Biography of Yuri Churbanov ─ future deputythe Minister of the Interior of the USSR and the son-in-law of the unforgettable Leonid Brezhnev, began quite in the spirit of those forever gone times, in which calls for the building of communism did not look as absurd as now, when history clearly showed their emptiness and senselessness.
Komsomolskaya youth
He was born on November 11, 1936 in Moscow, in the familya high-ranking party functionary. However, at the end of the secondary school, he did not go to MGIMO or Moscow State University, as is customary today for children of the powerful, but, at his father's insistence, became a student of the vocational school (vocational school), after which he worked at the Znamya Truda factory as an ordinary fitter-assembler. Thus, the first stage of the biography of Yuri Churbanov allowed him subsequently with good reason to say that his hands are accustomed to work.
However, he did not stay long in the assembly shop andsoon, the elected, or rather, appointed secretary of the Komsomol organization of the plant, forever said goodbye to the working girders. After a short time, the "Labor Banner" itself remained only in the memoirs, giving way to the district committee of the Komsomol, where Yuri took the place of an instructor.
Carier start
In 1961, the biography and personal life of YuriChurbanov were marked by an important event - he entered into his first marriage. His chosen one was Tamara Viktorovna Valtsferova, who gave her husband two children. At the same time, Yuri Mikhailovich was transferred to the Central apparatus of the Komsomol and, having held the post of the head of one of the divisions, entered the correspondence department of the law faculty of the Moscow State University. He graduated in 1964, received a diploma, but before that he went to work in the political agencies of the system of correctional labor institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he successfully advanced on the career ladder. In 1971 he met with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
The meeting that determined the further life
Then, in January 1971, fate presentedChurbanov his main gift. In the restaurant hall where he and his colleague celebrated the Old New Year, she brought him with Galina Brezhneva ─ the daughter of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. From this moment, the biography of Yuri Churbanov becomes much more interesting.
In those years he was a very impressive 35-year-olda man who can turn a head and a less sensitive woman than, 41-year-old Galina Leonidovna, known for her love. He invited her to a dance, and she appointed him a date. This evening was the beginning of their turbulent romance, and a week later she introduced Churbanova to her father, but not as a lover, but as a future bridegroom.
A suitable fiancé
It should be noted that by that time in memoryLeonid Ilyich was still fresh the previous two very eccentric daughter marriages. Her first husband was the circus acrobat-strongman Evgeni Milayev, and the second is the illusionist Igor Kio. And if Milaev was 20 years older than her, then Kio is 18 years younger. Therefore, a cute and very promising lieutenant colonel of the Interior Ministry seemed to the Secretary-General a suitable candidate for the post of another son-in-law.
Galina was only 6 years older than Yuri, thatit is quite tolerable. In addition, Leonid Ilyich hoped that Churbanov would put an end to the daughter's love affairs, which, although not covered in the press, were an endless topic of conversation and undoubtedly cast a shadow over the family of the secretary general.
Wedding and career takeoff
Hastily (while the iron is still hot) having issued a divorcewith his wife, the young seducer remarried. As for the children in the biography of Yuri Churbanov, only that they stayed with their mother. It is now difficult to say what role he played in their future lives.
Of course, a close relationship with the head of stateimmediately yielded its fruit, because now his personal friend and patron was Minister of the Ministry of the Interior Nikolai Shchelokov. At this stage, the biography of Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov is marked by a number of startling career ups. Soon after the wedding, "son-in-law No. 1" - so nicknamed him among the people - became deputy head of the Political Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a few years later and his head.
A fly in the ointment
In accordance with the posts held, histitle. In 1974, he tried on the shoulder straps of a major general, and three years later became a lieutenant-general. Note that by the time Churbanov was just over forty. The peak of his career growth, he reached in February 1980, becoming a colonel-general and receiving at the petition of his father-in-law the post of First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
However, despite such a successfulservice, the life of Yuri Mikhailovich at that time was not at all cloudless, and it was Galina that clouded her. There are many evidences of contemporaries that their marriage, which lasted 19 years, was by no means happy. The spoiled daughter of the General Secretary even before became addicted to alcohol, and being fed up with her new husband, began to seek an outlet for her irrepressible temperament on the side.
Formally, she was listed for somehigh posts and received the appropriate salary, but in fact, in no institution appeared, but led a free and, as they say, bohemian life. Her constant surroundings were artists, artists, and sometimes even the dealers of the black market that flourished in the conditions of the total Soviet deficit.
