Alexander vilenkin. Vilenkin alexander abramovich. Before the big bang

Prologue

The astonishing success of this book came as a surprise to everyone. Its author, Alexander Vilenkin, a modest, even shy physics professor, suddenly became famous. His participation in the talk show is scheduled for six months in advance, he had to hire four bodyguards and hide from the paparazzi in an unknown place. His sensational bestseller The World of Many Worlds describes a new cosmological theory according to which every possible chain of events, however bizarre, has already happened somewhere in the Universe - and not once, but an infinite number of times!

The implications of the new theory are stunning. If your favorite soccer team hasn't won the championship, don't despair: it has won on countless other lands. In fact, there is an endless number of lands where your team has won all the years without exception! If your displeasure extends beyond football and you are completely tired of everything in the world, Vilenkin's book can offer you something here as well. According to the new theory, most places in the Universe are completely different from our Earth and even obey other laws of physics.

The most controversial point in this book is the statement that each of us has an infinite number of identical clones living on countless lands scattered throughout the universe. For many, this idea has been deprived of sleep. People feel that their uniqueness has been infringed, and now the attendance of psychoanalysts has doubled, and the sales of this book have skyrocketed. Based on his theory, Vilenkin also predicted that in some lands his book would have phenomenal success. But in fairness, he admitted that on an infinite number of others she was in for a complete failure ...

We live in the remnants of a colossal explosion. This grand event happened around 14 billions of years ago. The whole space turned into a hot, rapidly expanding fireball of matter and radiation. As it expanded, it cooled down, its glow gradually faded, and the universe slowly plunged into darkness. A billion years have passed without major events. But gradually, thanks to gravity, galaxies were formed, and myriads of stars flooded the universe with their light. Planets orbiting some stars have become home to intelligent beings. Some beings became cosmologists and realized that the universe began with the Big Bang.

Cosmologists have a big advantage over historians and investigators: they see what actually happened in the past. It takes light from distant galaxies billions of years to reach telescopes on Earth, so we see galaxies as they were in their youth when their light was born. Microwave detectors register the faint afterglow of a fireball, which carries an image of the universe in an even earlier era, before the formation of galaxies. We see how the history of the universe unfolds before us.

But this wonderful vision has its limits. And although we can trace the history of space to moments less than a second away from the Big Bang, it itself remains surrounded by mystery. What caused this mysterious event? Was he the true beginning of the universe? If not, what happened then? There is also a fundamental limit to what we can see in space. Our horizon is determined by the maximum distance that light could travel after the Big Bang. Sources beyond the horizon cannot be observed simply because their light has not yet reached the Earth. We can only guess what the rest of the universe is like. Is it the same everywhere, or may its distant regions be radically different from our cosmic environment? Does the Universe extend to infinity or is it closed on itself, like the surface of the Earth?

These are the most fundamental questions about the universe. But can we even hope to someday get answers to them? If I say that the universe ends unexpectedly just below the horizon, or that it is filled with water and inhabited by intelligent goldfish, can anyone prove that I am wrong? Cosmologists, therefore, concentrate mainly on the observable part of the universe, leaving philosophers and theologians to speculate about what lies beyond it. But if our quest is indeed destined to end on the horizon, isn't that the greatest disappointment? We can discover many new galaxies and map the entire visible Universe just like we mapped the surface of the Earth. But to what extent? Mapping our Galaxy can serve a practical purpose, as we may want to colonize it sometime in the future. But galaxies billions of light years away are unlikely to be colonized. At least not for the next several billion years. Of course, cosmology's appeal is not in its practical utility. Our admiration for the cosmos is of the same nature as the feelings evoked by ancient myths about creation. It is rooted in the desire to understand the origin and fate of the universe, its structure and the place of man in the general order of things.

Cosmologists who accept the challenge of these ultimate cosmic questions lose their advantage over investigators. They can only rely on circumstantial evidence, using measurements made in the accessible part of the universe to build inferences about times and places that cannot be observed. This limitation makes it much more difficult to present evidence that would be “beyond reasonable doubt”. But thanks to the remarkable progress of cosmology in recent years, we now have answers to ultimate cosmic questions that we can trust with some reason.

The picture of the world generated by these new achievements is surprising. To paraphrase Niels Bohr, it may even be insane enough to be true. It unites in an unexpected way some seemingly mutually exclusive properties: the universe is both infinite and finite, develops and unchanging, eternal and has a beginning. The theory also predicts that in some distant regions there are planets exactly like our Earth, with the same outlines of continents, on which exactly the same creatures live - our clones. And some of them, perhaps, are holding copies of the same book - a book about a new picture of the world, its emergence, as well as amazing, strange and sometimes alarming conclusions from it.

Part I. Creation of the world

What exploded, how exploded and what caused the explosion

From the point of view of inflationary cosmology, it should be admitted that we got the Universe for free.

Alan Guth

On a typical winter day in 1980, around noon, I sat in a crowded Harvard auditorium listening to the most startling talk I have attended in years. Alan Guth, a young physicist from Stanford, talked about a new theory of the origin of the universe. I hadn’t met Guth before, but I knew how unexpectedly this previously unknown scientist suddenly became a celebrity. Just a month earlier, he belonged to a nomadic tribe of "postdocs" - young researchers interrupted by temporary contracts in the hope of one day distinguishing themselves and settling on a permanent job at some university. For Gut, things were not going well: at 32, he was already a little old for this young tribe, and the stream of contract offers was already beginning to dry out. It was then that a successful thought struck him, which changed everything around him.

Guth turned out to be a short, agile young man, who had not lost his boyish enthusiasm for many years of "post-doc" wanderings. He immediately made it clear that he was not trying to refute the Big Bang theory. There was no need for that. The position of this theory was very strong, and the evidence in its favor was very convincing.

