"The Moor has done his job, the Moor can leave."
(Play by F. Schiller "The Fiesco Conspiracy")
According to some sources, Genrikh Yagoda was arrested by the NKVD on March 28, 1937, according to others - on April 3. Well, on April 4, all the central newspapers of the USSR published an official document signed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR M. Kalinin: “By the decree of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated April 3, 1937 in view of the detected malfeasance of a criminal nature …
1. To dismiss GG Yagoda, People's Commissar of Communications.
2. Transfer the case of GG Yagoda to the investigating authorities."
Interestingly, the American historian Richard Spence was able to obtain information that Yagoda established illegal supplies of timber from the Gulag camps to Canada, and the profits were transferred to him in a Swiss account, which remained unclaimed (for 2014).
G. Yagoda among the important persons. Even the "broad Cossack" Nikita Khrushchev, and he weaves in the back rows …
During the search carried out at Yagoda, according to the protocol, films, postcards and photographs of a pornographic nature, a rubber penis, Trotskyist literature, as well as two flattened bullets extracted from the bodies of Zinoviev and Kamenev, with corresponding inscriptions, were found. Moreover, all these "finds" were taken by the new People's Commissar of the NKVD NI Yezhov.
And here is a complete list of things found during a search in Heinrich Yagoda's apartment.
Search report at Yagoda.
1937, April 8 days. We, the undersigned, brigade commander Ulmer, captain of the state. security Denotkin, captain of the state. Security Bril, Art. lieutenant state security Berezovsky and Art. lieutenant state security Petrov, on the basis of orders of the NKVD of the USSR for Nos. 2, 3 and 4 of March 28 and 29, 1937, during the time from March 28 to April 5, 1937, they searched G. G. Yagoda in his apartment, storerooms on Milyutinsky Lane, house 9, in the Kremlin, at his dacha in Ozerki, in the storeroom and the office of the USSR People's Commissariat for Communications.
As a result of the searches carried out, it was found:
