The death of the People's Commissar and the death of the family. Frinovsky Mikhail Petrovich (01/14/1898

Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky, (1898-1940), was born in the town of Narovchat, Penza province, in the family of a priest. Nationality Russian. He received a secondary education: he graduated from theological school, and was going to enter the seminary to become a priest, like his father, but the First World War began, and Frinovsky volunteered to go to the front. He became a non-commissioned officer in a cavalry regiment. In January 1916 Mikhail Frinovsky deserted from the army, joining a gang of deserters who traded in robbery. Participated in the murder of Major General M.A. Bem: a gang of which he was a member attacked the general’s estate for the purpose of robbery; Family members were also killed.

In March 1917 came to Moscow in search of a livelihood. Mikhail Petrovich enlisted in the “workers’ guard” detachment. Participant in the July armed rebellion in Moscow, in October 1917. participated in street battles, including the storming of the Kremlin, and the execution of captured cadets. During the fighting in Moscow he was seriously wounded. In December 1917 joined the Bolshevik Party.

In the Red Army - from July 1918, served as head of the Special Department of the First Cavalry Army, then transferred to the Cheka. One of the leaders of the defeat of anarchist groups in Moscow in April 1919. The Moscow “experience” of Frinovsky was liked by the leadership of the Cheka, and Mikhail Petrovich was sent to Ukraine to fight supporters of N.I. Makhno, S.V. Petlyura, various groups of “greens” and nationalists. Among these groups there were criminals who deserved to be exterminated, but there were many more who did not support the Reds. But the main thing was in the methods: Frinovsky used his favorite “take no prisoners.” The “reward” was career growth: soon Frinovsky was the head of the Special Department of the Southern Front, then the head of the Active Unit of the Special Department of the Southwestern Front, in 1921-1922. – Deputy Chief of the Operational Detachment of the All-Ukrainian Cheka.

In 1923-1924. Frinovsky worked briefly in the Kiev GPU, then until 1926. served in the North Caucasus in border units, and in 1927. enrolled in the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army, after which he graduated in 1928. appointed commander of the Special Purpose Division (Osnaz) named after Dzerzhinsky at the board of the OGPU of the USSR. Receiving such a post was a big promotion for Frinovsky and meant the trust of the Politburo.

In 1930 M.P. Frinovsky became the chairman of the GPU of Azerbaijan, where he was one of the main organizers of dispossession, in 1933. was sent to command the suppression of the anti-communist uprising in Xinjiang, China. The white peasants of Altai and Kazakhstan who had gone there and those who had left collectivization also took part in this uprising, so Frinovsky’s task was their destruction. Mikhail Petrovich coped with the “task”. As a reward for his “successes,” Frinovsky was promoted: he became the head of the Main Directorate of Border and Internal Security of the NKVD of the USSR.

The power began to intoxicate Mikhail Petrovich, he began to get involved in alcohol. But Frinovsky increasingly manifested a disorder, which these days is called the “Afghan syndrome”: characteristic of people who have repeatedly witnessed and participated in extremely cruel scenes. Such people easily lose control of themselves and are capable of committing serious crimes, and consider everyone around them to be enemies. They cannot be trusted with responsible positions related to the lives of others. But Mikhail Frinovsky was entrusted with such posts, and the consequences were tragic.

In October 1936 M. Frinovsky became deputy, and in May 1937. - First Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD N.I. Ezhov. At the same time, he became the head of the GUGB NKVD. Frinovsky compiled the text of the order of the People's Commissar of the NKVD, which authorized “measures of physical coercion” against those under investigation. The idea was his, and Yezhov agreed. Frinovsky led the preparation of the Moscow trials of 1936-1937. Frinovsky also led the investigation into the case of Tukhachevsky’s group and tried to give his conspiracy the greatest possible scope. Frinovsky owns the “idea” of carrying out arrests and expulsions according to lists, including persons belonging to certain social categories. He is the author of NKVD Order No. 00486 on the “seizure” of the children of “enemies of the people,” and No. 003866 on the “seizure” of the wives of “enemies of the people.” Under these two orders, 18,000 wives and 25,000 children were “seized.” Frinovsky, by virtue of his position, received requests from the localities for approval of “limits” on arrests, deportations and executions. It was in his power to grant or not requests for their increase. He satisfied.

People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov came under his influence and often acted on his instructions. In September 1938 Frinovsky's power came to an end: Stalin moved him to the post of People's Commissar of the Navy. By that time, Stalin had decided to get rid of Yezhov, who through his actions had brought the country to the brink of a socio-political explosion and economic disaster. His team was also subject to elimination. As People's Commissar of the Navy, Frinovsky did practically nothing. April 6, 1939 Frinovsky was arrested. He was accused of a “fascist-Trotskyist conspiracy in the NKVD.” As soon as he crossed the threshold of the prison cell, everything became indifferent to him, so Frinovsky nodded indifferently to all the investigators’ questions and signed everything that was offered to him, admitting literally everything in the world. February 4, 1940 M.P. Frinovsky was shot. In 1941 - a year after the execution, Frinovsky was posthumously deprived of all awards, military rank and powers as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Not rehabilitated.

His wife and son, a 10th grade high school student who was only 17 years old, were also arrested and shot.

They were rehabilitated.

Frinovsky Michael Petrovich(Jan. 1898, Narovchat, Penza province - 4.2.1940, Moscow), one of the heads of state security agencies, military leader, 1st rank army commander (14.9.1938). Teacher's son. He received his education at a theological school (1914), at courses for senior command personnel at the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army (1927). In Jan. 1916 entered the cavalry as a volunteer, non-commissioned officer. In Aug. 1916 deserted. He was associated with anarchists, participated in the murder of Major General M.A. Bema. From March 1917 he worked as an accountant. Vsent. 1917 joined the Red Guard in Khamovniki (Moscow). In Oct.-Nov. 1917 commanded a group of Red Guards, took part in the storming of the Kremlin, and was seriously wounded. In March-July 1918, assistant superintendent of the Khodynka hospital. In 1918 he joined the RCP(b), in July 1918 he joined the Red Army, squadron commander, beginning. Special department of the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1919 he was transferred to the Cheka. In Aug. - Nov. 1919 assistant chief active part of the Special Department of the Moscow Cheka. Participated in the most important operations of the Cheka - the defeat of anarchists, the liquidation of anarchist and rebel groups in Ukraine, etc. From Dec. 1919 to Apr. 1920 served in the Special Department of the Southern Front. In the early 1920s active part of the Special Department of the Southwestern Front, deputy. beginning Special department of the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1921-22 deputy. beginning Special department, deputy beginning operational detachment of the Bee-Ukrainian Cheka. In 1922-23 beginning. general administrative part and secretary of the Kyiv department of the GPU (from June 23, 1923 - plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the South-East). On Nov. 1923 transferred to the North Caucasus, beginning. Special Department of the North Caucasus Military District. From March 1924 1st deputy. Plenipotentiary Representative of the OGPU for the North Caucasus, from January. 1926 - 1st deputy plenipotentiary and chief GPU troops. 07/08/1927 transferred to Moscow as assistant chief. Special department of the military district. 11/28/1928 - 9/1/1930 commander and commissar of the special purpose division named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky at the Collegium of the OGPU of the USSR. 1.9.1930 Frinovsky received another promotion, becoming a manager. GPU of Azerbaijan. From that moment on, his career began to develop with incredible speed. On April 8, 1933, he took over as chief. Main Directorate of Border Guard of the OGPU of the USSR, 10.7.1934 - Main Directorate of Border and Internal Guard of the NKVD of the USSR. He was promoted after the removal of G.G. Yagoda and the arrival of N.I. to the NKVD. Yezhov, who replaced almost all of Yagodin’s henchmen. From 10/16/1936 deputy, from 4/15/1937 1st deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. At the same time, from April 15, 1937 to June 9, 1938, he headed the Main Directorate of State Security, and from March 28, 1938, the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. Since 1937, member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. One of Yezhov’s closest collaborators and the main organizers of mass repressions, participated in all “events”, incl. on falsification of cases of “military-fascist conspiracy in the Red Army”, etc. Most of the arrest warrants were signed by him personally (without the sanction of the prosecutor), and he personally supervised the arrests in the Far East. According to the memoirs of N.S. Khrushchev, “a big strong man with a scar on his face, physically powerful.” After joining the NKVD L.P. Beria and the beginning of the NKVD purges of Yezhov’s promoters Frinovsky within 17 days - September 8, 1938 - he was appointed People's Commissar of the USSR Navy. On April 6, 1939 he was arrested, and 22 days later he was officially released from his duties as People's Commissar. Accused of participating in a “conspiracy in the NKVD” and sentenced to death on February 4, 1938. Shot.

FRINOVSKY Mikhail Petrovich

(January 26 (February 7), 1898, Narovchat, Penza province, Russian Empire - February 4, 1940, Moscow) - figure in the Soviet state security agencies, army commander of the 1st rank (1938). Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee of the 7th convocation, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation. One of the direct organizers of the “Great Terror”.

Mikhail Frinovsky was born at the beginning of 1898 in the city (now village) of Narovchat, Penza province.

Before the First World War he studied at the theological school in Krasnoslobodsk.

In January 1916 he entered the cavalry as a volunteer and served with the rank of non-commissioned officer. In January-August 1916 he deserted. He was associated with anarchists, participated in the murder of Major General M.A. Bem.

Since March 1917, Frinovsky has been a bookkeeper at a military hospital. Participant in the July uprising of 1917. In September of the same year, he joined the Red Guard in Khamovniki (Moscow), commanded a group of Red Guards, participated in the storming of the Kremlin, and was seriously wounded. Until February 1918, he was undergoing treatment at the Lefortovo Hospital.

In March-July 1918 he worked as an assistant superintendent of the Khodynka hospital. He joined the RCP(b), worked in the party cell and the local committee of the Khodynka hospital. In July 1918, he enlisted in the Red Army, served as a squadron commander, and head of the Special Department of the 1st Cavalry Army.

In 1919, after being seriously wounded, he was transferred to trade union work, and then to the Cheka. In the second half of 1919, he served as assistant to the head of the active part of the Special Department of the Moscow Cheka. Participated in the most important operations of the Cheka - the defeat of the anarchists, the liquidation of anarchist and rebel groups in Ukraine, etc.

From December 1919 to April 1920 he served in the Special Department of the Southern Front. In 1920, he was the head of the active part of the Special Department of the Southwestern Front, deputy head of the Special Department of the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1921-1922 - deputy head of the Special Department, deputy head of the operational detachment of the All-Ukrainian Cheka.

In 1922-1923, Frinovsky was the head of the general administrative part and secretary of the Kyiv department of the GPU (from June 23, 1923 - head of the OGPU plenipotentiary mission in the South-East).

In November 1923, he was transferred to the North Caucasus to the post of head of the Special Department of the North Caucasus Military District. Since March 1924, Frinovsky has been the first deputy plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the North Caucasus. In 1925 - head of the border guard of the Black Sea coast of the North Caucasus region, from January 1926 - first deputy plenipotentiary and head of the GPU troops.

