The beginning of this story is well known:
A German corporal who crossed the border in the Sokal region showed the following: his surname is Alfred Germanovich Liskov, 30 years old, a worker, a carpenter of a furniture factory in Kolberg (Bavaria), where he left his wife, child, mother and father.
The corporal served in the 221st engineer regiment of the 15th division. The regiment is located in the village of Tselezha, 5 km north of Sokal. Drafted into the army from the reserve in 1939. Considers himself a communist, is a member of the Union of Red Front-line soldiers, says that life in Germany is very difficult for soldiers and workers. Before the evening, his company commander, Lieutenant Schultz, gave an order and said that tonight, after artillery preparation, their unit would begin crossing the Bug on rafts, boats and pontoons.
As a supporter of Soviet power, upon learning of this, he decided to run to us and report.(from the telephone message of the UNKGB in the Lviv region of 06/22/1941, transmitted at 3.10 a.m. to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, quoted from "USSR State Security Bodies in Velikaya Patriotic War", v.2., p. 38)
Variations of the story are collected by the respected sprachfuehrer .
Liskov was immediately taken into propaganda. Already on June 27, Pravda and Izvestia are publishing "The Story of the German Soldier Alfred Liskoff"
The next day, Pravda tells about Liskov's performance at a shoe factory in Kiev.
According to NTV correspondent K. Goldenzweig, who recently made a rather informative report about Liskov:
In the Soviet Union, Liskov joined the Comintern, traveled with agitation trains, his name was dazzling in the chronicle.
He is echoed by the Polish historian Jerome Kroczynski:
At first, Liskov participated in meetings of the Comintern, conducted agitational work among German soldiers. But no one knows whether Liskov also continued to believe in the ideals of socialism after seeing what he was like in the Soviet Union. He was obviously disappointed. They were also disappointed in him.
It is unlikely that Liskov really participated "in the meetings of the Comintern," his name does not appear in the minutes. But there is no doubt about his special status: unlike other prisoners involved in propaganda, he was not kept in a camp, but lived freely. Apparently, at the beginning of September he was settled in the Comintern hostel, and a conflict gradually flared up there.
I would venture to suggest that Liskov was dissatisfied with the role assigned to him as the wedding general of the propaganda corporal, he wanted to personally advise the country's leadership. Ambition was something he did not lack:
From the testimony of Paul Schroeder, a former friend of Alfred Liskov: “Even among the communists, he stood out for his statements. Even before the war, he called us to the barricades and insisted that we should honor him like a leader. "
But the entire hierarchy of the Comintern stood in the way of the ambitious defector. On September 3, 1941, Georgy Dimitrov writes in his diary (hereinafter, quotes from Dimitrov's diary are given by me in a reverse translation from German. The Russian original, unfortunately, has not yet been published):
I had a German soldier Liskov, before the German attack, on the evening of June 21, crossed our border and warned our border guards that the Germans were preparing to attack. (He is a worker - a carpenter - explained that he was a communist. Positive characteristics from the NKVD.)
And suddenly:
19.09.41
He appointed a commission - Ulbricht, Gulyaev, Sorkin - to deal with the case of the German soldier Liskov, who ran over to us on the night of June 22 (he then warned our border guards about the impending German attack). His behavior and his conversations are very suspicious ...
22.09.41
With Manuilsky, Ulbricht, Ercoli checked the case of the German deserter Liskov. With his remarks that "the Communists are working for the Fritzes," "the leadership of the Comintern is a treacherous leadership," and so on, he incurred suspicion. Isn't he mad? Or an agent? He instructed to follow him more closely.
26.09.41
Sent to Fedorov (NKVD) the final report of the commission on the case of the German defector Liskov.
Neither this document, nor the initial reports of Liskov's "suspicious remarks" I was able to find in the archives of the Comintern. It seems, however, that the NKVD did not react in any way to Dimitrov's materials. And here the results of "close surveillance" came to the rescue, the instruction to start which was apparently conveyed to Liskov's neighbors in the Comintern hostel. I found four reports, which I cite in chronological order:
I. DIARY OF CONVERSATIONS OF GERMTS LISTKOV
Moscow 27.1X-1941
In my diary dated January 24, 1941, I forgot to write one moment of my conversations with Lisztkov. When he asked whether the USSR had received weapons from England, I expressed my opinion that the USSR had indeed already received such. Here Lisztkov said: "Then the current tactics of the Bolsheviks may be correct, but I am mistaken."
