Moscow grocery store No. 1 (“Eliseevsky”) was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, and military elite of the country with selected delicacies.

As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the grocery store director, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the people involved in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity...
If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could have gathered to carry out the sentence to the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded “to punish the presumptuous trader to the fullest extent of the law.” But did his crime warrant the death penalty?

The case of Yuri Sokolov “got lost” in the three General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee

A criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev “of theft of food products on a large scale and bribery” was opened by the Moscow prosecutor’s office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev.
The investigation into this case continued under the new leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. And the meeting of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, at which Yuri Sokolov was sentenced to death, took place under Konstantin Chernenko, who replaced Andropov as head of the party and state. Moreover, Chernenko survived the executed trade worker by only three months.
The arrest of Sokolov was presented by the Soviet press on command from above as the beginning of a decisive fight by the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic succession of elderly general secretaries have to some extent softened the fate of the defendant and saved his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who was in Lefortovo, began to hope for leniency, which we will discuss below.
He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else’s crime...

Sokolov Yuri Konstantinovich
Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He is a member of the Great Patriotic War and has been awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted “by slander.” But after two years of imprisonment, he was completely acquitted: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman.
From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call “Eliseevsky”. Having headed a trading company, he proved himself, as they would say now, to be a brilliant top manager. In an era of total shortage, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert.
Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in the rotten system of co-trade?
This perplexed question is asked today by those who believe that if there had been more “Falconers” at that time, all Soviet people would have eaten black caviar with spoons. But it's not that simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of Yuri Konstantinovich’s labors were enjoyed exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow.
In grocery store No. 1 and its seven “under the counter” branches there was abundance: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and balyki, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits...


All this could be purchased (through the order system and from the “back door”) only by high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academics and generals...

How did delicious, rare, or even simply exotic products end up in Soviet grocery store No. 1?

Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov for personal gain from January 1972 to October 1982. systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that, through higher trade organizations, he ensured an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to the bribe givers.”
In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that “the current order in the trade system” makes inevitable the sale of unaccounted for food products, weighting and shortchanging of buyers, shrinkage, shrinkage and re-grading, write-off according to the column of natural losses and “left sale”, as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those at the top and those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the products...
So who, after all, needed the life of a quick-witted and resourceful “breadwinner” of the Moscow elite, who observed the basic “laws” of the Brezhnev era - “You give me, I give you” and “Live yourself, and let others live”?

During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo

Eyewitnesses testify that during the arrest, Sokolov outwardly remained calm; during the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What was the arrested person counting on, what was he waiting for?


Several thousand trade workers of the capital visited this wall
For a long time, Sokolov was out of reach of the long arms of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-assembled grocery store were the head of the Trade Directorate of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee V. Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU R. Dementyev, the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs N. Shchelokov. At the top of the security pyramid stood the owner of Moscow - the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee V. Grishin.
And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friends with the Secretary General’s daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov.
Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the fact that the “security system” he built on the principle of mutual responsibility would work. And there was a moment when it seemed to begin to act: it is known that Viktor Grishin, after Sokolov’s arrest, said that he did not believe that the director of the grocery store was guilty. However, as subsequent events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov of untouchability, but also his high-ranking “roof.”

Sokolov began to testify only after the election of a new Secretary General of the CPSU

The defendant began to confess immediately after he learned about Brezhnev’s death and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough not to come to the disappointing conclusion: he had become one of the pawns in Andropov’s game to discredit possible rivals to replace the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as was well known then, was one of the most likely contenders for the Kremlin “throne”.


Yu. V. Andropov
Sokolov could not calculate one thing at that time: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-step game for supreme power, the Chairman of the Committee had already designated the director of Eliseevsky, to whom intelligence reports about bribery were received, as the fuse that was supposed to detonate the bomb...
Sokolov's first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he must, first of all, reveal the scheme of thefts from Moscow food stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of Moscow power. Cooperation with the investigation will count, they told him. And a drowning person, as you know, clutches at straws...

For what purpose did the KGB create a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building?

The expert assessment of the former KGB supervisory prosecutor Vladimir Golubev on the Sokolov case has been preserved. He believed that the evidence presented against Sokolov was not thoroughly examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural loss, which were provided for by the state. And the conclusion: from a legal point of view, such a severe punishment of the director of Eliseevsky is illegal...
It is significant that the KGB conducted the Sokolov case without the participation of its “younger brother” - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov’s “black list” even when he was Chairman of the KGB, and then Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from his post as Minister of Internal Affairs and committed suicide).


A month before Sokolov’s arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director’s office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (they caused an “electrical short circuit” in the store, turned off the elevators and called “repairmen”). All branches of Eliseevsky were also put under the cap.
Thus, in the field of view of the security officers of the KGB department in Moscow in literally Many high-ranking officials who were in “special” relations with Sokolov and were in his office were caught. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov.
Audio and video surveillance also recorded that branch managers came to Sokolov on Fridays and handed envelopes to the director. Subsequently, part of the money raised from the deficit that did not end up on the counter migrated from the director’s safe to the head of the Main Trade Directorate of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council, Nikolai Tregubov, and other interested parties. In short, a serious evidence base was collected.
One Friday, all the “postmen”, after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. The four soon confessed.
The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov’s desktop. Therefore, upon entering the director’s office, he extended his hand to greet him.
The “friendly” handshake ended with a seizure, which prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that they presented him with an arrest warrant and began a search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store.

