Lev Zadov

Lev Zadov
לעוו זאדאוו
Otaman of the Kontrrazvedka
In office
March 1919 – August 1921
Personal details
Born
Levko Mykolaiovych Zadov

(1893-04-11)11 April 1893
Veselaya Yevreyka, Yuzivka, Katerynoslav, Russian Empire
Died25 September 1938(1938-09-25) (aged 45)
Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
Resting placeBykivnia, Darnytsia, Kyiv, Ukraine
CitizenshipRussian Empire (1893-1917)
Stateless (1918-1925)
Soviet Union (1925-1938)
NationalityUkrainian Jew
SpouseVera Matvienko
ChildrenAlla Zinkovskaya (b. 1921)
Vadim Zinkovsky (b. 1926)
RelativesDanylo Zadov (brother)
OccupationIntelligence agent
Known forMilitary intelligence, espionage
NicknameLevko the Bandit
Military service
Allegiance Ukrainian Soviet Republic (1918)
Makhnovshchina (1918-1921)
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1925-1937)
Service Red Guards (1918)
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (1918-1921)
Joint State Political Directorate (1925-1934)
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (1934-1937)
Years of service1918-1937
RankCommandant
Unit1st Donetsk Corps
Battles/wars

Lev Mykolaiovych Zadov (Ukrainian: Лев Миколайович Задов; 1893–1938), also known by his nom de guerre Lev Zinkovskyi (Ukrainian: Лев Зіньковський), was chief of military intelligence of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU) and later an operative of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU).

After joining the Ukrainian anarchist movement, Zadov was arrested and imprisoned for a series of robberies he committed in Donbas. He was released during the February Revolution and returned to Donbas, where he became involved in the local Soviet and joined the Red Guards, which he fought with until November 1918, when he joined Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.

He became the de facto chief of the Kontrrazvedka, the Makhnovist military intelligence division, and carried out a campaign of terror against the Bolsheviks and the White movement. After the defeat of the Makhnovists, he retreated to Romania, before re-entering Ukraine in 1925 and joining the OGPU. He used his position to carry out subversive activities, for which he was arrested and executed during the Great Purge.