To Stalin

To Stalin Top Secret Summaries Of The most important testimonies Of Those arrested 1937‐ 1938

Summary of the most important testimonies of those arrested by the directorates of the NKVD of the USSR for April 20, 1938

Archive: AP RF. F. 3. Op. 24. D. 408. L. 64‐88

April 25, 1938

SECRETARY of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) comrade STALIN

I am sending you a summary of the most important testimonies of those arrested by the Directorates of the NKVD of the USSR for April 20, 1938.

Peopleʹs Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Peopleʹs Commissar for

State Security (EZHOV)

Top secret

FIRST CONTROL

For the 5th DEPARTMENT

1. KADATSKY‐RUDNEV I.N., former commander of the Amur military flotilla. Interrogated: PETROV.

KADATSKY‐RUDNEV, who previously confessed to espionage in favor of Japan since 1919 and to participation in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy.

He gave additional testimony that his subversive work led the flotilla into an incapacitated state.

The sabotage on his part went along the following lines:

1. In combat exercises, he paid attention to secondary issues and gloss over the main shortcomings. Facilitated training conditions. Gave the wrong instructions for the combat use of the flotilla. Didnʹt spend the night sailing on the river. Disrupted the training of pupils of all specialties, command studies and studies with junior command personnel. Stopped training in trawling and mine laying.

2. No weapons were repaired. The material part of the artillery is worn out. Artillery workshops were deliberately not built.

3. The construction plan primarily included residential buildings, and the construction of artillery, mine‐torpedo workshops, ammunition depots, etc. relegated to a secondary place.

4. Conducted sabotage in aerorefrezheration, due to which the shells stored in the tunnels, moldy and rust. Thus, about 50% of the flotillaʹs total ammunition stored in the tunnels has become unusable.

2. POKUS Ya.Z., former deputy commander of OKDVA. Interrogated: LORKISH.

POKUS, who had previously confessed to an active participation in the military‐fascist conspiracy and in espionage in favor of Japan, gave additional evidence that since 1922 he was an agent of German intelligence.

POKUS testified that he was recruited into the agents of German intelligence by a former employee of the headquarters of the 2nd Priamurskaya division FRISENDORF (arrested), with whom he was associated until 1925.

During this time, POCUS gave German intelligence detailed spy information about the state of the troops in the Far East, their number and weapons.

At the end of 1925, POKUS, who at that time was working in Vitebsk as an assistant to the 4th rifle corps, was contacted by the chief of staff of the same corps VILUMSON. Through VILUMSON, POKUS transferred a number of classified materials to intelligence, including data on the combat training of the corps, the Dretush artillery camp gathering, etc.

In 1926‐1929. BOTUS through German intelligence was associated with an employee of the headquarters of the 22nd division in Krasnodar, SHPILMAN, on whose instructions he carried out espionage work.

In November 1927, POKUS transmitted to reconnaissance through SHPILMAN a report on the large maneuvers carried out in 1927.

In subsequent years, POCUS, while working in the Far East, carried out espionage work in favor of Germany, being associated with the abovementioned FRIZENDORF.

Of the intelligence materials transferred, the report on the armed forces in Primorye is especially noteworthy. This document stated: how many divisions there are in Primorye, how they are located, weapons, artillery saturation of troops, the state of fortified areas, etc.

3. KUCHINSKY DA, ex. Chief of the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army, Divisional Commander of the OKDVA. Interrogated: IVANOV.

KUCHINSKY, who had previously confessed as a participant in the military‐fascist conspiracy, where he was recruited in 1934 by YAKIR, additionally testified:

In the spring of 1936, Yakir informed KUCHINSKY that the center of the military‐fascist conspiracy, based on the internal and external situation of the Soviet Union and the strengthening of the military power of Germany, had taken measures to defeat the Red Army during the war of the Soviet Union in the western theater of operations.

Yakir spoke of the need to open a front for the German army in the Kiev direction and use this as a means to “overthrow the existing in the Sov. Union leadership ʺ.

