Three and a half attempts on Brezhnev's life. Who shot Brezhnev

It is impossible to suspect a former terrorist in a thin, friendly old man walking a mongrel named Khazar, whom he sheltered and saved from thirty-degree frost. “If a person at 70 looks at the world the same way as at 20, then he lived in vain,” says Viktor Ilyin. This year he just turns 70, and when he shot Brezhnev, he was 21 years old.

“If I went back to 1969, I wouldn’t kill anyone. Thank God that I have the opportunity to say this now. After all, when I shot at the motorcade, I didn’t count on the future. It was a suicidal act. But, fortunately, I was given two lives.”

Instead of execution - pension

For a crime for which Ilyin faced the death penalty (he was charged with four serious articles - “Terrorism”, “Murder”, “Theft of weapons” and “Desertion”), he was never convicted, being declared insane and sent for compulsory treatment to mental asylum. Although everyone who interrogated him, including the head of the KGB and the future leader of the USSR Yuri Andropov, said at first that Ilyin acted consciously, for ideological reasons.

“To admit that a Soviet citizen, in good mind and health, shot at Brezhnev would mean for the Soviet state to admit that dissatisfaction with the communist system is brewing in the country. It was impossible,” explains Victor. “That’s why we decided to show that only a madman could make an attempt on the life of the head of the USSR.”

Then no one could have imagined that 20 years later the Union would collapse, and the new Supreme Court would release the terrorist, making him almost a hero of the resistance. At the expense of the state, Ilyin will even be allocated one-room apartment on the outskirts of Leningrad, in which he was born and raised, and will be given a pension.

20 years on pills

It is difficult today to understand whether Ilyin was actually healthy at the time of the assassination attempt. The years spent in a psychiatric hospital made themselves felt: in conversation, Ilyin jumps from topic to topic, now talking about the circumstances of the crime, now starting to quote his poems, now bragging about the fact that he is doing renovations in his apartment, although there is nothing but a mountain of papers and there is no garbage in the home.

However, Ilyin himself claims that he was not given strong drugs in the hospital. “I had heard a lot about “punitive psychiatry”, I was afraid that they would inject me with haloperidol and turn me into a plant. Moreover, I was placed in a hospital far from Moscow - in Kazan. If something had happened to me there, no one would have known about it. But in the end they treated me humanely. They only gave me some pills.”

Letter to the Kremlin

The reason why Ilyin decided to shoot Brezhnev most likely lies in his childhood. Victor was not even two years old when he was taken away from his parents, chronic alcoholics. He grew up in a foster family. At school he hardly interacted with anyone and, by his own admission, suffered from lack of attention.

“In high school, I dreamed of becoming a geologist,” says Ilyin. — Back then in the Soviet Union this profession was considered the most romantic - hiking, new acquaintances, uncharted lands, songs around the fire. I entered a topographical technical school and traveled to many cities and regions far from Leningrad. But what I saw made a depressing impression on me. Poverty, drunkenness, devastation are not at all what was shown on Soviet television. I realized that the whole country lives like this, and the communists are blatantly lying. At first, I did not plan to carry out a terrorist attack against the country's leadership. I wrote a reform plan that included monthly payment to each resident the rent from the sale natural resources, and sent it to the Kremlin, addressed to Brezhnev. But I didn’t receive an answer. That's when I decided to kill him. I wanted everyone to know about my ideas, and for this I needed a loud act. I planned to talk about the reform plan in court, during my last word.”

Ilyin prepared for the assassination attempt for almost a year. To gain access to weapons, he joined the army from his student days. He served near Leningrad, daily studied the central newspapers, which wrote only about where, when and with whom Brezhnev was meeting. In mid-January 1969, the press reported another victory for Soviet cosmonautics: the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 spacecraft docked in outer space. Honoring those who returned to Earth was scheduled for January 22 in Moscow. Before this, the government delegation led by Brezhnev was supposed to meet the cosmonauts at the airport and solemnly transport them to the Kremlin.

Brezhnev's luck

Ilyin calculates everything with mathematical precision. Early in the morning of January 21, after waiting for the duty officer to fall asleep, he steals two pistols and clips for them from the weapons room, escapes from the unit, takes a commuter train to the Leningrad Pulkovo airport, and from there flies to Moscow (at that time, when boarding a plane, there was a personal search was absent). Upon arrival in the capital, he stops with his uncle, who serves in the police, telling him that he came on vacation. On the morning of the 22nd, he secretly takes a police overcoat out of his apartment and, dressed in it, arrives at the Kremlin exactly as the motorcade passes. Victor accomplishes all this in less than 24 hours. “If I had spent more on preparation, the plan would have failed. The KGB central department contacted me literally an hour before the assassination attempt. And only because in the military unit, when they discovered that I was missing, they didn’t want to make a fuss and first began to look for me on their own.”

By that time, a police cordon had been erected near the Kremlin, separating the government highway from the crowd of onlookers. Ilyin stands in this cordon, but since he is in uniform, no one pays attention to him special attention. When Brezhnev's motorcade approaches the Kremlin, Ilyin runs out of the cordon and shoots point-blank with both hands (he hid the pistols in the sleeves of his overcoat) at the second car, in which the head of the USSR usually sits. But Brezhnev was lucky: during the journey, his car swapped places with the one in which the cosmonauts were traveling. Ilyin fires eleven bullets, killing the driver and injuring Andriyan Nikolaev and Georgy Beregovoy (Alexei Leonov and the world's first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova are also traveling in the car). Another bullet hits the escort motorcyclist. Ilyin is arrested on the spot without resistance. But his plan collapses: Brezhnev is alive, information about the assassination attempt is classified (only foreign press), and the trial at which he wanted to speak, as we know, will not take place.

Plan b

I ask Ilyin about his current political views, but he avoids answering, saying that he must now serve God, since he killed an innocent person. How remembers former KGB lieutenant colonel Igor Atamanenko, who interrogated Ilyin in 1969, “when during the first interrogation the killer learned that he had shot not at Brezhnev, but at the cosmonauts, he became hysterical.”

“I live a different life now,” says Ilyin. “As soon as Khazar dies, I will give the apartment to the state, and I myself will live in a nursing home.” He had no relatives left; the only neighbor with whom he was friends died a year ago. "Do you need any help?" - I ask. “I’ve been wanting to publish my poems for a long time, but no one will take it. Can you help me?" But in the end he doesn’t give me poetry. “It’s still not good now, let’s better in summer, after the day of the Holy Trinity. I need to prepare for it."

* Material prepared for Russia Beyond The Headlines, a project that tells foreigners about Russia.

On January 21, 1969, inspired by the press report about the assassination of John Kennedy by lone terrorist Lee Harvey Oswald, junior lieutenant of the Soviet army Viktor Ilyin decided to change history by killing Secretary General Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev.

“Well done, Lee Harvey Oswald! Just one shot - and it’s famous all over the world,” said Ilyin, sincerely believing that one person is capable of killing a leader of a superpower.

It’s not clear how in the head of the junior lieutenant, the idea arose that the murder of Brezhnev would change political system After all, the country’s Central Committee and political bureau would have nowhere to go, even if the assassination attempt was successful. Although removing such a significant figure as Brezhnev from history would certainly change its course.

And in your right to influence world history Ilyin had no doubt. This is evidenced by the addition to the constitution he proposed from the conclusion.

“Every member of society has the right to commit a terrorist act if the party and government pursue policies that do not comply with the Constitution.”

It is also noteworthy that the all-powerful Brezhnev did not take revenge on Ilyin personally, and he, after spending 20 years in a psychiatric hospital, was released in 1990 and is alive to this day.

Ultimately, Ilyin waited for the shift political course countries and the collapse of the USSR.

SHOTS AT BOROVITSKY GATE AND INTERRUPTED TV BROADCAST

On January 22, 1969, millions of people were glued to their screens
their televisions. There was a live report from Moscow about the meeting of astronauts. In those
times the country sincerely worried about its star heroes, tensely
monitoring reports of their flights.
People sighed with relief when they learned about the safe return of the astronauts.
At the end of 1968, the flight of the Soyuz-3 spacecraft, controlled by
Beregovym. January seventeenth next year Soyuz-4 landed with
cosmonauts Shatalov, Eliseev and Khrunov. Following them, on the eighteenth
January, Soyuz-5 safely landed near Kustanai with Volynov.
The country rejoiced as it recovered from the shock of the recent death.
Komarova. Another victory in space was perceived as a holiday, and millions
people, frozen in front of their TVs, watched the welcoming ceremony
heroes of space at the government airport Vnukovo-2.
TV cameras showed close-up smiling faces of the culprits
celebrations of the country's leaders who took part in the event, highlighting,
of course, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, as well as thousands of enthusiastic Muscovites,
poured into the streets and greeted the festive cortege throughout
his route to the Kremlin. The report was conducted by the best TV stars of that time.
- The cortege of government vehicles is approaching the Borovitsky Gate, and
in a few minutes the heroic cosmonauts will be in the Kremlin, where the
their award ceremony...
These were the last jubilant words of the report that were heard
TV viewers. The live broadcast was suddenly interrupted.
They resumed after about an hour. They showed the awards ceremony.
She made a strange impression. For some reason he awarded the Stars of Heroes
Podgorny, not Brezhnev. There was a sense of confusion among
those being awarded, and among those awarding them. Pale faces, twitchy phrases,
nervous movements.
It was clear that something had happened.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SECRETARY

On the morning of January twenty-first, the day before the events described above, Ivan
Andreevich Mashkov, commander of a military unit located in the city
Lomonosov, woke up early. The departure to Leningrad was scheduled for seven o'clock,
where he, along with the political officer Melnik, was summoned for a week-long command tour
fees.
At a quarter to seven the Miller appeared - in an immaculately ironed field suit
uniform, impeccably shaved, perfumed.
Before leaving the house, Melnik called the unit.
- Assistant duty officer, junior lieutenant Ilyin! - he heard
a cheerful voice on the phone.
“Hello, Comrade Ilyin,” the political officer greeted. - How are you?
- Excellent, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel! - the assistant on duty said cheerfully.
“It doesn’t happen great, it happens good,” the political officer said morally,
thinking to himself how much more effort must be spent so that those called from
reserve officers finally learned to think in military terms. Oh these s
"citizens", and even with education! They think who knows what about themselves.
Ilyin arrived at the unit in March 1968. Graduate
Leningrad Topographical College. Twenty-two years old. Unmarried.
They certified as a junior lieutenant at the technical school and then the military registration and enlistment office called
him into the army. Together with three fellow classmates, I passed the test for
security clearance. For those three, service began from the first days, and for those
Ilyina not so much. The military bone is not felt. Ushanka, and she’s sitting like a pancake.
With the soldiers he is familiar, they answer him - Vitek. Hilarious. What can you do.
This is the kind of personnel that military registration and enlistment offices supply. True, he doesn’t drink or smoke.
Having made sure that everything was in order in the unit, the commander and the political officer were exactly
Seven in the morning we left for Leningrad.
However, a few hours later, during lunch, he ran into the dining room
duty officer and said that Mashkov was required to speak to the telephone from Lomonosov.
The political officer’s heart sank from a bad feeling. The cutlet did not fit into
throat, and he pushed the plate away, in his thoughts hurrying the commander and at the same time
dreading his return.
Mashkov returned angry as hell.
- Emergency, commissioner. We must return to the unit.
The political officer, expecting the worst, asked:
- What happened, Ivan Andreevich?
- Ilyin disappeared. They report: two pistols have disappeared from the safe.
Having warned the management of the training camp about the need to urgently return to
Lomonosov, the commander and the political officer an hour later were rushing to their military
town.
They talked about the missing person. What was he thinking? What could you expect from him?
whatever. Junior Lieutenant Ilyin was distinguished by some strangeness,
eccentricity. Russian, but with dark skin and a gypsy look, for which he received
nickname "Smoked".
During political classes he could say that the Komsomol as an organization has outlived its usefulness. Not
It was difficult for him in the presence of others to naively ask the question: why did
us monopoly of one party? Disapproved of the entry of Soviet troops
to Czechoslovakia in '68. The political officer, of course, carried out
a freethinker doing explanatory work, but this does not make his behavior
it became smoother.
Suddenly, out of the blue, he blurts out: in some Africa, officers are almost
every month they organize coups d'état, and here? Then, having read in
newspaper about the next version of the investigation into the assassination of the American president
John Kennedy will exclaim admiringly: “Well done, Lee Harvey Oswald!
one shot and it’s famous all over the world.”
The unit commander also delved into his memory, looking for episodes related to
with the tricks of this officer. Chief of Staff, laughing and shaking reproachfully
head at the same time, said:
- Kindergarten! I order the diagram to be redone as incorrectly executed, and
suddenly he’s in uniform, with shoulder straps and a holster! - skipping around the table on one
leg: “But I won’t! But I won’t!”
A completely unpleasant incident came to mind. It happened during seasonal
works Ilyin was appointed head of one of the groups. And here they report: in
there was shooting in the village. Conducted an investigation. And sure enough, it fired into the air from
pistol, junior lieutenant Stepanov, Ilyin’s partner. We quarreled over
girls with local youth. Okay, Stepanov got excited and lost his temper. And where was
senior of the group? In Leningrad. I was sorting things out with a certain girl, and even
At the same time he was waving a pistol, although he had no right to take weapons with him.
It turns out that he left the area of ​​military exercises without permission? Then it's tight with him
figured it out.
What did Ilyin do this time? Approaching the gate of the unit, the commander with
The political officer was at a loss. I remembered the tear-stained girl Natasha, not
reciprocating the feelings of the junior lieutenant.
- You will hear about me again! - Ilyin threw at her in rage.
Did he commit suicide in despair?

