Severely wounded in and Lenin who. Facts confirming poisoning

The leader of the Bolsheviks was saved from death by a Swiss subject

Vladimir Ilyich himself is to blame - he found an adventure on his own head! While he only threatened with a proletarian revolution, the “opponents” did not treat the Bolshevik leader too harshly: well, he was arrested several times, well, he was exiled to Siberia... But as soon as the old government in the country was overthrown and to become the head of a new socialist state, there were immediately those who wanted to destroy the newly-minted leader. The first attempt to assassinate Lenin was made literally a few weeks after the October coup. The MK correspondent recalled some details of this little-known terrorist attack.

Vladimir Lenin

In the evening of that day, Lenin, together with his sister Maria Ilyinichna, People’s Commissar for Military Affairs Podvoisky and his foreign “colleague” - Swiss Social Democrat Fritz Platten, went to the Mikhailovsky Manege, where Vladimir Ilyich was to speak at a rally of revolutionary soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, says historian Igor Kudryavtsev. We drove in one of the cars assigned to Lenin - “Turka-Meri”, which was driven by the driver of the First Automobile Company (it then served all the “top officials” of the Soviet Republic - author) Taras Gorokhovik. After the rally we returned along the same route. When the car passed the Simeonovsky Bridge and began to descend from it onto Simeonovskaya Street, several shots were heard. In such a situation, the Swiss was the fastest to find his bearings: Platten extended his hand and forcefully pressed Vladimir Ilyich’s head down with it. Almost immediately after this, another bullet fired at the car lightly wounded Platten in that same arm.

The shots rang out until Taras Gorokhovik turned the car into one of the neighboring alleys. As a result, no one except the Swiss Social Democrat was injured, but the car received several bullet holes.

Naturally, hot on its heels, an investigation into the terrorist attack began. The Cheka did not yet exist in nature, so the investigation was conducted by employees of the Committee for Combating Pogroms under the Petrograd Soviet. However, at first no clues could be found. Only a couple of weeks later, a “signal” letter arrived in Smolny, the author of which turned out to be the former chairman of the soldiers’ intelligence committee of one of the regiments, Yakov Spiridonov. He said that Lenin was under surveillance with the aim of killing or kidnapping him. Former officers - members of the Petrograd Union of St. George Knights - are participating in this counter-revolutionary action. Following a tip from Spiridonov, a few days later some of these people were arrested, including the chairman of the “Union...” Osminin.

As a result, it turned out that the attempt on Lenin on January 1 was also the work of the “Georgievites”. One of those arrested, former officer G. Ushakov, reported some details of the failed “New Year’s” terrorist attack. He said, in particular, that it was planned to blow up Lenin’s car with a hand bomb, but this plan failed, and the main culprit for the failure was one of the conspirators, Captain Zenkevich. Together with military doctor Nekrasov, he watched which car Vladimir Ilyich would get into. According to the developed plan, Zenkevich was supposed to give a signal to Ushakov and his partner, who were hiding at the entrance to the bridge, at the moment when this car drove away from the Manege building. However, Zenkevich gave such a signal late, and therefore Ushakov no longer had time to prepare and throw a bomb at the Turka-Meri passing by him. Instead, they had to shoot with revolvers, which did not give the desired result, since Fritz Platten reacted in time and managed to cover Lenin from the bullets.

The conspirators were treated mercifully. In those days, the situation at the front near Petrograd just worsened. The Germans launched an offensive, threatening to take the city. All arrested members of the "Union of St. George's Knights", who were kept locked up in the basements of Smolny during the investigation, wrote statements of their repentance and desire to atone for their guilt by defending the "cradle of the revolution" with arms in hand at the front. Lenin imposed a resolution on this: “Stop the matter, release it, send it to the front.” It is known that three of the former officers distinguished themselves while fighting the Germans on an armored train in the area of the Dno station. And some of the “George Cavaliers” who participated in the assassination attempt on Lenin (including Captain Zenkevich) were subsequently able to move to the whites.

Years later, Prince I. Shakhovskoy, who lived in exile, announced that it was on his initiative that the assassination attempt on Lenin was organized in January 1918, and allegedly he personally allocated 500 thousand rubles for the preparation and implementation of such a terrorist attack.

The “New Year’s emergency” that happened forced us to be more attentive to measures to ensure the safety of the “top officials” of the Soviet Republic. Literally the next day after the shelling of Lenin’s car, the commandant’s office introduced special passes for the passage of vehicles into the territory of Smolny. Measures have been strengthened to ensure the secrecy of Vladimir Ilyich’s road trips. As the then manager of the Council of People's Commissars, V. Bonch-Bruevich, later recalled, if Lenin wanted to go somewhere, he was allocated different cars from among the assigned ones and delivered them to different entrances of Smolny, and in each case only a few especially trusted people knew about this specifically. Even the driver was informed of the entrance number and route of the trip at the very last moment.

The assassination attempt on Lenin, carried out by the Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan, was the loudest attempt to eliminate the leader of the revolution. The controversy surrounding this event, as well as the fate of the terrorist, continues to this day.

One goal

Fanny Kaplan's real name is Feiga Khaimovna Roitblat. She was born in Volyn into a poor Jewish family. Quite early, the ambitious girl associated herself with revolutionary organizations, and already at the age of 16 she ended up in hard labor for an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Kyiv Governor-General Vladimir Sukhomlinov.

She was released as a half-blind, sick, visibly aged woman, although she was only 27. Thanks to the efforts of the Provisional Government, Kaplan was treated at a health resort in Yevpatoria, and with the assistance of Dmitry Ulyanov, the younger brother of the one at whom she would soon aim her gun, Fanny received referral to the eye clinic in Kharkov. She was unable to fully regain her vision, but at least she could distinguish the silhouettes of people.

In October of the seventeenth, the socialist revolution broke out, which Fanny Kaplan, like many of her comrades, did not accept. Declared a traitor by his former comrades, Lenin was now under the gun of merciless criticism, as well as weapons. Having joined the ranks of the right Socialist Revolutionaries, Fanny decided to act.

Despite the fact that attempts were made on Lenin's life more than once, he still moved around without security. On August 30, 1918, the Bolshevik leader spoke to the workers of the Mikhelson plant (today the Moscow Electromechanical Plant named after Vladimir Ilyich in Zamoskvorechye). They tried to dissuade Lenin from appearing in public, citing the murder of Uritsky, which occurred in the morning of the same day, but he was adamant. After his speech, Ulyanov headed towards the car, when suddenly three shots rang out from the crowd.

Fanny Kaplan was caught on Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street, at the nearest tram stop. She confirmed to the worker Ivanov who grabbed her that she was the culprit of the assassination attempt. Ivanov asked: “On whose orders did you shoot?” According to the worker, the answer was: “At the suggestion of the socialist revolutionaries. I fulfilled my duty with valor and I will die with valor.”

Arranged it myself

However, after her arrest, Kaplan denied any involvement in the incident. Only after a series of interrogations did she confess. However, no threats forced the terrorist to hand over her accomplices or organizers of the assassination attempt. “I arranged everything myself,” Kaplan insisted.

The revolutionary frankly stated everything she thought about Lenin, the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Peace, noting in passing that the decision to kill the leader matured in her mind in Simferopol in February 1918, after the idea of the Constituent Assembly was finally buried.

However, apart from Kaplan’s own statement, no one was sure that it was she who shot Lenin. A few days later, one of Mikhelson’s workers brought to the Cheka a Browning car with inventory number 150489, which he allegedly found in the factory yard. The weapon was immediately brought into action.

It is curious that the bullets subsequently recovered from Lenin’s body did not confirm their belonging to the pistol involved in the case. But by this time Kaplan was no longer alive. She was shot on September 3, 1918 at 4 pm behind the arch of building No. 9 of the Moscow Kremlin. The sentence (actually an oral order from Sverdlov) was carried out by the Kremlin commandant, former Baltic Pavel Malkov. The body of the deceased was “packed” into an empty tar barrel, doused with gasoline and burned there.

It is known that Yakov Yurovsky, who arrived from Yekaterinburg and a month earlier organized the execution of the royal family, was involved in the investigation. Historian Vladimir Khrustalev draws a very obvious analogy between the destruction of the corpse of Fanny Kaplan and the attempt to eliminate the bodies of the Romanovs. In his opinion, the Kremlin may have used the experience acquired by the Bolsheviks near Yekaterinburg.

There should be no doubt

Immediately after the capture of Fanny Kaplan, Yakov Sverdlov stated that he had no doubt about the involvement in the case of the right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries, who were hired either by the British or the French. However, today the version is actively being circulated that Kaplan had nothing to do with it - poor eyesight would not have allowed her to carry out her plans. The assassination attempt was allegedly carried out by the wards of the head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lidiya Konopleva and Grigory Semyonov, and its initiator was Yakov Sverdlov himself.

A supporter of this version, writer and lawyer Arkady Vaksberg, notes that there is no evidence confirming Fanny Kaplan’s involvement in the assassination attempt on Lenin. And he explains the motives of Ilyich’s comrades-in-arms with a banal struggle for power: the “leader of the revolution,” they say, was very tired of his comrades “for a common cause,” so they decided to deal with him, exposing a defenseless girl to attack.

One way or another, but already in recent history, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation conducted its investigation into the assassination attempt on Vladimir Ulyanov, in which Fanny Kaplan was confirmed guilty. Today, this case is officially considered closed.

Regarding the fate of Fanny Kaplan, there is an even bolder version. According to her, the murder was staged: in reality, Kaplan was sent to prison, where she lived until 1936. As one of the variations, there is an opinion that the terrorist spent the rest of her life on Solovki. There were even witnesses.

However, in his memoirs, Pavel Malkov insists that Kaplan was shot personally by him on the territory of the Kremlin. The memoirs of the poet Demyan Bedny have been preserved, who confirms that he witnessed the execution and liquidation of Kaplan’s body.

In 1922, a massive stone was installed at the site of the assassination attempt for a future monument, but the idea was never realized. This monument is the first erected in honor of the leader of the world proletariat. The stone can still be seen today in the park next to the house at 7 Pavlovskaya Street.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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Egor Yakovlev about the Socialist Revolutionary underground and the assassination attempt on Lenin

The case of the assassination attempt on Lenin (narrated by historian Alexey Kuznetsov)

Pavel Perets about the assassination attempt by Lenin's brother on Alexander III

Attempt on Lenin. Peters. Elena Syanova.

