"Memoirs of the Security Service Officer" M. P. Shreyder — Unknown Pages of the History of Cheka — OGPU — NKVD

Abstract

This article examines an unpublished part of the memoirs of famous security officer M. P. Shreyder, which were partially published in 1995. Still unknown but extensive fragments of Memoirs of a Chekist provide exclusively useful data on cadres, business and personal relationships in Cheka departments, and repression, secret-service work, life, customs, and psychology of Cheka employees. New data concern features of secret- service work of the OGPU and militia, and details of the author’s participation in confiscating hard currency from the population. They also report bright portraits of patriarch Tikhon, F. Dzerzhinsky, G. Yagoda, G. Chicherin, O. Schmidt, V. Mayakovsky, and other historical figures. This memoir provides an opportunity to validate one episode of M. A. Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, which appears fantastic and grotesque. Some of Schreyder’s information is verified against latest sources, and another part provides unique and valuable additions regarding events and personnel histories both of the NKVD and Soviet society in general, demonstrating how people of different origins adapted to the specifics of operational work of state security fieldwork. Studying of the Shreyder’s memoir in its entirety reveals that unpublished fragments contain no less information in comparison with the published text. The author concludes by arguing for publishing a complete version of Shreyder’s memoirs.