SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

Author(s): Mikhail Agursky

Source: International Journal on World Peace , JAN-MAR 1989, Vol. 6, No. 1 (JAN-MAR
1989), pp. 13-30
Published by: Paragon House

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20751319

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SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND
FORGERIES
Mikhail Agursky
and East European Research
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Mikhail Agursky earned a Ph.D. in cybernetics in 1969 in Moscow, and a second
doctorate, in Slavic studies, in 1983 in Paris. Until 1970, he was a scientific adviser to the
Soviet military industry. Since 1975, he has been in Israel and is currendy a political
analyst for the Israeli media and a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Among his many publications are From Under the Rubble (with Alexander Solzhenitsyn
and others, 1975), Soviet Golem (in Russian, 1982), Gorky: From the Literary Heritage
(with Margarita Shklovskaia, in Russian, 1986), The Third Rome: National Bolshevism in
the USSR (Westview, 1987), and Mmaapehat Oktober al* Perestroika (From the October
Revolution to Perestroika, in Hebrew, 1988), as well as chapters in The Many Faces of Com
munism (edited by Morton Kaplan 1978), When Patterns Change: Turning Points in In
ternational Relations (edited by Nissan Oren, 1984), and The Soviet Union and the
Challenge of the Future (edited by Alexander Shtromas and Morton Kaplan, 1989).

The Soviet Secret Police The intriguing history of Soviet disinformation

used forgeries from the and forgeries has yet to be written. There can be
very beginning of its no doubt that this kind of Soviet deception did
activity. It created, for not emerge from a vacuum: the Czarist Secret
example, faked
Police, or, at least, some branch of it, successfully
conspiracies whose real
purpose was to trap practiced both disinformation and forgery. One
genuine conspirators and of the best examples is the notorious Protocols of
to penetrate White the Elders ofZion?a remarkable achievement on
emigration and foreign the part of the Russian police, the impact of
intelligence in order to
paralyze them. The Soviet
which can be felt until this very day.1 Whatever
Secret Police also used continuity existed in other areas between the
forged conspiracies for Soviet Secret Police and their czarist forerunners,
domestic consumption? disinformation and forgeries were used in the
for example, against USSR from an early period.
opposition within the The best known earlier case of successful
party, and for
experimenting with Soviet disinformation was Trest, the alleged
alternative ideologies for monarchist conspiracy of the 19205s, believed
the future. The most
by some emigrant circles at the time to have
blatant example of such become an omnipotent network penetrating all
forgery in the 1920's was
Soviet ruling bodies, including the Secret Police
the omnipotent
monarchist conspiracy (GPU).2 These emigrant circles believed that
Tust, which turned out to Trest was only awaiting the opportunity to take
be very efficient. In over political power in the USSR?by peaceful
1923-1939, the Soviet

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

Secret Police arranged the methods, not by bloodshed.

faked defections of two
Trest was in fact ran by senior GPU officials
senior Soviet diplomats, who used several former czarist officials as
Besedovsky and
Dmitrievsky. Books figureheads of the "organization," thus luring
published by the two in some prominent emigrants into the fatal trap.
the West were used to
At first, Trest?s immediate and evident goal was
depict Stalin as a brutal to fight White emigrant activity and terrorism.
but honest and authentic
Russian leader whose However, the internal dynamics of this faked
only interests were conspiracy gave senior GPU officials, probably
domestic affairs, and with Stalirfs encouragement, an opportunity to
whose brutality was play with an alternative ideology inherent in the
justified in the Russian
historical context. Later,
system itself. In other words, this fakery ac
Besedovsky launched the quired a double function, both external and in
production of forgeries ternal, and later served as a model for various
which, on the one hand, disinformation operations waged by the Soviet
supplied the West with Secret Police.
disinformation about the
USSR, and, on the other,
In 1926, Trest persuaded one of the most
fabricated "evidence" prominent leaders of the White emigration,
against the new victims of Vasily Shulgin (1878-1976), to visit the USSR
the anticipated great secredy on a forged passport. Shulgin made the
purge, which was visit and returned to his home in Yugoslavia.
prepared for 1953. In During the visit, he was persuaded by the GPU
spite of their obvious
crudeness, Soviet to publish a book about the "conspiracy,553
forgeries were accepted in which had matured within the Soviet system
the West and translated and was only awaiting the right moment to take
into many languages. The over the country peaceably. Shulgin mentioned
most scandalous example the "conspiracy^55 ardent anti-Semitism: it
of this was the
publication o?Litmnov's planned the expulsion of Jews from the Soviet
Diaries by Andre Deutsch political system. He appealed to White
in 1955, with an emigrants not to fight the USSR but to support
introduction by E. Carr. the new and promising development tacidy.
One might assume that the only target of
Trest, in which Shulgin sincerely believed, was to neutralize the White
emigration. However, his book was circulated, not only abroad, where it
was published but also in the USSR through classified party libraries.4
Almost all the Soviet elite was able to read it, although only a few knew
the real background of Shulgirfs "secret55 visit to the USSR. Only a year
later, in 1927, the Soviet Secret Police itself exploded the case, disclosing
that Trest was a fake. The reason for this sudden volte-face may have been
the protest of some Soviet leaders against the anti-Semitic provocation.
However, Shulgirfs book turned out to be a blueprint of Stalirfs later

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

anti-Semitism, which had been conceived by the GPU in the 19205s.

