Swift Scout. short biography

Of course, it is difficult to say which of the Soviet intelligence officers was the best. But, nevertheless, professionals usually always remember Dmitry Bystroletov, and in the Washington intelligence museum there is a whole stand dedicated to him. So why is our scout so famous?

The future scout was born on January 3, 1901 in the Tauride province. There were rumors that his father was Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who is the elder brother of the famous writer A.N. Tolstoy. But Dmitry has never been a darling of fate. His mother, Klavdia Dmitrievna Bystroletova, actively fought for the rights of women, and she had almost no time left for her son.

The father gave the three-year-old boy to be raised in the family of his good acquaintances in St. Petersburg, where he lived for 10 years, having received a good home education... In 1913 Dmitry entered the nautical school in the Crimea. At the end of school, in the fall of 1917, Count Tolstoy recognized paternity, and Dmitry was granted the count's title. True, he had only a few days to be a count - a revolution happened, and all titles were canceled. After the revolution, Dmitry began convulsive throwing: the Volunteer Army - Turkey - Russia - Turkey again ...

In 1923 he moved to Prague, entered the university at the Faculty of Law. But, apparently, having settled well in Europe, Dmitry, nevertheless, dreamed of returning to Russia, and did not hide his pro-Soviet sentiments from anyone. Having sent an application for Soviet citizenship, he soon received it.

In 1925, a congress of proletarian students was held in Moscow, and of course Bystroletov also came. And there a meeting took place that drastically changed his fate. Dmitry was invited to a conversation by Artur Khristianovich Artuzov, who was at that time one of the leaders of counterintelligence. It was he who managed to convince the pro-Soviet student to serve for the good of his homeland.

Dmitry returned to Prague, already being an employee of Soviet foreign intelligence. In order to provide legal cover, he was registered to work in a Soviet trade mission.
But after a series of high-profile failures of our agents, the authorities decided to concentrate on illegal work. Dmitry was also transferred to an illegal position. Once Dmitry Bystroletov left somewhere, and disappeared ... And he never appeared anywhere else under his own name. He did not think then that it would drag on for many years.

Living under an assumed name, he entered and successfully graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Zurich, becoming a doctor of medicine. Dmitry painted well, and in his free time he also studied at the art academies of Berlin and Paris.

Risky job. Recruiting agents

However, his most important task was to recruit agents - six scouts worked under his leadership. Recruitment work is very dangerous, because a scout has to reveal himself, and it is impossible to make mistakes here, like a sapper.

Charming and always exquisitely dressed like a character from a Viennese operetta, Bystroletov was ideal for work in illegal intelligence. A good service in this matter was also served by his rare charm, the innate manners of an aristocrat and knowledge of as many as 22 languages. He could easily win over anyone.

Bystroletov was also distinguished by an amazing ability to reincarnate, moreover, not only external, but also internal. It was not difficult for him to appear in the form of a prim English lord, a Canadian engineer living in the world of formulas, a successful businessman from Germany, and a merry count from Hungary. He even had to play the role of a brutal contract killer from Singapore, and he did it well, too. In his images, he never repeated himself, each time he improvised anew.

One of the first assignments that Bystroletov received was the recruitment of British cryptographer Ernest H. Ouldam, and he did an excellent job. Soon Ouldam gave Bystroletov secret ciphers and codes, as well as many encrypted documents. After that, also thanks to the recruitment of employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Staff, embassies European countries, Bystroletov managed to obtain diplomatic encryption materials from the special services of Germany, France, Austria, Italy, etc.

Bystroletov, on duty, had to constantly rotate in the highest circles, while he got used to the appropriate image, like a real artist. Once, being in the guise of "Sir Robert Grenville", he managed to get a diplomatic passport from the hands of the British Foreign Secretary himself, who had no doubt that before him was the son of an English lord, an aristocrat in the seventh generation.

However, every day it became more and more dangerous to work. In the summer of 1933, one of the residents had already sent a radiogram to Moscow, in which he reported that "Andrey" (D. Bystroletov) was being monitored by foreign special services, and it was dangerous for him to stay here. But from Moscow they answered: “ We all understand ... Priceless information ... Be patient a little more ... Motherland asks ... Motherland will not forget ... Please convey to Andrey that we are fully aware of the dedication, discipline, resourcefulness and courage shown by him in extremely difficult and dangerous conditions.". And "Andrey" was forced to stay to continue his dangerous work.

Three years have passed, and Dmitry himself is already asking to withdraw him from this job: “ ... I am tired, unhealthy and I cannot continue working without serious rest. I feel from day to day a growing lack of strength, naturally lowering the quality of work, causing sloppiness in technology ... In my hands is a matter of great importance and the fate of several people. Meanwhile ... fatigue and periods of depression put pressure on me, I work only with nerves and willpower. Without the slightest joy about success, with a constant thought: it would be good to lie down in the evening and not get up in the morning. I have been abroad for 17 years, of which 11 years in our work, 6 years underground.».

They went to meet him, and finally Bystroletov in Moscow. Here he was greeted with open arms, like a hero, sent a presentation to the rank of lieutenant of state security, and were soon to be admitted to the party. For the first time in many years, he was able to feel like an ordinary person, living in peace, without fear for his life. But it only seemed so to him ...

How the Motherland “did not forget”

Everything suddenly changed - the certification was suspended, he was fired from his job. And soon they were arrested - an anonymous letter was received that he “ being a Socialist-Revolutionary and White Guard, he conducted espionage activities against the USSR»

The investigator interrogating Bystroletov was frankly bewildered:
« ... Abroad, did you manage a three million foreign currency account? Did you also have a foreign passport?
Several passports, and all are real.
So why the hell are you coming back here ?!»

« Here is my homeland ..."- was his answer
(indeed, in Europe, he had huge sums in his accounts, as befits a "textile industrialist")

A confession was beaten out of him, and he signed it. But he did not sign it because of the torture, although it was very cruel (his skull was fractured, his ribs were broken, his muscles were torn). It was just that then there was still faith in him: “ ... just about everything will be sorted out, and justice will prevail».
She did not triumph ... They sentenced him to 20 years in camps and five years in exile.

And again his life turned into a kaleidoscope ... Only now it was not the cities and countries that were changing, but the camps: Norillag, Kraslag, Siblag ...

But in 1947, the opportunity arose to break out of this nightmare. Suddenly, the prisoner Bystroletov was taken to the Minister of State Security Abakumov, who, cynically declaring: “ Maybe enough rest already. It's time to get to work”, Offered him amnesty and work in intelligence. But Bystroletov agreed to accept this proposal only on condition of complete rehabilitation. Abakumov got mad. " This man could walk around Paris in a week, but chose prison.". After this conversation, Bystroletov was sent to the Sukhanovo special prison. After spending three years in solitary confinement, he fell seriously ill. After a little medical treatment, he was again sent to the camps.

