When did the President of the KBR Kokov Valery Mukhamedovich die? Biography. On mountain roads
President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic; born on October 18, 1941 in the village (now city) of Tyrnyauz, Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Kabardian; graduated from the Terek Agricultural College in 1959, the Faculty of Economics of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University in 1964, the Higher Party School under the CPSU Central Committee (in absentia) in 1978, graduate school at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, candidate of economic sciences; from 1964 he worked as the chief agronomist of the collective farm "Labor Highlander" in the Baksan region of Kabardino-Balkaria; since 1970 - senior economist, head of the labor and wages department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; 1972-1974 - director of the Leskensky state farm, Urvansky district of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; 1974-1983 - first secretary of the Urvan district committee of the CPSU; 1983-1985 - Chairman of the State Committee of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic for production and technical support of agriculture; 1985-1990. Secretary of Agriculture, then - Second Secretary, from February 1990 - First Secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the CPSU; elected deputy of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria (1975-1990); in March 1990 he was re-elected as a deputy and chairman of the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as a people's deputy of the Russian Federation; after an attempted coup in August 1991, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria; 1991-1992 - First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; On January 5, 1992, he won the second round of presidential elections in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, gaining 88.86% of the votes of voters who took part in the voting; On January 12, 1997, he was elected president of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic for a second term (the elections were held on an uncontested basis), gaining about 98% of the votes; On January 13, 2002, he was elected president of Kabardino-Balkaria for a third term, gaining more than 87% of the votes in the elections with a high voter turnout of over 85% (five more candidates ran for the presidency); elected a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the first convocation (1993-1995), was a member of the Committee on International Affairs; since 1996, he was a member of the Federation Council ex officio, and was deputy chairman of the Federation Council; in December 2001, he resigned as a member of the Federation Council in connection with the appointment of a representative of the government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic to it in accordance with the new procedure for the formation of the upper house of the Russian parliament; awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, Friendship of Peoples, and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (2001); married, has a son and daughter. After his second election as President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, he stated that he considered strengthening interethnic relations to be his main task.
In his opinion, Kabardino-Balkaria is an example of the friendly living of representatives of different nations, and anyone’s attempts to escalate the situation there are useless.
Lecture:
“The first president of the KBR is V.M. Kokov”
Valery Mukhamedovich Kokov was born on October 18, 1941. His father was then at the front. And after the war, he followed the party line, up to the post of first secretary of the district committee. But life prepared a trap for Mukhamed Kambotovich Kokov: on false charges, he was sentenced to a long prison term. Then justice triumphed: Mukhamed Kokov was released early, reinstated in the party, and given a personal pension of union significance...
Life is not a straight and smooth road. The son of his father, Valery Kokov always knew this.
Valery Kokov's personal biography reflects the biography of his native Kabardino-Balkaria. They went through all stages of the difficult path together - the republic and its first president. After graduating from the Faculty of Agriculture of Kabardino-Balkarian State University, Valery Kokov could remain in graduate school. But he chose to become an agronomist at the “Labor Highlander” collective farm, where he completed his pre-graduation internship. (He will graduate from graduate school in Moscow and become a candidate of economic sciences.) Then there was the Leskensensky state farm - Kokov was the director there. Then - the post of first secretary of the Urvan district committee, secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee of the CPSU for agriculture, second secretary...
In February 1990, Valery Kokov became the first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the CPSU. However, he will refuse this post when he is elected chairman of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria. From July 1990 to August 1991 - member of the CPSU Central Committee┘
It is generally accepted that the Soviet system educated only cogs, of greater or lesser caliber. Maybe... But, as the philosopher said, what does not kill a person makes him stronger. Extraordinary individuals knew how to preserve themselves even in the conditions of an administrative-command system.
Sergei Stepashin recalls Kokov saying: “Were you and I party members? Were. Why, dear, did we join the party? Yes, because in the conditions of a one-party system, both you and I - active people, determined to work in the name of the state - could only realize ourselves through the party. But didn’t we gradually realize - I remember our conversations in the Supreme Council - that people live a double life: one at party meetings, the other in the kitchens. Didn’t we realize that a great country was bogged down in the quagmire of its own contradictions?”
Valery Kokov was able to usefully apply the experience gained during the Soviet era in the post-Soviet era. He managed, in the exact words of Evgeny Salov, to combine “the Soviet school of management with democratic innovation, national-territorial interest with state-Russian interest, personal courage with the challenge of troubled times. He answered it with dignity and left undefeated.”
Parade of sovereignties
In the early 1990s, the time of the “parade of sovereignties”, here, as in other places, national movements arose - Kabardian and Balkar. Each of them fought for the revival of their statehood, for national and political self-determination. The fight was gaining momentum with great speed. It seemed as if the republic was about to be torn apart. The situation was aggravated by the memory of the deportation of the Balkar population of the republic: on March 8, 1944, almost 38 thousand people were loaded into freight cars within 24 hours and sent to Central Asia. The Kabardians were not touched.
