For which the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Sokolov, was shot. Sokolov became a golden eagle. The struggle for power of the political elite

Recently I watched the series "Delicatessen Case No. 1" with Makovetsky in the title role. Like the first time, my heart 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 as in the most tragic fate of the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store Yuri Sokolov (in the film - Georgy Berkutov).

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

Yuri Sokolov came from an intelligent family, his mother worked as a professor at the Higher Party School, his father was a research assistant. Yuri himself, according to his wife Florida Nikolaevna, was a very cultured and educated person. Tall, thin, stately, he knew how to speak beautifully, from the first minute he charmed and mesmerized 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 whole trade history was started with far-reaching political goals, but was promoted under the slogan of combating trade and party corruption. The ultimate goal game was the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Grishin, not without reason claiming the post of general secretary, tightly tied to the so-called trade mafia of Moscow. And the first to fall under the KGB 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 general secretary after Brezhnev's death (November 1982), and before that they collected incriminating evidence, dug, watched, tapped, recruited, took those who were of lesser rank.

Moscow deli # 1 was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied selected delicacies to the party elite, creative, scientific, military elite of the country.

They took Sokolov on a bribe, either 200, or 300 thousand, received from someone, gave to someone, it did not matter much, because by that time he was already 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 control devices, arranging a short circuit for this. All branches of Eliseevsky were taken under the "cap". 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 found that on Fridays the heads of the branches arrived in Sokolov's office and handed envelopes to the director. Then part of the collected money migrated to the head of the Main Department of Trade Tregubov and other interested persons. A solid evidence base was collected. On one Friday, all the "postmen" were caught red-handed, four confessed.

Upon learning of Tregubov's arrest, First Secretary Grishin urgently returned to Moscow, interrupting his vacation, but he could not do anything, the career of the patron saint of the Moscow trade mafia was at an end, in December 1985 Grishin was replaced as the first secretary of the city party committee by BN 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 Berezka currency store, was burned. She and her husband through the trading network sold delicacies from the Eliseevsky store for foreign currency, bought imported equipment with checks and speculated on it. In the Cheka they were promised that if they surrender Sokolov, then they will have nothing, and they readily surrendered.

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

Sokolov spun as best he could. The store and its seven branches received unprecedented products for ordinary citizens - Finnish smoked sausages, first-class boiled pork, ham, balyk, red and black caviar, imported cheeses, overseas wines, foreign cigarettes. Through the order table, or even just from the back room, the most famous and famous people - actors, directors, singers, writers, announcers, soloists of the Bolshoi Theater, heads of central administrations and committees, deputy ministers, famous doctors, generals, ets. Galina Brezhneva was a frequent guest of Yuri Sokolov, who easily went to the director "for the light". All this imposed strict obligations on the director, kept him in constant tension.

Sokolov himself lived quite modestly, and, although he had all the opportunities 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 amazed - no antiques, no paintings in expensive frames, no crystal chandeliers, no gold and silver. They took everything clean - furniture, dishes (up to glasses), rolled up carpets, removed chandeliers, my wife only managed to keep her personal belongings. Even the refrigerator contained a minimum of the most common foods. Sokolov was sick with diabetes and was on a diet.

Although the court hearings were nominally open, those who came and were invited were allowed only to the first and last sessions. Together with the former director of Eliseevsky, four more employees of the grocery 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 were, in addition to relatives, almost all the directors of large Moscow stores, who were invited, apparently with an edifying and frightening 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 spoken and the judge put an end to it, enthusiastic deafening applause was heard from different ends, horror from the murderous verdict and these stormy applause froze in the eyes of those present. Among the trading audience were young, strong, athletic looking guys, dressed and looking alike, there were many of them. Most likely, it was they who began to clap at the signal, thereby demonstrating that the process that ended in this way was political. The people in the audience, who received 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 anyone, by that time the deceased Andropov as secretary general had been replaced by the living corpse of Chernenko.

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

Soon 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, participant in the capture of the Reichstag and the Victory Day parade on Red Square (was sentenced to capital punishment), heads of the Grocery store, " Diettorga ", director of the Kuibyshevsky district food store, and a number of respectable and responsible workers. Later, the head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov was convicted under these articles, but he, having learned from the bitter experience of his colleague, did not admit anything. And he survived, although he received a long term, 15 years in prison. Returning from prison, he even tried to get the case reviewed, but to no avail.

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

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 must be oral. Sokolov closed his notebook and began to speak. In addition to surnames that could not be named, Sokolov easily explained that the Soviet trading system was deeply flawed from the outset, no plans coming down from above could be fulfilled if business was done honestly, without breaking the laws. Speaking about the inevitability of abuse, Sokolov said that the bribe money was taken in a relatively honest way, thanks to refrigeration units, which made it possible to save most of the goods, but the judge was not impressed by these details.

