Thematic table of contents (For life)
For three days in a row, Malakhov’s Let Them Talk discussed the life of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev’s great-granddaughter Galina.
She is about 40 years old. She doesn’t work anywhere, doesn’t have her own home, and is essentially homeless. Sometimes Galina is treated in a psychiatric hospital named after. Alekseev (formerly named after Kashchenko).
As you know, Brezhnev had two children - a son and a daughter. But for some reason they always talk only about the daughter and her descendants. Several films have been made about Galina Leonidovna. There were programs about her daughter, Victoria, and now about her granddaughter.
But Brezhnev’s son, Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev, is alive. After he was released from the post of Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR (this was under Gorbachev), he did not want to work for the state, preferring the status of a pensioner. He is now 80 years old.
Both his sons are alive and his grandchildren are fine. Leonid Yuryevich Brezhnev graduated from the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University and tried his hand at business. He was involved in the production of drugs at a pharmaceutical company. He was married four times, has two daughters, Alina and Maria, and a son, Yuri.
Andrey Yuryevich graduated from MGIMO, worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also worked at the USSR Ministry of Trade. After his dismissal, he changed several places, and was even a co-owner of a small pub on Krasnaya Presnya. Then - deputy general director of Salavattrans LLC.
Andrei Brezhnev became one of the organizers of the New Communists party. But then he joined the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Andrey is married for the second time. Together with his wife, he lived with his parents in a three-room apartment. We received it back when Yuri Leonidovich worked at the Ministry of Trade. Andrei’s father built the dacha during Leonid Ilyich’s lifetime. Grandmother Victoria Petrovna gave Andrey a car. After her death, her son and grandchildren inherited a certain amount - royalties from publications of Brezhnev’s works and “a lot of little things”: photographs, figurines, paintings, vases...
Andrey has sons Leonid and Dmitry. Dmitry attended Oxford University, studied political science. Leonid Andreevich Brezhnev, having served a year and a half of military service, entered the Military University. I was preparing to become a military translator. I signed a contract: five years of study plus the same amount of military service.
I don’t know what’s going on with this family today - the last interview was 9 years ago. The only thing is that everyone seems to be alive.
But for some reason this family does not attract the attention of journalists.
Vika, after school, she entered the pedagogical institute, but then transferred to our GITIS faculty of theater studies. I came to study as a young mother. I met Misha Filippov by chance at the theater. Misha was an ordinary student. Surely Leonid Ilyich dreamed of another husband for his granddaughter. But the wedding took place, the young couple had a daughter, whom Vika named after her mother Galya. Dissatisfied with his granddaughter’s choice, Leonid Ilyich did not even give the newlyweds an apartment. Vika continued to live with her husband and daughter in her grandfather's house.
She loved her Misha very much. At first, he often met her from the institute. But... I became a son-in-law, my career took off, money appeared. In general, Misha began to take a walk. Apparently, Victoria, rather out of desperation, accepted the advances of GITIS student Gennady Varakuta, who came to study in Moscow from Kyiv. (By the way, before this Varakuta had an affair with the daughter of Luis Corvalan.)
When in May 1977 Leonid Ilyich was informed that his married granddaughter was having an affair, Brezhnev instructed Andropov to investigate. He was kicked out of the institute within 24 hours. At night they came to the hostel and sent us by train to Leningrad.” In Gennady's bedside table in the dormitory, they found, as if by chance, light painkillers that were passed off as drugs.
Vika followed Varakuta to Leningrad and lived there for some time. It was getting closer to the wedding. Having divorced Filippov, in 1978 Victoria married Varakuta. She stayed at home and took care of the house.
Brezhnev's newly-made son-in-law graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became a candidate of economic sciences. Since 1982, he worked as deputy chairman of the Committee of Youth Organizations (KMO) of the USSR.
