Nikolay Sidorovich Vlasik. Born on May 22, 1896 in Bobynichi, Slonim district, Grodno province - died on June 18, 1967 in Moscow. Chief of Stalin's security in 1931-1952. Lieutenant General (1945).

Nikolay Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in the village. Bobynichi of the Slonim district of the Grodno province (now the Slonim district of the Grodno region).

Originally from a poor peasant family.

By nationality - Belarusian.

At the age of three, he became an orphan: first his mother died, and soon his father too.

As a child, he graduated from three classes of a rural parish school. From the age of thirteen he began to work. At first he was a laborer for a landowner. Then - a digger on the railroad. Further - a laborer at a paper mill in Yekaterinoslav.

In March 1915 he was called up for military service. He served in the 167th Ostrog Infantry Regiment, in the 251st Reserve Infantry Regiment. For bravery in the battles of the First World War he received the St.George Cross.

In the days of the October Revolution, being in the rank of non-commissioned officer, together with a platoon, he went over to the side of Soviet power.

In November 1917, he joined the Moscow police.

From February 1918 - in the Red Army, a participant in the battles on the Southern Front near Tsaritsyn, was an assistant company commander in the 33rd workers' Rogozhsko-Simonovsky infantry regiment.

In September 1919, he was transferred to the Cheka, worked under direct supervision in the central office, was an employee of a special department, senior authorized officer of the active department of the operational unit. Since May 1926, he worked as a senior authorized officer of the Operations Department of the OGPU, since January 1930, he was an assistant to the head of the department.

In 1927, he headed the Kremlin's special guard and became the de facto head of security.

This happened after the state of emergency, about which Vlasik wrote in his diary: “In 1927, a bomb was thrown into the building of the commandant's office on Lubyanka. At that time I was in Sochi on vacation. The authorities urgently summoned me and instructed me to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, as well as the protection of government members at dachas, walks, on trips and pay special attention to the personal protection of Comrade Stalin. Until that time, only an employee was with Comrade Stalin, who accompanied him when he went on business trips. It was a Lithuanian - Yusis. Having called Yusis, we went by car to the dacha near Moscow, where Stalin usually rested. Arriving at the dacha and examining it, I saw that complete disorder reigned there. There was no linen, no dishes, no staff. There was one commandant at the dacha. "

“By the order of my superiors, I had to arrange supplies and living conditions for the guarded, in addition to the guards. I began by sending linen and utensils to the dacha, agreed on the supply of food from the state farm, which was run by the GPU and located next to the dacha. He sent a cook and a cleaning lady to the dacha. Established a direct telephone connection with Moscow. Yusis, fearing Stalin's discontent with these innovations, suggested that I myself report everything to Comrade Stalin. That is how my first meeting and my first conversation with Comrade Stalin took place. Before that, I saw him only from afar, when I accompanied him on walks and on trips to the theater, ”he wrote.

The official name of his position has changed several times 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, the 1st department was part of the People's Commissariat of 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 Directorate of the USSR People's Commissariat of State Security;
- from August 1943 - first deputy head of this department;
- from April 1946 - Head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security;
- from December 1946 - head of the Main Security Directorate.

Nikolai Vlasik was Stalin's personal bodyguard for many years and held this post the longest.

Having come to his personal guard in 1931, he not only became its chief, but also took over many of the everyday problems of Stalin's family, in which Vlasik was essentially a member of the family. After the tragic death of Stalin's wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, practically performing the functions of a major dom.

Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote sharply negatively about Vlasik in her book "Twenty Letters to a Friend". At the same time, he was positively assessed by Stalin's adopted son Artyom Sergeev, who believed that the role and contribution of NS Vlasik were not fully appreciated.

Artem Sergeev noted: “His main responsibility was to ensure the safety of Stalin. This work was inhuman. Always the responsibility of the head, always life on the 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 interconnected, and it was no coincidence that when he was suddenly arrested one and a half or two months before Stalin's death, he said: "I was arrested, so soon Stalin will not be here"... And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin lived a little. What kind of work did Vlasik have? It was work day and night, there was no 6-8 hour working day. He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room ... He understood that he was living for Stalin, to ensure the work of Stalin, and therefore the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two props for that colossal activity, not fully appreciated yet, that Stalin was leading, but they remained in the shadows. And they did bad things to Poskrebyshev, and even worse to Vlasik. "

Since 1947 he was a deputy of the Moscow City Council of Working People's Deputies of the 2nd convocation.

In May 1952, he was removed from the post of chief of Stalin's security and sent to the Ural city of Asbest by the deputy chief of the Bazhenov correctional labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Arrest and exile of Nikolai Vlasik

The first attempt to arrest Vlasik was made in 1946 - he was accused of wanting to poison the leader. Even for some time he was removed from office. But then Stalin personally sorted out the testimony of one of the MGB officers and reinstated Vlasik in his post.

Nikolai Vlasik was arrested on December 16, 1952, in connection with the case of doctors he was arrested, because he "provided treatment to members of the government and was responsible for the reliability of the professors."

Until March 12, 1953, Vlasik was interrogated almost daily, mainly in the case of doctors. Later, an audit found that the charges against the group of doctors were false. All professors and doctors have been released from custody.

Further, the investigation in the Vlasik case was conducted in two directions: disclosure of classified information and theft of material values. After the arrest of Vlasik, several dozen documents with a "secret" stamp were found in his apartment.

