A little more than 100 thousand rubles were confiscated from the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov, during the arrest. He also had an apartment, a dacha and a rather modest foreign car. By Soviet standards, this was an incredible amount and the limit of everyday comfort. By the standards of corruption processes that will begin just a few years later (for example, ““), this is negligible. Despite the fact that Sokolov cooperated with the investigation and admitted his guilt, he was sentenced to capital punishment. Many still view this case as an element of the political struggle for top government positions.
Yuri Andropov - next after Brezhnev?
The Yuri Sokolov case, like many other cases involving Soviet trade leaders, was handled not by the police, but by the KGB. Which means Yuri Andropov. Historians studying the Soviet period agree that trials against directors large stores, food depots, departments supervising trade, became part of the struggle for the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
By 1982, Brezhnev was seriously ill, and it became obvious that his successor would soon take the main leadership post in the country. ? The most likely candidate was Mikhail Suslov, the eminence grise of the Soviet system, secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. But he died before Brezhnev - Suslov passed away in January 1982. In this situation, one of the likely candidates for the top leadership position was the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU. Andropov acted against him.
Victor Grishin. (life.ru)
In the book “Life and Reforms,” Mikhail Gorbachev, who was a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1982, wrote: “With the worsening of Brezhnev’s illness and the intensification of intrigues in his circle, a situation was created that threatened complete anarchy. Apparently, Andropov decided to take some steps that would increase the authority of the central government<…>. In the complex, behind-the-scenes struggle between members of the leadership, Grishin was cited by some as a likely contender for the “throne.” This kind of information passed through the foreign press, and Andropov, naturally, knew about it. Therefore, in his request to intervene in the vegetable affairs of the capital ( in the summer of 1982, Andropov ordered to find out why Moscow was poorly supplied with fruits and vegetables - approx. ed.) the desire to show the inability of the Moscow leader to cope even with problems on an urban scale also played a role.”
One of these obvious problems on an urban scale was, of course. Against this background, any abuses by store directors would look simply outrageous. Andropov played this card. But before we talk about the most high-profile criminal cases in Soviet trade, let us recall how the system of distribution of goods was built in the USSR. Simply put, how did they get into stores and why was there nothing anywhere, but Eliseevsky had everything.
Shortage in the USSR
All populated areas of the USSR belonged to one or another supply category: from special to third. Moscow, Leningrad, large industrial centers, national republics, and resorts were provided with food at increased standards. The lower the category of the settlement, the fewer products were allocated from centralized supply funds. As a result, it turned out that approximately 40% of the population of the USSR, living in regions with a special and first category of supply, received about 70-80% of all funds.
In the book “The Death of an Empire,” Yegor Gaidar gives the following figures: in the 1980s in Moscow and Leningrad, 97% of the population shopped in state stores. The stores in these cities had products, albeit in a limited assortment. In the capitals of the union republics, 17% of the population already shopped at consumer cooperative stores, 10% at collective farm markets. In regional centers, 35% of buyers went to the market for food, where prices, naturally, were higher.
The entire distribution system was strictly centralized: orders were sent from the USSR Ministry of Trade to departments, Main Directorates, and then to food warehouses and bases. Each store had to carry out the plan, and depending on this it received further supplies. At the same time, there were five grocery stores in Moscow that were supplied with products outside the categories, including Smolensky, Novoarbatsky and, of course, Gastronome No. 1 Eliseevsky. Under the latter there was also an Order Desk, which under Yuri Sokolov actually became a distributor of scarce and imported food among “our own”. Moreover, in some cases, Sokolov did not take money for scarce products: for example, this is how Brezhnev’s daughter “shopped” at the Order Desk.
Yuri Sokolov and Joseph Kobzon. (pinterest.ru)
At one time, Leonid Utesov sang the song “Cooperative Lullaby”, which contained the words:
Sleep, my boy, sleep, baby.
Why aren't you sleeping?
For a month now my cheek has been buried in my pillow.
Shrinkage, shrinkage, leakage, sagging.
Dad will blame it on mice
Fruits and candies
And feed you to your ears
Dear baby.
There were norms in Soviet trade natural loss products - the same “shrinkage, shrinkage, leakage”. And the fourth “y”, which did not find a place in the song, is intoxication. Up to 30% of products, including those in short supply, were written off to this “natural loss.” Which immediately went on sale “from the back porch.” Well, or in the case of Eliseevsky, through the Order Desk.
