To Stalin

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

A summary of the most important testimonies of those arrested by the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR for April 9‐10, 1938

Archive: AP RF. F. 3. Op. 24. D. 408. L. 1‐13.

April 15, 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 GUGB NKVD of the USSR for April 9‐10, 1938.

Peopleʹs Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Peopleʹs Commissar for

State Security (EZHOV)

Top secret

For the 5th DEPARTMENT

1. LEVANDOVSKY Mikhail Karlovich, former commander of the Primorsky group of troops of the OKDVA. Interrogated by YAMNITSKY, KAZAKEVICH.

LEVANDOVSKY testified that in І933 he established contact with the leaders of the Polish spy organization UNSHLICHT and MUKLEVICH (both convicted).

During the XVII Party Congress, he was invited by UNSHLICHT to his apartment and there, in addition to UNSHLICHT, also MUKLEVICH.

UNSHLICHT told LEVANDOVSKY that he was informed from EFIMOV of LEVANDOVSKYʹs participation in the military SR organization, and said that he, UNSHLICHT, was part of an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy.

After LEVANDOVSKY confirmed his participation in the anti‐Soviet military underground and his confirmation of their defeatist activities,

UNSHLICHT and MUKLEVICH informed LEVANDOVSKY about the presence of a Polish military organization in the USSR and invited LEVANDOVSKY, as a Pole by nationality, to join this organization. LEVANDOVSKY shows that he, having promised UNSHLICHT and

MUKLEVICH to render full assistance in their work, refused to join the

Polish organization.

LEVANDOVSKY shows that, refusing to communicate with the Polish organization and the Polish General Staff, he proceeded from the fact that he was already connected with German intelligence in espionage work. During subsequent meetings with UNSHLIKHT and MUKLEVICH, LEVANDOVSKY informed them about the turn of his counter‐revolutionary work in the Caucasus and transmitted spy information about the state of the Transcaucasian Military District.

2. Gailit Ya.P., former commander of the Siberian Military District and the Ural Military District. Interrogated by Babich and BRENER.

Earlier, having confessed to participating in an anti‐Soviet conspiracy and a Latvian nationalist organization, GAILIT additionally testified that he had been recruited into a Latvian organization at different times: CAUNE ‐ commander of the 217th rifle regiment (arrested); RANE ‐ former head of the Siberian Military Districtʹs chemical service (arrested); SAMNEK ‐ inspector of non‐military higher military training of the Siberian Military District (arrested); GRASHIN ‐ chief of communications of the headquarters of the Siberian Military District (not arrested); who, on his instructions, carried out subversive work in their units and created cadres of a counter‐revolutionary organization.

Further, GAILIT testified that, on the instructions of EIDEMAN, in 1936 he personally contacted the leaders of the Latvian organization: in Novosibirsk with ROSIT, an authorized Soviet control in Western Siberia, and in Omsk with SALYN, deputy. early UNKVD.

ROSIT informed GAILIT that he was personally connected with the center of the Latvian organization in Moscow, represented by RUDZUTAK, MEZHLAUK, KNORIN and BAUMAN, that there is a powerful Latvian organization on the territory of Western Siberia, of which he is one of the leaders. The members of this organization are: OZOLIN ‐ the manager of the Regional Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Western Siberia, SVEKIS ‐ the secretary of the medical commission of the Regional Committee of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Western Siberia, and the editor of the Latvian newspaper Sibiriyas Tsine, whose name he does not remember. The latter also carry out nationalist work among the Latvian population of Western Siberia, recruiting cadres among them into the organization, and through them carry out subversive work in all sectors of the national economy.

In the same 1936, GAILIT, being on a business trip in Omsk, contacted the leaders of the Latvian organization in Omsk SALYN, who also informed him that he, SALYN, had created from among the Latvians living in the Omsk region, the staff of the organization, which according to his assignments carry out subversive work in various industries and agriculture.

At the same time, GAILIT connected a member of the organization TSAUNE with SALYN in order to contact the subversive work in the 217th rifle regiment.

3. DYBENKO, former commander of the LVO. Interrogated by YAMNITSKY and KAZAKEVICH.

In addition, he testified that he had met with a German resident, with whom he was associated through espionage work, Rudolf GRUBMAN, in 1936 in Moscow. At this meeting, he informed GRAUBMAN about the sabotage work he had carried out.

He reported sabotage in the construction of art. anti‐aircraft range, chemical. training ground, on bringing the weapons of units into a noncombat state, in particular in 12‐13 corps.

