Many Soviet citizens were not even aware of its existence. Everyone knew that Leonid Ilyich had a daughter, Galina. Why was Yuri in the shadows? How was his fate? When he died? The answers to these and other questions are given in the article.
Yuri Brezhnev: biography, family
He was born on March 31, 1933 in the Ukrainian city of Kamensky, in the Dnipropetrovsk region. He was brought up in a working-class Brezhnev family. Father Leonid Ilyich had long dreamed of the appearance of an heir. And it looks like God heard his prayers. The family already had one child - daughter Galina (b. 1929).
Yura grew up as an active and sociable boy. He had many friends and girlfriends. Soon the war began. Leonid Ilyich went to the front. And his family was evacuated to the Kazakh city of Alma-Ata.
Victoria Petrovna (Yura's mother) believed that her beloved husband would return from the war safe and sound. After the announcement of the Victory, Leonid Ilyich really returned. But not alone, but with a field wife. He was going to leave his family for a young lovebird. And only the son of Yura could stop his father from such a step. Victoria forgave her husband. The family returned to Ukraine.
Adulthood
On the advice of his father, Yuri Brezhnev submitted documents to the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute. He managed to enter this university the first time. He was one of the best students in the course.
Leonid Ilyich built a brilliant political career, becoming the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1964. But the son of Yura did not have the same penetrating character. Both friends and strangers often took advantage of his naivete and gullibility.
The Secretary General considered sending his son abroad as a solution to the problem. Previously, this could only be done through a trade or diplomatic line. As a result, Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev got abroad only a few years later. He was sent to Sweden as a senior engineer of the trade mission.
"Honey Trap"
Many of you know that the relatives of any influential politician are under vigilant control by the secret services. Yuri was no exception. Brezhnev, whose biography we are considering, was tracked down by British intelligence officers MI-6. They put together a whole dossier on him. In the materials, the character of the Secretary General's son was described in the following words: weak-willed, non-confrontational, abusing alcohol.
In the late 1960s, the British MI6 (together with the Swedish state security service) developed an operation code-named "honey trap". It is not difficult to guess that Y. Brezhnev was supposed to fall into it. The main "performer" was appointed a beautiful Englishwoman named Ann. She arrived in Stockholm. There she was supposed to meet Yuri, bring him to an apartment stuffed with photographic equipment, give him a drink and put him to bed. However, the operation failed miserably. 2 days before the planned implementation of this plan, Brezhnev was suddenly summoned to Moscow. It is possible that Lubyanka was warned in time by one of the KGB agents in Sweden.
Career
If you think that Yuri Brezhnev bathed in the rays of his father's former glory, then you are mistaken. He worked hard, providing a decent life for his wife and children. At various times, our hero was the manager of a plant in Dnepropetrovsk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR, deputy of the Supreme Council, an employee of the Foreign Ministry.
Children of Yuri Brezhnev
In the mid-1950s, our hero married his beloved girl Lyudmila. She was a graduate of the English Department of the Pedagogical Institute, located in Dnepropetrovsk. The General Secretary approved the choice of his successor.
In March 1956, Yuri and his wife Lyudmila had their first child, a son. The baby was named Leonid in honor of the outstanding grandfather. In 1961, another replenishment took place in the Brezhnev family. Their second son, Andrei, was born. The couple also dreamed of having a daughter. But fate had its own way. The children of Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev have long grown up, got their own families.
The youngest son Andrei received a higher economic education. Recently engaged in politics, is the first secretary of the Communist Party of Social Justice.
The eldest son Leonid learned to be a chemist-technologist. At various times he taught at Moscow State University, worked at one of the capital's enterprises. Now he is a businessman (engaged in the development of chemical additives and shampoos). He has four children - three daughters and a son. Divorced.
Hard times
The death of his father in 1982 was a real blow to Yuri. He sincerely mourned the loss of a loved one. Our hero had no idea that from now on his life would change. Soon M. Gorbachev came to power. All the achievements of the former general secretary were subjected to the harshest criticism. Yuri Brezhnev was very worried about the current situation. He began to seek solace in alcohol. As a result, he was sent into retirement with the wording "for health reasons."
