In the early morning of October 31, 1925, Stalin suddenly rushed to the Botkin hospital, accompanied by a pack of associates: 10 minutes before their arrival, Mikhail Frunze, a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, died there . The official version says: Frunze is an ulcer and it was impossible to do without surgery. But the operation ended with the fact that the leader of the Red Army died "with symptoms of paralysis of the heart."

On November 3, 1925, Frunze was escorted on his last journey, and Stalin delivered a brief funeral speech, as if remarking in passing: “Perhaps this is exactly what is needed for old comrades to descend into the grave so easily and so simply.” At that time, no attention was paid to this remark. As on the other: “This year has been a curse for us. He snatched from our midst a number of leading comrades…”

non-hunched man

They tried to forget about the deceased, but in May 1926, the writer Boris Pilnyak reminded him of him, who published in the journal “ New world» his Tale of the Unextinguished Moon. Once upon a time, wrote Pilnyak, the heroic army commander Gavrilov, "who commanded victories, death." And this army commander, “who had the right and the will to send people to kill their own kind and die,” took and sent to die on the operating table “a non-hunched man in the house number one,” “from the trio that did it.” In passing the secret reports of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the OGPU, the "non-hunching man" harshly reprimanded the legendary commander about the millstones of the revolution and ordered "to perform an operation", because "this is required by the revolution." You didn’t have to be seven spans in your forehead to guess: the commander Gavrilov was Frunze, the “troika” was the then ruling triumvirate consisting of Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin, and the “non-hunching man” who sent the hero to the slaughter was Stalin.
Scandal! The Chekists immediately seized the circulation, but the author of the seditious version was not touched. Gorky then, with the envy of an informer, venomously remarked: “Pilnyak is forgiven the story of the death of Comrade Frunze - a story that claims that the operation was not needed and was done at the insistence of the Central Committee.” But the "non-hunched man" never forgave anyone and nothing, the time has come - October 28, 1937 - and they came for the author of The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon. Then Pilnyak was shot - as a Japanese spy, of course.

The picture of Frunze's death was brilliantly studied by the Kremlin death historian Viktor Topolyansky, who described in detail how Stalin literally forced Frunze to go under the knife and how the doctors "overdid it" with anesthesia, during which the people's commissar's heart could not withstand the excess amount of chloroform. “However, what written evidence should be sought in this situation?” - the researcher asked rhetorically. At no time have any leaders left this kind of evidence and do not leave it. Otherwise, they would not be leaders, and their retinue would not be a retinue.

"The Troika That Did It"

Outside the context of the events of those years, it is difficult to understand why Comrade. Stalin needed to eliminate comrade. Frunze - just then and so Jesuitically? It is easier to answer the last question: the possibilities of Stalin of the 1925 model were much thinner than ten years later. He still had to gradually grow up to the all-powerful “leader of the peoples”, wresting power from the hands of his comrades in the very “troika that ruled”. And in this progressive movement of the "non-hunched man" to the pinnacle of power, the liquidation of Frunze was only one of many steps. But archival: after all, he not only eliminated a deadly opponent, but also replaced him with his man - Voroshilov. Thus, gaining a powerful lever in the struggle for power - control over the armed forces.

While Leon Trotsky held on to the chair of the people's commissar for military and naval affairs (and chairman of the RVS), the positions of Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin opposing him were so-so. In January 1925, Trotsky "gone". Stalin has his own creature for this place, but his accomplices in the triumvirate put forward another - Frunze. “Frunze didn’t suit Stalin very much, but Zinoviev and Kamenev were for him,” wrote Stalin’s ex-aide Boris Bazhanov in his memoirs, “and as a result of lengthy preliminary bidding on the troika, Stalin agreed to appoint Frunze to Trotsky’s place.”

Anastas Mikoyan carefully noted in his memoirs that Stalin, preparing for great upheavals in the course of his struggle for power, “wanted to have the Red Army under the reliable command of a person loyal to him, and not such an independent and authoritative political figure as Frunze was.” Zinoviev did contribute to the appointment of Frunze, but he was not at all his pawn: by moving Frunze, Zinoviev tried to shield him from Stalin. And it was a figure of equal size: Stalin's merits could not be compared with the brilliant (by party standards) pre-revolutionary and times civil war merit of Frunze. Not to mention the very high rating of Frunze abroad after successful participation in a number of diplomatic actions.

And then there is a huge mass of Red Army soldiers, former and current, including military experts - former officers and generals of the old army, who enthusiastically treated Frunze as their leader during the Civil War. Since the military apparatus could be the only alternative to the party apparatus, the question of physical survival became extremely acute for Stalin: either he or Frunze.

Another Stalinist assistant, Mekhlis, commenting on new appointments in the Red Army, once told Bazhanov the opinion of the “master”: “Nothing good. Look at the list: all these Tukhachevskys, Korkis, Uboreviches, Avksentievskies - what kind of communists are they? All this is good for 18 Brumaire (the date of the coup of Napoleon Bonaparte. - V.V.), and not for the Red Army.
Frunze was included in the anti-Stalinist intrigue long before his appointment as People's Commissar: at the end of July 1923, he took part in the so-called cave meeting in Kislovodsk - Zinoviev's confidential meetings with a number of prominent party leaders who were dissatisfied with Stalin's excessive concentration of power. And, as Zinoviev wrote in a letter to Kamenev, Frunze agreed that "there is no troika, but Stalin's dictatorship"!

... And October 1925 came, when Stalin, brilliantly outplaying Frunze on the field of an apparatus-bureaucratic game alien to that, initiated the decision of the Central Committee, forcing the people's commissar to go under the knife. Mikoyan, describing how Stalin played the play "in his own spirit," remarked in passing: "... it was enough for the GPU to 'process' the anesthetist." And the highly experienced Mikoyan, who at one time was even expected to become the head of the NKVD, knew well what it meant to "process"!

Bureau Grisha

Bazhanov understood that the matter was not clean, “when he learned that Kanner and the Central Committee doctor Pogosyants were organizing the operation. My vague suspicions turned out to be quite correct. During the operation, precisely the anesthesia that Frunze could not stand was cleverly applied.

Grigory Kanner in the Stalinist environment was called "assistant in dark affairs." In particular, it was he who organized for Stalin the opportunity to listen to the phones of the then Kremlin celestials - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, etc. The Czechoslovak technician who installed this system was shot by order of Kanner.

