Women of the All-Union Elder. "lustful goat" of the entire USSR

pretender, - today the radio broadcast three times the resolution of the Central Committee on strengthening the fight against child crime.

In a week, give me the exact numbers arrested - 11>1 x adult relatives of criminals. They need to be imprisoned for a long time so that they learn to work. A child is not born a criminal - his parents are responsible for his crimes. Mobilize the press, radio, cinema. Re-education is the task of our party.

Kalinin left, and Stalin called the waitress:

Prepare fried trout with potatoes.

It will be served in ten minutes.

While we were waiting, Stalin said the following.

One day a woman came from another city with a request to Kalinin. Seeing her daughter in the corridor, Kalinin fulfilled this request and invited them to stay in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel. One day, under the pretext of a tour of Moscow, he took his daughter to his dacha and raped her. The mother turned out to be a close relative of the major military leader Yegorov. To hush up the scandal, Kalinin gave this woman a large sum of money. But we taught him a lesson: thirty of his relatives were exiled to Verkhoyansk. Now he is meek as a lamb. This is how the disciples and associates of the great Lenin work!

Comrade Stalin, thank you for your trust...

If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't tell this story.

Later I learned about another tragedy, the culprit of which was Kalinin.

He really liked ballerinas and often went to the theater. It must be said that the young ballerinas, knowing his power, recklessly flirted with him. Mikhail Ivanovich gave them chocolate, imported linen, and invited them to dinner. In anticipation of gifts, they did not refuse him small liberties and kisses on the neck.

One day, Kalinin became seriously interested in sixteen-year-old ballerina Bella Uvarova. The director of the ballet school did everything to protect the girl, but Kalinin followed her everywhere.

Bella's father was an engineer, worked in the People's Commissariat, her mother was a translator and knew several European languages. Bella has been dancing since she was four years old. Then she began to study choreography and staged ballet sketches herself. One day, without telling her parents, she called a famous ballerina and asked to watch her. The ballerina really liked Bella and she helped her enter the choreographic school. The Bolshoi Theater pinned its hopes on Uvarova.

Bella Uvarova disappeared two weeks after meeting Kalinin. Only a month later, Bella’s mutilated corpse was found in a forest near Moscow. The girl was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. An investigation began, which established that after the performance, on the day of her disappearance, some unknown people forcibly put Bella into a car and drove away. The family saw Bella at Kalinin’s dacha, judging by the photograph of the girl they identified...

The management of the Bolshoi Theater turned to Comrade Stalin for help. It was absolutely by chance that the complaint fell directly into his hands. A commission was created consisting of Malenkov, Yezhov, Poskrebyshev, Mehlis. Kalinin was pretty battered, but Stalin needed him, and these saints saved the old rapist: they sent him on a long vacation “for treatment.”

During a tour in Kyiv, after the performance, I met Tukhachevsky in a restaurant. He came to inspect the Kyiv Military District.

Tukhachevsky managed to get rid of his personal guard and driver, and we went to the village to visit one of his distant relatives. I told him about the arrest of Kamenev and Zinoviev.

What else is going on?

Stalin is preparing a decree on conferring marshal ranks.

When will it be signed?

- : Don't know.

They won't give me a marshal. Stalin has been sharpening his grudge against me for a long time.

Misha, he needs you!

Do you know something?

Oh, there are so many rumors going around...

Vera Alexandrovna, we see each other so rarely!

But, Misha, you don’t love me! They say that you have mistresses in every city.

Who told you this? - Tukhachevsky got angry. - Who? I will bring him to clean water! “He took my hand and whispered: “I only need you, I dream about you every night.” What happened in youth is gone...

I asked him why Kirov was killed.

Sergei Mironovich is not the first and not the last victim of Stalin,” he said gloomily. - I hope you won’t betray me?

Don't speak if you're afraid!

Don’t be angry, Verochka, it’s a terrible time now. I realized a long time ago what Stalin was. This bandy-legged pygmy imagines himself as Napoleon. In his youth, Joseph Dzhugashvili joined a nationalist organization, where he remained until 1917. And then, without a twinge of conscience, he betrayed his comrades-in-arms to Vyacheslav Menzhinsky.

Now I will settle accounts with him! Don't look at me so surprised. Stalin was afraid of Kirov, afraid that he would take his place. Is there a dictator who will give up power on his own? For many years, Kirov supported Lenin. At all meetings, the fearless Kirov sought a ban on repression and a reduction in the number of camps. In 1921, on Lenin's initiative, Kirov was elected secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan. After 5 years, Stalin recommended him for the post of secretary of the Leningrad party organization, in place of his former protégés Zinoviev and Evdokimov. Kirov became the master of Leningrad: he did not take Stalin into account at all and independently solved the most serious problems.

