,
7th Fleet
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Soviet awards:
| The order of Lenin | The order of Lenin | The order of Lenin | Order of the Red Banner |
| Order of the Red Banner | Order of the Red Banner | Order of Suvorov, 1st class | Order of Ushakov, 1st degree |
| Order of Ushakov, 1st degree | Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree | Order of the Red Star | Jubilee medal “For valiant labor (For military valor). In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" |
| 40px | Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" | Medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" | 40px |
| 40px | Medal "For the Capture of Budapest" | 40px | 40px |
| 40px | 40px | 40px | 40px |
| 40px | 40px |
Foreign awards:
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Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov (July 20 (August 2) ( 19020802 ) , Baranovichi, Minsk province - July 21, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, vice admiral (May 24, 1945), Hero of the Soviet Union (May 7, 1965).
On charges of connection with the arrested former head of the Pacific Naval Forces, flagship of the fleet 1st rank M.V. Viktorov, captain 2nd rank Kholostyakov was arrested on May 7, 1938, expelled from the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and stripped of his rank and awards. “For spying for Poland, England and Japan” he was sentenced to 15 years in forced labor camps, followed by disqualification for 5 years. He served his sentence in a camp in Olga Bay. In May 1940, he was released “for lack of proof of the accusation” and restored to his rank and rights to awards.
Rear Admiral Kholostyakov off the coast of Tsemes Bay (1943)
Two weeks after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Captain 1st Rank G.N. Kholostyakov was appointed chief of staff of the Novorossiysk naval base, and in September - its commander. Ships and units of the Novorossiysk naval base conducted combat operations in the Black Sea, carried out and provided maritime transport, and participated in the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation (December 1941 - January 1942).
At the same time, from December 1943 to March 1944, he served as commander of the Azov military flotilla, in this post he conducted two more landing operations - at Cape Tarkhan and in the Kerch port.
Since December 1944 - commander of the Danube military flotilla. At its head he liberated Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia. The sailors of the flotilla distinguished themselves in the Budapest and Vienna offensive operations, and participated in the capture of Budapest and Vienna. Conducted a number of landing operations with flotilla forces. Vice Admiral (05/24/1945).
Married twice. The first wife took part in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars and died shortly after the war. The second wife, Natalya Vasilyevna Kunikova, the widow of Hero of the Soviet Union Caesar Kunikova, died along with her husband. Had a son.
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The grave of the Bachelors at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
Born into the family of a railway driver. Belarusian by nationality. From August 1919 he took part in the Civil War, fighting in ChON units on the Western Front. Member of the RCP(b) since 1920. During the Soviet-Polish War in 1920, the political instructor of the rifle company Kholostyakov was wounded and captured, where he remained for almost a year. After returning from captivity, he worked in various unskilled industries.
In 1921, he volunteered to join the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet and was appointed deputy political instructor in the company of the 2nd Baltic Fleet Crew in the Baltic Fleet. Graduated from the Naval Preparatory School (7-10.1922). In 1925 he graduated from the Naval Hydrographic School. He served as a watch commander on the battleship Marat and commanded a platoon of naval crew.
Since 1925 - navigator of the submarine "Kommunar". He graduated from the underwater class of special courses for the command staff of the Red Army Navy in 1928. Served as senior assistant to the commander of the submarine "Proletary" (11.1928-5.1929), "Krasnoarmeyets", "Batrak" (5.1929-1.1930), submarine "L-55" (1.1930-1.1931). In 1931 - 1932, he was the commander and commissar of the submarine "Bolshevik" of the Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea (MSBM).
Then he graduated from the Tactical Courses at the Naval Academy, was sent to the Pacific Fleet as the commander of a submarine division and at the same time - the commander of the lead submarine of this division, then the commander of the 5th submarine brigade of the Pacific Fleet. He mastered long-distance voyages into the open ocean, ice swimming, and performing combat missions in stormy weather. He had a reputation as one of the leading Soviet submarine commanders, spoke at the Tenth Komsomol Congress, and was awarded the highest order of the USSR, the Order of Lenin, among the first submariners in 1935.
On charges of connection with the arrested former head of the Pacific Naval Forces, flagship of the fleet 1st rank M.V. Viktorov, captain 2nd rank Kholostyakov was arrested on May 7, 1938, expelled from the CPSU (b), and deprived of his rank and awards. “For spying for Poland, England and Japan” he was sentenced to 15 years in forced labor camps, followed by disqualification for 5 years. He served his sentence in a camp in Olga Bay. In May 1940, he was released “for lack of proof of the accusation” and restored to his rank and rights to awards.
Transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, appointed commander of the 3rd Submarine Brigade (September 1940-February 1941), then head of the submarine department of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters (from February 1941).
Two weeks after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Captain 1st Rank G.N. Kholostyakov was appointed chief of staff of the Novorossiysk naval base, and in September 1941 - its commander. Ships and units of the Novorossiysk naval base conducted combat operations in the Black Sea, carried out and provided maritime transport, and participated in the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation (Dec. 1941-Jan. 1942).