In November 1991, the Congress of the Balkar People proclaimed the Republic of Balkaria as part of the RSFSR and demanded the restoration of the 1944 borders. In turn, the Congress of the Kabardian People announced the creation of the Kabardian Republic within the RSFSR, protesting the demands for the restoration of the 1944 borders.
Valery Kokov was a Kabardian by birth. And an internationalist by conviction. He was equally disgusted by any nationalists - both Kabardian and Balkar. At the session of the Supreme Council of the then KBASSR, “the deputies, under the influence of the euphoria caused by the “parade of sovereignties,” almost unanimously voted for the division of Kabarda and Balkaria.” The Chairman of the Supreme Council, Kokov, was categorically against it. He ended his speech like this: “I think today we have turned not the best page in the history of Kabardino-Balkaria”┘ (Then the Supreme Council will cancel the adopted resolution.)
Being a Kabardian, Kokov was all the more careful about the feelings of the Balkars, about their national resentment, which has not yet outlived its usefulness. I couldn’t get rid of it... Kokov did everything for the complete rehabilitation of the Balkar people. He initiated a package of regulations for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. The personal apology to the Balkar people, which President Yeltsin made on the day of the 50th anniversary of the deportation of the Balkars, is also Kokov’s merit. As well as the establishment of the Day of Revival of the Balkar people.
Valery Kokov called Stalin's deportation a scar that remained in the minds of many. And he experienced the tragedy of the Balkars as his own. While watching the film “The Hard Way” - about the deportation of the Balkar people - he cried.
His cherished idea was that Russia, fulfilling its civilizing role, would especially clearly convey “a simple idea to the mountaineers: they are not just dealing with a conceptually different country, they themselves are part of this country.”
To prevent blood from being shed
In the fall of 1991, rally passions raged with might and main. People already wanted to live in a new way and were looking for this new wherever possible. In their eyes, the former secretary of the regional committee, and now the Chairman of the Supreme Council, Kokov, seemed to be the personification of the old regime. Clever Kokov understood this and took a wise political step - on his initiative, the government and the Supreme Council of the republic, headed by him, voluntarily resigned their powers. “In the name of peace and harmony, so that the blood of the citizens of the republic is not shed,” he said. Indeed, Kabardino-Balkaria avoided bloodshed only thanks to Kokov.
And already in January 1992, the same people, the same people elected Valery Kokov as their president.
However, the republic continued to be in a fever. In the fall, things reached a crisis that could develop into a civil war and turn Kabardino-Balkaria into another hot spot.
When the war began in Abkhazia, President Kokov sent medicines and food there. But he banned the formation of volunteer detachments, which Kabardian nationalists called for. In addition, on September 23, the leader of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, Shanibov, was arrested. A rally of thousands began on the square in front of the parliament in Nalchik, demanding his release. The situation was stalemate, civil war was literally on the doorstep. As Sergei Stepashin says, President Kokov was then ready with his friends to go out with a machine gun at the ready to meet the excited crowd that was storming the House of Soviets. But it’s one thing to go out with friends towards a crowd, and quite another thing when special forces are shooting at the crowd...
Sultan Abrokov, the former Minister of Industry and Transport, recalls how the General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, carrying out the instructions of President Yeltsin, laid documents in front of Kokov and showed him where he should sign. After the signing, the general said, the square will be cleared in 15 minutes, the republican authorities will have to take care of the inevitable victims of the operation... “Neither before nor after have I seen Valery Kokov so angry,” Abrokov testifies. -┘he said in his thunderous voice: “Why are you worried, because they will kill me, not you! - and with these words he threw the ominous document away from himself.”
For President Kokov, even one death would be an excessively high price to pay for ending the crisis. “You can’t shoot at your own people, you need to talk to your people, not fight,” he said. And he actually negotiated with all representatives of the opposition.
Refusal to shed the blood of one’s fellow citizens, no matter what the circumstances, is the highest valor of a ruler. By not allowing his people to be shot, President Kokov confirmed the mandate of trust he received in the January elections.
Then, at an emergency session of the Supreme Council, Kokov declared the Congress of the Kabardian people to be the main culprit for what happened. Was it easy for him, a Kabardian, to do this?
“He took personal risks, risked the fate of his family and friends. But as a thinking person and “capable of generalizations” (words that he often repeated), he understood the extent of another risk associated with the fate of the Russian state,” recalls Evgeny Salov, deputy of the Council of the Republic of the State Council-Khase of the Republic of Adygea.
