Ceiling

Akhromeev Sergey Fedorovich. “I can’t live when the Fatherland is dying”

Marshal and Hero of the USSR, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR Sergei Akhromeyev committed suicide on August 24, 1991. This happened in his own office in the Kremlin. This is the official version of the event. The marshal's body was discovered by an off-duty officer around 10 p.m.

Details

Writer Roy Medvedev, who personally studied Sergei Fedorovich’s suicide notes, is sure that it was suicide. The decision to die was the result of a difficult internal struggle and deepest experiences. Sergei Fedorovich thought about it all day on August 23, even describing in his notes the first unsuccessful attempt at hanging.

He committed it back at 9:40. As Sergei Fedorovich himself wrote, he was “a poor master at preparing a suicide weapon.” The cable on which Akhromeyev wanted to hang himself broke. The marshal fell to the floor and remained unconscious for about 20 minutes. Then he woke up and again began to gather his courage, intending to complete what he had started.

The investigator in the Akhromeev case, Leonid Proshkin, documented that in the marshal’s office there was perfect order. There were no signs of a struggle. On the table lay the same suicide notes, in which the deceased described in detail all his actions. According to the investigator, there was no doubt at all that it was suicide.

Could not bear what happened to his country

IN last days Throughout his life, Marshal Akhromeyev was in a depressed state. He devoted more than 50 years to the service of the people and the state. Everything that happened to the country in the late 80s was very difficult for me. On the eve of his suicide, Sergei Fedorovich was relaxing with his wife in a Sochi sanatorium. It was there that he learned about the impending coup.

On August 19, he hurriedly flew to Moscow, where he joined the State Emergency Committee. Akhromeev, who faithfully served the Soviet Union all his life, could not survive what happened to him in recent years. After the suppression of the putsch and the arrest of members of the State Emergency Committee, Sergei Fedorovich preferred voluntary death to the public “execution” of his convictions.

Strange circumstances of death

Despite the investigator’s lack of doubt, a lot of contradictory information was collected in the case of Akhromeyev’s suicide. Two plump folders. Sergei Fedorovich seemed to have left suicide notes, which were supposed to convince others that he hanged himself voluntarily, but the deceased behaved in a strange way on the eve of his death.

His driver and secretaries were interviewed. On the afternoon of August 24 - which was after the first failed suicide attempt - Akhromeev gave business orders to his driver over the phone in a completely calm voice. After lunch and in the evening of the same day, his Kremlin secretary noticed that someone was entering Sergei Fedorovich’s office (although he did not see the marshal himself then).

All these inconsistencies and the strange behavior of Akhromeyev, not typical for a depressed suicide, on the eve of his death gave rise to the version that someone helped the marshal die. The method of suicide is especially alarming.

The marshal, as a military man, would rather put a bullet in his temple. It would be much faster and safer than trying to hang yourself with synthetic twine, and even while sitting near a window. This method of “execution” and suicide is used only by prisoners in prisons. It is unlikely that the marshal would die in such a way.

Another version

All the details described were very telling. It’s not for nothing that during the investigation, 2 thick folders of evidence and details were collected. Akhromeev was either killed or forced to hang himself quietly in his Kremlin office so as not to attract attention ahead of time. The manner in which the marshal was “eliminated” suggests the “specialization” of his killers. They were probably connected to the criminal world.

Sergei Fedorovich's relatives categorically refuse to believe in his voluntary death. All findings in the case of the marshal’s suicide are classified. It is still not known who needed to eliminate the devoted communist and presidential adviser Akhromeyev.

After burial, the remains of the Marshal of the Soviet Union were disturbed. An act of vandalism was committed at Akhromeyev’s grave: thieves, greedy for marshal’s awards, lifted the slab, dug up his coffin and stole his uniform. This was the last humiliation of Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeyev.

26 years ago, on August 24, 1991, he committed suicide??? KILLED!!! Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeyev - Marshal of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Soviet Union, supporter of the State Emergency Committee, communist, ardent patriot of his Socialist Motherland.

He was buried in Moscow at the Troekurovsky cemetery (section 2), people constantly bring flowers to the Marshal’s grave.

However, many talk about the murder of Marshal, who was preventing the full restoration of capitalism on the territory of the USSR (on August 22 of the same year, B.K. Pugo was found shot dead in his apartment: https://vk.com/wall-57478050_89569).

ETERNAL GLORY to the Hero, communist and patriot of the socialist Motherland - SERGEY FYODOROVICH AHROMEEV!

Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeyev held the post of adviser to the President of the USSR, he was sixty-three years old. On August 24, 1991, he committed suicide in his Kremlin office. Before his death, the marshal left five letters.

One note contained these words:

“I cannot live when my Fatherland is dying and everything that I have always considered the meaning in my life is being destroyed. Age and my past life give me the right to die. I fought until the end."

In a letter to relatives:

“The main thing for me has always been the duty of a warrior and a citizen. You were in second place. Today, for the first time, I put my duty to you first. I ask you to go through these days with courage. Support each other. Don’t give your enemies a reason for gloating.”

He also left a message to M. S. Gorbachev, in which he wrote:

“It is clear to me that as Marshal of the Soviet Union I violated the Military Oath and committed a military crime,” Akhromeev gave an extremely strict assessment of his actions. - I committed no less a crime as an adviser to the President of the USSR... I was sure that this adventure would be defeated, and when I arrived in Moscow, I was once again convinced of this. Since 1990, I have been convinced that our country is heading towards destruction. She will all be dismembered. I was looking for a way to say this out loud. I thought that my participation in ensuring the work of the “Committee” and the subsequent related proceedings would give me the opportunity to speak directly about this. It probably sounds unconvincing and naive, but it is true. There were no selfish motives in this decision of mine...”

The method that the marshal chose to die was hanging. But the hanging is strange: for this, the marshal used synthetic twine twisted in half, which is usually used to tie bags, and the copper handle of a high Kremlin window. The first hanging failed: the twine broke. Then the marshal again secured the twine with tape and hung himself in an extremely uncomfortable position, as prisoners do - with his knees bent, in the hope that the weight of his body would tighten the noose tightly.

Between the first and second attempts, the marshal answered the phone and released his driver. However, he reminded him that he needed to return to the motor depot after lunch. Then he wrote another note:

“I am a bad master at preparing a suicide weapon. The first attempt (at 9.40) was unsuccessful. The cable broke. I woke up at 10.00. I'm going to have the strength to do it all again. Akhromeev."

This attempt was a success. The protocol from the scene of the incident, drawn up by the Murovites, read:

There was no damage to the clothing. On the neck of the corpse there was a sliding loop made of synthetic twine, folded in half, covering the entire circumference of the neck. The upper end of the twine was secured to the handle window frame adhesive tape type "scotch tape". No bodily injuries were found on the corpse other than those associated with hanging...

Four years after the marshal’s death, Top Secret correspondent Terekhov managed to talk to his widow.

— Was Gorbachev afraid of Akhromeyev? - asked her correspondent, - did Mikhail Sergeevich take to heart the constant rumors about the impending coup?

“I don’t think I was afraid.” And as for the coup... Sergei Fedorovich said: you can’t do anything by force in Russia. Removing an unwanted leader is not the best big problem. But what to do next? He believed that the most dangerous thing for our country was to deprive the government of respect, authority, and to discredit the very idea of power. Now this is exactly what happened. Do you see what this led to? And he wanted to prevent, he warned. Remember how much he wrote about this. And it was then that his opponents remembered: “Who are you listening to? He received a Hero for Afghanistan.” In general, having left the General Staff, he could not work as an adviser to Gorbachev for long. Wrote several resignation letters. On the last one in June 1991, Gorbachev wrote: “Let’s wait!”

— Yazov studied with Akhromeyev in the same course at the academy; Sergei Fedorovich also still had comrades-in-arms on the General Staff. And, despite this, it turns out that the marshal knew nothing about the upcoming events of August 1991?

