Ordzhonikidze occupied one of the highest positions in the party and state hierarchy, and by the beginning of 1937 nothing foreshadowed a tragic outcome. He was one of Stalin's closest associates and at that time apparently enjoyed his trust. This can be proved by the words of the leader at one of the Moscow trials that Ordzhonikidze was on the list of 7-10 party leaders against whom the "Trotskyists" were plotting a conspiracy.

It should be noted, however, that Ordzhonikidze still differed from other prominent figures in that most of them turned into impersonal bureaucrats, executors of Stalin's will. He also managed to preserve those remarkable qualities that were characteristic of the Bolsheviks at the beginning of their revolutionary path. Ordzhonikidze remained a sincere and loyal comrade, democratic, but at the same time intolerant of lies and falsehood. True, this exceptional situation could be explained by his military past. Moreover, Lenin himself spoke very warmly of Ordzhonikidze in one of his last works "I personally belong to his friends and worked with him abroad in exile."

But after Pyatakov's arrest, the clouds over the head of the influential party member began to thicken. Everyone knew his remarkable ability to defend fellow workers from false accusations. In the spring and summer period of 1936, during the exchange of party documents, only 11 people were removed from work in the People's Commissariat (in the center and in the field), of whom 9 were arrested and expelled from the party. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Ordzhonikidze only 823 people worked. The situation changed by the end of 1936, when 44 people who held high posts in the People's Commissariat were removed from their posts. More than 30 of them were arrested and expelled from the party.

All in all, in the certificate compiled by the department of leading party cadres of the Central Committee, 66 names of the nomenklatura workers of the People's Commissariat were given. All of them were allegedly oppositionists in the past - they hesitated. In NKVD language, this meant that they were all candidates for future purges. The department of affairs of the people's commissariat prepared the following document, which stated that 160 employees of the central apparatus of the NKTP were expelled from the party in the past, and 94 people were convicted for "counter-revolutionary activities."

Finally, during the days of his anniversary, Ordzhonikidze received news of the arrest of his older brother, Papulia, who held not the last party position in Georgia. To arrest a close relative of a Politburo member - this happened for the first time, although in the future it did not surprise anyone, and many relatives of Stalin's closest associates, as, incidentally, the comrades-in-arms themselves, experienced what Ordzhonikidze's relatives were now experiencing.

Sergo, who was on vacation in Kislovodsk, immediately turned to Beria with a demand to acquaint him with the case filed against Papulia, and also asked to provide him with the opportunity to meet with his older brother. Beria refused, promising, however, to do everything possible after the end of the investigation. But it dragged on, and Ordzhonikidze did not manage to do anything.

Some of the surviving documents best describe what Ordzhonikidze experienced during that period. From the memoirs of Mikoyan, written in 1966, "Sergo reacted sharply against the repressions that began in 1936 against party and economic personnel." One of the few Ordzhonikidze employees who escaped repression, S.Z. Ginzburg, later said that in the mid-1930s, many employees of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry noticed that the always cheerful and balanced Ordzhonikidze returned after each meeting “upstairs” worried and sad. “It used to be that he didn’t break out, and I wouldn’t agree with that under any circumstances! - wrote Ginzburg. - I did not know exactly what it was about, and, of course, did not ask any immodest questions. But sometimes Sergo asked me about this or that worker, and I could guess that, obviously, “there” the discussion was about the fate of these people. "

In 1953, when the case of Beria was considered at the July plenum of the Central Committee, some members of the Politburo mentioned, in particular, about Beria's intrigues with regard to Ordzhonikidze. Voroshilov “I remember how at one time it was known both to comrades Molotov and Kaganovich, and especially to the Georgians in Tbilisi, and to those who are present here, what a vile role Beria played in the life of the remarkable communist Sergo Ordzhonikidze. He did everything to slander, to stain this truly crystal clear man before Stalin. Sergo Ordzhonikidze told not only me, but also other comrades terrible things about this man. "

Best of the day

Something similar was stated at the plenum and Andreev "Beria quarreled Comrade Stalin and Ordzhonikidze, and the noble heart of Comrade Sergo could not stand it so Beria put out of action one of the best party leaders and friends of Comrade Stalin."

Mikoyan recalled how, a few days before Ordzhonikidze's death, he shared his concerns with him “I don’t understand why Stalin doesn’t trust me. I am absolutely loyal to him, I do not want to fight with him, I want to support him, but he does not trust me. Here the intrigues of Beria, who gives Stalin the wrong information, and Stalin believes him, play a big role. "

The official cause of Ordzhonikidze's death, as presented by Stalin, was "my heart could not stand it." In 1953, judging by the speeches of the plenum participants, the emphasis was again on the Stalinist line, only this time Comrade Ordzhonikidze died not because he could not stand the betrayal of the "Trotskyists", but because he was driven by Beria's intrigues.