Here is an extract from the verdict (sounds crazy, but it was so): "Using your responsible official position, Falcons for mercenary 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 to the store in an assortment favorable to bribe-givers. "

Former director of grocery store No. 1 Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under Article 173 Part 2 and Article 174 Part 2 of the RSFSR Criminal Code - taking and giving a bribe on an especially large scale - and on November 11, 1984, 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 showcase Andropov trial, Sokolov was unlucky, he had the unfortunate lot of becoming the first loud victim in the restoration of "law and order." The hard fist of the new owner hit the brightest and most talented representative of his class. Under these articles, the most severe punishment was 15 years in prison. And even then the Baumansky District Court became 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 ripper, nor, even more so, a mafioso, he just got into the system, twirled in it, grew into it and could not escape with all the desire. It was the SYSTEM. All were interconnected and tied, starting with suppliers and ending with members of the city party committee, and maybe even higher.

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

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

Yuri Sokolov was not a man of his time, he tried and worked successfully and talentedly for his brainchild, as a modern top manager, raised the store and made it the best. Yes, breaking the law, for at that time to survive and gain a reputation in trade activity in another way was impossible. Laws were created to be broken. Humanly, I feel sorry for him, he became a bargaining pawn in the dirty game of party bosses. In his own way, he was honest and principled. The severity of his crime is incommensurate with the punishment.

I want to finish with an excerpt from the book by 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 bars in place of the window - he did it hard, as if he had forgotten how to walk, as if there were metal chains on his feet. When the car began to get out of the yard, what- then a man very similar to Sokolov - apparently his brother - shouted after him:

Yura, goodbye!

And some young woman:

Yura, goodbye!

There was no date. The verdict was carried out. "

The director of the capital "Eliseevsky" grocery store knew too much

Three decades have passed since the trial that drew the line of his life. Yuri Sokolov would have turned 90 yesterday.

Moscow. One of the December days in 1983. Hall of the Bauman District Court. In the dock - five employees of the capital "Eliseevsky" grocery store, headed by the director.

The judge reads the indictment for an hour. Finally, in dead silence, the words will be heard: "Sentence to an exceptional measure of punishment ..." And then the incredible happens: a flurry of applause sweeps through the hall! Colleagues of the accused, friends and acquaintances, those who had recently warmly greeted him at a meeting, were interested in business, asked about his health, were now openly glad that Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov, director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, was destined for the scaffold.

This scene evoked horror - no less than the verdict.

The rest of the employees of "Eliseevsky" received from 11 to 15 years in prison.

Andropov's time is gloomy, pre-stormy, but never burst into thunderous rumblings of cardinal changes due to short life gloomy Soviet ruler. The secretary general began to restore order in the country not with a firm, but with a painful hand.

One of Andropov's first blows was aimed at trade. The morals that reigned there aroused indignation, outraged everyone. Of course, in addition to those who used closed distributors, they received special rations and had access to the abundant bins of large stores.

But the trading system functioned for many years, and the people who worked in it lived according to its laws - they stole, gave and received bribes. The blow was directed not at all against the system, but against the people of the system. Its most famous representative was Yuri Sokolov, the director of Eliseevsky.

He was called the man of Viktor Grishin, the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU. Yes, Sokolov was close to him, followed his instructions. But Yuri Konstantinovich served other people as well. Not only the nomenklatura and the party elite, representatives of their families, but also famous writers, musicians, artists, athletes and just "necessary" people. By the way, they all had a very good opinion of Sokolov.

An excellent leader, moreover, an intelligent and well-mannered person, he is shown in the recent television series "Business of the deli" No. 1 ". The role of the director was brilliantly played by the actor Sergei Makovetsky. His work has earned the praise of Florida Nikolaevna, the widow of Yuri Sokolov ...

Andropov's blow to trade was struck during the life of Brezhnev, which, however, was already dying out. At first, the Sokolov case was not particularly promoted. It was only when Andropov came to power that the KGB investigators began to work in full force.

The new secretary general not only demonstrated his strength, but also sent a signal to the population of the country - changes are coming, comrades. We are putting things in order in the country, we are fighting corruption!

The people gloated - trade was finally squeezed! However, no one believed that after the elimination of thieving workers in the sphere, abundance would come.

Sokolov was accused of unprecedented bribery and large thefts... The investigation lasted a year, then there was a trial ...

Sokolov ten years was the deputy director of a grocery store on Gorky Street. He also worked as its director for the same period. He enjoyed authority, had awards. And for the war, and for peaceful labor.

The appearance of the director of "Eliseevsky" was pleasant - an open look, a benevolent smile. And the character, probably, matched the appearance. So, in any case, those who knew him asserted. For example, Joseph Kobzon:

I did not just meet, but knew Yuri Konstantinovich closely. And the point is not in the products that were sold at Eliseevsky. It was pleasant to communicate with him.

