Gleb The meaning of the name is “to give under protection” (Scandinavian). Glebs are virtuous, seeking peace of mind. Abstain. They have a sound mind. Helping people. Concern constantly haunts them. Women sigh secretly for this. Family men, orthodox lovers.

Gleb Achieves peace of mind, is distinguished by efficiency and thrift. Temperate and cool-headed. Has a sound mind and clear judgment. Helps others, but does not like it when someone gives empty

59. Coincidence: the revolutionary Pericles Argyropoulo died - the historian Ulrich Wilken was born in 1862. December 18, 1862 AD. With. science: born Ulrich Wilcken - historian, founder of TSB papyrology: Wilcken Ulrich (12/18/1862, Stettin, - 12/10/1944, Baden-Baden), German historian

Gleb (German: “presented to God”) Since childhood, he has surprised those around him with his not childishly serious and calm character. He looks older than his age due to his slowness and prudence. With age he gives the impression of a somewhat gloomy person. If Gleb -

Death at the Library Gate
On April 1, 1994, at about 11 a.m., 24-year-old BSG President Bokiy, accompanied by 30-year-old security guards Korostoshevsky and Baranov, was heading to work. When the black Cadillac Fleetwood began to drive into the courtyard of the library. Pushkin (Spartakovskaya Street, 9), next door to which the BSG office is located, a strong young man in a dark raincoat jacket and a black knitted cap suddenly appeared to his right. He pulled out a pistol and shot four times into the glass of the rear door of the car. The driver, taking the car out from under fire, increased the speed, but the criminal rushed after her and shot twice more. Then the driver began to back up, trying to knock down the attacker. He failed, and the killer, snatching a grenade, threw it at the car and, when the explosion sounded, began to run.
Policemen who happened to be nearby set off in pursuit of the criminal. The young man ran through the yards to house 31/7 on Novo-Ryazanskaya Street and threw himself face down into the back seat of a beige VAZ-21063 parked there. The driver of the car was unable to move. The police arrived in time and tied up both him and his passenger. The latter received a bullet in his right forearm during his arrest. Under a rubber mat in the interior of the "six", the police found a TT pistol with an empty magazine and the bolt frame moved to the rearmost position (three bullets and six shell casings from this pistol were recovered from the scene, as well as fragments of an RG-42 grenade). As it turned out, the attack on Bokiy was carried out by 18-year-old unemployed Gerasimov, a stateless person, a resident of Riga. Waiting for him in the Zhiguli was 24-year-old Orlov, an office equipment adjuster for the Start cooperative from the town of Zheleznodorozhny near Moscow.
Bokiy died on the spot from gunshot and shrapnel wounds. Korostoshevsky and Baranov died a few days later in the hospital. The driver escaped with concussion.

Unfamiliar accomplices
The investigation into the case was conducted by the Basmanny Prosecutor's Office of Moscow. She authorized the arrest of Gerasimov, and for some reason released Orlova on her own recognizance.
During the investigation, none of the accused admitted their guilt. Gerasimov testified that on March 31 he flew to Moscow from Lugansk, intending to then go to Riga. However, he didn’t have enough money for a train ticket, he spent the night at the Rizhsky station, and in the morning he went for a ride around the city by trolleybus. At one of the stops, he got off and walked along a street whose name he did not know, since he practically did not know Moscow. Suddenly, shots and an explosion were heard behind him. He got scared, ran out into another street through some courtyards, got into the first car he came across and asked the driver to take him to the Rizhsky station, but was then detained by police. They probably planted the gun in the car.
Orlov first testified that the car was given to him on March 30 by his acquaintance Sergei Starodubtsev, for whom he agreed to work as a driver. On April 1, at the direction of Starodubtsev, he arrived at Komsomolskaya Square and put two unfamiliar men into the car. Starodubtsev said that they needed to be taken to the place they indicated, then return to the Fashion House on Budyonny Avenue and receive 300 thousand rubles for their work. On the way, Orlov heard one passenger telling another (as he later learned, Gerasimov) that he should kill a certain businessman. Then the “instructor” left the car, ordering Gerasimov to be dropped off on Novo-Ryazanskaya Street, to wait for his return, and to be taken back to Komsomolskaya Square.
Then Orlov changed his testimony and stated that the unknown man only asked Gerasimov to call a “skinny businessman” from the car and ask him “about the money.” According to Orlov, he had no idea that his passenger had a weapon and was going to commit murder.

Looking for a customer
The investigation did not find any Starodubtsev, but found out that the “six” was on the balance sheet of the Conversagro company - it was used by executive director Viktor Meshchanov. On April 2 he was detained. During interrogation, Meshchanov testified that he was familiar with one of the founders of BSG, Igor Sukharev, and through him, with Bokiy. Conversagro and BSG had an agreement on joint activities, and transactions with scandium were planned. In 1993, BSG LLP provided Conversagro with office space, but it had to be vacated because Bokiy lost interest in joint activities.
Meshchanov also testified that since 1992 he had known Valery Godun, about whom he knew that “he was previously a member of a criminal Tula group.” On March 30, Meshchanov left with him for Belgorod on company business. Before leaving, he gave his Zhiguli and the keys to it to his housemate Alexander Chekannikov. Godun, who was present, told Chekannikov that Sukharev would soon need the car.
Sukharev was detained the next day. By this time, investigators managed to interrogate some BSG employees. From their testimony it followed that recently relations between Bokim and Sukharev had deteriorated. According to the president of the company, Sukharev, taking advantage of his temporary absence, squandered $70 thousand that belonged to BSG on personal needs. Therefore, Bokiy limited Sukharev’s access to BSG documentation and intended to remove him from among the founders of the company.
Nevertheless, Sukharev himself stated during interrogation that there were no conflicts between him and Bokim, and he left the LLP’s founders himself because he considered it unpromising. Sukharev did not deny his acquaintance with Meshchanov and Godun. He developed a “comradely relationship” with the latter. Godong also knew Bokim, but they did not have any business contacts. Sukharev also testified that he never asked for Meshchanov’s car either from him personally or through Godun, who called him on April 1 and, upon learning of Bokiy’s death, was “stunned.” Sukharev said that he did not know a person named Starodubtsev.
The investigation was unable to interrogate Godun and Chekannikov: they disappeared. After serving three days in the temporary detention center, Meshchanov and Sukharev were released with the wording “due to non-confirmation of involvement in the murder.” The case against the organizers of the crime was separated into separate proceedings.