In 1991, Yeltsin became president of Russia. However, Yuri Leonidovich's attitude to power has not changed. After all, the new rulers continued to criticize his late father.
In 2003, our hero was returned a personal pension, assessing his services to the Russian Federation. The decree on this was personally signed by V. V. Putin.
In 2012, Yuri became a widower. After a serious illness, his beloved wife Lyudmila died. The sons were close and supported the father.
Death
In the last years of his life, Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev suffered from diseased kidneys. In order to improve his health, he tried to spend more time at his dacha in the Crimea. His sons often visited him.
In 2006, Yuri was diagnosed with a tumor (meningioma) in the parietal part of the brain. Doctors prescribed him an operation, which was ultimately successful. However, the disease receded only for a while. Soon she made itself felt, and with renewed vigor.
Yuri Brezhnev (son of Leonid Brezhnev) died on August 3, 2013 at the Central Clinical Hospital located in Moscow.
Since 1977, Brezhnev's health began to deteriorate rapidly. He suffered several strokes, suffered from atherosclerosis of cerebral vessels.
Of course, Brezhnev understood that he was not eternal and it was necessary to choose a worthy successor. Back in 1976, he began to look closely 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, he could well take the chair of the General Secretary.
Soon after this, a rumor was spread that Romanov allegedly “rented” the royal family’s services 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 this was the end of his career.
In May 1980, Leonid Ilyich began to favor another party apparatchik, Secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko. But in October 1982, in an interview with the head of the party cadres, Ivan Kapitonov, he named a new surname - Shcherbitsky. Volodymyr Shcherbitsky headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and was a trusted ally of Brezhnev, had vast experience in political and economic activities. In addition, he was only 64 years old - quite a suitable age for a top leader.
See this chair? - According to Kapitonov, the Secretary General asked. - Shcherbitsky will be in it in a month. Decide all personnel issues with this in mind.
But on the night of November 9-10, Brezhnev died. On November 15, a plenum of the Central Committee was to be held, at which organizational issues were to be decided. As expected, it was at this meeting that the Secretary General was going to present his "candidate" Shcherbitsky to the members of the Politburo. However, I couldn't…
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906 (according to the old style) in the family of a metallurgist worker in the village of Kamenskoye (now the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk). He began his working life at the age of fifteen. After graduating in 1927 Kursk land management and reclamation technical school worked as a land surveyor in the Kokhanovsky district of the Orsha district of the Byelorussian SSR. He joined the Komsomol in 1923, became a member of the CPSU (b) in 1931. In 1935 he graduated metallurgical institute in Dneprodzerzhinsk, where he worked as an engineer at a metallurgical plant.
Brezhnev was nominated for his first responsible post in the Dnepropetrovsk regional party committee in 1938, when he was about 32 years old. At that time, Brezhnev's career was not the fastest. Brezhnev was not a careerist who fights his way up, pushing other contenders with his elbows and betraying his friends. Even then he was distinguished by calmness, loyalty to colleagues and superiors, and did not make his way forward as much as others pushed him forward. At the very first stage, Brezhnev was pushed forward by his friend from the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute K. S. Grusheva, who was the first secretary of the Dneprodzerzhinsky city party committee. After the war, Grusheva remained in political work in the army. He died in 1982 with the rank of colonel general. Brezhnev, who was present at this funeral, suddenly fell in front of his friend's coffin, bursting into sobs. This episode has remained incomprehensible to many.
During the war years, Brezhnev did not have strong patronage, and he made little progress. At the beginning of the war he was promoted to the rank of colonel, at the end of the war he was a major general. They did not indulge him in terms of awards. By the end of the war he had two orders of the Red Banner, one of the Red Star, the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky and two medals. At that time, for a general, this was quite a bit. During the Victory Parade on Red Square, where Major General Brezhnev walked along with the commander at the head of the consolidated column of his front, there were far fewer awards on his chest than other generals.
After the war, Brezhnev owed his promotion to Khrushchev, which he is silent about in his memoirs.
After working in Zaporozhye, Brezhnev, also on the recommendation of Khrushchev, was nominated for the post First Secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Party Committee, and in 1950 - to the post First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (6) of Moldova. On the XIX Party Congress in the fall of 1952, Brezhnev, as the leader of the Moldavian communists, was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSU. For a short time, he even entered the Presidium (as a candidate) and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, which were significantly expanded at the suggestion of Stalin. During the congress, Stalin saw Brezhnev for the first time. He drew attention to the prominent Brezhnev. Stalin was told that this was the party leader of the Moldavian SSR. "What a beautiful Moldovan" Stalin said. November 7, 1952 Brezhnev for the first time went up to the podium of the Mausoleum. Until March 1953, Brezhnev, like other members of the Presidium, was in Moscow and waited for them to be gathered for a meeting and to distribute duties. In Moldova, he was already released from work. But Stalin never collected them.
After Stalin's death, the composition of the Presidium and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU was immediately reduced. Brezhnev was also removed from the composition, but he did not return to Moldova, but was appointed Head of the Political Directorate of the Navy of the USSR. He was promoted to lieutenant general and had to put on his military uniform again. In the Central Committee, Brezhnev invariably supported Khrushchev.
In early 1954, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU sent him to Kazakhstan to lead development of virgin lands. He returned to Moscow only in 1956 and after XX Congress of the CPSU became again one of the secretaries of the Central Committee and a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Brezhnev was supposed to control the development of heavy industry, later defense and aerospace, but Khrushchev personally decided all the main issues, and Brezhnev acted as a calm and devoted assistant. After the June Plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, Brezhnev became a member of the Presidium. Khrushchev appreciated his loyalty, but did not consider him a strong enough worker.
After the retirement of K. E. Voroshilov, Brezhnev became his successor in office Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In some Western biographies, this appointment is estimated almost as Brezhnev's defeat in the struggle for power. But in reality, Brezhnev was not an active participant in this struggle and was very pleased with the new appointment. He did not seek then the post of head of the party or government. He was quite satisfied with the role of the "third" person in the leadership. Back in 1956-1957. he managed to transfer to Moscow some of the people with whom he worked in Moldova and Ukraine. One of the first were S. P. Trapeznikov And K. U. Chernenko who began to work in Brezhnev's personal secretariat. In the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, it was Chernenko who became the head of Brezhnev's office. In 1963, when F. R. Kozlov lost not only Khrushchev's favor, but was also stricken with a stroke, Khrushchev hesitated for a long time in choosing his new favorite. Ultimately, his choice fell on Brezhnev, who was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Khrushchev was in very good health and expected to remain in power for a long time to come. Meanwhile, Brezhnev himself was dissatisfied with Khrushchev's decision, although moving to the Secretariat increased his real power and influence. He did not want to plunge into the extremely difficult and troublesome work of the secretary of the Central Committee. Brezhnev was not the organizer of Khrushchev's removal, although he knew about the impending action. Among its main organizers there was no agreement on many issues. In order not to deepen the differences that could derail the whole affair, they agreed to the election of Brezhnev, assuming that this would be a temporary solution. Leonid Ilyich gave his consent.
Brezhnev's vanity
Even under Brezhnev's predecessor, Khrushchev, the tradition of presenting the highest awards of the Soviet Union to the tops of the party began in connection with the anniversary or holidays. Khrushchev, was awarded three gold medals Hammer and Sickle Hero of the Socialist. Labor and one gold star of the Hero of the USSR. Brezhnev continued the established tradition. As a political worker, Brezhnev did not take part in the largest and decisive battles of the Patriotic War. One of the most important episodes in the combat biography of the 18th Army was the capture and holding for 225 days of a bridgehead south of Novorossiysk in 1943, which received the name "Small land".
