Kamenev, Lev Borisovich - biography. Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev short biography



2nd Chairman of the All-Russian Central Election Commission

Predecessor:	Nikolai Semenovich Chkheidze
Successor:	Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov
2nd Chairman of the Labor and Defense Council of the USSR

Prime Minister:	Alexey Ivanovich Rykov
Predecessor:	Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Successor:	Alexey Ivanovich Rykov
2nd People's Commissar of Foreign and Internal Trade of the USSR

Predecessor:	Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa
Successor:	Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Moscow, Russian Empire
Date of death:
A place of death:	Moscow, RSFSR
Education:	MSU (expelled)
	Olga Davidovna Bronstein
	Sons: Alexander and Yuri

October 1917

Party career

After Lenin's death

Personality of Kamenev

Personal relations with Stalin

In fiction

Film incarnations

(real name Rosenfeld, July 6 (18), 1883 - August 25, 1936) - Soviet party and statesman, Bolshevik, revolutionary. In 1936 he was convicted in the case of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev Center and executed. Posthumously rehabilitated in 1988.

early years

Lev Rosenfeld (Kamenev) was born in Moscow into an educated Russian-Jewish family. His father was a driver on the Moscow-Kursk Railway, and later - after graduating from the St. Petersburg Technological Institute - became an engineer; mother graduated from Bestuzhev higher courses. He graduated from high school in Tiflis and in 1901 entered the law faculty of Moscow University. Joined the student social democratic circle. For participation in a student demonstration on March 13, 1902 he was arrested and in April deported to Tiflis. In the autumn of the same year he went to Paris, where he met Lenin. Returning to Russia in 1903, he prepared a strike of railway workers in Tiflis. Conducted propaganda among workers in Moscow. Arrested and deported to Tiflis under open police supervision. At the V Congress of the RSDLP in 1907, Kamenev joined the Central Committee (Central Committee) of this party.

October 1917

In 1917, he repeatedly disagreed with Lenin in his views on the revolution and on Russia's participation in the First World War. In particular, pointing out that " The German army did not follow the example of the Russian army and still obeys its emperor", Kamenev concluded, " that in such conditions Russian soldiers cannot lay down their arms and go home», therefore, the demand “down with the war” is now meaningless and should be replaced with the slogan: “Pressure on the Provisional Government to force it to openly, ... immediately make an attempt to persuade all the warring countries to immediately open negotiations on ways to end the world war.”.

Lenin criticized Kamenev's line, but considered the discussion with him useful.

At a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) on October 10 (23), 1917, Kamenev and Zinoviev voted against the decision on an armed uprising. They outlined their position in a letter “Towards the Current Moment”, which they sent to party organizations. Recognizing that the party leads “the majority of the workers and therefore part of the soldiers” (but not at all the majority of the bulk of the population), they expressed the hope that “with the right tactics we can get a third, or even more seats in the Constituent Assembly.” The aggravation of need, hunger, and the peasant movement will put more and more pressure on the Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik parties “and force them to seek an alliance with the proletarian party against the landowners and capitalists represented by the Cadet Party.” As a result, “our opponents will be forced to yield to us at every step, or we, together with the left Socialist Revolutionaries, non-party peasants and others, will form a ruling bloc, which will basically have to carry out our program.”

But the Bolsheviks could undermine their successes if they “now take the initiative to act and thereby expose the proletariat to the blow of a united counter-revolution supported by petty-bourgeois democracy.” “We raise a voice of warning against this disastrous policy” [“Protocols of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b)” p. 87-92].

On October 18, in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, Kamenev published an article “Yu. Kamenev about the “speech”. On the one hand, Kamenev announced that he “is not aware of any decisions of our party that involve the appointment of any performance for a particular period,” and that “such party decisions do not exist.” On the other hand, he made it clear that there was no unity within the Bolshevik leadership on this issue: “Not only me and Comrade Zinoviev, but also a number of fellow practitioners find that taking the initiative for an armed uprising at the present moment, given the balance of social forces, independently and a few days before the Congress of Soviets would be an unacceptable step, disastrous for the cause of the revolution and the proletariat” (ibid., pp. 115-116). Lenin regarded this speech as a disclosure of a virtually secret decision of the Central Committee and demanded that Kamenev and Zinoviev be expelled from the party. On October 20, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), it was decided to limit ourselves to accepting Kamenev’s resignation and charge him and Zinoviev with the obligation not to make any statements against the intended party line.

Party career

During the October Revolution on October 25 (November 7), 1917, Kamenev was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. He left this post on November 4 (17), 1917, demanding the creation of a homogeneous socialist government (a coalition government of the Bolsheviks with the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries).

In November 1917, Kamenev became part of the delegation sent to Brest-Litovsk to conclude a separate agreement with Germany. In January 1918, Kamenev, at the head of the Soviet delegation, went abroad as the new Russian ambassador to France, but the French government refused to recognize his powers. Upon returning to Russia, he was arrested on March 24, 1918 in the Åland Islands by Finnish authorities. Kamenev was released on August 3, 1918 in exchange for the Finns arrested in Petrograd.

