Not so long ago, on the pages of VO I read the material "Reburial in One Night" and immediately remembered: and in fact I am almost a witness of one very interesting historical event, which today, of course, everyone seems to know about, but … in details and in faces it looks it's much more interesting. We are talking about the widespread demolition of monuments to Stalin, carried out by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU … "overnight", and throughout the USSR. This operation was carried out in 1956, when I was two years old and, of course, I could not find out about it myself, but I was lucky to work with a person who personally carried out one of these demolitions and he told me this whole story. …
Station building Penza-3. The photo is still from pre-revolutionary times, but even now it has not changed at all.
And it so happened that in 1983, when I was already working at the Penza Polytechnic Institute, Vladimir Efimovich Reva, Candidate of Historical Sciences, who had previously held responsible posts in the Zheleznodorozhny RK CPSU, came to work for us. This area in our city was the most populous and industrial. And two important railways intersect in it, so there were four stations Penza-1, 2, 3, 4. That is, the responsibility there was above his head, so, apparently, he was tired of it. And here … and calmer, and there is something to tell from experience on occasion. Then he became the head of the department of the history of the CPSU, and in 1995, after all the known changes, he decided to open the department of "public relations" on the site of the then existing department of national history and cultural studies. I decided and … opened, and according to the documents we were the second in Russia !!! After the famous MGIMO - they were the first!
It is clear that we immediately took care of traveling to regional townships, opening training centers for our specialty there at schools, that is, preparing talented young people in advance and getting them in our hands. One such school of "young PR men" was located in the regional center of Serdobsk, where it took two hours by train, and which departed from the Penza-3 station.
And now I must say that the main station of the city, Penza-1, had an old beautiful station, which was demolished and replaced with a modern one, but nobody began to demolish the station building on Penza-3, and it has survived to this day. And it is noteworthy that it was in it that the headquarters of the White Czechs was located, when on May 25, 1918, they raised their rebellion in Penza, and it was from here, through the Penza and Sura rivers, that they began an assault on the central part of the city.
Shooting cells of the White Czechs opposite the central part of the city of Penza. Just behind them is the railway station of the Penza-3 station.
Often I had to travel to Serdobsk with Reva, and we talked about various interesting topics. And then one day he was drawn to memories, and he told me the following story.
In 1956, when he was already one of the secretaries of the Komsomol Committee of the Komsomol of the Zheleznodorozhny District, he was, as always, urgently summoned to the Regional Committee of the CPSU and told: you need to “bury” Stalin's bust at the Penza-3 station in one night.
And for some reason this bust stood not on the platform, as one would expect, but on the platform facing the trains and as if escorting them on their way from the station. Moreover, everything should have been arranged so that no traces of this case remained, and no one would know anything! And someone else does not believe when I write that our party did not trust its own people and was afraid of them. How distrusted and how afraid! Even the text of Khrushchev's report at the XX Congress of the CPSU was not published in its entirety in the newspapers! He appeared in the West two days later, but here for the communists they limited themselves to a "closed letter" and a retelling of his speech in Pravda.
Penza. View of the elevated historical part of the city from the bridge over the Sura. The green massif on the right: Peski Island, and behind it is the Penza-3 station.
It is clear that Reva immediately saluted: "the party ordered, the Komsomol answered - yes!" He was explained, given, so to speak, "powers", and the work began to boil. Only the most trusted Komsomol members, no more than 5-6 people, could be involved in the demolition of the monument, and everything could be finished by morning, that is, by the arrival of the morning train at 5:30 Moscow time. “The monument is plaster and fragile, so you will quickly cope with it! - explained to him in the regional committee.
When the "guys", armed with crowbars, came to the place of work at about 10 am, everything was ready there. Police cordoned off both entrances to the platform, and the doors of the station building were locked. A freight train was put on the first track, and although the trains went through the station continuously, no one saw anything behind its cars.
So the guys got down to business. While some were crushing the pedestal, others were digging a hole behind the water tower behind the station building to bury the remains. So that there are no visible traces left! And I must say that the first part of the operation went off without a hitch, without a hitch, the base under the bust and the bust itself were crumbled in no time and buried in a hole behind the tower. But then unforeseen difficulties followed.
Probably, someone else found these monuments of the Soviet era - a park sculpture "a girl with an oar", "a pioneer with a bugle", "a border guard with a dog", painted with "silver paint", and who did not find them - watch the funny movie "Welcome or unauthorized entry is prohibited! " There are just a lot of such sculptures. They, like the busts of "Comrade Stalin" at that time were cast from plaster, so it was not a big deal to cope with the monument. But it turned out that four iron rods of decent thickness were embedded in the concrete (!) At its base, and this bust was supported on them. What to do?
Reva rushed to call the officer on duty at the district committee. And how to call if the night and everything is closed around? There are few "payphones", they stand only in the center, and the station's pipe is cut off as always. Moreover, even the police did not have a mobile connection at that time. I had to run around the city at night and personally report the problem. We decided quickly: they gave him a hacksaw and said - "Saw!" "What if we break the canvas?" "Saw, and we'll bring you the spare ones next!" And they brought it!
Meanwhile, work was in full swing on the site of the ill-fated monument: the guys were sawing the reinforcement rods, changing every five minutes! We had to cut in a hole below the asphalt level, and that was good for the good of the business. But this made the work very difficult, because they had to be cut to the root. Meanwhile, dawn had already dawned on the horizon. Time passed quickly, the secret threatened to "emerge". The second secretary of the OK CPSU, who arrived at the scene, nervously glanced at his watch - "Time!" The head of the police patrol also looked at his watch, and it was clear that he did not like the whole idea. The guys drenched in sweat and sawed, sawed, sawed. This is now a "Bulgarian" and - r-ah-ah and the job is ready! And then, then they sawed by hand!
"Saw, Shura, they are golden!" - probably, each of them more than once that night recalled this phrase "from Bender". And at the same time, no matter how hard it is, it’s impossible to quit. In an instant you will fly out of the Komsomol and … "goodbye career!"
But … how hard it was, but coped! All four "fittings" were sawed off, the asphalt was immediately brought, they were all covered, rolled up with a hand roller, and already at 5 o'clock in the morning this "case" was thus completed. True, there was a black asphalt blotch, but here it was already quite simple: they brought a bucket of dust from a heap (and such heaps were swept by the wipers constantly and they towered here and there), covered with fresh asphalt and rubbed everything with their feet!
View of the modern part of the city from the bridge. On the right is the green massif - the island of Peski, and behind it, even more to the right, is Penza-3.
The freight train was immediately removed, and the guys were so tired that they sat down on a bench to rest, right here on the platform. And here comes a certain grandmother with a can of milk for sale and sees: there is no bust! He sees the guys who are extremely tired and asks: "A-ah-ah, where … is the bust?"
"And there never was, grandma!" - the guys answered her, after which they got up and went home - to wash, and then again to work in the district committee. Then no one gave time off for such cases. They didn’t ask them. They were young and healthy. Other things were on their minds was something else …