But, according to modern researchers, the role of Beria was somewhat exaggerated. The “heirs of Stalin,” having arrested Beria out of fear for their safety, did not yet know what kind of accusation would be best brought against him. The reference to his involvement in the death of the popularly beloved and revered Ordzhonikidze was the best fit in this situation. At that time, members of the Politburo still did not dare to speak frankly about the true reasons for the conflict between Stalin and Ordzhonikidze, so they explained everything only by the intrigues of the insidious Beria. At that time, all the sins of the once powerful general secretary were generally attributed to Beria - that was the party line.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, a few years after the legendary plenum, said “We created in 1953, roughly speaking, a version about Beria's role that, they say, Beria is fully responsible for the abuses that were committed under Stalin ... We still could not get rid of the idea, that Stalin is a friend of everyone, the father of the people, a genius, and so on. It was impossible to immediately imagine that Stalin was a monster and a murderer ... We were in captivity of this version, which we created in the interests of Stalin's rehabilitation, not God is to blame, but saints who reported badly to God, and therefore God sends hail, thunder and other disasters ... People will learn that the party is guilty, that the party will end ... We were still in captivity with the dead Stalin and gave the party and the people incorrect explanations, turning everything to Beria. He seemed to us a convenient figure for this. We did everything to shield Stalin, although we shielded the criminal, the murderer, for we had not yet freed ourselves from admiration for Stalin. "

And yet, in the relationship between Ordzhonikidze and Beria, some difficulties were indeed noticed. Ordzhonikidze occupied a much higher position in the party hierarchy than Beria. In 1932, he was even able to prevent Stalin's decision to nominate Beria for the post of head of the Transcaucasian party organization. This fact was recalled by S.Z. Ginzburg and A.V. Snegova was one of the leading employees of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the 1930s. In addition, Ginzburg emphasized that Ordzhonikidze's negative attitude towards Beria only intensified over the years and he did not hide it at all.

Some investigative cases of the 1930-1950s also testify, albeit indirectly, to this. M. Zvontsov, the former second secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee, after his arrest in 1938 during interrogation, spoke about the content of the conversation between Ordzhonikidze and Betal Kalmykov, the head of the party organization of this region. Party organization "Sergo replied" Someone still trusts him. Time will pass, he will expose himself. "

The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Bagirov, speaking at the investigation in the Beria case, reported that in 1936 Ordzhonikidze questioned him in the most detailed way about Lavrentiy Pavlovich, while speaking about the latter extremely disapprovingly. "Ordzhonikidze then understood all the insincerity and treachery of Beria," said Bagirov, "who decided to slander Ordzhonikidze by any means."

The closest comrades of Beria at work also spoke about hostile relations between these two party members. So, Sharia showed "I know that Beria outwardly treated Sergo Ordzhonikidze as if it were good, but in reality he spoke all sorts of nasty things about him in the circle of those close to him." Goglidze said on this occasion "Beria, in the presence of me and other persons, made harsh statements of a disdainful character against Sergo Ordzhonikidze ... I had the impression that Beria said this as a result of some personal malice towards Ordzhonikidze and incited others against him."

Beria's personal dislike for Sergo is also evidenced by the fact that after the death of the latter, many of his relatives were massacred. By order of Beria in May 1941, Ordzhonikidze's younger brother, Konstantin, was arrested. The investigation in his case lasted three years and did not lead to any significant results. Nevertheless, Konstantin Ordzhonikidze was convicted by a Special Council and sentenced to 5 years of solitary confinement. Beria extended this period twice more, and the second decree was signed after Stalin's death.

But it is unlikely that only Beria's intrigues led to the death of the unyielding party member Ordzhonikidze. Here it would be appropriate to recall Khrushchev's speech at the 20th party congress "Ordzhonikidze interfered with Beria in the implementation of his insidious plans, was always against Beria, which he told Stalin about." And further Khrushchev notes "Instead of sorting out and taking the necessary measures, Stalin allowed the destruction of Ordzhonikidze's brother, and brought Ordzhonikidze himself to such a state that the latter was forced to shoot himself."

In his memoirs, Khrushchev cites the content of the last conversation between Ordzhonikidze and Mikoyan (moreover, Mikoyan's memoirs on this topic in 1953 are somewhat different from Khrushchev's version). If you believe the version of Nikita Sergeevich, then Ordzhonikidze perceived the situation that developed at that time as hopeless, but the role of Beria was not mentioned. Nikita Sergeevich tells how Mikoyan, after Stalin's death, told him in a confidential conversation that shortly before Ordzhonikidze's death said “I can’t continue to fight with Stalin, and I don’t have the strength to endure what he does.” And further, “Stalin does not believe me; the frames that I selected were almost all destroyed. " Khrushchev insisted that the main reason for Ordzhonikidze's death was his general passive-decadent mood.

Other facts suggest otherwise. Thus, one of the oldest Georgian Bolsheviks and Ordzhonikidze's closest friends, M. Orakhelashvili, testified during the investigation in 1937: “I spoke slanderous about Stalin as the dictator of the party, and considered his policy excessively cruel. In this respect, Sergo Ordzhonikidze had a great influence on me, who back in 1936, speaking with me about Stalin's attitude to the then leaders of the Leningrad opposition (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Evdokimov, Zalutsky), argued that Stalin, with his excessive cruelty, was driving the party to a split and in the end will lead the country to a dead end ... In general, I must say that the reception room in Ordzhonikidze's apartment, and on weekends his dacha were often places of gatherings of members of our counterrevolutionary organization, who, in anticipation of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, had the most frank counterrevolutionary conversations, which in no way did not stop even when Ordzhonikidze himself appeared ”.

Of course, this testimony may look somewhat dubious, but if we exclude from it the words typical for interrogations of that time like “counter-revolutionary” or “slanderous”, then in general one can imagine the attitude of Ordzhonikidze and his associates towards the events of the 1930s.

