Stalin's People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. Who was Stalin's most "iron commissar"? Based on this, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided

So, an example of communist propaganda for children is presented to your attention - a book of poems by Nikolai Yakovlevich Agnivtsev "Your drug addicts are at your house" richly illustrated.

There is no point in discussing poems, in fact, the further fate of the heroes of this publication is interesting - fourteen people's commissars - people whose names and surnames are well known. Let's take a look at the pictures.

1. Narkompros: Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich.He was sent as ambassador to Spain, but died suddenly on the way.True, in France, at the resort ...

2. Narkomzem: Smirnov Alexander Petrovich, shot in 1938

3. People's Commissariat of Labor: Vasily Vladimirovich Schmidt, shot January 28, 1938

4. Narkompostel: Smirnov Ivan Nikitich, shot August 24, 1936

5. People's Commissariat: Yan Ernestovich Rudzutak, shot July 29, 1938

6. People's Commissariat: Lev Borisovich Kamenev,shot August 25, 1936

7. Narkomfin: Sokolnikov Grigory Yakovlevich, May 21, 1939 killed"socially close" v Verkhneuralsk political isolator.

8. Predsovnarkom: Alexey Ivanovich Rykov, shot March 15, 1938

9. Deputy Narkomtorg. The smartest, you see, was a man !! Approximately, like Abramovich .. :)))Sheinman Aron Lvovich: April 20, 1929. The joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks learns from Rykov’s reportabout Sheinman's unexpected decision not to return to the USSR. After that...served as chairman Amtorg , then headed to the London office of Intourist.In 1939 he received British citizenship. He died in London on May 22, 1944.

10. People's Commissariat of Justice: Kursky Dmitry Ivanovich, December 20, 1932 committed suicide

11. Narkomzdrav: Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky(October 20 / November 1 / 1895 - February 10, 1938, Moscow). Arrested after speaking at the plenum of the Central Committee. A quote from his speech is widely circulated: "So we will shoot the whole party." In addition to the main speech, Kaminsky was noted at the plenum with his remark to Stalin during the debate on Yezhov’s report with the words that “the NKVD continues to arrest honest people,” to which Stalin replied: “They are enemies of the people, and you are a bird of the same flight.” Shot on February 10, 1938, buried at Kommunarka.

12. People's Commissariat of War: Trotsky Lev Davidovich. Assassinated by Ramon Mercader on August 20, 1940 in Mexico

13. ALL-UNION CHIEF: Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin(7 / 19 / November 1875 - June 3, 1946), died of bowel cancer.

14. Narkomindel: Georgy (Yuri) Vasilyevich Chicherin(November 12 / 24 / 1872 - July 7, 1936). Died in his bed.

TOTAL:
Of the 14 people's commissars, three died of their own death. Sheinman settled best of all, the second was Kalinin, the licker. Chicherin did not think to leave, Lunacharsky went, but, apparently, it was too late. And Trotsky starred too much ...
It turns out that "A good people's commissar is a dead people's commissar!"

One day in July, Baibakov was summoned to see Stalin in the Kremlin.

Hitler is rushing to the Caucasus, - said the Supreme. - Everything must be done so that not a drop of oil gets to the enemy. Keep in mind, if the Germans seize our oil, we will shoot you. But if you destroy the fisheries prematurely, and the Germans do not capture them, we will also shoot you ...
“You leave me no choice, Comrade Stalin,” Baibakov remarked.
The alternative is not the best.
Stalin stopped walking around the office, slowly raised his hand and lightly tapped his temple:
- Here is a choice, comrade Baibakov. Think, solve the problem on the spot ...

The German armies felt an acute shortage of fuel already in the winter of forty-one. The oil resources of allied Romania did not help either. And then Berlin took up the development of the secret operation "Blau", the main task of which was the offensive of the German troops in the south of Russia in order to capture the Caucasian oil, and then the oil fields of Iran and Iraq, from where Hitler intended to move even further - to India.

