Lev Efimovich Manevich was born on August 20, 1898 in Chausy, into a Jewish merchant family. The Manevichs' house was located in the part of the city beyond the river near the Postal Route to Radomlya, not far from the beautiful St. Nicholas Church.
An important role in the upbringing and formation of the character of the future intelligence officer was played by the elder brother Yakov. Condemned to hard labor for participating in an armed uprising in the Bobruisk fortress, Yakov, with the help of his revolutionary sister, escaped from the hard labor center in 1906, managed to go abroad and stayed in Switzerland. Soon, his comrades transported there his younger brother, who by that time had remained an orphan.
In 1913 Lev Manevich became a student polytechnic college in Zurich. He showed special abilities in studying foreign languages and was soon fluent in German, French and Italian.
The future fate of Lev Manevich was determined by the revolutionary environment in which he was from the age of 11. The elder brother took Lev to lectures on the Russian revolution of 1905, with which the Russian political emigrant V. Ulyanov-Lenin spoke at the People's House in Zurich. In April 1917, the brothers saw off the famous train on which about 40 Russian emigrants headed by Lenin left for Russia. Thanks to his brother, Lev regularly read the revolutionary press, learned to speak at meetings.
On June 20, 1917, the Manevich brothers left for their homeland. In Russia, Leo was mobilized into the army, where he served first as a private and then as a senior intelligence officer. infantry regiment... In 1918, at the age of 20, he went to serve in the Red Army: he was a commissar of an armored train, commander of a special detachment, deputy chief of the operational department of the headquarters of the 1st Caucasian corps, fought with Kolchak men ...
Already in his early years, he showed a phenomenal ability to keep up with wherever an urgent need arose and a fight with an ideological opponent awaited. A passionate, obsessive belief in a revolutionary idea made everyone listen to his speeches. Having perfectly mastered the psychology of influencing people, Manevich skillfully used the gift of persuading even a hostile audience.
In 1922, L. Manevich, knowing several foreign languages, was sent to the Military Academy (in the future - the Frunze Academy). After graduating with honors, he served in the intelligence department of the Red Army and in the same year left for his first foreign business trip. Taking into account the importance of the development of aircraft construction at that time and the need to deeply know this matter, L. Manevich was sent to the one-year advanced training courses for the commanding staff at the Air Force Academy of the Red Army named after Professor N. Ye. Zhukovsky, which he graduated in 1929.
After that, on the instructions of the intelligence department of the Red Army, he, already as an elegant, wealthy foreigner, appeared abroad. In business circles in some European countries, Manevich was known as a wealthy businessman, owner and co-owner of commercial firms and offices.
In addition, who knew perfectly well military equipment, "Etienne", at that time the Austrian merchant Konrad Kertner, outside the borders of the Third Reich was a representative of a number of German firms, including aviation, shipbuilding, engineering. No one knew that a "prominent industrialist", equally fluent in almost all European languages, and accepted as "his own" in the salons of manufacturers and financiers, regularly transmits valuable information to Moscow. Particularly important for the Red Army were top-secret data on the air force and military industry.
Let us briefly dwell on the merits of Lev Efimovich Manevich as a scout and patriot of his country. In the late 1920s, an illegal GRU (main intelligence directorate of the Red Army) station was established in Milan to conduct military-technical intelligence in northern Italy. L. Manevich, who acted under the pseudonym "Etienne", was appointed its resident.
In 1930 he moved to Austria, from the territory of which he began to operate. In Vienna, Konrad Kertner legalized himself as an Austrian merchant and opened the Eureka patent office, which made it possible to collect a large amount of the most diverse information. Already in 1931, Manevich personally recruited several valuable promising agents and couriers.
The result of his active operational work by the end of 1932 was the creation of an illegal residency of 12 people. Materials of Manevich concerning military-technical information (drawings and test reports of new bombers, fighters, submarines, 37-mm cannon, device central administration artillery fire on warships, etc.) were highly appreciated by the Center.
