Ordzhonikidze is a legendary personality of the early Soviet era. Version of wife Zinaida Gavrilovna

Paramedic-propagandist

Of the entire “old Lenin cohort,” Ordzhonikidze was the only doctor. Two years of parochial school and four years of paramedic school were his formal education. However, one cannot call him a bad doctor. Sergo worked in full accordance with the Hippocratic oath. Even during his Yakut exile, in the far north, he honestly fulfilled his medical duty. I didn’t forget about propaganda. While still working as a paramedic in Georgia, Ordzhonikidze printed and distributed “recipes” for overthrowing the government.

XIV Party Conference, April 1925. Grigory Ordzhonikidze on the far right

"Direct"

Because of his inflexibility, the gendarmes called Sergo “straight”

As already mentioned, in gendarme reports Ordzhonikidze was called “Direct”. His inflexibility and dedication to ideas can be envied. Sergo escaped from exile; in the Shlisselburg prison, which undermined his health, he independently learned German. One of the most implacable opponents of the monarchy, Ordzhonikidze always got into trouble, fighting the system.

The one who solves problems

If Ordzhonikidze lived in our time, he would be called an effective crisis manager. The party always sent him to the forefront of the class struggle: he participated in the Iranian revolution, was extraordinary commissioner for Ukraine, and led the revolution in the Caucasus. He even dealt with the deportation of Terek Cossacks. Stalin warned his comrade: “Sergo, they will kill you.” They didn’t kill him, although Ordzhonikidze, to put it mildly, did not recognize half measures in his methods. His faith in revolution and communism was unshakable. People could see this, so they followed him.

Conflict with fellow “nationalists”

Ordzhonikidze was one of those who participated in the creation of the Soviet Union. Lenin was afraid of chauvinism and national strife, and therefore was opposed to the formation of a new state under the auspices of Russia. On October 20, 1922, a scandal broke out between Ordzhonikidze and the Georgian leaders. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Kabakhidze insulted Ordzhonikidze, calling him a “Stalinist donkey,” for which he received a slap in the face.

Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze

The conflict had to be resolved by the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Lenin, who was ill in October 1922, could not intervene in the conflict, and Stalin appointed a commission to Georgia headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, who supported Ordzhonikidze and condemned the Georgian “nationalists.” In December 1922, Lenin nevertheless intervened in the Georgian conflict and even proposed expelling Ordzhonikidze from the party for assault, but Lenin was “no longer the same” and the order was not carried out.

Relations with Stalin

Ordzhonikidze and Stalin were on friendly terms

Grigory Ordzhonikidze is one of the few who communicated with Stalin on a first-name basis. They met in 1907 in cell No. 3 of the Bailov prison in Baku. Since then they have been almost friends. This is evidenced by the fact that after the suicide of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, it was Ordzhonikidze, together with Kirov, as closest friends, who spent the night in Stalin’s house. Ordzhonikidze was loyal to Stalin even during the confrontation with old party members. However, their relationship seriously deteriorated in the early 1930s. First, Stalin began a hunt for Ordzhonikidze’s proteges, then Beria, whom Sergo, to put it mildly, disliked, began to claim the first role in the Transcaucasian party organization. The conflict came to a head in 1936, when Grigory Ordzhonikidze’s older brother, Papulia, was arrested. Sergo received news of this in Kislovodsk in 1936, on his fiftieth birthday. Because of the news that caused offense, he did not go to the celebrations organized in his honor.

On the 50th anniversary of Joseph Stalin, December 21, 1929. G. K. Ordzhonikidze third from left

Mikoyan recalled how, a few days before his death, Ordzhonikidze shared his worries with him: “I don’t understand why Stalin doesn’t trust me. I am absolutely faithful to him, I don’t want to fight with him, I want to support him, but he doesn’t trust me. Here the intrigues of Beria play a big role, he gives Stalin the wrong information, but Stalin believes him.” An interesting fact: after the war, Stalin was given for approval a list of prominent party figures in whose honor it was planned to erect monuments in Moscow. The leader crossed out only one name from the entire list - Ordzhonikidze.

"Heavy Industry Commander"

Ordzhonikidze was the strongest organizer. He was called the commander of heavy industry. Grigory Ordzhonikidze quickly raised the industry of the Soviet Union, fought against bureaucracy, and stood at the head of “great construction projects.” In terms of gross industrial output, the USSR already in 1932 took second place in the world and first place in Europe. From fifteenth place in the world and from seventh in Europe in terms of electricity, the USSR in 1935 moved to third and second place, respectively. Ordzhonikidze did everything possible to ensure that the country stopped purchasing tractors and other equipment abroad. People who proudly utter the words that Stalin took the country with a plow and left it with atomic weapons should remember that great credit for this belongs to Grigory Ordzhonikidze.

Ordzhonikidze with Kirov at the Leningrad plant

Death

The official version of Ordzhonikidze’s death, voiced by Stalin: “The heart could not stand it.” According to this version, Ordzhonikidze suddenly died of cardiac paralysis during an afternoon nap. This version is confused by two facts: firstly, soon everyone who signed this statement was shot, and secondly, Ordzhonikidze’s wife told how Stalin, leaving the deceased’s apartment, rudely warned her: “Not a word to anyone about the details of Sergo’s death, nothing but an official message, you know me...” In addition to the official version, there are three more: poisoning, murder, suicide.