REFERENCE: Plan "Blau" (German "Fall Blau" or "Unternehmen Blau") - a plan for the summer-autumn campaign of German troops on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front in 1942. The main idea of ​​the operation was the offensive of the 6th and 4th tank armies to Stalingrad, and then the offensive to Rostov-on-Don with a general offensive to the Caucasus.
He hoped that Soviet Union will spend the last human reserves on protecting its “black gold” deposits, after which the victory will go to Germany. A joint-stock company "German Oil in the Caucasus" was even created and an impressive contingent of 15 thousand specialists and workers was assembled for Maintenance Caucasian oil fields. The only thing left was to capture them. When Baibakov flew to the Southern Front to Budyonny, he saw that ours were retreating very quickly. Then he suggested that Budyonny give the command to destroy the fisheries.
- No, - answered Budyonny, - my cavalry will stop the tanks.

“Indeed,” recalls Nikolai Aleksandrovich, “during the flight around the positions, we probably saw a dozen wrecked German tankettes, but not tanks. Despite the fact that Budyonny urged me not to rush, I nevertheless gave command No. 1 - “destroy oil wells” .

A little later, Lazar Kaganovich, a member of the military council of the Southern Front, found me. He gave me the command to destroy the wells.
And to the answer: "I have already given such a command" - he got angry: "Who gave you permission to do this?"
“I myself,” I answer, “because if we lose time, we will leave the wells to the advancing enemy.” "All right, continue," Kaganovich allowed then.
And two days later, Budyonny's headquarters retreated to the oil fields, and the next day they left for Tuapse. Meanwhile, we blew up the last power plants, destroyed wells. I retreated along with the partisans along the Caucasus Range: it was already dangerous to go along the road. The partisans stayed in the mountains, I got to Tuapse. I have already been buried. It was announced that Baibakov had died a heroic death. And two days later Baibakov was resurrected… Then I went to Grozny. There, thanks to two reserve Siberian divisions, we stopped the Germans - they did not let them get to the oil fields.
For six months of their stay in the North Caucasus, the Germans did not produce a single ton of oil. Because the wells, which he caulked with reinforced concrete, could no longer be restored. Even after the liberation of the Caucasus, we had to re-drill wells ... Tanks and planes Nazi Germany left on a starvation fuel ration. The armies of the Reich were blocked in the mountain passes of the Caucasus. The advance of military equipment stalled due to lack of fuel. “The bitter irony is,” the chief of the General Staff wrote in his diary ground forces Halder - that we, approaching oil, experienced its ever greater shortage.

Soviet tanks used diesel fuel, which was not suitable for German ones. Often the German tank divisions in the Caucasus had to stand idle for several days waiting for fuel. The trucks carrying the fuel also failed to keep up, because they, in turn, were also running out of fuel. In desperation, the Germans even tried to use camels to transport motor fuel. By November 1942, the last attempts of the German troops to break through the mountain passes to Grozny and Baku were finally repulsed. Stalingrad became the scene of the fiercest battle in the winter of 1942-1943. And here the Germans were also catastrophically short of fuel. Tanker General Guderian wrote to his wife from the Stalingrad front: "The piercing cold, the lack of shelters, uniforms, heavy losses, the terrible situation with fuel supplies - all this turns the duties of a commander into torment."

Field Marshal Manstein begged Hitler over the phone to reassign the German troops in the Caucasus to him and transfer them to help the army bogged down near Stalingrad. “No,” answered the Fuhrer, “the issue of capturing Baku is important to us. If we don't get Caucasian oil, the war is lost.” Operation Blau failed. After the crushing defeat at Stalingrad, finally losing hope of using Caucasian oil, Hitler ordered the destruction of Grozny's oil refineries.
“Dozens of Focke-Wulf bombers bombed these factories in front of my eyes,” Baibakov recalls. - Corps collapsed. Everything that could burn, burned. Scattered hundreds of meters of bricks, pieces of reinforcement. Civilians were killed under the bombing...

