Summary of Operation Syndicate 2. Anti-Bolshevism Plenipotentiary

The largest crime syndicate 11 "Yamaguchigumi" - Japan, gangster group, 30,000

Boris Viktorovich Savinkov (January 19, 1879, Kharkov - May 7, 1925, Moscow) - revolutionary, terrorist, Russian politician - one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, head of the Fighting Organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Participant White movement, writer (prose writer, poet, publicist, memoirist; literary pseudonym - V. Ropshin). Also known under the pseudonym "B. N., Veniamin, Halley James, Kramer, Kseshinsky, Pavel Ivanovich, Rode Leon, Subbotin D. E., Tok Rene, Tomashevich Adolf, Chernetsky Konstantin. Boris Viktorovich Savinkov was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest personalities of the Russian political emigration. He was born into a quiet, intelligent family of a provincial Warsaw judge on January 19 (31), 1879. At first, nothing predicted any turbulent events, tragic breaks in his biography.
Nevertheless, already in his youth, Boris made the final choice for himself: he is a fighter, a revolutionary. And it started...
In 1902, the gendarmerie authorities sent him into exile in Vologda on the case of the St. Petersburg Social Democratic group. However, the political line of the "Social Democrats" is not at all to Savinkov's liking, and he breaks with the Social Democratic movement, flees from exile to Geneva, where he joins the Socialist Revolutionaries.
In those years, the Russian Liberation Movement, represented by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, was headed by Azef, who was later exposed as a provocateur and agent of the Okhrana.
In 1903, Boris Savinkov became one of the leaders of the so-called militant organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorists. He was personally involved - and was very proud of it - in the murders of the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Plehve and the Moscow Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
In 1906, Savinkov was again arrested and sentenced to death by the tsarist government. However, he manages to escape, and since 1911 he has been in exile again.
During the First World War, Boris Savinkov fought against the Germans as a volunteer in the French army.
After February revolution In 1917, he again returned to Russia, where, declaring himself an "independent socialist", he entered the government of Kerensky.
After the October Revolution, Savinkov embarked on the path of irreconcilable armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. He participates in the campaign of General Krasnov against Petrograd, flees to the Don to Alekseev and Denikin, after which he becomes the organizer of active operations in the rear: in July 1918 he raises armed mutinies in Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and Murom. After their suppression, he runs to the rebellious Czechs, participates in the Civil War in the ranks of the Kappel detachments.
At the end of 1918, Savinkov became the representative of the government of Admiral Kolchak created in Siberia abroad - he obtained money and weapons.
During the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, Boris Savinkov, chairman of the "Russian Political Committee" in Warsaw, actively supported the creation of the so-called Russian People's Army, which fought on the side of the Polish ruler Pilsudski.
In early 1921, from the remnants of the Russian Political Committee, he forms a new military organization, the People's Union for the Defense of the Homeland and Freedom (NSZRiS). The armed detachments of this organization are headed by Colonel S.E. Pavlovsky.
In the autumn of 1921, after a Soviet note of protest, the Polish government demanded that Savinkov leave the country, and he moved to Paris.
In 1921 Soviet Chekists discovered and arrested about 50 active members of the NZZRiS in Russia. In the course of an open trial over them, Savinkov's connection with the Polish and French special services, the preparation of rebellions and a foreign invasion of the territory of the RSFSR were revealed.
For example, it became known that back in January 1921, Savinkov sent secret letters to the war ministers of France, Great Britain and Poland, in which he said that after the fall of Wrangel, he represents the only "real anti-Bolshevik force that has not yet laid down weapons."
In 1921, Savinkov sent Lieutenant Colonel Svezhevsky to Moscow with the task of killing V. I. Lenin. Svezhevsky was supplied with weapons, money and forged documents. The former head of the terrorist department of Savinkov's headquarters, Cossack colonel Gnilorybov, and Svezhevsky himself (both convicted) confirmed this fact in their testimony.
During raids on the border area, the Savinkovites ruthlessly cracked down on representatives of the Soviet authorities on the ground, robbed the population.
So in a report to Savinkov, one of the participants in such a raid, Captain Ovsyannikov, reported:
“I consider it my duty to you for the sake of saving the Union from the accusation of indulging robberies and robbery to report to you about the following that have happened to me known facts from the activities of detachments working in Soviet Belarus.
Following this, Ovsyannikov describes how Pavlovsky's detachment attacked a mill near the village of Rakoshichi: the property was looted, and the owner's wife was raped.
The captured Red Army soldier, “despite the fact that he offered no resistance and turned out to be not a communist at all, was hanged on the orders of Colonel Pavlovsky.”
Before that, six peasant guides were hanged, allegedly so that they would not inform the red troops about the advance of the detachment.
On the Novo-Kurgalye farm in the Domgan Volost, Igumensky Uyezd, a forester's wife was hanged for refusing to give up her husband's hunting rifle.
In the town of Pukhovichi in the same district, Pavlovsky's detachment carried out a massacre of Jewish citizens:
"18 people were taken to the nearest forest and shot."
Reporting these facts, Ovsyannikov concludes:
"As I was convinced from private conversations with peasants in the Bobruisk, Slutsk and Igumen districts of the Minsk province, the attitude of the peasants towards these detachments became sharply hostile."
To combat the Savinkovites, foreign intelligence in 1921 prepared and sent abroad through the refugee canal a reconnaissance group of seven people, headed by former member Civil War Alekseev.
On September 30, 1921, the first message was received from Alekseev:
“We are three weeks in Riga…
Established a connection with Prague and Vienna. Nobody in Paris yet...
Savinkov two weeks in Paris ... "
On December 17, 1921, Alekseev reported that two agents of the reconnaissance group had left for Prague - Colonel Pototsky and Captain Pavlov, who had previously worked for B. Savinkov and were well known to him. These agents were tasked with getting turnouts in Russia.

