The Renewal of Japan’s Interests in the Caucasus Ë 127
pressed their agreement, the Japanese envoy appointed them commanders of military
companies. The commanders received weapons of Japanese make and Japanese mil-
itary badges. They were to receive money as their military underground work devel-
oped. As the war approached, they would receive orders for action. The commanders
buried the weapons and badges in anticipation of war and their orders. They waited,
but the war never came.
Instead, there came OGPU troops from Vladikavkaz. Massive arrests of Ingush
took place, including those who had attended the meetings held at Evloev’s house.
Material evidence of their crime was dug up from under the ground. Evloev and the
Japanese envoy, however, were not arrested. The latter turned out to be a Mongo-
lian from Central Asia. Twenty-one people were executed, and up to four hundred
were exiled without trial. For this operation, almost all major o cials of the OGPU in
Vladikavkaz were decorated by the Soviet government. Among them was one agent of
the Ingushetia OGPU.⁷³
Is this story true? If yes, it is one of numerous similar provocations carried out
by the Soviet secret police: using fake anti-Soviet individuals and organizations, they
uncovered real and potential enemies, the most famous provocation being the “Trust”
(Trest) operation in the 1920s.⁷⁴Even if untrue, the mere rumor about such an elab-
orate operation is indicative of the degree to which Moscow was concerned about
Japan’s renewed presence and in uence and so strove to use its shadow to extermi-
nate political opposition in the Caucasus.
However limited Japan’s actual involvement in the Caucasus during the 1920s may
have been, Moscow was ever vigilant of Japan’s secret activities. If need be, it even
faked them in the Caucasus as elsewhere. Such was the extent of Moscow’s precau-
tions and paranoia aroused by Japan’s practice of total espionage during the Russo-
Japanese War.
73 Aleksandr Uralov (A. Avtorkhanov),Narodoubiistvo v SSSR. Ubiistvo chechenskogo naroda(Mu-
nich, Svobodnyi Kavkaz, 1952), 31–33. We are grateful to Jerey Burds for drawing our attention to this
book.
74 For the most recent work, see A.S. Gasparian,Operatsiia “Trest.” Sovetskaia razvedka protiv russkoi
emigratsii. 1921–1937 gg.(Moscow: Veche, 2008).