From Ilyich to without heart attack and paralysis. Anastas Mikoyan

Mikoyan had an amazing political longevity - having started his public career working with V.I. Lenin, Mikoyan ended it with L.I. Brezhnev coming to power.

Anastas Ivanovich MIKOYAN was born on November 25, 1895 in the village of Sanahin, Tiflis province (now in Armenia, near the city of Alaverdi) in the family of a carpenter (today there is a Mikoyan Museum in Sanahin).

After graduating from a rural school, he entered the theological seminary in Tiflis.

Oddly enough, it was theological seminaries that gave Russia many revolutionaries. Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov studied at theological seminaries. Stalin graduated from the Georgian Theological Seminary in Tiflis. One can list dozens of prominent Soviet statesmen of the 20s and 30s who graduated from theological seminaries before the revolution. Mikoyan’s closest friend at the Armenian seminary was, for example, Georg Alikhanyan, one of the founders of Soviet Armenia, a major figure in the Comintern, who was executed in the late 30s. Alikhanyan's daughter Elena Georgievna is the wife of academician A.D. Sakharov.

At the end of 1914, he enlisted in the Armenian volunteer squad and fought on the Turkish front. Returning to Tiflis, he joined the RSDLP(b) there. In 1916 he entered the Theological Academy in Etchmiadzin. Since 1917 he led party work, and from March 1919 he headed the Baku Bureau of the Caucasian Regional Committee of the RCP (b). In October 1919 he was summoned to Moscow, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

In 1935, Mikoyan was elected a full member of the Politburo, and in 1937 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.

Some of Mikoyan’s close friends and relatives are still trying to claim that Anastas Mikoyan did not take any part in the repressions and terror of the 30s, although he did not openly protest against them.

Unfortunately, these statements are not consistent with reality. Of course, Mikoyan was never as active and aggressive as Kaganovich, but he could not, while remaining a member of the Politburo, generally avoid participating in repressions. Firstly, as a member of the Politburo, Mikoyan had to bear his share of responsibility for all Politburo decisions related to repression. On many lists of people prepared by Yezhov intended for “liquidation,” Stalin not only put his signature, but also gave them to other members of the Politburo. Secondly, each of the people's commissars then had to authorize the arrests of leading workers in their industry. It is difficult to imagine that Mikoyan knew nothing about the arrests of many prominent figures in trade and the food industry. S. Ordzhonikidze, who tried to protect his subordinates, was driven to suicide at the beginning of 1937. Mikoyan was a friend of Ordzhonikidze and he named the youngest of his five sons after him. Speaking twenty years later at a party meeting of the Red Proletarian plant, Mikoyan himself said that soon after the death of Ordzhonikidze, Stalin summoned him and said with a threat: “The story is how 26 Baku commissars were shot and only one of them - Mikoyan - remained alive, dark and confusing. And you, Anastas, don’t force us to unravel this story.”

In the party environment, one can still hear many anecdotes about Mikoyan’s political resourcefulness. Here is just one of them: Mikoyan visiting friends. Suddenly it started to rain heavily outside. But Mikoyan got up and began to get ready to go home. “How will you walk down the street? - his friends ask. “It’s pouring outside, and you don’t even have an umbrella!” “Nothing,” Mikoyan replies, “I’ll walk between the streams.”

Mikoyan made a great contribution to the development of the Soviet food industry. The famous fish days were introduced in the USSR precisely at his insistence: in September 1932, a decree of the People's Commissariat of Supply of the USSR “On the introduction of a fish day at public catering establishments” was issued. Much later, in 1976, fish day was set for Thursday.

However, Mikoyan was very successful in another trading operation: in the sale abroad of part of the collections of the Hermitage, the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow (included in the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin) and many valuable items confiscated from the royal family and representatives of the top of the Russian nobility. Just at the beginning of the first five-year plan! The Soviet Union was desperately short of foreign currency to pay for imported equipment. The decline in agricultural production has reduced the country's export capabilities to the limit. At this time, the idea arose of selling paintings abroad by famous Western masters: Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Raphael, Van Dyck, Poussin and others. Many gold and jewelry items, furniture from the royal palaces (some of this furniture belonged to the French kings), as well as part of the library of Nicholas I were scheduled for export.