In addition, Stalin himself allowed himself to speak out about the conflicts with Ordzhonikidze at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee. The secretary general said that Ordzhonikidze seemed to “suffer from such a disease, he would become attached to someone, declare people personally loyal to him and rush with them, despite warnings from the party, from the Central Committee ... How much blood he spoiled in order to defend against all such, as you can see now, scoundrels. " After that, Comrade Stalin listed several names of Ordzhonikidze's comrades-in-arms in the Transcaucasus. It was them that Ordzhonikidze tried to protect from false slander and vicious persecution. And further in Stalin's report "How much blood he spoiled for himself and how much blood he spoiled for us." It will not be superfluous to note that at that time Stalin was already accustomed to identifying the actions of the Central Committee party with his own.

Stalin's real hatred was caused by Ordzhonikidze's friendship with Lominadze, who, according to the secretary general, was one of the leaders of the "right-leftist bloc." Stalin argued that “Comrade Sergo knew more than any of us” about Lominadze’s “mistakes”, since back in the period from 1926 to 1928 he received letters of “anti-party character” from him. He told Stalin about these letters only 8-9 years later. It is curious that Stalin deleted all these remarks about Ordzhonikidze from the report that was being prepared for publication.

Indeed, in the last months before his death, Ordzhonikidze in many speeches emphasized the remarkable qualities of his subordinates and employees, noting their loyalty and devotion to the Soviet regime and refuting any suspicions of sabotage. Apparently, Stalin was well aware that at the upcoming plenum of the Central Committee, Ordzhonikidze, while remaining faithful to his principles, would again begin to shield industry commanders and engineering and technical personnel. Therefore, the general secretary needed to demoralize the "enemy", instilling in him a sense of guilt, they say, he defended the once already "exposed traitors" - Pyatakov, Rataychak and the like. Therefore, now I must remain silent.

Having foreseen everything in advance, Stalin put on the agenda of the plenum of the Central Committee a report on sabotage in heavy industry. Ordzhonikidze presented him with a draft resolution on this report. The General Secretary literally dotted the work with numerous comments and notes. Ordzhonikidze was supposed to "speak more sharply" about pests in production, while the central part of the report was instructed to make the question of business executives who, in the current situation, "must be clear about the friends and enemies of the Soviet regime." Where Ordzhonikidze wrote about the promotion of people with a special technical education to responsible posts, Stalin marked "... and who are trusted friends of Soviet Power."

Ordzhonikidze was seriously preparing for the upcoming plenum and understood how important the battle was ahead. In the draft resolution, he included the following item “Instruct the NKTP within ten days to report to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the state of construction of the Kemerovo Chemical Combine, Uralvagonstroy and Sreduralmedstroy, outlining specific measures to eliminate the consequences of sabotage and sabotage at these constructions in order to ensure the launch of these enterprises in deadlines".

The fact is that some materials of the trial in the case of the "anti-Soviet Trotskyist center" had appeared in the press before. In the course of this process, it turned out that, allegedly, sabotage at these enterprises had reached appalling proportions. Ordzhonikidze, as a true champion of goodness and justice, had already begun to conduct checks on these objects on his own, but now he wanted to get the plenum's approval on this matter.

On February 5, Ordzhonikidze sent a commission headed by Professor N. Gelperin to Kemerovo. In careful wording, he advised him to conduct an objective check and find out how real the facts of "sabotage" are. “Consider that you are going to such a place,” Ordzhonikidze admonished, “where there was one of the rather active sabotage centers. Remember that faint-hearted or insufficiently conscientious people may have a desire to blame everything on sabotage in order, so to speak, to drown their own mistakes in the sabotage process. It would be fundamentally wrong to admit this ... You approach this matter as a technician, try to distinguish deliberate sabotage from an involuntary mistake - this is your main task. "

When Gelperin's commission returned to Moscow, the word "sabotage" was completely absent in its report. The same situation was in relation to the coke-chemical industry of Donbass, where a commission headed by Osipov-Schmidt, Ordzhonikidze's deputy, was engaged in the inspection. The results of the work of the third commission also did not prove the facts of "sabotage". But it is worth telling about the latter in more detail, since her return to Moscow took place shortly before Ordzhonikidze's death.

So, the third commission was engaged in clarifying the circumstances of the "sabotage" in the construction of a carriage plant in Nizhny Tagil. The commission was headed by the Deputy People's Commissar Pavlunovsky and the head of the Glavstroyprom Ginzburg. In mid-February, Ordzhonikidze called Ginzburg in Tagil and asked about the state of affairs at the construction site. Ginzburg assured him that no crime could be found. On the contrary, the quality of work at Uralvagonstroy even exceeds the situation at other Ural construction sites. Ginzburg especially emphasized that “the plant was built soundly, without imperfections, although there were small cost overruns on certain budget items. At the present time, the construction has stopped, the workers are confused. " After that, Ordzhonikidze turned to Ginzburg with a request to return to Moscow with Pavlunovsky and, on the way, draw up a note on the work of the commission at the construction site.

They arrived in the capital on the morning of February 18 and immediately called Ordzhonikidze. The call was answered by his wife, Zinaida Gavrilovna, and said that now her husband was asleep, but before that he had already asked about them several times. Then she asked them to go to Ordzhonikidze's dacha, where he himself would soon arrive.

