The iconic Soviet military adventure tapes introduced us to many legendary scouts. One of the first such fighters of the invisible front was the Hero of the Soviet Union Lev Efimovich Manevich, the prototype of the hero of the book Vorobyov E. "Earth, on demand" and the film of the same name.
When he went on a business trip, his father told him: “You won’t be able to come to Chausy on vacation, but maybe you have an address, or they change so quickly that my letters will not catch up with you.” To which Leo replied: "I have just a permanent address - Earth, on demand."
early years
In the Mogilev province in the provincial Belarusian town of Chausy in a Jewish family on August 20, 1898, Israel Haimovich Manevich was born, that was the name of the future Soviet intelligence officer Lev Efimovich Manevich.
In a provincial provincial town, where there were only two cobbled streets - Mogilev and Long, and the winding river Basya, his early childhood passed. The family lived in Zarechye in a spacious wooden house at number 39 on Kooperativnaya Street, later renamed Manevich. The family, by local standards, did not live in poverty, my father worked as a small employee. According to the recollections of fellow countrymen, his parents were considered to be kind, friendly and generous people.
Sister Amalia and brother Jacob, who later took the name Jacques, were active participants in the revolutionary movement.
Engineering and revolutionary education
A big role in the life of Lev Efimovich Manevich was played by his older brother Jacques. During the 1905 revolution, he was arrested for possession of weapons and proclamations and sentenced to hard labor. With the help of his sister and comrades, in 1906 he organized an escape from the Bobruisk fortress, having been watered with opium guards.
With the help of the revolutionary underground, he crossed the German border through Lithuanian forests and then moved to Basel, where he entered a medical college. After several years of living in Switzerland, his comrades brought his younger brother to Israel from the Belarusian backwater. Upon arrival, the boy, following the example of his elder brother, changed his name and became Leo Manevich.
Thanks to Jacques, the boy received a good education - first in Zurich, then he studied in Geneva, having perfectly learned three foreign languages. Together with his brother, who became a Bolshevik, he attended lectures on the first Russian revolution of 1905 by Vladimir Lenin at the People’s House of Zurich.
The first years after returning
In April 1917, the brothers carried the famous train to Russia, which took Lenin and a group of emigrant revolutionaries. Two months later, two young specialists - a physician and an engineer - also returned home.
In Russia, Leo was drafted into the Russian army. In the First World War, his participation was very short-lived, the revolution began. At the end of 1917, the very young nineteen-year-old Lev Efimovich Manevich was appointed chairman of the Workers' Council of the city.
In 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army as an ordinary Red Army man in the international regiment in Baku. Already then his leadership qualities showed up, he was soon appointed commissar of the armored train. Then he served as commander of a special forces unit and in the intelligence department of the Red Army. Manevich fought in the civil war on the Eastern Front and the Caucasus.
After the war
After demobilization, Lev Efimovich Manevich began working on the Kazan Railway. He lived in Samara, then in Ufa, and there he met his future wife Mikhina Nadezhda Dmitrievna.
The young family moved to Moscow, at first they lived with Leo's friend, Yakov Starostin, with whom they fought in the civil war. They lived very hard to feed their little daughter Tanya and his young wife, Leo had to earn extra money at night on unloading wagons. And when Nadezhda’s dress literally parted from decay, he had to chop a large log of firewood in payment for a new dress.
At this time, Leo studied at the Higher School of the Staff Service of the Red Army command staff, which he graduated in 1921. Studying was good for him, he easily mastered the taught material, approached each question being studied systematically, with healthy criticism.
Path to Intelligence
In 1924, he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army, and in 1929 - courses at the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky. He wanted to become a military pilot, but shortly before graduating from the academy he received a direction in military intelligence. The characterization of those years by the prominent Soviet military leader Lev Efimovich Manevich says: solid character, very energetic, accurate and disciplined, sometimes a little hot.
