Why did the Abwehr agent-saboteur ask Voroshilov for rehabilitation?

On October 19, 1943, counterintelligence "Smersh" arrested Moses Lummer, a former paratrooper officer awarded the Order of the Red Banner, aka Mikhail Lymar, an Abwehr paratrooper agent sent to the Soviet rear to carry out sabotage. In the documents of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, he continues to be listed as missing in 1943.

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“I was thrown to the rear of the Nazis, where we stayed for 105 days.”

Photo: Ivan Shagin/FotoSoyuz

"The paratroopers burst into villages, destroyed these garrisons and moved on"

Photo: S. Korshunov/photo archive of the magazine "Ogonyok" / S. Korshunov/photo archive of the magazine

“I began to reach the brink of death every day, even more, I was on the brink of death every second.”

Photo: Photo archive of the magazine "Ogonyok" / Photo archive of the magazine

"Lummer Moisey Zusevich, senior lieutenant. Reason for retirement - missing. Date of retirement - 11/28/1943" (pictured - Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense)

Photo: A. Uzlyan/Photo archive of the magazine "Ogonyok" / A. Uzlyan/Photo archive of the magazine

Evgeny Zhirnov

"The first to break into the village"

In the huge stream of letters that came in 1960 to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and personally to its Chairman K.E. Voroshilov, a letter from citizen Lummer Moisei Zusevich, born in 1921, from the village of Kalininskoye, Velikoaleksandrovsky district, Kherson region, at first glance, did not stand out in any way. An ordinary, sometimes confusing and not very well written request for clemency. However, the story told in the letter could not help but surprise.

“Dear comrade K. E. Voroshilov,” wrote Lummer, “I am asking you to consider my request for pardon and to remove my criminal record and restore my rights as a citizen of the Soviet Union.

Briefly about my autobiography.

Born in 1921 into the family of an employee, in 1936 he graduated from a seven-year school and entered the Lvov agricultural enterprise. technical school, in 1939 he graduated from technical school and entered the Kiev Twice Red Banner Military Artillery School, which he graduated in 1940 and became a lieutenant and was appointed to the position of artillery commander. batteries of the 124th howitzer artillery regiment of the reserve of the main command. In November 1941, I was appointed to the position of deputy. com. mortar division (correct: division. - "History" ) at the 23rd airborne brigade, as part of which I was thrown behind enemy lines, where we stayed for 105 days, and on June 26, 1942, for carrying out combat missions of the command behind enemy lines. was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

The 23rd Airborne Brigade was dropped behind enemy lines to help the 1st Guards Cavalry and 4th Airborne Corps escape from encirclement. The brigade was assigned the role of a striking force during the breakthrough to the front line. And in the description of the combat path of this unit, they also talked about the battle for which the fighters and commanders of the mortar division were awarded:

“In all the villages beyond the Warsaw highway there were enemy garrisons. The paratroopers burst into the villages, destroyed these garrisons and moved on. Early in the morning, the mortar division approached the village of Danilovichi. The division commander, senior lieutenant A. A. Orobets, sent reconnaissance. Soon the scouts reported that in There are vehicles in the village, with covered bodies, like headquarters ones, with guards posted at the outermost houses... The mortar division had used up all the mines by that time and was acting as a rifle unit. The commander gave the order to move the batteries closer to the village, to the attack line... As it turned out, the headquarters of the 398th Infantry Regiment was located in the village, guarded by a headquarters company and separate firing points. The mortars destroyed it. They captured the regimental banner, maps, and important documents. In the battle, 98 fascists were destroyed, 5 cars and 4 were burned. trucks, the field post office, where there were many parcels, was destroyed, the food warehouse from which the paratroopers stocked up on food was captured."

The award list stated about Lieutenant Lummer’s participation in the battle:

“During the battles with the Germans behind enemy lines, Comrade Lummer showed himself to be a brave, courageous, persistent commander. On June 16, 1942, in the battle during the defeat of the headquarters of the 398th German infantry regiment, he captivated the fighters with his personal example, he was the first to break into the village where the battle took place, with the call “For the Motherland, for Stalin,” he raised a group of fighters to attack. In this battle, a group led by Comrade Lummer destroyed 20 German soldiers and officers, killed 15 horses and blew up one truck with military cargo. He himself personally destroyed 4 German soldiers and officers. , five horses and one typewriter. At the same time, the entire group was brought out and united with its subdivision (unit - “History” ).

Then it was decided to nominate him for the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, but in the end, as he wrote to Voroshilov, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

"Our hospital was abandoned"

In August 1942, the brigade, reorganized into a rifle regiment, was transferred to Stalingrad.