All versions have the right to exist, but none has yet been recognized. Ordzhonikidze’s body was cremated, so it is impossible to conduct an autopsy, which means we will never know the exact information.

Sergo Ordzhonikidze
(short biography)

Ordzhonikidze, party nickname - Sergo, real name - Grigory Konstantinovich (October 12 (24), 1886, village of Goresha, Kutaisi province - February 18, 1937, Moscow) - Georgian Bolshevik, organizer of the ruthless Russian genocide Terek Cossacks in years Civil War. A close friend of Stalin, Ordzhonikidze, with his support, was first put in charge of the Soviet Transcaucasia, and then (1926) transferred to Moscow. Since 1930 "Sergo" was introduced into Politburo Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1932, the semi-educated paramedic Ordzhonikidze was appointed to direct the development of Soviet heavy industry, which was then created through the bloody “collectivization” robbery of the village. Soon Stalin intensified the persecution of the old Bolshevik guard, dangerous to his autocracy. Ordzhonikidze, who belonged to it, felt personal danger in this, began to express dissatisfaction with the Great Terror - and in February 1937 he unexpectedly died under vague circumstances. His relatives and employees were arrested and repressed.

Grigory Ordzhonikidze at the X Party Congress, 1921

Biography of Ordzhonikidze before 1917

Grigory Ordzhonikidze was born in Western Georgia, into a family of minor local nobles. His education was limited to a two-year school in the village of Kharagauli and a paramedic school at the Mikhailovsky Hospital in Tiflis (where he studied in 1901-1905).

Since 1903, Ordzhonikidze began to participate in revolutionary activities. In 1904 he was briefly arrested for possession of illegal literature, and in December 1905, at the height of first Russian revolution, – for transporting weapons from abroad. On the latter charge, Ordzhonikidze was released on bail five months later, and he left for Germany using a false passport.

At the beginning of 1907, Ordzhonikidze returned to the Caucasus and settled in Baku. There he worked as a paramedic in the oil fields and carried out his work as a Bolshevik. Historians are inclined to believe that Ordzhonikidze participated in the murder (1907) of Prince Ilya Chavchavadze, famous Georgian poet and thinker. Also in 1907, he was arrested during the May Day demonstration and spent 26 days in prison under the pseudonym “Kuchishvili.” In November 1907, Grigory Ordzhonikidze was again arrested on charges of banditry and spent 18 months in prisons in Baku and Sukhum. In the Baku Bailov prison, Ordzhonikidze met the revolutionary “Koba” - Joseph Dzhugashvili, the future Stalin. A rather weak-willed man, “Sergo” soon fell under the strong influence of this older comrade of his.

In February 1909, Ordzhonikidze was exiled to the Yenisei province, but in August he escaped from exile, returned to Baku, and then left for Persia. He took part in the revolution that was taking place there at that time and lived in Tehran. At the end of 1910, “Sergo” went to Paris and in the spring of 1911 he studied at the Leninist party school in Longjumeau.

In the summer of 1911, Ordzhonikidze was sent by Lenin to Russia to organize the All-Russian Party Conference. This VI Conference of the RSDLP took place in January 1912 in Prague. Ordzhonikidze was its delegate and was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). At the same conference, Stalin was also co-opted into the Central Committee.

On April 14, 1912, Ordzhonikidze was arrested in St. Petersburg. After serving three years in the Shlisselburg fortress, he was exiled to Yakutsk, where he worked as a doctor.

After February Revolution, in June 1917 Ordzhonikidze returned from Siberia to Petrograd, where he became a member of the local Bolshevik city committee and the Executive Committee Petrograd Soviet.

Ordzhonikidze at the head of the Bolshevik genocide of Russians in the Caucasus

...back at the end of December, the Chechens, with fanatical enthusiasm, attacked their neighbors in large forces. They plundered, ravaged and burned to the ground the rich, flourishing villages, economies and farmsteads of the Khasav-Yurt district, Cossack villages, railway stations: they burned and plundered the city of Grozny and the oil fields. In alliance with the Chechens, the Ingush began to oust the Cossack villages of the Sunzhenskaya line [the majority of the male population of which were at the front], for which, back in November, they first set fire to all sides and destroyed the village of Feldmarshalskaya...

The Bolsheviks immediately approved the actions of the highlanders. A member of the local regional committee of the RCP (b), S. Kavtaradze, said that in the North Caucasus “the national struggle almost coincides with the class struggle,” and the policy of the Soviet government “should be based on the Ingush and Chechens.” Caucasian communists began to call Russians “landlord people,” adopting this definition from the Chechen chauvinist Aslambek Sheripov. The local Bolsheviks were led by Samuil Buachidze, Ordzhonikidze’s fellow countryman and friend from elementary school, who began his revolutionary activities in 1905 with the robbery of the Kvirilsky treasury. Ordzhonikidze also began to play a prominent role on the red Terek.

