The people called him the All-Union Warden. Stalin said: "All-Union goat." And he added: "lustful." Mikhail Ivanovich KALININ liked to communicate with milkmaids and weavers, the wives of people's commissars and ballerinas. After his death, those to whom the memory of him was especially dear could at any time go to the memorial office on Mokhovaya Street. But the Soviet Union collapsed, the museum was closed. And now, after 15 years, they nevertheless removed the furnishings of his office from the storerooms and placed them in a branch of the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia on Delegatskaya Street. However, this small exposition is silent about the most curious facts of the biography of the former Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Maria SVETLOV
Our new exhibition is dedicated to the interiors of the 20th century, - presents the opened exposition Ludmila Kovaleva, head of the branch of the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia on Delegatskaya Street - Kalinin's reception room, we recreated as a model of the decoration of the bureaucratic office of those years. And they chose it mainly because of the magnificent furniture set in the Art Nouveau style of the beginning of the century.
The office of the all-Union headman is nicely equipped for life. It can be seen that his owner loved simple earthly pleasures: drinking tea with sugar, sitting at a comfortable table and lying on a sofa made of good leather.
Fuete on the table
In the center of the office, as expected, a huge table. The guide said that, sitting behind him, Kalinin signed decrees, including those on mass repressions. But she kept silent about the legends that shrouded this outstanding piece of furniture.
As soon as in 1922, Mikhail Ivanovich assumed the post of Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, he was instructed to look after the work of the Bolshoi Theater. The all-Union headman shared the responsible party assignment with Avel Yenukidze, Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. And right there, favors fell on the Bolshoi. Previously, the authorities exploited the theater for any reason: they were obliged to provide premises for all kinds of events, ballerinas were forced to dance for free at concerts. Kalinin and Yenukidze immediately liberated the temple of art from the "corvée". They ordered the artists to raise their salaries twice a year, attached them to the Kremlin’s medical and sanatorium department, and the housing cooperative of the “ballet” was included in the construction plan out of turn.
Favors were not at all explained by the passionate love of two high-ranking Soviet officials for art - they did not distinguish pas de deux from fouettes. Both Kalinin and Yenukidze liked to have fun in the company of pretty ballerinas. And since both were state and busy people, they invited the dancers directly to the office. The ballerinas threw off their tutus and performed naked fouettes, so much so that, under the influence of the great power of art, Kalinin grunted and moaned, and the well-made table legs only creaked softly.
The all-Union headman presented the charmers with imported linen, cosmetics and trinkets. He especially liked the youngest dancers. Not all girls understood what a high honor they were given. 16 year old Bella Uvarova conquered Mikhail Ivanovich with beauty, but did not reciprocate the high patron. Which brought on the wrath of the voluptuary. After another call to the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the girl disappeared. And soon her disfigured body was found in a forest near Moscow. Stalin ordered the creation of a special commission to investigate the incident. Kalinin was urgently sent on vacation - "to heal." And then another “spy” process began in Moscow, where the names of the parents of the missing artist appeared. They were repressed, and Kalinin returned to his duties and continued patronage of the Bolshoi Theater.
Ballerina's mentor Ekaterina Geltser once, having learned that Michal Vanych had dishonored her young student, she launched a figurine of Mephistopheles at the old libertine. It is a pity, but this figurine is not among the exhibits of the museum.
Wife responsible for violence
Unfortunately, the exposition does not include one more memorable exhibit, testifying to the versatility of the interests of the all-Union headman.
After all, we must pay tribute to Mikhail Ivanovich: he loved not only ballet. The chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee paid no less attention to the operetta. Historians could back up this fact with a printed word, taking it from the collections of the Library. V.I. Lenin issue of the newspaper "Izvestia" for 1924 with a feuilleton Demyan Bedny"About how our headman Kalinich recaptured Tatyana Bakh from Averbakh." For half a page, the poet painted in colors the compromising evidence provided to him by the NKVD on Kalinin, skillfully bringing down anger on "some old men, those in power, confusing with young actresses from the operetta." Mikhail Ivanovich, who at that time had an affair with a young singer Tatiana Bach, however, did not calm down and did not stop seducing the girls. He only stopped making friends with Stalin's opponents in the party. The leader of the faithful headman appreciated and thanked him for his understanding, closing his eyes to his fornication.
But Kalinin's wife did not want to endure the adventures of her husband. In 1924, after 18 years of marriage, Ekaterina Ivanovna left for Altai, leaving an unfaithful spouse and five children in Moscow. She is tired of living under the same roof with her husband's mistress - the housekeeper Alexandra Gorchakova.
Beautiful, educated, from a noble family, Gorchakova at first took care of the Kalinin children and ran the household, and then extended her influence to Mikhail Ivanovich.
However, the 50-year-old headman gradually slowed down. Nervous work affected - more and more often the girls left him unsatisfied. But the all-Union headman was not accustomed to giving in to difficulties. He was looking for unconventional ways to restore his former strength. He was helped in a noble cause by a friend - an artist Meshkov, whose workshop was located not far from the reception room of the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Kalinin often, tired of accepting walkers, ran to a friend, a painter, for a glass of liqueur. Meshkov advised Michal Vanych an old folk remedy for impotence - bee stings to improve blood flow to the penis. At the artist's dacha, the all-Union headman sat naked on a beehive and endured the bites of angry insects for the sake of love. However, the method did not work. The rumor about the sexual weakness of the All-Union headman in a vile way spread around Moscow. The girls began to avoid meeting with Mikhail Ivanovich. In 1938, the aging head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee brought a 17-year-old young lady to his dacha and tried to rape her. Unfortunately, it turned out that the victim was a relative of the military leader Alexandra Egorova. Kalinin tried to settle the trouble by paying the victim a large sum. But another high-profile story really did not like Stalin. Rumor has it that, having become furious, the leader ordered the arrest of Kalinin's wife, allegedly because she could not keep her husband by his side. Ekaterina Ivanovna spent seven years in the camps. She was released in 1945. She did not forgive the offense and did not return to her husband. And a year later, Mikhail Ivanovich was gone.
QUOTE
“After another call to the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the girl disappeared. And soon her disfigured body was found in a forest near Moscow.
P.S.
After the death of the All-Union headman, the city of Tver was renamed Kalinin, the former Koenigsberg was named after him, until recently the city of Korolev near Moscow was Kaliningrad. In Moscow, his name was given to the avenue (now Novy Arbat) and the metro station (now Aleksandrovsky Sad). None of the figures of the Soviet era was honored on such a large scale. A strange coincidence, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union and ten years of oblivion, it was he who was remembered, and not his party comrades-in-arms, and it was his cabinet that was recreated, and not Kirov or Molotov. Perhaps this happened because Kalinin, like no one else, from the bottom of his heart loved the people, a good half of which were women.
