Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov, (1896-1948), was born in the city of Mariupol, Ekaterinoslav province, in the family of an official. He received a secondary education and in 1916 entered a military school, from which he was prevented from graduating by the revolution. According to him, in 1915. joined the Bolshevik party, but this is not true: until the revolution he was loyal to the tsar. In November 1917, being one of the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety in Shadrinsk, he suppressed an attempt by the communists to seize power in the city: he arrested the Revolutionary Committee, disarmed a detachment of Red Guard sailors, and called for the protection of the Provisional Government. But in June 1918, seeing that the power of the Bolsheviks in the country had consolidated, and hoping that they would become a “state force,” he joined the Red Army and the Communist Party.
During the Civil War, he held minor positions, and began to rise in the ranks in 1922, when he became chairman of the Tver provincial executive committee. In the internal party struggle, he supported Stalin, who in 1934 nominated him to the post of first secretary of the Leningrad city committee and regional committee of the CPSU (b), and at the same time - secretary of the party Central Committee. Stalin appreciated his business acumen, energy and determination.
In Leningrad, together with L.M. Zakovsky, he became part of the “NKVD troika”, became one of the organizers of the eviction of “anti-Soviet elements” from the city and region, and authorized the “Kirov stream”: mass arrests of people who were accused of sympathizing with the murder of Kirov. Many workers, who received meager wages and saw how Kirov and his associates were fattening, had no reason to mourn his death. They made up the bulk of the “Kirov stream”. And, being the secretary of the party’s Central Committee, Zhdanov received lists of people to be shot, issued by Stalin and Yagoda, and later by Yezhov, and many of them bear his signature.
In the autumn of 1937 Zhdanov was sent by Stalin to organize “purges” in Bashkiria. There he came to the conclusion that due to the scale of the repressions, industrial disorganization was possible, and in this spirit he wrote several extensive notes addressed to Stalin. Stalin became interested in his conclusions and instructed him to prepare a draft decision of the Central Committee on limiting repressive practices. In January 1938 Zhdanov introduced a decision “On the responsibility of prosecutors for the unjustified arrest of specialists”, designed to stop the NKVD beating the director’s corps, but nothing happened: Yezhov’s department ignored the Central Committee resolution. In March 1938 Zhdanov, together with A.A. Solts, initiated a resolution prohibiting the “automatic” dismissal from work and eviction from the homes of persons expelled from the party. Zhdanov was supported by Stalin, and after that he became an “anti-crisis manager”: he traveled to regions where the actions of the NKVD were especially egregious; the result of such trips was the removal of the most odious security officers. The “crisis situation” was already almost everywhere and private measures did not achieve anything, as Andrei Aleksandrovich himself stated at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in June 1938. In July 1938 Zhdanov became chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, and in February 1939. - Member of the Politburo.
With the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war in November 1939. A.A. Zhdanov became a member of the Military Council of the front. Until 1947, he oversaw the Sovietization of the annexed Finnish territories: he organized the closure of all Finnish and Karelian schools, Lutheran churches, arrests and deportations of the Finnish and Karelian intelligentsia.
In the summer of 1940, it was Zhdanov who insisted to Stalin on the inclusion of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the USSR: Joseph Vissarionovich himself, until the last moment, doubted the advisability of this measure, proposing to establish puppet, but formally independent regimes in these countries. In 1940-1941 Zhdanov oversaw the Sovietization of the Baltic states: V.N. Merkulov, B.Z. Kobulov and some other NKVD leaders who carried out punitive policies there followed Zhdanov’s instructions. He is responsible for deportations, mass arrests and executions in the Baltic republics: all these actions were carried out on his initiative and under his personal control.
In 1941-1944 - curator of the defense of Leningrad. He managed to mobilize forces and resources to create a system of powerful defensive lines around the city, remove strategic materials, and ensure the functioning of military factories. Zhdanov did not spare “human resources”: the evacuation of the civilian population began in the spring of 1942, when, due to mass mortality in the city, the threat of epidemics arose.
In 1944 Zhdanov was promoted to colonel general.
After 1945 A.A. Zhdanov initiated a number of major repressive actions. So, in August 1946. Zhdanov made a report “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, which contained sharp criticism of A.A. Akhmatova, M.I. Tsvetaeva, M.M. Zoshchenko, and a number of other cultural and artistic figures. They were accused of “distorting reality,” “vulgarity,” and promoting “ideas alien to our society.”
In 1946-1948. Zhdanov initiated campaigns to combat “adulation of the West” and “admiration of foreign technology”: a positive review of the Western way of life or even of some scientific invention was regarded as “anti-patriotism.” During these campaigns, Zhdanov destroyed many research institutes and curtailed almost all scientific and cultural contacts with Western countries. Zhdanov, in his public speeches, propagated primitive “leavened patriotism,” not much different from those “ideas” that were proclaimed by the Black Hundreds before the revolution.
In 1947 Sociology, in which the USSR initially had priority, was subjected to defeat by Zhdanov as a “pseudoscience”.
Then it was the turn of genetics and cybernetics: Zhdanov also declared them “pseudosciences.” The infamous August session of VASKhNIL in 1948 took place on his initiative.
Zhdanov organized a campaign to combat “formalism”: against musicians who did not want to adhere to “socialist realism”: D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, B. Muradeli and others. The work of A.N. Vertinsky, who returned to the USSR in 1943, came under an unspoken ban.
In 1948 A.A. Zhdanov began a campaign: “to fight rootless cosmopolitanism” and “bourgeois Zionism.” Anti-Semitism was hidden under these signs. Zhdanov organized the “case” of the “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee”; its members “turned out to be” “American spies” and “agents of the bourgeois Zionist organization “Joint””. Andrei Alexandrovich spoke out in favor of the deportation of Jews from the USSR to Israel. At the instigation of Zhdanov, the topic of a “Masonic conspiracy against Russia” began to be discussed, in which he sincerely believed
Zhdanov, Andrei Alexandrovich (February 14 (26), 1896 - August 31, 1948) - a prominent Soviet politician. After Great Patriotic War he was considered the most likely heir to the power of I. Stalin, but died before him.
Zhdanov's party career
Andrei Zhdanov joined the Russian Social Democratic Party ( Bolsheviks) in 1915 and during the Soviet years gradually made a brilliant career, becoming after murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934 by the communist ruler of Leningrad. In July 1938 he became Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. Zhdanov was an active guide Great Terror Stalin, although he was not as active in this party purge as Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov. However, Zhdanov's personal approval of 176 execution lists is documented. In June 1940, he was sent to Estonia to lead the creation of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and its annexation to the USSR.
Andrey Zhdanov. Photo 1937
Zhdanov played a prominent role during the defense of Leningrad, which was blockaded by German troops. After a ceasefire agreement between the USSR and Finland was concluded in Moscow on September 4, 1944, Zhdanov led the Allied Control Commission in Finland until the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947.
In January 1945, Zhdanov was relieved of his post as First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee, but retained considerable influence in the city. In 1946, Stalin instructed Zhdanov to direct the cultural policy of the Soviet Union. First of all (in December 1946) he censored writers, including Anna Akhmatova And Mikhail Zoshchenko. He put forward a slogan, often referred to in the West as the “Zhdanov Doctrine”: “The only possible conflict in the works of Soviet culture is the conflict between good and even better.”
In 1946 – 1947 Zhdanov was Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1947 he organized Cominform, similar to the previous one Comintern, intended to coordinate the actions of the communist parties of Europe.
In February 1948, Zhdanov began purges among musicians - “the fight against formalism.” Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturian and many other composers were censured at this time. In June 1948, Stalin sent Zhdanov to a Cominform meeting in Bucharest. Its goal was to condemn Yugoslavia and Tito, but Zhdanov took a more restrained line here than the other Soviet delegate - and his rival - Georgy Malenkov. This infuriated Stalin, who removed Zhdanov from all posts and replaced him with Malenkov. Zhdanov was transferred to a sanatorium, where he died on August 31, 1948 from heart failure. It is possible that his death was the result of a deliberate misdiagnosis.
Zhdanov's hometown, Mariupol, was renamed in his honor on Stalin's initiative (1948). A monument to Zhdanov was erected on its central square. The name Mariupol was returned in 1989, and the monument was dismantled in 1990.
Nikita Khrushchev writes in his memoirs that Zhdanov was an alcoholic, and that in his last days, Stalin shouted at him, insisting that he stop drinking and drink only fruit juice. After the war, Stalin spoke of Zhdanov as his successor, but Zhdanov's poor health gave his rivals, Beria and Malenkov, the opportunity to undermine their rival's influence. After the death of Zhdanov, Beria and Malenkov were able to untie " Leningrad case" Zhdanov’s former protégés fell victim to him Nikolai Voznesensky And Alexey Kuznetsov, who also began to be nominated for the role of Stalin's successors.
Zhdanov's ideology
Having emerged in 1946 and lasting until the end of the 1950s, Zhdanov’s ideological teaching (“Zhdanovshchina”, “Zhdanov doctrine”) dominated cultural activity in the USSR. Zhdanov intended to create a new philosophy of artistic creativity. Zhdanov and his associates sought to eliminate foreign influence from Soviet culture, proclaiming that “apolitical” art was ideological sabotage. Their theories were based on the fact that the world was divided into two opposing camps: the “imperialist” one, led by the United States, and the “democratic” one, led by the USSR. This matched the terminology Cold War, which also began in 1946. The slogan “the only possible conflict in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and even better” perfectly expresses the meaning of Zhdanovism. This cultural policy was strictly enforced through censorship of writers, artists and intellectuals. Those who did not meet the standards defined by Zhdanov were punished. This course, officially discontinued in 1952, had a very negative impact on Soviet culture.
The origins of this ideology arose even before 1946, but it came into full force from the moment of the attack on the “apolitical,” “bourgeois,” “individualistic” works of the satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko and the poetess Anna Akhmatova, who wrote for the literary magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad.” In a special report by Zhdanov (August 1946), Zoshchenko was called “the scum of literature,” and Akhmatova’s poetry was declared “totally far from the people.” The result of the report was a formidable party resolution “ About the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad"».
On February 20, 1948, Zhdanovism shifted its main focus to “anti-formalism,” targeting composers like Dmitri Shostakovich. In April of the same year, many of these musicians were forced to repent for “formalism” at a special congress of the Union of Composers. These composers were rehabilitated in the Soviet Union only on May 28, 1958.
Members of the Zhdanov family
Zhdanov's son, Yuri (1919 - 2006), married Stalin's daughter in 1949, Svetlana Alliluyeva, but already in 1950 he divorced her. They had a daughter together, Catherine.
For a long time he was the main ideologist of the Soviet state, a friend of Stalin, “bombed” Anna Akhmatova and Zoshchenko, survived the blockade, and in newsreels from his funeral he carried his own coffin.
Ensign General
Andrey Zhdanov has a unique “career destiny”. He did not have a serious education, but at the same time he was considered an intellectual. Zhdanov graduated from several classes of a real school, then spent six months in the first year of the Moscow Agricultural Institute and completed four months at the Tiflis Warrant Officer School. In 1917, Zhdanov ended up in one of the reserve regiments, where his qualities as an agitator were very useful. It is along the ideological path that his career will develop. Zhdanov taught the people political literacy, was a member of the Tver provincial committee of the RCP (b) and editor of Tverskaya Pravda, chairman of the provincial executive committee of the Tver region. Noticed by Stalin, in 1924 he became First Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In 1925, 29-year-old Zhdanov was already a candidate member of the Central Committee, and a little later a member of the Central Committee. Not noted for military achievements, ensign, during the war years Zhdanov was a colonel general.
Stalin's right hand
Zhdanov was the person to whom Stalin delegated the “dirty work.” Zhdanov had an undoubted talent as an agitator. In addition, he did not restrain himself in funds. According to historian Milchakov, after Zhdanov’s trip to Bashkiria, 342 people from among the party and Soviet activists were arrested. After the “purge” carried out by Zhdanov in the Tatar party organization, 232 people were repressed, and almost all of them were shot. In the Orenburg region, over the five months of 1937, 3,655 people were arrested, half of them were sentenced to VMN. Zhdanov found these measures “insufficient,” and only according to the NKVD lists, which were considered in the Politburo after Zhdanov’s trip, another 598 people were repressed.
Artist's embosser
Andrei Zhdanov became famous not only for his participation in repressions, but also for his active work in the “stifling of creative freedoms.” On April 3, 1946, when Anna Andreevna began to read her poems in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, the entire hall stood up. Stalin was informed about this, and his immediate question was: “Who organized the uprising?” Of course, no one organized the uprising, but Anna Akhmatova became a personal enemy of Stalin, and therefore of Zhdanov, who served as secretary of the Central Committee for ideology, and therefore this concerned him directly. On September 1, 1946, Andrei Zhdanov makes his famous report on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”. In the report, he defames Anna Akhmatova with all the magnificent skill of a party demagogue. He calls Akhmatova’s work “the poetry of an enraged lady, rushing between the boudoir and the prayer room... Either a nun, or a harlot, or rather, a harlot and a nun, whose fornication is mixed with prayer.” Zhdanov also covered the art of cinema. The second series of the film “Ivan the Terrible” by Sergei Eisenstein, films by cinema classics V. Pudovkin and G. Kozintsev were rejected. Composers Shostakovich and Prokofiev were convicted of an “anti-people tendency” in art.
Alcoholism
Khrushchev loved to talk about the fact that Zhdanov was a heavy drinker: “Suffering from numerous ailments, he lost his willpower and could no longer control himself in drinking matters. It was a pity to look at him." According to recollections, during banquets, when everyone drank wine and stronger drinks, Zhdanov, who was under the close supervision of Stalin, had to drink fruit water and juices. If Zhdanov was limited at events, then at home he was in did not refuse to drink. Alcohol was one of the factors in the development of Zhdanov’s angina, and indirectly became the cause of his death.
Blockade
Zhdanov’s misdeeds, his often groundless cruelty, are largely compensated by the fact that he survived the besieged Leningrad, but even here, not everything is so simple. It would be a stretch to call Zhdanov a blockade hero. Today, historians have enough evidence that during the siege of Leningrad it was not Zhdanov who led it, but Alexey Kuznetsov, the second secretary of the regional and city committees. “Despite the famine that reigned in the city, Zhdanov, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, was not going to share the difficulty of the blockade with the residents and did not deny himself anything; products were delivered directly to him from the mainland, including even pancakes and fruit." Zhdanov did not appear in public, did not speak in besieged Leningrad even on the radio, and in 1943 he was evacuated to Moscow, where he spent two months in the Kremlin hospital with " angina pectoris."
Merits
Despite all the “suffocating” activities of Zhdanov as the main ideologist of the state, one cannot fail to note the good undertakings carried out by Andrei Alexandrovich. It was on his orders that two years after the war, in 1947, the journal “Problems of Philosophy” began to be published and the Publishing House of Foreign Literature arose. Of course, these were strategic moves (the state could not allow Soviet philosophy and the “import of Western ideas” to develop by itself), but both the magazine and the publishing house exist today, no longer with ideological “filling.”
The mystery of death
Until now, the causes of Zhdanov’s death have not been reliably established. It is known that Zhdanov had two heart attacks, but when all the archival documents of Lechsanupra were raised in 1952, they clearly indicated either an error in diagnosis, or malicious intent, or, in any case, negligence unacceptable for Kremlin doctors. Zhdanov's death had fatal consequences. The investigation into the causes of death became the impetus that restarted the famous “doctors’ case.” In addition, after the death of Zhdanov, the so-called “Leningrad affair” began. Paradoxically, the mourning for Zhdanov lasted only a couple of days, his memory was not immortalized, they preferred to forget about him. Even the filming of the newsreel of Zhdanov’s funeral turned out to be an incident. The film turned out to be defective and the film was literally stitched together from archival materials from a previous funeral. In one of the frames of the chronicle, Andrei Zhdanov was carrying his own coffin.
After the body of Andrei Zhdanov was discovered, it turned out that he died on February 5. But when the erudite disappeared, none of his friends rushed to look for him. Neither colleagues, nor acquaintances, nor neighbors remembered him. The man's body was discovered by his mother when she came to visit her son.
An intellectual, an erudite, a holiday person - this is how his fellow countrymen speak of him. But no one was able to have a heart-to-heart talk with Zhdanov during his difficult times...
“Nothing foreshadowed misfortune. He did not complain about his health, did not lose heart, read and worked endlessly, friends of the deceased recalled. - I didn’t intend to die. He did not allow thoughts about his imminent death. Although I didn’t make any plans for the future. It was like living with the flow. I didn’t share my personal information with anyone. And we didn’t bother asking questions. Why?
Those close to the expert suggest that Andrei Zhdanov was ruined by longing for his deceased wife Anna. The man was never able to come to terms with the death of his wife, who committed suicide a year and a half ago. Zhdanov was never able to unravel the motive for her action. For more than a year he puzzled over this riddle, which turned out to be beyond his powers.
A year and a half before the death of Andrei Zhdanov.
Tolyatti news from August 28, 2015: “A 44-year-old teacher at Tatishchev University, Anna Zhdanova, the wife of the famous polymath from the “Own Game” program, committed suicide. The body of a woman was found near a high-rise building in the Central District. Before this morning, the woman saw her husband off to work, fed the cats and went to college... Her body was discovered by random passers-by.”
