Rank Commandant of the Crimean Group of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army Commanded

Chief of Staff of the combat site of the Kruglyak brigade near Tsaritsyn. (With ),
"Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine" assistant regiment commander, head of army counterintelligence, head of intelligence of the 1st Donetsk Corps, commandant of the Crimean group, member of the staff and adjutant of Makhno.

From December 1924 - employee for assignments of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR in Kharkov - on August 26, 1937, supernumerary commissioner of counterintelligence of the Odessa NKVD. Battles/wars Civil War in Russia Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky at Wikimedia Commons

Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky(Also Lyovka Zadov, real name Zodov; April 11 - September 25) - head of counterintelligence of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine Nestor Makhno, later a Soviet security officer.

Early years

Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army A. V. Kolchak † Don Army P. N. Krasnov A. P. Bogaevsky K. K. Mamantov † P. Kh. Popov I. D. Popov † E. F. Semiletov † G. D. Kargalskov A. N. Moller M. V. Bazavov M. G. Khripunov I. F. Bykadorov V. I. Sidorin S. V. Denisov A. P. Fitzkhelaurov Caucasian Army V. L. Pokrovsky Ya. D. Yuzefovich P. N . Shatilov Kuban Army A. G. Shkuro S. G. Ulagai Crimean-Azov Army A. A. Borovsky Volunteer Army I. P. Romanovsky † A. S. Lukomsky P. S. Makhrov I. M. Vasilchenko † I. G . Barbovich A. M. Kaledin † M. V. Alekseev † L. G. Kornilov † A. I. Denikin V. Z. May-Maevsky † P. N. Wrangel Turkestan Army (VSYUR) I. V. Savitsky A. A. Borovsky B. I. Kazanovich Troops of the Kyiv Region N. E. Bredov A. M. Dragomirov V. E. Flug

By the time it receives city status, Yuzovka was quite a Jewish place. Judge for yourself - according to the 1917 census (the famous Donetsk local historian Valery Stepkin considers it one of the most complete), almost 10 thousand “persons of the Jewish faith” lived in our Palestines. This is more than forty thousand Slavs - Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and the Poles who joined them. Almost every fifth resident of the newly created city was Jewish. Moreover, ten years later, according to the census conducted by the Soviet government, out of one hundred thousand inhabitants city of Stalino almost twenty-five in the “fifth column” were marked as “Jew.”

It is not difficult to imagine that, contrary to popular belief, not all of them served as shop clerks, innkeepers, waiters, doctors, or engineers. It was later, in the era of Khrushchev or Brezhnev, that a Jewish man at an open-hearth furnace or in a mine became, if not a rarity, then at least atypical case. Before the revolution, it was almost possible to talk about the presence of a Jewish proletariat without stretching it. This essay is about one of these proletarians with an initial Talmudic education.

Jewish proletarian Zadov

The Zodov family moved from the Jewish agricultural colony Veselaya in the Katerinoslav region closer to the Yuzovsky plant at the dawn of the 20th century. Where along the way the first letter “o” changed to “a” today no one will say. But it’s a fact - Nikola Zodov’s children were already written as Zadovs. Consequently, the eldest of the sons is Lev, who can safely be considered the most famous Jew of Donetsk. And, of course, an excellent original.

Two classes of cheder - a primary Jewish school - are common for the son of a semi-poor cab driver. Then everything is like the writer Peshkov (Gorky): “You’re not a medal around my neck, go join the people...”. We do not know for certain whether Levkin’s parent corresponded to Babel’s image of a father-bandwagon. Did he think “about drinking a good shot of vodka, about punching someone in the face”? Probably thinking. In such a hole, in such a fetid pit as Yuzovka at the beginning of the 20th century, what else could one think about? Levka Zadov was thinking about food and new boots. And this had to be worked, and this had to be plowed. Fortunately, laborers at the Yuzov plant were hired all year round.

And Levka became a catholic, committing the first fall from grace from the point of view of the Orthodox Jewish family. Or maybe it's just ours modern ideas about this? As incorrect as the generalized idea of the standard appearance of a Jew? But no matter what, the young boy from the Yuzov lines, Leva Zadov, did not meet any standards. Two meters tall, mocking face, immeasurable strength! Where else could he have been identified at the factory - just to “drive a goat.”

“Goat” was the name of the ore wheelbarrow, which was transported from the ore yard to the blast furnace. Just so you know, this is hellish work and only a wiry, naturally muscular person could endure it for a long time. A wheelbarrow was loaded with 30 to 50 pounds of ore (700-900 kg in weight!). “Not everyone can load, transport and unload about 2,000 pounds of iron ore on goats during a shift...,” wrote the famous blast furnace operator of the Makeyevka plant Korobov in his memoirs, “For 12 or more hours of work at the plant they paid 70-80 kopecks— a penny per “goat”, and for each “goat” they loaded no less than 25-30 pounds of ore. The yard was full of potholes, the turns were narrow, the ruts were broken...” He is echoed by D. Pysev, who in his youth was not for a long time we ride at the factory in Yuzovka: “If you load up and pull up forty wheelbarrows during a shift, you can’t feel your arms or legs...” So that no one would have any doubts about the nature of this “sport” - this happens every day, for months, for years. Zadov survived for two years. And he would have endured, who knows how long, because in every craft, in addition to muscles and tendons, one also needs its own technique, called dexterity, - perhaps he would not have died! But in the factory yard, revolutionary propaganda had long since taken root. The revolution was carried out by many parties at that time - choose any one! Whether you want to join the Social Democrats or the Socialist Revolutionaries, if your “attic” has completely moved away from the ideas of social equality, then the direct road for you, soaring, is to become anarchists. Leva Zadov approached them.

Mom Anarchy

The anarchist-communists (and there were also syndicalists) noticed the boy. With such an article and heavy fists, only go to the “ex”, that is, to commit robbery under the slogan - “Expropriate what is expropriated!” The career of an ideological robber was short-lived. During the next raid somewhere there on Rutchenkovo he was tied up and quickly sent to hard labor. 8 years is the relatively lenient sentence they gave him. They could have hanged him. The year was 1913.

In general, the anarchist Zadov spent the damned imperialist war in places not so remote, as they say. And in the stormy 17th, his time came. Amnesty, return to Yuzovka, again rolling a wheelbarrow into his calloused hands (what else could he do for a living?), election to the Yuzovka Council from the blast furnace shop. Together with the famous blast furnace maker Mikhail Kurako, by the way, also returned to the plant. It is an irony of fate and a sign of the times that the deputies include a former workshop manager and the lowest worker in the production hierarchy of the same workshop. But then their paths diverged radically. Kurako via short time rushed to build the future metallurgical giant in Siberian Kuznetsk, and Leva, as the old Soviet song sang, “he went to fight for the workers’ cause.” First as a Red Army soldier, then as a junior commander in an anarchist regiment. Among other units, this regiment was the last to leave Donbass when the Germans came to the region. A little later, Zadov’s unit fought valiantly with Denikin’s troops near Tsaritsyn, during the first defense of the city.

