Nikolay Vlasik. Stalin

He spent many years next to 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 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 the 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. Particular attention was ordered to be given to 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.

"Illiterate, stupid, but noble"

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 headed the entire 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 reached the point that dictated to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin”, because he believed that he knew and understood them well ... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to artists whether “himself” liked it, whether it was a film, or opera, or even the silhouettes of high-rise buildings under construction at that time...”

“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. Subsequently, the officer who ordered the shooting was sentenced to five years. But in 1937, during the "great terror", they remembered him again, held another process and shot him.

Cow abuse

During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at 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 became a pretext for accusations of misappropriation of property: it was alleged that after its completion, Vlasik took 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, 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.

The almighty head of the Soviet special services, Lavrenty Beria, 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 he 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 Russia? - 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, the Federal Security Service declassified the notes of the 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 1955 sentence was canceled, and the criminal case was dismissed "due to the lack of corpus delicti".

Last week, the Russian Federal Security Service declassified the archive of General Nikolai Vlasik, who served as chief of security for Joseph Stalin from 1931 to 1952, Newsru.com reports. Vlasik's memoirs, dedicated to his life next to the leader, are published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

As Vlasik said in his notes, he was instructed to organize the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka and the Kremlin, as well as pay special attention to Stalin's personal protection, after a bomb was thrown into the commandant's office building on the Lubyanka in Moscow in 1927.

According to Vlasik, before he headed the leader's security, only one employee was responsible for his safety - the Lithuanian Ivan Yusis. At the dacha near Moscow, where Stalin rested on weekends, there was a complete mess. Vlasik began by sending linen and dishes to the dacha, hiring a cook and a cleaner, and also arranged for the delivery of food from the GPU state farm located nearby.

Described Vlasik and Stalin's way of life in an apartment in the Kremlin. The housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna and the cleaning lady kept order there. Hot meals were brought to the family from the Kremlin canteen in tins.

According to the general, Stalin then lived with his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, daughter Svetlana and sons Vasily and Yakov very modestly. Stalin walked in an old coat, and Vlasik's proposal to sew new outerwear was answered with a categorical refusal. As Vlasik wrote in his notes, he had to sew a new coat for the leader by eye - he did not allow me to take measurements. Nadezhda Alliluyeva was just as modest, according to the general.

As Vlasik recalls, Stalin usually got up at 9 am, after breakfast by 11 o'clock he arrived at the Central Committee building on Staraya Square. Dined at work. The leader worked until late at night. He often returned from work to the Kremlin on foot with Vyacheslav Molotov.

After Stalin's wife committed suicide in 1933, the care of the children fell on the housekeeper Karolina Vasilievna. According to Vlasik, when the children grew up, part of the responsibility fell on him. And if there were no problems with Svetlana, son Vasily studied at school reluctantly, and instead of preparing for classes, he was fond of something extraneous like horse riding. On the behavior of Vasily Vlasik, according to him, "reluctantly" reported to Stalin.

As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, Stalin annually went on vacation to Sochi or Gagra for two months at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn. There he read a lot, rode a boat on the sea, watched movies, played skittles, towns and billiards.

Another hobby of the leader was the garden. In the south, he grew oranges and tangerines. At the initiative of Stalin, a large number of eucalyptus trees were planted in Sochi, which, according to the leader's idea, was to reduce the incidence of malaria among the local population.

As Vlasik admitted, in the 30s, when Stalin arrived on vacation in Tskaltubo at the dacha intended for employees of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of Georgia, it turned out to be so dirty there that, in his words, “the heart bled” when the leader was nervous, demanding to clean up.

According to Vlasik, Stalin loved the head of the Leningrad Party Organization of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Kirov, "with some kind of touching, tender love." Kirov, arriving in Moscow, stayed at Stalin's apartment, and they did not part. The assassination of Kirov in 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev, instructor of the historical and party commission of the Institute of History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, shocked the leader. As Vlasik noted, he traveled with Stalin to Leningrad to say goodbye to Kirov and saw how he suffered, experiencing the loss of his beloved friend.

As Vlasik wrote in his memoirs, in the summer of 1935, Stalin himself survived the assassination attempt. This happened in the south, where he was resting in a dacha not far from Gagra. The boat, sent from Leningrad by the then head of the NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, on which Stalin was, was fired upon from the shore. According to Vlasik, he quickly put Stalin on a bench and covered him with himself, after which he ordered the minder to go out to sea. In response, Stalin's guards fired machine gun fire along the shore.

