Semyon Ivanovich Aralov (russian: Семён Иванович Аралов; 18 December 1880 – 22 May 1969) was a Russian revolutionary, military commander and Soviet statesman who served as the first head of the Soviet Red Army Intelligence Directorate and subsequently had a career in the Soviet diplomatic service. Aralov was born in Moscow, the son of a wealthy merchant. He became a member of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

in 1902. He also joined the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

in 1905 and during the First World War he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Military Intelligence department. He participated in the October Revolution Aralov was a founding member of the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

and in January 1918 he was appointed head of the Moscow Military District. Trotsky then sent him to Siberia to lead negotiations with the Czechoslovak Legion. By September 1918, he was appointed to the Military Revolutionary Committee and in charge of hostage taking, whereby the Red Army seized family members of former Tsarist officers whose loyalty they doubted. When the Registration Unit, as the Red Army Intelligence Directorate was originally called, was founded in October 1918, he was the head, joining Trotsky and Jukums Vācietis on the Executive Bureau of the Defence Council. In July 1920, Aralov relinquished his role as head of the GRU taking up an operational role as head of intelligence with the 12th Army and between 1921 and 1927 interspersed his role as deputy head with various foreign assignments, often under diplomatic cover. This included working as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and Turkey before going to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

as an ambassador to

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

's Kuomintang Government. His subsequent diplomatic career included postings in the United States, Germany and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. During the purges of 1937, he was dismissed from all intelligence posts. However, he was able to gain the post of a deputy director of the

Literature Museum Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. He volunteered for service in the Second World War at age 60 in 1941 and was discharged in 1946. He was involved in Communist Party work until retiring in 1957. He died in Moscow in 1969 and was interred at the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery ( rus, Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist ...

References

*''Secret Soldiers of the Revolution'' by Raymond W. Leonard, Greenwood Press 1999
Leaders of Soviet Military Intelligence
accessed 28 March 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aralov, Semyon Cheka GRU officers Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Turkey 1880 births 1969 deaths Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to China Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Lithuania Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Latvia Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner