Biography mysteries
As is customary in intelligence, the life of Mirra Goetz (or Getz?) Is shrouded in riddles and secrets. She entered the history of military intelligence of the Soviet Union as Maria Filippovna Sakhnovskaya-Flerova. She had to endure many severe trials and heavy shocks. When the Knight of the Order of the Red Banner once again, already in 1937, fell under the skating rink of mass repressions, she practically had no chance of surviving. Her entire past military career under the leadership of her former bosses, subjected to persecution, political repression, or declared "enemies of the people", brought her under the gun of the NKVD firing squad. Neither the military order, nor the rank of general, nor previous merits in military intelligence helped. Probably, in those sad days in the prison cell, she repeatedly recalled the past years.
Childhood beyond the Pale
At the end of the 19th century, there were about 7.5 million Jews in the world, of which more than 5.2 million people lived on the territory of the Russian Empire. These were mainly small artisans and tailors. Every fourth of them, to one degree or another, knew Russian.
As you know, the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire appeared in the 2nd half of the 18th century as a result of the division of the Commonwealth between the great powers of that time. After the 3rd redistribution of Poland, the Pale of Settlement included 15 provinces of the Russian Empire, including the Vilnius province. Within the Pale, there were various restrictions on free movement and occupation for Russian subjects of the Jewish faith. Over the years, their list has changed and was accompanied either by strengthening or softening of certain restrictions.
Mirra was born outside the Pale in 1897 into a Jewish family in the city of Vilna, Vilna province of the Russian Empire. Unfortunately, no documentary evidence of this date has yet been identified. It is quite possible that over time the birth registers of one of the 5 former synagogues in Vilna will be discovered, where information about the exact date of her birth should have been preserved. The records of acts of civil status in synagogues were conducted according to approximately the same schemes as among Christians, but taking into account religious characteristics (birth, circumcision, marriage, death). Records in metrics were made by a local rabbi. Jewish birth books were kept in two languages: on the left page of the spread, the text is in Russian, on the right - the same text is duplicated in Hebrew or Yiddish. Metric records would make it possible to find out not only the exact date of birth of Mirra herself,but also to clarify information about her parents. There are still many mysteries or, perhaps, just bureaucratic confusion on this issue.
The situation could be clarified by her birth certificate or her father's passport. According to the Russian legislation in force at that time, children were necessarily entered in the parents' passports. Since January 1895, the empire issued new passport samples. In addition to data on the owner, it included information about the wife, sons (under 18) and daughters (under 21). Boys under 17 and girls under 21 could receive a residence permit instead of a passport. Such a document was issued only at the written request of the parents. In October 1906, the identity document became known as the passport book.
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With the outbreak of the First World War, the western provinces that were part of the Pale of Settlement found themselves in a war zone. The authorities were forced to temporarily abolish the restrictions on the Pale of Settlement and begin the evacuation of Jews from the front line.
In the period after the October events of 1917, in all the questionnaires and autobiographies, Mirra, who later called herself in the Russian manner Maria Filippovna, wrote about her father that he was a teacher in a gymnasium. She almost never mentioned anything about her mother and other relatives.
She did not share her childhood impressions of her hometown either. I did not remember the magnificent views of the city from the height of the sandy hills - Krestovaya, Zamkovaya, Bekeshova or other sights of my native land. In the literature and sources that casually mention her childhood years in Vilna, there is no information about her religiosity and attitude to Judaism. There is no mention of family visits to any religious events at any of the 5 Jewish synagogues and 72 prayer houses in Vilna at that time. And the young lady never mentioned about the city theater or about any other childhood impressions of holidays, children's hobbies and other events.
But the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron says a lot about this city. Vilna has a rich and centuries-old history. It was not only an important transport hub on the trade road to Europe. At the end of the 19th century, 6 factories worked here, the production of cast iron products, shoes, tobacco and other goods developed. However, the main trade turnover fell on timber and grain.
More than 20% of the urban population were representatives of the Jewish faith.