On August 17, 1942, the Novorossiysk defensive region was created, and at the end of August the enemy reached the close approaches to Novorossiysk. All units located in the city were subordinate to Captain 1st Rank Kholostyakov. One of the organizers of the heroic defense of Novorossiysk. After the fall of Novorossiysk, he and his headquarters moved to Gelendzhik. Kholostyakov's merits were highly appreciated - on December 13, 1942, he was awarded the rank of rear admiral. In February 1943, Kholostyakov participated in organizing landings in the area of South Ozereyka and Stanichka, and then was responsible for supplying the captured bridgehead on Malaya Zemlya from the sea. In 1943, with the direct participation of Kholostyakov, two more landings were organized: the Novorossiysk landing operation on September 10-11 and the landing at Eltigen.
At the same time, from December 1943 to March 1944, he served as commander of the Azov military flotilla, in this post he conducted two more landing operations - at Cape Tarkhan and in the Kerch port.
Since December 1944 - commander of the Danube military flotilla. At its head he liberated Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia. The sailors of the flotilla distinguished themselves in the Budapest and Vienna offensive operations and participated in the capture of Budapest and Vienna. Conducted a number of landing operations with flotilla forces. Vice Admiral (05/24/1945).
In 1950, Kholostyakov graduated from the Higher Military Academy named after K.E. Voroshilov. Since 1950 - commander of the Caspian flotilla. Since November 1951 - commander of the 7th Fleet in the Far East (the main fleet base is Sovetskaya Gavan).
In December 1952, the diesel submarine S-117 with its entire crew (52 people) perished in the Sea of Japan; a few months after this tragedy, Kholostyakov was removed from his post as fleet commander. In May 1953-1969 - Deputy Head of the Combat Training Directorate of the Main Staff of the USSR Navy. He worked a lot on the construction of a nuclear submarine fleet. In April - May 1964, he was the senior officer on board the first long-distance 50-day voyage of the K-27 nuclear submarine to the Atlantic Ocean.
Married twice. The first wife took part in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars and died shortly after the war. The second wife, Natalya Vasilievna Kunikova, the widow of Hero of the Soviet Union Caesar Kunikova, died along with her husband. Had a son.
The admiral died on July 21, 1983 in his own apartment (house number 19 on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow) at the hands of professional award thieves G. Kalinin and his wife I. Kalinina. In the period from 1980 to 1983, this couple, according to investigators, committed 39 thefts of state awards in nineteen cities of the USSR, stealing over 50 Orders of Lenin, several Gold Stars of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Socialist Labor, and dozens of other awards. At the same time, in the Kalinin region, Kalinin killed a pensioner while stealing icons. Like other victims, the criminals came to the Holostyakovs under the guise of journalists on July 13, but because of an acquaintance who came to the Holostyakovs, they abandoned the robbery and hastily left.
However, they learned that among the admiral's awards there were rare and unique orders. Therefore, on the morning of July 21, the Kalinins again came to the Kholostyakovs. Suspecting danger, the admiral's wife tried to go out onto the landing, but Kalinin did not allow her to leave, pushed her into the bathroom and, using a tire iron he brought with him, dealt several blows to the head, from which the woman died. Jumping out of the bath, Kalinin collided with Kholostyakov, who was running to help, and in the same way struck the admiral, who lost consciousness and fell. He died without regaining consciousness. Kalinina at this time stole the admiral's jacket with awards.
The criminals fled the apartment and left Moscow. They were arrested by MUR officers in Ivanovo in October 1983. Some of the awards were confiscated, some had already been sold, and Kalinin ordered himself a signet from the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1984, a trial took place, G. Kalinin was sentenced to capital punishment - execution, I. Kalinin - to 15 years in prison.
The Kholostyakovs are buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
The entire Soviet country was shocked by a particularly serious crime that occurred in Moscow in July 1983. In an apartment on Tverskoy Boulevard, the famous retired vice-admiral Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov and his wife Natalya Vasilievna Sidorova, the widow of the legendary commander of the 3rd combat sector of the anti-landing defense of the Novorossiysk naval base, Caesar Lvovich Kunikov, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943, were killed Union.
Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov was born on July 20, 1902 in the district town of Baranovichi, Minsk province, into the family of a railway driver. From August 1919 he took part in the Civil War, fighting in ChON units on the Western Front. Member of the RCP(b) since 1920. During the fighting in Poland in 1920, political instructor of the rifle company Georgy Kholostyakov was wounded and captured, where he remained for almost a year. In 1921, he volunteered to join the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet and was appointed deputy political instructor in the company of the second Baltic naval crew. He graduated from the Naval Preparatory School in 1922, and from the Naval Hydrographic School in 1925. He served as a watch commander on the battleship Marat, commanded a platoon of naval crew, and was a navigator on the submarine Kommunar. He graduated from the underwater class of special courses for the command staff of the Red Army Navy in 1928. Served as senior assistant to the commander of submarines. In 1931-1932, he was the commander and commissar of the submarine "Bolshevik" of the naval forces of the Baltic Sea (MSBM). Then he graduated from tactical courses at the Naval Academy and, among the best, as a versatile sailor, was sent to the Pacific Fleet.
In 1926, the Soviet naval forces of the Far East were disbanded. And only a few years later, in connection with the territorial claims of Japan and the aggravated international situation for this reason, the Navy was created again. And in January 1935 they were renamed the Pacific Fleet.