In 1934 he moved to Milan, where he also opened a patent office. To communicate with the Center, a radio operator was sent at his disposal, who, as a cover, went to study at the Milan Conservatory. It was during that period of his activity that the first important information was obtained about devices that allow aircraft to fly "blindly", about the flights of an aviation unit in the fog, about military shipbuilding, which was at a high level in Italy.
In 1936, L. Manevich twice visited Spain, after which he informed the Center about the impending fascist coup there, prepared a detailed report on the aviation of General Franco and on the latest model of the German fighter Messerschmitt.
The extracted materials through the Center immediately entered the Soviet aviation design bureaus, where work was already in full swing on the creation of new fighters - the famous in the future fighters "Yak" and "La", on which soviet pilots in the Great Patriotic War, they had to fight with the aces of the Luftwaffe. The information supplied by Manevich was so unique and necessary that even after the repression of the entire apparatus of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army and those whom he attracted to intelligence, trust in him was not lost. But many were then summoned to Moscow and arrested, others became "defectors", fearing reprisals. And in this case, Manevich was a unique person among Soviet intelligence officers.
However, in the same year, there was a failure: one of Manevich's agents, Pasquale Esposito, was arrested, from whom they knocked out testimony against the chief. On December 12, 1936, L. Manevich was arrested, and on February 9, 1937 in Turin, the Special Tribunal for the Defense of Fascism accused Konrad Kertner (Manevich) of espionage to the detriment of the Italian and German armed forces and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. During the investigation and in court, he did not admit to any country he belongs to, nor in his connection with Soviet intelligence. After the trial, Manevich was held in various prisons in Italy. The Center developed measures (which was a unique event in the history of Soviet intelligence) for the release of "Etienne". The dispatch of a special group was being prepared. But they guarded the Soviet intelligence officer vigilantly. And the rescue action failed. And then this idea was abandoned. The year 1937 burst out. The entire leadership of the GRU was repressed, there was no time for Manevich. But he was not declared a spy, although with the repressed J.K. At one time, he had close relations with Berzin.
He did not stop active intelligence work even after his arrest. Thus, despite the imprisonment in the Italian prison of Castelfranco del Emilia, secret reports from "Etienne" continued to arrive. The fact is that at that time in prison there were many Italian workers from the secret shops of military factories (mainly the largest Italian aircraft factory "Caproni"), and therefore Manevich was aware of many technical secrets. From here were transferred classified materials about optical sights for night bombing, a recipe for armor steel from the Krupp factories and about a special cruiser built at shipyards near Genoa together with the Germans. One of the most important messages of L. Manevich from prison was information about a large urgent order received by Italian aircraft factories from Japan for aircraft that are not afraid of frost. Thanks to his assistant, who came to visit him in prison, Manevich-Etienne forwarded information to the Center. It should be noted that the line of communication between the prison and the Center, created by him, operated for 5 years and never misfired. This unique kind of activity is not known in the history of any of the world's intelligence services.
Lev Efimovich went through all the circles of fascist hell, from prisons to concentration camps. Solitary cells, punishment cells, death row barracks, torture by hunger, cold, hard labor, serious illness - all this he had to fully experience on himself. September 9, 1943 to the island of Santo Stefano, where soviet intelligence officer, American troops landed, and Lev Manevich was released. As an Austrian citizen, he received medical attention. The day after the liberation of the island, he and a group of former prisoners, having paid a substantial sum to the owner of the sailing ship, decided to go to the mainland to the port of Gaeta, located 40 km from the island of Santo Stefano, not knowing that there were already German troops there. On this island, Etienne was discovered, arrested again and handed over to the Germans.
The prisoner was transferred from one concentration camp to another: Mauthausen, Melk, Ebensee ... In one of the camps, taking advantage of the confusion with the documents of newly arrived prisoners, the spy called himself a Soviet prisoner of war Colonel Yakov Starostin. Several days remained until the end of the war. On May 5, 1945, the Ebensee camp, where L. Manevich was at that time, was liberated by the Americans. The scout lived at large for only three days. At dawn on May 9, 1945, he died of throat consumption and pulmonary tuberculosis, never knowing that this day would be Victory Day. His last request to his comrade was: “Tell Moscow: I am Etienne. Tell them not to touch the family. I did everything I could ... Remember - Etienne ... ".
