Records of persons Visited Stalin (1924-1953) - İntroduction

Introduction. A valuable guide to Soviet history

More than half a century has passed since the time when I.V. Stalin. During this time, the world has changed beyond recognition. The world socialist system, the brainchild of Stalin, has sunk into oblivion, the Soviet Union has ceased to exist, and the world has become unipolar. Now it is not party secretaries who run the show in Russia and other, formerly union republics, but the presidents of independent states. And, it would seem, what do we care about Stalin and those who surrounded him today? However, his name does not leave the pages of newspapers and magazines, often flickering on TV screens. Scientific and popular publications about the "leader of the peoples" and his role in the history of our country are multiplying. There is still no generally accepted point of view on the role of Stalin in Russian and world history, and probably for a long time to come. In assessing his activities, Russian society has split into two irreconcilable camps. For some, he still remains an idol, a statesman who created a great power and made it respect; for others, a tyrant who has ruined millions of innocent fellow citizens, drained the country, and led it into a historical dead end.

Despite the relative availability of archives and the rapidly growing volume of scientific information, Stalin and Stalinism still keep many unsolved mysteries. In the centuries-old history of Russia, there are not so many politicians who ruled a huge country for as long as I.V. Stalin. In April 1922 he was elected to the post of General Secretary of the Party Central Committee. After the death of V.I. Lenin and the reprisals against political rivals and opponents, the power of the first person in the party became absolute, indisputable. This led to the fact that not a single important issue could be resolved or a foregone conclusion without the knowledge, participation or consent of Stalin. Therefore, numerous visitors flocked to the leader's Kremlin office. On some days there were up to four dozen of them. Among them are Stalin's closest associates and non-party activists, famous writers and modest Soviet officials, prominent military leaders and leaders of partisan detachments. Scientists, designers, architects, pilots, scouts, diplomats, journalists, etc. were invited here. There were many foreign guests among the visitors: party, state and public figures, military men, writers, ambassadors, businessmen, clergymen, etc. They peered at the owner cabinet with burning interest and inner alertness, realizing that the fate of hundreds of millions of people is being decided here.

Everyone who entered Stalin's office was subject to registration. The secretaries on duty at the reception carefully wrote down the names of those who entered, as well as the time of entry and exit of visitors. Notebooks (or magazines) with the names of visitors to the Kremlin's office of the leader were kept for a long time in the Archives of the President of the Russian Federation (AP RF), which partially includes documents from the archive of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The documents are formed into several folders, which contain lists of persons received by I.V. Stalin in his Kremlin office or those who made an appointment with him. In 1999-2000. Stalin's fund was transferred from the AP RF to the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI, fund 558, inventory 11, files 408-411).

Chronologically, these documents cover the period from July 1924 to March 1953. Between these dates there is a whole epoch that has accommodated the enormous cataclysms of Soviet and world history. Many decisions that influenced the fate of peoples were made in the Kremlin cabinet, where the indisputable leader of the Soviet state, the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, worked, and from May 1941 - the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (since 1946 - the Council of Ministers) of the USSR, during the war years - the chairman The State Defense Committee and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country.

Stalin headed the party and state leadership of the country for three decades. Entering the first Soviet government as a modest People's Commissar, a few years later, becoming the General Secretary of the Party's Central Committee, he concentrated enormous power in his hands and, despite all the vicissitudes of an acute political struggle, managed to keep it until the last day of his life. The future "leader of the peoples" showed himself as a strong independent personality in the party leadership of the post-October period. During the years of the revolution and the civil war, he was known as a firm and strong-willed leader, who brought any task entrusted to him to the end. Possessing remarkable organizational skills, he was distinguished by diligence and hard work, not giving up any work.

By the time when the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee was established in the party, Stalin - the only member of the Politburo - headed two people's commissariats (for nationalities and workers 'and peasants' inspection), and was also a member of the Orgburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee and "ten Central Committee commissions." At the XI Congress of the RCP (b), proposals were made to limit the powers of Stalin [1], but V.I. Lenin spoke with objections [2] and thus actually supported Stalin and his activities in Narkomnats and in the WPI.

The post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), introduced on April 3, 1922 at the plenum of the Central Committee of the party, was not intended as the main one in the party hierarchy of that time. At that time, only three people were elected to the Secretariat of the Central Committee (I.V. Stalin, V.V.Kuibyshev, V.M. Molotov) and this body was mainly engaged in technical and internal party issues, subordinate to the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee. The election of Stalin to the post of general secretary did not mean and was not considered by anyone as his nomination as Lenin's successor, but was interpreted as another "party assignment" to a capable and efficient worker. Everyone was convinced of Stalin's control. “As long as the old Politburo remained in power,” L.D. Trotsky, - the general secretary could only be a subordinate figure " [3]... As a successor to V.I. Lenin, Stalin was not considered not only by the members of the Politburo, but also by the population of the country. On March 24, 1923, on the instructions of the leadership, the GPU prepared a "Brief report on the impression made on the population of the RSFSR by the government announcement of Comrade Lenin's illness." The report made predictions about Lenin's possible successors as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. Among those, L.D. was named more often than others. Trotsky, with the proviso - "without much sympathy." The names of L.B. Kameneva, N.I. Bukharin, G.E. Zinoviev and F.E. Dzerzhinsky [4] . Stalin was not among them.

However, the "wonderful Georgian" behaved unpredictably. As Lenin departed from the leadership of the party and the country due to the growing disease, Stalin, as a result of a fierce struggle, managed to take key positions in the party. He skillfully used the opportunities available in the hands of the secretary general to promote his supporters to leading party positions, subjugated the party apparatus, placing personally loyal workers at the head of its divisions. It was then that A.A. appeared in Stalin's entourage. Andreev, L.M. Kaganovich, G.M. Malenkov, A.I. Mikoyan, G.K. Ordzhonikidze and other associates who provided him with support in the struggle for power, linking their fate with the leader for many years.