On July 8, 1927, he was transferred to Moscow to the position of assistant to the head of the Special Department of the Moscow Military District. In 1927, he completed courses for senior command personnel at the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army. From November 28, 1928 to September 1, 1930, he was the commander-military commissar of a separate special-purpose division named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky at the board of the OGPU of the USSR.

On September 1, 1930, Frinovsky was appointed to the post of chairman of the GPU of the Azerbaijan SSR. He was one of the organizers of dispossession in Azerbaijan. On April 8, 1933, he was appointed head of the Main Directorate of Border Guards and Troops of the OGPU of the USSR, and led the OGPU operation to suppress the uprising in Xinjiang

With the formation of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR on July 10, 1934, the Main Directorate of Border Guards and OGPU Troops was renamed the Main Directorate of Border and Internal Security (from mid-1937 - the Main Directorate of Border and Internal Troops) of the NKVD of the USSR. On July 11, M.P. Frinovsky was appointed its chief.

Family

Wife - Nina Stepanovna Frinovskaya (1903, Ryazan - February 3, 1940) - Russian, non-party, higher education, graduate student at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Arrested on April 12, 1939. On February 2, 1940, on trumped-up charges of “concealing the criminal counter-revolutionary activities of enemies of the people” (that is, her own husband and son), the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced her to death. Shot on February 3, 1940. Rehabilitated on January 12, 1956.

Son - Oleg Mikhailovich Frinovsky (1922, Kharkov - January 21, 1940, Moscow) - member of the Komsomol, incomplete secondary education, 10th grade student of the 2nd Moscow Special Artillery School. Arrested on April 12, 1939. On January 21, 1940, on trumped-up charges of participation in a “counter-revolutionary youth group”, he was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Shot on the same day. Rehabilitated on January 12, 1956.

In Moscow, Frinovsky occupied a 9-room apartment (Kropotkinskaya street, building 31, apt. 77), into which, after his arrest, the family of a high-ranking NKVD officer, Veniamin Gulst, moved in.

Ranks

Komkor (11/29/1935)
Commander 1st rank (09/14/1938)

Awards

Order of Lenin (02/14/1936)
3 Orders of the Red Banner (1924, 12/20/1932; 02/03/1935)
Order of the Red Star (07/22/1937)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Azerbaijan SSR (03/04/1931)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the TSFSR (03/07/1932)
Medal “XX Years of the Red Army” (02/22/1938)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-OGPU (V)” (1925)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-OGPU (XV)” (05/26/1933)
Order of the Red Banner (MPR) (10/25/1937)

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 24, 1941, he was deprived of state awards and military rank.

FRINOVSKY Mikhail Petrovich- Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.

Report card for party card of 1936 model No. 1872034, owned by M. P. Frinovsky

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:

Special message from L.P. Beria to I.V. Stalin with attached statement from M.P. Frinovsky

We don’t know how it was written, but it is there. Author's note.

SPECIAL MESSAGE L.P. BERII I.V. STALIN WITH APPLICATION OF M.P. FRINOVSKY

Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to comrade I.V. STALIN

At the same time, we are sending a statement from the arrested Frinovsky dated March 11, 1939. We continue the interrogation of Frinovsky.

Appendix: according to the text.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR BERIA

TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNION

SOVIET SOCIAL REPUBLIC TO COMMISSIONER

STATE SECURITY 1st RANK:

BERIA L.P.

From the arrested FRINOVSKY M.P.

Statement

The investigation charged me with anti-Soviet conspiratorial work. For a long time I struggled with the idea of the need to confess to my criminal activities during the period when I was free, but the pitiful state of a coward prevailed. Having the opportunity to honestly tell you and the leaders of the party about everything, of which I have been an unworthy member in recent years, deceiving the party, I did not do this. Only after the arrest, after the presentation of charges and a conversation with you personally, did I take the path of repentance and promise to tell the investigation the whole truth to the end, both about my criminal enemy work and about the persons who are accomplices and leaders of this criminal enemy work.

I became a criminal because of blind trust in the authorities of my leaders YAGODA, EVDOKIMOV and YEZHOV, and having become a criminal, I, together with them, committed a vile counter-revolutionary deed against the party.

In 1928, shortly after my appointment as commander and military commissar of the Special Purpose Division at the OGPU Collegium, at the regional party conference I was elected to the plenum, and by the plenum to the bureau of the party organization of the Sokolniki district.

Even at the conference, I established contact with a former OGPU employee (in 1937 he committed suicide in connection with the arrest of Yagoda) - Pogrebinsky, who informed me about the existence of group struggle among members of the district committee. Subsequently, I joined the majority in the bureau, which turned out to be right, and worked together with this group of bureau members until it was exposed in the district party organization.

At the next party conference in 1929, this majority of the bureau, including me and other OGPU workers: MIRONOV, LIZERSON, POGREBINSKY, were completely exposed. MIRONOV and I gave repentant speeches at the conference, but did not completely break with the right-wing group in the region.

After the conference, a meeting of the leadership was held at the OGPU in connection with the instructions of the Central Committee, which condemned the involvement of the OGPU party organization in group struggle in the Sokolnichesky district committee.

In the same 1929, EVDOKIMOV came to Moscow in connection with his planned transfer as head of the Special Educational Institution of the Optical Technical School. I was in his room at the Select Hotel. At first, EVDOKIMOV asked me how things were going in Moscow, then he said that he was being transferred to Moscow and that the Central Committee was inviting him to organize the operational work of the OGPU. In the same conversation, I shared with EVDOKIMOV and said that I ended up on the right in practice.

At this time, there were already complications in the village due to the collectivization of agriculture. I asked EVDOKIMOV - how are things going in the North Caucasus? He says: “Things are complicated, collective farms in the Cossack and national areas are taking root slowly, there is a lot of resistance,” and he put it this way: “The devil knows, will anything come of this matter?”

While EVDOKIMOV was in Moscow, and then after he moved to Moscow, I had several meetings with him. During these meetings, EVDOKIMOV said that the Central Committee was allowing a lot of outrages in the countryside and “the devil knows where all this will lead.”

In 1930, after a decisive offensive by the party and government against the kulaks, as a result of excesses committed locally, uprisings began, and these uprisings took particularly complex forms in the national regions of the North Caucasus, in particular in Dagestan. I was summoned to the OGPU Collegium and sent to Dagestan. I was not able to talk to EVDOKIMOV before leaving.

My next meeting with EVDOKIMOV took place during my visit to Transcaucasia in 1930, when he toured areas in which counter-insurgency operations were carried out.

After official conversations, I had an intimate conversation with EVDOKIMOV, during which he told me that, as the Central Committee thinks, you cannot create collective farms by armed means. Here, he says, in Dagestan the population says that the collective farms are kaput, and this is not only in the national regions, but that the situation is very difficult in central Russia. It may happen, said EVDOKIMOV, that we will ruin the kulaks and physically destroy them, but there may be many complications in our country and the party will not create an economy in the countryside.

That was the end of the conversation with him. After staying for several days, EVDOKIMOV left. I had a subsequent meeting with EVDOKIMOV in 1930 before leaving for work in Azerbaijan. We met in EVDOKIMOV's office. I asked him for instructions. Along with operational and official instructions, he told me that he, EVDOKIMOV, did not believe in the success of the ongoing operation to eliminate the kulaks as a class, although he was entrusted with carrying out this operation across the USSR. He also does not believe in the expediency of the operation carried out by decision of the Central Committee, believing that this could lead to the impoverishment of the village and the degradation of agriculture. During this time, I did not conduct any anti-Soviet work in Azerbaijan.

In 1933, shortly after I was appointed head of the GUPVO OGPU and arrived in Moscow, I met with EVDOKIMOV at his apartment. He came from Rostov.

EVDOKIMOV started a conversation with me that the situation in the country, despite the seemingly slight improvement in the situation in the countryside with manufactured goods and food in the cities, is still extremely difficult. And then EVDOKIMOV began a frank conversation with me. He asked: “How are you, have the right-wing sentiments that you had gotten over or not?” I say: “The devil knows whether they’ve outlived it or not, I don’t know, but what?” “You see, sooner or later the right will be able to prove to the Central Committee that the line of the Central Committee is wrong and the line of the right is correct.” I tried to object, saying that the position of the collective farms was becoming strong. He replied: “Wait, collective farms have begun to exist, but this is just the beginning, and what will happen next is unknown. The right-wing cadres are large; the right-wingers are doing a lot of underground work both to recruit personnel and to create discontent against the government and the Central Committee.”

Then EVDOKIMOV asked: “Did you accept the GUPVO or not?” After my affirmative answer, he said: “You should take a proper interest in the issues of the troops. The troops will play a big role in the event of any complications within the country, and you must take the troops into your own hands.”

Knowing that my deputies at the Main Directorate for Military Defense are KRUCHINKIN, LEPIN and ROSHAL, EVDOKIMOV, touching them, said: “KRUCHINKIN, apparently, is YAGODINSKY’s man, but that’s nothing. YAGODA himself is engaged in the troops, but that’s not scary either.” Immediately EVDOKIMOV informed me that YAGODA himself is also right, recommended: “Still, in relations with YAGODA, do not go too far and do not trust him and, in particular, those around him completely, since these people are capable of crimes, these crimes will fail and they can give you away, and take KRUCHINKIN into your hands.” And then EVDOKIMOV said that KRUCHINKIN, while on a business trip in Central Asia, while EVDOKIMOV was there, during operations, because of his cowardice, he failed the operation. I raised the question with YAGODA, Evdokimov said, about putting KRUCHINKIN on trial, but they were silent about something. You need to carefully pull him towards you, but also begin to recruit your own cadres in the OGPU troops.

I asked what specifically needs to be done regarding the troops? First, said EVDOKIMOV, get your absolutely reliable people and get them under your control so that in case of complications they will carry out your will.

In the same 1933, YAGODA, after my clash with him over an official issue, began to bring me closer to him again with the help of BULANOV. BULANOV often invited me to his dacha under the guise of fishing and playing billiards. On one of these trips to BULANOV, on a day off at the dacha, YAGODA came, who, after dinner and drinks, had a conversation with me in a separate room. YAGODA began the conversation by saying that I was wrong to set myself up against him, and that, apparently, Evdokimov’s hand was at work here, and then he told me: “Keep in mind: that you remain right, I know that you you are carrying out the work, I also know, and wouldn’t it be better for you to come to terms with the situation that exists in our central apparatus, lower your ambition and listen to me.” And immediately, continuing the conversation, YAGODA asked me: “How are things going at the GUPVO, you have a lot of deputies there, wouldn’t it be better to get rid of some of them. Who do you think is better to leave: KRUCHINKIN or LEPIN?”

Without waiting for my answer, YAGODA said that KRUCHINKIN was a reliable person. I realized that KRUCHINKIN is connected with him in criminal activities. Regarding LEPIN, YAGODA said that he hesitated and was guided by AKULOV and BALITSKY when they worked in the OGPU. “Maybe we should offer him to BALITSKY,” he said, “let him go to him. ROSHALY needs to be broken off, and for the combat training department you should take KRAFTA or RYMSHAN.” After this, YAGODA began to invite me to go to his dacha, but because it was late, I refused. Saying goodbye, YAGODA said: “Well, global and full contact.”

