Greetings comrades and fellow workers,
Гарри Генриевич Флейшман [Gari Genrievitch Fleshman] (1900-1993) Major General, OP, OL, OOR, OKZ, OPVZ, OAN, OSPS, etc.etc. MZOTZ(!), OMS(!)*1, is a well known Soviet figure, party member, theorist, Hero of the Soviet Union, sometime military commissar. Born to Genri Dzhek Fleshman and an impoverished noble family, Fleshman was rejected by society after a suspicious wedding which locked him into the discontented intelligentsia during WWI. As we know from his biography he revelled in this "social" rejection and rapidly climbed the heights of the revolutionary underground, achieving distinction during the revolution, particularly after joining the Bolshevik party in 1921. Fleshman's rise continued uninterrupted, though his two soviet biographies in 1937 and 1975 do not mention a number of his activities, and the American scuttlebug network was distinctly lacking until his success in government circles in 1947. By 1958 he had risen to central status, which continued until his role in the events of the 1980s which should be memorable to everyone, particularly given his death in 1993. Of this, no mention need be made.
The reason I recall your attention to Fleshman and his distinguished, if unextraordinary, role as a central party figure of the Soviet Union is my discovery of a series of personal manuscripts, written by hand in English, deposited in the collections of the S— Foundation offices in Sydney Australia. How they came to such an obscure location, especially to be filed as they were, baffled the archivist as much as myself. I have barely begun to open them, but the first of the Fleshman documents appears if as nothing else, than a scathing criticism-self-criticism in the line of Maoist character criticism. Elements of the auto-biography which Fleshman reports are incredible, not merely in the sense of being unbelievable, but in the sense of being deeply incomprehensible. Misplacement, liability to execution, grandiose personal corruption on a scale not commonly seen, duplicity: of course, these are all characteristics of nomenklatura who survived the teens, twenties, thirties, forties and fifties in party life. But Fleshman evidences a continuous history of having done so publicly and avowing as such, and not being believed on any occasion for the self-interested and grandiosely corrupt snitching class-traitor and counter-revolutionary he publicly confessed to being. Moreover he was repeatedly on the incorrect line of the party and was never eliminated from party life.*2
Fleshman's physical womanising seems, if nothing else, par for the course for the party life of the early 1920s amongst party figures, but what is astounding is the number of romantic contacts he appears to have had, while maintaining outward party forms of proper conduct in his home life. He seems to have accomplished this at home, throughout revolutionary movements, at critical conjunctures of Soviet, and later Chinese actions in advancing the immortal science of Marxism Leninism, and throughout Fraternal and Soviet States.
There appear to be 12 bundles, of various topics in the history of Fleshman and Soviet Life, though suspiciously, merely from flicking, none seem to mention activities from the Summer of 1941 to the Autumn of 1945. If anyone else has access to the reading room of the S— Foundation in Sydney, I would be interested to hear their views on these documents.
yours,
Sam R.
*1 The award to Fleshman of the Order of Maternal Glory first class was questioned, but both "Post-Archival" and US Government Archival Sources clearly show him wearing this medal in parades. More unusually Fleshman was awarded the MZOTZ after a period of suspicious inactivity in public life during the 1950s; notably a zek corresponding to his description appears in Gulag Archipelago's section on bitch riots.
*2 Cursory reading ahead seems to indicate that he was sent with a cover story into special internal policing duties after the Berlin Riots. Given his apparent veracity (no liar would accuse himself so readily) this is bizarre beyond belief.
Гарри Генриевич Флейшман [Gari Genrievitch Fleshman] (1900-1993) Major General, OP, OL, OOR, OKZ, OPVZ, OAN, OSPS, etc.etc. MZOTZ(!), OMS(!)*1, is a well known Soviet figure, party member, theorist, Hero of the Soviet Union, sometime military commissar. Born to Genri Dzhek Fleshman and an impoverished noble family, Fleshman was rejected by society after a suspicious wedding which locked him into the discontented intelligentsia during WWI. As we know from his biography he revelled in this "social" rejection and rapidly climbed the heights of the revolutionary underground, achieving distinction during the revolution, particularly after joining the Bolshevik party in 1921. Fleshman's rise continued uninterrupted, though his two soviet biographies in 1937 and 1975 do not mention a number of his activities, and the American scuttlebug network was distinctly lacking until his success in government circles in 1947. By 1958 he had risen to central status, which continued until his role in the events of the 1980s which should be memorable to everyone, particularly given his death in 1993. Of this, no mention need be made.
The reason I recall your attention to Fleshman and his distinguished, if unextraordinary, role as a central party figure of the Soviet Union is my discovery of a series of personal manuscripts, written by hand in English, deposited in the collections of the S— Foundation offices in Sydney Australia. How they came to such an obscure location, especially to be filed as they were, baffled the archivist as much as myself. I have barely begun to open them, but the first of the Fleshman documents appears if as nothing else, than a scathing criticism-self-criticism in the line of Maoist character criticism. Elements of the auto-biography which Fleshman reports are incredible, not merely in the sense of being unbelievable, but in the sense of being deeply incomprehensible. Misplacement, liability to execution, grandiose personal corruption on a scale not commonly seen, duplicity: of course, these are all characteristics of nomenklatura who survived the teens, twenties, thirties, forties and fifties in party life. But Fleshman evidences a continuous history of having done so publicly and avowing as such, and not being believed on any occasion for the self-interested and grandiosely corrupt snitching class-traitor and counter-revolutionary he publicly confessed to being. Moreover he was repeatedly on the incorrect line of the party and was never eliminated from party life.*2
Fleshman's physical womanising seems, if nothing else, par for the course for the party life of the early 1920s amongst party figures, but what is astounding is the number of romantic contacts he appears to have had, while maintaining outward party forms of proper conduct in his home life. He seems to have accomplished this at home, throughout revolutionary movements, at critical conjunctures of Soviet, and later Chinese actions in advancing the immortal science of Marxism Leninism, and throughout Fraternal and Soviet States.
There appear to be 12 bundles, of various topics in the history of Fleshman and Soviet Life, though suspiciously, merely from flicking, none seem to mention activities from the Summer of 1941 to the Autumn of 1945. If anyone else has access to the reading room of the S— Foundation in Sydney, I would be interested to hear their views on these documents.
yours,
Sam R.
*1 The award to Fleshman of the Order of Maternal Glory first class was questioned, but both "Post-Archival" and US Government Archival Sources clearly show him wearing this medal in parades. More unusually Fleshman was awarded the MZOTZ after a period of suspicious inactivity in public life during the 1950s; notably a zek corresponding to his description appears in Gulag Archipelago's section on bitch riots.
*2 Cursory reading ahead seems to indicate that he was sent with a cover story into special internal policing duties after the Berlin Riots. Given his apparent veracity (no liar would accuse himself so readily) this is bizarre beyond belief.