Once President Kokov was asked: “Aren’t you afraid of the Gamsakhurdia option?” He answered simply: “I do not rule out that my opponents will do this, but I made a choice - to serve the people of Kabardino-Balkaria - and I will not back down from this.”
If we put Kokov’s priorities in order, then peace, stability and normal interethnic relations will come first. The second is social issues. Economic problems are on the third. (“I thought that if there was peace, everything else could be acquired.”) And most importantly, he did not think of Kabardino-Balkaria outside of Russia. He always said: “Only together with Russia!”
Charm of personality
Coming from the Soviet nomenklatura, Valery Kokov nevertheless had a special charisma. As soon as he spoke, the audience fell silent and listened, as if spellbound. An excellent speaker, he, of course, spoke without a piece of paper. Those who heard Kokov say that many of his speeches resembled a sermon and, in fact, were one. They remember his powerful voice, his irresistible logic, and erudition. He was magically attractive, as befits a charismatic leader.
I read a lot, knew about music and painting. On his initiative, the Days of Kabardino-Balkaria were held in Moscow and the Days of Moscow in Kabardino-Balkaria, and the exhibition of Mikhail Shemyakin in Nalchik. I loved Yuri Temirkanov and was proud of him.
Valery Kokov had a lively and receptive mind. Somehow he ended up in a company that included the world-famous scientist, one of the creators of the theory of market socialism, Syrozhin. After a conversation with Kokov, the scientist admitted that he did not expect such a brilliant mind from the secretary of the district committee. And he admired: “He penetrated through the special terminology as if we were talking about the construction of a primus.”
People who knew Valery Kokov note his incredible efficiency: “He could hold a meeting in the morning, fly to Moscow, take part in some event, return and participate in another event in the republic. I could sit with guests until the morning and, after resting for an hour and a half, get back to work.”
Sometimes he could schedule a business meeting for half past five in the morning.
His excellent memory also caused surprise and admiration. He remembered everything: instructions, people's names... He didn't have to pretend that people interested him - he was really interested in people and their affairs.
In his youth, when he became the director of a state farm, he wrote the word “Silence” with three exclamation marks every day on a desk calendar. This is how he learned to listen and hear people.
He didn't like flattery or fawning. For him there were no differences in social status - he treated the higher and lower equally equally. And he always tried to help. When the President of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic presented jeeps to all heads of the Southern Federal District, Kokov gave his car to the largest family in the republic┘
He refused security service motorcades - he didn’t want “people to think that he was afraid of them.”
I went hunting to communicate with nature. I have never shot at game.
Was he an angel? Of course not. Angels do not become secretaries of regional committees, or speakers of parliaments, much less presidents.
He was a man
When Valery Kokov was elected deputy chairman of the Federation Council, someone asked how he assessed the work of his predecessor. The answer was short and impartial: “Less than a C!” The Chamber appreciated such directness - in a secret ballot, Kokov was supported almost unanimously.
To some, especially during their first meetings, Valery Kokov seemed very tough. “But he was not like that... Although he spoke sternly, he did not “cut heads from the shoulders”, he tried to save, leading to the side, did not cut to the quick, although some of his subordinates deserved it... “Understand, even if this man made a mistake , somewhere he stole, somewhere he took the wrong direction, but he didn’t kill another person!..” He never persecuted his oppositionists, although he could easily leave these people without a livelihood,” says Mikhail Mambetov, head of the administration of the Chegem region.
“Was he a tough man? – Natbi Boziev, Deputy Chairman of the KBR Parliament, also asks. – Yes, to a certain extent. Tough enough, but not cruel, and especially not vindictive. Having determined the direction, he gave freedom to discussion. But when a decision was made, he immediately demanded that it be carried out strictly... sometimes he would scold and say a harsh word. But [after] he analyzed everything again, weighed it, as if passing it through himself, and said: “What do you think, am I right here?”
“Outwardly he seemed to be a very tough person, but in fact he was trusting and soft┘,” recalls Lyudmila Fedchenko, another deputy chairman of the KBR parliament. “I always had the feeling that he was simply sorry to dismiss a person from his position... he could show intemperance and, in the presence of others, quite sharply reprimand the offending official... Everyone was afraid... [but] they knew that he would scold him now, and then forgive him anyway.” .
However, when it was necessary, he knew how to show both firmness and toughness - otherwise what kind of leader would he have been! In November 1996, the Fifth Congress of the Balkar People approved the Republic of Balkaria as “an independent state entity within the Russian Federation.” The response measures of the leadership of the KBR were harsh: two socio-political organizations of Balkars were banned.
“O my little people, cherished in my heart, / Whose good from bad I cannot separate, / Then you lift my soul to heaven, / Then you throw hope into the underworld.” Valery Kokov himself translated these poems by Boris Utizhev into Russian and often quoted them.