In pursuance of the assignments that I received from EVDOKIMOV, and after a conversation with YAGODA, I began to bring KRUCHINKIN closer to me in every possible way and soon had an open conversation with him. I asked KRUCHINKIN what work he was doing on YAGODA’s assignments in the troops. At first KRUCHINKIN looked puzzled, and then began to say that he does not receive any special assignments, mainly that he works on selecting people and training them in the spirit of endless devotion to Yagoda personally. KRUCHINKIN finally told me about the work he did and a number of people who were recruited by him and carried out work within the OGPU troops upon his return from Xinjiang in 1934.

Expanding the full picture of his anti-Soviet work, KRUCHINKIN named me the following people: KRAFTA, RYMSHAN, who at that time was already seconded from the GUPVO to the Red Army, ROTHERMEL, LEPSIS, ZARIN, BARKOV, KONDRATIEV, the commander of a special purpose division at that time, and stipulated, that YAGODA and BULANOV have a direct connection with KONDRATIEV and that KONDRATIEV *has his own people in the division*.

LEPIN at that time was already working in Ukraine as the head of the UPVO, and, despite the fact that BALITSKY agreed to take him on, his relationship with BALITSKY was not entirely normal, and YAGODA could not forgive him for his orientation at one time towards AKULOV and BALITSKY.

On his next visit to Moscow in 1934, LEPIN complained to me. I called KRUCHINKIN, and together with him we told LEPIN that I became aware of LEPIN’s participation in enemy work under the leadership of KRUCHINKIN. LEPIN was surprised at first, and then, having learned that I was also taking part in this work and had already begun to lead it in the border guard, we opened up to each other. After this, LEPIN asked to resolve the issue of his relationship with YAGODA and BALITSKY. We managed to do this by direct conversation with YAGODA that LEPIN is our man and we cannot put him in such a position, especially in Ukraine, where in our interests he should contact the Ukrainian people and find out what is happening in Ukraine. I myself spoke with BALITSKY so that he would not offend LEPIN.

From LEPIN I learned that he has the impression that right-wing work is also underway in Ukraine within the organs and troops of the OGPU. KRUCHINKIN and I gave the task to LEPIN so that he would contact the Ukrainians, without giving them his connections in Moscow and without saying anything about YAGODA, me and KRUCHINKIN, to get into BALITSKY’s circle and, if they recruit him, to go for it.

Around the first months of 1935, LEPIN, on his next visit to Moscow, told me that he had contacted BALITSKY and that BALITSKY connected him with a number of people from the border guard, in particular with the head of the political department of the UPVO - SAROTSKY, the head of the border detachment in Odessa - KULESHOM** and deputy. Head of the Ukrainian Air Defense Department - SEMENOV**.

During the same time - 1934 - I had several meetings with EVDOKIMOV when he arrived in Moscow. At these meetings, he gradually revealed to me his practical work and talked about the work of the center of the right and the Union. In particular, he said that he had a number of people inside the GPU apparatus, and named RUDY, DAGIN, RAEV, KURSKY, DEMENTYEV, GORBACH and others. He said that he had connections in national regions: in Dagestan - through MAMEDBEKOV, in Chechnya - GORSHEEV or GORSHENI-NA, and then said that he had difficulty only with KALMYKOV, who has his own line, and EVDOKIMOV could not to break it off, but characterized KALMYKOV as a completely “ours” person - right-wing, but apparently having an independent line.

I asked him, what is going on in the Union in general? EVDOKIMOV said that a lot of work was being done; a number of people who held important positions in a number of other regions of the USSR had gone over to the right. And here he said: “You see how we now have to fight the Central Committee: once we fought against the insurrection, but now we ourselves have to look for threads, connections with the insurrection, and in order to organize it, we have to go to the bottom. This is a very difficult and dangerous job, but without the lower ranks - secretaries of district committees, chairmen of regional executive committees or people who are connected with the village - we will not be able to lead the insurrection, and this is one of the main tasks that faces us.”

EVDOKIMOV asked what I was doing about the troops. I told him completely about everything, in particular about the meeting with YAGODA, about the conversation with him. EVDOKIMOV again gave me the following instructions: not to break this connection with YAGODA, but not to go all the way and, most importantly, not to say anything to YAGODA about my connection with him - EVDOKIMOV. At one of the meetings, EVDOKIMOV suggested that I contact the former. deputy People's Commissar indoctrinated PROKOFIEV and probe his mood. When I asked what the goal was, he replied, “I’ll tell you later.”

In pursuance of EVDOKIMOV’s instructions, I became close friends with PROKOFIEV. Afterwards I found out that EVDOKIMOV was looking for connections with PROKOFIEV in order to contact him personally, which he essentially accomplished through me. Their first meeting was at my dacha, and after that, during his visits to Moscow, he began to visit PROKOFIEV. After some time, EVDOKIMOV told me that by getting closer to PROKOFIEV, he pursued the goal of checking whether KALMYKOV was connected with the OGPU.

In 1934, while expanding our work at the GUPVO, KRUCHINKIN and I tried to get in closer contact with the former. commander of the special purpose division of the OGPU - KONDRATIEV, since KOndratiev directly received assignments from YAGODA and BULANOV. We wanted to know exactly what tasks he receives in the division. However, KRUCHINKIN’s conversation with KONDRATIEV did not produce any results, and only after an inspection of the division, which was carried out during YAGODA’s vacation and the discovery of a number of facts about the disgraceful state of the division’s units, we managed to force KONDRATIEV to talk about the conspiratorial work he was carrying out in the division.

KONDRATIEV said that most of the regiment commanders of the division, as well as many of the political apparatus workers, were recruited by him. KOndratiev also said that GOLKHOV, the head of the division’s political department (who arrived with KOndratiev from the Far East) was involved in the conspiracy.

Further, KONDRATYEV said that YAGODA gave him the task (and he is working on this) so that the command staff, recruited and brought to work, worked out a plan for the division’s possible actions in the conditions of Moscow. This plan basically consisted of cordoning off and isolating the Kremlin from the rest of the city. In addition, he said that in case of complications there is a **troop group from the division**, which should immediately be at the disposal of YAGODA. And finally, he said that the commanders appointed to the squad for duty inside the OGPU, on armored cars, are allocated mainly from among the participants in the conspiracy. Having told this, KONDRATIEV, immediately becoming timid, began to say that he would like YAGODA not to know about his conversations with us until he settles this issue with him. At the same time, KONDRATIEV said that he knew from BULANOV that KRUCHINKIN and I were working. In 1935, EVDOKIMOV began to ask me: was YAGODA’s hand in the murder of KIROV and did I have information about this? Moreover, he pointed out that if YAGODA is a participant in this case, it is a bad act, not from the point of view of regret about the loss of KIROV, but from the point of view of complicating the situation and the repressions that began shortly after the murder of KIROV.

During this conversation, Yakov LIFSHITZ, formerly, came to his apartment. deputy People's Commissar, who, after greeting me, said: “We live in the same city and don’t meet.” EVDOKIMOV immediately said - it would be necessary to meet, it would be useful for both. It was a day off, and LIFSHITS invited us to his dacha for the day off.

After LIFSHITS left EVDOKIMOV, I asked him whether LIFSHITS honestly repented? EVDOKIMOV replied: “Honestly, people like Yashka do not repent” - and added that LIFSHITS was carrying out the corresponding work.

On the second day, EVDOKIMOV and I were at LIFSHITS’s dacha. We did not have conspiratorial conversations, but EVDOKIMOV constantly emphasized the need for close communication with LIFSHITS, with whom we agreed on further meetings.

At the end of these meetings, during a horseback ride, LIFSHITS told me: “I heard about you from EVDOKIMOV, frankly speaking, I didn’t expect that you were also with us, well done.” I started talking to LIFSHITS, how are you? He replied: “EVDOKIMOV told you that I was working.” I also asked him, “Do you do a lot of work?” He said that he is doing a lot of work, has connections with the center through PYATAKOV, has a large number of people and does not break ties with the Ukrainians.

At the next meeting, in connection with the arrests of a number of Trotskyists that had begun, LIFSHITS gave me the task, although I worked in the GUPVO and had no direct relation to operational work, to listen to what testimony the arrested Trotskyists were giving and inform him.

In 1935, in the fall, there was a march of the wives of Ukrainian border guards to Moscow. YAGODA allowed me to organize their reception at my dacha, and in the morning of the same day I rode horseback with LIFSHITS and told him about this reception. LIFSHITS asked, who will you have? I say that I invite the heads of departments. Then he said - invite MOLCHANOV too, and can I be at this reception? I said that nothing special would happen, come as if by chance. LIFSHITZ actually came to my dacha in the evening. MOLCHANOV also arrived. After dinner, LIFSHITS and MOLCHANOV sat next to each other, drank, and after that they went for a walk in the garden. LIFSHITS left when the rest of those present had not yet left, and only ten days later I asked LIFSHITS what you talked about with MOLCHANOV, did you tell him anything about me? He replied that he had spoken to him about the Trotskyists. “You see, MOLCHANOV is also not a completely pure person, but he was playing tricks on me. I didn’t have a direct conversation with him, but I probed him about what kind of testimony the Trotskyists were giving.”

At one of the meetings in 1935, EVDOKIMOV at his apartment told me about a number of people whom he had recruited to work in Pyatigorsk. He named PIVOVAROV, a large group of security officers: ***BOYAR, DYATKIN and SHATSKY***. Here he told me about his connections with KHATAEVICH, and praised him in every possible way as an expert on the village; with EIKHE, about part of the Leningrad group - CHUDOV, ZHUKOV, and he immediately warned me - not to particularly meet with them, because the Leningraders drink and in general in the Central Committee are reputed as people who are worn out, decomposed due to drunkenness. On the same visit, EVDOKIMOV said: is it possible to somehow, through YAGODA, get DAGIN into the operational department. “Although PAUKER is a Yagoda man, he is a fool, and if you entrust him with something serious, he will definitely fail,” said EVDOKIMOV. At the same time, he warned that if you try to get DAGIN to the first department, then you need to do it very carefully, taking into account the situation. EVDOKIMOV spoke about the fact that in a number of regions of the North Caucasus he managed to lead rebel groups with his own people, and that the purge of the party carried out before this helped in terms of recruiting people.

During the trial of ZINOVIEV, KAMENEV and others, when it was published in the press about BUKHARIN, before the end of the trial, EVDOKIMOV was in Moscow. He was very worried and, in a conversation with me, said: “Devil knows how we will be able to get out of this whole thing. I just don’t understand YAGODA, what he’s doing there, why he’s expanding the circle of people for repression, or whether these guys have weak veins and are giving it away. But it would be possible to arrange the course of the investigation in such a way as to protect oneself in every possible way.”