From September 1918, Kamenev was a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and from October 1918, Chairman of the Moscow Soviet (he held this post until May 1926).

Since March 1919, Kamenev became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). On April 3, 1922, it was Kamenev who proposed appointing Stalin as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Since 1922, due to Lenin's illness, Kamenev chaired meetings of the Politburo.

Scientists and writers turned to Kamenev for help more than once; he managed to achieve the release from prison of the historian A. A. Kiesewetter, the writer I. A. Novikov and others. The poet M.A. Voloshin invited Kamenev to his house in Koktebel.

On September 14, 1922, Kamenev was appointed deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the RSFSR and deputy chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense (STO) of the RSFSR. After the formation of the USSR in December 1922, Kamenev became a member of the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee. Since 1923, Kamenev became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the STO of the USSR, as well as director of the Lenin Institute.

After Lenin's death

After Lenin's death, Kamenev in February 1924 became chairman of the USSR STO (until 1926). In the internal party struggle between Stalin and Trotsky in 1924-1925, Kamenev supported Stalin.

However, then, in 1925-1927, Kamenev was one of the leaders of the New Opposition in the party. At the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in December 1925, Kamenev stated: “Stalin cannot fulfill the role of a unifier of the Bolshevik headquarters. We are against the theory of unity of command, we are against creating a leader.”

In December 1925, Kamenev was transferred from member to candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and on January 16, 1926, he lost his posts in the Council of People's Commissars and the STO of the USSR and was appointed People's Commissar of Foreign and Domestic Trade of the USSR. On November 26, 1926, he was appointed plenipotentiary envoy to Italy.

In October 1926, Kamenev was removed from the Politburo, in April 1927 - from the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, and in October 1927 - from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In December 1927, at the XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Kamenev was expelled from the party. Sent to Kaluga. Soon he issued a statement admitting mistakes.

In June 1928, Kamenev was reinstated in the party. In 1928-1929 he was the head of the Scientific and Technical Directorate of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, and from May 1929, the chairman of the Main Concession Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

In October 1932, Kamenev was again expelled from the party for failure to inform in connection with the “Marxist-Leninist” case and sent into exile in Minusinsk.

In December 1933, Kamenev was again reinstated in the party and appointed director of the scientific publishing house Academia. Kamenev was the author of biographies of Herzen and Chernyshevsky, published in the ZhZL series.

At the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks he made a speech of repentance.

In December 1934, Kamenev was arrested and on January 16, 1935, in the “Moscow Center” case, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and then, on June 27, 1935, in the “Kremlin Library and Kremlin Commandant’s Office” case, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In August 1936, Kamenev was convicted in the case of the “Trotskyist-Zinovievsky United Center” and executed on August 25. It is alleged that on the way to the place of execution, he stood firm and tried to cheer up the discouraged Grigory Zinoviev: “Stop it, Grigory, we will die with dignity!” He refused the last word.

In 1988 he was rehabilitated for lack of evidence of a crime.

Personality of Kamenev

In his memoirs, Boris Bazhanov wrote:

In himself, he is not a power-hungry, good-natured and rather “bourgeois” person. True, he is an old Bolshevik, but not a coward, he takes the risks of the revolutionary underground, and is arrested more than once; during the war in exile; liberated only by revolution. He is an intelligent, educated man, with the talents of a good government worker (nowadays they would say “technocrat”). If it were not for communism, he would be a good socialist minister in a “capitalist” country.

...In the area of intrigue, cunning and tenacity, Kamenev is completely weak. Officially, he “sits on Moscow” - the capital is considered his patrimony, just like Zinoviev’s Leningrad. But Zinoviev organized his own clan in Leningrad, seated it and holds his second capital in his hands. While Kamenev is alien to this technique, does not have any clan of his own and sits in Moscow by inertia.

Family

L. B. Kamenev’s first wife is L. D. Trotsky’s sister, Olga Davidovna Bronstein (1883-1941), whom he met in Paris in 1902. The marriage broke up in 1927 due to Kamenev’s frequent love affairs. Both of Kamenev's sons from his marriage to O.D. Bronstein - pilot Alexander Kamenev and Yuri Kamenev (1914-1936) - were shot. The grandson lives in Moscow.

The second wife (since 1928) - Glebova Tatyana Ivanovna, after the execution of her husband, was sent into exile in Biysk and died in the camps. The son of L. B. Kamenev from his marriage to her is Vladimir Lvovich Glebov (1929-1994), scientist-historian, professor of the philosophy department of the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU, former NETI). The grandchildren of L. B. Kamenev - Evgeniy Vladimirovich Glebov (born 1961), Ulyana Vladimirovna Glebova (born 1968), Ustinya Vladimirovna Glebova (born 1975) - live in Novosibirsk.