He did a lot
Reading the memoirs of Valery Kokov, you pay attention to this. If a builder remembers, he will definitely say that the main thing for Kokov was construction. The Minister of Sports will call sport a priority. Minister of Energy - Energy. The one who was involved in education - Memoirists do not exaggerate their field - Kokov was sincerely interested in everything.
Agronomist, director of the state farm, secretary of the district and regional committees, chairman of the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, twice elected president of the republic, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Highlander, statesman, leader, he managed to do a lot. And the main thing of his affairs is maintaining the unity of the republic. Thanks to him, Kabardino-Balkaria did not disintegrate and did not become a hot spot.
While engaged in legislative activities, Kokov introduced into the law on elections to the parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic the order of representation of the titular nations in absolutely equal measure: Kabardians, Balkars and Russians. This was the only way to maintain harmony in the republic.
It is also worth remembering that Kabardino-Balkaria is the first subject of the Russian Federation where three-year paid leave for mothers and savings deposits for newborns were introduced. Rural medical outpatient clinics with day hospitals, specialized medical centers are also an initiative of President Kokov.
And the subject of his special pride is the complete gasification of the republic, to the most distant mountain village.
Valery Kokov amazingly combined both large-scale thinking and attention to “small matters”. Today, the implementation of what he started but did not have time to complete continues.
Making toasts in honor of the distinguished guests, Valery Kokov said: “Kabardino-Balkaria does not produce fuel and does not build rockets, but it has such a treasure as Adyghe khabze - the knowledge of how to live in peace, harmony, with honor and dignity.”
And he had this jewel - Adyge khabze. So he left undefeated. We can say about him: this man conquered his Elbrus.
Former President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic; born on October 18, 1941 in the village (now city) of Tyrnyauz, Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; graduated from the Terek Agricultural College in 1959, the Faculty of Economics of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University in 1964, the Higher Party School under the CPSU Central Committee (in absentia) in 1978, graduate school at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, candidate of economic sciences; from 1964 he worked as the chief agronomist of the collective farm "Labor Highlander" in the Baksan region of Kabardino-Balkaria; since 1970 - senior economist, head of the labor and wages department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; 1972-1974 - director of the Leskensky state farm, Urvansky district of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; 1974-1983 - first secretary of the Urvan district committee of the CPSU; 1983-1985 - Chairman of the State Committee of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic for production and technical support of agriculture; 1985-1990 - Secretary of Agriculture, then - Second Secretary, from February 1990 - First Secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the CPSU; elected deputy of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria (1975-1990); in March 1990 he was re-elected as a deputy and chairman of the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as a people's deputy of the Russian Federation; after an attempted coup in August 1991, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria; 1991-1992 - First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; On January 5, 1992, he won the second round of presidential elections in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, gaining 88.86% of the votes of voters who took part in the voting; On January 12, 1997, he was elected president of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic for a second term (the elections were held on an uncontested basis), gaining about 98% of the votes; On January 13, 2002, he was elected president of Kabardino-Balkaria for a third term, gaining more than 87% of the votes in the elections with a high voter turnout of over 85% (five more candidates ran for the presidency); in September 2005, he resigned from the post of President of Kabardino-Balkaria due to health reasons; elected a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the first convocation (1993-1995), was a member of the Committee on International Affairs; since 1996, he was a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation ex officio, and was deputy chairman of the Federation Council; in December 2001, he resigned as a member of the Federation Council in connection with the appointment of a representative of the government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic to it in accordance with the new procedure for the formation of the upper house of the Russian parliament; awarded the Orders of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the "Badge of Honour", the Friendship of Peoples, "For Services to the Fatherland" IV, III and II degrees; died October 29, 2005
YURY TEMIRKANOV: I DREAMED OF BECOME AN ARTIST...
It’s not for nothing that chance is called a pattern of fate. The boy was only three when in 1941 a group of art masters arrived in Nalchik from Moscow for evacuation. And among them is the famous Sergei Prokofiev.
The composer visited the Temirkanovs and, of all the children, especially singled out little Yura. Could he then have imagined that it was this charming toddler with cherry eyes who would later become one of the best interpreters of the opera “War and Peace”, on which - what a coincidence - Prokofiev worked in Kabardino-Balkaria.
Music became Temirkanov’s life’s work by chance: a musician who moved from Ashgabat after the earthquake settled next door to Nalchik. One day he met some boys kicking a ball around the yard. He asked: “Do you want to learn music?” Little Yura said: “I want” only because he could not offend the elder with his refusal.
“If I had not become a musician, I would probably have become an artist. This was the very first and, perhaps, most serious hobby besides music,” Temirkanov later admitted in an interview.
He drew decently as a child and today, as he admits, sometimes, not without joy, he looks through some of his surviving childhood drawings.
