Anatoly Markovich Gurevich (russian: Анатолий Маркович Гуревич; 7 November 1913 – 2 January 2009) was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was an officer in the
GRU
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
operating as "разведчик-нелегал" (''razvedchik-nelegal'', illegal
resident spy A resident spy in the world of espionage is an agent operating within a foreign country for extended periods of time. A base of operations within a foreign country with which a resident spy may liaise is known as a "station" in English and a (, 're ...
) in Soviet intelligence parlance. Gurevich was a central figure in the anti-Nazi
Red Orchestra in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Gurevich had a number of aliases that he used to disguise his identity, including Vincente Sierra,
Victor Sukolov, Arthus Barcza and Simon Urwith. He also used a number of code names for radio communications, including ''Kent'', ''Fritz'', ''Manolo'', ''Dupuis'' and ''Lebrun''. Gurevich ran one of the seven groups of networks, located in Belgium that were controlled by
Leopold Trepper
Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 10 January 1982) was a Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence. With the code name Otto'','' Trepper had worked with the Red Army since 1930. He was also a resistance ...
in France. He was the second leading Soviet agent in Europe during the war years. Upon his return to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1945, Gurevich was sentenced for
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
and spent 15 years in detention and was rehabilitated in 1990.
Life
Gurevich was born into a Jewish family in
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[pharmacists
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...]
. From 1929 to 1933, he was a member of the paramilitary sports organisation called
OSOAVIAKHIM
The Society for the Assistance of Defense, Aircraft and Chemical Construction (russian:
Общество содействия обороне, авиационному и химическому строительству, romanized as ''Obshche ...
. After that, he was a part of the
air defence
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
and later took a communication operator course.
In 1933, he enrolled at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport where he displayed proficiency for learning languages and
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
. He learnt German, French, and English there.
On 1 September 1935, he was appointed to a course for training people at the
Intourist
Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...
travel agency. When the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
began, Gurevich volunteered to help. Along with a large group he travelled to Spain and arrived at
Cartagena on 30 December 1937. He was appointed as an adjunct translator on submarine C-4 of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...
,
Spanish Republican Navy
The Spanish Republican Navy was the Navy, naval arm of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939.
History
In the same manner as the othe ...
.
In Autumn 1938, Gurevich returned to Moscow. In 1939, he underwent training in the intelligence school of the
Main Intelligence Directorate Main Intelligence Directorate may refer to:
* Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine), the military intelligence service of Ukraine
* GRU
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́ ...
in Moscow.
Soviet agent
![Sukolov Group Belgium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Sukolov_Group_Belgium.png)
On 15 April 1938, Gurevich was ordered by the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate to travel to France to commence his work as an agent. Disguised as a Mexican tourist, he travelled through Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands, before finally arriving in France.
In Paris, Gurevich changed his passport from a Mexican tourist into a Uruguayan passport.
In the same month, he carried out his first operation when he was instructed to travel to Berlin to contact the Luftwaffe officer
Harro Schulze-Boysen
Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen (; Schulze, 2 September 1909 – 22 December 1942) was a left-wing German publicist and Luftwaffe officer during World War II. As a young man, Schulze-Boysen grew up in prosperous family with two sibli ...
. Gurevich was ordered to re-establish Shulze-Boysen as an intelligence source and arrange a courier service.
Sukolov was given the telephone number of Schulze-Boysen and been ordered to phone him and arrange a meeting somewhere in the city. He was not to meet him at his home, however.
When Gurevich phoned,
Libertas Schulze-Boysen
Libertas "Libs" Schulze-Boysen, born Libertas Viktoria Haas-Heye (20 November 1913 in Paris – 22 December 1942 in Plötzensee Prison ) was a German aristocrat and resistance fighter against the Nazis. From the early 1930s to 1940, Libs attem ...
, the wife of Harro Schulze-Boysen answered.
They met on the platform of an underground station, later moving to a cafe where Schulze-Boysen joined them later.
In July 1939, Gurevich, posing as the wealthy Vincente Sierra, arrived in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
while travelling on a
Uruguayan passport
Uruguayan passports are issued to Uruguayan citizens to travel outside Uruguay. For traveling in Mercosur countries, as well as Chile and Bolivia, Uruguayan citizens may use their ID cardbr> For naturalised legal citizens, the nationality of orig ...
that had been issued in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on 17 April 1936.