- I didn’t know anything. On August 6, I, he and my granddaughter went on vacation to Sochi and had a peaceful rest. On the 19th, Sergei Fedorovich, as always, went to exercise in the morning, then returned and woke us up: “Turn on the TV quickly!” He listened silently to the first messages. When something important happened, he usually fell silent. We went to breakfast in silence. I didn't ask him anything. Then he suddenly says: “I have to fly to Moscow and sort everything out at the workplace.” We didn't say goodbye properly. A group of doctors accompanied him: “Come back, Sergei Fedorovich, we are waiting.” He joked: “I’ll leave you my wife as collateral.” He kissed me and his granddaughter and left. I didn't see him again.

- Who was at home with him these days?

— Daughters, their families. When the first reports about the creation of the State Emergency Committee were heard on TV, they understood: their father would come. He arrived - cheerful, tanned, said that he didn’t understand anything yet, and left for the Kremlin. He offered his help to Yanaev and worked in an analytical group that collected information from the field. This was his participation in the State Emergency Committee. My daughters called me endlessly: come quickly. But they didn’t say anything directly. Conspirators! They wrote that one of the children was sick. I was offended: why don’t you let me rest, can’t you take care of your father yourself? Then I couldn’t stand it, I called Sergei Fedorovich in the Kremlin to find out, he said that everything was fine with him. He promised to tell me when I returned. But I still decided to go. It was difficult to get tickets for August 24th.

— After the failure of the State Emergency Committee, was Sergei Fedorovich very worried?

“He was depressed, waiting to be arrested. But he continued to go to work in the Kremlin, although few people were there at that time. One day my daughter couldn’t stand it: “Why do you go there? How are you doing there?” - “Nobody comes to me. Nobody talks to me." Thinking that he would be arrested, he said: “I understand that it will be difficult for you, but I could not do otherwise.” His daughters asked him: “Don’t you regret that you came?” He replied: “If I had stayed away, I would have cursed myself all my life.”

— Was he not disappointed in the members of the State Emergency Committee? Did you give them ratings?

“The daughters say that on the night of August 23-24 they talked for a long time. It was interesting to know his opinion about the events and the people participating in them. He did not know all members of the State Emergency Committee equally well. But he did not change his attitude towards those whom he treated with respect before these events.

— For example, to Yazov?

- Not only. To Baklanov, Shenin...

“According to the investigation, that night Akhromeyev had already decided to commit suicide.

— According to the investigation, yes.

- You arrived home...

- We started calling Sergei Fedorovich in the Kremlin - the phone was silent. After five in the evening they called every ten to fifteen minutes. At 23.00 his driver called and asked if Sergei Fedorovich had arrived, otherwise he wasn’t calling for something, and he didn’t know what to do. Then we went to bed. Of course, I didn’t sleep all night - I jumped up at the sound of every car. In the morning we decided to go to Moscow - we lived in the country. As soon as they opened the apartment door, the phone rang. My daughter picked up the phone, and from her face I realized that something terrible had happened. The person on duty for the group of general inspectors called and said that Sergei Fedorovich died suddenly, there is a suspicion that he committed suicide (shot himself).

At night he was taken to the morgue of the Kremlin hospital, then to the Burdenko hospital. We went to the prosecutor's office. They said that the investigation has video footage of the incident. I immediately asked to see it. The investigators looked at each other and looked at me doubtfully: do I have the endurance? - but agreed. One of my daughters and I went to watch, but the other one couldn’t. Sergei Fedorovich was discovered by the duty officer. The office was open, the key stuck out in the keyhole outside. He was buried on August 29.

Please note that even the inspector immediately after the incident called the cause of death suicide with a firearm. It never occurred to them that Sergei Fedorovich, like a schoolboy or a prisoner, would put his head in a noose, and even twice. This way of committing suicide seemed somehow strange, not military-like. Death by strangulation with packing string...

People who knew the marshal for many years were shocked by his death; they could not find any other words than “soldier of duty.” Many of them later mentioned the marshal in their memoirs.

General Mahmut Gareev:

At one time, Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov said that the highest dignity of a person is not to fly to a big position and torment himself and others with this, but to do the assigned job well and regularly at any position. Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev adhered to this principle all his life...

The appointment of S. F. Akhromeyev as an assistant to M. S. Gorbachev was apparently presented as an opportunity to somehow positively influence him. But the marshal found himself surrounded by such inveterate intriguers, it was difficult to resist them, and he no longer had serious influence at the “court”...

Once, in a friendly conversation, one of the commanders of the military district asked Sergei Fedorovich: “Do you have the same friendly team here as it was in the tank army or district?” To which, after a heavy sigh, S. F. Akhromeev replied with a sad smile: “Such sincere, selfless camaraderie only happens in the troops.”

In general, Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeyev was a man and military leader of high honor and dignity, faithful to the oath and his duty to the end. He had an excellent memory and an extraordinary analytical mind. There is a known case from the war when he remained in a damaged tank with a grenade in his hands until our scouts arrived to the rescue. As a regiment and division commander, even on ordinary days, when there were no exercises, he slept no more than five to six hours a day, and worked the rest of the time. Often at four or five o'clock in the morning he called regiment commanders to the tank station or tank directorate. This, of course, gave rise to complaints, but he proceeded from the fact that until the matter was established, official duties were not fully fulfilled, there could be no talk of any rest or relaxation. I remember the flight from Tashkent to Moscow after an exercise conducted under his leadership, where we hardly slept for three days. Once on the plane, he did not allow himself to doze off and spent the rest of the flight poring over documents.

Being very strict and demanding of himself and his subordinates, in the most tense situations he did not lose his composure, showed restraint and was always very tactful in dealing with his subordinates. Both friends and ill-wishers of Sergei Fedorovich unanimously noted such a trait of his as crystal honesty and decency, which manifested itself even in small things. In any position he held, there could be no question of any abuse on his part...

In light of all this, it is apparently impossible to justify the path that Sergei Fedorovich chose to leave this life, because it contradicted his own life principles. But only God is his judge. And to be completely honest, he died primarily because he was the most conscientious among the people around him.

CPSU Central Committee worker Valery Boldin:

This honest and devoted man turned out to be... a tragic situation that ultimately led him to a fatal decision. In August 1991, he was found dead in his office. He, a soldier who went through the war, achieved the highest military positions and honors for serving the people, for caring about the defense of the country, which allowed us to maintain military parity and ensure the peaceful labor of people in the coldest years of coexistence, was now defamed for what he had acquired some utensils for the garden. It’s a shame to read in the press, to hear from the lips of people’s deputies who do not know what war is, but who have turned into ardent fighters With privileges, about the mythical “abuses” of the marshal...

I had to be with Sergei Fedorovich on a trip to the USA. I saw how the American military and President R. Reagan treated S. F. Akhromeev with respect and attention, no less, if not more, than the Secretary General. He was greeted with the same honor even when he was no longer the chief of the country's General Staff. And now he was given over to be eaten by small penny-pinchers. Couldn’t such a betrayal on Gorbachev’s part fail to cause an unhealed wound to a veteran, an old soldier in marshal’s uniform? And isn’t it the disregardful attitude of the state leaders, who did not want to say goodbye to the man who did so much to strengthen the defense capability of the state, and later, when the time came, for his reasonable and equal disarmament, led to the fact that over the grave of S. F. Akhromeev The looters committed criminal and dirty acts.

But, as I already said, the marshal was preparing to resign. Two months before the incident, S. F. Akhromeev submitted a statement to the president about his resignation and frankly said that in the current conditions of bullying him, defamation of the military, hasty, ill-considered, and most importantly, unilateral disarmament, he had no right to occupy a post next to the president and did not will participate in the destruction of the army and the state. M. S. Gorbachev was puzzled by this turn of affairs and asked Sergei Fedorovich to wait and work some more. At one time, he attracted S. F. Akhromeev to work in his apparatus, hoping to cover up with his name those cases that were not always justified

concessions that were made in negotiations with the United States at that time. He didn't hide it. “Do you understand why I need him? - Gorbachev franked, “As long as he is with me, it will be easier to resolve disarmament issues.” Our military and defense workers trust him and respect him in the West...”

Marshal of the USSR Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeyev submitted his resignation from Gorbachev and came to me to tell me about the decision he had made. “Gorbachev, of course, objects, asks to think and not rush,” said Sergei Fedorovich. “But I can no longer and do not want to participate in the collapse of the state and the army.” He said that he would return to the issue after my vacation, but I would not change my opinion. All. I'm leaving."