BY THE WAY
Galina Danelia, the wife of the famous director Georgy Danelia, in her youth was friends with the grandson of Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin - also Mikhail. According to her, he was an intelligent person with phenomenal thinking, he knew Japanese perfectly. Galina lived with him in a 5-room apartment on the street. Alexei Tolstoy. The girl tried to seduce Michael. But, ironically, the descendant of a loving admirer of women adhered to non-traditional sexual orientation. Once Galina caught him with painted lips in a ladies' dress. And later, Mikhail reproached that, while living with him, Galina was preventing him from inviting his friend Stasik to visit for intimate meetings.
Passionate orgies, debauchery and promiscuity, seduction of minors and abuse of subordinates ... For many years we were told that there was no sex in Soviet Russia, hiding documents about the sexual revolution that the Bolsheviks staged in 1917 under the headings "top secret".
ACCORDING TO ILYICH'S TESTIMONIES
The Bolsheviks, who seized power, declared a "revolt of sensuality." Simply put, all moral norms and restrictions have been abolished. Leon Trotsky wrote to Vladimir Lenin: "The family, as a bourgeois institution, has completely outlived itself!" Lenin answered him: “... And not only the family. All prohibitions regarding sexuality must be lifted ... Even the ban on same-sex love.
Since Ilyich himself gave the go-ahead, why not play tricks? The ruling elite reveled in permissiveness for many years. There was a feeling of heady freedom: do what you want, and nothing will happen to you for it. All women, without exception, became available to the leader's comrades-in-arms: some went to bed for ideological reasons, others were easy to bribe, the rest were driven by fear for their lives and those close to them. The time of executions without trial or investigation. And sexual promiscuity...
PEDOPHILE WITH UNLIMITED POWER
The fashion for sexual entertainment originated in the upper echelons of Soviet power in the early 1920s and continued to grow until 1937. They cheated to the best of their depravity.
One of the coolest libertines of that time, as contemporaries assure, was the secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Abel Yenukidze. The chief business executive of the Kremlin was in charge not only of the distribution of food and housing among the top leadership, he, according to the recollections of many, also ensured the satisfaction of their sexual whims. For example, he organized orgies for his comrades, supplying young women to the Kremlin banquets, like batches of fresh fish and caviar. He himself loved to relax ... in the company of little girls.
Even contemporaries understood that his unbridledness bordered on pathology. A relative of Stalin's first wife, Maria Svanidze, wrote in her diary: “Abel had a tremendous impact on our life for 17 years after the revolution. Being depraved and voluptuous himself, he tainted everything around him - he enjoyed pandering, family discord, seduction of girls. Having in his hands all the blessings of life, unattainable for everyone, especially in the first years after the revolution, he used all this for personal dirty purposes, buying women and girls. It hurts to talk and write about it. Being erotically abnormal and, obviously, not a 100% man, every year he switched to younger and younger, and finally reached girls of 9-11 years old, corrupting their imagination, corrupting them, if not physically, then morally ... "
In 1935, Yenukidze was suddenly accused of immoral behavior and expelled from the party "for political and everyday corruption." And in 1937 they shot him. Historian Boris Ilizarov is sure that a close friend of Stalin “supplied girls not only to the “necessary people” and comrades-in-arms, but also to the friend of youth himself. It turns out that the leader removed the most important witness and secured himself from revelations on his part.
DEMON IN THE RIBB
"All-Union lustful goat" - that is how Mikhail Kalinin was called in a narrow circle of close associates. Handsome, with a beard and glasses, grandfather Kalinin looked much older than his years - in 1917 he was only 40, and he looked like a very old man. He became famous for his irrepressible love for the theatre. Or rather - to young actresses.
From the outside, it looked very touching when Mikhail Ivanovich, after a performance at the Bolshoi Theater, went backstage and warmly, just like a father, asked the young ballerinas about life. Gently stroking the girls, most of whom were barely 16-17 years old, on their bare arms, or even kissing them on their bare shoulders, the head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee invited them to visit him - to the government dacha or directly to the office. A table with green cloth, at which the All-Union headman received visitors during the day, in the evening turned into a stage on which ballerinas in what their mother gave birth danced for a single spectator ...
For the satisfaction of his lust, Kalinin paid patronage to the entire theater: the troupe received annual salary increases, the dancers were given rations and allowed to rest in the Kremlin sanatoriums. Most of the artists did not complain about their fate: by pleasing Kalinin, one could even get housing in the capital.
But not everyone was malleable dolls in the hands of "affectionate grandfather." One of the young ballerinas, Bella Uvarova, flatly refused to indulge the "benefactor". She was brought to him more than once for a "conversation", but the girl was impregnable. After one such meeting, she simply did not return home. Soon she was found in a forest near Moscow. The unfortunate parents could not even identify their girl right away - her body was so disfigured. A scandal broke out, Kalinin immediately went on "sick leave". Stalin himself intervened in the investigation. And then, by a strange coincidence, it suddenly "turned out" that Bella's mother and father were foreign spies. They were promptly shot, and the case was closed. After this incident, the girls no longer balked when Kalinin called them to him.
Over the years, the "lustful headman" weakened, but was not going to leave the race. They say that at the dacha, he, having thrown off his pants, sat down on an open beehive, believing that the stings of bees would increase his potency. The peak of the depraved behavior of the aging Mikhail Ivanovich was the rape of an underage relative of Marshal Yegorov, for which Kalinin's wife was immediately arrested. Ekaterina Ivanovna was accused of not being able to restrain her husband and he was mired in debauchery. And sent to the camps for 15 years ...
FROM CLOTHES - ONLY SHOES
For a long time it was believed that the prototype of Satan's ball in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" were pompous receptions in the American embassy. However, the French historian Rene Bouvet, rummaging through the archives, found out that Mikhail Bulgakov described the receptions in the mansion of the People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, which he himself had repeatedly visited. The first time he saw plunged the writer into a deep shock. Men, dressed in tailcoats, sedately carried on small talk with the ladies, who only wore shoes and feathers in their hair. At the same time, the beauties were not at all embarrassed by their nudity and flirted with might and main with gentlemen. Witches, and more!
These receptions ended, as you might guess, with noisy orgies in which the Leninist elite came off to the fullest. Lunacharsky, an educated man, a native of a noble family, loved to invite ballerinas from the Bolshoi Theater, which he personally supervised, to such wild revels.
When the people's commissar appeared in the box, the corps de ballet became excited: every artist dreamed of attracting the attention of Lunacharsky. After all, his benevolence promised many blessings: gifts and trips, perfumes, stockings and silk foreign underwear, and in general a heavenly life. For example, one of his mistresses, Inna Chernetskaya, gained the opportunity to stage ballets as a director, and even received state funding for her private dance school. The people's commissar had a lot of passions: at one time he simultaneously had fun with two actresses at once - Rukavishnikova and Ruts. In general, no one probably knew the exact number of women “supervised” by him.