Subtitles

I strongly welcome you! Egor, good afternoon. Kind. Let's continue. Yes. Today we will have the last program of the season this year and it will be dedicated to the right-wing Socialist Revolutionary and officer underground in the summer of 1918, and to the extraordinary man who led this underground, Boris Viktorovich Savinkov. We have already talked about Boris Savinkov in programs dedicated to Kornilov’s speech, where Savinkov played a prominent and controversial role, but this man deserves to turn to his biography and discuss it in more detail. Savinkov was born in 1879, the son of a judge of the Warsaw District Court. Russian? Yes, yes, he was Russian, received a good education, and from his youth he took part in student unrest; he was initially social-democratic, but later became a confident member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. An acquaintance with a man named Yevno Azef played a big role in his fate. Azef is the leader of the combat group of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the main architect of the Socialist Revolutionary individual terror, which, let me remind you, was one of the most important components of the tactics of this party. Most of the political murders in Russia in the pre-revolutionary period were committed by the Socialist Revolutionaries. And Savinkov, together with Yevno Azef, were involved in the loudest of them. In this terrorist activity, Savinkov showed himself to be an extraordinary organizer and a very good psychologist. His tasks, in particular, included psychological work with the perpetrators, in particular with Yegor Sozonov, the murderer of the Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve, and Ivan Kalyaev, the murderer of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Serious character. Yes Yes. He instructed them, advised them, and, in general, both of them highly appreciated Savinkov, i.e. he knew how to inspire people, he knew how to let them know that they were performing a high duty by fighting a rotten autocratic regime. And for this, Savinkov was rightfully appreciated in the revolutionary environment. But, as we know, the revolutionary events were nevertheless turned around, the tsarist government managed to find a tool to suppress the revolution, and a significant part of the revolutionaries ended up either in exile or in prison. A similar fate awaited Savinkov. In 1906, he arrived in Sevastopol to organize the assassination of Admiral Chukhnin. Admiral Chukhnin at this time became famous throughout Russia for the brutal suppression of the uprising on the cruiser Ochakov. It is interesting that one of the most striking essays on the topic of the uprising at Ochakovo was written by Alexander Kuprin, the essay was sharply critical of the authorities, and Chukhnin demanded that Kuprin be expelled from Sevastopol, here. The Social Revolutionaries sentenced Chukhnin for his tyranny and cruel behavior, and now, in fact, Savinkov and a group of militants had to carry out this sentence. What was the uprising? Did they grab something there? Yes Yes. There was a seizure. Well, actually, this is an interesting story connected with the fate of the famous Lieutenant Schmidt, the cruiser “Ochakov” was captured, but the performance was suppressed. And subsequently 2 attempts were made on Chukhnin’s life. The first attempt was unsuccessful; a terrorist named Izmailovich allegedly came to see him and fired several shots, but Chukhnin survived. A similar attempt on the life of Governor General Trepov, Pasha probably talked about the assassination attempt on Vera Zasulich, it became a kind of role model for future terrorists. After this, Chukhnin survived. Was anyone killed there during the suppression of the riot, no? Yes of course. There were casualties, but the most important thing was that then there were executions, because Chukhnin was going to hang almost everyone there. By the way, Kuprin saved 10 sailors from massacre. And so, in fact, Savinkov had to organize an assassination attempt that would be crowned with success, here. By the way, looking ahead, I will say that Chukhnin was really killed, and for a long time the terrorist who did it was unknown. And, in fact, even now we don’t know exactly who did it, and we don’t know for sure whether it was connected with Savinkov’s group, or whether it was some kind of lynching by sailors, that’s it. But it is known that Savinkov was arrested in Sevastopol, and as the leader of this militant terrorist group, he most likely faced the death penalty, so. He was held in prison awaiting trial. Further, it means that his biography takes on another romantic turn, this means an escape. His comrades managed to rescue him by bribing the guards and changing his soldier's clothes, and he was taken out. Moreover, an interesting fact means that he had a pistol, and they were all not devoid of a certain code of honor - they agreed with the person who rescued him, that means with his comrade-in-arms, that if they came across an officer during the escape, they would kill him , in any case, they will engage in a shootout. And if they come across a soldier, a representative of the people, they will surrender. But that means they didn’t catch anyone, they managed to escape. After some time, Savinkov fled to Romania on a sailboat. Savinkov fled to Romania, such a tortuous biography. Then, it means that the revolution was suppressed, and the so-called period began. Stolypin reaction. And at this moment the Socialist Revolutionary Party received another blow. Journalist Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev, close to revolutionary circles, announced information that Yevno Azef, Savinkov’s mentor and teacher, is an agent of the tsarist secret police. The news shocked the party. It would seem that Azef was a charismatic leader who fights against the autocracy on the front line, and suddenly betrayal? The Socialist Revolutionary leadership did not immediately believe in this, and even an accompanying tragedy occurred - another provocateur was exposed, a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee Nikolai Tatarov, who betrayed Azef. But Azef managed to convince everyone that they were slandering him. A killer was sent to Tatarov. Realizing that a killer was on the doorstep, Tatarov’s elderly parents rushed to protect their son, and the gunman shot his mother twice, and then finally killed the provocateur with a knife. Azef at that moment remained above suspicion, but he was handed over to Burtsev by the former director of the police department Lopukhin, who had previously paid Azev fabulous sums for cooperation, but was removed from his post after the murder of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Those. it was a kind of revenge. However, unlike Tatarov, Azef managed to escape the revenge of his fellow party members, and he died of natural causes in Berlin in 1918. This means that Savinkov became the formal leader of this militant organization, but nothing worked out, and after that, like a significant number of revolutionaries, as I already said, who did not know what to do after the suppression of the revolution of 5-7, he emigrated, and he lived in France. And there, in France, he encountered World War I, and clearly took the position of a defencist, i.e. a person who advocates waging war to a victorious end. It must be said that to a large extent, he was probably sincerely imbued with the spirit of war that existed in France, because France, of course, treated World War I differently. Firstly, no prime ministers there spoke from the rostrum of the State Duma about the annexation of Constantinople. There they talked exclusively about one thing - about the return of the ancestral French territories of Alsace and Lorraine, captured by the insidious Germans, about the German yoke, which was placed on the shoulders of the unfortunate French people, and about their imminent liberation. And therefore, to a large extent, Savinkov, of course, sympathized with the French. But, I think, there was one more point, which all the emigrants also emphasized, these are the hopes that an alliance with England and France, France is a republic, England is a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary, with a developed, as these people believed, democracy, and Russia is a backward autocratic monarchy. And the fact that she found herself in the company of such wonderful states is a great happiness, so she should come out of the war, so to speak, to catch up to the standard. To emerge as either a constitutional monarchy or a republic, but in any case not the same monarchy as Germany and Austria-Hungary were. These monarchies were considered backward and unprogressive. And so, in fact, the hopes of the left, who at that time found themselves living in Europe, were largely related to the fact that the Allies would be brought to the end of the war. Here. And the famous phrase of Lloyd George, which he said after the February Revolution, that what happened in Russia is the first victory of the principles for which this war is being waged, it means that in the propaganda of England and France the idea of democracy played this very big role. Here we are fighting for democracy, and our opponents are monarchies, they are fighting for tyranny. And Russia in this sense spoiled the picture. When Russia also formally turned into a republic, the propaganda of England and France triumphed. Now we have a united camp of democracies against the camp of tyrannies, that’s it. Very often this phrase is presented as proof that England organized the February Revolution, but the meaning is completely different from what I said. So Savinkov also believed in all this, so, by the way, he entered the French army, at the same time he wrote many articles of a defencist nature and, in general, thus lived until 1917. As soon as the revolution occurred in February, Savinkov, like, again, hundreds of former Russian revolutionaries who, therefore, lived in exile, rushed to their homeland. He rushed to his homeland, and arrived there a few days later than Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, together with the leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Viktor Chernov. By the way, despite the fact that they were traveling from France, they also arrived from Sweden, respectively, at the Finlyandsky Station, they were greeted in the same way by a guard of honor, they were greeted in the same way with the performance of the Internationale and the Marseillaise, and they were exactly the same at that time moment heroes of the revolutionary movement, like, in fact, Lenin, and in general all some prominent figures of social democracy who returned to their homeland - Plekhanov, Kropotkin, the same Chernov. As soon as Savinkov arrived in Petrograd, he immediately plunged into the political struggle. But it was not at all like Lenin’s. Since he was a defencist, he chose the army, he began to strengthen the new revolutionary army. And on this basis he agreed with A.F. Kerensky, they became allies, and here I recommend that our viewers simply turn to the program dedicated to Kornilov’s speech, where I spoke in sufficient detail about the role of Savinkov. And now I will simply remind you rather schematically that Savinkov, understanding a certain antagonism that existed between the left-wing revolutionary leader Kerensky and the champion of strict military discipline Kornilov, tried to act as a kind of mediator between them. But in the end he was unable to sit on two chairs, and he went with Kerensky. But Kerensky no longer trusted Savinkov either, and after some time Boris Viktorovich turned out to be virtually persona non grata. When the October armed uprising took place and Soviet leaders came to power, Savinkov rushed, I remind you, to the Don, where he had a meeting with General Alekseev, one of the 2 leaders of the volunteer army, and asked him, let’s say, for a mandate to organize an officer underground in central Russia . Those. when the volunteer army went on the 1st Kuban campaign, Savinkov did not go with it, but went to central Russia and began organizing an officer underground there. And he succeeded. He succeeded, let’s start with the main thing - you can’t organize any underground without funds. And this is a very important point, where Savinkov got the money from. It is often mentioned that Savinkov received the first money, 200,000 rubles, from the head of the Czech National Council, Tomas Masaryk. Tomas Masaryk openly writes about this in his memoirs, but here the question arises - it is not entirely clear why Tomas Masaryk would give Savinkov money. Those. Tomas Masaryk, therefore, writes that I think that this money will be used to support the volunteer army, but in principle this is not completely clear. Those. Masaryk’s task, and he positions himself in such a way that he doesn’t care that the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps was accidental. Masaryk's task was, if you take his word for it, to take the Czechs out of Russia and send them to the western front. But something is not clear from his actions, and I suspect, I don’t know this, we have no evidence, but I suspect that Masaryk in this case did not give his own money, he was a swindler for French money. Because, of course, let me remind you that the main supporter of the intervention and action of the Czechs in the Entente camp was the French ambassador Nullans, a strident anti-Bolshevik, and I suspect that this first tranche that Savinkov received was inspired by Nullans. But in the future Nullans did not use any gaskets, and gave the money himself, gave the money himself. At first he gave him 500,000, so, that means, during the 18th year, Savinkov received 2.5 million rubles from Nullans, for a second, this