Joseph Vissarionovich seeks only to strengthen his usurper power and uncontrollably leads this huge country. He surpassed even the Roman emperors in immorality; after Lenin’s death, he consistently got rid of his opponents and supported his supporters with all his might. The people's love for him rests on fear. And he constantly invents new methods of strengthening this love.

And you, Mishenka, who are you? Sorry for the direct question, but do you consider yourself better than Stalin’s hangers-on?

It’s hard to talk about myself: I also shot people who did not accept the revolution.

So where are your feelings of mercy, pity, shame?

In all my actions I was guided, first of all, by civic duty. There is no place for sentimentality in the fight for justice.

You are a nobleman, an aristocrat, a former white officer, how did you decide to change all this? I’m asking you so directly, without any pretense, because I love you, I love you for the first time in my life.

Tukhachevsky was breathing heavily and unbuttoned his collar. We went out into the garden.

Verochka, you asked me a terrible question! I will open my whole soul to you. You and I are very close, but life will separate us. You know, this is even better for me. You have to pay for mistakes. What do I have in common with these dark men Voroshilov and Budyonny? They climbed up and pretended to be commanders. I, a highly educated, professional military man, depend on the mood of any stupid people's commissar. And nothing can be done, the Stalinist bureaucratic apparatus cannot be broken... That's it, the movie is over!

Mishenka, what should I do?

Be patient... and wait for the end.

Having received an invitation to Malenkov’s birthday, I went to buy him a pair of Ukrainian embroidered shirts as a gift. I hail a taxi, and then he pulls up. He offered to get into the car, and we quickly drove to his dacha in Serebryany Bor. The owner there was his wife Golubtsova, who recently, thanks to the support of the party, received a doctorate in technical sciences - without defending a dissertation - and the leadership of the Moscow Energy Institute. The hero of the occasion himself abandoned higher education for the sake of party work.

Among the guests were Mikoyan, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Yezhov, Poskrebyshev, Ordzhonikidze, Andreev, Shvernik.

Vera Alexandrovna, I’m happy that you came,” Malenkov said.

Thank you, and I'm glad to meet you at home.

Let’s leave the guests and talk,” he took my arm, and we went out onto the terrace. It was a quiet night.

Anastasia Volochkova: In the dressing room they threatened me with a knife!

The ballerina's partners were severely beaten so that they would not appear on the same stage with her.

One day, two fans came to my dressing room - huge men with a basket of flowers,” Nastya recalls the events of that evening. - Well, I think, as usual, they want to ask for an autograph. And they... pulled out a knife and said: “Anastasia, on behalf of the director of the Bolshoi Theater, we demand that the trial be stopped and the documents taken away.”

The director of the Bolshoi Theater, Anatoly Iksanov, tried to deprive me of my partners. The dancers who continued to participate in my performances were beaten! Zhenya Ivanchenko suffered the most. On the eve of the opening of the season at the Bolshoi Theater in 2003, where we were supposed to dance Swan Lake with him, he suddenly disappeared. It turned out that he was beaten in the entrance of the house, with a warning that if he appeared on the threshold of the Bolshoi Theater or next to Volochkova again, it would be even worse.

To suppress hunger, ballerinas drink shampoo!

For many, ballet dancers mean lush tutus, graceful pointe shoes and incessant applause. Only the initiated know what is hidden behind this gloss: those who managed to pass the strict selection committee and many years of daily training in the hall of mirrors. These people devote all their time and health to ballet. Simply because they cannot do otherwise.

Asya Vasilyeva

In the ninth grade, a new girl came to our school - slender, elongated as a string, but at the same time graceful as a cat, Mashenka. Previously, she studied at a choreographic school in the “classics” and could become a professional ballerina. She could, but she didn't want to. I just couldn’t stand the crazy physical exertion.

Natural selection

Those who still decide to connect their lives with ballet will have to pass the entrance exam to the choreographic school. The strongest schools in Russia are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Vladivostok and Novosibirsk. Those admitted live in dormitories. The classes are tough - no baby talk.

“Almost all teachers are strict and callous people,” recalls my classmate Maria Yakubovskaya. - The choreographer was screaming all the time! When she noticed the relaxed buttocks of the ballerinas, she grabbed a fly swatter and spanked the girls, shouting “pick up your butts.” To help us stretch our legs better, a huge ruler was used: with its blows, the teacher showed which muscle needed to be tensed. I was covered in bruises.

