Kaplan or the Kremlin conspiracy. Who shot Lenin? The assassination attempt on Lenin is the birth of a sensation

An attempt at historical research

I hope that some of our readers (especially representatives of the older generation) remember well the Soviet film “Lenin in 1918,” famous in its time. There, in particular, there is an episode of the assassination attempt on Vladimir Ilyich by terrorist Fani Kaplan. Lenin leaves the Mikhelson plant, approaches his car, and a few seconds later a woman shoots him in the back - pale, angry, with brown eyes blazing with hatred - one hundred percent embodiment of the counter-revolutionary forces that have captured the young Republic of Soviets in an iron ring. The date of the attempt on the life of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR - August 30, 1918 - became a black day of the Bolshevik calendar, and the perpetrator of the terrorist act became one of the textbook images of the "hydra of counter-revolution". However, today historians have serious reasons to claim that in fact Fani Kaplan did not shoot Lenin. . .

"HELL'S MACHINE", SHACKLES AND FREEDOM

For obvious reasons, no one seriously studied the biography of Fani Efimovna Kaplan for quite a long time. And why was it necessary in Soviet times to delve into the dark life of a “vile counter-revolutionary”? And you can get information about Kaplan’s life path, in particular, from the materials of the Tsarist (1906) and Soviet (1918) investigations, as well as from the memoirs of her military comrades and the testimony of direct eyewitnesses of the assassination attempt on Lenin. However, unfortunately, the life of “Lenin’s killer” can only be traced in fragments.

Feiga Khaimovna Royd (this was the real name, patronymic and surname Kaplan) was born around 1890 in the Volyn province, in the family of a provincial Jewish teacher. Chaim Royd's family was large: Feiga had four brothers and three sisters. Unlike her brothers and sisters, who quite successfully mastered various professions, Feiga never devoted herself to any profession, although, according to some sources, she intended to become a seamstress. This can be explained quite easily: Chaim Royd’s daughter set out on the revolutionary path too early.

It is difficult to say whether someone influenced her in this regard, or whether she came to the idea of ​​​​the need to fight the tsarist system on her own. One way or another, Feiga Royd soon moved to Kyiv, where she became a member of an underground anarchist organization and received the pseudonyms Fanya Kaplan and Dora. The underground revolutionaries instructed young Dora to organize an attempt on the life of the Kyiv Governor-General. However, the bomb prepared for the terrorist attack unexpectedly exploded in the room where Kaplan lived, almost sending the terrorist herself to the next world instead of the Governor General. Kaplan was seriously wounded, but survived - to, however, soon appear before the military court of the Kyiv garrison, which sentenced her to death by hanging. However, taking into account Royd-Kaplan’s very young age, the royal judges commuted her sentence, and now she had to spend the rest of her life in hard labor. True, at that time Fani Efimovna did not know that tsarism with its hard labor prisons would not last forever and that while still very young she was destined to be released. . .

The would-be terrorist literally had to spend ten years in shackles - from January 1907 to March 1917 (Fanya spent most of her time in distant Akatuy). There, in distant lands, she suffered a serious eye disease, as a result of which on January 9, 1909, she completely lost her sight. Although three years later her vision was partially restored, even after that the convict remained half-blind. . .

Liberated by the February Revolution, Kaplan lived for some time in Chita, and later moved to Moscow, settling in house N6 on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. However, her general state of health, including her vision, turned out to be far from ideal, and Fanya Efimovna was forced to undergo serious treatment - first in Yevpatoria, in a sanatorium for polyamnesty prisoners, and later in one of the hospitals in Kharkov, where she underwent complex eye surgery. Considering the level of ophthalmology at that time, it can be argued that she was unable to significantly improve her vision; Kaplan, as before, had a very high degree of myopia.

After the operation, Fanya Efimovna returned to Crimea with its mild and warm climate, where she got a rather modest position as an instructor for the training of volost administration workers. It is interesting that then Kaplan met Lenin’s brother Dmitry Ilyich (he was a member of the Soviet government of Crimea), with whom she developed excellent friendly relations. Dmitry Ilyich, of course, could never have dreamed in his wildest dreams that in the near future his good friend would be declared a terrorist who committed an attempt on Vladimir Ilyich’s life. . .

"I DECIDED TO KILL LENIN." . .

By the way, later, during interrogations at the Cheka, Kaplan testified that the idea to kill Lenin appeared to her in February 1918 - due to the fact that she sincerely considered the leader of the Soviet state to be a traitor to socialism, who was delaying the socialist prospects for Russia for “tens of years.” ". It is worth emphasizing that such political sentiments were quite typical for anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries with their characteristic struggle on two fronts at once - both against various bourgeois-landowner regimes and against the Bolshevik government, which, in the firm conviction of Fani Efimovna, did not bring the working masses nothing but new enslavement.

One spring day in 1918, Kaplan found herself in Moscow, where she quickly found her way into a small anti-Bolshevik underground group of the Socialist Revolutionary wing. It is known that the underground Socialist Revolutionaries developed a plan to destroy the “leader of the world proletariat” with the help of potent poison, which, however, turned out to be practically impossible. It would seem that the underground group is doomed to incapacity. However, in the first half of August 1918, Fanya Efimovna and her comrades joined the combat detachment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, headed by a fairly experienced underground fighter and terrorist G. Semenov. The detachment was mainly engaged in organizing assassination attempts on Bolshevik leaders. And if disagreements arose in this organization, it was only regarding which of the red leaders should be destroyed. Some militants passionately argued for the need to kill Trotsky, others no less persistently proposed to “liquidate” Lenin. The latter, as the reader already knows, included Fani Royd-Kaplan. Later, Semenov would write in his memoirs that he considered Fanya Efimovna Kaplan to be the best of all possible perpetrators of this terrorist attack.

At first glance, such a statement by the main Right Socialist Revolutionary militant can be completely believed. However, let us pose a far from superfluous question: what exactly did Fanya Efimovna do to deserve such a clear “preference” from Semenov? I would never have asked such a question if Kaplan had at least 2-3 successful terrorist attacks behind her. But what exactly did she have in her combat assets? Essentially - nothing. Kaplan had no experience in carrying out terrorist attacks, and she did not have the opportunity to present herself better than she was by telling a few tales about her “successful assassination attempts”: Semyonov himself understood such things quite well. In addition, the leader of the militants could not have been unaware of her vision problems, which, to put it mildly, also did not increase her chances of becoming the number one figure in such a responsible matter as the destruction of Lenin. In addition, it is known from other sources that, like other Socialist Revolutionary leaders, Semenov believed that the perpetrators of anti-Bolshevik terrorist attacks should be male workers. And one more circumstance. At the time of the preparation of the terrorist attack against Lenin, didn’t Semenov have other militants whose experience and health could not be compared with the experience and health of Fani Kaplan? Of course there were. Semenov himself writes that to carry out this operation he had about 15 militants, among whom were such experienced people as Sergeev, Usov, Kozlov, Lidiya Konopleva and others.

There is no doubt that, when describing his attitude towards Fani Kaplan, Semyonov was clearly dishonest. Someone, someone, and he could not help but understand that the former Akatuy convict was clearly not suitable for the role of a reliable and, even more so, the best liquidator. This is convincingly confirmed by other data. If Semenov really considered Royd-Kaplan the best possible executor of a terrorist attack, then he would have sent her, and not someone else, to this important task. But it is significant that at first Semyonov sent the socialist-revolutionary worker Usov on this task, and later, when he failed to carry out the terrorist attack, the militant Kozlov (who also “botched” his terrorist attack). Apparently, Kaplan herself was, as they say, in Semenov’s deep reserve, and perhaps he did not plan to use her as a terrorist at all, entrusting her with some secondary functions. From various sources I have information that Fanya Efimovna was engaged in spying on Lenin and once even ended up with him in a random photo frame on the territory of the Kremlin. . .

Who then did Semenov appoint as the executor of the terrorist attack after the failure of the “missions” of Usov and Kozlov? Taking into account various circumstances (and in particular, a lot of evidence that it was a woman who shot at Lenin), we can reasonably assume that it was Lidia Vasilievna Konopleva, in the past a rural teacher who was almost ideally suited for this role. She was an excellent conspirator and an excellent shooter, and had previously taken part in organizing assassination attempts on two leading Bolshevik leaders - Uritsky and Volodarsky. . . In addition, it was Konopleva who first raised the question of the assassination attempt on Lenin before the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and offered herself as an executor. But the terrorist attack did not take place due to various circumstances that were beyond her control. And now, apparently, Lidia Vasilievna has received a new chance to realize her plans. . .

However, Semenov, despite obvious logical inconsistencies, notes in his memoirs that Kaplan not only became the main perpetrator of the terrorist attack, but she actually shot Lenin. Why did the author of the memoirs so openly deceive his readers? It's not that difficult to explain. Later, in the early 1920s, from a bitter opponent of the Bolsheviks, Semenov turned into their supporter and even became a member of the Communist Party. By that time, the public opinion of Soviet Russia had already firmly accepted the idea of ​​Kaplan as a counter-revolutionary woman who fired a shot “at the heart of the revolution,” and the former leading Socialist Revolutionary simply did not dare to give a different interpretation to the well-known event.

POTENTIAL CAPABILITIES OF A POTENTIAL TERRORIST

What happened to Lenin on August 30, 1918 is known to almost everyone. However, let us reproduce the general picture of the assassination attempt, taking as a basis the written testimony of Gil, Vladimir Ilyich’s personal driver. In it, he claimed that he brought Lenin to the Mikhelson plant quite late - around 10 pm, and the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR went to speak to the workers in the grenade building of the plant. Gil waited for Lenin for about an hour. After his speech ended, 50 workers came out of the plant and immediately surrounded Lenin’s car. Vladimir Ilyich himself lingered near his “car” for several minutes, talking with some woman who criticized the actions of the food detachments that were, from her point of view, incorrect. Then three shots were fired, and Lenin fell to the ground. . . Instantly looking to the right, Gil saw a woman’s hand with a pistol, which stuck out through several people. Wanting to detain the woman who shot at Lenin, the driver ran after her, but the unknown woman, throwing her weapon at Gil’s feet, soon disappeared into the crowd. Gil himself did not pursue the terrorist, deciding to provide first aid to the wounded Lenin. As it turned out later, two bullets hit the leader’s body, and the third, catching his clothes, hit the very woman who was talking to him about food detachments. . .

Perhaps one of the readers will have a completely reasonable question: could it be that something happened to Konopleva (let’s say, she was arrested by security officers), and Fanya Kaplan nevertheless took on the role of executor of the Socialist Revolutionary verdict? Of course, such a course of events cannot be ruled out. Let us emphasize that if this really was the case, then this means that Fanya Efimovna essentially fired three successful shots at Lenin. But could she hit the target three times? Let's try to find out by answering three important questions.

