Why did Stalin need the death of Frunze. Who ordered the murder of Mikhail Frunze: the mystery of death on the operating table

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze - revolutionary figure, Bolshevik, military leader of the Red Army, participant in the Civil War, theorist of military disciplines.

Mikhail was born on January 21 (O.S.) 1885 in the city of Pishpek (Bishkek) in the family of a paramedic Vasily Mikhailovich Frunze, a Moldavian by nationality. The boy's father, after graduating from the Moscow medical school, was sent for army service to Turkestan, where he remained. Mikhail's mother, Mavra Efimovna Bochkareva, a peasant by birth, was born in the Voronezh province. Her family moved to Turkmenistan in the middle of the 19th century.

Mikhail had an older brother Konstantin and three younger sisters - Lyudmila, Claudia and Lydia. All the children of Frunze studied at the Verny gymnasium (now the city of Almaty). The older children Konstantin, Mikhail and Claudia received gold medals after graduating from the middle level. Mikhail continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, where he entered in 1904. Already in the first semester, he became interested in revolutionary ideas and joined the Social Democratic Labor Party, where he joined the Bolsheviks.

In November 1904, Frunze was arrested for participating in a provocative action. During the Manifestation on January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg, he was wounded in the arm. Dropping out of school, Mikhail Frunze fled from the persecution of the authorities to Moscow, and then to Shuya, where he led the strike of textile workers in May of that year. He met Frunze in 1906 when he was hiding in Stockholm. Mikhail had to hide his real name during the organization of the underground movement in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. The young party member was known under the pseudonyms Comrade Arseniy, Trifonych, Mikhailov, Vasilenko.

Under the leadership of Frunze, the first Soviet of Workers' Deputies was created, which was engaged in the distribution of anti-government leaflets. Frunze led city rallies and seized weapons. Mikhail was not afraid to use terrorist methods of struggle.

The young revolutionary led an armed uprising in Moscow on Presnya, seized the Shuya printing house with weapons, attacked police officer Nikita Perlov with the intent to kill. In 1910 he received a death sentence, which, at the request of members of the public, as well as the writer V.G. Korolenko was replaced by hard labor.

Four years later, Frunze was sent to permanent residence in the village of Manzurka, Irkutsk province, from where he fled to Chita in 1915. Under the name Vasilenko, he worked for some time in the local publication Transbaikal Review. Having changed his passport in the name of Mikhailov, he moved to Belarus, where he got a job as a statistician in the committee of the Zemsky Union on the Western Front.

The purpose of Frunze's stay in the Russian army was to spread revolutionary ideas among the military. In Minsk, Mikhail Vasilievich headed an underground cell. Over time, among the Bolsheviks, Frunze gained a reputation as a specialist in paramilitary actions.

Revolution

In early March 1917, Mikhail Frunze prepared the capture of the armed police department of Minsk by squads of ordinary workers. The archives of the detective department, weapons and ammunition of the station, several government agencies fell into the hands of the revolutionaries. After the success of the operation, Mikhail Frunze was appointed temporary head of the Minsk police. Under the leadership of Frunze, the publication of party newspapers began. In August, the military was transferred to Shuya, where Frunze took the post of chairman of the Council of People's Deputies, the District Zemstvo Council and the City Council.

Mikhail Frunze met the revolution in Moscow on the barricades near the Metropol Hotel. Two months later, the revolutionary received the post of head of the party cell of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk province. Frunze also dealt with the affairs of the military commissariat. The civil war allowed Mikhail Vasilyevich to fully demonstrate the military abilities that he acquired during his revolutionary activities.

From February 1919, Frunze took command of the 4th Army of the Red Army, which managed to stop the offensive against Moscow and launch a counteroffensive against the Urals. After such a significant victory for the Red Army, Frunze received the Order of the Red Banner.

Often the general could be seen on horseback at the head of the troops, which allowed him to form a positive reputation among the Red Army. In June 1919, Frunze received a shell shock near Ufa. In July, Mikhail Vasilievich headed the Eastern Front, but a month later he received a task in the southern direction, which included Turkestan and the territory of Akhtuba. Until September 1920, Frunze carried out successful operations along the front line.

More than once Frunze gave guarantees that the lives of those counter-revolutionaries who were ready to go over to the side of the Reds would be spared. Mikhail Vladimirovich contributed to a humane attitude towards the prisoners, which caused discontent among higher officials.

In the autumn of 1920, the Reds began a systematic offensive against the army, which was located in the Crimea and Northern Tavria. After the defeat of the Whites, Frunze's detachments attacked former comrades-in-arms - the brigade of the father, Yuri Tyutyunnik and. During the Crimean battles, Frunze was wounded. In 1921 he joined the Central Committee of the RCP(b). At the end of 1921, Frunze went on a political visit to Turkey. The communication of the Soviet general with the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made it possible to strengthen Turkish-Soviet ties.

After the revolution

In 1923, at the October plenum of the Central Committee, where the distribution of forces between the three leaders (Zinoviev and Kamenev) was determined, Frunze supported the latter, making a report against Trotsky's activities. Mikhail Vasilievich accused the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of the collapse of the Red Army and the lack of a clear system for training military personnel. On the initiative of Frunze, the Trotskyists Antonov-Ovseenko and Sklyansky were removed from high military ranks. The Frunze line was supported by the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army.

In 1924, Mikhail Frunze went from deputy chief to chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Mikhail Frunze also headed the headquarters of the Red Army and the Military Academy of the Red Army.

The main merit of Frunze during this period can be considered the implementation of a military reform, the purpose of which was to reduce the size of the Red Army, to reorganize the command staff. Frunze introduced unity of command, a territorial system of division of troops, participated in the creation of two independent structures within the Soviet Army - a permanent army and mobile police units.

At this time, Frunze developed a military theory, which he outlined in a number of publications - “The Unified Military Doctrine and the Red Army”, “Military-Political Education of the Red Army”, “Front and Rear in the War of the Future”, “Lenin and the Red Army”, “Our military construction and tasks of the Military Scientific Society.

Over the next decade, thanks to the efforts of Frunze, landing and tank troops, new artillery and automatic weapons appeared in the Red Army, and methods were developed for conducting rear support for the troops. Mikhail Vasilievich managed to stabilize the situation in the Red Army in a short time. The theoretical development of tactics and strategy for conducting combat under conditions of an imperialist war, laid down by Frunze, was fully implemented during the Second World War.

Personal life

Nothing is known about the personal life of the red commander before the revolution. Mikhail Frunze married only after 30 years the daughter of the Narodnaya Volya Sofya Alekseevna Popova. In 1920, a daughter, Tatiana, was born in the family, and three years later, a son, Timur. After the death of the parents of the children, the grandmother took care of them. When the grandmother died, the brother and sister ended up in the family of a friend of Mikhail Vasilyevich -.

After graduating from school, Timur entered the Flight School, during the war he served as a fighter pilot. He died at the age of 19 in the sky over the Novgorod region. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Daughter Tatyana graduated from the Institute of Chemical Technology, worked in the rear during the war. She married Lieutenant General Anatoly Pavlov, from whom she gave birth to two children - son Timur and daughter Elena. The descendants of Mikhail Frunze live in Moscow. Granddaughter studies chemistry.

Death and murder rumors

In the autumn of 1925, Mikhail Frunze turned to doctors about the treatment of a stomach ulcer. The general was scheduled for a simple operation, after which Frunze died suddenly on October 31. The official cause of the general's death was blood poisoning, according to the unofficial version, Stalin contributed to Frunze's death.

A year later, Mikhail Vasilievich's wife committed suicide. Frunze's body is buried on Red Square, the grave of Sofya Alekseevna is located at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Memory

The unofficial version of Frunze's death was taken as the basis for Pilnyak's "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon" and the memoirs of the emigrant Bazhanov "Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary". The biography of the general was of interest not only to writers, but also to Soviet and Russian filmmakers. The image of the brave commander of the Red Army was used in 24 films, in 11 of which Frunze was played by actor Roman Zakharyevich Khomyatov.

Streets, settlements, geographical objects, motor ships, destroyers and cruisers are named after the commander. Monuments to Mikhail Frunze have been erected in more than 20 cities of the former Soviet Union, including Moscow, Bishkek, Almaty, St. Petersburg, Ivanovo, Tashkent, Kyiv. Photos of the general of the Red Army are in all textbooks on modern history.