According to Vlasik, a small and non-maneuverable boat was sent by Yagoda "not without malicious intent." Obviously, the chief of the NKVD assumed that on a big wave the ship would inevitably capsize. Fortunately, this did not happen. The assassination case was referred for investigation to Lavrenty Beria, who was then Secretary of the Central Committee of Georgia.

During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat was with an unfamiliar number, it seemed suspicious to him, and he opened fire, writes Vlasik. In fact, as historians write, the appearance of Stalin's boat in the protected area was not formalized by the relevant documents, and the border guards acted in strict accordance with the instructions. The commander of the frontier post department, Lavrov, demanded that the boat stop with shots in the air. The warning shots had to be repeated as the boat did not respond to the signals.

Lavrov was tried. Although he faced the death penalty, after Yagoda's intervention, the commander of the outpost section was given only five years for "sloppiness." Lavrov, however, did not serve his term. In 1937, he was taken from the camp to Tbilisi, and after interrogation he was accused of a terrorist conspiracy and sentenced to death as an enemy of the people.

In his memoirs, Vlasik expresses the idea that the murders of Kirov, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky in 1934, Valerian Kuibyshev in 1935 and the writer Maxim Gorky in 1936, as well as the assassination attempts on Stalin and Molotov, were organized by the right-wing Trotsky bloc and became links in one chain. “This tangle was unraveled and thus neutralized the enemies of Soviet power,” the general states.

It should be noted that the circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son Maxim Peshkov were considered suspicious for a long time, but the rumors about their murder were never confirmed. At the 1938 trial, Yagoda was charged with poisoning Gorky's son. During interrogations, Yagoda stated that Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and he decided to liquidate the writer's son on his own initiative.

Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich was born in 1896 in the village of Babinichi, Sloma district, Grodno province, in the family of a poor peasant. In 1919 he entered the state security agencies. In 1919-1920 he served in a special detachment under the Cheka. In 1921 he worked in the operations department of the GPU. In 1931 he headed Stalin's bodyguard. From 1946 to 1952, he served as head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. In 1945, Vlasik was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

In May 1952, Vlasik was removed from his post as head of security and sent to the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region, where he received the post of deputy head of the Bazhenov Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Construction. In December 1952, Vlasik was arrested. In 1955 he was sentenced to 10 years of exile and deprived of his general rank and awards. Under the amnesty, the term of exile was reduced to five years.

In 1956, General Vlasik was pardoned and released with the removal of a criminal record without restoring his military rank. In 1967, Stalin's former security chief died. In 2000, he was posthumously rehabilitated, reinstated in rank, Vlasik's awards were returned to his family.

Secrets of the life of the Kremlin celestials of the times of the great Stalin: night feasts, embezzlement of state property and love triangles.
- In general, she got into bed by force. Forcibly, both to Vlasik and to Beria.
But what was behind the elimination of the head of the leader's personal guard and other associates? Politics or male jealousy?
But this time he made a fatal mistake, he crossed the road to the owner himself. Private life of Comrade Stalin. When love becomes power, and power protects like love. Party intrigues, jealousy and revenge in the documentary series "The investigation was conducted ..." with Leonid Kanevsky. Love under the Kremlin stars. Watch right now.
Each fiery revolutionary had his mistress: Krupskaya with Lenin, Zhemchuzhina with Molotov, Ekaterina Davydovna with Voroshilov, Ashken Mikoyan, Zhenechka Vladun with Yezhov. These women often manipulated their husbands, influencing the politics of the entire state. Only Stalin was an exception and did not tolerate female power over himself. Maybe that's why he became a leader? At the top of power, everyone knows each other. Here, as in a village, there are love triangles, adultery, betrayal and even crimes based on love.