Personal relations with Stalin

".. This happened in the city of Achinsk,..., where Joseph Dzhugashvili was taken at the end of 1916 in connection with conscription into the army. In Achinsk, Stalin usually sat silently in the living room and listened to the conversations that Kamenev had with the guests, but, as evidenced, eyewitnesses, the owner usually treated his guest rather rudely, who mostly sat silently in the corner of the living room, abruptly interrupted Dzhugashvili, considering that, due to the level of his education, he could contribute little of his own to the highly intellectual discussions that arose in the living room, and Stalin, as a rule, , fell silent." Quoted from the book by Kuznechevsky V.D. "Stalin. "Mediocrity" that changed the world"

In fiction

Kamenev served as the prototype for the protagonist of V.V. Nabokov’s story “The Extermination of Tyrants.” The circumstances of the interrogations and reprisals against Kamenev are described in Anatoly Rybakov’s novel “The Thirty-Fifth and Other Years” (a continuation of the novel Children of the Arbat).

Film incarnations

?? ("The Oath", 1946)
?? (“Hostile Whirlwinds”, 1953)
?? (“In the days of October”, 1958)
Albert Wenoch (“Bürgerkrieg in Rußland”, television series (Germany, 1967)
Georges Ser (“Stalin-Trotsky” / “Staline-Trotsky: Le pouvoir et la révolution”, France, 1979)
Victor Burchardt (December 20, 1981)
?? (Red Bells, 1983)
Albert Burov (Enemy of the People - Bukharin, 1990)
?? (Under the sign of Scorpio, 1995)
Evgeny Kindinov (Children of Arbat, 2004)
Fyodor Olkhovsky (Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno, 2006)

Predecessor: Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa Successor: Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan November 26 - January 7 Head of the government: Alexey Rykov Predecessor: Platon Kerzhentsev Successor: Dmitry Kursky Religion: Birth: July 6 (18)(1883-07-18 )
Moscow, Russian Empire Death: 25-th of August(1936-08-25 ) (53 years old)
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Lev Borisovich Kamenev (Rosenfeld, July 6 (18) ( 18830718 ) year - August 25 of the year) - Russian revolutionary, Soviet party and statesman. Prominent Bolshevik, comrade-in-arms of Lenin. Chairman of the Moscow City Council (1918-1926); from 1922 - deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the STO, and after Lenin's death - chairman of the STO until January 1926. Member of the Central Committee in 1917-1927, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee in 1919-1926, and then a candidate member of the Politburo. Member of the Central Executive Committee and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

In the autumn of the same year he went to Paris, where he met Lenin. Returning to Russia in 1903, he prepared a strike of railway workers in Tiflis. According to evidence cited by L. Trotsky, at the Caucasian regional conference in Tiflis in November 1904, “Kamenev was chosen as an agitator and propagandist traveling throughout the country for convening a new party congress, and he was also instructed to travel around committees throughout the country and contact our foreign centers of that time." According to L. Trotsky, Kamenev from the Caucasus became a member of the Bureau of Majority Committees. Conducted propaganda among workers in Moscow. Arrested and deported to Tiflis under open police supervision. At the V Congress of the RSDLP in 1907, Kamenev was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP and at the same time became part of the separate “Bolshevik center” created by the Bolshevik faction.

Kamenev carried out revolutionary work in the Caucasus, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1914, he headed the newspaper Pravda. During World War I, Kamenev spoke out against Lenin's slogan, popular among the Bolsheviks, about the defeat of his government in the imperialist war. In November 1914 he was arrested and in 1915 exiled to the Turukhansk region. While in exile in Achinsk, Kamenev, together with several merchants, sent a welcoming telegram addressed to Mikhail Romanov in connection with his voluntary renunciation of the throne as the first citizen of Russia. Released after the February Revolution.

October 1917

After Lenin's death

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There is not enough information in this section.

In himself, he is not a power-hungry, good-natured and rather “bourgeois” person. True, he is an old Bolshevik, but not a coward, he takes the risks of the revolutionary underground, and is arrested more than once; during the war in exile; liberated only by revolution.
He is an intelligent, educated man, with the talents of a good government worker (nowadays they would say “technocrat”). If it were not for communism, he would be a good socialist minister in a “capitalist” country.
...In the area of intrigue, cunning and tenacity, Kamenev is completely weak. Officially, he “sits on Moscow” - the capital is considered his patrimony, just like Zinoviev’s Leningrad. But Zinoviev organized his own clan in Leningrad, seated it and holds his second capital in his hands. While Kamenev is alien to this technique, does not have any clan of his own and sits in Moscow by inertia.

Family

L. B. Kamenev's first wife is L. D. Trotsky's sister, Olga Davidovna Bronstein (1883-1941), whom he met in Paris in 1902. The marriage broke up in 1927. Both of Kamenev’s sons from his marriage to O.D. Bronstein - pilot Alexander Kamenev (1906-1937) and Yuri Kamenev (1921-1938) - were shot. The daughter-in-law is the artist Galina Kravchenko (1905-1996), the grandson is Vitaly Alexandrovich (1931-1966).

