Who is Abakumov under Stalin. Viktor Abakumov: why the head of the Smersh was executed

Abakumov Victor Semenovich. Assistant Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich

Concerning the identity of Viktor Semenovich Abakumov, fierce disputes have not subsided to this day. Some argue that this was a wonderful person who headed the legendary SMERSH department during the war years (“Death to spies!”). Others argue that Abakumov was an ardent opponent of Stalin and Beria.
Who is he? He graduated from only four classes of the city school, but became the Minister of the Ministry of State Security and there are legends about how Abakumov, an ordinary Chekist, of whom there were thousands in the NKVD, advanced to the head of the punitive department.
Poorly educated and narrow-minded, he was not deprived of physical strength and had a dashing bearing. When it turned out, as Solzhenitsyn notes, that “Abakumov conducts a good investigation, deftly and famously bringing his long hands to the face, and his great career began ...” Probably, it was precisely these qualities that were most in demand in the era of Stalinist terror.

And the path to this nomination was simple and clear.

The one who was destined to become the all-powerful minister of Stalin's state security - Viktor Semenovich Abakumov - was born in April 1908 in Moscow in the family of a laborer. Later, my father worked in a hospital as a janitor and stoker, and died of alcohol in 1922. Before the revolution, her mother worked as a seamstress, and then as a nurse and laundress in the same hospital as her father. Abakumov did not have a chance to study much. According to personal data, he graduated from the 3rd grade of the city school in Moscow in 1920. True, in the official biography published before the elections to the Supreme Soviet in 1946, it was stated that he had a 4-year education received in 1921.
It is not very clear what the tall young man was doing before the moment when, in November 1921, he volunteered for the CHON. The service lasted until December 1923, and for the next year Abakumov was interrupted by odd jobs, and for the most part he was unemployed. Everything changed in January 1925, when he was hired as a packer at Moskopromsoyuz. And in August 1927, Abakumov entered the service of the shooter of the VOKhR for the protection of industrial enterprises. Here, in 1927, he joined the Komsomol.

Most likely, the robust and promising Wohrovian has been noticed by the authorities, and he is gradually being promoted to more and more important work. From 1928, he again worked as a packer at the Tsentrosoyuz warehouse, and from January 1930, he was already the secretary of the board of the Gonets state joint-stock company and at the same time the secretary of the Komsomol cell of the trade and parcel office. Since January 1930, he has been a candidate member, and since September of the same year, a member of the CPSU (b). Now the career path is open for him. In October 1930, he was elected secretary of the Komsomol cell of the Press plant and at the same time headed the secret part of this plant. Without a doubt, having become the head of the secret part of the plant, Abakumov secretly helped the OGPU. The new post did just that. It is known: from covert to open work - just one step.

From January to December 1931, Abakumov was a member of the bureau and head of the military department of the Zamoskvoretsky district committee of the Komsomol. And in January 1932, he was accepted as a trainee in the Economic Department of the OGPU embassy in the Moscow region. Soon he was already authorized by the same department, and since January 1933, in the central office of the OGPU, he was authorized by the Economic Directorate. And this is where the career falters. In August 1934, Abakumov was transferred to the position of detective in the 3rd department of the Gulag security department, and there he was ruined by an indefatigable passion for women and a passion for the then fashionable foxtrot dance. women, passing them off as their agents.

In his youth, Abakumov spent most of his time in the gym, wrestling. Don't forget other amusements. Is it up to diligent service here?
So he was exiled to continue his service in Kolyma as a simple overseer.

But the link to the Gulag did not last long. Everything changed decisively in 1937. That's when strong and tough guys were needed. Significant vacancies opened up - the arrests of the Chekists themselves became commonplace. There were not enough experienced personnel, and Vitya fussed in time, treating someone with Far Eastern caviar and covering a good "glade" in one of the Moscow restaurants, so in April 1937 Abakumov received an important position - security officer 4th (secret-political) department of the GUGB NKVD. Now he is growing rapidly both in positions and in ranks. Back in the Gulag, in 1936 he was awarded the rank of junior lieutenant of the State Security Service, and less than a year later, in November 1937, he received the rank of lieutenant of the State Security Service and already in 1938 was appointed assistant head of the secret political department.

As expected, under the conditions of the Great Terror, Abakumov specialized in investigative work. Here his athletic training and strength came in handy. He actively conducts interrogations and does not spare the arrested, using on them all the painful wrestling techniques and boxing skills known to him.
Abakumov's zeal was noticed. He was praised by the new head of the secret political department, Bogdan Kobulov, who came with Beria to the central apparatus of the NKVD - the famous "Kobulich", a master of torture investigation, whose praise speaks volumes. Kobulov gave a recommendation for the nomination of Abakumov for independent work. On December 5, 1938, Abakumov was appointed head of the UNKVD for the Rostov region. He was immediately, bypassing one step, awarded the rank of captain of the GB, and already in March 1940, also through a step, the rank of senior major of the GB.

And here is how the appointment of Abakumov to Rostov is described in the novel by the Weiner brothers "The Gospel of the Executioner":

“... Many years later, I recalled this conversation, reading the case on charges of the former Minister of State Security of the USSR, citizen Abakumov V.S.

QUESTION FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MILITARY BOARD OF THE USSR SUPREME COURT VV ULRICH: Tell me, defendant, why were you expelled from the party twenty years ago, in April 1934?
ABAKUMOV: I was not expelled. Transferred to the party candidate for a year for political illiteracy and immoral behavior. And then they restored it.
ULRICH: Have you become politically literate in a year, and your behavior - moral?
ABAKUMOV: Of course. I have always been both a literate and quite moral Bolshevik. Enemies and envious people dripped.
ULRICH: What was your position at that time and what was your rank?
ABAKUMOV: Everything about this is written in the case file.
ULRICH: Answer the court's questions.
ABAKUMOV: I was a junior lieutenant and served as an operative in the secret political department - SPO OGPU.
ULRICH: Three years later, you already had the rank of senior major of state security, that is, you became a general and took the post of head of the Rostov Regional NKVD. What was the reason for such a successful promotion?
ABAKUMOV: So what? A year and a half later, I was already the people's commissar of state security. Nothing surprising - the party and Comrade Stalin personally appreciated my abilities and selfless devotion to the cause of the CPSU (b).
ULRICH: Sit down, defendant. (TO THE COMMANDANT): Invite the witness Orlov into the hall. (TO THE WITNESS): Witness, do you know the defendant well?

ORLOV: Yes, this is the former Minister of State Security of the USSR, Colonel-General Viktor Semenovich Abakumov. I've known him since 1932, we served together in the SPO OGPU as detectives.
ULRICH: What can you say about him?
ORLOV: He was a very nice guy. Happy. The women respected him. Victor always walked with a gramophone. "This is my briefcase," he said. There is a recess in the gramophone, where he always had a bottle of vodka, a loaf and already cut sausage. Women, of course, went crazy with him - he is handsome, has his own music, an excellent dancer, and even with drinks and snacks ...
ULRICH: Stop the laughter in the hall. Those who interfere with the court session I will order to be removed. Go on witness...
ULRICH: Witness Orlov, were you at the party meeting when Abakumov was transferred from a member of the CPSU(b) to a candidate? Remember what it was about?
ORLOV: Of course, I remember. He and Lieutenant Pashka Meshik, the former Ministers of State Security of Ukraine, drank together the mutual aid fund of our department.
ULRICH: Probably Meshik wasn't a minister in Ukraine back then?
ORLOV: Well, of course, he was our comrade, his brother operative. It was they who later, after Yezhov, picked up the stars.
ULRICH: Do you know why Abakumov picked up - as you put it - stars?
ORLOV: Everyone knows that. In the thirty-eighth he went to Rostov with the Kobulov commission - secretary. There, under Yezhov, things were heaped up - in bulk. Half the city was killed. Well, Comrade Stalin ordered to sort it out - maybe not everything is right. Here is Beria, the new People's Commissar of the NKVD, and sent his deputy, Kobulov, there. And he took Abakumov, because before that he kicked out the former secretary, a complete blockhead who couldn’t even get good women ...
ULRICH: Speak decently, witness!
ORLOV: I'm listening. So, Vitka is a Rostovite himself, all the good ones ... he knows people by touch ... Well, they arrived in Rostov in the evening, at night they shot the head of the regional NKVD, and in the morning they began to look through the cases of prisoners, those, of course, who is still alive. You can't raise the dead...
Abakumov immediately found some kind of aunt or acquaintance, an old woman, in general, even before the revolution she kept a brothel, and under the Soviet regime she quietly traded in pandering. In short, in a day, with the help of this lady, he collected all Rostov pink meat for the commission in a mansion ...
ULRICH: Be clearer, witness!
ORLOV: How much clearer! All the pretty bae... mobilized, pardon the expression. Comrade Abakumov brought booze in boxes there, the cooks were requisitioned from the DelovoY Dvor restaurant, on Kazanskaya Street, now Friedrich Engels Street. In general, the commission worked hard for a week: three compositions of girls were changed per day. And then Kobulov made a decision: at the moment it is no longer possible to make out which of those arrested for the case is incarcerated, and who accidentally got into it. Yes, and no time. Therefore, the commission went to the prison on Bogatyanovskaya, and then to the "vnutryanka", lined up all the prisoners: "On the first or second - pay!". The even-numbered were sent back to their cells, the odd-numbered were sent home. Let them know: there is justice in the world!
ULRICH: And what about Abakumov?
ORLOV: How - "what"? For his dedication and agility, Kobulov left him acting head of the regional department of the NKVD. And promoted from lieutenants to senior majors. A year later, Abakumov returned to Moscow. Already the commissioner of state security of the third rank ...
ULRICH: Defendant Abakumov, what can you say about the testimony of the witness?