In addition, he was charged with the fact that, being in Potsdam, where he accompanied the government delegation of the USSR, Vlasik was engaged in junk.

The following data indicate the scale of the hoarsery: during a search in his house, they found a trophy service for 100 persons, 112 crystal glasses, 20 crystal vases, 13 cameras, 14 photo lenses, five rings and a "foreign accordion" (as it was written in the search protocol).

It was established that after the end of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, he took out of Germany three cows, a bull and two horses, of which he gave a cow, a bull and a horse to his brother, a cow to his sister, and a cow to his niece. The cattle were delivered to the Slonim district of the Baranovichi region by train from the Security Department of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

They also remembered that he issued passes to his female partners to the stands of Red Square and government boxes in theaters, and contacts with persons who did not inspire political confidence, in conversations with whom he divulged secret information "concerning the protection of party and government leaders."

On January 17, 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found him guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 p. "B" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the general's rank and state awards.

Under the amnesty on March 27, 1955, Vlasik's term was reduced to five years, without losing his rights. Sent to serve exile in Krasnoyarsk.

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 reinstated in military rank and awards.

In his memoirs, he wrote: “I was severely offended by Stalin. For 25 years of impeccable work, without a single penalty, but only one encouragement and reward, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my unbounded loyalty, he put me into the hands of enemies. But never, not a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no evil in my soul against Stalin. "

In recent years he lived in the capital. He died on June 18, 1967 in Moscow from lung cancer. Buried at the New Donskoy cemetery.

On June 28, 2000, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 verdict against Vlasik was canceled and the criminal case was dropped "for lack of corpus delicti."

In October 2001, Vlasik's daughter was returned the awards confiscated by the court verdict.

Nikolay Vlasik (documentary)

Personal life of Nikolai Vlasik:

Wife - Maria Semyonovna Vlasik (1908-1996).

Adopted daughter - Nadezhda Nikolaevna Vlasik-Mikhailova (born in 1935), worked as an art editor and graphic artist at the Nauka publishing house.

Nikolai Vlasik was fond of photography. He is the author of many unique photographs of Joseph Stalin, his family members and those closest to him.

Bibliography of Nikolai Vlasik:

Memories of I. V. Stalin;
Who led the NKVD, 1934-1941: a reference book

Nikolay Vlasik in the cinema:

1991 - Inner circle (in the role of Vlasik -);

2006 - Stalin. Live (as Vlasik - Yuri Gamayunov);
2011 - Yalta-45 (in the role of Vlasik - Boris Kamorzin);
2013 - Son of the Father of Nations (in the role of Vlasik - Yuri Lakhin);
2013 - Kill Stalin (in the role of Vlasik -);

2014 - Vlasik (documentary) (in the role of Vlasik -);
2017 - (in the role of Vlasik - Konstantin Milovanov)

FOREWORD

The authors of this book were close to Stalin for many years, watched his life and were at the center of the most important political events.
The head of Stalin's personal guard, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, was born on May 22, 1896 in the Belarusian village of Bobynichi. From the age of thirteen he worked at a construction site, then at a paper mill. In the First World War he was called up for military service. For his courage he was awarded the St. George Cross of the 1st degree. After being wounded in 1916, Vlasik went to Moscow in the 25th reserve regiment - in the rank of non-commissioned officer, as a platoon commander. In the days of the February Revolution, a young officer joins his regiment to the rebels - without a single shot being fired. Since October 1917, Vlasik has been working in the organs of the newly created Soviet militia. In 1918, as part of the 393rd Rogozhsko-Simonovsky regiment, he was sent to the Southern Front, to the 10th Army defending Tsaritsyn. After being wounded and subsequently treated in a Moscow hospital, Vlasik was assigned to the 1st Soviet Infantry Regiment. In the same year he joined the ranks of the RCP (b). The next year, 1919, marked a new turn in the biography of Nikolai Sidorovich: upon mobilizing the party, he was sent to work in the Special Department of the Cheka, at the disposal of F.E.Dzerzhinsky, where the young Chekist takes an active part in operations to eliminate the counter-revolutionary underground in the USSR (in particular, cadet), carries out important instructions from the leaders of Soviet counterintelligence.
In 1927, an event takes place that for many years determined the fate of NS Vlasik: after the famous explosion in the building of the commandant's office on Lubyanka, he was entrusted with organizing the protection of the Special Department of the OGPU, the Kremlin, members of the Soviet government and personal protection of I. V. Stalin. From that time on, Vlasik's life and work was closely connected with Stalin's personality, his activities, everyday life, and character traits. For almost a quarter of a century in various positions related to ensuring the protection of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, Nikolai Sidorovich went through all the steps of the career ladder of one of the important sectors of the national state security system. Since 1938, Vlasik became the head of the 1st department of the General Guard of the government. From 1947 to 1952, he directed the work of the Main Directorate of Security of the MGB.