Super agent

Until now, the biography of our hero is clean and transparent. Everything in it is logical and explainable. And then darkness thickened over it, and darkness descended on the life path of our Jew, the gloomy canopy of the special services covered his activities. And although the researchers of his life have not yet found the correct documents, it is almost certain that Zadov received the task of deserting from the Red Army and ending up in the village army camp in Gulyai-Polye.

By and large, if it weren’t for the stupid image of the sadist and head of the Makhnovist counterintelligence of Odessa resident Levka Zadov, nurtured by the fantasy of Alexei Tolstoy in “Walking in Torment” (for those who do not know their native literature - Alexey Tolstoy is the grandfather of the famous PR man of our time Artemy Lebedev), then it is unlikely Today we got acquainted with the story of the second fall of our hero. Many of them were unknown agents of the Cheka and army counterintelligence of the Red Army. Some were sent to the “whites” in the rear to carry out sabotage, others were sent to class-close atamans like Nestor Mikhnenko (Makhno) or, say, Grigoriev. Keep an eye on it. So that they don’t break wood and don’t wag their backs, trying to bypass the people’s power. For the same Makhno, for example, in addition to Zadov, the prominent anarchist Sidorov served - also a Yuzovsky metallurgist, who together with Levka went to meetings of the city council. By the way, Sidorov will later claim that he recruited his Jewish friend to work for the security officers. Where there! - not at all! Kremen was an anarchist and loyal to his father to the grave. Of course - unlike his colleagues in the secret service, the regiments, brigades and divisions that “protected” Makhno, Zadov had a much deeper level of secrecy and a task of such importance and secrecy that the security officer Zadov did not even talk about him before the execution during the investigation in the NKVD . Yes, and, probably, few were alive by that time.

Lev Zadov, contrary to popular belief of literary origin, never held particularly prominent positions in Makhno’s headquarters. Deputy chief of counterintelligence of one of the corps - yes, it was. Particularly close to the old man at the time of his flight beyond the cordon to Romania - the pinnacle of the Makhnovist career of the former Yuzovsky metallurgist. And, apparently, based on what happened later, this was Zadov’s main task.

In 1924, Yuzovka took the name Stalino, the emigrant Makhno became completely pitiful and absolutely harmless to Soviet power. The recently formidable leader of the village army, holder of the Order of the Red Banner of Battle number three, like many anarchists, did not have a single more or less useful idea in his soul. In a practical sense, of course. The utopianism inherent in the anarchist movement, for all its beautiful underpinnings, is absolutely useless without horse-drawn vehicles, armored trains and machine-gun carts. Zadov got ready to go home. The famous man himself was waiting for him at the border Dmitry Medvedev- an extra-class security officer to whom the Soviet government entrusted the most serious and secret matters. By the way, he is also marked by the Donetsk ridge - he served in Bakhmut and Yuzovka, chased the Makhnovists near Starobelsk.

The modest information that has been preserved about this episode tells that a detachment of former Makhnovists led by Zadov, having been abandoned by the Romanian secret service Sigurantza in the USSR, surrendered as soon as it set foot on the Soviet bank of the Dniester. They chatted all sorts of things, and this chatter has survived to this day. As if for the secret of the Makhnovist treasures, Zadov and his younger brother, who had been with him relentlessly all the years, were pardoned. Well, yes, of course, and they were promoted to major leadership positions in the OGPU within half a year.

I personally see something different clearly. Night, the splash of a river wave, a large man, almost two meters tall, enters the boatman’s barn with his head bowed. At the table, dimly lit by a kagan (or whatever it is, right?) is a lean, average-built man. He peers into the tired, poorly shaven face of the giant, gets up from his seat and takes a step towards:

- Well, hello, Lev Nikolaevich...

- Greetings, Dmitry Nikolaich.

-Can you work?

- Can. I can work well, Dmitry Nikolaich.

***

Lev Nikolaevich Zadov was repressed in 1938. Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev survived, and at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he headed the famous “Winners” detachment operating in Galicia. The trump card of the detachment was the famous intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov.

Medvedev was awarded a memorial plaque on one of the Donetsk buildings. If Zadov remembers his hometown, it is only in connection with the novel by Leo Tolstoy. However, the city is no stranger to - in its short life path he managed to forget a lot of people. Durable.

Exactly 120 years ago, near Yuzovka (now Donetsk), the head of counterintelligence of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Nestor Makhno, later Soviet security officer Lev Zinkovsky, aka Levka Zadov, was born

“I am Leva Zadov, you don’t need to lie with me, I will torture you, you will answer,” - this is how the Odessa poet-coupletist, and part-time right-hand man of Nestor Makhno and the head of Makhnovist counterintelligence, introduced himself in the novel “Walking Through Torment.” The Red Count Alexei Tolstoy, who did not spare any black paint for this character, seemed to forever seal anarchism in the pillory of history. Then it became known that theater stands in Odessa were never covered with Leva Zadov’s posters, because he was never a verse singer. And he was born not in Odessa, but in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). It is possible that Leva Zadov had to change his last name and become Zinkovsky precisely because of his bad fame. In the criminal case stored in the archives of the SBU, the accused is identified as Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky. On the eve of the 120th anniversary of his birth, we turned over the pages of this case and some forgotten memoir sources that turned our understanding of Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky upside down.

MAKHNO PEOPLE eclipsed the SUN WITH THE SHINE OF GOLD CHAINS AND BRACELETS FROM PAWNSHOPS

From the Romanian bank of the Dniester, the ears of the security officers, holed up in the floodplains on the Soviet bank, could barely hear the splash of oars and the creaking of rowlocks. The boat silently buried itself in the shallows. Kneading their frozen bodies, five people, led by Leva Zadov, came ashore. A huge, broad-shouldered fellow, it was impossible not to recognize him.

Among the security officers waiting for the boat was Dmitry Medvedev, who two decades later would become the commander partisan detachment special purpose "Winners", hero of the Great Patriotic War. He had met Leva Zadov several years earlier while on a reconnaissance mission in Gulyai-Polye, in the very heart of the Makhnovist movement. Now, according to legend, Medvedev was supposed to escort Zadov’s sabotage group to a pre-prepared shed.

"Question: - In what year did you emigrate abroad to Romania?

Answer: - ...In 1921, when Makhno's gang was finally defeated by the red units... From the words of Makhno's wife, Galina, I then learned that Makhno was planning to go to Poland with the remnants of the gang. Due to the fact that we were oppressed by the Red units towards Romania, it was decided to go there.

Commander of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Division Pavel Dybenko and Nestor Makhno, Berdyansk, 1919

Near the border in one of the villages, a guide was taken who led the remnants of the gang to the Dniester, where the Soviet outpost was disarmed, and we safely crossed to the Romanian coast.”

Old Man Nestor swam across the Dniester, accompanied by his common-law wife, Galina Kuzmenko, and 77 “bayonets” on horseback. One can only imagine the fear that Levka Zadov, who could not swim, suffered. But he also supported Dad, who was wounded in the leg and had a concussion.

He owed a lot to one of the leaders of his counterintelligence and adjutant Zadov. During interrogation by the NKVD, Leva admitted, not without pride: “Since March or April 1921, I was close to Makhno and was near him all the time. Makhno was wounded several times during this period, and I had to almost carry him out of the battle in my arms.”

The Romanians placed the Makhnovists in an internment camp. To feed themselves, the soldiers were hired to do the hardest and dirtiest jobs. Only the top - Nestor, Galina, Leva Zadov and his brother Daniil, and several other close associates - were allowed to live freely in Bucharest. In a few days, they squandered almost all the jewelry they had taken on the road. The money was desperately needed.

Nestor Ivanovich in Paris, late 20s. In France, Makhno lived until his death, worked part-time as a carpenter, joiner, and wove slippers.

Nestor Makhno and Lev Zadov learned the magic and deceit of money from a young age. Both realized early on that honest work - Nestor in Gulyai-Polye on the arable land, Lev at the blast furnace in Yuzovka - could not get out of poverty.

Robbery, aggravated by murder, drew Makhno's sentence to death penalty by hanging. Thanks to the mother’s efforts, the noose was mercifully replaced by lifelong hard labor. Zadov received eight years of hard labor for a less serious but similar crime. Both were rescued by the February Revolution of 1917, and October Revolution and the subsequent Civil War gave them a free hand.

Having raised a peasant uprising against the Kaiser’s troops and the Central Rada, Nestor, and at the same time Leva, discovered that money flowed to them like a river. Considerable sums were required to conduct military operations, and military actions, in turn, brought money. Directly according to Marx: weapons - money - weapons. Lev Zadov spoke about what it looked like in life during interrogation on November 17, 1937:

“Approximately in March or April 1919, the so-called “Initiative Group” was created at Makhno’s headquarters, led by the anarchist Chernyak (in 1918, Chernyak and Zadov fought with the Germans in the Donbass as part of the Red Guard. Zadov left the Reds, as can be understood from his autobiography , outraged by the injustice: they say, “as the chief of staff of a combat sector, I was entitled to 750 rubles, and a Red Army soldier was entitled to 50 rubles. I, as an anarchist, did not agree with this provision.” L.H. ). I was transferred from the regiment to work in this group. Its functions included: imposing indemnities on the bourgeoisie in cities occupied by Makhnovist gangs and requisitioning clothing for the needs of the Makhnovists.”

These were not the main ways to replenish the treasury. Raids on banks (the Mariupol one was robbed twice), pawnshops and, in general, any cash register where money was kept, were very popular among the Makhnovists. They said that in Yekaterinoslav the Makhnovists eclipsed the sun with the shine of gold chains and bracelets from pawn shops. He robbed Makhno and Denikin, one of the leaders of the White movement in the south of Russia, significantly undermining its combat effectiveness.

The dad hit the biggest jackpot from the operation of an imaginary association with Ataman Grigoriev, who had previously robbed the Odessa State Bank. Makhno lured Grigoriev to visit, but suddenly presented, as if at that very time, a document accidentally discovered about the ataman’s betrayal and shot him. All Grigoriev's gold went to the dad - 124 kilograms in bullion, 238 pounds of silver, one and a half million gold rubles of royal coinage.

Judging by the poverty in which Makhno vegetated in exile: first in Romania, and later in Poland and France, he was unable to remove the loot. It is natural to assume that it remained hidden somewhere in Gulyai-Polye.

This was also the opinion of the Main Political Directorate of the NKVD of the RSFSR. All former Makhnovists who were arrested were interrogated: what do they know about Makhno’s treasure? Most didn't know anything. And this is natural: it is unlikely that those who dug the ground, carried jewelry and camouflaged the caches survived. Only one or two people could know where the treasures were hidden.

BEFORE LEAVING TO THE SOVIET SIDE LEVA TOOK THE LAST JEWEL OFF MY FINGER - THE RING AND GAVE IT TO MAKHNO'S WIFE

When the Zadov brothers discovered a draft in their pockets in Bucharest, they went to join their comrades in the camp barracks. Fortunately, Leva was distinguished by excellent health and from a hungry childhood in a poor large family did not disdain any work. In Romania he turned 30 years old. Time to think about the future.

Why did the man whom the Soviet government considered one of the bloodiest executioners decide to return to its arms? During interrogation he explained:

“Me and Zotov (Daniil, Leva’s brother, who also changed his last name. - L.H. ) there were always thoughts about returning to Soviet Union, however, it was not possible to do this due to the lack of any documents giving us the right to move through Bessarabia - this is, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the inability to swim.”

Makhno's daughter and wife in Paris, 1941. During the German occupation, Galina Andreevna and her daughter went to Germany, Elena worked at Siemens. In 1945, during a document check, both were arrested by the Soviet authorities. Elena was sentenced to five years in prison, Galina - to 10 years in the camps

According to Lev Nikolayevich, he met in the camp with former Petlyura officers Zaporoshchenko and Guliy, who went to serve in the Romanian secret police Sigurantsu. They suggested that he put together a group of saboteurs to be deployed to the Soviet rear.

But Leva hid that, together with Zaporoshchenko and Guliy, he participated in the Bucharest conference dedicated to the unification of all emigrant forces to fight Soviet power. So the acquaintance was not so superficial, and the NKVD knew about it. The file contains a photograph where the conference participants captured themselves, as it seemed to them, for history, but it turned out to be for a criminal case.

Nestor Makhno’s second wife Agafya (Galina) Andreevna Kuzmenko was born into the family of a Kyiv gendarme, graduated from a teacher’s seminary, and taught Ukrainian and literature, was known as a Ukrainian patriot with an anarchist bent. After being released under an amnesty from Dubrovlag in 1954, she lived with her daughter in Dzhambul, Kazakh SSR, died in 1978

Zadov and Zaporoshchenko gathered several people who were ready to cross the Dniester by boat and, as Leva testified during interrogation, "to carry out raids on the Soviet side for the purpose of robbery and thereby improve financial situation. I picked up this idea, shared it with Zotov, and we decided to use this matter in order to stay in the Soviet Union and come to the Soviet authorities with repentance...

Before deciding on the issue of crossing the border, I informed Makhno’s wife in writing, Makhno Galina, who in a reply letter told me that she personally approved of my crossing, but Makhno himself had a different opinion, because he sought to restrain the Makhnovist cadres.”

“Moving away from the border (on the Soviet side. - L.H. ) 25-30 kilometers, I announced to the whole group about the need to appear before the Soviet authorities and surrender their weapons. Zaporoshchenko began to persuade me to return back to Romania, promising an improvement in my situation there. His persuasion did not work, and I, together with the group in the village. The Bashtanka of the Peschansky district came to the chairman of the village council, where he was informed of our arrival from Romania. We handed over our weapons to him. On the same day, the chairman of the village council sent our entire group to Peschanka, and from there we were sent to the city of Tulchin at the disposal of the district department of the GPU.”

Although it looks like the truth, Stanislavsky would say: “I don’t believe it!” They didn’t believe in the NKVD either. We sent a request to Tulchin: please provide information about the case of a group of saboteurs detained after illegally crossing the border. From there they answered: there is no such thing.

It can be assumed that everything, from Bucharest to the Transnistrian barn, happened differently. Left without a livelihood, Makhno, Galina and Zadov wondered: is it possible to dig up the treasure and take at least some jewelry from it?

But how to do this? And then they came across former Petliurists associated with the Sigurants. The proposal to put together a sabotage squad could not have come at a more opportune time. Under this cover it was possible to get to Gulyai-Polye and return back. Galina approved the plan; she was pregnant and was thinking about her and the child’s future. Nestor Makhno, who had animal intuition, did not like the idea.

They said that as parting, Leva took the last jewel from his finger - the ring - and gave it to Galina.

We find a continuation in the book by Albert Tsessarsky “Chekist”, dedicated to Dmitry Medvedev. Its author is a doctor, during the war he led the medical unit of the special-purpose partisan detachment “Winners” under the command of Medvedev (by the way, it was from there that the legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov went on his missions). After the war, Tsessarsky communicated with Medvedev, got acquainted with his archives and became his biographer.

He writes that, having met saboteurs under the command of Lev Zadov on the Dniester, Medvedev took everyone to the prepared barn and suddenly reminded Leva of their acquaintance in Gulyai-Polye:

“Then, two years ago, I was looking for you on purpose, Leva. I believed in you. You can see for yourself. - Medvedev spoke quietly, with force. “...Leva, in order for everything to be in order, you need to hand over your weapons.”

At that moment, Leva Zadov realized with horror that his mission had failed. A grated kalach, he probably foresaw this development of events, so without hesitation he agreed to cooperate with the security officers. And the story about his crystal dream of returning to his homeland, repenting and begging forgiveness from the Soviet authorities was composed by the leadership of the GPU (a special service that specialized in the fight against counter-revolution, espionage, ensuring state security and the fight against elements alien to Soviet power) during the re-recruitment of Lyova.

Having become an employee of the OGPU, Zadov wrote to Romania that help was needed to find the hiding place, and Makhno sent him his adjutant Lepetchenko. Together they went to Gulyai-Polye. The security officers under the command of Medvedev secretly followed on their heels.

In the village of Turkenovka, not far from Gulyai-Polye, they found an abandoned well. Leva picked up a shovel. “One after another, Lev lifted two four-bucket copper pans from the pit. Only with his superhuman strength could this be done. When the covers were removed, gems and the gold, as if fogged up, glittered dully before my eyes. Countless crosses, coins, rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces...”

A moment later, the treasure hunters were surrounded by security officers. Lepetchenko grabbed the pistol, but did not have time to shoot himself. His hands were tied. Then they shot me.

It is strange that to this day articles regularly appear in the press about the mystery of Makhno’s treasure. It turns out that it has long been solved.

Perhaps the authors’ misconception is explained by the fact that in the case of Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky there is not a single mention of either Medvedev or the hiding place. But they could remove the investigator’s persistent question: “How did you manage to penetrate the organs of the GPU-NKVD? Isn’t it on Makhno’s instructions?” Leva answered sluggishly that he did not penetrate, they offered him... They did not listen to him.

There was no file about the treasure in the archives of the GPU, although Medvedev more than once told Tsessarsky that all the treasures were handed over to the state under an act. But where is this act and where did Father Makhno’s treasures go?

It is possible that the interrogation protocols of 1937-1938, where Lev Zadov told how he paid for his life and got a job as a security officer, were simply removed from the case and destroyed. The Soviet government did not burden itself with such a bourgeois relic as gratitude.

“THE SAME SUITCASES, ONE WITH LINEN, THE OTHER WITH MONEY, FUR COATS, A BLANKET, FENIN’S LARGE SCARF AND OTHER JUNK FLOATED ON THE WATER”

During Lev's interrogations, Zadov more than once recalled Galina Kuzmenko. And although he didn’t say anything special, he felt like he felt sympathy for her.

According to some evidence, Galina and Lev were connected by joint participation in punitive actions. Is it true, modern historians It is not excluded that these accusations were fabricated by Soviet propaganda. But there is no doubt that the Civil War gave birth to bloodthirsty monsters in all the opposing armies.

And yet, another woman is considered to be Leva’s traveling lover - Fenya Gaenko, Galina’s friend from the time she studied at the women’s teacher’s seminary, also known for terrible reprisals against unarmed prisoners.

Revolutionary Amazons were not uncommon in the vastness of Ukraine, engulfed in the Civil War. Fenya and Galina, former teachers of rural schools, rushed along with the Makhnovists under their black pirate banner with a skull and crossbones throughout all cities and villages.

Fenya joined the detachment, most likely, from among the Makhnovist spies. As Lev Zadov said during interrogation on November 17, 1937, “intelligence consisted mainly of women who were sent to the rear of the Reds to find out the location of the Red units.” The hope was that women would not be suspected of spying. Apparently, it was then that Fenya attracted the attention of Zadov, one of the leaders of the Makhnovist counterintelligence.

On the instructions of her father, Galina kept a diary in a school notebook taken from Feni. It was supposed to mark the stages of a long journey. Galina tried, but at times she could not withstand the epic style and switched to criticizing her dad, then to her own, to her girlish style.

Once, while crossing a river, the horses stumbled and overturned the cart into the water. Nestor, Galina, Fenya, and the coachman almost drowned. They were lucky that the cart stood sideways, and they dived into the gap that had formed. Galina wrote: “The suitcases, one with linen, the other with money, fur coats, a blanket, Fenin’s large scarf and other junk floated on the water.” The size of the “suitcases” can be judged by the fact that more than one fur coat taken from someone could fit there. Nestor moved to another horse, named Galochka in honor of his wife, and the important Gulyai-Polye ladies were given a cart.

At times, both field wives were overcome by melancholy. “Today Fenya left us. Nestor said: “Fenya stayed (she didn’t go further with the Makhnovists. - L.H. ), and it’s a pity.” I also feel sorry that she stayed. But it's better for her. As it turned out, only I needed her, and even then not always, while the others were hostile to her. I wouldn’t want to be in this position, and I don’t want her to be in it either. She left us - and she did well.”

Galina does not write why the Makhnovists disliked Fenya. Perhaps she was feared as a person too close to the “court” and the mistress of Leva Zadov himself.

But Fenya escaped from the detachment for a short time. Probably, she could no longer live without the “ecstasy of battle.” When in the summer of 1921, the Makhnovists who had survived the battles with the regular units of the Red Army rushed at full speed to the saving Romanian border, they were attacked by the Budennovites. Fenya was caught up with the fatal bullet.

11 years later, in 1937, during interrogations Zadov remembered Galina, even when he was not asked about her, but there is not a word about Fen in the protocols. Was it and is it past?

FAILURE OF ROMANIAN AGENTURY

The case against Lev Zadov began to unfold due to events that occurred two years earlier. Then the agents of the Foreign Department of the Odessa Regional State Security Directorate, operating in Romania, were failed. Siguranza outright outplayed the NKVD, although at first Soviet agents in Romania were one of the most successful. Its agents even infiltrated the General Staff of the Romanian Army and the Siguranza. Probably, one of the leaders of the Romanian direction in the Odessa INO, Lev Nikolaevich Zadov-Zinkovsky, also contributed to this. He personally selected and sent 15 secret agents to Romania. True, during one of the interrogations he said that “no more than four or five people worked honestly.”

The failure began with the fact that during the border crossing, a courier-messenger was detained, sent to an agent embedded in the Chernivtsi intelligence service of the Romanian army under the pseudonym Teplov. A secret letter was found in the lining of his jacket.

Lev Zadov claimed that even before the transfer of the messenger he warned the people who directly carried out it: they should not sew up secret document in the lining. “Let’s,” he suggested, “let’s make a wicker basket and weave a letter between the rods.” But they didn’t listen to him.

The arrest of the signalman caused chain reaction: followed by addresses and appearances of other agents. A particularly valuable agent under the pseudonym Tourist, embedded in the Chisinau military intelligence, also ended up in the dungeons of the Sigurans.

Zadov said that in Odessa they received an encrypted telegram from Chisinau: “Leonid broke his arm, he’s waiting for Kostya.” The INO understood: “Leonid, who broke his arm,” was the arrested agent, and “Kostya,” expected in Siguran, was the next liaison officer, whose dispatch was scheduled again contrary to Zadov’s opinion.

It was impossible to send a new person to Romania. Moreover, Zadov received a report from the Consul’s agent, in which he said: “Captain Bodkrow, an employee of Chernivtsi intelligence, is specially leaving to meet with an agent from the other side.” That is, the Siguranza was precisely aware of the place and time of the signalman’s transition and was ready for his arrest. “This was immediately reported to the Foreign Office of Kyiv by telephone.”

“I regard the failure of the agents, which occurred at the end of 1935, as a direct betrayal on the part of a number of employees of the central apparatus.”

Obviously, the investigation was interested in Lev Zadov naming the name of Vladimir Maksimovich Pesker-Piskarev, at that time one of the leaders of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR. Zadov named it, and Piskarev was shot on September 26, 1938. However, the price of testimony obtained using special interrogation methods, or simply beatings and torture, is known.

Siguranza was not inferior to the NKVD in the ability to extract testimony. Odessa agents betrayed each other and stretched strings to the very top.

“Romanian intelligence established a lead on the Consul’s agent, and in November, during the last crossing of a courier from the Consul to our side, Andreenko’s courier on the shore was searched, and during the search a report written in secret writing was seized from him.

The seizure of this document made it possible for Romanian intelligence to establish all the Consul’s connections and eliminate them. In particular, he was open with agent Podolsky, who was embedded in the intelligence post at Khotyn, who was also arrested.”

The corpse of the Consul, tortured in Siguranza, washed up on the banks of the Dniester in the patrol area of the Tiraspol border guards. It was the Siguran woman who sent greetings to the NKVD.

"Investigator's question: - Tell us about your treacherous activities as an agent of Romanian intelligence.

Answer: “I was not involved in treacherous activities, I did not work as an agent of Romanian intelligence, and I broke up with them in 1924 after crossing the border.”

At this point in the protocol a remark was made: “The interrogation is interrupted.” One can only guess what followed. On April 30, 1938, the accused was already like silk:

"Question: - The investigation has established that you are an agent of foreign intelligence agencies. Do you admit it?

Answer: -Yes, I admit it completely."

Obviously, under the terms of the gentleman’s agreement with Dmitry Medvedev, Leva Zadov was obliged not only to hand over Father Makhno’s treasure. The security officers tested him in Kharkov for several months for closer cooperation, and then sent him to Odessa, closer to the Romanian border. That's when Leva Zadov became a real Odessa resident. Alexey Tolstoy turned out to be a visionary.

Lev Zadov took part in the operation under code name"Violinists". On his recommendation, a man was sent to Romania who persuaded most of the Makhnovists to return to their homeland. Leva himself wrote to his former comrades. For example, this letter: "Hello, dear friends. I am at home on my native Ukrainian soil. Vasya will tell you what life is like here, but now this is what it’s enough to be slaves in Romania. It's time to go home... Don't believe all the rumors that the Soviet government is shooting, it's all nonsense. If you don’t dare to go yourself, then I’ll send for you. Write who wants to go...

Until then, stay healthy. I'm waiting for you.

Your friend Lev Zinkovsky."

In 1929, the board of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR noted his efforts with gratitude and a cash bonus of 200 rubles. As Leva writes in his autobiography “for the liquidation of a major sabotage bandit” (he modestly keeps silent about the fact that he was wounded during the capture). At the same time, the Odessa district department of the GPU awarded him a Mauser with gold engraving, and in 1932 the Odessa regional executive committee awarded him another pistol for the “merciless fight against counter-revolution.”

Life began to get better. 31-year-old Lev married 24-year-old Vera Ivanovna. Zadov was not embarrassed by the noble origin of his chosen one, and she was not embarrassed by his terrible past. However, he told her something about the glorious revolutionary path.

Their son Vadim, who became a Soviet officer, with extraordinary tenacity - almost three and a half decades! - sought the rehabilitation of his father. He began bombarding authorities with the rank of captain and ended up as a retired colonel.

In petitions to high authorities, Vadim Lvovich especially emphasized Tsessarsky’s book “Chekist”. Judging by individual extracts that have been preserved in the file to this day, the referents were impressed by the intelligence officer’s testimony about the delivery of the treasure. They saw in Levka Zadov not an inveterate sadist, but a man who found himself in a nightmare situation, where he was both a meat grinder and minced meat.

The grounds for rehabilitation were contained primarily in the Decree on the amnesty of former enemies of Soviet power, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Soviet power. But the Bolsheviks, who constantly deceived Father Makhno and his comrades, fooled them this time too. During the years of the Great Terror, almost all former Makhnovists, including Lev Zadov, were shot.

If you believe the documents, his brother Daniil was also shot on the same day.

He was five years younger and since childhood he followed Leva like a thread following a needle. Lev assigned him to Makhnovist counterintelligence, and after crossing the Soviet border - to leading security service in Tiraspol. During interrogation on May 17, 1938, Daniil said:

“I became a spy on the initiative of my brother Zinkovsky, under whose influence I was all my life.”

Lev was not allowed to confront those arrested, mostly former Makhnovists, who “convicted” him of espionage. But they confronted my brother. A special kind of investigative sadism?

From the protocol of the confrontation between Daniil Zotov and Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky on May 19, 1938:

« Daniil Zotov-Zadov : - ...In 1932, already working in Moldova, in one of his meetings with Zinkovsky, he told me that Porokhivsky (British intelligence agent in Bucharest - L.Kh.) required work, and immediately suggested that I inform him everything that will be new in the agents transferred to Romania, which is what I did until the day of my arrest.

Question to Zinkovsky : - Is Zotov-Zadov telling the truth?

Answer: - No. Zotov-Zadov is not telling the truth, since I never told Zotov that Porokhivsky demands that we work in favor of Romania, and also did not receive any information from Zotov about the agents transferred to the Romanian side. There was no need to receive this information from Zotov, since, working in the Odessa regional department, I myself knew almost all the overseas agents.”

It was a desperate attempt to shield my brother.

Posthumous fate changed their places. Daniel was the first to be rehabilitated. Leo - many years later.

“HIS SOUL IS POISONED BY BLOOD”

In the case of Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky, the name of the person responsible for the failure of the Romanian agents is not indicated. The indictment charged general formulas about Zadov’s espionage for foreign intelligence services. His exoneration papers state that no evidence was found to support this allegation.

But here's another mystery. The file contains almost one after the other: a certificate confirming the execution of the sentence on September 25, 1938, and another - marked “Secret” at the request of Vera Ivanovna Zinkovskaya about the fate of her husband, where it is written in black and white:

“October 19, 1956. I inform you that Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky... while serving his sentence, died on March 17, 1942... Deputy. Chairman of the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR Colonel of Justice V. Borisoglebsky.”

No matter how many times Vera Ivanovna and Vadim Lvovich asked for clarification on which certificate to believe, they did not receive an answer. By default, it is believed that he was shot in 1938.

There is another piece of evidence about Lev Zadov in the memoir literature. It belongs to Kyiv University professor Konstantin Shteppe.

Shteppa was hated by the people of Kiev during the war, when both editor-in-chief published the pro-fascist newspaper “New Ukrainian Word”. Before the liberation of Kyiv from the occupiers, he fled to the West and many years later died in New York, having managed to publish several books, including a documentary called “Yezhovshchina.”

Konstantin Shteppa described how, arrested in 1938 on falsified charges of spying for Japan, he sat in the same cell with a man of “huge stature, heavyset, with a freckled face and red hair.” This was Leva Zadov, about whom the professor had already read from Alexei Tolstoy.

In between interrogations, Leva entertained his cellmates with a colorful description of his life and sang Vertinsky’s heart-warming song:

At night the cemetery is strict,
The month is just about to rise,
Tiny little legless
The dusty road creeps...

Watching him, Shteppa came to the conclusion: “His soul is poisoned with blood - there is a type of poisoning that has not yet been described by anyone.”

Most of all, according to the professor, Zadov feared losing his dignity at the moment of execution, as happened with those whom he killed. One day Leva asked: “What is “trampling death upon death?” Shteppa responded with something abstruse as a professor. But what pictures and faces did Leva Zadov see at this time, whose death he hoped to atone for with his own?

The next night, the warden called Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky out. “With dignity,” he whispered. “Pray,” Shteppa told him very quietly. “I’ll try,” he answered just as quietly.

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Chekist Lyova Zadov

Chekist Lyova Zadov

The name of the executioner and sadist Levka Zadov has always been inextricably linked with the name of Father Nestor Makhno, one of the most famous leaders of the peasant war in Ukraine in the period 1918–1921. It is quite natural that such an odious figure as Zadov, in the late 1920s - early 1930s, time of troubles struggle for power, ended up in the ranks of the Cheka-GPU-NKVD employees. No, Zadov was not sent to the ranks of the Makhnovists on Dzerzhinsky’s personal mission. True story The life of Zinkovsky-Zadov (this is Leva’s real name) is full of mysteries and unsolved secrets.

ANARCHIST-COMMUNIST

Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky-Zadov, a Jew by nationality, was born in 1893 in the Jewish colony Vesyolaya on the territory of modern Dnepropetrovsk region. Lev received only an elementary education, but quickly managed to become imbued with the ideas of anarcho-communism. Contrary to the claims of Bolshevik leaders, many of whom were Jewish, in the south of the empire the Jewish population was more criminal than Russians or Ukrainians. Even the famous thieves' jargon - "music" - consisted mainly of a mixture of Jewish, Gypsy, Hungarian and German words.

Zinkovsky-Zadov quickly became one of the brutal raiders hiding behind the flag of anarcho-communism: it became fashionable to be “political” or appear so. They robbed and killed for “ideological reasons.” It is necessary to pay tribute to the high professionalism of the tsarist detective police and gendarmerie, whose experience was subsequently used by almost all the police and intelligence services of the world, except the USSR - the Soviet government did not want to adopt the methods of “damned tsarism,” although it often had to be done secretly. In 1915, Lev Nikolaevich was arrested and put in the dock in the Yekaterinoslav District Court. The royal detectives knew their business. Investigators too. It was proven that Zinkovsky-Zadov took part in a series of robberies and that he belonged to a criminal CRIMINAL group that called itself anarchist-communists. To the robber Leva Zadov - not a “political” one, but a pure criminal! - Imperial Themis measured eight years in prison. While serving his sentence, Zinkovsky-Zadov was part of the community of criminal convicts and obeyed their laws and rules, without maintaining ties with political ones.

Makhno's future henchman and Cheka employee was released in February 1917. Without hesitation, Lev moved to Ukraine, where everything was very familiar to him. Around the same time, the former desperate terrorist-anarchist Nestor Ivanovich Makhno returned there from hard labor. After the October revolution, he offered his services to the Bolsheviks, but they arrogantly and myopically did not appreciate Makhno’s organizational abilities and military talents, treated him coldly and dismissively, and refused to cooperate under various pretexts. It is not known whether they later regretted their refusal to cooperate with Makhno. Most likely yes. Judging by how flatteringly they flirted with him when he invented the cart, he withstood the dashing attacks of the experienced and combat-ready white cavalry, which was constantly chasing the Reds. The Bolsheviks accepted him into the ranks of their allies three times, even enlisted him in the Red Army, awarding him the post of division commander and generously promising to make him an army commander. Makhno did not need this, he had his own army. But he betrayed the communists three times and turned his weapons against them!

In 1918, Zinkovsky-Zadov joined the rebel army of Father Makhno, which was subsequently called a gang in all Soviet documents and publications. The rebel army was superior in numbers and combat effectiveness to most units of the Red Army of that time. But for the Bolsheviks it remained a gang, although they more than once resorted to its help in the fight against the White Volunteer Army. Zinkovsky-Zadov fit perfectly into the leadership backbone of the rebel army and held responsible positions. About the “exploits” of the Makhnovists in Ukraine during the period Civil War, where no less bloody “feats” were performed by all the warring parties, including the Reds, a lot has been written. In gratitude for their help in eliminating Wrangel, the Soviets decided to eliminate Makhno himself as an extremely dangerous element for the Bolsheviks. In 1921, with a detachment of a hundred sabers, Nestor Ivanovich and Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky-Zadov, who was with him, managed to escape to Romania, fleeing the Red units.

CHECKIST AND... SPY?

Let's start with the accusations that were brought against the operative officer of the INO - the foreign department, that is, the foreign intelligence department - of the Odessa Regional NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR at a meeting of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on September 25, 1938. The board found Zinkovsky-Zadov guilty. In August 1921, he moved with the remnants of the Makhnovists to Romania, where he maintained contact with the anarchist leader Marin-Arshinov, and in 1923 he traveled to Bucharest to take part in a conference convened by representatives of Simon Petlyura on the preservation of Ukrainian counter-revolutionary cadres to fight the Soviet regime.

Further, Lev Nikolaevich was accused of starting to collaborate with Romanian intelligence in 1924, on whose instructions he entered the USSR as part of a terrorist group, and later began working, around 1925, for the British intelligence services. Lev Nikolaevich himself testified at the meeting:

I worked as a laborer and had nothing to do with Romanian intelligence.

Ukrainian nationalists found Lev useful: the fact that he returned to the territory of the USSR as part of a gang is absolutely true!

My brother and I decided to return to the USSR by joining a newly formed gang,” Zinkovsky-Zadov testified.

How did a simple laborer who had no connections with Romanian intelligence, anarchists, nationalists, or white emigrants become part of a terrorist group formed to operate on the territory of a neighboring state? Moreover, together with his brother, D.N. Zotov-Zadov, who was also a Makhnovist, an anarchist and “unskilled worker.” Only “unskilled workers” of what - terrorist activities carried out by the Entente intelligence services through Romanian intelligence? Soon she completely broke contacts with the British and French and switched entirely to close cooperation with Germany.

On the territory of the USSR, Zinkovsky-Zadov and his brother confessed to the authorities. Lev Nikolaevich was arrested, he was under investigation, actively repented of his sins against the communists and was... released. A completely mysterious story: then for lesser sins they put you up against the wall. But Lev was not assigned, but a mysterious transformation took place - Zinkovsky-Zadov soon found himself an investigator of the INO GPU of the Odessa Regional NKVD. Lev Nikolaevich became a security officer around 1925. But only on November 2, 1927, the USSR Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on amnesty for the Makhnovists! How Zinkovsky-Zadov ended up in the punitive organs of the Soviet government, and even as an investigator in the department involved in foreign intelligence, remains a mystery. However, this real fact biography of one of the active bandits and the famous Makhnovist.

At a meeting of the military board on September 25, 1938, Lev Nikolaevich testified that he was recruited to work for the British intelligence service in 1925. Moreover, this was done by the head of the INO GPU of the Ukrainian SSR Karelin, who had already been convicted and executed as... a German spy. Ratynsky-Futer, Sapiro, Zotov-Zadov, Karelin, and the head of the INO NKVD of the Odessa Regional NKVD V.M. Pasker-Piskarev were named as accomplices of Zinkovsky-Zadov. The court found Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky-Zadov guilty and, according to a whole list of articles of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR in force in those years, sentenced him to capital punishment - execution by shooting with confiscation of property.

How did Zadov become a security officer? It can be assumed that much of his case was pure lies, and some of the truth was simply not revealed. Most likely, during his stay in Romania, Zadov actually maintained contacts with anarchists, collaborated with Petliurists and the Romanian special services: this is the inevitable path of an emigrant militant. Moreover, a former criminal and a leading employee of the Makhnovist counterintelligence. Foreign intelligence services could not pass by such a promising shot. Lev Nikolaevich had no choice, and he agreed to cooperate, unless he himself was actively looking for it.

Once on the territory of the USSR, he quickly realized that he would inevitably get caught. Therefore... I decided not to just give up, but to betray the new owners and offer my services to the security officers. Zadov took a lot of risks, but the bodies of the Cheka-GPU always had enough of their own, differing only in that they did not serve under Makhno. It was quickly possible to find a common language with them, and the former Makhnovist counterintelligence officer became a secret agent of the GPU-NKVD, and then a career employee. He was listed as an investigator in the Foreign Department, ensuring the implementation of foreign intelligence operations. It would not be surprising if he “led” the line of Romania and secretly maintained contact with his former masters. But all these are versions and guesses. The true story of Zinkovsky-Zadov is full of unsolved mysteries. Lev Nikolaevich was soon shot and forgotten for a long time.

-Who are you, a prostitute? Come to me to clean your nails...

The girl began to cry and went to tell the teacher about me. And I just repeated, turning to her, the phrase of the Makhnovist Levka Zadov from the film “Walking in Torment” the day before I watched))

It must be said that Soviet cinema sometimes managed to create incredibly cute images of all kinds of scoundrels.)

Lyovka Zadov is one of them. All his phrases were divided into quotes. For example, this one, in response to an opponent’s smile: "Hide your teeth, virva!"

Although, of course, the image was completely operetta-like, especially in the first version of the film. Compare - the same episode:

I wonder what he really was like, how his fate turned out?

Lyovka was born into a large Jewish Zodov family in the Donbass. Later he would change his last name to Zadov, and his brother-colleague to Zotov. Many knew him under the name Zinkovsky...
Lyovka belonged to that sometimes encountered type of heroic robbers who rarely die a natural death; they become either notorious bandits or heroic commanders. Two meters tall, slanting fathoms at the shoulders, Lyovka works at a metallurgical plant in Yuzovka (Donetsk), where he is interested in the ideas of anarchism. In practice, this means engaging in expropriations, and, to put it bluntly, robberies and robbery. In 1913, Zadov was sent to hard labor, and only the February Revolution of 1917 allowed him to return to his homeland.

In the photo Lev Zadov with his brother Daniil Zotov

The whirlwind of revolution caught the daring Lyovka, he becomes right hand Nestor Makhno, heads intelligence, fights against Wrangel in Crimea, commits crimes.

Children are frightened with his name, the fame of the Makhnovist thug resounds throughout Ukraine. In some ways he looks like Grigory Kotovsky, even in appearance...

In 1921, Father Makhno was finally defeated, and he was forced to flee to Romania. The Zadov brothers ended up there with him.
Three years in exile, three years of attempts to organize resistance and sabotage groups.

In 1924, Zadov and a group of saboteurs crossed the border... and immediately surrendered to the NKVD.
He repents, promises to atone with blood, remembers his proletarian origin and episodes of the fight against the White Guards.
He is left free. Family, wife, daughter...

And a successful career in the NKVD. Such people turned out to be very necessary there.
Lev Nikolaevich Zinkovsky knows no pity for the enemies of Soviet power; he shows particular cruelty towards the remnants of the Makhnovists, his former comrades...

By the mid-30s, Lev Nikolaevich was an honored and respected veteran of the Odessa NKVD...
In the photo he is in the center, with his colleagues.

Well, it’s not hard to guess that no matter how much string it twists...it got twisted into a noose in 1937.

What remains is the testimony of Konstantin Feodosievich Shtepp, a professor who spent several days in the same cell with Zinkovsky:

Another security officer was sitting with us, one of the most colorful people I have ever met in my life.

It is a feature of the Soviet system that the most powerful people in any respect are either sooner or later destroyed, or they are absorbed into power. Some are the vanguard of the working people - the party, others - the vanguard of the party itself - the NKVD.

The second cellmate's name was Zinkovsky (Zinkovsky).

It was the same Levka Zadov, once upon a time former boss Makhnovist counterintelligence, which was described in one of his stories by Alexei Tolstoy.

Huge in stature, heavyset, with a freckled face and red hair, he really must have made a terrible impression on the people who fell into his hands. And there were quite a few of them, since the Makhnovist counterintelligence was not inferior to the Cheka in cruelty.

I admit, I felt somewhat uneasy when I learned from Zinkovsky who I was dealing with.

Zinkovsky told us, his cellmates, the story of his life.

The son of a Jewish tenant from Sloboda Ukraine, he grew up in a fairly wealthy family.

Zinkovsky became an anarchist, then got involved in terrorist attack, for which he received eight years of solitary confinement.

He told me how he got used to his situation and fell in love with his camera. When release came, he went up the hill and spent a long time looking for the window of his cell. I felt that a considerable part of his life remained behind that window, a piece of his soul that we leave behind wherever fate takes us. We leave this piece in every person we meet...

After prison, Zinkovsky began years of wandering in search of daily bread. This was the most interesting period of his life. He could talk about her very entertainingly. Whoever he was during these years, and whoever fate brought him into contact with!.. I forgot many of his stories, but what was especially etched in my memory was how he was engaged in gilding church utensils under the name Zolotorevsky.

To make it easier to get clients, he made up the idea that he was doing his work according to his vow, for free. And since, according to his documents, he was a cross, they believed him and willingly gave him a job.

When dealing with gold and silver, he donated his labor, and rewarded himself with the material with which his customers supplied him. In addition, he was warmly received everywhere, not suspecting that they were dealing with a former convict, and even a terrorist.

This type of activity introduced Zinkovsky closely to the spiritual environment. In his stories, he approached her with good-natured humor, without reverence and without ridicule.
Before the revolution, Zinkovsky was something of a traveling salesman. By that time he managed to contact his party, and as soon as Makhno began to form his troops, he found himself in his camp.

Fortunately, Gulyai-Pole was not far from his native place, and he knew many of the Gulyai-Polye residents personally, just as they knew him.

How it happened that he, not being a cruel person, took on a cruel task, Zinkovsky did not explain.

It happened!
< >
In the NKVD, Zinkovsky rose to high positions. Before his arrest, he was already the head of a department in the regional administration.

Like most prisoners, he did not know the immediate reason for his arrest. His former activities in the service of Makhno were a thing of the distant past, it was well known to everyone and did not prevent him from moving up the career ladder for almost twenty years.
So this did not seem to be the reason for the arrest. But there were connections, not so much personal as of an official nature, with high-ranking people both in the “organs” (the usual designation for their department among security officers) and in the party apparatus.

They turned out to be “enemies” and for this reason they “sat down.” Even drivers and couriers were imprisoned for “connections.”

Zinkovsky was taller. His immediate superior at one time was Laplevsky, who replaced Balitsky as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Leplevsky “sat down” and, apparently, had already been shot. This was quite enough to eliminate Zinkovsky.

Like every condemned person, Zinkovsky hoped for a pardon or a retrial, but at the same time he mobilized his last internal resources (I use Soviet verbal stencils) so as not to lose his dignity at the moment of execution.
I remember on one cloudy day, when things were especially difficult in our cell, Zinkovsky walked from corner to corner for a long time, we walked in turns, since the size of the cell allowed only one person to walk - five steps forward and five steps back, Zinkovsky approached and asked me a question so unexpected that at first I was even taken aback.

“Help me understand one thing,” he said. “I’ve thought about this all my life and could never understand it myself.” What does it mean: “trampling death upon death”?

I was puzzled. I understood that what was expected of me was not an explanation according to the catechism, but some kind of explanation, if not deeper, then more accessible. But what could I say? Did I understand then? great meaning these words?
< >
We didn't talk about anything else the whole next day. Levkovich and I lay on our beds, Zinkovsky walked heavily around the cell, only occasionally stopping and squeezing his temples with his hands.

At night they called Zinkovsky. He took his things - he always had them collected, shook hands with Levkovich, came up to me and hugged me tightly.

“With dignity,” he whispered.

“Pray,” I told him very quietly.

“I’ll try,” he answered just as quietly.

The bolt moved. I never saw Zinkovsky-Zadov again. But I found out later, when I was free, that he was shot that same night. Whether he managed to maintain his dignity, which is what he was so worried about, I don’t know.

In 1938, Lev Zadov-Zinkovsky was shot.

Although, there are two death certificates, however, this is no longer important.