Berzin, Eduard Petrovich

(?–1937)

   A Latvian, Berzin was one of a number of Balts who joined the Red Army and the Cheka in the winter of 1917–1918. Berzin was cleverly used as a political pawn during the Lockhart Plot. Berzin played a disaffected and greedy officer, willing to be corrupted. British agent Robert Bruce Lockhart bought the story and incriminated himself. As a result, the Cheka gained insight into the plot. Berzin had a second career managing the gulag in the Kolyma River valley. Berzin was sent to Siberia in 1932 to develop a huge complex of camps to mine gold in sub-Arctic northeastern Siberia. Despite an excellent record of production, Berzin was arrested in 1937 and shot as a spy, apparently because of his relationship with British intelligence in 1918. Berzin was replaced by his deputy Karp Pavlov, who had a far more notorious reputation than Berzin.