A famous St. Petersburg resident, one of the greatest conductors of our time, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, order bearer and twice laureate of the USSR State Prize, now artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and chief conductor of the legendary "Merit", Yuri Temirkanov has been living for more than half a century away from his small homeland, but with the first opportunities rush to the Caucasus. To fill your lungs with the air of your native Kabardino-Balkaria. And move on with your life.
MIKHAIL SHEMYAKIN: CHERKESKA IS BEAUTIFUL...
He passed through three colors of time, through three cultures, acquired three hypostases in one person, but remained true to himself. And he never forgets his roots. Not only Russians - Mikhail Mikhailovich Shemyakin is half a “face of Caucasian nationality.” Not a Caucasian, as the world delicately denotes a person of the white race, but a real Caucasian, and of a princely family.
The artist's father was left an orphan at an early age and was adopted by White Guard officer Shemyakin. His adoptive father soon died in the Civil War, and young Misha, orphaned for the second time, became a Red Army son of the regiment and, as a teenager, received one of the first Orders of the Red Banner of Battle. He lived his life under the name Shemyakin, but always remembered with pride that he belonged to the noble ancient family of the Kardanovs.
>> I have the honor! Little Misha Shemyakin in his father’s tunic.
The artist came to his historical homeland for the first time in 1997, already an internationally recognized master. They received him in Kabardino-Balkaria with truly Caucasian hospitality, presented him with full Circassian equipment and a horse named Karo.
The same name, according to Shemyakin, was the name of the horse on which his cavalryman father once fought. Since then, the artist has visited Nalchik more than once. And every time on the central streets he is greeted by posters: “Kabardino-Balkaria welcomes its son Kardanov-Shemyakin.”
The artist’s mother, Yulia Predtechenskaya, like her father, was proud of the antiquity of her noble family. The family adhered to Pan-Slavic views, but this did not stop her from marrying a highlander. In the 30s Julia played in cinema and theater, and once she got the role of a young Kabardian woman. The filming took place in the very village of Kyzburun, where, as it turned out much later, Mikhail Shemyakin’s father was from... Can you tell the case? Fate!
VALERY KOKOV. SHADOW OF THE EAGLE
Valery Kokov. Photo: Vladimir Kopylov
The first president of Kabardino-Balkaria. A wise politician and far-sighted leader who passed away early, who mastered the high art of making the right decisions in the most difficult situations. The figure is powerful and ambiguous.
He headed the republic in the difficult year for the Caucasus in 1992. Kabardino-Balkaria then experienced such political tension that the Caucasian arc of instability could well have begun not with Chechnya, but with it. An attempted putsch and an indefinite hunger strike by the opposition, congresses of the Kabardian and Balkar people with an agenda for the division of the republic...
In those troubled times, Nalchik tensed in anxious anticipation of great trouble. A rioting crowd seized television, tried to storm the Government House, and demanded the dissolution of parliament. The wounded and dead appeared. But the will of the leader of the republic, coupled with the prudence of the people, worked. Largely thanks to Valery Kokov, the republic avoided civil war at that time.
He was in love with the mountains and loved driving along steep mountain passes. Receiving important and respected guests, Valery Kokov certainly raised a toast: “Kabardino-Balkaria does not produce fuel and does not build rockets, but it has such a treasure as Adyghe Khabze - the knowledge of how to live in peace, harmony, with honor and dignity.”
The first president resigned for health reasons in September 2005. He died in October of the same year. According to his will, he was buried in the family cemetery in the village of Dugulubgey.
In 2007, a monument to the first president of Kabardino-Balkaria was unveiled in Nalchik. In December 2015, Don River Fleet named a dry cargo ship after Valery Kokov.
THE VALIANT IS ADMIRAL GOLOVKO
The city of Prokhladny is located in the foothills of the Caucasus on the small, non-navigable Malka River. It is all the more surprising that an uncountable number of naval officers and as many as four admirals set out on the long voyage from the land-based Prokhladny. And the most legendary of them is Admiral Arseny Grigorievich Golovko.
The village of Prokhladnaya was founded in the 18th century. on the Mozdok fortified line, the ancestors of Arseny Golovko are Terek Cossacks. The son of a veterinary assistant, he dreamed of growing gardens since childhood. And he even entered the Timiryazev Academy in Moscow. But in 1925, Komsomol members were called to serve in the navy, and Arseny responded to the call.
Highlander, statesman, leader.
Photo by Fred Greenberg (NG-photo)
A year ago, Valery Kokov passed away. President of Kabardino-Balkaria. Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. Wise, brave, talented, beautiful person. Let's remember him.
