Marshal of the Soviet Union, head of the country's Ministry of Defense Andrei Antonovich Grechko died suddenly at his dacha on April 26, 1976. Marshal's contemporaries noted that at 72 he could give odds to many young people. Andrei Grechko continued to actively engage in sports, and nothing foreshadowed such an unexpected death. In many ways, it was this circumstance that became the reason for the emergence of conspiracy theory around the death of the Marshal. In addition, shortly before his death, the head of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Andrei Grechko, dropped the phrase: “Only through my corpse,” commenting on Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's desire to become a marshal. 10 days after the death of Andrei Grechko, Leonid Brezhnev nevertheless became a marshal.
Andrei Antonovich Grechko was born in the small village of Golodaevka in the Kuibyshevsky district of the Rostov region in October 1903. He took part in the Civil War, joining the Red Army in 1919. In 1926, Grechko graduated from the cavalry school, in 1936 the MV Frunze Military Academy, and before the war itself in 1941, the General Staff Military Academy. In the early days of World War II, he worked in the General Staff, but in July 1941 he led the 34th Cavalry Division, which in the first half of August of the same year entered into battle with the Germans south of the capital of Ukraine.
During the Great Patriotic War, he consistently commanded a division, a corps (from January 1942), an operational group of forces (from March 1942), an army (from April 1942). Andrei Grechko ended the war as commander of the 1st Guards Army, which he received in December 1943. After the end of the war, he continued his way up the army career ladder, reaching the very peaks. In 1967, Andrei Antonovich Grechko became the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union.
Commander of the 1st Guards Army, Colonel-General A. A. Grechko (center) on the Arpad line. 1944 year
The version that the defense minister was helped to die is largely based only on the fact that Andrei Antonovich was distinguished by excellent health, and there were simply no prerequisites for his sudden death. The version of the "conspiracy theory", in particular, was considered by Vitaly Karyukov in an article published on the Svobodnaya Pressa portal. In general, on the Internet, you can find some more authors who also develop this version.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Antonovich Grechko was really an athletic and healthy person. By the time of his death, at his own dacha, the marshal was completely healthy and led an active lifestyle, making rather long walks. Grechko was a passionate fan and often attended football and hockey matches for the company of Leonid Brezhnev. Moreover, he really played sports himself: he played tennis and volleyball quite well and with pleasure.
“After graduating from the institute, I was sent by special order to serve in CSKA, although I had to get into the airborne troops. It so happened that before I was sent to the unit, I was asked to play with Marshal Grechko, who, after the end of the match, ordered me to appear personally to him the next day. So they left me at CSKA,”recalls Shamil Tarpishchev, President of the Russian Tennis Federation. According to him, Andrei Antonovich was a very decent tennis player for his age. He also talked about a tragicomic incident that once happened on a tennis court. Korotkov, who played with me (the marshal preferred to play only in pairs), accidentally hit Grechko in the stomach. While the Minister of Defense was coming to his senses, two officers managed to jump out onto the court and quickly twisted the athlete. However, they did not have time to drag him off the court. Catching his breath, the marshal ordered them to put aside, explaining that what was happening was just a game. After this curious incident, the same adjutants accompanied the marshal in civilian clothes. Apparently, they decided that the uniformed officers who twist the tennis player's arms were too ominous, especially when observed from the sidelines.
At the same time, Andrei Antonovich not only kept himself in good physical shape, but also attracted his direct subordinates to regular physical training. Even the marshals of the Soviet Union played volleyball for him. Regardless of their positions, they met twice a week early in the morning at the CSKA Weightlifting Palace, where they trained together in full for an hour and a half. The Minister of Defense himself loved to play volleyball with everyone, demonstrating by personal example that you should not part with physical training, no matter what age you are. Therefore, it seems strange how a fit, strong, healthy marshal passed away so suddenly at the age of 72.
According to the recollections of Evgeny Rodionov, an officer of the "nine" (security), who was attached to the marshal, the body of the Minister of Defense was discovered by them on the morning of April 26, 1976. The preparations for the meeting were already coming to an end, but Andrei Antonovich did not come to the table, although he always had breakfast before the start of the working day. Concerned about the absence of the marshal, the guard asked the relatives to check what was wrong with him. And since the Minister of Defense strictly forbade anyone to enter his room, it was decided to send his great-granddaughter to the outbuilding where Grechko lived. It was she who found her already cold great-grandfather: he seemed to fall asleep, sitting in an armchair.
After the discovery of the body, everything began to spin: the death of the marshal was reported where it should be, the necessary preparations began, on the same day the media reported about the death of the country's defense minister. By the way, the autopsy carried out later showed only that the marshal had died the day before, at approximately 9 o'clock in the evening. The autopsy showed nothing more. It would seem that all supporters of the conspiracy can rest, but if we still assume that Grechko, for some reason, it was decided to eliminate, then there were a sufficient number of sophisticated methods for this.