These and other persons close to the Secretary General visited Stalin's office quite often, which was reflected in the published source. It is basically a list of visitors to the leader's Kremlin office. Regular lists began to be kept, probably from the mid-1920s. Fragmentary information about the persons who made an appointment with Stalin has been preserved for earlier years. In the files on separate sheets of paper there are lists of those who made an appointment with Stalin on July 15 and 21, 1924. For 1925 and 1926. no lists were found in the AP RF, however, for several months of 1925 and for January 1926, 7 monthly reports on the reception of visitors by the secretaries of the party's Central Committee were preserved, indicating the number of those received by each secretary; the names of the visitors were not indicated. From these reports it can be established that in March 1925 Stalin received 127 people and refused to accept one. In April, 62 people signed up for an appointment with the General Secretary, 47 were received; in May, respectively 123 and 90; in September - 50 and 35; in October - 50 and 41; in December 2 people signed up and were accepted. In January 1926, 33 people were accepted and one was refused. The summaries show that Stalin received more visitors than the other secretaries of the Central Committee. So, in March 1925 A.A. Andreev received 56 people, L.M. Kaganovich - 73, V.M. Molotov - 109, I.V. Stalin - 127. M. Molotov - 109, I.V. Stalin - 127. M. Molotov - 109, I.V. Stalin - 127.

Along with the monthly summaries, there was also compiled one "Summaries of those who made an appointment and were received by Comrade Stalin for the period from February 1, 1925 to December 1, 1926". It was conceived, obviously, as an annual one, but it contains information only for the period from December 7, 1925 to May 18, 1926. This summary contains the names of visitors, the names of the organizations they represented, their positions, party affiliation, and also it was noted on what issue they came and whether they were received by the secretary general.

Of the 355 people recorded in the report, 167 were refused admission. The reasons for the refusal are not indicated in the summary.

Records 1924-1926 recorded everyone who made an appointment, regardless of whether they were accepted or not. These records did not indicate the hours of the appointment. In the future, only those who entered Stalin's cabinet began to be included in the lists, moreover, from September 1927 the time of entry was indicated, and from October 1929 - and the time of leaving the office.

If in the 1920s Stalin's meetings in his study with various persons did indeed take place in the traditional form of reception, then later their character changed and they can only be called a reception. Participants of meetings and sessions held in Stalin's office, members of various delegations, as well as stenographers, translators, photographers, etc. were recorded as visitors.

During the thirty-year period of Stalin's rule, practically all of the highest party and state nomenclature of the USSR passed through his cabinet in the Kremlin. There were many among the visitors and foreign guests. In total, about 30 thousand visits and about 3 thousand visitors were recorded in magazines (notebooks).

Of course, these are far from all the persons with whom Stalin communicated. So, kept in the RGASPI case “I.V. Stalin "for 1925-1928 (F. 558. Op. 4. D. 585, I-IV) includes many party, Soviet, trade union, military workers who are absent in the published source. Nevertheless, there is no doubt: the journals (notebooks) of records of persons received by Stalin in his Kremlin office contain information that makes it possible to concretize many details of Soviet history, correct established opinions, clarify seemingly known facts, and avoid inaccuracies encountered in scientific literature and memoirs. Through Stalin's circle of friends, the possibility of analyzing the mechanism of decision-making by the party-Soviet leadership of the USSR opens up slightly.

The notes of visitors to Stalin's office in the Kremlin are filled with ink of different colors, most often purple (sometimes black, rarely red), on separate (unbound) sheets. From September 9, 1927 to October 14, 1941, the notes were kept on sheets of 30 by 10 cm, and then on sheets of the format of a school notebook. Probably, the surnames of visitors were entered in magazines or notebooks, from which sheets with notes were then torn, and the covers did not survive. The recording was made by the secretaries on duty of the Bureau of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, which was transformed first into the Secret Department, and then into the Special Sector of the Central Committee. Among the employees of these divisions, whose duties included keeping a journal (notebook) for registering visitors to Stalin's office, one can name the secretaries on duty of the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee - Bocharova, Lepeshinskaya, Loginova, Osipova and Chechulin. Perfirev and Rogov also worked in Stalin's reception room. Some of the names in the lists of 1924 were inscribed by the hand of L.Z. Mehlis, who at that time held the post of head of the Bureau of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Lapina, Legrand and others also worked in the reception of the Bureau of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. However, it is not possible to establish exactly or even presumably by whose hand the records were kept on a particular day.

The secretaries on duty did not always personally know those who entered Stalin's office. In most cases, the names of visitors were written without initials. At the same time, many namesakes are recorded in them. All these circumstances make it difficult to identify the persons who visited Stalin. In the publication, the spelling of surnames according to the source was preserved, and their possible correct variants are given in the interlinear and in the alphabetical index.

In some cases, when Stalin had foreign delegations, the lists of visitors recorded in notebooks (magazines) were accompanied by certificates of the positions of those present or other information about them. During the Great Patriotic War, in the period from December 14, 1941 to June 9, 1943, records of the start and end times of air raids in Moscow were also attached to the lists of visitors. Judging by them, during this time the alarm was announced 19 times, including 12 December 1941 and 2 January 1942 - twice a day.

From July 24 to September 4, 1941, Stalin received visitors not only in the Kremlin office, but also in another room. During this time, entries of visitors were kept in parallel by different people and in different magazines, which can be seen both in handwriting and writing style, and on paper. In the permanent office, during these six weeks, Stalin received visitors 6 times, and in another room - 40 times. In some cases, on the same day, but at different times, the reception was conducted in both rooms. The dates of the reception of visitors, which took place outside Stalin's permanent office, are marked with asterisks in the publication.