To trace in all the details the activities of Ordzhonikidze on the eve of his death, it is worth going back a little. So, on February 17, on the eve of the employees' return from the trip, from three o'clock in the afternoon, Ordzhonikidze attended a meeting of the Politburo. The draft resolutions of the forthcoming plenum of the Central Committee were discussed here. In the evening of the same day, Ordzhonikidze went to the People's Commissariat, where he managed to talk with Gelperin and Osipov-Schmidt. At the same time, a search was carried out in his apartment. As soon as Ordzhonikidze found out about this, he immediately called Stalin and, probably, expressed his indignation in harsh terms. The secretary general, however, answered evasively, “This is such a body that a search can be made in my place too. Nothing special…"

The next day, early in the morning, Stalin met personally with Ordzhonikidze. Then Sergo, returning home, once again spoke with Iosif Vissarionovich on the phone, and, according to eyewitnesses, the conversation was "unrestrainedly angry, with mutual insults, Russian and Georgian abuse."

At this time, Ginzburg, without waiting for Ordzhonikidze at his dacha, arrived at the People's Commissariat and from here, together with other leaders of the NKTP, went to Ordzhonikidze's apartment, where Stalin and other members of the Politburo were already there. Ordzhonikidze was dead, and Iosif Vissarionovich, who was standing at the head of his bed, looked menacingly at all those present, and distinctly said, “Sergo with a sick heart was working hard, and his heart could not stand it.” A few years later, after Stalin's death, Ordzhonikidze's wife told how the secretary general, leaving the apartment of the deceased, rudely warned her "Not a word to anyone about the details of Sergo's death, nothing but an official message, you know me."

In the press of those years, an official message appeared, signed by the People's Commissar of Health Kaminsky and several Kremlin doctors, which indicated Ordzhonikidze suddenly died of cardiac paralysis during a nap. Soon, everyone who signed this statement was shot.

The death of Ordzhonikidze in time followed the completion of the process of the "Trotskyist center" and not much preceded the February-March plenum. Moreover, the plenum was postponed three days later than the scheduled date in connection with the funeral of Ordzhonikidze.

These days there were rumors that the death of one of the Kremlin leaders was caused by his shock because of the "betrayal" of Pyatakov and other "Trotskyists." At the funeral meeting, many speeches were made in honor of the deceased. Characteristic is Molotov's speech, where, among other things, the following was said: “The enemies of our people, Trotskyist geeks, hastened the death of Ordzhonikidze. Comrade Ordzhonikidze did not expect the Pyatakovs to fall so low. "

Thus, the version about the fatal role of the "Trotskyists" in the fate of Ordzhonikidze was confirmed and sounded later in an article about this prominent party figure in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia "Trotskyist-Bukharin geeks of fascism hated Ordzhonikidze with fierce hatred. They wanted to kill Ordzhonikidze. The fascist agents did not succeed in this. But the sabotage work, the monstrous betrayal of the despicable Trotskyite hirelings of Japanese-German fascism in many ways hastened Ordzhonikidze's death. "

Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that in 1937 he had no idea what the true causes of death could be. He learned about the suicide from Malenkov, and then after the war. Malenkov, however, learned about this from Stalin himself, who once accidentally let it slip in a private conversation. Most likely, many did not really know that Ordzhonikidze committed suicide. Stalin ordered all those who witnessed his death to be silent, which is why the rank-and-file members of the Cheka did not know anything.

Khrushchev writes that Ordzhonikidze's suicide was an act of protest, an expression of his disagreement with Stalin's methods of work, since at that time the secretary general's closest associates could not otherwise resist his dictate. This situation suited the "heirs of Stalin", because it could at least to some extent justify their silence, inaction and weak-willed submission in those terrible years of repression.

And if Khrushchev puts Ordzhonikidze's suicide in the rank of actions that require special courage, then Molotov, a convinced Stalinist, was inclined to see in this act only the stupidity and stubbornness of a person who did not want to support the secretary general. He unequivocally noted that Ordzhonikidze "put Stalin in a very difficult position." In conversations with Chuev, Molotov expressed the same position. Ordzhonikidze opposed the Soviet regime, there was reliable material on him. Stalin ordered his arrest. Sergo was indignant. And then he committed suicide at home. Found an easy way. I thought about my person. What a leader you are! .. With his last step he showed that he was still unstable. This was against Stalin, of course. And against the line, yes, against the line. It was a very bad move. Otherwise it cannot be interpreted ... Chuev asked Molotov "When Sergo shot himself, Stalin was very angry with him." To which Molotov replied "Certainly!"

How can this position of Molotov in relation to Ordzhonikidze's death be explained? Only by his devotion to the leader Or, behind his categorical conviction, something more interesting is hidden Indeed, as it turned out later, Molotov was also involved in Stalin's tacit persecution of Ordzhonikidze.

The Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko, speaking at the June plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, said that during the investigation of the Beria case, Voroshilov told him “You dig about Sergo Ordzhonikidze, he was hounded, and there is no need to conceal that Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, when he was chairman Council of People's Commissars, treated the deceased incorrectly. "

Some evidence even calls into question the version of Ordzhonikidze's suicide. Many of those close to him claimed that on the eve of his death, Ordzhonikidze was, as always, full of strength and energy, no one even noticed any signs of depression that could lead to suicide. Ginzburg said the same: “Who knew his actions, intentions, plans, in particular recently, when he was preparing for the upcoming plenum of the Central Committee, cannot admit even the thought of his suicide ... He carefully prepared to decisively oppose mass beating of party cadres, leaders of industry and construction. "

Ginzburg also cited as evidence a note sent to him by V.N. Sidorova, his former colleague in the People's Commissariat for Tyazhprom. This note reported the facts stated by Ordzhonikidze's wife, Zinaida Gavrilovna, under the great secret of Sidorova herself. On February 18, in the morning, a man unknown to Zinaida Gavrilovna came to Ordzhonikidze's apartment. He said that he must personally hand over the folder with the Politburo documents to Ordzhonikidze.