Meanwhile, Anatoly Vasilyevich was married. His second wife, a mediocre artist, but, as they say, a very skillful lady in bed, Natalya Sats-Rozenel, he adored to the point of hysteria. He knocked her into control of the Alexander Palace - the former residence of Nicholas II. On the mezzanine floor, the wife of the people's commissar arranged her chambers, and on the orders of Lunacharsky they brought all the palace furniture, the library and the wardrobe of the members of the royal family. For his wife, he was ready for anything. Which, however, did not prevent him from making his own niece also his mistress ...
Lunacharsky was not alone in his love for "art." Actresses were adored by Semyon Budyonny, Klim Voroshilov, who, by the way, patronized the opera, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, and Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Lev Karakhan, and many other party officials dressed in power.
SEX IS LIKE A GLASS OF WATER
Not only Bolshevik men went into all serious trouble - women also stood up for free love without borders. Society, agitated by the decline in morals, needed a female standard - a beautiful, liberated and sexually free revolutionary. The “first lady” of the country, Nadezhda Krupskaya, was in no way suitable for this role. But Alexandra Kollontai - People's Commissar of Charity in the Soviet government - completely. No matter how they called her in Russia of those years: both “sexual revolutionary” and “eros in uniform” ...
Kollontai really liked the then-fashionable theory among Komsomol members about sex and a glass of water. If you want to drink - drink it, if you want sex - take it. For this, no love is needed, all these are bourgeois prejudices. Alexandra Mikhailovna, having married a second cousin, had a rather promiscuous intimate relationship with party comrades and just random partners.
Kollontai turned 45 years old when she fell head over heels in love with the handsome young Minister of Naval Affairs Pavel Dybenko. He fully shared the theory of his bed partner, was not averse to hitting on other beautiful representatives of the revolutionary youth. And then, as they say, she found a scythe on a stone, because the owner suddenly jumped into Kolontai. She did not want to give "into the wrong hands" a young, tall, handsome man. But still she lost him, terribly experiencing this tragedy all her life and trying to console herself in the arms of ever younger lovers.
In a word, the theory of a glass of water played a cruel joke with her ...
Rich and powerful men have always been partial to ballerinas. On one of the central TV channels, a TV series about ballet and ballerinas “Palm Sunday” was held. Indeed, at all times among ballerinas it was considered not only shameful, but even prestigious to have powerful persons as patrons. And the male half of humanity - both in the time of Pushkin and in the era of the USSR - was often fond of girls in tutus.
Fuete on the table
The dancer Avdotya Istomina, glorified by Pushkin, could not choose which of her admirers to prefer - cavalry guard Vasily Sheremetev or Count Alexander Zavadovsky. As a result, the rivals staged a duel, Sheremetev died. 
The most famous admirer of one of the brightest ballet stars of the 20th century - Matilda Kshesinskaya - was Tsarevich Nicholas II. When he was crowned to the throne, the ballerina had a new guardian - Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, then - Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and his son Andrei. 
The Bolsheviks, having come to power, also did not disdain the “lordly” hobby and actively began to attend ballet performances. Iosif Vissarionovich himself liked to go to the Bolshoi Theater to admire how his close friend Olga Lepeshinskaya was dancing. And then, after the end of the production, he drove the prima home in a government car. Often he left Lepeshinskaya already in the morning. The leader often brought with him part of his retinue to performances, among which there were also many lovers of beauty. 
One of the most famous admirers of ballet and ballerinas was the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin. Stalin called him for this "lustful all-Union goat." Kalinin, as they say, invited the girls to his office and made them spin the fouette in what the mother gave birth right on his desktop. According to rumors, one of the ballerinas Kalinin laid eyes on - Bella Uvarova - refused to participate in his "castings". Kalinin came in from all sides, but the girl was impregnable. Once the body of Uvarova was found not far from Moscow, and Kalinin was then sent on an unplanned vacation.
How many ballerinas stayed in the bed of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, do not count. From time to time, he stopped by the Bolshoi Theater to watch the ballerinas warm up and choose something “new” for himself. 
But not only girls-ballerinas made friends with the authorities. The famous dancer Maris Liepa went to Galina Brezhneva's lovers, although at that time he was happily married for a long time. Their romance lasted five years, and all this time Maris promised Galina to divorce his wife in order to formalize their relationship. But he didn't keep his promise. Brezhneva, all this time, helped him in his career, hoping that her lover would appreciate her efforts and understand that she was the woman of his life. “Every man who became a close friend of Brezhnev, of course, could not help but think about her capabilities. And they used it,” Roy Medvedev is sure.
Glory and arthritis
In the late 1970s - early 1980s. in the party elite, the fashion for romance with ballerinas has passed. But a new fad appeared - to send their children and grandchildren to ballet. Ksenia Gorbacheva, the granddaughter of Mikhail Gorbachev, studied ballet for ten years at the most prestigious ballet school in the country. “I never became a ballerina, but I got knees aching in bad weather and arthritis,” says Ksenia. 
The granddaughter of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, Tatyana graduated from the ballet school and was hired by the Bolshoi Theater. But the famous ballerina did not come out of her either. She got married and moved to the United States, where she took up teaching. Alisa Khazanova, daughter of Gennady Khazanov, also tried her hand at the Bolshoi. But an injury prevented her from becoming a prima. Now Khazanova is building a career in cinema. 
Its creators decided to show not only the “beautiful wrapper”, but also the reverse side of this art, talking about the backstage intrigues and romances of ballerinas with influential men. Nastya Vinokur became famous as a ballerina thanks to her father, Vladimir Vinokur. After all, it was he who told on many television broadcasts what a talented daughter he had. And recently he began to demonstrate on his arm a tattoo depicting Nastya in a tutu.
Nastya Vinokur's friend, Lola Kochetkova, the daughter of a reputable businessman Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov, did not immediately get into the Bolshoi Theater, despite her father's AiF.
I wanted to dance at the Bolshoi Theatre. But for the first time in the history of Russian ballet, a graduate who passed state exams with all fives was not accepted there. And not because I am special, but because of intrigues: the then director of the Bolshoi Theater, Vladimir Vasiliev, had a conflict with the rector of our academy, Sofia Golovkina. Vasiliev told me that I was short, so I didn’t fit. ” But in the end, Lola was nevertheless taken to the Bolshoi Theater. 
Nowadays, ballet girls are considered a good match and marry powerful businessmen. Prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Irma Nioradze became the wife of patron and winemaker Gocha Chkhaidze.
Maris Liepa's daughter Ilze is married to oilman Vladislav Paulus.