"Grisha's Office" dealt not only with telephones. There was such a comrade, Ephraim Sklyansky: deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Trotsky's right hand, who actually steered the military apparatus from March 1918. In March 1924, the troika managed to remove Sklyansky from the RVS. In the spring of 1925, Stalin, who had hated Sklyansky since the Civil War, proposed to the surprise of many that he be appointed chairman of Amtorg and sent to America. At that time, Amtorg combined the functions of an embassy, ​​a trade mission, and, most importantly, a residency, primarily military intelligence, and along the way also the OGPU and the illegal apparatus of the Comintern. But the comrade did not have time to really work in the States in the field of military-technical espionage. On August 27, 1925, Sklyansky, together with Khurgin (the creator and head of Amtorg before Sklyansky) and an unknown comrade, presumably from the OGPU residency, went kaiking on Longlake Lake (New York State). The boat was later found upside down, and later two bodies were found - Sklyansky and Khurgin. Three of us left, and two corpses ... The employees of Stalin's secretariat immediately realized who was the true author of this "accident": "Mehlis and I," Bazhanov recalled, "immediately went to Kanner and unanimously declared:" Grisha, you drowned Sklyansky?!” ... To which Kanner replied: "Well, there are things that it is better not to know even the secretary of the Politburo." ... Mehlis and I were firmly convinced that Sklyansky was drowned on Stalin's orders and that the "accident" was organized by Kanner and Yagoda."

"This year has been a curse for us"

The year 1925 turned out to be rich in death: high-ranking comrades died in batches, fell under cars and steam locomotives, drowned, burned down in airplanes. On March 19, 1925, an attack of angina pectoris happened to Narimanov, one of the co-chairs of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. And, although the Kremlin hospital was a stone's throw away, they took him home in some roundabout way in a cab - they drove him until they brought the corpse. Kalinin melancholy remarked on this occasion: "We are used to sacrificing comrades." On March 22, to meet with Trotsky from Tiflis to Sukhum, a group of high-ranking apparatchiks flew on a Junkers plane: 1st Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the RCP (b) Myasnikov, OGPU Plenipotentiary in Transcaucasia Mogilevsky and Deputy People's Commissar of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection of Transcaucasia Atarbekov. By the way, Mogilevsky and Atarbekov were on good terms with Frunze. After takeoff, something suddenly broke out in the passenger cabin of the aircraft, the Junkers crashed and exploded. Frunze himself, as it turns out, twice got into car accidents in July 1925, surviving only by a miracle.

On August 6, 1925, the commander of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, Grigory Kotovsky, received a well-aimed bullet in the aorta - shortly before that, Frunze offered him the position of his deputy. Then there was the boat of Sklyansky and Khurgin, and on August 28, 1925, old comrade Frunze, chairman of the board of Aviatrust V.N., died under the wheels of a steam locomotive. Pavlov (Aviatrust was established in January 1925 for the production of combat aircraft, its head was approved by the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR). “Vechernyaya Moskva” then even sarcastically asked: “Isn't it too much for our old guard of accidents? Some kind of epidemic of accidents.

In general, nothing out of the ordinary happened, just as part of the battle of the Kremlin giants for power, there was a pragmatic liquidation of obvious and potential supporters, in this case, Frunze. And those who left were immediately replaced by cadres from the Stalinist clip. “Why did Stalin organize the assassination of Frunze? - Bazhanov was perplexed. - Is it only to replace him with his man - Voroshilov? ... After all, after a year or two, having come to sole power, Stalin could easily carry out this replacement. Only now, without removing Frunze, Stalin could not have taken this very power.

Vladimir Voronov

85 years ago, on October 31, 1925, the 40-year-old chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Mikhail Frunze died in the Botkin hospital after a stomach operation. The causes of his death are still being debated among historians, politicians, and medical experts.

Version of the writer Pilnyak

Officially, the newspapers of that time reported that Mikhail Frunze had a stomach ulcer. The doctors decided to perform an operation. It was held on October 29, 1925 by Dr. V. N. Rozanov. He was assisted by doctors I. I. Grekov and A. V. Martynov, anesthesia was performed by A. D. Ochkin. In general, the operation was successful. However, after 39 hours, Frunze died "with symptoms of heart paralysis." 10 minutes after his death on the night of October 31, I. V. Stalin, A. I. Rykov, A. S. Bubnov, I. S. Unshlikht, A. S. Yenukidze and A. I. Mikoyan arrived at the hospital. The body was examined. The dissector wrote down: the underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries discovered during the autopsy, as well as the preserved thymus gland, are the basis for the assumption of the body's instability in relation to anesthesia and its poor resistance to infection. The main question - why did heart failure occur, leading to death - remained unanswered. Confusion about this leaked to the press. The note "Comrade Frunze is recovering", published by Rabochaya Gazeta just on the day of his death, saw the light of day. At work meetings they asked: why was the operation done; why Frunze agreed to it, if one can live with an ulcer anyway; what is the cause of death; Why is misinformation published in a popular newspaper? In this regard, the doctor Grekov gave an interview, published with variations in various publications. According to him, the operation was necessary, since the patient was in danger of sudden death; Frunze himself asked to be operated on as soon as possible; the operation belonged to the category of relatively easy and was performed according to all the rules of surgical art, but anesthesia was difficult; the unfortunate outcome was also explained by the unforeseen events discovered during the autopsy.

The end of the interview was pointedly politicized: no one was allowed to see the patient after the operation, but when Frunze was informed that Stalin had sent him a note, he asked to read this note and smiled joyfully. Here is her text: “Friend! I visited Comrade Rozanov today at 5 pm (me and Mikoyan). They wanted to come to you, but they didn't let me in, the ulcer. We had to submit to the force. Don't be sad, my dear. Hello. We will come, we will come… Koba.”

Grekov's interview fueled distrust of the official version even more. All the gossip on this topic was collected by the writer Pilnyak, who created The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon, where everyone recognized Frunze as Commander Gavrilov, who died during the operation. Part of the circulation of Novy Mir, where the story was published, was confiscated, thereby, as it were, confirming the version of the murder. Director Yevgeny Tsymbal repeated this version once again in his film "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon", in which he created a romantic and martyr image of a "real revolutionary" who swung at unshakable dogmas.

Romantic "folk bloodletting"

But let's see what kind of romantic was the country's youngest military commissar in reality.