is a huge amount, colossal. It is clear that there was inflation and all that, but still, even taking into account the inflation of 1818, this is a lot of money. And Savinkov, in general, had the opportunity to turn around. This means that Lieutenant Colonel of the Imperial Army Alexander Perkhurov became his closest associate. Perkhurov, he was the holder of the Order of St. George, IV degree, a very brave man, anti-Bolshevik, and in this sense he was, of course, Savinkov’s faithful and proactive assistant. And he was entrusted with the most important task - organizing the uprising in Yaroslavl. Actually, Perkhurov went there and organized an uprising, which we will talk about a little later. The uprising was scheduled for July 1918. The task was seen as follows: to raise synchronous uprisings in several cities and hold them until other anti-Bolshevik forces arrived. There is a historiographical mystery here. Savinkov’s French sponsors subsequently assured that his actions were pure improvisation, that Savinkov, therefore, did not consult with anyone and did it all himself, and they didn’t really know. Some researchers believe them, some researchers do not believe them. I probably don't believe it. The fact is that Savinkov was anyone, but he, of course, was not a fool, and he was well aware that without support and without systematic coordination of actions they would not succeed. Those. as if the Bolsheviks were still, of course, not very strong, but still not so strong that they could not suppress the performance of the insignificant forces that, in principle, they had. Those. the Savinkov organization, according to various estimates, consisted of from 2,000 to 5,000 officers. It is clear that Savinkov himself did not communicate with them, it was an extensive network, and these, rather, were the people on whom Savinkov a priori counted that some kind of uprising would now begin, and they would support. In Yaroslavl, for example, this worked, but in Murom and Rybinsk it did not. 3 cities in which they raised uprisings simultaneously. And I suspect that Savinkov, when he held a meeting with his most trusted persons, and when he arrived in Rybinsk and spoke there, it means, with the underground officer activists, he told everyone that we are not alone, we will be supported by the Allied troops who preparing to disembark. They are preparing to land in Arkhangelsk. Those. First of all, we were talking, of course, about the British. This is a mystery, because indeed by that moment the decision to land an expeditionary force, or at least some forces, had been made by the Entente countries, and the British were already setting their sights on this. But, firstly, they did not coincide with Savinkov’s timing, and secondly, when they finally landed, and this happened on August 4, 1918, it suddenly became clear that these were not at all the forces that the conspirators were counting on, because if the Czechoslovak corps was really a huge force, in any case, various researchers said that from 60 to 80 thousand people, then at that particular moment the British landed only 1200 soldiers in Murmansk. Nothing. Well, no matter what, this was enough to later occupy Arkhangelsk, and in principle, contingents arrived there later, but these, of course, were not the forces that Savinkov and the company were counting on. And I think that Savinkov, of course, was connected with both the French and the British, so last time I talked about Friedrich Bredis, who was a member of the Latvian anti-Soviet underground, and at the same time was a secret Soviet agent, because his colleague, Lieutenant Colonel Ertman managed to infiltrate the Cheka and was its leader. So Bredis is also going to Yaroslavl, he was also a union of this Savinkov organization, it was called “Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom.” And Bredis was also a member of this organization, and he was connected with Francis Crome, the military naval attache, whom I talked about last time. This is how information was spread through these personal acquaintances. It is clear that it could not be 100% reliable, and I think that Savinkov was counting, of course, on the beginning of a large-scale Allied intervention, but he miscalculated. Those. he may have been encouraged by those people who themselves did not have 100% reliable information. But nonetheless. And there are 2 more riddles, but I think we are dealing with a coincidence here. The fact is that the rebellion in Yaroslavl also began on July 6, 1918, i.e. on the same day, in fact, as the speech of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow and Petrograd. And some researchers are trying to see some connection here. But there is no documentary evidence of this connection, and moreover, in Yaroslavl, for example, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks fought shoulder to shoulder against this Right Socialist Revolutionary and officer underground, and died. At the same moment when their fellow party members tried to take power, or at least overthrow Lenin in Moscow. Those. this is a paradoxical situation. Such vicissitudes, peculiar vicissitudes of the civil war. This means that the undoubted proof of Savinkov’s organizational talents was the fact that he started the uprising. All these uprisings were of different duration. Let me remind you that there are 3 cities - Yaroslavl, Murom and Rybinsk. Savinkov himself was in Rybinsk, and it is characteristic that in Rybinsk the uprising was suppressed, one might say, in a few hours. In Murom, where the uprising began on July 8, it formally lasted until July 10, but already on July 9 it was clear that the uprising also failed, there the officer underground amounted to only 400 people, and so very quickly the Red Army units suppressed it. This was not the case in Yaroslavl. There was indeed a very serious uprising in Yaroslavl, where Perkhurov held out for 16 days. However. He held out for 16 days until the last and, apparently, really expected that there would be some kind of support from the intervention. But it must be said that in Yaroslavl a significant number of local young people of military age went over to the side of the counter-revolution. There were serious battles there, it was necessary to call in additional troops, and most importantly, Yaroslavl was shelled by artillery, as a result of which a significant part of the city was destroyed. That is, it was a real serious fight. The Red Army was also led by a former tsarist officer, Captain Alexander Ilyich Hecker. Well, in this confrontation, Hecker Perkhurov won, although not without difficulty, so. Thus, despite the synchronicity of various anti-Bolshevik uprisings, the Bolsheviks managed, in general, to quite successfully repel all attacks both in the capitals and in the center, here. But, nevertheless, the success of the Czechoslovak rebellion attracted to itself all those who were defeated in other places. And those cadres who survived, for example, Perkhurov, by the way, they immediately ran over to where firm anti-Soviet power was established. And Perkhurov will become Kolchak’s general in the future. And now let’s return to the capitals and, therefore, we will understand what the Socialist Revolutionary tactics were in the conditions of the defeat of the uprisings. This was Plan B, and in principle, knowing what the Socialist Revolutionary Party is famous for, it is not difficult to guess what plan it was. It was a plan of individual terror. It cannot be said that individual terror was some kind of alternative to uprising. His Savinkov, when he arrived in central Russia, he immediately simultaneously prepared military organizations that would carry out individual terror against the leaders of the revolution, and at the same time prepared officer uprisings in the regions. The Socialist Revolutionary underground operated in both Petrograd and Moscow, one of whose prominent representatives was a man named Grigory Semyonov. This is also a Socialist Revolutionary, we have already met with him, but we did not name him. This is the man who was Kerensky’s driver, who took him from Gatchina to Pskov during the armed uprising in Petrograd and, in fact, saved him from the trial of the Gatchina soldiers, who at the meeting discussed what they would do with Kerensky if he fell into their hands. hands. The man was also not a timid man, frankly speaking, he was a very good conspirator, and it was he who organized the Socialist Revolutionary underground, which was supposed to carry out an assassination attempt on the leaders of the revolution, primarily on Lenin and Trotsky. The officer underground had a test of the pen, this was the murder of the famous Bolshevik and member of the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Volodarsky, which was organized very successfully. Volodarsky's driver was bribed and recruited and stopped at the right place, allegedly because the car had run out of gas. Volodarsky and his wife got out of the car to get some air, at which time the killer fired several shots and killed Volodarsky. Those. this was one of the first successful terrorist acts of the Socialist Revolutionary underground. By the way, the murder of Volodarsky did not lead to the Red Terror, i.e. Lenin held out for now. And, naturally, Volodarsky was far from being the figure who could curtail all socialist transformations and demoralize the Bolshevik Party. That is, he was not a leader of the caliber of Lenin and Trotsky. Therefore, of course, the task was set to kill precisely these two people, primarily Lenin, because it was clear that he was leading the revolution. And here, then, unexpectedly, the fate of Fanny Kaplan is woven into our history, who, in general, was not a full-fledged member of Semyonov’s team, Semyonov’s group, and in general it is difficult to classify her as a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, because essentially she was an anarchist. Fanny Kaplan's real name was Roitblat, she was also a veteran of the revolutionary movement. In 1906, she tried to kill the Kyiv governor-general, unsuccessfully, was exiled to hard labor for this, and served her sentence in the same prison with famous Socialist Revolutionary terrorists, for example, Maria Spiridonova, they were well acquainted. Maria Spiridonova gave Fanny Kaplan a shawl, which she treasured and treasured. Spiridonova was already a symbol of the revolutionary movement. Fanny Kaplan had problems with her vision, even for some time she became completely blind, but the treatment still returned some remnant of her vision, and in 1917, after the February Revolution, Fanny Kaplan, along with other terrorists who were imprisoned with her in Siberia, she was released, here. But unlike, say, Spiridonova, she did not immediately break into the revolutionary movement, and we meet her in the Crimea, in Yevpatoria, where she was recovering her health. There is about Fanny Kaplan, which means there is such a story about Fanny Kaplan, which, by the way, can now often be heard and read, heard in some television programs about her, and read in some journalistic materials about what it means to rest in Evpatoria in the summer of 1917, there she met a man who loved her very much, and whom she also fell in love with, and they had a stormy and passionate romance. This man’s name was Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and he was Vladimir Ilyich’s brother. This means that this story was launched into wide circulation by the emigrant Semyon Reznik, who, therefore, allegedly heard this from the old Bolshevik Viktor Baranchenko, a member of the Crimean Revolutionary Committee. Baranchenko lived until he was 80, I think, and wrote memoirs, and he actually writes that Fanny Kaplan had an affair with some man there, but that means he doesn’t mention the name of Dmitry Ulyanov. And, in general, modern researchers, famous not just a researcher, but an investigator Vladimir Solovyov, who led the investigation into the case of the execution of the royal family, including he also worked on the case of Fanny Kaplan in the case of the attempt on Lenin, so he undertook to check I discovered this data that Fanny Kaplan lived in Yevpatoria, and at that moment Dmitry Ulyanov was not in Yevpatoria, he served as a military doctor in Sevastopol, so. And, in general, it is unlikely that they could have had some kind of stormy romance, which, moreover, remained unknown to anyone. There are no other mentions of this, this is a later statement, which, rather, is an adventurous tale designed to add some spice to the story. This means that after this holiday in Yevpatoria, Kaplan is going to Kharkov. She goes there to have eye surgery. Those. there is a well-known statement, a position that Kaplan could not shoot Lenin because she was blind or half-blind. So, despite her vision problems, Fanny Kaplan comes to Kharkov to see the famous ophthalmologist Leonard Leopoldovich Hirsch, who performs an operation on her. This operation was successful, and it must be said that Fanny Kaplan restored her vision to a significant extent. By the way, when they searched her home after the assassination attempt on Lenin, and searched her herself, no one found the glasses, i.e. she didn't wear glasses. This meant that she could easily navigate the space without them, so. And, in addition, there is testimony from Semyonov, Grigory Semyonov, the same one I already mentioned, he testified that among all the potential murderers, several were targeted for Lenin. It all depended on where it would be more convenient to kill him. Moscow was divided into 4 sectors, and each sector had its own killer, who was supposed to waylay Lenin after speaking at some rally, here. So Kaplan, among all these potential killers, shot better than anyone, for a second. Wow. Here. Therefore, this