But events turned in such a way that he passed away, unable to change his principles, oath, comrades in arms, with whom he traveled thousands of kilometers along military roads, strengthening the army, educating soldiers and officers in loyalty to the Motherland.

Admiral Crowe, USA:

Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev was my friend. His suicide is a tragedy, reflecting the convulsions that shake Soviet Union. He was a communist, a patriot and a soldier. And I believe that is exactly what he would say about himself.

For all his great patriotism and devotion to the party, Akhromeev was modern man, who understood that much in his country was a mistake and much must be changed if the Soviet Union was to continue to remain a great power...

In 1987, Marshal Akhromeyev visited Washington for the first time. He came with Gorbachev to the signing of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Missiles. I invited him to the Pentagon. When he arrived for breakfast two days later, he was alone. The Chief of the Soviet General Staff entered the enemy camp without guards or a retinue of assistants! It was an impressive display of self-confidence. He told me in 1989 that he had underestimated the depth of dissatisfaction in his country. Despite his desire for change, he did not foresee where the reforms would lead in the future.

A year ago we met again in Moscow. “You didn’t destroy the Communist Party,” he told me. - We did it ourselves. And while this was happening, my heart was breaking a thousand times a day. experiencing oppressive feeling"When you're told that everything you've worked and fought for for fifty years is wrong," he continued. He was devoted to the ideals of communism and was very proud of the fact that everything he had was not much greater than what he wore on himself. His narrow views of capitalism were the source of our most heated debate. In the end, he was unable to reconcile his conflicting beliefs with the things that overwhelmed him.

Interesting characteristics are given to Marshal Akhromeyev. It is unlikely that such a person will decide to commit suicide of his own free will. That is why suspicions immediately arose that the marshal was “helped.” Moreover, a lot of time passed between the moment of suicide and the moment when the marshal’s body was discovered. And, as the detectives noted with puzzlement, the door to the marshal’s office was locked from the outside. Suspicions even fell on Barsukov, who at that time was in charge of the Kremlin household and was at work that day, but since he was known as a cautious and cowardly person, no one took this version seriously.

At the request of Admiral Crowe, American embassy officials went on the second day after the funeral to lay wreaths at Akhromeyev’s grave. They found the grave in a terrible state. It was opened, the marshal's cap nailed to the coffin was torn off, the marshal himself, buried in full form, dressed in civilian dress...

Time passes, and there are already many people who do not know who Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev was. I appeal to the blessed memory of this man. First of all, because, while deeply admiring him, I consider it necessary to recall some of the moral lessons of his life, which are especially relevant today. And his largely mysterious death haunts me...

Remembering the victims of August 1991, in the means mass media They usually name three who died in a very unclear situation on the Garden Ring and who, it seems, became the last Heroes Soviet Union. Much less often they write and say that there were three more. Those who committed suicide.

They are not considered victims, much less heroes. What kind of heroes are there if they killed themselves! And then - who were they? Manager of the Affairs of the CPSU Central Committee,” that is, a complete “Partocrat.” The Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR is a member of the “notorious” State Emergency Committee. Gorbachev’s adviser on military issues, who also supported the State Emergency Committee...

It should be noted that even when this happened (and suicides followed one after another immediately after the defeat of the “putsch”), many believed: these were not suicides, but organized murders. In order to eliminate particularly objectionable and, for some, especially dangerous witnesses.

Nowadays this belief is largely public consciousness has not decreased. And there is no doubt: no matter how much time passes and no matter what additional arguments confirming the reality of suicides are published, the opinion that these were murders, at least a shadow, will remain. Such are the foggy and somewhat mystically mysterious, inexplicable circumstances of that entire August story - different things can often be assumed, but it turns out to be impossible to prove a lot, to prove one hundred percent and firmly. At least for now.

It was not with the intention of putting an end to the study of different versions of the death of Marshal Akhromeyev that in 1996 I took up his case of five years ago. That would perhaps be too presumptuous. However, I knew and in the course of this work I became even more convinced: the case “in fact of death”, closed five years ago, raises a number of very serious questions! Therefore, they must be staged publicly.

The image of this man is so bright and unique in many of its merits, and his tragedy is so characteristic of the time of so-called perestroika that we have experienced, that, I think, to understand this tragedy means to better understand the time.

In my mind, he became one of the most bitter victims of the troubled times, marked by the sign of the most insidious betrayal. And one of the most noble heroes of all time.

From the investigation materials:

« ...August 24, 1991 at 21:50. In office No. 19 “a” in building 1 of the Moscow Kremlin, the security officer on duty Koroteev discovered the corpse of Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev (born in 1923), who worked as an adviser to the President of the USSR.

The corpse was in a sitting position under the window sill of the office window. The corpse's back rested on wooden grate, covering the steam heating battery. The corpse was wearing the uniform of a Marshal of the Soviet Union. There was no damage to the clothing. On the neck of the corpse there was a sliding loop made of synthetic twine, folded in half, covering the entire circumference of the neck. The upper end of the twine was secured to the handle of the window frame with adhesive tape. No bodily injuries were found on the corpse, other than those associated with hanging...”

Further in the cited document there will be more than one reference to this topic: voluntary death or violent? That is, suicide or murder? The messages are clear. The investigation always begins with such a question in such situations and tries to answer it first.

The conclusion of the forensic medical examination in this case seems to be unambiguous: no signs were found that could indicate murder. Witnesses were interviewed - none of them named the killer.

This, it turns out, is quite enough to write down with absolute categoricality: “There are no persons guilty of the death of Akhromeyev or in any way involved in it.”

And now the Deputy Prosecutor General of the RSFSR E. Lisov, the same Evgeny Kuzmich Lisov, who, together with his chief prosecutor Stepankov, played the main role in preparing the “trial of the State Emergency Committee,” is in a hurry to end the case of Akhromeyev’s death. “In the absence of a crime event”...

We will return to this topic later - whether there was a crime or not, whether there were those involved in the death or whether they really did not exist. In the meantime, I would like to draw the readers’ attention to one date: the resolution to terminate the case was signed four months after it began - December 19.

Under other conditions, I understand, there would be nothing special about it. But here... Honestly, I can’t get rid of the impression that by the end of the year they were in a hurry to “get it over with.”

Was that the goal? Has the task been given? Stop, close and quickly forget. But there was still so much that was dark and contradictory in the case, so many facts that were literally screaming to be explained somehow!

But... the “unfavorable” facts were simply not mentioned in the final resolution. They are simply omitted so that it does not become obvious to anyone (and immediately!) that the ends meet here in many respects do not meet.

They clearly do not agree on the second point of this resolution - on the termination of the “criminal case against S.F. Akhromeev.” regarding his participation in the activities of the State Emergency Committee.” A sigh of relief is very audible here: no person - no problem.

Is it surprising that many, including those closest to Sergei Fedorovich, were not convinced by the investigation’s version? Let us reconstruct the chronicle of some of the events immediately preceding the fateful day - August 24, 1991.

On August 6, in agreement with President Gorbachev, his adviser Akhromeev went on another vacation to Sochi. There, in a military sanatorium, he heard on the morning of the 19th about the events in Moscow. And I immediately made a decision: to fly.

In the evening he was already at his workplace in the Kremlin. Met with Yanaev. He said that he agreed with the program set out by the Committee on the State of Emergency in its address to the people. He offered to start working as an acting advisor. President of the USSR.

The specific task entrusted to him was to collect information from the field about the current situation. The group he organized together with Baklanov prepared two reports. In addition, at Yanaev’s request, he worked on the draft of his speech at the Presidium and at the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The task is to justify the need for the measures taken by the State Emergency Committee. He also participated in committee meetings - more precisely, that part of them that was conducted in the presence of invitees.

I am stating all this according to the text of his letter to Gorbachev (“To the President of the USSR, Comrade M.S. Gorbachev”), where the marshal later reported on the extent of his participation in the actions of the State Emergency Committee. Other evidence contained in the case confirms these facts.