From February 1919 M.V. Frunze consistently led several armies operating on the Eastern Front against the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In March, he became commander of the Southern Group of this front. The units subordinate to him were so carried away by looting and robbery of the local population that they completely decomposed, and Frunze sent telegrams to the Revolutionary Military Council more than once with a request to send him other soldiers. Desperate to receive an answer, he himself began to recruit replenishment for himself "by the natural method": he took out trains with bread from Samara and invited the people left without food to join the Red Army.

More than 150,000 people took part in the peasant uprising against Frunze in the Samara Territory. The uprising was drowned in blood. Frunze's reports to the Revolutionary Military Council are full of figures of people shot under his leadership. For example, in the first ten days of May 1919, he killed about 1,500 peasants (whom Frunze calls "bandits and kulaks" in his report).

In September 1920, Frunze was appointed commander of the Southern Front, acting against the army of General P.N. Wrangel. He led the capture of Perekop and the occupation of the Crimea. In November 1920, Frunze addressed the officers and soldiers of the army of General Wrangel with the promise of complete forgiveness if they remained in Russia. After the occupation of Crimea, all these servicemen were ordered to register (refusal to register was punishable by execution). Then the soldiers and officers of the White Army, who believed Frunze, were arrested and shot directly according to these registration lists. In total, during the Red Terror in the Crimea, 50-75 thousand people were shot or drowned in the Black Sea.

So it is unlikely that any romantic associations were associated with the name of Frunze in the popular mind. Although, of course, many then might not have known about the military "arts" of Mikhail Vasilyevich. He carefully concealed the darkest sides of his biography.

His own commentary on the order to reward Bela Kun and Zemlyachka for atrocities in Sevastopol is known. Frunze warned that the awarding of orders should be done secretly, so that the public would not know what exactly these "heroes of the civil war" were awarded for.

In a word, Frunze fit perfectly into the system. Therefore, many historians believe that Frunze's death was purely due to a medical error - an overdose of anesthesia. The reasons are as follows: Frunze was a protege of Stalin, a politician completely loyal to the leader. In addition, it was only 1925 - 12 years before the execution of the 37th. The leader did not yet dare to carry out "purges". But there are facts that are hard to dismiss.

A series of "accidental" disasters

The fact is that 1925 was marked by a whole series of "accidental" disasters. In the beginning - a series of tragic incidents with senior officials of Transcaucasia.

On March 19, in Moscow, the chairman of the Union Council of the TSFSR and one of the chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, N. N. Narimanov, suddenly died “from a heartbreak”.

On March 22, the First Secretary of the Zakkraykom of the RCP (b) A.F. Myasnikov, the chairman of the ZakChK S.G. Mogilevsky and the authorized representative of the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs G.A. Atarbekov, who flew with them, died in a plane crash.

On August 27, near New York, E. M. Sklyansky, Trotsky’s permanent deputy during the civil war, who was removed from military activity in the spring of 1924 and appointed chairman of the board of the Mossukno trust, and chairman of the board of the Amtorg joint-stock company I. I. Khurgin.

On August 28, at the Parovo station near Moscow, a longtime acquaintance of Frunze, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 6th Army, died under a train during the Perekop operation, a member of the bureau of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk provincial party committee, chairman of the Aviatrust V. N. Pavlov.

Around the same time, F.Ya. Yes, and Mikhail Vasilyevich himself fell out of a car at full speed in early September, the door of which for some reason turned out to be faulty, and miraculously survived. So the “eliminations”, apparently, have already begun. Another question is whether Stalin or someone else from the political elite had a reason to eliminate Frunze? Who did he cross the road to? Let's turn to the facts.

Participant of the "cave meeting"

In the summer of 1923, in a grotto near Kislovodsk, a secret meeting of the party elite was held under the leadership of Zinoviev and Kamenev, later called the "cave". It was attended by vacationers in the Caucasus and party leaders of that time invited from nearby regions. At first, this was hidden from Stalin. Although the question was discussed specifically about limiting his powers in connection with Lenin's serious illness.

None of the participants in this meeting (except Voroshilov, who, most likely, was the leader's eyes and ears there) died a natural death. Frunze was present there as a military component of the "putsch". Could Stalin have forgotten this?

Another fact. In 1924, at the initiative of Frunze, a complete reorganization of the Red Army was carried out. He achieved the abolition of the institution of political commissars in the army - they were replaced by assistant commanders for political affairs without the right to interfere in command decisions.

In 1925, Frunze made a number of transfers and appointments in the command staff, as a result of which military districts, corps and divisions were headed by military personnel selected on the basis of military qualifications, but not on the basis of communist loyalty. Stalin's former secretary B.G. Bazhanov recalled: "I asked Mekhlis what Stalin thought about these appointments?" What does Stalin think? Mehlis asked. - Nothing good. Look at the list: all these Tukhachevskys, Korkis, Uboreviches, Avksentievs - what kind of communists they are. All this is good for the 18th Brumaire, and not for the Red Army.

In addition, Frunze was loyal to the party opposition, which Stalin did not tolerate at all. “Of course, shades should be and will be. After all, we have 700,000 party members leading a colossal country, and it is impossible to demand that these 700,000 people think the same way on every issue, ”wrote the People’s Commissar for Military Affairs.

Against this background, an article about Frunze, The New Russian Leader, appeared in the English monthly Airplane. “In this man,” the article said, “all the constituent elements of the Russian Napoleon were united.” The article became known to the party leadership. According to Bazhanov, Stalin saw in Frunze the future Bonaparte and expressed strong dissatisfaction with this. Then he suddenly showed a touching concern for Frunze, saying: "We do not at all monitor the precious health of our best workers," after which the Politburo forced Frunze, almost by force, to agree to the operation.

Bazhanov (and not only him) believed that Stalin killed Frunze in order to appoint his own man, Voroshilov, in his place (Bazhanov V.G. Memoirs of Stalin's former secretary. M., 1990. P. 141). They say that during the operation, just the anesthesia was used, which Frunze could not endure due to the characteristics of the organism.

Of course, this version has not been proven. And yet it is quite plausible.

Mikhail Frunze was born in 1885 in the family of a petty bourgeois paramedic and the daughter of a Narodnaya Volya member. His place of birth is Pishpek (as Bishkek was called at that time). In 1904, Frunze became a student at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, after which he joined the RSDLP. On January 9, 1905, he took part in a procession led by Georgy Gapon.

A few months after this event, Frunze wrote to his mother: “Dear mother! On me, perhaps, you should put an end to it ... The streams of blood shed on January 9 require retribution. The die is cast, I give my all to the revolution.”