A significant event in the history of our fleet was the appearance of the first Soviet boat in the Far Eastern waters. On June 21, 1933, near the berth of Dalzavod in Zolotoy Rog Bay, the first dive of the ship took place in the presence of numerous guests. This day became memorable for the workers and engineers of the plant, military sailors and all residents of Vladivostok. Festively dressed, deeply excited, they rejoiced at the fact that for the first time they saw in the Golden Horn Bay a submarine built at a domestic enterprise, designed by Soviet engineers. When the submarine surfaced, a powerful “hurray” sounded over the bay. The participants of this event hugged and congratulated each other.
Soon the submarine made its first trip to sea to test the mechanisms. It was commanded by G. Kholostyakov.
On September 23, 1933, the Naval flag was raised in a solemn ceremony on the first two Soviet Pacific submarines. They received the names “Shch-11” (commander D. Chernov) and “Shch-12” (commander S. Kudryashov). On April 28, 1934, M-type submarines entered service and received the names M-1 and M-2.
In order to quickly master new military equipment, commanders and Red Navy men sought the most rational and expedient forms of training. In the first division, commanded by G. Kholostyakov, for example, a special system for studying the structure of the boat was developed, called the “Five Programs”. It gave such excellent results that it was soon adopted by all the country's fleets.
The first division was based in Nakhodka Bay on the site of the currently existing Nakhodka tin can factory at Cape Lindholm, where a berth for submarines was built. During the construction of the enterprise, the Lindholm cape was absorbed by the pier.
By a resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee of December 23, 1935, for outstanding services in organizing the underwater and surface forces of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and for success in the combat and political training of the Red Navy, G. Kholostyakov, the commander of the first submarine division, was among the few awarded the Order of Lenin. In the Kremlin, Mikhail Kalinin presented the distinguished order to the submariner.
On January 11, 1936, “Shch-117”, along a channel broken into the ice, left Nakhodka Bay into the sea to take up a position on the distant approaches to the shores of Primorye and carry out combat service here. This task was not new for Pacific submariners, but the boat had to remain in position not for 10-15 days, as usual, but throughout its full design autonomy and, possibly, for a longer time. All tasks assigned to the ship were completed brilliantly. The vessel doubled the norms established in those years for autonomous navigation of submarines of this type. The high qualities of the submarine were revealed during the voyage.
For high performance in combat and political training, excellent performance of command assignments and the courage and endurance shown at the same time, by the Decree of the USSR Central Executive Committee of April 3, 1936, the commander of “Shch-117” N. Egipko and military commissar S. Pastukhov were awarded the Order of the Red Star, and the rest crew members - the Order of the Badge of Honor. "Shch-117" became for the first time in the history of the Soviet Navy a ship with a fully decorated crew.
After Shch-117, Shch-122, then Shch-123, made autonomous voyages. These ships exceeded the main indicators achieved during the voyage of the Shch-117. The Soviet government highly appreciated the crews' achievements. By the end of July 1936, the fifth naval brigade of Captain 2nd Rank G. Kholostyakov already had three decorated crews.
On December 30, 1937, the all-Union People's Commissariat for Naval Affairs was organized. Stalin appointed the former head of the political department of the Red Army, Army Commissar 1st Rank P. Smirnov, to lead it. The 40-year-old People's Commissar zealously set to work, seeing his main task as exposing the enemies of the people entrenched in the fleet. In his memoirs, Admiral N. Kuznetsov recalls how, upon arriving at the Pacific Fleet, Smirnov decided the fate of dozens of people, without hesitation putting his signature on lists prepared by the head of the regional NKVD. After the visit of the People's Commissar, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, G. Kireev, was arrested and shot, and a member of the Military Council of the Fleet, Corps Commissar Y. Volkov, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. One of the names on the long list of those subject to arrest, which the People's Commissar waved without looking, was the name of captain 2nd rank Kholostyakov.
On May 7, 1938, Georgy Nikitich was arrested, expelled from the ranks of the CPSU (b), demoted and deprived of awards - the Order of Lenin and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”. They interrogated the sailor with passion, beat him, tightly tightening the nuts on the steel handcuffs, and advised him to tell how he was preparing an assassination attempt on the fleet commander. The sailor was reminded of Polish captivity and sentenced for espionage for Poland, and at the same time for England and Japan, to 15 years in forced labor camps, followed by loss of rights for 5 years. They didn’t take him far, and so the end of the earth, he served his hard labor in the prison casemates of Olga Bay. While he was languishing in prison, his wife volunteered for the Soviet-Finnish war. Praskovya Ivanovna served at the forward evacuation point of the active army. Old friends helped Georgiy Nikitich and interceded for him with Kalinin. The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did not forget the brave sailor, to whom he presented the order and, in a rare case, helped.
In May 1940, Kholostyakov was released from custody. His title and awards were returned to him, but the wasted years and damaged health could not be returned. After his release, he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet. He was appointed commander of the third submarine brigade (September 1940 - February 1941), then - head of the submarine department of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters (from February 1941)
Thanks to N. Kuznetsov, only the fleet was not taken by surprise by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Operational readiness No. 1 was declared for the fleet at 01:15 on June 22, 1941.
