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Video: The rise and fall of Nikolai Shchelokov: Who is to blame for the death of the head of the Soviet militia
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Nikolai Shchelokov is still considered the most controversial person in the government of Leonid Brezhnev. He did everything possible to change the attitude of society towards the police, and on the other hand, he was removed from office for numerous abuses. He was able to raise the status of a police officer to a high level. As a result, he committed suicide after he was stripped not only of his position, but also of all his titles and awards.
Takeoff
Nikolai Shchelokov always spoke with great warmth about his parents, Anisim Mitrofanovich and Maria Ivanovna. The father of the future minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was a simple metallurgical worker, his mother was engaged in medicine, and his son began his career at the age of 12, becoming a horseman at the mine. After graduating from a mining school, he worked for some time, after receiving a diploma from a metallurgical institute in Dnepropetrovsk, he served in various enterprises.
Nikolai Shchelokov's party career dates back to 1938, when he, the head of the open-hearth shop, was elected first secretary of the Krasnogvardeisky district committee of the city of Dnepropetrovsk. A year later, he was already chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk city executive committee, where he met Leonid Brezhnev, who served as secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee.
In 1966, Leonid Brezhnev will take the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and Nikolai Shchelokov, the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Moldavian SSR, will first become the Minister of Public Order of the USSR, and two years later he will become the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The golden age of the Soviet militia
Nikolai Shchelokov made it his goal to raise the status of the Soviet policeman to the highest level. He began to carry out a reform that brought the Ministry of Internal Affairs closer to the army. During this period, the ranks of militia generals appeared instead of the commissars that existed at that time. The transformation of the Higher Police School led to the creation of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on its basis, a new charter was introduced in the police, and the salaries of employees were significantly increased.
Policemen began to flaunt in new uniforms, a professional holiday was introduced - Police Day, and films began to appear on the screens of the country, the heroes of which were police investigators. "The investigation is being conducted by ZnatoKi", "Born by the Revolution", "The Village Detective" and, of course, "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" - all these films worked to increase the prestige of the Soviet militia.
Nikolai Shchelokov himself became a symbol of the "new militia", he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, had the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and was soon to take the post of deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. But the death of Leonid Brezhnev put an end to all bright hopes and aspirations. A month later, the field of Leonid Ilyich Shchelokov's departure was removed from office, and a large-scale check that began in the Ministry of Internal Affairs revealed numerous facts of abuse.
In addition, in 1982, the policemen responsible for the death of a KGB major were shot. In December 1980, at the Zhdanovskaya metro station, officers of the line police station detained a drunken man and took from him a bag with a scarce set of products: sausage and cognac. When it turned out that the militiamen had robbed the deputy chief of the USSR KGB secretariat, Major Vyacheslav Afanasyev, the militiamen beat him to death, and threw his body to the committee dachas.
Investigations began in this case, and many similar cases were opened, when those who were supposed to guard the rule of law became robbers. 80 criminal cases were opened, 500 police officers were dismissed for abuse of office in the capital alone.
Rapid fall
A search was carried out in the house of Nikolai Shchelokov, and the people who carried it out were surprised by the luxury in which the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs lived: collections of paintings and antiques, incredible jewelry and furs of his wife, expensive cars - all this literally boggled the imagination. Svetlana Shchelokova, whom the future minister met during the Great Patriotic War, worked as an otolaryngologist and had a passion for jewelry.
She became suspected of being connected with the "diamond mafia" and speculation. At some point, she could not stand the pressure and, taking her husband's award pistol, committed suicide. Allegedly, before that, she tried to take the life of Yuri Andropov, in whom she saw the cause of all the troubles of her husband and, in fact, the investigation against Svetlana Shchelokova herself. The confrontation between the leaders of the two departments, the KGB and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, headed during the reign of Brezhnev by Andropov and Shchelokov, respectively, was known to the entire party elite.
However, the assassination attempt, if it actually happened, turned out to be unsuccessful, and Svetlana Shchelokova herself voluntarily passed away on February 19, 1983. A year after the death of his wife, immediately after the news of the deprivation of all state awards, except for military ones, Nikolai Shchelokov himself committed suicide.
Many associated his death with revenge on the part of Yuri Andropov for many years of confrontation and the murder of his employee. However, in reality, everything in this story was not so simple.
Historians believe that Nikolai Shchelokov was simply the first victim of the global purge of the ranks in the party elite, which was started by Yuri Andropov. He ruled the country for 15 months and during this time managed to remove 18 ministers, among whom the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the most prominent figure. Nikolai Shchelokov himself understood: after all the measures, only shame and humiliation awaits him ahead, which he simply did not want to go through in his 74 years.
The Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Anisimovich Shchelokov had enough enemies and ill-wishers. He was a controversial figure, and many of his decisions were not understood. However, there was the only person who, under any circumstances, took his side. Svetlana Popova and Nikolai Shchelokov met in the midst of the war, in 1943, became husband and wife in 1945. They walked hand in hand through life for 40 years, and then, with a difference of two years, they took their own lives.
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