Buried Lev Efimovich Manevich in Austria, in the city of Linz St. Martin at the Russian military cemetery. Initially, Manevich was buried under the name of Starostin, in 1965 he was reburied under his own name. In the same year, marking the twentieth anniversary of the Victory, by the Decree of the PVS of the USSR "For valor and courage shown during the performance of special assignments of the Soviet government before the Second World War and in the fight against fascism ..." he was posthumously awarded the highest honorary title Soviet Union... Since then, the tombstone reads: “Here lies the ashes of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Manevich Lev Efimovich. 1898-1945 ".
About courage legendary scout, "Belarusian Zorge", E. Vorobyov's book "Land on Demand" was written, and residents and guests of Chaus are reminded of the street named after him (until 1965 Cooperative), and a memorial plaque installed on the building of the sanitary and epidemiological station in 1998 - to 100 anniversary of the birth of L. Manevich. In 2008, in Samara, on the eve of the Day of Security Bodies, a memorial plaque dedicated to Lev Manevich was unveiled on the building of the regional department of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
The material of the book "Zamlya Mogilevskaya" \u003d The Mogilev Land / ed. text by N. S. Borisenko; under Z-53 total. ed. V. A. Malashko. - Mogilev: Mogil. region enlargement. a type. them. Spiridon Sobol, 2012 .-- 320 p. : ill.
20.08.1898 - 11.05.1945
The hero of the USSR
Manevich Lev Efimovich (pseudonyms: Etienne, Colonel Starostin) - Soviet intelligence officer, colonel.
Born on August 20, 1898 in the city of Chausy, now the Mogilev region (Belarus), in the family of an employee. Jew. Member of the RCP (b) since 1918.
Since 1907 he lived in Switzerland, with his older brother, who emigrated abroad due to the threat of arrest for participating in the revolutionary movement. graduated from school in 1913, studied at the University of Geneva. In June 1917 he returned to Russia and was drafted into the Russian army.
In the Red Army since April 1918. Participant Civil War, was the commissar of an armored train, the commander of a special detachment. He fought in the troops of the Baku commune, then in Eastern Front.
From May 15, 1920 to June 15, 1921, L.E. Manevich worked in the city of Ufa, indicating in his personal questionnaire dated July 27, 1920: “... since February 1919 in Moscow, Samara, I have been working as an instructor of the Glavpolitput on the whole line, sent to transport by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee ... appointed on May 15, 1920 by Dorpolit of Samara-Zlatoustovskaya railroad... The current position is Zavraypolit Art. Ufa ... ". He was a member of the bureau of the 2nd district committee of the RCP (b) of the city of Ufa (later called the Zhdanovsky district committee of the CPSU (b) and the Soviet district committee of the CPSU).
In 1921 he graduated from the high school of the command staff service, in 1924 - Military academy RKKA. Since August 1924, he served in the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army. Was assigned to the Secretariat of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic for special assignments, in fact, he was preparing for a business trip abroad.
From November 1925 to March 1927 - on a business trip abroad in Germany. After returning to the USSR in May 1927, he was the head of a sector in the intelligence directorate of the Red Army, from January 1928 - on an internship as a company commander of the 164th Infantry Regiment. In 1929 he graduated from courses at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy of the Red Army. In May-October 1929 he trained in the 44th Aviation Unit.
Since November 1929, he was on a regular business trip to Austria and Italy, having the task of obtaining technological information about the Italian military industry and about the military-political plans of Italy. He worked under the name of the Austrian businessman Konrad Kertner. He was a very efficient employee, obtaining valuable information. About 190 documents of high importance were transferred from him to Moscow. He was arrested in Vienna on suspicion of carrying out transactions with stolen diamonds, art treasures and drugs, but escaped trial.