After the death of Leonid Ilyich, the whole family found themselves unemployed. Brezhnev's widow, Victoria Petrovna, was evicted from her dacha and her personal pension was taken away. Galina Leonidovna, after her husband Yuri Churbanov was convicted in 1988, began to go on a drinking binge.
Vicky's husband was left without work. He tried to go into business, Victoria dissuaded him. I felt like the business went bankrupt, we lost a lot of money... Then Gennady went to Baibakov’s daughter.
Victoria was very worried about her mother. I struggled with her drunkenness, tried to treat her, but she ran away from hospitals and said: “I’ll drink anyway!”
All family friends, as Galina Brezhneva herself put it, cowardly fled like cockroaches.
Galina Leonidovna exchanged her four-room apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt for “three rubles” with an additional payment. She lived on this money.
After the death of Galina Leonidovna (she died on June 30, 1998 in a special hospital), her daughter Victoria exchanged two apartments (on Kutuzovsky Prospekt and in Granatny Lane) - it was not enough to live on. She herself did not work, and her daughter also has health problems. I sold the dacha.
According to her ex-husband, Mikhail Filippov, Vika fell for scammers. One famous businessman, posing as her friend (the owner of the Peking restaurant, known as Kostya Pekingsky, he was later killed), persuaded Victoria to enter into a complex purchase and sale transaction and enter into the documents the symbolic cost of her expensive apartment. He paid only part of the money, promised to give the rest later, gave a receipt that has no legal effect. So Vika was left without an apartment and without money.
Let's return to the unfortunate Galina-great-granddaughter. She looks strange. She is very plump, shaved her head, and dyed her scalp red. But it holds up well. It is obvious that she received a good upbringing and graduated from the Faculty of Philology. She worked a little as a secretary in different places where her acquaintances hired her. But I couldn’t stay anywhere. At one time, her mother, Victoria, also an extremely strange woman, sold several inherited good apartments in Moscow and settled somewhere in the Tver region with her husband. Lives with friends. She has not communicated with her daughter lately and does not give interviews to journalists. How it happened that Galina lost her home, no one in Malakhov’s studio understood.
There was some talk about her being put in a mental hospital, but she said that she went there herself. Why not? Moreover, they clearly helped her there.
Here's what her mother said about her:
“Galya is not a workaholic, it’s true. But not lazy. Here she took after my mother. Everything I hate - washing, cleaning, ironing, washing dishes - her hands just burn. When she's home, the apartment sparkles. It’s a piece of cake for her to clean a flight of stairs. But Galina was looking for herself. She completed computer courses, courses for designers, and makeup artists. She worked as a secretary in a small company, but she quickly became bored with all this. She’s just one of those women who, like Victoria Petrovna, should be behind her husband. She and her husband were very lucky. Oleg is a wonderful person. Not the New Russian type. He worked as a top manager in a reputable company. He loved Galya and forgave her everything. They had enough money, but they did not have time to have children. They broke up because it got into her head. In some ways, his parents, the kindest people, did not agree with her, she bucked and left. Divorced. Galya lived with me and missed Oleg very much. We got back together. But they lasted only a year and a half. Now he has a different family.”
In addition to the Brezhnevs, Galina also has Milaevs in her family. The grandchildren of Milaev, Victoria’s father, work in the circus. There are relatives on my father’s side, Mikhail Filippov. After all, there is the same stepfather. He raised her. For some reason, none of them took part in the fate of this unhealthy woman. It seems that only his father helped a little, but he himself did not succeed much in life.
God is the judge of all these people.
But we also have a state. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev did a lot for him. Actually, we are all still eating up what the entire Soviet people produced under his leadership during the 18 years that he led the country.
I believe that it is possible to give the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev each a modest apartment in Moscow, but not for ownership, but for living. Even though they are stupid women and have themselves to blame (but the scammers have deceived millions of people, not just them), but it doesn’t matter, especially since they are clearly sick. The budget will not become scarce from this. Why shouldn’t Sobyanin take it and show good will?
This option was proposed in the studio, but Deputy Khinshtein opposed it. He shouted that we had a lot of waiting lists and why should we help a 40-year-old woman... Because. She is not like everyone else. She is the great-granddaughter of Leonid Brezhnev, and there are no others like her. And her mother doesn’t have a home either. They are both sick women. They would show mercy to them and respect to Brezhnev. Many, I'm sure, think the same.
More about Galina Brezhneva in her different years
At one time, Kulakov was called behind his back as a possible successor to Brezhnev as Secretary General and de facto leader of the USSR. He died in 1978, and the circumstances of his death remain unclear.
He was not the first person rumored to take the place of the rapidly aging marshal-political instructor. In 1975, the American magazine Newsweek named the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, Grigory Romanov, as Brezhnev's future successor.
Of course, this could well have been a deliberate provocation with the aim of discrediting Romanov as a promising head of the USSR. However, even during the 25th Congress of the CPSU, Brezhnev was going to resign and recommend 53-year-old Romanov in his place.
Convenient Rumors
Suslov, Andropov, Gromyko, Ustinov and Chernenko, who were significantly older than Romanov and feared that he might purge the Politburo of elders, convinced Brezhnev to stay.
And after this, someone spread a rumor throughout the country that Romanov luxuriously celebrated his daughter’s wedding in the Tauride Palace using royal services taken from the Hermitage. The rumor was ridiculous, but skillfully spread and put an end to Romanov’s further promotion.
After this, Kulakov began to be mentioned more and more often as a possible future candidate for the role of head of the party and country. He was the second youngest member of the Politburo after Romanov (born in 1918) and in 1960-1964 he worked as the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee. Mikhail Gorbachev began his career under his tutelage. In September 1965, Kulakov was elected secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and in April 1971, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee.
Criticism of Kulakov
In 1978, Western political scientists unanimously started talking about Kulakov as Brezhnev’s successor. Whether the worsening attitude of the Secretary General towards Kulakov was connected with this or with something else is unclear. In July 1978, a plenum of the Central Committee on agricultural issues was to be held, and Kulakov was precisely the Secretary of the Central Committee on Agriculture.
Meanwhile, it was not him, but the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Kosygin who was assigned to make a report at the plenum. Kulakov was not even included in the commission that prepared the text of the report. As a result, at the plenum, Kulakov, who was absent, was criticized for the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the agricultural sector.
The next day, July 5, 1978, Kulakov himself and his wife Evdokia celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary at the dacha. According to all eyewitnesses, Fyodor Kulakov was healthy and cheerful. He was the same on the evening of July 16, after which he fell asleep and never woke up.
Sudden cardiac paralysis
The official death certificate, signed by Academician Chazov, the Kremlin’s chief cardiologist, said that Kulakov died of sudden cardiac paralysis, although he had not suffered from heart disease before.
In 1969, he developed stomach cancer, but Kulakov underwent a successful operation. The evening before the fateful night, he was sitting at the dacha with guests, and according to some evidence, he was very drunk, and in general had been drinking a lot lately. So his sudden death could be due to the fact that he had too much the day before.
More than twenty years later, a classified report on Kulakov’s death fell into the hands of the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Lukyanov, which stated that he was found in bed with a bullet through his head.
In this regard, two equally unprovable versions of Kulakov’s unnatural death are now circulating: murder and suicide. Some say that Kulakov could not stand the disgrace that unexpectedly fell upon him, others note that he did not show any signs of moral depression and was always cheerful and optimistic.
At the same time, the latter point to a strange circumstance: that same evening, his doctor and security guards disappeared from Kulakov’s dacha. And early in the morning of July 17, at the same time as the members of the Politburo, Gorbachev, who was then only the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, already knew about this death.
Some do not attach importance to Lukyanov’s words about death from a bullet, but they also note the unnatural nature of death. In their opinion, Kulakov could have been poisoned during the feast.