And Anastasia Volochkova was courted by the philanthropist Anzori Aksentiev, and the oil magnate Vyacheslav Leibman (Volochkova recaptured him from Ksyusha Sobchak), and the construction magnate Sergei Polonsky. And the disgraced businessman Mikhail Zhivilo, while still "in law", presented Nastya with luxurious gifts. Businessman Suleiman Kerimov, for the sake of Volochkova's attention, left his passion Natalya Vetlitskaya. And the last admirer of Volochkova's talent and her husband Igor Vdovin went to the blond beauty from his wife and three children. Art is art, and the most mundane passions boil around ballet...
Valentina Yakubovskaya
November 19 marked the 135th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Kalinin. This handsome old man in glasses, who for many years headed the Central Executive Committee, and then the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Joseph Stalin called "the all-Union goat." To this nickname he often added another biting word - "lustful", hinting at Mikhail Ivanovich's weakness in the female part. However, the almighty "father of peoples" looked at the adventures of Kalinin through his fingers, appreciating for selfless devotion.
In the early years of Soviet power, the Bolshoi Theater did not experience much mercy from the authorities. Its luxurious premises were used for various kinds of party events, and ballerinas were forced to perform in large quantities, and for free, at concerts. They gave small salaries, did not indulge in rations and other privileges. But as soon as Kalinin became chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, everything changed almost overnight. Theater artists were included in the number of the elite, who were allowed to use the services of the Kremlin's medical and sanatorium department. The ballet dancers were allowed to create their own housing cooperative, without a queue they allocated finances and building materials. Dancers began to be supplied with food rations. They began to raise their salaries twice a year.
Such close attention of Kalinin to the needs of the Bolshoi Theater was explained not so much by a change in state policy in the field of art, but by the personal predilections of the “all-Union headman”. No, he was not at all a subtle connoisseur of ballet. And he hardly distinguished the pas de deux from the fouette. But he really liked young ballerinas. He shared his passion with Avel Yenukidze, secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Two party leaders often visited the theater. Mikhail Ivanovich went to rehearsals, looked backstage after the performances.
From the outside, it looked very touching: such a high official, but does not consider it shameful to communicate with simple dancers, ask them about their needs. And soon the girl she liked was called in for a personal conversation with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. For understanding and accommodating, the all-Union headman and his secretary presented young charmers with foreign cosmetics, rings and expensive beautiful linen. But not all young dancers agreed that the provision of intimate services to high-ranking statesmen is a great honor. 16-year-old Bella Uvarova did not reciprocate Mikhail Ivanovich. He hoped that the young charmer would come to her senses, and several times renewed his attempts. But having received a firm refusal, he was beside himself with anger. After another call to the “all-Union headman”, the girl did not return home. The parents raised a fuss by contacting the police. The disfigured body of a young ballerina was found in a forest near Moscow. A special commission was set up to investigate the incident. Stalin himself intervened. By a strange coincidence, the parents of the victim were declared foreign spies, her father served as a consultant in the British mission, and was soon shot. Kalinin was immediately sent on vacation. As soon as the noise died down, Mikhail Ivanovich again frequented the Bolshoi Theater. The dancers were no longer capricious. True, a little later, Moscow quietly whispered about one incident that happened at the Bolshoi. It was said that the famous ballerina Ekaterina Geltser threw a figurine of Mephistopheles at Mikhail Ivanovich. One of the young students cried to her, telling how the kind uncle Kalinin dishonored her.
Stalin knew about the weakness of the faithful servant to the ballet. On his instructions, the GPU, and then the NKVD, carried out appropriate work with the dancers. They were ordered to write detailed reports, about which the voluptuary speaks to them. But Kalinin did not allow himself any political deviations. True, once Stalin nevertheless suspected him of loyalty to some representatives of the opposition. And right there, in the Izvestia newspaper, a feuilleton by Demyan Bedny appeared “About how our headman Kalinich recaptured Tatyana Bakh from Averbakh.” Kalinin just at that time had a period of passion for operetta. And he started an affair with a young singer Tatiana Bach. The girl from second-rate singers immediately turned into a prima. The chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was understanding. After the appearance of the feuilleton, he stopped welcoming deviators objectionable to Stalin, continued with the same zeal to carry out orders and sign decrees on executions. But the love ardor did not cool.
His wife Ekaterina Ivanovna endured the adventures of her husband on the side for a long time. But her situation became completely unbearable when Mikhail Ivanovich took a mistress in his own house. She became their housekeeper Alexandra Gorchakova. Feeling the power of her influence, she began to command Catherine, taking her place. The unfortunate woman could not stand the humiliation and, leaving five children - three of her own and two adopted, went to Altai. Kalinin came up with a plausible pretext. Say, the wife yearned for propaganda work, because she is from the old Bolsheviks. Later, Catherine returned, hoping that her husband would come to his senses. But where is it!
In 1938, the head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee raped a 17-year-old girl at the state dacha. The poor thing turned out to be a relative of the prominent military leader Alexander Yegorov. This time Mikhail Ivanovich was very scared. The scandal reached Stalin. But the leader unleashed his anger on Kalinin's wife: they say, through her fault, her husband was mired in debauchery. Ekaterina Ivanovna was accused of having links with the Trotskyists and sent to camps for 15 years. She was pardoned after seven years. Returning after her release in March 1946, she lived with her daughter, not wanting to communicate with Kalinin. And soon Mikhail Ivanovich died.
Leningrad in mourning
On the day of the rehearsal with the conductor and the Philharmonic Orchestra, I heard crying and screaming, I saw people running. I asked the costume designer Lisa:
- What's the panic? What's happened?
- Kirov - our father and benefactor, our leader - Sergei Mironovich Kirov was killed by the Nazis! It is said that he was killed by German Trotskyist puppets.
How to know the truth? Who will tell you what to do? Went outside. The city was in a fever. Everyone was in a hurry. The transport was full. I called home and the Kirov secretariat - to no avail: no one picked up the phone. I tried to call his friends, friends - it's useless.
It looked like everyone was dead. I needed someone to talk to, no matter what.
I went to the Moscow railway station so as not to feel lonely. The station was cordoned off and they didn't let me in. I had to return to the hotel. There was a note waiting for me in the room asking me to urgently contact the Party Committee. However, they didn't pick up the phone either.
On December 2, she wandered around a completely empty Leningrad. In the evening I returned to my room and lay down in a cold bed. The hours passed very slowly.
In the morning the city was paralyzed. Somehow I got to the Smolny, where the farewell to Kirov took place. Together with other privileged ones, she went up to the second floor, where the coffin was located. Kirov looked alive. - tears, mountains of wreaths, armfuls of flowers from institutions, factories, factories, military, schools, theaters, police ... In the back of the hall sat Kirov's wife and sister with tearful, gray faces.
The orchestra played Mozart's Requiem. At the same time, the bells of St. Sophia Cathedral and St. Nicholas Cathedral rang out.
