When Lenin had a stroke. “While the doctors are silent, the authorities do not touch them

Vladimir Lenin is the great leader of the working people of the whole world, who is considered the most prominent politician in world history, who created the first socialist state.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin

The Russian communist theoretical philosopher, who continued the work and, whose activities were widely deployed at the beginning of the 20th century, is still of interest to the public today, since his historical role is of significant importance not only for Russia, but for the whole world. Lenin's activity has both positive and negative assessments, which does not prevent the founder of the USSR from remaining the leading revolutionary in world history.

Childhood and youth

Ulyanov Vladimir Ilyich was born on April 22, 1870 in the Simbirsk province of the Russian Empire in the family of school inspector Ilya Nikolaevich and school teacher Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanov. He became the third child of parents who invested their whole soul in their children - my mother completely abandoned work and devoted herself to raising Alexander, Anna and Volodya, after whom she also gave birth to Maria and Dmitry.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin as a child

As a child, Vladimir Ulyanov was a mischievous and very smart boy - at the age of 5 he already learned to read and by the time he entered the Simbirsk gymnasium he became a "walking encyclopedia". During his school years, he also showed himself to be a diligent, diligent, gifted and accurate student, for which he was repeatedly awarded commendable sheets. Lenin's classmates said that the future world leader of the working people enjoyed great respect and authority in the class, since every student felt his mental superiority.

In 1887, Vladimir Ilyich graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the law faculty of Kazan University. In the same year, a terrible tragedy happened in the Ulyanov family - Lenin's older brother Alexander was executed for participating in organizing an assassination attempt on the tsar.

This grief aroused in the future founder of the USSR a protest spirit against national oppression and the tsarist system, therefore, already in the first year of high school, he created a student revolutionary movement, for which he was expelled from the university and sent into exile in a small village Kukushkino, located in the Kazan province.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin's family

Since that moment, the biography of Vladimir Lenin has been continuously connected with the struggle against capitalism and autocracy, the main goal of which was the liberation of workers from exploitation and oppression. After the exile, in 1888, Ulyanov returned to Kazan, where he immediately joined one of the Marxist circles.

In the same period, Lenin's mother acquired an estate of almost 100 hectares in the Simbirsk province and convinced Vladimir Ilyich to manage it. This did not prevent him from continuing to keep in touch with local "professional" revolutionaries, who helped him to find members of the People's Will and create an organized movement of Protestants of the imperial power.

revolutionary activity

In 1891, Vladimir Lenin managed to pass the exams externally at the Imperial St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law. After that, he worked as an assistant to a sworn advocate from Samara, dealing with the "state protection" of criminals.

Embed from Getty Images Young Vladimir Lenin

In 1893, the revolutionary moved to St. Petersburg and, in addition to legal practice, began writing historical works on Marxist political economy, the creation of the Russian liberation movement, the capitalist evolution of post-reform villages and industry. Then he began to create a program of the Social Democratic Party.

In 1895, Lenin made his first trip abroad and made the so-called tour of Switzerland, Germany and France, where he met his idol Georgy Plekhanov, as well as Wilhelm Liebknecht and Paul Lafargue, who were leaders of the international labor movement.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ilyich managed to unite all the disparate Marxist circles into the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", at the head of which he began to prepare a plan to overthrow the autocracy. For active propaganda of his idea, Lenin and his allies were taken into custody, and after a year in prison he was sent to the Shushenskoye village of the Elysian province.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin in 1897 with members of the Bolshevik organization

During the exile, he established contact with the Social Democrats of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1900, at the end of the exile, he traveled all over Russian cities and personally established contact with numerous organizations. In 1900, the leader created the Iskra newspaper, under whose articles he first signed the pseudonym Lenin.

In the same period, he became the initiator of the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, in which after that there was a split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The revolutionary headed the Bolshevik ideological and political party and launched an active struggle against Menshevism.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin

In the period from 1905 to 1907, Lenin lived in exile in Switzerland, where he was preparing an armed uprising. There he was caught by the First Russian Revolution, in the victory of which he was interested, since it opened the way to the socialist revolution.

Then Vladimir Ilyich illegally returned to St. Petersburg and began to act actively. He tried at all costs to win over the peasants to his side, forcing them to an armed uprising against the autocracy. The revolutionary urged people to arm themselves with everything at hand and to attack civil servants.

October Revolution

After the defeat in the First Russian Revolution, the solidarity of all Bolshevik forces took place, and Lenin, having analyzed the mistakes, began to revive the revolutionary upsurge. Then he created his own legal Bolshevik party, which published the newspaper Pravda, of which he was editor-in-chief. At that time, Vladimir Ilyich lived in Austria-Hungary, where he was caught by the World War.

Embed from Getty Images Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin

After being imprisoned on suspicion of spying for Russia, Lenin prepared his theses on the war for two years, and after his release went to Switzerland, where he came up with the slogan of turning the imperialist war into a civil one.

In 1917, Lenin and his associates were allowed to leave Switzerland through Germany to Russia, where a solemn meeting was organized for him. The first speech of Vladimir Ilyich before the people began with a call for a "social revolution", which caused discontent even among the Bolshevik circles. At that moment, Lenin's theses were supported by Joseph Stalin, who also believed that power in the country should belong to the Bolsheviks.