Selling the Hermitage's valuables turned out to be not very easy, mainly due to protests from prominent figures in the Russian emigration. The auction, held in Germany, produced poor results. In France, the Soviet Union also faced failure, because the emigration initiated legal proceedings against some of the items put up for sale. Mikoyan concluded his first major deals with the famous Armenian billionaire Gulbenkian. Then Americans began to buy the paintings. These sales took place until 1936. The total revenue of the USSR from them amounted to more than $100 million.

Stalin completely trusted Mikoyan during this period. When the chairman of the OGPU, Menzhinsky, became seriously ill, Stalin intended to appoint Mikoyan in his place. But Mikoyan was not eager to move from the sphere of trade and supply to the leadership of the punitive system of the Soviet state, and this appointment did not take place.

Some historians believe that Mikoyan should also be considered one of the founders of Soviet advertising. He invited famous poets to come up with catchy advertising, like Mayakovsky: “Nowhere except in Moselprom.” And on the roof of the Polytechnic Museum there was a colorful advertisement: “It’s time for everyone to try how tasty and tender crabs are,” “And I eat marmalade and jam.” All this was the idea of ​​Mikoyan, who also oversaw domestic trade.

At the end of the 30s, the first Soviet cookbook, “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” was published in the USSR on Mikoyan’s initiative. For each of its sections, one of the statements of Mikoyan or Stalin was selected as an epigraph. So, for example, before the “Fish” section one could read the following maxim: “Previously, we had no trade in live fish at all, but in 1933, Comrade Stalin once asked me a question: “Do they sell live fish anywhere here?” "Don't know. “I say, “they probably don’t sell.” Comrade Stalin continues to ask: “Why don’t they sell? It happened before." After that, we pressed on this business and now have excellent stores, mainly in Moscow and Leningrad, where they sell up to 19 varieties of live fish...”

Before the section “Cold dishes and snacks” one could read: “...Some may think that Comrade Stalin, loaded with big questions of international and domestic politics, is not able to pay attention to such matters as the production of sausages. This is not true... It happens that the People's Commissar of the Food Industry forgets something, but Comrade Stalin reminds him. I once told Comrade Stalin that I wanted to increase the production of sausages; Comrade Stalin approved this decision, noting that in America sausage manufacturers got rich from this business, in particular from the sale of hot sausages at stadiums and other crowded places. They became millionaires, “sausage kings.”

Of course, comrades, we don’t need kings, but we need to make sausages with all our might.”

Before the section “Hot and cold drinks,” Mikoyan made no reference to Stalin, but cited only an excerpt from his own speech: “...But why was there still fame about Russian drunkenness? Because under the king the people were begging, and then they drank not out of joy, but out of grief, out of poverty. They drank precisely to get drunk and forget about their damn life... Now life has become more fun. You can't get drunk from a good and well-fed life. Life has become fun, which means you can drink, but drink in such a way that you don’t lose your sanity and not to the detriment of your health.”

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Mikoyan criticized Stalin even before Khrushchev’s report, which closed the congress. Mikoyan subsequently supported Khrushchev in his fight against the opposition in 1956-1958.

In November 1965, Mikoyan was dismissed as having reached the age of 70 and replaced by Nikolai Podgorny, loyal to Brezhnev, but remained a member of the Central Committee and the Presidium of the Supreme Council. Since 1975, Mikoyan no longer participated in the work of the Supreme Council, and in 1976 he was not re-elected to the Central Committee.

Lenin and Stalin were generally quite thin and had almost no problems with excess weight. If they had any dietary restrictions, it was solely for medical reasons.

But their comrades over time thoroughly gained weight. Until there was television, it was tolerable. And when the live broadcast came to every home, showing the shortcomings of the figures of statesmen to a huge number of citizens, they had to worry about issues of dietetics and weight loss.

By the end of his life, Stalin, according to the memoirs of the Vice-President of Yugoslavia Milovan Djilas, had become somewhat heavier and had a belly, but on the whole he kept within the bounds of decency. I think that he paid some attention to weight control. In any case, when I was at his Near Dacha, I noticed in the spacious bathroom a floor scale from a well-known German company with divisions up to 150 kilograms.

