"... catch one jerk"

The case of the escape of Gai brought Stalin out of himself, and he demanded to “cure” the NKVD. Yagoda resigned

On October 25, 1935, Stalin writes to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs:

“From the circumstances of the escape of Guy and his capture, it can be seen that the Chekist part of the NKVD does not have a real leadership and is experiencing the decomposition process. It is unclear on what basis was Guy sent to the insulator in a special compartment, and not in the prison car? Where is it heard that the sentenced to a concentration camp was sent in a special compartment, and not in the prison car? What are these orders?

The version of the escape through the window at the full speed of the train, in my opinion, is unlikely. Most likely, the prisoner changed clothes and went to the station, missed by one of the escorts.

Guy and his friends, it seems to me, has their own people in a check. They organized his escape.

Even more monstrous is the atmosphere of the capture of Guy. It turns out that in order to catch one jerk, the NKVD mobilized all 900 border school commanders, all NKVD employees, party members, Komsomol members, collective farmers and created a ring of several thousand people with a radius of 100 kilometers.

The question is, who needs a check and why does it exist at all if it is forced every time and, if any trifling case, resort to the help of the Komsomol, collective farmers and the entire population in general? Does the NKVD understand what unfavorable noise to the government create such mobilization? Finally, who gave the right of the NKVD to the self -polling mobilization of party members, Komsomol members and collective farmers for their departmental needs? Is it time to ban the NKVD organs, with permission to say, mobilization? "

It is believed that this episode has become one of the main reasons for the dismissal of Henry Yagoda from the post of People's Commissar and replacement of his impeccably faithful Nikolai Yezhov.

But what kind of “snot” did the Chekists almost missed, what, in turn, caused the most sinister assumptions among the suspended Secretary General?

The “jerk” was named one of the most famous commanders of the Red Army, a man of desperate courage, twice the holder of the Order of the Red Banner, the author of the repeatedly quoted telegram recovering after the attempt by Lenin:

“Taking your hometown is an answer for one of your wounds, and Samara will be for another wound.”

(For many years, the telegram was eagerly quoted, but whoever sent it was not mentioned).

Guy (Guy Dmitrievich Bzhishkyants), commander of the 1st Simbirsk Infantry Division, who later received the honorary name of Samaro-Ulyanovskaya "Iron". In the First World War, he rose to the headquarters captain, the commander of the front, General Yudenich, was awarded two St. George Crosses and a medal. After the October Revolution, he joined the RCP (b). At the head of the units formed by him, he won against the Czechoslovak corps and the Orenburg Cossacks General Dutov. After departure to the Southern Front, commander of Tukhachevsky, headed the army.

During the Soviet-Polish War-the commander of the 3rd Horse Corps on the Western Front of the RSFSR. After the transition of the Polish troops on the counterattack at the end of August 1920, his corps was pressed to the Polish-German border and, having failed to break through to the east near Kolo, along with two thousand prisoners previously transferred to the German territory in East Prussia, where he was interned.

Returning a year later in the USSR, he commanded a number of units, taught at the academy.

On June 29, 1935, “Partisans and Red Guards and fighters of parts of comrade. Guy ”wrote in the name of Kalinin a request for awarding him by the Order of Lenin. 20 signatures certified by three seals.

"... Comrade. Guy G.D. And at present, without turning hands, it is entirely given to the upbringing of the real and future the same brave commanders as he, who, from a young age in the Caucasus, actively participated in the revolutionary movement and has repeatedly sat in the royal dungeons. ”

The reaction to the letter of the chairman of the All -Russian Central Executive Committee remained unknown; One can only, alas, suggest how it reflected on the fate of recklessly signing it.

Already on July 3 (less than a week later!), Guy was arrested and accused of "creating a military-fascist organization in the Red Army." In a letter from prison, he admitted to the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs that, "when he was drinking, in a private conversation with non -partisan, he said that" it was necessary to remove Stalin, they would still remove him. "

He fled when heeds from Moscow to a politicalizer.