The investigation was conducted with Leonid Kanevsky Love under the Kremlin stars. (Start)

May 23, 1952. A black funnel flies through Moscow at night. Inside is a handcuffed man. It is impossible to recognize the once omnipotent General Nikolai Vlasik in him.
Nikolai Vlasik - head of the main security department of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Lieutenant general. For more than 20 years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard. Raised his son Vasily. The department, headed by Vlasik, provided protection for the entire leadership of the country.
Vlasik for many years led the guards of Stalin. He - one of the main close associates of the leader - had incredible power. And now the powerful general was arrested. During the search, Vlasik did not find anything interesting: personal belongings, documents. But the main value was here, in the general's notebook. On 40 pages there are more than 100 women's names, addresses, phone numbers, short notes, the Bolshoi Theater, the circus, GUM, a restaurant and even a library. The security officer who arrested Vlasik immediately realized that this was not a list of informants. Stalin's bodyguard has long been known for his amorous exploits. But this time he made a fatal mistake. Crossed the road to the owner himself. Vlasik used his official position without hesitation. It was said that he even had an adjutant for heart affairs, who got gifts for the chief's chosen ones and resolved other delicate issues. The General did not like long courtship. In his pocket there was always a pack of free tickets to the Dynamo stadium. Football in the post-war period was the most popular sport. In the 50th year, the star of the great goalkeeper Lev Yashin rises. Vsevolod Bobrov and Igor Netto shine on the football fields. There are many young girls among the fans. After the match, Vlasik again goes to a country house, where a chic table has already been laid. Exquisite products are brought, on the personal orders of the general, not from a store or even from a special distributor, but directly from Comrade Stalin's kitchen. After all, Vlasik is not just the head of security. He is in charge of all the household of the leader. One day, Stalin accidentally saw an estimate for the maintenance of a nearby dacha in Kuntsevo. It turned out that 10,000 rubles were spent on one herring per year.
Herring - in the difficult post-war years, this fish replaced inaccessible trout and salmon on the tables of Soviet citizens. Naturally, under the herring was considered the most exquisite - the Atlantic from Norway. In free sale, this herring almost never met. One such jar was worth a third of the salary of the average worker. According to eyewitnesses, Stalin was furious when he learned that, according to documents, he ate 1,000 cans in a year. The father of nations shouted who ate the herring. I ate a herring? This power ate the herring. It seemed that the career, and, perhaps, the life of the head of security was over. But then Vlasik managed to avoid reprisals. After all, the anger of the leader fell upon the commandant of the nearby dacha Fedoseev. He was arrested and later shot. Fedoseev said during interrogations that Vlasik was going to poison Stalin. But the leader did not believe. And a few years later, Vlasik was first demoted, and then arrested for the approval of the owner. For what? The main version, the incredible suspicion of Stalin. He ceased to trust even the most devoted comrades-in-arms. But this is only part of the truth. General Vlasik knew perfectly well the real reason for his disgrace. It was a woman.
Olga Kuchkina: - It was a completely simple girl, plump, pretty, ruddy. Absolutely, of course, uncomplaining.
Stalin called her Valyusha. For many years, Valentina Istomina was not only the housekeeper of the nearby dacha in Kuntsevo, but also the closest person to the leader. It was she, according to many Kremlin historians, who became the real reason for the collapse of the all-powerful General Vlasik. In the spring of 1952, an incredible thing happened at Stalin's nearby dacha. A crime. The victim was Valyusha Istomina.
- in general, she got into bed by force, by force, to both Vlasik and Beria.
In 1935, Vlasik himself chooses a 17-year-old graduate of a medical school, Valentina Istomina, to work at government dachas. A real Siberian, a blonde with blue eyes, similar to the artist Tselikovskaya, he liked her at first sight. Of the things Valentina Istomina has only a small bundle. It contains a change of linen, several notebooks with notes, a postcard with a portrait of Comrade Stalin and a shawl. At that time it was a very expensive thing. It's made from pure down and is super warm. In winter, it serves as a fur coat and a hat, and in summer, a pillow and a blanket for a girl. This shawl was destined to play a role in the fate of Comrade Stalin's future housekeeper.
In November 1935, waitress Valentina Istomina was transferred to work at a secret facility, Stalin's near dacha in Kuntsevo. Iosif Vissarionovich is not in a good mood. He has a severe cold. Stalin throws away the pills that doctors bring, he is afraid of poisoning. One day, Valentina plucked up the courage to offer her owner her shawl. The girl herself wrapped him up for the night, and in the morning a miracle happened. The disease has receded.
Soon the head of Stalin's security received a report about his employees. Vlasik had not seen his master so lively and happy for a long time. Only Stalin allowed Valyusha to bring tea in the evening. She just made the bed for him. By the way, according to the testimony of relatives, the leader rarely took a bath, but slept on fresh linen every night. Stalin calls his waiter affectionately - Valyusha, Valechka. Vlasik, who looked at her earlier with lust, is forced to retreat. Under the influence of this girl, Joseph Vissarionovich changed his oldest habits. Previously, Stalin could not stand new clothes, he wore old ones to holes. The ruler of one-sixth of the land wore simple soldier's underwear with a government brand. Now he began to put on expensive silk.
Stalin's dacha was often visited by a family friend, member of the Central Committee of the KPP, Abel Yunikidze. He has long annoyed party leaders with his excessive love of luxury and women. A relative of Stalin's first wife, Maria Svanidze, spoke of Unikidze with contempt. Unikidze also draws attention to Valya Istomina. The reaction is immediate. In 1935, Yunikidze was expelled from the party for political corruption in everyday life and exiled to Kharkov as the director of an automobile chair.