“In 1942,” wrote Lummer, “the 10th Airborne Corps, which included our 23rd Airborne Brigade, was reorganized into the 41st Guards Division, and I was appointed to the post of chief of artillery of the 122nd regiment, and our division was thrown into a breakthrough on the Stalingrad front... For completing the command’s tasks, I was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, for the second time.”

And in February 1943, during the fighting on the outskirts of Dnepropetrovsk, the division was surrounded.

“Parts of the division,” it was told in its history, “were surrounded. They emerged from it with heavy fighting for almost two weeks and united with their troops on the line of the Seversky Donets in the Krasny Liman region. The battles in the encirclement are the most difficult, they cannot be done without great losses."

About how this retreat ended for him, Lummer wrote:

“In the area of the Lozovaya station, I was in serious condition, wounded and shell-shocked, I was surrounded, and our hospital with the seriously wounded was abandoned, and in such a serious condition I was captured by the Germans and sent to a strict officer camp in the city of Vladimir-Volynsk (Vladimir-Volynsky.— "History" ) Stalag-365, where they cured me and began to torture me, to mock me in the way the fascists knew how. The fascists did not know that I was a Jew by nationality, because I had no natural signs, and I speak Ukrainian well. registered by the name Lymar Mikhail, a native of the village of Chapaevka, Kalinindorf district, Nikolaev region, so I began to reach the brink of death every day, even more, I was on the brink of death every second, and at that time the Germans began selecting prisoners of war to Vlasov. army, and I decided to enlist, and then get the opportunity with a group to escape across the front line to their own, but the Nazis did the opposite, they sent me with 10 people to their intelligence agency, which was located near Kiev in a forest camp, this was June 1, 1943 , where I was until August 1, 1943."

Personally destroyed 4 German soldiers and officers, five horses and one typewriter

The letter stated about further events:

“In 1943, at the end of August, the Nazis sent me to the city of Glukhov to reconnaissance group 205. From Glukhov, the Germans sent me to the rear of the Soviet Army by plane, and on October 19, 1943, I confessed to the counterintelligence agencies Smersh. In counterintelligence I told about everything and gave evidence against all German intelligence agents from the Kyiv intelligence agency and the Glukhov group N205."

Lummer believed that he had helped expose a considerable number of enemies. But in reality, if the Smersh operatives needed his testimony, it was only to clarify the information they already had, received from Abwehr agents who confessed or were caught. And on December 27, 1943, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" reported to the State Defense Committee:

“Our agent, Vitaly Ivanovich Ivanov, returned from behind enemy lines.

Ivanov delivered to the Smersh Main Directorate the data on 6 official employees of German military intelligence and materials on 26 agents obtained during his work (August-November of this year) in Abwehrgruppe-205, operating under the 2nd German Army. saboteurs preparing to transfer units of the Red Army to the side.

Having infiltrated, on our instructions, into the German intelligence agency - Abwehrgruppe-205 and communicating there with official employees of the group, Ivanov established the name, location and postal numbers of several German military intelligence agencies operating against units of the Belorussian Front, and also recruited three agents of German military intelligence .. .

Noteworthy is the message from agent Ivanov that Abwehrgruppe-205, in addition to training and transporting saboteurs to the location of Soviet troops, is engaged in mining roads, destroying and setting fire to populated areas abandoned by retreating German troops. For this purpose, the intelligence agency has a special group consisting of Germans and prisoners of war, former Red Army soldiers who have proven themselves in treacherous work.

Ivanov’s behavior behind enemy lines and his practical activities in Abwehrgruppe-205, in accordance with our legend and assignment, are confirmed by the testimony of the arrested saboteur agents of the German intelligence Miroshnikov, Ignatyuk, Lummer, Pharaonov, Nechaev and Losikov.

Currently, Ivanov is being prepared by the Smersh Directorate of the Belorussian Front to return to the enemy’s rear.”

