Of course, the case of the Petrograd combat organization is connected with the name of the poet Nikolai Gumilyov, who was arrested on the night of August 3-4, 1921. A lot of research is devoted to this case of the Petrograd military organization and the poet. And, of course, the name of investigator Yakobson, who signed the interrogation protocols of Gumilyov, is thoroughly known to the researchers. On August 24, 1921, by decision of Petrogubchek, Nikolai Gumilyov was sentenced to capital punishment - execution. As can be seen from the materials published by V.A. Stavitsky, the combination of investigator Yakobson and poet Nikolai Gumilyov remained unchanged during August 1921. Tagantsev gave evidence against Gumilyov on August 6, 1921.

On August 9, 1921, Gumilyov gave evidence in the Petrograd gubchek.
Protocol of interrogation of N. Gumilyov. Testimony on the merits...
/signature/ N. Gumilyov 9/VIII - 21 Interrogated by Jacobson.

Ten days later, investigator Yakobson interrogates N. Gumilyov. There are no recordings of interrogations with questions from investigators, only recordings of testimony on the merits of the case.
Protocol of interrogation gr. Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich
Questioned by investigator Jacobson, I testify as follows:….
/signature/ N. Gumilyov 18/VIII - 21 Interrogated by Jacobson.

Two days later, the next interrogation, where in addition to the testimony already received, investigator Yakobson receives additional testimony from Nikolai Gumilyov.
Additional readings gr. Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich
Interrogated by investigator Jacobson, I show:...
/signature/ Gumilyov 20/VIII - 21 Interrogated by Jacobson.

And the next interrogation.
Continuation of the testimony of gr. Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich
Questioned by investigator Jacobson, I testify as follows:
That I don’t know any names that could bring any benefit to Tagantsev’s organization by establishing connections between them, and therefore I can’t name them. I feel guilty in relation to the existing authorities in Russia that during the days of the Kronstadt uprising I was ready to take part in the uprising if it spread to Petrograd, and had conversations with Vyacheslavsky about this.
/signature/ N. Gumilyov 23/VIII - 21 Interrogated by Jacobson.

The basis for the verdict was the testimony obtained by investigator Yakobson.

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF PETROGUBCHEK
dated August 24, 1921
Gumilev Nikolay Stepanovich, 35 years old, b. nobleman, philologist, member of the board “Iz-vo World Literature”, married, non-party member, b. Officer. Member Peter. fights Counter-revolution organizations.
Sentenced to capital punishment - execution.
Correct: the signature is illegible.

“Investigator Yakobson interrogated Gumilyov, an inquisitor who combined intelligence and education with the conviction of a maniac: during interrogations he discussed Machiavelli, “the beauty of Orthodoxy,” called Gumilyov the best Russian poet, and read his poems by heart. And after the fourth interrogation, he calmly concluded: “Apply to Gumilyov, as an obvious enemy of the people and the revolution, the capital punishment - execution.” The verdict was confirmed by the scoundrel of scoundrels, on whose conscience the lives of several Russian poets are, Yakov Agranov. That Agranov who will become “the founder and head of Litkontrol” of the OGPU - the most brutal censorship in the world. He, Agranov, would become Yagoda’s deputy in the 1930s and from Stalin’s hands would first receive an apartment in the Kremlin, and then the classic nine grams of lead in the back of the head...” (Vyacheslav Nedoshivin. Story. - 2009. - No. 2. - P. 94–106.).

All assumptions about how the investigator conducted interrogations of Gumilyov are just guesses. Information about this investigator has not been found anywhere except in Mironov’s book. There is not even the first and patronymic name of this investigator. Only in Mironov’s description of the Tagantsev Case can one find information about the investigator with the same last name and about his other defendants.

Indeed, in Mironov’s chronicle there is also investigator Yakobson. So the name of investigator Yakobson brought together the poet Nikolai Gumilyov and the unknown ambulance nurse B.N. Nikitin. and his mother, Nikitina M.D. And the fate of his defendants was the same - execution.

I was always amazed by the oohs and aahs: “He was a poet! The Bolsheviks shot the boy with the doe eyes!” He also had an exquisite giraffe neck.
First of all, Nikolai Gumilyov was an officer. This is what we need to build on. Did he fight the Bolsheviks, being faithful to his oath? Yes. Does he deserve respect? Yes. Despite the fact that his principles do not align with mine. But why do the witnesses to the white case humiliate the military officer so much? He allegedly was not a man, but a sheep in pants, and did not fight the Soviet regime. Why?
But Tagantsev’s conspiracy was not at all a piece of paper invented by the Cheka. The security officers had nothing to do in 1921 but to fabricate cases. There were plenty of real things to do, why else?
In June 1921, security officers arrested Komarov, a former sailor of the battleship Petropavlovsk, in a drinking establishment. At his home they found dynamite, seals, stamps, blank forms and a printing press. Komarov, as it turned out, was an active participant in the Kronstadt uprising. Come on, an active participant. He was the commandant of the city.
And at the moment he was the head of the United Organization of Kronstadt Sailors. This same “OOKM” divided St. Petersburg into sections, placed its commanders in these sections and was preparing a new uprising. For reference: up to 400 thousand rubles were spent monthly on the needs of OOKM. Where does the money come from? So funding came through Finland from the British, French and the USA.
It turned out that "OOKM" are part of the "Petrograd Combat Organization", which was headed by a certain Professor Tagantsev.
Of course, dooooh, the professor can’t be a conspirator. And the head of the department social psychology can become a terrorist? No? But I became :) And wanted on the "Peacemaker".
Tagantsev fought against the Cheka for a month. Only a month later, at the end of July 1921, he began to testify.
"PBO" consisted of two parts. The combat one, which included Gumilyov, and the headquarters one.
The organizational (staff) team included:
- Financier Prince Shakhovsky.
- Professor Lazarevsky, Tsar's senator.
- Lawyer Manukhin, Minister of Justice of the Tsarist government.
- Professor Tikhvinsky, oil worker.
- Professor Tagantsev.
- Prince Tumanov.
- Prince Ukhtomsky.
- Geologist Kozlovsky.
What innocent people they are. Elite! Very peaceful.
They developed projects for a new state structure in Russia, but that’s it. They also planned the logistics of a future uprising. Lazarevsky was preparing the reform of local self-government, Shakhovsky was organizing underground banks and microcredit organizations. Prince Tumanov worked at ROST and prepared provocative materials for printing houses on behalf of the Bolsheviks. Tikhvinsky collected data on oil fields and transferred them to French intelligence.
Geologist Kozlovsky was found with 60 pounds of dynamite in his apartment. Almost a ton. 960 kilograms. As a former terrorist, I will tell you that I had only 500 kilos of TNT in Odessa. They still haven't been found, by the way. And I also have Vintorez there. And one more thing. Why am I worse than the professors of 1921?
The combat, or officer group, was supposed to, on a signal from the “Professors,” raise an uprising not only in St. Petersburg, but also at key railway junctions. Bologoe, Mga, Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and so on.
For example, Butgel-Podlobny, a company commissar of the third mine-submarine division, a member of the Bolshevik Party and an adjutant of the same company, Roop, organized the issuance of left-wing documents for PBO officers and prepared a mutiny in the company. The company was supposed to mine the bridges on the Neva.
Tagantsev and a group of his comrades organized all the anti-Bolsheviks around him. The cadets, for example, lent money. The Mensheviks began agitation in factories.
And this is where they screwed up.
Factory workers in St. Petersburg immediately handed the agitators over to the Cheka. The arrests began. And they surfaced amazing facts.
Menshevik Dan testified that some of the leaflets were printed in Stockholm. There was funding, yes. From France, as I already said. If I don’t get back on my feet tomorrow, I’ll tell you about this topic. Namely: the Red Cross financed, Professor Zeidler. And how does the Red Cross of that time differ from today's OSCE?
In total, about 10 million rubles were received.
With the help of the PBO, using the money of the French, Finns and Americans, a monument to Volodarsky was blown up in St. Petersburg (Sumerians, hello!), the stands prepared for the May Day demonstration of 1921 were set on fire, and the Sapsan train from the Petrograd-Moscow collection train was blown up.
When the arrests began, the PBO fighters began to resist the security officers. Several employees of the St. Petersburg Cheka died during the arrests.
Safe houses were liquidated:
- General Rafailov.
- noblewomen Manukhna.
- merchant Kalachev.
- Landowners of Lund.
- Colonel Karlovich.
US citizen Stark was found at the apartment of officer Dmitriev. An American intelligence officer shot two Cheka officers and fled. Lieutenant Dmitriev, midshipman Zolotukhin and midshipman Kuntsevich, recruited by the Americans, were detained.
Officers Leon and Stepanov, Captain Leise, Lieutenant Colonel Durnovo, and the head of the 2nd department of the Petrograd District Artillery Directorate, Rear Admiral Zarubaev, worked for the French.
Baron Wikeln organized fighting groups from the anarchists who had escaped from Kronstadt.
When the Cheka began to arrest en masse - and arrests involved shootouts - Lenin began to receive petitions in defense of the “Professors”.
It was then that Lenin said: “Chemistry and counter-revolution are not mutually exclusive.”
Breckin Grandfather, reconsider, or something... Or what is this series called correctly?
Gumilyov was arrested and shot. Because he deliberately went to his death. For your ideals, for your world.
May the kingdom of heaven rest with him, Russian lieutenant Imperial Army. He commands respect, unlike the hamsters whining over the innocent dead poet.
I am writing this, a security officer and a red commissar, out of conviction. It was I who pulled out Igor Sivak, a white officer from Odessa captured by the Petliurists in March 2015. They had already identified him and put pieces of paper on the door saying, “We will burn you, bitch.” We stood on the platform, he boarded the train to St. Petersburg, and smoked in his fist. “Igor, do you remember our arguments about the red and white idea? Just imagine, I, red to the bone, am dragging you, a white staff captain, to Russia, to St. Petersburg, saving you from the Petliurists.” He arrived normally, is alive, singing. I haven’t written a song about this incident yet. Yes, everything is ahead.
If I had lived in 1921, I probably would have tried to help the poet Gumilyov, who fought to the last with the security officers. But I think Lieutenant Gumilyov would have laughed contemptuously in my face during execution.
Unlike Krasnov, Kolchak, Kaledin, this lieutenant remained true to his word.
By the way, like Igor Sivak.

