The wave of mass arrests soon spread to the internal affairs agencies everywhere. In 1937 alone, more than three thousand NKVD workers were executed. This bloodthirsty meat grinder likewise devoured Morchanov, Agranov and Prokofiev, as well as all the leaders of the NKVD subdivisions in Moscow and in the regions. Only Yagoda himself was not shot for the Time being.
Even if they had embezzled large sums of money or even killed people for personal motives, they would have been sentenced to prison at most. But they committed the most serious “crime” for the Soviet Union at that time – knowing Stalin’s secrets. And this crime could only end in one way – death. Among the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, only one person was spared this end. That was Lyushkov, the deputy head of the secret political bureau. During the preparations for the second Moscow trial, Lyushkov worked as a helper for Molchanov. Because of his close personal relationship with Yerev, he was not removed from his post until 1938, when he was appointed head of the Far Eastern Internal Affairs Bureau. Nevertheless, Lyushkov was very clear about his future: Stalin had eliminated almost all the dangerous witnesses who knew about his crimes. After arriving in the Far East, Lyushkov used his position to defect to The Japanese that summer. Stealing across the border was not difficult for him, because the entire Far Eastern border guard forces were under his command.
Some leading cadres of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who came to Spain and France on business, also told me about the tragic fate of the children of many executed Chekas. When their Parents were taken away and their homes were seized, the children became veritable street children. No one dared to take in these poor children, including friends and even close relatives of those arrested. These children did not dare to go back to school because, as “traitors and agents’ lapdogs,” not only did they receive no moral sympathy from the school leaders and the Young Pioneers, but they were bullied and beaten by their peers. However, it often happened that many of the students who had insulted them became the children of the “enemy of the people” themselves overnight and began to suffer the same pain.
In those gloomy days, the relationship between children reflected the relationship between adults like a mirror. The students, poisoned by Stalinism, could not forget the struggle against the “hidden enemies of the people” and learned to “correctly” understand the Central Committee’s resolution to shoot the old Bolsheviks under the guidance of their teachers; they lost their childlike nature and their humanity. The virginity and friendship among the students were replaced by mutual suspicion, mutual denunciation and informing.
In the big cities there was also a terrible disease of the times: the mass suicide of young people between the ages of ten and twenty-five. I have heard of such a tragedy. Four children of Cheka personnel, after their parents had been shot, stole a pistol from the homes of other NKVD staff members and ran into the Prozorov forest outside Moscow to commit mass suicide. The sound of gunfire and the children’s wails alerted a nearby railroad worker, who rushed into the forest and snatched the pistol from the hands of a 14-year-old. At that moment, two seriously wounded children were struggling on the ground, while a thirteen-year-old girl (the sister of a seriously wounded man) was lying on the grass, bawling. Next to them was a letter with the envelope “To Comrade Stalin, beloved leader of the people”. In the letter, the children asked their beloved comrade Stalin to find out who killed their parents and to punish them severely. They also wrote: “Our parents were loyal members of the Communist Party. But the enemies of the people – the shameless Trotskyists – killed them for this reason ……” However, do the children really know who these Trotskyists really are?
The Stalinist secretariat had received dozens of such accusatory letters. They were all forwarded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the instruction: expel these little accusers from Moscow. Moscow is no place for children to shed tears! Foreign journalists and foreign guests must not be allowed to see these homeless orphans!
However, many of the desperate children were “taken in” by the mafia before they could be expelled from Moscow. Who can blame them? When they were turned away by indifferent or cowardly relatives and friends, they had to turn to other youngsters who were also homeless, but who could show them compassion. The latter were mostly the “by-products” of Stalin’s earlier forcible collectivization. The mafia group always first took the “new members” clothes, watches and other valuable things as “initiation fees”, and then taught them their trade – theft techniques. They then passed on their craft, theft, to them.
Among the children who lost their parents, the fate of the girls was even more tragic. The Shpigelglias I mentioned earlier told me about a young girl’s ordeal. In the spring of 1937, the deputy chief of the Red Army’s reconnaissance bureau, Alexander Kalin, and his wife were suddenly arrested and immediately afterwards both were shot. Before his transfer to the Reconnaissance Bureau, Kalin had worked for many years in the Foreign Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and had gone abroad several times, assisting Shpigelglias in many extremely dangerous secret missions. As a result, the two families of Kalin and Shpigelglias formed a deep friendship. The only daughter of the Karins (who was thirteen years old at the time of her parents’ arrest) was also good friends with the daughter of the Shpigelglias.
After the arrest of the Karins, a “Yerov’s man” took over their apartment. Their daughter had no Home to return to, so she went to the Shpigelglias. “You should understand me,” Shpigelglias explained to me, “I love this child as much as I love my own daughter. She came to me in the midst of difficulties, and treated me like a father! But could I risk …… leaving her behind? At first, I really couldn’t bear to send her away. My wife and I tried to comfort her as much as we could and let her stay. Several times during the night, she jumped up from the bed and let out heartbreaking cries, as if she did not understand where she was and what had happened to her Family …… The next morning, I found Yezhov’s secretary, Popiro, and told him about it. He said: ‘In fact, you are in a delicate position wow, you should find another way …… anyway, it is not worth taking her in …… My advice to you is: try to send her away.’ “
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