Agents of Captain Obara

Source: L. Zakovsky, S. Uranov. The elimination of the "fifth column". M., Algorithm, Eksmo. 2011

Z. Girinsky

Agents of Captain Obara

In the immediate vicinity of the Soviet border, on the territory of the so-called Manchukuo-Di-Go, there is a certain military mission. The main task of this mission is espionage, sabotage and counter-revolutionary activities in the territory of the Soviet Transbaikalia. The mission finds personnel for its anti-Soviet work among the White Guards and kulak-bandit and criminal elements who immigrated to Manchuria during the civil war and partially defected from Soviet territory in recent years. All these scum are organized around the so-called Russian Fascist Party, created and fed in Manchuria.

In 1937 ... the captain Obara led this mission. His direct intelligence assistant was Inoguchi, who officially held the modest position of an interpreter for the mission. A helpful intermediary between the Russian emigrants and Captain Obara during this period was a police official, a former officer of the tsarist army, Dekin. At the moment described, the mission was tasked with finding out the scale of military construction in Transbaikalia, as well as the size and condition of the N-th garrison. The headquarters checked the information received from one of the kulaks who defected to Manchuria about the alleged extensive defense construction in the indicated area. Immediately upon receiving this assignment, Obara turned to his trusty assistant, policeman Dekin, with a proposal to organize an intelligence group from the most suitable white émigrés,

In the autumn of 193 ... in the city of N. early in the morning, one worker discovered a counter-revolutionary proclamation signed by Russian fascists. The proclamation was immediately delivered to the NKVD. There was no doubt about the foreign origin of the proclamation. This fact became widely known to the population of the city of N., and many citizens expressed their views on the possible ways in which the counter-revolutionary proclamation could penetrate our territory.

2-3 days after this event, the railway worker Kuznetsov reported one suspicious case that seemed to him, which he recalled in connection with the appearance of the proclamation. Just on the night before the appearance of the leaflets, Kuznetsov, returning home from duty and getting ready for bed, clearly heard the clatter of horses that had stopped at a neighboring house, and the creak of the gates opening. At that moment, he did not attach any importance to this fact. Kuznetsov's neighbor was the railroad worker Protopopov. His house, fenced with a thick fence, stood on the very outskirts of the village and on one side looked out into the steppe, stretching into Manchuria.

Kuznetsov could not say anything compromising about his neighbor, but Kuznetsov never had internal trust in him, although Protopopov was considered a good worker at the factory and was even awarded several times. Protopopov's wife was an active clergywoman and worked as an elder in the local parish church.

The incident told by Kuznetsov coincided with the fact reported by the shepherd Amagaev, who was in the steppe on the day the counter-revolutionary proclamation was discovered. Early in the morning of the same day, at a distance of half a kilometer, Amagaev saw several riders riding in the direction from Borzi towards the border.

The statements of Kuznetsov and the Buryat shepherd Amagaev were given exceptional importance, since these statements had an obvious connection with each other. The personality of Protopopov attracted serious attention. It turned out that Protopopov had been a customs officer in the past, engaged in smuggling, and by bribes from smugglers he amassed a fortune, part of which he spent on buying a house. It also turned out that some of his colleagues at the customs and accomplices in smuggling settled in Manchuria after the revolution.

Kuznetsov's statement was also confirmed by the fact that people who visited Protopopov noticed fresh horse manure in his barn, while the Protopopovs did not have their own horses.

* * *

Approximately two weeks after this incident, two unknown persons were detained in Protopopov's house, who said that they had arrived from Manchuria to Protopopov, from whom they should receive some information for some military mission. Before leaving for the USSR, they were in the Manchurian prison, where they served their sentences as criminals.

Shortly before their departure to the Soviet Union, the head of the military mission, Captain Obara, visited the prison. He delivered a speech to the prisoners, in which he said with dramatic pomp that the time had come when his country should carry out the great mission it had assumed to liberate Russia from the yoke of communism, and that they, the prisoners, were given the opportunity to make amends by participating together with emigration in the fight against Soviet power.

Most of those arrested refused this offer, apparently considering being in prison more suitable for themselves than fighting against the Soviet Union. Only a few people who had been sentenced to long terms and had lost hope of being released took advantage of Obar's offer. The next day they were released by Captain Obara and placed at the disposal of a defector from the USSR, the bandit Kozlov, who gave them instructions in developing Mr. Obara's "political" guidelines.

The detainees also said that Kozlov himself had already twice visited the territory of the USSR on behalf of Obar and that the Protopopov family served as a haven for him. There was nothing surprising in this, since Kozlov was an old acquaintance of Protopopov and his accomplice in smuggling.

