For the last few months the Russian genealogist Vitaly Seminoff has been visiting the FSB (formerly KGB) archives in Moscow in order to take notes from the case file of my great grandfather Nikolai Stepanovich Zephyroff.
Nikolai was arrested in 1949 by the KGB, interrogated over almost 6 months and finally sentenced to 25 years in the notorious labour camp "The Rock" in the arctic circle as a Japanese spy. He died in the camp 4 years later. Between 1947 and 1953 at least 30,000 emigrants who had been living in China and France returned at the invitation of the Soviet government only to be arrested and executed or sentenced to labour camps under section 58 - as traitors to the USSR.
Below I reproduce Vitaly's English notes from the file. The file is no longer complete, but I thankfully have further excerpts contained in an article written by a Russian journalist who wrote a book based on Nikolai's life in the 1980s for the 80th anniversary of the KGB. I will publish the English translation of this article soon.
Nikolai in happier times:
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Policemen Ogloblin & Ostrovski
Order for Arrest #1388
July 14 1949 in presence of N.S. Zephyroff, his wife Zephyrova-Jasinskaya A.N & Hvatova? R.H - cleaner of the hotel (witness who signs the police report)
did arrest Nikolai Stepanovich Zephyroff of address Kirovograd Oktiabriskaya? St 8, 1899, born in Alatyr.
Was taken:
- passport IV-ER-N728904 by Kirovograd MVD October 18 1947
- the pass for entrance to the copper factory
- 2 member id for the society of USSR citizens in Shanghai
- 3 notebooks
- A lot of copies of different articles - 330 pages
- 1 photo album
- Correspondence - 321 pages
- 1 packet with photo portraits
The search took place at 12:16pm
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The policeman Smoilov made a search of the working office of Zephyroff in the presence of the chief of transport for the Kirovograd copper factory Tiurin and the chief of commerce department Shevnin.
Was taken:
- typewriter Royal
- the member card for the trade union
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The policeman Parfivof made a private search of Zephyroff July 15 1949
Was found:
- A metal box for glasses
- A leather belt
- A painted aluminium cigarette case
- A bag of sliced food
- 2 footstraps?
- A cigarette holder
- 1 metal plate - for false teeth?
- 4 different notes and documents
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July 14 1949 - the policemen Ogloblin and Ostrovski took for Zephyroff for his use in the prison:
- Underwear
- Towel
- Soap
- Toothbrush
- 300g of bread
Zephyroff signed that he received these items on the 15th of Dec! 1949.
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Policeman Ogloblin and Ostrovski found in the house of Zephyroff these items:
- A radio record from 1948 that doesn’t work very well
- A “SUMA” watch that is old but works well
- 2 gold cufflinks
- A white three piece suit
- White men’s trousers
- White man’s shirt
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2pm July 15 1945
How have you emigrated to abroad?
Z: In October 1921 I functioned as vice chief of the [formation of echelons?] department of the trans-Baikal railway. I was sent as a functionary to the Manchuria station of the Chinese-Eastern railway (KVZhD). I also had to visit Chita, which was located at that time in the territory of the far eastern independent republic.
So I visited Manchuria station and never came back.
Until 1924 I lived in Harbin and then was sent by my business to Shanghai, where I was until my return to the USSR in 1947.
In my first months in Harbin I moonlighted as a freelance reporter for some Harbin newspapers and magazines. I then worked at the Eastern Chinese Russia Company. In February of 1923 I was invited to the economic department of the KVZhD and was sent to the offices of this company in Shanghai.
During my time in Harbin I lived with my mother-in-law, Zhdanova Zoya Ivanovna who left Russia in 1922. In Harbin she opened a photo salon and she maintained this business until she left for Shanghai in 1928 - 29.
In 1923 my ex-wife Zephyrova (Zhdanova) Lidia Sergeevna came to me in Harbin. In 1925 - 26 (I don’t remember the exact details) she came to me in Shanghai.
Interrogation from 2pm - 4:45pm, then 8:34pm - 11:40pm July 1949.
