Nikita Khrushchev's report on exposing the cult of personality had an indelible effect on the country. But why did he actually decide to do this: was it a family tragedy or big politics? How did Leonid Khrushchev die, and what is hidden behind the rumors about his desertion? The Moscow Trust TV channel prepared a special report.
"Golden Child"
Rada Khrushcheva had just finished 4th grade at that time. The holidays have begun, and the family moves to a dacha 20 km from the city.
“My father was not in Kyiv, I thought that he was traveling around the Ukrainian regions, but it turns out he was in Moscow,” says daughter N.S. Khrushchev Rada Adzhubey.
Nikita Khrushchev returns to Kyiv with only a few hours left before the war. His daughter Rada recalls that their government dacha unwittingly served as a landmark for the Germans when they flew to the capital.
Leonid Khrushchev
“These were three large white houses, the roofs were covered with camouflage netting. We saw a formation of bombers flying and turning towards Kyiv,” recalls Adzhubey.
During these days, Rada's elder brother, bomber pilot Leonid, was not at home - he was at the location of his unit. By the beginning of the war, he was one of the most experienced here: after air force school in 1940, he volunteered for the Soviet-Finnish war and managed to fly dozens of combat missions.
Historian-publicist Nikolai Dobryukha has been researching the fate of the son of Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev for many years.
“I am one of the few to whom senior state security officials revealed many secrets and helped obtain unique documents. KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny, whom I helped write and publish reflections in central newspapers, spoke directly with Nikita Sergeevich about Leonid,” says Dobryukha.
Leonid is Khrushchev's son from his first marriage. His mother died early, and his father soon goes to prison. Civil War, where he serves in the Red Army.
“The boy grew up without a father and without a mother, was left to his own devices and had sufficient material opportunities. This had a bad impact on his fate. When Khrushchev was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Leonid got involved with bandits and took part in robberies. He was very brave, and there was a case when he, holding onto the bridge supports, moved from one bank of the Dnieper to the other,” says Nikolai Dobryukha.
"Missed"
When the Great Patriotic War began, Leonid was already in the rank of lieutenant. In the first week he makes 12 combat missions. But he soon fell out of action - on July 27, 1941 he had to make an emergency landing.
Hero of the Soviet Union, test pilot Stepan Mikoyan met Leonid in the hospital, which was located in the rear in Kuibyshev.
“I was injured as a result of the landing - a broken leg, burns, and after the hospital I was sent for outpatient treatment, where we met,” Mikoyan recalls.
On the podium of the V.I. Lenin mausoleum (from left to right) N.S. Khrushchev, I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and N.M. Shvernik. Photo: ITAR-TASS
Despite the fact that both are children of the country's ruling elite, they are meeting for the first time. Mikoyan pays attention to Khrushchev because he is in a pilot’s uniform. It turns out that Leonid has been in the hospital for more than a year.
“They sat down in no man’s land, killed the shooter, and they pulled him out with difficulty, because the Germans could have intercepted him. In the field hospital they wanted to cut off his leg, but he wouldn’t let it, threatening the doctor with a pistol,” says Stepan Mikoyan.
The leg is healing slowly: soil got into the wound and infection began. He is often visited by his family, who were just evacuated to Kuibyshev. Rada adored her brother. To entertain her, he often talked about his flights.
“As strange and funny as it may seem, they flew to bomb Berlin unaccompanied. It was suicide. Most of their planes were destroyed at the airfields, and those that remained could not resist the German Messerschmitts,” says Rada Adzhubey.
Unexpectedly, Leonid was presented with the Order of the Red Banner. The order was signed after that emergency flight, when he was able to reach the neutral zone and was not captured. Leonid goes with his whole family to Moscow to receive the award. Stepan Mikoyan learns much later from his friends about what will happen to Leonid at the party. Leonid himself, when they meet again in Moscow, will not say a word about this. From this moment on, white spots appear in the biography of N.S.’s son. Khrushchev.
“During one of the sprees, there was a lot of drinking, and they began to compete to see who was the better shooter. Leonid boasted that he could knock a bottle off a person’s head. They appointed some officer, and he accidentally killed him. Leonid was put on trial,” says Nikolai Good belly.
He still continues to serve in the army, and even receives a transfer to an elite fighter aircraft.
“Due to the fact that the son of such a high-ranking leader, the case was deliberately confused, and he was given only 8 years. But such documents actually exist in the Samara regional archive. There is no direct evidence that it was Leonid who shot. But, nevertheless, all the group that took part in that party was arrested, there was a trial,” says Dobryukha.
Deserter or hero?
The fact that Leonid was not put on trial is considered by the historian Nikolai Dobryukha to be a personal merit of his father. He begged for his son to atone for his guilt.
“Khrushchev, on his knees, begged Stalin to spare his son, even grabbed Stalin by the legs, and he ordered the guards to call doctors for Khrushchev, saying that he had lost his composure, fearing for the fate of his son,” Dobryukha claims.
When Stepan Mikoyan heard the story about the fatal shot, he was surprised: this is not how he remembered Leonid.
“I must say that he loved to drink, but he became even kinder than he had been, did not swear and quickly fell asleep,” says Mikoyan.
Khrushchev is not sent to a penal battalion. He is retraining from a bomber to a fighter and is eager to go into battle.
“There were such cases during the war. We had one pilot in our regiment who, for a drunken brawl, received several years of service at the front. And he flew with us and fought, although he was convicted. So this was the norm for officers then,” - says Stepan Mikoyan.
It took Leonid less than 3 months to study, and after that he managed to fly only 7 combat missions.
“A fighter can fly on anything, but the opposite is not always the case. Apparently, Leonid did not fully master the new things when he ended up in a fighter regiment. I was in another regiment then, and the pilot Kolya Zhuk was sent to us, who had previously served with Leonid. He said that Khrushchev was chasing a German plane, and at that time a German joined his tail, fired a burst, Leonid turned over and began to dive down,” says Mikoyan.
