home » Trading » Soviet millionaires: the case of the director of the grocery store "Eliseevsky. "Eliseevsky case" - the fight against corruption or a political order? The case of corruption in the Eliseevsky grocery store

Soviet millionaires: the case of the director of the grocery store "Eliseevsky. "Eliseevsky case" - the fight against corruption or a political order? The case of corruption in the Eliseevsky grocery store

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

From taxi driver to director

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

Queuing for bread

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

"Falcon hunting"

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

Black caviar

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

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

Yuri Sokolov

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

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

Trial

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

Case of Sokolov

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

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

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

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

The other day I reviewed the series "Deli Case No. 1" with Makovetsky in the title role. Like the first time, the heart was squeezed with steel hoops and did not let go throughout the series. The film is successful, both in direction, and in the cast, and in the script itself. But the point is not so much in the series, but in the most tragic fate of the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov (in the film, Georgy Berkutov).

Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov, born December 3, 1923 - died December 14, 1984 (shot by sentence of the Supreme Court of the USSR), Soviet trade figure, from 1972 to 1982. director of one of the largest grocery stores in Moscow "Eliseevsky", and before that 10 years deputy director, participant in the Second World War, member of the bureau of the district committee of the party, awarded orders and medals.

After the war, in the 50s, he worked as a taxi driver and received a term, 2 years in prison, for cheating clients. Later it turned out that he was serving his term for another, on slander, on a false denunciation. In 1963, he got a job as a salesperson in a trading network and, thanks to his abilities and human qualities, he first rose to the position of deputy director of a grocery store on Tverskaya, in this status he worked for 10 years, and then to the store director, by that time, experience in this position was also 10 years.

Yuri Sokolov came from an intelligent family, his mother worked as a professor at the Higher Party School, his father was a researcher. Yuri himself, according to his wife Florida Nikolaevna, was a very cultured and well-mannered person. Tall, thin, stately, he knew how to speak beautifully, from the first minute he charmed and fascinated his interlocutor with his speech.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, Chairman of the KGB from 1967 to 1982. The reign of Leonid Brezhnev was coming to an end, and Andropov, full of vain aspirations, wanted to take the place of the general secretary of the party, to become the de facto leader of the country. The entire commercial history was started with far-reaching political goals, but was promoted under the slogan of combating trade and party corruption. The ultimate goal of the game was the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Grishin, not without reason claiming the post of General Secretary, tightly tied with the so-called trade mafia of Moscow. And the first to fall under the Chekist moloch were, of course, the "most respected people" of the city - the directors of the largest stores, food and manufactured goods, the most prominent and successful of which was Yuri Sokolov. The main blow fell on him already when Andropov was elected Secretary General after the death of Brezhnev (November 1982), and before that they collected compromising evidence, dug, followed, tapped, recruited, took those who were of lower rank.

Moscow grocery store No. 1 was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite, the creative, scientific, military elite of the country with selected delicacies.

They took Sokolov on a bribe, either 200, or 300 thousand, received from someone, gave it to someone, it no longer mattered much, because by that time he had already been surrounded by red flags around the perimeter. A month before the arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when Sokolov was abroad, equipped his office with audio and video monitoring devices, arranging a short circuit for this. Under the "cap" were taken and all the branches of Eliseevsky. Thus, many high-ranking officials came to the attention of the Chekists, including, for example, the then head of the traffic police, Nozdryakov. It was established that on Fridays the heads of branches would come to Sokolov's office and hand envelopes to the director. Then part of the collected money migrated to the head of the Main Department of Trade Tregubov and other interested parties. A strong evidence base has been collected. One Friday, all the "postmen" were caught red-handed, four confessed.

Having learned about the arrest of Tregubov, First Secretary Grishin urgently returned to Moscow, interrupting his vacation, but he could not do anything, the career of the patron of the Moscow trade mafia was at an end, in December 1985, Grishin was replaced by B.N. as the first secretary of the city party committee. Yeltsin.

