«Brother shot the Metropolitan in my presence». Mysteries of the biography of the false brother of Archimandrite Smaragd (Latyshenko)
The article clarifies the circumstances of the conviction by the Soviet punitive system of a person who called himself Anton Ivanovich Latyshenko and claimed to be an accomplice in the assassination of Warsaw Metropolitan George (Yaroshevsky). A defector from Poland, who claimed to be a doctor by profession and a priest, told several contradictory (and even mutually exclusive) versions of his biography from December 1924 to April 1926. In an attempt to finally legalize himself in the USSR, Latyshenko attracted the attention of the Joint State Political Directorate, was arrested, and later sentenced to 3 years in prison in the Solovki prison campand to 3 years in exile in the Urals. The author verified the data contained in the archival and investigative case of A.Latyshenko, recreated the real chronology of events, established causal links between them. Several variants of the «autobiographies» of the criminal investigation participant were analyzed. A. Latyshenko's key statements are classified on the basis of a philosophical and sociological approach to the interpretation of the historical phenomenon of «impersonation». Hypothetical plans for further attempts to «convert» the false stories of the adventurer into a certain status in Soviet society have been reconstructed. On the basis of archival sources introduced for the first time into scientific circulation, the author made the following conclusions: 1. All the information that A.I. Latyshenko reported about himself in 1924-1926 was completely fictional. 2. The Soviet investigating authorities not only failed to verify most of his allegations, but also failed to establish the true identity of the defector from Poland. 3. This person was not involved in the murder in Warsaw on February 8, 1923. 4. Not only family ties are doubtful, but even Anton Latyshenko's acquaintance with Archimandrite Smaragd (Pavel Latyshenko). 5. The imposter, most likely, did not come from the clergy, did not have a professional medical education and the priesthood.
