Аннотация: Menzhinsky - a man with a pince-nez. An experimental biography reconstruction essay
Menzhinsky - a man with a pince-nez. An experimental biography reconstruction essay
1. Universal suffrage
What did the man lack?
A good origin, an excellent education, a wide knowledge, a knowledge of languages ('passion for learning languages' - 'in the last years of his life he continued to study Chinese, Japanese, Farsi and Turkish'), the ability to study ... In exile, in France, he studied at the Sorbonne , studied Slavic languages. He became an employee of a French private bank - which testified to the general level of culture, and the ability to fulfill duties.
He got married. Three children.
All that was missing was a 'freedom' ... What does 'freedom' mean? "Universal, equal, direct with secret (confidential)" [an universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot]? So after all have achieved... in 1936 have introduced it... (But in times of Gorbachev (as though) have cancelled...).
2. A Chekhov pince-nez, the family, the "logic of life".
Before emigration (1907) there was some political activity. They organized something, gathered somewhere, conferred about something, called themselves something... Arrest (1906), release before trial. Two or three times after that (but before emigration in 1907) - on the verge of a new arrest. The police worked well. Lenin had good relations with Roman Malinovsky, a member of the Bolshevik faction in the Duma, a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, a Bolshevik, a secret employee of the Security Department of the police Department of the Ministry of internal Affairs of the Russian Empire.
Managed to emigrate. Students (pupils) of Rudolf Ignatievich Menzhinsky (Professor, teacher of military educational institution) - of the father of the young and revolutionary Vyacheslav - may have held influential positions.... Rudolf Ignatievich was a historian by profession. In the book by T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov "Menzhinsky" there is a dialogue in which Rudolf Ignatievich is called a General...Yes, Rudolf Ignatievich became a state Councilor.
In exile Vyacheslav Menzhinsky on a 'second line' ... A tense relations with Lenin ... It is unclear how - is it really knowledge of languages (19 languages?), a fluency in French and a personal abilities? Or were there other motives? Did elder brother used some levers? - became an employee of a commercial French bank ... The case, apparently, is unique in the history of Russian revolutionary emigration ... (For a large bank, a polyglot may be useful ...).
Maybe a good suit, tie, a Chekhov pince-nez helped?
In exile he began to write a book about the revolutionary struggle. The first works he published in 1905-1907 (he then was in the same literary circle where, among others, Chicherin was). The new Victor Hugo? Had literary ability? A journalistic abilities - were. It - is indisputable. (In the Robespierre period, 1792-1794, Victor Hugo was not yet born. His years of life 1802-1885. Who would Victor Hugo be, what would he do if he lived in 1792-1794?).
Political hieroglyphics, dogmatic concepts were not very interested to Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky . The main thing is that the Bolsheviks oppose the autocracy and for the Constituent Assembly, for democracy. Before the revolution, he was familiar with Savinkov, Kerensky, and many others.
Fate connected Menzhinskys - brother and sisters - with Stasova, with Krupskaya, and, further, with Lenin. After all, what's the difference with whom to make a revolution? These political parties are many.
The decisive word will be said by the Constituent Assembly.
When democracy comes, then it will be possible either to be elected to parliament, or to become a writer, or a teacher, or, in extreme cases, to pursue a legal career (Menzhinsky has a gold medal after gymnasium and a law degree from St. Petersburg University).
Perhaps, it was possibility not to return in Russia from France after the events of February 1917.
But - a family, a hope... And suddenly, after the Constituent Assembly, there will be a Parliament - like the French. He is a Deputy (like those important Frenchmen, like Victor Hugo...). He, Menzhinsky, is a Minister. And he - the Minister - is going to France...
The authors of the book "Menzhinsky" T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov, could not resist the temptation and placed in his book a hypothetical dialogue:
"- Is your father a General? Is he a nobleman? [phrase of a hypothetical British official at the border]
- Yes, a nobleman. [the hypothetical answer of Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, who left France for Russia - via the UK]
- Russian Russian nobleman, Ulyanov-Lenin, went through Germany, and another Russian nobleman goes through England? Or do you, the Russian nobles, have a [two] different concept of honor?'
He, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, and writer, and he was a teacher, and he was a specialist, and he was a diplomat...