* * *

The "man behind his back" accompanied Stalin on his trips around the city, at airfields, in theaters, at parades and official events, on vacation trips, at conferences and meetings with the heads of foreign countries - this, as you know, is the "specificity" of this responsible and not an easy profession, especially when it comes to protecting a great statesman, the leader of a world superpower. In addition, if we consider that a large staff of employees was subordinate to the Main Directorate of Security of the MGB, and this department also had a whole complex of buildings, state dachas, outbuildings at different ends of the immense state, had a ramified structure (in fact, an autonomous "ministry" in the Soviet system state security), then it is not difficult to imagine how much responsibilities were assigned to the head of this organization and what weight the “man under Stalin” had in the highest Kremlin circles.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the services of NS Vlasik to the country. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (2 of them - for ensuring the protection of participants in the Tehran and Potsdam conferences), four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Kutuzov I degree (for protecting the participants of the Yalta Conference), the Order of the Red Star, five medals.

* * *

Vlasik was always loyal to Stalin. But he was betrayed not like a lackey - which was alien to this courageous man - but sincerely betrayed, knowing what responsibility lay with him. This sincere and reverent attitude to his duties was sometimes expressed in excessive concern, acute feelings about even the most insignificant mistake made by any of his subordinates (Vlasik recorded such "incidents" very emotionally and self-critically in his diary). Such anxiety for Stalin's life and health can hardly be explained by the usual bureaucratic desire to curry favor or fear of possible punishment for a mistake. Here we can rather speak of a particularly reverent attitude towards the assigned task: after all, it was about the head of a great state, the Leader of the Soviet people. It should be noted that Stalin also trusted the head of his security department, to a certain extent, of course.
In the late 1940s, NS Vlasik made, however, two significant blunders: firstly, he did not give way to LF Timashuk's letter about the wrong treatment of AA Zhdanov that led to death. This omission of Vlasik became clear later, in the early 50s, when the proceedings of the famous "case of doctors" began, during which many facts of anti-state activities of his defendants were revealed. The second mistake of NS Vlasik was that he got involved in political intrigues, the purpose of which was to remove LP Beria from Stalin's entourage.
The denouement came soon. On April 29, 1952, Vlasik was removed from office on charges of abuse of office; on December 16, 1952, he was arrested.
He spent three years in prison. His trial took place in 1955, already under Khrushchev. Stalin was not alive, but Vlasik did not renounce the leader, like many "Khrushchevites", so his fate was a foregone conclusion. By the verdict of the court N.S. Vlasik was sent into exile in Siberia. He was released only by amnesty; Vlasik returned to Moscow, in the last years of his life he worked on his memoirs.

* * *

Rybin Alexey Trofimovich was an employee of I.V. Stalin since 1931. Alexei Rybin guarded Stalin in the Kremlin, at his dacha, on vacation; later he was appointed commandant of the Bolshoi Theater.
Rybin's memories of Stalin are notable for their liveliness and spontaneity, they contain many interesting details that show the leader at home and in everyday life. In addition, Rybin supplements his notes with the memoirs of other people who knew and saw Stalin, and conducts a historical investigation of some controversial episodes from his life.
Georgy Alexandrovich Egnatashvili was the head of security for a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) N.M. Shvernik. Georgy Egnatashvili was friends with Stalin's eldest son, Yakov, and knew Stalin's family well, including his mother.
The topic of Stalin's relatives and relations in his family is continued by Artem Fedorovich Sergeev. He was the son of a prominent leader of the Bolshevik Party, one of Stalin's closest associates - Sergeev Fedor Andreevich. After the tragic death of his father, Artyom was brought up in the family of Joseph Stalin, and was friends with his youngest son Vasily.
Memories of A.F. Sergeev show I.V. Stalin during family holidays, in communication with friends, with children; touch on the topic of Stalin's personal affections.
IN Annexthe book uses the memoirs of Yakov Ermolaevich Chadayev. During the Great Patriotic War, he was the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, saw I.V. Stalin at work and in relations with subordinates. The assessment of Stalin's business qualities is complemented in Chadayev's memoirs by the assessment of the top leaders of the Soviet state. It seems interesting to compare these recordings with the memoirs of N.S. Vlasik.
(The biographical sketch about N.S. Vlasik uses materials by Alexei Kozhevnikov, candidate of historical sciences.)

Notes of N. S. Vlasik

A BRIEF FOREWORD

HOW I WAS ASSIGNED TO STALIN

In 1927, a bomb was thrown into the building of the commandant's office on Lubyanka. At that time I was in Sochi on vacation. The authorities urgently summoned me and instructed me to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, as well as the protection of members of the government at dachas, walks, trips and pay special attention to the personal protection of Comrade Stalin. Until that time, under Comrade Stalin there was only one employee who accompanied him when he went on business trips. It was the Lithuanian Yusis. I summoned Yusis and went by car to the dacha near Moscow, where Comrade Stalin usually rested. Arriving at the dacha and examining it, I saw that complete disorder reigned there. There was no linen, no dishes, no staff. One commandant lived in the country.
As I learned from Yusis, Comrade Stalin came to the dacha with his family only on Sundays and ate the sandwiches they brought with them from Moscow.