In the years 1929 and 1930, the GPU launched a quite successful new
deception: faked defections. At first, the "defectors55 violendy criticized the
Soviet system, but this was, in fact, harmless, a mere drop in the ocean of
world hostility toward the USSR. From the start, these "defections55
disseminated massive disinformation on the Soviet
political system, in particular a totally distorted
In the years
image of Stalin as a ruthless but honest leader
whose real goal was to rule Russia?but only Rus 1929 and
sia. Stalirfs ruthlessness was depicted as the tradi
tional Russian way to rule that savage country, and 1930, the
he was presented as waging a mortal struggle GPU
against the short-sighted fanatics who dreamed of
a world revolution, while he himself was a launched a
Russian-oriented and only a Russian-oriented
politician. quite
Later, this image was extended to present Stalin successful
as the softest and most pro-Western Soviet leader, new
and even a hostage of the Politburo. Indeed, Char
les Bohlen, an American diplomat who served in
Moscow during the 19305s and later from 1953 as
deception:
American ambassador to the USSR, confessed that, faked
during preparations for the Potsdam conference in
1945. he himself had recommended that the defections.
American government arrange the negotiations as
close to Moscow as possible, in order not to repeat the "mistakes55 of the
Teheran conference of 1943. Bohlen had thought at the time that, in
Teheran, Stalin was too far from Moscow to consult with the Politburo
and that was why many positive agreements signed by Stalin in Teheran
had later been torpedoed by the extremist hard-line Politburo. Bohlen felt
that Potsdam was close enough to Moscow to avoid a repetition of the
traumatic Teheran experience.5
The American ambassador to the USSR in 1946-1949, Walter Beddel
Smith, also did not regard Stalin as the absolute power in the Kremlin,
although his opinion was not so extreme as Bohlerfs.6 President Harry
Truman clearly regarded Stalin as the better side in the Kremlin who was
somehow fooled by his associates. "I often felt,55 Truman said, "that
Molotov kept some facts from Stalin, or that he would not give him all
the facts until he had to. It was always harder to get agreement out of
Molotov than out of Stalin.55 In August 1948, Truman thought that Stalin
manifested more readiness to understand than did Viacheslav Molotov

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

(1890-1987), the then Soviet foreign minister.7

American diplomats did not realize that this scenario, dovish Stalin
versus hawkish Molotov, was skillfully arranged by Stalin to improve his
bargaining position. Molotov could be only a hard-liner, since he operated
within the framework set by Stalin himself, from which only Stalin could
deviate with impunity. It is difficult to say how much Stalin achieved
through this deception, but, in the case of Potsdam, the benefits were clear.
Potsdam was situated in territory occupied by the Soviet Army and was
well controlled and bugged by Soviet intelligence.
The roots of the above quoted misconceptions can be traced back to
the disinformation campaign launched in 1929-1930 through false defec
tors. In October 1929, the Soviet charge d'affairs in Paris, Grigory Be
sedovsky (a former left-wing Socialist Revolutionary who later became a
senior Soviet diplomat), managed to make what was regarded as a
dramatic escape from the Soviet Embassy in Paris by climbing over a high
wall which surrounded the embassy. This escape made headlines in the
Western media, especially in the emigrant press.
Nobody doubted the authenticity of Besedovsky's story, but, looking
back, his version of the escape now seems totally incredible and has the
appearance of a primitive cover story for a faked defector. Besedovsky
claimed that he had received orders from Moscow to return immediately
but had disobeyed. He was certainly not so naive as to be unaware of the
price of such disobedience, if it were real. Nevertheless, he remained in
the embassy, and soon a senior GPU official, Roisenman, came to Paris
and insisted that he return immediately Although Roisenman threatened
him, Besedovsky was not arrested in the embassy and, according to his
version, he could move around freely within the building. Nobody even
attempted to take away his gun. To a possible claim that, at this time, the
Soviet political system had not yet resorted to kidnapping, one can remark
that, during this very period, the GPU succeeded in kidnapping?from
Paris?the commander-in-chief of the symbolic Russian Emigrant Army,
Alexander Kutepov.
Besedovsky then claimed that he had attempted to leave the embassy,
but was stopped by a guard who, however, did nothing beyond preventing
his departure. Since he could not leave via the door, Besedovsky then
jumped over the embassy wall and asked for political asylum in France.8
lilis badly concocted story was widely accepted as genuine, and for a
time Besedovsky starred in the Western media as a committed and disil
lusioned fighter against the inhuman Soviet system. He published his
memoirs,9 which seem to be the most authentic of a long list of outright
forgeries which he published under various false names at later stages. His