WHAT TV VIEWERS DID NOT SEE

As soon as the government motorcade, accompanied by motorcyclists
approached the Borovitsky Gate, shots rang out. Someone's figure
Having missed the first "Seagull" sparkling with black varnish, she rushed to the second,
following in the cavalcade, and opened fire from two pistols simultaneously -
at point blank range windshield. It instantly became covered with a web of cracks.
It was a classic terrorist attack. Similar on the territory of the Kremlin
has not happened for more than a quarter of a century, since November 6, 1942, when
Red Army soldier, deserter, hiding in the Execution Ground,
fired at People's Commissar Mikoyan's car, obviously believing that Stalin was riding in it.
And here is a new, almost identical incident.
Covered in blood, the driver slumped limply on the steering wheel.
The shooter did not stop firing. The people sitting in the car rushed under the seat.
The shots continued. It was later determined that he fired sixteen bullets.
One of them ricocheted and hit the shoulder of someone accompanying the motorcade.
motorcyclist Overcoming the pain, he pointed the motorcycle straight at the terrorist and
knocked him down. Officers from the "nine" Yagodkin rushed to the fallen man,
Rarely bearded. Overcoming the shock numbness, they piled on the terrorist
The policemen wrung their hands.
The shooter did not resist. His eyes suddenly rolled back from his mouth
white foam gushed out. The Kremlin security officers, to their amazement,
They recognized the same police sergeant who was having a nervous fit.
just stood at his post at the Diamond Fund.
The fatally wounded driver died in hospital the next day. This
was senior sergeant Ilya Zharkov. He shouldn't have sat at that day
driving, since he had already been granted a pension. The veteran came to the garage in
one last time to say goodbye to my comrades. But, as luck would have it, I didn’t go out
one of the main drivers worked due to illness, and the boss asked Zharkov
replace it. Zharkov happily agreed. The trip became fatal for him.
He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Having learned about terrible mistake, the shooter was hysterical for a long time. He believed
that in the second "Chaika" there was Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, to whom
the bullets fired were intended.
But in the car, at which he opened furious fire from two pistols at once,
other people were sitting. These were the Beregovoi cosmonauts, who looked a little like
Brezhnev, Nikolaev, Tereshkova, as well as state security officer Romanenko.
The first two were slightly injured: Beregovoy had his face injured by glass shards,
The bullet hit Nikolaev tangentially on the back. His wife Tereshkova got away
slight fear.
Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolaev did not lose his composure in extreme
situations. Taking the steering wheel from the wounded driver, he parked the car
on the side of the road.