Due to the betrayal of one of the Italians - a member of his group, on October 3, 1932, he was arrested by the Italian fascist counterintelligence in Milan red-handed at the time of receiving important information. Did not admit that he belonged to soviet intelligence, Italian counterintelligence failed to establish his real name. After a long investigation and trial, on February 9, 1937, he was sentenced by the Special Tribunal for the Defense of Fascism to 16 years in prison. Even from prison, he contrived through lawyers to transmit important information to the Center, received from the arrested workers of the Italian defense factories.
In prison he fell ill with tuberculosis, in 1941 he was transferred to the south of Italy, to a prison on the island of Santo Stefano in the Tyrrhenian Sea. There, on September 9, 1943, he was liberated by the allied forces. The Americans sent the freed prisoners on a schooner to the Italian port of Gaeta, but the unexpected happened: the day before the arrival of the schooner, Gaeta was occupied by German troops. The Nazis sent the prisoners who fell into their hands to a concentration camp in Austria. Realizing that his fictional Austrian origin would be revealed there, Manevich named himself after the Soviet colonel YN Starostin. Contained in concentration camps Mauthausen, Melk and Ebense. In the incredibly difficult conditions of the concentration camps, being seriously ill with tuberculosis, L.E. Manevich showed high patriotism, great willpower and endurance, participated in the creation of underground groups among prisoners of the death camps.
He was liberated by American troops on May 6, 1945, but soon died on May 11, 1945. He was buried in the Stadtfriedhof-Linz-Süd cemetery in Traun (Linz district, Upper Austria, Austria).
Haveby the kaz of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 20, 1965 for the valor and courage shown during the performance of special assignments of the Soviet government before the Second World War and during the years of the struggle against fascism, Colonel Manevich Lev Efimovich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
Colonel (16.12.1935). He was awarded the Order of Lenin (02/20/1965, posthumously).
In the homeland of the Hero, in the city of Chausy, a street is named after him, a memorial plaque is installed. Memorial plaques are also installed in the city of Rylsk, Kursk region, on the building of the Rylsk Aviation Technical College civil aviation and in Samara on the building of the Office Federal Service security by Samara region... The life of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer is described in the novel by E. Vorobyov
Wrote in October 14th, 2012
Lev Efimovich Manevich
The ashes of Soviet intelligence officer Hero of the Soviet Union Lev Manevich, who died immediately after the liberation of the Ebensee concentration camp in May 1945, rests at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in the Austrian city of Linz.
Manevich rdressed in 1898 in a poor Jewish family in the Mogilev province. Manevich grew up in a traditionally religious Jewish family, where all holidays and traditions were observed, but by conviction he was an atheist ..
Lev Efimovich (Izrailevich)Manevich is a legendary Soviet intelligence officer of the 1930s - 1940s. His name as a scout is "Etienne". In Italy he used the name Konrad Kertner, and in German prisons and camps he was "Colonel Starostin"
As a child (1907-1916) Manevich lived in Switzerland, where he was taken out by his elder brother Yakov, who was in exile. There he graduated from the technical department of the College in Geneva (1916). During the First World War (1916) he returned to Russia and entered military service. 
In the Red Army, Manevich fought since 1918 as a Red Army soldier of the famous International Regiment in Baku. There he joined the CPSU (b). All his co-workersunanimously noted the qualities inherent in him: courage and the ability to influence people with a word. So, once unarmed Manevich convinced a detachment of several hundred rebels to lay down their arms and surrender without bloodshed. Moreover, the rebels who believed Manevich themselves escorted him to the location of the Red Army units.
Then he was transferred to Samara. He was the commander of the ChON detachment, the commissar of the armored train, fought banditry on the Volga.
At the end of the civil war, Manevich graduated High school staff service of the Red Army (1921) and the Military Academy of the Red Army (1924).
Then Manevich became an employee for special assignments of the Secretariat of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, the Office of the NKVM and the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, and from November 1925 to March 1927 he was on intelligence work in Germany. From May to November 1927, Manevich worked as the head of the sector of the 3rd department of the RU of the Red Army headquarters. After studying at the Advanced training courses for the command personnel of the Red Army Air Force at the Air Force Academy of the Red Army named after V. prof. NE Zhukovsky (1929) Manevich was appointed head of the regimental school of the 55th rifle division.