The passport gave the holders date and place of birth as 3 July 1911 in
Montevideo
Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
and his permanent address was Calle Colon 9, Montevideo.
On 17 July 1939, Sukolov made contact with
Leopold Trepper
Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 10 January 1982) was a Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence. With the code name Otto'','' Trepper had worked with the Red Army since 1930. He was also a resistance ...
in
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
, who at the time was head of the Soviet intelligence network in Belgium.
Trepper planned to teach the operation of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company to Gurevich. To make contacts in different strata of society, Gurevich started to familiarize himself with Belgium society and studied the country to enable the collection of economic knowledge. Gurevich took part in ballroom dancing and riding lessons and as he travelled between luxury hotels, mail bearing the stamps of Uruguay awaited his arrival. To improve his language skills in French, English and German, Gurevich enrolled at the
Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions
* Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970
*Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...
.
Gurevich's cryptonym or code name was ''Kent''. His colleagues in Brussels had no idea where the code name has come from, in fact it was the name of fictional British agent character in a book that Gurevich had read when he was a boy called ''Diary of a spy'' by N G Smirnov.
Although he was industrious, he was generally disliked for a number of reasons, which included being arrogant, and was considered a bit of a bluffer who was known for his socialising and profligate spending which included owning 40 luxury suits in his large apartment in Avenue AJ Sleggers.
Trepper viewed both Gurevich and
Mikhail Makarov as the ''Young Guard'' and considered both himself and his immediate colleagues including
Hillel Katz
Hillel Katz (born 24 September 1905 in Cieszyn, Austro-Hungarian Empire) was a Polish Jewish Communist, who was an important member of a Soviet espionage network in occupied France, that the German Abwehr intelligence service later called the " ...
, the ''Old Guard''
Sukolov had never been tested in battle.
Gurevich's original instructions were to establish an espionage network in Copenhagen, but in the months leading up to the war, Trepper's plans changed with Sukolov having to be introduced into the Belgian network gradually. He eventually ended up working as an assistant to Trepper and performed the normal bureaucratic operations of an espionage network as a cypher clerk, deciphering instructions from Soviet intelligence, preparing reports from information forwarded from a contact in the Soviet Trade Representation of Belgium.
In October 1939, Gurevich visited
Daan Goulooze, the director of the
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party ...
(CPN), as a contact to the CPN to build his network and to request assistance.
Gurevich asked that a temporary wireless telegraphy link be established for his use and this was provided by Goulooze and used until January 1940.
In July 1940, Gurevich again visited Goulooze to request the reserve code that he had received from Soviet intelligence the year before.
After the
invasion of the Netherlands which ended on 14 May 1940, Gurevich anticipated no difficulties in travelling incognito as an Uruguayan student.
Between March and April 1940, Gurevich made a three-week business trip to Switzerland to meet
Alexander Radó
Alexander Radó (5 November 1899, Újpest, near Budapest – 20 August 1981, Budapest), also: Alex, Alexander Radolfi, Sándor Kálmán Reich or Alexander Rado, was a Hungarian cartographer and a Soviet military intelligence agent in World War ...
, a
Rote Drei agent to deliver $3000 to finance the Swiss network.
During this period, Gurevich was passing intelligence from Schulze-Boysen through his WT station in Brussels.
Greta Barcza
In May 1940, Gurevich met Margarete (or Marguerite) "Greta" Barcza,
the daughter of a Czech millionaire. During the invasion of Belgium when Brussels was being heavily bombed, Barcza met Gurevich while cowering in the cellars at 106 Avenue Émile de Beco in Brussels.
Gurevich lived in the same building and one floor above Barcza. At the time, Gurevich was still posing as Uruguayan Vincent Sierra and over several weeks they formed a relationship and eventually became lovers, becoming inseparable which eventually impacted Gurevich's espionage work. In Treppers view, Barcza was a bad influence on Gurevich.