Probably not everyone who visited Stalin's office ended up on the list of visitors. So, on April 19, 1940, one L.M. Kaganovich. He left the office at exactly 20 o'clock. However, there is a record that the last visitors left the office at 20:30. On July 1, 1940, Molotov was in Stalin's office from 5:35 pm to 6:25 pm. According to the source, Stalin did not receive anyone else that day. But here, too, there is a record that the “last ones” left the office at 21.40. Who they are, these "last", remains unclear [5]... This interval between the time a person left the office (as the last visitor) and the end of Stalin’s reception could last from several minutes to more than 5 hours. So, judging by the list of persons received by Stalin on July 15, 1935, three people visited the leader in the office: M.I. Kalinin with I.A. Akulov (both from 17 hours 40 minutes to 18 hours 05 minutes), and then G.K. Ordzhonikidze went to see Stalin for 5 minutes (from 18 hours 15 minutes to 18 hours 20 minutes). There was no one else in the office except the owner; nevertheless, at the end of the list there is an entry: "The last ones left at 20 o'clock." On July 19 of the same year, one I.A. was at the reception for 25 minutes. Pyatnitsky and he left the office at 15 o'clock. And again at the end of the recording for this day it is marked: "The last ones came out 20 hours 15 minutes." There are cases when a surname is not put down next to the serial number in the list of visitors or the sign "X" (x) is put down (December 29, 1928, December 16, 1929, July 21, 1934, etc.). It is reasonable to explain the reason for the omission by the carelessness or negligence of the secretaries, but it could be different.

The secretaries on duty recorded the time of entry and exit of the visitors to the office literally to the nearest minute. On July 5, 1939, A. Zhdanov visited Stalin for 2 minutes: he entered at 20:45 and left at 20:47. The figures were not even rounded up to 5 minutes: on July 16, 1939 Malenkov and L. Kaganovich entered the office at 21:05 and left at 2116. On August 23 of the same year, it was noted that Molotov entered the office at 13:12; On September 2, A.F. Gorkin entered at 18 hours 43 minutes, and on September 8, A. Zhdanov's exit time was designated 20 hours 01 minutes.

Stalin's closest associates spent many hours in his office in a row, sometimes entering and leaving several times a day. November 15, 1939 A. Zhdanov stayed with the leader for 7 hours; KE had 10 minutes less on the same day. Voroshilov and Molotov. On December 19 of the same year, Molotov spent 7 hours 50 minutes in his office, and Voroshilov - 8 hours 15 minutes. Stalin retired for a long time with stenographer A.A. Khatuntsev - they sat for 6 hours or more (June 17, 1936, March 26, 1937), and on March 31, 1937, their meeting lasted almost 10 hours. There were also short visits; most often they occurred in N.S. Vlasik, who entered the office, as a rule, for a few minutes, however, the same short "visits" occurred among eminent visitors: Stalin had M. Gorky (August 9, 1933), Molotov (August 15, 1939 g.), N.A. Bulganin (November 15, 1939), L.P. Beria (December 10, 1939) and others.

It is known that Stalin preferred to work in the evening and at night. His comrades-in-arms were forced to reckon with this - members of the Politburo of the Central Committee, people's commissars (ministers), everyone who was related to the apparatus of governing the country. This was reflected in the notes of visitors to Stalin's office. In the 1920s and early 1930s, there were still rare cases when Stalin received visitors in the morning. For example, the French writer A. Barbusse and accompanying board member of the All-Union Joint Stock Company "Intourist" SI. He received Pokhitonov for a conversation on October 5, 1932 at 10 hours and 50 minutes. Most of the receptions took place in the afternoon. In the late 30s - early 40s, it was already a rarity when the reception was carried out at 14 or 15 hours. As a rule, the reception began in the evening hours and often lasted far after midnight - until 3, 4, or even 5 o'clock in the morning (September 28, October 21, December 7, 1938, December 5, 1939, etc.). This regime was observed not only on weekdays, but also on holidays. Even the New Year on the night of December 31, 1939 to January 1, 1940, Stalin met in his office among the military. Working on weekends and holidays was no exception. Reception was conducted both on New Year's holidays and on Sundays. It can be seen from the documents that January 1, 1930, 1931, 1933-1935, 1940, 1942, 1943. were foster days. On Sundays, Stalin also worked himself and forced his entourage to work. In 1928, on Sundays, Stalin held a reception at least 6 times, in 1929 - 3 times, in 1930 - 15 times, in 1931 - 23 times. This trend continued in subsequent years. In December 1944, during a conversation between Stalin and Charles de Gaulle, the general asked the owner of the cabinet, "Why does he work so hard." Stalin replied that "this is, firstly, a bad Russian habit, and, secondly, it is explained by the large scale of work and the responsibility that such a scale of work is entrusted to him."[6] .

Sometimes a reception was held in Stalin's office in the absence of his master. In August 1933, Stalin was granted leave for a month and a half. As a rule, decisions on granting leave to Stalin did not specify who would replace him as presiding over the meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee. In 1933, in the minutes of the Politburo meeting, which granted Stalin leave, it was noted that LM Kaganovich would replace him in the Defense Commission during the period of Stalin’s vacation. Probably, this secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), who was also the first secretary of the Moscow Committee and the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) at that time, also remained on the "farm" in the Politburo. This assumption is supported by the following: in the log of entries of visitors to Stalin's office for August 22, 1933 there is a note of the secretary on duty: “During the absence of Comrade. Stalin ", and for November 4 -" In the presence of Comrade Stalin. " (So ​​not everyone who visited Stalin's office was received by the leader: for example, V.A.Zimin, Solis were there only during Stalin's vacation.) In 1933, while Stalin was resting in the south, his comrades-in-arms gathered in his office 21 times. Moreover, twice - on September 10 and 16 - for just a few minutes. In 17 cases (out of 21) the list is headed by L. Kaganovich, in 3 cases - by Molotov and once - by Kuibyshev (in the absence of Kaganovich and Molotov). When the list was headed by Molotov, Kaganovich was always present; when Kaganovich is at the head of the list, Molotov is absent in most (11 out of 17) cases. Thus, these figures, as it were, divided the leadership among themselves in the absence of a leader. Judging by the records, members of the Politburo gathered in Stalin's office in his absence, and those who

In the records for other years, there are also gaps in admission lasting one and a half to two months or more, coinciding in time with Stalin's vacations. If during the Great Patriotic War Stalin worked practically without rest, then in the very first post-war autumn he allowed himself a one and a half months vacation. On October 3, the Politburo decided to grant leave to Stalin, and a week later the newspaper Pravda reported that on October 9, Stalin "went on vacation to rest." The first post-war parade on Red Square, dedicated to the next anniversary of the October Revolution, took place in the absence of Stalin. In 1946, the break in receptions in the Kremlin office was already more than three months, in 1947 - two months, in 1948 and 1949. three months. In 1950 g.