Latest readings
At the trial, Gerasimov renounced his previous testimony. Now he stated that he had arrived in Moscow and turned to a certain acquaintance with a request to help with money for the trip to Riga. The acquaintance promised to give money, but in turn asked Gerasimov for a favor: he was to become an intermediary in collecting a debt from a certain businessman. Gerasimov agreed and, together with his acquaintance on Komsomolskaya Square, got into Orlov’s car (whom he had not met before). In the car, an acquaintance explained to him where, how and from whom he should collect the debt. But when Gerasimov came to the indicated place and waited for a black foreign car to appear, the same acquaintance suddenly appeared nearby and opened fire on the car with a pistol. Then everything was as he said before.
Orlov confirmed the testimony he gave to the investigation as an accused. And the testimony that he heard an unknown man negotiate a murder with Gerasimov, according to Orlov, was knocked out of him by the police.
The Moscow City Court did not consider the testimony of Gerasimov and Orlov reliable and convicted both of them. Gerasimov was sentenced to death, his accomplice was sentenced to 9 years in prison in a general regime penal colony. Orlov, however, is still free. On January 23, 1995, he did not appear in court for the announcement of the verdict. Since then they have been looking for him.

CRIME DEPARTMENT

“The GNU NKVD was in charge of several prisons, called political isolation centers, and the Directorate of Northern Camps - the famous Solovki. In the minds of Soviet people, the word “Solovki” is associated primarily with the word “camp”, and not with a group of islands in the Onega Sea. In 1922, the Solovetsky archipelago, together with all the monasteries located there, was transferred to the disposal of the State Scientific University. A camp was created here, the official name of which until 1925 was Northern Special Purpose Camps, or Solovetsky Special Purpose Forced Labor Camp (SLON). The inspirer and developer of the idea of ​​such a camp was Gleb Bokiy. It was supposed to create a concentration camp for the intelligentsia on islands isolated from the world, without hard labor. But in two or three years, the political isolation ward for Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists, Social Democrats, former whites and tsarist officers turned into a concentration camp for criminals and political prisoners, where the idea of ​​forced labor and destruction of people was established." ( L.P.Belyakov. The camp system and political repression (1918-1953). M.-SPb.: VSEGEI, 1999, p.385-391).

When the curator of Solovki was killed, it turned out...

Gleb Bokiy did not hide his past as a repeat offender. “Suffice it to say that before March 1917, Bokiy was arrested 12 times and served his sentence, including in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress.” ( V.Berezhkov. "The temptations of the security officer Bokia." "GIORD", 1999).

Artist Boris Zhutovsky was a witness and participant in a meeting between Lev Razgon and one of the authors of publications about indecent behavior of Gleb Bokiy in everyday life. Here's how he describes it:

“Are you Mr. Boris Vadimovich Sokolov?” my duelist asked, bowing his head to his shoulder. “Well,” the face answered. “I am Lev Emmanuilovich Razgon. I would like to ask you the next question,” Leva continued, barely waiting for the “well.” - From what sources did you get the information published in your book ("Bulgakov's Encyclopedia", pages 153-154) that Gleb Ivanovich Bokiy opened a brothel at his dacha, into which he brought his two young daughters?
- I took this in my personal file. Bokia is in the KGB, at Lubyanka,” “Martynov” answered, not yet fully understanding what awaited him.
“You are a liar,” said Leva, “and a scoundrel.” In Bokiy’s personal file at Lubyanka, I myself saw only four pieces of paper: two interrogation reports, a sentence of execution and a certificate of execution... After which Leva reached on tiptoe to reach it and slapped his opponent in the face. ( Boris Zhutovsky. Published on the artist’s website www.zhutovski.ru. 2002.)

It's about a book Boris Sokolov"Bulgakov Encyclopedia" (Publishing house: Lokid, Myth, P.592. 1997.). Boris Sokolov is a historian and literary critic, Doctor of Philology and Candidate of Historical Sciences, professor of the Department of Social Anthropology at Moscow State Social University, researcher of the life and work of M. Bulgakov.

The girl’s father ended up working in the transport department of the Cheka, and in the 20s the young woman was sent to “... one of the most secret units - a special department created in 1921, which was engaged in developing codes and deciphering intercepted foreign messages. Its chief was an old Bolshevik Gleb Bokiy, about whom the most incredible rumors circulated. As Kartseva herself later recalled, she, like most young employees, experienced a constant feeling of fear of him. According to her, Bokiy, despite being 50 years old, regularly organized orgies on weekends dacha. When she asked a male colleague about this, he warned: “If you even mention it to anyone, he will make your life unbearable. You're playing with fire." ( Dmitry Prokhorov. "The X-Files of the 20th Century", No. 31. 2002)

Drunkenness, as a rule, was accompanied by hooliganism reaching the point of savagery and mockery of each other: drunken people smeared paint and mustard on their genitals. Those sleeping while drunk were often “buried” alive; once they decided to bury Filippov, it seems, and almost buried him alive in a pit. All this was done in priestly vestments, which were brought from Solovki especially for the “dacha”. Usually two or three dressed up in this priestly dress, and a “drunken worship service” began. They drank alcohol stolen from a chemical laboratory, prescribed ostensibly for technical needs.

