November 11, 1982 is the independence day of the African country of Angola.
From the morning of the 10th, Angolan President dos Santos waited at the presidential palace for a congratulatory letter from his ally the Soviet Union. But left and right, and did not wait for congratulations from the USSR. Dos Santos asked the Foreign Ministry to contact the Soviet side several times, but never heard back.
Many Western countries have also sensibly smelled this anomaly. As the "big brother" of the socialist camp, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev would send congratulatory letters on the day before every Angolan independence day, which was not only a diplomatic courtesy, but also a kind of "big brother" care for "little brother".
But on this independence day, the Soviet side has not made any moves, can it be said that something major has changed in Moscow?
On the afternoon of November 10, dos Santos sent a secret order to the Angolan embassy in the Soviet Union, asking them to find out what had happened.
Soon after, the Angolan embassy in the Soviet Union reported several anomalies to the president: First, in the afternoon, the regular television program and a concert originally broadcast by the Soviet Central Television were replaced by a documentary by Lenin or Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6.
Second, in the evening news program "Time", the female host rarely wore a long black dress.
The Angolan embassy in the Soviet Union judged that it was most likely the death of Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, because Kirilenko had long been rumored to have health problems and he was absent from the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution a few days earlier.
It was not until 11 a.m. Moscow time on November 11 that people heard a bombshell news from the mouth of the famous Soviet announcer Igor Kirillov:
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, died of a heart attack in Moscow on November 10!
One
According to the famous Soviet political commentator Roy in his book "Portraits of Politicians", on the morning of November 9, 1982, Brezhnev was not abnormal.
At noon that day, as usual, he went to his office to start reviewing documents.
Not long after, Andropov came to Brezhnev's office, and the two exchanged information for ten minutes about the current work. Brezhnev worked until half past eight in the evening, when he returned to his dacha in Zalechiye.
Brezhnev's bodyguard, Vladimir Medvedev, also recalled in his book "Memoirs of a Private Bodyguard - The Sins of Brezhnev and Gorbachev" that after Brezhnev returned home, there was only a little "small anomaly", that is, he did not watch his favorite news program "Now Broadcast" as usual.
This was also confirmed by Brezhnev's wife Petrovna.
Although it felt a little strange, Petrovna did not pay much attention to it, because Brezhnev's body did not seem to have much problem.
Shortly before, he had visited Azerbaijan, presided over a meeting of senior military officers in Moscow, and participated in a large military parade on Red Square on November 7.
Despite the bad weather that day, Brezhnev stood on the viewing platform for hours, waving frequently to the crowd holding his portrait through the viewing platform.
After the parade, Brezhnev also attended a reception.
At the reception, he frequently toasted, "toasting to the Leninist Party" and "toasting to the health of all those present," and did not show any abnormality.
So neither Petrovna nor Medvedev imagined that this would be the last night of Madame Brezhne's life.
Medvedev remembers that Brezhnev did not eat anything that night, only ate some milk dregs, drank some tea, and felt a little uncomfortable in his throat. He took a deep breath as he walked back to his bedroom.
As Brezhnev 's bodyguard , Medvedev was on the day shift , and another bodyguard , Sobathankov , was on the night shift. At about eight-thirty in the evening , after Sobathankov came to take over , Medvedev left Brezhnev 's residence by car.
At almost nine o'clock the next morning , Medvedev arrived at Brezhnev 's residence , where he had come to replace Sobathankov , who had finished his night shift.
When Medvedev arrived, he saw Brezhnev's wife Petrovna sitting in the restaurant on the first floor having breakfast.
This is normal, because Petrovna has diabetes, so she wakes up early every day, and her doctor usually arrives around eight o'clock to inject her with insulin for diabetes.
After the injection, Petrovna usually started eating breakfast, while Brezhnev was usually still sleeping.
When the hour hand pointed to nine o'clock , Medvedev and Sobathankov went up to the second floor together to Brezhnev 's bedroom. Sobatchankov opened the bedroom curtains as usual.
According to Medvedev: "Usually when we opened the curtains, Brezhnev would open his eyes and get ready to get up. But that day, he was still lying motionless on his back on the bed, his head hanging low on his chest, and his chin resting on his chest, which looked very strange. ”
After Medvedev and Sobathankov looked at each other , they sensed something was wrong , so they walked to the bed and gently shook Brezhnev's arm , but Brezhnev did not respond.
The two suddenly tensed up, increased the strength of their hands, and even shook the bed. But Brezhnev, like a dead man, did not move, and his eyes were always closed.
Medvedev felt his heart sink, and he said to Sobathankov: "The general secretary will not die, will he? Sobathankov turned pale and shouted to Medvedev: "Call and inform the chief of the guard!" ”
Two
After a while, the chief of the guard, Storonov, hurried to Brezhnev's bedroom.
