Lev Martyushev

Lev Martyushev became a page at the age of 12 and graduated from the Page Corps in 1900. As a second lieutenant, he was assigned to the Life Guards 1st Artillery Brigade and was promoted to lieutenant in 1904. Two years later, he graduated from the Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academy to become a staff captain. In 1910, he was promoted to the rank of captain and served as clerk in the office of the inspector general of the artillery. By now a colonel, he was entrusted with the position of head of the experimental chemical testing ground of the Reserve Chemical Army in 1916. Martyushev was awarded various degrees of the Orders of St. Stanislav, St. Anna and St. Vladimir.

In 1912, Martyushev competed in the Olympic Games in Stockholm in three events, narrowly missing the qualification for the second round in the individual foil. After World War I and the Russian Revolution, he worked as a lecturer at the Leningrad Institute of Civil Aviation (1925-29) and as an engineer in the design and technical office for the industrial company Lenpromproekt, also in Leningrad. Martyushev was active in the “Order of Moscow Rosicrucian-Orionists” under the alias “Aleph”.

In November 1937, Martyushev was arrested by the NKVD (interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union) and just weeks later sentenced to death for espionage and the preparation and execution of a terrorist act. He was executed in Leningrad.