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Bulganin Nikolai Alexandrovich - Soviet statesman: biography, family, military ranks, awards. Biography Nikolai Bulganin biography

In the history of the Soviet Union Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was prepared for a very interesting role. As part of the top Soviet leadership, holding the posts of defense minister and even head of government, participating in events that radically changed the path of the state's development, at the same time, he constantly remained in the shadow of brighter, charismatic and ambitious politicians.

The future Soviet Prime Minister was born on June 11, 1895 in Nizhny Novgorod. In his autobiography, Bulganin indicated that his father served at the steam mill of the Bugrov partnership at the Seim station, 50 kilometers from the city.

There is, however, a version that Bulganin's origin was not so worker-peasant - allegedly Alexander Bulganin served as a salesman for the bakery owner Bugrov and disposed of large sums of money.

Be that as it may, the Bulganins did not become millionaires. By 1917, Nikolai graduated from a real school, managed to work in Nizhny Novgorod as an apprentice electrical engineer, and then became a clerk.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Bulganin (on the podium) speaks at the XX Congress of the CPSU. 1956 year. Photo: RIA Novosti

Chekist becomes director

In the revolution, Nikolai Bulganin saw his chance to break out into the people. Of all the numerous parties that operated in Russia that overthrew tsarism, the young man chose the Bolsheviks and did not lose.

At first, the Bolshevik Bulganin served in the armed guard of the explosives plant at the Rastyapino station. In the summer of 1918, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Cheka at the Nizhny Novgorod station, and in December 1919 he was sent to the Turkestan front. There Bulganin worked in a special department, and after the liquidation of the front - in the bodies of the Turkestan Cheka.

When the Civil War ended and the country began to gradually return to normal life, the Bolsheviks urgently needed business executives. Bulganin, who had, albeit not very much, but still experience in such activities, in 1922 was recalled to Moscow and included in the board of the Electrical Industry Trust of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.

In 1927, Bulganin was appointed director of the newly created Moscow Electrozavod, a huge enterprise employing 12 thousand people. The plant produced products that were extremely important for the country in the era of industrialization: radio tubes, searchlights, electric vacuum devices, and automotive electrical equipment. Failure of the director of this work, and his further career would have been given up. Bulgagin, however, did an excellent job - the Moscow Electrozavod was among the leading, he was constantly set as an example.

Nikita Khrushchev (1 on the left), Nikolai Bulganin (2 on the left), Lazar Kaganovich (3 on the left) on the balcony of a building during the Moscow police parade. 1933 year. Photo: RIA Novosti

Mayor of the socialist capital

And in 1931, Nikolai Bulganin, as a promising manager, was appointed to the post of chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow City Council of Workers' and Red Army Deputies.

In the Soviet hierarchy, this position, similar to the current position of mayor, was inferior in importance to the post of head of the Moscow City Party Committee. But if Bulganin did not have political power, then there were a lot of economic tasks.

Moscow in the era of industrialization is a constantly growing organism, which was filled with more and more masses of former villagers who came to work in new factories and plants. The city was suffocating from the lack of housing, insufficient road capacity, and lack of social facilities.

Bulganin now often had to personally report on what had been done and what problems were arising.

Here Bulganin's main qualities as a politician and manager were manifested - he perfectly knew how to fulfill the tasks assigned to him, not getting into long disputes, not trying to demonstrate his own ambitions. He calmly accepted criticism and admitted mistakes, even if the criticism was unnecessarily harsh and unfair.

Stalin liked Bulganin, and from that moment began his path to the ranks of the country's top leaders.

At the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) Nikolai Bulganin in February 1934 was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

War and money

During the Great Terror of 1937, the places of politicians recognized as disloyal were taken by Stalin's nominees. In July 1937, Nikolai Bulganin became chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, and in October of the same year he was introduced to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

The next appointment followed a year later - in the fall of 1938, he became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and head of the board of the State Bank of the USSR.

Bulganin held the post of head of the State Bank with a short break until May 1945. Largely thanks to him, the financial system of the USSR did not collapse during the Great Patriotic War.

With the outbreak of war, Bulganin, like many other senior civilian leaders, was appointed to the positions of a member of the military council of various fronts. Bulganin was a member of the military councils of the Western, 2nd Baltic and 1st Belorussian fronts.

Bulganin was not a great expert in military affairs, steadfastly accepted his share of the anger that flew from Moscow, but he himself reported to Stalin about the actions of the commanders, which seemed to him wrong.

The growing influence of the generals worried about Stalin, and he decided to counterbalance it by introducing Bulganin into the military command.

In November 1944, Nikolai Bulganin became Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR and a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR. In February 1945, he was introduced to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command.

Funeral of those killed in the plane crash "Maxim Gorky". The military commandant of Moscow M.F. Lukin, the commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District I.P. Belov, the chairman of the Moscow City Council N.A. 1935 year. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The limousine at the parade appeared because of Bulganin

After the end of the war, Stalin began to think about updating his entourage, introducing the most promising politicians into the leadership.

At the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in March 1946, Nikolai Bulganin became a candidate for membership in the Politburo. At the same time Bulganin became the first deputy minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Stalin instructs him to develop the post-war reform in the army.

And although Bulganin wore general's shoulder straps, in fact, a situation arose when the fate of the army was decided by a civilian official. Naturally, the dissatisfaction of the honored marshals was very serious.

The USSR delegation to the PRC. In the first row (sitting, left to right): USSR Minister of Trade Anastas Mikoyan, First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Ekaterina Furtseva, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev, USSR Defense Minister Nikolai Bulganin, candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee Nikolai Shvernik. 1954 year. Photo: RIA News / Dmitry Baltermants

In March 1947, Stalin appointed Bulganin as Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR, thereby continuing the policy of controlling the military with the help of a civilian manager.

In this regard, before the parade on November 7, a delicate situation arose: Marshal Meretskov was to command the parade, and Colonel-General Bulganin was to receive him. To eliminate the discrepancy, Bulganin was urgently awarded the rank of Marshal.

