The fate of Khrushchev's son. Leonid Khrushchev: biography and photos

In the story of the debunking of Stalin’s personality cult, there are still many uncertainties. Why did Nikita Khrushchev need to stage a ostentatious renunciation of Stalin’s ideological legacy at the 20th Congress of the CPSU - after all, by doing so he could have made many enemies for himself in the party? Why did the new leader insist on removing the generalissimo’s body from the Mausoleum - five years after the start of “de-Stalinization” in the USSR? Both Khrushchev and Stalin acted using similar methods. Stalin fought the opposition harshly in Moscow, and Khrushchev fought even more harshly in Kyiv. By debunking the cult of Stalin, Khrushchev risked debunking himself at the same time. Why did he start the fight anyway?

Both Stalin and Khrushchev had two sons. Both of them lost one of them during the war. True, under different circumstances. At the same time, both sons were captured by the Germans. But if there is quite a lot of information about the death of Yakov Dzhugashvili in a fascist concentration camp and the discrepancies concern only the details of his death - either he himself threw himself onto the barbed wire in Sachsenhausen, wanting to avoid being exchanged for the captured Field Marshal Paulus, or he was shot by a guard. They say different things about how senior lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev died. Some historians, for example, argue that “Khrushchev’s son, a military pilot, committed a serious crime for which capital punishment was imposed.” So what kind of crime did he commit and why did Khrushchev blame Stalin for the death of his son? And why, shortly before his death, former USSR Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov wrote about Khrushchev: “Personal anger pushes him to take any steps. Anger at Stalin because his son found himself in such a situation that he was actually shot. After such embitterment, he will do anything to dirty Stalin’s name.” Winston Churchill said even more succinctly: “Khrushchev began a fight with the dead and came out of it defeated.”

Leonid Khrushchev began military service two years before the start of the Great Patriotic War. He flew on a dive bomber and bombed the Mannerheim Line during the Finnish campaign. In the summer of 1941 he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner, and that same summer his plane was shot down. Leonid was treated in the rear for a long time, alternating treatment with cheerful revelry. During one of them, he shot a naval sailor - it is believed that “through negligence.” In a drunken argument, the sailor allegedly suggested that Khrushchev knock the bottle off his head with a shot - and Leonid hit him in the forehead. And from about this moment - from the autumn of 1942 - discrepancies begin in the biography of the brave pilot and gallant reveler.

According to one version - it was expressed by Leonid Khrushchev’s friend Stepan Mikoyan - for the murder of Khrushchev he was sentenced to eight years in the camps “with part of the term served at the front.” And in March 1943, Senior Lieutenant Khrushchev did not return from a combat mission. This version of the death is confirmed by Khrushchev’s comrade-in-arms, pilot Zamorin: “When the Focke-Wulf-190 rushed to attack my car, coming under my right wing from below, Lenya Khrushchev, in order to save me from death, threw his plane across the fire salvo... After armor-piercing strike, Khrushchev’s plane literally crumbled before my eyes.”

A good version, heroic, but by no means the only one. Neither the wreckage of the plane nor the body of the pilot was found, despite the fact that the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine was flying on the plane and they searched for him, as they say, in full. The command of the 18th Guards Aviation Fighter Regiment literally dug into the ground and even involved local partisans in the search. But in vain - after a month and a half, Leonid Khrushchev was excluded from the unit’s lists as missing in action.

But there is another version. It sounds like this: during one of the flights, Leonid Khrushchev was shot down and captured by the Germans. He was quickly persuaded to cooperate. The leadership of SMERSH, on the personal orders of Stalin, sent a capture group for Khrushchev, the operation was successful, and the traitor was taken to Moscow - former counterintelligence officer Vadim Udilov wrote about this, in particular. Naturally, Khrushchev Sr. was informed about the capture of the traitor. He immediately flew to Moscow from the front. What happened next is evidenced by the deputy head of the “nine”, who guarded the country’s leadership, KGB General Mikhail Dokuchaev: “Poskrebyshev reported that Comrade Khrushchev had arrived and was waiting in the reception room... Khrushchev began to cry, and then began to sob. They say, the son is guilty, let him be severely punished, just not shot. Stalin said: “In the current situation, I cannot help in any way.” Khrushchev fell to his knees. Begging, he began to crawl to the feet of Stalin, who did not expect such a turn of events and was himself at a loss. Stalin retreated, and Khrushchev crawled behind him on his knees, crying and asking for mercy for his son. Stalin asked Khrushchev to stand up and pull himself together, but he was insane. Stalin was forced to call Poskrebyshev and the guards... When the guards and doctors brought Nikita Sergeevich to his senses, he kept repeating: “Spare your son, don’t shoot...”

