It’s clear,” said Lidia Nikolaevna. - Victoria really did a good deed for Alla, but also for herself. She loved Shubin, was his mistress and wanted to know everything about his wife. You, Victoria, wanted to understand what they are, why he doesn’t drive away the monster called Irma. And then you got pregnant, this fact turned everything in your mind. You, Victoria, decided to remove Irma by any means, because Shubin would not leave her under any circumstances. I think you asked him, without even talking about the child, what he would do. Surely Shubin replied that he would not leave Irma, but he really had good reasons to tolerate his wife with her wild antics.

Lidia Nikolaevna almost laughed, so she paused. Isn't it funny? The people involved think that there is only one Shubin, but there are two of them! As soon as I imagined this picture with a pseudo-wife between them, who was ruining everything for both of them, I just wanted to laugh. But it’s impossible, it’s impossible... She’s on duty.

Victoria used the services of Arkasha. I don’t know what she promised him... however, no matter what reward she promised, it doesn’t matter, maybe a lot of money, maybe herself... it doesn’t matter. He agreed and signed his own death warrant. And when he shot at Irma, this ribbon came out from under his jacket... and a ring, and a bracelet... Arkasha is not a killer, an amateur, he wanted to do a favor for a woman with whom he was friends and who promised him something.

What are you... - Vika said with difficulty. - Do you think I...

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lidia Nikolaevna nodded. - You persuaded him to shoot Shubina for the sake of his child, and then you yourself shot Arkady Reznikov with the same pistol. At the same time, they played out a whole Sabantuy in his apartment, although there was no one there except you and Arkasha... By the way! He also rented an apartment three months before the murder, you both were preparing. And then they took away the gadgets, leaving only the passport - a fake passport.

How dare you! I was attacked...

Lidia Nikolaevna took out several printed photographs, fanned them out and turned them towards her:

You were attacked by your own brother, these details, when you know the main thing, are easy to calculate. Look, that's him with you, in the photo. And here is a photo where you, Victoria, are sitting on a motorcycle. That is, you took the motorcycle, helmet, and keys from Reznikov’s house, rolled it away from the house so that the neighbors would not hear the sound of the engine, then got in and drove away. Yes, you asked your brother for a favor. Who else can you ask to strike carefully? He dealt a not too strong blow to the solar plexus, and not to the stomach with the child, although you have a short period of time. But he hit me in the face in such a way that it was convincing.

Eva, who had been silent before, also opened her mouth:

Who attacked me?

Victoria,” Benjamin answered this time. - When I stopped her from stabbing her with a knife, she ran away, but from her habits I realized that a woman was running away. Later, Lydia Nikolaevna and I figured out who exactly attacked Eva. Look for who benefits - that’s the whole principle. I think Victoria did not want to kill Eva, but to disfigure her, again because of Shubin, she was afraid of competition.

That’s all, citizens,” Greenbes announced. - Kostya, please...

The officer approached Victoria, took out handcuffs, and warned her:

Just don't cry, I don't like you. And it's useless now...

The office was empty, Lidia Nikolaevna closed it, it was still a strange and unusual place, she went to her rightful one and turned the key in the door. Before she had time to enter, Stiva rushed in after her:

Shouldn't we celebrate the completion of the task?

Well, mine is so old, mine is so tired, that a drink after all the crap that we cleared away is just right. Go ahead and buy a snack.

May you cry - she is old! It's up to you to plow and plow... Vodka or cognac?

Can I come with you?.. I have cognac, dad gave it to me. Great cognac!

Standing in the doorway, Edik smiled provocatively.

Benjamin caught up with Eva already on the street, she was catching a car:

Hey Eva! Stop! - He ran up to her and offered: - Should I give her a lift? And then I see - you’re a cripple, how can you not meet him halfway?

Hm! Well, give me a ride,” she allowed with royal condescension and, climbing into the salon, she asked, recalling his testimony: “Who were you protecting me from?” I don't think I asked.

From yourself. I didn’t realize that it was Victoria who needed to be looked after, and not you. How's your hand?

Hurts. She cut me deep, tore my clothes, you idiot.

Be thankful that you didn’t shred your face.

To be fair, we need to thank Benjamin, without him the situation could have ended badly for Eva, she understood this well. By the way, a lot has shifted in her ideas after the attack, this is how you find yourself face to face with death - and the cells in your head are rearranged. You begin to love everything around you, as if euphoria fell on you from somewhere above and guides your emotions. In essence, there is a lot of good things around in life, but you don’t always notice it.

Thank you,” she said.

What do I hear! - Venik chuckled, turning the steering wheel. -Have you learned a new word? I'm touched that Eve learned to say "thank you."

Am I that bad?

He glanced sideways at the girl, she was actually waiting for a serious answer, to tell the truth - no, it’s not worth it, he made do with half-truths:

Yes, not bad. Poorly brought up.

Pfft! I am well brought up, so I invite you home for tea. I'll introduce you to mom.

Nevermind - an offer! Benjamin, with feigned horror, casting fleeting glances at the road, looked at Eve and said:

First you introduce me to my mother, then you want to marry me.

Ha-ha-ha... - Eva rolled and also took a joking tone: - I have to show my mother who saved me. Don’t be afraid, you will be her deity, since you have saved the main treasure - me. For now, this is enough for you.

Tea is tea.

With a cake,” Eva clarified. - Mom made it, it’s a terribly tasty thing, I feel like I’ll eat half of it.

Irina and Georgy brought Daniil’s mother home, they would simply forget about her, no one needs her, and it’s unfair to sit in a madhouse. Let him live, useless to anyone, at home. The mother-in-law did not look well, but now it will be easier for her, the walls of the house not only help, but heal and console, and freedom is generally a great blessing. On the way here, Irina informed her mother-in-law of what her son was guilty of, but briefly, she did not injure the woman and by the fact that Danya actually became a murderer, he raised his hand with a pistol at his wife. Finding herself in the house, Irina said in a businesslike manner:

Here you are at home. I called the servants, they will arrive tomorrow, today you will have to manage alone. And with your permission, I will take my remaining documents.

And then? What are you going to do?

I'll go to my home.

Oh, I see: Dani’s mother is not used to living alone, she needs an environment, respect, worship. Irina tried to gently explain to her:

This is not my home. And he was never mine.

But you are my son’s wife, he loved you...

Fathers of the world, she was driving from the madhouse and didn’t hear a damn thing what her unloved daughter-in-law was saying! Maybe it was in vain that they took her from the psychiatric hospital, what if she is dangerous to society? So, you need to say straight out:

Your son shot at me, he replaced me with another woman, then buried the second Irma with your nephew in the cemetery. And the one who saved you was the one who pulled you out of the madhouse, brought you here and is waiting for me in the car. I like him, it's good to be with him. I’m afraid to say the word “love”, this concept acquires a great feeling not immediately, as it seems to me now, but over the time that two people spend together. That's how it was with my parents. But I really like Gosha, he’s smart, sensitive, reliable... I don’t know how things will turn out with him, if he asks me to marry him, I’ll go, if he doesn’t ask me, I’ll survive, I’m not afraid to be left alone now, but I’ll definitely have a child, I hope not alone. I'll look for documents...

"International Affairs": Alexander Valentinovich, for the first time, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation and with the participation of four ministries, the international exhibition “Memorial-2011” is being held. Considering the relevance of its topic, what problems do the concluded agreements help solve and how are these problems solved in Russia and on the territory of other states - our partners?

Alexander Kirilin: By the way, the idea of ​​the exhibition also arose due to the fact that 20 years ago, in 1991, we concluded the first intergovernmental agreement on cooperation with Italy. The agreement was concluded between Italy and the USSR. It was signed by the heads of the Defense Ministries of both countries. In Italy, there is a specialized structure within the Ministry of Defense - this is the General Commissariat for honoring compatriots who died in the war. They have three memorial cemeteries. And according to the laws of the Italian Republic, the fallen Italian soldiers must rest on their own soil. Therefore, the Italians exhume the found remains and ensure their removal to their homeland. The identification rate is quite high. About 40% of the names of dead soldiers are established during exhumation and then quite a lot more during genetic-molecular research. Over these 20 years, about 12 thousand remains were removed. Of course, this is not everyone who died on the territory of the USSR, but nevertheless the figure is impressive.

