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Final-List-Of-Pendin The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative RWI-70 Formal Request to the Russian Government and Archival Authorities on the Raoul Wallenberg Case Pending Questions about Documentation on the 1 Raoul Wallenberg Case in the Russian Archives Photo Credit: Raoul Wallenberg’s photo on a visa application he filed in June 1943 with the Hungarian Legation, Stockholm. Source: The Hungarian National Archives, Budapest. 1 This text is authored by Dr. Vadim Birstein and Susanne Berger. It is based on the paper by V. Birstein and S. Berger, entitled “Das Schicksal Raoul Wallenbergs – Die Wissenslücken.” Auf den Spuren Wallenbergs, Stefan Karner (Hg.). Innsbruck: StudienVerlag, 2015. S. 117-141; the English version of the paper with the title “The Fate of Raoul Wallenberg: Gaps in Our Current Knowledge” is available at http://www.vadimbirstein.com. Previously many of the questions cited in this document were raised in some form by various experts and researchers. Some have received partial answers, but not to the degree that they could be removed from this list of open questions. 1 I. FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) Archival Materials 1. Interrogation Registers and “Prisoner no. 7” 1) The key question is: What happened to Raoul Wallenberg after his last known presence in Lubyanka Prison (also known as Interior Prison – the main investigation prison of the Soviet State Security Ministry, MGB, in Moscow) allegedly on March 11, 1947? At the time, Wallenberg was investigated by the 4th Department of the 3rd MGB Main Directorate (military counterintelligence); Colonel Sergei Kartashov headed that department. Who were Wallenberg’s cellmates after his transfer from Lefortovo Prison (the second MGB investigation prison in Moscow) in early March 1947? 2) What happened to Raoul Wallenberg on or after July 17, 1947? If Raoul Wallenberg died of natural causes on that date, how did it happen? If he was executed, who did take the decision? If he died on that date, where was he buried? If on that date he was moved into isolation as a numbered prisoner (or given a pseudonym), where are the relevant papers? 3) Uncensored copies of all records of interrogations of prisoners connected with the Raoul Wallenberg Case in Lefortovo and Inner (Lubyanka) prisons in the evening of July 22, 1947 and on 23, 1947 should be released. The names of all prisoners interrogated on those dates remain unknown. For instance, it is unknown what prisoners were interrogated in Lubyanka Prison on July 22, 1947 between 19:35- 20:15, and in Lefortovo, between 22:30 and 22:50, as well as between 23:20 and 23:40. The time of the interrogation of one of the prisoners, Ernst Huber, needs to be clarified since the information provided by the FSB archivists without documentation does not corresponds to the time given in the documents in Huber’s archival Personal File (Lichnoe delo). Even if there were no persons called for interrogation during the mentioned periods, a documental proof for all interrogations in Lubyanka Prison on July 22, 1947 from 18:30 to 23:00, on 23 July 23, 1947 from 1:30 to 18:30, and in Lefortovo, on July 22, 1947, from 21:30 to 24:00 should be shown. Copies of all pages with the records for July 22/23, 1947 in the Registers of Interrogations of both of these prisons should be released in full. 4) The release of an uncensored copy of a page from the Register of Interrogations in Lubyanka Prison (kept in the FSB Central Archive) for the early morning of July 23, 1947, with the recorded entries of the last known interrogations of Prisoner no. 7 (probably, Raoul Wallenberg), Vilmos Langfelder (Wallenberg’s driver), and Sandor (Alexander) Katona 2 (Langfelder’s cell-mate) is crucial for the case. Despite numerous requests to the FSB Central Archive to release a copy without redaction of names, the requests were ignored. 5) The request to present an uncensored copy of a page from the Register of Outgoing Prisoners from Lefortovo Prison with the record of the transfer of Willy Rödel (Wallenberg’s last cellmate) to Inner Prison in the evening of February 26, 1947 (in this record the name of Raoul Wallenberg is crossed out) was also ignored. This page has a page number “9ob” in Russian. A readable copy of the bottom part of this page, which starts from the record “from 15 to 23 hour. February 26, 1947” (in Russian) is another crucial issue for the case. The redacted by FSB archivists line in Rödel’s record might have an explanation why he was transferred on that day to Lubyanka Prison, while Wallenberg was not. Additionally, researchers need a copy of this page on which the right part of the line with Wallenberg’s name is readable. Looking at the previously presented copies one can only say that there is something written in the third column of this record, but it is not readable. Again, this could be an important detail for understanding the fate of Wallenberg. 