The fact that Leonid Khrushchev did not die in battle was repeatedly mentioned by Nikita Khrushchev’s third wife, Nina. Molotov also spoke directly about this. But Khrushchev’s relatives - both in Russia and abroad - have repeatedly and tirelessly disavowed the version of the execution. True, without evidence, but with confident voices. And the most interesting thing is that Western researchers, such as William Taubman and others like him, also stood in solidarity with Khrushchev’s relatives. The same Western researchers who present Khrushchev as the winner of Stalinism and one of the gravediggers of the “Evil Empire”. However, today there is no documentary evidence of the death of Leonid Khrushchev either in an air battle or in Stalin’s casemates.

But there is elementary logic. Why it is beneficial for the “Westerners” to hide the betrayal of Khrushchev’s son is understandable. Khrushchev is a symbolic figure for them. Symbol of the fight against Stalinism. To tarnish it would be to whitewash Stalinism, and this seems hardly possible to them. Meanwhile, representatives of the special services adhere to the opposite version. It is supported by the former Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov, and the son of Lavrenty Beria Sergo, and the writer-historian Vladimir Karpov. Publicist Nikolai Dobryukha summarizes this version in this way: “The incident that occurred at the meeting between Khrushchev and Stalin still comes up in conversations among state security employees... It is argued that this is the main reason for all of Khrushchev’s attacks on Stalin and one of the main reasons for exposing the cult of personality. At the same time, references are made to Khrushchev’s careless statement in the presence of his entourage, when he said: “Lenin at one time took revenge on the royal family for his brother, and I will take revenge on Stalin, even if he was dead, for his son.” Khrushchev kept his word.”

There is another unsightly moment in this story. Already in power, Khrushchev never made an attempt to rehabilitate his deceased son or at least somehow clarify his fate. Writer Elena Prudnikova notes that immediately after the disappearance of Leonid Khrushchev, his wife Lyuba was arrested in Kuibyshev - she was released only in the 1950s. According to Khrushchev’s second son, Sergei, “she was arrested for collaborating with foreign intelligence - either English or Swedish.” But Sergei Khrushchev, either not on purpose, or deliberately, “makes a reservation” - in fact, Leonid Khrushchev’s wife was imprisoned not for espionage, but as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland - ChSIR. Family members of captured soldiers and officers could not be transplanted even purely technically - during the war, about 10 million Soviet citizens were captured. But relatives were arrested from those who agreed to cooperate with the Germans. “After the release (of Lyubov Khrushcheva. - Ed.), Khrushchev was not at all interested in her fate,” writes Prudnikova. – They met by chance somewhere in the late 1960s at some family evening. Khrushchev dryly told her: “Hello, Lyuba!” “And that’s where all their communication ended.” Strange, isn't it? Nothing strange: according to Vyacheslav Molotov, Khrushchev - after his execution - publicly abandoned his son. In a conversation with the writer Felix Chuev, Molotov answered the question “Nikita abandoned his son?” in the affirmative.

And recently some wonderful things have been revealed that can put an end to the “heroic” version of the death of Khrushchev’s son. It turns out that the testimony of the pilot Zamorin, which is cited by the majority of those who believe that Leonid died in an air battle, was quite possibly falsified. We found a letter from Zamorin in the archives of USSR Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov in 1999. This document has not been reviewed. But this did not stop those who discovered it from disseminating the letter in the press. “I chickened out and made a deal with my conscience by falsifying the facts,” wrote “allegedly Zamorin.” “I didn’t mention in the report that...” And so on about the “armor-piercing strike.”

Fake? It's possible. Perhaps it was precisely because of the obvious forgery that the document had not yet been examined. Why? After all, then the harmonious version of the heroic death of Senior Lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev will collapse. And it will cast a shadow on his father, who debunked Stalinism.

N. S. Khrushchev with his first wife E. I. Pisareva.

For the first time, Nikita Khrushchev married at the age of 20 to the beautiful Efrosinya Pisareva, who gave her husband two children of the same age, Yulia and Leonid. The son was only three years old when Nikita Sergeevich’s first wife died of typhus. Yulia and Leonid were initially raised by their grandmother, and after their father’s marriage to Nina Kukharchuk they began to live with his new family. Later, Khrushchev's family was replenished with three more children.

N. S. Khrushchev with children from his first marriage, Yulia and Leonid.

Nikita Khrushchev's eldest daughter, Yulia, immediately accepted her stepmother. She never called her mom, only Nina Petrovna, but the relationship between them was very warm. Julia dreamed of becoming an architect and even entered a specialized institute, but her health did not allow her to graduate. Julia fell ill with tuberculosis, she had to undergo treatment for a long time, but she had to forget about her studies. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the young woman underwent a complex lung operation, which allowed her to live another 40 years.

Yulia worked as a chemical laboratory assistant and was married to Viktor Petrovich Gontar, who worked as the director of the Kyiv Opera House. They lived a happy life together, but the couple had no children. Julia passed away at the age of 65, outliving her father by only 10 years.