A mysterious visitor entered Ordzhonikidze's office, and a few minutes later a shot rang out there. Shortly before the arrival of this man, Ordzhonikidze spoke on the phone with Stalin. It was the same conversation with "Russian and Georgian abuse".

The fact that Stalin did not forgive Ordzhonikidze even after his death is evidenced by the few facts reported by Ginzburg. So, for example, when Sergo's comrades-in-arms tried to obtain government permission to erect a monument to him, they were always met with mute disagreement. After the war, Stalin was presented with a list of prominent party leaders for approval, in whose honor it was planned to erect monuments in Moscow. The secretary general crossed out only one surname from the entire list - Ordzhonikidze.

Whether it was a murder, cunningly planned by Stalin, or a suicide committed by a person driven to extreme despair and who wants to save not only his honor, but also his family from reprisals - this can only be guessed about, like many other cases associated with voluntary departure from life of the closest associates of the secretary general.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Ordzhonikidze Grigory Konstantinovich (Sergo), Soviet statesman and party leader. Member of the Communist Party since 1903. Born into a nobleman's family. In 1901-05 he studied at the paramedic school in Tbilisi, participated in the Social Democratic circle, and from 1903 conducted propaganda among the workers of the Main Workshops of the Transcaucasian Railway. Member of the Revolution of 1905-07 in the Transcaucasus. In December 1905 he was arrested while delivering weapons for revolutionary detachments, in May 1906 he was released on bail and in August he emigrated to Germany. In 1907 he led party work in Baku, was a party organizer of the Balakhani region, a member of the Baku committee of the RSDLP. In November 1907 he was arrested, in 1909 he was exiled to the Yenisei province; in August 1909 he fled, emigrated to Iran, where he took part in the Revolution of 1905-11, carrying out the instructions of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. In 1911 he came to Paris, studied at the party school in Longjumeau. In the summer of 1911, on the instructions of V.I. Lenin returned to Russia, worked as an authorized representative of the Foreign Organizing Commission and was a member of the Russian Organizing Commission for the convocation of the 6th All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP; traveled to a number of party organizations in industrial cities. Delegate of the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, elected a member of the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In April 1912 in St. Petersburg he was again arrested, in October he was sentenced to 3 years of hard labor and eternal settlement in Siberia. In 1912-15 he was in the Shlisselburg convict prison, then exiled to Yakutia. After the February Revolution of 1917, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Yakut Council. In June 1917, a member of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. After the July days of 1917, he took part in organizing Lenin's passage into the underground; twice visited him in Razliv, informed about the state of affairs in the party and received directives for the party. A delegate to the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b), made a report on the inadmissibility of Lenin's appearance at the trial of the counter-revolutionary Provisional Government. Fulfilling the instructions of the Central Committee of the party, he worked in June-August in Petrograd, in September-October in Transcaucasia. On October 24 (November 6), 1917, returning to Petrograd, he took part in an armed uprising, then in battles against the troops of Kerensky - Krasnov. In December 1917, he was appointed temporary Extraordinary Commissioner of the region of Ukraine, plenipotentiary auditor of the People's Commissariat for Food in the south of the country. In April 1918 he headed the temporary Extraordinary Commissariat of the Southern Region. During the Civil War of 1918-20, he was a political leader in the Red Army. In 1918 he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Don Republic, one of the organizers of the defense of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), chairman of the Defense Council of the North Caucasus. In 1919, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 16th Army of the Western Front, then the 14th Army of the Southern Front, one of the leaders of the defeat of Denikin's troops near Orel, the liberation of Donbass, Kharkov, and Left-Bank Ukraine. Since 1920, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front and chairman of the North Caucasian Revolutionary Committee, chairman of the Bureau for the restoration of Soviet power in the North Caucasus. Since April 1920, the chairman of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), an active participant in the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. In 1922-26, 1st secretary of the Trans-regional Party Committee, 1st Secretary of the North Caucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1926-30, the chairman of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the People's Commissar of the RKI, deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the STO of the USSR, from 1924 a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. Since November 1930, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, then the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR. O. plays an outstanding role in the implementation of the socialist industrialization of the USSR. Delegate to the 11-17th Party Congresses; from 1921 a member of the Central Committee, from 1926 a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, from December 1930 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 other orders. He was buried in Red Square near the Kremlin wall.

Ordzhonikidze Grigory Konstantinovich was born in the Kutaisi province, now known to us as Western Georgia, into an impoverished family of nobles and was orphaned early. In the village of Kharagauli, where he studied at the school, he met Samuil Buachidze, who later received the pseudonym Noy. In Tiflis in 1900 he entered the paramedic school. Information about his life at this time is rather scanty and contradictory.

The beginning of a political career

While still at school, he was carried away by the social democratic ideas of changing the structure of the country and took part in circles, and in 1903 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (b) and received a pseudonym - Sergo (that was his name since childhood). In Tiflis, he distributed leaflets and the Iskra newspaper. So his youth was stormy, eventful.

