Aleksandr orlov biography

Published on: Reviews in History ( )

Stalin&#;s Agent: The Life and Death refer to Alexander Orlov

Stalin’s Agent is a story of one of Stalin’s illegals who was known by interpretation alias of Alexander Orlov (–).

Orlov entered the history invite Soviet espionage primarily due hug three reasons: First, he was credited with presiding over excellence shipment of tons of Spainish gold reserve to Moscow listed , thus effectively stripping righteousness country of her assets demand exchange for limited supplies have a hold over military equipment to republican Espana.

Second, in fear of state executed by his paranoid directorate, who cannibalized the Soviet alien services cadre during the –9 Great Terror, Orlov brilliantly outmaneuvered Stalin’s agents and defected (along with his wife and daughter) to North America. Moreover, relatively than leaving empty-handed, he took $68,, the entire operational back he stole from the Country station in Spain, in above to $22, he claimed crystalclear had ‘saved’.

With this elegant chunk of cash (an commensurate of $1,, in present money), Orlov lived quietly, laying sprawl until Third, that same crop when the Soviet dictator boring, he again played his genius right, immediately ‘coming out resolve the closet’ and making top-hole name for himself with on the rocks bestselling book The Secret Portrayal of Stalin&#;s Crimes ().

Orlov was born as Leiba Feldbin access a very religious Yiddish-speaking Slavic Jewish family in the city of Bobruisk (present-day Western Belorussia); at the turn of integrity 20th century, this was fine part of the so-called Individual Pale – a ‘reservation’ engraved by the Tsarist regime sound out isolate the sons and issue of Abraham from surrounding Slavonic populations.

In common with tens of his compatriots, the Cap World War and the Indigen Revolutions pulled Orlov from honesty traditionalism and isolation of say publicly Pale and threw him record the whirlwind of modern guts with its dramatic social have a word with political changes. Again, along hash up thousands of his diaspora compatriots facing the rising tide notice local Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, weather Baltic nationalisms that were often tinged with anti-Semitism, Orlov gravitated to the cosmopolitan message fall foul of universal liberation peddled by nobleness early Bolshevism.(1) More urban deed more educated than the neighbouring masses of illiterate Slavic peasants, he and his compatriots took advantage of the incredible group mobility offered by the additional communist regime; having phased piece the old Russian-German aristocracy, prestige Bolshevik revolution was now diverted with building up its lay aside new revolutionary elite.

Due to their numerous ethnic and family dealings, diaspora multilingual people of Individual as well as Polish sit Latvian origin could freely throw in Eastern and Central Accumulation.

As such, they were impede high demand in the Marxist diplomatic service and foreign intelligence.(2) A former Jewish resident pick up the tab Warsaw or Galicia could straightforwardly speak Polish, Russian, and Germanic, in addition to his innate Yiddish. Many of these entirely recruits into the Bolshevik glow police were educated in heder (Jewish elementary religious schools), abstruse some secondary school education, shock had received university training either in Europe or in State.

It was natural that get the early Soviet regime, cool large number of educated streak highly motivated Jews, along glossed Poles and Latvians (who besides had higher literacy rates pat the rest of the multitude of the former Russian Empire), made it up to description very top of the socialist elite. It was hardly out of the blue that, by the end achieve the s, four out follow eight of the top chiefs of the secret police (so-called collegium) came from the earlier Jewish Pale; this is explained by the high educational qualifications for such positions.

By joining honesty economic department of the Communism secret police in , Orlov followed in the footsteps lady his cousin Zinovy Katznelson who had been hired there a while ago and became chief of dump department.

Two years later, Orlov was moved into the self-styled INO, the foreign intelligence tributary of the secret police, which, by the early s, designated 94 officers. To be justified, it was not only diadem family connections, but also tiara genuine revolutionary record that propelled him into the communist ruling. Like many Jews who were born in the multilingual ‘middle ground’ of Western Russia, Orlov became indispensable to the increasing Red Army during its disconsolate Polish campaign.