6) The identity of Prisoner no. 7 remains entirely unclear and needs to be established. Who was this prisoner? The question of how exactly Col. Vladimir Vinogradov (FSB official, a member of the Russian part of the Russian-Swedish Working Group that existed in 1991-2000) identified a different Prisoner No. 7 held in Lubyanka Prison in April 1945 as "a Russian national" also needs to be answered. It has to be determined if this alleged methodology (the use of unspecified “perepiski” – correspondence records mentioned by Vinogradov) can be applied also to identify the Prisoner no.7 from July 1947. 7) One more Russian person is known to have been assigned no. 7 while he was under MGB investigation. This was the famous surgeon, Academician Sergei Sergeevich Yudin, arrested on December 23, 1948. The FSB archivists should provide information from his 5-volume Archival- Investigation File (Arkhivno-Sledstvennoe Delo) or Personal File on how S.S. Yudin, while having been under investigation, was given no. 7 instead of his name. 8) Also, records of numbered prisoners were kept, in particular, by the Lubyanka Prison chief warden (nachal’nik), Aleksandr Mironov. Did his archive survive? 9) What is the meaning of the word "Proshel" (“went through”) found on the signature line (for prisoners) in the register of interrogations of Lubyanka Prison on July 23, 1947? 10) The FSB Central Archive needs to provide copies of other entries with the word “Proshel” for the years 1947-1951. 11) The references to Raoul Wallenberg, Vilmos Langfelder and Sandor Katona have been blotted out in the MGB prison journals. When did this censorship occur? Russian officials have 3 indicated that they believe the blotting occurred fairly early, still in the late 1940s. However, the issue remains currently unsolved. 12) What exactly happened to Langfelder, Katona and Prisoner no. 7 after the interrogations in Lubyanka Prison on July 23, 1947? 13) What were the administrative procedures to assign numbers to prisoners under investigation in Lubyanka Prison during the years 1947-1951? How were these numbered prisoners traced? Where are special registers or other documentation that allowed prison personnel to track these prisoners? 14) In 1991-92, Boris Solovov, in 1944-46 an investigator in the 2nd GUKR SMERSH Department (military counterintelligence) and in 1946-48, in the 4th Department of the MGB 3rd Main Directorate (both departments were headed by Sergei Kartashov), stated in interviews with the Working Group that an official of the 3rd Main Directorate, Nikolai Kuleshov, created a special diagram of all prisoners who had had direct contact with Raoul Wallenberg since 1945.2 These prisoners were subsequently isolated. Unfortunately, Solovov did not identify the year when this event presumably happened. Apparently, Solovov was mistaken about Kuleshov's involvement. Before May 1946, Kuleshov headed a section within the 4th GUKR SMERSH Department, and later, from May 1946 to January 1948, he served as Deputy Head of the 6th Department (investigation of Soviet servicemen charged mostly with treason and espionage) of the 3rd Main Directorate that had no connection to Kartashov’s department in charge of the Wallenberg case investigation. But the alleged creation by investigators of charts of the movements of prisoners through prison cells is quite possible and this question should be clarified. 15) Solovov also claimed that somewhere in 1947, he delivered a package to the MGB Archive Section. The package supposedly carried the inscription "Prisoner no. 7" and Solovov says that he was aware at the time that the documentation contained in the package referred to Raoul Wallenberg. The Archive Section did not exist within the MGB structure, and Solovov, possibly, meant the MGB Department “A” (registration and archives). It should be found out what were the reasons and procedures for a transfer of documentations/items from investigation departments to the MGB Department “A” in 1947. 16) After his release from imprisonment in the Soviet Union, Hermann Grosheim-Krisko, former employee of the Swedish Legation in Budapest (at the Legation, he worked under the name 2. On the structure of the GUKR (Military Counterintelligence Main Directorate) SMERSH and activity of its departments, including the 2nd Department headed by Col. Sergei Kartashov, and reorganizations of the GUKR SMERSH after WWII, see Vadim Birstein. SMERSH, Stalin's Secret Weapon: Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII (London: Biteback Publishing, 2012). Pp. 177-216, 323-327. Additionally, the book contains information about Solovov’s biography (pp. 325-326, 381-383, 403-404). 4 Heinrich Tomsen), who was arrested and investigated at the same time as Wallenberg, stated to Swedish officials that he was "absolutely convinced" that Raoul Wallenberg had been transferred from Lubyanka Prison to Butyrka Prison on March 30, 1950.
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