Sevastopol was the first to receive the enemy's attack at 3 o'clock in the morning. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral F. Oktyabrsky, hesitated to make a decision, and then, without fear of responsibility, the order to open fire was given by the chief of staff of the fleet, I. Eliseev. The enemy air raid was repulsed.
Two weeks after the start of the war, Kholostyakov was appointed chief of staff of the Novorossiysk naval base, and a month later - its commander. Ships and units of the Novorossiysk naval base conducted combat operations in the Black Sea, carried out and provided maritime transport, and participated in the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation at the end of 1941.
On August 17, 1942, the Novorossiysk defensive region was created, and at the end of August the enemy reached the close approaches to Novorossiysk. All units located in the city were subordinate to Captain 1st Rank Kholostyakov. As Admiral Kuznetsov recalled about him: “At critical moments - and there were many of them near Novorossiysk - he often picked up a machine gun and himself led the sailors into battle.” After fierce fighting, by the beginning of September almost the entire city was in enemy hands. Our troops gained a foothold only on its outskirts - the eastern shore of Tsemes Bay, but because of this, the Nazis were never able to use the Novorossiysk port.
Before the New Year 1943, Kholostyakov was awarded the rank of rear admiral. In the winter of the same year, Georgy Nikitich participated in organizing landings in the South Ozereyka area and near Stanichka. According to the command's plan, these landings were supposed to weaken the enemy's defenses and help the 47th Army break through the enemy's defenses north of Novorossiysk.
The landing at South Ozereyke, encountering fierce enemy resistance, was unsuccessful. The landing near Stanichka, which was considered an auxiliary landing, turned out to be more successful. A detachment of 273 people under the command of Major Kunikov managed to gain a foothold and hold the bridgehead. By February 15, there were already 17 thousand soldiers, tanks, and artillery. The bridgehead was expanded along the front to 7 kilometers and 3-4 kilometers in depth. This piece of land, abundantly watered with the blood and sweat of soldiers and sailors, was named Malaya Zemlya.
In the seventies, after the publication of L. Brezhnev’s memoirs “Little Earth,” the Novorossiysk epic was widely covered in the media. The thin book was published in huge editions. Some cultural figures, uncontrollable in their servility, dramatized this brochure in the theater, on radio and television, and recorded it on records. And one particularly loyal composer even composed the opera “Malaya Zemlya”. Naturally, this could only cause rejection among the people, since it turned out that the fate of the country was being decided on a small patch of land near Novorossiysk.
By the end of February, two corps were already operating on the Myskhako bridgehead - an airborne corps and a rifle corps. Ensuring the supplies of the bridgehead troops for all 225 days lay with Admiral Kholostyakov. As N. Kuznetsov wrote: “Every significant transportation to Malaya Zemlya is developed as a complex combat operation. Delivery and support vehicles are carefully prepared, and ship courses that are more unexpected for the enemy are chosen. The transition time changes each time, depending on the situation... From gun shots, rocket explosions and searchlight beams over the bay, it is as bright as day. The fighting on sea, land and in the air does not subside while our ships go to Malaya Zemlya and unload there.”
For this successful multi-day operation, Kholostyakov, the only one of the sailors, was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, intended to reward the highest command staff of the ground forces. But in Brezhnev’s memoirs his name, like many other real heroes, is not mentioned.
In September 1943, with the direct participation of Kholostyakov, two more landings were organized. The Novorossiysk landing operation on September 10-11 was one of the largest. 6.5 thousand people and about 150 different vessels took part in it. On the night of November 1, Kholostyakov organized a landing at Eltigen, near Kerch. A month of landing under the command of V.F. Gladkov held a bridgehead called Tierra del Fuego, then the paratroopers fought their way into Kerch.
Admiral Kholostyakov becomes a recognized master of landing operations. In 1944, Georgy Nikitich acted as commander of the Azov flotilla instead of the sick Admiral Gorshkov. He organizes two more landings - at Cape Tarkhankut and in Kerch Bay.
In December 1944, Kholostyakov headed the Danube flotilla. The People's Commissar of the Navy recalls: “When it was necessary to appoint a new commander of the flotilla, I without hesitation nominated Kholostyakov. And I was not mistaken - under his command the flotilla successfully solved its problems. I have heard about this more than once from Marshals R. Malinovsky and F. Tolbukhin.”
Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia... The sailors of the flotilla under the command of Kholostyakov distinguished themselves in the battles for the capture of Budapest and Vienna. For the Vienna operation, where the Danube flotilla solved a number of important problems and provided great assistance to the advancing troops, the flotilla was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, II degree.
The war separated Georgy Nikitich from his wife. All these years he has been looking for her. And he found it already when he was the commander of the flotilla. Praskovya Ivanovna came to him in Izmail, but her health was undermined by the hard times of the war. She died soon after.
No matter how exhausted the admiral is, he takes up his studies again. In 1950, Kholostyakov graduated from the Higher Military Academy of the General Staff named after K. Voroshilov with a gold medal. Having received the rank of vice admiral, Georgiy Nikitich commands the Caspian Flotilla. Then again - the Far East.
In January 1947, the Pacific Fleet was divided into the 5th and 7th fleets. Kholostyakov in 1951 headed the 7th Fleet (main base - Sovetskaya Gavan).