Review of the sentence

Frunze did not live long, but his life could have been even shorter. The fact is that in connection with the attempted murder of a police officer, the revolutionary was arrested and sentenced to hanging. However, Frunze managed to avoid such an outcome: the case was reviewed, and the death penalty was replaced by hard labor.

The military prosecutor of the Moscow Military District Court wrote in 1910 to the head of the Vladimir prison where Frunze was kept: “Today I sent the verdict in the case of Mikhail Frunze and Pavel Gusev to the prosecutor of the Vladimir District Court, by whom the death penalty was commuted to penal servitude: Gusev for 8 years, and Frunze for 6 years. Reporting this, I consider it necessary to add that, in view of certain information, it seems appropriate to make sure that Frunze does not escape in one way or another or exchange names during any transfer from one prison to another.

Mikhail Frunze. (wikipedia.com)

"Katorga, what grace!" - Frunze could have exclaimed in this situation, if, of course, by that time this poem by Pasternak had already been written. The prosecutor's fears were not groundless: a few years later, Frunze still managed to escape.

The riddle of death

It is difficult to say what exactly caused the death - or still the death - of Mikhail Frunze. There are several versions, each of which researchers find both refutation and confirmation. It is known that Frunze had serious stomach problems: he was diagnosed with an ulcer and sent for surgery. This was written about in party publications, and confirmation was also found in the personal correspondence of the Bolshevik. Frunze told his wife in a letter: “I am still in the hospital. On Saturday there will be a new council. I'm afraid that the operation will be refused."

The operation was not refused to the people's commissar, but it didn't get any better. After the operation, Frunze came to his senses, read a friendly note from Stalin, which he was sincerely glad to receive, and died some time later. Whether from blood poisoning, or from heart failure. However, there are also discrepancies about the episode with the note: there is a version that Stalin delivered the message, but Frunze was no longer destined to read it.

Source: wikipedia.com

Few believed in the version of accidental death. Some were convinced that Trotsky had a hand in Frunze's death - only a few months had passed since the first replaced the second as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR. Others hinted unambiguously at Stalin's involvement. This version found expression in Boris Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon. The circulation of the Novy Mir magazine, on the pages of which the work appeared, was confiscated. After more than ten years, Pilnyak was shot. Obviously, the "Tale of the Unextinguished Moon" played an important role in his case.

Frunze was buried on November 3, 1925 with full honors: his remains are buried in the necropolis near the Kremlin wall.

Frunze through the eyes of Brusilov's wife

In the diary of the wife of General Alexei Brusilov, one can find the following lines, written a month after the death of Frunze: “I would like to write down for memory a few details about the deceased Mikhail Vasilyevich. From a distance, from the outside, I know from rumors what an unfortunate person he was, and it seems to me that he is subject to a completely different assessment than his other "comrades" in crazy and criminal political nonsense. It is obvious to me that retribution, karma clearly manifested itself in his fate. A year ago, his beloved girl, it seems, only daughter, through childish negligence, gouged out her eye with scissors. She was taken to Berlin for an operation and they barely saved her second eye, she almost went completely blind.

Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze

Early autumn 1925. Through the copses of the Moscow region, the letter train of the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, Mikhail Frunze, rushes to the capital. The legendary army commander, the winner of Wrangel, was urgently summoned to the capital. It's not about politics. Not in a military threat. The country's leadership ordered Mikhail Vasilievich to immediately lie down on the operating table. Frunze will not survive this operation. And for more than 80 years, historians have been arguing about what he actually died from.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze is the only Bolshevik sentenced to death by the tsarist government. Pardoned, spent 8 years in the harshest prisons in Russia, including the famous Vladimir Central. During the Civil War, he made a rapid career in the Red Army. He smashed Kolchak in Bashkiria, conquered Turkestan, broke into the Crimea through Perekop and Sivash. After the removal of Trotsky from the post of chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic in 1925, he was appointed to this position. He carried out a bold and successful reform of the armed forces of the USSR. Candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU (b). By the time of his death, Frunze was 40 years old.

VERSION ONE: DEATH DURING OPERATION

Frunze used to be a leader from a young age. A man of determination, very brave. He personally led the troops on the attack. He was a passionate hunter, he was very fond of weapons, he liked to drive a car at high speed. What is called, was a scorcher. Repeatedly got into accidents. Gambling politician, however, is cautious and prudent. He did not openly join any of the competing inner-party factions. Everything indicated that he had a great political future ahead of him.

But Frunze's life is filled with hardships and anxieties. He has health problems, suffers from a duodenal ulcer. The first signs of this disease appeared in the commander back in 1906. He began to complain of pain in upper divisions abdomen it is possible that at the same time there was the first gastrointestinal bleeding. In 1916, pain in the iliac region began to torment: acute appendicitis. After the operation, he developed extensive adhesions in the region of the caecum, which could cause additional discomfort.

However, many have suffered and suffer from ulcers. And they die, and even at the age of 40, only a few. What happened to Frunze?

We do not have the true medical history of Mikhail Frunze at our disposal. Perhaps she didn't exist at all. Therefore, we can operate, to a large extent, with eyewitness accounts.

In September 1925, Frunze went on vacation to the Crimea. Stalin and Voroshilov were there. Frunze does not sit still - he hunts, travels. All this leads to an exacerbation of the disease. He is getting paler and thinner. His attending physician, Piotr Mandryka, diagnoses internal bleeding. As can, limits the activity of the patient. Experienced doctors, Rozanov and Kasatkin, arrive from Moscow for consultations. They insist on Frunze's return to Moscow, an additional examination and, if necessary, an operation.

At the end of September, the first persons of the state leave Crimea. Stalin and Voroshilov go to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and Frunze goes straight to the hospital. The army commander is being examined, the latest achievements of medical science and practice are being used. In October 1925, several consultations were held with the participation of reputable doctors. At the very first of them, it was announced that Frunze was sick with a duodenal ulcer, as a result of which surgical intervention was required.

The verdict of the second consultation became the reason for making a decision on surgical intervention: “The duration of the disease and the tendency to bleeding, which can be life-threatening, do not give the right to risk further expectant treatment. When proposing an operation, it is necessary, however, to warn that the operation may be, depending on the changes that will be found upon opening the abdominal cavity, difficult and serious. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that the operation is not radical, that relapses are possible and that the operation does not relieve the patient of the need to follow a known regimen for some time and continue treatment ... The operation can be performed in the coming days.