25.1X-41, during the alarm, Lisztkov spoke to me on a different topic. He read me his outline for the book he wants to write. The plan revealed his opinion that it was as if Comrade. Dimitrov, this is not comrade. Dimitrov, because a real comrade. Dimitrov has already been killed by the Nazis in prison after the trial of the Reichstag fire. Comrade Dimitrov, according to his own assumption, must be the brother of the deceased comrade. Dimitrov. And this brother went to the camp of the fascists, and was sent by them to the USSR as a real comrade. Dimitrov to make trouble in the Comintern and in the ranks of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Listkov wrote that the mother of Comrade. Dimitrova was also killed by the Nazis in some way.
Lisztkov asked my opinion if he would be accused of slander. To this I did not give a direct answer, but I advised him to give a copy of his plan for the book of Comrade Blinov. At the same time, I asked him to provide evidence of his assumptions. Lisztkov replied that he had no direct evidence, but the logical chronicle of events strengthened his assumption, for example:
1. On the day of departure, Comrade Dimitrova from Berlin, Hitler said somewhere in his report that "in 10 years there will be no communist in the world."
2. After choosing Comrade. Dimitrov to the Comintern, many German communists were arrested by betrayal, and since these devoted comrades were known only in the Comintern, he assumed that the betrayal was on the part of the Comintern.
3. Why did Hitler release Dimitrov and not Thalmann?
4. Such arrests can also be noted in other sections, in other countries (Here I remembered the failures of organizing MUSSO in 1936-37 on the island of Java, just when the MUSSO left the country ... Germany).
5. Why is there no radio broadcast in German? At the same time, Lisztkov insisted that he had a good receiver (here I found that Lisztkov spoke against the facts. Everyone knows and hears that there is a German transmission from the USSR about the latest news, not to mention
about a secret transmission from somewhere, which, however, I also did not hear with my own ears, since I did not have a receiver for this).
6. Listkov showed me a book about Comrade. Dimitrov, where some photographs of Comrade Dimitrov. Two, three of these photographs, although they are similar to each other, have a difference in the nose and ears (Then I remembered that it was not the first time he paid attention to this. And when Babayan was very familiar to the NKVD, he also showed me these pictures and the differences in them, but since the chronicle of the photographs in relation to the time before and after the fire of the Reichstag is not known to me, I simply cannot say anything definite about this. the same opinion as I. Maybe for Comrade Dimitrov they deliberately found a copy for a speech among the masses, where enemies can operate with a pistol in their pockets. Comrade Zoger said that only a specialist in photography can establish the truth in this matter, since photography sometimes gives inconsistency, I agree with him).
Conversations with Listkov on 24.1X-25.1X-41 created doubts in me about Listkov, he does not look like a defector soldier, and I began to remember the name “Listkov”, who wrote an article in the communist newspaper of Germans on the Volga in the USSR several years ago.
I shared my doubts with Comrade Zoger, and I even felt a strange feeling at the thought of whether Lisztkov had been sent to investigate us as well. Indeed, in history we have repeatedly proved our loyalty to the communist movement. Comrade Zoger proved to me that my assumption could not be correct, and I became convinced of this.
But until now, both me and Comrade. Zoger has no answer to the question: "Who is this Listkov?" and why did he end up in this apartment ?. But if we have no answer, then the NKVD will find the answer. I decided to continue my diary with the intention of giving the materials to the NKVD.
Lisztkov asked himself why Comrade. Dimitrov was freed by the fascists, not Thälmann, but if he really was an active communist in Germany, As he assured, why did he not ask himself, how was he so free that he was even accepted into the fascist army.
SEMAOEN
II. Translation from English
This afternoon, Comrade Liskof (a German who had recently arrived here) came to see me and suggested that we gather for a walk somewhere in the city. I agreed with his proposal. But when he put his hand into his pocket, he found there 8 (eight) rubles and was very surprised to find this money in his pocket while he had no money. He said: "Where does this money come from? And ... there are some Trotskyists ... this man who came to me today is just a spy ... he is a Trotskyist." (The comrade who came to him this morning is one of our Comintern comrades).
We went out into the street, and he began to emphasize that this man is a spy, ... therefore (he said) perhaps he would put these 8 rubles in any pocket .... and so on.