Bystroletov was released in 1954, and two years later they were rehabilitated, " for lack of corpus delicti". He returned to Moscow already disabled, and received a ten-meter room for living in a communal apartment. Dmitry Alexandrovich died on May 3, 1975.

When one of the journalists jokingly asked the former KGB colonel Mikhail Lyubimov: “ Who is the best spy of all time? ", He answered quite seriously:

« In the 1920s and 1940s, Soviet intelligence was the best in the world. People who were obsessed with the idea of ​​building communism worked there. From my point of view, our most amazing scout is Dmitry Bystroletov, his life is like an adventure novel, in which there was something, but there was enough adventure. He worked in the 1920s and 1930s, and relatively little was known about him. But he did a lot, a lot. In our country, cool scouts ended up in prison not abroad, but in their homeland, which they served».

There was another legendary figure in the history of intelligence. George Blake -.

Bystroletov, Dmitry Aleksandrovich. Nationality Russian. Was born in 1903. Death: 05/03/1975, Moscow.

Before arrest - sotr. INO GUGB NKVD USSR.

Member of the CPSU (b).

Was subjected to repression. Arrested on September 18, 1938. Convicted on 05/08/1939. The body that made the decision is the HCVS of the USSR. Solution: 20 l / s. Rehabilitated 1956.

Sources and additional information: Wikipedia.

See also the discussion on this page.

Passage of service

There is no information about appointments.

Rank

There is no information about the assignment of titles.

Awards

additional information

Teplyakov about Bystroletov

D. A. Bystroletov, who was engaged in INO not only recruiting, but also liquidating, admitted that he and his colleagues had committed many crimes. The memoirs of Bystroletov, who used the charms of his own wife to obtain information from the necessary foreigner, and in the camp bought the services of a criminal so that he would kill another thief who stole photos of his wife from the Chekist, clearly testifies to the personal degradation of the “knights of the cloak and dagger”. [ Bystroletov D.A. Travel to the end of the night. - M., 1996. P.63, 334–340, 381–385; Tsarev O., Costello J. Fatal illusions. From the KGB archives: the case of Orlov, Stalin's master of espionage. - M., 1995. S. 507.]

A.G. Teplyakov. Terror machine: OGPU-NKVD of Siberia in 1929-1941 - M .: New Chronograph; AIRO − XXI, 2008 .-- 608 p. (Series "AIRO-Monograph"). ISBN 978-5-94881-070-6. ISBN 978-5-91022-102-8. -
Chapter 5. Psychology, life and customs

About the title of Bystroletov

Information about Bystroletov's rank of senior lieutenant of state security is based on Yezhov's words contained in Bystroletov's memoirs: military rank senior lieutenant of state security. Apply for admission to the party: it will be accepted. " However, the same memoirs cite Bystroletov's statement, written in 1957 and addressed to Bulganin, where it is stated that "the certification was not formalized as a result of my arrest in 1938 and my conviction." Thus, he did not receive the special title of GB Bystroletov.

The illegitimate son of Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy, born on August 12, 1858 near Vyborg, higher education, lawyer, double namesake of Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy, the elder brother of the writer A.N. Tolstoy. In August 1916, by the Decision of the Heraldry Department of the Governing Senate, Dmitry Bystroletov was introduced into Personal honorary citizenship Russian Empire, in October 1917 he was introduced into the count dignity of the Russian Empire - Count Tolstoy.

In 1904-1913. lived in Petersburg. In 1913-1917. studied in Sevastopol at the Naval Cadet Corps.

Education

In 1919 he graduated from the graduation classes of the classical gymnasium of the city of Anapa, at the same time, graduated from the graduation classes of the Naval School of the city of Anapa - navigator of long voyages. In 1922 he graduated from the final class of the college for European Christians in Constantinople. In May 1922 he was admitted to the Faculty of Medicine of the Jan Amos Comenius University in Bratislava, in November 1922 he transferred to the Charles University in Prague, in 1924 he transferred to the Faculty of Law of the same university and graduated in 1927 with a diploma " Specialist in the world oil trade ", in March 1928 he defended his thesis" Basic problems of law in the coverage of historical and dialectical materialism ", awarded the degree of Doctor of Law. In 1935 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zurich (under a false name and documents), in 1936 he defended his thesis in gynecology, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Studied at the Academy of Arts in Paris and Berlin, was admitted in 1937 to the "Union of Artists of the USSR"

Intelligence activities

While working in the Soviet trade mission and the plenipotentiary mission in Prague, he collaborated with the INO OGPU (foreign intelligence of the USSR), from February 1924 on the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic he was collecting information on technical, economic and political intelligence. Since 1930, a staff member of the INO OGPU, from 1930-1937. worked illegally in the neighboring states of Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe, as an illegal recruiter and head of a group of illegal immigrants (pseudonym "Andrey"). Assignments to Bystroletov from the "Center" were given directly by A.Kh. Artuzov, acting through legal and illegal residents of the INO (N. G. Samsonova, B. Ya. Bazarov, T. Mally, I. S. Poretsky, etc.). Provided the leadership of the USSR with diplomatic codes and codes of England, Germany, Italy, Finland, France. Arranged for receiving classified information from the US State Department. Supervised personal correspondence between Hitler and Mussolini. I got a number of the latest technologies and weapons for the USSR.

Repression

On September 17, 1938 Bystroletov was arrested on charges of espionage, on May 8, 1939, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov to imprisonment in forced labor camps for a period of twenty years, with disqualification of political rights for five years and confiscation property belonging to him personally.
From 1939-1940 served a sentence in Narillag.
1940-1941 served a sentence in Mariinsk (Siblag).
1941-1947 served a sentence in Suslovo (Siblag).
In January 1948, by order of the Minister of State Security of the USSR, Abakumov was escorted to Moscow. For refusing the amnesty and refusing to work in the MGB, Abakumov, with his authority, changed Bystroletov's sentence of May 8, 1939, to five years in solitary confinement, and then shot him.
From 1948-1951 served a sentence in a solitary confinement cell of the Sukhanovskaya special regime prison.
In 1951 he lost his mind, was placed for treatment in a prison hospital, after treatment he was sent to special camps (Soviet hard labor).
1951-1952 served a sentence in Ozerlag (construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline).
1952-1954 served a sentence in Kamyshlag (construction of an oil refinery in Omsk).
In 1954, after a stroke, he was released from imprisonment ("activated").
In 1956 he was rehabilitated for lack of corpus delicti.
1957-1975 lived in Moscow, worked, with knowledge of 22 foreign languages, a language editor at the All-Union Research Institute of Medical and Medical-Technical Information of the Ministry of Health of the USSR, including worked on the literary work "Feast of the Immortals" in 17 books, completed shortly before the death of the author. This is what the wife of Dmitry Alexandrovich wrote to the Chairman of the KGB of the USSR Yu. V. Andropov, a few months before her husband's death.