He was a war veteran, a member of the bureau of the district party committee. Intelligent. He always had flowers on his table ... He had a wonderful family: wife Florida, daughter. They came to visit me, I came to them. Nobody could have guessed how everything would turn out ...

... Now we are persistently told that Eliseevsky was a ray of light in the dark kingdom of Soviet trade. And the assortment there was not bad for that time, and the sellers were well-trained, who did not allow themselves any liberties. But this is nothing more than an idealization of the past inherent in people.

The visit to "Eliseevsky" really promised to buy more or less scarce products. But none of the buyers were insured against shortage and body kit. Well-known journalist Anatoly Rubinov from Literaturnaya Gazeta spoke about this in his essay "Seduced and Shot".

With the help of the trade inspection, he exposed the deceivers, and violations of the rules of trade in the largest Moscow store became the material for a newspaper feature. Rather, they could become. The high metropolitan authorities found out about the results of the check and urged the newspaper's editors to find other, more relevant topics for their publications. In general, the article about the calculations and body kits in "Eliseevsky" never came out. It's a pity. Yuri Konstantinovich, perhaps, would have been removed from work, but he would have survived ...

The leaders of the capital's trade were invited to the first and last session of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, which considered all serious crimes, including the Sokolov case. In this gesture there was a clear threat - look, they say, what awaits you. Many, for certain, rushed to “chop off the ends” - destroy documents, hide money. Soon there was a rumor about the first victim - from the oppressive expectation of misfortune, the director of the "Smolensk" grocery store Sergei Noniev committed suicide.

Soon, many heads of the trade sphere were arrested - from Novoarbatsky, the GUM grocery store, Mosplodovoschprom, the Gastronom bargaining site, and Diettorg. It was then that the word "mafia", familiar from Italian films, emerged.

Sokolov initially denied everything, but later admitted everything. It was rumored that the investigation persuaded Yuri Konstantinovich to cooperate, for which they promised to reduce the term of future imprisonment. He allegedly believed and brought out his black workbook.

There turned out to be something from which everyone was confused. Not only because the names of the "untouchables" appeared in Sokolov's "report", but also because he specific examples proved the impossibility of honest work in Soviet trade.

But surely in his notebook there was something that remained a secret, not revealed to this day ...

Speaking about the inevitability of abuses, the director of Eliseevsky, by the way, said that the money for bribes was collected ... in an honest way. An imported refrigeration system was installed in the store, which made it possible to preserve food for a longer time, which means saving on shrinkage and shrinkage. However, this did not make the proper impression on the court.

Sokolov was found guilty under Articles 173 part 2 and 174 part 2 of the RSFSR Criminal Code - accepting and giving a bribe on a large scale and sentenced to capital punishment - shooting with confiscation of property. But ... For all these criminal acts under Soviet law, Sokolov deserved a maximum of 15 years in prison, and under favorable conditions, less than ten.

It is logical to assume that the indictment was written long before it was announced. And not the court, perhaps, decided that Sokolov should be removed, but someone else. Very influential, from the very top of power ...

There are too many Falcons - much more than he told at the trial - he knew, besides, he had the misfortune of becoming the first, illustrative victim in cases of "restoring law and order."

Apparently, there should have been many such cases - in different spheres of life. In addition, Sokolov ended up in the meat grinder of a party showdown.

The people in the hall, applauding the verdict, wanted to show that they were different. Honest, principled, not like Sokolov, mired in unprecedented sins.

But they were the same. They were saved only by Andropov's poor health. Had he lived longer, another two or three years, and many spectators of the trial would have had to take his place.

Later, Nikolai Tregubov, head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee, was convicted. But the one, taught by bitter experience, did not admit anything. And he survived, although he received a long term. Returning from prison, he even tried to get the case reviewed, but to no avail.

Sokolov was not the only trade representative whose fate was decided during the reign of Andropov. Mkhitar Hambartsumyan, director of the Moscow fruit and vegetable base, was also sentenced to capital punishment. It is still not known exactly what the soldier crowned with military awards, participant in the storming of the Reichstag and the Victory Parade on Red Square did ...

The fate of Yuri Sokolov is somewhat reminiscent of the case of the currency dealer Yan Rokotov, who was executed during Khrushchev's time. Rokotov was also shot "for example", for the edification of others. Although the court, if strictly adhered to the letter of the law, was obliged to save his life.

In the aforementioned essay "Seduced and Shot", journalist Rubinov recalled the former director of "Eliseevsky" without much sympathy. But one of the fragments turned out to be piercing:

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

Yura, goodbye!

And some young woman:

Yura, goodbye!

There was no date. The verdict was carried out. "

It is a pity, it is a pity that the details of the court cases of Yuri Sokolov and Mkhitaryan Ambartsumyan remain closed.