STALIN'S FAMILY, RHYTHM OF LIFE, LIFE

Comrade Stalin's family consisted of his wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, the daughter of the old Bolshevik Alliluyev S. Ya., Whom Comrade Stalin met when he was hiding in his family in an apartment in Petrograd, and two children - Vasya's son, a very lively and impetuous boy of five years old, and Svetlana's daughter is two years old. In addition to these children, Comrade Stalin had an adult son from his first marriage with Yekaterina Svanidze, Yakov, a very sweet and modest man, unusually similar to his father in his conversations and manners. Looking ahead, I will say that he graduated from the Institute of Railway Transport and lived on a scholarship, sometimes in need, but never turned to his father with any requests. After graduating from the institute, on the remark of his father that he would like to see his son in the military, Yakov entered the Artillery Academy, which he graduated from before the war. In the very first days of the war, he went to the front. At Vyazma, our units were surrounded, and he was taken prisoner.
The Germans kept him prisoner in the camp until the end of the war, in the camp and killed him, allegedly while trying to escape. According to the former French Prime Minister Herriot, who was with him in this camp, Jacob behaved extremely dignified and courageous. After the end of the war, Herriot wrote to Stalin about this.
The apartment in the Kremlin, where Stalin lived with his family, was the housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna and a cleaning lady. They received food from the Kremlin canteen, from where K.V. brought lunch in pots. By order of the authorities, in addition to the guards, I had to arrange the supply and living conditions of the guarded.
I began by sending linen and utensils to the dacha, agreed on the supply of food from the state farm, which was run by the GPU and located next to the dacha. He sent a cook and a cleaning lady to the dacha. Established a direct telephone connection with Moscow.
Yusis, fearing Comrade Stalin's discontent with these innovations, suggested that I myself report everything to Comrade Stalin. That is how my first meeting and my first conversation with Comrade Stalin took place. Before that, I saw him only from afar, when I accompanied him on walks and on trips to the theater.
Comrade Stalin lived with his family very modestly. He wore an old, badly worn coat. I suggested that Nadezhda Sergeevna sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take a measure or take an old one and make exactly such a new one from it in the workshop. It was not possible to remove the measure, since he flatly refused, saying that he did not need a new coat. But we still managed to make him a new coat.
His wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, a very modest woman, rarely made any requests, dressed modestly, unlike the wives of many responsible workers. She studied at the Industrial Academy and paid a lot of attention to children.

* * *

I wanted to know (and I needed to) the tastes and habits of Comrade Stalin, the peculiarities of his character, and I looked closely at everything with curiosity and interest.
Comrade Stalin usually got up at 9 o'clock, had breakfast, and at 11 o'clock was at work in the Central Committee on Staraya Square. I dined at work, they brought him to his office from the dining room of the Central Committee. Sometimes, when Comrade Kirov came to Moscow, they went home to dinner together. Comrade Stalin often worked until late at night, especially in those years when, after Lenin's death, it was necessary to intensify the struggle against the Trotskyists.
He also worked on his book Questions of Leninism in his office at the Central Committee, sometimes staying late at night. He often returned from work on foot together with Art. Molotov. We went to the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate. I spent Sunday at home with my family and usually went to the country house. Comrade Stalin often went to the theater on Saturdays and Sundays with Nadezhda Sergeevna. They attended the Bolshoi Theater, Maly Theater, Vakhtangov, went to Meyerhold to watch the play "The Bedbug" by Mayakovsky. With us at this performance, I remember, were comrades Kirov and Molotov, Comrade Stalin loved Gorky very much and always watched all his plays that were shown in Moscow theaters. Often after work, Comrade Stalin, together with Molotov, went to see films in Gnezdnikovsky Lane. A viewing room was later set up in the Kremlin. Comrade Stalin loved cinema and attached great propaganda value to it.
In the autumn, usually in August-September, Comrade Stalin left for the south with his family. He spent his vacation on the Black Sea coast, in Sochi or Gagra. He lived in the south for two months. While resting in Sochi, he sometimes took Matsesta baths.
During the whole vacation, he worked very hard and received a lot of mail. To the south, he always took one of the employees. In the 1920s, a cipher traveled with him, and since the 1930s, a secretary. Business meetings also took place during the holidays. So, at the end of the 40s, K. Gottwald and E. Hoxha came to him. Before his appointment in Poland, K. K. Rokossovsky came to his dacha in Gagra.
Comrade Stalin read a lot, followed the political and artistic literature.
The entertainment in the south was boat trips, cinema, bowling alley, towns that he loved to play, and billiards. The partners were employees who lived with him at the dacha.
Comrade Stalin devoted a lot of time to the garden. While living in Sochi, he planted many lemon and tangerine trees in his garden and he himself always watched their growth, rejoicing when they were well received and began to bear fruit.
He was very worried about the incidence of malaria in the local population. And on the initiative of Comrade Stalin, large plantings of eucalyptus were carried out in Sochi. This tree is known to have valuable properties: it grows unusually quickly and dries up the soil, destroying breeding grounds for malaria diseases.
Molotov, Kalinin, Ordzhonikidze often came to see Comrade Stalin at his dacha, who at that time were also on vacation on the Black Sea coast. Comrade Kirov came to visit.

