Enver Mamedov: military translator, diplomat, journalist...

Author: VK following rian.ru and Enver Mamedov’s interview to the Russian press

Today, November 4, Russia celebrates the Day of National Unity, designed to recall the unity of people living in Russia of different nationalities, religious beliefs and political views. Representatives of all the peoples inhabiting Russia contributed to the history of the Russian state. One of them is a veteran of World War II, military translator and diplomat Enver Mamedov. He worked for many years at the USSR Radio and Television and was the first Vice President and leader of "Inoveschanie". He was at the forefront of national television and radio.

When the war began, Enver Mamedov attended aviation school. He went there after glider school and parachute courses and prepared to become a fighter pilot. The war scuppered all his plans: the school was evacuated to Central Asia, and Mamedov asked to go to the front. He got into the disposal of the personnel of the Transcaucasian front, but he was not sent to the front. He was sent to study in the course for military interpreters of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), where he not only learned languages but also studied geography. He was promoted to sergeant, then lieutenant, and after that he began to fight. Mamedov commanded a company command and was engaged in various special operations, including fighting saboteurs who broke into the Baku oil fields in Azerbaijan.

Suddenly he was called to Moscow, where he was assigned to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Mamedov was outraged and even wrote reports that he was a military officer and he had no idea of diplomacy. The result was unexpected: he was called to the Commissariat of Defense and it was made clear to him that he had been given great trust: not every officer at that time – in 1943 – had the privilege of getting into the Commissariat. Mamedov had to obey.

Mamedov was sent to Italy, where the landing of the Americans and the British took place. The fact that, besides German, English and French, he also spoke Italian played its role. Enver Nazimovich was taught French and Italian by his grandmother, with whom he lived as a child in Voronezh - she was a distant relative of the wife of Leo Tolstoy. As the family was noble, the boy had a mother's help - a German, and he learned German from her. As for English, Mamedov learned it in the army in a very short period of time.

So the 20-year-old officer became the youngest diplomat, although it was required to study five years in high school, and then another 2-3 years at the Higher Diplomatic School. Only the Commissar of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov was opposed to assigning a diplomatic rank to Mamedov; he said it was "outrageous" when "some Tatar" was sent to Italy for responsible work.

The embassy in Italy consisted of three people: Ambassador Kostylev, First Secretary Gorshkov and attaché Mamedov. The youngest officer had to perform a variety of duties: he was engaged in relationships with political parties and newspapers, which, like mushrooms after the summer rains, began to appear after the overthrow of Mussolini. In addition, he was asked to assist in the repatriation of Soviet prisoners of war who had escaped from German concentration camps, made their way to the north of Italy and participated in the struggle against the Nazis, even organizing guerrilla units.

In 1945, Mamedov was invited by one of the leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR; he said that Mamedov would go to Nuremberg, where the process of the International Military Tribunal for the major Nazi war criminals would take place.

It was reported that officials from the People's Commissariat would not attend the Nuremberg international process; Mamedov and Oleg Troyanovsky, a Soviet diplomat in London, nominally became translators. Troyanovsky worked with Judge Nikitchenko and Mamedov was presented to the Chief Prosecutor from the Soviet Union, Roman Rudenko, who was the prosecutor-general of Ukraine at a time.

During the trials, Enver Nazimovich worked as an interpreter. But more often he was asked for advice on matters relating to foreign policy. Diplomatic experience was useful to him when he had to carry out a responsible and secret mission. He was appointed to deliver Field Marshal Paulus from the Soviet Union to the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The fact is that when his written testimony was presented at the trial by the Soviet prosecutor, the German defenders claimed that it was a fake. This idea was also supported by some Western media organizations. They expressed doubts that Paulus, who "so courageously resisted the Russians in Stalingrad”, could make his denunciations against the General Staff. Mamedov managed to bring Paulus unnoticed through the American army posts on the border of the two zones and also to deliver him unnoticed to Nuremberg.

He recalls a spectacular scene: when the defender of Nazi criminals once again raised the question of the fact that the evidence of Paulus had been fabricated, and Chairman Lord Lawrence asked Roman Rudenko how long it would take for the Soviet Union to deliver Paulus to Nuremberg, the prosecutor from our country quietly said "About thirty minutes". The function of the testimony of Paulus cannot be overstated. He not only exposed the fascist generals’ statements and the evidence of Field Marshal Keitel and Jodl that the army had no relation to the crimes of Hitler's executioners in the Soviet Union, but also smashed another myth: that Stalin was going to attack Germany, and Hitler was only briefly ahead of him.

The brightest and the most horrible impression on Mamedov during the trial was made by real evidence, "as if there were the ghosts of millions of people who had been tortured,” he recalls. It was clear that the defendants were ghouls, vampires ... " It was difficult for him to see bulldozers shovelling the bodies of the prisoners of Mauthausen and Auschwitz into pits on the screen. "For me it was a shock that will be remembered for a lifetime," Enver Nazimovich said.

After the war he worked at Gosteleradio for a long time. There were legends about him. For example, he took the liberty to air uncut movies like "Eternal Call" and "Shadows at Noon." Because of the mass arrests of peasants in the 1930s shown in "Eternal Call" he was in trouble. He also found himself in trouble for technical glitches. For example, when speakers while reading one of the first performances of Andropov mixed the pages, a reprimand by the Party Central Committee followed this. The showing of "Twist of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath" had even more serious consequences for him. He was called to a "mock trial" of the Party Control Commission. Mamedov still remembers this reprimand about how so little was being done on TV in the interests of the anti-alcohol propaganda. However, he did not set a high value on the post. He was a political analyst, knew foreign languages, he could write, earning a living by this work.

He did not like the necessity to show the elderly leaders to the audience. One day, he refused to participate in the installation of a broadcast on Brezhnev, who was quite ill. But he also remembers good moments – for example, the recording of the top 200 theatre performances, which made it possible for people living in remote provincial towns to go to the Moscow Art Theatre, the Maly Theater, the Bolshoi Theater, or series on the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum.

Mamedov is one of the founders of Radio "Mayak". The idea of its creation was unpopular in political circles, especially because of the fact that the second channel, which later became a source of income for “Mayak”, was a "trough". Party officials spoke there in exchange for large fees. When the channel was closed and instead of party speeches it began to broadcast information and music, the officials were dissatisfied.

Enver Nazimovich was at the forefront of the RIA Novosti news agency. He was one of the founders of the Agency "Novosti", on the basis of which the Russian Information Agency "Novosti" was formed. He held the post of Deputy Chairman of the agency and political observer. Now Enver Nazimovich is Advisor to the CEO of RIA Novosti.