Immediately he questioned me regarding LIFSHITS: is LIFSHITS found anywhere in the KGB materials? LIFSHITS was not in Moscow at that moment; he was on vacation. I told EVDOKIMOV that I was present at one of the operational meetings where MOLCHANOV reported evidence against LIFSHITS, and that this evidence came from Ukraine. EVDOKIMOV said: “LIFSHITS will soon return from vacation, don’t openly meet with him.” At that time, I was already getting ready to go on a business trip to the Far East, and once on one of the trips on horseback, with Lifshitz, before his vacation, we talked about a possible joint trip to the Far East.

I tell EVDOKIMOV that we were going to go to the Far East together with LIFSHITS. He said that if you can, it’s better to go alone in this environment. EVDOKIMOV was interested in which of the security officers was conducting the investigation and intelligence work on the Trotskyists and the right. He himself was very depressed.

Before I left for the Far East, LIFSHITS returned from vacation, but I stopped meeting with him, given the evidence against him and my possible compromise.

I had this conversation with DERIBAS, and DERIBAS was interested mainly in the names of people who had already been repressed and the people who were included in the materials. I told him about LIFSHITS and PYATAKOV, who are on the verge of being exposed. On the way from the Far East to Moscow, after I was appointed deputy people's commissar, on one of the railways. stations, an agent came into my carriage and said that at the next station the deputy wanted to talk to me. People's Commissar of Ways LIFSHITS. And indeed, I met LIFSHITS at the next station. I deliberately left the carriage so as not to talk to him in the carriage, since a number of employees were traveling with me. LIFSHITS came up to me together with RUTENBURG, the head of the road. LIFSHITS asked permission to travel through the same station with me. He said that he had been removed from the post of Deputy People's Commissar, and that in Moscow he had confrontations with those arrested. He scolded in every possible way the people who betrayed him, he was nervous and asked me, as already the deputy people's commissar, to somehow do something so that he could get out of this case. I, in turn, asked him: “If you get caught, since things have gone so far, then hold on as you should.”

At the next station he left. Having met with LIFSHITS, I got a little scared, as if there were no troubles on this basis, and adopted a plan that upon arrival in Moscow I would tell Yezhov about this, and I would tell in such a context that LIFSHITS swore and swore that he not guilty, he is terribly nervous and through practical work he is trying to prove his devotion to the Central Committee. Upon returning to Moscow, I did just that.

Soon after assuming the post of Deputy People's Commissar, Yezhov began to bring me closer to him, to single me out from the other deputies, to have more frank conversations with me in assessing other deputies, and to express some dissatisfaction with AGRANOV. Before the distribution of responsibilities between the deputies, in addition to the fact that I continued to be the head of the GUPVO, Yezhov invited me to be interested in operational issues, and around 1937, after the arrest of Yagoda, he began to talk with me regarding my possible appointment as first deputy people's commissar. During one of these conversations, Yezhov told me: “I have predetermined this issue, but I want to talk to you, just let’s be honest, you have some sins.”

At first I was completely taken aback, thinking that the matter was lost. Seeing my confusion, Yezhov began to say: “Don’t be afraid, tell me honestly.” Then I told him about the story of the falconer’s business, about my connection with YAGODA, connection with EVDOKIMOV and through him with LIFSHITS. Then Yezhov said: “You have so many sins, even if you go to prison now, well, it’s okay, you’ll work, you’ll be one hundred percent my man.” I looked at him in confusion and tried to refuse the appointment to the position of first deputy. People's Commissar, but he said: “Sit down, work, we will work together and we will answer together.”

Before the arrest of BUKHARIN and RYKOV, speaking frankly with me, EZHOV began to talk about plans for security work in connection with the current situation and the upcoming arrests of BUKHARIN and RYKOV. Yezhov said that this would be a big loss for the right-wingers, after this, beyond our desire, on the instructions of the Central Committee, large measures could unfold against the right-wing cadres, and that in connection with this, his and my main task is to conduct the investigation in such a way that, as far as possible, save right frames. He immediately unfolded the plan for this matter. Basically, this plan was as follows: “We need to place our people, mainly in the SPO apparatus, select investigators who would either be completely connected with us, or who would have had any sins and they would know that these there are sins behind them, and on the basis of these sins you can completely control them. Get involved in the investigation yourself and lead it.” “And this is,” said Yezhov, “not to write down everything that the arrested person says, but for the investigators to bring all the sketches, drafts to the head of the department, and in relation to those arrested who in the past occupied a high position and occupy a leading position in the right-wing organization , protocols should be drawn up with his approval.” If the arrested person named the members of the organization, then they had to be written down in a separate list and reported to him each time. It would be nice, Yezhov said, to take into the apparatus people who were already associated with the organization. “For example, EVDOKIMOV told you about people, and I know someone. It will be necessary to first pull them into the central apparatus. In general, we need to take a closer look at capable people, from a business point of view, from among those already working in the central apparatus, somehow bring them closer to us and then recruit them, because without these people we cannot build our work, we need to somehow show the work to the Central Committee.” .

In order to implement this proposal from Yezhov, we took a firm course towards retaining Yagodin cadres in leadership positions in the NKVD. It should be noted that we succeeded with difficulty, since various local authorities received materials from various local authorities about their involvement in the conspiracy and anti-Soviet work in general.

To preserve these cadres and their formal rehabilitation, those arrested who gave such testimony were summoned to Moscow, where, through interrogation, they were led to renounce their testimony (the ZIRNIS case, the GLEBOV case and others).

Along with this, in return for the arrested Yagoda residents (who could not be retained), at Yezhov’s direction, North Caucasian security officer cadres were intensively recruited and appointed to leadership positions in the central apparatus and local bodies of the NKVD.

A significant number of these security officers, who made up EVDOKIMOV’s cadre, were also hired to work in the NKVD security department. As I indicated above, these cadres were used by DAGIN to prepare for them, at the direction of YEZHOV, to carry out terrorist acts against the leaders of the party and government at the necessary moment.

After the arrest of PAUKER, Yezhov raised the question of selecting the head of the first department and himself proposed KURSKY, who was appointed to the position of head of the 1st department. Soon after the appointment of KURSKY, EVDOKIMOV was in Moscow. EVDOKIMOV asked me what was happening.

I told him about establishing contact with Yezhov. EVDOKIMOV then immediately moved on to the first department, saying that KURSKY was unsuccessfully appointed to the first department, although this man is ours, he said, but he is neurasthenic and a coward; I told you that DAGIN should have been appointed.

I told him about KURSKY’s moods already in the process of work, that he wanted in every possible way to be freed from the post of head of the 1st department. EVDOKIMOV proposed to take advantage of these sentiments and, at any cost, appoint KURSKY DAGIN to his place. KURSKY was released, and DAGIN was appointed.

At the same meeting with EVDOKIMOV, he said: “With you, the Yagodin line will also continue; we will destroy ourselves. How long will this continue? I told him about the conversation I had with Yezhov and pointed out that we are now taking measures to preserve personnel as much as possible.

EVDOKIMOV advised me to quickly conduct cases against the arrested and scheduled for arrest security officers. “You see,” he said, “you can’t hide the Yagoda cadres, they are known to everyone, not today, tomorrow, each of them will be pushed out, it’s just that collectives from the bottom will rise up against them, so these things need to be done here as soon as possible.” He went on to say that you need to be especially careful with BERRY. YAGODA is the kind of person who will start chattering absurd things during the investigation, and he advised that the investigation into the Yagoda case should be led by KURSKY.

I told Yezhov about this conversation with EVDOKIMOV. EZHOV said - it’s good that you’re telling me, but in vain you’re telling EVDOKIMOV what we talked about, let’s better agree this way - you’ll only tell EVDOKIMOV what I tell you.

After the October plenum of the Central Committee in 1937, EVDOKIMOV and I met together for the first time at Yezhov’s dacha. Moreover, the conversation was started by Evdokimov, who, turning to Yezhov, asked: “What’s wrong with you, he promised to straighten out Yagoda’s situation, but the matter is getting deeper and deeper and is now coming close to us. It’s obvious that you’re not managing things well.” Yezhov was silent at first, and then stated that “the situation is really difficult, now we are taking measures to reduce the scope of operations, but, apparently, we will have to deal with the head of the right.” EVDOKIMOV swore, spat and said: “Can’t I go to the NKVD, I will provide more help than others.” Yezhov says: “It would be good, but the Central Committee is unlikely to agree to transfer you to the NKVD. I think that the matter is not completely hopeless, but you need to talk with DAGINSH, you have influence on him, we need him to start working in the Operations Department, and we need to be ready to commit terrorist acts.” I don’t remember - EZHOV or EVDOKIMOV said that it was necessary to look at how the frames of PAUKER and YAGODA were arranged, and remove them. Since people are left, without management they can do stupid things and take independent actions. Here EVDOKIMOV said that it would be nice to have people from the nationalities of the North Caucasus in the external security, directly at the dachas, these people will serve honestly, after all, the Ingush guarded the Tsar. After this, EZHOV again began to say that under no circumstances should the work be stopped and curtailed, but that it was necessary to go further underground and in no case should he (EVDOKIMOV) establish additional connections around the region. “You have people, let them slowly check and get people in.”

Returning from Mongolia, I learned that there was a question about my transfer from the NKVD to the People's Commissariat of Defense - deputy. People's Commissar

On the day of the opening of the plenum, I asked Yezhov about this. He says the issue has not yet been resolved. To my question whether the conversations in the apparatus about the transfer of ZAKOVSKY to Moscow to the position of first deputy people's commissar correspond to reality, EZHOV answered: We want to take ZAKOVSKY into the apparatus as the head of a department with the right of deputy. This man, he said, is completely ours, but he is a man who needs to be looked after, and then he needs to be transferred from the Leningrad situation, because there is a lot of talk about his connections with CHUDOV and KODATSKY. The Central Committee is also talking about the decomposition of ZAKOVSKY.

After one of the meetings of the plenum, in the evening, at Yezhov’s dacha there were EVDOKIMOV, me and Yezhov. When we arrived there, EIHE was there, but EIHE did not have any conversations with us. What happened before our arrival at EZHOV and EIKHE - Yezhov did not tell me. After dinner, EIHE left, and we stayed and talked almost until the morning. EVDOKIMOV mainly insisted that they were targeting us, in particular, he began to talk about himself and expressed dissatisfaction with why EZHOV sent DEITCH to him in the region, who was selecting materials for him.