Years of life: 1901-1975

Place of birth: village Akchora, Crimean region

Education: University of Prague (Faculty of Law)

Accusation and verdict: Arrested on September 17, 1938, sentenced to 20 years in a labor camp with disqualification for 5 years.

Occupation artist, scout.

Biography

"I arrived here at the end of August, dragging scraps of the past into these cruel lands: faith in people and myself, hopes and friends."

D. Bystroletov.

Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov was born on January 17, 1901 in the village of Akchora of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the family of Klavdia Dmitrievna Bystroletova and Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Received home education and upbringing. At the same time he graduated from two educational institutions: a nautical school and a gymnasium. At the age of 18, Dmitry first came to Turkey as a sailor. During civil war In order not to serve in Denikin's Volunteer Army, he emigrated from the country, and when he returned again, he was forced to flee to the Turkish coast to find work. From Constantinople, he managed to move to Czechoslovakia, but due to the fact that the young man served with the Reds, the emigre environment did not accept him. The search for truth and work led the young man to Soviet intelligence. Since 1925 D.A. Bystroletov began to work under the leadership of a resident in Prague, performing various illegal tasks, later he was transferred to the operational intelligence direction, and for legalization he was placed in a trade mission. Since 1930, the Soviet intelligence agent has been an illegal. He worked in the states of Asia, Africa and Europe. He spoke twenty foreign languages. Doctor of Laws from the University of Prague. Doctor of Medicine, University of Zurich. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Having gone into an illegal position, Bystroletov traveled around Europe in the form of an English lord, then a Hungarian count, reincarnated as smugglers and counts, he had to be both an Indian yogi and a French gynecologist. For permanent residence in Soviet Union he returned in 1937. On December 18, 1938, he was arrested in Moscow and spent a decade and a half in prison - in forced labor camps of general regime, in prison solitary confinement "under special conditions", in penal servitude in Ozerlag. Arrived in Norilsk on August 22, 1939. D. A. Bystroletov was in Norillag for one year, one month and two days. On September 24, 1940 he leaves for Siblag. He returned from the camps in February 1954 as a disabled person of the 1st group. In 1956 he was rehabilitated. After his release, he was given a meager disability pension, and was given a small room in a communal apartment. Bystroletov got a job in an abstract medical journal as an editor and wrote memoirs until the last days of his life. 11-12 books of memoirs (according to other sources, sixteen) were called “The Feast of the Immortals” (in the first publications “How I Died” and “Notes from a Living House”), the author himself assesses them: “This manuscript is a thorough and honest testimony of experienced during the years of Stalin's "personality cult" from November 1938 to February 1956. I have undertaken such hard work because I see it as my civic duty ... I believe that such a testimony will be necessary, for the time will inevitably come when it will be possible to speak freely and calmly about the methods of government, and then materials showing not only the bright sides of our life ... "These memories have come down to us in the form of a trilogy under the general title" Feast of the Immortals "- a book about a cruel, difficult and magnificent time. The first part of the work tells about the author's life in various countries of the pre-war world, about his travels to hard-to-reach regions of the African continent, about the activities of the reconnaissance group led by him. Bystroletov wrote about his stay in Norillag in the second book of his memoirs, "The Feast of the Immortals." Fragments of these memories are kept in the NDP Museum. In Norilsk, the first lines of these notes appeared as early as 1939, but the book about Norillag has not yet been published. The third part is devoted to the author's later life in the Soviet Union. Each book of the trilogy was created as an independent work. The author did this on purpose so that the plot of the narrative would not be torn, so that from the books - fragments the future reader could imagine an unfolded epochal canvas of the time in which D. Bystroletov lived. In 1962, he handed over three books of the epic for reading to the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1966 he donated eight books for storage to the departments of manuscripts of the State Libraries. He was engaged in literary work. The script for the film "Man in civilian clothes" and the story "Para bellum" appeared. The picture was released on the screens of the country at the end of 1973, and at the beginning of 1974 in the magazine "Our Contemporary" began the publication of the story "Para bellum". At the end of 1974, Bystroletov burned copies of the "Feast of the Immortals" that he kept. One can only guess why he did it. May 3, 1975 Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov died. In early 1990, with a series of articles “Another Life of Dmitry Bystroletov,” the Pravda newspaper made public the name and some episodes from the life and work of the Soviet intelligence officer.

Dmitry Bystroletov was born in 1901 in the Crimea. Father - Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy (brother of the future great writer Alexei Tolstoy), lawyer. Mother - Klavdia Dmitrievna Bystroletova, medical assistant and teacher, personal honorary citizen of the Russian Empire.

In the exploration of Bystroletov since 1923, he lived in Prague. Graduated from the University of Prague and received a doctorate in law with a degree in Oil Trade Law and Economics. One of the most prominent Soviet intelligence agents: a lawyer, artist, photographer, writer, master of reincarnation, knew more than two dozen foreign languages. In addition, a doctor ... First, since 1922, in Czechoslovakia he passed exams at the University of Bratislava. Jan Amos Komensky and was admitted to the Faculty of Medicine. A few years later, using someone else's passport, he studied at the graduate school of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and received a doctorate degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In Berlin and Paris he also studied at the Academy of Arts. He got into the archives of the Security Service of the Third Reich and reported to Moscow the names of agents working on the territory of the USSR.

From the book of Bystroletov's grandson S. Milashov: “Bystroletov's group was engaged in technical, economic, military and political intelligence in various countries of the world. As an illegal, Andrei (pseudonym Bystroletov) traveled to England, France, Austria, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, USA, Italy under the name of the Dutch artist Hans Gelleni, Hungarian Count Ladislav Perella de Kiralgaz, American gangster Joe Perelli, Brazilian businessman, Japanese agent, English Lord ".

He married in 1926 in Prague to Milena Iolanta Maria Shelmatova, attracted her to his work. The situation demanded that Bystroletov marry off his wife to an elderly colonel, through whom all the documentation of Italian intelligence went.