Ivan Tolstoy: In terms of its political influence and penetration into society, the Tagantsev conspiracy itself was an insignificant matter. He was late historically - both for external and internal reasons. The participants in the conspiracy were unable to fulfill the tasks that they set for themselves. So the real threat to Soviet power from the Tagantsevites was minimal.
Another thing is the impact on society of the very fact of the conspiracy, the talk about it – this impact was very strong. The shooting of those arrested was supposed, in the words of the security officers, to “burn” the intelligentsia and the hidden opposition.
Such burns were inflicted, of course, in addition to the Tagantsev case. For example, the case of the Tactical Center in Moscow dates back to 1920. Or the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, spring 1921. And also the famous deportation of the intelligentsia to Europe in the fall of 1922. Not to mention the huge general burn called Red Terror throughout the country.
The Tagantsev case was in this long line. The paradox is that, although small in scale, it is remembered in history for the fate of one of its least significant figures - whose name, however, is known to every person in Russia. Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov was, in the popular imagination, almost the main conspirator.
But, as you know, there are many popular opinions. Some consider Gumilyov to be an undoubted opponent of Soviet power (as befits an honest officer), others share this idea, but prefer to remain silent, since participation in the conspiracy could interfere with literary publications (as happened all the years of Soviet power), others believe that Gumilyov was not Moreover, he was also misled; the fourth, fifth and sixth take their positions.
But the common misfortune of everyone who undertakes to discuss this topic is the same: the exceptional paucity of facts. Of the entire investigative file on the Tagantsev conspiracy, only three volumes are available to researchers, and 250 are still closed. What could they contain that would make it necessary to hide these materials even after 90 years, when Soviet power has no longer existed for two decades? Denunciations from informants with the names of informers? A picture of the general hatred of society towards the Bolsheviks? Unsubstantiated accusations against those arrested, hackwork by the Cheka?
Unknown.
Nevertheless, some details about those days have accumulated all these years - both true and legendary. Some fans of Gumilyov read the dying poetic lines:

At the hour of evening, at the hour of sunset
Winged caravel
Petrograd floats by...
And it burns on the red disk
Your angel on the obelisk,
Like the sun's younger brother.

And on our fragile boat
Only blue bars
Crossed bayonets.
Where is the one who kissed the ladies' hands?
Hamam bows low -
Apparently, this is our lot.
I'm not afraid, I'm calm
I am a poet, a sailor and a warrior,
I will not give in to the executioner.
Let him be branded with a stigma of shame -
I know, a black blood clot
I pay for freedom.

But for verse and for courage,
For sonnets and for the sword -
I know - my proud city
At the hour of evening, at the hour of sunset
Winged caravel
Will take me home.

But whose lines are these? Gumilyov? Some people are sure yes. Someone believes that these are poems by another convicted poet, Gumilyov’s friend Sergei Kolbasyev.

The three archival volumes available to researchers, out of 250 stored by the FSB, do not allow for a detailed understanding of the legendary 1921 case. However, St. Petersburg historian Vladimir Yuryevich Chernyaev has been studying this topic for many years, collecting various documents and evidence. Thanks to these finds, it is possible to imagine the general plan of the conspirators and answer some fundamental questions.