“FROM ILYICH TO ILYICH WITHOUT HEART ATTACK, WITHOUT PARALYSIS”

Viktor Sukhodrev, a long-term translator for top officials of the USSR, recalled how in 1956 he first saw the top of the CPSU alive:

“I will never forget this moment. The hall was filled with “revived portraits” - people whom I had been accustomed to seeing since childhood on the pages of newspapers, on posters hanging on the facades of buildings, during demonstrations.

Khrushchev, Malenkov, Kaganovich, Molotov, Mikoyan.

Here they are - three meters from me...

The first impression is that they are all equally short. Everyone is well-fed beyond the norm, with the possible exception of the rather thin Mikoyan...”

Mentioned by Viktor Sukhodrev, Anastas Mikoyan, who was a member of the Politburo with 20 years of experience and the Central Committee with 33 years of experience, the same one about whom there was a saying “From Ilyich to Ilyich without a heart attack, without paralysis,” was indeed of a rather modest build. But, according to relatives, he paid great attention to nutrition, including healthy nutrition. His daughter-in-law Nami Mikoyan (mother of the famous musician and producer Stas Namin) recalled that he ate very little:

He was attracted to what was useful. He rarely ate meat; in his youth he was even a vegetarian for quite a long time...

Breakfast - spinach with egg or rice porridge with pumpkin, one piece of toasted black bread and a cup of coffee with milk. Lunch - a vegetable snack, some soup and meat or fish. For sweets in the summer - watermelon, melon. On Sunday, lobio soup or Caucasian chicken soup - chikhirtma - was prepared at the dacha. Stuffed cabbage rolls with meat made from cabbage or grape leaves, pilaf or cutlets... Anastas Ivanovich especially loved salted cabbage with pepper...

In the book by Irina Glushchenko “Public catering. Mikoyan and Soviet cuisine” contains a story from Anastas Mikoyan’s grandson Vladimir about his grandfather’s culinary preferences:

“He really loved fried potatoes. But he knew that it made him fat. He himself was very careful about his weight - he believed that he should not weigh more than 60 kilograms. He put 3 - 4 slices of potatoes on his plate. He ate leisurely. He cultivated the habit of absorbing taste sensations. Sitting at a table was a way of communicating. Conversations came first, then food...”

Mikoyan, as we found out, limited himself in food, trying to maintain very little weight. Perhaps this was the reason for his activity, continued ability to work into old age and enviable political longevity.

KHRUSHCHEV CHOOSE WHAT IS LATER

Nikita Sergeevich became the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1953. Around the same time, Alexei Salnikov, an officer of the 9th Directorate of the KGB, who was responsible, among many other things, for the nutrition of his charges, began his work with the top leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government. He shared his observations with Komsomolskaya Pravda readers.

Khrushchev was distinguished by a rather large build and short stature, and given his age (when I started working with him, he was 59 years old), he had to limit himself in nutrition. Although doctors advised him on what diets to use, he ate everything. But he still adhered to certain principles.

I had to serve it many times, so I remember the main menu very well. For breakfast, early in the morning (and he got up at about six in the morning), two slices of black bread, dried in a frying pan. He also ate curdled milk from small jars that were supplied to our special base. Sometimes I could pour the yogurt into a salad bowl and add cottage cheese.

Over time, I taught Khrushchev to drink a glass of freshly squeezed juice twice a day (at 11 and 17 o'clock). Since there were no juicers then, everything was done by hand. And in any case, even if Nikita Sergeevich had a meeting, I brought juice. Only if he was communicating with someone, then two glasses. Various juices: grape, orange, blackcurrant, cherry...

On the lunch menu, Khrushchev preferred leaner dishes and practically did not eat fatty foods. And he limited himself quite strictly, since he had a predisposition to be overweight. For example, he loved Ukrainian borscht with pampushki, which he was usually treated to in Kyiv. I don’t remember a time when he ate more than one donut.

If we were hunting, we often cooked barbecue, and sometimes Khrushchev asked Podgorny to cook the village stew with his own hands. Coarsely chopped potatoes, meat, millet... And he cooked...

