General secretaries of the Soviet Union. From Lenin to Putin: what and how Russian leaders were ill

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee - the highest position in the hierarchy of the Communist Party and by and large leader of the Soviet Union. In the history of the party, there were four more positions of the head of its central apparatus: Technical Secretary (1917-1918), Chairman of the Secretariat (1918-1919), Executive Secretary (1919-1922) and First Secretary (1953-1966).

The persons who filled the first two positions were mainly engaged in paper secretarial work. The position of Executive Secretary was introduced in 1919 for administrative activities. The post of general secretary, established in 1922, was also created purely for administrative and cadre internal party work. However, the first general secretary, Joseph Stalin, using the principles of democratic centralism, managed to become not only the leader of the party, but the entire Soviet Union.

At the 17th Party Congress, Stalin was not formally re-elected to the post of General Secretary. However, his influence was already enough to maintain leadership in the party and the country as a whole. After Stalin's death in 1953, Georgy Malenkov was considered the most influential member of the Secretariat. After being appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Nikita Khrushchev, who was soon elected First Secretary of the Central Committee, left the Secretariat and took the leading positions in the party.

Not limitless rulers

In 1964, opposition within the Politburo and Central Committee removed Nikita Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary, electing Leonid Brezhnev to replace him. Since 1966, the position of party leader was again renamed General Secretary. In Brezhnev's times, the power of the General Secretary was not unlimited, since members of the Politburo could limit his powers. The country was led collectively.

Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko ruled the country on the same principle as the late Brezhnev. Both were elected to the top party post when their health deteriorated and served as secretary general. a short time... Until 1990, when the communist party's monopoly on power was eliminated, Mikhail Gorbachev was in charge of the state as General Secretary of the CPSU. Especially for him, in order to maintain leadership in the country, the post of President of the Soviet Union was established in the same year.

After the August 1991 coup, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Secretary General. He was replaced by Deputy Vladimir Ivashko, who worked as Acting General Secretary for only five calendar days, until then Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspended the activities of the CPSU.

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The path of the Soviet Union finally ended in 1991, although in a sense, its agony lasted until 1993. The final privatization began only in 1992-1993, simultaneously with the transition to a new monetary system.

The so-called "perestroika" became a bright period of the Soviet Union, or rather, its dying. But what brought the USSR first to restructuring, and then to the final dismantling of socialism and the Soviet system?

1953 was marked by the death of the long-term de facto leader of the USSR - Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. After his death, a struggle for power began between the most influential members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. On March 5, 1953, the most influential members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU were Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kaganovich, Mikoyan. On September 7, 1953, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

At the XX Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, the personality cult of Stalin was condemned. But the main mine was planted under the very structure of the Leninist principle of the Soviet state at the 22nd Congress in October 1961. This congress removed the main principle of building a communist society - the dictatorship of the proletariat, replacing it with the anti-scientific concept of a "state of the whole people." It also turned out to be terrible that this congress became a de facto mass of voiceless delegates. They accepted all the principles of a de facto coup in the Soviet system. The first shoots of decentralization of the economic mechanism followed. But since the pioneers often do not stay in power for a long time, already in 1964 the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU dismissed N. S. Khrushchev from the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

This time is often called the "restoration of the Stalinist order", the freezing of reforms. But this is only philistine thinking and a simplified worldview, in which there is no scientific approach... Because already in 1965 the tactics of market reforms won out in the socialist economy. The "state of the whole people" came into its own. In fact, under the strict planning of the national economic complex, the results were summed up. The unified national economic complex began to embroider and subsequently disintegrate. One of the authors of the reform was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. N. Kosygin. The reformers constantly boast that, as a result of their reforms, enterprises have gained "independence." In fact, this put power in the hands of enterprise directors and the right to conduct speculative transactions. As a result, these actions led to the gradual emergence of a deficit necessary products for the population.

We all remember the "golden days" of Soviet cinema in the 1970s. For example, in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession", the viewer is clearly shown how the actor Demyanenko, who plays the role of Shurik, buys the semiconductors he needs not in stores that are for some reason closed for repairs or for lunch, but from a speculator. A speculator who was kind of "condemned and condemned" by the Soviet society of that period.

