-
USSR USSR -

RankLieutenant General

: Invalid or missing image

commanded Battles/wars Awards and prizes Russian Empire

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik(May 22, 1896, Bobynichi (Belarusian)Russian Slonim district of the Grodno province (now the Slonim district of the Grodno region) - June 18, 1967, Moscow) - an employee of the state security bodies of the USSR. Head of Stalin's security (-). Lieutenant General ().

Service start

In 1927, he headed the Kremlin's special guards and became the de facto chief of Stalin's guards. 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 department of the 1st department (protection of senior officials) of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, from November 1938 - head of the 1st department in the same place. 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.

From May 1943 - head of the 6th department of the People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR, from August 1943 - first deputy head of this department. Since April 1946 - Head of the Main Directorate of Security of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR (since December 1946 - Main Directorate of Security).

Vlasik was Stalin's personal bodyguard for many years and lasted the longest in this post. Coming to his personal guard in 1931, he not only became her boss, but also adopted many of the everyday problems of the Stalin family, in which, in essence, Vlasik was a family member. After the death of Stalin's wife, N. S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, practically performed the functions of a majordomo.

Vlasik is extremely negatively assessed by Svetlana Alliluyeva in the book "Twenty Letters to a Friend" and positively - by the adopted son of I.V. Stalin Artyom Sergeev, who believes that the role and contribution of N.S. Vlasik has not yet been fully appreciated.

His main duty was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the cutting edge. He knew very well both friends and enemies of Stalin. And he knew that his life and the life of Stalin were very closely linked, and it was no coincidence that when a month and a half or two before Stalin's death he was suddenly arrested, he said: "I was arrested, which means that soon there will be no Stalin." And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin lived a little. What kind of work did Vlasik have in general? It was day and night work, there was no 6–8 hour working day. All his life he had work, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room... He understood that he was living for Stalin, in order to ensure the work of Stalin, and hence the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two props for that colossal activity, not yet fully appreciated, that Stalin led, and they remained in the shadows. And Poskrebyshev was treated badly, even worse - with Vlasik. Artyom Sergeev. "Conversations about Stalin".

N. S. Vlasik with I. V. Stalin and his son Vasily. Near dacha in Volynskoye, 1935	N. S. Vlasik with his wife Maria Semyonovna, 1930s	N. S. Vlasik (far right) accompanies I. V. Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, August 1, 1945	N. S. Vlasik in his office. Early 1940s

Since 1947, he was a deputy of the Moscow City Council of Workers of the 2nd convocation.

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

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with the removal of a criminal record, but he was not restored to military rank and awards.

In his memoirs, Vlasik wrote:

I was severely offended by Stalin. After 25 years of impeccable work, without any reprimand, but only encouragement and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he gave me into the hands of 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 did not have anger in my soul against Stalin.

Last years

Lived in Moscow. He died on June 18, 1967 in Moscow from lung cancer. He was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery.

Rehabilitation

Awards

• George Cross 4th class
• Three Orders of Lenin (04/26/1940, 02/21/1945, 09/16/1945)
• Three 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 class (02/24/1945)
• Medal of the twentieth years of the Red Army (22.02.1938)
• Two badges Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (12/20/1932, 12/16/1935)

Ranks

• Major of State Security (12/11/1935)
• Senior major of state security (04/26/1938)
• Commissar of State Security 3rd rank (12/28/1938)
• Lieutenant General (07/12/1945)

Personal life and hobbies

Nikolai Vlasik was fond of photography. He is the author of many unique photos Joseph Stalin, members of his family and inner circle.

Wife - Maria Semyonovna Vlasik (1908-1996). Daughter - Nadezhda Nikolaevna Vlasik-Mikhailova (born 1935), worked as an art editor and graphic artist at the Nauka publishing house.

see also

Movie incarnations

• - "Inner Circle", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - People's Artist of the USSR Oleg Tabakov.
• - “Stalin. Live ", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - Yuri Gamayunov.
• - "Yalta-45", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - Boris Kamorzin.
• - "Son of the Father of Nations", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - Honored Artist of Russia Yuri Lakhin.
• - "Kill Stalin", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Yumatov.
• - The documentary series "Vlasik", in the role of N. S. Vlasik - Konstantin Milovanov.

Write a review on the article "Vlasik, Nikolai Sidorovich"

Literature

• Vlasik N. S."Memories of I. V. Stalin"
• // Petrov N.V., Skorkin K.V./ Ed. N. G. Okhotin and A. B. Roginsky. - M .: Links, 1999. - 502 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-7870-0032-3.
• V. Loginov.. - M .: Sovremennik, 2000. - 152 p. - ISBN 5-270-01297-9.
• Artyom Sergeev, Ekaterina Glushik. Conversations about Stalin. - M .: Krymsky most-9D, 2006. - 192 p. - (Stalin: Primary sources). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-89747-067-7.
• Artyom Sergeev, Ekaterina Glushik. How JV Stalin lived, worked and raised children. Eyewitness testimony. - M .: Krymsky most-9D, STC "Forum", 2011. - 288 p. - (Stalin: Primary sources). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89747-062-4.

Notes

Links

• Memoirs of the head of personal security I. V. Stalin:,,,,,

An excerpt characterizing Vlasik, Nikolai Sidorovich

The valet, returning, reported to the count that Moscow was on fire. The count put on his dressing-gown and went out to have a look. Sonya, who had not yet undressed, and Madame Schoss came out with him. Natasha and the countess were alone in the room. (Petya was no longer with the family; he went ahead with his regiment, marching to Trinity.)
The Countess wept when she heard the news of the fire in Moscow. Natasha, pale, with fixed eyes, sitting under the icons on the bench (in the very place where she sat down when she arrived), did not pay any attention to her father's words. She listened to the incessant groan of the adjutant, heard through three houses.
- Oh, what a horror! - said, come back from the yard, cold and frightened Sonya. - I think all of Moscow will burn, a terrible glow! Natasha, look now, you can see it from the window from here, ”she said to her sister, apparently wanting to entertain her with something. But Natasha looked at her, as if not understanding what she was being asked, and again stared with her eyes at the corner of the stove. Natasha has been in this state of tetanus since this morning, from the very time that Sonya, to the surprise and annoyance of the countess, for no reason at all, found it necessary to announce to Natasha about the wound of Prince Andrei and about his presence with them on the train. The countess was angry with Sonya, as she rarely got angry. Sonya cried and asked for forgiveness, and now, as if trying to make amends for her guilt, she did not stop caring for her sister.
“Look, Natasha, how terribly it burns,” said Sonya.
- What is on fire? Natasha asked. – Oh, yes, Moscow.
And as if in order not to offend Sonya by her refusal and to get rid of her, she moved her head to the window, looked so that she obviously could not see anything, and again sat down in her former position.
- Didn't you see it?
“No, really, I saw it,” she said in a pleading voice.
Both the countess and Sonya understood that Moscow, the fire of Moscow, whatever it was, of course, could not matter to Natasha.
The count again went behind the partition and lay down. The countess went up to Natasha, touched her head with her upturned hand, as she did when her daughter was sick, then touched her forehead with her lips, as if to find out if there was a fever, and kissed her.
- You are cold. You're all trembling. You should go to bed,” she said.
- Lie down? Yes, okay, I'll go to bed. I'm going to bed now, - said Natasha.
Since Natasha was told this morning that Prince Andrei was seriously wounded and was traveling with them, she only in the first minute asked a lot about where? How? is he dangerously injured? and can she see him? But after she was told that she was not allowed to see him, that he was seriously injured, but that his life was not in danger, she obviously did not believe what she was told, but convinced that no matter how much she said, she would be answer the same thing, stopped asking and talking. All the way, with big eyes, which the countess knew so well and whose expression the countess was so afraid of, Natasha sat motionless in the corner of the carriage and was now sitting in the same way on the bench on which she sat down. She was thinking about something, something she was deciding or had already decided in her mind now - the countess knew this, but what it was, she did not know, and this frightened and tormented her.
- Natasha, undress, my dear, lie down on my bed. (Only the countess alone was made a bed on the bed; m me Schoss and both young ladies had to sleep on the floor in the hay.)
“No, mom, I’ll lie down here on the floor,” Natasha said angrily, went to the window and opened it. The groan of the adjutant was heard more distinctly from the open window. She stuck her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her thin shoulders tremble with sobs and beat against the frame. Natasha knew that it was not Prince Andrei who was moaning. She knew that Prince Andrei was lying in the same connection where they were, in another hut across the passage; but this terrible unceasing groan made her sob. The Countess exchanged glances with Sonya.
"Lie down, my dear, lie down, my friend," said the countess, lightly touching Natasha's shoulder with her hand. - Well, go to bed.
“Ah, yes ... I’ll lie down now, now,” said Natasha, hastily undressing and tearing off the strings of her skirts. Throwing off her dress and putting on a jacket, she tucked her legs up, sat down on the bed prepared on the floor and, throwing her short, thin braid over her shoulder, began to weave it. Thin long habitual fingers quickly, deftly took apart, weaved, tied a braid. Natasha's head familiar gesture turned first to one side, then to the other, but her eyes, feverishly open, fixedly stared straight ahead. When the night costume was over, Natasha quietly sank down on a sheet spread on hay from the edge of the door.
“Natasha, lie down in the middle,” said Sonya.
“No, I’m here,” Natasha said. "Go to bed," she added with annoyance. And she buried her face in the pillow.
The countess, m me Schoss, and Sonya hurriedly undressed and lay down. One lamp was left in the room. But in the yard it was bright from the fire of Maly Mytishchi, two miles away, and the drunken cries of the people were buzzing in the tavern, which was broken by the Mamon Cossacks, on the warp, in the street, and the incessant groan of the adjutant was heard all the time.
For a long time Natasha listened to the internal and external sounds that reached her, and did not move. At first she heard her mother's prayer and sighs, the creaking of her bed under her, the familiar whistling snore of m me Schoss, Sonya's quiet breathing. Then the Countess called Natasha. Natasha did not answer her.
“He seems to be sleeping, mother,” Sonya answered quietly. The Countess, after a pause, called again, but no one answered her.
Soon after, Natasha heard her mother's even breathing. Natasha did not move, despite the fact that her small bare foot, knocked out from under the covers, shivered on the bare floor.
As if celebrating the victory over everyone, a cricket screamed in the crack. The rooster crowed far away, relatives responded. In the tavern, the screams died down, only the same stand of the adjutant was heard. Natasha got up.
- Sonya? are you sleeping? Mother? she whispered. No one answered. Natasha slowly and cautiously got up, crossed herself and carefully stepped with her narrow and flexible bare foot on the dirty cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran like a kitten a few steps and took hold of the cold bracket of the door.
It seemed to her that something heavy, evenly striking, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, which was dying from fear, from horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, stepped over the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold earth of the porch. The chill that gripped her refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner, by the bed, on which something was lying, on a bench stood a tallow candle burnt with a large mushroom.
In the morning, Natasha, when she was told about the wound and the presence of Prince Andrei, decided that she should see him. She didn't know what it was for, but she knew that the date would be painful, and she was even more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she lived only in the hope that at night she would see him. But now that the moment had come, she was terrified of what she would see. How was he mutilated? What was left of him? Was he like that, what was that unceasing groan of the adjutant? Yes, he was. He was in her imagination the personification of that terrible moan. When she saw an indistinct mass in the corner and took his knees raised under the covers by his shoulders, she imagined some kind of terrible body and stopped in horror. But irresistible force pulled her forward. She cautiously took one step, then another, and found herself in the middle of a small cluttered hut. In the hut, under the images, another person was lying on benches (it was Timokhin), and two more people were lying on the floor (they were a doctor and a valet).
The valet got up and whispered something. Timokhin, suffering from pain in his wounded leg, did not sleep and looked with all his eyes at the strange appearance of a girl in a poor shirt, jacket and eternal cap. The sleepy and frightened words of the valet; "What do you want, why?" - they only made Natasha come up to the one that lay in the corner as soon as possible. As terrifying as this body was, it must have been visible to her. She passed the valet: the burning mushroom of the candle fell off, and she clearly saw Prince Andrei lying on the blanket with outstretched arms, just as she had always seen him.
He was the same as always; but the inflamed complexion of his face, the brilliant eyes fixed enthusiastically on her, and especially the tender childish neck protruding from the laid back collar of his shirt, gave him a special, innocent, childish look, which, however, she had never seen in Prince Andrei. She walked over to him and, with a quick, lithe, youthful movement, knelt down.
He smiled and extended his hand to her.

