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To Stalin Top Secret Summaries Of The most important testimonies Of Those arrested 1937‐ 1938A summary of the most important testimonies of those arrested by the GUGB NKVD of the USSR for February 26, 1938
Archive: AP RF. F. 3. Op. 24. D. 405. L. 113‐131.
March 1, 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 February 26, 1938.
Peopleʹs Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR General Commissar of State Security (EZHOV)
Top secret
For the 3rd DEPARTMENT
1. SMOLYANSKY LB, a former member of the underground Central Committee of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries ‐ ʺstruggleʺ. Interrogated: KONONOV, YAKUSHIN.
The arrested member of the underground Central Committee of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries ‐ “struggleists” LB SMOLYANSKY additionally showed the connection of the organization with the foreign center of the Left SRs. In 1930, when SMOLYANSKY went to work in Berlin, he received from a member of the underground Central Committee of the Left SRs Nikolai Alekseev (convicted) a meeting with the representative of the center of the Left SRs abroad, Schreider. SMOLYANSKY, using the agreed password, met with Schraider and informed him about the decisions taken by the anti‐Soviet Socialist‐Revolutionary organization to carry out terrorist acts against the leaders of the party and the Soviet government and to launch sabotage work.
At the next meeting in December 1930, SCHREIDER informed SMOLYANSKY that the foreign center of the Left SocialistRevolutionaries had decided to provide financial assistance to the fightists and strongly recommends establishing contact with the Right and Trotskyists for counter‐revolutionary work.
In October 1931, when SMOLYANSKY left for the USSR, SCHREIDER again met with him and instructed him to convey the following to the Central Committee of the wrestlers:
1) funds for counter‐revolutionary work will be allocated by the foreign center of the Central Committee of the Left SRs;
2) the foreign center of the Central Committee of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries is interested in establishing ties with the anti‐Soviet organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries‐struggles in the Soviet Union.
3) it is necessary to speed up the preparation of a terrorist attack against comrade. STALIN
4) in connection with the ongoing collectivization and resistance to these kulaks, it is necessary to send as many forces of the counterrevolutionary organization to the countryside as possible to kill the collectivization commissioners, leading party and Soviet workers.
Having met again with Schreider, SMOLYANSKY informed him in detail about the counter‐revolutionary work carried out by the SRs in the Union. SCHREIDER told SMOLYANSKY that the foreign center of the Left SRs had instructed its representative in the USSR SAPIR to establish permanent regular contact with an organization in the USSR to resolve practical issues of counter‐revolutionary work on the spot (Minsk was telegraphically requested about SAPIR, which was installed working in Minsk). SMOLYANSKY in 1934 moved to work in Belgium and established contact with the Social Revolutionaries in Paris.
In Paris, SMOLYANSKY met twice with Schreider and STEINBERG, representatives of the center of the Left SRs. SCHREIDER, at a meeting in December 1934, confirmed to SMOLENSKY [1] that the foreign center of the Left SRs, through its authorized SAPIR, had transferred about 70,000 French francs to the anti‐Soviet SR organization in the Union.
SMOLYANSKY also testified about the preparation of a terrorist attack over Comrade. MOLOTOV by a group of Gorb (convicted), SMOLYANSKY and TABAKOV ‐ the former director of the Magnezit plant in the Urals (arrested).
2. ALEXEEV Ivan, Socialist‐Revolutionary, member of the underground Central Committee of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries ‐ ʺstruggleʺ. Interrogated: KONONOV, YAKUSHIN.
The arrested member of the underground Central Committee of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries ‐ ʺstruggleʺ Ivan Alekseev gave additional testimony about the organizationʹs sabotage and sabotage work in industry and agriculture.
An active member of the organization, a member of the underground Central Committee REVZINA Vera (not arrested), heading the research institute of agriculture, carried out in 1936 and 1937. a number of recruits among Ukrainian listeners of the Azov‐Black Sea Territory, who for carrying out sabotage work in agriculture received from her appearances to members of the organization YAROSH in Poltava and ZALUZHNY in Kharkov.
From REVZINA ALEKSEEV was aware of the following active members of the organization involved by her: SHIRYAEV in the Voronezh Oblast, PETROV and RYABININ in the Ryazan Oblast.