The letter is dated August 22. The failure of the State Emergency Committee is already obvious, and Akhromeev writes that he is ready to bear responsibility. However, there is no repentance in the letter. And not a word about suicide.

So, if the letter is genuine and if suicide did happen, the decision about it became final not on the 22nd, but later?

According to the investigation materials, six notes were found on the desktop in Akhromeyev’s office after his death. So, according to the dates, the first two refer to August 23. One, farewell, to the family. The second is addressed to Marshal Sokolov and Army General Lobov with a request to help with the funeral and not to leave family members alone during their difficult days.

How did this penultimate day of his life pass for him, when (if, again, there is no doubt that he killed himself) he mentally said goodbye to life and the people most dear to him?

There was a difficult meeting of the USSR Supreme Soviet Committee on Defense and Security Affairs. And Sergei Fedorovich behaved unusually, as eyewitnesses remember. If before he always spoke and was generally very active, this time he sat through the entire meeting in one position, without even turning his head or uttering a single word.

There are other, similar testimonies from those who saw him at work. Dark face, noticeably depressed. He was writing something in his office, trying to prevent those entering from seeing what he was writing. One can assume: those same notes. Dying...

In a word, there seem to be signs of the end that was brewing and being prepared by him.

But there are many serious reasons for doubt!

First of all (almost everyone has this from the very beginning) the question arises: why did the marshal choose such an unusual method of suicide for a military man? Hanging himself, and like this - in a sitting position, on a piece of twine tied to the handle of a window frame... This is not the military way. They say that in the criminal world, in prisons, they often resort to this method of self-destruction, but how does Akhromeev know about it?

The investigation focuses on the fact that the marshal handed over his pistol when leaving the post of Chief of the General Staff; He also handed over weapons, which were later presented to him by distinguished foreign guests.

That's right, I did. However, he had sleeping pills and tranquilizers, which, as his daughter rightly noted in her testimony to the investigation, allowed him to die much less painfully. Why didn't you resort to them?

Why, when preparing for death, did he choose the place of death not in the apartment, which was empty at that time, since the family was at the dacha, but (very strange!) in the Kremlin office? And to whom is the strange note addressed, apparently, the very last one: “I am a bad master at preparing a suicide weapon. The first attempt (at 9.40) failed - the cable broke. I woke up at 10.00. I’m going to have the strength to do it all again”? Who did he report to?

Both daughters of Sergei Fedorovich, with whom he spent the last evening and morning of the last day at the dacha, did not notice in him the slightest sign of impending trouble. As usual: early in the morning I spent a very long time, an hour and a half, doing exercises on the street. During breakfast, I discussed with them how best to meet my wife and granddaughter, who were expected from Sochi that day: “When mom checks the flight number, be sure to call me at work.” When leaving, he promised his youngest granddaughter to take her to the swing after lunch, that is, by lunchtime of this Saturday afternoon was going to be home.

The daughters can’t wrap their heads around what happens next. After all, after the expected call from her mother from Sochi, Tatyana Sergeevna immediately called her father and said that they were going to the airport to meet him. It was at 9.35 - it turns out that just at the time when he was preparing to put the noose on himself. But we still had a good conversation, and his voice was cheerful, even cheerful!

However, if this fact, like something from the previous one, can be motivated by the exceptional willpower and self-control of the marshal, then, when studying two thick red volumes provided to me by the military collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia, I came across facts that can already be explained I couldn't.

At least relative to the same morning on August 24th. In the testimony of Nikolai Vasilyevich Platonov, the driver of the General Staff motor depot, who worked with the marshal and then brought him to Moscow from his dacha, I read:

“We arrived at the Kremlin. Akhromeev said: “Go to the base, I’ll call you.” And he didn’t call. At 10 o'clock 50 min. I called him in the Kremlin and asked for time off for lunch. He let me go and told me to be at the base at 13.00. I didn’t talk to him or see him again.”

I involuntarily emphasized the time in this extract: 10 o’clock. 50 min. But at 10 o'clock. 00 min. Akhromeev, according to his note, woke up after an unsuccessful attempt on his life and was going to “do it all again”! Tell me, is it time to pick up the phone in response to a phone call and talk to the driver? And why?

Time of death of the marshal forensic examination defined very vaguely and approximately: “Death occurred no more than 24 hours before the autopsy began.” “Significant difficulties are stipulated in determining the duration of death if the examination of the corpse is carried out more than 10-12 hours after the death and if special forensic medical examinations have not been carried out on the spot before this.” But why were they not carried out?

Meanwhile, here is another testimony - from Vadim Valentinovich Zagladin, also an adviser to the President of the USSR. His office at number 19 “b” was located in a common corridor with Akhromeev’s office 19 “a”. Zagladin testifies about the day of August 24th as follows:

“I was at work from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maybe a little longer. I didn’t see Akhromeev. His office was open, I determined this by the fact that people were entering and leaving the office, but I don’t know who, I thought that it was Akhromeyev coming and going, since the secretaries did not work on Saturday... When I left, There was no key sticking out of Akhromeyev’s door. I turned off the light in the corridor between our offices (there is a small corridor there) and left. It was quiet in Akhromeyev’s office. I left the office at approximately 15-15.20. I remember for sure that there was no key in Akhromeyev’s door, otherwise I would not have turned off the light in the corridor.”

The key... The investigator asks again about this key: “Please clarify!” And Zagladin, repeating the same thing, explains: “Usually, when S.F. Akhromeev was in the office, the key was sticking out of the door with outside».

So, at 15.00 or 15.20 there was no key in the door, and at 21.50, when the officer on duty passed by the office, it was the key that caught his attention! When did he appear at the door? And who entered and left the office after 10 o'clock in the morning? Akhromeev himself? But, I repeat, at 10.00 he seemed to wake up and again attempt suicide...

Grechanaya Alla Vladimirovna, Akhromeev’s assistant, testifies: “From someone from the security, his name is Sasha, I heard that he saw Sergei Fedorovich at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday.” Please note: about two!

Only these three mysterious facts - with the driver calling, with the key and the security guard Sasha, in my opinion, are quite enough for the investigation to continue and try to answer the questions that arise in connection with them. No, I didn’t even find traces of such an attempt in the case! And Sasha, apparently, was not even interrogated. The case, as mentioned above, was rushed to close...

I’ll tell you about one more circumstance that attracted my attention, and with some kind of ominous reflection. In the testimony of the mentioned Kremlin security officer Vladimir Nikolaevich Koroteev, who, while inspecting the offices in the evening, discovered S.F. Akhromeev “without signs of life”, then I read: “I reported the discovery to the commandant of the Presidential Residence M.I. Barsukov.”

Badgers? Mikhail Ivanovich?!

Yes, the same one. One of the two people closest to Yeltsin over the past few years, mentioned all these years in the inextricable and meaningful link “Korzhakov - Barsukov”. A native of the KGB, who eventually headed the new, Yeltsin, intelligence service...

Was it by chance that he appeared at the scene of Akhromeyev’s death that mysterious night? And when did it appear?

According to his testimony, Koroteev reported to him about 24 hours later. However, Koroteev himself calls a different time - 21 hours 50 minutes. Moreover, he directly says that he discovered the corpse (remember, “without signs of life”?). But in Barsukov’s testimony it happens differently!

«. ..Koroteev V.N. reported to me that in 19 "a", the office of Advisor to the President of the USSR S.F. Akhromeev, the key is in the keyhole, and there is no light in the office and that he asks me to come... I went up to the 2nd floor at 19 "a ", looked into the office. At the window in an unnatural position I saw the adviser on the floor...»

That is, it turns out that Koroteev didn’t even look into the office, and Barsukov discovered the body? A strange discord that casts doubt on everything else in these testimonies:

The following question naturally arises: who was he then, Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov? Officially, by position, he is the commandant of the commandant’s office of Corps No. 1 of the Kremlin. Koroteev calls him the commandant of the Presidential Residence. Of course, the President of the USSR. But wasn’t he already working for the President of Russia, who seemed to be Gorbachev’s antipode?

In fact, one of the future odious couple of Yeltsin’s confidants has already been inseparably following his “master” through the corridors and basements of the “White House” in those August days and was even photographed next to him on a “historic” tank. The other one at this time is in the Kremlin corridors, where Yeltsin will soon enter victorious. Someone probably had to prepare the place.