Leonid Khrushchev
This happened near the city of Zhizdra, Kaluga region, on March 11, 1943. The remains of the plane could not be found; the area was completely covered with swamps. Nikolay Dobryukha knows another version of those events. It was told to him by Ivan Stadnyuk, a front-line correspondent, screenwriter of the films “Maxim Perepelitsa” and “I Serve the Soviet Union!”
“Stadnyuk said that he saw documents that clearly stated that Leonid, who was shot down (or not shot down, but flew over to the side of the Germans), was kidnapped from captivity and brought to trial. The court, despite Khrushchev’s appeal to Stalin, did not acquit him, and Leonida They shot me. That is, it was an execution. I have not seen such documents, they are classified,” Dobryukha claims.
Disputes among historians do not subside. The wording “missing in action” was the most terrible during the war. Andrei Svitenko adheres to the official version of the death of Khrushchev Jr.
“As Serpilin said in the person of Anatoly Papanov in the film, “I’m not afraid of death, I can’t go missing.” If there is such a wording, suspicions are immediately born that he has joined the enemy’s camp,” explains Svitenko.
Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense. All documents from the war period are stored here. Olga Chasovitina has been working in this repository for 30 years, where reports, orders, award certificates and lists of Soviet pilots are collected. There is no separate case of Leonid Khrushchev here. His documents in the chronicle of military operations are included in the general list; they were declassified back in the early 60s.
“We keep primary sources: documents of regiments, divisions. Nothing disappeared from us and it was impossible to correct anything. If some matter is needed, a decree is drawn up with a number and date, and then the matter is returned,” says Chasovitina.
“He was awarded on February 20, 1942. Because of his injury, he was in the hospital, the paperwork took a long time, and the awarding happened later. He was not in the regiment, although the commander of the 134th regiment petitioned for him to return to them. But he went for retraining ", says Olga Chasovitina.
Revenge of the Fallen
1956 XX Congress of the CPSU. Speech by Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev. At first, the text does not foreshadow anything; Khrushchev makes a report on the debunking of the cult of personality at the end of the congress, when it is already officially completed. This happens on February 25th in a closed meeting. The most curious thing is that Stalin’s name was not directly mentioned.
“The motivation for this report was hostility towards Stalin, he never hid it. He constantly talked about him, over the many years of acquaintance he had something to say - he assessed him moral qualities, wrote about “games at court” - how they put a tomato on someone who got up from a chair, and he sat on it, they laughed like that. Such artless morals reigned. And things are more serious, young people need to know what kind of country we live in, that leaders always slept with a suitcase ready, always ready to be picked up from 2 to 4, as was usually done,” says Andrey Svitenko.
XX Congress of the CPSU, 1956. Photo: ITAR-TASS
Stalin's repressions affected almost every second family in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's report caused a lot of noise, although it was not published anywhere until Perestroika. Its contents were transmitted orally.
“Yes, this was not any revenge on Stalin, he was his student, comrade-in-arms, he was brought up in this. But he found the strength to take this step,” says Rada Adzhubey.
Would Khrushchev have decided to take such a step if there had been incriminating evidence against him? In the inner circle, since the death of Stalin, there has been a struggle for power. Leonid's plane has not yet been discovered - this is a reason to undermine the authority of the current Secretary General. But no one will use it.
“Only those who have no idea what Stalin and Khrushchev were, their relationship, can believe in this. There were many rumors about Leonid’s death. His daughter, Yulia, sent a request to the prosecutor’s office, but a letter came from there that nothing of the kind happened” - says Adzhubey.
The death of Leonid Khrushchev affected the service of his friend Stepan Mikoyan. He is less often taken to the front line. The “golden youth” will be secretly protected from bullets.
“When my brother died, Timur Frunze, Leonid Khrushchev, I was on the North-Western Front. And Stalin took care of his son Vasily and me. And I didn’t understand why they didn’t take me, I thought that I was less prepared than other pilots But after the war, Vasya himself told me about this,” recalls Mikoyan.
In all unofficial versions Leonid's fate has one weak point. Why didn’t the enemy take advantage of the desertion of the son of the then leader of Ukraine?
“Here is Yakov Dzhugashvili - millions of copies of leaflets were scattered about him. And about Molotov’s son, that he was in captivity. But here - nothing,” says Andrei Svitenko.
The search for Leonid Khrushchev's plane is still ongoing. It seems that only his discovery can put an end to this story. And yet, Leonid’s wife was arrested after he disappeared. Nikita Khrushchev will raise his daughter as his own. She will call him father in front of everyone. And the younger sister Rada believed for a long time that one day her brother would return.
“I’m walking home from school late in the evening (I studied in the third shift), and I think: when I come, his leather jacket is hanging on a hanger...” says Rada Adzhubey.
Khrushchev's reign (1953-1964) is the only period in Soviet history that people remember kind words. The hero of the article is Khrushchev’s son Leonid, whose biography is still the subject of dispute among historians who have not come to a consensus.
It is known for certain that the young man was born on the territory of modern Donbass - in the village of metallurgists Yuzovka, three days after the October Revolution. Date of birth - 11/10/1917. He was youngest son Nikita Sergeevich and Efrosinya Ivanovna Khrushchev (nee Pisarev). 02/07/1914 in documents Nicholas Church Bakhmutsky district (Rutchenkovsky mine) there is a record of their official registration marriage. Until Nikita Sergeevich retires, this union will be the only one documented.
Efrosinya was one of the five daughters of the owner of the house, with whom Khrushchev was “dining” at that time. Leonid barely remembered his father as a child. In 1918, he went to the Civil War to fight for the Bolsheviks, and his wife went to the Kursk province, to his parents. In 1920, she died of typhus, leaving her daughter Yulia, born in 1915, to her husband. and son. A photo of the woman can be seen in the article below. For Nikita Sergeevich, this was a heavy blow, from which he would recover only after 4 years, having created a new family.
The children were left with their grandparents until their father took them in with him. His party career took off, and in 1931 Khrushchev moved to Moscow. Yulia and Nikita Sergeevich’s new wife, Nina Kukharchuk, got along a good relationship, which cannot be said about Leonid. He actually grew up on the street, left to his own devices. After graduating from seven classes, he entered the Federal Educational Institution, and at 17 he began working at a factory.
Leonid Khrushchev enjoyed great success with women. By the age of twenty, he had already left two cohabitants, one with a child in her arms. Both were Jewish. He even signed with Rosalia Treivas, an actress, but his father pointedly tore up the marriage certificate. Esther Etinger, the daughter of an aircraft designer, in 1935 gave birth to his son Yuri, who all his life bore the patronymic and surname of Leonid Khrushchev. A year earlier, his father had been appointed First Secretary of the IGC, which provided his son with new opportunities.
Stalin's call to aviation had an effect on the “golden youth” of his time. The sons of the top officials studied at the VVA named after. Zhukovsky. It was very honorable, they were looked up to. With his education, Leonid Khrushchev could not apply for Zhukovka, but went to the Civil Air Fleet pilot school (Balashov). After graduating in 1937, he was enrolled in the academy, but did not sit down at his desk. In 1939, he voluntarily joined the Red Army, continuing his studies at EVASH (Engels Aviation School).
During the Soviet-Finnish War, he volunteered to go to the front, flying Ar-2 bombers. The air division commander gave an excellent description of the lieutenant who took part in the bombing
In 1938, my father (N.S. Khrushchev) was transferred to Ukraine, where he went with a promotion. A year later, Leonid married Lyubov Sizykh, a pilot of the Moscow flying club, and in January 1940, their daughter Yulia was born. The wife was reminiscent of her own husband in character: a fearless parachutist, dashingly handling a motorcycle. He was also known as brave and even reckless. He could cross the bridge supports in his arms from one bank of the Dnieper to the other. The young woman already had a child, but this did not stop Nikita Sergeevich from accepting his son’s choice.
It was during these years, according to the memoirs of Sergo Beria, that Leonid Khrushchev - the son of Nikita Khrushchev - got involved with criminals. The gang was engaged in robbery and was exposed on the eve of the war. Many were shot, and the son of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine allegedly received 10 years in prison. Thus was born the first myth, which does not find any documentary evidence. In the personal file of L. Khrushchev, stored in the archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Podolsk), there is no mention of a criminal record in the original autobiography.
From the first day of the war, like other “Kremlin lieutenants” - the Mikoyan brothers, Timur Frunze, Vasily Stalin, the son of Nikita Sergeevich went to the front. For the first two months, the regiment flew without cover, losing most of its pilots. The German aces, who had completed flight practice in Europe, were opposed by yesterday's college graduates, who sat at the controls for the first time.
Among them, the already experienced and fearless Khrushchev stood out. Leonid fought in the 134th Air Regiment (46th Division), completing 27 combat missions in July alone. Having completed the task of destroying the bridge across the river, he was presented with a military award. To receive the Order of the Red Banner at the beginning of the war was a real rarity. On January 9, 1942, his plane was shot down and landed in neutral territory. The crew was rescued, but the pilot was seriously injured. As a result of an open fracture, the bone broke through the boot, and the hospital was preparing for surgery to amputate the leg.
For young man life without sky was impossible. Eyewitnesses say that he, threatening the doctors with a pistol, demanded that they refuse the operation. I spent two months in bed, but the young body coped. The lameness due to the fact that one leg has become slightly shorter than the other will remain with him until the end of his days. The pilot was sent to Kuibyshev, where the best luminaries of medicine were evacuated. The family also lived here. Nikita Sergeevich personally came from the front to visit his wounded son, whom he treated with special tenderness.
Leonid Khrushchev ended up in the same room with Ruben Ibarruri. In the hospital I met Stepan Mikoyan, who became the main eyewitness of his Kuibyshev period of life. According to Mikoyan, the wounded pilots often drank and made friends with the dancers of the Bolshoi Theater, which was evacuated to the city. At the end of the rehabilitation they became involved in drunken story with a tragic ending.
At one of the parties, young people arranged real game in Russian roulette. A naval officer, who learned that Leonid Khrushchev was a great shooter, suggested that he shoot a bottle on his head with a pistol. The shooter pierced the neck. The sailor was not satisfied with this, and he forced the pilot to repeat the attraction. The second shot hit Khrushchev directly in the forehead, killing the officer. tells this story from hearsay, without being an eyewitness to what is happening. His sister also spoke about the fact that his brother had some kind of dubious story
In the memoirs of N.S. Khrushchev’s opponents (all of them appeared after his death), it is said that Nikita Sergeevich personally begged Stalin for forgiveness for his son. But he was still sentenced to 8 years to serve his sentence at the front.
Not a single journalistic investigation of this fact has been successful. There is no documentary evidence either. Rumors about the incident vary so much that it is impossible to draw any conclusions. All subsequent events violate the logic of imposing any punishment on the pilot, because in the fall of 1942 he was sent not to a penal battalion, but for retraining, retraining to become a fighter pilot. In November he passes the exam with a grade of “good” and receives command of a flight and shoulder straps of a senior lieutenant. Moreover, he arrives in the army with weapons, which would be confiscated if convicted.
Leonid Khrushchev, whose biography is the subject of close study today, continued to fight in the 18th air regiment, switching to the maneuverable Yak-7. He got practice by ferrying planes from a military plant to the front. Experts say that to master new technology, a pilot needs time, and during the war he did not have it.
