Lev Zadov was a vivid representative of the turbulent era of the Civil War. Anarchist by conviction, he first fought on the side of the Red Army, then switched to the rebels of Makhno. After the defeat of the "green" Zadov had to flee to Romania. Already in peacetime, he returned to his homeland, where he began to work for the NKVD.
early years
Lev Nikolaevich Zadov was born on April 11, 1893. He was Jewish by nationality, and his real name was written as Zodov. But the associate of Makhno is best known by his pseudonym Zinkovsky. Lev Nikolaevich Zadov was born in a small Jewish colony near modern Donetsk. At that time, the Semitic population lived in compact settlements in the western provinces of the Russian Empire. This was due to the existence of a Pale of Settlement. Jews could not settle in the central part of the country. But there were many of them in Ukraine and Poland.
At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. many Jews became members of the revolutionary movement. Lev Nikolaevich Zadov was no exception. Thanks to his strong physique, from an early age he worked at various enterprises (at a mill, a factory, etc.). In this environment, agitation of radical political movements was especially active. Therefore, Zadov easily became an anarchist. He distributed illegal literature, participated in rallies. His complexion was especially useful in robberies or "expropriations." It is well known that the young anarchist was involved in at least three such operations. Radicals robbed artisans, railway ticket offices and post offices. The money received went to the cashier of the revolutionary movement, and then spent on printing campaign materials.
In hard labor and in the Red Army
In 1913, Lev Nikolaevich Zadov was arrested by the authorities for his dubious activities. The court sentenced him to eight years in prison. It was there that, due to the lack of consonance, the anarchist changed his name and became Zinkovsky. In February 1917, a revolution occurred. Imperial power fell, and the new Provisional Government declared amnesty to all "political prisoners." So, Zinkovsky was released, after serving half the deadline.
The revolutionary returned to his native Yuzovka (soon renamed Donetsk), where he was elected a local worker deputy. After the Bolsheviks came to power, Zinkovsky voluntarily ended up in the Red Army. His detachment had to retreat to Tsaritsyn himself. Despite the difficult situation in which the participants of the Civil War found themselves, the private soldier already showed his bright abilities and was soon promoted to the head of the brigade. However, Zadov soon left the Red Army. As he himself explained at one of the interrogations in the NKVD, his own convictions pushed him to desertion. When a salary came from the headquarters, Zinkovsky was paid 750 rubles as a big boss. Ordinary received ten times less. This outraged the anarchist, and he left for Ukraine. Later, in the GPU, the NKVD remembered that desertion in 1918.
Makhno's right hand
The new chief of Zadov was Nestor Makhno, an anarchist and head of the liberation movement in Ukraine. Leo participated in all major operations of the "green rebels." In the spring of 1919, he led the group, which collected indemnities from the bourgeoisie and the capitalists who lived in the territory controlled by the forces of Old Man Makhno.
The rebel army of Ukraine was very heterogeneous in composition. The interests of its members often did not coincide. For example, Zinkovsky himself enjoyed a rather dubious reputation, mainly due to the fact that he had fled the Red Army at one time. Some participants in the Civil War from among those close to Makhno demanded his death. These were such influential people as Levka Golik (head of counterintelligence) and Alexey Marchenko. Rumors about the unreliability of Zinkovsky were fueled by conversations that the Soviet security officers were trying to recruit him.
Work in rebel counterintelligence
At the most critical moment, adjutant Makhno was saved from reprisal by the wife of the "father" Galina Kuzmenko. For some time, she had worked with Zinkovsky in counterintelligence of the rebels and was imbued with confidence in him. It was at this post that Zadov had to undertake the most controversial work during his time in the ranks of the Makhnovists.
Punitive organs got rid of people suspected of betrayal and unreliability. Lev Nikolayevich Zinkovsky, like Lenin, for example, believed that revolution should not be done with white gloves and using aristocratic methods of political struggle. All the atrocities of the Civil War, both white, and red, and "green" were justified by serving a great purpose. For some it was communism, for others it was national freedom or social equality according to anarchist ideals.
End of the civil war
By 1920, the Red Army defeated Denikin and again ended up in Ukraine. Then Nestor Makhno and his supporters were declared enemies of the people. The rebels were defeated, not only due to military setbacks, but also because of the typhoid epidemic. The disease mercilessly mowed even the most physically strong and healthy men. Zinkovsky also turned out to be incapacitated for a while, however, he managed to recover. It was he, among the few close associates, who saved Makhno from death by hiding him in a shelter.
After the leader of the defeated rebel movement was safe, Leo and his brother illegally returned to their native Donbass. Soon, the Soviet government decided to make a deal with the Makhnovists. The partisans were offered to make peace with the Reds and help them in the fight against the remnants of the Wrangel army, entrenched in the Crimea. In the fall of 1920, Zinkovsky again briefly became an ally of the Reds. He fought in the Crimea and participated in the final defeat of the white movement on the peninsula.
