This story about Soviet majors is not just shocking, it penetrates to the depths of the soul. From her it becomes so insulting for the country that I want the story to be just someone's invention.
But you can't erase words from a song. The text of the extrajudicial verdict passed on December 18, 1943 by the People's Commissar for State Security Vsevolod Merkulov and the USSR Prosecutor Konstantin Gorshenin has survived.
Secret verdict
The descriptive part of the verdict read: “At the end of 1942 … a 7th grade student of the 175th school of the mountains. Moscow Shakhurin Vladimir suggested that some of his comrades create a secret organization … The members of the organization in their conversations praised the German fascist army and the German fascist leaders. Members of the organization were awarded the titles borrowed from the German fascists: "Reichfuehrer", "Feldfuehrer" and "Field Marshal", and the organization itself was named "The Fourth Empire". In conversations with each other, the members of the organization discussed issues of methods of conducting propaganda aimed at undermining the Soviet system, on the overthrow of Soviet power after the war. The behavior of the members of the organization is all the more criminal because it took place in the conditions of the Great Patriotic War, when the entire Soviet people are straining their forces in the struggle against German fascism."
Taking into account the fact that since 1935 in the USSR, criminal responsibility has come from the age of 12, it seemed that the 15-16-year-old members of the fascist organization could not avoid cruel retribution. But the operative part of the verdict shocked me with its mildness: “Expel from the mountains. Moscow to various cities of Siberia, the Urals and Central Asia for a period of one year under the guarantee of parents."
Almost no one even heard about this verdict then, and he received fame only recently.
Promotional video:
Shot from "Walter"
The reason for the secrecy is simple - the members of the "Fourth Reich" had high-ranking parents. The underground fascist organization included: Vladimir Shakhurin, son of the People's Commissar of Aviation; Vano and Sergo Mikoyan, children of a Politburo member and one of Stalin's closest associates; Artyom Khmelnitsky, son of the lieutenant general; Leonid Redens, son of a prominent security officer and sister of Stalin's wife; Felix Kirpichnikov, son of the Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee; Pyotr Bakulev, son of the head of Moscow hospitals, Armand Hammer, nephew of the famous American businessman, and Leonid Barabanov, son of Mikoyan's secretary.
All of them studied at the elite 175th school, in which at one time the children of Stalin, Beria and Molotov sat at their desks. The young fascists were exposed by accident. On June 3, 1943, Vladimir Shakhurin shot a classmate, Nina Umanskaya, from a Walter pistol, and then shot himself. During a search in Vladimir's room, a notebook was found with a description of the program and an indication of the members of the "Fourth Reich".
It was soon established that a classmate Vano Mikoyan had given the pistol to Shakhurin.
The investigation of the case was entrusted to the head of the investigative department of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, Lev Sheinin. And he, in order to get rid of the blows of the children of the nomenklatura, did not spread about the underground organization, and presented only a romantic story in the spirit of Romeo and Juliet as the conclusions of the investigation. Shakhurin could not bear the separation from Umanskaya, who was to fly to Mexico, where her father was appointed ambassador, and therefore killed Nina and himself.
This version suited almost everyone. Only Sofya Shakhurina, Volodya's mother, did not calm down. She demanded to understand the case. One of her letters reached Merkulov's office. The case of the death of Shakhurin and Umanskaya was taken from the prosecutor's office by the Chekists, and on July 23, 1943, eight members of the Fourth Reich organization were placed in the internal prison of the NKGB.
They put all the blame on the dead Shakhurin. Say, it was he who invented the "Fourth Empire", having read "Mein Kampf", and they regarded membership in a fascist organization as a game. The results of the investigation were reported to Stalin. In his hearts he called those under investigation "wolf cubs", but realizing that in the midst of the Battle of the Kursk Bulge it was impossible to undermine the people's confidence in the authorities, he ordered the case to be put on hold.
Magazine: Secrets of the USSR No. 5