During the same plenum, I had another meeting with EVDOKIMOV. He kept pressing on the fact that Nikolai YEZHOV must be kept in his hands all the time, that “you cannot cope with this matter, you take your own cadres and shoot them,” and immediately EVDOKIMOV suggested: “I would advise not to send the Leningrad arrestees ( CHUDOV, KODATSKY, STRUPPE) to Leningrad because although ZAKOVSKY is completely our man, and whoever works with him, the devil knows, no matter how they start to screw them up.” EVDOKIMOV continued: “I think that you started awarding orders early. After all, people are being awarded not only ours, but also others, the impulse of struggle is growing, and this should have been restrained, but orders are an incentive for people who are not organically and organizationally connected with us and therefore can expand operations.” And here EVDOKIMOV and EZHOV already talked together about a possible reduction in operations, but since this was considered impossible, they agreed to deflect the blow from their cadres and try to direct it towards honest cadres loyal to the Central Committee. This was Yezhov’s attitude. I forgot to mention one circumstance that is of significant importance for the case. In the fall of 1935, at LIFSHITZ's dacha, a meeting took place between EVDOKIMOV, me, DAGIN and LIFSHITS, at which EVDOKIMOV, in an extremely irritated state, began to say that he did not entirely believe in the success of the terrorist acts against STALIN being prepared by the Trotskyists and right-wingers. At the same time, EVDOKIMOV directly stated that only the forces of the NKVD security department could actually carry out a terrorist attack against STALIN.

EVDOKIMOV strongly regretted that he was unable to appoint DAGIN as the head of the security department, even when he was working as the head of the OGPU SOU, and suggested that if the opportunity was successful, I should carefully recommend DAGIN instead of PAUKER. Soon Evdokimov was transferred to work in Moscow. Our meetings began to occur more often, both between EZHOV directly and EVDOKIMOV, and between the three of us.

Here I consider it necessary to note the following:

After the arrests of members of the right-wing center, EZHOV and EVDOKIMOV essentially became the center themselves, organizing:

1) preserving, as far as possible, anti-Soviet right-wing cadres from defeat;

2) striking a blow at honest party cadres devoted to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b);

3) preservation of rebel personnel both in the North Caucasus and in other territories and regions of the USSR with the expectation of their use at the time of international complications;

4) intensified preparation of terrorist attacks against the leaders of the party and government;

5) the rise to power of the right, led by N. Yezhov.

Upon returning from the Far East, at Yezhov’s request, I went to the People’s Commissariat without stopping home. I have never seen Yezhov in such a dejected state. He said: “This is rubbish” - and immediately moved on to the question that BERIA was appointed to the NKVD against his wishes. It will be a lousy business, he said. I'm afraid that everything will be revealed and our plans will collapse.

On August 27-28, 1938, EVDOKIMOV called me and asked me to come to his apartment. EVDOKIMOV boiled down our entire conversation to the fact that if there are any shortcomings that could lead to our involvement in criminal matters, we should finish it before BERIA arrives, and then EVDOKIMOV told me: “You check whether ZAKOVSKY was shot and whether all people are YAGODA, because upon BERIA’s arrival, the investigation into these cases can be restored and these cases will turn against us.” I checked and found that ZAKOVSKY, MIRONOV and a group of other security officers were shot on August 26-27.

I turn to the practical enemy work carried out by Yezhov, myself and other conspirators in the NKVD.

Investigative work

The investigative apparatus in all departments of the NKVD is divided into “kolschikov” investigators, “kolshchikov” and “ordinary” investigators.

What were these groups and who were they?

The “puncher investigators” were selected mainly from conspirators or compromised individuals, used uncontrolled beatings of those arrested, obtained “testimonies” in the shortest possible time and were able to competently and colorfully draw up protocols.

Since the number of people confessing to those arrested during such interrogation methods increased from day to day and the need for investigators who knew how to draw up protocols was great, the so-called “puncher investigators” began, each with himself, to create groups of simply “punchers.”

The group of “choppers” consisted of technical workers. These people did not know the materials on the person under investigation, but were sent to Lefortovo, called the arrested person and proceeded to beat him. The beating continued until the defendant agreed to testify.

The rest of the investigative staff was engaged in interrogating less serious arrestees, they were left to their own devices, and were not led by anyone.

The further process of the investigation was as follows: the investigator conducted the interrogation and, instead of a protocol, wrote down notes. After several such interrogations, the investigator drew up a draft protocol, which was sent for “correction” to the head of the relevant department, and from him, not yet signed, for “review”. People's Commissar Yezhov and, in rare cases, to me. Yezhov reviewed the protocol, made changes and additions. In most cases, those arrested did not agree with the wording of the protocol and stated that they did not say this during the investigation and refused to sign.

Then the investigators reminded the arrested person about the “bells”, and the defendant signed the protocol. In most cases, Yezhov carried out “corrections” and “editing” of protocols without seeing the arrested persons in person, and if he did, it was during fleeting visits to cells or investigative offices.

With such investigative methods, names were suggested.

In my opinion, I will be telling the truth if, to generalize, I will say that very often the testimony was given by the investigators, and not by the defendants.

Did the leadership of the People's Commissariat know about this, i.e. me and Yezhov? - They knew.

How did you react? Honestly, no way, and Yezhov even encouraged it. No one understood who was being subjected to physical pressure. And since most of the people using this method were enemies - conspirators, slander was clearly carried out, false testimony was taken, and innocent people slandered by enemies from among those arrested and enemies - investigators were arrested and shot. The real investigation was blurred.

MARYASIN was arrested - former. prev State Bank, with which Yezhov had a close relationship before his arrest. Yezhov showed exceptional interest in the investigation of his case. He personally led the investigation into his case, repeatedly attending his interrogations. MARYASIN was kept in Lefortovo prison all the time. He was beaten brutally and constantly. If other arrested people were beaten only until they confessed, then MARYASIN was beaten even after the investigation was over and no testimony was taken from him.

Once, while going through the interrogation rooms together with YEZHOV (and YEZHOV was drunk), we went to interrogate MARYASIN, and YezhOV told MARYASIN for a long time that he had not said everything yet, and, in particular, made a hint to MARYASIN about terrorism in general and the terrorist attack against him - EZHOV, and immediately declared that “we will beat, beat and beat.”

Or again: from the arrested YAKOVLEV, during the first or second interrogation after his arrest, YEZHOV, in a drunken state, sought testimony about YAKOVLEV’s preparation of a terrorist act against YEZHOV. YAKOVLEV said that this was not true, but he was beaten by YEZHOV and those present, and after that YEZHOV left without obtaining a confession. A few days later, testimony appeared about a terrorist attack being prepared against YEZHOV - YAKOVLEV.

EZHOV's consciously open line of falsifying investigative materials about the preparation of terrorist acts against him reached the point that obsequious investigators from among the "injurers" constantly sought a "confession" from those arrested about the imaginary preparation of terrorist acts against Yezhov.

The arrested KRUGLIKOV (former head of the State Bank) also testified in his testimony to the terrorist group preparing the murder of Yezhov. I was present at the pre-interrogation of Kruglikov by Yezhov. KRUGLIKOV stated that he lied on the issue of the terrorist attack against Yezhov. After this remark, Yezhov stood up, did not talk to Kruglikov, and left. Following him, the investigator who interrogated KRUGLIKOV came out and approached Yezhov. The latter said something to him, and Ezhov and I left for the People's Commissariat. I don’t know what he told the investigator, but I know that the next morning there was a statement from KRUGLIKOV, in which he explained his refusal by saying that when he saw Yezhov, he was “confused” and did not want to confirm his testimony to his face.

KRUGLIKOV was forced to confirm this testimony, and after that EZHOV never asked where the truth was.

During the investigation into the case of YAGODA and the arrested KGB conspirators, as well as other arrestees, especially right-wingers, the procedure established by YEZHOV for “adjusting” the protocols pursued the goal of preserving the cadre of conspirators and preventing any possibility of failure of our involvement in the anti-Soviet conspiracy.

One can cite dozens and hundreds of examples when arrested persons under investigation did not extradite persons associated with them in anti-Soviet work.

The most obvious examples are the conspirators YAGODA, BULANOV, ZAKOVSKY, KRUCHINKIN and others, who, knowing about my participation in the conspiracy, did not testify about it.

How were those arrested prepared for confrontations, and especially for confrontations that were carried out in the presence of members of the government?

Those arrested were specially prepared, first by the investigator, then by the head of the department. The preparation consisted of reading out the testimony that the arrested person gave to the person with whom the confrontation was to be confronted, explaining how the confrontation would be carried out, what unexpected questions could be put to the arrested person and how he should answer. Essentially, there was a conspiracy and a rehearsal for the upcoming confrontation. After this, Yezhov called the arrested person to him or, pretending that he accidentally walked into the investigator’s room, where the arrested person was sitting and talked to him about the upcoming rate, asked if he felt confident, would he confirm it, and, among other things, inserted that Government members will be present at the confrontation. Usually Yezhov was nervous before such confrontations, even after talking to the arrested person. There were cases when an arrested person, during a conversation with Yezhov, made a statement that his testimony was not true, that he had been slandered. In such cases, Yezhov left, and the investigator or the head of the department was given instructions to “reinstate” the arrested person, since a confrontation was scheduled. As an example, we can cite the preparation of a confrontation between URITSKY (head of the Intelligence Department) and BELOV (commander of the Belarusian Military District). URITSKY refused to testify against BELOV during his interrogation by Yezhov. Without having anything to talk to them about, YEZHOV left, and a few minutes later URITSKY, through NIKOLAEV, apologized to YEZHOV and said that he was “coward-hearted.”

Preparation of the trial of RYKOV, BUKHARIN, KRESTINSKY, YAGODA and others

While actively participating in the investigation in general, Yezhov withdrew from the preparation of this trial. Before the trial, there were confrontations of those arrested, interrogations, clarifications, in which Yezhov did not participate. He talked with Yagoda for a long time, and this conversation concerned mainly Yagoda’s conviction that he would not be shot. Yezhov talked several times with BUKHARIN and RYKOV and, also in order to calm them down, assured them that they would not be shot under any circumstances. Once Yezhov had a conversation with BULANOV, and he began the conversation in the presence of the investigator and me, and ended the conversation one on one, asking us to leave.

Moreover, BULANOV began a conversation at that moment about the poisoning of Yezhov. Yezhov did not tell me what the conversation was about. When he asked to come in again, he said: “Be good during the trial - I will ask you not to be shot.” After the trial, Yezhov always expressed regret about BULANOV. During the execution, Yezhov suggested that BULANOV be shot first and did not enter the room where they were shooting. Of course, here Yezhov was driven by the need to cover up his connections with the arrested right-wing leaders who were going to a public trial.

Essentially the poisoning of EZHOV. Yezhov himself suggested the idea of his poisoning - day after day, telling all deputies and heads of departments that he was not feeling well, that as soon as he was in the office, he felt some kind of metallic taste and smell in his mouth. After that, he began to complain that blood began to appear from his gums and his teeth began to loosen. Yezhov began to insist that he was poisoned in his office, and thereby inspired the investigation to obtain appropriate testimony, which was done using the Lefortovo prison and beating.

Bulk Operations

At the very beginning, Yezhov’s directive was issued regarding mass operations in full accordance with the government’s decision, and the first months they proceeded normally. It was soon established that in a number of territories and regions, and especially in the Ordzhonikidze region, there were cases of murder of those arrested during interrogations, and subsequently cases against them were registered through the troika as sentenced to death. By the same period, data on outrages began to arrive from other regions, in particular from the Urals, Belarus, Orenburg, Leningrad and Ukraine.

