Wikipedia

Genrikh Lyushkov: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 1:
{{short description|Soviet defector}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov<br />{{lang-ru|link=no|Генрих Самойлович Люшков}}
| image = G Lyushkov.jpg
| alt = Genrikh Samoilovich Lyuskhov
Line 9:
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1945|8|19|1900|5|25}}
||death_place = [[Dalian]], [[Soviet occupation of Manchuria|Soviet-occupied Manchuria]]
| nationality = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]
| other_names =
| known_for =
Line 26:
{{Wikisourcelang|ja|リュシコフ大将手記|Notes of General Lyushkov}}
 
'''Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov''' ({{lang-ru|link=no|Генрих Самойлович Люшков}}; 1900 &ndash; 19 August 1945) was an officer in the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[secret police]] and its highest-ranking [[defector]]. A high-ranking officer of the [[NKVD]], he played a role in perpetrating Stalin's [[Great Purge]]. When, in 1938, he suspected he would soon fall victim to the purge, he fled to the Japanese. Thereafter, he acted as a major source of intelligence for [[Imperial Japan]] about the Soviet Union. At the end of [[World War II]], he was killed by the Japanese in order to prevent him from falling back into Soviet hands.
 
==Early life==
Lyushkov was born in [[Odessa]] in the [[Russian Empire]] in 1900. His [[Jews|Jewish]] father supported him and his siblings as a tailor. He began his education in 1908 in a state-owned, six-classroom school, continuing there until 1915. While in school, he was influenced by his brother (a member of the [[Bolshevik]] underground) to join the [[Bolshevik Party]] and take part in the [[Russian Revolution]] several years later.
 
In April 1919, he received political training in [[Kiev]] for the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]]. During this time, the [[Russian Civil War]] broke out and after his graduation in September of that year, Lyushkov was assigned to the [[Red Army]]'s [[14th Army (RSFSR)|14th Army]] for political work, where he saw combat against [[Poland|Poles]] and the [[White movement|White Russian]] forces of [[Anton Denikin]]. By then, he was a fully-fledged [[Commissar#Political commissar|political commissar]] and had received the [[Order of the Red Banner]].{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=407}}<ref name="Kuksin" />
 
==Secret police==
In November 1920, he joined the [[Cheka]] of [[Odessa]], which became known for its ruthlessness.<ref name="Berkman" /> He also served in [[Moscow]] and [[Ukraine]]. When the Cheka was disbanded and reformed into the [[State Political Directorate|GPU]] (the Государственное политическое управление НКВД РСФСР or "State Political Directorate"), Lyushkov rose even further. Around 1930,{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=408}} he carried out an [[industrial espionage]] assignment in [[Germany]], where he monitored activities within the [[Junkers (Aircraft)|Junkers]] aviation company, bringing him the favour of [[Joseph Stalin]]. This success led to his working again within the USSR, now as a member of the [[NKVD]] (the Народный комиссариат внутренних дел or "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"). He was quickly transferred to preferential positions such as his posting as the NKVD chief in the [[Sea of Azov]]-[[Black Sea]] region{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=408}} as well as being awarded the [[Order of Lenin]] "for exemplary performance of tasks of the Party and government."<ref name="Kuksin" /> He was also made a deputy of the [[Supreme Soviet]] and a member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]].
 
During the time of the [[Moscow Trials]], he was the one who led the interrogations of [[Grigory Zinoviev|Zinoviev]] and [[Kamenev]].<ref name="Medvedev" /> Later, he earned a reputation as "an arrogant, arbitrary and sadistic bully...."{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=408}} On 31 July 1937, he received his final posting, as the NKVD chief in the [[Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army]], where he had direct command over "20,000&ndash;30,000 élite NKVD troops."{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=409}}
Line 53:
On 13 June 1938, Lyushkov defected from the [[Soviet Union]] by crossing the border into [[Manchukuo]] with valuable secret documents about the Soviet military strength in the region, which was much greater than the Japanese had realised. He was the highest-ranking secret police official to defect; he also had the greatest inside knowledge about the purges within the Soviet [[Red Army]] because of his own participation in carrying them out. [[Richard Sorge]] told the [[Kremlin]] of the defection because a Nazi intelligence officer had debriefed Lyushkov and Sorge obtained a copy of the top secret document and sent it to Moscow in June 1938.<ref>Goldman, Stuart D. [https://www.historynet.com/the-spy-who-saved-the-soviets.htm The Spy Who Saved the Soviets]. History net website. Retrieved 11 December 2020.</ref>
 