A note was found in the deceased's pocket. Anna asked her loved ones for forgiveness. That's all. Dot. No revelations. She took the motive for her action with her to the grave.
At his wife’s funeral, Andrei was not himself. Outwardly, he did not control his actions - his loved ones were afraid for him.
A year and a half later, Zhdanov passed away. The “Own Game” expert was found dead in his own apartment. Employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Samara Region immediately denied suicide and criminal death.
Zhdanov’s relatives and friends did not wonder for long what could have happened. Most made clear conclusions: the man died of grief. And they added: “The feeling of guilt consumed him.” And this heavy load nailed him to the ground.
Help "MK":“The term “broken heart” is no longer an invention of poets. According to the latest data from British scientists, a person’s heart can burst from love and grief. Unbearable mental pain can cause premature death from heart failure, which researchers call broken heart syndrome. This syndrome can masquerade as a regular heart attack or coronary heart disease.
It has been scientifically proven that frustration, tears, strong emotions, stress, apathy and any other emotional states can create a number of serious problems for the physical state. You can make yourself cry, your heart rate increases, you get upset until you have a heart attack, you worry until you die - so that your heart can’t handle it.”
Anna and Andrei Zhdanov were called the most unusual married couple in Tolyatti.
“The main things in life are wife, games and cats”
Andrei Zhdanov was one of the most popular participants in “Own Game”. He has 74 games and 49 victories. The audience adored him, his rivals applauded him, and fortune favored him.
The darling of fate, the lucky one, caught luck by the tail. “Brains like that don’t come easy. Apparently, at birth, God kissed Andryukha on the forehead,” the experts whispered among themselves.
Zhdanov was truly lucky in life. He was lucky with his favorite job, with his wife, and for many years he occupied a leading position in “His Game.” Since 1999, Andrei Zhdanov has been a regular participant in the television program.
Anna and Andrey were called the most unusual married couple in Togliatti. Anna is a graduate of the philological department of the Samara State Pedagogical Institute. She was one of the brightest students of the course. In photographs from those years, Anna is wearing a leather miniskirt, black fishnet tights, shoes with huge heels, and “combat” makeup. Next to him is Andrei Zhdanov, a graduate of the Literary Institute, a typical “nerd.”
They got married more than 20 years ago. Anna then began teaching foreign literature at Tatishchev University. Andrey got a job as the editor of the corporate publication “Prazyv”, published by OJSC Kuibyshevazot.
Andrey worked as an editor for a factory newspaper for more than 25 years. Of course, he could achieve much greater heights with such a brain. But he preferred calm, Zhdanov’s colleagues recall. - Andrey before and after the death of his wife are two different people. In the last year he has noticeably slowed down. He played with intellectuals no longer with such fire and enthusiasm, and outwardly he looked unimportant. In a couple of months I lost twenty kilograms.
We were worried about him. And he just waved his hand and continued to smile forcefully: “I’ll last a couple of years.” A few days before his death, he unexpectedly took a vacation. Maybe he felt that death was approaching. Perhaps he didn’t want to bother anyone at work with his complaints...
Nobody missed Zhdanov. His body was discovered a couple of days after his death. During this time no one called him. Only his mother came to visit Andrei.
He was not particularly sociable at work, he was mostly silent, speaking only to the point,” continues the colleague of the deceased. - He never invited anyone to visit him. I did not celebrate colleagues’ birthdays or holidays with the team. I was in a hurry to get home all the time. He justified himself: “The children are waiting for me.” He called his cats children.
At home he was left alone with his thoughts.
According to friends, Andrei developed anorexia due to nervousness. The man knew very well about his illness. Today, acquaintances of the erudite suggest that Zhdanov could even calculate the date of his own death to the nearest day.
One of Andrei’s acquaintances posted his latest correspondence with Zhdanov online.
“How are you doing, Andrey?
Slowly. I'm sad. Working. I'm preparing an issue of our corporate newspaper. I feed the children. Everything is as always.
Are you just an editor now or are you involved in public relations?
Just editing, thank God! Because I hate tights and PR work that stresses me out a lot. I feel much more comfortable among factory workers of all ranks and professions - people close to me. And I’m not looking for a better life.”
In one interview, Zhdanov once said that for him the most important things in life are his wife, games and cats.
This is how he spoke about his wife in an interview with a Tolyatti newspaper: “My wife, Annushka. Without her, I would never have been in the “Own Game” program. There was an interesting moment not long ago. The question was asked: who published chess poems and sketches in the Russian emigrant magazine “Rul”? I was afraid to answer it, not being sure. And when the host of the program, Petya Kuleshov, answered “Vladimir Nabokov” for us, I said: “Damn, Annushka will kill me.” The “trick” is that my wife defended her PhD thesis on Nabokov, and I proofread this work three times like a real proofreader.”
“My main supporter, my wife Annushka, is my strictest coach. She often knows the answers to questions that I cannot answer. If I played against her, I would lose ten out of eleven games.”
“Anna Zhdanova gave the impression of a person who was dead tired.”
“It was impossible not to fall in love with Anna”
Andrey communicated quite willingly in the virtual space even with strangers. He accepted as “friends” everyone who “knocked” on his door,” shares Zhdanov’s acquaintance Artem Fomichev. - If I didn’t have time to answer people’s letters, I always apologized. We communicated with him exclusively about games. Last year he participated in “His Game” for the last time. He won one game and lost the second. I put an end to this.
Mostly Andrei Zhdanov's friends were in one way or another connected with intellectual games. At one time, Anna was also a fan of such entertainment.
We met Andrey about ten years ago, when games in the “Own Game” format were first held in Togliatti,” says Igor Ushanov. - Zhdanov sprinkled quotes, various historical anecdotes and simply interesting facts, sometimes so little known that they confused his interlocutors. He played brightly, emotionally, gave out theories, reasoned, and was very worried if he could not remember some fact in the allotted 60 seconds. Once he even managed to fall from the chair he was sitting on, giving the correct answer at the last moment. He willingly communicated with people, signed autographs, took pictures with everyone who asked, and there were always a lot of people willing.
-Have you discussed with Zhdanov the cause of his wife’s death?
He didn't bring up the topic. After Anna’s death, Andrei began to go to the club of experts much less often; he no longer played with the same passion as in the company of Anna, adds another acquaintance of Zhdanov. - One day I gave Andrey a ride home after a game, and he started talking a little. He told about the cats that were like children to him and Anya and which he now takes care of alone. He said that he and his wife did not consciously give birth to children, based on some of their own special philosophy of life, which they did not impose on anyone or defend. They just liked to live that way. And he never spoke about Anna in the past tense.
Today, many of Anna’s acquaintances say that the woman has always been interested in the topic of death. More than once she asked questions: “What is it like in the afterlife? Where is it better and calmer?
On Anna’s page on the social network you can find a strange comment posted under a photo of a cat: “When Andrey and I got married (19 years ago), there were no sphinxes yet. Now we are patiently waiting for her death to have a new child (that’s what Anna called the cats. - I.B.). And she, as you can see, feels great, is not going anywhere and is upsetting her parents’ plans.”
After some time, the Zhdanovs’ cat died. Anna reported this: “Today an old cat named Stephen Hopkins died. There is no need to express condolences: she died quietly, peacefully, like an old man, without screams or problems. The girls (other cats) came up, licked, and said goodbye. We’ll save money all spring, we’ll take a new girl in the summer - I’ll go on vacation and sit with her, accustom her to the house and her sisters.”
On Anna Zhdanova's page, her students, to whom she taught foreign literature, left condolences.
“Thank you for everything. For a bright and extraordinary look, for not being like everyone else. Another. The best." “Unique, beloved Anna Vladimirovna. You have greatly influenced the perception of the world. The world has become poorer,” “How much life there was in it, how many mysteries. “Perhaps she was the most amazing, extraordinary woman who, with just one phrase, could kindle boundless curiosity and passion.”
And only one girl left a comment that explains a lot: “Anna Vladimirovna thought about death for five years. It was not affect. I remember after the class we all gathered in the corridor. It was noisy. And she quietly spoke about her thoughts of suicide. Then she often talked about it. Sometimes she did this not directly, but as if asking who understood what from the works of Flaubert, Poe, Nabokov, Kafka, Exupery? Sometimes she asked more directly, but no one seemed to notice. I didn't take her words seriously."
Anna Vladimirovna was out of this world. She always spoke quietly. But in her classes no one talked, slept or listened to music. Her lectures inspired creativity.