SEARCH FOR THE FUGITIVE

When the unit commander Mashkov and political officer Melnik returned to the military
town, they were told the following.
The disappearance of the assistant on duty was discovered in the morning, but before eleven
They didn’t report to anyone. It was assumed that Ilyin was on the territory, sleeping
somewhere in a secluded place. And only when the person on duty is senior
Lieutenant Kozyrev discovered the missing keys to the weapons room and secret
parts, a suspicion arose that the matter was much worse than first thought.
And so it turned out: having opened the safe in which it was stored with a duplicate key
service weapons of unit headquarters officers, two pistols were found missing
Makarova. One of them belonged to Ilyin, the second - to another officer who
did not leave the unit. Four full clips were missing. And then the duty officer
reported the incident to the remaining senior deputy commander of the unit
Margaritov.
- How did Ilyin get the keys? - Mashkov asked angrily
Senior Lieutenant Kozyrev.
“Probably at the moment when I went out to have breakfast,” said
the pale attendant spoke in a fallen voice. - It was at 7.20 in the morning. Ilyin
remained on duty.
The thought of the secretary's suicide is the first thing that came to mind
simultaneously to all officers. Knowing his unbalanced, capricious character,
oddities and eccentricities, given the complications of the relationship with his girlfriend
Natasha, they fully accepted such an outcome. Otherwise, why have weapons?
Even before the commander arrived, it became clear that if Ilyin really
planned to take his own life, then not on the territory of the unit. Surveyed outfit
at the checkpoint reported: the assistant on duty, junior lieutenant Ilyin, proceeded
through the gate towards the kitchen. At what time? About a quarter to eight.
He stopped near the senior officer, the sergeant, and said that he was going to the kitchen
take a sample from breakfast. This is the responsibility of the duty officer, and
therefore no one raised any questions. However, in the kitchen they claimed that Ilyin
didn't show up for them. At the checkpoint they also couldn’t remember whether he was returning
back. The assistant on duty seemed to melt into thin air.
Returning to the military camp, the unit commander undertook energetic
actions to search for the missing officer. Mashkov immediately formed two
search groups. One was given the task of operating in Lomonosov and
surroundings, the second, which he led himself, was to go to apprehend the fugitive to
him home.
Ilyin lived with his mother and grandmother in Leningrad, in a three-room
apartment on Vasilyevsky Island, on Nalichnaya Street. From there he every day
went to work in Lomonosov.
The commander's gas car with several officers stopped at the fugitive's house.
We came to the right apartment. Before pressing the doorbell button, Mashkov
commanded in a whisper:
- Prepare your weapon!
This precaution was not unnecessary. Who knows what would await the group
capture, find yourself a fugitive at home with two pistols and four clips.
The officers obediently removed their weapons from the safeties. Mashkov called. Door
Ilyin’s mother opened. Ready for any surprises they talked about
on the way, the officers burst into the apartment, acting according to the agreed plan.
However, the capture group was disappointed: Ilyin was not at home. How
went on duty on the evening of the twentieth, and has not appeared since then. Not no
called.
A quick inspection of the rooms unexpectedly turned out to be successful. Ensign
Baranov accidentally picked up a notebook lying on the table. She opened up like
once in the right place - in the middle. There was this entry: “Find out when
flight to Moscow. If they fly, take them. Go on duty. Destroy everything."
Leaving several officers in the apartment, Mashkov and the rest of the group
rushed to the airport.
Finding out whether Ilyin took a ticket to Moscow was not difficult. IN
confirmed at the airport: he took it. But this did not mean that he flew away. Decided
wait for the return of the plane for which the fugitive took a ticket. The plane has arrived
back on the evening of the twenty-first. The flight attendant recalled: there were a lot of people on board
athletes from the GDR, about fifty. Military? Yes they were. One has two
big stars on his shoulder straps, he's older. And the second one is just a boy, and
He has one star - tiny, lonely. "Such a dark one,
Does he look like a gypsy?” “Exactly, he is,” the flight attendant confirmed.
Officers from the capture group reported to the commander about the results of the conversation with
a pretty stewardess. There could be no doubt - Viktor Ilyin flew to
Moscow. One of his colleagues, remembering the diary entry “if they fly...
take", suggested: are we talking about astronauts? The day before
The radio announced their upcoming ceremonial meeting.
About the suspicions that have arisen in connection with the disappearance of a junior from the unit
Lieutenant Ilyin was reported to the regional KGB department. Information about
the armed fugitive was taken care of by those who were involved in similar cases
professionally.

CRAZY LUCK

A hysterical terrorist in a police uniform who shot two
clips for the government "Chaika" with astronauts, twisted, stuck under the nose
ammonia, quickly pushed into the Volga that arrived and drove away from the place
incidents. Straight to Lefortovo.
The interrogations began. The detainee did not conceal anything; he spoke in detail about himself.
Last name - Ilyin, first and patronymic - Viktor Ivanovich. Born in 1948.
Russian. Graduated from the Leningrad Topographical College. Served in Lomonosov
near Leningrad. Military rank- Ensign. On the morning of the twenty-first
January, he left his military unit without permission, stealing two pistols with four
full clips, and flew to Moscow to carry out his plan
terrorist attack against the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid
Ilyich Brezhnev.
The investigators were shocked. No, not because after the removal of Brezhnev
Ilyin was going, according to him, to take the post of Secretary General and create his own party
- non-communist. The technology of the assassination caused amazement, the fact that neither
at one stage, except, of course, the final one, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack was not
detained. Some fantastic, crazy luck!
He left the military unit freely, taking weapons, including
the second pistol is for good measure. I already had it in my purse, prudently.
purchased air ticket for flight 92, departing at 10:40 am.
I boarded with two pistols in my pockets, without hiding them, and even that
went unnoticed! In Domodedovo we also passed control successfully.
However, at that time Soviet airports were not yet equipped with metal detectors.
And the military uniform probably inspired confidence.
Like this, in an officer's overcoat, the flaps of which visibly protruded from
concealed weapons, he took a regular bus from the airport to the metro and
within an hour I called the apartment of my retired uncle. Seeing on the threshold
unexpected guest, the owner and his wife were surprised - what happened if without
warning, without phone call, without a telegram?
The visitor proceeded from the principle: if you tell the truth, they won’t believe you anyway.
- Everything is fine. I just want to see the astronauts. When else is this
the opportunity will present itself. Is there a meeting tomorrow?
ABOUT exact date newspapers, radio and
television, therefore, as the owner subsequently explained to the investigation, once
working in the police, the motives for his relative’s visit completely satisfied him.
Moreover, he knew his strange, eccentric actions. Arrive
specially from Leningrad to Moscow to look at those loved by all the people
heroes? So what's wrong with that? Football and rock fans fly to matches and
concerts in other cities!
In the evening at dinner, the nephew said dreamily, as if casually:
- Now, if you, uncle, gave me your uniform tomorrow, I’ll probably go to the Kremlin
would have missed it. How much do you see on the street?
However, he interrupted the conversation:
-Are you crazy? Do you know what is required for this?
Ilyin laughed and turned the conversation into a joke. And the next day, early in the morning
suddenly disappeared. Waking up, my uncle discovered that his old
police uniform. He realized that something was wrong here. I remembered that my nephew
there was a weapon. I compared some things and decided to act immediately.
Where did the nephew of the old police officer go? Coming out of
apartment, he took the metro and arrived safely at the Prospekt Marksa station.
There he emerged into the frosty air and walked towards the passage of the Borovitsky Gate, through
which, according to his calculations, should have proceeded to the Kremlin in a motorcade
government vehicles. He replayed this route in his mind for a long time, many times
watched newsreels depicting meetings of space heroes
leaders of the party and state. Everyone went this way to the Kremlin - from
Gagarin and Titov to the last winners of the Universe. He knew it by heart
could reproduce with my eyes closed.
The most amazing thing is that the strange figure of a police sergeant,
walking in a light summer raincoat through the January frost, did not attract
no one's attention. He passed by Historical Museum, turned into
Alexander Garden. Until his bulging pockets are conspicuous
to any observant person, no one cared. Probably a policewoman
the uniform had a magical effect on passers-by.
In the passage of the Borovitsky Gate, he saw a police cordon. What to do?
Having overcome a momentary weakness in his legs, Ilyin remembered that he did not look
different from them, and slowly stood between them - at random, on a whim. It was
the greatest success, unimaginable luck, because the place that he accidentally took
It turned out to be at the junction between two departments. At the approaching police sergeant
looked sideways, but in the first department they thought that he was from the second, and in the second -
which of the first.
True, there was a moment when he again felt a treacherous trembling in his
knees. This happened when he, silently standing at another point,
- in the Kremlin, near the Diamond Fund, a certain citizen of a strong
physique in civilian clothes and in a military manner asked sternly:
- Why are you standing here?
The civilian knew that today, during the cosmonaut welcoming ceremony,
The police checkpoint at the Diamond Fund was removed. And suddenly he sees a guard. And and
lucky again here. Fear gave impudence, and Ilyin indifferently
answered:
- They set it up, and here I am standing.
The civilian had no more questions and walked away. I probably thought that
The post has been restored.
The rest is known. As soon as you turn to the Borovitskaya Tower Bridge
a government motorcade accompanied by motorcyclists appeared, Ilyin
pulled off his gloves, put his hands in his pockets and removed both
pistol After waiting for the first car to pass, in which, in his opinion,
calculations, there must be astronauts, he rushed towards the second and opened
Point-blank fire.