Missing classes is out of the question! - user Swan advises mothers on a special forum. - My daughter once had a bad cold and was lying in bed with a high fever. The teacher called and said in a steely voice: “He can’t train, let him go!” There are a lot of people willing to take your place. I feel sorry for the child - take him home! Only death can be a valid reason for skipping!” Be prepared that your child will have to study from morning until late evening. My daughter also stretched at night.

No matter how talented and diligent a girl is, if she was born with the wrong physical characteristics, the road to classical ballet is closed to her, explains Yakubovskaya. - The examiners at the school look at you like a dog at a show: if the joints are not mobile enough or there are problems with stretching, the length of the legs is inappropriate or the size of the head is disappointing, they are instantly rejected.

The first thing the selection committee pays attention to is turnout (the ability of the legs to turn outward). In addition, girls must be very flexible: easily lift their legs 180 degrees, gracefully bend their backs, literally folding in half. Another important quality is high rise. Many people, in order to achieve the desired result, “break it” - this is the name for forced stretching of the ligaments of the upper part of the foot.

The easiest way is to put your toes under a radiator or cabinet, advises BalletRose on the forum. - The main thing is that the gap between the floor and the object is as small as possible. The essence of the “torture” is to keep the legs under the radiator in the sixth position (exactly), while the knees should remain straight and the toes should tend to the floor. It hurts, but you have to endure it!

The future ballerina must have long limbs. Ballet dancers even have a special “long-legged” index, which is calculated upon admission to the school.

Each child is measured twice - in full height and from the top of the head to the buttocks,” explains Yakubovskaya. - Then the height in a sitting position is divided by the height in a standing position and multiplied by one hundred. The ballet norm is 49 - 52 percent. Actually, this index can be assessed with the naked eye: the legs of ballerinas should be much longer than the body.

Victims of art

The competition in ballet is simply monstrous: out of 500 who come to the audition, only 30 will be accepted, only half of them will finish their studies at the school, and only one will dance the leading roles.

The most difficult tests for young ballerinas come during school days.

We get up at seven in the morning, before classes we need to wash the floors and make the bed, have time to collect our hair into a “bump,” said 13-year-old Nadezhda Vysotskaya, a student at the Perm Choreographic School. - Many girls bite and scratch teachers during stretching - such unbearable pain. I remember writing letters to my mother begging her to take me home, but a new day would come and I would go back to class.

For the servants of Terpsichore, the ideal figure is a skeleton. Each calorie in food is counted by the school's in-house nutritionist. The required weight is again calculated using the formula: height minus 122. Anyone who goes beyond these limits is excluded.

In the evening you want to eat especially badly,” Nadezhda continues. - To cope with this, I chew gum. I heard that someone was drinking shampoo.

Before the control weigh-in, the students begin to lose weight with all their might. It is especially tough in the fifth grade, after which a great purge occurs in choreographic schools: duet dance is introduced into the program, and it is believed that it is harmful for boys to lift more than 50 kilograms.

The day before the weigh-in, we ate a lot of furosemide, a strong diuretic,” ballerina Evgenia Petrova shares her experience. - One of the girls sat on cheese and dry wine for two weeks. From such a diet she was constantly slightly tipsy and immediately after the exam she fainted. The most vulnerable were children from wealthy families: they were always experimenting with unknown medicines. There were also tragic stories. The daughter of a famous TV announcer was graduating from college. Before the exam, she lost a lot of weight, and, apparently, because of this, something happened to her psyche. After eating an apple, she ran to the toilet to induce vomiting, and then to the mirror to see if she had gained weight. When she became completely weak, she was admitted to the hospital, fed intravenously, but she was tearing out the tubes. It all ended horribly: she died weighing 38 kilograms!

But there are also happy people in ballet who can eat whatever they want without any consequences for their figure. Alla Mikhalchenko always ate a full lunch, bought a cake or five sweets from the buffet and immediately went to the rehearsal.

Bloody pointe shoes

Professional ballerinas get sick four times more often than ordinary people. As a rule, they suffer from digestive disorders, menstrual irregularities, arthritis, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. Cases of infertility among dancers are not uncommon.

By graduation, half of our girls’ periods had stopped,” Lana says on the forum. - But the most painful topic is the legs. Pointe shoes are almost half the size of regular shoes. This allows you to rest on your toes, but greatly deforms your foot. You can recognize our feet from a thousand: all covered in bumps, calluses, and bruises. Everyone who has “broken” their lift sooner or later has loose and even torn ligaments. Because of this, the legs are easily tucked in when jumping. I’m not even talking about fractures!

That is why, before putting on new pointe shoes, the ballerina carefully prepares them: she breaks the sock with a hammer, making it softer, rips out the insole, rubs the sole with a kitchen grater, and cuts the very tip of the shoe, sewing up the resulting hole with thick threads.