On December 26, 1917, the Terek ataman Karaulov was killed. The Bolsheviks disarmed entire Cossack villages. Disarmaments were followed by “requisitions” of land, property and mass evictions. In May 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the Terek Soviet Republic decided to evict Russian Cossacks from the villages of the Sunzhenskaya Line and transfer the “vacated” lands to the Ingush. In August, the Bolsheviks organized an invasion of Ingush militants into the villages of Aki-Yurtovskaya, Sunzhenskaya, Tarskaya and Tarskie farms. During the eviction, property worth 120 million gold rubles was taken from the Cossacks. The main inspirer and initiator of this action were Ordzhonikidze and the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the red government in Vladikavkaz, the Jew Yakov Figatner. After the transfer of one part of the Cossack lands to the Ingush, the Terek Council of People's Commissars, at the suggestion of Grigory Ordzhonikidze, addressed an inflammatory appeal to the Ossetians:

A whole series of Cossack villages are wedged into Ossetia. And if the Cossacks do not agree voluntarily and according to the resolution of the Pyatigorsk Congress to cede what belongs to you by right of revolution land, then with arms in hand, like the Ingush brothers, invite the villages who have settled on our native land to disarm and move out.

The Bolsheviks were unable to immediately implement this plan. The Cossacks, led by ataman Gerasim Vdovenko, collected their remaining weapons and began to resist. At the beginning of 1919, white troops from the Kuban - the corps of General Lyakhov - came to their aid. However, at the end of the Civil War, the Terek Cossack army was completely destroyed: the Cossacks were disarmed, subjected to new evictions, and their lands were transferred to the Chechens and Ingush. Ordzhonikidze, who was leaving for a time as a commissar in Ukraine, reappeared in 1920 on the Terek as the head of the Caucasian Bureau of the RCP (Caucasian Bureau). He pointed out to the head of the Terek Revolutionary Committee V. Kvirkelia:

The Politburo of the Central Committee approved the resolution of the Caucasian Bureau on allocating land to the highlanders, without stopping at the eviction of the villages.

The first to be forcibly removed again in the spring of 1920 were three long-suffering Cossack villages: Aki-Yurtovskaya, Tarskaya and Sunzhenskaya. These lands were occupied by the Ingush. The Cossack resistance was brutally suppressed. Ordzhonikidze prescribed:

If even one Cossack in one village rises up against Soviet power, the entire village will be held accountable: even to the point of execution, to extermination.

One of the official documents of that period reads:

Member of the RVS Kavfront comrade. Ordzhonikidze ordered: first, to burn the village of Kalinovskaya; the second - the villages of Ermolovskaya, Zakan-Yurtovskaya, Samashkinskaya, Mikhailovskaya - should always be given to the mountainous Chechens by former subjects of Soviet power. Why should the entire male population of the above-mentioned villages from 18 to 50 years old be loaded into trains and sent under escort to the North for hard forced labor? Elderly people, women and children should be evicted from the villages, allowing them to move to farmsteads and villages in the North. Commandtroops of the Nadterechnaya line to the food supply department Skudra to appoint a commission chaired by the command staff of the group of forces comrade. Gegechkori, consisting of two members, at its discretion, which: evict the entire population.

The direct leadership of this punitive expedition was carried out by Commissioner Kimen. According to the commander of the Labor Army Joseph Kosiora, “9,000 families were subject to eviction, a significant part of the Cossacks were sent to forced labor in the mines of the Donetsk basin.” Chechen and Ingush leaders demanded the wholesale eviction of Russians from the territory of the Mountain Republic. Lenin personally approved the Cossack genocide. Ordzhonikidze, who led them, proclaimed:

We definitely decided to evict 18 villages with a population of 60 thousand on the other side of the Terek...

and then reported:

...The villages of Sunzhenskaya, Tarskaya, Feldmarshalskaya, Romanovskaya, Ermolovskaya and others were liberated from the Cossacks and handed over to the highlanders - the Ingush and Chechens.

The magazine “Young Guard” (No. 3, 1993) describes an episode of the eviction of these 60 thousand Cossacks, mostly women, old people and children, on April 17, 1921, by decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, headed by Grigory “Sergo” Ordzhonikidze. The eviction was completed in one day! At the same time, 35 thousand people were killed on the way to the railway station. According to the memoirs of a witness to this eviction, a Terek Cossack woman, published in 1990 in the magazine “Don”,

Our village was divided into three categories. [First –] “Whites” - the male sex was shot, and the women and children were scattered wherever and how they could escape. The second category - “reds” - were evicted, but not touched. And the third is “communists”. Those included in the first category were not given anything to anyone; the “reds” were given one cart per family, on which they could take whatever they wanted. And the “communists” had the right to take away all movable property. The courtyards of the entire village went to the Chechens and Ingush, who fought among themselves for our property.

Twenty thousand Chechens moved to the territory that previously belonged to the Cossacks, receiving 98 thousand acres of land at their disposal. The communist leaders initially thought of giving wide borders to the “Mountain Republic” formed by the Bolsheviks in the North Caucasus (see map). The Orthodox clergy in the early 1920s were subjected to severe repressions (widespread confiscation of valuables from churches, clergy processes with death sentences). But the founding congress of the Mountain Soviet Republic in April 1921 adopted a resolution “On the introduction of Sharia legal proceedings in the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” - and it was introduced on its territory, existing there until 1927. The Mountain Republic then had a flag with Muslim symbols.