In connection with such a long absence of the leader, the question naturally arose of replacing him at this time. If earlier Stalin was not afraid to leave L.M. Kaganovich or V.M. Molotov, then in the last years of his life he, it seems, was afraid to entrust the management of the party and the country to someone from his closest circle, and therefore, in his absence, he seemed to share the functions of the first person among his associates. This is evident from the fact that in November 1952 the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU  [7] made a decision that in the absence of Stalin, G.M. Malenkov, N.S. Khrushchev and N.A. Bulganin. They were also entrusted with the consideration and solution of current issues. Since Stalin was also the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was envisaged that government meetings in Stalin's absence would be chaired alternately by L.P. Beria, M.G. Pervukhin and M.Z. Saburov. By the same decision of the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU, G.M. Malenkov, N.M. Pegov and M.A. Suslov. So Stalin tried to insure himself against a possible encroachment on the supreme power in his absence.

The initiative in the visits to Stalin's office probably belonged primarily to the leader himself. He decided who to invite to the reception, who to refuse. The most active attendance is observed in the pre-war years. In 1939-1940. the journal recorded about two thousand visits. After the war, the number of visits began to decline. The aging leader was clearly narrowing his circle of contacts and did not show the same vigorous activity. In 1947, the secretaries registered about 1200 visits, in 1950 there were only about 700, and in 1951 and 1952. - 500 each.

The narrowing of the circle of visitors to Stalin's office was reflected in the fact that the Politburo met less and less in its entirety with the leader. Questions were increasingly being resolved in a narrow circle of close people. Researchers have calculated that the Politburo met 6 times in 1950, 5 times in 1951, and only 4 times in 1952 [8] . Elected after the 19th Congress of the CPSU, the most numerous in the history of the party, the Presidium of the Central Committee in full strength in Stalin's cabinet did not meet even once.

As Stalin's personal power was strengthened, his influence on the solution of the main issues of the domestic and foreign policy of the state grew. Many questions were decided during his meetings with associates, members of the Politburo of the Central Committee or leaders of economic sectors, workers in science, culture, and education who were invited to the conversation. Stalin's closest associates were regulars in his office. Beria, Voroshilov, L. Kaganovich, A.I. Mikoyan, Molotov and a number of others visited the leader more often than others. Many have visited the office only once, some 2-3 times.

The magazine did not register visits to Stalin's office by his wife, N.S. Alliluyeva, as well as the son from his first marriage, Yakov. Stalin's other children - Svetlana and Vasily - appear among the visitors. The daughter was with her father twice: the first time - on January 6, 1942, and was alone with him for 20 minutes; K. Voroshilov entered them and after 5 minutes Svetlana left. The second time - December 9, 1947 - and also stayed less than half an hour. Stalin's youngest son, Vasily, was in the office more often. As a rule, he entered the office in a group of military leaders and left it with them. In the notebooks, not a single case was noted when the father and son were left alone. Once - on May 4, 1931 - Stalin was visited by his father-in-law, the old Bolshevik S.Ya. Alliluyev.

Continuing the “family” theme, it should be noted that the children of some party and Soviet workers followed “in the footsteps of their fathers” and also visited Stalin's office: apart from L.P. Beria, his son Sergei was here; received Stalin and his son A.A. Zhdanov - Yuri. The diplomats, father and son of A.A., were invited to the office at different times. and O.A. Troyanovskys.

Voroshilov's wives, Molotov, and E.M. Yaroslavsky. However, these were not friendly gestures towards loved ones or associates, but official business meetings.

Among the people who were in the circle of visitors to the Kremlin's office of the leader were brothers. Along with his closest colleague L.M. Kaganovich, the leader received his brothers Mikhail and Julia in his office. The Kosior brothers - Vikenty and Stanislav, the Kuibyshev brothers - Valerian and Nikolai, the Mezhlauk brothers - Valery and Ivan often visited the office. In addition to the political long-liver A.I. Mikoyan, his brother Artem, an aircraft designer, also visited the leader.

Naturally, the most frequent visitors to Stalin's Kremlin cabinet were persons belonging to the highest party elite. As a rule, they also held important government positions. At the same time, it should be noted that in the 30s Stalin often invited the heads of the OGPU-NKVD bodies, during the Great Patriotic War - the military, as well as designers of military equipment, in the second half of the 40s - business executives.

Deciphering some names and surnames is difficult due to the lack of information about them. So, on November 27, 1939, among more than two dozen people who visited Stalin's office, Yeleseev was also listed. He stayed with the leader for over an hour, while at first they talked in private, and then O.V. was invited. Kuusinen. A visitor with the surname Yeleseev appears only once in the lists. There are no Eliseevs in them either. It was only thanks to the recently published memoirs of the retired KGB general Elisei Tikhonovich Sinitsyn that it became known that in this case it was him who was being discussed [9] . From the memoirs of Z. Voskresenskaya and P. Sudoplatov, it was established that Rybkin, received by Stalin on April 7, 1938, was none other than an employee of Soviet intelligence, a resident of the NKVD in Finland [10] . Unfortunately, not all the names have yet been deciphered.

There were many foreign guests among the visitors to Stalin's Kremlin office. The "leader of the peoples" himself did not like to travel outside the country. After coming to power, he only twice, of necessity, went abroad to meet with the leaders of Great Britain and the United States: in 1943 he took part in the Tehran Conference, in 1945 he came to Potsdam. And in both cases, the game was worth the candle - in Tehran the fate of the second front was decided, and in Potsdam, the post-war structure of Europe was determined. Many famous political figures visited Stalin's office, among them Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong, Josip Broz Tito, and others. Writers also showed interest in Stalin - in his office he received Herbert Wells (who visited V.I Lenin), Lyon Feuchtwanger, Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland and others.