Such a detail: the counterintelligence services of neighboring states did not have a single photograph of a Soviet intelligence officer and did not know who they were dealing with. And in the archives of Soviet foreign intelligence of those years there were no photographs or information about Bystroletov's appearance. He skillfully changed "illegal masks" in accordance with current situations. In the archives of our intelligence, for example, there is nothing about the presence of an intelligence officer in Africa. It is possible that Stalin's assignments, which Bystroletov performed, were oral and were not recorded anywhere. It is possible that part of the archives of the USSR foreign intelligence was destroyed in the 1950s. Questions, questions ... In 1932, Bystroletova was awarded with military weapons by the INO OGPU “for the successful implementation of a number of developments of major operational importance and for the exceptional persistence shown at the same time. Surprisingly, it seems that the scout had no other awards, and that's why ... A black streak began in his life.

In 1936 Bystroletov returned to the Soviet Union for permanent residence, he was admitted to the Union of Artists. A year later, the repressions began, many intelligence officers were urgently recalled from abroad, arrested and shot. Bystroletov was transferred from the OGPU to the Chamber of Commerce and was arrested on September 17, 1938.

He received the maximum term of imprisonment by those standards -20 years. He worked at the construction sites of socialism, as if by labor atoning for his guilt as a spy. They did not shoot him, deciding to keep him alive - as it turned out, with the aim of using them later. From 1939 to 1947 Byst-roletov, a man of the highest European society, was serving a sentence in Norillag and Siblag. By the way, it was here that Bystroletov's medical knowledge came in handy, for some time he even worked in the camp infirmary. It was there that he got the idea to write a novel about his time ("difficult, cruel, magnificent"). The novel was called The Feast of the Immortals.

In 1948 Bystroletov from Siblag was taken to the Minister of State Security Abakumov. He offered to amnesty the intelligence officer, put on a tailcoat and send him to Paris. When the prisoner refused the amnesty, the vexed minister sentenced the convict to 5 years of solitary confinement at a special MGB facility in Sukhanovka, and after serving this sentence, he was sentenced to death. After two years of imprisonment in solitary confinement, Bystroletov went insane. By that time, Abakumov himself had already been declared an enemy of the people and shot. Bystroletov was treated and sent to the zone. He sat in Ozerlag (construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline), Kamyshlag (construction of Omsk oil refineries). Here he was struck by paralysis, and only then came the release, released on all four sides. The walk in agony does not end there.

In 1956, Bystroletov was told that his case was closed due to the lack of corpus delicti, and he was fully rehabilitated. They were allowed to live in Moscow. And the KGB said: “We don’t know that! Go, grandfather, out of here! " And they refused a pension. So in a 10-meter communal apartment the life of a Soviet invalid of the 1st group began. Knowledge and iron will saved from poverty. Bystroletov made his living by translations. In parallel, he continued to work on the novel, which turned into a trilogy. By 1967 he had written 11 books of the third part of the epic. In 1973 Dmitry Aleksandrovich published a small fragment of the second part in the newspaper Vecherny Dnepr. Based on his works, the film "Man in civilian clothes" begins to be shot. A short story is published in the magazine "Our Contemporary".

Former scout helped medical education... He worked as a scientific consultant at the All-Union Research Institute of Medical and Medical-Technical Information of the USSR Ministry of Health. Then he was engaged in translations at the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information, was the language editor of one of the journals of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Here the text of a letter from Bystroletov's wife addressed to the chairman of the KGB of the USSR Yu.V. Andropov should be cited.

“Dear Yuri Vladimirovich. Complete indifference and indifference to the fate of my poor, sick, paralyzed husband made me turn to you ...

Bystroletov Dmitry Alexandrovich - half-forgotten hero of our intelligence in the pre-war years ...

We are both old people who have lived together for many difficult years. We are disabled of the 1st and 2nd groups. We have been together for about 150 years. During interrogations, my husband was mutilated by beatings - they broke his ribs, driving the fragments into his lungs. In the camps - cold, hunger, stages in severe frosts. Two strokes. On October 26, 1956, he arrived in Moscow. With the 1st group of disabilities, he was sheltered by a medical abstract journal, where, with knowledge of 22 foreign languages, Bystroletov, a sick old man, worked as a language editor until 1974, until he was again paralyzed. He is disabled, cannot work - loss of speech and other complications. Together we receive social security pension. There is not enough for life and medicine. Considering all of the above, I ask you to appoint my husband Bystroletov D.A. personal pension. IVANOVA Anna Ivanovna ".

By order of Andropov, Bystroletov was returned to his Moscow apartment. But with the pension, it seems, nothing came of it.

The former intelligence officer said: "I want to die like a Roman, standing on my feet." He passed away on May 3, 1975. So far, four of his 17 books have been published by the works of Bystroletov's grandson S. Milashov.

