Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Creation of a system of multilevel nuclear protectionism
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Antonov-Ovseenko, Vladimir Alexandrovich revolutionary (1883-1938)
Nickname "Bayonet" and "Nikita"
Date of birth March 21, 1883(1883-03-21)
Place of birth Chernihiv
Date of death February 10, 1938(1938-02-10) (aged 54)
Place of death Moscow
Born in the family of a lieutenant of a reserve infantry regiment in Chernigov, who rose to the rank of captain and died in 1902. In 1901 he graduated from the Voronezh Cadet Corps and entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering School, but refused to swear "allegiance to the tsar and the fatherland", later explaining this by "organic disgust to the military", and after a week and a half of arrest he was expelled.
He participated in the left-wing socialist wing of the revolutionary movement from 1901, when he joined the social democratic student circle in Warsaw. In the spring of 1902 he went to St. Petersburg, where he worked first as a laborer in the port of Alexander, and then as a coachman in the Society for the Protection of Animals.
In the autumn of 1902 he entered the St. Petersburg Infantry Cadet School. During his studies, he was engaged in revolutionary agitation among the junkers, using propaganda literature, which he received from members of the organization of social revolutionaries. In 1903, through the Bulgarian revolutionary B. S. Stomonyakov, he contacted the organization of the RSDLP. In 1904 he graduated from college and was assigned as a second lieutenant to the Kolyvansky 40th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Warsaw, where he continued active organizational and propaganda activities among officers and soldiers and, in particular, founded the Warsaw Military Committee of the RSDLP.
In the spring of 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, he was assigned to the Far East out of turn, but did not arrive at his place of service - he deserted, going into an illegal position, in which he was helped, according to his own recollections, by local Social Democrats, in Furstenberg in particular. Ovseenko went to Krakow and Lvov (at that time - on the territory of Austria-Hungary), staying in touch with his comrades in Poland. After some time, he illegally returned to Poland and tried to organize a military uprising of two infantry regiments and an artillery brigade in New Alexandria, which ended in failure. He again moved to Austria-Hungary, from where he was sent by a local Menshevik emigrant group to St. Petersburg, where he arrived in early May. He became a member of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP, engaged in agitation among the military.
At the end of June, he was arrested in Kronstadt, calling himself someone else's last name, which helped him avoid the verdict of a court-martial. In October 1905, under an amnesty on the occasion of the announcement of the Manifesto on October 17, he was released, while his real name remained unclear. Antonov-Ovseenko was hiding in Moscow, then in the south. In 1906, he tried to organize an uprising in Sevastopol, for which he was arrested again (during his arrest he showed armed resistance) and a year later was sentenced to death with a replacement for 20 years of hard labor. In June 1907, just before being sent to hard labor, together with a group of 15-20 prisoners, having blown up the prison wall, he escaped; hid in Finland, then for several years worked underground in St. Petersburg and Moscow, specializing in revolutionary agitation among military personnel.
In 1909 he was again arrested, but not identified, and spent six months in prison, from where he was released under a false name. In the middle of 1910, he illegally left Russia for France, where he joined the Mensheviks, but after the outbreak of the First World War, he moved to the Mezhrayontsy. Since September 1914, he participated in the publication and editing of Martov and Trotsky's newspaper Nashe Slovo (Voice).
In 1917, the February Revolution allowed Antonov-Ovseenko to return to Russia in June 1917, where he immediately joined the Bolshevik Party.
As a member of the Military Organization under the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), Antonov-Ovseenko was sent to Helsingfors (Helsinki) to conduct propaganda work among the soldiers of the Northern Front and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet. At the same time, he edited the Volna newspaper. One of the most active members All-Russian Conference front and rear organizations of the RSDLP (b), held in June 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko took a direct part in organizing the July uprising of the Bolsheviks. After the July crisis, he was arrested by the Provisional Government and imprisoned in the Kresty prison, where, together with F.F. Raskolnikov, on behalf of the arrested Bolsheviks, he drafted a written protest against the arrest. After being released on bail (September 4, 1917), Tsentrobalt appointed Antonov-Ovseenko as commissar under the Governor-General of Finland.
In September - October 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko was a delegate to the All-Russian Democratic Conference and the Second Congress of Baltic Fleet Sailors, at which he announced the text of the appeal "To the oppressed of all countries." On September 30, 1917, he was elected to the Finnish Regional Bureau of the RSDLP (b), was a member of the Organizing Committee and the Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region. On October 15, he participated in the conference of military organizations of the RSDLP (b) of the Northern Front, from which he was elected to the Constituent Assembly. He was elected to the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. In his report at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of the RSD on October 23, 1917, he reported that the Petrograd garrison as a whole was in favor of the transfer of power to the Soviets, the Red Guards occupied arms factories and warehouses and were armed with captured weapons, the outer defense ring of Petrograd was strengthened, and the actions of the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District and the Provisional Government are paralyzed.
As secretary of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, Antonov-Ovseenko, who was also a member of the Field Headquarters of the Military Revolutionary Committee formed on October 24, took an active part in the October armed uprising in Petrograd. As part of the "operational troika" (together with N. I. Podvoisky and G. I. Chudnovsky), he prepared the capture of the Winter Palace. He led the actions of the Red Guards, revolutionary soldiers and sailors during the storming of the Winter Palace, after which he arrested the Provisional Government. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which was taking place at that time on October 26, 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko reported to the deputies about the imprisonment of the ministers of the Provisional Government in the Peter and Paul Fortress. At the congress he was elected a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs under the Council of People's Commissars.
During the Kerensky-Krasnov speech, Antonov-Ovseenko was a member of the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District and an assistant to the commander of the military district. On October 28, 1917, during the Junker uprising, he was taken hostage by the Junkers, who intended to exchange him for fifty of their comrades, captured by supporters of the Soviet regime. The next day he was released by revolutionary sailors through the mediation of the American correspondent A. R. Williams.
From November 9 to December 1917, he served as commander of the Petrograd Military District, replacing the Left Social Revolutionary M. A. Muravyov in this post.
Participation in the Russian Civil War
In December 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko, who had a military education, which was a rarity among the Bolshevik leadership, was sent south to lead the fighting against the Cossacks of Ataman Kaledin and units of the Ukrainian army that supported the Ukrainian Central Rada. At the head of the southern group of Soviet troops, Antonov-Ovseenko entered Kharkov, where the Congress of Soviets proclaimed Soviet power in Ukraine, after which he transferred command of the troops stationed in Ukraine to his chief of staff M. A. Muravyov, and he himself led the fight against Cossack troops as commander of the Soviet troops of the South of Russia (March-May 1918). As stated in the documents of the Special Commission for the Investigation of Bolshevik Atrocities, which was attached to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia, on the personal instructions of Antonov-Ovseenko, on April 1, 1918, a retired general of the Russian Imperial Army, P. F. Rennenkampf, was shot in Taganrog.
In late August - early September 1918, he was sent to Berlin at the head of the Soviet delegation to conclude an agreement with representatives of the German command on the possibility of the participation of German troops in armed struggle with the military contingents of the Entente, who landed in the Northern Region. In September - October 1918 he commanded a group of troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army to suppress the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising. Coordinated the actions of the 2nd and 3rd armies and the Volga military flotilla.
In December 1918, Antonov-Ovseenko commanded the Ukrainian Soviet Army, which acted against the German invaders and the Petliurites. After the withdrawal of the German troops, Antonov-Ovseenko, who from January to June 1919 was the commander of the Ukrainian Front, and later the People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, took an active part in hostilities against the Ukrainian army. people's republic and the establishment of Soviet power in almost the entire territory of Ukraine. During his command, mass repressions against "class enemies" and "nationalists" were widely used in the territory subordinate to him. It is said that when the owners of Kharkov enterprises refused to pay workers wages, protesting against the introduction of an 8-hour working day, Antonov-Ovseenko put 15 entrepreneurs on a train and demanded a million in cash from them, threatening otherwise to send them to work in the mines.
At work
In April 1919 he was transferred to economic work. As indicated in the autobiography of Antonov-Ovseenko, in August - September 1919 he was authorized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for food appropriation in the Vitebsk province, from November 1919 - authorized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Tambov province, then - chairman of the Tambov provincial committee and provincial executive committee. From April 1920 - Deputy Chairman of the Main Committee of Labor, member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Labor, from November 1920 to January 1921. - Member of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Small Council of People's Commissars, from mid-January to early February 1921 - authorized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Perm province.
Suppression of the Tambov uprising
In mid-February 1921, Antonov-Ovseenko was appointed chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the fight against banditry in the Tambov province.
The mass peasant uprising in the Tambov province, which broke out as early as August 1920, by this time had reached its peak and began to go beyond the boundaries of the province, finding a response in the border districts of the neighboring Voronezh and Saratov provinces. After the victory over Wrangel and the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, the suppression of the Tambov uprising became a priority for the Soviet government. The Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, headed by Antonov-Ovseenko, formed in late February - early March 1921, concentrated all power in the Tambov province in its hands. The disbandment of the Soviet fronts against Poland and Wrangel made it possible to transfer large and combat-ready military contingents to the province and military equipment, including artillery, armored parts and aircraft. On April 27, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) adopted a secret decision "On the liquidation of Antonov's gangs in the Tambov province", by which M. N. Tukhachevsky was appointed "the sole commander of the troops in the Tambov district, responsible for the liquidation of gangs ... no later than in month". Under his command were other famous military leaders, including G. I. Kotovsky and I. P. Uborevich. The number of Red Army soldiers was constantly growing and by the summer reached 100 thousand people.