Mountain Republic Project

Unlike evictions of Ingush and Chechens by Stalin in 1944, the no less bloody Bolshevik genocide of the Terek Cossacks has not received wide coverage in modern historical literature. The liberal public prefers not to remember either him himself or the scale of participation in him by those local peoples who, a quarter of a century later, themselves found themselves evicted. And if the Caucasian nationalities were returned to their homeland Khrushchev and received “in compensation” for their short expulsion of territories from neighboring Russian regions, then no one was ever going to make amends for the historical guilt before the Terek, Kuban and Don Cossacks.

Ordzhonikidze played an important role in including the territory of the entire Transcaucasus into the emerging USSR. Following the Bolshevik seizure of Azerbaijan (April 1920) and Armenia (November 1920), Ordzhonikidze led them invasion of Georgia(February-March 1921), which was transformed into a socialist republic. He himself considered it best to make Georgia not a union republic, but an autonomy within the RSFSR, and for this reason he became the main figure in the “ Georgian case" 1922. Sergo's harsh treatment of Georgian communists angered Lenin, who proposed expelling him from the Communist Party. During the same period, Ordzhonikidze helped Mirza Kuchek Khan establish a short-lived Gilan Soviet Socialist Republic in the north of Iran, which was also supposed to be brought into closer contact with Soviet Russia.

In March 1922, an agreement was signed on the unification of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan into Transcaucasian Federation(existed until 1937). In 1922-1926, Ordzhonikidze served as first secretary of the Transcaucasian regional party committee, that is, he was the supreme Bolshevik governor of the entire Transcaucasus.

Mikoyan, Stalin, Ordzhonikidze. Tbilisi, 1925

In November 1926, elevated after the victory over Trotsky and Zinoviev - Kamenev Stalin transferred his old friend Sergo from the Caucasus to Moscow. For four years (1926-1930) Ordzhonikidze headed the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate and the Central Control Commission of the party. In 1926, he became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (non-voting member), but in the same year he lost this title - apparently due to the continued instability of Stalin’s position at the top of Soviet Olympus. However, in 1930 “Sergo” became a full member of the Politburo.

In November 1930 Ordzhonikidze was appointed chairman Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR, and on January 5, 1932 he was “transferred” from this position to the post of People’s Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR. This provision was very important, since the second five-year plan gave the development of heavy industry absolute priority. It is difficult to imagine how a person who had only two grades of primary school and a paramedic school could work in these difficult positions. Historian Robert Conquest believes that Ordzhonikidze, who was professionally unprepared to lead industry, was completely dependent on the technical skills and knowledge of his deputy, Georgy Pyatakov. Sergo himself, apparently, was in his ministerial position only an overseer and “whip” of Stalin.

Researchers differ on the question of the degree of personal devotion of Sergo to Stalin. Ordzhonikidze really did not like the repressions that his friend Joseph, the further, the more he deployed against the “old guard” of the Bolsheviks. Sergo also belonged to this guard. It is said that in 1932 he, along with some other members of the Politburo, opposed the harsh persecution of those who put forward the so-called " Ryutin platform", and this already led to a conflict with Stalin.

Leaving Transcaucasia, Ordzhonikidze filled most of the leadership positions there with his personal nominees. In the early 1930s. Stalin, who did not tolerate any competition, removed most of them, and this caused new clashes between him and “Sergo”. Ordzhonikidze considered Lavrentiy Beria, who was now promoted to the first role in Transcaucasia, to be a rogue and a dangerous intriguer. Based on rumors about “Sergo’s” opposition to Stalin, many publications portray him as almost a liberal and a democrat. However, we must not forget: the reason for this opposition was purely personal interests. Ordzhonikidze, who had previously not at all condemned either the genocide of the Cossacks, or the defeat of peasant Russia during collectivization, or the enslavement of the working class on industrial construction sites of the first five-year plans, now only wanted to defend against the excessive “absolutism” of the privilege of the highest communist elite, of which he himself was a member.

Speech by Ordzhonikidze, 1936

Documentary facts that have been discovered recently suggest that the degree of even such Ordzhonikidze’s resistance to Stalin was previously exaggerated. Previously, historian Roy Medvedev argued that Ordzhonikidze quite actively advocated against Great Terror 1936-1938, which was accompanied by the arrest of “Sergo’s” deputy, Pyatakov. However, now another historian, Oleg Khlevnyuk, reports that in the Soviet archives there is no evidence of Ordzhonikidze’s opposition to the public Moscow trials of “enemies of the people,” including the conviction of Pyatakov. According to the archives, Ordzhonikidze, on the contrary, personally interrogated Pyatakov and pretended to believe in his “crimes.”

On trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev the defendants “confessed” to attempts on the life of not only Stalin, but also Ordzhonikidze. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia at one time even claimed that enemy intrigues greatly shortened Sergo’s life.

Death of Ordzhonikidze

There is information that in November 1936 “Sergo” suffered a heart attack.

Ordzhonikidze died on the night of February 17-18, 1937. In the obituary published by Pravda and signed by three doctors, as well as the People's Commissar of Health Grigory Kaminsky, the cause of death was called “heart paralysis.” Robert Conquest claims that this medical report was a lie, and one of the doctors did not want to sign it.

Another version: that Ordzhonikidze committed suicide in despair from the Great Terror - was first mentioned by Khrushchev in a secret report on February 25, 1956. He repeated it in a speech at the 22nd Party Congress (1961). In his memoirs, Khrushchev gives two of his sources for this version: he allegedly told it to him Georgy Malenkov during the war and Anastas Mikoyan after her.

