How it was 21.11.2001 (2001)

The Athletes ' Case, 1936.

It was the end of the summer of 1936.

Zinoviev and Kamenev have just been shot.

At his dacha, Tomsky shot himself, and he was very friendly with the captain of the USSR and Moscow national swimming team, Nikolai Sukhorukov.

Sukhorukov and Tomsky were last seen at a sports parade on Red Square in the spring of 1936.

Stalin never forgot anything, he probably knew about their friendship.

Perhaps that was the reason for the team's arrest.

The team was arrested and convicted on charges of preparing an attempt on Stalin's life. 16 of the strongest swimmers, the pride of the country, received various terms under Article 58 of the Criminal Code and were permanently erased from the history of Soviet sports.

Among those convicted were not only the permanent captain of the national team Nikolay Nikolaevich Sukhorukov, but also Valery Vladimirovich Bure, Evgenia Sergeevna Vtorova, coaches Ivan Tolchin, Alexey Chikin, Alexandra Vtorova and others.

Members of the USSR national swimming team in 1936, Pyotr Namakonov and Yevgenia Vtorova, as well as Lyudmila Bure (widow of V. V. Bure), tell about the course of the trial.

Personnel chronicles: I. V. Stalin with his associates, physical culture parades of the 1930s.