The strongest argument is the expansion of the universe, discovered in 1929 by Edwin Hubble. He found that distant galaxies are rapidly flying away from us. If we trace the motion of galaxies back in time, then at some point in the past they all merge together, which speaks of the explosive origin of the Universe.

Another important confirmation of the Big Bang is cosmic microwave radiation... Space is filled with electromagnetic waves of approximately the same frequency as in conventional microwave ovens. The intensity of this radiation decreases as the Universe expands, so that we are now seeing only a faint glow of the incandescent primary fireball.

Education

Graduated from the Imperial Nikolayevskaya Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium in 1901. Among classmates - the future famous film actor Vitold Polonsky, the future military theorist Alexander Lapchinsky.

In 1902-1904 he served as a volunteer in the 1st Sumy Hussar Regiment. He was not promoted at the end of his service to the officer's rank due to his Jewish religion.

In 1906 he graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University. At the university he joined the student organization of cadets, was one of the best student speakers.

After graduation, he worked as an attorney at law, participated as a defense attorney in many political trials.

World War I

Since 1914 - junior non-commissioned officer of the 1st hussar of the Sumy regiment. Repeatedly distinguished himself in battles. He was awarded the Badge of Distinction of the Military Order of four degrees and the St. George Medal ("The Full St. George Cavalier").

In 1917, after the national restrictions on production were lifted, he was promoted to officer ranks - ensign, then, to equalize with his peers, he was promoted to headquarters captain. Instead of four "St. George's Crosses", he received the officer's order of St. George IV degree.

In 1917 he was elected chairman of the regimental committee, then became chairman of the army committee of the 5th Army (Northern Front). A supporter of the restoration of discipline in the army, he worked closely with its commander, General Yu. N. Danilov. According to the memoirs of VB Stankevich, he said: "The task of our committee is to bring the army to such a state that, by order of the commander of the army, any unit would arrest the committee without hesitation."

A good orator: "He spoke brilliantly - brightly, witty, boldly - and his manner, apparently, appealed to the soldiers." At the same time, "he was a rigid man, unable to flatter the crowd."

Political activity

He was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, in 1917 he joined the People's Socialist Party in order to be able to participate in elections to committees at the front, since non-socialist parties were actually not allowed to participate in these elections.

Since October 1917 - the chairman of the Moscow organization of the All-Russian Union of Jewish Warriors, was a supporter of the formation of Jewish national military units. After October 1917, he took part in the activities of the anti-Soviet organization "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom", headed a cavalry center in it. At the same time, he led a combat group of Jewish self-defense at the Union. He was officially a legal adviser to the British Embassy in Russia.

Arrest, prison, death

On May 29, 1918, the Cheka was arrested. He was imprisoned in the Taganskaya prison, was the head of the cell where political prisoners were kept. Published in one handwritten copy of the newspaper-magazine "Tsentrohydra" (several issues were published, then they found out about him at the Lubyanka, and the issue had to be stopped). Taught those wishing to English, lectured on life in England and France. Provided legal advice.

After interrogations - "gray, haggard, thin, pale, with sunken eyes, wrinkles, a pointed nose and a sad smile, but still with a firm will." Dzerzhinsky was opposed to his execution.

Shot at the beginning of the "red terror" on September 5, 1918 by order of the deputy chairman of the Cheka Peters in the absence of Dzerzhinsky (who was in Petrograd).

About the year of birth of Vilenkin

Vilenkin was born in different years (about 1883 and even 1887). However, V. Klementyev in his memoirs from the words of Vilenkin himself mentions that in 1918 he was thirty-fourth years old: this fatal year passed) ". It is unlikely that Vilenkin was born in 1885 - it is unlikely then that he could have joined the army (volunteering in peacetime) in 1902. If you follow the data of Klementyev, then Vilenkin was born in 1884. However, in the interrogation protocol published in the "Red Book of the Cheka" (second edition, M., 1990) it is said that Vilenkin in 1918 was already 35 years old, which indicates 1883.

Vilenkin at a meeting of the Presidium of the Cheka

“I am writing a letter to Dzerzhinsky. I demand that I, like my former clients, be given the opportunity to defend myself in front of strangers. One of the escorts takes away the letter. Waiting ... Minutes seem like an eternity. Finally the sent one returns. Takes me and leads me. Leads to Dzerzhinsky. The entire presidium is already assembled there. All have serious, stern faces. No one is looking at me. Everyone stared at the table. They give me the floor (Vilenkin spoke amazingly). I was a political defender in the tsarist court. During my practice, I made 296 advocacy speeches. Now, for the 297th time, I speak in my own defense, and I think this speech will be unsuccessful. The faces of those sitting at the table, before that stern, all blossomed with smiles. It became easier. I speak for a long time. Here are some of the names of their comrades whom I defended. They immediately call two or three of those whom I have named. Those come and confirm my words. I was taken back to the room where my comrades remained. They are no longer here - they have been taken away. I sit alone. In an hour or two they call. Again they lead to Dzerzhinsky. Now he is alone. And he announced that the death penalty was abolished by the decision of the presidium ”. (From the book of Vilenkin's cellmate, Vasily Klementyev "In Bolshevik Moscow").

Opinions about Vilenkin

Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

Roman Gul:

According to V.F.Klementyev, Vilenkin's attempt to escape was a KGB provocation organized by the deputy chairman of the Cheka Peters to justify his execution.