Awards

• 1919 - Order of the Red Banner
• 1920 - Honorary Revolutionary Weapon

or Murder in the operating room "Kremlevka"

Few of the old Bolsheviks - professional revolutionaries - managed to prove themselves in the art of war. Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze became famous on the fronts of the civil war on his merits, unlike, say, Budyonny or Voroshilov, who were made heroes by propaganda.
January 26, 1925 M.V. Frunze replaced L.B. Trotsky as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR, and from February 1925 he became a member of the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR.
As soon as he became the head of the People's Commissariat of Defense and the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, an editorial article "The New Russian Leader" was published in the English weekly "The Airplane".
Highly appreciating the military background of Mikhail Vasilyevich, the nameless author found the origins of the commander's gift in his genealogy, since Frunze is a descendant of the soldiers of the Roman Empire and the Don Cossacks. “... Frunze's career attracts attention,” the author wrote. - First of all, let's note his Romanian blood... Romanians are proud of their origin from that colony, which in ancient times was the advanced post of the Roman Empire against the Scythian hordes. Therefore, it is likely that the Romanians are still able to produce a great military genius... On the other hand, Frunze's mother was a peasant girl from Voronezh. Today Voronezh is the center of the region bordering the territory of the Don Cossacks in Southern Russia, and it can be assumed that Cossack blood flowed in the girl, and therefore, she inherited fighting qualities. The combination of Roman ancestors with Cossack blood can very easily create a genius. "In this man," the author concluded, "all the constituent elements of the Russian Napoleon were united."
The article was read in the Central Committee. According to B. Bazhanov, the article aroused Stalin's anger, he criticized it "within the troika" (Stalin-Kamenev-Zinoviev) angrily.
However, it quickly became clear that the new people's commissar did not want to be an unquestioning executor of Stalin's orders, but had an independent opinion about what the Red Army should be like.
By September 1925, the focus of reforms in the Red Army shifted towards the introduction of strict unity of command. "The former system of dual power, caused by political considerations," makes it difficult to put "at the head of our units people who have sufficient independence, firmness, initiative and responsibility," Mikhail Frunze declared. - It is necessary "to have a single, completely equal command staff, without dividing it in terms of service into party members and non-party members."
Everyone knew that Frunze had been complaining of stomach pains for several years.
Stalin was suddenly interested in this.
On October 8, 1925, the participants of the council, convened by order of the Politburo, chaired by the People's Commissar of Health of the RSFSR N.A. Semashko, having examined the commander, recommended surgical intervention. A letter from Frunze to his wife, who was then being treated in Yalta, has been preserved: “Well, the end of my trials has finally come. Tomorrow morning I am moving to the Soldatenkovskaya hospital, and the day after tomorrow (Thursday) there will be an operation. When you receive this letter, probably in your there will already be a telegram in my hands announcing its results. Now I feel absolutely healthy and it’s even somehow ridiculous not only to go, but even to think about the operation ... "
An old friend and long-term colleague of Frunze I.K. Hamburg recalled: “I urged Mikhail Vasilyevich to refuse the operation, because the thought of it depresses him. But he shook his head negatively: “Stalin demands an operation; he says that it is necessary to get rid of a stomach ulcer once and for all. I decided to go under the knife. this matter is over.
Hamburg writes: “I left the hospital that day with a heavy feeling, with some kind of anxiety. This was my last meeting with Frunze. performed an operation on him. Anesthesia had a bad effect on him, he did not fall asleep for a long time. I had to increase the dose. The heart could not withstand a large dose of anesthesia, and after a day and a half it stopped beating. On October 31, at 5 hours 40 minutes, M.V. Frunze died. " (Hamburg I. So it was ... - M., 1965, p. 182).
The newspapers of the Soviet Union mournfully reported:
“On the night of October 31, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, died of heart paralysis after an operation. The Union of the SSR lost in the person of the deceased an experienced leader of the revolutionary people, hardened in the revolutionary struggle, lost a fighter who, all his life, from an underground circle to fierce battles in the civil war, was in the most dangerous and advanced posts.
The army and navy lost one of the best experts in military affairs, the organizer of the armed forces of the Republic, the direct leader of the victory over Wrangel and the organizer of the first victorious strike against Kolchak.
In the person of the deceased, the most prominent member of the government, one of the best organizers and leaders of the Soviet state, descended into the grave ...
On November 3, 1925, Frunze was seen off on his last journey. Stalin delivered a brief funeral speech, casually remarking: “Maybe this is exactly what is needed for old comrades to descend into the grave so easily and so simply.”
In just three years, he will begin to send old comrades to exile, prisons and mass graves, first in the hundreds, then in the thousands and tens of thousands.
At the same time, this slip of the tongue - exactly as it should be - was not even paid attention to.
But the shock of the death of one of the most famous figures of the party and state caused bewilderment among many who remembered Arseniy's comrade in the underground and the revolution, who fought in the civil war under his command.
ON THE. Semashko, at a meeting of the board of the Society of Old Bolsheviks in mid-November 1925, answering questions about Frunze's death, said that the medical commission of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) had determined the composition of the council. Doctor V.N. Rozanov considered the operation completely unnecessary, but after being called to the Politburo, where General Secretary I.V. Stalin explained to him the need for radical treatment of the People's Commissariat of Defense, stopped resistance.
As V.D. Topolyansky in the essay "The Death of Frunze":
“V.N. Rozanov was assisted by Professor I.I. Grekov and A.V. Martynov, anesthesia was performed by A.D. Ochkin. The operation was attended by employees of the medical and sanitary department of the Kremlin P.N. Obrosov, A.M. Kasatkin, A.Yu. Kanel and L.G. Levin. Anesthesia was given for 65 minutes. The patient had difficulty falling asleep before the operation and did not tolerate anesthesia well. Initially, ether was used for general anesthesia, but then, due to a sharp and prolonged excitement, they switched to anesthesia with chloroform. They were able to start the operation only after half an hour. The operation lasted 35 minutes. Surgical intervention, judging by the surviving documents, was limited to the revision of the abdominal organs in Frunze and the dissection of part of the adhesions. Ulcers were not found. There is no need to talk about clumsily and negligently performed operation. In connection with the drop in the pulse, they resorted to injections that stimulate cardiac activity, after the operation they struggled with heart failure, in which the surgeon from the department, Rozanova B.I., participated. Neumann and Professor D.D. Pletnev. But the therapeutic effects were unsuccessful. Frunze died 39 hours later. 10 minutes after his death, in the early morning of October 31, I.V. arrived at the hospital. Stalin, A.I. Rykov, A.S. Bubnov, I.S. Unshlikht, A.S. Yenukidze and A.I. Mikoyan. Soon they again gathered at the body of the deceased in the anatomical theater of the Botkin hospital. The dissector wrote down: the underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries discovered during the autopsy, as well as the preserved thymus gland, are the basis for the assumption that the organism is unstable in relation to anesthesia. (Questions of History, 1993, No. 6).
How competent was the anesthesiologist Ochkin? After graduating from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1911 and 3 years of internship in the department of V.N. Rozanova worked as a surgeon at the Soldatenkovskaya hospital, by 1916 he had risen to the rank of senior intern. In 1919-1921. served in the 1st Cavalry Army as the chief doctor of the hospital. In 1922 he was invited to the medical and sanitary department of the Kremlin.
All the surgeons who operated on Frunze and were present at the operation died suddenly during 1934. Martynov was the first to die "from sepsis" in January. Before his death, he chaired the regional conference of doctors in Moscow and the Moscow region. Grekov died on February 11 "due to a weakening of cardiac activity" right at a meeting at the Leningrad Institute for the Improvement of Doctors. In May 1934, Rozanov suffered pulmonary edema, died in October due to "heart failure" in 1935. Gramsci's widow Y. Kanel, dismissed from the post of head doctor of the Kremlin hospital, died in February 1936. 1939 In August 1937 Obrosov was arrested. Levin and Pletnev were also arrested in 1937 and shot in March 1938 in connection with the "anti-Soviet Right-Trotsky bloc."
According to the author of one of the biographies, M.V. Frunze, at the operation to the surgeon V.N. Rozanov was assisted by Professor B.L. Ospovat. Remembering her, he categorically stated: “As for the double dose of chloroform administered by Frunze for pain relief, these are rumors and nothing more. It was I, and no one else, who introduced chloroform. And not a double norm, but the minimum required by the patient for pain relief. Mikhail Vasilievich died not from the introduction of chloroform, but from the general blood poisoning that followed after the operation. It happened not on the operating table, but in the ward, in the absence of Rozanov. This discouraged him. After all, when he left after the operation for rest, nothing foreshadowed trouble. The operation was successful. Everything spoke for the fact that Frunze was saved. Will live and work. And when Rozanov was informed that Frunze was not well, he immediately followed him to the ward. But it was already too late...
Data on Stalin's involvement in the death of the people's commissar prompted B.A. Pilnyak to the creation of "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon". According to Pilnyak, the doctors knew for sure that his heart would not withstand chloroform - it was almost an undisguised murder. But on May 13, 1926, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks called his story "a malicious, counter-revolutionary and slanderous attack against the Central Committee and the party" and banned it.
According to historians R.A. Medvedev and V.D. Topolyansky, Frunze became one of the first Stalinist victims, opening a long string of strange suicides, ridiculous poisonings, stupid deaths. Soon, under mysterious circumstances, a friend of the people's commissar, a revolutionary and a hero of the civil war, Grigory Kotovsky, was also killed. Frunze wanted to take him as his deputies.
Before the operation, Mikhail Frunze asked his visiting friends to tell the Central Committee that he should be buried in Shuya.
They didn't care about his last will. The grave of the commander, as you know, is located near the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Pictures from a photo album published in 1990:

Review of "Death in the operating room of the Central Committee" (Sergey Shramko)

Very important (necessary!) memories - reminders for contemporaries and descendants ... "Near the king - near death," they say among the people.