On October 20, 1917, Lenin arrived at Smolny and took over the leadership of the uprising, which was organized by the head of the Petrograd Soviet. Vladimir Ilyich proposed to act promptly, toughly and clearly - from October 25 to 26, the Provisional Government was arrested, and on November 7, at the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin's decrees on peace and land were adopted, and the Council of People's Commissars was organized, headed by Vladimir Ilyich.

Embed from Getty Images Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin

This was followed by a 124-day "Smolnin period", during which Lenin carried out active work in the Kremlin. He signed a decree on the creation of the Red Army, concluded the Brest peace treaty with Germany, and also began to develop a program for the formation of a socialist society. At that moment, the Russian capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow, and the Congress of Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers became the supreme body of power in Russia.

After the main reforms, which consisted in withdrawing from the World War and transferring the lands of the landlords to the peasants, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) was formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire, the rulers of which were the communists led by Vladimir Lenin.

Head of the RSFSR

When Lenin came to power, according to many historians, he ordered the execution of the former Russian emperor along with his entire family, and in July 1918 he approved the Constitution of the RSFSR. Two years later, Lenin eliminated the supreme ruler of Russia, Admiral, who was his strong opponent.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Then the head of the RSFSR implemented the "Red Terror" policy, created to strengthen the new government in the face of flourishing anti-Bolshevik activities. At the same time, the decree on the death penalty was restored, under which anyone who did not agree with Lenin's policy could fall.

After that, Vladimir Lenin set about destroying the Orthodox Church. Since that period, believers have become the main enemies of the Soviet regime. During that period, Christians who tried to protect the holy relics were subjected to persecution and executions. Special concentration camps were also created for the “re-education” of the Russian people, where people were imputed in especially harsh ways that they were obliged to work for free in the name of communism. This led to a massive famine that killed millions of people and a terrible crisis.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin and Kliment Voroshilov at the Congress of the Communist Party

This result forced the leader to retreat from his planned plan and create a new economic policy, during which people, under the "supervision" of the commissars, restored industry, revived construction sites and industrialized the country. In 1921, Lenin abolished "war communism", replaced the food appropriation with a food tax, allowed private trade, which gave the broad mass of the population to independently seek means of survival.

In 1922, on the recommendations of Lenin, the USSR was created, after which the revolutionary had to step down from power due to a sharp deterioration in health. After a sharp political struggle in the country in pursuit of power, Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union.

Personal life

The personal life of Vladimir Lenin, like that of most professional revolutionaries, was shrouded in secrecy for the purpose of conspiracy. He met his future wife in 1894 during the organization of the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.

She blindly followed her lover and participated in all the actions of Lenin, which was the reason for their separate first exile. In order not to part, Lenin and Krupskaya got married in a church - they invited Shushensky peasants as best men, and their ally made of copper nickels made wedding rings for them.

Embed from Getty Images Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya

The sacrament of the wedding of Lenin and Krupskaya took place on July 22, 1898 in the village of Shushenskoye, after which Nadezhda became a faithful companion in the life of the great leader, whom she bowed to, despite his harshness and humiliating treatment of herself. Having become a real communist, Krupskaya suppressed her sense of ownership and jealousy, which allowed her to remain the only wife of Lenin, in whose life there were many women.

The question "Did Lenin have children?" still attracts worldwide interest. There are several historical theories regarding the paternity of the leader of the Communists - some claim that Lenin was barren, while others call him the father of many children of illegitimate children. At the same time, many sources claim that Vladimir Ilyich had a son Alexander Steffen from his beloved, an affair with which the revolutionary lasted about 5 years.

Death

The death of Vladimir Lenin occurred on January 21, 1924 in the estate of Gorki, Moscow province. According to official figures, the leader of the Bolsheviks died of atherosclerosis, caused by severe overload at work. Two days after his death, Lenin's body was transported to Moscow and placed in the Hall of Columns, where the farewell to the founder of the USSR was held for 5 days.

Embed from Getty Images Funeral of Vladimir Lenin

On January 27, 1924, Lenin's body was embalmed and placed in a specially built for this Mausoleum, located on the Red Square of the capital. The ideologist of the creation of Lenin's relics was his successor Joseph Stalin, who wanted to make Vladimir Ilyich a "god" in the eyes of the people.

After the collapse of the USSR, the issue of reburial of Lenin was repeatedly raised in the State Duma. True, he remained at the stage of discussion back in 2000, when he came to power during his first presidential term put an end to this issue. He said that he did not see the desire of the vast majority of the population to rebury the body of the world leader, and until it appears, this topic will no longer be discussed in modern Russia.

Lenin's death is described here. With the events of the last day of life, the cause, date, time and place of death are indicated. Posthumous photos, photos of funerals and graves are given. Therefore, all people with an unstable psyche, as well as persons under the age of 21, this information is categorically not recommended for viewing.

Cause of death

The cause of Vladimir Lenin's death was atherosclerosis of the blood vessels of the brain.

From the official anatomical diagnosis:

Widespread atherosclerosis of the arteries with a pronounced lesion of the arteries of the brain

One of 30,000 slices of Lenin's brain

The results of the autopsy revealed that:

The main - "internal carotid artery" - at the very entrance to the skull turned out to be so hardened that its walls did not collapse during a transverse incision, significantly closed the lumen, and in some places were so saturated with lime that they were hit with tweezers like a bone. Separate branches of the arteries, feeding especially important centers of movement, speech, in the left hemisphere turned out to be so altered that they were not tubes, but laces: the walls thickened so much that they completely closed the lumen. All over the left hemisphere were cysts, that is, softened areas of the brain; clogged vessels did not deliver blood to these areas, their nutrition was disturbed, softening and disintegration of the brain tissue occurred. The same cyst was also found in the right hemisphere.