During the first, bourgeois revolution of 1905-1907. he took an active part in it, as a result of which he was arrested, prepared an unsuccessful escape, and after he was released on bail, he hid in Germany under a false name and with a false passport. From there he returned in 1907 and, working as a medical assistant, again participated in demonstrations. Again arrests, prisons and Ordzhonikidze are eventually sent to an eternal settlement, in fact, to a bear's corner - to Siberia, the Yenisei province (now the Krasnoyarsk Territory). Now there is a street in Novosibirsk. Ordzhonikidze and the village where he lived also bears his name. But the history of naming the street with the name of Sergo is not connected with the times of exile, but with his direct participation in the development of the region in subsequent years. But more on that later.

From exile Sergo fled abroad. He visited Persia, France, where he studied at the Leninist party school, and on the instructions of the leader returned to Russia, where he began to prepare a general party conference held in Prague in 1911. In 1912, another arrest and serving a sentence in the Shlisselburg fortress, then again exile to Yakutia. In this harsh land, Sergo met his future wife, Zinaida Gavrilovna, with whom he did not part until his death. After his death, Zinaida Gavrilovna wrote a book about her husband, about the years when history was being made.

In 1917, returning from exile, Sergo took part in organizing the October Revolution and became one of the members of the first Cheka. He took a direct part, as one of the political commanders of the Red Army, in many battles of the civil war - in Tsaritsyn, in the North Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, in Belarus and Tiflis. He took part in the defeat of Denikin. He took part in the liberation of the territories of the present-day Transcaucasian republics from the invaders and in the organization of the Transcaucasian Federation, one of the republics that became the founder of the USSR. For his merits, Ordzhonikidze received the National Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Banner of the Georgian and Azerbaijan SSR.

Further, until 1930, there is a period of the party growth of Sergo Ordzhonikidze. He is a member of the Central Committee of the party, holds high positions in the Transcaucasian Party Committee, presides over the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b).

Sergo Ordzhonikidze - People's Commissar of Heavy Industry

In 1930, the labor biography of Sergo Ordzhonikidze begins - a man who has done so much for the development of the country's industry. The lag of the country's industry in comparison with Western countries was colossal. In agriculture, manual labor was the main one; most types of products were produced by handicraft methods. Such a concept as the country's energy was practically absent.

Grigory Konstantinovich headed the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh), and then, in 1932, became the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry. His name is associated with the construction and commissioning of such giants as the Volga Tractor Plant, the iron-copper foundry and the Sibcombine machine-building plant in Novosibirsk, as well as the famous Ural Magnitka - Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant. He gave his first current to the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station. The Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant rolled the first rails for the M. Lenin in Moscow.

In Bashkiria, with his direct participation, the Baimak copper smelter was able to solve the problem of providing transport and coke from Magnitogorsk. He also took part in the construction of a motor plant in Ufa; he signed a decree on the creation of the Bashneft trust.

In Ukraine, in addition to the launch of the DneproGES in Zaporozhye, Ordzhonikidze participated in the creation of the Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Building Plant (now NKMZ) from laying the first stone to its launch in 1934. The history of the construction of the Kharkov Tractor Plant is directly related to the People's Commissar and it is no coincidence that at that time the largest enterprise for the production of wheeled and tracked tractors bears his name.

His name was also borne by the Gorky aircraft plant №21, now the Nizhny Novgorod "Sokol", which is famous for the I-5 fighter developed by N.N. Polikarpov and serially produced in 1932-1934. This was the first experience in the creation of fighters by the Soviet Union, followed by other, more advanced and faster models.

In the Far East, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, by order of the People's Commissar Ordzhonikidze, the construction of the Amurstal metallurgical plant began. On the Kola Peninsula, he oversaw the supply of exploration work - the country received metal ores, including nickel.

The country industrialized, metallurgical and machine-building giants grew, agriculture was provided with much-needed equipment, power engineering developed with giant strides, roads were built, and the country's defense capability increased. People's Commissar Sergo Ordzhonikidze was at the helm of this gigantic car. He often personally went to projects under construction, talked with people, delved into problems. Largely thanks to him, the construction went on schedule and were provided with the necessary resources. For his contribution, Sergo Ordzhonikidze was awarded the Order of Lenin (1935) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1936).

Political differences gradually grew between Ordzhonikidze and Stalin, as well as his right hand, Beria. At that time came a period of history known as "pest control". Ordzhonikidze, as best he could, defended his specialists - techies, thanks to whom the country grew, strengthened and progressed. He collected data on the work of enterprises, where, in the opinion of witch hunters, pests had settled, collected for an extended report at the plenum of the Central Committee.

He did not live to see the plenum. The mystery of his death has not yet been solved. The official version is that a sick heart could not stand it. Various sources include versions ranging from suicide to murder. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the legendary People's Commissar, died on February 18, 1937. He was only 50 years old. He was buried at the Kremlin wall.

