... and then the pros came

The last chairman of the KGB of the USSR Vadim Bakatin died

In May 1991, I visited the Kremlin office of Bakatin twice. And both times the conversation began the same way - he asked me: "Sorry, please, is it nothing that I am without a jacket?" Than he was at a standstill before the choice, or asking a member of the Security Council to bring himself in full order, or to express their readiness to immediately remove his ...

At this moment, I recalled the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who unanimously spoke about their recent manager as a person extremely unstressed and even rude. “Builder ...”, the workers sighed, who, nevertheless, belonged to the bakatin amateur with unusual professionals sympathy and unanimously emphasized Vadim Viktorovich: the ability to learn just from those who have to study.

In fact, Vadim Bakatin became a large political figure unexpectedly and, so to speak, at the same time: at the very beginning of December 1990, when a message was made about his resignation from the post of Minister of the Interior.

Actually, this was all suddenly accepted in our amazing Fatherland - only having gone through the disgrace, and it turned out, it turned out to count on a serious further take -off.

And so, well ... Yes, he declassified the closed statistics of criminal offenses for years, yes, readily came to contact with journalists, he spoke easily, without a piece of paper, which at that time (even before the meetings of the first congress of people's deputies) was a curiosity. Yes, he bribed with sincerity, multiplied by the obscure rumors about his, supposedly, liberalism, which, however, was not easy to solve behind the dense rows of riot police at the same Moscow rallies.

But riot police beat the protesters less and less, which was obvious.

In a word, the minister, as a minister - from the party nominees, who at least put on internal affairs, at least on a bathhouse or elegant arts. During his statement, Bakatin said: “Yes, of course, it would be better if I were a lawyer. But this is purely my business, it only interferes with me and does not bother anyone else. How do I feel about the appointment? I relate with great responsibility, realizing that this is a difficult, difficult post and trust that I have provided, or will be provided, I must justify. ”

The answer is as an answer, we heard such dozens from people who successfully ruined the industries entrusted to them. But in this case, it would be injustable not to say that, now re-reading the old transcenograms of the meetings of the Supreme Council, you somehow evaluate in a new way how confidently Bakatin answered the questions of the deputies (20 pages of the small font!), As it owned information, how he was guided by problems. And it was no accident that only 7 people voted against Bakatin.

By the way, then the deputy corps did not make unanimous decisions at all.

But Bakatin’s public opinion was not particularly distinguished for the time being. The Democrats were moderately scolding him at their rallies, he evasively (as subsequently replacing him with a pugo) denied claims from the parliamentary rostrum. Of the vivid actions, one can only recall that participation in the hearings on the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Unknovely History with the "country episode" Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin and his bathing in the night pond. Then Lavrov Bakatin clearly did not acquire, and his very performance was considered to be the public, first of all, as an extra evidence of the organized bullying of the people's favorite.

In a word, the image of Yeltsin was not particularly affected then, but the Bakatin's incredible reputation in the eyes of the people was very shaken.

Well, and, of course, the episode attracted, when the Soyuz group (then just appeared on the political arena and did not have time to show the teeth) suggested at the third congress the candidacy of Bakatin for the president of the USSR (and for some reason, together with Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov-for the same post!). Then it was perceived as a kind of curiosity, although Vadim Viktorovich was holding out with dignity. And when some tried to turn the president’s election into a clowning, offering not to accept the Bakatin self-release, the minister wittily recalled that in no country in the world, they were not forcibly chosen by the president. And for applause was released with God ...

But still, what bizarre plots do our life offer us. A year later, Bakatin’s candidacy will again be named already in the elections of the first secretary of the Russian Communist Party, and Bakatin will refuse again. After one and a half - the efforts of the “Union”, which was strengthened and dwelling, he will be dismissed from the ministry. After two - at the same time with the same Ryzhkov (also disgraced and generally a pensioner) will begin the campaign for the presidency in Russia ...

Moreover, the name of Bakatin (especially at the end of 1990) began to appear in a completely eloquent clip: Yakovlev, Shevardnadze, Shatalin, Petrakov, Yavlinsky ... And his departure from the ministerial post was already perceived by public opinion as a result of the onset of a conservative reaction, as a “rocket of perestroika”.

And yet. This Bakatin went to agreements with the Baltic states, freeing their internal affairs bodies from dense Moscow guardianship (which he gained the persistent hatred of the same “allies”). It was he who, at the sunset of his “police” career, began to lean towards the idea of ​​deportation on the site entrusted to him (which, of course, could not forgive him Old Square).

Well, and, of course, Bakatin public statements made a noise when he resolutely dissocated the Vilnius “military operation” (in his opinion, the actions of its participants should have been investigated as an attempt by a coup d'etat). He expressed disagreement with the power of power in the highest echelon of the authorities to accuse the difficulties of the "so -called democrats" in all the country experienced by the country.

Moreover: he insisted that the center return to politics, implying a support precisely on the “left shoulder”.

And it is no accident that it was Bakatin’s return to the official public service (member of the Security Council) that became one of Gorbachev’s return to the previous course.

In January 1990, it was Bakatin who was the first in the “party circle”-at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee-publicly raised the question of the need to abandon the notorious “6th article” of the USSR Constitution-about the “leading role of the party”. Eyewitnesses recall that the clatter and hooting in the hall were such that it seemed that they would not even finish the bakatin. “But he,” writes the assistant to the President of the USSR Andrei Grachev, “fulfilled his role in Kamikadze in the presence of the Kamikadze role in the presence of a pacifier that mysteriously silently silent with a hitherto forbidden topic. This allowed the Secretary General three months later to get almost painlessly from the same plenum of the submissive “unanimous” recognition of the inevitable: appeals to the March Congress of People's Deputies with a proposal - to withdraw ... ”

It is generally recognized that Bakatin was one of the most radical people in the Gorbachev surroundings. At the same time, his personal loyalty to the president was not subject to the slightest doubt that Vadim Viktorovich confirmed during the April Plenum of the Central Committee, at which party fundamentalists tried, if not “throwing” Gorbachev, then at least once again move him to the right.