Love under the Kremlin stars. (the end)
This is a Cossack officer's checker of the 1910 model. With such a sword, the fighters of the first icon cut with the whites on the fronts of the civil war. It was with this sword that First Marshal Klim Voroshilov met the NKVD detachment, which came to arrest his wife. The Chekists armed with revolvers fled. Upon learning of this, Stalin laughed and ordered the Voroshilovs not to be touched anymore. Stalin regularly receives a report from the secret services about the moral decay of some leaders of the Soviet state. The leader is informed that during a search of the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yegoda, almost 4,000 frivolous photographs and 11 films of completely obscene content were found. Many comrades openly cheat on their wives. Some have entire harems. The reports indicated the names of Avvakumov, Vlasik, Beria. Before the war, the wife of Stalin's personal secretary and the person closest to him, Poskrebyshev, was arrested and thrown into prison. Several times Poskrebyshev, who was in the rank of general on his knees, went into Stalin's office and, like a devoted dog, crawled to the Supreme's table, begging to let his wife out. But the leader was unshakable. It was not Comrade Stalin who arrested her, so it was not for him to let her go. 3 years later, it was Comrade Stalin who wrote the death sentence for Broneslava Posklebysheva. This paper was delivered to him by his personal secretary. In fact, the espionage charge against Poskrebysheva was fabricated by Beria. The woman, being a distant relative of Trotsky, tried to protect her relatives from repression. But Beria, to whom Broneslav turned for help, began to seek her. She refused. For which she paid with freedom and life.
Incredibly, after the death of his beloved wife, the personal secretary of Comrade Stalin, Voskhlebyshev, faithfully served the owner for several more years. During the war, Stalin spends a lot of time at a nearby dacha. His housekeeper Valyusha Istomina is always by his side. The leader became very attached to the girl. She gave him what he was deprived of in family life with Nadezhda Aliluyeva: the comfort of the hearth, care and unconditional support.
Boris Ilizarov: - In general, in essence. About communism, about socialism. They talk about losses. A servant, a girl who is also a concubine.