There is also a version that Ordzhonikidze was killed on the orders of Stalin or forced to commit suicide. It spread shortly after World War II. Conquest reports that witnesses saw people running away from Ordzhonikidze's house immediately after his death. There were rumors that “Sergo’s” wife, Zinaida Gavrilovna Pavlutskaya, who was next to her husband at the time of his death, told some people that he had committed suicide, and others that he had been killed. Taking into account the then events in the USSR and the example death of Kirov the version of the murder does not seem implausible at all. But most serious historians still reject it.

However, most researchers have no doubt: at the end of 1936, Stalin designated Ordzhonikidze as one of the closest targets for destruction. In 1955-56. several former employees NKVD was tried on charges of collecting slander against Ordzhonikidze. Stalin’s liquidation of many of Ordzhonikidze’s employees can also be considered an indirect sign of the preparation of repressions against himself.

Soon after Ordzhonikidze's death, on February-March Plenum of the Central Committee 1937, Stalin sharply criticized the deceased for “conciliationism.” He claimed that Ordzhonikidze was well aware of the “anti-party sentiments” Lominadze, however, hid them from the Central Committee. In 1937, Ordzhonikidze’s older brother, Papulia, was arrested and executed. In 1938, “Sergo’s” wife was sentenced to ten years in prison. Later, his third brother, Konstantin, was arrested, and his nephew, Georgy Gvakharia, director of the Makeevka Metallurgical Plant, was shot.

Memory of Ordzhonikidze in the USSR

Several cities and districts in the USSR were renamed "Ordzhonikidze": for example, Vladikavkaz in Russia and Vakhdat in Tajikistan (they were later returned to their historical names). Ordzhonikidze's name was given to the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol plant, the main manufacturer of MiG fighters, as well as the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI).

The Sverdlov-class sea cruiser, on which Khrushchev arrived in Great Britain in 1956, was named in honor of Ordzhonikidze. During this visit, the British secret service MI6 sent the famous diver "Buster" Crabbe to examine the bottom and propellers of the Ordzhonikidze to understand the nature of the superior maneuverability of cruisers of this class. Crabbe did not return from the mission. A year later, a body was found without a head and arms, presumably belonging to the missing diver. At the end of 2007, former Soviet combat swimmer Eduard Koltsov said that half a century ago he cut Crabbe's throat after discovering him planting a magnetic mine near the ship's powder magazine. Koltsov’s version has not received confirmation and is disputed by many.

The era of the 1930s divided the Bolsheviks into “loyal Stalinists” and “enemies of the people.” Some of the people who stood at the origins of the revolution were not only destroyed: even their names were erased from history. Subsequently, the repressions were recognized as criminal and the trend changed: yesterday’s “enemies of the people” began to be considered progressive figures, and the “Stalinists” - counter-revolutionaries who distorted the essence of Lenin’s course. And in 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, both of them were hastily thrown off the ship of history.

Georgy Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, better known by his party nickname "Sergo", was stuck somewhere between two categories of Bolsheviks. A close friend of Stalin for many years, he did not accept or understand the new methods of political struggle. His death remains one of the main mysteries of that era.

Nobleman, paramedic, Bolshevik

Grigory Ordzhonikidze was born in western Georgia, into an impoverished noble family.

Orphaned as a teenager, Grigory lived with relatives in Tiflis, where he graduated from the paramedic school at the city Mikhailovsky Hospital. The training was not useless: Ordzhonikidze actually later worked as a paramedic, treating comrades in the revolutionary struggle.

In Tiflis, the young man became interested in socialist ideas that were popular at that time, and in 1903 he became a member of the RSDLP. In 1904 he was first arrested for possession of illegal literature, but was quickly released.

Thanks to this, he became an active participant in the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907 in Transcaucasia.

In the gendarmerie department, which was engaged in political investigation, Ordzhonikidze was very quickly singled out among other young revolutionaries, giving him the nickname “Direct.” Grigory said everything he thought straight to his face, and did not compromise, which is why it was difficult not only for the Tsar’s secret police, but also for his party comrades.

Party career of “Comrade Sergo”

In 1907, “Comrade Sergo”, once again arrested, was placed in the Bailov prison in Baku. A Bolshevik nicknamed “Koba” ended up in the same cell with Sergo. This is how the friendship between Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Joseph Stalin.

Sergo Ordzhonikidze. 1921 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Exiled in 1909 to permanent settlement in Siberia, Ordzhonikidze fled and reached Transcaucasia. From there, Sergo went to Persia, taking part in revolutionary events, and in 1910, his party comrades helped him get to Paris.

In 1911, the promising Bolshevik Ordzhonikidze was among the first students of the party school opened by Lenin in the suburb of Paris - Longjumeau.

At its end, he returned to Russia as Lenin’s representative for convening the All-Russian Party Conference. Having become its delegate and joining the Central Committee, Ordzhonikidze soon found himself in prison again. On April 14, 1912, he was arrested in St. Petersburg, sentenced to 3 years of hard labor, which he served in the Shlisselburg fortress, and then was exiled to Yakutsk, where he worked as a doctor.

