21 Facts About Lev Zadov

Lev Mykolaiovych Zadov, known by his nom de guerre Lev Zinkovskyi, was chief of military intelligence of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine and later an operative of the Joint State Political Directorate.

Lev Zadov was released during the February Revolution and returned to Donbas, where he became involved in the local Soviet and joined the Red Guards, which he fought with until November 1918, when he joined Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.

Lev Zadov became the de facto chief of the Kontrrazvedka, the Makhnovist military intelligence division, and carried out a campaign of terror against the Bolsheviks and the White movement.

Lev Zadov used his position to carry out subversive activities, for which he was arrested and executed during the Great Purge.

Lev Zadov was born in Veselaya, a small Jewish agricultural colony in the Alexandrovskii District.

Lev Zadov then returned to Yuzivka, where he became a deputy of the local Soviet in September 1917.

Lev Zadov's detachment led a fighting retreat from Luhansk to Tsaritsyn, where they encountered Pyotr Krasnov's Don Army.

In Yuzivka, Lev Zadov established an anarchist combat group, which immediately joined up with Nestor Makhno's partisans in Huliaipole and helped establish a number of other insurgent detachments throughout Donbas.

Lev Zadov was joined by former members of the Union of Poor Peasants, including Hryhory Vasylivsky, who had experience in gathering intelligence.

From this position, Lev Zadov reportedly participated in the assassination of Nykyfor Hryhoriv, who had been charged with antisemitism and collaborationism.

Makhno then ordered Lev Zadov to take 30 barrels of liquor and leave them in a nearby village, successfully distracting the pursuing forces of Andrei Shkuro, and to spread word of the Makhnovist offensive, causing peasant uprisings in the rear of the White movement.

Lev Zadov was held accountable for the losses, with Makhno blaming the Kontrrazvedka for not having gathered sufficient intelligence on the Red positions.

At the border, Lev Zadov disguised himself and the other insurgents as members of the Red Army, accosted the border guards and disarmed them, before crossing the Dniester and leaving Ukraine behind.

In 1924, Lev Zadov was recruited by the Siguranta to infiltrate the Ukrainian Soviet state.

Lev Zadov then crossed back over the Dniester and surrendered to the Joint State Political Directorate, which granted him amnesty and recruited him into the Soviet intelligence service.

Lev Zadov then moved to Tiraspol and began to carry out subversive activities in Romania, using many of his contacts in the exiled Makhnovist movement.

Lev Zadov worked with the Foreign Centre to organise safe passage for any Makhnovists who wished to return from exile and receive amnesty from the Ukrainian Soviet government.

Lev Zadov increasingly networked with other amnestied Makhnovists and reportedly established a Makhnovist cell in Odesa, with plans to establish insurgent detachments in the wider region.

Lev Zadov denied any wrongdoing and refused to inform on other members of the organisation.

Lev Zadov was formally rehabilitated by the Soviet government in 1990.

Lev Zadov lived to see his father's rehabilitation, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and apparently came to believe in his father's innocence.