Sidney Reilly (1874-1925), real name Sigmund Georgievich Rosenblum, was born in the south of Russia, near Odessa. The thirst for adventure in his youth threw him into South America, where he met Major Fochergil of the British Secret Service and began working for British intelligence. Youthful passion for adventure develops into adventurism. Reilly becomes a paid agent for a number of intelligence agencies. During the Russo-Japanese War, he was Far East, where he collaborated with the Japanese special services. Later, after returning to Russia, he offered his services to the tsarist intelligence, continuing to work for the British. Since 1906, he has been living in a luxurious apartment in St. Petersburg, in his free time, he is fond of collecting paintings. But “work” always comes first for him. Before the First World War, he takes a job as a welder at the Krupp military factory and, after killing two guards, steals secret documents. Later he "works" at a German shipyard, stealing secret blueprints for submarines and selling them to the British and Russians at the same time. Soon Americans appear among Reilly's "clients". In April 1918, he reappeared in Russia and, together with Savinkov, prepared a military coup, and in 1922, an attempt on the life of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin.

After the illegal crossing of the Soviet border, they were all arrested and taken to Moscow to the Lubyanka.
On August 27, 1924, at a show trial, Savinkov made the following statement, which hardly seemed sincere to anyone then:
“I unconditionally recognize Soviet power and no other. To every Russian who loves his country, I, who went all the way of this bloody hard struggle against you, I, who proved your incompetence, like no one else, I tell him - if you are Russian, if you love your people, you will bow low worker-peasant power and recognize it unconditionally.
Georgy Gavrilovich Kushniryuk, who was a member of Savinkov's trial, recalls:
“Initially, it was planned to hold the trial behind closed doors in order to avoid provocations. Everything connected with the Savinkov case was kept strictly secret. Members of the Supreme Court, who had nothing to do with this case, should not have known anything about it. I remember how Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court Vasilyev-Yuzhin reproached me for not telling him anything about the Savinkov case when I had it and I was studying it.
However, a closed process would not be able to achieve the goals that were set before it. The whole world had to make sure that the trial was not staged, that Savinkov was real, and that his revealing testimony was not a propaganda invention.
In this regard, it was decided to consider Savinkov's case publicly, taking additional measures to protect the process ... "2
In the case file, a report of the commandant of the court was preserved, which, in particular, states that “the secret guard of the process, which consisted of 21 employees, coped with the difficult and responsible duties assigned to it ...” 2 .

At 1:15 a.m. on August 29, 1924, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, at an open meeting, sentenced Savinkov to death. However, taking into account Savinkov's admission of his guilt and "complete renunciation of the goals and methods of the counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet movement," the court decided to petition the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee for a commutation of the sentence.
On the same day, after Savinkov's statement about his "readiness to serve the working people under the leadership of the authorities established by the October Revolution", the death penalty was commuted to 10 years' imprisonment.
Already after the trial, while in prison, Savinkov sent a message abroad to his like-minded people urging them to lay down their arms and stop fighting against their own people. In a letter to close associates, Savinkov urged him to follow his example and return to Russia.
He sent a similar letter to Sydney Reilly.
Later, while serving his sentence in prison, Savinkov, despite the relatively free regime created for him, increasingly fell into a depressive state (by the way, characteristic of his older brother during the Siberian penal servitude, and to some extent their father, whose psyche also turned out to be traumatized after heavy unrest associated with the arrest of her sons). In all likelihood, this mental instability was in their family...
Boris Savinkov petitioned for a full pardon, but his request was rejected. On May 25, 1925, having learned about this in the investigator's office on the Lubyanka, he jumped out of the window of the fifth floor and crashed to death ...