"Stalin's Donkey"

During the Civil War, Ordzhonikidze acquired the nickname “ram of the revolution”: he was sent to the most “hot spots” to resolve operational issues, and almost always “Comrade Sergo” coped with the assigned tasks.

In the early 1920s, Ordzhonikidze became the main curator of the establishment of Soviet power in Transcaucasia. Thanks to his will and energy, this task was successfully completed in a short time.

In 1922, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan united to form the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR), which became one of the subjects of the Treaty on the Formation of the Soviet Union.

Ordzhonikidze became the first leader of the TSFSR, leading it from 1922 to 1926.

During the same period, he earned another nickname: “Stalin’s donkey.” This “epithet” was awarded to comrade Sergo by one of the leaders of the Georgian communists Kabakhidze, dissatisfied with Ordzhonikidze's support for Stalin's autonomization plan. The idea of ​​the plan was that a new unified state was to be formed through the entry of all republics into the RSFSR.

“Comrade Sergo” responded to the accusations by hitting his opponent in the face, and as a result, the case was examined by a special commission.

Lenin he did not support autonomy, and Ordzhonikidze proposed expelling him from the party for fighting, but the position of the seriously ill party leader was simply ignored.

First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the RCP(b) Sergo Ordzhonikidze and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) Joseph Stalin at the XII Congress of the RCP(b). 1923 Photo: RIA Novosti

"Father" of heavy industry

In 1926, “Comrade Sergo” concentrated the functions of state and party control in his hands, becoming the People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate and the Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Only a person who enjoyed the absolute trust of the “first person” could occupy such a post. The direct and decisive Ordzhonikidze, who never hid his thoughts from anyone, suited Stalin quite well in this role.

In 1932, Ordzhonikidze continued his activities in the same direction, but as the first People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR.

By 1932, the USSR took 1st place in Europe in terms of gross industrial output, and also ranks 2nd in the world for this indicator.

By 1935, from the second ten in the world in terms of electricity production, the Soviet Union moved to third place.

The development of mechanical engineering, the rapid development of the aviation industry - behind all this was the work of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, whose efficiency and dedication were legendary.

In 1935, he became a holder of the Order of Lenin, and a year later - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Sergo Ordzhonikidze. 1936 Photo: RIA Novosti / Ivan Shagin

Particularly dangerous opinion

Outwardly, everything looked good in Ordzhonikidze’s life, but it was only an appearance.

Early 1930s Lavrenty Beria, who led first Georgia and then the entire Transcaucasus, launched a real struggle with the team once formed by Ordzhonikidze. Comrade Sergo openly expressed to Stalin that he did not agree with the methods of work of the new Transcaucasian leadership, but did not receive support.

“Comrade Sergo” believed that such a line would only cause damage to industry, and therefore to the country as a whole. While others began to look for “internal enemies,” Ordzhonikidze fought to defend the people he needed.

He was not an oppositionist; his inherent honesty and directness simply came into conflict with the era.

What this threatened him with is obvious. But on February 18, 1937, literally on the eve of the beginning of the period of mass terror, 50-year-old Sergo Ordzhonikidze died.

Driven to suicide?

The official cause of death was a heart attack. The urn with the ashes of “Comrade Sergo” was buried in the Kremlin wall with all state honors.

Within a few days, at the Plenum of the Central Committee, the deceased will be blamed for insufficient vigilance and excessive loyalty to “counter-revolutionary elements.” However, Ordzhonikidze was not declared posthumously an “enemy of the people”.

But people close to him were drawn into the flywheel of the “great terror”: his elder brother and nephew were shot, Ordzhonikidze’s widow and another brother were imprisoned.

Many comrades and associates of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who created the heavy industry of the USSR, died. Among those executed was the founder and first director of Krivorozhstal Yakov Vesnik, father of a Soviet cinema star Evgenia Vesnik.

All this led many to think that the death of Sergo Ordzhonikidze was not caused by a heart attack.

At the XXII Congress, Khrushchev again touched upon this topic: “Let us remember Sergo Ordzhonikidze. I had to participate in Ordzhonikidze’s funeral. I believed what was said then, that he died suddenly, since we knew that he had a bad heart. Much later, after the war, I learned quite by accident that he had committed suicide... Comrade Ordzhonikidze saw that he could not continue to work with Stalin, although he had previously been one of his closest friends. Ordzhonikidze held a high position in the party. Lenin knew and appreciated him, but the situation was such that Ordzhonikidze could no longer work normally and, in order not to clash with Stalin, not to share responsibility for his abuse of power, he decided to commit suicide.”

Sergo Ordzhonikidze at the All-Union Conference of Wives of Business Executives and Engineering and Technical Workers in Heavy Industry. Moscow. Kremlin. 1936 Photo: RIA Novosti / Ivan Shagin

Broken Heart

In his memoirs written after his resignation, Khrushchev claimed that Ordzhonikidze told him about suicide Anastas Mikoyan.

Mikoyan himself said something different. A few days before Ordzhonikidze’s death, he talked to him and noticed that he was very excited: “He walked around very excited. He asked me: “I don’t understand why Comrade Stalin doesn’t trust me. I am absolutely loyal to Comrade Stalin and I don’t want to fight with him, I want to support him, but he doesn’t trust me. Beria's intrigues play a big role here. Beria from Tbilisi gives Comrade Stalin incorrect information, but Stalin believes him."