The strategy for crushing the uprising, formulated in the order of Tukhachevsky No. 130 of May 12, 1921, as well as in the order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee No. 171 of June 11, 1921 (signed by Antonov-Ovseenko), consisted in the complete and cruel implementation of the military occupation of the rebel areas. Subsequently, Antonov-Ovseenko, summarizing the experience gained in the fight against the insurgent peasant movement, described the system of measures used as follows:
Again, the occupation system is based, but in connection with the arrival of new significant forces, it has been extended to a larger area. In this region, especially bandit villages are singled out, in relation to which mass terror is carried out - such villages are given a special "sentence", which lists their crimes against the working people, the entire male population is declared under the court of the Revolutionary Military Tribunal, all bandit families are taken to a concentration camp as hostages for their fellow member - a member of the gang, a two-week period is given for the appearance of the bandit, after which the family is expelled from the province, and its property (previously conditionally arrested) is finally confiscated. At the same time, general searches are carried out and, if weapons are found, the senior worker of the house is subject to execution on the spot. The order establishing such a measure has been widely published under No. 130.
Researcher David Feldman in 1989 published documents that, in his opinion, indicate that the proposal to use chemical warfare agents against Tambov rebels came from the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, headed by V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko. In particular, in the appeal "To the members of bandit gangs", published on June 11, 1921 and signed by the Plenipotentiary Commission, it was said:
Members of the white bandit gangs, partisans, bandits, give up... If you hide in the forest, we'll smoke it out. The Plenipotentiary Commission decided to smoke out the gangs from the forests with suffocating gases ...
In July 1921, Antonov-Ovseenko and Tukhachevsky were recalled from the Tambov region. Returning to Moscow, Antonov-Ovseenko presented to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) a detailed report on the state of affairs in the Tambov province and the experience of fighting the insurgent movement, in which he presented proposals for measures to be taken in the event of a recurrence of such situations.
Since October 1921 - Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Samara Governorate, where he led the fight against hunger. In 1920, his son Anton was born - in the future, a well-known Russian historian and publicist.
in opposition
In 1922, Antonov-Ovseenko was appointed head of the Political Directorate of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (PUR). Actively opposed to the rise of Stalin's power, he supported Leon Trotsky and joined the Left Opposition. On December 11, 1923, Trotsky published a series of four articles, The New Course, in Pravda. On December 24, Antonov-Ovseenko issued PUR circular No. 200, in which he proposed to his subordinates to change the political training in the army in the spirit of the provisions of the New Deal. In response to the Politburo’s demand to cancel the circular, Antonov-Ovseenko sent a letter to the Politburo on December 27, 1923, warning that “if Trotsky is touched, then the entire Red Army will stand up for the defense of the Soviet Karno” and that the army will be able to “call the presumptuous leaders to order.” At that time, there were rumors about the possibility of a military coup, about the removal of Stalin's party from power, but Trotsky, for unclear reasons, refused to take such a step. Meanwhile, the "troika" of Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin by mid-January 1924 managed to generally defeat the "workers' opposition", Stalin's supporters urgently made personnel changes in the top military leadership, and on January 17, 1924, Antonov-Ovseenko was removed from the post of head of the PUR and replaced by A. S. Bubnov; ERP Circular No. 200 was cancelled.
Diplomatic work
Antonov-Ovseenko was sent to diplomatic work, served as plenipotentiary in a number of Eastern European countries, including Czechoslovakia (since 1924), Lithuania (since 1928) and Poland (since 1930). In 1928, under pressure, he was forced to break with the left opposition. In the 1930s, for some time he was allowed to work in various positions related to jurisprudence, including the positions of the Prosecutor of the RSFSR (since 1934) and the People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR (since 1937). As the prosecutor of the RSFSR, Ovseenko contributed to the establishment of the practice of sentencing "according to proletarian necessity."
During the Spanish Civil War, he was the Consul General of the USSR in Barcelona (1936-1937): most of the military cargo from the USSR for the Spanish communist formations passed through this city. He rendered great assistance to the republican troops as a military adviser. A collection of documents tentatively called "Antonov-Ovseenko's Diary" testifies that he tried to defend the opposition to the Stalinist line of anarcho-syndicalists and Marxists from the POUM, who controlled the anti-fascist movement in Catalonia, for which he was called by Juan Negrin "a greater Catalan than the Catalans themselves. After the conflict with the Soviet Consul General, Negrin was even going to resign.
Arrest, execution, rehabilitation
At the end of 1937, Antonov-Ovseenko was recalled from Spain, after which he was arrested by the NKVD during the Great Terror campaign in the USSR on October 12, 1937.
On February 8, 1938, he was sentenced to death by the USSR Air Force for belonging to a Trotskyist terrorist and espionage organization. Shot on February 10, 1938, buried at the Kommunarka training ground. The wife of Antonov-Ovseenko was also shot.
Antonov's cellmate recalled: "When he was called to be shot, Antonov began to say goodbye to us, took off his jacket, shoes, gave it to us, and half-dressed went to be shot." 21 years ago, in a hat on one side, with shoulder-length hair, he declared the Provisional Government deposed. Now he was being led barefoot to the execution chamber. According to Mikhail Tomsky's son Yuri, which is reproduced by Giuseppe Boffa and Robert Conquest, before his death, Antonov-Ovseenko said the words: "I ask the one who lives to be free to tell people that Antonov-Ovseenko was a Bolshevik and remained a Bolshevik until the last day."
He was rehabilitated posthumously on February 25, 1956.
Soviet statesman and military figure, diplomat Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko ( real name— Ovseenko; party pseudonyms - Antonov, Shtyk, Nikita; literary pseudonym - A. Galsky) was born on March 21 (March 9, according to the old style), 1883 in Chernigov, Russian empire(now the territory of Ukraine).
In 1901 he graduated from the Voronezh Cadet Corps, entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg, but refused to take the oath and was expelled.
He joined the Marxist circle. Since 1902 - a member of the RSDLP.
In 1904 he graduated from the Vladimir Junker Infantry School in St. Petersburg, served as a second lieutenant in Warsaw, and deserted before being sent to the Russo-Japanese War. Vladimir Ovseenko was one of the organizers of the uprising in Novo-Alexandria in April 1905. In July 1905, he was arrested, but after the Manifesto on October 17 (according to the new style on October 30), 1905, he was released under an amnesty.
In 1906, for preparing an armed uprising in Sevastopol, he was sentenced to death, replaced by 20 years of hard labor. In 1907 he fled, was engaged in party work in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
In 1910 he emigrated to France, where he lived until May 1917. During World War I, he was the main organizer and main contributor to the internationalist newspapers Golos, Nashe Slovo, and Nachalo in Paris.
In June 1917 he joined the RSDLP(b), was elected to the All-Russian Bureau of Military Organizations of the RSDLP(b). Editor of the Volna and Surf newspapers in Helsingfors (now Helsinki). After the July Crisis of 1917, he was arrested, but soon released.
He was Commissioner of Tsentrobalt under the Governor-General of Finland.
In October 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko, secretary of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, during the October Revolution, one of the leaders of the storming of the Winter Palace, where he arrested members of the Provisional Government.
At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets, he became a member of the Council of People's Commissars as a member of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs.
In November-December 1917 - Commander of the Petrograd Military District.
Member of the Civil War. In 1918-1922, he held command positions in the Red Army, in particular, commanded troops operating against the troops of Ataman Alexei Kaledin on the Don, the Central Rada, the German occupation troops in Ukraine, was the commander of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, etc.
In late August - early September 1918, he led the Soviet delegation at negotiations in Berlin with representatives of the German government on the possibility of the participation of German troops in the armed struggle against the British invaders in northern European Russia.
From May 1918 he was a member of the Supreme Military Council of the RSFSR, in September 1918 - May 1919 he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR), in October 1919 - April 1920 - Chairman of the Tambov Provincial Executive Committee.
In April 1920 - February 1921 - a member of the boards of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspectorate (RKI), the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs and Labor of the RSFSR, deputy chairman of the Small Council of People's Commissars (permanent commission under the Council of People's Commissars). He led the suppression of the Tambov peasant uprising (1920-1921).
In 1922-1924 he was the head of the political department of the RVSR.
During an internal party discussion in 1923-1924, Antonov-Ovseenko signed "letter 46" to the Politburo of the Central Committee, which contained criticism of the increased role of the apparatus within the party. He spoke out against the attacks on Leon Trotsky.
He was accused of factional activities and removed from military posts, transferred to diplomatic work.
In 1924-1928 - Plenipotentiary Representative of the USSR in Czechoslovakia, in 1928-1930 - in Lithuania, in 1930-1934 - in Poland.
In June 1934 - July 1936 - Prosecutor General of the RSFSR.
In 1936-1937 he was the Consul General of the USSR in Barcelona.
In September - October 1937 - People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR.
October 13, 1937 Antonov-Ovseenko was arrested, February 8, 1938 by the Military Collegium Supreme Court The USSR was sentenced to death on charges of belonging to the leadership of a "Trotskyist terrorist and espionage organization."
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Historical portrait.
In my distant childhood there was such a film - "Lenin in October".
It was taken in the late 30s. And we watched it in a country club in the mid-60s.
And there is a scene in which the arrest of the Provisional Government takes place.
As I remember, a certain worker enters there and announces to the Provisional Government and ministers that they have been arrested.
And they say something like this: "We submit to brutal violence."
Then, of course, I did not know that this person, the anonymous worker, was, in fact, Antonov-Ovseenko.
And I found out already in high school, when they studied the work of the Soviet poet Mayakovsky.
This is how he figuratively describes this episode in his poem “Good!” Vladimir Mayakovsky:
And one
from the intruders
touching pennies,
announced,
like something simple
and simple:
"I,
Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee
Antonov,
Temporary
government
I declare deposed."
I would like to tell about this person in more detail ...
The formation of personality.
Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko was born on March 9, 1883 in Chernigov in the family of a hereditary nobleman.