All these years, Grigory Nikitich carried on friendly correspondence with the widow of Caesar Kunikov, who was seriously wounded on February 12, 1943 on Malaya Zemlya. Kunikov died of his wounds in a Gelendzhik hospital, and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Only after becoming commander of the fleet did the combat admiral dare to offer his hand and heart to Natalya Vasilyevna Kunikova. His proposal was favorably accepted.
But along with the joys of family life, a tragedy occurred in the navy, of which the sea is so rich. In December 1952, the diesel submarine S-117 with 52 crew members, which was on combat duty in the Sea of Japan, disappeared. Punishment followed immediately: Kholostyakov was removed from his post and transferred to Moscow, where until 1969 he served as deputy head of the combat training department of the General Staff. He worked a lot on the construction of a nuclear submarine fleet. In April - May 1964, he was the senior officer on board the first long-distance fifty-day voyage of the K-27 nuclear submarine to the Atlantic Ocean.
Kholostyakov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union 20 years late - in 1965. After his resignation in 1969, Georgy Nikitich, being a most interesting storyteller, often gave lectures. In 1976, his book of memoirs, “Eternal Flame,” was published, which, naturally, does not say a word about his own arrest or mass repressions in the navy.
The admiral's second marriage was successful. From this marriage, a son, Georgy Georgievich, was born and raised. Georgy Nikitich helped raise the son of Natalya Vasilievna and Caesar Kunikov, Yuri. The grandson and granddaughter grew up - Yuri's children
On the morning of July 21, 1983, the bodies of the Kholostyakovs were discovered by the adult granddaughter of the deceased, Natalya Kunikova, who was sleeping in another room at the time the crime was committed and woke up from the knock of the apartment’s front door, which was strongly slammed by unknown criminals. They stole, among other things, the uniform with awards of Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Kholostyakov. Suspecting danger, the admiral’s wife tried to go out onto the landing, but the criminal, posing as a journalist, did not allow her to leave, pushed her into the bathroom and dealt several blows with a tire iron he had brought with him. on the head, from which the woman died. Jumping out of the bath, the killer collided with Kholostyakov, who was running to help, and in the same way struck the admiral, who lost consciousness and fell. He died without regaining consciousness. At this time, the accomplice stole the admiral's jacket with awards.
It is clear that one of the main versions suggested that persons who deliberately hunted for valuable award regalia could be involved in the murder of Vice Admiral Kholostyakov and his wife. Moreover, according to this version there was a very significant “clue”. Two swindlers, a guy and a girl, stole military awards from several war veterans. For their scam, the criminals came up with a kind of shameless criminal “legend”. Posing as students of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, the young accomplices assured the gullible old people that they wanted to better fulfill their creative task - to write about front-line soldiers who had passed through the war. The veterans willingly agreed to talk at home with the “novice journalists” and, having tea with them, recalled the battles with the Nazis and showed their military insignia to the “trainee” guests. Pleased with the cordiality of the hosts, the “interviewer” visitors took their leave, and a little later it turned out that the old men had been robbed in the most unscrupulous way, since they had lost their dear symbols of military valor. For the thieves, the stolen goods were nothing more than goods containing precious metals for the underground rewards market. The victims especially remembered the guy’s companion, and the police officers had a couple of identikit photos of the girl with huge glasses..
The murder of the Kholostyakov couple was reported personally to Andropov. "Deadline until August 20!" - the “iron General Secretary” reacted harshly, ordering to keep him informed. Prosecutor General Alexander Mikhailovich Rekunkov corrosively inquired whether the deputy head of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, Anatoly Nikolaevich Egorov, who was the senior officer of the task force when working on the high-profile case under investigation, considered himself a professional. Murovets, the leader, responded with restraint that he prefers not to evaluate himself, and life will show the degree of his professionalism. It is impossible not to mention that Anatoly Nikolaevich subsequently, in addition to being elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, will head the legendary MUR and become the first deputy head of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate.
...The most experienced detectives of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department were involved in solving the crime, and employees of other services of the capital’s police also participated in working out a number of versions. In addition, various investigative orders were carried out by police officers from the peripheral regions of the country. The information flowing in from everywhere was thoroughly analyzed and, if necessary, scrupulously double-checked, however, as it turned out, they had nothing to do with the double murder on Tverskoy Boulevard. And yet, in the end, we managed to extract interesting targeted operational information about a certain Gen: at the station in Moscow, from an Ivanovo criminal fellow countryman who specialized in the theft of icons, he found out about an elderly teacher from their regional center who had two Orders of Lenin. From the informant, the investigation also learned that the suspicious Gena was allegedly previously a student, but for some reason he was expelled from the third year of Ivanovo State University.