During the year he underwent an internship as a company commander and for six months was an observer pilot in an air squadron in Georgia (until October 1929).
As an agent of the GPU Manevich long time worked abroad. Excellently educated, Manevich influent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian and Yiddish andwas a very efficient employee in obtaining valuable information. One of his specializations was organizing the assassinations of "enemies of Soviet power" abroad, including emigrants, defectors, etc. He was officially registered in the service of the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. One can treat this "dirty" business as badly as one likes today, but then these murders among the revolutionaries were a continuation of the struggle to strengthen the power of the people, for the triumph of communism, in which they sacredly believed. Another thing is surprising. Manevich was a supporter of Trotsky, but he was not touched, although all Trotskyists were repressed.
In 1929-1932. Manevich was the head of the illegal military-technical residency in Italy, worked under the name of the Austrian businessman Konrad Kertner, representing timber companies. In February 1930-October 1932. changed the sign and became the head of the International Bureau of Inventions and Patents "Eureka". Manevich established a residency in Milan, his information was highly appreciated at the Center, however, due to a failure in October 1932 he was forced to leave the country.
From 1934 Manevich returned to Italy. He was still engaged in military-technical intelligence (industrial espionage) and inhe carried out the most important assignments for the abductions and murders of "enemies" of the Soviet regime abroad.
Then he becomes involved in some kind of operation with stolen diamonds, art treasures and drugs. Was arestorated in Vienna, but escaped trial, continued his work as a resident.In 1935, when the titles were restored, he was awarded military rank Pcolonel.
As a result of the betrayal on December 12, 1936, Manevich was arrested. An extract from the judgment of the Turin court has been preserved. In January 1937, the court stated:
“Kertner's criminal activities were extensive: he also extended his tentacles to Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Brescia and La Spezia. He managed to attract valuable specialists and experienced technicians who were serving in industrial enterprises supplying the Italian and German armed forces. "
In February 1937, Manevich was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Later, until his death, Manevich was in Italian prisons and German concentration camps.
Some sources say that even from prison he was able to convey important information. On this score, I have certain doubts. I would like information about this to be finally disclosed by the intelligence agencies, if they exist. So far, the archives are completely closed.
Some (for example, the writer Anatoly Aramisov, who wrote the novel "Kings die last" about Austrian concentration camps based on the stories of his grandfather Sokolov, a prisoner of Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, and Ebensee) believe that Manevich could not receive information while in prison, and, even more so, transfer it to the Soviet Union. Aramisov suggests that if this really happened, then Manevich was recruited and was playing a double game from prison (http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/32455/post104284315/).
The next episode in Manevich's biography is also not very clear. In September 1943, Manevich was released by American troops from a prison on the island. However, having crossed from the island to the mainland, Manevich fell directly into the hands of the Germans, who just before that had brought their troops into Italy. Aramisov believes that this is unforgivable for an experienced intelligence officer. Aramisov considers this a betrayal of Manevich and a continuation of the game with Soviet intelligence.
One way or another, but according to official sources, Manevich did not reveal himself in captivity. Moreover, once captured by the Germans, he ceased to be Konrad Kertner and became Colonel Yakov Starostin, a metalworker (Starostin was Manevich's friend in service on an armored train). After prison, he was sent to concentration camps in Austria - Mauthausen, Melk and, finally, Ebensee.
Official sources say that in the concentration camp Ebensee Manevich led an underground organization and often refused to go to work. Aramisov also questions this. According to his grandfather, he claims that absence from work was punishable by execution. If a prisoner did not go to work and was not shot, this meant only one thing - such a prisoner collaborated with the Germans.
Such a heroic episode is also attributed to Manevich. AT the last days war Etienne (Manevich) saved the lives of 16 thousand prisoners of the Ebensee camp, having managed to shout at three languages a column of prisoners so that they stop moving towards the adit, which the Nazis planned to blow up with them. The column stopped and did not budge, thousands of lives were saved.