At Nikita Sergeevich’s house, for a snack to curb his appetite, there were always plates of black custard bread, finely chopped, salted and dried, on the table. Both he and his family, especially children, loved to chew on it. Khrushchev usually ate only black bread, believing that eating white bread would make you gain weight. But at receptions he could also eat a piece of white (he especially liked Ukrainian palyanitsa). By the way, he once fed it to the Swedish prime minister, and he really liked the bread. During an official visit to Sweden, Khrushchev decided to “pamper” the Scandinavian and brought with him several palyanits. I personally took them to the prime minister’s home. Of course, it’s not at all like ours: with an embassy employee we come to the prime minister’s apartment. An ordinary five-story house, not a mansion, but an apartment building. Clean, really. We freely enter the entrance, walk up the stairs, and ring the bell. A maid in a white apron opens the door, invites us in, we come in and hand over a gift...

But, I repeat, Khrushchev did not have a diet, in the full sense of the word.

Khrushchev usually weighed himself in the morning when he came to swim in the pool. Although he did not have any special, painful attitude towards his weight. He just tried not to gain too much weight, although he didn’t always succeed...

Khrushchev also made attempts to do exercises to lose weight. Margarita Pavlovna Dobrynina, who worked for many years in the unit of the 9th Directorate of the KGB, which monitored the physical health of the top officials of the state, recalled:

In those days, it became fashionable to twist a hoop around the waist. It was also called a hula hoop. And so Nikita Sergeevich once came to the gym and asked to explain how to treat him. But things didn’t go well: Nikita Sergeevich took the hula hoop, spun it around his waist once and dropped it on the floor. Then he stepped over him with the words: “This is not for me.”

In parentheses, we note that the hula hoop was invented in the USA in 1957. In our country, it became wildly popular after the release of Elem Klimov’s film “Welcome, or No Trespassing” in 1964...

BREZHNEV HAD SCALES IN EVERY ROOM

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who replaced Khrushchev as leader of the CPSU, did not have any problems with weight in his youth. Even in the sixties, he ate almost everything and tried to combat physical inactivity by walking and swimming. Alexey Salnikov had to serve the Secretary General at the table many times:

Brezhnev ate everything in the early seventies, and then he developed problems with his teeth and began to refuse. Once he told me at a reception: “Lesha, I won’t eat!” I told him: “Let me put you some prunes or salad, so that for decency you have some on your plate...”

And the chief Kremlin “protocolist” Vladimir Shevchenko spoke about the tastes of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (at a time when he was not on a diet):

“Brezhnev was very fond of Russian cuisine, especially kurnik. The basis of the kurnik is puff pastry, on which rice, chicken, mushrooms, herbs, and eggs are placed in rows. All this in turn is laid with pancakes.

In Zavidovo, two brigades were trained for Brezhnev. One fed the guards and attached persons, the other fed Leonid Ilyich himself. For the arrival of the Secretary General, they cooked fresh soup with pork bones with carrots and potatoes...”

But over time, Brezhnev developed a painful attitude towards his own weight. And although his build was quite normal for modern times (in the late seventies, with a height of 178 centimeters, he weighed from 90 to 92 kilograms), Brezhnev believed that this was a lot. Vladimir Medvedev, who worked as a bodyguard for “dear Leonid Ilyich” for many years, recalled:

Brezhnev in his youth, when he was a slender, handsome man, strictly monitored his weight, and with age and illness, the fight against weight became manic and acquired a kind of illness. He watched every spoon so as not to overeat, and refused bread. For dinner, cabbage and tea - that's all. Or cottage cheese and tea. In case I could afford a couple of cheesecakes.

Like Khrushchev, Brezhnev loved Ukrainian borscht. By the way, the chefs prepared it under the guidance of Leonid Ilyich’s wife, Victoria Petrovna. But sometimes there were cases when the Secretary General’s menu urgently had to be redrawn: remove borscht and other high-calorie foods and limit himself to broth. And it's all because of the scales. Or rather, not the scales themselves, but the weight that they showed. And sometimes they showed, as Vladimir Medvedev, already mentioned by us, said, 500 grams more than at the previous weigh-in. Brezhnev was furious.