The center of the conspiracy planned to shift all the blame for the defeat of the Red Army onto the Soviet government and thereby justify the need for a coup before the Soviet people.

KUCHINSKY indicates that the participants in the conspiracy who worked in the General Staff of the Red Army (MEZHENINOV, LEVICHEV, APOGHA were convicted), at the direction of the center of the conspiracy ‐ TUKHACHEVSKY, YAKIR ‐ drafted an operational plan for the war in the western theater of military operations, which was to lead to the defeat of the Red Army (details in the interrogation protocol).

The former chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Egorov, when drawing up an operational plan for a war in the western theater of operations, chose the least likely options that Germany could use during the war.

Diffused funds for activities that are not required in a future war, and at the same time created the appearance of great activity in preparing the USSR for war.

KUCHINSKY named BUTYRSKY as participants in the military‐fascist conspiracy in Ukraine ‐ ex. Chief of Staff of the KVO, SOKOLOV ‐ former. Chief of Staff of the KhVO, HERMONIUS ‐ ex. the commander of the 17th corps, and others (arrested).

4. SHUMOVICH HA, ex. instructor of the MNRA headquarters, colonel. Interrogated: SOLOVIEV.

SHUMOVICH, who had previously confessed to participating in an anti‐Soviet military‐fascist conspiracy, additionally testified that, in addition to VAYNER who recruited him into the conspiracy (arrested), the conspiracy participants were: TAIROV ‐ the former plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Mongolia, TARKHANOV ‐ former adviser to the plenipotentiary representation of the USSR in Mongolia (arrested), SAFRAZBEKOV ‐ a former instructor of the Political Directorate of the MNRA (arrested), MISKEVICH ‐ a former instructor of the MNRA artillery (not arrested), MYNDRO ‐ a former instructor of the MNRA armored units (not arrested), VOROBYEV ‐ a former instructor of the 1st Cavalry Division of the MNRA (arrested) , MARKEVICH ‐ former instructor of the corps headquarters, Trotskyist (arrested), SHIPOV ‐ former commander of the mechanized brigade (arrested), and TIKHONOV ‐ former instructor of the 6th cavalry division (arrested).

The conspiratorial organization in the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic was headed by TAIROV and VAYNER, who established contact with Japanese intelligence agencies.

The counter‐revolutionary and espionage activities of the conspiratorial organization were led by TAIROV and WEINER, relying on DEMID, the former commander‐in‐chief of the Mongolian Peopleʹs Revolutionary Army, who at the same time headed the counterrevolutionary espionage organization from the Mongols. The members of this organization were: DARIZAP ‐ the former deputy commanderin‐chief of the MNRA, LUZHOCHIR ‐ the former head of the Political Directorate of the MNRA, VANCHIK ‐ the former commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, JOJON‐KHORGO ‐ the former chief of artillery of the MNRA, and GONCHIK‐SHARAN ‐ the former commander of the 6th Cavalry Division.

WEINER, TAIROV, SAFRAZBEKOV, SHUMOVICH and other participants in the conspiracy sought to paralyze the influence of the Soviet government in Mongolia and undermine political and economic ties between the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic and the USSR.

The commanding staff of the Mongolian Peopleʹs Revolutionary Army was introduced to the idea of the disadvantage of the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic with Japan, which the Soviet Union allegedly pushes Mongolia by a treaty of mutual assistance; internal uprising at the time of the Japanese offensive.

In the interests of facilitating the invasion of the Japanese army, the direct order of the USSR Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense, Comrade VOROSHILOVA on the concentration of military forces in the Kalgan direction, which for a long time remained open.

The transfer of the border guard of the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic to the Ministry of Internal Affairs was carried out only in the south of Mongolia, the entire Tamsyk language and to the north of it, i.e. where there were Japanese units, it was left to the field troops, which ensured the provocation of border conflicts, accompanied by the invasion of the Japanese into the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic.