First, how accurately did Kaplan shoot with a pistol or revolver? In my opinion, it can be argued that “Lenin’s killer” almost never held such a weapon in her hands. During the years of the first Russian revolution, she dealt with “infernal machines”, not pistols or revolvers. During the tsarist penal servitude, naturally, Kaplan not only did not hold them in her hands, but did not even see them at all. While working and resting in Crimea, she had not yet taken the path of fighting the Bolsheviks, and she simply did not need to practice shooting with any type of weapon. The data on Kaplan's underground work in Moscow also does not contain any information about Kaplan's training in firearms shooting (otherwise Semenov would have written about this). Consequently, it is very likely that at the time of the shots at Lenin, the “main performer” did not know how to shoot from a revolver or pistol at all and was practically unable to hit the target three times.

Secondly, what kind of vision did Fani Efimovna have when these three shots were fired? We have already written that after eye surgery in Kharkov, Kaplan’s vision did not improve significantly. And, besides, the people who saw her in the area of ​​the Mikhelson plant on August 30, 1918 (and there were such people) and later describing her appearance did not say anything about the fact that on that day she was using some kind of optical device - glasses or pince-nez , and this detail, of course, would not go unnoticed or forgotten. Consequently, it turns out that Kaplan “covered” the target, being half-blind. . .

Thirdly, what was the visibility in the area of ​​the Michelson plant during the terrorist attack? We can say with certainty that it was far from absolute: dusk had already deepened, the sky was heavily overcast, and the factory yard itself was lit too dimly. Therefore, if Kaplan really shot at Lenin, then she did it in the twilight, when the target was quite poorly visible. . .

Fourthly, what kind of target did Lenin himself imagine for the shooter? The answer to this rather important question is provided by a unique snapshot of an investigative experiment conducted later. It clearly shows that the terrorist was to the left of Vladimir Ilyich, at a distance of approximately four meters from him, and Lenin himself stood half-turned, almost sideways to her. This means that the leader of the Soviet state, despite the short distance, was by no means an easy target for the militant. And hitting him in the back, and not in the arm or leg, was not easy even for an experienced terrorist. . .

Taking all this into account, we can come to the conclusion: not owning a firearm, the very short-sighted Fanya Kaplan clearly could not, given poor visibility and the difficult location of the target, hit Lenin three times. Someone else did it for her - a really high-class shooter. . .

WOMAN WITH BRIEFCASE AND UMBRELLA

I want to emphasize that Fani Kaplan’s non-involvement in the “shot at the heart of the revolution” follows from some other details that Stefan Batulin, assistant commissar of the Moscow Soviet division, who was present at the terrorist attack, gave in his testimony. From them it turns out that after three shots, a crowd of workers, succumbing to panic, ran from the factory yard in the direction of Serpukhovskaya Square, which was located nearby. Batulin himself ran there, believing that a terrorist was also running in the crowd. Already outside the territory of the plant, near one of the trees, he saw a suspicious woman with a briefcase and an umbrella. Intuitively feeling that he saw a terrorist in front of him, the assistant commissioner directly asked her why she shot at Lenin, but the woman did not directly answer this question. The woman turned out to be Fanya Kaplan, who was arrested a few minutes later.

A natural question arises: would Kaplan take a briefcase and an umbrella with her, knowing that they would interfere with her during a terrorist attack? Of course not, because it was almost impossible to hold both these things and weapons in your hands. Although, before shooting Lenin, Kaplan could have put her briefcase and umbrella on the ground. But here's the thing: after the shots, Kaplan actually didn't even have an extra second to pick them up again. It turns out that if Kaplan had really played the role of a terrorist, Batulin would have found her without a briefcase and an umbrella. And since she was with her things, this indicates that she did not shoot at Lenin. . .

One more thing. Getting to the Kaplan tree “on time” was by no means easy and even almost impossible. Firstly, as it turned out during the investigation, that evening she had poor quality shoes - boots with exposed nails on the soles, which did not give her the opportunity to run anywhere at all. Secondly, her briefcase and umbrella clearly made jogging more difficult. Thirdly, a clear obstacle to Kaplan's fast marathon was her poor eyesight. . . That is, if she had really committed an assassination attempt, she would not have been able to reach Serpukhov Square before Batulin appeared there. And if she was found and arrested in that place, then this means that she was not at the Mikhelson plant during the terrorist attack. . .

As for the real terrorist, Lydia Konopleva, apparently, she, taking advantage of the general panic, left the scene of the terrorist attack without much effort. . .

INVESTIGATION, EXECUTION AND SECRET

The Cheka interrogated the arrested Royd-Kaplan six times. Fanya Efimovna took all the blame for the assassination attempt on Lenin, denying that she acted on behalf of any particular political force. She did not answer the question about what weapon she used, but when asked how many times she shot at Lenin, she said that. . . does not remember. And this, by the way, looks quite logical. Not being present where Lenin was shot, she could not say anything definite about the weapon used or the number of shots. It is also clear why Kaplan wanted to appear before the security officers in the role of a lone terrorist. It was very important for both Fani Efimovna and her fellow Socialist Revolutionaries that the Bolshevik government did not use mass repression against them. . .

Fani Efimovna Royd-Kaplan received a death sentence and was shot on September 3, 1918. But, according to some historians, she ended her earthly journey much later, having spent quite a long time in Soviet prisons. There were people who testified that they saw Kaplan in the 20s, 30s and even 40s of the last century. But this is already a topic for another and quite detailed study.

Vladimir GORAK - Candidate of Historical Sciences

N161, Saturday, 23 June 2006

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

A. Kuznetsov: The traditional question: “Was there Fanny?”

S. Buntman: Was.

A. Kuznetsov: Without a doubt. But did she shoot at Ilyich?

There are two main versions. The official story is that the leadership of the Right Socialist Revolutionary Party has taken the path of betraying the revolution, fighting Soviet power, and that the Socialist Revolutionaries have returned to their old tactics of individual terror. Usually three names are named - three victims of this terror. On June 20, 1918, the prominent Bolshevik Volodarsky was killed, and a little over two months later the well-known double assassination attempt took place. On the morning of August 30 in Petrograd, a terrorist, poet, close friend of Sergei Yesenin, acquaintance of Marina Tsvetaeva, reviewer of one of Anna Akhmatova’s first collections, and generally quite an interesting person, Leonid Kannegiser, killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky, with a revolver shot.

After this tragic incident, in the afternoon, a note arrived at Lenin’s secretariat stating that in the evening the echo of shots in Petrograd would be repeated in Moscow. Despite the message received, no additional security measures were taken in the capital; the speeches of Council of People's Commissar members at factory rallies scheduled for 18:00 the day before were not cancelled. Lenin was supposed to speak at a rally in front of the workers of the Mikhelson plant. (On this day it was already the second rally with the participation of Ilyich; before that he visited the Bread Exchange). And he left for the plant without security, he was accompanied by one single person - his personal driver Stepan Kazimirovich Gil. So what is next…

Confusion begins with time (we'll talk about this a little later), however, in the official version everything looks like this: for about an hour Ilyich spoke at a rally, then, accompanied by a group of factory workers who continued to ask him questions, he went out into the yard and approached car. Gil had already started the engine, opened the door slightly so that Lenin could get in... Almost at the very car, Ilyich was stopped by the steward Popova and complained about the injustice of the workers of the barrage detachments on the railways. Lenin promised to sort it out. And so, when he took the last step towards the car, grabbed the door handle, the first shot rang out. Then the second, third... Lenin fell. The crowd went numb.

After some time, a suspicious woman was detained at a tram switch on Serpukhovka. In the post-official Soviet version, she was allegedly pointed out by the boys who ran after her from the scene of the assassination attempt with the words: “Here she is, the killer!” The terrorist was taken to the Zamoskvoretsky military commissariat and began to be interrogated. The criminal identified herself as Fanny Efimovna Kaplan and answered the question: “Did you shoot Comrade Lenin?” - answered in the affirmative.

On September 3, 1918, Fanny Kaplan was sentenced to death without trial. In the courtyard of the 1st Automobile Combat Detachment named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the sentence was carried out by the Kremlin commandant, former Baltic sailor Pavel Malkov, to the sound of running cars. After this, Kaplan’s body was pushed into a tar barrel, doused with gasoline and burned.

The details of the assassination attempt, or rather what the Bolshevik authorities decided to report on this matter, became known to the public at the beginning of 1922, when the first open political trial of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party began. It was they who were charged with preparing this crime. Some of the defendants even confessed... This assassination attempt, in fact, along with other terrorist activities of the Socialist Revolutionaries, became the reason for the dissolution of their party, its ban, and so on.

S. Buntman: This is the official version.

Fanny Kaplan. (wikimedia.org)

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. The second version, quite marginal, says that Fanny Kaplan was not part of the group led by the Socialist Revolutionary Party, but was a member of an independently formed association of desperate people who felt personal hatred for the leaders of the Soviet state for ideological reasons.

For some time, this version circulated in the literature, but no one seriously considered it.

S. Buntman: Then let's go back to the official version. So, time. When did these unfortunate shots sound?

A. Kuznetsov: The question seems to be completely simple, but it is extremely difficult to answer. The fact is that the time range is five hours: from 18:00 to 23:00. For example, during interrogation, the aforementioned Stepan Kazimirovich Gil clearly testified that he and Comrade Lenin arrived at the Mikhelson plant at about 10:00 p.m. The rally lasted for about an hour (everyone agrees on this). That is, it turns out that around 23:00 shots were fired.

S. Buntman: Yes.

A. Kuznetsov: Then a rather interesting situation arises: if the chronology is correct, then at about 23:30 Fanny Kaplan is brought into the military commissariat building, at the same time Comrade Sverdlov makes a statement that the right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries organized an assassination attempt on Vladimir Ilyich.

S. Buntman: Telephone?

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. But Kaplan was never a member of the Right Social Revolutionary Party.

S. Buntman: But while she was in hard labor, she met the famous revolutionary Maria Spiridonova, who, let’s say, converted her from anarchism to Socialist Revolutionaryism.

A. Kuznetsov: Left SR. Fanny Kaplan met Maria Spiridonova at hard labor in Akatui. In prison, Spiridonova gave her a shawl, which Kaplan treasured very much. Yes, the women were friendly, however, upon learning that the terrorist brought to the commissariat was Fanny Kaplan, it was impossible to immediately draw the conclusion: “Ah! Well, everything is clear. These are the right-wing Social Revolutionaries."