For Prince Andrei, seven days have passed since he woke up at the dressing station in the Borodino field. All this time he was almost in constant unconsciousness. The fever and inflammation of the intestines, which were damaged, in the opinion of the doctor who was traveling with the wounded, must have carried him away. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with tea, and the doctor noticed that the general fever had decreased. Prince Andrei regained consciousness in the morning. The first night after leaving Moscow was quite warm, and Prince Andrei was left to sleep in a carriage; but in Mytishchi the wounded man himself demanded to be carried out and to be given tea. The pain inflicted on him by being carried to the hut made Prince Andrei moan loudly and lose consciousness again. When they laid him down on the camp bed, he lay with his eyes closed for a long time without moving. Then he opened them and whispered softly: “What about tea?” This memory for the small details of life struck the doctor. He felt his pulse and, to his surprise and displeasure, noticed that the pulse was better. To his displeasure, the doctor noticed this because, from his experience, he was convinced that Prince Andrei could not live, and that if he did not die now, he would only die with great suffering some time later. With Prince Andrei they carried the major of his regiment Timokhin, who had joined them in Moscow, with a red nose, wounded in the leg in the same Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, the prince's valet, his coachman and two batmen.
Prince Andrei was given tea. He drank greedily, looking ahead at the door with feverish eyes, as if trying to understand and remember something.
- I don't want any more. Timokhin here? - he asked. Timokhin crawled up to him along the bench.
“I'm here, Your Excellency.
- How is the wound?
– My then with? Nothing. Here you are? - Prince Andrei again thought, as if remembering something.
- Could you get a book? - he said.
- Which book?
– Gospel! I have no.
The doctor promised to get it and began to question the prince about how he felt. Prince Andrei reluctantly but reasonably answered all the doctor's questions and then said that he should have put a roller on him, otherwise it would be awkward and very painful. The doctor and the valet raised the overcoat with which he was covered, and, wincing at the heavy smell of rotten meat spreading from the wound, began to examine this scary place. The doctor was very dissatisfied with something, he altered something differently, turned the wounded man over so that he again groaned and, from pain during the turning, again lost consciousness and began to rave. He kept talking about getting this book as soon as possible and putting it there.
- And what does it cost you! he said. “I don’t have it, please take it out, put it in for a minute,” he said in a pitiful voice.
The doctor went out into the hallway to wash his hands.
“Ah, shameless, really,” said the doctor to the valet, who was pouring water on his hands. I just didn't watch it for a minute. After all, you put it right on the wound. It's such a pain that I wonder how he endures.
“We seem to have planted, Lord Jesus Christ,” said the valet.
For the first time, Prince Andrei understood where he was and what had happened to him, and remembered that he had been wounded and that at the moment when the carriage stopped in Mytishchi, he asked to go to the hut. Confused again from pain, he came to his senses another time in the hut, when he was drinking tea, and then again, repeating in his recollection everything that had happened to him, he most vividly imagined that moment at the dressing station when, at the sight of the suffering of a person he did not love , these new thoughts that promised him happiness came to him. And these thoughts, although vague and indefinite, now again took possession of his soul. He remembered that he now had a new happiness and that this happiness had something in common with the Gospel. That's why he asked for the gospel. But the bad position that had been given to his wound, the new turning over again confused his thoughts, and for the third time he woke up to life in the perfect stillness of the night. Everyone was sleeping around him. The cricket was shouting across the entryway, someone was shouting and singing in the street, cockroaches rustled on the table and icons, in autumn a thick fly beat on his headboard and near a tallow candle that was burning with a large mushroom and stood beside him.
His soul was not in a normal state. Healthy man he usually thinks, feels and remembers at the same time about an innumerable number of objects, but he has power and strength, having chosen one series of thoughts or phenomena, to stop all his attention on this series of phenomena. A healthy person, in a moment of deepest reflection, breaks away to say a courteous word to the person who has entered, and again returns to his thoughts. The soul of Prince Andrei was not in a normal state in this regard. All the forces of his soul were more active, clearer than ever, but they acted outside of his will. The most diverse thoughts and ideas simultaneously owned him. Sometimes his thought suddenly began to work, and with such force, clarity and depth, with which it had never been able to act in a healthy state; but suddenly, in the middle of her work, she broke off, was replaced by some unexpected performance, and there was no strength to return to her.
“Yes, a new happiness has opened up to me, inalienable from a person,” he thought, lying in a half-dark, quiet hut and looking ahead with feverishly open, stopped eyes. Happiness that is outside of material forces, outside of material external influences on a person, the happiness of one soul, the happiness of love! Any person can understand it, but only God alone can recognize and prescribe its motif. But how did God ordain this law? Why a son? .. And suddenly the train of these thoughts was interrupted, and Prince Andrei heard (not knowing whether he was delirious or really hears this), heard some kind of quiet, whispering voice, incessantly repeating to the beat: “And drink, drink, drink,” then “and ti ti” again “and drink ti ti” again “and ti ti”. At the same time, to the sound of this whispering music, Prince Andrei felt that some strange airy building of thin needles or splinters was being erected above his face, above the very middle. He felt (although it was hard for him) that he had to diligently keep his balance so that the building that was being erected would not collapse; but it still collapsed and again slowly rose to the sounds of evenly whispering music. "It's pulling! stretches! stretches and everything stretches, ”Prince Andrei said to himself. Together with listening to the whisper and with the feeling of this stretching and rising building of needles, Prince Andrei saw in fits and starts the red light of a candle surrounded by a circle and heard the rustling of cockroaches and the rustling of a fly beating on the pillow and on his face. And every time a fly touched his face, it produced a burning sensation; but at the same time he was surprised that, striking in the very region of the building erected on the face of his face, the fly did not destroy it. But besides that, there was one more important thing. It was white at the door, it was a statue of a sphinx that crushed him too.

60 years ago, on December 16, 1952, the former head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant General Vlasik, was arrested. Stalin played a very strange role in the fate of his chief bodyguard. Yevgeny Zhirnov, head of the historical and archival service of the Kommersant Publishing House, understood this mysterious story.

"Being stupid but noble"

Once, in the era of glasnost, which captured not only the press, but also veterans of the authorities and special services, who at that time willingly shared their memories, one of the former state security officers told me about an episode associated with the incredible physical strength of Stalin's chief bodyguard, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik. My interlocutor, then still a young MGB operative, unexpectedly recognized in the crowd on a Moscow street in a strong man dressed in an excellent coat, the head of the Main Directorate of Security (GUO) of the MGB of the USSR, Lieutenant General Vlasik. The operative noticed that a suspicious type, obviously a pickpocket, was spinning near the high boss, and began to quickly move towards the general. But, approaching, he saw that the thief had already put his hand into Vlasik's pocket, and he suddenly put his powerful five on his coat over his pocket and squeezed the thief's brush so that, as the opera told, the crack of breaking bones was heard. The veteran recalled that he wanted to detain the pickpocket, who had turned white and lost consciousness from pain, but Vlasik winked at him, shook his head negatively and said: "There is no need to plant, he will not be able to steal anymore."

Other veterans recalled that Vlasik was considered one of the most powerful figures in Stalin's entourage, not only in terms of physical strength, but also in terms of influence. It was said that at times the head bodyguard exaggerated his importance, resorting to a simple trick. The door from Stalin's reception room led to a small vestibule, from which the next door opened - to the office. They said that Vlasik could enter this vestibule, stand there, go out and announce that Comrade Stalin did not want to see such and such a petitioner. And a frightened to death official or general began to seek friendship with the all-powerful Nikolai Sidorovich, so that he would help change the leader's anger to mercy.

Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote about the same thing in the book "Twenty Letters to a Friend":

“We have to mention another general, Vlasik, who stayed near his father for a very long time, since 1919. Then he was a Red Army soldier assigned to guard, and later became a very powerful person behind the scenes. He headed all his father’s guards, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, reached last years to the point that he dictated to some artists the "tastes of Comrade Stalin", as he believed that he knew and understood them well. And the leaders listened to and followed this advice. And not a single festive concert at the Bolshoi Theater or in the St. George's Hall at banquets was compiled without Vlasik's sanction ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists whether he "liked" whether it was a film or an opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction at that time ... It would not be worth mentioning him at all - he ruined the lives of many, but before that he was a colorful figure that you couldn’t pass him by.

Many well-known artists at that time tried to get into the companies where Vlasik visited in order to gain his favor. And some became famous thanks to participation in these feasts. One of the participants in such meetings, Vera Gerasimovna Ivanskaya, said:

“I ... was several times at Vlasik’s dacha and at his apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard. I remember that Stenberg was in the companies then, once there was Maxim Dormidontovich Mikhailov and very often Okunev. To be honest, I had no particular desire to meet with Vlasik and in general to be in this company. But Vlasik threatened me, said that he would arrest me, etc., and I was afraid of this. Once at Vlasik's apartment on Gogolevsky Boulevard, I was with my friends Kopteva and another girl. Then there was some then the artist, it seems Gerasimov.