Initially (according to the stories of his wife), Sokolov was sold with giblets by his employee, deputy head of the sausage department Eliseevsky, whose husband, an employee of the Beryozka currency store, got burned. She and her husband sold gourmet products from the Eliseevsky store for foreign currency through a trading network, bought imported equipment with checks and speculated on it. They were promised in the Cheka that if they handed over Sokolov, nothing would happen to them, and they readily surrendered.

Money in the grocery store was made not so much on body kit and shortfall (this was not considered a crime), but on the so-called shrinkage-damage-damage-write-off. At one time, Sokolov was not too lazy and purchased the latest refrigeration units, thanks to which the goods retained their freshness and quality for a long time, but the products were written off in the same way as elsewhere, at the existing high interest rates, and the resulting significant monetary difference went to bribes to officials and suppliers at the rate of : 10% to the state, 5% - for bribes.

Sokolov spun around as best he could. The store and its seven branches received products unprecedented for ordinary citizens - Finnish smoked sausages, first-class boiled pork, hams, balyks, red and black caviar, imported cheeses, overseas wines, foreign cigarettes. The most famous and famous people - actors, directors, singers, writers, announcers, soloists of the Bolshoi Theater, heads of central departments and committees, deputy ministers, famous doctors, generals, ets. A frequent guest of Yuri Sokolov was Galina Brezhneva, who easily dropped in on the director's "light". All this imposed strict obligations on the director, kept him in constant tension.

Sokolov himself lived quite modestly, and although he had every opportunity for luxury, he did not abuse his position. When the Chekists came to his wife, Florida Nikolaevna, to describe the property for confiscation, they were unpleasantly surprised - no antiques, no pictures in expensive frames, no crystal chandeliers, no gold-silver. They took everything clean - furniture, dishes (up to glasses), rolled up carpets, removed chandeliers, the wife only managed to keep her personal belongings. Even in the refrigerator there was a minimum of the most common products. Sokolov was sick with diabetes and kept to a diet.

Although the court hearings were nominally open, those who came and were invited were only allowed to attend the first and last hearings. Together with the former director of Eliseevsky, four more employees of the grocery store were tried - deputy Sokolov I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev, a criminal case against which was initiated 10 days before the death of L.I. Brezhnev. In the hall, in addition to relatives, were almost all the directors of large Moscow stores, who were invited, apparently, with an instructive and intimidating purpose. The hall of the Baumansky district (now Basmanny) court was cramped, but packed. The judge announced the verdict for an hour, and the people standing in the hall, dressed in coats and jackets, were afraid to move, to utter even a sound. When the word "execution" was sounded and the judge put an end to it, enthusiastic deafening applause resounded from different quarters, horror from the murderous sentence and these stormy applause froze in the eyes of those present. Among the trading public were young, strong, athletic-looking guys, dressed and looking the same, there were many of them. Most likely, it was they who began to clap on the signal, thereby demonstrating that the process that ended in this way was political. The people in the hall, who picked up the applause, tried with all their appearance to show that they were different, honest, not like Sokolov, who was mired in fraud and bribes. But there was no one to demonstrate loyalty to, by that time the deceased Andropov had been replaced as General Secretary by the living corpse of Chernenko.

The first dramatic reaction to the process followed two days later - unable to withstand the stress, the director of another famous grocery store No. 2 on Smolenskaya Square, Sergei Noniev, committed suicide.

Shortly after the trial, the heads of the Novoarbatsky grocery store, the GUM grocery store, Mosplodovoschprom, the director of the Moscow fruit and vegetable base Mkhitar Ambartsumyan, a front-line soldier, a participant in the capture of the Reichstag and the Victory Parade on Red Square (he was sentenced to capital punishment), the heads of the Gastronome trade, " Diettorga", director of the Kuibyshev district food trade, and a number of other respectable and responsible workers. Later, Nikolai Tregubov, head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee, was convicted under these articles, but he, taught by the bitter experience of his colleague, did not admit to anything. And he survived, although he received a long term, 15 years in prison. Returning from prison, he even tried to get a review of the case, but to no avail.