The outrages increased especially strongly when, in addition to the ongoing mass operations in the territories and regions, a directive was issued on the repression of foreign nationalities suspected of espionage, connections with the consulates of foreign states, and defectors. In the Leningrad, Sverdlovsk regions, Belarusian SSR, and Ukraine, native residents of the USSR began to be arrested, accusing them of having connections with foreigners. There were often cases when there was no evidence of such a connection. Cases related to this operation were considered in Moscow by a specially created troika. The chairman of the troika was first TSESARSKY and then SHAPIRO.

The decision made by EZHOV, me and EVDOKIMOV about the impossibility of stopping and deflecting the blow from their own anti-Soviet rebel cadres and the need to transfer the blow to honest cadres devoted to the homeland and party practically found expression in the criminal implementation of a punitive policy that was supposed to be directed against traitors to the motherland and foreign intelligence agencies. Honest local workers of the NKVD, not suspecting betrayal on the part of the leadership of the NKVD of the USSR and many leaders of the NKVD involved in the anti-Soviet conspiracy, mistook our enemy’s guidelines for the guidelines of the party and government and objectively turned out to be participants in the extermination of innocent, honest citizens.

Mass signals coming to us about so-called “excesses”, essentially exposing our enemy work, were left without any response, on Yezhov’s instructions. In those cases when, due to the intervention of the Central Committee, it was not possible to cover up or drown out this or that revealing signal, they resorted to outright forgery and falsification.

So, for example, in 1938, on behalf of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, SHKIRYATOV traveled to the Ordzhonikidze region to investigate received materials about criminal perversions during mass operations carried out by the NKVD in the region. Yezhov, in order to show the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks that he had responded to signals in a timely manner, handed Shkiryatov an “order” allegedly issued by him from the NKVD. In fact, he did not issue such an order.

In other cases, in order to cover up the enemy work of the conspirators, ordinary NKVD employees were brought to justice.

Deception of the party and government

Yezhov, having come to the NKVD, at all meetings, in conversations with operational workers, deservedly criticizing the departmentalism existing among the security officers, isolation from the party, emphasized that he would instill party spirit in the workers, that he did not and would never hide anything from the party and from STALIN. In fact, he deceived the party both in serious, big issues and in small things. Yezhov conducted these conversations for nothing other than to lull the vigilance of honest NKVD workers.

Yezhov created for himself, and then his closest assistants, starting with me, an aura of glory for the best of the best, the vigilant of the vigilant. Yezhov often said that if it weren’t for him, there would have been a coup in the country; as a result of his work and the cases that were revealed, the war was delayed, etc. He criticized hostilely and discredited individual members of the Politburo. He spoke about a number of them openly as unreliable and shaky. Often, in the presence of a number of subordinate workers, he uttered catchphrases about the close ties of individual members of the Politburo with exposed and repressed conspirators. He spoke of some as blind, not seeing what was happening around them, having missed the enemies in their surroundings. All these were phrases covering his deception of the party and the Central Committee and his criminal activities. Perhaps the facts that I stated earlier would be enough, but I want to give a few more examples. Former beginning The intelligence department of the Red Army URITSKY began to testify against the commander of the BVO - BELOV, who was summoned to Moscow, where a confrontation between BELOV and URITSKY was expected. The confrontation was scheduled for the evening. EZHOV was summoned to the Kremlin to STALIN's apartment and after some time he called me on the phone in my office and said: “We urgently need to find BELOV and ask him to come to the NKVD.” To my question, where could he be, Yezhov answered in a raised tone: “I gave you the order to install an outdoor surveillance system behind BELOV?” When I tried to tell Yezhov that he had not given me any instructions about this, Yezhov, without listening to me, hung up. The audit established that no surveillance of BELOV had been established and that EZHOV had deceived the Central Committee.

The second fact that I became aware of after leaving the NKVD. EZHOV hid from the Central Committee and STALIN the testimony sent from the Georgian NKVD against LYUSHKOV and other conspirators when LYUSHKOV was appointed head of the NKVD department of the DCK. On Yezhov’s instructions, I carried out a “verification” of this testimony against LYUSHKOV by interrogating YAGODA. The interrogation was deliberately carried out in such a way that YAGODA did not confirm these testimonies against LYUSHKOV, while LYUSHKOV was one of his closest people. LYUSH-KOV, as is known, fled abroad.

Third fact. About a group of conspirators and terrorists in the Kremlin (BRYUKHANOV, TABOLIN, KALMYKOV, VINOGRADOVA).

I don’t know whether there is any point in writing this, Citizen People’s Commissar, since you know this, but I still consider it necessary to report that the protocol of testimony against BRYUKHANOV and others was immediately handed over to Yezhov upon their receipt, and was kept by him, ostensibly for the report STALIN and MOLOTOV. And there was a need for this, since BRYUKHANOV was VINOGRADOVA’s husband, and the latter worked to serve STALIN and his secretariat. However, Yezhov, as I learned upon returning from the Far East, hid these materials from the party and government for seven months.

This statement does not exhaust the entire sum of the facts of my criminal work.

In my subsequent testimony, I will exhaustively tell the investigation everything that I know, and I will not hide a single enemy of the Communist Party and Soviet power known to me, and I will name all the persons involved in anti-Soviet conspiratorial work, regardless of whether they have been arrested today or not .

M. FRINOVSKY

AP RF. F. 3. Op. 24. D. 373. L. 3-44. Script. Typescript.

In the margins there are handwritten notes from Stalin:

F once “Roshal must be broken off” is circled, and in the margin it is written: “What does this mean?”;
The phrase is circled and written in the margin: “Who are they?”;
F The names are circled and written in the margin: “Where are they?”;
F it is underlined once, and in the margin it is written: “Who is there?”;
P The sentence is underlined and written in the margin: “Who are they?”;
The names are circled and "Where are they?" written in the margin;
WITH the words “shot on August 26-27” are circled and an “xx” sign is placed in the margin;
WITH The word is circled and written in the margin: “Which others?”;
The sentence is circled and written in the margin: “Agreed? You're lying!
The last name is circled, and at the end of the page it says: “You’re lying!”

(1898-02-07 )
Narovchat, Penza province Death: February 4(1940-02-04 ) (41 years old)
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Order of Lenin - 1936	Order of the Red Banner - 1924	Order of the Red Banner - 1932	Order of the Red Banner - 1935
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Frinovsky Mikhail Petrovich(January 26 (February 7) - February 4) - figure in the Soviet state security agencies, army commander 1st rank (1938). Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee of the 7th convocation, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation. One of the direct organizers of the “Great Terror”.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Frinovsky was born at the beginning of 1898 in the city (now village) Narovchat, Penza province. Before the First World War he studied at the theological school in Krasnoslobodsk.

In January 1916, he entered the cavalry as a volunteer and served with the rank of non-commissioned officer. In January-August 1916 he deserted. He was associated with anarchists, participated in the murder of Major General M.A. Bem.

Since March 1917, Frinovsky worked as a bookkeeper at a military hospital. Participant in the July 1917 uprising. In September of the same year, he joined the Red Guard in Khamovniki (Moscow), commanded a group of Red Guards, took part in the storming of the Kremlin, and was seriously wounded. Until February 1918, he was undergoing treatment at the Lefortovo Hospital.

Revolution and career in state security agencies

In 1919, after being seriously wounded, he was transferred to trade union work, and then to the organs of the Cheka. In the second half of 1919, he served as assistant to the head of the active part of the Special Department of the Moscow Cheka. Participated in the most important operations of the Cheka - the defeat of the anarchists, the liquidation of anarchist and rebel groups in Ukraine, etc.

On July 8, 1927, he was transferred to Moscow to the position of assistant to the head of the Special Department of the Military District. In 1927, he completed courses for senior command personnel at the Frunze Military Academy of the Red Army. From November 28, 1928 to September 1, 1930, he was the commander-military commissar of a separate special-purpose division named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky at the board of the OGPU of the USSR.

On September 1, 1930, Frinovsky was promoted and appointed to the post of chairman of the GPU of Azerbaijan. He was one of the organizers of dispossession in Azerbaijan. On April 8, 1933, he became the head of the Main Directorate of Border Guards and Troops of the OGPU of the USSR, in this capacity he led the OGPU operation to suppress the uprising in Xinjiang.

Fall and death

On April 6, 1939, he was removed from all posts and arrested on charges of “organizing a Trotskyist-fascist conspiracy in the NKVD” (which he confessed to under torture). He was kept in the Sukhanovskaya special prison. On February 4, 1940, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death. The body was cremated in the Donskoy Monastery.

Family

Wife - Frinovskaya Nina Stepanovna. Born in 1903 in Ryazan; Russian, non-partisan, higher education, graduate student at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Arrested on April 12, 1939. On February 2, 1940, on trumped-up charges of “concealing the criminal counter-revolutionary activities of enemies of the people” (that is, her own husband and minor son), the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced her to death. Shot on February 3, 1940. Rehabilitated on January 12, 1956.

Son - Oleg Mikhailovich Frinovsky. Born in 1922 in Kharkov; member of the Komsomol, incomplete secondary education, 10th grade student of the 2nd special school in Moscow. Arrested on April 12, 1939. On January 21, 1940, on trumped-up charges of participating in a mythical “counter-revolutionary youth group”, he was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Shot on the same day. Rehabilitated on January 12, 1956.

Military ranks

Komkor (11/29/1935)
Commander 1st rank (09/14/1938)

Awards

Order of Lenin (02/14/1936)
Order of the Red Banner (12/20/1932)
Order of the Red Banner (02/03/1935)
Order of the Red Star (07/22/1937)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Azerbaijan SSR (03/04/1931)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the TSFSR (03/07/1932)
Medal “XX Years of the Red Army” (02/22/1938)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-OGPU (V)” (1925)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-OGPU (XV)” (05/26/1933)
Order of the Red Banner of the Mongolian People's Republic (25.10.1937)

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 24, 1941, he was deprived of state awards and military rank.

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Notes

Literature

See "Commander of Terror". In the book by N. G. Sysoev “Gendarmes and Chekists: from Benkendorf to Yagoda.” M.: “Veche”, 2002, 380 pp., with ill. ISBN 5-94538-136-5
State power of the USSR. Supreme authorities and management and their leaders. 1923-1991 Historical and biographical reference book./Compiled. V. I. Ivkin. Moscow, 1999. - ISBN 5-8243-0014-3
// Petrov N.V., Skorkin K.V./ Ed. N. G. Okhotin and A. B. Roginsky. - M.: Links, 1999. - 502 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-7870-0032-3.
Bliznichenko S.S. “From rags to riches”: a security officer at the head of the fleet // Military Historical Archive. 2008. No. 8. P. 43-63.
Bliznichenko S.S. “From rags to riches”: a security officer at the head of the fleet // Military Historical Archive. 2008. No. 9. P. 119-135.

Links

Petrov N.V., Skorkin K.V.. Retrieved September 4, 2012. .