The causes of atherosclerosis will be discussed in detail below.

I, the undersigned Arosev, received from Comrade Belenky on January 24, 18:25 in the evening for the V.I. Lenin Institute, a glass jar containing Ilyich's brain, heart and a bullet removed from his body.

I undertake to keep everything received at the V.I. Lenin Institute and personally be responsible for its complete integrity and safety

The disease progresses, 1923

Lenin is terminally ill

Date and place of death

Lenin died on January 21, 1924, at the Gorki estate, Podolsky district, Moscow province, at 18:50.

Vladimir Ilyich was 53 years old.

Manor "Gorki"

Nowadays, Gorki is an urban-type settlement in the Moscow region. Here is the route map. Now there is a historical reserve "Gorki Leninskie"

Initially, it was the estate of Agrafena Alekseevna Durasova. Lenin lived and worked in Gorki for about 2 years, and after his death, his younger brother Dmitry Ulyanov lived in Gorki, who did not want to leave the estate, and was even going to take out all the antiques from there.

Parting

Hundreds of thousands of people came to say goodbye to Vladimir Ilyich (according to the professor of history at Wellesley College, Harvard University, the author of numerous works on the modern history of Russia and the Soviet Union, including the monographs "Lenin Lives! The Lenin Cult in Soviet Russia" Nina Tumarkin, during the period From January 23 to January 26, up to half a million people visited Lenin's coffin.)

Of course, all members of the Politburo took part in the funeral (except Trotsky, of course. Everyone knows the story of how Stalin told Trotsky the wrong date for the funeral).

The body of Lenin, previously delivered to Moscow in the luggage car of the branded Lenin steam locomotive U-127, was put up for parting in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions. In the Hall of Columns, the coffin with the body stood for 5 days.

The coffin with the body of V.I. Lenin in the Hall of Columns

It must be said that January 1924 was distinguished by monstrous frosts. Despite this, people traveled literally from all over the world to say goodbye to the creator of the first socialist state. Official telegrams came from everywhere asking them to postpone the day of the funeral so that all the delegations could say goodbye.

Severe frosts made it possible to delay the date of the funeral for several days, and then for several weeks. All this time, the flow of heartbroken people did not weaken for a second.

Funeral line to the coffin of Lenin

On January 22, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR created a special commission to organize the funeral of Lenin, which included Molotov, Voroloshilov, Bonch-Bruevich, Zelensky, Yenukudze, Muralov, Lashevich, Sapronov, Avanesov and Krasin. Dzerzhinsky was appointed chairman of the commission.

The Politburo, making concessions, gave the order to build a temporary crypt - the prototype of the modern mausoleum. A wooden structure was erected near the walls of the Kremlin, in which the body of the fallen leader was placed.

At the same time, Leonid Krasin announced a competition for projects for the second mausoleum. A lot of interesting things can be said about the adventurer Krasin, but in this context, it was Krasin who played the key role in the fact that the body of Ilyich still lies in the mausoleum, and is not interred. Suffice it to say that Krasin preached the idea of ​​the resurrection of the dead. In particular, at the funeral of Karpov (head of the chemical industry), Krasin said:

Science, not stopping only at treating, restoring the health of a diseased organism, is already raising the question of the arbitrary creation of sex, rejuvenation, etc. I am sure that a moment will come when science will become so powerful that it will be able to recreate the deceased organism. I am sure that a moment will come when it will be possible to restore a person physically by the elements of a person's life. And I am sure that when this moment comes, when liberated mankind, using all the might of science and technology, the strength and greatness of which cannot be imagined now, will be able to resurrect great figures, fighters for the liberation of mankind, - I am sure that at this moment among great figures will be our comrade Lev Yakovlevich

It should be noted that the question of embalming the body of Comrade Lenin was raised during his lifetime. In particular, Comrade Kalinin said:

This terrible event should not take us by surprise. If we bury Vladimir Ilyich, the funeral must be as majestic as the world has never seen before.

To which Comrade Stalin replied:

This question, as I have learned, is of great concern to some of our comrades in the provinces. They say that Lenin is a Russian man and should be buried accordingly. For example, they are categorically against cremation, the burning of Lenin's body. In their opinion, the burning of the body is completely inconsistent with the Russian understanding of love and admiration for the deceased. It may even seem offensive to his memory. In the burning, destruction, scattering of ashes, Russian thought has always seen, as it were, the last, highest judgment over those who were subject to execution. Some comrades believe that modern science has the possibility, with the help of embalming, to preserve the body of the deceased for a long time, in any case, long enough to allow our consciousness to get used to the idea that Lenin is not among us after all.

Which in turn provoked Comrade Trotsky's sharp criticism:

When Comrade. Stalin finished his speech to the end, then only it became clear to me where these at first incomprehensible arguments and indications were driving, that Lenin was a Russian person, and he should be buried in Russian. In Russian, according to the canons of the Russian Orthodox Church, saints were made relics. Apparently, we, the parties of revolutionary Marxism, are advised to go in the same direction - to save the body of Lenin. Before there were the relics of Sergius of Radonezh and Seraphim of Sarov, now they want to replace them with the relics of Vladimir Ilyich. I would very much like to know who these comrades in the provinces are, who, according to Stalin, propose to embalm Lenin's remains with the help of modern science, to create relics from them. I would tell them that they have absolutely nothing in common with the science of Marxism.