As already noted, the published lists by no means exhaust the circle of figures with whom Stalin met. Here we are only talking about those whom he received in his Kremlin office. And he met with the persons included in the lists not only in his office. So, for the first time with Anthony Eden, Stalin met in the office of Molotov in the Kremlin March 29, 1935 [11]  Prior to the invitation E. Benes in his office in 1943, Stalin met him in his office Molotov 9 June 1935 [12]  In 1940 Stalin met several times in the Kremlin with the ambassador-at-large, chief economic expert of the German Foreign Ministry K. Ritter and his envoy K. Yu. Schnurre, adviser G. Hilger and others [13]... In January 1945, Stalin received the head of the delegation of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia A. Hebrang and the chief of the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army A. Jovanovich. In the recording of the conversation, it is noted that the meeting took place in Moscow and lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes [14] . In November 1945, Stalin met and talked with the Polish leaders V. Gomulka and H. Mints [15] . These meetings, however, were not reflected in the list of visitors. If we compare the published lists with the data of the biographical chronicle included in each book of Stalin's thirteen-volume collected works, it is easy to see that they complement each other, but neither one nor the other material exhausts all his meetings.

The published source will be of interest primarily to researchers dealing with the history of the Soviet Union. The period of the 20s - early 50s is important, interesting and at the same time tragic in the development of the country. Behind the triumph of victories and bitterness of defeat, behind the obvious achievements and senseless irreplaceable losses, stood a man who personified the party, the government, and the country as a whole. His words, his opinion were perceived as strict directives. The source offered to the readers' attention allows us to more accurately determine Stalin's circle of contacts and thereby concretize many details of recent history.

So, there are still disputes about how Stalin behaved in the first hours and days of the Great Patriotic War. Is it true that he fell into prostration, retired in the country and did not receive anyone? Or, on the contrary, are those who assert that Stalin did not lose his composure, did not let go of the threads of governing the country and actively tried to organize a rebuff to the aggressor, are right? [sixteen] The published materials to some extent allow answering these questions. Entries in the journal of visitors to Stalin's office recorded that on June 21, 1941, from about half past six in the evening until 11:00 pm, continuous meetings of members of the Politburo, government leaders, and the military took place in the office. On June 22, at 5:45 am, Stalin had Molotov, Beria, S.K. Timoshenko, Mekhlis, G.K. Zhukov. A little later Malenkov, Mikoyan, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, N.G. Kuznetsov, G. Dimitrov and others (more than two dozen people in total, some entered and exited several times). Until June 28 inclusive, meetings in Stalin's office were held daily. For June 29-30, records are missing and renewed on July 1, 1941.

In the early 1990s. in the media there was a message with reference to a document found in the US National Archives that filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I.V. Stalin met with A. Hitler in Lvov on October 17, 1939. An elementary "test" of this message for reliability with the help of a published source shows that the likelihood of such a meeting is excluded: Stalin on this day from 19 hours 35 minutes to 22 hours 20 minutes the Kremlin office of visitors. The day before, he also had an evening reception, and therefore he could not meet in Lvov with Hitler.

Some of the legends, not confirmed by sources, were put into use by the children of one or another historical figure. So, the son of G.M. Malenkova in her book about her father asserts that in October 1941 all the members of the Politburo left Moscow and Malenkov for some time remained "on the farm" alone. With reference to the words of his father, the author of the book claims that Stalin also left Moscow and was absent for 10 days [17] . Meanwhile, judging by the log of the persons received by Stalin in the Kremlin office, members of the Politburo in October 1941 visited him almost every day. The longest break in receptions is 4 days: the leader did not receive anyone from 15 to 18 October.

The top officials in the state will always attract the attention of researchers. Everything connected with them is interesting to the historian, since sometimes even an insignificant detail can highlight an event in a completely different way from how it was presented before. Journals (notebooks) of records of persons received by Stalin, to a certain extent, can serve as a litmus test for determining the reliability of certain events and facts. Recently, many diaries and memoirs have been published in which the authors talk about their meetings with Stalin. The credibility of these testimonies could increase significantly if they were based on documentary materials. In the above-mentioned interesting, but controversial memoirs of the legendary intelligence officer P.A. Sudoplatov states that he met with I.V. Stalin in his Kremlin office. Specific dates of meetings are indicated: November 1937 (twice with an interval of a week), March 1939, summer 1944 Names of the persons with whom he was at the leader's (N.I. Yezhov, Beria, G.I. Petrovsky, VS Abakumov, SM Shtemenko and others). Meanwhile, among the visitors to Stalin's office, the name of Sudoplatov himself is not. The author of the memoirs (judging by the mention in the book) was aware of the publication of lists of visitors to the Kremlin's office of the leader, but he does not explain in any way the absence of his surname in these lists[18] . It can be assumed that when visiting Stalin's office, Sudoplatov used a pseudonym. YES. Volkogonov in one of his books discloses the scout's pseudonyms: Matveev, Yatsenko, Andrey and Otto [19] . The first two surnames among the visitors to Stalin's office are found, but at a different time and not with those figures who are mentioned in Sudoplatov's memoirs as accompanying persons, from which one can conclude that these are other persons.

There are other discrepancies between the lists of visitors to Stalin's office and the memoirs of Sudoplatov. The intelligence officer claims that in the last year of Abakumov's work as Minister of State Security, “especially in the last nine months, he was absolutely isolated from Stalin. The Kremlin list of visitors shows that after November 1950 Stalin did not receive Abakumov. " In fact, the "list shows" something else: in 1950, Stalin had not received Abakumov since August, not since November. However, in 1951, Abakumov visited Stalin twice: on April 6 and - for the last time - on July 5 (that is, a week before his arrest). The following statement by Sudoplatov does not find confirmation in the lists of visitors: at the end of February 1953, at a late hour, “Ignatiev, Goglidze and Konyakhin entered Stalin’s office, and I remained in the waiting room for about an hour” [20]... If the author of the memoirs had looked at the lists, he would have seen that Konyakhin (the deputy head of the investigative unit of the Ministry of State Security) had never been to Stalin. In February 1953, Stalin received in his Kremlin office only four times (February 2, 7, 16 and 17) and neither Ignatiev nor Goglidze was among the visitors that month. Together (but without Konyakhin) they visited the leader twice - in early November and mid-December 1952. Ignatiev was last seen by Stalin on December 15, 1952 (on March 5, 1953, he was invited to the office when Stalin was no longer alive ), and Goglidze - January 2, 1953.