They write about the sexual pathology of Gleb Bokiy, the founder and chief of Solovki Valery Shambarov(State and revolutions. - M.: Algorithm, 2001. 592 p.) And G. Ioffe(White matter. M, Nauka, 1989). As the investigation revealed in the 30s, Gleb Bokiy in 1921–25. organized a “dacha commune” in Kuchino under his leadership. His entourage had to come here on weekends with their wives; they contributed 10% of their monthly earnings to the maintenance of the “commune”. Persons of both sexes were obliged to walk there naked, drink, go to the bathhouse together and have group orgies. They made fun of those who got drunk, burying them alive or simulating executions.

The atmosphere of the Chekist “commune” is very reminiscent of the atmosphere of Bulgakov’s Great Ball at Satan’s, especially with its parody of worship and Christian funerals using the clothes of the dispersed and killed Solovetsky monks. ( Epifanova Svetlana(Severodvinsk). "To the 60th anniversary of the death of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. Little-known sources of "The Master and Margarita".)

The Secret History of Freemasonry

O. Platonov in the book "The Secret History of Freemasonry" he provides a Masonic gallery in Russia. In the list of Russian Freemasons from the reign of Nicholas II to the Second World War we read: “Bokiy Gleb Ivanovich, 1879-1940, chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, one of the leaders of the NKVD, lodge “United Labor Brotherhood” (USSR, 1919)”

Gleb Bokiy believed in paranormal phenomena, “neuroenergetics” and “Shambhala”

The atmosphere of terror in the country and the endless executions of people could not but affect the psyche of the curator of the Solovetsky concentration camp, Gleb Bokiy. For a while, alcohol seemed to help. Many of his friends were in a similar mental state.

"...at Bokiy's safe house, in an atmosphere of strict secrecy, people close to him gathered - Moskvin I.M. (candidate, and then member of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party of Belarus), Stomonyakov B.S. (Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs), Kostrikin (engineer, Bokiy's comrade at the institute). Their goal was to create a Moscow center of the "United Labor Brotherhood" (UTB) ... scientist Barchenko said: "... as the revolution progressed, pictures arose of the collapse of all universal human values, pictures of the brutal physical extermination of people. Questions arose before me: how, why, due to which the disadvantaged workers turned into an animal-roaring crowd, mass destroying thought workers, conductors of universal ideals, how to change the acute enmity between the common people and thought workers? How to resolve all these contradictions? ...The key to solving problems is in Shambhala, this secret center where the remnants of the knowledge and experience of that society, which was at a higher stage of social and material and technical development than modern society, are preserved. And since this is so, it is necessary to find out the ways to Shambhala and establish a connection with it..." ( Leonid Tsarev. Who killed Lenin's work? Newspaper "Universalist", No. 4, 2003; Vadim Lebedev. Fake llama. Secret expedition of the OGPU to the mysterious country of Shambhala. Newspaper "Top Secret", No. 03, 1999)

In the spring and summer of 1925, Bokiya and Barchenko were already actively involved in preparing an expedition to Shambhala. At the end of July, almost everything was ready... but the Politburo intervened, banning this “scientific event.” Nevertheless, the secret laboratory under the Special Department of Gleb Bokiy existed until May 1937. It carried out “sensational” experiments on demonstrating telepathic waves, transmitting thoughts at a distance, etc. crazy nonsense. This was the height of the “intellectual” flight of the Bolshevik Chekist and Solovetsky executioner Gleb Bokiy.

Chekist Gleb Bokiy loved to joke

Joke #1. 1922 - Gleb Bokiy made a bet with Litvinov that he would steal documents from his safe in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. Litvinov posted a sentry at the door, but in the morning a special courier brought the diplomat his papers. The future People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs did not send Bokiy cognac, but wrote a complaint to Lenin.

Joke #2.“Once, encrypted messages were intercepted. Communication was carried out by two signal sources, one of them was mobile. Gleb Bokiy’s specialists figured out who was sending numerous messages: “Please send another box of vodka!” The sender of the encrypted messages was Genrikh Yagoda, who was having fun with his wife son of Maxim Gorky on the ship. Bokiy decided to joke and acted in accordance with the instructions: the information was transferred to the Special Department. A direction finding vehicle left, followed by a “funnel” with an armed capture group. It was not difficult to figure out the transmitter, and soon the special officers were banging on the door "bases" from which alcoholic beverages were sent. ( Historian Oleg Shishkin)

How Gleb Bokiy “judged” people

"... this was the complete arbitrariness of the investigator. The investigator could give, and all this was perfectly confirmed by Gleb Bokiy, Katanyan and all members of this troika. Moreover, the troika was in fact one investigator, the rest signed at home somewhere, they did not come to the meeting, at least Katanyan and Gleb Bokiy did not come. Gleb Bokiy was even a geology student, he had to study, about this we wrote all sorts of funny poems about how he gave bad marks to his students at the geological faculty, but now he gives high fives himself.” ( Dmitry Likhachev on Radio Liberty "In memory of academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev." Hosted by Ivan Tolstoy. 02.10.1999)

“The most important person in the administration of the Solovetsky special purpose camp is the Moscow security officer, member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Gleb Bokiy (one of the Soviet ships, by the way, was named after him). He is a tall, thin man, obviously well educated. His manners generally convey a gloomy impression, sharp, piercing gaze. He is always dressed in military uniform. He is a typical unyielding communist, well educated and with elements of cruelty in his character. He lives in Moscow, where he performs some duties in the GPU, and only visits Solovki from time to time." (Malsagov Sozerko. Hellish Islands: Soviet prison in the Far North. Per. from English Sh. Yandieva. Nalchik: Publishing house. center "Elfa", 1996. 127 p.)