I went with him down Gorky Street to also show him what our Soviet Russian people built under socialism; pointing to the Moscow hotel, I said that it was the largest hotel in Moscow, and he was very amazed by such a large building. We went to the Moskva restaurant together and drank tea there. He said some things that I could not understand. But I realized that he was asking me as a person who wants to establish what he wants. He asked: are there many Trotskyists in the Red Army? I replied: "Of course not, not even one."
When we returned home, we had a comrade. Kassim, with whom this German began a conversation of a new order: he accused all of us living in this house of playing a role with him in order to present some evidence against him. He especially accused Comrade Kassim (a Hindu comrade) of this.
He said that everyone in this house knows several languages, but he is trying to show that he does not know German, he thinks that we are all connected with the OGPU, and not with the Comintern.
All suspicions and ... the position of this person during his stay here requires a special investigation in order to reveal the true goals and find out his dubious position.
NAIM SIGER.
III. PRESENTATION ABOUT GERMAN LISTKOV In my opinion, today the German Listkov has finally exposed himself. As soon as he saw me tonight, he told me: the comrade who came to me this morning is not a communist. I replied: "What a friend. I don't know him." He: he came to me and spoke in such a way that I feel only one thing. He is not a communist.
Then he again spoke to me and said: "You played your role very well. Where necessary, I can confirm it. We must give you honor for your performance."
Me: "I don't understand anything, what do you mean by this?"
He, in an angry tone: "Stop playing further. I am sure that you are an employee of the NKVD, and everyone in this apartment is an employee of the NKVD."
Me: "Nothing of the kind, I have repeatedly told you that we live here like everyone else, that is, like an ordinary tenant."
Here you can see that he almost could not stand himself from evil, and he almost shouted: "I am a communist. Let my heart be turned inside out, but I am a communist."
Then he changed his mind: "I do not mind being investigated." He seems to be really a communist, but I was surprised
when I answered some question "Comrade ....."
He interrupted my speech and said angrily: "Stop calling me a comrade. I am not a comrade for you!"
How can he say this, he knew that I was a communist, and thinks that at the same time I am an employee of the NKVD. He never once told me that I was an opportunist or a Trotskyist. And he assured himself that he was not a Trotskyist or an opportunist, but a communist. What if he didn't want to hear the word "comrade" from me.
This means that a communist is not a comrade for him either. Hence he is not a communist himself.
After this incident, during a conversation with Comrade Blinov, I learned about how he got to the USSR.
6 hours before the entry of the German army into the USSR, he deserted from this army to the USSR and he informed the border-NKVD about the plan of the Germans. He was accepted, entrusted, he made reports among the masses, and then he was sent to the Comintern, in this way he ended up in an apartment.
Let us assume that this is indeed the case, and that he was an asset to K.P. Germany in a small regional center. Then, in my opinion, you need to ask the following questions and give your answers.
1. How can he, an active communist known in his area, move freely in Germany, and Dahe became a soldier in the fascist army?
Answer: He was arrested by the Nazis, he was tortured, and he was a coward. Before the fascists, he accused K.P. that she did not conduct a correct policy, did not fight consistently against capitalism and imperialism, but only consistently fought .... the fascists. (he invented this to please the fascists). And so he became a lackey of the fascists, and he was sent to the German army, apparently to carry out various tasks.
2. How could he, an ordinary soldier, know 6-7 hours before the German army entered the USSR that this army would indeed enter the war against the USSR?
How did the German secret police allow him to defect to the USSR in order to warn the NKVD about this?
Answer: he did it on assignment.
3. What did he do in the USSR, and from what he did, is it possible to know more precisely about the task entrusted to him by the Nazis?
Answer: In the USSR, he began to make reports, I don't know which ones in terms of content. Obviously about the atrocities of the fascists (in order to frighten the weak people, and force them to flee when German soldiers attack, and to force strong people to fight against the German soldiers, so that the German soldiers are afraid to defect to the side of our army and firmly hated to death and fought against the Russians).
Moreover, it is obvious that his task includes a goal: how is it possible to stir up discord among the Soviet population and among Soviet workers, as well as in the ranks of the Comintern, by: propaganda of retreat (immediate), from the current tactics of joint actions of British and Soviet military forces (as did GESS in London), already before the war with the USSR.
4. Has Lisztkov achieved his goal?
Answer: no, he feels this very much in the last days, and therefore he is now so angry at everyone around him. In my opinion, in this apartment, he even became dangerous for the people around him.
Thus, it can be determined that he is obviously a saboteur in the political life of the USSR, but not a spy, because everyone says that he does not act the way spies do.
