The head of Stalin's personal security, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, was born on May 22, 1896 in the Belarusian village of Bobynichi. From the age of thirteen he worked in construction, then in a paper mill. Called up for World War I military service. For his bravery he was awarded the St. George Cross, 1st degree. After being wounded in 1916, Vlasik was sent to Moscow to the 25th reserve regiment - with the rank of non-commissioned officer, platoon commander. During the February Revolution, a young officer joins his regiment with the rebels - without firing a single shot. Since October 1917, Vlasik has been working in the newly created Soviet police. In 1918, as part of the 393rd Rogozhsko-Simonovsky Regiment, he was sent to the Southern Front, to the 10th Army defending Tsaritsyn. After being wounded and subsequently treated in a Moscow hospital, Vlasik is assigned to the 1st Soviet Infantry Regiment. In the same year he joined the ranks of the RCP (b). The next year, 1919, marked a new turn in the biography of Nikolai Sidorovich: after the mobilization of the party, he was sent to work in the Special Department of the Cheka, at the disposal of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, where the young security officer took an active part in operations to eliminate the counter-revolutionary underground in the USSR (in particular, cadet), carries out important assignments from the leaders of Soviet counterintelligence.

In 1927, an event occurred that determined the fate of N. S. Vlasik for many years: after the famous explosion in the commandant’s office building on Lubyanka, he was entrusted with organizing the security of the Special Department of the OGPU, the Kremlin, members of the Soviet government and the personal guard of J. V. Stalin. From that time on, Vlasik’s life and work were closely connected with the personality of Stalin, his activities, way of life, and character traits. Over almost a quarter-century of holding various positions related to ensuring the protection of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, Nikolai Sidorovich went through all the steps of the career ladder of one of the important sectors of the national state security system. Since 1938, Vlasik became the head of the First Department of the General Security of the Government. From 1947 to 1952 he directed the work of the Main Security Directorate of the MGB.

“The man behind” accompanied Stalin on his trips around the city, at airfields, in theaters, at parades and official events, on vacation trips, at conferences and meetings with heads of foreign countries - this, as is known, is the “specificity” of this responsible and not an easy profession, especially if we're talking about about protecting the great statesman, leader of the world superpower. In addition, if we take into account that the Main Security Directorate of the MGB had a large staff of employees, and this department also had a whole complex of buildings, state dachas, outbuildings in different parts of the vast state, had a branched structure (in fact, an autonomous “ministry” in the Soviet system state security), it is not difficult to imagine what volume of responsibilities was assigned to the head of this organization and what weight the “man under Stalin” had in the highest Kremlin circles.

The Soviet government highly appreciated the services of N.S. Vlasik to the country. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (2 of them for providing security for participants in the Tehran and Potsdam conferences), four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, and the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (for providing security for participants Yalta Conference), Order of the Red Star, five medals.

Vlasik was always loyal to Stalin. But he was not loyal in a lackey way - which was alien to this courageous man - but sincerely devoted, knowing what responsibility lay with him. This sincere and reverent attitude towards his duties was sometimes expressed in excessive anxiety, acute feelings about even the most insignificant mistake made by one of his subordinates (Vlasik recorded such “incidents” very emotionally and self-critically in his diary). Such concern for Stalin’s life and health can hardly be explained by the usual bureaucratic desire to curry favor or fear of possible punishment for a mistake. Here we can rather talk about a particularly reverent attitude towards the assigned task: after all, we were talking about the head of a great state, the Leader of the Soviet people. It should be noted that Stalin also trusted the head of his security department, to a certain extent, of course.

At the end of the 40s, N. S. Vlasik made, however, two significant mistakes: firstly, he did not give effect to L. F. Timashuk’s letter about the incorrect treatment of A. A. Zhdanov, which led to death. This omission of Vlasik became clear later, in the early 50s, when the proceedings of the famous “Doctors’ Case” began, during which many facts of anti-state activities of its defendants were revealed. The second mistake of N.S. Vlasik was that he got involved in political intrigues, the purpose of which was to eliminate L.P. Beria from Stalin’s entourage.

The denouement came soon. On April 29, 1952, Vlasik was removed from office on charges of abuse of office, and on December 16, 1952, he was arrested.

He spent three years in prison. His trial took place in 1955, already under Khrushchev. Stalin was not alive, but Vlasik did not renounce the leader, like many “Khrushchevites,” so his fate was sealed. According to the court verdict N.S. Vlasik was sent into exile in Siberia. He was released only under an amnesty; Vlasik returned to Moscow, in last years life worked on memoirs.

Rybin Alexey Trofimovich was an employee of I.V.’s personal security. Stalin since 1931. Alexey Rybin guarded Stalin in the Kremlin, at the dacha, and on vacation; later he was appointed commandant of the Bolshoi Theater.

Rybin's memories of Stalin are distinguished by their vividness and spontaneity; they contain many interesting details showing the leader in home environment and in everyday life. In addition, Rybin supplements his notes with memories of other people who knew and saw Stalin, and conducts a historical investigation of some controversial episodes from his life.

Georgy Aleksandrovich Egnatashvili was the head of security for member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks N.M. Shvernik. Georgy Egnatashvili was friends with Stalin’s eldest son, Yakov, and knew Stalin’s family well, including his mother.

The topic of Stalin’s relatives and relationships in his family is continued by Artem Fedorovich Sergeev. He was the son of a prominent figure in the Bolshevik Party, one of Stalin’s closest associates, Fedor Andreevich Sergeev. After the tragic death of his father, Artem was raised in the family of Joseph Stalin and was friends with his youngest son Vasily.

Memoirs of A.F. Sergeev is shown to I.V. Stalin during family holidays, in communication with friends, with children; touch on the topic of Stalin's personal attachments.

