland, led a friendship with the rich and influential masons. 9 years was a member of the Sejm, 6 years headed the Social Democratic Party. Then - “in underground work” (according to reference books). From 1921 to 1943 - one of the leaders of the Comintern. From 1941 until his death (1964), a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), and under Khrushchev, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1939 there was one extraordinary episode related to the Soviet-Finnish war. Kuusinen headed then created in the event of our victory, in which no one in the USSR had any doubts, the people's government of Finland. How was he denounced in the West! Everywhere except the UK. A major British politician Cripps, he publicly interceded ...
Andropov
Kuusinen was in charge of international affairs at the CPSU Central Committee. In the same 1957 year, when Khrushchev nominated him as the secretary of the Central Committee, Andropov from the post of ambassador to Hungary immediately became head of Kuusinen's department for relations with the communist and workers' socialist countries, and five years later - the secretary of the Central Committee. Otto Vilgelmovich prepared for himself a reliable shift. Britain praised his services to the security services. As they say in such cases, according to some information, he was awarded the highest British order by a secret decree of the queen, was given a knighthood, and was named by his colleagues the most successful agent in their dark stories. Kuusinen’s last wife frankly wrote in her memoirs: “After all, he was, in fact, little interested in the Soviet Union. Building his secret plans, he did not think about the welfare of Russia. ”
What led Brezhnev, appointing Andropov chairman of the KGB, we will never know. Perhaps, his extremely tough position in the suppression of counter-revolutionary demonstrations in Hungary served as a recommendation? But what happened, happened, and from 1967 to 1982 the year Kuusinen's godson was in that post, and from 1973 he was a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Yury Vladimirovich managed to acquire a strong influence on Brezhnev, however, starting with A.N. Kosygin, sympathy, to put it mildly, did not cause. Especially clearly prescribed it in his memoirs V.V. Grishin ("From Khrushchev to Gorbachev"). His support was Gromyko and Ustinov. For history: these three persuaded Brezhnev to enter the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
The people who reached the summit of political power, which was the Politburo, underwent such a natural selection that they seemed to be provided with longevity. Kremlin medicine was tirelessly taking care of their health. And here you go ...
A publicist Valery Legostaev, who worked even under Andropov and after him as an assistant to Ligachev, composed a list of deaths for members of the Politburo, who opened Andropov and then Gorbachev to the General Secretary.
In the 1976 year, the Minister of Defense Grechko, a very promising Kulakov, “personally fell asleep and did not wake up” was personally devoted to Brezhnev. A year later, the vacant place of secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Agriculture on the insistent recommendation of the aforementioned group of comrades and who joined him Suslov was taken by Gorbachev. Alexander Ilyich Agranovich commented on this appointment with the words: “We recently did an analysis of the effectiveness of investments in agriculture; in the Stavropol Territory it is the lowest. ”
In 1980, P.M. died in a strange car accident on a rural road. Masherov, who was considered as one of the possible successors of Brezhnev, and died after a no less strange incident while walking in the canoe by A.N. Kosygin.
Talking about a record year in the number of deaths among the leadership of the country 1982, one transfer will not do. Here is the case when the devil is in the details. On January 19, the first deputy of Andropov Tsvigun, who was especially trusted by Brezhnev, married to his sister Viktoria Petrovna, shot himself. Moreover, under strange circumstances: on a short stretch of garden path from the car to the cottage, from which the guards did not release his wife to the scene. In addition to the driver from the KGB garage, no one saw the moment of “suicide”, and the family was shown the body of Tsvigun only at a funeral. I asked about this dark matter of his son: he is convinced that his father was killed. Chazov wrote: “I knew Zvigun well and could never have thought that this strong, strong-willed person who had passed a large life school would commit suicide.” As a result, Brezhnev lost a very important safety net.
Andropov was seriously ill for a long time. He understood that he had very little time for coming to the leadership of the party and the country. But from the KGB to the general secretary does not fall under any scenario. To do this, you need at least a short time to work in the Central Committee apparatus. The position corresponding to his plan was only one - the second secretary, but it was held by MA Suslov, distinguished by an ascetic lifestyle and excellent health. According to Legostaev, an operation to eliminate it was developed with the direct participation of the head of Kremlin medicine Chazov, who had long been Andropov’s personal agent. Chazov himself in his book Health and Power wrote that their meetings took place in safe houses of the KGB.