After graduating from college, the ballerina begins to struggle for the stage.

There are no girlfriends in ballet: at any moment they can stick a knife in your back,” one of the Bolshoi Theater artists under the nickname Tata confesses on the forum.

“They once rubbed some kind of ointment on the inside of my suit,” Ivan says on the forum. - During the dance, the body warmed up - the skin became sensitive, and this ointment caused unbearable pain. They also somehow cut the elastic bands on the ballet shoes that hold them on the leg. During the dance, the shoes came off.

Despite her extensive connections, the daughter of the famous comedian Vladimir Vinokur remained just a good ballerina.

My things were thrown out of the dressing rooms into the corridor, making it clear who was boss in the house,” says Anastasia. - It’s also true about broken glass in pointe shoes!

Not everyone can cope with incredible physical and psychological stress. Most ballet dancers, in order to dance while overcoming pain, swallow handfuls of painkillers, and some get hooked on strong tranquilizers and alcohol.

Ballet dancers also cannot boast of huge earnings - their income depends on the number of performances and roles: in large theaters, ordinary ballerinas receive 15 - 20 thousand rubles, in the provinces - 6 - 9 thousand. They are saved, of course, by tours, for which they pay travel allowances , and the opportunity to work part-time in other productions. Prim and leading artists have a better situation - they bring home from 50 to 80 thousand.

Ballet dancers' vacation usually lasts a month. Creative retirement comes after 20 years of service - as a rule, at 35 - 37 years. This does not mean at all that upon reaching this age, ballerinas are thrown out of the theater: Ekaterina Maksimova, for example, performed until she was 55, Galina Ulanova - until 50, Maya Plisetskaya - until 65. But today's dance youth prefer to play it safe by mastering more "earthly" professions.

Fouette on the table

Many ballerinas have powerful patrons. Even famous by Alexander Pushkin, the dancer Avdotya Istomina could not choose which of her fans to prefer - the cavalry guard Vasily Sheremetev or Count Alexander Zavadovsky. As a result, the rivals staged a duel. Sheremetev died.

Nicholas II was a fan of one of the brightest ballet stars of the last century, Matilda Kshesinskaya. This was the norm of that time - men from the royal family always gravitated towards the actresses of the Imperial Theater. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Sr. was fond of the ballerina Ekaterina Chislova, as a result of which the dancer had two sons and two daughters. And Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich admired the art of the ballerina Kuznetsova so much that in this endless delight he built her a two-story house and stayed in it for weeks.

Kshesinskaya's romance with the Tsarevich ended after his marriage to Princess Alice of Hesse. Afterwards, the ballerina passed from hand to hand to Nicholas’s cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. He even invited his girlfriend to marry, but she chose the young Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

The Bolsheviks, having come to power, also did not disdain the “lordly” hobby. Joseph Stalin himself loved to admire how Olga Lepeshinskaya danced at the Bolshoi Theater, and always gave her a lift home after the performance. Sometimes the leader left the ballerina in the early morning.

One of the most famous admirers of ballet fairies was the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin. For this, Stalin nicknamed him “the all-Union lustful goat.” They say that Kalinin invited girls to his office and forced them to twirl the fouetté in what their mother gave birth to right on his desk. According to rumors, Bella Uvarova, one of the ballerinas whom Mikhail Ivanovich had his eye on, refused to participate in this disgrace, and after some time her body was found not far from Moscow. After this incident, Kalinin was urgently sent on an unplanned vacation.

It’s impossible to count how many ballerinas were in Lavrentiy Beria’s bed. From time to time he stopped by the Bolshoi Theater to watch the ballerinas warm up and choose a girl according to his mood.

The famous dancer Maris Liepa was Galina Brezhneva's lover, although he was married at that time. Their romance lasted five years, the secretary general’s daughter helped him in his career all this time.

Highly spiritual striptease

Ballet has always been associated with homosexuality. Therefore, every dancer must have a wife, who becomes a protection against suspicion. Only having a life partner has the prospect of becoming a traveler. But there were brave souls who were not afraid of their orientation. For example, Vakhtang Chabukiani. This legendary dancer had a courageous appearance, a bright temperament and... an endless love for boys.

Rudolf Nureyev in a narrow circle of Leningrad gays acquired a reputation as a hot Tatar guy. In his own version of “Sleeping Beauty,” he turned his back to the audience and slowly took off his long cloak until, finally, the dancer’s luxurious buttocks were revealed to the viewer. By the way, he died from the disease of gays and drug addicts - AIDS.

Not only all ages are submissive to love, but also people of different social strata. Moreover, they often interfere with love, spoil relationships between close people and... influence political decision-making. Mistresses of the highest leaders of the Soviet state is a topic that we hope will interest many readers. After all, the secret life of once omnipotent people will be shown.

