Leonid Eitingon
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Nahum Isaakovich Eitingon (), also known as Leonid Aleksandrovich Eitingon (;Наум Исаакович Эйтингон, генерал-майор НКВД
Ekho Moskvy (Moscow Echo) 06.09.2009: Interview of Nikita Petrov by
Yevgeny Kiselyov Yevgeny Alexeyevich Kiselyov (, ; born 15 June 1956) is a Russian television journalist. As the host of the NTV (Russia), NTV weekly news show ''Itogi'' in the 1990s, he became one of the nation's best known television journalists, criticizing ...
(in Russian) – "As his immediate superior for many years, General Pavel Sudoplatov, recalled that, in the Lubyanka, Eitingon was known among his friends as Leonid Aleksandrovich; already in the 1920s, almost all Jewish Chekists took Russian names so as not to emphasize their national origin."
6 December 1899 – 3 May 1981), was a Soviet intelligence officer, who gained prominence through his involvement in several
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
operations, including the assassination of
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
, the orchestration of partisan movements during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and atomic espionage. He has been described by
Yevgeny Kiselyov Yevgeny Alexeyevich Kiselyov (, ; born 15 June 1956) is a Russian television journalist. As the host of the NTV (Russia), NTV weekly news show ''Itogi'' in the 1990s, he became one of the nation's best known television journalists, criticizing ...
as one of the organisers and managers of the
state terrorism State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens. It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...
system under
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and later a victim thereof. He may have been a great-cousin of Max Eitingon, though this has been disputed.


Early life

Eitingon was born into a
Lithuanian Jewish {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...
family in Shklow, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Isaak Faivelovich Eitingon, was a paper mill clerk, and his grandfather was a lawyer. Shortly before the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
his family moved to
Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...
, where Nahum studied at Mogilev Commercial School. Eitingon first became involved in labor during the German occupation of Mogilev, when he joined a cement worker's union and joined the
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...
. In his memoirs,
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
General and friend and colleague of Eitingon Pavel Sudoplatov claimed that Eitingon had fought in the Red Army since 1918, however, this claim is not substantiated by official records of the time. Following the Russian Revolution, he became a clerk at the commodities exchange. Following several promotions within the local labor bureaucracy, he joined the
CPSU The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
in 1919.