On the instructions of VAYNER and MITSKEVICH, in March 1936, an attack was made on a Japanese lieutenant colonel who was bypassing the Japanese‐Manchurian border outposts; in the winter period 19351936. on the instructions of VAYNER SHUMOVICH, an order was developed, which ordered to conduct firing from permanent positions at the outposts, at the end of 1935, on the instructions of TAIROV, SHUMOVICH developed an order to raid the Bargut outpost of the Japanese, the order was carried out by units of the 5th Cavalry Division.

By subversive work, the participants in the conspiracy VAYNER, TAIROV, SHUMOVICH, SAFRAZBEKOV and others reduced the combat and tactical training of the MHRA, the equipment in service with the MHRA was rendered unusable, artillery equipment, rifles and gas masks, which were on the personal armament of the tsiriks, by 4050% came to disrepair.

With a poorly organized food supply, the circus was robbed, the barracks were kept in an unsanitary state, the circus was not supplied with clothing allowances on time, in the May‐June heat the circus wore felt boots, a sheepskin coat and fur helmets, and in the first month of cold weather in last yearʹs worn uniforms. All this caused a large increase in the incidence of colds and lung diseases and mortality.

In 1936, WEINER, through the government of the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic, issued an order for the conscription of monastic lamas for military service. Lamstvo was supposed to be used as counterrevolutionary groups in parts of the MPRA.

5. BERGSTREM V.K. , Ex . chief of naval aviation. Interrogated: MNEV.

In addition, he showed about his subversive activities in the field of combat training of naval aviation.

In order to reduce combat training, BERGSTREM disrupted studies in difficult conditions (on the open sea, flights at night and under unfavorable atmospheric conditions), practiced an extremely slow transition from one exercise to another (stomping on the initial exercises). He did not allow an individual approach to pilots. The successes of each pilot were not used individually.

The program was drawn up with the same content for all flight personnel without exception. From here, some of the pilots returned again to the exercises that they had learned long ago.

By deliberately reducing the basic data (speed and carrying capacity), as well as by disrupting funding, he slowed down the experimental construction of seaplanes (MDR‐6 and MTB‐2) in order to slow down the development of our domestic hydraulic machines and make our naval aviation dependent on foreign countries. armament aircraft of

Italian firms.

6. Ryazanov V.I. , Ex . chief of naval aviation. Interrogated:

POLISHCHUK.

Ryazanov V.I., who had previously confessed to participating in an underground right‐wing Socialist‐Revolutionary organization and in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, additionally testified:

After arriving in Moscow in 1933, when he met with one of the leaders of the right‐wing Socialist‐Revolutionary organization, FRIDMAN, the latter, informing him about the unfolding of the Socialist‐Revolutionary work, announced the concluded bloc with the Trotskyists and the Rights.

According to FRIDMAN, along with the main issue of consolidating forces and organizing them for a decisive action, the leadership considers it timely to use terror as the most acute method of fighting the Bolsheviks.

In this respect, contact with the Trotskyists and the Rights, who have a widely ramified underground, creates a very favorable atmosphere.

FRIDMAN pointed out that the well‐known commander of the RKKA SABLIN Yuri (convicted as a conspirator), in the past a prominent Socialist‐Revolutionary, now a communist, who is well known to RYAZANOV in Ukraine, is taking part in the leadership of the military SR work.

SABLIN visits Moscow quite often, and he will be given instructions to contact RYAZANOV.

In the summer of 1935, SABLIN contacted RYAZANOV and told him in detail about the military‐Socialist‐Revolutionary organization, in which many prominent commanders of the Red Army, formerly Socialist‐Revolutionaries or Socialist‐Revolutionaries, take part. In particular, he pointed out that A.I. Egorov took part in the leadership of the Socialist‐Revolutionary work of the Red Army.

The military SR organization unites SRs of all currents, so, according to SABLIN, it includes the workers of the PUR RKKA RADIONOV, VINOGRADOV, CHERNYAVSKY and Osoaviakhim JORDANSKY, in the past the Left SRs (all arrested).

SABLIN instructed Ryazanov to identify the former SocialistRevolutionaries and Trotskyists in the academy, carefully probe and study them in order to attract them to active work.