After graduating from the academy, Lev was appointed head of the regimental school in the infantry division. Then he worked in various positions in the intelligence department, secretariat, affairs management at the headquarters of the armed forces of the country. At the same time, in the biography of Lev Manevich, the first intelligence mission to Germany took place, from November 1925 to March 1927.
For almost a year in 1927, he completed an internship as the commander of a rifle company. In 1929, he served for six months as an observer pilot in 44 separate aviation detachments in Georgia.
Comrade Etienne
In the early 30s, the Soviet intelligence officer Lev Efimovich Malevich was sent to intelligence work in Italy, where he became an engineer Conrad Kertner under the operational pseudonym Etienne. Prior to that, he had already worked in Germany and Austria.
Manevich was a good engineer and entrepreneur, and soon the company, which, according to legend, he managed, began to generate income. Almost all business income was smuggled into the Soviet Union.
Recently, they began to write that, in addition to collecting intelligence, Comrade Etienne's other specialization was the preparation and organization of the elimination of enemies of the Soviet government, including emigrants, defectors. In the second half of the 30s, he completed a number of important tasks of abduction and murder abroad. Of course, no one could be suspected of a respectable successful businessman of the Soviet liquidator.
Bureau "Eureka"
Soon after moving to Italy, the wealthy, elegant and sociable owner of the International Patent and Invention Bureau Eureka began to be received in high secular and military circles. Conrad Kertner, as a wealthy businessman, made many acquaintances in business circles, mainly in areas related to the military industry.
Eureka began to represent the interests of leading German aviation, shipbuilding and engineering companies outside the Third Reich. Manevich traveled extensively in Europe, collecting intelligence information. As an entrepreneur demonstrating his loyalty to fascism, he visited Spain, where Franco began to win.
The main achievement in the biography of Lev Efimovich Manevich was that, as an excellent aviation engineer, he gained access to the latest military developments. German and Italian aircraft engineers often invited Kertner to meetings to troubleshoot engine prototypes.
Etienne, using extensive contacts in the military and industrial circles, was able to obtain information about some plans of the German Wehrmacht and the latest technology - submarines, tanks, airplanes. The information obtained helped the Soviet design bureau to take into account the achievements of German and Italian engineers in their developments. In connection with the successful intelligence activities in 1935, Manevich was awarded the rank of colonel.
Conclusion in Italy
In December 1936, Konrad Kertner was arrested on the basis of a denunciation by Italian counterintelligence as an Austrian citizen. In February 1937 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Turin court found that he managed to establish contacts in the largest industrial centers of Italy and attract experienced specialists who worked in enterprises supplying the German and Italian armed forces.
Even while in custody, Lev Efimovich Manevich was able to collect valuable information. He learned from the workers of military factories, who were put in the same cell with him, the secret of the Krupp armor steel recipe. The Soviet Union did not yet know how to cook such steel, which protects against medium-caliber shells. Etienne was able to find out and transfer to the center through lawyers the technical description and drawings of the new cruiser, especially the blindfold and night bombing.
In conclusion, Manevich fell ill with tuberculosis, the meager budget of the prison population "ate" the payment of medicines, and there was not enough money for food. Taking advantage of a coup d'etat, in September 1943 he tried to escape, but occupying German troops entered Italy. Conrad Kertner, as an Austrian citizen, was transferred to Germany, but it quickly became clear that there was never a person with that name in the country. Then he impersonated Colonel Jacob Starostin, his old friend.
Last years
Manevich spent two years in various concentration camps in Austria, seriously ill with tuberculosis, he became a member of the underground camp. The concentration camp in which he was sitting was released on May 6, 1945 by American troops, and on May 12 Manevich died and was buried as Colonel Jacob Starostin.
The highest awards in the biography of Lev Efimovich Manevich appeared only posthumously. On February 20, 1965 he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In the same year, his ashes were transferred to the cemetery of Soviet soldiers and a stove with a real name was installed - Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Manevich Lev Efimovich.