Aramisov says that his grandfather was in this column, but did not hear that Manevich was calling the column of prisoners to anything. But the fact that they refused to enter the adit really happened. The guards failed to cope with this act of defiance, and it saved the lives of the inmates, although some were killed by the guards.
Aramisov believes that if Manevich had not cooperated with the Germans, he would have been shot long ago as a Jew, and this is another proof that Manevich was in a special position in the camp.
On May 6, 1945, American troops freed the prisoners of the concentration camp, but as the official version says, Manevich was already seriously ill, and a few days later he died of tuberculosis.Before his death, Lev Manevich managed to tell his comrade:
"Tell Moscow, I am Etienne (one of the scout's pseudonyms). Tell them not to touch the family. I did everything I could ... Remember, Etienne."
Aramisov claims that Manevich died not from tuberculosis, but from the fact that when distributing soup to the American soldiers he did not limit himself to a small portion, but ate a whole bowl, and this meant certain death for the hungry people. This is how many prisoners died after their release. So, probably, Manevich also died, - Aramisov believes.
American soldier with two Ebensee prisoners
But here is the official date of his death May 12. Six days have passed since the release. In this case, the version with soup is scattered to smithereens.
One more thing. In the comments to information about Manevich in the LiveJournal community chtoby_pomnili (http://chtoby-pomnili.livejournal.com/299749.html) one of the participants wrote that his father, prisoner Ebensee, told the writer Vorobyov, the author of the book about Manevich "Land on Demand", about Manevich's instructions, since he and was the very prisoner whom Manevich asked to convey his last message-request. Here is the text:
egmont1
wrote:
Addition
It is very strange that Mr. Vorobyov, who for several days received information about Manevich for a long time from my father Airapetov Grant Grigorievich, did not consider it necessary to mention that it was my father who was the very prisoner to whom Manevich gave the last assignment in his life. Egmont
Aramisov was not interested in this. This did not attract his attention, although, in my opinion, he should, first of all, ask about the details of the participant in the discussionegmont1 or at least ask if his father is alive and if he has any other information about Manevich.
Manevich was buried under the name of Colonel Starostin, but in mid-1948 his ashes were reburied in the San Martin Süd cemetery in the Austrian city of Linz, where Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of Austria are buried. An obelisk was installed on Manevich's grave with the inscription:
“The ashes of the Soviet Colonel Yakov Nikitich Starostin lie here. He died on May 12, 1945. "
But in 1965 Manevich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Only after that the inscription on the obelisk of the grave of Colonel Starostin changed. And now people visiting a quiet cemetery on the western outskirts of Linz learn that the Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel L.E. Manevich. 
There are many surprises in this story. Someone else in 1948 carried Manevich's ashes. Someone petitioned for the title of Hero, and in 1965 Lev Efimovich Manevich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Everyone knows that the Jews received this title with great difficulty. And then suddenly after 20 years they are awarded posthumously and, moreover, use his name to create an idealized image of a Soviet intelligence officer.
The life of Manevich was described in the novel by E. Vorobyov "Land on Demand", and the novel, in turn, was the basis for a feature film of the same name, created in 1973 by director V. Dorman. The role of the main character was played by actor Oleg Strizhenov.
ATMogilev and Gomel streets are named after Manevich. In his homeland, in the city of Chausy near Mogilev, a street is also named after him, and a memorial plaque is installed.
Memor 
The slabs were installed in the city of Rylsk, Kursk Region, on the building of the Rylsk Aviation Technical College of Civil Aviation and in Samara, on the building of the Federal Security Service Administration for the Samara Region.
Since 2007, the square near the Mir recreation center in Samara has been named after the Hero of the Soviet Union, intelligence officer of the GRU General Staff, Colonel Lev Manevich.
It seems to me that if intelligence leaders had doubts about loyalty Manevich , none of this would have happened. And the memorial plaques would have been removed long ago, and the streets would have been renamed again, and the title of Hero would have been taken away.