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

memoirs appear to be extremely hostile to the USSR, but the modern

reader can easily discern the crude disinformation beneath the vicious
attacks. It can be claimed that expressions of hostility toward the USSR
made in various disinformation operations serve as only another way in
which to throw dust into Western eyes.
For example, Besedovsky inserts in his first book a faked story of Boris
Savinkov (1879-1925), a prominent right-wing Socialist Revolutionary
leader who fought the Bolsheviks. Savinkov was
arrested in 1925 and sentenced to 10 years im Expressions
prisonment, allegedly mmitting suicide shortly
after the trial. According to the official version, he of hostility
jumped from a window of the Lubianka prison in toward the
Moscow. In fact, he was most likely exterminated
by the GPU, but Besedovsky supplied Western
USSR made
readers with a cover story to conceal the assassina in various
tion. In Besedovsky^ version, Savinkov lived in
prison in freedom, even in luxury. "One sunny dis
morning,55 Besedovsky recounts, "Savinkov re
quested a Rolls Royce from the GPU garage, which information
he drove himself. He travelled at mad speed from
Moscow to the city of Yaroslavl. He had lunch with
operations
his guards in a village tavern and then returned to serve as only
Moscow.5510
According to this story, Savinkov (who, let us
another way
remember, was a most important prisoner in the in which to
most sinister Soviet jail) came back to his cell and throw dust
into
jumped from the window?as if windows were left
open in the Lubianka! The motivation behind this
crude fabrication was probably to present the Soviet
penitentiary system as extremely humane and to Western eyes.
suppress rumors that Savinkov had been killed in prison.
The faked story of Savinkov's suicide is the most innocent example of
forgery in this book. Much more far-reaching was the disinformation
surrounding Stalin, whose image Besedovsky started to gild after his
"defection.55 It is clear that even in his first book, Besedovsky tried to
present Stalin as a strong, charismatic Russian national leader. On the one
hand, Besedovsky said that those who tried to resist Stalin "did not take
into consideration Stalirfs almost political opportunism, his readiness to
change his political slogans overnight.5511 On die other hand, Besedovsky
claimed on the same page that Stalin5s adversaries also did not take into
consideration his "strong will and courage.5512 Moreover, later in the same

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SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

book, Besedovsky said that "Stalin is politically honest, doesrft want to

be a Bonaparte, and is progressing steadily towards the established goal.5513
Following the publication of these memoirs, Besedovsky not only ac
quired a reputation as an ardent anticommuniste he was also demonstra
tively stripped of his Soviet citizenship and even condemned in absentia.14
Two years later, he published a faked biography of Stalin which was
nothing more nor less than outrageous glorification. In the "biography,55
Besedovsky totally rejected accusations of Stalirfs being a political in
triguer. Moreover, he said: "Sans le sav?it; Staline ouvre aux hommes de
magnifique horizons sur Vinfini des posibilites humaines."15 Stalirfs adver
saries, he said, were immeasurably inferior. Besedovsky stressed Stalirfs
Russian national orientation: "Staline est slav jusqu'? la moelle des os et la
Russie regorge d'hommes de cette espece."16
Stalirfs biography was blatantly distorted, a distinct feature of all
Besedovsky^ later forgeries. It seems that the crudity of the distortions
was not due to Besedovsky^ ignorance, but was a deliberate part of the
scheme. He started with a claim certainly meant to demonstrate Stalirfs
roots in Russian history: a distant ancestor of Stalin had fought on the
side of Peter the Great against the Turks, serving as a Caucasian mountain
cavalry officer.17 Besedovsky also did his best to demonstrate that Stalin
was a main leader of the Bolsheviks already before the Revolution, and was,
in fact, sometimes even superior to Lenin. According to Besedovsky's false
claims, Stalin was already in 1901 a "figure de chef r?volutionnaire" appointed
from Moscow.18
Besedovsky concocted a story in which Stalin had been betrayed to the
police by agent-provocateur Ivan Okladsky.19 Such a person had indeed
existed, but he betrayed Russian Populists in 1880 (!) and then disap
peared. In the middle of the 19205s an old man, he was uncovered by the
GPU and publicly prosecuted for his betrayal of 45 years previously.20
Okladsky had nothing to do with the Bolsheviks or with Stalin. Never
theless, Besedovsky made him out to be a most sinister czarist arch-spy
who, in different disguises, had betrayed Lenin, Stalin, and many others.
Again, according to Besedovsky, Stalin was second to Lenin before the
Revolution. He quotes a nonexistent letter to Lenin from Stalin which he
dates July 16, 1916, in which Stalin allegedly said: "J'entrevois que les
affaires touchent a leur fin: il est donc preferable que je reste sur place a
survdller la marche des ?v?nements."21 According to Besedovsky, Lenin
followed this analysis and also faithfully published the articles sent by
Stalin from his exile in Siberia.22 No such articles were ever written.
However, it was allegedly Stalin who recommended Lenin, according to
Besedovsky to take German money during World War I in order to launch