When examining Protopopov's house, several counter-revolutionary proclamations were found, the same as those found in the city. Kozlov's agents stated that, regardless of whether they returned to Manchuria on time or not, Kozlov planned to enter the I. region with a sabotage and reconnaissance group in the near future.

Immediately upon receipt of this information, the border detachment set up ambushes on all possible routes of penetration of saboteurs. The correctness of the testimony of the detainees was quickly confirmed. A few days later, a group of cavalrymen consisting of 5 armed horsemen-saboteurs came across one of the ambushes located in the deep rear. When they tried to detain them, the saboteurs opened fire and tried to leave the cordon. After a brief firefight, two gang members were killed on the spot and three were captured alive. The bandit Kozlov and the translator of the military mission in Manchuria Inoguchi turned out to be killed. Several revolvers, grenades, cameras and sabotage equipment were seized from the group.

* * *

Interrogation of the captured saboteurs and the testimony of the Protopopovs painted a complete picture of the criminal activities of this group. Police officer Dekin, having received an order from Captain Obara, summoned a member of the fascist organization and a police agent, bandit Kozlov, and offered him to lead a sabotage and reconnaissance group for subversive work on the territory of the USSR. Kozlov accepted the offer. Immediately, a plan was worked out for an attack on Soviet territory using Protopopov's apartment as a stronghold. Kozlov was well aware of Protopopov's hostile attitude towards the Soviet authorities even at the time when he lived on Soviet territory. As an experienced spy, Kozlov took into account that Protopopov's position is very convenient, since he can hide behind his position as a worker and through him it is very easy to establish contact with Kozlov's wife. She lived in A. she worked as a dishwasher in one of the Red Army units, so Dekin and Kozlov supposed to receive espionage information through her. In addition, Kozlov and Dekin expected that Protopopov, being a railway worker, would be able to play a serious role in carrying out acts of sabotage on the railway.

Having received money, weapons, cameras and explosive materials directly in the military mission from the hands of Captain Obar, having stocked up on gifts for Protopopov, Kozlov with a group of saboteurs penetrated Soviet territory through the territory of the MPR at night. For the first time, Kozlov did not dare to enter the city of N. with a whole group. Therefore, a few kilometers from N. Kozlov's companions were left with horses in the steppe. Kozlov himself, under cover of night, made his way into the city on foot and, appearing to Protopopov, directly told him about the purpose of his visit, inviting Protopopov to take part in subversive work.

The proposal corresponded to the mood of Protopopov, and after a short hesitation, after consulting with his wife, he accepted the proposal.

In addition, he immediately gave Kozlov information about the situation in the area, about transport and fortifications; told everything he knew.

That same night, Kozlov went back to Manchuria. After this visit, Protopopov went to A., to Kozlov's wife, told her about her husband, promised her gifts from him and along the way extorted from her everything that she could know about the Red Army. His acquaintance with the fist special. he used a migrant, who worked on the supply of materials for military construction, to obtain information about the construction, asked him about the location of the fortifications and the most convenient approaches to them. For the second time, Kozlov and his gang came to N. on horseback directly to Protopopov's estate. It was this arrival that the worker Kuznetsov noticed.

This time, Kozlov brought several counter-revolutionary proclamations, one of which he, together with Protopopov, pasted on the wall of the factory near N station at dawn. With the assistance of Protopopov, Kozlov took several pictures of N station and adjacent railway facilities and tracks. It was agreed that on Kozlov's next visit, Protopopov would help the sabotage and reconnaissance group to penetrate directly to the objects of the fortified area.

Upon arrival in Manchuria, Kozlov reported on the successes achieved to Captain Obara in the presence of Dekin. The report aroused the admiration of the head of the mission. Encouraged by success, the saboteurs, at the suggestion of Captain Obara, were to make the next sortie led by an employee of the Inoguchi mission. This time the enemy miscalculated. The third trip of the Japanese fascist gang to the territory of the USSR ended in complete failure. The subversive work of Captain Obara this time was defeated because the "simple", "inconspicuous" sons of the Soviet state - the worker Kuznetsov and the Buryat shepherd Amagaev showed vigilance. They acted like true sons of a socialist homeland.

* * *

What we have told here is only one of the many facts of the subversive work of some kind of intelligence on the territory of the USSR. This case does not exhaust all the methods of work of spy-saboteurs, but it also quite clearly shows the methods of work of the enemy and those elements among which the enemy recruits his agents and accomplices.

Komsomolskaya Pravda, April 26, 1937