ABAKUMOV: I can only say that thanks to my efforts, a large group of honest Soviet citizens who were doomed to death due to violations of socialist legality by the bloody gang of Yezhov-Beria were saved from reprisal. I'll ask you to put it on the record. This is first. And secondly, all the stories of Orlov Sanka about the mess allegedly organized by me are fiction, a slander on a fiery Bolshevik and a selfless Chekist! And he slanders out of envy, because he himself, Sanka, was not allowed into the mansion, and he was cold, such a donkey, in the outer guard, like a tsutsik. And what happened in the room during the work of the commission - he cannot know.
ULRICH: A question for the witness Orlov. What was your last position before you were fired from the security agencies and arrested?

ORLOV: Head of the Ninth Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, senior commissar of security.
ULRICH: Thank you. The convoy can take the witness away.

: "How do you feel when your subordinates lie to you?"

It is not serious to belittle Abakumov's merits in the successful work of the Smersh Main Intelligence Directorate; I think that not a single wartime counterintelligence officer will allow himself this. The practical results of Smersh's activities turned out to be higher than those of the NKGB, which was the reason for the nomination of Abakumov.

…7. With regard to those arrested who stubbornly resist the requirements of the investigation, behave provocatively and by all means try to delay the investigation or lead it astray, strict measures of the detention regime are applied.

These measures include:

a) transfer to a prison with a stricter regime, where hours of sleep are reduced and the maintenance of the detainee in terms of food and other household needs is worsened;

b) placement in solitary confinement;

c) deprivation of walks, food parcels and the right to read books;

d) placement in a punishment cell for up to 20 days.

Note: in the punishment cell, apart from a stool screwed to the floor and a bed without bedding, there is no other equipment; a bed for sleeping is provided for 6 hours a day; prisoners held in a punishment cell are given only 300 grams per day. bread and boiling water and hot food once every 3 days; Smoking is prohibited in the cellar.

8. With regard to spies, saboteurs, terrorists and other active enemies of the Soviet people exposed by the investigation, who brazenly refuse to extradite their accomplices and do not testify about their criminal activities, the MGB bodies, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 10, 1939 , apply measures of physical coercion ...

Abakumov faithfully carried out all Stalin's instructions, and for the time being, this suited the leader. Why did Stalin still part with him?
Generally speaking, Viktor Semenovich, like all his predecessors at the Lubyanka, could consider himself doomed in advance, because sooner or later Stalin decided that he needed a new person. He did not like it when the leaders of the state security lingered. I thought that they were losing their grip, zeal, calming down. He feared that the owners of the Lubyanka would acquire connections and become too influential.
ALL the leaders of the State Security of the USSR appointed by Stalin to this post, in the end turned out to be foreign spies, enemies or conspirators and were shot!
The moment came when Stalin began to look for a replacement for Abakumov.
The fall of Abakumov began, it would seem, with a "trifle" - with the case of Spetstorg. Two members of the Politburo - Mikoyan and Kosygin - made a proposal (under the pretext of a lack of necessary resources) to liquidate the Spetstorg, which provided food and consumer goods to the KGB cadres.
Abakumov very sharply objected to this proposal.
“Why,” he said logically, “the Ministry of Defense has a Voentorg, although it is now in a peaceful situation, it doesn’t fight, and the Ministry of State Security, which fights daily and hourly with the intrigues of foreign intelligence services, needs to be deprived of Spetstorg?

In some incomprehensible vehemence, Abakumov crossed the permitted boundaries allowed in polemics at Politburo meetings, in fact calling Mikoyan and Kosygin fools.
Stalin abruptly cut Abakumov off.

I forbid you, - he said slowly, - to call the members of the Politburo fools.

Of course, Stalin's anger was not caused by Abakumov's behavior towards the two members of the Politburo. He would have forgiven the Minister of State Security, whom he sympathized with, if it were not for the recently revealed serious and not yet clear enough circumstances for Stalin, namely: Colonel Alexander Mikhailovich Dzhuga, who in fact was the overseer of the highest authorities of the USSR, who secretly observed, at the direction of Stalin, for all members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, secretaries of the Central Committee, the leadership of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of War, the Minister of State Security of the USSR and the Minister of Internal Affairs, in one of the regular reports, he presented him with a photograph in which smiling Abakumov in the Hermitage Garden gave a huge bouquet of roses to a young beautiful woman who, during a covert check, turned out to be connected with British intelligence. (Again they caught a woman, no matter how much you feed the wolf, but still looks into the forest - approx. Zaperenos).

It was already serious. It was no longer a question about Spetstorg. However, for the time being, Stalin was silent, ordering Dzhuga to take Abakumov into active intelligence and operational development. In the meantime, as in all such cases, when heated debates arose on issues, a commission was created to check the work of Spetstorg.

She uncovered significant abuses in Spetstorg. The director of the central warehouse of Spetstorg turned out to be a man who in the past was prosecuted for speculation and removed from his post as head of the Kazan Spetstorg for fraud. The leadership of the Moscow regional Spetstorg stole products and industrial goods worth more than 2 million rubles, for which the head of the Mosoblspetstorg was sentenced to 25 years. Abakumov, in whose subordination, along with nominal subordination to the Ministry of Trade of the USSR, was Spetstorg, received from Stalin the first stern reprimand with a warning.

But it is not for nothing that they say that trouble never walks alone. Abakumov's star was clearly at sunset.

All the same Dzhuga, now a general, in the course of studying Abakumov's service activities, managed to discover major failures in the work of one of the most secret departments of the USSR Ministry of State Security, which was headed by Lieutenant General Shevelev.

Abakumov hid these failures from Stalin and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Moreover, one of the main critics of the shortcomings in the work of this department, the head of the department, Major of State Security Yevgeny Shchukin, who repeatedly criticized at party meetings, was sent by Abakumov on a business trip to North Korea, where he died under mysterious circumstances.

On Stalin's instructions, the department headed by General Shevelev was removed from the USSR Ministry of State Security and became one of the special divisions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Abakumov received the second severe reprimand with a warning.

But the misfortunes of the powerful minister did not end there.

Colonel Ryumin worked as an investigator for especially important cases in the investigative unit for especially important cases of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. A doctor, arrested as a foreign intelligence agent, came to him for interrogation, who testified that some of the consulting professors of the Kremlin Medical and Sanitary Directorate who took part in the treatment of the leadership of the party and the country were traitors to the Motherland; that they are plotting terrorist acts against members of the Politburo of the Central Committee and personally against Comrade Stalin; that Zhdanov and Shcherbakov have already been villainously murdered by their hands, that they are preparing the strongest poisons in secret laboratories for poisoning all people devoted to Soviet power.

The statement of the arrested doctor was supplemented by the statement of Timashuk, a cardiologist of the Kremlin Medical and Sanitary Department, that Zhdanov and Shcherbakov were treated incorrectly: they deliberately misinterpreted electrocardiograms in such a way that myocardial infarctions were not detected in them. As a result, Shcherbakov, and then Zhdanov, died.

Having received such sensational testimony, Ryumin personally reported them to Abakumov, who from the very first minutes treated them with distrust. And not only because if it were confirmed that the conspiracy of doctors really exists, this would mean the end of his career, and maybe his life itself: it is not known how Stalin would have looked at such blunders in work, whether he would have limited himself to the third stricter or not ..
But more so because in the conditions of well-organized total surveillance by state security agencies of professors admitted to the treatment of the country's leaders, the participation of such a wide range of people in criminal activities was simply impossible. Abakumov openly told Ryumin about this, after which he spoke at a party meeting with a statement that he had uncovered a dangerous conspiracy, but the minister did not attach any importance to him and was trying to hush up the matter. As a result, Ryumin received a severe reprimand from the party line with a warning for an unfair attempt to discredit the minister. He was removed from participation in the investigation into the "case of doctors" and sent to work in the Crimean region.

Further events unfolded truly as in a famously twisted detective story. Ryumin, through a friend of the Chekist from the guards, a member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Malenkov, handed over to him a statement in which he said that Abakumov was preventing the disclosure of a dangerous conspiracy against Comrade Stalin. Malenkov, having read the statement, ran to consult with his friend Lavrenty Beria about how to proceed further. He advised immediately to report to Stalin about Ryumin's statement.

Malenkov found Stalin reading some paper. He did not know that it was a copy of Ryumin's statement, received in his, Malenkov's, name. After listening, Stalin said:

You did the right thing by coming. Let's accept and listen to the applicant together, - and he ordered his assistant Poskrebyshev to invite Ryumin.

And at that time, on the orders of Abakumov, the doctor who testified about the “doctors' case” was put in a punishment cell allegedly for violating the prison regime. A person could stay in this room for a maximum of 5-6 hours. The doctor was “forgotten through negligence” in the punishment cell for a day, and when they “remembered”, he was already dead. Colonel Mironov, the head of the internal prison of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, who reported this, did not have time to leave the minister's office, when the phone croaked from him, which only Stalin could call. Abakumov picked up the phone with trepidation.

What do you have there for the business of doctors? He heard a familiar voice on the phone.

It is still unclear, Comrade Stalin, - Abakumov squeezed out with difficulty, feeling that a little more and he would lose consciousness. “Now the execution cannot be avoided,” flashed through his head.

Pulling himself together, Abakumov spoke in an outwardly calm voice:

It is very likely that this is a provocation staged by Anglo-American intelligence.

Provocation? - asked Stalin. - Come immediately with this arrested doctor to me in the Kremlin. I will interrogate him personally.

Drenched in cold sweat, Abakumov barely held the telephone receiver in his hand and for some time could not answer Stalin's question: the language did not obey.

Are you hard of hearing? Didn't you hear what I said? Stalin asked. - Bring the arrested doctor to me immediately.

Comrade Stalin, - Abakumov, sobbing, greedily swallowed the air, - unfortunately, it is impossible to interrogate him. An hour ago he died of a heart attack.

Died? Stalin asked in surprise. After some silence, he ordered: - Go home and don't show up at the ministry again. Consider yourself under house arrest.

Putting the phone down on the hook, Stalin immediately picked up another phone, directly connected to General Dzhuga, and asked him his usual question: "How are you?" - and having received the answer that everything is going as usual, he ordered:

Take everything you have to Abakumov.

An hour later, Stalin was already looking through a voluminous volume of materials collected on Abakumov. But before starting to watch, Stalin asked:

What is your main conclusion about the activities of Abakumov?

Do you have specific facts confirming that Abakumov is a thief? Stalin asked.

Unfortunately, there are more than enough such facts, Comrade Stalin. Even during the war, Abakumov fell ill with a trophy disease. He kept in specially created warehouses, supposedly for operational needs, large material values, mostly trophy ones, hiding them from official records. I dragged everything I wanted from these warehouses. According to confirmed data, Abakumov took more than a thousand meters of woolen and silk fabrics, several sets of furniture, table and tea sets, carpets, products from Saxon porcelain for personal use from these warehouses. For the period from 1944 to 1948. Abakumov stole valuables worth more than 600 thousand rubles. According to my information, more than three thousand meters of woolen, silk and other fabrics, a large number of expensive art vases, porcelain and crystal dishes, various haberdashery goods, and a large number of gold items are currently stored in Abakumov’s apartment.

In 1948, Abakumov moved 16 families from house number 11 on Kolpachny Lane and occupied this house as a personal apartment. More than a million rubles were spent illegally from the Ministry's funds for the repair and equipment of this apartment. For 6 months, more than 200 workers, the architect Rybatsky and the engineer Filatov, worked on the re-equipment of the house in Kolpachny Lane. At the same time, some of the high-quality materials were delivered from unknown, so far unidentified sources. Fearing responsibility for this crime, Abakumov in March 1950 ordered the destruction of the accounting records of the 1st branch of the Ministry's Administration, which is in charge of the economic services of the leadership.

At the direction of Abakumov, for his personal needs, the head of the secretariat of the minister, Colonel Chernov, appropriated about 500 thousand rubles from the funds intended for operational needs.

What did you manage to establish from Abakumov's "arts" in operational work? - Asked silently listening to Stalin.

In many ways, Abakumov is a careerist and a falsifier, - Dzhuga answered. - Through unscrupulous tricks, I tried to present myself in your eyes as an honest, direct and skillful operative worker, vigilantly guarding the interests of the state. To this end, he alters, "corrects" and supplements the protocols of interrogations of those arrested and hides the failures in the work of the ministry he leads.

Here are a few examples that accurately characterize Abakumov as a person and worker.

At one time, Comrade Stalin, you received "handwritten" confessions from the Minister of Aviation Industry Shakhurin, Air Chief Marshal Novikov and a member of the Military Council of the Air Force, Colonel General Shimanov, in which they confessed to anti-state, wrecking activities. In fact, this is what happened with these letters. In the course of the investigation, employees of the Smersh Main Directorate of Counterintelligence, which was headed by Abakumov at that time, in the case of these persons, during active interrogations, managed to obtain their testimony about anti-state, sabotage activities.

Then Abakumov forced Shakhurin, Novikov and Shimanov to personally rewrite their testimonies from the protocols of interrogations. After that, these testimonies, like personal letters of repentance, were sent by Abakumov to your address.

On the copy accompanying these "letters" addressed to you, by order of Abakumov, Karev, the head of the secretariat of the secretariat of the USSR Ministry of State Security, made a note: "The statements (originals) were sent to Comrade Stalin without making copies."

Do you think Shakhurin, Novikov and Shimanov are innocent? Stalin asked.

I, - answered Juga, - did not specifically deal with this case, so I cannot answer your question. Mentioning the case of Shakhurin, Novikov and Shimanov, I simply gave a specific example of Abakumov's falsifying activities with letters addressed to you. By the way, contrary to the false assertions of employees of the secretariat of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR that copies of the "letters" of Shakhurin, Novikov and Shimanov were allegedly not compiled, in reality such copies exist. Currently, they are stored in a folder in one of the wardrobes in Abakumov's apartment in Kolpachny Lane.

Let me give you one more example. In 1945, at the direction of Abakumov, photo albums were sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in order to "confirm" the good work of the Smersh counterintelligence, telling about the activities of white émigré organizations in Manchuria. In fact, these were old documents received back in the days of the OGPU. At the same time, the old dates under the pictures were sealed, and they themselves were re-photographed.

Here's a son of a bitch, - Stalin said quietly. “But I really trusted him. You were right. He could not be appointed to the post of Minister of State Security.

Abakumov concealed from you and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, - continued Dzhuga, - the betrayal of Salimanov, a senior official of the Ministry of State Security, and also in 1949 concealed the fact that a group of British intelligence officers headed by a certain Bershvili crossed the Soviet-Turkish border with impunity. The group had the task of preparing the separation of Georgia from the Soviet Union. With the connivance of the MGB of the Georgian SSR, having established the necessary personal contacts and instructed the agents available in Georgia, the Bershvili group left with impunity for Turkey.

Stalin got up, signaling that the audience was over. Giving his hand to Juga, he said:

Leave the case to Abakumov.

Stalin carefully studied the submitted materials all night. By morning, Abakumov's fate was sealed.

On July 13, 1951, Colonel-General Abakumov was arrested on Stalin's orders. On the same day, the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security, General Leonov, and his deputy, Colonel Likhachev, were arrested for knowing about the signals received about the "conspiracy of doctors" and not informing Stalin about this. Later, for the same reasons, the head of the Second (counterintelligence) Main Directorate of the MGB of the USSR, General Pitovranov, his deputy General Raikhman, the deputy head of the First (foreign political intelligence) Main Directorate of the MGB of the USSR, General Gribanov, the head of the Secretariat of the MGB of the USSR, Colonel Chernov and his deputy Broverman were arrested.

Prior to this, a group of professors from the Medical and Sanitary Directorate of the Kremlin was arrested, accused of organizing a conspiracy and terrorist intentions against the leaders of the party and the Soviet government. Stalin was especially surprised and upset that the head of his personal bodyguard, who was also the head of the Main Security Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant General Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik, who had been guarding him for more than 25 years, turned out to be indifferent to the signal he received from the doctor Timoshuk about the conspiracy of doctors: not only not reported this signal to Stalin, but did not take any measures to verify it, which was his direct official duty.

Stalin ordered the new Minister of State Security, S.D. Ignatiev, to take Vlasik in an intelligence operation

Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov- Soviet statesman and military figure, colonel general, deputy people's commissar of defense and head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence ("SMERSH") of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR (1943-1946), Minister of State Security of the USSR (1946-1951).

Film - Embezzlers. "Trophy Affair" (2011)

Biography

He graduated from the 4th grade of the city school.

In 1921-1923 he served as a volunteer orderly in the 2nd Moscow brigade of special forces (CHON).

"Due to unemployment, I worked throughout 1924 as a worker in various temporary jobs".

In 1925-1927 he was a packer of the Moscow Union of Trade Cooperatives (Mospromsoyuz).

In 1927-1928, the shooter of the 1st detachment of the military-industrial guard of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR.

In 1927 he joined the Komsomol. In 1928-30 he worked as a packer for the Tsentrosoyuz warehouses.

In 1930 he joined the CPSU(b).

During the campaign to nominate workers to the Soviet apparatus, he was nominated through the trade unions to the system of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR.

In January-September 1930, he was deputy head of the administrative department of the trade and parcel office of the People's Commissariat of Trade of the RSFSR and at the same time secretary of the Komsomol cell.

In September 1930, he was sent to a leading Komsomol job at the Press stamping plant, where he was elected secretary of the Komsomol cell.

In 1931-1932 he was the head of the military department of the Zamoskvoretsky District Committee of the Komsomol.

In the bodies of the OGPU-NKVD since January 1932: an intern in the economic department of the authorized representative of the OGPU in the Moscow region, an authorized representative of the economic department of the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Moscow region.

Since 1933, authorized by the economic department of the OGPU, then the economic department of the NKVD GUGB.

But in 1934, it was revealed that Abakumov met with various women in safe houses. In this regard, he was transferred to the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps and Labor Settlements (GULAG).

In 1934-1937, he was the operational commissioner of the 3rd branch of the Operational Department of the Gulag.

In December 1936 he received the special rank of junior lieutenant of state security.

In 1937-1938, he was an operative officer of the 4th (secret-political) department of the GUGB NKVD, deputy head of the department of the 4th department of the 1st department of the NKVD, head of the department of the 2nd department of the GUGB of the NKVD.

After L.P. Beria joined the NKVD, from December 1938 - and. about. chief, and after approval in office from April 27, 1939 to 1941 - head of the NKVD department for the Rostov region. He led the organization of mass repressions in the Rostov region.

At the same time, Abakumov, possessing great physical strength, sometimes personally severely beat the defendants.

With the division of the NKVD in February 1941 in 1941-1943, he was Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and head of the Department of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR, which later (from July 1941) was transformed into SMERSH.

Since April 1943 - Head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" and Deputy People's Commissar of Defense.

Vsevolod Merkulov recalled: " Simultaneously with the division of the NKVD, as far as I remember, the so-called SMERSH stood out in an independent department, the head of which was Abakumov. Abakumov turned out to be, perhaps, no less ambitious and powerful person than Beria, only dumber than him. Shortly after his appointment, Abakumov managed to deftly enter into the confidence of Comrade Stalin, mainly, as he himself said, by systematic, almost daily reports to Comrade Stalin of reports on the behavior of a number of persons from among the major military workers.».