Awards

• St George's cross 1 degree
• St. George's cross, 2nd degree
• St. George's cross 4 degrees
• St George cross 3 degrees

lawyer, officer, full St. George Knight, graduate of 1901 (silver medal)

"Here is another Jewish name, still undeservedly little known, not
glorified, as it should be: the hero of the anti-Bolshevik underground, Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin ...<...>
Collected, intelligent, energetic, irreconcilable to the Bolsheviks, he both underground and in prisons inspired many others to resist.
And, of course, he was unsettled by the Chekists. "
I. I. Solzhenitsyn (200 years together. Part 2. Ch. 15)

The name of Alexander Vilenkin - a brilliant lawyer, a complete Georgievsky Knight, a poet, a member of the headquarters of the Union for the Defense of Motherland and Freedom, Boris Savinkov, an owner of exceptional courage who was twice shot by the Chekists - has only recently come out of oblivion thanks to the article by Y. Tinchenko 1, founded mainly , on the memoirs of Vilenkin's cellmate in the Taganskaya prison, captain V.F.Klementyev 2 and a colleague in the Sumy hussar regiment V. Littauer 3. In the process of working on a book about the students of the Nikolaev gymnasium, K.I. Finkelstein managed to significantly expand the scope of Tinchenko's article by including new materials in the chapter: Vilenkin's interrogation protocols in the Cheka 4, testimony of the US Trade Representative in Russia Roger Simmons 5, memories of Vilenkin by an unknown author (hereinafter we will call him "author N") 6, memoirs N. V. Teslenko, a prominent figure in the Cadet Party, and memoirs of T. (nee Abelson, 1904-1993), the niece of Alexander Abramovich.

A.A. Vilenkin, 1901. MNG Foundation. Published for the first time

Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin born June 5 1883 years in St. Petersburg, in a wealthy family - a representative of an ancient Jewish family. 1-1

Later, Abram Markovich traded timber in Tsarskoe Selo. In addition to Alexander, Alexander's elder brother -, middle -, and sisters grew up in the family.

He was the youngest child in the family and everyone's favorite. Like his brothers, he entered, and after studying there for 10 years, from grade 1, graduated from it in 1901 year with a silver medal. 2-2 Alexander's class teacher was the headmaster of the gymnasium. After graduating from the Nikolaev gymnasium, he immediately entered the history and philology faculty of St. Petersburg University, then transferred to the law faculty.

A.A. Vilenkin - graduate of INCG, 1901

V 1902 Vilenkin was drafted from the university to the army as a volunteer, served as a cavalryman in the Sumy Dragoon (from 1907 - Hussar) regiment, stationed in Moscow in peacetime.

Volunteers (voluntarily enrolled in military service) were divided into 2 categories: 1st - persons with completed secondary (and higher) education, 2nd - with incomplete secondary education, as well as those who passed the exam according to a special program. At the end of their service, volunteers could take an exam for the officer rank of a reserve ensign. A. Vilenkin was deprived of this right, since Jews could not be officers in the tsarist army.

N. V. Teslenko (1929) writes; that during the revolutionary events 1905-1906 biennium Vilenkin joined the student organization of the Cadet Party, “Was considered one of the best student speakers, and not only at the university, but also at city meetings ...<-..>had a negative attitude towards extreme currents. "

After graduation ( 1906 ) Vilenkin settled in Moscow, became widely known as a disinterested, excellent lawyer, a brilliant orator and a good poet, "he always knew how to be the center of cheerful elegant women, young people."

At first 1907 years A. Vilenkin, on the recommendation of P.N. Milyukov, became an assistant to a member of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party, the famous Moscow criminalist N.V. Teslenko. At first, Teslenko did not like the young, elegant lawyer, he seemed too "Petersburg" to him. But he soon became convinced that under Vilenkin's plump appearance were hidden "outstanding abilities, brilliant education (he knew several languages ​​perfectly), and most importantly, firm and independently developed convictions and a kind and responsive heart."

On August 30, 1918, poet Leonid Kannegiser shot the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka Moisei Uritsky. On the same day in Moscow, the Socialist-Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan seriously wounded Vladimir Lenin. The murder and attempt was the beginning of the mass "red terror", which was announced on September 2 by Sverdlov in an appeal by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and confirmed by the Council of People's Commissars on September 5, 1918.

VF Klementyev writes that one of the guards saw how “Vilenkin left prison for the last time. Calmly got into the car with the Chekists. Puffing on his cigar, he unhurriedly unfolded the newspaper. A few seconds later the car disappeared at the end of Bolshiye Kamenshiki Lane. "

The prediction of the St. Petersburg seer came true - Alexander Abramovich Vilenki was executed shortly after his 35th birthday.

Three years later, near Petrograd, another graduate of the Nikolaev gymnasium was shot by the Chekists -. There is much in common in the circumstances of life and death of Vilenkin and Gumilyov: both studied under the supervision, volunteered for the war, became Knights of St. George and died at the age of 35 "not in bed / with a notary and a doctor." Both knew how to die so that their last moments would be embodied in a legend.

“This is your Gumilyov ... We, the Bolsheviks, are ridiculous. But, you know, he died gorgeous.<...>He smiled, finished his cigarette ... Fanfare, of course. But even the guys from the Special Department were impressed. Empty youth, but still a tough guy. Few people die like that ... ”- Said poet S. Bobrov, close to the Cheka, from the words of one of the members of the firing squad. This story was told to a friend of Gumilyov - Mikhail Lozinsky, poet S. Bobrov, close to the Cheka. It has come down to us in the retelling of Georgy Ivanov 17.

