History of the investigation in Russia, book 1. Founder of the filing service of the Security Division of the Police Department
Evstratiy (Evstrat) Pavlovich Mednikov ( December , Yaroslavl - December 2nd , St. Petersburg) - a leader of the Russian political investigation, associate of S.V. Zubatov, the founder of the school of surveillance agents.
Biography
Evstratiy Pavlovich Mednikov died on December 2 1914 year in one of the psychiatric clinics St. Petersburg.
Colleague review
The characteristic of E.P. Mednikov, given by his colleague A.I.Spiridovich:
| Mednikov was a simple, illiterate person, an Old Believer who had previously served as a police overseer. Natural intelligence, quick wit, cunning, ability to work and perseverance put him forward. He understood phishing as a contract for work, passed it like a hump and soon became a workman, instructor and controller. He created his own school in this business - Mednikovskaya, or, as they said at the time, "Evstratkin" school. His own for the spies, who were mostly soldiers even then, he knew and understood them well, knew how to talk, get along and manage with them. Zubatov was unmercenary in the full sense of the word, he was an idealist in his field; Mednikov is reality itself, life itself. All calculations are with him. Working for ten and often spending the night in the department on a leather sofa, he did not lose sight of his private interests. Near Moscow he had "a property with bulls, cows and ducks, there was also a house", there was everything. Working hands were free - do what you want; his own man - a wife, a good, simple woman, ran a 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 corrected all the documents for the nobility, had a letter and was busy drawing up his coat of arms; a bee appeared on the coat of arms as a symbol of hard work, there were also sheaves. |
In popular culture
Mednikov is the prototype of Evgrafy Petrovich Medyannikov in the series "Empire under attack", which, together with titular adviser Pavel Nesterovich Putilovsky and Lieutenant Ivan Karlovich Berg, was included in a special investigation group to combat the terrorist Combat Organization of the Social Revolutionaries. However, Evgrafy Petrovich, unlike his protagonist, is only an experienced filler, is, apparently, in the rank of non-commissioned officer and continues his career, and after 1906, Medyannikov 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 inspire the officers with it. He also taught to treat employees with care.
"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 as the apple of your eye. One careless step of yours and you will shame her. Remember this, treat this people as I advise you, and they will understand you, trust you and will work with you honestly and selflessly. Drive the shtuchnikov away, these are not employees, these 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 have to part ways with your employee. He can no longer work. It's hard for him. Let go of him. Break up with him. Take 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 as an employee, he will be useful in a new position. You lose your employee, but you gain in the society a friend for the government, a useful person for the government. "
Thanks to such views of Zubatov, the search took on an interesting character. Putting these views into practice, Zubatov managed to raise the internal agents to a rare height. The awareness of the department was amazing. Engaging in revolutionary work in Moscow was considered a hopeless task.
Zubatov spoke beautifully and convincingly, preparing the future leaders of the political investigation from the officers, but it was difficult for them to immediately perceive this state point of view on the internal agents. They accepted, as indisputable, all the advice regarding the employee, and yet the latter in the eyes of the officers were traitors in relation to their comrades.
Zubatov's right hand was Evstratiy Pavlovich Mednikov, a man in his fifties at the time. He was in charge of surveillance agents, or fillers, who, observing the persons given to them on the street, found out outwardly what they were doing, with whom they met and what places they visited. Outside surveillance developed data from internal agents.
Mednikov was a simple, illiterate person, an Old Believer who had previously served as a police overseer. Natural intelligence, boldness, cunning, ability to work and perseverance put him forward. He understood phishing as a contract for work, passed it with a hump and soon became a contractor, instructor and controller. He created his own school in this business - Mednikovskaya, or, as they said then, "Evstrakina 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.
It's twelve o'clock in the morning, a huge low room with a large oak table in the middle, full of fillers. Young, old and old, with chapped faces, they stand around the walls in the usual position - legs apart and arms folded 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 money spent on service.
