Executioners and victims
ABAKUMOV Victor Semenovich (1908-1954). Minister of State Security (1946-1951). Colonel-General. He was born in Moscow, in the family of a worker. Thirteen years, after graduating from four classes of the city school, Victor went to the Red Army, served as a Red Army volunteer in the 2nd Moscow Special Forces Brigade. After demobilization he worked as a loader, joined the Komsomol, headed the Komsomol cell at the Press plant. Since 1930, a candidate member of the CPSU (b). In 1931 Abakumov – head of the military department of the Zamoskvoretsky District Committee of the Komsomol. Hence, in 1932, he was recommended to work in the organs of the OGPU. He made a career in the GPU-NKVD during the Stalin purges of the 30s, being one of the deputies of L. Beria. Abakumov was appointed to the post of head of the NKVD Office for the Rostov region. Member of the XVIII Congress of the Party. He was a member of Stalin’s personal Secretariat. Participated in the Great Patriotic War; in
Minister Abakumov, according to his former colleagues, was smart, smart, resolute, superior to his predecessors Yezhov, Beria and Merkulov in the knowledge of operational work. In addition, he was handsome, tall, well built. He watched himself: he wore carefully fitted uniforms and fashionable costumes, smelled exquisitely cologne, practiced tennis, was a master of sports in sambo (Kutuzov V. Dirty kitchen Abakumova // Leningrad case, St. Petersburg 1990. S. 400).
Colonel IA Chernov recalls Colonel IA Chernov: “Viktor Semenovich was a young man, but he was very respected, SMERSH was very respected in GURKM, he paid much attention to the investigative work, knew it well, and it was active. and at the front he held tightly in his hands, he did not give indulgence to anybody. “He was reticent, yes, it happened in every way, but he did not have swagger.” On
In 1951, Abakumov was unexpectedly removed from his post as minister and replaced by Ignatiev. 2) In the same year (June 12) he was arrested on Stalin’s orders. Simultaneously with Abakumov, his wife, Antonina N. Smirnova (born in 1920), was arrested with a two-month-old son.
As it turned out later, the reason for Abakumov’s arrest was a letter-denunciation to Stalin from Lieutenant-Colonel M. D. Rumin, head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the MGB of the USSR, who reported on the existence of a “conspiracy” of Jewish bourgeois nationalists, inspired by US intelligence. Moreover, Ryumin reported, Abakumov knew about the “conspiracy,” but for some reason he hid it. When arrested, he was confiscated documents declared top secret, which undoubtedly complicated his situation (in documents, it was believed that he had discredited Beria, Malenkov, and a number of other people close to Stalin). The materials of the criminal case do not have these documents – they were either destroyed or immediately taken away for fear of disclosure, even in the narrowest circle. About their content is known from the note of Abakumov Beria.
In Lefortovo prison he was held in shackles and handcuffs. Despite the cruel torture (Abakumov became a complete invalid), he signed nothing and denied all charges. Abakumov argued that all arrests on the “case” of aviation industry workers, “Leningrad business” 3) and others were committed by him on the instructions of the “highest authority” (ie Stalin.- Comp.). However, at the trial, Stalin’s name was not mentioned, since at that time it was still holy both for official state institutions and for many people.
Abakumov was tried in Leningrad on December 19, 1954. He was accused, in particular, of treason and embezzlement of state and public property. 4) In the indictment, he was named “a member of the Beria gang”, although in fact, as a number of sources testify, in In recent years, Abakumov was Beria’s personal enemy. Immediately after the trial, the USSR Procurator-General Rudenko told Khrushchev on the phone in Moscow “about the completion of the assignment and asked if it could be rounded off.” Having received an affirmative answer, Rudenko is not. began to hesitate. Abakumova was shot the same day. He would hardly have degraded himself to the petition for clemency, but that he was deprived of this opportunity. is an established fact.
In 1994, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR Abakumov was partially rehabilitated: he was charged with treason against the Motherland, that is, he is no longer a state criminal.
Abakumov’s wife (with her young son) was imprisoned for three years only because she married a particularly dangerous criminal and, in addition, was the daughter of the pop artist Ornaldo, who was friends with Marshal Tukhachevsky. Subsequently, his wife and son Abakumov were rehabilitated
For his services to the country and people, Abakumov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, Suvorov 1 and 2 degrees, Kutuzov 1st Class, the Red Star, medals for the defense of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Caucasus (Stolyarov X Golgotha // Stolyarov K. The executioners and victims. 11-137, Sudoplatov A. The Secret Life of General Sudoplatov, T. 2. M. 1998).
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