Vladimir Chernyaev: I have been working on the Tagantsev case for a long time, my interest in this case arose by chance thanks to my acquaintance with Kirill Vladimirovich Tagantsev, the son of Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev, the head of an organization that was later better known for the Tagantsev case, and the security officers compared this Tagantsev case to the second Kronstadt, then they attached no less importance than the Kronstadt uprising. But it is clear that there was an organization that set itself two goals. The first goal was to promote the overthrow of the government that existed, an organization that was associated with white emigration and right-wing socialist emigration. Although she was liberal in her mood. That is, it was declared monarchical, but it was not monarchical, although people of completely different political orientations took part in it - from monarchists to former Bolsheviks. The entire amplitude is political, except for the anarchists.
When Tagantsev’s organization arose, in principle, an uprising was planned. To understand the conditions under which these plans were made, imagine that the Bolsheviks had practically already won the civil war, the liquidation was already underway civil war, it was not yet completely over, actions were still ongoing in the North and in Far East, but Wrangel was forced to evacuate his army. It seems that the Bolsheviks won in the European part of Russia, however, almost the entire country was covered peasant uprisings, labor unrest, labor unrest. That is, they suddenly felt that they had won military victory, and power is about to leave their hands. And under these conditions, an uprising was planned, which was supposed to occur simultaneously in Petrograd and Kronstadt after the start of navigation. But in Petrograd in February 1921, very strong labor unrest began, and in Kronstadt they took it for the beginning of an uprising. Plus, Kalinin was still sent to Kronstadt at that time, and his not very successful performance on Anchor Square also contributed to such an explosion.
The uprising was planned at the same time, but why after the start of navigation? Because the ships of the British and French fleets were in roadsteads in the ice-free part of the Baltic Sea, near Latvia, Estonia and Finland, and if navigation were opened, such an assault on Kronstadt as it was would have been impossible, but at the same time the fleet could have approached. But the premature Kronstadt uprising confused everything.
It must be said that the organization took some steps, trying to simultaneously encourage the workers to revolt, but this did not happen, and there is an explanation for this too. The fact is that the St. Petersburg workers had a very difficult attitude towards the Kronstadters. Do you know why? And it's very simple. The fact is that previously the Kronstadters were used to suppress labor unrest, therefore, when the Kronstadters were executed, some workers felt schadenfreude.
In addition, the organization was preoccupied with developing how Russia should be transformed and, most importantly, they were afraid that anarchy would not happen, that the power of the Bolsheviks would fall, and at the same time there would not be people ready who would be able to take power (and not seize power , but really lead), which would have a program of government reforms.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev was born in 1889 in St. Petersburg and was the son of Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev. And Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev was an outstanding scientist, lawyer, he is considered the creator of the science of state law in Russia. Imagine, Finland still uses in its criminal legislation the criminal legislation that was developed by him. And at the same time, he was a senator, a member of the State Council, and was repeatedly elected head of the “Literary Fund” - a society that helped writers and scientists of pre-revolutionary Russia.
Volodya grew up as a sickly boy, he was the youngest son of Nikolai Stepanovich Tangantsev and, according to the recollections of his loved ones, he was the most beloved child. At the same time, it must be said in what environment he grew up. Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev hosted “Thursday dinners”, and at these dinners there were such completely different people like the head of the government, Count Vladimir Nikolaevich Kokovtsov, Anatoly Fedorovich Koni, the writers Garshin and Korolenko, the artist Kustodiev, who very often painted Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev and his wife, there was also Alexander Blok.
It was in this environment that Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev grew up. He graduated from the famous Karl May Gymnasium with a gold medal and from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, was retained at the university, and was even sent to study abroad. But as soon as he arrived from abroad, the First World War began. But due to the fact that he had health problems, he was released from military service. When he moved to Russia, for some time he taught at the Tagantsevskaya gymnasium (and this gymnasium was created by the sister of Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev, that is, Vladimir Nikolaevich’s aunt) and continued his research activities. Then, after all, he volunteered for the front, passing the master's exam, and became the head of the 6th Caucasian advanced pack detachment, then the head of the 3rd pack transport. Along the way, he studied the glaciers of the Caucasus. It was only in September 1917 that he returned to the university and resumed his scientific activities.
His elder brother Nikolai went south in 1918, became a member of the regional Crimean government (the government of Solomon of Crimea) in which Vladimir Nabokov participated, after which he was in Denikin’s administration, essentially playing the role of Minister of Justice for both Denikin and Wrangel . Moreover, Wrangel valued him very highly in his memoirs. He subsequently emigrated to France and ended his life (at the end of World War II) as a Soviet patriot. He died in 1946. If he had lived longer, perhaps, like other Soviet patriots, he would have been forcibly deported from France to the Soviet Union.
But Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev at first did not want to get involved in politics, and what prompted him to get involved in politics was the fact that among those shot by the security officers were his friends. He took part in the “National Center”, it was a conspiratorial organization that included the pro-Kadet “Liberation Union” of Boris Knatz, who later fled to Paris, and the right-wing socialist “Renaissance Union” of Bruno Barth. Bruno Barth was the son of Herman Lopatin, a famous Narodnaya Volya member, who at that time, immediately after 1917, lived in Petrograd and was an active anti-Bolshevik. According to those researchers who were involved in the murder of Uritsky, it was German Lopatin who pushed Kannegiser to commit this murder. And so Tagantsev contacted the National Center and then established an illegal connection with emigration through Finland. Actually, the Tagantsev conspiracy is associated with the creation of the Tagantsev organization, it began to be created in the fall of 1920, and it was Bart who introduced him to Yuri Pavlovich German, who was first a courier for Yudenich’s army, and then became an intelligence courier for the Finnish General Staff. And the intelligence courier is a postman who often does not know what he is wearing. He sometimes took letters from relatives who were abroad for those who were in Petrograd, because there was no exchange of letters, and then even people were shot for this.
But Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev, judging by his testimony (and his testimony is the most detailed), did not reveal everything, so it is very difficult to establish the number of members of the organization. If we compare the documents that are located abroad with his testimony, it is clear that he did not disclose everything. In his testimony alone, he mentioned almost 200 people. In total, more than 800 people were prosecuted in the Tagantsev case, but this still speaks of the scale. Although some were brought to justice, as I mentioned, only for receiving letters, for illegal correspondence with abroad. Moreover, Tagantsev’s organization was not the only illegal underground organization that existed then in Petrograd, especially in Russia. It must be said that he tried to establish contacts with other organizations, but immediately said that we are a liberal organization, we are not a socialist organization, although at the same time he said that he was a Republican in his views. And he tried to establish relations with various organizations, in particular, he came into contact with the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionaries. The Social Revolutionaries rejected cooperation.
He established contacts with the right-wing Mensheviks, and the right-wing Mensheviks, at the rise of the labor movement, which was at the beginning of 1921, created, just as in 1918, the “Union of Representatives.” This is an organization similar to the Petrograd Soviet, there were freely elected deputies, illegally elected workers from various enterprises.