- And what about the Wolf? - Asks Mednikov one of the fillers.
- Wolf, Evstratiy Pavlovich, - he replies, - very careful. He checks the exit when he goes somewhere, he also does the check and again at turns, and around corners, too, sometimes. Grated…
- Rivet, - reports another, - like a hare running around, no conspiracy ... Quite stupid ...
Mednikov listens attentively to reports about all these Rivets, Wolves, Clever, Fast and Jackdaws - that is how everyone who was observed was called by nicknames. He draws conclusions, then nods approvingly, then expresses dissatisfaction.
But then he approached the filler, who apparently loves to drink. He looks embarrassed; is silent, as if he feels that he is guilty.
- Well, report! - Says ironically Mednikov. Confused and stuttering, the filler begins to explain how he watched with another filler Aksyonov behind Kulik, how he entered "Kozikhinsky lane, building 3, but he never came out, they did not wait for him."
- So it didn't come out, - Mednikov continues to sneer.
- Didn't come out, Evstratiy Pavlovich.
- How long have you been waiting for him?
- Long time, Evstratiy Pavlovich.
- How long?
- Until eleven, Evstratiy Pavlovich.
Here Mednikov can no longer stand it. He already knows from the elder that the fillers left their posts in the pub at about seven o'clock, without waiting for the observed exit, which is why he was not carried out further. And in the evening Kulik was to have an interesting meeting with the newcomer, which had to be established. Now this unknown visitor has been missed.
Turning purple, Mednikov rakes up the face of the filler with his hand and begins to calmly jab. He just hums and, freeing himself, finally sobs:
- Evstratiy Pavlovich, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!
- You are guilty, you bastard, just say that you are guilty, speak directly, and do not lie! You are young to lie to me! Got it?
This is reprisal in its own way. Only the fillers and Mednikov knew what was going on in the filing room. There are awards, punishments, salary increases, and fines ...
By viewing the expense. Mednikov usually said: "Okay, good." Finding an exaggeration in the bill, he said calmly: "Throw off fifty dollars, it’s painfully expensive to pay the cabman, throw it off!" And the filler "threw off", knowing that firstly, Evstratiy Pavlovich was right, and secondly, all the same, disputes are useless.
In addition to its fillers, at the Moscow security department there was also a flying filler detachment, which Mednikov was also in charge of. This detachment traveled around Russia, developing intelligence information from Zubatov or the department.
It was the old mednikovskaya school. There was no better filler than his, although they drank well and seemed undisciplined and unpleasant to any prying eye. They only recognized Mednikov. Mednikovsky filler could lie in the tank above the bathroom (which was needed once) for the whole evening, he could wait for long hours in the terrible frost of the observed in order to take him home and establish where he lives; he could jump on the train without luggage to fetch the watched and leave suddenly, often without money, thousands of miles away; he went abroad, not knowing languages, and was able to wriggle out.
His spy was 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 a match dealer and a hawker in general. If necessary, he could pretend to be a fool and talk to the watched, 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 stabbing 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 artisan, but he was not imbued with the fact that there was nothing wrong with his profession. This Mednikov could not instill in them. In this respect, the provincial gendarme non-commissioned officers, who wore civilian clothes and acted as fillers, stood much higher, understanding their business as a public service. Later, civilian fillers, subordinate to the gendarme officers, were brought up in this spirit, which ennobled their service and helped a lot.
In all disclosures of the Moscow branch, the role of external surveillance was very important.
The department had its own good photographer and decipher 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. Finally, there was one more figure who thundered later in the revolutionary world, an official for the instructions of E.P. Menshikov, once, as they said, a member of one of the revolutionary organizations, who then ended up in the department and made in it, and then in the Police Department, a great bureaucratic career.