And more and more disappears in the darkness of the past, the main question - was the fault of individual people - cogs of the prevailing vicious system so great?

Especially for the Century

100 famous lawsuits Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna

"Eliseevskoe Delo" - Fight against Corruption or a Political Order?

Perhaps the most sensational story of the period of Andropov's revelations was the case of Yuri Sokolov, director of the capital's grocery store No. 1 (Eliseevsky). By the verdict of the court, he was shot. Such an outcome of the criminal case on an economic crime gave it a special resonance: after all, even the double "plunderers of socialist property" associated with the also notorious company "Ocean", got off with significant prison terms, but here ...

The trade brainchild of the merchant Eliseev has had a reputation as the best store in Moscow since pre-revolutionary times, and even in Soviet times it was especially popular in the capital. As well as its director Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov (born in 1925). He worked here from 1963 to 1972 as deputy director, and from February 1972 to October 1982 as director. True, under him (or rather, much earlier) merchant initiative and resourcefulness were replaced by cronyism. The entire Moscow elite knew the director of the country's most famous gastronome. The entire Moscow elite came to bow to him, and everyone offered their services in return. Seduced by everyone, Yuri Sokolov became a great power in Moscow. In his grocery store, if there was a pull, from under the floor you could get anything your soul and stomach wanted, but even without it, after standing in line for an hour or two, it was quite possible to get a full set of products. To make the store prosperous, Sokolov, working directly under the head of the central office Petrikov, made a lot of efforts to establish and develop personal contacts with "big people", which included, for example, Brezhnev's children. Moreover, the director of a grocery store (even a very prestigious one) could easily talk to the Minister of Trade or his deputy by phone. Sokolov's influence and connections were so great that even the Order of the Red Banner of Labor was awarded to him not in the Moscow Soviet, but in the Supreme Soviet and was awarded by the First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers.

Of course, Sokolov's connections with the first secretary of the capital's city party committee, Viktor Grishin, and the Brezhnev family, were, of course, well known not only to the inhabitants of the capital, but also to law enforcement agencies. But for a long time everything was fine with everyone. But at the turn of 1982 and 1983, when the decrepit secretary general ceded power to Yuri Andropov, the popularity of Eliseevsky, as well as his special, thanks to Sokolov, position among other elite stores in the capital gave the authorities a unique chance to demonstrate the determination of the new government to restore order in society. first and foremost, unleashing a blow on the most prominent representatives of the existing system of corruption and nepotism. A month before the arrest, the office of the director of "Eliseevsky" was "stuffed" with operational and technical means of individual control, or, to put it simply, with television cameras for spying and radio equipment for eavesdropping.

The arrest of the director of "Eliseevsky" on October 30, 1982 in his own office during the alleged transfer of a bribe in the amount of 300 rubles to him really had a deafening effect. Sokolov was detained by the Moscow Chekists on suspicion of complicity in illegal currency transactions in the case against some M. G. and M. I. Avilkin. And on December 8, 1982, the investigative department of the KGB for Moscow and the region separated the Sokolov case from their case and accepted it for separate proceedings. At the same time, after Shchelokov, the entire Trade Directorate, headed by Tregubov and his deputies, and together with the director Eliseevsky, and his subordinates, flew. But Sokolov became the only "VIP" who was shot.

During the arrest, Sokolov behaved completely calmly. He denied the fact of receiving a bribe, claiming that his colleague simply returned the debt to him. He did not lose his equanimity in the cell of the remand prison in Lefortovo. He refused to testify for a long time. He told the changing inmates that everything that happened was a pure misunderstanding. Sokolov was silent, but those who understood that his arrest was not an economic matter, but a political one, were also silent. There is an intensive collection of dirt on the one who, not without reason, considered himself the legal successor of the aging Brezhnev - Grishina. Sokolov was silent. But Moscow spoke openly. Sokolov's name sounded everywhere - it became a symbol and material evidence of the fight against trade corruption. According to rumors, valuables worth millions of rubles were confiscated from trade managers. At their dachas, metal barrels with dilapidated currency and books of deposits in foreign banks were found. By the way, among the “confiscated goods” confiscated from Sokolov, there were several dozen expensive foreign watches of the “Rolex” type. They were awarded to the security officers and prosecutors who especially distinguished themselves in exposing the "Eliseev bribe-takers", and seven foreign cars belonging to Sokolov at the end of the case stood for a long time in the courtyard of the Moscow KGB department.