S. Buntman: Certainly.

A. Kuznetsov: Moreover, practically no one in the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party knew Fanny Kaplan. At that time, she had no family: in 1911, all her relatives emigrated to the USA...

By the way, a few words about the family. There is a rather interesting episode when Gorky came to visit the wounded Lenin, Ilyich, already quite cheerful, told him with a grin that this is how the intelligentsia took revenge on me... However, Fanny Kaplan did not come from an intelligentsia family. Formally, yes: her father was a melamed, that is, a teacher in a cheder. But, apparently, the situation in the family was far from intelligent. The family was very large. All of Fanny’s brothers and sisters were workers, she herself worked as a seamstress...

S. Buntman: But Lenin had to say something.

A. Kuznetsov: Undoubtedly.

Returning to the question of time. At 23:30 Sverdlov makes a statement. So that it (the statement) did not look, to put it mildly, prepared in advance, the time of the shots was moved earlier. The second reason for this decision is Fanny Kaplan’s vision. The story here is as follows.

In the fall of 1906, a powerful explosion occurred in the Kupecheskaya Hotel in Kyiv - as a result of careless handling, an improvised explosive device went off. A couple ran out of the damaged room: the man managed to escape, and the woman, who received minor injuries and severe concussion in the explosion, was detained by the police. During the search, a Browning revolver loaded with eight live rounds and a passport in the name of Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan were found on her.

S. Buntman: Let's say a few words about the name Kaplan.

A. Kuznetsov: Of course. At birth, our heroine received the name Feiga, which means “bird” in Yiddish. She didn’t like the name; the name Fanny, “clever girl,” seemed much more elegant to her. And with joining the Southern Group of Anarchist-Communists, Kaplan completely changed her name to the sonorous party nickname Dora.

So, for what she did, Fanny Kaplan was given the death penalty, but as a minor she was pardoned and... sentenced to lifelong hard labor.

S. Buntman: In Akatui prison.

Alexander Gerasimov “Shot at the People.” (wikimedia.org)

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. On the way to hard labor, she began to have monstrous headaches, then they went away, it became easier, and then Kaplan went blind for the first time. After some time, vision was restored, but then the attack happened again. Since then, Fanny constantly fell into darkness, and when the blindness subsided, blurry outlines of individual objects appeared before her eyes.

After the February Revolution, when Kaplan, like thousands of other revolutionaries, was amnestied, she went to Kharkov, where she underwent surgery to restore her vision at the clinic of the famous Leonard Hirschman.

S. Buntman: And yet she was a visually impaired person.

A. Kuznetsov: Absolutely right. Therefore, the question of the timing of the shots became one of the key ones. In the daytime, from a distance of three meters, Kaplan could well have hit Lenin, but in the dark...

S. Buntman: Now it’s clear why they started to shift the time.

A. Kuznetsov: We've reached the point of absurdity. In the end, in his memoirs, Gil will remember that the assassination attempt took place at 19:30.

S. Buntman: At the end of August it is still daylight.

A. Kuznetsov: Certainly. But Bonch-Bruevich in his memoirs generally shifts the time to 18:00.

S. Buntman: Very strange. Another question: did anyone see the shooter?

A. Kuznetsov: In his memoirs, Gil writes: “When Lenin was already three steps away from the car, I saw that on the side, on the left side of him, at a distance of no more than three steps, a woman’s hand with a Browning was stretched out from behind several people, and there were three shots were fired, after which I rushed in the direction from where they were shooting..."

S. Buntman: That is, Gil didn’t see the killer, but only noticed “a woman’s hand with a Browning”?

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. Moreover, a hand “stretched out from behind several people.”

As for the person who detained Fanny Kaplan, he was the assistant military commissar of the Moscow Soviet Infantry Division Stefan Batulin. At the investigation, he testified: “Approaching the car in which Comrade Lenin was supposed to leave, I heard three sharp dry sounds, which I took not for revolver shots, but for ordinary motor sounds. Following these sounds, I saw a crowd of people who had previously been calmly standing near the car, scattering in different directions, and I saw Comrade Lenin behind the carriage of the car, lying motionless with his face to the ground. I realized that an attempt had been made on the life of Comrade Lenin. I did not see the man who shot Comrade Lenin...”

Batulin rushed to run along Serpukhovka, overtaking the frightened people. At the tram switch he saw a woman with a briefcase who was acting strangely. When he asked why she was here and who she was, the woman replied: “I didn’t do this.” Naturally, this answer seemed suspicious to Batulin. He asked her again if she had shot Lenin. The latter answered in the affirmative. Armed Red Army soldiers who surrounded the terrorist and Batulin brought her to the military commissariat of the Zamoskvoretsky district.

Yes, interestingly, Kaplan was wearing a long skirt, and besides, she had poor vision, but from the testimony of eyewitnesses it follows that she managed to overtake the young and athletic Batulin.

S. Buntman: Yes, it's interesting.

A. Kuznetsov: Another story: when Kaplan was brought to the commissariat, she asked the soldier guarding her for some paper to put in her shoes, lined with nails. He gave her some forms. She folded them several times and put them in her shoes as insoles. And then, during the search, these forms were found on Kaplan and they were almost sewn into the case as pre-prepared forged documents.

Lenin and Sverdlov visiting the monument to Marx and Engels. (wikimedia.org)

S. Buntman: It turns out that there is only one detail that works in favor of Fanny Kaplan - this is the fact that she did not kill Lenin.

A. Kuznetsov: There is also an interesting story here. A day after the assassination attempt, they began looking for weapons. It was not found on Kaplan during the search. A day later, the Browning gun from which Comrade Lenin was shot was brought to the commissariat by a factory worker. During interrogation, Gil testified: “The woman who shot threw a revolver at my feet and disappeared into the crowd. This revolver lay under my feet. No one raised this revolver in my presence. But, as one of the two accompanying the wounded Lenin explained, he told me: “I pushed him under the car with my foot.”

S. Buntman: That is, the weapon was added to the case the day after the assassination attempt?

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. Investigators were appointed. The first was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Viktor Kingisepp, who was directly subordinate to Sverdlov. The second is Yakov Yurovsky, a fellow countryman of Sverdlov, who shot the royal family on his orders.

An investigation began, during which Kingisepp and Yurovsky conducted a very strange investigative experiment. Why strange? The fact is that the suspect must participate in the experiment, if he is alive (at that time Kaplan had not yet been shot), and the investigator must observe the progress of the experiment and record the testimony. However, this did not happen at the Mikhelson plant on September 2. The picture of the assassination attempt was simulated; Kaplan was not involved in the investigative experiment. A little later, a series of photographs taken by Yurovsky appeared in the case - a falsification of the incident, with the inscriptions “Kaplan shoots”, “An attempt has been made” and so on.

S. Buntman: After this investigative experiment, Fanny Kaplan was unexpectedly transferred from Lubyanka... to the Kremlin.

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. By the way, there is another interesting plot in this case. On the night of September 1, British Ambassador Bruce Lockhart was arrested, and at 06:00 Fanny Kaplan was brought into his cell at Lubyanka. They probably promised to spare her life if she pointed to Lockhart as an accomplice in the assassination attempt on Lenin, but Kaplan remained silent and was quickly taken away.

Lockhart’s impressions of this visit are unique: “At 6 o’clock in the morning a woman was brought into the room. She was dressed in black. She had black hair, and her eyes, fixed intently and motionlessly, were surrounded by black circles. Her face was pale. The facial features, typically Jewish, were unattractive. She could be any age, from 20 to 35 years old. We guessed it was Kaplan. Undoubtedly, the Bolsheviks hoped that she would give us some kind of sign. Her calm was unnatural. She went to the window and, leaning her chin on her hand, looked through the window at the dawn. So she remained motionless, silent, apparently resigned to her fate, until the sentries came in and took her away.”

Here is the last reliable evidence of a person who saw Fanny Kaplan alive...

S. Buntman: Who shot Lenin after all?

A. Kuznetsov: At the 1922 trial there will be two categories of defendants. Some will be brought under escort in “black funnels”, while others will come to court themselves on a subpoena. The footage has been preserved. They are in the documentary film “Who Shot Lenin?” The film shows a chronicle where Grigory Semenov and Lydia Konopleva enter the building of the House of Unions. According to the official version, it was these people who led the group that was preparing the assassination attempt on Vladimir Ilyich.

At the trial of 1922, Konopleva and Semenov openly denounced their alleged party comrades, and the accusation, in fact, was based on their testimony. The main prosecutor at the trial was Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, who asked the court to sentence all defendants to death. After him, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin rose to the podium. Turning to the court, he appealed to make an exception for those comrades who, having surrendered the traitors, had done something useful for the revolution. Thus, Semenov and Konopleva were released.

S. Buntman: Bullets? Were they really poisoned?

A. Kuznetsov: Of course not. Although at the trial Semyonov testified that he personally cut the bullet heads and smeared curare poison there. Lenin would have died instantly from poisoned bullets. However, he, wounded, got into the car himself, then got out of it, climbed a rather narrow staircase to the third floor to his apartment in the Kremlin. That is, the injury was not serious. Two bullets hit him in the neck and arm, and the third wounded the wardrobe maid Popova.

S. Buntman: Who was behind this assassination attempt? Who benefited from it?

A. Kuznetsov: Some historians believe that Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was interested in Lenin’s death. So many threads lead to him.

Sverdlov was not the person we are used to seeing in Soviet films. He was, on the one hand, a professional revolutionary, on the other, a real adventurer. Yakov Mikhailovich behaved very strangely these days. Bonch-Bruevich repeatedly recalled this, in whose memoirs one can find a phrase uttered by Sverdlov: “Here Ilyich is wounded, and yet we manage without him. Nothing. We are working."

However, who knows how everything really happened.

The official version of the assassination attempt on Lenin in 1918 is well known, but the question of how true it is still remains open. Relatively recently, in June 1992, the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia, having examined the materials of the criminal case against Fanny Kaplan, found that the investigation was carried out superficially and issued a resolution to “initiate proceedings based on newly discovered circumstances.”

There were so many of these “circumstances” that they are still being considered today.

Apparently, the case has been stuck for a long time, so let’s try to figure it out ourselves if possible and understand what actually happened on August 30, 1918?

Mysteries of Russian history / Nikolai Nepomnyashchy. - M.: Veche, 2012.

Fanny Kaplan. Photo 1918

Immediately after the shots were fired at the leader, an appeal was published by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, signed by Yakov Sverdlov. “A few hours ago a villainous attempt was made on Comrade. Lenin. Two shooters have been detained. Their identities are being revealed. We have no doubt that here, too, traces of the right Socialist Revolutionaries, traces of British and French hirelings will be found.”