It was led mainly by right-wing Mensheviks, but there was no single leader. Some former Bolsheviks were there, and they entered into cooperation. In particular, among those whom Tagantsev approached with cooperation was Nikolai Ivanovich Lazarevsky, a very prominent specialist in state law, the same person who developed the regulations on elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly in 1917. Tagantsev approached him with a question: is it possible to use some elements of the Soviet structure that existed, for example, the form of the Soviets, in the event of a change in the state system? He asked him to develop possible options for reforming the Russian state system in the event of the fall of Bolshevik power. The answer was that although this form of popular rule is primitive from the point of view of parliamentarism, under the given conditions no better thing has been invented. That is, if representatives of different parties, different opinions are elected democratically, and there is not even pressure from any single party over the Soviets, then this design can be used. It was he who was instructed by Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev to develop a project for elections to the Soviets and a project for the administrative management of Russia. And for this, Nikolai Ivanovich Lazarevsky will later be shot.
What was the program of Tagantsev’s organization? He began to give more detailed and frank testimony due to the fact that the organization had failed, there was nothing to hide (the Decembrists also talked about their program). First of all, after the abolition of the one-party dictatorship of the Bolsheviks and the departure of the Communists from power, this is the preservation of the system of Councils of Deputies and almost the entire administrative apparatus, its transformation on a democratic basis. This is the re-election of the Soviets without putting pressure on voters, the establishment of power on a legal basis, that is, the rejection of the judicial arbitrariness that existed. After all, people were shot without trial, there were extrajudicial executions. This is the use of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which, in principle, could be transformed into the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, this is the equalization of the rights of all parties and groups, that is, the establishment of a multi-party system, which existed in 1917. And if the Bolsheviks did not persist, then, in principle, they even admitted that the Bolsheviks could participate in this. But - in the case when they are already removed from power. That is, they even allowed for this possibility and, perhaps, it was quite wise. This is a reduction in state revenues and the issue of paper money, the cancellation of Russia's debts and loans (this turns out to be a continuation of the position that the Bolsheviks occupied - it was unrealistic then). Payment of debts and all loans that Russia received. Actually, Russia in the First world war paid with blood. Refusal to restore privileges and private estates that were lost in the revolution, transfer of land to peasants, development of leases and concessions of enterprises, development of trade and private banking capital, state control of production, depoliticization and strengthening of the army and revision of peace treaties that were concluded by the Bolsheviks.
Moreover, with regard to the depoliticization and strengthening of the army, Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev had a very interesting adviser. When he visited Moscow, he usually stayed at the apartment of General Andrei Zayonchkovsky. This is a very famous historian, an outstanding figure who was then used by the Bolsheviks, he was even an adviser and one of the leaders of the fight against the Whites, but, as it now turned out, at the most decisive moment, when Denikin was advancing, he handed over a number of secret documents that helped avoid much greater defeat than occurred at Denikin.
They discussed how the army could be reformed and, judging by Tagantsev’s testimony, Tagantsev and Zayonchkovsky assumed that you know who could be involved in reforming the army? - Tukhachevsky. This is the man who a little later led the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising.
This organization, which began to be created in the fall of 1920 (already Tagantsev’s own organization) and finally took shape by the beginning of 1921, was headed by the trumvirate. Main role Efimov played in it, Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev performed under this nickname (many never knew him), besides him, this triumvirate included a man who performed under two nicknames, some knew him as Nizhegorodtsev (in particular, Gumilyov, who did not know him real name), and others knew him as Vyacheslavsky. In fact, it was former artillery lieutenant colonel Vyacheslav Grigorievich Shvedov. And the second person, who was known by the nickname Dove, was Yuri Pavlovich German. So, Shvedov, like German, was also an intelligence courier for the Finnish General Staff. And at the moment when the Kronstadt uprising took place, German and Shvedov had connections with Kronstadt, German even visited Kronstadt illegally, thus the Tagantsev organization was the only one of the illegal anti-Bolshevik organizations in Russia that had a direct connection through Finland with the Kronstadt uprising, with the leadership of the Kronstadt uprisings And to facilitate the crossing of the border, not only Shvedov and German, but also some other participants - Bolotov, Toll - also worked as intelligence couriers of the Finnish General Staff. If Bolotov was then killed on May 31 at the border near Agalatovo, then Toll, until the early 30s, illegally came to Leningrad and returned to Finland. (I saw his file in the Finnish Secret Police, and the Finnish Secret Police kept all our emigrants, even the artist Repin, very closely. I must say that in his file in the Finnish Secret Police, as well as in the case of some members of the Tagantsev organization, who were not exposed, were not named by Tagantsev and others and fled to Finland, there is also a mention of this organization, that is, it is fully confirmed).
The Finns controlled all couriers very strictly - when they returned, right at the border they had to write reports about everything that happened and what they saw in Petrograd. They took emigrant newspapers with them, they brought Soviet newspapers there, but they did not receive Soviet newspapers abroad. And sometimes they took people with them to Soviet Russia for money, and from Soviet Russia, on the contrary, abroad, because they were provided with a corridor on the Finnish side. The main thing for them was not to get caught by the red border guards. When people sometimes simply crossed the border illegally, they were often shot by the Finnish border guards themselves.
And thanks to the couriers there were regular connections with emigration and the white movement. And they even sent articles that were being written to the newspaper “New Russian Life”, which was published in Helsingfors (as Russian emigrants called Helsinki). There were published articles by Lazarevsky on elections to the Soviets, sculptor Prince Sergei Ukhtomsky on the state of museum affairs in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, geologist Butov on the Congress of Mining Workers and others. It must be said that these articles were the reason they were shot in the first place. Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev corresponded with the head of the Russian branch of the Red Cross, Professor Zeidler, Wrangel’s representative in Finland, Professor David Davidovich Grimm, whom he knew from the university (David Davidovich Grimm at one time was even the rector, in addition, he often visited Tagantsev’s house, was very I am closely acquainted with the father of Vladimir Nikolaevich), with Schmidt, who was the leader of the Union of Revival, and from abroad he led the representatives of the Union of Revival in Russia.
Grimm was fully aware of the organization's affairs. He did not approve, by the way, of the courier service because of its forced connection with Finnish intelligence - this could compromise the case and raise charges. In addition, Vladimir Nikolaevich corresponded with the main “Russian Committee”, and the “Russian Committee” played a dual role: it was a kind of consulate for Russian emigrants and refugees and a kind of their own counterintelligence, they checked whether it was sent Human.
It must be said that when the Kronstadt uprising was suppressed, Tagantsev’s organization had contact through Finland with those rebels who went to Finland. Members of the Kronstadt Revolutionary Committee were placed in different camps, they were fed, some were used for work voluntarily, but the attitude towards them was such that most of them returned legally or illegally during the first year. Some went home illegally and were arrested at home. So they established contact with the Kronstadt Revolutionary Committee, in particular with Petrichenko, a group of Kronstadters were illegally transported to Petrograd and they intended to be used as a militant organization. That is, those who will commit terrorist acts, all kinds of active actions that simply ordinary intellectuals, ordinary workers are incapable of.