The political and economic literature of that time acquired a unique anti-scientific terminology of "developed socialism". But what is "developed socialism"? Strictly following the Marxist-Leninist philosophy, we all know that socialism is a transitional period between capitalism and communism, a period of withering away of the old order. Sharp class struggle led by the working class. And what do we get in the end? That there is some kind of incomprehensible stage of something there.

The same thing happened in the party apparatus. More seasoned careerists and opportunists, rather than ideologically seasoned people, began to willingly join the CPSU. The party apparatus becomes virtually outside the control of society. No trace of the dictatorship of the proletariat remains here.

In politics, at the same time, there is a tendency towards the irremovability of leading cadres, their physical aging and decrepitude. Career ambitions appear. This moment was also not ignored by Soviet cinema. In some places it was ridiculed, but there were also brilliant films of that time, which gave a critical analysis of the ongoing processes. For example, the film of 1982 - the social drama "Magistral" railroad... But in the films of that time, mainly in comedies, we already find direct glorifications of individualism, ridicule of the working man. The film "Office Romance" especially distinguished itself in this field.

Systematic disruptions are already taking place in trade. Of course, now the directors of enterprises are in fact the masters of their lands, they have "independence".

Anti-communists often mention in their "scientific" and anti-scientific writings that in the 1980s the country was already seriously ill. Only an enemy can be closer than a friend. Even if we do not take into account the frank slop that the anti-communists poured on the USSR, a rather difficult situation actually loomed in the country.

For example, I myself well remember how in the early 1980s we went to buy food from the "undeveloped" Pskov region of the RSFSR to the "developed" and "advanced" Estonian SSR.

Such a country was approaching the turn of the mid-1980s. Even from the films of that period, it is already clear that the country no longer believes in building communism. Another 1977 film Racers clearly shows what ideas were in the minds of ordinary people, although the character of this film was then still tried to be portrayed in a negative light.

In 1985, after a series of deaths of "irreplaceable" leaders, a relatively young politician, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power. His long speeches, the very meaning of which disappeared into emptiness, could go on for many hours. But the time was such that the people, as in the old days, believed the deceiving reformers, since the main thing on their minds was changes in life. But what about the layman? What do I want - I don’t know?

Perestroika became a catalyst for the acceleration of all destructive processes in the USSR, which for a long time accumulated and smoldered. By 1986, openly anti-Soviet elements appeared, which aimed to dismantle the workers' state and restore the bourgeois order. By 1988, this was already an irreversible process.

Anti-Soviet groups of that period appeared in the culture of that time - "Nautilus Pompilius" and "Civil Defense". According to the old habit, the authorities try to "drive" everything that does not fit into the framework of official culture. However, here too, dialectics threw out strange things. Subsequently, it was "Grazhdanskaya Oborona" that became a bright revolutionary beacon of anti-capitalist protest, thereby forever securing all the contradictory phenomena of that era for the Soviet era, as Soviet rather than anti-Soviet phenomena. But even the criticism of that time was at a fairly professional level, which is clearly reflected in the song of the group "Aria" - "What have you done with your dream?"

On its own wave, the era of perestroika brought out the most disgusting characters, the overwhelming majority of whom were just members of the CPSU. In Russia, such a person was BN Yeltsin, who plunged the country into a bloody mess. This is the shooting of the bourgeois parliament, out of habit, which still had a Soviet shell, this is the Chechen war. In Latvia, such a character was the former member of the CPSU A. V. Gorbunov, who continued to rule bourgeois Latvia until the mid-1990s. These characters were still praised by the Soviet encyclopedias of the 1980s, calling them "outstanding leaders of the party and government."

"Sausage commoners" usually judge the Soviet era by perestroika horror stories about Stalin's "terror", through the prism of their narrow-minded perception of empty shelves and shortages. But their mind refuses to accept the fact that it was the large-scale decentralization and capitalization of the country that led the USSR to such results.