There are also Mikoyan’s memoirs, in which he cites the words of a suicide witness: Ordzhonikidze’s wife Zinaida Pavlutskaya. The only problem is that Anastas Ivanovich makes a reservation: he himself did not hear these words, but conveys them according to a journalist’s recording Gershberg, who was talking to the widow of “Comrade Sergo.”

But a strange thing: in the widow’s memoirs there is a mention that forty minutes after Ordzhonikidze’s death, Mikoyan, together with Stalin and other leaders, stood over the body of the alleged suicide. In 40 minutes, they eliminated all the consequences in the apartment and covered their tracks? What if Mikoyan immediately knew about the suicide, and then, for some reason of his own, referred to others?

During the period of perestroika, the version of Ordzhonikidze’s suicide began to be considered the main one. Versions about poisoning or even murder, which also surfaced, did not find any, not even indirect, confirmation.

And most importantly, Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze could really die from a heart attack. A man who had driven himself too hard at work, and whose bad heart was well known, physically could not withstand the severe internal conflict between his own beliefs and the processes that were taking place in the country.

BASIC GIVE! LIFE AND ACTIVITY OF G.K. ORDZHONIKIDZE

1886, October 12- Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Sergo) was born in the village of Goresha, Shorapan district, Kutaisi province.

1898 - Ordzhonikidze graduates from the two-year Khoragoul School.

1901 -1902 - Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the Social Democratic student circle at the paramedic school in Tiflis.

1903 - Ordzhonikidze joins the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

1904, June 10- Ordzhonikidze was arrested for distributing Social Democratic proclamations.

1905, spring- Ordzhonikidze graduates from paramedic school; conducts revolutionary work in Western Georgia.

September - December- Ordzhonikidze works as a paramedic in a city hospital in Gudauta; leads the party organization, is a member of the Sukhumi district committee of the RSDLP, takes an active part in the first Russian revolution.

December 24- For the revolutionary activities of G.K. Ordzhonikidze was arrested and imprisoned in Sukhumi prison.

August- Ordzhonikidze leaves illegally for Berlin.

1907, January - March- Ordzhonikidze returns to Russia, goes to party work in Baku.

May 1- Ordzhonikidze was arrested at the May Day demonstration in Balakhany and imprisoned.

June - November- After his release from prison, Ordzhonikidze continues to conduct party work.

November 4- Ordzhonikidze was arrested for belonging to the Baku organization of the RSDLP and imprisoned in Walloon prison.

1908, March 27- Ordzhonikidze was sentenced to deprivation of all rights to his estate and exile to eternal settlement in Siberia.

1909, first half of the year- Ordzhonikidze is in exile in the Angara region, in the village of Potoskuy, Piichugovsky volost, Yenisei province, where he participates in the organization and work of the union of political exiles.

1910, November- Ordzhonikidze is traveling from Iran to Paris. Meets Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

1911, June - July- Sergo is a student of the party school in Longjumeau (near Paris), organized by V.I. Lenin,

Second half of July - September- Ordzhonikidze is going to Russia. Manages the work of the Russian Organizational Commission (ROC) to convene the VI All-Russian Party Conference.

End of October- Sergo returns to Paris.

1912, 5 -January 17- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the VI (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP. The conference elects him as a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and to the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP.

First half of February- Sergo comes to Russia illegally; delivers a report on the VI All-Russian Party Conference.

October 9- After six months of pre-trial detention, G.K. Ordzhonikidze was sentenced to three years of hard labor and imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress. He was imprisoned until October 1915.

1916, June- Ordzhonikidze comes with a convoy to Yakutia. The village of Pokrovskoye is designated as the place of “settlement”. Together with G.I. Petrovsky and E.M. Yaroslavsky conducts party work among political exiles.

March - May- Sergo is a member of the Yakut Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the Executive Committee of the Yakut Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

June - July- At the suggestion of V.I. Lenina G.K. Ordzhonikidze was introduced to the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b), as well as to the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet.

July - On behalf of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) G.K. Ordzhonikidze visits V.I. Lenin at Razliv station, informs Vladimir Ilyich about the state of affairs in the party and receives directives from him.

July 26 - August 3- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b).

Beginning of September - second half of October- G.K. Ordzhonikidze was sent by the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) to Transcaucasia, where he led the work of the Bolsheviks in Tiflis and Western Georgia.

October 24- Ordzhonikidze returns to Petrograd; takes an active part in the armed uprising.

November 16- Ordzhonikidze is elected a member of the Executive Commission of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b).

December 19- By the decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, Ordzhonikidze was appointed Temporary Extraordinary Commissioner of the region of Ukraine.

1918, April 9- Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR G.K. Ordzhonikidze was instructed to organize and head the Temporary Emergency Commissariat of the Southern Region, uniting Crimea, the Don and Terek regions, the Black Sea province, the Black Sea Fleet and the entire North Caucasus to Baku.

August - December- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the Red Army's military operations against the armed forces of the counter-revolution in the North Caucasus.

1919, early June- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads an illegal regional meeting of communist organizations in Transcaucasia in Tiflis.

July 15- Ordzhonikidze is appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XVI Army of the Western Front.

October 5- G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XIV Army of the Southern Front.

1920, January 23- G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front.