On mountain roads
In September 2004, the President of the KBR Kokov, together with the Minister of Fuel and Energy Aziratali Akhmetov and another minister, checked the state of gasification of the villages of Upper Balkaria. The President, despite the fact that he was already ill, drove the car. Moreover, he drove in such a way that it seemed to the passengers: “a little more - and the car will turn over or fall into the abyss.” Who was he testing: his companions, himself? Or maybe he just enjoyed extreme sports, although there was already enough extreme sports in his life without that.
He loved the mountains. And he really loved driving on steep and treacherous mountain roads. It was a victory over circumstances. And victory over oneself, without which victory over circumstances is impossible. It was not for nothing that he was named in honor of the brave pilot Valery Chkalov.
Valery Mukhamedovich Kokov was born on October 18, 1941. His father was then at the front. And after the war, he followed the party line, up to the post of first secretary of the district committee. But life prepared a trap for Mukhamed Kambotovich Kokov: on false charges, he was sentenced to a long prison term. Then justice triumphed: Mukhamed Kokov was released early, reinstated in the party, and given a personal pension of union significance...
Life is not a straight and smooth road. The son of his father, Valery Kokov always knew this.
Valery Kokov's personal biography reflects the biography of his native Kabardino-Balkaria. They went through all stages of the difficult path together - the republic and its first president. After graduating from the Faculty of Agriculture of Kabardino-Balkarian State University, Valery Kokov could remain in graduate school. But he chose to become an agronomist at the “Labor Highlander” collective farm, where he completed his pre-graduation internship. (He will graduate from graduate school in Moscow and become a candidate of economic sciences.) Then there was the Leskensensky state farm - Kokov was the director there. Then - the post of first secretary of the Urvan district committee, secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee of the CPSU for agriculture, second secretary...
In February 1990, Valery Kokov became the first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the CPSU. However, he will refuse this post when he is elected chairman of the Supreme Council of Kabardino-Balkaria. From July 1990 to August 1991 - member of the CPSU Central Committee┘
It is generally accepted that the Soviet system educated only cogs, of greater or lesser caliber. Maybe... But, as the philosopher said, what does not kill a person makes him stronger. Extraordinary individuals knew how to preserve themselves even in the conditions of an administrative-command system.
Sergei Stepashin recalls Kokov saying: “Were you and I party members? Were. Why, dear, did we join the party? Yes, because in the conditions of a one-party system, both you and I - active people, determined to work in the name of the state - could only realize ourselves through the party. But didn’t we gradually realize - I remember our conversations in the Supreme Council - that people live a double life: one at party meetings, the other in the kitchens. Didn’t we realize that a great country was bogged down in the quagmire of its own contradictions?”
Valery Kokov was able to usefully apply the experience gained during the Soviet era in the post-Soviet era. He managed, in the exact words of Evgeny Salov, to combine “the Soviet school of management with democratic innovation, national-territorial interest with state-Russian interest, personal courage with the challenge of troubled times. He answered it with dignity and left undefeated.”
Parade of sovereignties
In the early 1990s, the time of the “parade of sovereignties”, here, as in other places, national movements arose - Kabardian and Balkar. Each of them fought for the revival of their statehood, for national and political self-determination. The fight was gaining momentum with great speed. It seemed as if the republic was about to be torn apart. The situation was aggravated by the memory of the deportation of the Balkar population of the republic: on March 8, 1944, almost 38 thousand people were loaded into freight cars within 24 hours and sent to Central Asia. The Kabardians were not touched.
In November 1991, the Congress of the Balkar People proclaimed the Republic of Balkaria as part of the RSFSR and demanded the restoration of the 1944 borders. In turn, the Congress of the Kabardian People announced the creation of the Kabardian Republic within the RSFSR, protesting the demands for the restoration of the 1944 borders.
Valery Kokov was a Kabardian by birth. And an internationalist by conviction. He was equally disgusted by any nationalists - both Kabardian and Balkar. At the session of the Supreme Council of the then KBASSR, “the deputies, under the influence of the euphoria caused by the “parade of sovereignties,” almost unanimously voted for the division of Kabarda and Balkaria.” The Chairman of the Supreme Council, Kokov, was categorically against it. He ended his speech like this: “I think today we have turned not the best page in the history of Kabardino-Balkaria”┘ (Then the Supreme Council will cancel the adopted resolution.)
Being a Kabardian, Kokov was all the more careful about the feelings of the Balkars, about their national resentment, which has not yet outlived its usefulness. I couldn’t get rid of it... Kokov did everything for the complete rehabilitation of the Balkar people. He initiated a package of regulations for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. The personal apology to the Balkar people, which President Yeltsin made on the day of the 50th anniversary of the deportation of the Balkars, is also Kokov’s merit. As well as the establishment of the Day of Revival of the Balkar people.
Valery Kokov called Stalin's deportation a scar that remained in the minds of many. And he experienced the tragedy of the Balkars as his own. While watching the film “The Hard Way” - about the deportation of the Balkar people - he cried.
His cherished idea was that Russia, fulfilling its civilizing role, would especially clearly convey “a simple idea to the mountaineers: they are not just dealing with a conceptually different country, they themselves are part of this country.”
To prevent blood from being shed
In the fall of 1991, rally passions raged with might and main. People already wanted to live in a new way and were looking for this new wherever possible. In their eyes, the former secretary of the regional committee, and now the Chairman of the Supreme Council, Kokov, seemed to be the personification of the old regime. Clever Kokov understood this and took a wise political step - on his initiative, the government and the Supreme Council of the republic, headed by him, voluntarily resigned their powers. “In the name of peace and harmony, so that the blood of the citizens of the republic is not shed,” he said. Indeed, Kabardino-Balkaria avoided bloodshed only thanks to Kokov.
And already in January 1992, the same people, the same people elected Valery Kokov as their president.
However, the republic continued to be in a fever. In the fall, things reached a crisis that could develop into a civil war and turn Kabardino-Balkaria into another hot spot.
When the war began in Abkhazia, President Kokov sent medicines and food there. But he banned the formation of volunteer detachments, which Kabardian nationalists called for. In addition, on September 23, the leader of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, Shanibov, was arrested. A rally of thousands began on the square in front of the parliament in Nalchik, demanding his release. The situation was stalemate, civil war was literally on the doorstep. As Sergei Stepashin says, President Kokov was then ready with his friends to go out with a machine gun at the ready to meet the excited crowd that was storming the House of Soviets. But it’s one thing to go out with friends towards a crowd, and quite another thing when special forces are shooting at the crowd...
Sultan Abrokov, the former Minister of Industry and Transport, recalls how the General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, carrying out the instructions of President Yeltsin, laid documents in front of Kokov and showed him where he should sign. After the signing, the general said, the square will be cleared in 15 minutes, the republican authorities will have to take care of the inevitable victims of the operation... “Neither before nor after have I seen Valery Kokov so angry,” Abrokov testifies. -┘he said in his thunderous voice: “Why are you worried, because they will kill me, not you! - and with these words he threw the ominous document away from himself.”
For President Kokov, even one death would be an excessively high price to pay for ending the crisis. “You can’t shoot at your own people, you need to talk to your people, not fight,” he said. And he actually negotiated with all representatives of the opposition.
Refusal to shed the blood of one’s fellow citizens, no matter what the circumstances, is the highest valor of a ruler. By not allowing his people to be shot, President Kokov confirmed the mandate of trust he received in the January elections.
Then, at an emergency session of the Supreme Council, Kokov declared the Congress of the Kabardian people to be the main culprit for what happened. Was it easy for him, a Kabardian, to do this?
“He took personal risks, risked the fate of his family and friends. But as a thinking person and “capable of generalizations” (words that he often repeated), he understood the extent of another risk associated with the fate of the Russian state,” recalls Evgeny Salov, deputy of the Council of the Republic of the State Council-Khase of the Republic of Adygea.
Once President Kokov was asked: “Aren’t you afraid of the Gamsakhurdia option?” He answered simply: “I do not rule out that my opponents will do this, but I made a choice - to serve the people of Kabardino-Balkaria - and I will not back down from this.”
If we put Kokov’s priorities in order, then peace, stability and normal interethnic relations will come first. The second is social issues. Economic problems are on the third. (“I thought that if there was peace, everything else could be acquired.”) And most importantly, he did not think of Kabardino-Balkaria outside of Russia. He always said: “Only together with Russia!”
Charm of personality
Coming from the Soviet nomenklatura, Valery Kokov nevertheless had a special charisma. As soon as he spoke, the audience fell silent and listened, as if spellbound. An excellent speaker, he, of course, spoke without a piece of paper. Those who heard Kokov say that many of his speeches resembled a sermon and, in fact, were one. They remember his powerful voice, his irresistible logic, and erudition. He was magically attractive, as befits a charismatic leader.
I read a lot, knew about music and painting. On his initiative, the Days of Kabardino-Balkaria were held in Moscow and the Days of Moscow in Kabardino-Balkaria, and the exhibition of Mikhail Shemyakin in Nalchik. I loved Yuri Temirkanov and was proud of him.
Valery Kokov had a lively and receptive mind. Somehow he ended up in a company that included the world-famous scientist, one of the creators of the theory of market socialism, Syrozhin. After a conversation with Kokov, the scientist admitted that he did not expect such a brilliant mind from the secretary of the district committee. And he admired: “He penetrated through the special terminology as if we were talking about the construction of a primus.”
People who knew Valery Kokov note his incredible efficiency: “He could hold a meeting in the morning, fly to Moscow, take part in some event, return and participate in another event in the republic. I could sit with guests until the morning and, after resting for an hour and a half, get back to work.”
Sometimes he could schedule a business meeting for half past five in the morning.
His excellent memory also caused surprise and admiration. He remembered everything: instructions, people's names... He didn't have to pretend that people interested him - he was really interested in people and their affairs.
In his youth, when he became the director of a state farm, he wrote the word “Silence” with three exclamation marks every day on a desk calendar. This is how he learned to listen and hear people.
He didn't like flattery or fawning. For him there were no differences in social status - he treated the higher and lower equally equally. And he always tried to help. When the President of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic presented jeeps to all heads of the Southern Federal District, Kokov gave his car to the largest family in the republic┘
He refused security service motorcades - he didn’t want “people to think that he was afraid of them.”
I went hunting to communicate with nature. I have never shot at game.
Was he an angel? Of course not. Angels do not become secretaries of regional committees, or speakers of parliaments, much less presidents.
He was a man
When Valery Kokov was elected deputy chairman of the Federation Council, someone asked how he assessed the work of his predecessor. The answer was short and impartial: “Less than a C!” The Chamber appreciated such directness - in a secret ballot, Kokov was supported almost unanimously.
To some, especially during their first meetings, Valery Kokov seemed very tough. “But he was not like that... Although he spoke sternly, he did not “cut heads from the shoulders”, he tried to save, leading to the side, did not cut to the quick, although some of his subordinates deserved it... “Understand, even if this man made a mistake , somewhere he stole, somewhere he took the wrong direction, but he didn’t kill another person!..” He never persecuted his oppositionists, although he could easily leave these people without a livelihood,” says Mikhail Mambetov, head of the administration of the Chegem region.
“Was he a tough man? – Natbi Boziev, Deputy Chairman of the KBR Parliament, also asks. – Yes, to a certain extent. Tough enough, but not cruel, and especially not vindictive. Having determined the direction, he gave freedom to discussion. But when a decision was made, he immediately demanded that it be carried out strictly... sometimes he would scold and say a harsh word. But [after] he analyzed everything again, weighed it, as if passing it through himself, and said: “What do you think, am I right here?”
“Outwardly he seemed to be a very tough person, but in fact he was trusting and soft┘,” recalls Lyudmila Fedchenko, another deputy chairman of the KBR parliament. “I always had the feeling that he was simply sorry to dismiss a person from his position... he could show intemperance and, in the presence of others, quite sharply reprimand the offending official... Everyone was afraid... [but] they knew that he would scold him now, and then forgive him anyway.” .
However, when it was necessary, he knew how to show both firmness and toughness - otherwise what kind of leader would he have been! In November 1996, the Fifth Congress of the Balkar People approved the Republic of Balkaria as “an independent state entity within the Russian Federation.” The response measures of the leadership of the KBR were harsh: two socio-political organizations of Balkars were banned.
“┘O my little people, cherished in my heart,/Whose good from bad I cannot separate,/Then you will lift my soul to heaven,/Then you will throw hope into the underworld.” Valery Kokov himself translated these poems by Boris Utizhev into Russian and often quoted them.
He did a lot
Reading the memoirs of Valery Kokov, you pay attention to this. If a builder remembers, he will definitely say that the main thing for Kokov was construction. The Minister of Sports will call sport a priority. Minister of Energy - Energy. The one who was involved in education - his field... Memoirists do not exaggerate - Kokov was sincerely interested in everything.
Agronomist, director of the state farm, secretary of the district and regional committees, chairman of the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, twice elected president of the republic, deputy chairman of the Federation Council... A highlander, statesman, leader, he managed to do a lot. And the main thing of his affairs is maintaining the unity of the republic. Thanks to him, Kabardino-Balkaria did not disintegrate and did not become a hot spot.
While engaged in legislative activities, Kokov introduced into the law on elections to the parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic the order of representation of the titular nations in absolutely equal measure: Kabardians, Balkars and Russians. This was the only way to maintain harmony in the republic.
It is also worth remembering that Kabardino-Balkaria is the first subject of the Russian Federation where three-year paid leave for mothers and savings deposits for newborns were introduced. Rural medical outpatient clinics with day hospitals, specialized medical centers are also an initiative of President Kokov.
And the subject of his special pride is the complete gasification of the republic, to the most distant mountain village.
Valery Kokov amazingly combined both large-scale thinking and attention to “small matters”. Today, the implementation of what he started but did not have time to complete continues.
Making toasts in honor of the distinguished guests, Valery Kokov said: “Kabardino-Balkaria does not produce fuel and does not build rockets, but it has such a treasure as Adyghe khabze - the knowledge of how to live in peace, harmony, with honor and dignity.”
And he had this jewel - Adyge khabze. So he left undefeated. We can say about him: this man conquered his Elbrus.