Leonid and Yulia Khrushchev.

Unlike his older sister, Leonid was never able to establish a normal relationship with his stepmother. They were very different: calm and conflict-free Nina Petrovna and explosive emotional Leonid. He was capable of any pranks and hooliganism. Perhaps it was because of this that rumors and speculation constantly arose around him.

After graduating from school, the young man entered the college and began working as a mechanic at a factory. However, after Nikita Khrushchev was transferred to Moscow, Leonid entered the Balashov School of Civil Aviation. The young cadet was very attractive, which allowed him to enjoy success with women. His first wife was Rosa Treivas, but his daughter-in-law did not come to the court of her influential father and the marriage was immediately dissolved.

At the same time, Nikita Khrushchev demanded that his son recognize the child born to Esther Etinger. The son of Leonid and Esther, Yuri, later became a test pilot, but died in 2003 after an accident.

Leonid's second legal wife in 1939 was Lyubov Sizykh. She was amazingly suited to her husband, jumped with a parachute, and masterfully drove a motorcycle. But at the same time, Lyubov had a more rational approach to life and managed to slightly curb the violent temper of her husband. Her son from her first marriage was already growing up, and soon after the marriage their joint daughter, Julia, was born. At this time, Nikita Sergeevich was already the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine.

Leonid Khrushchev and Lyubov Sizykh.

Rumors about Leonid’s involvement in gangster groups involved in robberies are associated with this period. Some historians insist that Leonid Khrushchev was subject to criminal prosecution for this. Others argue that nothing of the kind happened, since not a single document was found according to which Leonid Khrushchev was prosecuted for criminal or any other crimes. The only mention of this is only in Sergo Beria’s book “My Father - Lavrenty Beria”. Khrushchev’s relatives all unanimously claim that Leonid’s connection with dubious individuals and his participation in crimes is an outright lie. Historians have never reached a consensus on this matter.

Be that as it may, Leonid Nikitovich began his military service back in the Finnish War, and from the first days of the Great Patriotic War he was already at the front, sitting at the helm of a bomber. He fought heroically and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After being wounded, he was sent for treatment to Kuibyshev, where Nikita Khrushchev’s entire family was located at that time. In the fall of 1942, Leonid Khrushchev accidentally killed a sailor, shooting on a dare at a bottle standing on the latter’s head.

He was sentenced to 8 years to serve his sentence at the front, then a similar practice was used. Returning to the front, Leonid Nikitovich switched to a fighter and fought bravely again. In March 1943, upon returning from a combat mission, Leonid Khrushchev's plane was shot down. The area where the fighter fell was forested and swampy. Attempts to find the crash site were unsuccessful, and a month and a half later, Leonid Khrushchev was declared missing.

The fact that Leonid’s body was not found also became the basis for speculation and provocations. They even claimed that Leonid Nikitovich surrendered and then began to collaborate with the Germans. However, a witness to the crash of Khrushchev’s plane, pilot I. A. Zamorin, claims that Nikita Sergeevich’s son saved his life by exposing his car to the armor-piercing strike of the Fokker, which crumbled right in front of the rescued man’s eyes.

Nikita Khrushchev with his wife and granddaughter Yulia.

Leonid's wife Lyubov Sizykh was arrested shortly after his death on charges of espionage. Among her acquaintances were numerous wives of foreign diplomats, and she herself allowed herself to go to a restaurant in the company of the French consul. After the arrest of his daughter-in-law, Nikita Khrushchev adopted his granddaughter Yulia, but the girl’s half-brother was sent to an orphanage. And even when he ran away and appeared on the threshold of the apartment where Nina Kukharchuk and her children lived in Kuibyshev, Anatoly was still returned to the shelter.

Until the age of 17, Yulia considered Nikita Sergeevich and Nina Petrovna her parents. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, worked at the Press Agency, and later headed the literary department of the Ermolova Theater. She defended the honor and dignity of her grandfather at all levels, when, already in the post-perestroika period, hard-hitting programs and articles about him began to appear. She died in 2017 after being hit by a train.

Rada Adzhubey.

The daughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Nina Kukharchuk, Rada, was born two years after their first girl, Nadezhda, died. Rada graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, and while still a student she married her classmate Alexei Adzhubey, who later became editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper. Having come to work for the magazine “Science and Life”, I decided to get a second higher education and graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. Having gone through all the steps of the career ladder, she became deputy editor-in-chief and worked at Science and Life until 2004.

The second son of Nikita Sergeevich at one time graduated from the Moscow Energy Institute, became a rocketry designer, defended his doctoral dissertation and received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1991, he was invited to the United States to give a course of lectures on the history of the Cold War. There, Sergei Nikitovich was offered favorable conditions for work and life. He decided to stay in America forever.

True, after emigrating, he no longer studied science, but became a political scientist. Nowadays he is a professor at the Institute of International Studies and lives in Providence.

Nikita Khrushchev with his daughter Elena.

Nikita Sergeevich’s youngest daughter was very ill almost from childhood. At that time, they did not yet know how to treat systemic lupus, but Elena desperately fought her disease. She worked at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations and was married. She died at 35, a year after her father's death.

At the time of his election to the position of General Secretary, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was in his third marriage. In total, the family raised five children and his adopted granddaughter, Yulia. There were all sorts of rumors about the children. Even historians have still not come to a consensus about the fate of his eldest son. In fact, the life of each of Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants developed according to a special scenario.

Yulia Khrushcheva

Leonid Khrushchev

Yulia Khrushcheva, granddaughter

Rada Khrushcheva (Married Adzhubey)

Sergei Khrushchev

True, after emigrating, he no longer studied science, but became a political scientist. Nowadays he is a professor at the Institute of International Studies and lives in Providence.

Elena Khrushcheva

Controversy continues today about the daughter of another Soviet leader, Svetlana Alliluyeva. She changed men like gloves, fled to America, leaving her children in the Soviet Union, and in later interviews admitted hostile feelings towards the country in which she was born. It seemed that the woman lived her whole life for her own pleasure. What did the Kremlin princess lack and why did she persistently strive to violate the boundaries of what was permitted?

His wife died very young - from typhus. The party leader could not pay full attention to the children. Soon he married a second time. From the second marriage, 3 more children were born - Rada, Sergei and Elena.

The fate of each of Khrushchev's children is interesting.

We know very little about the daughter Yulia (1916-1981), we only know that she was married to Viktor Petrovich Gontar, director of the Kyiv Opera. Rada Nikitichna (1929) connected almost her entire life with journalism and the magazine “Science and Life”. Sergei (1935) - professor, scientist, has been teaching and living in the USA since 1991. Elena (1936-1972) died very young; worked as a lawyer.

The fate of the talented military pilot Leonid Khrushchev, the first son of Nikita Sergeevich, is still shrouded in darkness, myths and legends, and numerous versions. According to one version, he died on March 11, 1943 in an air battle in the Zhizdra area (Kaluga region). According to another version, he was shot on the orders of Joseph Stalin for treason and collaboration with the Germans. There was another version - Leonid was accused of shooting an army major while heavily intoxicated. Stalin was informed that this was not the first time that Leonid, being very drunk, had pulled out a pistol, and that this had never resulted in a fatal outcome before. And allegedly this episode served as the reason for the execution of Leonid Khrushchev. It is noteworthy that these last two versions began to appear after the resignation of Nikita Khrushchev himself.

These versions were also explained and supported by the fact that the iron Stalin was supposedly liquidated on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev. Revenge for my son. Moreover, having come to power, Khrushchev almost completely renewed the highest party and economic apparatus on the principle of kinship and personal loyalty, and dispersed the old “guard”, expelled them, imprisoned them and even shot them.

All these versions are very interesting, only firstly, the body of Leonid Khrushchev, based on all the above versions, should have been buried somewhere, but such a place is not listed anywhere. Secondly, any person who comes to power will rule the country exclusively in his own team, and dissolve the old one. And there is also no need to talk about Khrushchev’s revenge.

In general, the version of Khrushchev’s revenge on Stalin began to be propagated after the famous 20th Party Congress in 1956, where Khrushchev read out a scandalous report on the totalitarian regime created by Stalin, where he smashed the cult of personality of the already dead leader to smithereens.

Another interesting fact - military historian Alexander Kolesnik, who has been studying the biography of senior lieutenant Khrushchev for 25 years, has calculated that the number of publications denigrating him by today will amount to approximately 300 pages of text, that is, a decent-sized volume. It is necessary to add the same number to these 300 publications - reprints and separate conclusions of pseudo-historians, bloggers, lovers of sensations and yellow news...

The reputation of the hero of Russia has been suffering for more than half a century from propaganda lies and incompetence, which has given rise to speculation and rumors.

Today there is no documentary evidence that Leonid was captured or shot on Stalin’s orders in Moscow. There is also an explanation for this - that supposedly Khrushchev Sr., having come to power, cleaned out all the archives related to his family and loved ones. It is also not possible to confirm this... And today it is impossible to find out the truth - what happened to Leonid Khrushchev. All that remains is to believe in the sincerity of military pilots and colleagues who confirm the death of a pilot in an air battle.

In 2000, an article was published in the Duel newspaper, where the Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexander Aleksandrovich Shcherbakov, the son of a Politburo member, answered the question about Leonid Khrushchev. He, like Leonid, is also a pilot, and also fought, and could also be captured, and later the same things could be written about him as about Leonid. But he remained alive, and he has an opinion on this issue. I think this opinion is the most competent:

“I am surprised by such a protracted discussion. There are no secrets in the life of Leonid Nikitovich Khrushchev today. The fighter pilot died in an air battle. He was never captured. Never been convicted of treason. Accusations of this kind were fictitious incriminating evidence against Khrushchev the Elder...

There is no need to engage in further research on this topic; there is no need to disturb the eternal peace of a person who gave his life for his Motherland.

There is no need to analyze the letter of commander Leonid-Zamorin*. As a professional pilot, I think that the description of the battle in Zamorin’s letter is somewhat far-fetched and embellished.

*According to the memoirs of the pilot V. Zamorin, who accompanied Leonid Khrushchev: “When the FW-190 rushed to attack my car, coming under my right wing from below, Lenya Khrushchev, in order to save me from death, threw his plane across the fire salvo of the Fokker... After armor-piercing strike, Khrushchev’s plane literally crumbled before my eyes!”

Zamorin could not see the episode of the battle described in such detail in the letter from the cockpit of his Yak. Why did he write such a letter? Probably in order to protect a comrade in arms from the attacks and defamation that appeared in the seventies. Perhaps Zamorin and the regiment command felt some guilt for the fact that at one time they did not take the necessary measures to confirm the death of Leonid, but gave information about him as missing...

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta of February 17, 1998 published an article by Vadim Udilov “Why did Khrushchev take revenge on Stalin?” The author is a major general, who served for 37 years in counterintelligence, and is a candidate of historical sciences.

The point of the article is that Khrushchev, having exposed Stalin’s personality cult, did it out of a sense of personal revenge for the ruined life of his son Leonid. Stalin allegedly did not want to pardon Leonid, who had a whole chain of criminal offenses behind him.

Vadim Udilov begins by asserting that there are no documents confirming his concept today. Khrushchev destroyed them. All the information he reported was gleaned from second and third hands, and all his informants are already dead. Is it possible to write articles on a historical topic with such information baggage?

I will not discuss the general idea of the article, but I just want to show how some of its fragments do not correspond to real facts. Udilov writes:

“In the city of Kuibyshev during the war, Khrushchev’s son shot and killed the commander of the Red Army under the drunken hand, for which he was arrested. This was not the first time that Leonid Khrushchev fell into the hands of the justice authorities. Even before the war, he got involved with bandits in Kyiv. They were caught and shot by court, but the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine “miraculously” escaped punishment.”

Here is what Olga Timoshenko, daughter of Marshal Timoshenko, says about this time: “In 1938, when my father was appointed commander of the Kyiv Military District, our family moved from Kharkov to Kyiv. Summer 1939-1940 Our family went to the dacha in the town of Mezhgorye on weekends and holidays. On one site there were dachas of the first secretary, the second secretary, and the district commander. All three dachas had one kitchen, and often all the dacha residents, at Khrushchev’s invitation, dined at his dacha. Khrushchev's family consisted of his daughter from his first marriage, his second wife, three children from his second marriage, and his wife Leonid and their one-year-old daughter.

Leonid himself graduated from the Balashov School of Civil Aviation Pilots and KUKS (advanced courses for command personnel) in 1937.

In 1939, he was an instructor pilot at the Central Aero Club of Ukraine and was rarely at the dacha. In 1940, he became a military pilot and almost never visited Kyiv. After one of Leonid’s visits to Kyiv, the father was informed that his son had been seen in a restaurant in the company of dubious individuals, and then he was invited to the home of one of the company members. This was discussed by the whole family, but it ended with a parental suggestion about the need for a more strict choice of acquaintances. There was no talk of involvement in criminal activities. It’s hard to imagine that a pilot and commander of the Red Army could end up in a bandit gang.”

Since 1940, Leonid served in the 134th Bomber Regiment and began the Patriotic War very successfully and honorably. My fellow soldier Viktor Andreevich Fomin, who now lives in Moscow, told me about this. In June-July 1941, he was the senior technical team for aircraft maintenance at the Andreapol airfield, where the Ar-2s of the 134th regiment were based.

The ground command demanded that a bridge of important operational significance be bombed. The object was covered by anti-aircraft guns and fighters. Several flights yielded no results. Leonid successfully completed the task, for which he was the first of the regiment pilots to be nominated for awards.

During one of the flights, Leonid's Ar-2 was hit and its landing gear could not be extended. When landing on one leg, the plane stalled, and Leonid received a serious leg injury. After the hospital, he received further treatment in Kuibyshev.

There, in house No. 2 on Vilonovskaya Street, the evacuated families of government members lived. In this house Leonid had an apartment where he lived with his wife and daughter. I remember how he limped, walking with a cane and wearing burkas, despite the warm September days. Further about him - from the words of Lev Bulganin. The families of Khrushchev and Bulganin were friendly from the time they lived in Moscow, Lev often visited Leonid, and this is what he said:

“A company gathered around Leonid. There was a pilot from a local civil aviation unit, an aviation industry engineer, Dolores Ibarruri's son Ruben, who was being treated after being wounded, and military pilots who received aircraft in Kuibyshev.

Someone from the company suggested “fun” - shooting with a pistol at a bottle standing on a friend’s head. They shot at close range, so there was little risk. Leonid also put a bottle on his head.

A sailor-officer accidentally got into the company. He also wanted to be shot at the bottle on his head. Leonid shot. The bottle remained intact, but the bullet hit the sailor in the head. There was an investigation and a trial. But Leonid did not spend a single day in prison. The crime was not classified as serious. In any case, it was not a premeditated murder."

In general, the murder of an officer is by no means a unique case. Football coach Nikolai Starostin said in the press that Vasily Stalin, also drunk, shot his drinking companion. Then the fuss was almost avoided. For the party nomenklatura and “Kremlin children,” as you know, the law is not written.

But let's return to Leonid. The case was classified as an accident. Leonid received some kind of sentence to be served at the front. This was common practice at that time. Where could a military pilot go other than the front? As I already said, the crime was not a serious one, and there was no need to ask Stalin or Beria for leniency. After undergoing a medical examination after treatment, Leonid asked to be transferred to fighter aviation. After retraining, he was sent to the 18th Guards Fighter Regiment. An officer with a criminal record at the front was deprived of his awards and rank for some period of time. Then they were returned to him. Pilots were sent to penal battalions as privates only for showing cowardice in battle. More often, they, like Leonid, fought on airplanes. Thus, due to the war, Leonidas' punishment was nominal. If that unfortunate shot had not happened, he still could not have hit anywhere except the front.

The further fate of Leonid is known from the pilot Ivan Mitrofanovich Zhuk. He took part in the air battle in which Leonid was shot down. He saw how a Focke-Wulf-190 fired at Leonid’s plane, going into the tail, after which the Yak-7 went towards the ground with a high dive angle. This usually happened if the pilot was killed or wounded. None of the participants in the battle saw the parachute.

Since the area over which the battle took place was wooded and swampy, it was not possible to find the fallen plane in those days.

This happened on March 11, 1943, and on April 27, 1943, by order N 0369, senior lieutenant Khrushchev was excluded from the lists of the regiment as missing in action. But for many years no one doubted his death in battle.

The version that he was captured, about his betrayal, abduction from captivity and execution appeared only in the late 60s. I will point out obviously false places in Udilov’s article.

Udilov writes that the approval of the execution sentence was discussed at a meeting of the Politburo and at this meeting my father, Alexander Sergeevich Shcherbakov, was the first to speak, proposing to approve the sentence. I am sure that there was no such Politburo meeting. In any case, Shcherbakov was not there and he did not perform there. Why do I say this? Around the same time, I was transferred from the Moscow air defense to the 1st Belorussian Front. If in the air defense of Moscow being captured was excluded, then on the Belorussian front a forced landing or parachute jump behind the front line was quite possible, and my father would certainly have told me about Khrushchev to once again warn me that I could not be captured. But he didn't say anything like that.

Further Udilov writes that ROC "SMERSH" collected information and documentary facts about the sins of Leonid Khrushchev. What could have been the senior lieutenant’s sins? The Germans could only use it for propaganda purposes. Being the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, my father would have known about such propaganda actions of the Germans and, again, would have told me about this before I was sent to the front. But he didn't say anything about it.

Udilov writes that Khrushchev took revenge not only on Stalin, but also on Shcherbakov. Having become Secretary General, Khrushchev canceled the resolution of the Council of Ministers on the renaming of the Moscow district, the Shcherbakov metro station and on the construction of a monument to Shcherbakov in Moscow.

Yes, it was, but not at all in connection with the fate of Khrushchev’s son. Very hostile relations arose between Khrushchev and Shcherbakov. This can be judged from Khrushchev’s memoirs, in which he repeatedly gives Shcherbakov negative assessments, which sometimes amount to slander. But such relations arose in 1938, when Khrushchev was the first secretary of the Central Committee of Ukraine, and Shcherbakov was the secretary of the Stalinist (later Donetsk) regional committee. But this has nothing to do with this article.

It is surprising how Udilov, a participant in the war and a professional counterintelligence officer, so trustingly and uncritically accepts the version of Leonid’s “snatching” from the deep German rear. Was it possible for such a “snatching” from a prisoner of war camp or other place? Where would the person the Germans needed be kept? This would be an extremely difficult operation associated with large losses. What was the purpose of holding it? Just for the sake of having Leonid shot in Moscow? In the book of Pavel Sudoplatov, to whom Udilov refers, there is not a word about such operations during the war.

If such an operation, at least theoretically, had a chance of success, then the first to try would probably be to kidnap Stalin’s son, Yakov Dzhugashvili. But no such attempts were made.

In general, the concept of “Khrushchev’s revenge on Stalin for his son” clearly does not work. In speaking out against Stalin's personality cult, Khrushchev had some other motives.

It is unworthy to bring such a grave accusation against a fighter-pilot who laid down his life for his Motherland.”

A.A. SHCHERBAKOV,
Hero of the Soviet Union

And one last thing. In April 2005, the Rossiya TV channel aired an investigative film dedicated to Leonid Khrushchev. But he also failed all expectations. The film does not provide a comprehensive picture of the investigation into the circumstances of the death of Leonid Khrushchev; the documents to which the authors refer in the plot of the film have not been verified. Of course, filmmakers are not historians.

Relatives of Leonid Khrushchev and intelligence officers performed in the film. Both of them are all people interested in promoting a certain image of Leonid’s father, Nikita Khrushchev, in presenting the image of the state security agencies. The film did not add anything to the understanding of the fate of Leonid Khrushchev... Obviously, we will never know the truth. And the version of Hero of the Soviet Union A.A. Shcherbakova looks more than convincing.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, as a young man, married a girl from the family where he “fed.” Frosya died of typhus very young, leaving two children - Yulia and Leonid.

Khrushchev’s second wife, with whom Nikita Sergeevich married only after his overthrow (which did not prevent her from attending official events before), accepted them into the house. Daughter Rada was born in 1929. Then Sergei and Elena appeared. The family also raised a granddaughter, Yulia, the daughter of Leonid, who died in the war (his wife was arrested). Until entering university, she considered her grandparents to be her parents.

As a child, Rada was unhappy with her name. In elementary school, she was teased: in Ukrainian, “rada” means advice. And they named her that because her parents were simply very happy when their daughter was born.

They raised children harshly, as is customary in peasant patriarchal families: in respect for the head of the family, even reverence. When the father came home from work, the children did not dare to disturb him.

Back then, children of high-ranking parents did not have guards. The exception was Sergo Mikoyan, who had an assigned security guard with him; this unnerved him. During the heyday of their careers, the heads of the Khrushchev family lived as a large family in a mansion on the Lenin Hills.

Rada's husband, Alexei Adzhubey, is a journalist who worked for Komsomolskaya Pravda. When the head of the family became deputy editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the couple bought Moskvich. The crowning achievement of the career of the son-in-law of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was the position of editor-in-chief of Izvestia, from which he was dismissed immediately after the removal of his high patron. Until perestroika, he was forbidden to publish under his own name. As he joked, “I spent twenty long years behind bars at the magazine “Soviet Union”, where, however, I held far from the last position.

Brezhnev promised Khrushchev that nothing would happen to his children, and they really were not touched. Rada Nikitichna remained to work in the journal “Science and Life”, enjoying constant authority and respect from both authors and colleagues.

Rada Adzhubey does not condemn brother Sergei, who left for the United States, although he changed not only the country, but also his family and profession. However, she would not have left on her own. “I have everything here. And there is such a thing as the Motherland..."

Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev received US citizenship in 2000. His wife Valentina Golenko lives with him in America.

The emigrant explained his action this way: “I thought about this decision, and I am free to make this decision. I've lived here for seven years, work at Brown University, and plan to continue living here. If I live in this country, then I think that I must be its citizen, and not a foreigner who came for temporary residence. But I'm not a defector. Our countries are no longer enemies, we are now on the same side.”

Sergei Khrushchev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor at Moscow Higher Technical University. Bauman, came to the USA in the fall of 1991 as part of an exchange program for scientists between the USSR and the USA to lecture at Brown University. The following year, he applied to the authorities for permission to permanently reside in the country, which he received in 1993 thanks to the support of former US presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.

According to Khrushchev's lawyer Dan Danilov, when applying for US citizenship, Sergei Khrushchev was very worried about how his father would react to this. “Dad will never know about this,” the lawyer reassured the future American.

Khrushchev gives lectures in educational institutions in the United States on the topics of political and economic reforms carried out in Russia, Soviet-American relations in the period 1950 - 1964, as well as the importance of Nikita Khrushchev’s reforms in the field of economics, politics and international security.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, grandson and namesake of the First Secretary, journalist at Moscow News, decided to stay in Russia. He doesn’t blame his father: “I think it’s just that US citizens have some benefits in the form of medical and other assistance that he needs before retirement. I don’t know any other reasons.”

The fate of Khrushchev's eldest son, Leonid, is shrouded in secrecy.

This story is explored by N. Zenkovich in the book “Secrets of the Outgoing Century: Power. Strife. The background. (OLMA-PRESS, 1998). There is a legend that the real reason for Khrushchev’s attacks on Stalin was revenge for his executed son. Stalin allegedly did not respect the request of Nikita Sergeevich, who was literally on his knees begging to spare Leonid.

Lenin took revenge on the royal family for his brother, but I won’t forgive even the dead Stalin for my son,” Nikita Sergeevich, distraught with grief, allegedly said among his loved ones.