The granddaughter of Alexander, Kamenev’s eldest son, Abramova Elena Vitalievna, and her three children live in New York.

The second wife (since 1928) - Glebova Tatyana Ivanovna (1899-1937) was shot. Before her arrest in 1935, she served at the publishing house "Academia" (according to the memoirs of her granddaughter U.V. Glebova, L.B. Kamenev's son from his marriage to her - Glebov Vladimir Lvovich (1929-1994) ended up in an orphanage, and was later repressed. In the mid-60s, he was the editor of the newspaper "Energy", left his editorial position to write his doctoral dissertation, was a professor at the Department of Philosophy at the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU, former NETI), memories of him and his version of Stalin's death, partially coinciding with the version " old Bolsheviks", first published in Rafael Grugman's book "Soviet Square: Stalin-Khrushchev-Beria-Gorbachev". Grandchildren of L. B. Kamenev - Glebov Evgeniy Vladimirovich (born 1961), Glebova Ulyana Vladimirovna (born 1968), Glebova Ustinya Vladimirovna (born 1975) - live in Novosibirsk.

Kamenev's brother Nikolai, his wife and son were shot.

Personal relations with Stalin

During his first escape from Siberian exile in the spring of 1904, I.V. Stalin, being illegal in Tiflis, found shelter in the Kamenev family.

... This happened in the city of Achinsk, ..., where Joseph Dzhugashvili was taken at the end of 1916 in connection with conscription into the army. In Achinsk, Stalin usually sat silently in the living room and listened to the conversations that Kamenev had with the guests, but, as eyewitnesses testify, the owner usually treated his guest rather rudely, who mostly sat silently in the corner of the living room, abruptly interrupted Dzhugashvili, believing that With the level of his education, he could contribute little of his own to the highly intellectual discussions that arose in the living room, and Stalin, as a rule, fell silent.
Quote by: Kuznechevsky V.D. Stalin. Mediocrity that changed the world

Film incarnations

Albert Wenoch (“Bürgerkrieg in Rußland”, television series (Germany, 1967)
Yulian Balmusov (“Strokes to the portrait of V.I. Lenin”, 1969)
Georges Ser (“Stalin-Trotsky” / “Staline-Trotsky: Le pouvoir et la révolution”, France, 1979)
Victor Burchardt (December 20, 1981)
Albert Burov (Enemy of the People - Bukharin, 1990)
Emil Volk (Stalin, 1992)
Evgeny Kindinov (Children of Arbat, 2004)
Fyodor Olkhovsky (Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno, 2006)
Dmitry Chernov (“Stalin is with us”, 2013).

Essays

Articles and speeches. T. 1, 10-12. M., 1924-1925.
Between two revolutions. M., 1923
Where and how is the Soviet government leading the peasantry? L., 1925
Lenin and his party. M., 1925
Chernyshevsky. M., Zhurgaz, 1933. (ZhZL)

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Literature

Jurg Ulrich. Lev Kamenev - moderate Bolshevik: The fate of a professional revolutionary. M.: NPC Praxis, 2013

Notes

Links

Predecessor: Nikolai Semenovich Chkheidze	Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 55px October 27 (November 9) - November 8 (21)	Successor: Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov
Predecessor: Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev	Plenipotentiary Representative of the USSR in Italy 60px -	Successor: Dmitry Ivanovich Kursky

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Chairmen of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (1917-1938)

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Excerpt characterizing Kamenev, Lev Borisovich