Seeing Brezhnev in front of him, he also froze and stood in place at a loss. Medvedev suggested that Storonov go and call the nurse on duty, but Storonov told Medvedev that there was no nurse on duty in the villa!
Medvedev had no choice but to constantly slap Brezhnev with Storonov in an attempt to wake up the general secretary. Storonov went to inform the senior Soviet leaders.
About half an hour later, Andropov arrived. After entering the bedroom, Andropov asked Medvedev: "Hey, what's wrong with him?" ”
Medvedev shook his head: "I see that he is dead, what to do now?" Andropov stood in place with a pale face and did not answer Medvedev's questions.
At this time, the head of the Fourth Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health Chazhov arrived with several medical personnel, and after seeing Brezhnev's appearance, several medical staff gasped and asked Chazhov what to do? Chatsov said: "Try your best to save it!" ”
Ten minutes later, Chatsov said to Andropov: "We have done everything we can, I think we can declare the rescue ineffective ..."
According to Chazhov's recollection, when he arrived at Brezhnev's villa, he found that Brezhnev had been dead for at least a few hours. He asked his medical staff to "rescue", just to make a show and comfort those present.
After the rescue failed, Andropov ordered the news of Brezhnev's death to be temporarily blocked, and at the same time called members of the Politburo to a meeting in the Kremlin.
Since several members were not in Moscow that day, the meeting did not take place until the evening.
At the meeting, Andropov gave an order ordering Moscow's police and internal defense forces to carry out a 24-hour patrol system, especially near the Kremlin's Central Committee of the CPSU and the buildings of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
The meeting went calmly, and all members of the Politburo unanimously agreed that Andropov would succeed Brezhnev. The meeting also determined the list of Brezhnev's funeral committee and elected Andropov as the chairman of the funeral committee.
Burek was an American correspondent based in Moscow at the time. He was the first to notice the anomaly because of the sensitivity of journalists: "On the evening of November 10, Moscow TV canceled the scheduled music program and showed a film about Lenin.
At 9 p.m., the announcers who appeared on the evening news program also changed into long black dresses. People speculated that an important person had died, but no one thought it was Brezhnev.
It was not until 11 a.m. the next day that Soviet radio and television simultaneously broadcast the news of Brezhnev's death. ”
Three
As Brezhnev's bodyguard, during Brezhnev's death, Medvedev had several points that he had never understood.
The entire Soviet top knew about Brezhnev's state of health, why did his dacha not even have an infirmary, and even the nurse on duty was not matched?
In his memoirs "The Sins of Brezhnev and Gorbachev", Medvedev angrily noted: "This is not negligence, this is a crime!" ”
Medvedev also has a question: when exactly did Brezhnev die?
The official Soviet conclusion was that Brezhnev died at 8:30 p.m. on November 10, but according to the nurse who administered insulin to Brezhnev's wife, Petrovna, Brezhnev was alive when she gave Petrovna insulin because she saw him roll over.
The head of the Fourth Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health, Chazhov, was the first medical expert to rush to Brezhnev's villa, pointing out that Brezhnev suffered from a variety of underlying diseases such as coronary artery sclerosis and coronary insufficiency, which were responsible for Brezhnev's death.
But Medvedev remembers that shortly before his death, Brezhnev told him that because he suffered from severe insomnia, Andropov had given him a "yellow" pill, which greatly improved Brezhnev's sleep after taking it.
But the problem was that after taking this pill for a short time, Brezhnev mysteriously died.
And after his death, it was Andropov who replaced him.
Although Medvedev has no evidence that there is something wrong with this pill, his suspicions cannot be said to be completely unreasonable, so there are also many people in the USSR who support his opinion.
Four
In fact, Medvedev was not alone in doubting the cause of Brezhnev's death, as early as the sixties, Brezhnev suffered a bizarre assassination attempt.
The Soviet government has been secretive and secretive about this incident for decades. There is reason to suspect that the assassination was planned rather naively, and the KGB, known for its competence, could have prevented the assassination, but the KGB at that time was defenseless, is this normal?
On January 22, 1969, countless Soviet citizens were waiting by the television, ready to watch the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev welcome the triumph of the space hero.
At that time when the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for hegemony, every victory of Soviet cosmonauts in space travel would become a carnival day for the people of the whole country.
But just as people were preparing to witness the historic moment, the TV signal suddenly cut off.
An hour later, the signal was restored, but the attentive people found that Brezhnev, who was originally presiding over the award, did not appear, but Podgorny took his place to receive the astronauts who returned from victory. Immediately afterwards, a rumor quickly spread throughout Moscow: Brezhnev was assassinated!
According to the recollections of a Soviet official who was present at the time, when the television signal was interrupted, a young man in a police uniform and holding two pistols rushed out of the crowd and pulled the trigger on the second car in Brezhnev's convoy.
With several gunshots, the driver of the second car was shot and killed instantly. Astronaut Nikolaev, who was sitting next to the driver, quickly opened the door, pushed the driver's body out of the car, and sat in the driver's seat himself, making the car make a sharp turn and fly away from the man's range.