CHANGE OF ROUTE

However, Brezhnev was not in the second car that Ilyin shot at. IN
The astronauts were riding on it.
"Seagull" of the Secretary General a few minutes before the motorcade turns to the Borovitskys
gate suddenly changed route and entered the Kremlin through the Spassky Gate.
Experts to this day puzzle over the authenticity of the
motives for such a strange act of Brezhnev, who inexplicably left the general
the motorcade and promptly turned away from the place of its very possible death.
There are two versions, and each is vulnerable in its own way.
It is believed that from the moment the escape became known
an officer from a military unit armed with two pistols, professionals from
intelligence services admitted a possible connection between the terrorist’s arrival in Moscow
January twenty-first and the meeting of astronauts scheduled for the next day
with the country's leaders. Having received the appropriate orientation, security
Brezhneva sent his car through another gate for insurance. Just in case
happening.
However, experts say that security on their own initiative does not
may change the route of the protected person without his consent.
Brezhnev gave the go-ahead to enter through the Spassky Gate, responding to
security information ensuring his safety, or he himself gave instructions
leave the motorcade?
The second version is precisely that, according to one of his
guards, Leonid Ilyich at some point said:
- Why are we climbing forward? Who is being honored, us or the astronauts?
After which the Secretary General’s car turned towards the Spassky Gate.
So guess what saved Leonid Ilyich then: modesty that spoke
or professionalism of security. However, we cannot exclude the following
circumstances: the Secretary General uttered his sacramental phrase after
received alarming information about an attacker walking around Moscow, not
devoting ordinary guards to the confidentiality of what was received from the very top
Lubyanka messages and without explaining the real reason for the change in route.
And only recently it became known that the signal of the old
a retired servant who reported the suspicious arrival of his nephew from
Leningrad and the disappearance of police clothing from the closet.
Ilyin's signs were reported to numerous KGB agents. It was assumed
that the fugitive will appear either on Red Square itself or close to it.
The attacker's uncle was put into his car by the military commandant of the Kremlin
General Shornikov and with him traveled twice along the route to Vnukovo-2: no
Will your nephew's face flash somewhere in the crowd? They were looking for Ilyin in front of the Kremlin, and he,
as we know, he was already in the Kremlin and “served” with the Diamond Fund.
This testimony is also valuable:
- I can say one thing: guidance from the military about the possibility of such and such
The incident was received about three hours before the motorcade arrived at the Kremlin. We started looking.
But they were looking for a man in a military uniform, and Ilyin turned out to be in a police uniform. My
his partner at the Borovitsky Gate drew attention to Ilyin, to his resemblance to
the given description. But he was in police uniform. Ilyin was near
Diamond Fund and, using the form, pretended that he worked in the Kremlin. He
walked back and forth and all the time called on people to stand up straighter, stick to
order. This is what got me confused. And while the colleague was thinking, being away from Ilyin
a few steps away, the motorcade was already entering.
This is how I recalled the emergency incident in the Kremlin eleven years later
after the incident, V. M. Mukhin, who gave nineteen years of his life to protecting higher
government officials of the country, including L.I. Brezhnev.
However, evidence former employees Leonid Ilyich's security about this
terrorist attack are very contradictory. Maybe, different versions put into circulation with
operational targets known only to security guards.
For example, long time it was kept silent that the person whose Ilyin
stopped in Moscow and then “borrowed” it in such a unique way
police uniform, was his uncle.
And the former adjutant of the Secretary General G. Petrov completely brushes aside a very important
detail that the employees of the "nine" talk about, namely: "Seagull"
Brezhnev did not turn into the Spassky Gate.
- At the airport we changed lanes and went third, losing second place in
column to the heroes of the day - the cosmonauts,” says G. Petrov. - I was sitting next to you
with a driver. Brezhnev, Podgorny and Kosygin were in the car. When our
the car drove up to the Borovitsky Gate, I heard shots in the Kremlin, at the station
between the Armory Chamber and the Grand Kremlin Palace. Immediately gave the command
driver to stop. When the shots stopped, we went around the standing
car with astronauts and headed to the Palace of Congresses. All this happened in
some minutes. The criminal actually shot at the second car while
confident that Brezhnev is in it. Cars entered the Kremlin in a column,
one after another, and we turn back to drive through Spasskie
gate, it was impossible. Yes, there was no need for this,
since the shooter had already been detained by KGB officers.
According to General Medvedev, deputy chief of personal
Brezhnev's guard, the Secretary General followed not in the third car, but in the fifth, that is,
closer to the tail of the column.
The discrepancies are probably caused not only by operational considerations, but also
departmental pride, to which this incident dealt a colossal blow. IN
This has never happened to the Kremlin even in Stalin times!
It is possible that the legend about the changed route must have been
least to whitewash the Kremlin guards - they say they finally brought them out from under fire
main protected person.
Meanwhile, a huge scandal arose.
Agencies involved in ensuring the security of senior officials
states hastily developed measures to strengthen it. Automakers
We received an urgent order to increase the bulletproofness of glass. Happened
significant changes in the Secretary-General's security system itself and
members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.
Before the shots at the Borovitsky Gate, the members of the Politburo had one boss
guards and two deputies, candidates for Politburo members have two
bodyguard, the secretaries of the Central Committee have one. After the terrorist attack, security was increased at
everyone. The so-called “traveling security” was created for the Secretary General, consisting of
ten people - three people per shift plus one substitute. These people
guarded Brezhnev on his trips around the country and abroad.

