Storm of the Terrible. August 1958 of the year ...
One of the little-studied cases of this kind are the events in Grozny that occurred at the end of August 1958. There is a story about them in Vladimir Kozlov’s book “Mass riots in the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev” written by 15 years ago, published in very small circulation, and a couple of newspaper publications.
It would seem that the general situation in the country at that time was quite peaceful, but not only in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic restored in January of 1958. Of course, the ground for conflicts in this republic was “prepared” for years, if not decades. The eviction of Chechens and Ingush in February 1944, became a kind of “time bomb”, which worked in the first years after the start of their return to their homeland. In June 1957, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU considered the issue “On unauthorized relocations of Chechen-Ingush families (as in the text of the document. - Auth.) To the area of the city of Grozny.” The USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs immediately puzzled republican ministries (the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen SSR and RSFSR) by creating special checkpoints along the possible routes of "returnees", junction railway stations and roads. True, they were given the task of acting by the method of persuasion and not allowing violent actions. But a significant part of the evicted citizens by the summer of 1958, had already returned to their places of origin.
Conflict of interest
Considering the reasons for the conflicts of the late fifties in the region, we should not disregard the fact that the restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (recall that the Grozny region existed in 1944 – 1957) was accompanied by a redrawing of administrative boundaries. In principle, almost all the pre-war borders were restored (only the Prigorodny District was left as part of North Ossetia, which in the late eighties led to interethnic conflict). But let's not forget that in the territories that were transferred to the neighboring republics, as well as in Chechnya-Ingushetia, for twelve years, new people have appeared, and new “economic realities”, as they say now. And the returning indigenous population was actively looking for its niche, which turned out to be obviously small to him. And the rates of return, as we have already noted, were quite high. If, according to the plan, 1957 of thousands of families were to return to the region in 17, in fact there were twice as many. Already in February 1957, the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs presented a certificate in which it was noted that the returning Chechens and Ingushs insistently demanded that they be placed "in those villages and even in the houses in which they lived before eviction." And these houses were occupied by immigrants from neighboring regions, as well as from the cities and villages of central Russia that were destroyed during the war, which in 1944 – 1953 were regularly sent to the Grozny region.
The first conflicts on the basis of the return of property and attempts to restore economic independence by the indigenous population were already noted in 1955. Despite the fact that the restrictions on the special settlement were then removed only from the members of the CPSU, hundreds of Chechen and Ingush families made their way home through all the cordons and tried to return to their homes. The local population and the party-Soviet leadership were not ready for this. The lack of housing, work and the desire to restore the status quo poured into conflicts, in which there were killed and wounded. But all this happened, for the most part, in the countryside. The capital of the republic, the city of Grozny, stood alone, as it were, until the summer of 1957.
The special status of this city was due to the fact that it was founded not by Chechens, but by imperial Russia as a military fortress and then became an international city, and with a fairly developed industry. The main industry, of course, was the oil industry, and the number of Chechens who worked in the oil fields in the pre-war years was calculated in units. In the second half of the fifties, it seemed that the Terrible would be left out of ethnic conflicts. There was practically no question of the return of housing and other property, and the attitude of the authorities to the rather high everyday crime was “Leninist”. When compiling references and reports, the national component was often removed and highlighted either purely domestic motives or “anti-Soviet orientation”. And what happened in Grozny during the period from 23 to 27 in August 1958, what were the causes of the events described in the material, we offer to judge our respected readers ...
Murder on the dance
In the Russian State Archive of Social and Political stories The declassified certificate of the RSFSR Ministry of the Interior on riots in Grozny 26 – 27 August 1958 of the year, signed by Deputy Minister Commissioner of the Police of 2 rank Abramov, is stored not so long ago. It was sent not just anywhere, but to the department of administrative and trade-financial bodies of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the RSFSR and, as it became clear from later events, reached the top leadership of the Central Committee (the secretary of the Central Committee Ignatov went to the republic, and the question was discussed participants of the September plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU).