He can be very dangerous if people believe him and listen to his conversations. It needs to be isolated. It is even more dangerous if, in the course of events, he can get back into the German army. Then he is the first to propose that every communist, and every employee of the NKVD, also non-partisan, should be tortured and then killed. He even told me about the methods of torture carried out by the fascists, which I hear for the first time, namely: "to make people extinguish burning wood and coal with their bare hands."
Here Lisztkov was obviously thinking about Anglo-Soviet cooperation and the proverb "to scoop up the heat with someone else's hands."
His Listkov should be sent away from a place that may possibly be captured in the near future, if there is no complete information that he is really a saboteur or a spy.
In my opinion, it is necessary immediately, starting today, to take action against this German Listkov.
SEMAOEN
The author of the first and third reports is Semaun, the chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party. Mentioned in the first report, Zoger - Qassim Hassan Ahmed Al Shek - is the ECCI's assistant for the Middle East. Some of them (Semauna's full name was Kassim John) is mistakenly referred to as "the Hindu comrade Kassim" in the second report. I could not establish the identity of the author of the second report.
Nevertheless, the NKVD did not have time or did not want to respond to the signals. In mid-October, Liskov with other members of the Comintern went to evacuate to Ufa.
IV. COMMENT ABOUT GERMAN SOLDIER LISKOV
I met him in Gorky on October 20 of this year. during the evacuation from Moscow, rode with him for almost two months in one column to the mountains. Ufa. From the first meeting, his behavior seemed very strange to me. I will write a number of facts:
He was very worried about leaving Moscow, right up to ... madness. He demanded from me an answer to the following questions: Why and where is he being taken? Why do they want to kill him? Is Blinov (the head of the column) an employee of the NKVD? etc. To my answer that I am surprised by his questions, that as a communist he must believe that he is in confident hands, in the Soviet Union, in the hands of the communists. He answered and there are many agents and fascists in the Soviets, and he does not know in whose hands he is. He showed this uneasiness all along the road in various forms. In Cheboksary, there was such a case with him: when the barge stopped at the coast, and everyone began to go to the city, he, without telling anyone, switched to a steamer that was standing near the barge on the water, and there he was caught and taken to the NKVD authorities. Then Blinov and I were arrested in connection with this for several hours until the issue was clarified.
As for his views, in conversations with me, he expressed himself in this way:
History is a struggle between the strong and the weak for existence. The death of the weak in favor of the strong is a progressive factor.
The state arose as a result of an agreement between people.
Jews are the most aggressive people seeking to dominate the world. Jews have a speculative psychology. Christianity is a speculative plan of Jews (spiritual soil among foreign peoples). Here he told me in detail with admiration how it happened.
He said the following about democracy: with the development of technology, people accumulated wealth, one more and the other less, and thus the struggle between the poor and the rich intensified. Then the Jews came up with a democratic form of power, with the help of this form they maneuvered between the fighters and strengthened their power over them.
Karl Marx, in his opinion, was an intelligent Jew. He substantiated scientific socialism, on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was a chauvinist, it is Marx in his teaching that refutes the existence of any Christ, and in general Marx has a different approach to this faith. And all this is only in favor of Jewish chauvinism.
To some remark that this is a contradiction, he replied - yes, it is a dialectical contradiction; Jews have long ceased to have a state, they are widespread throughout the world, so they were the first to begin to proletarize and serve international ideas. But on the other hand, there are still separate layers of Jews who are trying to preserve their past. And K. Marx expressed both tendencies in his teachings.
It is interesting that he expounded these views as his own. I remember I stopped him, asked him a number of questions, and he looked at me with an angry look, then we quarreled and did not speak for several days after that.
About present-day Germany and the Soviet Union he made the following remarks: Soviet culture is national in form and social in content, present-day Germany is also national in form and social in content — this is National Socialism. The whole world will be conquered with German weapons, capital will be destroyed, and then socialism will be established. Socialism can only be established with the help of the German army, in cultural countries and all over the world at once. In the Soviets, because it is one country and, in addition, a backward country, it could not have been done. To my remark that the German army does not liberate, but destroys and plunders other peoples, he replied that this is a necessity for war. After the war, with the help of German technology, all destruction will soon be restored.
I once explained to him the reasons for the evacuation precisely by the situation at the fronts. He gave a peculiar comment to this: "The German army is actually not that strong, but the Red Army is being defeated because it is led by the Jews."