A frequent visitor to the Stalinist office was V.A. Malyshev is a long-term People's Commissar (Minister) and Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers) of the USSR. Judging by the magazine, he visited Stalin about 80 times. In 1997, Malyshev's diary was published, where he talks about many meetings with Stalin, about meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee and meetings with the leader [21]... If we compare the data of the People's Commissar's diary and the published lists of visitors, then with a sufficiently accurate dating of his meetings with Stalin by Malyshev, some details will still not coincide. So, on February 5, 1939, Malyshev was with Stalin for 15 minutes, and it seemed to him that he was talking with the leader "for about an hour"; On June 19, 1940, according to the magazine, the People's Commissar entered the office at 5.50 pm, and left at 19.00, that is, stayed there for 1 hour and 10 minutes, but in his diary he wrote: "We sat at Comrade Stalin's about three hours."

Such discrepancies are characteristic of other memoirs as well. The chief of the country's border troops N.P. Stakhanov. Visitors lists indicate that the reception lasted 50 minutes. In the general's memoirs it is said that “I. For one and a half hours V. Stalin inquired in great detail and in detail about the state of the protection of the western border ... ”, being interested in many details [22] . When, in 1952, Stalin instructed Shepilov to head the preparation of a textbook on political economy, he invited him to his office. According to Shepilov's recollections, “the conversation with Stalin lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes” [23] . From the source it is clear that Shepilov was in the office from 10 pm to 11 pm, that is, 50 minutes.

There are, however, examples of another order. On June 28, 1935, Stalin received the French writer R. Rolland. On the same day, Rolland wrote down his impressions of the meeting in his diary. He twice noted the same detail: "The conversation begins at ten minutes after five and ends at ten to six." A few pages later he again emphasizes: "The conversation lasted one hour and forty minutes" [24] . The same duration of the conversation is indicated in the short message about the meeting, published the next day in Pravda, and the text of the message was corrected by Stalin himself. [25]... In the lists of visitors to Stalin's office it is noted that Rolland with his wife and A.Ya. Arosev stayed in the office for two hours - from 16 to 18 hours. These and other discrepancies are probably explained by the imperfection of human memory or the peculiar psychological perception of meetings with Stalin.

In the memoirs of academician A.A. Mikulin speaks of two meetings and conversations between the scientist and Stalin in his office - in 1935 and 1943. [26] This, however, was not reflected in the published source: they met at another time - in 1940 and 1947. According to some reports, in Stalin's office "in the first days of the war" was the navigator of the polar aviation V. I. Akkuratov, who participated in the bombing of the German city of Tilsit; after the war, professor of mechanics A.A. Kosmodemyanskiy [27] . Neither one nor the other is also not in the published lists.

There are many such examples. While some consciously or unwittingly, to varying degrees, exaggerate their ties with Stalin, strive to show closeness to him, others, on the contrary, want to distance themselves from the leader and “cannot remember” many meetings with him. In one of the books by V.F. Nekrasov, the memoirs of S.N. Kruglov. Under Stalin, he was People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR for more than seven years. The memoirs assert that during this time (since December 1945) the minister visited Stalin only 4 times [28] . From the records of visitors to Stalin's office, it follows that Kruglov, during his leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, visited the office of the head of the Soviet government about 20 times and the secretary of the party Central Committee.

As a rule, no transcripts of the conversations that took place in Stalin's office were kept [29] . The only exceptions are those conversations that Stalin conducted with official representatives of political circles of foreign countries (Charles de Gaulle, W. Churchill, A. Eden, W.A. Harriman, and others), as well as with foreign writers (A. Barbusse, E. Ludwig, R. Rolland, L. Feuchtwanger and others). Some of the conversations with these individuals have been published [ 30]... The content of others is known from memoirs, diaries, and other documents. So, the content of the last conversation of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences SI. Vavilov with the leader (on the affairs of the Academy of Sciences and on the 2nd edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia) became known due to the fact that the academician made a detailed record (dictating) of "instructions and remarks of Comrade Stalin" received during the audience [31] . The Yugoslav politician M. Djilas spoke in a very peculiar and vivid way about the meetings with the Soviet leader: on the day of the leader's birth in the Belgrade communist newspaper Vogba (Struggle), he published a downright panegyric article about a conversation with Stalin that took place in the Kremlin in May 1944. . [32] In the 50s. M. Djilas's views changed and in the book “Conversations with Stalin” published in 1961 he no longer speaks of him so enthusiastically, and the facts that had previously admired him are interpreted from opposite positions [33] .

Visitors entered Stalin's office in different ways. Some were summoned to a meeting or for a report, others came with any suggestions, and still others asked for help or assistance. In the 1920s, in one of the premises in the building of the Party Central Committee on Staraya Square, there was a schedule of reception of visitors by the secretaries of the Central Committee, where Stalin's surname was in alphabetical order. Those who signed up for an appointment passed through the sieve of assistants and only a few got into the office. For example, on May 11, 1926, 18 people signed up for an appointment with Stalin. Only M.I. Ulyanov, and among those who were denied an audience were the future member of the Central Committee Organizing Bureau and USSR Prosecutor A.I. Akulov, the future closest associate of the leader, a member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee A.A. Zhdanov et al. On April 17, May 4 and 18 of the same year, 19, 12 and 13 people, respectively, signed up for an appointment, but none of them was accepted.

Young journalist E.N. Nikulina wrote a brochure on socialist competition. Several publishing houses rejected her work, and then she sent the brochure to Stalin with a request to express her opinion about her. Soon Stalin invited her for a conversation, and then wrote the introduction to the brochure, with which she was published [34]... As a rule, the initiative in the invitation to the reception belonged to Stalin. The system excluded the appearance of random people in the office. And although there were a great many visitors, not all even allied people's commissars (ministers) were received by the leader (for example, there is no S. 3. in the lists) of Ginzburg, the people's commissar for the construction of military and naval enterprises in 1939-1946, P .AND. Kumykin - Minister of Foreign Trade in 1951 - 1953, G.A. Miterev - People's Commissar (Minister) of Health in 1939-1947. and etc.). The same can be said about some of the secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties, the chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers) of the Union republics, the commanders of military districts, etc.