It is simply too early to talk about a technical seizure of power. Look how long this organization lasted. There were plans, but the organization was finally formed by the beginning of 1921, and from the end of May arrests were already in full swing. She managed to organize the printing of leaflets in Finland, with the help of a courier these leaflets were delivered here somehow, some leaflets were printed even here, not only on typewriters. But besides leaflets, what did they manage to do?
I already told you about the Kronstadt battle group, and so it carried out two actions. The first action was when, on the eve of May 1, they set fire to the stands on Palace Square and on the Petrograd Side, and then there was not only a central May Day demonstration, but also regional demonstrations. And the second is on Red Fleet Day, and then it was celebrated on May 15, there was a demonstration, and just imagine columns of sailors in their sailor uniforms, these militants stood up, the column walks along the English Embankment (already called the Red Fleet Embankment), goes around The Bronze Horseman approaches Trade Union Boulevard, Konnogvardeisky Boulevard. Where the Column of Glory now stands, in the middle there was then a temporary monument to Volodarsky, and one of the sailors places a bouquet of lilacs at Volodarsky’s feet. The column moves away, after which the bouquet explodes, Volodarsky remains standing on one leg. After that, many began to laugh at this monument, because they said that it was “a disabled man who sells his cloak,” because he still had a cloak over his arm. This monument was quickly dismantled.
Plans for the reconstruction of Russia were being prepared. Moreover, I was talking about Nikolai Nikolaevich Lazarevsky, in addition, the former tsarist Minister of Justice Sergei Sergeevich Manukhin, who was fired from the tsarist government for liberalism, also prepared reconstruction projects.
Besides that, what was the real action? The organization provided monetary and food assistance to the starving, prominent scientists, and in such a way that they did not know from whom this assistance was coming. And among those who received this help, I will tell you the names, and you will immediately understand what event followed for these people. This is Lev Karsavin, this is Nikolai Onufrievich Lossky, this is Lapshin and others. These are the same people who will be on the deportation list in 1922.
So, they received funding from abroad. Moreover, negotiations were held with foreign countries that if the Bolshevik power collapsed, what would be the first problem? Feed the population. And for this, the warehouses of the American Red Cross, which were located in Finland, were used. Fundraising was organized among the Russian emigration in France and other places. Couriers thus delivered money from abroad. It is no secret that there was speculation; it was possible to get food, so people received both monetary and food assistance. Plus, the activities of some members of the organization were paid, in particular, the activities of those who delivered letters received illegally from abroad, they received money for this and they were later blamed for this, many of them were later shot.
The organization was strictly conspiratorial and the center of this organization since 1920 was Tagantsev’s apartment itself. Yuri German, when he came to Russia illegally, usually spent the night with Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev (this is Liteiny Prospekt 46, apartment 20, as Kirill Vladimirovich told me, it turned out to be the 4th floor with windows facing the courtyard). This suggests that he was a bad conspirator. A photograph of Yuri German, who worked under the nickname Golub, was available to those border guards who were hunting him at the border, and in order to get to Petrograd, he still had to travel by railroad, and there were also people on duty there with his photograph.
Two of the Kronstadt rebels, who were brought illegally from Finland to Petrograd, themselves offered the services of the Cheka. These were Paskov, who, by the way, even led the group of these sailors, and Komarov. Komarov, I don’t know, repented or didn’t trust the promises of the security officers that they would not be shot (because Paskov was not shot, although his fate is then unknown - judging by the revolutionary certificate, he was simply among those detained, and then released), then tried to escape . He said that he knew when the courier would cross the border next time and would help detain him, he went with the security officers to the border, tried to escape across the Sestra River and they shot him.
We often say that according to the first execution list, 61 people were shot, although in reality fewer were shot, because this list includes Komarov and some others who were killed during detention. There were actually 58 people shot according to the first list. Although a list of 61 people was published. By the way, even Grimm knew about their betrayal; Grimm reported this to Wrangel.
Tagantsev’s organization was connected with Savinkov’s organization, and Savinkov’s organization involved a person whom many know from the film “Operation Trust,” such as Opperput. So, this was Opperput's first case. The fact is that he was a member of the Savinkov organization, but fell into the hands of the security officers and was converted, and already being converted, he came into contact with Tagantsev’s organization. That is, here is another person involved who could help expose the organization.
In addition, Tagantsev, judging by his testimony, visited Gorky, had frank conversations with him, and Gorky even persuaded Tagantsev to give up his secret business, go abroad and engage in science. By the way, he asked him to take Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya-Budberg with him. Everyone knows that she was Gorky’s mistress and lived, by the way, in the same apartment on Kronverksky where Tagantsev visited Gorky, where their conversations took place. Perhaps she was even present during these conversations, but Gorky did not know that she was already an agent of the Cheka.

When you start to look at how the security officers could have found out about this organization, you wonder how it could have existed for so long, even several months, because Tagantsev was a bad conspirator. From Odoevtseva’s memoirs, we know that Gumilyov showed her the money and even told her how, for what and why he received it. From the recollections of many, we know about the stories of Gumilyov, who turned out to be a man, it must be said, who told a lot of things that should not have been told to anyone under those conditions. It’s amazing how long it lasted. And the last meeting of the organization’s leaders, judging by Tagantsev’s testimony, was on May 19. After that, Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev left for Zaluchye, this was the former estate of his father, and on May 25, when Tagantsev was already away, security officers raided his apartment, a search was conducted there, his wife was arrested, and during the search, packs of leaflets were discovered and other materials, some letters, correspondence and plus a lot of money that was in different places - hidden in bags, and in books in the library - that is, this was already evidence.
On the night of May 30-31, extradited by Paskov and Komarov, Yuri German was shot at the border. At the same time, his head was separated, preserved in alcohol, and everyone who was suspected of being Yuri German’s acquaintances was presented with this head and looked at their reaction. This, by the way, is described by Georgy Ivanov. Many people perceive this as purely literary work and, I must say, many people question whether he really does have an element of fiction, but this is all confirmed, so it is possible that somewhere in a museum forensic medicine I still have this head.
This should not be perceived as some kind of special fanaticism of the security officers; the fact is that at that time it was accepted in Western Europe. We know that they did the same with the head of Mata Hari, which is still intact and lies preserved in alcohol in a jar.
And on May 31, security officers descended on Zaluchye and arrested Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev. He gave his first testimony on May 31, where he admitted that he had participated in counter-revolutionary activities, but he would not name anyone or anything and answered everything with “I won’t say” or “I don’t want to say anything at all.” He stayed like that for the first half a month, giving absolutely no information. On August 3, during an attempt to arrest him, Shvedov also died in a shootout - they tried to arrest him, he fired back, was mortally wounded and died. Thus, only one person remained from the triumvirate. But the organization was built strictly conspiratorially, and it turned out that the triumvirate knew all the leaders, the leaders knew everyone who was in their cells. According to some sources there were fives, according to others there were dozens. That is, such a multi-stage structure. It turned out that, on the one hand, Tagantsev did not know everyone, on the other hand, and from below, not everyone knew who Tagantsev was, let alone under his real name. Even Gumilev didn’t know real name Shvedov, he believed that it was Nizhegorodtsev.
Already on July 16, Grimm informed Kartashov, who was also a representative of Wrangel, that larger formations had disintegrated into small cells that did not have a unifying leadership, and in connection with this it was decided that all organizations that were connected with foreign countries should stop your activities, freeze until the situation calms down.
Tagantsev began to give more detailed testimony only on June 12, but he refused to name any names. After Tagantsev's wife was arrested, an ambush was set up at his apartment. The same thing happened in cases where members of the organization were arrested - in the places where they lived, ambushes were set up and everyone who came there was arrested. They also came under investigation.
Knowing that there was an ambush in the apartment, Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev, Vladimir Nikolaevich’s father, went there. It bothered him that there were two small children left there. Accordingly, he was also arrested. And at that time he lived nearby, he lived in the Vladimir Palace, as they call it, this is the House of Scientists, there is a hostel there that was set up by Gorky. His interrogation immediately began, and he, an experienced man (after all, a lawyer), immediately stated that he would not name any names, so as not to confuse anyone in his son’s case, stated that he believed that his son did not belong to any to which organization, that he knew nothing about what was discovered during the search, and after some time he was released. And when he was released, he addressed a letter to Lenin directly. And why? But because the Tagantsev family and the Kadyanov family (and both of his wives have Kadyan maiden names) were connected with the Ulyanov family at the time they lived in Simbirsk. It must be said that Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova received the opportunity to meet with her son Alexander when he was arrested in the case of the assassination attempt on Alexander the Third, only thanks to Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev. At that time he was already a prominent person, moreover, he taught the royal children, so he had the opportunity to intercede, and she had the opportunity to meet with him. Moreover, the Tagantsev family did not turn away from the Ulyanov family when Alexander was arrested, unlike many in Simbirsk, and provided every possible assistance. And Kadyan, the brother of the first and then second wife, was the family’s attending physician and even treated Vladimir Ulyanov, so Vladimir Ulyanov knew well who Tagantsev was. And he directly wrote in the letter that he himself has other views, not Bolshevik, that yes, my son is to blame, but I ask you to stand up for my son and assist him in every possible way, as in turn I acted as a defender (and he really often acted as a defender in many political processes and helped many revolutionaries). Lenin actually turned to Dzerzhinsky, asking if it was possible to soften the fate of Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev, but met firm resistance from both Dzerzhinsky and Unshlikht, that he was very involved, that they were preparing an assassination attempt, that they were going to kill Zinoviev, Kuzmin - the head of the political department The Baltic Fleet, that he was involved in the repressions of those Kronstadters who remained in Kronstadt, claimed that they allegedly wanted to kill Krasin, even Gorky, which was complete nonsense - there could be no talk of killing Gorky.
And then Lenin instructed his confidant Yakov Agranov to investigate the case. But Yakov Agranov was not only a special representative of the Cheka, but he was, first of all, the secretary of the Small Council of People's Commissars. And we had two Councils of People's Commissars, the Council of People's Commissars: the Great Council of People's Commissars, where Lenin was the chairman, who dealt with global issues, but what is called "noodles", small issues, were dealt with by the Small Council of People's Commissars. And he was Lenin's confidant. Moreover, it was Lenin who sent Agranov to figure out what the Kronstadt uprising really was, and this also partly played a certain fatal role, because Agranov was a man of a bit of a Jesuitical disposition, who sometimes allowed such methods: the testimony of some person was taken, were presented to another, from these testimonies he saw that really only that person could tell it. At the same time, the testimony was rewritten, Agranov made insertions from himself in order to pit people against each other and force them to testify against each other. And Agranov proposed, on behalf of the presidium of the Cheka, on behalf of Dzerzhinsky, Menzhinsky, Yagoda and Unshlikht, to Tagantsev a deal that Tagantsev would help in the liquidation of an already failed organization, to stop all its activities, name the members of the organization, inform abroad that all activities would be stopped, and some so that those from abroad will come, and they, in turn, will guarantee that no one will be shot, that those who were not related to the organization will be immediately released, those who were accidentally arrested, even indirectly simply (after all, many were arrested for that that their surnames or first names were in Tagantsev’s notebook or lived in the same house with Tagantsev).
Tagantsev initially rejected this, it was June 21st. But we do not know what measures were taken against him. Judging by the photographs that have been preserved, not only was he beaten - Gumilyov, who was brought in, had a bruised and bruised face, and Tagantsev’s wife, who was quite healthy when the security officers took her, had bleeding from her throat. However, after this conversation, on the night of June 22, he tried to hang himself in his cell with a twisted towel, but this was noticed and he was pulled out of the noose. And the next day he accepted this offer.
It must be said that from the amount of information that we now have, if we compare it with his testimony, he spoke mostly about those whom someone had already named, or who had already been arrested, and did not name some members of the organization who managed then flee abroad.

