Nikoli Pavlenko -private construction unit

Did anybody ever hear of this man? A red army Construction Engineer, who deserted in 1941 and then made his own construction Company. He and his associates forged documents and started a Construction Battalion that served Red army all the way to Berlin. Making a large profit and advancing to the rank of General, Pavlenko was eventually caught in 1950’s and shot. By that time he “owned” one of the largest Military Construction Companies in the USSR. A truly amazing story.
There is a documentary Film about this – Millionaire in the Red Army. The film is in Russian.

 

Here is the link: ????? ???????. 100 ??????? ???????????? (51-100)
100 great adventurers. Pavlenko is number 83. There is article about him too.
Indeed, hi was a unique person.
It seems to me, Goebbels said: "The greater the lie, the more the public believes in it". Pavlenko lied a lot...

 

He bribed a lot of people in the Red Army. Preferring to work closer to the front he went from road maintenance and construction to building Air Fields for Red Air Force. By being on the front lines, where controlled chaos was the rule of the day, he and his associated bribed and forged their way to riches beyond anyone’s imagination.
During his trial his defense was that his organization did good work for victory over Germany. The laws they broke or money they stole were just a product of job well done. He was the only one to be executed from his organization. Everybody else got a prison term.

 

Very interesting story guys, thanks for bringing it up