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Interrogation #2
I was born in 1887 in Alatyr but in my passport there is a mistake that I was born in 1889. My father, Zephyroff Stepan Filipovich was a teacher at Alatyr church school and an orthodox priest in the village Kuvay of Alatyr district and then to the town Karsun of Simbirsk region where he died in 1938.
In 1896 - 1897 I joined Simbirsk church school, but did not finish it. In 1903 I joined Simbirsk gymnasium which I graduated with honours in 1906.
That year I joined the economic department of the St Petersburg technical university which I graduated in 1912 with a first degree diploma.
From 1908 I worked in the resettlement department of the state office - cadastre (land titles). I surveyed the ground properties of the Kazakh population.
In 1911 I moved to Rumianceff’s department within the economic department. They were calculating land acquisition for the construction of the South Siberian railway.
This is the subject with which I completed my doctorate and became a PhD in economics.
In 1913 I started working in the land titles ministry and I was sent to Omsk.
In 1914 because of the beginning of WWI I made purchases of grain in villages for the Russian army.
In 1915 I was sent to Amur region, Blagovashensk town, and worked as a manager for the employment of unemployed people in the gold mines.
In 1916 I was sent to the post of Ministry of Supply for Russia. I was a manager for the supply of Simbirsk, Kazan and Samara governerships.
In September 1917 I was sent to Omsk where I worked as the manager of food supply for Western Siberia.
Till 12:30am on 23 July 1949 with a break from 5pm - 8:30pm on the 22nd of July.
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Interrogation 3 - July 26 1949
In my duty I checked the functioning of echelons to Moscow and Tashkent.
After the counter-revolutionary uprising in Omsk in 1918 I was invited by Bushtov? Taras Vasiliev (whom I knew from my work in the sph) to join the local government in the office of supply.
From August 1918 - December 1918 I was sent by my duty to Vladivostok, and then came back to Omsk.
Interrogation till 2:05am of 27th July with a break from 4:40 until 9pm on the 26th of July
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During this time I was against the USSR and the communist government and after the defeat of Kolchak I lived as an illegal in Chita with a false passport and the name Andrushkevich Aleksandr Aleksandrovich.
In February 1919 I was condemned for failure of delivery of bread - that’s why I was dismissed from the post of minister in 1919.
In January 1920 I was in a flat on the outskirts of Irkutsk. I was at my neighbours at the exact moment when the Soviet police came to my flat to arrest me and so I escaped.
A few days later I bought the passport of the deceased husband of a friend of my wife Andrushkevich Bronislava Konstantinova and lived for some time at our friend Starotsin’s on the outskirts of Irkutsk.
In Feb 1920 I was out and employed at a porcelain factory at Polovina Stationas as a manager.
By fall of 1920 I was back in Irkutsk where I found employment in the railway office.
1:30am 29th July 1949 finished.
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The passport of Aleksandrushkevich was at her friend Bronislava Konstantinova’s house because she doesn’t need it any more after the death of her husband.
In 1923 I have written an appeal for the giving of Soviet citizenship and in 1925 I received a Soviet passport.
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4th August.
At first in Harbin I lived with my friend from Osmk, my ex-boss, ex-chief of the resettlement department in Omsk Tsilinski Aleksandr Vasilievich till 1922. During this time I had no job and Tsilinski worked as a manager of Kurinareff enterprise. This enterprise bought fur and grain for retail.
In May 1922 I joined Voskitorus that buys goods via the KVZhD. At first I was just a manager but when one of the shareholders bought all the shares I became the top manager.
In Feb of 1923 I left my job at Voskitorus because I was invited to join the economic department of the KVZhD. There I worked on publishing the business directory for northern Manchuria and the KVZhD. I wrote the chapter for credit houses and banks.
In October 1924 I was sent to Shanghai port, the part that was a property of the KVZhD. From this time I lived in Shanghai until 1947.
I wrote my articles to Kopeika, Life News, the Manchuria News, and the Far East Times. Some of these were signed by me, some without signatures and some with the fake name Ukhof (ear).
I went from Shanghai to Harbin 3 times.
First in 1926, then in the winter of 1927, then in January of 1928. The last time was in 1930, but by this time I was already released from my work.