85 years ago, on October 31, 1925, the 40-year-old chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Mikhail Frunze died in the Botkin hospital after a stomach operation. The causes of his death are still being debated among historians, politicians, and medical experts.

Version of the writer Pilnyak

Officially, the newspapers of that time reported that Mikhail Frunze had a stomach ulcer. The doctors decided to perform an operation. It was held on October 29, 1925 by Dr. V. N. Rozanov. He was assisted by doctors I. I. Grekov and A. V. Martynov, anesthesia was performed by A. D. Ochkin. In general, the operation was successful. However, after 39 hours, Frunze died "with symptoms of heart paralysis." 10 minutes after his death on the night of October 31, I. V. Stalin, A. I. Rykov, A. S. Bubnov, I. S. Unshlikht, A. S. Yenukidze and A. I. Mikoyan arrived at the hospital. The body was examined. The dissector wrote down: the underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries discovered during the autopsy, as well as the preserved thymus gland, are the basis for the assumption of the body's instability in relation to anesthesia and its poor resistance to infection. The main question - why did heart failure occur, leading to death - remained unanswered. Confusion about this leaked to the press. The note "Comrade Frunze is recovering" published by Rabochaya Gazeta just on the day of his death saw the light of day. At work meetings they asked: why was the operation done; why Frunze agreed to it, if one can live with an ulcer anyway; what is the cause of death; Why is misinformation published in a popular newspaper? In this regard, the doctor Grekov gave an interview, published with variations in various publications. According to him, the operation was necessary, since the patient was in danger of sudden death; Frunze himself asked to be operated on as soon as possible; the operation belonged to the category of relatively easy and was performed according to all the rules of surgical art, but anesthesia was difficult; the unfortunate outcome was also explained by the unforeseen events discovered during the autopsy.

The end of the interview was sharply politicized: no one was allowed to see the patient after the operation, but when Frunze was informed that Stalin had sent him a note, he asked to read this note and smiled joyfully. Here is her text: “Friend! I visited Comrade Rozanov today at 5 pm (me and Mikoyan). They wanted to come to you, but they didn't let me in, the ulcer. We had to submit to the force. Don't be sad, my dear. Hello. We will come, we will come… Koba.”

Grekov's interview fueled distrust of the official version even more. All the gossip on this topic was collected by the writer Pilnyak, who created The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon, where everyone recognized Frunze as Commander Gavrilov, who died during the operation. Part of the circulation of Novy Mir, where the story was published, was confiscated, thereby, as it were, confirming the version of the murder. Director Yevgeny Tsymbal repeated this version once again in his film "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon", in which he created a romantic and martyr image of a "real revolutionary" who swung at unshakable dogmas.

Romantic "folk bloodletting"

But let's see what kind of romantic was the country's youngest military commissar in reality.

From February 1919 M.V. Frunze consistently led several armies operating on the Eastern Front against the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In March, he became commander of the Southern Group of this front. The units subordinate to him were so carried away by looting and plundering the local population that they completely decomposed, and Frunze sent telegrams to the Revolutionary Military Council more than once with a request to send him other soldiers. Desperate to receive an answer, he himself began to recruit replenishment for himself "by the natural method": he took out trains with bread from Samara and invited the people left without food to join the Red Army.

More than 150,000 people took part in the peasant uprising against Frunze in the Samara Territory. The uprising was drowned in blood. Frunze's reports to the Revolutionary Military Council are full of figures of people shot under his leadership. For example, in the first ten days of May 1919, he killed about 1,500 peasants (whom Frunze calls "bandits and kulaks" in his report).

In September 1920, Frunze was appointed commander of the Southern Front, acting against the army of General P.N. Wrangel. He led the capture of Perekop and the occupation of the Crimea. In November 1920, Frunze addressed the officers and soldiers of the army of General Wrangel with the promise of complete forgiveness if they remained in Russia. After the occupation of Crimea, all these servicemen were ordered to register (refusal to register was punishable by execution). Then the soldiers and officers of the White Army, who believed Frunze, were arrested and shot directly according to these registration lists. In total, during the Red Terror in the Crimea, 50-75 thousand people were shot or drowned in the Black Sea.

So it is unlikely that any romantic associations were associated with the name of Frunze in the popular mind. Although, of course, many then might not have known about the military "arts" of Mikhail Vasilyevich. He carefully concealed the darkest sides of his biography.

His own commentary on the order to reward Bela Kun and Zemlyachka for atrocities in Sevastopol is known. Frunze warned that the awarding of orders should be done secretly, so that the public would not know what exactly these "heroes of the civil war" were awarded for.

In a word, Frunze fit perfectly into the system. Therefore, many historians believe that Frunze's death was purely due to a medical error - an overdose of anesthesia. The reasons are as follows: Frunze was a protege of Stalin, a politician completely loyal to the leader. In addition, it was only 1925 - 12 years before the execution of the 37th. The leader did not yet dare to carry out "purges". But there are facts that are hard to dismiss.

A series of "accidental" disasters

The fact is that 1925 was marked by a whole series of "accidental" disasters. In the beginning - a series of tragic incidents with senior officials of Transcaucasia.

On March 19, in Moscow, the chairman of the Union Council of the TSFSR and one of the chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, N. N. Narimanov, suddenly died “from a heartbreak”.

On March 22, the First Secretary of the Zakkraykom of the RCP (b) A.F. Myasnikov, the chairman of the ZakChK S.G. Mogilevsky and the authorized representative of the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs G.A. Atarbekov, who flew with them, died in a plane crash.

On August 27, near New York, E. M. Sklyansky, Trotsky’s permanent deputy during the civil war, who was removed from military activity in the spring of 1924 and appointed chairman of the board of the Mossukno trust, and chairman of the board of the Amtorg joint-stock company I. I. Khurgin.

On August 28, at the Parovo station near Moscow, a longtime acquaintance of Frunze, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 6th Army, died under a train during the Perekop operation, a member of the bureau of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk provincial party committee, chairman of the Aviatrust V. N. Pavlov.

Around the same time, F.Ya. Yes, and Mikhail Vasilyevich himself fell out of a car at full speed in early September, the door of which for some reason turned out to be faulty, and miraculously survived. So the “eliminations”, apparently, have already begun. Another question is whether Stalin or someone else from the political elite had a reason to eliminate Frunze? Who did he cross the road to? Let's turn to the facts.

Participant of the "cave meeting"

In the summer of 1923, in a grotto near Kislovodsk, a secret meeting of the party elite was held under the leadership of Zinoviev and Kamenev, later called the "cave". It was attended by vacationers in the Caucasus and party leaders of that time invited from nearby regions. At first, this was hidden from Stalin. Although the question was discussed specifically about limiting his powers in connection with Lenin's serious illness.

None of the participants in this meeting (except Voroshilov, who, most likely, was the leader's eyes and ears there) died a natural death. Frunze was present there as a military component of the "putsch". Could Stalin have forgotten this?

Another fact. In 1924, at the initiative of Frunze, a complete reorganization of the Red Army was carried out. He achieved the abolition of the institution of political commissars in the army - they were replaced by assistant commanders for political affairs without the right to interfere in command decisions.

In 1925, Frunze made a number of transfers and appointments in the command staff, as a result of which military districts, corps and divisions were headed by military personnel selected on the basis of military qualifications, but not on the basis of communist loyalty. Stalin's former secretary B.G. Bazhanov recalled: "I asked Mekhlis what Stalin thought about these appointments?" What does Stalin think? Mehlis asked. - Nothing good. Look at the list: all these Tukhachevskys, Korkis, Uboreviches, Avksentievs - what kind of communists they are. All this is good for the 18th Brumaire, and not for the Red Army.

In addition, Frunze was loyal to the party opposition, which Stalin did not tolerate at all. “Of course, shades should be and will be. After all, we have 700,000 party members leading a colossal country, and it is impossible to demand that these 700,000 people think the same way on every issue, ”wrote the People’s Commissar for Military Affairs.