My father was a lieutenant in a reserve infantry regiment. He rose to the rank of captain and died in 1902.
At the age of 11, the boy was sent to the Voronezh Cadet Corps.
There he studied for 7 years.
In 1901 he graduated from it.
After that he entered the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.
But a month later, Vladimir left there.
Fulfilling the will of his father, he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Nikolaev Military Technical School.
The unbalanced, quick-tempered young man was not sure of the correctness of the chosen path.
Volodya keenly felt the injustice of the tsarist system, with its high-ranking officials and self-satisfied officers.
He could not overcome, as he writes, "an organic disgust for the military."
Junker Ovseenko flatly refused to swear allegiance to "the king and the fatherland."
The first arrest followed.
But "because of his youth," the 18-year-old cadet got off with only 2 weeks of imprisonment.
"Rebel" was expelled from the school.
He was sent to Warsaw and handed over to his father on bail.
In Warsaw, the young man joined the Social Democratic student circle.
In it, he studies the works of Marx and Engels, the works of Plekhanov and Lenin.
In the spring of 1902, he suddenly leaves his parental home and begins an independent life.
As Vladimir himself wrote:
“I broke with my parents at the age of seventeen, because they were people of old, royal views, I didn’t want to know them anymore. Blood ties are worth nothing if there are no other ones.”
The young man went to St. Petersburg.
There he first worked as a laborer in the port of Alexander.
Then he got a job as a coachman in the Society for the Protection of Animals.
Then Vladimir again enters the military school - the St. Petersburg Infantry (in the fall of 1902).
There he was fascinated only by history and mathematics.
I binge read books.
He was fond of poetry, composed a lot himself.
He was a connoisseur of art, a real lover of chess.
During his studies, Vladimir was engaged in revolutionary agitation among the junkers, using propaganda literature.
He received it from members of the organization of social revolutionaries.
Revolutionary E. L. Ananin recalled:
“Small in stature, well-cut, pulled into his cadet uniform, he impressed with his seriousness (beyond his years) and a certain isolation. The warehouse of his face was rather concentrated, gloomy and even stern, but sometimes it was illuminated by some gentle and almost childish smile. But this rarely happened, and he, as they say, did not like to give vent to his feelings. Usually he looked important and almost inaccessible, or perhaps this importance was far-fetched, not quite characteristic of him and which he wore like a protective mask. I was immediately struck by the strong-willed bias of his whole personality. He spoke little, he was rather stingy with words, but what he said was distinguished (or so it seemed to me then) by significance. One of the topics of his conversations was the attitude to life. He spoke about the need to "master life", that life is far from a joyful thing, but a difficult and responsible one. And to me, listening to his speeches with an open mouth, it seemed that he had piled on himself some very heavy responsibility, but what was the matter - I did not guess. In dealing with people, he was rather impregnable, distrustful - and this is not only due to the heightened sense of conspiracy developed in all of us, but at the same time he was distinguished by ingenuity and the absence of any kind of "quackery". In any case, he made a very big impression on me, and it seemed to me (at that time) that the “coming heroic era” needed “heroes like him.”
(“From the memoirs of a revolutionary. 1905-1923”)
In 1903, through the Bulgarian revolutionary B. S. Stomonyakov, Vladimir contacted the organization of the RSDLP.
After graduating in 1904, he served in the 40th Kolyvan Regiment in Warsaw.
There he founds a military revolutionary organization, one of the first in the army.
Establishes contacts with local revolutionaries.
Acquainted with Dzerzhinsky.
Takes part with him in the preparation of an armed performance.
Participation in the first Russian revolution.
In the spring of 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, Vladimir was assigned to the Far East out of turn.
But he did not arrive at the place of service - he deserted.
By doing this, he violated the oath, which he took at the St. Petersburg Infantry Cadet School for loyalty to the Tsar and the Fatherland. Moreover, he accepted, as it was supposed to, on the Gospel.
Thus, we can say that Ovseenko committed not only a military crime legally, but also a moral crime ...
After that, Vladimir moved to an illegal position.
According to his own recollections, he was helped to go underground by the local Social Democrats, in particular Furstenberg.
From now on, the revolution becomes a matter of his life.
Since that time, his whole life has been a continuous adventure novel. Here you have arrests, and a death sentence, and escapes, and shootouts, and the creation of military organizations, and participation in the preparation of the uprising, and the release of underground literature (he wrote articles under the pseudonym "Bayonet") and other events.
Ovseenko went to Krakow and Lvov (at that time - on the territory of Austria-Hungary), staying in touch with his comrades in Poland.
After some time, he illegally returned to Poland.
And together with Felix Dzerzhinsky he tried to organize a military uprising of two infantry regiments and an artillery brigade in Novo-Alexandria.
The uprising failed.
Vladimir was arrested.
Further events are colorfully covered in the report of the head of the Warsaw Prison Castle:
“Today, at 5:30 p.m., Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko escaped from the prison entrusted to my guard, whose case is scheduled for tomorrow for a hearing in the military field court.
The circumstances under which the daring escape was made are as follows.
During a walk through the courtyard, Antonov-Ovseenko obtained permission to conduct "sports exercises." These sports exercises, however, were nothing more than a pre-thought-out and prepared escape plan, which Antonov-Ovseyenko made during the “layout of leapfrog”, in which one of the prisoners jumps on the back of the other, forming a “ladder”. Then the prisoners fell amusingly to the ground, which created a benevolent mood among the guards. After ten minutes of playing this Antonov-Ovseenko, finally lulling the vigilance of the guards, he turned the direction of the “leapfrog” from a single tree to the prison wall. After the third climb on the backs of Antonov-Ovseenko, he jumped over the wall strewn with broken glass from under the vodka quarters exactly in the place where the covered carriage stood, and did not crash, as he jumped onto the roof of the carriage.
It was not possible to shoot at the fugitive, because the horses immediately took the place, and someone's hands dragged Antonov-Ovseenko from the roof into the carriage, which immediately turned around the corner ... "
It remains to be added that those were the hands of Dzerzhinsky ...
After the escape, Antonov-Ovseenko again moved to Austria-Hungary.
But soon he was sent from there by a local Menshevik émigré group to St. Petersburg.
He returned to his homeland under the name of the Austrian citizen Stefan Delnitsky.
Vladimir arrived in the capital in early May.
He became a member of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP.
Engaged in campaigning among the military. Actively worked on the preparation of an armed uprising. The party nickname "Bayonet" perfectly corresponded to his assertiveness and militancy.
In the summer of 1905, he led a bold campaign in Kronstadt.
At the end of June, he fell into the clutches of the police.
Vladimir called himself a false name during his arrest. This helped him avoid a court-martial verdict.
In October 1905, under an amnesty on the occasion of the announcement of the Manifesto on October 17, he was released. However, his real name remained unclear.
Having settled in the capital, he joined the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP and began to actively participate in its work.
December 1905 arrived.
V. I. Lenin, preoccupied with the outcome of the armed uprising in Presnya, instructed Antonov-Ovseenko to lead the revolutionary action of the units of the St. Petersburg garrison.
In February 1906, Vladimir edited the central military organ of the RSDLP, the Bolshevik Barracks.
He himself wrote combat articles.
On behalf of V. I. Lenin, he participated in the drafting of the appeal of the Central Committee to the Moscow workers.
On March 27, 1906, the 1st All-Russian Conference of Military Organizations opened in Moscow.
Among the delegates - Antonov-Ovseenko.
With the help of provocateurs, the Okhrana managed to arrest the conference almost in its entirety.
But Vladimir Alexandrovich soon escaped from prison.
At first, Antonov-Ovseenko was hiding in Moscow.
Then the Party Central Committee sent Antonov-Ovseenko to Sevastopol.
Antonov-Ovseenko did a lot in Tavria.
Along with numerous speeches to workers, sailors and soldiers, he wrote incendiary leaflets and appeals, participated in editing the illegal Bolshevik newspaper Soldat.
As contemporaries described him, he was short, blond with long, neatly combed hair.
Cold, hard gray eyes.
When he smiles, his face becomes unusually kind, attractive.
"Nikita" - this is a new underground nickname of Vladimir Alexandrovich - is preparing an armed uprising of sailors.
In Sevastopol, he was again arrested.
During the arrest he showed armed resistance.
Another arrest.
Calling himself Kabanov Anton Sergeevich, the arrested person categorically refused to give any evidence.
For a year he languished in the Sevastopol prison.
For "armed resistance to police officials in the performance of their duties of service in areas declared under martial law", the court sentenced: "to death by hanging."
In the cell, Antonov-Ovseenko tried to move more: from corner to corner, back and forth.
Memories of relatives and friends caused a nagging pain in the heart.
Oppressed thoughts about the future of his wife and little son Volodya.
He tried not to succumb to the influx of longing, in such conditions it is impossible to relax. Strengthening the will and looking for a way out, looking constantly - this is the only salvation.
In principle, Vladimir Alexandrovich believed that there were practically no walls through which it would be impossible to escape ...
The gallows was later replaced by 20 years hard labor.
Just before being sent to hard labor, together with a group of 15-20 prisoners, having blown up the prison wall, Antonov-Ovseenko escaped.
With the assistance of comrades from the outside, of course.
They helped Ovseyenko and other politicians to get revolvers, prepared a bomb to blow up the wall.
The prisoners sawed off the shackles - and at the appointed hour it happened ...
In the gap formed after the terrible explosion, shrouded in smoke and dust, one after another, as if from the underworld, the prisoners began to jump out. Antonov-Ovseenko, covering the escape, was the last to leave.
It happened in the middle of June 1907...
At first, Antonov-Ovseenko was hiding in Finland.
Then for several years he worked underground in St. Petersburg and Moscow (under the name of Anton Guk).
He specialized in revolutionary agitation among military personnel.
In 1909 he was again arrested, but not identified.