The second problem was that Bulganin did not ride a horse, and until now, parades were taken on horseback. And here everything was resolved quite simply - the minister began to receive parades, touring the system by car. At first, the military and ordinary citizens looked at it as something extraordinary, but over time they got used to it. Since then, the minister's open limousine has been an integral part of the parades on Red Square.

Comrade prime minister

In 1948 Bulganin was brought into the Politburo. He is part of Stalin's inner circle along with Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev.

However, this closeness is not safe. The leader is already 70 years old, and he is becoming more and more suspicious. In 1949 Bulganin was relieved of his post as Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR, retaining only the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

The secret services worked with Bulganin's entourage, as well as with the entourage of other members of the top leadership of the USSR, accumulating compromising evidence. It seemed that his fate was hanging in the balance.

Nevertheless, Nikolai Bulganin remained among Stalin's close associates until the very last days of the leader and participated in the last Stalinist dinner on the night of February 28 to March 1, 1953.

After Stalin's death, Bulganin became a member of the leading "four", which, in addition to him, included Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev. Bulganin was the least ambitious of them, and this, oddly enough, helped him in the unfolding struggle for power.

Bulganin, after Stalin's death, became the head of the new Ministry of Defense, which included the Military and Naval Ministries, united with Malenkov and Khrushchev, neutralized Beria in June 1953.

A new round of political struggle unfolded in February 1955, when head of government Georgy Malenkov through the efforts of Khrushchev, he lost his post and was demoted to the post of Minister of Power Plants.

Bulganin, who supported Khrushchev, became chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, losing the post of Defense Minister to Georgy Zhukov.

For his 60th birthday, Bulganin received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Sentenced to oblivion

He was at the top of his political career for two years. In 1957, the head of the Soviet government made almost the only mistake - supporting Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich, who intended to deprive Khrushchev of power.

Soviet statesman and military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin and First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev at a rally in Kashmir during a visit to India. 1955 year. Photo: RIA News / Anatoly Garanin

The scales really fluctuated, but personal intervention tipped it in favor of Khrushchev Georgy Zhukov.

In March 1958, instead of Bulganin, Khrushchev himself took over as head of government. Bulganin was again appointed head of the board of the State Bank, but he did not stay in this post for long. In August of the same year, he was appointed to the post of one of the economic councils invented by Khrushchev in Stavropol. In September, Nikolai Bulganin was removed from the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, and on November 26, 1958, he was stripped of the military rank of marshal and demoted to colonel-general.

Bulganin in China in 1957 Yang Shangkun on the right, Song Chingling on the left. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In 1960, the former head of government quietly and unnoticed retired.

The harsh times of the Great Terror were long over. The politicians who lost in the struggle for power were not thrown into jail or put up against the wall. They were simply forgotten.

Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich lived for decades after their resignation, but almost no one knew anything about them. Most Soviet citizens were sure that all these heroes of the past era had long been in the best of worlds.

Nikolai Bulganin's life in oblivion turned out to be shorter - he died on February 24, 1975, less than six months before his 80th birthday. Like most of the former members of the top Soviet leadership who were dismissed from power, the Novodevichye Cemetery became the last refuge of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin.

Bulganin's grave at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / SerSem

120 years ago, on June 11, 1895, the Soviet statesman and military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin was born. This person is interesting because he simultaneously held high government and military posts. Bulganin was the only person in the USSR who three times headed the board of the State Bank of the USSR and twice - the military department (Minister of the USSR Armed Forces in 1947-1949 and Minister of Defense of the USSR in 1953-1955). The pinnacle of Bulganin's career was the post of chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. Under Khrushchev, he fell into disgrace, and the Stavropol Economic Council became his last place of work.

The beginning of a conscious life for Nikolai was ordinary. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of an employee (according to another version, his father was a clerk at the factories of the famous baker Bugrov at that time). He graduated from a real school. He worked as a modest electrician apprentice and clerk. Nikolai did not participate in the revolutionary movement. Only in March 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. He served in the protection of the Rastyapinsky plant of explosives in the Nizhny Novgorod province. A literate person was noticed, and from 1918 Bulganin served in the Cheka, where he began to quickly move up the career ladder. In 1918-1919. - Deputy Chairman of the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod Railway Cheka. In 1919-1921. - Head of the sector of the operational unit for transport of the Special Department of the Turkestan Front. 1921-1922 - Head of the Transport Cheka of the Turkestan Military District. In Turkestan, Nikolai Bulganin had to fight the Basmachi. After the Civil War, he worked in the electrical engineering field.

Then Nikolai Bulganin promoted in the civil sphere, where he reached major government posts. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Bulganin had such major posts as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet (1931-1937), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (1937-1938), Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (1938-1944), Chairman of the Board of the State Bank USSR (1938-1945).

Bulganin was a smart business executive and went through a good school. He worked in the Cheka, the state apparatus, headed the largest enterprise in Moscow - the Kuibyshev Moscow Electric Plant, was the head of the Moscow City Council and the Council of People's Commissars. It was not for nothing that his electrical plant fulfilled the first five-year plan in two and a half years and became famous throughout the country. As a result, he was entrusted with the economy of Moscow. True, he was not a unique manager like Beria. He could not offer anything original. Bulganin was a good performer, not a generator of ideas. He never objected to the authorities, knew all the bureaucratic tricks and tricks.

With the outbreak of the war, Nikolai Bulganin put on his military uniform again. In June 1941, the chief banker of the Soviet state received the military rank of lieutenant general and became a member of the Military Council of the Western Direction. Then he was a member of the Military Council of the Western Front, 2nd Baltic and 1st Belorussian fronts.

It must be said that the appointment of major state and party leaders to military posts during this period was commonplace. The members of the Military Councils of the fronts were such major Soviet state and party leaders as Khrushchev, Kaganovich and Zhdanov. The fronts often benefited from this, since large figures had more opportunities to knock out additional funds from various departments. The same Bulganin, in the midst of the battle for Moscow, turned to V.P. Pronin, who replaced him as chairman of the Moscow Soviet, with a request to involve the capital's trust for the movement of buildings in the business of rescuing stuck tanks and other heavy weapons from the swamps. Muscovites helped the military and, as a result, many "additional" combat vehicles took part in the defense of the capital. Nikolai Bulganin often came with various requests to Mikoyan, who was in charge of supplying the Red Army. Mikoyan helped as much as he could.

