The peak of Mikhail Frunze's career and unexpected death
People's Commissar M. V. Frunze
Of previous article We recall that in 1921–1922, a group of Soviet military leaders, including our hero, provided significant assistance to the Turkish army in defeating Greek forces and liberating the western part of the country. From Turkey, Frunze returned to his previous post as commander of the troops in Ukraine and Crimea. On April 5, 1923, our hero's second child, Timur, was born in Kharkov.
M. Frunze with his daughter Tatyana and son Timur, 1925.
The peak of Mikhail Frunze's career
The Red Army commander had ambitious plans for reorganizing the troops, whose numbers had been significantly reduced following large-scale demobilization. Meanwhile, in Moscow, many were dissatisfied with the performance of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Leon Trotsky. On February 3, 1924, at a plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Secretary of the Central Control Commission, a member of the Board of the People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, and simultaneously the head of the Central Control Commission's Inspectorate for the Army and the fleet S. Gusev (Y. Drabkin) accused him of unwillingness
gradually replace the old specialists and install new workers who grew up here during the Civil War, who are now capable of occupying higher positions.
A ruling was issued on the presence of "serious shortcomings that threaten the army's collapse"In order to "improve the health of the army," a decision was made in March 1924 to reshuffle personnel, and M. Frunze became deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. In April of the same year, he became head of the General Staff and the Military Academy of the Red Army. Less than a year later, on January 17, 1925, Frunze himself took the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs – and became the youngest (39 years old) head of a military department in the new and modern stories Our country. Along with Trotsky, Antonov-Ovseenko and Sklyansky lost their positions. It's worth noting that it was under Frunze that the Red Army introduced unity of command and territorial division of troops.
Frunze, Voroshilov, Stalin and Ordzhonikidze at the XIV Conference of the RCP (B), April 1925.
The ill-fated stomach operation and Frunze's death
As we recall, from his youth, M. Frunze suffered from severe abdominal pain due to recurring stomach ulcers, which were often complicated by bleeding. Effective medications to suppress gastric acid production did not yet exist, and no one knew about Helicobacter pylori and their role in the development of gastritis and peptic ulcers. Traditionally, a strict diet was prescribed, which often further weakened and asthenized patients. A solution of baking soda was used as a symptomatic treatment. Resection—removal of the ulcer along with part of the stomach—was considered a radical treatment.
During the perestroika years, a version began to be promoted that Frunze was literally forced to undergo stomach surgery, and that he supposedly went under the operating table in obedience to party discipline. This version was based primarily on the unsubstantiated claims of Stalin's secretary, Boris Bazhanov, who had fled abroad. But traitors to Russia abroad have never been (and still are) given free food: a bowl of soup must be earned through lies and slander. This is precisely what the Kurbskys, Bazhanovs, Solzhenitsyns, and Rezuns of all sorts did. Bazhanov claimed that Stalin feared Frunze's Bonapartist aspirations. This was absolute nonsense, since everyone knew that the new People's Commissar categorically avoided participation in intra-party struggles and had no political ambitions. V. Molotov asserts:
Frunze wasn't entirely one of the Bolsheviks. Possessing a unique sense of responsibility, he was more of a talented executor of orders from above than a leader.
And Frunze’s character was such that N. N. Bukharin wrote about him:
This iron commander, before whom his enemies trembled, possessed an exceptionally gentle soul and a truly astonishing softness. His character was noble, open, and straightforward.
It should be noted that in the USSR after Frunze’s death there were also rumors along the same lines:
Oh, cucumbers, tomatoes,
Stalin killed Kirov in the corridor.
Stalin killed Kirov in the corridor.
(And equally “reasonable”).
Boris Pilnyak even decided, as they would say today, to "catch the hype" – in 1926, he wrote "The Tale of the Unquenched Moon," which recounted the death of the fictional army commander Gavrilov after an operation. Pilnyak himself, by his own admission, “I hardly knew Frunze, I was barely acquainted with him, I saw him twice.”. And I didn't know. "the actual details of his death"The magazine containing Pilnyak's story was withdrawn from sale, but no one laid a finger on him: the country's leaders regarded this, so to speak, work as obvious and completely harmless nonsense. Molotov merely suggested Pilnyak "Don't publish in the top three journals for a year, but publish in others.".