Be that as it may, the question of preserving the remains was not finally resolved even in the first days after Lenin's death.

However, study a typical letter that the Politburo received then in tens of thousands, and you will understand what moods were in that air:

We appeal to the Central and Moscow Committee of the Russian Communist Party with a deep request: do not bury the ashes of Ilyich underground from millions of working people. We are deeply convinced that this would be the desire of hundreds of millions. We must make sure that our posterity would have the opportunity to see the body of the man who brought the world revolution to life. Leave it on the ground in Red Square. May it remain for us an inexhaustible source of the idea of ​​Leninism for the benefit of the working people of the whole world. By this we will give the opportunity to see it to all, to all working people. Lenin must be among us. How to do it, think for yourself

One way or another, but as a result of 13 (!) meetings, the Politburo decided to keep the mummy of Vladimir Lenin and place it in a sarcophagus. A commission was created "to monitor the state of embalming the body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and take the necessary measures in a timely manner," and Academician Alexei Abrikosov was directly involved in monitoring the state of Lenin's body. Spring warming left no time for reflection, and on March 26, 1924, scientists Boris Zbarsky and Vladimir Vorobyov began a thorough embalming of Lenin's body. For this, the mausoleum was temporarily converted into a laboratory, where special tram rails and electric wires were even brought.

Work continued until June 1924. To analyze sections of Lenin's brain, a whole institute was subsequently created, which was called the Institute of the Brain. In particular, Lenin's brain was divided into approximately 30,000 sections.

Video chronicle of Lenin's funeral

Burial place

On January 27, the body of the deceased was moved to the first wooden mausoleum, the work of Shchusev. The first version of the mausoleum stood until the spring of 1924.

Lenin's first mausoleum

In the second version, stands were added. The second mausoleum was also made of wood, but stood until the end of the Great Patriotic War.

The second, temporary mausoleum of Lenin made of wood

After that, the third was erected - the final version of the mausoleum with brick walls and red granite cladding.

Lenin Mausoleum today

Instruction

Lenin became unwell in 1921. It was at this time that he began to have frequent severe headaches and fatigue. He began to experience unexplained bouts of nervous excitement. During these attacks, the politician carried all sorts of nonsense and waved his arms. Also, Lenin's limbs begin to go numb, up to complete paralysis. Doctors for the leader of the proletariat are summoned from Germany. But neither domestic doctors nor foreign doctors can give him an accurate diagnosis.

By the end of 1933, his condition deteriorated sharply. At times, he can no longer speak articulately. In the spring of 1923, Lenin was transported to Gorki. In the last lifetime photographs, Vladimir Ilyich looks simply terrifying: he is strong, and his eyes are simply crazy. He is constantly tormented by nightmares, he often screams. At the beginning of 1924, Lenin is getting a little better. On January 21, the doctors who examined him did not find any alarming symptoms in Ilyich, however, by the evening he suddenly became ill and died.

After death, many possible diagnoses were put forward. Doctors talked about epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and lead poisoning. In 1918, an assassination attempt was made on Lenin, and one of the two bullets that hit him was removed after his death. Allegedly, the fact that the bullet passed close to the vital arteries, and caused premature sclerosis of the carotid artery.

However, ordinary vascular sclerosis has completely different symptoms. During his lifetime, Lenin's disease was more like syphilis. By the way, some doctors who were invited to treat the leader specialized specifically in syphilis. However, some facts do not fit into this version. The doctors who performed the autopsy did not find any symptoms of syphilis in him. True, it was unacceptable to make public that the leader died of a venereal disease. This would have cast a shadow on the "bright image of Ilyich."

More recently, the American scientist Harry Winters and St. Petersburg historian Lev Lurie proposed a new version of Lenin at a medical conference at the University of Maryland. The main reason was called poor heredity. Ilyich's father also died at a fairly early age. Perhaps Lenin's predisposition to hardening of the arteries was inherited. Stress is one of the most important factors that can cause a stroke, and there were a lot of worries and experiences in Lenin's life.

Lev Lurie suggested that Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin could have poisoned Lenin. Winters, having studied the results of the autopsy and the medical history of Lenin, noted that toxicological tests that could detect traces of poisons in the body of the leader were not carried out. Poison poisoning is just one of the many versions of the cause of death of V.I. Lenin.

The illness and death of Vladimir Lenin is still shrouded in a dense veil of secrecy. The chief physician of the Scientific and Medical Gerontological Center, neurologist and geriatrician Valery Novoselov, studied the archives for several years, which contain documents about the last days of Lenin, as well as monographs by doctors of the head of the Soviet state. Based on the results of the research project, a scientific documentary book is being prepared for publication. Why Lenin's diagnosis is still not disclosed,
for what purposes the state uses medical workers and why the dark historical past still interferes with normal relations between doctors and patients, talked with Valery Novoselov.

Lenta.ru: Why did you decide to deal with Lenin's illness? Do you like historical detective stories?

Novoselov: In 1989, I entered the graduate school of the Brain Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. The topic of my work was "Neurophysiological analysis of brain activity in normal aging and vascular dementia." Therefore, he became interested in the clinical picture of Lenin's illness, which is believed to have had a multi-infarction brain lesion. There are a lot of publications about the state of his health, but basically these are the arguments of various historians, of course, without signs of medical knowledge and not supported by any historical documents.