The former assistant to the head of the Military Transport Academy, GRUZDUP, who recruited RYAZANOV in 1936 into an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, during subsequent meetings with RYAZANOV, as participants in the conspiracy named the workers of the academy

SERGEEV, DMITRIEV, STERLIN, STANKOVSKY, CARLSON (arrested).

Ryazanov informed FRIEDMAN of his recruitment by GRUZDUP RYAZANOV, who approved his decision to take part in the conspiracy, indicating that the ultimate goal is the same ‐ the overthrow of the Sov. authorities, and at the same time categorically suggested not to inform GRUZDUPU about the presence of the SR organization.

At the same time, FRIDMAN told Ryazanov that the SocialistRevolutionary work was expanding, the necessary contacts were being established, prominent communists, formerly Socialist‐

Revolutionaries, were involved in the work.

FRIDMAN stressed that the organization managed to penetrate even the organs of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Internal Affairs, where there are former SRs, in particular, a prominent NKVD worker ALEKSEEV (arrested), a former SR, now a communist, takes an active part in the activities of the SR organization.

7. POLYAEV, ex. head of the personnel department of the Red Army Air Force. Interrogated: IVKER, LENEV.

POLYAEV, who had previously admitted that he had been a resident of the Romanian intelligence service in the Red Army Air Force since

1922, additionally testified:

In 1935, he was associated with an employee of the Romanian embassy in Moscow, to whom he passed on a number of spy materials about the state of the Red Army Air Force.

POLYAEV shows that in 1936 he was ordered to organize sabotage groups in the central warehouses of the Red Army Air Force in Syzran and Balashikha with the aim of damaging and destroying the material stored in these warehouses, but, according to him, he did not create these groups, since he did not had a direct connection with the warehouses. (This question, as of particular importance, will be carefully checked in the investigation).

In 1935, POLYAEV recruited an NKVD worker SIKSNE (Latvian, parents live in Latvia) for espionage, who left in 1936 for the Far East.

On the instructions of the Romanian intelligence, POLYAEV also recruited Colonel Nikolai Alekseevich VLASOV ‐ Chief of Staff of the 10th Air Corps of the KVO, who was tasked with deploying espionage work in the KVO units.

8. VF GRUSHETSKY, ex. early Red Banner chemical improvement courses. command staff of the Red Army, division commander. Interrogated: YUKHIMOVICH.

GRUSHETSKY, who had previously confessed to participating in a Polish spy organization, additionally testified that he handed over the following espionage materials to the resident of the Polish intelligence service in Moscow ZIFER, with whom he was associated:

1) on the results of tests of a medium tank for flame throwing and on new incendiary substances introduced for armament;

2) a drawing of the design of the chemical equipment of an amphibious tank and a drawing of a sprayer for contaminating the area;

3) on the results of tactical exercises in 1936 on the interaction of chemical units with other types of troops;

4) description and drawing of new aircraft devices ʺVAP 500ʺ with indication of norms for watering for various purposes;

5) on the organization, staffing and armament of the chemical battalion, as well as a copy of the secret order in which the states of the chemical battalion were announced;

6) information on chemical warfare agents adopted by the army and their physical and chemical properties, and

7) about the physical and chemical properties of poisonous smoke bombs, methods of their use in various meteorological conditions and tables of their use.

9. LUVENSKY L.I., ex. early branches of the department of sea coastal construction of the Office of the Red Army Naval Forces. Interrogated:

MNEV.

He additionally showed that in connection with the planned construction of a ship‐repair plant by the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Food Industry in Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, he developed a sabotage task in terms of using it in wartime for parking submarines under repair.

LUVENSKY made calculations for submarines of the ʺShʺ type, while it was necessary to count on submarines of the ʺMʺ type.

The implementation of the sabotage mission would not allow the submarines to be repaired or based at this plant.

In addition, he showed about the wrecking compilation of assignments given to them on the spot on the standards of storage of technical and engineering property.

10. DYBENKO PE, former commander of the Leningrad military district. Interrogated by YAMNITSKY, KAZAKEVICH.

In addition, he testified that in 1922, when he was a corps commander in Odessa, he contacted an ARA employee, an American, HOLLEN.