Naturally, there is the question of Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev’s guilt in the death of Gumilyov. The Tagantsev case, as a rule, comes up in our memory in connection with Gumilyov, and many even longed for speedy rehabilitation in this case even during the perestroika period, even at an earlier time due to the fact that everyone wanted Gumilyov’s works to be published. His individual poems were published in anthologies even in Soviet times, but a collection of Gumilyov’s poems could not be published, this could not happen until he was rehabilitated.
Tagantsev was arrested on May 31, Gumilev was arrested on August 3. In Tagantsev’s testimony, Gumilyov’s name was mentioned for the first time only on August 6; he did not mention Gumilyov until August 6. Tagantsev and Gumilyov were interrogated in parallel. Gumilyov admitted that Vyacheslavsky-Nizhegorodtsev came to him (as I already said, he did not know that it was Shvedov), that he agreed to draw up a proclamation during the Kronstadt uprising. And, according to Tagantsev’s testimony, Gumilyov offered his services to Tagantsev’s organization at the stage when it was just taking shape in the fall of 1920. And they came into contact with him, as Tagantsev claimed, only during the days of the Kronstadt uprising, when one of the members of the triumvirate came to him. But at the same time, he stipulated his right “to refuse topics that do not correspond to his far from right-wing views,” as Tagantsev argued.
And if you carefully look at the testimony that Tagantsev gave about Gumilev, then he tried in every possible way to shield Gumilyov, moreover, he reported that Gumilev had compiled such a leaflet that it was impossible to use it, so his services were refused, so Tagantsev wrote further the text of the leaflets myself. That is, this guilt was removed. Moreover, literally in Tagantsev’s testimony (I say this verbatim) it is said that they decided not to maintain relations with Gumilev, because he is “close to the Soviet orientation.” Those who know about Gumilyov know that this was not the case. And it is no coincidence that when they were systematized - “members of the Finnish White Guard spy organization”, “American White Guard spy organization”, and so on - he was classified only as an accomplice. That is, Gumilyov is involved in this case as an accomplice, they did not know that he headed the cell, and Tagantsev could not help but know that he headed it. And the blame that is placed on Tagantsev for being the culprit in Gumilyov’s death, I believe that this is unfair.
One might say, they took the entire composition of this cell with them to the grave. Some members are famous. In November 1921, a German philologist, professor at Petrograd University and a member of the Board of Experts of the World Literature Publishing House (where, by the way, as you know, Gumilyov also worked, this was his official place of work) fled to Finland on a boat with his sons. Professor Boris Silverswan. And in correspondence (later, in 1931) with Amfiteatrov, who often wrote that the security officers invented the whole thing, shot him for nothing, and so on, he wrote to him (this is a private letter, which has now been published), I will quote:

""Gumilyov undoubtedly took part in the Tagantsev conspiracy, and even played a prominent role there. At the end of July 1921, he invited me to join this organization, and he first needed my consent in principle, which I immediately gave him with all my heart, and this should be followed by my actual entry into the organization. It was supposed, by the way, apparently. take advantage of my secret connection with Finland."

But here I will make a comment. The fact is that Silversvan was of Finnish-Swedish origin, that’s why he has such a surname, he is from a Swedish family that took root in Finland, but then became Russified here in Russia.

“He told me then that the organization consists of fives, the members of each five are known only by its head, and these heads of fives are known to Tagantsev himself. He also told me that the ramifications of the conspiracy are very numerous and involve influential circles of the Red Army. I told him at the same time that the arrested Tagantsev, according to rumors, was subjected to torture and could begin to extradite him. To this Gumilyov replied that Tagantsev would not betray anyone and that, on the contrary, now it was necessary to act. From his words, I also concluded that he drafted all the proclamations and, in general, was in charge of propaganda in the Red Army."

On the one hand, Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev tried in every possible way to mitigate Gumilev’s guilt, on the other hand, it seems to me that Gumilev somewhat exaggerated his role in this organization, for example, in a conversation with Silvesvan. This is only at the level of assumptions.
But this is one member of the organization. Who is the second member of the organization that we know for sure? This is Georgy Ivanov. Moreover, Georgy Ivanov did not talk about this in print, and you can guess why. Because not all members of the organization were exposed, many remained in Soviet Russia, and their relatives remained in Soviet Russia. You know what threatened the relatives of those who were shot. So, he first reported this in a private letter in 1952 to Vera Alexandrova, who was the editor-in-chief of the Chekhov Publishing House in New York. I will quote this letter, it was published in the New Journal in 1996.

"I am the only person in emigration who is very close to Gumilyov; we have been friends since 1912. After his return in 1918 from London to Soviet Russia, until his execution in 21, we were inseparable, there was a rare day when we did not meet - I was also a participant in the ill-fated and stupid Tagantsev conspiracy, because of which he died. If I wasn’t arrested, it was only because I was in Gumilyov’s top ten.”