In the 1890s, 127 educational institutions operated in Vilna, including a cadet school, a women's gymnasium, and a Mariinsky Higher School with 1,024 students. At the same time, 91 educational institutions existed exclusively for Jews. There were entire neighborhoods and districts in the city, mainly inhabited by Jews.
Through Vilna and the Vilnius province all the paths of invaders from the West, who encroached on Russian lands, ran. So during the First World War from 1915 to 1918 the city was under German occupation.
Secrets of the family nest
It is quite possible that during the Soviet period of her life she already deliberately hid everything that was associated with her childhood and family. Such a paucity of information about Mirra's childhood and girlhood has created conditions for various assumptions about her origin, early years and family ties. In most publications, her maiden name is indicated as Getz. However, no reliable information has been found about her relatives along this lineage. Hence, it could be assumed that she was born into a simple, little-known Jewish family, so everywhere she pointed out that her father was a simple teacher in a gymnasium. She did not specify in which of the Vilna gymnasiums (Russian or Jewish - there were both) he taught and what subjects. But the readers already understand that he was a rather educated person. But, we repeat, reliable,no documented information has yet been identified.
Such an information vacuum could not exist indefinitely, and over time, a new version of the origin of Mirra and her family appeared. Various Jewish publications have been particularly successful in this matter. Creating her new biography, they acted very simply - from the previously mentioned maiden name Getz removed only one letter "t" and Mirra immediately acquired a new surname Getz. At the same time, she simultaneously became a member of a rather well-known in those years, a large Jewish family, also living in Vilna.
This version can be understood and accepted only if the mistake made earlier in the spelling of the real (maiden) surname of the future military intelligence officer is proved. Or reliable documentary evidence will be presented. Otherwise, such an interpretation of the name may look like a historical falsification and distortion of facts. A simple example, by analogy with the common Russian surname Petrov. If you remove the same letter "t" from it, you get Perov. And this is a completely different name.
The tangled branches of the family tree
Recently, however, information about Mirra's other maiden name also got into one of the versions of Wikipedia. In a new presentation, her biography is as follows.
Maryam Faivelevna (Mirra Filippovna) Getz was born in the provincial city of Vilna on June 12 (old style), 1897, in the family of the collegiate councilor Getz Faivel Meer Bentselovich (1850, Rossiena - December 31, 1931, Riga) and Khaya Samuilovna Getz.
According to the Table of Ranks, her father in this case had a civil rank of the VI class, equal to an army colonel. Could she not have indicated this information in her questionnaires after the October Revolution, but limited herself to only mentioning that her father was a teacher in a gymnasium? It could well, since the "former" in the new government were not held in high esteem.
It is possible that for the same reasons she changed her last name to Flerova. She probably married for this, since this is the easiest way for a woman to change her last name. But these are only our assumptions, since such a version does not find documentary confirmation at the moment. There is, however, a documented fact that in the period from 1917 to 1923 she bore the surname of Flerov. But there is no personal confirmation of the reasons and time for the change of the surname and of Maria Filippovna herself. She did not mention the brothers and sisters who, according to the new version of her biography, in 1917 lived with their parents in Moscow. Later, of course, she could not mention her relatives at all, since they emigrated abroad and lived first in Kovno, and then moved to Riga. These territories were no longer part of the RSFSR. The fate of her motherolder sisters and younger brothers remained unknown.
More information has been preserved about the father. He was a graduate of the Historical and Philological Department of the Dorpat Imperial University and the Faculty of Oriental Languages in St. Petersburg (1887). At the time of the birth of Mirra, who became the third daughter in the family, he was the district inspector of Jewish schools in the Vilna province. This is a very high post for a Jew in the civil service in the Russian Empire.
Mirra had older sisters Leia (1893) and Rachel (1894) along this line of life, as well as younger brothers Benzion (Benya, 1900) and Raphael (1902). In Vilna, the family lived on Tambovskaya street, 8a. With the outbreak of the First World War, the family was first evacuated to Mogilev, and then moved even further from the front to Vitebsk. Since 1917, the entire large family lived in Moscow, where his father founded a Jewish gymnasium. Here the parents divorced for some unknown reason. Father married a second time to the doctor Amalia Borisovna Freidberg (1866-1932). So Mirra got a stepmother, whom she also did not mention anywhere.
Amazing things are happening with attempts to clarify biographical information about the life and family of Mirra, known in Soviet times as M. F. Sakhnovskaya-Flerova. Now, in the new version of information about parents and family, there are discrepancies. Here the next "white spots" appear already in the new biography of Mirra. It is unclear how she ended up in revolutionary Petrograd in 1917, when the family lived in Moscow. What did her father do from 1917 to 1920, and in connection with which he decided to emigrate with his family from Soviet Russia? It is known that he ended up in emigration in 1920 and until 1923 was the director of the Jewish teachers' seminary in Kovno. Then until the end of his life he remained the director of the Jewish gymnasium "Tushiya" in Riga. He died on December 31, 1931.
This biographical misunderstanding does not end there. So, in the Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, another year of birth of his father (1853) is given, it is indicated that he "attended lectures" at Yuryevsk and St. Petersburg universities. At the same time, it is known that the Dorpat Imperial University was renamed into Yuryevsky only in December 1893. Therefore, it is unlikely that Mirra's father studied there at the age of about 40. In addition, in 1887 he already graduated from the St. Petersburg Imperial University, faculty of oriental languages. It turns out that he completed his studies at the Dorpat Imperial University much earlier.
In 1891 he was appointed "a learned Jew at the Vilnius educational district", and in 1894 he was assigned to the Ministry of Public Education of the empire. Since 1909, he taught Jewish history at the Vilna Jewish Teachers' Institute.
Getz-father received a religious education. Later he was actively involved in social activities. From the end of the 1870s, he began to publish in various periodicals in Hebrew, Russian and German. All his articles and books were in one way or another devoted to the Jewish question. The new version of information about Mirra's family, along with links and pointers, was later transferred to the next edition of the free encyclopedia in the category of "Women scouts". The posthumous military intelligence officer acquired a new pedigree.
A winding path to the ranks of the Bolsheviks
The fate of M. F. Flerova was not easy even for those turbulent years of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It is still unclear how a girl from a Jewish family ended up in Petrograd by the age of 20 in the cycle of the revolutionary events of 1917.
She herself wrote in her autobiography and in various questionnaires of those years that after graduating from the gymnasium she worked as a teacher, and then as a proofreader. At the same time, she did not indicate either the periods of time or the place of work. However, the mention of work as a proofreader suggests that she worked either in a publishing house or in a printing house. This fact of her biography somehow explains how a young girl in October 1917 could have ended up in the editorial office of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. By the way, under this name the newspaper began to appear again on October 27 - immediately after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. Before that, after the defeat of the printing house of the newspaper by the cadets by the order of the Provisional Government in July, it changed its name more than once and appeared as - "Leaflet" Pravda "," Worker and Soldier "," Proletarian "," Rabochy "and" Rabochy Put ". Likely,Mirra worked in the editorial office of the central body of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), due to her non-partisan nature and due to her age, in some insignificant technical position, so her surname was not preserved among the employees of Pravda at that time.
It is possible that the revolutionary events in the northern capital and the struggle of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government so influenced her political views that she found herself among them. And the constant work with the texts of the central Bolshevik newspaper certainly affected the transformation of political views and the formation of ideological preferences of Mirra Flerova. After a couple of months of work in the editorial office of Pravda, she joined the ranks of the RSDLP (b).
On the fronts of the civil war
Joining the Bolshevik Party in January 1918 and voluntarily entering the ranks of the newly emerging Red Army may testify to the courage and determination of a young lady from a wealthy Jewish family. From that time on, her military road began, full of dangers and unexpected turns of fate. In the period from 1918 to 1921, she more than once had to take a rifle in her hands and go into battle. So, already in March 1918, at the call of the party, she went with a detachment of Red Guards to defend Petrograd. Later she participated in battles with the Germans near Pskov. She stayed at the front for about a month, fighting as an ordinary soldier or, if necessary, helping the wounded as a nurse.
Mirra also mentioned her work in the agitation train of A. S. Bubnov at the beginning of the civil war. However, among the 5 Soviet propaganda trains that existed in the period from 1918 to 1920, Andrei Sergeevich was not among the leaders. Probably, Flerova had in mind some separate trips led by Bubnov with agitation and propaganda purposes during the period of battles and the restoration of economic order in Ukraine. This was quite possible, since he had the status of the commissar of railways in the south of Russia, was a member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Railways of the RSFSR and, at the same time, held party and economic positions in the leadership of Soviet Ukraine.
Then Mirra was sent to an equally important job in a belligerent country - to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. And after a while she was approved as the secretary of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars in the Defense Council of Ukraine.
So she ended up in the team of the famous revolutionary and politician H. G. Rakovsky, who at that time headed the Council of People's Commissars on the Soviet territory of Ukraine, and the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs at the same time. At the same time, as a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and a close comrade of the all-powerful Leon Trotsky, he was endowed with extraordinary powers and enjoyed the confidence of Moscow. Working alongside Christian Rakovsky, 22-year-old Myra was a participant in many important events that took place during her almost 9-month period of peaceful work in the war-torn Ukrainian land.
However, in January 1919, she again found herself in the ranks of the Red Army. She fought as a commissar of a machine-gun company in the Yekaterinoslav area as part of a group of forces under the command of P. E. Dybenko. Later she was appointed military commissar of the battalion and assistant commissar of the 7th Sumy regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet division. In April 1919, Ukrainian Soviet troops under the command of Pavel Dybenko occupied the Isthmus of Perekop, then practically the entire Crimea (with the exception of Kerch).
After staying at the front for less than 4 months, she was again seconded to civilian work in Ukraine, as she knew the local situation and had experience in such work. So Mirra again found herself subordinate to Rakovsky, who at that time received additional functions of the people's commissar of internal affairs on the territory of Soviet Ukraine. Mirra Flerova worked at her section of civilian work until September 1919, witnessing fierce battles with the White Guards, Makhnovists, Grigorievites and other hostile military formations.
And in the fall of the same year, a new twist of fate awaited her and a return to the army ranks. First, Mirra fights as part of the 44th Infantry Division as an ordinary Red Army soldier, despite her party affiliation, combat experience and command skills. Then, having shown courage and her military skills on the front line, she is appointed to political positions in the company, and later in the regimental echelon. After a short time from the post of the military commissar of the regiment, she was transferred to the post of deputy military commissar in the 132nd Plastun brigade, commanded by L. Ya. Weiner. As you know, the scouts in the Russian army performed the functions of military intelligence officers. They were specially trained to conduct reconnaissance operations on the front line and behind the front line. So Mirra Flerova for the first time was in the composition of a military intelligence unit.
The brigade under the leadership of Leonid Weiner successfully fought as part of the 44th Infantry Division. The brigade commander, a Jew by nationality, had been a party member since 1917 and had a wide range of combat experience. Next to him, Mirra felt more confident in any combat situation. In one of the journal articles of the 1920s, her story was given about one of the combat episodes near Chernigov in the Ukraine. All this happened during her service in the Weiner brigade. “Denikin captured Chernigov. The Red brigade is pressed against the Dnieper. - we read on the yellowed pages of the magazine. - No exit. The brigade was fatal. … Every hour reminded me of imminent death, and suddenly Mirra and Commander Comrade Weiner saw a small merchant ship on the Dnieper. If not for the critical moment, everyone would have greeted such a flight with Homeric laughter. Shells are flying into the Dniepera desperate battle rages all around, and here, slowly, cutting through the calm expanse of the river, a steamer with a manufacture goes as if nothing had happened. We must not hesitate. Mirra gives the order, and the Red Army men seize the ship. All night long Mirra ferried the brigade to the other side.
When morning dawned and shots rang out very close, the steamer came for the last time for Mirra. Already from the middle of the river she saw the perplexed White Guards."
When they decided to transfer Flerova to headquarters, she categorically refused and left as an ordinary soldier in the 396th regiment. She was eager to fight, considering herself necessary in combat, and not in staff service. Therefore, she soon found herself in the ranks of the First Cavalry Army under the command of S. M. Budyonny. Here she served in commissar posts in the field medical unit, in the army sanitary department, and then in the army auto department. Due to her business skills, front-line hardening and ability to navigate in difficult situations, she was appointed to the post of business manager in the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry Army. Now she worked side by side alongside Budyonny, Voroshilov and other famous military leaders during the Civil War.
Service during the Civil War clearly demonstrates her service to the common cause of the struggle for Soviet power. She did not seek to make a military career, did not "cling" to command positions, but was where it was more difficult. Therefore, the transition from commanders to privates, from political workers to nurses was a habit for her. The main thing is to remain on the front line of the struggle against the opponents of Soviet power. As her friend V. V. later recalled. Vishnyakova, during the Civil War, everyone who knew Mirra from the front noted that she "was remarkably good-looking, but with the greatest contempt for everything that painted her like a woman." This behavior was not uncommon among female military personnel at the time.
In November 1920, Flerova was appointed manager of the affairs of the Revolutionary Military Council of the North Caucasian Military District. The district was formed by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated May 4, 1918 on the territory of the Don, Kuban and Terek regions, the Stavropol and Black Sea provinces and Dagestan. From this position, she was sent to Moscow as a guest of the X Congress of the RCP (b). A number of publications indicate that she was a delegate to a party congress. However, her name does not appear on the lists of delegates.
Battle Order for participation in the elimination of the mutiny in Kronstadt
On March 8, 1921, the X Congress of the RCP (b) began its work in Moscow. Among the guests of the congress was also a young communist from the front ranks of the Red Army Mirra Flerova. She listened with great attention to the political report of the Central Committee, presented by Lenin. The leader of the Bolsheviks noted that for the first time in three and a half years there were no foreign troops on the territory of the RSFSR and we were already talking about the transition from war to peace. In his report, Lenin drew the attention of the congress delegates to the difficulties associated with the demobilization of the Red Army that had begun. The already difficult situation was aggravated by the collapse of transport, food and fuel crises.
Lenin sounded at the congress that "the situation in our country at the present moment is more dangerous than at the time of Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich." Most likely, he had in mind the protests that began on the eve of the congress in the Kronstadt garrison. They will be called a mutiny and on March 7, on the eve of the opening of the congress, they will attempt to suppress the protest by force. M. Tukhachevsky, who was appointed to command the punitive operation, based his initial calculation on the fact that it is worth scaring the rebels with shooting and they will scatter. And the matter will end without bloodshed. However, everything happened very tragically.
The attack on Kronstadt undertaken by Tukhachevsky in the early morning of March 7 failed. The dead and wounded appeared on both sides. Continuing the concentration of troops in the Kronstadt direction, Trotsky on March 10 informed the Central Committee of the RCP (b) about the danger of the approaching thaw, with the onset of which "the island would become inaccessible to us."
In connection with the Kronstadt events, a delegation of the Petrograd Bolsheviks headed by G. E. Zinoviev. For the same reason, there was no People's Commissariat for Military Affairs L. D. Trotsky. He arrived in Moscow only by March 14 and took part in 4 closed sessions of the congress without minutes.
Even earlier, the mobilization of delegates and guests of the congress to suppress the performance of the Kronstadt garrison and part of the seamen of the Baltic Fleet began. By the end of March 14, as announced by L. B. Kamenev, 140 people have already been sent to Petrograd. In total, according to various sources, from 279 to 320 delegates were sent. The difference in numbers is explained, according to V. Khristoforov, by the fact that among the persons sent to Kronstadt were not only the delegates of the congress, but also its guests.