The evidence of the last moments of Alexander Vilenkin is given by Prince Sergei Volkonsky 18. He was told the following story: “A certain Vilenkin was sentenced to death in Moscow. At that time they were being shot in Petrovsky Park. When they put him in, the one who commanded the execution suddenly recognizes him as his former comrade. He approaches him to say goodbye and says:
- You, Sasha, forgive them if they don't kill you right away: they are shooting for the first time today.
- Well, forgive me too, if I don't fall right away: they also shoot me for the first time today ... "

Perhaps the death certificates "with a smile on their lips" are not entirely reliable and are, rather, legends. But these legends could not have appeared on the song, if not for the courage, dignity and honor of their heroes.

On September 5, 1918, on the first day of the “red terror”, more than 300 people were shot at the brick fence of the Bratsk cemetery in Petrovsky Park (near the Church of All Saints): clergymen, former state dignitaries, officers - members of the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom "And" Union of Cossack Troops ", nobles, engineers, teachers, students, gymnasium students, cadets, members of the monarchist and liberal-democratic parties. In the 1990s. in Moscow, in the fence of the Church of All Saints near the Sokol metro station, memorial plaques with the names of the executed officers appeared 19.

Sources used by K. Finkelstein:

1. Tinchenko Yaroslav. Captain-captain Vilenkin - the leader of the Jewish Military Movement // newspaper "My people" №17 (309), 15.09.2003.
2. Klementyev V.F.In Bolshevik Moscow (1918-1920). M. Russian way, 1998.S. 233-245.
3. Littauer Vladimir. Russian hussars. Memoirs of an officer of the imperial cavalry. 1911-1920. Centropolygraph. 2006. S. 154-156, 205, 206.
4. The Red Book of the Cheka. T. 1.2. Ed. M .: Politizdat, 1989
5. Transcript of the minutes of the hearings in the US Senate (1919) on the events of the Russian revolution
6. Three meetings. In memory of Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin. // Hoover Institution archive. Register of the Boris I, Nlcolaevsky Collection, 1801-1982. Box / Folder 782/5. These memoirs, kindly provided to K. Finkelstein by the staff of the Hoover Archives, were written by an officer who met with Alexander Abramovich three times. The first time, before the war, at the Moscow hippodrome, the second - at the Congress of Soviets in 1917, and the third - in the Taganskaya prison, where the author of the memoirs was imprisoned, accidentally falling into a Chekist ambush. He spent two months in close contact with Vilenkin and was released from prison shortly before the execution of Alexander Abramovich.
7. Teslenko //. In, Memories of A.A.Vilenkin // In memory of the killed. Paris. 1929.S. 45-50.
8. : Memoirs of St Petersburg, Paris, Oxford and Byzantium. Edited by Elizabeth Talbot Rice. London, 1996. P. 46-72.
9. R.H. Bruce Lockhart. Memoirs of a British Agent. Published by Read Books, 2008. P. 86-88.
10. Voitinsky V.S. 1917th. A year of victories and defeats. Moscow: Terra, 1999, 318 p.
11. Zpokazov G.I. Menshevik-Socialist-Revolutionary All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets in 1917. Moscow: Nauka, 1997.S. 87, 88, 110.11
12. "Red Book of the Cheka". T. 1.
13. Gul R.B.Dzerzhinsky (the beginning of the terror). New York: The Bridge, 1974.
14. This, like the second suicide letter, is given in the book of Talbot-Rice, translated from Russian into English. Therefore, the reverse translation given by K. Finkelstein may differ from the original. The text of the poetic impromptu is based on the book of RB Gulya "Dzerzhinsky (the beginning of the terror)", which says that this impromptu Vilenkin remained written on the wall of the cell in the Taganskaya prison. The same impromptu is cited in the memoirs of N.V. Teslenko, as part of a letter to relatives. In them, the third line sounds somewhat different: "I lived my life with a joke on my lips." K.F. Tamara Talbot-Rice's daughter Elizabeth, who lives in London, was contacted, but she did not have the originals of Vipenkin's letters.
15. "Centrohydra" is a handwritten humorous magazine published in prison by Vilenkin. The last of the issues came out with the auto-charm of the editor-in-chief: gray-haired and overgrown, sitting on a parache at the barred window, with bales of "Centrohydra" around and the signature "In ten years".
16. The last 2 phrases of this letter are given in the memoirs of N.V. Teslenko, the rest of the letter, published in the book by Tamara Talbot-Rice, is given in the reverse translation: "Russian-English-Russian".
17. Kreyd V. Mystery of Gumilev's death // Strelets. 1989. No. 3 (63). P. 313.
18. Volkonsky S. My memoirs: in 2 volumes.M .: Zakharov, 2004.
19. V.V. Chicheryukin-Meingard. The newspaper "History" No. 41/2004.

Prepared by specialists from the Museum of the Nikolaev gymnasium. TsGIA documents are published for the first time

Sources:

1. TsGIA SPb. F. 139, Op. 3. D. 9143. 1901. Information about the graduates of the Institute of Geology and Geology for 1901. L. 87
2. TsGIA SPb. Form 14. Op. 3. D.38574. 1901. Vilenkin Alexander Abramovich
3. Finkelstein K. Imperial Nikolayevskaya Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium. Pupils, St. Petersburg: Serebryany Vek Publishing House, 2009, 310 p., Ill.

Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin was born on June 5, 1883 in Tsarskoye Selo in the family of the 1st guild merchant Abram Markovich and Rachel Bailey. The family was wealthy and large, it had eight children, of whom Alexander was the youngest son. He entered the famous Nikolayev Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium, known for a very high level of education. He studied in the same class with the later famous silent film actor Vitold Polonsky and the chief infectious diseases physician of Leningrad Gleb Ivashentsev. In 1901, Alexander Vilenkin graduated from high school with a silver medal and entered the history and philology faculty of St. Petersburg University, from which he later transferred to the law department.