Alexei Sidorov and Vladimir Pogrebnyak, considered highly qualified anti-fraud specialists at the MUR, were sent by the senior task force, Anatoly Egorov, on a business trip to the city of Ivanovo. There, the first undertook to look for the “university trace” of the still very mysterious person involved, Gena, and the second made a business visit to the department of public education in order to ask questions in this institution about the teacher, whose pedagogical work was valued at the highest scale by the state. Both detectives coped with their task perfectly: in the archives of a higher educational institution they found a folder with documents on the “suitable” ex-student Gennady, and officials who worked in the field of education suggested where the old teacher lived. Police operatives went to the address they had obtained and, upon arriving there, learned from a very respectable grandfather that his wife had died a year ago. The conversation with the old man did not clarify anything about the theft from his wife, but their son turned out to be more memorizing than his father. The heir explained that he was present during the mother’s conversation with a guy and a girl who came to visit her and introduced themselves as students of the Faculty of Journalism. After the death of the teacher, it was discovered that none of her relatives had seen both orders since the day of the invasion of that “student couple”. Father and son initially wanted to report the missing awards to the police, but then abandoned this intention, since they were not sure that the “journalism students” had actually committed the theft. Fully accepting that they could have received orders... simply as a gift from his mother, the son-witness innocently concluded that because of this doubt about the mystery of the disappearance of the awards, he and his father did not want to cast a shadow of suspicion on the two young “journalists” . A conscientious eyewitness was shown a photograph of Gennady, and the witness immediately identified him.
The further actions of the police detectives suggested themselves, since by this time it was already known that the person under investigation, Gennady Kalinin, had a wife, Inna, who studied at a technical school. She, as soon as she put “representative glasses” on her nose, looked exactly like the identikit photographs of the criminal girl that the operatives had. True, now it was necessary to act with certainty so as not to frighten Gennady away prematurely. Although he was registered in his parents’ home, he lived not within its walls, but in some kind of shelter. This explains why Inna, when they found out her whereabouts, decided not to detain her for now, but to leave her under the supervision of police surveillance professionals. And the detectives’ calculations were justified: Gennady did appear in the city, but he behaved with extreme caution. Surprisingly, he followed the outdoor surveillance around the city of Ivanovo so much that he even managed to escape from it. It took two days to search for the lost person involved, and finally, a police “escort” was attached to him again.
On a weekday morning, Thursday, the suspect went to the bathhouse to wash, and when he came out clean, he was detained and taken in an official car to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ivanovo Regional Executive Committee. Of course, Kalinin was searched, but nothing was found that would incriminate him. However, detective Alexei Sidorov, who decided to more carefully probe the detainee’s leather jacket lying on the table in front of him, was rewarded for his persistence. Behind the lining of the leather jacket was the Order of the Red Star, and, going into another office, Sidorov called Egorov and told him the number of the award found on the suspect. The deputy head of the MUR ordered that simultaneous searches be urgently carried out at those addresses where members of the investigative team could find material evidence of the criminal activities of the young Kalinin couple.
The preliminary investigation charged the Kalinins with the fact that, having been engaged in criminal activities since 1980, over several years they committed dozens of thefts of awards in a number of cities of the Soviet Union, including, along with Moscow, Chisinau, Tiraspol, Bendery, Odessa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir , Pavlovsky Posad, Ryazan, Elektrostal, Tulu, Smolensk and others. The criminal couple stole from the victims several “Gold Star” and “Hammer and Sickle” medals (awarded to Heroes of Socialist Labor), over fifty Orders of Lenin and other Soviet and foreign state insignia.
The court sentenced Gennady Kalinin to exceptional punishment, and his wife and accomplice Inna was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
By the way, other criminals who were exposed during the detective work to solve the murder of Vice Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov and his wife Natalya Sidorova also ended up in the dock. Part of the organized gang of a certain Tarasenko, these criminal accomplices, in parallel with the Kalinin spouses, staged a targeted hunt for the valuable license plates of the recipients, and those guilty of such openly criminal activity subsequently also faced legal retribution for their deeds.
And, in conclusion, I would like to say about how the memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Vice Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov, an outstanding Russian naval commander, was immortalized. His name was given to streets in the cities of Novorossiysk, Izmail, Gelendzhik and to a dry cargo ship that entered service in 1984; the house-museum of Vice Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov was opened in Baranovichi, and a postal envelope dedicated to him was issued in the Republic of Belarus in 2002 - on the occasion of his 100th anniversary from the birthday of the Hero.
At the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow, where Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov and Natalya Vasilyevna Sidorova, victims of a daring criminal crime, were buried, the central part of the memorial composition was a slab with their photographs and a bronze torch in the middle. And next to this modest tombstone an anchor was installed... As one of the visible symbols of the eternal memory of the battle-hardened vice admiral, who survived in a formidable wartime, but tragically died in a time of peace, decades after the victorious May of forty-five.
In the early 80s, a wave of cynical robberies swept through the cities of the USSR. Criminals, posing as journalists, entered veterans' homes and stole their awards. And one day they committed a murder. Vice Admiral Kholostyakov died at the hands of Gennady Kalinin. And the investigation received the status of “particularly important.”
"Journalists" on the hunt
Criminal activity during the Soviet Union was varied. Either the security officers had to unravel the snake tangle in the “Fish Business”, or carry out the “Blasters” operation. But the case of the Kalinin couple came as a surprise to law enforcement officers. They had never encountered anything like this before.
The Kalinins did not have enough money. But they didn’t want to earn it through honest labor. This is a very troublesome task. Therefore, Gennady and Inna decided to join the banner of crime. But they also had no desire to get involved in serious, dangerous matters. Therefore, the sweet couple got into the ranks of bandits who made a living by robbing front-line soldiers. The Kalinins felt that stealing awards from veterans was an activity suited to them.