Sullen, taciturn, correct, always coldly polite, a respectable blond with gold glasses and a small beard, Menshikov was a rare worker. He kept himself apart. He often went on business trips, while at home he “sat on perlustration,” that is, he wrote to the Police Department the answers to his papers regarding the clarification of various perlustrated letters. He also wrote reports in general to the department on the basis of data from internal agents.
Menshikov knew the revolutionary environment, and his reports on the revolutionary leaders were exhaustive. There was one big deal behind him. It was said that in those years the department mastered the times and all the data with which a certain foreign representative of one of the revolutionary organizations had to go round a number of cities and give the groups the appropriate instructions. Menshikov was given the information he had obtained and, armed with it, he, as a delegate, traveled around all the necessary points in attendance, saw representatives of local groups and conducted an initial audit. In other words, he successfully played the revolutionary Khlestakov.
Later, taken to Petersburg, to a department that had served for many years in the civil service, which undoubtedly brought great benefit to the government, he was dismissed by the director of the department Trusevich. Then Menshikov, while abroad, began to publish the secrets that he knew.
The admission of persons who had previously been members of revolutionary organizations to search institutions was, of course, unacceptable. The underground revolutionary milieu acted too corruptingly on its members with unprincipledness, 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 partisanship and revolution.
There were, of course, exceptions, but they were exactly the exceptions.
But since the government allowed this, then correcting the mistake in such a surgical way, to which Trusevich resorted, only brought new harm to the same government.
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Boris Akunin's novels, like films based on his works, are simply flooded with real historical figures. And they are not just mentioned in passing - the makers of Russian history are active and noticeable characters in all the 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 the same average volume, and often he simply does not know the transparent hints of Grigory Shalvovich. How many spectators of the "Turkish Gambit" deciphered in the enamored Sobolev - the famous General Skobelev, guessed under the plump Fandorin chief Mizinov the chief of the Separate Gendarme Corps and the head of the Third Section of his own E.I. Office of Nikolai Vladimirovich Mezentsov? Further everywhere: Perepelkin - Kuropatkin, Konetsky - Ganetsky, etc.
Meanwhile, it is quite pleasant to feel smart. You watch on the screen how Sobolev, performed by Alexander Baluev, proposes to Varenka Suvorova, and you think sympathetically: "This love will bring you, Mikhail Dmitrich, to the grave. You will die exactly five years after the events described, in the England restaurant that was once located in Stoleshnikov Lane in Moscow, in the room of a prostitute known throughout Moscow, Wanda, who after that will never get rid of the nickname "Skobelev's Grave." Pasha, all of Russia, and the peasants who have fled from all over the province will carry your coffin in their arms 30 kilometers, and you will rest in peace in the Transfiguration Church on the border of Ryazan and Tambov regions. "
So that you can shine with a prediction of the future fate of the heroes of the film by Philip Yankovsky at the upcoming premiere of "The 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, let's take the less noticeable ones.
Grand Duke Simeon Alexandrovich, who appears closer to the final, 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 right to the future Chief Prosecutor K.P. Pobedonostsev, he became famous after the very Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78, which will now be associated with the "Turkish Gambit" for a long time in the Russian audience. 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's award - the St. George's Cross.
In the same year 1891, in which the events of the "State Councilor" take place, by the highest decree, the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed the Moscow Governor-General. He replaced the famous Moscow "grandfather", Prince V.A. Dolgorukov (in the film - Prince Dolgorukoy performed by Oleg Tabakov), who was already 80 years old, and he ran the "second capital" by that time 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 as a monument to himself the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, then the Grand Duke was remembered for the founding of the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) and the Historical Museum, which rival the Hermitage. But in the memory of his descendants, he remained not only the exploits in the field of museum affairs. On it - "Khodynka". It was during his time in Moscow that they began to catch "illegal migrants" for the first time. It was only in the role of Azerbaijanis and Tajiks that Jews acted at that time, by hook or by crook they got out of the Pale of Settlement. By order of the governor-general, they were raided with the aim of expelling them to their homeland, and the "civilian population" was also involved in the assistance of 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 suppressed by the very "bombers" who, according to Akunin, served as the main instrument 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 bogey 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 Social Revolutionaries staged a real hunt for him with the forces of the combat group of Azef and Savinkov. 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 with him, after the revolution of 1917, that the "destruction of the monuments of the old regime" began - on May 1, 1918, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin personally tied a rope to it, and the cross was thrown from the pedestal.