A revolutionary, a terrorist, a domestic politician - one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the head of the Fighting Organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, a member of the White Movement and writer Boris Savinkov, is one of those historical characters who are legendary for many decades even after death.

Perhaps because Boris Viktorovich, even during his lifetime, had a hand in his own glorification.

fiery revolutionary youth

The future revolutionary was born - a “multi-station operator” in a fairly a prosperous family. Father - a friend of the Warsaw prosecutor (there was such a position before the revolution), mother - a journalist, playwright. In addition to Boris, there were four more children in the family - three brothers and sisters.

Three out of five - the elder Alexander, Boris and Sophia were actively involved in politics. Boris was expelled from St. Petersburg University for participating in student riots. In the late 90s of the 19th century - early 20th century, Savinkov for his revolutionary activity repeatedly arrested. In 1902 he was sent to Vologda.

The main militant of the Socialist-Revolutionaries

A year later, Savinkov fled from exile to Geneva. In this city, he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and entered its militant organization. Boris Savinkov becomes one of the most dangerous terrorists of that time - with his direct participation, the assassinations of the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. appointed Moscow governor-general Dubasov. Savinkov played a key role in organizing the assassination of the famous revolutionary priest Gapon, who was suspected of having links with the police.

After the leader of the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries, the police provocateur Azef Savinkov, was exposed as the leader of the militants. Behind the murder by the Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1906 of the commander Black Sea Fleet Admiral Chukhnin was followed by the arrest of Savinkov, he was sentenced to death. But the leader of the militants, with the assistance of the guards of the fortress guardhouse where he was kept, managed to escape and subsequently hide in Romania.

"Retraining" in Ropshina

This forced emigration is the most unproductive period for Savinkov's active nature, in his own opinion. Although it was precisely “on vacation” from terrorism that Boris Savinkov, under the pseudonym V. Ropshin, writes a book-memoirs “Memoirs of a Terrorist” and publishes the story “Pale Horse”, and then the novel “That which was not” - works that will subsequently contribute to heroization of the image of their author. Savenkov's fellow party members did not like this literary activity very much, they even wanted to exclude the writer and publicist from their ranks.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Boris Savinkov engaged in military journalism, published notes and articles in various publications. But the feeling of political inaction with which the emigrant lived weighed heavily on him, Savinkov, in a letter to M. A. Voloshin, said that his “wings were broken.”

Several months of favor

The February Revolution of 1917 in Russia for such an active and ambitious person as Boris Savinkov was a sign of fate - on April 9 he arrives in St. Petersburg and immediately plunges into the thick of political activity. Quite quickly, the ex-emigrant becomes the second figure in the Provisional Government after A. Kerensky, about whom Savinkov at first spoke with admiration. But already at the end of August 1917, the favorite resigned, having entered into irresolvable differences with the Provisional Government on a number of political issues. He no longer held key positions in power.

In October, Boris Savinkov was also expelled from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - a disillusioned party member said that now this political organization has "neither moral nor political authority."

Plenipotentiary representative of anti-Bolshevism

About October revolution Savinkov himself put it this way: "The October coup is nothing more than the seizure of power by a handful of people, possible only thanks to the weakness and folly of Kerensky." From the very beginning of the Bolshevik revolution and until 1919, Boris Savinkov was an active participant in the White movement, one of the organizers of the Volunteer Army.

In 1918, in Moscow, he formed the counter-revolutionary "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom", numbering about 800 people, but soon the organization, which set itself the task of overthrowing the Soviet regime and continuing the war with Germany, was declassified and some of the "allies" were arrested.

Boris Savinkov negotiated with representatives of foreign powers to help the White movement, met with Pilsudski and Churchill.

In 1920, Boris Savinkov settled in Warsaw. There is a Soviet-Polish war, and a tireless politician in Poland is engaged in the formation of anti-Bolshevik military units, together with the poet Merezhkovsky publishes the newspaper "For Freedom!".

After being expelled from Poland in 1921, Savinkov secretly met in London with the Soviet diplomat Leonid Krasin, who believed that the ex-Socialist-Revolutionary could well cooperate with the communists. In the period from 1921 to 1923, Boris Savinkov negotiated with Churchill, Lloyd George and even Mussolini, but in the end he still found himself in political isolation. At that time, he had already broken with the White movement a long time ago.

Operation Syndicate 2

As a result of the operation "Syndicate-2" carefully developed by the OGPU, Boris Savinkov was lured to the USSR in August 1924, where he was arrested. At the trial, the former terrorist and organizer of the White movement confessed to his anti-Soviet activities. At first he was sentenced to death, but then the punishment was replaced by a ten-year term.

According to the official version, in May 1925, Savinkov committed suicide by throwing himself out of a fifth-floor window. The opposite opinion about the death of this outstanding figure was held by A. Solzhenitsyn - in his novel The Gulag Archipelago, the writer claimed that Boris Savinkov was actually killed by the Chekists.

