History of detective work in Russia, book 1. Founder of the spy service of the Security Department of the Police Department
Eustratius (Evstrat) Pavlovich Mednikov (December , Yaroslavl - December 2nd , Saint Petersburg) - figure in the Russian political investigation, associate of S. V. Zubatov, creator of the school of surveillance agents.
Biography
Evstraty Pavlovich Mednikov died on December 2 1914 in one of the psychiatric clinics Petersburg.
Feedback from a colleague
Characteristics of E. P. Mednikov, given by his colleague A. I. Spiridovich:
| Mednikov was a simple, illiterate man, an Old Believer who had previously served as a police overseer. Natural mind, quick wits, cunning, ability to work and perseverance pushed him forward. He understood fillership as a contract for work, went through it like a hunchback and soon became a contractor, instructor and controller. He created his own school in this matter - the Mednikovskaya, or, as they said then, the "Evstratkin" school. His own for the fillers, who in the majority were soldiers even then, he knew and understood them well, knew how to talk, get along and manage with them. Zubatov was an unmercenary in the full sense of the word, he was an idealist in his field; Mednikov is reality itself, life itself. All calculations are his. Working for ten people and often spending the night in the department on a leather sofa, at the same time he did not lose sight of his private interests. Near Moscow, he had "an estate with bulls, cows and ducks, there was a house," there was everything. Working hands were free - do what you want; his man - his wife, a good, simple woman, ran the household. Arriving in Moscow, I found Mednikov already a senior official for assignments, with Vladimir in his buttonhole, who at that time gave the rights of hereditary nobility. He had already straightened out all the documents for the nobility, had a letter and was busy compiling his coat of arms; a bee appeared on the coat of arms as a symbol of diligence, there were also sheaves. |
In popular culture
Mednikov is the prototype of Evgrafy Petrovich Medyannikov in the series "Empire Under Attack", who, together with the titular adviser Pavel Nesterovich Putilovsky and lieutenant Ivan Karlovich Berg, was part of a special investigation team to combat the terrorist Fighting Organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. However, Evgrafiy Petrovich, unlike his protagonist, is only an experienced filler, apparently he is a non-commissioned officer and continues his career after 1906. Mediannikov was played by actor Valentin Bukin. The image of Mednikov is also used in the novel
Mednikov and Menshikov
The head of the Moscow security department, S.V. Zubatov, did not look at cooperation as a simple purchase and sale, but saw it as an ideological matter and tried to impress it on the officers. He also taught to treat employees with respect.
“You, gentlemen,” he said, “should look at the employee as a beloved woman with whom you are in an illegal relationship. Take care of her like the apple of your eye. One careless step of yours and you will disgrace her. Remember this, treat these people in the way I advise you, and they will understand you, trust you and work with you honestly and selflessly. Drive away the artisans, they are not workers, they are corrupt skins. You cannot work with them. Never tell anyone the name of your employee, even to your superiors. Forget his real name yourself and remember only by his pseudonym.
Remember that in the work of an employee, no matter how devoted he is to you, and no matter how honestly he works, there will come a moment of psychological turning point. Don't miss this moment. This is the moment when you must part ways with your employee. He can no longer work. It's hard for him. Let him go. Break up with him. Lead him carefully out of the revolutionary circle, arrange him in a legal place, get him a pension, do everything in human power to thank him and say goodbye to him in an amicable way.
Remember that having ceased to work in a revolutionary environment, having become a peaceful member of society, he will continue to be useful for the state, although not an employee, he will be useful already in a new position. You lose an employee, but you gain a friend in the community for the government, useful person for the state."
Thanks to such views of Zubatov, the work of searching acquired an interesting character. By putting these views into practice, Zubatov was able to raise the internal agents to a rare height. The department's awareness was amazing. Engaging in revolutionary work in Moscow was considered a hopeless affair.
Zubatov spoke beautifully and convincingly, preparing future leaders of the political search from officers, but it was difficult for them to immediately perceive this state point of view on internal agents. They accepted, as indisputable, all advice regarding an employee, and yet the latter, in the eyes of the officers, were traitors in relation to their comrades.