The document begins with rather alarming words: “Unrest in the mountains. Grozny, which took place on 26 – 27 of August of this year, was provoked by an anti-Soviet and criminal criminal element that used nationalist and chauvinistic sentiments of individuals that involved women and young people in this unstable part and were anti-Soviet in nature. ”
And then in the certificate (we keep its spelling here and below), with all the police directness, it is said that on August 23 of the year 1958 in the village of Chernorechye (a suburb of Grozny) a crime was committed. "On the basis of drunkenness and hooliganism, the summer-aged 20 – 27 Chechens MALSAGOV, RAMZAEV, VESIYEV and RASSAYEV killed a STEPASHIN chemical plant worker and injured a mechanic from the same factory KOROTCHEV." Not a word about the real causes of the murder, nor about the events that accompanied him. Just killed four Chechens of one Russian and one wounded - that's all. But in reality, the situation was a little different.
23 August was Saturday. Vladimir Korotchev, the same wounded 19-year-old mechanic at the chemical plant, drank with four Chechens (one was a non-working citizen, the other a loader, the third a tractor driver, the fourth a mechanic of the Selstroy trust. At some point there was not enough drinking, and the “non-working” Lulu Malsagov demanded that Korotchev “put another bottle.” During a quarrel between them, Malsagov pulled out a knife and hit Korotchev in the stomach. The injury, however, turned out to be easy, and the victim ran away to the dormitory. materials in the book "Mass riots in the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev", further events developed as follows. A participant in the binge Veziyev, a tractor-driver of a fruit and vegetable farm, decided to go to the hostel to visit the wounded man. The others followed him. Once Malsagov saw his wounded “enemy” , he took out a knife and tried to finish it off. Veziyev prevented him, with which Malsagov cut his knife with a knife. The Chechen “guests” retreated, but did not calm down. They went to dance to the nearest cultural center, where they met with the 22-year-old chemical factory worker Yevgeny Stepashin and his comrade, the military sailor Ryabov, who came from Sevastopol to leave for his parents. Between the Chechens (by that time there was already a large group) and the two Russians, a quarrel arose because of the girl. Ryabov managed to escape, and Stepashin slipped and fell. He was severely beaten first, and then inflicted five knife wounds on him. He died at the scene of the crime, and the late “hot on the heels” of the police who arrived arrived detained two of the participants in the murder, placing them in a preliminary detention cell.
Recall that as a reason for the murder in the certificate, the Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR is called “hooliganism and drunkenness”. True, in listing the participants in the events, the official still divides them into Russians and Chechens, but does not focus attention on this.
It would seem that in the multinational Grozny murder (and for the first half of 1958 of the year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they were 10) were not uncommon. But the death of a young worker near the house of culture, quite unexpectedly for the authorities, became, as they say today, a “high-profile crime”. And it had such consequences that no one could predict ...
On the eve of the riot
When I became acquainted with the materials relating to the Grozny events of 1958 of the year, I concluded for myself that the authorities had several opportunities to prevent spontaneous speeches, and even more riots. But the Soviet system at that time was so inactive and not capable of meaningful action, that it could not even foresee the crisis, much less hinder it. However, the word “obstruct” I used still had a place, but in a different context.
The resonant killing of a worker at a large factory naturally did not go unnoticed by the factory administration. A funeral commission was even set up. But when relatives, friends and colleagues asked to install the coffin with Yevgeny Stepashin in the factory club, they were refused - "the city committee did not recommend." The authorities actively prevented the farewell to the dead to be public. No appeals to the city committee, regional executive committee and the regional party committee did not achieve the result. As a result, friends and relatives had to solve organizational issues on their own.
