Sokolov Yuri Konstantinovich family children. "Eliseevsky case" - the fight against corruption or a political order? Criminal income generating scheme

15.02.2022

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Member of the Great Patriotic War, had awards. It is also known that in the 1950s he was convicted "on libel". But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was the deputy director of grocery store No. 1, from 1972 to 1982 he was the 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 Prodtorg. The first arrested in this case was the director of the Moscow Vneshposyltorg (Birch) store 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, military elite of the country with selected delicacies. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the director of the grocery store, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the defendants 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 execute the sentence on the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded "to punish the presumptuous merchant to the fullest extent of the law." But did his crime carry the death penalty?

The case of Yuri Sokolov "got lost" in the three General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU

The criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev "of embezzlement of food products on a large scale and bribery" was initiated 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 already 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 Soviet press presented the arrest of Sokolov on command from above as the beginning of the decisive struggle of the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic change of elderly general secretaries to some extent mitigate the fate of the defendant and save his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who is in Lefortovo, lit up, there was hope for indulgence, 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 1950s he was convicted "on libel". But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: 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 enterprise, he proved himself, as they would say now, a brilliant top manager. In an era of total scarcity, 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 a rotten system of co-trade?

This bewildered question is being asked today by those who believe that if there were more falcons at that time, all Soviet people would eat black caviar with spoons. But not everything is so simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of the labors of Yuri Konstantinovich were used exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow.

In grocery store No. 1 and its seven branches "under the counter" abundance reigned: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish servelat, ham and salmon, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits ... All this could be purchased (according to 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 Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals ...

How did delicacy, rare, and even simply exotic products get into the 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, from January 1972 to October 1982, Sokolov systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trade organizations he ensured uninterrupted delivery to the grocery store in an assortment favorable to bribe-givers".

In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that "the current order in the trading system" makes it inevitable the sale of unaccounted for foodstuffs, the underweight and shortfall of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and regrading, write-off according to the column of natural wastage 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 who are above and those who are below, even the driver who carries the products ...

So who, after all, needed the life of a grasping and squandering "breadwinner" of the Moscow beau monde, who observed the basic "laws" of the Brezhnev era - "You to me, I to 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, at the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What did the arrested person expect, what did he expect?

Sokolov was out of reach of the long arms of the Lubyanka and Petrovka for a long time. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-collection grocery store were the head of the Main Department of Trade 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. Dementiev, the Minister of Internal Affairs N. Shchelokov. At the top of the security pyramid stood the master of Moscow - the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU V. Grishin.

And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friendly with the Secretary General's daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Interior Minister Yuri Churbanov.

Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the fact that the "security system" built by him 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 the arrest of Sokolov, said that he did not believe in the guilt of the director of the grocery store. However, as the upcoming events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov, but also his high-ranking "roof" of untouchability.

Sokolov began to testify only after the election of the new Secretary General of the CPSU

The defendant began to give confessions immediately after he learned about the death of Brezhnev and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough not to come to a disappointing conclusion: he became one of the pawns in Andropov's game of discrediting possible rivals in place of the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as it was well known then, was one of the most likely contenders for the Kremlin "throne."

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-move game for supreme power, the Chairman of the Committee had already outlined the director of Eliseevsky, to whom undercover reports of bribery had been received, as the fuse who was supposed to detonate the bomb ...

Sokolov's first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. The KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he must, first of all, uncover the scheme of theft from Moscow food stores, testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of power in Moscow. Cooperation with the investigation will count, - they told him at the same time. A drowning man, as you know, clutches at straws ...

For what purpose did the KGB arrange a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building?

An expert assessment of the Sokolov case by the former prosecutor for supervision of the KGB, Vladimir Golubev, has been preserved. He believed that the evidence of Sokolov's guilt had not been carefully examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural attrition, which was provided 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 indicative that the KGB case was conducted by the KGB without the participation of the "younger brother" - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: the Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov's "black list" when he was Chairman of the KGB, and then secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from the post of Minister of the Ministry 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 (there was a "short circuit in the electrical wiring" in the store, the elevators were turned off and "repairmen" were called). Under the "cap" were taken and all the branches of "Eliseevsky".