M.A. Suslov
Politburo members who had reached 70 years were entitled to an additional two-week vacation in the winter. Mikhail Andreevich held him in the "suite" of the Central Clinical Hospital ("Kremlin"). Revoly Mikhailovich, the son, told me what happened on the last day before discharge. Suslova came to visit her daughter. He told her that he was feeling well and tomorrow he would go straight from the hospital to work. At this time, the attending physician brought some pill. Mikhail Andreevich, a man of the Stalin school, never took any pills at the hospital. However, the doctor insisted so much, insisting on the intention to go to work that he had to agree. Almost immediately after taking the medicine, Suslov blushed deeply and said to his daughter: “Go home, something is bad for me”. A few hours later he died. This happened a day after Zwigun’s death. A month later, the doctor who gave the fatal pill was found in a loop in his own apartment.
Detail significant. The head of Stalin’s guard, Khrustalev, who had sent all officers on his behalf to sleep on the fateful night of March 1 and didn’t call for medical services for half a day, also died a month after the death of the guard. Fanny Kaplan, who was one of them assigned to assassinate Lenin in 1918, did not survive even two days: after formal interrogation, she was shot and burned in a kerosene barrel in the Kremlin. The law of terrorists: not to leave witnesses.
Four months after Suslov’s death at the next Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Andropov was elected second secretary. The case in our post-war history is unique. Not only in the main Central Committee, but in all republican except Armenia, the post of second secretary has always been occupied by Russians. For the Jew, Andropov, however, made an exception.
In place of Andropov, Brezhnev appointed the chairman of the KGB of Ukraine Fedorchuk, known for his toughness in relation to the contingent served. He was absolutely sure of him.
Whatever may be said about the late Brezhnev, but he, like an already very experienced politician, completely controlled the situation and was seriously preparing for the transfer of power. First Secretary of the Primorsky Regional Committee D.N. Gagarov talked about a conversation on this topic during his stay in the province. Looking through possible candidates, Brezhnev called Andropov, but right there he rejected: “it’s no good, he burned himself at work in the KGB”. In the end, Leonid Ilyich decided. According to I.V. Kapitonov, who was in charge of the Central Committee with party cadres, a month before the already appointed plenum of the Central Committee, the Secretary General called him in and said: “In a month, Scherbitsky will sit in this chair. Make all appointments with this in mind. ” For himself, Brezhnev set out to create the post of party chairman. Did he know that, according to Roy Medvedev, there was a hidden opposition around him in the person of Andropov, Ustinov and Gorbachev? The names are somewhat unexpected, but Medvedev knows better.
What a rash step did Leonid Ilyich then! Brezhnev, of course, was aware of the fact that the KGB listened day and night to all members of the Politburo. Surely Andropov reported on all worthy conversations and even remarks to him. Microphones were everywhere, even in the bedrooms. But that he was also precisely bugged by himself, the secretary general did not anticipate. As well as the fact that the plenum will take place much earlier than the deadline it has defined, and not at all with the agenda approved by the Politburo.
Brezhnev has long been tormented by insomnia. For many years he was so used to using sleeping pills that he could not do without them. All his associates were strictly forbidden to indulge this weakness of Leonid Ilyich. In extreme cases, he turned to Yura (he called Andropov in the eyes and behind the eyes). Andropov was the last person Brezhnev met before he died. Like Beria with Stalin. What these two confidants have done with their cartridges, we will never know either. Only the results are known: Stalin received a severe stroke, Brezhnev, as was the custom of 1976, fell asleep and did not wake up. Pharmacology, as we see, does not stand still. On the eve of death, both of them felt fine, Brezhnev even went to Zavidovo to hunt, calmly defended the entire parade and 7 demonstration of November in the mausoleum.
I asked the head of the security secretary general, Vladimir Medvedev, in detail, and read the lines of the Chazov book. Only one incongruity has surfaced. On the night without waking up at the Brezhnev dacha, there was not a single medical worker, although, no matter where he went, a resuscitation machine with a full staff of staff for extreme cases followed the cortege. Medvedev and in the book "The Man Behind His Back", and verbally told how he, along with the duty security officer, unsuccessfully tried to do artificial respiration for Brezhnev. There was no one to help. After a while Chazov appeared, witnessed death. Why did he not call the resuscitation brigade when he received the first report of what had happened? Did you know everything in advance?