One of those detained was former left Socialist Revolutionary Alexander Protopopov. It is known that he was one of the sailors, and that during the speech of the Left Social Revolutionaries in July 1918, he personally disarmed Dzerzhinsky himself. Most likely, this is precisely what they did not forgive him for, and after his arrest, without engaging in empty interrogations and finding out where he was and what he was doing during the attempt on Lenin, he was quickly shot.

But the second detainee was a woman, and she was detained by the assistant military commissar of the 5th Moscow Infantry Division Batulin. In his testimony, again given in hot pursuit, he stated:

I was 10-15 steps away from Lenin at the moment he left the rally, which means I was still in the courtyard of the factory. Then I heard three shots and saw Lenin lying face down on the ground. I shouted: “Hold it! Catch” and behind me I saw a woman presented to me who was behaving strangely... When I detained her and when screams began to be heard from the crowd that this woman had shot, I asked if she had shot at Lenin. The latter replied that she was. We were surrounded by armed Red Guards, who did not allow her to be lynched and brought to the military commissariat of the Zamoskvoretsky district.

Only a week passed, and Batulin began to speak differently. It turns out that he mistook revolver shots for ordinary “motor sounds” and only then understood what was happening when he saw Lenin lying on the ground. And he detained the woman not in the yard, but on Serpukhovskaya Street, where the crowd, frightened by the shots, rushed, and everyone fled, but she stood, which attracted the attention of the vigilant commissar.

The most amazing thing is that when asked by Batulin whether she shot at Lenin, the woman, without being arrested and not in the Cheka, answered in the affirmative, although she refused to name the party on whose behalf she shot.

So who was brought to the Zamoskoretsky military registration and enlistment office on that fateful evening? What kind of woman took responsibility for the assassination attempt on Ilyich? She turned out to be Feiga Khaimovna Kaplan, also known under the names Fanny and Dora and under the surnames Royd and Roitman. She was brought to the Zamoskvoretsky military registration and enlistment office. There Fanya was stripped naked and thoroughly searched. They didn’t find anything worthwhile except pins, hairpins and cigarettes. There was also a Browning in the briefcase, but Fanya did not explain how it got there. Then she was handed over to the security officers, who took her to the Lubyanka. There they took it much more seriously and, so to speak, professionally. The protocols of these interrogations have been preserved; let’s read at least some of them.

“I arrived at the rally at eight o’clock,” said Fanya. - I won’t say who gave me the revolver. I won’t answer where I got the money. I shot out of conviction. I haven’t heard anything about the terrorist organization associated with Savinkov. I don’t know if I have any acquaintances among those arrested by the Extraordinary Commission.

Fanny Kaplan and Vladimir Lenin

And what can be understood from this interrogation? Never mind. And here is the protocol of another interrogation, in which there is a little more information.

I am Fanya Efimovna Kaplan, under this name I was imprisoned in Akatui. I have had this name since 1906. Today I shot at Lenin. I shot out of my own conviction. I don’t remember how many times I shot. I won’t say what revolver I shot from. I was not familiar with those women who spoke with Lenin. The decision to shoot Lenin came to me a long time ago. I shot at Lenin because I considered him a traitor to the revolution and his continued existence undermined faith in socialism.

Subsequent events developed so rapidly that there are simply no more or less reasonable explanations for them. Judge for yourself. The investigation is in full swing, and suddenly on September 4, a completely unexpected message appears in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: “Yesterday, by order of the Cheka, the person who shot comrade was shot. Lenin’s right-wing Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Royd (aka Kaplan).”

A unique document has been preserved - the memoirs of the Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov, who carried out the sentence. Here is what he writes, in particular:

“On the instructions of the secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Avanesov, I brought Kaplan from the All-Russian Cheka to the Kremlin and put her in a semi-basement room under the Children’s half of the Grand Palace. Avanesov showed me a resolution from the Cheka to execute Kaplan.

When? - I asked briefly.

“Today, immediately,” he replied. - And after a moment of silence: - Where do you think is better?

Perhaps in the courtyard of the auto combat squad, at a dead end.

Agree.

After this, the question arose of where to bury. It was allowed by Ya. M. Sverdlov.

We will not bury Kaplan. The remains should be destroyed without a trace, he ordered.”

Having received such sanction, Malkov began to act. First of all, he ordered to roll out several trucks and start the engines, and to drive a car into a dead end, turning its radiator towards the gate. Then Malkov went to get Kaplan, whom, as you remember, he left in the basement room. Without explaining anything, Malkov led her outside. It was four o'clock, the bright September sun was shining - and Fanya involuntarily closed her eyes. Then her gray, radiant eyes opened towards the sun! She saw the silhouettes of people in leather jackets and long overcoats, distinguished the outlines of cars and was not at all surprised when Malkov ordered: “To the car!” - She was transported so often that she got used to it. At that moment, some command was heard, truck engines roared, a car whined subtly, Fanya stepped towards the car and... shots rang out. She no longer heard them, because Malkov unloaded the entire clip into her.

According to the rules, a doctor must be present during the execution of a death sentence - it is he who draws up the death certificate. This time they did without a doctor; he was replaced by the great proletarian writer and fabulist Demyan Bedny. He lived in the Kremlin at that time and, having learned about the upcoming execution, asked to be a witness. While they were shooting, Demyan remained cheerful. He did not turn sour even when he was asked to pour gasoline over the woman’s body, as well as at that moment when Malkov could not light damp matches - and the poet generously offered his own. But when the fire flared up and the smell of burning human flesh flared up, the singer of the revolution fainted.

The news of the execution of the vile terrorist who attempted to assassinate the leader of the revolution was greeted with great enthusiasm by the progressive proletariat. But the old revolutionaries and former political prisoners saw in this act a violation of the highest principles, for the sake of which they rotted in dungeons, or even went to the scaffold. Lenin himself reacted to the news of Kaplan’s execution in a very unique way: according to people who knew him well, “he was shocked by the execution of Dora Kaplan,” and his wife Krupskaya “was deeply shocked by the thought of revolutionaries condemned to death by the revolutionary government, and cried bitterly.” .

That's it, Lenin is shocked, but cannot do anything to save Dora. Krupskaya cries, but is also completely powerless. So who is the leader then, who decides the fate of the country and the people living in it? This name is well known, but more on that later. In the meantime, let’s talk about the anti-Leninist conspiracy that matured towards the end of the summer of 1918. The position of the Bolsheviks at that time was critical: the number of the party decreased, peasant revolts broke out one after another, and workers went on strike almost continuously. And if we also take into account the brutal defeats at the fronts, as well as the deafening defeat during the elections to local Soviets, then it became clear to all sensible people: the days of Lenin’s supporters in power were numbered. It is no coincidence that it was then that Leon Trotsky met with the German ambassador Mirbach and told him with communist directness: “Actually, we are already dead, but there is still no one who could bury us.”

But there were many, many people who wanted to do this! Moreover, all potential conspirators considered the physical elimination of Lenin an indispensable condition for coming to power. It must be said that Ilyich knew about this, he even asked in one of his conversations with Trotsky: “Will Sverdlov be able to cope with Bukharin if the White Guards kill you and me?” If we replace the word “White Guards,” who of course could not reach the Kremlin, with any other word, then Lenin’s anxiety can be understood; he either felt or knew that tragic events were brewing.

This is confirmed by employees of the German embassy in Moscow. In August 1918, they reported to Berlin that the leadership of Soviet Russia was transferring “significant funds” to Swiss banks, that the inhabitants of the Kremlin were asking for foreign passports, that “the air of Moscow is saturated with assassination attempts as never before.”

Now let’s compare some facts... Who signed the first appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee about the assassination attempt on Lenin and, before any facts were clarified, indicated the address where the organizers of the assassination should be looked for? Yakov Sverdlov. Who instructed Kingisepp to conduct the investigation into the assassination attempt? Sverdlov. Who, at the height of the investigation, ordered Kaplan to be shot and her remains destroyed without a trace? Sverdlov again.

Is his name repeated too often in connection with this case? No, considering that, according to contemporaries, by the summer of 1918 all party and Soviet power was concentrated in his hands. Concentrated in fact, but not officially - after all, Lenin remained the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, that is, the head of the government. The version that the organizer of the assassination attempt was Sverdlov, and not without the participation of Dzerzhinsky, sounds, of course, wild, but that’s the problem: it has not yet been possible to refute it with evidence. Consider at least one inexplicable fact that surfaced only in 1935, that is, sixteen years after Sverdlov’s death.

The then People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Genrikh Yagoda, decided to open Sverdlov's personal safe. What he discovered there shocked him, and Yagoda immediately wrote to Stalin that the safe contained: “Gold coins of royal minting worth 108,525 rubles, 705 gold items, many of them with precious stones. Blank passport forms of the royal type, seven completed passports, including one in the name of Ya. M. Sverdlov. In addition, royal money in the amount of 750 thousand rubles.”

Now remember the reports from the German embassy about Kremlin residents asking for foreign passports and transferring significant amounts of money to Swiss banks.

But let's return to where we started. There are a huge number of facts, as well as versions. In principle, it is possible to understand them, but to draw conclusions... Only the Prosecutor General can draw conclusions. I would like to hope that he will still have time to familiarize himself with case No. 2162 and he will finally decide whether Fanny Kaplan shot at Lenin or not. And if it turns out that she didn’t shoot, she will give instructions for the rehabilitation of Fanny Kaplan as a victim of political repression.

Based on materials from the newspaper “East Siberian Truth”

WHO SHOOT LENIN?

Nikolai Nepomniachtchi - 100 great mysteries of the 20th century...

The year 1918 for the Russian Empire began two months earlier - October 25, 1917, or November 8 according to the new style. It was on the night of 25 to 26 that a coup d'etat took place in Petrograd, later called the Great October Revolution. Waking up on the morning of the 26th, the frightened Petrograd man in the street was surprised to find that many shops and institutions were not working, the Kerensky government had been overthrown, he himself had fled, and power had been seized by the Bolsheviks - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, headed by a little-known time in Russia Vladimir Ulyanov. This reddish, short, son of a teacher from the provincial Volga town of Simbirsk, a lawyer by profession, a revolutionary with twenty years of experience, was well known only to the Tsarist secret police.

The last time Vladimir Ulyanov was arrested was in 1895, exiled to Siberia and after exile he went abroad, where he spent 16 years. More of a theorist than a practitioner, he, possessing enormous organizational abilities, created a party abroad that set as its goal the seizure of power in Russia.