There are many secrets, very many, hidden in the corridors of power...

If murder, then what caused it and how was it committed?

If it was suicide, then why did Akhromeev, a man of rare courage, strong-willed and life-loving, commit it?

Above, I have already named many arguments that arise from a careful study of the investigation materials and raise very serious doubts that the marshal’s death was voluntary. Conversations with people close to him strengthen such doubts.

His wife Tamara Vasilievna never believed and still categorically does not believe in suicide. Daughters Natalya and Tatyana do not believe. Army generals Valentin Varennikov and Mikhail Moiseev, who studied and worked next to him for many years and knew him well, do not believe it. Yes, many people I talked to don’t believe it.

One of the main arguments against suicide is the character of the person.

“I will frankly say that a person like Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev could not, simply is not capable of, committing suicide.”

This is what Georgy Gennadievich Malinetsky, son-in-law and husband of Tatyana’s daughter, says while giving testimony. Do you feel how firmly he speaks? He had the opportunity to come into contact with the character of his father-in-law more in an everyday, family environment, but for him, the marshal’s enormous willpower and fortitude, and his unshakable natural optimism are undeniable. In a word, the strongest inner core, as if specially created and hardened for difficult military service.

Let's listen to my wife. She knew Sergei Fedorovich since childhood - they studied at the same school. Knows his character and life, probably better than anyone.

- Have you ever seen him in different states related to his service?

- We traveled a lot. After the war and the Academy of Armored Forces - Far East, then Belarus, Ukraine, again Belarus and again the Far East... You know, he, as a commander responsible for very large groups of people in the troops, had the most difficult situations, all kinds of emergencies. Naturally, he was worried, sometimes he was very worried, because he is not made of iron. But in confusion, and even more so in panic, I never saw him. That’s why I don’t believe that I could commit suicide...

Yes, fate tested him to the breaking point more than once, but he persevered.

Few people know that Akhromeev, at that time the first deputy chief of the General Staff, one of the few in the military leadership, strongly objected to the entry of our troops into Afghanistan. Few people know what role our army played in eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, and Akhromeev, then the chief of the General Staff, became one of the leading organizers of this work, unprecedented in scale and complexity.

So what happens? Withstood the Great Patriotic War, Afghanistan, and Chernobyl, and here, when there was no war, no accident nuclear reactor, suddenly shows an incomprehensible weakness.

Indeed, this is difficult to understand and accept.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Engver, a people's deputy of the USSR, who communicated a lot with deputy Akhromeyev on the affairs of “Afghan” soldiers and more than once spoke with him about the “Afghan syndrome,” knows that the marshal considered suicide for a military man to be a weakness. He allowed it only in one case: when you are a carrier of information of the highest secrecy and cannot prevent yourself from being captured by the enemy. Because torture, and especially modern psychotropic drugs allow you to “extract” a lot from a person, even against his will...

Even then, shortly after the fateful August 1991, a version arose that Akhromeev was forced to commit suicide, threatening reprisals against his family. This idea is suggested, in particular, by the lines from the farewell letter addressed to the family:

« For me, the main duty of a warrior and a citizen has always been. You were in second place...

Today, for the first time, I put my duty to you first..."

If we imagine that he heard the final and now very specific threat of reprisals against his family when he arrived at work in last morning, then they receive an explanation for his calm departure from home, and his intention to be there for dinner when his wife and granddaughter arrive from Sochi, and a note in which he explains to someone about the unsuccessful first attempt to kill himself. By the way, those with whom he talks could have offered him this method of suicide used in the criminal world.

Who needed to remove the marshal and why?

Eat different options answer to this question. But what it all boils down to is that he knew too much and became too inconvenient for many.

It is known, for example: at that critical moment he was preparing to speak at the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which was scheduled for August 26. His honest and direct word posed a serious danger to those who at that time began the decisive act of implementing their insidious plans.

However, this man’s crystal honesty and unbending integrity have long become a danger to himself. In the testimony of G. Malinetsky I read:

« Repeatedly said that he political struggle as a deputy and public figure could threaten the well-being of his family, his freedom, and possibly his life. After the publication of an article in Sovetskaya Rossiya “Who are the generals interfering with,” he said, people called him at work and threatened him with violence».

What about phone calls and anonymous letters? They threatened quite unequivocally, even from the newspaper pages. Everything shook inside me when, in one of the drafts of Akhromeyev’s speech in the Supreme Soviet, where he intended to speak, in particular, about the campaign of persecution and slander organized against him by the “democratic” press, I read: they call him a war criminal, they write that Akhromeev must suffer the “fate of Speer and Hess.” Both of them, as is known, were convicted by the Nuremberg Tribunal, and Hess, sentenced to life imprisonment, eventually died in a noose.

How many people immediately understood the meaning and ultimate goal of these deafening psychic attacks? How many stood up against them? Looking back, let's face it: no, not many.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Akhromeyev was one of the first to stand up. Decisively and boldly, as soldiers rose into battle under enemy fire, and as he himself rose more than once at the front.

The wife said this:

- He understood the words “first think about the Motherland, and then about yourself” literally and followed them all his life. They were not pompous phrases for him.

And then he felt that a threat had suddenly loomed over his Motherland again. No, perhaps not right away, and he, like all of us, realized the global scale of this threat. Having accepted with all his open, wide soul the declared goals of perestroika, noble and beautiful, at first he considered the publications that offended him in some publications to be simply the fruit of the irresponsibility of individual journalists in the pursuit of sensation. So to speak, the costs of publicity.

However, he could not silently tolerate these “individual costs,” especially those related to the falsification of the history of the Great Patriotic War. I remember how I began to bring and send articles to us in Pravda. I was also surprised: a military leader of such rank finds the time and energy to argue with some petty writings! But one day I heard the marshal answer my editorial colleague to approximately the same question:

- You cannot remain silent when they lie. We must give change. Otherwise they will become completely insolent.

And then he will write: “They carried out a very definite political line. Our entire past is being reshaped. But without a worthy past there can be no normal present, no future. The destructive work of the newly minted democrats will cost the Fatherland dearly.” How often do I remember these prophetic words of his today! However, it is now obvious to many how right those who warned that we could lose a normal present and future were.

And at that time they tried to discredit these warnings in the eyes of people, so that people simply would not listen to them. Labels like “conservative” and “opponent of perestroika” were not enough if after that the person did not retreat and did not stop fighting, and his struggle became more and more impressive, a targeted “personal” campaign was organized against him. And here, as they say, all means are good - they stopped at nothing.

I read in Akhromeyev’s diary:

"In relation to me, for example, today the press, from the newspaper Izvestia to Literaturnaya Gazeta, launched a real persecution, day after day, a deliberate lie. It is completely useless to talk about any kind of justice. The coven of persecution can be compared with the campaigns that were organized against Ligachev E.K. The goal is one - to silence. If it fails, it will be compromised».

It’s amazing how frantic they were in accusing him! It is painful to read drafts of speeches and articles in which he is forced to prove the absurdity of numerous accusations.

“War criminal” is, of course, for Afghanistan, where for about two years he was the chief of staff of the operational group of the Ministry of Defense, carrying out the decision of the country’s top leadership.

But from Akhromeev’s letter to the editor-in-chief of Izvestia, which, like many of his other similar appeals, remained not only unpublished, but also unanswered:

« The Izvestia newspaper is telling lies:

That he hid data on the state of the Armed Forces in his country and disclosed them to the USA;

Today he portrays me as a thief, getting into the pocket of the state...”

My God, this last one remains in my memory as the height of shame for those who, in the toga of “fighters against privilege,” poisoned an honest man! This was not only in Izvestia. Maybe you too will remember the burning eyes and cold prosecutorial voice of the blond girl jumping up on the TV screen from the parliamentary ranks and denouncing, denouncing, denouncing...

What, exactly, were we talking about? The Marshal was offered at the state dacha, where he lived with a family of eight people, state price buy back the furniture he had previously rented. Old furniture.

Compare this with how soon the “fighters against privilege” will plunder and sell off the entire country.