Sluyuba in the army
In 1917 he was drafted into the army, in April 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army and in the same year - the Communist Party. Member of the civil war on the Eastern Front and the Caucasus, in 1918-20. He was a commissar of an armored train, a staff worker, a commander of a special detachment.
He graduated from the high school of the command staff of the Red Army (1921), the Military Academy of the Red Army (1924) and courses at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy (1929), served in the intelligence department of the Red Army (since 1935 - colonel).
Intelligence Service
Since the mid-1920s. until 1936, as a scout and resident, he was in the West, mainly in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain. In the second half of the 1930s, he carried out assignments to organize the physical elimination of the enemies of Soviet power abroad (mainly White emigres and defectors). He was officially transferred to serve in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. In 1935 he was awarded the rank of colonel.
Prison and concentration camp
In 1936 he was arrested by the Italian counterintelligence and sentenced to 12 years in prison. But even in prison he continued to collect and transmit valuable information.
In 1943 he was handed over to the Nazis and was held in the camps of Mauthausen, Melk and Ebense, where he pretended to be Colonel J. Starostin. In a concentration camp he became one of the leaders of the underground. Being seriously ill with tuberculosis, Manevich showed great willpower and courage, participating in the anti-fascist underground. He was liberated on May 6, 1945 by American troops, but soon died of tuberculosis. Buried in Linz.
Awards
In 1965 he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Literature and cinema
The life of the legendary intelligence officer is described in E. Vorobyov's novel "Land on Demand", which was the basis for the feature film of the same name, created in 1973 by director V. Dorman.
Jew. Colonel (1935). Hero of the Soviet Union (02/20/1965, posthumously). In the Red Army since 1918. Member of the Communist Party in 1918. Graduated from the technical department of the College in Geneva (1916), the Higher School of the Red Army Staff Service (1921), the Red Army Military Academy (1924), advanced training courses for the command of the Red Army Air Force at the Red Army Air Force Academy. prof. N.E. Zhukovsky (1929). He spoke English, German, French and Italian.
In 1907-1916 he lived in Switzerland, where he was taken out by his older brother, who was in exile. On military service from 1916 in the 123rd Kozlovsky regiment.
Red Army soldier of the international regiment in Baku (1918), participant in the Civil War. The commander of the ChON detachment, the commissar of the armored train.
After graduating from the academy, he was the head of the regimental school of the 55th rifle division.
At the disposal of the RU headquarters of the Red Army (August 1924 - November 1925), an employee for special assignments of the Secretariat of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, the Office of the NKVM and the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. On reconnaissance work in Germany (November 1925 - March 1927), the head of the sector of the 3rd department of the RU headquarters of the Red Army (May-November 1927), was an internship as a company commander of the 164th rifle regiment (November 1927-December 1928), observer pilot in the 44th dep. squadron in Georgia (May-October 1929).
The head of the illegal military-technical residency in Italy (1929-1930), where he also worked under the name of the Austrian businessman Konrad Kertner, representing timber companies, he also acted as head of the International Bureau of Inventions and Patents "Eureka" (February 1930 - October 1932) ... Created a residency in Milan, the information of which was highly appreciated at the Center. Due to the failure in October 1932 he was forced to leave the country.
From 1934 he worked again in Italy. As a result of betrayal, he was arrested on December 12, 1936. In January 1937, the Turin court stated: “Kertner's criminal activities were extensive: he extended his tentacles to Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Brescia and La Spezia. He managed to attract valuable specialists and experienced technicians who were in the service of industrial enterprises supplying the Italian and German armed forces. " Convicted on February 9, 1937, to 15 years in prison. Even from prison, he managed to convey important information. He was in Italian prisons and German concentration camps (1937-1945). In September 1943 he was liberated by American troops, but was later captured by the Germans. Contained under the name of Yakov Starostin, a metalworker, Manevich's friend in service on an armored train, in the concentration camps of Mauthausen, Melk and Ebense. He led an underground organization in the Ebensee concentration camp (Austria).
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