THE FATE OF A TERRORIST

A large KGB investigative team took up Ilyin’s case. Certainly
However, she was primarily interested in the question: was there a terrorist behind
anti-state conspiracy? It's been quite a while since Khrushchev's removal.
a little time, and everyone remembered well how it happened.
They found out that there was no conspiracy. Nevertheless, they flew from their posts
many senior and senior officers of the Leningrad Military District, not to mention
already about the command of the unit in which Ilyin served. Part thoroughly
shaken up, in just a couple of weeks so many commissions from
generals and colonels, how many of them there have been in all the years of existence
military town.
Resigned from his post as a military commissar of the Smolninsky district, having had a misfortune
call Ilyin to military service. Two fellow terrorists, juniors
Lieutenants A. Stepanov and A. Vasiliev, convicted under Article 88 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR
"for failure to inform" to five years' imprisonment for each. Ilyin during interrogations
called their names: he was frank with them, talked about the fact that in Africa
officers easily stage coups, is this possible in our country?
As for Ilyin himself, everything turned out to be more complicated. He was charged
charges under five articles of the criminal code. Organization and distribution
slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet system. Attempted terrorist attack.
Murder. Theft of weapons. Desertion from a place of service. At the very first interrogations
the investigator did not have any suspicions about his mental competence.
However, a psychiatric examination established the presence of schizophrenia.
During the years of Gorbachev's rule, the press tried to cast doubt on
conclusion of psychiatrists. There was a frenzied war against Brezhnev at that time.
exposure campaign, and the case of Ilyin, hidden in a psychiatric hospital,
presented in the press as reprisals by the authorities against dissidents. But here
document dating back to 1977, when the Brezhnev project was discussed
Constitution: "Every member of society has the right to commit a terrorist act in
if the party and government pursue policies that do not correspond to
Constitution." Such a proposal was submitted to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by Viktor Ilyin,
patient of the Kazan psychiatric hospital.
He was placed there in May 1970, after almost two years of investigation and
psychiatric examinations - for compulsory treatment.
There were many signs of abnormality, and first of all
inadequate, half-childish perception of the world. Experts recorded him
and signs of megalomania: he believed that his action would turn his life around
country and will go down in history. One of the reasons for mental breakdown was found in
that shortly before the incident, Ilyin learned news that greatly influenced
his consciousness. By chance he discovered a secret home document, from which
it followed that he was not the family’s own son, but was taken from the Children’s Home. Genuine
father and mother were alcoholics deprived by the court parental rights.
Ilyin spent eighteen years in the Kazan mental hospital. Lived in a solitary
room - four meters by twenty meters, in strict isolation. Standing in the corridor
security guard. No visits other than with the adoptive mother were allowed. First
They didn’t bring newspapers for three years, they removed the radio from the wall. Since 1973
The regime was somewhat weakened.
In 1988, thanks to the efforts of his mother, he was transferred to Leningrad, to
Psychiatric Clinic No. 3 named after Skvortsov-Stepanov. The conditions were there
better: instead of a single person, there was a ward in which five people lived. In 1990 in this
hospital took place - an unprecedented event! - off-site meeting of the Military
collegium Supreme Court THE USSR. The board released him from compulsory
treatment, and Ilyin was allowed to return home.
Home? But where? After twenty years of staying in mental hospitals, it was already
another man. He needed a separate living space. And he has no
registration, no passport, no pension. It should be noted that all these
for two decades he was not discharged from the army and was on the lists of his military
parts like a patient. This gave the right to payment for sick leave.
Deputies of the Leningrad City Council intervened in the matter. Ilyin, as having completed the full course
treatment, they allocated a one-room apartment, he received a passport and registered. U
He has a second disability group and a corresponding pension.
According to the testimony of the doctors who treated him, Ilyin very much regretted his death in neither
innocent driver Ilya Zharkov, worried about his friends who were injured
because of him.

In January 1969, officer Viktor Ilyin shot a motorcade containing Leonid Brezhnev from two Makarovs. The investigation materials amounted to 24 volumes, but to this day, many dark spots remain in the mysterious case of the lone terrorist...
Easy road
Viktor Ilyin deserted from the army unit of the city of Lomonosov to Leningrad region January 21, 1969. He took with him two Makarov pistols and four full clips for them. He flew to Moscow and freely left Vnukovo airport - metal detectors were not installed there at that time.
Ilyin knew that a grand meeting of cosmonauts was planned in the capital - Shatalov, Volynov, Eliseev and Khrunov. They will be met in Vnukovo by Brezhnev himself, and then they will go to the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Ilyin’s plans were disrupted by the postponement of the date. Only in Moscow did he learn that the celebrations had been moved from January 21, the day of Lenin’s death, to the 22nd.