During the Soviet era, the topic was closed and carefully hidden. We didn’t have sex in our country, not that they didn’t talk about it at all. No, they did, but not so often. Every decent person was supposed to be married, and love affairs were a phenomenon condemned by society. Intrigues on the side of high officials of the “country of Soviets” sooner or later became known anyway.

After the fall of tsarist power in 1917, the landscape of life changed seriously. The formation of Soviet power took place in a harsh, cruel manner (just like any other). Therefore, it is not surprising that in the first decades of the existence of the new state, its leaders often led an immoral lifestyle. This was influenced by the famous “glass of water theory”. In fact, it represented free love, which the brave knights of the revolution took advantage of. So we will pay our attention to them, and then to their mistresses. Subsequently, we will devote a separate article to each of the politicians or military men.

How a love triangle became the beginning of repression.

The first secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee, Sergei Kirov, was killed in 1934. His death was used to advantage to unleash the notorious repressions of the late 1930s. But the circumstances of the death are not known to everyone. The official was not faithful to his wife and often went “to the left.”

Among his mistresses there were many famous theater ballerinas of that time. By the way, they were preferred by almost all infidel high ranks of the times of the Union. But one of Sergei Mironovich’s many mistresses became fatal for him. For real. Her name was Milda Draule.

She was a married woman, whose legal spouse was a certain Leonid Nikolaev. But Milda could not resist Kirov’s charm. A romance began, rumors of which reached Nikolaev. The latter was a hot-headed man: he, of course, flared up and decided to put an end to this matter.

Nikolaev suffered from “delusions of grandeur” and wanted his feat to be remembered many years later. On December 1, he entered Smolny with a revolver. The meeting with his wife’s lover ended in Kirov’s death: the latter died on the spot. Subsequently, the murder of Kirov was presented to the people as the political elimination of “a faithful Leninist by the enemies of the working class.” And the enemies, naturally, were shot. They turned out to be Nikolaev, his wife and their friends.

Lover of young people.

A big “womanizer” was Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, died in 1946). As befits a high official by law, the housekeeper, Alexandra Gorchakova, was in charge of household affairs. Kalinin sent his wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna, to Altai “to engage in socially useful work.” Of course, so as not to interfere with communication with the housekeeper.

Mikhail Ivanovich also loved the ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater. And state security used these “campaigns to the left” as dirt on Kalinin. For ballerinas, such hobbies brought good gifts, money, material benefits, in a word. But the most important thing was that a “roof” appeared.

But for one ballerina, such pranks ended in her death. The girl's name was Bella Uvarova. After the performance, she was supposed to be delivered “to the address”, but she did not get to Kalinin. She disappeared, and after some time a disfigured body was discovered, identified as Bella Uvarova.

It is still not known who the girl’s killer was. But after her death, a criminal group engaged in industrial sabotage was eliminated. Allegedly, she took Uvarova’s life. This is what her passion led to.

Deadly campaigns “to the left” of the brave marshal.

One of the first five marshals of the Red Army, Mikhail Tukhachevsky (shot in 1937), had affairs with all three of his wives. The first one shot herself, unable to bear the shame. Having married his second wife, he cohabited with his sisters Natalya and Tatyana Chernoluzky. In addition to this, he did not forget to visit Amalia Protas, his adjutant.

Over time, the marshal's second wife got tired of such adventures and the couple divorced. But at least something for Tukhachevsky. The marshal went after other people's wives: he took the missus away from the political commissar. And he married her; his third wife’s name was Nina. This marriage did not calm the marshal’s hot ardor and he became the lover of Yulia Kuzmina, his friend’s wife.

It makes no sense to list all the military’s mistresses, since there were a lot of them, and not all of them were known. But one woman played a fatal role in his life. The singer Josephine Genzi, with gorgeous blue eyes, was not just a favorite of the officers' club, but also a spy for German intelligence. She had a specific goal - to recruit Tukhachevsky, and if this did not work out, to plant false documents.

Most likely, it was not possible to recruit, since the marshal was arrested on the basis of planted German papers. From which it followed that he was a participant in the anti-Soviet uprising. The fate of the chief of staff of the Red Army was decided. A trial soon followed, at which Tukhachevsky and 7 other senior military leaders were found guilty and subsequently shot.

Mysterious People's Commissar.

Lavrenty Beria also ended his life at the wall. For a long time he headed the state security agencies, led the Soviet atomic project and managed to have mistresses. But there are so many sexual legends surrounding him that they need a separate article. And in general, you can talk a lot about Beria and on different topics.