Actually, . Plus body kits and measurements: the mechanisms for filing weights or weighing down scales are known. The money that Eliseevsky and its branches received from this “leftist” trade was handed over to Sokolov, and the amounts were impressive for Soviet times: from 150 to 300 rubles per week. Sokolov passed this money on as bribes so that the supply of scarce goods to Eliseevsky would not stop.
Eliseevsky grocery store. (lenta.ru)
Thus, virtually all levels of trade were tied up in a system of theft and bribes. And it was not difficult for Andropov to start several extremely high-profile trials. While awaiting arrest, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, Sergei Naniev, committed suicide, the deputy head of Glavtorg, Grigory Belkin, died of a heart attack, the head of the organizational department of Gravtorg, Genrikh Khokhlov, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the director of the GUM grocery store, Boris Tveritinov, received 10 years, etc. D. Mkhitar Ambartsumyan, head of the Dzerzhinsk fruit and vegetable base, cooperated with the investigation, handed over all his valuables, but, nevertheless, was sentenced to death.
The case of Yuri Sokolov was perhaps the most high-profile in a series of “purges” in Moscow trade.
Yuri Sokolov: arrest, testimony, trial
In 1997, the newspaper “Evening Moscow” published an article by Yuri Filimonov on the Sokolov case. It describes the arrest of the store director as follows:
“Sokolov was arrested on October 30, 1982. A man in civilian clothes entered his office.
“I’m behind you, Comrade Sokolov, here’s the warrant, we’ll seal the office,” he said calmly.
- Who are we? - Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was sitting over expensive cognac and delicious snacks, jumped up from the table.
The man politely handed over an identification card with the coat of arms and clear letters “KGB USSR”.
“I understand, Comrade General,” Sokolov’s guest instantly sobered up. - Don't you need my help?
- We will invite you ourselves...
The director pressedly asked if he could call Yuri Churbanov or his wife Galina Brezhneva. And I heard a harsh answer: “No.”
Sokolov’s case was indeed dealt with not by the police, but by the KGB. After the arrests of major trade officials, there was already information about abuses at Eliseevsky, and charges could be brought under the article on currency fraud, which automatically placed the case under the jurisdiction of the State Security Service, and not the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
During the arrest, 50,000 rubles were seized in Sokolov’s office, and during a search at the dacha, another 63,000 rubles in bonds were seized. From material assets Sokolov had a nice apartment in Moscow, a dacha, and a used Fiat foreign car. By Soviet standards, this was the height of prosperity, but the director of Eliseevsky had neither currency reserves nor antiques, as often happened in the affairs of “underground millionaires.”
Sokolov was arrested while Brezhnev was still alive and, most likely, counted on the intercession of his daughter Galina, her husband Yuri Churbanov and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Shchelokov himself. But in early November 1982, Brezhnev dies, and it becomes clear that there will be no help. Sokolov begins to testify. Yuri Konstantinovich’s lawyer was Artem (Artashes) Sarumov, who worked for many years in the USSR prosecutor’s office system. Later he said that his client was promised a short sentence, 5-6 years, if he testified against the most senior officials, including Grishin and Nikolai Tregubov, the head of Glavtorg. Sokolov gave evidence.
The director of Eliseevsky and several other people who found themselves in the dock with him were tried under Articles 173 and 174 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR - bribery. The article provided for from 5 to 15 years of imprisonment, but it had a clause - the death penalty in the presence of special circumstances. This was the sentence handed down to Yuri Sokolov. Nikolai Tregubov, who was involved in the same case, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Sokolov’s deputies and store department managers were sentenced to even shorter terms. Since the case was immediately considered by the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, this sharply limited the possibility of filing an appeal. According to Sarumov’s recollections, Sokolov, completely depressed by the unexpected verdict, refused to write a petition for clemency, but eventually did so. Nevertheless, the sentence was upheld and carried out in December 1984.
SOVIET MILLIONAIRE: THE CASE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE ELISEEVSKY GASTRONOME Moscow grocery store No. 1 (Eliseevsky) was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, and military elite of the country with selected delicacies.
As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the grocery store director, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the persons involved in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity... If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could have gathered to carry out the sentence for the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded “to punish the presumptuous trader to the fullest extent of the law." But did his crime warrant the death penalty? The case of Yuri Sokolov “got lost” in three General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev “of theft food products on a large scale and bribery,” was opened by the Moscow prosecutor’s office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev. The investigation into this case continued under the new leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. And the meeting of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, at which Yuri Sokolov was sentenced to death, took place under Konstantin Chernenko, who replaced Andropov as head of the party and state. Moreover, Chernenko survived the executed trade worker by only three months. The arrest of Sokolov was presented by the Soviet press on command from above as the beginning of the decisive struggle of the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic succession of elderly general secretaries have to some extent softened the fate of the defendant and saved his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who was in Lefortovo, began to feel hope for leniency, which we will discuss below. He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else’s crime...