IN Application The book uses the memoirs of Yakov Ermolaevich Chadayev. During the Great Patriotic War he was the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars, saw I.V. Stalin at work and in relationships with subordinates. The assessment of Stalin's business qualities is supplemented in Chadayev's memoirs with an assessment of the top leaders of the Soviet state. It seems interesting to compare these notes with the memoirs of N.S. Vlasik.

(The biographical sketch about N.S. Vlasik uses materials from Alexey Kozhevnikov, candidate of historical sciences.)

Notes of N. S. Vlasik

BRIEF FOREWORD

I do not set myself the task of showing Comrade Stalin as a political figure.

During the years of perestroika, when practically all people from Stalin’s circle were subjected to a wave of all kinds of accusations in the advanced Soviet press, the most unenviable lot fell to General Vlasik. The long-time head of Stalin's security appeared in these materials as a real lackey who adored his master, chain dog, ready to rush at anyone at his command, greedy, vindictive and selfish...

Among those who did not spare Vlasik negative epithets was Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. But the leader’s bodyguard at one time had to become practically the main educator for both Svetlana and Vasily. Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik spent a quarter of a century next to Stalin, protecting the life of the Soviet leader. The leader lived without his bodyguard for less than a year.

From parochial school to the Cheka

Nikolai Vlasik was born on May 22, 1896 in Western Belarus, in the village of Bobynichi, in a poor peasant family. The boy lost his parents early and a good education I couldn't count. After three classes at 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 factory. In March 1915, Vlasik was drafted into the army and sent to the front. During the First World War, he served in the 167th Ostrog Infantry Regiment and was awarded the St. George Cross for bravery in battle. After being wounded, Vlasik was promoted to non-commissioned officer and appointed platoon commander of the 251st Infantry Regiment, which was stationed in Moscow.

During October revolution Nikolai Vlasik, who came from the very bottom, quickly decided on his political choice: together with the entrusted platoon, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. First, he served in the Moscow police, then participated in the Civil War, and was wounded near Tsaritsyn. In September 1919, Vlasik was sent to the Cheka, where he served in the central apparatus under the command of Felix Dzerzhinsky himself.

Master of Security and Household

Since May 1926, Nikolai Vlasik served as the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU. As Vlasik himself recalled, his work as Stalin’s bodyguard began in 1927 after an emergency in the capital: a bomb was thrown into the commandant’s office building on Lubyanka. The operative, who was on vacation, was recalled and announced: from now on, he will be entrusted with the protection of the Special Department of the Cheka, the Kremlin, and members of the government at their dachas and walks. Particular attention was ordered to be paid to the personal security of Joseph Stalin. Despite the sad history of the assassination attempt on Lenin, by 1927 the security of the top officials 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. There was only one commandant living at the dacha; there was no linen or dishes, and the leader ate sandwiches brought from Moscow.
Like all Belarusian peasants, Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was a thorough and homely person. He took on not only the security, but also the arrangement of Stalin’s life. The leader, accustomed to asceticism, was at first skeptical about the innovations of the new bodyguard. But Vlasik was persistent: a cook and a cleaner appeared at the dacha, and supplies of food were arranged from the nearest state farm. At that moment, the dacha did not even have a telephone connection with Moscow, and it appeared through the efforts of Vlasik. Over time, Vlasik created an entire system of dachas in the Moscow region and in the south, where well-trained staff were ready at any time to receive the Soviet leader. It’s not worth talking about the fact that these objects were guarded in the most thorough manner. The system of protecting important government objects existed 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. Bodyguard Stalin came up with a system according to which the first person and the people accompanying him travel in a cavalcade of identical cars, and only the personal security officers know which of them the leader is traveling in. Subsequently, this scheme saved the life of Leonid Brezhnev, who was assassinated in 1969.

“Illiterate, stupid, but noble”

Within a few years, Vlasik turned into an irreplaceable 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 Sergeev. Nikolai Sidorovich was not a teacher, but he tried as best he could. If Svetlana and Artyom did not cause him much trouble, then Vasily was uncontrollable from childhood. Vlasik, knowing that Stalin did not give permission to children, tried, as far as possible, to mitigate Vasily’s sins in reports to his father.
But over the years, the “pranks” became more and more serious, and the role of the “lightning rod” became more and more difficult for Vlasik to play. Svetlana and Artyom, having become adults, wrote about their “tutor” in different ways. Stalin’s daughter in “Twenty Letters to a Friend” characterized Vlasik as follows: “He headed his father’s entire guard, considered himself almost the closest person to him and, being himself incredibly illiterate, rude, stupid, but noble, in recent years he came to the point that dictated to some artists the “tastes of Comrade Stalin”, since he believed that he knew and understood them well... His impudence knew no bounds, and he favorably conveyed to the artists whether he “liked it” himself, be it a film or opera, or even the silhouettes of the high-rise buildings that were under construction at that time...” “He had a job all his life, and he lived near Stalin.” Artyom Sergeev in “Conversations about Stalin” expressed himself differently: “His main duty was to ensure Stalin’s safety. This work was inhuman. Always take responsibility with your head, always live on the cutting edge. He knew Stalin’s friends and enemies very well...What kind of work did Vlasik even have? It was a day and night job, there were no 6-8 hour days. He had a job all his life and lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin’s room was Vlasik’s room...” In ten to 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 top officials 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 through security issues. The evacuation of Lenin’s body from Moscow was also a 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 security, judging by his memoirs, took the threat of assassination attempt very seriously. Even in his declining years, he was sure that Trotskyist groups were preparing the assassination of Stalin.
In 1935, Vlasik really had to cover the leader from bullets. During a boat trip in the Gagra area, 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 shelling zone. Vlasik considered this a real assassination attempt, and his opponents later believed that it was all a staged act. Judging by the circumstances, there was a misunderstanding. The border guards were not notified of Stalin's boat ride, and they mistook him for an intruder.

