Where was Lenin wounded in 1918. So who shot Lenin? Dear Vladimir Ilyich died ...

continuation, start here:

Chauffeur Gil became the main witness in the case?

In fact, yes. On the same day, August 30, Gil spoke in more detail about the assassination attempt: “At the end of Lenin’s speech, which lasted for about an hour, a crowd of 50 people rushed to the car from the premises where the meeting was held and surrounded him. Following the crowd of 50 people Ilyich came out, surrounded by women and men, and gestured with his hand. Among those who surrounded him was a blonde woman who asked me whom she had brought. This woman said that they were taking away flour and did not allow it to be brought in. When Lenin was already three steps away from the car, I I saw to the side, on the left side of him, at a distance of no more than three steps, a woman's hand with a Browning stretched out from behind several people, and three shots were fired, after which I rushed in the direction from which they were shooting, but the shooting woman threw me under legs a revolver and disappeared into the crowd. This revolver lay under my feet. In my presence no one lifted the revolver. But, as one of the two accompanying the wounded Lenin explained, [he] said to me: "I pushed him with my foot on d car ".

In his memoirs, Gil says: "I immediately stopped the car and rushed to the shooter with a revolver, aiming at her head. She threw the Browning at my feet, quickly turned and rushed into the crowd towards the exit. There were so many people around that I I did not dare to shoot after her, as I felt that I would probably kill one of the workers. I rushed after her and ran a few steps, but then it suddenly hit me in the head: "After all, Vladimir Ilyich is alone ... What's the matter with him? “I stopped ... I ran up to Vladimir Ilyich and, kneeling in front of him, bent over to him. He did not lose consciousness and asked:“ Have you caught him or not? ”... At this moment I raise my head and see that Some strange man, in a terribly excited state, is running in a sailor's cap, waving his left hand, holding his right hand in his pocket and running headlong straight at Vladimir Ilyich. His whole figure seemed suspicious to me, and I covered Vladimir Ilyich with myself, especially his head, almost lay down on him and screamed and With all his might: "Stop -" - and pointed a revolver at him. He continued to run and kept getting closer to us. Then I shouted: "Stop-Shoot!" He, not having reached a few steps to Vladimir Ilyich, turned sharply to the left and rushed to the gate, without taking his hand out of his pocket. "

A physician I.V. was accidentally at the scene of the assassination attempt. One and a half. He helped Gil drag Lenin into the car, and Gil, refusing to visit the nearest hospitals, rushed to the Kremlin. Polutorny had a piece of rope lying in his pocket: trying to stop the bleeding, he bandaged Lenin's hand. In the Kremlin, Lenin independently climbed the steep stairs to his apartment on the third floor, undressed himself and went to bed ...

Official Bulletin No. 1 of August 30, 1918, 11 pm: "2 blind gunshot wounds were stated: one bullet, entering over the left shoulder blade, penetrated into the chest cavity, damaged the upper lobe of the lung, causing hemorrhage in the pleura, and got stuck in the right side of the neck above the right collarbone, another bullet penetrated the left shoulder, shattered the bone and got stuck under the skin of the left shoulder region, there are signs of internal hemorrhage. Pulse 104. The patient is fully conscious. The best specialist surgeons are involved in the treatment. "

What followed after the shots

- Fanny Kaplan's assistant V.A. was the "suspicious" sailor who alerted Lenin's driver Gil. Novikov, who did not dare to shoot Lenin and ran to the cab that was waiting for him and Kaplan. Now it is difficult to say whether Novikov left immediately, without waiting for his accomplice, or after her arrest, but the fact is that he left the dangerous area. Children helped to detain Kaplan. During the years of the revolution, they lost their fear, and the shots did not frighten them. While the adults were scattering in all directions, the boys who were in the yard during the assassination attempt ran after Kaplan and shouted, showing the direction in which she ran.

Assistant Military Commissar of the 5th Moscow Soviet Infantry Division S.N. Batulin testified that near the so-called arrow on Serpukhovka, he "saw a woman with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands, who by her strange appearance stopped ... attention." According to Batulin, “she looked like a person fleeing from persecution, intimidated and persecuted. I asked this woman why she came here. To these words she replied:“ Why do you need this? ”Then I searched her pockets and briefcase and an umbrella, offered to follow me. On the way, I asked her, feeling in her a face that had attempted to kill Comrade Lenin: “Why did you shoot at Comrade. Lenin? ", To which she replied:" Why do you need to know? ", Which finally convinced me of the attempt on the life of this woman by NATO. Lenin" ... On Serpukhovka, someone from the crowd in this woman recognized the man who had shot at Comrade ... Lenin. After that I asked again: "Did you shoot Comrade Lenin?" To which she answered in the affirmative, refusing to indicate the party on whose instructions she fired ... "

The question arises: why did Kaplan stop and not "dissolve" in the crowd? We do not know the answer. She did not stay in the place from where she shot Lenin, that is, she did not fulfill the agreement with Semenov and Konoplyova - to sacrifice herself. Most likely, Kaplan decided to leave the place of the assassination and waited for the "party" cabby at the agreed place, but the partner in the assassination attempt, Novikov, got ahead of her and dashed off in a daredevil prepared for Fanny, leaving her partner to fend for herself.

During the arrest, Kaplan did not resist.

Were any investigative measures taken without delay?

Immediately after the arrest, the chairman of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal A.M. Dyakonov. He asked three women - Z.I. Light, D. Bey and Z.I. Udotov to search F.E. Kaplan and the suspected of complicity in the attempted murder of the castellans of the Pavlovsk hospital M.G. Popov.

Udotova indicated: “We carried out the search in this order: I and the third woman, whose last name I do not know, conducted a direct search, while another, Comrade Legonkaya, stood at the door, holding a revolver at the ready. During the search, we stripped Kaplan naked and looked through everything. things down to the smallest detail. So, we saw scars, seams in the light, each fold was smoothed. Shoes were carefully examined, the linings were taken out, turned out. Each thing was looked through twice or several times. The hair was combed and smoothed. But with all the care Inspection found nothing. She dressed partly herself, partly with our help. In particular, she buttoned the shoes herself, who put on her stockings, I do not remember. At the same time, when she put on, she was sitting on the sofa, and we stood on both sides. During her dressing, as well as undressing, nothing suspicious was noticed. She stood still and rather obediently. " The search took place on the third floor. From Kaplan's briefcase, they took out a notebook with torn sheets, a trade union card of office workers addressed to M.M. Metropolitan and railway ticket Tomilino - Moscow; from shoes - two envelopes with the stamp of the Zamoskvoretsk military enlistment office.

A year later, one of the women who searched Kaplan, Zinaida Legonkaya, found herself in a difficult position. In 1918 she was 23 years old. Behind him were a real school, a short marriage, the front, typhus, participation in two revolutions - the February and October revolutions, service as a scout at the front. And in 1919 she was detained on the denunciation of an informant - with the suspicion that it was she who shot Lenin. Lightweight was able to prove her alibi and gave interesting additional testimony about the Kaplan search. She said: "During a search, Kaplan's briefcase was found: a Browning, a notebook with torn sheets, cigarettes, a train ticket, needles, pins, hairpins and the like, every little thing, and during the time when she was completely stripped naked , I can't remember whether they found anything or not. " Browning-It is still not clear what kind of Browning was in question. Did Fanny have a second, possibly a small "ladies'" pistol or was it Zinaida Legonka's mistake? This pistol does not appear in other documents of the case.

What the interrogations and first investigations showed

Was Kaplan the only suspect in the case?

No, when the interrogations began about the attempt on Lenin's life, there were two suspects - Kaplan and Popova. Dyakonov was the first to interrogate Kaplan.

And then, after interrogation, Kaplan and Popova were taken to Lubyanka. In a passenger car, Kaplan was accompanied by the Chekist G.F. Aleksandrov, in the cargo - Popova was guarded by Z.I. Lightweight. People's Commissar of Justice D.N. Kurskiy, secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V.A.

Avanesov, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya.M. Sverdlov, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and member of the board of the All-Russian Cheka V.E. Kingisepp. The investigation was led by Deputy Chairman of the Cheka Y. Kh. Peters and head of the Cheka department N.A. Skrypnik. Dzerzhinsky did not take part in the investigation: as we remember, he at that time went to Petrograd to investigate the murder of Uritsky.

How many were interrogated in the case of the attempt on Lenin's life?

There are two lists in the Kaplan case. The first says that on August 30 and 31, September 1 and 2, 1918, Cheka investigators interrogated more than 40 witnesses to the assassination attempt. 15 people were interrogated at the military commissariat of the Zamoskvoretsky district on August 30. Quickly enough Kaplan's acquaintances from hard labor were established. At the last apartment of Fanny, who lived with David Savelyevich and Anna Savelyevna Pigit (brother and sister), an ambush was set up. Nobody came to this address. After the execution of the terrorist and the end of the investigation in her case, the Cheka released D.S. from arrest. Pigit, A.S. Pigit, V.M. Tarasov, F.N. Radzilovskaya, V. Stalterbrot - Socialist-Revolutionaries who knew Kaplan from prisons and penal servitude in Akatui and Nerchinsk. All the Popovs and their acquaintances, V.D. Nikishin and N.S. Semichev. - I read in due time that an investigative experiment was carried out at the scene ...

