vol. 66, no. 6 (november-december 2015) 29 · vol. 66, no. 6 (november-december 2015) 31 i had to...

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Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 29 Figure 13: The certificate accompanying the medal. References: Anderson, M. & Perlis, D. (2002). Symbol Systems. Institute of Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Craig, R.T. (May, 1999). Communication Theory as a Field, Communication Theory. Eco, U. (1979). A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20217-8. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Gilman J. (1910). The Grand Army Badge. http://garmuslib.org/ badge.htm Heller, S. (2007). The Design of American Heraldry: An Interview with Charles V. Mugno. AIGA website http://www.aiga.org/the- design-of-american-heraldry/ Hoopes, J. (1991). Peirce on signs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Moriarty, S. (1995). Visual communication theory: A search for roots. Paper presented at the Visual Communication conference, Flagstaff, AZ. Peirce, C.S. (1931-1935). Collected papers, Vols. 1-6 (Harshorne & Weiss, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, (2006). Ritual and Ceremonies. Commander-in-Chief of SUVCW. Additional Reading on the Subject: Semiotics for Beginners http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/ Documents/S4B/sem01.html The Role of Symbol Systems http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/cogarch3/ MetaDiscuss/Symbol.html The Shannon-Weaver Mathematical Model, 1949 (included in the following url) http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/ Communication%20Models.htm Figure 14: A presentation ceremony for the medal.

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Page 1: Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 29 · Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 31 I had to work a lot, I was engaged in three shifts. I was tired and scared. But I was not

Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 29

Figure 13: The certificate accompanying the medal.

References:Anderson, M. & Perlis, D. (2002). Symbol Systems. Institute of

Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

Craig, R.T. (May, 1999). Communication Theory as a Field, Communication Theory.

Eco, U. (1979). A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20217-8. Retrieved 13 July 2013.

Gilman J. (1910). The Grand Army Badge. http://garmuslib.org/badge.htm

Heller, S. (2007). The Design of American Heraldry: An Interview with Charles V. Mugno. AIGA website http://www.aiga.org/the-design-of-american-heraldry/

Hoopes, J. (1991). Peirce on signs. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Moriarty, S. (1995). Visual communication theory: A search for

roots. Paper presented at the Visual Communication conference, Flagstaff, AZ.

Peirce, C.S. (1931-1935). Collected papers, Vols. 1-6 (Harshorne & Weiss, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, (2006). Ritual and Ceremonies. Commander-in-Chief of SUVCW.

Additional Reading on the Subject:Semiotics for Beginners http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/

Documents/S4B/sem01.htmlThe Role of Symbol Systems http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/cogarch3/

MetaDiscuss/Symbol.htmlThe Shannon-Weaver Mathematical Model, 1949 (included in the

following url) http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/Communication%20Models.htm

Figure 14: A presentation ceremony for the medal.

Page 2: Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 29 · Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 31 I had to work a lot, I was engaged in three shifts. I was tired and scared. But I was not

30 JOMSA

During World War II the Military Institute of Foreign Languages of the Red Army (VIIIa)1 trained more than 4,500 military translators in German, Japanese, English, and a number of other languages. Of these, over 2,600 were decorated and honored for their service on various fronts and in the interior, including Nina Vladimirovna Arzumanova, recipient of the Order of the Red Star No. 3393512 (Figure 1).2

Arzumanova began her career by joining the First Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (MGPI) in 1937 and shortly thereafter transferred to the Military Faculty of the Second MGPI in Stavropol to complete her education. The Military Faculty of the Second MGPI had only recently been established by joint order of the Soviet Ministries of Defense and Education effective February 1, 1940. Less than a year and a half later, German forces stormed into Soviet territories and, in April 1942, the Second MGPI and the Military Faculty of the Military Institute of Oriental Studies in Fergana were merged to become VIIIa, which remained in Stavropol until being removed to Moscow in autumn 1943, possibly as a result of the encroachment of German forces.3 According to the first Director of the Institute, Major General Biiazzi, the goal was “to create the Red Army’s first, independent language school.” The imperative to establish the school was strong; as Biiazzi noted, “In war... armies need a great number of military translators.”4

While attending Second MGPI and then VIIIa, Arzumanova was assigned5 to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense6 - the GRU, which was the only Soviet intelligence agency to survive intact the dissolution of the Soviet Union 50 years later. While assigned to the GRU, Arzumanova worked as a military translator in Soviet prisoner of war camps.7 It may have been for this service that she was awarded the Medal For Victory Over Germany In the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 (Figure 2). This medal was awarded to all military and civil personnel of the Army, Navy, and NKVD troops by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 9, 1945.8