As a historian, I understand the motivation of the party bosses: parting at the factory club could have caused an aggravation of the smoldering interethnic conflict, especially since the murder, although it was domestic, could and had already become politically motivated. But in the arsenal of the authorities, undoubtedly, there were many ways to keep the situation under control. Publicly promise a thorough investigation and punishment of the murderers, organize a funeral involving serious police forces, the KGB and even military units to guard the order. To think over the issue of transport for all participants, to exclude the movement of the column on foot, to hold a funeral at public expense, announcing it, etc. But the authorities chose to simply remain silent.
It was impossible to organize a farewell in the home of the killed man: a narrow corridor did not allow; in the club to put the coffin banned. Therefore, it was decided by friends and relatives on the eve of the funeral (it was 25 August in 15 – 16 hours) to put the coffin of the murdered Yevgeny Stepashin in the garden opposite his bride’s house.
In the certificate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR, this is described as follows: “The management of the chemical plant, the Komsomol members, and the workers took part in organizing the funeral of STEPASHIN. The funeral was scheduled for August 26. On the day of the funeral, the coffin with the body was installed in the morning (we already know that it was brought on the eve of the afternoon. - Auth.) In the garden in front of the house of the familiar girl who was killed, which attracted the attention of a large number of citizens. Anonymous leaflets of provocative content were distributed by unknown persons in the village of Chernorechye and at the chemical plant before the funeral.
Unfortunately, there are no leaflets in the case materials (they were most likely taken by the KGB and kept in the archive of this organization), but the available documents give an idea of how the “uncontrollable” farewell to the killed worker turned into riots. Already in the evening, residents of Chernoreche began to arrive at the place of farewell. At first there were dozens, and then hundreds. And the initiative to hold a rally and appeal to the leadership of the country was not taken by the “hooligans”, but by quite responsible, authoritative and honored people. Together with Ryabov who survived the fight, an oil veteran who had been awarded the Order of Lenin, Leonid Myakin, a disabled worker, arrived at the house. At the coffin of the murdered man, whom he knew well, Myakinin said: “Chechens kill Russians, either one or the other, they do not allow us to live in peace. We must write a collective letter on behalf of the Russian people, collect signatures, select a person who will take a letter to Moscow with a request to send a commission to us in Grozny, and if there is no commission, let comrade himself come. Khrushchev, to understand on the spot. "
This performance of a veteran (at that time he was 73 of the year), who lost both legs in the production, was supported by the participants. At night, the friends of the murdered man agreed that if the mourning rally in Chernorechye was banned (and the authorities removed all the announcements about the rally, which were written by hand and hung in crowded places), then the coffin would be carried to the regional party to hold a rally there.
For reasons unknown to us, the certificate signed by the Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR does not mention the fact that at about 13 hours the party authorities arrived in Chernorechye - the secretary of the Chechen-Ingush regional committee of the CPSU and four staff members of the regional committee. With them there were a half dozen security officers, most of them in civilian clothes. The participation of the regional committee secretary was expressed in the fact that he prohibited any speeches before the removal of the body and instructed to take the coffin to the cemetery by car to avoid a mourning procession.
But the mood of the audience, and they gathered more than a thousand people, it was already different. In 15.30, despite the "instructions of the regional committee secretary," they lifted the coffin in their arms and moved towards the city center to reach the regional committee, and then another five kilometers to carry the coffin to the city cemetery. During the march, the crowd increased, and "hostile elements" addressed citizens "with nationalist and chauvinistic statements." At that moment, it became clear to the party leaders that the matter was leading to mass riots, and they began to “take action”. The certificate sent to the CPSU Central Committee states: “At the direction of the secretary of the CPSU Regional Committee Comrade. CHERKEVICH, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic tried to change the route of the funeral procession to the cemetery, for which they were blocked by police and street vehicles leading to the Regional Committee of the Communist Party.
By this action, the party leaders of the republic only pushed the procession participants to action. Open confrontation of the people and the authorities has become inevitable.