Yes, on the third day after the assassination attempt. Browning, from which Kaplan shot at Lenin, thrown under the car, was not immediately found. And on September 1, 1918, the Izvestia newspaper published the following appeal: "From the Cheka. The Emergency Commission did not find the revolver from which the shots were fired at Comrade Lenin. The Commission asks those who know anything about the finding of the revolver to immediately report commission volume ". On Monday, September 2, to the investigator of the Supreme Tribunal V.E. Kingiseppu was a worker of the factory. Savelieva Kuznetsov. He brought Browning No. 150489, from which, according to him, Lenin was shot. There were four unused cartridges in the pistol magazine. On the same day, an examination and an investigative experiment were carried out at the scene of the assassination. Here are the lines from the entry made at that time: "On September 2, 1918, we, the undersigned, Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky and Viktor Eduardovich Kingisepp, in the presence of Comrade Nikolai Yakovlevich Ivanov, chairman of the Mikhelson plant committee, and the drivers. . Ulyanov-Lenin ". The participants of the inspection recorded the position of the main characters at the time of the assassination attempt and found Browning shell casings: "Not far from the car, during our examination, we found four shot shell casings, included in the case as material evidence. is explained by the fact that those bounced off the people who were densely standing in a circle, fell abnormally, somewhat forward. "

I would like to note that Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky, who organized the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, acted this time as a professional photographer. It was he who captured the inspection of the place of the attempt.

And retribution is done

In her testimony, which were later cited in many publications, Kaplan fully confessed to what she had done?

But, as in 1906, she did not betray anyone without saying a word about Semenov's terrorist group. The chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya.M., took part in the interrogations. Sverdlov.

By his order, Kaplan was transported from the Lubyanka to the Kremlin. Here she was interrogated by Ya.Kh. Peters, he also held confrontations with the former convict Vera Tarasova and the English intelligence officer Lockhart. According to the memoirs of Ya.Kh. Petersa, at some point Kaplan relaxed, told him about the unsuccessful meeting in Kharkov with Viktor Garsky ...

In Soviet times, the Kaplan execution was best known from the book of memoirs of the former Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov. But today, in my opinion, very few people already know this. Could you reproduce the corresponding lines of those memories?

Yes, Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov told in his book "Notes of the Kremlin Commandant" about the last days of Fanny Kaplan. Here are some excerpts:

“I called a car and drove to Lubyanka. I took Kaplan away, brought her to the Kremlin and put her in the basement room under the children's half of the Grand Palace. The room was spacious, high. The window covered with bars was three or four meters from the floor.

Another day or two passed, Avanesov summoned me again and presented the decision of the Cheka: Kaplan - to shoot, the sentence to carry out the commandant of the Kremlin Malkov. Shooting a man, especially a woman, is not easy. It is a heavy, very heavy duty, but never have I had to carry out such a just sentence as now.

When? I asked Avanesov shortly.

Varlam Alexandrovich, always so kind and sympathetic, did not flinch a single muscle on his face.

Today. Immediately. - And, after a moment's silence: - Where do you think is better? After a moment of reflection, I replied:

Perhaps in the yard of the Auto-Combat Detachment, in a dead end.

I agree.

Where will we bury it?

Avanesov thought:

We did not foresee this. We must ask Yakov Mikhailovich ...

Together we left Avanesov and went to Yakov Mikhailovich, who, fortunately, found himself at his place. Several people were sitting in the waiting room, someone was in his office. We entered. Varlam Aleksandrovich whispered a few words to Yakov Mikhailovich, Yakov Mikhailovich nodded silently, quickly finished the conversation with his friend, and we were left alone. Varlam Alexandrovich repeated my question to Yakov Mikhailovich: where to bury Kaplan? Yakov Mikhailovich glanced at Avanesov, at me. Slowly he got up and, heavily lowering his hands on the table, as if crushing something, leaning forward a little, he rigidly, separately said:

We will not bury Kaplan. Destroy the remains without a trace ...

Having summoned several Latvian communists whom I personally knew well, I went with them to the Auto-Combat Detachment, located just opposite the children's half of the Grand Palace "...

Perhaps the memoirs of the Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov, which you began to quote, are the only source that gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe end of Kaplan's life? - I think yes. Therefore, I will conclude an excerpt from his book on this topic:

"Wide arched gates led into the courtyard of the Auto-Combat Detachment. This courtyard, narrow and long, was enclosed on all sides by high, massive buildings, in the lower floors of which there were extensive boxes where cars were parked. To the left of the gate, the courtyard ended in a small, slightly curved dead end I ordered the head of the Auto-Combat Detachment to roll out several trucks from the boxes and start the engines, and drive a passenger car into a dead end by turning it with a radiator towards the gate. Putting two Latvians at the gate and not ordering them to let anyone in, I set off for Kaplan. minutes I already introduced her into the yard of the Auto-Combat Detachment.

To my displeasure, I found Demyan Bedny here, running to the noise of the engines. Demyan's apartment was located just above the Auto-Combat Detachment, and he went down the back stairs, which I had forgotten about, right into the courtyard. Seeing me together with Kaplan, Demyan immediately understood what was the matter, nervously bit his lip and silently retreated a step. However, he was not going to leave. Well then! Let it be a witness ...

To the car! - I gave an abrupt command, pointing to the car standing in a dead end.

Shrugging her shoulders convulsively, Fanny Kaplan took one step, then another ... I raised the pistol ... It was 4 pm on September 3, 1918. Retribution has come true. The verdict was carried out. "

The corpse of Kaplan Malkov and Demyan Bedny was burned on the territory of the Kremlin in a barrel of gasoline ...

Was there a report in the press about the shooting of Kaplan?

It is known that after the attempt on Lenin's life, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution on the Red Terror of September 5, 1918, which stated that "all persons involved in White Guard organizations, conspiracies and mutinies must be shot; that it is necessary to publish the names of all those shot, as well as the grounds for using to them this measure. " So, in the sixth issue of 1918 of the "Weekly of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Speculation," a list of 90 names was printed - those executed by the Cheka. It says: "The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission shot: ... 33) Kaplan, for an attempt on the life of the NATO. Lenin, the right Socialist Revolutionary ..."

From "the Kaplan case" to "the case of the party of the right SRs"

As far as I know, you did not just get acquainted with the "Kaplan case", but carefully studied it. How does it look documented, what is it?

Outwardly investigative case No. H-200 on the assassination attempt of F.Ye. Kaplan on V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) is unremarkable. It consists of one volume, 124 sheets are stitched and numbered. Rather, this is not even a criminal case, but materials of an inquiry. From a modern point of view, many questions arise. For example, there are no references to articles of the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, the participants in the process are not familiar with the rights and obligations, there are no expert opinions. But I must say right away: these materials cannot be approached "from the height" of modern legal views!

In 1918 there was no codified legislation. The tsarist rule was also partially applied, however, if necessary, they used the "revolutionary sense of justice." There were no full-fledged courts. We do not see a verdict on her execution in the Kaplan case. There is no indictment, no order to dismiss a criminal case or a court verdict. You can forget about lawyers. The police forensic units were destroyed during the February Revolution ...

In a word, time has left its mark on everything - a revolutionary time of breaking and tremendous changes.

What were the main results of the investigation? - The identity of Kaplan has been established, her entourage of convict acquaintances has been established. The Cheka did not question Kaplan's guilt. Whether Fanny was a member of the party of right-wing socialist-revolutionaries, the investigation did not finally establish, but J.H. Peters was reasonably convinced that Kaplan represented the terrorist Socialist-Revolutionary underground. In his interview given to Izvestia VTsIK on September 1, 1918, he emphasized the conclusions of the Cheka: “From the testimony of witnesses it is clear that a whole group of persons took part in the assassination attempt, since at the moment when Comrade Lenin approached the car, he was detained under the kind of conversation between several women. There was a traffic jam at the exit. " As for the women who distracted Lenin with talk, Peters was wrong, but he was not mistaken with the "public congestion". Indeed, an experienced militant V.A. Novikov created conditions for Fanny to fire, blocking the way for the participants of the rally leaving the workshop. The most important proof was the train ticket to the Tomilino station - there was a secret dwelling of the terrorists, but the Chekists did not follow this path.

When the country's top leadership drew their conclusions, the Cheka felt that further investigation was meaningless. The last document in the file dates from September 11, 1918. True, in 1919 documents appeared here on the denunciation of Zinaida Legonkaya about an attempt on Lenin's life. However, they soon dealt with her, setting an alibi. And they turned to this case again in 1922.

In connection with what? What happened?

The Kaplan investigation file sent from the GPU on May 18, 1922 was considered "material evidence" and was attached to a huge criminal case on charges of right-wing Social Revolutionaries.

And you also studied this case?

Sure. At present, the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation contains 113 volumes of materials of the investigation, transcripts of the court, undercover services, documents on the activities of the party of Right Social Revolutionaries. The investigation was completed on April 21, 1922. The Supreme Tribunal at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee sat for 48 days (June 8 - August 7, 1922). 177 people were involved in the process. 34 leaders of this party were convicted. The preparation of preliminary materials by OGPU employee Yakov Agranov contributed to the wide publicity of the process. The most "deadly" materials were in G. Semenov's brochure "Military and Combat Work of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1917-1918", published in 1922 in Berlin, and in a letter to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) L.V. Hemp. Grigory Ivanovich Semyonov (Vasiliev), as I have already said, was in 1918 the leader of the combat Socialist-Revolutionary group, and Lydia Vasilievna Konopleva was an active member of it.

Their involvement in organizing the assassination attempt on Lenin became clear precisely in 1922?