At first, Sokolov denied everything. But, apparently, he was persuaded to testify against his accomplices, promising a commutation of the sentence. Sokolov's first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he was expected to reveal schemes of theft from Moscow grocery stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of power in Moscow. In the end, everything turned out to be in vain, no information affected the severity, or rather, the cruelty of the sentence.

Sokolov had a black oilcloth notebook where he wrote down his commercial affairs, calculations, calculations, drew diagrams of trade and possible profits, names and amounts. Those who were aware of what was happening had unfounded suspicions that the top of this entire pyramid was closed on the then First Secretary of the CPSU MGK Viktor Grishin. Until the last minute, Sokolov hoped for high patrons, his honorary clients - the head of the head of the trade department of the Moscow City Executive Committee Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU Dementyev, the Minister of the Interior Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov. But the hopes were in vain. The KGB conducted the case of the director of the Eliseevsky store Sokolov alone, bypassing the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In December 1982, 71-year-old Shchelokov was removed from his post and committed suicide. In general, none of the rest wanted to substitute and risk their place and health.

So at the trial in the last word, when Sokolov realized that he had been deceived, he took out his notebook and began to read out his notes. The judge immediately interrupted him, referring to the fact that the defendant's speech should be oral. Sokolov closed his notebook and began to speak. In addition to the names that could not be named, Sokolov explained in an accessible and simple way that the Soviet system of trade was initially deeply flawed, no plans descended from above could be fulfilled if business was done honestly, without violating the laws. Speaking about the inevitability of abuse, Sokolov said that money for bribes was taken in a relatively honest way, thanks to refrigeration units that allowed most of the goods to be stored, but these details did not impress the judge.

Here is an extract from the verdict (it sounds wild, but it was so): “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov, for selfish purposes, from January 1972 to October 1982, systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trade organizations ensured an uninterrupted supply of groceries in a profitable assortment for bribe-givers."

The former director of grocery store No. 1, Yuri Sokolov, was found guilty under Article 173 Part 2 and Article 174 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR - receiving and giving a bribe on an especially large scale - and on November 11, 1984 he was sentenced to capital punishment with complete confiscation of personal property. The rest of the employees received from 11 to 15 years in prison.

It was a demonstrative Andropov trial, Sokolov was unlucky, he had the unfortunate fate of becoming the first high-profile victim in the restoration of "law and order". The hard fist of the new owner fell on the brightest and most talented representative of his class. Under these articles, the most severe punishment provided for 15 years in prison. And even then the Baumansky district court became in essence the Basmanny, where the judge's decision was lowered from the very top.

Apparently, there should have been many such cases, but the health of Comrade Andropov did not allow him to spin the flywheel of repression at full power.

By nature, Sokolov was neither a huckster, nor a hardened speculator, nor a grabber, nor, even more so, a mafioso, he simply got into the system, spun in it, grew into it and could not break out with all his desire. It was a SYSTEM. Everyone was interconnected and tied, starting with suppliers and ending with members of the city committee of the party, and maybe even higher.

The sentence was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. But rumors spread around Moscow that Sokolov was shot almost in the car on the way from the court. At that time, investigations into other important criminal cases of the Glavtorg were already in full swing, many high-ranking officials were interested in the speedy neutralization of Sokolov, hence these rumors were born, they say, they hastened to remove it so that they did not have time to file a petition for pardon.

Sokolov's wife was given the last meeting, 30 minutes. They only talked about family. The meeting turned out to be short, the arrival of a brother and sister prevented, who, as it seemed to her, did it on purpose. Florida Nikolaevna is still offended by them.