There is information that Khrushchev was transferred to Army Headquarters, but he refused. Heaven was his calling. During his service, he made 172 missions, but only 32 in a fighter (the flight time was only 4 hours 27 minutes). On March 11, 1943, two planes flew to the Zhizdra area to reconnaissance troops. In a pair he was the wingman. In the place of the leader - Art. Lieutenant Zamorin, who became the main witness to the events of the historical battle, from which the son of a prominent party leader was not destined to return.
The fighters met four Fokkers, attacking the Soviet pilots in pairs. Only the flight commander returned from a combat mission in a damaged fighter. The mystery of the death of Leonid Khrushchev is connected with two circumstances: changes in the testimony of I. Zamorin and the inability to find the remains of the Yak-7 aircraft due to swampy terrain and air combat over enemy territory.
The first report was written by the senior lieutenant after visiting the regimental headquarters. In it, he indicated: while pursuing the Fokker, he let L. Khrushchev’s plane out of sight. I only saw how he went into a tailspin, rushing towards the ground. Later, the partisans organized a search for the remains of the aircraft, which were unsuccessful. First, the father was informed that his eldest son was missing. A month later, on the night of April 12, Stalin personally expressed his condolences to his comrade, informing him that there was no more hope. In June, the father received an order for his son Patriotic War I degree (posthumous).
In the 80s, rumors began to spread about how Leonid Khrushchev came to the Germans. Allegedly, he survived and was captured, becoming a traitor. Rumors had appeared before, so after that an investigation was carried out into the death of the pilot (investigator S.I. Tokarev), during which no evidence of his betrayal was found. Zamorin changed his testimony, saying that his wingman saved him by throwing his Yak-7 across the fire attack of the Fokker. The plane actually disintegrated in the air. He explained his previous report: the regiment command was afraid of responsibility for not saving the son of a high-ranking official, so they preferred to present him as missing.
Military journalist I. Stadnyuk, historians G. Kumanev, N. Dobryukha, writer F. Chuev and some others adhere to the version that Leonid Khrushchev was shot. They refer to the fact that N. Khrushchev, during his reign, destroyed documents incriminating his son. Referring to the testimony of NKVD generals (V. Udilov), Molotov, the son of Beria, they describe how the pilot managed to eject after being captured by the enemy. There he began to give testimony that undermined the security of the country. Stalin ordered the SMERSH special group to kidnap the traitor. The operation was successful, and Khrushchev's son was taken to Moscow.
The father begged for forgiveness on his knees, but Stalin relied on the decision of the Politburo members, who sentenced the traitor to death. It was carried out. This explains N.S. Khrushchev’s hatred of members of the Central Committee: Beria is shot, the Shcherbakovsky district of Moscow is renamed, and Kaganovich, Molotov and Malenkov are sent into exile. An indirect confirmation of this version can be the arrest of Lyubov Sizykh in 1943 and her sending to camps on charges of espionage. It later became clear that these two events were in no way connected with each other.
Self-confident, stubborn and cheerful, the 25-year-old young man became a hostage in the confrontation between Nikita Khrushchev, the main author of the “thaw” of the 60s, and the NKVD generals, who did everything to tarnish his name former First secretary Drawing an analogy with the fate of Yakov Dzhugashvili, who was captured by the Germans after the capture of the son of a tall politician one should have expected a reaction from the fascists: propaganda leaflets, radio messages, any kind of hype. But there are no sources from the German side confirming that the pilot was in captivity.
The stories of how Leonid Khrushchev was killed also differ. His execution is described in different ways by “eyewitnesses,” while Metrostroy employees found the wreckage of a Yak-7 aircraft, the number matching the Art. fighter. Lieutenant Data about this is stored in the archives of the city of Podolsk. On the mass grave in the city of Zhizdra, the name of Khrushchev is mentioned, which gives reason to talk about his burial in the area of his death.
His relatives and those who knew him personally do not believe in the betrayal of the young pilot. Son Yuri and granddaughter Nina demanded a public refutation of the information that is given in many publications without reference to any documents. Direct command, comrades in arms, including the technicians of the Yak-7 aircraft, give the most flattering characteristics to the pilot: Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev was a brave and fearless man. He was eager to fight, without hiding behind the backs of his comrades, and I. Zamorin’s report is further confirmation of this. The hero's reputation is more important than the pursuit of cheap sensations. Carrying out additional research is a matter of honor for historians, who must put an end to the spread of speculation and rumors.
The fate of N. S. Khrushchev’s eldest son from his first marriage, Leonid, has become a common topic of various journalistic “investigations” and speculation. A new surge of interest in this topic arose after the ORT channel showed the film “The Lost Son of Nikita Khrushchev” on March 23, 2004. It stated that during the first month of the war LeonidKhrushchevmade 27 combat missions and was awarded the Order of the Red Star. In addition, Khrushchev’s son initiated the use of head protection from fragments of enemy anti-aircraft shells in flights. By the fall of 1941, the regiment had lost 3/4 of its aircraft. Leonid Khrushchev's bomber was also hit, injuring his leg when landing...
The film is silent about the fate of the remaining crew members. . In the Kuibyshev hospital, the issue of amputation was being decided, Leonid refused it, threatening to shoot anyone who approached him for this purpose. The surgeons managed to save the damaged leg, but it became shorter. During the period of treatment, the younger Khrushchev, having argued with an unknown sailor that he would fall into the punishment assigned to him
head a bottle, committed manslaughter. Instead of a tribunal, L. Khrushchev is sent to retrain: now, instead of a bomber, he will fly a Yak-7 fighter. The training continued for a long time, until December 19, 1942, when Leonid was assigned to a fighter aviation regiment. On March 11, 1943, the squadron in which L. Khrushchev served made three sorties (Leonid participated in each). But he did not return from the last one. The pilot of this squadron, N. Zhuk, testified that he “saw how a Focke-Wulf fired at Khrushchev’s car, how Leonid’s plane crashed during a turn and went into a dive towards the ground. He doesn’t know what happened next...” See the description of the Vladimir hotel photo on our website. . An intensified search for the plane and the missing pilot yielded nothing. This was the end of an even larger search for the remains in the late 50s, carried out on the initiative of N.S. Khrushchev. Posthumously, Leonid Nikitovich was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
As for the “gutted” search case for the missing pilot, the authors of the film stated that N.S. Khrushchev did not give the command to destroy the “compromising evidence.” But two pages were indeed removed from the officer’s personal file. Which ones exactly were not reported in the film. In conclusion, it was announced: the pilot Leonid Khrushchev was not captured. Didn't work for the Germans. He died as a hero of the Patriotic War. Today we invite readers to familiarize themselves with the exact opposite point of view on the events that took place then.