It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that many visitors to Stalin's Kremlin office ended their life in the harsh and turbulent 30s. Most often, 1936, 1937, 1938 are found as the end date of life. The repressions of these years did not bypass those who were in the immediate circle of the leader and often communicated with him. At the same time, some of the persons received by Stalin have survived to this day: his closest associates L.M. Kaganovich, G.M. Malenkov, V.M. Molotov witnessed Gorbachev's perestroika; I.V. Arkhipov and V.M. Berezhkov died in 1998, SL. Beria and N.A. Dollezhal - in 2000, Yu.A. Zhdanov - in 2006, N.K. Baibakov and S.V. Mikhalkov - they are still alive.

The last time in his Kremlin office, Stalin received on February 17, 1953. For 30 minutes he talked with the Indian ambassador KPSh. Menon, then Stalin had an hour-long meeting with the chairman of the All India Peace Council S. Kitchlu. A quarter of an hour later, Bulganin, Beria and Malenkov entered the leader. They spent 15 minutes with Stalin. These were the last persons with whom the leader met in his office in the Kremlin. After that, for almost two weeks there were no receptions in Stalin's Kremlin office.

On the morning of March 1, Stalin, who was at a nearby dacha in Kuntsevo, suffered a stroke and a cerebral hemorrhage [35]... Only a day later, doctors were allowed to see him. On March 2, in his Kremlin office, members of the Politburo gathered twice - at 10:40 and at 20:25. Both times the list of those who entered was headed by Beria. He was the first to enter the office on March 5 and 6. In the evening of March 5, from 8 pm to 8 pm, a joint meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR took place. Even under the living Stalin, who died that day at 9.50 pm, the country's top leadership was renewed. Malenkov headed the government, Beria became one of his first deputies, as well as the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, N. S. Khrushchev "focused on work in the Central Committee of the CPSU" as secretary of the Central Committee of the party [36]... Although Stalin was still alive during the meeting, the party leadership obviously did not expect him to return to active political life and therefore “instructed Comrades. Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev should take measures to ensure that the documents and papers of Comrade Stalin, both valid and archival, were put in proper order ” [37] . Between these closest associates of the leader, a struggle for supreme power soon developed. For several days, his associates continued to gather in Stalin's office. On the 7th, 8th and 9th of March Malenkov headed the inbox. After March 9, no entries were made in the book of visitors to Stalin's Kremlin office.

A few words about the archaeographic side of this publication. In the lists, abbreviations of some words are arbitrary. In abbreviations, letters are often separated by periods. The numbering of surnames in some cases is not indicated or is violated. Individual admission dates are indicated twice. These and other features of the source (labels, underlines, etc.), if necessary, are specified in footnotes.

Journals (notebooks) of records of persons received by Stalin in his Kremlin office were first published in full in the journal Historical Archive (1994, No. 6; 1995, No. 2, 3, 4, 5-6; 1996, No. 2, 3, 4, 5-6; 1997, No. 1). It also published the "Alphabetical Index" of Stalin's visitors, prepared according to journals (notebooks) of records (1998, No. 4), and summaries of Stalin's reception of visitors for 1925-1928, revealed a little later in the RCKHIDNI (now RGASPI). (1999, No. 4) (the last document is included in this book as an appendix). During the preparation of the journal publication, it was possible to give brief biographical information about not all the persons who attended Stalin's reception. The sources that have appeared in recent years have made it possible to make about five hundred corrections and additions to the alphabetical index. At the same time, taking into account the above-described features of the published document,

In the alphabetical personal index, the dates of appointment to party and other nomenklatura posts (as well as dismissals from these posts) are given mainly by the time these issues were considered at meetings of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. The publication does not set out the task of giving full biographical information about the visitors to Stalin's Kremlin office. The information given above contains, as a rule, information at the time of Stalin's reception of this or that figure. Later appointments to positions, elections to academicians, conferring military ranks, etc. not reflected in certificates. An exception was made for Marshals of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of Socialist Labor.

Great help in the work on the alphabetical index was provided by I.A. Anfertyev, A.N. Artizov, T.V. Volokitin, V.I. Ivkin, A.I. Kokurin, F.A. Molok, G.P. Murashko, O. V. Naumov, AM Orekhov, A.A. Pechenkin, T.A. Pokivailova, VT. Sereda, N. D. Smirnova, A.S. Stepanov, V.N. Khaustov, L.S. Janovic. The compilers express their sincere gratitude to all of them.

A.V. Korotkoe, A.D. Chernev, A.A. Chernobaev

[1]  See: Eleventh Congress of the RCP (b). March-April 1922. Verbatim record. M., 1961.S. 84-85

[2]  See: V.I. Lenin. Poly. collection op. Vol. 45, p. 122.

[3]  Trotsky L. Stalin. In two volumes. T. 2.M., 1990.S. 189.

[4]  See: "Top secret": Lubyanka - to Stalin on the situation in the country (1922-1934). Volume 1.1922-1923 Part I. M., 2001. S. 51-52.

[5]  In the latter case, Stalin, according to some sources, received the British Ambassador to the USSR S. Cripps.

[6]  Source - Bulletin of the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. 1996. No. 5.P. 106.

[7]  After the XIX Congress of the CPSU, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the party began to be called the Presidium of the Central Committee. Since 36 people were elected to it (25 members and 11 candidates), then on the initiative of Stalin, a “narrow composition” of nine people was selected from the members of the Presidium - the so-called Bureau.

[8]  .: Questions of the history of the CPSU. 1990. No. 11.P. 100.

[9]  See: ET Sinitsyn. Resident testifies. M., 1996.