The most likely successor to Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, needed a scapegoat who would atone for all the former and future sins of the nomenklatura with his life. The entire system of corruption in those years was based on trade. In this area, everything was permeated with bribes and pulls from top to bottom. The people involved in the trade lived, the rest stood in lines. Sokolov was an ideal figure for sacrifice: he did not occupy the highest position in the corruption system, and at the same time, the store he headed was known throughout the country. The investigation easily proved that Sokolov took bribes from his subordinates and gave them a hand to the higher management. And since the associates of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov decided first of all to "mop up" Brezhnev's inner circle, the main political component of the strike against the "Moscow trade mafia" was addressed to Grishin; the focus of this attack was Sokolov. Andropov's team did everything so that his case was considered not by the Moscow City Court, but immediately by the Republican Supreme Court, which usually conducts judicial investigation in cases of the most serious crimes (treason, serial murders of minors, etc.). But this also meant that the defendant and his lawyers could not file a cassation appeal. The process, which the KGB intended to be indicative, nevertheless took place in an atmosphere of strict secrecy.

By the beginning of the trial of Sokolov, the Central Committee of the CPSU was littered with letters from workers demanding the punishment of the corrupt official to the fullest extent of the law. When journalists asked one of the old employees what Sokolov was like, he replied: “There are no such people. We called him among ourselves Yuka (from Yuri Konstantinovich). Under him, the turnover in the store jumped from 30 million to 94 million rubles a year. To anyone - with respect. If only to me, but I worked as a loader. Yuka himself handed over the thirteenth salary to everyone in an envelope and personally congratulated them on their birthday. In the store the goods - as in America. Cleanliness, order. But where the money for bribes? Yes, not from a hundred grams of sausage. Purchased Finnish equipment and halved the loss of products during storage. Hence the "extra" money. Heads of departments - Yuke. Yuka - to Tregubov in Gortorg. And the one to whom ... Everyone in this chain had their own interest, that's why they were spinning. And not at the expense of the buyer, and not at the expense of the state, but at the expense of his own mind and guess. We lived with what idea? Better to let it rot, if only everything was taken into account. And Sokolov has a different principle: save, give to people and reward for initiative. Under Sokolov, Elisey smelled of ground coffee, and after him - rat powder. "

However, with all the zeal of the KGB officers, no special treasures were found with Yuri Konstantinovich. On a date, Sokolov's lawyer Artem Sarumov asked the client to tell him where the money was kept so that the family would not be in poverty after his death. To the amazement of the lawyer, Sokolov chuckled and said: "No money - don't look for it!" So the person who was exposed to the whole country by the “bribe taker No. 1” did not have any hidden money. Almost everything that he received from the subordinates, Sokolov stuck on the paw of the superior so that the store entrusted to him had a normal assortment. From the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to GUM, where Sokolov's wife Florida worked, calls began demanding that she be expelled from the party and fired. Sokolov was silent, but the city committee feared that Florida would speak up and tell who ordered her husband (who, by the way, tried to retire three times) to build a system of relations in trade in this way and not otherwise.

However, Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov nevertheless spoke up after Brezhnev's death. He began to testify on December 20, 1982, because he was a sufficiently knowledgeable person to understand who won (although not completely) and why a trial is needed against persons somehow connected with Grishin. Meanwhile, a clear goal was set for the KGB: Sokolov must admit guilt in the form indicated to him, and then testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of power. The first confession was recorded, the second was recorded separately. Here expert review the former prosecutor for the supervision of the KGB, Vladimir Golubev: “From the point of view of interrogations and other actions of investigators aimed at exposing Sokolov, the investigation tactics were undoubtedly violated. The evidence cited has not been carefully examined. The amounts of bribes were named based on the economy of the norms of natural attrition, which was provided by the state. Sokolov did not deserve such a severe punishment. From a legal point of view, it is illegal. "

On November 11, 1983, the trial began. No outsiders were allowed into the courtroom, except for the wives of the accused and the guards. Sokolov at the trial behaved defiantly and said that he had become a victim of party showdown and repression. At the trial, Sokolov's testimony about people from the entourage of Brezhnev and Grishin (and for them Sokolov was promised a short time and a possible amnesty was not heard and was not recorded in the protocol). True, it was rumored that the corresponding names were announced behind the scenes. Only Sokolov's wife and people on the list were admitted to the final meeting, mainly employees of the KGB and the city party committee. The Supreme Court of the RSFSR issued a death sentence to the director of "Eliseevsky" under Articles 173 of Part 2 and 174 of Part 2 (taking and giving bribes on an especially large scale, respectively) of the RSFSR Criminal Code. The conclusion in the case stated: “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov for mercenary purposes from January 1972 to October 1982 systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trading organizations he ensured an uninterrupted supply of groceries to the store in a profitable assortment of bribe-givers ".

According to his wife, Sokolov did not defend himself at all. He behaved calmly and with dignity. I listened to the death sentence with indifference. The defendant's last word revealed the meaning of the Soviet trading system. Sokolov said that the existing order in trade makes bribes inevitable, the overweight of buyers - in order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary to win over those at the top, and even those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the food.

