Genrikh Lyushkov
Encyclopedia
Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov (Генрих Самойлович Люшков) (1900 – August 19, 1945) was an officer in the Soviet
secret police
and its highest-ranking defector.
Lyushkov was born in Odessa
, the son of a Jewish
tailor. Beginning in November 1920 he joined the Cheka
of Odessa
which was known for its ruthlessness. He served in what eventually became the NKVD
in various parts of the Soviet Union
, and also carried out an industrial espionage
assignment in Germany
in the 1930s involving the Junkers aviation company, which brought him Stalin
's favor. His final posting was as NKVD boss of the Russian Far East
on July 31, 1937. By then he had been awarded the Order of Lenin
and was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet
and a member of the Central Committee
.
During the first of the Moscow Trials
he was the one who led the interrogations of Zinoviev
and Kamenev. When the Great Purge
was near its peak and NKVD boss Nikolai Yezhov
was gradually losing power, Lyushkov received a summons to return to Moscow
, but strongly suspected that this would mean his own arrest and execution. His own two predecessors in his post, Deribas and Balitsky, had both been purged. On June 13, 1938 Lyushkov defected by crossing the border into Manchukuo
with valuable secret documents about Soviet military strength in the region, which was much higher than the Japanese had realized. As a "third-rank commissar of state security" (комиссар госбезопасности 3-го ранга), Lyushkov was the highest ranking secret-police official to successfully defect, and he had the most inside knowledge about the purges within the Soviet Red Army
due to his own participation in carrying them out.
Before defecting, Lyushkov had previously arranged for his wife Inna and 11 year old daughter to leave the Soviet Union in order for his daughter to receive medical treatment abroad. After receiving a pre-arranged code-phrase telegram from his wife, he defected a few days later believing that his family was safe, but in fact they had vanished without a trace. It was later reported that his wife had been tortured and shot at Lubyanka prison, and his parents and all his relatives were sent to Siberia
. His mother and brother died, however, his sister survived the Siberian camp
. The daughter's fate remains unknown.
A month after his defection, he gave a press conference at a Tokyo
hotel. He published a number of articles and interviews about the Soviet purges, and served as an intelligence advisor to the Japanese. He proposed and planned a detailed assassination plot to be carried out against Stalin in Sochi
in January 1939, and the Japanese attempted to smuggle six Russian emigrant agents across the Soviet-Turkish border to carry out this assassination mission. However the group had been infiltrated by a Soviet agent and the attempt to cross the border failed. Lyushkov also served as a military advisor
and warned the Japanese not to underestimate Soviet military strength, estimating that at least 4,000 tanks would be needed for an attack on the Soviet Union. This was an impossible figure for the Imperial Japanese Army
to achieve.
Lyushkov worked for the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchukuo until he disappeared in August 1945, at the beginning of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria near the very end of World War II
. His fate is uncertain, but according to one version he was shot at the Japanese military mission in Dairen
, by the head of the mission, a Japanese counterintelligence officer named Takeoka, to prevent him falling into the hands of the Soviets, and his body secretly cremated.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
and its highest-ranking defector.
Lyushkov was born in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, the son of a Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
tailor. Beginning in November 1920 he joined the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
which was known for its ruthlessness. He served in what eventually became the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
in various parts of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and also carried out an industrial espionage
Industrial espionage
Industrial espionage, economic espionage or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security purposes...
assignment in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the 1930s involving the Junkers aviation company, which brought him Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's favor. His final posting was as NKVD boss of the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
on July 31, 1937. By then he had been awarded the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
and was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
and a member of the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
.
During the first of the Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
he was the one who led the interrogations of Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
and Kamenev. When the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
was near its peak and NKVD boss Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
was gradually losing power, Lyushkov received a summons to return to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, but strongly suspected that this would mean his own arrest and execution. His own two predecessors in his post, Deribas and Balitsky, had both been purged. On June 13, 1938 Lyushkov defected by crossing the border into Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
with valuable secret documents about Soviet military strength in the region, which was much higher than the Japanese had realized. As a "third-rank commissar of state security" (комиссар госбезопасности 3-го ранга), Lyushkov was the highest ranking secret-police official to successfully defect, and he had the most inside knowledge about the purges within the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
due to his own participation in carrying them out.
Before defecting, Lyushkov had previously arranged for his wife Inna and 11 year old daughter to leave the Soviet Union in order for his daughter to receive medical treatment abroad. After receiving a pre-arranged code-phrase telegram from his wife, he defected a few days later believing that his family was safe, but in fact they had vanished without a trace. It was later reported that his wife had been tortured and shot at Lubyanka prison, and his parents and all his relatives were sent to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. His mother and brother died, however, his sister survived the Siberian camp
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. The daughter's fate remains unknown.
A month after his defection, he gave a press conference at a Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
hotel. He published a number of articles and interviews about the Soviet purges, and served as an intelligence advisor to the Japanese. He proposed and planned a detailed assassination plot to be carried out against Stalin in Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
in January 1939, and the Japanese attempted to smuggle six Russian emigrant agents across the Soviet-Turkish border to carry out this assassination mission. However the group had been infiltrated by a Soviet agent and the attempt to cross the border failed. Lyushkov also served as a military advisor
Military advisor
Military advisors, or combat advisors, are soldiers sent to foreign nations to aid that nation with its military training, organization, and other various military tasks. These soldiers are often sent to aid a nation without the potential casualties and political ramifications of actually...
and warned the Japanese not to underestimate Soviet military strength, estimating that at least 4,000 tanks would be needed for an attack on the Soviet Union. This was an impossible figure for the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
to achieve.
Lyushkov worked for the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchukuo until he disappeared in August 1945, at the beginning of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria near the very end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His fate is uncertain, but according to one version he was shot at the Japanese military mission in Dairen
Dalian
Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...
, by the head of the mission, a Japanese counterintelligence officer named Takeoka, to prevent him falling into the hands of the Soviets, and his body secretly cremated.
External links
- Люшков Генрих Самойлович at www.hrono.ru (in Russian)
- Трагедия маршала Блюхера at nvo.ng.ru (in Russian)
- Илья КУКСИН (Чикаго): ПОБЕГ СТОЛЕТИЯ at www.vestnik.com (in Russian)
- ЛЮШКОВ ГЕНРИХ САМОЙЛОВИЧ at www.memo.ru (in Russian)
- Эдуард Хлысталов. Почему Сталин не верил широкоизвестным теперь агентам. Предатели из разведки at www.hrono.ru (in Russian)