In 2009 researcher N. G. Lobanova interviewed Arzumanova as part of a collection of essays entitled Stavropol: Front and Fate, which sought to memorialize the personal trials and experiences of military translators during World War II. Arzumanova describes her own remembrances, likely during the 1941 -1943 time period, during which she was responsible for teaching younger students while continuing her own studies. This was the period of the Battle for the Caucasus, when German and Soviet forces vied for control over the oil fields in the southern regions the Soviet Union, and for control of the city of Stavropol itself. Arzumanova noted:9

NINA VLADIMIROVNA ARZUMANOVA: DECORATED WORLD WAR II TRANSLATOR FOR THE SOVIET GRU AND KGB

KRISTOPHER GRAHAME

Note: Many of the sources employed in researching and writing this piece were foreign language articles. Errors in translation and interpretation are entirely mine. Additionally, only the Order of the Red Star remains of the subject’s original awards;

other award photos used in this article were derived from public domain sources. Nina Arzumanova’s award booklet seems to indicate that, as of 1956, the award booklets and perhaps the awards with them were lost.

Figure 1: The obverse (left) and reverse of the Order of the Red Star awarded to Major of Administrative Services Nina Vladimirovna Arzumanova.

Page 3: Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 29 · Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 31 I had to work a lot, I was engaged in three shifts. I was tired and scared. But I was not

Vol. 66, No. 6 (November-December 2015) 31

I had to work a lot, I was engaged in three shifts. I was tired and scared. But I was not discouraged; I was very interested to study and to pass on that knowledge. After classes, I was up late at night preparing for the next day. We all sat together at one table, afraid... to laugh, or for the oil lamp to be extinguished. Lighting was given only to the main building, and sometimes it was turned off. At those times, in the dark, when the students could not be seen, I climbed upon the table, on my knees, and told them, in order to keep warm, to recite in German all they knew, had read, and had seen.

The winter was very cold. Scarily freezing. At the front of the room were logs for the fire, raw and wet. We were always wanting for something. We ate the bread (400 grams per day) quickly, and when it was frozen, it had to be chopped with an axe. We ate mostly peas and pshenko [ a type of sweet corn]. Scavenged seeds. Summer raspberries even grew in the woods. You could only sleep anxiously. . . What great joy there was in writing. A lot of students from the front wrote to us. The postman brought letters in a bag and shouted the names of the lucky ones. Everything was there, enclosed by those triangles: poetry, even declarations of love. And how loved were our borrowed nights. There were the jazz works of G. Isaacson... there was even a recital of The Dying Swan by Saint Saens, to which Professor Taube’s wife, a former ballerina of [Vaslav] Nijinski’s, danced. The students of the Maritime Faculty famously danced to Yabloko. In general, we lived as one happy family.

Arzumanova continued her work as a translator until the end of the war, and went on to complete post graduate studies at VIIIa in 1951.10 Upon graduation, Arzumanova was appointed the Chair of the Department of German Language at VIIIa and worked with the organizations

of the Committee for State Security (KGB).11 While her work with the KGB is, unsurprisingly, not detailed, multiple open -source references note that VIIIa was strongly engaged in cultural and linguistic training for GRU and KGB personnel. The Military Institute of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the present-day descendent of VIIIa, openly advertises that its graduates now serve in the GRU, as well as the KGB’s successors, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).12 During World War II military translators were responsible for collecting and processing intelligence; transmitting intelligence to both subordinate units and regional headquarters; the collection, review, and processing of captured documents; and eavesdropping on, and elicitation of, prisoners of war for valuable information. These skills would no doubt have been valued in the world of intelligence collection during subsequent decades.

During 1956 Arzumanova concurrently served as the Director of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Red Banner Military Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Arzumanova retired from her position at VIIIa in 1960 as a Lieutenant Colonel. She then made an interesting segue as Head of the Department of German Language at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade’s School of Higher Instruction in Foreign Languages. In 1969, Arzumanova transitioned from the Foreign Trade Ministry to become a Head Chair at the prestigious Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she remained until at least 1998.13

Nina Vladimirovna Arzumanova’s award booklet, first and second pages (Figure 3) as derived from the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Services of the Russian Federation, includes a record of personal information. The booklet notes her date and place of birth (1919 in Perkhushkovo) and her rank and position at the time of the booklet’s issuance (Major of Administrative Services, Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Military Institute of the Ministry of Internal Services), whose stamp appears at the bottom left of the second page. The document also notes that Arzumanova became a member of the Communist Party in 1944, four years after beginning her military service. Awards to Nina Arzumanova

Arzumanova’s award booklet further notes that in addition to the Order of the Red Star and the Medal for Victory over Germany she was awarded the Medal in Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow in 1947; the Medal in Commemoration of 30 Years of

Figure 2: The obverse (left) and reverse of the Medal for Victory over Germany.