But on the other hand, such figures as Bulganin and Khrushchev (who was partly to blame for the hardest failure in the southern strategic direction) did not understand military affairs. So, the commander of the Western Front, GK Zhukov, later gave the following assessment to a member of the military council: “Bulganin knew very little about military affairs and, of course, did not understand anything about operational-strategic issues. But, being an intuitively developed person, cunning, he managed to approach Stalin and infiltrate his confidence. " At the same time, Zhukov appreciated Bulganin as a good business executive and was calm about the rear.

I.S.Konev, who commanded the Western Front in 1943, was dismissed from his post as having failed to cope with his duties. According to Konev, Bulganin was guilty of this. “I,” notes Marshal Konev, “got the impression that my withdrawal from the front was not a direct consequence of my conversation with Stalin. This conversation and my disagreement were, as they say, the last straw. Obviously, Stalin's decision was the result of biased reports and oral reports from Bulganin, with whom I had a rather difficult relationship by that time. At first, when I assumed command of the front, he acted within the framework of the duties of a member of the Military Council, but recently he tried to interfere in the direct management of operations, not having enough knowledge of military affairs for this. I endured for some time, passed by attempts to act in this way, but in the end we had a major conversation with him, apparently, did not remain without consequences for me. " After some time, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief admitted that it was wrong to remove Konev from office, and he cited this case as an example of the wrong attitude of a member of the Military Council to the commander.

After Bulganin left for the 2nd Baltic Front, a commission of the Supreme Command Headquarters, headed by a member of the State Defense Committee Malenkov, arrived at the headquarters of the Western Front at the direction of Joseph Stalin. Within six months, the front undertook 11 operations, but did not achieve serious success. The Headquarters commission revealed major mistakes of the Sokolovsky front commander and members of the military council Bulganin (formerly) and Mehlis (who was in office at the time of the check). Sokolovsky lost his post, and Bulganin received a reprimand. Bulganin, as a member of the Front Military Council, "did not report to the Headquarters about the presence of major shortcomings at the front."

The activities of the 2nd Baltic Front were also studied by the Headquarters. It turned out that not a single operation during the period when the front was commanded by Army General M.M. Popov, did not give serious results, the front did not fulfill its tasks, although it had an advantage in forces over the enemy and used up a large amount of ammunition. The mistakes of the 2nd Baltic Front were associated with the unsatisfactory activities of the front commander Popov and member of the military council Bulganin. Popov was removed from the post of front commander, Bulganin was removed from the post of a member of the Military Council.

Colonel-General V.M.Shatilov recalled that on the Baltic Front Bulganin could not independently plot data on the Wehrmacht defensive structures, revealed by intelligence, on a working map. P. Sudoplatov noted Bulganin's low military professionalism: “Bulganin's incompetence was simply amazing. I ran into him several times in the Kremlin during meetings of the heads of the intelligence services. Bulganin did not understand such issues as the rapid deployment of forces and means, the state of combat readiness, strategic planning ... This man did not have the slightest political principles - an obedient slave to any leader. "

However, Stalin had his own reason. The generals, especially in the conditions of the catastrophic start of the war, required supervision. Military professionalism was sacrificed for political expediency. It was necessary to ensure that a new Tukhachevsky did not appear in the army, claiming the role of Napoleon. In the conditions of the war with Nazi Germany, which led almost all of Europe, a military mutiny in the Red Army threatened a military-political catastrophe. Bulganin and other party leaders were a kind of "sovereign's eye" at the front. Nikolai Bulganin, to all appearances, did a good job with this matter, since his position throughout the war never wavered, despite the reprimands. In some respects, Bulganin can be compared with the ex-Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation A. Serdyukov. Obedient and diligent, they carried out the will of the Kremlin and did not ask unnecessary questions.

Already in May 1944, Nikolai Bulganin went on a promotion, became a member of the Military Council of one of the main fronts - the 1st Belorussian. The success of Operation Bagration in Belarus led to further career growth for Bulganin. Bulganin became an army general. Since November 1944, Bulganin is the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, member of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR. Since February 1945 - a member of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Since March 1946 - First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In March 1947, he again took up a major government post - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. At the same time, Bulganin became the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In 1947, Bulganin was awarded the rank of marshal.

On the one hand, it is surprising that a person who does not have a commanding officer, does not know much about military affairs, occupies the highest military posts in the Soviet Union. Bulganin had a collection of orders that many outstanding military leaders did not have. So, Bulganin was awarded in 1943-1945. four military orders - Suvorov (1st and 2nd degrees) and two orders of Kutuzov 1st degree, and also had the Order of the Red Banner. On the other hand, it was Stalin's policy. He "diluted" the generals, the professional military. The highest military elite of the country included "politicians in uniform". It is no coincidence that after the end of the war, Bulganin became the right hand of the Supreme in the Armed Forces, bypassing such famous commanders as Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Konev and Vasilevsky.

Bulganin led the Ministry of Defense with the help of professionals: his first deputy was Marshal Vasilevsky, the chief of the General Staff was General of the Army Shtemenko, and the fleet was headed by Kuznetsov. I must say that he easily headed such different organizations as the State Bank or the Ministry of Defense, as he was an executor. He simply conveyed the instructions of Stalin, the Politburo to his subordinates and monitored their strict implementation.

After the war Bulganin took part in the "hunt" for Zhukov, when the renowned commander fell into disgrace and was "exiled" to the secondary Odessa military district. According to the testimony of the former People's Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N.G. Kuznetsov, Bulganin took part in the persecution of the naval commanders. Bulganin used a denunciation of the alleged illegal transfer of a parachute torpedo, ammunition samples and navigational charts to the British allies. Bulganin fanned this rumor and brought the case to court. As a result, four admirals - N.G. Kuznetsov, L.M. Galler, V.A. Alafuzov and G.A. Stepanov was first subjected to a "court of honor" and then to a criminal court. Kuznetsov was removed from office and demoted in military rank by three steps, the rest received real terms of imprisonment.

The vast experience of behind-the-scenes intrigues and bureaucratic tricks helped Bulganin succeed even after Stalin's death, although not for long. Bulganin did not claim to be a leader, but he was not going to go by the wayside. Bulganin was a friend of Khrushchev, so he supported him. In turn, Khrushchev needed the support of the army. In addition, they were united by fear of Beria. After the death of Stalin, Bulganin headed the Ministry of Defense (it included the Military and Naval Ministry of the USSR). Moreover, he remained the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Bulganin played a large role in the conspiracy against Beria. He agreed with Khrushchev with his first deputy Marshal G.K. Zhukov and Colonel General K.S. Moskalenko, commander of the Moscow Air Defense District, on their personal participation in the elimination of Beria. As a result, Beria was eliminated from the political Olympus (there is a version that he was immediately killed). Bulganin eagerly joined the chorus of critics of L. Beria, when he was declared "the enemy of the party, the people", "international agent and spy", forgetting about all his previous merits to the Motherland.

When Malenkov was removed from the post of chairman of the Council of Ministers in the course of the internal political struggle in 1955, Bulganin took his post. He lost the Ministry of Defense to Zhukov. Bulganin, along with Khrushchev, made a number of visits (to Yugoslavia, India). Bulganin fully supported Khrushchev in “criticizing the personality” of Stalin when he chaired a closed meeting of the 20th Congress held on February 25, 1956. Thanks to his support, as well as some other members of the Presidium of the Central Committee, Khrushchev managed to crush the resistance of those members of the Soviet leadership who considered it harmful raise the question of the repression of the 1930s.

However, gradually Bulganin, apparently afraid of Khrushchev's radicalism, began to move away from him, and ended up in the same camp with former opponents. Bulganin entered the so-called. "Anti-party group." However, thanks to the support of Zhukov and other members of the Central Committee, Khrushchev stayed at the top of power. It seemed that Bulganin would survive in the course of this clash. Bulganin acknowledged and condemned his mistakes, helped expose the activities of the "anti-party group." The case came with a strict reprimand with a warning.

However, Khrushchev soon removed Bulganin from the country's leadership. First, Bulganin lost the post of head of the Council of Ministers, then he was transferred to the post of chairman of the board of the State Bank. In August 1958, Bulganin was actually sent into exile - to the post of chairman of the economic council in Stavropol. He will be deprived of the rank of Marshal. In 1960, Bulganin retired. Bulganin died in 1975.

diletant.media

Today he is completely forgotten. But once he was a member of Stalin’s inner circle. Under Khrushchev, he became the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Prime Minister. Formally - the first person of the state. In any case, for the West. In the political hierarchy adopted there, “our dear Nikita Sergeyevich” only headed the ruling Communist Party in the country. And Bulganin is Churchill's level. Not without reason in 1955 the American magazine The Times devoted a cover to the new Soviet prime minister. High honor!

Among the people, Nikolai Alexandrovich was called Nikolai the Third. By analogy with the last Emperor of Russia Nikolai the Second (also Alexandrovich!)

Shadow man

Among the Soviet leaders, Bulganin stood out by one rare quality, ”says the writer Gennady Sokolov. - Arranged everyone! Even being the first in rank, he remained a supporting figure and always kept in the background. “Everyone liked him a little, because he didn’t bother anyone,” said Molotov.

Before the Kremlin career, our hero managed to visit the Chekists and directors, was the Moscow mayor and the main banker of the country. But the real takeoff began in the 1947th. Then he got a Marshall star. Not for military merit - during the war the apparatchik did not smell gunpowder! And in addition to the post of Minister of Armed Forces, which was previously held by Stalin himself. The appointment of a civilian was in spite of Marshal Zhukov. He really deserved such a high post, but after the war he turned out to be too popular among the people and too influential in the army.

Nikolai Bulganin on the cover of Time magazine, 1955. diletant.media

Stalin did not allow such competitors in his inner circle. And the accommodating Bulganin, incapable of conspiracy and even the slightest intrigue, was convenient for the leader of the peoples. Although clearly not suitable for the leadership of a powerful and influential department.

Who is talking? - asked the commander-in-chief of the ground forces Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, who was calling him on the RF Minister of Defense of the USSR. - Marshal Bulganin? I don’t know such a marshal.

As Minister of War, he spent only two years. Already in the 49th, Stalin appointed him his deputy. And soon - the first deputy for the Council of Ministers. In this status, Bulganin actually replaced Molotov, who for a long time was considered the second person in the Soviet state hierarchy. After the death of the leader, he became a key figure in the new configuration of power. Together with Beria, Malenkov and Khrushchev.

Nikita Sergeevich considered him his man since the time of their joint work in Moscow in the mid-30s. Then Khrushchev led the party organization of the capital, and Bulganin - the Moscow City Council. Both were on duty at Stunt's Kuntsevo dacha on March fifty-third night, when the Generalissimo fettered a stroke. Then the couple decided to work together against Beria and support each other in the approaching troubled times.

Bulganin turned out to be true to the word given that night. It was he who, after the death of Stalin, suggested Nikita Sergeevich to the post of party leader. He supported him in the fight against Malenkov.

Khrushchev managed to remove his main rival from the post of head of government, the ally Bulganin became prime minister. Finally, it was he who, on the final day of the XX Congress, gave the “First” floor for the famous secret report, against which a good half of the Central Committee Presidium objected. The report was the first public exposure of the Stalin personality cult.

The main Soviet ballet fan

This faceless apparatchik, however, had one passionate passion! - continues the story of the writer Sokolov. - Ballet. More precisely, ballerinas.

Apparently, he wanted to match the nickname. Before the marriage of Nicholas II, Alexander Fedorovna had an affair with the famous ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya.

Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Passion began long before the premiere. And it was much more prosaic. In the Kremlin archives I found a curious report from Beria.

January 8, 1948
Secretly
Council of Ministers of the USSR
comrade Stalin I.V.
On the night of January 6-7, 1948, Marshal Bulganin, being in the company of two ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater in room 348 of the National Hotel, drunk, ran in the same pants along the corridors of the third and fourth floors of the hotel, waving pistachio pistachios tied to the mop handle the colors of one of the ballerinas and demanded from everyone they met to shout “Hurray to Marshal of the Soviet Union Bulganin, Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR!
Then, going down to the restaurant, N.A. Bulganin, having put at attention several generals who had dinner there, demanded that they “kiss the banner,” that is, the above pantaloons. When the generals refused, the Marshal of the Soviet Union ordered the head waiter to call the duty officer on duty with a platoon of guards and gave the command to the arriving Colonel Sazonov to arrest the generals who refused to comply with the order. The generals were arrested and taken to the commandant's office of Moscow. In the morning, Marshal Bulganin canceled his order ...

- How did the leader react to the drunken revelry of the Minister of Defense?

Stalin imposed a resolution on the report of Beria. Adjutant and handlers Marshal Bulganin, who were unable to prevent the brawl of Bulganin, demoted in military ranks and sent for further military service in the Order of Lenin, the Far Eastern Military District. Ballerin, with whom Bulganin comes into contact, instruct on their personal responsibility for preventing the appearance of a drunken Marshal Bulganin in an undeath form in public places, with the exception of the hotel room.

However, once the "balletomania" of our "Nicholas the Third" played a very positive role in international politics. In the conditions of the most severe “cold war” it helped to break through the “iron curtain” between the West and the East.

How?

1956 year. Khrushchev and Bulganin arrived on an official visit to London. (I write about this in detail in the book "The Line of Death. The Failure of Claret's Operation"). As part of the cultural program, distinguished guests were taken to the ballet at the Royal Opera House (the famous Covent Garden). They were accompanied by Prime Minister Eden and Foreign Minister Reading.

Reading turned out to be a true ballet fan. He introduced our prime minister to the prima. He was thrilled. And he asked: “Have you ever watched the productions of the Bolshoi Theater?”

Lord Reading could not boast of this. Then Bulganin invited him to invite Bolshoi to Great Britain. Quickly signed a cultural exchange agreement. Bolshoi went to London, prima ballerinas of Covent Garden performed in Moscow and Leningrad. The Old Vic Theater with Laurence Olivier showed their best performances for Soviet audiences. Igor Moiseyev's dance ensemble performed on the London stage ...

Thus began the world triumph of the Bolshoi Theater, Soviet ballet. Then there was a long tour in the USA ...

It turns out that this is thanks to Bulganin “in the field of ballet we are ahead of the rest”?

Yes. Otherwise, the Bolshoi would have been locked up in their homeland for a long time. And there, you look, and the fashion for ballet would have gone. Has Bulganin visited with the English prims in the numbers of the National, history is silent ...

At 60, Bulganin fell in love with Galina Vishnevskaya. Photo: RIA Novosti

Swan song - prima Vishnevskaya

Reliably known another. At 60, Bulganin fell in love with Galina Vishnevskaya, a leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, and became her patron. And he even tried to recapture the young husband, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the height of their honeymoon. Vishnevskaya was half the age of the prime minister.

“Among the clumsy, rude physiognomies of members of the government, he stood out for his intelligent appearance, soft, pleasant manners,” she writes in the book “Galina. The history of life". - There was something in his guise from a retired old general, and he really wanted to appear in my eyes as an enlightened monarch, sort of Nicholas III. With all his treatment of me, he always tried to emphasize that I did not need to be afraid to visit him. Of course, accustomed to dominating, he wanted to achieve his goal at all costs, but perhaps he really loved me ... Almost daily invitations — either to his country house or to his Moscow apartment. And, of course, endless "libations." Nikolai Aleksandrovich drank a lot, made him also glory, and even without persuasion from anger he grabbed too much. Happened, both are drunk, the old man rests his eyes on me like a bull, and begins:

No, tell me how you love her? Oh you boy! How can you understand what love is! So I love her, this is my swan song ... Well, nothing, wait, we know how to wait, we are accustomed ... "

Returning home after another drinking at Bulganin, the jealous Rostropovich in his shorts jumped onto the windowsill to jump down. The cry of Vishnevskaya kept me from the fateful step of the cellist: "I am pregnant!"

Vishnevskaya admits: it is not known how her fate would have turned back if she had “taken a different approach to the courtship of the Soviet monarch and sat down as an impostor queen, like Marina Mnishek,“ on the throne of the tsars of Moscow ”. “Although the lot of imposters has long been known to everyone, the temptation was great.”

Prima acted wisely by rejecting courtship. Soon, always the cautious "Nicholas the Third" ran into history. More precisely, in the famous "anti-party group of Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov, Voroshilov, Bulganin, Pervukhin, Saburov and Shepilov who joined them." In the summer of 1957, they tried to remove Khrushchev. He, with the help of the KGB chairman Serov, prevailed. The group was defeated. And although Bulganin was not in the first place in the conspiracy, Khrushchev took the post of prime minister from a traitor friend, took the Marshal star and sent him to exile in Stavropol. Chairman of the economic council. In 1960, Bulganin retired. He died in 1975. He was buried at Novodevichy. Like Khrushchev.

Nikolai Bulganin at the celebration of May Day. nevsedoma.com.ua

There was another case!
How the British stole a golden feather from the Soviet prime minister

Recently, at a auction in London, Bulganin's self-identification was exhibited. The seller claimed that he received it as a gift from the leader of the USSR on April 22, 1956 in Oxford, when he and Khrushchev visited the university there.

In the book of Gennady Sokolov “The line of death. The failure of Operation Claret, however, details the story of this fountain pen. There was no smell there as a present. With the consent of the author, we give a short excerpt from this book.

“People hung from the balconies of old low houses, crowded on the sidewalks against stone walls and along the roads along which a motorcade of cars with the Soviet delegation was supposed to pass. On the cobblestone pavement squares and evenly trimmed lawns at the entrance to the colleges, which the guests were supposed to visit, there was a myriad of crowds. The three most desperate students even climbed to the top of the four-meter column that designated the name of Broad Street, in order to better see the arriving guests from a bird's-eye view. The poor people barely kept their balance on a narrow platform at the top of the column, hardly supporting each other, every minute risking falling to the ground.

As soon as a car escort entered the city, the human mass filling it came to life, set in motion, threatening to demolish any obstacles in its path. The police in charge of security and order were desperate for their own helplessness. They were unable to stop this chaos.

Khrushchev and Bulganin were delighted with this movement of the masses. In it, for the first time during the days of the visit, they felt the British sincere interest in themselves, and, therefore, in the country that they represented.

Khrushchev and Bulganin in London, 1956.

Slender, lean students, gathered in Oxford from all over the planet, like bees in a hive, circling around their burly fattened uterus, revolved around two elderly fat men from distant and mysterious Russia. As the Prime Minister of this mystery country, Bulganin was especially popular among them. Nikolai Alexandrovich felt like a hero of the day. The remaining members of the delegation remained in the shadow of his unexpected success.

Young students pulled their notebooks to him, asking for an autograph. A crowd surrounded him from all sides, and Nikolai Aleksandrovich smiled shyly, signed autographs and extended outstretched hands. For a moment, he became the idol of youth of all skin tones and all races, who studied at Oxford.

Students have always been sympathetic to left-wing political movements. Bolshevism, Leninism, Trotskyism, Stalinism, Maoism - all these "isms" invariably found fertile ground in an immature student environment, including in Oxford. There were also many admirers of the Soviet Union and fans of communist ideology. After primitive anti-Soviet London, such a reception in Oxford could not but rejoice the Soviet guests.

Bulganin triumphed most of all.

- What a welcome, friends! He exclaimed, now and then turning to his colleagues in the delegation. - What a welcome! - and continued to sign autographs and smiles.

When the motorcade of Soviet guests took the opposite course to London, the euphoria from the enthusiastic reception gradually began to fade from the consciousness of the Soviet leaders. The smile on Bulganin's face gradually faded. She was replaced by the usual expression of mild fatigue and indifference.

- Damn it! - Nikolai Alexandrovich suddenly broke the silence in the Rolls-Royce salon. - Where did my fountain pen go?

The Prime Minister feverishly searched all the containers of his huge jacket, but could not find the coveted pen.

Khrushchev chuckled sarcastically and declared:

“Well, Kolya, have your precious pen been stolen from you?”

- What a pen it was! - complainedly complained Bulganin. - With a golden feather!

“It wasn’t necessary to give autographs for hours on end,” Nikita Sergeyevich instructively remarked. “You, Kolya, have lost vigilance, so you have lost your pen.” It will be for you.

Bulganin darkened from what he heard more than from the loss of his beloved pen, turned his face to the side and stared out the window.

To relieve tension, Oleg Troyanovsky decided to tell Khrushchev and Bulganin a similar story from the historical past of Anglo-Russian relations.

“This curious incident,” he began, “occurred with the favorite of Catherine II, the famous Count Grigory Orlov. In 1775, he also visited London. A mighty, stately, handsome man, Orlov made a great impression on the British, but especially on the English. He willingly flirted with them. His luxurious clothes, gold jewelry and brilliance of diamonds - all this could not leave indifferent the English thieves.

One day after leaving the performance from Covent Garden, Orlov discovered that his favorite golden snuff box, studded with precious stones, had disappeared from his pocket. As it turned out, she was kidnapped by the thief George Barrington, famous throughout London, nicknamed the “king of pickpockets”.

Orlov was a man who didn’t miss, and he immediately caught a thief in the crowd. True, they could not hide him behind bars. The trickster during the rising confusion managed to put the stolen snuff-box back into Orlov’s jacket pocket.

Book of G.E.Sokolov Death Line Failure of Operation Claret.

They say, ”Troyanovsky concluded his story,“ this story greatly amused the empress. Catherine laughed for a long time and said: “I knew that in England justice would be brought to Prince Orlov.”

Bulganin in response made an attempt to smile, but apart from the grimace on his face the joke of the "First" did not cause anything.

Here is a story ...

Interesting, however, was a friend - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin.

Powerful “lovers” of ballet

Nicholas II. In his youth, he had a stormy romance with Matilda Kshesinskaya, the official prima ballerina of the imperial theaters. I even wanted to marry her. But due to unequal marriage, he could not have claimed the throne. I chose the throne and the wife of royal blood. Later Matilda was the mistress of the Grand Dukes Sergei Mikhailovich and Andrei Vladimirovich Romanov. With Andrei Vladimirovich, the grandson of Alexander the Second, she married in 1921 in Cannes.

Joseph Stalin. According to rumors, patronized the prima of the Bolshoi Theater Olga Lepeshinskaya. The memoirist Gronsky wrote that in the mid-30s, the leader of the peoples often returned from a ballerina to the Kremlin already in the dead of night. Lepeshinskaya herself claimed that “Stalin did a lot for the Bolshoi Theater, during which the theater turned into a single whole. First-class musicians appeared, and the orchestra itself became the same workshop as ballet and opera. ” The leader’s favorite ballerina received as many as 4 Stalin Prizes (then the highest in the Union!), The title of People's Artist of the USSR, orders ...

Mikhail Kalinin. The permanent chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (the supreme body of state power, later renamed the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) for many years "patronized" the young ballerinas of the Bolshoi. "All-Union Warden" was known as a big reveler. He often went to the theater, went to rehearsals, looked behind the scenes, not considering it shameful to communicate with simple dancers. And then the attracted girl was summoned to talk to the chairman of the CEC. For understanding and complaisance, the All-Union elder generously bestowed young charmers.