Thus, in the field of view of the security officers of the KGB department for Moscow, many high-ranking persons who were with Sokolov in "special" relations and who were in his office literally fell into the field of view. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov.

Audio and video surveillance also recorded that the heads of branches on Fridays arrived at Sokolov and handed envelopes to the director. In the future, part of the money earned on the deficit that did not hit the counter from the director's safe migrated to the head of the Main Department of Trade of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council Nikolai Tregubov and other interested parties. In a word, a serious evidence base was collected.

One Friday, all the "postmen", after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. Four soon gave confessions.

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 very well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov's desktop. So when he entered the director's office, he held out his hand to greet him. "Friendly" shaking ended with a seizure that prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that he was presented with a warrant for arrest and began to 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 end of the investigation into the Sokolov case and the transfer of the indictment to the court, the arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began.

In total, since the summer of 1983, more than 15,000 people have been prosecuted in the system of the capital's Glavtorg. Including the former head of the Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov. The patrons tried to take him out of the blow and shortly before that they transplanted him into the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg intermediary 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.

An 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 an end - in December 1985, Boris Yeltsin replaced him as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.

Behind bars were the directors of the most famous Moscow grocery stores: V. Filippov (grocery store "Novoarbatsky"), B. Tveretinov (grocery store "GUM"), S. Noniyev (grocery store "Smolensky"), as well as the head of Mosplodovshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the trade "Gastronom" I. Korovkin, director of "Diettorga" Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a 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 trade leaders in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. According to the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles in 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 at that time).

Sokolov: an underground millionaire or a disinterested man who slept on a soldier's bunk?

The party press harmoniously started talking about the new NEP - the establishment of elementary order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in the apartments and dachas of the "commercial mafia". Flashed large sums in rubles, currency and jewelry found in caches.

From the moment Sokolov was arrested, the editorial offices of the central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the KGB 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. The dacha, where 50 thousand rubles were found in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a used foreign car - this is according to one source. According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them "upstairs" to ensure the normal supply of the store, but he did not take a penny for himself. It was even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bunk 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 a bribe on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 was sentenced to capital punishment - execution by firing squad 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 refuse his testimony, he read out to the court from the notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe givers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid publicity of compromising evidence on major party and state functionaries, the court session was closed. Sokolov at court hearings repeated several times 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. It is hard for Sokolov to believe in the public expression of sympathy of the committee members. More plausible is the assumption that it was for the detailed testimony that Sokolov paid with his life.

When the former head of Moscow trade, Nikolai Tregubov, through whom the main "tranches" of bribes passed, appeared before the 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 the ordinary head of the department of the Eliseevsky grocery store!

Two directors were executed, one - he sentenced himself to death

No sooner had the shock of the execution of Yuri Sokolov passed through in the trading industry than a new death sentence was issued to 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 extenuating circumstances such as the participation of Mkhitar Hambardzumyan 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, sounded outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniyev, 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 session? Recall that the investigation of other criminal cases against the employees of the Glavtorg was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in such a dangerous witness as Sokolov being "neutralized" as soon as possible. Most likely, it was from here that the rumor was born: Sokolov, they say, hastened to remove him so that he would not have time to file a request for pardon ...

The government has changed, demonstrative "flogging" for political reasons remained

Sokolov is definitely a criminal. However, the court had enough reason to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the smarmy 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 on this field began to change. The investigation into the case of the "trading mafia" began to wind down, a group of investigators from the OBKhSS, formed from specialists from many regions, was dispersed "to their homes."

Today we live according to other, Russian laws that have replaced the Soviet ones. But, as before, political motives are sometimes guessed behind many high-profile criminal cases - the struggle for power, the rivalry between "clans" and powerful law enforcement agencies for proximity "to the body", the elimination of rivals and the "demonstrative flogging" of oligarchs with the help of courts ...

In the 1980s, a difficult food situation developed in the USSR. People literally had to go hunting for food, stand in long lines, hoping that the coveted sausage would not run out. And grocery store No. 1 in those difficult times simply struck with an abundance of scarce goods. It was possible to get everything there: from "doctor's sausage" and coffee, to balyk and caviar. The locals called the grocery store “Eliseevsky”, because before the revolution, this building housed an equally chic store of the wealthy merchant Eliseev.

From taxi driver to director

The life of Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov was not easy. After the war, when the question of family prosperity became acute, he began working in a taxi. But after a while he was arrested and sent to a colony for 2 years. The investigation found out that he cheated on clients. True, it later turned out that Sokolov was condemned in vain - the denunciation was false. But this did not break Yuri Konstantinovich. When he was released, he realized that he needed to go into trade. Thanks to his intelligence and cunning, Sokolov first became deputy director of the grocery store on Tverskaya, and then grew to the position of head. The peak of his career was the position of director of grocery store No. 1 - the largest grocery store in the capital.

Queuing for bread

The situation in the country at that time was tense and nervous. The era of Brezhnev was coming to an end, the moment of a fierce struggle for power was approaching. Particularly strong against the background of competitors stood out the chairman of the KGB, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov. In the early 1980s, he began an open war with the most corrupt stratum of the Soviet elite - representatives of trade. The main goal is to remove the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Grishin, who was tied with the Moscow trading mafia. Therefore, Andropov, becoming General Secretary, ordered to hook the directors of all the largest stores in the capital. Sokolov stood apart. He was the largest fish, because in his grocery store both the party elite, and the creative and scientific elite of the USSR were stocked.

"Falcon hunting"

Chekists, having chosen the moment when Sokolov left on a business trip, equipped his office with bugs. Then they took control of all the branches of his store. Thus, Yuri Konstantinovich was surrounded by red flags from all sides.

Black caviar

A month later he was arrested for taking bribes. Whether he gave to someone, or to him - it was no longer so important. Most importantly, the security officers found out that on Fridays directors of branches came to Sokolov on the carpet and handed him envelopes. Part of the money went to the head of the Main Department of Trade Tregubov, the rest went to less significant persons. All in all, there was plenty of evidence. The flywheel has turned. In total, more than ten thousand people who worked in the system of the Moscow Glavtorg, including Tregubov, were brought to criminal responsibility.

First Secretary Grishin could do nothing. He himself was under the hood, so he did not take any particularly active actions. According to the stories of Sokolov's wife, he was handed over by one of his subordinates - the deputy head of the sausage department. Her husband, who worked in the currency "Beryozka", got caught. The investigation revealed that they were selling delicacies from Eliseevsky to the left for foreign money. But this couple was too small prey. In the authorities, they were promised a commutation of the sentence if they handed over Sokolov.

Yuri Sokolov

It is clear that in the grocery store customers (even such high-ranking ones) were constantly deceived. Body kit and cheating was the norm. The bulk of the money was made on shrinkage, shaking, spoilage and write-off of delicatessen goods. And although grocery store No. 1 had the latest refrigeration units, food was written off there just like everywhere else. That is, high interest rates. And the difference went to bribes to patrons and suppliers.

It is curious that Sokolov himself lived very modestly by the standards of his position. When representatives of law enforcement agencies came to his house to inventory the property, they were very surprised. The director had no antiques, no expensive paintings, nothing luxurious. Even the refrigerator was not bursting with an abundance of delicacies. Therefore, they had to take away the most common furniture and utensils for the USSR.

Trial

In the hall of the Baumansky District Court (now Basmanny) were the directors of most of the large stores in Moscow. Apparently, they were "invited" for the purpose of intimidation. The judge announced the verdict for about an hour and at the end pronounced the word "execution". After that, applause broke out in the hall. Like, rightly so went to Sokolov.

Case of Sokolov

This was followed by a series of arrests. The heads of the largest Moscow gastronomes, a regional food market and a fruit and vegetable base were imprisoned. Soon Nikolai Tregubov, head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee, was also convicted. By the way, he was given 15 years.

Sokolov denied everything to the last. But then he decided to reveal the details of fraud and the names of those who had to pay bribes. Apparently, he was promised a reduced sentence.

Yuri Konstantinovich declassified his notebook, in which he conducted commercial affairs. At the trial, he tried to prove that the Soviet trading system was too archaic and no longer viable. And the plans that came from above were simply impossible to fulfill without violating the law. But the judge was not impressed. The sentence was not reduced. Sokolov was found guilty and sentenced to death with complete confiscation of property.

Yuri Konstantinovich himself called himself a "scapegoat", who was simply unlucky. After all, he became the first victim in a resonant "corruption case." These events formed the basis of several documentaries and feature films. The most famous of which is the series "Deli Case No. 1" with Sergei Makovetsky in the title role.

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, military elite of the country with selected delicacies. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the director of the grocery store, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the defendants 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 execute the sentence on the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded “to punish the presumptuous merchant to the fullest extent of the law.” But did his crime carry the death penalty?

The case of Yuri Sokolov "lost" in the three General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU

The Soviet press presented the arrest of Sokolov on command from above as the beginning of the decisive struggle of the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic change of general secretaries to some extent mitigate the fate of the defendant and save his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who is in Lefortovo, lit up, there was hope for indulgence, 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 ...

Yuri Sokolov

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 "on libel." But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: 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 enterprise, he proved himself, as they would say now, a brilliant top manager. In an era of total scarcity, 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 a rotten system of co-trade?

This bewildered question is being asked today by those who believe that if there were more “falcons” at that time, all Soviet people would eat black caviar with spoons. But not everything is so simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of the labors of Yuri Konstantinovich were used exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow.

Grocery store No. 1 and its seven subsidiaries "under the counter" were in abundance: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and salmon, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits...

All this could be purchased (according to the system of orders and from the "back door") only by high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals ...

How did delicacy, rare, and even simply exotic products get into the 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 an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to bribe givers.

So who, after all, needed the life of a grasping and smarmy "breadwinner" of the Moscow beau monde, who observed the basic "laws" of the Brezhnev era - "You to me, I to you" and "Live yourself, and let others live"?

Sokolov was out of reach of the long arms of the Lubyanka and Petrovka for a long time. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-collection grocery store were the head of the Main Department of Trade 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. Dementiev, the Minister 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 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU V. Grishin.

Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the "security system" built by him on the principle of mutual responsibility to work. And there was a moment when she seemed to begin to act: it is known that Viktor Grishin, after the arrest of Sokolov, said that he did not believe in the guilt of the director of the grocery store. However, as the upcoming events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov, but also his high-ranking "roof" of untouchability.

Sokolov began to testify only after the election of the new Secretary General of the CPSU

For what purpose did the KGB arrange a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building?

It is significant that the KGB conducted the Sokolov case without the participation of the "younger brother" - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: the Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov's "black list" when he was Chairman of the KGB, and then secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from the post of Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and committed suicide).

Thus, many high-ranking officials who were in “special” relations with Sokolov and who were in his office literally fell into the field of view of the security officers of the KGB department in Moscow. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov.

On one Friday, all the "postmen", after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. Four soon gave confessions.

The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew very well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov's desktop. So when he entered the director's office, he held out his hand to greet him. The "friendly" shaking ended with a seizure that prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that he was presented with a warrant for arrest and began to search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store.

In 1983, perhaps the most resonant verdict was passed in the hall of the Baumansky District Court. For bribes, the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov, was sentenced to capital punishment - execution. Bribery was the official version. Became a victim of a struggle for power - unofficial. So what happened in that same "Eliseevsky" and why the "helmsman" of the Moscow trade ended his days near the wall.

"Eliseevsky" paradise

Yuri Sokolov was born in 1923 in Yaroslavl. Little is known about his biography before the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, when the Germans invaded the USSR, he was only 18 years old. He went to the front in the first days. He rose to the rank of junior lieutenant, was a platoon commander of a battery of 120-mm mortars of the 1193rd rifle regiment of the 360th rifle division.

In March 1945, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for destroying 30 fascists in the battle for the city of Kirki, and also for the fact that in the battle for the city of Ruzemulushi, commanding a battery of 45-mm cannons, he destroyed two machine guns, a cannon and 60 fascists . He also received the award "For the victory over Germany" in October 1945.