And Stalin wrote:
Pilnyak is cheating and deceiving us.
Pilnyak subsequently became one of the most published Soviet writers. In 1929, he headed the All-Russian Union of Writers. He owned a personal car (a luxury unaffordable even for many high-ranking officials), and his monthly income was 10 times that of a skilled worker. In short, no one took Pilnyak's story seriously.
And what really happened?
There is every reason to believe that Frunze himself insisted on surgical treatment, fearing that constant pain would prevent him from performing effectively in his new position. This is reported, for example, by I. I. Grekov, professor, head of the Department of Hospital Surgery at the Psychoneurological Institute (which became the 2nd Leningrad Medical Institute) and editor-in-chief of the journal "Bulletin of Surgery and Border Regions." The doctors were hesitant and doubtful. Researchers have access to a letter Frunze wrote to his wife 11 days before his death (October 20, 1925), which includes the following words:
I'm still in the hospital. There will be a new consultation on Saturday. I'm completely healthy now. I'm afraid they might refuse the operation..
It should be noted that 17 doctors took part in the consultation that Frunze writes about.
The operation was long overdue, as the responsibility was extremely high and the outcome uncertain. When the high-ranking patient insisted, he was told bluntly that the operation would be difficult and would not guarantee a cure.
The doctors were absolutely right, as gastric resection surgeries were highly traumatic, and the technique was not fully refined: in the relatively prosperous year of 1913, only 297 such operations were performed in the entire Russian Empire (in 1928, the figure was 942). Mortality after gastric resections in the 1920s was 7-8%, with postoperative disability for those engaged in physical labor ranging from 5 to 6 months. Quality of life after gastric resection was sometimes worse than before the surgery, with disability rates reaching up to 30%.
Anesthesiology wasn't very developed either, and complications during anesthesia induction were not uncommon. The main drug of the time was ether, characterized by a slow onset and recovery. Even worse was chloroform, one of its breakdown products being... phosgene. Chloroform weakens the heart and often causes dangerous arrhythmias.
In any case, after three consultations, the decision to perform a gastric resection was made. The operation was scheduled for October 29, 1925, at Soldatenkovskaya (now Botkin) Hospital. The resection was performed by the experienced and respected surgeon Vladimir Rozanov, who had operated on Stalin in 1921 (removing his appendix) and on Lenin in 1922 (removing bullets from the assassination attempt on Lenin on August 30, 1918). In 1910, he founded and headed the surgical department of Soldatenkovskaya Hospital. In 1929, Rozanov became chief physician of the Kremlin Hospital, and in 1932, he received the title Hero of Labor. Building 10 of Moscow's Botkin Hospital and Pushkin Hospital (Moscow Region) bear his name.
V. Rozanov
The aforementioned I. Grekov, who at that time was the head of the surgical department of the Obukhov hospital and headed the N. I. Pirogov surgical society, came from Leningrad to help him.
I. Grekov in the operating room
Another of Rozanov's assistants was Professor A. Martynov, head of the surgical department of the Moscow University Medical Faculty Clinic and dean of that faculty (which would become the First Moscow Medical University named after Sechenov). He authored numerous works on the surgical treatment of diseases of the biliary tract, thyroid gland, and pancreas. In 1927, he and Grekov removed a stone from Academician I. Pavlov's bile duct, and in 1932, Pavlov dedicated a monograph to Martynov, "An Attempt at a Physiological Understanding of the Symptomatology of Hysteria." Martynov also operated on the seriously wounded Grigory Kotovsky. It is also worth noting that Martynov was called "a man with golden hands," "a reformer of medical education," and "the conscience of Russian surgery."
A. Martynov
The responsibility for administering anesthesia was entrusted to Alexei Ochkin, who had previously served as the head of the First Cavalry Army Hospital. In 1928, he became head of the surgical service at the Kremlin Hospital, served as chief oncologist of the 4th Directorate, and headed the surgery department at the Central Institute for Advanced Medical Studies. A bust of Professor Ochkin can be seen in front of the surgical department of Moscow's Botkin Hospital.