Intergovernmental agreements are permanent documents designed for ongoing cooperation. Problems exist in solving the assigned tasks. They are related to both technical and historical and archival aspects. Technical aspects are the search itself, identification, because many burials are located in an unknown location. The documents have not been preserved; we have to work with local residents, and these are mostly elderly people. Sometimes local archaeologists help, sometimes something is discovered by accident.

Recently, on the Borodino field in the village where the school and hospital were located, the burial of 62 German soldiers was found. The People's Union of Germany carried out relevant work together with our archaeologists and anthropologists. All items were confiscated and handed over to the relatives of the victims, and the remains to the German side. In the process of work, it turned out that information about this burial was in the archive service of the Bundeswehr, these are also the archives of the Wehrmacht. Sometimes we encounter misunderstandings on the part of local authorities and organizations conducting archaeological excavations. One of our archaeological structures became interested in the incident on the Borodino field, which I spoke about. Its representatives categorically refused to give us the remains.

There is an authorized organization in Russia - the Association of International Military Memorial Cooperation "War Memorials". The Ministry of Defense is the authorized body in the country to implement the provisions of the law “On perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland” as it relates to Russian and Soviet soldiers. But it would not be entirely correct if representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense were involved in creating military graves of the former aggressor.

The people may not understand us, because any interested party provides funds for the creation of memorial cemeteries. And according to our laws, the creation, reconstruction and repair of Russian cemeteries are carried out at the expense of our local authorities. An unsightly picture may emerge: the Ministry of Defense is creating cemeteries for former occupiers, and has “spread” the creation of its own cemeteries to local authorities. Therefore, it was decided to organize a special structure, especially since in some states, in particular in Germany, non-state bodies are also involved in this. The People's Ministry, for example, was created back in 1919, after the First World War. This is a public organization. But we, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, are still a kind of arbiter; they turn to us as an official government structure in the event that something does not work out.

After the conclusion of an intergovernmental agreement, control over the implementation of these documents both in Russia and abroad falls on the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. In preparing documents, the main role is assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the delegation includes the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Archive, the War Memorials Association, and sometimes even customs authorities. When the agreement is concluded, the head of the Russian part of the document is the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia. That is, we are directly related to the execution of these agreements.

The international agreement is higher in its legal status than the legislative documents of the Russian Federation. We have seven representative offices abroad, created by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation. Of these, six are working, and the seventh (with the Baltic states) is under negotiations. Now they are preparing to open a representative office in Slovakia. As part of the exchange note signed two years ago by the presidents of the United States and Russia, the updated composition of the Russian-American Interdepartmental Commission on Prisoners of War, Internees and Missing Persons should be actively working. The leadership of the commission and ensuring its activities are entrusted to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. This note and the prepared decree allow us to send our employees to the US Embassy for historical and archival, and then military memorial work related to perpetuating the memory of our fallen soldiers.

In 1945, the Americans took a significant part of the German military archives, including the archives of concentration camps, to the United States. They are in the US National Archives. I was there, they showed me samples of documents. The American side is ready to meet us halfway in providing documents. Some of the names of the “missing”, who turned out to be prisoners of war who died in German camps, were published on its website “Memorial-2011”: www.obd-memorial.ru. This is our generalized data bank - about 700 thousand cards, and that’s not all. According to objective estimates, there were about 4.5 million people in captivity. About 2 million returned from captivity, more precisely, 1 million 836 thousand people. The rest either died or became displaced.

I think that working with American archives will allow us to identify quite a lot of names. We will enter them into a unified data bank. And within two to three years we will be able to replenish the database.

We don’t have any problems at the state level, but at the local level there are misunderstandings. There was a famous case when in the village of Kralovo in the Czech Republic, the deputy headman arbitrarily used a chainsaw to saw off the hammer and sickle from the monument to fallen soldiers, recording all this on film. Moreover, he managed to gather a group of people who demanded that the monument be removed, declaring that there were no burials there, and the symbolism of the hammer and sickle was unequivocal to the swastika. In this regard, let me recall that the state neighboring the Czech Republic - Austria - has a hammer and sickle in its coat of arms. The eagle holds a sickle in one paw and a hammer in the other, and this does not prevent Austria from being a democratic state. Unfortunately, there are manifestations of such ultra-nationalism. There are decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal on generally recognized prohibited symbols. Nobody banned Soviet symbols, except for some Baltic states and Georgia. This, in my opinion, does not speak in favor of these states.

We have good business relations with Poland. A lot has been done. Unfortunately, the long-time head of the Polish Council for the Preservation of the Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom, Andrzej Przewoznik, died a year ago along with the President of Poland in a plane crash near Smolensk. He firmly defended the interests of his state, was a sensible politician, a major official with the rank of minister, and was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship, the Order of the Revival of Poland - the Commander's Cross. He led the Council for more than ten years. Thanks to his efforts, we managed to do a lot together. Poland is a state in which documents related to the transfer of primary military graves have been almost completely preserved. At the beginning of our work, more than 85% of the soldiers lay as unknown soldiers. Working with the tracing service of the Polish Red Cross, with the property protection council, we were convinced that 99% of the names could be identified. And we are doing this.

"International Affairs": What about the states - our former republics?

A.Kirilin: We have established full-scale international cooperation. The interdepartmental commission to perpetuate the memory of the victims of wars and political repressions in Ukraine is actively working with us, and its executive secretary Valery Kazakevich has done a lot of work. We will continue it. At the beginning of June in Moscow, under the leadership of the ministers of education and science of Russia and Ukraine, a meeting of the humanitarian commission was held, which includes a subcommittee for the preparation of intergovernmental agreements between Russia and Ukraine to perpetuate the memory of fallen soldiers. The work must be joint, because the Soviet people participated in the war, and not Ukrainians and Russians separately.

In the fall of 1941, near Kiev, significant groups of our troops, 665 thousand people, were surrounded and taken prisoner. Most of the people died because the Germans could not organize proper accommodation, medical care, food, or water delivery. There are mass graves of these people, they are not marked in any way. The Ukrainians and I believe that it is necessary to establish their names and erect monuments to them.

In the fall we will have a meeting of the intergovernmental Russian-Hungarian commission. We will try to find mutually beneficial points of contact. We have two prefabricated cemeteries on Russian territory. The largest is in the village of Rudkino, Voronezh region, almost 30 thousand Hungarians are buried there. There are separate burials, for example in the area of ​​Krasnogorsk near Moscow. The second cemetery is in the Volgograd region, about 12 thousand fallen are buried there. The Hungarians fought near Voronezh, in the Voronezh-Rossoshan operation. An entire Hungarian army fought at Stalingrad, many were captured and died. In general, the Battle of Stalingrad was a tragedy not only for the Soviet people, but also for the occupiers.

Our work in Germany is going well, work in China has been gaining momentum for two years, and we continue to cooperate. It turned out that there were many burial places unknown to us, mainly in Northern China, in Manchuria, on the Liaodong Peninsula, where our 39th Army occupied Port Arthur. Hailar is a famous fortified area, Mudanjiang is a city that was liberated from the Japanese and fought with the Kwantung Army. The war was short, but nevertheless the losses were serious. Some of the dead were taken to Primorye. There are their graves there. Unfortunately, for many years they did not carry out total passportization; the embassy had only 11 passports, and now there are more than 80. The burials are small, about ten people, but given the friendly attitude of the Chinese authorities towards the memory of our Soviet soldiers, we can do a lot there.

The issue with burials from the period of the Russo-Japanese War is more complicated. For certain reasons, the Chinese consider the Russian army to be an occupation army. I saw inscriptions on an Orthodox cross in a cemetery in Liaoshun (formerly Port Arthur) - irrefutable evidence that Russia attacked China. I asked local comrades why they wrote in Russian something completely different from what was actually written on the cross? On the cross I read: “Here lie the Russian soldiers who laid down their lives for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland.” And the Chinese wrote in Russian: “Russian soldiers who repented are buried here...” and so on. I ask, where is the document that Russia fought with China? In our work, we come across the widespread opinion that Russia and Japan are “two imperialist predators who tore apart the body of weak imperial China, fighting for their imperialist interests, causing innumerable disasters to the unfortunate Chinese people.”