Against this background, an article about Frunze, The New Russian Leader, appeared in the English monthly Airplane. “In this man,” the article said, “all the constituent elements of the Russian Napoleon were united.” The article became known to the party leadership. According to Bazhanov, Stalin saw in Frunze the future Bonaparte and expressed strong dissatisfaction with this. Then he suddenly showed a touching concern for Frunze, saying: “We do not at all monitor the precious health of our best workers,” after which the Politburo forced Frunze, almost by force, to agree to the operation.

Bazhanov (and not only him) believed that Stalin killed Frunze in order to appoint his own man, Voroshilov, in his place (Bazhanov V.G. Memoirs of Stalin's former secretary. M., 1990. P. 141). They say that during the operation, just the anesthesia was used, which Frunze could not endure due to the characteristics of the organism.

Of course, this version has not been proven. And yet it is quite plausible.

On October 31, 1925, Mikhail Frunze, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, died after an operation. No one still knows the circumstances under which his death occurred. We will consider 5 versions of the death of the great statesman and military leader.

Official version

For almost 10 years, Frunze was tormented by pain in the abdomen. Doctors diagnosed intestinal bleeding three times, the last time in September 1925 after a car accident. Experienced doctors knew that with a stomach ulcer it is necessary to use conservative treatment, and then, in the absence of a result, decide on a surgical intervention. Bed rest and treatment improved Frunze's well-being. But bouts of pain sometimes chained him to bed, and entire medical consultations were held on this occasion - only in October 1925 there were three of them. On October 27, the third council decided to transfer Frunze from the Kremlin hospital to the Botkin hospital, where on October 29, Dr. Vladimir Rozanov began the operation. He was assisted by doctors Grekov, Martynov, anesthesia was performed by Alexei Ochkin. On October 31, 1925, 40-year-old Mikhail Frunze died after an operation. According to the official conclusion, he died from a general blood poisoning.

anesthesia

Drug addict Alexei Ochkin had 14 years of work experience (since 1911, when he graduated from Moscow University). Of course, he knew what general anesthesia was, and knew how to do it. However, according to official data, Frunze endured anesthesia very badly and fell asleep hard - they could start the operation only after 30 minutes. For general anesthesia, Ochkin used ether, and then switched to anesthesia with chloroform, which is quite toxic, the difference between a soporific and a lethal dose is very small. The combined use of ether and chloroform enhances the negative impact. Ochkin could not help but know this, since since 1905 many works have been published concerning the use of chloroform. Nevertheless, some scientists admit the version that Frunze's heart stopped because Ochkin inadvertently administered anesthesia.

Stalin is a killer

At Frunze's funeral, Stalin delivered the following speech: “Perhaps this is exactly what is needed for old comrades to descend into the grave so easily and so simply. Unfortunately, our young comrades rise to replace the old not so easily and far from so simply. Some noticed a secret, hidden meaning in these words, and with enviable regularity information began to appear that the true cause of Frunze's death was Joseph Stalin.
Lenin dies in 1924. Frunze is among those who could decide the most important questions. His authority is indisputable. Naturally, this could not please Stalin, especially since Frunze never bowed his head helpfully to anyone. His death would change the balance of power in the party and strengthen the influence of Stalin, who could take control of the leadership of the Red Army by placing his man there. This happened later.

The writer Boris Pilnyak was also convinced that Frunze was killed on Stalin's personal order. In 1926, he writes The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon, in which he expresses his version. From the book one could understand that the forty-year-old Frunze was stabbed to death by surgeons during a heart operation - on orders from above. It was on sale for two days, it was immediately withdrawn.

Voroshilov and Budyonny

Frunze had no obvious enemies among the leadership of the USSR, unless one takes into account his difficult relationship with the party leader Kliment Voroshilov and the Soviet military leader Semyon Budyonny, who could easily persuade Stalin.

Frunze, being a talented people's commissar, did not fit into the ranks of the jealous and uneducated rulers of the country. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that the composition of the council was determined by the medical commission of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Dr. Vladimir Rozanov initially did not want to have an operation, and only after being called to the Politburo, where he was called to account, did he radically change his position.

Shot on the hunt

It is known that in 1925, after an incomplete vacation in the Caucasus, Stalin came to the Crimea, where Kliment Voroshilov and Matvey Shkiryatov (party leaders) were already there, and summoned Frunze there. The suggestion is to improve your health. During the rest, a hunt took place, which, according to the testimonies of the participants, ended unsuccessfully. Some theorists put forward the assumption that during this very hunt in Frunze, one of the comrades-in-arms shot - by accident or not, is unknown. If the wound really happened while hunting, then it is understandable why a team of doctors from Moscow was urgently called to the Crimea, including Vladimir Rozanov, a “bullet specialist” (on April 23, 1922, in the Soldatenkovskaya hospital, he removed the bullet that remained in Lenin’s body from during the assassination attempt on him by Fanny Kaplan in 1918). When comparing all the data, it turns out that Frunze was wounded in the abdominal cavity, treated for several weeks, but could not be saved, and in order not to raise a fuss, they published a completely different cause of death.

Let Comrade Frunze not be called by us the leader of our party, the leader of our revolution, let his name not flaunt next to the name of Lenin and our other leaders - but comrades who were close to him, who came across him, must say that it was the greatest worker, this was the best leader of our Red Army. In the sense of military knowledge, in the sense of organizing the military forces, Comrade Frunze had no equal among our Party members.

Ordzhonikidze GK Articles and speeches. - M., 1956.T. 1. - S. 410–411

The milestones set by M. V. Frunze on the path of development of the armed forces of our state will continue to serve as an indication to us in which direction to go to achieve the goals that are dear to us, for which he served, for which he gave everything that he had the best in life , and the very life of M. V. Frunze.

Voroshilov K. E. Articles and speeches. - M., 1936. -S. 84–86

It is authentically known that Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze died on October 31, 1925 at 5:40 am in the former Soldatenkovskaya hospital (now Botkinskaya), located in Moscow. On November 3, he was buried with great honors on Red Square near the Lenin Mausoleum. By that time, few had received such an honor.

In Soviet times, about the death of M. V. Frunze, they adhered to one official version: after an operation on the stomach, Mikhail Vasilyevich died of heart paralysis. For more than 60 years, no one doubted this version.

In the 90s of the XX century, in connection with the beginning of "perestroika" and "glasnost", Soviet history began to be subjected to sharp criticism. Any historical facts began to be subjected to doubts and revisions. At the same time, the researchers did this both based on new documents and developing all kinds of bold versions of their own. In the 90s, especially after the abolition of censorship, everyone began to write about everything. Out of habit, many people believed what was published. So legends and versions were elevated to the rank of facts. This also happened with respect to the death of M. V. Frunze.

To date, there are several versions. There is no direct evidence for any of them. I consider it my duty to offer some to the reader.

In March 1989, an article by Roy Medvedev "On the death of M.V. Frunze and F.E. Dzerzhinsky" was published in the Military History magazine. This year was one of the last in the history of Soviet power. The author, a doctor of historical sciences, was already in opposition to the communists in the 1960s. Therefore, of course, I tried to portray everything exclusively in black.

In his article, in particular, he writes that the death of 40-year-old M.V. Frunze gave rise to many rumors. Any experienced physician, even in 1925, knew well that with a stomach ulcer, conservative treatment should first be carried out and only if it was unsuccessful, resort to surgical intervention. M. V. Frunze did not want to undergo an operation, preferring conservative treatment, especially since by the autumn of 1925 he felt very well - peptic ulcer almost did not make itself felt.

The question arises why, despite such an obvious success of conservative treatment, both councils decided to perform an operation? This decision, incredible for experienced doctors, can only be explained by pressure from outside. And there was such pressure. It is known that the question of M. V. Frunze's illness was discussed even at the Politburo, and it was Stalin and Voroshilov who insisted on the operation.

In his letter to his wife, M. V. Frunze feigned some controversy, since he was not satisfied with the decision of the two councils. The bravest commander found himself in a rather difficult position. Refusing the operation meant incurring reproaches of fear, of indecision, and he reluctantly agreed.

To a certain extent, this is confirmed and concretized by the memoirs of the old Bolshevik and personal friend of Mikhail Vasilievich I.K. Gamburg, published in 1965.

“Shortly before the operation,” writes Hamburg, “I went to see him. He was upset and said that he would not want to lie down on the operating table ... The premonition of some kind of trouble, something irreparable depressed him ...

I urged Mikhail Vasilyevich to refuse the operation, because the thought of it depresses him. But he shook his head negatively.

Stalin insists on the operation; says that it is necessary once and for all to get rid of stomach ulcers. I decided to go under the knife."

The operation took place on the afternoon of 29 October. Chloroform was used as anesthesia, although even then a more effective agent was known - ether. According to Hamburg, Frunze did not sleep well, anesthesia had little effect on him. Professor Rozanov, who led the operation, decided to almost double the dose of chloroform against the norm, which was extremely dangerous for the heart. The question involuntarily arises - why such a risk was needed?