Talented generals were worth their weight in gold during the war. But an affair on the side could cost even brilliant commanders their heads. A former student of the seminary, Joseph Dzhugashvili, often used to say that the family is the main unit of the state. He forgave amorous adventures only to the closest associates. The rest knew they would have to answer for adultery. In 1943, Rokosovsky, then still a general, was on a report with Comrade Stalin. Suddenly, the leader asked if Comrade Rokosovsky knew whose wife was the famous actress Serova. The general turned pale. At that moment, he must have felt one step to prison. And what a prison Rokosovsky knew firsthand. Cold and damp, daily expectations of executions. Before the war, the marshal spent 2 years in prison. He was accused of spying for Japan and Poland. But when the war began, they were unexpectedly acquitted. Actress Valentina Serova was not only a star of Soviet cinema. She was the wife of the poet Konstantin Simonov, the leader's favorite. The amorous adventures of Rokosovsky and Serova became the property of the whole people. Stalin personally decided to stop them. Rokosovsky understood Comrade Stalin's hint. The next day, the brilliant general left the love front without a fight.
1952 Stalin is seriously ill. At the party congress, he asks to be allowed to retire. But the delegates are against it. It was at this moment that he was informed that the faithful chosen one Vlasik encroached on Valya. His Valyusha, who became the closest person for the leader.
- And when Stalin found out about it, he completely. Well, you can understand by yourself how we see his character, what happened to him.
Stalin refuses to believe what happened. Valyusha is silent and only cries. In desperation, the leader orders the dismissal of the long-term head of his guard and remove him from sight. But then, unable to bear the orders, arrest.
From the minutes of the court session: “Defendant Vlasik, how often did you arrange immoral amusements with women? Answer: There were no sprees. I really cohabited with many women, drank alcohol with them. But all this happened at the expense of my personal health and in my free time from service. Question to the witness: What can you say on the merits of the case? Witness: Vlasik soldered me, and when I fell asleep he cohabited with my wife.
Andrei Sukhomlinov: - He was not convicted of embezzlement, embezzlement. For this he was removed from office.
The general is sent to the colony of the distant Ural city of Asbest as deputy chief. But then they are returned to Moscow, tried and sent into exile for 10 years. After 5 years, he will be released under an amnesty. But he will never return to the organs. A few days after the arrest of Vlasik, the security officers appear at Stalin's dacha in Kuntsevo. They order the rampart to assemble. Valyusha Istomina was given 5 minutes to get ready. She left the nearby dacha with the same bundle with which she came here 17 years ago. It contains a postcard and an aged, shabby shawl that once brought them together. On a black funnel, she was taken to the Lubyanka inner prison. In solitary confinement, the woman nearly went insane. For several weeks, she was never summoned for interrogation. Three times a day, the feeder was opened, an invisible guard silently passed a mug of boiling water, a bowl of gruel and a piece of bread. Istomin with things on the way out - the guard shouted. Finally the door opened. Probably, at that moment, Valentina thought about the worst thing, they would be shot now. But the prisoner was wrong. Her once beloved woman of Stalin, without trial or investigation, was sent into exile in the most terrible place of the Gulag. To Kolyma. Soon after the arrest of Valyusha, the leader is smashed by a blow. Stalin brings mountains of pills. He throws them out. There is no Valyusha nearby. Only from her hands he was not afraid to take medicine. Trusting no one, he sometimes locks himself in a room and cooks his own food.
Alexander Sosland: - By far, the most plausible diagnosis according to the current classification is paranoid personality disorder.
A few weeks later, the leader realizes that he cannot live without a faithful housekeeper. Valentina Istomina barely makes it to Kolyma when the order comes for her release. On a military plane, a woman is taken to Moscow and brought to a nearby dacha to Stalin.
- And then, when she returned, when they met, they both cried.
On the morning of March 1, 1953, Stalin was found lying motionless on the floor. On March 3, his children and closest associates gathered at the body of the leader. Everyone was silent. Only the inconsolable Valya Istomina sobbed loudly. The secret wife of the leader was the only one in a close circle who sincerely mourned the death of this man. After Stalin's funeral, Valentina Istomina was transferred to another facility. She never married, remaining faithful to the only man in her life to the end. She died in 1995, taking with her many secrets from the life of one of the most formidable rulers of the 20th century.

Written by Robert Rovnik and Alexander Zaletov
Stage director Boris Fedorov
Composer Igor Nazaruk
Host Leonid Kanevsky
Director Lolita Khalikova
Produced by Erika Galimurza and David Hamburg