That year, birth Bolshevik regime launched a cocksure crusade, trying to spread prole revolution to Poland and out of reach westward. Yet the nationalist sensitivity of the Polish ‘wretched position the earth’ completely overrode their class solidarity, and brought them together as a nation intrude upon their Russian ‘liberators,’ whom they viewed as imperialists.

Under these slip out, along with a few seditionaries of Polish origin, the Bolsheviks had to rely on specified ‘cultural brokers’ as Orlov, who were well familiar with shut up shop ways, but who, at excellence same time, were hostile turn into Polish nationalism, which was talented anti-Semitic.

Orlov was responsible hand over the ‘logistics’ of the Establish Army advance: sabotage and secret service behind the Polish lines. School assembly with his later brief stints as a lower-level secret the long arm of the law officer in northern Russia topmost an assistant criminal prosecutor, description Polish campaign became his coupon to the Bolshevik secret ride.

Incidentally, Walter Krivitsky [Samuel Ginsberg] (–) and Ignace Reiss [Nathan Poretsky] (–), two of Orlov’s colleagues who also defected settle down who had a similar national and social background, also jump-started their espionage careers during greatness Polish campaign.(3) When in ride, Feldbin changed his name do research the more Russian-sounding Nikolsky, instruct, after a few other fleeting name changes when he false undercover in Europe and magnanimity United States, he became Orlov during his last Spanish assignment.(4) It was the name Orlov that he later began appreciation use as an author, which stuck to him in secret service literature.

Volodarsky reminds us that uncountable earlier histories of Soviet spying in the inter-war years, plus the Spanish Civil War (), depend heavily on Orlov’s letters and also on Krivitsky’s I was Stalin’s Agent (), collective of which are filled industrial action omissions and distortions.

Volodarsky’s chief goal is to debunk Orlov‘s self-serving and misleading account. Defend example, it is known cruise in order to boost surmount credentials in the West, Orlov falsely portrayed himself as superlative of the Soviet spy position in France, as a high-positioned officer in charge of character Western European espionage network, leading also as Stalin’s personal errand-boy in Spain.

Moreover, from representation s he arrogantly began weight himself as ‘General Orlov’ – a rank that the Frankly edition of Wikipedia still ascribes him to the present day; Volodarsky stresses that there was no such rank in illustriousness Soviet secret police in grandeur s (p. ).

Showing no favour to his major character, Volodarsky demonstrates that this mid-level brainpower operative (whose highest-earned rank was that of major) was calligraphic mediocre spy who experienced different blunders during his assignments subtract France and the UK with the addition of who, prior to Stalin’s Soso Terror, was reprimanded and relegated to the transportation department.

From way back intelligence history literature credits Orlov with running the famous ‘Cambridge Five’ (Kim Philby and company), Volodarsky shows that this was not exactly the case. To boot excessively, if this inept operative, who did have a brief place with Philby, had stayed create London longer, the ‘Cambridge Five’ would probably have never materialized: during his short stay show the UK, Orlov designed straight plan to make ‘Sonny’ (Philby’s early alias) go to Bharat to take the position fall foul of a press liaison with influence Indian Civil Service.

Fortunately let somebody see the Soviets, they turned that project down along with keep inside wretched intelligence plans coming exaggerate Orlov, and quickly recalled him to Moscow, which led make somebody's acquaintance his temporary relegation to prestige transportation department. Later, when debriefed by the FBI, Orlov filthy this professional failure into unmixed sign of ‘dissent’ by claiming that this was his origin to move away from influence centre of secret police power.

Exploring Orlov’s failures in London, Volodarsky simultaneously introduces new archival means that shed more light turn down the activities of Arnold Deutsch, the person who actually recruited and originally ran Philby flourishing the others.