The operation began at 12:40 pm, and its complete uselessness was immediately revealed. The surgeons did not find an ulcer, only a small scar on the duodenum testified that it had once been. However, for the heart of M. V. Frunze, the increased dose of anesthesia turned out to be unbearable - the condition of the operated person deteriorated sharply. At 5 pm, that is, after the operation, Stalin and Mikoyan arrived at the hospital, but they were not allowed into the ward to see the patient. Stalin gave Frunze a note: “Druzhok! I visited Comrade Rozanov today at 5 pm (me and Mikoyan). They wanted to come to you, - they didn’t let me, an ulcer. We had to submit to the force. DON'T BE MISSING, MY DEAR. Hello. We will come, we will come… Koba.” But neither Stalin nor Mikoyan had to see Mikhail Vasilyevich alive. 30 hours after the operation, MV Frunze's heart stopped beating.

On November 1, 1925, a government message was published in Pravda: “On the night of October 31, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Mikhail Vasilyevich FRUNZE, died of heart failure after an operation.” On the same day, the “Anatomical Diagnosis” was also published in the newspapers, which, in particular, said: “A healed round ulcer of the duodenum with a pronounced cicatricial induration ... Superficial ulcerations of various prescriptions for the exit of the stomach and upper part of the duodenum ... Acute purulent inflammation of the peritoneum. Parenchymal degeneration of the muscle of the heart, kidneys, liver ... "

It is quite obvious that M. V. Frunze did not have acute purulent inflammation of the peritoneum before the operation, since, according to himself and his friends, he felt quite healthy and able to work. Acute peritonitis, undoubtedly the main cause of death, was one of the consequences of the operation, during which an infection was introduced into the abdominal cavity of the operated person. Postoperative peritonitis usually develops very quickly - within a day, and in 1925 they still did not know how to deal with them. As for the degeneration of the muscles of the heart, kidneys, liver, all this was the result of an increased dose of chloroform introduced into the body. Any drug reference indicates that chloroform is a highly toxic substance that causes heart rhythm disturbance, dystrophic changes in the myocardium, fatty degeneration, cirrhosis and liver atrophy. It also disrupts metabolism, in particular carbohydrate metabolism.

Pravda also contained a rather vague "conclusion" about the disease. “The disease of M. V. Frunze,” it said, “as the autopsy showed, consisted, on the one hand, in the presence of a round ulcer of the duodenum 12, which underwent scarring and entailed the development of scar growths ... On the other hand, as consequences from the operation in 1916 - removal of the appendix, there was an old inflammatory process in the abdominal cavity. The operation, undertaken on October 29, 1925, for a duodenal ulcer, caused an exacerbation of the chronic inflammatory process that had taken place, which led to a rapid decline in cardiac activity and death. The underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries discovered at autopsy, as well as the preserved thymus gland, are the basis for the assumption that the body is unstable in relation to anesthesia and in the sense of its poor resistance to infection.

On November 3, 1925, Pravda published several articles dedicated to the memory of M. V. Frunze. (“Can we reproach the poor heart,” wrote, for example, Mikhail Koltsov, “for surrendering before 60 grams of chloroform, after it withstood two years of suicide, the executioner’s rope around his neck.”) An official article was also placed here“ To the medical history of comrade. Frunze”, which stated: “In view of the interest that the question of Comrade’s medical history represents for comrades. Frunze… the editors consider it timely to publish the next document.” Next came the protocols of two consultations at the bedside of M. V. Frunze and the conclusion about the operation. In particular, it said: “On October 29 ... Comrade M. V. Frunze was operated on at the Botkin Hospital by Professor V. N. Rozanov, with the participation of Professor I. Grekov, Professor A. Martynov and Dr. A. D. Ochkin ... Operation , performed under general anesthesia, lasted 35 minutes. Upon opening the abdominal cavity ... found ... a diffuse seal of the pylorus and a small scar at the beginning of the duodenum 12, apparently at the site of a healed ulcer ... The patient had difficulty falling asleep and remained under anesthesia for one hour and 5 minutes.

It would be useful to cite here one more document - a record of a conversation full of all sorts of contradictory and vague arguments with Professor G. Grekov, published in Izvestia on November 3.

“The last consultation was on October 23,” Grekov said. - All the details of this meeting were set out by Comrade. Frunze, and he was offered an operation. Despite the fact that the possibility of an unfavorable outcome from Comrade. Frunze did not hide, he nevertheless wished to undergo an operation, since he considered his condition depriving him of the opportunity to continue responsible work. Tov. Frunze only asked to operate on him as soon as possible. After the operation, the poor activity of the heart caused alarm ...

To the patient ... of course, no one was allowed, but when Comrade. Frunze was informed that a note had been sent to him by Comrade. Stalin, he asked me to read this note and smiled happily ... The operation was classified as not serious. It was produced in accordance with all the rules of surgical art, and its sad outcome would have seemed completely inexplicable if we did not weigh the data obtained during the operation and the autopsy. It is clear that in the body of the deceased ... there were features that led to the sad outcome. It was further said that the revolution and the war had weakened Frunze's body. “The question involuntarily arises,” Grekov finished his conversation, “whether it was possible to do without an operation. All the changes that were discovered during the operation, undoubtedly speak in favor of the fact that Comrade. Frunze was incurable without an operation and was even under the threat of imminent and possibly sudden death.

The circumstances connected with the unexpected death of M. V. Frunze, as well as the extremely confused explanations of the doctors, caused bewilderment in wide party circles. The Ivanovo-Voznesensk communists even demanded the creation of a special commission to investigate the causes of death. In mid-November 1925, under the chairmanship of N. I. Podvoisky, a meeting of the board of the Society of Old Bolsheviks was held on this occasion. N. A. Semashko, People's Commissar for Health, was summoned to him for a report. It followed from his report and answers to questions that Frunze's death required additional investigation.

A commission of the Central Committee was appointed. This commission was headed by people about whom Semashko spoke with great disapproval. It also turned out that Stalin and Zinoviev called V. N. Rozanov before the consultation, and that already during the operation, from too much anesthesia for the patient, there was a threat of death on the operating table. I had to take emergency measures.

After the death of M. V. Frunze, Professor Rozanov became so ill that the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR A. Rykov went to him to calm him down and inform him that no one lays responsibility on him for the unfavorable outcome of the operation, the board of the Society of Old Bolsheviks after discussing the causes of M. V. Frunze decided on an ugly attitude towards the old Bolsheviks. It was agreed to bring this decision to the attention of the Party Congress.

At the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) in December 1925, the issue of the death of M. V. Frunze was not discussed. However, in the fifth issue of the Novy Mir magazine for 1926, B. Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon was published. True, in the preface to it, the author wrote: “The plot of this story suggests that the death of M.V. Frunze served as the reason for writing it and as material. Personally, I hardly knew Frunze, I barely knew him, having seen him twice ... I find it necessary to inform the reader of all this so that the reader does not look for genuine facts and living faces in him. However, in reality, the story was about the death of M.V. Frunze, and B. Pilnyak showed a very good knowledge of all the circumstances associated with the operation and the death of a major military leader named "Gavrilov", which was read by many as "Frunze". Here are some excerpts from this work:

“…. Before leaving the house, the professor, with a solemn face and with some respectful fear, rang the telephone: by all sorts of roundabout telephone routes, the professor penetrated that telephone network, which had only some thirty or forty wires; he called the office of house number one, he respectfully asked if there would be any new orders, a firm voice on the telephone suggested that he come immediately after the operation with a report. The professor said: "All the best, it will be done," he bowed in front of the pipe and did not immediately hang it up.

A little lower, describing the operation, Pilnyak reveals another important secret:

“... on the shiny meat of the stomach, in the place where the ulcer should have been - white, as if fashioned from wax, similar to the mask of a dung beetle - there was a scar - indicating that the ulcer had already healed - indicating that the operation was pointless …

... The patient had no pulse, no heart beat, and no breathing, and his legs were cold. It was a heart shock: an organism that did not take chloroform was poisoned by chloroform. It was that a person will never come to life again, that a person must die ... It was clear that Gavrilov must die under the knife, on the operating table.

After the operation was completed, the professor "delved into that telephone network, which had thirty or forty wires, bowed to the receiver and said that the operation went well."

After that, “... in a covered Royce (Rolls-Royce), Professor Lozovsky urgently drove to house number one; "Royce" silently entered the gate with vultures, past the sentries, stood at the entrance, the sentry opened the door; Lozovsky entered the office, where there were three telephone sets on the red cloth of the writing table...”.