Another person is Boris Berman, a poet, a former Socialist Revolutionary, who also subsequently admitted in private conversations that he was accepted by Gumilyov into this organization. He also told in his confidential conversations with Agranov. This Boris Berman was used as a witness for the prosecution at the show trial of the right Socialist Revolutionaries in 1922, and confidential conversations with Agranov were connected with this. In this confidential conversation, Agranov told him that they knew that many of those who were shot were not members of the organization, but they also knew that most of the intelligentsia were anti-Bolshevik and had one foot in this conspiracy, therefore, as he literally put it, judging by Berman’s statement, “we had to burn this leg,” that is, we had to instill fear.
That is why this one was published in the first place, and later other lists of those executed were published, and they were published not only in the newspaper, but also in leaflets and posted throughout the city. And there is evidence that I collected in various eyewitness diaries of how people came up, read these lists, and then were even afraid to talk to each other.
And in the Tagantsev case, although I have been working on it for a long time, for me there are still more questions than answers. We don’t know a lot about the role of some people from abroad, and about the composition of the organization, and about the quantitative composition of the organization, and those who were not exposed, what did they later participate in? At the same time, those who were shot in the Tagantsev case, not all of them were participants. After all, the first message was published on the 20th of July 1921 in Petrogradskaya Pravda. And, by the way, Gumilyov read this. He left for Sevastopol just in May, and at the beginning of July he left Sevastopol, and had already returned when the arrests were in full force. He read about this and, you will agree, that from that time until August 3 he had the opportunity to flee abroad. But he didn't.
The first attempt to review the Tagantsev case and the first attempt at rehabilitation in this case was made back in the 60s. In 1964, a person close to Adzhubey came to Akhmatova, as preserved in her notes, who reported that such a publication was being prepared and even asked her, since Gumilyov would be rehabilitated, who would she recommend as the editor of Gumilyov’s collected works - nothing more , no less.
But 1964 - you know what year, this is the year when Khrushchev was removed, after which all sorts of rehabilitation gradually quickly stopped. But this case did not die down immediately, because somewhere in 1968 this case was discussed, and then the prosecutor said that it would be reviewed if the Union of Writers of the USSR contacted them. But the USSR Writers Union refused to do this.
And then perestroika began, and everyone was rehabilitated by 1992, including Tagantsev himself.
All those sentenced to death were taken from the pretrial detention house, which is located where the Big House prison is now, to Gorokhovaya 2 in the Cheka, then they were shackled in pairs, put in trucks and taken to the Irinovskaya railway station. This station was almost opposite Smolny, on the other bank of the Neva. They were taken to the Berngardovka station, and then taken to the place of execution in the Kovalevsky forest next to the training ground. There are ruins of a former gunpowder storage warehouse, where everyone was brought and forced to undress, because clothing was in short supply. The clothes were then distributed to security officers and their acquaintances. Then they were taken to a place equipped for execution, there is a sandy place there, they were shot, and, according to some information, they were forced to dig themselves, I don’t know if this is true or not.
There is a version that they were later reburied on the edge of the Okhta cemetery as rootless. And that’s why, no matter how much they searched with pins, they only found about four.
In 2008, Memorial proposed creating a museum and memorial complex in this Kovalevsky Forest, and the Russian Presidential Administration approved the idea, although little has been done yet.
But in my opinion, the best way to perpetuate the memory would be the scientific publication of documents. And most of the materials from the case itself are closed and are in the FSB archives. And, as a next step, it would be possible to create a documented history of the organization, because society must preserve the good memory of those who fought against the bloody despotic regime.

Ivan Tolstoy: And with this we end the PB program, dedicated today to the 90th anniversary of the Tagantsev conspiracy in Petrograd. The story was told by a senior researcher at the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of History, Vladimir Yurievich Chernyaev. Olga Polenova talked to him.

It was found that

The PBO, which aimed to overthrow the Soviet regime, did not exist as such; it was created artificially by investigative bodies from separate groups of speculators and smugglers who were engaged in the resale of money and valuables abroad and the transportation of people who wanted to emigrate from Russia, and the criminal case against members of the organization, which received its name only during the investigation process, was completely falsified.

Nevertheless, the historical truth in the case of the “Petrograd Combat Organization of V.N. Tagantsev” (PBO) has not yet been established. After 90 years, out of 253 volumes of the investigative file, only three volumes are available to researchers, and 250 volumes are still classified.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  The following publication dedicated to the “Tagantsev conspiracy” appeared in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on August 31: a message from the Presidium of the All-Russian Cheka on August 29 indicated that “the most significant of the liquidated organizations is the Petrograd Combat Organization.”

  The next day, the Petrogradskaya Pravda newspaper published a report by the chairman of the Petrograd gubchek B.A. Semenov at the plenum of the Petrograd Council - on the composition and plans of the PBO, which reported, in particular, that Tagantsev proposed “burning factories, exterminating the Jews, blowing up monuments to the communards.” " and that of the more than 200 people involved in the PBO, 90% were "hereditary nobles, princes, counts, barons, honorary citizens, clergy and former gendarmes." Further, readers were informed that on August 24, the Petrogubchek board decided to shoot 61 members of the organization; A list of those executed was also published.

  In total, in the case of the “Petrograd Combat Organization of V.N. Tagantsev” in 1921, the Cheka arrested 833 people. 96 people were shot or killed during detention, 83 were sent to a concentration camp, 448 were released from prison. The fate of many is unknown. The date of execution of V.N. Tagantsev also remains unclear, since he was sentenced to death on August 24, but on August 27 he was interrogated again.

  The most famous victim of the PBO case was the poet N. S. Gumilev, arrested on August 3 and shot at the end of the same month, who was rehabilitated in 1992 in this case.

  The legend that N. S. Tagantsev asked for his son is denied by the director State Archive RF Sergei Mironenko: “There is Tagantsev’s diary, where he writes: “Lord, what nonsense!” I never asked Ulyanov-Lenin for any pardon for my son, because it was useless." But in fact, in the diary of N. S. Tagantsev the exact opposite is written: “I wrote two letters to Lenin and Grinberg, in which I petitioned the first in a decent form for a possible mitigation of Volodya’s fate, and from Grinberg, with whom I was close and who personally knew Volodya, I directly ask for protection and, in any case, saving his life. I have already received a (albeit verbal) message from Greenberg, through our manager who was in Moscow, so that I would not be afraid, that nothing terrible would happen. But for now these are just words, which, of course, are few, which I wrote about in my second letter to him, sent through Osadchy.”

  Outraged by the mass execution, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician A.P. Karpinsky, sent a letter of protest to V.I. Lenin, and also resigned (later he still remained as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

  Versions about the actual state of the “Tagantsev organization”

  Another document is a letter published by V. G. Bortnevsky former member State Council, fellow Minister of Education in 1917, cadet D. D. Grimm, addressed to P. N. Wrangel and dated October 1921:

  ...Tagantsev, who played in last years a prominent role in the activist organizations that survived in Petrograd and was associated, among other things, with the artillery officer German, who served as a courier in the Finnish General Staff... German was killed while crossing the Finnish border, and letters and proclamations were found on him... both Lieutenant Colonel Shvedov and Lieutenant Lebedev was ambushed in Petrograd and died... both were supposed to be not just couriers, but leaders, and now there is no one to replace them...

  Grimm further wrote that the report that appeared in the newspapers about the discovery of the conspiracy “still establishes a number of facts, familiarity with which indicates that some of the participants in the conspiracy gave very complete testimony and revealed many details... the list of those executed includes a number of people who undoubtedly belonged to to the activist organizations that existed in Petrograd."