Emigration
In the summer of 1921, Makhno, along with the few surviving associates, fled to Romania. When crossing the border, Zadov led a risky operation to eliminate border guards. Together with a dozen rebels, he pretended to be red, persecuted by the Makhnovists. So the anarchist managed to fool the border guards. When they, having lost their vigilance, approached the detachment of Zinkovsky, merciless fire was opened at them.
So for Zadov the period of emigration began. He is a donkey in Romania. Since there was nothing to live on, the former Makhnovist and his brother worked at a sawmill. Their miserable position was especially noteworthy when you consider that the rebels knew about the existence of Ukrainian burials of treasures that they had buried during the Civil War. The only trouble was that the fugitives, in a hurry to cross the Soviet border, did not manage to take care of their future well-being.
Homecoming
Romanian intelligence soon recruited the former Makhnovist. Zinkovsky was offered to work in a sabotage group, which they planned to throw into Soviet Ukraine. Leo agreed. In 1924 he was back at home. However, immediately Zadov decided to surrender to the Soviet authorities. His biographers believe that from the very beginning he fooled Romanian scouts to get into the USSR with a trump card up his sleeve and undercover information about enemy foreign activities.
Zinkovsky’s group, as expected, was arrested. All his associates were released, but he himself was interrogated for a long time. For six months, the fate of the former Makhnovist hung in the balance. The Soviet security officer in charge of his case was delaying the decision. Finally, the authorities considered it necessary to take Zadov to illegal work. He had a rich and unique experience in intelligence and counterintelligence. Such a track record has always been appreciated by the NKVD. In addition, allegations of involvement in the rebel movement were already untenable. Zinkovsky, like thousands of other supporters of Makhno, was amnestied in 1922 according to the decision of the Soviet government.
Collaboration with the NKVD
There is a version that Lev Zadov was able to negotiate with the KGB about his pardon due to the fact that he told about the whereabouts of the treasure buried by rebels in Ukraine during the Civil War. It is known for sure that Old Man Makhno, while in exile, tried to send loyal people to the USSR in order to procure and return valuable treasures.
Whatever way Zadovsky earned his right to a second chance, he skillfully took the opportunity to justify himself in the eyes of the Soviet government. His place of work was Odessa. This important port, located very close to the state border, was the center of attraction for a variety of adventurers and terrorists. Cooperating with the authorities, Zadov was able to uncover and eliminate several illegal criminal groups.
Execution
No matter how effective and useful agent Zadov was, he was destined for a sad fate. He fell into the millstones of the Stalinist repressions of the 30s. Then they arrested and shot at a variety of trifles up to the bold jokes about the leader. And the man who had once exchanged the Red Army for the Makhno rebels and fled to Romania, against this background, was simply doomed.
Zadov was arrested in August 1937. He was accused of spying for Romania. It is significant that the NKVD had no evidence of his guilt. Then sophisticated interrogation methods, including torture, were used. The process went on for a whole year. Finally, under this press, Zinkovsky admitted to working for foreign intelligence services. On September 25, he, like many others who were shot in 1938, said goodbye to life in the dungeons of the NKVD without any chance of acquittal or an honest trial. For a long time his case remained untouched. Even after the onset of the Khrushchev thaw, Zinkovsky was not remembered for innocence. Posthumously rehabilitated appeared in the USSR until perestroika. Zadov was acquitted only in 1990.
Posthumous image
Zinkovsky became one of the characters in the trilogy of Alexei Tolstoy's "Walking through the agony." In the interpretation of the writer, and later the Soviet film adaptation of the novel, he was a brutal executioner and executor of the most bloodthirsty errands of Nestor Makhno. Many viewers remember him solely by the phrase “I am Leva Zadov, no need to joke with me.”
Of course, Tolstoy’s novel was not the only attempt to comprehend the biography of a bright and ambiguous anarchist. Zinkovsky was lucky to live in a turbulent era. He took risks and changed his loyalty in the same way as many of his other contemporaries, who had to smell the gunpowder during the Civil War.
A family
The brother of the revolutionary Daniel was with him throughout the Civil War. Together they fled to Romania, and the two returned to the Soviet Union. Daniel was shot in the same 1938, although he also worked for the NKVD in Tiraspol.
Zadov also had a son - Vadim Lvovich Zinkovsky. Despite his very young age, he at the end of World War II volunteered to go to the front. Subsequently, he became an army colonel. Vadim Lvovich wrote a biographical book about his father, in which he tried to justify the famous anarchist in the eyes of his contemporaries.