The author's fantasies were very similar to reality, many understood this. Therefore, it is not surprising that the entire circulation of the magazine with Pilnyak's story was confiscated. By chance, only a few issues have been preserved, which today represent a huge bibliographic rarity.

The authorities acted very decisively and quickly. Already in the next issue of Novy Mir, the editors admitted that the publication of Pilnyak's story was "an obvious and gross mistake."

I do not know whether the story was published in the émigré or Western press at the end of the 1920s, but in 1965 the Flegon Press publishing house in London published it in Russian under the title Death of the Commander.

The son of the famous revolutionary and Soviet statesman and military leader Antonov-Ovseenko, the historian A.V. Antonov-Ovseenko has no doubt that the death of Frunze as a result of the operation was a “political action of elimination”, which was organized by Stalin.

But there were other opinions as well. The American historian and Sovietologist A. Ulam, in his book on Stalin, strongly objects to this version. He believes that it was all about the extremely poor state of medical care in the USSR in 1925. A. Ulam recalls that even under Lenin, the practice of party authorities interfering in medical affairs was introduced, and many party leaders were forcibly prescribed rest or treatment. So the decision of the Politburo about the operation that should be transferred to Frunze was not something unusual. A. Ulam considers Pilnyak's story an undoubted slander, which “Pilnyak undertook under the influence of someone who wanted to hit Stalin ... It is noteworthy,” Ulam wrote, “that there were no consequences for Pilnyak and the editor at that time. Whether out of contempt for lies, or out of calculated restraint, or perhaps both, Stalin chose not to react to slander, which, even in a democratic society, would provide sufficient grounds for the criminal prosecution of its author and publisher.

A. Ulam, of course, is wrong when he writes about Stalin's "contempt" for lies. Medical care in the USSR in 1925 was indeed very poorly organized, but not for the highest leaders of the country. When it came to their health, the best doctors were involved, including doctors and consultants from Germany. The Politburo took care of the health of the members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, prescribing doctors, medicines or sending Soviet leaders to the best clinics in Switzerland, Germany, and resorts in Western countries. But the Politburo never insisted on this or that method of treatment, and even more so on operations, so in this respect the case of M. V. Frunze was just an exception, and, moreover, very strange in its persistence. To take any measures of retribution against Pilnyak or the editor of the magazine would mean for Stalin only to draw excessive attention to this matter. There was no question of a democratic trial over "slander"; such a trial could also shed light on such details of the treatment of M.V. Frunze, which they wanted to quickly forget about.

I.V. Stalin dealt with B. A. Pilnyak himself later. As soon as the "great terror" of 1937-1938 began, Boris Andreevich was one of the first to be arrested. It is not known whether he died in prison or was shot.

Speaking on November 3, 1925, at the funeral of M. V. Frunze, Stalin said: “Perhaps this is exactly what is needed, so that old comrades sink into the grave so easily and so simply.” Of course, neither the people nor the party needed this. But this turned out to be very important for Stalin, since instead of M.V. Frunze, K.E. Voroshilov was appointed to the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, who, although he had certain services to the party and the revolution, did not neither intelligence, nor military talent, nor the authority of Frunze, but he was under the strong influence of Stalin since the time of the battles near Tsaritsyn.

The version of the murder of M.V. Frunze was then developed by many. In particular, Leonid Mikhailovich Mlechin devoted a chapter of his book “The Russian Army between Trotsky and Stalin”, published in 2002, to the question of the death of Mikhail Vasilyevich. Developing the theme, as one of the evidence, he writes that Frunze was operated on by Vladimir Nikolaevich Rozanov, a Stalinist doctor. In the early 1920s, he performed a successful operation on Stalin, cutting out his appendix under difficult conditions. Of course, this argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

V. N. Rozanov - senior doctor of the surgical department of the Soldatenkovskaya hospital, since 1919 he was a consultant to the Medical and Sanitary Department of the Kremlin. He treated many, even assisted during the operation, when they removed the bullet to Lenin after the assassination attempt on him by Fanny Kaplan in 1918. But at a time when the revolution forced many members of the intelligentsia to emigrate or retire, any doctor was registered.

As for the state of health of M. V. Frunze, of course, the exile and prisons he endured in his youth were not in vain. So, Konstantin Frunze, the elder brother of the military leader, a doctor by profession, found Mikhail Vasilyevich with a stomach disease back in 1906. When Mikhail was serving time in the Vladimir Central, he complained of pain in the stomach.

In 1916, he was operated on for acute appendicitis. On October 11, Frunze wrote from Minsk to his sister Lyudmila: “Tomorrow I am going to the hospital. I'm doing an appendicitis operation. After the operation, Frunze went to Moscow, rested. But the operation was not very successful and will still make itself felt.

Frunze suffered from stomach pains for many years, he was diagnosed with duodenal ulcer. Then he began to have dangerous intestinal bleeding, which put him to bed for a long time.

During the Civil War, he sometimes had to lead the fighting without getting out of bed. He did not like to be treated when he was in pain, he swallowed baking soda diluted in water. In 1922, they wanted to send him to drink medicinal waters in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), which helps many ulcers. He flatly refused.

The severity of Frunze's illness was obvious to those who knew him closely. On April 20, 1923, the well-known party worker Sergei Konstantinovich Minin, who worked in Petrograd as secretary of the Northwestern Regional Bureau of the Central Committee, turned to Voroshilov, Stalin and Ordzhonikidze, with whom he was on friendly terms:

"Klim. Stalin. Sergo.

I am surprised why you do not pay the necessary attention to Frunze's illness. True, the Central Committee last year decided that Frunze should be treated and provided funds. But this is not enough. You need to follow the implementation. His disease is severe (stomach ulcer) and can be fatal. Doctors recommend four months of serious treatment. Next year it will be six months, and so on. And then, when Mikhail Vasilyevich is out of action, we will say that this is how he worked, forgetting a serious illness and the like.

As I see, Frunze is not at all going to be treated properly: there will be maneuvers and so on.

It is necessary to force them to be treated in a comradely and party way, as Comrade Lenin seems to have done with many.

In 1925, Mikhail Vasilyevich, in addition to all other troubles, got into car accidents three times. And in early September, he fell out of the car at full speed and was badly hurt. He took a vacation and on September 7 he left for the Crimea. Stalin and Voroshilov rested in Mukhalatka. Frunze wanted to go hunting, he assured me that everything would work out in the fresh air. But the doctors, fearing for the life of a high-ranking patient, almost forcibly put him to bed.

On September 29, all three left for Moscow. On the way, Mikhail Vasilievich also caught a cold. In Moscow, Frunze was immediately admitted to the Kremlin hospital.

On October 8, under the leadership of the People's Commissar of Health of the RSFSR Nikolai Alexandrovich Semashko, a dozen doctors examined Frunze. They came to the conclusion that there is a danger of perforation of the ulcer, so the patient is shown a surgical operation. Although some doctors were in favor of conservative treatment. In particular, Vladimir Nikolaevich Rozanov doubted the necessity of the operation.

L. M. Mlechin, a political observer for the TVC television company, author and host of the “Special Folder” and “Special Opinion” programs, in his version of the death of M. V. Frunze, writes that Rozanov was invited by Stalin and Zinoviev, asked his opinion about Frunze’s condition. Rozanov suggested postponing the operation, while Stalin allegedly asked not to delay: the country and the party needed the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. Maybe you should not blame the famous surgeon for not being able to defend his opinion.

“In the twentieth of October 1925,” says the memoirs of Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (then he was secretary of the North Caucasian Regional Committee of the Party), “I came to Moscow on business and, going to Stalin’s apartment, learned from him that Frunze was going to have an operation. Stalin was clearly worried, and this feeling was transmitted to me.

Or maybe it is better to avoid this operation? I asked.

To this, Stalin replied that he was also not sure of the need for the operation, but Frunze himself insisted on it, and the most prominent surgeon in the country, Rozanov, who treated him, considered the operation "not dangerous."

So let's talk with Rozanov, - I suggested to Stalin.

He agreed. Soon Rozanov appeared, whom I had met a year earlier in Mukhalatka. Stalin asked him:

Is it true that the operation to be carried out by Frunze is not dangerous?

Like any operation, - answered Rozanov, - it, of course, poses a certain amount of danger. But usually with us such operations pass without any special complications, although you probably know that ordinary cuts sometimes lead to blood poisoning. But these are very rare cases.

All this was said by Rozanov so confidently that I somewhat calmed down. However, Stalin nevertheless asked one more question, which seemed tricky to me:

Well, if instead of Frunze there was, for example, your brother, would you perform such an operation on him or would you abstain?

Would refrain, - the answer followed.