The first assault on the Regional Committee
Even the dry lines of police reports give an idea of how great the passions were in Grozny by the evening of August 26 of the year 1958. As the Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR reported, the crowd broke through the small cordon, turned over the cars that blocked the road and went to Lenin Square to the regional committee. There, the coffin was installed first on the ground, and then on the table brought from the book market that worked nearby. By seven o'clock in the evening it became clear that the party and Soviet leaders of the republic and city, who had taken refuge in the building of the regional committee, did not wish to publicly communicate with citizens. And it even more excited the audience, and for the most part no longer residents of Chernorechye and chemical plant workers, but those who joined the convoy and spontaneous rally. Friends and relatives of the deceased (about 200 people) succumbed to the persuasion of the factory administration and went to the cemetery by car. And the seven-thousand crowd (we remind the readers that the entire population of Grozny in 1958 was 240 thousands) remained on the square and demanded the performance of "senior workers". "Responsible" did not dare to appear, and in 19.30 a police cordon (total 70 people) was broken and a "group of citizens" broke into the building of the regional party committee. Citizens attempted to pull into the square Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic Gayerbekov and other leaders, but the KGB officers and police came to the rescue and managed to repel them and force the “invaders” out of the building.
When reinforcements arrived at the regional committee (military servicemen of the internal troops near 120), the secretaries of the regional committee Cherkevich and Saiko, as well as the secretary of the town committee of the party Shepelev under guard, came out to the crowd and, instead of calming the crowd, demanded to stop the unrest. A few minutes later they had to retreat urgently ... And in the second hour of the night and the reinforced cordon was broken, and the young people (it was headed by students of a vocational school) burst into the almost empty building of the regional committee. Note that during the first assault on the regional committee, the purpose of the “invaders” was to find and bring the leaders of the republic to the people. There were no special damages or signs of vandalism in the premises. Only at three o'clock in the morning, the building was cleared by the forces of the militia and the KGB, the remains of the protesters were scattered, and twenty people (mostly drunk) were detained. Eleven were in the bullpen, but after finding out the identity in the morning and they were released.
It would seem that everything calmed down, order was restored in the city. The reinforced police squad from 15 people was left at the regional committee, and the police commanders went to bed. If they only imagined what was waiting for them the next day ...
Capture the Regional Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB
The first citizens of Grozny appeared on the Lenin Square, cleaned up on the eve, at seven o'clock in the morning. The reason for their appearance was the rumors spread on the eve that at 9 the hours of the morning a rally was held near the party regional party building with the participation of the leaders of the CPSU and the USSR government, who allegedly were supposed to arrive at night from Moscow. Leaflets were circulating in the crowd. Their content was as follows: “Leaflet. On August 26, our comrades carried the coffin with the corpse of a worker killed by Chechens past the Party Regional Committee. The police, instead of taking action to punish the killers, detained the 50 people of our workers. So let's leave off work at 11 in the morning and go to the Obkom to demand their release. ” These leaflets were distributed at the chemical plant, and the “distributors” said that there were cars near the garage that were prepared to send workers to the rally. And indeed, the cars were! Part of the chemical plant workers stopped work and went to Lenin Square.
And there, by ten in the morning, those gathered understood that there would be no “Moscow commission”. The most active part of the participants of the rally, pushing aside the police, burst into the building through the main entrance. A certificate sent by the RSFSR Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Central Committee of the CPSU is described as follows: “By 10 hours of the morning, a crowd of up to 5 thousands of people gathered at the Regional Committee, most of whom were curious citizens. At that time, the 65 officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and 120 of the military personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed by the Minister of Commerce. DROZDOVYM and his deputy Comrade. Shadrin
Not paying attention to the requests and demands of the leaders of the Regional Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to disperse, hooligan elements broke through the cordon and broke into the building of the Regional Committee, where they were outraged, causing violence against the secretary of the city committee of the party comrade. SHEPELYOV, Chairman of the City Executive Committee Comrade. Bryksin, deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers Comrade. DARING, deputy. Minister of Internal Affairs Comrade. Shadrin and others.
