Mikhail Koltsov
Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov (June 12 1898 – February 2, 1940), born Moisey Haimovich Fridlyand, was a Soviet journalist, revolutionary and NKVD agent. He served as the editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine, Krokodil.
Also recorded as Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov
Mikhail Koltsov
Mikhail Koltsov · Own work photo · Public domain
- Name
- Mikhail Koltsov
- Birth Name
- Moisey Fridlyand
- Born
- June 12 1898
- Died
- 2 February 1940
- Occupation
- Writer, publicist, journalist
- Awards
- Order of the Red Banner Order of the Red Star
- Full name
- Моисей Хаимович Фридлянд.
- Nationality
- Russian Empire, Russian Republic and Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
- Fields
- journalism, opinion journalism and Russian literature.
- Honours
- Order of the Red Banner and Order of the Red Star.
- Languages
- Russian.
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Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov (June 12 1898 – February 2, 1940), born Moisey Haimovich Fridlyand, was a Soviet journalist, revolutionary and NKVD agent. He served as the editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine, Krokodil.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q968099 · wikipedia · Mikhail Koltsov
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is Russian. The field of work recorded is journalism, opinion journalism and Russian literature. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are prose, opinion journalism, sketch story and feuilleton. Distinctions recorded are Order of the Red Banner and Order of the Red Star.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Mikhail Koltsov • Birth Name — Moisey Fridlyand • Born — June 12 1898 • Died — 2 February 1940 • Resting Place — Donskoye Cemetery • Occupation — Writer, publicist, journalist • Awards — Order of the Red Banner Order of the Red Star • Relatives — Boris Efimov (brother)
Biography
Biography
Born in Kiev, Koltsov was the son of a Jewish shoemaker Haim Movshevich Fridlyand and the brother of Boris Efimov. Koltsov participated in the Russian Revolution of 1917, became a member of the Bolshevik Party in 1918 and took part in the Russian Civil War. A convinced communist, he soon became a key figure of the Soviet intellectual elite and arguably the most famous journalist in the Soviet Union, chiefly because of his well-written satirical essays and articles in which he criticised bureaucracy and other negative phenomena in the Soviet Union. Koltsov edited and founded popular journals such as Krokodil, Chudak magazine, Sovetskoe Foto and Ogoniok and was a member of the editorial board of Pravda. As a Pravda correspondent, he travelled to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War while he worked for the NKVD. He also acted as military advisor to Loyalist forces on occasion. Koltsov is widely regarded as having been Joseph Stalin's chief reporter in the war, with speculation suggesting that he had a direct line from his hotel to the Kremlin. The British communist journalist Claud Cockburn, who met Koltsov in Spain, described him as "a stocky little Jew with a huge head and one of the most expressive faces of any man I ever met.... He unquestionably and positively enjoyed the sense of danger and sometime – by his political indiscretions, for instance, or still more wildly indiscreet love affairs – deliberately created dangers which need not have existed". George Orwell, in Homage to Catalonia (1938), accused Cockburn of co-operating with Koltsov to produce false stories, which favoured Soviet objectives in Spain. Ernest Hemingway, in his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, based on the war, represented Koltsov as the character Karkov. Koltsov described his experiences in The Spanish Diary, which was published in 1938. Koltsov returned to the Soviet Union in November 1937 and became a close friend of Yevgenia Yezhova, the wife of the head of the NKVD, Nikolai Yezhov. On 19 December 1937, Koltsov published an article criticising some aspects of the purges. The article asserted that, to protect themselves, some people had smeared the innocent. It called on the party, the government, the courts and public opinion to stop such "heartless liars who violated the rights of Soviet citizens". He was arrested on 14 December 1938, four weeks after Yezhova had committed suicide and nine days after Yezhov had been removed from the chairmanship of the NKVD and replaced by Lavrentiy Beria. After Yezhov's arrest in 1939, he told his interrogators in May that Koltsov and Yezhova had been lovers and that "Yezhova was connected with Koltsov with respect to espionage work on behalf of England". He was included on a list of 346 "enemies of the people" marked for execution, submitted by Beria to the Politburo, on 16 January 1940. The list included Yezhov, at least 60 other former NKVD officers and at least two more of Yezhova's former lovers, one of whom was the writer Isaac Babel. Koltsov was shot on 2 February 1940. His third wife, Maria Osten, was also sentenced and shot. He was rehabilitated in 1954.
Identity
Identity
Mikhail Koltsov is recorded as a citizen of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Recorded with the occupation opinion journalist. Classed in the genre opinion journalism. Classed in the genre sketch story. Classed in the genre feuilleton. Classed in the genre prose.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1898
Mikhail Koltsov was born on 12 June 1898.
1940
Mikhail Koltsov died on 2 February 1940.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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Kyiv.
Birth place
Moscow.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Mikhail Koltsov”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q968099: Mikhail Koltsov
Unverified · Wikidata
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Further particulars
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Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Mikhail Koltsov was recorded at birth as Моисей Хаимович Фридлянд. He also worked under the names Мих. Ефимович and Кольцов. The authorities additionally record the heading Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov. His recorded language was Russian.
Identity and origins
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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