And the front-line situation was still difficult. The enemy, coming out to the Volga, cut off the fuel supply routes for the Soviet troops, which had previously passed from Baku through Rostov-on-Don by rail, as well as along the Volga. I had to look for alternate routes. Oil was delivered through Krasnovodsk and Guryev, and then by echelons through Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The hook is huge. To ensure the Central Asian railway tanks, transported them from Baku to Krasnovodsk and back by sea, in tows.

In parallel, there was an accelerated development of the “Second Baku” fields in the Volga and Ural regions. The economy of our country, gathered into a single fist, proved its resilience during the war years. Here is what the oil workers of the Ishimbay field wrote to the Kremlin in the winter of 1943: “We know. what does oil in war mean. Although we are far from fighting, we are also an army and will give the country as much oil as it takes to win. Every ton of oil is our volley at Hitler!”

I was born in Baku, in the oil fields. My father drummed there as a blacksmith for 40 years. Then I graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil Institute and worked in Baku up to the position of a trust manager. Then Kaganovich took me to build a "second Baku". He liked my speech at the congress of oil workers, and he decided to appoint me the head of the Vostokneftedobycha association. But I did not work there for long - they took me to Moscow already. Later in 1940, I was approved as Deputy People's Commissar for the Oil Industry. In 1944, Stalin appointed me people's commissar for the oil industry. I worked in this post for 11 years - until 1955.
My appointment to this post was not previously discussed with me. And only three months later, Stalin called me to talk about the state of affairs in the industry.

In the Kremlin, in Stalin's waiting room, I appeared exactly at the appointed time. A.A. Poskrebyshev only asked me to wait a little, saying that Stalin was now busy in his office looking for some necessary book. He said nothing more, rummaging through his folder intently. Everyone knew that Poskrebyshev spoke exactly as much as was necessary for an answer. He silently got up twice, looking into the office and returning, briefly reported: "We need to wait." Finally, for the third time, he said:
- Comrade Stalin, apparently, found the right book and reads, standing on a stepladder. You come in, well, cough to hear.
He entered - and stopped, I see Stalin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, is standing, though his back is to me. I come up, I do not dare to cough. I looked at him, how he looks: dressed in a gray jacket and soft boots, very modestly for the first person in the state ...
Still, he made up his mind and coughed into his fist. Stalin looked around slowly and put the book back in its place.
- Ah, Baibakov, young man! - he said slowly (he called me Baibakov somehow friendly, with some kind of spiritual disposition). And he repeated a little more formally:
- Sit down, Comrade Baibakov, please, over there.
He got down from the stepladder, shook hands with me and, lighting his pipe, began to walk around the office.
- Comrade Baibakov, we have appointed you people's commissar of the oil industry.
And although this message did not surprise me, since I already actually managed the industry as the head, but these words meant for me the final approval in the new position.
I plucked up my courage and asked:
- Comrade Stalin, but before that, no one even asked if I could cope?
Stalin glanced sidelong at me with some secret smile of his own, dragged on his pipe, cleared his throat and said in a low voice:
- Comrade Baibakov, we know our personnel well, we know whom and where to appoint. You are a communist and you must remember this...
Then the conversation turned to the problems of the oil industry.
- Do you know that oil is the soul of military equipment?
- Comrade Stalin, - I answered confirming, - this is not only the soul of military equipment, but of the entire economy.
“Moreover, tell me what you need,” Stalin encouraged me in a confidential tone, “for the development of the industry.
- It is necessary to develop the “Second Baku”, we discovered two largest deposits there - fountains hit. These are very promising deposits. Stalin listened to me, walked once or twice along the table and insistently repeated:
- And what you need?
- Investments are needed, Comrade Stalin, equipment. We also need knowledgeable builders.
I made up my mind to immediately state all my most fundamental considerations on the ways of developing the oil industry. Stalin listened thoughtfully, with concentration.
- Good! - Finally, he said, - You will set out all these specific requirements in writing, I will tell Beria.
Stalin immediately dialed Beria's phone number, as the first deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, who oversaw the fuel industry.
- Lavrenty, here is Comrade Baibakov, whatever he asks, give him.
It seems that the most difficult issue was resolved promptly, without any delay. Looking ahead, I will say that our industry soon received everything - materials, equipment, and smart builders.
And suddenly Stalin repeated again:
- Oil is the soul of military equipment. We have created tanks, and planes, and good cars. We also have a lot of captured equipment. But all this will not come into motion if there is no gasoline, diesel fuel ...
I suggested to Stalin, naming specific defense plants, that they be transferred to the production of drilling rigs and other oilfield equipment. Stalin immediately gave the necessary and important orders. Thus, in the language of today, the conversion of enterprises began in the country.
This conversation, which lasted an hour and a half, was complex, but at the same time clear, full of thoughts and decisions, one of the determinants of the fate of our state, and especially the oil industry at the end of the war, on the eve of peace, post-war years. When it ended, Stalin suddenly asked again:
- Here you are - such a young people's commissar .... Tell me, what properties should a Soviet people's commissar have?
- Knowledge of the industry, diligence, conscientiousness, honesty, the ability to rely on the team - I began to list slowly and in detail.
- All this is true, comrade Baibakov, all these are very necessary qualities. But you didn't mention the most important thing.
Then Stalin, walking around the table, came up to me. I decided to get up, but he did not allow it, touching my shoulder with the shank of the pipe.
- The Soviet people's commissar needs, first of all, "whip" nerves (he so characteristically pronounced the word "bull") plus optimism.
Many years have passed since then, everything was in life - both good and bitter, but these words sunk into my soul. At a difficult, critical moment in my life, they were always remembered. "Bich's nerves plus optimism" - how many times these words came to my mind ...
Only one line, but how voluminous and significant it is, how much heartache and the suffering of our fathers, mothers and grandfathers, who, in spite of everything, forged such a long-awaited victory over fascism, showing the heroism and courage that have always been a hallmark of our people for many centuries. It was they who were the main creators of the victory, and the statements of some historians and politicians about belittling their role in the liberation of the peoples of Europe from Nazism cause anger and indignation.