The secretary of the town committee Shepelev was dragged out into the street to get him to speak, but in the end they did not let him speak, they just beat him up badly. After a while, the rally participants were ousted from the regional committee building, but the event itself continued. A microphone was installed on the lorry, with “angry” speakers, I would even say “very angry” citizens. The requirements were different: from evicting Chechens and Ingushes to stopping work in factories, to the release of the detainees the day before (in fact, they were already released in the morning).
And at one o'clock the destruction of the regional committee building began. The crowd broke into it again, filling all the rooms. Furniture was broken, dishes were broken, windows were broken, documents, including secret documents, and ink were spilled and partially burned. In the dining room, water taps and gas burner taps were opened. Searched and weaponwhich, however, managed to take out. We note, by the way, that the workers of the regional committee asked to arm them for self-defense, but the permission of the first secretary (and only he could give such an indication) was not followed. Most likely, this is why the party functionaries remained alive, although some of them were severely beaten.
It was not possible to capture the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic and the first leaders, but Deputy Minister Shadrin was badly hurt. At about 17 the clock was dragged to the square and, beating, led to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The crowd, breaking the weak resistance of the guard, broke into the building. They opened the doors of service offices, searched for detainees. The most amazing thing was that during the seizure of the cells of preliminary detention, the killers of Yevgeny Stepashin were also in them. But for some reason the crowd did not touch them - was looking for those who were detained the day before during the rally. The help of the RSFSR Ministry of Internal Affairs about this episode was rather dry: “The cordon near the building was creased, the crowd broke into the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB and the bullpen room, where they performed daring hooligan actions for two hours. After that, the crowd returned to the Obkom, where it continued to rage. ”
At about 20 hours, 44-year-old Georgy Shvayuk, a senior hydraulic engineer of the Gudermes State Farm, came to the captured regional committee. He brought the draft resolution resolution written by him with his own hands:
“Considering the manifestation on the part of the Chechen-Ingush population of the brutal attitude towards the peoples of other nationalities, expressed in massacre, murder, rape and harassment, the working people of Grozny on behalf of the majority of the republic propose:
1. From August 27 rename the CHI ASSR to the Grozny region or a multinational Soviet socialist republic.
2. The Chechen-Ingush population is allowed to live in the Grozny region no more than 10% of the total population ...
3. Denying all the advantages of the Chechen-Ingush population compared to other nationalities ... "
This became an archival document (and it was printed on captured obkomovskih forms) cited from the book "Mass riots in the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev." By the way, at the trial in September 1958, George Shvayuk did not plead guilty, saying that he did not deny his actions, but did not consider them criminal, and added that his project was “not aimed at inciting national hatred.”
The first victims appeared already in the afternoon. The crowd captured two recklessly trapped near the square of Chechens Mataev and Temirov, who were severely beaten. The first of them soon passed away. Then they began to stop all the cars "in order to identify persons of Chechen nationality," but there were no other killings.
It cannot be said that the group of secretaries of local party organizations did not try to stop or at least slow down the development of events. It was too late. They were unwilling to listen and beaten. And the crowd under the red banner captured in the regional committee headed for the radio broadcasting station guarded by only three soldiers barricading the entrance. For some reason (most likely, having received information that the transmitter was turned off), the rally participants did not take over the building and went to the long-distance telephone exchange. The guards greeted them with automatic fire. One of the workers by the name of Andrianov was killed, and his wounded wife had to amputate his arm. The shooting soldiers hid in the building, and the mob penetrated the telephone exchange. “They didn’t manage to talk with Moscow,” however, the telephone line was disabled.