Based on materials provided by the press service of the FSB RF Directorate for the Republic of South Ossetia.

After the end of the Civil War, the White Guard forces, disunited and isolated from each other, no longer posed a serious danger to the Soviet system. However, in alliance with the imperialist intelligence services and the internal counter-revolution, they could still cause a lot of trouble. The white emigration, numbering from one and a half to two million people, had the remnants of the army, published over fifty newspapers and maintained numerous contacts with international capital. Intelligence agents were recruited from its ranks, numerous anti-Soviet emigre organizations were created, which made plans for intervention and the overthrow of Soviet power.

During these years, the main operations carried out by the special services (VChK - OGPU) were directed not so much against foreign intelligence services as against various foreign anti-Soviet centers and their branches in Russia. One of them was the textbook operation "Syndicate-2".

The issue of combating foreign espionage, white emigre centers and underground organizations in the territory Soviet Russia decided upon the creation on May 8, 1922 of the Counterintelligence Department (KRO) of the OGPU. "Syndicate-2" was the first operation carried out by the KRO. Its purpose was to arrest Boris Viktorovich Savinkov, a Socialist-Revolutionary, a terrorist, declared a state criminal, sentenced to death by the tsarist court; organizer of anti-Soviet rebellions in Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and Murom; a participant in the First World War in the ranks of the French army and the Civil War in Russia on the side of the Whites - Krasnov, Kolchak, rebellious Czechoslovaks; the creator of the so-called Russian People's Army, which fought on the side of the Polish ruler Pilsudski; fierce and implacable enemy of the Soviet regime.

At the beginning of 1921, while in Poland, Savinkov created a new military organization - the "People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" (NSZRiS), the ultimate goal of which was the overthrow of Soviet power. Its armed formations were led by Colonel S. E. Pavlovsky. The Soviet government reacted to the creation of the NZZRiS with a note of protest, after which the Poles offered Savinkov to leave the country. He moved to Paris.

By this time, about 50 active members of this organization had already been arrested in Russia. An open trial took place, at which Savinkov's connections with Polish and French intelligence services, preparations for mutinies and foreign invasion were revealed. Information was received that back in January 1921, Savinkov, in his address to the war ministers of France, Poland and Great Britain, indicated that after the fall of Wrangel he represented the only "real anti-Bolshevik force that did not lay down its arms."

Confirmation that the Savinkovites "did not lay down their arms" was the bloody raids of Colonel Pavlovsky's detachments across the territory of Soviet Belarus, when dozens of civilians were killed, mauled, raped by bandits.

Having agents in Russia, Savinkov supplied the general staffs of Poland, England and France with espionage information, for which he received a lot of money: from the French mission in Warsaw 1.5 million Polish marks, from the Polish General Staff 500-600 thousand, and from the Polish Foreign Ministry 15 million monthly . Receipts also came from other sources, including from Russian capitalists who had timely deposited their money abroad. Savinkov's agents were engaged not only in espionage, but also in sabotage, terror and organizational work to create numerous cells and residencies on Soviet territory, preparing for an open armed uprising, which was planned by Savinkov.

At the direction of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, the organs of the OGPU (the United State Political Directorate, which replaced the Cheka), taking advantage of Savinkov's intentions, developed an operation codenamed "Syndicate-2" to establish contact with the Savinkov centers in Paris, Warsaw and Vilna through an allegedly existing anti-Soviet organization and to withdraw Savinkov to Soviet territory.

In the summer of 1922, during an illegal crossing of the Polish-Soviet border, a prominent figure in the "Union" and a trusted employee of Savinkov, Leonid Sheshenya, was detained, who was heading to Smolensk and Moscow to establish contact with the previously abandoned agents Gerasimov and Zekunov, who were arrested on the basis of his testimony. Gerasimov was convicted, his underground - over 300 people - was defeated, and Sheshenya and Zekunov were recruited to work against Savinkov.

By this time, a plan had been developed that included the legend on the territory of Russia of the counter-revolutionary organization "Liberal Democrats" (LD), which allegedly was ready for decisive action to overthrow the Bolsheviks, but needed an experienced political leader, which she considered B.V. Savinkov.

Zekunov was sent to Poland with a letter of recommendation from Shesheni to his relative, a prominent figure in the "Union" Fomichev. In a letter, Sheshenya reported on his safe arrival in Moscow and that he managed to get acquainted with persons who were members of a certain "Socialist-Revolutionary organization", of which Zekunov was also a member.