On the night of March 16-17, a second offensive was undertaken by the forces of the formed Northern and Southern groups of forces, and by noon on March 18 Kronstadt was occupied by the assault forces. In the southern group of those advancing on the ice of the bay, Mirra Flerova walked among the commanders and the Red Army next to Voroshilov with a rifle in her hands. She was appointed authorized by the medical unit of the Southern Group of Forces. Then there was an order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of March 23, 1921, which said: “… the below-named comrades are awarded the Order of the Red Banner for participating in the storming of the forts and the Kronstadt fortress, they inspired the red fighters with their personal bravery and example, which contributed to the final cleansing of Kronstadt from counterrevolutionary gangs ". At number six on this list was Mirra Flerova. She was proud of her award and the fact that she was among 28 women,marked with this supreme sign. But in our time, she would hardly be credited with past distinctions for a feat. By decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 10, 1994 No. 65 "On the events in the city of Kronstadt in the spring of 1921" all charges of armed rebellion were dropped from the repressed.
But each hero lives his life within his own time. This happened with Mirra. She was sent to study at the Red Army Military Academy, which was recently formed on the basis of the former General Staff Academy. It is unlikely that she clearly understood where the roads of military service would lead her, what service heights she would reach, and how tragically her life would end at the age of 40.
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Before us is a rare photograph in which Mirra Flerova is depicted in a classroom among fellow students in the Eastern Branch of the Military Academy. Many years ago this illustration was included in one of the anniversary editions about the Academy. As can be seen in the photo, Flerova's uniform dress has the Order of the Red Banner and insignia on the buttonholes, which, unfortunately, are poorly distinguishable due to the poor quality of the image.
Within the walls of the Military Academy
The former Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army after the appointment of its chief M. N. Tukhachevsky was renamed according to the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of August 5, 1921 into the Military Academy of the Red Army (hereinafter - VA Red Army). The Eastern branch was created in it by the decision of L. D. Trotsky, still in the former academy of the General Staff of the Red Army in accordance with the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of January 29, 1920, No. 137. At the same time, the task was set to start classes with the first set of students already from February 1, in other words, 3 days after the order. For training, it was ordered to recruit 40 students. In fact, the classes began only on February 11.
The business was new and not easy, so in 3 years 6 heads of the Eastern department (later - department) were replaced. The situation stabilized only with the appointment on August 1, 1921, of the former officer of the Imperial Naval General Staff B. I. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky. For almost 2 years he supervised the training of military specialists and workers of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (hereinafter - NKID) for work in the East and in other regions. The selection of military candidates for training, the educational process and the distribution of graduates was supervised by the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters.
In the year Mirra Flerova entered the academy, students were recruited “from among those willing 20 people who passed the entrance exam” and another 20 people, also after a special test, were sent to study from the NKID. By the way, in 1921, when Mirra was taking the exams, the procedure for admission to the Eastern Branch of the Academy of the Red Army commanders who had shown themselves in practice was simplified. However, out of one and a half thousand Red commanders, who were initially selected in the army to study at the academy, only 248 people passed the entrance exams. And even less came to graduation from the VA RKKA - only 115 people.
Among the listeners who comprehend academic sciences alongside Mirra were people from different walks of life, with different levels of education and combat experience. So, in terms of social composition, among the future military intelligence officers and diplomats there were 28% of workers and peasants, and 72% were ranked among the intelligentsia. Every tenth listener was non-partisan, and 90% of them were in the party, but had different party experience (from candidate to pre-revolutionary). The majority (60%) had a secondary education, while one in 10 had only a lower or home education. The remaining 30% of the trainees managed to obtain diplomas of higher and special education before entering the academy. Every 5th had no combat experience at all, while the remaining 80% at different times and in various army positions participated in battles on the fronts of the Civil War.
At first, classes at the Eastern Branch were held in the evening - from 18.00 to 21.15 (4 hours a day). This mode of study allowed students to attend classes at the main faculty of the academy. This was encouraged by the management. At the same time, the study of military subjects was not obligatory for future diplomats. The eastern branch (later - the department) was a separate division of the academy, although it was located in the same building. This structure had its own office and its own staff of 25 people.