Zubatov's right hand was Yevstraty Pavlovich Mednikov, a man of about fifty at that time. He was in charge of surveillance agents, or snitches, who, observing the persons given to them on the street, found out outwardly what they were doing, whom they met and what places they visited. External surveillance developed the data of internal agents.
Mednikov was a simple, illiterate man, an Old Believer who had previously served as a police overseer. Natural mind, quick wit, cunning, ability to work and perseverance pushed him forward. He understood fillership as a contract for work, went through it like a hump and soon became a contractor, instructor and controller. He created his own school in this business - Mednikovskaya, or, as they said then, "Evstratkin school." His own for the fillers, who in the majority were soldiers even then, he knew and understood them well, knew how to talk, get along and manage with them.
Twelve o'clock at night, a huge low room with a large oak table in the middle is full of fillers. Young, old and old, with weather-beaten faces, they stand in a circle along the walls in the usual pose - legs apart and hands clasped back.
Each in turn reports to Mednikov the observation data and then submits a note where what was said is noted by hours and minutes, with a note of the money spent on the service.
- What about Wolf? Mednikov asks one of the fillers.
“The wolf, Yevstraty Pavlovich,” he answers, “is very careful. The exit checks when entering somewhere, it also checks again on turns, and sometimes around corners too. Grated…
“The rivet,” reports another, “runs like a hare, no conspiracy ... Completely stupid ...
Mednikov listens attentively to the reports about all these Rivets, Wolves, Smart, Fast and Jackdaws - that's how everyone who was under surveillance was called by nicknames. He draws conclusions, then nods approvingly, then expresses dissatisfaction.
But then he went up to the filer, who, apparently, loves to drink. He looks confused; silent, as if he felt guilty.
- Well, report! - Mednikov says ironically. Confused and stuttering, the spy begins to explain how he and another spy Aksyonov watched Kulik, how he went “to Kozikhinsky lane, building 3, and never left, they didn’t wait for him.”
“So it didn’t come out,” Mednikov continues to be ironic.
“He didn’t come out, Yevstraty Pavlovich.
- How long have you been waiting for him?
- A long time, Yevstraty Pavlovich.
– Until when?
- Until eleven, Yevstraty Pavlovich.
Here Mednikov can no longer stand it anymore. He already knows from the elder that the fillers left their post for the pub at about seven o'clock, without waiting for the release of the observed, which is why he was not taken further. And Kulik was supposed to have an interesting meeting in the evening with a visitor who had to be identified. Now this unknown visitor is missing.
Turning purple, Mednikov scoops up the filler's face with his hand and begins to calmly give teeth. He only hums and, finally freeing himself, sobs:
- Evstraty Pavlovich, sorry, it's my fault!
- Guilty, bastard, so say that you are guilty, speak directly, and do not lie! You are young to lie to me! Understood?
This is violence in its own way. What happened in the dealership was known only to the dealers and Mednikov. There are rewards, and punishments, and salary increases, and fines ...
Looking at the expense. Mednikov usually said: "Okay, good." Finding exaggerations in the bill, he said calmly: “Throw off fifty kopecks, you are paying a cab driver dearly, throw off!” And the filler “threw off”, knowing that, firstly, Evstraty Pavlovich was right, and secondly, disputes were useless anyway.
In addition to their fillers, the Moscow Security Department also had a flying filler detachment, which Mednikov was also in charge of. This detachment traveled around Russia, developing undercover information of Zubatov or the department.
It was the old medical school. There were no better fillers, although they drank great and for everyone. prying eyes seemed undisciplined and obnoxious. They recognized only Mednikov. The Mednikovsky filler could lie in the tank above the bath (which was necessary once) for the whole evening, he could wait for long hours in the terrible frost of the observed in order to then lead him home and establish where he lives; he could jump on a train without luggage for the person being observed and leave suddenly, often without money, thousands of miles away; he got abroad, not knowing languages, and knew how to get out.
His spy stood like a cabman in such a way that the most experienced and professional revolutionary could not recognize him as an agent. He knew how to pretend to be both a match merchant and a hawker in general. If necessary, he could pretend to be a fool and talk to the observed, allegedly failing himself and his superiors. When the service demanded, he with complete dedication continued to observe even the militant, knowing that he risked getting a bullet or a knife stab on the outskirts of the city, which happened.
The only thing that the Mednikovsky filler did not have was the consciousness of his own professional dignity. He was an excellent craftsman, but he was not imbued with the fact that there was nothing shameful in his profession. This Mednikov could not instill in them. In this regard, the provincial gendarmerie non-commissioned officers, who walked in civilian clothes and performed the duties of filers, stood much higher, understanding their job as a public service. Later, civilian fillers, subordinate to gendarmerie officers, were brought up in this spirit, which ennobled their service and helped the cause a lot.
In all disclosures of the Moscow branch, the role of external surveillance was very great.
The department had its own good photographer and decipherer of secret letters, as well as its own learned Jew, who knew everything about Jewishness, which was a great help when working in the Pale of Settlement. There was, finally, another figure who thundered later in the revolutionary world, an official for instructions E.P. Menshikov, once, as they said, was a member of one of the revolutionary organizations, who then ended up in the department and made a great bureaucratic career in it, and later in the Police Department.
Gloomy, silent, correct, always coldly polite, respectable blond in gold glasses and with a small beard, Menshikov was a rare worker. He kept to himself. He often went on business trips, while at home he "sat on the perusal", that is, he wrote to the Police Department answers to his papers on clarification of various perlustrated letters. He also wrote general reports to the department according to internal agents.
Menshikov knew the revolutionary milieu, and his reports on revolutionary figures were exhaustive. There was one big thing behind him. It was said that in those years the department had mastered the turnouts and all the data with which a certain foreign representative of one of the revolutionary organizations had to travel around a number of cities and give the groups appropriate instructions. Menshikov was given the obtained information and, armed with it, he, as a delegate, traveled around all the necessary points, met with representatives of local groups and carried out a head audit. In other words, he successfully played the revolutionary Khlestakov.
Later, taken to St. Petersburg, to the department, which served for many years in the public service, which undoubtedly brought great benefit government, he was fired by the director of the department, Trusevich. Then Menshikov, while abroad, began to publish the secrets that he knew.
Admission to the search institutions of persons who had previously been members of revolutionary organizations was, of course, unacceptable. The underground revolutionary environment acted too corruptingly on its members through unscrupulousness, idleness, chatter, so that a decent official could emerge from it. He was either a bad worker or a traitor to the interests of the state in the name of party spirit and revolution.
There were exceptions, of course, but they were exceptions.
But since the government allowed this, then correcting the mistake in such a surgical way, which Trusevich resorted to, brought only new harm to the same government.
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The novels of Boris Akunin, like the films based on his works, are simply flooded with real historical figures. Moreover, they are not just mentioned in passing - doers Russian history are active and prominent characters in all stories about the adventures of Erast Fandorin.
The only trouble is that the average citizen of the Russian Federation is burdened with knowledge of history in an equally average volume, and often he simply remains unaware of the transparent hints of Grigory Shalvovich. How many viewers of the "Turkish Gambit" deciphered the famous General Skobelev in Sobolev in love; Office of Nikolai Vladimirovich Mezentsov? Further everywhere: Perepelkin - Kuropatkin, Konetsky - Ganetsky, etc.
Meanwhile, it is very pleasant to feel smart. You watch on the screen how Sobolev, performed by Alexander Baluev, proposes to Varenka Suvorova, and you think sympathetically: “So this love will bring you to the grave, Mikhail Dmitrich. You will die exactly five years after the events described, in the restaurant “England”, which was once located in Stoleshnikov Lane in Moscow, in the room of the well-known prostitute Wanda throughout Moscow, who after that will never get rid of the nickname “Skobelev’s Grave.” And she will bury the famous 39-year-old “white general”, the conqueror of Turkestan and the captor of the Wessel army pasha, all of Russia, and the peasants who fled from all over the province will carry your coffin in their arms for 30 kilometers, and you will rest in peace in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on the border of the Ryazan and Tambov regions.
So that you can show off the prediction of the future fate of the heroes of Philip Yankovsky's tape at the upcoming premiere of "State Counselor" today, I offer a short story about the three heroes of Akunin's novel. And in order not to reveal the secrets at all, we will take not the most noticeable ones.
Appearing closer to the finale, Grand Duke Simeon Alexandrovich, performed by Alexander Strizhenov, is the younger brother of the then Emperor Alexander III, the fourth son of Alexander II, Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov. Studied history with S.M. Solovyov, and to the law - from the future Chief Prosecutor K.P. Pobedonostsev, he became famous after the same Russian-Turkish war 1877-78, which will now long be associated with the Russian audience with the "Turkish Gambit". He served in the Ruschuk detachment under the command of his brother Alexander, the future emperor, participated in hostilities and even earned a high officer award - the St. George Cross.
In the same 1891, in which the events of the "State Counselor" take place, by the Highest Decree, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed Moscow Governor-General. He replaced the famous Moscow "grandfather", Prince V.A. Dolgorukov (in the film - Prince Dolgoruky performed by Oleg Tabakov), who was already 80 years old, and by that time he had ruled the "second capital" for more than a quarter of a century, Luzhkov is resting.
Sergei Alexandrovich, who offended Fandorin, did not reach such records, he served as the ruler of the capital for "only" 14 years. And if Dolgoruky left the Cathedral of Christ the Savior as a monument to himself, then the Grand Duke was remembered for founding the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) and the Historical Museum, which rivals the Hermitage. But in the memory of his descendants, he remained not only feats in the field of museum work. On it - "Khodynka". It was under him that in Moscow for the first time they began to catch "illegal migrants." But then the Jews acted as Azerbaijanis and Tajiks, by hook or by crook getting out of the "Pale of Settlement". By order of the governor-general, raids were organized on them with the aim of deporting them to their homeland, and the "civilian population" was also involved in helping the police: for each identified illegal Jew, the janitor received 3 rubles from a special police fund.
His activities on guard of the "former capital" were stopped by the same "bombers" who, according to Akunin, served as the main tool in the intrigue that brought Sergei Alexandrovich the post of Moscow mayor. The fact is that by the time of the first Russian revolution, the Moscow mayor had become the de facto head of the court "conservatives" and a bogeyman in the eyes of the "liberal public." After the brutal dispersal of student demonstrations on December 5 and 6, 1904, he had to resign, and the Socialist-Revolutionaries staged a real hunt for him by the forces of the Azef and Savinkov battle group. It was crowned with success - on February 4/17, 1905, the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev threw a bomb into the carriage of the Grand Duke, and he was literally torn to pieces. A memorial cross was erected at the place of death, which became famous later. It was from him that after the revolution of 1917 the "destruction of the monuments of the old regime" began - on May 1, 1918, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin personally tied a rope to him, and the cross was thrown off the pedestal.
Two more heroes of Akunin's novel are modest employees of the Moscow Security Department, a collegiate assessor Evstraty Pavlovich Mylnikov and a senior official for assignments Sergey Vitalyevich Zubtsov. In real history, Evstratiy Pavlovich Mednikov and Sergey Vasilyevich Zubatov lived a life worthy of a separate novel.
Mednikov was from the Old Believers, as they say, "from the simple." An illiterate peasant began serving as an ordinary city policeman in Moscow, but soon his natural intelligence led to the fact that he was noticed in the Security Department and taken to his place - a filer, a "trampler". And they did not fail - he showed a brilliant talent for this matter. Having quickly gone through all the steps of the career ladder, he became the head of the spy service of the Moscow secret police and, in fact, created a new system of surveillance service. Here is how the former Major General of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes Alexander Spiridovich recalls about him:
“He created his own school in this matter - the Mednikovskaya, or, as they said then, the “Evstratkin” school. There were no better fillers, although they drank great and seemed undisciplined and unpleasant to any prying eyes. They recognized only Mednikov. The Mednikovsky filler could lie in a tank above the bath (which was once necessary) for a whole evening; he could wait for long hours in a terrible frost, he could jump on a train without luggage to be observed and leave suddenly, often without money, thousands of miles away; he went abroad, not knowing languages, and knew how to get out."