And spent six months in jail. From there it was released under a false name.
Persecuted by the tsarist secret police, in the summer of 1910 Antonov-Ovseenko illegally went abroad (to France).
In Paris he joined the Mensheviks (Martov's group).
From the memoirs of the Bolshevik I. M. Polonsky:
“We looked at him like a saint. He was a very pure man, pure in thoughts and deeds. He lived only for the idea. Doing good for people was a necessity for him.”
From the first days of World War I, Antonov-Ovseenko opposed the imperialist slaughter.
At the end of 1914 he broke with Menshevism.
But he does not become a Bolshevik either.
He is an internationalist.
Since September 1914, he participated in the publication and editing of Martov and Trotsky's newspaper Nashe Slovo (Voice).
Leon Trotsky left the following memories of this period:
“Antonov-Ovseenko is an impulsive optimist by nature, much more capable of improvisation than of calculation. As a former junior officer, he had some military knowledge. During big war, as an emigrant, he led a military review in the Parisian newspaper Nashe Slovo and often showed a strategic guess.
Articles by Anton Gansky - this is how Antonov-Ovseenko signs - show that their author is on the Leninist platform.
Together with the Bolsheviks, he participated in the creation of the club of internationalists.
V. I. Lenin noted with satisfaction his speeches.
The Bolshevik section in Paris welcomed Antonov-Ovseenko.
In 1917.
After the victory of the February Revolution, Antonov-Ovseenko did not immediately manage to return to his homeland.
Only at the end of May 1917 did he return from exile. And he came to Petrograd.
And soon joined the Bolshevik Party.
Remembering those days, Elena Stasova will later write:
“A born organizer, one of the most courageous underground workers, an experienced speaker and journalist, on the same day he joined the titanic work of the party, which was preparing an armed uprising. I remember Antonov-Ovseenko as a man of passionate revolutionary temperament and inexhaustible energy. These qualities of a fighter manifested themselves with particular force during the days of the October assault ... "
Vladimir Alexandrovich was a man with strong nerves.
He had a quick, well-organized and disciplined mind.
Tireless in work, irreconcilable to political opponents and demanding of his comrades.
Brilliant speaker and publicist.
He had organizational experience and a strong will.
An optimist by nature, enterprising and determined.
AT extreme conditions he always looked cool, even phlegmatic.
He had a sense of responsibility.
Absolutely disinterested - the work absorbed him entirely.
Honest, direct, sincere in everything, modest to the point of self-denial, an extraordinary spiritual purity of a person.
So many of his associates spoke of him.
The Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) sent him to Helsingfors (Helsinki), the main base of the Baltic Fleet.
Antonov-Ovseenko agitated sailors on ships, spoke in the soldiers' barracks and among the workers.
At the same time, he edited the Volna newspaper.
He soon became the most popular orator in Helsingfors and the recognized party leader of the Baltic sailors.
In June 1917, at the All-Russian Conference of front and rear military organizations of the RSDLP (b), Vladimir was elected a member of the All-Russian Bureau of Military Organizations.
Antonov-Ovseenko took a direct part in organizing the July uprising of the Bolsheviks.
After the July crisis, the Kerensky government put him under arrest.
Vladimir Alexandrovich was imprisoned in the Kresty prison.
There, together with F.F. Raskolnikov, on behalf of the arrested Bolsheviks, he compiled a written protest against the arrest.
From behind the prison bars, the prisoners send greetings to the 6th Congress, which has aimed the party at an armed uprising.
A month in jail behind...
After being released on bail (September 4, 1917), Tsentrobalt appointed Antonov-Ovseenko commissar under the Governor-General of Finland.
In September - October 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko was a delegate to the All-Russian Democratic Conference and the 2nd Congress of the Baltic Fleet sailors. On it, he read out the text of the appeal "To the oppressed of all countries."
On September 30, 1917, Vladimir was elected to the Finnish Regional Bureau of the RSDLP (b).
He was also a member of the Organizing Committee and the Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region.
On October 15, he participated in the work of the 1st conference of military organizations of the RSDLP (b) of the Northern Front.
He was elected to the Constituent Assembly.
Antonov-Ovseenko was elected to the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (VRC).
He did a great deal of work in arming the Red Guard and in preparing the uprising.
On October 23, at a meeting of the Petrograd Soviet, Vladimir Alexandrovich reported on the work done by the Military Revolutionary Committee:
- The fact that the vast majority of the garrison units won over to the side of the revolution.
- The fact that the Military Revolutionary Committee commands the Peter and Paul Fortress and took control of weapons factories and warehouses.
- The fact that the arming of the Red Guard continues and measures have been taken to strengthen the outer ring of the defense of Petrograd.
- The fact that the Military Revolutionary Committee successfully repels all attempts by the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District to suppress the revolutionary movement.
On the eve of the October armed uprising, Antonov-Ovseenko was secretary of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee.
He was part of that circle proxies, who, under the leadership of Lenin, developed an operational-strategic plan for an armed uprising and coordinated the actions of the combat forces of the Great October Revolution.
On October 24 and 25, Antonov-Ovseenko was always on the line of fire, in the decisive areas of the battle.
In the Peter and Paul Fortress, he writes an ultimatum to the Provisional Government, checks the readiness of the Aurora, then meets the Kronstadters.
"Centrobalt. Dybenko. Send the charter."
She became the password for the start of hostilities of the fleet.
Vladimir Alexandrovich led the actions of the Red Guards, revolutionary soldiers and sailors during the storming of the Winter Palace.
At night, the rebels broke into the Winter Palace.
The last junkers were disarmed.
After that, Antonov-Ovseenko arrested the Provisional Government.
That's how it was.
He flung open the doors of the Small Dining Room.
The ministers froze at the tables, merging into one pale spot.
- In the name of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I declare you under arrest.
- What is there! Finish them!.. Bay!
- To order! The Military Revolutionary Committee is in charge here!...
But Vladimir Alexandrovich did not allow lynching.
Under his command former ministers delivered to Petropavlovka.
And after that he went to Smolny, with a report ...
Remembering the Smolny October days, the American John Reed wrote:
“In one of the rooms on the top floor sat a thin-faced, long-haired man, mathematician and chess player, once an officer in the tsarist army, and then a revolutionary and exile, a certain Ovseenko, nicknamed Antonov. A mathematician and chess player, he was engrossed in a plan to take over the capital."
A. R. Williams, American journalist:
“I remember Antonov’s pale ascetic face, thick, blond hair under a picturesque wide-brimmed hat, a calm, concentrated look that makes one forget his purely civilian appearance ...”
By this time, Antonov-Ovseenko was 34 years old.
Possessor of a powerful bass, a short, thin intellectual with glasses and unruly hair long hair, with a small mustache and beard, struck with inexhaustible energy.
He was known as a man of great will, who experienced a lot in his lifetime.
General S. I. Petrikovsky recalled Antonov-Ovseenko:
“With his passionate ideology and powerful will, Vladimir Alexandrovich conquered everyone who communicated with him. He was a sympathetic, sincere person, but he knew how, when necessary, to be firm and adamant. And as for his courage, personal courage, these qualities were organically inherent in him, as well as modesty. Vladimir Alexandrovich was distinguished by his furiousness in his work, his violent temperament. He was extraordinarily kind, humane and very trusting."
Thunderous ovation met II All-Russian Congress Soviets on October 26, 1917, Antonov-Ovseenko's report on the arrest of former ministers of the Provisional Government and their imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
At this Congress of Soviets, he was elected to the Council of People's Commissars as a member of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs.
The Central Executive Committee of the Soviets included 62 Bolsheviks. Among them - Antonov-Ovseenko ...
From the memoirs of Elena Stasova:
“...Antonov-Ovseenko always enjoyed the full confidence of Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich and the Central Committee knew that he could be sent at the most dangerous moment to the most difficult sector of the struggle, they knew that he would not spare himself and would complete the task ... "
During the Kerensky-Krasnov mutiny (October 27 - November 2), Antonov-Ovseenko was a member of the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District and assistant commander of the military district.
He commanded the Pulkovo section of the St. Petersburg positions.
Under his leadership, the Red Guards withstood the first attacks of the Cossacks, supported by artillery.
On the evening of October 28, 1917, a city-wide anti-Bolshevik uprising broke out in Petrograd.
The main role in it was played by the cadets of the capital's schools.
They managed to arrest Antonov-Ovseenko, whose Red Guards by this time had torn to pieces dozens of cadets on the streets of the city.
However, the cadets did not shoot him. They hoped to exchange him for 50 of their comrades, captured by supporters of Soviet power.
The next day, the cadets released Antonov-Ovseenko at the urgent request of the American correspondent A. R. Williams.
The released Antonov-Ovseenko in response gave the order to smash the rebel schools with artillery.
And after the storming of the Vladimir School, on his orders, 20 Vladimir cadets were shot near the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Another 71 cadets of the Vladimir School fell victim to the Red Guard lynching, which Antonov-Ovseenko tacitly approved ...
From November 9 to December 1917, Vladimir Alexandrovich served as commander of the Petrograd Military District, replacing the Left Social Revolutionary M. A. Muravyov at this post.
Participation in the Civil War.
Antonov-Ovseenko, who had a military education, which was a rarity among the Bolshevik leadership, was considered by Lenin as a "major specialist in military affairs" (although before deserting from the army he had only the rank of second lieutenant).
In December 1917, he was sent to the south of the country - to lead the fighting against:
- Cossacks Ataman Kaledin and
- parts of the Ukrainian army that supported the Ukrainian Central Rada.
On December 6, the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia formed the combat center of the South - the Southern Revolutionary Front for the fight against counter-revolution.
V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko was appointed commander-in-chief of the front troops.
At the head of the Southern Group of Soviet Forces, Antonov-Ovseenko entered Kharkov.