means that this is another legend that Kaplan did not know how to shoot. She knew how and trained specifically, so there you go. By the way, she ended up in the hospital with Hirsch on October 25, 1917, an interesting fact. So, it means that then, at the beginning of 1918, she comes to Moscow, she comes to Moscow, and here she really joins the right-wing Socialist Revolutionary Party. Let us recall that at this time the Right Socialist Revolutionary Party, although it suffered a crushing defeat in the political struggle, is not yet considered completely anti-Soviet or anti-state, its faction is located in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a small faction, however, there are, in my opinion, only 5 people , but nonetheless. Socialist Revolutionary newspapers and press are published, Socialist Revolutionary meetings are held. Essentially, so to speak, this principle of a multi-party system is supported. Those. The Socialist Revolutionaries at this moment constitute the legal opposition. And so, in fact, it is the former anarchist Fanny Kaplan who gravitates towards the right-wing Social Revolutionaries. She first meets the Socialist Revolutionary Volsky, this is the future leader of Komuch, and he just directs her to Semenov, informing her that there is a woman who is ready to repeat the feat of Charlotte Corday, the famous Frenchwoman who killed Marat during the French Revolution. Now we have our own Charlotte Corday, we have a woman who is ready to kill the new tyrant - Lenin. Semyonov accepts her into his group, but it must be said that in parallel with Kaplan, even before she entered this Socialist Revolutionary underground, she formed her own terrorist group, I would say so - her own circle of 4 people, who also at least discussed how to kill Lenin. And there they discussed a variety of exotic versions of the murder, for example, inoculating him with some incurable disease, but that means that the real outcome was the creation of one bomb, which was later found, which theoretically could have been thrown at Lenin or some other leader, that is, of the Soviet state. Well, Semyonov approached the issue quite competently, that is, it was planned... Let me remind you that Volodarsky, he was killed on June 20, Volodarsky was a kind of warm-up for this Socialist Revolutionary underground. This means that it was planned to kill five leaders - Lenin, Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky, Sverdlov and Uritsky. Then these people are surprised that they were all killed. This is also a very interesting moment, because not everyone was killed, now we’ll get to that. Of course, the most important thing was Lenin. True, there is a version that it was not Semyonov who was behind the murder of Volodarsky, but another group of Savinkovites, which was more active in Petrograd. It was headed by Boris Viktorovich’s former colleague in establishing connections between Kerensky and Kornilov, but if anyone remembers, this was talked about in my videos dedicated to Kornilov’s speech, Socialist Revolutionary Maximilian Filonenko. At that time he really was in the northern capital and lived under fictitious names. The second leader of the underground was former Major General of the Imperial Army Boris Shulgin, whose sister ran a cafe on Kirochnaya Street, and this cafe was a recruiting place for anti-Soviet officers. The organization involved Filonenko’s cousin, the Socialist Revolutionary Leonid Kanegiser, who at the end of August would kill the leaders of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky. Kanegiser was a rather promising poet, an acquaintance of Sergei Yesenin, but he will remain in history precisely as a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist. His shot at Uritsky will take place in Petrograd on the morning of August 30. That evening, Kaplan would attempt to assassinate Lenin in Moscow. The question of unified management of these assassination attempts, and by the way, on the evening of August 29 they also tried to kill Zinoviev, is still open. But then, in 1918, they made a very strong impression on the Soviet side, and were essentially perceived as a declaration of war. If we add here the information about the connection of the Social Revolutionaries with the British and the conspiracy of the ambassadors, which the Cheka had, then it is clear that the Council of People's Commissars had every reason to feel like the intended victim of a well-planned and extensive conspiracy. But let's return to Lenin. Naturally, after the murder of Uritsky, fears immediately arose for his life. At this moment, the idea arose that Lenin should under no circumstances be allowed to go alone to any rallies. And on August 30 it was a Friday, and on Fridays the Bolshevik leaders always spoke at rallies, usually at large enterprises, that’s what it means. Well, they also tried to suggest to Lenin not to go anywhere, Lenin categorically refused to be buried somewhere. He said - do you want to close me in a box, like some kind of bourgeois minister? I will go to the people. Here. And indeed Lenin went to the people. This means that at 6 o’clock he had his first performance at the grain exchange, and then he went to Michelson’s plant. And it was there that Fanny Kaplan lay in wait for him. There is another such widespread version that Fanny Kaplan could not get into Lenin because it was already very dark, so. But apparently Lenin arrived at Mikhelson’s plant at about 7 o’clock, his speech lasted there, according to various estimates, from 20 to 40 minutes, that is, most likely, the attempt on his life took place around twenty minutes to eight. That is, it was the end of August, so, well, it was not yet so dark that you couldn’t get in. Moreover, the assassination attempt was carried out; the shots were not fired from a great distance. How much approximately? Well, about 6-7 meters, so there you go. Fine. Fanny Kaplan sneaked up well. We have the most vicious operational joke about her, when you turn to a citizen - if only you are not accused of killing Lenin, Fanny Kaplan took everything upon herself. It was very funny. Here. Lenin spoke and, by the way, the last phrase of his speech was “we will win or die.” He performed with great success. And when he walked to his car, he was surrounded by a crowd of people, who were asking some questions, that is. And at that moment his driver Stepan Gil saw a hand with a Browning and heard 3 shots. Lenin was thrown back, he fell, Gil tried to catch him, but Lenin lay bloodied, and in the confusion he didn’t even see who was shooting. And after some time, Kaplan was detained at a public transport stop near the plant. She seemed out of her mind. And during the arrest, when they took her, she uttered the phrase “I didn’t do it.” Lenin was seriously wounded; Gil urgently took him to the Kremlin. But Lenin, despite the fact that he was wounded, was bleeding, he, by the way, rose to his feet and went to bed himself, so. Doctors were urgently called, and in general it was, the accused later said at trial, that the bullets were poisoned. Yes, I just wanted to ask. This is a well-known story, yes, which was replicated in Soviet times, but most likely not. Well, there’s some kind of bullet here, they still pass through the barrel, there’s temperature and all that. Yes, yes, most likely. Even if it was so... Somehow, even now there are no poisoned bullets, not to mention back then. That is, it was somehow strange. Perhaps this is an echo of these exotic plans of Lenin, which means infecting with an unknown disease. In general, the Socialist Revolutionaries... Although they may have been poisoned, the poison simply did not work. Maybe so, yes, that's it. Well, in general, this is not known, we do not know. The Socialist Revolutionaries, in general, were experts in all sorts of exotic murder plans. For example, back in tsarist times they were planning, which means they were very inspired by the advent of aviation, so they began to imagine... Such prospects! Yes. They supposed, then, to purchase some kind of aircraft somewhere and bomb the Winter Palace or the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo from it, in the literal sense of the word. Those. They had a revolutionary tradition there that had an active connection with science, there was Kibalchich, for example, and there was a plan to actually create such an aircraft from which it would be possible to destroy the royal citadel. But we see the same thing here too. It seemed to the people that Lenin had been killed, and this, in a sense, caused panic. Actually, it was the Bolshevik leadership that almost immediately announced the introduction of Red Terror; this assassination attempt had very serious consequences for the escalation of the civil war. But Lenin survived, Lenin survived, and although it seemed to the opponents of the Bolsheviks that after this shot Soviet power would end in the country, in fact this turned out not to be the case. Fanny Kaplan soon confessed to the crime she had committed, and in principle we have, by and large, no reason to believe that this attempt was not committed by her, because all the alternative versions that are expressed on this matter, they sin in some way completely irrepressible conspiracy theories. Well, for example, they say that in fact this is an assassination attempt, it was planned by Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, who wanted to overthrow Lenin and, therefore, independently govern the Soviet state. He was so harsh. Yes, yes.. But Lenin and Sverdlov were quite different people, they had different views on many things, but nevertheless, their entire political path in the Soviet state, it shows that they knew how to negotiate and coordinate their actions, here. And Sverdlov, in general, never showed himself as a person who intrigued against Lenin; there is simply no evidence of this. Those. if, say, Lenin’s skirmishes with Trotsky, they are quite well known, then some tough picks, Sverdlov’s behind-the-scenes intrigues against Lenin, we know nothing about it. Those. These are all some kind of conjectures, mainly based on one phrase taken out of context, Sverdlov once said that, like, Ilyich is wounded, he is not with us, but we are working. And that means that some experts say - he let it slip, in fact it was him. I very much doubt that there is any trace at all here, i.e. There's nothing to grab onto at all. There is a version that I unexpectedly discovered, which is promoted by the author of detective stories, Polina Dashkova. Oh my God. She puts forward the version that in fact there was no assassination attempt, and the Bolsheviks started all this, Lenin personally, to unleash the Red Terror, that’s it. But it’s as if from the same opera that, so to speak, Dzerzhinsky provoked the left Socialist Revolutionaries in order to finish off the left Socialist Revolutionaries, apparently they decided with a doublet. - Wolves, who ate the sheep? “She was the first to climb.” That's about it. This means that this version can be rejected as absurd, here. And all the complaints about Fanny Kaplan, they are essentially just made up, i.e. Fanny Kaplan was blind - no, she was not. Fanny Kaplan didn’t know how to shoot—no, she could. I will note that... It was dark - no. ...it’s generally not easy, as you understand, to shoot at people, there is very high nervousness, you will shake all over. Plus there was a crowd of people there, so she still managed to escape from there, that they took her at the bus stop, and in time, so to speak, no one pounced. If he saw a hand with a gun, then not only he saw, those around him saw it too. She was a brave lady, brave. It is problematic for a blind person to do such things. That's why they say it wasn't her, she couldn't. Actually I could, I really could. This means that Kaplan was arrested, and, in fact, she was shot. She was shot, although there were myths that Kaplan was spared and that she survived. No, she was shot. But these myths are not based out of nowhere, because after some time Grigory Semyonov was arrested, and his fate turned out differently. Despite the fact that he was completely convicted of preparing the murder of Comrade Lenin and was sentenced to death, Lenin pardoned him. Lenin pardoned him, which means that Semyonov subsequently became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and was engaged in very responsible work within the Cheka. He carried out security missions in China, Poland, and already during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. But in 1937 he was arrested and shot, so. Moreover, even then, it means that the question once again arose about whether he participated in the assassination attempt on Lenin, and he confirmed this, so. But this is such an unusual fate, uncharacteristic. Those. in some aspects, Vladimir Ilyich was an extremely flexible person, here. Well, I told you that in general, both left and right Socialist Revolutionaries, they later joined the Bolshevik Party in quite large numbers, despite the fact that at the beginning of the civil war and in the first years after the revolution they were very energetically engaged in anti-Bolshevik activities, to the point of this. This is where I would like to end the next season of our series “The Real Game of Thrones” this year. We reviewed what happened from the moment of the October armed uprising until the assassination attempt on Lenin, which for some time seemed successful to the anti-Soviet forces and inspired them. And next year we will go further and will be closely involved in the civil war in Russia. To the plots, my respect. Why they invent something is not clear at all. Thank you, Egor, thank you. Thank you too. Very interesting. Until next time. Until next time. That's all for today.