You see, Comrade Stalin, - replied Rozanov, - peptic ulcer disease is such that if the patient follows the prescribed regimen, you can do without surgery. My brother, for example, would strictly adhere to the regime assigned to him, but Mikhail Vasilyevich, as far as I know him, cannot be kept within the framework of such a regime. He would still travel a lot around the country, participate in military maneuvers, and certainly not follow the prescribed diet. Therefore, in this case, I am for the operation ... "

Then Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was told that Frunze himself, in letters to his wife, objected to the operation, wrote that he generally felt much better and he did not see the need to do something radical, he did not understand why the doctors were talking about the operation.

“This struck me,” writes Mikoyan, “because Stalin told me that Frunze himself insisted on the operation. I was told that Stalin played a show with us "in his own spirit," as he put it. He might not have involved Rozanov, it was enough for the GPU to “treat” the anesthetist…”

Memoir literature is not the most reliable source when it comes to specific facts, since memories are created many years after the events described. In addition, memoirs are usually corrected, and sometimes added to by editors and compilers.

In reality, Frunze not only did not resist the operation, but, on the contrary, asked for it. This is evidenced by letters to his wife, Sofia Alekseevna, who was treated in Yalta for tuberculosis. Frunze sent her to Finland and the Crimea, but nothing helped. Sophia Alekseevna felt bad, did not get up. Doctors recommended that she spend the whole winter in Yalta. She was worried: will there be enough money?

Frunze replied:

“I can manage money somehow. Provided, of course, that you will not pay for all the doctor's visits from your own funds. There is not enough money for this. The last time I took money from the Central Committee. I think we'll survive the winter. If only you stood firmly on your feet ... "

“I'm still in the hospital. On Saturday there will be a new council. I am completely healthy now. I'm afraid that they will refuse the operation."

Seventeen specialists took part in the next consultation on October 24. They came to the same conclusion:

"The age of the disease and the tendency to bleed, which may be life-threatening, do not warrant the risk of further expectant treatment."

At the same time, the doctors warned Frunze that the operation could be difficult and serious and did not guarantee a 100% cure. Nevertheless, Mikhail Vasilievich, as Professor Grekov later said, "wished to undergo an operation, because he believed that his condition made it impossible for him to continue responsible work."

Ivan Mikhailovich Gronsky met Frunze at the Kremlin Hospital, which was then located in the Poteshny Palace:

“The hospital, despite its big name, was more than small. And, as I found out, there were few patients in it: only about ten or fifteen people.

There was nothing remarkable in a small clean room - a ward on the second floor, where I was placed: a simple metal bed, two or three Viennese chairs, a bedside table and a simple table, that's probably the whole situation. I was struck only, perhaps, by the thick walls of the Amusing Palace ... "

Troisky was warned that he might have to be operated on.

Well, - Frunze told him, - if an operation is needed, then we will go to the Botkin hospital together.

Why to the Botkin hospital? - asked Gronsky.

There is no surgical department in the Kremlin hospital, which is why surgical patients are sent there.

And why are you, Mikhail Vasilyevich, being sent there? Need an operation? Anything serious?

Doctors find something wrong with the stomach. Whether an ulcer, or something else. In a word, an operation is required ...

A day later, Gronsky met Frunze again:

“He was standing by the wardrobe next to the stairs. He was in critical condition. The face has acquired an unusual dark color. Mikhail Vasilievich received clothes. After saying hello, I asked: is he going to the Botkin hospital?

You guessed. I'm going there. Let me know when you arrive. Let's continue our conversations.

MV Frunze was, as always, calm. He spoke exactly. The only thing was that he didn't have the usual friendly smile on his face. It was focused and serious. We shook hands tightly. I went to the consultation and did not suspect that I would never see this charming person again ...

I learned about Frunze's death from Professor Rozanov, who was supposed to operate on me as well. Luckily, I didn't need surgery."

On the eve of the operation, Frunze wrote his last letter to his wife Sofia Alekseevna in Yalta:

“... You should try to seriously take up treatment. To do this, you must first take yourself in hand. And then everything somehow goes from bad to worse. Your concern for children is worse for you, and ultimately for them. I somehow had to hear such a phrase about us: “The Frunze family is somehow tragic ... Everyone is sick, and all misfortunes are pouring on everyone! ..” Indeed, we represent some kind of continuous, solid infirmary. We must try to change all this decisively. I took on this business. You have to do…”

This letter explains why Frunze himself wanted the operation. He was tired of being among the sick. He hoped to get rid of his ailments at once. The wife did not receive a suicide letter. A telegram came about the death of Mikhail Vasilyevich ...

Nevertheless, with all his courage, Frunze, like any person, was afraid of the operation. After his death, these words will seem like a premonition of death. But he acted like any person waiting for major surgery. Who and when gladly went under the knife of surgeons?

To the wife of Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky, a member of the Politburo and secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, who came to visit him, he said:

I shaved my head and put on a new white shirt. I feel, Maria Ivanovna, that I am going to die, but I do not want to die.

An old friend of Joseph Karlovich Hamburg, with whom he was exiled in Siberia, he asked, if he died under the knife, to bury him in Shuya. Lying in a hospital bed, Frunze seemed to be saying:

If something happens to me, I ask you to go to the Central Committee and tell me about my desire to be buried in Shuya. I think it will also have political implications. Workers will come to my grave and remember the turbulent days of 1905 and the Great October Revolution. This will help them in their great work in the future.

If Mikhail Vasilievich really said something like that, this would indicate a real megalomania. But since Frunze was not seen in anything like that, it remains to be assumed that his old friend, appointed in 1925 as assistant chief of the Red Army Air Force, embellished the conversation in the spirit of that time ...

In the memoirs of Marshal Budyonny, there is also a story about visiting Frunze in the hospital.

It’s hard to believe that today is an operation, ”Frunze said to Budyonny.

Then why do you need surgery if everything is fine? the marshal was surprised. - Finish with this business, and we go home. My car is at the entrance.

Distinguished by good health, Semyon Mikhailovich lived up to more than ninety years old, rarely went to doctors and sincerely did not understand what Frunze was doing in the hospital.

Budyonny rushed to the wardrobe, gave Frunze uniforms and boots. Mikhail Vasilyevich seemed to agree. He put on his trousers and had already thrown his tunic over his head, but lingered for a moment and took it off.

What am I doing? he said in bewilderment. - I'm going to leave without even asking the permission of the doctors.

Budyonny did not retreat:

Mikhail Vasilyevich, get dressed, and I will immediately agree with the doctors.

But Frunze refused this service. He resolutely undressed and climbed back into bed.

There is a decision of the Central Committee, and I am obliged to comply with it ...

Memories of Budyonny were written by military journalists,

specially attached to the marshal of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, so this story should also be treated with caution.

The operation began on October 29 in the afternoon. Rozanov operated, assisted by the famous surgeons Ivan Ivanovich Grekov and Alexei Vasilyevich Martynov, anesthesia was given by Alexei Dmitrievich Ochkin. The operation was monitored by employees of the Medical and Sanitary Department of the Kremlin.

Frunze had difficulty falling asleep, so the operation was started half an hour late, Viktor Topolyansky writes. The whole operation lasted thirty-five minutes, and he was given anesthesia for more than an hour. Apparently, he was first given ether, but since Frunze did not fall asleep, they resorted to chloroform - this is a very strong and dangerous remedy. An overdose of chloroform is deadly. During the operation, sixty grams of chloroform and one hundred and forty grams of ether were used. This is much more than could be used.

Speaking before the board of the Old Bolshevik Society (chaired by Nikolai Ilyich Podvoisky), People's Commissar for Health Semashko said bluntly that the cause of Frunze's death was the improper administration of anesthesia, and added that if he had been present at the operation, he would have stopped anesthesia ...

During the operation, Frunze's pulse began to drop, and they began to inject him with drugs that stimulate cardiac activity. In those years, adrenaline was such a remedy, because it was not yet known that the combination of chloroform and adrenaline leads to heart rhythm disturbances.

And immediately after the operation, the heart began to fail. Attempts to restore cardiac activity were unsuccessful. Thirty-nine hours later, at five thirty in the morning on October 31, Frunze died of heart failure.

Literally ten minutes later, Stalin, head of government Alexei Ivanovich Rykov, deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht, head of the Political Administration of the Red Army Alexei Sergeevich Bubnov, secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee Avel Sofronovich Enukidze and secretary of the North Caucasian regional committee of the party Mikoyan arrived.

A government report stated that "on the night of October 31, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, died of heart failure after an operation."

The Bulletin on the death of M.V. Frunze said:

“After 24 hours on October 30 Comrade. Frunze M. V., despite all the measures taken to increase cardiac activity, with continuous consultation of professors I. I. Grekov, A. V. Martynov, D. D. Pletnev, V. N. Rozanov, P. I. Obrosov and doctors A. D. Ochkin and B. O. Poyman, at 5 o'clock. 40 min. On October 31, he died with symptoms of heart paralysis. Blackout of consciousness began 40 min. until death."