The frightened berry reported to the Secretary General:

"On October 22, S.G. At 19 o’clock, passenger train No. 64 in a special compartment from Moscow was sent to the Yaroslavl prison convicted by a special meeting by 5 years Gai (Bzhishkyan) Guy Dmitrievich.

Upon receipt in Moscow, the operational group led by the head of the secret and political department of the GUGB Comrade, the head of the secret and political department of the GUGB, left. Molchanov and deputy head of the operational department of the GUGB comrade Volovich.

According to Comrade Molchanov, who interrogated the escorts, Gai fled under the following circumstances: without reaching Berendeevo station, Guy asked to the restroom, where he was called accompanied by a escort and commissar.

At the door of the restroom, the escort Vasiliev was set, the commissar Ryazanov was here in the corridor. Taking advantage of the fact that the convoy remained in the corridor of the car, Guy broke the glass with his shoulder, knocked out the window frame and jumped out on the move of the train with such speed that the convoy did not have time to shoot.

The convoy of the train was stopped 250-300 meters from the escape place, but Guy could not be detected.

Operational groups were thrown into the Berendeevo station, the terrain is numb, and the shutters were organized, which have the task of detaining Guy. Local communists, a collective farm asset were involved in the wanted list of Guy.

Due to the fact that, according to the testimony of the convoy, Gai threw himself through the window from a train running at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour, traces of blood either on the wall of the car, nor on the window frame, or on the second paths of the railway, where he jumped out, was not detected. We believe that he fled under other circumstances than the convoy shows it. It can be assumed from the circumstances of the case, someone was assisted by anyone when escaping.

The convoy is arrested.

The investigation is conducted. As a result of the measures taken, Guy must be detained in the near future. ”

How “measures taken” were carried out, he wrote in his memoirs the general Mikhail Schreider transferred in the early 30s from the central apparatus to the police and therefore, which had taken off only in the camps. His book “NKVD from the inside. Notes of a Chekist ”is one of the few, written by a high -ranking eyewitness.

“This news struck me. The former legendary hero of the Civil War, whom I personally knew by Vilna in 1920, in recent years - professor of the Frunze Military Academy, how could he go on the path of treason? To my shame, I thought then not about some terrible mistake or injustice, but that such a person, having crossed the side of the Trotskyists, apparently with the same passion with which he fought in the civilian, would fight against the general line of the party.

The chief of staff of the wanted list was scheduled for Sharne, but he was aiming for this matter to me, and for two or three days I received reports about the investigations and reported on the progress of affairs to Moscow.

The chief of the Central Headquarters for the capture of Guy in Moscow was the deputy city committee G.E. Prokofiev, his deputy is a member of the collegium of the NKVD L.G. Mironov. Both of them almost annually called me, demanding to strengthen the search. Prokofiev emphasized several times that Gaya personally watches the search for Stalin, to whom the headquarters should imagine the reports hourly, so I need to report to them every 45 minutes.

Receiving the next reports from me, Mironov spoke in a slightly ironic tone, which I then did not attach importance, to attribute him to his friendly relations and the usual manner in the past to conduct conversations in a humorous tone. Now I think that Mironov was simply a smart person and those unhealthy trends that we, who are far from the center, understood much later, he, as a member of the Board of the NKVD, had already seen his own eyes. Apparently, it was already clear to him that Guy was no dangerous criminal and not the enemy of the people, and Mironov with sad irony watched everything that was happening around Gai, having no strength to go against the instructions, as it was tantamount to suicide. In any case, Mironov was then the only person who was skeptical of the stir around the wanted list.

They discovered Guy in a haystack with a broken leg ( nevertheless jumped out of the train window! -P . G. ) not our employees, but a rural teacher and a collective farmer passing by. One of them ran to report and on the way met a group of employees of bodies from Moscow, headed by M.P. Frinovsky (later the first deputy Yezhov). As eyewitnesses later said, Frinovsky approached the lying Gay, held out his hand and said:

- Great, Guy!

“I don’t give my hand to any bastard,” Guy answered. ”

He was shot on December 11, 1937.

The “ironic” and everything that understands Molchanov, as well as Frinovsky, nevertheless “worked for conscience” and were shot a little later Gai. Both, unlike him, are not rehabilitated.