His life was like a Hollywood movie. A boy from a remote village, the son of a political exile managed to become a hero of a new country. He, being in the thick of things, kept his ship afloat for many years. But, unlike the film, the ending turned out to be much more prosaic. Nikolai Vasilievich, the hero of the revolution, could not survive the fatal year for many in 1938. He was sentenced to death, accused of the same thing that he himself had repeatedly accused others of - anti-Sovietism.
Stormy student life
Nikolai Krylenko was born in May 1885 in the small village of Bekhteevo, Sychensky bridle, in the Smolensk province. His parents were not indigenous to this wilderness. Nikolai's father, Vasily Abramovich, was exiled here for political reasons. But already in 1890 the family moved to Smolensk. Curiously, my father never gave up his views, so he became the editor of Smolensky Vestnik. Publications that clearly adhered to the opposition direction. Two years later, the Krylenko family collected their things again. This time, they moved to the Polish city of Kielce. And then - to Lublin. Here Vasily Abramovich was able not only to continue his opposition activities, but also received the position of an excise official. Since Nikolai grew up in a family of anti-monarchist views, this affected his worldview. He first studied at the Lublin Classical Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1903. And then he entered the St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of History and Philology. Finding himself in a new city for himself, Nikolai Vasilyevich devoted all his time only to his studies, bypassing numerous political circles, which in those years were very popular with students. But for a long time it was not enough. As Nikolai Vasilievich later recalled, he was "saturated with a bright oppositional mood." Therefore, he soon took an active part in student meetings and street demonstrations. It was then that his two main talents manifested themselves - eloquence and organizational skills.
In 1904 (according to other sources - in 1905) Nikolai Vasilyevich finally decided on his political views. It happened at an illegal meeting of students. Because of his excellent oratorical skills, they tried to put him under their banner of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Social-Democrats, but Krylenko decided to join the Bolsheviks. And he joined their party. From that moment on, his active revolutionary activity began.
The Bolsheviks were pleased. They got an excellent agitator-propagandist who did not miss a single student gathering. But in the spring of 1905, Nikolai Vasilyevich had to urgently leave Petersburg. The fact is that due to his aggressive activities, he was threatened with arrest. But that time nothing happened. And closer to autumn, he returned to the capital. True, there was no longer any talk of studying at the university. And although officially Krylenko was still a student, he was engaged in campaigning activities. The October meeting at the Technological Institute did not go without him. The one where Georgy Stepanovich Khrustalev-Nosar proposed the idea of creating a Council of Workers' Deputies.
In the role of agitator of the Bolshevik movement, Krylenko felt excellent. And the constant threat of arrest was almost a drug for him. He liked to walk on the blade, coping with difficulties brilliantly. Even the injury he received during one of the December rallies made Nikolai Vasilyevich only stronger and bolder.
In February 1906, elections to the first Duma began. Krylenko - in the first roles. He led a mass agitation among students and workers of St. Petersburg, urging them to boycott this event. And when the elections did take place, Nikolai Vasilyevich became one of the main critics of the Duma. He demonstrated his dissatisfaction with her work both at numerous rallies and on the pages of the Prizyv and Volna newspapers.
Such activities, of course, could not have a beneficial effect on the life of Krylenko. He, as they say, finished badly. And in the summer of 1906, in order to avoid arrest, Nikolai Vasilyevich left the country. At first he settled in Belgium, but soon moved to France. But the forced emigration lasted only until November. When the passions subsided a little, he returned to Petersburg. But Nikolai had to hide his real name. Therefore, at that time he flashed like Renault, Abramov or Gurnyak. But nevertheless, he could not avoid arrest. Krylenko was detained in June 1907 at the Creighton plant, and he was hiding under the name Postnikov. He, as well as about twenty other people, were accused of participation in a military conspiracy. But Nikolai Vasilyevich managed to get out of the water - he was acquitted by the military district court. It happened in September. Once free, Krylenko went to Finland to continue his Bolshevik activities. In December he was arrested again. This time Nikolai Vasilievich was exiled to Lublin, not a stranger to himself.
Returning to the city of childhood, Krylenko made a sensible and logical decision - to move away from party affairs for a while. He perfectly understood that he was under the hood and any of his Bolshevik activities could lead to the most unpleasant consequences. It was only in 1909 that Krylenko made one puncture, which backfired on him almost three decades later. He published a pamphlet called In Search of Orthodoxy. In it, indirectly, vaguely and very vaguely, he said that the Bolshevik movement had disappointed him. It is clear why Krylenko did it. He needed by hook or by crook to make sure that he was forgotten. Therefore, he calmly graduated from the university and began to teach literature and history in private schools. Krylenko worked in Lublin and Sosnovitsy.