But man is weak and pride is enormous. Suit, tie, pince-nez, nice coat, hat - maybe it's all in the genes? ("He was most afraid ... as he put it, to "attach his name" to [names of] a prominent figures of the Communist party.").
13 years after the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, "in the last [in his life] questionnaire completed by Menzhinsky in 1933, in the column "nationality" he wrote "pole"". "...here she is. You lie in a hammock for a day, and she sits opposite'. - To be a cunning person, when you meet with the own thoughts? - Menzhinsky read foreign newspapers every day. They wrote something about "grandfather." ("They live a normal European life - without dispossession and other outstanding achievements.").
("May 29, 1920, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of Labor and Defense" in view of the increasing work of agents of the Polish szlachta in the rear of the Red Army, in the center of the country, in view of a number of arson, explosions, and all types of sabotage" decided to give the military regime the most decisive and unshakable character" (T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov "Menzhinsky").
And where could a suit, tie, pince-nez, good coat, hat take place after October 1917? In the Council of People's Commissars? Even the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (the son of a civilian general in the Ministry of Education) Lenin - and he wore a suit and tie - but without a pince-nez and without a hat ...
Do you want a hat and pince-nez? Then you need to look for another job ...
There is a version that Lenin offered Menzhinsky the post of the People's Commissar of Finance, but he refused. The revolution took place - he was hoping to live as an independent person? He had to become for a period a deputy People's Commissar for some time and deal with finances (from January 20, 1918 - the People's Commissar of Finance, April-November 1918 - the consul general of the RSFSR in Berlin).
In the diplomatic service in Germany, a tie, pince-nez, and hat were still allowed. But the diplomatic service for the Menzhinsky ended. First, by the will of circumstances. Secondly, life abroad, with (uncontrolled) currency, with normal food and clothing, with a normal working day and the usual cultural interests was too attractive to send Dzerzhinsky-Menzhinsky(-Isetsky) to such work. Unless you count the initial, the most difficult stage, when you need to start, adjust the process, give it a positive inertia...
Were a more a difficult ones, a more a dangerous ones, but less a financially attractive, less a "pleasant" a working places. There were (different) smart people - but, in addition, selflessness (a lack of tendency to steal) and an acceptable level of group solidarity were required.
G.A. Isetsky in his book "Among the red leaders" described some details of the foreign diplomatic activity of Menzhinsky.
"Immediately [in St. Petersburg-Petrograd] I met with Menzhinsky, my old and close friend, who was Deputy people's Commissar of Finance...
My old comrade, Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky, now the head of the G. P. U., who also lived at the Embassy and was in Berlin, as Consul General, was invited to this little conference [in Berlin, in the Embassy].
Then we went to the Consulate General's office, where Menzhinsky introduced his staff to me.
Ioffe, himself, and also Menzhinsky and I received, each, 1,200 marks and the personal Secretary received the same sum, routinely ...
... different products of gastronomy were bought as "clayhanger" (secret sale), at incredibly high prices. Krasin, Menzhinsky, and I were offered the use of the Ambassador's table, but we declined the offer on a plausible pretext, and ate in the common dining-room...
The first moment the emergence of Parvus on our horizon has passed for me unnoticed, and learned I about him accidentally from V. R. Menzhinsky. ...It turned out, that here operates Parvus in as a mediator between German government and us and that for its participation he put requirement pay him not more, not less, as five percent from whole sum of the entire transactions...
Let me note that Menzhinsky and I agreed to go only to the minimum requirements [of the German side], which is why we traded [we were arguing about the terms of the deal]....
Menzhinsky and I [without any participation of Parvus], in spite of all the haste and all the obstacles, achieved [in negotiations with the Germans] all we only could...
Menzhinsky, for his part, also wrote to someone and insisted on my approval [for the post of Consul in Hamburg]... Further, Krasin, who was in Russia at the time, intervened in the case, and who insisted by direct wire that I should not think of withdrawing my candidacy. Finally, I do not remember how, Lenin himself was drawn into the affair, taking the side of Ioffe, Menzhinsky, and Krasin... As a result, a new telegram was received from Chicherin, in which he agreed to my appointment as Consul, but only temporarily...
At the insistence of my friends, Krasin and Menzhinsky, who argued the merits of the case, as well as Ioffe, who translated the whole matter into a question of his personal vanity [of his personal self-esteem], I was finally forced to agree...