Zekunov's trip to Warsaw was so successful that he was soon sent abroad again, this time together with Chekist A.P. Fedorov, who acted under the guise of one of the active figures of the LD. Fedorov's visit further convinced Polish intelligence and the Soyuz of the existence of this solid counter-revolutionary organization. To establish closer contact with her, Fomichev was sent to Moscow together with Fedorov and Zekunov. In Moscow, Fomicheva was introduced to the leaders of the organization (in this role were the employees of the OGPU), and the appearance was created that LD was moving towards rapprochement with the NZZRiS only because of the generally recognized authority of Savinkov. Fomichev, in response, offered to organize a meeting of LD representatives with Savinkov in Paris.

In May 1923, Fomichev, together with Zekunov, moved to Poland along the "green corridor" and reported the situation to the leaders of the local branch of the "Union". They approved his proposal and agreed to send a LD representative to Paris to meet with B.V. Savinkov.

On July 11, 1923, Fedorov, accompanied by Fomichev, left for Paris, where on July 14 he had his first meeting with Boris Savinkov. There were several such meetings, and each time Fedorov convinced Savinkov more and more that the LD was a real force, but needed such an authoritative leader as Boris Viktorovich.

Savinkov told Fedorov about the sources of funding for the Soyuz (in addition to intelligence, he named Ford, Mussolini and Belgian capitalists interested in obtaining future concessions in Russia); about the state of affairs in emigrant circles; introduced him to his closest assistants and friends: Colonel Pavlovsky, the Derenthals and the British intelligence officer Sydney Reilly. Given that Savinkov intended to send Pavlovsky to Soviet territory with a gang to rob banks, Fedorov offered to put him in touch with the Moscow LD organization, for which he gave him Shesheni's address. This coincided with the desire of the experienced conspirator Savinkov, who himself wanted to send Pavlovsky to Moscow as a particularly trusted emissary. He was supposed to highlight the situation with LD and express an opinion on the possibility of Savinkov's trip to Moscow.

On August 17, 1923, Pavlovsky with a gang, having made a series of attacks, crossed the Polish-Soviet border, and on September 16 he appeared at Sheshenya's apartment. The next day he was arrested. At first he refused to testify, but then, saving his own skin, he agreed to cooperate with the OGPU.

In order not to cause concern to Savinkov by the delay of Pavlovsky in Moscow, intelligence officer Grigory Syroezhkin was sent to Poland. He handed over to the Polish intelligence officer, Captain Sekunda, the "intelligence data" prepared in Moscow and, for sending to Savinkov, Sheshenya's report on work with LD and that everything was in order in Moscow.

After Syroezhkin's return, Sheshenya himself went to Paris, carrying with him a letter addressed to Savinkov, written by Pavlovsky under the dictation of the OGPU officers.

Pavlovsky reported that, at the request of the LD, a bilateral leading center had been set up in Moscow, which had elected Savinkov as its chairman in absentia. In another letter, the LD leader Tverdov (pseudonym Artuzova) himself informed Savinkov that he was his deputy in the USSR.

Pavlovsky sent several more letters to Savinkov about successful work in Moscow and about his intention to go south, where he "found his relatives, where he can stay and earn some money" (meaning a banal robbery).

Pavlovsky's letters played a big role in creating Savinkov's impression of the viability of the Moscow organization and its vigorous activity. Nevertheless, he replied that he was ready to leave for Russia only on one condition: if Pavlovsky himself came for him. The experienced conspirator was tormented by doubts. In a letter sent to Pavlovsky through Sheshenya by one of Savinkov's deputies, it was said: "Father will not be able to visit the fair until your arrival." It was unreasonable to let Pavlovsky go, so they wrote a letter to Savinkov stating that he was seriously injured during the train robbery, but is now on the mend, resting up with a familiar surgeon in an apartment in Moscow. Then a meeting was organized between the messenger Savinkov and the wounded Pavlovsky, confirming what was written in the letter. After reading Pavlovsky's letters, conversations with Fomichev and Fedorov, and much thought, Savinkov finally decided to go to Russia.

One of the prominent emigration figures V.L. Savinkov said to Burtsev: “My trip to Russia has been decided. I can’t stay abroad. I have to go… I’m going to Russia to die in the fight against the Bolsheviks. border, Chernov, Lebedev, Zenzinov and others, how to die for Russia ... With my trial and my death, I will protest against the Bolsheviks ... Everyone will hear my protest!

The whole route of Savinkov to Moscow was completely controlled by the OGPU.

August 16 Savinkov and his accomplices were arrested. The arrest caused a breakdown and internal surrender of the famous terrorist, who is not afraid of death.

On August 25-29, 1924, a trial in the Savinkov case took place in Moscow. His testimony caused confusion among the white emigration.

At the trial, Savinkov made a statement that hardly seemed sincere to anyone at the time: “I unconditionally recognize Soviet power and no other. To every Russian who loves his country, I, who went all the way to this bloody hard struggle against you, I proved your failure like no one else, I tell him - if you are Russian, if you love your people, you will bow low to the workers 'and peasants' power and recognize it unconditionally.