Assassination attempts in January 1918

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

In mid-January, a second attempt on Lenin’s life breaks down: soldier Spiridonov confesses to Bonch-Bruevich M. D., declaring that he is participating in the conspiracy of the “Union of St. George’s Cavaliers” and was given the task of liquidating Lenin. On the night of January 22, the Cheka arrests the conspirators in house 14 on Zakharyevskaya Street, in the apartment of “citizen Salova,” but then they are all sent to the front at their personal request. At least two of the conspirators, Zinkevich and Nekrasov, subsequently join the "White" armies.

Assassination attempt on August 30, 1918

In accordance with the testimony of Semenov-Vasiliev, the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party resumed its activities at the beginning of 1918 and liquidated Volodarsky in July. The next main target was Trotsky, as the military leader of Bolshevism. However, Trotsky constantly moved between the capital and the front, therefore, as Vasiliev put it, “for technical reasons” it was decided to first liquidate Lenin.

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

The first assassination attempt was made by the Socialist Revolutionaries on August 16 at a meeting of the Moscow Party Committee, but the perpetrator lost his nerve at the last moment. The second, successful attempt was made on August 30. For her, Semyonov appointed the worker on duty Novikov, and the executor Kaplan.

At the same time, the Socialist Revolutionaries tried to carry out an assassination attempt on Trotsky, planning to blow up the train on which he was leaving for the front. However, at the last moment, Trotsky managed to throw them off the scent by leaving on another train.

Poisoned bullet version

For a long time there was an opinion that Vladimir Lenin was wounded by a poisoned bullet. In particular, this statement is given in his work “Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power” by historian Richard Pipes, referring to Semenov’s testimony. Semenov himself claimed that three bullets had a cross-shaped cut into which curare poison was injected. In addition, according to the medical report, doctors actually found a cross-shaped cut on the bullet removed from Lenin’s neck. However, even assuming that the poison was actually applied, its properties were destroyed by the high temperature in the gun barrel generated when firing.

Subsequently, a dispute grew around this version, in which Lenin’s political opponents denied both the poisoned bullets and the existence of the assassination attempt itself.

Results of the assassination attempt

As a result of the assassination attempts on V.I. Lenin and M.S. Uritsky, the highest body of Soviet power - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, chaired by Ya. M. Sverdlov, announced the beginning of the Red Terror. The Council of People's Commissars - the Soviet Government - on September 5, 1918, confirmed this decision with a special one.

Although Lenin's wound seemed fatal, he recovered very quickly. On September 25, 1918, he left for Gorki and returned to Moscow on October 14, immediately resuming political activity. Lenin's first public speech after the assassination took place on October 22, 1918.

Incident during the move of the Council of People's Commissars from Petrograd to Moscow in connection with the transfer of the capital (March 1918)

“One of them took out a pistol and said: “Trick or treat!” Lenin showed his ID and said: “I am Ulyanov-Lenin.” The attackers did not even look at the document and only repeated: “Trick or treat!” Lenin had no money. He took off his coat, got out of the car and, without giving the robbers a bottle of milk that was intended for his wife, continued on foot.”

Attempted terrorist attack in September 1919

According to researcher Savchenko V.A., an underground anarchist group led by Nikiforova M.G. (“Marusya”) in the summer of 1919 began to develop plans for assassinations on Lenin and Trotsky. After carrying out a series of “expropriations,” the anarchists, under the slogan of starting a “dynamite war with the Council of People’s Commissars and the Cheka,” blew up the building of the Moscow Party Committee on September 25, 1919, where Lenin was expected to speak. However, Lenin was late for the opening of the plenum of the party committee, and was not harmed in any way. At the same time, during the terrorist attack, the chairman of the party committee, V.M. Zagorsky, and 11 other people were killed, Bukharin, Yaroslavsky and a number of other prominent Bolshevik figures were injured, for a total of 55 people ( see Explosion in Leontyevsky Lane).

On the October holidays of 1919, the anarchists planned to blow up the Kremlin, but the entire organization was exposed by the Cheka and almost all of them were arrested, seven people were shot. Nikiforova herself (“Marusya”) by this time had already been hanged by the White Guards in Sevastopol; Presumably she was going to blow up General Denikin's headquarters.

Links

“Assassination on Lenin” Film by Alexey Pivovarov (NTV) from the series “Dark Case”

A look behind the secret curtain of the past

One of the mysterious historical facts, the mystery of which has not yet been fully revealed, is the assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin in August 1918. Various versions of what happened constantly appear on the pages of the media, which for the most part, repeating, complement each other with the rich imagination of the authors. In principle, this is natural, and everyone has the right to express their own point of view, but at the same time one cannot sin against the truth, which must be supported by scientific data. It is the lack of a qualified approach that, as a rule, leads the authors of “revelatory” materials into a dead end, which gives the next “whistleblower” a reason to take the wrong direction in the search for the essence. The material presented below is based on scientific facts and logic, and that is why it does not aim to confirm (or refute) the involvement of F. Kaplan in the case as the main person involved. The purpose of the publication is to reconstruct the model of the assassination attempt itself and make comparisons with other descriptions in order to eliminate erroneous versions that do not have an evidence base.

On August 30, 1918, after V. Lenin’s speech at a rally held in the premises of the grenade workshop of the Mikhelson plant, while the leader was walking to his personal car, an attempt was made on his life. Due to the fact that the person(s) who shot was not detained directly at the scene of the incident, in the following text he will be referred to as the “shooter.” And the person(s) who were hit by the thrown combat elements (bullets) will be referred to as the “injured party.”

Place
Excerpt from the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the assassination attempt on V.I. Lenin at the Mikhelson plant: “There is only one exit from the premises where the rallies are taking place. From the threshold of this double door to the parking lot is 9 fathoms (19.2 meters). From the gate leading to the street to the place where the car was parked, to the front wheels - 8 soots. 2 feet (17.68 m), to the rear - 10 fathoms. 2 feet (21.94 m). The shooter (the shooter) stood at the front fenders of the car from the entrance to the meeting room. Comrade Lenin was wounded at the moment when he was approximately one arshin (0.71 m) from the car, slightly to the right of the car door...”

Automobile
None of the mass of previously published materials contains information about the car in which Lenin arrived at the rally on the indicated day, and this may be one of the significant errors in modeling the situation. Many sources mention a Rolls-Royce, but in fact it was a 1915 Turk Mary 28 car. A very expensive handmade car with a 50-horsepower 4-cylinder engine and a closed custom body. There is no information about how this masterpiece of a little-known French company from Marseille came to Russia, but it certainly wasn’t in the Tsar’s garage. The driver of this car was Stepan Kazimirovich Gil, who once served in the royal garage. Lenin introduced a new fashion and began to ride next to the driver, neglecting the convenience and luxury of the rear cabin. This was done in order to emphasize the democratic nature of the leader. In addition to the French limousine "Turk-Mary", Lenin also had other cars assigned to him, for example, the "Delaunay-Belleville" from the garage of Nicholas II, which was driven by another driver. However, Lenin liked to ride with Gil: he not only quickly and skillfully delivered him to any point of the city, but was also an excellent conversationalist, and also performed additional functions as a bodyguard.

Cloth
“Vladimir Ilyich, going to the factory, took his coat with him. Therefore, we can say that on August 30, twilight came earlier than usual due to clouds and drizzling rain” - N. A. Zenkovich.

“When conducting an investigative experiment in 1996, the FSB requested from the Historical Museum Lenin’s black drape demi-season coat, a black lustrine jacket, 4 cartridge cases found at the crime scene, 2 bullets and a Browning, pierced by bullets. (The last time the examination of Lenin’s coat and jacket was carried out in 1959, the materials of this survey are stored in the Historical Museum.)" - Yuri Felshtinsky.

Shots
Testimony from witness interviews:
D. A. Romanychev wrote in a statement that “there were only three or four shots.”
E.E. Mamonov testified: “She managed to shoot 3 times.”
M.Z. Prokhorov “saw how someone from the public knocked out the gun from the shooter and the shooter ran away.”
I. G. Bogdevich assured the chairman of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal Dyakonov that the shooter had wounded the housekeeper M. G. Popova with the first shot. The second and third shots - V.I. Lenin.
I. A. Alexandrov remembered that the woman shot over the shoulder of the boy standing near Lenin.
I. I. Vorobyov stood next to the shooter and saw that she fired the first two shots at Lenin at point-blank range, and the next two at some distance, “probably,” Vorobyov testified, “the second shots wounded the woman who was talking with Lenin.”