But how much effort and mind of the ideological Bolsheviks was applied to raise their country to the cosmic level of development by the mid-1950s, to go through a terrible war with the most terrible enemy on Earth - fascism. The dismantling of communist development, which began in the 1950s, continued for more than 30 years, retaining the basic features of socialist development and a just society. After all, at the beginning of your journey, Communist party was a truly ideological party - the vanguard of the working class, a beacon of the development of society.

Throughout this history, it is clearly manifested that the failure to master their ideological weapon - Marxism-Leninism, leads the party leaders to the betrayal of the entire people.

We did not set ourselves the goal of examining in detail all the stages of the disintegration of Soviet society. The purpose of this article is only to describe the chronology of some significant events. Soviet life and its individual significant aspects of the post-Stalinist period.

Nevertheless, it would be fair to mention that the country's relative modernization continued throughout the entire period of the country's existence. Until the late 1980s, we saw a positive development in many social institutions and technical development. Somewhere the pace of development slowed down significantly, something continued to remain at a very high level... Medicine and education developed, cities were built, infrastructure improved. The country was moving forward by inertia.

In the dark ages, our path went at an accelerated pace and is irreversible only since 1991.

Andrey Krasny

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2017-Jun-Sun “We have always said - and revolutions confirm this - that when it comes to the foundations of economic power, the power of the exploiters, to their property, which gives them the labor of tens of millions of workers https: //site/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/horizontal_6.jpg , site - Socialist information resource [email protected]

Image caption Royal family hid the illness of the heir to the throne

The controversy over the state of health of President Vladimir Putin brings to mind the Russian tradition: the first person was seen as an earthly deity, which was not supposed to be remembered in vain and disrespectfully.

With practically unlimited power for life, the rulers of Russia were sick and dying like mere mortals. They say that in the 1950s, one of the liberal-minded young "stadium poets" once said: "They have no control over heart attacks!"

Discussing the personal lives of leaders, including their physical condition, was banned. Russia is not America, where data on analyzes of presidents and presidential candidates and their blood pressure figures are published.

Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, as you know, suffered from congenital hemophilia - hereditary disease, in which blood does not normally clot, and any injury can lead to death from internal hemorrhage.

The only person capable of improving his condition in some way still incomprehensible to science was Grigory Rasputin, who was, in a modern way, a strong psychic.

Nicholas II and his wife categorically did not want to make public the fact that their only son was actually disabled. Even ministers only in general outline knew that the crown prince had health problems. Ordinary people, seeing the heir during rare public appearances in the arms of a hefty sailor, considered him a victim of an assassination attempt by terrorists.

Whether Aleksey Nikolaevich could later lead the country, or not, is unknown. His life was cut short by a KGB bullet at the age of 14.

Vladimir Lenin

The founder of the Soviet state died unusually early, at the age of 54, from progressive atherosclerosis. An autopsy showed an incompatible with life damage to the vessels of the brain. It was rumored that the development of the disease was triggered by untreated syphilis, but there is no evidence of this.

The first stroke, resulting in partial paralysis and loss of speech, happened to Lenin on May 26, 1922. After that, he spent more than a year and a half at his dacha in Gorki in a helpless state, interrupted by short remissions.

Lenin is the only Soviet leader whose physical condition was never made a secret. Medical bulletins were published regularly. At the same time, until the last days, the comrades-in-arms assured that the leader would recover. Joseph Stalin, who visited Lenin in Gorki more often than other members of the leadership, posted optimistic reports in Pravda about how he and Ilyich cheerfully joked about doctors-reinsurers.

Joseph Stalin

"Leader of the Nations" in last years suffered a severe defeat of cardio-vascular system, probably, aggravated by an unhealthy lifestyle: he worked a lot, while turning the night into day, ate fatty and spicy foods, smoked and drank, but did not like to be examined and treated.

According to some reports, the "doctors' case" began with the fact that the professor-cardiologist Kogan advised a high-ranking patient to rest more. The suspicious dictator saw in this someone's attempt to remove him from affairs.