  Grimm’s suspicions regarding the testimony a year later, in October 1922, were confirmed by P. N. Milyukov’s newspaper “Last News”. In an article signed “S.”, published on October 8, it was reported that the Petrograd Cheka reached Tagantsev with the help of its agent boatswain Paskov from the battleship Petropavlovsk; Having left for Finland, the boatswain established connections with white organizations, managed courier communications between the Kronstadters hiding in Finland and Petrograd, and in May 1921 met Tagantsev. As the author claimed, Tagantsev refused to testify for a long time, but then Ya. S. Agranov (at that time the special representative of the secret operational department of the Cheka) arrived in Petrograd from Moscow and, on behalf of his leadership, promised to alleviate the fate of those arrested in exchange for sincere confessions. On July 28, the newspaper reported, an agreement was signed between Agranov and Tagantsev: the representative of the Cheka, for his part, promised a public trial and the non-application of capital punishment. On July 30, Agranov and Tagantsev drove around the city in a car for six hours, and Tagantsev indicated the addresses of people involved in the organization. About 300 people were arrested that same night.

  The fact that an agreement was concluded between Tagantsev and Agranov is evidenced in his memoirs by Professor A.I. Gorbov, who was involved in the PBO case and was released at the request of A.M. Gorky.

  Based on this evidence, both I. Voznesensky and V. S. Izmozik come to the conclusion that in 1921 there really was an anti-Bolshevik organization in Petrograd under the leadership of V. N. Tagantsev, V. G. Shvedov and Yu. P. German, which had constant connections with the white emigration and the Finnish General Staff - although one can hardly talk about a “rigid combat ramified organization”: other groups and circles were active in Petrograd at the same time, they maintained contacts with Tagantsev’s organization, but some of those involved in the PBO case “were united by unformalized connections in small associations, involved to varying degrees in anti-Soviet and anti-communist activities." The underground planned to organize an uprising in Kronstadt and a simultaneous uprising in Petrograd at the end of April 1921, but the plan was disrupted by spontaneous unrest of workers in February 1921 and an equally spontaneous uprising of Kronstadt sailors on February 28 - March 1, 1921.

  The term “Petrograd Combat Organization,” believes V.S. Izmozik, was most likely born during the investigation, “which needed it to unite all the uncovered groups and circles.” The fact that an agreement was concluded between Y. Agranov and V.N. Tagantsev remains not fully clarified, but there is reason to believe that it was the promise not to apply the death penalty that prompted Tagantsev to testify.

  Notes

  1. The prosecutor's certificate dated May 29, 1992 was published in the Smena newspaper,

  The main secret of the loud-mouthed leader. Book two. Eduard Filatiev himself entered

  Tagantsev case

  Tagantsev case

  In August 1921, the Kremlin decided that political intelligence (Foreign Department of the Cheka) and military intelligence (Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army) should communicate with the Communist Parties of other countries only through special representatives of the Comintern. It arose, as they began to call it, "operational triumvirate". That is, in many countries, third illegal (Comintern) residencies appeared, operating independently of the residencies of the INO VChK and RU of the Red Army. This allowed the Bolsheviks to solve almost any problem almost all over the world.

  Changes also occurred in the fate of security officer Yakov Serebryansky. At first (this happened back in the spring), as a former right-wing Socialist Revolutionary and not a member of the RCP (b), he was transferred from operational workers to the personnel reserve. Therefore, in August he parted ways with Lubyanka and went to study at the Moscow Electrotechnical Institute of Public Communications named after Vadim Nikolaevich Podbelsky (a Bolshevik who was the People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR for almost two years).

  And Emma Goldman, an acquaintance of Alexander Krasnoshchekov, was expelled from Soviet Russia in 1921 - for the same thing for which she was deported from the United States two years earlier: Red Emma could not remain silent, out loud expressing everything that was on her mind .

  The Petrograd security officers also tried their best - while continuing to look for the instigators of the Kronstadt rebellion, they uncovered an entire underground organization “ enemies"Soviet power. It was (to quote Youngfeldt):

  “The Petrograd military organization, which was allegedly led by geography professor Vladimir Tagantsev. In June 1921, he was arrested, accused of keeping large sums of money and helping the intelligentsia leave the country. But in order to intimidate the intelligentsia, it was not enough to arrest Tagantsev and his two employees (who were later shot) - this required a real “conspiracy,” which was fabricated».

  Yes, on May 15, Tagantsev’s associates blew up the monument to Volodarsky on Trade Union Boulevard. But besides the destruction of the memorial monument of this "combat organization" there was nothing to show. And the Petrograd Cheka was given the task of finding the enemies of the Soviet regime who organized the Kronstadt rebellion, and the security officers were intensively looking for them.

  32-year-old geography professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev was arrested on May 31. During interrogation, he admitted that he took part in the fight against Soviet power, since, in his opinion, it was about to collapse. Therefore, together with my like-minded people, I prepared for this. However, to name the accomplices "Professor of Geography" categorically refused.

  They began to fuss over Tagantsev. His father, Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev, a prominent Russian lawyer, academician, former senator and member of the State Council, as well as a longtime acquaintance of the Ulyanov family in Simbirsk, wrote a personal letter to Ulyanov-Lenin on June 16 (in 1887, it was Nikolai Tagantsev who helped Lenin’s mother, Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, to get a meeting in prison with her son Alexander). After reading his message, Vladimir Ilyich sent his "confidant"- Secretary of the Small Council of People's Commissars and special representative for important matters under the Presidium of the Cheka Yakov Agranov.

  What kind of person was this?

  Journalist Valentin Skoryatin, who studied the people of that distant era with great attention, wrote:

  “Biographical information about Agranov is extremely meager, fragmentary,… and therefore we will only mention the facts that we were able to collect in the available archives.”

  Skoryatin did not manage to collect very much.

  According to some sources, Yakov Agranov’s name was actually Yankel-Shevel Shmaev, according to others, Yankel Shmaevich (or Shevelevich) Sorenson (Sorenzon, Sorenzon, Sarandzon). There is evidence that while working in the Cheka, he signed his name as Solomonovich. There is information that Yankel

  Shmaev suffered from epilepsy, so in 1914 he was exempted from military service.

  Yakov Agranov was the same age as Mayakovsky, like him, he graduated from only four classes, although not from a gymnasium, but from a city (shtetl) school in the Mogilev province (the one that was on the territory of modern Belarus). In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and in 1915 he joined the Bolsheviks.

  Sent by Lenin to deal with the “Petrograd Combat Organization” (“PBO”), Agranov, arriving in the city on the Neva, immediately summoned Tagantsev for questioning and, on behalf of the Board of the Cheka, demanded to know the names of his accomplices. And again I heard a categorical refusal.

  As we remember, the head of the Moscow security department, Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov, devoted a lot of time to conversations with arrested revolutionaries. Over a cup of tea, he tried to convince them of the futility of anti-government activities, urging them not to rebel, but to protect the peace of the country.

  Yakov Agranov to similar "Zubatovism" was very negative. He had completely different methods of investigation.

  Yakov Saulovich ordered Tagantsev to be imprisoned "cork chamber" This was the name then for a hermetically sealed and slowly heated prison building. The person who was there began to ooze blood from all the pores of his body.

  One of Vladimir Tagantsev’s remaining comrades-in-arms, philologist B.P. Silverston, later wrote (to the writer Alexander Valentinovich Amfiteatrov) that the professor who fell into the hands of the Petrograd security officers (“devils in human form"), received from them...

  «… a thousand times more all kinds of torment than all the others».

  Meanwhile, forty-year-old Alexander Blok was already in critical condition. Many prominent representatives of the Petrograd intelligentsia again turned to the Bolshevik leaders with a request to allow the poet to travel abroad for treatment.

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