A mystery that remains unsolved

According to the official version, on the night of November 8-9, 1932, Stalin’s wife, 31-year-old Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide. Despite the fact that 90 years have passed since then, the causes and circumstances of this tragic incident remain not fully understood.

The day before – on November 7 – the whole country celebrated the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution, and, as Nikita Khrushchev later recalled, he and Nadezhda Alliluyeva stood next to Lenin’s Mausoleum in a group of party activists (in 1932, Nikita Khrushchev was the 2nd secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, and I knew Nadezhda Sergeevna well from the Industrial Academy, where they both studied):

“Alliluyeva was next to me, we talked. It was cool, and Stalin was standing on the Mausoleum in his overcoat. His hooks were unfastened and the floors flung open. The wind was blowing, Alliluyeva looked and said: “Here’s mine didn’t take a scarf, she’ll catch a cold and will get sick again.” All this was very homely and did not fit in with the ideas about Stalin, about the leader, that had grown into our consciousness.

(The memoirs are quoted from the book: N. S. Khrushchev “Time. People. Power”. Information and publishing company “Moscow News”, vol. 1, part 1, ch. “Personal acquaintance with Stalin”.)

After the end of the demonstration, according to Khrushchev, everyone dispersed, and the next day Kaganovich gathers the secretaries of the Moscow district party committees and says that Nadezhda Sergeevna has suddenly died:

“Then I thought: “How can this be? I talked to her yesterday. Such a blooming, beautiful woman was. He sincerely regretted: “Well, what, anything can happen, people die …”. A day or two later, Kaganovich again gathers the same staff and says: “I am passing on Stalin’s order. Stalin ordered to say that Alliluyeva did not die, but shot herself. That’s all. The reasons, of course, were not given to us. Shot and that’s it. She was buried. Stalin went to see her off at the cemetery. It was evident from his face that he was very worried, mourned her.

Already after the death of Stalin himself, when Khrushchev became General Secretary and gained access to secret documents, he found out the cause of Nadezhda Sergeevna’s death:

“There are documents for this. And we asked Vlasik, Stalin’s head of security: “What reasons prompted Nadezhda Sergeevna to commit suicide?” Here is what he said: “After the parade, as always, everyone went to dine with Voroshilov. (He had a large apartment in the Kremlin. I also dined there several times. A narrow circle of people came there: the parade commander, at that time, in my opinion, Kork, People’s Commissar Voroshilov, who received the parade, and some members of the Politburo, who were closest to Stalin. there directly from Red Square. Then the demonstrations dragged on for a long time.) There they dined, drank, as it should be and what is supposed to be on such occasions. Nadezhda Sergeevna was not there. Everyone left, and Stalin also left. He left but did not come home. It was too late. Nadezhda Sergeevna began to show concern – where is Stalin? I started looking for him on the phone. First of all, she called the dacha. They lived then in Zubalovo, but not where Mikoyan lived lately, but across the ravine. The attendant answered the call. Nadezhda Sergeevna asked: “Where is Comrade Stalin?” “Comrade Stalin is here.” – “Who is with him?” He called: “Gusev’s wife is with him.” In the morning, when Stalin arrived, his wife was already dead. Gusev is a military man, and he was also present at Voroshilov’s dinner. When Stalin left, he took Gusev’s wife with him. I have never seen Guseva, but Mikoyan said that she was a very beautiful woman.”

As Khrushchev adds, “when Vlasik told this story, he commented:“ The devil knows. This inexperienced fool on duty: she asked him, and he told her so directly.

As Khrushchev writes, then there were still gossip that Stalin himself killed her:

“There were such rumors, and I personally heard them. Apparently, Stalin knew about it. Since rumors were circulating, then, of course, the Chekists wrote down and reported. Then people said that Stalin came to the bedroom, where he found Nadezhda Sergeevna dead; not one came, but with Voroshilov. Whether this was the case is hard to say. Why is it suddenly necessary to go to the bedroom with Voroshilov? And if a person wants to take a witness, then, then, he knew that she was no longer there? In a word, this side of the matter is still obscure.”

There were, of course, other versions of this tragic incident … So, according to the version of the daughter of Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva Svetlana, set out in her book “Twenty Letters to a Friend”, the reason for the quarrel was “an insignificant reason”:

“But the reason was not so significant in itself and did not make a special impression on anyone, like “there was no reason.” Just a small quarrel at a festive banquet in honor of the 15th anniversary of October. “Only” the father said to her: “Hey, you, drink!”. And she “only” cried out suddenly: “I don’t tell you – Hey!” – and got up, and with everyone left the table.

Vyacheslav Molotov, who was personally present at the dinner in Voroshilov’s apartment, was sure that jealousy was the cause of the fatal quarrel. According to him, Nadezhda Sergeevna was a very jealous person, and the lump of bread that Stalin rolled up and threw this ball at Yegorov’s wife in front of everyone could be the cause of her anger.

In the press, short obituaries were published only on November 10, the day before the funeral. Moreover, the cause of death of “an active and devoted member of the party comrade. Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva ”they did not indicate …

The general population reacted to this tragic incident in their own way … In the book of memoirs “Fadeless Color”, the well-known translator Nikolai Mikhailovich Lyubimov writes:

“At the end of 1932, Muscovites were cut off the norms for issuing white bread. This coincided with the death of Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Sergeevna Alliluyeva. The Moscow common people responded to the coincidence with a ditty:

“Alliluyeva died,

I took white bread with me.

If Stalin marries

Black bread will be canceled.”

(The memoirs of N. M. Lyubimov are quoted from the book by M. I. Vostryshev “Stalin’s Moscow”.)

Sergei Ishkov.

A photo histograf.ru