Shadow of Stalin: How the laborer Vlasik became the leader's bodyguard, and how he earned the full confidence of the patron

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

Nikolai Sidorovich Vlasik was the head of Stalin's security from 1927 to 1952, whose duties included not only ensuring the safety of the first person of the state, but also taking care of the life of his family, and after the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, also about children. Just 10-15 years after his appointment to this position, he became a powerful figure in Stalin's inner circle, heading a huge structure with broad powers, a large area of responsibility and large-scale tasks - the security department with a budget of 170 million.

The thorny path of Nikolai Vlasik: from the parish school to the Cheka

Left without parents early, Nikolai Vlasik, after completing three classes of the parish church school, gets a job as a laborer. Later he will master the work of a bricklayer. In 1915 he took part in the battles of the First World War. After being wounded, he served in Moscow - in command of an infantry regiment. He joined the Bolsheviks, fought in the Civil.

In 1919 he was sent to work in the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-revolution and Espionage, in the central apparatus headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. Since 1926 he has been working in the operational department of the OGPU, holds the position of senior commissioner.

"Know-how" of Vlasik, or what security measures were developed by the chief bodyguard

In 1927, after a terrorist attack near the building of the commandant's office in the center of Moscow, a special structure was created to ensure the security of the highest echelon of power. It was headed by N. S. Vlasik. Having assumed the post of chief of Stalin's security, he thoroughly undertakes to ensure security and improve the life of the general secretary.

At first, Stalin opposed the innovations introduced by this native of Belarus, possibly fearing accusations of philistinism from his fellow revolutionaries and the party nomenklatura. But soon he already approvingly looked at such changes - Vlasik organized for him not only an established life, but also a guard, about which one could say that "the mouse will not slip through."

The security chief worked almost round the clock, without holidays and days off. Stalin was bribed in him by honesty, truthfulness, rationality, the ability to thoroughly and sensibly organize the work entrusted to him.

Vlasik developed measures to ensure the security of the first secretary during his stay in the Kremlin or at his dacha, trips around the country, various official events and high-level meetings with international leaders (including at the Potsdam conference).

It was he who came up with a way to move Stalin in "encrypted escorts": several identical cars drove out on different routes. In which of them was the general secretary, and in which of his doubles no one knew, except for the chief of security himself or the one to whom he instructed the chief secretary to leave that day. It was the same with departures on a government plane - several flights were being prepared, but only Stalin himself at the last minute indicated which one he would fly. To monitor the safety of the leader's food, a special laboratory was created, where food was tested for the presence of poisons.

Gradually, Vlasik organized several dachas in the Moscow region and in the south of the country, which were always in full readiness to receive the Secretary General. Of course, these facilities were also guarded and provided properly.

The incident near Gagra, or how Nikolai Sidorovich earned Stalin's trust

The incident in Gagra in 1935 only strengthened Stalin's confidence in his chief of security. It was a simple boat trip, but, due to a misunderstanding, the ship was fired upon by border guards.

Vlasik covered himself with the leader of the country. Both survived. The officer who gave the order to shoot was sentenced to 5 years, and in 1937 he was shot.

Clash with security officers, trophy cows, arrest and exile

Numerous attempts to eliminate the leader of the peoples, undertaken by the inner circle and Western special services, did not succeed as long as Vlasik was responsible for his safety. However, Beria and other close associates from the party nomenklatura could not forgive him for his closeness to Stalin, the power of his security empire. Consistently and relentlessly, they undermined Stalin's confidence in Nikolai Vlasik. To get to the head of the security of the first secretary, people from his inner circle were arrested (one of the first was the commandant of Blizhnyaya Dacha, Ivan Fedoseev).

For some time, Stalin resisted attacks on Vlasik and did not believe in the accusations being made. But after a certain Timashuk's statement about sabotage, the so-called "doctors' case" was opened. Since the safety of the treatment of the first persons of the state was also Vlasik's area of responsibility, he was charged with insufficient vigilance. Attempts by Nikolai Sidorovich himself to explain that he had not found any confirmation of Timashuk's version were unsuccessful.

Then a special commission of the Central Committee began a financial audit of the activities of the administration headed by Vlasik. Responsibility for the discovered shortage of budgetary funds falls on the shoulders of the head of the department - he was removed from his post and sent to the Urals as the head of a forced labor camp.

In 1952 he was arrested and stripped of all awards and titles. In addition to previous charges of financial violations, he was charged with illegal self-enrichment in the occupied territory of Germany, which was confirmed during a search at the general's - carpets, crystal vases and valuable sets, cameras were found. In addition, he brought two horses, three cows and a bull for his relatives from Belarus. The village in which they lived was burned down by the Germans, and the few surviving people were in poverty.

Despite the sophisticated torture, Nikolai Vlasik did not admit any accusations against himself, except for the embezzlement of funds, did not give false testimony to anyone. In 1955, the term of imprisonment was reduced to 5 years, and in 1956 he was pardoned and his conviction was removed. However, the awards and military ranks were not returned to him. By his own admission, despite what he experienced during his imprisonment, he never held anger at Stalin himself, because he understood well the degree of influence on him from Beria and other party associates who hated not only Vlasik, but himself Stalin.

Vlasik died in Moscow in 1967 from lung cancer. He was buried at the New Donskoy cemetery. Interestingly, in 2001, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rehabilitated Nikolai Sidorovich: the 1955 sentence against him was canceled. In addition, military ranks were returned to Vlasik.

Subsequent leaders of the USSR treated their guards with undisguised irritation. And some, for example Khrushchev and Gorbachev, and despised altogether.