Zolotariov V.

Commissioner of State Security of the 2nd rank Israel Leplevsky: biography problems

Section: The person in historical context

Abstract: The aim, on the basis of documents of personal and criminal cases, the Communist Party files, autobiographies, and various personal documents of I. Leplevski to investigate the main dates of life and activity, to identify discrepancies in the archival documents, and compile a documented biographical reference. Methodology and methods Reconstructing the main stages of Leplevski's biography, the author used an anthropological and prosopographic approach. Biographical, problem-chronological, concrete-search, historical-genetic methods and methods of psychological and historical reconstruction were used to implement the above objective. Conclusions. The author analyzed in detail biographical information about Leplevsky on the basis of archival materials, some of which were first introduced into scientific circulation, and found significant discrepancies in the coverage of certain periods of his life and "revolutionary merits" in personal documents. The most essential difference is a date of birth discrepancy (1894 or 1896), which arose as a result of document forgery by Leplevsky's father during mobilization for the Russian Imperial Army and the time of his joining the Communist Party. It was discovered that when his documents as a member of the Communist Party were exchanged in 1936, Leplevsky consciously added a few months to himself in order to become a "Bolshevik with a pre-revolutionary background. Despite numerous discrepancies in Leplevsky's biographical information, it was not checked either during his service in the state security organs or after his arrest. The author compiled a detailed service record of Leplevsky with an indication of archival sources, which will allow researchers to clarify the biographical information about the man who in 1937 - 1938 was the head of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR.

Keywords: biography, NKVD, GPU, Israel Leplevsky, repressions.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2021.02.191     Citation

• Zolotariov V. (Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Kharkiv, v.zolotaryov@gmail.com) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6414-755X

Cite:
Zolotariov V. (2021). Commissioner of State Security of the 2nd rank Israel Leplevsky: biography problems. From archives of VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB, ( 2 (56)) 191. (In Ukrainian). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2021.02.191

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