Abuse of cows

During the Great Patriotic War, Vlasik was responsible for ensuring security at conferences of the heads of 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, 1st degree, for the Potsdam conference - another Order of Lenin.
But the Potsdam Conference became the reason for accusations of misappropriation of property: it was alleged that after its completion, Vlasik took 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 Stalin’s bodyguard. Vlasik himself recalled that this story had a completely different background. In 1941, his native village Bobynichi was captured by the Germans. The house in which the sister lived was burned, half the village was shot, the sister’s eldest daughter was taken to work in Germany, the cow and horse were taken away. The sister and her husband joined the partisans, and after the liberation of Belarus they returned to their native village, of which little was left. Stalin's bodyguard brought cattle from Germany for his loved ones. Was this abuse? If you approach it with strict standards, then, perhaps, yes. However, Stalin, when this case was first reported to him, abruptly ordered further investigation to be stopped.

Opal

In 1946, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vlasik became the head of the Main Security Directorate: a department with an annual budget of 170 million rubles and a staff of 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 receive wider access to the first person and who would be denied such an opportunity. In 1948, the commandant of the so-called “Near Dacha” was arrested. Fedoseev, 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.

Vlasik in the office.

In 1952, by decision of the Politburo, a commission was created 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 staff of the special dachas, which had been empty for weeks, staged real orgies there and stole 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 Why did Stalin suddenly abandon a man who had honestly served him for 25 years? Perhaps the leader’s growing suspicion in recent years was to blame. It is possible that Stalin considered the waste of state funds on drunken revelry to be too serious a sin. Be that as it may, very difficult times came for the former head of Stalin’s guard... In December 1952, he was arrested in connection with the “Doctors’ Case.” He was blamed for the fact that he ignored the statements of Lydia Timashuk, who accused the professors who treated the top officials 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.”

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, could well have extended his life. When the leader became ill at the Nizhny 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 “doctors’ case” was closed. All of his defendants were released, except for Nikolai Vlasik. In January 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR found Nikolai Vlasik guilty of abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 paragraph “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 sentence was reduced to 5 years. He was sent to Krasnoyarsk to serve his sentence. By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned with his criminal record expunged, but his military rank and awards were not restored. “Not for a single minute did I have any grudge against Stalin in my soul.” He returned to Moscow, where he had almost nothing left: his property was confiscated, a separate apartment was turned into a communal apartment. Vlasik knocked on doors 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 dictating memoirs in which he talked about how he saw his life, why he committed certain actions, and how he treated Stalin.
“After Stalin’s death, such an expression as “cult of personality” appeared... If a person - a leader by his deeds deserves the love and respect of others, what’s wrong with that... The people loved and respected Stalin. He personified the country that he led to prosperity and victories, wrote Nikolai Vlasik. “Under his leadership, a lot of good things were done, and the people saw it.” He enjoyed enormous authority. I knew him very closely... And I affirm that he lived only in the interests of the country, the interests of his people.” “It is easy to accuse a person of all mortal sins when he is dead and can neither justify himself nor defend himself. Why did no one dare to point out his mistakes during his lifetime? What was stopping you? Fear? Or were there not these mistakes that needed to be pointed out? Tsar Ivan IV was formidable, but there were people who cared about their homeland, who, without fear of death, pointed out his mistakes to him. Or transferred to Rus' brave people? - this is what Stalin’s bodyguard thought. Summing up his memoirs and his entire life in general, Vlasik wrote: “Without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what condition I was in, no matter how much abuse I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin. I understood perfectly well what kind of situation 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, and no slander can shake the feeling of love and deepest respect that I have always had for this wonderful man. He personified for me everything bright and dear in my life - the party, my homeland and my people.” Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, posthumously rehabilitated, died on June 18, 1967. His archive was seized and classified. Only in 2011 federal Service security declassified the notes of the man who, in fact, stood at the origins of its creation.

PREFACE

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

* * *

“The man behind” accompanied Stalin on his trips around the city, at airfields, in theaters, at parades and official events, on vacation trips, at conferences and meetings with heads of foreign countries - this, as is known, is the “specificity” of this responsible and not an easy profession, especially when it comes to protecting a great statesman, the leader of a world superpower. In addition, if we take into account that the Main Security Directorate of the MGB had a large staff of employees, and this department also had a whole complex of buildings, state dachas, outbuildings in different parts of the vast state, had a branched structure (in fact, an autonomous “ministry” in the Soviet system state security), it is not difficult to imagine what volume of responsibilities was assigned to the head of this organization and what weight the “man under Stalin” had in the highest Kremlin circles.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the services of N.S. Vlasik to the country. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (2 of them for providing security for participants in the Tehran and Potsdam Conferences), four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (for providing security for participants in the Yalta Conference), the Order of the Red Star, and five medals.

* * *

Vlasik was always loyal to Stalin. But he was not loyal in a lackey way - which was alien to this courageous man - but sincerely devoted, knowing what responsibility lay with him. This sincere and reverent attitude towards his duties was sometimes expressed in excessive anxiety, acute feelings about even the most insignificant mistake made by one of his subordinates (Vlasik recorded such “incidents” very emotionally and self-critically in his diary). Such concern for Stalin’s life and health can hardly be explained by the usual bureaucratic desire to curry favor or fear of possible punishment for a mistake. Here we can rather talk about a particularly reverent attitude towards the assigned task: after all, we were talking about the head of a great state, the Leader of the Soviet people. It should be noted that Stalin also trusted the head of his security department, to a certain extent, of course.
At the end of the 40s, N. S. Vlasik made, however, two significant mistakes: firstly, he did not give effect to L. F. Timashuk’s letter about the incorrect treatment of A. A. Zhdanov, which led to death. This omission of Vlasik became clear later, in the early 50s, when the proceedings of the famous “Doctors’ Case” began, during which many facts of anti-state activities of its defendants were revealed. The second mistake of N.S. Vlasik was that he got involved in political intrigues, the purpose of which was to eliminate L.P. Beria from Stalin’s entourage.
The denouement came soon. On April 29, 1952, Vlasik was removed from office on charges of abuse of office, and on December 16, 1952, he was arrested.
He spent three years in prison. His trial took place in 1955, already under Khrushchev. Stalin was not alive, but Vlasik did not renounce the leader, like many “Khrushchevites,” so his fate was sealed. According to the court verdict N.S. Vlasik was sent into exile in Siberia. He was released only under an amnesty; Vlasik returned to Moscow and worked on his memoirs in the last years of his life.