Five hundred grams? - He was nervous. - This can’t be, I don’t eat enough.

He ordered the scales to be changed. We changed it, he weighed himself again. Again 500 grams...

These are the wrong scales... Change.

Scales of all types and brands - domestic and the best foreign ones - stood at the dacha in Zarechye, and in the hunting village of Zavidovo, and in the Kremlin office. In the morning I got up at home and immediately went to the scales, came to work, from the doorstep - to the scales, before going to bed - weighed myself again.

As Brezhnev’s bodyguard Vladimir Medvedev recalled, his comrades tried to the last to convince Leonid Ilyich that he was in excellent physical shape...

Members of the Politburo reassured him: “Weight is nothing, Leonid Ilyich, weight is even good, it’s energy.”

No, they told me it’s a strain on the heart.

Sometimes he weighs himself in the morning - everything is fine, his weight is normal, even less, he is completely happy.

Here you see! - Smiles. - I’ll eat even less. And walk more.

And he is in a joyful mood all day, and everyone around him - at home and at work - is also happy. Then he steps on the scales - again those extra 500 grams!.. Again we change the scales.

In general, this problem - with scales - was very serious. Employees of the 9th Directorate of the KGB had to keep dozens of scales in full working order, calibrated and not allowing for discrepancies. It also happened that Brezhnev weighed himself on one scale, and then went “to be checked” in another room. And God forbid if the difference was within the permissible error of 50 grams! Then the General Secretary’s anger could not be avoided.

When I asked a psychiatrist friend to comment on Brezhnev’s attitude towards his weight, he said: he had the initial stage of anorexia nervosa. This is a disease in which patients feel confident and productive only when they lose weight. It doesn't matter whether the person is actually overweight. The disease is characterized by a pathological fear of obesity and weight gain. On the other hand, there is a desire to lose weight at any cost. In advanced cases, this can lead to exhaustion and death. But the Kremlin doctors and cooks still did not let Leonid Ilyich die of hunger...

COMRADES ANDROPOV, KOSYGIN and OTHER officials...

Of course, it is now difficult to collect information about what diets Soviet leaders followed (or did not follow) in the seventies and eighties, so we will again give the floor to Alexei Salnikov.

Alexey Nikolaevich Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, with whom I worked from 1965 to 1980, ate completely normally. He didn't have any special requests. The only thing I can note is the obligatory porridge for breakfast. In most cases - oatmeal. He ate it either with butter or with jam, and our cooks prepared porridge for him both at home and abroad. One habit of Kosygin was known only to those close to him: if he ate at home, alone, he could not use cutlery, and he liked to take food with his hands. But in an official setting, he was one of the few of our leaders who knew how to properly use knives, forks and other table accessories.

Party ideologist Mikhail Suslov could not stand, as he put it, “slut” - eggplant or squash caviar. These dishes could not be placed even close to him. I ate porridge and boiled meat. And he really loved sausages and sausages. Even during receptions or buffets, they kept sausages for him just in case he got capricious!

The Chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, was prescribed a salt-free diet due to kidney disease...

Now, of course, it is no secret that Andropov spent a lot of time in the hospital in the last year of his life. I often went to see him in Kuntsevo. I prepared his favorite cranberry juice. He generally loved everything sour, for example apples. In winter, we even brought him a box or two of fresh apples from business trips to India.

I remember this incident: I brought him a dietary vinaigrette to the hospital. And he tried it and said: “But here, in the hospital, they make better vinaigrette!” Although in fact ours, prepared in a special kitchen, is both tastier and more enjoyable. In any case, it was prepared in full compliance with the recipe. But he liked the sick leave. I had to assent: “It’s better here than in the Kremlin kitchen.”

TWO RECIPES FROM THE LEADERS

"ARAGVI" in Stalin's style

Anastas Mikoyan, who had lunch and dinner with Stalin many times, recalled the leader’s contribution to Kremlin cuisine:

He loved to invent and order dishes unknown to us. For example, I began ordering from the chefs and gradually improving one dish: either soup or the other. Eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, black pepper, bay leaves, pieces of lean lamb meat were mixed in a large cauldron - and everything was brought to readiness. This dish was served hot and placed on the table where we took the first one. When the cauldron was opened, a pleasant aroma came out. Cilantro and other herbs were added there. The dish was very tasty. Stalin gave it the name "Aragvi".