Materials used in the article:
from an interview with N.A. Baibakov, recorded by Alexander Stepanov on January 23, 2004, book by Maria Slavkina "Baibakov", site NOBODY IS FORGOTTEN, NOTHING IS FORGOTTEN

Stalinist People's Commissar

V. I. (born 1921) Soviet screenwriter, Ballad of a Soldier (with G. N. Chukhrai), Wings (with N. B. Ryazantseva), White Sun of the Desert (with Ibragimbekov), sweet word - freedom "(with V.P. Zhalakyavichyus)," Red Bells "(with SF Bondarchuk)

N. I. (1895-1940) Soviet politician

Soviet film writer, laureate of the Lenin Prize

Head of the NKVD

Beria's predecessor

Between Yagoda and Beria

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR

The hero of Nikita Mikhalkov in the film "Song of Manshuk"

One of the main perpetrators of mass repressions in the 30s of the XX century

Russian screenwriter, "White Sun of the Desert"

Beria was his successor

Beria was his successor

Stalin's comrade-in-arms with a prickly surname

Stalin's executioner

People's Commissar of the USSR with a prickly surname

Beriev predecessor

Before Beria

Yagoda's successor

After Yagoda in the NKVD

Executioner-NKVDeshnik

Chief of the NKVD

Stalin's People's Commissar of the NKVD

People's Commissar of the NKVD

Minister of the NKVD

Commissar under Stalin

Soviet people's commissar in rhyme with Bazhov

People's Commissar of Stalin's times

Stalin's People's Commissar

Soviet commissar

. Stalin's "iron commissar"

Prickly People's Commissar of the NKVD

Russian screenwriter ("The Ballad of a Soldier", "White Sun of the Desert")

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR

Nikolay DOBRUKHA

Comparing Iron Felix and the main successors of his work (Menzhinsky, Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria and Abakumov), for some reason they stop most often at Beria. Perhaps because no one's name inspired such horror as his. However, no one has yet checked: what happened before and after him in line with the repressions. And what a bloody place this man in pince-nez occupies among his predecessors and followers.

I tried - for the first time - to answer this question in a documentary way, relying not on rumors, but on specific figures from reports on the activities of the organs of the Cheka - GPU - OGPU - NKVD - NKGB - MVD - MGB. So, this is how it was in reality, based on the most secret statistics of 1922-1953, which I managed to study ...

Let's go through the "iron commissars" in the order in which they occupied their seats ...

FELIX DZERZHINSKY (supervised for 8.5 years)

Founder of the political punitive system of the USSR. After graduation civil war from 1922 to 1926, 59,876 people were convicted under him and 8,291 were shot, which includes the following figures over the years:

1922 (convicted 6015 / including shot - 1964)

1923 (4806/414)

1924 (15 763/2550)

1925 (15 443/2373)

1926 (17 849/990)

The data for 1926 are given in full without division into the time until which (July 20) Dzerzhinsky finalized (he died of a heart attack right during the next speech), and the time from which Menzhinsky began to work.

VYACHESLAV MENZHINSKY (supervised for 7.5 years)

From the end of July 1926 to May 10, 1934 - Chairman of the OGPU (United State Political Administration). Under him, 1,016,485 people were convicted and 76,159 people were shot, which by years includes:

1927 (26,035 - convicted / 2,399 - shot)

1928 (33 757/869)

1929 (56 220/2099)

1930 (208 069/19 463)

1931 (192 051/42 777)

1932 (141 919/3912)

1933 (239 664/2115)

1934 (118 770/2486)

The data for 1934 are given in full without dividing into the time until which (May 10) Menzhinsky finalized (he also died of a heart attack), and the time from which (July 10) Yagoda began to work.

HEINRICH YAGODA (supervised for more than 2 years)

From July 10, 1934 (the OGPU was merged with the NKVD) to September 26, 1936 - People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR. Under him, 541,746 people were convicted and 2,347 were shot, which includes the following figures over the years:

1935 (267,076 - convicted / 1229 - shot)

1936 (274 670/1118)

The data for 1936 are given in full without dividing into the time until which (September 26) Yagoda worked (he was shot), and the time from which (September 26) Yezhov began to work.

NIKOLAY EZHOV (supervised for over 2 years)

From September 26, 1936 to November 24, 1938 - People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR. Under him, 1,344,923 people were convicted and 681,692 were shot:

1937 (790,665 convicted / 353,074 shot)

1938 (554 258/328 618)

The data for 1938 are given in full without division into the time until which (November 24) Yezhov completed his work (he was shot), and the time from which (November 25) Beria began to work.

LAVRENTY BERIA (supervised for 7.5 years)

From November 25, 1938 to December 29, 1945 - People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR. From March 5 to June 26, 1953, after another merger of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, he was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Under him, 690,495 people were convicted and 64,046 executed (plus 22,005 Polish officers and the deportation of a number of Soviet peoples):

1939 (66,627 - convicted / 2,601 - shot)

1940 (75 126/1863)

1941 (152,581/23,786)

1942 (135,544/26,501)

1943 (88 788/3877)

1944 (80 737/3110)

1945 (91 092/2308)

The number of those convicted in 1941 for obvious reasons (confusion and violation of records in connection with the outbreak of war) is very approximate. In addition, the data for 1941 have another feature, since from February 3 to July 20, the NKVD was divided into the NKVD headed by Beria and the NKGB headed by Merkulov. The data for 1943 - 1945 have the same feature, since on April 14, 1943, the NKVD was again divided into the NKVD (Beria) and the NKGB (Merkulov). In addition, under the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence (SMERSH - death to spies) was created, headed by Abakumov, it had its own record of executions and landings.

SERGEY KRUGLOV (led the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 10 years)

From January 16, 1946 to March 19, 1946 (according to other sources, from December 29, 1945 to March 15, 1946) - People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR; from March 19, 1946 to March 5, 1953 and from June 27, 1953 to January 31, 1956 - Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, merged on March 5, 1953 (until March 13, 1954) with the MGB into one ministry. In 1960, he was expelled from the CPSU for his involvement in the repressions. Died after being hit by an electric...

VSEVOLOD MERKULOV (supervised for 3.5 years)

People's Commissar of the NKGB from February 3 to July 20, 1941 and from April 14, 1943 to March 19, 1946; Minister of State Security from March 19 to May 4 (according to other sources, August 21), 1946. Shot.

There are no exact data on repressions.

VICTOR ABAKUMOV (supervised for 5.5 years)

From April 14, 1943 to 1946 - Head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence SMERSH of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR until March 19, 1946, and then the Ministry of the Armed Forces; from October 6, 1946 to July 12, 1951 - Minister of State Security of the USSR. Shot.

There are no exact data on repressions.

SEMEN IGNATIEV (supervised for 1.5 years)

1946 (105,576 - convicted / 2,273 - shot)

1947 (67 585/898)

1948 (68,376 / capital punishment abolished - execution)

1949 (72,517 / capital punishment abolished - shooting)

1950 (59,348 - convicted / 468 - shot)

1951 (54 161/1601)

1952 (28 647/1611)

1953 (12 082/298)

Some more data

Before proceeding to the assessments of the above, I note that the dates of some resignations and appointments may require minor clarifications, which, however, cannot affect the conclusions drawn from them.

Data for 1946 - 1953, most likely, follows for the most part attributed to the leadership of Abakumov (and only to some extent - Kruglov, Merkulov and Ignatiev), since, firstly, the fact that Merkulov and Ignatiev were at the helm of the apparatus of repression during this period was not long and they did not have time to significantly change the situation; secondly, all three (Kruglov, Merkulov, Ignatiev) always depended on Beria - as his nominees, largely tied to him with some "affairs" ... However, Ignatiev was noted for the scandalous "doctors' case". So, having presented the annual data on the courts and capital punishment (CMN) from 1922 to 1953, we can draw the following results.

Conclusion one: the total number of convicts amounted to 4,143,822 people, and total number shot and hanged - 861,689 people.

It should be noted that the data of the former chairman of the KGB of the USSR Kryuchkov is slightly lower - by about 9 percent - both for those convicted in general and for those who received CMN due to the fact that they reflect punishments since 1930 and only for anti-Soviet activities, and our data include other types of crimes, for example, hooliganism and banditry and, by the way, despite this, they represent only the minimum limit of convicts. (Recall that according to Kryuchkov, there were 3,778,234 people convicted, including 786,098 VMN.)

Undoubtedly, the discrepancies in the numbers of those who were repressed and shot in the Stalin and post-Stalin years by different researchers do not reduce the intensity of the problem one iota. However, it is good that documents with fixed figures, and not just with emotions, have finally begun to emerge. However, it must be understood that this is clearly only the tip of the iceberg.

The second conclusion: the most "iron people's commissar" of the Stalin years in terms of those shot and hanged according to the documented figures, oddly enough, is still Yezhov. He is followed by Beria, Menzhinsky and Dzerzhinsky.

"Iron Seven"

For convicts:

1. Yezhov - 1,344,923

2. Menzhinsky - 1 016 485

3. Beria - 690 495

4. Berry - 541,746

5. Abakumov - it is believed that 427 563

6. Dzerzhinsky - 59,876

7. Ignatiev - 40,729

Capital punishment:

1. Yezhov - 681 692

2. Beria - 86,051 (including p / o)

3. Menzhinsky - 76,159

4. Dzerzhinsky - 8291

5. Abakumov - it is believed that 5240

6. Berry - 2347

7. Ignatiev - 1909

I will not comment on all these figures now. Because there were also countless convicts who died on the “great construction sites of socialism”, who were shot by tribunal sentences during the war, or even without sentences, simply by commanders in battle ... And they certainly are not taken into account here.

On the birthday of one of the most odious personalities in our history, I don’t want to take sides in the age-old Russian dispute: “Is Stalin a great leader or a great killer?” But what everyone knows for sure and what all historians remember is Stalin's phrase: "Cadres decide everything." Remember it when you peer into these, as I believe, far from complete figures ...