Weapon
On September 1, 1918, the Izvestia newspaper published the following appeal. "From the Cheka. The Extraordinary Commission did not find the revolver from which the shots were fired at Comrade Lenin. The commission asks those who know anything about the discovery of the revolver to immediately report it to the commission."

On Monday, September 2, 1918, the day after this material was published in the Izvestia newspaper, a factory worker named after V.E. Kingisepp appeared before the investigator of the Supreme Tribunal V. E. Kingisepp. Savelyeva Kuznetsov. He stated that the Browning gun used to shoot Lenin was in his possession and placed it on the table. It was number 150489, with four cartridges in the clip. Kingisepp involved him in the case of the attempted murder of V.I. Lenin, and Kuznetsov warmly thanked him for his help in the investigation.

“Kuznetsov,” Kingisepp wrote in the protocol, “presented Browning No. 150489 and a clip with four cartridges in it. Comrade Kuznetsov picked up this revolver immediately after the shooter dropped it, and it was in his, Kuznetsov’s, hands all the time "This Browning is involved in the case of the attempted murder of Comrade Lenin."

On September 3, 1918, Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was quick to inform millions of its readers about all this. But the number of cartridges in the clip turned out to be different: “There were three unfired cartridges in the clip. By examining the revolver and the testimony of witnesses, it was possible to establish with accuracy that a total of three shots were fired at Comrade Lenin.”

Version
Oleg Roldugin. "Interlocutor", 02/26/2003
“Russian colleagues also give gifts to the sappers. One of the most memorable of these gifts was a small blued Browning: according to the donors from the RUBOP, it was from this that Fanny Kaplan shot Lenin in 1918.”

Sleeves
V. E. Kingisepp, who conducted the investigation, recorded in the official documents of the Cheka “a clip with four cartridges in it.”

Excerpt from the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the assassination attempt on V. Lenin at the Mikhelson plant: “Mark on the photographs the places where the cartridges fell “4, 5, 6, 7” and write “shot cartridges.”

Bullets
“Doctors V. M. Mints, B. S. Weisbrod, N. A. Semashko, M. I. Baranov, V. M. Bonch-Bruevich (Velichko), A. N. Vinokurov, V. N. Rozanov, V. A. Obukh suggested whether any poison entered Vladimir Ilyich’s body along with the bullets.”

"10 assassination attempts on Lenin"
An extract from the description of the operation to remove a bullet from Lenin’s body in April 1922 at the Botkin Hospital in Moscow: “... the bullet removed from the wound turned out to be the size of an average Browning (from the medical report). The bullet is cut crosswise through the entire thickness of the shell along the entire length of the body... The bullet is attached to the case. Presented to the parties for inspection. After the operation, Lenin wanted to go home, but the doctors persuaded him to wait until tomorrow and assigned him to the second floor, ward No. 44.”

“Who put a revolver with poisoned bullets into her (hand – editor’s note)? And that they were poisoned was proven by medical examination and the bullet that was removed during the operation...”

Vladimir Buldakov: “When, after the rally, a crowd surrounded him near his car, four shots were heard. Lenin was wounded by two bullets, two more scratched the wardrobe maid Popova, whom the head of the Council of People’s Commissars advised to seek an end to the outrages on the part of the so-called barrier detachments, which were excessively gutting self-supplying bagmen carrying food from the village."

Yuri Felshtinsky: “After the opening of the case in 1992, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation carried out, according to E. Maksimova, “a comprehensive forensic examination of Browning No. 150489, shell casings and bullets that hit Lenin.” But the results of this examination were not exhaustive. The experts concluded that of the two bullets, “one was probably fired from this pistol,” but “it is not possible to determine whether the second was fired from it.” Browning jammed and stopped working. But when comparing the bullets “extracted during Lenin’s operation in 1922 and during the embalming of the leader’s body in 1924, it turned out that they were of different calibers.” In addition, “specialists were surprised by the discrepancy between the bullet marks on Lenin’s coat and the places where he was wounded.”

"10 assassination attempts on Lenin"
“When the Red Army soldier Safonov asked him where he was wounded, Lenin replied: “In the arm.” “The doctors came to the conclusion that the bullet, fortunately, did not hit the large vessels of the neck. Had it passed a little to the left or to the right... Another bullet pierced the apex of the left lung from left to right and lodged near the sternoclavicular joint. The third pierced the jacket under the armpit, without causing harm to Vladimir Ilyich."
Historical manipulation of the situation? (Author's note.)

Historical archive No. 2: “a letter from a certain Socialist Revolutionary militant with the initials “A.Ch.” (author unknown) to the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, written no earlier than 1909, is devoted to the methods of terrorist struggle, or rather, to the question of the insufficient effectiveness of terror and ways to increase it "What should revolutionary fighters do in this situation so that even the slightest wound inflicted by them would be fatal? The answer is obvious: they must act with a poisoned weapon. And specifically, again point by point:

1. Use bullets for browning exclusively lead, without hard shells, as they are easily deformed in the wound and make it easier to process the part for laying a portion of the poison.
2. Provide all provincial committees with stocks of poisons and indicate methods for obtaining them.
3. Develop instructions for poisoning bullets and bladed weapons with poison.
4. Inspect the weapon and put it in order.
5. If there is no poison to poison bullets, use a dilution of infectious bacteria: consumption, tetanus, diphtheria, typhoid fever, etc. immediately before the terrorist attack..."

Injuries
Official bulletin No. 130 August 1918, 11 pm: “2 blind gunshot wounds were stated: one bullet, entering above the left shoulder blade, penetrated into the chest cavity, damaged the upper lobe of the lung, causing hemorrhage into the pleura, and got stuck in the right side of the neck above the right collarbone; another bullet penetrated the left shoulder, crushed the bone and got stuck under the skin of the left shoulder area, there are signs of internal hemorrhage. Pulse 104. The patient is fully conscious. The best surgeons have been involved in the treatment."

“10 assassination attempts on Lenin”:
“I think we won’t remove the bullets now,” Rozanov concluded.
“Perhaps we’ll wait,” agreed Obukh...
After the consultation, the doctors returned to Vladimir Ilyich. Nadezhda Konstantinovna was sitting next to him. Seeing those entering, Lenin wanted to say something, but Rozanov raised his hand in warning. At V. I. Lenin’s apartment in the Kremlin there were doctors V. M. Mints, B. S. Weisbrod, N. A. Semashko, M. I. Baranov, V. M. Bonch-Bruevich (Velichko), A. N. Vinokurov, V.N. Rozanov, V.A. Obukh and others. They noted unusually weak heart function, cold sweat and poor general condition. This somehow did not fit with the hemorrhage, which was not as severe as expected. The patient showed signs of shortness of breath. The temperature has risen. Lenin fell into semi-oblivion. Sometimes he uttered individual words.

“Bulletin No. 2 noted that Lenin’s general situation is serious. But already in bulletin No. 3 it was said that he felt more cheerful. On the evening of August 31, bulletin No. 4 reported that the immediate danger to Vladimir Ilyich’s life had passed.”

On September 18, 1918, the Pravda newspaper published the last official bulletin on the state of health of V.I. Lenin: “The temperature is normal. The pulse is good. There are small traces left from the hemorrhage in the left pleura. There are no complications from the fracture. The bandage is well tolerated. The position of the bullets is under skin and the complete absence of inflammatory reactions make it possible to postpone their removal until the bandage is removed. Vladimir Ilyich is allowed to go about his business."

Vladimir Buldakov: “the bullet, which had a cross cut, entered under the shoulder blade, traveled a very difficult path in the body and, managing not to hit the vital organs, did not “explode” in his body due to the low speed of its flight.”

“Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee”, September 4, 1918: “...On the day of the fatal assassination attempt on comrade. Lenina, the aforesaid Popova, was wounded right through; the bullet, having passed through the left chest, crushed the left bone (meaning: the bone of the left arm between the shoulder and elbow. - Author's note). Her two daughters and husband were arrested, but were soon released.”

From the testimony of policeman A.I. Sukhotin: “Four steps from Comrade Lenin, a woman who looked to be about forty was lying on the ground, the one who asked him questions about flour. She shouted: “I’m wounded, I’m wounded!”, and the crowd shouted: “She’s a murderer!” I rushed to this woman along with Comrade. Kalaburkin. We picked her up and took her to the Pavlovsk hospital.”