* * *

In 1933, Comrade Stalin's wife tragically died. IV was deeply worried about the loss of his wife and friend. The children were still small, and Comrade Stalin could not pay much attention to them because of his busy schedule. I had to transfer the upbringing and care of the children to Karolina Vasilievna. She was a cultured woman, sincerely attached to children.
Svetlana was calm and obedient, which could not be said about Vasya, a very active and playful boy. He gave a lot of trouble to his teachers. When the children grew up and both were already studying, part of the responsibility for their behavior fell on me.
The daughter, her father's favorite, studied well and was modest and disciplined. The son, gifted by nature, was reluctant to study at school. He was too nervous, impulsive, could not diligently study for a long time, often to the detriment of his studies and, not without success, being carried away by something outsider, like horse riding. It was reluctant to report his behavior to his father and upset him. He loved children, especially his daughter, whom he jokingly called "mistress", of which she was very proud. He treated his son strictly, punished him for pranks and misdeeds. The girl, outwardly similar to her grandmother, the mother of Comrade Stalin, was somewhat reserved, silent in character.
The boy, on the contrary, was lively and temperamental, was very sincere and responsive. Children were brought up in general very strictly, no self-indulgence, excesses were allowed. The daughter grew up, graduated from the institute, defended her dissertation, has a family, works, brings up children. She changed her father's last name to her mother's. Subsequently, she went abroad to spend the last journey of her husband and tact and stayed. The fate of his son was more tragic. After graduating from the aviation school, he became a participant in the war, commanded, and not badly, an aviation regiment. After the death of his father, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years. After serving his sentence, he was released completely sick. His military rank was retained and he was given a pension, but he was offered to abandon his father's surname, to which he did not agree.
After that, he was exiled to Kazan, where he died soon after, in March 1962, at the age of 40.

Murder of S. M. Kirov

I would especially like to tell you about Kirov.
Stalin loved and respected Kirov most of all. Loved him with some touching, tender love. Comrade Kirov's visits to Moscow and to the south were a real holiday for Stalin. Sergey Mironovich came for a week or two. In Moscow, he stayed at Comrade Stalin's apartment, and I.V. literally did not part with him.
S. M. Kirov was killed on December 13, 1934 in Leningrad. Kirov's death shocked Stalin. I went with him to Leningrad and I know how he suffered, worried about the loss of his beloved friend. Everyone knows what a crystal-clear man S.M. was, how simple, modest he was, what a great worker and wise leader he was.
This dastardly assassination showed that the enemies of Soviet power had not yet been destroyed and were ready to strike from around the corner at any moment.
Comrade Kirov was killed by the enemies of the people. His killer Leonid Nikolaev stated in his testimony: "Our shot was supposed to be a signal for an explosion and an offensive inside the country against the CPSU (b) and Soviet power." In September 1934, there was an attempt on Comrade Molotov's life when he was making an inspection trip to the mining regions of Siberia. Comrade Molotov and his companions miraculously escaped death.

ATTEMPT ON STALIN

In the summer of 1935, an attempt was made on the life of Comrade Stalin. This happened in the south. Comrade Stalin was resting at a dacha not far from Gagra.
On a small boat that was ferried to the Black Sea from Leningrad from Leningrad by Yagoda, Comrade Stalin took walks on the sea. Only the guards were with him. The direction was taken to Cape Pitsunda. Having entered the bay, we went ashore, rested, had a snack, took a walk, having been on the shore for several hours. Then we boarded the boat and went home. There is a lighthouse on Cape Pitsunda, and a border guard post was located near the lighthouse on the coast of the bay. When we left the bay and turned in the direction of Gagra, shots rang out from the shore. We were fired upon.
Quickly putting Comrade Stalin on a bench and covering him with me, I ordered the minder to go out into the open sea.
Immediately we fired a burst from a machine gun along the shore. The shots at our boat stopped.
Our boat was small, riverboat and completely unsuitable for sailing on the sea, and we had a lot of chatting before we landed. The dispatch of such a boat to Sochi was also made by Yagoda, apparently, not without malice - on a big wave it inevitably had to capsize, but we, as people who are not versed in maritime affairs, did not know about this.
This case was referred for investigation by Beria, who was then the secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia. During interrogation, the shooter said that the boat had an unknown number, it seemed suspicious to him and he opened fire, although he had enough time to find out everything while we were on the coast of the bay, and he could not help but see us.
It was all one tangle.
The murder of Kirov, Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev, as well as the aforementioned assassination attempts, were organized by the Trotskyist bloc.
This was shown by the trials of Kamenev and Zinoviev in 1936, the trial of Pyatakov, Radek and Sokolnikov in 1937, and the trial of Yagoda, Bukharin and Rykov in 1938. They managed to unravel this tangle and thus neutralize the enemies of Soviet power before the war. They could be the "fifth column".

