Invincible SMERSH officers
However, the most important and important thing is that in his novel “The Moment of Truth” Bogomolov introduced for the first time into Russian literature images of superheroes – these are Tamantsev and Alekhine. They can cope with anything: stubbornly overcoming all obstacles, they achieve their goal, overcoming any opposition. These colossal capabilities of theirs are very clearly shown at the end of the novel, in the famous scene of checking documents and the subsequent arrest of saboteurs.
Captain Alekhine, in a few minutes, was able, like a very powerful computer, to pass a huge amount of information through his brain, while checking it and also playing the role of a narrow-minded military man. At the same time he checked the documents, analyzed their authenticity, sorted out in his memory the references to saboteurs, compared the data from there with the German intelligence officers in front of him, tried to encourage his colleague from the commandant’s office to work, constructed versions of future events and skillfully maintained the image of an ordinary inspector.
Senior Lieutenant Evgeny Tamantsev is a cleaner and a wolfhound nicknamed Skorohvat. His physique is simply amazing. He is able to dodge a burst of machine gun fire, catch up with any saboteur and shoot without problems with both hands, while he himself is on the move.
At the same time, Tamantsev analyzes the situation at lightning speed, notices everything that others are doing and, if necessary, provides support to his colleagues. He can also instantly transform into anyone, playing the role of a stupid rearguard or an angry officer.
It is not for nothing that when Alekhine, provoking the saboteurs, bows his head, he thinks: “No matter what, they will not escape from Tamantsev.” Moreover, both SMERSH officers are always absolutely sure that they will definitely achieve their goals. It seems that ordinary supermen would be just a tooth away from them.
Tarkovsky’s first film.
Vladimir Bogomolov became famous after the publication of his first short story, Ivan, in 1957. Five years later, Andrei Tarkovsky based his first feature film, Ivan’s Childhood, on it. This film received around twenty awards at various film festivals and became an icon of world cinema. The story Zosya was published in 1963. A film was also made based on it, and for many years there were plans to stage an opera, but Bogomolov did not like what had happened and was against it.
His most legendary work was the novel “The Moment of Truth”, published in three issues of the magazine “New World” in 1974. Two films and a television series were made from it. The novel became instantly popular and was translated into other languages. It showed for the first time the work of SMERSH – without any pathos, without communist ideology, but simply as hard and difficult work.
The “moment of truth” created the aura of an all-powerful Soviet military counterintelligence service, very dangerous and never inferior to the enemy. Very detailed, with a lot of documents, this book is amazing and still shows all the thoroughness of the search work. And it immediately became clear to all readers that this could only be written by someone who worked and fought in the ranks of SMERSH.
Vladimir Bogomolov was considered a former counterintelligence officer. But over the past twenty years, his personality has begun to puzzle many researchers. Moreover, there are now many archives available and what the writer said about himself is sometimes not confirmed in any way. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he served in counterintelligence and was used to creating legends, and then this activity transferred to civilian life. One way or another, Bogomolov’s personality is very mysterious.
Clerk or gunner?
In fact, he is not Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov, but Vladimir Iosifovich Voitinsky. And he adopted a new surname already in the fifties, and the reason is unknown. He himself remained silent. His mother’s surname is Bogomolets, and most likely he changed it a little.
The writer’s biography is presented in different versions, but the main thing is that Bogomolov began fighting, went to the front as a volunteer in 1941, and then ended up in counterintelligence, where he finished his service after the war. But if you look at the documents, many questions arise. For example, on the portal “People’s Memory” there are several documents mentioning Vladimir (Vlademir, Vlad) Voitinsky (Voitensky, Voitinsky, Vaitinsky, Voltinsky), born in 1924, a native of Moscow, called up for service in 1943.
Here is the address from the Kazan military transit point to the artillery and technical school in Izhevsk, compiled in the summer of 1943. There are four people in it, Vladimir Voitinsky is the leading member of the team, above him it is written that he is a candidate for membership in the CPSU (b), 9th grade education, called up by the Aktash RVC of the Tatar ASSR. His military specialty is also indicated – 123. It means “scribe, draftsman”.
If we look at the documents of Vladimir (Voitinsky) Bogomolov, many questions arise.
In later documents, information about Voitinsky changes slightly. He is a private, a foreman, or ranked as a junior commanding officer. Of course, it is possible that we are talking about different people, but the year of birth is always the same – 1924, and the place of birth – Moscow.
In the column, the specialty is a certain worker or a fisherman. The Alushta region in Crimea is also mentioned, but Bogomolov himself says in his diaries that before the war he went to Crimea to earn money. Documents from 1943 indicate that Voitinsky from LKTAU (apparently a military school) was sent to Kostroma to the field post of military unit 59904 (Pesochny camp). There is information that he was in Armavir, Udmurtia, in reserve rifle regiments.
Bogomolov himself claimed that he had completed a seven-year school before the war, but the documents indicate a “9-class” education, and there are also “10 classes.” Party affiliation is also not very clear. Vladimir Bogomolov said that he was only in the Komsomol, but in almost all wartime newspapers Voitinsky is listed as a candidate for membership in the CPSU (b) or even as a communist. It is also impossible to understand who was in the units. The military specialty is 1 (artilleryman), then 7 (artilleryman), and then 123 (clerk).
