In the event of a threat to life or illness, many representatives of the political arena did not appear at minor events themselves, they were replaced by doubles. Did such a prominent politician as Iosif Vissarionovich have "deputies"?
More than once accusations of an attempt on Stalin's life were heard against many of those arrested. Moreover, these accusations were often fair.
There were indeed attempts. Stalin, until the early 30s of the XX century, moved along the streets of Moscow, accompanied by a guard of 1-2 people.
One of the attempts took place in November 1931 on Ilyinka. Then Stalin came face to face with the organizer of the underground Ogarev.
The Chekists reacted in time, and the assassination attempt was unsuccessful. The deputy head of the OGPU, who at that time was Merkulov, sent a report to Molotov, in which he made a proposal on the need to limit the walking movement of the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union in the capital.
The next attempt to kill the leader was made in 1938 by Danilov. An officer of the Tula garrison made his way to the Kremlin using false documents to shoot him. And at the beginning of the next year, a group was rendered harmless, whose task was to kill Stalin during his stay in a hydropathic hospital in Matsest. In 1942, Stalin's car was shot by the deserter Dmitriev. A year later, the operation to destroy the Big Three in Tehran, planned by Skorzeny, was suppressed. And in 1944 the plan of the Hitlerite group of Lieutenant Tavrin was revealed.
Attempts to assassinate Stalin were enough.
Nikolai Vlasik, who served with Stalin, made his way from a personal bodyguard to the head of security, already at the end of the 20s tried to convince the leader not to participate in open rallies, emphasizing that it was at such events that an attempt was made on Lenin's life.
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However, how could the leader of the Soviet state not appear before his people. The only way out was to get a double.
Did Stalin have a double?
According to the story of Professor Neumann, who was considered a genius of medicine, to whom all high-ranking representatives of the Third Reich, including Hitler himself, entrusted their health, he had to face several Stalins at once. When the war was over, the scientist was taken to Moscow and invited to examine Stalin. The professor examined, made a conclusion. After that he was taken to another room, where he was asked to examine Stalin again. This was repeated five times.
Sergei Krasikov, being the leader's security officer, later recalled how he personally saw Stalin leaving the Kremlin, who got into a car and hooted. And just a few minutes later, another generalissimo left the building and, having got into another car, also left.
Historians do not trust these stories, referring to them as tales or apocrypha, but these stories are too many.
Such an abundance of materials with similar information suggests that Stalin had doubles, and more than one.
All the doubles had their own tasks. Some simply had to sit at meetings on the podium, nodding their heads, or, leaving the building, walk to the car, or, standing on the podium, wave their hand.
Others were assigned a more responsible mission, such as, for example, taking part in meetings with delegations and speaking general phrases.
Meetings with representatives of foreign states and meetings of the Politburo were held with the participation of Stalin himself.
Historians cannot name the exact number of the leader's doubles, but presumably there were from three to twenty. More often than not, several persons appear in historical records.
Rashidov
Presumably, Rashidov, who was born in the North Caucasus, was the first who was destined to portray Stalin. He died in a bomb explosion while the motorcade was moving along Red Square.
Semyon Lvovich Goldshtab
It was this man, according to many historians, at the insistence of Vlasik, who had information about the impending assassination attempt, who replaced Stalin during Kirov's funeral in 1934.
Since Goldshtab was an actor, he began to play the role of Stalin on stage and in cinema. He became famous. This forced him to refuse his services, however, with the proviso that he must train his successor. One of those whom he taught was Yevsey Lubitsky.
Evsey Lubitsky
The former accountant was brought from a village near Vinnitsa to the Moscow region in 1935. For half a year he underwent practice and training in movements, gestures, facial expressions of the leader. For greater reliability, he underwent two plastic surgeries.
Lubitsky “worked” for Stalin's “understudy” position for more than 15 years, but then differences became visible, since the understudy began to look younger than the original. In 1952, Lubnitsky was tonsured a bald head and exiled to a camp, which he left a year after Stalin's death.
How true all these stories are is very difficult to say. It is possible that even the stories of the twins themselves are nothing more than fiction, since, alas, there is no documentary evidence of their existence.
Anna Ponomareva