The man fired several more shots at the car, and the bullet hit a mounted policeman on a motorcycle, who fell to the ground in response, but his motorcycle still rushed forward due to inertia, just knocking the assassin to the ground.
Only then did the awakened KGB agents rush up and knock the assassin firmly to the ground.
Soon, the identity of the Assassin was identified, Viktor Ilyin, a Soviet ensign stationed in Leningrad.
In fact, Ilyin had already revealed to a friend who had the idea of assassinating Brezhnev, and his friend, who felt that the matter was important, had also reported it to the KGB in Leningrad.
But the KGB did not pay attention to this clue. It was not until Ely, long after he left the barracks without authorization with two military pistols, that he attracted the attention of the KGB.
The KGB soon found out that Ilyin had flown from Leningrad to Moscow. At the same time, they also seized a diary at Elyin's home with a "famous quote" from John Booth, the assassin who assassinated Lincoln: "I will kill the president, if only in the hope that my humble self can be associated with his glory, and time will bind us together." ”
The KGB in Leningrad immediately reported the situation to Semyon Zvegon, deputy chairman of the KGB and Andropov's confidant.
At this time, there were still more than ten hours before Iliyin's operation, and the KGB had every time to arrest him before Eriyin's operation, but the KGB's performance was quite slow, and Eriin was not found in the first place.
After coming to Moscow, Iliin found his uncle, who was a policeman, and wanted to borrow a police uniform.
His reasoning was that with this police uniform, he could see the heroic astronauts up close.
Elyin's uncle was vigilant and did not accede to Elyin's request. Early the next morning, Iliin stole his uncle's police uniform and sneaked outside the Kremlin, blending in with the police on security missions.
After Illino's uncle discovered that his police uniform had been stolen by his nephew, he reported it to the KGB, and Zvegon sent people to find Ilien's whereabouts.
But I don't know if it was negligence or intentional, Zvegon did not tell his subordinate Eriin that he might be disguised as a policeman, so when the KGB searched, no one noticed Eriin who was mixed in the police force.
Fortunately, Brezhnev was not in the second car that day, and Brezhnev was spared because he got the target wrong.
Medvedev believes that the biggest question about this assassination is that with the capabilities of the KGB, it is completely possible to prevent this assassination, but Tsvegon and his men are so negligent, what are they thinking?
Obviously, Medvedev did not consider the failure of the KGB to prevent this assassination as a matter of competence, but a matter of attitude, and there is a lot to do here!
Years later, Russia's Independent Military Review published an analysis that suggested that the assassination might be linked to Andropov.
It's just that many years later, the parties have passed away, and some files have not yet been released, so this analysis is more of a speculation.
Five
Brezhnev's ability was not outstanding, he could succeed Khrushchev in power, and the allies who were completely anti-Khrushchev believed that Brezhnev's power would not pose a threat to everyone, so he was promoted to the highest peak of power.
After Brezhnev came to power, he was cautious at first, but after sitting on the throne of the general secretary, he also began to exclude dissidents and install cronies, so that power fell into his hands step by step.
Although he did not resort to violence, those who opposed him were either expelled from Moscow or "honorably retired", even Shelepin, who was the most supportive of him, was ousted from politics, and others such as Podgorny, Voronov, Mikoyan and others quickly disappeared from the Presidium of the Central Committee and the Politburo.
Brezhnev sat in the mountains for eighteen years, and the more he became more and more self-inflate, the more he could not listen to objections, will this cause some people to be vigilant?
Once, Brezhnev, dressed in a brand new marshal uniform with medals on his chest, could not help but show off proudly when receiving an old subordinate of the past: "Look, I survived to this day ..."
Power can really change everything. In 1981, Brezhnev erected a monument to World War II in Kiev, with the names of 12,000 combat heroes engraved on the huge monument.
No one would have thought that Brezhnev's name would come first, before Stalin's. In fact, in World War II, Brezhnev was nothing more than an unknown officer!
Brezhnev's death brought an opportunity to repair Sino-Soviet relations, which were in a state of rupture.
After Brezhnev's death, China quickly issued a message of condolence in the name of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Ulanfu, then vice chairman of the National People's Congress, went to the Soviet Embassy to pay his condolences, and at the same time sent Foreign Minister Huang Hua as a "special envoy" to the Soviet Union to attend Brezhnev's funeral.
After Huang Hua arrived in the Soviet Union, he was treated by the Soviet side beyond the specifications. Taking this opportunity, the two countries held a formal meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries on November 16, 1982, and Sino-Soviet relations have been thoroughly improved.
Resources:
Medvedev: "I was the captain of the Brezhnev guard"
"Youth Reference": "Russian magazine reveals details of Brezhnev's assassination: so far foggy"
-END-
Author: Yeonjin
Editor: Murray