Yuri Sokolov was a man not of his time, he tried and worked successfully and talentedly for his offspring, like a modern top manager, raised the store and made it the best. Yes, breaking the law, because at that time it was impossible to survive and gain a reputation in the trading field of activity in a different way. Laws were made to be broken. I feel sorry for him as a human being, he became a bargaining chip in the dirty game of party bosses. In his own way, he was honest and principled. The severity of his crime is incommensurable with the punishment.

I want to finish with an excerpt from the book of the journalist Anatoly Rubinov, who was present at the trial, "We lived like this ...",

(essay "Seduced and shot"):

"Handcuffed, these last steps from the second floor of the court, and then - to the green car with a lattice instead of a window - he did it hard, as if he had forgotten how to walk, as if there were metal chains on his legs. When the car began to get out of the yard, some then a man very similar to Sokolov - apparently his brother - shouted after him:

Yura, sorry!

And some young woman:

Yura, goodbye!

There was no meeting. The sentence was carried out."

Moscow grocery store No. 1 ("Eliseevsky") was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, military elite of the country with selected delicacies. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the director of the grocery store, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the defendants in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity ...

If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could gather to execute the sentence on the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded “to punish the presumptuous merchant to the fullest extent of the law.” But did his crime carry the death penalty?

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

Criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev " in the theft of food products on a large scale and bribery", was initiated by the Moscow prosecutor's office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev.

The investigation into this case continued under the new leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. And the meeting of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, at which Yuri Sokolov was sentenced to death, took place already under Konstantin Chernenko, who replaced Andropov as head of the party and state. Moreover, Chernenko survived the executed trade worker by only three months.

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

He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else's crime ...

Sokolova Yuri Konstantinovich

Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He participated in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted "on libel." But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman.

From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call Eliseevsky. Having headed a trading enterprise, he proved himself, as they would say now, a brilliant top manager. In an era of total scarcity, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert.

Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in a rotten system of co-trading?

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

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

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

How did delicacy, rare, and even simply exotic products get into the Soviet grocery store No. 1?

Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “ Using his responsible official position, Sokolov, for selfish purposes, from January 1972 to October 1982. systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trade organizations he ensured an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to bribe givers».

In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that “ the current order in the trading system"make inevitable the sale of unrecorded foodstuffs, underweight and shortfall of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and regrading, write-off according to the column of natural losses and "left sale", as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those who are above and those who are below, even the driver who carries the products ...

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

During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo.

Eyewitnesses testify that during the arrest, Sokolov outwardly remained calm, at the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What did the arrested person expect, what did he expect?

Several thousand trade workers of the capital visited this wall

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

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

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

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

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

Yu. V. Andropov

Sokolov could not calculate one thing then: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-way game for the highest power, the Chairman of the Committee had already outlined the director of Eliseevsky, to whom undercover reports of bribery had been received, as the fuse who was supposed to detonate the bomb ...

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

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

An expert assessment of the Sokolov case by the former prosecutor for supervision of the KGB, Vladimir Golubev, has been preserved. He believed that the evidence of Sokolov's guilt had not been carefully examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural attrition, which was provided by the state. And the conclusion: from a legal point of view, such a severe punishment of the director of Eliseevsky is illegal ...

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

A month before Sokolov's arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director's office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (there was a "short circuit in the electrical wiring" in the store, the elevators were turned off and "repairmen" were called). Under the "cap" were taken and all the branches of "Eliseevsky".

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

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

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

The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew very well that there was a burglar alarm button on Sokolov's desktop. So when he entered the director's office, he held out his hand to greet him.

The "friendly" shaking ended with a seizure that prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that he was presented with a warrant for arrest and began to search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store.

Why Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupted his vacation and flew to Moscow

Even before the end of the investigation into the Sokolov case and the transfer of the indictment to the court, the arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began.

The patrons tried to take him out of the blow and shortly before that they transplanted him into the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg intermediary office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry.

An interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, Politburo member V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, there was nothing he could do. The career of the patron of the Moscow "trade mafia" was already at an end - in December 1985, Boris Yeltsin replaced him as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.

Behind bars were the directors of the most famous Moscow grocery stores: V. Filippov (grocery store "Novoarbatsky"), B. Tveretinov (grocery store "GUM"), S. Noniev (grocery store "Smolensky"), as well as the head of Mosplodovshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the trade "Gastronom" I. Korovkin, director of "Diettorga" Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a number of very respectable and responsible workers.

The investigation will establish that in the Glavtorg case, 757 people were united by stable criminal ties - from store directors to trade leaders in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. According to the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles in bribes passed, one can imagine the overall scale of corruption. According to the documents, the damage to the state was estimated at 3 million rubles (a lot of money at that time).

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

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

From the moment of Sokolov's arrest, the editorial offices of the central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the KGB continued to receive letters from all over the country demanding that the presumptuous traders be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Yuri Sokolov

According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them “upstairs” to ensure the normal supply of the store, but he did not take a penny for himself. It was even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bunk at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state, Nikita Khrushchev.

The death sentence for the director of "Eliseevsky" amazed even the KGB investigators

Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under articles 173 part 2 and 174 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (receiving and giving a bribe on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 was sentenced to capital punishment - execution with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison.

At the trial, Sokolov did not refuse his testimony, he read out to the court from the notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe givers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid publicity of compromising evidence on major party and state functionaries, the court session was closed. Sokolov at court hearings repeated several times that he had become a "scapegoat", "a victim of party strife."

They say that the KGB officers involved in this criminal case were amazed at the death sentence against the defendant, who actively cooperated with the investigation and the court. It is hard for Sokolov to believe in the public expression of sympathy of the committee members. More plausible is the assumption that it was for the detailed testimony that Sokolov paid with his life.

When later Nikolai Tregubov, the former head of the Moscow trade, appeared before the court, through whom the main "tranches" of bribes passed, he pleaded not guilty and did not name any names. As a result, he received 15 years in prison. Remember, this is almost the same as the ordinary head of the department of the Eliseevsky grocery store!

Two directors executed, one sentenced himself to death

No sooner had the shock of the execution of Yuri Sokolov passed through in the trading industry than a new death sentence was issued to the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan. The court, in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, did not find extenuating circumstances such as the participation of Mkhitar Hambardzumyan in the storming of the Reichstag and in the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. And he also testified.

Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, sounded outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniyev, committed suicide.

For a long time there was a rumor: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center

Recall that the investigation of other criminal cases against the employees of the Glavtorg was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in such a dangerous witness as Sokolov being "neutralized" as soon as possible. Most likely, it was from here that the rumor was born: Sokolov, they say, hastened to remove him so that he would not have time to file a request for pardon ...

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

Literally a few months after the death of the former director of Eliseevsky, the rules of the game on this field began to change. The investigation into the case of the “trading mafia” began to wind down, a group of investigators from the OBKhSS, formed from specialists from many regions, was dispersed “to their homes”.

Alexander Sergeev

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

Member of the Great Patriotic War, had awards. It is also known that in the 1950s he was convicted "on libel". But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was the deputy director of grocery store No. 1, from 1972 to 1982 he was the director of the Eliseevsky store.

Arrest and sentence

In 1982, Yu. V. Andropov came to power in the USSR, one of whose goals was to cleanse the country of corruption, theft and bribery. He knew the real state of affairs in trade, so Andropov decided [source not specified 289 days] to start with the Moscow Prodtorg. The first arrested in this case was the director of the Moscow Vneshposyltorg (Birch) store Avilov and his wife, who was Sokolov's deputy as director of the Eliseevsky store. Moscow grocery store No. 1 ("Eliseevsky") was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, military elite of the country with selected delicacies. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the director of the grocery store, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the defendants in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity. If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could have gathered to execute the sentence on the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded "to punish the presumptuous merchant to the fullest extent of the law." But did his crime carry the death penalty?