Let's quickly go over his intimate records. The People's Commissar had a special adjutant who was looking for beautiful girls and women for his boss; Beria kept a list of women with whom he had affairs; For the last 10 years of his life, Lavrenty Pavlovich suffered from syphilis, and if he had not been shot, he would have died from this venereal infection.

The mistresses of the top leaders of the Soviet state were often not influential people in politics. But being close to the official influenced his character and worldview. And they often led to the death of their loved ones. Whether they were “favorite” is another question.

November 19 marked the 135th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Kalinin. Joseph Stalin called this handsome old man in glasses, who for many years headed the Central Executive Committee and then the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, “the all-Union goat.” To this nickname he often added another biting word - “lustful”, hinting at Mikhail Ivanovich’s weakness in the female department. However, the almighty “father of nations” turned a blind eye to Kalinin’s adventures, appreciating him for his selfless devotion.

In the first years of Soviet power, the Bolshoi Theater did not experience much favor from the authorities. Its luxurious premises were used for various kinds of party events, and ballerinas were forced to perform in large numbers, and for free, at concerts. The salary was small and they were not given rations or other privileges. But as soon as Kalinin became chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, everything changed almost overnight. Theater artists were included among the select few who were allowed to use the services of the Kremlin’s medical and sanatorium administration. The ballet students were allowed to create their own housing cooperative and were provided with finance and construction materials without a queue. The dancers began to be provided with food rations. They began to increase their salaries twice a year.

Kalinin’s close attention to the needs of the Bolshoi Theater was explained not so much by changes in state policy in the field of art, but by the personal preferences of the “all-Union headman.” No, he was not at all a fine connoisseur of ballet. And he could hardly distinguish a pas de deux from a fouetté. But he really liked young ballerinas. He shared his passion with Avel Enukidze, secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Two party leaders often visited the theater. Mikhail Ivanovich dropped by at rehearsals and looked behind the scenes after performances.

From the outside it looked very touching: such a high official did not consider it shameful to communicate with ordinary dancers and ask them about their needs. And soon the girl she liked was called for a personal conversation with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. For their understanding and compliance, the all-Union headman and his secretary presented the young beauties with foreign cosmetics, rings and expensive beautiful lingerie. But not all young dancers agreed that providing intimate services to high-ranking government officials was a great honor. 16-year-old Bella Uvarova did not reciprocate Mikhail Ivanovich’s feelings. He hoped that the young charmer would come to her senses, and renewed his attempts several times. But having received a firm refusal, he was beside himself with anger. After another call to the “all-Union elder”, the girl did not return home. Parents raised a fuss and contacted the police. The mutilated body of a young ballerina was found in a forest near Moscow. A special commission was created to investigate the incident. Stalin himself intervened in the matter. By a strange coincidence of circumstances, the victim’s parents were declared foreign spies, her father served as a consultant in the British mission, and were soon shot. Kalinin was urgently sent on vacation. As soon as the noise died down, Mikhail Ivanovich again began to frequent the Bolshoi Theater. The dancers were no longer capricious. True, a little later Moscow quietly whispered about one incident that happened at the Bolshoi. They said that the famous ballerina Ekaterina Geltser threw a statuette of Mephistopheles at Mikhail Ivanovich. One of the young students cried to her, telling her how kind uncle Kalinin had dishonored her.

Stalin knew about his faithful servant's weakness for ballet. On his instructions, the GPU, and then the NKVD, carried out appropriate work with the dancers. They were ordered to write detailed reports about what the sensualist was talking to them about. But Kalinin did not allow himself any political deviations. True, one day Stalin nevertheless suspected him of loyalty to some representatives of the opposition. And then Demyan Bedny’s feuilleton “About how our headman Kalinich recaptured Tatyana Bakh from Averbakh” appeared in the Izvestia newspaper. Kalinin just at that time had a period of passion for operetta. And he started an affair with the young singer Tatyana Bakh. The girl immediately turned from a second-rate singer into a prima. The Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was understanding. After the appearance of the feuilleton, he stopped welcoming draft dodgers who were disliked by Stalin and continued to carry out orders with the same zeal and sign decrees on executions. But the love fervor did not cool down.
His wife Ekaterina Ivanovna endured her husband’s affairs on the side for a long time. But her situation became completely unbearable when Mikhail Ivanovich took a mistress in his own house. She became their housekeeper Alexandra Gorchakova. Feeling the power of her influence, she began to command Catherine, taking her place. The unfortunate woman could not stand the humiliation and, leaving five children - three of her own and two adopted ones, she left for Altai. Kalinin came up with a plausible excuse. They say that the wife yearned for propaganda work, because she was one of the old Bolsheviks. Later, Catherine returned, hoping that her husband would come to his senses. But where is it?