Sokolov Yuri Konstantinovich Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He participated in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted “by slander.” But after two years of imprisonment, he was completely acquitted: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman. From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call “Eliseevsky”. Heading trading enterprise, he proved himself, as they would say now, to be a brilliant top manager. In an era of total shortage, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert. Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in the rotten system of co-trade? This perplexed question is asked today by those who believe that if there had been more “Falconers” at that time, all Soviet people would have eaten black caviar with spoons. But it's not that simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of Yuri Konstantinovich’s labors were enjoyed exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow. In grocery store No. 1 and its seven “under the counter” branches there was abundance: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and balyki, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits...
All this could be purchased (through the order system and from the “back door”) only high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals... Like delicacies, rare , or even just exotic products ended up in Soviet grocery store No. 1? Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “Using my responsible official position, Sokolov for personal gain from January 1972 to October 1982. systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through his superiors trade organizations ensured an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to the bribe-payers.” In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the defendant’s last statement, emphasized that “the current order in the trade system” makes inevitable the sale of unaccounted for food products, weighting and shortchanging of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and re-grading , write-off according to the column of natural losses and “left sale”, as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those at the top and those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the products... So who, after all, needed the life of a quick-witted and resourceful “breadwinner” Moscow elite, who observed the basic “laws” of the Brezhnev era - “You give me, I give you” and “Live yourself, and let others live”? During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo. Eyewitnesses testify that during the arrest, Sokolov outwardly remained calm; during the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What was the arrested man counting on, what was he waiting for?
Several thousand trade workers of the capital of Sokolov visited this wall. for a long time was out of reach of the long arms of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-assembled grocery store were the head of the Trade Directorate of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee V. Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU R. Dementyev, the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs N. Shchelokov. At the top of the security pyramid stood the owner of Moscow - the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee V. Grishin. And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friends with the Secretary General’s daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov. Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the fact that the “security system” he built on the principle of mutual responsibility would work. And there was a moment when she seemed to begin to act: it is known that Viktor Grishin, after Sokolov’s arrest, said that he did not believe that the director of the grocery store was guilty. However, as subsequent events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov of untouchability, but also his high-ranking “roof.” Sokolov began to testify only after the election of a new General Secretary of the CPSU. The person under investigation began to confess immediately after he learned about the death of Brezhnev and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough not to come to the disappointing conclusion: he had become one of the pawns in Andropov’s game to discredit possible rivals to replace the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as was well known then, was one of the most likely contenders for the Kremlin “throne”.
Yu. V. Andropov Sokolov could not calculate one thing then: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-step game for supreme power, the Chairman of the Committee had already identified the director of Eliseevsky, to whom intelligence reports about bribery were received, as the fuse that was supposed to detonate the bomb... Sokolov’s first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he must, first of all, reveal the scheme of thefts from Moscow food stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of Moscow power. Cooperation with the investigation will count, they told him. And a drowning man, as you know, clutches at straws... For what purpose did the KGB create a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building? Preserved expert review in the Sokolov case, former KGB supervisory prosecutor Vladimir Golubev. He believed that the evidence presented against Sokolov was not thoroughly examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural loss, which were provided for by the state. And the conclusion: from a legal point of view, such a severe punishment of the director of “Eliseevsky” is illegal... It is significant that the KGB conducted the Sokolov case without the participation of its “younger brother” - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov’s “black list” even when they were his Chairman of the KGB, and then Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from his post as Minister of Internal Affairs and committed suicide).
A month before Sokolov’s arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director’s office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (they caused an “electrical short circuit” in the store, turned off the elevators and called “repairmen”). All branches of Eliseevsky were also put under the cap. Thus, many high-ranking officials who were in “special” relations with Sokolov and were in his office literally came to the attention of the security officers of the KGB department in Moscow. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov. Audio and video surveillance also recorded that branch managers came to Sokolov on Fridays and handed envelopes to the director. Subsequently, part of the money raised from the deficit that did not end up on the counter migrated from the director’s safe to the head of the Main Trade Directorate of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council, Nikolai Tregubov, and other interested parties. In short, a serious evidence base was collected. One Friday, all the “postmen”, after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. The four soon confessed. The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov’s desktop. Therefore, upon entering the director’s office, he extended his hand to greet him. The “friendly” handshake ended with a seizure, which prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that they presented him with an arrest warrant and began a search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store. Why did Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupt his vacation and fly to Moscow Even before the end of the investigation into the Sokolov case and the transfer of the indictment to the court, arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began. In total, in the system of the capital's Glavtorg, since the summer of 1983, more than 15 thousands of people. Including the former head of Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov.