* * *

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

Notes of N. S. Vlasik

BRIEF FOREWORD

HOW I WAS APPOINTED TO STALIN

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

STALIN'S FAMILY, RHYTHM OF LIFE, LIFE

Comrade Stalin’s family consisted of his wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, the daughter of the old Bolshevik Alliluyev S. Ya., whom Comrade Stalin met when he was hiding in his family’s apartment in Petrograd, and two children - son Vasya, a very lively and impetuous boy of five years old, and daughter Svetlana is two years old. In addition to these children, Comrade Stalin had an adult son from his first marriage to Ekaterina Svanidze, Yakov, a very sweet and modest person, unusually similar to his father in his conversations and manners. Looking ahead, I will say that he graduated from the Institute of Railway Transport and lived on a scholarship, being in need at times, but never turned to his father with any requests. After graduating from college, in response to his father’s remark that he would like to see his son in the military, Yakov entered the Artillery Academy, which he graduated from before the war. In the very first days of the war, he went to the front. At Vyazma, our units were surrounded, and he was taken prisoner.
The Germans held him prisoner in the camp until the end of the war, in the camp and killed him, allegedly while trying to escape. According to the former French Prime Minister Herriot, who was with him in this camp, Jacob behaved with exceptional dignity and courage. After the end of the war, Herriot wrote to Stalin about this.
In the apartment in the Kremlin where Stalin lived with his family, there was a housekeeper, Karolina Vasilievna, and a cleaning lady. They received food from the Kremlin canteen, from where K.V. brought lunch in boats. By order of my superiors, I had to, in addition to security, arrange supplies and living conditions for the protected person.
I began by sending linen and dishes to the dacha, and arranged for a supply of food from the state farm, which was under the jurisdiction of the GPU and located next to the dacha. He sent a cook and a cleaner to the dacha. Established a direct telephone connection with Moscow.
Yusis, fearing Comrade Stalin’s dissatisfaction with these innovations, suggested that I myself report everything to Comrade Stalin. This is how my first meeting and first conversation with Comrade Stalin took place. Before that, I had only seen him from afar, when I accompanied him on walks and on trips to the theater.
Comrade Stalin lived very modestly with his family. He walked around in an old, very shabby coat. I suggested that Nadezhda Sergeevna sew him a new coat, but for this it was necessary to take measurements or take an old one and make exactly the same new one from it in the workshop. It was not possible to take measurements, as he flatly refused, saying that he did not need a new coat. But we still managed to sew him a new coat.
His wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna, was a very modest woman, rarely made any requests, and dressed modestly, unlike the wives of many senior workers. She studied at the Industrial Academy and paid a lot of attention to children.

* * *

I wanted to know (and I needed it) the tastes and habits of Comrade Stalin, the peculiarities of his character, and I looked closely at everything with curiosity and interest.
Comrade Stalin usually got up at 9 o’clock, had breakfast and at 11 o’clock was at work at the Central Committee on Old Square. He had lunch at work; it was brought to his office from the Central Committee canteen. Sometimes, when Comrade Kirov came to Moscow, they went home together for dinner. Comrade Stalin often worked until late at night, especially in those years when, after the death of Lenin, it was necessary to intensify the fight against the Trotskyists.
He also worked on his book “Questions of Leninism” in his office at the Central Committee, sometimes staying until late at night. I often returned from work on foot along with Art. Molotov. We walked to the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate. I spent Sundays at home with my family, usually going to the dacha. Comrade Stalin went to the theater more often on Saturdays and Sundays together with Nadezhda Sergeevna. We visited the Bolshoi Theatre, the Maly Theatre, and the Theatre. Vakhtangov, went to Meyerhold to watch the play “The Bedbug” by Mayakovsky. With us at this performance, I remember, were comrades Kirov and Molotov, Comrade Stalin loved Gorky very much and always watched all his plays that were shown in Moscow theaters. Often after work, Comrade Stalin and Molotov went to watch films in Gnezdnikovsky Lane. Later, a screening room was set up in the Kremlin. Comrade Stalin loved cinema and attached great propaganda importance to it.
In the fall, usually in August-September, Comrade Stalin and his family left for the south. He spent his holidays on the Black Sea coast, in Sochi or Gagra. He lived in the south for two months. While vacationing in Sochi, he sometimes took Matsesta baths.
Throughout his vacation he worked very hard and received a lot of mail. He always took one of his employees to the south. In the 20s, a cryptographer traveled with him, and starting from the 30s, a secretary. During the vacation, business meetings also took place. So, in the late 40s, K. Gottwald and E. Hoxha came to him. Before his appointment to Poland, K.K. Rokossovsky came to his dacha in Gagra.
Comrade Stalin read a lot, followed political and fiction.
Entertainment in the south included boat trips, movies, bowling alleys, small towns he loved to play, and billiards. The partners were employees who lived with him at the dacha.
Comrade Stalin devoted a lot of time to the garden. Living in Sochi, he planted a lot of lemon and tangerine trees and he himself always watched their growth, rejoicing when they were well received and began to bear fruit.
He was very concerned about the incidence of malaria in the local population. And on the initiative of Comrade Stalin, large plantings of eucalyptus trees were carried out in Sochi. This tree is known to have valuable properties: it grows unusually quickly and dries out the soil, destroying breeding grounds for malarial diseases.
Molotov, Kalinin, and Ordzhonikidze often came to Comrade Stalin’s dacha, who at that time were also vacationing on the Black Sea coast. Comrade Kirov came to visit.

* * *

In 1933, Comrade Stalin’s wife tragically died. I.V. deeply experienced the loss of his wife and friend. The children were still small, Comrade Stalin could not pay much attention to them due to his busy schedule. I had to hand over the upbringing and care of the children to Karolina Vasilievna. She was a cultured woman, sincerely attached to children.
Svetlana was calm and obedient, which could not be said about Vasya, a very active and playful boy. He caused a lot of trouble to his teachers. When the children grew up and both were already studying, part of the responsibility for their behavior fell on me.
The daughter, her father's favorite, studied well and was modest and disciplined. The son, gifted by nature, was reluctant to study at school. He was too nervous, impetuous, could not study diligently for a long time, often to the detriment of his studies and, not without success, getting carried away by something extraneous, like horse riding. I reluctantly had to report his behavior to my father and upset him. He loved children, especially his daughter, whom he jokingly called “mistress,” of which she was very proud. He treated his son strictly and punished him for pranks and misdeeds. The girl, who looked like her grandmother, the mother of Comrade Stalin, was somewhat withdrawn and silent in character.
The boy, on the contrary, was lively and temperamental, very sincere and responsive. In general, children were raised very strictly; no pampering or excess was allowed. The daughter grew up, graduated from college, defended her dissertation, has a family, works, and raises children. She changed her father's last name to her mother's last name. Subsequently, she went abroad to see her husband off on his last journey and stayed there. The fate of his son was more tragic. After graduating from aviation school, he became a participant in the war, commanded, and quite well, an aviation regiment. After the death of his father, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years. After serving his sentence, he was released completely sick. He retained his military rank and was given a pension, but was asked to give up his father’s surname, which he did not agree to.
After this, he was exiled to Kazan, where he soon died, in March 1962, at the age of 40.

MURDER OF S. M. KIROV

I especially want to talk about Kirov.
Stalin loved and respected Kirov most of all. Loved him in some touching way, tender love. Comrade Kirov's visits to Moscow and the south were a real holiday for Stalin. Sergei Mironovich came for a week or two. In Moscow, he stayed at Comrade Stalin’s apartment, and I.V. literally did not part with him.
S. M. Kirov was killed on December 13, 1934 in Leningrad. Kirov's death shocked Stalin. I went with him to Leningrad and I know how he suffered and experienced the loss of his beloved friend. Everyone knows what a person of crystal purity S.M. was, how simple and modest he was, what a great worker and wise leader he was.
This vile murder showed that the enemies of Soviet power had not yet been destroyed and were ready to strike from around the corner at any moment.
Comrade Kirov was killed by enemies of the people. His killer Leonid Nikolaev stated in his testimony: “Our shot should have been a signal for an explosion and an offensive within the country against the CPSU (b) and Soviet power.” In September 1934, an assassination attempt was made on Comrade Molotov while he was on an inspection tour of the mining regions of Siberia. Comrade Molotov and his companions miraculously escaped death.

ATTEMPT ON STALIN

In the summer of 1935, an attempt was made on Comrade Stalin. This happened in the south. Comrade Stalin was relaxing at a dacha near Gagra.
On a small boat, which was transported to the Black Sea from the Neva from Leningrad by Yagoda, Comrade Stalin took walks along the sea. Only security was with him. The direction was taken to Cape Pitsunda. Having entered the bay, we went ashore, rested, had a snack, and walked, staying on the shore for several hours. Then we got on the boat and went home. There is a lighthouse on Cape Pitsunda, and not far from the lighthouse on the shore of the bay there was a border guard post. When we left the bay and turned in the direction of Gagra, shots were heard from the shore. We were fired upon.
Having quickly seated Comrade Stalin on the bench and covering him with me, I ordered the mechanic to go out to the open sea.
Immediately we fired a machine gun along the shore. The shots at our boat stopped.
Our boat was small, riverboat and completely unsuitable for walking on the sea, and we had a great chat before we landed. The sending of such a boat to Sochi was also done by Yagoda, apparently not without malicious intent - on a large wave it would inevitably capsize, but we, as people not versed in maritime affairs, did not know about this.
This case was transferred for investigation to Beria, who was at that time the secretary of the Georgian Central Committee. During interrogation, the shooter stated that the boat had an unfamiliar number; this seemed suspicious to him and he opened fire, although he had enough time to find out everything while we were on the shore of the bay, and he could not help but see us.
It was all one ball.
The murder of Kirov, Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev, as well as the mentioned assassination attempts, were organized by the right-wing Trotskyist bloc.
This was shown by the trials of Kamenev and Zinoviev in 1936, the trial of Pyatakov, Radek and Sokolnikov in 1937, and the trial of Yagoda, Bukharin and Rykov in 1938. This tangle was unraveled and thus the enemies of Soviet power were neutralized before the war. They could be a "fifth column".

MILITARY CONSPIRACY

Among the numerous accusations leveled against Comrade Stalin after his death, the most significant, perhaps, is the accusation of physical destruction a group of military leaders of the Red Army led by Tukhachevsky.
They have now been rehabilitated. At the XXII Congress, the Communist Party of the USSR declared to the whole world their complete innocence.
On what basis were they rehabilitated?
They were convicted according to documents. 20 years later, these documents were declared false... But how should Comrade Stalin have reacted to the document incriminating Tukhachevsky of treason, handed over by a friend Soviet Union President of Czechoslovakia Benes? I can’t imagine that other evidence besides this was not collected. If all the military leaders, as they now claim, were innocent, then why did Gamarnik suddenly shoot himself? I have never heard of such cases when innocent people shot themselves while awaiting arrest. After all, revolutionaries, always living under the threat of arrest, never committed suicide. In addition, this group of military men was not shot, like the 26 Baku commissars, without trial or investigation. They were convicted by the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court.
The trial probably took place at behind closed doors, since the testimony at the trial was supposed to concern military secrets. But the court included such authoritative people known throughout the country as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov. The trial announcement indicated that the defendants pleaded guilty. To question this message means to cast a shadow on such pure people as Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov.
Speaking about this process, I would like to dwell on the personality of the leader of the military group, Tukhachevsky. The personality is certainly very bright. Much has already been written about him, in particular, such a venerable writer as L. Nikulin wrote a book about him. Here's about this book and about another book - Michael Sayers and Albert Kahn's "The Secret War Against Soviet Russia“- I would like to say a few words. I want to dwell on the characterization of Tukhachevsky that the authors of these books give.
Their characteristics are exactly the opposite. Which one is right? Who to believe? I personally met Tukhachevsky and knew him. It was known about him that he came from a noble landowner family, graduated from the Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School. But I never heard that his mother was a simple, illiterate peasant woman. Nikulin writes that he received information about Tukhachevsky’s childhood from a friend of his acquaintance, who found a 90-year-old man who had worked in his youth on the estate of Tukhachevsky’s father. I recorded the conversation with him and forwarded it to Nikulin.
The source seems to me to be of little authority.
There is no doubt that Tukhachevsky was a highly educated person. Neither his appearance, nor his gestures, nor his demeanor, nor his conversation - nothing in him pointed to a proletarian origin; on the contrary, blue blood was visible in everything.
Nikulin writes that Tukhachevsky was not a careerist, but according to other sources, Tukhachevsky, after graduating from the Alexander School, said: “Either at thirty I will be a general, or I will shoot myself.” The French officer Remi Ruhr, who was captured along with Tukhachevsky, characterized him as an extremely ambitious person who would stop at nothing.
Subsequently, in 1928, Remi Roure wrote a book about Tukhachevsky under the pseudonym Pierre Fervaque.
Tukhachevsky escaped from German captivity and returned to Russia on the eve of the October Revolution. He first joined the former officers tsarist army, then broke up with them.
Sayers and Kahn write that when asked by his friend Golumbek what he intended to do, Tukhachevsky replied: “Frankly speaking, I am going over to the Bolsheviks. The White Army is unable to do anything. They have no leader."

* * *

In 1918, Tukhachevsky joined the party. Cultured man, an educated military man and an undoubtedly talented commander, Tukhachevsky quickly rose to the forefront of the leadership of the Red Army. The Bolsheviks had few such people, and they needed them. Tukhachevsky's calculation was correct. After graduation Civil War Tukhachevsky became one of Frunze’s closest assistants at the Red Army headquarters. And in 1925, after the death of Frunze, he was appointed to the post of chief of staff of the Red Army.
Here is what Sayers and Kahn write about this period of Tukhachevsky’s activity: “Working at the headquarters of the Red Army, Tukhachevsky became close to the Trotskyist Putna, who successively held the positions of military attaché in Berlin, London, Tokyo, and the head of the Political Directorate of the Red Army, Jan Gamarnik, whom Sayers and Kahn call personal friend of the Reichswehr generals Socht and Hammerstein.”
Nikulin writes that all the charges against Tukhachevsky were based on slander. To do this, they took advantage of the official trips of the marshal and his comrades abroad, meetings that were purely business in nature.
Here's what Sayers and Kahn write about one such trip.
At the beginning of 1936, Tukhachevsky, as a Soviet military representative, traveled to London for the funeral of King George V. Shortly before leaving, he received the coveted title of Marshal of the USSR. He was convinced that the hour was near when the Soviet system would be overthrown and “ new Russia"in alliance with Germany and Japan, will rush into battle for world domination. On the way to London, Tukhachevsky stopped briefly in Warsaw and Berlin, where he talked with Polish colonels and German generals. He was so confident of success that he almost did not hide his admiration for the German militarists.

An employee of the state security agencies of the USSR. Head of security for Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1931-1952). Lieutenant General (1945).

Head of the 1st Department of the GUGB NKVD - NKGB of the USSR (1938-1942), head, first deputy head of the 6th Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR (1943-1946), head of the Security Directorate No. 2 of the MGB of the USSR (April - May 1946), head of the Main Directorate security of the USSR MGB (December 1946 - April 1952).

Member of the RCP(b) since 1918. Expelled from the party after his arrest in the doctors' case on December 16, 1952.

Born into a poor peasant family. Belarusian. He graduated from three classes of a rural parochial school. Labor activity started at the age of thirteen: a laborer for a landowner, a digger for railway, laborer at a paper factory in Yekaterinoslav.

Start of service

In March 1915 he was called up for military service. He served in the 167th Ostrog Infantry Regiment, in the 251st Reserve Infantry Regiment. For bravery in the battles of World War I he received the St. George Cross. During the days of the October Revolution, being in the rank of non-commissioned officer, he and his platoon went over to the side of Soviet power.

In November 1917, he joined the Moscow police. From February 1918 - in the Red Army, a participant in the battles on the Southern Front near Tsaritsyn, and was an assistant company commander in the 38th working Rogozhsko-Simonovsky infantry regiment.

In September 1919, he was transferred to the Cheka, worked under the direct supervision of F.E. Dzerzhinsky in the central office, was an employee of a special department, a senior representative of the active department of the operational unit. From May 1926 he became the senior commissioner of the Operations Department of the OGPU, and from January 1930 he became an assistant to the head of the department there.

Head of Stalin's security

In 1927, he headed the Kremlin's special security and became the de facto head of Stalin's security. 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 1st department (security of higher officials) Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, since November 1938 - head of the 1st department there. 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.

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

Vlasik was Stalin’s personal bodyguard for many years and held this post the longest. Having joined his personal guard in 1931, he not only became its chief, but also took over many of the everyday problems of Stalin’s family, in which Vlasik was essentially a family member. After the death of Stalin's wife N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, practically performing the functions of a majordomo.

He simply prevented Beria from getting to Stalin, because his father would not let him die. He would not wait for a day outside the doors, like those guards on March 1, 1953, when Stalin “woke up”...

N. S. Vlasik’s daughter Nadezhda Vlasik in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” dated 05/07/2003.

Vlasik is assessed extremely negatively 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 responsibility was to ensure Stalin's safety. This work was inhuman. Always take responsibility with your head, always live on the cutting edge. He knew both Stalin's friends and enemies very well. And he knew that his life and Stalin’s life were very closely connected, and it was no coincidence that when he was suddenly arrested a month and a half or two before Stalin’s death, he said: “I was arrested, which means that Stalin will soon be gone.” And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin did not live long.

What kind of work did Vlasik even have? It was day and night work, there were no 6-8 hour days. He had a job all his life and lived near Stalin. Next to Stalin's room was Vlasik's room...

He understood that he lived for Stalin, to ensure the work of Stalin, and therefore the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two supports for that colossal activity, not yet fully appreciated, that Stalin led, and they remained in the shadows. And they treated Poskrebyshev badly, and even worse with Vlasik.

Artyom Sergeev. "Conversations about Stalin."

Since 1947, he was a deputy of the Moscow City Council of Workers' Deputies 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. He was arrested in early December of the same year. Colonel Nikolai Novik was appointed the new head of Stalin's security. 10 months after Nikolai Vlasik was removed from office, Joseph Stalin died.

Arrest, trial, exile

On December 16, 1952, in connection with the doctors’ case, he was arrested because he “provided treatment to members of the government and was responsible for the reliability of the professors.”

Until March 12, 1953, Vlasik was interrogated almost daily. The investigation into Vlasik’s case was carried out in two directions: disclosure of secret information and theft of material assets... After Vlasik’s arrest, several dozen documents marked “secret” were found in his apartment... While in Potsdam, where he accompanied the government delegation of the USSR, Vlasik was engaged in junk...
Certificate from a criminal case.

January 17, 1953 Military Collegium Supreme Court The USSR found him guilty of abuse of official position under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him under Art. 193-17 paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years of exile, deprivation of the rank of general and state awards.

According to the amnesty on March 27, 1953, Vlasik’s sentence was reduced to five years, without loss of rights. Sent to serve exile in Krasnoyarsk.

By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 15, 1956, Vlasik was pardoned and his criminal record was expunged, but his military rank and awards were not restored.

In his memoirs, Vlasik wrote:
I was severely offended by Stalin. For 25 years perfect work Having not received a single punishment, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he handed me over to the hands of his 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 had no 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

On June 28, 2000, by a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia, the 1955 sentence against Vlasik was overturned and the criminal case was terminated “for lack of corpus delicti.”

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

Awards

sign of the St. George's Cross, 4th degree
Three Orders of Lenin (04/26/1940, 02/21/1945, 09/16/1945)
Four Orders of the Red Banner (08/28/1937, 09/20/1943, 11/03/1944, 07/20/1949)
Order Kutuzov I degrees (02/24/1945)
Order of the Red Star (05/14/1936)
Medal “XX Years of the Red Army” (02/22/1938)
Medal "For the Defense of Moscow"
Medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
Two badges Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (12/20/1932, 12/16/1935)

Special and military 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

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.

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

Film incarnations

1991 - Inner Circle (in the role of Vlasik - Oleg Tabakov).
2006 - Stalin. Live (in the role of Vlasik - Yuri Gamayunov).

2009 - Ordered to destroy! Operation: “Chinese Box” (in the role of Vlasik - Mikhail Samokhvalov).

2011 - Yalta-45 (in the role of Vlasik - Boris Kamorzin).
2013 - Son of the Father of Nations (in the role of Vlasik - Yuri Lakhin).
2013 - Kill Stalin (in the role of Vlasik - Vladimir Yumatov).
2017 - Vlasik. Shadow of Stalin (TV series, in the role of Vlasik - Konstantin Milovanov).

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 received his education 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. On Nov. 1918 joined the RCP(b). On Sept. 1919 transferred to the authorities Cheka . Already on November 1, 1926, he became the 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 protecting the leaders of the party and state. For many years he was Stalin's personal bodyguard; from 1932 he raised his son V.I. Stalin. In 1935-36 beginning. personal security of the Operations Department of the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR. Since 1936 operational group and beginning branches of the 1st department of the 1st directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. After joining the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria and removal from posts of nominees N.I. Yezhova Vlasik was appointed chief on November 19, 1938. 1st Department of the Main Directorate of State Security. In February-July 1941, Vlasik’s 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 chief. 1st department. After formation in April. In 1943, Vlasik’s department was deployed to the 6th Directorate of the USSR Independent State Clinical Hospital, but already on August 9th. Vlasik again became not the head, but the 1st deputy. From March 1946 beginning. Security Directorate No. 1 of the USSR Ministry of State Security. This department was exclusively engaged in the protection and provision of Stalin. On November 28, 1946, under the leadership of Stalin, who at that time enjoyed the exclusive trust of Vlasik, 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 5/23/1952 the Main Directorate of Defense was transformed into the Security Directorate, and Vlasik was removed from work and transferred to deputy. beginning Bazhenov forced labor camp in Asbest ( Sverdlovsk region). On 12/16/1952 he was arrested and accused of “indulging in pest doctors”, abuse of official position, etc. In January 1955 he was sentenced to 5 years of exile in Krasnoyarsk, but in 1956 he was pardoned (with his criminal record expunged). According to his wife, until his death, Vlasik was convinced that he “helped” Stalin die L.P. Beria .