For the entire period, only two books were published in 1997 and 2011 by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Medicine Yuri Mikhailovich Lopukhin “Illness, death and embalming of V.I. Lenin. Since 1951, he worked in the laboratory at the mausoleum. Actually, there is little about the leader's illness. Most of it is still devoted to the history of embalming. Yuri Mikhailovich eventually wrote that due to the disease itself, he had more questions than answers. There was no documentary part in his book.

Have you met him?

When I started writing my book, Lopukhin was no longer alive. He died in October 2016. In January 2017, I wrote a request for access to the patient's documents, which are in the archive . Now it is called RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History - approx. "Tapes.ru"), and, unusually, they let me in. From January to April 2017, I spent all my free time in the archive. And at some stage I had to make a report at the Moscow Scientific Society of General Practitioners. They urged me: let's hurry. And I sent a request to RGASPI about the need to make copies of documents to speed up the work.

Why didn't they just take pictures?

It's forbidden, and I'm a law-abiding person. Therefore, I worked with the computer within the framework of the regime determined by the archive staff. The answer came from the archive: “We cannot provide you with photocopies of documents, since access to them is limited for 25 years.” I ask how is it? In accordance with the federal law on secrecy, documents in the archives of the Central Committee of the CPSU related to Lenin's illness were closed for 75 years after his death. In 1999, all restrictions were to be lifted. It turned out that the management of the archive extended the term at the request of Lenin's great-niece. That is, I was allowed to work with documents with restricted access status, but the responsible persons did not notify me of this.

When does the new restriction end?

In 2024. But it is not a fact that these documents will not again be given the status of “limited access”, which means “no access” when translated into intelligible Russian. Indeed, in 1999, the Federal Archives did not have any authority to extend the restriction. They knew they were breaking the law. But, as they explained, “we went to meet (...) the niece of V.I. Lenin. In their reply to me at RGASPI they said that they did not mind if the information received by me in the archive was used for scientific purposes. And now I have finished writing a scientific documentary book about doctors and their patient Lenin. For me, this book is a kind of point in the history of medicine in the Soviet period. In the near future, a report or a series of reports will be made at the Scientific Society of Historians of Medicine.

Are you afraid that you may be charged with disclosing state secrets?

We have many stories about how people received some information from scientific journals, the press, and then the state really charged them with treason. I would not like to receive a restriction on my rights, for example, when traveling outside Russia, so I sent a request about what rights I have to work with archival documents. And he asked if the employees of RGASPI violated Russian law when they allowed me to work in the archive. I'm waiting for an official answer.

What did you find out?

Given the difficult situation with state secrets, today I can rely in my story on documents that are in the public domain. These are monographs of the founders of Russian neurology and the doctors of our patient themselves. And there is a diary “with limited access” (records of Ulyanov’s attending physicians themselves), to which I was allowed. It is a thick folder in brown leatherette cover with 410 A4 pages. Formally, this is not medical documentation; the word “diagnosis” does not sound anywhere. It contains a lot of information: what the patient ate, whom he met. The entries begin at the end of May 1922, when Lenin is believed to have fallen ill. And they end in 1924 - with his death. Three doctors kept a diary: Vasily Vasilyevich Kramer, who collected the patient's history; who began to treat him; and completed treatment. No one in Russia and the world, except me, has seen the diary. Here's an amazing fact. But in this document - the direct speech of the doctors of the patient Lenin, who found themselves in a difficult historical situation.

What specialty were these doctors?

All the main doctors were neurologists. According to the official version, Lenin had a series of strokes, which these specialists are dealing with. By the way, from the very beginning of Lenin's illness, one can notice intrigue. In Russia by 1922 there were three leading neurologists, three world stars: Lazar Solomonovich Minor, Livery Osipovich Darkshevich and Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo. When, at the request of Soviet leaders, foreign doctors came to Moscow to examine Lenin, they were surprised that none of these celebrities were involved in the treatment of the leader. Look: Lenin turned the history of the whole world, with what sign, plus or minus, is another question. But his personal doctor Kozhevnikov is generally unknown to anyone. Today there is only an inscription on the gravestone.

Among the doctors, a gray mouse was specially chosen?

I think they made him unknown later. I read the memoirs of an academician, the founder of the Soviet school of pathological anatomy. He mentions Kozhevnikov several times, and in the list of outstanding doctors. In addition to him, of the leading neurologists of the RSFSR (there was no USSR then), only Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev observed Lenin, who was poisoned in 1927.

Precisely because he observed Lenin?

There is a version among the people that Bekhterev was poisoned because of the diagnosis that he made to Stalin: paranoia. But I met with Bekhterev's great-grandson, director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Svyatoslav Medvedev, and, of course, I asked him about it. Relatives are sure that the reason is in Lenin. In Petrograd, under the leadership of Bekhterev, the Institute of the Brain was then working, and the scientist rightly believed that Lenin's brain should be kept by them. However, Stalin was against it. He was afraid that the brain could carry information that could be used.

But why couldn't they just take and leave the brain in Moscow?

Bekhterev could not be ordered to step aside. He is the light of the world. Bump in science. 47 symptoms, syndromes, diseases are named after Bekhterev in medicine. This record has not yet been surpassed by any of the scientists in the world. That is, for the leaders of the Soviet state, Bekhterev was an unattainable value. He was also a very stubborn man. On the eve of his death, he was going to go to a major neurological conference abroad. Probably, they were afraid to let him out as the bearer of the secret of Lenin's illness and death. Since there was no influence on the academician, they decided to act by a proven method - they poisoned him. He fell ill in the evening and died in the morning. The clinical picture was characteristic of arsenic poisoning. All subsequent events with an autopsy at home - or rather, just a brain sampling and instant cremation - only confirm the political order. As well as the lack of a forensic examination, which should have been carried out in this case.

What did Lenin suffer from, if even today all documents about this are classified?

It is impossible to study Lenin's disease from the standpoint of modern medicine. I consider the clinical picture not from the point of view of today's medical thinking, but I try to get up to the level of development of medical science of that time. I am walking from two sides: I am carefully examining the medical diary and the pathoanatomical act of opening Lenin's body. The document was written the next day after his death, on January 22, 1924, in an estate near Moscow in Gorki. In this situation, too, everything is strange. The patient is opened on January 22, and the next day, January 23, the body is delivered to Moscow. Doesn't raise questions? Why not immediately take the body to a specialized institution where there are pathologists, section tables, instruments, dissectors? And it is first opened in Gorki, where there is nothing. There is also a medical consultation - 11 people. Of these, only three doctors have been in the estate since the moment of death, the rest had to be delivered to the place. Moscow at that time ended not far from the Saratov (now Paveletsky) railway station. The estate of Gorki is far away. Around the estate - an extensive forest park area. Around - about 30 people of protection from the Latvian shooters.

Did the doctors write the conclusion at gunpoint?

At least the moral atmosphere was appropriate. It is quite obvious that in Moscow it would be difficult to provide the necessary level of secrecy, so they chose a manor in the forest. But even in remote Gorki, an incident still occurred. The medical commission that was present at the autopsy was Fyodor Aleksandrovich Getye, the personal doctor of the Ulyanov family. This is a Russian man with French roots. Of all those present, he was the only one who did not sign the pathoanatomical act of examining Lenin's body. However, there is a second document, also dated January 22, 1924, signed by Guetier.

What is the difference between these papers?

The document signed by Getye said: "Sharp changes in the blood vessels of the brain, fresh hemorrhage were found, which caused death ..." Dr. Getye agreed with this. But his signature is not under the conclusion that “atherosclerosis of the vessels was the cause of the disease of the deceased due to their premature wear ...” The diagnosis of Abnutzungsclerosis did not exist either then or now. Even at the beginning of the last century, the theory of the wear of vessels was recognized as untenable by all experts in the world. And the number one pathologist in the country and in the world, Alexei Abrikosov, who opened the body, could not help but know this. As his colleagues invited to Gorki could not help but know. The autopsy lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes, as indicated in the act. In his memoirs, Abrikosov indicated the time as 3 hours and 50 minutes. Doctors can pay attention to this nuance.

Is the duration of the procedure an important detail?

Such an autopsy should have taken no more than two hours. What did you do for the remaining two hours? There was a telephone in Gorki, and, most likely, additional time was spent on coordinating the diagnosis with the Politburo. That is, two pages of the act were written by doctors, and the final paragraph about unusual atherosclerosis was lowered from above. But if you carefully read the pathoanatomical act, then it will become clear to a person with a medical education that Lenin did not have any atherosclerosis.

What is atherosclerosis? It is characterized by certain morphological changes. The first is necessarily lipid (fatty) spots on the walls of blood vessels, the second is atherosclerotic plaques. A plaque is a structural morphological formation that has edges. With a sharp development of atherosclerosis, the number of plaques becomes very large, they partly merge with each other and give the inner surface of the affected arteries over a large area a rough, bumpy appearance.

Photo: provided by Valery Novoselov

In the act of Lenin's autopsy, it is written: vessels are like cords. And other details. All this describes another disease: meningovascular syphilis of the brain. The chief pathologist of Moscow of those years, Ippolit Davydovsky, has a detailed description of the characteristic features of this pathology. If his definition is imposed on the act of Lenin's autopsy, doubts will disappear from specialists.

Doctors saw syphilis at the autopsy, but were afraid to make it public?

In open documents, Lenin's doctors clearly wrote that during his lifetime the patient received treatment corresponding to the diagnosis. And they treated Lenin only with antisyphilitic drugs. These are heavy metals: mercury, bismuth, arsenic, large doses of iodine every day. All this is described by Academician Lopukhin. At that time, syphilis was fought all over the world in this way.

The composition of the team of doctors who treated Lenin can also tell a lot. For example, his main attending physician Kozhevnikov in those years was considered the leading specialist in Russia on neurosyphilis. Also, specifically for the consultation of Lenin, Max Nonne, Europe's chief specialist in the treatment of neurosyphilis, was summoned from Germany.

Would you like to say that Lenin's illness was not a secret for his inner circle?

Lenin had a standard clinical picture for that time. In psychiatric departments of Russian hospitals, patients with exactly the same symptoms were from 10 to 40 percent. Therefore, everyone perfectly understood what it was. Including this patient, because it was no coincidence that he asked for poison. He saw how this disease usually ends: progressive paralysis, dementia. The chief pathologist of Moscow, Ippolit Davydovsky, wrote: “According to the sections (autopsies - approx. "Tapes.ru"), the number of patients with syphilis in 1924-1925 was 5.5 percent of the population. That is, out of a hundred Muscovites, at least five were sick. And this statistic is incomplete. The regions were very different from each other. In Kalmykia, for example, up to 43 percent of the population was sick. General surveys in the 1920s showed that in some villages of Central Russia, up to 16 percent of the inhabitants were ill with syphilis.