After the funeral, I was arrested again. I could not betray Kirov, even dead, and said: "Sergey Mironovich told me about his childhood, about how he became a revolutionary, about the November plenum, about his future work in Moscow. He respectfully pronounced the names of Stalin and members of the Politburo." Stalin was present at the interrogation. He was silent, thoughtful and sad.
Later, I drew attention to one detail: Stalin was in Leningrad from December 1 to 5 and personally supervised the investigation; On December 2, Pravda published an obituary, and on December 3, at 5 pm, he held a press conference at the Bolshoi Theater, where he officially informed the press about Kirov's murder.
How was he in two places at the same time? And during the interrogation, when Stalin asked me a single question, I got the impression that it was not Stalin, but someone else who talentedly played his role.
Voroshilov told me: "Vera Alexandrovna, you have booked a ticket to Moscow, my car will take you to the station."
She returned to Moscow on December 6. I had not yet departed from what I had experienced when the head of Stalin's personal bodyguard introduced me to my new guard - Bugrov and Arsentiev.
Yagoda and masseuse NATASHA
On December 19, I sang for the workers of the electric lamp factory. I was terribly tired, because I had to do a lot of encores.
She left the entrance and sat down, as always, in the back seat of the car. I was surprised by the curtains in the car.
Suddenly, I felt a cold hand on my knee. She screamed in fright:
- Driver, take me to the police! Bandits in the car!
She heard soft laughter in response.
- Vera Alexandrovna, aren't you ashamed to be afraid of your friends?
Recognized Yagoda.
- Genrikh Grigoryevich, when will you finally stop following me? - And burst into tears, I was so exhausted.
Yagoda began to unbutton my fur coat:
- Verochka, I love you. Honestly, I love you. And I'm jealous of all these sons of bitches who run around you, and especially the mustachioed ones. I know everything about you: about all the meetings with Stalin, about Zinoviev's proposal, about the affair with Tukhachevsky, and about the trip to Sestroretsk with the late Kirov. Well, what about me? You are avoiding me, Verochka! Are you afraid of Berries? Sergei Mironovich Kirov is just the beginning...
- I beg you, stop. I'm very afraid, but I swear to you, nothing happened between us. We were only friends.
Yagoda laughed.
- If you tell even a word from what you hear from me, I will kill you! However, no one will believe you. They think you're crazy. And with the fat Malenkov and the pigal Yezhov, I will settle accounts later. I'll skin them, make a bag and give you a keepsake. Verochka, if you are with me, we will overcome all difficulties!
We drove for forty minutes. "I think they've arrived," Yagoda said cheerfully. Two German Shepherds ran up to the car. Yagoda called them: "Baby, Tiger!"
The soldier brought the cold supper.
- Come here, Bulyga! Yagoda returned it. A frightened soldier came running. “Canaglia, who are you going to feed cold food to?” The embarrassed soldier blinked his eyes. Yagoda took a metal rod and slowly hit Bulyga. The bloodied soldier muttered wildly. - Answer, - the sadist yelled, - who did you want to feed with this shit ?!
Next hit! The soldier fell, writhing in pain. When they took him, I asked:
- Is this performance played out for me?
- How did you guess, madam? Sometimes it pays to show off your base instincts.
A beautiful young woman entered and began setting the table. Yagoda slapped her familiarly. The woman grinned, and I recognized the Kremlin masseuse Natasha.
- Genrikh Grigoryevich, tomorrow at eleven I have a very serious rehearsal, which should be attended by Malenkov and other party leaders.
- Don't worry, you won't be late. And now rest, - he pointed to the door of one of the rooms, - this is your room.
I was attacked by tetanus, I was unable to move, my legs were stiff.
What am I supposed to repeat? shouted Yagoda, striking the top of his boot with a rod. “Nothing is repeated twice in this house!”
There was a low ottoman in the room, a small table with drinks in the corner, and two armchairs beside it.
I cursed my life... Suddenly I saw that completely naked Natasha entered the room and lay down under the covers:
- Vera Alexandrovna, take an example from me. Come, I'll warm you up.
- Are you mad?
- Now the chief will come, but he does not like to wait. Several women were handed over to the soldiers for disobedience, and then put in jail.
Natasha got up and began to undress me by force. I screamed, and then she covered my mouth with her left hand, and hit me in the stomach with her right ...
Yagoda entered in white underpants.
- Well, my beauties, let's play?
Natasha hugged her boss. I felt sick, I went to the bathroom. I felt better from the shower, but Natasha came for me and took me to Yagoda, who was sitting naked on the couch.
“Now I’ll play with Verochka, and you go and make coffee,” he said to Natasha.
As if nailed, I stood, not moving from my place. Yagoda, with all his might, threw me onto the couch...
Later, Natasha came to the bathroom and said that if I uttered even a word, she would strangle me with her own hands.
At breakfast, Yagoda ate meat and drank cognac.
- Verochka, he said, - I'm happy that you found the time to spend the evening with me, I hope not the last! I want to invite you to Zagorsk and Pereyaslavl. Three of us will go - you, me and Natasha, and we will invite Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky as a driver. “I choked in surprise. “Do you want to see the photographs,” my tormentor continued caustically, “the ones where you are sitting on this warrior’s lap?” If you behave badly, I will send them to Comrade Stalin. He collects documents of this kind.
- Please, stop bullying me. Why are you stuck on me? We have so many beautiful ballerinas and singers in the theater.
- Thanks for the information, but at the moment I need you.
- And Natasha?
- She is my slave. I saved her from the gallows, and even now the rope is in my hands ... I can tighten the noose at any moment. I hope you finally understood that you have to be on friendly terms with me?
Forced myself to answer:
- You are right, Genrikh Grigoryevich!
NATALIA MOKROUSOVA
Bugrov, my new bodyguard, was officially listed as a props at the Bolshoi Theatre. In the theater buffet, he sat down at my table:
- What's happened? You look sick.
- I urgently need to see "Uncle Kolya" ...
I got dressed and the barman let me out through the service entrance. Bugrov and Arsentiev took me to some basement of the Central Committee, where "Uncle Kolya" - Yezhov - was waiting for me along with Malenkov and Poskrebyshev.
“Comrade Davydova,” Yezhov asked formally, “did you want to meet with us?”
- Comrades, you are all in mortal danger!
The faces of those around him turned up in surprise.
- After the concert at the electric lamp factory...
“We know that,” Malenkov interrupted, “they changed your car.” Do not rush, tell in detail what happened next.
I told them the beginning of my adventure, explaining who Natasha was.
“Just don’t plant her,” she warned, “otherwise she will understand that I let it slip.”
I was ashamed to talk about further events, but they insisted: "Vera Alexandrovna, we are your true friends, we are responsible for your safety to Comrade Stalin ..."
