Lev Pavlovich Okhotin (russian: Лев Па́влович Охоти́н; 9 January 1911 – 1948) was a member of the Supreme Council of the

Russian Fascist Party Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, founded by exiles in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

Life and political career

Okhotin was born in Chita, into a military family. In 1916 his father,

poruchik The rank of lieutenant in Eastern Europe ( hr, poručnik, cs, poručík, pl, porucznik, russian: script=latn, poruchik, sr, script=latn, poručnik, sk, poručík) is one used in Slavophone armed forces. Depending on the country, it is either ...

Pavel Okhotin, died. His mother, Nadezhda, married a section chief of the Chita police, Aleksandr Petrovich Melnikov, in 1919. In August 1920 the family emigrated from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Okhotin first met

Konstantin Rodzaevsky Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky (russian: Константи́н Влади́мирович Родзае́вский; – 30 August 1946) was the leader of the Russian Fascist Party, which he led in exile from Manchuria. Rodzaevsky was also ...

, founder of the

, in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

in 1932. At the end of 1933, as a student of the Harbin Teacher's Institute, Okhotin joined the Party and remained a member until 1943. Starting in 1935, Okhotin served as the business manager and then office manager of the Russian Fascist Party. In late 1936 he was appointed head of the organizational department of the Party. From 1937 to 1943 was a member of the Supreme Council.

Arrest and trial

Okhotin was arrested by

SMERSH SMERSH (russian: СМЕРШ) was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Josep ...

, the Soviet counter-intelligence department, on 7 September 1945. For almost a year, SMERSH agents and the Ministry for State Security conducted an investigation. Defendants in one case were combined as follows: Grigory Semyonov,

, General Lev Vlasyevsky, General Alexey Baksheev, Ivan Adrianovich Mikhailov (Minister of Finance in the Government of Admiral

Aleksandr Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (russian: link=no, Александр Васильевич Колчак; – 7 February 1920) was an Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer who served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought ...

), Lev Okhotin, Prince Nikolay Ukhtomsky, and Boris Shepunov. The trial began on 26 August 1946, and was widely reported in the Soviet press. The trial was opened by

Vasiliy Ulrikh Vasiliy Vasilievich Ulrikh (russian: Василий Васильевич Ульрих, 13 July 1889 – 7 May 1951) was a senior judge of the Soviet Union during most of the regime of Joseph Stalin. Ulrikh served as the presiding judge at man ...

, the Chairman of the

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union (Russian: Военная коллегия Верховного суда СССР, ''Voennaya kollegiya Verkhovnogo suda SSSR'') was created in 1924 by the Supreme Court of the Sovie ...

. The defendants were charged with anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, espionage against the Soviet Union, sabotage, and terrorism. All the defendants pleaded guilty. On 30 August 1946, the Military Collegium found the defendants guilty, and Okhotin, along with Prince Ukhtomsky, "given their relatively smaller role in the anti-Soviet activities", were sentenced to 15 and 20 year terms in a work camp respectively. Okhotin died in a work camp in 1948. On 26 March 1998, the

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia (russian: Военная коллегия Верховного суда Российской Федерации) is a special military tribunal subordinated to the Supreme Court and is directly ...

No. 043/46 amended the criminal case against all of the defendants, except Semyonov. According to article 58-10 Part 2 (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) of the Criminal Code of the

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, the cases against all defendants were dismissed for lack of evidence. The rest of the sentence was upheld, and the defendants found not subject to rehabilitation.

References

* Stephan, John J. ''The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile, 1925-1945''. * К. В. Родзаевский. '' Завещание Русского фашиста''. М., ФЭРИ-В, 2001 1911 births 1948 deaths People who emigrated to escape Bolshevism People from Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai People from Transbaikal Oblast Members of the Russian Fascist Party White movement people White Russian emigrants to China People of Manchukuo Russian collaborators with Imperial Japan Russian nationalists Prisoners who died in Soviet detention Russian people who died in prison custody Russian anti-communists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to China {{fascism-stub