CHRONOLOGICAL REPORT OF MY LIFE IN RUSSIAN PRISONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP64-00658A000100380003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 3
• Content Type: REPORT

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Chronological Report of my Life in RuasianPrisons
On Dec. 1st 1937 I was arrested at the custom house in Moscow, -where I was
preparing my property to get looked through for my departure from Russia.
I was immediately brought to the Lubianke prison where I was ehewm, the
order of arrest dated from Charkow from Nov. 27th, on account of Paragr. 58
(political reasons). After a quarter of an hour I was brought to the big
Butyrka prion into a cell for 24 men. Gradually thin cell was filled up
until it held 140 men, sleeping on and under wooden boards, about 2-3 men per
2
m While still in Neseow, 11 days after my arrest I was called out and
questioned by an officer of the MOD. to give a full confession of My
alleged counter revolutionary activities on behalf of the german fesoist
government, but no concrete accusation was brouGht up against me, only the
names of a number of my e russian and foreign colleagues from the Charkowe
Physicotechnioal Institute were mentioned as being members of a counter
revolutionary organisation, as Shubnikov, Landau, Ruhemann? Weissberg, Fond%
etc, I was told that if I cave a full confession .I would immediately be
sent abroad. Of course I did not make a false confession and denied any
activity against the USSR. On Jan. 4th 1938 I was brought up in a prisoner
car by railway to Charkow and put into the prison Chelodnaja cora in Charkow
In a cell which was still mPre overcrowded than that in Moscow, but without
any sleeping accommodations so that we all had to U-el on the floor-. I re-
mained there till Jan, 10th when I was brought into the central Charkow
prison of the NOD, into a cell perfectly clean and not too overcrowded. Here
en/ fellow prisoners tried to persuade me to Give a false oenfessioneof thought
out things as they had done myself since sooner or later I had to anyhow in
order to save a 1t of trouble, The same day I Was asked to give a confession
again by a questioning official, named Drescher, who threatened me to beat
me and to get apything out of ma. In the evening of Jan. 11th began an unw
interrelpted questioning of 11 days with the exception of 5 hours interruption
the first day, and about 2 hours on the second day. No concrete charge was
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brought up against me as. in nearly all oases of people I have seen in
russian prisons and I mas told to give all facts myself. The only 2
questions that were asked mores Who induced you to join the counter
revolutionary organization and whom did you induce Yourself' Three
officials questioned me in turn of about 6 hours each, the first 2 days
was allowed to eit on a chair, later only on the edge of a chair and
from the third day / was forced to stand nearly all days I was always kept
awake, and when I fell from lack of sleep I was brought to by means of
cold meter that was poured on my face. The chief official who led PY
questioning was named Pogrebnoi. The night of Jan. 22nd shortly after
midnight Pogrebnoi showed me an order of arrest of my wife and another
order to bring my children into a home for besprisornis under a false
name so that / would not be able to find them ever again. I was of the
opinion that they were all still in Moscow. I have learned since that
they had left shortly after my arrest so all I was told was bluffing
but in the state of weakness after nearly 10 days without any sleep
fell for it. In this state I foil unconscious nearly every 20 . 30
minutes but I was awakened every time and my feet were so swollen that
my shoes had to be out off. I was beaten little only occasionally and
not with instruments as many other prisoners I have seen and I was told
by them that the treatment I had to undergo myself was very mild indeed
if compared with that they had to endure in beating. At the end I de*
olareci I said I were ready to sign any statement they wanted under the
condition that my family mere to be sent abroad immediately and I would
be shown a letter from abroad by my wife telling me her whereabouts, after
3 months. In case I would not get such a letter / mould revoke any state-
ment I made. I signed a short statement as they asked me, that I was sent
to the 'USSR by the German Gestapo, for eepionage. Then I got to eat.
luxuriously and got tea and was sent to sleep to my cell where I slept
for about $6 hours. Then I was asked upstairs again and there I wrote a
long confession of about 20 pages in German and I wee very careful to
give only names of people whom I knew to be abroad, or whose evidenoe
against aa of course forced by 3rd degree methods also was shown
to me. I had to write about espionage, sabotage and counter revolutionary
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? agitation and / was absolutely free to invent anything liked no cor-
roboration by facts or by other evidences as to material facts being
needed, I made nuclear physics the theme of my espionage, though at.
?.that time no technical applications of nuclear physics were known since
fiesion was not yet diecovered but I wrote a lot of phrases that the
nuclear energy is there and that it needed only the right may to start a
chain reaction in the way of popular novels on this matter. Another in-
strument I wrote 1 had spied upon was an instrument for measuring absolute
? velocities of airplanes by the number of magnetic tines of force which vont
through a coil a device contradicting the, law of conservation of energy and
being obviously a perpetuum mobile. I intentionally made my confession as
stupid as poesible in order to be able to test that it is nonsense in 04130
of a trial and I put in a short statement in English in ciphered form that
was under third degree torture and that all / wrote is pure invention.