The Gulag and Solovki are the brainchild of Gleb Bokiy

“In the fall of 1923, the first batch of prisoners, mostly political, arrived on the Solovetsky Islands. If we remember that a recent fire significantly devastated the buildings of the monastery, it will become clear in what conditions they had to arrange their life and how they “corrected themselves.” This is how the “organism” began to emerge ", which received the name SLON - Solovetsky camps for special purposes. They laid the foundation of the "GULAG archipelago", at the origins of which stood G.I. Bokiy. The same Gleb Ivanovich Bokiy, who was later declared an enemy of the people and executed in 1937. The one whose name was named the steamship, which regularly sailed from the Kem pier "Rabocheostrovsk" to Solovki and transported prisoners in its holds and on an attached barge. That Bokiy, about whom the Solovki residents composed a comic song: Hurray! "Parasha" announces: Ventilate the Solovetsky crypt, That week Bokiy Gleb arrives on "Glebe Sideways"! ( A. Belokon. Under the Solovetsky curtain. "Literary Russia", 1354. Moscow, 01/13/1989)

In another version it was sung: Everyone whispered... But who could believe? That rumor seemed absurd to everyone: Bokiy Gleb will come here to unload us on the “Gleb Sideways”.

Chapter Five

Ghosts in the service of the NKVD

Many people need faith in otherworldly forces, and no events in our world can shake their conviction in the existence of the astral world in which spirits live. Atheism, which grew out of Lenin's materialism, did not suit them. Those who exchanged the Bolshevik worldview for metaphysics were not convinced materialists from the very beginning. Others came to this with age. Among the latter we can name the professional revolutionary and experienced security officer Gleb Bokiy, who tried to put spiritualism and telepathy into the service of his Special Department.

The name of Gleb Ivanovich Bokiy has become unusually popular recently. The fact is that this professional revolutionary and prominent security officer is now considered a mystic, an adept of occult sciences, who dreamed of introducing esoteric doctrines into the ideology of Soviet Russia. This opinion, however, is not shared by a number of researchers who believe that Bokiy’s fascination with mysticism and the occult was attributed to him by NKVD investigators during the preparation of the materials of the criminal case about the secret anti-government organization “United Labor Brotherhood”.

Fig.5.1. Gleb Bokiy, head of the Special Department of the OGPU-NKVD

The truth, as usual, is in the middle. Most likely, Bokiy combined one with the other. It is unlikely that he fanatically and completely believed in the other world and in the possibility of controlling supernatural forces, but due to the nature of his work he had to deal with people who believed in this, which means, willy-nilly, he had to listen to their opinion in one form or another accept and use it.

Lev Razgon, in his memoirs about Bokiy, whom he knew personally, paints an image of an intelligent (he studied at the Mining Institute, a nobleman) and a very modest man who never shook hands with anyone and refused all privileges: he lived with his wife and eldest daughter in a tiny three-room apartment apartment, in winter and summer he wore a raincoat and a wrinkled cap. And even in rain and snow, Razgon testifies, the top of his open Packard was never pulled up. At the same time, these oddities were organically combined with Bokiy’s inherent irrepressible energy and remarkable organizational skills.

Gleb Ivanovich was born in 1879 in Tiflis (Tbilisi) in the family of a nobleman, actual state councilor Ivan Dmitrievich Bokiy and his wife Alexandra Kuzminichna. The activities of Gleb’s ancestors are directly related to the formation of the Russian state. Thus, Fyodor Bokiy-Pechikhvostsky, Vladimir subcomorium (arbitrator) in Lithuania, is mentioned in the correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Andrei Kurbsky. Gleb Bokiy's great-grandfather was the famous Russian mathematician Mikhail Vasilyevich Ostrogradsky. Gleb Bokiy’s father, Ivan Dmitrievich, is a full-time state councilor, scientist and teacher, author of the textbook “Fundamentals of Chemistry,” from which more than one generation of high school students studied. Gleb's older brother and sister followed in their father's footsteps. Boris Bokiy graduated from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, became a qualified engineer, and then taught at the same institute. He is considered one of the founders of domestic mining. Sister Natalya chose the specialty of historian; she taught at the Sorbonne for several years.

It would seem that the same brilliant career awaits young Gleb. And indeed, at first Gleb behaved in a completely appropriate manner. In 1896, after graduating from a real school, he, following his older brother, entered the Mining Institute. But the following year he became a member of the St. Petersburg “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.” It was participation in the affairs of this revolutionary society that determined the choice of life path of Gleb Bokiy.

To be fair, it should be said that Gleb nevertheless became a real revolutionary at the suggestion of his respectable brother. In 1898, Boris invited him and his sister to take part in a student demonstration. There was a clash with the police and all three were arrested. Gleb was also beaten. They were released at the request of their father, but his sick heart could not stand the shame, and a few days later the father died.

Shocked by this grief, the brothers made diametrically opposed decisions. If Boris, considering himself to be the culprit of his father’s death, completely abandoned politics, then Gleb, on the contrary, finally took the path of a professional revolutionary.

Since 1900, he has been a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). In 1902 he was exiled to Eastern Siberia for preparing a demonstration. In 1904, Bokiy was included in the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP as the organizer of the joint committee of the Social Democratic faction of higher educational institutions. In April 1905, he was arrested in the case of the “Armed Uprising Group of the RSDLP.” Amnestied according to the October manifesto, but in 1906 he was again arrested in the case of the “Forty-Four” (St. Petersburg Committee and combat squads). In total, the Bolshevik Bokiy was arrested twelve times (!), spent a year and a half in solitary confinement, two and a half years in Siberian exile, and suffered traumatic tuberculosis from beatings in prison. But each time, once free, he again joined the revolutionary struggle. For 20 years (from 1897 to 1917) Bokiy was one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Bolshevik underground.

In December 1916, Bokiy became a member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. And immediately after the fall of the autocracy, he headed the department of relations with the provinces in the Russian Bureau. In October 1917, he was a member of the St. Petersburg Military Revolutionary Committee, one of the leaders of the armed uprising.

Among Bokiy’s close acquaintances of the early period, special mention should be made of Pavel Vasilyevich Mokievsky, a famous journalist and doctor who headed the philosophy department of the magazine “Russian Wealth”. In a narrower circle, he was also known for his occult interests, based on theosophical doctrines. In addition, there is information that he was listed as a member of the Martinist lodge.

Mokievsky met the student Bokiy as one of his son’s comrades, who also studied at the Mining Institute. The closeness of Bokiy’s relationship with Mokievsky is indicated by the fact that when, after one of his arrests, Gleb found himself behind bars, it was Mokievsky who paid a large bail of three thousand rubles for him.

Perhaps it was this home-grown Freemason who influenced the atheist Bokiy, forcing him for the first time to doubt that modern materialistic science exhaustively describes the world around him. But until the moment when doubts grew into confidence, years and years had to pass.

In February-March 1918, during the offensive of German troops, Bokiy became a member of the Committee for the Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd. Since March, he has been the deputy chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, and after the murder of Moisei Uritsky, he became the chairman. Then Bokiy headed the Special Departments of the Eastern and Turkestan Fronts, was a member of the Turkic Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and a plenipotentiary representative of the Cheka. However, soon Bokiy was entrusted with a completely new job.

Immediately after coming to power, the Bolshevik government was faced with the problem of maintaining secrecy when transmitting operational messages. The Soviet state and its army did not have a reliable encryption system. This is how People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin described the situation in his letter to Lenin dated August 20, 1920: “Foreign governments have more complex codes than those we use. If we constantly change the key, then the system itself is known to many tsarist officials and military personnel who are currently stationed abroad in the White Guard camp. Therefore, I consider it quite acceptable to decipher our encryption.”

Therefore, on May 5, 1921, by resolution of the Small Council of People's Commissars, the Soviet cryptographic service was created in the form of a Special Department under the Cheka. The proven Bolshevik Gleb Bokiy was appointed head of the new structure and at the same time a member of the board of the Cheka.

During the 20-30s, state security agencies were repeatedly reorganized, changing their structure and name. The name of the department changed accordingly: from May 5, 1921 to February 6, 1922 - the 8th special department under the Cheka; from February 6, 1922 to November 2, 1923 – special department under the GPU; from November 2, 1923 to July 10, 1934 - special department at the OGPU; from July 10, 1934 to December 25, 1936 - special department under the GUGB NKVD of the USSR; from December 25, 1936 to June 9, 1938 - 9th department under the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.

However, despite all the reorganizations, unlike other units, the special department was under the Cheka-OGPU, that is, it enjoyed the designated autonomy. This was expressed in the fact that Bokiy reported information and addressed it directly to the Politburo, the Cheka, and the government independently, and not through the leadership of the department under which the department was located.

The department was located not only on Malaya Lubyanka, but also in a building on Kuznetsky Most, building 21, in the premises of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, where it occupied the top two floors. Its official tasks were large-scale radio and electronic intelligence, decryption of telegrams, development of ciphers, radio interception, direction finding and identification of enemy spy transmitters on the territory of the USSR. The direction-finding network was camouflaged on the roofs of many government institutions, and thus the radio broadcast of Moscow was monitored. The Special Branch's focus was not only on autonomous unofficial transmitters, but also on the transmitting devices of embassies and foreign missions. Eavesdropping equipment was installed in embassies and telephone conversations were monitored. All cipher departments of USSR missions abroad were directly subordinate to the department.

Quite detailed information about Bokiy’s Special Department is given by Agabekov, a former employee of the Foreign Department of the OGPU who fled to the West in 1930:

“The special department (SPECO) works to protect state secrets from leakage to foreigners, for which it has a staff of agents monitoring the procedure for storing secret papers. An important task of the department is to intercept foreign ciphers and decrypt telegrams arriving from abroad. He also composes codes for Soviet institutions inside and outside the USSR.<...>

The head of the department is Bokiy, a former plenipotentiary representative of the Cheka, who literally terrorized Turkestan in 1919-1920. Even now, ten years later, there are legends about him in Tashkent that he loved to eat raw dog meat and drink fresh human blood. Despite the fact that Bokiy is only the head of the department, he, as an exception to the rule, reports directly to the Central Committee of the party and has enormous influence in the OGPU. The selection of employees in the Special Department is good, and the work is done in an exemplary manner.”

“Agabekov’s information,” modern researcher Tatyana Grekova comments on this opus of the former security officer, “is beyond doubt, except for rumors about raw meat and human blood, which, however, the author himself calls a legend. Most likely, Bokiy simply ate dog meat.”

Taking into account that dog meat is considered an effective remedy for the treatment of tuberculosis, which suffered from Gleb Bokiy, there is nothing mystical or indicative of the special bloodthirstiness of the security officer in this fact.

Nevertheless, Bokiy’s activities in this post should sooner or later bring him into contact with people who are not quite ordinary. Writer Lev Razgon testifies again:

“Bokiy selected the most diverse and strange people. How did he select cryptographers? This is an ability given from God. He specifically looked for such people. He had a strange old lady who appeared in the department from time to time. I also remember an old secret police officer of the State Councilor (with the rank of colonel), who, while still in St. Petersburg, sitting on Shpalernaya, deciphered Lenin’s secret correspondence. Inventor-chemist Evgeniy Gopius also worked in the department. At that time, the most difficult thing in encryption was the destruction of code books. These were thick volumes, and it was necessary to ensure that in the event of failure or other unforeseen circumstances, such documents would not fall into the hands of the enemy. For example, naval code books were bound in lead, and in a moment of danger, a military radio operator had to throw them overboard. But what were those who were far from the ocean and could not quickly destroy the dangerous document to do? Gopius came up with a special paper, and as soon as you brought a burning cigarette to it at a crucial moment, the thick code book turned in a second into a pile of ashes...”

The personnel of the Special Department branches were divided into open and unofficial staff. The secret staff included cryptographers and translators, for whom the positions of “expert” and “translator” were established. The employees of the departments not directly related to cryptographic work (secretaries, couriers, typists) represented the public staff. By 1933, there were 100 people on staff in the Special Department, and another 89 on secret staff.

