The Trust - Part IV: Arrest

History abounds with examples in which pressing intelligence or espionage concerns were solved or unraveled through the expediency of the unexpected or the fortuitous. In the case of Trust, the concern of the OGPU was underground monarchist organizations operating within the USSR and the fortuitous was Artomonov's letter. Even before Yakushev's trip to Estonia, the OGPU had already uncovered the existence of the MOTsR. According to one source, OGPU chief Feliks Dzerzhinsky was already pursuing the possible option of breaking into this organization with the aim of utilizing it as a means of penetrating foreign monarchist organizations.

In addition, it is suggested that the Moscow monarchists already had some contact with those monarchist groups operating abroad - again, prior to Yakushev's meeting Artomonov. One possible support for this claim is a reference made about an informal communications existing between Shchelgachev and Aleksandr N. Rtyshchev, a supposed top ranking leader leader of the MOTsR. If this is the case, then the significance of Yakushev's conversation with Artomonov may have been due to the fact that this was the first occurrence of face to face talks between the MOTsR and the emigre monarchists - not that this was the first time the emigres had been apprised of the underground movement's existence.



As it was, a copy of the Artomonov letter arrived on the desk of the Chief of the Counter-Intelligence Section (KRO) of the OGPU, Artur Kh. Artuzov, some time in mid-November 1921. Artuzov had already been entrusted with the task of penetrating the MOTsR by this time. The method chosen fell on procuring an inside man of sorts who would work as a double agent: "a man, whom these gentlemen will believe, whom they know to be a committed monarchist and who could become one of the leaders of the MOTsR, while operating in the interests of Soviet power." Yakushev, with his prominent standing in the former Tsarist bureaucracy and his known monarchist leanings, became the prime candidate for the task.

Artur Kh. Artuzov


On 22 November 1921, the hapless Yakushev returned to Moscow, unaware of the impending catastrophe. Within a few short days, the bureaucrat found himself staring at the blank walls of a prison cell at OGPU headquarters at the Lubyanka. No explanation was given for his arrest, but he suspected it involved his previous counter-revolutionary activities in Petrograd. Little did he know that his arrest concerned his present activities, not his past ones - which, indeed, the OGPU knew about as well.


Instead of confronting the agitated monarchist, his OGPU interrogators - Artuzov and Roman A. Pilyar - broke him down by degrees, reserving their knowledge of the letter and the true nature of Yakushev's visit in Estonia. Their prime task was to compromise Yakushev's sense of moral superiority in relation to the Bolsheviks. They accomplished this through a combination of methods ranging from a list of his marital infidelities to questioning his devotion to the Motherland, laying particular emphasis upon his support of monarchist groups who had been willing to compromise Russian sovereignty in exchange for foreign support. Finally, they broached the topic of his trip through Estonia. After catching their victim in a succession of lies, they produced the letter and a stunned Yakushev finally admitted everything.

Roman A. Pilyar

In his handwritten confession, Yakushev acknowledged, "I was one of the leaders of the MOTsR - the Monarchist Organization of Central Russia, which had as its goal the overturning of the Soviet regime and the establishment of monarchy. I confess that the purpose of my meeting in Reval was to establish contact between the MOTsR and the Supreme Monarchist Council abroad...." Confession, however, was merely the first step in the process of 'turning' the civil servant into a Soviet agent. After securing his guilt, Artuzov and Pilyar stressed the incompetence of the White conspirators whose amateurishness had landed Yakushev in prison and placed his family in danger. They focused upon the joint desires they had with him to rebuild the economy and strengthen the Russian state. Finally, they emphasized the fact that Yakushev could have been executed before, but they had relented and instead had given him a responsible position in the state as a sign of good faith. And then, in full expectation of being assigned a death cell, they suddenly forgave him for his actions and his lies and pronounced that he would be freed to return to his family and his post.
A grateful Yakushev promised to cease all political activities and to fully live up to the expectations placed upon him by the Soviet authorities. For his OGPU handlers, such effusions were indeed appreciated, but they made it known that only positive, constructive political activity on his part could fully expiate his crimes: "You have made one step, it is necessary to make another... It is impossible to stay neutral between the two camps. You must stand up for the defense of the Motherland, actively guard against evil enemies, interventionists, counter-revolutionaries, terrorists and spies..." For this, they demanded that he return to his previous role in the MOTsR and to report back to them for instructions. Before releasing him, they established a convenient cover story to account for the several months in which he had been incarcerated - he had come down with typhus while on an unscheduled business trip to Irkutsk2.

2. The next section will explain some possible interpretations of the phrase 'being ill' in the language of the White monarchist underground.