Two more heroes of Akunin's novel are modest employees of the Moscow Security Department, the collegiate assessor Evstratiy Pavlovich Mylnikov and the senior official for assignments, Sergei Vitalievich Zubtsov. In real history, Evstratiy Pavlovich Mednikov and Sergei Vasilievich 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 his service as an ordinary city policeman in the Moscow police, but soon his natural cunning led to the fact that he was noticed in the Security Department and taken to him - a filler, a "trampler". And they did not lose - he had a brilliant talent for this business. Quickly passing all the steps of the career ladder, he became the head of the filing service of the Moscow "secret police" and, in fact, created a new system of surveillance services. This is how the former Major General of the Separate Gendarme Corps Alexander Spiridovich recalls him:
“He created his own school in this matter - Mednikovskaya, or, as they said at the time,“ Evstratkin's ”school. There was no better spy, although they drank well and seemed unruly and unpleasant to any outsider's eyes. They recognized only Mednikov. Mednikov spy could lie in the tank above the bathroom (which was needed once) the whole evening; he could wait for long hours in the terrible frost, he could jump on the train without luggage and leave suddenly, often without money, thousands of miles away; he went abroad without knowing languages, and knew how to wriggle 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 an ambulance, was sent to any point of the Russian Empire for any high-profile case. Mednikov, together with Zubatov, moved to the capital, where in 1902 he was appointed "the head of external surveillance of the entire Empire." At the zenith of his career, the former Vanka-sentry rose to the rank of senior official 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 longtime boss, Sergei Zubatov, is remembered by many workers' movements of the same name - those who have studied "History of the CPSU" have heard a lot about "Zubatovism". But Sergei Vasilievich was engaged not only in organizing workers' circles. The future thunderstorm of the 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, was released on bail, etc. He was saved from the term "for politics" by the fact that in 1885 he was recruited by the gendarme captain Berdyaev and became a secret officer of the secret police, in common parlance - a "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 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 very investigation that prevented many terrorist attacks and managed to introduce his agents to the very top of all radical parties. An unprecedented fact - just five years after the beginning of the service, Zubatov, without having an officer 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, it was with Zubatov Akunin that many of the features of Prince Pozharsky were written off, whose role in the film was played by Nikita Mikhalkov.
The unprecedented rapid rise of the police "prodigy" and his planned alliance with the Prime Minister Witte greatly frightened the all-powerful Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleve, who dismissed Colonel Zubatov at the earliest opportunity. After the death of V.K. Pleve as a result of the terrorist attack, Zubatov was forgiven, fully restored to his rights, received a solid pension, but never returned to the service. 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.
Evstratiy (Evstrat) Pavlovich Mednikov (December 1853, Yaroslavl - December 2, 1914, St. Petersburg) - leader of the Russian political investigation, associate of S. V. Zubatov, founder of the school of surveillance agents.
Biography
Born in 1853 into the family of a Yaroslavl peasant merchant from the Old Believers. Graduated from a parish school. After completing military service, in 1881, he retired to the reserve with the rank of non-commissioned officer. In the same year, he joined the police service as a freelance district overseer. After the creation of the Moscow security department, he went there to work as a filler - an agent of outdoor surveillance. In a short time he went through the entire filing service and soon became a contractor, instructor and controller. In 1890, he headed all the filing work of the Moscow security department. Working in the Moscow security department, he created the best filing school in Russia, which was named "Mednikovskaya". For success in the service he received the rank of senior official for assignments, was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir and received a diploma for the nobility.