Among the people, Brezhnev's love for titles and awards and awards caused many jokes and anecdotes. After the war, even under Stalin, Brezhnev was awarded Order of Lenin. For 9 years of Khrushchev's leadership, Brezhnev was awarded Order of Lenin and Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class. After Brezhnev came to the leadership of the country and the party, awards began to rain down on him like from a cornucopia. By the end of his life, he had far more orders and medals than Stalin, Malenkov and Khrushchev put together. At the same time, he really wanted to receive military orders. He was awarded four times title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which, according to the statute, can be assigned only three times (only G.K. Zhukov was an exception). Dozens of times he received the title of Hero and the highest orders of all socialist countries. He was awarded orders from Latin America and Africa. Brezhnev was awarded the highest Soviet combat Order of Victory, which was awarded only to the largest commanders, and at the same time for outstanding victories on the scale of fronts or groups of fronts. Naturally, with so many top military awards, Brezhnev could not be satisfied with the rank of lieutenant general. In 1976, Brezhnev was awarded the title Marshal of the USSR. At the next meeting with veterans of the 18th Army, Brezhnev came in a raincoat and, entering the room, commanded: "Attention! The marshal is coming! Throwing off his cloak, he appeared before the veterans in a new marshal's uniform. Pointing to the marshal's stars on shoulder straps, Brezhnev proudly said: "I have served!".
Marshal Brezhnev in full dress. Late 1970s
| Soviet awards L. I. Brezhnev |
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| Orders of the USSR |
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| USSR medals |
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| Notes |
| * The award was canceled by the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev in 1989. |
Brezhnev in a narrow circle
Brezhnev was lost at all sorts of solemn ceremonies, sometimes hiding this confusion with unnatural inactivity. But in a narrower circle, during frequent meetings or on days of rest, Brezhnev could be a completely different person, more independent, resourceful, sometimes showing a sense of humor. This is remembered by almost all the politicians who dealt with him, of course, even before the onset of his serious illness. Apparently realizing this, Brezhnev soon preferred to conduct important negotiations at his dacha in Oreanda in the Crimea or at the hunting ground of Zavidovo near Moscow.
Former Chancellor of Germany W. Brandt, with whom Brezhnev met more than once, wrote in his memoirs:
“Unlike Kosygin, my immediate negotiating partner in 1970, who was mostly cold and calm, Brezhnev could be impulsive, even angry. Changes in mood, Russian soul, quick tears are possible. He had a sense of humour. He not only bathed in Oreanda for many hours, but talked and laughed a lot. He talked about the history of his country, but only about the last decades ... It was obvious that Brezhnev tried to watch his appearance. His figure did not correspond to the ideas that could arise from his official photographs. He was by no means an imposing personality, and, despite the heaviness of his body, he gave the impression of a graceful, lively, energetic in movements, cheerful person. His facial expressions and gestures betrayed a southerner, especially if he felt relaxed during the conversation. He came from the Ukrainian industrial region, where various national influences were mixed. More than anything else, the formation of Brezhnev as a person was affected by the Second World War. He spoke with great and a little naive emotion about how Hitler managed to swindle Stalin ... "
G. Kissinger also called Brezhnev "a real Russian, full of feelings, with rude humor". When Kissinger, already as US Secretary of State, came to Moscow in 1973 to arrange Brezhnev's visit to the United States, almost all of these five-day negotiations took place in the Zavidovo hunting ground during walks, hunts, lunches and dinners. Brezhnev even demonstrated to the guest his art of driving a car. Kissinger writes in his memoirs:
“Once he led me to a black Cadillac that Nixon gave him a year ago on Dobrynin's advice. With Brezhnev at the wheel, we rushed at high speed along the narrow winding country roads, so that one could only pray that some policeman would appear at the nearest intersection and put an end to this risky game. But this was too incredible, for if there were any traffic policeman here, outside the city, he would hardly have dared to stop the car of the General Secretary of the Party. The fast ride ended at the pier. Brezhnev placed me on a hydrofoil, which, fortunately, he did not personally pilot. But I had the impression that this boat should beat the speed record set by the Secretary General during our car trip.
Brezhnev behaved very directly at many receptions, for example, on the occasion of the flight into space of a joint Soviet-American crew under the project "Soyuz - Apollo". However, the Soviet people did not see and did not know such a cheerful and direct Brezhnev. In addition, the image of the younger Brezhnev, who was not very often shown on television at that time, was replaced in the minds of the people by the image of a seriously ill, inactive and tongue-tied person who appeared almost daily on our TV screens in the last 5-6 years of his life.