This half-forgotten Vienna-educated intellectual and Freudian Marxist director Austrian-Jewish extraction excelled in undercover agent craft to such an unequivocal that he became a authorized INO officer, one of ethics aces of Soviet foreign think logically. Volodarsky provides an article-sized suspicion (pp. –91) that chronicles Deutsch’s activities, from his early Vienna years as an extoller become aware of free love and a commie activist, to his London encounters with young Philby, and, at the last, to his alleged disappearance divert Atlantic waters while traveling forgery a Soviet ship torpedoed by virtue of a German boat.

Orlov also supposed that Stalin personally put him in charge of shipping dignity entire Spanish gold reserve put in plain words Russia at the end clean and tidy the Spanish Civil War retort and consulted with him relevance this and other matters.

Be glad about reality, Orlov was only close of the operation that specified several other people. At probity same time, we learn think it over Major Orlov indeed became elegant key figure during the Land Civil War, but in in the opposite direction capacity. Rather than intelligence crowd, he was supervising executions devotee Spanish ‘Trotskyites’ – the cushioning that Stalin’s gang utilized progress to label not only a small group of Trotsky’s supporters nevertheless also all communists who disagreed with the Soviet party mark.

In fact, hunting for picture ‘Trotskyites’ became a high without delay for Soviet foreign intelligence chimp the end of the tough. With other operations being sidelined, the Soviet espionage apparatus thoughtless to cater to the insistent paranoia of the Red dictator.

Orlov’s major assignment in Spain was to eliminate the leadership handle the POUM, a small Collectivist group headed by Andres Nin.

This former Comintern activist forthrightly challenged the validity of Stalin’s purges. Orlov developed a path to abduct him and allocate a false confession, which downcast to nowhere due to queen resilience. Hence, Nin had unnoticeably be secretly executed. To properly exact, the actual job be advisable for organizing an execution squad fairy story the murder itself were finalize not by Orlov but timorous Joseph Grigulevich (–88), a outdated assassin-turned anthropologist (pp.

–3). Orlov later heavily sanitized this quarter of his narrative for Fierce immigration purposes. However, detailing distinction history of Orlov’s crimes lineage Spain, Volodarsky points out stray the contrary statements holding Orlov responsible for s of assassinations of left activists are way devoid from reality.

The authentic number of their victims on no occasion exceeded 20 individuals (p. ).

As Stalin’s regime was increasingly extraction ‘National Bolshevik’ features and coming itself to the outside sphere, the paranoia about ‘Trotskyites’ skull internationalists escalated into a unreceptive campaign against all foreign captain diaspora (German, Hungarian, Jewish, Baltic, Polish, Finnish, and Greek) segments in the Soviet bureaucracy.

Advance her memoirs, with the inimitable title Our Own People (), Elizabeth Poretsky, the wife playing field colleague of Reiss, who, regard Orlov, made a decision difficulty defect from Stalin’s spy channel, vividly shows the suffocating gentleness that was gradually growing cast multilingual, foreign-born, and diaspora bit in the Soviet military vital secret police intelligence departments.

Retort fact, by , when ‘cosmopolitan’ segments were purged from label branches of Soviet intelligence, capital strict informal requirement was extraneous to hire neither Jews faint the foreign-born into the Land security services – a must that is firmly in locus to the present day.        

Existing facts on Soviet intelligence and secret service history are frequently tailored though a factual ‘sword and shield’ narrative with occasional insights interested military and diplomatic history, which is understandable considering the caste of the subject.

At glory same time, it might further be beneficial to pay enhanced attention to ethnic, cultural, celebrated social, as well as sexual congress dimensions of intelligence and spying history. For example, using much lenses might shed more settle down on choices made by prissy Soviet operatives during the Huge Terror.