She asked to read books, keep reading diaries, and be attentive to the characters, their names, characters, and stories. She taught me to see everything in general and at the same time pay attention to details. At the seminars, she asked me to give as detailed answers as possible and assigned creative work. Here, for example, is her assignment for Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. “Draw hell,” she asked us. And then notes of some inexplicable pain flashed through her lips during a standard academic analysis of the text. Needless to say, Anna Vladimirovna talked a lot about death.
She asked that a special place in her course of lectures be given to the study of Vladimir Nabokov. And again, she repeated more than once that she regretted his death, because she would no longer be able to see and talk with him. She wondered out loud: what would this conversation be about? Would it have happened at all?
One day, a strange dialogue took place between students and Anna Vladimirovna while discussing the story “Signs and Symbols” by Nabokov. We assumed that the character committed suicide. And Zhdanova seemed not to seriously admit it: what if she did too? I answered this jokingly: they say, it will be unaesthetic and indecent, and in general, “have pity on your relatives and janitors.”
- So the theme of death was often seen in her lectures?
She, like outfits, tried on options for how she could die. To me she seemed like a person who was dead tired. Perhaps my husband’s illness, a decrease in salary at work, and the approaching autumn had an impact.
- Was her husband, Andrei Zhdanov, already seriously ill?
Not that seriously, his stomach ulcer worsened. I saw Andrey only a couple of times in my life. He spoke in quotes, as if offering his game. Anna also offered word riddles at lectures and seminars, but not everyone could understand and, probably, no one could answer this couple in their language. The Zhdanovs called the students “children.” Quite literary “oaks” - “cubs”. But they spoke with such an intonation that it was not offensive, but even funny. They were so different on the outside, but very similar on the inside. “Stick to your kind” is another motive that constantly sounded from the lips of this couple.
- Did the students see the love between these people?
It seemed to me that Andrei loved Anna more than she loved him. At her wake he was very thin and again suggested a play on words, but no one could answer it. Some people around him thought that he had lost his mind - he was singing songs and getting ready to go to the game.
Another student of the late Zhdanova expressed his opinion about Anna.
Anna Vladimirovna was a charismatic intellectual with cute cockroaches in her head. She was eccentric, sophisticated, a style icon, a wealth of knowledge about both literature and metaphysics. Everything about her was witchcraft, depending on her momentary mood. It was impossible not to fall in love with her.
I, like many people not from this world, looked at her with my mouth open. She presented the subject in a non-trivial way and spoke boldly about the writers, with a lot of details. I was an average student, but I caught her every word, every gesture. A sort of Renata Litvinova, locally bottled.
She affectionately called Andrei Zhdanov “my monster” and said: “Real men have disappeared, only my Zhdanov remains.” Andrei literally idolized her and served her. She was his muse.
I remember once one of the participants in “My Game” asked a question on the program: “What does Wasserman have in his pockets?” Andrei replied: “I don’t know what’s in Anatoly Wasserman’s pockets, but I know exactly what he doesn’t have there - photographs of his wife. No and never will be." Zhdanov always carried a photograph of Anna with him.
Anna and I also communicated outside the classroom, met at events, and had personal meetings. She lived intuitively. And Zhdanov? He was her support in the physical, material world. But not in the spiritual. I have no doubt that Andrei died from melancholy or from a feeling of guilt that he could not protect and switch the woman he loved to his life program. They say that recently he has eaten almost nothing, but only told his mother: “I’m already flying up to my wife.” Of course, he would never have met a second one like him.
“Andrey stopped eating and sleeping”
Andrei Zhdanov still has his parents and brother Alexei in Tolyatti, who agreed to talk about the deceased.
My brother was an interesting and pleasant person to talk to. He had been sick for a long time. Even before Anna’s death, he was diagnosed with an ulcer, problems with his kidneys and liver began, but these were all everyday, worldly illnesses. The really serious problems began after Anna left. He practically stopped eating, sleeping, looked emaciated, haggard, lost. He tried to devote himself entirely to work - it was his outlet, which required considerable physical and emotional costs, which was difficult in his condition.
- Why do you think Anna passed away?
What prompted Anna to take this step is still a mystery to us. He and Andrey were always together: they went to intellectual games, traveled around the world with the money he won in “His Game.” I can’t find any apparent reason for her action. We were all shocked when this happened. After her departure, Andrei not only withdrew into himself, but was not very willing to make contact even with people close to him.
- Andrey blamed himself for his wife’s death?
Andrei, without a doubt, blamed himself for her death; after all, he was the person closest to her. I don’t know if she planned her departure in advance or if it all happened spontaneously. Anna was a person not of this world, but in a good way. But the fact that she could decide to take such a step still boggles the mind.
- Anna’s acquaintances said that she could be tired of life...
Anna and Andrey shared little with us. From the outside it seemed that they lived well, everything suited them: they had common interests, the same views on life. If God puts people into families like a puzzle and you need to find your soul mate, then they were perfect for each other. Could Andrei’s illness have crippled her? Anna was a unique person and, if she felt that something in her life could change radically, that her foundations and her familiar life could collapse, she probably could have decided to take such a step.
- Why didn’t Andrei and Anna want children?
Anna didn't want children, as far as I know. Andrey did not insist. They were self-sufficient, they had enough of each other...
- Maybe there were financial problems in the family?
They lived normally, did not live in luxury, but did not live in poverty either. Yes, their salaries were not great: Anna taught at the institute, and you know how much our teachers earn. Andrey was the editor of the factory newspaper. They had enough to feed themselves, three cats, dress normally and even travel around the world. They went on trips mainly with the money that Andrei managed to win in “My Game.” Not millions, of course, but the game brought in some income.
I know that his biggest win was a car. Andrey then won the whole season. He was given a prize in money. The car was valued, if my memory serves me right, at 460 thousand rubles, minus 33% tax, so do the math. They used this money to travel to Japan. Sometimes, when there was little money, Anna traveled alone. In general, they led the normal life of a Russian family with an income slightly below average.
- Why didn’t your brother find a better paying job?
Andrei was unambitious and was content with what he had. I have never heard from him that he missed something in this life, that he did not achieve something.
- Shortly before his death, Andrei took leave. For what?
To rest, to heal. He worked his ass off, because work was all he had left. Did he feel his end was near? Only God knows about this. We always offered to help him. He refused, saying that he could handle it himself. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to connect his vacation and his death, but I’m inclined to think that it’s just a coincidence.
- How did you find out about your brother’s death?
We learned about his death on Tuesday when his mother could not reach him by phone. She called her work and was told that he had taken a vacation on Friday. I called the clinic where he was supposed to undergo treatment in a day hospital; there she was told that he had not appeared. I contacted his friend, whom he always asked to feed his cats if he was away somewhere. She also said that Andrei did not call, did not ask, and knew nothing about his plans. Then mom went to him. She rang the doorbell, knocked, and tried to open it with her keys. I had to call a locksmith from the housing office to open the door.
- How did Andrei live after the death of his wife?
In the last year and a half he did not live, but existed. I couldn’t eat, drink, or sleep, I was constantly moping, and I lost terribly weight. But the worst thing is that he closed himself off. My wife and I invited him to visit us many times, he promised everything, but never came. I also haven’t visited my mom and dad for probably a year, if not more. His mother constantly told him: let me come to you myself, help you in any way I can, support you. He answered only one thing: no need.
- Did he often think about his wife?
Andrei thought about her constantly, day and night. Sometimes, when I was telling something, I immediately remembered: “Anya loved this very much,” “Anya really wanted this,” and began to cry.
- Was he trying to distract himself somehow?
But I don’t even know what exactly he’s been doing in the last year and a half. Once I went to Karlovy Vary to a sanatorium from work, and visited Moscow at the invitation of my friends from “My Game”. I don't know anything else.
- Did he also abandon his game?
He last played “My Game” about a year ago, after Anna left. I didn’t win any special laurels, but at least I got to see my colleagues in the game. Participants in intellectual games are special people; they have a completely special world there. I have never heard from Andrei about envy, about any intrigues or intrigues on their part. It seems to me that they are above all this and absolutely sincerely rejoice at each other’s successes and worry about each other’s problems.
Andrei’s friends from the game took the loss of Anna seriously, especially since many knew her personally. During difficult periods, they vied with each other to invite Andrei wherever they could: some just for a visit, “full board” - people were ready to provide him with accommodation, excursions, food; he was invited to Israel for treatment - there were players from this country in “Own Game”...
Andrey lived by the principle “there is no limit to perfection”, constantly tried to progress, learn something new, achieve new results, victories over himself. He never considered himself smarter than ordinary people, never boasted of his knowledge or successes, and behaved on an equal footing with absolutely everyone.
- You didn’t think that his death was voluntary?