It is not serious to belittle Abakumov's merits in the successful work of the Smersh Main Intelligence Directorate; I think that not a single wartime counterintelligence officer will allow himself this. The practical results of Smersh's activities turned out to be higher than those of the NKGB, which was the reason for the nomination of Abakumov.

From the memoirs of Army General P. I. Ivashutin

In 1944, Abakumov participated in the implementation of the deportation of some peoples of the North Caucasus. For this he was awarded 2 orders - the Red Banner and Kutuzov.

And in January-July 1945, while remaining the head of SMERSH, he was simultaneously authorized by the NKVD for the 3rd Belorussian Front. Historian Nikita Petrov notes his involvement in looting in Germany.

In July 1945 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel General. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation.

In 1946, Abakumov fabricated materials on the basis of which the people's commissar of the aviation industry A. I. Shakhurin, the commander of the Air Force A. A. Novikov, the chief engineer of the Air Force A. K. Repin and a number of other generals were arrested and convicted.

Vsevolod Merkulov, who was replaced as Minister of State Security Abakumov, believed that this was due to the use of the "Shakhurin case" against him by Abakumov.

From March 1946 - Deputy, from May 7, 1946 to July 14, 1951 - Minister of State Security of the USSR.

In June 1946 Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov was appointed Minister of State Security of the USSR instead of V.N. Merkulova. At the same time, SMERSH, in which Abakumov had previously served, entered the ministry as the 3rd Directorate. As Minister of State Security, he led political repressions. Under the leadership of Abakumov, the Leningrad case was fabricated and the beginning of the fabrication of the JAC case was laid.

7. With regard to those arrested who stubbornly resist the requirements of the investigation, behave provocatively and by all means try to delay the investigation or lead it astray, strict measures of the detention regime are applied. These measures include:

a) transfer to a prison with a stricter regime, where hours of sleep are reduced and the maintenance of the detainee in terms of food and other household needs is worsened;

b) placement in solitary confinement;

c) deprivation of walks, food parcels and the right to read books;

d) placement in a punishment cell for up to 20 days.

Note: in the punishment cell, apart from a stool screwed to the floor and a bed without bedding, there is no other equipment; a bed for sleeping is provided for 6 hours a day; prisoners held in a punishment cell are given only 300 grams per day. bread and boiling water and hot food once every 3 days; Smoking is prohibited in the cellar.

8. With regard to spies, saboteurs, terrorists and other active enemies of the Soviet people exposed by the investigation, who brazenly refuse to extradite their accomplices and do not testify about their criminal activities, the MGB bodies, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 10, 1939 , apply measures of physical coercion...

"On the need to evict from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, the Moldavian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian SSR members of the anti-Soviet sect of Jehovah's Witnesses and members of their families."

The result of this note was Operation North, organized by the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to evict Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as representatives of other religious associations (Reform Adventists, Innokentievites, the True Orthodox Church); The operation began on April 1, 1951. The deportation was within a day.

From 12/31/1950 to 07/14/1951 Chairman of the collegium of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

In 1946-1951 he was also a member of the Commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for Judicial Affairs. During his tenure as Minister of State Security, Abakumov significantly increased the capabilities and forces of the MGB.

Arrest and execution

On July 12, 1951, he was arrested, accused of high treason, a Zionist conspiracy in the MGB, in an attempt to prevent the development of the doctors' case. The reason for the arrest was a denunciation to Stalin from the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant Colonel M. D. Ryumin.

In the denunciation, Abakumov was accused of various crimes, mainly that he slowed down the investigation of cases of a group of doctors and a Jewish youth organization, allegedly preparing assassination attempts against the leaders of the country. According to some information, G. M. Malenkov gave the move to the denunciation.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recognized the denunciation of M. D. Ryumin as objective, decided to remove Abakumov from his post and refer his case to court. The former minister was imprisoned in the Lefortovo prison. According to historians, the charges brought against Abakumov were clearly far-fetched.

Together with V. S. Abakumov, his wife and 4-month-old son were in custody. After Stalin's death and Khrushchev's rise to power, the charges against Abakumov were changed; he was charged with the “Leningrad case”, fabricated by him, according to the new official version, as a member of the “Beria gang”. Former investigator of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR Nikolai Mesyatsev recalls that Stalin suspected Beria of patronizing Abakumov.

Betrayed to a closed trial (with the participation of Leningrad party workers) in Leningrad, where he pleaded not guilty, and was shot on December 19, 1954 in the Levashovsky Forest of Special Purpose. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 14, 1955, he was deprived of all awards and military rank.

Pavel Sudoplatov about Abakumov (from the book "Special Operations"):

... He continued to completely deny the charges against him, even under torture, "confessions" were never obtained from him. ... he behaved like a real man with a strong will ... He had to endure incredible suffering (he spent three months in a refrigerator in shackles), but he found the strength not to submit to the executioners. He fought for his life, categorically denying the "conspiracy of doctors." Thanks to his firmness and courage in March and April 1953, it became possible to quickly release all those arrested, implicated in the so-called conspiracy, since it was Abakumov who was charged with being their leader.

In 1997, Abakumov was partially rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court: the charge of treason was dropped from him, and the sentence was commuted to 25 years in prison without confiscation of property and reclassified under the article "military crimes".

Abakumov ... used unacceptable and strictly prohibited methods of investigation. Abakumov and his subordinates ... created the so-called Leningrad case. In 1950, Abakumov dealt with 150 family members of those convicted in the Leningrad case, repressing them. Abakumov falsified criminal cases against the former People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry Shakhurin, Chief Air Marshal Novikov, Vice Admiral Goncharov, Minister of the Navy of the USSR Afanasyev, Academician Yudin, a large group of generals of the Soviet Army.

A family

• brother - Abakumov Alexey Semyonovich, Moscow priest
• wife - Smirnova Antonina Nikolaevna(1920-?) - daughter of pop hypnotist Ornaldo, arrested with her husband.
• son - Igor Viktorovich Smirnov(1951-2004) - a scientist, was engaged in the development of technologies for computer psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection of human behavior.

Awards

• two Orders of the Red Banner (04/26/1940, 1944),
• Order of Suvorov I degree (07/31/1944),
• Order of Suvorov II degree (8.03.1944),
• Order of Kutuzov I degree (04/21/1945),
• Order of the Red Star (1944),
• medal "For the defense of Moscow"
• Medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad"
• Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus"
• badge "Honorary worker of the Cheka-OGPU (XV)" (05/09/1938)

In accordance with the verdict of the court, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1955, he was deprived of all state awards. Together with Abakumov, the process went through

head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the MGB of the USSR A. G. Leonov,

his deputies

V. I. Komarov and

M. T. Likhachev,

investigators

I. Ya. Chernov and

Ya. M. Broveman,

the first three were shot, Chernov was sentenced to 15 years, Broveman to 25 years. In 1994, the sentence was commuted to 25 years without confiscation of property and reclassified under the article "military crimes".

In fiction

As the head of SMERSH, Viktor Abakumov appears in the novel by V. O. Bogomolov “The Moment of Truth” (“In August forty-fourth”). However, his last name is not mentioned: he is a "colonel general" and "head of military counterintelligence".

As Minister of State Security, Viktor Abakumov appears in the novels "In the First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago" A. I. Solzhenitsyn; “Despair” by Yu. S. Semenov, “The Gospel of the Executioner” by the Weiner brothers, “Ashes and Ashes” by A. N. Rybakova, "Privy Advisor to the Leader" by V. D. Uspensky.

In 2009, Abakumov appeared as one of the main characters in Kirill Benediktov's Blockade series of semi-fantastic books (part of the Ethnogenesis project of Popular Literature publishing house).

Abakumov as the head of the NKVD prison on Lubyanka is described in the book by Victoria Fedorova "The Admiral's Daughter". Produced from December 27 to December 28, 1946, the first interrogation of the famous Soviet actress - Zoya Alekseevna Fedorova on a fabricated charge of treason.

In cinema

• "Star of the era" (2005); "Wolf Messing: who saw through time" (2009). In the role of Abakumov - Yuri Shlykov.
• "In the first circle" (2006). In the role - Roman Madyanov.
• "Stalin. Live" (2006). In the role - Vyacheslav Innocent Jr.
• "Ordered to destroy! Operation: "Chinese Box" ", (2009); "SMERSH. Legend for a traitor "(2011). In the role - Stepan Starchikov.
• "My dear man" (2011). In the role - Alexander Polyakov.
• "Zhukov" (2012). In the role - Alexander Peskov.
• ""Counterplay"" (2012). In the role - Igor

******************************

1908 , Moscow - 19.12.1954 , Leningrad). Born into a family of a pharmaceutical factory worker (later his father worked in a hospital as a cleaner and stoker). Washer's mother. Russian. In CP with 1930 (member of the Komsomol with 1927 ). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation.

Education: mountains school in Moscow 1921 .

Private 2 of the Moscow Special Brigade (CHON) 11.21-12.23 ; temporary worker, Moscow 1924 ; packer at the Moscow prom. union 1925-1926 ; shooter military-industrial protection of the Supreme Council of National Economy 08.27-04.28 ; packer at warehouses Center. union of consumer societies 07.28-01.30 ; deputy head Joint-Stock Company of the Trade and Parcel Office of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. trade of the RSFSR 01.30-09.30 ; secretary of the Komsomol organization of the trade and parcel office of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. trade of the RSFSR 01.30-09.30 ; Secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Stamping Plant "Press", Moscow 10.30-1931 ; member of the bureau military otd. Zamoskvoretsky District Committee of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol 1931-1932 .