It was also somewhat strange that neither Brezhnev, nor Kosygin, nor Suslov were present at the funeral of Politburo member Kulakov. And again, only his successor as head of the Stavropol regional party organization, Gorbachev, gave a funeral speech.
Other deaths
Everything would not have looked so mysterious if Kulakov’s death had been the only one of its kind at that time. Two years earlier, on the night of April 26-27, 1976, in similar circumstances - he went to bed and did not wake up - the USSR Minister of Defense, Marshal Grechko, died. He was 72 years old, but, according to people who knew him closely, he also did not suffer from anything dangerous before his death.
And two years after the death of Kulakov, on October 4, 1980, his peer, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Pyotr Masherov, a former partisan commander, died in a car accident. He went on an inspection tour of the collective farms of the Minsk region, which he loved to do.
Suddenly, at a speed of more than 100 km/h, a loaded dump truck began to overtake the government motorcade, and then sharply turned into its lane just in front of Masherov’s car, which crashed into the dump truck at full speed.
The court found the dump truck driver guilty of the accident and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. In 1985, under an amnesty in connection with the death of Secretary General Chernenko, he was released, and further traces of him were lost.
Is it a coincidence that Masherov’s death occurred shortly before the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, where, according to some sources, Brezhnev was going to recommend his inclusion in the Politburo?
Strange circumstances are also found in the deaths of Kosygin and Suslov, which happened a little later. Although, of course, the older the figure, the less reason there is to suspect the unnatural nature of his death.
In the case of Kulakov, many are alarmed by the fact that already in November 1978, Gorbachev took his place as Secretary of the Central Committee for Agriculture. And at the beginning of this year, Andropov allegedly admitted to Chazov that he did not know how he could get such a promising person like Gorbachev to work in the Central Committee.
Since 1977, Brezhnev's health began to rapidly deteriorate. He suffered several strokes and suffered from cerebral atherosclerosis.
Of course, Brezhnev understood that he would not last forever and it was necessary to choose a worthy successor. Back in 1976, he began to take a closer look at the head of the Leningrad party organization, Grigory Romanov. He said that Romanov was the most capable worker in the entire Central Committee and, after some preparation, could well take the post of General Secretary.
Soon after this, a rumor was started that Romanov allegedly “rented” the royal family’s dinnerware from the Hermitage storerooms for his daughter’s wedding in 1974 and the guests broke some of the dishes. Naturally, he fell into disgrace and his career was over.
In May 1980, Leonid Ilyich began to favor another party apparatchik - Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko. But in October 1982, in a conversation with the head of party personnel Ivan Kapitonov, he named a new name - Shcherbitsky. Vladimir Shcherbitsky headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and was a proven Brezhnev ally, had extensive experience in political and economic activities. In addition, he was only 64 years old - quite a suitable age for a top leader.
Do you see this chair? – according to Kapitonov, the Secretary General asked. - In a month Shcherbitsky will sit in it. Solve all personnel issues with this in mind.
But on the night of November 9-10, Brezhnev died. On November 15, there was a plenum of the Central Committee, at which organizational issues were to be resolved. It is assumed that it was at this meeting that the Secretary General was going to introduce his “candidate” Shcherbitsky to the members of the Politburo. However, I didn’t have time...
When the Secretary General stood on the podium, I couldn’t believe that this humming old man had once been a handsome and active man
No one knew that he died more than once. For the first time - in 1976. And this first – clinical – death forever drew a line between the past and the future, turning the “dear Leonid Ilyich"into a helpless human mannequin, evoking both involuntary pity and bitter laughter among the people. But someone needed a frail old man to remain at the head of a huge country for more than six years.
From surveyor to general
After terrifying everyone Joseph Stalin, after the unpredictable reformer Nikita Khrushchev society accepted Leonid Brezhnev with great relief and confidence. He did not imprison his predecessor, Nikita Sergeevich, did not focus on the widespread planting of corn, stopped shaking up the apparatus - in general, he thought sensibly and acted intelligently. And the age is appropriate - not yet 60, almost young for a Soviet leader.