Playback
Kingisepp asked Gil to park the car as it was at the time of the assassination attempt. Kingisepp asked Ivanov if he had seen Comrade Lenin.

“I saw,” Ivanov answered. “It was like this: when Comrade Lenin left the workshop, I hesitated there for a while, and suddenly I heard shouts: “They’re shooting!” A traffic jam formed at the door. I rushed to the nearest window, kicked it out and jumped into the yard. Having pushed the people away, I saw Ilyich..."

Ivanov showed the place where Comrade Lenin fell.

Kingisepp asked Gil to sit behind the wheel, and told Ivanov and Sidorov to stand the way Vladimir Ilyich and the woman (Popova) with whom he was talking were standing at the time of the shots. Ivanov and Sidorov took their places. Yurovsky took several photographs. He filmed in various positions: standing, lying down, sitting.

The photographs taken by security officer Ya. M. Yurovsky are kept in the case of the assassination attempt on V. I. Lenin. Each photograph has an explanatory text handwritten by V. E. Kingisepp.

In the first photo: The grenade workshop with an open door, and nearby on the left is V. I. Lenin’s car. Having marked the door with the letter “a” and the car with the letter “b”, Kingisepp indicated: the distance from “a” to “b” is 9 fathoms. This means that the car was waiting for Ilyich 25 - 30 steps from the door of the Grenade Workshop.

The next three photographs depict “the staging of three moments of the attempted murder of Comrade Lenin.” This is what Kingisepp wrote.
The second photo captures “the moment before the shot was fired.” The car is standing sideways. Gil is driving, he turned his head towards “Lenin” (he was portrayed by Ivanov in the dramatization). Gil is ready to start driving as soon as Vladimir Ilyich gets into the car. At a close distance from the door stand “Lenin” and “Popova”, who asked Vladimir Ilyich about flour (Popova was portrayed by Sidorov). “Lenin” looked at “Popova” and said something to her. The “Shooter” (he was portrayed by Kingisepp himself in the re-enactment) is frozen at the front wheels of the car; he stands with his back to us, but his whole posture indicates that he is taking out a weapon.

In the third photo: "The shooter is preparing to shoot." "Lenin" and "Popova" continue to talk. "Shooter", holding out his hand with a Browning, aims at "Lenin". Gil (he portrayed himself in the re-enactment) notices the “shooter” and rises from his seat, drawing his weapon. But it's' too late. Shots ring out.

In the fourth photo: “The perfect assassination attempt.” Gil bent down to the wounded Ilyich. "Popova", wounded in the arm, runs back. The "shooter" hurries to the gate, the abandoned pistol lies near the open door of the driver's cab...

conclusions
So, even an inexperienced (but attentive) reader of the above materials, after reading them, has a lot of questions due to inconsistencies in objects, facts, and aspects of description.

1. It is generally accepted that the victim Ulyanov was located in the back seat of a Rolls-Royce car. Considering that in fact it was a Turka-Meri-28 car, the place where the victim Ulyanov was during the shots shifted, which means the distance of the bullets was distorted during the reenactment of the assassination attempt.

2. During the investigation and inspection of the clothing of the victim Ulyanov in 1959 and 1996, due to the discrepancy between the entrance holes on the clothing and the body of the victim, the very fact that the clothing belonged to the victim was called into question. And for the sake of objectivity, it is necessary to note that Lenin’s height during his life, namely at the time of the assassination attempt, was 165 cm; after mummification, his height decreased to 158 cm. Hence the discrepancies mentioned above.

3. To determine the exact number of shots, it is necessary to compare the number of wounds and found cartridges:
a) the entrance of the wound canal above the left shoulder blade of the victim Ulyanov,
b) the entrance of the wound channel into the area of the left shoulder of the victim Ulyanov,
c) the entrance of the wound channel into the left breast of the victim Popova,
d) entrance and exit holes in the clothing of the victim Ulyanov in the axillary region,
e) 4 (four) cartridge cases found at the scene of the assassination attempt can and should be compared for identity - by series (the mark is stamped on the bottom of the cartridge case), by the imprint of the primer, by the imprint of the pistol reflector, which is clearly visible on the bottom of the cartridge case.

This comparison will not only indicate the number of shots, but also the fact that the cartridges in the case belong to the specifically designated pistol(s).

4. Information on the classification of small arms that appeared earlier in the investigation as a “revolver” or “pistol” should not be taken into account by origin.

In a revolver of any system, to extract (remove) cartridges from the drum, it is necessary to carry out a time-consuming procedure, and this is precisely what the “shooter” did not have time for. At the moment the pistol is fired, the cartridge case is extracted automatically, so the firing device should be called nothing more than a “pistol.” The name of the firing device as “revolver”, previously published in the press and in the case materials, is considered incorrect due to the lack of special knowledge among those who conducted the investigation in 1918.

5. Kingisepp attached the Browning pistol number 150489 with four cartridges in its clip to the case of the attempted murder of V.I. Lenin.

Taking this as a fact, we can confidently say that 3 (three) shots were fired from this weapon, since the clip of this pistol is designed for 7 (seven) rounds. Based on the number of bullets fired and casings found, it can be argued that there was another, previously unidentified person who fired 1 (one) shot. Proof of this is a comparison of the wounds of victims Ulyanov and Popova. The nature of the wounds described indicates the difference in the manpower (energy) of the bullets they carried.

6. The version that Ulyanov’s attending physicians put forward during the first examination about possibly poisoned bullets, which later went from being an assumption to a statement, cannot be considered as correct.

The first bullet was recovered in 1922, the second in 1924 (after Lenin’s death). In practice, it takes several hours for the poison to affect the body. In addition, medical practitioners were well aware of the punishment they would suffer if they failed to act and prevent poisoning. The version of poisoned bullets made it possible for doctors to avoid liability in the event of the death of the victim Ulyanov.

7. The bullet, recovered from the Botkin hospital in 1922, is described as having a cross-shaped cut along the entire length of the shell and is classified as medium-caliber ammunition.

The described bullet (with notches) belongs to a caliber of 7.65 mm, and the Browning featured in the case has a caliber of 6.35 mm, thus there is a mismatch of calibers. There may be many versions, but only one is accurate: the extracted bullet was replaced in the hospital itself. This is indicated by the fact that the bullet casing has been cut along its entire length, which cannot be done without first removing it from the cartridge. Theoretically, this is possible, but in practice, the bullet is fixed in a Browning cartridge of this caliber with a force of 40 kg, which is impossible to do in home-made conditions, since there is a threat of jamming (misalignment) of the cartridge or a poor-quality shot. That is, in this case, a large amount of powder gases, instead of pushing the bullet, will flow freely along the cuts in the bullet casing.

8. The description of the wound of the victim Ulyanov in the shoulder area in the official bulletin indicates fragmentation of the bone by a penetrating bullet. Another document talks about a healing fracture.

This injury does not match actual similar descriptions. It is known that when a bone is crushed by a bullet, the resulting bone fragments themselves turn into lethal elements, subject to distribution and movement at a certain speed within the body. As a rule, such wounds require surgical intervention and take a long time to heal. It is known that after being wounded, the victim Ulyanov fell to the ground, and it was for this reason, due to an awkward fall, that a bone fracture occurred in the shoulder area. The fracture (but not the injury) is specifically discussed in the Pravda article dated September 18, 1918.

9. The only person who, according to the case materials, exposed his personal weapon was the driver (part-time security guard) of the victim Ulyanov - S. Gil.

The conducted forensic examination shows (and proves) that the shots were fired at victims Ulyanov and Popova from different points. The flight path of the bullet that hit the victim Popova comes from the driver’s seat of the Turka-Meri-28 car, which proves the fact of not only exposure, but also the use of personal weapons by the driver S. Gil against the victim Popova. The reason for this was S. Gil’s immediate suspicion that Popova was the shooter. Additional evidence could be the memoirs of the late Yuri Vasilyevich Alekseev, known in criminal circles under the nickname “Humpbacked”. (He died in a prison hospital at the age of 62.): “Mom was a very beautiful woman. Her godfather, by the way, was Lenin’s personal driver, Gil Stepan Kazimirovich. When he died, he left my mother eight notebooks of memories.”

All realistically possible work has been done. The curtain on the historical secret has been lifted, and for the final reconstruction of real events, it remains to disclose exactly that part of the information that is classified as a “state secret.”

Pavel Makarov,
gunsmith, researcher

August, 2006

One who stays in power for a long time and advocates 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 off. 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 Bolsheviks 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 guards, and since Fanny was a minor at that time, instead of being shot, she was sentenced to lifelong 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.