Reviews

Bystroletov Dmitry Alexandrovich Reviews, memoirs

5000 pages of life One day in 1966 in Leningrad, in the department of manuscripts of the State Public Library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin, a man of about sixty with a very expressive, sculptural face appeared. The professor's beard gave him a resemblance to the academician Igor Kurchatov. The classically austere features of the face were surprisingly combined with young, attentively piercing and very intelligent blue eyes, in the pupils of which will and thought were concentrated. The visitor was emphatically straight, but not constrained, and an ordinary suit from a ready-made store looked like a luxurious tuxedo on him. The man spoke slowly, quietly, carefully choosing expressions, with a barely perceptible accent, which gave his correct speech of the old Russian intellectual a special expressiveness. At times, a fleeting soft smile appeared on the courageous face. He didn’t come to the library to get acquainted with someone’s manuscripts; on the contrary, he offered to accept for an indefinite storage five thousand typewritten pages - the story of his life, which he called the novel "On a cruel, difficult and magnificent time." After reading the manuscript, the expert commission made a unanimous decision to place it in the special storage. In 1975, the author of the manuscript died, and, probably, no one would have found out either about him or about his novel, if in 1988, in the midst of everyone's memorable perestroika, 16 books were not extracted from the special storehouse, intertwined in a multi-colored leaderin. The black books dealt with the life of the memoirist in Russia and the USSR, the green ones - about his wanderings in Africa, Europe and America, the red ones - about the activities in the 1920s and 1930s in many countries of the world of a special group of Soviet illegal intelligence agents. Soon excerpts from the multivolume manuscript were first published in two Soviet journals and immediately attracted the attention of the reading public, although it seemed that nothing could surprise them, accustomed to all kinds of "sensations" and "revelations" during perestroika. Such a success was not an accident, because the reader did not receive a novel about spies written by another scribe, but in all its tangible reality the life of an intelligent, versatile talented and fearless person who demonstrated steel will, amazing endurance and resilience in all the most difficult and dangerous situations ... So for the first time, a large number of people in our country became aware of some facts from the life and activities of the outstanding illegal intelligence officer Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov - a man of truly extraordinary and at the same time tragic fate. Count Dmitry Bystroletov for five days was born on January 4, 1901 in the Crimea, in the town of Achkor. He was the illegitimate son of a senior official of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Empire, Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy, a direct descendant of the famous associate of Emperor Peter the Great. (Officially, Dmitry Bystroletov became count only on November 2, 1917 - five days before the October Revolution, shortly after which all titles in Russia were abolished by a special decree of the Council of People's Commissars.) rarely seen in childhood. From 1904 to 1914 he lived in St. Petersburg with good friends of his father - in the aristocratic family of the Countess de Corval, where he received an excellent education and upbringing at home. In 1915-1917 Dmitry Bystroletov studied at the Sevastopol Naval Cadet Corps, as part of the Second Fleet Crew of the Black Sea Fleet, he took part in landing operations against Turkey. In 1918, he entered the graduation classes of the Anapa gymnasium and the Anapa nautical school at the same time, but soon, against his will, he was enrolled as a volunteer sailor in the fleet of the White Volunteer Army: he sailed on the ships "Rion" and "Constantine", on the latter in 1919 he was taken to Turkey. Abroad Dmitry served as a sailor on ships of various shipping companies. In 1920 he returned to Russia, bringing the crew of the sailing ship "Sergiy" to one of the Soviet ports. In 1921, Bystroletov illegally left Russia and again found himself in Turkey. He graduated with honors from the college for European Christians in Constantinople, from where he went to continue his studies in Czechoslovakia. Such life throws of a young man in that extremely unstable and troubled time were in the order of things. Like many people who did not want to be either red or white, caught between two fires, Dmitry Bystroletov tried to find his place in life. Holy Duty In 1923, while in Czechoslovakia, where he studied at the Russian faculty of the University of Prague, Dmitry took Soviet citizenship, since he did not want to be outside his homeland. Soon after this event, he began to work in the Union of Students - Citizens of the USSR, where he quickly showed his intellectual abilities and organizational qualities. After a while, the legal resident of Soviet intelligence in Czechoslovakia offers Bystroletov to carry out several assignments related to technical and economic intelligence. He copes well with them. It should be noted that Dmitry Alexandrovich never worked against the Russian emigration and the white monarchist movement, as he was well known in these circles and never hid his views. In April 1925 Dmitry Bystroletov arrived in Moscow for the First All-Union Conference of Proletarian Students, where he delivered a welcoming speech on behalf of the Union of Students - Citizens of the USSR. It was on these days that an event occurred that determined his entire future fate - a detailed conversation with one of the leaders Soviet counterintelligence Artur Khristianovich Artuzov. Artuzov convinced Bystroletov that in the conditions of the brewing war and growing fascism, his sacred duty is to help the Motherland. So, not being a communist, having his own special view of October 1917, Dmitry Aleksandrovich became an employee of Soviet foreign intelligence, in whose ranks he served for 13 years. Hunter for ciphers Upon his return to Prague, Bystroletov was hired by the Soviet trade mission in Czechoslovakia, where in five years he rose from a registrar to the head of the information department. Conducted economic work, wrote articles for the Czechoslovak and Soviet special editions, edited and published the official bulletin of the trade mission. Work in the trade mission became a legal cover for his main activity - technical, economic and political intelligence. So, in 1927, Bystroletov successfully carried out the "development" of an employee of the French Embassy, ​​who had direct access to the correspondence and codes of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a result of which, in 1928, reports and codes of the French ambassador to Czechoslovakia were received from her. In 1928, Bystroletov graduated from the University of Prague and received a doctorate in law with a degree in law and economics of the world oil trade. In February 1930, he became an illegal intelligence officer. Dmitry Alexandrovich was instructed to lead a special group of scouts-recruiters of six people, who were faced with the task of carrying out technical, economic, military and political intelligence in various countries of the world. By the way, the group included Bystroletov's wife - Czech Milena Shelmatova, who more than once had to carry out the most important tasks. The first assignment was not easy: Bystroletov was to recruit a responsible officer of the Foreign Office (British Foreign Office), who was engaged in nothing more than compiling ciphers for British diplomats. Bystroletov, posing as a Hungarian count, coped with the task brilliantly. The agent recruited by him for three years uninterruptedly supplied the Soviet intelligence with ciphers and codes of the British Foreign Ministry, regularly obtained weekly collections of cipher telegrams from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other top secret documents and materials. On November 17, 1932, Dmitry Bystroletov was awarded a personalized weapon for exemplary fulfillment of the assignment of the leadership of Soviet intelligence. In 1933, the recruited English cryptographer was fired from the Foreign Office, and soon died under mysterious circumstances. In just a year Bystroletov managed to find a "key" to another responsible official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from whom further valuable information was also received. Risky work In 1931, without interrupting his intelligence activity, Bystroletov entered the medical faculty of the University of Zurich using someone else's passport and in 1935 received a doctorate in medicine. For some time he works as a doctor in one of the Swiss clinics, makes an important scientific discovery about the possibility of regulating the sex of the unborn baby, writes about this scientific work , which was subsequently published and received recognition in European medical circles. Along the way, Bystroletov, who has a pronounced artistic ability, studies at the Berlin and Paris academies of arts, takes lessons from famous graphic artists. However, the main concern of Dmitry Alexandrovich remains the dangerous work of the head of a group of scouts and recruiters, whose members constantly moved from one country to another. Often, Bystroletov and his comrades had to literally be torn between Berlin and London, New York and Zurich. They had no permanent place of residence, no family in the generally accepted sense of the word, no friends and relatives. Mortal danger lay in wait for them at every step, and day and night they were in constant tension. Bystroletov repeatedly recalled the words of Artur Khristianovich Artuzov, said at the first meeting: “The most risky of all is the work of a recruiter: he said the wrong thing, turned around the wrong way - for everything, immediate retribution! A dog's life, you know: in the evening you don’t know if you’ll stay until the morning, and in the morning you don’t know if you’ll make it to your bed. ” The complexity of the situation in which Dmitry Bystroletov worked is evidenced by a letter from the resident of Soviet foreign intelligence to the Center dated July 6, 1933: “It is possible that Andrei (Bystroletov's pseudonym) could be eliminated by the enemy, nevertheless I did not give a directive about his immediate departure ... Leaving now means losing the source, and with its significance it is equal to weakening our defense and strengthening the work of the enemy. " The answer from the Center, dated August 4 of the same year: "Please convey to Andrey that we are fully aware of the dedication, discipline, resourcefulness and courage shown by him in extremely difficult and dangerous conditions." At home among strangers ... Performing tasks one more difficult than the other, Bystroletov turned into a real "hunter for ciphers." What helped him in this dangerous business, where the slightest mistake threatened with death? Firstly, Dmitry Alexandrovich possessed an amazing gift of reincarnation - not only external, but also internal. Moreover, he never repeated himself, each time appearing in a new guise: either an arrogant English lord or a cheerful good-natured Hungarian count, or a Canadian engineer living in a world of complex calculations or a successful Dutch businessman, or a ruthless hired killer from Singapore ... Bystroletov was "his own" even among Tuareg in the Sahara Desert, where he had to hide after a high-profile operation in Europe, or among the pygmies in the wilds of Equatorial Africa. Well, in an aristocratic society, among financial and industrial aces or bohemians, surrounded by artists and artists, he felt like a fish in water. Bystroletov was so accustomed to his role that it sometimes came to the point of ridiculousness. In his memoirs, such a curious case is given. After three years of illegal work abroad, Dmitry Alexandrovich was allowed to stay with his mother for a week in Crimea, in Anapa. And at that time Bystroletov posed as a large Brazilian merchant and, when his mother complained about the hot weather, literally exploded: “Incredibly hot ?! Eh, mom! You would have lived in my homeland, in Brazil, - then you would have learned what real heat is! " And only when he saw the frightened, not understanding mother's eyes, he caught himself and blamed everything on a "bad joke." Secondly, Bystroletov, possessing a rare charm, easily achieved the necessary degree of trust in communication with any person. In this he was helped by an excellent knowledge of foreign languages: he spoke excellently in English, German, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Greek, Turkish , Chinese and Japanese. Once the British Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon, having met with Bystroletov several times at official ceremonies, gave him a British diplomatic passport with his own hand. The experienced diplomat and himself in the past as a career intelligence officer did not even for a moment doubt that he saw in front of him the son of an English lord living in Canada, an aristocrat at least in the seventh generation. Thirdly, Bystroletov never treated those whom he recruited only as sources of information that could be persuaded to cooperate. He always tried to understand what motivates a person who agrees to cooperate or offers his services to a foreign intelligence officer. It is no coincidence that many of Bystroletov's informants worked with Soviet intelligence exclusively "for the idea", which was especially important in the face of the impending danger of fascism. In particular, it was Bystroletov who established contact with Kim Philby, who later became the leader of the legendary "Cambridge Five" - ​​an extremely effective reconnaissance group consisting of English aristocrats. A stranger among his own ... Years of tense, full of dangers work of an illegal intelligence officer did not pass without leaving a trace. At the end of December 1936, Dmitry Bystroletov sent a letter to the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, which, in particular, said the following: “... I am tired, unwell and I cannot continue working without serious rest. I feel from day to day a growing lack of strength, naturally lowering the quality of work, causing sloppiness in technology ... In my hands is a matter of great importance and the fate of several people. Meanwhile ... fatigue and periods of depression put pressure on me, I work only with nerves and willpower. Without the slightest joy about success, with a constant thought: it would be good to lie down in the evening and not get up in the morning. I have been abroad for 17 years, of which 11 years in our work, six years underground. " The leadership of foreign intelligence went to meet Dmitry Bystroletov: two months later he was recalled to Moscow, where for the first time in many years he could feel not an illegal, escaping surveillance and constantly awaiting arrest, but just a person. Finally, he took up his favorite thing - painting. When the venerable Moscow artists got acquainted with the paintings of Bystroletov, he was unanimously accepted as a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. It was even decided to hold his first solo exhibition. Everything went well in the service. Bystroletov was awarded the gratitude of the leadership for successfully writing two chapters - "Conspiracy" and "Legalization" - for the first textbook in the USSR for the school of intelligence officers. In January 1937, the leadership of foreign intelligence decided to certify Bystroletov in order to present him to the rank of senior lieutenant of state security (corresponding to the military rank of major) and to become a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Soon all Required documents were ready, and Bystroletov was introduced to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissar of the State Security Committee of the USSR Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov. The People's Commissar approved the presentation and, showing a special disposition to the scout, hugged him tightly and kissed him three times. However, a year later, the certification was suspended, and by order of February 25, 1938, Dmitry Bystroletov was dismissed from foreign intelligence to reduce staff. He was transferred to work at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce as head of the translation bureau. On November 18, 1938, on the absurd denunciation that he, "being a Socialist-Revolutionary and White Guard, conducted espionage activities against the USSR", Bystroletov was arrested and shared the tragic fate of tens of thousands of Soviet people, among whom many prominent intelligence officers became victims of illegal repression. By the verdict of the so-called troika, Dmitry Alexandrovich was sentenced to 20 years in camps and five years of exile, of which he spent 16 years in prison - from 1938 to 1954. Rehabilitation Dmitry Bystroletov could have been released earlier: in 1947 he was taken from the notorious Siblag to Moscow, where the USSR Minister of State Security Viktor Semenovich Abakumov himself suggested that the prisoner stop "resting" and immediately, today, continue working in foreign intelligence. In response, Bystroletov demanded that the almighty Minister of the MGB review his case and complete rehabilitation - only on such conditions did he agree to become an illegal intelligence officer again. This conversation cost Bystroletov dearly: he was again sent to the camp, from where he was released early for health reasons only seven years later, in 1954, as a semi-paralyzed and seriously ill person. After rehabilitation in 1956 "due to lack of corpus delicti" Dmitry Bystroletov received a civil disability pension and housing in Moscow - a ten-meter room in a communal apartment, in a house on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, near the Universitet metro station. There he began to live with his second wife, with whom tragic fate brought him to the camps. Bystroletov was hired by the All-Union Research Institute of Medical and Medical-Technical Information of the USSR Ministry of Health as a scientific consultant. Fluent in twenty languages ​​and a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Zurich, he was involved in review editing of abstracts and translation of articles from more than two thousand foreign medical journals. In addition, Dmitry Alexandrovich advised other translators. Bystroletov's efficiency was simply amazing - none of the younger colleagues could compete with him. On average, he checked the translations of more than 50,000 materials per year and translated over 2,000 articles himself. And in this mode he worked for almost 20 years, until his death at the age of 74! Everyone who knew Dmitry Alexandrovich at that time was struck by his memory - fresh and constantly ready for work. For example, once in one company a conversation about Esperanto came up, and, being in old age, Bystroletov immediately sang "Internationale" in this artificial language without hesitation! Recall everything ... Dmitry Bystroletov devoted all his free time to writing memoirs about his stormy and tragic life. The idea to create a book of memoirs came to him back in 1939, when he found himself in the polar Norilsk, in a general regime forced labor camp. A twenty-year prisoner, he began to write about things that at that time could not even be talked about. The specific skills of an illegal scout were very useful to the novice memoirist both when searching for paper and ink, and during numerous searches and inspections. And even under these conditions, he acquainted his comrades in misfortune with his work; moreover, the freed were carrying the manuscripts out, knowing full well that this threatened them with another ten years in the camps! Having become a free man, Bystroletov, despite the changed external circumstances, still worked hard on his work. The main thing in his narration is not the life of the author, as one might suppose, but events, people and their behavior in extreme situations. Moreover, the author tells not about fictional characters, but about real people and how these people, depending on their profession and mentality, on their belonging to a particular social stratum, seek and find a way out of critical situations. In parallel, Bystroletov gives his own solution to a similar problem. A kind of psychological analysis of life situations and the behavior of different people in them, including the author of memoirs, is carried out. Appeal to descendants Wishing that the first readers of his memoirs were contemporaries, Bystroletov at the same time perfectly understood that the publication of memoirs during his lifetime is impossible. Former illegal scout worked for posterity! So how can you preserve what you have written after your death? At the beginning of his creative career, Bystroletov chose a title common to all his books - "The Feast of the Immortals." He gave each of the sixteen parts its own name, each had a dedication and was framed as a separate, independent work. Thus, Bystroletov believed, if one or even several books are lost, the rest will tell a lot. At large, Bystroletov did not use homemade notebooks, as he did in the camp - the manuscripts were printed in several copies at once and intertwined. He gave some books to read to friends and colleagues, knowing full well that he was at risk. The time was like this: if at least one part of the memories fell into the wrong hands, Bystroletov would be accused of anything - from samizdat to the disclosure of state secrets. (By the way, while remaining a scout to the end, Dmitry Alexandrovich did not name a single real name in his memoirs, did not specify a single place specifically where these or those events described by him took place.) In 1966, Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov decided to transfer all his books for long-term storage in the department of manuscripts of the State Library named after Saltykov-Shchedrin in Leningrad, where they waited in the wings in the notorious special storage. There is no prophet in his own country? Being a man of a keen analytical mind, Dmitry Bystroletov, along with writing a monumental memoir, pondered a lot and intensely about the past and future of his homeland. In particular, he, who once visited many countries of the world, was very worried about the state of affairs with the so-called national question in the Soviet Union. Having studied a lot of different open information, Bystroletov comes to the conclusion that “for a country in which one and a half hundred nationalities live, the issue of national policy is of paramount importance. In case of a mistake in this area, the growth of local nationalism and the collapse of the union state are inevitable: conditions may be created under which it will be impossible to restrain centrifugal forces from Moscow. " For today's reader of these lines, the thoughts and considerations expressed in them do not contain any fundamental novelty: everyone remembers the events that followed August and December 1991, when the once mighty Soviet Union ceased to exist in a matter of days. But Dmitry Alexandrovich wrote about it, or rather, predicted it as a result of his analytical reflections back in 1965! In demand again In 1968, Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov was again in demand by Soviet foreign intelligence (then the Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR): an old illegal intelligence officer was asked to tell about his life. Bystroletov wrote one hundred pages of his biography. Then he was asked to think about the script for a feature film dedicated to scouts - in a year he wrote a literary script for a three-part film (later converted into a one-part film), in which he left evidence of some of his exploits in a veiled form, attributing them to a fictional film hero. In November 1973, in Moscow, at the Khudozhestvenny cinema, the premiere of the film Man in civilian clothes took place, in which Bystroletov played one of the episodic roles. In addition, he was the author of the script and was directly involved in the filming. Dmitry Alexandrovich was provided with a two-room apartment and funds were allocated for its furnishings. He refused the KGB pension. So, thanks to the interest shown in his military past and caring for him as an honored veteran, Bystroletov again felt his involvement in intelligence. The duty of a patriot on October 28, 1968, as if summing up his life, full of incredible adventures and genuine tragedy, Bystroletov wrote: “The best years of my life are connected with work in intelligence. I am proud of them ... I am glad that I returned to the USSR to perish. Consciously returned, fulfilling the duty of a patriot ... I believe that I have lived a good life, and I am ready to live it this way again. " Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov died on May 3, 1975, at the age of 74 and was buried in Moscow, at the Khovanskoye cemetery. Those who saw him before his burial recalled his face. Refined by all possible winds and storms of the 20th century, it was the same as during life - expressive and sculptural. Dmitry Bystroletov, who gave the best years of his life to Soviet foreign intelligence, was not a member of the Bolshevik Party, did not have a single state award or even a military rank. All his life he was a "man in civilian clothes" who worked in the name and for the good of his homeland.

