Autobiography

I, Bredis Elmar Ivanovich, was born in 1908 to a family of workers. My mother and father farmed until 1905, after that they moved to Riga and worked different unqualified jobs. My father died in 1923 and my mother passed away in 1946. I started attending school in 1918. I worked for some wealthy farmers as a shepherd since I was twelve. In 1924 I got a job as an unqualified laborer at the port of Riga and began fishing on the Riga coast. I was studying at the same time as well. From 1929 to 1930 I served in the army. I served as a common sailor in the Navy. In 1930, I joined Komsomol and in 1931 was accepted as a member of the KP/b/ of Latvia. In 1931, at the 4^th convention of the Komsomol of Latvia (which took place in Moscow) I was elected a member of the Central Komsomol Committee of Latvia.

After the Convention I stayed in Moscow for training. There I attended short-term courses of the Lenin International School at the Executive Committee of Comintern. I graduated in September of 1932. Immediately after the completion of the courses I returned to Latvia where I worked as a secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol. In the end of 1933, on the decision of the Central Committee of Komsomol, I was commissioned to Moscow as an administrative representative in the Executive Council of the Communist Youth International. There I worked until the middle of 1935. Then I returned to Latvia and worked as a secretary of  the Central Committee of Komsomol. In December of 1935, I was arrested by fascist authorities and sentenced to seven years of hard labor. While in prison I continued self-educating myself and was in charge of a political society.

In 1939, when acting on the agreement with the government of the Soviet Union, the first Red Army garrisons arrived in Latvia, the bourgeois government announced amnesty and I, alongside with other political prisoners, was released. I immediately got in contact with the party and later fulfilled different party orders. With the establishment of the Soviet rule in Latvia, the Central Committee of the KP/b/ of Latvia commissioned me to work at the Ministry of State Security (successor of NKVD).

Throughout the Great Patriotic War I served in the active army as the Head of Counter-Intelligence of the Division and the Corps.  At the first party conference of the Latvian Rifle Division I was elected a member of the party commission of the Division, and in 1944 with the formation of the Latvian Rifle Corps I was made member of the party commission of the Corps.

Since my demobilization from the Ministry of State Security in June 1946 I have been working as deputy minister of fish industries of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).

I have five governmental awards – three medals and two orders. I have been also awarded with valuable gifts by the Central Committee of KP/b/ of Latvia and the Soviet of People’s Commissaries of the Latvian SSR.

30 June 1948.

Riga

16 September 1948. Correct against the original text.

Head of the 3^rd Unit of the Stalin RVK (area military committee) of Riga

Guards Captain Gilyariv

AWARD CITATION

1. Last Name, First Name, Middle Name: Bredis, Ilmar Ivanovich.

2. Military Rank: Captain of State Security.

3. Place of Service: Deputy Head of the Special Unit of NKVD of the 201^st Rifle Division.

        Recommended for: Order of Red Banner.

4. Year of Birth: 1908.

5.  Nationality: Latvian.

6.  Party Membership: Member of the VKP/b/ from 1931.

7.  Service in the Civil War, in later Battles in Service of the USSR and in the GPW (when and where): June-August 1941 as the head of the special unit of NKVD of the 24^th Rifle Corps and from 20 December 1941 until the division retreated served at the Naro-Fominsk direction of the Western Front. 33 Army

8.  Have any Wounds or Contusions in the Great Patriotic War: None.

9.  Which Call-Up Station: NKVD staff officer.

10.  Received Which Awards (from which order): None.

12.  Home Address: Gorky.

From the first days of combat Comrade Bredis has showed exceptional energy and endurance in his immediate work. Being on the Yelaginsk area, set up the rearguard in the regiments, with which he collected the soldiers in the woods, and ordered them to the battlefield.

Actively participated in arresting defectors and cleansing the rear areas of German agents.

While at the Command Post of the Division, helped the Command to eliminate shortcomings. 

AWARD CITATION

1.  Last Name, First Name, Middle Name: Bredis, Ilmar Ivanovich.

2.  Military Rank: Lieutenant Colonel.

3.  Place of Service: Head of SMERSH Counter-Intelligence Unit of the 130^th Latvian Rifle Corps.

       Recommended for: Order of the Great Patriotic War of the 1^st Class.

4.  Year of Birth: 1908.

5.  Nationality: Latvian.

6.  Party Membership: Member of the VKP/b/ from 1931.

7.  Service in the Civil War, in later Battles in Service of the USSR and in the GPW (when and where): Great Patriotic War since June 1941 at South-Western Front, 2^nd Baltic Front.