Taking care of the party treasury, Lenin did not disdain either the gifts of large manufacturers, or the robbery of his party terrorists who robbed banks and ships - two of them went down in the history of the party: the legendary Kamo (Ter-Petrosyan) and the no less legendary Koba, aka Joseph Dzhugashvili , whom the whole world will know under a different name - Joseph Stalin. But all money runs out someday. Meanwhile, the First World War began. Lenin makes an absolutely incredible and fantastic proposal to the Germans: to take Russia out of the war. Germany maintained 107 divisions on the Eastern Front, almost half of its troops. Who would refuse such a tempting deal, especially since Lenin did not at all look like a joker? And in two years - from 1915 to 1917 - more than 50 million gold marks migrated to the Bolshevik party treasury, according to modern researchers - a considerable amount!

Lenin kept his word. On October 25, 1917, the Bolsheviks, raised with German money, forcibly seized power, and on March 3, 1918, Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty with Germany, according to which 1 million square kilometers of our country’s territory was given to the Germans. Lenin also pledged to pay Germany 50 billion rubles in indemnity.

Having taken power, Lenin began with populist declarations, promising universal peace, land to the peasants, freedom and democratic rights to everyone else. But Lenin’s party was not popular among the masses, but the people knew another party well - the Socialist Revolutionaries, the Socialist Revolutionaries. It was the Socialist Revolutionaries who mainly carried out underground work, raised peasant uprisings, organized strikes at factories, and it was they who gained the aura of fighters against tsarism in the popular consciousness. Therefore, when in the fall of 1917, after the October revolution, elections were held to the Constituent Assembly - the main, as it was then supposed, legislative body of the new revolutionary Russia - the Socialist Revolutionaries won a convincing victory, while Lenin’s supporters received only a quarter of the votes. On January 5, 1918, when the Constituent Assembly began its first meeting, the Bolsheviks suddenly realized that they had lost power...

It was a dark day in Lenin's life. And then he dissolved the Constituent Assembly without any sentimentality. And to be more precise in definitions - overclocked. The proletarian writer Maxim Gorky later claimed that this was done by the “conscious anarchist” sailor Anatoly Zheleznyakov, who, by his own admission, was ready to kill a million people, but together with his drunkard brother managed to shoot only 43 officers, assuring that after that “he himself , you know, it’s pleasant, and your soul is calm, as if angels are singing...” The Social Revolutionaries organized a protest demonstration, but the Bolsheviks immediately shot it.

Yesterday's comrades-in-arms in the fight against the Tsar suddenly became enemies. The Right Socialist Revolutionaries organized their government in Samara, on the Volga. Thanks to the Czech uprising, they took power in the Volga regions and captured most of the gold reserves of the former tsarist government. The other part of the Socialist Revolutionary Party - the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, although they were offended by the Bolsheviks, remained in the government, in the Cheka (the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Sabotage and Counter-Revolution, which was organized on December 7, 1917 and from which the KGB later grew) and in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in the lowest floor of which the Soviets stood. These latter formally belonged to power, since the time of Lenin’s famous slogan “All power to the Soviets!” It will formally belong to them until the collapse of the Red Empire in 1991, although from the very first day of the revolution power in Soviet Russia belonged only to the Bolshevik Communist Party, or rather to its leaders: the big ones at the top, and the small ones at the bottom, in the localities.

In addition to the internal troubles of the Bolsheviks, external troubles were added. In March 1918, the intervention of the former allies - England, America and France - began. The Japanese landed in the Far East, the Turks invaded Transcaucasia, and Kolchak seized power in Omsk, declaring himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. In the south, Kaledin and Denikin assembled an anti-Bolshevik army. By mid-summer 1918, the Bolsheviks barely controlled only one-fourth of all of Russia. It seemed to everyone that Lenin’s power was living its last days...

On June 20, 1918, the Bolshevik Commissioner for Press Affairs, Moses Volodarsky, was killed in Petrograd. A month and a half later, on August 30, the head of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky, was shot dead. On the same day, August 30, 1918, in the evening in Moscow, 4 shots were heard in the courtyard of the Michelson plant. A short man in a cap, standing near the car, jerked and fell backwards to the ground. The crowd surrounding him scattered in different directions, the women screamed. They ran up to the fallen man and turned him over.

- Did they catch him or not? — the victim said in a dull whisper. No one could answer him. Another hour later, terrible news spread across Moscow: Lenin was killed...

...Six days before the assassination attempt, three people met on the boulevard near the Smolensky market: Dmitry Donskoy, Grigory Semenov and Fanny Kaplan. Donskoy, a military doctor by profession, also controlled the fighting groups of the Socialist Revolutionaries. One of these groups was led by Grigory Semenov, a member of the same party. Donskoy looked around nervously: all three could easily be taken to the Cheka. Two days ago, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who had resigned from his post after the events of July 6 in Moscow, returned to the chairman’s seat. Then Cheka officers Blyumkin and Andreev shot the German ambassador Wilhelm Mirbach, and Dzerzhinsky - he went to Popov’s detachment, which was formally considered a Cheka detachment, to arrest Blumkin - was disarmed and himself arrested. This infuriated Lenin: what kind of leader of the Cheka is this, who is arrested by his own fighters?!

Ilyich did not have a good relationship with Peters, who became chairman of the Cheka after Dzerzhinsky left. Felix ran to the Kremlin almost every day and reported everything in detail, consulted, followed instructions, and Peters only sent reports. Ilyich preferred to keep the Cheka in his immediate field of vision. So he returned Felix to his place. Dzerzhinsky is now engaged in the liquidation of the “National Center”, security officers are prowling the city, and here sitting on a bench is Mr. Semyonov himself, under whose leadership Moses Volodarsky was killed in Petrograd, and with him the notorious terrorist Fanya Kaplan and the military Socialist Revolutionary leader Dmitry Donskoy . Good company!

Semenov introduced Fanny to Donskoy—they were technically strangers—and gave her the floor. Fanya declared that she was ready to kill Lenin...

To the portrait of Kaplan: “Open sheet number 2122. Compiled in the office of the Akatuy prison on October 1913, 1 day. Kaplan Feiga Khaimovna, exiled convict of the 1st category. Dark brown hair, 28 years old, pale face, brown eyes, height 2 arshins, 3 1/2 inches, ordinary nose. Special features: above the right eyebrow there is a longitudinal scar 2.5 centimeters long. Additional information: from the burghers of the Rechitsa Jewish Society. Born in 1887. Maiden. Has no real estate. Parents left for the USA in 1911. Has no other relatives. For making a bomb against the Kyiv governor, she was sentenced to death; he was commuted to life in hard labor. While making a bomb, she was wounded in the head, went blind in hard labor, and later her vision partially returned. At hard labor I wanted to commit suicide. According to his political views, he is in favor of the Constituent Assembly.”

From Donskoy’s review of Kaplan: “A rather attractive woman, but, without a doubt, crazy, in addition to this with various ailments: deafness, semi-blindness, and in a state of exaltation - complete idiocy.” Note that Donskoy is a professional doctor...

- I didn’t understand what you said? - Dmitry Dmitrievich asked Fanny.

“I want to kill Lenin,” Kaplan answered.

- For what? - Donskoy did not understand.

“Because I consider him a traitor to the revolution, and his very existence undermines faith in socialism.”

- What does it undermine? - Donskoy asked.

- I don’t want to explain! - Fanny was silent. — He removes the idea of ​​socialism for decades!

Donskoy laughed:

- Go to sleep, honey! Lenin is not Marat, and you are not Charlotte Corday! And most importantly, our Central Committee will never agree to this. You've come to the wrong place. I give good advice - throw it all out of your head and don’t tell anyone else!

Kaplan was dismayed by this response. Donskoy said goodbye to them and quickly began to leave. Semyonov caught up with him, talked about something, returned to Kaplan and unexpectedly announced that everything was in order.

- Donskoy approved my plan!

“But he said something completely different,” Kaplan did not understand.

“Do you want him to say to the first person he meets: go kill Lenin?!” Conspiracy, my dear! I completely forgot in hard labor how this is done! Let's go, now we need to get ready!

And they slowly moved along the boulevard towards the market...

August 27, 1918. Kremlin. Lenin was working in his office as usual when Yakov Sverdlov came to see him...

To the portrait of Sverdlov: Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov was born into a poor Jewish family in Yekaterinburg. 33 years. At the age of 16 he joined the party, worked underground and was in exile. In 1918 - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the main legislative body of the Soviet Republic. The Cheka and the Revolutionary Tribunal report to Sverdlov. He is the second person after Lenin in the party hierarchy. Energetic, ambitious, smart, flexible, soberly assesses the situation. In his personal safe there are passport forms of the tsarist type - for possible flight abroad (one of them is filled out in his name), as well as a large sum in the form of gold, diamonds and tsarist banknotes...

Sverdlov brought Lenin an addition to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Today it was to be signed. After the murder of the German ambassador in Moscow, the Germans tore up the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, and Lenin, with great difficulty, managed to extinguish the conflict by agreeing to new, even more predatory conditions of the Germans. They had to give up railways, oil, coal, and gold mining for a long-term concession. In addition, Russia pledged to transfer 245,564 kilograms of gold to Germany, with the first export scheduled for September 5. Sverdlov, having shown Lenin the addition, expressed concern: famine is approaching Moscow, there is no fuel for cars, resistance to the authorities and outright sabotage are growing. And this agreement will only add fuel to the fire and give the Socialist-Revolutionaries a trump card in the fight against them.

“Saboteurs, conspirators and even those who hesitate must be shot on the spot!” - Lenin said temperamentally. - Let them form troikas on the ground and shoot everyone without any delay! For possession of weapons - execution! For speaking out against Soviet power - execution! Unreliable people should be arrested and taken to concentration camps, which should be organized right outside populated areas: let everyone see what awaits them for such actions!

Ilyich rose from the table and began energetically waving his hand, as if he was dictating another telegram. Sverdlov knew that many telegrams with such content went to Penza, Samara, Kostroma, Saratov. The Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was overcome with horror as he watched this bloody hysteria of the leader.

“We already shoot hundreds a day and alienate many sympathizers of our government with these cruel methods, playing into the hands of Kolchak and Denikin. They have already begun to intimidate the people with the Bolsheviks. In order for us to survive and defeat the counter-revolution, the sympathy of the masses is now essential, they must be won over to our side! - Sverdlov objected.

- Here you go! You are the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the head of the legislative branch, and I am the executor! I shoot saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries and all the rest of the scum! And you solve problems on a more global scale!

Lenin grinned, not without malice. Sverdlov did not understand this Leninist absolute calm. He once told Ilyich that their reserves of power would only last for two weeks—that was the amount of food and kerosene left in Moscow. Lenin was happy: he thought that everything had long been over. But what to do next?