Later, it was through the efforts of Mednikov and his permanent boss Zubatov that the famous "Flying Squad" was created - a group of superprofessional detectives, which, like " Ambulance", sent to any point Russian Empire at every high-profile case. Mednikov, together with Zubatov, moved to the capital, where in 1902 he was appointed "head of surveillance for the entire Empire." At the zenith of his career, the former Vanka guard rose to the rank of senior officer for assignments, received "Vladimir" in his buttonhole, hereditary nobility and his own coat of arms, which depicted a bee - a symbol of hard work. He died on his estate in 1914.
His long-term boss, Sergei Zubatov, is remembered by many workers of the same name - those who studied the "History of the CPSU" have heard a lot about "Zubatovism". But Sergei Vasilyevich was engaged not only in the organization of workers' circles. The future thunderstorm of revolutionaries began as one of them - in his youth, Zubatov hobnobbed with nihilists, was expelled from the gymnasium, organized illegal circles, was arrested by the police, released on bail, etc. He was saved from a term "for politics" by the fact that in 1885 he was recruited by the gendarmerie captain Berdyaev and became a secret officer of the Okhrana, in common parlance - "sexot". With his help, many "bombers" were taken, and in 1889, realizing that exposure was inevitable, the modest telegraph operator switched to legal work in the police.
And here, like with Mednikov, his talent as an analyst and organizer was fully revealed. Zubatov made a dizzying career, in fact, it was he who created a professional political investigation in the Russian Empire, the same investigation that prevented many terrorist attacks and managed to infiltrate his agents at the very top of all radical parties. An unprecedented fact - just five years after the start of the service, Zubatov, without an officer's rank, in 1894 became an assistant to the head of the Moscow Security Department, and in 1896 - his head. Then he was transferred to St. Petersburg, to the capital, where he began to lead the political investigation in the country, heading the famous special department of the Police Department. By the way, many features of Prince Pozharsky, whose role in the film was played by Nikita Mikhalkov, are written off from Akunin Zubatov.
The unprecedented rapid rise of the police "wunderkind" and his planned alliance with Prime Minister Witte greatly frightened the all-powerful Minister of the Interior V.K. Pleve, who dismissed Colonel Zubatov at the first opportunity. After the death of V.K. Having learned about the abdication of Mikhail Romanov on March 2, 1917, on the same day he shot himself in his apartment, taking all his secrets to the grave.
Evstraty (Evstrat) Pavlovich Mednikov(December 1853, Yaroslavl - December 2, 1914, St. Petersburg) - figure in the Russian political investigation, associate of S. V. Zubatov, creator of the school of surveillance agents.
Biography
Born in 1853 in the family of a Yaroslavl peasant merchant from the Old Believers. He graduated from the parochial school. After completing military service, in 1881, he retired to the reserve with the rank of non-commissioned officer. In the same year he entered the police service as a freelance police officer. After the creation of the Moscow Security Department, he went to work there as a filer - an agent of surveillance. In a short time he went through the entire spy service and soon became a contractor, instructor and controller. In 1890, he headed the entire spy work of the Moscow Security Department. While working in the Moscow Security Department, he created the best school of fillers in Russia, which was called "Mednikovskaya". For success in service, he received the rank of senior officer for assignments, was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir and received a certificate of nobility.
After the Moscow Security Department was headed by Sergei Zubatov, Mednikov became his closest assistant and right hand. Mednikov maintained a safe house where Zubatov met with his secret agents. At the same time, he was in charge of the cash desk of the Moscow Security Department, thanks to which he amassed a good fortune. In all disclosures made by the department, the role of external filer observation was very great. Therefore, the joint work of Zubatov, who was in charge of internal agents, and Mednikov, who was in charge of external surveillance, allowed the Moscow Security Department to come to the fore in political investigation in Russia. “These two people, Zubatov and Mednikov, made up something unified, the very essence of the Moscow branch, its main lever,” recalled Zubatov’s student A. I. Spiridovich.
In 1894, a special “Flying Detachment of Filers”, or “Special Detachment of Observational Agents”, headed by Mednikov, was created at the Moscow Security Department, directly subordinate to the Police Department. On behalf of the Police Department, the Flying Squad traveled all over Russia and developed undercover information, supplementing them with surveillance data. The Mednikovsky "Flying Squad" was entrusted with the most responsible cases of searching for revolutionaries in all regions of the empire. According to A. I. Spiridovich, Mednikov’s fillers were distinguished by high professionalism and were not inferior to professional revolutionaries in their ability to conspire. After the reform of the system of political investigation in 1903, the fillers from the Mednikov "Flying Squad" were appointed heads of surveillance in all newly opened security departments.
In 1902, S. V. Zubatov was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he headed the Special Department of the Police Department. Together with him, Zubatov took Mednikov, who was appointed head of the external surveillance of the Police Department, to a new place of service. In this post, Mednikov outlived Zubatov. After Zubatov was dismissed in 1903 due to a personal quarrel with Minister V. K. Plehve, Mednikov retained his position and remained in his post until 1906. The demand for Mednikov as a specialist was so great that he managed to maintain his position under six interior ministers: Sipyagin, Plehve, Svyatopolk-Mirsky, Bulygin, Durnovo and Stolypin.
In 1906, Mednikov retired with the rank of court councilor with the right of hereditary nobility. He settled in his estate in the Gorokhovets district of the Vladimir province, where he worked agriculture. Before recent years life maintained a correspondence with Sergei Zubatov and his students on the case of a police search. In 1910, Mednikov fell ill with a serious mental illness and until 1913 was treated in a psychiatric hospital. Some authors associate Mednikov's mental illness with the betrayal of L.P. Menshchikov, who for 20 years was his close ally, and in 1909 went over to the side of the revolutionaries and began to publish lists of secret agents of the Police Department abroad. For Mednikov, this was a heavy blow.
Few of the real-life police officials are as lucky as the hero of my today's post. He became a character in both books and films, with one degree or another of plausibility representing this colorful personality to the public. But first, an EPIGRAPH. So:
“Masa was waiting near the grate. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he quickly spoke, leading Fandorin along the pond. “See for yourself. The bad man Myrnikov and five others with him crept into the house through that porch. minutes ago." He glanced with pleasure at the gold watch, given to him by Erst Petrovich for the 50th anniversary of the Mikado. "I immediately called you.
- Oh, how bad! the engineer exclaimed with anguish. “That jackal sniffed it out and ruined everything again!”
Boris Akunin. " Diamond Chariot". Publishing house "Zakharov". 2005. P. 154.
Yevstraty Pavlovich Mednikov was born in 1853 in the family of a Yaroslavl peasant merchant from the Old Believers. Mednikov adhered to the Old Believer traditions all his life, that is, he did not drink alcohol and tobacco. army, which he completed in 1881 with the rank of non-commissioned officer. It was necessary to choose the road, Mednikov went along the beaten path, deciding to continue serving the Tsar and the Fatherland in the police. .Mednikov becomes a freelance police officer, and after the creation of the Moscow Security Department, he goes there as a filler, an agent of surveillance. It was here that he found his true calling!
The Surveillance Service exists as long as the state itself exists, as a system of organizing human society. Since ancient times, people have wanted to receive information about other people. And now they want to, even to a greater extent than before. the state belongs to the method of government - dictatorship or democracy, it doesn’t matter. By the way, a democratic state often resorts to more sophisticated forms of surveillance than tyranny. A fresh scandal flashed in today's news - Council Homeland Security The United States threatens to sue some media outlets - they, de, have divulged too much about how special services spy on citizens, total wiretapping of phones, supervision of Internet traffic, etc. The president has already apologized ... Yes, Mednikov would have such means in the hands ... So there is nothing so disgusting in the "outdoor" itself, the collection of information about suspicious subjects, nothing more. Usual work.
Evstraty Pavlovich understood this as a contract for work, and therefore he treated him very conscientiously. The authorities appreciated his zeal, Mednikov moved up the steps of an intelligence career - an instructor, contractor, controller. In 1890, E.P. Mednikov headed the entire surveillance service, and after the appointment of S.V. Zubatov as the head of the Moscow Security Department, he simply becomes his right hand, an indispensable assistant. A.I. Spiridovich, himself a student of Zubatov, speaks of these two people in this way: "These two people, Zubatov and Mednikov, made up something one , the very essence of the Moscow branch, its main lever." Moreover, the same Spiridovich noted that they were completely different people in nature - the ideological servant of the throne, the idealist and unmercenary Zubatov and the absolutely mundane practitioner Mednikov. But together they perfectly complemented each other. Zubatov introduced agents into anti-government organizations. to a height that had not yet been achieved before him. A simple man, he easily found a common language with sleuths, the same former soldiers as he was. .The detachment was directly subordinated to the head of the Police Department. These agents, specially trained and trained by Mednikov, could lead the "object" throughout the territory of the Empire. Yes, Mednikov created his own school of surveillance agents, it was also called Mednikovskaya or "Evstratkin school." Unofficially, of course .
The result of such work was not slow to affect - the revolutionary movement in Moscow was completely liquidated. Zubatov was transferred to St. Petersburg, he took Mednikov with him, of course. , without education, receives the rank of court adviser, orders, nobility. General A.I. Spiridovich, himself a born nobleman, paints a portrait of Yevstraty Pavlovich not without a condescending smile. back, blue eyes. Simple, more precisely, common people's speech. Since by the time they met Mednikov, along with the Order of St. already received a diploma for the nobility, Spiridovich and found him drawing his own coat of arms, with ears of wheat, which he told about in his memoirs, not without humor. But in general, Spiridovich was sympathetic to Evstraty Pavlovich, especially since Mednikov and his many taught.
S.V. Zubatov knew how to "see at the root" of the problem. Hence his desire not only to liquidate individual revolutionary organizations, but to knock out from under the feet of the revolutionaries the very basis of their activity - the labor movement. This topic is large and very separate, but here I remind you that Zubatov attracted the priest Father Georgy Gapon, who had become famous in the capital by that time, to work in legal workers' organizations. Perhaps the astute Zubatov would have controlled the priest's activities in the way he needed, but ... In 1903, Minister V.K. Pleve threw out Zubatov with disgrace from the service (without a pension!), He expelled from the capital, forbade him to live in Moscow, sent him to live in Vladimir, and he didn’t forget to put police supervision. Few came to see Zubatov off at the station, there was a rumor - whoever comes will also be fired. There were Mednikov and Gapon. According to Zubatov’s plan, it was Mednikov who was supposed to control the work of the holy father. It would seem that he had the cards in his hands - cling to Gapon’s cassock with a “tail” and read the reports of agents to yourself. However, Yevstraty Pavlovich did not cope with this task. If if he had put Gapon under surveillance, the contacts of the holy father with the Social Democratic organization of the Vasily Ostrov Workers would have been revealed for sure, it would have become clear that the priest was playing some kind of game of his own. But Mednikov trusted the priest, however, he was not alone, but still. ..It turns out that he was not such a jackal.
After the resignation of Zubatov (and such a resignation!), Mednikov did not interrupt relations with him until the end of his life, maintaining correspondence. He was in demand and remained in his post until 1906, having served under six ministers of the interior. In 1906 he retired , having settled in his own estate - cows, chickens, ducks, a household, a housewife - again, what else does a person need to calmly meet old age? However, fate dealt Yevstraty Pavlovich such a blow that he did not expect and from a completely unexpected one. In his former service, Mednikov had to work hand in hand with Leonid Petrovich Menshchikov (emphasis on the letter "O"). Menshchikov was the same closest collaborator of Zubatov as Mednikov. awarded, including those that neither Zubatov nor Mednikov had. Namely, valuable gifts from the Cabinet of His Majesty. Twice - a gold watch with diamonds, a royal monogram and a coat of arms and gold cufflinks and pebbles, again and the sovereign's monogram. And then Mednikov in 1909 learns that Menshchikov, having retired, went beyond the cordon and publishes lists of agents in socialist publications, including those people whom he, Menshchikov, personally recruited. Mednikov had a severe breakdown, he plunged into depression, had to turn to doctors. From time to time, Evstraty Pavlovich underwent treatment in the capital's psychiatric hospital, where he died in 1914, having lived 61 years of age.
In modern culture, this character served as a prototype for Evgrafy Petrovich Medyanikov in the television series "Empire Under Attack". There, his role is played by the actor Valentin Bukin. He also appears in the famous books of B. Akunin and in the film adaptation of one of them, embodied by Mikhail Efremov.