With new forces
But the calm life, relatively far from revolutionary activity, did not last long. Already in 1911, Nikolai Vasilyevich began to work in the Bolshevik newspaper Zvezda. A little later he became an employee of Pravda. At the same time, a significant event for Krylenko took place - he was summoned to Galicia (this territory then belonged to Austria) for a personal meeting with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who at that time lived in Krakow. That audience was simply excellent for Nikolai Vasilevich. And from that moment on, he was already not just one of the Bolshevik agitators, but a close friend of Vladimir Ilyich. This soon allowed Krylenko to become legal advisers to the Bolsheviks who were members of the State Duma.
In 1912, Nikolai Vasilyevich was drafted into the army. Throughout the year he served as a volunteer in the sixty-ninth Ryazan regiment. Here Krylenko, as they say, from the inside was able to understand how strong revolutionary sentiments are among ordinary soldiers. After serving, Nikolai Vasilyevich got into the Social Democratic Duma faction. But he was not allowed to turn around in full. In December 1913 he was arrested again. By a court decision (up to that moment he had spent several months in prison), Krylenko was forbidden to live in St. Petersburg. And he was sent to Kharkov for two years. But here, too, the activist-agitator did not get lost. In order not to waste time, he graduated from the law faculty of the local university as an external student. And then he illegally moved first to Austria (he lived in Galicia and Vienna), and from there to Switzerland. Having settled near Lausanne, Krylenko took part in the Berne Party Conference, which took place in the spring of 1915. And in the summer, together with his wife Elena Rozmirovich, Nikolai Vasilyevich secretly moved to Moscow. But he still did not manage to avoid an imminent arrest. In November he was imprisoned and then transported to Kharkov.
In April 1916, Nikolai Vasilyevich was released from custody and sent to the army. The curious thing is that he had an "accompanying" one with him. It spoke of propaganda activities and required to take action if Krylenko again took up the old. Nikolai Vasilievich ranked as warrant officer in the communications service in the thirteenth Finnish rifle regiment of the eleventh army of the Southwestern Front in. Moreover, the service was not easy. Krylenko was always on the front line, in the trenches.
While in the army, Krylenko learned about the revolutionary events of 1917. A few days after the abdication of Nicholas II, Nikolai Vasilyevich was urgently recalled to the rear. And already in early March, he managed to organize the first large-scale rally of soldiers. In the same month, Krylenko entered the military organization under the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b).
Nikolai Vasilievich took up his usual (and favorite) activity - agitation. He worked with the soldiers, urging them to end the war no longer needed by anyone. Since his popularity was high, Krylenko confidently moved towards the task at hand.
Then the maelstrom of events carried him to the shore, where Nikolai Vasilyevich was again arrested. In July 1917, the ensign was taken into custody in Mogilev, accused of high treason. Only in September was he released by order of the Minister of War Verkhovsky. Once free, Nikolai Vasilyevich took an active part in the preparation of the October Revolution.
In early November, Krylenko joined the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars. He became a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs. The well-known Antonov-Ovseenko and Dybenko joined him in this field.
In the same month, a significant event took place not only for Krylenko himself, but for the whole country. It was Nikolai Vasilyevich who became the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, despite the rank of ensign. The former Commander-in-Chief, Nikolai Nikolaevich Dukhonin, refused to obey Lenin's order - he did not negotiate a peace agreement with the Austro-German command. And although Krylenko was officially required to deliver Dukhonin alive to Petrograd, the ensign did not cope with the task. Nikolai Nikolaevich was killed by revolutionary-minded sailors. There is still no consensus about Krylenko's involvement in the death of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. According to a number of indirect data, he still tried to save Nikolai Nikolaevich. But nevertheless, most researchers are inclined to believe that the sailors killed Dukhonin with the tacit consent of both Krylenko and the entire Bolshevik elite. Since the news of the death of the Commander-in-Chief "above" was received very calmly, even casually.
So, Nikolai Vasilievich became the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Could a boy from a remote village have imagined such a career takeoff? The question is, of course, rhetorical. Krylenko knew what he was doing and why. Its success is quite logical and should not cause confusion. Dukhonin, when he learned that a warrant officer was replacing him at his post, took it as a stupid joke or Lenin's striking shortsightedness. And he paid for it with his life. The rank of ensign should not be misleading, but the level of intelligence Krylenko was one of the smartest people of those bloody revolutionary events.
At the beginning of 1918, Nikolai Vasilievich was a member of the Revolutionary Defense Committee of Petrograd. Interestingly, in March, he asked Lenin to relieve him of his duties as both the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the Commissar for Military Affairs. Vladimir Ilyich went to meet his comrade. And the post of Commander-in-Chief was abolished altogether. Nikolai Vasilievich himself chose another continuation of his brilliant career.
