What they wrote in the most daring letters to Stalin, and what happened to their authors

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Russians have long believed the principle “the tsar is good, the boyars are bad”. How else to explain the fact that it is to the leader of the existing system that ordinary people scribble complaints about the same system? It was the same in Soviet times. Despite everything, Joseph Vissarionovich was in the eyes of his people the personification of goodness and justice. Ordinary people could turn to him for help, but it was impossible to predict the reaction of the "father of nations". What letters did Stalin receive from his people and how did this threaten the authors?

Not all letters to the leader were filled with gratitude (although there were such too) and simple requests. Sometimes people who were on the verge of despair decided to take an extreme step. Often, having expressed their dissatisfaction with the regime, they were ready to pay for their risky step. Practically indicative of suicide, as proof that the system against which he was going, swallowed him up.

Mikhail Sholokhov. For the sake of people and justice

We are talking about the same Sholokhov, who is still held in school literature lessons. Most remember him as a man and a writer zealously defending the interests of the party and socialism. But there was a time when Sholokhov was young and hot, and the desire to change the world for the better did not allow him to turn a blind eye to the arbitrariness of the local authorities.

It was 1933, Sholokhov, then Misha, not Mikhail, had just joined the Communist Party. Almost immediately he decided to report to Comrade Stalin in a letter that the local authorities were "going too far." The writer wanted to protect the dispossessed, against whom criminal cruelty was demonstrated every now and then. They could be driven out into the cold, others were beaten, forcing them to give the necessary testimony, houses were set on fire, and they even practiced partial burying in the ground.

Sholokhov eloquently wrote in his letter that "dispossession" swept a wave of cruelty across the Veshensky and Verkhne-Don districts. He spoke in detail about the fact that beatings and violence against women became part of the state campaign because of the arbitrariness of the local authorities.

Apparently, his writing talent allowed Sholokhov to correctly place accents, because the answer came from Stalin. And not at all in the form of a funnel. On the contrary, Stalin wrote that he was sending a person to the village to identify violations and further control.

Stalin noted that, on the whole, the "comrades" made excesses, but called their actions correct. Since the inhabitants of the region did not pass the bread ration, openly sabotaging the campaign. At the same time, at that time, the delivery rates were incredibly high. Most of the peasants were forced to choose: pass the standard or die of hunger.

A check was carried out on Sholokhov's letter. Some of the leaders received serious reprimands, some were fired. Years later, Sholokhov wrote to the leader again, trying to justify the repressed. He was again indignant that the "boyars are bad." This time, he complained about the working methods of the NKVD officers. In addition, he urged that it was time to put an end to this system of torture.

The letter was emotional, but there were no personal consequences for Sholokhov. Stalin appreciated him as a writer, believing that his works correspond to the spirit of the times. That is why the leader closed his eyes to the second letter. In general, Stalin considered creative people too impulsive and sometimes treated them condescendingly. Provided that he likes their work.

Mikhail Bulgakov was not repressed either, although he was clearly not a Soviet writer. But he had the tacit approval of the father of nations - the most reliable amulet of that period.

Fedor Raskolnikov. Open letter

He was an eminent revolutionary and a prominent figure in the early Soviet era, serving as Union ambassadors to Afghanistan, Denmark, Bulgaria and Estonia. Realizing that something outrageous was happening in his homeland, he chose not to return. With a greater degree of probability, repression, camps and death would also await him.

However, life in a foreign land also did not work out. In the USSR, he was declared a traitor and "outlawed". In 1939, Raskolnikov died. There are a lot of rumors around his death, according to one of the versions (the most popular) he was “told hello” from his homeland. But his wife argued that his death was not violent. He died of pneumonia, from which he was treated for a long time and unsuccessfully.

The writer Nina Berberova, who was familiar with the politician, claimed that he committed suicide. Allegedly, his psychological state worsened against the background of pneumonia and the situation in the USSR. He felt abandoned and exiled.

But Raskolnikov managed to write a letter to Stalin, and it was open. This made it possible to publish it in the future, after the death of the author. Raskolnikov writes to Stalin that he is guilty of establishing a totalitarian regime in the country and repressions. He calls the Soviet people completely powerless, and most importantly, that none of them feels completely safe.

It doesn't matter who: an old revolutionary or a simple peasant, a worker or an intellectual, a non-party member or a Bolshevik - no one can go to bed fully confident that they will not come for him at night. Calls repression a "devilish carousel"

The author of the letter rightfully accuses the leader of crushing art and forcing him to praise the regime and himself. By removing all the unwanted, he intimidated the population so much that people are even afraid to think.

Even during his lifetime, Raskolnikov managed to print a letter and replicate it as much as possible. He sent copies to newspapers, sent them to his fellow revolutionaries. But then the Second World War began in the world and there was no time for Stalin's censure. The letter was published in October 1939 in Paris, in the magazine "New Russia". During the period of the debunking of the personality cult of Stalin, this letter was published in the USSR.

Nikolay Bukharin. Suicide letter

Raskolnikov accused Stalin of being to blame for the death of Nikolai Bukharin. One of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party at the initial stage. An educated and active man, he had an economic education, but was the editor of the party's Pravda.

After Lenin died, they even became friends with Stalin. But Bukharin, as an active Leninist, every now and then had complaints about Stalin's policy. For example, as an economist, he was categorically against dispossession and collectivization. He was convinced that this would lead to the degeneration of the middle peasantry as a class. And in this it is difficult to disagree with him.

However, this was not at all the reason for their disagreement. During one of these polemics, Bukharin called Stalin an oriental despot, and even a petty one. The leader of the country could not forgive such a thing. He was deeply offended by the old comrade and fired him from all posts, deprived of everything he could. But he did not fall under repression. Then the flywheel had not yet spun - it was 1929.