On August 29, 1924, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Savinkov to death. But, taking into account Savinkov's admission of his guilt and "complete renunciation of the goals and methods of the counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet movement," the court decided to petition the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee for a commutation of the sentence. On the same day, the death penalty was commuted to 10 years' imprisonment.

Savinkov from prison sent several letters to his like-minded people abroad with a call to stop fighting against his own people, follow his example and return to Russia.

The former terrorist was kept in the internal prison on Lubyanka. A library was placed at his disposal; he was taken for walks in Sokolniki and even taken to restaurants. Moreover, his beloved Madame Derenthal was allowed to visit him on intimate dates. But Savinkov more and more often fell into depression, captivity weighed on him. He petitioned for a full pardon. When the investigator informed him that his request had been rejected, he threw himself out of a fifth-floor window and fell to his death, nearly dragging Syroezhkin, who was trying to hold him down, with him. All the talk that Savinkov's death was set up by the Soviet secret services is illogical for one simple reason: the Chekists needed him alive.

Already the first lines of the investigation file refute the government report on Savinkov’s arrest: he was arrested not “on the twentieth of August” 1924, but on August 16 ... The meaning of this manipulation is clear: to hide the details of the secret game that was played against Savinkov, the mechanism of the operation, is so successful completed. This trend - to hide the ends in the water - will be traced further in the official version of the case. Outwardly, it looks so simple: he crossed the border and was detained, - in reality, everything happened much more dramatically ...

OGPU operation against Savinkov under codename"Syndicate-2" was conceived back in 1922. The goal is to lure this criminal from criminals to his homeland and neutralize, and if possible, then turn it into his tool. According to the KGB legend, Dzerzhinsky reported on the cunning plan to Lenin, who approved it, adding only that it was such a big game that it was unacceptable to lose.

The brain center of the operation was Dzerzhinsky’s deputy Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky, but the specific implementation of it was led by the head of the Counterintelligence Department of the OGPU Artur Khristianovich Artuzov (Frauchi), the best counterintelligence officers worked tirelessly for it. To involve Savinkov in the game, the Chekists even had to create a whole fictitious anti-Bolshevik organization "Liberal Democrats" with its own program, factions and an extensive network - and make them believe in it: put on a lot of plausible dramatizations, fabricate a bunch of forged letters and documents, including "secret ”- about the activities of the Red Army and the Comintern ... Those agents of Savinkov himself, who were sent to Russia by him and fell into the hands of the Chekists, were also used in the case - his adjutant Leonid Sheshenya and the head of the NZZRS committee in Vilna Ivan Fomichev.

The special envoy of the mythical “Liberal Democrats” Andrei Pavlovich Mukhin made several propaganda and reconnaissance forays abroad and, having reached Paris, where Savinkov had moved by that time, began to convince him that the anti-Soviet underground in Russia lacked a leader and that such a leader could only be he, Savinkov, - in a word, the army is ready, come and lead to victory!

The great conspirator, of course, did not succumb immediately: for a start, he sent his “right hand” instead of himself - the desperately brave, cruel, more than once battle-tested Colonel Sergei Pavlovsky. Pavlovsky was also captured. At first, he denied it, changed tactics, even tried to escape from the Lubyanka (from where no one ever left of his own free will): after washing himself in the bathhouse, the dashing colonel stunned the duty officer with a brick. But he was immediately twisted and after that broke down, began to work for the OGPU - he bombarded the chief with enticing letters.

Pavlovsky's letters had an effect, - Savinkov trembled. In the end, the routine life in exile, which had already exhausted him, a man of passion and deeds, reproaches for inactivity, pushed him to take a decisive step. It seemed to him that direct participation in the struggle within Russia would give his organization a second wind and force Western governments to support it. Cash subsidies from them have already dried up, and new ones were not expected. The last of the European political leaders Savinkov met with was Mussolini. And no matter how he made it clear that fascism was close to him both psychologically and ideologically, he did not offer money to the Duce, he handed over only his book with a dedicatory inscription.

“I live in a drainpipe and eat wood lice,” Savinkov repeats in his letters a favorite phrase from Chekhov. And he writes in his diary: “Do not forget - strictly, every morning - 5 pages from Dostoevsky, an hour to edit the manuscript, clean your nails (cut once every 3 days) ...” Passion for order, of course, is a laudable thing, but is it really about the man whose life has always spun like a western, an action movie about an action movie?

While Savinkov languishes, thoroughly entangled and entangled by the Chekists, who, on a long leash, gradually begin to pull him towards them, here, in Lubyanka, they already know about him, if not everything, then much more than he can assume.