Excited, Axel leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. He still couldn't believe that all this stunning beauty was meant for him.
-Are you satisfied, my friend? – a gentle voice whispered quietly behind him.
“I’m delighted...” Axel answered and turned around: it was, of course, her.
They looked at each other with rapture for only a moment, then the queen gently squeezed Axel’s hand and disappeared into the night...
- Why was he always so unhappy in all his “lives”? – Stella was still sad for our “poor boy”.
To tell the truth, I haven’t seen any “misfortune” yet and therefore I looked in surprise at her sad face. But for some reason the little girl stubbornly refused to explain anything further...
The picture changed dramatically.
A luxurious, very large green carriage was speeding along the dark night road. Axel sat in the coachman's place and, quite skillfully driving this huge carriage, looked around and looked around with obvious anxiety from time to time. It seemed like he was in a wild hurry somewhere or was running away from someone...
Inside the carriage sat the king and queen we already knew, and also a pretty girl of about eight years old, as well as two ladies still unknown to us. Everyone looked gloomy and worried, and even the little girl was quiet, as if she sensed the general mood of the adults. The king was dressed surprisingly modestly - in a simple gray frock coat, with the same gray round hat on his head, and the queen hid her face under a veil, and it was clear that she was clearly afraid of something. Again, this whole scene was very reminiscent of an escape...
Just in case, I looked again in Stella’s direction, hoping for an explanation, but no explanation came - the little girl was very intently watching what was happening, and in her huge doll eyes there was a deep, not at all childish, sadness lurking.
“Well, why?.. Why didn’t they listen to him?!.. It was so simple!..” she suddenly became indignant.
The carriage was rushing all this time at almost crazy speed. The passengers looked tired and somehow lost... Finally, they drove into some large, unlit courtyard, with the black shadow of a stone building in the middle, and the carriage stopped abruptly. The place resembled an inn or a large farm.
Axel jumped to the ground and, approaching the window, was about to say something, when suddenly an authoritative male voice was heard from inside the carriage:
– Here we will say goodbye, Count. It is not worthy for me to expose you to further danger.
Axel, of course, who did not dare to object to the king, only managed to fleetingly touch the queen’s hand as a farewell... The carriage rushed off... and literally a second later disappeared into the darkness. And he was left standing alone in the middle of the dark road, wanting with all his heart to rush after them... Axel felt “in his gut” that he could not, had no right to leave everything to the mercy of fate! He just knew that without him, something would definitely go awry, and everything that he had organized for so long and carefully would completely fail due to some ridiculous accident...
The carriage was no longer visible for a long time, and poor Axel still stood and looked after them, clenching his fists with all his might in despair. Angry male tears flowed sparingly down his deathly pale face...
“This is the end already... I know, this is the end already...” he said quietly.
– Will something happen to them? Why are they running away? – not understanding what was happening, I asked.
- Oh, yes!.. They will now be caught by very bad people and put in prison... even a boy.
-Where do you see the boy here? – I was surprised.
- So he’s just dressed up as a girl! Don't you understand?..
I shook my head. So far, I still didn’t understand almost anything here - neither about the royal escape, nor about the “bad people,” but I decided to just look further without asking anything else.
“These bad people offended the king and queen and wanted to capture them. So they tried to escape. Axel arranged everything for them... But when he was ordered to leave them, the carriage drove slower because the king was tired. He even got out of the carriage to “get some air”... and that’s where they recognized him. Well, they grabbed it, of course...

Pogrom at Versailles Arrest of the royal family

Fear of what is happening... Seeing off Marie Antoinette to the Temple

Stella sighed... and again threw us into another “new episode” of this, not so happy, but still beautiful story...
This time everything looked ominous and even frightening.
We found ourselves in some dark, unpleasant room, as if it was a real evil prison. In a tiny, dirty, damp and fetid room, on a wooden bed with a straw mattress, sat exhausted by suffering, dressed in black, a thin, gray-haired woman, in whom it was completely impossible to recognize that fabulously beautiful, always smiling miracle queen whom young Axel most loved. loved in the world...

Marie Antoinette at the Temple

He was in the same room, completely shocked by what he saw and, not noticing anything around, stood on bended knee, pressing his lips to her still beautiful, white hand, unable to utter a word... He came to her completely desperate, having tried everything in the world and having lost the last hope of saving her... and yet, again he offered his almost impossible help... He was obsessed with a single desire: to save her, no matter what... He simply could not let her die... Because without her, his life, already unnecessary to him, would end...
They looked at each other in silence, trying to hide the naughty tears that flowed in narrow paths down their cheeks... Unable to take their eyes off each other, because they knew that if he failed to help her, this glance could be their last.. .
The bald jailer looked at the grief-stricken guest and, not intending to turn away, watched with interest the sad scene of someone else's sadness unfolding in front of him...
The vision disappeared and another one appeared, no better than the previous one - a terrible, screaming, armed with pikes, knives and guns, a brutal crowd mercilessly destroyed the magnificent palace...

Versailles...

Then Axel appeared again. Only this time he was standing at the window in some very beautiful, richly furnished room. And next to him stood the same “friend of his childhood” Margarita, whom we saw with him at the very beginning. Only this time all her arrogant coldness had evaporated somewhere, and her beautiful face was literally breathing with sympathy and pain. Axel was deathly pale and, pressing his forehead against the window glass, watched in horror something happening on the street... He heard the crowd rustling outside the window, and in a terrifying trance he loudly repeated the same words:
- My soul, I never saved you... Forgive me, my poor... Help her, give her the strength to bear this, Lord!..
– Axel, please!.. You have to pull yourself together for her sake. Well, please be reasonable! – his old friend persuaded him with sympathy.
- Prudence? What kind of prudence are you talking about, Margarita, when the whole world has gone crazy?!.. - Axel shouted. - What is it for? For what?.. What did she do to them?!.
Margarita unfolded a small piece of paper and, apparently not knowing how to calm him down, said:
- Calm down, dear Axel, listen better:
- “I love you, my friend... Don’t worry about me. The only thing I miss is your letters. Perhaps we are not destined to meet again... Farewell, the most beloved and most loving of people...”
This was the queen’s last letter, which Axel had read thousands of times, but for some reason it sounded even more painful from someone else’s lips...
- What is this? What's going on there? – I couldn’t stand it.
- This beautiful queen is dying... She is now being executed. – Stella answered sadly.
- Why don’t we see? – I asked again.
“Oh, you don’t want to look at this, trust me.” – The little girl shook her head. - It’s such a pity, she’s so unhappy... How unfair it is.
“I would still like to see...” I asked.
“Well, look...” Stella nodded sadly.
In a huge square, chock-full of “excited” people, a scaffold rose ominously in the middle... A deathly pale, very thin and exhausted woman dressed in white proudly climbed up the small, crooked steps. Her short-cropped blond hair was almost completely hidden by a modest white cap, and her tired eyes, reddened from tears or lack of sleep, reflected deep, hopeless sadness...