In the bodies of the OGPU-NKVD-MGB: full ECO PP OGPU in the Moscow region. 1932-1933 ; full ECU OGPU USSR 1933-10.07.34 ; full 1st ECO department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR 10.07.34-01.08.34 ; full 3rd Division GULAG NKVD USSR 01.08.34-16.08.35 ; opera. full 3rd department protection of the GULAG NKVD of the USSR 16.08.35-15.04.37 ; opera. full department 4 department GUGB NKVD USSR 15.04.37-03.38 ; pom. early department 4 department 1 ex. NKVD USSR 03.38-29.09.38 ; pom. early department 2 department GUGB NKVD USSR 29.09.38-01.11.38 ; early 2 department 2 department GUGB NKVD USSR 01.11.38-05.12.38 ; wreed early. UNKVD Rostov region. 05.12.38-27.04.39 ; early UNKVD Rostov region. 27.04.39-25.02.41 ; deputy commissar of internal affairs of the USSR 25.02.41-19.04.43 ; early Ex. NGO NKVD USSR 19.07.41-14.04.43 ; deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR 19.04.43-20.05.43 ; early GUKR SMERSH NPO USSR 19.04.43-27.04.46 one; full NKVD of the USSR on the 3rd Belorussian Front 11.01.45-04.07.45 ; early GUKR SMERSH MVS USSR 27.04.46-04.05.46 ; Minister of State Security of the USSR 04.05.46-04.07.51 ; Member of the Commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for Judicial Affairs 18.05.46-04.07.51 ; prev. collegiums of the MGB of the USSR 31.12.50-04.07.51 .

Arrested 12.07.51 ; sentenced by the USSR VKVS 19.12.54 in Leningrad to VMN. Shot.

Not rehabilitated.

Ranks: ml. Lieutenant GB 20.12.36 ; Lieutenant GB 05.11.37 ; captain GB 28.12.38 (produced from Lieutenant GB); Art. Major GB 14.03.40 (produced from captain GB); commissioner GB 3rd rank 09.07.41 ; commissioner GB 2nd rank 04.02.43 ; colonel general 09.07.45 .

Awards: badge "Honorary worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)" 09.05.38 ; Order of the Red Banner No. 4697 26.04.40 ; Order of Suvorov 1st class No. 216 31.07.44 ; Order of Suvorov 2nd class No. 540 08.03.44 ; Order of Kutuzov 1st class No. 385 21.04.45 ; Order of the Red Star No. 847892; Order of the Red Banner; 6 medals.

Note: 1С 09/06/45 also a member of the Commission for the management of the preparation of accusatory materials and the work of owls. representatives to the International military tribunal in the case of the main German military. criminals.

From book: N.V. Petrov, K.V. Skorkin "Who led the NKVD. 1934-1941"

ABAKUMOV Viktor Semenovich (April 11, 1908–December 19, 1954), one of the hands. state bodies. security, commissioner security 2nd rank (4.2.1943), gene. - regiment. (9.7.1945). Graduated from 4th grade. mountains teacher (1921). Member since 1930 VKP(b). Since 1930 at the Komsomol work. In 1932 he was transferred to the OGPU "for reinforcement". In 1934 he was transferred to Ch. ex. ITL. Since 1937 - in the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR. From 5.12.1938 acting beginning, from 27.4.1939 ex. NKVD in the Rostov region. He led the organization of mass repressions in Rostov-on-Don. From 25.2.1941 deputy. commissar of internal affairs of the USSR and at the same time. from 19.7.1941 beginning. Ex. special departments; supervised the activities of state bodies. security in the Red Army and the RKKF and other armed formations. 19/4/1943 Special departments were withdrawn from the NKVD of the USSR and under the leadership of A. created Ch. ex. counterintelligence SMERSH ("Death to spies"), at the same time. A. became deputy. People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. He led counterintelligence in the army and navy, including it was his employees who carried out the "filtering" of Soviet soldiers released from captivity, as well as identifying unreliable elements in the territories liberated by the Soviet army. By order of A. in Budapest, the Swedish diplomat R. Wallenberg, who saved thousands of lives during fascism, was arrested. In 1944 he participated in the organization of the deportations of the peoples of the North. Caucasus. Simultaneously in Jan. - July 1945 authorized by the NKVD on the 3rd Belorussian Front. From 4.5.1946 min. state security of the USSR (SMERSH became part of the USSR Ministry of State Security as the 3rd exercise); at the same time in 1946–51 member Commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in court. affairs. Gradually, all the most important units, including the police, the criminal investigation department, and paramilitary security, moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the MGB. However, in May 1947 intelligence was withdrawn from A.'s jurisdiction. In 1948, on behalf of Stalin, he organized the murder of S.M. Mikhoels. In 1950–51, under the direct supervision of A., the Leningrad case was falsified. Did not show sufficient activity in the deployment of the so-called. "cases of doctors", for which he was removed from his post in July 1951. 12/7/1951 arrested on charges of concealing the "Zionist conspiracy" in the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. During the investigation, A. was actively subjected to torture and beatings. At an offsite meeting of the Military board of the top. court of the USSR in Leningrad 12–19.12.1954 found guilty of fabricating a court. cases and other malfeasance, treason, sabotage, terrorist attacks, participation in a counter-revolutionary organization and was sentenced to death. Shot. In 1994, A.'s sentence (posthumously) was replaced by 25 years without confiscation of property and reclassified under the article "military crimes". Wife - Antonina (born 1920), daughter of the pop artist-hypnotist Ornaldo (Nikolai Andreevich Smirnov), captain of the state. security. In July 1951 she was arrested and with her young son (born in April 1951) spent 3 years in prison. Released in March 1954, later rehabilitated. Viktor Semenovich Abakumov

Victor Semenovich Abakumov was born in 1908 in Moscow, in the family of a laborer and a seamstress. After graduating from four classes of a city school, the teenager volunteered for the Red Army, where he served as an orderly in the Moscow brigade of special forces (CHON).

After demobilization from the front, Abakumov began working as a packer in the Moscow Union of Industrial Cooperation, actively engaged in Komsomol, and then party work. In 1932, the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent him to serve in the organs of the OGPU. Then he was transferred as a guard to the Gulag, and at the end of 1938 he was appointed head of the Rostov regional department of the NKVD. Very quickly, he became famous for his ability, in the literal sense of the word, to knock out the necessary confessions from those under investigation. His methods seemed extremely cruel even for the interrogator. Abakumov's zeal did not go unnoticed, and in July 1941 he became head of military counterintelligence.

There is information in the sources that during the war years Abakumov managed to expose as many as 30,000 German agents. But were they all really German agents? Or were most of them ordinary people who admitted they were spies during "hard-hitting interrogations"?

Victor Semyonovich Abakumov. Born April 11 (24), 1908 in Moscow - died December 19, 1954 in Leningrad. Soviet statesman.

Colonel General (07/09/1945, commissar of the State Security Service of the II rank). Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and Head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR (1943-1946), Minister of State Security of the USSR (1946-1951). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation.

Father is a laborer. Mother is a seamstress. Brother - Alexei Semyonovich Abakumov, Moscow priest.

He graduated from the four classes of the city school.

From 1921 to 1923 he served as a volunteer orderly in the 2nd Moscow brigade of special forces (CHON).

In 1924, due to unemployment, he worked as a temporary worker, but since 1925 he worked as a packer of the Moscow Union of Industrial Cooperation (Mospromsoyuz), since 1927 - a shooter of the 1st detachment of the military-industrial guard of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, and since 1928 - packer warehouses Tsentrosoyuz.

In 1927 he joined the Komsomol, and in 1930 - the ranks of the CPSU (b).

During the campaign to nominate workers to the Soviet apparatus, Abakumov was promoted through the trade unions to the system of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR. In January 1930, he was appointed to the post of deputy head of the administrative department of the trade and parcel office of the People's Commissariat of Trade of the RSFSR and at the same time secretary of the Komsomol cell.

In September 1930, he was sent to leading Komsomol work at the Press stamping plant, where he was elected to the post of secretary of the Komsomol cell.

From 1931 to 1932 he worked as the head of the military department of the Zamoskvoretsky district committee of the Komsomol.

From January 1932 he worked in the bodies of the OGPU-NKVD as an intern in the economic department of the authorized representative of the OGPU in the Moscow region and as an authorized representative of the economic department of the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Moscow region.

In 1933, he was transferred from membership to party candidate for unwillingness to eliminate his political illiteracy.

Since 1933, he worked as an authorized representative of the economic department of the OGPU, then the economic department of the GUGB of the NKVD, however, in 1934 it was revealed that Abakumov met with various women in safe houses, in connection with which he was transferred to the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps and Labor Settlements ( Gulag).

In 1934 he was appointed to the post of operational commissioner of the 3rd branch of the Operations Department of the Gulag.

In December 1936, Abakumov was awarded the special rank of junior lieutenant of state security.

From 1937 to 1938 he worked as an operative officer of the 4th (secret-political) department of the GUGB NKVD, deputy head of the department of the 4th department of the 1st department of the NKVD, head of the department of the 2nd department of the GUGB of the NKVD.

With the appointment on November 25, 1938 to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Abakumov acted as head from December 1938, and on April 27, 1939 he was approved as head of the NKVD department for the Rostov region. During interrogations, he used his physical force.

On February 3, 1941, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs was divided directly into the NKVD (People's Commissar - L.P. Beria), and the NKGB (People's Commissar - V.N. Merkulov). At the same time, Abakumov was appointed to the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and head of the Department of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR, which in July 1943 was transformed into SMERSH.

In April 1943, Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov was appointed head of the SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence and Deputy People's Commissar of Defense.