- Requisition the surplus from the rich! War communism! Share with a neighbor. If you don't want to share, go to the wall!

“But the people won’t understand us,” said Sverdlov.

- Really? - Lenin was surprised. - It's a pity! We have just started this experiment! The people will not understand the villain. Therefore, we need to pretend to be orphans: they are offending us, help! Think about it!

Sverdlov thought about it. He gathered his secretaries - Enukidze, Avanesov, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the All-Russian Cheka Kingisepp, the chairman of the All-Russian Cheka Peters, the security officer Yakov Yurovsky, who quite recently, on behalf of Sverdlov and Lenin, liquidated the entire royal family in Yekaterinburg. They secluded themselves and took all precautions so that this conversation would not go beyond the walls of the office. Sverdlov took a firm vow of silence from everyone. And he proposed his plan to save power: unexpected, cunning and forced...

...Semyonov’s combat flying detachment was the central group of the Right Socialist Revolutionary Party. On June 20, a member of this detachment, Sergeev, shot Moisey Volodarsky on Semenov’s orders. The Central Committee of the Right Social Revolutionaries, having learned about this terrorist attack, was outraged that Semenov carried it out without permission and publicly refused to take responsibility.

Thus, Semyonov actually turned into the leader of the gang, and Volodarsky’s death now lay solely on him. He subsequently testified: “This statement was an unexpected and morally huge blow for us... I saw and spoke with Rabinovich, and as a representative of the Central Committee, Rabinovich, on behalf of the Central Committee, told me that I did not have the right to commit the act.”

Semyonov understood well that sooner or later Donskoy and Gots, the leaders of the Right Socialist Revolutionary Party, would hand him over to the security officers without much trepidation. After the murder of Uritsky, it was dangerous to remain in Petrograd, and Semenov, together with Sergeev, moved to Moscow. Then he called another fighter from his group here, Konopleva.

On the eve of her arrival, Enukidze invited him to his place. He was Sverdlov's secretary and dealt with military intelligence issues. They had known Semyonov since their youth. Enukidze treated Semenov to dinner and they drank wine. And Enukidze invited his old friend, about whom he knew almost everything, including his involvement in the murder of Volodarsky, to work for the Bolshevik military intelligence. We were talking about a delicate matter.

- What’s the matter, Avel Safronovich? - asked Semenov.

“Attempts on Lenin and Trotsky,” answered Enukidze. “We need you to kind of prepare these murders.” I selected a group, obtained the consent of the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and found a suitable performer. Then all responsibility will fall on your Central Committee and this executor.

— Will there be an assassination attempt itself? - asked Semenov.

- It's not your concern! - answered Yenukidze...

To the portrait of Semenov: Semenov-Vasiliev Grigory Ivanovich, born in the Estonian city of Yuriev (Dorpt, now Tartu), 27 years old, self-taught, member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party from the age of 24. He was a commissar of a cavalry detachment, from the end of 1917 a member of the military commission of the Central Committee of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and the leader of the combat group of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries. The writer Viktor Shklovsky, who knew Semenov, characterizes him this way: “A short man in a tunic and trousers, with glasses on a small nose... A stupid person suitable for politics. He can’t speak.”

...And Semyonov began to work. The plan he compiled was “edited” by Cheka investigator Yakov Agranov. According to it, Moscow was divided into four districts, each of which was supervised by a specific militant. Other militants should take turns on duty at rallies where the leaders of the republic came to speak. As soon as Lenin appeared, the duty officer informed the district “curator” about this, and he appeared to carry out the terrorist attack...

To implement this plan, Semenov needed a meeting with Donskoy. Not being satisfied with her, he went twice to Gotz, who lived in a dacha in the Moscow region, but was refused everywhere. However, when coming to meetings of his battle group, Semenov said that both Donskoy and Gots approved of their plans. Four perpetrators were selected to assassinate Lenin: Usov, Kozlov-Fedorov, Konopleva and Kaplan...

...On August 30 at 17.00 Lenin has lunch in the Kremlin with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. In the afternoon, a message arrived that the head of the Petrograd branch of the Cheka, Moisei Uritsky, had been shot dead in Petrograd. Lenin asked Dzerzhinsky to immediately go to St. Petersburg and investigate this murder. The leader's appetite was not affected by this circumstance. He ate with pleasure and joked with his wife, who tried to dissuade him from performing. Lenin planned two of them this Friday: at the Bread Exchange and at the Mikhelson Factory. Topic: “The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat.” In response to his wife’s reminder that the district party committee had temporarily banned Lenin from speaking at rallies, he jokingly remarked that Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov strictly required all leading officials to participate in rallies and would strongly scold him for such a refusal.

At about eight in the evening Lenin arrived at the Bread Exchange. The car was driven by driver Kazimir Gil. One of Semenov’s militants, Kozlov-Fedotov, was at the Bread Exchange. Later he would testify during the investigation: “I had a loaded revolver with me and, according to the detachment’s resolution, I had to kill Lenin. I did not dare to shoot at Lenin because I hesitated about the permissibility of killing a representative of another socialist party.” The explanation is very strange: a professional fighter behaves like a schoolgirl. Lenin spoke at the Bread Exchange for 20 minutes, answered questions for another half hour, and then left. From the testimony of driver Gil: “I arrived with Lenin at about 10 o’clock in the evening at the Mikhelson plant.”

On August 30 at 10 pm it is already dark outside. No one met Lenin, and he himself went to the factory floor where the rally was taking place. At the rally, Lenin also spoke for half an hour. I answered questions for another half hour.

From Semenov’s testimony: “Kaplan, on my instructions, was on duty near the plant on Serpukhov Square.” This is about two hundred meters from the factory yard...

At about 11 pm Lenin left the workshop and headed to the car. Together with Lenin, those who listened to the leader also came out into the courtyard. He was about to get into the car when shots rang out. Lenin fell. Many people ran in fear from the yard to the street. Assistant Commissar of the Infantry Regiment Batulin shouted: “Stop the killer!” and also rushed out into the street.

From Batulin’s testimony: “Having reached the so-called “Strelka” on Serpukhovka, I saw... near a tree... with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands, a woman who caught my attention with her strange appearance. She had the appearance of a person fleeing persecution, intimidated and hunted. I asked this woman why she came here. To these words she replied: “Why do you need this?” Then I, having searched her pockets and taking her briefcase and umbrella, invited her to follow me. On the way, I asked her, sensing in her the face that had attempted to assassinate Comrade. Lenin: “Why did you shoot comrade. Lenin?”, to which she replied: “Why do you need to know this?”, which finally convinced me of this woman’s attempt on Comrade’s life. Lenin".

The absurdity of this testimony is obvious. But it is important to note that Kaplan stood where she was placed. It is also obvious what follows from Batulin’s testimony: he was ordered to identify Kaplan. Another thing is surprising: why did Kaplan admit that it was she who shot Lenin? Perhaps, given her tendency to exaltation, the organizers of the assassination attempt “calculated” this confession too - for she was already being led as a murderer, the crowd was roaring, demanding lynching, and Bakulin himself says that he saved the terrorist from reprisal. Kaplan had a congenital neurosis since 1906, when she was sentenced to death and then pardoned. It was because of this that she immediately took all the blame upon herself, categorically refusing to answer other questions. Her hysterics and sobs gave way to stony silence.

Not only the absurdity of Batulin’s testimony proves that Kaplan was not involved in the shots. During the search, a Browning car was found on her, but, apparently, no one fired from it, because it was not included in the case. The decisive piece of evidence in the case is another “Browning”, which on September 2 the worker Kuznetsov brought to the Zamoskvoretsky military commissariat, assuring that this was the same “Browning” from which they shot at Lenin. In his first statement - to the commissariat - Kuznetsov wrote: “Lenin was still lying, a weapon was thrown near him, from which 3 shots were fired at Comrade Lenin (a Browning system weapon), having picked up this weapon, I rushed to run after that person, who made the attempt, and other comrades ran with me to detain this scoundrel, and the comrades who ran ahead of me detained this man who made the attempt and, together with other comrades, I transported this man to the military commissariat.” Kuznetsov’s words – “scoundrel”, “this man” clearly indicate that the detainee was a man. But in a statement to the Cheka, made on September 2, instead of the words “scoundrel” and “man”, Kuznetsov writes another word - “woman”. And this was clearly done not without the help of “competent comrades.”

Lenin himself testifies to the man-killer. Driver Gil recalls: “I knelt down in front of Vladimir Ilyich, leaned towards him... “Did they catch him or not?” “he asked quietly, obviously thinking that a man had shot him.”

The same Gil makes an amendment in the interrogation report: “After the first shot, I noticed a woman’s hand with a Browning.” This amendment is quite remarkable and was added the very next day, when it became known that Kaplan had been arrested and confessed. It is possible that Gil was gently pressured to write down this amendment. Lenin’s remark “was he caught or not?” very important. This is not a disclaimer. After the first shot, which wounded a woman talking to Ilyich, Lenin instinctively turned around. This saved his life. The doctor who treated him, Weisbrod, stated: “Only an accidental and happy turn of his head saved him from death.”

Immediately after the assassination attempt on Lenin, Semyonov reported to the Central Committee of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries that it was a “vigilante” who did it. Subsequently, during the trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, this detail will emerge and take Semyonov by surprise: he will not be able to answer who he had in mind then. And again, as in the case of Volodarsky, the Central Committee of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries publicly declares that it has nothing to do with this assassination attempt...

At the rally at the Mikhelson plant on August 30, two Socialist Revolutionary vigilantes were present: Novikov and Protopopov. Novikov would later act as a witness at the trial in 1922 and say that he stopped the crowd leaving the workshop after the rally at the door, giving Kaplan the opportunity to shoot at Lenin, but the same driver Gil noted that there was no crowd at the door.

The figure of Protopopov is even more curious. He was shot without trial or investigation on the night of September 1, 1918. Protopopov, a former sailor, was the deputy commander of a combat detachment of the Cheka (the same Popov detachment that took an active part in the July 6 mutiny). It was Protopopov who arrested Dzerzhinsky, who arrived in the detachment in search of the murderer of Mirbakh, an employee of the Cheka, Blumkin. After the rebellion was suppressed, Protopopov was arrested. An investigation began, led by Viktor Kingisepp - he also led the investigation into the assassination attempt on Lenin. But in the verdict of the court on the rebellion of the left Socialist Revolutionaries, the name of Protopopov is no longer present. He disappeared, unexpectedly resurfacing only on August 30. And, most likely, he is the “scoundrel” who shot Lenin. But, guessing who shot, we will not clarify the whole picture of the assassination attempt if we do not answer the main question: who was behind Semyonov, Kaplan, Protopopov?