Swaying slightly, since it was difficult for her to maintain her balance because of her hands tied tightly behind her back, the woman somehow climbed onto the platform, still trying with all her might to stay straight and proud. She stood and looked into the crowd, without lowering her eyes and not showing how truly terrified she was... And there was no one around whose friendly gaze could warm the last minutes of her life... No one who warmth could have helped her withstand this terrifying moment when her life was about to leave her in such a cruel way...
The previously raging, excited crowd suddenly suddenly fell silent, as if it had run into an insurmountable obstacle... The women standing in the front rows cried silently. The thin figure on the scaffold approached the block and, stumbling slightly, fell painfully to her knees. For a few short seconds, she raised her exhausted, but already pacified by the proximity of death, face to the sky... took a deep breath... and, proudly looking at the executioner, laid her tired head on the block. The crying became louder, the women covered the children's eyes. The executioner approached the guillotine....
- God! No!!! – Axel screamed heartbreakingly.
At the same moment, in the gray sky, the sun suddenly peeked out from behind the clouds, as if illuminating the last path of the unfortunate victim... It gently touched her pale, terribly emaciated cheek, as if tenderly saying the last earthly “forgiveness.” There was a bright flash on the scaffold - a heavy knife fell, scattering bright scarlet splashes... The crowd gasped. The blond head fell into the basket, it was all over... The beautiful queen went to a place where there was no more pain, no more bullying... There was only peace...

There was deadly silence all around. There was nothing else to see...
This is how the gentle and kind queen died, until the very last minute she managed to stand with her head held high, which was then so simply and mercilessly demolished by the heavy knife of the bloody guillotine...
Pale, frozen, like a dead man, Axel looked with unseeing eyes out the window and it seemed that life was flowing out of him drop by drop, painfully slowly... Carrying his soul far, far away, so that there, in the light and silence, he could forever merge with the one whom he loved so deeply and selflessly...
“My poor... My soul... How did I not die with you?.. Everything is over for me now...” Axel whispered with dead lips, still standing at the window.
But everything will be “over” for him much later, after some twenty long years, and this end will, again, be no less terrible than that of his unforgettable queen...
– Do you want to watch further? – Stella asked quietly.
I just nodded, unable to say a word.
We saw another, raging, brutal crowd of people, and in front of it stood the same Axel, only this time the action took place many years later. He was still just as handsome, only almost completely gray-haired, in some magnificent, very important military uniform, he still looked just as fit and slender.

And so, the same brilliant, smartest man stood in front of some half-drunk, brutalized people and, hopelessly trying to shout them down, tried to explain something to them... But none of those gathered, unfortunately, wanted to listen to him... In Stones were thrown at poor Axel, and the crowd, inciting their anger with nasty curses, began to press. He tried to fight them off, but they threw him to the ground, began to brutally trample him, tear off his clothes... And some big guy suddenly jumped on his chest, breaking his ribs, and without hesitation, easily killed him with a blow to his temple. Axel's naked, mutilated body was dumped on the side of the road, and there was no one who at that moment would want to feel sorry for him, already dead... There was only a rather laughing, drunk, excited crowd around... who just needed to throw it out on someone - your accumulated animal anger...
Axel’s pure, suffering soul, finally freed, flew away to unite with the one who was his bright and only love, and who had been waiting for him for so many years...
This is how, again, very cruelly, an almost stranger to Stella and I, but who became so close, a man named Axel, ended his life, and... the same little boy who, having lived only a short five years, managed to accomplish an amazing and unique feat in his life, of which any adult living on earth could be honestly proud...
“What horror!..” I whispered in shock. - Why is he doing this?
“I don’t know...” Stella whispered quietly. “For some reason people were very angry back then, even angrier than animals... I looked a lot to understand, but I didn’t understand...” the little girl shook her head. “They didn’t listen to reason, they just killed.” And for some reason everything beautiful was destroyed too...
– What about Axel’s children or wife? – Having come to my senses after the shock, I asked.
“He never had a wife - he always loved only his queen,” said little Stella with tears in her eyes.

And then, suddenly, a flash seemed to flash in my head - I realized who Stella and I had just seen and for whom we were so sincerely worried!... It was the French queen, Marie Antoinette, about whose tragic life we had very recently (and very briefly!) took place in a history lesson, and the execution of which our history teacher strongly approved, considering such a terrible end to be very “correct and instructive”... apparently because he mainly taught “Communism” in history. .
Despite the sadness of what happened, my soul rejoiced! I simply could not believe the unexpected happiness that had fallen upon me!.. After all, I had been waiting for this for so long!.. This was the first time when I finally saw something real that could be easily verified, and from such a surprise I almost squealed from the puppyish delight that gripped me!.. Of course, I was so happy not because I didn’t believe in what was constantly happening to me. On the contrary, I always knew that everything that happened to me was real. But apparently I, like any ordinary person, and especially a child, sometimes still needed some kind of, at least the simplest confirmation that I was not yet going crazy, and that now I could prove to myself, that everything that happens to me is not just my sick fantasy or invention, but a real fact, described or seen by other people. That’s why such a discovery was a real holiday for me!..
I already knew in advance that as soon as I returned home, I would immediately rush to the city library to collect everything I could find about the unfortunate Marie Antoinette and would not rest until I found at least something, at least some fact that coincided with our visions... Unfortunately, I found only two tiny books, which did not describe so many facts, but this was quite enough, because they completely confirmed the accuracy of what I saw from Stella.
Here's what I managed to find then:
the queen's favorite man was a Swedish count named Axel Fersen, who selflessly loved her all his life and never married after her death;
their farewell before the count's departure to Italy took place in the garden of the Little Trianon - Marie Antoinette's favorite place - the description of which exactly coincided with what we saw;
a ball in honor of the arrival of the Swedish King Gustav, held on June 21, at which all the guests for some reason were dressed in white;
an escape attempt in a green carriage, organized by Axel (all other six escape attempts were also organized by Axel, but none of them, for one reason or another, failed. True, two of them failed at the request of Marie Antoinette herself, since the queen did not wanted to run away alone, leaving her children);
the beheading of the queen took place in complete silence, instead of the expected “happy riot” of the crowd;
a few seconds before the executioner struck, the sun suddenly came out...
The queen's last letter to Count Fersen is almost exactly reproduced in the book "Memoirs of Count Fersen", and it almost exactly repeated what we heard, with the exception of only a few words.
Already these small details were enough for me to rush into battle with tenfold force!.. But that was only later... And then, in order not to seem funny or heartless, I tried my best to pull myself together and hide my delight at my wonderful insight." And in order to dispel Stellino’s sad mood, she asked:
– Do you really like the queen?
- Oh yeah! She is kind and so beautiful... And our poor “boy”, he suffered so much here too...
I felt very sorry for this sensitive, sweet little girl, who, even in her death, was so worried about these completely strangers and almost strangers to her, just as many people do not worry about their closest relatives...
– Probably in suffering there is some amount of wisdom, without which we would not understand how precious our life is? – I said uncertainly.
- Here! Grandma says that too! – the girl was delighted. – But if people only want good, then why should they suffer?
– Maybe because without pain and trials, even the best people would not truly understand the same goodness? – I joked.
But for some reason Stella did not take this at all as a joke, but said very seriously:
– Yes, I think you’re right... Do you want to see what happened to Harold’s son next? – she said more cheerfully.
- Oh no, perhaps not anymore! – I begged.
Stella laughed joyfully.
- Don't be afraid, this time there will be no trouble, because he is still alive!
- How - alive? – I was surprised.
Immediately a new vision appeared again and, continuing to surprise me unspeakably, this turned out to be our century (!), and even our time... A gray-haired, very pleasant man was sitting at the desk and was thinking intently about something. The whole room was literally filled with books; they were everywhere - on the table, on the floor, on the shelves, and even on the windowsill. A huge fluffy cat was sitting on a small sofa and, not paying any attention to its owner, was intently washing itself with its large, very soft paw. The whole atmosphere created the impression of “learnedness” and comfort.
“What, is he living again?..” I didn’t understand.
Stella nodded.
- And this is right now? – I didn’t let up.
The girl again confirmed with a nod of her cute red head.
– It must be very strange for Harold to see his son so different?.. How did you find him again?
- Oh, exactly the same! I just “felt” his “key” the way my grandmother taught me. – Stella said thoughtfully. – After Axel died, I looked for his essence on all the “floors” and could not find it. Then I looked among the living - and he was there again.
– And do you know who he is now, in this life?
– Not yet... But I’ll definitely find out. I tried many times to “reach out” to him, but for some reason he doesn’t hear me... He is always alone and almost all the time with his books. With him are only the old woman, his servant and this cat.
- Well, what about Harold’s wife? “Did you find her too?” I asked.
- Oh, of course! You know your wife - this is my grandmother!.. - Stella smiled slyly.
I froze in real shock. For some reason, such an incredible fact did not want to fit into my dumbfounded head...
“Grandma?..” was all I could say.
Stella nodded, very pleased with the effect produced.
- How so? Is that why she helped you find them? She knew?!.. – thousands of questions were simultaneously spinning madly in my excited brain, and it seemed to me that I would never have time to ask everything that interested me. I wanted to know EVERYTHING! And at the same time, I understood perfectly well that no one was going to tell me “everything”...
“I probably chose him because I felt something.” – Stella said thoughtfully. - Or maybe grandma brought it up? But she will never admit it,” the girl waved her hand.
- AND HE?.. Does he know too? – that’s all I could ask.
- Surely! – Stella laughed. - Why does this surprise you so much?
“She’s just old... It must be hard for him,” I said, not knowing how to more accurately explain my feelings and thoughts.
- Oh no! – Stella laughed again. - He was glad! Very, very happy. Grandma gave him a chance! No one could have helped him with this - but she could! And he saw her again... Oh, it was so great!
And only then did I finally understand what she was talking about... Apparently, Stella’s grandmother gave her former “knight” the chance that he had so hopelessly dreamed of throughout his long life remaining after physical death. After all, he had been looking for them so long and persistently, so madly wanted to find them, so that just once he could say: how terribly he regrets that he once left... that he could not protect... that he could not show how much and he loved them selflessly... He needed to death that they would try to understand him and be able to somehow forgive him, otherwise he had no reason to live in any of the worlds...
And so she, his sweet and only wife, appeared to him as he always remembered her, and gave him a wonderful chance - she gave him forgiveness, and at the same time, she gave him life...
Only then did I truly understand what Stella’s grandmother meant when she told me how important it was that I gave the “gone” such a chance... Because, probably, there is nothing worse in the world than to be left with an unforgiven guilt inflicted resentment and pain to those without whom our entire past life would have no meaning...

Many representatives of my generation would probably agree: from the course of Soviet history about Lev Kamenev, we either heard nothing at all or silent mentions in a negative way. During the perestroika era, when censorship was abolished and Kamenev, among others, was posthumously rehabilitated, interest in this figure increased significantly.

There were also some emotional overtones: they say, if Kamenev “and his comrades” had not come to power, Russia could have taken a completely different path. Today, when the storms of controversy have subsided, we understand more and more clearly: all of them, the first generation of Russian Bolsheviks, were tarred with the same world. Many did not care about Russia; they plunged it into bloody civil strife for the sake of their fanatical and utopian plans.

Biography of Lev Kamenev (6(18).07.1883-25.08.1936)

The life path of Lev Rosenfeld (Kamenev is a pseudonym he took quite in the spirit of that time) is a typical path of a professional revolutionary. From his student days he joined the Social Democratic and then the Bolshevik movement. He was arrested, was in exile, and carried out active propaganda work. In Paris, fate brought him together with Lenin.

I met him while in exile in Turukhansk. Kamenev had difficult personal relationships and frequent ideological disagreements with the future leader of the Proletarian Revolution. Thus, Kamenev did not approve of the slogan that one should wish the tsarist government defeat in the First World War.

On the eve of the October Revolution, together with G. Zinoviev, Kamenev publicly issued a statement in the press that a number of comrades did not support the idea of the need for armed action against the Provisional Government. , considering such a step treacherous, demanded the expulsion of Kamenev and Zinoviev from the ranks of the party. Kamenev was indeed expelled and ordered to strictly submit to party discipline from now on.

Party career of Lev Kamenev

From the first months of the establishment of Soviet power, Kamenev, in fact, became the mayor of Moscow (while his party comrade, G. Zinoviev, became the mayor of Leningrad). He was first the chairman, then a member of the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. After 1922, due to Lenin's illness, it was Kamenev who regularly held meetings of the Polituro. He also proposed Stalin’s candidacy for the post of party leader. In alliance with the latter, he actively fought against L. Trotsky’s claim to leadership. However, then Kamenev abruptly changed his position and, together with Zinoviev and Lenin’s widow, opposed the strengthening of Stalin’s personality cult, for which he soon paid with resignation from all posts, expulsion from party members and exile.

In subsequent years, he was expelled, exiled and reinstated in the party more than once. He held the post of Soviet ambassador to fascist Italy, which later fatally played against him. The flywheel of mass repressions began to rapidly unwind after the murder of S. Kirov in early December 1934. Arrested in 1935, Kamenev first received five years in prison on one criminal case, then another ten on another. Finally, a year later, he was brought into the so-called case. "Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc" and sentenced to death. He faced the verdict courageously and refused the last word.

The creators of the fictional series about the poet Sergei Yesenin - father and son Bezrukov - brought to light the version that the immediate cause of the poet's murder was allegedly a telegram sent by Kamenev from Turukhansk to the brother of Emperor Nicholas II - Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich in connection with his abdication of the throne . A version that is unlikely to withstand any serious criticism. Compared to such fanatics of the revolution as Lenin and Trotsky, Kamenev seemed to be a decent and intelligent person. That is why he was repeatedly asked to intercede for cultural figures who were threatened with prison and execution, and he really helped where he could.