Did Nikolai Bukharin say that the Bolsheviks “conduct an experiment on their people”?

To one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, Nikolai Bukharin is often credited with a quote “We conduct an experiment over his people, just as a medical student experiments on a corpse bought in the anatomical theater.” We decided to check whether this quote is accurate and whether it belongs to Bukharin.

Alexander Yakovlev, one of the “architects” of perestroika, the head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee, and in the 1990s, the head of the Democracy Foundation, who published archival documents about repressions, brought a quote from Bukharin. In an interview with Nikolai Svanidze Yakovlev, proving the cynicism of communist leaders, I remembered This quote. The phrase attributed to Bukharin later became one of the epigraphs of the collection of articles Yakovlev "Twilight"(2005). From time to time, this quote pops up in a variety of media and blogs: in the newspaper "Baikal news", On the site Kasparov.ru, in the community on Facebook "Immortal hut".

Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (1888–1938) was one of the key figures of the Bolshevik party. He was considered the main theoretician and economist of the CPSU (b). Bukharin became one of the authors of the famous “catechism” of the Bolsheviks - the “ABC of the revolutionary”. For many years, he served as editor -in -chief of the newspaper Pravda, later led Izvestia. After the death of Lenin in 1924, he became the closest ally of Stalin in the struggle against the opposition - Leo Trotsky, and then Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. Later, Bukharin himself was accused of the “right bias”, and in 1937 he became a defendant in the case of the right -circuit block, convicted in 1938 and was shot.

According to the version of Alexander Yakovlev, Bukharin said in an interview with the French newspaper in 1928. The text under the name Bukharin really appeared on the pages La Revue Universelle For March 1, 1928. But this is the only thing that is true in the mentioned version. Nikolai Bukharin did not give any interview.

In fact, the phrase about the experiment on the people first appeared in 1924. The Berlin Publishing House "Logos" released a brochure entitled "For I am a Bolshevik!" the authorship of Ilya British. Poet Ilya Britin was Sent From Soviet Russia in 1922, like many other representatives of the intelligentsia. Before the expulsion, he managed to stay in politics - for some time the British was a member of the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies.

Pamphlet "For I am a Bolshevik!»Made in the form of a letter to the author of the unknown head of the CPSU (b). Modern historians Determine This is an essay as an anti -Bolshevik pamphlet. The unknown Bolshevik, who allegedly sent a letter to the author, with all possible frankness tells about the plans of his party to destroy and rob Russia, and the rest of the world is behind it. Here are a few Quote From the letter: “In order to get money, we not only twice have it (and twenty -two more!) Ninety percent of Russia, but also sold it to the bulk and retail”; “The country, exhausted by wars, sword and hunger (the remedy, of course, is dangerous, but magnificent!), And he doesn’t dare to pick the checks and the so -called army, which, believe us, are satisfied with us, because we are happy with the Praetorians and Hounds of Dogs, to saturate them on the throat of all sorts of things is our revolutionary duty”; “We did not leave a stone on a stone from the centuries -old construction of the“ Russian state ”; We are experimenting on the living, still, damn it, a living folk organism, as a freshman-medical "works" on the corpse of the tramp in the anatomical theater "; “Now it is clear to you that I want to freeze? Not yet? Fu, what a fool you are! Not clear? Well, in that case, get it ... I don’t give a damn about Russia, you hear it - do not give a damn, for I am a Bolshevik !! ”

The letter has a hint that Bukharin could write him. About all the other leaders of the Soviet state: Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Lunacharsky - is said in the third person. But there is no direct indication, and in general, the style of writing compiled as "Protocols of the Zion sages", Leaves no doubt that this is an anti -Bolshevik pamphlet. This did not interfere with the Paris newspaper La Revue Universelle Four years later, translate the pamphlet into French and entit it “Bolshevik document”. The preface indicated that Mr. Briton, obviously, did not indicate the name of the Bolshevik for reasons of his own security. But the style of Bukharin, writes the editorial office of the newspaper, is quite recognizable, and the “Russian reader, familiar with the situation in the USSR, is difficult to mislead.” The phrase about the experiment on the people, as well as the text of the letter, is translated correctly, without changing the general meaning.

Thus, it was the French newspaper who first attributed the authorship of the letter to Bukharin. Therefore, it is worthwhile to separately note the absurdity of correspondence in 1924, after the death of Lenin, between one of the most influential Bolsheviks and the emigrant poet. Bukharin in a letter addresses Britain quite familiarly (“My Tick”) and ironically, which implies friendship between them at least in the past. Meanwhile, any correspondence between British and Bukharin could not be found.

In 1938, excerpts from the letter of Bukharin appeared in the Paris newspaper La Flèche - the publication of the left, but at the same time anti -Stalinsky. The article was called "Red paradise through Bukharin"And she came out after the execution of the Bolshevik theorist. Lev Trotsky, formerly the main enemy of Bukharin, immediately reacted to the publication. “For anyone who knows the circumstances and participants at least a little, cannot represent the slightest doubt that the case is not about Bukharin’s letter, but about a rude, malicious and ignorant fake,” Trotsky wrote to the newspaper. “We need a complete absence of critical flair so as not to find it at first sight.”

Thus, both the style of the letter and the difference in the position between Bukharin and Britain, and Trotsky’s testimony allow with a high degree of certainty to say that Bukharin did not write this letter and did not say these words.

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?