Who is Pavel Malkov? The Kremlin commandant who executed Fani Kaplan, the woman who made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Lenin. Little is known about this man. If not for the events of September 1918, perhaps no one today would have remembered the name of Pavel Malkov.
The “Notes of the Kremlin Commandant” published in 1959 attracted the attention of historians who still cannot unambiguously answer the question of whether Kaplan was guilty of attempted assassination of the leader.
Revolutionary activity
Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov was born in 1887 in the Kirov region. At the beginning of the century, he joined the revolutionary movement. He was soon arrested and sent to exile, where he spent four years. In 1911, Pavel Malkov joined the Baltic Fleet. On the cruiser "Diana" he served as senior orderly.
Nothing is known about in what family Pavel Malkov grew up, what kind of education he received. No wonder. According to revolutionary ideology, this man accomplished a feat by shooting a half-blind essay who encroached on the life of Vladimir Lenin. If there were unseemly facts in his biography, then they were silent. However, individual fragments from his memoirs create a rather unattractive portrait of a sailor, embraced by almost fanatical devotion to Lenin.
Arrest
In the late forties, Pavel Malkov was arrested and sent into exile. A similar fate befell most of the old revolutionaries. Surprisingly, Malkov survived 1937. Until 1948, the NKVD officers were not interested in his personality. However, after the war, the former Kremlin commandant was accused of "Trotskyism." Later, after the death of Stalin, they were released and rehabilitated.
Recent years Malkov spent in Moscow. He died in 1965, was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery. Eleven years before his death, received the Lenin Prize. Malkov not only shot Kaplan with his own hands, but also took an active part in the storming of the Winter Palace.
Fanny kaplan
Since the name of Pavel Malkov is associated with a story that occurred in early September 1918, it is worth saying a few words about this woman. Fanny Kaplan was born into a poor Jewish family. At the age of 15, she became a member of the revolutionary movement. However, she failed to commit a single terrorist act. When a young revolutionary was preparing a bomb in a Kiev hotel, an explosion occurred. Kaplan was arrested. During the explosion, several fragments fell into the eyes, as a result of which vision began to fall sharply.
In 1917, many revolutionaries were freed. Among them was Fanny Kaplan, who by the beginning of 1918 was in Moscow.
Interrogations in the Lubyanka
Investigators have failed to understand the motives of this crime. They interrogated the 28-year-old terrorist for three days. At first, Fanny did not answer their questions and behaved very strangely. On the second day I started talking. However, she insisted that she committed a crime on her own initiative. On the third day, Kaplan told the investigators a lot. True, she did not report where she got the revolver.
Suddenly, an order came to shoot the criminal. This surprised the investigators a lot. Indeed, in the end, Kaplan would admit to who is the main organizer of the assassination attempt on Lenin.
Smolny
Let us return to Pavel Malkov, who in 1918 served as commandant of the Kremlin. The memoirs published in the late fifties, of course, were written by professional writers and edited by strict censors. There is nothing personal about them. Only ideologically verified information about the events of 1917-1918.
Malkov did not tell about his childhood or relatives in his book. He began with a story about how he received the post of commandant. And this happened at the end of October 1917. The memoirs with inspiration tell about the first days of the existence of the Soviet state. The representatives of the working class finally got even with the capitalists and landowners. Behind Malkov, participation in underground organizations, prison, service in the navy. Ahead is a bright future. But in order to achieve it, uncompromisingness, decisiveness, and devotion to the party are necessary. The fact that Malkov possessed all these qualities is evidenced by an excerpt from memoirs in which the author talks about the execution of Kaplan.
Execution
Kaplan was interrogated at Lubyanka. The rest of the time she was in the Kremlin, under the supervision of sentries, whom Malkov personally selected. On September 3, the Kremlin commandant received an order to shoot a half-blind revolutionary. "There will be no mercy for the enemies of the revolution," Pavel Malkov thought admirably, and set off to do his duty. Kaplan was shot near the ninth building of the Kremlin. The body was put in a barrel and burned. In his book of memoirs, Malkov wrote that if he had again received such an order, he would have executed it without hesitation.