Vlasik behaved as if no Soviet laws and norms of behavior were written for him. Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg, a Red Square graphic designer who had been friends with him for many years, wrote in his own testimony after his arrest:

"I must say that Vlasik is a morally corrupt person. He cohabited with many women, in particular with Nikolaeva, Ryazantseva, Dokukina, Lokhtionova, Spirina, Veshchitskaya, Gradusova, Averina, Vera Gerasimovna. I believe that Vlasik also cohabited with Shcherbakova, with Gorodnichev sisters: Lyuda, Ada, Sonya, Kruglikova, Sergeeva and her sister and others whose names I don’t remember. Maintaining comradely relations with me, Vlasik soldered me and my wife and cohabited with her, which Vlasik himself later cynically told me about " .

Actually, there was nothing strange about it. Who could stop the leader's main bodyguard, if at times Stalin consulted with him, deciding the fate of his leaders, whose names alone terrified the whole country. In his not very literate letter to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, written on April 5, 1955, Vlasik gave an example of such an event:

"The head of government, being in the south after the war, in my presence expressed great indignation against Beria, saying that the state security agencies did not justify their work with proper support. He pointed to individual failures in the work of his leadership and said that he had given instructions to remove Beria from the leadership in the MGB. He asked me how Merkulov, Kobulov worked, and subsequently about Goglidze and Tsanava. I told him what I knew, with the facts that I knew from work, about the shortcomings of the leadership. "

On December 29, 1945, Stalin removed Beria from the leadership of the NKVD of the USSR and oversight of state security, ordering him to focus on the Soviet atomic project. On May 7, 1946, Merkulov lost the post of Minister of State Security of the USSR, only a year later he received the post of head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad. The former Deputy Minister of State Security, Colonel General Kobulov, unflatteringly described by Vlasik, ended up in the same department.

The former heads of state security at that time did not yet know about the role that Vlasik played in the collapse of their career. But in 1948, having recovered from the blow, they apparently decided to punish the head of the GUO, who did not influence Stalin's decision in a positive direction for them. Fortunately, the new Minister of State Security of the USSR, Colonel-General Abakumov, although he was their enemy, also sought to get rid of the overly influential chief bodyguard.

"Falsely testified against me"

Judging by the letter of Vlasik Voroshilov, Abakumov used the incident with his subordinate, Beria's security chief, Colonel Sarkisov, to activate the enemies of the head of the Main Security Directorate.

“In the practice of work,” Vlasik wrote, “there were cases, and especially with Sarkisov, that he often went on assignment during his duty, and there was even a case on the operational car, because there was no his economic car, at that time they filed the main car, since Sarkisov has not yet returned with an operational car, the guards were left without a car and lagged behind.

The fact that a member of the Politburo Beria left without a "tail" guard car was an emergency, and Vlasik called Sarkisov for dressing:

“An investigation was carried out on this issue, and a remark was made to him, he stated that, while fulfilling the instructions of the guarded person, he did not have another car. had the right to be interested in what tasks he was carrying out. He was with me later, when he was accused that the main car left without protection, and asked to allocate an economic car, which I did, not only to him, but to everyone attached. We also agreed to entrust all orders to the commandants of the facility. That's how it was."

During the check, an unsightly detail was revealed: Sarkisov used an operational vehicle to transport strangers.

“I,” wrote Vlasik, “reported this to the then minister Abakumov, I could not do otherwise, since it was clear from the material that this applies more to Sarkisov himself than to Beria, and without checking these materials I could not report higher, since unverified material could be mistaken for slander, squabbles, etc. At that time, I myself had no right to check on my own without the sanction, or even the minister, without his official order. government, there is a decision of the Central Committee on this matter. That is why I reported to Abakumov, who said that he himself would check and summon Sarkisov. I took this document and after a long time gave the order to burn it and not conduct any verification. I still did not burn it, but returned it to the head of the Intelligence Department Maslennikov ... I could not foresee that Abakumov would turn out to be an enemy and would not make the appropriate checks or report where he should after the check.

But Abakumov told Beria that Vlasik was interested in his personal life, and the "Lubyansk Marshal" did not remain in debt:

“I soon noticed that Beria had noticeably changed his attitude towards me. This, of course, alarmed me, I wanted to talk about this with the Head of Government, but I thought that it would be tactless, especially since I did not have any hard data ".

In 1948, Beria, before Stalin, arrived at his Near Dacha in Kuntsevo and found that packages with especially important documents for the leader, which were delivered by field communications, were lying on the table intended for them in disarray. Beria immediately announced that there was a spy among the guards. Soon Fedoseyev, assistant commandant of the dacha, who was on duty that day, was arrested along with his wife. Fedoseev, according to some sources, was placed in the worst prison in the country - Sukhanovskaya, or Sukhanovka, where especially important prisoners were tortured both by conventional methods and by absolute silence, from which a person could go crazy. Since Beria's experienced associates from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed by Deputy Minister Serov, dealt with his case, Fedoseev soon surrendered and signed a confession stating that he, along with Vlasik, was going to poison Stalin.

Beria reported on the result achieved to the leader, but the result was not quite the one that Lavrenty Pavlovich counted on.

“Fedoseev,” Vlasik wrote, “gave false testimony against me, and the Head of Government, doubting its plausibility, personally checked this case himself. He called and interrogated him. It was found that this was a false testimony. Beria's observation, after that the case was transferred to the MGB Fedoseev stated that he was forced to give false testimony because he was beaten every day, so he gave such testimony, knowing that he would be called by the Head of Government, where he would ask to be "They didn't beat me. After this check, the Head of the Government himself told me what evidence Fedoseyev had given against me and why he had given it."

Stalin, according to his chief bodyguard, personally figured out another accusation put forward by Beria - in huge embezzlement and misappropriation of products delivered to Stalin's Middle and other dachas:

“Right away we talked about these unfortunate products, for which I am accused of stealing in the protocols. We need to know our former situation of life on the Middle. I explained to the Head of Government on this issue which products and when we really used and which ones I took measures to ensure that there were no more abuses here. He agreed with me and even himself changed his regimen in orders for cooking dinners, etc. I could not, and would not be allowed to, write down the details of our situation on the "Middle" and It would be wrong to write about this. You, like other members of the government, are aware that various samples and other things sent were not always considered in time, and we could sometimes do nothing with them. Many facts can be cited about this which I did to the Head of Government, and he could not but agree with me."

It would seem that the history of the persecution of Vlasik could end there. But Beria, as it turned out, was not going to put up with defeat.

Beria, Merkulov and Kobulov (in the photo - from left to right), thanks to Vlasik, from the real heads of state security at the moment they became former

"It was important for them to pollute me"

In 1949, after a successful test atomic bomb, Beria was again in favor with Stalin:

“It must be said frankly and honestly,” wrote Vlasik, “that when the Head of Government spoke after the war and clearly expressed his dissatisfaction with Beria, but he attributed it more to the inability, inability and poor knowledge of the work of state security agencies, but in no case expressed political distrust of him. I understood that. And it all soon passed. The head of the government, on the contrary, praised him very emphatically after completing one of the big tasks of the government. It was clear and understandable to me that he had changed his attitude about past shortcomings in Beria's work by the Ministry of State Security.