The Nazi Party, in his opinion, is an international party. In this regard, he even told me in detail how personnel are being trained there.
There are schools for each country separately, the schools study the language, geography, the history of a particular country and even the local habits of people. The main instruction given to these cadres is not to differ from the local population. By the way, he told me the name of a Nazi dictator (I don’t remember the last name), who traveled for several months on his neighbor and far east and collected material for these purposes. At the same time, I asked him to tell me from the very beginning the history of the Nazi party. He declined saying that he did not know. I myself began to talk about this and expressed the idea that the emergence of this party was connected with the loss of the 1st imperialist war. Then he smiled and, as if in a tone of confession, asked me from where I knew, whether I had been in Germany.
About Comrade Dimitrov, he asked me several times whether Comrade. Dimitrov a communist? Have I read or heard about the Leipzig trial, could it be that the Nazis liberated the Communists? so he told me.
Another time he asked me if I had read the biography of Comrade. Dimitrov written by Blagoev. There, among other things, Blagoev points to the self-criticism of comrade. Dimitrov at an evening in Moscow after the victory in Leipzig on certain issues. In his opinion, the error is not accidental (he told me the same thing several times). The dream ends with words, comrade. Dimitrov stands with his feet on the soil of Germany. The dream must have been thought out.
In the column on the way, he behaved like a boor and a reptile. I, Comrade Blinov and he lived in a collective. In addition, the entire column had to sleep in one room for many days. He did not reckon with the collective ate and smelled like an animal. There were two occasions when he ate a pound of butter at once, which we bought on the road. Very often people complained that he was not behaving culturally. In Vyatskaya Polyana, there was a case when he got up at night (though it was very cold in the room then) and went to bed, in which a woman and a child slept. Then he explained that the bed was closer to the stove. The woman got scared and screamed.
In one village, he suggested that I go out into the street to catch a chicken and cook it. I replied that we cannot do this, and the German soldiers do this, he began to object, he was told: leave your morader. There are many facts about his boorish behavior, there are many facts that we could tell, but it's a pity for the paper. I will tell you three more facts about this. Once he asked me to give him my coat (he also had a coat), firstly, he is cold and, secondly, he is stronger than me, but only the strong has the right to life. He then seriously began to press, on the bus we were alone and almost got into a fight, finally I reassured him with the argument that in the Soviet Union I would be stronger.
In the village of Vysoka-Gora, Comrade Blinov, the driver of Kirsanov, he and I lived in the same apartment. The pancakes went to Kirsanov for gasoline, I was not at home either, he went to bed and took all four blankets that were at the disposal of everyone. Returning home, I woke him up and asked for one blanket, he scolded me, said that it was not cultural to wake a person up because of such a reason, but he gave me a blanket. At night he woke me up and demanded a blanket under the pretext that he was cold. The hostess of the house was very frightened, lit a lamp and wanted to call for help. I thought it would not be convenient for the organization that we were fighting in the village at night and gave him a blanket.
There was a case when he wanted to take his boots from the mistress of the house where he slept, and then there was a scandal about this. He then rushed at me into a fight.
Liskov's personality is a knot of contradictions, on the one hand he wrote poems and talked about philosophy. and on the other hand, his behavior is a real boor.
In philosophy, he is a supporter of materialism, but in social issues he is a real Hitlerist.
When he was full in a good mood, he agreed with my explanations on current political issues, in a bad mood, when he was cold or hungry, then he could not hide his hostility, then he threw such words "one person deceives the world, in advice queues and people walk in bast shoes, the Russian backward people, he became disillusioned with the Soviet Union and wants to go home to Germany, etc.
On the one hand, as he himself said, on theoretical issues, he is able to argue with students on this matter, and on the other hand, in practice, he is a big fool. go out and help pull her out. In his opinion, the machines were stuck according to plan to torture him.
Why did he come running to us? What motives led him to take this step? In my opinion, personal motives and careerism. Or it may not be ruled out that he is at the disposal of an enemy organization. In his views and psychology, he stands on the basis of Hitlerism. I came to this conclusion after staying with him for two months.
BLUFARD H.SH., 18.XII-1941
On December 21, Dimitrov himself arrives in Ufa (he was traveling by special train from Kuibyshev, so the journey took not months, but hours) and soon writes in his diary:
23.12.41
He summoned Trifonov (authorized by the NKVD in Ufa), it was about the isolation of the German deserter Liskov, who had defected on the night of June 22, for his subversive activities and because he was extremely suspicious. He is undoubtedly a fascist and anti-Semite. Perhaps at one time he was even sent to us by the Germans on a special mission.