However, in the second year, unexpectedly for the family, Alexander decides to serve in the army and, taking a leave from the university, joins the 1st Sumy Hussar Regiment, located in Moscow, as a volunteer. According to the existing military legislation, a volunteer served instead of the 3 years and 8 months prescribed for an ordinary soldier for one year, then he passed the exam for the rank of ensign and was sent to the reserve. Students of higher educational institutions or those who received secondary education could become volunteers. In the Sumy regiment, which was the elite of the army, the children of wealthy parents, who lived in a separate room and wore their own uniform, served as volunteers.

In the regiment, Alexander was at first quite difficult. Completely unfamiliar with horse riding, at first he could not even hold on to the saddle. However, grasping everything on the fly, Vilenkin quickly got used to it, began to hold on to the saddle very well and became a real hussar. The Jewish hussar seems like an anecdote, but later Vilenkin proved that military service was his real vocation.

After years of service, the volunteers took the exam for the first officer's rank - ensign. But Alexander could not be admitted to him, since, according to the existing legislation, Jews who adhere to Judaism were not promoted to officers in the imperial army. There were a few exceptions, for example, Joseph Vladimirovich Trumpeldor, who became an ensign in 1906 as a hero of the Russo-Japanese War, but this required special distinction. Alexander was offered to be baptized, but he refused, despite the fact that he was not a particularly religious person. The reason was that he did not want to change his faith for the sake of earthly blessings, without a real recognition of the correctness of Christianity. Thus, Vilenkin, who graduated from the service as a private, returns to the university.

At the university, during the revolutionary events of 1905, he joined the Cadet Party and spoke at its meetings and rallies for the elections to the First State Duma. Even then, fellow practitioners characterized him as a "wonderful orator", influencing "the feelings of the audience, which was greatly facilitated by his beautiful voice and well-aimed wit." He will preserve liberal views of varying degrees of leftism until the end of his life. After graduating from university in 1906, Alexander moved to Moscow and began to work as a sworn attorney. In 1907, on the recommendation of the head of the Cadet Party, Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov, he became an assistant to one of its members, lawyer Nikolai Vasilyevich Teslenko. Teslenko himself, in his memoirs about Vilenkin, says that at first he didn’t like the smart St. self-developed beliefs and a kind and responsive heart. "

Alexander rather quickly built up a reputation for himself as an outstanding lawyer, defending the defendants in various political trials - mainly over the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists. Quite an unusual point in the biography of a future participant in the White movement. However, one should not forget that among the people who fought for the White Cause, there were also such odious personalities as the famous Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist Boris Viktorovich Savinkov, who nevertheless became an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks.

Among Vilenkin's clients were such future pillars of Soviet power as the Soviet Supreme Commander-in-Chief after October 1917 and People's Commissar of Justice of the USSR Nikolai Krylenko, convicted in the case of the military organization of the Bolsheviks. At the trial in this case in 1907, he and the other two suspects were fully acquitted thanks to Vilenkin's oratory. Alexander had no idea that in 11 years some of his former clients would demand execution for him.

A few years later, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Vilenkin, under the patronage of his older brother Grigory, who was an employee at the Russian embassy in England, became a legal adviser to the British consulate in Moscow. In this position, he had to defend British citizens on both criminal and political grounds many times. Alexander continued his political career, speaking at various meetings of the Cadet Party.

For all his Moscow affairs, Vilenkin never forgot about his regiment, periodically appeared in his officers' assembly and maintained good relations with his fellow soldiers. And, when the Great War broke out, Alexander, three weeks later, in August 1914, volunteered for the Sumy regiment, which was attacking in East Prussia at that time. Vilenkin could wait out the war in London, where he was at the time of its beginning in the service, but this sickened his patriotic feeling and honor.

With the rank of private he took part in the fighting in the forefront. He quickly distinguished himself and was promoted to the rank of junior non-commissioned officer and appointed commander of the forward patrol. Subsequently, he was repeatedly wounded and for his valor was awarded the soldier's St.George Cross of all four degrees and the St.George Medal, thus becoming one of the few full St.George knights. The command of the regiment greatly appreciated the brave soldier. One of the regiment's officers, Vladimir Littauer, spoke about Alexander Vilenikin like this:

“Vilenkin was distinguished by incredible courage and had the largest number of awards among the soldiers.

And here is another example of Vilenkin's extraordinary willpower. He was wounded, and while the orderly sat him down on a fallen tree and was bandaging him, Vilenkin wrote poetry about the circumstances of the injury. "

The Jewish religion was still an obstacle for Vilenkin to receive an officer's rank, however, judging by the recollections of fellow soldiers, this did not bother him too much. Alexander won great authority among the soldiers and officers of the regiment, the latter treated him as an equal. Shortly before the February Revolution, he was appointed a liaison for the regiment commander, Colonel Vladimir Alexandrovich Leontyev. Also during the war, Vilenkin's poetic talent was revealed. He began to compose poetry based on famous songs. One of these verses was dedicated to the regiment's offensive in East Prussia in 1914:

"Brigadier General

In a merciless anger

He ordered to hang up to play.

Sounds rang out

Hands dropped

Everyone continues to shoot. "

After the February Revolution of 1917, all national and religious restrictions on production to the officer rank were lifted, and Vilenkin was promoted to ensign. Soon after the adoption of the famous order No. 1 on March 2, 1917 and the creation of elected committees in all military units, Alexander, popular with the soldiers, was elected chairman of the regimental committee. The attitude of Alexander to the revolution and the overthrow of Emperor Nicholas II is not known for certain, but after his election, he showed himself to be a supporter of strict discipline of war until the victorious end, made numerous attempts to reconcile officers and soldiers and repeatedly urged the latter to remain in the ranks and not to desert.