First, the Kalinins walked through the front-line soldiers of Ivanovo and the region. And then they began to develop new territory. Since the risk was still great, Inna and Gennady, having committed several thefts, changed their location. Over the three years of their criminal activity, they robbed about four dozen veterans in nineteen cities. The Kalinins operated in Ryazan, Chisinau, Vladimir, Orel, Tula, Tiraspol, Smolensk and other settlements of the USSR. During this time, the couple managed to get hold of the Order of Lenin, gold stars of Heroes of the USSR, medals of Heroes of Socialist Labor and other valuable awards. They usually sold their spoils within a short period of time. There were no problems with this; there were plenty of people who wanted to get the order.
The Kalinins' spouses
The couple acted according to a previously worked out scheme. Once in a new city, the Kalinins first headed to the local honor board. The names of front-line soldiers were always present there. And then the criminals, with the help of the city council, received their addresses. If plan “A” did not work for some reason, the Kalinins used plan “B”. Gennady, posing as a journalist, showed up at veterans' councils, where he obtained the necessary information. After which he and his wife went to the addresses. The legend about the newspaper interview worked well. Once in the house, the “journalists” talked with the victim for some time, and then asked him to bring them water. As soon as the front-line soldier went into another room, the Kalinins robbed him and ran away.
Things were going well for the couple. Over three years of criminal activity, they were able to enrich themselves by a very decent amount for those times - forty thousand rubles. But this seemed insufficient to them. Therefore, in 1983, the couple dared to rob the Hero of the Soviet Union, Vice Admiral Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov, who lived in the capital of the Soviet Union.
Kill the Vice Admiral
Before traveling to the capital, Gennady decided to raid the house of the priest's widow. The old woman lived in the village of Elnat, located in the criminals’ native Ivanovo region. True, Inna could not keep him company in this matter. She had a good reason - the woman was taking a test at the institute. Therefore, Gennady had to take a certain accomplice with him.
Georgy Kholostyakov with his wife
The approved scheme did not work this time. The old woman either saw or suspected something was wrong and tried to call for help. And Kalinin killed her. For such an emergency, he had a tire iron with him. But the murder did not justify itself. The criminals did not find any ancient icons or jewelry.
The couple showed up in the capital on July 13, 1983. They found out Kholostyakov’s address in Mosgorspravka and decided to get down to business. They were lucky; that day Georgy Nikitich was at home. He, like all the other front-line soldiers, believed in the legend of the “interview.” The couple did not arouse suspicion among the Soviet military leader. Their conversation lasted about sixty minutes, after which the veteran presented Kalinin with his signed book. And they left, deciding to carry out the robbery the next day.
Georgy Nikitich Kholostyakov
And so, on the fourteenth, they again appeared on the threshold of the vice admiral’s apartment. Referring to their inexperience in journalism, the Kalinins asked the front-line soldier to clarify some details. It was not possible to commit a crime that day. The plans were disrupted by the unexpected visit of the writer Nikolai Lanin. Seeing the new man, the Kalinins hastened to retreat.
But they were not going to retreat. On the twenty-first of the same month they again came to Kholostyakov. The front-line soldier, of course, was very surprised, but allowed the annoying “journalists” into the house. There they were met by the equally surprised wife of the vice admiral. Suspecting something was wrong, she wanted to leave the apartment, but Gennady killed her with a tire iron. Then he dealt with Georgiy Nikitich. The criminals did not thoroughly search the apartment. They grabbed a jacket with the orders of the vice admiral and several valuable things, after which they left the apartment. Their haste saved the life of the front-line soldier’s granddaughter, who was sleeping in one of the rooms at that moment (the criminals came to Kholostyakov early in the morning). It was she who discovered the bodies of the dead.
Soon, the death of Kholostyakov and his wife was reported to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov. He ordered to find the killers as soon as possible. The curious thing is this: at first, investigators believed that the theft of the jacket and medals was committed as a distraction. The law enforcement officers thought that Georgy Nikitich died at the hands of some enemy.
Grave of Kholostyakov and his wife
But gradually the picture began to become clearer. Since the best investigators took up the case, Tarasenko, the man who led the gang of medal hunters, was soon arrested. He, of course, did not cover up the Kalinins, who had their hands dirty with blood. Gennady and Inna were arrested in October, and the investigation itself lasted about a year. The spouses did not ask for any leniency; they fully admitted their guilt and waited for the verdict. And in 1984, Gennady was sentenced to death, and Inna was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
X Olostyakov Georgy Nikitich - Deputy Head of the Combat Training Directorate of the Main Staff of the USSR Navy, Vice Admiral.
Born on July 20 (August 2), 1902 in the city of Baranovichi, now Brest region (Republic of Belarus), in the family of a railway driver. Belarusian. Member of the RCP(b)/VKP(b)/CPSU since 1920.
Participant in the Civil War of 1918-1920 from August 1919. He fought on the Western Front in special forces units, then as a political instructor in a rifle company. In a battle with the Poles in 1920, he was wounded and captured, released at the beginning of 1921.