From the testimonies of the arrested Sergei Pavlovsky and the head of the terrorist department of the NZRSM M.K. in Paris, where the closest assistants also live - personal secretary Lyubov Efimovna and her husband Alexander Arkadievich Dikgof-Derenthal.

Pavlovsky paints the place and pastime of his boss by the minute. Here he gets up at eight o'clock in the morning in his apartment on a quiet street de Lübeck and goes to the hairdresser's to shave - "the street is around the corner, on the left side." On the head is a bowler hat or a straw hat, a dark gray suit, a coat - also gray, single-breasted, in the hands of a reed cane. Then he returns home and has breakfast - breakfast is prepared by the housekeeper - in the usual company: with him, Pavlovsky, and Lyubov Efimovna ... Before dinner - a walk, about ten minutes. Then he writes his own correspondence or "a novel from modern warfare, which should soon be finished." At 5-6 o'clock - lunch, without a specific place. In the evenings, at nine o'clock, sometimes he goes to visit, all to the same Derenthal spouses, from where he returns home by midnight ...

Pavlovsky seems to be teasing the OGPU - here it is, the target, so distinct, bright - get it if you can! ..

Savinkov's dossier contains information that sheds light on the strategy of his "seduction" by the KGB in Paris - information that, when the materials of the case were published in the Soviet press, was carefully erased and has not yet been known. First of all - from the testimony of Savinkov himself during interrogation on August 21, 1924. Boris Viktorovich claims that recently he has already doubted the correctness of his struggle and was even inclined to declare that it had been stopped ...

“I didn't make a statement. I did not do it because people sent by the GPU came to me from Russia. These people told me that, of course, it is impossible to pin hopes on us, “old-regime anti-communists”, but that a new generation has been born in Russia and that it is fighting the communists in the name of the Russian people.

It wasn't true, but of course I didn't know that. And I said to myself: “If this is so, if there really are such revolutionary forces in Russia, then maybe I’m wrong, and maybe the Russian people are not with the RCP.” And I decided to go to Russia.

Yes, I suspected that they were playing with me. Yes, I believed that I had 80 percent to arrest, but my revolutionary conscience did not allow me to stay in Paris. No matter what the cost, I had to decide for myself the question: did I make a mistake in starting the fight against the RCP or not? do, whether to fight on or lay down your arms. If the people sent to me had said that the people were with the RCP, I would have declared in Paris that I was ending the struggle…”

Savinkov will speak about the same thing at the trial (in the allegedly published "full" transcript of the court, this place is removed):

“That's when they came to me from Russia ... they came and led me into a very deep and very serious delusion. This deep and heavy delusion was already a final blow to me. They told me… that a very significant process is going on in Russia, like this: those young people who were sixteen or seventeen years old at the time of the revolution and who are now becoming more or less adults… took a lot from the communists, but not all… They said new things for me. I was in exile... And that these new people are fighting you, and that this is the real struggle, because it is not from abroad and not with the help of foreigners, but because it comes from the depths of Russia, these are Russians people, and Russian people from the people are fighting you.

I must say that I had little faith in the depths of my soul with these people. Few. I must tell you that they aroused many, many doubts in me, various doubts, but I could not ignore what they said.

Here are five years of my struggle, my fight with you. I was on the verge of completely giving up this fight. New people come and say: we are new people, and you were right in fighting this battle, it ended in failure for you, yes, but we continued and will continue on a different path than you ... And I began to think that I should no matter what, go to Russia ... and check how these people are very intelligent, but very suspicious to me, how right they are ... "

In the confessions of Boris Viktorovich there is, of course, a fair amount of cunning: he did not at all intend to disarm in Paris. There was a case when he was invited to his place by the Soviet plenipotentiary representative Krasin and offered to come to his homeland with a confession. Savinkov proudly left, making it clear that he would not agree to any deals, which caused a noisy approval of the emigration. And it is unlikely now that he, being 80 percent sure of deceit, would have gone so easily to the slaughter. All this was contrived later, at the Lubyanka, under the yoke of new circumstances. But there is no doubt about the factual side of the matter, about the decisive influence of the guests from Moscow. That's right: I was at a crossroads, and they misled, carried away, lured, pushed ...

Operation Syndicate 2 is nearing completion. On August 4, 1924, almost confident of success, the senior officials of the Counterintelligence Department of the OGPU Puzitsky and Sosnovsky (Dobrzhinsky) sign a “decree on a preventive measure”, that is, a decision to arrest Savinkov.

And the very object of their attention is already in road worries. Under the supervision of Andrey Pavlovich Mukhin, a representative of the Liberal Democrats, who came to pick him up from Moscow, he writes the last orders, hands over his archive to his sister Vera, who was called from Prague, and packs his suitcase.