Before the autopsy of the body, the leaders of the Central Committee, the government, the Revolutionary Military Council again came to the anatomical theater of the Soldatenkovskaya hospital.

Professor Alexei Ivanovich Abrikosov (future academician and Hero of Socialist Labor), who performed the autopsy, drew up a conclusion, also published on November 1, 1925 in Pravda:

“Mikhail Vasilyevich's disease, as the autopsy showed, consisted, on the one hand, in the presence of a round ulcer of the duodenum, which had undergone scarring and entailed the development of cicatricial growths around the duodenum, the exit of the stomach and gallbladder; on the other hand, as a consequence of the operation in 1916 - the removal of the appendix, there was an old inflammatory process in the abdominal cavity.

The operation, undertaken on October 29, 1925, for a duodenal ulcer, caused an exacerbation of the chronic inflammatory process that had taken place, which led to an acute decline in cardiac activity and death. The underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries discovered at autopsy, as well as the preserved thymus gland, are the basis for the assumption that the body is unstable in relation to anesthesia and in the sense of its poor resistance to infection.

Recently observed bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract is explained by superficial ulcerations (erosions) found in the stomach and duodenum and are the result of the cicatricial growths mentioned above.

An autopsy confirmed the diagnosis made to Mikhail Vasilyevich: he really needed a surgical operation in all respects. “A sharp organic narrowing of the outlet part of the stomach (pyloric stenosis), repeated intestinal bleeding and the presence of a deep callous ulcer that is not amenable to therapeutic intervention have been and remain direct indications for surgical intervention,” writes Viktor Topolyansky.

But the autopsy did not give a clear answer to the question: why did Frunze die immediately after the operation?

Vladimir Nikolaevich Rozanov was an experienced and talented surgeon who treated his patients with great care. Equally highly regarded are his assistants, who were among the best surgeons in the country. So there can be no doubt about the surgical team. But the doctor who gave anesthesia, according to experts, did not have enough experience.

Alexey Dmitrievich Ochkin is a famous doctor, a monument was erected to him in the courtyard of the Botkin hospital. The Moscow public knew him well also because he married the sister of the founder of the Moscow Art Theater, Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky.

Ochkin's actions arouse Viktor Topolyansky's suspicions: in January 1920, Ochkin was appointed chief physician of the Budyonny Surgical Hospital in the First Cavalry Army. “Most likely, Ochkin was involved in the performance of professional duties that were not characteristic of him by order of the authorities,” writes Topolyansky. “The relevant instructions could have been brought to him, in particular, by his former commander Budyonny, who unexpectedly appeared in his clinic on the morning before the operation.”

But such stories only happen in adventure novels. Least of all was the rubak Budyonny fit for the role of a liaison in such a delicate matter. Yes, he did not belong to the narrow circle of Stalin's personal associates. The Secretary General always supported and protected him, but there was little personal communication between them.

The idea of ​​the deliberate murder of M. V. Frunze on the orders of I. V. Stalin is expressed in the publications of the former assistant to the Secretary General Boris Bazhenov, who later fled abroad. But, having escaped the borders of the USSR, this man took an openly anti-Soviet position. No other conclusions could be expected from him. In his later reasoning, Bazhenov even went so far as to suspect Mikhail Vasilyevich of organizing an anti-government conspiracy on the basis that Frunze, heading the military department, appointed people to senior command posts "selected on the basis of their military qualifications, but not on the basis of their communist devotion." On this basis, Bazhenov wrote: “Looking at the lists of senior command personnel that Frunze brought, I posed the question to myself: “If I were in his place, what kind of personnel would I bring to the military elite?” And I had to answer myself: it was these cadres who were quite suitable for a coup d'état in case of war.

Such serious accusations on such shaky ground from the lips of a defector sound very unconvincing.

And again, this sounds unconvincing. By 1925, after the defeat of L. D. Trotsky, if desired, I. V. Stalin could relatively easily nominate another person for the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. But for some reason he chose M.V. Frunze. Perhaps this was a forced step taken under the pressure of specific circumstances (unfavorable foreign policy situation, personnel "hunger"). But information about such circumstances has not been preserved.

The May 1926 issue of Novy Mir magazine published The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon by the writer Boris Andreevich Pilnyak (Vogau), republished by the Moscow Book Chamber publishing house in 1989. In this work, the author, without naming Stalin, Frunze and others, sets out his version of the murder of a major Soviet military leader on the operating table. Contemporaries easily conjectured and placed many big names in this story.

The publication of this story caused a great scandal. The press, as if on command, attacked its author, who was abroad at the time, accusing him of distorting the true facts, slandering the Soviet system and the Communist Party.

On May 13, 1926, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution in which it recognized "that Pilnyak's "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon" is a malicious, counter-revolutionary and slanderous attack against the Central Committee and the Party" and ordered the fifth issue of the Novy Mir magazine to be withdrawn from use . The members of the editorial board of the journal were severely reprimanded, and B. A. Pilnyak himself was excluded from the lists of employees of the country's leading journals.

This reaction of the party leadership clearly enough indicates that too bright parallels between fiction and reality were drawn in the writer's work. The sudden death of M. V. Frunze made a lot of noise, and many were ready to see it as a well-planned action.

At the same time, B. A. Pilnyak himself, having returned to the USSR from abroad and learned about the reaction to his work, began to make excuses. In the preface to the book by B. A. Pilnyak, published in 1989, his son B. Andronikashvili-Pilnyak cites a letter in which the disgraced writer writes:

“After writing Luna, I gathered a group of writers and my acquaintances from the party (as I usually do) to listen to their criticism - including the editor of Novy Mir. The story was listened to by a comparatively large number of people, approved, and immediately accepted for publication for Novy Mir... faux pas. But believe me that in the days of writing I did not have a single unworthy thought - and when I, returning from abroad, heard how my story was received by our public - I had nothing but bitter bewilderment. because in no way, not for a single minute, did I want to write things “insulting the memory of Comrade Frunze” and “maliciously slandering the party” (as was written in the June Novy Mir).”

This story is also ambivalent. On the one hand - the negative reaction of the leadership of the CPSU (b), behind which it is easy to see I. V. Stalin. The story, of course, worked in favor of the enemies of the Soviet system, of which there were many in the country and abroad. Not without reason, subsequently, it was repeatedly reprinted in various countries with appropriate comments.

On the other hand, the author, when writing it, did not have any documents and even competent evidence. It is unlikely that writers and ordinary party members could express something more significant than personal guesses, and go further than an assessment of the literary style of a work. The topic was too "hot", and this is what predetermined the publication of the work, and the allegorical characters freed the author and others from responsibility.

Subsequently, B. A. Pilnyak wrote a number of other works, some of which were also recognized as anti-Soviet. He was arrested on October 25, 1937 at his dacha in Peredelkino. On April 21, 1938, B. A. Pilnyak-Vogau was convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on the same day.

Thus, the history of the death of M.V. Frunze is covered with a web of all kinds of versions, conjectures and conjectures. They have been exaggerated for many years, especially in recent years, when it has become especially fashionable to expose the Soviet government and personally I.V. Stalin in various crimes. Some authors and screenwriters have already reached the point where they have witnessed the murders of many political and military figures, scientists, writers ... Literary permissiveness, the virtual absence of censorship and scientific editing have led to the fact that the people have been flooded with abundant streams of custom-made and amateurish lies, which many accept for the truth. As a result, history is distorted and even changed beyond recognition. The democrats, who blamed many regimes for this, including the Soviet one, themselves easily and quickly adopted anti-scientific tricks and began to rewrite history to their own advantage. The life and death of M. V. Frunze became part of this “renewed” history.

It is quite obvious that Mikhail Vasilyevich was objectionable to many, hindered many in achieving their ambitious plans. The civil war ended victoriously for the communists, it is time to share power and receive privileges. There was a long line behind them. New positions were created. But the bureaucratic apparatus could not be dimensionless. Gradually filled all its cells. Soon, any advancement became possible only after the liberation of the higher level.

At the same time, those who managed to occupy the highest levels of power tried in every possible way to stay on them. For the sake of this, they put their people on the lower steps, mercilessly clearing the way for them.

The armed forces, although weakened, were a serious power that all politicians and all officials had to reckon with. At that time, there were too many people in their ranks who were used to defending their interests with weapons in their hands. There were also supporters of other parties. It was necessary to take this force under strict control, to ensure its unconditional devotion to power. This was finally done only at the end of the 30s.

M. V. Frunze did not fully fit into any of these frameworks. At the same time, according to his authority, he claimed a leading role in the Soviet structure, and received this role. In the future, big problems were to be expected from him. As you know, death solved many of them. And M. V. Frunze died. It remains to build versions about the true cause of this death.