In addition to the experienced nurses, there were eight highly respected doctors with impeccable reputations in the operating room. It's hard to imagine that they were all in cahoots, and not one of them, suspecting something was wrong, asked, "Colleagues, what are you actually doing?" Or wrote a report later about the errors made during the operation—as Lidiya Timashuk did, claiming that the Kremlin doctors missed Zhdanov had a myocardial infarction. Incidentally, she was absolutely right: they say that on the surviving electrocardiogram, the line draws a typical "cat's back" pattern, and, furthermore, the diagnosis "infarction in the area of the anterior wall of the left ventricle and the interventricular septum of the myocardium" was confirmed at the autopsy.
Problems with the high-ranking patient began even before the operation began: Frunze was resistant to anesthesia, requiring an increased dose of ether, then chloroform, which, as we recall, is cardiotoxic. As a result, his blood pressure and heart rate began to drop, and Frunze was given adrenaline—an effective but very dangerous drug. Frunze emerged from anesthesia and remained conscious, but developed severe arrhythmia, complicated by heart failure.
Incidentally, after the operation, Rozanov did not allow Stalin and Mikoyan, who had come to visit him, into Frunze's room, and Joseph Vissarionovich had to limit himself to a note with the following content:
I was at Comrade Rozanov's today at 5 pm (Mikoyan and I). We wanted to come see you, but he wouldn't let us, the nasty thing. We were forced to submit to force.
This is about the extent to which this doctor obeyed the orders of the highest leaders of the state.
Despite all the doctors' efforts, Frunze's heart stopped beating on October 31 at 5:40 a.m. Despite all his victories and enormous service to Soviet Russia, he had by that time been awarded only two Orders of the Red Banner and the Honorary Revolutionary Order. weapons.
M. Frunze's autopsy was performed by the renowned Soviet pathologist, Professor A. Abrikosov. His report stated:
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze's illness, as revealed by the autopsy, consisted, on the one hand, of a round ulcer of the duodenum that had scarred and led to the development of cicatricial growths around the duodenum, the opening of the stomach, and the gallbladder. On the other hand, a previous inflammatory process in the abdominal cavity was present as a consequence of the 1916 operation to remove the appendix. The operation, undertaken on October 29, 1925, for the duodenal ulcer exacerbated the existing chronic inflammation, leading to a sharp decline in cardiac function and death. Underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries, as well as a preserved thymus gland, discovered during the autopsy, suggest the body's vulnerability to anesthesia and its poor resistance to infection.
The recent gastrointestinal bleeding observed is explained by superficial ulcerations (erosions) found in the stomach and duodenum and resulting from the above-mentioned cicatricial growths.
The recent gastrointestinal bleeding observed is explained by superficial ulcerations (erosions) found in the stomach and duodenum and resulting from the above-mentioned cicatricial growths.
Here is the opinion of V.D. Topolyansky, a candidate of medical sciences and associate professor at the I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, who examined the autopsy reports of Tsyurupa, Semashko, and Yezhov, and the medical records of Krupskaya and Frunze:
V. N. Rozanov was assisted by Professors I. I. Grekov and A. V. Martynov, and A. D. Ochkin administered anesthesia. P. N. Obrosov, A. M. Kasatkin, A. Yu. Kanel, and L. G. Levin, employees of the Kremlin Medical and Sanitary Department, were present at the operation. Anesthesia was administered for 65 minutes. The patient had difficulty falling asleep before the operation and tolerated the anesthesia poorly. Ether was initially used for general anesthesia, but due to severe and prolonged agitation, chloroform was then used. The operation was only possible after half an hour. The operation lasted 35 minutes. Judging by the surviving documents, the surgical intervention was limited to an examination of Frunze's abdominal organs and the dissection of some adhesions. No ulcers were found. It is impossible to speak of an inept or negligently performed operation. Due to the falling pulse, injections were administered to stimulate cardiac activity. After the operation, cardiac failure was treated, with the participation of B. I. Neiman, a surgeon from Rozanov's department, and Professor D. D. Pletnev. However, the treatments were unsuccessful. Frunze died 39 hours later. The autopsy surgeon recorded: the underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries, as well as the preserved thymus gland, discovered during the autopsy, suggest the patient's instability in the body's response to anesthesia.
Thus, there is simply no basis for speculation about the causes of Frunze's death.
The hero of the article was replaced by Kliment Voroshilov in the posts of Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.