But I restrained myself, was silent, and only in conversations with my old friend V.R. Menzhinsky, who also saw a lot in a highly comic spirit, ... I got a cheerfulness ...
And (I do not remember exactly), I think, on the 5th of November [1918] in the morning, about nine o'clock, I received a telegram. It was from Menzhinsky. I remember her well:
"Tomorrow at eight o'clock in the morning on the fifth of November [in connection with the beginning of the German revolution] the Embassy leaves for Russia. It would be nice if you joined. To finish of reporting on coal you are given a delay [extra time] of eight days. Menzhinsky"...."(Solomon (Isetsky) G. A. "Among the red leaders").
Menzhinsky, apparently, unlike Isetsky, did not like conflicts with the "party brothers". "Menzhinsky had almost a cult of silence; at the celebrations on the occasion of the decade of the revolution, a forty-minute speech by Menzhinsky was scheduled, but he rose to the podium, said: "the Main virtue of the chekist is to be silent" - and stepped down from the podium." (Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen").
(All the quotation - the translation from the Russian-language text).
Nothing is known about the relatives of Solomon (Isetskiy) in Russia. After all the suffering and (bureaucratic) battles for Russia and for the revolution, for the interests of the people, for honor and truth, he severed ties with the Soviet regime and went to emigration. In addition, everything that was possible and all what he could agree to and everything to what he was capable, was apparently milked [received] from him.
And Menzhinsky ...
So, a good suit, tie, pince-nez, a good coat, hat ... (to them, in the trams, a hat wasn't liked. 'Hey, you! Wearing a hat!').
Where can you feel safe? In the Council of People's Commissars, however, is a different fashion. The diplomatic service is occupied by other applicants.
Near Dzerzhinsky? Dzerzhinsky is not opposed - there is knowledge, intelligence, a lack of tendency to steal... On the "opposite side" are specialists. To confront them, we need specialists (at least) of equal intellectual level.
1919. '... a week later, several security officers in the reception of the Cheka's chairman were amazed to see how a man of a very unusual appearance came out of Dzerzhinsky's office. He was in a pince-nez with a gold frame, in a carefully ironed dark blue suit, a starchy shirt with a tight, high collar, with a fashionable foreign tie.
If such people sometimes met in the building of the Cheka, they were only with (under) convoy....
The stranger took his time to put on a steel-colored summer gabardine coat, a gray felt hat and ... calmly went out without even asking, as was usual for visitors who did not work in the Cheka, to mark him a one-time pass.
- Who is it? - unable to be silent, someone asked the secretary of the Cheka, Savinov.
- Menzhinsky ... Just by the decision of the Central Committee he was sent to us in the Special Department. Introduced to the Presidium of the Cheka. ' (T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov "Menzhinsky").
Maybe not only a pride, not only a suit, tie, pince-nez, a good coat and hat?
And relatives - what should they do? .. In 1917, father, sisters, wife, children ... - all were alive. Menzhinsky's mother died before his return to Russia in 1917.
And the problem of personal survival?
Oddly enough, the Constituent Assembly did not work, nor the French-style parliament.
There was no opportunity just to live normally ...
Even leaving was not easy - him would not have been hired back to a French bank. (From France Menzhinsky went to Russia of Prince Lvov, and it would be necessary to return from Russia of Vladimir Lenin). There were various obstacles to departure.
The Constituent Assembly did not go. But the Bolsheviks did not refuse from 'democracy'.
Universal suffrage was postponed until 1936 (and after 1936 it turned out to be temporary - did the intellectuals try in vain? And those who are in pince-nez and those who are without pince-nez?).
But Comrade Stalin promised the universal-equal-direct with the secret [an universal, equal and direct suffrage with a secret ballot]. (And even fulfilled his promise ...). Let there be democracy - even if without a Constituent Assembly and without a choice between parties.
One could, straining [with a little internal tense], consider himself a man of conscience and honor. "I am for democracy, I am for universal, equal, direct with secret."
Career developed gradually - at first a military counterintelligence, then all other tasks.
'However, Menzhinsky did not play a significant role in the elimination of the Kronstadt rebellion; he only ordered the sending of thousands of disgruntled sailors to Odessa, as a result of which a riot almost broke out there. Therefore, only eight years later, Menzhinsky was again entrusted the mass repressions " (Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen").