By the way, there was an interesting episode.
Kharkov workers asked Antonov-Ovseenko to help them get wages, which the owners of Kharkov enterprises refused to pay, protesting against the introduction of an 8-hour working day.
Antonov-Ovseenko was a tough and determined revolutionary. And he put 15 capitalists in the "veal car" of the train.
And announced that:
- or they'll raise a million in cash,
- or they will be sent to work in the mines - to extract coal.
The money was collected instantly.
This aroused the delight of V.I. Lenin, who sent a telegram:
“I especially approve and welcome the arrest of millionaire saboteurs in the first and second class carriages. I advise you to send them for six months for forced labor in the mines. Once again I greet you for your determination and condemn those who waver.”
After the 1st All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets proclaimed Soviet power in Ukraine, Vladimir Alexandrovich transferred command of the troops stationed in Ukraine to his chief of staff, the Left SR M. A. Muravyov.
Well, he himself led the fight against the Cossack troops of the Don.
Here, for the first time, he showed his specific "handwriting" of a military leader, widely using:
- mass repressions against "class enemies" and
- executions of hostages and prisoners of war.
Among other things, on the personal instructions of Antonov-Ovseenko, on April 1, 1918, a retired general of the Russian Imperial Army P. F. Rennenkampf was shot in Taganrog ...
Order aimed at unleashing a war against the Central Rada:
"After the capture of Lozovaya, advance in the direction of Yekaterinoslav, Aleksandrovsk, Slavyansk, establish communications for joint military operations with the Red Guards of Yekaterinoslav, Aleksandrovsk, Donbass."
Why was the blow delivered in this direction?
Yes, because in this way Kaledinsky troops on the Don were blocked.
This is first.
And a profitable springboard was created for decisive battles with the UNR.
This is second.
“Defensive position from Poltava; the capture of the junction stations of Lozovaya, Sinelnikovo, which ensures that hostile trains from the west and the way to the Donets Basin are not transported; an immediate start to arm the workers of the pool ... "
Simultaneously with the struggle against the Yellow-Blakitites, in December 1917 - January 1918, the workers of Donbass, Ukrainian and Russian Red Guards fought against the Kaledinites, who captured part of the Donbass.
As a result of the joint actions of the revolutionary units, a crushing blow was dealt to the White Guards of Kaledin:
On December 26-27, 1917, the Red troops of Antonov-Ovseenko captured the largest industrial centers of Lugansk, Debaltseve and Mariupol.
- On January 7, 1918, Soviet troops liberated Yasinovatoe and Khonzhenkovo.
- January 8 - Khartsyzsk.
- January 11 - Ilovaisk.
Overcoming the fierce resistance of the White Cossack troops, the Red Guard detachments during December 1917 - January 1918 liberated the entire Donbass from the Kaledinsk people.
At the end of December 1917, the People's Secretariat, together with V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, developed a plan for military operations.
According to this plan, a decisive attack on Kyiv was supposed.
In the direction from Bryansk and Kursk to Vorozhba and Konotop, the Red Guards under the command of S. D. Kudinsky (700 fighters) were to act.
From the north-west, in two columns from Gomel to Bakhmach and through Novozybkov to Novgorod-Seversky - a detachment of R. I. Berzin (3.5 thousand soldiers of the Western Front and 400 sailors of the Baltic Fleet).
From the east of Kharkov through Poltava to Romodan - a group of detachments under the command of the Left Social Revolutionary M. Muravyov (2 thousand Ukrainian and Russian Red Guards and 2 hundreds of the Red Cossacks, who had 2 armored trains and 6 guns).
In the north-western direction through Pyatikhatka - Znamenka, the Yekaterinoslav Red Guards advanced.
The total number of Soviet troops at the beginning of the offensive did not exceed 7 thousand fighters.
The decisive events unfolded on December 25, 1917.
On that day, V. Antonov-Ovseenko ordered a general offensive.
It was the time sung by poets when the red horsemen went to win and defend freedom:
Well, goodbye, wait for the will, -
gay on horses! .. - And around
boiled, noisy -
only flags outside the village...
P. Tychina.
The purpose of this campaign was the deposition of the Central Rada and the General Secretariat.
This army was strong in that it was supported by the urban workers' detachments of the Red Guard in the industrial centers of Ukraine - in the rear of the UNR troops.
In the end, the red troops of Antonov-Ovseenko defeated the yellow-black ones.
On March 4, 1918, at the request of the People's Secretariat, Lenin proposed to the commander-in-chief Soviet troops in the south of Russia V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko to be placed at the disposal of the government of Soviet Ukraine.
On March 7, the Central Executive Committee of Soviets and the People's Secretariat of Ukraine appointed him People's Secretary and Supreme Commander of all Soviet troops in Ukraine.
In order to centralize the control of the combat operations of the Red Guard detachments and Soviet units, the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko brought them into 5 armies.
But these armed formations were armies in name only. The personnel of each of them consisted of significantly fewer fighters than even a rifle division.
Considering the small number armed forces, Antonov-Ovseenko chose the only strategic plan possible at that time: a combination of front-line actions with partisan struggle in the rear.
Of course, it was not possible to create a united front of defense from the Crimea to Great Russia, as Lenin demanded then.
In the war with the German-Austrian invaders, the Reds were defeated and were forced to leave the territory of Ukraine...
In late August - early September 1918, Antonov-Ovseenko was sent to Berlin at the head of the Soviet delegation. Was sent to conclude an agreement with representatives of the German command. Conclusions on the possibility of the participation of German troops in the armed struggle against the Entente military contingents that landed in the Northern Region.
In September - October 1918, Vladimir Aleksandrovich commanded a group of troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army to suppress the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising.
He coordinated the actions of the 2nd and 3rd armies and the Volga military flotilla.
In September 1918 - May 1919 Antonov-Ovseenko was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR.
On November 17, 1918, Antonov-Ovseenko headed the Ukrainian Revolutionary Council of the Special Group of Forces of the Kursk direction.
Parts of these rebel divisions, under the leadership of Antonov-Ovseenko, launched an offensive in the Chernigov, Kiev, Sumy and Kharkov directions.
November 30, 1918 - January 4, 1919 Antonov-Ovseenko commanded the Ukrainian Soviet Army.
She acted against the German occupiers and the Petliurists.
On January 3, 1919, the troops of Antonov-Ovseenko solemnly entered Kharkov.
On January 4, 1919, according to the decision of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, on the basis of the troops of the Ukrainian Soviet army The Ukrainian Front was created, headed by Antonov-Ovseenko.
He was the commander of the Ukrainian Front from January 4 to June 15, 1919.
And, at the same time, in May-June 1919 - the commander of all the armed forces of the Ukrainian SSR.
Then his troops again defeated the yellow-blacks.
Antonov-Ovseenko took an active part:
- in the establishment of Soviet power in almost the entire territory of Ukraine,
- in the formation of the armed forces of the Ukrainian SSR,
- in military operations against the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic,
- in the liquidation of the Grigoriev rebellion.
It should be noted that when he was in command, mass repressions against "class enemies" and "nationalists", Jewish pogroms were widely used on the territory of Soviet Ukraine.
Together with Rakovsky, Antonov-Ovseenko developed a plan for a further offensive to the West to support the revolution organized by the White Kun in Hungary.
However, the general offensive of the Volunteer Army of General Denikin, which began in May 1919, not only crossed out these plans, but also led to the cleansing of the entire territory of Ukraine from the Bolsheviks within three months.
After this defeat, Antonov-Ovseenko no longer dared to demonstrate his military "talents".
And since then he has been engaged only in “political leadership”.
At business work.
In June 1919, Antonov-Ovseenko was transferred to economic work.
In August - September 1919, he was authorized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for food appropriation in the Vitebsk province.
In September 1919, Antonov-Ovseenko was appointed authorized representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Tambov province.
And then the chairman of the Tambov provincial committee and provincial executive committee.
He was instructed to restore "revolutionary order" in the province after General Mamontov's cavalry raid on the rear of the Red troops.
It must be said that execution was chosen as the main measure for restoring "order".
Moreover, they were subject to execution:
- all those who greeted the Cossacks and hung Russian national flags on their homes,
- as well as all those whose relatives left with the Cossacks.
They also shot the “contingent” usual for the era of the Red Terror - families of merchants, nobles, intellectuals and clergy.
The executions were carried out in the monastery of the Kazan Mother of God, where the provincial Cheka was located.
A concentration camp was organized in the suburban Treguyaevsky monastery. Thousands of Tambov residents were thrown there.
Many in this camp were shot. And others died from brutal treatment, typhus and starvation ...
Having finished with the provincial town, Antonov-Ovseenko "turned his face" to the village.
In the autumn of 1919 - at the beginning of 20, the Bolsheviks in the Tambov region, primarily on the orders of Antonov-Ovseenko, confiscated food, pumped food out of the village.
And quite decisively. Completely disregarding any casualties and losses. Here you have mass executions, and robberies of actual villages.
As a result, the frankly predatory and inhuman policy of Antonov-Ovseenko during the surplus appropriation brought the peasants of the province to despair.
And in August 1920 they rebelled...
A real nationwide war against the communists began in the province.
Everywhere, with the exception of Tambov and county towns, Bolshevik power was eliminated ...
Since April 1920 - Deputy Chairman of the Main Committee of Labor, member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Labor.
Later (from November 1920 to January 1921) - Deputy. Chairman of the Small Council of People's Commissars and a member of the collegium of the NKVD.
From mid-January to early February 1921 - authorized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Perm province.
Suppression of the Tambov uprising.
The mass peasant uprising in the Tambov province, which broke out back in August 1920, reached its highest proportions by the spring of 1921. And it began to go beyond the boundaries of the province, finding a response in the border districts of the neighboring Voronezh and Saratov provinces.