Yes. The story with that attempt on the leader might have remained a personal terrorist act, if not for the frank confessions of Grigory Semyonov and Lydia Konopleva. In his book, Semenov said that under his leadership a group of terrorists operated in Petrograd and Moscow, and he, as its leader, was preparing an attempt on Uritsky, organized the murder of Volodarsky and an attempt on Lenin. When, in the same 1922, in Moscow, a trial was held against the party of Right Social Revolutionaries, defendants from a group of terrorist militants who actively exposed the criminal activities of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1917-1918 against Soviet power, Semenov, Konopleva, Dashevsky, Usov, Fedorov- Kozlov, Zubkov and other Social Revolutionaries, who declared that they realized their guilt and went over to the position of the communists.

In addition to political crimes, they recognized the organization of a number of major expropriations, robberies, counter-revolutionary riots and uprisings, the subversive activities of the intelligence services and the Entente embassies, and they unleashed the Civil War along with the internal counter-revolution.

The Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR G.I. Semenov (Vasiliev) and L.V. Konoplev was sentenced to capital punishment - execution, but later pardoned and released from prison. The verdict was not overturned until the end of their lives.

And what kind of person was this Semyonov?

The life story of Grigory Ivanovich Semenov (Vasiliev) reads like an adventure novel. I will only mention a few pages. From the age of 14 he has been in the revolutionary movement (anarchist). In April 1917, the twenty-five-year-old captain Semyonov became a member of the bureau of the executive committee of the Petrosovet and the head of its front-line collegium. In October 1917, he saved Kerensky from arrest and took him out of Gatchina in a sailor's uniform in a sports car. In 1918, as we have already said in detail, he heads a terrorist group, which has set as its goal the murder of the "top" of the Bolsheviks.

In September 1918, Semyonov was arrested by military control, that is, by the army counterintelligence, for belonging to the AKP military organization. During his arrest, he tried to escape and wounded two Red Army soldiers. He was held in prison for 9 months - until the spring of 1919. And he came out as a secret employee of the Cheka and military intelligence of the General Staff of the Red Army. Through intelligence, he traveled to Poland, where he ended up in prison, and then met with the famous terrorist Boris Savinkov. From Savinkov he received money and an assignment ... to commit the murder of Lenin. Dzerzhinsky, together with the money, presented Semyonov's report to Lenin.

For a long time then Semenov was in secret work in China. Gradually advancing in the service, he reached the rank of brigadier commissar. In 1936 he was sent to Spain, where the civil war broke out. However, on February 11, 1937, Semyonov was arrested. He was accused of preparing terrorist acts against Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Ordzhonikidze. By the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR with the application of the law of December 1, 1934, he was shot on October 8, 1937 and burned in the crematorium of the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow. Rehabilitated on August 22, 1961.

Let me stress the following. Even after he was sentenced, Semenov, rejecting the accusations of an attempt on Stalin's life, admitted the organization of the attempt on Lenin's life. The biography of this person has been clarified and described in detail by Sergei Vladimirovich Zhuravlev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

So, at first Semenov was an anarchist, then - a Socialist-Revolutionary. And then he became a Bolshevik?

Yes, in 1921 he joined the RCP (b). - In 1921? How could this have happened after everything you've told me about him ?! - I remind you: since September 1918, when he was arrested, the terrorist Grigory Semenov was in prison for 9 months. In the Butyrka prison. The question arises: why was he, detained with a weapon in his hands, who wounded two people, was not immediately shot by the SNK decree on the Red Terror of September 5, 1918? But the fact remains. But Grigory Semyonov left prison already as an agent of the Bolshevik military intelligence. We do not know the exact date of his recruitment. I am inclined to believe that Semyonov's attitude towards the Bolsheviks changed precisely during his nine-month arrest.

Another touch to this story, in my opinion, is essential. Now many opponents of Lenin are trying to present him as an extremely vindictive person. But Lenin knew about the militants of Grigory Semyonov, and in relation to them he had nothing personal. During Lenin's lifetime, none of the members of the terrorist group who crossed over to the Bolshevik platform was repressed.

The life of the leader was in danger - Vladimir Nikolaevich, how badly was Lenin wounded?

If you listen to some of the so-called experts, the wound was "trifling". This was argued, for example, by a certain G. Nilov, who published the Grammar of Leninism in London. He came up with the idea that the culprit of the attempt on Lenin was ... Lenin himself. The Chekists, they say, simulated an assassination attempt, so that there was a reason for unleashing the Red Terror. That is, the shots at Lenin were fired, so to speak, for fun ... - It turns out that this is where this super-strange version comes from! This means that the current detective Polina Dashkova, who greatly impressed me with her "discovery", is not its author at all, but a plagiarist?

It is quite possible to say so. Another statement was put into play: they say, it is impossible to inflict serious damage from a pistol "of such caliber and low destructive power as the Browning". Let me remind you that the Prime Minister Stolypin, Nicholas II, many famous personalities who became victims of terrorists in different parts of Europe were killed from a pistol of the same model.

Meanwhile, Dashkova rants without hesitation: all the damage to the leader's health consisted in the fact that during an attempt to imitate an attempt, Lenin stumbled, fell and broke his arm. After that, he diligently portrayed the patient. Dashkova's main argument is that with a real wound, Lenin could not independently climb to the third floor, and this is noted in her memoirs.

At one time I was in the Botkin hospital, and this was exactly the department where in 1922 Lenin underwent an operation to remove a bullet. There was a memorial plaque near the chamber. Also "imitation" according to Dashkova?

It is not difficult to refute her and other similar fabrications, since there are memories of relatives, doctors, medical documents, including the conclusions of the councils of famous Moscow and foreign doctors, radiographs, and finally, the autopsy of Lenin's body. For his injuries, I consulted with forensic specialists in gunshot wounds.

Could Lenin with such a wound independently climb to the third floor? Forensic doctors gave me examples when victims of such injuries could move for a long time.

Is this what is called in the heat of the moment?

Exactly. On the whole, Lenin's condition was very serious, which was noted already in the first official bulletin No. 1, dated at 11 pm on August 30. I have already quoted this document to you. There are other pieces of evidence suggesting how dramatically events unfolded.

Here the doctor A.N. Vinokurov, who assisted Lenin: "One bullet shattered Vladimir Ilyich's humerus, producing a fracture of the bone. Another bullet entered from behind from the side of the shoulder blade, pierced the lung, causing severe bleeding into the pleura, and stuck in front of the neck under the skin. The second wound was especially dangerous. passed by the most vital centers: the cervical artery, the cervical vein, the nerves that support the activity of the heart.Injury of one of these organs threatened imminent death, and by some miracle - the bullet did not touch them. whether he, which also threatened the life of our leader ... "

Vinokurov is echoed by Doctor V.A. Butt: "According to the pulse, which was almost completely absent, and the location of the wounds, the position, at first glance, seemed hopeless. Only a few minutes later it was possible to establish that only an accidental turn of the head at the time of injury saved Vladimir Ilyich from the destruction of vital organs, i.e. That is, from imminent death ... Of the three bullets fired at Vladimir Ilyich, two remained in the body: one in the right subclavian fossa, the other under the skin of the back. "

According to the doctor B.S. Weisbrod, Lenin believed that he would not survive, and asked: "Tell me frankly, is the end soon? If yes, then I need to talk to someone." I reassured Vladimir Ilyich, but he nevertheless took my word that if it comes to a denouement, then I must warn him ... The first night the wounded Vladimir Ilyich spent in bed was a struggle between life and death. Cardiac activity was unusually weak. The patient was plagued by bouts of shortness of breath. "

Who stays in power for a long time and promotes radical coups, revolutions and changes, sooner or later becomes a target for attempts by opponents who do not agree with the chosen course. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - the world famous, legendary leader of the revolution, was no exception, like Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet and other odious historical figures. His life was repeatedly encroached upon by those who did not agree with the chosen political course and the way of its implementation.

What is Kaplan famous for?

The attempt on Lenin's life, which took place in 1918, although unsuccessful, received wide publicity. This incident is described in many history textbooks, and the main culprit is a certain Mrs. Kaplan, a 28-year-old terrorist. The unsuccessful attempt on Lenin's life, which she committed, led to the fact that the girl was caught and executed 3 days after the incident. But many historians doubt that Kaplan was able to invent and organize everything on her own. To date, the circle of those who probably could have been involved in the assassination attempt is very wide. At the same time, the very personality of Fanny Kaplan is of great interest to both professional historians and ordinary people.

Lenin: a short biography

The man who became the leader of the revolutionary movement and who created a powerful support through his political activities, thanks to which the years in Russia were realized, was born in 1870. He was born in the city of Simbirsk. His older brother, Alexander, was opposed to the tsarist regime. In 1987, he participated in the unsuccessful This fact greatly influenced the future political position of Vladimir.

After graduating from a local school, Ulyanov-Lenin decided to enter the law faculty at Kazan University. It was there that his active social activities began. He strongly supports the Narodnaya Volya circle, which at that time was officially banned by the authorities. Student Volodya Lenin also becomes an active participant in any student riots. A short biography testifies: studying at the university ends with the fact that he is expelled without the rights of restoration and is assigned the status of "unreliable person" widespread at that time.

The stage of formation of a political idea

After being expelled from the university, he returned to Kazan. In 1888 Ulyanov-Lenin became a member of one of the Marxist circles. It is finally formed after a study of the works of Engels, Plekhanov and Marx.