The next item, which the rebels rushed to, was the post office, from where it was finally possible to get through to the reception room of Khrushchev. Georgy Shvayuk, already mentioned by us, asked: “Do you know what is happening in Grozny, that the people are waiting for representatives from Moscow, that you need to put an end to the brutal murders? It came to the point that some demanded the return of the Grozny region and the return of the Chechens ... ”
In Moscow, of course, they knew everything. Already in the afternoon it was decided to send troops to the city in the evening. But before that, the station was seized and the departure of the train Rostov-on-Don - Baku was delayed for more than two hours.
The arrival of several thousand well-armed military men quickly stopped the situation. At first they tried to throw stones at them, but army units acting with rifle butts (only a few cases of firing into the air were noted) quickly dispersed the crowd. At half past midnight the railway communication was unblocked, and by two o'clock all the buildings seized earlier had been taken under control. A curfew was introduced in the city from 22 hours to 6 in the morning, which lasted for several days. All government agencies, points of communication and transport hubs until 30 August were taken under the protection of the armed forces. This time the order in the city was really restored ...
Fast trial
Oh, what, and in the inefficiency of legal proceedings the Soviet system can not be blamed. The investigation and the court were, by today's standards, swift. Two participants in the murder of Yevgeny Stepashin on September 16 (that is, a little more than three weeks after the arrest) were convicted, one to the death penalty - execution, the other - to 10 years of imprisonment with five additional years of “defeat”.
From the night of August 27, the participants in the events were arrested. The exact number of those arrested (and both the Interior Ministry and the KGB were in charge of the arrest) is unknown. A curious detail: a police report on the events in Grozny is dated 4 September, but it contains the following words: “During the execution of these and other events from 28 August to 7 September (highlighted by me. - Auth.), They were detained for participating in the unrest 80 people, of these, 45 was arrested. Transferred along with materials under investigation to the KGB 9. Among those arrested are 21 people with no specific occupation (one morphine, three anachishists, alcoholics, speculators, pickpockets), 11 previously convicted. The KGB for the same time arrested 14 active participants in the unrest. "
By September 15, 273 participants in riots and hooligans were taken for operational accounting, and 76 of them were arrested. The Interior Ministry authorities filed criminal cases with 58. In addition, by 15 September, it was decided to evict 365 people from Grozny (167 previously convicted, 172 non-working, 22 prostitutes, 32 beggars, etc.) And the participants in the unrest received their sentences from 1 year to 10 imprisonment. The convicted 91 featured in the verdict an article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR 59-2 (riots).
"Debriefing" authorities carried out as rapidly. Already in early September, the Ministry of the Interior of the RSFSR reported on the deficiencies identified in its system. It turns out that out of 202, the 117 militia personnel did not have special training, and 83 did not even have a secondary education. The agent network existed only on paper, and many police officers, including the commanding staff, dressed in civilian clothes “for fear of possible beating by their hooligans”. Not only unsatisfactory preparation was noted, but also indecision, loss of control by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the republic, his carelessness and underestimation of the threatening situation.
And Ignatov, the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee mentioned by us, who left for Grozny at the beginning of September, stated: 26 and 27 of the August Regional Committee, the city committee and the Council of Ministers of the republic were not only paralyzed, but did not even try to seize the initiative and appeal to the “party activists and workers”
Nevertheless, there was no real political assessment of the events. For two days the city was practically in the grip of the crowd (thousands of people took to the streets at the same time), the main party and Soviet institutions, transport nodes and communications enterprises were seized. And at the September Plenum of the Central Committee, the issue was practically taken out of the agenda, having limited to brief information at a meeting of the secretaries of the regional committees and the regional committee of the party. Naturally, all central media were silent about what had happened. The communists did not like to publicly admit their mistakes and, especially, the weakness of their structures.
At the beginning of the material, I already wrote that to draw conclusions about who caused the events in Grozny in August 1958 of the year, and whether they could take a different turn, I give to our readers. Now each of us has the opportunity to think, compare, evaluate what happened 54 a year ago. Unfortunately, there is something to compare with ...
The editors thank the staff of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and, separately, Elena Efimovna Kirillova for their help in working on the material.
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