Materials used from the book: Zalessky K.A. Stalin's Empire. 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. Member of the Cheka since 1919. Appeared in Stalin’s security guard 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 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 directorate of the NKGB of the USSR and head of the 1st department of the 6th directorate of the NKGB of the USSR. In 1946 - Commissioner of the USSR Ministry of State Security for the Sochi-Gagrinsky region; in 1946-1952 - Head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, and medals.

Vlasik lasted the longest in Stalin's guard. At the same time, almost all the everyday problems of the head of state lay on his shoulders. Essentially, Vlasik was a member of Stalin's family. After the death of N.S. Alliluyeva, he was also a teacher of children, an organizer of their leisure time, and an economic and financial manager. Stalin's dacha residences, along with the staff of security, 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 - Stalin’s main residence,1 where he died), a dacha in Gorki-tenty (35 km from Moscow along the Uspenskaya road) , an old estate on Dmitrovskoe highway - Lipki, a dacha in Semenovskoye (the house was built before the war), a dacha in Zubalovo-4 (“Far Dacha”, “Zubalovo”), 2nd 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 not reaching Gagra), a dacha in Borjomi (Liakan Palace), a dacha in New Athos, a dacha in Tskaltubo, dacha in Myusery (near Pitsunda), dacha in Kislovodsk, dacha in Crimea (in Mukholatka), 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 royal, 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, Massandrovsky (Alexandra 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, at each of the dachas lived a large number of servants, everything was kept in such a way as if the leader was constantly here. Even dinner for Stalin and his possible guests was prepared daily and accepted according to the act, regardless of whether anyone would eat it. This order played a certain conspiratorial role: no one was supposed to know where Stalin was now and what his plans were (Rise. 1990. No. 1. P. 16; Volobuev O., Kuleshov S. Purification. M., 1989. P. 96) .

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

Svetlana Alliluyeva characterizes his father's favorite as an “illiterate, stupid, rude” and extremely arrogant satrap. In life Nadezhda Sergeevna (Svetlana’s mother) Vlasik was neither heard nor 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 artistic 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 took place without Vlasik’s sanction.” Svetlana is trying to convince readers of her father’s amazing gullibility and helplessness against people like Vlasik. At the same time, she more than once mentions Stalin’s rare insight. The leader really knew Vlasik’s weaknesses and vices very well. And yet he remained under Stalin for many years, while others, honest and decent, fell from grace and were expelled. Obviously, it was Vlasiki who arranged it ( Samsonova V. Daughter of Stalin. M., 1998. pp. 175-177).

Notes

1) The dacha in Kuntsevo was designed and built by architect Miron Merzhanov on the instructions of Stalin in 1934. From that time on, Kuntsevo became the main residence of the leader and the real capital of the USSR. According to his daughter, the idea of ​​leaving the Kremlin was prompted by his wife’s suicide on November 8, 1932. “But, I think, another, more practical consideration was the desire to separate from the rest of the party leaders. They all lived in the Kremlin. He wanted to have his own special Kremlin (he loved conspiracy), and he built it. In gratitude, Merzhanov was sent to the 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, they planned to open a Stalin museum in Kuntsevo.

2) Estate with a palace in gothic style in a deep forest near Moscow (near the Usovo station) belonged to the oil industrialist Zubalov until 1917. Stalin lived here 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) Those around Stalin also had their own favorite vacation spots. Molotov, for example, has the former Chaire estate in Miskhor (the tango “Roses are falling in Chaire Park” was once fashionable).

4) “I was severely offended by Stalin. For 25 years of impeccable work, without a single penalty, but only incentives and awards, I was expelled from the party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion, he handed me over to the hands of his enemies. But never, not for a single minute, no matter what condition I was in, no matter what bullying I was subjected to while in prison, I had no anger in my soul against Stalin” (Vlasik N.S. My biography // Loginov V. Shadows Stalin. M., 2000. P. 136).

Book materials used: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. Around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. St. Petersburg, 2000

From the recollections of an eyewitness:

It’s impossible not to say something about Vlasik. He was an ascetic who worked under Stalin from 1928, and from 1930 he was officially the head of the security. Then he was the head of the main security department. His main responsibility was to ensure Stalin's safety. This work was inhuman. Always take responsibility with your head, always live on the cutting edge. He knew both Stalin's friends and enemies very well. And he knew that his life and Stalin’s life were very closely connected, and it was no coincidence that when he was suddenly arrested a month and a half or two before Stalin’s death, he said that I had been arrested, which meant that Stalin would soon be gone. And, indeed, after this arrest, Stalin did not live long.
What kind of work did Vlasik even have? It was day and night work, there were no 6-8 hour days. He had a job all his life and 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 tension, a release is needed. Doctors and psychologists who work with sailors and people working in the field of space know this well. The weight of responsibility and the situation puts pressure on a person. It does not fully recover, and in the end there may be psychological overload, when the psyche cannot stand it and the person goes into a breakdown.
What was Vlasik accused of? In order to tear him away from Stalin, enemies of Stalin and, therefore, enemies of the state said that Vlasik supposedly once took some food with him. But he didn’t have time to stand in lines at stores. Maybe he took something with him from Stalin’s house. Yes, Vlasik’s time was worth a hundred times more to waste on shopping. His life and his activities provided the state with enormous opportunities that are difficult to evaluate on the scale of banknotes.
He understood that he lived for Stalin, to ensure the work of Stalin, and therefore the Soviet state. Vlasik and Poskrebyshev were like two supports for that colossal activity, not yet fully appreciated, that Stalin led, and they remained in the shadows. And they treated Poskrebyshev badly, and even worse with Vlasik.

Artem Sergeev

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

Read further:

Persons in civilian clothes(biographical reference book).