Florida will still manage to persuade her husband to write a cassation appeal. The story of Sokolov's lawyer A. Sarumov is also very eloquent, according to which after the announcement of the deafening verdict - completely unexpected for the accused, according to the lawyer - Yuri Konstantinovich immediately refused to write a petition for pardon. “I won't write anything,” he allegedly told Sarumov. - I am a scoundrel, I have laid people down, and I must be shot. However, then he did write a petition. But the court, as already mentioned, was originally the Supreme and was not going to reconsider the party's ordered case. During the consideration of the case, the power changed twice: Brezhnev died, and then Andropov. Why was it necessary to execute an old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to his store in the Soviet trade system? (Sokolov went to the front at the age of 17 and until the end of the war was in the active army. He participated in the liberation of Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia. He was awarded numerous medals, three letters of commendation from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. He appeared in the memoirs of Deputy Defense Minister General of the Army Tolubko.)

Investigator for especially important cases Vladimir Korotaev, who was then in charge of the investigation group, said: “I am the last one who interrogated Sokolov on death row. He really made a good impression. It's a shame that he was shot. But his case was led by the KGB, I interrogated him in connection with other criminal cases. Sokolov spoke in detail about the employees of the ministry, about Galina Brezhneva. For example, she learns from Kremlin sources about the rise in gold prices, buys it up, and sells it the next day. And the fact that Sokolov was sentenced to death, I believe, is the fault of the lawyers. At the trial they said that the Sokolov case was a political order. And I had to say that he is a victim of the system. Bribes were then taken by everyone who worked in the trading system. I petitioned the leadership of the prosecutor's office not to shoot Sokolov. And when it did happen, all the witnesses closed their mouths and stopped cooperating with the investigation. I do not exclude that Sokolov's mouth was shut by order from the Kremlin, otherwise the Kremlin officials would have to be dragged to court. "

The Sokolov case became, perhaps, the last show trial of Soviet punitive jurisprudence, when the death penalty was considered the most "crude and visible", in the words of the poet, the argument of the regime in a conversation with its own citizens who dared to violate socialist legality. As eyewitnesses assure, Yuri Konstantinovich did not fully believe in the sad outcome, was unusually cheerful, and spoke of a close pardon. But on December 14, 1984, Sokolov was shot right in the car, on the way from Lefortovo to pre-trial detention center No. 2, but neither in Moscow, nor throughout the country did life become even a little better because of this.

After the trial, a KGB investigator approached Florida and said in perplexity that they had not expected such an outcome: “Well, ten-twelve years. But the shooting! .. This is not our decision, this is the decision of the city committee. " Vladimir Oleinik, who was in the 1980s the head of the investigative unit of the RSFSR Prosecutor's Office, in his memoirs emphasized that Grishin's department closely followed the cases investigated by the KGB together with the RSFSR Prosecutor's Office. Later, in November 1988, the same Oleinik spoke about the loud “Eliseev affair”: “I have not seen and still do not see the point in the death sentence for Sokolov. And they brought it into execution as soon as possible. As if someone was in a hurry to interrupt the testimony threatening him. But Tregubov and Petrikov, who were both a product of the "system" and its leaders, received milder sentences, although they did not admit anything. How is it possible - to beat the repentant to the maximum, and to encourage the stubborn with soft sentences ?! " But that means it was possible, because someone needed it so much.

And for a long time anonymous phone calls will be heard in Sokolov's apartment. People unfamiliar to Florida will repeat into the telephone receiver: "Grishin is to blame, he cannot forgive your husband for testimony against himself."

Sokolov's lawyer Sarumov will nevertheless bring the case to an end, and on April 12, 1995, having considered the case of the director of "Eliseevsky" and the verdict handed down to Yuri Konstantinovich, the Plenum The Supreme Court states: “The verdict of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR of November 11, 1983 in respect of Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov should be changed: to exclude the instruction on recognizing him officialholding a responsible position, and the imposed punishment under Art. 173 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (as amended in 1962) to replace 15 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. " Isn't it an amazing verdict: replace the death penalty with imprisonment after the execution of the defendant?

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After the war, in the 50s, he worked as a taxi driver and received a term of 2 years in prison for short-term clients. Later it turned out that he was serving his term for another, on libel, on a false denunciation. In 1963, he got a job as a seller in a retail network and, thanks to his abilities and human qualities, he first grew up to the deputy director of a deli on Tverskaya, in this status he worked for 10 years, and then to the director of a store, the experience in this position was also 10 by that time years old.