...On the evening of August 30, Sverdlov’s appeal appeared: “A few hours ago a villainous attempt was made on comrade. Lenin. Upon leaving the meeting, Comrade. Lenin was wounded. Two shooters have been detained. Their identities are being revealed. We have no doubt that traces of right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, mercenaries of the British and French will be found here too.”

The appeal is dated to a specific hour: 10 hours 40 minutes. “A few hours ago” means at eight o’clock. But Lenin arrived at the plant only at 10 pm, and finished speaking at 11.00. And who are these “two shooters”? Kaplan and Protopopov? The first fit better into the scheme conceived by Sverdlov. Therefore, Sverdlov had no doubt that “traces” would be found.

We have already mentioned that Viktor Kingisepp led the investigation. At one time, Sverdlov introduced him to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Kingisepp was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and was directly subordinate to Sverdlov. The second investigator in the assassination case is Yakov Yurovsky, a fellow countryman of Sverdlov, also from Yekaterinburg, who shot the royal family on the orders of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Sverdlov appreciated the efforts of the Ural security officer and took him to Moscow. Sverdlov’s secretary Avanesov was also present at Kaplan’s first and other interrogations.

Sverdlov did not let the matter out of his hands for a second. Semenov was in close friendship with another of Sverdlov’s secretary, Avel Enukidze. Semenov will be arrested on September 8, and soon he will become a most valuable employee of military intelligence and the Cheka - and all this through the efforts of Enukidze. He will also give the organizer of the assassination attempt on Lenin a recommendation to join the Leninist party. Stalin himself will read and edit Semenov’s main work, “The Military and Combat Work of the Social Revolutionary Party in 1917-18.” This work will be published as a separate brochure in Germany, and at the trial of the right Socialist Revolutionaries in 1922, by resolution of the Party Central Committee, the first speaker of the country of Soviets, Bukharin, will defend Semenov. After the trial, Semenov will be given an amnesty and sent on a free vacation to the south. Touching concern for the main terrorist of the republic! All this suggests that even before the assassination attempt Semenov was led by important people, such as, for example, Sverdlov and Enukidze.

On September 1, by order of Sverdlov, the Kremlin commandant Malkov will take Kaplan from the Cheka prison and transport her to the Kremlin, and on September 3, by order of the same Sverdlov, Kaplan will be shot and her body will be burned - there, in the Kremlin, under the roar of engines, in the courtyard of the Automatic Combat Detachment. And this is one of the main pieces of evidence indicating that Sverdlov was involved in the assassination attempt, since only it was beneficial for him to quickly destroy the witnesses. After all, the investigation has only just begun. On September 2, a Browning was brought in - Kaplan had to identify it. Confrontations were required with witnesses who had to confirm her presence in the courtyard of Mikhelson's plant - after all, they were shooting at the leader of not only Red Russia, but the entire world proletariat! However, here Kaplan’s confession would most likely have collapsed, because no one in the yard could see her. Moreover, Sverdlov was informed: Kaplan was falling into hysterics, tears, the revolutionary fervor had passed, and she could not only refuse to confess, but also tell the true story of the assassination attempt. Then they will bring in Semenov and Novikov, they will start talking about Protopopov, why and who shot him, and then... Sverdlov is even scared to think about it. It was necessary to quickly hide the ends in the water. No Kaplan - no investigation.

A. Balabanova, who visited the leader’s family in September 1918, gives a remarkable description: “I got the impression that he was especially shocked by the execution of Dora Kaplan...”. This phrase makes us understand that the decision about this was made not by Lenin, but by someone else (it’s clear who: Yakov Sverdlov). And that Ilyich was not very happy with this decision. But Sverdlov managed to convince him, to subordinate him to his decision, which means that the degree of Sverdlov’s influence on Lenin in some issues was very strong.

Krupskaya recalls what happened in the Kremlin apartment when the wounded Lenin was brought from the rally: “Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov stood near the hanger, and he looked somehow serious and decisive. Looking at him, I decided that everything was fine. “What will happen now?” - I said. “Ilyich and I have agreed on everything,” he replied. “It’s agreed, it means it’s over,” I thought.”

The word “conspired” itself is curious. It can be “agreed” between two sidekicks or accomplices. “Conspired” means a secret agreement has been concluded that no one can or should know about. But what was “conspired” between Sverdlov and Lenin? An attempt on Lenin's life, when it was supposed to fire blank shots, but someone mistakenly fired live shots? Or was it “conspired” that Lenin, assuming the worst, transferred all power to Sverdlov? This is exactly how Krupskaya understood Sverdlov. This means that Sverdlov had another reason to eliminate Lenin - he was clearing the way for himself to sole power.

We already talked at the beginning about the reasons that prompted Sverdlov to come up with this “rescue plan.” Recently, versions have appeared that Lenin was not shot at all, and all traces of bullets were staged. This would be the original version, but there are too many documents that talk about bullets and operations. German doctors took part in the latter, and it was probably impossible to force them to lie. Therefore, we agree that there were still shots and injuries. Another thing is that it really turned out to be easy. Lenin himself went up to his room in the Kremlin, undressed himself, and on September 5 he got up and began to work. It was for the sake of this “jewelry work” that the experienced shooter Protopopov was perhaps invited - to fake this slight injury. According to the plans of the directors of the assassination attempt, it probably should have been even easier - tangent, touching only the skin, burning... But excitement, Lenin’s involuntary turn - and everything changed. The wound turned out to be more severe; the bullet almost hit a vital artery. That’s why the angry “directors” shot Protopopov...

All this, of course, is just speculation; we are unlikely to ever know the true picture of those events: there are no witnesses for a long time, and no evidence either. And if they exist, they are unlikely to be made public soon. We can only name the author of the script and director of this interlude: Yakov Sverdlov. In 1919, as if by fate’s retribution, he died. This production was completed by his spiritual disciple Stalin.

“The Assassination of Lenin” is a truly talented dramatization of the Bolsheviks. But thanks to her, the regime survived. Having defeated their comrades in the revolutionary struggle, the Bolsheviks began to rule the country single-handedly. Lies, intrigues, conspiracies, executions, terror became the fertile soil on which Stalin’s dictatorial regime grew in full bloom. The Red Empire entered the life of humanity in the 20th century as a great monster with its incredible experiments on the souls and lives of millions of people...

Material by E. Latia, V. Mironova

One who stays in power for a long time and propagates radical coups, revolutions and changes, sooner or later becomes a target for assassination 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 method of its implementation.

What is Kaplan famous for?

The assassination attempt on Lenin, which took place in 1918, although unsuccessful, received wide publicity. This incident is described in many history textbooks, and a certain Mrs. Kaplan, a 28-year-old terrorist, is indicated as the main culprit. Her unsuccessful attempt on Lenin’s life led to the girl being caught and executed 3 days after the incident. But many historians doubt that Kaplan was able to come up with and organize everything on her own. Today, the circle of those who could possibly have been involved in the assassination attempt has been greatly expanded. At the same time, the personality of Fani Kaplan itself is of great interest to both professional historians and ordinary people.

Lenin: short biography

The man who became the leader of the revolutionary movement and created with his political activities a powerful support, thanks to which the years were realized in Russia, 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 Vladimir’s future political position.

After graduating from a local school, Ulyanov-Lenin decided to enroll in the Faculty of Law at Kazan University. It was there that his active social activities began. He strongly supports the “People's Will” circle, which at that time was officially banned by the authorities. Student Volodya Lenin also becomes an active participant in any student unrest. A short biography shows that his studies at the university end with him being expelled without the right of reinstatement and being assigned the status of an “unreliable person,” which was common at that time.

Stage of formation of a political idea

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

Impressed by the works he studied, Lenin, to whom revolution seemed the only possible way to end the tsarist regime, gradually changed his political views. From obviously 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 like-minded people and assistants in carrying out a 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 powerful activities against the tsarist autocracy, for which in 1897 he was sent into exile for a year. Despite all the prohibitions and restrictions, while serving his sentence, he continues his activities. While in exile, Ulyanov officially signs with his common-law wife, Krupskaya.

Revolutionary period

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

In the period 1905-1907, when the first mass attempt was made to overthrow the Tsar from the throne, Ulyanov was in Switzerland, but from there he collaborated with Russian revolutionaries. For a short time, he even managed to return to St. 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 was only in the fateful 1917. He immediately becomes the leader of the next uprising that breaks out. After the long-awaited coup d'etat took place, all power to govern the country passes into the hands of Ulyanov and his Bolshevik party.

Since the king had been removed, the country needed a new government. Lenin became the one who successfully led it. Having come to power, he naturally begins to carry out reforms, which for some were very painful. Among them is the NEP, the replacement of Christianity with a new, unified “faith” - communism. He created the Red Army, which participated 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. It was scary and really bloody. Opponents and those who disagreed with the advent of Soviet power understood that it would not be possible to simply get rid of such a leader as Vladimir Ilyich, and they began to prepare an assassination attempt on Lenin.

A number of unsuccessful attempts

Attempts to remove Ulyanov from power by force were made repeatedly. In the period from 1918 to 1919 and in subsequent years, they tried to kill V.I. Lenin several times. The first assassination attempt took place shortly after the Bolsheviks gained power, namely on January 1, 1918. On this day, at about half past seven in the evening, they tried to shoot the car in which Ulyanov was traveling.

By chance, Lenin was not alone on this trip. He was accompanied by Maria Ulyanova, as well as the famous representative of the Swiss Social Democrats, Fritz Platten. This serious attempt on Lenin's life was unsuccessful, because after the first shot was fired, Platten bent down Vladimir Ilyich's head with his hand. At the same time, Fritz himself was wounded, but the leader of the Soviet revolution was absolutely unharmed. Despite a long search for the culprits, the terrorists were never found. Only many years later, a certain I. Shakhovskoy admitted that he acted as the organizer of this assassination attempt. While in exile at that moment, he financed the terrorist attack and allocated a colossal sum for its preparation at that time - almost half a million rubles.

Failed coup

After the establishment of Soviet power, 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 St. George Knights, failed before it even began. One January day, a man named Spiridonov approached the Council of People's Commissars, introducing himself as one of the Knights of St. George. He said that his organization had 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 security officers found out the location of the central apartment of the Union of St. George Knights and visited it with a search. Revolvers and explosives were found there, and thanks to this fact, the veracity of Spiridonov’s words is beyond doubt.

Attempt to rob the leader

Speaking about the numerous attempts on Ulyanov’s life, 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 file No. 240266, and it was strictly forbidden to disclose its details. This event became popularly known 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 driver, was heading to Sokolniki. According to one version, his wife was there in the hospital, suffering from an incurable disease at that time - autoimmune thyroiditis. It was precisely to her hospital that Lenin was heading on January 19th.