So far, our attempts to prove that Chinese troops participated in the Russo-Japanese War against Japan have been unsuccessful. I have a photograph in my archive - General Linevich receiving a parade of Russian and Chinese troops. We convince with documents in hand that the USSR legally leased the Liaodong Peninsula, building there the cities of Dalniy and Port Arthur, which have become naval bases of China today. These are beautiful, prosperous cities, and when Russian troops were there, the administration in these cities remained Chinese, the police were Chinese. Apparently, in the PRC there is an attitude to think this way and only this way.

We asked to be given the opportunity to at least carry out certification of these military cemeteries, to help us find our compatriots, after all, 50 thousand died in the Russo-Japanese War. These are Russian people - Penza, Kaluga, Ryazan, Bryansk peasants who fought there not for some imperialist interests, but on the orders of their leadership - for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. They were tried and executed by Chinese local authorities. There are photographs of heads being cut off with swords. Therefore, on the one hand, this Chinese position is surprising. On the other hand, it is not customary to go to someone else’s monastery with your own rules, so we, together with the Russian Foreign Ministry, are carrying out painstaking work.
As a result, we managed to convince the Chinese side that it was necessary to restore the military cemetery in Port Arthur. A complete restoration was carried out, even reconstruction of the cemetery in accordance with the drawings that were in 1908.

Let's say 1800 burials do not mean that 1800 people are buried there. According to various sources, from 17 to 27 thousand people lie there. After the capture of Port Arthur and the liberation of the territory, the Japanese cremated the bodies of their dead soldiers - both their own and the Russians. There is a Golgotha ​​with a cross and an inscription that the ashes of 12,657 soldiers lie here. There are also individual burials. So, we have 186 types of burials. Restoration and archaeological documentation is processed for each species. And in accordance with this, the cemetery was reconstructed. Now it looks more like a park of culture and recreation. Part of the cemetery is the burials of those killed in 1945, and part is from the Korean War.

The first big step in cooperation was taken, but the Chinese side set a condition: the restoration of this cemetery will be carried out by a non-governmental organization authorized by the relatives of the dead soldiers. We found relatives. We found an organization that took on the burden of restoration - this is the Generation Foundation of Andrei Skoch, a State Duma deputy, a man who in modern Russia managed to organize his business in such a way that, being a wealthy person, he with great enthusiasm provides funds for the war memorial the work of restoring military graves, to help veterans and large families.

Interestingly, a week before the opening of the memorial cemetery in Port Arthur, which our president visited, we learned that Dmitry Medvedev would meet with ten Chinese veterans of the war of resistance against Japanese aggressors. And the Generation Foundation organized a trip for our veterans there. It turned out to be an impressive delegation at the opening of the cemetery, then there was a large banquet with the participation of veterans of both countries, local authorities, and residents of Port Arthur. The 12 million rubles that were spent on the reconstruction of the memorial is not a one-time action - he paid off and calmed down, no, this is a purposeful long-term work, it continues. This is an example of philanthropy, which was developed in Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries.

Let me return to intergovernmental agreements. Not everyone is actively involved with us. This is due to the fact that on the territory of Romania, for example, there are not many burial sites, and the state on whose territory there are burial sites does not have enough funds.

We have a good project - there is a public expert council under the Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which has established its own fund “Dignified Memory”. We took a military cemetery in Hungary for restoration and are working with Transneft. This corporation will help reconstruct the military cemetery in Budesti in Romania - the largest military burial ground in this country, 16 thousand of our soldiers are buried there, but in fact there are no names of those buried. We have now established 4 thousand names, I think we will establish most of the names of everyone who is buried there. This memorial is not far from Bucharest, we expect the laying of wreaths from official delegations.

Work is underway on 12 agreements with Finland. Some of our military graves of the little-known war of 1939-1940 are located on the territory of the Russian Federation, in the Vyborg border region, which was ceded to the USSR under the peace treaty. Almost 127 thousand people died in that war - killed, dead, frozen.

"International Affairs": Did partner states willingly agree to participate in the Memorial 2011 exhibition under intergovernmental agreements?

A.Kirilin: There were 12 expositions of foreign countries at the exhibition; eight more countries sent their delegations to participate in the exhibition.

"International Affairs": The colossal work that is being carried out within the framework of intergovernmental agreements and on search in general, is it somehow reflected in a single information center?

A.Kirilin: Unfortunately, there is no such single center. In theory, everyone should report through local authorities, military registration and enlistment offices, and they, in turn, send us this data. In the near future, we plan to bring such work to a common denominator. This year, a lot of information has come from the constituent entities of the Federation and districts, but this is only the beginning of the work. We hope, after carrying out certain amendments to the law “On perpetuating the memory of those killed in defense of the Fatherland,” to build a vertical in which DOSAAF will take part as an organization with its own regional branches everywhere, and the Ministry of Defense as the founder of DOSAAF and responsible for this work. Also the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Regional Policy. Local authorities should deal with this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs works abroad.

Now we are amending the law, according to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is allowed to allocate part of the funds allocated by the state for the reconstruction and restoration of military graves, in accordance with the need to allocate for the reburial of the remains of our soldiers found abroad. We openly say that the Baltic states categorically refuse to carry out this work at the expense of local authorities. In other countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Hungary - where remains were found, the states are engaged in reburial at their own expense.

In every country where there are such detachments, search activities are carried out, they contact our embassies. There is no point in building a separate structure there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs could make a decision and organize this work together with Rossotrudnichestvo. And in our country, many hundreds of teams are engaged in search activities, so it is important to streamline it, which is what we are targeting this year.

"International Affairs": When starting such a grandiose exhibition, what was the main goal of the organizing committee?

A.Kirilin: It was most important for us to show that the 20 years that have passed since the signing of the first intergovernmental agreement were not in vain. A huge amount of work has been done both in the Russian Federation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, and by our foreign partners, including local authorities. We wanted to show the further direction of our activities - this is the already introduced “Memorial” database and the “pilot” project “Necropolis”, associated with the filming of all military graves in Russia and abroad, and posting this information on the Internet. Everyone can virtually “visit” the military cemetery they need, up to and including an individual grave. You see, this is important for those who have been looking for their loved ones and relatives for a long time and are already old, sick, live far away, and do not have the opportunity to travel abroad. You can go to the site, “go” to the cemetery, approach the grave, even “lay” a bouquet of flowers or a wreath in memory of your grandfather or great-grandfather.

22.5 thousand military cemeteries are located abroad, and without the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and consular offices we will not be able to carry out such work. As for the exhibits, the exhibition included many items of historical and cultural value. The equipment was “on the move”, completely in its “original” condition, that is, it was not a car with a Zhiguli engine, but genuine tools and equipment. Representatives of military history clubs were dressed in uniforms of that time. There were many things found by search teams on the battlefields, including the 90th special battalion of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The President of Bashkortostan brought a whole pavilion to the opening of the exhibition. A very serious organization operates in Tatarstan, collecting search teams. The Tatarstan government takes this very seriously. An Interregional Research Center for Search Movement has been created at the Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, there are courses for training and retraining of search engines, and all search information is accumulated. A four-volume book entitled “Unknown Names from Soldiers’ Medallions” has been published. For example, a trade union card of a deceased person is found - all the soldier’s data is entered into these volumes. “LOZ” is a personal identification mark, and among the people it is a medallion, two papers were put into it, data was written on them, and when the deceased was buried, one paper from the medallion was sent to headquarters for drawing up a report, and the other was put in the medallion and buried together with the dead man.

Unfortunately, not all soldiers always filled out the medallions, and in 1942 the medallions were abolished, making the search more difficult. There was an interesting case: through the State Information and Analytical Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they found a medallion, asked for relatives, and clarified where to send the remains - to Belarus or leave them in Russia. They expressed the opinion that it would be fair to bury him along with his comrades with whom he fought and lay in the damp earth for 60 years. The daughter never saw her dead father, because she was born at the end of 1941. She asked me if it was possible to find out when her father's remains were found? She explained: “On the night of July 16-17, I dreamed of a soldier walking through a field of daisies - young, handsome and saying: “Daughter, we will see you soon.” The battalion commander was called, he brought a book: the remains were found on July 17. With us was Pavel Florensky, the grandson of the famous theologian and scientist Pavel Florensky - our Leonardo da Vinci. Such cases are amazing.

"International Affairs": Are there many young people involved in search work?

A.Kirilin: It is surprising, and it is valuable that young people who are involved in a noble cause take a massive part in the search movement. After all, such a young man cannot be a drug addict or a criminal. And in terms of education and influence on the individual, the search for soldiers who died for the Fatherland is, of course, the strongest factor. This is the great benefit of the search engine. Recently Rossotrudnichestvo held a teleconference: Kazakhstan - Moldova - Belarus - Ukraine - Russia. Many young people took part in it; all the boys and girls sincerely say that search work is a necessary and useful matter. And our task is to organize it.

"International Affairs": When we talk about historical memory and how to preserve it for future generations, the problem of historical justice inextricably arises. One example: the battle for Moscow. The city of Khimki near Moscow became the last frontier that Hitler’s troops could not take in order to move to the walls of the Kremlin. But not a single history textbook even mentions this city.

A.Kirilin: There is an area of ​​activity of the state that it not only should, but is obliged to keep in its hands, without leaving it to the care of ministries and public organizations, and these, of course, are issues of the history of its Fatherland. I am convinced of this. In the 5th century BC, the ancient Greek philosopher Simonides of Knossos said: “For a person to be happy, it is necessary to have a glorious Fatherland.”

"International Affairs": I would also like to clarify the question of whether the work that your department is engaged in involves the search for dead ships and, accordingly, the soldiers and crews who were on them?

A.Kirilin: According to the law, a lost ship is the grave of dead sailors. No one has the right to raise it, which is, of course, violated in our country. Ships are supposed to have a clear list of the places in the water area where ships died, sound horns when passing by, and on holidays throw wreaths onto the water.
We have a list of ship sinking sites. In the Baltic Sea, Captain Second Rank Bobrovsky, head of the military memorial service of the Baltic Fleet, did a great job of searching and marking the places where ships were lost. But there should be monuments to the dead sailors on land as well. Recently, a monument to the cruiser Varyag was unveiled in Scotland. There is a beautiful monument to the destroyer Steregushchy in St. Petersburg.

There is an interesting topic that we have been trying to launch for several years - this is the Tallinn transition, a little-known page of the Great Patriotic War, and 18 thousand people died during this transition! It went about
250 ships, 62 of them died, the rest made a breakthrough.

The Germans, as soon as they occupied part of the coast, immediately laid minefields. When in August 1941 our fleet sailed from Tallinn to Kronstadt and Leningrad, it had to go through unknown minefields under continuous fire from Wehrmacht naval attack aircraft and submarines. Nevertheless, this battle can be considered a victory, albeit with heroic losses. Because most of the fleet broke through, led by the flagships. These ships played a significant role in the defense of Leningrad; tens of thousands of sailors then took part in ground operations. And naval artillery actively participated in repelling the attack on Leningrad. At that moment, in August 1941, there was no time for them. Although there was a Decree of the Supreme Council on awarding orders and medals. The recently deceased Admiral Omelko himself commanded the destroyer and received the Order of the Red Banner for this breakthrough. Unfortunately, the general public is unaware of these events.

Not long ago, a participant in this breakthrough came to see me, he was 91 years old, he was a cadet at the time, and after the war, under the impression of that tragedy, he wrote a play about the Tallinn transition.

I am the head of the third working group of the “Victory” organizing committee for the preparation of military memorial events related to memorable dates in the military history of the Fatherland, we are “hollowing” the St. Petersburg authorities and received answers that a memorial plaque will be unveiled on the building of the naval school dedicated to these events. A foundation stone will be laid in Kronstadt, and a conference on the Tallinn transition is being prepared. We will seek the creation of a full-scale memorial to naval glory. I must say that the fleet is inactive. Looking back at the glorious history of our ancestors, you understand that they honored the memory of their fallen compatriots more.

"International Affairs": Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov is credited with the phrase that “until the last dead soldier is buried, the war is not over.” Are you ready to agree with this?

A.Kirilin: The fact is that in ancient times, everywhere, and not only in Russia, any battle ended with either funeral pyres or funeral hills. And, of course, they did not leave the battlefield until the soldiers were buried. This, in my opinion, is deeply moral. Of course, all those who died must be buried. I know that even during the war years, our intelligence officers, under conditions of the strictest secrecy, sought to rescue their fallen comrade, because they understood: tomorrow another could be in his place. I have my own large archive, in which there are many descriptions of how the military was sent specifically to pick up the body of the deceased who remained on the battlefield or on barbed wire, and people died because of this, but fulfilled their duty. I had a neighbor, a most interesting person, Lieutenant General Verevkin-Arkhalsky. In his family, starting from the 18th century, everyone was a general: great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, father, son, grandson. So he was awarded the golden weapon of St. George, on which it was written that it was awarded “for the removal of the remnants of the company from the encirclement, the removal of all the wounded and the body of the killed company commander.” Do you understand?.. Honors to those who died for the Fatherland.

Russian commander, Generalissimo Alexei Semenovich Shein was born in August 1652. He came from an ancient Old Moscow boyar family, which, according to family legend, traced its origins to a native of Prussia, Mikhail Prushenin, who decided to serve in Russia from the time of Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky. Mikhail Prushenin was the ancestor of the Morozov boyars, from whom branches of the famous Russian families of the Sheins, Saltykovs and Choglokovs were formed.

The Sheins were one of the sixteen noble families of the ruling elite of the Moscow state and had the right to bypass the lower ranks when promoted to the boyar class. The commander’s grandmother, Maria Borisovna, the wife of the steward’s grandfather Ivan Mikhailovich Shein, was from the Lykov-Obolensky princes, and her mother Anastasia Nikitichna, from the royal family of the First Russian Generalissimo A.S. Shein Romanov, was the niece of the beloved wife of Ivan the Terrible, who died untimely, and the aunt of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. The great-grandmother of the commander, Maria Mikhailovna, the wife of his great-grandfather, boyar Mikhail Borisovich Shein, came from the Godunov family. Alexei Semenovich began serving at the royal court in 1672. in the positions of sleeping bag and room attendant. In 1680-1682 - was in the voivodeship in Tobolsk and ruled all of Siberia.

April 10, 1682 one of the nearby stewards, in the thirtieth year of his life, was granted a boyar status. In 1683-1684 Shein was in the voivodeship in Kursk. Participated in the Crimean campaigns in 1687 and 1689. In the last campaign, Shein led the service people of the Novgorod rank and was the second governor after the commander-in-chief, Prince V.V. Golitsyn, while being called a close boyar and Pskov governor.

After the unsuccessful first Azov campaign in 1695. Alexey Semenovich Shein led the second campaign in 1696, which ended in the complete defeat of the enemy on land and in a naval battle, as well as the complete surrender of the garrison of the Azov fortress. Peter the Great, who won his first victory, awarded the commander the highest military rank - generalissimo.

To welcome the victors returning from the campaign, for the first time in Russia, a triumphal arch was built in Moscow and a ceremonial reception of the troops was organized. A place of honor in this procession was occupied by Generalissimo A.S. Shein, riding on a horse with a white feather on his hat. When the procession reached the triumphal gates, cannon fire thundered, music played and hymns and poems were sung with greetings to the victors and wishes to the troops that they would always return with such victories. At the same time, Lefort and Shein were especially “great.” Alexei Tolstoy in his novel “Peter the Great” artistically described the commander at the most solemn moment of his life: “With great pomp... riding a Greek chariot, a squat, pompous, with a face that extended wide, boyar Shein, the generalissimo, bestowed with this honor before the second Azov campaign... Behind him, sixteen Turkish banners were dragged along the ground in banners.”

For the capture of Azov, the commander was awarded a gold medal of 13 chervonets, a cup, a brocade caftan with sables and extensive patrimonial land holdings. The next year, A.S. Shein had to again lead troops in the south of Russia and oppose the Turks, who were plotting to retake Azov, and the Crimean Tatars, who were preparing for a campaign against the Western allies of Peter I. According to the agreement, Russia was supposed to distract the enemy from attacking the allies . Upon receiving news of the movement of a large Turkish army to Azov, the troops led by Shein advanced and defeated the enemy at the Kagalnik River, after which they brought the Nogais and Tatars living near the Kuban River to submission. “Third” Azov campaign A.S. Sheina 1697 consolidated Russia's conquests in the south of the state and accelerated the end of the war between Russia and Turkey and the conclusion of the Peace Treaty of Constantinople in 1700. From 1696 to 1700 Shein headed the Inozemsky, Pushkarsky and Reitarsky orders, which corresponded to the status of the commander-in-chief of all Russian troops.

The last years of the commander's life were devoted to strengthening the southern borders of the Fatherland. Under his leadership, a new Trinity Fortress (the city of Taganrog) was built on the Azov coast - the first naval base of Russia, which, according to the first plans of Peter I, was to become the new capital of the Russian state. The international situation and the military-political situation in the country did not allow the early plans of the future emperor to come true. The first Russian generalissimo died on February 12, 1700. at the age of 48 and was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Monastery at the altar of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (currently the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra in the city of Sergiev Posad, Moscow region).

Anton Ulrich (1714, Bevern - 1774, Kholmogory), Duke of Brunswick-Bevern-Luneburg. Father of the Russian Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich. Generalissimo of Russian troops from November 11 to November 25, 1741.

Second son of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Antoinette Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, brother of the famous Prussian commander Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick and Juliana Maria, second wife of the Danish king Frederick V.

Husband of Empress Anna Ioannovna's niece, Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. This marriage took place on July 14, 1739. August 23, 1740 their first child, Ivan, was born. Soon the empress became mortally ill and, at the insistence of Biron and Chancellor Bestuzhev, declared Ivan Antonovich heir to the throne and Biron regent. Afterwards the regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna.

Enlisted in the Russian service, Prince Anton in the year of his arrival in Russia (1733) was appointed colonel of the third cuirassier regiment, named after him first Bevernsky (later - His Majesty's cuirassier regiment), and then Brunswick.

Serving in 1737 A volunteer in Minich's army, Prince Anton distinguished himself during the capture of Ochakov and was promoted to major general. Taking part in the campaign to the Dniester in 1738, he was awarded the prime major of the Semenovsky regiment and the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky and Andrew the First-Called. In February 1740 Prince Anton, on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with the Ottoman Porte, was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Semenovsky regiment with the rank of lieutenant general, then appointed chief of the cuirassier regiment. According to the manifesto of January 12, 1741. Prince Anton received the title of “Imperial Highness”, and by Decree of November 11, 1741. awarded the rank of Generalissimo of the Russian troops and the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Horse Guards.

As a result of the palace coup, carried out on the night of December 5-6, 1741, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was elevated to the throne, and the Brunswick family was elevated to the throne from 1744. imprisoned in Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk province.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich (real name - Dzhugashvili) (1879 in the city of Gori, Tiflis province - 1953 in Kuntsevo, Moscow) - Russian revolutionary and Soviet state, political, party and military figure. People's Commissar for Nationalities of the RSFSR (1917-1923), People's Commissar of State Control of the RSFSR (1919-1920), People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the RSFSR (1920-1922); General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) (1922-1925), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1925-1934), Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1934-1952), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1952-1953), Chairman of the People's Council Commissars of the USSR (1941-1946), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1946-1953); Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR (since 1941), Chairman of the State Defense Committee (1941-1945), People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (1941-1946), People's Commissar of the Armed Forces of the USSR (1946-1947). Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). Honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939). Hero of Socialist Labor (1939), Hero of the Soviet Union (1945), holder of two Orders of Victory (1943, 1945).

During the period Stalin was in power, a number of the most important events in the history of the USSR occurred: the defeat of Nazism in World War II, mass labor and front-line heroism, the transformation of the USSR into a superpower with significant scientific, military and industrial potential, the entry of the USSR into the club of world nuclear powers, the strengthening of geopolitical influence of the Soviet Union in the world. A month and a half before the start of the war (from May 6, 1941), Stalin took the post of head of the USSR government - chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. July 19, 1941 Stalin replaced Timoshenko as People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 8, 1941. Stalin was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

During the Great Patriotic War, Stalin went to the front several times to the front lines. In 1941-1942. The commander-in-chief visited Mozhaisk, Zvenigorod, Solnechnogorsk defensive lines. From November 28 to December 1, 1943 Stalin participated in the Tehran Conference - the first conference of the Big Three during the Second World War - the leaders of three countries: the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. February 4-11, 1945 Stalin participated in the Yalta Conference of the Allied Powers, dedicated to the establishment of the post-war world order.

The assessment given to I.V. Stalin in the book of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov “Memories and Reflections” is known: “I can firmly say that I.V. Stalin mastered the basic principles of organizing front-line operations and operations of groups of fronts and led them with knowledge of the matter, well versed in large strategic issues... In leading the armed struggle as a whole, J.V. Stalin was helped by his natural intelligence, experience in political leadership, rich intuition, and broad awareness. He knew how to find the main link in a strategic situation and, seizing on it, counter the enemy, carry out one or another offensive operation. Undoubtedly, he was a worthy Supreme Commander."

According to the recollections of contemporaries, the issue of conferring the title of Generalissimo was discussed several times, but Stalin invariably rejected this proposal. And only after the intervention of Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky gave his consent when the latter stated: “Comrade Stalin, you are the Marshal and I am the Marshal, you cannot punish me!”

The uniform and insignia of the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union were developed by the Red Army Logistics Service, but were not officially approved. In one of the variants, the uniform had epaulettes on which the coat of arms of the USSR was placed in a wreath of oak leaves. A winter overcoat and riding uniform, reminiscent of a general's uniform of the mid-19th century, were also submitted for approval. The manufactured samples were rejected by Stalin, who considered them too luxurious and outdated. Currently they are kept in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill.

In fact, Generalissimo Stalin wore a standard general's uniform (before the introduction of shoulder straps) jacket with a turn-down collar and four pockets, but of a unique light gray color. Shoulder straps on the jacket - Marshal of the Soviet Union. General's overcoat buttonholes are red with gold trim and buttons. This uniform was official and was depicted in portraits and posters.

On the day of the 75th anniversary of the start of the war, the head of the specialized editorial office of RIA Novosti, Sergei Safronov, talked with one of the most competent people in Russia in the field of studying military history and perpetuating the memory of those killed, Major General Alexander Kirilin, who holds various responsible positions in the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Military -historical society.

— Are the combat losses of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War really amounting to almost 9 million people?

— To be precise, 8,866,400 and another 500 thousand missing on the way from military registration and enlistment offices to military units. They are not taken into account in this calculation, since they never arrived at the unit. These are the so-called marching companies, that is, they went, but did not reach the front. For example, the train was bombed: someone died, someone joined the partisans, someone was captured, someone deserted. These 500 thousand are included in the total losses, that is, 26.6 million national losses following the Second World War. We have no information on them, neither surnames nor names. We are trying to establish from the lists of marching companies that were compiled at the military registration and enlistment offices. But, unfortunately, they had a certain shelf life - ten years - and in most cases they were destroyed. But where there were slobs, it is possible to restore the picture. This is a separate task.

— In total, as a result of the Second World War, 4.559 million people were listed as missing. Has this number decreased?

— Of course, about 1.5-1.6 million people are currently listed as missing. We created a database and it turned out that there are 4.559 million missing people. 500 thousand separately. An additional 700 thousand POW registration cards were introduced. Using the Memorial database, through interactive communication with relatives, the fate of another 400 thousand people was clarified. 1.836 million soldiers previously listed as missing in action returned from captivity. 28 thousand were found by search engines. Then they took data from the naval, military medical archives, and the archives of the main department... And now we need to look for about 1.5 million people.

In particular, the son of the first party secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid, did not return from the front and is still listed as missing. He started out fighting well and even received the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. In 1943, he flew out on a combat mission and during the battle, most likely, his plane was shot down, but no one saw it. Then many versions arose: that he was shot down, captured, began to collaborate with the Germans, that Stalin allegedly ordered him to be kidnapped. But there is no evidence. Leonid was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, first degree.

After 1953, a massive effort was made to find the plane and its remains. More than a dozen aircraft and the remains of the pilots were found, but Leonid Khrushchev was not found among the remains of the pilots. And there is no data from the Germans either, and they are meticulous people; such a fact would definitely be documented with them. Most likely, the plane simply fell into a swamp.

— It turns out that Khrushchev’s son was Stalin’s falcon, like the son of the leader of the peoples Vasily.

- Yes, and he was such a slob. Joseph Stalin wrote a letter to Martyshin, Vasya’s school teacher, with approximately the following content: “It’s good that there was at least one principled person who was not afraid to practically rein in Vasya, a savage, a Scythian. It’s my fault that I can’t pay so much attention to him, so I ask you do it." And the teacher complained personally to Stalin because he was almost sent to jail. Stalin, by the way, had the habit of reading letters addressed to him personally. For example, the famous actor Yevgeny Morgunov was a simple worker at a factory and wrote a letter to Stalin, saying, I want to study at a theater school, I feel the strength to become an actor. Stalin wrote a resolution: “We must send it.” And they sent it. There were a great many such interesting cases.

— Has the fate of Stalin's eldest son Yakov been clarified one hundred percent?

He was killed by a sentry when Yakov, apparently driven to despair, not paying attention to the sentry’s calls, approached the wire fence. The German fired, and Yakov fell onto the fence with an electric shock. This was in 1943. By the way, the Americans have an array of documents from this camp, and perhaps we will find something there. Our representative in the USA told me about this.

— Have political aspects influenced the work of the representative offices of the Ministry of Defense in perpetuating the memory of those killed abroad, in particular in the USA?

- No, we continue to cooperate. This is interesting both to us and to the Americans. We have already identified a list of primary archival documents from the general huge array that may be useful to us. We have included them in a separate list because there are, for example, documents about Americans or related to economic issues... We relegate them to the background, although everything needs to be covered.

The layer in American archives has not yet been studied at all. We only took a soil sample, figuratively speaking. If the Americans cooperate, then we want to convert everything that is there into an electronic version, scan it, and then manually type all the data and transfer it to our archives, create new databases.

We hope that we can find data on about 600-700 thousand of our compatriots in the US archives.

— What interests Americans?

“They are primarily interested in our archives on Korea and Vietnam. We have more questions for them about Afghanistan, especially about the uprising in Badaber on April 26, 1985. At the last plenary meeting in May of this year, we raised this issue again. So far we only know that in the Badaber camp, which was located on Pakistani territory near the border with Afghanistan, there was an uprising of a group of Soviet and Afghan servicemen: they killed the guards and captured the camp. An unequal battle took place between the detachments of the Afghan Mujahideen and the units of the regular Pakistani army that supported them, on the one hand, and a group of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war, on the other. The prisoners of war's attempt to free themselves from the camp failed. An ammunition depot exploded, and it is unknown whether it was blown up by us or the attackers. As a result of a two-day assault, Badaber was captured and most of the prisoners of war died.

We only know some names, in particular Shevchenko. None of the participants in that battle have been found. But now we have received information that one of the participants in those events lives in the USA. And we asked the Americans to clarify how to contact him. In the meantime, we don’t know the names of the people, who took part, who led the uprising, or what happened there.

— Did the Americans promise to help?

- Yes. They are very interested in working with us because the US Department of Defense Prisoner of War Agency, which reports to the Assistant Secretary, receives significant money to conduct these events. It reports regularly to Congress and is in great demand for its work. They said that in 2015 they found a plane shot down during the Vietnam War, recovered the remains of the pilot, and brought them to the United States. One such operation cost a million dollars. Of course, we cannot afford such sums.

— Are there many of our military graves abroad?

— Currently, certification of burials is being carried out in 53 countries of the world. These burials belong to different periods of the history of our fatherland. The majority, approximately 20 thousand, are in Europe.

— Are the necessary funds allocated to support them?

— The maintenance of these burial sites is carried out in accordance with intergovernmental agreements at the expense of the states on whose territory they are located. And reconstruction and repairs, as well as the creation of new memorials, are carried out at the expense of our country’s budget. Until 2011, 1.2-1.5 million dollars were allocated for these purposes. At a meeting of the Pobeda organizing committee in 2010, it was decided to increase the amount to $5 million. This amount is still allocated in rubles.

— How many employees at the representative office of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the United States work permanently to perpetuate the memory of the dead?

— There are two representatives in the USA; there may be six in the state. The principle of mirroring applies here - the Americans have six people working at the embassy in Moscow. And we can increase our staff to six, which we will do in the near future.

In 2007, there was a presidential decree on the creation of representative offices of the Ministry of Defense abroad for military memorial work. They were then opened in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Lithuania. But in Lithuania it was possible to open it only on paper. Then in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China and the USA. Currently there are eight active ones, and one is “sleeping” in Lithuania, but we hope to “wake it up”.

Work is underway. For example, recently one employee of the US National Archives managed to find out that the American Catalina seaplane, which was transported from the USA to the USSR during the war, crashed in Norway, and our pilots were buried in Belgium. Their burial place has been found, and we are now working on the issue of their reburial. They were buried in Belgium, but we didn’t know about it, because our pilots were in American flight uniforms, and they were mistaken for Americans. We have taken this topic into development and will rebury it.

— It is known that a data bank is being created in Russia about those killed while defending the Fatherland. Of course, the most important volume of work is the Great Patriotic War. How is work going now?

“We are giving this work a new sound. We enter, as always, such data as full name, military rank, year of birth, place of conscription, place of death, place of burial, addresses of relatives. But now we are entering data about military units, about their combat path, how they moved, where the battles were, data about awards, that is, we are expanding the data. Thus, using documents, a relative can trace the combat path from the place of conscription to the place of death. There are also photographs of the officers, award certificates, which, when you read them sometimes, a chill runs through your body.

— Tell me...

— There was such a requirement - to describe in detail each feat: what damage was done to the enemy, how he behaved, what it did. There are simply fantastic things. For example, one artilleryman received the Order of Lenin in 1941. He knocked out three tanks and an armored personnel carrier with a forty-five (45 mm artillery gun - ed). But there was a direct hit on the gun, which was smashed to pieces; the artilleryman, heavily shell-shocked, fired back from his machine gun, and he was lucky because there was a counterattack. Then he fought in SMERSH: twice he led soldiers out of encirclement, and once killed 12 Nazis with personal weapons, then three. And after the war he worked as a loader in the port of Odessa, just like in the song.

— How successful are search teams?

— The search movement began to take shape a couple of years ago; before that it was very scattered. Now there is such an organization - the Search Movement of Russia. The law on perpetuating memory clearly states that the search movement is a form of perpetuating memory, and if this is so, then we, the Ministry of Defense, are responsible for it. Further search work is carried out by public and public-state structures authorized by the federal executive body, that is, again, the Ministry of Defense. We must empower them.

There are now 1,307 units in the Russian Search Movement, more than 25 thousand. DOSAFF, the Russian Military Historical Society, has its own search teams. Now we want to involve the Russian Geographical Society, because it also conducts expeditions.

Starting from 2017, we want to authorize these four organizations. All the rest are actually black diggers.

In short, up to 30 thousand people, about 1.5 thousand detachments, take part in search expeditions in Russia every year. Their participants are given special classes in history, topography, and they work with maps.

— Have you been able to establish the fate of Russian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Koventsov, who went missing in August 2008 in South Ossetia?

— It’s still unclear with Koventsov. This year there will again be a trilateral (Russia, Georgia, South Ossetia) meeting. I think he died. The civil court declared him dead, the court has such a procedure, the relatives receive the money they are entitled to, the son studies at the Suvorov Military School.

However, for the Ministry of Defense he is officially considered missing. There are several options here: he really was shot down, he could have died, his helmet and chair were found, but his body was not there. He could have been killed and buried somewhere, he could have been captured and kept in some secret prison, he could have been handed over to a third party: after all, he was the deputy commander of a strategic bomber regiment, that is, a person with certain secrets and knowledge.

“But after the war, the Georgian side handed over fragments of the remains of Koventsov’s body for identification. What's the conclusion?

“What was conveyed to us, geneticists categorically claim that it is not him. They took additional DNA samples from the mother and children - they did not match. There is an official conclusion that it is not him.

— But contract sergeant Alexey Ledzhiev is also listed as missing. What is his fate?

“His fate has also not yet been established. One thing that confuses us here is that our relatives never contacted us. Maybe they know where he is, but for the Ministry of Defense he is also officially missing in action. There were two more contract soldiers, but they were found through the military registration and enlistment offices.

— There is information that during the Cold War, 16 American planes, probably reconnaissance aircraft, fell on the territory of the USSR. This is true?

“They didn’t fall, but were shot down, and there were many more of them, there is no exact number, but more.” We also deal with missing foreigners. Now the burial place of the gunner of an American plane has been found in Kamchatka. Their plane was damaged by the Japanese during the war, they landed in Yelizovo: one crew member was killed, the second was wounded. The dead man was buried in June 1945.

Near the island of Matua in the Kuril Islands, Russian scuba divers, in collaboration with Pacific Fleet sailors, discovered a submarine at a depth of 104 meters. Archival research suggests that this is the American submarine Herring, sunk by Japanese coastal artillery in May 1942. There were 83 crew members on board. We conveyed this data to the American side at the commission meeting so that they could make a decision.

The United States, by the way, turned to us with a request to provide them with maps of North Korea from 1948-1950. The fact is that on Soviet, American and Korean maps the same settlements are written and read differently. To clarify the places of death and burial of military personnel, a reconciliation is needed. We don’t have the cards themselves, but we have so-called samples. These maps have long been declassified, and a decision is currently being made to transfer electronic copies to the American Agency for Missing Persons and Prisoners of War.

— How many Americans are missing in action since World War II?

— They have 68 thousand missing, another 7 thousand after Korea and up to 2 thousand after Vietnam.

— Allow me a few purely historical questions regarding the Great Patriotic War, which are being discussed today by historians, journalists, and the public. For example, they say that during the capture of Berlin, Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky killed up to half a million soldiers in April-May 1945. Is it so?

— In total, 92 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers died in the Berlin strategic offensive operation, including those who died from wounds, and not 500 thousand, as “history experts” say. This, of course, is a colossal number of losses. When Eisenhower reported to Roosevelt that it was possible to strain and reach Berlin and even take it, but this would require 100 thousand casualties, Roosevelt said that it was impossible to lose 100 thousand in one operation at the end of the war. But you will remember that we took Plevna like this in 1877 - tens of thousands of people were killed. In that Russian-Turkish war, 230 thousand Russian soldiers died in a year from 1877 to 1878. And losses at Borodino are estimated according to various estimates from 30 to 50 thousand.

— Another topic is the operation near Rzhev. Again, some claim that up to a million Soviet soldiers died there. This is true?

— Firstly, there were four operations near Rzhev: two offensive and two defensive. The first was the Rzhev-Vyazemsk strategic offensive operation in January-April 1942 by the forces of the Western and Kalinin fronts with an offensive width of 650 kilometers (twice more than in Berlin) and a depth of up to 250 kilometers.

The losses are also colossal, but not a million. Taking into account those killed and those who died from wounds, in all operations near Rzhev it turns out to be 590 thousand. This takes into account the fact that this is not Stalingrad, not Moscow. But the city was in the center of the fighting, and Hitler and Stalin understood perfectly well that the Rzhev salient was a constant threat to Moscow, which is why there were such fierce battles. Hitler transferred 12 divisions from Western Europe so as not to lose Army Group Center.

The situation there was so difficult for us that, for example, in the Yukhnov area an entire army was surrounded, and the commander of the 33rd Army, Mikhail Efremov, in order not to surrender, shot his wife and himself. Many of his staff officers did the same. They refused to board the plane and sent only women, the wounded, and the banners of all units. Only a few hundred Red Army soldiers of the 33rd Army then went out to the partisans.

As a result, the enemy was thrown back 250 kilometers, they lost about 300 thousand. Our total losses in that operation amounted to 776,889 people, of which 350 thousand were killed.

— There are also many different opinions about the losses of the Red Army in the “cauldrons” near Kiev and Kharkov in 1941-1942. In short, we lost between 1.5 and 2 million people there.

— The losses of the “Kyiv Cauldron” were more than 600 thousand people: 627 thousand people resisted the enemy, irretrievable losses amounted to 616 thousand, or 98 percent. These are mostly prisoners of war.

Near Kharkov, losses amounted to 150 thousand, in Crimea 142 thousand. Minsk was defended by 625 thousand soldiers of the Western Front: irretrievable losses amounted to 341 thousand people, or 54 percent.

The losses are huge, but not millions, as they try to convince us. But the most important thing is that we survived and won!

Born on July 4, 1953 in Moscow. In 1974 he graduated from the Kiev Higher Technical Tank School, in 1982 - from the Military Academy named after. M.V. Frunze, in 1994 - Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces. Served in command and staff positions in the Moscow Military District, GSVG, SAVO, TurkVO, DalVO. In 1998, from the post of 1st Deputy Commander of the 5th Army, he was appointed head of the Military Memorial Center (VMC) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Candidate of Historical Sciences. Member of the Presidium of the International Skobel Committee, member of the editorial boards of the Military Historical Journal and the Zeichgauz magazine, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia. Awarded the Order of Honor, "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd degree, Badge of Honor, medals, personalized firearms.

- Alexander Valentinovich, perpetuating the memory of military personnel who died defending the Fatherland is one of the priority areas of the VIC’s work. When and where did the idea of ​​creating a Federal War Memorial Cemetery come to light in modern Russia?

This idea arose after the privatization and then the criminalization of the funeral business, when it became problematic to bury people who had merit to their homeland, but did not earn millions. In 1997, a group of veterans: 4 marshals of the USSR, several army generals and marshals of military branches, Heroes of the USSR sent a collective letter to Boris Yeltsin with a proposal to create this kind of cemetery. The President wrote to Valentin Yumashev: “to work on this issue”; they began to work on it, but the authorities of Moscow and the Moscow region replied that there was no land, and that was where everything died out. In 1999, we ourselves prepared a report to the leadership, in which we referred to the agreement in principle of the head of state and spoke about the advisability of discussing this topic at a meeting of the organizing committee for veterans' affairs. Then, on the basis of this paper, the government instructed the Ministry of Defense, together with interested departments, to submit a corresponding draft decree. In 2000, not without the help of the then Chief of the General Staff, a part of the military training ground near Mytishchi was identified as a cemetery, a foundation stone was solemnly installed there, in 2001 a presidential decree prepared by the staff of our center was issued, and we were instructed to prepare a draft government decree. But this document came out only 3 years later - the government returned it to us several times: Either revise it, or modify something else: Imagine, we struggled with this draft resolution for several years, it lay there for months, and it was signed by Viktor Khristenko, who acted as acting prime minister for just one day!

Why are people whose services have been repeatedly awarded such truly military awards as the Order of the Red Banner or the Order of Courage deprived of the right to be buried at the Federal War Memorial Cemetery (FWMC)? For example, I know of four recipients of the Order of Courage! Moreover, participants in hostilities on the territory of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet period, that is, veterans of two Chechen campaigns, are not mentioned at all in the text of the resolution.

On the one hand, I perfectly understand how great the merits of these people are. For example, not long ago one of my acquaintances died, who had 11 orders and all of them were of the “wrong caliber”: two Red Banners, Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd degree, Alexander Nevsky, Patriotic War two degrees and others. But let's look at things realistically - about 400 thousand people passed through Chechnya, and many military personnel have more than one award. Add to them the "Afghans", a million participants in the Great Patriotic War. In Moscow and the Moscow region alone, more than 20 thousand war veterans and Armed Forces die every year. And the cemetery is designed for 32 thousand burials, that is, all these respected people simply will not fit there. Therefore, this resolution will affect only those who have special merits to the Fatherland. There are key phrases on this subject in the text - for example, not just “those who died (died) while defending the interests of the state,” but also “who showed valor and heroism.”

Can the same reason explain the “restrictions” for major generals and lieutenant generals?

Yes, given that the rank of “Colonel General” is not so common these days, it was decided to stick with it as the lower limit. There are about 400 colonel generals and retirees in Moscow. But there are still quite a lot of major generals, even with a rough estimate of about 1,000 general positions in the Armed Forces. Taking into account the fact that we have several “power” ministries and departments, in which the ranks of general are awarded every year, and generals who have served their time retire, then there are ten thousand of them throughout Russia, and maybe even more. Where should they all be placed in the federal cemetery?

In fact, a version of the resolution was initially prepared without restrictions on ranks, but in the presence of 5 or more state awards received personally! We also proposed to include in this number honorary titles - "Honored Artist", "Honored Military Specialist" and others, which are given by personal decrees of the president. It was proposed to take into account State Prizes, awards with personalized firearms and bladed weapons. On the one hand, such a clause would not put anyone in an exceptional position, but on the other hand, it would be a fairly serious obstacle. But since the text of the resolution had to be coordinated with a huge number of departments, we had to listen to everyone, it was published in the wording that it is. It was especially difficult to agree on the section “who to bury”: why didn’t we include their deputies in the “list” along with the heads of federal ministries and departments in which military service is provided for by law?!

If the name of the cemetery contains the word “military,” perhaps the chairmen of the government and chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation should not be buried there?

Who makes the decision to wage war or declare a state of emergency? President, but with the consent of both chambers of the Federal Assembly! The highest government officials have a direct bearing on strengthening the state's defense capability, declaring and waging war. Although we also received proposals from the State Duma to bury the chairmen of all committees at the FVMK. But these initiatives did not pass.

Isn’t the possibility of burying “other citizens” at the FVMK a kind of loophole for those who have extensive connections in the upper echelons of power in the absence of any significant services to the state?

If we quote this subparagraph in full, it reads: “other citizens by decision of the President of the Russian Federation or the government of the Russian Federation.” Who will deceive the head of the country or the chairman of the government?

But who can guarantee that we won’t have a second Kasyanov?

You are not an official, and therefore do not imagine the moment of preparing and passing the documents. Before a document from, say, the War Memorial Center reaches the chairman of the government, it is carefully examined and checked by our lawyer, the lawyer of the Armed Forces Logistics, the legal service of the Ministry of Defense, the administrative department of the government, and government lawyers. You can't bribe all these people. In addition, we cannot foresee all future situations. In the mid-90s, searchers discovered the remains of Major General Rakutin in a formerly collapsed command post - he was a border guard and army commander. By this time, he had already been posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, because his army in 1941 made a serious contribution to the Smolensk operation, delaying the German advance towards Moscow for a long time. The deceased army commander was buried in Snegiri, at the local memorial military cemetery. Although, if the FVMK had already existed then, the Ministry of Defense might have petitioned the president to bury the general on the Alley of Heroes.

How feasible is the reburial of senior officials of the state and other persons subject to this resolution?

Theoretically, yes, but in the presence of three mandatory factors: the consent of relatives, a corresponding positive decision on the part of the chairman of the government or the president, and if this reburial will be carried out at the expense of relatives. Because the state fulfilled its duty by burying this man once.

Will military cemeteries be created in the regions?

We believe that this should be done. Because the norm established by law will really only work for residents of Moscow and the Moscow region. Do you think the body of the deceased Hero will be transported from the Far East? It is possible to transport the body to the burial place - the expenditure of budget funds for this purpose is provided by the state, but the relatives will not want to. Unlike Americans, who are proud when one of their relatives is buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, we have a different cultural tradition - we must visit deceased relatives constantly. Or, do you think, will his relatives be allowed to take a murdered Chechen policeman somewhere to someone else’s territory, who, moreover, according to Muslim custom, is supposed to be buried before sunset? Of course not! Therefore, it will probably still be necessary to create branches of this federal cemetery in the regions.

Born on June 1, 1950 in the village of Poyarkovo, Amur Region. In 1972 he graduated from the Perm Higher Command and Engineering School, in 1981 - the command department of the Military Academy. F.E. Dzerzhinsky, in 1991 - Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Served in the Strategic Missile Forces. He held positions from crew chief of a missile division to commander of a division of Topol self-propelled launchers. In 2001, as a result of organizational and staffing measures, he was transferred to the reserve from the position of head of the department of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. He worked in the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, headed the Moscow branch of the Military Memorial Company. Since 2004 - head of the Federal State Institution "FVMK". Major General of the Reserve. Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and "For Military Merit".

- Vasily Stepanovich, what provisions of Resolution No. 105, in your opinion, should still be improved?

If, as you say, there are people who have 4 military orders of Courage, then perhaps it makes sense to clarify somewhere what is meant by “special merits”, and then revise this resolution in favor of persons awarded three or more higher military awards. Perhaps it would be necessary to lower the restrictions on ranks - to allow burial in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery for lieutenant generals, but only if they have a certain number of orders. A clause on the possibility of reburial of individuals at FVMK by government decision would also not be out of place.

Will FVMK establish a monopoly in organizing funerals and providing funeral services? After all, due to the corporate solidarity of the military, preference will most likely be given to the War Memorial Company?

Yes, we will enter into agreements with organizations to maintain the territory of the cemetery in order and perform various works. To provide ritual and funeral services, of course, contracts will be concluded with one winning company, but based on the results of a competition. If funds for the maintenance of the cemetery are allocated as part of the state defense order, then competitions will most likely be held once every five years. Although at first it was assumed that all work at the cemetery would be carried out by its full-time employees. In my opinion, this would be correct, because we are a federal government agency and we exist on budget money. If we allow different companies to be at the FVMK, so that, for example, one would bury police officers, another would bury FSB employees, and a third would bury military personnel of the Ministry of Defense, then we would get the same situation that has currently developed at the military site of the Perepechinskoe cemetery. No matter how much his boss tried to establish some kind of uniformity - so that the monuments would at least stand in even rows - nothing works, and all because there are a lot of companies working there and each of them strives to please clients in everything. Naturally, this does not have a positive effect on the external aesthetic appearance of the cemetery. Take Arlington National Cemetery - all the monuments there are uniform and stand in a strictly defined order.

What stage is the work on creating the cemetery at today?

Work on the registration of title documents for the land has almost been completed. The general contractor, Spetsstroy Rossii, is now completing the development of working documentation. The forms of sculptures of monumental artistic design have already been made in plaster, which will then be cast in a solid material - bronze. Taking into account the fact that the land issues have been resolved, the Ministry of Economic Development has already planned a phased allocation of funds during 2008-2010 necessary for the creation of the cemetery. According to the design and estimate documentation approved by the Minister of Defense, about three and a half billion rubles will be allocated. In particular, this year - 100 million rubles. Part of this money will be spent on completing work on the development of working documentation, the other part on monumental and artistic design, about 35 million will go to compensate the Timiryazevsky state farm for the land taken from it.

What issues concern you most as a cemetery manager?

What worries me most is the low level of remuneration for our labor - we receive 5 times less compared to the staff of other Moscow cemeteries. As a result, we now have 11 full-time positions, of which 7 are vacant - no one is willing to accept such meager salaries. Despite the fact that, despite the absence of a cemetery as such, work is still being carried out. Now, for example, we, together with artists, are participating in the development of working documentation to determine the order of burials in this cemetery and clearly describe the funeral ritual. The existing cost standards for organizing funerals also do not correspond to reality. For the funeral of a serviceman, an allowance of up to three pensions is usually allocated, that is, from 15 to 40 thousand rubles. But you know that in our time it is expensive to be born or die, especially in Moscow. The Federal Law “On Burial and Funeral Business,” of course, provides a list of free services provided by the state: a coffin, a grave, paperwork, and so on, but in real life, any Moscow cemetery camouflages the sale of grave sites by offering its services. Dig a grave, drape it (cover it with flowers, fir branches), close the coffin, provide an elevator (so as not to lower the coffin on ropes), bury the grave, form a mound - people still have to pay for each of these manipulations. Let’s say that today the funeral of a colonel general at the Troekurovsky cemetery costs his family at least 100 thousand rubles, not counting the funeral.

HELP "VPK" In accordance with paragraph 3 of Government Decree No. 105 of February 25, 2004 “On the Federal War Memorial Cemetery” in this graveyard “the following are subject to burial: a) military personnel and employees of federal executive authorities, in which the law provides for military service, service in internal affairs bodies, the State Fire Service, institutions and bodies of the penal system, authorities for control of the circulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, dead (deceased) when protecting the interests of the state, as well as the honor and dignity of citizens, who have shown valor and heroism; b) Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation; c) citizens awarded the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called; d) citizens awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree; e) citizens awarded the Order of Glory of three degrees; f) veterans of the Great Patriotic War, veterans of military operations on the territory of the USSR and the territories of other states, veterans of military service, veterans of public service, as well as citizens who worked in the military-industrial complex, having the title of Hero of Socialist Labor or awarded the Order of Lenin, "For Merit" before the Fatherland" II, III and IV degrees, Labor Glory three degrees, "For service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" three degrees; g) presidents of the USSR and the Russian Federation; h) chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; i) chairmen of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the government of the Russian Federation; j) citizens who held positions of ministers and heads of federal executive bodies in the government of the USSR, the government of the Russian Federation, in which military service (service) is provided for in accordance with the law; k) marshals of the Soviet Union, marshals of the Russian Federation, army generals and navy admirals, marshals of military branches and special forces, colonel generals and admirals; l) other citizens - by decision of the President of the Russian Federation or the Government of the Russian Federation. Persons to be buried at the Federal War Memorial Cemetery may also be buried with their deceased spouses.”