The deserter went to his distant relatives who lived at VDNKh and asked for an overnight stay. I spent the night peacefully, and by 11 o’clock on January 22 I was already on Red Square. Why was no one looking for the officer who left his unit without permission? We were looking for it. First, the unit commander searched, then the Leningrad and Moscow security officers, who, however, received only an oral orientation: an officer’s overcoat, armed and unpredictable.
It was extremely difficult to find him in the crowd of thousands that had gathered along the entire route of the motorcade and at the Kremlin. A photograph of the wanted person would have made the search easier, but for some reason it was not provided. As a result, Ilyin was not detained. Or did they not want to detain?
Unfamiliar "colleague"
It was from his policeman relative that Ilyin “borrowed” his uniform: so by 11 o’clock in the morning he arrived on Red Square not as an army officer, but as a police sergeant.
Until 2 p.m., Ilyin “hangs around” in the square and for some reason does not arouse suspicion. He goes into the toilet on the Kremlin's Cathedral Square to try on the weapons, and, realizing that he won't be able to deftly snatch pistols from his overcoat pockets, he transfers them to his sleeves. Then he walks along the embankment along the Kremlin wall and, finally, chooses the best point for shooting: at the Borovitsky Gate - here the speed of cars and the distance to the motorcade are minimal.


To pass the time, Ilyin decides to boldly “reincarnate” as one of the policemen sent to the Kremlin to ensure order. And again remains unrecognized. By official version Ilyin “falls” between two divisions, the policemen of which, naturally, did not know each other by sight: in division “A” they decided that Ilyin was from division “B”, and vice versa.
But why is the “colleague” dressed in an autumn overcoat when it’s January and 30 degrees below zero? Apparently no one has asked such a question.
Error
As soon as Ilyin heard the cries of “They are coming!”, he left the “pacification” of the crowd and went to the chosen place. The first was an escort of motorcyclists, followed by an open car with triumphant cosmonauts.
As soon as the second car of the motorcade caught up with Ilyin, he opened fire with two pistols at once, assuming that it was the target - Brezhnev. But in this black limousine were traveling fellow cosmonauts: Beregovoi, Nikolaev, Tereshkova and Leonov. Ilyin loaded full clips into the car and mortally wounded the driver, senior sergeant Ilya Zharkov, who, by tragic coincidence, was on his last working day before retiring.


One of the bullets hit the escort motorcyclist, Senior Sergeant Zatsepilov, who by the will of fate escaped death. The General Secretary was traveling in the fifth car, and according to one version, he entered the square not through Borovitsky, but through the Spassky Gate. The next second after the shots, junior lieutenant Yagodkin ran up to Ilyin and knocked the terrorist down with a sambo technique. Ilyin lost consciousness.
According to another version, a motorcyclist ran into the criminal, and people in civilian clothes instantly subdued the shooter. The astronauts promptly moved to a reserve vehicle. Due to the roar of motorcycles and the hum of cars, the crowd of onlookers did not hear the bangs and did not understand what had happened.
Eminence grise
According to the official version, citizen Ilyin acted alone. But the desire to see “secret forces” behind his back gave rise to a lot of guesses. During one of the interrogations, which were personally conducted by the head of the special services, Yuri Andropov, Ilyin said that Brezhnev’s place could be taken by Suslov, who, in his opinion, was “the most outstanding personality in the party.”

Mikhail Suslov, who was in charge of ideological issues, may have had reasons for removing Brezhnev, and he also had similar experience. He was called the Kremlin's gray eminence, he won the high trust of Stalin and supported Khrushchev.
It is believed that it was Suslov who had a hand in the removal of Khrushchev from the post of General Secretary. With a report on Khrushchev’s mistakes, he appeared before the new leader, Brezhnev. However, Suslov, by his nature, not being an adventurer, just regularly coped with the duties of an official of the ideological apparatus. Everyone knew about this, including Brezhnev.
Even if Ilyin had named Suslov as the main organizer of the assassination attempt, no one would have believed it. Moreover, with the large administrative resources that Suslov possessed, he was deprived of the opportunities that would have allowed him to plan and carry out the assassination attempt.
Chief security officer
But another person had similar leverage - Yuri Andropov, who two years before the assassination attempt was appointed chairman of the KGB. Coincidence or not, it was after the assassination attempt on Brezhnev that the role of the State Security Committee began to gradually increase. It was under Andropov that the KGB turned into that all-powerful organization about which legends would be made and jokes written.


There is a version that the coded message about the escaped officer was delivered to Andropov, but he did not want to prevent the terrorist from carrying out his plans. Authority had to be strengthened, and a possible incident could always be turned to one’s advantage.
Perhaps Andropov decided not to prevent the assassination attempt, but to skillfully remove the leader from under attack: at the last moment he convinced Brezhnev to change into another car, despite the irritation and even resentment of the general secretary. This also explains why no one stopped Ilyin, and he was able to complete his plan.
Strange actions
It is assumed that another person could have been interested in the assassination attempt on Brezhnev. True, his motives were more prosaic. Andropov’s first assistant and, according to many, his first rival, was Semyon Tsvigun, a friend of Brezhnev, who, by the way, was appointed to the post by the Secretary General himself.
In the mid-90s, a version appeared that Tsvigun was trying to discredit his boss, Andropov. Allegedly, it was Tsvigun who was the first to receive the encryption on January 21: it indicated the exact address of the Moscow apartment where Ilyin could stay, but, as is known, no one disturbed the criminal.


Tsvigun’s actions indeed seem strange. Having reported on the missing police uniform of Ilyin’s relative, who also mentioned Viktor’s plans to “see the cosmonauts,” on January 22, they put him in a car and began driving him along the Vnukovo-Kremlin route so that he could try to see his unlucky nephew in the crowd.
In the footsteps of Chaadaev
In the 70s, there was no moratorium on death penalty, and taking into account what he had done, Ilyin undoubtedly should have been sentenced to to the highest degree punishments. But on March 18, 1970, Viktor Ilyin was released from criminal liability and sent for compulsory treatment to a psychiatric hospital.
Was Ilyin really mentally ill? According to the official conclusion of doctors, yes. After Ilyin regained consciousness from Yagodkin’s blow, when asked about his last name, he replied that he belonged to the Romanov dynasty and had arrived in Moscow to kill the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev.