Impressed by the works studied, Lenin, whose revolution seemed the only possible way to end the tsarist regime, gradually changes his political views. From being clearly populist they become social democratic.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov begins to develop his own political model of the state, which will eventually become known as Leninism. Approximately during this period, he begins to actively prepare for the revolution and is looking for one-thinkers and assistants in the implementation of the coup d'etat. In the period from 1893 to 1895. he actively publishes his scientific works, in which he describes the need for a new, socialist order.

The young activist launched a powerful activity against the tsarist autocracy, for which in 1897 he was sent into exile for a year. Despite all prohibitions and restrictions, while serving a sentence, he continues his activities. While in exile, Ulyanov officially signs his common-law wife, Krupskaya.

Revolutionary period

In 1898, the landmark first congress of the Social Democratic Party took place. This meeting was held in secret. It was headed by Lenin, and, despite the fact that only 9 people took part in it, it is believed that it was it that initiated the changes in the country. Thanks to this first congress, the 1917 revolution in Russia took place almost 20 years later.

In the period 1905-1907, when the first massive attempt to overthrow the tsar from the throne was carried out, Ulyanov was on the territory of Switzerland, but from there he collaborated with Russian revolutionaries. For a short time, he even managed to return to Petersburg and led the revolutionaries. At the end of 1905, Vladimir Ilyich ended up in Finland, where he met Stalin.

Rise to power

The next time Lenin returned to Russia only in the fateful year 1917. He immediately becomes the leader of the next uprising that broke out. After the long-awaited coup d'état, all the power of governing the country passes into the hands of Ulyanov and his Bolshevik party.

Since the king was removed, the country needed a new government. It was the one that Lenin successfully headed. Having come to power, he naturally begins to carry out reforms, which for some were very painful. Among them - NEP, the replacement of Christianity with a new, single "faith" - communism. He created the Red Army, which took part in the Civil War until 1921.

The first steps of the new government were often harsh and repressive. The civil war that broke out against this background lasted almost until 1922. She was terrible and really bloody. Opponents and those who disagreed with the arrival of Soviet power understood that it would not be possible to simply get rid of such a leader as Vladimir Ilyich, and began to prepare an attempt on Lenin's life.

A series of unsuccessful attempts

Attempts to remove Ulyanov from power by violent means were made repeatedly. In the period from 1918 to 1919 and in the following years, they tried to kill V.I. Lenin several times. The first attempt was carried out shortly after the Bolsheviks gained power, namely 01/01/1918. On that day, at about half past seven in the evening, they tried to shoot the car in which Ulyanov was driving.

By chance, Lenin was not alone on this trip. He was accompanied by Maria Ulyanova, as well as a well-known representative of the Swiss Social Democrats - Fritz Platten. This serious attempt on Lenin's life turned out to be unsuccessful, because after the first shot rang out, Platten ducked Vladimir Ilyich's head with his hand. At the same time, Fritz himself was wounded, and the leader of the Soviet revolution did not suffer at all. Despite a long search for the perpetrators, the terrorists were never found. Only many years later, a certain I. Shakhovskoy admitted that he acted as the organizer of this attempt. While in exile at that time, he financed the terrorist attack and allocated a colossal amount at that time for its preparation - almost half a million rubles.

Incomplete coup

After the approval of the power of the Soviets, it became clear to all opponents that the new regime could not be overthrown as long as its main ideologist, Lenin, was alive. The 1918 assassination attempt, organized by the Union of the Knights of St. George, failed before even starting. One day in January, a man named Spiridonov turned to the Council of People's Commissars, who introduced himself as one of the knights of St. George. He said that his organization entrusted him with a special mission - to track down and kill Lenin. According to the soldier, he was promised 20 thousand rubles for this.

After interrogating Spiridonov, the Chekists found out the location of the central apartment of the Union of St. George Knights and visited it with a search. Revolvers, explosives were found there, and thanks to this fact, the truth of Spiridonov's words is beyond doubt.

Attempt to rob the leader

Speaking about the numerous attempts on the life of Ulyanov, it is necessary to recall one strange incident that happened to Vladimir Ilyich in 1919. The official details of this story were kept in Lubyanka in case # 240266, and it was strictly forbidden to divulge its details. This event became known among the people as the robbery of Lenin, and many of the facts in it are still not entirely clear. There are several versions of what exactly happened that evening. In the winter of 1919, Lenin, accompanied by his sister and a driver, headed for Sokolniki. According to one version, there, in the hospital, was his wife, who suffered from an incurable disease at that time - autoimmune thyroiditis. Lenin was on his way to her hospital on January 19.

According to another version, he went to Sokolniki for a children's Christmas tree to congratulate the children on Christmas Eve. At the same time, it may seem strange that the main ideologist of Soviet communism and atheism decided to wish the children a Merry Christmas, besides on January 19. But many biographers explain this confusion by the fact that a year earlier Russia switched to and all dates were shifted by 13 days. Therefore, Lenin actually went to the Christmas tree not on the 19th, but on the 6th, on Christmas Eve.

The car with the leader was driving to Sokolniki, and when armed men of clearly gangster appearance suddenly tried to stop him, none of those present in the car had any doubts that another attempt was taking place on Lenin. For this reason, the driver - S. Gil - tried not to stop and slip through the armed criminals. Ironically, Vladimir Ilyich, being at that time absolutely confident in his authority and in the fact that ordinary bandits would not dare touch him, having learned that Lenin himself was in front of them, ordered the driver to stop.

Ilyich was forcibly pulled out of the cab of the car, pointing two pistols at him, the robbers took his wallet, ID and Browning. Then they ordered the driver to leave the car, got into the car and drove away. Despite the fact that Lenin gave them his last name, because of the loudly working carburetor in the car, the bandits did not hear him. They thought that in front of them was some kind of businessman Levin. The robbers came to their senses only with time, when they began to examine the seized documents.

The gang of bandits was led by a certain thieves' authority Yakov Koshelkov. That evening the company planned to rob a large mansion and an apartment on the Arbat. To accomplish their plans, the gang needed a car, and they decided to just go out into the street, catch the first car they met and steal it. It so happened that the first on their way they met the car of Vladimir Ilyich.

Only after committing the robbery, after carefully reading the stolen documents, did they understand who they had robbed, and since little time had passed after the incident, they decided to return. There was a version that Koshelkov, realizing that Lenin was in front of him, wanted to return and kill him. According to another version, the bandit wanted to take the leader hostage in order to exchange him later for his fellow prisoners who were in But these plans were not destined to come true. In a short time, Lenin and the driver reached the local Council on foot, notified of the Cheka incident, and in a matter of minutes, the guard was delivered to Vladimir Ilyich. Koshelkov was caught on June 21, 1919. During the arrest, he was wounded by a carbine and died soon after.

Legendary Kaplan

The most famous attempt on Lenin's life, the date of which falls on 08/30/1918, occurred after his speech at the Moscow Michelson plant. There were three gunshot shots, and this time the bullets hit Ilyich. According to the official version, the well-aimed shots were made by Fanny Kaplan, who is called nothing more than a "terrorist-Socialist Revolutionary".

This assassination attempt caused many to worry about Lenin's life, since the injuries received were really serious. History remembered Kaplan as a terrorist who shot at the leader. But today, when the biography of Lenin and his entourage has been carefully studied, many facts from the history of that attempt seem strange. The question arises as to whether Kaplan really shot.

Brief historical background

This girl was born in Ukraine in the Volyn region in 1890. Her father worked as a teacher in a Jewish school, and until the age of 16, her daughter bore his last name - Roydman. He was a deeply religious person, he was very tolerant of the authorities and could not think that one of his daughters would ever choose the path of terror.

Kaplan's parents emigrated to America after a certain time, and she changed her last name, and then began to use someone else's passport. Left unattended, the girl joins the anarchists and begins to participate in the revolutionary struggle. Most often she was engaged in the transportation of thematic literature. In addition, young Kaplan had to transport more serious things, for example, bombs. During one of these trips, she was detained by the tsarist secret police, and since at that moment Fanny was a minor, instead of being shot she was sentenced to life in prison.

Considering Kaplan as the main person in the assassination attempt on Lenin, it is important to note the fact that the girl had very serious vision problems (which would later make many researchers doubt whether well-aimed shots could have been fired by the hand of a half-blind, myopic woman). According to one of the existing versions, she began to lose her sight after she suffered from the explosion of a homemade bomb, which she made with her common-law husband in an underground apartment. According to another version, Fanny began to go blind as a result of a head wound, which she received even before her arrest. The problem with the eyes was so serious that Kaplan, while serving hard labor, even wanted to commit suicide.

After an unexpected amnesty in 1917, she received the long-awaited freedom and went to one of the Crimean health resorts to improve her health, and then went to Kharkov for an operation. After that, her eyesight was allegedly restored.

While in exile, Fanny became very close to the imprisoned Socialist Revolutionaries. Gradually, her views changed to social democratic. She took the news of the October coup critically, and further actions of the Bolsheviks led her to disappointment. Later, giving testimony under investigation, Kaplan will say that the idea of \u200b\u200bkilling Lenin as a traitor to the revolution came to her in Crimea.

Returning to Moscow, she meets with the Social Revolutionaries and discusses with them the possibility of an assassination attempt.

Strange assassination attempt

On the fateful day of August 30, 1918, M. Uritsky, the chairman of the Cheka, was killed in Petrograd. Lenin was one of the first to be informed about this, he was strongly advised to abandon the planned performance at the Michelson plant. But he ignored this warning and went to the workers with a speech without any protection.