After the victory over Wrangel and the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, the suppression of the Tambov uprising became a priority for the Soviet government.
The disbandment of the Soviet fronts against Poland and Wrangel made it possible to transfer large and combat-ready military contingents and military equipment to the province, including artillery, armored units and aircraft.
In late February - early March 1921, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was formed to fight the rebels.
She concentrated in her hands all the power in the Tambov province.
Since Lenin believed that since Antonov-Ovseenko had brought the Tambov province to such a peasant war with his policy, he should atone for his guilt.
And he became the chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the fight against banditry in the Tambov province.
It turns out that to crush "banditry", i.e. the people's resistance to the anti-people policy of the Bolshevik authorities was entrusted to the one whose bandit policy brought the people to "banditry".
Arriving in Tambov, Antonov-Ovseenko first of all carried out a purge of the party and Soviet apparatus from the "cowardly" and "wavering". That is, from people who are not capable of extreme cruelty. And replaced them with fanatical Bolsheviks.
Antonov-Ovseenko did not particularly stand on ceremony with the eliminated “waverers”. Almost all of them were given under the tribunal. And some were shot without trial.
At the same time, he demanded that the Politburo send reliable KGB and Red Army personnel.
His request was granted.
In total, about 140 high-ranking Chekists arrived in Tambov, headed by Yagoda and Ulrich. As well as many famous commanders of the Red Army, including Uborevich and Kotovsky.
Antonov-German, one of the executioners of Petrograd, was placed at the head of the Tambov GubChK.
The orders issued by Antonov-Ovseenko still amaze with their bloodthirstiness and some kind of sophisticated sadism:
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on measures to protect railways in the province:
"April 27, 1921
AT recent times cases of damage to railway tracks and structures on the territory of the Tambov province have become more frequent ...
These investigations establish that the perpetrators of these criminal attempts are agents of Russian landowners and manufacturers, acting under the guise of a party of socialist revolutionaries, and they are assisted by kulak and criminal elements of the rural population.
Considering the harm caused to the Republic, to the entire working population, these attempts on railway Powers Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets orders:
…four. To the inhabitants of each district, announce at gatherings and hang out in prominent places that from the moment this order is published, they bear full and severe responsibility for the safety of railway structures in the area assigned to them.
5. To ensure greater safety of railway structures, the operating units working to protect the railway. roads, take hostages in the settlements indicated in this order, paragraph 3, and send them under the strictest escort to the department of the special department of the combat unit.
6. The hostages of those sections in which there will be malicious damage to railway structures, to shoot and take new hostages in return in the same order.
7. In addition to the execution of the hostages, the populations in the area of which there will be malicious damage to railway structures, and it will be proved that these villages did not take appropriate measures to prevent this damage, to impose heavy indemnities with the confiscation of livestock and agricultural implements.
8. The size of the contribution to establish in each individual case to the provincial executive committee on the proposal of the command.
…eleven. All who break this order are to be arrested and handed over to the organs of the special department as accomplices of bandits and enemies of the working people.
12. The order comes into force from the moment of its publication.
Pre-Gubernia Executive Committee Lavrov
Commander Pavlov.
On April 27, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) adopted a secret decision "On the liquidation of Antonov's gangs in the Tambov province."
By this decision, M.N. Tukhachevsky was appointed "the sole commander of the troops in the Tambov district, responsible for the liquidation of gangs ... no later than within a month."
Tukhachevsky had just taken "revenge" for the defeat near Warsaw, drowning the Kronstadt uprising of sailors in blood.
In total, over 100 thousand troops were driven into the Tambov province:
- infantry and cavalry divisions of the Red Army with artillery and armored trains,
- troops of the Cheka,
- parts special purpose(CHON),
- brigades of red cadets, Magyars, Chinese and other "internationalists",
- Regiment of chemical weapons,
- aviation squad.
Relying on all these red troops armed to the teeth, Antonov-Ovseenko set about eliminating the uprising, which he himself had called.
Since almost the entire people rose up against the communists, the suppression of the uprising was reduced to the physical extermination of the population without distinction of sex and age. That is, in fact, to the genocide of the Tambov peasantry ...
The commander of the troops of the Tambov province, Tukhachevsky, and the chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Antonov-Ovseenko, established a genuine occupation regime in the Tambov province.
While suppressing the Tambov rebellion, the so-called "Antonovshchina", they used such measures as:
- Massive hostage taking
- death penalty
- imprisonment in hastily equipped concentration camps,
- poisonous warfare attacks and
- the deportation of entire villages suspected of helping "bandits".
Subsequently, Antonov-Ovseenko himself, summarizing the experience gained in the fight against the insurgent peasant movement, described the system of measures used as follows:
“Again, the occupation system is put at the basis, but in connection with the arrival of new significant forces, it has been extended to a larger area. In this area, especially gangster villages are singled out, in relation to which mass terror is carried out - such villages are given a special "sentence", which lists their crimes against the working people, the entire male population is declared under the court of the Revolutionary Military Tribunal, all gangster families are taken to a concentration camp as hostages for their fellow member - a member of the gang, a two-week period is given for the appearance of the bandit, after which the family is expelled from the province, and its property (previously conditionally arrested) is finally confiscated. At the same time, general searches are carried out and, if weapons are found, the senior worker of the house is subject to execution on the spot. The order establishing such a measure has been widely published under No. 130.
To show what methods were used to “appease” the Tambov province, I will cite the texts of some orders signed by Antonov-Ovseenko and Tukhachevsky.
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the start of repressive measures against individual bandits and families sheltering them No. 171:
« Tambov,
June 11, 1921
Starting from June 1, a resolute struggle against banditry gives a quick calm to the region. Soviet power is being consistently restored, and the working peasantry is moving over to peaceful and calm work.
Antonov's gang has been smashed, dispersed and caught one by one by the decisive actions of our troops.
In order to finally eradicate the SR-bandit roots and in addition to the previously issued orders, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee orders:
1. Citizens who refuse to give their names should be shot on the spot without trial.
2. To villages where weapons are hidden... announce the verdict on the removal of hostages and shoot those in case of non-delivery of weapons.
3. If a hidden weapon is found, shoot the senior worker in the family on the spot without trial.
4. The family in whose house the bandit has taken refuge is subject to arrest and expulsion from the province, its property is confiscated, the senior worker in this family is shot without trial.
5. Families hiding family members or property of bandits are considered as bandits, and the senior worker of this family is shot on the spot without trial.
6. In the event of the flight of a bandit's family, its property should be distributed among the peasants loyal to Soviet power, and the abandoned houses should be burned or dismantled.
7. This order is to be enforced severely and mercilessly.
Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko
Commander of the troops Tukhachevsky.
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the procedure for purges in gangster-minded volosts and villages No. 116:
The experience of the first combat site shows great suitability for the rapid cleansing of known areas from banditry using the following method of cleaning.
The most bandit-minded volosts are outlined, and representatives of the political commission, the special department, the branch of the Revolutionary Military Tribunal and the command, along with the units assigned to carry out the purge, go there. Upon arrival at the place, the parish is cordoned off, 60-100 of the most prominent hostages are taken and a state of siege is introduced. Departure and entry from the parish must be prohibited for the duration of the operation. After that, a full volost gathering is convened, at which the orders of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee No. 130 and 171 and the written sentence for this volost are read. Residents are given two hours to hand over bandits and weapons, as well as bandit families, and the population is informed that in case of refusal to give the mentioned information, the hostages taken will be shot in two hours.
If the population did not indicate the bandits and weapons after a 2-hour period, the gathering gathers a second time and the hostages taken in front of the population are shot, after which new hostages are taken and those gathered at the gathering are again asked to hand over the bandits and weapons. Those who wish to fulfill this stand separately, are divided into hundreds, and each hundred is passed for questioning through an interrogation commission of representatives of the Special Department and the Revolutionary Military Tribunal. Everyone must testify, not excused by ignorance. In case of persistence, new executions are carried out, etc. Based on the development of the material obtained from the surveys, expeditionary detachments are created with the obligatory participation in them of the persons who gave information and other local residents who are sent to catch bandits. At the end of the purge, the state of siege is lifted, the Revolutionary Committee is installed, and the militia is planted.
This Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee orders to be accepted for steady leadership and execution.
Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko
Commander of the troops M. Tukhachevsky
Pre-Gubernia Executive Committee Lavrov.
Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the taking and execution of hostages in the event of the destruction of bridges No. 189:
Defeated bands hide in the forests and take out their impotent rage on the local population, burning bridges, damaging dams and other national property. In order to protect the bridges, the Plenipotentiary Committee of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee orders:
1. Immediately take from the population of the villages near which important bridges are located, at least five hostages, who, in case of damage to the bridge, must be immediately shot.
2. Under the leadership of the Revolutionary Committees, local residents should organize the defense of bridges from bandit raids, and also charge the population with the obligation to repair destroyed bridges no later than within 24 hours.
3. This order should be widely disseminated throughout all villages and villages.
Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko
Command Troop Tukhachevsky
Pre-Gubernia Executive Committee Lavrov.
"Fighters for a brighter future" Antonov-Ovseenko and Tukhachevsky literally flooded the province with blood.
Many settlements were literally swept off the face of the earth by artillery.
Rebels hiding in the forests and residents of "bandit" villages were poisoned and suffocated with poisonous gases.
In the territories conquered by the Red Army, a total cleansing of the area was carried out.
Revolutionary tribunals, special departments, "flying detachments" of the Cheka raged everywhere, killing people without investigation and trial on the mere suspicion of "banditry."
The whole province was covered with a network of concentration camps.
The brutalized Antonov-Ovseenko and Tukhachevsky drove the families of the executed hostages and the killed rebels there.
By order of Tukhachevsky, all children of school and preschool age were to be separated from their mothers and sent to other camps, leaving mothers with only infants.
