Karl Viktorovich Pauker - a man who went down in history as a personal assistant to I. V. Stalin, an indispensable participant in the leader's feasts, his barber, jester and drinking companion, who faithfully served for 13 years and repeated the sad fate of most people from Stalin's entourage.
Stalin's Barber
A native of the city of Lemberg (now Lviv) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was born in 1893 and came from a family of a Jewish hairdresser.
The father's profession, in whose footsteps Pauker Karl Viktorovich followed, was useful to him in the future. In particular, Karl showed his virtuoso skills by becoming the 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 at one time served the actors of the Budapest Operetta Theater, the Secretary General began to look very neat and well-groomed.
Besides caring about Stalin's appearance, Pauker fulfilled the slightest wishes of his boss, trying to anticipate them as much as possible. To do this, he thoroughly studied the tastes of JosephVissarionovich and took care of his wardrobe.
So, with the light hand of Pauker, specially for the leader, who was 163 centimeters tall and wanted to rise above his surroundings, boots of a special cut were sewn: with high heels, partially disguised as backs. And so that the shoe cunning was not too conspicuous, Pauker ordered the General Secretary a long overcoat that reached to the heels.
Also Pauker Karl Viktorovich (photo - in the article), trying to improve Stalin's life, took responsibility for his food, strictly controlled the food that appeared on the table. Whether or not Stalin would accept a certain visitor also depended on Pauker, as well as everything that had to do with the leader and his family.
How did a poorly educated Jew, who only completed courses at the Communist University of Ya. M. Sverdlov, get into such a significant environment and become quite an influential person in the government?
Pauker's Career Rise
It all started with military service in the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army, from where Karl Pauker was captured by the Russians (in Samarkand), where he stayed until 1917. It was in the prisoner of war camp that he became close to the Bolsheviks, and after a while he joined the party. The years 1917-1918 were marked for Pauker by work in not too high, but responsible positions: as an assistant to the military commissar, assistant to the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee (military revolutionary committee), and then chairman of the field revolutionary tribunal.
Pauker was oneof the instigators of the Red Terror in Samarkand, and he himself determined the composition of the execution lists. He could even sentence for a bad explanation in Russian. Such a rapid career take-off was due to an acquaintance with Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, one of the organizers of Stalin's repressions. Having become something like a "personal servant", Pauker zealously took care of the boss, and after a while he could no longer do without his assistant. It was at his suggestion that in 1920 Pauker was transferred to Moscow, in 1922 he took the post of deputy head of the Operations Department of the Cheka, leading it a year later. This department was in charge of the protection of the country's leadership, including Stalin. Karl Viktorovich held this position until 1937.
Karl Pauker - Head of Stalin's Security
It was under Pauker, of course, with the knowledge of the Secretary General, that the number of guards increased many times over. If at first two, and then four guards were responsible for the safety of V. I. Lenin, then under Stalin their number increased many times over. For example, on the way of the leader to the dacha, there were almost 3,000 Chekists around, properly equipped. Such an escort of a high-ranking person most of all 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, at the site of which employees of his department should always be present.
Extremely Important Missions
Extreme workload did not leave Karl Viktorovichtime for personal life. But Stalin compensated for this with awards (6 orders, including the Order of Lenin) and many gifts, among which there were two cars: a Cadillac limousine and an open Lincoln.
As Stalin's position became stronger, Pauker Karl Viktorovich began to receive tasks from him of a slightly different nature, often associated with organizing repressions. Pauker became a kind of personal investigator of the head of the country, overseeing the arrests and deportation of activists of the "left opposition" to remote Siberian places. Then Karl was entrusted with the work of the "Union of Marxist-Leninists", headed by Martemyan Ryutin, a well-known Bolshevik who openly criticized Stalin's policies. Zealously 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 to the defendants connections with foreign intelligence services and terrorist plans.
Following the others…
Stalin was pleased with Pauker's work, so he often entrusted him with new tasks, including the "Kremlin case", the case of the "Moscow Anti-Soviet Center". Along the way, at the direction of Stalin who did not trust anyone, Karl Viktorovich himself was taken into development by the party counterintelligence.
April 19, 1937 Pauker Karl Viktorovich was arrested and charged with preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin. August 14, 1937 - shot. Was not rehabilitated.