Seeing a fashionably dressed blond madam on TV today, babbling something about the social protection of the orphaned and poor, I always think: doesn’t the shadow of Marshal Akhromeyev appear to you at night? The one who was called a Spartan by his friends for his greatest modesty and ascetic unpretentiousness. Who, having transferred to the position of presidential adviser, refused a one and a half times increased salary. Who, even saying goodbye to life, did not forget that he owed a few rubles to the canteen, and in one of the last notes he asked to return it by attaching money.

You, moral pygmies, who viciously and cruelly persecuted such a person, are you capable of - well, not rising to his heights, no, but at least understanding this height?

Finally, about one more, most important, side of the drama he experienced, which turned into a tragedy.

Let's think more carefully: who did he fight with in the last years of his life?

« “It’s clear to me,” he writes in his diary, “that the relevant press will continue to do its job. Always lively pens that will write any vile thing for good money, especially since no one will be held accountable for it. And there are political forces that will order this vileness for them».

In what political forces does he see his opponents?

Calls printed publications: “Ogonyok”, “Moscow News”, “Arguments and Facts”... Uses commonly used definitions: “democrats”, “interregionals”:..

Sharply criticizing shifters like Volkogonov, he notes: “ Now Colonel General Volkogonov is an anti-communist. Today he betrayed the cause of the CPSU and stood under the banner of one of the former leaders of the CPSU, and now the militant anti-communist B.N. Yeltsin».

This means that the opponents are anti-communists... But with whom did he, the communist Akhromeyev, who joined the party at the front, did not change or betray his convictions, find himself at this difficult historical moment?

He was, as they say, on Gorbachev’s team. Was, by the will of fate, in his closest circle. But who was Gorbachev?

Soon after Akhromeev's death, the publishing house " International relations“His last book, co-authored with former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs G. Kornienko, “Through the Eyes of a Marshal and Diplomat,” was published. A critical look at foreign policy before and after 1985. It came out in a very small edition, and even then I’m surprised they released it then! Reading Sergei Fedorovich’s diary, I saw with what persistence, despite ill health and being busy with many other things, he worked on the book all these last months, giving himself tasks literally every day. As if he was afraid that he wouldn’t have time to speak out. So this book, somewhat confessional, together with the diary helps to more concretely imagine his very difficult relationship with those whose “team” he was part of, and to better understand the drama of the situation in which he was placed.

The topic is bitter and big. Let me take one fact as an example.

It is known that Akhromeyev, as chief of the General Staff and then adviser to the country's president on military issues, took an active part in the preparation of the most important Soviet-American negotiations related to arms reduction. In 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was on the agenda.

“A stubborn struggle”, “intense confrontation”, “a real duel” - such expressions are not uncommon in Akhromeyev’s book. It is clear that it was not easy to conduct business in such a way that agreement was reached and decisions were ultimately made, but without prejudice to our state interests, but the Americans did not forget about their benefit for a minute!

This time, the most serious tug-of-war arose over the Soviet Oka missile, called the SS-23 in the West. Why? The missile is new, the latest achievement of our military-technical thought. The Americans are interested in us not having it.

But it does not fall under the terms of the contract. Medium-range missiles are subject to elimination - from 1000 to 5500 kilometers and shorter - from 500 to 1000. The maximum tested range of the Oka is 400 kilometers. And yet... she was destroyed! How could this happen?

Akhromeev, of course, firmly stood his ground, parrying all the cunning tricks of the American side. As always. It was not for nothing that the American military who dealt with him respected him so much for his patriotism and the highest professionalism. So now, in the end, they were asked: well, let's be honest - we will ban all missiles in the range not from 500, but from 400 to 1000 km. Then a barrier would have been put in place to create a modernized American Lance-2 missile with a range of 450-470 km. Parity would be maintained.

However, having arrived in Moscow, US Secretary of State Shultz raised the question with Shevardnadze about subsuming the SS-23 under the concept of “shorter-range missiles.” And he receives the answer: this will not be a problem for us.

Representatives of the General Staff were not even invited to the meeting of experts that took place that same evening at the Foreign Ministry. And during Gorbachev’s conversation with Shultz the next day, the inclusion of the SS-23 in the concept of “shorter-range missile” was already spoken of... as a settled issue. Without any reservations, the lower range limit should decrease for Americans too!

Akhromeev writes in the book: “ At a conversation held on April 23, M.S. Gorbachev with J. Shultz, my participation was not planned, and that half of it, during which the aforementioned agreement on the Oka missile was consolidated, took place without my participation. However, in the middle of their conversation, I was quite unexpectedly summoned by the Secretary General to clarify some of the circumstances of the negotiations in Reykjavik, consisting of working group Nitzke - Akhromeev. I gave the necessary explanations and was left for the conversation; the conversation began about specific issues of the future treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms. I learned about the solution to the issue of the Oka missile during the first stage of this conversation only the next day from the newspapers, after reading a message about the meeting of M.S. Gorbachev with J. Shultz, and even indicating that the Chief of the General Staff was present at the conversation».

That's how it is! He was invited to the second part of the conversation, apparently, in order to give just such a message in the newspapers. But in essence - they deceived. Both him and everyone.

« The military leadership was outraged by what happened“Akhromeev notes. He writes with the utmost restraint, although you can feel that even after a while there is something bubbling in his soul. Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov, who was Akhromeyev’s first deputy on the General Staff, told me about the immediate reaction:

- I came from Afghanistan, where I was on a long business trip, and went straight to him. And he, as if anticipating my first question, literally rushed towards me: “Don’t think that I did this!” It was obvious he was in great pain.

Reasons for torment arose more and more often. However, even in specific situations, like this one, and when assessing the current situation of the country as a whole, he will not be able to say directly for a long time: Gorbachev is to blame.

It is already clear to him, of course, that the matter is not only in “interregionals”, in the so-called democratic opposition. He sees his opponents already in the country's leadership. He already calls them by name: Yakovlev, Shevardnadze, Medvedev... But for Gorbachev he still finds excuses - probably he is being “set up”.

The drama of an honest man who lives according to his conscience and has no idea that conscience can be elastic, that you can think one thing, say another, and do a third. A drama of trust and loyalty!

Meanwhile, as I already felt then, and now I understand quite clearly, for Gorbachev and the people really close to him, Akhromeyev was not “one of his own.” And it became more and more unacceptable.

I remember an incident that happened somewhere at the end of 1989 or at the beginning of 1990. The “progressive” Frolov, Gorbachev’s authorized and trusted protege, had already been sent as editor-in-chief to Pravda, replacing the “conservative” Afanasyev. One day he gives me an article. With a dissatisfied, somewhat disgusted, sour look:

Akhromeev wrote. Look.

Ready for printing?

I said: look!

Ivan Timofeevich knew how to shout at his subordinates - with or without reason, and in this case the reason for his irritation became absolutely clear to me when I read the article. It was a bundle of pain, a sharp protest against what was leading more and more to the collapse of the country.

Of course, the article was not published, although I brought it up to newspaper volume and submitted it to Frolov. Alas, this has happened more than once in connection with sensitive articles by other inconvenient authors who, without any explanation, were “wrapped up” by the editor-in-chief. Forgive me, Sergei Fedorovich!..

I think he understood everything. Even Pravda, which he considered his own newspaper, ceased to be such. What was left? " Soviet Russia" and "Red Star"? Perhaps, these are all the printed platforms where he could speak.

But there was so much that needed to be said!

In his diary notes, intense thought beats, and his assessments of what is happening are increasingly sharper, more and more definite.

"1. People have lost perspective - faith in the President and the CPSU.

2. Break everything, they broke everything - they did nothing. Bedlam, there is no order.

3.1985-1991. When was it better? What do you want to convince us of?!!

4. No raw materials, no components. Production is disrupted. Everything was sold to Romania.”

This recording was apparently made after a trip to Moldova, from where he was elected people's deputy of the USSR.

The year 1991 has already begun. And he can no longer avoid a direct answer to the question about Gorbachev’s guilt.