In July 1940, when Trepper had to move to France to flee the German advance and start a new French network, he turned the Belgian network over to Gurevich. Gurevich, operating from a safehouse located at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels, used Makarov as his wireless radio operator,
Zofia Poznańska as his cipher clerk,
Rita Arnould
Rita Arnould ( – 20 August 1943) was a housekeeper and courier of the Red Orchestra resistance group in Belgium during World War II. She was captured when the Funkabwehr raided an apartment at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels on 12 December 1 ...
as a courier and housekeeper, and Isidor Springer, who worked as a courier between Gurevich and Trepper and as a recruiter. Gurevich reorganised the network and from that point only referred to Trepper on points of policy.
When the Raincoat Company was sequestered by German soldiers during the
invasion into Belgium on 17 May 1940 as Grossvogel was Jewish, Gurevich started work to create a replacement organisation. Known as
Simexco, it was a joint-stock company to be used as a cover for espionage work
and was established by March 1941. The firm was established as a genuine business and was even granted telephone and fax facilities by the German authorities providing a regular and privileged way to enable Trepper and Gurevich to communicate.
In June 1941, Trepper sent
Anton Danilov to assist Makarov with radio transmissions. In September or October 1941, Trepper ordered
Abraham Rajchmann, a Polish career criminal and forger, to join Gurevich
In October 1941, among other assignments, Gurevich was ordered to contact the Harnack/Schulze-Boysen group to restore the connection between the Main Intelligence Directorate and the group. He was ordered to visit
Hans Coppi
Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi (25 January 1916 – 22 December 1942) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.
Lif ...
that was the groups' radio operator but was unable to repair the radio.
On 13 December 1941, the Gestapo arrested Gurevich's WT operator Anton Danilov in an apartment at 101 rue des Attrebates,
Etterbeek
Etterbeek ( French: ; Dutch: ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the municipalities of Auderghem, the City of Brussels, Ixelles, Schaerbeek, Wolu ...
in Brussels and Trepper happened to be in Brussels at the time, found out and warned Gurevich of the arrest.
Gurevich's first concern was to arrange for Barcza to leave Belgium for France to ensure she was safe. Gurevich arranged travel documents with Rajchmann.
Barcza and her son Rene arrived in France in late December 1941. Gurevich himself hid in the house of Nazarin Drailly, an agent of the Gurevich group, to evade the Gestapo, while Gurevich made arrangements to transfer ownership of the Simexco espionage organisation to Drailly.
In the summer of 1942, Trepper evolved a plan to get Barcza to Switzerland and live out the rest of the war but it was rejected by Gurevich.
At the same time, Gurevich was increasingly finding himself in arguments with Trepper. By that point, he was no longer part of the Soviet espionage network, was defeatist in his outlook and started to offer reasons why he was no longer using his transmitter.
Trepper eventually had to call in two radio specialists to check the radio and found it in perfect working order.
In January 1942, Trepper ordered Gurevich to travel to
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
and establish a new branch office of Simex.
Arrest
On 9 November 1942, Gurevich was arrested with Margaret in his apartment at 75 Rue Abbé de l'Épée in
Marseilles
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
by the French police.
Gurevich was handed over to German Police and then on the order of the person who was head of the Gestapo in France,
Karl Bömelburg
Karl Bömelburg (28 October 1885 – 31 December 1946) was an SS-''Sturmbannführer'' (major) and head of the Gestapo in France during the Second World War. He notably had authority over section IV J, charged with the deportation of the Jews, fo ...
, was fetched by a truck from Marseilles and taken to a house in
Rue des Saussaies
Rue des Saussaies is a short (50m long) street in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that adjoins the Ministry of the Interior. It begins at place Beauvau and finishes at place Saussaies. At number 10, lived the comte de Ségur, Napoleon I
...
in Paris.
He was subsequently moved to
Fort Breendonk
Fort Breendonk ( nl, Fort van Breendonk, french: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which served as a Nazi prison camp (''Auffanglager'') during the German occupation of Belgium during Wo ...
in Belgium then taken to be interrogated by the
Reich Security Main Office
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...
(RSHA) in Prince Albertstrasse, Berlin.
Playbacks
Gurevich told the Germans that he had not been active as a professional agent for some time and had tried to create a new life for himself and Margaret Barcza in Marseilles.
He stated that he knew before his arrest that he was being surveilled at his Marseilles address and the reason that he had not fled was that no longer considered himself part of the ''Rote Kapelle''.
