Where is the mausoleum of Kotovsky?

Every Russian, and especially among the older generation, associates the word "mausoleum" with a granite structure on Red Square, which contains the mummy of the leader of the world proletariat. But not everyone knows that there are two more mausoleums. About that which is in Vinnitsa, and serves as the burial place of the famous Russian surgeon NI Pirogov, it is still known, but here is that there is a mausoleum of Kotovsky - a bandit who kept in fear the entire South-West of Russia and yet became famous as Hero of the Civil War, few know.

Robin Hood from Bessarabia

The mausoleum of Kotovsky was erected immediately after his assassination in August 1925. The crime was committed by the former owner of one of the most expensive Odessa brothels, Seider 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, everything in order.

Kotovsky Grigory Ivanovich, whose mausoleum is one of the three built in the USSR, was born in 1881 into a family of burghers who lived in the village of Gancesti of the Bessarabian province. Since childhood, his heroes are heroes of books, telling about noble robbers, the main one of whom was Robin Hood. It is difficult to say what idea of nobility he learned from the read, but as a robber, daring and fearless, Grigory soon became famous throughout Bessarabia.

Kotovsky was just over twenty when he was first charged with forgery and stealing money. Wanted by the police, he wanders, interrupting with petty thefts, until finally he gets acquainted with the terrorist-Socialist-Revolutionaries, who replenished the party cashier with the expropriation of valuables from local rich people, in simple terms, engaged in undisguised robberies. Such activities fully corresponded to his ideas about real life.

New gang

Very soon behind the newly-born Robin Hood are dozens of looted and burnt estates, and he himself is declared wanted as a particularly dangerous criminal whose head is being rewarded. A few months later, Kotovsky parted with his accomplices, Socialist-Revolutionaries and, gathering a gang of desperate young men, continues to robberies without any political background.

It is not known whether any of the gangsters' misery gets to the unfortunate and destitute, as in the books about Robin Hood, but the ataman and his associates have become regulars of the best Odessa restaurants and brothels ever since.

Behind bars

However, gangster happiness is changeable, and after a while Kotovsky is in a cell of pre-trial detention. There are reports that he was arrested on the tip of his former Socialist-Revolutionary friends. Despite the fact that at the trial Kotovsky tries 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 he was sent to the stage, Grigory commits a daring escape from the prison in Chisinau and is again at liberty, but for a short while - a few days later he is arrested and sent to the North of Russia in shackles.

The next ten years of life dashing raider carries out on the construction of the Amur railway and in the frozen mines of the Nerchinsk mine. Here he conquers authority in the surrounding criminal world and enters his elite - becomes a thief in law. This was evidenced by a characteristic tattoo, applied to the eyelids and preserved until the end of life. Unauthorized application of her under the criminal laws was punishable by death.

King of the underworld

In 1913, Kotovsky, killing two guards, escapes from the mine. This time the fugitive can not be caught, and soon he appears again in Odessa, where he becomes one of the kings of the underworld. His gang robbed wealthy Odessa citizens and is engaged in what is called racketeering today - it is a tribute to local entrepreneurs.

But this time Gregory changes tactics. He comes up with a simple and reasonable idea - than to have trouble with the police, it is better to share the stolen with the guards of order and calmly deal with their business. Since then, officially being wanted, he openly lives in the best Odessa hotels and freely visits restaurants.

This side of his work has always been hushed up by Soviet biographers, who unswervingly exposed Kotovsky as the selfless hero of Robin Hood, whom he dreamed of imitating as a child. But the facts, as you know, are a stubborn thing, and many of the documents that were made public during the perestroika period allowed a new look at his image.

The death sentence

However, we will not be distracted. Three years of gangster success, or, in the words of their "fart", ended in a completely unexpected arrest. In 1916, when the First World War was aflame, and power in Odessa belonged to General Brusilov, a tough and incorruptible man, Kotovsky was captured and sentenced to death by a court decision. But happiness did not change him here - at the last moment the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment.