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik

Vlasik Nikolai Sidorovich (1896, Bobynichi village, Slonim district, Grodno province - 1967). head of security I.V. Stalin, lieutenant general (07/09/1945). The son of a peasant. He was educated at a parochial school. From 1913 he worked as a laborer and digger. In March 1915 he was drafted into the army as a junior non-commissioned officer. From Nov. 1917 policeman in Moscow. Nov. 1918 joined the RCP (b). In Sept. 1919 transferred to the authorities Cheka . Already on November 1, 1926, he became a senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU of the USSR, and then held senior positions in the Operations Department system. whose functions included the protection of the leaders of the party and the state. For many years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard; from 1932 he raised his son V.I. Stalin. In 1935-36 early. bodyguards of the Operational Department of the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR. From 1936 beginning. task force and departments of the 1st department of the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR. After joining the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria and removal from office of nominees N.I. Yezhov Vlasik 11/19/1938 was appointed to the beginning. 1st Division of the Main Directorate of State Security. In February-July 1941, the Vlasik department was part of the NKGB of the USSR, and then returned to the jurisdiction of the NKVD. 19.1 1.1942 Vlasik was transferred to the post of 1st deputy head. 1st department. After education in Apr. 1943 of the independent NGKB of the USSR, Vlasik's department was deployed to the 6th Directorate, but already on August 9. Vlasik again became not the beginning, but the 1st deputy. From March 1946 beginning. Directorate of Security N 1 of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. This department was engaged exclusively in the protection and provision of Stalin. On November 28, 1946, under the leadership of Stalin, Vlasik, who enjoyed exceptional confidence at that time, the Main Security Directorate (GUO) of the USSR Ministry of State Security was formed. which included the 1st and 2nd security departments, as well as the Office of the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin. On May 23, 1952, the GUO was transformed into the Security Directorate, and Vlasik was removed from work and transferred to the deputy. early Bazhenov labor camp in Asbest (Sverdlovsk region). 12/16/1952 arrested and charged with "indulging pest doctors", abuse of office, etc. In January 1955 he was sentenced to 5 years of exile in Krasnoyarsk, but in 1956 he was pardoned (with the conviction removed). According to his wife, Vlasik, until his death, was convinced that Stalin "helped" die L.P. Beria .

Used materials from the book: Zalessky K.A. Empire of Stalin. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. Moscow, Veche, 2000

VLASIK Nikolai Sidorovich (Sergeevich) (1896-1967). Lieutenant General, head of Stalin's security. Born in the Baranovichi region, Belarusian. Member of the RCP (b) since 1918. In the bodies of the Cheka since 1919. In Stalin's guard appeared in 1931 on the recommendation of V.R. Menzhinsky (S. Alliluyeva writes that Vlasik was Stalin's bodyguard since 1919). In 1938-1942. - head of the 1st department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR, in 1941-1942. - NKGB-NKVD of the USSR. In 1942-1943. - Deputy head of the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR. In 1943 - head of the 6th department of the NKGB of the USSR and head of the 1st department of the 6th department of the NKGB of the USSR. In 1946, he was authorized by the Ministry of State Security of the USSR for the Sochi-Gagrinsky District; in 1946-1952 - Head of the Main Directorate of Security of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR.

He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov I degree, and medals.

Vlasik lasted the longest in the protection of Stalin. At the same time, almost all the domestic problems of the head of state lay on his shoulders. In essence, Vlasik was a member of the Stalin family. After the death of N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure, an economic and financial manager. Stalin's summer residences, along with the security staff, maids, housekeepers and cooks, were also subordinate to Vlasik. And there were many of them: a dacha in Kuntsevo-Volynsky, or "Near Dacha" (in 1934-1953 - the main residence of Stalin,1 he died there), a dacha in Gorki-tenths (35 km from Moscow along the Uspenskaya road) , an old manor along Dmitrovskoye Highway - Lipki, a dacha in Semenovsky (the house was built before the war), a dacha in Zubalovo-4 ("Far Dacha", "Zubalovo"), 2 dacha on Lake Ritsa, or "Dacha on the Cold River" (in the mouth of the Lashupse River, which flows into Lake Ritsa), three dachas in Sochi (one is not far from Matsesta, the other is beyond Adler, the third is before Gagra), a dacha in Borjomi (the Liakan Palace), a dacha in New Athos, a dacha in Tskhaltubo, a dacha in Myusery (near Pitsunda), a dacha in Kislovodsk, a dacha in the Crimea (in Mukholatka), a dacha in Valdai.

After the Great Patriotic War, three Crimean palaces, where government delegations of the allied powers stayed in 1945, were also “mothballed” for such dachas. These are the Livadia Palace (formerly the royal palace, where a sanatorium for peasants was opened in the early 1920s), Vorontsovsky in Alupka (where the museum was located before the war), Yusupovsky in Koreiz. Another former royal palace - Massandra (Alexander III) also turned into a "state dacha".

Formally, it was believed that all members of the Politburo could rest there, but usually, except for Stalin and occasionally Zhdanov and Molotov,3 no one used them. Nevertheless, a large number of servants lived in each of the dachas throughout the year, everything was kept in such a state as if the leader was constantly there. Even lunch for Stalin and his potential guests was prepared daily and accepted according to the act, regardless of whether anyone would eat it. This order played a well-known conspiratorial role: no one was supposed to know where Stalin was now and what his plans were. .