Although he showed a readiness to work for the Germans there was still a great distrust of Gurevich amongst his interrogators. However, Gurevich was continually brought into the office of the Gestapo for further interrogation, where over several days he managed to convince them that he was genuine. Gurevich laid out a plan to the Gestapo to get back in touch with the Russian intelligence service and enable
playbacks to commence which the Gestapo accepted.
''Playbacks'', the British term or the American term, ''G-V Game'' or ''Funkspiel'' as it was known in Germany was the transmission of controlled information over a captured agent's radio so that the agent's parent service had no knowledge that the agent had turned. Although Gurevich decided to cooperate on playbacks he refused to name any agents he had recruited.
To initiate the playback, it is believed Gurevich sent a letter to the Red Army intelligence via the Soviet consulate in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
but it is not known how a reply was sent by the Soviets. Once he made contact with Red Army intelligence, the strict discipline under which he was held was relaxed and he was allowed visits by his wife Margaret.
On 4 January 1943, Gurevich was returned
Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison ('' French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a smal ...
in France where he began the playback operation. However, he took up so much time enciphering and deciphering the messages that he was moved back to the house on Rue des Saussaies in Paris, where he was given a cell next to Trepper.
The ciphering undertaken by Gurevich was checked at first by Gestapo officer Waldemar Lentz and then later by Hans Kurfess.
The book that Gurevich used to cipher his messages was believed to be French novel containing stories about Corsica called ''Mérimée,''
possibly a book by the French novelist
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...
who wrote a number of novellas set in
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
. During the playback operation, the Gestapo found that Gurevich was both praised and criticised by Soviet intelligence but although he was requested to provide military intelligence about the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo found it impossible to supply even the most innocuous material.
By March 1943, Gurevich was effectively part of the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle, the RSHA counter-intelligence unit.
In July 1943 Gurevich and Margaret were moved to a new apartment at 40 Boulevard Victor Hugo,
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...
in Paris. Trepper joined them at the apartment. They were allowed to walk about Paris without a guard.
Ozols
By early 1943, Red Army intelligence had little doubt that Gurevich had been arrested and was now a double agent.
Surprisingly, on 14 March 1943, during the playback, Gurevich received a message that detailed a former Latvian general
Waldemar Ozols who was a Red Army intelligence agent. Ozols was a principal-agent in Gurevich's network and together were successful in penetrating
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
.
The Soviets believed that Ozols would be able to furnish information about German troop movements,
so Ozols was reactivated by Sukolov in July 1943, by speaking a pre-arranged word. Ozols hadn't been active since July 1941 and wasn't informed that Gurevich was working for the Germans.
Gurevich ordered Ozols to reassemble his network with the remnants of his old network and recruit new members where needed. By December 1943, Ozols had made contact with Paul Legendre, a reserve caption who was chief of the Mithridate network that was located in the Marseilles region.
Consequently, the Mithridate network was under the command of the German Army.
Amongst the agents that Legendre recruited were
Maurice Viollette
Maurice Viollette (3 September 1870 in Janville, Eure-et-Loir – 9 September 1960 in Dreux) was a French statesman.
He was chief-of-staff for Alexandre Millerand in the Waldeck-Rousseau government in 1898, and was elected as a '' député' ...
and the Mayor of
Dreux
Dreux () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.
Geography
Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the Eure, about 35 km north of Chartres. Dreux station has rail connections to Argentan, Paris and Granvi ...
.
Initially, the Germans used the Mithridate network to manipulate the French resistance but in spring 1944, Pannwitz decided to use the network to communicate to Gestapo agents who were working behind enemy lines and use Gurevich as a proxy to pass information between the network and the Gestapo.
Retreat
Gurevich continued to act as a proxy to Ozols and the Mithridate network until the summer of 1944. Around the same time Gurevich moved from Neuilly-sur-Seine into Pannwitz's villa, located close to the
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile (, , ; ) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the ''étoile'' ...
in Paris.
As a result of his successes with Ozols, Sukolov made increasing demands on the Germans. One of these was to send Greta Barcza's son to a school in Paris and the Sonderkommando to pay the school fees.
After the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
and the subsequent retreat of German forced in autumn 1944, the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle of the RSHA was reduced in strength. Pannwitz took over the running of the Sonderkommando. On 16 August 1944 Pannwitz took Gurevich and Barcza away from Paris when the Sonderkommando was forced to withdraw.