Why Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupted his vacation and flew to Moscow

Even before the investigation into Sokolov’s case was completed and the indictment was submitted to the court, arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began.
In total, in the capital’s Glavtorg system, starting from the summer of 1983, to criminal liability More than 15 thousand people were involved. Including, former boss Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov.


His patrons tried to get him out of harm’s way and shortly before that, they transferred him to the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg mediation office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry.
Interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, Politburo member V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, there was nothing he could do. The career of the patron of the Moscow “trading mafia” was already at its end - in December 1985, he was replaced as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU by Boris Yeltsin.
The directors of the most famous Moscow food stores were behind bars: V. Filippov (Novoarbatsky grocery store), B. Tveretinov (GUM grocery store), S. Noniev (Smolensky grocery store), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable store base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the Gastronom trade I. Korovkin, director of Diettorg Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a number of other very respectable and responsible workers.
The investigation will establish that in the Glavtorg case, 757 people were united by stable criminal ties - from store directors to heads of trade in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. Based on the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles worth of bribes passed, one can imagine the overall scale of corruption. According to the documents, the damage to the state was estimated at 3 million rubles (a lot of money in those days).

Sokolov - an underground millionaire or a disinterested person who slept on a soldier's bed?

The party press started talking coherently about the new NEP - establishing basic order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in apartments and dachas of the “trading mafia.” Large sums of rubles, currency and jewelry found in hiding places flashed by.
The editorial offices of central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the KGB, starting from the moment of Sokolov’s arrest, continued to receive letters from all over the country demanding that the presumptuous traders be punished to the fullest extent of the law.


Yuri Sokolov
Information about how much “stuck” to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. A dacha where 50 thousand rubles in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a used foreign car were found - this is according to some sources.
According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them “upstairs” to ensure the normal supply of the store, but did not take a penny for himself. They even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bed at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state Nikita Khrushchev.

The death sentence for the director of Eliseevsky surprised even KGB investigators

The meeting of the Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the case of Sokolov and other “financially responsible persons of grocery store No. 1” was held behind closed doors.
Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under Articles 173 Part 2 and 174 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (receiving and giving bribes on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 he was sentenced to capital punishment - execution by execution with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison.
At the trial, Sokolov did not recant his testimony; he read out to the court from a notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe-payers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid disclosing incriminating evidence on major party and government functionaries, the court hearing was closed. Sokolov repeated several times at court hearings that he had become a “scapegoat”, “a victim of party strife.”


They say that the KGB officers involved in this criminal case were amazed at the death sentence against the defendant, who actively cooperated with the investigation and the court. Sokolov finds it hard to believe in the public expression of sympathy from the committee members. It is more plausible to assume that it was for Sokolov’s detailed testimony that he paid with his life.
When the former head of Moscow trade, Nikolai Tregubov, through whom the main “tranches” of bribes passed, later appeared in court, he pleaded not guilty and did not name any names. As a result, he received 15 years in prison. Remember, this is almost the same amount as an ordinary department manager at the Eliseevsky grocery store!

Two directors were executed, one sentenced himself to death

Before the shock from the execution of Yuri Sokolov had passed in the trading industry, a new execution sentence was heard - for the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan. The trial in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany did not find mitigating circumstances such as Mkhitar Ambartsumyan’s participation in the storming of the Reichstag and the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. And he also testified.
Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, was heard outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniev, committed suicide.

For a long time there was a rumor: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center

It was officially announced that the sentence against Yuri Sokolov was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not make it to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court hearing?


Let us remember that the investigation into other criminal cases against Glavtorg employees was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in ensuring that such a dangerous witness as Sokolov was “neutralized” as soon as possible. Most likely, this is where the rumor originated: Sokolov was supposedly rushed to be removed so that he would not have time to submit a request for pardon...

The government has changed, demonstrative “floggings” for political reasons remain

Sokolov is certainly a criminal. However, the court had sufficient grounds to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the agile director became one of the pawns in the political struggle for supreme power.
Literally a few months after the death of the former director of Eliseevsky, the rules of the game began to change on this field. The investigation into the “trade mafia” case began to wind down; a group of OBKhSS investigators, formed from specialists from many regions, was sent home.
Alexander Sergeev

The other day I rewatched the TV series “Deli Business No. 1” with Makovetsky in the title role. Just like the first time, my heart was gripped with steel hoops and didn’t let go throughout the entire series. The film is successful, both in terms of direction, and in terms of the cast, and in terms of the script itself. But the point is not so much in the series, but in the most tragic fate of the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store, Yuri Sokolov (in the film - Georgy Berkutov).

Yuri Konstantinovich Sokolov, born December 3, 1923 - died December 14, 1984 (executed by the verdict of the Supreme Court of the USSR), Soviet trade figure, from 1972 to 1982. director of one of the largest grocery stores in Moscow, Eliseevsky, and before that, 10 years later, deputy director, WWII participant, member of the bureau of the district party committee, awarded orders and medals.

After the war in the 50s, he worked as a taxi driver and received a sentence of 2 years in prison for shortchanging clients. Later it turned out that he served his sentence for someone else, based on slander, based on a false denunciation. In 1963, he got a job as a salesman in a retail chain and, thanks to his abilities and human qualities, first rose to the rank of deputy director of a grocery store on Tverskaya, in this status he worked for 10 years, and then to the position of store director, his experience in this position was also 10 by that time years.

Yuri Sokolov came from an intelligent family, his mother worked as a professor at the Higher Party School, his father was a researcher. Yuri himself, according to his wife Florida Nikolaevna, was a very cultured and educated person. Tall, thin, stately, he knew how to speak beautifully, from the first minute he charmed and bewitched his interlocutor with his speech.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, chairman of the KGB from 1967 to 1982. The reign of Leonid Brezhnev was coming to an end, and Andropov, full of vain aspirations, wanted to take the place of the party’s general secretary, to become the de facto leader of the country. The entire trade story was started with far-reaching political goals, but was promoted under the slogan of the fight against trade and party corruption. The ultimate goal of the game was the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Grishin, who, not without reason, was laying claim to the post of general secretary, tightly tied to the so-called trade mafia of Moscow. And the first to fall under the KGB moloch, naturally, were the “most respected people” of the city - the directors of the largest stores, food and manufactured goods, the most prominent and successful of whom was Yuri Sokolov. The main blow came to him already when Andropov was elected General Secretary after the death of Brezhnev (November 1982), and before that they collected incriminating evidence, dug, spied, listened, recruited, and took those who were of lower rank.

Moscow grocery store No. 1 was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite, the creative, scientific, and military elite of the country with selected delicacies.

They took Sokolov with a bribe, either 200, or 300 thousand, he received it from someone, gave it to someone, it didn’t matter much, because by that time he was already surrounded by red flags around the perimeter. A month before the arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when Sokolov was abroad, equipped his office with audio and video monitoring equipment, arranging a short circuit for this. All branches of Eliseevsky were also put under the cap. Thus, many high-ranking officials came to the attention of the security officers, including, for example, the then head of the traffic police Nozdryakov. It was established that on Fridays, branch managers arrived at Sokolov’s office and handed envelopes to the director. Then part of the collected money migrated to the head of the Main Trade Directorate, Tregubov, and other interested parties. A serious evidence base was collected. One Friday, all the “postmen” were caught red-handed, and four confessed.

Having learned about Tregubov's arrest, First Secretary Grishin urgently returned to Moscow, interrupting his vacation, but he could not do anything, the career of the patron of the Moscow trade mafia was on the wane, in December 1985 Grishin was replaced as first secretary of the city party committee by B.N. Yeltsin.

Initially (according to his wife’s stories), Sokolov was sold whole by his employee, the deputy head of Eliseevsky’s sausage department, whose husband, an employee of the Beryozka currency store, was burned. She and her husband, through a trading network, sold gourmet products from the Eliseevsky store for foreign currency, bought imported equipment with checks and speculated on them. The Cheka promised them that if they surrendered Sokolov, then nothing would happen to them, and they readily surrendered.

Money in the grocery store was made not so much from weighting and shortening (this was not considered a crime), but from the so-called shrinkage-shrinkage-spoilage-write-off. At one time, Sokolov was not lazy and purchased the latest refrigeration units, thanks to which the goods retained their freshness and quality for a long time, but the products were written off in the same way as everywhere else, at the existing high percentages, and the resulting significant monetary difference went to bribes to officials and suppliers at the rate : 10% to the state, 5% to bribes.

Sokolov spun as best he could. The store and its seven branches received products unprecedented for ordinary citizens - Finnish smoked sausages, first-class boiled pork, hams, balyki, red and black caviar, imported cheeses, overseas wines, foreign cigarettes. Through the order table, or even just from the back room, the store stocked the most famous and famous people- actors, directors, singers, writers, announcers, soloists of the Bolshoi Theater, heads of departments and committees, deputy ministers, famous doctors, generals, etc. A frequent guest of Yuri Sokolov was Galina Brezhneva, who easily dropped by to see the director for a quick chat. All this imposed strict obligations on the director and kept him in constant tension.

Sokolov himself lived quite modestly, and although he had every opportunity for luxury, he did not abuse his position. When the security officers came to his wife Florida Nikolaevna to describe the property for confiscation, they were unpleasantly surprised - no antiques, no paintings in expensive frames, no crystal chandeliers, no gold and silver. They took everything clean - furniture, dishes (even glasses), rolled up carpets, removed chandeliers, the wife only managed to keep her personal belongings. Even in the refrigerator there was a minimum of the most ordinary products. Sokolov was ill diabetes mellitus and followed a diet.

Although the court hearings were nominally open, those who came and were invited were only allowed into the first and last sessions. Together with the former director of Eliseevsky, four more employees of the grocery store were tried - Sokolov’s deputy I. Nemtsev, department heads N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev, the criminal case against whom was initiated 10 days before the death of L.I. Brezhnev. In the hall were, in addition to relatives, almost all the directors of large Moscow stores, who were invited, apparently, with an edifying and intimidating purpose. The hall of the Baumansky District (now Basmanny) Court was cramped, but packed. The judge announced the verdict for an hour, and the people standing in the hall, dressed in coats and jackets, were afraid to move, to utter a sound. When the word “execution” was heard and the judge put an end to it, enthusiastic deafening applause was heard from different parts, and the horror of the murderous verdict and this stormy ovation froze in the eyes of those present. Among the trading crowd were young, strong, athletic-looking guys, dressed and looking the same, there were many of them. Most likely, it was they who began clapping at the signal, thereby demonstrating that the process that ended in this way was political. The people in the hall, who took up the applause, tried with all their appearance to show that they were different, honest, and no match for Sokolov, who was mired in fraud and bribes. But there was no one to demonstrate loyalty to; by that time, the deceased Andropov had been replaced as General Secretary by the living corpse of Chernenko.

The first dramatic reaction to the trial followed two days later - unable to withstand the tension, the director of another famous grocery store No. 2 on Smolenskaya Square, Sergei Noniev, committed suicide.

Soon after the trial, the leaders of the Novoarbatsky grocery store, the GUM grocery store, Mosplodovoshchprom, the director of the Moscow fruit and vegetable base Mkhitar Ambartsumyan, a front-line soldier, a participant in the capture of the Reichstag and the Victory Parade on Red Square (was sentenced to capital punishment), the heads of the Gastronom trade, " Diettorg", director of the Kuibyshev district food trade, and a number of other respectable and responsible employees. Later, the head of the Main Department of Trade of the Moscow City Executive Committee, Nikolai Tregubov, was convicted under these articles, but he, taught by the bitter experience of his comrade-in-arms, did not admit to anything. And he survived, although he received a long sentence, 15 years in prison. After returning from prison, he even tried to have the case reviewed, but to no avail.

At first, Sokolov denied everything. But, apparently, he was persuaded to testify against his accomplices, promising a reduced sentence. Sokolov's first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that they expected him to reveal theft schemes from Moscow grocery stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of Moscow power. In the end, everything turned out to be in vain; no information influenced the severity, or rather, the cruelty of the sentence.

Sokolov had a black oilcloth notebook in which he wrote down his commercial affairs, calculations, calculations, drew diagrams of trade turnover and possible profits, names and amounts. Those who were aware of what was happening had unfounded suspicions that the top of this entire pyramid centered on the then first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin. Until the last minute, Sokolov hoped for high patrons, his honorary clients - the head of the trade department of the Moscow City Executive Committee Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU Dementyev, the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov. But hopes were in vain. The KGB conducted the case of the director of the Eliseevsky store Sokolov single-handedly, bypassing the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In December 1982, 71-year-old Shchelokov was removed from his post and committed suicide. In general, none of the others wanted to expose themselves and risk their place and health.
So at the trial, in the last word, when Sokolov realized that he had been deceived, he took out his notebook and began to read out his notes. The judge immediately interrupted him, citing the fact that the defendant’s speech should be oral. Sokolov closed the notebook and began to speak. In addition to the names that could not be mentioned, Sokolov explained clearly and simply that the Soviet trading system was deeply flawed from the very beginning; no plans issued from above could be fulfilled if business was conducted honestly, without breaking the laws. Speaking about the inevitability of abuses, Sokolov said that the money for bribes was taken in a relatively honest way, thanks to refrigeration units that made it possible to preserve most of the goods, but these details did not impress the judge.

Here is an extract from the verdict (it sounds crazy, but that’s how it was): “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov, for selfish purposes, from January 1972 to October 1982, systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that through higher trade organizations ensured an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to the bribe-payers."

The former director of grocery store No. 1, Yuri Sokolov, was found guilty under Article 173, Part 2 and Article 174, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR - receiving and giving a bribe on an especially large scale - and on November 11, 1984 he was sentenced to capital punishment with complete confiscation of his personal property. The remaining employees received sentences ranging from 11 to 15 years.

This was Andropov’s show trial; Sokolov was unlucky; he had the unfortunate fate of becoming the first high-profile victim in the restoration of “law and order.” The hard fist of the new owner struck the brightest and most talented representative of his class. Under these articles, the most severe punishment included 15 years of imprisonment. And even then the Baumansky District Court essentially became the Basmanny Court, where the decision was handed down to the judge from the very top.

Apparently, there should have been many such cases, but Comrade Andropov’s health did not allow him to spin the flywheel of repression to full power.

By nature, Sokolov was neither a huckster, nor a hardened speculator, nor a grabber, nor, much less, a mafioso; he simply fell into the system, got twisted in it, grew into it, and could not escape no matter how much he wanted. It was the SYSTEM. Everyone was interconnected and tied, starting with suppliers and ending with members of the city party committee, and perhaps even higher.