Life story
Ordzhonikidze is a leader of the revolutionary movement, party and Soviet leader. Born on October 12 (24), 1886 in the village of Goresh, Shorapansky uyezd, Kutaisi province, into the family of a local nobleman. He studied at the Kharagul two-grade school, then at the Tiflis paramedic school at the Mikhailovskaya hospital, from which he graduated in 1905. During his studies in 1903 he joined the RSDLP, a Bolshevik. He worked as a medical assistant and at the same time led party work in the Caucasus, was arrested and imprisoned in the Sukhum prison. In 1907, a member of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, was arrested twice. In February 1909 he was exiled to the Yenisei province, fled abroad. In 1909-1910 he took part in the revolution in Persia. In 1910-1911 he studied at the party school organized by V. I. Lenin in Longjumeau (France). In 1911, on the instructions of the Central Committee, he inspected party organizations in Russia, and traveled to Vologda to see Joseph Stalin, who was in exile. In April 1912 he was arrested and sentenced to three years in hard labor in the Shlisselburg prison-fortress, then exiled to the Yakutsk region.
Liberated by the February Revolution. Since March 1917, a member of the Executive Committee of the Yakut Council. From January 1912 to April 1917 he was a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. Since July 1917, a member of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. Member of the armed uprising of the Bolsheviks in October 1917 in Petrograd. Since December 1917, the temporary extraordinary commissioner of the region of Ukraine, organized aid to the starving workers of Donbass and the industrial center. Since April 1918, he was temporary extraordinary commissar of the South of Russia, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Don Soviet Republic. One of the organizers of the defense of Tsaritsyn (May 1918), where he became especially close to Stalin. In the spring of 1919 he made an illegal trip to Menshevik Georgia, and then to Baku. He was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (RVS) of many armies and fronts, including a member of the RVS of the 12th Army, which was part of the Western Front, of which Stalin was a member of the RVS.
In February - April 1920, chairman of the Bureau for the restoration of Soviet power in the North Caucasus, in March - chairman of the North Caucasian Revolutionary Committee. The restoration of Soviet power in the Caucasus was accompanied by mass terror against the "nationalists" and their "accomplices". Since April 1920, a member of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). He played one of the main roles in the overthrow of local governments in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and the creation of the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic under the auspices of the Bolsheviks. On the question of the form of formation, the USSR supported the Stalinist plan for the annexation of the Soviet republics to the RSFSR as autonomous entities. Ordzhonikidze so ardently defended the administrative approach to unification that during his trip to the Caucasus, at the head of the commission, he did not even disdain to use assault on the Georgian communists who did not agree with excessive centralism.
In 1921-1927 and since 1930 he was a member of the Central Committee of the party. From February 1922, 1st secretary of the Transcaucasian, from September 1926 - of the North Caucasian Regional Committee of the RCP (b). Since December 1926, a candidate member, since December 1930, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). In the internal political struggle against the Trotskyist, Zinoviev-Kamenev, united Trotsky-Zinoviev, and then the so-called right-wing opposition, he always unconditionally supported Stalin, advocated the policy of intensified industrialization of the national economy and the complete collectivization of the countryside. As the chairman of the party's control and punitive body - the Central Control Commission (CCC) of the CPSU (b) and, at the same time, the People's Commissar of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection of the USSR (November 1926 - November 1930), he sanctioned repressive measures against many oppositionists and dissidents. At the same time, when using repressions, I have never been a supporter of their extreme, most cruel forms; in some cases, he defended former comrades-in-arms in the party, advocated the reduction or abolition of prison terms.
November 10, 1930 headed the All-Union Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) of the USSR, which was subordinate to almost the entire industry of the country. On January 5, 1932, the VSNKh was divided into several people's commissariats, Ordzhonikidze was entrusted with the most important of them - the people's commissariat for heavy industry. The former paramedic and professional revolutionary became the main organizer of the grandiose construction projects of the 1930s, many of which were worked by prisoners. He knew how to mobilize all available forces to carry out the decisions of the party, regardless of the victims. The country acquired many industrial enterprises, especially those of a defense profile, but at the same time suffered colossal losses both in people and in raw materials, which were spent extremely irrationally. In addition, many industrial giants, due to violations of technology for the sake of the speed of construction, required repair and modernization within a few years.
After the establishment of Stalin's autocracy in the party, Ordzhonikidze's relations with the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks gradually began to deteriorate, primarily due to the fact that the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry began to speak out more and more openly against the escalation of terror in the country. If in the early 1930s he still managed to defend highly qualified technical specialists from the OGPU bodies who were used at the construction sites of socialism, then after the assassination of S.M. Kirov, such opportunities sharply narrowed. In the second half of 1936, mass arrests began of communists who had never joined the so-called anti-party currents and non-party leaders, engineers, technicians, workers and employees of almost all branches of the national economy. Those arrested were artificially associated with the opposition, and the shortcomings and omissions in their work were declared sabotage, sabotage and were presented as the result of the opposition's hostile activities. Moreover, Ordzhonikidze's older brother Papulia was arrested in Georgia. Papulia's falsified testimony about his participation in counterrevolutionary activities was handed over to Ordzhonikidze at Stalin's instructions.
A certain role in the deterioration of relations between former close friends was played by the promotion, on Stalin's initiative, to the first role in the Transcaucasian party organization of L.P. Beria, whom Ordzhonikidze not only disliked, but considered a rogue and a dangerous intriguer.
On the eve of the notorious February-March (1937) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), where Ordzhonikidze was scheduled to be the main speaker on the issue of "the lessons of sabotage, sabotage and espionage by Japanese-German Trotskyist agents" in the national economy, the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry held a number of meetings with leading economic workers, to verify the data, the NKVD sent commissions to "Uralvagonstroy", "Kemerovkombinatstroy" and to the enterprises of the coke-chemical industry of Donbass. Based on the collected materials, Ordzhonikidze prepared a draft resolution based on his report. The draft did not mention the wide scope of sabotage in heavy industry, the main emphasis was placed on the need to eliminate the shortcomings in the work of the People's Commissariat. However, this draft resolution was criticized by Stalin, who made many caustic remarks on it, which led to the need for a radical revision of the draft with an indication of the industries allegedly affected by sabotage, "facts" of sabotage activities, "reasons for yawn", etc.
According to the recollections of NS Khrushchev, according to AI Mikoyan, shortly before the plenum, Ordzhonikidze was depressed and said: “I can’t anymore, I can’t put up with what is happening. I also cannot fight Stalin, and I don’t see now an opportunity to prolong my life. ” Five days before the opening of the plenum on February 18, 1937, Ordzhonikidze committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol in his apartment. However, as is often the case in the case of an unusual death, there is still a version that he was killed by order of Stalin, although this version is not supported by documentary evidence. It was officially announced in the newspapers that Ordzhonikidze died of heart paralysis. He was buried in Red Square.
In 1932, the city of Vladikavkaz was named after Ordzhonikidze, in 1944 the city was renamed Dzaudzhikau. Since 1954 - again Ordzhonikidze, since 1992 - again Vladikavkaz.

