For every Russian, and especially for the older generation, the word "mausoleum" is associated with a granite building on Red Square that stores the mummy of the leader of the world proletariat. But not everyone knows that there are two more mausoleums. The one who is in Vinnitsa, and serves as the tomb of the famous Russian surgeon N.I. Pirogov, is still known, but the fact that there is a mausoleum of Kotovsky - a bandit who kept in fear the whole of South-West Russia and nevertheless became famous as Civil War hero, few know.
Robin Hood from Bessarabia
The Kotovsky Mausoleum was built immediately after his assassination in August 1925. The crime was committed by the former owner of one of the most expensive Odessa brothels, Zayder Meer. The circumstances of the case and the subsequent reaction of the authorities gave rise to many questions, the answers to which are unlikely to be received. However, first things first.
Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich, whose mausoleum is one of the three built in the USSR, was born in 1881 in a family of petty bourgeois living in the village of Gancheshty, Bessarabian province. From childhood, heroes of books telling about noble robbers, the main of which was Robin Hood, became his idols. It is difficult to say what idea of nobility he gleaned from what he read, but as a robber, impudent and fearless, Gregory soon became famous throughout Bessarabia.
Kotovsky was a little over twenty when he was first charged with forging documents and stealing money. Wanted by the police, he wanders, interrupting with petty thefts, until he finally gets acquainted with the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorists, who replenished the party cash desk with the expropriation of values from the local rich, in other words, engaged in undisguised robberies. Such activity in its entirety corresponded to his ideas about real life.
New Gang
Very soon, behind the newly-minted Robin Hood, there are dozens of looted and burned estates, and he himself is put on the wanted list as a particularly dangerous criminal, for whose head a reward has been announced. A few months later, Kotovsky parted with his accomplices, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and, having gathered a gang of desperate fellows, continues to robbery without any political motive.
It is not known whether anything from the gangster booty goes to the unfortunate and destitute, as in the books about Robin Hood, but the chieftain and his associates have since become regulars in the best Odessa restaurants and brothels.
Behind bars
However, gangster happiness is changeable, and after a while Kotovsky is in a preliminary detention cell. There is evidence that he was arrested on a tip from his former Socialist Revolutionary friends. Despite the fact that at the trial Kotovsky is trying to play himself a fighter for social justice, which was very popular in those years, he is sentenced to twenty years of hard labor. Even before being sent to the stage, Gregory makes a daring escape from the Chisinau prison and is again free, but not for long - after a few days he is arrested and sent to the North of Russia in shackles.
The next ten years of his life, the dashing raider spends on the construction of the Amur Railway and in the frozen mines of the Nerchinsky mine. Here he gains authority in the criminal world surrounding him and enters into his elite - he becomes a thief in law. This was evidenced by a characteristic tattoo applied to the eyelids and preserved until the end of life. Its unauthorized application under criminal laws was punishable by death.
Underworld King
In 1913, Kotovsky, having killed two guards, makes an escape from the mine. This time, the fugitive cannot be caught, and soon he reappears in Odessa, where he becomes one of the kings of the underworld. His gang is robbing prosperous citizens of Odessa and is engaged in what is today called racketeering - imposes a tribute to local entrepreneurs.
But this time, Gregory is changing tactics. He comes up with a simple and reasonable thought - than to have trouble from the police, it is better to share the loot with the law enforcement officers and calmly go about their business. Since then, officially on the wanted list, he openly lives in the best Odessa hotels and freely visits restaurants.
This side of his activity has always been hushed up by Soviet biographers, relentlessly exposing Kotovsky as that selfless hero Robin Hood, whom he dreamed of imitating as a child. But the facts, as you know, are stubborn things, and many documents published during the perestroika period allowed us to take a fresh look at his image.
Death sentence
However, we will not be distracted. Three years of gangster luck, or, in their language - “fart”, ended in a completely unexpected arrest. In 1916, when World War I blazed, and the power in Odessa belonged to General Brusilov, a tough and incorruptible man, Kotovsky was captured and sentenced to be hanged by a court decision. But happiness did not change him here either - at the last moment the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment.
Red commander
A new stage in the life of a seasoned recidivist is the beginning of the Civil War. Despite the fact that after the February Revolution all political prisoners were released, the criminals remained behind bars, and in order to be released, Kotovsky asked to be sent to the front. The request is satisfied, and soon he is already a fighter of the Red Army, and after a while - and the commander of the brigade. Such a rapid advance affected his ability to subjugate other people to his will and lead them along. One cannot also discount his insolence and courage.
It is known that during the Civil War, power in Odessa changed many times and passed from hand to hand. Once it happened that Kotovsky, who remained in the city captured by whites, had to flee, and he hid for several days in one of the fashionable Odessa brothels, the master of which was his future killer Zayder Meer. Leaving such an unusual refuge, Kotovsky promised on occasion to thank his savior. And such an incident introduced itself several years later.
Power struggle
The Civil War ended, and at the end of December 1922 the largest state appeared on the world map - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years later, Lenin was replaced by Stalin as head of government. From the very first days, he begins a merciless struggle for the concentration in his hands of all power and eliminates those who are able to compete with him, and these are, first of all, representatives of the army’s highest command staff.
Among the men of particular concern to the leader were such military leaders as M.V. Frunze, M.N. Tukhachevsky, G.K. Ordzhonikidze, and, of course, G. I Kotovsky, who gained extraordinary authority over the Red Army and civilians over the years of the past war. residents of the territories liberated by him. In it, Stalin saw his potential rival, which in a similar situation was equal to the signing of a death sentence.
Contract kill
After the end of the Civil War and the establishment of Soviet power in Odessa, all the venal institutions were closed, including the Zayder Meer brothel. Having lost his income, he turned for help to Kotovsky, who once owed him his salvation and managed to become a very influential person. Wanting to repay good for good, he arranged his old acquaintance to be the head of the sugar factory’s security, in which, according to some reports, he invested, or as they say now, invested, looted in the past values.
Trying to figure out what happened on the night of August 6, 1925, when the life of the legendary commander was tragically cut off from Meyer's bullet, the researchers concluded that it was nothing more than a contract kill, organized by Stalin, and performer - Zayder Meer. It is not known how they managed to force him to commit a crime, but it is obvious that he was one of the few who could freely approach Kotovsky, who was constantly under guard. A number of facts support this version.
Incredibly, government circles virtually ignored the death of one who was loved by millions of people and was among the most influential military leaders. Of all the country's print media, only the Pravda newspaper devoted several lines to this event, and in the following years, any mention of Kotovsky was taboo. The killer himself was soon arrested, convicted, but contrary to all expectations he escaped with ten years in prison, and after three years he was released for good behavior. In a country where they were shot only on the basis of suspicion of a plot of terrorism, they essentially forgive the killer of a prominent statesman. However, he did not live long. Former Kotovtsy found him and dealt without mercy.
The place where Kotovsky is buried
Lenin’s mummy has been resting in the mausoleum on Red Square for a year now, and upstairs they decide to embalm Kotovsky - there is good experience. Just the day after the murder, a brigade arrives from the capital, led by Professor Vorobyov, who worked with the leader’s body a year ago, and begins to do the same manipulations with the remains of the legendary commander. At the same time, not far from Odessa, in the village of Birzula, the Kotovsky mausoleum is being hastily built, in which his embalmed mummy is placed. The funeral itself then resulted in a popular demonstration.
The village of Birzula, where Kotovsky’s mausoleum was installed, was immediately renamed Kotovsk immediately after the hero’s burial. It became a place of folk celebrations associated with official Soviet festivals. It traditionally held demonstrations of workers and the ceremony of accepting their children as pioneers. True, the mausoleum of Grigory Kotovsky was soon closed, and access to it was not renewed.
War years
In 1941, the Germans captured the city of Kotovsk. The mausoleum of G.I. Kotovsky was destroyed by them, and the body was simply thrown out. Already after the release, there were reports that local residents managed to find those that belonged to the hero among the remains of the shot villagers thrown into the ditch and save them until the end of the war. The extent to which this corresponds to reality is unknown, but it is generally accepted that Kotovsky’s body in the mausoleum, rebuilt after the war — these are the remains found by the villagers.