Photo archive

Sources of

The works of D.A. Bystroletova:

1. Bystroletov, D. A. In old Africa: [story] / D. A. Bystroletov. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1976 .-- 300 p.

2. Bystroletov, D. A. Feast of the immortals / D. A. Bystroletov; [entry Art. S. Milashov]. - M.: Granitsa, 1993 .-- 366 p.

3. Bystroletov, D. A. Feast of the immortals. Journey to the End of the Night / D. A. Bystroletov; [artist. B. M. Kosulnikov]. - M.: [b. and.], 1991. - 96 p. - (B-chka "Border Guard").

4. Bystroletov, DA Feast of the immortals. Humanity / D. A. Bystroletov; publ. S. S. Milashova. - M.: [b. and.]., 1991. - 97 p. : ill.

5. Bystroletov, D. A. Journey to the End of the Night / D. A. Bystroletov; [comp., ed. foreword and comments. S. S. Milashov]. - M.: Sovremennik, 1996 .-- 588 p.

D.A. Bystroletov in periodicals and continuing publications:

1. Bystroletov, D. A. From the unwritten in 1939: [memoirs of the former prisoner. Norillaga] / D. A. Bystroletov Zapolyar. truth. - 1989 .-- 8 nov. 2. Bystroletov, D. A. Journey to the end of the night: a novel / D. A. Bystroletov Roman gas. - 2000. - No. 13. - S. 1-64.

3. Bystroletov, D. A. Humanity: a novel / D. A. Bystroletov // Roman-gas. - 2001. - No. 23. - S. 1-80.

About the life and work of D.A. Bystroletova:

1. Bystoletov Dmitry Alexandrovich: [biography] // Roman-gas. - 2000. - No. 13. - 2nd p. region

2. Bystroletov Dmitry Alexandrovich: [biography] // Roman-gas. - 2001. - No. 23. - 2nd p. region

3. Vachaeva, V. The end of an adventure novel: [about the love of a prisoner of Norillag, a former intelligence officer D. Bystroletov and a Czech woman Iolanta] / V. Vachaeva // Polar. vestn. - 2008 .-- Feb 14.