The name (or rather, surname) of the article's subject was given to the Military Academy and several military schools in the country, the Central House of the Red Army, as well as higher education institutions, industrial enterprises, stadiums, ships, and other objects. Frunze Peak (Northern Pamir) and Mount Frunze (Irkutsk Oblast) appeared on maps. The city of Pishpek, Frunze's birthplace, was renamed—but in 1991, the capital of Kyrgyzstan changed its name, becoming Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan's Frunze Oblast became Chui Oblast back in 1959. In 2023, the Kyrgyz hypermarket chain "Frunze" changed its name to "Asia." The Frunzensky District disappeared from the map of Moscow, but districts in St. Petersburg, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Vladivostok, Minsk, and Dushanbe retained their names. There are Frunzenskaya metro stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Minsk. A small town in Moldova still bears Frunze's name. There are Frunze museums in Bishkek (a memorial house-museum) and in Samara—one opened on February 23, 1934, in the house where the subject of this article lived in 1919-1920.
Photographs from the Samara M. Frunze Museum, provided by S. Petrov:
Museum building
Reconstructed Frunze's office
And in this photograph you can see Frunze's grave near the Kremlin wall:
The fate of Mikhail Frunze's wife and children
Frunze's wife, Sofia Alekseyevna, had not enjoyed robust health since her youth. Her condition was exacerbated by severe depression. Even on the eve of the operation (October 26, 1925), Frunze wrote to her:
What's this, you're really being overwhelmed by all these illnesses! There are so many of them that it's hard to believe you can ever recover... You have to pull yourself together first. Otherwise, everything's just getting worse and worse for us... I once heard someone say something about us: "The Frunze family is so tragic... Everyone's sick, and all the misfortunes are raining down on us!" And truly, we feel like we're one big, continuous hospital.
Sofia Alekseyevna's depression worsened sharply after her husband's death. In September 1926, she committed suicide, leaving two children orphaned: six-year-old Tatyana and three-year-old Timur. They were initially taken in by Frunze's mother, 70-year-old Mavra Efimovna, but in 1931 she too died. The decision regarding the fate of the Frunze children was made at the highest level. Ultimately, they were given to the Voroshilov family, who had no children of his own—only an adopted son, Pyotr (this boy, brought from Tsaritsyn, besieged by the Whites, became a renowned military designer and rose to the rank of lieutenant general). From 1920 to 1928, the Voroshilov family also raised Leonid Nesterenko, the son of a mechanic at the Lugansk Locomotive Plant and a future professor at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute.
K. E. Voroshilov with M. Frunze's children
In addition, the secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, A. Yenukidze, and the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Council, I. Lyubimov, a close friend of Frunze who worked with him in Ivano-Voznesensk and Turkestan (he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front), were appointed guardians of Tatyana and Timur.
After finishing school, Tatyana Frunze entered the Higher Military Academy of Chemical Defense of the Red Army.
Tatyana Frunze
After the war began, she worked on tank plant, then returned to study, but this time at the Moscow Chemical-Technical Institute, which she graduated from in 1947. Her place of work became the N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, and in the late 1960s she defended her doctoral dissertation.
Timur Frunze, having completed 7 grades of a regular school, transferred to a special (semi-barracks) school artillery profile. But I still chose AviationIn 1940, he entered the Kachin Higher Aviation School, which has produced 352 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 17 Heroes of the Russian Federation, 12 air marshals, and over 200 generals. This educational institution (now the Kachin Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots) was disbanded on November 6, 1997, by order of Yeltsin's Defense Minister I. Sergeyev.
But let's return to 1940 and see that Timur Frunze's classmate was Stepan Mikoyan, the son of the famous People's Commissar, who after the war would become a test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and lieutenant general of the Air Force. He would also play the role of his father in the films "Battle for Moscow" and "Stalingrad."
The head of the course, Nemykin, wrote about Timur Frunze:
I've never met a young man who so eagerly absorbed new knowledge. His interests extend far beyond the curriculum.
During the war, Timur was assigned to the 161st Air Regiment, and his aircraft was the Yak-1.
Mikhail Frunze's only son in a 1942 photograph.
Timur Mikhailovich Frunze managed to fly nine combat sorties, shooting down three aircraft—two personally and one in a tandem. He died on January 19, 1942, and in March of that year, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
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