When they buried Anna, they left a place nearby for him. That's how it is. Maybe he said in the cemetery: they say, soon I will lie down here too, but no more. The loss of a loved one slightly dulls the fear of losing one’s own life, but to think about suicide... Andrei saw perfectly well how everyone experienced the death of his wife, and he could not subject his own family, his loved ones, to this. I think that his death is still the consequences of his illness, and not a voluntary departure from life.
Zhdanov was buried next to his wife. At the wake, one of the connoisseur’s relatives said: “Andryusha is tired of living. He achieved everything, and then lost everything. What's next? I probably didn’t see the point in holding on to such a life.”
V. A. Kutuzov
The mysterious death of A. A. Zhdanov
Kutuzov Vladislav Alexandrovich,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, St. Petersburg State University, full member of the Academy of Military History Sciences (St. Petersburg)
Almost immediately after the end of World War II, J.V. Stalin suffered a stroke. By decision of the Politburo, he was sent on leave in October 1945, where he stayed for more than two months.
Molotov remained the formal leader in Stalin's absence. However, he could not make any fundamental decisions not only without the consent of Stalin, but also without the support of G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria and A. I. Mikoyan1. A. A. Zhdanov was at that time in the Union Control Commission in Finland2.
After Stalin’s return to Moscow, by Politburo Resolution of December 29, 1945, Zhdanov was urgently recalled from the Union Control Commission in Finland, which he had headed in Helsinki since September 1944, and was introduced into the “five”3.
This step was made because during the war years the influence of Malenkov - Beria increased significantly. Apparently, this did not suit Stalin, and he began to oppose the further influence of this group. Zhdanov and his “Leningraders”4 were used as a counterweight. Let us note that Zhdanov’s main rival on the ideological front, A.S. Shcherbakov, became seriously ill back in December 1944, and died on May 10, 1945. Malenkov began to lead ideological work and retained the status of second secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which passed to him from Zhdanov during the war. However, Malenkov in the role of ideologist was clearly inferior to Zhdanov5.
On December 29, 1945, at the same Politburo meeting, Beria was relieved of his post as People's Commissar of the NKVD due to being overloaded with other central work: he led the creation of atomic weapons. However, Beria retained his post as deputy
© V. A. Kutuzov, 2013
Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR with very broad powers. On March 18, 1946, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Beria and Malenkov were transferred from candidates to members of the Politburo. At the same time, we note that Beria’s protege, USSR MGB Minister V.N. Merkulov, was replaced on May 4, 1946 by V.S. Abakumov. The latter had previously headed, including during the war, the military counterintelligence agencies SMERSH, and was subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense, that is, directly to Stalin. On March 18, 1946, A. A. Kuznetsov, who had previously headed the Leningrad party organization, became the new secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. According to Zhdanov’s son, Yuri Andreevich, said in a personal conversation with V.I. Demidov and the author of this article, Kuznetsov was not Zhdanov’s promoter; their relationship deteriorated during the siege of Leningrad. Stalin personally recommended Kuznetsov for the post of Secretary of the Central Committee.
Soon, on May 4, 1946, Malenkov, in connection with the case of aviation industry workers accused of producing defective aircraft (he was responsible for their production through the State Defense Committee), was relieved of his post as Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Let us note that the commission on this case was headed by Zhdanov. But Malenkov’s arrest or his removal from all posts, which was obligatory for those years, did not follow. Moreover, he remained a member of the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau6. Let us add that on May 13, 1946, Malenkov became the chairman of the newly created special committee on jet technology. This was done, apparently, so that he would atone for past mistakes7.
Malenkov lost his post as head of the personnel department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From now on, his competence included only issues of leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics, preparing questions for the Organizing Bureau and chairing its meetings8. Was in a key position
A. A. Kuznetsov (unofficially nicknamed “Kuznetsov of Leningrad”). It was to Kuznetsov that the leadership of the personnel department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks passed. Zhdanov was officially transferred to the leadership of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, including press, publishing, cinema, radio broadcasting, TASS, art, and at the same time he headed the foreign policy department. However, unlike Kuznetsov, Zhdanov was not appointed head of the propaganda and agitation department; this post was left to G.F. Alexandrov9.
On August 2, 1946, the Politburo made a decision according to which Zhdanov was entrusted with chairing the meetings of the Organizing Bureau and directing the work of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Thus, Zhdanov was recognized as the second person in the party and again, as was the case before the war, he and Stalin began signing joint resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Apparently, in order to create a balance of power in the leadership, on August 2, 1946, after a three-month disgrace, Malenkov again received the high post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and member of the Bureau of the Council of Ministers. As a result, Malenkov actually became Stalin’s deputy for state affairs, and Zhdanov for party affairs10.
Kuznetsov was clearly in a hurry to urge the participants of the meeting in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to put an end to the “Malenkovism” in the selection of personnel, which Joseph Mikhailovich Turko, former second secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, told the author in a personal conversation.
According to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Republic G.N. Kupriyanov, the relationship between Malenkov and Zhdanov was not just strained - they hated each other. Zhdanov enjoyed Stalin’s great confidence, but Stalin also trusted Malenkov very much. In addition, Malenkov was always supported by Beria in everything... Zhdanov was not impeccable and made many mistakes himself, but, of course, stood above Malenkov and Beria in all respects. He interfered with both of them, and both of them hated Zhdanov with equal force11. This information is confirmed by D. T. Shepilov. According to him, Beria skillfully weaved intrigues. Zhdanov knew about this, and therefore often lost his balance. He came “from above” more than once, extremely concerned and upset. This immediately affected my heart. He became pale and “transparent”. When talking about what happened “above,” he became excited, began to breathe intermittently and gasp for air. But for reasons of tact, he never allowed himself to say anything unworthy about other members of the Politburo12.
At the same time, the most influential Marxist educated and enlightened people in the Politburo - Molotov and Voznesensky - had great sympathy for Zhdanov. Therefore, the goal of Beria and Malenkov was clear: by any means to weaken Stalin’s trust in Zhdanov, somehow discredit him and remove him from the position of first secretary of the Central Committee after Stalin. This would also mean weakening or even undermining Stalin’s trust in Molotov and Voznesensky. Both Beria and Malenkov closely monitored the situation and did not miss a single opportunity to put a “weight” on their “scale.”
Given Stalin's pathological suspiciousness and his jealous guarding of his absolute monopoly as a leader, there were always opportunities for such actions - especially since Zhdanov, Molotov, Voznesensky in their moral character were the complete opposite of Beria, or Malenkov, or Khrushchev. These were people of duty, obsessed with work, devoid of any elements of groupism, factionalism, or intrigue13.
The offensive against Zhdanov also went along the lines of compromising his personnel. Against Zhdanov, Beria tried to use Stalin’s illegitimate son, Konstantin Stepanovich Kuzakov, who was born in the widow’s house where Joseph Dzhugashvili, exiled to Solvychegodsk, was lodged. By bringing Konstantin Kuzakov closer to himself, Zhdanov wanted to become even closer to Stalin. In seven years, from a university teacher, Kuzakov became deputy head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1947, Beria fabricated the case of Boris Suchkov, Kuzakov's deputy, accusing the former of betraying the Soviet atomic program to the Americans and espionage. The fact is that recommendations for Suchkov’s work in the Central Committee were given by Kuzakov at the request of Zhdanov, and this was not documented. Beria, of course, knew about this, but preferred to acquire a witness whom Stalin would believe
unconditionally. It can be assumed that Zhdanov spent more than one sleepless night. In turn, Kuzakov understood perfectly well that if he had mentioned Zhdanov’s last name, they would have become participants in a grandiose conspiracy. Beria raised the issue of atomic espionage in the Politburo. As Zhdanov later told Kuzakov, Beria demanded Kuzakov’s arrest. Stalin walked around the table for a long time, and then said: “I see no reason for the arrest of Kuzakov.” As a result, Kuzakov was tried by the court of honor of the Central Committee, and for loss of vigilance he was expelled from the party and removed from all posts. After Beria’s arrest in 1953, he was reinstated in the party, and under Khrushchev he worked as director of a publishing house, head of the department of the Ministry of Culture, and for many years was a member of the state television and radio board14.
At the same time, there were also less tragic facts of the release of Malenkov’s people from their posts. On September 17, 1947, G. F. Alexandrov, together with his deputy P. N. Fedoseev, in order to “renew” personnel, was released from the leadership of the propaganda and agitation department. The ideological department was assigned to head M. A. Suslov, who managed to retain the position of head of the foreign policy department. At the suggestion of Zhdanov, D.T. Shepilov was appointed first deputy for management.
Zhdanov actually found himself in the position of a general without an army, because he lost the opportunity to influence preparations, and, consequently, make decisions. Remaining nominally the second secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he merely chaired a meeting of the secretariat and the Organizing Bureau, and all his powers as the main ideologist were vested in Suslov15. According to Shepilov, he was a man in a case, a small man, completely indifferent, uneducated. Zhdanov did not recognize him, did not talk to him, and treated him with contempt.16
At the same time, Zhdanov played a major role in the preparation of the Communist Information Bureau, which aimed to rally the communist parties of Western and Eastern European countries around the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Some authors consider the fact of joint participation of Malenkov and Zhdanov at the founding congress of the Cominformburo at the end of September 1947 as an expression of distrust of Zhdanov, however, as it seems to us, such a “business trip” looks quite logical: Zhdanov could not make two reports at one meeting. He covered the international situation, Malenkov - the activities of the CPSU (b). Note that back on December 29, 1945, Malenkov became a member of the foreign policy commission of the Politburo along with Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov and Mikoyan17. It is not surprising that Malenkov was aware of party affairs, since he remained a member of the Organizing Bureau and the Politburo.
As for Zhdanov’s report, his personal collection contains a letter from A. Kollontai, the world’s first female ambassador, in which she expresses her opinion on the report. In particular, she wrote: “Dear and dear Andrei Alexandrovich, to the numerous greetings that are coming to you from all over our country and the whole world in connection
With your report, I want to add my voice. Your speech is not only brilliant in its depth and analysis of the state of affairs around the world, especially in the United States, but it is also a historical document that shows a clear and precise path to the future. Many people have recently developed pessimism, but your analysis and clear indications of the next stages of our politics and the liberation movement around the world open another door to the future. And my soul becomes joyful and light. The position of our party is so vividly conveyed in your report, firm and clear, the most impressive answer to the warmongers. Is your report translated into other languages to be published as a separate brochure? It would be very important. I keep in touch with my friends abroad and see how they react to your report and its main points.
I congratulate you on your enormous success and warmly shake your hand. An old comrade-in-arms wishes you all the best. A. Kollontai. 1 - XI. 47 g"18.
But the holding of the second discussion on Alexandrov’s book “History of Western European Philosophy” really raises questions. It was organized and led by the head of the personnel department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Kuznetsov. Sitting next to him in the Presidium was Suslov, who on May 22, 1948 was appointed Secretary of the Central Committee. Zhdanov, as Secretary of the Central Committee for Ideology, was still only a participant in the discussion19.
According to Stalin’s daughter, her father expressed dissatisfaction with Zhdanov shortly before the latter’s death. In her book “Only One Year,” Svetlana Alliluyeva writes: “Once, shortly before the death of A. Zhdanov, knowing about his constant heart attacks, his father, irritated that Zhdanov was silent at the table, suddenly attacked him: “He sits like Christ, as if it doesn’t concern him! Look, he looks at me like Christ!” Zhdanov turned pale, his forehead became covered with sweat, but remained silent. I was afraid that he would feel bad and gave him water. It was in the late autumn of 1947, at one of my father’s dachas near the Black Sea, where everyone came to see him.”20 This is confirmed by N.S. Khrushchev, who noted in his memoirs: “Then suddenly everything turned upside down. Stalin sharply turned away from Zhdanov and now could not tolerate him. The last days of Zhdanov’s life I simply felt sorry for him. He was a charming man in his own way, and I had a certain respect for him.”21
Shortly before going on vacation, despite his illness, Zhdanov was preparing a project for reorganizing the secretariat of the Central Committee, where he criticized Kuznetsov as the head of the personnel department of the Central Committee. In particular, Zhdanov wrote that the concentration of personnel distribution under the leadership of one secretary in one personnel department does not justify itself, which affected the system of selection and distribution of personnel in departments. Zhdanov proposed changing the functions and composition of the secretaries of the Central Committee. There were supposed to be 12 of them, and each of them was supposed to oversee the selection of personnel and carry out the orders of the center in one or another area of management22. It is difficult not to agree with M.V. Zelenov that this project casts doubt on the assertion of the existence of a single “Leningrad” group23. Add-
We see that the promotion of Leningrad workers in 1946-1948. did not have the character of a massive “personnel expansion”24.
On July 1, 1948, Malenkov was returned to the secretariat of the Central Committee and again took a key place in the power structures. A radical reorganization of the party apparatus immediately followed. By decision of the Politburo on July 10, instead of the Central Committee's directorates, only departments remained. Thus, the personnel department was divided into seven departments. They were distributed among three secretaries. The administrative department was responsible for the placement and selection of personnel in the Ministries of the Armed Forces, State Security, Internal Affairs and Justice, including the judicial system and the prosecutor's office. Kuznetsov became the curator of the department. He supervised the MGB since September 17, 1947. The remaining departments of heavy industry, light industry, transport, planning, finance, trade, and agriculture were distributed among Malenkov, Kuznetsov, and Ponomarenko25. But on the same day, July 10, 1948, for health reasons, Zhdanov went on a two-month vacation for the second time in a year, from which he never returned. Therefore, issues of ideology were temporarily and then permanently taken over by Malenkov until August 31, who again became the second secretary of the Central Committee26.
Attitudes towards Zhdanov changed primarily in connection with the policy of the leadership of Yugoslavia, where communist rule, unlike most Eastern European countries, was not imposed by the Soviet military presence, but “grew up” on its own basis. Thus, the Yugoslav leadership, feeling more independent than the leaders of other countries in Eastern Europe, allowed itself to oppose Soviet decisions to one degree or another, especially if they affected the interests of Belgrade27. B. I. Nikolaevsky was right when he argued that the break with I. B. Tito was practically the end of the Cominform, and at the same time the end of Zhdanov’s biography28.
The Berlin crisis also played a role, during which conflict situations arose several times that threatened the outbreak of war between the USSR and the USA. The scales were overflowing with the speech of Zhdanov’s son against academician T.D. Lysenko, although his father warned him: “don’t mess with Lysenko, he will cross you with a cucumber.” And after Yuri Zhdanov’s explanatory note was published in Pravda, the father joked bitterly: “Well, now we will live on your fees,” which Yuri Andreevich told the author and V.I. Demidov about.
At a meeting of the Politburo, Stalin called for exemplary punishment of the perpetrators. Not Yuri Zhdanov - he is still young and inexperienced; The “fathers” must be punished: Zhdanov (he pointed the mouthpiece of his pipe at Andrei Alexandrovich). Father Zhdanov did not utter a word during the meeting, but, apparently, this episode caused him deep trauma. The next day, Andrei Alexandrovich looked completely sick, with large swelling under his eyes. He interrupted the conversation with long pauses, he was tormented by attacks of angina pectoris and asthmatic suffocation29. All of the above intrigues had the most negative impact on Zhdanov’s health, which was already poor. Let us recall that in April 1945 there was a
meeting of Soviet leaders with the Yugoslav delegation. Milovan Djilas drew attention to the fact that Zhdanov, the only one of all, drank not strong drinks, but orange juice. He attributed this to heart disease. Djilas asked: “What consequences can there be from this disease?” Smiling restrainedly, Zhdanov answered with the usual irony: “I can die at any moment, but I can live for a very long time.” According to Djilas, it was noticeable that Zhdanov was overly excited, that he had an increased nervous reaction30.
It is no coincidence that on November 30, 1946, the Politburo decided to grant Zhdanov leave from December 1 for one and a half months, and on December 9, 1947 extended it until January 25, until the end of treatment31. American Ambassador Smith said that Andrei Zhdanov was on a strict diet for a year and a half. At a banquet in the Kremlin in the spring of 1947, he sat next to Zhdanov and noticed that Zhdanov ate nothing but broth. He personally explained to him that he was following a strict diet due to his health condition32. At the beginning of July 1948, returning from a Politburo meeting, which took place at Stalin’s nearby dacha, Zhdanov lost consciousness in the car.
There are other opinions about Zhdanov’s state of health on the eve of his departure for treatment. The first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of the Karelo-Finnish Republic, G. N. Kupriyanov, claimed that shortly before Zhdanov’s death he met with him, inviting him to the anniversary of Karelia. According to Kupriyanov, Zhdanov was cheerful, red-cheeked, smiling, joking, complaining not about his health, but about the doctors who forbade him to rest in the south. They recommended the middle zone, and determined the month - August. He said that he would pick mushrooms and dry them on the balcony.33 Apparently, Zhdanov did not want to look like a seriously ill person in the eyes of his “promotes.”
The same Kupriyanov refers to a conversation with Vladimir Petrovich Tereshkin, who worked as A. A. Zhdanov’s assistant since 1944. Vladimir Petrovich was with A. A. Zhdanov at Stalin’s dacha, located on the Valdai Hills, and said that until A.’s last day. A. Zhdanov felt very good. In the morning he went looking for mushrooms, running so fast that the young officers of his personal guard could barely keep up with him (it is quite possible that on the eve of death the body mobilized its last strength, as happens. -
V.K.) Returning to the dacha, he, as always, was examined by a doctor. They measured his temperature, blood pressure, and pulse. Everything was fine. Andrei Alexandrovich took the medicine prescribed by the doctor and had lunch. And soon I felt unwell. Half an hour after lunch, he lost his speech, and a few hours later he died34. Note that Tereshkin’s memories differ from other evidence. Indeed, in the first days he began to gradually calm down, but on July 23, someone from the agitprop of the Central Committee called him (apparently, D.T. Shepilov. - V.K.). The conversation was clearly unpleasant for Zhdanov: he shouted into the phone and was in a state of extreme excitement. And at night he had a severe heart attack. Professors of the Kremlin hospital V. N. Vinogra, who arrived from Moscow on July 25,
Dov, V. Kh. Vasilenko and P. I. Egorov, in the presence of the attending physician G. I. Mayorov and the diagnostician S. F. Karpai, stated that nothing extraordinary had happened: the patient had an acute attack of cardiac asthma.
Despite the severity of the disease, Zhdanov’s electrocardiograms were not taken for three weeks. On August 27, Zhdanov had a new heart attack. The next day, professors Egorov, Vinogradov and Vasilenko again flew to Valdai, taking with them doctor L.F. Timoshuk to take an electrocardiogram. After conducting research, she made the following diagnosis: “myocardial infarction in the area of the anterior wall of the left ventricle and the intergastric septum.”
However, other doctors considered her opinion wrong. Egorov and Mayorov insisted that Timoshuk rewrite her conclusion in accordance with the previously vague diagnosis: “functional disorder due to sclerosis and hypertension.” Egorov and the attending physician Mayorov allowed Zhdanov to get out of bed and take walks in the park. On August 29, Zhdanov again had a heart attack. Timoshuk demanded that strict bed rest be established for the patient. On the same day, Timoshuk wrote to the head of the main security department of the USSR Ministry of State Security, A.S. Vlasik, about everything that happened, handing her statement to the head of A.A. Zhdanov’s personal security, Major A.M. Belov. A few hours later, he delivered it to Moscow, where it, along with the sheets of Zhdanov’s cardiogram attached to him, was handed over to I.V. Stalin. The next day, 52-year-old Zhdanov died. Timoshuk’s letter did not entail any consequences then. Stalin did not conduct an investigation, but personally ordered the letter to be sent to the archive35. This was the most serious argument about changing Stalin’s attitude towards Zhdanov. Here are excerpts from the text of the letter: “L. F. Timoshuk N.S. Vlasik dated August 29, 1948: “...despite the fact that, at the insistence of my boss, I redid the ECG without indicating myocardial infarction in it, I remain unconvinced and insist on observing the strictest bed rest for A .A"36. On September 7, 1948, Timoshuk wrote a detailed letter to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A. A. Kuznetsov37.
There are many strange things in the story of Zhdanov’s death. Professor Vinogradov, after Stalin’s death, in his note to Beria dated March 27, 1953, stated: “It is still necessary to admit that Zhdanov had a heart attack and the denial of it by me, professors Vasilenko, Egorov, doctors Mayorov and Karpai was a mistake on our part. At the same time, we had no malicious intent in making the diagnosis and methods of treatment.”38 The published medical report on the illness and death of A. A. Zhdanov did not say anything about a heart attack39. And four years later, Zhdanov’s death served as the basis for the fabrication of the “doctors’ case.” The version of medical error is contradicted by other evidence. Historian Vitaly Ivanovich Velegzhanin, who once studied at Gorky University, in a group taught by Tatyana Aleksandrovna Zhdanova, Andrei’s sister
Alexandrovich, visited her at home. In a fit of frankness, Tatyana Alexandrovna said that Zhdanov was isolated at the dacha. He felt bad, they started calling the doctor, the phone turned out to be faulty, they sent for a doctor who they could not find. In her opinion, Zhdanov was helped to die. There is other evidence. The son of the manager of the affairs of the Leningrad regional committee and city committee, Valery Mikheev, recalled how “one day in 1948, my father came home - upset, heavily drunk, and told his mother that Zhdanov had suddenly died. A. A. Kuznetsov from Moscow immediately went to the dacha in Valdai, where Zhdanov was then, and in his opinion, P. S. Popkov and Ya. F. Kapustin (the latter was not in Valdai. - V. K.) . They returned very upset and scared. From conversations in which the father was present, it turned out that they had thoughts of violent death, which, in their opinion, was evidenced by the appearance of the body. The face was blue and frightened. And a suspiciously long failure to provide medical care. This kind of suspicion still exists today.”40
It is interesting to note that a year after Zhdanov’s death, during the “Leningrad case,” investigators were interested in the circumstances of Zhdanov’s death. From the protocol of interrogation of Valentin Iosifovich Belopolsky, who in 1946-1947. was in charge of the special enterprise of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, it follows that he asked Bubnov, the secretary of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, whether it was true that Zhdanov was killed? “Question: why did you ask Bubnov about this, and when did this conversation take place? Answer: my conversation with Bubnov took place on the second day after Zhdanov’s death. We spoke when we met in Bubnov’s office. I asked Bubnov this question because on the same day in the morning my stepfather Veniamin Vasilyevich Okhotin, a professor at the Leningrad State University, told me about Zhdanov’s murder, after which I decided to double-check it through Bubnov. Question: what exactly did Okhotin tell you? Answer: Okhotin told me that Zhdanov was killed. Zhdanov allegedly was in charge of the issue of providing assistance to workers on strike in France and did something wrong. Question: how did you start a conversation on this topic with Bubnov? Answer: Turning to Bubnov with a desire to find out if this was so, I asked him: Is it true that Zhdanov did not die himself, but was killed? Bubnov asked me indifferently: “How do you know?” In response to my answer: “that’s what the people say,” he told me: “I didn’t hear.” He did not talk further on this topic and turned the conversation to another topic of a normal nature. The interrogation began at 21 o'clock, interrupted at 3 o'clock 40 minutes 23 - IX. The head of the first department interrogated. UMGB investigator Captain Ryabov.”
Let us note that at first the investigators also extracted incriminating evidence against Zhdanov. If for the narrow circle of Zhdanov’s circle his death was unexpected, then what can we say about the population of the Soviet Union. On September 1, 1948, people bought up the Pravda newspaper, which published: “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Council of Ministers of the USSR with great regret inform the party and all workers of the Soviet Union that on August 31 at 3:55 p.m. died of serious illness
an outstanding figure of our party and state, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, deputy of the Supreme Council of the USSR, Colonel General, comrade Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov.
The death of A. A. Zhdanov, the faithful son of the Lenin-Stalin party, who devoted his entire life to serving the great cause of communism, is a grave loss for the party and the Soviet people.
In the person of Comrade Zhdanov, the party lost an outstanding Marxist theorist, a talented propagandist of the great ideas of Lenin-Stalin, one of the greatest builders of the party and the state.
A faithful student and ally of the great Stalin, Comrade Zhdanov, with his vigorous activity for the benefit of the Soviet fatherland, his selfless devotion to the cause of the Lenin-Stalin party, won the ardent love of the party and all the working people of our Motherland. The life of Comrade Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov, who devoted all his fiery energy to the cause of building communism, will serve as an example for the working people of our great Soviet Motherland.”41 It seems that a more superlative degree cannot be invented. But foreign correspondents accredited in Moscow praised Zhdanov’s political activities no less highly. This is evidenced by a telegram sent to the Associated Press: “This stunning news was conveyed to the Russian people on a dark and rainy night. The Russians heard it at the moment when they were preparing to listen to the usual broadcast of the latest news. Everyone was extremely shocked." It was noted that the deceased “Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was one of the closest associates of Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.”, during the holidays “a portrait of Zhdanov hung along with portraits of Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov”, “Zhdanov was a highly educated man, with a bright intellect, as foreigners unanimously say observers who met him,” “was one of the outstanding Soviet representatives. He spoke on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and his voice was decisive in all issues that he touched, including art, theater, cinema, philosophy, music and the international situation, as well as directly party issues,” “Zhdanov represented the Russian and Soviet way of thinking “as he was taller than those existing in the bourgeois West,” was a great lover of music, “Zhdanov’s influence will be felt to a significant extent even after his death”42. Note that future forecasts were exaggerated.
According to the authors who specifically investigated the last days of Zhdanov’s life, a diverse set of facts prove that Stalin wanted to severely punish Zhdanov in July 1948, even to the point of his physical elimination. The doctors who treated him in Valdai were aware of Stalin’s wishes. Judging by the medications that were prescribed to Zhdanov, they knew the significance of the role they were asked to perform43.
So, the first version of the murder: the doctors followed instructions from above. This version, in our opinion, is not provable. The second version is an incorrect diagnosis made by the luminaries of science, that is, a mistake by doctors. The third version: if the doctors did not kill him, then they helped him pass into another world as a result of untimely medical care. Finally, natural death. During a meeting with Zhdanov’s son, Yuri Andreevich, when asked about his father’s death, he firmly did not indicate a violent death. He only said that he was struck by the hasty autopsy of the body in Valdai in a dimly lit bathroom. Maybe over time the mysterious death of Zhdanov will become clearer. Let us pay attention to the strange similarity with the no less mysterious death of I.V. Stalin.
It is also alarming that the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR to perpetuate the memory of A. A. Zhdanov was made two months after his funeral, and in addition to the renamings canceled in 1989, most of the points were not fulfilled. In particular, the book was not published, the monument was not erected44. In 1949, Stalin opposed the nomination for the Stalin Prize of the portrait of A. M. Gerasimov “I. V. Stalin at the tomb of A. A. Zhdanov.” He argued as follows: “It can’t be like this: everyone is Stalin and Stalin”45. Perhaps this remark is not the whole truth; it is probably due primarily to a change in attitude towards Zhdanov, because there is a version: even if Zhdanov’s death was completely natural, it played the role of a deliverer.
But Zhdanov was given a magnificent funeral, comparable only to the funeral of S. M. Kirov. On September 1, the train with Zhdanov’s body arrived in Moscow. A funeral procession moved from the Belorussky Station along Gorky Street to the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. The coffin was carried on an artillery carriage, accompanied by a cavalry escort. Directly behind the coffin were Andrei Alexandrovich’s relatives, as well as the leadership of the party and the country. The funeral procession moved slowly down the street. Suddenly loud laughter is heard. While talking with G.M. Malenkov about something, L.P. Beria laughed46.
Gennady Nikolaevich Kupriyanov wrote down his impressions of farewell to Zhdanov in his notebook: “Members of the Politburo were the last to serve as the guard of honor. Although there weren’t that many people, there was a crush at the door when the body was carried out on the stairs. Security in the uniform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and without uniform became a dense wall behind Stalin and members of the Politburo, separating them from the rest of the Central Committee members and members of the government. Holding back the flow of the back rows onto the front ones on the stairs, the sergeants, foremen and officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were not shy in their receptions and behaved extremely rudely. They pushed people, grabbed the Central Committee members and ministers who had leaked through the “wall” by the collar, and squeezed them behind the backs of the last row of guards, like guilty boys. They knew that each of those who received punches would not dare to complain, but for the sake of their own safety would give up and move away, so as not to incur suspicion of an attempt on Stalin’s life.
This dump made a bitter impression on me, which was justified by the need to protect the leader. But in the hall there were only prominent party and government workers. And there was no need for any security inside the column that followed directly behind the government coffin. Because it was she, this guard, who created the landfill.”47
He was buried next to the grave of M.V. Frunze. According to the information of A. A. Zhdanov’s son, Yuri Andreevich, in 1947 the attending doctors said that A. A. Zhdanov had no more than a year left to live if he did not change the nature of his work. Upon learning of this, the father declared: “Better physical death than political death.” A year later he was gone. However, political murder has been haunting him for forty years now48, wrote Yu. A. Zhdanov in 2004. Let us add, now it’s already about fifty.
1 Pyzhikov A.V., Danilov A.A. The birth of a superpower. 1945-1953 M., 2002. pp. 210-211.
2 See: Kutuzov V. A. Zhdanov and the Union Control Commission in Finland // From War to Peace. USSR and Finland in 1939-1944: Sat. articles edited by V. N. Baryshnikova, T. N. Gorodetskaya. St. Petersburg, 2006. pp. 395-407.
3 Pyzhikov A.V., Danilov A.A. The birth of a superpower. P. 219.
4 Kostyrchenko G.V. Stalin’s secret policy. Power and anti-Semitism. M., 2001. P. 276.
5 Ibid. P. 277.
6 Zhukov Yu. N. The struggle for power in the leadership of the USSR in 1945-1952. // Questions of history. 1995. No. 1. P. 27.
7 Kostyrchenko G.V. Stalin’s secret policy. Power and anti-Semitism. pp. 282-283.
8 Zhukov Yu. N. Stalin: secrets of power. M., 2008. P. 348.
9 Ibid. pp. 348-349.
10 Ibid. P. 352.
11 Gordienko A. A. Kupriyanov and his time. Petrozavodsk, 2010. P. 329.
12 ShepilovD. T. Memoirs // Questions of history. 1998. No. 6. P. 4.
15 Zhukov Yu. N. Stalin: secrets of power. P. 384.
16 Chuev F.I. Kaganovich, Shepilov. M., 2001. pp. 319-322.
17 Zhukov Yu. N. The struggle for power in the leadership of the USSR in 1945-1952. // Questions of history. 1995. No. 1. P. 24.
18 Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (hereinafter referred to as RGASPI). F. 77. Op. 2. D. 108. L. 1.
19 Zhukov Yu. N. The struggle for power in the leadership of the USSR in 1945-1952. // Questions of history. 1995. No. 1. P. 30.
20 Alliluyeva S. Only one year. New York, 1972. P. 333.
21 Memoirs of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev // Questions of history. 1990. No. 4. P. 62.
22 Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of Ministers of the USSR 1945-1953 / Comp. O. V. Khlevnyuk et al. M., 2002. P. 59-60.
23 Zelenov M.V. Restructuring of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1946, July 1948 and October 1952: structure, personnel and functions (sources for study) // Contemporary history of Russia. 2011. No. 1. P. 105.
24 Boldovsky K. A. On the issue of the expansion of Leningrad personnel in 1946-1948. // Bulletin of St. Petersburg University. 2010. Ser. 2. Issue. 3. pp. 121-126.
25 Zhukov Yu. N. The struggle for power in the leadership of the USSR in 1945-1953. // Questions of history. 1995. No. 1. P. 32.
27 GibianskyL. Ya. Crisis in Soviet-Yugoslav relations in 1948 / Understanding history. M., 1996. S. 123, 125.
28 Nikolaevsky B.I. On the biography of Malenkov and the history of the Communist Party of the USSR // Secret pages of history. M., 1995. P. 222.
29 ShepilovD. T. Non-aligned. M., 2001. S. 131, 132.
30DjilasM. The face of totalitarianism. M., 1992. P. 146.
31 Esakov V.D., Levina E.S. Stalin’s “courts of honor”, “Case of the KR” M., 2005. P. 74.
32 RGASPI. F. 77. Op. 2. D. 70. L. 8.
33 Gordienko A. A. Kupriyanov and his time. Petrozavodsk, 2010. P. 327.
34 Ibid. P. 328.
35 Kostyrchenko G.V. Stalin’s secret policy. Power and anti-Semitism. P. 640.
36 “The goal was to save the patient’s life.” Letters from Lydia Timoshuk in her defense // Source. 1997. No. 1. P. 5.
37 Ibid. P. 6.
38 Kostyrchenko G.V. Stalin’s secret policy. Power and anti-Semitism. P. 640.
40 Fates of people. “The Leningrad Case” / Ed. A. M. Kulegina. Comp. A. P. Smirnov. St. Petersburg, 2009. P. 103.
42 RGASPI. F. 77. Op. 2. D. 70. L. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 16.
43 Brent D., Naumov V. Stalin’s last case. M., 2004. P. 13.
44 Kutuzov V. A. From the history of perpetuating the memory of A. A. Zhdanov // Personality in history in the era of the new
and modern times (in memory of Professor S.I. Voroshilov): Materials of the international scientific conference. St. Petersburg, December 2009. St. Petersburg, 2011. pp. 133-135.
45 Eliseev A.V. The truth about 1937. Who unleashed the Great Terror? M., 2008. P. 95.
46 Zhdanov Yu. A. A look into the past. Memoirs of an eyewitness. Rostov-on-Don, 2004. pp. 310-311.
47 Gordienko A. A. Kupriyanov and his time. P. 328.
48 Zhdanov Yu. A. A look into the past. P. 363.
Kutuzov V. A. Mysterious death of A. A. Zhdanov
ABSTRACT: In this article author studies last years of A. A. Zhdanov's life, state of his health and his political role. V. A. Kutuzov reflects difficult relations established among top leadership of the USSR, which allow to give mixed appraisals of various political figures. On the background of the fight for the power among Stalin's closest environment discusses various versions of Zhdanov's death.
KEYWORDS: A. A. Zhdanov, I. V. Stalin, G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria, A. A. Kuznetsov, illness, death, fight, power.
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