[10]  See: Voskresenskaya Zoya. Under the pseudonym Irina. M., 1997; Pavel Sudoplatov. Intelligence and the Kremlin. Notes from an unwanted witness. M., 1996. S. 29-31, 74-78, etc. In 1997, the book by P.A. Sudoplatova came out the second, supplemented by the edition called “Special Operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin. 1930-1950 years "

[11]  "See: Pravda. 1935. March 30

[12]  See: True. 1935.10 June.

[13]  See: Foreign Policy Documents. 1940 -22 June 1941.T. XXIII. In 2 books. Book. 1. January - October 1940. M., 1995. S. 57-61, 77-78, etc.

[14]  See: Eastern Europe in the documents of the Russian archives. 1944-1953 T. 1.1944-1948 M, 1997.S. 118-133.

[15]  See ibid. S. 301-303

[16]  For details, see: Historiography of Stalinism. Digest of articles. M., 2007.S. 246-261.

[17]  See: A.G. Malenkov. About my father Georgy Malenkov. M., 1992.S. 42.

[18]  Of course, not everything in these memories can be taken on faith: it has already been said above that the information of P.A. Sudoplatov about his repeated receptions by Stalin in the Kremlin office is not confirmed in the published lists. Find out the question from P.A. Unfortunately, Sudoplatov did not succeed, since soon after the publication of the first edition of the book he passed away.

[19]  See: D.A. Volkogonov. Trotsky. Political portrait. In two books. Book. 2.M., 1992.S. 327

[20]  The excerpts from the book by P.А. Sudoplatov “Special operations. Lubyanka and the Kremlin. 1930-1950 ". M, 1997.S. 519, 526.

[21]  See: “Ten years will pass and these meetings cannot be restored in memory” // Source - Bulletin of the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. 1997. No. 5. S. 103-147.

[22]  Stakhanov N.P. Border troops in the Great Patriotic War. 50 years on guard of the borders of the Soviet state. M., 1969.S. 65-66.

[23]  See: And Shepilov, who joined them. The truth about man, scientist, warrior, politics. M., 1998.S. 127

[24]  See: Romain Rolland's Moscow Diary. Sincerity of direct impressions // Questions of literature. 1989. No. 3. S. 216, 224.

[25]  See: Source - Bulletin of the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. 1996. No. 1. P. 150. In R. Rolland's diary, one more detail is recorded, which was not reflected in the lists of visitors. The writer noted that at the end of the conversation they summoned a "Kremlin photographer" who took pictures of the guests and the owner of the office "in four or five angles" (Voprosy literatury. 1989. No. 3. P. 224). Some of the photographs were published in Pravda on June 29 and 30, 1935; under them it is marked that the photographs were taken by G. Petrov (photo of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee). However, among the visitors to Stalin's office on June 18, 1935, G. Petrov did not appear.

[26]  See: From the memoirs of academician A.A. Mikulina // Centaur. 1995. No. 4. S. 124-126.

[27]  See: German Smirnov. Leader. Strokes for the portrait of I.V. Stalin // Young Guard. 1995. No. 10. S. 237, 239.

[28]  See: V.F. Nekrasov. Thirteen "iron" commissars. The history of the NKVD-MVD from A.I. Rykov to NA. Shchelokova. M., 1995.S. 259.

[29]  This can be said about the meetings of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. No transcripts of these meetings have been found in the party archives (see more about this: Stalin's Politburo in the 1930s. Collection of documents. M., 1995. S. 10, etc.). Working records of meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee began to be kept only from the second half of the 1960s, when the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU was headed by K.U. Chernenko. The prevailing opinion that under Stalin the Politburo meetings were held in his office can be attributed only to the 1940s, especially to the period of the Great Patriotic War.

[30]  See, for example, records of conversations with Charles de Gaulle and those accompanying him in the book: Soviet-French relations during the Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Documents and materials. In 2 volumes. T. 2. Documents No. 88, 94, 99. Conversation with the German writer Emil Ludwig was published first in the Bolshevik magazine (1932, No. 8), and then in the 13th volume of I.V. Stalin (M., 1951.S. 104-123). A recording of Stalin's conversation with the leader of the US Republican Party, Harold Stassen, appeared in the newspapers a month after the meeting (Pravda. 1947, April 9). The disclosure of the content of Stalin's conversation with R. Rolland dragged on for more than half a century (see: Source - Bulletin of the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. 1996. No. 1. P. 140-152)

[31]  See: Domestic archives. 1992. No. 3. S. 62-64. From the conversation it is clear that already in 1949 Stalin had predetermined the renaming of the CPSU (b) into the CPSU, and he suggested giving an article about the party in the volume with the letter "K", not "V". Therefore, in the 8th volume of the 2nd edition of the TSB, signed for publication even before the renaming of the CPSU (b) into the CPSU, there is no article about the CPSU (b), but a reference is given: “see: Communist Party of the USSR” (as he intended to call the party Stalin).

[32]  An article by M. Djilas "Meeting with Stalin" was placed along with a photograph of the leader on the front page of the newspaper on December 21, 1944. It, in particular, said: "Stalin cannot grow old, and this is because his thought is immortal, forever new, absolutely ripe and has a completely finished look, there is nothing to add to it. " The translation of the article, sent by the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was kept in the Stalin's fund in the Archives of the President of the Russian Federation (AP RF. F. 45. On. 1. D. 397. L. 18-26). Now this fund has been transferred to RGASPI.

[33]  In the book Conversations with Stalin, the author comes to the following conclusion: “Stalin is one of the greatest victors in history - in fact, a person who suffered one of the most severe defeats. After it, not a single long-term, indisputable value remained. His victory was transformed into a defeat - both personalities and ideas ... Everyone renounced his legacy, although there are still a lot of those who draw strength from there "(See: Djilas Milovan. The Face of Totalitarianism. M., 1992, pp. 152, 157 ).

[34]  See: I.V. Stalin. Compositions. T. 12.M., 1949. S. 108-111.

[35]  In the official government report on Stalin's illness, apparently for the purpose of a peculiarly understood conspiracy, it was said that Stalin was "in Moscow in his apartment" (Pravda. 1953, March 4).

[36]  See: Stalin's last "resignation" // Source. 1994. No. 1. S. 106-111.

[37]  Ibid. P. 110.