In December 1981, a week before his death, the former assistant head of the investigative unit for special important matters USSR MGB, retired colonel Alexander Alekseevich Romanov told me about the information available in the investigative apparatus of the NKGB-MGB of the USSR related to Leonid Khrushchev: “In 1943, I held the position of deputy chief of the 1st department of the 5th (investigative) department of the 3rd Directorate NKGB of the USSR, later assistant to the head of the Investigative Unit of the USSR Ministry of State Security for particularly important cases. At the beginning of 1943, an emergency occurred in the city of Kuibyshev: the son of Politburo member N.S. Khrushchev, Leonid, while intoxicated, shot and killed a Red Army officer. A group of NKGB investigators was sent to Kuibyshev to conduct an investigation. Due to my official position, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with his materials.
Due to health conditions at the beginning of 1943, the pilot Leonid Khrushchev was virtually completely cured, but he was no longer drawn to the front. Without knowing the limits, he drank every day with two of his friends. One of them, a major, had a close relationship with the director of the Kuibyshev wine and vodka factory. Liquor was supplied in boxes. Participants in many drinking parties were Bolshoi Theater ballet dancers evacuated to Kuibyshev. According to their testimony, Leonid Khrushchev drank to such a state that as a man he was incapacitated, he immediately fell asleep.
One day, after drinking alcohol again, a dispute arose between Leonid and the major about which of them was a more accurate shooter. Both claimed to be unsurpassed experts in shooting from personal weapons. In a drunken stupor, they decided to immediately hold a shooting competition. Its essence was as follows: their “batman” stood against the wall, with a cap placed above his head. The task is to get into the cockade. Distance 4 meters. They shot by lot. The major fired first and hit the center of the cockade. The second is Leonid. It hit the officer in the forehead, and he died immediately.
It must be said that this was not the first crime of Leonid Khrushchev. While he was living in Moscow, he had a disagreement with his father and went to live with his friend. When N.S. Khrushchev was appointed to the post of first secretary of the Central Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, Leonid did not go with his father. The elder Khrushchev did not like this. After some time, on his instructions, workers state security Leonid was actually forcibly brought to Kyiv. Having become embittered and spending his time uncontrollably, he found himself part of a large gang that committed robberies, robberies and murders. The gang members were detained and brought to justice. Leonid Khrushchev received 10 years in labor camp, the rest of the participants were sentenced to death. N.S. Khrushchev provided powerful pressure to court to commute his son's sentence. But the court upheld the verdict and Leonid was sent to the place where he was serving his sentence. Then N.S. Khrushchev, using his power, was able to get his son unconvoyed, and instead of the ITL, he was taken to an aviation school in the city of Engels, where he immediately began studying.
The materials of the drunken murder of an officer were reported to Stalin twice. The first time as the head of the NKGB. Stalin proposed to transfer them to a military tribunal for consideration. For the second time, the Head of the Military Tribunal turned to Stalin with the question: “What should I do? It's about about the fate of the son of a Politburo member." Stalin replied: “We have the same law for both the ordinary soldier and the member of the Politburo. The military tribunal must make a decision based on the requirements of the law. If you have committed a crime, you must answer. There is a war going on, soldiers are dying at the front, and in the rear, from idleness, our officers are shooting each other...”
As for the circumstances repeatedly exaggerated by the press about Stalin’s reception of Khrushchev, who asked to spare his son, Romanov recalled that Khrushchev then told Stalin: “I know that my son does not belong to the category of those who will accomplish a feat in battle, and his criminal record will be expunged , he will die in the first battle.” Nikita Sergeevich was wrong.
Soon after the mysterious failure of Leonid Khrushchev to return from a combat mission, the counterintelligence bodies of Smersh established that he was alive and in German captivity and actively collaborates with the Nazis. The head of Smersh, V.S. Abakumov, reported to Stalin about these facts. He was literally furious and ordered to kidnap Khrushchev’s son from the Germans by any means and deliver him to the Lubyanka.
Through the joint efforts of the Smersh GUKR and the 4th Directorate of the NKGB, a special operation was carried out behind enemy lines. It used a large partisan base and special forces brought from " Mainland" The security of the point where Leonid Khrushchev was kept, and military units that could have prevented the operation, were destroyed. Leonid Khrushchev was captured and taken to a partisan base. It was supposed to try him directly at the partisan base, but Stalin ordered Khrushchev’s son to be taken to Moscow, for which a special plane was sent, Leonid Khrushchev ended up in Lubyanka. And - without delay, he was sentenced to death, the sentence was carried out.”
It would seem that these memories of Alexander Alekseevich Romanov are refuted by the documents of the personal file of senior lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev, who performed military feats at the indicated time, and did not work for the Germans. However, all my experience working in military counterintelligence agencies shows that, given the instructions of any member of the Politburo, any documents can be either destroyed or created. It's just a matter of decency. As you know, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev did not suffer from such decency. Today it is no secret to anyone that, on his personal instructions and the instructions of people from his inner circle, most of the investigative cases to the illegal creation of which he was involved were destroyed. Is it then worth doubting that he has destroyed all traces of his own son’s criminal activities?