As of August 1, 1921, there were 397 children under the age of 3 in the concentration camps of the Tambov province, and 758 children under the age of 5.
The death rate in the camps was appalling.
According to the most cautious estimates of historians, about 20 thousand people died in them only from hunger and disease ...
In parallel with this, endless executions of captured "bandits", including teenagers aged 13-16, went on in their turn.
The number of victims in the Tambov region is still the subject of discussions between specialist scientists.
They call different numbers. In any case, they numbered in the tens of thousands of people ...
In terms of the scale of the destruction of people, perhaps only the genocide of the Cossacks exceeds the massacre of the Tambov peasantry organized by Antonov-Ovseenko and Tukhachevsky ...
In the end, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was forced to recall Tukhachevsky, and then Antonov-Ovseenko from Tambov. Because, having entered the taste mass murder They couldn't stop now.
In July 1921 they were replaced by more moderate Bolsheviks.
In opposition.
Returning to Moscow, Antonov-Ovseenko presented to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) a detailed report on the state of affairs in the Tambov province and the experience of fighting the insurgent movement.
In it, he also presented proposals on measures to be taken in the event of a recurrence of such situations.
Since October 1921, Antonov-Ovseenko was the chairman of the provincial executive committee of the Samara province.
There he led the fight against hunger.
In 1922, Antonov-Ovseenko received an important post of head of the Political Directorate of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (GlavPUR).
In the inner-party struggle for power that began after Lenin's illness, Vladimir Alexandrovich made the wrong move. Actively opposing the strengthening of Stalin's power, he supported Leon Trotsky and joined the Left Opposition.
This predetermined his future fate ...
On December 11, 1923, Trotsky published a series of four articles, The New Course, in Pravda.
On December 24, Antonov-Ovseenko issued the circular of the PUR No. 200.
In it, he invited his subordinates to change the political training in the army in the spirit of the provisions of the New Deal.
Being the closest ally and ardent supporter of Trotsky, Antonov-Ovseenko, in response to the demand of the Politburo to cancel the circular on December 27, 1923, sent a letter to the Politburo.
In it, he openly threatened the leadership of the party and the state with a military putsch (coup) in support of Trotsky.
He warned that “if Trotsky is touched, then the entire Red Army will rise to the defense of the Soviet Karnot” and that the army will be able to “call the presumptuous leaders to order.”
At that time, there were rumors about the possibility of a military coup, about the removal of Stalin's party from power.
But Trotsky, for unclear reasons, refused to take such a step.
Meanwhile, the "troika" of Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin by mid-January 1924 succeeded in defeating the "workers' opposition" on the whole.
The fall of Trotsky led to the fall of Antonov-Ovseenko.
Stalin's supporters urgently made personnel changes in the top military leadership.
And on January 17, 1924, Antonov-Ovseenko was removed from the post of head of the PUR and replaced by Bubnov A.S.
ERP Circular No. 200 has been cancelled.
diplomatic work.
Since February 1924, Antonov-Ovseenko was sent to diplomatic work.
He participated in negotiations with China.
He was sent by the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR to:
- Czechoslovakia (in 1925),
- Lithuania (in 1928),
- Poland (in 1930).
In Czechoslovakia and Poland, white emigrants, then Polish extremists, prepared attempts on his life. True, they were unsuccessful.
Antonov-Ovseenko is the author of numerous articles on the history of the party, the revolutionary movement in Russia, and the Civil War.
Including:
- books "The construction of the Red Army and the revolution";
- memoirs "In the revolution",
- books "October on a campaign",
- Books "Notes on the Civil War".
He was also a consultant for films and publications about the revolution.
In the late 1920s, Antonov-Ovseenko announced his break with the opposition and broke with the Trotskyists.
By this, he hoped to ingratiate himself with Stalin and return to power.
As proof of the sincerity of his intentions, he even publicly renounced his 2nd wife, Rosa Borisovna Katsnelson. Tu in 1929 was arrested as a "Trotskyite".
I must say that for those times, unlike the second half of the 30s, renunciation of relatives was still an out of the ordinary act.
And so Stalin appreciated the degree of meanness of Antonov-Ovseenko and decided to re-engage him to work.
In the 1930s, Antonov-Ovseenko held a number of important posts related to jurisprudence.
In 1934-1936 he was the prosecutor of the RSFSR.
From the very beginning of his prosecutorial activities, he has been taking a number of measures to combat the facts of administrative arbitrariness, illegal searches, arrests and confiscations, bureaucracy and red tape when considering workers' complaints.
Vladimir Alexandrovich paid much attention to improving the quality of crime investigation.
At the same time, in his position as the prosecutor of the RSFSR, Ovseenko actively contributed to the establishment of the practice of sentencing "out of proletarian necessity."
Naturally, he did nothing, and to alleviate the fate ex-wife, the mother of her children, who in 1936, desperate to get through to the "citizen prosecutor" Ovseenko, committed suicide by hanging herself in a cell ...
Colleagues noted his efficiency and simplicity.
At the same time, he was a demanding and principled leader. He was especially intolerant of the facts of violation of the law on the part of law enforcement officials themselves.
When the famous Stalinist show trials began in Moscow, Antonov-Ovseenko hurried to once again renounce Trotsky and his former comrades and sling mud at them.
In the days of the trial of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev terrorist center, Antonov-Ovseenko appeared on the pages of Izvestia with an article entitled "Finish it to the end." In it, he demanded a bloody reprisal against his recent associates.
Vladimir Alexandrovich wrote:
"Trotskyist-Zinoviev gang" - a special detachment of fascist saboteurs with a particularly villainous task, a particularly vile disguise. A doubly dangerous detachment of a class enemy. They need to be wiped off the face of the earth."
Like the articles of other former oppositionists, this article contained regular ritual repentance:
“Deep shame fills me, because in 1923-1927 I supported Trotsky, despite the fact that I heard a clear warning voice. I did not heed this warning. And only after November 7, 1927, when the Trotskyite-Zinovievist anti-Party bloc undertook its anti-Soviet demonstration, did I recognize the organizational policy of the Central Committee as completely correct. At that time I wrote to Comrade Kaganovich that with regard to the opposition "I would carry out any order of the party." It was clear - yes, up to the execution of them as obvious counter-revolutionaries.
The lackey obsequiousness and servility of Antonov-Ovseenko were again appreciated by Stalin.
And in September 1936, Joseph Visarionovich appointed him to the post of Consul General of the USSR in Barcelona.
This post during the Civil War that began in Spain was extremely important.
After all, through Barcelona:
- passed most of the military cargo from the USSR for the Spanish communist formations, and
- all party, Chekist and military personnel sent by Stalin to Spain were controlled.
In Spain, Antonov-Ovseenko disposed of things as at home and actually commanded the Madrid government.
He personally organized the export of Spain's gold reserves to the USSR under the pretext that "fascists" could seize it. Of the nearly 600 tons of gold held by the Spanish Treasury in Madrid, about 520 tons were exported to the USSR.
Antonov-Ovseenko provided great assistance to the republican troops as a military adviser.
The chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Spain, Dolores Ibarruri, spoke of him this way:
"Antonov-Ovseenko soon won the sympathy of the Catalan people for his open character, for his efforts to help the people, for his simplicity towards people, for his deep internationalist feelings."
At the same time, while in Spain, outside the direct Stalinist supervision, Antonov-Ovseenko somewhat dissolved and began to allow himself political liberties.
He began to flirt with those who had big weight in Catalonia by anarchists and Trotskyists who were in opposition to the general Stalinist line of Madrid. On this basis, he had a conflict with the Spanish leadership.
However, Stalin's intelligence service was well organized. And he was informed about the activities of Antonov-Ovseenko.
He was accused by Stalin of "double dealing".
After that, in the summer of 1937, V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko was recalled from the fighting Spain to Moscow.
Arrest, execution.
Upon his return from Spain on September 15, Antonov-Ovseenko was appointed People's Commissar of Justice of the RSFSR.
In Moscow, he immediately threw himself into work.
In this post, Vladimir Alexandrovich stamped out all the sentences handed down by the "troikas" and "special meetings" without objection.
But, despite this, by this time his fate was actually a foregone conclusion.
Whether he knew about it, whether he guessed it, it is difficult to say. Most likely he guessed. Since sudden calls for a “new appointment” did not bode well then ...
Vladimir Alexandrovich lived at that time with his wife Sofya Ivanovna and 15-year-old stepdaughter Valentina on Novinsky Boulevard, in the so-called Second House of the Council of People's Commissars.
He was married for the 3rd time.
- His 1st wife died during the Civil War from typhus.
She left a son, Vladimir.
- From the 2nd, from which there were three children - son Anton and two daughters - Vera and Galina, happiness did not work out.
And they parted ways.
- They met Sofia Ivanovna Tikhanova in the late 1920s in Czechoslovakia.
With her, he lived the last 10 happiest years of his life.
At the end of September 1937, Sofya Ivanovna left for Sukhumi for treatment.
In letters to his wife, Antonov-Ovseenko sometimes touched on his official affairs.
One of them clearly sounded disturbing notes.
The day before his arrest, on October 10, 1937, he wrote: "... I feel the intensity of the struggle."
Premonitions did not deceive - V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko was arrested by the NKVD during the Great Terror campaign in the USSR.
It happened on the night of October 11-12, 1937.
The arrest warrant was signed by Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Frinovsky.
Immediately, searches were carried out in his apartment, in his office and at his dacha in the village of Nikolina Gora.