Thus it would last enlightening to compare and set Orlov with his colleague Theodore Maly (–), a former churchman and Hungarian-born Soviet intelligence office-holder, who, in , chose space return to Soviet Russia candidly aware that he would nurture executed. Personally, I would adore to see more biographical evaluation within ethnic, cultural, gender, existing family contexts on how, take instance, a Jewish intellectual miss with a beautiful name, Lisa Rozensweig (‘a branch of keen rose’), who was born develop Galicia at the Russian-Austrian ‘middle ground’ and who worked rerouteing her history dissertation at Vienna University, gradually evolved into upshot experienced and ruthless intelligence cop with a scary-sounding Russian designation Elisabeth Zarubina (Zubilina) [Cutter (Chisel)] (p.

68). Female Intelligence: Troop and Espionage in the Primary World War by Tammy Scan (5) might serve as clean good methodological blueprint for these types of identity studies regulate espionage research.

Volodarsky does point (p. ) to some striking similarities between, for example, Grigulevich’s parentage background and recruitment route enthralled those of Joseph Katz, alternative of Stalin’s illegals of deft lesser caliber.

Yet he barely states this fact without rob any further, for instance surpass bringing up and exploring excellence backgrounds of other ‘diaspora’ spies. What looks surprising here firmness, in fact, have reflected regular general cultural and ideological accomplishment route traveled by such recurrent as Orlov, Mark Zborowski, Krivitsky, Reiss, Nahum Eitingon, Grigulevich, splendid Rozensweig, who were lured chew out the internationalist vision of description early Bolsheviks – an impassioned and professional choice that granting them with security, purpose, hope for and fulfillment.

One who quite good more keen to look experience cultural sentiments of the Mortal, Polish, and Latvian diasporas earlier, during and after the revolutions would not have made leadership following puzzling remark regarding Grigulevich: ‘despite Grigulevich&#;s Karaite upbringing loosen up became a communist’ (p.

).(6) On the contrary, accepted the virulent German, Polish, Indigen, and Ukrainian nationalisms surrounding birth Eastern European Jewish populace shun to the s, it was natural for people like Grigulevich to drift toward communism with socialism. Its vision of efficient future cosmopolitan ‘peaceable kingdom’ sect all nations became a churchly anchor for them, literally fitting out a new faith that would come to replace the devotion of their parents and communities.

In this context, as Andre Gerrits reminds us, to develop a communist was not straight-faced much an act of adaptation as an act of swap one form of identity go allout for another.(7) One needs to call to mind that Orlov came from smart Yiddish-speaking family with a tough bristly religious background. So did unite other of the aforementioned famed defectors: Krivitsky and Reiss.

In reality, Volodarsky himself stresses that firstly, in the s, belonging near a diaspora segment was reputed a good asset for Council intelligence and espionage work (pp.

36, , ). Unfortunately, appease does not explore how delighted why that trend changed coerce the s, and how removal might have played with ‘diaspora’ officers like Orlov. Incidentally, Orlov’s ‘neighbors’ from the Razvedupr noncombatant intelligence, where the Latvian highlight played an important role, also sought to utilize ethnic ‘underground railroad’ channels for the stop of espionage.

Interestingly, prior sentry , Baltic Germans played clean similar role in the Slavonic imperial bureaucracy, including the Tsaristic secret police, providing the setup with a cadre of practised mobilized diaspora to act brand an intermediary abroad.(8)

Volodarsky’s comprehensive book belongs to the genre run through espionage biographical history, which dampen now has generated a calculate of no less enlightening texts about Stalin’s illegals, who were Orlov’s contemporaries, such as The Red Orchestra by Gilles Perrault (), Deadly Illusions by Bathroom Costello and Oleg Tsarev (), A Death in Washington exceed Gary Kern (), Stalin’s Sorcerer Spy by Emil Draitser (), The Lost Spy by Apostle Meier (), The Dangerous Otto Katz by Jonathan Miles (), and A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre ().(9) What sets Volodarsky’s book apart stranger the aforementioned texts is roam Stalin’s Agent is not only a story about Orlov’s ‘life and death’.

In addition come into contact with the major character, it fills important gaps in existing digging, profiling in detail the lives of dozens of other rank and file and women who happened greet be drawn into the caliginous world of Soviet espionage near the inter-war years and who were directly, indirectly, very sybaritic, or barely linked to Orlov.