Since 1937, under the leadership of Professor Grigory Moiseevich Mairanovsky, and in the future a colonel of the medical service in the USSR, a toxicological laboratory ("Laboratory-X"), which was part of the Twelfth Department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, was already in full swing. For 40 years of continuous development, Soviet toxicology was able to reach truly transcendental peaks. For example, in the Soviet Union, poisons were created that could not be detected by any analyzes or tests. Such poisons did not even need to be added to food or sprayed into the air. There were quite a number of filigree ways of "transferring" such poisons. For example, it was enough just to shake the person's hand. Before that, the alleged killer injected poison on his hand just before the handshake. After that, he wiped off his hand with the antidote. But his counterpart in just 3-4 days could die: just fall asleep and never wake up again, which approximately happened to Andrei Antonovich.
It is worth noting that Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a very subtle psychologist and strategist. For all leading posts in the country, he tried to place only well-known, loyal and close people to him. Grechko was not a special exception in this regard. Firstly, because they were both peers with an age difference of only 3 years. Secondly, both during the Great Patriotic War fought on the territory of the Kuban, in particular, in the armies that liberated Novorossiysk from the Nazis (Grechko commanded the 56th army, the future secretary general served in the 18th). Thirdly, the future Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union was an active participant in the conspiracy against Khrushchev. However, could the secretary general be offended by his marshal to such an extent as to "sentence" him. Most likely not, and Leonid Ilyich was never famous for his bloodthirstiness.
However, in 1976, which was a jubilee for Brezhnev, in December, the secretary general turned 70 years old, they began to prepare for the holiday in advance - from the very beginning of the year. And when in the spring of 1976 one of the members of the Central Committee of the party suggested that Andrei Antonovich confer the rank of Marshal on Leonid Ilyich, he flatly refused to fulfill this whim, uttering that very phrase. Grechko remembered very well that at the height of the battle in the Kuban, the future general secretary was only a colonel, while at that time he himself was already in command of the army and wore the epaulettes of a colonel general. Most likely, Grechko, until the very last moment, considered this idea of Brezhnev to be complete nonsense. But in this he was greatly mistaken, since the secretary general simply loved the stars on his chest and shoulder straps to self-forgetfulness. To deprive Brezhnev of his favorite "toys" was rather rash.
Military ranks really were a kind of fad for Brezhnev. Even during the war years, Leonid Ilyich dreamed of being promoted to general and was very worried about this. Only in November 1944 did he manage to get the long-awaited general's shoulder straps for himself. At the same time, he had a certain inferiority complex for a long time, especially when he stood on the podium of the Mausoleum, surrounded by marshals. At that time, the secretary general was "only" a lieutenant general. Probably for this reason, back in 1974, Leonid Ilyich decided to jump over the rank of colonel-general and immediately become an army general. In this aspect, the negative reaction of the secretary general to Grechko's objections is quite predictable. And the phrase dropped by the marshal "Only over my corpse!" and could have become what pushed the secretary general to bad thoughts.
It is also worth noting that due to the fact that Leonid Brezhnev served practically under the command of the future Marshal during the war, Andrei Grechko more than once torpedoed all the decisions of the Secretary General. This was not surprising. Andrei Antonovich was a stately handsome man with almost two meters in height, this man, by his vocation, was supposed to be a commander. Sometimes it came to direct attacks by the marshal against the general secretary right at meetings of the Politburo. Brezhnev humbly endured this criticism.
But do not forget that by 1976 Leonid Ilyich was already a sick person who not so long ago suffered clinical death. Sometimes, under some conditions, he was not fully aware of what he was doing. At the same time, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was not the only one who could "take offense" at the marshal. Andrei Antonovich did not have direct problems with the KGB of the USSR, however, he did not hide his negative attitude towards the growth of the bureaucratic structures of the KGB in the USSR and the increasing influence of the department. These views caused a certain tension in the relations between the Marshal and Andropov. Difficult to share the sphere of influence with the Minister of Defense and Ustinov, who in June 1941 received the post of People's Commissar of Armaments. This allowed Ustinov to consider himself a man who did a lot to strengthen the country's defense and did not need anyone's advice.
It is believed that the department headed by Andropov could have been involved in the death of Andrei Grechko at his own dacha. This version is supported by the strange deaths that accompanied the leadership of the Politburo for several years after the death of the Marshal. So in 1978, Fyodor Davydovich Kulakov, secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for agricultural issues, arrived at his dacha, sat there with the guests, after which he went to bed and did not wake up. People who knew him closely noted his excellent health. It also seemed strange that on the eve of his death his personal doctor and security had left his dacha. In the future, Semyon Kuzmich Tsvigun and Mikhail Andreevich Suslov passed away in not the most obvious ways.
In any case, whether the death of Marshal Grechko was natural, or whether someone had a hand in it (perhaps literally), we will be able to find out only when all the archives are opened. Unless, of course, documents that could shed information on the death of the marshal exist at all.