The death of Brezhnev was accompanied by another circumstance about which there is not a word anywhere. His widow, Victoria Petrovna, told the widow VV Grishina Irina Mikhailovna, that the first then to the dacha, literally 10-15 minutes after the first call, Andropov arrived at Medvedev. Silently went into the bedroom, took the Brezhnev case from the safe and just silently, without even going to Victoria Petrovna, he left. And then he arrived along with all the members of the Politburo, as if he had never been here before. This was confirmed to me and her son-in-law, Yu.M. Churbanov. Did not the leakage prevention of this kind of information explain his arrest and eight-year detention on a ridiculous charge? Brezhnev's family members repeatedly tried to find out from him what was stored in a mysterious case. Leonid Ilyich laughed off: "I have dirt on members of the politburo."
As expected, a plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU was held after the funeral to select a new general secretary. Andropov was elected unanimously.
On the "Literary Gazette" the change of power had no effect. Long-term contacts with him Chakovsky served us well. Another step was taken to strengthen the favor.
“Yury Petrovich,” he said once, “I heard that Andropov’s son writes poetry.” Ask him to select a few poems for publication.
I called and asked. But received a polite refusal.
Let's ask ourselves a question: why is mortally ill Andropov so eager for power? Even if good impulses were destined to him, nothing could be accomplished. What really accomplishments, if half of the General Secretary’s term had to be spent in a hospital chained to an artificial dialysis equipment? In addition to raids in cinemas and restaurants on the hard-core truants, the period of Yury Vladimirovich’s rule was not imprinted in the people's memory. A little for a figure of this magnitude. Surely it was not for this operation that the level of the commander of the squad was spent the efforts of the great players.
So for what?
To place in the right places the cadres who were to complete the change of power in the USSR.
Ligachev
Frame number 1 - Ligachev. I quote the memoirs of V.V. Grishina: "Nobody brought the party as much harm as Ligachev." With his hands, Andropov, and then Gorbachev, in the Central Committee and the party apparatus, replaced the proven reliable guards of party workers with former factory directors, builders, and scientists, who, as all world politicians know, should not be allowed to power. In the book “The Mystery of Gorbachev,” Yegor Kuzmich cites Andropov’s assessment of this activity, given a month and a half before his death in the Kremlin hospital: “You turned out to be a godsend for us.” We emphasize these words: “for us” ... I will cite one more quotation from the book: “Yuri Vladimirovich planned the renewal of socialism, understanding that socialism needs deep and qualitative changes”. What exactly, we clearly then showed Gorbachev, who at first time and then proclaimed: "More socialism!".
Frame number 2 - Yakovlev. Andropov returned him to Moscow from the Canadian embassy exile, where he was sent for anti-Russian speeches, giving the post of director of the second most important and anti-communist internal climate international institute of the Academy of Sciences. Without any scientific baggage. But with a diploma in a one-year internship at Columbia University, USA. From the institute Yakovlev with the speed of a comet jumped from post to post: head. the propaganda department of the Central Committee, secretary of the Central Committee, member of the Politburo — gray cardinal.
Frame number 3 - Gorbachev. It was under Andropov that he was elevated from the weakest in the position of the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee to one of the most influential, who, with the sick Chernenko, was in charge of all personnel affairs, arranging his supporters everywhere. It was he who dragged from Tomsk to the most important post in the party apparatus, the head of the department of organizational work Ligachev. The details of this operation are interesting. Such a post did not exist before. All personnel work was conducted by the first deputy director of this department, Nikolai Alexandrovich Petrovich, who enjoyed the deserved respect in the party. And his immediate leader was the secretary of the Central Committee Kapitonov, who in turn was subordinate to the second secretary of the Central Committee Chernenko. Andropov and Gorbachev spent the decision on Ligachev in one day, when Chernenko was on vacation, without coordinating it with any member of the Politburo. Aerobatics!
Some put forward a new tandem, others pushed. Cautious Brezhnev kept the first two deputies in the KGB under Andropov, his loyal people - Tsvigun and Tsinev. The Minister of the Interior Shchelokov was immensely devoted to him. A month after Brezhnev's death, Schelokov was fired. In his place was transferred from the KGB Fedorchuk, Shcherbitsky promoted. In 1984, Shchelokov seems to have shot himself - at home with a hunting rifle. In the 1985 year, already under Gorbachev, Tsinev was sent to the “paradise group” created for the elderly senior commanders. Brezhnev staff in the KGB is left.
After the death of Andropov, Chernenko was elected General Secretary at the suggestion of Ustinov. The decision on this, besides him, was discussed by Gromyko, Tikhonov and Chernenko himself. The surname of Gorbachev was not even mentioned by them.
Konstantin Ustinovich soberly assessed his capabilities, really did not want to. When I arrived home from the plenum of the Central Committee, which laid an unbearable burden on it, my wife asked:
- Kostya, why do you need this?