Khrushchev’s favorite salad is “Tsarsky”:

Take half a kilo of squid (canned, in its own juice), wash and throw into boiling water. Cook for exactly 18 minutes. Then immediately place it under cold running water and rinse all the insides. Then you need to chop the squid into thin, 20 centimeters long, straws and put them in a separate bowl. After this, boil 10 eggs. But only protein goes into the “Tsarsky” salad. The egg white needs to be finely chopped. Now take one pack of crab sticks (not crab meat, but crab sticks). Divide them into three parts lengthwise, and then cut each plate crosswise and shred it too. Chop a little parsley and dill (no need for onions). And add half a jar of red caviar. Season it all with mayonnaise. Salad ready!

Let's discuss!

AlexanderAbramovich. FROM ILYICH TO GORBACH WITHOUT HEART ATTACK AND PARALYSIS*

A belated essay about dear Leonid Ilyich

"We need boundless space"

Andryusha Fedorov, a connoisseur of amateur songs and my friend at the institute, 1979-80.

This was recently - some twenty-odd calendar years ago. It was a long time ago - it turns out that a whole historical era has passed since then. I saw Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev with my own eyes - or I think I did - only once in my life, in the form of a silhouette flashed in a rushing limousine. The institute that I entered after school is located in Moscow at the beginning of Leninsky Prospekt - part of the route to the Kremlin from Sheremetyevo-2 international airport. In the winter of 1976-77. According to the order of the party committee, it was our group’s turn, armed with paper flags, to take a clearly designated place from pillar to post on the side of the avenue with the sole purpose of depicting the rejoicing of the Soviet people over the arrival of guests from a friendly country (I don’t specify which one - that’s not the point) . I think we coped with the task, because, despite the frost, the joy of legally hanging out with couples and communicating with friends and girlfriends outside the wallsalma materwas written all over our faces. It was also a great opportunity to share with each other the latest jokes from the most popular series. Here, for example, is a sample. Leonid Ilyich is at home, suddenly the doorbell rings. Brezhnev comes up, takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and reads hoarsely: “Who’s there?” Why am I writing this? I came home from work, feeling tired and pre-sick. And suddenly, at dinner, I heard something surprising from my daughter - at the lyceum I was asked to write a report about L.I. Brezhnev. The question for me is purely practical: where can I come up with the topic? I don’t know why, but the fatigue disappeared somewhere. Inspiration appeared, I immediately dug out on the top shelves “Virgin Land”, “Report on Comrade L.I. Brezhnev’s trip to Siberia and the Far East”, the necessary chapter in Voslensky’s “Nomenklatura” and the necessary article in the SIE. I did it so quickly, as if I was latently waiting for the question; as if the answer to it had been brewing in me for a long time. Without any trace of fatigue, I was immediately ready for a detailed conversation on the topic “The image of dear comrade L.I. Brezhnev in the light of the unaccepted decisions of the failed congresses of the non-existent CPSU - XXIX (year 1995) and the anniversary XXX (year 2000).” I would like to scribble together such a dissertation and go defend it with some living apologists of the vanished science of " mind, honor and conscience of the era". Now it’s late at night, but the inspiration has not dried up. In kind, with the era" developed socialism", ideologically built in the USSR under the leadership of the "personally dear comrade" L.I. Brezhnev, connected my entire youth without any exceptions. Brezhnev came to power in 1964, when I was finishing kindergarten and preparing to enter high school. He left at the same time (as befits a party post) from life and power in 1982, when I, having graduated from college, was preparing to become a simple Soviet researcher, expecting nothing more from life.Between these two epoch-making (so it seemed to me) dates, I internally and got used to the idea that somewhere here, very close (like: Lenin is with us) lives such a kind, kind, authoritative, authoritative, personally dear comrade. All the best things in life happened in those years. And hopes, and experiences, and first love. And the second, and the third... And apparently I was not the only one who experienced this feeling of almost intimate intimacy. Because a mental vision disorder called proximity aberration has proven to be extremely common. But that still happened later, in the seventies. And first there was a heyday, there were the sixties - " fat, pot-bellied"(from the best song of the group "Lube" - how "The plaster statue was removed quietly"). There was a Soviet socialist high renaissance(after Khrushchev’s late rehabilitation). My generation remembers all this well, but without much participation; But the older ones, in my opinion, are poisoned by longing for the feelings of those years. There was a Moscow theater boom, there were the best Soviet film comedies (like “The Diamond Arm”), but you never know what happened and who was there. Solzhenitsyn was, for example. Then he died and was expelled from the country. Sakharov was sent into exile in Gorky for supporting dissidents who appeared after the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968. The country in those years was literally saturated with pomp a la the Soviet Empire style. The anniversary was replaced by the anniversary: ​​20 years of victory in the Great Patriotic War (officials shortened it to the Second World War), 50 years of the Great October Socialist Revolution (you can - VOSR), 100 years since the birth of V.I. Lenin (you can - VIL). And it was "a lot of wine was drunk at the festive table..."