During the last year of my being in Charkowmany people I knew and I knew
perfectly well as being innooent had been, arrested already and it was
'stated that they all had given evidence to be guilty. I did not know then
about the method how these statements were forced from the people but I had
told my wife in case a signature would ever be forced from ms I mould leave
out the full stop after my signature, and in case the signature were given
by my free will I would always put a full stop after my name I had oppor-
tunity to do so and left out the full stops in the written confession. My
written confession was translated into Russian and was left alone and MMA not
troubled any more til August 1938, living til March in a clean prition cell
not too overcrowded in the central prison Oharkow. On March the 17th I
was called again and a letter from my wife dated from Copenhagen was given
to me. The eame day 1 was transferred to the Cholodnaya Gore prison in
Charkow to a small cell, rather dirty and very overcrowded where I remained
til August 2nd. Food mas very little and we suffered rather from hunger.
. The rations consisted of 600 gr black bread containing more water than
ordinary tread (equivalent of about 500.860 g of ordinary bread) about
.1tS..20 gr. sugar, a mug of eeup containing little nourishing value and 1e2
spoons of porridge of some kind a day, from fair estimates made by
physicians I met and by myself about 900.1000 Cal per day. rood was always
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given regularly and I donit know of any oases that prisoners were not
given their rations. Treatment by ptison officials was herd but not
sadistic, but there existed collo where conditions wore much worse for
people who had not Given the confession or evidence manted. I remaimed
there until August 214 when I was eent to Kiewin "Stolypin, oar" a special
sort of railway car for prisoners. I remained in Kiew til October lot
1938 where was ae34ed to give more evidence especially against a friend of
laris Prof, Leipunski, member of the party and an absolute sincere man.
From prisoners in my cell I learned that he was arrested in another cell
in Kievr and amen in my Cell tried to persuade me to give evidence against
him and told me what I should say. No speeial pressure was used against
me and therefore I did not give any evidence against him or against Prof.
Obreimove another member of our institute* that I was asked to give. Prison
conditions. in Kiev were much better than in Charkov? the roma being very
clean and food a little bit better. It was hard though because it was not
alloyed to sleep in daytime, On October let 1938 I was sent back to
Oharkov and put into a clean cell in the central prison. Prisons were not
so overcrowded more at that time, but still there mere 1.2 persons/m2 of
room, I was not questioned til January 1939 again when I was asked to
sign an application for soviet citizenship, For that case they promised
Mk the leadership of a big institute for my research work to be built by the
NKWD itself but I did not consider that offer to be sincere, having met
foreigners in prison cells who. had agroed to such an offer without having
been released and therefore I asked / could talk about this matter only
after release and after having comturtioation with my family. This time
was the only one when I got some of the things that mere sent to me by Bev
wife and from Mks, 0ohn-Vossen, 4 friend of mine in Vescova I got a blanket
and a few pieces of underwear. I did not Est any letter nor any money that
was sent to me from abroad, as I have learned since, This was rather bad
because all the time there was the possibility to buy some additional food
supply and smoking material for about 20 rubles a fortnight and this helped
a great deal but since I had less than 100 rubles on me 'when I vas arrested
I nearly never oeuld make use of this possibility and therefore I had lost
about 18 kg in weight and became more and more feeble. I could not think
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of a revocation of my confession the year before and when I was asked to give
more evidence, against persons as Obreimov whom I knew to be in the 'USSR, I
declined but I nfirmed my former confession not venting ta have all the
trouble over again,, On the, new evidence they were not pressing very hard*
In February 1939 I was gent again to Kiew where I was put again in the ,
central prison but man underground cell mithout any daylight (artificial
light was in all cells always during all night), 'which was very humid* I
was asked. EteAin by a new orfiotal to sive evidence against Obreimav and
Letpunski and I was threatened to be beaten in case I refused and shown
written evidence of both of them against me in their own handwriting* I
was very weak then, I could hardly walk about and so I, decided to confirm
their statements on counter revolutionary activity about myself and thet. I
knew about theirs. I put in some alight disorepanoies concerning dates ;ate*
with their evidence and my evidence was accepted* Again I was told I would
be sent abroad* In May 1939 Z was asked by the peoples commigar.of the
interior of the Uoraina himself to give evidenee against Prof. Frits Lange.
4 good physicist and friend of mine who was working in Uor* Physico* Teohne
Institute and aloe against Prof* Ladau, Prof. Joffe and Prof* Kapitsa all of
them being prominent' physicists of the USSR* lie told me they knew well that
all of them were active spies and members of a counter revolutionary organ.