After the completion of his speech, Lenin was heading for the car, when suddenly three shots rang out from the crowd. In the chaos that ensued, Kaplan was detained as someone from the crowd shouted that she was shooting.

The woman was arrested, and at first she denied her involvement in the incident, and then, during another interrogation at the Cheka, she suddenly confessed. During a short investigation, she did not surrender any of the possible accomplices and claimed that she had staged the attempt on her own.

It is very suspicious that, apart from Fanny's own confession, there is no longer a single witness who would have seen that it was she who shot. At the time of the arrest, she also had no weapons. Only 5 days later the pistol was brought to the Cheka by one of the factory workers, who allegedly found it in the factory yard. Bullets from Lenin's body were not removed immediately, but several years later. It was then that it turned out that their caliber did not quite match the type of pistol accepted as evidence. The main witness in this case, the driver of Ilyich, at first said that he saw a woman's hand shooting, but he changed his testimony during the investigation about 5 times. Kaplan herself admitted that she had fired at about 20:00, but at the same time the Pravda newspaper published information that the attempt on the leader's life was committed at 21:00. The driver said that the assassination attempt took place at approximately 23:00.

These and other inaccuracies make many today think that in fact this legendary attempt was staged by the Bolsheviks themselves. The summer of 1918 was characterized by a noticeable crisis, and the government was losing its shaky authority. Such an attempt on the leader made it possible to unleash a bloody terror against the Social Revolutionaries, while starting the Civil War.

Kaplan was executed very quickly, she was shot on September 3, and Lenin lived happily until 1924.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Yegor Yakovlev about the Socialist-Revolutionary underground and the attempt on Lenin's life

✪ Pavel Peretz about the attempt on the life of brother Lenin on Alexander III

✪ 1918 Fani Kaplan shoots at Lenin - as it was ...

✪ About the attempt on Lenin's life

Subtitles

I welcome you categorically! Egor, good afternoon. Kind. Let's continue. Yes. Today we will have the last program of the season this year and it will be dedicated to the right-wing SR and officers' underground in the summer of 1918, and the extraordinary man who headed this underground, Boris Viktorovich Savinkov. We talked about Boris Savinkov already in the programs dedicated to the Kornilov speech, where Savinkov played a prominent and controversial role, but this person deserves to refer to his biography and discuss it in more detail. Savinkov was born in 1879, he was the son of a judge of the Warsaw District Court. Russian? Yes, yes, he was Russian, received a good education, and from his youth he participated in student unrest, was initially social-democratic, but later forged into a confident member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. A big role in his fate was played by his acquaintance with a man named Evno Azef. Azef is the leader of the fighting group of the SR party and the chief architect of the SR individual terror, who, I recall, was one of the most important components of the tactics of this party. Most of the political murders in Russia of the pre-revolutionary period were committed by the Socialist-Revolutionaries. And Savinkov, together with Yevno Azev, were involved in the loudest of them. In this terrorist activity, Savinkov proved himself to be an outstanding organizer and a very good psychologist. His tasks, in particular, included psychological work with the performers, in particular with Yegor Sozonov, the assassin of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Plehve, and Ivan Kalyaev, the assassin of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Serious character. Yes Yes. He instructed them, admonished them, and, in general, both he and the other gave a high assessment to Savinkov, i.e. he knew how to inspire people, knew how to let them know that they were performing a high duty, fighting the rotten autocratic regime. And for this Savinkov was rightfully appreciated in the revolutionary environment. But, as you know, the revolutionary events were still turned around, the tsarist government managed to find an instrument to suppress the revolution, a significant part of the revolutionaries ended up either in exile or in prison. A similar fate awaited Savinkov. In 1906, he arrived in Sevastopol in order to organize the assassination of Admiral Chukhnin. Admiral Chukhnin at this time became famous throughout Russia for the cruel suppression of the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov. It is interesting that one of the brightest essays on the theme of the uprising at Ochakov was written by Alexander Kuprin, the essay was sharply critical of the authorities, and Chukhnin demanded that Kuprin be sent from Sevastopol, here. The Social Revolutionaries sentenced Chukhnin for his petty tyranny and cruel behavior, and, in fact, Savinkov was to carry out this sentence with a group of militants. And in what way was the uprising expressed? Did they capture something there? Yes Yes. There was a seizure. Well, actually, this is an interesting story related to the fate of the famous Lieutenant Schmidt, the cruiser Ochakov was captured, but the performance was suppressed. And Chukhnin was subsequently committed 2 attempts. The first attempt was unsuccessful, a terrorist named Izmaylovich came to him, allegedly for an appointment, fired several shots, but Chukhnin survived. A similar attempt on the life of Governor-General Trepov was probably told by Pasha about the attempt on the life of Vera Zasulich, it became a kind of role model for future terrorists. After that, Chukhnin survived. And there someone was killed in the suppression of the riot, no? Yes, yes, of course. There were victims, but most importantly, there were executions later, because Chukhnin was going to hang almost everyone there. So, by the way, Kuprin saved 10 sailors from reprisals. And so, in fact, Savinkov had to organize an assassination attempt, which would have been crowned with success, here. By the way, that means, running ahead, I will say that Chukhnin was really killed, and for a long time the terrorist who did it was unknown. And, in fact, even now we do not know exactly who did it, and we do not know for sure whether it was nevertheless connected with the Savinkov group, or it was some kind of sailor lynching, here. But it is known that Savinkov was arrested in Sevastopol, and as the leader of this militant terrorist group, most likely, the death penalty awaited him, here. He was held in jail awaiting trial. Further, it means that his biography takes on another romantic turn, this is an escape, then. His comrades managed to rescue him, bribing the guards and changing his soldiers' clothes, he was taken out. And an interesting fact, it means that he had a pistol, and they were all not devoid of a certain code of honor - they agreed with the man who rescued him, which means with his companion, that if they stumbled upon an officer during the escape, they would kill him , in any case, will enter into a firefight. And if they come across a soldier, a representative of the people, they will surrender. But this means that they did not get anybody, they managed to escape. After a while Savinkov fled to Romania on a sailing boat. Savinkov fled to Romania, this is such a winding biography. Further, it means that the revolution was suppressed, and the period of the so-called. Stolypin reaction. And at that moment the Socialist Revolutionary Party received another blow. Journalist Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev, close to revolutionary circles, announced that Evno Azef, Savinkov's mentor and teacher, is an agent of the tsarist secret police. The news shocked the party. It would seem that Azef was a charismatic leader who fights against the autocracy on the front line, and suddenly treason? The Socialist-Revolutionary leadership did not immediately believe in this, and even a concomitant tragedy occurred - another provocateur, a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Central Committee, Nikolai Tatarov, was exposed, who handed over Azefa. But Azef managed to convince everyone that he was being slandered. A killer was sent to Tatarov. Realizing that a killer was on the doorstep, Tatarov's elderly parents rushed to protect their son, and the militant shot his mother twice, and then still killed the provocateur with a knife. At that moment, Azef remained above suspicion, but the former director of the police department Lopukhin handed him over to Burtsev, who had previously paid fabulous sums to Azev for cooperation, but was removed from his post after the murder of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Those. it was a kind of revenge. However, unlike Tatarov, Azev managed to hide from the revenge of the party members, and he died a natural death in Berlin in 1918. So, Savinkov became the formal leader of this militant organization, but nothing happened, so, and after that, like a significant number of revolutionaries, as I said, who did not know what to do after the suppression of the revolution for 5-7 years, he emigrated, and he lived in France. And there, in France, he met World War 1, and stood clearly on the position of the defencist, i.e. a person who advocates waging war to a victorious end. I must say that to a large extent, probably, he was sincerely imbued with the spirit of war that existed in France, because France, of course, had a different attitude to World War I. Firstly, there no prime ministers from the rostrum of the State Duma spoke about the annexation of Constantinople. There they talked exclusively about one thing - about the return of the original French territories of Alsace and Lorraine, seized by the treacherous Germans, about the German yoke, which was hoisted on the shoulders of the unfortunate French people, and about its imminent liberation. And therefore, to a large extent, Savinkov, of course, sympathized with the French. But, I think, there was one more point, which all the emigrants also emphasized, these are the hopes that an alliance with England and France, France is a republic, England is a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary, with a developed, as these people believed, democracy, and Russia is a backward autocratic monarchy. And the fact that she got into the company of such wonderful states is a great happiness, so, she must get out of the war, so to speak, to catch up with the standard. Come out with the same constitutional monarchy or republic, but in any case not the same monarchy as Germany and Austria-Hungary were. These monarchies were considered backward and non-progressive. And so, in fact, the hopes of the left, which at that time found themselves living in Europe, were largely associated with the fact that the allies would be pulled up to the end of the war. Here. And the famous phrase of Lloyd George, which he said after the February Revolution, that what happened in Russia is the first victory of the principles for which this war is being waged, it means that the idea of \u200b\u200bdemocracy played this very important role in the propaganda of England and France. Here we are fighting for democracy, and our opponents are monarchies, they are fighting for tyranny. And Russia in this sense spoiled the picture. When Russia also formally turned into a republic, the propaganda of England and France triumphed. Now we have a united camp of democracies against the camp of tyranny, here. Very often this phrase is presented as proof that England organized the February Revolution, but the meaning is completely different from what I said. So Savinkov also believed in all this, so, by the way, he entered the French army, at the same time he wrote many articles of such a defencist nature and, in general, thus lived until 1917. As soon as the revolution took place in February, Savinkov, like, again, hundreds of former Russian revolutionaries who, therefore, lived in exile, rushed to their homeland. He rushed to his homeland, and arrived there a few days later than Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, together with the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party Viktor Chernov. By the way, despite the fact that they were traveling from France, they also came from Sweden, respectively, to the Finland Station, they were greeted in the same way by an honor guard, they were greeted in the same way with the performance of the Internationale and the Marseillaise, and they were exactly the same on that moment by the heroes of the revolutionary movement, as, in fact, Lenin, and in general all some prominent figures of Social Democracy who returned to their homeland - Plekhanov, Kropotkin, the same Chernov. As soon as Savinkov arrived in Petrograd, he immediately plunged into political struggle. But she was not at all the same as Lenin's. Since he was a defencist, he chose the army, he began to strengthen the new revolutionary army. And on this basis, he agreed with A.F. Kerensky, they became allies, and here I recommend that our viewers simply turn to the program dedicated to the Kornilov speech, where I talked in sufficient detail about the role of Savinkov. And now I will simply remind you rather schematically that Savinkov, understanding a certain antagonism that existed between the leftist revolutionary leader Kerensky and the champion of strict military discipline Kornilov, tried to act as a kind of mediator between them. But in the end, he could not sit on 2 chairs, and he went with Kerensky. But Kerensky did not trust Savinkov either, and Boris Viktorovich after a while turned out to be practically persona non grata. When the October armed uprising took place and Soviet leaders came to power, Savinkov rushed, I remind you, to the Don, where he met with General Alekseev, one of the 2 leaders of the volunteer army, and asked him, let's say, a mandate to organize an officer's underground in central Russia ... Those. when the volunteer army left for the first Kuban campaign, Savinkov did not go with it, but went to central Russia and began to organize an officer's underground there. And he succeeded. He succeeded in this, let's start with the main thing - no underground can be organized without funds. And this is a very important point where Savinkov got the money from. It is often mentioned that Savinkov received the first money, 200,000 rubles, from the head of the Czech National Council, Tomáš Masaryk. Tomas Masaryk openly writes about this in his memoirs, but here the question arises - it is not entirely clear why Tomas Masaryk should give Savinkov money. Those. So Tomasz Masaryk writes that I think that this money will be used to support the volunteer army, but in principle this is not fully understood either. Those. the task of Masaryk, and he positions himself in such a way that he is nothing that the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps, it was accidental. Masaryk's task was, if we take his word for it, to take the Czechs out of Russia and send them to the western front. But by his actions something is not clear, and I suspect, I do not know this, we have no evidence, but I suspect that Masaryk in this case did not give his money, he was a gasket of French money. Because, of course, let me remind you that the main supporter of the intervention and the performance of the Czechs in the Entente camp was the French ambassador Nullans, a harsh anti-Bolshevik, and I suspect that this first tranche that Savinkov received was inspired by Nullans. But in the future, Nullans did not use any gaskets, and gave money himself, gave money himself. First, he gave him 500,000, which means that within 18 years Savinkov received 2.5 million rubles from Nullans, for a second, this is a huge amount, a colossal one. It is clear that there was inflation and all that, but still, even taking into account inflation in 1818, this is a lot of money. And Savinkov, in general, had the opportunity to turn around. This means that Lieutenant Colonel of the Imperial Army Alexander Perkhurov became his closest associate. Perkhurov, he was the owner of the Order of St. George, IV degree, a very brave man, anti-Bolshevik-minded, and in this sense, he was, of course, a loyal and proactive assistant to Savinkov. And the most important task was assigned to him - the organization of the uprising in Yaroslavl. Actually, Perkhurov went there and organized an uprising, which we will talk about a little later. The uprising was scheduled for July 1918. The task was seen as follows: synchronously raise uprisings in several cities and hold them until the approach of other anti-Bolshevik forces. There is a historiographic mystery here. Savinkov's French sponsors subsequently assured that his actions were pure improvisation, that Savinkov, therefore, did not consult with anyone and did all this himself, and they did not really know. Some researchers believe them, some researchers don't. I probably don't believe it. The fact is that Savinkov was anyone, but he, of course, was not a fool, and he was perfectly aware that without support and without systemic coordination of actions, they would not succeed. Those. as if the Bolsheviks were still, of course, not very strong, but still not so strong as not to suppress the insignificant forces that, in principle, they had. Those. in the Savinka organization, according to various estimates, there were from 2,000 to 5,000 officers. It is clear that Savinkov himself did not communicate with them, it was an extensive network, and these are, rather, the people on whom Savinkov a priori hoped that some kind of uprising would begin now, and they would support. In Yaroslavl, for example, it worked out, but in Murom and Rybinsk it didn’t. 3 cities in which they revolted simultaneously. And I suspect that Savinkov, when, therefore, he held a meeting with the most trusted persons, and when he arrived in Rybinsk and spoke there, it means, with an underground officer's asset, he told everyone that we were not alone, we would be supported by the Allied troops who are preparing to disembark. Preparing to land in Arkhangelsk. Those. first of all, it was, of course, about the British. This is a mystery, because by that time the decision to land the expeditionary corps, or at least some forces, had been made by the Entente countries, and the British were already aiming at this. But, firstly, they did not coincide with Savinkov in terms of time, and secondly, when they nevertheless landed, and it happened on August 4, 1918, it suddenly turned out that these were not at all the forces that the conspirators were counting on. because if the Czechoslovak corps was really a huge force, in any case, different researchers said that from 60 to 80 thousand people, then at that moment the British landed only 1200 fighters in Murmansk. About nothing. Well, no matter what, this was enough to then occupy Arkhangelsk, and, in principle, later contingents would swim up there, but these, of course, were not the forces that Savinkov and company were counting on. And I think that Savinkov, of course, was associated with both the French and the British, so I last time talked about Friedrich Bredis, who was a member of the anti-Soviet Latvian underground, and at the same time was a secret Soviet agent, because his colleague is lieutenant colonel Ertman managed to get in, infiltrate the Cheka and was its leader. So Bredis also goes to Yaroslavl, he was also a union of this Savinka organization, it was called the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom. And Bredis was also a member of that organization, and he was associated with Francis Except, the naval military attaché I spoke about last time. This is how the information was spread through these personal acquaintances. It is clear that it could not be 100% reliable, and I think that Savinkov was counting, of course, on the beginning of a large-scale Allied intervention, but he miscalculated. Those. he was perhaps encouraged by those people who themselves did not have 100% reliable information. But nonetheless. And there are 2 more riddles, but I think that here we are dealing with a coincidence. The fact is that the mutiny in Yaroslavl also began on July 6, 1918, i.e. on the same day, in fact, with the performance of the Left SRs in Moscow and Petrograd. And some researchers are trying to see some connection here. But there is no documentary evidence of this connection, and moreover, in Yaroslavl, for example, the Left SRs and Bolsheviks fought shoulder to shoulder against this Right SR and officer underground, and died. At the same moment when their party members were trying to take power, or at least to overthrow Lenin in Moscow. Those. this is a paradoxical situation. Such vicissitudes, peculiar vicissitudes of the civil war. This means that the undoubted proof of Savinkov's organizational talents was the fact that he raised an uprising. All these uprisings were unequal in duration. Let me remind you that there are 3 cities - Yaroslavl, Murom and Rybinsk. Savinkov himself was in Rybinsk, and it is characteristic that the uprising in Rybinsk was suppressed, one might say, in a few hours. In Murom, where the uprising began on July 8, it formally lasted until July 10, but already on July 9 it was clear that the performance also failed, there the officer's underground was only 400 people, so, very quickly the Red Army units suppressed it. It was different in Yaroslavl. There was really a very serious uprising in Yaroslavl, where Perkhurov held out for 16 days. But. For 16 days he held out to the last and, apparently, really expected that there would be some kind of support from the intervention. But it must be said that in Yaroslavl a significant number of local young people of military age went over to the side of the counter-revolution. There were serious battles, it was necessary to call additional troops, and most importantly, there was an artillery bombardment of Yaroslavl, as a result of which a significant part of the city was destroyed. That is, it was a real serious fight. On the part of the Red Army, the former Tsarist officer, Captain Alexander Ilyich Gekker, was also in charge. Well, in this confrontation, Gekker Perkhurova won, although not without difficulty, here. Thus, despite the synchronicity of various anti-Bolshevik uprisings, the Bolsheviks, in general, managed to quite successfully repel all attacks both in the capitals and in the center, here. But, nevertheless, the success of the Czechoslovak rebellion attracted all those who were defeated elsewhere. And those cadres who survived, for example, Perkhurov, by the way, they immediately fled to where firm anti-Soviet power was established. And Perkhurov will become Kolchak's general in the future. And now we will return to the capitals and, therefore, we will understand what the SR tactics were in the face of the defeat of the uprisings. It was plan B, and in principle, knowing what the Socialist-Revolutionary Party is famous for, it is easy to guess what kind of plan it is. It was a plan of individual terror. It cannot be said that individual terror was an alternative to an uprising. His Savinkov, when he arrived in central Russia, he immediately simultaneously prepared militant organizations that would carry out individual terror against the leaders of the revolution, and in parallel he prepared officer uprisings in the regions. Both in Petrograd and in Moscow there was an Socialist-Revolutionary underground, one of the brightest representatives of which was a man named Grigory Semyonov. This is also a Socialist-Revolutionary, we met with him already, but did not name him. This is the man who was Kerensky's chauffeur, who took him from Gatchina to Pskov during the armed uprising in Petrograd and, in fact, saved him from the trial of the Gatchina soldiers, who at the meeting talked about what they would do to Kerensky if he fell into hands. The man was also not a timid dozen, frankly, a very good conspirator, and it was he who organized the Socialist-Revolutionary underground, which was supposed to carry out an attempt on the life of the leaders of the revolution, primarily Lenin and Trotsky. The officers' underground had a try of the pen, this was the murder of the famous Bolshevik and member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Volodarsky, which was organized very successfully. Volodarsky's chauffeur was bribed and recruited, who stopped at the right place, allegedly due to the fact that the car ran out of gasoline, Volodarsky and his wife got out of the car for a breath of air, at this time the killer fired several shots and killed Volodarsky. Those. it was one of the first successful terrorist acts of the Socialist-Revolutionary underground. By the way, Volodarsky's murder did not lead to the Red Terror, i.e. Lenin held out for the time being. And, of course, Volodarsky was far from the figure who could curtail all socialist transformations and demoralize the Bolshevik party. That is, it was not a leader on the scale of Lenin and Trotsky. Therefore, of course, the task was to kill these two people, first of all Lenin, because it was clear that he was leading the revolution. And here, then, unexpectedly, the fate of Fanny Kaplan is woven into our history, who, in general, was not a full-fledged member of Semyonov's team, Semyonov's group, and in general it is difficult to rank her as a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, because in essence she was an anarchist. Fanny Kaplan's real name was Roitblat, she was also a veteran of the revolutionary movement. In 1906, she tried to kill the Kiev governor-general, unsuccessfully, for this she was exiled to hard labor, and was serving a sentence in the same prison with well-known SR terrorists, for example, with Maria Spiridonova, they were well acquainted. Maria Spiridonova presented Fanny Kaplan with a shawl, which she greatly appreciated and kept. Spiridonova was already a symbol of the revolutionary movement. Fanny Kaplan had vision problems, even for some time she became completely blind, but the treatment still returned some remnant of her vision, and in 1917, after the February Revolution, Fanny Kaplan, along with other terrorists who were imprisoned with her in Siberia, was released, here. But unlike, say, Spiridonova, she did not immediately burst into the revolutionary movement, and we meet her in the Crimea, in Evpatoria, where she recovered her health. There is about Fanny Kaplan, which means that there is such a bike about Fanny Kaplan, which, by the way, now you can often hear and read, hear in some TV programs about her, and read in some journalistic materials about what it means to rest in Evpatoria in the summer of 1917, there she met a man who loved her very much, and whom she also fell in love with, and they had a stormy and passionate romance. The man's name was Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and he was the brother of Vladimir Ilyich. This means that this story was launched into wide circulation by the emigrant Semyon Reznik, who, therefore, allegedly heard this from the old Bolshevik Viktor Baranchenko, a member of the Crimean Revolutionary Committee. Baranchenko lived to be 80, in my opinion, the year, wrote his memoirs, and he really writes that Fanny Kaplan had an affair there with some man, but that means that the name of Dmitry Ulyanov does not mention. And, in general, modern researchers, a well-known not just a researcher, but an investigator Vladimir Solovyov, who led the investigation into the shooting of the royal family, including he was also involved in the case of Fanny Kaplan in the case of the attempt on Lenin, so he undertook to check these data and discovered that Fanny Kaplan lived in Evpatoria, and at that moment Dmitry Ulyanov was not in Evpatoria, he served as a military doctor in Sevastopol, here. And, in general, it is unlikely that they could have some kind of whirlwind romance, which, moreover, remained unknown to anyone. There are no other mentions of this, this is a later statement, which, rather, is an adventurous tale, designed to add some piquancy to the story. So, after this rest in Evpatoria, Kaplan goes to Kharkov. She goes there to undergo eye surgery. Those. there is a well-known statement, such a position that Kaplan could not shoot Lenin because she was blind or half-blind. So, despite the vision problems, Fanny Kaplan comes to Kharkov to the famous ophthalmologist Leonard Leopoldovich Hirsch, who performs an operation on her. This operation was successful, and I must say, Fanny Kaplan restored her eyesight to a large extent. By the way, when they searched her home after the attempt on Lenin's life, and searched her herself, no one found glasses, i.e. she did not wear glasses. This meant that she could well navigate in space without them, here. And, besides, there is the testimony of Semyonov, Grigory Semyonov of the very one about whom I already spoke, he showed that among all the potential murderers, several were planned for Lenin. It all depended on where it would be more convenient to kill him. Moscow was divided into 4 sectors, and each sector had its own killer, who was supposed to lie in wait for Lenin after speaking at a rally, here. So Kaplan among all these potential killers shot the best, for a second. Wow. Here. Therefore, it means that this is another legend that Kaplan did not know how to shoot. She knew how and trained specially, and so. By the way, she got to the hospital to Girsh on October 25, 1917, an interesting fact. So, then, at the beginning of 18, she comes to Moscow, she comes to Moscow, and here she really gets nailed to the party of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries. Recall that at this time the party of the Right Social Revolutionaries, although it suffered a crushing defeat in the political struggle, it is not yet considered completely anti-Soviet or anti-state, its faction is in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a small fraction, however, there, in my opinion, only 5 people , but nonetheless. Socialist-Revolutionary newspapers and press are published, Socialist-Revolutionary meetings are held. In essence, so to speak, this is the principle of a multi-party system, it is supported. Those. the Social Revolutionaries at this moment constitute the legal opposition. And now, in fact, the former anarchist Fanny Kaplan gravitates towards the Right Socialist Revolutionaries. She first meets the Socialist-Revolutionary Volsky, this is the future leader of Komuch, here, and he just directs her to Semyonov, informing that there is a woman who is ready to repeat the feat of Charlotte Corday, the famous French woman who killed Marat during the French Revolution. Now we have our own Charlotte Corday, we have a woman who is ready to kill a new tyrant - Lenin. Semyonov accepts her into his group, but I must say that in parallel, Kaplan, even before she entered this Socialist-Revolutionary underground, she formed her own terrorist group, I would say so - her own circle of 4 people, which at least discussed how you can kill Lenin. And there they discussed a variety of exotic versions of the murder, for example, inoculating him with some incurable disease, but this means that the real exhaust was the creation of one bomb, which was later found, which could theoretically be thrown at Lenin or some other the leader, therefore, of the Soviet state. Well, Semyonov approached the issue quite competently, that is, it was planned ... Let me remind you that Volodarsky, he was killed on June 20, Volodarsky was a kind of warm-up for this Social Revolutionary underground. This means that it was planned to kill five leaders - Lenin, Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky, Sverdlov and Uritsky. Then these people are surprised that they were all repaired. This is also a very interesting moment, because not all were repaired, now we will get to that. Of course, Lenin was the most important. True, there is a version that it was not Semyonov who was behind the murder of Volodarsky, but another group of Savinkovites, which operated more in Petrograd. It was headed by Boris Viktorovich's former ally in establishing ties between Kerensky and Kornilov, but if anyone remembers, this was told in my videos dedicated to the Kornilov speech, Social Revolutionary Maximilian Filonenko. At that time, he was indeed in the northern capital and lived under assumed names. The second leader of the underground was former Major General of the Imperial Army Boris Shulgin, whose sister kept a cafe on Kirochnaya Street, and this cafe was a recruiting place for anti-Soviet officers. The organization involved Filonenko's cousin, Socialist-Revolutionary Leonid Kanegiser, who at the end of August will kill the leaders of the Petrograd Cheka Moisei Uritsky. Kanegiser was a rather promising poet, an acquaintance of Sergei Yesenin, but he will remain in history precisely as an SR terrorist. His shot at Uritsky will take place in Petrograd on the morning of August 30. In the evening of the same day, Kaplan will try to kill Lenin in Moscow. The question of the unified management of these attempts, and by the way, on the evening of August 29 they also tried to kill Zinoviev, is still open. But then, in 1918, they made a very strong impression on the Soviet side, and in fact were perceived as a declaration of war. If we add here information about the connection between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the British and the conspiracy of ambassadors, which the Cheka possessed, then it is clear that the Council of People's Commissars had every reason to feel like the intended victim of a well-planned and ramified conspiracy. But back to Lenin. Naturally, after the murder of Uritsky, fears for his life immediately arose. At that moment, the idea arose that Lenin should never be allowed to go to any rallies. And on August 30 it was Friday, and on Fridays the Bolshevik leaders always spoke at rallies, as a rule, at large enterprises, that means. Well, they also tried to offer Lenin not to go anywhere, Lenin categorically refused to be buried somewhere. He said - do you want to close me in a box, like some bourgeois minister? I will go to the people. Here. And indeed Lenin went to the people. This means that at 6 o'clock he had his first performance at the bread exchange, and then he went to the Michelson plant. And it was there that Fanny Kaplan was lying in wait for him. There is another widespread version that Fanny Kaplan could not get into Lenin, because it was already very dark, here. But apparently Lenin arrived at the Michelson plant at about 7 o'clock, his speech lasted, according to various estimates, from 20 to 40 minutes, that is, most likely, the attempt on his life took place somewhere at twenty to eight. That is, it was the end of August, well, it’s not yet dark enough not to get in. Moreover, the assassination attempt was made, the shots were not from a long distance. How much? Well, about 6-7 meters, and so. Fine. Fanny Kaplan crept well. We have the most spiteful operational joke about her, when you turn to a citizen - if you are accused of murdering Lenin, Fanny Kaplan took it upon herself. It was very funny. Here. Lenin spoke and, by the way, the last phrase of his speech was "we will win or die." He performed with great success. And when he walked to his car, he was surrounded by a crowd of people who asked some questions, so. And at that moment his chauffeur Stepan Gil saw a hand with a Browning, heard 3 shots. Lenin was thrown back, he fell, Gil tried to catch him, here Lenin was lying bloody, and in the confusion he did not even see who was shooting. And after a while, Kaplan was detained at a public transport stop near the plant. She seemed to be out of her mind. And during the arrest, when they took her, she uttered the phrase "it was not me who did it." Lenin was seriously wounded, and Gil immediately took him to the Kremlin. But Lenin, despite the fact that he was wounded, was bleeding, by the way, he got up on his feet and went to bed himself, here. Doctors were urgently called, and in general there was such a thing, the accused later said at the trial, that the bullets were poisoned. Yes, I just wanted to ask. This is a well-known story, yes, which was replicated in Soviet times, but most likely not. Well, here is some kind of this, bullets, they still pass through the barrel, there is a temperature and all that. Yes, most likely. Even if it was so ... Something even now does not happen poisoned bullets, not to mention then. That is, it was somehow strange. Perhaps this is an echo of these exotic plans of Lenin, which means infecting with an unknown disease. In general, the Socialist-Revolutionaries ... Although they may have been poisoned, the poison simply did not work. Maybe so, yes, here. Well, in general, it is not known, we do not know it. The Social Revolutionaries, in general, they were masters of all sorts of exotic assassination plans. For example, even in tsarist times, they conceived, which means that they were very inspired by the appearance of aviation, so, they began to assume ... Such prospects! Yes. It was supposed, therefore, to acquire somewhere some kind of aircraft, and to bomb the Winter Palace or the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo from it in the literal sense of the word. Those. their revolutionary tradition there was an active connection with science, there was Kibalchich, for example, and now there was a plan to really create such an aircraft, from which it would be possible to destroy the tsar's citadel. But we see this here too. It seemed to the people that Lenin had been killed, and that, in a sense, caused panic. Actually, this Bolshevik leadership almost immediately announced the introduction of the Red Terror, this attempt had very serious consequences for the escalation of the civil war. But Lenin survived, Lenin survived, and although it seemed to the opponents of the Bolsheviks that after this shot, Soviet power would end in the country, in reality it turned out not to be so. Fanny Kaplan soon confessed to the crime she had committed, and in principle, we basically have no reason to believe that this attempt was not committed by her, because all the alternative versions that are expressed on this matter, they are completely sinning. irrepressible conspiracy. Well, for example, they say that in fact this is an attempt, it was planned by Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, who wanted to overthrow Lenin and, therefore, independently govern the Soviet state. He was so severe. Yes, yes .. But Lenin and Sverdlov were quite different people, they had different views on many things, here, but nevertheless, their whole political path in the Soviet state already, it shows that they knew how to negotiate and coordinate their action, here. And Sverdlov in general never showed himself as a person who intrigues against Lenin, there is simply no evidence of this. Those. if, say, the dives of Lenin with Trotsky, they are fairly well known, then, then, some tough dives, behind-the-scenes intrigues of Sverdlov against Lenin, we do not know anything about this. Those. these are all some kind of speculation, mostly based on one phrase taken out of context, here Sverdlov once said that Ilyich was wounded, he was not with us, and we were working. And this means that some experts say - he let it slip, in fact it is him. I doubt very much that there is any trace at all, i.e. there is nothing to catch at all. There is a version that I unexpectedly found out for myself, which is being promoted by the author of detective stories, Polina Dashkova. Oh my God. She puts forward a version that in fact there was no attempt on his life, and the Bolsheviks started all this, Lenin personally, to unleash the Red Terror, here. But this is, as it were, from the same opera that, so to speak, Dzerzhinsky provoked the Left SRs in order to finish off the Left SRs, apparently they decided in doublet. - Wolves, who ate the sheep? - She climbed first. Something like this. So, this version can be dismissed as absurd, here. And all claims to Fanny Kaplan, they are, in fact, also sucked from the finger, i.e. Fanny Kaplan was blind - no, she wasn't. Fanny Kaplan could not shoot - no, she could. I will notice that ... It was dark - no. ... it's generally not easy, as you know, to shoot at people, there is very high nervousness, everything will shake you. Plus there is a crowd of people, so she still managed to escape from there, that they took her at the bus stop, and during, so to speak, no one pounced on. If he saw a hand with a pistol, then he was not the only one who saw, those around him also saw. She was a brave lady, brave. It is problematic for a blind person to do such things. Therefore, they say that this is not her, she could not. In fact, she could, now, in fact she could. So, Kaplan was arrested, and, in fact, she was shot. She was shot, although myths circulated there that Kaplan was spared, that she survived. No, she was shot. But these myths are not based on empty space, because after a while Grigory Semyonov was arrested, and his fate turned out differently. Despite the fact that he was fully caught in the preparation of the murder of Comrade Lenin and sentenced to death, Lenin pardoned him. Lenin pardoned him, which means that Semyonov later became a member of the CPSU (b), and was engaged in very responsible work along the lines of the Cheka. He performed KGB missions in China, Poland, and already during the Spanish Civil War in 36. And in 1937 he was arrested and shot, here. And then, it means that the question arose once again about whether he participated in the assassination attempt on Lenin, and he confirmed this, here. But here is such an unusual fate, uncharacteristic. Those. in some aspects, Vladimir Ilyich was an extremely flexible person, here. Well, I told you that, in general, both the Left and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, they later joined the Bolshevik Party in quite a large number, despite the fact that at the beginning of the Civil War and in the first years after the revolution they were very energetic in anti-Bolshevik activities, up to that. This is where I would like to finish the next season of our cycle "The Real Game of Thrones". We surveyed what happened from the October armed uprising to the assassination attempt on Lenin, which for some time seemed successful to the anti-Soviet forces and inspired them. And next year we will go further and will closely engage in the civil war in Russia. In the stories, my compliments. Why they invent it is not clear what, it is not at all clear. Thank you, Yegor, thank you. Thank you too. Very interesting. Until next time. Until next time. That's all for today.

Assassination attempt in January 1918

Already on January 1, 1918, the first unsuccessful attempt on Lenin's life took place, in which Friedrich Platten was slightly hit by a bullet. According to one of the versions of the Cheka, Dmitry Ivanovich Shakhovskoy was the organizer of the assassination attempt on January 1, 1918. A few years later, who was in exile, Prince I.D.Shakhovskoy announced that he was the organizer of the assassination attempt, and allocated five hundred thousand rubles for this purpose. Researcher Richard Pipes also points out that one of the former ministers of the Provisional Government, cadet N.V. Nekrasov, was involved in this assassination attempt, who immediately after the assassination attempt, changing his name to Golgotha, left for Ufa, then for Kazan. In March 1921 he was arrested, sent to Moscow and in May, after a meeting with V. I. Lenin, was released.

In mid-January, the second attempt on Lenin's life was thwarted: the soldier Spiridonov came to see Bonch-Bruyevich M.D., declaring that he was participating in the conspiracy of the Union of St. George Cavaliers, and was ordered to eliminate Lenin. On the night of January 22, the Cheka arrests the conspirators at 14 Zakharyevskaya Street, in the apartment of “citizen Salova,” but then they are all sent to the front at their personal request. At least two of the conspirators, Zinkevich and Nekrasov, subsequently join the "white" armies.

Assassination attempt on August 30, 1918

In accordance with the testimony of Semyonov-Vasiliev, the Militant Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party resumed its activities in early 1918 and in July liquidated Volodarsky. The next major target was outlined by Trotsky as the military leader of Bolshevism. However, Trotsky was constantly moving between the capital and the front, therefore, as Vasiliev put it, "for technical reasons" it was decided first to liquidate Lenin.

During the training, Semyonov discovered that Kaplan, whom he described as an "unshakable revolutionary terrorist", was conducting the same training independently of him. Kaplan joined Semyonov's group; She herself, during interrogations at the Cheka, claimed that she acted independently, not representing any party.

The first assassination attempt was made by the Social Revolutionaries on August 16 at a meeting of the Moscow party committee, but the performer lost his nerves at the last moment. The second, successful, attempt was made on August 30th. For her, Semyonov appointed Novikov as the worker on duty, and Kaplan as the executor.

At the same time, the Social Revolutionaries tried to carry out an attempt on Trotsky's life by going to blow up the train on which he was leaving for the front. However, at the last moment, Trotsky managed to knock them off the trail by leaving on another train.

Poisoned Bullet Version

For a long time, it was believed that Vladimir Lenin was wounded by a poisoned bullet. In particular, the historian Richard Pipes cites such a statement in his work "Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power", referring to the testimony of Semyonov. Semyonov himself claimed that three bullets had a cruciform incision into which curare poison was injected. In addition, according to the medical report, the doctors actually found a cruciform incision on the bullet removed from Lenin's neck. However, even assuming that the poison was actually inflicted, its properties were destroyed by the heat generated in the pistol barrel upon firing.

Subsequently, a controversy arose around this version, in which Lenin's political opponents denied both the poisoned bullets and the existence of the attempt itself.

Results of the assassination attempt

As a result of the assassination attempts on V.I. Lenin and M.S. Uritsky, the highest body of Soviet power -

Attempts on Lenin

On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on the life of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

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