Stalin knew about the weakness of his faithful servant to ballet. On his instructions, the GPU, and then the NKVD, carried out the corresponding work with the dancers. Masters from the Lubyanka used these "campaigns to the left" as compromising evidence on Kalinin. They were ordered to write detailed reports. But Kalinin did not allow himself any political deviations. Therefore, the “father of peoples” looked at Kalinin’s love affairs through fingers, appreciating him for his selfless devotion. And for sexual exploits he dubbed "the All-Union goat," to this nickname often adding another biting word - "lascivious."

The artists of the Bolshoi Theater, however, were quite satisfied with the patronage of the All-Union headman. After all, he included them among the elect, who were allowed to use the services of the medical and sanatorium department of the Kremlin. The ballet dancers were allowed to create their own housing cooperative, and finance and construction materials were allocated out of turn. They began to supply food rations. They began to raise salaries twice a year. It suited everyone.

Together with the head of the CEC, famous party goers were interested in the dancers of the famous theater; CEC secretary Avel ENUKIDZE and member of the CEC, deputy commissar of foreign affairs of the USSR Lev KARAKHAN. Both “walkers” were shot in the 37th. Yenukidze was officially accused of systematic child molestation. And that was the truth.

Sergey Kirov. Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.), Leader of the Leningrad Communists. He had many mistresses both at the Bolshoi Theater and at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, which received the name of Kirov after his death, wrote the general of the NKVD Sudoplatov, referring to KGB sources who oversaw the culture. When the handsome Bolshevik started an affair with an employee of the Leningrad Regional Committee Milda Kraule, a number of his ballet lovers began to slander his rival. And they landed in camps for "slander and anti-Soviet agitation." Kirov was killed by the jealous husband of Milda Nikolaev.

Lavrenty Beria, Mikhail Tukhachevsky also were "ballet walkers".

Gennady Evgenievich Sokolov, 65 years old. Graduated from MGIMO of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked in the UK, Denmark, Switzerland. He was sent to more than 30 countries of the world. He is the author of books on the history of the confrontation between Russian and British special services published in Russia and abroad: “The Naked Spy”, “The Bomb” for the Premiere. Russian Spy in London, “The Death Line. Clare Operation Failure,” “The Shield of the Windsor House. Hunt for royal porn, "" Spy Number One. " Co-author of Russian and foreign documentaries on the history of intelligence.

ON THE. Bulganin joined the RSDLP (b) in 1917. For many years (1918-1922) he served in the bodies of the Cheka, where he held various positions in the departments of work with transport.

After the Civil War, he was introduced into the board of the Electrotrust of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR (1922-1927). He continued to work in industry as the director of the Moscow Electric Plant (1927-1931), gaining a reputation as a skilled manager. He was transferred to public service by the chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow Soviet (January 1931 - August 1937). The XVII Party Congress elected Bulganin as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (February 10, 1934 - October 12, 1937). In the wake of political repression, Bulganin was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (July 22, 1937) instead of the arrested D.E.Sulimov. In 1937, by a decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee, he was transferred to the Party Central Committee (October 12, 1937 - October 31, 1961). He left his job in the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR after being appointed deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (September 16, 1938 - May 15, 1944). At the same time, he headed the State Bank of the USSR as chairman of the board (September 1938 - April 17, 1940 and October 12, 1940 - May 23, 1945). During the Great Patriotic War he was a member of the councils of a number of fronts, and then, in the rank of colonel general (1944), he was replaced by K.E. Voroshilov as a member of the State Defense Committee (November 21, 1944 - September 4, 1945). In 1944, he was appointed deputy to I.V. Stalin in the People’s Commissariat of Defense (transformed into the People’s Commissar of the Armed Forces in February 1946). In 1947 he was promoted to Marshals of the Soviet Union, appointed Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR (March 3, 1947 - March 24, 1949) and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (March 5, 1947 - April 7, 1950).

The influence of Bulganin in the party leadership increased after he was approved as a candidate for membership in the Politburo (March 18, 1946 - February 18, 1948) and a member of the Organizing Bureau (March 18, 1946 - October 5, 1952). Finally, Bulganin was appointed a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee (February 18, 1948 - October 5, 1952) and First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (April 7, 1950 - February 8, 1955). Approved by Stalin as a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee (October 16, 1952 - September 5, 1958) and a member of the Bureau of the Presidium after the 19th Congress of the CPSU, Bulganin was one of those who won as a result of the division of power after Stalin's death. Having retained the post of First Deputy Head of the Soviet Government, Bulganin was appointed Minister of War of the USSR (March 5-15, 1953), and then Minister of Defense of the USSR (March 15, 1953 - February 9, 1955). During the struggle for power of the group of G.M. Malenkov and N.S. Khrushchev, Bulganin took the side of the latter and replaced Malenkov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on February 8, 1955. Bulganin often accompanied Khrushchev on numerous trips and was close to him, but in June 1957 he supported the attempt of the "anti-party group" to remove Khrushchev from power. Bulganin's disloyalty cost him the post of head of government, to which Khrushchev was appointed at the session of the Supreme Council on March 27, 1958, at the suggestion of Voroshilov. Bulganin returned to work at the State Bank of the USSR as chairman of the board (March 31 - August 15, 1958), but his political fate was a foregone conclusion. The plenum of the Central Committee relieved him of his duties as a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee (September 5, 1958). Bulganin was deprived of the rank of Marshal (1958) and was appointed to work in the province as chairman of the Stavropol Economic Council (August 1958 - February 1960) until his retirement in early 1960.

Private bussiness

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (1895-1975)born in Nizhny Novgorod. According to the official biography - in the “family of employees”. Since 1915, he worked as a student of electrical engineering in Nizhny Novgorod, then as a clerk. In 1917 he graduated from a real school and in the same year became a member of the RSDLP (b).

During the revolution in 1917-1918 he was a fighter guarding the Rastyapinsky plant of explosives in the Nizhny Novgorod province.