Yuri Sokolov came from an intelligent family, his mother worked as a professor at the Higher Party School, his father was a research assistant. Yuri himself, according to his wife Florida Nikolaevna, was a very cultured and educated person. Tall, thin, stately, he knew how to speak beautifully, from the first minute he charmed and mesmerized 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 whole trade 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 Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Grishin, not without reason aspiring to the post of general secretary, tightly tied to the so-called trade mafia of Moscow. And the first to fall under the KGB 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 general secretary after Brezhnev's death (November 1982), and before that they collected incriminating evidence, dug, watched, tapped, recruited, took those who were of lesser rank.

Moscow deli # 1 was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied selected delicacies to the party elite, creative, scientific, military elite of the country.

Sokolov spun as best he could. The store and its seven branches received unprecedented products for ordinary citizens - Finnish smoked sausages, first-class boiled pork, ham, balyk, 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 administrations and committees, deputy ministers, famous doctors, generals, ets - were shopping through the order table, or even just from the back room, in the store. Galina Brezhneva was a frequent guest of Yuri Sokolov, who easily went to the director "for the light". All this imposed strict obligations on the director, kept him in constant tension.

Sokolov had a black oilcloth notebook in which he wrote down his business affairs, calculations, calculations, drew schemes of trade and possible profits, names and amounts. Those who were aware of what was happening had unfounded suspicions that the top of this whole pyramid was closed on the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin. Until the last minute, Sokolov hoped for high patrons, his honorable clients - the chief of the chief of trade 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 Communist Party of the Soviet Union Dementyev, the Minister of the Interior Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov. But the hopes were in vain. The case of Sokolov, director of the Eliseevsky store, was conducted by the KGB 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 must be oral. Sokolov closed his notebook and began to speak. In addition to surnames that could not be named, Sokolov easily explained that the Soviet trading system was deeply flawed from the outset, no plans coming down from above could be fulfilled if business was done honestly, without breaking the laws. Speaking about the inevitability of abuse, Sokolov said that the bribe money was taken in a relatively honest way, thanks to refrigeration units, which made it possible to save most of the goods, but the judge was not impressed by these details.

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

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.

Yuri Sokolov was not a man of his time, he tried and worked successfully and talentedly for his brainchild, as a modern top manager, raised the store and made it the best. Yes, violating the law, because at that time it was impossible to survive and gain a reputation in the commercial sphere of activity in another way. Laws were created to be broken. Humanly I feel sorry for him, he became a bargaining pawn in the dirty game of party bosses. In his own way, he was honest and principled. The severity of his crime is incommensurate with the punishment.

I want to finish with an excerpt from the book by journalist Anatoly Rubinov, who was present at the trial, "We lived like this ...",
(essay "Seduced and Shot"):

Yura, goodbye!

And some young woman:

Yura, goodbye!

There was no date. The verdict was carried out. "

Moscow grocery store No. 1 (“Eliseevsky”) was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied selected delicacies to the party elite and the country's creative, scientific, military elite. As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the director of the grocery store, which he shared with the mighty of this world. The details of the investigation, the persons involved 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 carry out the sentence to Yuri Sokolov, director of Yeliseevsky, who, after his arrest, demanded "to punish the presumptuous merchant to the fullest extent of the law." But was his crime drawn to the death penalty?

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

The criminal case against Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev " in 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 CPSU Central Committee 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 a command from above as the beginning of a decisive struggle of the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic change of the elderly general secretaries to some extent soften the fate of the defendant and save his life? At one of the moments, Yuri Sokolov, who was in Lefortovo, began to warm up, there was hope for leniency, which we will discuss below.

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

Sokolova Yuri Konstantinovich

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

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

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

This puzzling question is asked today by those who believe that if there were more "falcon" at that time, all Soviet people would eat black caviar with spoons. But it's not that simple. It should be emphasized that the fruits of Yuri Konstantinovich's labors were enjoyed exclusively by the highest nomenklatura and cultural elite of Moscow.

Grocery store No. 1 and its seven branches “under the counter” were full of: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and balyk, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits ...

All this could be purchased (through 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 CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals ...

How did gourmet, rare, and even just exotic products get into the Soviet deli # 1?

Here are the lines from the verdict, which summed up the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “ Using his responsible official position, Sokolov for selfish ends from January 1972 to October 1982. systematically received bribes from his subordinates for ensuring an uninterrupted supply of groceries to the store in a favorable assortment for bribe-givers through higher trade organizations».

In turn, Yuri Sokolov in the last word of the defendant stressed that “ current order in the trading system"Make the sale of unaccounted foodstuffs inevitable, underweight and shortcuts for buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and re-grading, write-off according to the natural loss column 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 at the top and those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the food ...

So who, after all, needed the life of the grasping and swift “breadwinner” of the Moscow elite, who observed the basic “laws” of the Brezhnev era - “You are for me, I am for 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 remained outwardly calm, at the first interrogation in the Lefortovo remand prison he did not plead guilty of receiving bribes and categorically refused to give evidence. What did the arrested man count on, what did he wait?