Isation and they only wanted ma to confirm this, / said I knew nothing
about it but I did not try to revoke my own statements given earlier*. This
oonfirms,theefaet I had often heard in prison cells about especially by men
who. once had been offieials of the MD themselves that it is quite usual to
collect evidence about counter revolutionary activity of prominent people
who are net arrested at all in case their arrest should be effectuated later
on. Neither Lange, nor Joffe or Kapitza ever have been arrested as far as
I learned einoee No, paper or books were ever allowed in prison cells and
therefore it wee nearly impossible to do any work. Yet from the very
beginning of my prison time I decided to work under all conditions and since
it was the only field I could do it in I started already at the end of 1937
to think about problems of the theory of numbers* All I knew was Euclide
proof about the existence of an infinite number of primes and I started
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? thinking on the problem whether there exist an infinite number of the
type ex 1 and 4x + I also, while for the 8z- land 4x . I I could
find Buolids proof hold with a slight alteration offhand. I had no
? writing materials but I tried to write $004 numbers with matehes on a
piece of soap or on places of the wall where it could not be seen, but
I had to extinguish it all every day before leaving the cell for the
toilet. I thought about that problem more than a year and finally in
flew in the first days of March I found that any form x2 + Xy + Y2 with
xsy being relative prime cannot contain any other factor than primes of
ex + 3. type or 3? and the sum of to senores of relative primes contains
only primes 4x + I or 2. After solving this problem I found Fermate
theorem (I only learned its name after I left the prison as with all
a
theorems I found) and quite a number of theorems in .elementary theory,
of numbers. When I found on August 6th an elementary proof for Fermate
famous problem for n- a, which as have learned since is essentially
the same as Euler by a descents infinie / got so excited about it because
I did not know Eulere elementary proof to exist that / made application
to. the peoples comeisar of the Uoraima to get paper and pencil - I said
I want to work out an idea of mire on a method in radioactivity which
might be of economic importance. When my petition was not granted I
went on hunger strike (only declining food, not water)... I was alone in
a cell then and succeeded in settina paper and pencil after 8 days of
hunger strike by which I was very muoh weakened since I was in a ban
state when I started. I wrote a number of theorems, I had found the
so-called indices of theory of numbers a theorem of Lucas and a new
proof of a theorem of Sylvester whie e course of publication at the
Jahresberieht upon the advice of Prof. van der Waerden wham I have told
about my prison studies in theory of numbers I even could keep writing
materials aten prof. Melamet (a philosophy professor from Odesea) was
put into my cell and I remained there, so that a could make steady p.rores
in theory of numbers. In August all my evidenoe I had given 11/2 years
earlier was rewritten and I was asked together with Prof. Obreimov for a
so.called "double questioning" in which he . of course it was all pure
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invention . he stated before my eyes that I had induced him while still
in Berlin to do espionage work for the Nazi* e"though at the time of
his visit to Berlin the Nazis were not in power and a quite small party*
I affirmed all his statements because I did not vent and in the state of
health, I was in could not afford to go another time over all the tortures
again by eenech I was threatened* Suddenly on September 30th 1939 I was
called.out and brought to the station in a closed ear and was broueht to
MOSO0U4 I did not know about the war til January 1940.. The isolation of
prisoners is extrema in'llussia the only source of inforMation being what
.
is told by new arrested prisoners and I had not seen such people for a cone
siderable time. In the train I 4RW' that the official who had questioned
me before travelled with me on the same taTiek and in Moscow. I was brought
immediately into the central prison of the NialD on the Lubianka. While
I was still in the showerbath everybody arriving there had to go threugh
was already called for being questioned. I was brought into a
luxuriously furnished room in which a man in the uniform of a general
of the NKWY0 sat and beside Idm in civilian clothes a very intelligent
looking man who presided and who asked me politely to sit deem and then
asked me what I felt guilty of. I asked again "Do you vent to hear *hat
confession I signed or do you 'want facts? Of course foots he replained.
This is. the first time I am asked this question within these walls I said.
But .since you meet to have them the only thing I feel guilty of is that I
stole a pair of underwear it the Charkov prison a year ago by extinguishing
the prison stamp on them by Calciumohloride in the toilet. That's all.
