Roman
Malinovsky,
the son of Roman Catholic peasants, was born in Russia
on 18th March, 1876. He was orphaned at an early age and was in trouble
with the local police for getting involved in criminal activities.
In 1902
Malinovsky joined the Izmailovsky Guards Regiment. After four years
service he left the army and found employment as a lathe operator
in a factory in St. Petersburg. He became involved in trade union
activities and eventually became the full-time secretary of the Metalworkers
Union.
Malinovsky
joined the Bolsheviks and took a prominent
role in organizing workers during the 1905 Revolution.
However, he was now well-known to the police and in November, 1909,
he was arrested and expelled from St. Petersburg.
Malinovsky
went to Moscow with his wife and two children but in May, 1910, he
was arrested once again. It was while he was in prison he agreed to
become an undercover agent for the Okhrana.
For 100 rubles a month Malinovsky supplied reports on Bolshevik
members, locations of party meetings and storage places for illegal
literature.
In 1912
Vladimir Lenin suggested that Malinovsky
should join the Bolshevik Central Committee. Lenin also advocated
that Malinovsky should be a Bolshevik
candidate for the Duma. After being elected
in October, 1912, Malinovsky became the leader of the group of six
Bolshevik deputies.
In 1914
rumours began to circulate that Malinovsky was a spy working for Okhrana.
The Bolsheviks carried out an investigation into Malinovsky and concluded
that his "political honesty" was not in doubt.
On the
outbreak of the First World War Malinovsky
resigned from the Duma and joined the Russian
Army. He was wounded and captured by the German
Army in 1915 and spent the rest of the conflict in a prisoner
of war camp.
After the
October Revolution the Bolsheviks
were able to read the Okhrana files.
They discovered that Malinovsky was a spy and on his return to Russia
in 1918 he was arrested. At his trial Malinovsky admitted he had been
a spy and commented: "I am not asking for mercy! I know what
is in store for me. I deserve it." After a brief trial was found
guilty and executed.
(1)
David Shub was a member of the Social Democratic Labour Party who
suspected that Roman Malinovsky was a spy.
There was a wave of arrests among the Bolsheviks in
Moscow. Among those rounded up was Nikolai Bukharin. Bukharin, then
a member of the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party, had distrusted
Malinovsky from the start, despite the latter's assiduous attempts
to win his confidence. For Bukharin had noticed several times that
when he arranged a secret rendezvous with a party comrade, Okhrana
agents would be waiting to pounce on him. In each case Malinovsky
had known of the appointments and the men whom Bukharin was to meet
had been arrested.
(2)
When Vladimir Lenin saw the evidence he
admitted that Roman Malinovsky had been a spy.
Malinovsky
could and did destroy a number of individuals. But as for the growth
of the Party in the sense of increasing its importance and influence
on the people by the tens and hundreds of thousands, that growth could
not be stopped, controlled, or directed by Malinovsky.
(3)
A Badayev was a Bolshevik deputy in
the Duma. He wrote about the Roman Malinovsky
case in his book, Bolsheviks in the Duma (1929)
Malinovsky's life was a series of crimes, his talents,
his mind, and his will being used for one purpose: to sell himself
at the highest possible price where he could do the most possible
harm to the liberation of the working class. He will go down in history
as one of its greatest traitors.
(4)
During his trial Roman Malinovsky attempted to explain why
he spied on the Bolsheviks.
Judge: Why did you accept the 6,000 rubles compensation?
You were evidently more interested in the money than in your so-called
tragedy.
Malinovsky:
If I refused to accept the money the Okhrana would have suspected
me of playing a double game. I had to show that I was faithful.
Judge:
But you had already proved that by delivering our best comrades to
the police.
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