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An excerpt characterizing Frinovsky, Mikhail Petrovich

There was deadly silence all around. There was nothing else to see...
This is how the gentle and kind queen died, until the very last minute she managed to stand with her head held high, which was then so simply and mercilessly demolished by the heavy knife of the bloody guillotine...
Pale, frozen, like a dead man, Axel looked with unseeing eyes out the window and it seemed that life was flowing out of him drop by drop, painfully slowly... Carrying his soul far, far away, so that there, in the light and silence, he could forever merge with the one whom he loved so deeply and selflessly...
“My poor... My soul... How did I not die with you?.. Everything is over for me now...” Axel whispered with dead lips, still standing at the window.
But everything will be “over” for him much later, after some twenty long years, and this end will, again, be no less terrible than that of his unforgettable queen...
– Do you want to watch further? – Stella asked quietly.
I just nodded, unable to say a word.
We saw another, raging, brutal crowd of people, and in front of it stood the same Axel, only this time the action took place many years later. He was still just as handsome, only almost completely gray-haired, in some magnificent, very important military uniform, he still looked just as fit and slender.

And so, the same brilliant, smartest man stood in front of some half-drunk, brutalized people and, hopelessly trying to shout them down, tried to explain something to them... But none of those gathered, unfortunately, wanted to listen to him... In Stones were thrown at poor Axel, and the crowd, inciting their anger with nasty curses, began to press. He tried to fight them off, but they threw him to the ground, began to brutally trample him, tear off his clothes... And some big guy suddenly jumped on his chest, breaking his ribs, and without hesitation, easily killed him with a blow to his temple. Axel's naked, mutilated body was dumped on the side of the road, and there was no one who at that moment would want to feel sorry for him, already dead... There was only a rather laughing, drunk, excited crowd around... who just needed to throw it out on someone - your accumulated animal anger...
Axel’s pure, suffering soul, finally freed, flew away to unite with the one who was his bright and only love, and who had been waiting for him for so many years...
This is how, again, very cruelly, an almost stranger to Stella and I, but who became so close, a man named Axel, ended his life, and... the same little boy who, having lived only a short five years, managed to accomplish an amazing and unique feat in his life, of which any adult living on earth could be honestly proud...
“What horror!..” I whispered in shock. - Why is he doing this?
“I don’t know...” Stella whispered quietly. “For some reason people were very angry back then, even angrier than animals... I looked a lot to understand, but I didn’t understand...” the little girl shook her head. “They didn’t listen to reason, they just killed.” And for some reason everything beautiful was destroyed too...
– What about Axel’s children or wife? – Having come to my senses after the shock, I asked.
“He never had a wife - he always loved only his queen,” said little Stella with tears in her eyes.

And then, suddenly, a flash seemed to flash in my head - I realized who Stella and I had just seen and for whom we were so sincerely worried!... It was the French queen, Marie Antoinette, about whose tragic life we had very recently (and very briefly!) took place in a history lesson, and the execution of which our history teacher strongly approved, considering such a terrible end to be very “correct and instructive”... apparently because he mainly taught “Communism” in history. .
Despite the sadness of what happened, my soul rejoiced! I simply could not believe the unexpected happiness that had fallen upon me!.. After all, I had been waiting for this for so long!.. This was the first time when I finally saw something real that could be easily verified, and from such a surprise I almost squealed from the puppyish delight that gripped me!.. Of course, I was so happy not because I didn’t believe in what was constantly happening to me. On the contrary, I always knew that everything that happened to me was real. But apparently I, like any ordinary person, and especially a child, sometimes still needed some kind of, at least the simplest confirmation that I was not yet going crazy, and that now I could prove to myself, that everything that happens to me is not just my sick fantasy or invention, but a real fact, described or seen by other people. That’s why such a discovery was a real holiday for me!..
I already knew in advance that as soon as I returned home, I would immediately rush to the city library to collect everything I could find about the unfortunate Marie Antoinette and would not rest until I found at least something, at least some fact that coincided with our visions... Unfortunately, I found only two tiny books, which did not describe so many facts, but this was quite enough, because they completely confirmed the accuracy of what I saw from Stella.
Here's what I managed to find then:
the queen's favorite man was a Swedish count named Axel Fersen, who selflessly loved her all his life and never married after her death;
their farewell before the count's departure to Italy took place in the garden of the Little Trianon - Marie Antoinette's favorite place - the description of which exactly coincided with what we saw;
a ball in honor of the arrival of the Swedish King Gustav, held on June 21, at which all the guests for some reason were dressed in white;
an escape attempt in a green carriage, organized by Axel (all other six escape attempts were also organized by Axel, but none of them, for one reason or another, failed. True, two of them failed at the request of Marie Antoinette herself, since the queen did not wanted to run away alone, leaving her children);
the beheading of the queen took place in complete silence, instead of the expected “happy riot” of the crowd;
a few seconds before the executioner struck, the sun suddenly came out...
The queen's last letter to Count Fersen is almost exactly reproduced in the book "Memoirs of Count Fersen", and it almost exactly repeated what we heard, with the exception of only a few words.
Already these small details were enough for me to rush into battle with tenfold force!.. But that was only later... And then, in order not to seem funny or heartless, I tried my best to pull myself together and hide my delight at my wonderful insight." And in order to dispel Stellino’s sad mood, she asked:
– Do you really like the queen?
- Oh yeah! She is kind and so beautiful... And our poor “boy”, he suffered so much here too...
I felt very sorry for this sensitive, sweet little girl, who, even in her death, was so worried about these completely strangers and almost strangers to her, just as many people do not worry about their closest relatives...
– Probably in suffering there is some amount of wisdom, without which we would not understand how precious our life is? – I said uncertainly.
- Here! Grandma says that too! – the girl was delighted. – But if people only want good, then why should they suffer?
– Maybe because without pain and trials, even the best people would not truly understand the same goodness? – I joked.
But for some reason Stella did not take this at all as a joke, but said very seriously:
– Yes, I think you’re right... Do you want to see what happened to Harold’s son next? – she said more cheerfully.
- Oh no, perhaps not anymore! – I begged.
Stella laughed joyfully.
- Don't be afraid, this time there will be no trouble, because he is still alive!
- How - alive? – I was surprised.
Immediately, a new vision appeared again and, continuing to surprise me unspeakably, this turned out to be our century (!), and even our time... A gray-haired, very pleasant man was sitting at the desk and was thinking intently about something. The whole room was literally filled with books; they were everywhere - on the table, on the floor, on the shelves, and even on the windowsill. A huge fluffy cat was sitting on a small sofa and, not paying any attention to its owner, was intently washing itself with its large, very soft paw. The whole atmosphere created the impression of “learnedness” and comfort.
“What, is he living again?..” I didn’t understand.
Stella nodded.
- And this is right now? – I didn’t let up.
The girl again confirmed with a nod of her cute red head.
– It must be very strange for Harold to see his son so different?.. How did you find him again?
- Oh, exactly the same! I just “felt” his “key” the way my grandmother taught me. – Stella said thoughtfully. – After Axel died, I looked for his essence on all the “floors” and could not find it. Then I looked among the living - and he was there again.
– And do you know who he is now, in this life?
– Not yet... But I’ll definitely find out. I tried many times to “reach out” to him, but for some reason he doesn’t hear me... He is always alone and almost all the time with his books. With him are only the old woman, his servant and this cat.
- Well, what about Harold’s wife? “Did you find her too?” I asked.
- Oh, of course! You know your wife - this is my grandmother!.. - Stella smiled slyly.
I froze in real shock. For some reason, such an incredible fact did not want to fit into my dumbfounded head...
“Grandma?..” was all I could say.
Stella nodded, very pleased with the effect produced.
- How so? Is that why she helped you find them? She knew?!.. – thousands of questions were simultaneously spinning madly in my excited brain, and it seemed to me that I would never have time to ask everything that interested me. I wanted to know EVERYTHING! And at the same time, I understood perfectly well that no one was going to tell me “everything”...
“I probably chose him because I felt something.” – Stella said thoughtfully. - Or maybe grandma brought it up? But she will never admit it,” the girl waved her hand.
- AND HE?.. Does he know too? – that’s all I could ask.
- Surely! – Stella laughed. - Why does this surprise you so much?
“She’s just old... It must be hard for him,” I said, not knowing how to more accurately explain my feelings and thoughts.
- Oh no! – Stella laughed again. - He was glad! Very, very happy. Grandma gave him a chance! No one could have helped him with this - but she could! And he saw her again... Oh, it was so great!
And only then did I finally understand what she was talking about... Apparently, Stella’s grandmother gave her former “knight” the chance that he had so hopelessly dreamed of throughout his long life remaining after physical death. After all, he had been looking for them so long and persistently, so madly wanted to find them, so that just once he could say: how terribly he regrets that he once left... that he could not protect... that he could not show how much and he loved them selflessly... He needed to death that they would try to understand him and be able to somehow forgive him, otherwise he had no reason to live in any of the worlds...
And so she, his sweet and only wife, appeared to him as he always remembered her, and gave him a wonderful chance - she gave him forgiveness, and at the same time, she gave him life...
Only then did I truly understand what Stella’s grandmother meant when she told me how important it was that I gave the “gone” such a chance... Because, probably, there is nothing worse in the world than to be left with an unforgiven guilt inflicted resentment and pain to those without whom our entire past life would have no meaning...
I suddenly felt very tired, as if this most interesting time spent with Stella had taken away the last drops of my remaining strength... I completely forgot that this “interesting”, like everything interesting before, had its “price”, and therefore, again, as before, I also had to pay for today’s “walking”... It’s just that all these “viewing” other people’s lives were a huge burden for my poor physical body, not yet accustomed to it, and, to my great regret , so far I haven't had enough...

On April 6, 1939, 78 years ago, Army Commander 1st Rank, People's Commissar of the Navy Mikhail Frinovsky was removed from all posts and arrested. Six days later, he was followed to prison by his wife Nina Frinovskaya, a graduate student at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and his schoolboy son, a 10th grade student at Moscow Special School No. 2, Oleg Frinovsky.

Oleg Frinovsky, who was accused of participating in a counter-revolutionary youth group and preparing an assassination attempt on Comrade Stalin, was convicted and executed on January 21, 1940. Moreover, they were convicted at the highest level. His case was considered by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Few have received this honor.

His mother, Nina Stepanovna, was also respected. On February 2, 1940, on charges of “concealing the criminal counter-revolutionary activities of enemies of the people” (apparently her husband and son), the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced her to death. The sentence was carried out on February 3, 1940.

And only the next day, February 4, 1940, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR reached the head of the family, Mikhail Petrovich, who was also sentenced to death and slapped on the same day.

All three were burned in the crematorium at the Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Cruel. It is impossible to imagine what Army Commander Frinovsky experienced during the trial. It is obvious to me that he was certainly informed about the execution of his son and wife even before it began, in order to break him down and finish him off completely. Well, it’s better not to think about what his wife went through at all.