Soviet party and statesman.

Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (party pseudonym - Sergo) was born in the village of Goresh, Shorapansky district of the Kutaisi province (now in Georgia) into an impoverished Georgian noble family.

GK Ordzhonikidze received his primary education at a school in the village of Kharaguni (Georgia), which he attended in 1896-1898. In 1901-1905 he studied at the Tiflis paramedic school in Tiflis at the city Mikhailovskaya hospital. He took part in the work of the Social Democratic circle, in 1903 he joined the RSDLP, conducted propaganda among the workers of the Main Workshops of the Transcaucasian Railway.

GK Ordzhonikidze took part in the events of the Revolution of 1905-1907 in Transcaucasia. In December 1905, he was arrested while delivering weapons to revolutionary troops. In May 1906 GK Ordzhonikidze was released on bail and in August he emigrated to Germany.

In 1907, G.K. Ordzhonikidze led party work in Baku (now in Azerbaijan), was a party organizer of the Balakhani region, a member of the Baku committee of the RSDLP. In November 1907 he was arrested and was in the prisons of Baku and Sukhum. In February 1909, G.K. Ordzhonikidze was exiled to the village of Potoskuy in the Pinchug volost of the Yenisei province (now a village), from where he fled in August of the same year.

He emigrated to Iran, where he took part in the Revolution of 1905-1911. In 1911 he came to Paris, studied at an organized party school in Longjumeau. In the summer of 1911, GK Ordzhonikidze returned to, worked as an authorized representative of the Foreign Organizing Commission and was a member of the Russian Organizing Commission for the convocation of the VI All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, toured a number of party organizations in industrial cities. He was a delegate to the VI (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, was elected a member of the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In April 1912, GK Ordzhonikidze was arrested again, in October he was sentenced to three years of hard labor and eternal settlement in Siberia. He spent 1912-1915 in the Shlisselburg convict prison, then was exiled to, where he served as a medical assistant in a rural hospital.

After the February Revolution of 1917, G.K. Ordzhonikidze was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Yakut Council. In June 1917, he became a member of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. After the July days of 1917, he took part in organizing the transition to the underground, twice visited him in Razliv, informed about the state of affairs in the party and received directives for its leadership.

Fulfilling the instructions of the Central Committee of the party, G.K. Ordzhonikidze worked in June-August, in September-October in Transcaucasia. On October 24 (November 6), 1917, he returned to, participated in an armed uprising, then in battles against the troops - P.N. Krasnova.

In December 1917, G.K. Ordzhonikidze was appointed Temporary Extraordinary Commissioner of the region of Ukraine, plenipotentiary auditor of the People's Commissariat for Food in the south of the country. In April 1918, he headed the temporary Extraordinary Commissariat of the Southern Region.

During the Civil War of 1918-1920, GK Ordzhonikidze was one of the political leaders of the Red Army. In 1918, he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Don Republic, was one of the organizers of the defense of Tsaritsyn (now), chairman of the Defense Council of the North Caucasus. In 1919, he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 16th Army of the Western Front, then the 14th Army of the Southern Front, became one of the leaders of the defeat of the troops under the liberation of Donbass, Kharkov, and Left-Bank Ukraine.

Since 1920, GK Ordzhonikidze was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front and chairman of the North Caucasian Revolutionary Committee, chairman of the Bureau for the restoration of Soviet power in the North Caucasus. Since April 1920, he was the chairman of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (6), actively participated in the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia.

In 1922-1926 GK Ordzhonikidze was the first secretary of the Zakraikom of the party, the first secretary of the North Caucasian territorial committee of the CPSU (b). In 1926-1930, he served as chairman of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and People's Commissar of the RCI, deputy chairman of the SNK and STO of the USSR, since 1924 he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Since November 1930, GK Ordzhonikidze was the chairman of the Supreme Economic Council, then the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR. He belongs to an outstanding role in the implementation of the socialist industrialization of the USSR.

Since 1921, G.K. Ordzhonikidze was a member of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), since 1926 he was a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, since December 1930 he was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). He was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner (1921), (1931), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1936).

GK Ordzhonikidze died on February 18, 1937. According to the official version, the cause of death was a heart attack. Among his contemporaries, rumors about GK Ordzhonikidze's suicide spread, which remain unconfirmed by documents. His ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall behind the Mausoleum on Red Square in