Doctors seem to be insured against a possible risk, but they agree on the need for an operation, moreover, “in the coming days.” Frunze's state of health, medical history served as an objective indication for surgical intervention. For this, there were such grounds as the presence of a chronic deep callous ulcer with callused edges in the duodenal region. And, of course, repeated gastrointestinal bleeding, which led to a sharp deterioration in his health and forced him to stay in bed for a long time.

Maybe today doctors would limit themselves to drug therapy. Today you can do much more with pills than then. But it was 1925. In those years, in addition to the operation, trips to the resorts were recommended: Karlsbad or Mariensbad, mineral water alkaline composition. And the medical base was generally absent.

Frunze entered the Kremlin hospital in the Poteshny Palace, was examined. But, oddly enough, the clinic that treated top officials of the state did not have its own worthy operating room. On the morning of October 28, Frunze was discharged from the Kremlin hospital and entered the Soldatenkovskaya or Botkinskaya, as it began to be called since 1920, the hospital.

The operation was supervised by the famous surgeon Vladimir Rozanov, in the 1920s the most experienced and famous Moscow surgeon. In April 1922 he operated on Lenin. A virtuoso surgeon, a brilliant diagnostician. Headed surgery department Soldatenkovskaya hospital. Rozanov was helped by prominent specialists, whose names would later be given to the best clinics in the country: professors Grekov, Martynov, who, by the way, signed the bulletin about Frunze's death.

Star composition, national team. They often operated together. So, in 1927, Muscovite Martynov and Leningrader Grekov operated on 78-year-old Ivan Pavlov, the first Nobel laureate in Russia. There were also those who controlled the actions of surgeons at the operation. Given the political significance of Frunze's personality, employees of the Kremlin's Medical and Sanitary Administration were present in the operating room: Professor Obrosov and doctors Kasatkin, Kannel, Levin.

On October 29, at 12:40 pm, the operation begins at the Botkin hospital. Everything went wrong from the start. In fact, the operation was limited to penetration into the abdominal cavity, it was found that the ulcer had healed. But the operation caused a sharp exacerbation of the chronic inflammatory process that had taken place. The patient could not fall asleep for a long time, it turned out that he did not tolerate anesthesia well. In connection with the fall of the pulse during anesthesia, they resorted to injections that stimulate cardiac activity. After the operation, all the attention of the surgeons was focused on the fight against heart failure. However, therapeutic interventions were unsuccessful. On October 31, 1925, at 5:40, 39 hours after the start of the operation, Frunze died "with symptoms of heart paralysis."

According to the first version, Frunze dies not from complications of a stomach ulcer, but from cardiac arrest. The official reports spoke of a weak heart. At the same time, on the morning of October 31, the famous professor Abrikosov performed an autopsy on Frunze's body in the anatomical theater of the Botkin hospital. Along with the doctors who performed the operation, the first persons of the Soviet state were present at the autopsy: Stalin, Rykov, Bubnov, Mikoyan. Abrikosov's information did not give a direct indication of the cause of Frunze's death.

From the protocol of the autopsy of Mikhail Frunze. October 31, 1925: “The disease ... Frunze ... consisted, on the one hand, in the presence of a round ulcer of the duodenum ..., on the other hand .... there was an old inflammatory process of the abdominal cavity. The operation ... caused an exacerbation of the chronic inflammatory process that had taken place, which led to a rapid decline in cardiac activity and death.

Frunze was diagnosed with an acute inflammatory process in the region of the caecum: peritonitis. During the operation, a glass of pus was pumped out of this ulcer. An autopsy revealed underdevelopment of the aorta and arteries, abnormal narrowness of the vessels. All the major arteries were "thinner than was appropriate for the physique".

So, the initial diagnosis was complete. Surgeons faced surprises that had a fatal effect on the outcome of the operation.

However, another version immediately appears, and it comes from surgeons. One of them, Ivan Grekov, even gave an interview that was reprinted by many Soviet newspapers. Grekov argued that the operation was necessary, since Frunze stood on the edge of the abyss. He explained the fatal outcome by unforeseen circumstances discovered during the operation. But the main thing: the heart of the illustrious commander did not survive anesthesia. A medical error has occurred.

Abrikosov, a specialist close to the authorities (he, for example, opened the body of Lenin), deliberately concealed the mistakes of his fellow doctors.

VERSION TWO: ANESTHESIOLOGIST'S MISTAKE

According to the second version, the cause of Frunze's death was an anesthesiologist's mistake. The official report noted: "... the patient had difficulty falling asleep and did not tolerate anesthesia well." The doctors were able to start the operation only 30 minutes after the start of anesthesia. Such a delay was caused by Frunze's considerable mental and motor excitation. The "ordinary" patient at that time fell asleep on average after 11-12 minutes when inhaling chloroform and after 17-18 minutes when using ether. Frunze initially used 140 g of ether for general anesthesia, but then, due to the patient's condition, they switched to anesthesia with chloroform.

Chloroform is a toxic drug. Its use is associated with great risk: the difference between the narcotic and lethal dose is very small, and the threat of overdose is high. The first officially recorded "anesthetized death" from chloroform occurred in England in 1848. A hundred years later, scientists were able to establish the cause of chloroform "narcotic" deaths. The most likely cause is excessive emotionality of patients - a powerful inadequate release of catecholamines before surgery (in the modern interpretation - a stress reaction). The combined use of ether and chloroform sharply increased their toxic and narcotic effects. The life of a patient under chloroform anesthesia depends on the experience of the anesthesiologist.

By the mid-1920s, our country did not yet have an anesthesiologist or anesthetist nurses. However, Rozanov preferred general anesthesia to be handled by a doctor - "an experienced narcotic drug user who has studied all the nuances of chloroformation." Rozanov insists on the participation of his student, Alexei Ochkin, in the operation.

Alexey Dmitrievich Ochkin - in 1925, a relatively young, 40-year-old surgeon. Moved forward during the Civil War. He served as a doctor in the First Cavalry Army. He was a member of the staff of the Medical and Sanitary Directorate of the Kremlin. In 1936, he was approved as a doctor of medical sciences without defending a dissertation; since 1938 - professor.

Alexey Ochkin was not embarrassed by the emotional stress of the patient before the operation. The operation begins: the ether does not work. The doctor seeks to prove his worth. But there is no effect. In addition, the attention of the first persons of the state is riveted to the operation, observers from the medical commission do not miss anything. Not only Grekov and Martynov look askance, but Rozanov also casts a surprised look at his student. Something had to be done, and then Ochkin switched to anesthesia with chloroform. At the same time, it exceeds the dose of excitement. The pulse begins to fall, it is necessary to resort to "injections that stimulate cardiac activity." Ochkin again switches to anesthesia with ether, which leads to an increase in the degree of chloroform overdose.