(A. Makarevich ). And Leonid Ilyich greeted his decade in power as a rather heavy, decrepit man, prone to didactic memories of his days (such as: all the good things are ahead of us, but when we turn around, they are behind us). In accordance with the definition of socialist realism as the art of flattering superiors using methods available to them, through the efforts of Soviet writers, composers, film and simply artists, the episode of the Great Patriotic War called “Malaya Zemlya” slowly began to take the place of really big battles in the official chronicles. The number of stars on the chest of the “personal comrade” exceeded those of the most famous military marshals. During the period from 1972 to 1980, Leonid Ilyich received 12 hero stars from all socialist countries and 16 additional orders. How do I know? - I counted it myself (just kidding, of course - everything is recorded where it should be). The duration of the applause, turning into a standing ovation upon the appearance of a “personal comrade,” grew in direct proportion to the degree of development of socialism. The higher the degree, according to the instructions of the decision-making bodies, the longer the ovation (remember, then at the congresses of people’s deputies they fought with Sakharov by slamming? So this is a consequence of everyone’s training). And someone in those years, in a kitchen conversation about the situation in the USSR, put it this way: " Creeping counter-revolution". The king is played, as we know, by his retinue and court; the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, following the same logic - the Politburo and the Central Committee. This was both true and not entirely true. This is true to the extent that we are still subject to the norms of the rest humanity. According to these norms, there is spiritual sovereignty of the individual and individual salvation. I think that, in general, we do not believe in these fairy tales. And this was (in the sense of who played whom) not so, since we are the pioneers of the totalitarian era , its creators and victims at the same time. We are " too closely integrated society", someone domestic said. Remember the poet: " I am not participating in the war - the war is participating in me"(Yu. Levitansky)? To paraphrase, we get: “I do not participate in Ilyich - Ilyich participates in me.” Which Ilyich is not so important; it is clear that the most important one. Against such a background, the cult of personality is like a permanent process like world revolution according to Trotsky. There are two main known options: a) a cult with personality and b) a cult without personality. What is a cult of personality when the personality itself is absent? This is a memory of it. This is an obsessive thought about a hero going first, always a ready pioneer ( A pioneers return with arrows in their backs- this wisdom of the Wild West is still valid not only there). The dream of a universal atoning sacrifice for all of us sinners. Everyone was slowly “laying” (not eggs, but quite the opposite), but who will answer? First person. The expression on that face was our shared expression. Fate is our common destiny. Difficulties are our common difficulties. Stupidity is our common stupidity. And so on - what else is common there? Bismarck said a hundred and thirty years ago: " If you want to build socialism, take a country that you don’t feel sorry for."Miklouho-Maclay was on the right path, who tried in 1886 to organize a Russian socialist settlement on the northeastern coast of New Guinea. But the short-sighted tsarist government did not give the highest permission for this. The height of hindsight. Therefore, it was necessary to organize a socialist settlement on the territory of Russia, and so that no one would be offended/envious - all at once. And what does Leonid Ilyich have to do with it, if he was born only in 1906? That's right, nothing to do with it. An ordinary victim of circumstances. And finally, the last memory, also from Moscow. In the years 1988-1991, I loved to hang out on Pushkin Square, from the side of the monument. It was fun and chatty. One day, after listening to a lot of perestroika speeches, I went to the park and sat down on a bench to smoke. On the other side of the bench sat a strange creature, even whose gender my memory did not record. And this creature said out loud something like the following: “Fools, fools! They scold Brezhnev’s time! They call it stagnation! Yes, this was the most golden time for the people, when people were at least allowed to live! They will remember this again when they rebuild with their knees back!” For some reason this “knees back” is etched in my memory. I did not argue with the strange creature and silently took note of his maxims. I don’t think that Brezhnev’s time was golden or, on the contrary, too dark; I want to consider it a necessary, humanly justified time of reflection, a time of historical respite for society after Khrushchev’s unrest and before Gorbachev’s unrest. From Khrushch through Ilyich all the way to Gorbach - and all without a heart attack or paralysis. Well, you can't worry all the time!(*) - phrase " from Ilyich to Ilyich without heart attack and paralysis"belongs and/or refers to the prominent Soviet party and government figure Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, who began his activities under Lenin and completed it under Brezhnev. 1 1 Election program of Viktor Yanukovych - candidate for deputy of the Yenakievo City Council in 1990.

