In Stalin's Secret Service by W/ G. Krivitsky

Author:W/ G. Krivitsky [Krivitsky, W/ G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Personal Memoirs, Historical
ISBN: 9781528760201
Google: asDxDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Published: 2020-07-14T02:46:47+00:00

* In a recant New York Times dispatch his name was among officers listed as under arrest.

V. The Ogpu

I MADE my acquaintance with the Soviet Secret Police—as a “suspect”—in January 1926. I was then Chief for Central Europe of the Third Section of the Soviet Military Intelligence. The Third Section compiles material gathered by Intelligence agents throughout the world and publishes secret reports and special bulletins for about twenty ranking leaders of the Soviet Union.

I was called in one morning by Nikonov, head of the Third Section, who told me I was wanted immediately at the Special Section of the Moscow district Ogpu.

“Go through the entrance at Number 14 Djerzhinski Street,” he said. “Here is your pass.”

He handed me a green card which the Ogpu had sent down. When I asked him what it was about, he replied:

“Frankly, I don’t know. But when they call you, you’ve got to get down there at once.”

A few minutes later I was face to face with an Ogpu investigator. He coldly asked me to sit down, seated himself at his desk and began fingering over a large pile of papers. After about ten minutes of these silent preliminaries, he looked up and asked:

“When did you serve last as officer-in-charge at the Third Section?”

“Six days ago,” I replied.

“I suppose you can tell me what’s happened to the Third Section’s missing seal!” he exclaimed, with as much dramatic emphasis as he could muster.

“How does that concern me?” I asked. “The officer who relieved me would not have signed in unless I handed him the seal.”

In the Third Section, which employed forty to fifty people, the practice was for the dozen or so heads of departments to take twenty-four hour turns at guard duty. During those twenty-four hours, which we called dejourstvo, we were responsible for every letter, document, scrap of paper, secret telephone call. We were also responsible for every individual entering and leaving the offices of the Third Section. Every permit issued during my dejourstvo had to bear my signature and the seal of the Third Section. This important seal was missing.

The Ogpu investigator was forced to admit that, according to our record book, I had surrendered the seal together with the other badges of authority to my successor. He wasn’t satisfied to let it go at that, however, and began to question me along general lines.

“How long have you been in the Party, Comrade Krivitsky?” he asked.

I didn’t like the tone he was taking and had no intention of giving him free rein.

“You have no authority to ask me such questions,” I said. “You know what position I occupy. I have no right to submit to further interrogation until I have consulted my chief, Comrade Berzin. With your permission, I’ll phone him at once.”

I called General Berzin, the Chief of our Military Intelligence, explained the situation, and asked him whether I was to submit to general cross-examination.

“Not a word until you hear from me,” Berzin replied. “I’ll call you back in about fifteen or twenty minutes.

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