'Menzhinsky turned out to be a connoisseur of people and information; a good chess player, he manipulated people like pawns. He was an outstanding writer of plots and scripts. Long before Dzerzhinsky's death, Menzhinsky gained control of the GPU and did not lose it until his death in May 1934. He and the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin (also a former member of the decadent Kuzmin circle) were the only high-ranking Bolsheviks who looked like bankers - a suit with a vest , tie, a bowler hat ' (Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen").
1926. He became chairman of the OGPU. Not in all situations were Chekhov's pince-nez and a good suit appropriate. Health was not very good ... ("the work will be" limited to performing only the basic and most important duties, without any other load ""). Comrade Yagoda tried ....
He was friends with the historian Mikhail Pokrovsky. He cherished the hope of going into science, of taking up history? He remembered the father - the historian?
3. "Humble yourself, proud man!"
The photographs (in the book by T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov 'Menzhinsky') show that the suit and hat lasted a long time - at least until 1928.
Under Felix Edmundovich and with Felix Edmundovich one could feel more confident.
Iron Felix, according the fashion of Peter the Great, was dressed in military clothes (although he had not served in the army before the revolution), but the "knight of the proletarian dictatorship" was remembering his father - Edmund-Rufin Iosifovich Dzerzhinsky-who taught mathematics to Anton Chekhov, and treated a Chekhov pince-nez leniently, with an inner smile. (Revolutionary Dzerzhinsky was able to logically calculate, to define intuitively provocateurs. But he could not calculate the potential of the "Lenin-Malinovsky" tandem. And even if he could? - What could he do? Of father - of the state Councilor at the Dzerzhinsky was not. He had to spend a significant part of his life in prisons and exile. To accumulate experience for future work for the benefit of the Leninist Council of People's Commissars).
Gradually, a good suit, tie, coat, hat were replaced (forced out) by a dress of a military sample.
"Humble yourself, proud man!'
He had to listen to Fyodor Mikhailovich. To Dostoevsky. No one has ever flown into space. For the sake of such a achievement, the 'fearless knight of the revolutionary duty' Menzhinsky could both tolerate and make various compromises.
"...without any irony, he [Dzerzhinsky] was elected Chairman of The society for interplanetary relations" (Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen"). [Society for the study of interplanetary communications]
"...the section is being transformed Into the society for the study of interplanetary communications. Honorary members of this society are elected F. E. Dzerzhinsky, K. E. Tsiolkovsky, Y. I. Perelman."(Mikhail Arlazorov "Tsiolkovsky").
If Dzerzhinsky is interested in "the implementation of upper[over]-atmospheric flights using jet vehicles", then his first deputy and chief assistant Menzhinsky cannot ignore this topic.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky lived until 1935. But somehow everything will work out. - He's not likely to get into any serious trouble in one year. The person is already aged, and with a good reputation. And Sergei Korolev will have to endure, take a 'break' in 1938 and wait until 1942. In 1941, Alexander Vasilevsky will come to the highest military level of power.
Who knows, maybe if Witte and Dzhunkovsky (von Taube ...? ...) were in the highest echelons of power in 1881, then Nikolai Kibalchich would have survived, and in 1941 Prince Gagarin would have made the first space flight in the history of mankind?
A Chekhov pince-nez probably lasted the longest, although pince-nez was gradually replaced (forced out) by glasses.
The most pleasant photo in the book by T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov "Menzhinsky" - a photo of the father of the hero of the book - of Rudolf Ignatievich Menzhinsky.
Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky died on may 10, 1934. Two years and six months remained until 5 December 1936, when the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot was introduced.
He had to sacrifice a lot. But the country and civilization-went forward.
'Do not let yourself be fooled ...' (Chairman of the OGPU V.R. Menzhinsky, 1931).
(In preparing the biographical essay, in particular, the following materials were used: (1) T. Gladkov, M. Smirnov 'Menzhinsky', (2) Donald Rayfield. "Stalin and His Hangmen", (3) G.A. Solomon (Isetskiy) 'Among the Red Leaders', (4) 'Menzhinsky Vyacheslav Rudolfovich (1874-1934).' Source: Elagina E.N., 2006. http://www.famhist.ru/famhist/elag/00077825.htm#00081ba8.htm).
December 2, 2019 13:05 - December 4, 2019
Translation from Russian into English: December 5, 2019 00:50.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Менжинский - человек в пенсне. Опыт биографической реконструкции'.