Georges Agabekov
Encyclopedia
Georges Agabekov (1896–1938), was a Soviet Red Army
soldier, Chekist, OGPU Agent, Chief of OGPU Eastern Section (1928–1929). He was the first senior OGPU officer to defect
to the West in 1930, motivated presumably by his amorous infatuation with an English language teacher in Constantinople
; his revelatory books led to massive arrests of Soviet intelligence assets across the Near East
and Central Asia
.
, in 1895 to an Armenian
family.
From 1914 till 1916 he was fighting in the Russian army during World War I
; at the end of 1916 he was sent to the Tashkent
Praporshchik
s school. After the 1917 October revolution
, in March 1918, he joined the Red Guard
; in 1920 he joined the Bolshevik Party
. Shortly afterwards, Agabekov joined the Cheka; he participated in the Red Terror
at Ekaterinburg and in the suppression of a peasant revolt in Tyumen
.
As he could speak Persian
and Turkish
, Agabekov was brought to Moscow in October 1921 to join the Oriental Section of the Cheka. In 1922 he was dispatched to Tashkent
to work for Yakov Peters
. While in Turkestan
, according to his own account, he played a key role in locating the camp of Enver Pasha
, then the Basmachi leader, near Denau (now in Surxondaryo Province
of Uzbekistan
), thus laying the groundwork for the routing of Enver's troops and his assassination in early August 1922.
In April 1924, he was posted to the Soviet mission in Kabul
, where he spied under diplomat
ic cover.
At the end of 1926, Agabekov was posted in Tehran
as rezident of the OGPU Foreign Branch in Persia, where he was successful in obtaining foreign powers' secret codes, recruiting agents and fomenting animosity against Britain
amongst the local tribal leaders; however, he failed in the task of dispatching back to the USSR the defector Boris Bazhanov
, Joseph Stalin
's former assistant.
In April 1928, back in Moscow, Agabekov was promoted to the position of chief of the OGPU Near Eastern Section.
At the end of October 1929, Agabekov arrived from Odessa
in Constantinople as "illegal" rezident in Turkey
, where he replaced the Trotskyite
Yakov Blumkin
(alias Zhivoi) executed
in Moscow shortly afterward. Like Blumkin before him, Agabekov travelled to Turkey on a Persian passport; he posed as a wealthy ethnic Armenian merchant under the name of Nerses Ovsepyan. Apart from Turkey, Blumkin had started to set up "illegal" spy networks in such countries as Syria
, Palestine
, Hejaz and Egypt
. According to Agabekov, prior to 1930, Turkey was viewed by OGPU as a friendly power pursuant to the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Moscow
, yet cooperation offers on the part of Turkey's police and intelligence were declined. Mikhail Trilisser
, chief of the OGPU Foreign Branch (1922–1930), whose patronage Agabekov enjoyed, envisioned Constantinople as a base of Soviet espionage activity for the entire Near East.
British intelligence officer and journalist Gordon Brook-Shepherd in his book The Storm Petrels: The First Soviet Defectors, 1928-1938 (1977) maintained that Agabekov's defection to France
in June 1930 was caused solely by the fact that he had fallen in love with an under-age English girl Isabel Streater who taught him English; but Agabekov's own account implies political and ideological motives as well as the fact that at the end of April 1930 he discovered he and his contacts (mostly ethnic Armenian merchants in Constantinople) were under close scrutiny by the Turkish police.
Shortly after his arrival in Paris
, in August 1930, the French authorities expelled Agabekov to Brussels
, Belgium
, where he lived under his original name of Arutyunov. There, he finally succeeded in establishing cooperation with the British and in marrying Isabel.
The publication of Agabekov's English-language book OGPU: The Russian Secret Terror in 1931, led to sweeping arrests of hundreds of Soviet agents and sympathisers in Persia as well as other Near Eastern countries; a sharp deterioration of Moscow's relations with Rezā Shāh
ensued. He also published 2 Russian-language books in Berlin, which have an autobiographical element. Amongst other things, Agabekov said that starting from 1929, the OGPU Foreign Branch actively used Armenian
clergy both from the USSR and abroad for the purposes of espionage.
He was believed to have been killed by Soviet agents in the Pyrenees
in 1937, after a series of unsuccessful attempts on his life; but according to the 1997 memoir attributed to Pavel Sudoplatov
, his assassination was perpetrated by a retired Turkish officer in Paris and organised by Alexandr Korotkov who subsequently became deputy chief of the Foreign Intelligence
.
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
soldier, Chekist, OGPU Agent, Chief of OGPU Eastern Section (1928–1929). He was the first senior OGPU officer to defect
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection was a point of controversy during the Cold War. After World War II, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe...
to the West in 1930, motivated presumably by his amorous infatuation with an English language teacher in Constantinople
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
; his revelatory books led to massive arrests of Soviet intelligence assets across the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
Biography
He was born in Askhabad, the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, in 1895 to an Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
family.
From 1914 till 1916 he was fighting in the Russian army during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
; at the end of 1916 he was sent to the Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
Praporshchik
Praporshchik
Praporshchik is a rank in the Russian military.-Imperial Russia:Praporshchik was originally a name of a junior commissioned officer rank in the military of the Russian Empire equivalent to ensign...
s school. After the 1917 October revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, in March 1918, he joined the Red Guard
Red Guards (Russia)
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were paramilitary formations consisting of workers and partially of soldiers and sailors formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
; in 1920 he joined the Bolshevik Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
. Shortly afterwards, Agabekov joined the Cheka; he participated in the Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
at Ekaterinburg and in the suppression of a peasant revolt in Tyumen
Tyumen
Tyumen is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River east of Moscow. Population: Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 16th century to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most...
.
As he could speak Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Agabekov was brought to Moscow in October 1921 to join the Oriental Section of the Cheka. In 1922 he was dispatched to Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
to work for Yakov Peters
Yakov Peters
Jēkabs Peterss or Yakov Khristoforovich Peters was a Latvian Communist revolutionary, Soviet politician, chekist, and terrorist. Together with Feliks Dzerzhinsky, he was one of the founders and chiefs of the VChK...
. While in Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
, according to his own account, he played a key role in locating the camp of Enver Pasha
Ismail Enver
Enver Pasha or Ismail Enver Pasha , title was changed with his military ranks such as Enver Efendi , Enver Bey , Enver Pasha, higher than Mirliva) was an Ottoman military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution...
, then the Basmachi leader, near Denau (now in Surxondaryo Province
Surxondaryo Province
Surxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 20,100 km²...
of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
), thus laying the groundwork for the routing of Enver's troops and his assassination in early August 1922.
In April 1924, he was posted to the Soviet mission in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, where he spied under diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
ic cover.
At the end of 1926, Agabekov was posted in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
as rezident of the OGPU Foreign Branch in Persia, where he was successful in obtaining foreign powers' secret codes, recruiting agents and fomenting animosity against Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
amongst the local tribal leaders; however, he failed in the task of dispatching back to the USSR the defector Boris Bazhanov
Boris Bazhanov
Boris Georgiyevich Bazhanov , sometimes also spelled Bajanov, was a secretary in the Politburo and the personal secretary of the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin from August 1923 through the end of 1925. Bazhanov held different positions at the Politburo from 1925 to 1928...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's former assistant.
In April 1928, back in Moscow, Agabekov was promoted to the position of chief of the OGPU Near Eastern Section.
At the end of October 1929, Agabekov arrived from Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
in Constantinople as "illegal" rezident in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, where he replaced the Trotskyite
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
Yakov Blumkin
Yakov Blumkin
Yakov Grigoryevich Blumkin was a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, assassin, Bolshevik, Cheka agent, State Political Directorate spy, and adventurer, executed as Trotskyist.-Early life :...
(alias Zhivoi) executed
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
in Moscow shortly afterward. Like Blumkin before him, Agabekov travelled to Turkey on a Persian passport; he posed as a wealthy ethnic Armenian merchant under the name of Nerses Ovsepyan. Apart from Turkey, Blumkin had started to set up "illegal" spy networks in such countries as Syria
French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon
Officially the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire...
, Palestine
Mandate Palestine
Mandate Palestine existed while the British Mandate for Palestine, which formally began in September 1923 and terminated in May 1948, was in effect...
, Hejaz and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. According to Agabekov, prior to 1930, Turkey was viewed by OGPU as a friendly power pursuant to the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Moscow
Treaty of Moscow (1921)
The Treaty of Moscow or Treaty of Brotherhood was a friendship treaty between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Bolshevist Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, signed on 16 March 1921...
, yet cooperation offers on the part of Turkey's police and intelligence were declined. Mikhail Trilisser
Mikhail Trilisser
Mikhail Abramovich Trilisser-Moskvin was a Soviet OGPU chief of the Foreign Department of the Cheka and the OGPU. Later, he worked for the NKVD as a covert bureau chief and Comintern leader.-Career:...
, chief of the OGPU Foreign Branch (1922–1930), whose patronage Agabekov enjoyed, envisioned Constantinople as a base of Soviet espionage activity for the entire Near East.
British intelligence officer and journalist Gordon Brook-Shepherd in his book The Storm Petrels: The First Soviet Defectors, 1928-1938 (1977) maintained that Agabekov's defection to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in June 1930 was caused solely by the fact that he had fallen in love with an under-age English girl Isabel Streater who taught him English; but Agabekov's own account implies political and ideological motives as well as the fact that at the end of April 1930 he discovered he and his contacts (mostly ethnic Armenian merchants in Constantinople) were under close scrutiny by the Turkish police.
Shortly after his arrival in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, in August 1930, the French authorities expelled Agabekov to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, where he lived under his original name of Arutyunov. There, he finally succeeded in establishing cooperation with the British and in marrying Isabel.
The publication of Agabekov's English-language book OGPU: The Russian Secret Terror in 1931, led to sweeping arrests of hundreds of Soviet agents and sympathisers in Persia as well as other Near Eastern countries; a sharp deterioration of Moscow's relations with Rezā Shāh
Reza Shah
Rezā Shāh, also known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and Rezā Shāh Kabir , , was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.In 1925, Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar...
ensued. He also published 2 Russian-language books in Berlin, which have an autobiographical element. Amongst other things, Agabekov said that starting from 1929, the OGPU Foreign Branch actively used Armenian
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
clergy both from the USSR and abroad for the purposes of espionage.
He was believed to have been killed by Soviet agents in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
in 1937, after a series of unsuccessful attempts on his life; but according to the 1997 memoir attributed to Pavel Sudoplatov
Pavel Sudoplatov
Lieutenant General Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general...
, his assassination was perpetrated by a retired Turkish officer in Paris and organised by Alexandr Korotkov who subsequently became deputy chief of the Foreign Intelligence
First Chief Directorate
The First Chief Directorate , of the Committee for State Security , was the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of the covert agents, intelligence collection management, and the collection of political, scientific and...
.
His books
- Georges Agabekov, OGPU: The Russian Secret Terror, Brentanos, (1931).
- Г. П. У. Записки чекиста. Berlin, 1930.
- ЧК за работой. Berlin, Стрела, 1931.