My mother in law lived in Harbin . I remember she was there in 1927, but in 1930 was already out. I remember artists Aleksandra Sizyakova and Rogovskaya visited her.
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When I was released from my job in the KVZhD in Nov 1930 I met in Harbin with the Soviet consul Melnikoff and trade-attache Razumovski. They proposed to me to sell in Shanghai soviet goods that were exported from the USSR by “Tsentrozoguz” enterprise and worked at this time under the auspices of the Union Jack.
At the end of 1930 I made a contract with Tsentrozoguz for 3 years to sell in China mineral water from the Caucasus and opened my own enterprise “The Shanghai Importers”.
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But, partly because of economic crisis, my business went bad and in 1934 I spent some days in a debtors prison. That is why I gave my business to my friend, Mr John Sing, because I owed him money.
After 1934 I made a contract with American company West Coast Life.
In 1937 I broke this contract and became a worker in the Moscow People’s Bank as a helper of a manager of this bank.
There I was until June-July of 1946. Then I was released because I was voted chief of the committee of the Soviet Citizens of Shanghai.
Which artists of the theatre I knew in Harbin? In 1924 I knew actress Eltzova, she lived in the next room of the Harbin Hotel “The Grand Hotel”.
Did you know Moloshatov and Tzintels?
Yes I remember some plays with them but did not know them properly.
Actress Rantushenko?
Yes I remember her.
Did you know someone from the group “The Flying Ballet” that was on tour in Shanghai in 1928?
Only the administrator of the troupe Lorenz.
Who stayed at your flat in Shanghai?
In 1927 Sadovoy, document controller of the KVZhD. Chinese citizen Lee Bao Tan.
Where have you moved from Kirovograd since you came to the USSR?
Only to Sverdlovsk sometimes.
What did you do with the problem of the port area in Shanghai?
The problem was that this area was loaned to a Chinese citizen - Mr Johnson. This was a problem because according to Chinese law the land was the property of China.
I had to persuade Mr Johnson (who refused) to release the rights for this area. I did it over a year and made large renovations to the port. Johnson had debts so he finally sold the rights to this area.
Did you know Mr Klarin?
Yes, in 1942 - 1943 artists who held Soviet citizenship visited the “Society of Russian Citizens in Shanghai” and complained that Russian citizens from the old White Russian Army were pushing out Soviets from all profitable positions for artists. That’s the first time I heard about Mr Klarin not being fair with artists.
At this time in the Society of Soviet Citizens I read 2 patriotic verses from the magazine “The Epoch”. The author of these verses was a Mr Tiurin.
In private conversation with him, the main editor of Epoch magazine, I told him that I liked these verses. The editor in chief, Mr Zackheim, told me that Tiurin, this is a pseudonym for Klarin.
I was astonished, because Klarin was a white emigrant but Zackheim told me “forget it. He is a very mysterious man. Do you know what citizenship he has? Greece!” That is how I knew Mr Klarin.
Do you know Sitnikova Klavdia?
The actress. Yes. She visited the Union in 1943.
What did you do in the West Coast Lighter?
The full name is West Coast Life Insurance Company and I worked as a life insurance clerk. I was insured myself in this company.
Have you visited Moscow?
Yes, in December 1948.
Where did you stay?
With my relative Annankova Madhezda Sergeevna Herzena St 5/7 app 4.
Who is she?
She is the daughter of my sister Annenkhova (nee Zephyrova) Maria Stepanovna.
Who is the husband of your sister?
Annenkov Sergei Nikolaevich, son of the priest of Korsun district of Simbirsk governership. I saw him in 1906 - 1908. He was an accountant of the Volga-Kama bank in Simbirsk. I did not see him any more.
In 1927 to the USSR came my ex-wife Zephyrova (now Rubina) Lydia. She lives now in Australia. She told me that she met Annenkova and told me her father was working on some financial things in Moscow. I was in correspondence with her and with my other sister Zephyrova (Jurin-skaya) Elena, who lives now Makhachkala (Dagestan). They informed me that Sergey Annenkov was arrested.
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Remark from Vitaly the genealogist:
The main logic of the policeman’s questions is to obtain information about Nikolai’s contacts in the USSR. It is clear that Nikolai understands this and tried each time to push people out from police interest. People he is interrogated about are always “on vacation”, “on tour” or not seen again.