Having started the "Doctors' Plot", Stalin was left without any qualified medical assistance. Even the closest people could not talk to him on this topic, and he intimidated the service staff so much that after a stroke that happened on March 1, 1953 in the Blizhnyaya dacha, he lay on the floor for several hours, since he had previously forbidden the guards to disturb him without being called.

Even after Stalin turned 70, public discussion of his health and predictions of what would become of the country after his departure were absolutely impossible in the USSR. The idea that we would someday be left "without him" was considered sacrilegious.

For the first time, the people were informed about Stalin's illness the day before his death, when he had long been unconscious.

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev in recent years, as the people joked, "ruled without regaining consciousness." The very possibility of such jokes confirmed that after Stalin the country had changed a lot.

The 75-year-old secretary general had enough old age diseases. Mentioned, in particular, of sluggish leukemia. However, it is difficult to say from what, in fact, he died.

Doctors talked about a general weakening of the body caused by the abuse of sedatives and sleeping pills and caused blackouts, loss of coordination and speech disorder.

In 1979, Brezhnev lost consciousness during a Politburo meeting.

"You know, Mikhail," Yuri Andropov said to Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just been transferred to Moscow and was not accustomed to such scenes, "we must do everything to support Leonid Ilyich in this position. It's a question of stability."

Brezhnev was politically killed by television. In the old days, his condition could have been hidden, but in the 1970s it was impossible to avoid regular appearances on the screen, including live broadcasts.

The apparent inadequacy of the leader, combined with a complete lack of official information, caused an extremely negative reaction from society. Instead of pity for the sick person, the people responded with jokes and anecdotes.

Yuri Andropov

Yuri Andropov most of his life suffered from severe kidney damage, from which, in the end, he died.

The disease caused an increase in blood pressure. In the mid-1960s, Andropov was intensively treated for hypertension, this did not give results, there was a question about his retirement due to disability.

The Kremlin doctor Yevgeny Chazov made a dizzying career thanks to the fact that he gave the head of the KGB the correct diagnosis and gave him about 15 years of active life.

In June 1982, at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee, when the speaker called from the rostrum to "give a party assessment" to the spread of rumors, Andropov unexpectedly intervened and said in a harsh tone that he was "warning for the last time" those who talk too much in conversations with foreigners. According to the researchers, he meant, first of all, the leakage of information about his health.

In September, Andropov went on vacation to the Crimea, where he caught a cold and never got out of bed. In the Kremlin hospital, he was regularly given hemodialysis - a blood purification procedure using equipment that replaces normal work kidneys.

Unlike Brezhnev, who once fell asleep and did not wake up, Andropov died long and painfully.

Konstantin Chernenko

After Andropov's death, the need to give the country a young dynamic leader was obvious to everyone. But the old members of the Politburo nominated 72-year-old Konstantin Chernenko, who was formally the No. 2 man, as general secretaries.

As later recalled former minister health care of the USSR Boris Petrovsky, they all thought exclusively about how to die in posts, they had no time for the country, and even more so, not for reforms.

Chernenko had long been ill with emphysema, heading the state, almost did not work, rarely appeared in public, spoke, gasping and swallowing words.

In August 1983, he suffered severe poisoning, while on vacation in the Crimea, a fish caught and smoked with his own hand by his neighbor in the country, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Vitaly Fedorchuk. Many were treated to a gift, but nothing bad happened to anyone else.

Konstantin Chernenko died on March 10, 1985. Three days earlier, elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the USSR. The television showed the general secretary, who unsteadily walked to the ballot box, dropped the ballot into it, waved his hand listlessly and said indistinctly: "Good."

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin suffered from severe heart disease and reportedly suffered five heart attacks.

The first president of Russia was always proud of the fact that nothing took him, went in for sports, swam in icy water And in many ways he built his image on this, and he used to endure ailments on his feet.

Yeltsin's health deteriorated sharply in the summer of 1995, but elections were ahead, and he refused extensive treatment, although doctors warned of "irreparable harm to health." According to journalist Alexander Khinshtein, he said: "After the elections, at least cut it, but now leave me alone."

