About Lev Mekhlis
Lev Zakharovich Mekhlis (Russian: Лев Заха́рович Ме́хлис; 13 January 1889 – 13 February 1953) was a Soviet politician and a prominent officer in the Red Army from 1937 to 1942. As a senior political commissar, he became one of the main Stavka representatives on the Eastern Front (1941–1945) during World War II, being involved successively with five to seven Soviet fronts. Despite his fervent political engagement and loyalty to the Communist Party, various Soviet leaders, including Joseph Stalin, criticized and reprimanded Mekhlis for incompetent military leadership during World War II. == Early career == Mekhlis, born in Odessa, completed six classes of Jewish commercial school. He worked as a schoolteacher from 1904 to 1911. In 1907–1910 he was a member of the Zionist workers' movement Poale Zion. In 1911 he joined the Imperial Russian Army, where he served in the 2nd Grenadier Artillery Brigade. In 1912 he obtained the rank of bombardier. He served in the artillery in the First World War. In 1918, he joined the Communist Party and until 1920, he did political work in the Red Army (commissioner of brigade, then 46th division, group of forces). In 1921–1922 he managed administrative inspection in the People's Commissariat of Worker-Peasant Inspection, which was headed by Stalin.
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