In this regard, you can only sympathize with herhusband, who applied all his energy for self-realization in high positions occupied by him, but at the same time forced to sometimes find his beloved in restaurants and, taking from the hands of another boyfriend, to drive home to there to bring to life. However, in concluding this marriage, he knew what he was on. 1980 in the biography of Brezhnev's son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov, was awarded the State Prize, which was awarded to him for his "huge contribution" to the rule of law and security during the Moscow Olympics. Then he was destined to rise to the top of the political Olympus, becoming a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee.
Beginning of the End
Meanwhile, his ascent coincided with the period,which is now commonly called the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union. People of the older generation, no doubt, remember those times when store shelves, even for people familiar to all, were striking with their wretchedness, and at enterprises reporting on overfulfilment of the plans, the workers, in fact, only hid the required hours.
The same picture was observed in agriculture.Collective farms and state farms reported record harvests, which in fact were not. All this was known, but supported the illusion of general well-being. On this "gray background" the party and economic nomenklatura were particularly contrasted, to representatives of which the awards and "slices of the state pie" were generously distributed, many of which fell on the table of Churbanov.
At the end of the Brezhnev era
In those years when the personal car wasan impossible dream for the overwhelming majority of citizens of the country, he, one of the few, traveled on his own Mercedes, and having in the trunk several pairs of different numbers. According to Galina Leonidovna herself, it is known that this machine was donated to her father by Erich Honecker, who was then the head of the GDR government, and Leonid Ilyich gave it to his son-in-law.
On the luxury in which the leading elite lives,there were endless conversations, and, in spite of the fact that the people, as usual, were silent, the general irritation in it was growing. Thus, the epoch of Brezhnev's reign approached the decline.
The new owner of the Kremlin
A turning point in the biography of Yuri Churbanovbecame November 1982, when his high-ranking son-in-law and patron died. Soon after the death of Leonid Ilyich, Yu. V. Andropov, who came to replace him, initiated a number of high-profile anti-corruption processes, which are necessary primarily to reduce the degree of public discontent. The main persons involved in the cases were officials who were part of the closest entourage of the late General Secretary.
Among them was the immediate bossChurbanova ─ Minister of the Ministry of the Interior of the USSR N. Shchelokov, who, incidentally, was a long-standing and irreconcilable enemy of the new owner of the Kremlin. Caught under investigation and aware of all the incontrovertibility of evidence, he could not stand the psychological burden and in December 1984 committed suicide by a shot from a hunting rifle. The very same Churbanov trouble at that time bypassed. Calling him to him, Andropov in a short conversation made it clear that he did not intend to institute criminal proceedings against him.
Sunset career
This period is very important inbiography of Yuri Churbanov. Children he did not have in common with Galina Leonidovna, and therefore the estrangement, long established between them, grew into mutual hostility after the death of her father-in-law. Family life, previously supported by him at the cost of considerable effort, has now finally collapsed.
Deprived of his high-ranking patron,Yuri Mikhailovich was removed from the former deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and in a short time, already under Gorbachev, he made a significant way, this time down the career ladder. As a result, he was sent to retirement for years.
Arrest and years of imprisonment
However, fate already then prepared its daughtersunexpected impact. In January 1987, Yuri Mikhailovich was arrested as a figurant in the so-called Uzbek, or cotton case. Speech in this case was about a number of major corruption crimes among the leadership of the Uzbek SSR, to which, according to the investigation, Churbanov was involved.
He was charged with obtaining a number ofbribes in a particularly large amount. Despite the fact that his guilt in most episodes was not proved, by a court decision in 1988 he was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property, but after 5 years he received parole. It should be noted that at that time Churbanov was the most senior official among all those who were imprisoned. The new authorities intensively created the illusion of fighting corruption, and he served as a bargaining chip in their game.
last years of life
At the time when Yuri Mikhailovich was incamp, his Galina Leonidovna issued a divorce, and their marriage, which had been a formality for a long time, was finally dissolved. About the private life of Yuri Churbanov after the prison in the biography says that in 1994 he married for the third time, and this time, as the people who knew him, successfully. His wife was an old friend of Lyudmila Vasilyevna Kuznetsova. She is described as a very quiet intelligent woman, who worked for many years at Moscow State University. After getting married, she took her husband's surname.
Widow of Yuri Churbanov, Lyudmila Churbanova, inher husband's biography wrote that being in prison had undermined his health, and he was paralyzed during the last five years of his life. Of course, all care for him lay on her shoulders. Yuri Mikhailovich died on October 7, 2013 and was buried at the Mitinsky Cemetery in Moscow. According to the publication, published together with the posthumous obituary biography, Yuri Mikhailovich Churbanov had only children from his first marriage and, after returning from prison, did not support communication with them.