His patrons tried to get him out of harm’s way and shortly before that, they transferred him to the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg mediation office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry. Interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, Politburo member V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, there was nothing he could do. The career of the patron of the Moscow “trading mafia” was already at its end - in December 1985, he was replaced as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU by Boris Yeltsin. The directors of the most famous Moscow food stores were behind bars: V. Filippov (Novoarbatsky grocery store), B. Tveretinov (GUM grocery store), S. Noniev (Smolensky grocery store), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable store base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the Gastronom trade I. Korovkin, director of Diettorg Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a number of other very respectable and responsible workers. The investigation will establish that in the Glavtorg case, 757 people were united by stable criminal ties - from store directors to heads of trade in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. Based on the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles worth of bribes passed, one can imagine the overall scale of corruption. According to the documents, the damage to the state was estimated at 3 million rubles (a lot of money in those days). Sokolov - an underground millionaire or a disinterested person who slept on a soldier's bed? The party press started talking coherently about the new NEP - establishing basic order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in apartments and dachas of the “trading mafia.” Large sums of rubles, currency and jewelry found in hiding places flashed by. The editorial offices of central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the KGB, starting from the moment of Sokolov’s arrest, continued to receive letters from all over the country demanding that the presumptuous traders be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Yuri Sokolov Information about how much “stuck” to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. The dacha where 50 thousand rubles in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more were found, Jewelry, a used foreign car - this is according to some sources. According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them “upstairs” to ensure the normal supply of the store, but did not take a penny for himself. They even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bed at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state Nikita Khrushchev. The death sentence to the director of Eliseevsky amazed even the KGB investigators. The meeting of the Criminal Cases Collegium of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the case of Sokolov and other “financially responsible persons of grocery store No. 1” was held behind closed doors. Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under Articles 173 part 2 and 174 part 2 of the Criminal Code RSFSR (receiving and giving bribes on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 sentenced to capital punishment - execution by execution with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison. At the trial, Sokolov did not recant his testimony; he read out to the court from a notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe-payers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid disclosing incriminating evidence on major party and government functionaries, the court hearing was closed. Sokolov repeated several times at court hearings that he had become a “scapegoat”, “a victim of party strife.”
They say that the KGB officers involved in this criminal case were amazed at the death sentence against the defendant, who actively cooperated with the investigation and the court. Sokolov finds it hard to believe in the public expression of sympathy from the committee members. It is more plausible to assume that it was for Sokolov’s detailed testimony that he paid with his life. When he later appeared in court former manager Moscow trade Nikolai Tregubov, through whom the main “tranches” of bribes passed, he pleaded not guilty and did not name any names. As a result, he received 15 years in prison. Remember, this is almost the same as an ordinary department manager at the Eliseevsky grocery store! Two directors were executed, one sentenced himself to capital punishment. Before the shock from the execution of Yuri Sokolov had passed in the trading industry, a new execution sentence was heard - for the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan. The court, in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, did not find mitigating circumstances such as Mkhitar Ambartsumyan’s participation in the storming of the Reichstag and in the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. And he also testified. Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, was heard outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniev, committed suicide. There was a rumor for a long time: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center. It was officially announced that the sentence against Yuri Sokolov was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not make it to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court hearing?
Let us remember that already full swing An investigation was underway into other criminal cases against Glavtorg employees. And many high-ranking officials were interested in ensuring that such a dangerous witness as Sokolov was “neutralized” as soon as possible. Most likely, this is where the rumor originated: Sokolov was supposedly hastened to be removed so that he would not have time to submit a request for pardon... The government changed, demonstrative “floggings” for political reasons remained Sokolov, of course, is a criminal. However, the court had sufficient grounds to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in in this case crime was in the background - the agile director became one of the pawns in the political struggle for supreme power. Literally a few months after his death former director"Eliseevsky" on this field the rules of the game began to change. The investigation into the “trade mafia” case began to wind down; a group of OBKhSS investigators, formed from specialists from many regions, was sent home. Alexander Sergeev
Participant of the Great Patriotic War, had awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted “by slander.” But after two years of imprisonment, he was completely acquitted: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, and from 1972 to 1982 he was director of the Eliseevsky store.