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

the Bolshevik Revolution. As Besedovsky said, this nonexistent advice of

Stalirfs "d?couvre les profondeurs de son infernal genie.>m Then, Stalin
allegedly led the Bolshevik uprising in October 1917.24?
In order to strengthen Stalirfs centrality in Bolshevik history, Be
sedovsky quotes a nonexistent article by Maxim Gorky allegedly published
in October 26,1917, in the newspaper Den?although Gorky then had his
own newspaper, Novata Zhizn. This nonexistent article begins with the
words: "L?nine, Trotsky, Staline et leurs satellites.^
At the same time Besedovsky did his best to discredit Trotsky, even
claiming that Trotsky had not been a party member in October of 1917,
which is a blatant lie.26
One of the most important points in this book
is the attempt to present Stalin as Europe's savior Halfa year
from the nightmare of the abortive German revolu
tion in 1923. According to Besedovsky, Stalin
after the
deliberately subverted the revolution: "Pour une fois miraculous
Staline venait de rendre a l'Europe, qui ne le soup?on
na pas, un signale service."27 Stalin could, therefore, Besedovsky
be regarded as the West's best choice among the "escape"
Soviet leaders. Besedovsky tries to persuade his
Western readers that Stalirfs rule should not be there was
contested. He claims that Stalin said: "La Russie a
another
subi pendant trois cents ans, sans en crever, les
Romanoff. Elle ma supporter a lieu jusqu'? ma mort.... miraculous
Dame... apr?s... mais d'ici la la revolution mondiale
aura certainement eclate.'m In other words, Be "escape?* in
sedovsky implied that Stalin in power would Stockholm.
prevent any Soviet expansion. We will return to
Besedovsky later, but let us now move from Paris to Stockholm.
At the beginning of April 1930, half a year after the miraculous Be
sedovsky "escape,55 there was another miraculous "escape55 in Stockholm
with the same implications. Sergei Dmitrievsky was a former right-wing
Socialist Revolutionary closely connected with the GPU and, like Be
sedovsky, had become a senior Soviet diplomat (he reached the position
of director-general of the Foreign Ministry).29 Dmitrievsky served as
political counselor?a GPU position?in the Soviet Embassy in Stock
holm, from which he escaped to political asylum in the West, as was widely
believed. However, a glance at the story of his "escape55 would show that
it was an even more crudely concocted story than Besedovsky^.
Dmitrievsky claimed that, while at his home in Stockholm, he suddenly
heard over the radio a report that he had been recalled from his diplomatic

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SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

post by the Soviet government; he hurried to the embassy, but was refused
admittance by three armed men. Strangely enough, these men allegedly
ordered him to return to Russia immediately! According to Dmitrievsky,
he left on his desk in the embassy his dissident manuscript, "Lenin and
the Russian Revolution*?which is also very difficult to believe.30
The story had obviously been concocted from the very start. No Soviet
diplomat would ever first hear of his recall over the radio; nobody in the
USSR would act so stupidly against a potential defector, trying to per
suade him to return to Russia while refusing him admittance to the
embassy!
Dmitrievsky enacted the same scenario as Besedovsky. Soon after his
"defection,55 he published a book claiming that the Russian Revolution
was first and foremost a Russian national revolution.31 Russia, he claimed,
was now totally anticommunist, as was the majority of the party In other
words, the Western reader was told that the USSR was no longer
dangerous because its orientation was now national. Dmitrievsky also
glorified Stalin much more than had Besedovsky; he did not rewrite
Stalirfs biography, as Besedovsky had done, but he claimed that Stalin was
the greatest and most charismatic Russian national leader, and that Trotsky
had been alien both to modern and to future Russia. According to
Dmitrievsky the Russian people had been only cannon fodder to Trotsky.
Likewise, Dmitrievsky did his best to discredit Grigory Zinoviev (1883
1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876-1951), and other prominent Jews.
Although Dmitrievsky^ criticism of the Soviet system was ostentatious
ly harsh, he claimed that Stalin was sincerely committed to Russian
popular welfare, and he also tried to present Stalin as a tragic, doomed
figure, which by implication could have been an appeal to the West to
support him. Dmitrievsky^ nationalist motives only intensified in two
more books in 1931 and 1932,32 in which he expressed his strong anti
Semitism, which was very similar to the anti-Semitic scenario suggested
by the GPU in Shulgirfs book.
Dmitrievsky was stripped of his Soviet citizenship, like Besedovsky.33
The emigrant Gemini appeared before Russian emigre circles, scolding the
USSR, on the one hand, and, on the other, glorifying Stalin and arguing
against any Western military intervention in Soviet affairs.34
In 1933, Dmitrievsky joined the Nazi Party and wrote a book about
Hider which was published in Swedish.35 He tried to be a bridge between
Nazi Germany and the Russian emigration, but later Nazi leaders
suspected him of being a Soviet spy. Indeed, in 1940, he secredy appealed
to Nazi Germany to abandon any plan to invade the USSR, on the
grounds that communism in Russia after the Great Purges had been

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

replaced by National-Socialist anti-Semitic ideology36

Besedovsky's and Dmitrievsky's stories could seem marginal, but, in
fact, they were not. There is strong evidence that already in the 19305s
Besedovsky had launched the fabrication of forgeries. The goal was
twofold, to exercise influence in the West via a
distorted picture of Soviet events, and to use the
forgeries as a provocation for Soviet domestic con
All these
sumption. forgeries are
The forgeries took the form of books assigned
to various nonexistent personalities: "Imam
unanimous
Raguza5537; a Turkish (!) bodyguard of Stalin
in presenting
named Ahmed Amba38; a General Staff officer,
Ivan Krylov39; and a nonexistent nephew of Stalin Stalin as a
named Budu Svanidze.40 Some forgeries were as ruthless but
signed to real persons like Litvinov41, and some
were signed by Western journalists, for example,
Yves Delbars.42 The major part of the forgeries
outstanding
appeared in 1950-1952. Besedovsky^ hand is to leader,
be seen in almost each one. For example, he wrote honest and
the preface to "Budu Svanidze55 5s book, My Uncle
Joe, which was incidentally supplied with a committed to
photograph, of the "author,55 whom Besedovsky
claimed to have known personally. Yves Delbars his countrfs
acknowledged Besedovsky^ help in writing his interests.
book.43
Besedovsky*s presence is also felt in the "Litvinov55 diaries. The alleged
author of the diaries, Soviet deputy foreign minister and then foreign
minister, rather significandy refers only to those countries where Be
sedovsky served as a diplomat, or to those countries to which Besedovsky's
activities were somehow related: Japan, Poland, China, and France. The
USA and England were somehow beyond "Litvinov55 5s interest. Apart
from this, Besedovsky himself occupies a central role in the diaries.
All these forgeries are unanimous in presenting Stalin as a ruthless but
outstanding leader, honest and committed to his country's interests. How
ever, as we have seen, this public relations campaign on behalf of Stalin
was only part of the goal. It seems that the forgeries were concocted in
such a way as to serve some internal purpose. Forgeries such as that of
Kyrlov could have easily been used as evidence during the abortive purge
prepared in the USSR in 1951-1953 against the remainder of the old
ruling Soviet elite.
Ivan Krylov was allegedly a deputy military attache in France (once again,

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SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

Besedovsky's terrain!). It would appear that this was the first forged attempt
to justify the new purge. It contrasted the honest Soviet military against the
corrupt Politburo, which is blamed for all Soviet misfortunes, and which
puts obstacles in the path of the honest and noble Stalin, too. The central
personality of the honest military is Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov (1882
1945), the chief of staff during the first part of World Wir .
The forgery also justifies the purge of the Leningrad Party organization
in 1948-1949. It contains the sinister claim that this organization, led until
1943 by Andrei Zhdanov (1896-1948), allegedly demanded the resigna
tion of the entire Politburo in 1941, and only did not dare to attack
Stalin.44 This alone casts a shadow on Zhdanov which is supported by an
insinuation that he allegedly backed the idea of Stalin's trip to Casablanca
in 1943 to meet with Churchill and Roosevelt, thus hoping to get rid of
Stalin.45 It is clear that such an insinuation might justify, not only the
disfavor into which Zhdanov fell before his death, but also that death.
The main culprits for the Soviet military disaster in 1941 are named as
Lazar Kaganovich (born 1893); Nikolai Voznesensky (1903-1950);
Anastas Mikoyan (1895-1978); Viacheslav Molotov; Lavrenty Beria
(1899-1953); and Alexei Kuznetsov (1905-1949).46 It is curious that
Voznesensky who was later nominated to the Politburo, is declared a
Politburo member already in 1941, in the same way as Kuznetsov, who,
in fact, was never a Politburo member, but only a party secretary. The
authors of the forgery needed this claim to justify the purge in 1949.
Voroshilov was claimed to have acted together with Beria in the wish to
be Stalin's heir.47 He is blamed, for example, for the evacuation of the
Soviet Army from the border on the eve of the 1941 war.48 The forgery
also implies that Voroshilov was part of a sinister scheme and passed all
General Staff papers prepared by Shaposhnikov to Berlin through Beria
and his man, the Soviet ambassador to Nazi Germany, Vladimir
Dekanozov (1898-1953).49 This explains the German success at the begin
ning of the war, and is equal to a charge of high treason. The author claims
that Dekanozov is either a Jew or a half-Jew.50 It should be noted that,
since 1951, Stalin had been planning Beria's purge with the help of Nikita
Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov (1902-1988).51
It is interesting to compare the allegations against Voroshilov in this
forgery with those against him which, according to Khrushchev's
memoirs, were leveled by Stalin himself.52 It is also interesting to note
here that Mikoyan was also claimed to be an English spy.53 The names
ommitted from the forgery are also very informative, as well as those
mentioned in a positive way First of all, Stalin himself and then his
secretary Alexander Poskrebyshev (1891-1956?) are cited positively; there

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

is no criticism whatsoever of Malenkov, Khrushchev, and Mikhail Suslov

(1902-1982). This coincides with what we now know of the contem
porary political map.
There are also many other allegations, as well as more false information
contained in the "Krylov55 forgery. For example, in order to justify the
deportation of Caucasian and Crimean minorities at the end of the war,
the forgery claims that there was an (nonexistent) uprising of 8,000,000
[sic] Kalmyks, Ingushes, Chechens, and Nogai Tatars. Stalin had allegedly
to go to Saratov in person in 1942 in order to direct military operations
to suppress this very dangerous uprising.54 The numerical strength of the
cited minorities had been gready increased in order to dramatize the faked
story
It turns out that Lenin was by no means against the just demands of
the Kronstadt sailors in 1921; it was allegedly Lev Trotsky and Felix
Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926) who massacred most of the revolutionary Baltic
fleet.55 This false claim probably indicates Stalin's wish to rewrite the
history of the civil war.
The treatment of religion in the USSR is also dealt with in the forgery
in a most interesting way. It is claimed that in 1940 [sic] there was a
religious dispute between a Moscow archpriest named Nikolai and a
regional Moscow party official on the subject "God equals man plus
communist society5556 It is well known that all religious disputes had been
forbidden since the middle of the 19205s. However, the wise Stalin himself
used to invite the archpriest Nikolai to talk to him.57
Litvinov5s "diaries55 are more problematic, since they were published in
1955, after Stalirfs death. One can suggest that this forgery was in
preparation while Stalin was alive, but was unfinished at his death. The
diaries are concocted in a way that could make them important evidence
for the prosecution of an alleged Jewish-Masonic conspiracy in the USSR,
in which many leading Jews were framed. There is a hint that "LitvinovY5
loyalty to the Jews was stronger than his loyalty to the system and he was
vulnerable to secret Jewish (Zionist) pressure. For example, the diary
claimed that in 1926 a certain Shechtman (a faked personality) asked
"Litvinov55 to help in what seemed to be a lobby for persecuted Zionists.
"Litvinov55 refused, but Shechtman dared to press him to act, and he found
himself having a tense and dangerous conversation with Stalin in an
attempt to save those Zionists?which also gives "Litvinov55 an oppor
tunity to speculate on the Jewish problem:
"Shechtman has called again. I told him I was unable to help him. He
insisted that as a Jew I had no right to refuse assistance, even at the risk of
unpleasant consequences to myself. A lengthy and tedious conversation....

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

"I gave in and decided to ring up Koba.58 He was furious and said, CI
don't think we are shooting enough of that Zionist rabble. We must draw
up a decree for the banishing to Siberia of all Zionists as class enemies.5
Koba also said that he had ordered Artuzov59 to prepare a full list of all
Jews in the USSR who were paying shekel and that all these persons
would be immediately sent to Siberia or given cminus six.560 I tried to
explain to him that such measures would bring all the American Jews up
in arms against the USSR. He replied that these Jews would always be
against us because we were communists and atheists. He added, 'We shall
explain that these sons of bitches were banished because they were fiddling
foreign currency. There is no need to state that we are applying repressive
measures because they are Zionists. It is your job to explain this to the
American Jews, if you wish to avoid a quarrel at any cost.5...
"I was told that Menzhinsky61 was a rabid anti-semite. He often attends
gatherings at Klim5s62 where he tells most inane anecdotes against the Jews
concocted by that drunken brute Demian Bedny.63 Menzhinsky is urging
Koba to clear Moscow of Jews under the pretext of foreign currency
offenses. Koba, too, does not like Jews, but in my opinion he understands
the absurdity of anti-Jewish measures. Lazar Moiseevich [Kaganovich]
once told me that Koba had explained to him at length the difficulty of
making a Jew, even a Jewish workman, into a true Communist and atheist
because the Jews, he said, were typical petty bourgeois with the instinct
of ownership developed over the centuries. Besides, they were permeated
with the spirit of pantheism, although they abhorred the external sym
bolism of religion....
"Lazar Moiseevich was somewhat abashed; his Party file showed him
of proletarian descent. In fact, his father owned a shoemaker5s shop in the
town of Gomel where he employed a few apprentices. A pity Koba didn5t
discuss the subject with me. I would have told him what I thought about
it. It is strange that people with the hereditary instincts of petty bourgeois
should have given Marx to the world....
"Of course, Koba5s anti-semitism is the sequel to the support given by
the majority of Jews in our party to Trotsky and the opposition. But I
have in fact noted that Koba felt some inherent hostility towards us.
Grigory Evseevich [Zinoviev] once remarked jocularly that he had a
Marxist explanation for this phenomenon. There were two shoemakers5
shops in Gori, one owned by Koba5s father and the other by a Jew from
the town of Mtzkhet who had setded at Gori. Competition between the
two shoemakers turned Koba into an anti-semite.... Of course this explana
tion is an over-simplification, but it contains a grain of truth.5564
One can easily imagine what kind of evidence such a forgery could

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

supply against Jews during the planned, but abortive, purge.

By the way, Khrushchev claims in his memoirs that Stalin was in fact
planning Litvinov's assassination65 and in this case it would have been very
natural for Stalin to make Litvinov a main figure of the Jewish conspiracy
Let us stress that "Litvinov55 speaks of Tews collec
tively. "Koba felt some inherent hostility towards
us" The forgery justifies Stalin's anti-Semitism:
Rather
"Koba's anti-semitism is the sequel to the support
given by the majority of Jews in our party to
sinisterly, a
Trotsky and the opposition.55 By the way the part of the
Zionists were not executed, as "Koba55 claimed.
Rather sinisterly a part of the forgery is devoted forgery is
to Trotsky's alleged Masonic involvement: devoted to
"Koba sent for me and asked me to find out as
soon as possible what was Trotsky's position in the Trotsky's
Grand Orient during his stay in France. He said the
alleged
'neighbors5 had submitted a report to him on the
subject, but he wanted to check their date.... The Masonic
conversation made a curious impression on me: is
it possible that the 'neighbors' have intervened in
involvement.
this affair and that an attempt is to be made to involve Trotsky in some
masonic conspiracy as had been done in the case of Florinsky and the
Tsarkoe Selo Old Boys5 conspiracy?...66
"I had a visit from Yagoda.67 He said he had received instructions
concerning freemasonry and wanted to run over with me information that
came from an important agent of the 'neighbors,5 a man who held a high
position among the freemasons of the Grand Orient.... I asked him to pass
the information on to me.... The conversation with Yagoda left me with
the impression that he wanted to make certain of having 'witnesses5; he is
obviously protecting himself against any eventuality. Should the Opposi
tion come to power again, he could say he had been acting against Trotsky
only under pressure.... So it means that if Yagoda is acting with artifice,
Trotsky still stands a chance.... It becomes clear why Koba is anxious to
send him abroad as soon as possible....
"I read the information supplied by the 'neighbors.51 had never taken
any interest in freemasonry and what I discovered, since it was all new to
me, was of the greatest interest. Trotsky apparently held a ninth degree
office?Selected Master of Nine. A small rank....
"I was summoned to a meeting of the Instantsia68 where Yagoda
presented a report on Trotsky^ masonic activities. He implicated also
Rakovsky69 who, he said, had held the twenty-fifth degree of Knight of

