The defeat of the White Guard nest
After the end of the Civil War in Russia, the Soviet government left no serious opponents inside the country. At the same time, a large number of emigre organizations acted abroad, aiming at the overthrow of the Bolshevik regime. The leaders of the defeated white war in the Civil War, being abroad as a result of emigration, tried to continue the struggle with the Soviets by all means and means available to them. The bourgeois governments of a number of foreign states supported them in this.
MAIN OPPONENT
In the 20s of the last century, the number of emigrants who came from Russia in Europe and China amounted to more than 1 million people. Of course, white emigration was not uniform. Some of the people who fled abroad because of fear of the Soviet authorities did not intend to fight this power. Other emigrants who actively fought against the Bolsheviks on the sidelines of the Civil War united abroad in organizations whose main goal was the overthrow of Soviet power in Russia. Among the latter should be noted, in particular, the People’s Labor Union (NTS), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the unification of the Georgian Mensheviks led by Noah Jordania. However, the most active and aggressive organization of white émigrés of that time was the Russian General Military Alliance (EMRO), created by General Peter Wrangel from officers of the defeated Volunteer Army.
The prehistory of the creation of the EMRO is as follows: after the evacuation of the remnants of General Wrangel’s troops from the Crimea and their arrangement in Serbia and Bulgaria, the Russian army ceased to exist as an independent force. In this regard, Wrangel, who lived in the Serbian city of Sremska Karlovitsa, 1 September 1924 of the year issued an order No. 35, according to which the army was transformed into the Russian all-military union under his leadership. 25 April 1928, Peter Nikolaevich, died in Brussels from transient consumption. He was succeeded as chairman of the ROVS by one of his deputies, Lieutenant-General Alexander Kutepov, who transferred the headquarters of the organization, which united about thousand former white officers in 100 to Paris. Among the leaders of this organization, he was an active supporter of terrorist activities. And it is not surprising that under his leadership, terror and sabotage became the main weapons EMRO in the fight against the Soviet state.
In Paris, as well as in Prague, Sofia, Berlin and Warsaw, where there were branches of the Russian All-Union Union, combat groups were preparing to enter Soviet territory with the aim of carrying out terrorist acts and organizing armed actions of the population. The EMRO members forged links with the counter-revolutionary underground in Russia in order to get an opportunity to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks. The secret instruction for the militants, developed by Kutepov, emphasized: "The plan of the general work is presented in the following form - terror against ... Soviet officials, as well as those who are working on the collapse of emigration."
A well-known publicist and historian Sergey Vyuzhuchanin on this issue, in particular, writes: “At the end of 1929, General Kutepov decided to step up sabotage and terrorist work against the USSR. A group of militant officers began to prepare, whose plans included employing an absolutely tested bacteriologist to equip his laboratory for breeding cultures of infectious diseases (plague, cholera, typhoid, anthrax). The culture of bacilli on the territory of the USSR was supposed to be delivered in packs of perfume, cologne, essences, liqueurs, etc.
The objectives of the attacks were to serve all regional committees of the CPSU (b), provincial committees of the CPSU (b), party schools, troops and organs of the OGPU (the militants had a list of similar 75 institutions in Moscow and Leningrad with the exact address). ”
MOSCOW TAKES ACTION
Naturally, Moscow could not ignore the potential danger posed by the terrorist organizations of the white emigration, and first of all by the EMRO, whose strategic goal of the leadership was an armed uprising against Soviet power. In this regard, the main focus of Soviet foreign intelligence and its residencies was given to work on the EMRO: studying its activities, identifying plans, establishing branches and agents on Soviet territory, decomposing it from the inside and the possible influence on decision-making by the leadership with the help of deployed agents; terrorist activities.
The Regulations on the in-branch department of the Foreign Department of the GPU, approved by 28 June 1922, indicated the following priorities of Soviet foreign intelligence in order of their priority:
- identifying on the territory of foreign countries counter-revolutionary organizations conducting subversive activities against our country;
- the establishment abroad of government and private organizations engaged in military, political and economic espionage;
- coverage of the political line of each state and its government on the main issues of international politics, identifying their intentions in relation to Russia, obtaining information about their economic situation;
- obtaining documentary materials in all areas of work, including such materials that could be used to compromise both leaders of counter-revolutionary groups and entire organizations;
- counterintelligence support of Soviet institutions and citizens abroad.
As can be seen from the above document, the work on penetration into foreign counterrevolutionary organizations that carried out subversive activities against the Soviet state was given primary importance at that time.
In addition, Moscow took into account that in the event of a new war in Europe under the banners of the opponents of the USSR, the regiments of the former Volunteer Army, whose structure remained in emigration, could also come out. White officers considered themselves in military service, underwent retraining, studied the combat capabilities of the Red Army.
Neutralization of Kutepov
The prevailing circumstances related to the intensification of the anti-Soviet activities of the EMRO, have raised with the leadership of the OGPU the question of conducting an operation to neutralize Kutepov.
On the basis of information collected through a reliable agent about the general’s lifestyle, his habits, his personal security measures in Moscow, an operation to kidnap him was developed, the implementation of which was entrusted to a special group under the OGPU chairman and a number of illegal immigrants operating at that time in France. The operation was scheduled for Sunday 26 January 1930 of the year, since according to intelligence data, Kutepov on that day should have attended 11 hours of the morning in 30 hours of the morning to attend the memorial service for Baron Kaulbars in Gallipoli church on Mademoiselle Street in 20 minutes from his house.
On the eve of January 25, one of the members of the task force was given a note to Kutepov in which he was assigned an important short-term meeting on his route to the church. It was taken into account that Kutepov always attended one of the important meetings related to the intelligence and combat activities of the EMRO. After waiting for some time "courier" at the tram stop on the street Sevres, Kutepov continued on his way to the church. On Oudinot Street, he was intercepted by an operation group that introduced itself as officers of the French police, and was taken outside the city by car. However, it was not possible to bring him to Moscow and, as planned, to bring to trial, because on his way Kutepov died of a heart attack.
The operation to abduct Kutepov by the OGPU dealt a heavy blow to the EMRO. Depression, panic, mistrust of leaders, mutual suspicions of cooperation with the USSR state security agencies were characteristic not only of the members of the Russian All-Union Union, but also of the white emigration that supported it for a number of years after Kutepov disappeared.
KUTEPOV'S SUCCESSOR
The successor to Kutepov as chairman of the EMRO was Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Karlovich Miller, a professional soldier who graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1892. From 1898 to 1907, he was in military diplomatic work in Belgium, Holland and Italy. Member of the First World War. From the first days of the war he headed the headquarters of the 5 Army. In the year 1915 was promoted to lieutenant general. In January, 1917 was appointed commander of the 26 Army Corps.
In August, 1917, Miller was sent to Italy by a representative of the General Headquarters of the Italian High Command. Here it was the October Revolution. An active participant in the Civil War in Russia. In January, 1919 arrived in Arkhangelsk occupied by the British and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the counterrevolutionary "Government of the Northern Region" of Social Revolutionary Tchaikovsky. In February, 1920, parts of it were broken, and their remnants went into exile.
After the evacuation of British troops from Arkhangelsk, Miller went to Finland, from where he moved to Paris, where he first served at the headquarters of Wrangel, and then was at the disposal of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. In 1929, he was appointed deputy chairman of the EMRO.
As deputy Kutepov, Miller was not allowed to combat work of the EMRO and was not informed about this side of the organization’s secret activities. Therefore, taking the post of its chairman, the general immediately went on an inspection trip to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, in order to deal with the EMRO practical work on the spot and to revive reconnaissance work. This was due to the fact that many generals and senior officers of the EMRO considered Miller to be an office worker incapable of decisive struggle with the Soviet authorities. However, as Miller entered the organization’s affairs, calling small pinpricks of various kinds “unsystematic assassinations, attacks on Soviet institutions and arson of warehouses”, he set a strategic task for the EMRO - organizing and preparing major demonstrations against the USSR of all the forces subordinate to him. Without denying the importance of carrying out terrorist acts, he paid special attention to the training of personnel for the deployment of a partisan war in the rear of the Red Army in the event of a war with the USSR. To this end, he created in Paris and Belgrade courses for the retraining of EMRO officers and training for the military-sabotage case of new members of the organization from among the emigrant youth.