HALLENU DYBENKO gave the following spy information: about the state of industry in Ukraine, about the state of the shipyard in Nikolaev and the living conditions of the soldiers and commanding staff.

He also systematically gave him written reviews on the political and economic situation, using the data that he had as a member of the bureau of the district committee of the party.

In addition, DYBENKO allowed Hollen to take photographs of an artillery regiment stationed in the Odessa region.

DYBENKO shows that after his departure from Odessa, contact with the American was interrupted and was restored in 1929 with the US intelligence agent, engineer DAVIS, a consultant on the construction of an irrigation network in Central Asia.

Engineer DAVIS for 3 days went to Stalinabad in DYBENKOʹs carriage. On the way, DYBENKO gave DAVIS detailed spy information about the political and economic state of all the republics of Central Asia, the wealth of their subsoil: coal deposits, gold‐bearing sources, deposits of copper, tin, lead and the number of herds in Central Asia.

In addition to information of an economic nature, DYBENKO gave DAVIS data on the situation in the Central Asian Military District, the number of troops, their location, weapons, etc.

He also told DEVISU detailed data on the fight against the Basmachi, on the use of large military formations to defeat the Basmachi bands and on the support of the Basmachi by some strata of the population of the Central Asian republics.

DYBENKO shows that after this meeting with DAVIS he did not have any more meetings with the Americans.

For the transfer of spy information to HALLEN in 1922, DYBENKO received valuable things and products from the ARA.

Engineer DAVIS, in order to reward DYBENKO for the transfer of espionage information, obtained the extradition of five thousand dollars to his sister, who lived in America.

11. KUIBYSHEV, ex. commander of the troops of the Transcaucasian

Military District. Interrogated by: AGAS, ORESHNIKOV.

In addition, showing about the fulfillment of Tukhachevskyʹs assignment to create a sabotage and sabotage organization in the defense industry, KUIBYSHEV showed that at the end of 1934 he established an organizational connection with the conspirator, the head of the tank industry, the head of the special machine building trust NKOP NEIMAN (convicted).

From the systematic information of NEYMAN KUIBYSHEV it is known that NEYMAN in the tank industry carries out sabotage work through improper investment and the development of plant capacity.

NEYMAN carried out a lot of sabotage work in mobilization plans by disrupting the mobilization of factories with industrial semi‐finished products, which was carried out by giving incorrect requests to the Main Military Mobilization Directorate. So, according to the testimony of KUIBYSHEV, as a result of incorrect supplies, the plans for the supply of armor were reduced by 50%.

KUIBYSHEV knows that a member of the organization, the director of the Kharkov steam locomotive plant BONDARENKO, created a sabotage group at the plant, which was preparing to carry out a sabotage act during the beginning of the war with the aim of putting the plant out of action, in order to thereby stop the supply of new tanks to the army.

In 1935‐1936. NEYMAN and BONDARENKO, in order to leave the tank industry and, in particular, the production of BT tanks without engines, slowed down the production of a new oil engine and tried to suspend the production of tank engines at Plant No. 26.

In 1936, having revealed through the CPC, where he worked, that the design work at the tank experimental plant in Leningrad had collapsed, KUIBYSHEV, through NEYMAN, learned that the collapse of the design work was a sabotage act aimed at slowing down the further improvement of tanks. The results of the inspection by the CPC of the tank experimental plant KUIBYSHEV, by agreement with NEYMAN, are hiding from the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the government.

In 1937, in order to preserve the director of the tank experimental plant BARYKOV for the organization of the participant in the conspiracy,

KUIBYSHEV hides from the leadership of the CPC under the Central Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks the materials received by him as a Trotskyist.

Of the other participants in the conspiracy, working in the tank industry, according to NEYMAN, KUIBYSHEV knows the director of plant number 38 (Moscow) GUDKOV.

In order to intercept Pyatakovʹs connections in the shipbuilding industry, KUIBYSHEV in the second half of 1935 established an organizational relationship with the conspirator MUKLEVICH, the head of the Main Directorate of the shipbuilding industry.

Through MUKLEVICH, KUIBYSHEV established that in this branch of the defense industry the conspirators are: Streltsov ‐ deputy. Head of

Glavmorprom, KOLESINSKY ‐ responsible employee of Glavmorprom, SHCHERBINA ‐ director of the Marty Sevastopol Marine Plant, STEPANOV ‐ Director of Nikolaev Shipyard.

Of these conspirators, KUIBYSHEV was able to establish organizational ties in 1936 only with SHCHERBINA, whom he, as an employee of the Communist Party of China, helped in keeping an anti‐Soviet element at the plant subject to dismissal.

At the end of 1935 or at the beginning of 1936, in order to verify the statement of one of the engineers of the Komsomol shipyard about the direction by the Nikolaev plant to the shipyard of incomplete parts and parts of submarines to be assembled at the shipyard, KUIBYSHEV, that this is the result of the sabotage of the director of the plant STEPANOV, hides this from the PDA.

12. VERKHOVSKY A.I., ex. Minister of War under the interim government. Before his arrest, he was a teacher at the Academy of the General Staff. Interrogated: LORKISH.

VERKHOVSKY, who had previously confessed to active participation in anti‐Soviet Socialist‐Revolutionary activities in the army and espionage in favor of France, additionally testified that in 1936, in accordance with the directives of KERENSKY and CHERNOV, he established contact with former Mensheviks: Professor of the Academy of Sciences ZILBER, Professor of the Peopleʹs Commissariat of Health, ZAKHAROV at the Microbiological Institute with Professor BARYKIN and former Minister of the Provisional Government MOLYANTOVICH.

This connection with the Mensheviks, as VERKHOVSKY shows, was established by him in order to consolidate anti‐Soviet forces for an active struggle against Soviet power.

Along with this, VERKHOVSKY through TUKHACHEVSKY in 1936 contacted Egorov. VERKHOVSKY shows in this regard that, while conducting underground anti‐Soviet work, he was looking for connections with people who would enjoy authority in the army and the country and represent a certain force. This prompted him, VERKHOVSKY, to establish a personal connection with Egorov.

When meeting with Egorov in 1937, discussing the situation that had arisen in connection with the defeat of the anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to go even deeper underground.

Concerning the timing of the speech, Egorov indicated that the speech should be timed to coincide with the defeat of the Red Army in the general battle.

13. KOZLOVSKY, former army inspector of the Red Army artillery, brigade commander. Interrogated: PETERS.

KOZLOVSKY, who had previously confessed that he had been a participant in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy since 1935, in which he was involved by the enemy of the people ARONSTAM (arrested) during his service in OKDVA as chief of artillery, additionally testified that since 1922 he had been a spy for the Japanese intelligence.

For espionage work, KOZLOVSKY was recruited by Japanese intelligence in the person of Japanese army colonel IVATO and gendarme major MOSHUDAIR during the period when he, as a student of the oriental faculty of the Academy. Frunze was on a business trip in Japan, training in the exchange of command personnel at the 20th artillery regiment of the 14th rifle division.

While still in Japan, KOZLOVSKY gave Colonel IVATO secret information on the organization and deployment of artillery and the latest data on the ballistic properties of field and heavy artillery of the Red Army.

Japanese intelligence again contacted KOZLOVSKY in 1935, after he had already been recruited into a conspiracy by ARONSTHAM.

This time, on behalf of the Japanese intelligence service, a Japanese spy WOLLIN (arrested), who worked at the OKDVA headquarters as the head of the Intelligence Department, came to him, and, reminding him of his obligations to Japanese intelligence, his nickname ʺSinusʺ, which the Japanese assigned to him, demanded, referring to the instructions of SANGURSKY, whom KOZLOVSKY knew as a participant in the conspiracy, to inform him for the transfer of Japanese intelligence information about the state of the OKDVA artillery and the course of his subversive work as a participant in the conspiracy.