1. Soviet money 22,997 rubles. 59 kopecks, including a savings book for 6,180 rubles. 59 kopecks
2. Wines of different 1229 bottles, most of them foreign and made in 1897, 1900 and 1902.
3. Collection of pornographic pictures 3904 pcs.
4. Pornographic films 11 pcs.
5. Various foreign cigarettes, Egyptian and Turkish 11,075 pcs.
6. Foreign tobacco 9 box.
7. Men's coat. different, most of them foreign 21 pcs.
8. Fur coats and bekesh on squirrel fur 4 pcs.
9. Ladies' coats of various foreign countries 9 pcs.
10. Squirrel fur coat 1 piece:
11. Fur seal coats 2 pcs.
12. Karakul ladies' coats 2 pcs.
13. Leather coats 4 pcs.
14. Leather and suede jackets overseas 11 pcs.
15. Suits for men from different foreign countries 22 pcs.
16. Trousers of different 29 pairs
17. Overseas jackets 5 pcs.
18. Covered gymnastics from foreign material, khaki, etc. 32 pcs.
19. Wool overcoat 5 pcs.
20. Boots of chevron, chrome, etc. 19 pairs;
21. Different men's shoes (boots and low shoes), mainly foreign 23 pairs
22. Ladies' shoes abroad 31 pairs
23. Overseas bot 5 pairs
24. Piex 11 pairs
25. Fur hats 10 pcs.
26. Caps (overseas) 19 pcs.
27. Ladies' berets abroad 91 pcs.
28. Ladies' hats abroad 22 pcs.
29. Stocking of silk and fildepersovy foreign 130 pairs
30. Foreign socks, mainly silk 112 pairs
31. Various foreign material, silk and other fabrics 24 cuts
32. Soviet-made material 27 cuts
33. Canvases and miscellaneous fabrics 35 pieces
34. Foreign cloth 23 pieces
35. Cloth cuts 4 pieces
36. Covercut 4 pieces
37. Woolen foreign material 17 pieces
38. Lining material 58 pieces
39. Leather of different colors 23
40. Suede leather 14
41. Squirrel skins 50
42. Large inlaid piece of squirrel skins 4
43. Karakul skins 43
44. Fur - otter 5 skins
45. Black Foxes 2
46. Fox Fur 3
47. Fur of different 5 pieces
48. Boas and fur sleeves 3
49. Swan Skins 3
50. Fur - Arctic fox 2
51. Large carpets 17
52. Carpets medium 7
53. Different carpets - leopard, polar bear, wolf skins 5
54. Overseas men's silk shirts 50
55. Men's silk pants overseas 43
56. Overseas silk linen outer shirts for men 29
57. Overseas shirt "Jaeger" 23
58. Longson of foreign "Jaeger" 26
59. Gramophones (foreign) 2
60. Radiol foreign 3
61. Overseas records 399 pcs.
62. Four boxes of foreign records not played
63. Belts overseas 42
64. Ladies' belts for foreign garters 10
65. Belts of the Caucasian 3
66. Handkerchiefs abroad 46
67. Overseas gloves 37 pairs
68. Ladies' bags overseas 16
69. Skirt 13
70. Ladies' costumes abroad 11
71. Pajamas of various overseas 17
72. Scarves of different kinds, mufflers and foreign scarves 53
73. Overseas silk ladies' blouse 57
74. Ties overseas 34
75. Dress Overseas 27
76. Ladies silk shirts, mostly foreign 68
77. Woolen knitted blouses, mostly foreign 31
78. Ladies' silk tights overseas 70
79. Travel bags overseas in leather suitcases 6
80. Toys for children abroad 101 sets
81. Large silk handkerchiefs 4
82. Dressing gowns foreign silk, furry, etc. 16
83. Carpet tablecloths, Japanese embroidery overseas, dining rooms - large 22
84. Woolen sweaters, foreign woolen bathing suits 10
85. Buttons and buttons of foreign 74 dozen.
86. Foreign buckles and brooches 21;
87. Fishing accessories overseas 73 prev.
88. Field binoculars 7
89. Foreign cameras 9
90. Spyglass 1
91. Magnifying devices abroad 2
92. 19 different revolvers
93. Hunting rifles and small-bore rifles 12
94. Combat Rifles 2
95. Ancient Daggers 10
96. Checkers 3
97. Gold Hours 5
98. Hours of different 9
99. Car 1
100. Sidecar motorcycle 1
101. Bicycles 3
102. Collection of smoking pipes and mouthpieces (ivory, amber, etc.), most of them pornographic 165
103. Collection of museum coins
104. Foreign coins of yellow and white metal 26
105. Rubber artificial penis 1
106. Photo lenses 7
107. Suitcase-movie "Zeiss" 1
108. Foggy Painting Lanterns 2
109. Movie Camera 1
110. Appliances for photos 3
111. Foldable overseas screen 1
112. Films with cassettes 120
113. Chemical supplies 30
114. Foreign photo paper - large boxes 7
115. Spoons, knives and forks 200
116. Antique miscellaneous crockery 1008 prev.
117. Chess Ivory 8
118. Suitcase with different cartridges for revolvers 1
119. Cartridge 360
120. Sports equipment (skates, skis, rockets) 28
121. Antique items of different 270
122. Artistic Veils and Suzanne 11
123. Various foreign objects (stoves, glaciers, vacuum cleaners, lamps) 71
124. Products Palekh 21
125. Foreign perfumery 95 prev.
126. Foreign sanitation and hygiene items (medicines, condoms) 115
127. Grand piano, piano 3
128. Typewriter 1
129. K.-r. Trotskyist, fascist literature 542
130. Suitcases foreign and chests 24
Note: In addition to the items listed, this act did not include various household items, such as: toiletry, mirrors, furniture, pillows, blankets, foreign penknives, ink utensils, etc.
Brigade Commander Ulmer
Captain GB Denotkin
Captain GB Bril
Art. Lieutenant GB Berezovsky
Art. Lieutenant GB Petrov.
(CA FSB. F. N-13614. T. 2. L. 15-20.)
As you can see, Yagoda surpassed even the famous dentist Shpak in the number of foreign suede jackets, which once again emphasizes the banal truth: a narrow-minded person, and even a native of the corresponding social environment, usually suffers from a craving for hoarding and materialism. Happiness, they say, is not in things, but in their quantity! I did not understand, poor fellow, that he should have been content with unlimited power, and with regard to things, as an example, to be guided by his leader.
Pay attention to the empty space between the leader and Kirov. It depicted Yagoda, who was responsible for the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal by political prisoners, but then he was removed from the drawing.
Several times they put different people in Yagoda's cell in order to make him talk and thus get some new facts. One of them, a certain Slutsky, according to the memoirs of the same A. Orlov, conveyed that Yagoda told him that he could write in his report to Yezhov that, in his opinion, God does exist!
When Slutsky asked why he decided so, Yagoda replied: “I didn’t deserve anything from Stalin except gratitude for my faithful service; I should have earned the most severe punishment from God for breaking his commandments a thousand times. Now look where I am and judge for yourself: is there a God or not …"
Was the beloved people "Stalinist People's Commissar" and became just as hated by them "enemy of the people Yagoda"!