COUNTERACTION OF EXPLORATION
It should be emphasized that the plans and practical steps to implement them by General Miller and his associates in a timely manner became the property of Soviet intelligence. Thanks to the data obtained through the agents in 1931 – 1934, 17 of EMRO terrorists abandoned on the territory of the USSR was neutralized and the 11 of their secret points were opened. A great contribution to this work was made by the illegal intelligence officer Leonid Linitsky, as well as by the staff of the Paris and Berlin residencies of the INO OGPU. In particular, they managed to prevent terrorist acts that were prepared by the ROVS against the USSR Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov in Europe and his deputy Lev Karakhan in Iran.
At the beginning of 30, Soviet intelligence installed the auditory control technique at the EMRO headquarters in Paris, which since May 1930 has been located on the first floor of 29 number on Coliseum Street, which belonged to the family of the reliable Parisian residency agent Sergei Tretyakov.
The Tretyakov family occupied the second and third floors of the house, and his private office was located just above the ground floor premises rented by the EMRO headquarters. This allowed the Parisian residency to install listening microphones in the offices of Miller, the head of the 1 division of Shatilov and the head of the EMRO office of Kusonsky. Information reception equipment was placed in the Tretyakov office. Since January, 1934 has earned a technical channel for receiving information, which has turned for Tretyakov over the years of hardest work. Almost every day, while Miller, Shatilov and Kusonsky were at work, he put on headphones and kept records of conversations that took place in their offices. Information from Tretyakov, which had the codename "Information of our time," allowed the OGPU intelligence and counterintelligence, and then the NKVD to more fully control and stop the subversive activities of the EMRO against the USSR.
Extremely important information on the EMRO was received by the Parisian residency and from Miller’s closest associate in charge of intelligence work, General Nikolai Skoblin, who collaborated with his wife, the famous Russian singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya, with Soviet intelligence from 1930 onwards. According to INO OGPU, Skoblin was one of the best sources, who "quite clearly informed the Center about the relationship in the leadership of the EMRO, reported details about Miller's trips to other countries." The tour of his wife Plevitskaya enabled Skoblin to carry out inspections of peripheral divisions of the EMRO and provide Soviet intelligence with operational information. Ultimately, Skoblin became one of Miller’s closest assistants in the area of intelligence and his charge d'affaires in the central organization of the EMRO. This circumstance was used when the question arose of conducting a sharp Miller operation after receiving information that he, through his representative in Berlin, General Lampe, had established close contacts with the fascist regime in Germany. “The EMRO must turn all its attention to Germany,” said the general. “This is the only country that has declared the fight against communism not for life, but for death.”
MILLER NEUTRALIZATION
22 September 1937 at the invitation of Skoblin Miller went with him to a villa in Saint-Cloud near Paris, where the meeting of the EMRO leader with German representatives was to take place organized by Skoblini. At the Miller's villa, the operations group of the Chekists was waiting, who seized him and sent them across the ship to Le Havre in the USSR.
The action of the security officers ended, seemingly well. However, before going to the meeting organized by Skoblin, General Miller left an envelope with a note for General Kusonsky and asked him to open it if something happened to him. As soon as it became clear to Miller’s entourage that he was gone, Kusonsky opened the envelope with the following note:
“I have an hour today at 12. 30 min. I have a meeting with General Skoblin on the corner of Jasmen and Raffe Street, and he should take me on a date with a German officer, a military agent in the Baltic countries - Colonel Shtroman and Mr. Werner, who is here at the embassy. Both speak good Russian. A date arranged on the initiative Skoblin. Maybe this is a trap, just in case I leave this note. General E. Miller. September 22 1937.
Kusonsky immediately launched his own investigation. Fearing exposure and arrest, Skoblin was forced to hide. The measures taken by the police to search for him did not give a result. The general was illegally transported by a Paris residency on a specially chartered plane to Spain. According to reports, he died in Barcelona during the bombing of the Franco aviation. Plevitskaya was arrested as an accomplice and convicted by a Paris court to 20 years of hard labor. On October 5, 1940, she died in the Central Prison of Rennes.
Sergei Tretyakov continued to cooperate with the Soviet intelligence before the occupation of France by Hitler Germany. In August, the fascist newspaper Lokal-antsiger and the emigrant newspaper Novoe Slovo published a report that Tretyakov was arrested by the Gestapo in August. In 1942, he was executed as a resident of Soviet intelligence in Paris.
Today in the Russian press you can meet all sorts of judgments about the KGB operation to neutralize Miller. Some are trying to present the general, who has become famous for the bloody atrocities in Russia, as the "innocent victim" of the NKVD.
And here is what 24 wrote in the French newspaper Informacion for April 1920 about General Miller's activities in the north of her correspondent in Arkhangelsk, a close friend of Kerensky sser Boris Sokolov:
“I witnessed the last period of existence of the government of the Northern Region, as well as its fall and the flight of General Miller with his headquarters. I could observe various Russian governments, but I had never seen such monstrous and unheard-of acts before. Since the Miller government relied solely on the right elements, it constantly resorted to cruelties and systematic terror in order to stay above. Deaths were carried out in the hundreds, often without any legal proceedings.
Miller founded a convict prison on the Iokang (Kola) Peninsula on the White Sea. I visited this prison and I can certify that such horrors could not be seen even in tsarist times. In the barracks for several hundred people housed over a thousand prisoners. By order of Miller, the prison chief Sudakov brutally flogged those arrested who refused to go to hard labor. Every day, dozens of people died, who were thrown into a common grave and somehow covered with earth.
In mid-February 1920, a few days before his flight, General Miller visited the front and told the officers that he would not leave them. He gave the floor to the officer to take care of their families. But this did not prevent him from completing the preparations for the flight. February 18 he ordered the evacuation of Arkhangelsk 19 February to two o'clock. He himself and his headquarters on the night of February 19 secretly housed on the yacht Yaroslavna and the icebreaker Kozma Minin. General Miller took with him the entire state treasury, about 400 000 pounds sterling (10 million rubles in gold), which belonged to the North region.
On the morning of February 19, the population learned of General Miller’s treason and flight. Many people gathered near the Kozma Minin anchorage site, including soldiers and officers whom Miller deceived. Started a shootout. From the ships fired from guns. There were many dead.
Soon, “Kozma Minin” left Arkhangelsk ... ”
Here is a portrait of General Miller painted Social Revolutionary Boris Sokolov, far from sympathizing with the Bolsheviks. To this we can add that according to the laws of the Russian Empire, the appropriation of state money was considered a grave crime.
Miller’s abduction and his secret transfer to Moscow were first of all associated with the organization of a large-scale lawsuit against him. This process was intended to expose the connection of the Whites with the Nazis. Miller was taken to the inner prison of the NKVD in Lubyanka, where he was held as a prisoner No. 110 under the name of Ivan Vasilyevich Ivanovich until May 1939 of the year. However, by that time, the approach of a new world war was clearly felt. By May 1939, Germany not only made the Anschluss of Austria, the Sudetenland, but also fully occupied Czechoslovakia, despite guarantees of its security from England and France. Intelligence of the NKVD had information that Poland’s next target would be Hitler.
11 of May 1939 of the year Commissar of Internal Affairs Beria signed a decree on the execution of the former EMRO Chairman convicted by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court to the death penalty. On 23 hours of 05 minutes of the same day, the sentence was carried out.
After the abduction of Miller, General Abramov, who was replaced a year later by General Shatilov, became the head of the EMRO. None of them managed to keep the EMRO as a viable and active organization, its authority in a white environment. The last operation of the Soviet intelligence, associated with the abduction of Miller, contributed to the complete collapse of the EMRO. And although the EMRO as an organization finally ceased to exist with the start of the Second World War, Soviet intelligence, disorganizing and decomposing the EMRO, deprived Hitler’s Germany and its allies of the opportunity to actively use about 20 thousand members of the organization in the war against the USSR.
- Vladimir Sergeevich Antonov - leading expert of the Foreign Intelligence Hall, retired colonel
- http://nvo.ng.ru
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