One could assume that it was precisely thanks to Stalin's location that Beria had a new chance to get rid of Vlasik. In a letter from the former head of the GDO to Voroshilov, it was said:

“Selecting materials dating back to 1948, which the Head of Government himself had already checked, they, through Abakumov, climbed into all the little things of my intimate life, inflating everything to incredible limits, distorting reality ... All this dirty bouquet, apparently, was reported to the Head of Government, after which the question arose at the Politburo of the Central Committee - about the trouble in the Main Directorate of the Guard.

By decision of the Politburo, a commission was created to verify the activities of the Guo MGB of the USSR:

"As a result of the work of the commission chaired by Comrade Malenkov with the most active participation of Beria and other members of P.B., I was expelled from the party, suspended from work without any observance of the proper transfer of the Office and leaving documentation, etc. I was urgently sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the city Asbestos to the Urals to work in the camp - deputy head of the camp administration, which deprived him of the opportunity to defend himself in accusations of trouble, which ended up in the apparatus of the administration. "

Vlasik was removed from his post as head of the GDO in May 1952, and at the end of the year he was arrested. The first accusation, as Vlasik wrote, was that he looked through the killer doctors among the Kremlin doctors:

“I was arrested on December 16, 1952. The investigation of the former MGB on especially important cases charged me with the fact that I, being the head of the Main Directorate of Security of the MGB, did not ensure the timely opening of the spy terrorist organization of doctor-professors of the Kremlin Sanitary Directorate, which was serviced by a trusted me I was also charged with not taking appropriate measures on the signal received from the doctor Timoshuk and did not conduct an investigation into the treatment of the sick comrade Zhdanov, which helped the enemies-professors to hide my evil intention. By this he became an indirect accomplice in the organization of wreckers and enemies of the people. "

To get out of a difficult situation, the head of the Main Directorate of Security had to kowtow to Beria (in the photo, Beria is second from the right, Vlasik is behind him)

The following accusation was not new:

"The second accusation is the use of his official position. He used products at a guarded facility at the expense of the state."

Finally, the third accusation concerned the moral decay of Vlasik and his illegibility in the choice of friends:

"About promiscuous connections and acquaintances. In particular, he kept in touch long time with Red Square graphic designer Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg, who does not inspire political confidence, who was arrested on charges of espionage. After a change in leadership and verification, he was released from custody. It was on these questions that my investigation began. And on the basis of these false accusations brought against me, a conclusion was built, approved, like my arrest, by the former deputy. minister of the enemy of the people Goglidze with the application of the 193rd article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, as not justifying trust. By applying the most humiliating checks in almost 25-30 years of all my acquaintances, inflicting interrogations on them, using old materials of already verified cases, as according to Stenberg.

The most curious thing was that Semyon Denisovich Ignatiev, who was appointed Minister of State Security of the USSR after Abakumov's arrest, already understood Vlasik's relationship with Stenberg. But the new state security leadership, headed by Beria, took up Stenberg and Vlasik with all seriousness and force:

“I myself spoke about the Stenberg case during my first interrogation after my arrest. I asked the investigators to write down that the former minister Ignatiev checked this case and reported on it to the Central Committee, moreover, he told me that they wanted to compromise Vlasik in this case, and the Stenberg case does not deserve no attention, they wanted to arrest Stenberg, Ignatiev instructed me to warn Stenberg about chatter, and to hand over the case to the archive, and in case of any misunderstanding refer to him. applied, like me, the strictest regime and unacceptable mockery.

Vlasik described in detail the methods of investigation applied to him, quite common for the department in which he had served for more than three decades:

“Of course, at my age and state of health, I could not stand it. I got a nervous breakdown, a complete shock and lost absolutely all self-control and common sense, and then a heart attack followed, because before these terrible trials there were exacerbations of my disease - headaches, continuous hallucinations and nightmares. For months I was without sleep. In this state, pre-prepared protocols were fabricated on me. I was not even able to read my answers compiled by them, just under swearing and threats in sharp handcuffs worn to the bones, I was forced to sign this terrible compromise for me in every little thing for 90 percent of the painted lies, since at that time the handcuffs were removed and promises were made to let go to sleep, which never happened, because in the cell their trials followed, more disguised, but also more painful, acting morally and physically.

He hoped that, like Fedoseyev in 1948, Stalin would call him to check his testimony, find out that the testimony was obtained under torture, and release him. But the leader could no longer call him:

“I thought about everything when I faced the fact of such an investigation, and especially when I was summoned for interrogation to Beria and Kobulov, where they showed me a newspaper about the death of the Head of Government, which I did not know about. I just found out that they again stood at the leadership of the MGB. It was important for them to pollute me, which they did and achieved their goal. "

But the most amazing discovery awaited Vlasik ahead. Before interrogating Beria, he was summoned by the head of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Vlodzimirsky:

"He demanded that I testify that I told what kind of conversations I had with the Head of Government about the former leadership of the MGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He said that I gave characteristics according to which large leaders of operational work were removed from work in the MGB, which caused damage to the state, meaning the removal of Merkulov, Kobulov, Beria, myself and others. I categorically refused to give any evidence on this issue ... And now I am finally convinced that this conversation between me and the Head of Government became him for sure known, I was amazed by that. That's why they removed me and expelled me from the party."

But much more important and striking was something else:

"Apparently, he himself told them about my conversation with the Head of Government when they reported to him these dirty materials about me."

Even under fear of new torture, Vlasik did not testify against his old colleague, the head of the secretariat, Stalin Poskrebyshev (pictured in the center)

"Threatened to repeat the basement"

It turned out that Stalin, who had previously defended his faithful bodyguard and looked through his fingers at his adventures and abuses, suddenly gave Vlasik to be torn to pieces by his worst enemies. And further encouraging them.

“Then I realized,” Vlasik wrote, “that, apart from death, I have nothing more to wait for ... They demanded evidence against Poskrebyshev, Kobulov called twice more in the presence of Vlodzimirsky, I refused, saying that I had no data to compromise Poskrebyshev no, he just said that the Head of Government at one time was very dissatisfied with the work of our bodies and the leadership of Beria, he cited the facts that the Head of Government told me about failures in work, which he accused Beria of, to which Kobulov told me that I I forgot about it, I didn’t remember it anywhere else. For refusing to testify against Poskrebyshev, he said bluntly, you would die in prison. He threatened to repeat the basement.”

In a letter, Vlasik said that Kobulov's prediction had almost come true:

“In such a serious condition, I was again sent at night to Lefortovo, where I had a heart attack - a heart attack. It was, I don’t remember exactly, on May 19 or 18, 1953, and therefore the interrogation promised to me was not carried out, as Kobulov said the night before I was sent to Lefortovo prison, that tomorrow you will be interrogated. I lay on my back for a whole month in a cell, then I was sent to Butyrka prison in June, where I lay in a hospital cell with service and improved nutrition. They began to treat me, but the moral the impact was not removed, and my health did not improve in any way, but, on the contrary, worsened, although it improved with my heart, with my head and general condition nervous system worsened every day. I was haunted by nightmares, heavy experiences did not leave me day or night, I felt terrible. Crazy thoughts came into my head, from which I could not get rid of in any way under the regime in which I was kept all the time. They transferred me several times back to the inner prison, but I did not feel any glimpse of it. I was deprived of newspapers, that is, I never received and knew nothing. All the time he was waiting for his end, almost two years."