KOZLOVSKY WOLLINA (VALIN ‐ V.KH. [2] ) fulfilled this demand and provided Japanese intelligence with detailed information about his subversive activities and the state of the OKDVA artillery.

14. AI LEBEDEV, Instructor for the installation of gasoline stations of the Military Gasoline Construction of the Armed Forces of the Red Army. Interrogated by: DROZDOV, TEPLITSYN.

LEBEDEV confessed that in 1924, after graduating from the school of intelligence officers in Estonia in the town of Reval, he was illegally transferred to the USSR for espionage activities.

From the chairman of the society of Russian emigrants in the city of Revel (he is also the head of the school of intelligence officers) UKRI Iv. Yves. LEBEDEV received a report to MAKSIMOV, the director of the Electrosila plant in Leningrad (under construction), who arranged for LEBEDEV to work at the same plant and in 1925 helped LEBEDEV to penetrate the party.

In the same 1925, MAKSIMOV told LEBEDEV that he did not need the latter for espionage work at the Elektrosila plant, and offered to move to Kharkov.

MAKSIMOV gave LEBEDEV a visit in Kharkov to the head of the hardware department of the Kharkov machine‐building plant ALKSNIS Robert Zondrovich (died), to whom LEBEDEV transferred espionage materials for forwarding to Estonian intelligence until 1931.

In 1931, LEBEDEV moved to Moscow, where he received a turnout from ALKSNIS to the engineer of the All‐Union Electricity Association GORFAYN Yakov Borisovich (established, not arrested), with whom LEBEDEV was connected by espionage work until the day of his arrest. GORFAYN LEBEDEV conveyed information:

1) on the manufacture of TsAGI for arming bomb‐release aircraft, machine‐gun installations;

2) on the state of construction of petrol storages in the Far East Command, BVO, LVO and KVO, their location and capacity.

LEBEDEV testified that in 1936 GORFINE offered him, LEBEDEV, to organize sabotage work to prepare the explosions of petrol storages supplying fuel to aviation and motorized combat troops in wartime.

Subsequently, GORFINE told LEBEDEV that the people he needed for sabotage work had been found, and named him: the engineer of the AllRussian Military District of the BVO DENISOV (installed, not arrested) and the engineer of the All‐Russian Military District OKDVA MAKSIMOV (being established), who, during the war, would carry out acts of sabotage to blow up gas storage facilities in these districts ...

15. TVERSKOY MN, artillery engineer of the Military Academy of Motorization and Mechanization of the Red Army, military engineer of the 2nd rank. Interrogated: SOLOVIEV.

TVERSKOY, who confessed to participating in an officerʹs espionage organization of the Polish orientation, additionally testified that in 1918 he penetrated the Red Army with subversive purposes and was with a former officer MOLCHANOV for anti‐Soviet work (not arrested, dismissed from the Red Army, lives in Bryansk).

At the beginning of 1920, in the vicinity of the village of Elizavetinskaya TVERSKAYA, he was captured by Denikinʹs troops and until their defeat (late 1920) served in the 3rd Drozdovsky officer regiment.

In 1922‐1923. occupying command positions in the Red Army, TVERSKAYA for anti‐Soviet work was associated with the former officer LEBEDEV (not arrested).

In 1924, after hiding his service in the 3rd Drozdovskiy officer regiment, TVERSKOY entered the artillery academy of the Red Army, where he established anti‐Soviet ties with his classmates in the Suvorov cadet corps ‐ former officers PETROPAVLOVSKY (died) and NIKOLAEV (not arrested), according to the Konstantinovskiy artillery ‐ former officer SASSAPEREL (not arrested).

According to the Artillery Academy (1925‐1929), TVERSKAYA, apart from BARANTSEVICH, for espionage work in favor of Poland was personally connected with the members of the organization SHREIDER, a former officer (arrested), TSYGANOV, a former officer (arrested), ZABELIN ‐ a former officer ( not arrested), and ZAPOLSKY ‐ a former officer (not arrested).