March 11, 1943. The aircraft of the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment did not return from a combat mission. War... Nothing surprising. The plane was piloted by Senior Lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev. The spring of 1943 is the height of the Great Patriotic War. Combat pilots died constantly, in large quantities. But the command of not only the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, but also the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division, was seriously alarmed. 25-year-old senior lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev was the eldest son of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who at that time served as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
The site of the alleged crash of the plane piloted by Leonid Khrushchev was studied thoroughly - even local partisans were involved. But neither the plane's wreckage nor the pilot's body were found. Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev went missing. The fate of the son of the future Soviet leader is still unknown. The official version says that he was captured and died in a German camp - like Joseph Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili. If this really was the case, then this explains a lot - including why neither the plane nor the body of Leonid Khrushchev were found.
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, future general secretary Central Committee of the CPSU, was married three times in his life. He married for the first time in 1914, while still a twenty-year-old young man - a mine mechanic. His wife was Efrosinya Ivanovna Pisareva, who gave birth to Nikita Khrushchev two children - daughter Yulia in 1916 and son Leonid in 1917. In 1920, Euphrosyne died of typhus. Young Khrushchev was left with two children, but in 1922 he married a certain Marusa, a single mother. Nikita Sergeevich lived with her for a short time and already in 1924 he got married to Nina Kukharchuk, who became his companion for the rest of his life. Thus, Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev was the son of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev from his first marriage. He was born on November 10, 1917 in Yuzovka, where Nikita Sergeevich lived and worked at that time.
Nikita Khrushchev's career took off rapidly from the early 1930s. If in 1922 Nikita was still a modest student at the workers' faculty, then in 1929 he entered the Industrial Academy and was elected secretary of the party committee. In 1931, 36-year-old Nikita Khrushchev became the first secretary of the Baumansky district committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Moscow - a colossal position for yesterday’s provincial party leader. By this time, Leonid Khrushchev was almost fourteen years old. Now the son of a prefect of some capital district has a bright future in an elite university - Russian or foreign, and then successful business or a quick career in government. Then, in the 1930s, there were slightly different orders. Leonid Khrushchev, having studied at the school for working youth, went to work at a factory. Apparently, like his father, Lenya Khrushchev was “young and early” - by the age of 18 he had already been married twice. The first wife was Rosa Treyvas, but Leonid broke up with her quickly - under pressure from Nikita. Married to his second wife Esther Naumovna Etinger, 17-year-old Leonid Khrushchev had a son, Yuri Leonidovich (1935-2003). 
“First of all, the planes, and then the girls,” was sung in a popular Soviet song of those years. But Leonid Khrushchev’s girls appeared a little earlier than the planes. In 1935, 20-year-old Leonid entered the Balashov School of Civil Air Fleet pilots, from which he graduated in 1937 and began working as an instructor pilot. In 1939, Leonid voluntarily asked to join the Red Army and was enrolled in the preparatory course of the command department of the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky, but did not study at the academy, limiting himself to graduating from the Engels Military Aviation School in 1940. When the Soviet-Finnish war began, Leonid Khrushchev asked to go to the front.
The young officer was a brave pilot. He made more than thirty combat missions, flew an Ar-2 aircraft, and took part in the bombing of the Mannerheim Line. Naturally, when the Great Patriotic War began, Leonid Khrushchev went to the front. He fought from the beginning of July 1941 - as part of the 134th Bomber Aviation Regiment, which was part of the 46th Aviation Division. Already in the summer of 1941, Khrushchev Jr. made 12 combat missions and was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner.
On July 27, 1941, Leonid Khrushchev's plane was shot down near the Izocha station. The pilot barely managed to reach the front line and landed in no man's land, receiving a serious leg injury upon landing. Leonid was out of action for almost a whole year. Leonid was sent to Kuibyshev to restore his health. Another combat soldier was treated there after being seriously wounded. Soviet pilot from a high-ranking family - Stepan Mikoyan, son of the People's Commissar of Foreign Trade of the USSR Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan. Leonid Khrushchev and Stepan Mikoyan became friends. In February 1942, Leonid Khrushchev finally found a reward. The senior pilot of the 134th Bomber Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Khrushchev, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for 27 combat missions and bombing missions. German tanks, artillery and crossings in the Desna area.
It was at a time when Leonid Khrushchev was in the rear that the first strange story, the authenticity of which is still unknown. The veracity of this story is supported by the fact that both Stepan Mikoyan, a close friend of Leonid, and Rada Adzhubey, Nikita Sergeevich’s daughter from his third marriage and Leonid’s half-sister, spoke about it. Allegedly, while undergoing recovery in the rear, Leonid Khrushchev, like many soldiers and officers waiting to return to the front, whiled away the time in drunken feasts. On one of these evenings, he amused himself by shooting at a bottle and, through negligence, shot one of his drinking companions, a military sailor. Leonid Khrushchev was arrested and given 8 years - to be served at the front. It was inappropriate to send a good combat pilot, a medal bearer, and even the son of the first secretary of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Ukrainian SSR to the camp. Leonid, who had not yet fully recovered from his wound, was sent to the front and enlisted in the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment - the same one that included the French Normandie-Niemen pilots. Again, we note that this is an unofficial version, which some sources do not share.
Be that as it may, in December 1942, Leonid Khrushchev again found himself at the front. He managed to fly 28 training and 6 combat missions and participate in 2 air battles before he disappeared on March 11, 1943. After a month and a half of unsuccessful searches, the name of Leonid Khrushchev was excluded from the lists of the military unit, and in June 1943 he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. Then very interesting events begin. It would seem that the family of the deceased war hero, and even the son of the main communist of Ukraine, should have been basking in honors.