Since 1922, classes began to be held in the daytime and according to new curricula. The main emphasis was on the study of oriental languages: Chinese, Turkish, Persian and others, although the curriculum also included European languages. In addition, they studied military geography and the economic situation of the states of the Near and Middle East, the politics of the great powers in the East, commercial law, military disciplines and special subjects. The training period was initially 3 years. Between the 2nd and 3rd courses, the trainees were supposed to have a six-month internship in the studied country. Such missions, as a rule, were carried out in the interests of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. Then it was decided to reduce the period of theoretical training to 2 years, followed by a one-year business trip of students to the East to one of the studied countries. As it appears,Mirra Flerova majored in Chinese subjects. And the Chinese language was taught to the audience by its native speakers - Lian Kun and Qiu Qiu Bo. Soon, her knowledge of the language came in handy in practice.
During Flerova's training at the Eastern Branch of the Red Army VA, very little time was allotted to the study of military disciplines. So, in the 1st year, military science was not included in the curriculum at all. In the 2nd year, 65 academic hours were allocated for military disciplines, and in the 3rd year - another 34 academic hours. In other words, only about 100 teaching hours for the entire period of study.
P. Gusterin notes that in 1924 4 women were released from the VA of the Red Army. As you know, one of them was Mirra. By the way, at the same time as Flerova, the famous Chekist Yakov Blumkin studied at the academy. Larisa Reisner's brother, the future diplomat, intelligence officer and historian Igor Reisner, studied at the Eastern Branch. Within the walls of the academy, Mirra met with a student of the main faculty, Rafail Natanovich Sakhnovsky, who turned out to be a fellow soldier in service in the 44th rifle division. They were married in July 1923. So Mirra became Sakhnovskaya-Flerova. It is unlikely that the future scout could have predicted what sad consequences her marriage would lead to in the future. But in those days of loving youth, their life together was seen as happy and cloudless.
A year later, another entry appeared in her track record: “I graduated from the course of the Military Academy of the Red Army with the rights of persons with a higher military education, with a mark of“good”. And on the eve of release by order of the RVS of the USSR of June 12, 1924, she was assigned to the reserve of the Red Army to carry out special tasks of the RVS of the USSR. Such a task was her business trip with her husband as military advisers to revolutionary China.
Military advisor in China
In February 1923, the head of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, appealed to the leadership of the USSR with a request to send Soviet military specialists and political workers to the south of China in Canton (Guangzhou) to assist the Chinese revolutionary government. In March of the same year, a small group of military specialists was sent from the Soviet Union to China to study the issue of providing military assistance to the government of Sun Yat-sen.
In 1924, at the First Congress of the Kuomintang in China, a decision was made to create a revolutionary army. Sun Yat-sen's government again turned to the USSR for help in creating a revolutionary armed forces. The Soviet leadership decided to send military specialists to China. At various times, from 1924 to 1927, up to 135 Soviet military advisers worked in China. The command of the Red Army, together with the Intelligence Directorate, was engaged in the selection of advisers, taking into account their military specialization. Among them were also political workers, teachers, famous military leaders.
It was decided to use the basic training center for the training of command and political personnel as a reference point for the creation of a modern Chinese army. Already in the summer of 1924, a school for training officers for the new army was opened in southern China on Wampu Island (Huangpu in the local dialect). The USSR actually financed the entire educational process and provided the students of the school with everything they needed until the break in relations with the Kuomintang in 1927. The Wampu School (sometimes called the academy) has become the main center for the training of officers and has graduated about 4,500 officers over the years. Graduates of the Wapmu School formed the backbone of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army.
Military advisers of the South China Group began arriving in Canton (Guangzhou) by the summer of 1924. Each adviser in Moscow received a pseudonym instead of his real name. So, R. Sakhnovsky became P. Nilov, M. Sakhnovskaya received the pseudonym M. Chubareva. In June, the chief military adviser, brigade commander P. A. Pavlov (Govorov). After his accidental death (he drowned in the Dongjiang River on July 18), reports to the Center sent through the embassy were signed by the chief of staff of the group, R. Sakhnovsky (P. Nilov). In August, V. K. was appointed chief military adviser. Blucher (Galin, Uralsky).