V.N. Merkulov recalled: “Simultaneously with the division of the NKVD, as far as I remember, the so-called SMERSH stood out in an independent department, headed by Abakumov. Abakumov turned out to be, perhaps, no less ambitious and powerful person than Beria, only more stupid than him. Abakumov soon after his appointment managed to deftly enter into the confidence of Comrade Stalin, mainly, as he himself said, by systematic, almost daily reports to Comrade Stalin about the behavior of a number of persons from among the major military workers.

Army General P.I. Ivashutin noted: “It’s not serious to downplay Abakumov’s merits in the successful work of the Smersh Main Intelligence Directorate, I think that not a single wartime counterintelligence officer will allow himself this.

In 1944, Abakumov took part in the deportation of a number of peoples of the North Caucasus, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Kutuzov, I degree. From January to July 1945, while remaining the head of SMERSH, he was simultaneously authorized by the NKVD for the 3rd Belorussian Front.

In 1946, Abakumov fabricated materials on the basis of which the people's commissar of the aviation industry A. I. Shakhurin, the commander of the Air Force A. A. Novikov, the chief engineer of the Air Force A. K. Repin and a number of other generals were arrested and convicted.

On May 7, 1946, Abakumov was appointed Minister of State Security of the USSR, replacing V.N. Merkulov in this post. SMERSH, in which Abakumov had previously served, entered the ministry as the 3rd Directorate. As Minister of State Security, he led political repressions.

Under the leadership of Abakumov, "Leningrad business" and the foundation was laid for the Cause of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The signal for the defeat of the JAC was the murder of Solomon Mikhoels by officers of the MGB of the USSR on the personal instructions of V.S. Abakumov. In 1947, in his report, the Minister of State Security of the USSR Abakumov reported the following details of the work of his subordinates:

"...7. With regard to those arrested who stubbornly resist the requirements of the investigation, behave provocatively and by all means try to delay the investigation or lead it astray, strict measures of the detention regime are applied.

These measures include: a) transfer to a prison with a stricter regime, where hours of sleep are reduced and the maintenance of the detainee in terms of food and other domestic needs is worsened; b) placement in solitary confinement; c) deprivation of walks, food parcels and the right to read books; d) placement in a punishment cell for up to 20 days.

Note: in the punishment cell, apart from a stool screwed to the floor and a bed without bedding, there is no other equipment; a bed for sleeping is provided for 6 hours a day; prisoners held in a punishment cell are given only 300 grams per day. bread and boiling water and hot food once every 3 days; Smoking is prohibited in the cellar.

8. With regard to spies, saboteurs, terrorists and other active enemies of the Soviet people exposed by the investigation, who brazenly refuse to extradite their accomplices and do not testify about their criminal activities, the MGB bodies, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 10, 1939 apply measures of physical coercion...".

From 1945 to 1951, Abakumov was a member of the Standing Commission for conducting open trials in the most important cases of former servicemen of the German army and German punitive bodies exposed in atrocities against Soviet citizens in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.

From 1946 to 1951 he was a member of the secret commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for judicial affairs.

On July 14, 1950, he sent a memorandum to Stalin "On the need to arrest the poetess Akhmatova."

On February 19, 1951, Abakumov sent Stalin a top secret memorandum "On the need to evict members of the anti-Soviet Jehovah's sect and members of their families from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, the Moldavian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian SSRs", after which the MGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were organized and started 1 April 1951 Operation "North" to evict Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as representatives of other religious associations (Reformist Adventists, Innocentians, the True Orthodox Church).

Arrest and execution of Viktor Abakumov

On July 11, 1951, the Central Committee adopted a resolution “On the unfavorable state of affairs in the MGB”, and on July 12, 1951, Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov was arrested and charged with high treason, a Zionist conspiracy in the MGB, in an attempt to prevent the development of the case of doctors.

The reason for the arrest was a denunciation to Stalin from the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Lieutenant Colonel M. D. Ryumin.

In the denunciation, Abakumov was accused of various crimes, mainly that he slowed down the investigation of cases of a group of doctors and a Jewish youth organization, allegedly preparing assassination attempts against the leaders of the country.

According to some information, G. M. Malenkov gave the move to the denunciation.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recognized the denunciation of M. D. Ryumin as objective, decided to remove Abakumov from his post and refer his case to court.

The former minister was imprisoned in the Lefortovo prison.

According to Leonid Mlechin, "Abakumov was tortured, kept in the cold, and eventually turned into an invalid." According to a number of historians, the charges brought against Abakumov were clearly far-fetched. Together with Abakumov, his wife and their 4-month-old son were imprisoned.

In the case of Abakumov, the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the MGB of the USSR A. G. Leonov (shot), his deputies V. I. Komarov (shot) and M. T. Likhachev (shot), investigators I. A. Chernov ( 15 years in prison) and Ya. M. Broverman (25 years in prison).

With the death of I. V. Stalin and the coming to power, the charges against Abakumov were changed. The indictment did not include the illegal actions of V. Abakumov in organizing and directing the murder of S. Mikhoels and inspiring the JAC case, he was charged with the “Leningrad case”, fabricated by him, according to the new official version, as a member of the “Beria gang”.

Betrayed to a closed trial (with the participation of Leningrad party workers) in Leningrad, where he pleaded not guilty. Was shot on December 19, 1954 on Levashovskaya Pustosh.

Pavel Sudoplatov in his book "Special Operations" recalled Abakumov: "... He continued to completely deny the accusations against him even under torture, "confessions" were never obtained from him. ... he behaved like a real man with a strong will ... He had to endure incredible suffering (he spent three months in the refrigerator in shackles), but he found the strength not to submit to the executioners. He fought for his life, categorically denying the "conspiracy of doctors". Thanks to his firmness and courage in March and April 1953, it became possible to quickly release all those arrested, implicated in the so-called conspiracy, since it was Abakumov who was charged with being their leader".

On July 28, 1994, by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the sentence of December 19, 1954 was changed: the actions of Abakumov V.S., as well as his accomplices Leonov A.G., Likhachev M.T., Komarov V.I., Broverman Ya.M. retrained from art. 58-1 "b" (treason committed by military personnel), 58-7 (sabotage), 58-8 (terrorist act) and 58-11 (participation in a counter-revolutionary group) of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR at art. 193-17 "b" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (military malfeasance - abuse of power in the presence of particularly aggravating circumstances), i.e. the accusation of counter-revolutionary crimes is excluded, but the punishment is erroneously left the same - the death penalty and confiscation of property.

On December 17, 1997, by the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, chaired by V.M. Lebedev the verdict of December 19, 1954 and the definition of the Higher Military Commission of July 28, 1994 were partially changed: taking into account Articles 1 and 2 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 26, 1947 “On the abolition of the death penalty”, punishment Abakumov V.S. , as well as Leonov A.G., Likhachev M.T., Komarov V.I. according to Article 193-17 "b" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, to appoint not in the form of the death penalty, but in the form of 25 years of imprisonment in labor camps for each, while the additional penalty in the form of confiscation of property in relation to each convicted person is excluded; and from the punishment assigned to Broverman Ya.M. loss of political rights for a period of 5 years is excluded.

"As can be seen from the materials of the criminal case, Abakumov, Leonov, Likhachev, Komarov and Broverman were found guilty of the fact that, being responsible officials of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, they systematically abused power for a long time, which resulted in the falsification of criminal cases and the use of illegal measures of physical coercion during the preliminary investigation.These violations entailed particularly grave consequences - bringing many innocent citizens to criminal responsibility.In particular, Abakumov, while in leadership work in state security agencies, sought out insignificant materials on individual senior officials of the party and Soviet apparatus , arrested them, and then used methods of investigation that were unacceptable and strictly prohibited by the current legislation, together with his subordinates, sought fictitious testimonies from the arrested about allegedly especially dangerous counter-revolutions they had allegedly committed legal crimes", - stated in the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Thus, the rehabilitation of Abakumov and other persons involved in this case did not happen.

In 2013, a grave monument to V.S. Abakumov. According to one version, the remains of the minister, transferred from a special firing range in the Levashovskaya Pustosha, were actually buried in the son’s grave, where Viktor Abakumov’s grave had been located all these decades, the exact coordinates of which were tacitly kept by the “competent authorities”, which, without attracting undue attention, reburied the remains and established monument. According to another version, the body of the executed could not be preserved, and the tombstone is a cenotaph.

Grave of Viktor Abakumov, his wife and son

Personal life of Viktor Abakumov:

Was married twice. Both wives had the surname Smirnov.

First wife - Tatyana Andreevna Smirnova. He left her when he met Antonina Smirnova, his future second wife. Abakumov left her, leaving everything, including the apartment on Telegraph Lane. They did not have to divorce, as they lived together for many years without registering a marriage.

Offended, Tatyana Andreevna, even during the first meetings between Abakumov and Antonina, wrote a letter to him to the top management, in which she “complained that Viktor Semenovich was cheating on her, sometimes beat her, asked, no, just informed that Abakumov had a love affair with Smirnova A.N., an employee of her department.

Second wife - Antonina Nikolaevna Smirnova(1920-1974), daughter of the stage hypnotist Ornaldo. She was twelve years younger than her husband. They met when she worked in the naval intelligence department of the MGB. She was arrested along with her husband.

Antonina Nikolaevna never remarried. She worked at an architectural institute. She died in 1974 at the age of 54 from a cerebrovascular disease that led to brain cancer.

Son - Igor Viktorovich Smirnov (1951-2004), a scientist who developed technologies for computer psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection of human behavior. He was married to Elena Rusalkina.

At the time of his father's arrest, Igor was only 4 months old. The boy spent his first years in prison.

Smirnov is a surname inherited from his mother. For many years, Igor did not know anything about his origin. In the column "Father" was a dash.

According to foreign scientists, Igor Smirnov can be safely recognized as the "father of Russian psychotropic weapons." Despite international recognition, he turned down the opportunity to head a research institute in Germany and stayed in Russia.