The sentence was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. But rumors spread throughout Moscow that Sokolov was shot almost in the car on the way from court. At that time, investigations into other important criminal cases of Glavtorg were already in full swing, many high-ranking officials were interested in the speedy neutralization of Sokolov, and this is where these rumors were born, they supposedly were hastened to be removed so that he would not have time to submit a petition for pardon.

Sokolov's wife was given the last date, 30 minutes. They only talked about family. The meeting turned out to be short, interrupted by the arrival of her brother and sister, who, it seemed to her, did it on purpose. Florida Nikolaevna is still angry with them.

Yuri Sokolov was a man out of his time, he tried and worked successfully and talentedly for his brainchild, like a modern top manager, he raised the store and made it the best. Yes, breaking the law, because at that time it was impossible to survive and gain reputation in the trading field in any other way. Laws were made to be broken. I feel sorry for him as a human being, he became a bargaining pawn in the dirty game of the party bosses. In his own way, he was honest and principled. The gravity of his crime is not commensurate with the punishment.

I would like to finish with an excerpt from the book by journalist Anatoly Rubinov, who was present at the trial, “We lived like this...”
(essay "Seduced and Shot"):

“Cuffed, these last steps from the second floor of the court, and then - to the green car with bars instead of a window - he made it heavily, as if he had forgotten how to walk, as if there were metal chains on his legs. When the car began to get out of the yard, what - then a man very similar to Sokolov - apparently his brother - shouted after him:

Yura, goodbye!

And some young woman:

Yura, goodbye!

There was no date. The sentence was carried out."

Yesterday they began showing a multi-part feature film about the tragic fate of the director of the famous Moscow grocery store No. 1, Yuri Sokolov. During the years of Brezhnev’s stagnation, when it was a blessing to find smoked sausage in a store, in “Eliseevsky” (that’s what the store was called before the revolution and that’s what it continued to be called unofficially during the Soviet years) on Gorky Street, the shelves were bursting with the freshest products. And in 1984, he was shot by a court on charges of corruption... Sergei Makovetsky starred in the role of Yuri Sokolov (in the film his character’s name is Georgy Berkutov).

There are many eyewitnesses to those events: after all, everything happened only 25 - 27 years ago. One of them was Joseph Kobzon, who personally knew Sokolov. The singer shared his memories with KP.

Joseph Davydovich, you met with the director of Eliseevsky, right?

I not only met, but knew Yuri Konstantinovich closely. And it’s not about the products that were sold at Eliseevsky. It was a pleasure to communicate with him. He organized relaxation evenings for the group, and many artists came to him without any fee. The only thing is that we were counting on buying the shortage that the store stock was stocked with.

Were you friends?

We also communicated during non-working hours. He was a war veteran, a member of the bureau of the district party committee. Intelligent. There were always flowers on his table... The staff was always in starched robes and polite - in those days this was a rarity. He had a wonderful family: his wife Florida, daughter... They came to visit me, I came to them. No one could have imagined how everything would turn out.

Now they say that he became a victim of Andropov’s intrigues.

At the trial, in his last word, Sokolov pleaded not guilty. He simply said that he worked in the system and tried to do everything so that people could come and buy food. He was ahead of his time and was a wonderful organizer. They couldn’t share something at the top and played Sokolov’s card. He became a victim, although there were almost no such business executives in the country.

The feeling is that back then people would do anything for the sake of sausage.

Well, of course, not for everything, as you say. But blat existed, it was beautifully sung in his miniatures by Arkady Raikin. For example, Boris Brunov (head of the Variety Theater - Ed.) and I came to the grocery store after a concert in Ulyanovsk and, through our connections, begged the director for 400 grams of sausage and two bottles of milk. Because this deficit was issued through coupons. But we didn’t have them.

BY THE WAY

What is the movie about?

The film is based on real events. The director of grocery store No. 1 is known and loved by all of Moscow; artists, officials, and astronauts strive to be friends with him. The secret of abundance was simple: the director begged suppliers for the best, seeking favor with envelopes with money. But he had money: he reduced food losses during storage to almost zero, still wrote off “rot” on paper, and put the goods on sale himself. After his arrest, everyone was sure that he would get off with a minimum sentence. But then Yuri Andropov put pressure on the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, Viktor Grishin, whose person the director of the grocery store was considered to be. He became a victim of party squabbles... In addition to Makovetsky, others starred in the film famous actors- Maria Shukshina, Mikhail Porechenkov, Yulia Peresild, Evgenia Simonova. Director - Sergei Ashkenazi.

HELP "KP"

Yuri Konstantinovich SOKOLOV was born in 1923. A participant in the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded orders and medals. He worked as a taxi driver and started in trade as a salesperson. He was the director of grocery store No. 1 for 10 years. Arrested in 1982 on charges of taking a bribe. In 1983, by decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR, he was sentenced to death for theft with confiscation of property and deprivation of all awards. At the trial, he tried to talk about the theft schemes and name the officials who took part in it, but he was not allowed to finish. Four more defendants in the case received various sentences. On December 14, 1984, shortly before the start of perestroika, Sokolov’s sentence was carried out.