4. Vachaeva, V. The fate of Midshipmen: [about the writer, intelligence officer D. Bystroletov] / V. Vachaeva // Polar. vestn. - 1999 .-- May 22.

Dmitry Alexandrovich Bystroletov

Bystroletov (Tolstoy) Dmitry Alexandrovich (1901-1975). Soviet intelligence agent, writer, journalist, screenwriter, artist, photographer. Was born in the Crimea in the town of Achkora. The son of Count Alexander Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Klavdia Dmitrievna Bystroletova. In 1904-1914. lived in St. Petersburg, in the family of the Countess de Corval, where he received a home education and upbringing. In 1915-1917. studied in Sevastopol at the Naval Cadet Corps. Member of the First World War in the Turkish theater of military operations. In 1919 he deserted from Denikin's army and fled to Turkey. He graduated cum laude from the college for European Christians in Constantinople. In Czechoslovakia he entered the university.

In 1923 he received Soviet citizenship in Prague. Worked at the USSR Trade Mission. Since 1925 - a staff member of foreign intelligence, in 1930-1937. - illegal. Continuing his education, he became a doctor of law at the University of Prague, a doctor of medicine at the University of Zurich, studied at the Berlin and Paris academies of arts, studied twenty foreign languages. Traveled many states in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. He lived among the Tuaregs in the Sahara Desert, among the pygmies in Equatorial Africa, among the aristocrats of England, France and Italy, industrialists and bankers in Germany, America and Holland.

Bystroletov belonged to the "elite squadron" of Soviet intelligence, was one of the best employees of the INO OGPUK-GUGB-NKVD of the USSR, engaged in economic, military and political intelligence. A master of reincarnation, he managed to penetrate the secrets of the British Foreign Office, to obtain ciphers and codes of Austria, Germany, Italy, France and other states. He recruited a number of agents in Italy, France, Czechoslovakia and England.

In 1937 he came to the USSR, in the same year he became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. In September 1938 he was arrested. Charged under Article 58, paragraphs 6, 7, 8 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. Further - according to the "Stalinist voucher" - the full program of the GULAG: in polar Norilsk, in Kraslag, in Siblag, in a solitary confinement cell at the Sukhanovka special facility, in the Soviet penal servitude in Ozerlag and Kamyshlag. Released in 1954 (registered as disabled). Rehabilitated in 1956. The wife (and employee) of Bystroletov Shelmatov Mile-na Iolanta Maria committed suicide after her husband's arrest.

After his release, he lived in Moscow, worked on books, memoirs, scripts. In November 1973, the premiere of the feature film "The Man in Civilian Clothes" based on the script by Bystroletov took place. Buried in Moscow at the Khovanskoye cemetery.

Bystroletov is the author of sixteen books and memoirs, in which he gives his vision of the situation in the country on the eve of World War II, an assessment of the actions of the governing bodies of the Soviet state and Stalin. Some of his forecasts about the development of the situation in the USSR are striking in their insight. So, he writes: “I want to note another mistake of Stalin, and with him Lenin and the party in general. This mistake at one time caused universal approval and made the author (Stalin. - Comp.) A kind of specialist and authority. But time will pass, its disastrous results will become clear and at the right time will cause dire consequences for our state.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Stalin laid a time bomb in the foundation. The ominous rumbling of the clockwork is already being heard by ears that want to hear. Later, under suitable conditions, explosions and disintegration of the building will begin in parts, then fools will see it.

It's about national politics. On the deceptive formula: "National in form, socialist in content."

For a country in which one and a half hundred nationalities live, the issue of national policy is of paramount importance. In case of a mistake in this area, the growth of local nationalism and the collapse of the union state are inevitable: conditions may arise under which it will be impossible to restrain centrifugal forces from Moscow.

In the tsarist passport, the column "nationality" did not exist, the population of the empire got used to it, and when after the revolution they began to introduce the Soviet passport system, there would have been some historical luck, once and for all, delete this damned word from the official terminology. his hand dragged it into the everyday life of Soviet life, moreover, when filling out a passport form, Lenin ostensibly wrote about himself defiantly: “without nationality,” and left the national question at the mercy of his loyal general secretary. This is where the infection came from.

In the famous formula, thanks to Stalin's innumerable mistakes, the socialist principle gradually faded away, and the nationalist principle, fueled by the war, pressure from foreign propaganda and other factors, primarily dissatisfaction with Moscow, grew to a decisive and purposeful value ...

In parallel with the deterioration of living conditions, I see the growth of local anti-Russian nationalism ... In the Caucasus, they snap openly, but the matter has not yet come to direct collective action. In Central Asia, the leg of the Russians is surreptitiously substituted, and they do not dare to openly squabble. In the North, the Yakuts are just beginning to cautiously stabs in the back or "accidentally" squeezing corns. There is nothing to say about the Baltic republics! The process is the same everywhere, but it is at different stages of development.

Nowhere else have national cadres grown enough to replace the Russians, and an open challenge is still a long way off. But this time, unfortunately, will surely come, political and economic miscalculations

Stalin and Khrushchev stir up a thirst for protest and discontent in the minds of national minorities, give anti-Stalinist and anti-Khrushchev feelings an anti-Russian character ... 1996.S. 375-376).

It is interesting that this was written in a prosperous, by Soviet standards, 1965. Indeed, “there are no prophets in their own country.” Bystroletov further writes: “On the basis of anti-scientific principles of labor organization in management and science, as well as on the basis of an extensive economy, in which half of the people's efforts and wealth is wasted, a state was built, everything whose grandiose achievements were bought at the price of irrational squandering of the spiritual and material resources of the people.

The ease of Stalin breaking the democratic screen and its obvious falsification by Khrushchev show that in the structure of the state and the party there is no legal mechanism to guarantee the country from a repetition of Stalin's crimes and Khrushchev's stupidity.

The bureaucratic machine for managing the economy, science and art gave rise to the ideology of neo-Stalinism, that is, the system of feed-shechnism, the fight against which is impossible, because it is a really existing superstructure over a really existing material foundation.

Therefore, the existing way of life in the country and the party every year more and more hinders progress in the field of spiritual culture and economy: the share of the national income and people's efforts going to useful construction is no longer enough to keep up with the world technical and cultural revolution. The country and the neo-Stalinist party are approaching the inevitable "moment of truth", or, more simply, a test of strength and ability to adapt to circumstances "(Ibid. P. 578).

Used materials of the book: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. Around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. Saint Petersburg, 2000