According to one version, Leonid was accused of shooting an army major while heavily intoxicated. Stalin was informed that this was not the first time that Leonid, being very drunk, pulled out a pistol. There had never been a fatal outcome before.

Leonid lived in Kyiv, worked at a pilot school. During the war he took part in massive raids on Germany. He was seriously wounded and was in a hospital in Kuibyshev, where the entire Khrushchev family was evacuated. As Rada Adzhubey said, “Leonid lay in the hospital for a long time, in the same room with Ruben Ibarruri. They were friends. It took a long time for my brother to recover. They drank in the hospital, and the brother, drunk, shot a man and ended up on court martial. He was sent to the front line."

A. Mikoyan’s son Stepan met in Kuibyshev with the recovering Leonid Khrushchev: “We spent more than two months meeting almost every day,” recalls Stepan Anastasovich. - Unfortunately, he is used to drinking. In Kuibyshev, at that time, a friend of his, who had a connection at the distillery, was living in a hotel. They received drinks there for the week and drank almost every evening in the hotel room. Although I hardly drank, I went there often. Other guests also came, including girls. We met him and then became friends with two young dancers from the Bolshoi Theater, which was evacuated there. Leonid, even after drinking heavily, remained good-natured and soon fell asleep.

When I left for Moscow, a tragedy occurred, which I learned about later from a friend, Leonid. One day a sailor from the front was in the company. When everyone was very “under the weather”, in a conversation someone said that Leonid was a very accurate shooter. On a dare, the sailor suggested that Leonid shoot the bottle off his head with a pistol shot. Leonid, as this friend said, refused for a long time, but then he finally shot and knocked the neck off the bottle. The sailor considered this insufficient and said that it was necessary to get into the bottle itself. Leonid fired again and hit the sailor in the forehead."

There is another version, which is presented by Sergo Beria: the son of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine N.S. Khrushchev was involved in a dubious company. His friends turned out to be criminals who traded in robberies and murders. Most of the members of the criminal group were sentenced to capital punishment and shot. Nikita Sergeevich's son got off with ten years in prison.

When the war began, Leonid was told to ask to go to the front. He did just that. Khrushchev’s son’s request was granted, but he was sent not to the front as an ordinary soldier, but to an aviation school. Having become a pilot, Leonid courageously fought the enemy and died in battle. Sergo Beria indicates the time when this happened: in the spring of forty-three.

In the personal file of Senior Lieutenant L.N. Khrushev, stored in the archives of the Ministry of Defense, there is no evidence of trials - neither the pre-war one, nor the one that allegedly took place in 1943.

Leonid was born in Donbass (Stalino) on November 10, 1917. My wife worked as a navigator-pilot of a flying club squadron in Moscow. He started in civil aviation. He studied at the Balashov school for four years, after which he was listed as an instructor at the Central Aviation Courses of the Civil Air Fleet in Moscow for a month, then went to Kyiv to join his father. There are no traces of the ten years of imprisonment mentioned by the son of Lavrenty Pavlovich in the documents of the Ministry of Defense.

He graduated from the aviation school in Engels in May 1940 with an excellent certificate. With the beginning of the war, pilot Khrushchev was at the front. He was characterized as a courageous, fearless pilot.

Once during a flight, after the bombing, while leaving the target, our crews were attacked by Messerschmitts. The Germans shot down four planes, including Leonid Khrushchev's. He still managed to land the damaged car. The pilot himself was not saved - he broke his leg and had to lie down in a hospital bed.

He remained in treatment until March 1, 1942. Then for some reason I ended up in fighter aviation. Having retrained to fly the Yak-7 aircraft, Khrushchev in December 1942 became the commander of the 1st Air Army. Next, Senior Lieutenant Khrushchev was assigned to the 18th Guards Fighter Regiment, which was based at an airfield near the city of Kozelsk, Kaluga Region.

His last flight was on March 11, 1943. Khrushchev did not return from this battle. His comrade in arms believes that they could not have shot him down, since the shells were exploding far in the rear. Most likely, he pulled the handle and went into a tailspin. Organized searches from the air and through partisans (was the Soviet pilot captured by the Germans?) did not yield any results. Leonid Khrushchev seemed to have fallen through the earth - neither the wreckage of the plane nor the remains of the pilot have been found to this day.

According to assumptions, Leonid was captured. Stalin agreed to exchange him for a German prisoner of war. The exchange took place, but, as KGB officers established, when Leonid Khrushchev was in a filtration camp for former military personnel, he behaved badly in captivity and worked in the interests of Nazi Germany. Based on the totality of the crimes committed, L. N. Khrushchev was convicted by a military tribunal and sentenced to death. This version seems to be the most likely; it does not deny the fact that Khrushchev harbored a grudge against Stalin for the death of his son. There are no documents confirming that Leonid shot the sailor and was serving time for robbery.