But even when they began, Bukharin was not at all verse. He … drew cartoons of Stalin. Knowing Joseph Vissarionovich too well, he understood how to injure him harder. By that time, the future fate of the former comrade was already predetermined.

The repressions of the 1930s, when many old revolutionaries fell under the millstones, did not leave Bukharin aside either. At first, he did not understand what was really happening, he believed that Stalin would not go that far. He tried to go on a hunger strike, swore of his own innocence - but his attempts to reach out to yesterday's party comrades were in vain.

He told the letter in question to his wife, and she wrote it down from memory. This truly historical document was miraculously preserved, because Bukharin's wife was sent to a camp for the wives of enemies of the people, and his son to an orphanage, for many years he did not know about his origin and grew up in a foster family. The oldest revolutionary was executed.

Bukharin's letter is unique in that in it he provides answers to perhaps the main historical question of the Soviet period: why were these repressions started? Bukharin suggests that such a general political cleansing could have been carried out on the eve of the war or in connection with the transition to a democratic system.

The letter also says that reprisals are subject to: guilty, just suspicious, suspicious in the future. In the letter, he turns to Stalin by his old nickname "Koba" and claims that although he is clean before him, he asks for forgiveness.

Anna Pavlova. Letter to the tyrant

Anna's story is too incredible to be believed right away. However, Anna Pavlova actually existed, worked as a seamstress and, apparently, was distinguished by an active life position. It was on International Women's Day in 1937, a resident of Leningrad, Anna, writes a letter in triplicate and sends it to three addressees: Stalin, the NKVD and the German consulate.

In the letter, Stalin is called a tyrant, the cause of lawlessness and banditry, which comes from the Soviet authorities. The letter was sent to the German consulate for a reason, she offered to take the party members to her, to the Nazis. Say, it would be useful for them to learn from them dictatorship.

There is an explanation for this. Soviet citizens knew about the developing fascism in the West, and only from the negative side. But Pavlova, any ideology of the Bolsheviks accepted exactly the opposite. Hence the hope for help from the Nazis. She actually believed that Germany was much better and their regime was more justified than the Soviet one.

The author of the letter indicated her name, address, she understood that she would be punished in response. But she also announced this in a letter, indicating that she prefers execution, and not work in camps for the benefit of the bandits in power.

Representatives of the "gangster" authorities immediately opened suspicious letters right in the post office (of course, given the addressees) and sent them for verification. After a month and a half, the funnels arrived at the address of Pavlova's apartment. She was interrogated and the apartment was searched. Found letters of anti-Soviet content. In the protocol of her interrogation, it appears that at that time she was 43 years old, she was never married, there are no children.

After the arrest, Pavlova did not stop behaving defiantly, she refused to eat and demanded to be shot immediately. The medical examination showed that she had neurasthenia, the doctors were able to persuade her to eat according to the regimen. Despite the fact that the Chekists wanted to get the maximum of her confessions out of her, she constantly repeated excerpts from the letter. In addition, she did not give any names, not allowing the NKVD officers to carry out new arrests.

First, she was assigned 10 years and another 5 years of restriction of rights. But later the verdict was considered too humane, a version was put forward that Pavlova could be considered a fascist accomplice. Pavlova was interrogated again, now focusing on ties with the Germans. But the woman did not give an intelligible answer and explained only that she wanted to make her opinion public. That is why I sent a letter to the German government.

The second sentence was the maximum - to arrest the property, and shoot itself. Anna Pavlova was rehabilitated after the collapse of the USSR.

Vakha Aliyev. On crimes against peoples

He went to the front as a teenager, at that time he was not even 15 years old. How he did it is another story. But he was in the Battle of Stalingrad and at the Kursk Bulge. Through relatives who wrote to him regularly, he learns that Chechens are being evicted to Central Asia. It is not difficult to imagine how outraged such a young fighter with boiling blood. In his hearts he writes a letter to Stalin.

In the letter, he expresses his deep disappointment and assures that his people will never forgive the leader for such a decision. The letter did not reach Stalin, it was opened. Vakha writes that while he sheds blood here for his Motherland, his Motherland decided to deal with their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. And this is the work of the leader.

The soldier was threatened with execution, but the commander stood up for him, thanks to whose efforts the young man was sent to the camp, from where he left under an amnesty after Stalin's death. He was able to go back to his homeland, received a medical education. Moreover, Vakha became the first candidate of medical sciences among his people.

It is noteworthy that the young man felt a craving for medicine during his stay in the camp, where he worked as a medical assistant. In addition, the splinter - like the memory of the battles - bothered him too often, and he wanted to help not only himself, but others as well. In his adult life, Vakha remembered what he owed to his fellow soldiers, he was looking for them. Most of them were found.

Kirill Orlovsky. Happy exception

Even Soviet PR people understood that a few happy stories about how a Soviet citizen turned to the leader and his issue was resolved would play well for Stalin's reputation. Therefore, there are stories when the author of the letter received a positive answer.

Kirill Orlovsky is a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, was wounded and disabled. The former soldier worried that he had returned from the front to a ruined village. Orlovsky asked Stalin to give him the post of chairman of a collective farm (and the most destroyed one) and promised to bring him to the front. Stalin reacted warmly to such a proposal and appointed him to the post. Orlovsky became the prototype of the hero of the film "The Chairman" as an example of a tireless worker and fighter for justice. Justice in the Soviet sense, of course.

How often did letters addressed to Stalin reach him? Most likely they were opened right at the Post Office and transferred to the NKVD. If the letter was given a move, then there were also reasons for this. The head of state, even one like the USSR, was still a figure inaccessible and distant for the common people.