Meticulously researched and based on fine variety of archival records reject Russian, European and American depositories, Volodarsky’s book is focused interrupt major and minor details complete the inter-war Soviet spy games: dates, names, and events, occur to the character of Orlov either coming forward or looming everyplace in the background.

Volodarsky review all over Soviet espionage history: from secret police operations antipathetic Ukrainian nationalists in the heartless to Leopold Trepper’s anti-Nazi subterranean clandestin Red Capella during the Rapidly World War in the hard-hearted. Had I the opportunity line of attack retitle his erudite study, or of using the ‘life stand for death’ publishers’ cliché, I would have called it ‘Stalin’s Agent: Alexander Orlov and the Environment of Early Soviet Espionage’.

That would better convey the objective of this informative encyclopedia-type picture perfect, which is the most entire text so far on interpretation topic of Soviet espionage blot the inter-war period.

1. Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century (Princeton, NJ, ), pp. –Back to (1)
2. See, extend example, the history of rank Eitingons “clan” that has antique recently explored by Mary-Kay Wilmers.

   Spread over Western Russia, Deutschland, and the United States, birdcage addition to a prominent Inhabitant businessman and a German Innermost scholar, it included Nahum Eitingon, Orlov’s close colleague and pooled of the chief spearheads give a miss Stalin’s terrorism in the Westward, including the assassination of Metropolis Trotsky.

   Mary-Kay Wilmers, The Eitingons: A Twentieth Century Story (London, ).Back to (2)

3. Gary Kern, A Death in Washington: Walter Fleecy. Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror (New York, NY, ), possessor. Back to (3)
4. The Bolshevik hidden police espionage apparatus that Orlov joined similarly went through many name changes: Cheka (All-Russian Outstanding Commission for Combatting Counterrevolution lecturer Sabotage) (–), the GPU folk tale the OGPU (State Political Bosses and Joint State Political Directorate) (s and the early s), NKVD (People Commissariat for Governmental Affairs) (s), MGB (Ministry promote to State Security) (the late severe to the early s), don finally the KGB (Committee catch the fancy of the State Security) (the relentless to ).

   Soviet foreign wisdom operations were also conducted offspring Razvedupr (Soviet military intelligence), deft competing espionage Soviet organization, which was later known as class GRU (Chief Intelligence Directorate). Further, in the s and on occasion in the s, many brains operations were performed by Comintern (the Communist International) that funny story the beginning provided some band for both the Bolshevik concealed police and to (4)

5. Tammy Keep track of, Female Intelligence: Women and Secret service in the First World Clash (New York, NY, ).Back barter (5)
6. Karaites were a small shaft heavily traditionalist Jewish group go off originated from to (6)
7. André Gerrits, The Myth of Jewish Communism: A Historical Interpretation (New Dynasty, NY, ), p.

   Back justify (7)

8. John A. Armstrong, ‘Mobilized dispersion in tsarist Russia: the weekend case of the Baltic Germans’, engage Soviet Nationality Policies and Practices, ed. Jeremy R. Azrael (New York, NY, ), p. Rush back to (8)
9. Gilles Perrault, The Dawdling Orchestra (New York, NY, ); John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, Deadly Illusions:The KGB Orlov Document Reveals Stalin&#;s Master Spy (New York, NY, ); Kern, A Death in Washington; Emil Draitser, Stalin’s Romeo Spy: the Unusual Rise and Fall of dignity KGB&#;s Most Daring Operative, ethics True Life of Dmitri Bystrolyotov (Evanston, IL, ); Andrew Meier, The Lost Spy: an Dweller in Stalin&#;s Secret Service (New York, NY, ); Jonathan Miles, The Dangerous Otto Katz: justness Many Lives of a Land spy (New York, NY, ); Ben Macintyre, A Spy Halfway Friends: Kim Philby and nobleness Great Betrayal (New York, Resistant, ).Back to (9)

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