A traitor with a general's shoulder straps or How a traitor from the NKVD served the Japanese

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On the night of June 1938, a Soviet citizen crossed the Manchu border, to whom the party and personally Comrade Stalin had high confidence. Genrikh Lyushkov wore the epaulettes of the lieutenant general and remained the only defector of this rank in history. Caught among the enemies, he immediately began active cooperation with Japanese intelligence. But it turned out that he only postponed his execution a little.

Jewish tailor in the Bolshevik guard

The future general from the NKVD was brought up in the Odessa family of a small tailor Samuil Lyushkov. The father saw his sons as the successors of his work and for this purpose he sent them to the sewing school. But the younger Heinrich neglected his father's dreams and went to conquer commerce. And soon, following the example of his older brother, he followed the revolutionary path. Having collected "new ideas", the future Chekist took up underground work. And by the age of 17 he joined the RSDLP. As soon as the revolution took place, as a promising executive party member came to the court in the Cheka. The vicissitudes of the Civil War shook Lyushkov Jr. to different parts of Ukraine. He visited the Red Guards, and the small employees of the Cheka, and the cavalrymen.

He met the end of the war with the rank of commissar of the shock brigade with the Order of the Red Banner on his chest. In 1920, a donkey settled among the Tiraspol chekists, and then the "social lift" carried him higher and higher. At the age of 20, Genrikh Lyushkov was appointed deputy head of the city Cheka, and in 1924, the head of the "secret" of the central republican apparatus of the GPU of the city of Kharkov. He has established himself as an excellent employee, a reliable performer and a faithful ideological bearer. Soon he was sent to Moscow, where, under the Council of People's Commissars, he took up resonant political affairs of that difficult period.

Significant meeting with Stalin

By 1937, through the efforts of Lyushkov, dozens of people with recognizable names were repressed, for which the Chekist was awarded the Order of Lenin. Genrikh Samuilovich was a member of the notorious "troikas", which sentenced repressors without judicial investigation. And the faithful son of the state regime gave his best that he attracted the attention of Stalin himself. Joseph Vissarionovich even invited Lyushkov to the Kremlin for a private conversation. After 15 minutes of communication, Henry's position as the leader was completely satisfied, and he was appointed head of the NKVD for the Far East region. The situation there was not easy, and Stalin needed an energetic executor who could emotionally eliminate the unwanted contingent. Moreover, not to draw a line between the former White Guards and fellow Chekists, revealing them harshly and decisively.

Zealous service in the Far East

Arriving in the Far East, Lyushkov immediately took the bull by the horns. Through his efforts, the Koreans living in those places were deported en masse. Lyushkov personally authorized arrests among suspicious locals, cleaned out the regional NKVD, got rid of the proteges of the previous leadership. He remained untouchable even during the period of maximum acceleration of the flywheel of repression throughout the country. Even when almost all of his colleagues with patrons were arrested, Genrikh Samuilovich continued to do his own thing. Affected by the fact that Yezhov valued the Chekist for his efficient service, and Yakov Deich, whom the General Commissioner fully trusted, also went to Lyushkov's comrades.

Lyushkov's main nuisance was Blucher, who enjoyed authority in the Far East, and was clearly digging under the Chekist. When in the winter of 1938, Lyushkov arrived in Moscow for a congress of deputies of the Supreme Soviet, he first suspected surveillance. The burned out Chekist began to prepare an escape plan without delay. A couple of months later, his first comrade-in-arms, two deputy generals, were detained, and then Yezhov's deputy Frinovsky arrived in the Far East. Everything indicated that purges were coming. The call to the capital was not a surprise for Lyushkov, although it was disguised as a new appointment. For Henry, this meant one thing: arrest. After an unsuccessful attempt to organize an overseas escape for family members, Lyushkov's wife was arrested. Now he had nothing to lose except a successful career in the past.

7-year postponement of execution

On June 9, the doomed Lyushkov in a Chekist uniform with all the lapel medals arrived in Ussuriisk on business. From there, ostensibly for a routine check of border detachments, he moved to a point with a special "operational window". After informing the border guards that he was going to meet with a Soviet agent on the other side of the border, Lyushkov left the USSR. When their own sounded the alarm, it was impossible to reach the fugitive.

The defector surrendered to the first Japanese patrol, after which he was taken by plane to the Hunchun army headquarters. At first, Heinrich intended to demand a large sum for secret information and guarantees of further departure to a third country. But the Japanese decided otherwise. Lyushkov betrayed Soviet agents in the Far East to the enemy, which led to many deaths. Outlined a plan of communication points with radio codes, operational Red Army deployments in case of war. He sketched detailed maps-schemes of border fortified areas and places of deployment and number of troops in all areas of interest to the Japanese.

For about 7 years, the fugitive worked in the main intelligence department of the imperial army, after which he was transferred to the Kwantung Army. When, at the end of the summer of 1945, the USSR successfully opposed Japan, Genrikh Samuilovich turned into an unwanted witness who knew too much about the Japanese special services. It is logical that it was decided to get rid of him.

Sensing something was wrong, Lyushkov requested permission to leave the country. Having signed his own sentence, the defector, with the permission of the command, went to the port to go abroad by ship. Lyushkov was shot right there at the exit from the building. The Soviet troops who occupied Manchuria for some time persistently looked for a traitor among the local population. But after the discovery of reliable evidence of his death, the search operation curtailed.

In general, the secret services of the USSR reacted extremely harshly to cases of betrayal. They tried to eliminate the guilty person by all possible means. The first was Georgy Agabekov, who was eliminated by the NKVD.