Pauker Karl: the fate of Stalin's personal barber

Karl Viktorovich Pauker is a person who went down in history as a personal assistant to JV Stalin, an indispensable participant in the feast of the leader, his barber, a jester and drinking companion, who served faithfully for 13 years and repeated the sad fate of most people from Stalin's entourage.

Barber of Steel

A native of Lemberg (now Lviv) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was born in 1893 and came from a family of a Jewish hairdresser. Profession of the father, in whose footsteps Pauker Karl Viktorovich went, was useful to him in the future. In particular, Karl demonstrated his masterly skill, becoming a personal barber of Joseph Stalin. It is known that the leader's face was covered with pockmarks, so he often went badly shaven. With the light hand of the highly qualified hairdresser Pauker, who once served the actors of the Budapest Operetta Theater, the General Secretary began to look very neat and well-groomed.

In addition to taking care of Stalin's appearance, Pauker performed the slightest desire of his boss, trying to foresee them as much as possible. To this end, he thoroughly studied the tastes of Joseph Vissarionovich and took care of his wardrobe.

So, with the light hand of Pauker, especially for the leader, who had a height of 163 centimeters and wanted to rise above his surroundings, he wore boots of a special cut: with high heels, partially disguised in the backs. And that the shoe cunning is not too obvious, Pauker ordered the secretary general a long, up to his heels greatcoat.

Also, Pauker Karl Viktorovich (photo - in the article), trying to improve the life of Stalin, took responsibility for his food, strictly controlled the food that appeared on the table. Whether Stalin took a certain visitor, depended also on Pauker, as well as everything that had to do with the leader and his family.

As a poorly educated Jew who graduated only from the courses at the Communist University of Ya. M. Sverdlov, fell into such a significant environment and became a rather influential person in the government?

Career takeoff of Pauker

It all began with the army service in the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army, from where Karl Pauker was captured by the Russians (to Samarkand), where he stayed until 1917. It was in the prisoner of war camp that he approached the Bolsheviks, and after a while joined the party. 1917-1918 were designated for Pauker to work on not too high but responsible posts: as an assistant to the military commissariat, an assistant to the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee (the Military Revolutionary Committee), and then to the chairman of the field revolutionary tribunal.

Pauker was one of the instigators of the Red Terror in Samarkand and he himself determined the composition of the executions lists. He could even sentence for a bad explanation in Russian. Such a rapid career rise occurred thanks to an encounter with Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, one of the organizers of the Stalinist repressions. Becoming a kind of "personal servant", Pauker zealously looked after the boss, and he after a while could not do without his assistant. It was from his submission in 1920 that Pauker was transferred to Moscow, in 1922 he took the post of deputy chief of the operational department of the Cheka, heading it a year later. This department was in charge of the protection of the country's leadership, including Stalin. This post was held by Karl Viktorovich until 1937.

Karl Pauker - the head of the security of Stalin

It is under Pauker, of course, with the knowledge of the secretary general, the number of guardians has multiplied. If the security of VI Lenin was first answered by two, and then by four guards, then under Stalin their number increased many times. For example, along the way of the leader to the country house around there were almost 3 thousand chekists, properly equipped. Such an escort of a high-ranking person most resembled a large-scale military operation. Pauker Karl Viktorovich accompanied the Secretary General on all his trips.

Also, the duties of a personal assistant included the possession of information about all the events that took place in Moscow, in which the staff of his department were always present.

Tasks of extreme importance

Extreme workload did not leave Karl Viktorovich time for personal life. But Stalin compensated it with awards (6 orders, including the Order of Lenin) and a lot of gifts, among which there were two cars: a Cadillac limousine and an open Lincoln.

As the positions of Stalin strengthened, Pauker, Karl Victorovich, began to receive from him tasks of a somewhat different nature, often associated with the organization of repression. Pauker became a kind of personal investigator of the country's leader, supervised the arrests and deportation of the "left opposition" activists to remote Siberian places. Then Karl was entrusted with the case of the Union of Marxist-Leninists, headed by Martemyan Rytin, a famous Bolshevik who openly criticized Stalin's policy. Ryano trying to prove himself (conducting interrogations, arbitrarily changing the contents of the materials of the criminal case), Pauker, whose participation in the investigation was illegal, attributed the accused connections with foreign intelligence and terrorist intentions.

Following the rest ...

Stalin was pleased with Pauker's work, so he often entrusted him with new assignments, including the Kremlin Affair, the case of the Moscow Anti-Soviet Center. Along the way, on the instructions of no one trusting Stalin, and Karl Viktorovich himself was taken into the development of Party counterintelligence.

April 19, 1937 Pauker Karl Victorovich was arrested and charged with preparing an attempt on Stalin. August 14, 1937 - was shot. Was not rehabilitated.