"Deli Case No. 1." Monday - Thursday evening. First

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Joseph Kobzon: We bought sausage and milk through connections. Artem BELOUSOV

SOVIET MILLIONAIRE: THE CASE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE ELISEEVSKY GASTRONOME Moscow grocery store No. 1 (Eliseevsky) was called an oasis in the food desert of the USSR. He regularly supplied the party elite and the creative, scientific, and military elite of the country with selected delicacies.

As it turned out, huge bribes passed through the hands of the grocery store director, which he shared with the powers that be. The details of the investigation, the persons involved in the case are interesting, and the verdict is striking in its severity... If the custom of public execution had been preserved in Russia until 1983, then hundreds of thousands of people could have gathered to carry out the sentence for the director of Eliseevsky, Yuri Sokolov, who, after his arrest, demanded “to punish the presumptuous trader to the fullest extent of the law." But did his crime warrant the death penalty? The case of Yuri Sokolov “got lost” in three General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee A criminal case on charges of Yu. Sokolov, his deputy I. Nemtsev, heads of departments N. Svezhinsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Konkov and V. Grigoriev “of theft of food products in large size and bribery,” was initiated by the Moscow prosecutor’s office at the end of October 1982 - ten days before the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev. The investigation into this case continued under the new leader of the USSR, Yuri Andropov. And the meeting of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, at which Yuri Sokolov was sentenced to death, took place under Konstantin Chernenko, who replaced Andropov as head of the party and state. Moreover, Chernenko survived the executed trade worker by only three months. The arrest of Sokolov was presented by the Soviet press on command from above as the beginning of a decisive fight by the CPSU against corruption and the shadow economy. Could the kaleidoscopic succession of elderly general secretaries have to some extent softened the fate of the defendant and saved his life? At one point, Yuri Sokolov, who was in Lefortovo, began to hope for leniency, which we will discuss below. He had already been on trial once and spent 2 years in prison. But it turned out - for someone else’s crime...

Sokolov Yuri Konstantinovich Yuri Sokolov was born in Moscow in 1925. He participated in the Great Patriotic War and was awarded several government awards. It is also known that in the 50s he was convicted “by slander.” But after two years of imprisonment, he was completely acquitted: the one who actually committed the crime was detained. Sokolov worked in a taxi fleet, then as a salesman. From 1963 to 1972, Yuri Sokolov was deputy director of grocery store No. 1, which Muscovites still call “Eliseevsky”. Having headed a trading company, he proved himself, as they would say now, to be a brilliant top manager. In an era of total shortage, Sokolov turned the grocery store into an oasis in the middle of a food desert. Who needed to execute a 58-year-old front-line soldier who managed to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods to the store in the rotten system of co-trade? This perplexed question is asked today by those who believe that if there had been more “Falconers” at that time, all Soviet people would have eaten black caviar with spoons. But it's not that simple. It must be emphasized that the fruits of Yuri Konstantinovich’s labors were enjoyed exclusively by the highest nomenclature and cultural elite of Moscow. In grocery store No. 1 and its seven “under the counter” branches there was abundance: imported alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, black and red caviar, Finnish cervelat, ham and balyki, chocolates and coffee, cheeses and citrus fruits...

All this could be purchased (through the order system and from the “back door”) only by high-ranking party and state bosses, including members of the family of the ruling General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, famous writers and artists, space heroes, academicians and generals... Like delicacies, rare , or even just exotic products ended up in Soviet grocery store No. 1? Here are the lines from the verdict that drew a line under the life of the director of Eliseevsky: “Using his responsible official position, Sokolov for personal gain from January 1972 to October 1982. systematically received bribes from his subordinates for the fact that, through higher trade organizations, he ensured an uninterrupted supply of food products to the store in an assortment favorable to the bribe-givers.” In turn, Yuri Sokolov, in the last word of the defendant, emphasized that “the current order in the trade system” makes it inevitable sale of unaccounted for food products, weighting and shortchanging of customers, shrinkage, shrinkage and re-grading, write-off according to the column of natural losses and “left selling”, as well as bribes. In order to receive the goods and fulfill the plan, it is necessary, they say, to win over those at the top and those at the bottom, even the driver who carries the products... So who, after all, needed the life of a quick-witted and resourceful “breadwinner” Moscow elite, who observed the basic “laws” of the Brezhnev era - “You give me, I give you” and “Live yourself, and let others live”? During the arrest, Sokolov remained calm and refused to answer questions in Lefortovo. Eyewitnesses testify that during the arrest, Sokolov outwardly remained calm; during the first interrogation in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, he did not plead guilty to taking bribes and categorically refused to testify. What was the arrested person counting on, what was he waiting for?

Several thousand trade workers of the capital visited this wall. Sokolov for a long time was beyond the reach of the long arms of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Among the high patrons of the director of the self-assembled grocery store were the head of the Trade Directorate of the Moscow City Executive Committee and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Tregubov, the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee V. Promyslov, the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU R. Dementyev, the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs N. Shchelokov. At the top of the security pyramid stood the owner of Moscow - the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee V. Grishin. And, of course, the party, Soviet and law enforcement agencies were aware that Sokolov was friends with the Secretary General’s daughter Galina Brezhneva and her husband, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov. Yuri Sokolov, of course, counted on the fact that the “security system” he built on the principle of mutual responsibility would work. And there was a moment when it seemed to begin to act: it is known that Viktor Grishin, after Sokolov’s arrest, said that he did not believe that the director of the grocery store was guilty. However, as subsequent events showed, the leapfrog with the change of general secretaries deprived not only Sokolov of untouchability, but also his high-ranking “roof.” Sokolov began to testify only after the election of a new General Secretary of the CPSU. The person under investigation began to confess immediately after he learned about the death of Brezhnev and that Yuri Andropov had been elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Sokolov knew his way around the corridors of power well enough not to come to the disappointing conclusion: he had become one of the pawns in Andropov’s game to discredit possible rivals to replace the seriously ill Brezhnev. And the owner of Moscow, Viktor Grishin, as was well known then, was one of the most likely contenders for the Kremlin “throne”.

Yu. V. Andropov Sokolov could not calculate one thing then: he got into the development of the KGB even when this all-powerful department was headed by Andropov. Starting a multi-step game for supreme power, the Chairman of the Committee had already designated the director of Eliseevsky, to whom intelligence reports about bribery were received, as the fuse that was supposed to detonate the bomb... Sokolov’s first confession was recorded in the second half of December 1982. KGB investigators made it clear to the defendant that he must, first of all, reveal the scheme of thefts from Moscow food stores and testify about the transfer of bribes to the highest echelons of Moscow power. Cooperation with the investigation will count, they told him. And a drowning man, as you know, clutches at straws... For what purpose did the KGB create a short circuit in the Eliseevsky building? An expert assessment of the Sokolov case by the former KGB supervisory prosecutor Vladimir Golubev has been preserved. He believed that the evidence presented against Sokolov was not thoroughly examined during the investigation and trial. The amounts of bribes were named based on the savings in the norms of natural loss, which were provided for by the state. And the conclusion: from a legal point of view, such a severe punishment of the director of “Eliseevsky” is illegal... It is significant that the KGB conducted the Sokolov case without the participation of its “younger brother” - the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister of Internal Affairs Shchelokov and his deputy Churbanov were on Andropov’s “black list” even when they were his Chairman of the KGB, and then Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. (In December 1982, 71-year-old N. Shchelokov was removed from his post as Minister of Internal Affairs and committed suicide).

A month before Sokolov’s arrest, the committee members, choosing the moment when he was abroad, equipped the director’s office with operational and technical means of audio and video control (they caused an “electrical short circuit” in the store, turned off the elevators and called “repairmen”). All branches of Eliseevsky were also put under the cap. Thus, the security officers of the KGB Moscow department literally came to the attention of many high-ranking officials who had “special” relations with Sokolov and were in his office. Including, for example, the then all-powerful head of the traffic police N. Nozdryakov. Audio and video surveillance also recorded that branch managers came to Sokolov on Fridays and handed envelopes to the director. Subsequently, part of the money raised from the deficit that did not end up on the counter migrated from the director’s safe to the head of the Main Trade Directorate of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council, Nikolai Tregubov, and other interested parties. In short, a serious evidence base was collected. One Friday, all the “postmen”, after handing over envelopes with money to Sokolov, were arrested. The four soon confessed. The head of one of the departments of the KGB, who was assigned to lead the operation to arrest Sokolov, knew well that there was a security alarm button on Sokolov’s desktop. Therefore, upon entering the director’s office, he extended his hand to greet him. The “friendly” handshake ended with a seizure, which prevented the owner of the office from raising the alarm. And only after that they presented him with an arrest warrant and began a search. At the same time, searches were already underway in all branches of the grocery store. Why did Politburo member Viktor Grishin interrupt his vacation and fly to Moscow Even before the end of the investigation into the Sokolov case and the transfer of the indictment to the court, arrests of directors of large metropolitan trading enterprises began. In total, in the system of the capital's Glavtorg, since the summer of 1983, more than 15 thousands of people. Including the former head of Glavtorg of the Moscow City Executive Committee Nikolai Tregubov.

His patrons tried to get him out of harm’s way and shortly before that, they transferred him to the chair of the manager of the Soyuztorg mediation office of the USSR Ministry of Trade. However, the castling did not save the official, as, by the way, many of his new colleagues - high-ranking employees of the ministry. Interesting fact: having learned about the arrest of N. Tregubov, Politburo member V. Grishin, who was on vacation, urgently flew to Moscow. However, there was nothing he could do. The career of the patron of the Moscow “trading mafia” was already at its end - in December 1985, he was replaced as secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU by Boris Yeltsin. The directors of the most famous Moscow food stores were behind bars: V. Filippov (Novoarbatsky grocery store), B. Tveretinov (GUM grocery store), S. Noniev (Smolensky grocery store), as well as the head of Mosplodovoshchprom V. Uraltsev and the director of the fruit and vegetable store base M. Ambartsumyan, director of the Gastronom trade I. Korovkin, director of Diettorg Ilyin, director of the Kuibyshev district food trade M. Baigelman and a number of other very respectable and responsible workers. The investigation will establish that in the Glavtorg case, 757 people were united by stable criminal ties - from store directors to heads of trade in Moscow and the country, other industries and departments. Based on the testimony of only 12 defendants, through whose hands more than 1.5 million rubles worth of bribes passed, one can imagine the overall scale of corruption. According to the documents, the damage to the state was estimated at 3 million rubles (a lot of money in those days). Sokolov - an underground millionaire or a disinterested person who slept on a soldier's bed? The party press started talking coherently about the new NEP - establishing basic order. The propaganda campaign was accompanied by reports of searches in apartments and dachas of the “trading mafia.” Large sums of rubles, currency and jewelry found in hiding places flashed by. The editorial offices of central newspapers, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the KGB, starting from the moment of Sokolov’s arrest, continued to receive letters from all over the country demanding that the presumptuous traders be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Yuri Sokolov Information about how much “stuck” to the hands of Yuri Sokolov is very contradictory. A dacha where 50 thousand rubles in cash and bonds for several tens of thousands more, jewelry, a used foreign car were found - this is according to some sources. According to others, the former front-line soldier took bribes and sent them “upstairs” to ensure the normal supply of the store, but did not take a penny for himself. They even claimed that Sokolov had an iron bed at home. True, they kept silent about the fact that the director of the grocery store lived in an elite house next door to the daughter of the former head of state Nikita Khrushchev. The death sentence to the director of Eliseevsky amazed even the KGB investigators. The meeting of the Criminal Cases Collegium of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the case of Sokolov and other “financially responsible persons of grocery store No. 1” was held behind closed doors. Yuri Sokolov was found guilty under Articles 173 part 2 and 174 part 2 of the Criminal Code RSFSR (receiving and giving bribes on a large scale) and on November 11, 1984 sentenced to capital punishment - execution by execution with confiscation of property. His deputy I. Nemtsev was sentenced to 14 years, A. Grigoriev - to 13, V. Yakovlev and A. Konkov - to 12, N. Svezhinsky - to 11 years in prison. At the trial, Sokolov did not recant his testimony; he read out to the court from a notebook the amounts of bribes and the names of high-ranking bribe-payers. This was expected of him, and in order to avoid disclosing incriminating evidence on major party and government functionaries, the court hearing was closed. Sokolov repeated several times at court hearings that he had become a “scapegoat”, “a victim of party strife.”

They say that the KGB officers involved in this criminal case were amazed at the death sentence against the defendant, who actively cooperated with the investigation and the court. Sokolov finds it hard to believe in the public expression of sympathy from the committee members. It is more plausible to assume that it was for Sokolov’s detailed testimony that he paid with his life. When the former head of Moscow trade, Nikolai Tregubov, through whom the main “tranches” of bribes passed, later appeared in court, he pleaded not guilty and did not name any names. As a result, he received 15 years in prison. Remember, this is almost the same amount as an ordinary department manager at the Eliseevsky grocery store! Two directors were executed, one sentenced himself to capital punishment. Before the shock from the execution of Yuri Sokolov had passed in the trading industry, a new execution sentence was heard - for the director of the fruit and vegetable base M. Ambartsumyan. The court, in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, did not find mitigating circumstances such as Mkhitar Ambartsumyan’s participation in the storming of the Reichstag and in the Victory Parade on Red Square in 1945. And he also testified. Another shot, the last in this criminal-political story, was heard outside the prison - without waiting for the trial, the director of the Smolensky grocery store, S. Noniev, committed suicide. There was a rumor for a long time: Sokolov was shot immediately after the verdict - in a paddy wagon on the way from the court to the pre-trial detention center. It was officially announced that the sentence against Yuri Sokolov was carried out on December 14, 1984, that is, 33 days after its announcement. Where did the unlikely version come from that Sokolov did not make it to the pre-trial detention center alive after the last court hearing?

Let us remember that the investigation into other criminal cases against Glavtorg employees was already in full swing. And many high-ranking officials were interested in ensuring that such a dangerous witness as Sokolov was “neutralized” as soon as possible. Most likely, this is where the rumor originated: Sokolov was supposedly hastened to be removed so that he would not have time to submit a request for pardon... The government changed, demonstrative “floggings” for political reasons remained Sokolov, of course, is a criminal. However, the court had sufficient grounds to choose a non-death penalty for the almost 60-year-old sales worker. But in this case, crime was in the background - the agile director became one of the pawns in the political struggle for supreme power. Literally a few months after the death of the former director of Eliseevsky, the rules of the game began to change in this field. The investigation into the “trade mafia” case began to wind down; a group of OBKhSS investigators, formed from specialists from many regions, was sent home. Alexander Sergeev