Several thousand trade workers of the capital have visited this wall

For a long time Sokolov was out of the reach of the long arms of the Lubyanka and Petrovka. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-assembled grocery store were the head of the Main Directorate of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Tregubov, Chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee V. Promyslov, Second Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU R. Dementyev, Minister of the Ministry 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 member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee V. Grishin.

And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friends with the General Secretary's daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov.

Yuri Sokolov undoubtedly hoped that the "security system" built by him on the principle of mutual responsibility would work. And there was a moment when she seemed to take action: 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 secretaries general deprived not only Sokolov, but also his high-ranking "roof" from untouchability.

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

The suspect began to confess immediately after he learned about Brezhnev's death and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough so as not to come to a disappointing conclusion: he became one of the pawns in Andropov's game to discredit possible opponents in the place of the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as it was well known then, was one of the most probable 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 omnipotent department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-step game for the highest power, the Chairman of the Committee had already designated the director of "Eliseevsky", to whom the agent reports of bribery were received, as a fuse, which was supposed to detonate a bomb ...

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

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

The expert assessment of the former prosecutor for the supervision of the KGB, Vladimir Golubev, has been preserved in the Sokolov case. He believed that the evidence of Sokolov's guilt had not been thoroughly examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the economy of 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 its "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 the Chairman of the KGB and then the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from the post of Minister of the Interior Ministry and committed suicide).

A month before Sokolov's arrest, the committee members, having chosen the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director's office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (they arranged a "short circuit in the electrical wiring" in the store, turned off the elevators and called the "repairmen"). All the branches of Eliseevsky were also taken under the hood.

Thus, many high-ranking officials who were in "special" relations with Sokolov and who were in his office, literally got into the field of view of the KGB Chekists 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 the branches on Fridays came to Sokolov and handed envelopes to the director. In the future, part of the money raised from the deficit that did not reach the counter was transferred from the director's safe to the head of the Main Trade Directorate 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 having handed over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. The four soon confessed.

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

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

Why did Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupt 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 capital trade enterprises began.

The patrons tried to get him out of the blow and shortly before that he was transplanted into the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg middle office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the reshuffle did not save the official, as, by the way, and many of his new colleagues - high-ranking officials of the ministry.

An interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, a member of the Politburo V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, he could not do anything. The career of the patron saint of the Moscow "trading mafia" was already at its end - in December 1985, Boris Yeltsin replaced him as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.

The directors of the most famous Moscow grocery stores were behind bars: V. Filippov (Novoarbatsky grocery store), B. Tveretinov (GUM grocery store), S. Noniev (Smolensky grocery store), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and director of fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the "Gastronom" marketplace I. Korovkin, director of "Diettorg" Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshevsky regional food department M. Baigelman and a number of very respectable and responsible employees.

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

Sokolov: an underground millionaire or an unmercenary person who slept on a soldier's bed?

The party press began to speak harmoniously about the new NEP - the establishment of elementary order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in apartments and dachas of the "trade mafia". Flashed large sums in rubles, currency and jewelry found in hiding places.

In the editorial offices of central newspapers, in the Central Committee of the CPSU, the KGB, since the arrest of Sokolov, letters continued to come from all over the country demanding to punish the presumptuous traders to the fullest extent of the law.

Yuri Sokolov

Information about how much "stuck" to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. A dacha where 50 thousand rubles were found in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a second-hand 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 dime for himself. They even claimed that at Sokolov's house, they say, there was an iron bunk. True, at the same time they were silent that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next to the daughter of the former head of state Nikita Khrushchev.

The death sentence to the director of Yeliseyevsky 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 RSFSR Criminal Code (accepting and giving bribes on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984, 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, read out the bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe givers from a notebook to the court. 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 sessions 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. Sokolov is hard to believe in a public expression of sympathy for the committee members. More plausible is the assumption that it was for the detailed testimony that Sokolov paid with his life.

When later the former head of Moscow trade Nikolai Tregubov 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 were executed, one - he himself sentenced himself to death

No sooner had the trade branch gone through the shock of the shooting of Yuri Sokolov, when a new execution sentence sounded - to the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Hambardzumyan. The trial in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany did not find mitigating circumstances such as Mkhitar Hambardzumyan's participation 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. Noniev 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 it was announced. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not get to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court hearing?

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

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

Sokolov is definitely a criminal. However, the court had ample reason to impose a non-death penalty for the nearly 60-year-old trade worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the swaggering 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 began to change on this field. The investigation into the case of the "trade mafia" began to wind up, a group of investigators from the OBKhSS, formed from specialists from many regions, was dispersed "to their homes."

Alexander Sergeev

For which the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Sokolov, was shot. Sokolov became a golden eagle. The struggle for power of the political elite

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