On June 26, 1996, a week before the second round of elections, Yeltsin suffered a heart attack in Kaliningrad, which was hidden with great difficulty.

On August 15, immediately after taking office, the president went to the clinic, where he underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. This time, he conscientiously followed all the instructions of the doctors.

In conditions of freedom of speech, it was difficult to hide the truth about the state of health of the head of state, but the environment tried as best it could. It was admitted, in extreme cases, that he had ischemia and temporary colds. Press secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky said that the president rarely appears in public, because he is extremely busy working with documents, but he has an iron handshake.

Separately, mention should be made of the issue of Boris Yeltsin's relationship with alcohol. Political opponents constantly exaggerated this topic. One of the main slogans of the communists during the 1996 campaign sounded: "We will choose Zyuganov instead of Elya drunk!"

Meanwhile, Yeltsin appeared in public "under the fly" for the only time - during the famous orchestra conducting in Berlin.

Former head of the presidential security, Alexander Korzhakov, who had no reason to shield the former chief, wrote in his memoirs that in September 1994, in Shannon, Yeltsin did not leave the plane to meet with the Prime Minister of Ireland, not because of intoxication, but because of a heart attack. After a quick consultation, the advisers decided that let people believe the "alcoholic" version rather than admit that the leader was seriously ill.

The resignation, the regime and the rest had a beneficial effect on the health of Boris Yeltsin. He lived in retirement for almost eight years, although in 1999, according to doctors, he was in serious condition.

Should I hide the truth?

According to experts, a disease for statesman, of course, not a plus, but in the Internet era, hiding the truth is pointless, and with skillful PR you can even extract political dividends from it.

As an example, analysts point to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who made good publicity out of his fight against cancer. Supporters got a reason to be proud that their idol does not burn in the fire and even in the face of illness thinks about the country, and rallied around him even stronger.

With the death of Stalin - the "father of peoples" and "the architect of communism" - in 1953, a struggle for power began, because the one he established assumed that the same autocratic leader would be at the helm of the USSR, who would take the reins of government into his own hands.

The only difference was that the main contenders for power all as one advocated the abolition of this very cult and the liberalization of the country's political course.

Who ruled after Stalin?

A serious struggle unfolded between the three main contenders, who were originally a triumvirate - Georgy Malenkov (chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers), Lavrenty Beria (minister of the united Ministry of Internal Affairs) and Nikita Khrushchev (secretary of the CPSU Central Committee). Each of them wanted to take a seat, but victory could only go to the candidate whose candidacy would be supported by a party whose members enjoyed great authority and had the necessary connections. In addition, all of them were united by the desire to achieve stability, end the era of repression and get more freedom in their actions. That is why the question of who ruled after Stalin's death does not always have an unambiguous answer - after all, there were three people at once who fought for power.

Triumvirate in power: the beginning of the split

The triumvirate, created under Stalin, divided the power. Most of it was concentrated in the hands of Malenkov and Beria. Khrushchev was assigned the role of secretary, which was not so significant in the eyes of his rivals. However, they underestimated the ambitious and assertive party member who stood out for his extraordinary thinking and intuition.

For those who ruled the country after Stalin, it was important to understand who first of all needed to be eliminated from the competition. The first target was Lavrenty Beria. Khrushchev and Malenkov were aware of the dossier for each of them that the Minister of the Interior, who was in charge of the entire system of repressive organs, had. In this regard, in July 1953, Beria was arrested, accused of espionage and some other crimes, thereby eliminating such a dangerous enemy.

Malenkov and his policies

Khrushchev's authority as the organizer of this conspiracy increased significantly, and his influence on other party members increased. However, while Malenkov was the chairman of the Council of Ministers, key decisions and directions in politics depended on him. At the first meeting of the Presidium, a course was taken towards de-Stalinization and the establishment of collective management of the country: it was planned to abolish the cult of personality, but to do it in such a way as not to belittle the merits of the "father of nations". The main task set by Malenkov was to develop the economy taking into account the interests of the population. He proposed a fairly extensive program of changes, which was not adopted at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. Then Malenkov put forward the same proposals at the session of the Supreme Soviet, where they were approved. For the first time after Stalin's autocratic rule, the decision was made not by a party, but by an official authority. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Politburo were forced to agree with this.