Kindness and Sentimentality
Brezhnev was generally a benevolent person, he disliked complications and conflicts neither in politics nor in personal relationships with his colleagues. When such a conflict did arise, Brezhnev tried to avoid extreme solutions. With conflicts within the leadership, very few of the people retired. Most of the "disgraced" leaders remained in the "nomenklatura", but only 2-3 steps lower. A member of the Politburo could become a deputy minister, and a former minister, secretary of the regional party committee, member of the Central Committee of the CPSU was sent as an ambassador to a small country: Denmark, Belgium, Australia, Norway.
This benevolence often turned into connivance, which dishonest people also used. Brezhnev often left in his posts not only guilty, but also stealing workers. It is known that without the sanction of the Politburo, the judicial authorities cannot conduct an investigation into the case of any member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
It often happened that Brezhnev cried at official receptions. This sentimentality, so little characteristic of politicians, sometimes benefited ... art. So, for example, back in the early 70s, the film by A. Smirnov was created "Belorussky railway station". This picture was not allowed on the screen, believing that the Moscow police were not presented in the best light in the film. The film's defenders managed to see it with the participation of members of the Politburo. There is an episode in the film where it is shown how, by chance and after many years, fellow soldiers who met, sing a song about the airborne battalion, in which they all once served. This song, composed by B. Okudzhava, touched Brezhnev, and he began to cry. Of course, the film was immediately allowed to be released, and since then the song about the airborne battalion has almost always been included in the repertoire of concerts that Brezhnev attended.
The end of Brezhnev's earthly life
Even at the age of 50 and even 60, Brezhnev lived without caring too much about his health. He did not give up all the pleasures that life can give and which are not always conducive to longevity.
The first serious health problems appeared with Brezhnev, apparently in 1969-1970. Doctors began to be constantly on duty next to him, and medical rooms were equipped in the places where he lived. At the beginning of 1976, what happened to Brezhnev is what is commonly called clinical death. However, he was brought back to life, although for two months he could not work, because his thinking and speech were impaired. Since then, a group of resuscitators armed with the necessary equipment has constantly been near Brezhnev. Although the state of health of our leaders is among the closely guarded state secrets, Brezhnev's progressive infirmity was obvious to all who could see him on their television screens. The American journalist Simon Head wrote:
“Every time this corpulent figure ventures outside the Kremlin walls, the outside world is on the lookout for signs of declining health. With the death of M. Suslov, another pillar of the Soviet regime, this eerie scrutiny can only intensify. During the November (1981) meetings with Helmut Schmidt, when Brezhnev almost fell while walking, he at times looked as if he could not last even a day.
In fact, he was slowly dying before the eyes of the whole world. He had several heart attacks and strokes in the last six years, and resuscitation doctors brought him out of a state of clinical death several times. The last time this happened was in April 1982 after an accident in Tashkent.
Of course, Brezhnev's painful state began to be reflected in his ability to govern the country. He was forced to interrupt his duties frequently or to delegate them to the ever-growing staff of his personal assistants. Brezhnev's working day was reduced by several hours. He began to go on vacation not only in the summer, but also in the spring. Gradually, it became more and more difficult for him to fulfill even simple protocol duties, and he ceased to understand what was happening around him. However, a lot of influential, deeply decomposed, mired in corruption people from his entourage were interested in Brezhnev appearing in public from time to time, at least as a formal head of state. They literally led him under the arms and reached the worst: old age, infirmity and illness of the Soviet leader became subjects not so much of sympathy and pity of his fellow citizens as irritation and ridicule, which were expressed more and more openly.
Even in the afternoon of November 7, 1982, during the parade and demonstration, Brezhnev stood for several hours in a row, despite the bad weather, on the podium of the Mausoleum, and foreign newspapers wrote that he looked even better than usual. The end came, however, after just three days. In the morning, during breakfast, Brezhnev went to his office to take something and did not return for a long time. The worried wife followed him out of the dining room and saw him lying on the carpet near the desk. The efforts of the doctors this time did not bring success, and four hours after Brezhnev's heart stopped, they announced his death. The next day The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet government officially notified the world about the death of L. I. Brezhnev.