First, Yagoda was accused of "anti-state and criminal offenses", then of "ties with Trotsky, Bukharin and Rykov, organizing a Trotskyist-fascist conspiracy in the NKVD, preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin and Yezhov, and preparing a coup and intervention" and in addition, as if if all this was not enough - also in the murder of M. Gorky's son. All his chief collaborators and deputies testified against Yagoda: Ya. S. Agranov, L. M. Zakovsky, S. G. Firin, S. F. Redens, F. I. Leplevsky and others. That is, everything is according to the "eleventh commandment of God" - "push the falling one!" And, by the way, what else could they have done within the framework of the system that existed in the country at that time?
The leader and N. I. Yezhov, who replaced the deceased Yagoda. Was this one really so stupid that he did not understand that his hour would also come, that the authorities get rid of those who are engaged in dirty deeds in the first place ?!
Interestingly, in a letter to N. I. Yezhov in 1937, A. Kh. Artuzov assessed Yagoda as a limited person, unworthy of the posts he held in the OGPU. And in character, and in intellectual strength, and in its culture, education and knowledge of Marxism, they say, Yagoda is the antipode of V. R. Menzhinsky. The question, however, is, where did Comrade Artuzov look before and why did he not say anything like that when Yagoda was appointed to all his posts, after all, it was not he who approved himself for them ?!
It is also clear that Yagoda's wife Ida Averbakh was immediately dismissed from the prosecutor's office, and on June 9, 1937, she was arrested "as a family member convicted by the NKVD of the USSR." Together with her mother and her seven-year-old son, she was sent into exile in Orenburg for five years, but later they were still shot. She was, apparently, considered a very dangerous enemy for the Soviet regime!
But Khrushchev's good relations with Yagoda did no harm. Or was he smiling at him "just like that"?
In March 1938, Yagoda, as one of the main defendants, appeared before the court at the Third Moscow Trial. Some of his answers are quite interesting. For example, what he said about the espionage charge:
“No, in this I do not plead guilty. If I were a spy, I assure you that dozens of states would have to disband their intelligence services."
And here is a remarkable dialogue that took place during the trial between the prosecutor A. Ya. Vyshinsky and Genrikh Yagoda:
VYSHINSKY: Tell me, traitor and traitor Yagoda, have you never experienced the slightest regret or the slightest remorse in all your vile and treacherous activities? And now, when you finally answer before the proletarian court for all your dastardly crimes, do you feel not the slightest regret for what you have done?
Yagoda: Yes, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry …
Vyshinsky: Attention, comrades judges. The traitor and traitor Yagoda regrets. What are you sorry about, spy and criminal Yagoda?
Yagoda: I'm very sorry … I'm very sorry that when I could do this, I didn't shoot all of you.
The defendant pleaded guilty both to ties with the "Trotskyist bloc", and to the so-called Kremlin conspiracy headed by Yenukidze, and even to organizing the murder of Kirov, Kuibyshev, and Gorky. Even Menzhinsky, as it turned out, he killed. And only to confess to the murder of Maxim Peshkov Yagoda refused.
In his last word, Yagoda, among other things, said:
“Citizens of the judge! I was the leader of the greatest construction projects - canals. Now these channels are an ornament of our era. I dare not ask to go to work there, at least as one performing the most difficult jobs …”That is, it was a hint that he was asking to save his life and send him to hard labor. Then he wrote a petition for pardon, they say, whatever you want, but just save my life.
However, the court did not heed his pleas. On March 13, at dawn, the court announced the verdict: the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to death. The last attempt to save life was a petition for pardon, in which Yagoda wrote: “My guilt before the Motherland is great. Do not redeem her in any way. It's hard to die. Before all the people and the party, I kneel and ask you to have mercy on me, keeping me alive."
Berry in this list is the third in a row …
The Central Executive Committee of the USSR rejected Yagoda's pardon request, and on March 15, 1938, the sentence was carried out in the Lubyanka prison of the NKVD. It would seem that here she is - another innocent victim of the Stalinist regime, and it is necessary to rehabilitate it. However, on April 2, 2015, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared Genrikh Yagoda not subject to rehabilitation on the basis of the 1991 federal law on rehabilitation.
Arseniy Roginsky, head of the human rights society "Memorial", fully agreed with the court's decision. According to him, it is impossible to rehabilitate someone who himself committed serious crimes against the law. However, Roginsky drew attention to the fact that the charges against Yagoda at the trial were likewise falsified and that independent researchers do not have access to his criminal case and are forced to be content with only an official opinion about the trial and a minimum of declassified documents.
For some unknown reason, researchers are still not allowed to deal with cases of non-rehabilitated persons in the Russian Federation, and this does not allow historians to give a full and objective assessment of the Supreme Court's decision in the Yagoda case.