Further history will show that among those who ruled after Stalin, Malenkov would be the most "effective" in his decisions. The set of measures he took to combat the bureaucracy in the state and party apparatus, to develop the food and light industry, to expand the independence of collective farms bore fruit: 1954-1956 for the first time after the end of the war showed an increase in the rural population and an increase in agricultural production, which for many years decline and stagnation has become cost-effective. The effect of these measures lasted until 1958. It is this five-year plan that is considered the most productive and effective after the death of Stalin.

Those who ruled after Stalin understood that it would not be possible to achieve such successes in light industry, since Malenkov's proposals for its development contradicted the tasks of the next five-year plan, which focused on promoting

I tried to approach the solution of problems from a rational point of view, using economic, not ideological considerations. However, this order did not suit the party nomenklatura (headed by Khrushchev), which had practically lost its prevailing role in the life of the state. This was a weighty argument against Malenkov, who, under pressure from the party, submitted his resignation in February 1955. His place was taken by Khrushchev's ally Malenkov, who became one of his deputies, but after the dispersal of the anti-party group (of which he was a member) in 1957, along with his supporters, he was expelled from the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Khrushchev took advantage of this situation and in 1958 removed Malenkov from the post of chairman of the Council of Ministers, taking his place and becoming the one who ruled after Stalin in the USSR.

Thus, he concentrated almost complete power in his hands. He got rid of two of the most powerful competitors and led the country.

Who ruled the country after the death of Stalin and the removal of Malenkov?

Those 11 years that Khrushchev ruled the USSR are rich in various events and reforms. On the agenda were many problems faced by the state after industrialization, war and attempts to restore the economy. The main milestones that are remembered for the era of Khrushchev's rule are as follows:

1. The policy of developing virgin lands (not supported by scientific study) - increased the number of cultivated areas, but did not take into account climatic features that hindered development Agriculture in the developed territories.
2. The Corn Campaign, whose goal was to catch up and overtake the United States, which received good harvests this culture. The sown area for maize has doubled to the detriment of rye and wheat. But the result was sad - climatic conditions did not allow for a high harvest, and the reduction in areas for other crops provoked low rates for their collection. The campaign failed miserably in 1962 and resulted in higher prices for butter and meat, which caused discontent among the population.
3. The beginning of perestroika - the massive construction of houses, which allowed many families to move from hostels and communal apartments to apartments (the so-called "Khrushchevs").

Results of Khrushchev's reign

Among those who ruled after Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev stood out for his unconventional and not always thoughtful approach to reforming within the state. Despite the numerous projects that were implemented, their inconsistency led to the removal of Khrushchev from office in 1964.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Joseph Stalin died on March 5 at 21:50. From 6 to 9 March, the country was plunged into mourning. The coffin with the body of the leader was exhibited in Moscow in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. The mourning events were attended by about one and a half million people.

To maintain public order, troops were sent to the capital. However, the authorities did not expect such an incredible influx of people who wanted to see Stalin on his last journey. The victims of the stampede on the day of the funeral, March 9, according to various sources, were from 300 to 3 thousand people.

"Stalin entered Russian history as a symbol of greatness. The main achievements of the Stalin era were industrialization, the victory in the Great Patriotic War and the creation of a nuclear bomb. The foundation that the leader left allowed the country to reach nuclear parity with the United States and launch rockets into space, "Dmitry Zhuravlev, doctor of historical sciences, political scientist, said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to the expert, the Soviet people paid an enormous price for the great accomplishments of the Stalinist era (1924-1953). The most negative phenomena, according to Zhuravlev, were collectivization, political repression, labor camps (GULAG system) and gross neglect of basic human needs.

The riddle of the death of the leader

Stalin was characterized by a pathological distrust of doctors and neglected their recommendations. A serious degradation of the leader's health began in 1948. The last public speech of the Soviet leader took place on October 14, 1952, at which he summed up the results of the XIX Congress of the CPSU.