After the Moscow security department was headed by Sergei Zubatov, Mednikov became his closest assistant and right hand. Mednikov kept a safe house where Zubatov met with his secret agents. At the same time, he was in charge of the cashier of the Moscow security department, thanks to which he made a good fortune. In all the disclosures made by the department, the role of external filler surveillance 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 the case of political investigation in Russia. “These two people, Zubatov and Mednikov, constituted something one, the very essence of the Moscow branch, its main lever,” recalled Zubatov's student AI Spiridovich.
In 1894, a special "Flying Squad of Fillers", or "Special Detachment of Observing Agents", headed by Mednikov, subordinate directly to the Police Department, was created at the Moscow Security Department. On behalf of the Police Department, the Flying Detachment traveled throughout Russia and developed intelligence information, supplementing them with data from external surveillance. Mednikovsky's "Flying Squad" was entrusted with the most responsible cases of finding revolutionaries in all regions of the empire. According to A.I.Spiridovich, the mednikovskie 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, fillers from the Mednikovsky "Flying Squad" were appointed heads of external surveillance in all newly opened security departments.
In 1902, S.V. Zubatov was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he headed the Special Section of the Police Department. Together with him, Zubatov took Mednikov to his new duty station, who was appointed head of the external surveillance of the Police Department. In this post, Mednikov outlived Zubatov. After in 1903 Zubatov was dismissed due to a personal quarrel with the minister V.K.Pleve, Mednikov retained his post 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, Pleve, Svyatopolk-Mirsky, Bulygin, Durnovo and Stolypin.
In 1906, Mednikov retired in the rank of court councilor with the right of hereditary nobility. He settled on his estate in the Gorokhovets district of the Vladimir province, where he was engaged in agriculture. Until the last years of his life, he kept up a correspondence with Sergei Zubatov and his students on the case of the 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 associate, and in 1909 went over to the side of the revolutionaries and began publishing lists of secret agents of the Police Department abroad. For Mednikov, this was a heavy blow.
Few of the real-life police ranks are so lucky as the hero of my post today. He became a character in both books and films, which, with some degree of believability, presented 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 began quickly, leading Fandorin along the pond. minutes ago. ”He glanced with pleasure at the gold watch, given to him by Erst Petrovich for the 50th anniversary of the Mikado.“ I called you right away.
- Oh, how bad! the engineer exclaimed longingly. - This jackal sniffed out and ruined everything again!
Boris Akunin. " Diamond Chariot". Publishing house" Zakharov ". 2005. Page 154.
Evstratiy 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 use alcohol and tobacco. He graduated from the parish school, this, in fact, his education was limited. Next - service in army, which he completed in 1881 with the rank of non-commissioned officer. It was necessary to choose the path, Mednikov went along the beaten path, deciding to continue serving the Tsar and the Fatherland in the police. The soldiers who served and replenished the ranks of the guards. So it was, and now is .Mednikov becomes a freelance supervisor, and after the creation of the Moscow Security Department, he goes there as a filler, an agent of outdoor surveillance. It was then that he found his true calling!
Surveillance service has existed for as long as the state itself, as a system of organization of human society. Since ancient times, people wanted to receive information about other people. And now they want, even more than before. At the same time, it absolutely does not matter to which one the way of government is the state - dictatorship or democracy, it doesn't matter. By the way, a democratic state often resorts to more sophisticated forms of surveillance than tyranny. Today's news flashed a fresh scandal - the US National Security Council threatens to bring some media to justice - they are, de, superfluous they disclosed about how the special services are spying on citizens, total wiretapping of telephones, supervision of Internet traffic, etc. The President has already apologized ... Yes, Mednikov would have such funds in his hands ... So there is nothing in the "outdoor" there is no such disgusting, collecting information about suspicious subjects, nothing more. Normal work.
Here Evstratiy Pavlovich understood this as a contract for work, and therefore treated him very conscientiously. The bosses appreciated his zeal, Mednikov moved up the steps of an agent's career - an instructor, a contractor, a 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, a student of Zubatov himself, says this about these two people: “These two people, Zubatov and Mednikov, were one thing , the very essence of the Moscow branch, its main lever. " Moreover, the same Spiridovich noted that these were completely different people by nature - the ideological servant of the throne, the idealist and unmercenary Zubatov and the absolutely down-to-earth practitioner Mednikov. But together they perfectly complemented each other. Zubatov introduced agents inside anti-government organizations. Mednikov also set up "outdoor" to such a height that they had not yet achieved. A simple man, he easily found a common language with fillers, the same former soldiers like him. In 1894, the Flying Squad of fillers or "Special Detachment of Observing Agents" was created, headed by Mednikov The detachment was subordinated directly to the head of the Police Department. These agents, specially trained and trained by Mednikov, could lead the "object" throughout the Empire. Yes, Mednikov created his own school of surveillance agents, it was also called Mednikovskaya or "Evstratkin's school". Unofficially, of course. ...
The result of such work did not hesitate to show itself - the revolutionary movement in Moscow was completely liquidated. Zubatov was transferred to St. Petersburg, he took Mednikov with him, of course. Evstratiy Pavlovich headed the outdoor campaign throughout the country. Career growth is simply exceptional. A peasant man. , without education, receives the rank of court councilor, order, nobility. General A.I. Spiridovich, himself a born nobleman, not without a condescending smile, draws a portrait of Evstratiy Pavlovich. Notices his common appearance, round rosy face, beard, mustache, light brown hair, combed back, blue eyes. Simple, more precisely, common speech. Since at the time of their acquaintance Mednikov, together with the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th century. had already received a diploma for the nobility, Spiridovich and found him drawing his own coat of arms, with ears of wheat, which he described with some humor in his memoirs. But in general, Spiridovich was sympathetic to Evstratiy Pavlovich, especially since Mednikov and his many taught.
S.V. Zubatov knew how to "see to 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 activities - the labor movement. This topic is large and very separate, I will remind you here. that Zubatov attracted the priest Father Georgy Gapon, who became famous in the capital by that moment, to work in legal workers' organizations. Perhaps the shrewd Zubatov would have controlled the activities of the priest in the key he needed, but ... In 1903, Minister V.K. Pleve threw out Zubatov in disgrace from the service (without a pension!), expelled from the capital, forbade him to live in Moscow, sent him to live in Vladimir, and he did not forget to put the police in charge. Few came to escort Zubatov to the station, there was a rumor that whoever came would also be fired. There were Mednikov and Gapon. According to Zubatov's plan, it was Mednikov who was supposed to supervise the work of the holy father. It would seem that he had cards in hand - cling the "tail" to Gapon's cassock and read the reports of agents to yourself. However, Evstr Atiy Pavlovich did not cope with this task. If he had established surveillance over Gapon, the contacts of the holy father with the social democratic organization of the Vasilyeostrovsk workers would have been revealed, it would have become clear that the father was playing some kind of game. But Mednikov trusted the priest, however , not he 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 break off relations with him until the end of his life, maintaining a correspondence. He was in demand and remained in his post until 1906, serving under six interior ministers. In 1906 he retired having settled in his own estate - cows, chickens, ducks, a household, a homely wife - again, what else does a man need to calmly meet old age? However, fate dealt to Evstratiy Pavlovich such a blow that he did not expect from a completely unexpected side. 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 employee of Zubatov as Mednikov. He was in charge of embedded agents, was engaged in recruitment, attracted to cooperation. He served successfully, was was marked by awards, 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 coat of arms and gold cufflinks and pebbles, again and the sovereign's monogram. And then Mednikov in 1909 learns that Menshchikov, having retired, left for 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 go to the doctors. From time to time, Evstratiy 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 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. That's all, perhaps. Oh, well, yes. I almost forgot. Another portrait.
