The article is devoted to the life and work of Pavel Dmitrievich Malkov, an active participant in the revolutionary movement in Russia and the events of 1917, a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, appointed commandant of Smolny after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, who served as commandant of the Moscow Kremlin in1918-1920, and after the civil war held leading posts in field of transport, and in 1948 repressed. Malkov was known as the author of the memoirs “Notes of the Moscow Kremlin Commandant”, which were reprinted many times. The article focuses on the functioning of the Kremlin commandant’s office in the post-revolutionary years, as well as on the relationship between the Kremlin commandant and the leading Bolshevik functionaries and Cheka bodies. The authors note that the biography of Malkov well characterizes all the features of the first50 years of Soviet power.