Goar Levonovna Vartanian ( hy, Գոհար Լևոնի Վարդանյան russian: Гоар Левоновна Вартанян; 25 January 1926 – 25 November 2019) was an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n woman who spied for 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 ...

together with her husband

Gevork Vartanian Gevork Andreevich Vartanian ( hy, Գևորգ Վարդանյան, russian: Гево́рк Андре́евич Вартаня́н; 17 February 1924 – 10 January 2012) was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was primarily responsible, together w ...

Biography

Vartanian was born Goar Levonovna Pahlevanyan (russian: Гоар Левоновна Пахлеванян), in

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

, in what was then the

Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR , p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR , flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...

in the Soviet Union and is now Armenia. After her family moved to

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, Iran in the early 1930s, she changed her surname to Kandaryan (russian: Кандарян), where she met her future husband Gevork. She became a member of an anti-fascist group in 1942. They uncovered and prevented

Operation Long Jump Operation Long Jump (german: Unternehmen Weitsprung) was an alleged German plan to simultaneously assassinate Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt, the "Big Three" Allied leaders, at the 1943 Tehran Conference during World War ...

, an attempt by the Nazis to murder

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, and

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

at the

Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy i ...

in 1943. In 1951 the Vartanians moved to the Soviet Union for which they worked as secret agents around the world. Goar's active career as a spy ended in 1986, but she continued training new recruits afterwards. Gevork, who had received the title of

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

, died in 2012. Goar died on 25 November 2019 and is buried in the

Troyekurovskoye Cemetery The Troyekurovo Cemetery (russian: Троекуровское кладбище, Troyekurovskoye kladbishche), alternatively known as ''Novo-Kuntsevo Cemetery'' (russian: Ново-Кунцевское кладбище, Novo-Kuntsevskoye kladbishch ...

Notes

1926 births 2019 deaths Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Women spies Soviet spies People from Gyumri Soviet Armenians {{Armenia-bio-stub