But he was unexpectedly lucky. Beria and his associates were arrested. It would seem that after that, given that the case of the killer doctors was recognized as fabricated and the main charge against Vlasik fell away, he could be released. But the case was not stopped, and he took up new head State Security - Colonel-General Serov.

“Finally,” Vlasik wrote, “Serov called me, I was still in the same condition. After two interrogations, he announced to me that Beria and all this bastard had been exposed. They improved my nutrition, began to treat me again, but the investigation was again delayed, although Serov promised finish quickly. I could not wait and again got a severe deterioration of the nervous system, again delusions, nightmares, since the moral regimen was not removed from me, I cannot bring it here, but it drove me completely crazy, madness climbed into my head, I I didn’t even believe Serov’s promises made to me. Why the new leadership of the investigation again does not trust me, painfully experiencing this. Why two years in solitary confinement with such a regime and no trial, do not finish the investigation, again all sorts of nightmares and stupid thoughts climbed into my head. I am alive only because the enemies were exposed, saved from a painful death, and suddenly there was no progress in my case. Finally, I waited for the investigation and soon the court. don't delay. I could hardly stand it, it's true, the trial did not last very long with two breaks. At the trial, I was not only unable to defend myself against all this data, but I could not connect a few logical phrases. But I hoped for the fairness of his decision in relation to me, since I was sure that such a lengthy check was enough for the investigation to check all the doubts in my questions that were not clear to the investigation. However, although the investigation announced to me before the court that any accusation on the issue of the doctors of Sanupr was dropped. The Kremlin, since this case was not confirmed during the check and the professors were all released from custody and fully rehabilitated. Also, Stenberg was released from custody. They didn't even change the articles on the charges against me. According to her, the court ruled. deprive military rank, deprive government awards, seize items illegally acquired and send them to remote areas for 5 years. The term shall be calculated from the day of arrest, that is, from December 15, 1952."

Soon after the verdict on January 17, 1955, Vlasik was taken to the place of exile - to Krasnoyarsk, from where he wrote a letter to the head of the Soviet state, Marshal Voroshilov. He was not satisfied with the outcome of the case:

“No matter how hard it was for me to go through all this morally and physically, especially since the investigation and the court expressed some distrust of me, I attribute this to those complex and confusing circumstances, not only in my making mistakes in this whole case, but also in my illness and nervous shock, I was not able to present all the causes and circumstances logically by the last investigation, even at the trial I refused last word the defendant."

Vlasik was glad that he managed to survive Beria and his team:

"Dear Kliment Efremovich, allow me here to bring deep, sincere gratitude to you and in your person to the party and government, to which I owe my life, although I have not long to use it, but I am morally satisfied, as the enemies of the people have been exposed and punished according to their deserts ".

But most importantly, he repented and asked for mercy:

“I swear to you, dear Kliment Efremovich, with full responsibility to the party and the government, that in all the mistakes I made there is not and never was any intent or political misunderstanding, and connections with all sorts of reptiles, as well as with this gang enemies of the people. I ask you to take into account my extremely serious state of health. Deprived not only of treatment, but also of proper care, living without a family, in this state I have very little life left, although by a court decision I have to be in exile for another two years and nine months It means to die away from the family, with such heavy feelings and in a completely helpless state, not to mention the deprivation that cannot but excite me, having worked for thirty-three years in the state security agencies, twenty-four of them in the protection of the Head of Government. Having honestly given up all my health, I am deprived of the right to even a piece of bread, not to mention a pension. Forgive me my mistakes, give me the opportunity to get my Moscow passport in order to live my last days near my family.

"I was completely honest with him"

In 1956, Vlasik was pardoned and allowed to return to Moscow, but neither the title, nor the awards, nor the membership card was returned. In 1960, he tried to be reinstated in the CPSU, and he almost succeeded. The certificate of his party affairs stated:

"On behalf of the Central Committee of the CPSU, on April 13, 1960, the Party Control Committee considered the application of Vlasik N. S. for his reinstatement in the party and judicial rehabilitation. Then it was decided next solution: "Enter the Central Committee of the CPSU with the proposal of the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU to restore Comrade Vlasik in the party."

But the decision on Vlasik was not approved in the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the CCP considered his case again:

"Due to the fact that this decision was returned to the Party Control Committee, a re-check of Vlasik's case was carried out and the question of his party membership was again discussed ... According to Vlasik's statement, the USSR Prosecutor's Office checked his case and confirmed the correctness of the charges brought by the court. Vlasik’s party membership revealed that for a long time (from the 30s) he led a depraved and rampant lifestyle, arranged drinking and revelry, cohabited with a large number randomly known women. Moreover, he often used his high position, intimidated women, forcing them to cohabit. Moral unscrupulousness led to a loss of political vigilance. Vlasik brought his cohabitants to the government theater boxes, gave them passes to Red Square, uncovered some secret objects ... Having considered Vlasik's case at a meeting on October 12, 1962, the Party Control Committee changed earlier decision refused Vlasik's petition to the Central Committee of the CPSU to reinstate him in the party.

The main reason for the refusal was the result of an additional interrogation of Vlasik by party investigators. He admitted that he hid from Voroshilov:

“It was also established that Vlasik N. S. kowtowed before Beria, “was with him,” as Vlasik said, “he was frank to the end,” “personally informed him about the mood of I.V. Stalin,” “Beria valued his opinion even then, when he no longer worked as a People's Commissar "".

There is no doubt that it was precisely because of this that Stalin not only agreed to his arrest, but also set Beria against him. Perhaps the faithful bodyguard ceased to be faithful out of fear, after in 1948 the "Lubyansk Marshal" took up arms against him. But it is more likely that Vlasik began to inform Beria after Stalin's health deteriorated.

Due to his illiteracy, he did not know that for many millennia, aging rulers who felt unwell resorted to the standard method of checking their environment. From time to time they mimic a sharp exacerbation of the disease. And then they get rid of those who began to develop some kind of illegal activity, be it the chief bodyguard or the minister of defense. And there is no doubt that this technique will be in demand in the future. Wherever the limitation of the term of office of the first person is nothing more than a convention.

During the years of perestroika, when a wave of all kinds of accusations rained down on almost all people from the Stalinist entourage in the advanced Soviet press, the most unenviable fate fell to General Vlasik. The long-term head of Stalin's guard appeared in these materials as a real lackey who adored his master, a watchdog, ready to attack anyone at his command, greedy, vengeful and mercenary.

Among those who did not spare negative epithets for Vlasik was Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. But the bodyguard of the leader 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. Without his bodyguard, the leader lived for less than a year.

From the 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 a good education could not count. After three classes of 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 Ostroh 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 commander of a platoon of the 251st infantry regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.

During October revolution Nikolai Vlasik, a native of 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, was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the bodies of the Cheka, where he served in the central apparatus under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.

Master of security and life

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as a senior authorized officer of the Operational 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 into the commandant's office building on Lubyanka. The operative, who was on vacation, was recalled and announced: from that moment on, he was entrusted with the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, government members at dachas, walks. Special attention it was ordered to give the personal protection of Joseph Stalin.