I had to continue:
- Yagoda ordered me to go to his bedroom and said that this was not our last meeting. He threatened that he would settle accounts with everyone, and especially with Comrade Stalin. Let slip that Sergei Mironovich Kirov was killed on his orders. I beg you, save me! You have an army in your hands, and this pygmy threatens a woman who is dear to Comrade Stalin ... If my life is indifferent to you, I'd rather be poisoned than tolerate this.
- N-nda ... the situation ... - Yezhov coughed. - Comrades, what will be the proposals?
Poskrebyshev answered quietly:
- We will transfer Natalya Mokrousova to a new job, let's say, to a factory. One fine day, she will fall into boiling water during cleaning due to a violation of safety rules. Then we will "treat" her, the bird will sing ...
I will give you three days to complete this operation. Responsible - Poskrebyshev, Yezhov, Vlasik and Mekhlis, - Malenkov ordered.
- Allow me to offer you the following information, - said Poskrebyshev.
- Listen, Alexander Nikolaevich.
- Varvara Petrovna Kiryushkina, aka Natalya Mokrousova, Olga Peyarova, Maria Karpenko, Aleftina Rodimtseva and so on, was born in Nikolaev in 1910. Her mother ran a visiting house. She fled to Turkey and lives in Constantinople, her father died at Perekop. After school, Natalia worked in a pharmacy owned by two brothers. Lived with both. Once she robbed them and burned down the pharmacy. Then she organized a "raspberry" in Odessa on Derebasovskaya, 19. She was engaged in smuggling with Turkey, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania. He is fluent in German and French. In Vladivostok, she was arrested for selling dog meat and ran away. In Omsk, she married a former tsarist officer who was engaged in the fish trade. She killed her husband, chopped up his body and hid it in the basement in a barrel of pickles. She took all the valuables and set fire to the house. The second time she was arrested in Tambov, but she killed one of the guards and fled. soon showed up in Leningrad, and then under a different name in Moscow, where she dealt in drugs. Demyan Bedny was carried away by her and recommended her to work in the Kremlin. So she became a masseuse. Soon she was identified and sent to the Lubyanka. It was there that her first "significant" meeting with Yagoda took place: the people's commissar made her his concubine.
“Comrade Stalin must not know anything about this,” said Malenkov. - It is necessary to put round-the-clock security at the door of Vera Alexandrovna. Yagoda needs to slip a new "fun".
SEMYON MIKHAILOVICH BUDONNY
Stalin invited me to a New Year's reception on December 31st.
I was introduced to Khrushchev and Sholokhov, an unsightly man with crooked legs. Yagoda arrived with his ugly wife and, leaving her in Khrushchev's company, came up to me:
- Vera Alexandrovna, one of these sons of bitches scalded Natasha a couple of weeks ago, she is in a lot of pain. Verochka, when will we see each other again? I really want you.
- After the premiere of "Sadko", - I promised only to make him fall behind.
- I'll be patient.
Everyone left the reception together. I decided to walk, but a car stopped near me, and the driver began to honk. Budyonny's mustache was visible behind the glass: "Vera, sit down. Shall we ride?"
I was indifferent to everything, life was disgusting, and I, unexpectedly for myself, agreed.
- In Peredelkino! - cheerfully ordered the driver Budyonny and suggested to me: - Let's note?
- I agree, everything is possible on New Year's Eve!
We were served by elderly soldiers. Semyon Mikhailovich explained:
- These are my former sergeants, they do not want to part with me. Their whole life was spent in the army, they say that I am their father for them ... Verochka, do something nice for me: try the pickled cucumbers and mushrooms, here - caviar, salmon with lemon. Drink vodka, don't be shy, yesterday I received two boxes from the factory. After dinner, we'll arrange a hot bath, I'll rub your back, you - to me ...
Hearing this proposal, I immediately imagined the Kremlin bath, Natasha, sticky Yagoda ...
- Thank you, - she answered dryly, - I'm clean.
- Vera Alexandrovna, answer me honestly, without frills: can we talk "like a man with a man"?
- Semyon Mikhailovich, I will not get angry, you can say whatever you want.
- I have a family, a devoted, kind, good wife. She respects me and never argues with me. I have a big apartment in Moscow. This cottage is also mine. Big pension. I'm already old - I'm over sixty, but when I see you, my blood boils. I'm a simple man, but maybe we'll understand each other. I will divorce my wife, they will give me another apartment, Voroshilov will help - he respects me. You'll quit your job, your throat is too tender, you shouldn't sing for all these dogs that don't understand a damn thing about art anymore. You will have the most expensive fur coats. I will bring a battalion of soldiers who will fulfill all your desires. All that is required of you is not to turn away from me in bed.
Budyonny delivered this whole speech in a cheerful, joking tone.
- Thank you for your frankness, I understand and respect your feelings, I appreciate your kindness. A woman is always pleased when she knows that she is loved, but I am married and you know my husband...
Semyon Mikhailovich sighed, but continued in the same tone:
- Okay, we will live like this, you will become my mistress, you will come to me once a week. You will not regret it, I can thank you ... in all respects.
- Semyon Mikhailovich, it's time for me to go home, it's getting light.
- How many days will you think? - Budyonny did not concede.
“Maybe a month, maybe two,” I answered jokingly.
- Parfion! take our famous guest to Moscow. - May I kiss you? he asked when I got dressed.
- Only on the cheek.
The dashing cavalryman hugged me with such force that all the buttons flew off his tunic.
- How sweet you are, my filly! Let me just ride you…” he said, licking his lips, and walked me to the car.
A note from Tukhachevsky was waiting for me at home, he asked me to call urgently.
- Verochka, dear, where have you disappeared to? I was very nervous.
Laughing, she replied:
- You all disappeared somewhere. My husband left with a busty weaver, and I was taken to the dacha by the "chief cavalryman" - Budyonny.
An hour later he was at my place, completely bewildered:
- I wonder why you need this extravagant mustache?
- Honey, don't be jealous. It's just another fan in my retinue. And you know, Semyon Mikhailovich absolutely seriously suggested that I marry. Don't get angry, please! I'm already exhausted by this vile life.
MIKHAIL IVANOVICH KALININ
Once, when I was at my dacha in Kuntsevo, Stalin got a call from the entrance.
- Who came?... Kalinin... let me through.
- Should I leave? I asked.
- Stay, Verochka. The "butt-fool" has arrived, entangled in dirty deeds because he cannot miss a single skirt. If you are interested, then I will tell you the ins and outs of this "celestial" in more detail.
Kalinin entered, greeting Stalin like a soldier. It was obvious that he could not see well.
- Sit down, Mikhail Ivanovich. What's new? What's the urgency?
- Excuse me, Joseph Vissarionovich, but I am unfamiliar with this beautiful lady ...
- Do you have sclerosis, Mikhail Ivanovich? You don't recognize the pride of the Bolshoi Theatre?