In the post-war period, he remained to live in Moscow, got a job as a taxi driver, after which he changed his profession to a salesman. For about 10 years of work in trade, he rose from "the man behind the counter" to the director of "Gastronom No. 1", which many still called "Eliseevsky". Why "Eliseevsky": that's how "Gastronom No. 1" was called during the Russian Empire, on behalf of the founder - the merchant Grigory Eliseev.

Over the next 10 years, Sokolov turned the store into a real food paradise. Not for everyone, of course.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a terrible shortage in the USSR. No, there were no problems getting the essentials. Yes, and pyramids of canned fish adorned the counter of any store. But to find delicacies, it was necessary to be smart. At the same time, delicacies included not only, say, exotic fruits, but also sausage. Obtained by standing in lines and tricks, "smoked", for example, could be stored for weeks to serve at the festive table. With caviar, too, there was a similar story.

Sokolov, on the other hand, negotiated with food suppliers, putting in a plump envelope with money, so that most of the deficit produced would be brought to him. He threw something on the shelves, and wrote off the rest as a delay.

In fact, the products were stored in a warehouse in imported refrigeration equipment, which Sokolov bought with his own money. In the cellar, where they got from the back door, there were caviar, and salmon, and the freshest fruits, and the most fragrant coffee.

Yuri Konstantinovich received the nickname Yuka (short for first name and patronymic). The workers loved him. No one was going to hand over the chief to law enforcement officers: why? Scarce products also fell to them. They regularly received the award, albeit in an envelope. As a rule, money was handed over to the birthday.

And Yuki had a lot of powerful patrons. These are the head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Nikolai Tregubov, and the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Vladimir Promyslov, and the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Raisa Dementyeva, and the Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Shchelokov. In addition, the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Viktor Grishin and the daughter of the Secretary General Galina Brezhneva regularly bought goods from him.

Departure of patrons

After the death of Leonid Brezhnev, on November 12, 1982, at an extraordinary plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov was elected Secretary General. Previously, the chairman of the KGB, and the current secretary general, began to restore order in his own way. He began with a war on corruption, speculation and unearned income. Sokolov was one of the first people to fall under this car.

It was no secret that almost the entire party elite was stocked in Gastronome No. 1. And, if you prove the fact of bribery, objectionable is not difficult to remove far from power. It is assumed that Andropov was guided by such goals in this case.

In particular, he planned to "move" the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Nikolai Shchelokov, as well as the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin. Note that Shchelokov committed suicide in December 1984, being stripped of all ranks and expelled from the party. The case was connected not only with bribes at Gastronome No. 1, but also with a number of other corruption cases.

The owner of Moscow, however, resigned after Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just assumed the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, demanded of him in March 1985.

special operation

KGB officers began working in the direction of the head of the grocery store back in October 1982, but it was not yet known how to prove the facts of huge bribes. It should be noted that the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were not involved in the case. In general, the case was conducted in strict secrecy.

In November 1982, a wiretap was installed in Sokolov's office. The director himself was abroad and could not know about what had happened. In the meantime, the KGB men arranged a "short circuit" in the store and, while they were waiting for the electricians, they installed all the necessary equipment.

A month later, he was detained in his office. Two decades later, a former KGB officer who was at the same time said that he tightly squeezed Sokolov’s hand and led him out from behind the table so that he would not call the guards through the panic button. It was only then that he was informed of the sanction for arrest and a search began. He could not tell where the envelopes with money came from in the office, and he could not name the exact amount.

When Sokolov was brought to the pre-trial detention center in Lefortovo, he remained calm. I was sure that high-ranking friends would help. But the miracle did not happen, and he spoke. The former head of Gastronome No. 1 gave his first confession a couple of weeks after his arrest, in mid-December 1982. He was told that cooperation with the investigation would be taken into account when sentencing. And Sokolov was sure that he would receive a short term and be released.

Thanks, among other things, to his testimony, 174 officials were arrested for bribery and theft of state property. Among them are the management of Novoarbatskoye, the GUM grocery store, Mosplodovoshprom, and Diettorga. The total damage caused to the state, according to the documents, is three million rubles.

Soviet trade figure, until 1982 director of one of the largest gastronomes in Moscow "Eliseevsky". He was shot by the verdict of the Supreme Court in 1984.