And what about your confession? He asked? That's all pure invention? Then
he asked who had forced me to give a confession and by what means I Was
romed? / gave all the names as far as I knew them and all details* We are
going to clear it all up he said shortly and I was brought baok to my
cell a good cell, where I veto; alone and I liked that better by the way
since I could 'work. All vas extremely clean and I got books, very good
ones too, special food in quite sufficient quantity and a package of
cigarettes every day. Though my Kiev manuscript had been 'taken away from
ma when I entered the Lubianka I got writing materials again without any
effort and 1 went on to occupy myself with what I have learned since to
be Pelle problem and other things in the theory of numbers. In this oell
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I remained without being called a Single-timeuntiI the boginning of
December 1939 being all the. time alone. After-all. I had passed At wasa
treat. In the first part of December I vies celled up again by another
official who asked be absolutely correctly about everything and I?
answered all questions correctly. When I asked to write or to cable to
my: family ... 1 supposed them to be in England from where 1 had last
, heard from them. in August 1936 or to send a oable:he said I shall soon be
sent Out. I then asked specially not to be Sent to Germany and he Made 4
note of it, About a week later I ot new clothes and was sent to BUtyrka
-prieon into one of the bitcells where I had been 2 years previously, but
it. was not overcrowded then.. All people in. the room were Germans, not all
of them foreigners, some had taken the soviet citizenship* Among:them
I. was glad to meet another German professor, Prof* Frits Neether,? former
.Professor at the Dresiau:utiversity for .appliOd mathematics and later refugee
living in Tomsk* TW had been arrested as, German though being a? jaw ? and
was forced to invent a espionage- story,: elec. But in contradiction to my
case a sentence of years of imprisonment had been passed on him. Shortly
after my arrival he was removed from the cell and I never heard about him
,since. In this cell always we. all got special rood in sufficient quantity
and cigarettes and we had the impression that we were kept there betause ,
most of us ware in a very bad State of health and they -did not want to send
us abroad* Most of the people were German workers, skilled workers moat
of them or engineers, specialist and many of them former communists. Among
..them was :lingo Eborlein, friend or Lenin and Liebkneebt and former member of
the executive control committee of the Rominterni president of the communist
fraction in pruseian Landtag-tor many years. Be had been beaten severely also
like nearly all of them. some were called out and presumably sent abroad,
some arrived directly from camps in Diberia and the far North. In Uaroh I
was called out by myself and asked to signs: paper that I vie not to tell
about what I have AVOU in RASSian prisons and that I would agree to,: do:
secret work for the USSR. abroad. This I signed because I had learned from
Many people that most of them were asked to sign such a paper, otherwise
one would be kept indefinitely. I again asked as a condition not be be sent
into Germany and this was promised to me by the official, who made me eign the
paper. On :April 17th 1940 seMo were gathered into another cell in the tame
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building and on April 30th we all were called outs a sentence vas read to
each of us* that we were condemned to be exiled from the VBSR. by a special
court of the NKWD. and we were traneported it a prieon car to Breat?Litowsk
? where we'all were taken over by officials from the Gestapo. We mere not
? net free, but taken to a?Gestapo prison in Biala Po Lanka a seall town near
? the frontier line and after some days we all were transported to the citadel
of Lublin,. Isolation was not as Strong there as in, Russian prisons* the
? regime was more military and food and accommodation conditions euoh worse
than the last time in Moscow. Every day we heard the songs and neieee from
drunken Geslapo officers beloW'our ndome while we learned that every day
about a hundred Poles and jells were exeouted in the prisoa court. '10 had passed
the frontier on May 2nd 1940 and were transported to Berlin on 1day 25th.
? Some of u$ were brought into a Nazi? iNuckwandererheimr ithare they were set
free after a few days but some of too among them I also was brouebt te the
police prison 011 the Alexanderplate. By the way the only prison in 'my exe
perionee where I have mot lice, Bore I met people from concentration oamPe
who told me about German ceps and a well experienced communist who advised
me hoe. to behave before the Gestapo. A week later I vas brought to a small
prison at the Gestapo headquarters .in the PrinzeAlbrechtstrasse where I was
asked about my Russian experiences, mily / had left Germany and gone to
Russia, ebout some communist friends of wine in Germany before 1933. I
.teld them I had known those people but I did not know about any illegal
activity of theirs confining my information nevertheless on such people
knew to be abroad. I vas asked to give an account of my Russian experiences
which I did, also mentieningby precaution the paper had beepL lado:, to
sign but net the fact that I had asked not to be sent to Germany.. on
July 16th finally I vas net free. A few days later I met Prof* v. Latta .
from whom I learned the whereabouts of my family. As soon as'he had heard
that I am in Germane' in a Gestapo prison he vent there himself brought me
some money and did all he could to accelerate my liberation.
Y.G.R.
May 19th 1946.
P.S. I have been, asked several times by many people to publish something
on my Russian experiences since the war between Germany and Russia began.
I. always declined this strictly because I do not want any propagandistic
conoluaions to be drawn from my experiences. I also do not want this ,
information to be used for publication.
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