Igor Smirnov - son of Viktor Abakumov

Victor Abakumov in art:

As the head of SMERSH, Viktor Abakumov appears in the novel by V. O. Bogomolov “The Moment of Truth” (“In August forty-fourth”). However, his last name is not mentioned: he is a "colonel general" and "head of military counterintelligence".

As Minister of State Security, Viktor Abakumov appears in the novels In the First Circle, The Gulag Archipelago; “Despair” by Yu. S. Semenov, “The Gospel of the Executioner” by the Weiner brothers, “Ashes and Ashes” by A. N. Rybakov, “Privy Advisor to the Leader” by V. D. Uspensky.

In 2009, Abakumov appeared as one of the main characters in Kirill Benediktov's Blockade series of semi-fantastic books (part of the Ethnogenesis project of Popular Literature publishing house).

Abakumov as the head of the NKVD prison on Lubyanka is described in the book by Victoria Fedorova "The Admiral's Daughter".

Viktor Abakumov in the cinema:

2000 - “In August 44th ...” - Alexander Timoshkin as Abakumov;

2005 - "Star of the era" - in the role of Abakumov Yuri Shlykov;
2006 - "In the first circle" - in the role of Abakumov;

2006 - “Stalin. Live "- Vyacheslav Innocent Jr. as Abakumov;
2009 - "Wolf Messing: who saw through time" - in the role of Abakumov Yuri Shlykov;
2009 - “Ordered to destroy! Operation: "Chinese box" - in the role of Abakumov Stepan Starchikov;
2011 - "SMERSH. A legend for a traitor "- in the role of Abakumov Stepan Starchikov;
2011 - "My dear man" - in the role of Abakumov Alexander Polyakov;
2012 - "Zhukov" - in the role of Abakumov Alexander Peskov;
2012 - "Counterplay" - in the role of Abakumov Igor Skurikhin;
2012 - "Operation Fox Hole" - in the role of Abakumov Evgeny Nikitin

The rise of Stalin's all-powerful Minister of State Security began with the Great Terror

There are legends about how Abakumov, an ordinary Chekist, of whom there were thousands in the NKVD, moved to the head of the punitive department. Poorly educated and narrow-minded, he was not deprived of physical strength and had a dashing bearing. When it turned out, as Solzhenitsyn notes, that “Abakumov conducts a good investigation, deftly and famously bringing his long hands to the face, and his great career began ...” Probably, it was precisely these qualities that were most in demand in the era of Stalinist terror.

And the path to this nomination was simple and clear.

The one who was destined to become the all-powerful minister of Stalin's state security - Viktor Semenovich Abakumov - was born in April 1908 in Moscow in the family of a laborer. Later, my father worked in the hospital as a cleaner and stoker and died in 1922. Before the revolution, her mother worked as a seamstress, and then as a nurse and laundress in the same hospital as her father. Abakumov did not have a chance to study much. According to personal data, he graduated from the 3rd grade of the city school in Moscow in 1920. True, in the official biography published before the elections to the Supreme Soviet in 1946, it was stated that he had a 4-year education received in 1921. It is not very clear what the tall young man was doing before the moment when, in November 1921, he volunteered for the CHON. The service lasted until December 1923, and for the next year Abakumov was interrupted by odd jobs, and for the most part he was unemployed. Everything changed in January 1925, when he was hired as a packer at Moskopromsoyuz. And in August 1927, Abakumov entered the service of the shooter of the VOKhR for the protection of industrial enterprises. Here, in 1927, he joined the Komsomol.

Most likely, the robust and promising Wohrovian has been noticed by the authorities, and he is gradually being promoted to more and more important work. From 1928, he again worked as a packer at the Tsentrosoyuz warehouse, and from January 1930, he was already the secretary of the board of the Gonets state joint-stock company and at the same time the secretary of the Komsomol cell of the trade and parcel office. From January 1930, he was a candidate member, and from September of the same year, a member of the CPSU (b). Now the career path is open for him. In October 1930, he was elected secretary of the Komsomol cell of the Press plant and at the same time headed the secret part of this plant. Without a doubt, having become the head of the secret part of the plant, Abakumov secretly helped the OGPU. The new post did just that. It is known that from covert to open work is only one step.

Foxtrot

From January to December 1931, Abakumov was a member of the bureau and head of the military department of the Zamoskvoretsky district committee of the Komsomol. And in January 1932, he was accepted as a trainee in the Economic Department of the OGPU embassy in the Moscow region. Soon he was already authorized by the same department, and from January 1933 in the central office of the OGPU he was authorized by the Economic Directorate. And this is where the career falters. In August 1934, Abakumov was transferred to the position of detective in the 3rd branch of the Gulag security department. It was rumored that he was ruined by an irrepressible passion for women and a passion for the then fashionable foxtrot dance. There were rumors that he arranged intimate meetings in official safe houses.

In his youth, Abakumov spent most of his time in the gym, wrestling. Don't forget other amusements. Is it up to diligent service here?

The link to the Gulag lasted a long time. Everything changed decisively in 1937. That's when strong and tough guys were needed. Significant vacancies opened up - the arrests of the Chekists themselves became commonplace. In April 1937, Abakumov received an important position - the detective of the 4th (secret-political) department of the NKVD GUGB. Now he is growing rapidly both in positions and in ranks. Back in the Gulag, in 1936 he was awarded the rank of junior lieutenant of the State Security Service, and less than a year later, in November 1937, he received the rank of lieutenant of the State Security Service and already in 1938 was appointed assistant head of the secret political department.

As expected, under the conditions of the Great Terror, Abakumov specialized in investigative work. Here his athletic training and strength came in handy. He actively conducts interrogations and does not spare the arrested.

Abakumov's zeal was noticed. He was praised by the new head of the secret political department, Bogdan Kobulov, who came with Beria to the central apparatus of the NKVD - the famous "Kobulich", a master of torture investigation, whose praise speaks volumes. Kobulov gave a recommendation for the nomination of Abakumov for independent work. On December 5, 1938, Abakumov was appointed head of the UNKVD for the Rostov region. He was immediately, bypassing one step, awarded the rank of captain of the GB, and already in March 1940, also through a step, the rank of senior major of the GB.

Beria valued good and dedicated personnel. In February 1941, he nominated Abakumov to his deputies, and a month after the start of the war he gave him the post of head of the Directorate of Special Departments - the entire military counterintelligence. Then, in July 1941, Abakumov was awarded the rank of commissar of the State Security Service of the 3rd rank - which in the army corresponded to a lieutenant general. So in four years, Abakumov rose from a simple junior lieutenant and "opera" to the heights of a general. A year and a half later, he was awarded the title of commissar of the State Security Service of the 2nd rank (02/04/1943).

Head of SMERSH

In April 1943, during the next reorganization, the military counterintelligence agencies were removed from the subordination of Beria, and on their basis the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence (GUKR) SMERSH of the People's Commissariat of Defense was organized. Now Stalin became the immediate superior of Abakumov. For a short time, Abakumov even became deputy people's commissar of defense, but already on May 20, 1943, with a reduction in the number of deputies, he lost this post. But now he is a frequent visitor to Stalin's Kremlin office. If until 1943, not a single visit to Stalin was recorded in the visit log, then only in 1943, starting in March, Abakumov was received in the Kremlin eight times.

Abakumov moved forward and received Stalin's favor in cases against the military. The military command always worried the leader: were there any conspiracies ripening there, were they true to him - Stalin? Abakumov launched a feverish activity of surveillance and collection of materials. In the archives of state security, many volumes of "wiretaps" of the generals were deposited. SMERSH authorities listened to Marshal Zhukov, Generals Kulik and Gordov, and many others. According to the materials obtained in this way, Kulik and Gordov were shot, and only for their criticism of Stalin.

Abakumov received his first Order of the Red Banner in 1940. The war added military orders to him. The general list of his awards included: two orders of the Red Banner (04/26/40, 07/20/1949); Order of Suvorov, 1st degree (07/31/1944); Order of Kutuzov 1st degree (04/21/1945); Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree (03/08/1944); Order of the Red Star; 6 medals. In addition, he had the sign "Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)" (05/09/1938). To knowledgeable people, the dates of assignment are saying something.

Abakumov received the Order of Suvorov of the 2nd degree for participating in the eviction of Chechens and Ingush, and the Order of Kutuzov of the 1st degree - as an authorized representative of the NKVD on the 3rd Belorussian Front for "cleaning the rear" - carrying out extensive repressions and deportations in Prussia and Poland. In 1945, Abakumov was awarded the rank of Colonel General (07/09/1945).

In the fall of 1945, Stalin, being dissatisfied with the work of the NKGB, initiated the development of a new structure for the People's Commissariat and seriously wanted to shake up the entire leadership. From the beginning of 1946, several options for the organizational structure of the NKGB-MGB were presented to Stalin for consideration. It was planned to include the GUKR SMERSH in the MGB, and to appoint Abakumov as Deputy Minister for General Affairs. Stalin thought this was not enough. By decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on May 4, 1946, a new structure of the MGB was approved and Abakumov was appointed minister instead of Merkulov. During the acceptance and transfer of cases to the MGB, Abakumov made every effort to discredit the work of his predecessor. The sudden elevation turned his head, and among his inner circle Abakumov declared: “Although Merkulov was a minister, the Central Committee was afraid and did not know the way there,” while he himself, “still working as the head of SMERSH counterintelligence, already knew his worth and even then , unlike Merkulov, managed to gain a strong authority for himself.

