Alvail Zigurd Adolfovych was born in 1890 in the village of Hlibovychi (Velyki Hlibovychi) in the Bibrka County of Galicia, by nationality a Jew, although later documents began to ascribe German nationality to him.
Various sources provide different information regarding the nationality of Zigurd Adolfovych Alvail. In some documents he is listed as German, in others — as Jewish. For example, in the Electronic Archive of the Joffe Foundation it is stated: “German (according to other data — Jewish).”
From the beginning of the First World War he joined the ranks of the Austrian army, where he obtained the rank of Oberleutnant. After the war, when the territories of Galicia came under a new political situation, Alvail became an officer of the Galician army, continuing the struggle for Ukrainian statehood. In particular, by 1933 he was the director of the Odesa Educational Cooperative Combine. He had a wife, Karpova Anna (Anna-Maria?) Mykhailivna, and two sons. At the beginning of 1917 he was mobilized into the Austrian army, and after completing command courses he was sent to the Italian front where he received an officer’s rank. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary he joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Galician Army, where he became the commander of the staff train of the 1st Galician Corps with the rank of officer. In 1919, during the crossing of the Zbruch by the Staff of the 1st Galician Corps, he fell ill with typhus and was evacuated to Odesa, where he lived until his arrest.
Since 1919 he lived in Odesa, where he was actively engaged in organizational work. According to the investigation, his activity was connected with the Ukrainian Military Organization (hereinafter UVO). This period of his life is characterized by significant underground activity aimed at fighting against the Soviet and Polish regimes, as well as supporting the idea of an independent Ukrainian state.
After several members of the Ukrainian Military Organization were detained, investigators began receiving information concerning the structure of the organization, its tasks, and the role of individual participants. In particular, the interrogations made it possible to clarify certain details of Alvail’s activities, one of the active and well-known members of the organization.
From the interrogation protocol of Mykola Mykhailovych Siyak dated 19 January 1933, it became known that he and his brother Ivan discussed with Alvail important aspects of the functioning of the UVO. According to the testimonies recorded by investigators, it also follows that Alvail was actively engaged in recruiting, conducting the enrollment of new members into the organization. An important element of the conversations was also the question of cooperation with German representatives, since some participants hoped for support from Germany in the struggle against the Bolsheviks.
Among the participants of the UVO, in particular in Odesa, there were many Galicians; some had been staying there for a long time, or new participants who arrived from abroad, in particular together with Chaikovskyi. Alongside Alvail, the organization was also led by Chaikovskyi and Bubela, each of whom performed important functions aimed at supporting the organization’s activities in Odesa, as well as ensuring its connections with foreign centers, including Galicia.
According to the conclusions of the investigators, Alvail was actively engaged in counterrevolutionary activity. He not only contributed to strengthening the UVO in Odesa, but also worked on preparing an uprising in the Odesa region. His activity included organizing counterrevolutionary insurgent cells, as well as carrying out active measures to strengthen the insurgent organization.
One of the important moments in Alvail’s life was his meeting with Professor Chaikovskyi in 1928. Chaikovskyi, who arrived from Galicia, handed over to Alvail important information in the form of a letter, which testifies to the maintenance of ties between different parts of the Ukrainian emigration and underground organizations.
After the death of Hodzynskyi, the head of the Odesa UVO, in 1932, responsibility for the organization passed to Alvail, as noted by Mykhalkin during interrogation. However, his activity did not remain unnoticed by the Soviet authorities. On 12 January 1933 an order was issued for the search and arrest of Alvail.
On 14 November 1933 Alvail Zigurd Adolfovych was sentenced by a special troika to five years of imprisonment in a corrective-labour camp. The punishment was determined taking into account the time already spent under investigation since his arrest on 15 January 1933. However, this verdict did not become the final stage of his fate. On 9 October 1937 Alvail was arrested for the second time, and by a decision of a special troika of the UNKVD he was sent to the Solovki prison. There he was sentenced to the highest measure of punishment. On 3 November 1937 the sentence was carried out, but the relatives were not informed about it. According to the website “Immortal Barrack”, he was sentenced to the highest measure of punishment. Shot in the Karelian ASSR (Sandarmokh) on 3 November 1937. (His associates F. V. Bardashevskyi and T. I. Vynnytskyi were executed at the same time.) The data are taken from the Leningrad Martyrologue, volume 6.
After several years, in the 1950s, the review of Alvail’s case began. It turned out that the court verdict had been issued on the basis of false testimonies and materials that did not correspond to reality. During the repeat investigation, on 6 September 1956, Chaikovskyi — one of the participants of the organization — admitted that the testimonies he had given during the previous investigation had been fabricated. He confirmed that many of his statements were the result of illegal methods of conducting the investigation applied to him. The investigators who conducted the repeat investigation discovered that the testimonies of other participants in the case were also doubtful and contradictory.
It must be understood that Moscow needed more blood and issued decrees on executions. Thus, in the directive of the People’s Commissar Mykola Yezhov it is written: “For the Solovki prison, 1200 persons are approved for repression.” The repressed, who were assigned execution, were divided into three Solovki stages.
The first Solovki stage (the largest — 1116 persons) was sent to Medvezhyohorsk and executed in the forest tract of Sandarmokh in 1937. After the killing of 1111 Solovki prisoners, Moscow demanded new executions. It was established that Sandarmokh is the place of mass execution of 1111 prisoners of the so-called “first Solovki stage”. Among them were prominent cultural figures, state figures, clergy from many republics of the USSR.
The second Solovki stage was formed and consisted of approximately 500 persons. The stage was loaded and transported on barges in January 1937. In the instruction to the commandant of the Leningrad Directorate of the NKVD it was stated: “Those who arrived from the Solovki prison are to be executed.”
The third Solovki stage — about 200 persons — was not taken out of the islands because winter had come. The execution was organized on the spot, in the Solovki.
Sandarmokh is one of the largest burial sites of victims of Stalinist repressions in the North-West of Russia. Most of them were special settlers and prisoners from the White Sea–Baltic Canal (canal army workers) and the Solovki camps, as well as residents of the surrounding villages. In total, 236 execution pits were discovered in this area. The executions were carried out secretly; the burial sites of the victims were found for the first time in July 1997. In the forest tract of Sandarmokh (Medvezhyegorsk district of the Republic of Karelia), on an area of 10 hectares, during the Great Terror of 1937–1938, more than 9,500 people of 58 nationalities were executed and buried. And Alvail became part of one of these stages, therefore there was no possibility that he would remain alive.
As a result, it was established that Alvail Z. A. was arrested again in 1937, but his fate remained unclear until 1958, when his relatives submitted a petition for rehabilitation. Alvail’s wife and his mother-in-law appealed to the authorities, attempting to clarify the fate of the man. However, only in March 1958 did Olena Pavlivna Karpova (the wife’s mother) receive a response to her request. According to this information, Alvail died on 1 September 1941 under unknown circumstances. His mother-in-law hoped that the man would be released so that he could help support the family, in particular to help with the care of his elder mentally ill son. Nevertheless, Alvail received rehabilitation only posthumously on 5 October 1959 during a court session; the case was declared invalid due to lack of evidence and false testimonies obtained earlier during interrogations. The life and activity of Alvail reflect important moments in the history of the Ukrainian liberation movement, particularly in the context of the struggle against foreign and Soviet oppression.
06.12.2025
Authors: Tetiana Andronatii, Anna Nevzlin
Investigation case No. 4188 concerning the accusation of Alvail Suhurt-Zigurt Adolfovych // Archive of VUCHK–GPU–NKVD
Zigurd Alvail
1890 – 1937