Despite the sad story of the assassination attempt on Lenin, by 1927 the protection of the first persons 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. One commandant lived at the dacha, there was no linen, no dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.

Like all Belarusian peasants, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was a solid and well-to-do man. He took up not only the protection, but also the arrangement of Stalin's life.

The leader, accustomed to asceticism, at first was skeptical about the innovations of the new bodyguard. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaner appeared at the dacha, food supplies 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 personnel were ready at any moment to receive the Soviet leader. It is not worth talking about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most careful way.

The security system for important government facilities existed even 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 move in a cavalcade of identical cars, and only the bodyguards know which one the leader is driving in. Subsequently, such a scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.

Irreplaceable and especially trusted person

Within a few years, Vlasik turned into an indispensable and especially trusted person for Stalin. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin entrusted his bodyguard with the care of the children: Svetlana, Vasily and his adopted son Artyom Sergeyev.

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 up to children, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate the sins of Vasily in reports to his father.

But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and it became more and more difficult for Vlasik to play the role of a “lightning rod”.

Svetlana and Artyom, as adults, wrote about their "tutor" in different ways. Stalin's daughter in "Twenty Letters to a Friend" described Vlasik as follows: "He led the entire guard of his father, considered himself almost the closest person to him, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble ..."

“He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin”

Artyom Sergeev, in Conversations about Stalin, spoke differently: “His main duty was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the cutting edge. He knew very well both friends and enemies of Stalin ... What kind of work did Vlasik have in general? It was work day and night, there was no 6-8-hour working day. All his life he had work, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room ... "

For ten or 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 first persons of the state.

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 place them, equip them in a new place, and think over security issues. The evacuation of Lenin's body from Moscow is also the 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 guard himself, judging by his recollections, took the threat of assassination very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was sure that the 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 region, 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 production. As it turns out, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not informed about Stalin's boat trip, and they mistook him for an intruder.

Cow abuse?

During the years of the Great Patriotic War Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at conferences of heads of participating countries anti-Hitler coalition and he did his job 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 I 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 out of Germany various values, including a horse, two cows and one bull. Subsequently given fact cited as an example of the irrepressible greed of the Stalinist bodyguard.

Vlasik himself recalled that this story had a completely different background. In 1941, the Germans captured his native village of Bobynichi. The house where my sister lived was burned down, half the village was shot, the sister's eldest daughter was driven away to work in Germany, the cow and the horse were taken away. My sister and her husband went to the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, from which little was left. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for relatives.

Was it abuse? If you approach with a strict measure, then, perhaps, yes. However, Stalin, when this case was first reported to him, sharply ordered that further investigation be stopped.

Opala

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate: an agency with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of many 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 get wider access to the first person, and who would be denied such an opportunity.

A lot of high-ranking officials from the country's leadership passionately wanted to get rid of Vlasik. Compromising evidence on Stalin's bodyguard was scrupulously collected, drop by drop undermining the leader's confidence 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.

In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was established 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 personnel of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged real orgies there, plundered 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.

"Cohabited with women and drank alcohol in his spare time"

Why did Stalin suddenly back down from a man who honestly served him for 25 years? Perhaps it was all the fault of the leader's growing suspicion in recent years. It is possible that Stalin considered the waste of state funds for drunken revelry too serious a sin. There is also a third assumption. It is known that during this period the Soviet leader began to promote young leaders, and openly told his former associates: "It's time to change you." Perhaps Stalin felt that the time had come to replace Vlasik as well.

Be that as it may, very difficult times have come for the former head of the Stalinist guard.

In December 1952, he was arrested in connection with the Doctors' Plot. He was blamed for the fact that he ignored the statements of Lydia Timashuk, who accused the professors who treated the first persons 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 prejudice for several months. For a man who was already well over 50, the disgraced bodyguard held firm. I was ready to admit "moral decay" and even embezzlement, 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,” his testimony sounded.

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, he could well have extended his life. When the leader became ill at the Near 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 have allowed this.

After the death of the leader, the "case of doctors" was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. The collapse of Lavrenty 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 office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentenced under Art. 193-17 p. "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 term was reduced to 5 years. He was sent to Krasnoyarsk to serve his sentence.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with the removal of a criminal record, but he was not restored to military rank and awards.

“Not a single minute did I have in my soul anger at Stalin”

He returned to Moscow, where he had almost nothing left: his property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal one. Vlasik knocked on the thresholds 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 to dictate memoirs in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he did certain things, how he treated Stalin.

“After Stalin’s death, such an expression appeared as“ the cult of personality ”... If a person who is the leader of his affairs deserves the love and respect of others, what’s wrong with that ... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified a country that 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 great prestige. I knew him very closely... And I affirm that he lived only for 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 nor defend himself. Why, during his lifetime, no one dared to point out to him his mistakes? What hindered? Fear? Or were there no such errors that should have been pointed out?

What Tsar Ivan IV was formidable for, but there were people who cared for their homeland, who, not fearing death, pointed out to him his mistakes. Or were brave people transferred to Rus'? - so thought the Stalinist bodyguard.

Summing up his memoirs and his whole life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Without a single penalty, but only encouragement 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 did not have anger in my soul against Stalin. I perfectly understood what kind of atmosphere 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 the deepest respect that I always had for this wonderful person. He personified for me everything bright and dear in my life - the party, the motherland and my people.

Posthumously rehabilitated

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

Relatives of Vlasik have repeatedly made attempts to achieve his rehabilitation. After several refusals, on June 28, 2000, by a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the sentence of 1955 was canceled, and the criminal case was dismissed "due to the lack of corpus delicti." (

In June 2000, by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the former head of Stalin's bodyguard, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik, was posthumously rehabilitated, whose biography formed the basis of this article. How did a man end up in the dock, who for almost half a century was part of the leader's inner circle?

A guy from a Belarusian village

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik came from a poor peasant family living in the village of Bobynichi in Western Belarus. He was born on May 22, 1896. Having barely finished three classes of the parochial school, the boy lost his parents and was forced to take care of himself. As a result, Nikolai began his labor activity at the age of 13 ─ first as an assistant at a construction site, then as a bricklayer, and after the owner went bankrupt, got a job as a loader in a factory .

When the first broke World War, Nikolai Vlasik, who had reached military age by that time, was mobilized and participated in the battles as part of the 167th Ostroh Infantry Regiment. For his heroism, by order of command, he was awarded the St. George Cross and promoted to non-commissioned officer. Shortly thereafter, Vlasik was appointed commander of one of the platoons of the 251st Infantry Regiment, stationed in Moscow. In this position, he met the October Revolution.

Young officer of the Cheka

In the biography of Nikolai Vlasik, emphasis is usually placed on the fact that his political choice of those years was due primarily to belonging to the social classes. Russian society. It's hard to disagree with this. It is unlikely that this semi-literate young man delved into the abstruse torii of Marx, most likely, he internally felt that life gives him a chance to escape from insignificance. His first step on the chosen path was joining the ranks of the RCP (b).

Nikolai Vlasik began the service of the new government in the ranks of the Moscow police, then participated in the battles civil war, was wounded near Tsaritsyn and, finally, became an employee of the Cheka - a body that had truly unlimited powers and left a gloomy memory of itself.

Creation of a government security service

Since 1919, he served in the central apparatus of the Cheka, headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky, and took an active part in the operations that became part of the infamous Red Terror, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Russians suspected of disloyalty to the Bolshevik regime. Soon after the transformation of the Cheka into the OGPU, Vlasik took the post of senior authorized operational department.

A new turn in the life of the operative took place in 1927, and the impetus for him was a bomb thrown by unknown persons into the commandant's office building on Lubyanka. In this regard, a special structure was created to ensure the security of the Kremlin, members of the government, as well as all institutions subordinate to the OGPU. The well-established operative Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was appointed head of this department.

Starting a new activity

According to his own recollections, among other duties assigned to him, special importance was attached to the protection of I.V. Stalin. In previous years, the security of the first persons of the state was put out of hand badly. Even Fanny Kaplan, committed on August 30, 1918, did not serve as a lesson.

Before Vlasik entered his new position guarded Stalin only person who accompanied him everywhere - the Lithuanian Yusis. In addition, in the 1920s, the future "father of peoples" led an extremely ascetic lifestyle and was content with only the bare necessities in everyday life. Suffice it to say that at his dacha near Moscow there was not only the proper staff, but even an ordinary telephone, and he ate exclusively sandwiches brought from Moscow.

Taking urgent action

Taking on the duties of the head of Stalin's security, Nikolai Vlasik began precisely with organizing the life of the head of state. Despite the objections of his ward, he organized the delivery of fresh and high-quality products from a nearby state farm, which immediately came to the disposal of an experienced cook who had undergone a thorough check before his appointment. An extensive staff of servants was also formed, providing adequate comfort in all areas of the leader's life.

Following this, on the initiative of Nikolai Vlasik, a whole network of Stalinist dachas was created both in the Moscow region and located in the southern regions of the country, where well-trained personnel were ready to receive the leader at any time and create the most comfortable conditions for him to rest and work. All these country residences were included among the most important state objects, and were guarded with the utmost care.

Ideas brought to life

Acting not only as the head of security, but also as Stalin's personal bodyguard, Nikolai Vlasik developed a whole system of measures aimed at ensuring the safety of the first person of the state during official events, trips around the country and international meetings. Being, in fact, a semi-literate person, whose entire education was reduced to 3 classes of a parochial school, Vlasik showed outstanding abilities as the head of one of the most important departments, whose work was aimed at protecting state security.

It is curious to note that it was he who came up with the idea to carry out the passage of the first persons of the state in a cavalcade, made up of absolutely identical-looking cars. At the same time, only the most trusted persons of the guard know which of them is the leader. It was such a simple, but very effective scheme that saved the life of L. I. Brezhnev in 1969 during the assassination attempt on him.

Leader's Children's Educator

A few years after taking office, Vlasik became an indispensable person for Stalin. His role in the leader’s life especially grew after Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide in November 1932 (her photo with her daughter Svetlana is in the article), and he took care of the children left without a mother: Vasily, Svetlana and adopted son

As Nikolai Sidorovich later wrote in his memoirs, Vasily, who was uncontrollable by nature, created most of the problems for him, while Svetlana and Artyom were quiet and obedient children. Not wanting to cause unnecessary unrest to Stalin, he did his best to smooth out information about the adventures of his unbridled son in his reports, but every year it became more and more difficult to do this.

Nikolai Vlasik, whose personal life was entirely subordinated to the interests of the service, practically did not know family joys. In 1934, he married Maria Semyonovna Kovbasko, who took his last name and gave birth to his daughter Nadezhda a year later. However, the spouses saw each other only in fits and starts, since Nikolai Semyonovich himself was inseparably under Stalin and even always spent the night in a room next to the leader’s bedroom.

War years and beyond

During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Vlasik ensured the safety of the heads of state who took part in the conferences of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition. He completed this task with his usual professionalism, for which he was awarded a number of high government awards.

In 1946, the previously existing structure of the NKVD was transformed into the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and on its basis the Main Directorate of Security was created ─ a state body with an annual budget of 180 million rubles and a staff of tens of thousands of employees. Despite the fact that Nikolai Vlasik became the head of this huge department, life was preparing the most unpleasant surprise for him in those years.

Dangerous foe

The fact is that, being in close proximity to Stalin for many years and enjoying his trust, he could influence the adoption of certain important decisions, including those related to that during the period of his service he made many dangerous enemies.

The main and most powerful of them was Lavrenty Beria, the head of the USSR special services (the photo is in the article). He, like no one else, was interested in getting rid of Vlasik, and for a long time he collected dirt on him, preparing to strike a sudden blow.

He made his first attempt in 1948. Then the commandant of the "Near Dacha" Fedoseev, who was arrested by him, slandered Vlasik, showing during interrogation that he was going to poison Stalin. However, this did not work - the leader did not believe in the betrayal of his bodyguard.

New accusation

The year 1952 became fatal for Nikolai Vlasik, when the real facts of abuses committed by the staff of many government dachas that had been empty for a long time were unexpectedly revealed. In addition to the fact that they regularly organized revels that turned into real orgies, food was stolen in huge quantities and material values. Of course, the responsibility fully fell on the head of the department, in whose subordination were the persons who compromised themselves.

Beria caught on to this material and very soon found witnesses who confirmed that Vlasik himself repeatedly relaxed in this way, after which he left with a trunk full of all kinds of gourmet food. Such information already looked quite plausible.

The end of a brilliant career

As a result, on April 29, 1952, the head of the Security Department and Stalin's personal bodyguard was removed from his post and sent to the Ural city of Asbest as deputy head of the local forced labor camp. But this was, of course, only the first step into the abyss that opened before him.

In December of the same year, he was arrested in connection with the "doctors' case", because, being the head of the security department, he was responsible for the reliability of the medical staff, against whom far-fetched accusations were then made. Already on January 17 of the following year, a meeting of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was held, which found him guilty of abuse of office and sentenced him to exile for a period of 10 years. Shortly after Stalin's death, the sentence was commuted to 5 years with serving the sentence in one of the districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

last years of life

After Stalin, which took place in March 1956 and condemned the personality cult, many victims of his misanthropic regime began to go free. Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich was also released in those days, whose biography was closely connected with the name of the debunked leader. By decision of the judicial board, he was pardoned and released. His criminal record was removed, but without the restoration of the former military rank of lieutenant general and without the return of government awards.

Vlasik spent the last years of his life in Moscow. He died on June 18, 1967. He was fully rehabilitated only in June 2000, when by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation the sentence handed down in 1955 was canceled "due to the lack of corpus delicti".

What did Vlasik really suffer for?

Nikolai Sidorovich, whose personal life became the subject of study by many biographers, was practically thrown out by Stalin as waste material. What is the reason for such an act? Perhaps it lies in suspicion, painfully aggravated towards the end of the leader's life. It is also possible that Stalin really wanted to punish Vlasik for drunken revelry and embezzlement of state funds. But it is most likely that, changing at that time the former leaders for young employees, he came to the conclusion that it was time to get rid of the head of his personal security. However, there could be other reasons that we do not know about. The life of Nikolai Vlasik still holds many mysteries.