But, soon after the tragedy that happened to Leonid Khrushchev, his wife Lyubov Sizykh was arrested. No one was even embarrassed by the fact that the widow of the deceased pilot had a daughter from Leonid - at that time three-year-old Yulia Leonidovna Khrushcheva. Nikita Sergeevich could not or did not want to protect his daughter-in-law. Lyubov Sizykh was accused of espionage and sent to a camp for five years. She served her sentence “from bell to bell,” and after the camp, in 1948, she was left in exile in Kazakhstan and was finally released only in 1956, having spent thirteen years in places of imprisonment and exile. What was it and why did they do this to the hero’s widow and the mother of his little daughter? Was Lyubov Sizykh really a spy, a traitor to the Motherland? But what data could she relate to? And why wasn’t she pardoned, at least for the sake of her husband’s memory and for the sake of her daughter?
Vadim Nikolaevich Udilov served in state security agencies for almost forty years, completing his service with the rank of major general and deputy head of one of the departments of the KGB of the USSR. Back on February 17, 1998, an article was published with his memoirs, in which the former counterintelligence officer told very interesting version"death" of Leonid Khrushchev. Allegedly, Leonid Khrushchev flew to the other side of the front and surrendered to the Germans. The pilot was quickly persuaded to cooperate. Leonid's escape became known in Moscow. Soon, a special group of SMERSH carried out a brilliant operation to capture Leonid. He was brought to Moscow. Nikita Khrushchev also urgently came to the capital from the front. He ran to receive Joseph Stalin personally.
According to the recollections of another high-ranking security officer, General Mikhail Dokuchaev, who served as deputy head of the 9th Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, guarding the top officials of the state, Nikita Sergeevich threw a real hysteria at Stalin - with tears in his eyes he begged not to shoot his son. But Joseph Vissarionovich was adamant. It was possible to turn a blind eye to the drunken shooting in Kuibyshev and give the opportunity to atone for guilt at the front with blood. But betrayal is too much. Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev was shot. Again, this is just one version of the death of Nikita Sergeevich’s son.
But, if everything was as the security veterans later said, then much of what happened next becomes clear. Then there are no questions about the arrest of Lyubov Sizykh - she was convicted as the wife of a traitor to the Motherland and given only five years in the camps (by the way, if Lyubov really was a spy, then in wartime she would have received a much longer sentence or the death penalty). For obvious reasons, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev did not stand up for Lyubov Sizykh. Moreover, he distanced himself from her as much as possible and even Lyubov was released from exile only in 1956 - by this time Khrushchev had been heading the Soviet state for three years, what did it cost him to free his former daughter-in-law and the mother of his granddaughter? True, Nikita Sergeevich nevertheless adopted the daughter of Leonid and Lyubov Yulia.
According to the version of Leonid Khrushchev’s betrayal, Nikita Sergeevich took the execution of his eldest son very hard. Although he himself miraculously remained in a leadership position - at that time, any leakage of information that the son of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine had betrayed the Motherland would have seriously discredited the Soviet government, Khrushchev harbored a grudge against Joseph Stalin for the rest of his life. Nikita Sergeevich’s hatred of Stalin, if we accept this version, was not political, but personal. All-powerful leader Soviet state And communist party turned into a personal enemy for Khrushchev - he could not forgive him for the death of his son.
If this is so, then the reasons for the harsh criticism that Nikita Khrushchev brought down on the late Stalin from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU are clear. It turns out that the de-Stalinization of the Soviet state had personal reasons. Of course, it was beneficial for both Soviet dissidents and the West to view de-Stalinization as an “objective process,” which supposedly meant that even the Soviet leaders understood the “criminal nature of Stalin’s regime.” For the same reason, the details of the true fate of Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev were kept in deep secrecy. It was extremely unprofitable to present Nikita Khrushchev’s son as a traitor, since this would cast a shadow on de-Stalinization itself - that Nikita was guided by personal motives when starting to criticize the Stalinist system.
On the other side, real evidence there is no support for the version of Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev’s betrayal. Counterintelligence officer Udilov himself said that all documents that could tell about this were carefully destroyed back in Soviet time. In addition, many of Leonid Khrushchev’s contemporaries still adhered to the version that senior lieutenant Khrushchev died in German captivity. Of course, being captured by a Soviet officer, according to the dominant ideology, was not beautiful, but still it is not betrayal. Moreover, if in the end Leonid was really killed by the Nazis.
Yulia Leonidovna Khrushcheva, daughter of Leonid, already in our time - in 2006-2008. - repeatedly filed lawsuits against Channel One. The fact is that back in 2006, the film “Star of the Epoch” was shown on television, which presented a version of the betrayal of Leonid Khrushchev. This outraged Yulia Leonidovna and she demanded compensation for moral damage, but all the courts left the claims of the granddaughter of the Soviet General Secretary without satisfaction. Some observers argued that the memory of Leonid Khrushchev was deliberately denigrated - now, they say, reformers are not in fashion, and the authorities want to rehabilitate harsh methods and an authoritarian style of management. Other analysts are less categorical - who now, more than 70 years later, cares about the fate of the son of the future Soviet general secretary who died young. Now it is no longer possible to assert either the correctness of this version or its fallacy. Along with the Soviet era, many of its secrets have become a thing of the past.
On June 8, 2017 at 10:35, on the Solnechnaya – Vnukovo station section, the Vnukovo – Moscow electric train hit and killed an elderly woman who was crossing the railway tracks in the wrong place. The police identified the deceased as 77-year-old Yulia Leonidovna Khrushcheva, the daughter of Leonid Khrushchev and the adopted daughter of Nikita Sergeevich.
Why Nikita Sergeevich wanted to take revenge on Stalin
The cult was debunked at the 20th Congress of the CPSU Joseph Stalin. It was initiated by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev- the then leader of the Soviet Union. Until now, historians and politicians have not stopped arguing: why did Khrushchev need this? Stalin was no longer alive. And this kind of exposure could well make Khrushchev the enemy of many influential people. One of the versions sounded completely unexpected: the secretary general was taking revenge on the deceased leader of the peoples for the death of his eldest son.