There were also units in the structure of the Special Department, information about which was considered especially secret. In particular, a group of scientists from various specialties was created. All of them were formally subordinate to the head of the laboratory of the Special Department and an old member of the Communist Party, Evgeniy Gopius, who formally headed the 7th department and was listed as Bokiy’s deputy for scientific work.

The range of issues studied by the units working for the Gopius laboratory was unusually wide: from the invention of all kinds of devices related to radio espionage to the study of solar activity, terrestrial magnetism and various scientific expeditions. Everything that had at least a tinge of mystery was studied here. Everything from occult sciences to Bigfoot.

In the winter of 1924, Gleb Bokiy recruited the mystical scientist Alexander Barchenko to work for the Special Department. The main scientific interests of this researcher were concentrated in the field of studying bioelectrical phenomena in the life of a cell, in the functioning of the brain and in the living organism as a whole. Barchenko combined his laboratory experiments with the position of Bokiy’s expert in psychology and parapsychology. In particular, he developed a method for identifying individuals prone to cryptographic work and deciphering codes.

The scientist also acted as a consultant during the examination of various healers, shamans, mediums, hypnotists and other people who claimed that they communicate with ghosts. Since the late 1920s, the Special Department has actively used them in its work. To test these “psychics,” one of the units of Bokiy’s service equipped a “black room” in the OGPU building at Furkasovsky Lane, building 1.

Barchenko's research and methodology were also used in particularly difficult cases of deciphering enemy messages - in such situations, group communication sessions with spirits were even conducted.

Barchenko brought metaphysical theories into Bokiy’s life and persuaded the prominent security officer to join the secret occult organization “United Labor Brotherhood”, studying Ancient Science (Dunkhor), which was supposedly superior to modern knowledge, but whose principles were lost over time.

Fig.5.2. Alexander Barchenko with his students in Crimea (1927)

During interrogation by the investigator, Bokiy said that he changed his worldview from materialistic to idealistic after Lenin’s death:

“The death of Lenin had a decisive influence in the future. I saw in it the death of the Revolution. Lenin’s will, which I learned from I don’t remember from whom, prevented me from perceiving Stalin as the leader of the party, and I, not seeing prospects for the Revolution, went into mysticism. By 1927-28 I had already moved so far away from the party that the struggle against the Trotskyists and Zinovievites that was unfolding at that time passed me by, and I did not take any part in it. Delving deeper and deeper into mysticism under the influence of Barchenko, I eventually organized a Masonic community with him and embarked on the path of direct counter-revolutionary activity...”

And really? at the end of 1925, in order to transfer esoteric knowledge to the most “worthy” representatives of the Bolshevik party, Alexander Barchenko, with the participation of Bokiy, organized a small circle for the study of ancient science within the OGPU. It included leading employees of the Special Department: Gusev, Tsibizov, Klemenko, Filippov, Leonov, Gopius, Pluzhnitsov. Classes with employees of the Special Department did not last long, since, according to Bokiy himself, the students turned out to be “unprepared to perceive the secrets of Ancient science.” Barchenko’s circle disintegrated, but the energetic head of the Special Department soon managed to find new, more capable students “from among his old comrades at the Mining Institute.” The second group included Kostrykin, Mironov (both engineers), Stomonyakov (deputy People's Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1934-1938), Moskvin (member of the Organizing Bureau and Secretariat of the Central Committee, head of the organizational distribution department of the Central Committee), Sosovsky. Genrikh Yagoda, the future chief of the NKVD, attended the circle’s classes several times.

We learn about what exactly Barchenko’s “disciples” studied in these classes from the letters of this occultist, which say that the group he created for two years “was studying the Dunkhor theory in its main points and comparing it with the theoretical foundations of Western science.” .

In turn, Gleb Bokiy testified during interrogations:

“Barchenko put forward the theory that in prehistoric times there was a culturally highly developed society, which then died as a result of geological disasters. This society was communist and was at a higher stage of social (communist) and material and technical development than ours. The remnants of this supreme Society, according to Barchenko, still exist in the inaccessible mountainous regions located at the junctions of India, Tibet, Kashgar and Afghanistan, and possess all the scientific and technical knowledge that was known to the ancient society of the so-called “Ancient Science”, representing is a synthesis of all scientific knowledge. The existence of both Ancient Science and the very remnants of this society is a secret carefully guarded by its members. Barchenko explained this desire to keep his existence secret by the antagonism of ancient society with the Pope. Popes throughout history persecuted the remnants of ancient society that remained elsewhere and eventually destroyed them completely. Barchenko called himself a follower of the ancient society, declaring that he was initiated into all this by secret messengers of his religious and political center, with whom he once managed to come into contact.”

In addition to giving lectures and selecting mediums for the Special Department, occultist Barchenko tried to use Dunkhor in everyday practice. And Bokiy supported his endeavors. For example, these two seriously thought about controlling the weather!

Here is what the astronomer and comrade-in-arms of the occultist Alexander Kondiain reported: “In 1925, I was sent by Barchenko and Bokiy to Vinnitsa with the task of meeting Prof. Danilov Leonid Grigorievich and find out the practical results of his work, which he has been doing for 20 years.<...>His work is of great scientific importance, because it reveals the entire mechanism of the atmosphere and, in particular, makes it possible to predict the weather for long periods of time.” With Condiain, Danilov sent his large research “The Theory of Wave Weather” to Moscow for Barchenko.

Fig.5.3. Alexander Kondiain in his office (late 1920s)

Barchenko and Bokiy showed especially great interest in the theory of the 11-year periodicity of sunspot formation on the Sun. Thus, in one letter at the beginning of 1927, referring to the article “Secrets of the Sun” by the French astrophysicist Emile Touchet, Barchenko wrote:

“For those initiated into the secret of Dunkhor, there can be no doubt that Western European science accidentally came across in this theory the mechanism that constitutes the main secret of Dunkhor. So far, the analytical method of European science prevents it from assessing the full importance of this theory. But it is enough for some thoughtful researcher to make an attempt to transfer onto paper, onto a plane, the picture analytically calculated by Prof. Touché, so that the secret of Dunkhor and other mechanisms would be revealed. And in the hands of modern technology, already familiar with the use of ultraviolet and infrared rays, these mechanisms, revealing the mechanism of action of “small causes,” the mechanism of cosmic resonance and interference, the mechanism of stimulation of cosmic energy sources, threaten to arm bourgeois Europe with even bloodier means of extermination.”