Already in the same March, he became a member of the board of the RSFSR People's Commissariat of Justice. And in May, he took over as chairman of the Revolutionary (Supreme) Tribunal. In parallel with this, Krylenko was also the main one in the hunting department and a member of the board of the RSFSR People's Commissariat of Agriculture.
But still, his main road was precisely the road of jurisprudence. In December 1922, Nikolai Vasilyevich became Deputy People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR, as well as a senior assistant to the Prosecutor of the RSFSR. Krylenko also found time for teaching. He was listed as a professor at the Faculty of Soviet Law at Moscow State University. And in 1929 Nikolai Vasilyevich became the prosecutor of the RSFSR.
Back in the early 1920s, being an assistant prosecutor, Krylenko did an excellent job with his duties. His oratorical abilities sparkled with new colors, and found application in a new business. He was a participant in most of the most significant processes of that time. And he was nicknamed "the prosecutor of the proletarian revolution." Nikolai Vasilyevich was the prosecutor in the high-profile trial of the British diplomat Lockhart, participated in the trials of Malinovsky, right and left Social Revolutionaries, former prosecutor of the Russian Empire Wipper, warden Cooper, security officer Kosyrev and others. And never once did he let his opponents doubt his professionalism. Krylenko did not change the line, and spent all his efforts on achieving the main goal - the elimination of all enemies of the revolution without exception. He can be hated, he can be admired - a man of his time. Of course, there were often times when he really went too far. Cases when personal attitude and opinion prevailed over the law. A striking example is the "Social Revolutionary Trial", which took place in the summer of 1922 in Moscow. Thirty-four people were charged with the murder of V. Volodarsky and the attempt on the life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Nikolai Vasilievich spoke for several hours. And he began his speech as follows: “The business of the court of history is to determine, investigate, weigh and evaluate the role of individuals in the general flow of development of historical events and historical reality. Our business, the business of the court, is to decide: what exactly these people did yesterday, today, now, what specific harm or what benefit they brought or wanted to bring to the republic, what else they can do, and depending on this, decide what measures the court is obliged to take accept towards them. This is our duty, and there - let the court of history judge us with them."
In general, Krylenko is considered the main founder of all bodies of the Soviet prosecutor's office. It was Nikolai Vasilyevich who created the first Regulation on prosecutorial supervision. Through his efforts, the State Prosecutor's Office itself appeared in the country. He has published over a hundred books and brochures on Soviet law. At the same time, Krylenko did not forget about his work in court. For example, he was one of the main prosecutors in the so-called "Shakhty case" or "The case of the economic counter-revolution in the Donbass." The political process, which had a great resonance in the country, took place in Moscow under the chairmanship of Vyshinsky. A whole group of "pests" in the coal industry were brought to justice. They were accused of wanting to "disrupt the growth of socialist industry and facilitate the restoration of capitalism in the USSR."
In 1930, Krylenko was noted in the "Case of the Industrial Party". Then there was the "Trial of the Union Bureau of the Mensheviks", "The Glavtorg Case", "The Case of the" Polish Priests "and many, many other similar trials.
The Krylenko star sparkled brightly. So brightly that in 1934 he received a doctorate in state and legal sciences. And then a confrontation began with Vyshinsky and Vinokurov (he was the chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR). The conflict flared up on level ground, they did not trivially divide the spheres of influence in the justice system. Nikolai Vasilievich so believed in his own strengths and brains that he hardly imagined that this confrontation could turn out to be a complete failure for him.
It all began with the fact that in May 1931, Andrei Yanuarevich Vyshinsky became the prosecutor of the RSFSR. And Krylenko was appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR. Now it was Vyshinsky's turn to demonstrate his capabilities. He became the main prosecutor in all high-profile cases. And Krylenko held meetings, congresses and traveled around the country. Nikolai Vasilyevich did a great job, but still, it was not quite that. He understood perfectly well that his star began to fade away, falling under the shadow of Vyshinsky's star.
Krylenko awaited the second blow in 1933. When the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR was established. Nikolai Vasilyevich expected that he would be entrusted with the post of the first Prosecutor of the Soviet Union, but expectations were not met. It was another hero of the revolution - Ivan Alekseevich Akulov.
But in 1935, Krylenko's fame reached its highest point. He celebrated his fiftieth birthday and thirty years of revolutionary activity. By that time, Nikolai Vasilyevich had already received the orders of both Lenin and the Red Banner. The people (as well as those around him), although they were afraid of him, loved him. Newspapers in honor of the holiday wrote: "With sword and pen, deed and fiery word, Comrade Krylenko defended and defends party positions in the struggle against the enemies of the revolution, open and secret."