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Annenova told me that her husband was a kind of writer or an artist and that she divorced him.
P. What do you know about the political views of Annenova?
N: She is a Soviet patriot. She told me how during the war she built defense constructions around Moscow
(Vitaly’s remark: This is unlikely. This was very hard work mostly including digging anti-tank ditches, and why was she on tour with military units at the front?)
N: She showed me her decorations, she was decorated for this.
My other sister Zephyrova Pitchiulina Olga Stepanovna lives in Korsun. Kazbek (Zephyrova) Anna Stepanovna lives at (sulphuric) zeboy?? at Kyubyshev region (now Samara). Zephyrova-Jureninskaya Elena Stepanovna lives in Buzulur? Chkalon (now Orenburg) region.
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In company with Denisov Alexander Sergeevich, Dobrokhotov Michail Sergeevich, Kapukes? Evgenii Alexandrovich I began to publish the newspaper “The New World”. It was first published in the Spring of 1934. Our financial conditions were terrible. We constantly asked the Soviet consulate to give us money because the newspaper was very pro-Soviet. Maybe they gave money to Kapukes because in 1935 he built his own publishing house. The new name of the newspaper was the China Daily Herald and it was published in Russian and English. By this time I was no longer paying much attention to the newspaper because I spent all my time at my new insurance job. From 1937 the name of the newspaper was Novaya Zhizn (The New Life).
I was in correspondence with Denisov when I returned to the USSR in 1947. He lives in Moscow and works as a writer.
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From December 10 1937 I worked in the Moscow People’s Bank in Shanghai. I knew the manager of this bank (Gaydool? Josef Vikentjevich) before, which is why I got the post so easily.
I got 25000 yuan per month.
P. Why did you change your place of work in spite of the fact that you got more at the insurance office?
N. Because the bank was a soviet organisation and I wanted to come back to the USSR.
Gaydool visited Moscow in 1939 and promised to do everything he could to obtain for me documents for re-emigration to Russia. When he came back he told me he was mistaken and I would have to try and obtain my Soviet permanent visa at the Russian embassy in Tokyo.
I quit working at the bank in 1946 because I got the post of the chief of Soviet Citizens in Shanghai.
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In August 1945 when the USSR announced the war against Japan I was in my workplace, the Moscow People’s Bank. Some guardmen in military uniform came and closed all the safes and boxes in the bank. The chief of the bank Micheev Michail Vasilievich and I were arrested in our offices and held for 24 hours. Then we were sent to our houses but prohibited to leave our apartments.
The next day I was sent under the surveillance of Japanese soldiers to the Soviet consulate where the Soviet consul was already being held with the editor of the pro-Soviet newspaper “News of the Day” Tohilikin. We were kept there until the Japanese capitulation.
From 1936 I was a member of the Society of Soviet Citizens Shanghai. Since the autumn of 1942 I was a member of the Red Cross and from 1941 a member of the Alliance Foundation community of Shanghai expatriates of anti-Hitler countries.
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P. What did you do that you ended up in debtors prison?
N. When I had my contract with Zentro-Soyuz in 1933 the business was quite successful. I was visited by the French company “France Trading Company” and asked to retail French wines. We made an agreement that he would sell me the wines on credit and I would pay him back as the wine sold. In 1933 the mineral water stopped being delivered to me. Because of this and the economic crisis my deals began to go bad and I could not pay my debts and so was sent to the prison.
It was the Frenchman who came to the court and sent me to prison. I was there for a week from Dec 1933 to Jan 1934.
The name of the Frenchman was Monsieur Fermachiere. By Chinese law the living costs of the condemned in the debtor’s prison are paid by the claimant. He understood that I could not pay the debts so he took back the accusation and I was released.
My economical / financial position after my time in the debtors prison was very, very hard. This is when I had the final split with my wife Lidia Zephyrova, though for the sake of the happiness of our daughter we still lived in the same flat together for some time after the split. I met Yasinskaya Alexandra in the beginning of 1939 and by the end of February 1939 I had married her.
P. With who were you in correspondence with after you came back to the USSR?
N. With my daughter Eliena Nikolaevna Gregory and my ex-mother-in-law Zhdanova. They live in Sydney.
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N. In February 1919 I was released from my minister’s position in the Kolchak government because I was condemned for a bad purchase of tea for 1,000,000 pounds. I asked the Minister of Justice Telberg to research the question. There was a trial but this was foolish because prices were growing every day and noone could understand if this was an exhorbitant or fair price for the purchase of the tea.
But anyway, I was almost one month under guard and was released only when my mother-in-law gave some money for bail.
After this I lived in Omsk for some time translating English to Russian currency exchange rates for a magazine.
In spite of the fact that I was free I was still under trial and when the government moved to Irkutsk I had to go to Irkutsk because I needed to appear in court. All of the Kolchak government then escaped so I just stayed in Irkutsk. This time I made money translating articles for the society of boiler-makers.
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P. Were you at any time arrested except in the case with the Japanese?
N. Yes, when I graduated from my gymnasium in 1906 I was arrested by the police and under surveillance for one month. It was in Karsun.
They made a mistake and mistook me for some guy who committed a crime in the same red suit as me, that’s all.
My oldest brother Michail was a member of the Essers party (Vitaly’s note: Essers were Socialist Revolutionaries and the main competitor with the Bolsheviks) so in our apartment there was a lot of prohibited books. That’s why I was under police surveillance for one month.
My brother was quite famous in the Essers (SR’s) party. He died in autumn of 1906 in a bomb blast in an apartment in Kazan.
(Vitaly’s note: CLASSIC death for Essers and Norodovoltsy - terrorist parties of the 19th & 20th century. They always made home cooked bombs in their apartments and were blasted by unprofessional deeds and making bombs very often).
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Album and photos were given back to Zephyrova-Jasinskaya.
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2 Dec 1949
My marriage to my first wife was May 12 1918. In August of 1919 I attempted to be released from my ministry post because I was against the so-called “freedom of trade” in Kolchak’s government. And at this time I was on-duty in the Russian far-east for 2 months, so, in all fairness, I was only working for the Kolchak government for a very short time.
When I was illegally working under the alias Andrushkevich I met at the Baikal railway a very nice man, whose name was Shuzhkov, and he was an example of the new kind of Soviet manager. Under his influence I started in 1920 writing pro-Soviet propaganda in Harbin and then Shanghai.
When I was working in Shanghai I also created new trade routes from Shanghai via Vladivostok - and in doing so supported the economy of the new socialist state.
It was when I was working as an insurance agent that I finally became absolutely pro-communist. I visited the houses of simple workers and understood that there was so other way to change the world - only communism. I made a report about Stalin’s constitution in 1938 and this report was marked as really very good by the Soviet ambassador Nikita Grigorievich Errofev?
When I started work at the Soviet Society there were only 30-35 of them, but in 1947 because of my cooperation there were 2000-3000 of them. We had a hospital, a 7 year school and a canteen. In the time of the Great Patriotic War we collected a large amount of clothes and other humanitarian goods for the Red Army.
To support this Soviet society I refused the possibility of a normal life with my daughter and at the age of 60 started an entirely new study of the economy of the copper factory. I am sure that my work at the Kirovograd copper factory was very successful.
In my free time I wrote a book about the economics of copper processing that I believe could change for the better all copper processing in the USSR.
I don’t think it will be useful to punish me for my sin of 30 years ago. It would be very bad for the Soviet image in the eyes of the enemies of the USSR that live abroad.
Finally I would like you to notice that I first applied at the Soviet consulate for the possibility of re-immigrating to the USSR in 1932.
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Zephyroff asked to meet with Naum Broozeen who condemned him as a spy against the USSR, to face his accuser, but since Naum had already been executed this was not possible.
Claudia Gregory (Grigorieff) had an interesting life. She was born in 1893 in the family of an opulent merchant who dealt in timber, apples, watermelons and cherries. On the event of her christening her grandmother deposited 10000 roubles in assignations in the bank in her name.
I'm currently reading 
I tried to think this morning where the idea for this book originally came to me, and I confess my memory of it is fuzzy at best.