His defection was initially kept a state secret by [[Japan]], but the revelation of his defection was judged to have a high [[propaganda]] value,{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=411}} so the decision was made to release the news to the world. A press conference was arranged at a [[Tokyo]] hotel on 13 July,{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=411}} a month after Lyushkov had defected. He "categorically denied Moscow's allegation that he was an imposter"{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=411}} but some news agencies, such as the ''[[New York Times]]'' wondered if he was telling the truth.
 
During subsequent interviews and interactions with Japanese military personnel, Lyushkov adopted an anti-[[Stalinism|Stalinist]] position.{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=412}} However, his professed political views remained [[socialism|socialistic]] in nature according to the recollections of some Japanese intelligence officers, with Lyushkov calling himself a [[Trotskyism|Trotskyite]],{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=413}} but some Japanese officers believed that he had later become a [[Liberal socialism|liberal communist]].{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=414}} Though Lyushkov was anti-Stalinist, he was resistant to the idea of creating a new regime led by Russian [[emigrants|émigrés]].{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=414}} He was, however, willing to include them in a proposed plan for assassination of Stalin.
 
A resistance group of Russian emigrants would travel across the [[Turkey|Turkish]]-Soviet border when Stalin would travel south to a resort in [[Sochi]], which he had visited previously to swim in the [[Matsesta River]]. Lyushkov's intimate knowledge of NKVD procedures and the way Stalin's guard detail would be organised encouraged the Japanese to support the plan. However, a Soviet agent had infiltrated the group of Russian exiles and foiled the plan, which was considered the only serious attempt to assassinate Stalin.<ref name="Kuksin" />
 
Lyushkov was able to detail strength of the [[Red Army]] in the [[Russian Far East|Far East]], [[Siberia]] and [[Ukraine]], simultaneously providing Soviet military radio codes. He was considered highly intelligent and dedicated,{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=412}} producing great volumes of written material,{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=413}} but there was some uncertainty about his ability to provide useful information specific to military operations.{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=414}}
Line 63:
As he spent more time in Japan, his hard work impressed the Japanese intelligence officers with whom he had been assigned to work. The staff of the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] had concerns, however, about his psychological state, especially pertaining to the status of his wife and daughter, about whom he had heard no news since his defection. After a failed search by Japanese intelligence agents for his family, a plan to both pacify and "domesticate" Lyushkov was decided upon: he would be paired with a woman, both to distract him from the question of his family's status and to keep him rooted in Japan. An eventual match was found after Lyushkov refused several [[White émigré]] women.{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=413}}
 
At some point, he began to make plans to travel to the [[United States]] and contacted an American publisher about a possible autobiography that he would write. He had concerns that he might be prevented from leaving Japan and went as far as to negotiate a written safe-conduct guarantee.{{sfn|Coox|1968|p=417}}
 
== Disappearance and death ==
Line 82:
| first = Berkman
| author-link = Alexander Berkman
| title = [[The Bolshevik Myth|The Bolshevik Myth]] (Diary 1920&ndash;1922)]]
| publisher = Pluto Press
| location = London
Line 117:
| author-link = Roy Medvedev
| script-title=ru:К суду истории
|trans-title=[[Let History Judge|Let History Judge]]: The Origin and Consequences of Stalinism]]
| publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]
| language = ru
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Lyushkov"