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

The criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev "of embezzlement of food products on a large scale and bribery" was initiated by the Moscow prosecutor's office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev.

He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else's crime ...

Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He participated in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 1950s he was convicted "on libel". But after two years of imprisonment, he was fully justified: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman.

From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call "Eliseevsky". Having headed a trading enterprise, he proved himself, as they would say now, a brilliant top manager. In an era of total scarcity, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert.

Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in a rotten system of co-trading?

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

In grocery store No. 1 and its seven branches "under the counter" abundance reigned: imported alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and salmon, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits ... All this could be purchased (according to the ordering system and from the "back door") only high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals ...

How did delicacy, rare, and even simply exotic products get into the Soviet grocery store No. 1?

Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “Using his responsible official position, from January 1972 to October 1982, Sokolov systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trade organizations he ensured uninterrupted delivery to the grocery store in an assortment favorable to bribe-givers".

In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that "the current order in the trading system" makes it inevitable the sale of unaccounted for foodstuffs, the underweight and shortfall of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and regrading, write-off according to the column of natural wastage and "left sale", as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those who are above and those who are below, even the driver who carries the products ...

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

During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo.

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

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

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

Sokolov could not calculate one thing then: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-move game for the highest power, the Chairman of the Committee had already outlined the director of Eliseevsky, to whom undercover reports of bribery had been received, as the fuse who was supposed to detonate the bomb ...

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

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

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

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

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

The committee member who arrested Sokolov first exchanged a firm handshake with him.

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

Why Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupted his vacation and flew to Moscow

Even before the end of the investigation into the Sokolov case and the transfer of the indictment to the court, the arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began.

In total, since the summer of 1983, more than 15,000 people have been prosecuted in the system of the capital's Glavtorg. Including the former head of the Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov. The patrons tried to take him out of the blow and shortly before that they transplanted him into the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg intermediary office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry.

Behind bars were the directors of the most famous Moscow food stores: V. Filippov (grocery store "Novoarbatsky"), B. Tveretinov (grocery store "GUM"), S. Noniev (grocery store "Smolensky"), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the trade "Gastronom" I. Korovkin, director of "Diettorga" Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a number of very respectable and responsible workers.

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

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

Information about how much "stuck" to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. The dacha, where 50 thousand rubles were found in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a used foreign car - this is according to one source. According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them "upstairs" to ensure the normal supply of the store, but he did not take a penny for himself. It was even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bunk at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state, Nikita Khrushchev.

The death sentence for the director of "Eliseevsky" amazed even the KGB investigators

The meeting of the Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the case of Sokolov and other "financially responsible persons of grocery store No. 1" was held behind closed doors. Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under articles 173 part 2 and 174 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (receiving and giving a bribe on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 was sentenced to capital punishment - execution by firing squad with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison.

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

Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, sounded outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniyev, committed suicide.

For a long time there was a rumor: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center

It was officially announced that the sentence against Yuri Sokolov was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not make it to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court session? Recall that the investigation of other criminal cases against the employees of the Glavtorg was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in such a dangerous witness as Sokolov being "neutralized" as soon as possible. Most likely, it was from here that the rumor was born: Sokolov, they say, hastened to remove him so that he would not have time to file a request for pardon ...

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

Sokolov is definitely a criminal. However, the court had enough reason to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the smarmy director became one of the pawns in the political struggle for supreme power. Literally a few months after the death of the former director of Eliseevsky, the rules of the game on this field began to change. The investigation into the case of the "trading mafia" began to wind down, a group of investigators from the OBKhSS, formed from specialists from many regions, was dispersed "to their homes."

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

Soviet millionaires: the case of the director of the grocery store "Eliseevsky. "Eliseevsky case" - the fight against corruption or a political order? The case of corruption in the Eliseevsky grocery store

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