Events during Brezhnev's rule:
- 1966 - the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU was restored, and the First Secretary of the Central Committee L. I. Brezhnev was elected.
- 1968 - the entry of ATS troops into Prague, Czechoslovakia, in connection with the announcement of radical reforms by A. Dubcek.
- 1970 - Lunokhod-1 delivered to the Moon. The first on the Moon was the automatic interplanetary station (AMS) Luna-2, which left a badge with the Soviet coat of arms back in 1959.
- FROM 1974 - construction of BAM by Komsomol members.
- 1977 - adoption of the new constitution of the USSR.
- 1979 - the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops (OKSV) into Afghanistan to strengthen the southern borders of the Soviet Union.
- 1980 - Olympics in Moscow. The United States initiated a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in connection with the introduction of troops into Afghanistan, which was supported by 64 countries.
At one time, Kulakov was called behind his back 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 to be rumored to take the place of the rapidly aging marshal-political officer. In 1975, the American magazine Newsweek named Grigory Romanov, first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee, as Brezhnev's future successor.
Of course, this could well have been a deliberate provocation in order to discredit Romanov as a promising head of the USSR. However, even during the XXV Congress of the CPSU, Brezhnev was going to resign and recommend the 53-year-old Romanov to his place.
Convenient Rumors
Suslov, Andropov, Gromyko, Ustinov and Chernenko, who were significantly older than Romanov and feared that he would purge the Politburo of the elders, persuaded Brezhnev to stay.
And after that, a rumor was spread around the country that Romanov had celebrated his daughter's wedding in the Tauride Palace on royal services taken from the Hermitage. An absurd rumor, but skillfully disseminated and put an end to the further promotion of Romanov.
After that, Kulakov was increasingly mentioned as a possible future candidate for the role of head of the party and the 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 Territory Committee. Mikhail Gorbachev began his career under his tutelage. In September 1965, Kulakov was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 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, the plenum of the Central Committee on agriculture was to be held, and Kulakov was just the secretary of the Central Committee on agriculture.
Meanwhile, it was not him who was instructed to make a report at the plenum, but the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Kosygin. Kulakov was not even included in the composition of 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 the fortieth anniversary of their wedding 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 again.
Sudden heart failure
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 previously suffered from heart disease.
In 1969, he developed stomach cancer, but Kulakov underwent a successful operation. On the evening before the fateful night, he was sitting at the dacha with guests, and according to some evidence, he was very drunk, and indeed had been drinking a lot lately. So his sudden death could be due to the fact that the day before he went over hard.
More than twenty years later, a classified report on the death of Kulakov fell into the hands of the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Lukyanov, which said 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 suddenly fell upon him, others note that he did not show any signs of moral depression, he was always cheerful and optimistic.
At the same time, the latter point to a strange circumstance: on the same evening, his doctor and guards disappeared from Kulakov's dacha. And early in the morning of July 17, at the same time as members of the Politburo, Gorbachev, who was then only the first secretary of the Stavropol Territory 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, delivered a mournful speech.
Other deaths
Everything would not look so mysterious if Kulakov's death was 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 Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Grechko, died. He was 72 years old, but, according to people who knew him closely, he also did not get sick with 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 trip to the collective farms of the Minsk region, which he liked to do very much.
Suddenly, at a speed of more than 100 km / h, a loaded dump truck began to overtake a government motorcade, and then abruptly turned into its lane just in front of Masherov's car, which crashed into a 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 are lost.
Is it a coincidence that Masherov's death occurred shortly before the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where, according to some information, Brezhnev was going to recommend introducing him to the Politburo?
They also find strange circumstances in the deaths of Kosygin and Suslov, which happened a little later. Although, of course, the older the figure, the less reason 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 to drag such a promising person as Gorbachev to work in the Central Committee.
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