In March, after the departure of the former "insufficiently revolutionary" commander, the regiment refused to go to the front to replace tired units. Only with the help of long persuasion, Vilenkin and the new commander managed to convince the hussars to send them to the front.

In early June, Vilenkin decided to take part in the I All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, which was to be held in Petrograd on June 3-4, but the representatives of the Cadets, as a too “bourgeois” party, were not allowed to attend. Then Alexander joins the Labor Socialist Party, or the so-called "Popular Socialist", which stood on populist positions and includes mainly the urban intelligentsia. From the faction of this party in the Soviets, he was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Soviets. Election to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee gave him the right to participate in elections to army and front-line committees. At the meetings, he sharply negatively reacted to the Bolsheviks and other defeatists, considering them to be one of the main culprits in the further disintegration of the army. One of the familiar officers who met Vilenkin at the congress, in his recollections of three meetings with him, says that Alexander has completely changed during this period since their last meeting. He was no longer interested in politics, or advocacy, or social life, or new acquaintances. The ensign thought only about the fate of the Motherland and the outcome of the war. He wanted to do his best to help Russia win the Great War and was confident that she would be able to do it.

After the end of the congress, Alexander takes part in the elections to the army committee of the 5th army under the command of Lieutenant General Yuri Nikiforovich Danilov on the Northern Front, and in July becomes its chairman. The ensign, in fact, became equal in position to the army commander with the rank of general, but he did not abuse his power and rather quickly established an understanding with Danilov. Together they managed to convince the committee to form a Consolidated Detachment of soldiers who wanted to fight and send it to the disposal of the Provisional Government to establish control over Petrograd. Of course, the Provisional Government was afraid to use it.

Later, Alexander Vilenkin was awarded the officer's order of St.George IV degree for his activities in rescuing the army, and shortly before the October coup he was promoted immediately to staff captain (a cavalry analogue of the rank of staff captain in the imperial army and the rank of captain in the army of today's Russia), bypassing the rest titles. This was a high recognition of the officer's merits.

After the October coup, the staff captain, realizing that practically nothing could be saved at the front, came to Moscow. There he again entered the service of the British Consulate as a lawyer. However, he soon had a chance to once again show his organizational skills. At that time, a movement of Jewish front-line soldiers arose in the Russian army, which aimed to convey the opinion of the Jewish population about the future of Russia to the state power and its protection from possible pogroms. The first congress of this movement, which received the name of the All-Russian Union of Jewish Warriors or, as the writer Mikhail Weller called it, the Society of Jewish Knights of St. George, was held in Kiev in mid-October 1917. The congress was presided over by the already familiar Joseph Trumpeldor, who by that time had fought in the Jewish Legion as part of the British army and rose to the rank of captain. It was decided to create Jewish self-defense units in large cities of Russia - Petrograd, Moscow, Kiev and others. Captain-captain Vilenkin immediately joined this movement, created and headed the Moscow branch of the Union and began to wander between the capital and Moscow, agitating the soldiers to join it. In January 1918, after the defeat of the headquarters of the All-Russian Union of Jewish Warriors and the assassination of its chairman Gogol by a detachment of "free Cossacks", a military formation of Ukrainian nationalists, Alexander Vilenkin was elected the new head of the organization. Perhaps he was going to use the Union in the future to fight the Bolsheviks. This is confirmed by the fact that in March 1918 Vilenkin met with Boris Savinkov and joined his Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom.

Savinkov planned to organize uprisings in the cities of central Russia, including Moscow, which by that time had already become the capital of the Soviet Republic. The union intended to destroy the Bolsheviks in the capital and large cities, and then crush them on the ground. The goal was also to recreate the Russian army on the same principles of discipline and subordination to commanders, as well as to continue the war with Germany to a victorious end. In the Union, the staff captain headed the cavalry center, whose duties were communication with the cavalry regiments in the center and in the field, as well as the financial department. The organization was financed by the British government through a special mission under the Soviet government headed by Robert Lockhart, former consul and Vilenkin's immediate superior. Alexander was also responsible for the Jewish self-defense units, which were supposed to help in the overthrow of the Bolsheviks, and after their fall - to protect the Jewish population from possible pogroms.

However, their plans were not destined to come true. In May 1918, after a denunciation of a friend of one of the members of the Union, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, created by the Bolsheviks shortly before that, began arrests among those involved in the organization. After interrogation, the arrested began to tell what they knew, which, accordingly, prompted new arrests. Many of them were young officers who did not understand the investigation at all and easily fell for the bait of the Chekists. However, this can only excuse them indirectly. Savinkov, along with several other leaders, was able to escape, but the Union was actually defeated. Vilenkin had not yet come to the attention of the Chekists either. But this could not last long.

Soon the staff captain was issued with several officers, and the hunt began for him. Vilenkin knew about the impending arrest, but stayed at home to destroy documents that could harm the members of the organization who remained at large. According to the estimates of the officers who were with him in prison, by this he saved many lives. However, Alexander himself did not have time to hide. On May 29, he was arrested.

The captain-captain was kept first in the Butyrka prison, and two days after his arrest he was transferred to Taganskaya, where he met with Captain Klemenyev, who was the Union's communications chief and devoted part of his memoirs about Bolshevik Moscow to the fate of Vilenkin. According to him, Alexander enjoyed relative freedom of movement in prison and his content was quite tolerable. Klementyev explains this by the fact that in the past Vilenkin repeatedly defended various Bolshevik leaders in court, and now they, experiencing a slight feeling of gratitude, tried to repay him. Alexander was chosen as the head of the cell, in which he, Klementyev and several other officers were sitting. He did not lose heart and even began to publish a newspaper, which he humorously called "Tsentrohydra", provided legal assistance to everyone, constantly supported his comrades in misfortune and became the real leader of all arrested officers, repeatedly raised the issue of improving the prison regime before the Chekists.

At the first interrogation, according to the investigative documents, Savinkova firmly denied participation in the Union and did not betray anyone. During the second interrogation, he admitted only that he was the head of the All-Russian Union of Jewish Warriors, with the aim of preventing Jewish pogroms, and that he had meetings with representatives of various political parties in his apartment. Alexander refused to admit that the meetings were organized with the aim of working out a plan to overthrow the Bolsheviks. During the investigation, he quite frankly expressed his views on the need for Russia to continue the war as part of the Entente until the complete defeat of Germany. Subsequently, the Chekists arranged a confrontation for him with the cornet Parfenov, who claimed that Vilenkin was not only a member of the Union, but also gave him 200 rubles and instructions on how to oppose the Soviets. Alexander, being a professional lawyer and an excellent speaker, during the rate managed to confuse him like a cornet himself, forcing him to say literally the following about the participation of the staff captain in the organization: “I was too small a figure in the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom” and therefore probably know this could not. I thought so, ”and so is the investigation. A small ray of hope dawned to escape from the Bolshevik torture chambers alive.

In June, Vilenkin's case was transferred to the Supreme Tribunal, which found no corpus delicti and handed it back to the Chekists. Many people tried to achieve the release of Alexander - from relatives to the Bolshevik leaders whom he once saved from prison. Among the latter were Krylenko, already familiar to us, and Vladimir Dmitrievich Bonch-Bruevich, manager of the affairs of the Soviet government. However, the Chekists were against the release of the officer. Dzerzhinsky, who repeatedly personally interrogated Vilenkin, opposed both his execution and release, saying that he would be too dangerous if he were free.

The investigation continued until August. In the middle of the month, Vilenkin was summoned to a meeting of the Cheka Presidium, chaired by Felix Dzerzhinsky, at which his case was considered. Here is what Vilenkin himself told Klementyev about the course of the consideration:

“They brought us with Lieutenant Davydov to Emergency. A total of twenty people were gathered from other places. My mood is bad, indifferent and complete apathy. There is one thought in my head: hurry up! I see the same mood among others. Still, he broke himself. I decided to fight. "We must do something!" - I say to the neighbors. They are silent, only shaking their heads. I tell others. They dismissed it: be, they say, what will happen. “Well, as you know! - I tell them. "And I will fight." I am writing a letter to Dzerzhinsky. I demand that I, like my former clients, be given the opportunity to defend myself in front of strangers. One of the escorts takes away the letter. Waiting ... Minutes seem like an eternity. Finally the sent one returns. Takes me and leads me. Leads to Dzerzhinsky. The entire presidium is already assembled there. All faces are serious, stern. No one is looking at me. Everyone stared at the table. They give me the floor (Vilenkin spoke amazingly). I was a political defender in the tsarist court. During my practice, I made 296 advocacy speeches. Now, for the 297th time, I speak in my own defense, and I think this speech will be unsuccessful. The faces of those sitting at the table, before that stern, all blossomed with smiles. It became easier. I speak for a long time. Here are some of the names of their comrades whom I defended. They immediately call two or three of those whom I have named. Those come and confirm my words. I was taken back to the room where my comrades remained. They are no longer here - they have been taken away. I sit alone. In an hour or two they call. Again they lead to Dzerzhinsky. Now he is alone. And he announced that the death penalty was abolished by the decision of the presidium. We talk to him for a long time. We are talking about prison, about politics. Finally they are taken back again. They are kept in the Cheka for several more days and, as you can see, they are brought here.

Alexander Abramovich returned, gray, haggard, thin, pale, with sunken eyes, wrinkles, a pointed nose and a sad smile, but still with a firm will. "

After the execution was canceled, Alexander was transferred to solitary confinement. However, as will happen repeatedly in the future, the Chekists could not leave a dangerous prisoner alive, even if his death sentence was canceled.

On September 5, 1918, after the assassination attempt by Fanny Kaplan on Lenin and the murder of the head of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky, by Leonid Kanegisser, who may have acted with the sanction of Boris Savinkov, and the adoption by the Bolshevik government of the famous resolution "On the Red Terror", on the orders of Dzerzhinsky's deputy Peters, Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin was shot ... He never betrayed anyone.

Before his death, Vilenkin managed to write a farewell letter to the sisters, which was later given to them by the trade representative of the US Department of Commerce Roger Simmons, who was also arrested by the Bolsheviks and was in Taganskaya prison during Alexander's stay there, but was released by them. Also, the staff captain wrote a poem, which the inmates managed to save:

“I didn't hide from bullets in the bushes.
Not death, but despising cowardice,
I lived with a smile on my lips
And he smiled while dying. "

According to the story of Sergei Volkonsky, who knew Alexander's cellmates, the execution was commanded by a former fellow soldier of the staff captain, who turned to him with the words:

Forgive me Sasha, - he turns to the doomed, - if my people do not kill you right away: they should shoot them for the first time! ..

Forgive me too, ”Vilenkin replied calmly,“ if I don’t immediately fall, I’ll also die for the first time! ..

According to one of the existing versions, Dzerzhinsky allegedly did not know about the execution of Vilenkin, who, without consulting him, was ordered to be killed by his deputy Peters. There is no confirmation of this hypothesis, moreover, it is very unlikely that the execution of a person suspected of striving to overthrow the current government, moreover, the one who himself had repeatedly interrogated the head of the Cheka, was possible without his sanction. According to another, expressed by Captain Klementyev, Peters provoked an attempt to escape Vilenkin from prison, and then used it as a pretext for execution. Klementyev said that on September 5, the Chekists arrived at the Tagansky prison with an order to extradite Vilenkin to them. The prison authorities called the Cheka to verify the authenticity of the order. They replied that no such order had been given. The escape failed. However, Klementyev himself immediately mentions that he considers this a rumor launched by the Cheka itself to justify the murder of the officer. There is no evidence for this version either.