Leonid Ilyich was born on December 19, 1906 in the village of Kamenskoye, Ekaterinoslav province (later Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine) in a family of hereditary workers. It is interesting that in the official documents and passports that he received at different times, in the “nationality” column it is indicated either “Ukrainian” or “Russian”.
He began his career as a land surveyor, graduating from the Kursk Land Surveying and Reclamation College in 1927. Married at 22 Victoria Petrovna Denisova(according to other sources, Victoria Pinkhusovna Goldstein), whom I met at a dance. Victoria studied at the Kursk Medical College to become a midwife. All her life she was a faithful wife, a caring and loving mother of two children - Galina And Yuri- and never showed off next to her famous husband as the “first lady,” although they lived together for more than 50 years.
After the “land management” period, Brezhnev received another engineering degree, and at the age of 25 he joined the party. He spent the war on the fronts, mainly in the southern direction. He was a political worker and took part in several military operations.
He ended the war as a major general, and on June 24, 1945, at the Victory Parade, he walked at the head of the column as commissar of the combined regiment of the 4th Ukrainian Front, together with the front commander, army general. Andrey Eremenko.
Everything temporary is the most permanent
Brezhnev appeared on the Moscow party Olympus after many years of work in different republics - in Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan. By the way, it was precisely at the time when he led the party organization of Kazakhstan (1954 -1956) that the development of virgin lands began here and the Baikonur complex was laid. He was “pushed” to Moscow by Khrushchev, at that time the First Secretary of the Party Central Committee. In 1957, Leonid Ilyich became a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and became involved in high-tech industries, including space exploration.
Few people know, but in 1961 he received the star of Hero of Socialist Labor precisely for preparing for the flight of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
In 1960, with the help of Nikita Sergeevich, Brezhnev became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. However, the party leadership, dissatisfied with Khrushchev’s policies, sent Nikita into retirement on October 14, 1964 for health reasons. Brezhnev was elected as his successor. It was believed that he would be an “intermediate figure” until the issue of the first person was finally resolved.
The best head of the country
However, having become the First and then the General Secretary, Leonid Ilyich remained at the head of the country for 18 years. Your closest competitors Shelepina And Podgorny he slowly pushed aside the talented government leader from 1964 to 1980 Kosygina did not favor him and slowed down his economic reform in every possible way.
Brezhnev surrounded himself with friends from past times and protected them very much. Among them - Nikolay Shchelokov, Minister of Internal Affairs; Semyon Tsvigun– First Deputy Chairman of the KGB; Konstantin Chernenko– responsible employee of the Central Committee of the party, etc.
The country lived calmly: oil was expensive, the economy was growing. The most important agreements were signed with the United States - on the reduction of strategic arms; in 1975, the Helsinki Agreements were concluded, which consolidated the political and territorial results of the Second World War. In 1977, the Constitution of “developed socialism” was adopted, and the party finally took over the government. The well-being of people improved, active space exploration continued, and outstanding athletes, actors, and writers appeared in the country every now and then.
Although many later called this time the “era of stagnation,” people assessed it differently. According to public opinion polls conducted almost 30 years after Brezhnev's death, in 2013, he was named the best head of the Soviet state in the 20th century.
"Dear Leonid Ilyich"
Brezhnev was known for a long time as an energetic, sociable, cheerful person, a lover of hunting, fishing, cheerful feasts and fast driving. At first, he was deprived of the complex of “greatness of power” and the passion for acquisitiveness. He was generous and condescending to his comrades: those who did something wrong (and even stole) did not rot in prison, but were simply transferred to a lower place or sent out of sight - somewhere as an ambassador.
True, under his rule, dissidents were “re-educated” much more harshly: without hesitation, they were put in a psychiatric hospital or expelled from the country, deprived of citizenship.
