Daily magazine: performers-virtuosos

A lot is written about the “Katyn business”, but somehow one question remains in the shade.

Almost 22,000 executed.

And who “performed them”, expressing his executioners in professional slang?

There is no secret here.

The leadership of the operation was entrusted to the People's Commissar of State Security V. Merkulov, his deputy Kobulov B.Z. And the head of 1 special. Department of the NKVD BASTAKOV L.F.

It is clear that a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) Merkulov (future Army General) and a candidate for member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (B.) Kobulov (future colonel general) "carried out the leadership".

But the head is 1 special. The department is already warmer.

Bashtakov Leonid Fkeevich, 1900 - 1970 .

The peasant son, studied at the gymnasium (Samara), left the 7th grade. By profession, a counter-holder, in this capacity came to work in the OGPU in 1922, a member of the party since 1926. He worked in the economic department, and from 1938 to 1942-in the Special Department. Then he was the head of the Higher School of the NKVD-NKGB-MGB. At the age of 47, in the rank of Major General retired (Order: Red Star-for Katyn, Red Banner, Lenin). In the 1950s, he worked as the head of the secret and shift department of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, then a personal pensioner.

Even more specifically was the work of directly responsible for the "execution".

Blokhin Vasily Mikhailovich, 1895 - 1955.

The peasant son, shepherd, non-commissioned officer of the reserve regiment (did not participate in hostilities). Since 1918 - in the Red Army, a member of the party since 1921. In the Cheka - since 1921.

From 1926 to April 1953, he invariably held the post of “commandant of the OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB”.

In this capacity, the Major General of the State Security Blokhin directly led the "executions". It is difficult to evaluate how much it was “executed” under his leadership - he worked in Moscow (Barsnofievsky per., 2/10), constantly went on business trips, including in the “Katyn case”. Obviously, over 27 years, it was about hundreds of thousands of executed under his leadership.

Vasily Mikhailovich did not shy away “handmade”. The master put on a leather apron, kraga, glasses and was taken up to work. According to one of the Kalinin Chekists, he was “horrified” when he saw how V.M.

Meanwhile, as much as you can judge from the photograph, there is nothing “infernal” in the person of Vasily Mikhailovich. The usual "Chekist-Lithuan": eyes-shifts, narrow lips, expression "collected". And in the life of the general, the gentleman of the Orders of Lenin, the Red Star, the Badge of Honor, the Red Banner (just for Katyn), the Red Banner of Labor, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, there was hardly something “James Bondovskoye”. Work, often night, eternal business trips. Rations, awards, rest houses ...

Soviet nomenclature. True, after the death of Stalin, Fortune turned away from him-he was deprived of the title of Major General in 1954 "as discrediting himself during the work in the organs." What is “discredited” is incomprehensible. Soon after the unfair dump Vasily Mikhailovich died.

Among the Virtuoso of Moscow, who worked under the leadership of V.M., Petr Ivanovich Maggo was the first to be considered, 1879 - 1941.

Latvy, farm laborer, grade 2 secondary schools. Party member since 1919.

As they say, by the face of this flowering person with glasses, it was easy to take for a rural teacher.

He served in the internal prison of the Cheka-OGPU, rose to the boss. From this position he voluntarily left with a decrease - to ordinary employees of special instructions of the commandant's office.

Judging by the orders of the OGPU-NKVD, the captain of the state security of Maggo P.I. Personally killed in the period 1927-1940. 10.000 (ten thousand) people. Orders: Lenin, Red Banner, Red Star. He was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery. Judging by the legends, he had no family, because I drank a lot.

Approximately the same path was traveled by Colonel Petr Yakovlev - voluntarily abandoned the post of head of the NKVD special -feeder to go as an ordinary employee of special commandant’s instructions.

We can say a lot of words both pathos and science -like.

But for me, the psychology of these people is an absolute mystery. Much more than the psychology of sexual maniacs like Chekatilo, etc. There, at least, you can "get rid of", saying "crazy".

And here?