That is, in Russia there was an epidemic of syphilis?

Syphilis was a colossal problem not only for Russia, but also for Europe. When antibiotics were discovered in 1940, the disease became relatively easy to treat, and before that it was a threat to national security. How exactly Lenin got infected - we do not know, the anamnesis is poorly collected. But I want to emphasize that at that time household syphilis was widespread. Well, the path of infection itself is not interesting to me, for me it is a common disease, which has become the most confusing event in the history of not only our medicine, but also the medicine of the whole world.

If syphilis is domestic, in theory, it is not a shame to talk about it. Anyone could get infected, even a child. Why was everything kept secret?

Syphilis, no matter what, has always been considered an "unworthy" disease. It had many names: French, Polish, rotten disease, French Venus. For doctors, it doesn’t matter who and what to treat: even white ones, even red ones. There is deontology - the science of due. The doctor chose his path, went the path of duty. But then politics intervened in medicine. What were the revolutionaries building? A new type of person. Syphilis did not fit into this "red project" in any way.

You mentioned the science of due. But isn't the fact that the doctors made a deal with the authorities, concealed the truth, a violation of deontology?

The patient was not harmed. The deal with the authorities consisted in the fact that the doctors were silent, participated in a political game with the printing of false bulletins with information about the health of the head of state. In total, 35 bulletins were published during the illness. Even Lenin laughed when he read these medical reports. There was a diary entry about this. “I thought that the best diplomats are in The Hague, but in fact they are my doctors,” he said. But after all, it was not the doctors who wrote the bulletins in which it was reported that Lenin had gastroenteritis.

GPU (Main Political Directorate under the NKVD - approx. "Tapes.ru") walked around Europe, as if at home. In addition, foreigners received a lot of money. Someone 50 thousand, someone 25 thousand gold rubles. Today, this amount is equivalent to millions of dollars.

What happened to the Soviet doctors who treated Lenin?

I think there was an unspoken agreement: while the doctors are silent, the authorities do not touch them. The People's Commissariat of Health Nikolai Semashko ensured its implementation. He served as a buffer between the doctors and Stalin, trying to smooth out the rough edges. It did not work out only with Fyodor Getye, who refused to sign the act of Lenin's autopsy. He was treated very cunningly. Old Getye had an only son, Alexander Fedorovich, at that time a famous boxing coach. He was shot in 1938. The father could not stand it and died two months later. They also shot Nikolai Popov - he was the youngest doctor in the Leninist brigade, he had just entered the residency and served as an orderly with the famous patient. In 1935 he tried to interview Nadezhda Krupskaya

Is there a connection between Stalin's "doctors' case" and Lenin's illness?

In 1949, the guarantor of the tacit agreement between Stalin and the doctors, Nikolai Semashko, dies. Himself, by his own death. And then you can put forward many versions. Perhaps Stalin remembered how the doctors "agreed". And he just imagined what could happen to him. And the "case of doctors" was born. In 1953, about 30 leading professors of medicine were arrested in Moscow and Leningrad. How many ordinary doctors - no one counted. At the end of March 1953, they were to be publicly hung in the squares of both capitals. But - lucky. Stalin is dead. However, the consequences of all these cases are still being felt.

How?

I think that the current attitude of Russians towards doctors is a merit, including that case with Lenin. I talked a lot with people, outstanding historians of the country and the world, great doctors, scientists and ordinary citizens. The majority believes that Vladimir Ilyich was treated "not for this and not like that." As a result, many have deep-seated distrust of doctors. Therefore, we must show that the hands are clean, that Lenin was treated according to the highest standards of that time, the doctors did everything they could. Maybe then at least a small percentage of Russians will understand that doctors should not be treated as pests. Our colleagues, the doctors from that story, have earned the right to the truth.

Is it possible to establish the official diagnosis of Lenin with modern scientific methods?

We need political will. Since the collapse of the USSR, 38.5 million people have been born in Russia and 52 million have died. The population is completely different than in Lenin's time. When those who studied scientific communism in universities and the former Octobrists finally become a thing of the past, then changes will probably become possible. History needs to be studied and published so that this does not happen again. Today, when I observe the speed of initiation of criminal cases against doctors, it seems to me that the authorities have begun to play games with doctors again. Maybe there was no direct command to plant doctors. But there are also non-verbal signals.

V. I. Lenin began to be seriously ill in 1922. It was alleged that his illness began after the assassination attempt in August 1918, and also due to severe overload.

For the treatment of Vladimir Ilyich, leading specialists from Germany were called in, who dealt with nervous diseases. Otfried Förster became Lenin's chief physician.

But, both foreign doctors and domestic doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis.

Scientists from Germany believed that poisoning with a poisonous composition of two bullets that were in Lenin's body caused the leader to feel unwell and insisted on removing them.

We decided to remove one less dangerous one, and not to touch the second bullet. Despite feeling unwell, Vladimir Ilyich did not stop his work. His last public performance was recorded in November 1922.

Two years later, Lenin's condition changed for the worse. And on January 21, 1924, he died. He was 53 years old. But the cause of death was never revealed. Epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and even syphilis were considered as a diagnosis.

The last disease, according to the famous writer and historian Helen Rappoport, he received in 1902 from a courtesan in Paris. According to the writer, Vladimir Ilyich had all the signs of brain syphilis.

This disease, as you know, is a chronic infectious process that affects both the internal organs and the nervous system. Damage to the nervous system in a syphilitic person can be expressed in the form of syphilis of the brain or in the form of progressive paralysis.