"I was condemned before my eyes"

About what happened after his confession, Lummer wrote:

“I was arrested, detained until February 1944, and then I was condemned blindly by a Special Meeting in Case No. 214 of the Smersh Counterintelligence Directorate of the Belorussian Front on February 26, 1944 under Article 58-1 "b" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 15 years in prison. But if the conditions under which I was captured - in a difficult condition, my suffering in captivity, being a Jew and I did nothing in favor of the enemy, all this went down the drain, but then there was such a time, that time forced the most prominent figures than me, and then there was time, but I suffered the punishment of torment after fascist captivity in the Usvitl camp, which was in charge of Goglidze and others, but everything was survived, tormented, and I waited for the happy day of August 5, 1954, when I was released by the court of justice and August 5, 1954 year, according to the decision of the permanent session of the Arkhangelsk Regional Court on June 29, 1954, issued in accordance with Article 457 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ahead of schedule. I received a passport, a military ID and am working at the mine at the moment, because I am disabled from the Second World War, but I have a pension. I don’t get paid because I don’t have a certificate of injury, who cares that I’m suffering, the regional military registration and enlistment office tells me this: the fact that you don’t have one lung and 10 ribs and you’re crippled doesn’t mean anything, but the main thing is , you do not have a certificate and you are not entitled to a pension. I turned to the regional military registration and enlistment office for clarification of my Government awards, I was ridiculed by Major Sobolev and Major Ivanov, and all this is so morally pressing that sometimes I regret that I did not die either in captivity or in the torments of the Far North; and everyone thinks that you are humiliated and insulted, and therefore I ask you, dear Kliment Efremovich, I am a human being and I work, I have 8 commendations in 5 years, a certificate, and this year I received a cash bonus of 400 rubles.

At this time I am very sick, the bad experience I had previously had a strong impact on my health, and I ask you to have mercy on me and remove my criminal record, so that I can be equal, so that I have the right to join the ranks of our party, for which and in whose name I walked into battle, not sparing my life, because I have been a member of the CPSU since 1941, and for the rest of my life I want to receive what I rightly deserve, and therefore I ask you:

1. Pardon me and remove my criminal record.

2. Give me back my orders: the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, which I was awarded by order of the Western Front in 1942, and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree."

Judging by the surviving documents, employees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were imbued with sympathy and decided to help Lummer. They requested information about his awards and characteristics from his place of residence. And the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office was asked to reconsider Lummer's case.

The first, on February 12, 1960, came the answer from the department for awards and registration of awardees of the Main Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense:

"Lieutenant Lummer Moisei Zuevich (as in the document - "History" ), born in 1921, chief of staff of the department of the 23rd VDBR division, awarded the Order of the Red Banner by order of the Western Front N0790 dated July 18, 1942.

The award under this order was given to him for N34197.

The department does not have information about the issuance of an order book for the Order of the Red Banner.

Lummer (Lymar, Limar) is not listed among those awarded other awards and he has not received any representations from the relevant command on this issue.”

He tried, using forged documents issued to him by the Germans, to enlist in one of the military units

And the Main Military Prosecutor's Office on September 27, 1960 reported how the attempt to rehabilitate Lummer ended:

“Lummer Moisei Zusevich, on the basis of a resolution of the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR dated February 26, 1944, was imprisoned in a correctional labor camp for a period of 10 years on charges that during the Great Patriotic War, while in captivity, he voluntarily entered the German intelligence school and on the night of October 3, 1943, he was transferred to the Soviet rear with the task of blowing up a bridge over the Seim River in the city of Baturin. Having refused to complete the task, Lummer tried, using forged documents issued to him by the Germans, to enlist in one of the military units of the Soviet Army, thus hiding. through his affiliation with German intelligence agencies, but he failed, and on the sixteenth day of his stay in the Soviet rear he confessed.

The main military prosecutor's office filed a protest against Lummer, which raised the question of terminating his case for lack of evidence of a crime.

By a ruling dated August 10, 1960, the military tribunal of the Belarusian Military District rejected the protest on the grounds that Lummer, while studying at a German intelligence school, committed the following crimes: in June 1943, he carried out an assignment from the German command to identify partisans; in August of the same year he participated in the defense of the city of Glukhov from Soviet troops; in September 1943, he reported to the German command his suspicions about the connection of two Soviet girls with partisans and participated in the detention of the latter.

Currently, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office does not find sufficient grounds to file a protest against the determination of the military tribunal of the Belarusian Military District.

Due to the above, there are no grounds for returning the Order of the Red Banner to Lummer M.Z.”

The matter was put to rest by answers from the Velikoaleksandrovsky district, from which it followed that in recent years Lummer had not worked at the mine, but as a caretaker at a school.

But the story with his awards did not end there. In 1985, when war veterans were being awarded on the fortieth anniversary of the Victory, Lummer Moisei Zusevich (as recorded in the award documents), born in 1921, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. Apparently, the human factor was at work. But the same factor was at work everywhere. Even after a request from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to the Ministry of Defense, senior lieutenant M.Z. Lummer was listed as missing in action in 1943 in the ministry’s documents. And he continues to be listed as missing to this day.

"Give me back my orders"