Long before August, somewhere in the spring, while working on a speech in the Supreme Council, he writes down:

« About M.S. GORBACHEV. After 6 years of M.S. Gorbachev's tenure as head of state, the fundamental question became: HOW DID IT HAPPEN THAT THE COUNTRY WAS ON THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION? What are the objective reasons for the current situation, they should have appeared regardless of who would have led the country in 1985, and what is to blame is politics and practical activities Gorbachev?

In 1985-1986 M.S. Gorbachev and other members of the Politburo behaved like frivolous schoolchildren.

And this was done by serious people?

Who and why organized the anti-army campaign in the country?

How should we deal with our past today?

In short, everything was done to ensure that a crisis of confidence occurred in the country.

Who needed it and why?

On whose part was this frivolity or malice?

The answer is clear: “Gorbachev’s path did not happen. The country is thrown into chaos."

I see that Akhromeyev, as a man of exceptional honesty, cannot believe in evil intent until the last moment. However, the inadmissibility of Gorbachev’s continued presence at the leadership of the country is already undeniable for him: “ WHAT SHOULD M.S. WRITE ABOUT? There is one step left before resignation. M.S. himself is primarily to blame. - his opportunism and compromise... Resignation is inevitable. M.S. Gorbachev is dear, but the Fatherland is dearer».

Did he write this to Gorbachev? For sure. Either wrote it or expressed it. The already mentioned Engwer, in the words of Sergei Fedorovich himself, conveys his creed as a presidential adviser: to say not what Gorbachev wants to hear, but what actually exists.

But why didn’t he publicly demand Gorbachev’s resignation?

Georgy Markovich Kornienko, who was working on the book with Akhromeev at the time, recalls that Sergei Fedorovich considered it unethical to publicly speak out personally against the president, since he was “in office”: he was his advisor!

Three times he wrote statements about his own resignation. He referred to deteriorating health, the consequences of injury and concussion, which was true. But an even greater truth was that the position of adviser to the main leader of the state, in which he hoped to do a lot of useful things for the state, now, in a critical situation, did not allow him to do what was perhaps necessary - to publicly speak out against the leader himself.

And Gorbachev did not give him his resignation, I think, precisely because he knew: then he would speak without any “self-restraints.” By the way, Akhromeev was going to write his next book about Gorbachev. I can imagine what a book it would be!..

Three days later he would write to him, who remained officially president:

« The fact is that since 1990 I have been convinced, as I am convinced today, that our country is heading towards destruction and will soon be dismembered. I was looking for a way: to say it loudly».

And then, again, as an adviser to the president (not relieved of this damned position!), he writes about his responsibility for participating in the work of the State Emergency Committee...

I have long wanted to hear from Gorbachev what he felt when he learned about the tragic death of Akhromeyev, what he feels and thinks about this now?

Catch in Moscow former president country, and now - a personal fund is very difficult. "1 On September 0, Mikhail Sergeevich flies to Germany. He won't be back until the 25th. But on the 30th it will fly away again. To America. This is until October 12th. And on the 19th again to America...»

And yet, after four months of my persistent calls, the conversation took place. What did I hear?

Gorbachev, according to him, had a hard time dealing with Akhromeyev’s death. Treated him with great respect and trust. He repeated this twice: " I believed him." He called him a man of morals and conscience: “He will blush, but will directly say everything he thinks.” And his arrival in Moscow then, in August, was perceived “as a blow».

It was a difficult situation for the President and the Secretary General. On the one hand, close people opposed it. On the other hand, the Russian government, the Russian leadership was gaining strength, they believed that they were on horseback. I had to go to the Russian Supreme Council...

Tell me, don’t you have at least some feeling of guilt before the marshal? After all, his death was, one way or another, a consequence of the tragic situation into which the country was plunged. I wrote to you: “Soon she will be dismembered.”

- I didn't have any feelings of guilt.

This reverberated through me: “it wasn’t and isn’t”, “it wasn’t and isn’t”!..

He said that he was going to invite Akhromeyev for a conversation, but “was finished” - he just met in the Russian Supreme Council, and then made a statement about relinquishing his powers as Secretary General. And I thought: it seems that on the day of his death Gorbachev made this statement that shocked me - he renounced the party, essentially announcing its dissolution! Did Sergei Fedorovich manage to hear? What a blow this was for him...

There is hardly any need to comment further on the conversation with Gorbachev. Maybe there was just one word that cut me sharply:

Akhromeyev was a big worryer. This word, casually and carelessly thrown, in my opinion, expressively characterizes both the one about whom it is said and the one who said it.

When your question: “Suicide or murder?” - with which I addressed many, asked Army General M. Gareev, Makhmut Akhmetovich answered like this:

- In any case, it was murder. He was killed by meanness and betrayal, by what they did to the country.

- But he wasn’t the only one who faced this! If you admit that he could lay hands on himself, why did he??

- He is the most conscientious of us.

Well, only the conscientious will understand this. And for those in whose understanding conscience is an abstract concept, it will remain a strange “worrier.”

« I cannot live when my Fatherland is dying and everything that I considered the meaning of my life is being destroyed, and my past life gives me the right to die. I fought until the end».

Whether he accepted death voluntarily or by force, the main thing in these last words is: The Fatherland is perishing! He gave everything he could for it. In the end, surrounded by enemies and betrayed, he gave his life. During the Great Patriotic War, of which he was a brave fighter, they wrote about the heroes: “He gave his life for his Motherland.”

Soon after his death, as he foresaw, the Motherland would be dismembered. It turns out that his struggle and death were in vain? I think not.

We once talked about our fallen heroes, like Gorky’s Falcon: “ Let you die!.. But in the song of the brave and strong in spirit you will always be a living example...»

Nowadays these words are rarely heard. “The battlefield after the battle belongs to the marauders” - the title of one of the modern plays quite accurately indicates who the masters of life are today. In this sense, the desecration of Akhromeyev’s grave (an unheard-of, monstrous desecration!) became ominously symbolic - it marked, so to speak, the entry into new era.

But it won't always be like this. We will continue the battle for the Motherland; children will then take the place of their fathers in this battle.

And they should know: in our time there were not only “heroes” of Foros and Belovezhiya. There was Marshal Akhromeyev. He was and will forever remain the Marshal of the Great Power - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, who did not betray his ideals.

It is impossible to imagine him fitting into the “new regime”. I can’t imagine, for example, sitting on some current official event- in a Soviet marshal's uniform, but with tricolor and double-headed eagle stripes.

On his gravestone there are three words that express the very essence of this man: Communist, Patriot, Soldier. And it’s not for nothing that fighters from the opposition of various, sometimes incompatible directions come to the grave - he seems to unite them all. Also, I think, with my high authority I could have united him in life if he had remained alive. Maybe that's why they didn't leave him alive?

Dmitry Timofeevich Yazov, also a Marshal of the Soviet Union, finding himself in the Matrosskaya Tishina cell and learning there about the death of his military friend, wrote in a prison notebook: “ Someday a talented author will appear and write about this amazing person, a real man of honor, a worthy book that will complement and decorate the series “The Lives of Remarkable People».

Let me note: Dmitry Timofeevich himself with his life also earned the right to good book.

Yes, today honor is not in honor. But in the current political and moral lawlessness, when selfish intrigues and gang warfare rule the roost, a bright example of people for whom the Motherland is truly more valuable than their own lives is especially necessary.

Let's remember that we had such people. Let's believe that they will definitely come.

Russia will be saved by them.

Details

The investigator in the Akhromeyev case, Leonid Proshkin, documented that there was perfect order in the marshal’s office. There were no signs of a struggle. On the table lay the same suicide notes, in which the deceased described in detail all his actions. According to the investigator, there was no doubt at all that it was suicide.

Could not bear what happened to his country

In the last days of his life, Marshal Akhromeyev was in a depressed state. He devoted more than 50 years to the service of the people and the state. Everything that happened to the country in the late 80s was very difficult for me. On the eve of his suicide, Sergei Fedorovich was relaxing with his wife in a Sochi sanatorium. It was there that he learned about the impending coup.

Strange circumstances of death

Another version

(*5.05.1923 - † 08.24.1991) - Marshal of the Soviet Union.