Previously February 3- By resolution of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed chairman of the Bureau for the Restoration of Soviet Power in the North Caucasus.

March 31- By order on the Caucasian Front G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed chairman of the North Caucasus Revolutionary Committee.

April 8- By the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which includes G.K. Ordzhonikidze.

22 -December 29- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets; elected as a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

1921, February 27- According to the resolution of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze is awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

March 16- The X Congress of the RCP (b) elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze a member of the Central Committee of the party.

May 19 - By resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

26 -May 28- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the X All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b).

19 -December 22- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the XI All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b).

1922, March 27 - April 2 - G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the XI Congress of the RCP (b). The congress elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze member of the Central Committee of the RCP (b).

Beginning of May- G.K. Ordzhonikidze, on instructions from the Central Committee of the RCP(b), travels to Turkestan.

4 -August 7- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the XII All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b).

1923, 17 -April 25- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the XII Congress of the RCP (b); the congress elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze a member of the Central Committee of the party.

1924, 16 -January 18- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the XIII Conference of the RCP(b).

21 -January 22- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the emergency Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), held in connection with the death of V.I. Lenin.

February 1- By resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

23 -May 31- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the XII Congress of the RCP (b); the congress elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze a member of the Central Committee of the party.

1925, 27 -April 29- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the XIV Conference of the RCP (b).

May 13–20- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the III Congress of Soviets of the USSR; The congress elects G. K. Ordzhonikidze as a member of the USSR Central Executive Committee.

18 -December 31- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b); the congress elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze a member of the Central Committee of the party.

December 29- G.K. Ordzhonikidze, at a meeting of the extended plenum of the Vyborg district committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and at a meeting of the party activists of this region of Leningrad, denounces the anti-party position taken at the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks by the Leningrad delegation.

1926, 14 -July 23- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The plenum elects G.K. Ordzhonikidze as a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

September 24- G.K. Ordzhonikidze was elected first secretary of the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

October 26 - November 3- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the XV Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

November 3,- The United Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks approves G.K. Ordzhonikidze Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

November 5- The Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee appoints G.K. Ordzhonikidze People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the USSR, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense.

1927, April 10–16- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the XIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

July 29 - August 9 - G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks; delivers a report to the RKI on the rationalization of the state and economic apparatus and the economy regime and a report on the violation of party discipline by Zinoviev and Trotsky.

21 -October 23- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, delivers a report from the Presidium of the Central Control Commission on the factional work of Trotsky and Zinoviev after the August Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

2 -December 19- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the XV Congress of the CPSU (b), makes reports on the work of the Central Control Commission - RKI and on the work of the commission of the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) on the issue of opposition.

1928, 20 -January 26- G.K. Ordzhonikidze makes a presentation at the All-Union Conference on the Rationalization of Industrial Production.

1929, 23 -April 29 - G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the XVI Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

1930, June 26 - July 13- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the XVI Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and delivers a report to the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

November 10- The Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee appoints G.K. Ordzhonikidze Chairman of the Supreme Council of the People's Economy of the USSR.

11 -December 21 - G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the VKShchb); by decision of the Plenum of G.K. Ordzhonikidze was included in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

1931, January 30 - February 4- G.K. Ordzhonikidze directs the work of the I All-Union Conference of Industrial Workers.

22 -June 23- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of a meeting of business executives at the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

1932, January 5- Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR G.K. Ordzhonikidze is appointed People's Commissar of Heavy Industry.

January 30 - February 4- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the XVII Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

1933, March 17- By resolution of the Presidium of the Central Election Commission G.K. Ordzhonikidze was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the TSFSR for special services in the formation of the Transcaucasian Federation.

November 10 - G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the work of a meeting of miners, metallurgists, machine builders and oil workers dedicated to the exchange of advanced production experience.

1934, 20 -September 22- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the work of the All-Union Conference of Heavy Industry Workers.

1935, January 28 - February 6- G.K. Ordzhonikidze takes part in the work of the VII Congress of Soviets of the USSR, delivers a report from the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry.

March 22- Resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR G.K. Ordzhonikidze was awarded the Order of Lenin for exceeding the 1934 production program of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR and the successes achieved in organizing production and mastering technology.

21 -June 22- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the work of the meeting of oil refining industry workers.

14 -November 17- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the work of the first All-Union Conference of workers and workers - Stakhanovites of industry and transport.

10 -December 14- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in a meeting at the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on issues of construction and production of building materials.

1936, January 17 - By resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for exceeding the 1935 production plan of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR, for success in mastering new technology and initiative in the development of the Stakhanov movement.

February 26- G.K. Ordzhonikidze leads the meeting of hydroelectric power plant builders.

July - August- G.K. Ordzhonikidze is in charge of organizing the non-stop flight of Chkalov, Baidukov and Belyakov along the route: Moscow - Arctic Ocean - Franz Josef Land - Cape Chelyuskin - Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka - Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.

25 -August 27- G.K. Ordzhonikidze chairs a meeting of workers of research institutes.

November 25 - December, December 5- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the Extraordinary VIII All-Union Congress of Soviets; elected to the Editorial Commission to establish the final text of the Constitution of the USSR.

1937, 15 -January 18, January 21- G.K. Ordzhonikidze participates in the work of the Extraordinary XVII All-Russian Congress of Soviets.