- So it is necessary.
His politburo colleagues persuaded him not to let Gorbachev, who had long been caught, go to power. But what successor could Chernenko prepare? He was surrounded by the same old men as himself. A younger person and more energetic than others, the Leningrad first secretary Romanov was, with the submission of Radio Liberty, completely discredited in the eyes of the people. It was transmitted from mouth to mouth that he arranged for his daughter's wedding in the royal palace, where drunk guests smashed an antique service. Romanov then demanded a refutation in print: after all, the wedding took place in the dining room of the regional committee, there were no sets, and he himself was not even present at it. Andropov, to whom he addressed, refused: they say, you never know what else they will come up with enemy voices, for each choch you do not hesitate.
Grishin, who headed the capital’s nearly million party organization, was also slandered. About him, a crystal honest and scrupulous person, one rumor spreading is more absurd than the other: that he left the family, married Tatiana Doronina and now newlyweds are delivered every day from the Elysian gastronome all sorts of free dishes; that he is a disguised Jew and patronizes all the underground businessmen of this nationality. And so on.
Cruelly dealt with Ustinov. At the end of 1984, Czechoslovakia carried out maneuvers of the Warsaw Pact troops with the participation of defense ministers. Upon returning from the maneuvers, one after another, the heads of the military departments of the GDR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the USSR died at intervals of several days. From which Dmitry Fedorovich died, so no one explained. Chazov wrote that his death "left many questions regarding the causes and nature of the disease." There is something to be surprised! Mass terrorist attack against high-ranking leaders of four states - and neither the investigation nor the punishment of terrorists ...
Chernenko
Chernenko slew with two attempts. In the summer of 1983, while Andropov was still alive, he was fatally poisoned while on holiday in the Crimea. Instead, investigations came up with a story about a poor-quality smoked scad. But it was eaten by everyone who lived on the state dacha, but for some reason only Konstantin Ustinovich suffered. So much so that miraculously did not give his soul to God. His already poor health was thoroughly undermined, for a long time he could not recover his performance. Soon after being elected General Secretary of Chazov, Chernenko was sent by way of intense pressure to amend the high-mountain resort of Kislovodsk. For a patient suffering from pulmonary emphysema, it was worse than poisoning. After 10 days, he was loaded onto a plane on a stretcher and immediately returned to Moscow. What kind of work here ...
After the second medical attempt, Chernenko tried with all his might to take the reins in his hands. His entourage also tried her best to show that he was acting. By order of the First Assistant Secretary General of Bogolyubov, Moscow staged the participation of Konstantin Ustinovich in the elections to the Supreme Soviet. But his days were numbered. They did not give him any chance to solve the main task for which he ascended to the highest post.
Chernenko died 10 March 1985 of the year. By a striking coincidence, Scherbitsky headed the delegation of the USSR Supreme Soviet a few days before that to the USA. Upon learning of the death of the secretary-general, he demanded that the ambassador return home immediately. To which he received the answer: "Your return is now undesirable." On the basis of what instructions did the ambassador decide to be so bold about a member of the politburo? My housemate, who was then in command of the government squadron, confirmed: he also received an order to delay Shcherbytsky’s departure for three days. It turns out that everything was planned.
Gromyko
In Moscow at that time there was a tense undercover game in which Primakov, Yakovlev and son Gromyko participated. The main character was Ligachev. Andrei Andreevich was promised the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR if he in turn suggested that the politburo be elected General Secretary of Gorbachev. The fate of the future best German was hanging in the balance: none of the members of the Politburo, gathered to report the death of Chernenko, did not name him as a successor. At night, with a proposal to take this post, some of them turned to Grishin, but he refused. And Gromyko accepted the proposed deal. The next morning, as soon as the Politburo gathered, he did not wait for the official opening of the meeting, got up and did what Gorbachev, Ligachev and the powerful forces of the world scale were waiting for him to do. Voted unanimously. The same thing happened at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which opened two hours later. So the death sentence was signed to the Soviet Union and the party that raised the country from the ashes, made it a great power, defeated Hitler, saved Russia and humanity.
I learned all of the above many years later, and then, in April, 85, along with everyone, was glad that at last the weak-wise old men were replaced by a person full of energy, speaking freely from the podium without a piece of paper, promising to update everything, improve and improve. The time has come for big hopes, big expectations.
God, how naive we were!
Calculate how many corpses formed the ladder to climb Gorbachev on the coveted pedestal, give the readers.
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