The sabotage in construction was carried out by withdrawing funds from the main facilities and spraying them on minor improvements, making technical changes to projects in the middle of the year, mothballing important facilities, disrupting the work of repair shops.

The sabotage also went along the line of mobrabotka, along the line of registration of personnel, early. train, horse train and transport.

He reduced combat training to narrow rifle training, reduced training of junior super‐term command personnel, under various pretexts, political work in parts of the district was disrupted, sabotage also proceeded along the line of living conditions of command personnel and fighters, along the line of disrupting the construction of houses, disrupting heating of barracks and houses, etc. etc.

All this work to disrupt the combat capability of the district troops and disrupt their mob. DYBENKO carried out readiness in accordance with the tasks of the German intelligence, reporting on the course of sabotage both to the Germans and to the head of the military organization of the right‐wing A.I. Egorov.

4. BERGSTREM, former Assistant Chief of Naval Forces for Aviation. Interrogated: MNEV.

In addition, he showed about his espionage activities in favor of Italy and communication with Italian intelligence on his arrival in the USSR (BERGSTREM in 1928‐29 was in Italy for the purchase of sea planes, where he was recruited).

BERGSTREM transmitted to Italian intelligence the basic data on aircraft construction, combat training and the state of naval aviation.

BERGSTREM admitted that at previous interrogations he concealed from the investigation a number of persons recruited by him into an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, namely: URALOV ‐ early. headquarters of the 31st air brigade of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, ALEXANDROV ‐ flag navigator of the KBF Air Force, KHNYKIN ‐ squadron commander of the 105th air brigade, MANLOSOV, ALEKSEEV ‐ squadron commander of the 31st air brigade of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, KONOVALOVA ‐ beginning. the headquarters of the 106th air brigade, the LOB ‐ the squadron commander of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force (not arrested, testimony is being rechecked).

BERGSTREM carried out his subversive activities along the lines:

1) reducing the pace of combat training of naval aviation units;

2) delays in submission of new aircraft;

3) reducing the number of flights to the high seas;

4) disruption of high‐altitude and night flights;

5) decrease in the pace and quality of navigational training of flight personnel;

6) disarmament of air units (entire squadrons were left without aircraft and weapons for a long time).

5. VETVITSKY V.V., a former assistant to the USSR military attaché in Czechoslovakia. Interrogated: YAMNITSKY and PAVLOVSKY.

In addition, he showed that he, together with the Plenipotentiary of the

USSR in Czechoslovakia, ALEXANDROVSKY, for anti‐Soviet purposes, actively worked to disrupt the rapprochement between the USSR and Czechoslovakia and thus prompted the leading Czech circles to the need for their rapprochement with Germany.

To this end, ALEXANDROVSKY helped VETVITSKY to get closer to General GUSAREK (deputy head of the General Staff of the Czech Army), General DVORZAK (head of communications of the Czech army), and others.

VETVITSKII, in pursuance of the assignment of ALEXANDROVSKY, had several meetings with GUSAREK, FAYFR, DVORZHAK and others, during which he emphasized the disadvantage of Czechoslovakiaʹs rapprochement with the Soviet Union, pointing out that this alliance with the USSR would inevitably lead to the Bolshevization of the Czech Republic, and this threatened them with the loss of not only national independence, but also personal property.

VETVITSKY also supported these anti‐Soviet conversations with practical steps, in which he and ALEXANDROVSKY compiled fictitious information about the unsuitability of tanks, artillery of the Red Army, mass aircraft crashes, diseases in the Red Army, etc.

The same information was published through the journalist KUBKA ALEKSANDROVSKY and VETVITSKY in the Czech reactionary press.

6. GURVICH AI, former head of the research institute of communications of the RU RKKA. Interrogated: POLISHCHUK. GURVICH, who had previously confessed to espionage activities and an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, additionally showed that in the period 1923‐24. he was in clandestine work in Germany in a group of Russian communists sent to help the Central Committee of the KKE for military work.

This group was headed by the Trotskyist ROSE (arrested), who rallied around himself his like‐minded people: KANGELARI ‐ early. group headquarters (arrested), STERN ‐ early. Operations Department, KOTLOVA‐RAKOVA (arrested in 1930), KAPITANI (died in 1928), who clearly carried out Trotskyist directives in the work of the group.