In the works of that time, devoted to anesthesia, it was noted that death occurs twice as often when using chloroform than when anesthesia with ether. And what is most important for us, "according to a strange game of fate, people in the prime of life and strength" often became "victims of chloroform anesthesia". A few weeks after the death of Frunze, the People's Commissar of Health of the USSR Semashko confirmed that the only reason for the death of Mikhail Vasilyevich was inadequate anesthesia.

It can actually be said that Frunze died during anesthesia, and not during the operation itself. Surgeons were forced to urgently sew up the abdominal cavity. In the future, simply due to resuscitation, he lived for almost 39 hours.

What is it - a "drug mistake", as it was then expressed, or deliberate actions, medical murder?

VERSION THREE: POLITICAL MURDER

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze - war hero, People's Commissar of the Navy. Stalin himself at the funeral on November 5, 1925 said: "The army has lost in the face of Comrade Frunze one of the most beloved and respected leaders and creators." The people are mourning. But there are also doubts. Not everything is clear to a simple Soviet person. And then there's the misunderstanding. On the day of Frunze's death, an article appeared in Rabochaya Gazeta under the heading "Comrade Frunze is recovering." The workers understand that something is wrong here. There are meetings, questions are raised: why was the operation done; why Frunze agreed to it, if one can live with an ulcer anyway; what is the cause of death; Why are false articles published? There were rumors that the hero of the Civil was killed. It is stipulated at Yenukidze's funeral: "Nothing could save him, and we, his close friends, stood helplessly near him, yielded to his death without protest or resistance."

How could one get rid of a figure of this magnitude? Who could be, in modern terms, a performer if it was such a cunning contract killing?

Undoubtedly, Ochkin's candidacy would be the most convenient. Frunze's death was not the end point. Soon his wife, Sofya Alekseevna, who did not believe the official version, died. According to some sources, she committed suicide, according to others, she died of tuberculosis. But none of the doctors was punished, on the contrary, their careers developed successfully.

A year later, they will be named among the best domestic surgeons with their own major clinical schools. At the same time, due to an inexplicable coincidence, all three, Rozanov, Grekov and Martynov, died in the same year - in 1934. A few years later, other doctors who took part in the operation will also be on the chopping block: Obrosov, Kannel, Levin.

Almost the only survivor was just Alexei Ochkin. A truly “golden rain” of awards and encouragement from above poured on him. True, it was not always recorded for what merits he was awarded such an honor. In particular, in 1939, Ochkin, in fact, is inactive when Krupskaya dies of peritonitis, referring to her serious condition. And a week later he receives the Order of Lenin.

The health of leaders in the Soviet Union is a political issue. It was the norm that senior leaders intervened not only in the treatment of their associates, but sometimes even in their personal lives. Dzerzhinsky, Tsuryupa and other nomenclature workers were ordered to be treated by order. Anyone could "go under the knife" by decision of the Central Committee.

The decision of the council on the operation was supported by the top party leadership, and Frunze could not oppose the instructions of the Politburo. He, apparently, had a premonition of something, and went to this operation, as they once went to death. I put on a new clean shirt, as soldiers or sailors put on before the battle.

Frunze hid his fear (as we see it was conscious): after all, he is a military man. With a smile, he informed Nikolai Bukharin of his intention to "recover completely and irrevocably with the help of a surgical knife." At the same time, he conveys his last will to his comrade Joseph Hamburg: “You know that I can die under the knife. This is not required, but it can happen. No one can be guaranteed against accidents. I also think that the operation will go well, but just in case this happens to me, I ask you to go to the Central Committee and tell me about my desire to be buried in Shuya.

Frunze’s uncertainty also comes through from the pages of his letters to his wife: “Now I feel completely healthy and it’s even somehow ridiculous not only to go, but even to think about an operation. Nevertheless, both councils decided to do it. I am personally satisfied with this decision. Let them once and for all take a good look at what is there, and try to outline a real cure. I personally have more and more often the thought that there is nothing serious, because otherwise it is somehow difficult to explain the fact of my quick recovery after rest and treatment.

It is possible that Frunze also felt the uncertainty of the doctors. It would seem that all three councils almost unanimously made a decision to conduct surgery. The people who delivered the verdict were experienced professionals.

But later it turned out that not everything was so simple. In November 1925, under the chairmanship of N. I. Podvoisky, a meeting of the board of the Society of Old Bolsheviks was held on the occasion of the death of Frunze. People's Commissar of Health Semashko was summoned to the meeting. He was very frank in his statements. According to him, neither the attending physician nor Rozanov were in a hurry with the operation, only a small part of the participants in the consultations was competent. The decision passed not through the People's Commissariat of Health, but through the Central Committee's medical commission, about whose representatives Semashko spoke very impartially. In addition, the subsequently famous military doctor Pyotr Mandryka, who observed Frunze throughout most of his illness, was removed. Everyone was allowed to see the sick people's commissar, but not the attending physician.

There were reasons to worry, including political ones. Since 1923, a struggle for power has unfolded in the Kremlin. In anticipation of the inevitable death of Lenin, against his most likely heir, Leon Trotsky, the majority of the leaders of the party unite.

In 1924, after the death of Ilyich, Trotsky was removed from the post of head of the Red Army and removed from the narrow leadership. Power is divided by a triumvirate - General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Chairman of the Comintern Grigory Zinoviev, Deputy Prime Minister Lev Kamenev. However, already in the summer of 1925, a conflict broke out between Stalin on the one hand and Zinoviev and Kamenev on the other. Ahead is the XIV Party Congress, at which a decisive battle for power will take place. Frunze was considered at the same time as a possible ally of Zinoviev and Kamenev, or even a possible compromise version of the general secretary.

Oil was added to the fire by an editorial about Frunze in the English magazine "The Airplane", published in March 1925. Its title was very eloquent: "The New Russian Leader." In it, in particular, the following characterization of Frunze was given: “All the constituent elements of the Russian Napoleon were united in this man!”

