One of the eight Tukhachevsky-trial defendants; his confession under torture started the chain reaction that consumed the Red Army
"Although I was arrested on the 15th and the very next day declared I belonged to an anti-Soviet organization, until today I have tried to minimize my role and conceal the most essential facts." (interrogation, May 19, 1937)
Born in Pinsk to a Jewish carpenter, he rose from a WWI private and Civil War division commander to the Red Army elite. As head of the Command Personnel Directorate from 1934, he controlled officer appointments across the armed forces, working closely with Tukhachevsky, whom he accompanied to Reichswehr maneuvers in Germany in 1932. Arrested on May 15, 1937, a week before Tukhachevsky, he named over forty fellow commanders under torture as participants in the "military-Trotskyist conspiracy"; his confession ignited the chain reaction of the Great Purge. On June 12 he was sentenced to death by a closed military tribunal and shot that same day alongside Tukhachevsky and six others.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1913–17Private, Imperial Russian Army; WWI
- 1918–21Civil War: 55th Rifle Division; Expeditionary Corps at Tambov
- 1922–28Commander, 17th and 19th Rifle Corps
- 1928–34Chief of Staff, Leningrad Military District
- 1934–37Head, Red Army Command Personnel Directorate
- 1937.04Transferred as Deputy Commander, Moscow Military District
- 1937.05.15Arrested; named 40+ colleagues under interrogation
- 1937.06.12Sentenced to death by closed military tribunal and shot same day; rehabilitated 1957
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarImperial Russian Army privateHe served as a private in the Imperial Russian Army from 1913 to 1917.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionRed Army division and expeditionary corps commanderDuring the Civil War he commanded the 55th Rifle Division and the expeditionary corps suppressing the Tambov peasant revolt.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeHead of Personnel who first confessed under tortureArrested on May 15, 1937, he confessed under torture and implicated Tukhachevsky in the alleged conspiracy.
1934–1937: The Personnel Directorate and the Chain of Confessions
From 1934 to 1937 Feldman headed the Red Army Directorate for Command and Commanding Personnel and sat on the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defence, directing appointments and postings across the entire officer corps. When personal military ranks were introduced in 1935 he received the rank of corps commander (komkor). In this period he worked closely with Tukhachevsky, whom he accompanied to Reichswehr maneuvers in Germany in 1932. His later interrogation record has him testifying that Tukhachevsky told him to push former Trotskyists forward when filling command posts, but that testimony was produced under torture.
On 15 April 1937 he was moved from the directorate to deputy commander of the Moscow Military District; on 15 May he was arrested, removed from all posts and expelled from the party. In the protocol of 19 May he admitted membership in the military-Trotskyist conspiracy and named a series of commanders: Putna, Primakov, Yefimov, Garkavy, Turovsky, Zyuk, Schmidt, Vasilenko, Potapov and others. His statement that he had already volunteered on the day after his arrest that he belonged to an anti-Soviet organization was the product of torture and prolonged interrogation, and the list of names was fed back to other defendants as evidence against them.
The consequence appeared on 26 May, in Tukhachevsky's confrontation. After face-to-face confrontations with Primakov, Putna and Feldman, Tukhachevsky gave his first incriminating testimony, admitting that he had prepared a military conspiracy inside the Red Army. Feldman's interrogation record thus became the starting point of a chain that pulled in the whole senior command. On 11 June the Special Judicial Presence of the USSR Supreme Court sentenced all eight defendants to death in closed session; the sentence was carried out at once, and he was shot with Tukhachevsky, Yakir and the others in the basement of the Military Collegium building. In 1957 he was fully rehabilitated and restored in the party.