Gurevich continued his playbacks under the leadership of Pannwitz and a station was established somewhere in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
to continue the playback operation.
After Barcza gave birth to Gurevich's son in November 1944, Gurevich and Barcza were forced to separate by Pannwitz. Gurevich was sent to Berlin to receive orders on whether to continue the playbacks
with Pannwitz and this was the last time that Barcza saw him. As late as November 1944 Gurevich and Pannwitz were in Berlin to receive orders on whether to continue the playbacks.
In April 1945, Gurevich and Pannwitz were seen close to
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...
.
They continued the playbacks from various locations until May 1945.
USSR
![Sukolov_Group_Belgium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Sukolov_Group_Belgium.png)
In April 1945, Gurevich was located in
Bregenz
Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...
.
On 3 May 1945, he was captured by French forces in a hut on a mountain near
Bludenz
Bludenz (; Alemannic: ''Bludaz'') is a town in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is the administrative seat of the Bludenz District, which encompasses about half of the Vorarlberg's territory.
Geography
The town is located on the Il ...
,
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label=Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, along with
Heinz Pannwitz
Heinz Michael Pannwitz ( Heinz Paulsen; 28 July 1911, Berlin – 1975) was a German Nazi Gestapo officer and later Schutzstaffel (SS) officer. Pannwitz was most notable for directing the investigation into the assassination of Obergruppenführer ...
.
Gurevich and Pannwitz were taken to Paris for interrogation.
Sukolov told the interrogators that he was an officer in the Russian Intelligence Service. On a flight organised by Colonel Novikov of the
Soviet Military Mission on 7 June 1945, Gurevich, along with Pannwitz and Gurevich's secretary Emma Kemp, flew to Moscow.
Gurevich took along a package of documents that constituted the archives that the Gestapo had compiled on the Red Orchestra.
In Moscow, they were all arrested and locked up in the
Lubyanka.
Gurevich was accused of high treason.
He was questioned for a long time by
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (russian: link=no, Виктор Семёнович Абакумов; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high-level Soviet security official from 1943 to 1946, the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissari ...
, who ransacked the records of the interrogations that Gurevich had reported.
In January 1947, Gurevich was sentenced to 20 years jail for treason, under
Article 58-1a,
and was imprisoned in
Vorkutlag
The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp (), commonly known as the Vorkuta Gulag or Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major GULAG labor camp of the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta from 1932 to 1962.
The Vorkuta Gulag was one of the largest camps in ...
from January 1948 to October 1955.
By 1991, Gurevich was fully exonerated and released. It was established that Gurevich had been imprisoned because he had married his mistress, Margarete (or Marguerite) Barcza, without the permission of Russian intelligence.
The accusation by Red Army Intelligence was that Gurevich had abandoned his mission in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
after becoming thoroughly influenced by western living, which had led to his supposed defection.
Gurevich lost trace of Barcza and their young son, Michael. The
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
told him they had died in a concentration camp during a bombing raid. In fact, for a number of years after the war ended, Barcza had searched for Gurevich. On 29 November 1990, Gurevich learned that Barcza had survived the camp and died in 1985, and that his son was alive and living in Spain. In February 1991 and the years afterwards, Gurevich met his son and grandson in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
.
Filmography
The following films were made where Gurevich was a character.
* Verlorenes Leben - Hans Coppi und der letzte Agent der Roten Kapelle (''Lost life - Hans Coppi and the last agent of the Red Orchestra'') was released in 1996. Hans Coppi Junior filmed a documentary about Gurevich.
* L'orchestre Rouge (''The Red Orchestra'') by
Jacques Rouffio
Jacques Rouffio (14 August 1928 – 8 July 2016) was a French film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film ''My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister'' was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.Martin Lamotte
Martin Lamotte (born 2 June 1947) is a French actor, comedian and director. He participated in several films alongside Le Splendid
Le Splendid is a café-théâtre company founded by a collection of writers and actors in the 1970s - Christi ...
played Gurevich under the codename ''Kent''.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurevich, Anatoly
1913 births
2009 deaths
Red Orchestra (espionage)
GRU officers
World War II spies for the Soviet Union
Communists in the German Resistance
Soviet Jews in the military