Zinovi Pechkoff
Zinovi Pechkoff , originally Sinowi Alexejewitsch Peschkow ( Russian Зиновий Алексеевич Пешков ; born October 16, 1884 in Nizhny Novgorod , † November 27, 1966 in Paris ) was a French officer and diplomat of Russian origin.
Life
Pechkoff was born as Yeshua-Salman Michailowitsch Sverdlov into a Jewish family and was the older brother of the later Soviet head of state Yakov Sverdlov . In 1902 he was baptized Russian Orthodox , for which he was cast out by his biological father. Maxim Gorki (actually Alexei Maximowitsch Peschkow ) was his godfather and namesake and de facto adopted him. Pechkoff followed Gorky to France and Italy.
In 1914 Pechkoff entered the French army voluntarily, and in 1915 he lost his right arm in the trench warfare . He was later sent to Kolchak's white army in the Russian Civil War . In 1923 he received French citizenship. From 1921 to 1926 he fought in Morocco under Marshal Lyautey as an officer in the French Foreign Legion . From 1937 to 1940 he commanded it there himself, in 1943 he was promoted to brigadier general. In 1941 he met General de Gaulle in London , who entrusted him with important missions in Africa and the Far East, for example as head of the French liaison mission to the Allied occupation forces in Japan from 1946 to 1950. In 1964 he held talks with Chiang Kai-shek , the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan .
In the Soviet Union, Pechkoff was considered a traitor. Stalinist censors therefore retouched him from the mid-1930s from the now famous photo, which shows him as a spectator next to his adoptive father at a game of Lenin and Bogdanov in chess in April 1908.
Zinovi Pechkoff died in 1966. He is buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois near Paris.
Works
- The Bugle Sounds. Life in the Foreign Legion (1927) , Naval and Military Press 2009, ISBN 978-1845741280
literature
- Francis Huré : Portraits de Pechkoff , Editions de Fallois 2006, ISBN 978-2877066020
Web links
- Zinovi Pechkoff in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
- Photograph , Capri 1908 (Peshkov in the background in the middle, between Gorky and N. Bogdanova; Lenin and Bogdanov are playing chess at the table )
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2 х Germany? In: Der Spiegel 6/1964 of February 5, 1964, page 52
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pechkoff, Zinovi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Peschkow, Sinowi; Peshkov, Zinovy; Sverdlov, Yeschua-Salman Michailowitsch (original name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French officer and diplomat of Russian origin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 16, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nizhny Novgorod |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 27, 1966 |
| Place of death | Paris |