Biography of Lev Zadov 12/03/20: as the head of counterintelligence Makhno became a chekist
the Anarchist Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky known as Lev Zadov. He managed to do some fighting in the red Army, and be the right hand of Makhno and to work for the NKVD… Ended his turbulent biography, as so often happened with him, like a shot.
the Anarchist from Yuzovka
Born Lev Zadov 11 APR 1893 in a small Jewish colony far from Cheerful village Yuzivka Bakhmut County Ekaterinoslav province. His real name was Zadow. After graduating from the heder, he went to work, first in the mill, then to the metallurgical plant, where he joined the anarchists. Especially, he managed to Excel in looting and “expropriations”. Anarchists looted the farm, railroad station, post office, and the money allowed “on revolyutsionnoi movement”.
In 1913 Zadoff was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison. There’s an anarchist took a more euphonious alias – Zin’kivs’ke. After the February revolution of 1917, all political prisoners have been granted Amnesty. Got under it and Zadov-Zinkovsky. Returning home, he was immediately elected Deputy of the local work. When came to power the Bolsheviks, Leo volunteered for the Red Army, fought under the Empress. He was quickly promoted from ordinary the ordinary to the head of the brigade, but he soon deserted from the army and returned to Ukraine.
In the army Makhno
Zadov joined the rebel army of Nestor Makhno, soon received the position of chief of counterintelligence of the 1st Donets corps. In fact, they robbed wealthy people under the guise of “reparations”, and also fought with other armies, for example, Denikin. Meanwhile, some of the Makhnovists accused Zadoff of unreliability, claimed that he was recruited by the KGB, and even demanded that Makhno shot him. From the violence of the Lion saved him sympathetic wife Makhno, Galina Kuzmenko.
After the defeat of Denikin in 1920, Makhno and his companions were declared “enemies of the people”. Zadov has become one of the saviors of Nestor Makhno, hiding it from the Bolsheviks in a safe haven. Then the lion together with his brother Danilo, also the Makhnovists, he returned to his native Donbass.
They were lucky. The Bolshevik government decided to bring Makhno to their side to help them break the remnants of Wrangel’s army in Crimea. So Lev Zadov was again in the Red Army, taking part in the defeat of the white movement on the Peninsula.
But in the summer of 1921, along with Makhno and his few surviving companions Zadov-Zinkovsky fled to Romania. Along the way, they killed a squad of guards.
a Career in GPU
Life in exile turned out to be unsweetened. Leo and his brother had to work in seasonal jobs, receiving a pittance. But soon Zadoff recruited Romanian intelligence – “the intelligence service was very active”. He was part of the sabotage group, which in 1924 was abandoned on the territory of Soviet Ukraine. However, as soon as once on the other side of the border, backsides immediately together with the group surrendered to the Soviet authorities. Six months he was interrogated in the GPU. And in the end decided to offer cooperation. After all, the former Makhnovists had extensive experience in intelligence and counterintelligence. And the members of Makhno’s army were granted Amnesty in 1922.
There is, however, a legend that Zadoff has managed to negotiate with the staff of the Kharkiv GPU, revealing the location of treasure buried by the rebels of the army of Makhno in Dibrovka forest. Anyway, he was sent to Odessa, where he fought with gangs and terrorist groups.
Shot chekist
In August 1937, Zadov, like many other people with a shady past, was arrested on charges of spying for Romania. Since no evidence of his guilt of the NKVD was not, in the course went torture. Only a year later managed to knock Zadoff-Zin’kivs’ke recognitione in the work for foreign intelligence services. September 25, 1938 he was shot. The same fate befell brother Daniel, who also worked for the NKVD, only in Tiraspol.
interestingly, Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky appears in the novel of Alexey Tolstoy “purgatory”. And stands there as a cruel executioner, performing the most bloody orders Makhno. “I – Leva Zadov, to me is not necessary to joke,” says this hero.
In 1990, Lev Nikolaevich Zadov-Zinkovsky was posthumously exonerated as the innocent victim in the dungeons of the NKVD. But his work during the Civil war is not so well known.
the Son of a Zadoff – Colonel Vadim L. zinkovskiy – later wrote an autobiographical book about his father “the Truth about Zinkovsky is Sadove Lev Nikolaevich — the anarchist, the security officer”, trying to whitewash his image in the eyes of his contemporaries.
Russian Seven
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© Russian Seven
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