A Russian woman is trying to rehabilitate her mother, convicted of treason with a pig.

QUOTE:

“According to the data available from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the period from 1921 to the present (1953 – Note auto) for counter-revolutionary crimes, 3,777,380 people were convicted by the OGPU Collegium, NKVD troikas, the Special Conference, the Military Collegium, courts and military tribunals, including: to VMN (capital punishment. – Note auto) – 642,980 people.”

From a letter from the Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko and the Minister of Justice Gorshenin addressed to N.S. Khrushchev about the review of cases against those convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes.

On the frosty morning of January 9, 2024, Muscovite Tatyana Skvortsova found herself at the door to the reception room of the President of the Russian Federation. In her hands was an appeal to the Presidential Commission for Rehabilitation (a copy is at the disposal of the editors) on three pieces of paper. What’s there?

“I ask you to conduct an additional investigation into the criminal case No. 3766P of my mother, Elena Efimovna Malenkina, born in 1920, convicted under Article 58 by the military tribunal of the NKVD of the Bryansk region, with a view to her posthumous rehabilitation. My mother worked in the Committee for Procurement of Food for the Red Army under the leadership of Simonov. The office was located in the village of Ormino, Rognedinsky district, Bryansk region. And across the road, in the same village, there was an office of NKVD officers, whose employees S. and P. supervised the work of the food procurement committee. According to the mother, they zealously harassed her. Having received a refusal, they fabricated a criminal case against her. They acted as state prosecutors in the trial against the mother…”

During the difficult years, nothing could happen. And not all security officers, to be honest, were decent people. But how can we prove falsification now, 80 years later? The witnesses in the case died long ago, and Malenkina herself died two years ago.

But first, it’s worth talking about the defendant. Daughter Tatyana brought family photographs, documents and… poems dedicated to her mother to the editorial office. Her story can serve as a “vaccination” against those initiatives that are heard from the lips of various figures, and become an edification for those who today write denunciations or call on others to do so.

“Mom was born in the picturesque village of Ilovitsa, Roslavl district, Smolensk province (now Rognedinsky district, Bryansk region), ”Skvortsova begins. — Although the family was peasant, it was considered wealthy. There was a large private farm located on a plot of land of 20 hectares, with a large orchard, meadow, forest grove and buildings for livestock, consisting of four cows, four horses, sheep, pigs and poultry. The house was made of logs, large and spacious. Mom, as the most capable student, graduated from the 9th grade and dreamed of entering a medical school for further studies in the city of Bryansk. But her dreams were not destined to come true…

In 1930, increased food appropriation began, then the lean, hungry year of 1933 crept up, and in 1935 – collectivization. The head of the family was looked upon as an ardent kulak and an element hostile to Soviet power. And denunciations poured in to the NKVD. As a result, all family members made the only correct decision at that time: they joined the collective farm, handing over all their equipment and livestock there. From that moment on, poverty and hunger replaced prosperity. The father of the family was appointed foreman of livestock breeders and was entrusted with the collective farm cash register. The chairman of the collective farm was a big drinker and often put his hand into the cash register… In 1936, he “pinned” the resulting shortage on my grandfather. He was convicted, but acquitted a year later. He continued to work on the collective farm as a livestock foreman, although the chairman harbored a grudge. In 1937, following a denunciation by the same man, my grandfather was arrested again. The family never saw him again… The grandfather was sentenced to 10 years under Article 58 – for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation”, as well as for allegedly supporting the repressed Marshal Tukhachevsky. He was sent to the Far Eastern forced labor camp in the Amur region, where he died in 1942 from hard work and illness. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the area of ​​the Zavitaya railway station (now the city of Zavitinsk) in the Amur region, among the hills with blooming wild rosemary…

From a barefoot village girl by this time, my mother suddenly turned into Elena the Beautiful – a charming, sweet girl, a brunette with large gray eyes and short curly dark hair. Young guys in the village began to pay attention to her, many became gentlemen. Among them was Mikhail, a pilot from a military airfield located not far from our village. He was gentle, caring, and always came with a bouquet of flowers. In general, great love happened. And then my mother found out that it was his father who wrote a denunciation against her father…

“Despite my great feeling for Mikhail, I could not accept this life situation and could not imagine our further relationship after what happened. And we parted with him on my initiative…” – this is from the notes that Malenkina herself left. Soon she married a tractor driver and had a son. During the war, my husband went to the front. And the village was occupied by the Germans. Elena and the baby survived thanks to her mother-in-law, who lived in another village and to whom they managed to get through.

In September 1943, the Rognedinsky district was liberated by Soviet troops from the Nazi invaders. Elena returned to her home and got a job in the people’s committee as a food procurer to supply the Red Army.

And again from Elena’s notes: “One day, my former boyfriend, military pilot Mikhail, came to my work again with a marriage proposal. But I refused him, reminding him that I was married and had a son. This did not stop him, he stubbornly insisted on his proposal, said that he still loved me, and invited me to leave with him.

But I could not forgive the denunciation. And I was faithful to my husband and honestly waited for him from the front. Who knows, if I had answered Mikhail with my consent then, fate would have made me truly happy and saved me from the approaching disaster…”

“Mom’s job was very responsible, she interacted with government officials,” says Tatyana Fedorovna. “And my mother was an interesting woman.” Many people clung to her, including two NKVD officers. She refused them, which they could not forgive. And then the opportunity turned up. Livestock was being harvested, and there was no room for one pig to be kept in the “public nook.” The mother took from the owner from whom they bought this pig for the Red Army a receipt that she would keep it and give it to the army commissioner in the morning. Morning comes. The commissioner came, but there was no pig. Mother to this housewife: “Where is the pig?” And she said: “Your head of procurement, Simonov, took the pig, slaughtered it and dragged it across the road to the employees of the “authorities.” And they feasted there all night.” And they pinned this deficiency on the mother. According to the laws of war, she appeared in February 1945 before a military tribunal on charges of treason. The prosecutors at the trial were the same employees of the “authorities” who ate the pig… Mom tried to prove that she could not kill and butcher a huge pig overnight alone. But no one listened to her, the daughter of an “enemy of the people.” Sentence: 8 years in camps.

The trial at that time was quick. Military tribunals had the right to consider the case itself within 24 hours from the date of delivery of the indictment. The accused did not have lawyers, and the defendants themselves were not always given the floor. The verdicts were considered final and were not subject to appeal. The only thing is that military district councils could cancel the execution of capital punishment within 72 hours.

FROM THE MK DOSSIER:

Article 58 appeared in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, which came into force on January 1, 1927. Referred to the chapter “Crimes of the state, counter-revolutionary crimes.”

Over the next twenty years, it was updated more than once and supplemented with various clauses (and in 1934 they even had “letters” – so, 58-1a, 58-1g were introduced).

Explanation of paragraphs of Article 58:

1 – treason;

2 – armed uprising;

3 – communication for counter-revolutionary purposes with a foreign state;

4 – providing assistance to the international bourgeoisie;

5 – inducing a foreign state to war;

6 – espionage;

7 – sabotage;

8 – terrorism;

9 – sabotage;

10 – anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda;

11 – organizational counter-revolutionary activities.

Malenkina wrote from the camp to Andrei Vyshinsky with a petition to review her case (although he was no longer the Prosecutor General of the USSR at that time – he was appointed deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR). Didn’t receive a response. The young woman was sent to Siberia. While logging, she received a severe head injury when a tree fell on her. I was in the hospital for a long time. But then again the stage, this time to the forced labor camp of Buryatia…

“We got there for two weeks in cold, “calf” carriages… We were not even given enough water, and we had to lick the frozen metal nuts on the walls of the carriages in order to somehow quench our thirst. Having learned about my imprisonment, my husband found another woman on the way home from the front and returned with his young wife. I wrote him a poignant letter about my innocence, but it was all in vain.”

Malenkina served her sentence from bell to bell. Afterwards I went to work at a peat harvesting site to start my life from scratch. She got married and had children. Mikhail sought meetings with her until her death. And after the war, his father drowned in the river: being drunk, he fell from a plank bridge.

On November 29, 1963, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, Efim Malenkin was rehabilitated by a decision of the presidium of the Bryansk Regional Court. Elena was recognized as a victim of political repression – like his daughter. But no one was going to rehabilitate her. She filed statements in 1999, then in 2017. When she became completely weak, Tatyana took over the matter.

From the answer that the FSB Directorate for the Bryansk Region provided her, it follows: “E. Malenkina was arrested on October 11, 1944 on charges of a crime under Art. 58-1p “a” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. By the verdict of the military tribunal of the NKVD troops of February 16, 1945, on the basis of 58-3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, she was convicted… Not subject to rehabilitation.”

But why? And how did it happen that 58-1p turned into 58-3? No answers were given to these questions. Perhaps the rehabilitation commission will do this.

– Why do you need this now? All these are things of bygone days. Isn’t it better to forget? – I asked Tatyana Fedorovna. – Mom is no longer there…

“She’s been waiting all her life for someone to come one day, apologize and rehabilitate her,” she answers. – I didn’t wait. In her memory, I must at least try to get the case reconsidered. So far they are refusing to even extradite him (but they showed me the materials on my grandfather’s case)…

Tatyana Fedorovna holds out the poems she wrote about her mother. They also contain lines that have become relevant today:

“One call, one denunciation,

From envy or evil,

And life went downhill

It’s like that head is off your shoulders.”

Comments from lawyer, member of the Human Rights Council Igor PASTUKHOV:

— The Law of the Russian Federation on “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression” (adopted in 1991) says: “When the actions of individuals are seen to indicate signs of other types of crimes other than counter-revolutionary, especially dangerous state crimes, the review of cases and materials is carried out in accordance with the general procedure.” It is obvious that the procedures for reviewing a sentence on appeal and cassation are not applicable due to the expiration of the deadlines established by law. It is possible to prove that the woman did not commit the actions specified in the verdict of the military tribunal by reviewing her criminal case based on newly discovered and new circumstances. But Chapter 49 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation describes what is considered such new circumstances – for example, the deliberate falsity of the testimony of a victim or witness established by a court verdict that has entered into legal force. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to apply to her situation.

Moreover, in the woman’s case, there was clearly an unfounded classification under the article on counter-revolutionary crimes (even if the actions imputed to her are considered proven, they fall only under Article 168 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1926: “Appropriation, i.e. retention of someone else’s property for personal gain, entrusted for a specific purpose, or embezzlement of this property – imprisonment for a term of up to two years”). To summarize: at present, there is no possibility formulated in the law to review such a clearly illegal verdict of a military tribunal.