In December 1921, as a Komsomol volunteer, he went to serve in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet. In 1921 he graduated from the Naval Preparatory School, in 1925 from the Naval Hydrographic School. He served as deputy political commissar of the company of the 2nd Baltic Fleet Crew (from 1922), watch commander on the battleship Marat (1925), navigator of the submarine Kommunar (from December 1925).
In 1928 he graduated from underwater classes of special courses for command personnel of the USSR Navy, in November of this year he was appointed senior assistant to the commander of the submarine "Proletary", then in the same positions on the submarines "Batrak" (from May 1929) and "L-55" (since January 1930). Commander and commissar of the submarine "Bolshevik" (1931).
He graduated from tactical courses at the Naval Academy in 1932, was appointed to the Pacific Fleet as the commander of the lead "Pike" submarine division and at the same time - the entire division, then - commander of the 5th submarine brigade. He proved himself to be a talented innovator in the field of combat training of submarine forces, a pioneer in the development of sub-ice navigation in the navy, performing combat training tasks in stormy weather, and the initiator of a number of long-distance voyages into the open ocean.
On May 7, 1938, Captain 2nd Rank G.N. Kholostyakov was arrested following a denunciation, accused of having connections with arrested “enemies of the people,” of espionage for Poland, England and Japan at the same time, and of sabotage. By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Pacific Fleet on August 17, 1939, he was sentenced under Article 58-7 (sabotage) to 15 years in forced labor camps, followed by disqualification for 5 years, and was deprived of military rank and awards.
At the same time, the convict was “lucky” - the investigator did not bring charges under the execution articles of “espionage” and “counter-revolutionary conspiracy” and he was not tried under these articles. He served hard labor in a camp in Olga Bay on the Pacific Ocean. Only thanks to the intervention of M.I. Kalinin, the case was reviewed on May 9, 1940 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. There, the case was dismissed for “lack of evidence of the accusation”; based on the facts that the tribunal had previously relied on when charging him with sabotage, G.N. Kholostyakov’s actions were regarded as disciplinary offenses. He was given back his military rank and the Order of Lenin.
Since September 1940 - commander of the 3rd submarine brigade of the Black Sea Fleet, since February 1941 - head of the submarine department of the Black Sea Fleet.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War. Since July 1941, Captain 1st Rank G.N. Kholostyakov has been the chief of staff, and since September 1941, the commander of the Novorossiysk naval base. He participated in supporting the Kerch-Feodosia operation, organizing supplies by sea for Soviet troops in Sevastopol, and preparing the defense of Novorossiysk from land.
During the breakthrough of German-Romanian troops to Novorossiysk in August 1942, he was appointed commander of the Novorossiysk defensive region with all naval and ground forces subordinate to him; for almost a month the soldiers defended the city on the distant and near approaches. After the fall of Novorossiysk, the naval base was not disbanded, but was evacuated in its entirety to Gelendzhik and from there continued its military activities. G.N. Kholostyakov is one of the main authors and executors of landings at South Ozereyka (February 1943), in the Novorossiysk port (September 1943), and on Eltigen (October 1943).
Simultaneously with his previous position, in December 1943 - March 1944, he commanded the Azov military flotilla, at which time he prepared and carried out two landing operations (to Cape Tarkhan in January 1944 and to the Kerch port in February 1944), but both ended in failure and resulted in heavy losses . From December 1944 until the end of the war, he was commander of the Danube Flotilla, which became famous under his command during the liberation of Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. During the Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava-Brnov operations, the sailors of the flotilla landed river landings, ensured the crossing of troops across the Danube, supplied the Soviet armies with everything they needed along the Danube, and supported the advancing troops with fire.
In 1950 he graduated with a gold medal from the Academy of the General Staff, in 1950-1951 he commanded the Caspian Military Flotilla, and from November 1951 - the 7th Fleet in the Pacific Ocean. Since May 1953, he served as deputy head of the combat training department of the Main Staff of the USSR Navy. In April-May 1964, as a senior officer on board the nuclear submarine K-27, he completed one of the first long-distance ocean voyages of Soviet submariners.
U Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 7, 1965 for courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War, to Vice Admiral Kholostyakov Georgy Nikitich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Since 1969, Vice Admiral G.N. Kholostyakov has been retired. Actively participated in military-patriotic work.
The life of the honored naval commander was tragically cut short on July 22, 1983. On this day, he was brutally killed along with his wife during a robbery of their apartment. At the same time, the vice admiral's dress uniform and all his awards were stolen (a few months later the killer was arrested, sentenced to capital punishment, and the sentence was carried out). He was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
Rear Admiral (12/13/1942).
Vice Admiral (05/24/1945).Awarded 3 Orders of Lenin (12/23/1935, 04/30/1946, 05/7/1965), 3 Orders of the Red Banner (02/22/1943, 11/3/1944, 06/2/1951), Order of Suvorov 1st degree (09/18/1943, No. 154) , 2 orders of Ushakov, 1st degree (04/20/1945, No. 26; 06/28/1945, No. 28), orders of the Patriotic War 1st degree (04/28/1945), Red Star (1982), medals, personalized weapons, honorary weapons , as well as orders and medals of foreign countries, including the Order of the Partisan Star in gold (Yugoslavia), awards from Great Britain, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
Essays:
Eternal flame. - M.: Voenizdat, 1976;
Attacks from the sea. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1980.