In Soviet times, politicians were threatened with execution if this topic was raised. But did Lenin suffer from syphilis, as rumors say, and what did he die of? These questions have been asked by many scientists and doctors. Let's look into the veracity of this question.

Myths attributed to famous historical figures

Homosexuality, a lot of mistresses ... What myths were not invented to discredit the personality of Lenin. And this is not strange, since most of the deaths of famous historical figures have always been accompanied by some kind of rumors.

So they said that Hitler liked to take various tests. Yes, in part, it was true.

But he did not like, but was forced to surrender. The Nazi had a morbidly depressed state (hypochondria) and doubtfulness.

Therefore, he looked for all sorts of diseases in himself, made a new will every three years and forced his own attending physician, Theodore Morel, to do new examinations every week.

But Stalin was credited with the fear of doctors because of his mental disorder. He was accused of poisoning academician Vladimir Bekhterev, Maxim Gorky and many other famous personalities. Everyone said he was crazy. But Stalin was a perfectly healthy man.

And he did not go to the doctors, like any healthy person. And after the death of the Soviet party and statesman Andrei Zhdanov due to medical negligence, he began to treat them worse.

Versions confirming a venereal disease

The first to put forward the theory that Lenin died of syphilis was Vladimir Ippolitovich Terebinsky, Doctor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Skin and Syphilitic Diseases at the University of Saratov.

In his report “On the causes of death of V. I. Lenin according to the autopsy protocol (Lues cerebri)”, he laid out his hypothesis. But over time, everyone scored about this and these rumors subsided.

Later, this issue was raised by the Russian writer and publicist Akim Arutyunov. In his works, he reveals his assumptions.

Professor Osipov, who was one of the treating doctors of Lenin, in his work "The Red Chronicle" in 1927, spoke about the method of treating the leader of the world proletariat.

Sick Lenin was given iodine, mercury, arsenic as a medicine and was vaccinated against malaria. At the same time, doctors from Israel's Ben-Gurion University released their test results.

One of the important facts confirming that Lenin had syphilis was the drug for syphilis - salvarsan, consisting of mercury and bismuth. Such components could hasten Lenin's death.

Also, many drew attention to the presence of the German physician Max None, who specialized in the field of neurosyphilis.

What was the official diagnosis?

There are opponents of this theory, proving the opposite, since the official diagnosis of the death of the leader was atherosclerosis, which provoked a hemorrhage in the brain.

American neuroscientist at the University of California Harry Winters argued in his work that the symptoms of Lenin's disease are not associated with neurosyphilis.

Everyone knows that such a disease is transmitted through sexual relations. And if the leader really had such a disease, then he would have to infect his women with syphilis. But neither Nadezhda Krupskaya nor Armand had such a disease.

Krupskaya, who had been ill almost all her life, was examined by many foreign specialists. But no signs of syphilis were found. Nadezhda outlived her husband and died at the age of 70.

The version of hereditary syphilis was also considered incorrect, since it was not found either in Vladimir Ilyich's parents or in his brothers and sisters.

So the Russian neuropathologist and doctor of medicine Alexei Yakovlevich Kozhevnikov, who was invited to study Lenin's disease, studied the tests for the Wasserman reaction (RW).

This diagnostic method is considered the most popular and has been used since its discovery in 1906. It lies in the fact that antibodies are released in the blood of an infected person, which can be determined using the Wasserman reaction.

Alexander Yakovlevich analyzed not only Lenin's blood, but also his cerebrospinal fluid. But the professor could not completely exclude syphilis of the brain.

Soon a qualified ophthalmologist M. I. Averbakh arrived to examine the condition of the inner surface of the eyeball.

With the help of such an examination, it is possible to study the optic discs and the state of the blood vessels of the brain. According to the result of his research, no special pathological formations were noticed, which ruled out syphilis of the brain.

And in 1939, the German doctor and professor Felix Klemperer definitely announced the exclusion of the presence of a venereal disease of Vladimir Ilyich.

What happened to Lenin at the last moment of his life?

The last day of the life of the commander-in-chief of the world proletariat was described by Professor Osipov. He stated that the day before his death, the leader had a lack of appetite, a bad mood and lethargy.

The next day he kept bed rest and did not get up. But towards evening the patient developed a slight appetite and was offered broth.

After that, the mind was lost and convulsive movements of the limbs appeared, they were especially strong on the left side. Convulsions were accompanied by disruption of the cardiovascular system and rapid breathing.

Also, Professor Osipov recorded a very dangerous type of breathing (Cheyne-Stokes), which in many cases indicates the onset of a fatal outcome. In the evening at 18 hours 50 minutes Lenin died.

The commission, based on the results of the autopsy, concluded that Lenin's death was due to atherosclerosis. Alexei Abrikosov, head of the Department of Pathological Anatomy at Moscow State University, headed this commission.

To this day, no one can refute this diagnosis. Since many modern Russian scientists, including Professor Starchenko and Academician Petrovsky, adhere to the theory of the correctness of the official diagnosis.

To this day, Lenin's brain is in the Brain Institute, designed specifically for his examination. It has been repeatedly subjected to various analyzes and studies.

All signs and results of autopsies of prominent pathologists report that Lenin did not have syphilis.

Therefore, it can be argued that the main causes of the early death of the leader of the proletariat were stress, strenuous activity and heredity, but not a venereal disease.