Fig.5.4. Archaeometer of Saint-Yves de Alveidre

On May 16, 1937, Gleb Bokiy was arrested. Already during the first two interrogations on May 17 and 18, Gleb Ivanovich “repented” to the investigators of his sins. He reported on the “Masonry” lodge organized in 1925 together with Barchenko. The “organs” responded to Bokiy’s latest statement with a series of arrests - one after another, at short intervals, Barchenko (May 22) and other former members of the United Labor Brotherhood in Leningrad and Moscow were taken into custody: Shishelova-Markova (May 26), Kondiain ( June 7), Schwartz (July 2), Kovalev (July 8). The same fate befell Barchenko’s most senior “students” who were part of the Moscow group – Moskvin and Stomonyakov.

Barchenko’s indictment sounded completely standard: the creation of a “Masonic counter-revolutionary terrorist organization, the United Labor Brotherhood,” and espionage for England. As for Condiain, he was accused of being a member of “a counter-revolutionary fascist-Masonic espionage organization and one of the leaders of the Leningrad branch of the Rosicrucian Order, associated with the foreign center of the Shambhala Masonic organization.”

To accuse Barchenko and his “accomplices,” the NKVD leadership developed the following legend. On the territory of one of the eastern protectorates of England - which one was not indicated in the case - there is a certain religious and political center “Shambhala-Dunhor”. This center has a widely branched network of branches or cells in many Asian countries, as well as in the USSR itself. Its main task is to subordinate the top Soviet leadership to its influence and force it to pursue policies pleasing to the center. To this end, Barchenko and the participants in the “branch” of the eastern center he created tried to gain access to Soviet leadership, were actively involved in collecting secret information and preparing terrorist attacks - against the same Soviet leaders! According to legend, NKVD investigators easily classified as an act of espionage Kondiain’s receipt of a paper on the wave nature of weather “with its subsequent transportation abroad” from Professor Danilov.

The essence of Dunkhor’s teaching was almost never discussed during the interrogations, since these topics were not of great interest to the investigators. When asked what the ideas of ancient science boil down to, Condiain replied - apparently at the prompting of the investigator: “Our illegal organization promoted mysticism directed against the teachings of Marx-Lenin-Stalin.”

Fig.5.5. Alexander Barchenko (photo from the investigation case, 1937)

At the end of the investigation, both Bokiy, Barchenko, and his “disciples” were sentenced to death and shot...

In November 1937, the Special Troika of the NKVD made a decision on the basis of which one of the founders of the Cheka, a veteran of the revolutionary movement in Russia, Gleb Ivanovich Bokiy, was sentenced to death. In addition to the usual range of crimes for those years - espionage, anti-Soviet activities, etc. - he was charged with creating a spiritualist circle, communicating with spirits and predicting the future. What gave the orthodox communists a reason to resort to the attributes of the Middle Ages?

The young socialist is a descendant of an aristocratic family

The future chairman of the St. Petersburg Cheka, Gleb Bokiy, was born on June 21, 1879 in Tiflis, in the family of a chemistry teacher at a local gymnasium, Ivan Dmitrievich Bokiy, a descendant of an ancient aristocratic family mentioned in documents from the times of Ivan the Terrible. Despite his noble origin, the father did not have the fortune inherited from his ancestors, and only thanks to tireless work he managed to rise to the rank of actual state councilor and move the family to St. Petersburg.

After graduating from a real school in 1896, Gleb entered the St. Petersburg Mountain Cadet Corps - one of the largest universities in the country, from which his older brother Boris had graduated a year earlier. Natural talent and class privileges allowed him to hope for a brilliant career in the future, but fate had a completely different path in store for him - a seventeen-year-old young man became interested in the ideas of social reorganization of the world that were fashionable among students and plunged headlong into the revolutionary movement.

The beginning of the revolutionary path

The very next year, this hobby brought him into the ranks of the underground organization “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class.” In addition, he takes an active part in the work of many student political circles. Gleb, without hesitation, blamed the existing regime for his father’s death, the cause of which was his despair from the collapse of hopes for a worthy future for his son, and thus confirmed his decision to fight against it.

Having joined the ranks of the RSDLP and undergoing an internship at one of the mines of the Krivoy Rog society, Gleb Bokiy finds himself behind bars for the first time, brought in for participating in the work of the illegal group “Workers’ Banner”. From this time on, an endless series of his stays in various places of detention began.

In the leadership of the St. Petersburg Cheka

As an active participant in the revolutionary events of 1905, Gleb Bokiy, whose biography inextricably merged with the history of the Bolshevik movement, fully learned the other side of revolutionary romance. He was under arrest twelve times, served a year and a half in solitary confinement, and spent two years in Siberian exile. Not every one of his comrades could boast of such a track record. In 1917, Gleb was elected secretary of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP (b) and during the days of the October Revolution he took an active part in it.

Even before the creation of the Cheka, as a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, Gleb Bokiy supervised the fight against counter-revolution and sabotage, so it was quite logical that he was appointed deputy of Moisei Uritsky, who headed the newly created punitive structure, which left an indelibly dark memory in history. When he was killed in August 1918, Bokiy held his post for some time.

In the rear and at the front

The murder of the head of the Cheka became the reason for carrying out mass punitive operations, the initiator of which was the chairman of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies G. E. Zinoviev, and the direct perpetrator was Gleb Bokiy. On his orders, five hundred and twelve hostages were shot in those days, all of whose guilt lay only in their social origin. The heady taste of blood, combined with the consciousness of impunity for the crimes committed, turned the former student into a monster generated by the system, of which he would later become a victim.