• Joseph Stalin speaks at the closing session of the 19th Congress of the CPSU
• RIA News

The last years of his life, Stalin spent a lot of time at the "nearby dacha" in Kuntsevo. On March 1, 1953, state security officers found the leader in a motionless state. They informed Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev about this.

Stalin received no immediate medical assistance. Doctors came to examine him only on March 2. What happened in the first days of March at the "near dacha" is a mystery for historians. The question of whether it was possible to save the life of the leader still remains unanswered.

Nikita Khrushchev's son is sure that Stalin became “a victim own system". His entourage and doctors were afraid to do anything, although it was obvious that the leader was in critical condition. According to official information, Stalin was diagnosed with a stroke. The illness was not announced, but on March 4, the party elite, apparently anticipating the imminent death of the leader, decided to break the silence.

• The queue of those wishing to say goodbye to Joseph Stalin at the House of Unions, Moscow
• RIA News

“On the night of March 2, 1953, I.V. Stalin suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, which seized vital areas of the brain, resulting in paralysis of the right leg and right hand with loss of consciousness and speech, "- said in an article in the newspaper" Pravda ".

"The likeness of a palace coup"

Retired KGB colonel, counterintelligence officer Igor Prelin believes that the leader's entourage understood the inevitability of his imminent death and was not interested in Stalin's recovery.

“These people were interested in him (Stalin. - RT) rather left, for two reasons. They feared for their position and well-being that he would remove them, remove them and repress them. And second - of course, they themselves were eager for power. They understood that Stalin's days were numbered. It was clear that this was the final, ”Prelin said in an interview.

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The main contenders for the role of the leader of the Soviet state were the former head of the NKVD Lavrenty Beria, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Georgy Malenkov, First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee Nikita Khrushchev and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Marshal Nikolai Bulganin.

During the period of Stalin's illness, the party elite redistributed the highest government posts. It was decided that Malenkov would take the post of chairman of the Council of Ministers, which belonged to the leader, Khrushchev would become the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (the highest position in the party hierarchy), Beria would receive the portfolio of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Bulganin - the Minister of Defense.

The reluctance of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev and Bulganin to save the life of the leader in all possible ways and the redistribution of state posts gave rise to a widespread version of the existence of an anti-Stalinist conspiracy. The conspiracy against the leader was objectively beneficial to the party elite, Zhuravlev believes.

• Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrenty Beria, Matvey Shkiryatov (in the first row from right to left), Georgy Malenkov and Andrei Zhdanov (in the second row from right to left)
• RIA News

“Hypothetically, some kind of a palace coup was possible, since open opposition to the leader was completely ruled out. Nevertheless, the theory of conspiracy and Stalin's violent death did not receive concrete evidence. Any versions on this matter are private opinions, not based on documentary evidence, "Zhuravlev stated in an interview with RT.

The collapse of the main challenger

The post-Stalinist regime in 1953-1954 is often referred to as "collegial management." Powers in the state were distributed among several party bosses. However, historians agree that a fierce struggle for absolute leadership was hidden under the beautiful screen of “collegial management”.

Malenkov, being the curator of the most important defense projects of the USSR, had close ties with the country's military elite (Marshal Georgy Zhukov is considered one of Malenkov's supporters). Beria wielded tremendous influence over the security organs - key institutions of power during the Stalinist era. Khrushchev enjoyed the sympathy of the party apparatus and was perceived as a compromise figure. Most weak positions were at Bulganin's.

At the funeral, Beria (left) and Malenkov (right) were the first to carry the coffin with the leader from the House of Trade Unions. On the platform of the mausoleum where Stalin was buried (in 1961 the leader was reburied at the Kremlin wall), Beria stood in the center, between Malenkov and Khrushchev. This symbolized his dominant position at the time.

Beria united the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security under his authority. On March 19, he replaced almost all the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the union republics and regions of the RSFSR.