8.  Have any Wounds or Contusions in the Great Patriotic War: None.

9.  From Which Time with the Red Army: From June 1940.

10.  Which Call-Up Station: Party draft into the NKVD forces.

11.  Received Which Awards (from which order): Order of Red Star in 1942.

12.  Home Address: Town of Gorky, Gleba Tolstogo Street, House 12, Flat 7.

Comrade Bredis has been working in the counter-intelligence unit of NKVD called SMERSH since 1940. He has been at the front since June 1941, all this time in a leadership position.

As the head of the corps’ counter-intelligence unit SMERSH, Comrade Bredis managed to muster the tactical unit of SMERSH into fulfilling military objectives aimed at destroying the fascist  troops.

In the course of the Great Patriotic War the tactical unit headed by Comrade Bredis identified a considerable number of enemy agents who tried to find their way into the military units in order to do their enemy work.

With his daily and timely information Comrade Bredis helped the Command in a big way and was immediately involved in helping to establish iron military discipline in the units and combativity of the personnel. 

Under difficult military circumstances he showed himself as a brave, strong-willed man, unsparing of the people’s enemies.

Skillfully using intelligence methods on the liberated ground of the Latvian republic, Comrade Bredis efficiently identified and disarmed over a hundred policemen who had acquired an illegal status and went into hiding in the woods in various Latvian regions.

He deserves to be awarded with the Order of Great Patriotic War of the 1^st Class.

Head of counter-intelligence unit SMERSH of the 22^nd Army Colonel Kynitsin.

14 August 1944.

AWARD CITATION

1.  Last Name, First Name, Middle Name: Bredis, Ilmar Ivanovich.

2.  Military Rank: Guards Lieutenant Colonel.

3.  Place of Service: Head of SMERSH Counter-Intelligence Unit of the 130^th Order of Suvorov Latvian Rifle Corps.

        Recommended for: Order of Red Banner.

4.  Year of Birth: 1903.

5.   Nationality: Latvian.

6.   Party Membership: Member of the VKP/b/ from 1931.

7.   Service in the Civil War, in later Battles in Service of the USSR and in the GPW (when and where): Great Patriotic War since June 1941.

8.   Have any Wounds or Contusions in the Great Patriotic War: None.

9.   From Which Time with the Red Army: From 1941.

10.  Which Call-Up Station: Volunteer, via Gorkovsky call-up station.

11.  Received Which Awards (from which order): Order of Red Star in 1942 on the order of the Western Front No. 052 from 20 January 1942; Order of Great Patriotic Was of 1^st Class on the order of the Second Baltic Front No. 0143/N from 15 October 1944.

12.  Home Address: Riga, Ulitsa Sverdlova, House 15, Flat 11.

Guards Lieutenant Colonel Bredis has been working as the head of the corps’ counter-intelligence unit SMERSH since 5 June 1944. He was appointed to this position from the previous position of the head of the counter-intelligence unit SMERSH of the 43^rd Guards Latvian Rifle Division.

Showed exemplary work in fighting against fascist invaders during the elimination of the Kurlyand German command.

In combat from 23 December 1944 and from 3 to 28 March 1945 worked well on fighting against enemy agents both in the rear areas of our army units and in the units themselves.

Worked exceptionally hard on preventing defection and arresting defectors as well as installing military order and discipline in the units. 

Well and efficiently headed counter-intelligence units SMERSH in the divisions; he also served as a plenipotentiary in army units. 

 In combat showed himself as a brave, calm and self-possessed officer.

With his selfless work facilitated the success of the corps units in combat.

For exemplary fulfillment of the Command’s orders on eliminating the Kurlyand command of the Germans and personal courage in combat he deserves to be awarded with the order of Red Banner.

Commander of the 130^th Order of Suvorov Latvian Rifle Corps Guards Major-General Brantkaln

18 June 1945.

To the Military Commissar of the Kirov regional military committee in the city of Riga:

Commissioned to you to be registered as a serviceman at the address of permanent residence is: Lieutenant Colonel Bredis, Elmar Ivanovich, who has been released from the SMERSH unit into the reserves for: health reasons.

Military rank: Lieutenant Colonel was awarded to: Comrade Bredis on the order of: NKVD of the USSR №________ from 26 August 1941.

He was handed: check book, baggage book, food certificate, a certificate of military service in NKVD-NKGB-counter-intelligence unit SMERSH, health certificate, temporary ID (instead of a personal ID).

Military card: None.

Appendix: Excerpt from a discharge order, personal HR card (instead of a personal file.)

Head of personnel department of counter-intelligence unit SMERSH of the Baltic military command

Lieutenant Colonel Arkhipov

May 1945