Formally, all military advisers were on the staff of the special department. M. F. Sakhnovskaya (Chubareva) was indicated in the reports as the "head of the intelligence department" and the head of the intelligence work. She also developed a plan for arming the Chinese workers. According to the appendix to the expenditure schedule for the special department of December 12, 1924, the staff of advisers already then provided for 48 official positions, of which 9 positions were intended for technical personnel (translators, typist, etc.). As the wife of the military adviser V. Akimov later recalled, V. V. Vishnyakov-Akimova, most of the Soviet military specialists wore civilian clothes. However, those who were constantly in the units of the Chinese army, "wore the dapper uniform of the National Revolutionary Army of thin khaki gabardine, with braided brown buttons, a cap or cork helmet."
The Soviet colony of the Southern Group in Dongshan lived in harmony and unity. Almost all of the counselors have discharged their families. Everyone was in business. Wives, even with small children in their arms, always worked somewhere: in the group apparatus, in the cafeteria, club, library or in kindergarten. Some gave Russian lessons to Chinese youth who had been selected to study in the USSR.
There were many children and more and more little ones. Some of them were born in China, for example, to Mirra Sakhnovskaya. Mirra Sakhnovskaya was at that time the chief of staff of the group and teacher at the Wampu Academy. “The male profession,” V. Vishnyakova-Akimova noted in her book, “the habit of wearing men's clothing left an indelible mark on her. She spoke in a low voice, smoked a lot, walked with long strides, the woman's dress sat on her somehow, and it was evident that she was annoyed that she had to wear it. She cut her hair under a brace, she had lush curly hair of a golden hue. With her rare smile, it was clear that many of her teeth were missing. When I asked her, she once told me that during the civil war she often had toothaches, and there was no time to heal, so she simply pulled them out."
The advisers sometimes good-naturedly teased Sakhnovskaya when she lectured at Wampa "in all the characteristic features of her position." The Chinese students of the officers' school treated the unusual situation with understanding.
Sakhnovskaya, according to the recollections of people who knew her, was a tender mother of two children. But she didn't always have the opportunity to show them all her love. For example, the same Vishnyakova-Akimova recalled this picture. Under the windows of the headquarters, a nanny wanders indecisively with a nursing Pavlik in her arms. From time to time she goes to the window and pleadingly says that the child wants to eat. Mirra leans out of the window and tells her to leave, since she is busy. By the way, Vishnyakova-Akimova and some others in their publications indicated the name of Sakhnovskaya as Mira, although it is correctly spelled with two letters "r" - Mirra.
Vishnevskaya-Akimova also mentions another episode when, on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese military surrounded the territory where the Soviet military advisers were located. The first to react to hostile actions was the chief of staff of the group, Mirra Sakhnovskaya. "The translator," she demands, "tell them right away to return the Mauser seized from the sentries this minute."
The garden in front of the headquarters and the intelligence section was occupied by a detachment of Chinese soldiers led by a Kuomintang officer. A reinforced guard was posted near the headquarters and the intelligence department - two dozen soldiers with rifles.
A delegation was immediately formed at the headquarters of the group to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek. It included Mirra Sakhnovskaya and someone else. The delegates returned only after lunch. It became known that Chiang Kai-shek was demanding the immediate return of the chief military adviser Blucher, who enjoyed great prestige among the Chinese leaders and the military.
In general, Soviet-Chinese relations began to deteriorate after the death of Sun Yat-sen in March 1925. In the summer of 1926, some of the military advisers were recalled to their homeland. The way to Moscow at that time took more than a month of a long way home. Ahead of them were waiting for new tests, changes in service and life in connection with the unfolded struggle in the USSR against the Trotskyist opposition.
Author: Mikhail Sukhorukov