In addition to espionage work in favor of Poland, the members of the organization in order to defeat the Red Army in the war with Poland set the task of infiltrating, after graduating from the academy, leading positions in the military industry or the central institutions of the GAU in order to harm the countryʹs defense by slowing down the consideration of projects for new and modernized artillery systems and disrupt the delivery of orders for these types of weapons.

16. LENGOLD HA, ex. an officer. Prior to his arrest, the head of the Mosavtotrans station. Interrogated: PETERS.

He gave initial testimony that he was a member of an anti‐Soviet

German espionage organization, in which he was involved in 1918 in

Moscow by a former officer of MINDER Andrei (died).

According to LENGOLDʹs testimony, this organization took shape from the number of German sports societies in Moscow under the name ʺThourifereinʺ and ʺUnionʺ, founded before the start of the imperialist war.

On the instructions of MINDER, LENGOLD arrived in Ukraine, at that time occupied by the Germans, in 1918 with the task of creating antiSoviet support groups from among the nationalist Germans in Kiev and Kharkov.

Later LENGOLD maintained an anti‐Soviet and espionage relationship with MINDERʹs brother Georgy MINDER, a former engineer at the Mining Institute and LASH Fedor, a former teacher of the Engineering Academy, who are spies of German intelligence (both arrested), on whose instructions he was engaged in propaganda of fascism and dissemination of defamatory rumors.

LENGOLD named the brothers MINDER Vladimir (not arrested) as members of the organization associated with LASH and MINDER, the brothers MINDER Vladimir (not arrested), Konstantin ‐ a pilot of the Air Force Research Institute (arrested), and PAVEL Karl ‐ a former officer, engineer of Gidropromstroy (not arrested).

17. Timonov GN, ex. early department of the Engineering Directorate of the Red Army, military engineer of the 1st rank. Interrogated: ELISAVETSKY, SILINTSEV.

Having previously confessed that he was a participant in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy and an agent of Czechoslovak intelligence, TIMONOV testified:

After being recruited into an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy in October 1935, ex. Head of the Department of the Engineering Department of the RKKA LENSKY (arrested), on his instructions he carried out subversive sabotage work in supplying the Red Army with workshop and trench tools.

With a sabotage purpose, TIMONOV canceled the agreement with a number of factories for the supply of complete master tools and instructed the workshop to procure tools for the Red Army exclusively in bulk, orders and blanking of trench tools were made uncompleted: shovels were ordered in one place, cuttings in another, screws in a third.

At the same time, they were instructed that orders should be given for a little‐needed, slow‐moving tool, obsolete and imperfect, for example, instead of Canadian axes and Canadian saws, American planers, etc. (new field instrumental technology), he ordered an old‐style carpentry tool, which significantly reduced the success of field sapper work in the combat training of units. For the entrenching tool, I ordered sapper and infantry shovels of a riveted model from the time of the RussianJapanese war, and not welded, which greatly reduced their quality and did not correspond at all to the latest production, the shovels turned out to be heavy and low‐performance, much more expensive. For sharpening the tool, he ordered almost unusable old trough‐type sharpeners, while mechanized portable improved sharpeners were to be ordered.

He canceled the acceptance of the barbed wire by the military representatives, as a result of which the barbed wire was sold of poor quality and, when it was discovered, the factories were not brought to justice and the case was hushed up. As a result, for 1935‐1936. 3000– 3500 tons of low‐temperature barbed wire, blunt and low‐wound, were manufactured. From 1933 to 1937, together with Glavmetiz, slowed down and disrupted the production of a new, so‐called. automatic type of barbed wire instead of machine type and delayed the transition of industry to the manufacture of the newest type of barbed wire.

The same sabotage work was carried out by the participants in the antiSoviet conspiracy named by him ‐ employees of the Engineering Directorate of the Red Army SMISLOV, BEZLENKIN, military representative LOBZINEV and employees of Glavmetiz SHARFA (arrested) and DAVYDOV (not arrested).

Head of the Secretariat of the NKVD of the USSR [3] Art. major state security (SHAPIRO)

[1] So in the source. [2] Clarification of the compiler of the collection of documents ‐ V. Khaustov. [3] So in the source.