I sent a cipher telegram to Beria about this.
25.12.41
Trifonov (NKVD) informed about the measures taken in connection with Liskov (the NKVD will take care of him)
The latest information about Liskov is contained in the book of memory of the Republic of Bashkortostan:
Liskov Alfred Germanovich
Born in 1910, Germany; German; secondary education; b / p; NON-WORKING.
Arrested on January 15, 1942.
Rehabilitated July 16, 1942
The arrest after the aforementioned questions does not raise questions, which cannot be said about the date of rehabilitation. What is it? A typo in the book? Or was Liskov really rehabilitated in July? If by that time he was no longer alive, then what was the reason for the reconsideration of the case? If he was alive, then what happened to him?
These questions remain unanswered so far.
Update. 06/23/2014
Ufa journalist Irek Sabitov found out that the real story was somewhat more complicated. He requested the local FSB department and received the following clarification.
Indeed, on 15.01.42 Liskov was arrested "for disseminating slanderous fabrications addressed to the leaders of the Comintern." Under investigation, he showed "signs of mental disorder," as a result of which he was taken up by forensic psychiatrists. On 07/15/42, however, the case was closed, and at the end of July Liskov was again at large. After that Liskov was sent to Novosibirsk (!), "From where at the end of 1943 - beginning of 1944 he disappeared without a trace."
The POW camps known to me in the middle of 1942 are as follows: Spaso-Zavodsky, Temnikovsky, Aktobe, Elabugsky, Mari. Orange, Unzhensky. Novosibirsk is not on this list. For what purpose Liskov was sent to Novosibirsk and what he did there - remains a mystery. At least he witnessed the dissolution of the hated Comintern in May 1943. But how to interpret "traceless disappearance" is still a question.
Alfred Liskov was an anti-fascist. Born in 1910 into a family of poor Germans: a cleaner and a handyman. The family did not have special funds for the education of their son, so Alfred immediately went after school to earn a living. He worked as a carpenter at a furniture factory in his native Prussian town of Kolberg (after the Polish-Soviet exchange of territories in 1951, it became part of the USSR). Then, like other young Germans, he was drafted into the army.
Alfred was a member of the underground communist organization in Germany. Even for the ultra-left, his views were more than revolutionary. Liskov expressed such radical ideas that his party comrades-in-arms were afraid of them in the conditions of the fascist propaganda unfolding at that time.
Wehrmacht archives
In the former Wehrmacht archives in Berlin, there is not much information about Alfred Liskov. On June 21, 1941, he crossed the Soviet border in the Western Bug area. What prompted him to do this was not seriously studied by the Germans themselves or by our historians. Only in 2011, the documents for the defector soldier were first opened for the Russian channel NTV.
In them, the name of Alfred Liskov appears in the list of the first losses of the German army in the Second World War. The register of the dead indicates that Corporal Liskov died on June 22, 1941. There is no more information about him there. It is recorded in more detail about other soldiers and officers: under what circumstances, in what area they died, etc.
After a short investigation, NTV journalists learned that Liskov's bosses did not know anything about his death. The command could simply have thought that he drowned in the Western Bug while erecting a ferry at night for a future attack on the USSR. Already in July, the Nazis stumbled upon a downed plane, in which there were leaflets signed by Liskov.
Activities of a German soldier on Soviet territory
In fact, on June 21, Liskov secretly crossed the border and surrendered to the Soviet border guards. He immediately warned them about the impending attack by Nazi Germany. According to the testimony of the defector, there were many soldiers in the German army who did not want to start a war. Only the threat of execution led them forward. He talked about this when he crossed the Soviet border and later - in anti-fascist leaflets.
When it became known that Liskov was alive and on Soviet territory, a criminal case was opened against him in the Gestapo. A traitor to the Reich would have been shot if he had fallen into the hands of the Nazis. Liskov left his mother, wife and little son in his homeland. They were interrogated by the Gestapo in the summer and autumn of 1941.
Alfred planned to cross the border in advance, 3 months before the events of June. Liskov's fellow countrymen remember him as a subtle, very polite person, an idealist and a poet. They did not dare to publish his poems in the German pre-war press because of too bold ideas. After crossing the border in 1941, Alfred joined the Comintern, began to travel around the country with propaganda speeches.