Stalinist oprichnik

Appointing Abakumov Minister of State Security, Stalin wanted to see at the head of this organization a grateful for the high post and completely devoted to him, and only to him, a campaigner. Stalin needed a minister who would inspire fear in his entire entourage, including members of the Politburo. Abakumov said to his employees: “Everyone should be afraid of me, the Central Committee told me about it directly. Otherwise, what kind of leader of the Cheka am I? The authorship of this order is quite obvious. "Cheka" - this is how Stalin usually called the state security, regardless of what abbreviation was in use at that time: NKVD, MGB or any other. And Abakumov took this parting word as a guide to action. He liked his new position and his special significance. He liked to say with gloating glee how, according to compromising materials obtained by the MGB, "this or that leader got burned." Did he realize that he was a blind tool in the hands of Stalin, that sooner or later the dictator might lose interest in him?

Having become a minister, Abakumov continues all his Smershev affairs: against Marshal Zhukov, against Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Serov and all their entourage. With Serov, they once together in May-June 1941 carried out the deportation of the population from the Baltic states, and for some reason Abakumov still disliked him fiercely from that time. And the methods of work of the MGB under Abakumov acquire a truly gangster character. Here are secret murders carried out by the "DR" department of the MGB, headed by Sudoplatov and Eitingon, and abductions, and attacks on citizens. It got to the point that MGB officers, posing as Americans, in broad daylight on April 15, 1948, attacked the Minister of the Navy A.A. Afanasiev and "inclined" him to work for American intelligence. The next day, the indignant minister wrote a statement addressed to Beria and Abakumov. As a result, he was arrested 10 days later, and a year later, by the decision of the OSO MGB, he received 20 years.

Abakumov did not stop before the execution of any Stalinist order, even the most criminal. One of these actions was the murder of the People's Artist of the USSR Mikhoels. As Abakumov testified during the investigation: “As far as I remember, in 1948 the head of the Soviet government I.V. Stalin gave me an urgent task - to quickly organize the liquidation of Mikhoels by the employees of the USSR Ministry of State Security, entrusting this to special persons. At the same time, Stalin personally indicated to Abakumov which of the MGB workers to entrust this murder, and wished that everything looked like an accident. Abakumov and his workers, without a shadow of a doubt, completed the "urgent task" of the leader and teacher.

Torture is still practiced in the MGB under Abakumov. In a lengthy explanation sent to Stalin in July 1947 about the methods of investigation adopted by the MGB, Abakumov pointed out: “With regard to spies, saboteurs, terrorists and other active enemies of the Soviet people exposed by the investigation, who brazenly refuse to extradite their accomplices and do not testify about their criminal activities , the bodies of the MGB, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 10, 1939, apply measures of physical influence. They beat and tortured the prisoners and Abakumov's subordinates, and he himself, setting an example for them. As Solzhenitsyn ironically notes: "... the Minister of State Security Abakumov himself did not at all shun this rough work (Suvorov is at the forefront!), He is not averse to sometimes taking a rubber stick in his hands."

The clouds over Abakumov's head began to thicken already in 1950. Stalin resolutely demanded the organization of the Collegium of the MGB and the introduction of experienced party workers into its composition. This in itself meant political distrust of the Chekist leadership. In the same year, Abakumov, in fact, ignored Stalin's proposal to arrest Sudoplatov and Eitingon. Instead of acting, he went to consult with Beria about this. After returning from vacation in December 1950, Stalin completely alienated Abakumov. As a minister, he received him in the Kremlin only once - on April 6, 1951. And this despite the fact that in 1949 there were 12 such meetings, and in 1950 - 6. The last time Abakumov crossed the threshold of Stalin's office on July 5, 1951, but now it was an invitation to execution. He had been removed from his post as minister the day before, and an imminent arrest loomed ahead.

"Party Deceiver"

The charges against Abakumov were based on a statement dated June 2, 1951, by senior investigator M.D. Ryumin, which completely coincided with Stalin's desire to arrange a serious personnel purge in the MGB. Ryumin reported that Abakumov "suppressed" the very "promising" case of the arrested Etinger, who could testify about "doctors-pests", hid important information from the Central Committee about the shortcomings in counterintelligence work in Germany at the Wismuth enterprises, where uranium ore was mined, and, finally, grossly violated the rules of investigation established by decisions of the party and government. Ryumin directly called Abakumov a "dangerous person" in an important government post.

On July 11, 1951, the Politburo adopted a special decision “On the unfavorable situation in the MGB”, in which Abakumov was accused of “deceiving the party” and dragging out investigation cases. The text of the resolution was sent in a "closed letter" to the leaders of party bodies and bodies of the MGB for review. The next day, Abakumov was arrested.

Initially, the investigation was conducted by the prosecutor's office, but in February 1952, by order of Stalin, Abakumov was transferred to the MGB. And then they took him seriously. Former subordinates tormented Abakumov with special zeal. He had to test all the innovations of the torture case introduced under him. Strangely, in his complaints to the Central Committee, Abakumov claimed that he had not even known about any types of torture before. For example, about a chamber with artificial cold. A month later, the result was quite expected. According to a certificate drawn up on March 24, 1952 in the medical unit of the Lefortovo prison, the crippled Abakumov could barely stand on his feet and moved only with outside help.

Testimony was obtained from the arrested Chekists, from which it followed that Abakumov did not put a penny on the party leadership, spoke contemptuously about Suslov, Vyshinsky and Gromyko, and treated Molotov with disdain. Once, when Pitovranov, presenting a draft memorandum to the minister, said that he had already informed the Foreign Ministry about this by telephone, Abakumov exploded: “Not only do you not know how to work and write, but you also blather to various Vyshinsky and gromists what you don’t follows. Only I should know about this. My surname is Abakumov. According to Pitovranov, Abakumov boasted that he “approached the Central Committee easily” and always received support, and “everyone follows his lead” there. Of course, this was a clear sign that Abakumov was burrowing and lost touch with reality.

And yet, the investigation into the Abakumov case was slow. In a certificate from the MGB dated October 15, 1952, sent to the Central Committee in the name of Malenkov and Beria, it was said that Abakumov was "confusing the investigators." Meanwhile, during the investigation, Abakumov continued to justify his activities in the MGB and claimed, for example, that Marshal Zhukov was "a very dangerous person." Abakumov continued to be tortured, he was transferred to the Butyrka prison, he was handcuffed around the clock.

Stalin personally gave this instruction. He was dissatisfied with the slowness of the investigation. As former Deputy Minister of State Security Goglidze later wrote in an explanatory note: “Comrade Stalin was almost daily interested in the progress of the investigation into the doctors’ case and the Abakumov-Shvartsman case, talking to me on the phone, sometimes calling me to his office. Comrade Stalin spoke, as a rule, with great irritation, constantly expressing dissatisfaction with the course of the investigation, scolding, threatening and, as a rule, demanded to beat the arrested: "Beat, beat, beat with mortal combat." Stalin demanded to reveal the "espionage activities" of Abakumov's group.

In the end, under pressure from Stalin, an indictment was prepared in the Abakumov-Shvartsman case against 10 senior officials of the MGB. On February 17, 1953, Minister of State Security Ignatiev sent him to Stalin with a proposal to consider the case at the Military Collegium in a simplified manner (without the participation of defense and prosecution) and to sentence all those involved in the case to be shot. Stalin did not approve of the proposed option. He considered that there were not enough defendants, and drew a resolution: "Not a few?" Stalin told the heads of the MGB investigative unit that the document they presented "unconvincingly showed the causes and process of the fall of Abakumov."

Member of the Beria gang

If under Stalin Abakumov was accused of deceiving the Central Committee, participating in the "Zionist conspiracy" and the collapse of the work of the MGB, then with the death of the dictator, the wind blew in the other direction. The intrigues of Abakumov (although, of course, Stalin was behind them) against Malenkov and Molotov came to the fore. Sitting up, attempts to shove each other - such was the usual situation both in the punitive department and in the party apparatus. Beria deliberately sacrificed Abakumov, saving himself and switching the attention of the leadership of the post-Stalinist Presidium of the Central Committee from his crimes of old to the recent ones committed by Abakumov. Of course, Beria could not personally decide the fate of Abakumov, this required the sanction of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Yes, and Beria clearly had no desire to bother for him. He well remembered that it was Abakumov who in 1946-1947 ousted the loyal Beriaites from the MGB: Merkulov, Kobulov, Milshtein and Vlodzimirsky.

Everything changed again after the arrest of Beria. Abakumov continued to sit, but the charges brought against him earlier were “morally obsolete.” While the investigation into the Beria case was going on, it would seem that Abakumov was forgotten. They returned to his cause in earnest in the spring of 1954, after the rehabilitation of the victims of the Leningrad case. Now Abakumov's fault was in carrying out illegal repressions, and he was retroactively ranked as a "gang of Beria."

The consideration of the Abakumov case took place on December 14-19, 1954 in Leningrad, in the district House of Officers at a process that was considered "open". The prosecution was supported by Prosecutor General Rudenko himself. Of course, the idle and inquisitive public was not allowed into the courtroom, where the visiting session of the Military Collegium met. Only reliable and proven contingent. Together with Abakumov, there were 5 more people in the dock. Abakumov and the employees of the investigation unit were accused of unfounded arrests, the use of criminal methods of investigation, falsification of investigative cases, and the employees of the secretariat that, on the instructions of Abakumov, they concealed and did not send to the Central Committee the complaints of those arrested about lawlessness. Abakumov and employees of the investigative unit were sentenced to death, and two employees of the secretariat of the MGB were sentenced to long terms under Art. 58. In the same place, in Leningrad, the sentence was carried out. The trial of Abakumov and his execution were briefly reported in the central press on 24 December.

Neither during the investigation nor at the trial, Abakumov pleaded guilty. He, like many other Chekists who were brought to justice, kept insisting that he was following the orders of the "directive bodies", but did not disclose this formula. He did not have the courage to call Stalin the organizer of the crimes at the trial.