A. Rakitin writes:
“... Late evening on October 11, 1937. Film director S. Vasiliev will not part with Vladimir Alexandrovich in any way: the hero of October tells very interesting details. The director of the film "Lenin in October" M. Romm is allowed to show on the screen only Lenin, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky and Sverdlov. Such is the will of Stalin himself. Antonov-Ovseenko knows about it. Knows, but advises the filmmakers. Just as he did for the editors of the History civil war”, a book from which his name was also deleted. ... Vasiliev left late at night. And half an hour later Antonov-Ovseenko was arrested.”
Almost simultaneously, his wife was arrested (“she knew about her husband’s terrorist activities”).
She will be shot two days before the execution of her husband...
Vladimir Alexandrovich was taken to the inner prison of the NKVD.
And on October 13, 1937 he was sent to Lefortovskaya. He stayed there until 17 November.
Then he was transferred to the Butyrka prison. There he was kept until February 8, 1938.
Then he was again returned to Lefortovskaya.
In prison, Vladimir Alexandrovich was summoned for interrogation at least 15 times. Sometimes twice a day. And 7 times interrogated at night.
The longest was the first night interrogation on October 13 - it lasted seven hours.
Antonov-Ovseenko was interrogated mainly by state security officers Ilyitsky and Shneiderman.
For the first two days, he categorically rejected all the charges against him.
He said that he was not guilty of anything, that a mistake had been made.
And he demanded that the investigator provide him with “incriminating materials”.
Then, apparently, he could not stand the pressure - his short "confessional" letter appeared addressed to Yezhov.
In it, Antonov-Ovseenko wrote:
“Counter-revolutionary Trotskyism must be exposed and completely destroyed. And I, Trotsky's squire, repenting of everything committed against the Party and Soviet power, I am ready to give frank confessions. It must be said frankly that the accusation of me as an enemy of the people is correct. In fact, I did not break with counter-revolutionary Trotskyism ... This counter-revolutionary organization set itself the goal of counteracting socialist construction, promoting the restoration of capitalism, which essentially connected it with fascism ... I am ready to give detailed testimony to the investigation about my anti-Soviet, counter-revolutionary work, which I also carried out in 1937 ".
It can be safely assumed that after the confession torn from V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, he again retracted his testimony and began to deny everything.
Only this can explain the fact that, despite repeated calls to the investigator, the interrogation protocols were not drawn up. There was simply nothing to write about them.
Then the investigators nevertheless forced him to return to confession ...
The indictment in the case of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko was drawn up by the state security officer Ilyitsky and approved on February 5, 1938 by the Deputy Prosecutor of the USSR Roginsky.
He was accused of:
- Back in 1923, while working as the head of the PUR, together with L. D. Trotsky, he developed a plan for an armed uprising against Soviet power.
- And then, holding the post of plenipotentiary in Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and Poland, he conducted "Trotskyist activities in favor of the Polish and German military intelligence."
- The Spanish period of service was not forgotten either.
The indictment stated that Antonov-Ovseenko entered into an organizational relationship with the German Consul General and actually led the Trotskyist organization in Barcelona in the "struggle against the Spanish Republic."
The case of Vladimir Alexandrovich was considered by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on February 8, 1938.
Referee team:
- Chairman Ulrich,
- members Zaryanov and Kandybin and
- Secretary Kosciuszko.
The meeting was closed and was held without the participation of the prosecution and defense, without calling witnesses.
The court session in the case of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko opened at 22:40.
On it, Vladimir Alexandrovich stated that:
- pleads not guilty
- does not confirm his testimony given during the preliminary investigation and gave them falsely,
He didn't do espionage
- he was never a Trotskyist, he was only a conciliator.
AT last word he asked for further investigation, as he had slandered himself.
It is clear that this statement had no effect on the verdict of the court.
It was brief and extremely harsh - execution with confiscation of property "for belonging to a Trotskyist terrorist and espionage organization."
The court session closed after 20 minutes, at 23:00.
Antonov's cellmate recalled:
“When he was called to be shot, Antonov began to say goodbye to us, took off his jacket, shoes, gave it to us, and half-dressed went to be shot.”
These are they - the zigzags of fate ...
21 years ago, in a hat on one side, with shoulder-length hair, he declared the Provisional Government deposed.
Now he was being led barefoot to the execution chamber...
Before his death, Antonov-Ovseenko said the words:
“I ask the one who lives to be free to tell people that Antonov-Ovseenko was a Bolshevik and remained a Bolshevik until the last day.”
They shot Antonov-Ovseenko on February 10, 1938.
He passed away at the age of 55.
After the death of Vladimir Alexandrovich and Sophia Ivanovna, repressions fell upon their children, who were expelled from Moscow in an administrative manner.
On February 25, 1956, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR overturned the sentence against Vladimir Aleksandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko and fully rehabilitated him.
He was again ranked among the "heroes of the revolution" ...
TASS-DOSIER / Tatyana Chukova /. non-proliferation treaty nuclear weapons(NPT; Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - NNPT, or Non-Proliferation Treaty - NPT), - multilateral international document, developed by the UN Disarmament Committee in order to prevent the expansion of the circle of countries possessing nuclear weapons, and to limit the possibility of an armed conflict using such weapons.
The document was approved on June 12, 1968 at the XXII session General Assembly UN and opened for signature on July 1, 1968 in London, Moscow and Washington (depositories - Great Britain, the USSR and the USA). Entered into force on March 5, 1970 after the deposit of instruments of ratification by 40 countries, including the depositary countries. France and China joined in 1992. Thus, the obligations under this document are borne by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. There are currently 190 states parties to the treaty. Israel, India and Pakistan remain outside the document; in 2003, the DPRK withdrew from it (a party to the NPT since 1985).
According to the NPT, "A nuclear-weapon state is a state that has manufactured and detonated a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to January 1, 1967." Thus, the status of official nuclear powers was assigned to the United States, Great Britain, France, China and the USSR, after the collapse of which Russia retained this status (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, as non-nuclear states, joined the treaty in 1993-1994). The remaining countries participating in the NPT voluntarily renounced the right to possess nuclear weapons.
The NPT contains reciprocal obligations of nuclear and non-nuclear states. The former pledged not to transfer nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices to anyone, and states that do not possess such weapons not to manufacture or acquire them. However, the NPT does not prohibit the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of states that do not possess them.
The Treaty upholds the inalienable right of the parties to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. And at the same time, within its framework, a system of safeguards has been created, according to which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the right to verify the implementation non-nuclear countries their commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
An important addition to the treaty is the resolution of the UN Security Council of June 19, 1968, and the statements of the three nuclear powers (USSR, USA and Great Britain) on the issue of security guarantees for non-nuclear states parties to the treaty (made on June 19, 1968). In accordance with the resolution, in the event of a nuclear attack on a non-nuclear state or the threat of such an attack, the UN Security Council and, above all, its permanent members that possess nuclear weapons must immediately act in accordance with the UN Charter to repel aggression. The resolution confirms the right of states to individual and collective self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter until the Security Council takes measures to maintain international peace and security. The statements indicate that any state that has committed aggression with the use of nuclear weapons or threatened such aggression should know that its actions will be effectively repelled by measures taken in accordance with the UN Charter; they also proclaim the intention of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain to render assistance to that non-nuclear party to the treaty who is subjected to a nuclear attack.
Every five years, the parties to the NPT hold conferences to review the operation of the treaty (review conferences).
At the 5th conference in 1995, a decision was made on the indefinite validity of the treaty (the original term was 25 years).
At the 2000 conference, the five nuclear powers announced a moratorium on all types of nuclear testing, without waiting for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Ban Treaty (CTBT), as well as their intention to continue to reduce stockpiles of strategic and tactical weapons and increase transparency. The final document of the conference included a "list" of multilateral measures in the field of strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime - "13 steps towards nuclear disarmament".
In 2005, the participants failed to adopt an agreed final document, it was stated that the "13 step program" remained unfulfilled.
In 2010, an Action Plan was agreed with 64 practical "steps" aimed at strengthening the treaty.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for signature on July 1, 1968 and entered into force on March 5, 1970. Its members are 191 states. The treaty was not signed by India, Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. The DPRK announced its withdrawal from the NPT in 2003, but many states proceed from the fact that the withdrawal was formalized incorrectly from a legal point of view. In this regard, the UN Secretariat continues to consider the DPRK as a party to the NPT.
July 1, 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening for signing of the NPT. On the occasion of this date, conferences were held in Moscow and Washington in his support. A joint statement was made by the Foreign Ministers of the three depositaries of the Treaty (Great Britain, Russia and the USA) on major contribution NPT to ensure international security and the stability and continuing relevance of that Treaty today.
Every five years, a Review Conference is convened to review the functioning of all provisions of the NPT, as well as to agree on a list of recommendations to strengthen the Treaty.
At the 2015 Review Conference, the adoption of the final document was blocked by the delegations of the US, UK and Canada. For them, it became unacceptable that in the section on the Middle East, which was prepared on the basis of Russian proposals, the three co-authors of the 1995 resolution did not have the right to veto the holding of a Conference on the Establishment of a Zone Free of Nuclear and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East. (This provision would have made it possible, if necessary, to block the holding of the Conference, which was important for Israel).
On April 23-May 4, 2018, the second session of the Preparatory Committee (PP-2) for the 2020 NPT Review Conference took place in Geneva.
As the session showed, contradictions on such issues as nuclear disarmament and the creation in the Middle East of a zone free of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction (ZWMD) have persisted and even intensified in some places. New trends have also emerged, including attempts to use the NPT review process as a “tribune” for exerting political pressure on individual states, as well as introducing topics that are not related to the Treaty to the NPT forum.
During PP-2 Russian delegation staked on a balanced approach to the consideration of the three main components of the NPT - nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of atomic energy. Together with the PRC, they issued a statement in support of the JCPOA.
The third session of the PC will take place April 29 - May 10, 2019 in New York. The candidacy of Malaysian Permanent Representative to the UN in New York M. Jacob was approved for the post of session chairman.