Arrest and sentence
In 1982, Yu. V. Andropov came to power in the USSR, one of whose goals was to cleanse the country of corruption, theft and bribery. He knew the real state of affairs in trade, so Andropov decided [source not specified 289 days] to start with the Moscow food trade. The first person arrested in this case was the director of the Moscow store “Vneshposyltorg” (“Beryozka”) Avilov and his wife, who was Sokolov’s deputy as director of the “Eliseevsky” store. Moscow grocery store No. 1 (“Eliseevsky”) was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, and military elite of the country with selected delicacies. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the grocery store director, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the people involved in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity. If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could have gathered to carry out the sentence to Eliseevsky director Yuri Sokolov, who after his arrest demanded “to punish the presumptuous trader to the fullest extent of the law.” But did his crime warrant the death penalty?
The case of Yuri Sokolov "got lost" in the three General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee
A criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev “of theft of food products on a large scale and bribery” was opened by the Moscow prosecutor’s office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev.
The investigation into this case continued under the new leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. And the meeting of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, at which Yuri Sokolov was sentenced to death, took place under Konstantin Chernenko, who replaced Andropov as head of the party and state. Moreover, Chernenko survived the executed trade worker by only three months.
The arrest of Sokolov was presented by the Soviet press on command from above as the beginning of the decisive struggle of the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic succession of elderly general secretaries have to some extent softened the fate of the defendant and saved his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who was in Lefortovo, began to feel hope for leniency, which we will discuss below.
He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else’s crime...
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Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He participated in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted “by slander.” But after two years of imprisonment, he was completely acquitted: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman.
From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call “Eliseevsky”. Having headed a trading company, he proved himself, as they would say now, to be a brilliant top manager. In an era of total shortage, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert.
Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in the rotten system of co-trade?
This perplexed question is asked today by those who believe that if there had been more “Falconers” at that time, all Soviet people would have eaten black caviar with spoons. But it's not that simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of Yuri Konstantinovich’s labors were enjoyed exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow.
In grocery store No. 1 and its seven branches “under the counter” there was abundance: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and balyki, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits... All this could be purchased (using the ordering system and from the “back door”) only high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academics and generals...
How did delicious, rare, or even simply exotic products end up in Soviet grocery store No. 1?
Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov, for selfish purposes, from January 1972 to October 1982, systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that, through higher trade organizations, he ensured uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to the bribe-payers.”
In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that “the current order in the trade system” makes inevitable the sale of unaccounted for food products, weighting and shortchanging of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and re-grading, write-off according to the column of natural losses and “left sale”, as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those at the top and those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the products...
So who, after all, needed the life of a quick-witted and resourceful “breadwinner” of the Moscow elite, who observed the basic “laws” of the Brezhnev era - “You give me, I give you” and “Live yourself, and let others live”?
During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo
Eyewitnesses testify that during the arrest, Sokolov outwardly remained calm; during the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What was the arrested man counting on, what was he waiting for?
For a long time, Sokolov was out of reach of the long arms of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-assembled grocery store were the head of the Trade Directorate of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee V. Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU R. Dementyev, the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs N. Shchelokov. At the top of the security pyramid stood the owner of Moscow - the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee V. Grishin.
And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friends with the Secretary General’s daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov.
Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the fact that the “security system” he built on the principle of mutual responsibility would work. And there was a moment when she seemed to begin to act: it is known that Viktor Grishin, after Sokolov’s arrest, said that he did not believe that the director of the grocery store was guilty. However, as subsequent events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov of untouchability, but also his high-ranking “roof.”
Sokolov began to testify only after the election of a new Secretary General of the CPSU
The defendant began to confess immediately after he learned about Brezhnev’s death and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough not to come to the disappointing conclusion: he had become one of the pawns in Andropov’s game to discredit possible rivals to replace the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as was well known then, was one of the most likely contenders for the Kremlin “throne”.
Sokolov could not calculate one thing at that time: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-step game for supreme power, the Chairman of the Committee had already designated the director of Eliseevsky, to whom intelligence reports about bribery were received, as the fuse that was supposed to detonate the bomb...
Sokolov's first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he must, first of all, reveal the scheme of thefts from Moscow food stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of Moscow power. Cooperation with the investigation will count, they told him. And a drowning person, as you know, clutches at straws...
For what purpose did the KGB create a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building?
The expert assessment of the former KGB supervisory prosecutor Vladimir Golubev on the Sokolov case has been preserved. He believed that the evidence presented against Sokolov was not thoroughly examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural loss, which were provided for by the state. And the conclusion: from a legal point of view, such a severe punishment of the director of Eliseevsky is illegal...
It is significant that the KGB conducted the Sokolov case without the participation of its “younger brother” - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov’s “black list” even when he was Chairman of the KGB, and then Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from his post as Minister of Internal Affairs and committed suicide).
A month before Sokolov’s arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director’s office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (they caused an “electrical short circuit” in the store, turned off the elevators and called “repairmen”). All branches of Eliseevsky were also put under the cap.
Thus, the security officers of the KGB department in Moscow literally came to the attention of many high-ranking persons who were in “special” relations with Sokolov and were in his office. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov.
Audio and video surveillance also recorded that branch managers came to Sokolov on Fridays and handed envelopes to the director. Subsequently, part of the money raised from the deficit that did not end up on the counter migrated from the director’s safe to the head of the Main Trade Directorate of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council, Nikolai Tregubov, and other interested parties. In short, a serious evidence base was collected.
One Friday, all the “postmen”, after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. The four soon confessed.
The committee member who arrested Sokolov first exchanged a firm handshake with him
The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov’s desktop. Therefore, upon entering the director’s office, he extended his hand to greet him. The “friendly” handshake ended with a seizure, which prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that they presented him with an arrest warrant and began a search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store.
Why Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupted his vacation and flew to Moscow
Even before the investigation into the Sokolov case was completed and the indictment was submitted to the court, arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began.
In total, in the capital's Glavtorg system, since the summer of 1983, more than 15 thousand people have been brought to criminal liability. Including the former head of Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov. His patrons tried to get him out of harm’s way and shortly before that, they transferred him to the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg mediation office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry.
Interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, Politburo member V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, there was nothing he could do. The career of the patron of the Moscow “trade mafia” was already at its end - in December 1985, he was replaced as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU by Boris Yeltsin.
The directors of the most famous Moscow food stores were behind bars: V. Filippov (Novoarbatsky grocery store), B. Tveretinov (GUM grocery store), S. Noniev (Smolensky grocery store), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable store base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the Gastronom trade I. Korovkin, director of Diettorg Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a whole number of very respectable and responsible workers.
The investigation will establish that in the Glavtorg case, 757 people were united by stable criminal ties - from store directors to heads of trade in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. Based on the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles worth of bribes passed, one can imagine the overall scale of corruption. According to the documents, the damage to the state was estimated at 3 million rubles (a lot of money in those days).
Sokolov: an underground millionaire or an unmercenary who slept on a soldier's bed?
The party press started talking coherently about the new NEP - establishing basic order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in apartments and dachas of the “trading mafia.” Large sums of rubles, currency and jewelry found in hiding places flashed by.
The editorial offices of central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the KGB, starting from the moment of Sokolov’s arrest, continued to receive letters from all over the country demanding that the presumptuous traders be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Information about how much “stuck” to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. A dacha where 50 thousand rubles in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a used foreign car were found - this is according to some sources. According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them “upstairs” to ensure the normal supply of the store, but did not take a penny for himself. They even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bed at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state Nikita Khrushchev.
The death sentence for the director of "Eliseevsky" amazed even the KGB investigators
The meeting of the Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the case of Sokolov and other “financially responsible persons of grocery store No. 1” was held behind closed doors. Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under Articles 173 Part 2 and 174 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (receiving and giving bribes on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 he was sentenced to capital punishment - execution by execution with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison.
At the trial, Sokolov did not recant his testimony; he read out to the court from a notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe-payers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid disclosing incriminating evidence on major party and government functionaries, the court hearing was closed. Sokolov repeated several times at court hearings that he had become a “scapegoat”, “a victim of party strife.”
They say that the KGB officers involved in this criminal case were amazed at the death sentence against the defendant, who actively cooperated with the investigation and the court. Sokolov finds it hard to believe in the public expression of sympathy from the committee members. It is more plausible to assume that it was for Sokolov’s detailed testimony that he paid with his life.
When the former head of Moscow trade, Nikolai Tregubov, through whom the main “tranches” of bribes passed, later appeared in court, he pleaded not guilty and did not name any names. As a result, he received 15 years in prison. Remember, this is almost the same as an ordinary department manager at the Eliseevsky grocery store!
Two directors were executed, one sentenced himself to death
Before the shock from the execution of Yuri Sokolov had passed in the trading industry, a new execution sentence was heard - for the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan. The court, in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, did not find mitigating circumstances such as Mkhitar Ambartsumyan’s participation in the storming of the Reichstag and in the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. And he also testified.
Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, was heard outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniev, committed suicide.
For a long time there was a rumor: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center
It was officially announced that the sentence against Yuri Sokolov was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not make it to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court hearing? Let us remember that the investigation into other criminal cases against Glavtorg employees was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in ensuring that such a dangerous witness as Sokolov was “neutralized” as soon as possible. Most likely, this is where the rumor originated: Sokolov was supposedly rushed to be removed so that he would not have time to submit a request for pardon...
The government has changed, demonstrative “floggings” for political reasons remain
Sokolov is certainly a criminal. However, the court had sufficient grounds to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the agile director became one of the pawns in the political struggle for supreme power. Literally a few months after the death of the former director of Eliseevsky, the rules of the game began to change on this field. The investigation into the “trade mafia” case began to wind down; a group of OBKhSS investigators, formed from specialists from many regions, was sent home.
Today we live differently, Russian laws, which replaced the Soviet ones. But, as before, political motives are sometimes discernible behind many high-profile criminal cases - the struggle for power, rivalry between “clans” and powerful security forces for being close to the body, eliminating rivals and exemplary flogging of oligarchs through the courts...
Today, the fight against corruption is being waged more and more persistently, which has penetrated into many areas of our life so much that sometimes it even seems as if it was its product. In fact, this evil came to us from Soviet times, and an example is the famous “Eliseevsky case”, the main defendant in which was the director of Moscow grocery store No. 1, Yu. K. Sokolov, who was sentenced to death.
The vicissitudes of fate of a young front-line soldier
Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov was born on December 3, 1923 into a family that belonged to the new Soviet intelligentsia. His mother was a professor at the Higher Party School, and his father was a researcher. When the war began, he went to the front as a volunteer, since he had not yet reached conscription age. The eight military awards that adorned his chest in May 1945 testified to how Yuri Sokolov beat the Nazis.
Returning home, the young front-line soldier got a job in a taxi company and entered the correspondence department of a trade institute. Soon, however, his work and studies had to be interrupted for two years, which he spent in a general regime colony, where he ended up, as it later turned out, on false charges.
The path to trade
Having been released from prison and reinstated at the university, Sokolov began his trading career as an ordinary seller, but very quickly, thanks to business qualities and what we call charisma today began to move up the career ladder. His successes turned out to be so significant that he was soon appointed deputy director of the largest grocery store in Moscow, the Eliseevsky grocery store, and after his boss was removed from his position, he took his place.
Then he married a young GUM employee. Florida Nikolaevna (that was the name of his chosen one) gave birth to his daughter and remained a faithful friend throughout her life. She tried as best she could to support him even after the death sentence was passed and, despite the hopelessness of the idea, she forced him to submit a petition for clemency.
The brainchild of a trading genius
People of the older generation well remember the situation of total shortage that reigned in those years. It equally covered trade in both food products and consumer goods. It is now difficult to imagine that in order to acquire the vast majority of necessary things, one had to use the services of shadow trade dealers, or, simply put, speculators.
In this environment, grocery store No. 1, whose director was Yuri Sokolov, was something of an oasis in a food desert. Thanks to his exceptional commercial talent and extensive connections, the director was able to fill the shelves of his store with products that had long been forgotten by Soviet people. But the main repository of scarce treasures was warehouses, from which the entire metropolitan elite, including the party and economic nomenklatura, directly shopped.
The struggle for power among the political elite
To understand the true meaning of the tragedy that then occurred, it is necessary to briefly outline the political situation that then prevailed in the country. In 1982, it became obvious that the health of the General Secretary of the CPSU L.I. Brezhnev would not allow him to hold such a high post for a long time, and a sharp struggle for power broke out in his circle. The main contenders for victory in it were the head of the KGB of the USSR, Yu. V. Andropov, and the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, V. V. Grishin, who had close corruption ties with the capital’s trade mafia.
In order to cut the ground from under his competitor's feet, Andropov decided to take advantage of this very circumstance and deal a crushing blow to the leadership of the Moscow trading network. One of the first to come under his sight was the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov. At the same time, other prominent representatives of Mostorg were taken into development.
In development by the intelligence services
Andropov’s employees knew that large sums of money were passing through grocery store No. 1, obtained through criminal means and then ending up in the pockets of the capital’s leadership. To establish control over all of Sokolov’s actions, special audio and video equipment was installed in his office in the absence of the owner, which made it possible to collect extensive incriminating material.
However, the main role in the case was played by the testimony given by Sokolov’s subordinate, the manager sausage department"Eliseevsky" grocery store. She, along with her husband, the director of the Beryozka store, was caught in illegal currency trafficking, and, subject to release from criminal punishment, agreed to tell everything about the illegal actions of her boss.