Already in 1918, he began working in the Cheka’s organs. From 1918 to 1922, he successively served as Deputy Chairman of the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod Railway Cheka, Head of the Transport Operations Sector of the Special Department of the Turkestan Front, Head of the Transport Cheka of the Turkestan Military District, and, finally, Deputy Head Transport Information Department, GPU RSFSR.

In 1922-1927 he was first an assistant to the chairman of the electrotechnical trust of the Central region, and later - chairman of the state electrotechnical trust of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. In 1927, he was appointed director of the Kuybyshev Moscow Electric Plant (MELZ).

In 1931, Nikolai Bulganin became chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow Soviet.

In 1934 he was elected a candidate member, and in 1937 - a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

In July 1937 he was appointed chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. A year later he went on increasing, taking over from September 1938 the post of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (until May 1944). At the same time from October 1938 to April 1940 and from October 1940 to May 1945 he headed the board of the State Bank of the USSR.

From the beginning of World War II he was sent to the army. He was a member of the Military Council of the Western (July 1941 - December 1943), 2nd Baltic (December 1943 - April 1944) and 1st Belorussian (May-November 1944) fronts.

In November 1944 he became deputy commissar of defense of the USSR and a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR. In February 1945, he was included in the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. In March 1946, he was elected a candidate member of the Politburo and a member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Since that time - First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

A year later - in March 1947 - Nikolai Bulganin was appointed Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR, before him this post since 1941 was occupied directly by Stalin. At the same time he took the post of deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Since February 1948, Bulganin became a member of the Politburo.

Two years later, in March 1949, Bulganin was relieved of his post as Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR, but remained Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Since April 7, 1950 - 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

After the XIX Congress of the CPSU (1952) at the proposal of I.V. Stalin, as part of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the "leading five" was created, which included Bulganin. After Stalin's death, during the "division" of senior government posts between his former associates, he received the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of Defense of the USSR.

In February 1955 he was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, becoming the closest associate of N.S. Khrushchev.

In June 1955, for special services to the Soviet state during the Great Patriotic War and in the postwar years, Bulganin was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Medal "Hammer and Sickle."

After Khrushchev’s political positions were finally strengthened, in March 1958, when the new Supreme Council was forming a government, Bulganin was not reassigned to the post of chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. Instead, at the suggestion of Kliment Voroshilov, Khrushchev himself was elected to this post.

In March 1958, Bulganin was appointed for the third time the chairman of the USSR State Bank, for the third time, and in August he was sent to Stavropol for de facto exile as chairman of the economic council.

In September 1958, Bulganin was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and on November 26 he was deprived of the military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union (demoted to Colonel General).

Until February 1960, he served as chairman of the Stavropol Council of National Economy. Since February 1960 - retired. Until October 1961 he remained a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

After retiring, he lived in a summer house near Moscow, where he died on February 24, 1975. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Nikolay Bulganin

Than famous

Nikolai Bulganin, the first Minister of Defense of the USSR after Stalin, is the only person in the history of the Soviet Union who has headed the board of the State Bank of the country three times and twice the Ministry of Defense. In addition, he turned out to be the only Minister of Defense, who left this post as chairman of the Council of Ministers (prime minister).

It is believed that the appointment of a civilian leader who had never commanded troops as the head of the military department was connected with Stalin's desire to maintain control of the army in the post-war period and to prevent the strengthening of military leaders who became popular during the war.

What you need to know

Nikolai Bulganin was a matchmaker of the "forever disgraced" admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov. Bulganin's daughter married the admiral's son.

The famous naval commander twice received the highest rank in the fleet as admiral of the fleet and twice lost it for political reasons. Just a couple of months before the first appointment of Bulganin as Minister of Defense, in January 1947, as a result of disagreements with Stalin about the program for the further development of the Navy, Kuznetsov was removed from the post of commander in chief of the Navy, and a year later he was deprived of the rank of admiral.

This title was returned to him only after the death of Stalin. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. At that time, Bulganin again held this post. However, in 1955, as Minister of Defense, he was replaced by Georgy Zhukov, relations with whom Kuznetsov had not developed since the time of the war.

Already at the end of 1955, Kuznetsov, on the pretext of his guilt in the explosion on the battleship Novorossiysk, was removed from his post (although he was on sick leave at that time), demoted to vice admiral and dismissed with a derogatory wording “without the right work in the navy. ”

Kuznetsov was reinstated in the rank of Admiralp of the Fleet of the Soviet Union only posthumously: 14 years after his death - just three years before the collapse of the USSR.

Direct speech:

Lieutenant General Sudoplatov about Bulganin as Minister of Defense: On the possibility of the collapse of the Eurozone: “He was not able to cope with the serious problems of mobilization and changes in the structure of the Armed Forces. I met him several times in the Kremlin during meetings of the heads of intelligence services. His incompetence was simply amazing. Bulganin did not understand such issues as the rapid deployment of forces and assets, the state of alert, strategic planning. ... Bulganin tried by all means to avoid responsibility for making decisions. Letters requiring an immediate response remained unsigned for months. The entire Secretariat of the Council of Ministers was horrified by this style of work ... By appointing Bulganin, whom the military did not respect, as Minister of the Armed Forces, Stalin achieved the goal and became the arbiter of the fate of both real commanders ... - and Bulganin himself. Bulganin would never have claimed responsibility for any serious decision, even within his competence, although no one could have done anything without his resolution. Thus, none of the parties - neither true leaders, nor an inflated figure - could act independently of each other. It encouraged hostility and rivalry between the military. ”

3 facts about Nikolai Bulganin:

According to D. Granin, Bulganin, in a marshal's uniform, stamped his feet in the boots of A. A. Voznesensky, who was arrested in August 1949 in the Leningrad case.
In 1957, Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin became a member of N.S. Khrushchev's so-called "anti-party group of Molotov-Kaganovich-Malenkov and Shepilov who joined them." And although he managed to move away from them in time and repent, his career was put an end to.
According to the memoirs of N. S. Khrushchev, in the last years of his life, Stalin called Bulganin as his possible successor as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Materials about Nikolai Bulganin: