This article will tell about the life of Svetlana Shchelokova, the wife of the Minister of the Interior, who was accused of abuse of power. The couple could not stand the shame that fell upon them and the deprivation of all privileges. Shchelokova loved to live in luxury, this ruined her and the minister.
Biography of Svetlana Vladimirovna Shchelokova
Shchelokova, nee Popova, was born in the city of Krasnodar in a poor working family. Svetlana Vladimirovna Shchelokova's date of birth is February 2, 1927. Svetlana met her future husband during the Great Patriotic War.
Shchelokova was a field nurse. Both were front-line soldiers. In 1944, they officially got married.
A photo of Svetlana Shchelokova and her husband is presented below.
Svetlana was an otolaryngologist by training, and also taught various disciplines at a medical institute. She was by nature a responsive and very sociable person. And to this day, former classmates at the Kiev Medical Institute warmly remember her. In that difficult post-war period, Svetlana Popova, the daughter of a modest Krasnodar worker, was the soul of the course.
Having married the young deputy minister of industry of the Ukrainian SSR, also a front-line soldier Shchelokov, at first she was even confused. Having drowned in difficulties in childhood, and at the front, and in the hungry school years, she did not immediately accept her high status as a "high-ranking" wife.
And before graduating, she fed her classmates with wonderful dishes that she could get by pulling. Her husband, who soon became the head of the industry department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, who loved his young wife crazy, was not against it. But then, in those young years, she could not dream of that unimaginable luxury that would eventually fall upon her.
The couple were pleased with their family life. Shchelokova was very worried when her husband was transferred to a high position in Moscow from his native city of Chisinau (Moldova), where he held a high state post. This was a turning point in the biography of Svetlana Shchelokova.
Powerful minister
Shchelokov - the most famous Soviet minister who led the law enforcement agencies (the 50th, since the founding of the ministry), he was not forgotten today. Many took it for granted that he was a terrible corrupt official, one of the symbols of bribery under Brezhnev. Such an idea of him was formed in 1983-1984. He was one of Brezhnev's confidants. The Secretary General personally promoted him through the ranks, giving the post of Minister.
Svetlana's passion for jewelry
After raising her husband, Svetlana simply bathed in luxury.
Schelokov’s wife, Svetlana, loved antiques and spent a lot of money on him, didn’t even hesitate to take things confiscated from guild guards or other robbers of state property into the house. Shchelokov himself also had a weakness for good painting and the works of eminent masters. On the day of his birth, generals and high officials from the Union republics gathered in the reception room, who gave him expensive gifts. Investigators will later discover a huge amount of values in his apartment. Among them was even the original picture of the great Russian artist Savrasov.
For the Olympics, the German concern Mercedes sent 6 new luxury cars to Moscow, 3 of them Shchelokov immediately distributed within his family. His close circle gave him a golden Swiss watch from the Gokhran of the USSR for his 70th birthday, it later turned out that documents had been fabricated for this.
Very often, wives are the main driving force for senior leaders because it is women who love a luxurious life, and therefore motivate husbands to earn more and more. Svetlana Shchelokova was the main grand lady in the capital. Unlike other dignitaries' wives, she was not shy about showing off her diamonds at official receptions. Shchelokova was familiar with the directors of all jewelry stores in Moscow.
Reputation Alkali
In December 1981, actress Zoya Fedorova was killed in her apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt . Rumors spread around Moscow that the wife of the minister, Svetlana Shchelokova, had become a customer, who dreamed of taking possession of the actress’s expensive necklace, which was given to her by a rich foreign lover in her forties. These gossip that went about the wife of the Minister of the Interior did not surprise anyone. The reputation of the Shchelokov family was already hopelessly damaged by that time. Shchelokov controlled his power as he wanted, and through his fingers looked at the abuses of his subordinates.
Friendship and business with Galina Brezhneva
The biography of the wife of Minister Svetlana Shchelokova is also significant for her acquaintance and close communication with the daughter of the Secretary General.
Svetlana Shchelokova was very close friends with Galina Brezhneva. They not only hunted together for the best diamonds, but also came up with a very profitable business. From their sources, they learned about the upcoming increase in jewelry prices, and could buy them in advance in jewelry stores, then sell them at a higher cost. Under Brezhnev, prices for gold jewelry and jewelry with precious stones increased regularly. Svetlana Vladimirovna Shchelokova and Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva always managed to get whole lots of jewelry to increase the cost, so that it would be profitable to resell them later. A possible raise in prices could be reported by one of the influential officials. The business turnover of a diamond business woman was hundreds of thousands of rubles. These two women were untouchable, law enforcement agencies could not even get close to them.
Acquaintance with Vishnevskaya and Rastropovich
In the late 60s, the Shchelokovs got acquainted with the famous married couple - singer, soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Galina Vishnevskaya and famous musician Mstislav Rostropovich. Then they were one of the most respected artists. They were watched by the Soviet and foreign public. Friendship with them, of course, flattered yesterday's provincials.
Soon, the Shchelokovs became an influential couple that belonged to the highest Soviet caste. And the famous artists, on the contrary, entered into an acute conflict with the authorities, old friends and colleagues moved away from them, their further fate is unknown and alarming. However, the Shchelokovs did not stop communicating closely with Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich without concealing these relations. Vishnevskaya to this day believes that Svetlana was eliminated as an extra witness.
Crash of Shchelokov
On November 10, 1982, Brezhnev died. All the compromising evidence on Shchelokov was long ready. Andropov receives the post of General Secretary, and nothing prevents the destruction of the enemy. A month after the death of Brezhnev, he was relieved of his post as minister. Every day there was interrogation after interrogation; his life became unbearable. The life of the Shchelokovs went downhill. The former minister understands that the worst may be ahead - the Soviet prison.
Receptions in the country, trips to guests and restaurants and the Bolshoi Theater are a thing of the past. They could no longer appear in society. All of Moscow knew that the ousted interior minister was suspected of abuse.
On November 6, 1984, without trial, Shchelokov was stripped of the rank of general. On November 10, on Police Day, he was also deprived of the title of the hero of social labor, and then they called and offered to voluntarily surrender all front-line orders and medals. Shchelokov invited them to take everything themselves. On November 12, they searched him with a search and seized 124 paintings worthy of the Tretyakov Gallery. Money and jewelry were also discovered. Investigators noted that crystal chandeliers were even in the bathroom and toilet. Shchelokov was confused and answered all questions that he did not know where all this came from.
In December 1984, millions of Soviet citizens were told in the newspapers that the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Shchelokov was deprived of the rank of army general, although he had held this position for sixteen years.
The minister’s seized wealth was estimated at half a million rubles. A criminal case is opened. Even those who broke the law and abused with him began to move away from Shchelokov.
It was an irreparable blow to him. Then others followed: expulsion from the Central Committee, expulsion from the party. The daughter and son of the disgraced spouses Shchelokovs were kicked out of work, for a long time they could not get a new place.
Suicide of Svetlana
Every day the servant heard the screams and loud sobs of the hostess of the house, Svetlana Shchelokova. Humanly, of course, it is a pity for people who, after they were at the top of power, were overthrown. That evening, Shchelokov said that Svetlana was to blame. She wanted a beautiful life and demanded a lot of money. After the scandal, Wife Shchelokova went to the bedroom, a few minutes later a shot rang out.
Schelokov’s wife Svetlana shot herself from her husband’s award pistol. Many acquaintances and friends did not believe in the suicide of this imperious and sleek woman. However, the decree of the USSR chief military prosecutor's office on refusing to initiate criminal proceedings stated that Svetlana Shchelokova committed suicide on the basis of deep emotional depression.
But many people believed that Shchelokov’s wife was removed. Ostensibly because she said that she would not be silent if her husband went on trial. She posed, of course, a very great danger to the rest of the nomenclature, which was implicated in bribery and embezzlement. Influential party officials were afraid that the confiscated items of the shot guilds might be found unexpectedly by members of the Politburo.
Death of the minister
A year later, the minister himself decided to commit suicide. On December 10, 1984, he wrote a letter to Konstantin Chernenko. He asked me not to allow slander against him and apologized in every way. On December 12, he visited relatives and friends. On December 13, he put on his full uniform, drank coffee with cognac and shot himself in the head.
He realized after the call that soon they would come to seize orders and medals, and then there would be an arrest. The minister was already powerless to change the course of affairs. The operatives who arrived at the place of suicide found a suicide note of the once powerful minister, where it was written that the order was not removed from the dead. His relatives and friends believe that the Shchelokovs suicide is the result of systematic bullying.
Rumors of the murder of Andropov
The case was gaining momentum; rumors circulating throughout Moscow were rumors that an attempt had been made on Yuri Andropov. Allegedly, he was shot in the stomach and he died on the spot. This was reported by the cleaner of the famous house number 26 on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, where all the main people of the country lived. Raisa Starostina testified at the police station and told that she saw with her own eyes how the wife of the Minister of Internal Affairs Svetlana Shchelokova tried to kill Yuri Andropov. Allegedly, avenging her husband, she was face to face in an elevator with Andropov and shot him. The hearing was not confirmed later. People vigorously discussed the death of the wife of the former Minister of Internal Affairs, someone gloated, someone empathized.
The KGB feud
It is known with what hatred the Minister Andropov was. Vitaly Fedorchuk, the new head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (also a former kgbeshnik), experienced even more negative feelings for Schelokov. Inspections were carried out throughout the Union. People entrusted to Nikolai Shchelokov were in a difficult situation. Some were in prison, some resigned without the right to return to service in the organs. The minister’s confidants were asked to testify against him. The chief financial general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Kalinin, was in the Lefortovo state security detention center.
He testified with charges against the former minister. A few more employees of the economic department were in custody. Searches were conducted in the apartments and dachas of the minister and his close relatives. A trial took place (after the suicide of Nikolai Shchelokov), which ended with a verdict against Kalinin and his subordinates.
In general, the Ministry of Internal Affairs system has undergone tremendous changes in the staffing after Shchelokov’s death. More than one hundred thousand employees were dismissed from the bodies without the right to reinstatement. Many believed that Andropov had nevertheless implemented his sinister plan of revenge for his main rival. However, the system did not work better; there was still corruption and numerous violations of the law.
Until now, Shchelokov has been accused of non-specifics, usually with reference to some "operational information", gossip, which for some reason could not be verified then. His career flew down. Investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB, the General and the Main Military Prosecutor's Office were engaged in it. At that time there was nothing unrealistic for these institutions; under such pressure, not a single crime could simply resist.
All the seized values and paintings were presented to him, Schelokov did not force anyone to do this. In fact, there is no convincing evidence of the fault of Minister Shchelokov so far. Many believe that they have dealt with him because of personal hostility and envy, and Shchelokov’s personality deserves respect.