Since the Civil War was still going on, and the all-seeing eye of the emergency commission was also needed at the front, Bokiy was sent first to Belarus, and after its liberation from the German interventionists he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he headed the Special Department. In 1921, he came to Moscow, where he began working in the bodies of the Cheka, and in the period 1925-1926 he served as deputy chairman of the OGPU. During the years of perestroika, many documents were published demonstrating the scale of what was committed during that period, and it is quite obvious that one of the culprits of those lawlessness is Gleb Bokiy, whose photo from that time is given in the article.

Creation of the scientific and technical department of the Cheka

However, his activities were not limited to punitive operations. Since 1921, he headed the Special Department of the Cheka. Gleb Bokiy is the creator of the cryptographic department, which laid the foundation for a whole series of scientific and technical services that ensured the work of this department. In addition to monitoring secrecy in all areas related to state secrets, the department was engaged in intercepting and decrypting messages sent by transmitting devices of foreign embassies.

Under Bokiy's leadership, technologies were developed that became the basis for ciphers used by the intelligence services of the Soviet Union for many years. In 1936, he founded another secret laboratory, which was engaged in the creation of poisons for special operations to eliminate persons objectionable to the regime and the production of psychotropic drugs capable of influencing the consciousness of those under investigation.

Justice requires noting that, unlike many representatives of the highest nomenklatura, Gleb Bokiy was not a careerist and opportunist. Those who had the opportunity to communicate with him repeatedly emphasized that he was one of the few who, in the interests of the cause, dared to contradict Lenin, and subsequently Stalin, whom he openly despised. Since the late twenties, Bokiy even pointedly ignored participation in party meetings, seeing them as a waste of time.

Under the influence of occult heresy

In solving a wide range of scientific and technical problems, the Special Department often used the services of research organizations that were not officially related to the OGPU. One of them was the laboratory of neuroenergetics at the Moscow Institute of Experimental Medicine. Bokiy’s personal acquaintance with its leader, Professor A.V. Barchenko, marked the beginning of what in his future testimony to the investigation he would call “a retreat from 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 in front of his new acquaintance various occult theories, with which Bokiy became interested in the same way as in his student years with the teachings of Marx. The professor managed to involve some other leaders of the OGPU in his circle of like-minded people. Everyone was captivated by his declared possibility of using mysticism and “secret knowledge” to build a communist society.

Renegades from former ideals

Despite the fact that by the decision of the IV Congress of the Comintern, held in 1922, communists were categorically prohibited from membership in Masonic lodges, several officials, led by Bokiy, fell into and even organized the secret society “United Labor Brotherhood”. His goal was to build a classless society on the principles of hierarchy and respect for religion. With the exception of the last point, this was generally consistent with the ideals of communism.

It is difficult to say what prompted Gleb Ivanovich and his comrades, representatives of the highest echelon of power in the Soviet country, to do this. Obviously, having gone through the nightmare of the revolution and the Civil War, they also rethought their previous ideals, and doubt arose in their minds about the inviolability of the proclaimed truths. The arrogance of their former comrades in struggle, who took higher places on the party ladder, also played a role.

Natural ending

But it was not for nothing that Stalin’s special services were compared to the ancient Greek god Cronus, who devoured his own children. During the period of the “Great Terror”, many of the OGPU employees shared the fate of their innocent victims. It was Gleb Bokiy’s turn. He was arrested on June 7, 1937. On that day, the security officer, who had fallen into mysticism, was called by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Yezhov. After some time, the hero of our story was taken out of the office of the head of the OGPU in handcuffs.

During interrogations, Bokiy tried to explain that, without setting political goals for himself, he only wanted to know the absolute truth. Investigators were able to verify how strongly mystical teachings captured his consciousness during a search carried out in the house of the arrested person. There, along with literature characteristic of Masonic philosophy, a whole collection of dried phalluses was discovered. They were involved in the case, but how, with their help, the newly minted mystic hoped to change the world remained unknown.

Sentence without trial

However, philosophy and dried phalluses alone were not enough to pass a verdict. However, the technology for obtaining confessions was long ago worked out in the basements of this institution by many investigators, including the current prisoner himself. As follows from the documents, it was proven not only his participation in anti-Soviet occult circles, but also espionage in favor of one of the foreign powers.

The further fate of the defendant was decided with the same ease with which he himself had disposed of human lives in previous years. They didn’t even consider it necessary to hold a court hearing. A special troika of the NKVD (how often he himself was part of such troikas) sentenced Gleb Ivanovich to death. The execution of the sentence followed on the same day. Like many of his own victims, Bokiy was rehabilitated after Stalin's death.

Family and descendants of the executed security officer

The story would be incomplete without mentioning the family of Gleb Ivanovich. It is known that he was married twice. Bokiy lived with his first wife Sofia Alexandrovna Doller, who came from a family of populist revolutionaries, from 1905 to 1919. They had two daughters - Elena and Oksana, who later became the wife of the historian and publicist Lev Razgon.

From his second marriage to Elena Alexandrovna Dobryakova, a daughter, Alla, was born, whom, according to the recollections of contemporaries, Gleb Bokiy loved very much. The grandson, born from her in 1960 and named Gleb in honor of his grandfather, was a major Russian businessman who was killed in the “dashing nineties.”

The image of Bokiy in contemporary art

In contemporary art, among other figures of past years, Gleb Bokiy has found a fairly wide reflection. A book about his life was written immediately after rehabilitation. This was the first such work. Its author was Margarita Vladimirovna Yamshchikova (literary pseudonym - Alexander Altaev). “The Story of Gleb Bokiy” - that’s how she titled her memoirs about a man she once knew well. Subsequently, a whole series of publications dedicated to him appeared, and he also became the hero of several feature films. The grandson of Gleb Bokiy, whose murder in 1999 was covered in the media, was not ignored by the press.