Red commander

A new stage in the life of a 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 to go free, Kotovsky asks to be sent to the front. The request is satisfied, and soon he is already a soldier of the Red Army, and after a while - and the brigade commander. In such a rapid progress, his ability to subordinate other people's will and influence them has affected. You can not discount the inherent daring 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 the whites, had to flee, and he spent several days hiding in one of the most fashionable Odessa brothels, whose owner was his future murderer Seider Meer. Leaving such an unusual shelter, Kotovsky promised, on occasion, to thank his savior. And this happened a few years later.

The struggle for power

The Civil War was over, and at the end of December 1922 the largest state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, appeared on the world map. He died two years later, replaced by Stalin at the head of the government. From the very first days he began a merciless struggle for the concentration of power in his hands and eliminated those who could compete with him, and this, above all, the representatives of the highest military commanders of the army.

Among the people who aroused the chief's particular fear were such commanders as MV Frunze, MN Tukhachevsky, GK Ordzhonikidze and, of course, G. I Kotovsky, who during the years of the war won extraordinary authority among the Red Army men and civilians Inhabitants of the territories liberated by them. In it, Stalin saw his possible rival, that in such a situation it was equal to the signing of the death sentence.

Custom Murder

After the end of the Civil War and the establishment of Soviet power in Odessa, all the malicious institutions were closed, including the brothel of Seider Meier. Deprived of income, he turned to help 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 head the guard of the sugar factory, which, according to some information, he invested, or as they say now - invested, stolen valuables in the past.

Trying to understand what happened on the night of August 6, 1925, when the life of the legendary corpster was tragically cut off from the Meer bullet, the researchers come to the conclusion that this was nothing more than a contract killing, organized by Stalin, and by the performer - Sayer Meier. It is not known how he managed to get him to commit the crime, but it is obvious that he was one of the few who could easily approach Kotovsky, who was constantly under protection. In support of this version says a number of facts.

Incredibly, the government circles actually ignored the death of someone who was loved by millions of people and was among the most influential military leaders. Of all the printed organs of the country, only the Pravda newspaper devoted a few lines to this event, and in subsequent years a taboo was placed on any mention of Kotovsky. The murderer himself was soon arrested, tried, but, despite the general expectation, escaped with ten years' imprisonment, and after three years was released for good conduct. In a country where they were shot only on the basis of suspicion of a planned terrorist act, they essentially forgive the killer of a prominent statesman. However, he did not live long. The former cats found him and killed him without any mercy.

The place where Kotovsky is buried

In the mausoleum on the Red Square for a year the mummy of Lenin rested , and above make a decision about embalming Kotovsky - the good is the experience. Literally the day after the murder, a brigade headed by Professor Vorobyov arrives from the capital, who worked with the leader's body a year ago, and begins to make the same manipulations with the remains of the legendary corps. Simultaneously with it near to Odessa in village Birzula the mausoleum of Kotovsky is hastily under construction, in which his embalmed mummy is placed. The funeral itself was then poured into a nationwide manifestation.

The village of Birzula, where the mausoleum of Kotovsky was erected, was immediately renamed Kotovsk right after the burial of the hero. It became a place of national celebrations connected with official Soviet festivities. It traditionally held demonstrations of workers and the ceremony of admitting their children to the pioneers. True, the mausoleum of Gregory Kotovsky was soon closed, and the admission to it was not renewed.

Military years

In 1941 the Germans captured Kotovsk. The Mausoleum of GI Kotovsky was destroyed by them, but the body was simply thrown out. Already after the liberation there were reports that local residents managed to find those that belonged to the hero among the remains of the shot inhabitants of the village that had been dumped into the ditch and to save them until the end of the war. As far as this corresponds to reality, it is not known, but it is considered that the body of Kotovsky in the mausoleum, built anew after the war, is the remains found by the villagers.

The locked mausoleum

Mausoleum of Kotovsky, whose photo is presented in the article, was built in 1965 by the architect Protsenko. Inside it is a closed zinc coffin with a small window. After a lapse of years, the real and, to put it mildly, ambiguous image of this man was replaced by a popular print of a national hero concocted by Soviet propaganda. The mausoleum of Kotovsky, where the coffin with his body is located, is still locked up to this day.