"Born in 1950. Member of the CPSU. Ukrainian.

He began his career in 1969 as a gasman in the gas shop of a metallurgical plant. He worked as an auto electrician and mechanic at Yenakievo ATP 04113.

In 1973 he graduated from the Yenakievo Mining College, Mining Technician, Electrical Mechanic. In 1980 - Donetsk Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Automobiles and Automotive Industry.

From 1976 to 1984 - director of the motor depot of the Ordzhonikidzeugol production association.

Since 1984 - director of the central motor depot of the Donbasstransremont production association. Then he worked in the state production association "Donetskugleprom" and in the main territorial department for coal mining of the Donetsk region "Glavdonetskugol".

Since 1989 - director of the Donbasstransremont production association of the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry.

"Yenakievo worker." January 13, 1990

From the candidate's program

Of all the issues that remain to be resolved, I consider the main thing to be the affirmation of human rights and their affirmation by law.

Down with the willfulness and impunity of bureaucrats from the administrative-command system! Down with the arbitrary interpretation of the law by bureaucrats, your immediate superiors, the court, the prosecutor's office, and the police. The law is above all!

The law, adopted by the people themselves, therefore wise and strict, is obliged to protect and protect a person from his first breath to his last. From the right to be born equal in dignity through a sufficient network of maternity hospitals and other medical institutions, to the right to a decent funeral according to a will or testament.

The right to a happy childhood is the right to development; gaining and establishing your personality in society, maintaining dignity.

Culture and education are included in the programs of schools, technical schools, vocational schools, and institutes. Sports, palaces, hobby groups, libraries are at the complete disposal of teenagers, boys and girls - youth.

The right to a decent life is ensured throughout the life of the worker and his family by all types of social benefits that are necessary for normal living, nutrition, maintenance of health and well-being; the right should extend to the event of loss of health, disability or old age.

I consider it necessary in the Property Law to place the main emphasis on who will manage the results of labor.

The complete and undivided owner of the product of labor should be its producer, and not a higher body, not a financier and tax collector, not one who has never breathed the air of our working city and has never even seen it.

And these eyes would tell that the owners of the smelted metal, mined coal, coke, cement, concrete perfectly understand the need to allocate part of their funds to defense, medicine, education, and city improvement, but they will never understand why millions of official parasites are supported at their expense.

There are many problems in the city. Such as the development and implementation of a comprehensive program for improving the environmental situation in the city (including the repurposing of EKTIK, the closure of the sinter plant, and others); improving health care; providing residents with guaranteed heat, providing assistance to trade and consumer enterprises in order to provide residents of cities and towns with food, goods and various services.

These are not all the issues that need to be resolved by the future renewed Council and people’s deputies, putting care of people at the forefront of everything.”