At the end of 1937, at the end of 1937, at the end of 1937, at the end of
1937, at the Voroshilovgrad steam locomotive plant, a member of the FATER organization created a sabotage and sabotage group at the Voroshilovgrad steam locomotive plant, headed by engineer MAKSIMOV, on the direct orders of ALEKSEEV In July 1937, ALEXEEV arrived in Tula, where a member of the CHULOK organization working at the Novo‐Tula metallurgical plant, he gave instructions to intensify sabotage and sabotage work. CHULOK informed ALEKSEEV that he had created a group of 8 people and had committed two accidents in blast furnaces by breaking pipes, which led to the stoppage of the domain for three weeks. The power plant was stopped for two weeks due to the fact that saboteurs had planted foreign objects in the cars.
A similar Socialist‐Revolutionary sabotage group was created in the city of Kaluga at a transport plant headed by a member of the organization KALASHNIKOV.
For the 5th DEPARTMENT
1. POKUS Y.Z. , Former assistant . commanding officer OKDVA. Interrogated by: AGAS, LUKIN, LORKISH.
POKUS additionally showed that from 1922 until the day of his arrest he was an agent of Japanese intelligence, to which he was recruited by the captain of the Japanese mission in Khabarovsk, Baron TIRADI.
In the same year 1922, he was recruited into German intelligence by the representative of the German headquarters FRISENDORF (arrested).
POKUS, as a Japanese agent, spent all the following years on espionage work in favor of Japan, transferring intelligence materials about the Far Eastern Army and its defenses.
In 1930‐1932, as a military adviser in the Mongolian Peopleʹs Republic, on the instructions of the Japanese intelligence, along with espionage, he carried out treacherous work aimed at weakening the Mongol army and strengthening Japanese influence in Mongolia.
In 1932, having arrived from Mongolia to Vladivostok, he established contact with Japanese intelligence through VOLSKY, and then PUTNA (VOLSKY was arrested), to whom he transferred espionage materials until 1937.
In the fall of 1937, after the arrest of VOLSKY, a representative of the Japanese intelligence service GORSKY, who works in the Khabarovsk regional executive committee, contacted POKUS. He kept in touch with him until the day of his arrest. The last time the intelligence material about a new grouping of troops in the Far East was given by POKUS to GORSKY through his wife KRIVCHENKOVA (not arrested), a Harbinka, who was also an agent of Japanese intelligence, which he already knew in 1933, a few months after his marriage to KRIVCHENKOVA.
Through German intelligence, POKUS was associated with
FRIESENDORF, to whom he transferred espionage materials until 1933.
2. ERLIKH VG, student of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, a former left Socialist Revolutionary wrestler. Interrogated by: GRINBERG, SELEZNEV.
Gave initial testimony about his anti‐Soviet Socialist‐Revolutionary activities.
From 1912 to 1917, Erlich was a member of the Socialist‐Revolutionary Party, and from 1917 to 1920, that is, until the entry of the wrestlers into the ranks of the All‐Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was a Ukrainian left‐wing Socialist‐Revolutionary fighter.
ERLIKH confessed that since 1930 he has been a member of the antiSoviet Left Socialist‐Revolutionary organization, into which he was recruited by a former member of the Central Committee of the Left Socialist‐Revolutionaries‐wrestlers KACHINSKY Vladimir Maksimovich (wanted).
As members of this organization, Ehrlich named Vsevolod Nikolaevich CHERNEVSKY, Dmitry Efremovich LIPELIS, Anatoly Ilyich ROMANSKY, Evgeny Petrovich TERLETSKY, a former member of the Central Committee of the Left Social Revolutionaries‐wrestlers (all arrested), and Grigory SLUTSKY (not arrested).
In addition, ERLIKH testified that in 1919 he was sent to Tashkent by the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Left Social Revolutionarieswrestlers with a special task to establish contact with the Central Committee of the Left Social Revolutionaries of Turkestan and convey to them the instruction on the need to preserve the SocialistRevolutionary organizations from defeat by joining the Left Social
Revolutionaries into the Communist Party.
Upon arrival in Tashkent, ERLIKH contacted a member of the Central Committee of the Left SRs of Turkestan Vsevolod Nikolaevich CHERNEVSKY, to whom he conveyed this installation and the SR literature that had been brought.
In accordance with the directives of the Central Committee of the Left SR‐wrestlers, CHERNEVSKY and ERLIKH created an organizational bureau of the Left SR‐wrestlers of Turkestan in Tashkent and drew up a double‐dealing declaration in the Central Committee of the CPSU (b).
3. KHOROSHILOV, former deputy head of the Directorate for the commanding staff of the Red Army. Interrogated: YUKHIMOVICH, RUBANOV.
In addition, he showed about his anti‐Soviet work, carried out by him on the instructions of TUKHACHEVSKY and FELDMAN in the Red Army.
KHOROSHILOV was tasked with preparing the command personnel for recruitment into a conspiracy by praising Tukhachevsky and discrediting the Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense Comrade. VOROSHILOVA.
Khoroshilov carried out this work among the command personnel when he was a division commander in PrivO and OKDVA.
While at work in the secretariat of the Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense, KHOROSHILOV used his stay there to raise the authority of the participants in the INNO conspiracy, HERMONIUS and others before the Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense, most of whom were arrested.
Knowing about their sabotage in combat training, KHOROSHILOV praised them before the Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense and recommended them as ʺthe best military leaders.ʺ
He informed FELDMAN about all this and received instructions from him on methods of preserving the conspirators in the future.
In connection with the disclosure of a military conspiracy, KHOROSHILOV, together with FELDMAN, in order to preserve a number of its participants, transferred them to other districts or sent them on a long mission to Spain (BUTYRSKY, former assistant to the head of the Frunze Academy, LOPATIN, former head of the Air Force of the LVO).
In connection with the order of the Peopleʹs Commissar of Defense on the removal of former Trotskyists from leading positions in the army, KHOROSHILOV, together with FELDMAN, using the governmentʹs decision to create the Academy of the General Staff, a number of them enrolled in this Academy.
Being along with this agent of the Polish General Staff since 1929, KHOROSHILOV transferred to the Polish intelligence a number of espionage information about the deployment, armament and combat training of the Red Army units, about fortified areas, about the sentiments of higher command personnel, etc.
By espionage work, he was associated with the former commander of the 5th Air Corps KOKHANSKY, who was an active participant in the POV and the military conspiracy.
4. PEREMYTOV AM , former chief of staff of the BVO, division commander. Interrogated by: LUKIN and PETUSHKOV
PEMYTOV, who had previously confessed that he was a member of an underground Socialist‐Revolutionary organization and a Polish spy, additionally testified that he was in 1935, as a teacher at the Military Academy of the Red Army. Frunze was involved in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy by the head of the special faculty of this academy, PAVLOV (arrested).
PAVLOV told PEREMYTOV that the conspiracy was led by TUKHACHEVSKY, who was organizing the overthrow of the Soviet government and the establishment of his dictatorship.
PEREMYTOV instructed PAVLOV to convey to TUKHACHEVSKY that he, PEREMYTOV, would fully support him in the struggle against Soviet power.
5. UDRIS , former head of the 1st department of the Research Institute
of the Red Army. Interrogated: DMITRIEV.
UDRIS, who had previously confessed to his participation in the military‐fascist conspiracy, additionally testified about the recruitment of him by German intelligence for espionage work against the USSR.
UDRIS testified that he was recruited for espionage work in 1930 while on a scientific trip abroad in Germany by a German intelligence agent, a professor‐chemist VIRTA, for whom he worked in a laboratory.
VIRTA instructed UDRIS to inform German intelligence about the state and development of military‐chemical affairs in the USSR. Before UDRIS left for the USSR, VIRTA instructed him to communicate and transfer spy materials to the doctor‐chemist ZICHERER, who would come to the USSR with a group of Germans to test chemicals at the Central Military Chemical Range.
At the end of 1930, during ZICHERERʹs stay in Moscow, UDRIS handed him secret materials about the state of the Red Armyʹs armament of poisonous substances (OB), about the OB manufactured by the industry, about new OBs intended in 1931 for field tests, in particular, he reported about lunsite [2] , hydrocyanic acid and winter mustard formulations.