- How can... - Kalinin kissed my hand. - I'm happy to meet you! Please come to me, here is my phone number, I am always at your disposal.
Stalin reproachfully said:
- He doesn’t recognize, then he immediately invites you to visit!
“Iosif Vissarionovich,” the old pretender changed the subject, “today the radio broadcast three times the resolution of the Central Committee on intensifying the fight against juvenile delinquency.
- In a week, give me the exact figures of the arrested adult relatives of the criminals. They need to be imprisoned for a long time in order to learn how to work. A child is not born a criminal - the parents are to blame for his crimes. Mobilize the press, radio, cinema. Re-education is the task of our Party.
Kalinin left, and Stalin called the waitress:
- Cook fried trout with potatoes.
- It will be served in ten minutes.
While we were waiting, Stalin told the following.
- Once a woman came from another city with a request to Kalinin. Seeing her daughter in the corridor, Kalinin complied with her request and invited them to live in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel. Once, under the pretext of a tour of Moscow, he brought his daughter to his dacha and raped her. Mother turned out to be a close relative of a major military leader Yegorov. To hush up the scandal, Kalinin gave this woman a large sum of money. But we taught him a lesson: thirty of his relatives were exiled near Verkhoyansk. Now he is meek as a lamb. This is how the disciples and associates of the great Lenin work!
- Comrade Stalin, thank you for your trust...
If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't tell this story.
Later, I learned about another tragedy, the culprit of which was Kalinin.
He really liked ballerinas, and he often went to the theater. I must say that the young ballerinas, knowing his power, completely flirted with him. Mikhail Ivanovich gave them chocolate, imported linen, invited them to dinner. In the calculation of gifts, they did not refuse him small liberties and kisses on the neck.
One day, Kalinin became seriously interested in the sixteen-year-old ballerina Bella Uvarova. The director of the ballet school did everything to protect the girl, but Kalinin pursued her everywhere.
Bella's father was an engineer, worked in the People's Commissariat, his mother was a translator, she knew several European languages. Bella has been dancing since the age of four. Then she began to study choreography and staged ballet sketches herself. Once, without telling her parents, she called a famous ballerina and asked to see her. The ballerina really liked Bella and she helped her enter the choreographic school. The Bolshoi Theater pinned its hopes on Uvarova.
Bella Uvarova disappeared two weeks after meeting Kalinin. Only a month later, Bella's disfigured corpse was found in a forest near Moscow. The girl was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. An investigation began, which established that after the performance, on the day of her disappearance, some unknown persons forcibly put Bella in a car and took her away. The family saw Bella at Kalinin's dacha, judging by the photograph of the girl they identified ...
The directorate of the Bolshoi Theater turned to Comrade Stalin for help. Quite by accident, the complaint fell directly into his hands. A commission was created consisting of Malenkov, Yezhov, Poskrebyshev, Mekhlis. Kalinin was pretty beaten up, but Stalin needed him, and these saints saved the old rapist: they sent him on a long vacation "for treatment."
Soon the Izvestia newspaper published a report about acts of sabotage in industry organized by British spies. Among the "spies" were named the parents of the unfortunate Bella.
TUKHACHEVSKY AND STALIN
During a tour in Kyiv, after the performance, I met Tukhachevsky in a restaurant. He came to inspect the Kyiv military district.
Tukhachevsky managed to get rid of his bodyguards and the driver, and we went to the village to one of his distant relatives. I told him about the arrest of Kamenev and Zinoviev.
- What else is going on?
- Stalin is preparing a decree on the assignment of marshal ranks.
- When will it be signed?
- Don't know.
- They won't assign me a marshal. Stalin has been sharpening his teeth on me for a long time.
- Mishenka, he needs you!
- Do you know something?
- Oh, there are so many rumors...
- Vera Alexandrovna, we rarely see each other!
- But, Misha, you don't love me! They say that you have mistresses - in every city.
- Who told you that? Tukhachevsky got angry. - Who? I will bring him to clean water! - He took my hand and whispered: - I only need you, every night I dream about you. What happened in youth is gone...
I asked him why they killed Kirov.
“Sergey Mironovich is not the first and not the last victim of Stalin,” he said gloomily. "Hope you won't betray me?"
- Don't talk if you're afraid!
- Do not be angry, Vera, a terrible time now. I have long understood what Stalin is. This bow-legged pygmy fancies himself Napoleon. In his youth, Joseph Dzhugashvili joined a nationalist organization, where he was until 1917. And then, without a twinge of conscience, he betrayed his associates to Vyacheslav Menzhinsky.
Now I will deal with him! Don't look at me so surprised. Stalin was afraid of Kirov, afraid that he would take his place. Is there a dictator who will give up power himself? For many years Kirov supported Lenin. At all meetings, the fearless Kirov sought a ban on repression and a reduction in the number of camps. In 1921, at the initiative of Lenin, Kirov was elected secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan. After 5 years, Stalin recommended him for the post of secretary of the Leningrad party organization, in place of his former protégés Zinoviev and Evdokimov. Kirov became the master of Leningrad: he did not reckon with Stalin at all and independently solved the most serious problems.
Iosif Vissarionovich seeks only to strengthen his usurper power and uncontrollably leads this vast country. With immorality, he surpassed even the Roman emperors, after the death of Lenin he consistently got rid of his opponents and supported his supporters with all his might. The love of the people for him rests on fear. And he constantly invents new methods to strengthen this love.
- And you, Mishenka, who are you? Sorry for the direct question, but do you consider yourself better than the Stalinist hangers-on?
- It is difficult to talk about myself: I also shot people who did not accept the revolution.
- So where are your feelings of mercy, pity, shame?
- In all my actions, I was guided, first of all, by civic duty. There is no place for sentimentality in the struggle for justice.
- You are a nobleman, an aristocrat, a former white officer, how did you decide to change all this? I ask you so directly, without circumlocution, because I love you, I love you for the first time in my life.
Tukhachevsky was breathing heavily, unbuttoning his collar. We went out into the garden.
- Verochka, you asked me a terrible question! I will open my heart to you. We are very close, but life will tear us apart. You know, it's even better for me. You have to pay for mistakes. What do me and these dark men Voroshilov and Budyonny have in common? They crawled upstairs and pose as colonels. I am a highly educated, professional military man - I depend on the mood of any stupid people's commissar. And nothing can be done, the Stalinist bureaucracy cannot be broken... That's it, the movie is over!
- Mishenka, what to do?
- Endure... and wait for the end.
GEORGY MAKSIMILIANOVICH MALENKOV
Having received an invitation to Malenkov's birthday, I went to buy him a pair of Ukrainian embroidered shirts as a gift. I catch a taxi, and then he drives up. He offered to get into the car, and we quickly drove to his dacha in Serebryany Bor. The landlady was his wife Golubtsova, who recently, thanks to the support of the party, received a doctorate in technical sciences - without defending a dissertation - and the leadership of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. The hero of the occasion himself for the sake of party work refused higher education.
Among the guests were Mikoyan, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Yezhov, Poskrebyshev, Ordzhonikidze, Andreev, Shvernik.
- Vera Alexandrovna, I'm happy that you've come, - said Malenkov.
- Thank you, and I'm glad to meet you at home.
- Let's leave the guests and talk, - he took my arm, and we went out onto the terrace. It was a quiet night.
- Vera Alexandrovna, - Malenkov broke the silence, - I have been thinking about you for a long time, I am interested in your life.
- I don't understand what you mean?
In other words, it is a declaration of love.
- Oh, for God's sake, don't... Please! I'm tired of listening to declarations of love, the most sincere, marriage proposals!
Thirty-three-year-old Malenkov resembled a fat, tame bear.
- To be honest, - he continued slowly, - I will not leave you behind, it is stronger than me. By the way, Stalin's last hobby is the singer Zlatogorova, she has already visited him three times. Sometimes he also recalls his old affections: a week ago, Valeria Vladimirovna Barsova visited him. Wouldn't you be faithful to him in such a situation?
- Georgy Maximilianovich, you shock me! Let's return to the guests, and we will continue our conversation another time, at my place, especially since I have a lot to tell you.
Malenkov grabbed my hand and did not let go for a long time:
- Today is the most joyful day for me, I feel that I will be happy with you!
- During the evening, Yezhov and Poskrebyshev, in turn, made appointments with me and promised that everything would remain a secret.
I sang five romances and Carmen's aria. At dawn, returning home tired, I found in my raincoat pocket an envelope with money and a receipt: "Fee for a government concert: 500 rubles."
STALIN'S THREATS
All night I read "Quiet Flows the Don" by Sholokhov. They were going to stage an opera by Ivan Dzerzhinsky based on this novel at the Bolshoi Theater, and I got the part of Aksinya. From the first pages of the novel, I was struck by the life of the Don Cossacks: fathers rape their daughters, husbands beat their wives, everyone drinks, criminals write laws, superstitious Cossacks are cut off from the world, do not understand the goals of the wars in which they participate, despise their neighbors - Ukrainian and Russian peasants.
In the morning Stalin's chauffeur Alyosha Bugrov came for me. I was met by a young maid: "My name is Valya, Valentina Ivanovna. You will have to wait."
Stalin knew how to keep his guests waiting, and I was no exception. Finally he appeared and greeted me with a menacingly cold greeting.
“Valechka, give me wine and fruit,” he said, sitting down in an armchair, and turned to me: “I know about all your intrigues.
Such an introduction did not promise anything good. He looked at me gloomily as he smoked his pipe.
- I went to the dacha to Semyon Budyonny, you drive around with Tukhachevsky, you sleep with Yagoda, you were at Malenkov's ... Tell me, Vera Alexandrovna, what should I do with you? What are you, slutty? Put you in jail? It won't fix you. I was in prison and, as you can see, I haven't changed.
I was scared to death.
Snapping his fingers, he continued:
- Shut up, so it's true?
- Joseph Vissarionovich, do with me what you want, just leave me alone. I'm tired of making excuses all the time.
Stalin chuckled.
- Fine, I like that you are not afraid, - called, Valechka appeared. "Give us dinner," he ordered her. I refused. Stalin quipped: - What, even your wonderful appetite is gone? It can be seen that you have been really tired lately, it will be necessary to urgently send you to rest.
I was shaking: he could send me to a resort, or he could send me to prison and camp, and no one would help me.
“Verochka, don’t be afraid,” Stalin said unexpectedly affectionately, “you will go to Sukhumi, where my friend Lakoba will take care of you.
I drank the cognac in one gulp.
- Bravo, Vera Alexandrovna! "Who knows how to drink - knows how to love," as the Russian philosopher Alexander Ivanovich Herzen said. Well, now, after an exchange of pleasantries, let's go to rest: a surprise awaits you.
In the bedroom, Stalin took out an engraved box.
- Please, this is for you for the wonderful Lyubava!
- Iosif Vissarionovich, I cannot accept such a valuable gift.
Stalin was offended.
- Five hundred rubles for three songs, and maybe for something else, I was able to take from Malenkov ...
In order not to quarrel and to please him, I put on a gold watch, a ring and earrings with diamonds, hugged and kissed him.
- Thank you, darling! With or without a gift, you are always the most desirable man for me, my lord.
- For the first time I hear from you such, Verochka! I need your caresses, your hands. We haven't seen each other for a long time, and I'm angry, nervous. I'll try not to torment you, Verochka.
My fate was in his hands. Time passed, and Stalin became more and more jealous. The information that his hangers-on told him was often false. I had to play fiery passion.
Emboldened, I once rushed to the attack.
- Iosif Vissarionovich, - I said dryly, - you constantly lecture me, and you yourself accept women. They also inform me: don’t forget Barsova, made friends with Bronislava Zlatogorova and, if I’m not mistaken, did not ignore the appetizing Valechka ...
Stalin burst out laughing, showing rotten teeth - he did not treat, he was terribly afraid of pain.
Where does this awareness come from? Possession of a woman is natural for a man. There should be as many as he wants. Lermontov wrote to Raevsky: "My friend, if not you, then there will be someone else. Better to be first than second." Verochka, my sun, I love you! and kissed me passionately. - I do not call, I try to forget you. But I can't live without a woman, you can't go against nature. Here's my direct phone number, but don't give it to anyone and don't call too often. You will go on vacation to Sukhumi, relax at Lakoba and, if you want, you can also relax in Sochi.
- Iosif Vissarionovich, believe me, I am very touched by your concern, but understand me: I live in constant fear, I am afraid of people from your environment, I can be imprisoned, killed - and there will be no trace left.
Stalin sighed, and his gaze became cold.
- Tell me who? I'll talk to each one separately.
- Yagoda - he terrorizes me the most.
- This scoundrel has been playing with death for a long time. I'll beat the soul out of him!
Once again I ask myself the question: could I - not a heroic, but an ordinary woman - could I change anything? I do not justify myself, but there were people who acted much worse than me.
These lustful men from the government literally attacked me from all sides, I received invitations to breakfasts, lunches, dinners and car rides. Budyonny became more and more insistent, Malenkov called incessantly, tired of the blind Kalinin. Voroshilov and the hunchbacked dwarf Yezhov reminded of themselves. Even Stalin's faithful secretary, the pock-marked Poskrebyshev, offered me his "services." And above this pack - Tukhachevsky. The only man I loved... But at the pinnacle of power was Stalin. In this kaleidoscope, I had to maneuver, promise, smile, cheat and play in order to win or last.
My boat has been sailing for a long time without a sail, and the waves carried me to the open sea ... What will happen next? Don't know. And I don't want to know.
