Lev Shvartzman's victims included Marshal Blyukher, the Colonel general Grigory Shtern, the writer Isaac Babel and the theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold.
11 Facts About Lev Shvartzman
1.
2.
Lev Shvartzman was born in Shpola, in Ukraine, the son of a Jewish bank official.
3.
Lev Shvartzman's father served in the army of General Yudenich, and was killed in battle in 1919.
4.
In March 1940, Lev Shvartzman was posted in Vyborg, which had just been seized during the Soviet Finnish War and incorporated in the USSR, and charged with creating an NKVD department in the captured territory.
5.
Lev Shvartzman apologised to Merkulov for the blood that spilt on the carpet.
6.
Lev Shvartzman was the highest ranking Jewish officer in the MGB, and the first of many to be arrested.
7.
Under interrogation, Lev Shvartzman confessed to being a 'Jewish nationalist' and the linchpin of a terrorist organisation, organised with the connivance of Abakumov, made up of every senior Jewish officer in the security services.
8.
Lev Shvartzman 'confessed' to having homosexual relations with Abakumov, his son, and the British ambassador.
9.
Lev Shvartzman confessed that he had used homosexual contacts with American double agents to pass orders for terrorist actions to Jewish conspirators.
10.
Lev Shvartzman invented unbelievable stories, like being inspired in his terrorist activities by drinking Zionist soup prepared by his Jewish aunt, or sleeping with his stepdaughter, or having homosexual relations with his son.
11.
Lev Shvartzman was sentenced to death on 3 March 1955, and executed on 13 May 1955 after the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council rejected a request for pardon.