Be that as it may, Captain Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin gave his life for Russia, for which he courageously and valiantly shed blood during the Great War. He proved that, not being Russian by blood, he was worthy of the high rank of an officer in the Russian army. Alexander Vilenkin was a devoted patriot of his Fatherland. After February, he actively fought against the disintegration of the army, tried with all his might to save it and advocated the continuation of the war with Germany to a victorious end. Despite the fact that in the past he defended the Bolshevik leaders in court, Alexander atoned for all his mistakes by joining the White cause and constantly fighting against them after the October coup. He, like thousands of white soldiers and officers, died at the hands of the Bolsheviks for his struggle. People like him proved by their actions that not all Jews supported the Bolshevik destruction of old Russia, and that not everyone is responsible for it. There were many different people in the White movement, both by nationality and by convictions, but all of them equally fought for the revival of the only Russia that should exist on Russian territory, and the continuity with which we all yearn. And we must honor and remember all the heroes of the White movement, all the famous and nameless defenders of Russia tormented by the Bolshevik infection.

As a conclusion, I would like to cite the opinion of the famous writer Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn about Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin, cited in his famous book "Two Hundred Years Together":

“Here is another Jewish name, still undeservedly little known, not glorified as it should be: the hero of the anti-Bolshevik underground, Alexander Abramovich Vilenkin, who at 17 volunteered for the 1914 war, in the hussars; received 4 crosses of St. George, promoted to officers, and by the time of the revolution already in the headquarters captain; in 1918 - he was in the underground Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom; seized by the Chekists only because after the failure of the organization he delayed to destroy the documents. Collected, intelligent, energetic, irreconcilable to the Bolsheviks, he both underground and in prisons inspired many others to resist - and, of course, was shot by the Chekists. (Information about him - from his accomplice in the underground in 1918 and then a cellmate in a Soviet prison in 1919 Vasily Fedorovich Klementyev, the captain of the Russian army.) ".

Text: Denis Guy

ichael/ 11.04.2019 Address and e-mail:
Office: Room 304C, 574 Boston Avenue
Telephone: 617-627-3147
Email: vilenkin (at cosmos.phy.tufts.edu)

Rostislav/ 03/19/2019 If you have not answered yet, then it is unlikely.

Chaim Breiterman/ 18.03.2019 If not, then there is no point in commenting.

Chaim Breiterman/ 18.03.2019 To begin with, I would like to know if Alexander Vilenkin himself reads these comments.

Rostislav/ 03/16/2019 To begin with, let's define the concept of "uniform patterns". What meaning do you put into it? So that we do not speak with the same words, but about different things. And as much as possible, please, concretize, so that we do not concretize the abstraction again.

Chaim Breiterman/ 12.03.2019 Dear Rostislav! We are talking about whether the uniform laws of the development of the Universe are reality or not?

Rostislav/ 11.03.2019 Dear Haim Breiterman! You still haven't answered my question ((Unfortunately, I don't have as much experience and knowledge as you do. Help me figure it out. It seems to me that I wrote a sensible thought: everything depends on the quality of our perception. What's wrong? Read again what I wrote.

Chaim Breiterman/ 11.03.2019 First, deal with "etc."

Rostislav/ 10.03.2019 It's all good. What are quarks and leptons made of? And what are quarks and leptons built of, what are they built of? That is, it turns out everything was, is and will be. After all, we go to minus infinity by means of analysis (from the smallest to the smallest), just as there is plus infinity by synthesis (from the largest to the largest). And since everything was, is, and will be, then in the end nothing changes. Everything is static. Only we (our perception, the so-called "assemblage point) move. And then, it does not even move, but simply, as it were," improves "(like the evolution from the first telescopes to telescopes or microscopes). That is, our quality of perception shows we have a different world, and this process of improvement is also endless, like the world itself.

Chaim Breitrmann/ 9.03.2019 Nobel Prize Laureate Yoichiro Nambu:
"The matter around us is ultimately built from quarks and leptons according to the following scheme: baryons are formed from quarks, atomic nuclei are formed from baryons, atoms are formed from nuclei and electrons, molecules are formed from atoms, and, for example, living organisms are built from molecules, etc. .NS. ...
Thus, there are several levels of structural organization of matter. "(" Quarks ". Translated from Japanese. Moscow." MIR "1984. p. 22).

Before us is clearly a fundamental law of the development of the Universe, which science has no right to ignore. First of all, it is necessary to reveal "etc."

Chaim Breiterman/ 7.03.2019 If the uniform laws of the development of the Universe are studied, then the nature of human happiness and unhappiness will become clear, and they will be scientifically solved at the social level.

Chaim Breiterman/ 7.03.2019 Dear Rostislav! We are talking about the laws of the development of the Universe. There are laws that govern the cosmos, human society, and consciousness. They need to be studied. Happiness and unhappiness are purely human concepts.

Rostislav/ 6.03.2019 Dear Chaim Breiterman! It seems that I found your site on the source narod.ru. Thank you!

Rostislav/ 6.03.2019 Haim, are you sure that the laws are the same? Why are so many people unhappy? Why is there so much suffering? If, here you are - an ordinary person, found this "magic wand"?

/ 6.03.2019 If the uniform laws of the development of the Universe, to which both space, and human society, and consciousness are subordinated, are a fact, and not my invention, then can this fact be ignored, not analyzed, not drawn conclusions, including topical ?