His inseparable friends and assistants Lyubov Efimovna and Alexander Arkadievich Derental are also going on their way.

Was it only a common struggle that connected this trinity?

They met before the revolution, in Paris. Together they returned to Russia in 1917, and a year later the Derentalis' house became Savinkov's safe haven. And then their paths no longer diverged, where Boris Viktorovich - there they are. Uprisings in the Upper Volga region, battles in Kazan, Kolchak's Siberia, Paris, Warsaw, the Mozyr campaign, Paris again - everywhere together. Friendship, tested by time, deprivation and dangers of war.

Alexander Arkadievich, although he was far from the glory of Savinkov, also had a revolutionary past: as a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, he participated in the murder of the tsarist provocateur, the priest Gapon, and also showed himself as a writer and journalist, although not as brightly as his friend. In their relationship, he somehow naturally took a second, modest place - behind the leader. Nevertheless, he was a very erudite man who knew several languages, well versed in the intricacies of world politics - it was not for nothing that Savinkov called him “my minister of foreign affairs”.

Lyubov Efimovna's main virtues were beauty and youth, virtues for a woman and sufficient in themselves. Especially when you consider that she knew how to use them. Her father, a barrister from Odessa Broad, once lost government money in Monte Carlo and was forced to become an emigrant, settled in Paris, took up journalism. So his daughter became a Parisian. In 1914, she married Derenthal, but she did not get bogged down in everyday life and was addicted to hats - she studied ballet, tried to act in films, and earned money by translations. Probably, now in Paris, after long wanderings, she - capable, quick-witted, able to win over and charm - has become a good assistant to the stern knight of duty Savinkov, not to mention the fact that she brightened up his bachelor life with her femininity. By that time, Boris Viktorovich managed to marry twice, was the father of three children, but family life did not work out, and he did not want to burden himself with marriage bonds again: the current situation suited him perfectly. Zinaida Gippius, who had undisguised sympathy for him and took care of him as a writer, jealously noted what was purely feminine in Lyubov Derenthal: a pink peignoir and an abundance of flowers in the house, the smell of perfume ... “A typical Parisian, devoted to me to the grave,” he exhaustively defined his secretary in a conversation with Gippius Savinkov himself.

Intimate life is not a topic for a historical chronicle, but this is a special case. The personal relationship between Derentali and Savinkov is too important for subsequent events to be passed over in silence.

Everything suggests that we have before us not just three people, but a love triangle. This is evidenced by the contemporaries of our heroes, and, after them, the researchers of their lives, this is also confirmed by the materials found now. Moreover, the style of relations between Savinkov and Derentali, the balance of attention and feelings convinces: this triangle is not dramatic, with sharp corners, but smoothed out by some kind of reconciliation, mutual agreement.

Train Paris - Warsaw. In the Polish capital, stop only for a day, under false names. Farewell dinner with associates - August 12. One of them - the insightful and caustic writer Mikhail Artsybashev - says to Savinkov about Andrei Pavlovich:

Something your guide looks like Judas ...

I'm an old underground rat, retorts Savinkov. - I felt it from all sides. This is just a new type that was born under the Bolsheviks and is not yet familiar to you ...

The same Artsybashev, in addition to this evidence, also left a description of the appearance of his counterpart and his companions, a convex description, although perhaps too evil:

“A pale mask with a strange slit of eyes and a bald skull… Short, thin, with a shaved face, not like an actor, not like a Jesuit… This is Savinkov… A long shake of a small but firm hand… A smile enlivens his face: it becomes tender, thin and attractive… “Slender, fair-haired Derenthal - a type of Frenchized Russian boulevard - told jokes ...” And “only tall, black and thin, although not richly, but dressed with Parisian chic, Madame Derenthal sat silently, putting on the table the sharp elbows of thin hands, hung with too large and too many bracelets. She seemed to carefully and cautiously follow with her gloomy, black Jewish eyes all of us, but mainly Savinkov himself. One would have thought that she was afraid of some kind of negligence on his part ... ”.

When asked by Artsybashev whether she, a woman, was afraid to go to Russia, Lyubov Efimovna casually threw:

I'm used to everything!

Dinner was not delayed - the train was waiting. A few parting phrases. “Savinkov gallantly lifted his Parisian bowler hat, a silk coat rustled, the fair-haired Derenthal somehow slipped imperceptibly ... and then everything disappeared.”

Ahead is the border. With the authorities of Poland, the transition was agreed in advance.

Savinkov's return to Russia was carefully planned and prepared, it can only be called voluntary: he was led by the hand by the Chekists across the border, although he himself only suspected it. He suspected, but believed in his star, that he, as always, would be lucky.

The trap is set - it is only necessary that nothing frighten away the beast.

Notes:

Chekist A.P. Fedorov - he was assigned the central, most difficult role in the operation.