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- Historical falsifications as a way of ideological pressure on the Russian state (in terms of Genrikh Lyushkov’s interrogations)
- Oreshenkov S.V. Historical falsifications as a way of ideological pressure on the Russian state (in terms of Genrikh Lyushkov’s interrogations). Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2026, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 20–27. (In Russ.) https://doi. org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-2-20-27
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-2-20-27
- УДК: 94(470)
- EDN: PDWKWL
- Publish date: 2026-04-15
- Annotation: This article examines the testimony of Genrikh Samoylovich Lyushkov, former head of the NKVD Directorate for the Far Eastern Territory, given to Japanese and German intelligence agencies after his defection to Japan on June 13, 1938, and transmitted to Germany in August of that year. It is shown that a significant portion of this testimony could not have been given by the defector: its author is clearly incompetent in matters of the Soviet Union’s political structure in general and the NKVD in particular. Furthermore, the interrogation reports contain numerous anachronisms. Based on the fact that some anachronisms relate to events that occurred after the transfer of testimony from the Japanese special services to the German ones, as well as after Lyushkov’s testimony was sent from the German embassy in Japan to Germany, it was concluded that the interrogation materials were falsified not by the Japanese side, but by the German Nazis. The distortions were made in the interests of a propaganda campaign to denigrate the USSR: Lyushkov was credited with statements about the Soviet leadership’s intention to launch aggression against Germany and Japan simultaneously. It is noteworthy that Lyushkov’s testimony was published in Russian by an organisation, which is currently subject to political censorship in the Russian Federation.
- Keywords: Genrikh Lyushkov, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Yan Gamarnik, Second World War, NKVD troika.
- Literature list: Arkhiv A.N. Iakovleva – Stalinskii plan po unichtozheniiu naroda: Podgotovka i realizatsiia prikaza NKVD № 00447 «Ob operatsii po repressirovaniiu byvshikh kulakov, ugolovnikov i drugikh antisovetskikh elementov» [A.N. Yakovlev's Archive – Stalin's Plan for the Extermination of the People: Preparation and Implementation of Order No. 00447 of the NKVD “On the Operation to Repress Former Kulaks, Criminals, and Other Anti-Soviet Elementsˮ]. Al'manakh Rossiia XX vek [Almanac of Russia XX century]. URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20150428170932/http://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/inside/almanah-doc/1007240 (access date: 02.02.2026). (In Russ.) Bortnikov A.V. FSB Rossii svobodna ot politicheskogo vliianiia [The Russian Federal Security Service is free from political influence]. Rossiiskaia gazeta [Rossiyskaya Gazeta], 2017, Dec 19. URL: https://rg.ru/2017/12/19/aleksandr-bortnikov-fsb-rossii-svobodna-ot-politicheskogo-vliianiia.html (access date: 29.12.2025). (In Russ.) Kapitanov V.A. O proiskhozhdenii «10 let bez prava perepiski» [About the origin of “10 years without the right of correspondenceˮ]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Vestnik of Kostroma State University], 2025, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 55–62. (In Russ.) Karavashkin V.V. Kto predaval Rossiiu [Who betrayed Russia]. Moscow, AST Olimp Publ., 2008, 672 p. (In Russ.) Otkliki na prigovor vo Frantsii [Reactions to the verdict in France]. Pravda, 1937, June 13. (In Russ.) Trekhsviatskii A.V. Delo Liushkova [The Lyushkov case]. Rossiia i ATR [Russia and the Asia-Pacific Region], 1998, no. 1, pp. 90–104. (In Russ.) V Tokio opublikovan dnevnik komandarma G.S. Lushkova [Commander G.S. Lushkov's diary published in Tokyo]. Novoe russkoe slovo [The New Russian Word], 1938, July 4. (In Russ.) Zakharov V.V. Chekist, sbezhavshii k samuraiam [A Chekist Who Fled to the Samurai], V.V. Zakharov, M. Ul', V.N. Khaustov. Moscow, Veche Publ., 2022, 464 p. (In Russ.) Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Winniza. Berlin, Zentralverlag der NSDAP Publ., 1944, 284 s.