Gleb Boky: biography and photos

In November 1937, the Special NKVD Three issued a decision on the basis of which Gleb Ivanovich Boky, one of the founders of the Cheka, was sentenced to be shot by a veteran of the revolutionary movement in Russia. In addition to the usual set of crimes for those years - espionage, anti-Soviet activities, etc. - he was charged with creating a spiritual circle, communicating with spirits and predicting the future. What gave rise to the orthodox communists to resort to the attributes of the Middle Ages?

The young socialist is a descendant of an aristocratic family

The future chairman of the Petersburg Cheka Gleb Boky was born June 21, 1879 in Tiflis, in the family of the teacher of chemistry of the local gymnasium Ivan Dmitrievich Bokiya, a descendant of the oldest aristocratic family, mentioned in the documents of the times of Ivan the Terrible. Despite the nobility of origin, the father did not have the condition obtained from his ancestors, and only thanks to tireless work he managed to rise to the rank of a real state councilor and move the family to Petersburg.

Having graduated from the real school in 1896, Gleb entered the St. Petersburg Mountain Cadet Corps, one of the largest universities in the country, graduated a year earlier by his elder brother Boris. The natural giftedness and class privileges allowed to hope for a brilliant career in the future, but destiny had been prepared for him by a completely different path: a seventeen-year-old boy was carried away by the fashionable ideas of the social reorganization of the world among students and went headlong into the revolutionary movement.

The beginning of the revolutionary path

The following year, this fascination leads him into the ranks of the underground organization "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". In addition, he takes an active part in the work of many student political circles. In the death of his father, the cause of which was his despair from the collapse of hopes for a worthy future for his son, Gleb, without hesitation, blamed the existing regime and thereby established himself in the decision to wage a battle with him.

Entering the ranks of the RSDLP in 1900 and practicing at one of the mines of the Krivoy Rog Society, Gleb Bokyi is for the first time imprisoned for taking part in the illegal group "The Workers' Banner". From this time begins an endless series of his visits to various places of detention.

In the leadership of the Petersburg Cheka

Being an active participant in the revolutionary events of 1905, Gleb Bokii, whose biography has inextricably merged with the history of the Bolshevik movement, fully learned the reverse side of revolutionary romance. Twelve times he was under arrest, spent a year and a half in solitary confinement and two served in Siberian exile. Such a track record could not boast of any of his associates. In 1917, Gleb was elected secretary of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b) and in the days of the October coup he took an active part in it.

Even before the creation of the Cheka, as a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, Gleb Bokiy was in charge of the struggle against counter-revolution and sabotage, and therefore his appointment as deputy Moses Uritsky, who headed the newly created punitive structure, left an indelibly gloomy memory. When, in August 1918, he was killed, Bokiy took his job for a while.

In the rear and at the front

The murder of the head of the Cheka became an occasion for carrying out mass punitive operations, initiated by the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies G. Ye. Zinoviev, and by the direct executor - Gleb Bokiy. On his orders in those days, five hundred and twelve hostages were shot, all of whose guilt was only in their social origin. The intoxicating taste of blood, combined with the consciousness of impunity for the crimes committed, turned a former student into a monster, born of a system, the victim of which he will later be.

As the Civil War continued, and the all-seeing eye of the Extraordinary Commission was also needed at the front, Boki was seconded to Belarus first, and after her release from the German interventionists, she was sent to the Eastern Front, where she headed the Special Division. In 1921, he came to Moscow, where he began working in the Cheka, and in the period 1925-1926 he was deputy chairman of the OGPU. During the years of perestroika, many documents were published that demonstrated the scale of political repressions that took place at that time, and it is obvious that one of the perpetrators of those lawlessness is Gleb Bokii, whose photo is given in the article.

Creation of the scientific and technical department of the Cheka

However, his activities were not limited to the implementation of punitive operations. Since 1921, he headed the special department of the Cheka. Gleb Boky is the creator of the cryptographic department, which initiated a number of scientific and technical services that provided the work of this department. In addition to monitoring the observance of secrecy in all areas related to state secrets, the department was engaged in intercepting and deciphering messages sent by the transmitting devices of foreign embassies.

Under the leadership of Bokiya, technologies were developed that for many years became the basis for ciphers used by the special services of the Soviet Union. In 1936, he was founded and another secret laboratory, engaged in the creation of poisons for special operations to eliminate those disliked by the regime and the receipt of psychotropic drugs that can affect the minds of those under investigation.

Justice demands to note that, unlike many representatives of the highest nomenclature, Gleb Boky was not a careerist and an opportunist. Those who happened to communicate with him repeatedly stressed that he was one of the few who, in the interests of the matter, dared to contradict Lenin, and later to Stalin, whom he openly despised. From the end of the twenties, Bokie even defiantly ignored participation in party meetings, seeing in them a waste of time.

Under the influence of occult heresy

In the course of solving a wide range of scientific and technical problems, the Special Department often used the services of research organizations that had no official relationship with the OGPU. One of them was the laboratory of neuroenergetics at the Moscow Institute of Experimental Medicine. Personal acquaintance of Bokiya with its leader Professor AV Barchenko marked the beginning of what in his future testimony he would call the investigation "a retreat from the Marxist-Leninist positions under the influence of mystical teachings." The professor, who played a fatal role in the life of a high-ranking functionary, was the secret leader of the Masonic lodge "Ancient Science".

Barchenko developed before his new acquaintances the diverse occult theories that Bokiy carried away in the same way as during the student years by the teachings of Marx. The professor managed to involve in the circle of his associates and some other leaders of the OGPU. Everyone was bribed by the possibility of using mysticism and "secret knowledge" for the purpose of building a communist society.

Departed from former ideals

Despite the fact that by the decision of the Fourth Congress of the Comintern, held in 1922, the Communists were strictly forbidden membership in the Masonic lodges, several officials led by Boki fell into this heresy and even organized the secret society "Unified Labor Brotherhood". His goal was to build a classless society on the principles of hierarchy and respect for religion. Except for the last point, this was generally consistent with the ideals of communism.

It is difficult to say what motivated Gleb Ivanovich and his comrades, representatives of the highest echelon of the power of the Soviet state. Obviously, after going through the nightmare of the revolution, the Civil War and the Red Terror, they rethought their old ideals, and in their minds a doubt arose in the inviolability of the proclaimed truths. The arrogance of their former comrades-in-arms in the struggle, who took higher seats on the party ladder, also played its part.

The natural ending

But it was not without reason that the Stalin secret services were compared to the ancient Greek god Krohn, who devoured his own children. During the "Great Terror" period, many of the OGPU officers shared the fate of their innocent victims. The turn came to Gleb Bokia. He was arrested on June 7, 1937. On that day the Chekist, who fell into mysticism, was summoned by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov. After a while, the hero of our narrative was taken out of the office of the head of the OGPU already in handcuffs.

During the interrogations, Boki tried to explain that, not setting himself political goals, he only wanted to know the absolute truth. How much mystical teachings captured his mind, investigators could be convinced during the search carried out in the house of the arrested person. There, along with a literature typical of Masonic philosophy, a whole collection of dried phalluses was discovered. They were involved in the case, but how with their help the newly-born mystic hoped to change the world - remained unknown.

Sentence without trial

However, for the sentencing of one philosophy and dried phalluses was not enough. However, the technology for obtaining confessions has long been worked out in the basements of this institution by many investigators, including the current prisoner himself. As follows from the documents, it was proved not only his participation in occult circles of anti-Soviet persuasion, but also espionage in favor of one of the foreign powers.

The further fate of the defendant was solved with the same ease with which he himself in previous years disposed of human lives. They did not even consider it necessary to hold a court hearing. A special troika of the NKVD (as often he was a member of such triples) sentenced Gleb Ivanovich to be shot. The execution of the verdict was followed the same day. Like many of his own victims, after the death of Stalin, Bokiy was rehabilitated.

Family and descendants of the KGB

The story will be incomplete, if you do not mention the family of Gleb Ivanovich. It is known that he was twice married. With his first wife, Sofya Alexandrovna Doller, who came from a family of populist revolutionaries, Boky lived from 1905 to 1919. They had two daughters - Elena and Oksana, who later became the wife of the historian and publicist Lev Razgon.

From the second marriage with Dobryakova Elena Aleksandrovna, the daughter Alla appeared, which, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, was very fond of Gleb Boky. The grandson, born from her in 1960 and named after grandfather Gleb, was a major Russian businessman, killed in "dashing nineties."

The image of Bokiya in contemporary art

In contemporary art, among other figures of the past, Gleb Bokyi also found a rather broad reflection. The book about his life was written right after rehabilitation. This was the first such work. Her author was Margarita Vladimirovna Yamshchikova (literary pseudonym - Alexander Altaev). "History Gleb Bokiya" - so she titled memories of a man who once knew well. Subsequently, a whole series of publications devoted to him appeared, and also he became the hero of several art films. The grandson of Gleb Bokia, whose murder was covered in the media in 1999, was not ignored by the press.