Ended up in Chukotka
On February 5, 1944, Vladimir Osipovich Voitinsky was sent from the military registration and enlistment office in the city of Armavir to the Armavir transit point for further service. On February 12, as part of the team, he left as a private rifleman in the 15th reserve rifle regiment in Stalingrad. February 18, 1944 “Voitensky Vlad. Osipov”. on the nominal list of command of the 6th company of the distribution center of the 15th ZSP, sent to the 356th reserve rifle regiment as a machine gunner.
The list of losses indicates that private Vladimir Iosifovich Voitinsky, born in 1924, a native of Moscow, drafted into the Aktash RVK of the TASSR, disappeared in February 1944. His mother, Nadezhda Pavlovna Bogomolets, was notified of this. Many years after the war, Red Army soldier Vladimir Iosifovich Voitinsky was included in the Book of Memory of the Republic of Tatarstan, because he was drafted in this region.
However, in February 1947, the military commissar of the Kiev region wrote to the department for registration of dead and missing soldiers and sergeants to remove Vladimir Iosifovich Voitinsky from the register. The reason is that the district security inspector found out that he was alive and was in Chukotka: “the other day I had a conversation from there with my mother.”
The next document from the “Memory of the People” portal is the ceremony of awarding medals “For Victory over Germany” on October 15, 1947. The first on the list is Vladimir Iosifovich Voitinsky, an investigator at an outlying facility of the Criminal Investigation Department of the MGB FEVO (counterintelligence directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the Far Eastern Military District). He received this medal on Sakhalin.
I didn’t buy a coat
There is no further official information about Bogomolov’s awards or his participation in hostilities. From his diary entries it is known that he returned to Moscow in the late 1940s. He attended evening school and entered university.
There is no mention of work. Bogomolov himself wrote that he received a pension, apparently for disability, of 901 rubles. In September he noted in his diary that because he had not been examined by an expert medical commission, his pension was delayed for three months. It was cold outside and Bogomolov wrote a statement to the head of the pension department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mudretsov, asking for financial assistance to buy a coat. They replied that they could not help him. By the way, the average pension then was 300 rubles, and Bogomolov’s mother received a salary of 325 rubles.
Vladimir Bogomolov’s widow reported that her husband in October 1949, based on the data of a medical examination in accordance with Art. 8-a 1 of the Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 102 of 1939, was declared unfit for military service. Disabled person of group II. And things are starting to get strange again. If in 1947 he served in the MGB, then what does the Ministry of Internal Affairs have to do with him? Although these are related departments, their services are different. Where did Voitinsky-Bogomolov serve – in the MGB or in the Ministry of Internal Affairs?
The order under which the medical examination was carried out is also puzzling. In 1939, the Ministry of the Interior was replaced by the NKVD, and Order No. 102 of that year speaks of personnel changes.
Researchers put forward a variety of versions, argue, accuse the writer of falsifying facts, etc. Indeed, there are oddities associated with the publication of the famous novel “The Moment of Truth.” Bogomolov claimed that the manuscript was not allowed to be published, he quarreled with the KGB and the Ministry of Defense, and it all took more than a year. But it turned out that from the moment the book was sent to its publication in Novy Mir, only five months passed – that is, very quickly by editorial standards.
Bogomolov tried to write, as he himself said, “fleshy.”
Facts taken from life.
In fact, all this is of no importance. Where and for whom Bogomolov served, what he talked about and with whom, whether there were “cleaners” in SMERSH or not – all these discrepancies and oddities are meaningless. The main thing is that Vladimir Bogomolov is the author of wonderful works. His books are written in such a way that it is impossible to tear yourself away from them until you finish reading them. They all tell of honest, decent and noble people.
His style of presentation is simple and accessible, but at the same time, in just two sentences he can paint a huge picture of where the action takes place. For example, the story “Ivan” describes a meeting between Galtsev and Colonel Gryaznov. “In the grove where we were it was quiet, leaves grey from frost covered the ground, there was a smell of horse excrement and urine. In this area the Cossack guards corps came into the advance and the Cossacks took a break in the grove.” Immediately before your eyes appears an autumn forest, the earth dug up by horses.
Bogomolov tried to write, as he himself said, “meaty.” Moreover, being very observant (like a real counterintelligence officer), he noted various situations from life, which he later used in his books. For example, I saw how a hammer thrower firmly shook the hand of a young man, who then sat down. He described this episode in “The Moment of Truth,” when General Egorov shook hands with Lieutenant Blinov. The strong handshake also made his knees buckle. Bogomolov also used letters from his mother. From them he wrote the chapter “Letters of 1944.” The writer also had an unpleasant acquaintance; he gave his character traits to Major Kirilyuk, a Moscow dispatcher.
In recent years, Vladimir Bogomolov has been credited with the authorship of another remarkable novel, “A Time of Hope.” It describes the beginning of the war, and the main character is a scout, a former paratrooper (like Bogomolov in his official biography). The author of the work is Igor Svyatoslavovich Rusy, about whom nothing is known at all, except for two words in the annotation: “former intelligence officer.”
The style of the novel is very similar to Bogomolov’s; it contains many aphorisms that he collected and often invented. Perhaps Bogomolov is the author of another wonderful book. And this is another mystery, one of many left by this wonderful Russian writer.