According to another version, he was going 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 children a Merry Christmas, moreover, on January 19th. 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 traveling to Sokolniki and when armed people of clearly gangster appearance suddenly tried to stop it, none of those present in the car had any doubt that another attempt was being made on Lenin. For this reason, the driver - S. Gil - tried not to stop and rush through the armed criminals. Ironically, Vladimir Ilyich, being at that time absolutely confident in his authority and that ordinary bandits would not dare to touch him, upon learning 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 told them his last name, the bandits did not hear him because of the loud carburetor in the car. They thought that in front of them was some businessman Levin. The robbers came to their senses only over 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 apartment on Arbat. To accomplish their plan, the gang needed a car, and they decided to simply go out into the street, catch the first car they came across and steal it. It so happened that the first on their way they met Vladimir Ilyich’s car.

Only after the robbery, having carefully read the stolen documents, did they understand who had been 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 then exchange him for his fellow prisoners who were in prison. But these plans were not destined to come true. In a short time, Lenin and the driver reached the local Council on foot, notified the Cheka about the incident, and in a matter of minutes guards were delivered to Vladimir Ilyich. Koshelkov was caught on June 21, 1919. During his 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 August 30, 1918, occurred after his speech at the Moscow Michelson plant. Three gunshots were fired, and this time the bullets hit Ilyich. According to the official version, the well-aimed shots were fired by Fani Kaplan, who is referred to only as a “Socialist Revolutionary terrorist.”

This assassination attempt made many worry for Lenin's life, since the injuries received were truly serious. History remembers Kaplan as a terrorist who shot the leader. But today, when the biography of Lenin and his entourage has been carefully studied, many facts from the history of that assassination attempt seem strange. This raises questions about whether Kaplan actually fired the 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 man, had a very tolerant attitude towards power and could not think that one of his daughters would ever choose the path of terror.

After a certain time, Kaplan’s parents emigrated to America, 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 involved in transporting 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 royal secret police, and since Fanny was a minor at that time, instead of being shot, she was sentenced to life in hard labor.

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 semi-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 that she received before her arrest. The problem with her eyes was so serious that Kaplan, while serving hard labor, even wanted to commit suicide.

After an unexpected amnesty in 1917, she received her long-awaited freedom and went to one of the sanatoriums in Crimea to improve her health, and then went for an operation in Kharkov. After this, her vision was allegedly restored.

While in exile, Fanny became very close to the imprisoned Socialist Revolutionaries. Gradually her views changed to social democratic ones. She received the news of the October revolution critically, and the further actions of the Bolsheviks led her to disappointment. Later, testifying under investigation, Kaplan will say that the idea to kill Lenin as a traitor to the revolution came to her back 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, and he was strongly recommended to abandon his planned speech at the Mikhelson plant. But he ignored this warning and went to the workers with a speech without any security.

After completing his speech, Lenin was heading towards the car when suddenly three shots were heard from the crowd. In the ensuing chaos, Kaplan was detained because someone in the crowd shouted that she was the shooter.

The woman was arrested, and at first she denied her involvement in the incident, and then, during another interrogation by the Cheka, she suddenly confessed. During the short investigation, she did not hand over any of the possible accomplices and claimed that she carried out the assassination attempt on her own.

Great suspicions are raised by the fact that, apart from Fanny’s own confession, there is not a single witness who saw that it was she who shot. She also did not have any weapons on her at the time of her arrest. 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. The bullets were not removed from Lenin’s body immediately, but several years later. It was then that it became clear that their caliber did not exactly match the type of pistol accepted as evidence. The main witness in this case, Ilyich’s driver, initially said that he saw a woman’s hand shoot, but he changed his testimony about 5 times during the investigation. Kaplan herself admitted that she shot at about 20:00, but the Pravda newspaper published information that the attempt on the leader’s life was committed at 21:00. The driver said that the attempt occurred at approximately 23:00.

These and other inaccuracies make many today think that this legendary assassination attempt was actually 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 life of the leader made it possible to unleash a bloody terror against the Socialist Revolutionaries, starting the Civil War.

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

August 30 is a special date in the history of Russia. In 1918, 100 years ago, on this day, two attempts were made on prominent Bolshevik leaders in both capitals, which influenced the entire course of life in the country.

Party days

In the morning in Petrograd on Palace Square, the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky, was shot dead. And in the evening in Moscow at the Mikhelson SR plant Fanny Kaplan shot at Lenin. The leader of the revolution received “two blind gunshot wounds.” The best surgeons were involved in the treatment. For a long time, many materials from this case were difficult to access.

And just the other day, the Presidential Library in St. Petersburg digitized and published the original documents of the criminal case stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation: 105 sheets that cover the period from August 30 to September 18, 1918. They include testimony of witnesses, descriptions and photographs of investigative experiments, bulletins about the health of Vladimir Ilyich, directives from the management of the Council of People's Commissars Bonch-Bruevich.

“The debate about what happened on August 30, 1918 has not subsided to this day,” confirmed Doctor of History, Director of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolay Smirnov. - Versions are put forward, one more fantastic than the other: the bullets that hit Lenin were poisoned, the murder was “ordered” by Yakov Sverdlov, who had his sights set on the role of leader. Some researchers even claim that it was a staged event to start the Red Terror. They say that Lenin agreed with the security officers that they would shoot into the air, and he would “theatrically” fall to the ground... Sometimes it reaches the point of absurdity - for example, that the attempt on Lenin was Kaplan’s revenge for a failed romance with Dmitry Ulyanov.”

"Three sharp dry sounds"

What happened in reality, and why did Lenin end up at the Michelson plant on the evening of August 30? In fact, everything is more prosaic. August 30, 1918 fell on a Friday, and in Moscow this day was a “party” day, when the leaders of the country and city met with the people. In the evening, Lenin was supposed to speak at the Mikhelson plant, where a rally was being prepared on the topic “The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat.” When the tragic news about the murder of Uritsky came from Petrograd in the morning, the speeches of the members of the Council of People's Commissars wanted to be canceled, but then they decided to leave everything so that no one would think that the Bolsheviks had wavered.

At the time of the assassination attempt on Lenin, Kaplan was 28 years old. Photo: Public Domain

Lenin, as always, spoke brightly and answered questions clearly. When he finished his speech and left the podium, he was surrounded by workers and so, all together, they went out into the courtyard. The driver Stepan Gil had already started the engine, but then one of the workers stopped Ilyich with another question. In this moment Assistant Military Commissar of the 5th Moscow Soviet Infantry Division Batulin was at a distance of 15–20 steps from the leader. Here is his testimony, presented on the library portal.

“I heard three sharp dry sounds, which I took not for revolver shots, but for ordinary motor sounds. Following these sounds, I saw a crowd of people, previously calmly standing by the car, scattering in different directions and saw Comrade behind the carriage-car. Lenin lying motionless with his face to the ground.<…>I was not taken aback and shouted: Stop the murderer, Comrade. Lenin and with these screams I ran out to Serpukhovka.<…>Near the tree I saw a woman with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands, who caught my attention with her strange appearance. She had the appearance of a person fleeing persecution, intimidated and hunted. I asked this woman why she came here. To these words she replied: Why do you need this? Then I searched her pockets and took her briefcase and umbrella and invited her to follow me. On the way, I asked her, sensing in her the face that had attempted to assassinate Comrade. Lenin, Why did you shoot Comrade. Lenin?, to which she replied. Why do you need to know this, what finally convinced me of this woman’s attempt on Comrade’s life. Lenin".

Was the terrorist waiting for the tram?

Fearing that the woman would not be repulsed by her like-minded people and “she would not be subjected to lynching by the crowd,” Batulin asked the armed policemen and Red Army soldiers who were in the crowd to accompany them to the Zamoskvoretsky district commissariat. During interrogation, the woman he detained “identified herself as Kaplan and confessed to the attempt on the life of comrade. Lenin".

A few days later, on September 2, a picture of an assassination attempt was simulated on the territory of the plant. Revolutionary Victor Kingisepp pointed out that the distance from the car to the gate was 8 fathoms 2 feet (a little more than 18 meters) and admitted that “Kaplan was detained only thanks to the proletarian children, who were not confused like adults and ran after her shouting: “She shot.” to Lenin!

Photo: Public Domain / Painting by P. Belousov "Attempt on V.I. Lenin in 1918"

Meanwhile, the figure of the “number one terrorist” of the 20th century, Fanny Kaplan, still raises a lot of questions today. Historians cannot even fully understand her name. Fanny, aka Fanya, aka Feiga, aka Dora. Kaplan, Royd, Roydman, Roitblat... She became Kaplan in 1906, when, during her arrest (for preparing, together with her common-law husband Viktor Garsky, an assassination attempt on the local governor-general in Kiev), she, a 16-year-old girl, was found to have a false passport in the name Feige Kaplan. In addition, the Socialist-Revolutionary girl had frankly poor eyesight, and the assassination attempt took place at almost nine in the evening, when it was already getting dark. How could a short-sighted, almost blind woman, at dusk, in a crowd of people, shoot so accurately? And they detained her at a tram stop, where she stood “with a briefcase and an umbrella in her hands.” All this gave grounds to assert that Fanny was captured by mistake.

However, the revolutionary herself drew the line. “The October Revolution found me in a Kharkov hospital,” Kaplan wrote after the assassination attempt. - I was dissatisfied with this revolution, I greeted it negatively... I shot at Lenin. I decided to take this step back in February. This idea matured in me in Simferopol, and since then I began to prepare for this step.”

This story ended tragically for her. On September 3, without trial, in the courtyard of the auto combat detachment at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, under the roar of running engines, she was shot. Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov and poet Demyan Bedny, who happened to be at the place of execution, following Sverdlov’s instructions not to leave traces, burned Kaplan’s body in an iron barrel. “Revolutionary justice” has been accomplished.

And two weeks later, on September 18, 1918, the last bulletin on Lenin’s condition was published. Contrary to all fears, “as if he would not die,” the wounds healed, the leader recovered and after a month and a half was in service. A total of 36 bulletins were issued during Lenin’s illness. The first was written on August 30, 1918, at 11 pm, the last - on September 12, at 8 pm. All of them are digitized by the Presidential Library and presented on its portal. The Bolsheviks used the death of Uritsky and the wounding of Lenin to take revenge on the “enemies of the world revolution” with “red fire.” Already on September 2, the head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Yakov Sverdlov, proclaimed the policy of red terror. On September 5, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars approved the decree “On Red Terror.” Thus began a new stage of the civil war, the consequences of which we still feel today.