Criminal income generation scheme
As it turned out from her words, the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov, sought to extract unaccounted funds not through the usual calculations and weights, but used technology that in our time would be called advanced.
Using his connections in the circles of the capital's leadership, he purchased and installed the latest refrigeration equipment in the store, which allowed even perishable products to be stored without loss for a long time. Meanwhile, part of the goods was regularly written off, in accordance with established norms of natural loss.
Thus, the difference between the goods actually sold and what was listed according to the documents amounted to very impressive amounts. They constituted illegal profits, most of which, however, went upstairs to the offices of the leaders of Mostorg, in particular, its head N.P. Tregubov.
But Andropov knew that even this was not the final stage of the cash flow. According to his information, the main sums were intended for the main party leader of Moscow - his political competitor in the fight for the highest party post, Grishin. It was for this reason that Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov, having become a hostage in the struggle for power between the two most influential people in the country, was doomed.
Arrest and first months behind bars
As a result of video surveillance, it was established that once a week the directors of branch stores come to him and leave envelopes with money after their visit. On one of these days, the operatives descended on Yuri Konstantinovich, thus taking him red-handed.
This was the beginning of a large-scale offensive against corrupt trade workers. Suffice it to say that as a result of the operational actions of the capital’s KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs alone, about 15 thousand people were brought to criminal liability during that period, including the “omnipotent” head of the Main Department of Trade N.P. Tregubov.
While in Lefortovo and counting on the help of his former patrons, who were enriching themselves through his activities, Yuri Sokolov refused to admit guilt or give any testimony for almost two months. During this time, L.I. Brezhnev passed away and was replaced as head of state by Yu.V. Andropov, who sent Grishin into retirement.
Revelations and arrests
After this, it became obvious that there was nowhere to wait for help, and, believing the promises of the investigators, who guaranteed a mitigation of punishment down to a minimum term of imprisonment in case of a sincere confession, he began to speak. From that day on, the interrogation protocols began to be filled with hundreds of names and columns of numbers indicating who transferred what sums to whom. Sometimes the names of persons involved in the highest echelon of power appeared in them.
The criminal structure of the capital's trade was revealed in its entirety to law enforcement officials, based on a total deficit caused by the declining level of the economy year after year, and covered by the highest party nomenklatura. Arrests of new defendants in criminal cases immediately followed.
Trial and verdict
Despite the fact that the trial was not closed, all those invited and simply curious were allowed only to its first meeting and to the last, when the verdict was announced. In addition to the main accused, four more people were tried that day - deputy director of Eliseevsky I. Nemtsov and three heads of departments.
The bulk of those present in the hall were directors of Moscow stores, summoned to the meeting for the purpose of edification and to demonstrate an example of what awaited them in the event of a deviation from Soviet legality. Besides them, in the hall were the relatives of the defendants, in particular, the children of Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov, more precisely, a daughter with her husband and granddaughter, as well as brother, sister and wife Florida Nikolaevna.
Despite the fact that Sokolov was charged with theft on an especially large scale, the death sentence was a complete surprise and shocked not only him, but also everyone in the room. The only exceptions were KGB officers, dressed in civilian clothes and evenly seated among the rest of those present. As soon as the word “execution” was heard, they rose from their seats and began to applaud, thus feigning popular approval. Store directors followed suit, barely able to control their shaking hands.
Afterword
Sokolov Yuri Konstantinovich, whose family received only half an hour to say goodbye to him, left the courtroom, not completely believing in the reality of what was happening. He was, in fact, betrayed twice - first by his former party patrons, and now by those who sought testimony, promising a reduced sentence. Those who saw him at that moment recalled that Yuri Sokolov walked to the prisoner’s car that was waiting for him with the gait of a man who at that moment had not only his arms but also his legs shackled.
Contrary to rumors that the former director of the Eliseevsky grocery store was shot on the same day right in the “crater” on the road to Lefortovo, he remained alive for some time and submitted a petition for pardon four times, the consideration of which was postponed over and over again, and then was completely rejected. The sentence was carried out on December 14, 1984. By this time, Yu. V. Andropov had passed away, and K. U. Chernenko, who replaced him as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, did not need witnesses to the corruption of party functionaries.
Today, after years have passed, we can say with confidence that Yuri Sokolov, whose execution was a punishment clearly disproportionate to the scale of the crime committed, was a victim of political struggle. When it was completed and established new chapter state, the eradication of corruption in trade immediately began to decline. Suffice it to say that out of seventy-six criminal cases initiated at that time, only two reached court.