Moreover, Bakatin’s performance also showed how rapidly it breaks away from party structures. A person, three years ago (before the nineteenth conference), who spoke on central television in pairs with the editor of “Soviet Russia” Chikin and pronounced his speech with a coordinated duet, a man who had recently not accepted the very word “multi -party” (and desperately defended the thesis about the leading and guiding role of the CPSU), in May 1991 said, giving me an interview for me. The “Izvestia” that it was “the desire to preserve at least the appearance of adherence to all the old gods that the evil joke played: the party from the vanguard of perestroika turned into its rearguard. Although she could be the power that could be painlessly transition to a multi -party. Even to help multi -party system, if you want. "

Having agreed to participate in the lightning -fast election campaign for the post of Russian president, Bakatin, of course, could not help but understand: the situation when he is between Yeltsin and Ryzhkov, implies fire on him from all guns - both on the right and left. Although, on the other hand, the words of Yeltsin seemed very meaningful to me, who, having left the answer to the question of how he relates to Ryzhkov and his claims, transferred the conversation to another contender: “They like to contrast with us. One of the leaders of the Vyatka Council gave an article in a local newspaper - without my knowledge, of course, where he began to compare Yeltsin with Bakatin in favor of Yeltsin. And he did it, as it often happens, in the forehead. Well, Bakatin there, in Vyatka, worked as the first secretary. Not long, but, nevertheless, they felt him. He is a business man. And I treat him with great respect. By the way, he called me recently and assured me that in no case would he campaign against me, but I say: this is my principle. We understood each other ... "

Nevertheless, Bakatin’s decision to join the presidential sprint objectively put Yeltsin, not Ryzhkov in a more difficult situation. In general, it was clear that Bakatin would not take away the voices of those who have already promised him their decisive support: the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the military-industrial complex, the Soyuz Methodox, the chairmen of Latifundists, veterans, the army ... Bakatin could only rely on part of the political territory “to the left of the center”, where, without having organized structures, he and he and he and he and he Yeltsin will not be competition, and the “front will be split” ...

It was even obvious to him that he had practically no chances to win.

Was it necessary to take a serious risk in this situation? Bakatin decided - it was necessary, although for a long time he doubted whether to go to the ring in general.

A few words, in fact, about his biography.

Born in 1937. The first 13 years of work made a purely professional career on the construction site. Then in party work. Under Andropov, the new head of the Central Committee of the Central Committee then formed a group of so -called inspectors from young workers (11 people - just a football team), who, having passed the run on the Old Square, became the first nominees of perestroika in 1985. In my opinion, none of the eleven (with the exception of Bakatin) remained in the popular memory.

And Bakatin got into Kirov with the parting words of Gorbachev: "Until the economic mechanism acts, the party mechanism must act." And so he acted - according to the existing practice, when all issues in the world are resolved in the office of the first secretary of the regional committee. And in general, in a year and a half he left his memory, indeed, not bad, it was no coincidence that there were so many signatures when nominating a candidate for Russian presidents Bakatin received from his short-lived fellow countrymen.

It is interesting that in the Kemerovo region, where Bakatin then also headed the regional committee for about a year, the cool authoritarian style of the owner of good glory no longer brought him. Time changed, and he remained the same. And, of course, this is his personal luck that he did not finalize in Kemerovo to mining strikes, which would inevitably overturn his career ...

After the August putsch, Bakatin was appointed (Gorbachev as agreed with Yeltsin) the chairman of the KGB - and made a public promise to destroy these colossal structures, leaving only necessary to protect state security. He managed to accept the destroyers of Bukovsky and Abankin in the new office of the dissidents of Bukovsky and Abankin, to derive the famous “nine”, a border tank, government communications and foreign intelligence, as well as to transfer to the Americans a diagram of eavesdropping devices in a mothballed (due to the presence of these devices) the US embassy building in Moscow, which caused the undisguised hatred of a “patriotic” press.

In his book “Moscow Process”, Bukovsky described this meeting rather ironically, but at the same time, with an obvious sympathy for the interlocutor (extremely rare under his pen regarding any other domestic officials). In any case, the former dissident also believed in the sincerity of the new KGB chairman with his attempts to destroy his new economy. True, Bukovsky remarked: “But is this pretty noisy, which is so sweet to show its socks to viewers, can cope with a kind of monster? He does not find out what is being done behind him. ”

So it happened.

Bakatin moved from the Lubyanka after the Belovezhsky “Picnic of the Three Presidents” and the abolition of the KGB along with the Soviet Union - to cut firewood in the country near Moscow, which he personally completed with his sons. He did not return to the "big policy". And every year it became clearer how great this loss was.

And finally, the last, purely personal observation. Bakatin was extremely charming, impressed a sincere and open person (which served him a bad service during a scandalous interview with Karaulov: he vowed that he was not going to print, without showing anything, and printed (in the “Independent Newspaper”) - an unheard of the transcript, with all interjections and dashing grades.

In his free time he painted; True, I did not see his paintings, but those who saw claim are good. The cat reacted to my request to draw with suspicion. It turns out, in due time and special. Corr. “Grunt” Georgy Rozhnov pestrated him with the same question: can you draw a cat, Vadim Viktorovich?

“These cats were given to you,” Bakatin grumbled in response to my request, and, remembering the Karaulov, he did not draw.

But he promised-somehow ...