Over time, Brezhnev’s lordly habits became more and more apparent, the number of “servants” and those who gradually but persistently created a kind of personality cult of “dear Leonid Ilyich” grew. This happened in the early 70s of the last century. Brezhnev accepted expensive gifts, and with manic persistence began to decorate himself with titles and awards: he hung four stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (that’s what the commander deserved) Georgy Zhukov), even received the Order of Victory, which was awarded only to the most famous military leaders, “rose” to the rank of Marshal of the USSR, and appointed himself to a bunch of positions. He accumulated 117 Soviet and foreign state awards, more than Stalin , Malenkova and Khrushchev combined, and this caused bewilderment, ridicule and protest among the people.
Personality degradation
Since the beginning of the 70s, it was more and more clearly visible that “dear Leonid Ilyich” was losing ground every day. They said that in 1972 he suffered a severe stroke. But academician Chazov, who observed the “leader,” assured that Brezhnev had a myocardial infarction only in 1957, but since 1968, harbingers of cerebral atherosclerosis appeared, which intensified five years later and led to insomnia.
Brezhnev began taking sleeping pills, which his “compassionate friends” supplied him with, bypassing the doctors. In the opinion of many, the close nurse played a particularly negative role Nina Korovyakova, which “treated” his ailments with powerful drugs that caused depression and lethargy. As a result, a serious dependence on these drugs developed.
Leonid Ilyich's health deteriorated especially noticeably after 1976, when he suffered clinical death. He was never able to fully recover.
The Secretary General was often inhibited, his jaw worked poorly, his diction was impaired, he sometimes behaved inappropriately, he had difficulty moving, and had difficulty speaking.
Asthenia (neuropsychic weakness) and cerebral atherosclerosis prevented him from working normally - no more than 2-3 hours a day, then he slept and watched TV. Sometimes, in an inadequate state, he got behind the wheel (he had a passion for cars, and he owned several dozen of them) and drove to his beloved Zavidovo. I got into accidents several times and almost fell off a cliff in Crimea. He could not adequately assess either his own behavior or the situation in the country. This was shamelessly used by sycophants, careerists and bribe-takers of all stripes.
“Moscow comrades” on business trips did not disdain to accept large donations from local authorities. The daughter of the Secretary General Galina, who was buying diamonds, was not shy either. The people were not informed about Brezhnev’s state of health - it was a terrible secret. And although his weakness was visible to everyone, the “faithful Leninist”, pumped full of drugs, was taken to the stands and shown on TV, saying that he was completely healthy and capable of leading the state.
Who benefits?
They said that Leonid Ilyich himself began to ask for peace. Allegedly, in the mid-70s they began to look for his successor. They called the name of the “master” of Leningrad Grigory Romanov, but competitors tried to discredit him. Proposed candidate Yuri Andropov, however, at that moment she was rejected due to Yuri Vladimirovich’s illness. Nominated Ukrainian leader Vladimir Shcherbitsky, but he didn’t get along with Andropov. In short, no one came up. Most likely because Leonid Ilyich was very convenient for the Areopagus elders - his peers who sat in the Politburo, such as Ustinov, Gromyko, Chernenko, Suslov, and to the entire party apparatus, which saw in Brezhnev a defender of the system and sought to preserve the regime of its power, wide privileges, benefits (free state dachas, huge apartments, access to scarce products and goods at preferential prices) and “acquired” goods.
Many people were afraid of retribution for their sins. It is not without reason that after the death of the Secretary General, some of his former friends went to jail, while others (Shchelokov, Tsvigun) committed suicide after being accused of corruption and embezzlement. And how could it be possible to “let go” of such a general secretary who no longer interfered in anything and did not interfere with anyone?! It doesn’t matter that people have jokes about him; hidden and obvious rivals were never able to divide power and kept Brezhnev in office until the last. He died on November 10, 1982.
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