In 1938, the head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee raped a 17-year-old girl at a state dacha. The poor thing turned out to be a relative of the prominent military leader Alexander Egorov. This time Mikhail Ivanovich was very afraid. The scandal reached Stalin. But the leader brought down his anger on Kalinin’s wife: they say, it was her fault that her husband became mired in debauchery. Ekaterina Ivanovna was accused of having connections with Trotskyists and was sent to camps for 15 years. She was pardoned seven years later. Returning after serving time in March 1946, she lived with her daughter, not wanting to communicate with Kalinin. And soon Mikhail Ivanovich died.

Collage L!FE. Photo: RIA Novosti wikipedia.org

The future formal head of state Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was born in 1875 in the village of Verkhnyaya Trinity, Tver province, into a peasant family. He was taken to St. Petersburg by the local landowner-engineer Dmitry Mordukhai-Boltovsky: he needed a smart errand boy. Later, Kalinin got a job at a factory and joined a Marxist circle. With all the ensuing consequences: arrests, exile, escapes. The revolution elevated Kalinin to the position of head of the Commissariat of Urban Economy of the Union of Communes of the Northern Region and the Petrograd Labor Commune.

In 1922, he took a new career height - he became one of the chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. Kalinin was convenient for Stalin in all respects - he obeyed unquestioningly, which was important in the fight against Trotsky and other opponents. “The figure is completely colorless, a decorative “all-Russian headman,” - this is how Stalin’s personal secretary Boris Bazhanov, who fled the USSR in 1928, characterized Kalinin in his memoirs. “He was tolerated here and was not taken into account at all. He never had any claims to any independence and always obediently followed those who were in power."

In history, the image of a sweet old man with a beard, who was nominally the leader of the country, was immortalized in books, monuments, and street names. True, this leaf image bore little resemblance to the real Kalinin. The “All-Union Headman” was suspected of rape and murder. In addition, he calmly sent his wife to the camps.

Ballerina lover

Collage L!FE. Photo: RIA Novosti/Evgeniya Novozhenina

A passion for ballerinas, singers and other representatives of creative professions has been fashionable since Tsarist times. The Soviet “powers that be” were in no way inferior to the ministers of the early 20th century. Stalin's mistress Vera Davydova in the scandalous book "The Kremlin Goats. Confession of Stalin's Mistress" wrote about the addiction of the chairman of the Central Election Commission to dancers.

The fact is that in 1922, as soon as Kalinin took office as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, he was assigned to oversee the work of the Bolshoi Theater. In essence, he checked the quality of productions before the premieres, which were to be attended by the top party leadership.

According to Davydova, he combined “business with pleasure.” The fact is that the politician really liked ballerinas, and the latter, knowing this, did not miss their chance and constantly flirted with him.

— Mikhail Ivanovich gave them chocolate, imported linen, and invited them to dinner. In anticipation of gifts, they did not refuse him small liberties and kisses on the neck,” Davydova wrote. However, Kalinin did not limit himself to kisses alone. The security officers also contributed to this: the GPU, in order to have compromising material on Kalinin just in case, systematically slipped him young ballerinas. And he himself was not against it.

Bella Uvarova

According to her, there was one terrible incident in Kalinin’s biography. Thus, a politician in the mid-1930s liked a certain 16-year-old Bella Uvarova, a dancer at the Bolshoi Theater. The girl was perhaps the only one who refused the politician. And soon after that she disappeared. According to legend, the search for the Bolshoi dancer began only after her parents contacted her. And they found her murdered in one of the forests near Moscow. It soon became clear that the girl’s mother and father were foreign spies. Plus, the girl’s mother allegedly was a translator and knew several languages. Well, how can we do without spying?

True, something in this story is still confusing. The name Bella doesn’t come up too often, especially at the Bolshoi Theater. However, there is no mention of the 16-year-old talent anywhere except in the books of the “leader’s mistress.”

Dancing on the table

Photo: flickr/Stuart Crawford

Either the incident really happened, or the rumor about it was spread for credibility, but the head of the Central Election Commission was no longer refused. The dancers meekly went to him and danced, according to stories, on a table upholstered in green cloth (similar to a billiard table). The politician really loved fouetté.

By the way, for his love for ballerinas, Stalin allegedly nicknamed Kalinin the lustful all-Union goat. So his nickname was “All-Union Grandfather” or “All-Union Headman” after Leon Trotsky called Kalinin All-Russian Headman in 1919. The nickname “grandfather” stuck due to the fact that Kalinin looked much older than his age.

Attempted rape

Photo: RIA Novosti/Ivan Shagin

The same favorite of Stalin, Vera Davydova, told one story.

