Romanov first secretary. Former party leader of Leningrad Grigory Romanov died (video)

19.06.2019 Computers

, Soviet party and statesman who served as first secretary for many years Leningrad Regional Committee CPSU.

He was called one of the most influential politicians of the Soviet era. Romanov's character was harsh and tough, many even compared him to Stalin. And the people of St. Petersburg called the time of his reign a “police regime.”

Romanov led the Leningrad regional party committee for 15 years. From 1970 to 1985 - under the General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

Short in stature and very arrogant, he established strict ideological control over the city. The liberal intelligentsia despised him. First of all, because of the powerful pressure on cultural figures. How reminiscent"Echo of Moscow" , Arkady Raikin could not withstand the constant pressure from the Leningrad authorities and, together with his theater, was forced to move to Moscow. And the writer Daniil Granin, already during the years of perestroika, wrote an ironic novel in which a short regional leader turns from constant lies into a dwarf. Everyone immediately recognized this hero as Grigory Romanov.

There were many rumors about Romanov - about his relationship with the popular singer Lyudmila Senchina, although she herself denies this, about the wedding of his daughter in the Tauride Palacewith dishes from the Hermitage. Then, for several years, the society noisily discussed the service from the Hermitage broken by the guests, and then it turned out that there was no service or wedding in the palace. But this became clear only after the intensity of popular indignation reached its limit.

At the turn of the 80s, Romanov was unofficially considered one of the possible candidates for the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. Back in 1975, an American magazine Newsweek called him the most likely successor to Leonid Brezhnev. However, Mikhail Gorbachev won the power struggle in March 1985 and Romanov was sent into retirement.

According to Fontanka.ru , recently Romanov lived in the country and did not write memoirs. On February 7, 2008, he celebrated his 85th birthday. The place of Grigory Romanov's funeral has not yet been announced.

Wedding in Tauride and Kremlin wars

At the end of the 18th century, Prince Potemkin organized magnificent receptions for several thousand people in the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace. Empress Catherine herself was a frequent guest. When in the eighties of the 20th century the news spread around Leningrad and the entire USSR that the first secretary of the regional party committee had arranged the wedding of his daughter in Tavrichesky, and had even “rented” the royal service from the Hermitage and had not returned half of it, letters poured in to the Politburo from angry communists.

A German magazine created a sensation Spiegel . Radio Liberty and Voice of America retold the article. Rumors of the wedding spread overnight. Romanov remained silent, considering it wrong to comment on foreign gossip. Soviet newspapers did not write about this, they report"News".

“Andropov told me this: don’t pay attention. We know that nothing like that happened. I say: Yuri Vladimirovich, but you can give information about what didn’t happen! “Okay, we’ll figure it out,” Romanov recalled.

Natalya, the youngest daughter of Grigory Romanov, still lives in St. Petersburg. Doesn't give interviews as a matter of principle. According to her husband, there were only 10 people at their wedding, which took place in 1974 and captured the imagination of thousands of working people. The celebration was very modest. “This, of course, is stupidity. The wedding was at a dacha. A state dacha, by the way. And the next day we left on a ship along the Volga. To travel. There was no Tauride. And there was no Hermitage,” recalls Lev Radchenko.

When the scandal with the mythical wedding subsided, Romanov took up Leningrad. Over 10 years, almost 100 million square meters of housing were built in the city. The Leningrad "master" was noticed. Such an active regional leader suited the center.

“He had an exceptional relationship with Brezhnev. About two or three years before Brezhnev’s death, the relationship was very good. He trusted him very much. He himself called Leningrad and home,” recalls Romanov’s second daughter Valentina. But Romanov did not enjoy the General Secretary’s favor for long.

However, in 1983 he was invited to Moscow. New general secretary Yuri Andropov entrusted him with overseeing the military-industrial complex. But Second Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began to appear more and more often next to Andropov - he was entrusted with Agriculture. Gorbachev also enjoyed the obvious support of the next general - Konstantin Chernenko.

“Relations were strained between them. We all felt it. And Gorbachev used various methods to not directly, but somehow indirectly present him in a negative form,” former head of the Council of Ministers Vitaly Vorotnikov says about the relationship between Gorbachev and Romanov.

When Chernenko died, Romanov was in the Baltic states. Two other members of the Politburo were also absent. But they decided not to wait and hold an emergency plenum. No one doubted that the next Secretary General would be the one who would be supported by the most influential person in the Politburo - Andrei Gromyko.

Yegor Ligachev undertook to persuade him. “On the eve of the opening of the plenum, Gromyko called me. And he said: Yegor Kuzmich, who will we elect as general secretary? I told him: we need Gorbachev. He says: I also think that we need Gorbachev. And tell me, who could make a proposal? I say: best of all to you, Andrey Andreevich. He says: I also think that I need to make a proposal,” recalls Ligachev.

Romanov’s relationship with Gorbachev and his entourage did not work out. He left the political scene. The official wording is at will and health status. But the “wedding” story haunted even the pensioner Romanov. Before the election of the first president of the USSR, the Supreme Council even created a commission and conducted its own investigation. But they never found anything untoward.

Reference: Grigory Romanov

Grigory Vasilievich Romanov was born in the village of Zikhnovo, now Vorovichi district, Novgorod region. Member of the CPSU since 1944. Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1976-1985); candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1973-1976), secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1983-1985), member of the CPSU Central Committee (1966-1986).

Member of the Great Patriotic War; from 1946 he worked as a designer, head of the sector of the Central Design Bureau of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry; in 1953 he graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in absentia; 1954-1961 - secretary of the plant party committee, secretary, first secretary of the Kirov district party committee of Leningrad;

1961-1963 - secretary of the Leningrad city committee, secretary of the regional party committee; 1963-1970 - second secretary, 1970-1983 - first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU; elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 7th-11th convocations; Hero of Socialist Labor; since 1985 - retired.

Grigory Romanov was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, orders of the Red Banner of Labor, "Badge of Honor" and medals.

St. Petersburg residents owe Romanov the beginning of the construction of the famous dam, designed to protect the city from floods, and the development of the metro - 19 stations were built during this period.

Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov was called “master” in Leningrad. His activities are assessed differently: some consider Romanov a strong leader and a good organizer, others consider him a tyrant who stifled dissent. In the mid-1980s, Romanov was tipped for the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and was considered as the main competitor of Mikhail Gorbachev.

Beginning of party career

Grigory Romanov was born in the Novgorod region in a village large family. During the Great Patriotic War he fought on the Leningrad and Baltic fronts. After the war he graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding University. In the mid-50s, his party career began, first at the Leningrad Zhdanov plant, where Grigory Vasilyevich worked, then Romanov began to be promoted higher up the party line.

From September 1970 to June 1983, G.V. Romanov headed the Leningrad City Party Committee, becoming the de facto head of the city on the Neva.

Builder and oppressor

These 13 years are key in Romanov’s biography. For them they both thank him and curse him. Under Grigory Vasilyevich, 19 Leningrad metro stations, a large sports and cultural complex, and the Youth Palace were opened... At this time, Leningrad factories produced such world-famous brands as the Kirovets tractor (K-700, which is still successfully used in many farms), ice drift "Arktika", the first to reach the North Pole. Under Romanov, the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant was launched.

At the same time, Grigory Romanov is associated with repressions against representatives of culture and art, in particular, the persecution of dissidents. ABOUT negative impact Romanov is said by some figures from Leningrad television and the Tovstonogov BDT theater. At the same time, the Leningrad Rock Club has been operating in Leningrad since 1981, and since 1975 the first rock opera in the USSR, “Orpheus and Eurydice,” has been performed.

There is no unambiguous assessment of Romanov’s attitude towards all these persecutions. Skeptics argue that Grigory Vasilyevich was not such a monster as they want to show him. In particular, Academician Dmitry Likhachev, who repeatedly met with the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, said that, despite his complex character, it was still “possible to come to an agreement.” Under Romanov, many Leningrad dissidents were indeed arrested or expelled (from the country, to remote regions of the USSR). However, this issue was then dealt with by the “profile” Fifth Directorate of the KGB, and it is unlikely that the personal intervention of the first secretary of the regional committee was required to speed up this process.

However, shortly before his death, Grigory Vasilyevich, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, openly admitted his dislike for the work of the writer Daniil Granin - Romanov did not like the writer’s attitude towards the Leningrad blockade. The famous “Siege Book” by D. Granin and A. Adamovich in Leningrad was published only when G. V. Romanov moved to work in Moscow in 1984.

The demonization of the “owner” of the city on the Neva was facilitated by the story of “dishes from the Hermitage”, which Grigory Romanov allegedly used at his daughter’s wedding. This fact, although widely discussed in the foreign press even under Soviet rule, was never confirmed.

Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee

Since 1983, Romanov has been in Moscow, he joined the secretariat of the Central Committee Communist Party Soviet Union, oversaw the military-industrial complex in this capacity. According to the official, Brezhnev “pulled” him to Moscow. Some historians and political scientists believe that a relatively young and promising politician, Romanov, at one time could hypothetically replace three general secretaries at once - Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko: each time he had such an opportunity. But as a result of internal party intrigues of stronger competitors and their supporters, Romanov failed to do this every time.

Why didn't he become secretary general?

Grigory Romanov is considered the antipode of Gorbachev. The leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation still believe that if Grigory Vasilyevich had taken the place of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee after the death of K. U. Chernenko - instead of Gorbachev, then the USSR would not have collapsed: the West, afraid of the intractable Romanov, was betting on Gorbachev.

When Chernenko died, Romanov was on vacation in Sochi. When Grigory Vasilyevich arrived in Moscow, everything had already been decided without him. Romanov’s team included 2 more members of the Central Committee - Shcherbitsky and Kunaev. Allegedly, both did not arrive at the decisive meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee due to the fault of Gorbachev’s supporters. Shcherbitsky was on a business trip to the USA, and Kunaev was simply not notified in time about the death of Konstantin Ustinovich. As a result, only one candidate for the post of Secretary General of the party’s central committee was discussed at the plenum - M. S. Gorbachev. In essence, Mikhail Sergeevich performed the duties of K.U. Chernenko during his illness.

How a member of the Politburo found himself out of work

In March 1985, Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and already in July, G.V. Romanov, by decision of the plenum of the Central Committee, was removed from the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, explaining this by his retirement “for health reasons.” Although Romanov was only 62 years old at that time, for a politician this is just a mature age. They say that Romanov asked Gorbachev for leadership work, but was refused.

Over the 23 years of his subsequent life, G.V. Romanov no longer held any key positions. In 1998, Yeltsin awarded him a personal pension for his great contribution to the development of domestic industry.

Grigory Romanov died in 2008 in Moscow and was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery.

Three names of the leaders of the Leningrad communists will forever remain in the people's memory: Sergei Mironovich Kirov, Andrei Andreevich Zhdanov and Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov. The further time separates us from those years when G.V. stood at the head of the Leningrad party organization. Romanov, the more the magnitude of his personality is realized. He was a major state talent and creator.

One of many is one of us

The story of Romanov’s personality is remarkable in that at first it will seem typical for many in Soviet times. The atypicality begins with the manifestation of his remarkable mind as an organizer, capable of realizing the national significance of the current work, like everyone else’s, and raising it to the maximum high level. Organizational talent is a rare phenomenon at all times. He singled out Romanov among many.

But let's return to the typical. He was born in the village of Zikhnovo, Borovichi district, Petrograd province (now Borovichi district, Novgorod region) into a large peasant family. He was the youngest, sixth child. In 1938 he graduated with honors from junior high school and even before that he joined the Komsomol. In the same year he entered the Leningrad Shipbuilding College. As we see, Stalin’s slogan “Cadres who have mastered technology decide everything!” did not bypass fifteen-year-old Grigory Romanov. But he didn’t have time to graduate from college - the war broke out...

He fought from bell to bell, from 1941 to 1945. In September 1944, he joined the party at the front. He was shell-shocked and awarded two medals - “For the Defense of Leningrad” (1942) and “For Military Merit” (1944).

At the end of the war, he returned to the technical school and in 1946 defended his diploma with honors and received the specialty of a ship-hull builder. Sent to work at TsKB-53 Shipyard named after. A.A. Zhdanov (now “Northern Shipyard”). Here Romanov’s professionalism and organizational skills showed themselves, as stated in the description: “he showed himself to be a technically competent designer and was promoted from an ordinary designer to the position of leading designer, and then head of the sector.” He worked and studied at the evening department of the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute. He graduated from it in 1953 with a degree in shipbuilding engineer. Thirty years - everything is ahead...

And, in general, a typical biography of a young Soviet man - a front-line soldier. Yes, I attracted attention with my professional culture, organizational skills, will and determination. But there were many of them.

Demanded by time

The originality of Romanov’s personality, his promotion to the ranks of the few who have organizational, managerial talent, and state thinking - all this became obvious with Grigory Vasilyevich’s transition to party work. In 1954, he was elected secretary of the party committee of the plant. A.A. Zhdanov. At thirty-five years old (mature youth!) Romanov is the first secretary of the Kirov district party committee of Leningrad.

People like him were in demand at that time - the time of scientific, technical and social progress in the USSR. In the 60-70s of the twentieth century, the CPSU, in order to remain the leading force of Soviet society, was obliged to promote well-trained party cadres to command positions (in the management of the production sector primarily) - cadres competent in organizing high-tech production. And besides, they know firsthand, but from their own life experience, the social needs and aspirations of ordinary production workers, those who were called ordinary Soviet people. In other words, the party, as always, at the new stage of socialist construction needed personnel who had passed the school of highly qualified labor, a test of personal responsibility for decisions made who have proven their ability to lead competently and in the best way and have gained the trust of the party and non-party ranks. Romanov met these requirements fully. In addition, he was unusually talented, smart and, as they said about him, devilishly efficient and completely selfless. His rapid ascent to the top of the party leadership in Leningrad was not accidental: in 1961 he was elected secretary of the Leningrad city committee, and in 1962 - secretary of the regional party committee, in 1963 - its second secretary.

Those were the years of Khrushchev’s voluntarism, which Grigory Vasilyevich did not like to remember. He remained silent, which is understandable: alien to ill-conceived hasty solutions to issues of organizing production, he, a production worker to the core, preferred not to talk about the time during which he had to protect, as far as possible, the Leningrad industry (he was responsible for it in the regional committee) from feverish innovations. What was the cost of just reorganizing party bodies along production lines: dividing them into industrial and rural committees?! But this was also a kind of valuable experience for Romanov: he, as they say, sensed adventurism and incompetence a mile away and did not allow those who suffered from these vices into the party leadership.

First

On September 16, 1970, a turning point occurred in the life of Grigory Vasilyevich - he was elected first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU. He was in his forty-eighth year - the time for the blossoming of personality!..

For thirteen years, Romanov headed one of the largest organizations of the CPSU, which by 1983 numbered 497 thousand communists. During these thirteen years, his creative nature revealed itself in full force. His name gained all-Union fame. They started talking about him abroad too.

Imagine at least a sketch of all the complex and varied activities of G.V. Romanov when he was the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee is impossible within the confines of one essay. Its author did not set such a task for himself. But I will try to talk about the outstanding deeds of the great Leningrader.

The first in their series was the creation of large production and research and production associations, which made it possible to effectively develop and implement new technologies. And the main thing is to connect science with production at the time of the scientific and technological revolution. Only in the sixties of the last century, nine sectoral production associations were formed in Leningrad, which covered 43 industrial enterprises and 14 research, design and technological organizations. Associations like LOMO, Svetlana, and Elektrosila did not exist in the West in the nineties (yes!), and they are unlikely to exist there today. Romanov stood at the origins of this epoch-making undertaking, while still being the secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee. In the seventies, thanks to his will and ability to see the future of production, it received dynamic development. By the end of the eighties, 161 production, scientific-production and industrial-technical associations were already operating in Leningrad and the region. They accounted for 70% of the total production of Leningrad industry. Yes, what a high-tech one! More than one and a half thousand new types of machines and devices were created, including those that had no analogues in the world. The Electrosila association manufactured a turbogenerator with a capacity of 1 million 200 thousand kilowatts. LOMO has a unique optical telescope with a mirror 6 meters in diameter. The capitalist West did not know such masterpieces of industrial production at that time.

Romanov, in one of his conversations with me (and there were many of them: when I was a State Duma deputy in 1995-1999, I often met with Grigory Vasilyevich in his Moscow apartment) said: “It’s a lie that we were far behind the West in scientific technically. We were ahead in many ways - in electronics, instrument making, turbo manufacturing, and more. We needed time to translate our achievements in the defense industry into people’s everyday lives. We started this. And they would have pulled ahead if not for Gorbachev’s “perestroika”.

Romanov was one of the few who sought and found a concrete way to combine the advantages of a planned socialist economy with the achievements of scientific and technological progress. This was the essence of creating powerful research and production associations. It is clear that the leading ones were concentrated in the military-industrial complex (MIC), which is the nerve of the entire economy. The USA and the entire West were very worried about this. After the ill-fated “perestroika”, they did not fail to have a hand in removing the said nerve: with feverish privatization, the most powerful associations of the military-industrial complex were dispersed. The pain that Romanov experienced when talking about the tragedy of Leningrad industry cannot be expressed in words. You should have seen his eyes...

He considered the city and region a common home

Another great undertaking of the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee was the development of a comprehensive plan for the economic and social development of Leningrad and the region for the X Five-Year Plan (1976-1980). Its main link was the same plan for the development of specific production. Industrial enterprises began to be overgrown with institutions for social, everyday and cultural purposes, with all that infrastructure for the life support of their workers, which is now completely finished off (everything that was done in the name of man was destroyed in the name of the profit of the owner). Large industrial associations financed the construction of kindergartens, nurseries, cultural and recreation centers, sanatoriums, hospitals and dispensaries. Unfolded housing construction for workers and their families.

Romanov understood Stalin’s truth better than others: personnel decide everything. I learned it because I realized: it’s not just a matter of the system of training and retraining of personnel. It also consists of creating socio-economic conditions for their fruitful activities.

The experience of comprehensive planning, born in Leningrad, became widespread in the country and was enshrined in the 1977 Constitution of the USSR.

Under Romanov, a problem of strategic importance for a city of five million was solved: Leningrad began to be provided with basic food products (meat, milk, butter, eggs, vegetables) produced in the agriculture of the Leningrad region. Solving this problem was extremely difficult in the very unfavorable climatic conditions of the North-West. First of all, it was necessary to create a powerful material and technical base. For this, the experience of creating large production associations was useful. With the support of Romanov and under his tutelage, they appeared and grew stronger in the Leningrad region: the association of greenhouse state farms “Leto” (1971), the industrial complex for fattening cattle “Pashsky”, the pig-breeding complex “Vostochny” (1973).

I note that during the period when Romanov was the first secretary of the regional committee, the growth of livestock in agricultural production was not only strictly, but strictly controlled. Its reduction was regarded as causing damage to strategic food resources (what today? who thinks about these resources, and do they even exist?).

Regionalists keep good memories of the demanding first secretary. From the villagers’ memories of him: “Everyone knew Romanov. He was a strict and zealous owner. The region did not offend anyone. He considered the city and the region a common home. In a word - the owner."

For the benefit of the working class

And yet, the most significant of all Romanov’s actions, it seems to me, was his work aimed at replenishing the working class of Leningrad with professionally trained personnel. He was the first Soviet politician to realize the severity of this problem during the period of dynamic development of scientific and technological progress. And he was the first to see the way to solve it through the formation of a system of vocational schools on the basis of general secondary education. Personnel decides everything. But in the case when the workforce is well educated, cultured, and smart. Without general secondary education, they cannot become like that. Romanov approached the solution of the problem not as a technocrat-pragmatist, as his ill-wishers often portray him, but as a statesman and party leader who went through an apprenticeship school in a production team.

Grigory Vasilyevich told me how he convinced the country's leadership of the need to transfer vocational schools to train workers only with secondary education. He involuntarily demonstrated not only his ability to think strategically, but also to tactically correctly pursue his strategic line. He recalled: “Before going to Brezhnev, I asked for an appointment with Suslov. And he began to prove to him that the question of vocational schools with secondary education is a question of the future of the working class, of its leading role. The issue is primarily political. I see that he understands me, agrees, supports me. Well, with his support it’s easier to talk to Leonid Ilyich. After all, this is a serious matter, requiring very significant material costs. The Ministry of Finance resisted. And not everyone in the Politburo agreed. Brezhnev listened to me carefully and agreed. The issue was resolved at the Politburo."

Leningrad was the first city in which, by the end of the seventies, the transition of vocational schools to secondary education was completed. There was no shortage of lofty words about the leading role of the working class in the party press and in oral propaganda. Romanov never competed with anyone in eloquence and was restrained in his words. He created the conditions for the materialization of the declared great idea. It took time, 10-15 years, for a new generation of workers to form and strengthen, having undergone vocational training on the basis of secondary education. But tragic events for the country (“perestroika” according to Gorbachev and “reforms” according to Yeltsin) stopped the Soviet era and interrupted it.

Slander

Romanov’s time was also interrupted - the time of creation, the creation of something new, a breakthrough into the future. He became an increasingly prominent figure on the political horizon: since 1973 - a candidate member and since 1976 - a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, since 1983 - Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (left Leningrad, moved to Moscow). In the West they were looking at him more and more closely. Ex-president France's Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, in his book “Power and Life” (1990), recalling his meeting with Romanov in the summer of 1973, noted that he differed from others in the Soviet leadership in his “ease of compulsion, clear acuity of mind.”

Western analysts and Sovietologists saw this well and made efforts to ensure that the myth of the “Leningrad dictator” appeared in the USSR as a gray, limited man who suppressed the slightest dissent. Our dissident intelligentsia picked up this myth, accompanying it with slander. The most common slander is about the alleged use by the family of Grigory Vasilyevich of an ancient service from the Hermitage. Anti-Soviet “intellectuals” did not heed the statement of the director of the Hermitage, Academician Piotrovsky, that this did not and could not have happened. Of course, they could not forgive Romanov for his love for Russian and Soviet classics and, in particular, his respectful attitude towards the Leningrad State Academic Drama Theater named after. A.S. Pushkin and his artistic director Igor Gorbachev.

But the intellectual anti-Sovietists do their best to keep silent about one fact. It happened at the end of a performance in one of the popular drama theaters in Leningrad. Grigory Vasilyevich watched the performance and came to the actors to thank them for talented game. One of them, a very famous one, turned to him: “Grigory Vasilyevich, you are our benefactor. I come to you with the humblest request: some land, some land for my dacha.” Romanov’s reaction was immediate: “You are forgetting yourself. I don’t sell land.”

Antipode of Gorbachev

After the death of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee K.U. Chernenko Romanov was a real candidate for the main role in the party. He learned about the death of the General Secretary on television (a day later than it happened), while on vacation in Sochi, where he was almost forcibly sent by M. Gorbachev, who practically served as the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee during Chernenko’s illness. With great difficulty, Grigory Vasilyevich flew to Moscow - for some reason (?) the plane’s departure was delayed. He arrived at the Politburo meeting when the question of electing the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was already decided. Romanov’s supporters, Shcherbitsky and Kunaev, were not present at this meeting. The reasons for their absence were also well organized by Gorbachev’s team: the first was allegedly detained out of necessity in the USA, where he was sent; the second was notified of the death of the Secretary General late. At the suggestion of A. Gromyko, one candidate was nominated for the upcoming plenum of the Central Committee - Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev saw his antipode in Romanov, but, of course, was unable to admit this. In characterizing the rebellious Leningrader, he attributed to him what he himself suffered from: narrow-mindedness and deceit. Speaking about a man of great talent, Gorbachev argued that “one could rarely expect a sensible thought from him.” Dullness always takes revenge on talent.

In July 1985, the plenum of the Central Committee released G.V. Romanov “from his duties as a member of the Politburo and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in connection with his retirement for health reasons.” Everyone understood everything: Gorbachev was in a hurry to get rid of his antipode in the party leadership. Is 62 years old for a politician? Grigory Vasilyevich was filled with strength and desire to work for the good of the party and the people. He appealed to the Secretary General with a request to reinstate him to party work, but was refused. Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs: “Having met with Romanov, I made it clear quite frankly that there was no place for him in the leadership.”

We know very well who had a place there.

The Courage of a Stoic

Just as heroism is an alternative to betrayal, and creation is an alternative to destruction, so Grigory Romanov was an alternative to Mikhail Gorbachev. In the West, they were well aware of this, as Alexander Zinoviev wrote: “Brezhnev was ill. His days were numbered. Other members of the Politburo are also sick old people. Romanov and Gorbachev began to appear as future leaders of the party... Having thoroughly studied the qualities of both (and perhaps having somehow “hooked” Gorbachev earlier), the relevant services in the West decided to eliminate Romanov and clear the way for Gorbachev. In means mass media slander against Romanov was invented and put into use...” And then A. Zinoviev said that this came as a reproach to us communists shameful page history of the CPSU: “The inventors of slander were sure that Romanov’s “comrades-in-arms” would not defend him. And so it happened... No one came out in defense of Romanov.” Cowardice and indifference in the party pave the way for shameless arrogance and betrayal, which is exactly what happened. This is a moral lesson for us. To forget it means to lose your conscience.

Grigory Vasilyevich was very worried about his insecurity. After being expelled from retirement, he remained isolated from the party for a long time, almost throughout the “perestroika”. Few people called him and rarely anyone came, except for his most trusted friends. He was under the surveillance of Gorbachev's spies. Romanov stoically, courageously, and with honor, withstood the political and moral blockade. Didn't bend, didn't break, didn't get embittered. Maintained fortitude and clarity of mind. He was not only a political, but also a moral alternative to Gorbachev.

Romanov adhered to a Puritan lifestyle. Together with his family of six people, he lived in a three-room apartment. He did not tolerate and did not forgive hobbies for materialism. He directly told the leading party workers of Smolny: “Who wants to buy a car and build a dacha - please. But first, write a letter of resignation.” Grigory Vasilyevich was ready for the vicissitudes of fate and never complained about it. I didn’t complain to anyone, I didn’t ask anyone for anything. He was a proud man, independent to the point of scrupulousness. He knew how to take a punch. During “perestroika” he remained rebellious and unconquered. The same can be said about the subsequent times of Romanov’s life.

Legendary person

Grigory Vasilyevich became a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation immediately after its II (restoration) congress. He created a community of Leningraders in Moscow and led it until last day own life. Provided invaluable assistance to the Leningrad regional organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the elections State Duma Russian Federation in 1995. He called and wrote to his colleagues from many years of work in the city and region, where they remembered him more and more often. More than once I witnessed how people at a rally, on the train, in a store said that they saw Romanov either in the city or in the region. I knew that this could not have happened: Grigory Vasilyevich did not leave Moscow, since his wife had been unwell for a long time. I did not try to dissuade my comrades, because I understood: they “saw” him because they really wanted to see him. They wanted order and confidence in the future. Romanov was for Leningraders a symbol of the spirit of Soviet times, when everything was as it should be and as needed. It was a symbol of faith for them, and that’s why they saw it. He became a living legend. People like him are not forgotten by the people, just as happiness and joy are not forgotten. They remember not only the great deeds associated with his name, but also his always confident voice, his simplicity, sincerity and openness in communicating with others.

They remember his humanity and nobility. His strict demands, about which there were legends: strict, but fair; First of all, he does not spare himself and does not let anyone down, in a word - a Man!

Leningrad, which became the city of Romanov’s beautiful, heroic fate, the city to which he gave everything he had - talent, soul, selfless work - will never forget him. Leningrad will always be grateful to him.

Grigory Romanov was born on February 7, 1923 in the village of Zikhnovo, now Borovichi district of the Novgorod region, into a peasant family. Participant of the Great Patriotic War. He fought as a signalman on the Leningrad and Baltic fronts. Member of the CPSU since 1944. In 1953 he graduated in absentia from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute. In 1946-1954, designer, head of the sector of the Central Design Bureau at the plant named after. A. A. Zhdanova (Leningrad) Ministry of Construction Industry. In 1955-1957, secretary of the party committee, party organizer of the CPSU Central Committee at the same plant.