His obsession with the idea of ​​killing Brezhnev could well be attributed to schizophrenia. Be that as it may, it turned out to be very convenient for the authorities to recognize Ilyin as crazy - a well-known scenario in history. Against bright ideas Only the insane can advocate communism, Khrushchev spoke about this.
Only a madman can shoot at the Soviet leader! – Brezhnev stated this. In the early 90s, journalists tried to make a hero out of Ilyin, but it didn’t work. After 20 years of “treatment” in a mental hospital, Viktor Ilyin returned to St. Petersburg, where he still lives completely alone...

On January 22, 1969, there was an attempt on the life of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev. It took place during a solemn event dedicated to the meeting of the crews spaceships"Soyuz-4" and "Soyuz-5". Upon entering the Kremlin, the motorcade with Brezhnev and the cosmonauts came under fire. An attempt to assassinate the Secretary General was made by a junior lieutenant Soviet army, who served in the 61st geodetic detachment of the Leningrad Military District, Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin.

Ilyin graduated from the Leningrad Topographical College in 1968 and was immediately drafted into the army. On the morning of January 21, 1969, while on duty as an officer (in the city of Lomonosov), he stole two Makarov pistols and four magazines for them and deserted from the unit. He went to Leningrad, where he lived with his adoptive mother and grandmother (he was an orphan), from there at 10:40 he flew to Moscow. In the capital, he stayed with his uncle, who was a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He explained his visit by the desire to watch the meeting of astronauts. The crews of manned spacecraft made the world's first docking and for the first time in orbit created an experimental space station.

On the morning of January 22, he moved towards the Kremlin, stealing a police raincoat and cap from his uncle. Thanks to his uniform, he was able to easily enter the Kremlin. Ilyin formed a police cordon at the Borovitsky Gate. He was lucky - the junior lieutenant was between two platoons of the cordon, so the presence of an unfamiliar policeman did not raise any questions. At about 2:15 p.m., government motorcade vehicles began to enter the gate. Ilyin let the first car pass; he knew that Brezhnev usually drove in the second. Then he took a step forward and opened fire from two pistols at once, which he hid in the wide sleeves of his raincoat, he managed to shoot 11 times. At this time, other cars in the motorcade slowed down for a moment and then continued along the route.

It was not the Secretary General who was in the car, but the cosmonauts - Alexey Leonov, Andriyan Nikolaev, Valentina Tereshkova and Georgy Beregovoi. The shots led to the fatal wound of the driver Ilya Zharkov, the rest were able to duck down. Nikolaev took control of the car and stopped the car (ZIL-111G), the cosmonaut was slightly injured. Beregovoy was also slightly wounded; he was caught in glass fragments. Leonov miraculously did not get shot. Ilyin was unable to shoot more accurately, since the escort motorcyclist V.A. Zatsepilov pointed his motorcycle at the shooter and closed his field of fire. Zatsepilov was also wounded. After this, Ilyin was captured by KGB officers.

Ilyin was accused under five articles of the Criminal Code: theft of weapons; desertion from duty; organization and dissemination of slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet system; attempt terrorist attack; murder. It was announced at the official level that Ilyin had attempted to kill the astronauts. However, he was not shot or sent to long-term imprisonment. Ilyin, who from the very beginning gave the impression of being insane, was declared insane. In May 1970, he was placed in the Kazan Special Psychiatric Hospital, where he was kept in a solitary ward, in complete isolation until 1988. Then, thanks to his mother’s efforts, he was transferred to psychiatric hospital No. 3 named after Skvortsov-Stepanov in Leningrad. In 1990 he was released, since he was not formally dismissed from the Soviet Army, he received 20 years of salary (Ilyin was recognized as being on sick leave). In addition, he was given a one-room apartment in Leningrad and a disability pension. Very instructive facts for those who think that the USSR was a “bloody empire” where people were crushed by the millions.

The crime is believed to have been motivated by a mixture of political and personal motives. Ilyin was critical of the current government. In his opinion, the current politic system The USSR has outlived its usefulness. Ilyin condemned the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and spoke positively about military coups in a number of third world countries. It is known that he admired Lee Harvey Oswald, who, according to the official version, killed American President John Kennedy: “Just one shot and he’s famous throughout the world.” Apparently, strong personal experiences provoked him to take a decisive action. Shortly before the assassination attempt, he learned the secret of his birth and quarreled with the girl.

In addition, there is a version that this assassination attempt was a provocation, which was prepared by a certain part of the Committee State Security. So, already on January 21, the command of the military unit reported the disappearance of an officer with two pistols. Moreover, it was known that he flew from Leningrad to Moscow - they found an entry in Ilyin’s notebook. In addition, on the morning of January 22, Ilyin’s uncle reported that his nephew had stolen a police uniform and wanted to enter the Kremlin. However, all this information was not used to detain him (although he was easy to recognize by his “gypsy” appearance and autumn-spring uniform). There is an opinion that this inaction of the KGB was caused by the confrontation between the head of the department, Yu. Andropov, and his first deputy, S. Tsvigun, who was “digging” under his immediate superior. Therefore, Brezhnev was out of danger: his car entered the Kremlin separately from the motorcade, through the Spassky Gate (according to other sources, the Secretary General’s car entered the Kremlin as part of the motorcade, but at the tail of the column).

It must be said that in the USSR no one else attempted to assassinate Brezhnev except Ilyin. However, there were two attempts to kill him abroad. In June 1977, on the eve of the visit of the Soviet Secretary General to France, the Committee received information about the organization of an assassination attempt in Paris near the Eternal Flame at the Arc de Triomphe during the laying of a wreath. The murder was to be carried out by a sniper located on one of the streets leading to the Arc de Triomphe. All possible measures were taken on the French and Soviet sides to prevent the assassination attempt. On June 21, 1977, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame, everything went well.

In May 1978, when Leonid Ilyich was on a visit to Germany, the State Security Committee again received information about an impending assassination attempt. It was to take place after lunch with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt at Castle Augustburg. Brezhnev was taken out through the emergency entrance, the assassination attempt was prevented.