December 15, 1952 Vlasik was arrested. He was accused of embezzling large sums of state money and valuables.4 L. Beria and G. Malenkov are considered to be the initiators of Vlasik's arrest. By a court decision, he was stripped of his general rank and exiled for ten years. But under an amnesty on March 27, 1953, Vlasik's term was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. Died in Moscow.

Svetlana Alliluyeva characterizes his father's favorite as "illiterate, stupid, rude" and extremely arrogant satrap. In life Nadezhda Sergeevna (of Svetlana’s mother) Vlasik was not heard or seen, “he didn’t even dare to enter the house” ... However, later the authorities corrupted him so much that “he began to dictate to cultural and art figures" the tastes of Comrade Stalin "... And the figures listened to and followed this advice. Not a single festive concert at the Bolshoi Theater or St. George's Hall was held without Vlasik's sanction. Svetlana is trying to convince readers of the amazing gullibility and helplessness of her father against people like Vlasik. At the same time, she repeatedly mentions Stalin's rare insight. The leader really knew the weaknesses and vices of Vlasik very well. And yet he remained under Stalin for many years, while others, honest and decent, fell out of favor and were expelled. Obviously, it was Vlasiki who suited him ( Samsonova V. Stalin's daughter. M., 1998. S. 175-177).

Notes

1) The dacha in Kuntsevo was designed and built by the architect Miron Merzhanov at the direction of Stalin in 1934. Since that time, Kuntsevo has become the main residence of the leader and the real capital of the USSR. The thought of leaving the Kremlin, according to her daughter, was prompted by the suicide of her wife on November 8, 1932. “But, I think, another, more practical consideration was the desire to separate from the rest of the party leaders. All of them lived in the Kremlin. He wanted to have his own special Kremlin (he adored conspiracies), and he built it. In gratitude, Merzhanov was sent to camps for 17 years, and he miraculously came out alive ”(Druzhnikov Yu.I. Russian myths. M., 1999. P. 256). Merzhanov also built other dachas for the Secretary General in the Caucasus and Crimea. After the death of the leader in Kuntsevo, they planned to open a museum of Stalin.

2) The estate with a palace in the Gothic style in a deep forest near Moscow (near the Usovo station) belonged until 1917 to the oilman Zubalov. Here Stalin lived during the summer months in 1919-1932. The dacha was blown up in October 1941, when there was a real threat of the capture of Moscow. Later, a new residence was created there.

3) The people of Stalin's entourage also had their favorite vacation spots. Molotov, for example, has the former estate of Chair in Miskhor (once it was fashionable to tango “Roses fall in Chair Chair”).

4) “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 evil in my soul against Stalin ”(Vlasik N.S. My biography // Loginov V. Shadows Stalin, Moscow, 2000, p. 136).

Materials of the book were used: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. St. Petersburg, 2000

From the recollections of an eyewitness:

It is impossible not to say about Vlasik. This was an ascetic who had worked under Stalin since 1928, and since 1930 he was officially the head of security. Then he was the head of the main security department. 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 connected, and it was no coincidence that when a month and a half or two before Stalin's death he was suddenly arrested, he said that I had been arrested, which means that soon there would 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 had a rare day off. You know, after such a load, such a voltage, a discharge is needed. Doctors and psychologists who work with sailors and people working in space know this well. The burden of responsibility and situation puts pressure on a person. He is not fully restored, and in the end there may be a psychological overload, when the psyche can not stand it, and the person goes haywire.
What was Vlasik accused of? In order to tear him away from Stalin, the enemies of Stalin and, therefore, the enemies of the state said that Vlasik allegedly once took some food with him. But he didn't have time to stand in line at the shops. Maybe he took something with him from Stalin's house. Yes, Vlasik's time was a hundred times more expensive to lose him shopping. His life, his activities provided the state with enormous opportunities that are difficult to assess on the scale of banknotes.
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 they did badly with Poskrebyshev, even worse with Vlasik.

Artem Sergeev

Sergeev A., Glushik E. Conversations about Stalin. Moscow, "Crimean bridge-9D". 2006.

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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 owns the authorship of many unique photographs of 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.

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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? as? 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, with a habitual 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. Nobody 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 an 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 terrible 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. A healthy person usually thinks, feels and remembers at the same time about an innumerable number of objects, but he has the 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 respect. 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 the material forces, outside the 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.