Stalin had two sons. One of them - Yakov- died during the Great Patriotic War. Everything indicates that his death in the concentration camp was dignified; there are some disagreements among witnesses only in minor details.
Khrushchev also had two sons. And one of them is Leonid- also died in the war. Only with his death everything is not as clear as in the case of Yakov Dzhugashvili. Either he is a hero who saved the commander at the cost of his life, or a war criminal who collaborated with the Germans. One thing is clear: the story with Khrushchev’s son became the reason for Nikita Sergeevich’s fierce hatred of the Generalissimo.
The eldest son of Nikita Khrushchev was born on November 10, 1917. In 1939 it began military service Leonid Khrushchev. He became a pilot and bombed enemy positions during the Finnish War. In 1941 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And almost immediately Leonid ended up in the hospital - the Germans shot down his plane.
During his treatment, Khrushchev Jr. did not lose heart - the entire hospital knew him as a cheerful reveler and reveler, capable of the most daring pranks and desperate antics. One of these pranks, they say, ended badly - Khrushchev tried (of course, after copious libations) to shoot a bottle off the head of a military sailor. And, as they said, he killed him.
Stepan Mikoyan- a friend of Leonid Khrushchev - claimed that Leonid was convicted for the murder of the sailor. He was sentenced to eight years, allowing part of the term to be served as a military pilot at the front. In the spring of 1943, Senior Lieutenant Khrushchev’s vehicle did not return from a combat mission.
This version was confirmed by another of Leonid’s comrades, the pilot Zamorin, who was flying at the same time on another plane and said that Khrushchev, saving a comrade, sent his plane into the fire salvo of an enemy vehicle, taking fire on himself and dying in the plane that crumbled into pieces.
It would seem that glory and honor to the fallen hero. But neither the wreckage of the fighter nor the remains of Leonid himself or his passenger could be found. If you consider that the passenger was the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, then you can imagine how diligently they searched for what was left of the disaster. They found absolutely nothing.
On March 11, 1943, Leonid Nikitich Khrushchev, a military pilot, the son of N. S. Khrushchev from his first marriage to E. I. Pisareva, died in battle. pic.twitter.com/yWHAJIMEg2
According to this version, the downed pilot Leonid Khrushchev was captured by the Germans and quite quickly began to cooperate with them. The leadership of SMERSH, following Stalin's orders, sent a group to capture the traitor. Leonid Khrushchev was taken to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Khrushchev Sr., who was at the front at that time, learned about this and hastily flew to Moscow. A counterintelligence officer wrote about the successful operation to deliver the traitor to his homeland - V. Udilov.
According to the KGB general M. Dokuchaeva, Nikita Khrushchev literally lay at Stalin’s feet, begging him not to shoot his son. He admitted that Leonid was very guilty, but asked that he be punished in any way, just spare his life. Stalin responded to this: “I can’t help you with anything.” Khrushchev began to sob, knelt down, crawled to Stalin’s feet, he was confused, called security, then the doctors appeared. They tried to bring Khrushchev to his senses, but he did not calm down and kept repeating: “Have mercy... Don’t shoot...”
Third wife of Nikita Sergeevich, Nina, mentioned more than once that Leonid Khrushchev did not die like a hero. These words sounded from the lips Molotov. But the “heroic” version was always supported by Khrushchev’s relatives. Western historians also spread the opinion in every way that Leonid Khrushchev died in a fair battle. Apparently, they needed this in order to under no circumstances allow the slightest shadow on the bright image of Nikita Khrushchev - the man who overthrew Stalinism. In any case, this explanation seems quite logical.
And who takes opposing positions, who emphasizes in every possible way that Khrushchev Jr. stained himself with betrayal and was shot in Stalin’s dungeons? First of all - Sergo Beria, son Lawrence Beria. Then - Dmitry Yazov, former minister defense of the Soviet Union. Further - Vladimir Karpov, famous historical writer. Nikolay Dobryukha, a Russian publicist, is convinced: it was precisely that very meeting between Nikita Khrushchev and Joseph Stalin, when the first, according to rumors, crawled on his knees, begging to save his son, and the second coldly refused, and became the reason for Khrushchev’s fierce hatred of the Generalissimo. It is from here that the debunking of Stalin's personality cult originates - and after the death of the leader, Khrushchev did not forgive him and did everything possible to tarnish his name before his descendants.
They say that many heard Khrushchev’s careless words - he said something like this: “ Lenin I avenged my brother on the Tsar, and I will avenge my son on Stalin. Even if it’s dead!”
Now, probably, it is hardly possible to say with complete confidence which version is true. But there are facts that make you think.
Nikita Khrushchev, already the Secretary General of the USSR, never made an attempt to rehabilitate Leonid, although, it would seem, he should have tried with all his might to remove the shameful stain from his son’s name.
One more fact. After Leonid Khrushchev disappeared - either died or was arrested - his wife was arrested I love you. Relatives claim - as an employee foreign intelligence. In fact, the documents have a different wording - she was imprisoned as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, and with this wording during the war, only relatives of traitors who agreed to work for the Germans were imprisoned.
Lyuba was released only after the war - in the 50s, and Nikita Khrushchev showed absolutely no interest in her fate. He simply crossed out his daughter-in-law from his life. Strange? No, it’s quite understandable, if you believe the statement of Molotov, who claimed that after the execution of Leonid Khrushchev, his father renounced him, and publicly.
On the other side of the scale is only the testimony of the pilot Zamorin about the heroic death of Leonid. But this evidence, as many historians believe, is quite likely false. It still needs to be examined. When this is done - perhaps in national history There will be another debunking.
