The strange story of a life wasted: Alfred Liskow.

The strange story of a life wasted: Alfred Liskow.

At about 21:00 June 21, 1941 a German soldier by the name of Alfred Liskow was detained behind Soviet lines in the small town of Vladimir-Volynsk. Sent back to the NKGB was the following message:

…He considers himself a communist, is a member of the Union of Red Front-line soldiers, and says that life is very hard for workers in German.

Around evening his company commander Lieut. Schulz told them that tonight, after artillery preparation, their unit would begin the crossing of the Bug on rafts, boats and pontoons. As a supporter of Soviet power, once he learned of this he decided to flee to us and tell us.

Presumably soaking wet and cold Liskow had just swam across the Bug river to warn the Soviets about the imminent plan of Operation Barbarossa.

By the time Stalin had heard the about the informant the Germans already crossing the Bug. Liskow’s warning was listened brought up the chain fast enough.

His defection meant that he was leaving behind his family, including wife and child. He was a 30 year draft.

Blue collar guy. A carpenter. He had given up everything to warn the Soviets about Operation Barbarossa. He was then used and became a part of the Soviet propaganda machine.

Liskow, after deserting wanted to keep working for his ideals, for communism, so he joined The Communist International.

Comintern was an international organization that Lenin founded in 1919 that advocated for world communism.

 Liskow at his heart was an idealist, and when met with the cold reality of Soviet Communism he accused them of being Nazis.

These party members weren’t there for ideals, they were there for all the reasons people in power want to be in power: power, money, security, arrogance, wrath, etc.

He was able to perfectly piss off all the wrong people while being a defector in another country. One of these people he got on the bad side of was Georgi Dimitrov, the head of Comintern. Of course this meant he worked directly for Stalin and was not afraid to get his hands dirty.

After getting on Dimitrov’s bad side, by accusing him of being a fascist sympathizer. Dimitrov had Liskow arrested on the grounds of anti-Semitism and fascist sympathy.

The NKVD arrested Liskow in January of 1942. Then in July of 1943, while in captivity he was transferred to hard labor in Siberia.

His record then runs cold. We don’t know his fate after this date. Presumably he died in Siberia (if he even made it there), but we don’t actually know.