Arrest and further fate
In November 1941, Liskov and the entire executive committee of the Comintern were evacuated to Bashkiria. According to the plan of the Soviet government, people like Alfred were supposed to carry out propaganda and educational work in the German POW camps. But already 2 months later, he himself was arrested by the NKVD.
There is a version that the idealist Liskov was disappointed with communism in the USSR and on this basis he could conflict with the leadership of the Comintern. In particular, he had frictions with Stalin's protege Dimitrov and others. Alfred was accused of anti-Semitism and fascism.
In 1942-1943, the traces of a defector soldier are completely lost. According to some reports, he tried to feign insanity in order to avoid punishment. And yet the chances are that the former fascist soldier (albeit the one who warned Soviet Union about the impending German attack) will come out alive from the GULAG, are negligible.
The NTV film crew visited the former Wehrmacht archive today. There, for the first time, they agreed to show documents about a German soldier who, risking his life, tried to change the course of history by warning the USSR of an imminent attack.
Interestingly, almost everyone has heard about this man, but no one really knows. Everyone probably remembers the textbook - "On June 21, a German soldier crossed the border, reporting that the Wehrmacht had received an order to attack .."? And more - not a word in any chronicles.
The NTV television company decided to restore justice and the name of the hero. The soldier's name was Alfred Liskov, and his fate is very indicative.
Reportage NTV correspondent Konstantin Goldenzweig.
Who was that German soldier and why at the last moment he crossed the Western Bug to the Soviet side, no one seriously studied on either side of the border. The documents on Alfred Liskov in the former Wehrmacht archive for the NTV film crew are being opened for the first time.
Wolfgang Rammers, head of the department of the personal losses of the Wehrmacht: “His name is in the first list of losses. Here, on June 22, 41st, the city of Sokal. But what is strange: unlike the others who were out of action, there is no more information about Liskov. What happened to him was a mystery to the authorities. "
The regiment initially believed that on the night of June 22, he simply drowned in the Western Bug, erecting a crossing for the troops. However, in July in Ukraine, the fellow soldiers of the drowned man stumbled upon a downed Russian plane. And next to them lay leaflets with his signature: "Surrender to the Red Army."
“The officer's stick, the threat of being shot makes the German soldier fight. But he doesn't want this war. He yearns for peace, like the entire German people, ”the leaflets said.
The German Gestapo opened a criminal case against the traitor to the Reich, which has survived to this day. Interrogations of relatives, friends and ex-wife, whom Liskov left with his son three months before the implementation of the plan. There is no doubt that the escape was precisely a plan. As well as the fact that the trial of Alfred Liskov, had he only fallen into the hands of the Germans again, would have ended in a demonstrative execution.
From the testimony of Paul Schroeder, a former friend of Alfred Liskov: “Even among the communists, he stood out for his statements. Even before the war, he called us to the barricades and insisted that we should honor him like a leader. "
So you realize again that the war not only broke his destiny, but also changed the destinies of millions. After the war, the Russian town of Kolberg, native to Alfred Liskov, became the Polish Kolobrzeg. But all the Germans from there were evicted and the Poles settled in what is now Western Ukraine - from the very regions in which Corporal Alfred Liskov crossed the Soviet border on June 21, 1941. Only one thing has remained unchanged since then: both then and now these are the most that neither is the workers' outskirts. A furniture factory worker, Liskov, joined the Communist Party here.
Jerome Kroczynski, historian: “He sincerely believed in communism, was an idealist. I believed that this is the road to the happiness of mankind. He was a delicate, polite man. And what poems he composed! However, they did not dare to publish them in the local press. The ideas were too bold ”.
The compatriot of Alfred Liskov, the historian Jerome Kroczynski, tried to reconstruct brick by brick the true life of the forgotten soldier. But more often I found ceremonial articles in Izvestia and Pravda. Liskov with the workers of the shoe factory, Liskov with the workers of the rear ...
Today - a defector, yesterday - the son of a cleaner and a laborer from a poor family. Under the image of a good German, so needed by Soviet propaganda, he fit perfectly. In the Soviet Union, Liskov joined the Comintern, drove around with agitation trains, his name was dazzling in the chronicle, but then suddenly disappeared, as if there were no man.
Jerome Kroczynski: “At first, Liskov participated in the meetings of the Comintern, conducted agitation work among the German soldiers. But no one knows whether Liskov also continued to believe in the ideals of socialism after seeing what he was like in the Soviet Union. He was obviously disappointed. We were disappointed in him too ”.