Never, neither before nor after, during Stalin's Great Terror, were relatives of high-ranking victims treated like this. The wives of Tukhachevsky, Gamarnik, Yakir and Uborevich were shot in 1941, in conditions when loose ends were being cleaned up in anticipation of a possible military defeat. October 16th, by the way. Remember what kind of day it was. Otherwise, it is likely that they would have spent their time in camps and exile and returned home. But the war had its own way. The children were spared. Svetlana Tukhachevskaya, Victoria Gamarnik, Vladimir Uborevich and Pyotr Yakir, not to mention many children of lower-ranking military commanders, having gone through exile, were subsequently rehabilitated and returned home alive.

After the fall of Lavrentiy Beria, his wife and son were not even imprisoned, but were sent into exile in... Kyiv! Although, it would seem, they could easily settle scores with them for their father’s actions. They didn't. But the Frinovskys with particular cruelty. Even the minor Oleg was not spared. And it was the then People’s Commissar of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria who did this, who is now given credit for the fact that it was he who stopped the flywheel of repression and returned to freedom from prison many of those who had not yet been shot, for example Rokossovsky.

Lavrentiy Beria was appointed by Stalin to the NKVD after Yezhov, who is credited with organizing and promoting the Great Terror of 1937-1938. Yezhov was dismissed from the post of People's Commissar on November 25, 1938, at his own request, after submitting a resignation report to Stalin on November 23. In his place was appointed his First Deputy Lavrentiy Beria, who had previously headed the Main Directorate of State Security within the NKVD structure, which, in fact, carried out mass repressions. Beria, transferred to Moscow from Georgia, where he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee, became Yezhov’s first deputy on August 22, 1938, and he headed the GUGB on September 8, 1938, instead of Yezhov’s other First Deputy, who was…. Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky, transferred to another job. Frinovsky left with a promotion. He headed the People's Commissariat of the Navy instead of the arrested Pyotr Smirnov, who was later shot when he was the People's Commissar of the NKVD Beria. At the same time, Frinovsky was awarded the rank of Commander of the 1st rank, bypassing the Commander of the 2nd rank, from the Komkor.

Let us note that Frinovsky had an army rank. State security had its own gradation. The top ranks ranged from state security major and above to state security commissioner 1st rank. Frinovsky did not make his career there. For two years, from 1928 to 1930, he commanded a separate special-purpose division named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky at the board of the OGPU of the USSR, and from 1933 to 1937 he headed the Border Service of the USSR. She changed names several times, and I will not list them. Well, until 1928, Frinovsky held responsible positions in the Special Departments of the Cheka-OGPU of the First Cavalry Army, in Ukraine and the North Caucasus. Here it must be said that Frinovsky was transferred to the Cheka after he was written off from the army due to severe wounds. He received his first wound, after which he barely survived, during the October Revolution in Moscow, during the assault on the Kremlin by the Red Army soldiers, and the second on the Civil Fields. That is, Mikhail Petrovich was not initially a party functionary, and at the beginning of his career he did not spare, as they say, his belly and was an honored fighter.

And so on April 15, 1937, Frinovsky was appointed first deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov at the head of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR, which, in fact, unleashed the Great Terror. And when we talk about the Yezhovshchina, we should actually talk about the Frinovshchina, because it was Mikhail Petrovich who was the cooperator of mass repressions and the organizer of the famous Moscow trials.

To begin with, Frinovsky began to cleanse the army. Our former resident in Western Europe, Walter Krivitsky, who found himself in Moscow in the spring of 1937, trying to understand what was happening, recalls in his memoirs how he visited Frinovsky.

Tell me what's going on? What's happening in the country? - I sought from Frinovsky. “I can't do my job without knowing what it all means.” What will I tell my comrades abroad?

This is a conspiracy. We had just uncovered a gigantic conspiracy in the army; history had never known such a conspiracy. But we will take control of everything, we will take them all. We have now become aware of a conspiracy to kill Nikolai Ivanovich (Yezhov) himself.

Frinovsky did not provide any evidence. Rolling up his sleeves, he began to act. On May 22, Marshal Tukhachevsky was arrested, on May 31, the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, Army Commissar 1st Rank Gamarnik, shot himself. Both were deputies of People's Commissar Voroshilov. And off we go. The fleet got it too. The main naval commanders of the then USSR, the flagships of the 1st rank fleet, Orlov and Viktorov, were arrested and shot, then Frinovsky reached the People's Commissar of the Navy Smirnov. And here Stalin puts Frinovsky himself in the vacated place, who, as I already mentioned, was abruptly promoted from corps commander to 1st rank army commander.

A truth as old as time says that if you want to get rid of a person, then he must be promoted. Stalin, undoubtedly, already decided to get rid of Frinovsky. Figuratively speaking, “drown.” So he threw it at the Navy, which is called a “fire.” And before that, back in the spring of 1938, Frinovsky’s boss, Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov, was concurrently appointed People’s Commissar of the River Fleet. Also obviously with an eye to subsequent shooting. Stalin apparently felt something about the water element (they say he could spend hours watching a documentary about the Grand Fleet leaving Scapa Flow). All this is not without reason. He threw one into the civilian fleet, the other into the military, and then spanked both. Well, just a diabolical scenario. The leader loved such castlings with productions.

It must be said that Mikhail Petrovich also did not shy away from directing, he acted with sparkle, invention and enthusiasm. Here, for example, is Special Report by M.P. Frinovsky I.V. To Stalin about the “sabotage” activities of the German special services with the help of crows from 07/20/1937:

“May 31 this year On Lake Ladoga, a crow was killed, on which a ring was found, No. D-72291 with the inscription “Germany”. At the same time, near the village. Rusynya, Batetsky district, Leningrad region, a crow was hit by a kite, on which there was a ring for D-70398 also with the inscription “Germany”. It must be assumed that the Germans, with the help of crows, are exploring the direction of the winds, with the aim of using them for purely sabotage and bacteriological purposes (arson of populated areas, stacks of bread, etc.).”

Here I remember the immortal accusation from Ilya Zverev’s story “Defender Sedov”, where livestock pest specialists were tried for an attempt on the life of Stakhanov milkmaids with the help of a temporarily crazy bull. As we see, there was plenty of such nonsense. But everything is good in moderation. And the stupid executor of the will of the leader, Frinovsky, apparently did not know the limits; Stalin was most likely tired of such revelations, and, instead of the classic “be quiet, you fool,” the faithful servant was sent for promotion before the slaughter.

Or maybe he gave him one last chance. The trouble was that Frinovsky did not know maritime affairs at all, and the only thing he could succeed in was repression in the department newly entrusted to him. And his deputies helped him manage the case, for example, the Chief of the Main Naval Staff, Lev Galler. There's nowhere without Haller.

Here, for example, we read an extract from visits to Stalin’s office for 1939:

On January 10, 1939, Comrade Frinovsky entered Stalin’s office at 5:25 p.m. and left at 7:45 p.m. Together with Haller.

On January 19, 1939, Comrade Frinovsky came to the leader at 20:50 and left at 21:35. This time we are talking to Tributz, commander of the Baltic Fleet.

February 8, 1939 Comrade Frinovsky entered at 21:00 and left at 22:00. 25min. He went in with Haller and came out alone. Haller left early, at 21:40.

Apparently he was asked to leave so as not to give any hints, as in the famous film Tobacco Captain. And so that without a hint the People's Commissar's stupidity would be visible. The entire top of the Politburo was in the office at that time - Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Beria. Very similar to a public spanking. Another act of tragicomedy has begun.

On March 10-21, 1939, the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held in Moscow. Frinovsky was present at it. But this was his swan song. Admiral Kuznetsov was also among the delegates there. When Molotov approached him and asked if Comrade Kuznetsov wanted to speak, he said that it would be more logical for the People’s Commissar to do so. To which Molotov quipped that the People's Commissar does not know what to talk about, and you should jot down the theses of your speech for now. Soon after this, during a break in the foyer, Stalin himself approached Kuznetsov and, holding out a paper, asked him to read it. On paper there was a statement from Frinovsky with a request to be relieved of his post due to complete ignorance of maritime affairs.

That was the end. All that remains is to wait for the last act of the drama. Kuznetsov was told to accept cases, but there was no one to accept them. Frinovsky had not yet been officially fired; he was not at work; according to rumors, he was sitting in his dacha and drinking heavily. You can trust Kuznetsov. Others can't.

The well-known Rezun-Suvorov describes Frinovsky’s arrest in such a way that one fine day his personal driver with his own regular security, instead of taking him home to Prechistenka after work, took him to Lubyanka. According to another version, Frinovsky barricaded himself at home in anticipation of arrest and did not want to open the door for a long time. According to the third version, he was tied up with difficulty by several people, led by Beria’s deputy Bogdan Kobulov, who personally knocked Frinovsky down and leaned on him with his whole body, after which he was hardly handcuffed.

Mikhail Petrovich was a man of heroic build. In his youth he joined the anarchists. Since then, his body has been adorned with luscious tattoos, and his speech has been replete with prison slang. Rezun-Suvorov attributes to him a criminal past, but this is not so. He didn't do any exes. Moreover, his grandfather was a priest and he himself studied at a theological seminary at one time. And of course, he was not a Jew at all, much to the chagrin of our jingoists, who attribute the Great Terror to their evil intent.

Frinovsky was placed in the famous Sukhanovka, the most terrible political prison of the then USSR. 6 days later they brought my wife and son there. In prison, Frinovsky signed everything they wanted from him. But here the versions differ. According to the first, he was broken by torture, according to the second, he, knowing full well what awaited him, detachedly, without further ado, signed everything that was slipped to him. It is not clear why he did not try to save his family. Or maybe he tried, but their fate was determined in advance.

During the Great Terror, it was Frinovsky who developed the methodology for dealing with the wives and children of enemies of the people. Yezhov agreed with him, and Stalin approved it. Let us remember that the wives of enemies of the people were exiled, and their children were sent to an orphanage or a special detention center. This practice also occurred at the time of Frinovsky’s arrest. Moreover, Beria softened her. But not in relation to the family of the former People's Commissar of the Navy. They worked to the fullest. The wife was accused of not informing, and an entire counter-revolutionary youth organization was created for her son. In addition to him, it included several other young people, including the son of Evdokimov, another deputy of Yezhov, who moved with him from the NKVD to the People's Commissariat of the River Fleet. The guys were credited with counter-revolutionary activities and an attempt to assassinate the Leader due to the fact that they became embittered against Soviet power after the arrest of their fathers. But here there is already a discrepancy. If Evdokimov was taken in the fall of 1938 and his son had time to realize everything and become embittered, then Oleg Frinovsky was taken 6 days after his father. It turns out that in 6 days the guy managed to become embittered, create an anti-Soviet organization, and, in addition, develop a plan to assassinate Stalin. I honestly feel sorry for the guy, just like his mother. Before her husband had even been convicted of sabotage, she was already shot for failure to inform. And all this with the knowledge of Lavrentiy Beria. So let’s not attribute humanism and stopping the mechanism of repression to Lavrenty Pavlovich. The storyteller and director was still the same.

Nina Stepanovna and Oleg Frinovsky were rehabilitated at the beginning of 1956. Mikhail Petrovich is not there, he is too odious and stained with blood.

Their fate is indicative. For the sins of the head of the family, she mercilessly took it out on his loved ones.