CONSPIRACY OF THE MILITARY

Among the numerous accusations raised against Comrade Stalin after his death, perhaps the most significant is the accusation of physical destruction of a group of military leaders of the Red Army, led by Tukhachevsky.
They are currently rehabilitated. At the XXII Congress, the Communist Party of the USSR declared before the whole world about their complete innocence.
Based on what data were they rehabilitated?
They were convicted according to documents. Twenty years later, these documents were declared fake ... But how should Comrade Stalin react to the document that accused Tukhachevsky of treason, transmitted by a friend of the Soviet Union, President of Czechoslovakia Benes? I do not admit the thought that other evidence was not collected besides this. If all the military leaders, as they now claim, were innocent, then why did Gamarnik suddenly shoot himself? I have never heard of such cases when innocent people shot themselves while awaiting arrest. After all, revolutionaries, always living under the threat of arrest, never committed suicide. In addition, this group of military men was not shot, like 26 Baku commissars, without trial or investigation. They were convicted by the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court.
The trial, it is true, took place behind closed doors, since the testimony at the trial was supposed to concern military secrets. But the court consisted of such authoritative people known throughout the country as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov. The trial report indicated that the defendants had pleaded guilty. To question this message is to cast a shadow on such unsullied people as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov.
Speaking about this process, I would like to dwell on the personality of the leader of the military group, Tukhachevsky. The personality is certainly very bright. Much has already been written about him, in particular, such a venerable writer as L. Nikulin wrote a book about him. It is about this book and another book - Michael Sayers and Albert Kahn "The Secret War against Soviet Russia" - and I would like to say a few words. I want to dwell on the characterization of Tukhachevsky given by the authors of these books.
Their characteristics are exactly the opposite. Which one is right? Whom to believe? I personally met with Tukhachevsky, knew him. It was known about him that he came from a noble landowner family, graduated from the Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School. But I never heard that his mother was a simple, illiterate peasant woman. Nikulin writes that he received information about Tukhachevsky's childhood from a friend of his acquaintance, who sought out a 90-year-old man who worked in his youth on the estate of Tukhachevsky's father. I wrote down the conversation with him and sent it to Nikulin.
The source, it seems to me, is of little authority.
There is no doubt that Tukhachevsky was a highly educated person. Neither appearance, nor gestures, nor demeanor, nor conversation - nothing indicated in him a proletarian origin, on the contrary, blue blood was visible in everything.
Nikulin writes that Tukhachevsky was not a careerist, but according to other sources, after graduating from the Alexander School, Tukhachevsky said: "Either at thirty I will be a general, or I will shoot myself." The French officer Rémy Ruhr, who was in captivity with Tukhachevsky, characterized him as an extremely ambitious person who stops at nothing.
Subsequently, in 1928, Remy Ruhr wrote a book about Tukhachevsky under the pseudonym Pierre Fervak.
Tukhachevsky escaped from German captivity and returned to Russia on the eve of the October Revolution. He first joined the former officers of the tsarist army, then broke with them.
Sayers and Kahn write that to their friend Golumbek, when asked what he intends to do, Tukhachevsky answered: “Frankly speaking, I am going over to the Bolsheviks. The White Army is unable to do anything. They have no leader. "

* * *

In 1918, Tukhachevsky joined the party. A cultured man, an educated military man and certainly a talented commander, Tukhachevsky quickly rose to the forefront of the leaders of the Red Army. The Bolsheviks had few such people, and they needed them. Tukhachevsky's calculation was correct. After the end of the Civil War, Tukhachevsky became one of Frunze's closest assistants at the headquarters of the Red Army. And in 1925, after the death of Frunze, he was appointed chief of staff of the Red Army.
Sayers and Kahn write about this period of Tukhachevsky's activity: “While working at the headquarters of the Red Army, Tukhachevsky became close to the Trotskyist Putnaya, who consecutively held the posts of military attaché in Berlin, London, Tokyo, and the head of the Red Army's Political Directorate, Jan Gamarnik, whom Sayers and Kahn call personal friend of the Reichswehr generals Soct and Hammerstein. "
Nikulin writes that all the charges against Tukhachevsky were based on slips of the tongue. To do this, they took advantage of the official trips of the marshal and his comrades abroad, meetings of a purely business nature.
And here is what Sayers and Kahn write about one such trip.
In early 1936, Tukhachevsky, as a Soviet military representative, traveled to London to attend the funeral of King George V. Shortly before his departure, he received the coveted title of Marshal of the USSR. He was convinced that the hour was near when the Soviet system would be overthrown and the "new Russia" in alliance with Germany and Japan would rush into the battle for world domination. On the way to London, Tukhachevsky stopped briefly in Warsaw and Berlin, where he talked with Polish colonels and German generals. He was so confident of success that he almost did not hide his admiration for the German militarists.
How the rating is calculated
◊ The rating is calculated based on the points awarded in the last week
◊ Points are awarded for:
⇒ visiting pages dedicated to the star
⇒ voting for a star
⇒ commenting a star

Biography, life story of Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich

Vlasik Nikolay Sidorovich - head of security.

Childhood and adolescence

Nikolai Vlasik was born into a poor peasant family on May 22, 1896 in the village of Bobynichi (Slonim district, Grodno province). He received a modest education - he graduated from three classes of a rural parish school. Nikolai started working at the age of 13. He was a laborer for a landowner, and a digger on the railroad, and a laborer at a paper mill in Yekaterinoslavl.

Service

In the spring of 1915, Nikolai Vlasik was called up for military service. For the courage and courage shown during the hostilities of the First World War, he received an honorary award - the St. George Cross. During the October Revolution of 1917, non-commissioned officer Vlasik sided with Soviet power. In the same year he became a member of the Moscow police.

At the end of the winter of 1918, Nikolai Sidorovich ended up in the Red Army. In the fall of 1919, Vlasik was transferred to the central office of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. In May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik received the post of senior authorized officer of the Operations Division of the United State Political Administration under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. At the beginning of 1930 he became a branch assistant in the same department.

In 1927, Nikolai Sidorovich became the head of the Kremlin's special guard, in fact, the head of the personal guard. In the mid-1930s, Vlasik was approved as head of the first department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, and then the head of the entire first department. In November 1942 he became the first deputy head of the first department of the NKVD of the USSR; in May 1943 - Head of the Sixth Directorate of the USSR People's Commissariat for State Security; in August 1943 - the first deputy head of the department of the People's Commissariat of State Security. In the spring of 1946, Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security (Main Security Directorate). In 1947, Vlasik became a deputy of the Moscow City Council, a deputy of workers.