He is not only a military man, he is also a diplomat. Special Envoy to Turkey. Under the name of Mikhailov, he illegally got on an Italian steamer to the Turkish coast. Thanks to him, Kemal Ata-Turk received significant financial resources, re-equipped the army and defeated the Greeks. Frunze, not without boasting, said that he knew the Turkish army as well as the Red one. The Turkish period of Frunze's activity is "cast in bronze". On the monument to the Republic in Istanbul, to the left of Kemal Ata-Turk, is Mikhail Frunze.

In the early 1920s, such a reverent attitude on the part of the leader of a foreign state towards the red commander might not have pleased many.

Despite the fact that Frunze was an old Bolshevik, in carrying out the military reform he sought to get rid of the existing dual power in the armed forces. He wanted to save them from the obsessive guardianship of the Chekists and the party.

In 1925, Frunze made a number of transfers and appointments in the command staff, as a result of which military districts, corps and divisions were headed by military personnel selected on the basis of military qualifications, but not on the basis of communist loyalty.

Frunze was also alarmed by a series of mysterious deaths among his inner circle. On August 6, 1925, Comrade Frunze, Commander of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, Comrade Frunze, was killed point-blank at a dacha near Odessa; On August 27, 1925, Ephraim Sklyansky, Trotsky's deputy during the Civil War, died under mysterious circumstances on Longlake Lake near New York; On August 28, at the Perovo station near Moscow, the chairman of the board of Aviatrust, Vladimir Pavlov, an old acquaintance of Frunze, dies under a maneuvering steam locomotive.

Frunze replaced Lev Trotsky, the permanent leader of the armed forces of the Soviet state. Naturally, after Frunze's death, there was talk of Trotsky's involvement in his assassination. They also remembered the episode that overshadowed their relationship. In 1920, still during the Civil War, Frunze's special train arrived from Tashkent to Moscow. At the direction of Trotsky, he was cordoned off by the troops of the Cheka. They were looking for gold and valuables allegedly stolen by Frunze in Bukhara. Naturally, nothing was found, "but the sediment remained."

But Trotsky in 1925 could no longer kill anyone. The Trotskyists at that time no longer had the strength. They lost power, because the talk that the Trotskyists are involved, say, in the murder of Yesenin and Mayakovsky, is a speculation.

Trotsky is an ambitious politician, he had disagreements with Frunze, but they were not bitter rivals. Yes, and such means to achieve the goal is not in his spirit.

At the XIII Party Congress, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was replenished with Zinovievists and Stalinists. But they were also neutral. Everyone's position is very important. If Frunze had joined Sokolnikov and Krupskaya at the Fourteenth Congress, the situation would have been critical. This did not suit, first of all, Stalin.

Frunze's course to promote professionals to the command staff of the Red Army alarmed the Secretary General. Here is what Stalin's secretary, who fled from Soviet Union, Boris Bazhanov. “I asked Mekhlis (Stalin’s secretary) what does Stalin think about these appointments?” What does Stalin think? Mehlis asked. - Nothing good. Look at the list: all these Tukhachevskys, Korkis, Uboreviches, Avksentievskies - what kind of communists are they? All this is good for the 18th Brumaire, and not for the Red Army. I asked: “Is it you from yourself or is it Stalin’s opinion?” Mekhlis pouted and replied with gravity: "Of course, both his and mine."

And the death of Frunze was in the interests of Stalin. This is evident from subsequent events. After the death of the commander, Voroshilov, a 100% Stalinist, was put in his place. Instead of Dzerzhinsky, Yagoda, in essence, turned out to be the head of the GPU. Now Stalin controlled not only the party apparatus, but also the Red Army and state security. Frunze's death undoubtedly made it easier for Stalin to defeat Zinoviev and Kamenev, and later over Bukharin and Rykov.

Subsequently, when the means by which Stalin achieved his goals became known, many looked at Frunze's death with different eyes, for example, Trotsky. He made direct accusations to Stalin of the murder of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs: “Frunze died under the surgeon's knife in 1925. His death even then gave rise to a number of conjectures that were reflected even in fiction. Even these guesses condensed into a direct accusation against Stalin. Frunze was too independent in his military post, identified himself too much with the command staff of the party and the army, and undoubtedly interfered with Stalin's attempts to take over the army through his personal agents.

Outside in 1925. Stalin is not the same as a decade later. But in 1926, the readers of the Novy Mir magazine unexpectedly did not receive the next, May issue. Everyone had heard about Boris Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon, which was supposed to be the highlight of the magazine. There were rumors that in his work, Pilnyak portrayed the real customers of the murder of the iron commander. Although the names were changed, everyone knew that the commander Gavrilov was Frunze, a kind of "non-hunched man" who was vitally interested in eliminating the commander - Stalin. Pilnyak's son, Boris Andronikashvili, claimed that the writer received material from Frunze's inner circle. Stalin was infuriated by Pilnyak's story and obtained the removal of the magazine, which had already passed the censorship and was published.

Moscow also knew that, according to Semashko, People's Commissariat of Health, Professor Rozanov, who so actively began to patronize Frunze in the autumn of 1925, was personally invited by Stalin. An experienced surgeon, citing medical indications, insisted on postponing the operation, but Stalin firmly spoke out in favor of its urgent implementation. We don't know what else the professor who performed the operation and Stalin talked about. Of particular interest is Stalin's phrase, which he dropped at Frunze's funeral on November 3, 1925. Here is what he said: "Perhaps this is exactly how it is necessary for old comrades to sink into the grave so easily and so simply."

Let's summarize. Mikhail Frunze died of a drug overdose and related heart failure. But it is impossible to say whether Dr. Ochkin did this intentionally, on orders from above, or accidentally, due to low qualifications.

Suspicious, mysterious death.

This text is an introductory piece.