In November 41, Liskov, as a member of the executive committee of the Comintern, was evacuated to Bashkiria. According to the plan, the German members of the International were to work with prisoners of war in the camps. But already in January 42nd, a recent favorite Soviet people he himself ended up in the NKVD camp. There is a version that this was a personal conflict of a simple German proletarian with Ulbricht and Dimitrov, the future appointees of Stalin in the GDR and Bulgaria. For Liskov, this meant only one thing: that in a foreign land, that at home - death and oblivion.
Thomas Menzel, head of the department of the Federal Military Archives of Germany: “There is a protocol of the last of the many Gestapo interrogations of Liskov's mother, in which she finally renounced him. It is dated August 44, when it was not clear whether her son was alive. "
Pan Kroczynski is still unclear to this day. The documents for Liskov have either not been preserved in the archives of the NKVD, or they simply do not want to give them out today. It is all the more difficult to admit that a German soldier could have left the Gulag alive at the height of the war.
Few know about the personality of the German soldier Alfred Liskov. Only a narrow circle of historians and people who are interested in history know that this man warned the Red Army about the impending invasion of Hitler.
Alfred Liskov was an anti-fascist. Born in 1910 into a family of poor Germans: a cleaner and a handyman. The family did not have special funds for the education of their son, so Alfred immediately went after school to earn a living. He worked as a carpenter at a furniture factory in his native Prussian town of Kolberg (after the Polish-Soviet exchange of territories in 1951, it became part of the USSR). Then, like other young Germans, he was drafted into the army.
Alfred was a member of the underground communist organization in Germany. Even for the ultra-left, his views were more than revolutionary. Liskov expressed such radical ideas that his party comrades-in-arms were afraid of them in the conditions of the fascist propaganda unfolding at that time.
Wehrmacht archives
In the former Wehrmacht archives in Berlin, there is not much information about Alfred Liskov. On June 21, 1941, he crossed the Soviet border in the Western Bug area. What prompted him to do this was not seriously studied by the Germans themselves or by our historians. Only in 2011, the documents for the defector soldier were first opened for the Russian channel NTV.
In them, the name of Alfred Liskov appears in the list of the first losses of the German army in the Second World War. The register of the dead indicates that Corporal Liskov died on June 22, 1941. There is no more information about him there. It is recorded in more detail about other soldiers and officers: under what circumstances, in what area they died, etc.
After a short investigation, NTV journalists learned that Liskov's bosses did not know anything about his death. The command could simply have thought that he drowned in the Western Bug while erecting a ferry at night for a future attack on the USSR. Already in July, the Nazis stumbled upon a downed plane, in which there were leaflets signed by Liskov.
Activities of a German soldier on Soviet territory
In fact, on June 21, Liskov secretly crossed the border and surrendered to the Soviet border guards. He immediately warned them about the impending attack by Nazi Germany. According to the testimony of the defector, there were many soldiers in the German army who did not want to start a war. Only the threat of execution led them forward. He talked about this when he crossed the Soviet border and later - in anti-fascist leaflets.
When it became known that Liskov was alive and on Soviet territory, a criminal case was opened against him in the Gestapo. A traitor to the Reich would have been shot if he had fallen into the hands of the Nazis. Liskov left his mother, wife and little son in his homeland. They were interrogated by the Gestapo in the summer and autumn of 1941.
Alfred planned to cross the border in advance, 3 months before the events of June. Liskov's fellow countrymen remember him as a subtle, very polite person, an idealist and a poet. They did not dare to publish his poems in the German pre-war press because of too bold ideas. After crossing the border in 1941, Alfred joined the Comintern, began to travel around the country with propaganda speeches.
Arrest and further fate
In November 1941, Liskov and the entire executive committee of the Comintern were evacuated to Bashkiria. According to the plan of the Soviet government, people like Alfred were supposed to carry out propaganda and educational work in the German POW camps. But already 2 months later, he himself was arrested by the NKVD.
There is a version that the idealist Liskov was disappointed with communism in the USSR and on this basis he could conflict with the leadership of the Comintern.
In particular, he had frictions with Stalin's protege Dimitrov and others. Alfred was accused of anti-Semitism and fascism. In 1942-1943, the traces of a defector soldier are completely lost. According to some reports, he tried to feign insanity in order to avoid punishment. And yet the chances that the former fascist soldier (even if he had warned the Soviet Union about the impending German attack) will come out alive from the Gulag are negligible.