— While we were waiting, Stalin said the following. One day a woman came from another city with a request to Kalinin. Seeing her daughter in the corridor, Kalinin fulfilled this request and invited them to live in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel. Once, under the pretext of a tour of Moscow, he took his daughter to his dacha and raped her, writes Davydova.

The girl was 16 at that time. As it turned out, she was a relative of Marshal Alexander Egorov. It is not known whether these cases are connected, but Egorov himself was shot a year after the events described, in 1939.

According to legend, rumors of what happened reached Stalin. He did not exile or shoot Kalinin. The “headman” got away with it again, but not his wife.

Wife

Mikhail with his wife Ekaterina and son. Collage L!FE. Photo: RIA Novosti

Mikhail Kalinin and Ekaterina Lorberg met in 1905. The girl herself was from a poor Estonian large family. By the time she met Kalinin, at the age of 20, she had worked at a factory for several years, appeared with her revolutionary ideas and urgently escaped to St. Petersburg.

In the capital, the girl was sheltered by Bolshevik supporter Tatyana Slovatinskaya, and even helped her get a job in a textile factory. True, the Estonian was fired from there too.

She settled with Slovatinskaya and helped with the housework. Since 1898, the revolutionary herself has carried out various party assignments, including distributing leaflets and being the owner of a conspiracy apartment, where Lenin, Stalin, and Kalinin visited at different times.

Catherine met the latter in 1905. A few months later they got married. In 1908, the Kalinins had their first child, Alexander, and four years later, two daughters, Yulia and Lydia.

Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin at the congress of the Russian Communist Bolshevik Party. Photo: RIA Novosti

In 1919, when Kalinin was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the recommendation of Lenin, the family settled in Moscow. They hired a housekeeper - Alexandra Gorchakova. According to rumors, Kalinin began an affair with her in front of his wife. She couldn’t stand it and, taking the children, went to his parents to “stay.” She stayed for several months, then returned. But the housekeeper was never heard from again.

However, the wife repeatedly went to various regions: either in Altai to instill literacy in 1924, or to defend the right to equality somewhere else. According to rumors, this was not due to a desire for vigorous activity, but because the husband went on another spree.

Camps

Photo: RIA Novosti/Vladimir Fedorenko

In 1938, it suddenly turned out that Kalinin’s wife was a “Trotskyist” and counter-revolutionary. Catherine was convicted of espionage and given 15 years in the camps. According to rumors, Stalin found out about the story of Kalinin’s rape of the marshal’s relative. And since his “teaching methods” were very unique, it was not the “elder” who fell into disgrace, but his wife.

Kalinin forbade all four children to communicate with their mother. Only the youngest daughter Lydia disobeyed.

Stalin’s associate himself was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the same 1938. He held this position until March 1946, until his illness finally crushed him: the “All-Union Elder” was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Mikhail Kalinin died on June 3, 1946.

Of the 15 years in the camps, Ekaterina served seven. After that, in 1945, she was released on Stalin’s personal order. She was rehabilitated after the death of the leader, in 1953. She died in 1960.

Children

Mikhail Kalinin with his daughter Yulia and grandchildren. Photo: RIA Novosti

Kalinin was the father of five children: three of his own and two adopted. One of them died in infancy due to illness, so all official biographies indicate that the head of the Central Election Commission had four children.

So, the eldest, Valerian, was adopted by Kalinin in 1906 after the wedding. The wife never told who the boy’s biological father was. Little is known about his life: together with his brother he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, after which he lived in a friend’s apartment. In the early 30s he got married and had a son in the family. The boy died at the age of three, in 1935, after which the man began to have mental problems. In 1947, he committed suicide.

Alexander Kalinin was born in 1908 in Upper Trinity, his father’s homeland. He graduated from the ten-year school, after which he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute at the Faculty of Electromechanics. After graduating from university, he married the daughter of the People's Commissar of Finance, Natalya Gukovskaya. Over time, he received the title of Candidate of Technical Sciences and taught at the Military Academy. Lived to be 80 years old.

If the sons of the head of the Central Election Commission received an education in the technical field, then the daughters received an education in the then no less prestigious medical field. So, Lydia Kalinina (born in 1912) became a therapist. By the way, she is the only one who did not stop communicating with her mother when she was sent to the camps. Contemporaries recalled that when Lydia came to Yakutia, the room was hung with carpets especially for her: “But what about Kalinin’s daughter.” And then the mother was given three days to be with her daughter. After her release in 1945, mother and daughter lived together in Moscow.

The eldest daughter, Julia, was a radiologist. But, unfortunately, this is the only fact known from her biography.