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BOGDANOV Mikhail Vasilievich Brigade Commander of the Red ArmyMajor General of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Born on June 2, 1897 in the village of Boznya, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk province. Russian. From employees. Non-partisan. In 1918 he graduated from the secondary Moscow Polytechnic School. Member of the Civil War. hosted

TARNOVSKII Mikhail Vasilievich Major of the Air Force KONR Born in 1907 in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg. Russian. From the family of Colonel of the Russian Army V.V. Tarnovsky. On November 14, 1920, together with his family, he was evacuated from the Crimea. In 1921–1922 lived with his family in France, since 1922 - in

Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze Born on January 21 (February 2), 1885 in the city of Pishpek (now the city of Frunze - the capital of the Kirghiz SSR), in the family of a paramedic. He graduated from the gymnasium, in 1904 he entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, conducted revolutionary work in the workers and

ZIMYANIN Mikhail Vasilyevich (11/21/1914 - 05/01/1995). Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 03/05/1976 to 01/28/1987. Member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1952 - 1956, 1966 - 1989. Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1956 - 1966. Party member since 1939. Born in Vitebsk in a working class family. Belarusian. He began his career in 1929 as a worker at a locomotive repair depot

MIKHAIL VASILIEVICH DMITRIEV Broad-shouldered, tall, well-built, with a courageous open face, he was a favorite of employees not only of ours, but also of other departments. The eyes looked at the interlocutor seriously and benevolently. And at the same time in those eyes, somewhere in

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S. Golubov MIKHAIL FRUNZE In the spring of 1919, I served in the artillery inspectorate of the Fourth Army of the Eastern Front. The army headquarters was then (May) in Saratov. Military circumstances were difficult and dangerous. In March, the offensive of Kolchak's troops suddenly opened.

GRESHILOV Mikhail Vasilyevich Mikhail Vasilyevich Greshilov was born in 1912 in the village of Budenovka, Zolotukhinsky district, Kursk region, into a peasant family. Russian. In 1929 he arrived at Magnitostroy with a group of Komsomol members. Graduated from FZU (now SGPTU-19). Worked as an electrician

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Frunze Mikhail Vasilyevich (party pseudonym - Arseniy, Trifonych; born January 21 (February 2), 1885 - death October 31, 1925) - party, statesman and military leader, military theorist. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. From 1904 to 1915, he was repeatedly arrested and exiled, twice he was sentenced to death, later replaced by life exile for revolutionary activities.

During the Civil War, he was the commander of the army and a number of fronts. Since 1920 - commanded the troops of Ukraine and Crimea. Since 1924 - was Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs; along with this, he was chief of staff of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and the Military Academy. Candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Origin. early years

Mikhail Frunze, from the middle class, was born in the city of Pishpek (Kyrgyzstan) in the family of a military paramedic (father - Moldavian, mother - Russian). At the age of 12, the boy lost his father. His mother, left with five children, put all her strength into their education. Mikhail graduated from high school with a gold medal. He entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. Since 1904 he was a member of the RSDLP.

Military and political activities

1916 - sent by the Bolsheviks to the Western Front, where he worked under the name Mikhailov in the institutions of the Zemsky Union, led the Bolshevik underground in Minsk. After the February Revolution, he was elected head of the people's militia in Minsk. 1917, August - appointed chief of staff of the revolutionary troops of the Minsk region, led the fight against the army on the Western Front.

In October, with a detachment of 2,000 Shuya workers and soldiers, he took part in the October armed coup in Moscow. 1918, August - appointed military commissar of the Yaroslavl military district. He did a lot of work on the formation of Red Army detachments and their training. He was the organizer of the suppression of a number of rebellions.

1919, February - commander of the 4th Army, 1919, in May - June - commander of the Turkestan army, and since March 1919, simultaneously commander of the Southern Army Group of the Eastern Front. During the counteroffensive of the Eastern Front, he carried out a number of successful offensive operations against the main forces, for which he received the Order of the Red Banner. 1919, July - commander of the troops of the Eastern Front, who liberated the Northern and Middle Urals. 1919, August 15 - commanded the Turkestan Front, whose troops completed the defeat of the southern group of the Kolchak army, took the South Urals and opened the way to Turkestan.

1920, September 21 - he is appointed commander of the newly created Southern Front and leads the operation to defeat troops in Northern Tavria and the Crimea, for which he is awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Weapon.

From December 1920 to March 1924, Mikhail Frunze, authorized by the RVSR in Ukraine, commanded the troops of Ukraine and Crimea, at the same time a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine and deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR (since February 1922). For the defeat of the army of Wrangel, Petlyura and the elimination of banditry in Ukraine, he is awarded the second Order of the Red Banner.

1924, March - Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, and since April 1924 - at the same time the Chief of Staff of the Red Army and the head of the Military Academy of the Red Army (later named after M.V. Frunze). January 1925 - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.

Personal life

Mikhail Frunze's wife's name was Sofya Alekseevna Popova (12/12/1890 - 09/4/1926, daughter of a Narodnaya Volya). Two children were born in the marriage - daughter Tatyana and son Timur. Children after the death of their father in 1925 and their mother in 1926 lived with their grandmother Mavra Efimovna Frunze (1861 - 1933) Decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

The mystery of Frunze's death

Frunze loved fast driving: sometimes he gets behind the wheel himself or tells the driver to drive. In 1925, he had two accidents, and rumors were already circulating, which is no coincidence. The last of them happened in September: Mikhail Vasilyevich flew out of the car and hit a lamppost hard.

After the accident, the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs once again had a gastric ulcer - he fell ill when he was in the Vladimir Central. Mikhail Frunze could not stand the subsequent operation. According to the official version, the cause of death is a combination of hard-to-diagnose diseases that led to heart paralysis.

Few believed that this death was accidental. Some were sure that Frunze had a hand in the death - only a few months had passed since the first replaced the second as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Soviet Union. Others hinted unambiguously at Stalin's involvement.

A year later, the writer Boris Pilnyak puts forward the version that JV Stalin got rid of a potential competitor in this manner. By the way, shortly before Frunze's death, an article was published in the English "Airplane" where he was called the "Russian Napoleon".

The party leadership found out about the article. According to B.G. Bazhanov (Stalin's former secretary), the leader of the peoples saw the future Bonaparte in Frunze and expressed sharp dissatisfaction about this. Then he suddenly showed touching concern for Mikhail Vasilyevich, saying: "We absolutely do not monitor the precious health of our best workers," after which the Politburo slightly whether by force forced the commander to agree to the operation.

Bazhanov (and he was not alone) believed that Stalin killed Mikhail Frunze in order to put his man, Voroshilov, in his place. They say that during the operation, just the anesthesia was used, which Frunze could not bear due to the characteristics of the organism.

Meanwhile, Frunze's wife could not bear the death of her husband: in despair, the woman committed suicide. Their children - Tanya and Timur - were brought up.

Heritage

He carried out military reforms (reducing the size of the Red Army and building it on the basis of a mixed personnel-territorial principle). Author of military-theoretical works.

The name Frunze in Soviet times was borne by the capital of Kyrgyzstan ( former city Pishpek, where Mikhail was born), one of the mountain peaks of the Pamirs, Navy ships, military academy. Many streets in cities and villages of the former Soviet Union, settlements were named after him.