In 1936, Nikolai Vasilyevich received the post of People's Commissar of Justice of the USSR. But it was more of an agony. The very next year, thunderclouds hung over the head of the hero of the revolution. As an alarming signal, the news of the arrest of his brother, Vladimir Vasilyevich, sounded. He was the deputy chief engineer of Uralmedstroy (he was shot in March 1938). Then letters and statements poured “where to go”, which spoke of Krylenko's anti-Bolshevik activities. One of them was entitled "On Hamakhs and Judas." The author described in detail that Nikolai Vasilyevich loves most of all to shoot people, to parody Trotsky and repeat: "I have been given a mandate for both animals and people."
At the beginning of January 1938, at the first session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the formation of the government began. Krylenko's activities were severely criticized (Deputy Bagirov tried especially hard) and, accordingly, Nikolai Vasilyevich did not get into the new government.
At the same time, at the end of December 1937, the NKVD prepared documents for the arrest of Krylenko. But the matter had to be slowed down and wait for the completion of the acquisition of the new government. In those “papers” it was written in black and white that Nikolai Vasilyevich “was an active participant in the anti-Soviet organization of the right and was connected in an organized manner with Bukharin, Tomsk and Uglanov. With the aim of expanding anti-Soviet activity, he planted counter-revolutionary cadres of the right in the People's Commissariat. He personally defended the members of the organization and promoted bourgeois theories in his practical work. " And on January 31, 1938, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov put the fatal inscription "Arrest" on the documents. And Krylenko was taken into custody on the same night of February 1.
On a familiar route
Of course, Nikolai Vasilyevich understood perfectly well what awaited him. He also understood that even he would not be able to resist the system. For the first time he found himself on the other side of the barricades and felt on his own skin everything that he once doomed other people to, guided only by his ideas about the revolutionary truth. Perhaps, having become the accused, and not the prosecutor, Krylenko realized the full power and injustice of the Soviet judicial system, which he himself had built. The guilty are appointed, no one has tried to get to the bottom of the truth. And here he, the creator of the system, the hero of the revolution, sat face to face with the "product" of his creation - the state security officer Kogan. What he did with Krylenko, how he knocked out a confession (and whether he knocked him out, since Nikolai Vasilyevich could well agree with everything. He knew how it "works"), but on February 3, his official recognition appeared. It was addressed to Yezhov and it said: “I plead guilty to the fact that since 1930 I have been a member of the anti-Soviet organization of the Rights. From the same year, my struggle against the party and its leadership began. I showed antiparty vacillations back in 1923 on the question of internal party democracy. If during this period I did not draw any organizational conclusions from my views, then my inner dissatisfaction with the situation in the party did not get rid of. At that time I had no organizational connection with the Trotskyists, I did not wage an organizational struggle with the party, but remained a person who was in opposition for a number of years …”. And Krylenko ended as follows: "I fully and completely acknowledge the enormous harm caused by my anti-Soviet activities to the building of socialism in the USSR."
The second interrogation protocol appeared only at the end of July 1938. Nikolai Vasilyevich did not change his testimony. Moreover, he even gave the names of several dozen other people who were also “pests”. At the same time, Krylenko was charged with counter-revolutionary activities, and a meeting of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, headed by Vasily Vasilyevich Ulrikh, was held (Krylenko's personal enemy, Vyshinsky, was also present). It is curious that the hearing took place on July 28, and the indictment was marked "July 27, 1938". The main court session began the next day. Krylenko once again confessed everything. And Ulrich announced capital punishment. The meeting lasted only a couple of tens of minutes … By the way, they recalled Krylenko and a brochure from 1909 entitled "In Search of Orthodoxy." She was considered "syndicalist."
Vasily Vasilyevich Ulrikh himself carried out the sentence at Kommunarka. It happened on the same day.
In 1956 Nikolai Vasilievich was rehabilitated. A year earlier, his repressed brother was also fully acquitted.
* * *
Despite the stormy activities that Krylenko led throughout his life, he found time for hobbies that were not in any way related to politics or jurisprudence. Nikolai Vasilyevich was professionally engaged in mountaineering and received the title of "Honored Master". And in 1932 he even led an expedition to the Pamirs. In addition, he was very fond of chess and actively promoted it in the country. On his initiative, chess clubs were created and three international tournaments were held. Nikolai Vasilievich even edited a magazine dedicated to this game. He also knew Esperanto and wore a green star.
In general, Nikolai Vasilyevich was an ambiguous person, but, undoubtedly, smart, talented and purposeful. He made himself, not relying on anyone. But he miscalculated in one thing: he did not have the strength to tame his own brainchild. That fight was initially a losing one for Krylenko.