During the Great Patriotic War- junior officer, was awarded for participation in the defense of Leningrad during the siege. He took part in battles with the Nazi invaders on the Leningrad, Stalingrad, Southern and 4th Ukrainian fronts.

Since 1974 - Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, since 1979 - First Deputy; in 1984-1988 - Chief of the General Staff Armed Forces USSR, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.

In 1982, Akhromeev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1983 he received the rank of marshal.

Since 1988 - Advisor to the Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council, since May 1989 - Advisor to the Chairman of the USSR Supreme Court. Since March 1990 - Advisor to the President of the USSR.

In 1984-1989 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In March 1989 he was elected people's deputy of the USSR. Member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the USSR Armed Forces Committee on Defense and Security.

As Chief of the General Staff, he repeatedly participated in the negotiations that ended the Cold War. At the same time, his disagreements with M. S. Gorbachev grew; he disagreed with military reform and the weakening of Soviet military power, due to which he resigned.

Akhromeev resigned after Gorbachev’s decision to destroy the newest and most high-precision Soviet ballistic missile, the Oka (SS-23), under the guise of the INF Treaty, despite the fact that the Oka did not fall under it in any respect.

Akhromeev was not a member of the State Emergency Committee and learned about its creation only on the morning of August 19, when he was on vacation with his wife Tamara Vasilievna and grandchildren in Sochi. But he decided to return to Moscow, leaving his relatives in the sanatorium. The marshal was in the Kremlin on the evening of August 19, and at 10 p.m. he met with Vice President G. Yanaev.

Akhromeev said that he supports the State Emergency Committee’s Appeal and is ready to help. He spent the night at his dacha, where his youngest daughter lived with her family. All day on August 20, Akhromeyev worked in the Kremlin and in the building of the Ministry of Defense, collecting information about the military-political situation in the country. He spent the night in his office - on a cot. From here I called my wife in Sochi.

On August 22, Akhromeev learned about the return of Gorbachev and the arrest of Defense Minister D. Yazov. Akhromeev did not meet with Gorbachev. He began to prepare his letter to Gorbachev, as well as the text of his speech at the session of the Supreme Council, which was scheduled for August 26. In his notebook, which was later given to relatives, there were many entries on this subject, including this one:

“Why did I come to Moscow from Sochi? Nobody called me. I was sure that this adventure would be defeated, and when I arrived in Moscow, I was personally convinced of this. But since 1990, our country has been heading towards destruction. Gorbachev is dear, but the Fatherland more expensive! Let at least a trace remain in history - they protested against the death of such a great state.”

Although after the failure of the State Emergency Committee Akhromeev was not charged with participation in the coup attempt, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Soviet Union Akhromeev S.F. committed suicide in his office No. 19 "a" of building No. 1 of the Moscow Kremlin after a failed attempt to remove the President of the USSR from power during the activity (August 19-21, 1991) of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR, leaving suicide note, explaining the reasons for leaving life:

“I can’t live when my Fatherland is dying and everything that I considered the meaning of my life is being destroyed. Age and my past life give me the right to leave this life. I fought to the end.”

According to the testimony of Marshal's daughters Natalya and Tatyana, on the evening of August 23, their father did not look depressed. Everyone gathered for dinner and bought big melon, discussed latest events. In the morning at 9 o'clock the marshal went to the Kremlin and promised to take a walk with his granddaughters in the evening. Already from the Kremlin I spoke with Tatyana about meeting my mother; she was returning to Moscow at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. But within an hour after this conversation, Akhromeyev was dead. As can be judged from the notes, the marshal was thinking about suicide already on August 23, but there were some hesitations. But it was on the morning of August 24 that M. Gorbachev’s statement about his resignation as General Secretary, as well as his call for the self-dissolution of the CPSU Central Committee, was broadcast on radio and television. Some of Sergei Fedorovich's friends believed that this was the last straw - the method of suicide he chose was too unusual for a military man.

Marshal Akhromeyev was a worthy military leader and was highly respected in the army and in the party. He began the war in 1941 as a deputy platoon commander in the Marine Corps and ended it as a battalion commander. In 1979-1988 he was the first deputy chief, and then the chief of the General Staff and the first deputy minister of defense of the USSR. He led the planning of military operations in Afghanistan at all stages, including the withdrawal of troops. In the arms reduction negotiations, Akhromeyev was the main expert, and Gorbachev acknowledged that without him the negotiations would have been less successful.

The Marshal had a hard time with the anti-army campaign waged by a significant part of the press in 1989-1990, without encountering any opposition from Gorbachev. Akhromeev often spoke on this issue at meetings of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

The marshal's suicide was reported on television on the evening of August 25, and newspapers wrote a little more about this on August 26, but with reference to the USSR Prosecutor General's Office. It was reported that an investigation was underway. There was no obituary after August 26th. Neither the President of the country nor the new Minister of Defense of the USSR, Air Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, expressed any public condolences regarding the death of Akhromeev.

The greatest attention to the fate of the late marshal was shown by American Admiral William Crowe, who during the time of R. Reagan served as Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff - in America this is the highest post for professional military personnel. W. Crowe spent a lot of time with Akhromeyev at various kinds of negotiations on military issues and developed deep respect for him. The admiral tried several times to contact Akhromeev’s relatives in Moscow, but was unsuccessful. In the end, he asked American journalists he knew in Moscow to find the wife and daughters of the late marshal in the Soviet capital and express condolences to them. He also asked to lay a wreath on the grave of his colleague.

It was Admiral W. Crowe who wrote the first large obituary dedicated to the memory of Marshal Akhromeyev and published in September 1991 in the American Time magazine. “Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev,” the admiral wrote, “was my friend. His suicide is a tragedy that reflects the convulsions that are shaking the Soviet Union. He was a communist, a patriot and a soldier. And I believe that this is exactly what he would say about himself. For all his great patriotism and devotion to the party, Akhromeev was a modern man who understood that much in his country was a mistake and much must be changed if the Soviet Union was to continue to remain a great power... Despite his desire for change, he did not foresee , where reforms would lead in the future... He was devoted to the ideals of communism and was very proud that everything he had was not much greater than what he carried. His narrow ideas about capitalism were the cause of our most heated argument. In the end, he was unable to reconcile his conflicting beliefs with the things that overwhelmed him. This does not diminish his contribution to arms control, to the creation of a more constructive Soviet-American relationship, and to the easing of tensions that had shackled our countries for 45 years. He was a man of honor."

The Time article was accompanied by a photograph of Marshal Akhromeyev and Admiral Crowe standing side by side at a military exercise, watching an airborne assault. These were the largest military exercises in the 80s, which were held in the United States from July 6 to July 10, 1988 and covered the states of North Carolina, Texas, and South Dakota. The actions of large units of the US Army, Air Force and Navy and their interaction were shown. As a professional military man, Akhromeyev was delighted, but as a patriot he was dejected. In the Soviet Union, he could no longer show American military professionals such a picture...

In November 1991, the Russian Prosecutor's Office dropped the criminal case against S.F. Akhromeev on the fact of his participation in the activities of the State Emergency Committee due to the lack of corpus delicti. The investigation concluded that although S.F. Akhromeev took part in the work of the State Emergency Committee and carried out a number of specific actions on the instructions of the conspirators, however, based on the content of these actions, it cannot be judged that Akhromeev’s intent was aimed at participating in a conspiracy to seize power.

Many who knew Akhromeyev’s character could not believe that he committed suicide and believed that he was actually killed. Perhaps he was killed - by the murder of his country.

One of the LJ-ists writes (August 20, 2006):

Today I watched films about 19.08 on ORT and RTR. What impressed me most was the footage of Marshal Akhromeyev being hanged. He hanged himself with a window lock. On some kind of wire or cord... I remember Akhromeev from his speeches at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. He was a fanatic, sincerely devoted to the communist idea. He made me hate him because I understood that this man would fight to the end. Unlike the Yanaevs, Yazovs and Starodubtsevs, Marshal Akhromeyev believed in his ideals and committed suicide when he realized that his Soviet Union was ending. It's hard to imagine now...

A few days after a modest funeral at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow, his grave was desecrated. The scoundrels dug up the coffin, took off the deceased’s ceremonial uniform - and the marshal had to be buried a second time...