In 1957-1961 - secretary, first secretary of the Kirov district committee of the CPSU of Leningrad. In 1961-62, Secretary of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU. In 1962-1963 secretary, in 1963-1970 second secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU (in 1963-1964 second secretary of the Leningrad Industrial Regional Committee of the CPSU).

From September 16, 1970 to June 21, 1983 - First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU. During this period, a resolution was adopted “On the construction of structures to protect Leningrad from floods” (dams) - after a long break, construction was completed in 2011. Leningrad metro stations are open: Lomonosovskaya, Elizarovskaya, Zvezdnaya, Kupchino, Lesnaya, Vyborgskaya, Akademicheskaya, Politekhnicheskaya, Ploshchad Muzhestva, Leninsky Prospekt, Prospekt Veteranov ", "Civil Avenue", "Komsomolskaya", "Primorskaya", "Proletarskaya", "Obukhovo", "Udelnaya", "Pionerskaya", "Chernaya Rechka".

The construction of the Leningrad Sports and Concert Complex named after. V. I. Lenin. The Youth Palace was built on the banks of the Malaya Nevka. A monument to V.V. Mayakovsky was erected on the street named after the poet. A research institute for the health of children and adolescents has been opened on Aptekarsky Island. Leningrad switched to seven-digit telephone numbering.

At the 23rd and 24th Congresses of the CPSU he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1973-1976 - candidate member, in 1976-1985 - member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1983-1985 - Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 7-11 convocations; in 1971-84 - member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

IN public opinion perceived as a hardliner. He was considered as a real contender for the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee after the death of Yu. V. Andropov, but as a result of the behind-the-scenes struggle of factions, a compromise candidate was accepted - the terminally ill K. U. Chernenko, after whose death a candidate from another faction came to power - M. S. Gorbachev, who relied on democratization and openness.

By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin No. 101 of January 28, 1998, G. V. Romanov was established with a personal pension for his significant contribution to the development of domestic mechanical engineering and the defense industry.

Member of the Central Advisory Council under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Grigory Romanov died on June 3, 2008 in Moscow. He was buried on June 6 at the Kuntsevo cemetery.

Performance evaluations

Romanov's statements

Suppression of the dissident movement and dissidents in Leningrad

During Romanov's leadership in Leningrad, various forms of the dissident movement were actively suppressed:

“Union of Struggle for Personal Freedom” (group of V. A. Dzibalov; 6 people were arrested in 1971); distribution of leaflets calling for a boycott of the elections (Yu. E. Minkovsky was arrested in 1973), in defense of A. I. Solzhenitsyn (L. L. Verdi was arrested in 1974); activities of the “Circle of Friends of Socialist Legality” (O. N. Moskvin was arrested in 1977); protests against the entry Soviet troops to Afghanistan (B.S. Mirkin was arrested in 1981); demonstrations: in memory of the Decembrists at the Bronze Horseman (12/14/1975), artists and writers at the Peter and Paul Fortress (May-June, 1976), in defense of human rights on December 10, 1977, 1978, 1979; inscription on the wall of the Sovereign Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress: “You crucify freedom, but the human soul has no shackles” (Yu. A. Rybakov, O. A. Volkov were arrested in 1976).

Another form was the activity of various independent associations: the Leningrad branch of the Russian Public Fund, the Fund for Assistance to the Families of Political Prisoners (1974-83, managers - V. I. Isakova, V. T. Repin, V. N. Gaenko), independent trade union work ( SMOT - Free Interprofessional Association of Workers, created in 1978; L. Ya. Volokhonsky was arrested in 1979, V. E. Borisov was expelled from the country in 1981, V. I. Sytinsky was arrested in 1984); seminar on general theory systems (1968-82, in the apartment of S. Yu. Maslov), women's club "Maria"; religious and philosophical seminar by T. M. Goricheva (1974-80); Christian seminar and publication of the magazine “Community” (1974-79, V. Yu. Poresh was arrested in 1979); editing source Sat. “Memory” (A. B. Roginsky was arrested in 1981); distribution of Seventh-day Adventist publications (I. S. Zvyagin was arrested in 1980, L. K. Nagritskaite in 1981, etc.); apartment art exhibitions (G. N. Mikhailov was arrested in 1979); organization of groups for Hatha yoga classes (A.I. Ivanov was arrested in 1977). A special place was occupied by Jewish national associations - the Leningrad Zionist Organization (G. I. Butman, M. S. Korenblit and others were arrested in 1970); seminar of Jewish “refuseniks” (1979-81, E. Lein was arrested in 1981).

Characteristic is the emergence of literature that is not oriented toward censorship. Among its creators are M. R. Kheifets (author of the preface to Brodsky’s collection of poems, arrested in 1974), D. E. Axelrod (author of the novel “The Krasovsky Brothers,” arrested in 1982), poet K. M. Azadovsky (arrested in 1982). For the production and distribution of samizdat and tamizdat, the group of G.V. Davydov - V.V. Petrova (1973), M.M. Klimov (1982), M.B. Meilakh (1983), G.A. Donskoy (1983) were arrested ), M.V. Polyakov (1983); forced to emigrate E. G. Etkind (1976), L. S. Druskin (1980), S. V. Dedyulin (1981), etc.

Awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (1983)
Three Orders of Lenin
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Order of the Badge of Honor
Medals

Memory

On May 17, 2011, a memorial plaque to Grigory Romanov was installed on the facade of house 1/5 on Kuibysheva Street in St. Petersburg, which caused a mixed reaction from St. Petersburg residents.

At the age of 86, Grigory Romanov, a Soviet party and statesman who for many years was the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU, died.

As Echo of Moscow reminds, Arkady Raikin could not withstand the constant pressure of the Leningrad authorities and, together with his theater, was forced to move to Moscow. And the writer Daniil Granin, already during the years of perestroika, wrote an ironic novel in which a short regional leader turns from constant lies into a dwarf. Everyone immediately recognized this hero as Grigory Romanov.

At the turn of the 80s, Romanov was unofficially considered one of the possible candidates for the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. Back in 1975, the American magazine Newsweek named him the most likely successor to Leonid Brezhnev. However, Mikhail Gorbachev won the power struggle in March 1985 and Romanov was sent into retirement.

According to Fontanka.ru, Romanov recently lived in the country and did not write memoirs. On February 7, 2008, he celebrated his 85th birthday. The place of Grigory Romanov's funeral has not yet been announced.

NTV REPORT

Wedding in Tavrichesky

In the eighties of the 20th century, the news spread around Leningrad and the entire USSR that the first secretary of the regional party committee had arranged the wedding of his daughter in Tauride, and had even “rented” the royal service from the Hermitage and did not return half of it; letters from angry communists.

The German magazine Spiegel produced a sensation. Radio Liberty and Voice of America retold the article. Rumors of the wedding spread overnight. Romanov remained silent, considering it wrong to comment on foreign gossip. Soviet newspapers did not write about this, Vesti reports.

The celebration was very modest. “This, of course, is stupidity. The wedding was at a dacha. A state dacha, by the way. And the next day we left on a ship along the Volga. To travel. There was no Tauride. And there was no Hermitage,” recalls Lev Radchenko.

5 minutes to the General Secretary

However, in 1983 he was invited to Moscow. The new General Secretary, Yuri Andropov, instructed him to oversee the military-industrial complex. But second secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began to appear more and more often next to Andropov - he was entrusted with agriculture. Gorbachev also enjoyed the obvious support of the next general - Konstantin Chernenko.

Romanov’s relationship with Gorbachev and his entourage did not work out. He left the political scene. The official wording is at your own request and state of health. But the “wedding” story haunted even the pensioner Romanov.

Before the election of the first president of the USSR, the Supreme Council even created a commission and conducted its own investigation. But they never found anything untoward.

According to the press service of the administration of the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko expressed her condolences in connection with the death of Grigory Romanov.

Condolences on the death of G.V. Romanova

I express my most sincere, deepest condolences to the family, friends and friends of Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov in connection with his death.

A great statesman and a strong politician has passed away. Grigory Vasilyevich left many bright pages in the history of our country.

Fate generously endowed Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov with the talent of a leader, a person responsible not only for himself, but also for others. His name is inextricably linked with Leningrad - the city in which his career began and which he loved very much.

During the Great Patriotic War, he fought on the Leningrad Front. For many years he held the highest positions in the leadership of Leningrad and the Leningrad region.

Grigory Vasilievich managed to do a lot for the development of industry, housing construction, solutions social problems Leningraders. Under him, the construction of a complex of flood protection structures began. His personal contribution to the development is enormous vocational education in our city.

Grigory Vasilyevich has always been distinguished by his enormous diligence, enormous capacity for work, integrity, wisdom, and high demands on himself and his subordinates.

The memory of Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov will forever remain in the hearts of Leningraders and St. Petersburg residents.

REFERENCE: Grigory Vasilievich Romanov was born in the village of Zikhnovo, now Vorovichi district, Novgorod region. Member of the CPSU since 1944. Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1976-1985); candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1973-1976), secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1983-1985), member of the CPSU Central Committee (1966-1986).

Participant of the Great Patriotic War; from 1946 he worked as a designer, head of the sector of the Central Design Bureau of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry; in 1953 he graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in absentia; 1954-1961 - secretary of the plant party committee, secretary, first secretary of the Kirov district party committee of Leningrad;

Grigory Romanov was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor and medals.