CONTINUED BELOW

For many years Nikolai Sidorovich was a personal bodyguard. Very quickly he became a close friend of the leader, practically a member of his family. After the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, his wife, Vlasik took up raising their children and taking care of the house.

In the late spring of 1952, Nikolai Vlasik was removed from his duties as the head of security and sent to Asbest as deputy head of the Bazhenov forced labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A family

The wife of Nikolai Sidorovich was called Maria Semyonovna (years of life - 1908-1996). The couple raised their daughter Nadezhda (born in 1935). She was an adopted daughter for Vlasik, but the relationship between them was truly warm and kindred.

In mid-December 1952, Nikolai Vlasik was arrested in connection with the wrecking doctors case (a criminal trial brought against doctors accused of conspiracy and murder of Soviet leaders). The reason for the arrest was that it was Vlasik who provided treatment to members of the government and was responsible for the reliability of the professors. In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Sidorovich guilty and sentenced him to 10 years of exile and deprivation of state awards and the rank of general. In March of the same year, the term of Vlasik's exile under the amnesty was reduced to 5 years. Krasnoyarsk was chosen as the place for the link.

In December 1956, Nikolai Vlasik was pardoned by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. The conviction was removed, but it was decided not to restore it in awards and titles.

Nikolai Sidorovich was fully rehabilitated only in June 2000. The Supreme Court of Russia overturned the verdict against Vlasik for lack of corpus delicti. The confiscated awards of Nikolai Vlasik were transferred to his daughter Nadezhda in 2001.

The last years of life and death

He spent many years with the Generalissimo. Who was this bodyguard of Stalin, what is the real story of Nikolai Vlasik?

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 could not count on a good education. After three classes of the parish 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 Ostrog Infantry Regiment, and was awarded the St.George Cross for bravery in battles. After being wounded, Vlasik was promoted to non-commissioned officers and appointed commander of a platoon of the 251st infantry regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.

During the October Revolution, Nikolai Vlasik, a native of the very bottom, quickly determined 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 took part in the Civil War, was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the Cheka, where he served in the central office under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.

Master of security and life

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as a senior commissioner of the Operations 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 building of the commandant's office on Lubyanka. The operative who was on leave 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. Particular attention was directed to the personal protection of Joseph Stalin.

Despite the sad history of the attempt on Lenin's life, by 1927 the protection of the first persons of the state in the USSR was not particularly careful.

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 the weekend. One commandant lived at the dacha, there was no linen or dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.

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

The leader, accustomed to asceticism, was at first skeptical of the new bodyguard's innovations. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaning lady appeared at the dacha, and 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 time to receive the Soviet leader. There is no need to talk about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most careful way.

The security system for important government facilities existed before Vlasik, but he became the developer of security measures for the first person of the state during his travels 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 personal security officers know which of them the leader is traveling in. Subsequently, such a scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.

"Illiterate, stupid, but noble"

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

Nikolai Sidorovich was not a teacher, but he tried as best he could. If Svetlana and Artyom did not give him much trouble, then Vasily was uncontrollable from childhood. Vlasik, knowing that Stalin would not let his children descend, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate Vasily's sins in his reports to his father.

But over the years, the "pranks" became more and more serious, and the role of the "lightning rod" became more and more difficult for Vlasik.

Svetlana and Artyom, as adults, wrote about their "tutor" in different ways. Stalin's daughter in "Twenty Letters to a Friend" characterized Vlasik as follows: "He headed all the guard of his father, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years, he came to the point that dictated to some art workers "the tastes of Comrade Stalin", as he believed that he knew and understood them well ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to the artists whether "he liked" whether it was a film or opera, or even silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction then ... "

"He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin."

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

For ten to fifteen years, Nikolai Vlasik from an ordinary bodyguard turned into a general who heads a huge structure responsible not only for security, but also for the life of the first persons of the state.

During the war, the evacuation of the government, members of the diplomatic corps and the 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.

The 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 security, judging by his memoirs, took the threat of assassination very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was convinced that 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 attempt, and his opponents later believed that it was all a production. Judging by the circumstances, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not informed about Stalin's boat trip, and they mistook him for an offender. Subsequently, the officer who gave the order to fire was sentenced to five years. But in 1937, during the "Great Terror", they remembered him again, conducted another trial and shot.

Cow abuse

During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at the conferences of the heads of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition and coped with his task 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 was the reason for accusations of appropriation of property: it was argued that after its completion, Vlasik removed various valuables from Germany, including a horse, two cows and one bull. Subsequently, this fact was 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, his native village Bobynichi was captured by the Germans. The house where the sister lived was burned down, half of the village was shot, the sister's eldest daughter was taken to work in Germany, the cow and 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 remained. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for loved ones.

Was it abuse? If approached with a strict measure, then perhaps yes. However, Stalin, when the incident was first reported to him, abruptly ordered further investigation to cease.

Opal

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Directorate of Security: a department 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 made a huge number of enemies. Being too close to Stalin, Vlasik had the opportunity to influence the attitude of the leader towards this or that person, he decided who would get wider access to the first person, and who would be denied such an opportunity.

The almighty head of the Soviet secret services, Lavrenty Beria, passionately wanted to get rid of Vlasik. Compromising evidence on the Stalinist bodyguard was meticulously collected, drop by drop undermining the leader's trust in him.

In 1948, the commandant of the so-called "Blizhnyaya 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 created to verify the activities of the Main Directorate of the MGB of the USSR. This time, extremely unpleasant facts surfaced, looking quite plausible. The guards and the staff of the special tasks, who were empty for weeks, arranged real orgies there, plundered food and expensive drinks. Later, witnesses were found 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, the deputy head of the Bazhenov labor camp of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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

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

Be that as it may, very difficult times came 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 information discrediting the professors, which I reported to Stalin."

In prison, Vlasik was interrogated with passion for several months. For a man who was already well over 50, the disgraced bodyguard stood firm. Was ready to admit "moral decay" and even waste of funds, 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 from the service,” was his testimony.

Could Vlasik prolong the life of the leader?

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died. Even if we discard the dubious version of the murder of the leader, Vlasik, if he remained in his post, could well extend his life. When the leader became ill at the Blizhnyaya dacha, he lay on the floor of his room for several hours 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 "doctors' case" was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. The collapse of Lawrence Beria in June 1953 did not bring him freedom.

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 reinstated in 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: the property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal one. Vlasik pounded the doorsteps of the 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 committed certain actions, 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 those around him, what is wrong with that ... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified the country that he led to prosperity and victories, - wrote Nikolai Vlasik. “A lot of good things were done under his leadership, and the people saw it. He enjoyed great prestige. I knew him very closely ... And I affirm that he lived only in the interests of the country, the interests of his people. "

“It is easy to blame a person for all mortal sins when he is dead and cannot be justified or defend himself. Why, during his lifetime, no one dared to point out to him his mistakes? What was in the way? Fear? Or were there no such errors to be pointed out?

Tsar Ivan IV was formidable for that, but there were people who loved their homeland, who, without fear of death, pointed out to him his mistakes. Or brave people transferred to Russia? " - so thought the Stalinist bodyguard.

Summing up his memoirs and his whole life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Having no punishment, but only one encouragement and reward, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison.

But never, not a single minute, no matter what state I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no evil in my soul against Stalin. I perfectly understood what kind of environment was created around him in the last years of his life. How difficult it was for him. He was an old, sick, lonely person ... He was and remains the most dear person to me, and no slander can shake that feeling of love and deepest respect that I have always had for this wonderful person. He personified for me everything that is light and dear in my life - the party, my homeland and my people. "

Posthumously rehabilitated

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik died on June 18, 1967. His archive was confiscated and classified. Only in 2011 did the Federal Security Service declassify the notes of the person who, in fact, stood at the origins of its creation.

Vlasik's relatives 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 1955 sentence was canceled, and the criminal case was dropped "for lack of corpus delicti."

He spent many years with the Generalissimo. Who was this bodyguard of Stalin, what is the real story of Nikolai Vlasik? Nikolai Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus, ...

He spent many years with the Generalissimo. Who was this bodyguard of Stalin, what is the real story of Nikolai Vlasik?

During the October Revolution, Nikolai Vlasik, a native of the very bottom, quickly determined his political choice: together with the entrusted platoon, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

Master of security and life

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as a senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU.

Despite the sad history of the attempt on Lenin's life, by 1927 the protection of the first persons of the state in the USSR was not particularly careful.

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

"Illiterate, stupid, but noble"

But over the years, the "pranks" became more and more serious, and the role of the "lightning rod" became more and more difficult for Vlasik.

Svetlana and Artyom, as adults, wrote about their "tutor" in different ways. Stalin's daughter in "Twenty Letters to a Friend" characterized Vlasik as follows: "He headed all the guard of his father, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years, he came to the point that dictated to some art workers “the tastes of Comrade Stalin”, as he believed that he knew and understood them well ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to the art workers whether “he liked” whether it was a film or an opera, or even silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction then ... "

"He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin."

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

The assassination attempt in Gagra

Cow abuse

Was it abuse? If approached with a strict measure, then perhaps yes. However, Stalin, when the incident was first reported to him, abruptly ordered further investigation to cease.

Opal

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Directorate of Security: a department with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of many thousands.

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

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

Vlasik himself wrote in his memoirs that there was no reason to believe Timashuk: "There was no information discrediting the professors, which I reported to Stalin."

Could Vlasik prolong the life of the leader?

After the death of the leader, the "doctors' case" was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. The collapse of Lawrence Beria in June 1953 did not bring him freedom.

In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 p. "B" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of general rank and state awards. In March 1955, Vlasik's term was reduced to 5 years. They were sent to serve their sentence in Krasnoyarsk.
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 reinstated in military rank and awards.

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

Secretly, he began to dictate memoirs, in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he committed certain actions, 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 those around him, what's wrong with that ... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified the country that he led to prosperity and victories, - wrote Nikolai Vlasik. “A lot of good things have been done under his leadership, and the people saw it. He enjoyed great prestige. I knew him very closely ... And I affirm that he lived only in the interests of the country, the interests of his people. "

Summing up his memoirs and his whole life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Having no punishment, but only one encouragement and reward, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison.