Lev Romanovich Sheinin (Russian: Лев Романович Шейнин, 1906–1967) was a Soviet writer, journalist, and

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 ...

investigator. He was

Andrei Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (; ) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is best known as a state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow Trials and in the Nuremberg trials. He was the Soviet Foreign Minister ...

's chief investigator during the

show trials A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a warning to ...

of the 1930s, and a member of the Soviet team at the

Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

. In the 1930s he collaborated with psychologist

Alexander Luria Alexander Romanovich Luria (; , ; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychology, neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological ...

in researching the emotional reactions of suspected criminals, work that contributed to the development of

polygraph A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a pseudoscientific device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a ...

testing. In 1951 he was arrested on suspicion of spying, one of the arrests associated with 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 ...

. He wrote ''Diary of a Criminologist'' (1945), one of the first Soviet detective novels, along with many other novels, plays, and short stories. His obituary in the ''New York Times'' reported that his plays were produced throughout the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

and ''Diary of a Criminologist'' was "considered essential reading for law students." He was a member of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

. He died in 1967 at the age of 61.

Biography

Early life

He was born in the village of Brusanovka (now

Velizhsky district Velizhsky District () is an administrativeResolution #261 and municipalLaw #88-z district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Smolensk Oblast, twenty-five in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the northwest of the oblast and bord ...

Smolensk oblast Smolensk Oblast (), informally also called Smolenshchina (), is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative centre is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Smolensk. As of the 2021 Russ ...

) into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family that moved to

Toropets Toropets () is a town and the administrative center of Toropetsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located where the Toropa River enters Lake Solomennoye. Population: History In 1074, when the town was first mentioned in chronicles, Torop ...

in 1908. In 1919 he joined the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

and started working in a newspaper. In 1921 he came to Moscow, studied at Higher Literary and Artistic Institute, wanted to become a writer.

Career

In 1923 he was sent to work in the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR. In 1927 he was transferred to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, where he worked as a senior investigator in the regional court. In 1929 he joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1931 he was promoted to USSR Prosecutor's Office as an investigator for especially important cases. Published a textbook on criminalistics. In December 1934 in Leningrad he was

Andrey Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (; ) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is best known as a Procurator General of the Soviet Union, state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow Trials and in the Nuremberg trial ...

assistant or deputy; according to contemporaries, he remained loyal to him even in Khrushchev's time. From 1935 he was the head of the investigative department of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, State Counsellor of Justice 2nd class, a member of the

Special Council of the NKVD Within the administration of the Soviet Union, the Special Council of the USSR NKVD () was created by the same decree of Sovnarkom of July 10, 1934 that introduced the NKVD itself. The decree endowed the Special Council with the right to apply puni ...

. In 1936 he was arrested and was imprisoned in a

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

. After a review of the case he was released and the charges were dropped. Since 1939 he was again the head of the investigative department of the USSR Prosecutor's Office. Was engaged in the organisation of protection of intelligence officers Mordvinov and Kornilov after their failure in Ankara, contributed to their exchange in the USSR. In 1945-1946 he participated in the work of the

Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

, was the assistant to the chief prosecutor from the USSR

Roman Rudenko Roman Andreyevich Rudenko (, ; – 23 January 1981) was a Soviet Union, Soviet lawyer and statesman. Procurator General of the Soviet Union , Procurator-General of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1953, Rudenko became Procu ...

. In 1949 he was relieved of his post "due to transfer to another job". He was promised the post of Director of the Institute of Criminalistics, but he did not get it. In 1950 he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the script of the film ''

Encounter at the Elbe ''Encounter at the Elbe'' (in ) is a Soviet war film released in 1949 from Mosfilm, describing the conflict, spying, and collaboration between the Soviet Army advancing from the east and the United States Army, U.S. Army advancing from the west. ...

''.

Selected cases

* In 1930 investigated the collision of a train and a tram in Leningrad. * In 1934 participated in the investigation of the murder of S. M. Kirov, conducted the last interrogation of the accused

Leonid Nikolayev Leonid Vasilevich Nikolaev (10 May 1904 – 29 December 1934) was the Russian assassin of Sergei Kirov, the First Secretary of Leningrad City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Early life Nikolaev was a troubled young Sov ...

. * In 1934-1935 he participated in the investigation of the case of the Moscow Centre of

Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

and

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...

. * In 1936 he was in charge of the case of polar explorers Semenchuk and Startsev (rehabilitated in 1989). * In 1937, he headed a special group of prosecutor's office employees involved in the investigation of Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda. * In 1943 he was engaged in the case of the Kremlin children, the murder by Vladimir Shakhurin, son of Aleksey Shakhurin, of the daughter of diplomat

Konstantin Umansky Konstantin Aleksandrovich Umansky (; 14 May 1902 – 25 January 1945) was a Soviet diplomat, editor, journalist and artist. Biography and career Umansky, whose family were of Jewish origin, was born in Mykolaiv; he began studies at Moscow Unive ...

, after which the secret organisation ''The Fourth Reich'', created by the children of prominent statesmen of the Soviet Union, was uncovered. * In 1949 investigated the fire at Voroshilov's dacha.

Second arrest and later life

On 19 October 1951 he was arrested for the second time in the

, was also accused of organising an anti-Soviet group of Jewish nationalists ( the Case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee), and was kept in Lubyanka prison. The case against Sheinin was dismissed on 21 November 1953, the reason given was that the check established that Sheinin had been stipulated. After 1953 Sheynin was engaged in writing. For several years he was a member of the editorial board and deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Oktyabr. He was a member of the board of the

. In the 1960s he held the posts of a member of the Art Council of the USSR Ministry of Culture, editor-in-chief of the

Mosfilm Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...

(until 1964), head of the film commission of the Dramaturgy Council of the USSR Union of Writers. He died on 11 May 1967 of a heart attack. Buried in Moscow at the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

Selected filmography

* ''

Engineer Kochin's Error Engineer Kochin's Error, () is a 1939 Soviet thriller directed by Aleksandr Macheret. The film tells the story of how an aircraft engineer's decision to take classified blueprints home unravels a deadly web of espionage, betrayal, and intrigue in ...

'' (1939) – based on the play "Final Bet" by Lev Sheinin and the Tur brothers. * ''

'' (1949) – script written by Lev Sheinin and the Tur brothers. * ''Duel'' (1944) – script written by Lev Sheinin and the Tur brothers. * ''The Lark'' (1965) – the plot of the script written by Scheinin "General Guderian's Mistake" was used.

References

{{reflist

External links

USSR : Soviet Life Today 1960-10: Iss 10
1960 issue of ''

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

'' magazine that includes an article by Sheinin 1906 births 1967 deaths Soviet writers Soviet lawyers Great Purge perpetrators Russian crime fiction writers