Intelligence career

Eitingon joined the
Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
on May 10, 1920, having been recruited to a shortage of Chekists in the area. Along with other Chekists, he took part in numerous operations during the
Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, including the "liquidation" of a number of the more prosperous citizens of the
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
ian town of
Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...
. He also gained prominence at the time for his work against banditry in Belarus. Eitingon was temporarily ejected from the Cheka and investigated during a 1921 purge due to his bourgeois origins, however, he was quickly let back in. In 1924, he graduated from
Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...
, after which served at several diplomatic postings in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
under the auspices of the
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...
. From 1927–1929 he served as Vice-Consul General at the Consulate of the USSR at
Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...
. He also served at the special operations directorate of the OGPU from 1930–1932 and served under Alexander Orlov during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, using his linguistic skills to adopt several aliases. During this time, he was involved in several operations, including the assassination of Zhang Zoulin and the transportation of the Spanish gold reserves to the USSR. At the end of the 1920s, Eitingon, a
polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
, organized and led an operation producing fake documents which persuaded the Japanese that 20 Russian agents who were working for them had secretly applied to have their Soviet citizenship restored. This ruse resulted in the
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese executing their anti-Soviet allies.Archie Brown
A Twentieth-Century Story by Mary-Kay Wilmers
''The Guardian'', 6 December 2009.
In 1930, Eitingon was appointed deputy director of the Administration for Special Tasks under Yakov Serebryansky, but due to his poor personal relations with Serebryansky, in April 1933 he was shifted to chief of section charged with coordinating the operation of " illegals" in the INO (Foreign Department of the
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...
) under
Artur Artuzov Artur Khristyanovich Artuzov (name at birth: Artur Eugene Leonard Fraucci) ( (); 18 February 1891 – 21 August 1937) was a leading figure in the Soviet international intelligence and counter-intelligence and security officer and spymaster of the ...
and later (from May 1935)
Abram Slutsky Abram Aronovich Slutsky (; July 1898 – 17 February 1938) was a Soviet intelligence officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service ( INO), then part of the NKVD, from May 1935 to 17 February 1938, when he was allegedly poisoned. ...
. According to Pavel Sudoplatov, Eitingon was sent to the U.S. as an " illegal" in the beginning of the 1930s, prior to the establishment of
Soviet Union–United States relations Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were fully established in 1933 as the succeeding bilateral ties to those between the Russian Empire–United States relations, Russian Empire and the United States, which lasted from 1809 ...
in November 1933, to recruit Japanese and Chinese emigrants with a view to possible using them in military and
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...
operations against Japan (the U.S. itself was not deemed a high priority for intelligence operations by the Centre then). One of the agents recruited by Eitingon in the U.S. was Japanese painter Yotoku Miyagi, who in 1933 returned to Japan and became a member of
Richard Sorge Richard Gustavovich Sorge (; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Russian journalist and GRU (Soviet Union), Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journa ...
's spy ring in that country. Eitingon was also tasked to assess the intelligence potential of Americans involved in
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
activities. He was active in Spain in the late 1930s, during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. Eitingon was reputedly responsible for a number of kidnappings and assassinations at the behest of the OGPU/NKVD in Western countries. However, Pavel Sudoplatov writes that Western accounts of Eitingon′s role in the abduction of White Russian Gen Yevgeny Miller in Paris in September 1937, organised by
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
, are false. Sudoplatov also notes the unabashed sexual
promiscuity Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by man ...
of Eitingon, who in this period of his career had concurrent relationships with several women (including his wives) and used his female colleagues and subordinates as mistresses. For example, Eitingon took with him to Spain, Aleksandra Kochergina as his mistress who played the role of his third "wife" while he ran NKVD guerrilla operations during the Spanish Civil War. He remained married to his second wife. While in Spain, he managed to meet and seduce the aristocrat, Caridad Mercader del Rio, the mother of Ramon, Trotsky's assassin. Then in 1942, Eitingon impregnated Muza Malinovskaya, a champion Soviet parachutist while on a mission in Turkey (for eight months). It is not clear how he was able to afford this lifestyle (dating, courting, cafes, cabarets, wine, renting an apartment or house rather than living in the NKVD barracks). However, Sudoplatov praised Eitingon for spending all of his money on his wives and children. The illegal espionage network, which included Jews with ancestry in the Russian Empire, established by Eitingon in the United States in the early 1930s helped Pavel Sudoplatov in the 1940s run a wide network of Soviet moles in the scientific community in the U.S. and beyond, to conduct scientific espionage.


Assassination of Trotsky

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
, the Soviet revolutionary, had been banished from the USSR by
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and had found refuge in Mexico. Stalin assigned the organisation and execution of a plan to assassinate Trotsky to Eitingon. While in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Eitingon was able to recruit a young Spaniard communist ideologue, Ramón Mercader, as executioner. Trotsky was living in Mexico at the time and, soon after Mercader worked his way into Trotsky's group of friends, Eitingon had also arrived in Mexico. On 20 August 1940, Mercader attacked and fatally wounded Trotsky with an ice axe while the exiled Russian was in the study of his house in
Coyoacán Coyoacán ( ; , Otomi: ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre- ...
(then a village on the southern fringes of
Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
). Eitingon and another collaborator ( Caridad Mercader, Ramon Mercader's mother) in the assassination plot were waiting outside Trotsky's residence, in separate cars, to provide a getaway for Mercader. When Mercader failed to return (having been detained by Trotsky's bodyguards), they both left and fled the country.


Second World War

Eitingon continued his service in the NKVD during World War II. In 1941, he and Sudoplatov successfully negotiated the release of purged NKVD officers with
Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...
, as they were needed at the outset of the war. After this, he was involved in the assurance of Turkish neutrality from 1941–42. In late 1942, he was appointed as deputy head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, which was focused on sabotage and infiltration operations behind enemy lines. In this capacity as the deputy of Sudoplatov, he organized several successful operations, including Operation Scherhorn. He also assisted in the organization of several partisan movements in Eastern Europe. Through this work, Eitingon was introduced to
Rudolf Abel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel () was the alias of William August Fisher (11 July 1903 – 15 November 1971), a Soviet intelligence officer, created to alert his Soviet KGB handlers when Fisher was arrested in the USA on charges of espionage by the FBI ...
, who would become famous as a spy in the US. Eitingon also used his extensive preexisting network in the US to conduct Atomic Espionage. Eitingon was further said to have been instrumental in the NKVD "Max" network, the Jewish-led Abwehr spy ring whose allegiances continue to befuddle historians to the present day.


After the war

After the victory of the USSR in World War II, Eitingon was made deputy head of the C Department of the NKVD (later
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
), where he continued atomic espionage. In this role, Eitingon was also tasked with operations against the anti-communist
Forest Brothers The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic states, Baltic (Latvian partisans, Latvian, Lithuanian partisans, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans, Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known ...
in the Baltic states and other anti-Soviet movements in Eastern Europe. He was also tasked with the liquidation of the OUN and other Ukrainian nationalist movements. During this time, he played roles in the arrests and executions of suspected nationalist collaborators or sympathizers, including Bishop Theodore Romzha and Alexander Shumsky.


Doctors' Plot and later life

In October 1951, Major-General of State Security Eitingon, along with three other high-ranking members of the government (all Russian Jewish), were accused of "a Zionist plot to seize power" (the
Doctors' Plot The "doctors' plot" () was a Soviet state-sponsored anti-intellectual and anti-cosmopolitan campaign based on a conspiracy theory that alleged an anti-Soviet cabal of prominent medical specialists, including some of Jewish ethnicity, intend ...
). Eitingon's sister Sofia was also arrested. As a doctor, she was considered to be the "link" to the plotting doctors who were allegedly planning to poison high-ranking Soviet leaders. The officers were all imprisoned in cold, dark cells and tortured. The tortures led many of them to falsely confess but Eitingon was steadfast in his denial. Sofia was sentenced to 10 years in prison. After Stalin's death in March 1953, the head of Soviet intelligence and security services Lavrentiy Beria issued an order to close the cases against the "Zionist plotters" and all were released, including Sofia. Beria was arrested in June 1953 and executed. Eitingon, considered a supporter of Beria, was arrested again and held in jail without trial at the Butyrka prison in Moscow for four years. In November 1957 he was put on trial, in which he was accused (again) of conspiracy against the regime (but this time without any Zionist connotations). The court sentenced him to 12 years in prison, and his rank and all his medals were taken from him. After
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
's ouster from power in 1964, Eitingon was released from prison. After his release, he worked as an interpreter and editor at the International Book Organization in Moscow. Nahum Eitingon died in 1981 of natural causes. He is buried in the Donskoye Cemetery. In 1992 the Russian Supreme Court annulled the conviction and cleared his name. Eitingon had persistently sought his official rehabilitation, but this was granted only posthumously.


See also

* Pavel Sudoplatov


Notes and citations


References

* * * Katamidze, Vyacheslav 'Slava' (2003). ''Loyal Comrades, Ruthless Killers: The Secret Services of the USSR 1917–1991'', Lewis International, Inc., , pp. 74–85, 91, 99, 103, 115, 126–29, 133, 136, 145–46, 155–56


Further reading

* Wilmers, Mary-Kay (2009). ''The Eitingons'', London: Faber, {{DEFAULTSORT:Eitingon, Nahum 1899 births 1981 deaths People from Shklow Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Frunze Military Academy alumni Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class Belarusian Jews Inmates of Vladimir Central Prison Jews from the Russian Empire KGB officers Prisoners and detainees of the Soviet Union Soviet Army officers Soviet Jews in the military Soviet people of the Spanish Civil War World War II spies for the Soviet Union Burials at Donskoye Cemetery