Due to the fact that ZICHERER did not come to the USSR after this meeting, UDRISʹs ties with German intelligence were allegedly cut off.
The interrogation continues.
6. DURMASHKIN IL, former assistant of the Research Institute of the Printing Industry in Moscow. Interrogated: BRENER.
DURMASHKIN gave initial testimony that, being a member of the Menshevik RSDLP since 1905, in Minsk in 1910 he was recruited by the tsarist secret police for provocative work in the RSDLP.
In 1912, DURMASHKIN legally left for America, where he took part in the work of Russian Mensheviks who were in exile in New York. In 1923, DURMASHKIN joined the Communist Party of America and since 1926 was a member of the Trotskyist organization in New York, on whose instructions he communicated with the Trotskyist organization that existed in America from among the members of the CPSU (b) ‐ workers of Amtorg.
As an employee of Amtorg, DURMASHKIN was recruited in 1928 by PINKUS, a resident of German intelligence in New York, to conduct espionage in Amtorg.
On the instructions of PINKUS, DURMASHKIN substituted for him Soviet citizens who came from the USSR to America on official business, whom PINKUS recruited for espionage work in the USSR in favor of Germany.
With the assistance of DURMASHKIN, in 1928 PINKUS was recruited as an agent of German intelligence who was on a business trip in New
York, the former head of Selkhozgiz MIKHAILOV‐MILLER M.A. (arrested).
Under an agreement with the International Book, DURMASHKIN came to work in Moscow in 1932 and got a job in the International Book system as a specialist in foreign literature.
In Moscow, DURMASHKIN, on assignments from PINKUS, received various spy materials from MIKHAILOV‐MILLER at different times and sent them to PINKUS for German intelligence.
The interrogation continues.
7. VLADIMIROV MA, former air defense inspector at the SNK RSFSR. Interrogated by BRENER and GOLDFARB.
VLADIMIROV, who had previously admitted that he was a participant in an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy, additionally showed that a lot of sabotage work was carried out in the field of local air defense, which boiled down to delaying the readiness of local air defense of cities and major industrial centers in every possible way.
The organizational system of local air defense was built in such a way that in the event of enemy air attacks, it was not able to fight the enemy to protect cities and people.
The supply of local air defense and existing teams with technical means of struggle to protect the population from poisonous substances was deliberately disrupted.
The construction of collective means of protection and provision of the population with gas masks was deliberately slowed down.
Every effort was made to prevent the transfer of local air defense organizations on the ground to the jurisdiction of city councils.
The subversive work both in local (civilian air defense) and in antiaircraft air defense of cities in the Air Defense Directorate of the Red Army and in the field was carried out under the leadership of the participants in the conspiracy: the former head of the Air Defense Forces of the Red Army, S. S. Kamenev, A. I. Sedyakin. (arrested), him,
VLADIMIROV, I.F. BLAZHEVICH (arrested), AC MILOVIDOVA
(arrested) and CHAUSOVA (not arrested).
The interrogation continues.
8. VILKITSKY BI, former assistant commander of a separate tank battalion OMSDON, captain. Interrogated by: KHLINIKOV, DAVYDOV.
He gave initial testimony that in 1922, being authorized by the Special Branch of the 3rd Brigade of the 11th Cavalry Division in Minsk, he was recruited for espionage work in favor of Poland. The recruitment of VILKITSKY was carried out by his relative, the hospital attendant of the Minsk station PETROVICH Franz (to be established).
VILKITSKY was associated with PETROVICH and gave him espionage information about the Red Army units until 1928.
VILKITSKY named a number of persons who carried out espionage work, about whom he knew from PETROVICH. These persons are established by us.
In addition, VILKITSKY testified that in 1936, while in Moscow, at the
Motomechakademy, he was recruited by the former head of the Motomechakademy GERMANOVICH into a military fascist
conspiracy. (GERMANOVICH was convicted.)
As a participant in the conspiracy, VILKITSKY was associated with other participants in the conspiracy, whose place of residence is being established.
The interrogation continues.
9. ULMAN, former head of the special faculty of the Academy. Frunze, brigade commander. Interrogated: CHEKHOV and TAKE.
He additionally testified that in 1933 he received instructions from the former assistant to the head of the ABOL Academy (arrested) to organize a terrorist group.
ULMAN at various times recruited and created a terrorist group consisting of: Captain WOLF, works at the Academy of the General Staff, Maria NEYMAN, works in the transport and clothing department of the Red Army, SKAYDYNS, an employee of the military food department of the Red Army, and EFIMOVA, colonel, teacher of the Frunze Academy (all of them are not arrested).
In addition, ULMAN named a number of persons ‐ members of the Latvian fascist organization, who are being installed by us.
10. MESHKOV, doctor of the Moscow Regional Committee of Public Catering, b. Socialist‐Revolutionary, arrested on the testimony of ZHIVOPISTSEV. Interrogated: GREENER.
He confessed to being a member of the SR terrorist organization. He showed that he joined the Socialist‐Revolutionaries in July 1917 and since then has continuously waged an active struggle against Soviet power.
In 1917 MESHKOV, being a member of the Executive Committee of VIKZHEL b. Nikolayevskaya road, opposed the seizure of power by the Soviets, delayed the departure of trains with Red Guard detachments.
At the end of 1918, he joined the Socialist‐Revolutionary‐Menshevik bloc, created on the basis of the liquidated VIKZHEL.
In 1922 MESHKOV established organizational ties with the SocialistRevolutionaries: MALITSKY (died), NESTERENKO (wanted) and others.
In 1926, on the instructions of one of the leaders of the SocialistRevolutionary‐Menshevik bloc KRUSHINSKY (established), MESHKOV contacted the members of the Central Committee of the Right Socialist‐Revolutionaries SPIRIDONOVA and Dmitry DONSKY (both convicted), from whom he received the task to intensify the Socialist‐Revolutionary work and for this purpose send someone abroad from the members of the organization to communicate with the so‐called ʺforeign delegation of the Social Revolutionariesʺ, headed by CHERNOV, and to receive directives.
In the same 1926 MESHKOV established contact with the SocialistRevolutionary ZHIVOPISTSEV (arrested, confessed), who used his trip abroad to Berlin to establish contact with the Socialist‐Revolutionary center abroad. In Berlin, ZHIVOPISTSEV received instructions from a member of the Socialist‐Revolutionary Center abroad LEVIN to create an underground Socialist‐Revolutionary organization in the USSR.
After returning to the USSR, he passed this directive to MESHKOV.
In 1928‐1929. MESHKOV recruited a number of leading transport workers into the SR organization.
In the period from 1932 to 1933. he contacted the SocialistRevolutionary organization on the October road, headed by MANOS and LIBERTOVSKY, professors of the Leningrad Institute of Transport Engineers (their arrest is being prepared).
MESHKOV carried out subversive sabotage planning. On his instructions, the members of the organization prepared acts of sabotage for wartime. In order to carry out a terrorist act over Comrade KAGANOVICH, a terrorist combat group was created.
In 1933 MESHKOV was arrested by the Transport Department of the OGPU in Leningrad, conditionally sentenced and released from custody. After the liberation MESHKOV re‐established organizational ties with the PAINTIST and continued to put together counterrevolutionary Socialist‐Revolutionary personnel. For sabotage and sabotage purposes MESHKOV planted these counterrevolutionary cadres on the Lenin road.
11. ZBOROVSKY, head of the mechanical equipment sector of the
NKPS Transmashin office of the Central Supply Department. Interrogated: KONDRATIEV.
He confessed that since 1930 he has been conducting espionage work on assignments of German intelligence.
ZBOROVSKY testified that in 1930 in Berlin, where he was sent on a business trip, he was recruited by German intelligence agents GRUBER and EILART, who worked in a German firm for the manufacture of machines for grinding phosphorites.
ZBOROVSKY during this period worked as a senior engineer at the Phosphorite Trust of the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Heavy Industry.
During his stay in Germany, ZBOROVSKY passed on to the German intelligence through GRUBER and EILART a number of espionage materials, in particular, information about the phosphorite deposit, operational reserves of phosphorites, as well as projects of phosphorite plants under construction.
At the suggestion of ZBOROVSKY, EILART was invited to work as a consultant at Fosforittrest and arrived in the USSR.
After returning from Germany, ZBOROVSKY contacted EILART and regularly gave him materials about the production work of the Kolpinsky and Shchigrovsky phosphorite plants.
In 1932, ZBOROVSKII went to work in the NKPS and continued his espionage relationship with EILART. I gave him secret blueprints for the Dynamo plant and the electric plant of the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Heavy Industry in Moscow.
After EILART left for Germany, ZBOROVSKY was contacted by the German spy GERSHELMAN, who arrived in the USSR under the guise of a representative of the German company ʺFegeleʺ, which delivered equipment for the NKPS stone crushing plants. ZBOROVSKY gave him a number of information about the construction of NKPS stone crushing plants.
GERSHELMAN soon left for Germany, and ZBOROVSKY, on his instructions, established contact with the German engineer BAUMGARTEL, who worked in the Himmastrest.
At the same time, he recruited the Hungarian citizen HAUER, who worked in the crushed stone trust of the NKPS. Through him, ZBOROVSKY received classified materials on the chemical composition of the lubrication of carriage axles used in the USSR, the factories that produced this lubricant and their production capacity. This information was passed on to German intelligence.
On the instructions of BAUMGARTEL, ZBOROVSKY collected a number of information about operating and projected power plants in the water supply system throughout the road network, as well as data on the deployment of mechanized machine‐track stations.
He gave these materials to the German spy KRAFT, who came to the USSR under the guise of a tourist.
On the instructions of KRAFT, ZBOROVSKY contacted the German intelligence agent KUSAKIN, an employee of the Central Track Administration of the NKPS (his arrest is being prepared), from which he received information about the location of remote track service workshops on the roads, as well as a number of additional data about machine‐track stations and the plow track under construction. He passed this information on to HOWER, who was directly connected with the German Embassy in Moscow (HOWER is being established).
In 1936, on the instructions of EILART, transmitted through the German agent Schmidt, who arrived in the USSR under the guise of an international tourist, ZBOROVSKY contacted the engineer DENENBAUM, who worked in the Central Supply Directorate of the NKPS. From DENENBAUM ZBOROVSKII received secret information about recovery trains of defense significance, equipping with mechanized motor cranes, as well as a number of data concerning the progress of defense construction No. 4 in the DCK.
He also transferred these materials to German intelligence. The German spies named by ZBOROVSKY are installed.
12. POPOVICH, head of the Central Mobotsection of the Peopleʹs Commissariat for Railways, recently an army inspector of the General Staff of the Red Army, a brigade engineer. Interrogated: TARATUTA.
He confessed that he was a member of an anti‐Soviet military conspiracy. He was recruited by APPOGA at the end of 1933.
POPOVICH testified that, while working in the NKPS, he, on the instructions of APPOGA and POSTNIKOV, conducted subversive work aimed at disrupting the mobilization readiness of transport.
For sabotage purposes, POPOVICH developed an incorrect timetable for the movement of trains in wartime, disrupted defense construction and preparation of air defense on border roads, created difficulties in the water supply line on the roads and expanding the capacity of nodes and stations, disrupted the creation of mobilization reserves and the formation of special trains for wartime ...
In order to organize widespread sabotage in the field of mobilization work in transport, POPOVICH recruited 15 people from the mobilization workers of transport and the command staff of the operational and combat units of the Special Railway Corps of the Red Army, including MATUZENKO ‐ the commander of the 6th operational brigade on the Trans‐Baikal road, ANTONOV ‐ the commander of the construction brigade of the Special Railway Corps, ROZANOV ‐ the head of the military group of the Central Mobilization Department of the NKPS (arrested), VERBITSKY ‐ the former deputy head of the traffic service of the Stalin railway (arrested), GRUZDUP ‐ the former chief of staff of the Military Transport Academy (arrested, confessed), etc. ...
The members of the organization recruited by POPOVICH, in turn, recruited new people for sabotage and sabotage work.
Head of the Secretariat of the NKVD of the USSR, senior major of state security
(SHAPIRO)