ROSE, in conversations with STERN, KAPITANI, GURVICH and others, spoke of his direct connection with TROTSKY, emphasized that the instructions of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), which boiled down to a thorough study of the situation and the organization of the uprising, depending on the balance of forces and circumstances, were incorrect, and therefore he will carry out TROTSKYʹs policy of insurrection at all costs, which in essence was a provocative maneuver that doomed the working class of Germany to defeat.

While treating the members of the group in the Trotskyist spirit, ROSE instilled that our country itself would not be able to cope with the tasks set, it was necessary to look for an ally from outside.

Contact with Germany, which will undoubtedly quickly recover from its defeat and become a strong country again, should have been the main issue of our policy.

Proceeding from this, ROSE declared that there was nothing reprehensible in relations with the left groups of the Reichswehr and with the Germans in general, since their goals were close to ours.

The captain, in one of his conversations with ROSE in the presence of GURVICH, directly stated that he had contact with the leftist groups of the Reichswehr.

One of the leaders of the MELCHER trade union movement, connected with ROSE, became friends with him and began to conduct similar conversations as ROSE, telling him about the existing connection with the Reichswehr intelligence through the reserve officer Leo FINK, who was later involved in underground work and as a communications instructor worked together with GURVICH to train a group of Germans of 7‐8 people.

7. MIKHAILOV, former assistant to the head of the department of the Academy of the Red Army. Interrogated: LUSCHINSKY.

MIKHAILOV, who had previously confessed that he was a member of the Moscow organization of the Socialist‐Revolutionaries and the antiSoviet military conspiracy, as well as an agent of French intelligence, additionally testified that, being the head of the military SR organization at the Leningrad Artillery Academy until 1936, in connection with his move to Moscow transferred its leadership to the teacher of this academy, brigade IVANOV V.I. (not arrested).

According to the testimony of MIKHAILOV, the SR organization at the Artillery Academy included academy teachers: POZOEV, GRAUR, SHUVALIKOV, CHETNOV, SOBENNIKOV, POVAROV, SEMENOV (to be established) and the former beginning. Academy TRIZNA

(arrested).

MIKHAILOV linked IVANOV through a former teacher of the artillery academy GOLUBINTSEV (arrested) with a military officersʹ organization in Leningrad, having on this directive the foreign center of the party of Right SRs (this was an instruction from the foreign center of the party of Right SRs MIKHAILOV received through the former chief of artillery SAVO ZHANKOLY) (ZHANKOLYA) (artillery head).

Instructing IVANOV, MIKHAILOV pointed out to him the need to preserve the independence of the Socialist‐Revolutionary organization and prepare a terrorist act against Comrade. Zhdanova.

MIKHAILOV also showed that a terrorist and sabotage group had been created from among the members of the Leningrad SocialistRevolutionary organization before his departure for Moscow.

The terrorist group, personally led by MIKHAILOV, included: the former head of the TRIZNA Artillery Academy (arrested) and the academy teachers ‐ POZOEV and GRAUR. The sabotage group was headed by IVANOV, and it included CHETNOV, SOBENNIKOV, POVAROV, SEMENOV and GURYANOV.

After his move to Moscow in 1936, MIKHAILOV established contact with the former professor of the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army, Socialist‐Revolutionary A.I. VERKHOVSKY (arrested) and entered the center of the Moscow military Socialist‐Revolutionary organization.

MIKHAILOV testified that in 1937, when the arrests of the conspirators began, VERKHOVSKY, MIKHAILOV and MALEVSKY (all members of the center) agreed not to extradite the Socialist‐Revolutionary organization in the event of their arrest.

8. VILMUT FM, former head of the 7th department of the air defense directorate of the Red Army, quartermaster 1st rank. Interrogated by

ROGACHEV, PAVLOV.

VILMUT, who had previously confessed that he had been a member of the anti‐Soviet conspiracy in the Red Army since 1935 (involved the deputy head of the UPVO, division commander BLAZHEVICH

(arrested), additionally testified that before he was recruited into the conspiracy, he was recruited by EIDEMAN in 1934 into the nationalist spy Latvian organization.

According to EIDEMANʹs testimony, he, VILMUT, collected and transmitted spy information about the state of air defense of large centers of the Soviet Union (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Baku) for the Latvian intelligence service.

Later he passed on the same information to the former head of ABTU BOKIS (arrested).

WILMUT, being the head of the financial department, deliberately withheld funds allocated for the air defense of the main points of the Union.

Head of the Secretariat of the NKVD of the USSR, senior major of state security (SHAPIRO)