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

the Steel Serpent, some masons from Kiev, who had been exiled to Siberia
for their 'contact with Morkotun,570 and Pilsudsky71 who held the thirtieth
degree of Knight Kadosh, formerly known as the degree of Illustrious
Knight Commander of the White and Black Eagle. A wholly incredible
muddle.... Klim was being witty: cIf he is elected master of nine, he must
be returned to the Politburo: there are nine of us now.5 A discussion
followed. Koba surprised me by his thorough knowledge of the subject.
He had obviously done some researching. He asked Yagoda, a little slyly
about masonic degrees. Yagoda got muddled and
If one wouldsaid,
spoke of the degrees of the Scottish Ritual. Koba
cYou are obviously not familiar with this sub
dismiss this ject. The degree of the Scottish Ritual, which at one

forgery as time numbered twenty-five, became thirty-three

degrees in the Grand Orient on the 22 September,
ridiculous, 1804. The Grand Orient took eight additional
it should be degrees from the Lodge at Charleston, USA. An
example, of course, of American exports to
noted that it Europe....5 Molotov was asking questions about
masonic activity in the USSR and whether there
was accepted had been any attempts at anti-Soviet activity on
by none their part. Rudzutak72 asked similar questions. The
discussion wound up with a resolution that
other than Trotsky^ connection with secret Soviet masonry
E. Carr, should be ascertained.... One might indeed say that
the affair began with a toast, and ended with an
who wrote its epitaph. They wanted to show up Trotsky^ contacts
among freemasons abroad simply in order to obtain
preface. a visa for him to get rid of him; but they ended by
giving instructions to the 'neighbors573 to rig up a
case against Trotsky and the freemasons, accusing them of conspiracy
against the USSR.... It is surprising how an important institution such as
the Instantsia can spend its time on trivialities.... Of course, it is sometimes
not a trivial matter at all. But it is necessary to have some data. You cannot
begin with such an irrelevant report as Yagoda's.... Disgraceful.5574
This allegation, too, would serve as excellent evidence in favor of the
alleged Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. It has been repeated in the 19705s in
Soviet literature, for example, in the book of Mikhail Kolesnikov.75
Another Jewish "conspiracy55 is manifested in the conversation between
"Litvinov55 and Aharon Soltz, a senior party official. "We spoke Yiddish,55
says Litvinov, "lest our conversation be understood55! During this conver
sation, Soltz complained about Stalin, but was not betrayed by "Lit

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

vinov55?an "example55 of the latter5s lack of loyalty to Stalin.76

"Litvinov55 reports that Molotov5s Jewish wife77 had a brother who lived
in America (which was true). However, he imputed to her a sinister wish
to involve her brother in vital Soviet-American financial operations. "She
would like him to be our unofficial agent with American banks.... The
Amtorg did not object.... Nepotism.5578 Fine evidence against Molotov in
1953! At the time the book was published, Molotov was still Soviet
foreign minister, although he was opposed by Khrushchev.79
At some other point, "Litvinov55 writes: "I remember reading in my
youth Maimonides5 Guide to the Perplexed.80 He had a brilliant mind?this
Jewish Plato. I am beginning to think that this philosophy was more
profound than Marx55!81
If one would dismiss this forgery as ridiculous, it should be noted that
it was accepted by none other than E. Carr, who wrote its preface. This
alone might challenge Carr5s scientific credentials. Not only is the forgery
so blatant, but it is very difficult to understand how Carr could have
accepted Litvinov5s writing any diary in the first place. It was far too
dangerous in the USSR. It would also have been very easy to uncover the
obvious impossibilities in the diary: Litvinov could not have spoken to
Nikolai Voznesensky in 1930, since Voznesensky was at that time an
obscure student. The book has Menzhinsky as Rudolf Mechislavovich,
while his name was Viacheslav Rudolfovich.82 Bulgakov5s83 play, The Days
of the Turbines, was staged in October 1926, not in May 1926, as it is
dated in the "diary5584 There are many more distortions, and one can
simply suggest that Carr was not knowledgeable enough to notice them?
but how could he have seriously believed that Trotsky^ "masonic al
legiance55 was discussed by the Politburo? Can this be explained by Carr5s
bona fide lack of historical judgment?
It should also be noted that the Soviet trial of 1936-1938 used the same
quality of evidence as the above mentioned forgeries, and was received
with the same credence by Western observers.85

NOTES

1 Cf. Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, London: Penguin, 1967.

2 Cf. Mikhail Agursky, The Third Rome: National Bolshevism in the
USSR, Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1987, pp. 325-326.
3 Vasily Shulgin, Tri Stolitsy, Berlin: Mednyi Vsadnik, 1927.
4 Cf. Pierre Pascal, Mon Journal de Russie, Lausanne: L'Age
d'Homme, 1982, Volume 4, p. 12.

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SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

5 Charles Bohlen, Witness to History, New York: Norton, 1973, p.

217.
6 Walter Smith, My Three Tears in Moscow, Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1950, p. 55.
7 Harry Truman, Memoirs, Garden City, New York: Doubleday,
1955, Volume 1, p. 386; 1956, Volume 2, p. 127.
8 Grigory Besedovsky, Na Putiakh k Termidoru, Paris: Mishen, 1930,
Volume 2, p. 273.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., p. 75.
11 Ibid., p. 149.
nBid.
13 Ibid., p. 216.
14 Pravda, January 9,1930.
15 Gr?goire Besedovsky and Maurice Laporte, Statine, Paris: Redier,
1932, p. 246.
16 Ibid., p. 14.
17 Ibid., p. 21.
18 Ibid., p. 69.
19 Ibid., pp. 70-71.
20 Cf. "D?lo po Obvineniu Provok?tora Okladskqgo," Sudebnye Rechi
Sovetskikh Obvinitelei, Moscow: Iuridicheskaia Literatura, 1965, pp. 84
102.
21 Besedovsky and Laporte, op. cit., p. 127.
22 Bid.
23 Ibid., p. 132.
24 Ibid., p. 157.
25 Ibid., p. 164.
26 Ibid., p. 145.
27 Ibid., p. 219.
M2WtfL,p.231.
29 Cf. Agursky, pp. 336-339.
30 ??&, London, April 7,1930.
31 Sergei Dmitrievsky, Sud'ba Rnsstl, Berlin: Strela, 1930.
32 Idem, Statin, Berlin: Strela, 1931; Sovetskie Portray, Berlin: Strda, 1932.

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

33 Cf. Maxim Gorky, Predateliakh? Izvestia, July 31,1930.

34 *S. Dmitrievsky i G. Besedovsky ob Interventdi," Nash Vek, Berlin,
May 20,1932.
35 Sergei Dmitrievsky, Hitler, Stockholm: Sven Rikes Verlag, 1934.
36 Mikhail Agursky, "Dmitrievsky and the Origin of National Bol
shevism," Soviet Jewish Affairs, 1977, No. 2.
37 Imam Raguza, La Vie de Staline, Paris: Fayard, 1938.
38 Ahmed Amba, I Was Stalin's Bodyguard, London: Muller, 1952.
(The first German edition was in 1951.)
39 Ivan Krylov, Soviet Staff Officer, London: Falcon, 1951.
40 Budu Svanidze,ikfK Uncle Joe, London: Heineman, 1952.
41 Maxim Litvinov, Notes for a Journal, London: Andre Deutsch,
1955.
42 Yves Delbars, Le Vrai Stedine, Paris: Je Sers, 1950-1952, Volumes 1-2.
^i^Volume^p.SlZ
44 Krylov, op. cit., p. 186.
*Ibid., p. 222.
?Ibid., p. 205.
47 Ibid., pp. 83-84.
48 Ibid., p. 93.
49I&??,p.21.

51 Cf. Robert Conquest, Power and Policy in the USSR, New York:
Saint Martin, 1961.
52 Khrushchev Remembers, Boston: Litde, Brown, 1971, p. 308.
53 Krylov, op. cit., p. 26.
54 Ibid., p. 197.
55iZt?.,p.262.
56 Ibid., pp. 26-27.
57Ibid., p. 27.
58 Koba, Stalin's nickname used only in his private circle.
59 Arthur Artuzov (Fraucci) (1891-1943), a senior GPU official,
purged.
60 "Minus Six," the prohibition against living in the six Soviet major
cities.

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 SOVIET DISINFORMATION AND FORGERIES

61 Viacheslav Menzhinsky (1874-1934), an old Bolshevik, then GPU

chairman.
62 Klim (Kliment Voroshilov).
63 Demian Bedny (Pridvorov) (1883-1945), a famous Soviet political
poet, then very influential.
64 Litvinov, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
65 Khrushchev, op. cit., p. 278.
66 A faked story.
67 Genrich Yagoda (1891-1938), then the first GPU deputy chair
man, purged.
68 It was then a code name of the Politburo.
69 Christian Rakovsky (1873-1941), an old Bolshevik of Rumanian
origin, a follower of Trotsky, then a senior diplomat, purged.
70 Morkotun, a Kievan lawyer.
71 Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935), the first Polish president after 1918.
72 Jan Rudzutak (1887-1938), then a Politburo member, purged.
73 "Neighbors,55 a code name of GPR-NKVD-KGB.
74 Litvinov, op. cit., pp. 74-76.
75 Mikhail Kolesnikov, Sotkrytytn Zabralom, Moscow: Voenizdat,
1977.
76 Litvinov, op. cit., p. 62.
77 Polina Zhemchuzhina (Karp), died 1967. A senior government of
ficial. Was under arrest in 1948-1953.
78 Litvinov, op. cit., p. 160.
79 There is a report that Khrushchev attacked Molotov in 1955, ac
cusing him that his wife was his "doom.55 See David Dallin, Soviet Foreign
Policy After Stalin, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1961, p. 232.
80 A famous medieval Jewish philosopher.
81 Litvinov, op. cit., p. 172.
82 Ibid., p. 23.
83 Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), a famous Soviet writer.
84 Litvinov, op. cit., p. 23.
85 Cf. Josef Davies, Mission to Moscow, New York: Simon and Schuster,
1941.

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