However, Beria did not abuse his power. It is noteworthy that his political program coincided with the democratic initiatives expressed by Malenkov and Khrushchev. Oddly enough, but it was Lavrenty Pavlovich who began to review the criminal cases of those citizens who were accused of anti-Soviet conspiracies.

On March 27, 1953, the Minister of Internal Affairs signed a decree “On Amnesty”. The document allowed the release of citizens convicted of official and economic crimes from places of detention. In total, more than 1.3 million people were released from prisons, criminal proceedings were terminated against 401 thousand citizens.

Despite these steps, Beria was strongly associated with the repressions that were carried out during the Stalinist era. On June 26, 1953, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was summoned to a meeting of the Council of Ministers and detained, accused of espionage, falsification of criminal cases and abuse of power.

His closest associates were caught in sabotage activities. On December 24, 1953, the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Beria and his supporters to death penalty... The ex-minister of internal affairs was shot in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow military district. After the death of the main contender for power, about ten functionaries who were part of the "Beria gang" were arrested and convicted.

Khrushchev's triumph

The elimination of Beria became possible thanks to the alliance of Malenkov and Khrushchev. In 1954, a struggle broke out between the head of the Council of Ministers and the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

• Georgy Malenkov
• RIA News

Malenkov advocated the elimination of the excesses of the Stalinist system both in politics and in the economy. He called for leaving the cult of the leader's personality in the past, improving the position of collective farmers and focusing on the production of consumer goods.

Malenkov's fatal mistake was his indifference to the party and state apparatus. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers reduced the salaries of officials and repeatedly accused the bureaucracy of "complete neglect of the needs of the people."

“The main problem of Stalinism for the leaders of the CPSU was that anyone could fall under the roller of repression. The party apparatus is tired of this unpredictability. He needed guarantees of a stable existence. This is exactly what Nikita Khrushchev promised. In my opinion, this approach was the key to his victory, ”Zhuravlev said.

In January 1955, the head of the USSR government was criticized by Khrushchev and his party comrades for failures in economic policy... On February 8, 1955, Malenkov left the post of head of the Council of Ministers and received the portfolio of the Minister of Power Plants, retaining his membership in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Malenkov's post was taken by Nikolai Bulganin, and Georgy Zhukov became the Minister of Defense.

This attitude towards a political rival was intended to emphasize the beginning new era where a sparing attitude towards the Soviet nomenclature reigns. Nikita Khrushchev became her symbol.

"Hostage of the system"

In 1956, at the XX Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev delivered his famous speech on the debunking of the personality cult. The period of his reign is called the thaw. From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were freed, and the labor camp system (GULAG) was completely dismantled.

• Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev greet the participants of the May Day demonstration on the podium of the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin
• RIA News

“Khrushchev was able to become his own for the apparatus. Debunking Stalinism, he said that the leaders of the Bolshevik Party should not have fallen under repression. However, in the end, Khrushchev became a hostage to the control system he himself created, ”Zhuravlev stated.

As the expert explained, Khrushchev was too harsh in his communication with his subordinates. He traveled a lot around the country and in personal meetings with the first secretaries of the regional committees subjected them to the most severe criticism, making, in fact, the same mistakes as Malenkov. In October 1964, the party nomenklatura removed Khrushchev from the post of first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and chairman of the Council of Ministers.

“Khrushchev took competent steps to become the leader of the USSR for a while. However, he did not intend to radically change the Stalinist system. Nikita Sergeevich limited himself to correcting the most obvious shortcomings of his predecessor, "Zhuravlev noted.

• First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev
• RIA News

According to the expert, the key problem of the Stalinist system was the demand for constant labor and military deeds from the Soviet people. Most of the projects of Stalin and Khrushchev were in favor of the USSR, but catastrophically little attention was paid to the personal needs of citizens.

“Yes, under Khrushchev, the elite and society breathed more freely. However, man was still a means of achieving grandiose goals. People are tired of endlessly chasing records, they are tired of calls for self-sacrifice and the expectation of the coming of the communist paradise. This problem was one of the key reasons for the subsequent collapse of Soviet statehood, ”summed up Zhuravlev.