Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (russian: Ян Карлович Берзин; lv, Jānis Bērziņš; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; ,

Kreis Riga Kreis is the German word for circle. Kreis may also refer to: Places * , or circles, various subdivisions roughly equivalent to counties, districts or municipalities ** Districts of Germany (including and ) ** Former districts of Prussia, al ...

(now in Zaube parish), the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– 29 July 1938,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, the

USSR 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 nationa ...

), was a Latvian

Soviet 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 nation ...

communist politician and military intelligence officer.

Biography

Ķuzis joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905. According to his former subordinate,

Walter Krivitsky Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...

, Ķuzis led a guerrilla detachment in his native Latvia at the age of 16, during the

1905 revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, and was wounded, caught and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted because of his youth; after two years in prison, he was deported to Siberia, but escaped. Rearrested and sent back into exile in 1911, he escaped in 1914, and was a private in Russian army until he deserted, in 1916. Ķuzis joined the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

after the Russian Revolution, rising to the rank of general and chief of the Latvian Red Army. From December 1917, he operated in the apparatus of the Cheka and became a principal organizer of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

's Red Terror, credited with devising the system of taking and shooting hostagesSuvorov, Viktor (1984) ''Inside Soviet Military Intelligence'', New York: Macmillan to recover deserters and to put down peasant rebellions in areas controlled by the Red Army. He was recognized by his superiors for his work in pursuing, arresting, and liquidating Russian sailors after the Bolshevik suppression of the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Loc ...

in March 1921. Promoted to head of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

's Fourth Bureau (military intelligence), 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 ...

, he served from 1920 to 1935. Among his agents was the prominent German spy

Richard Sorge Richard Sorge (russian: Рихард Густавович Зорге, Rikhard Gustavovich Zorge; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Azerbaijani journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during Wo ...

He was dismissed in 1935, and served for a year in the Far East. In September 1936, he was sent to Madrid, under the '' nom de guerre'' Grishin, as chief military adviser to the Republican side in 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, link ...

. In November he transferred to Valencia. On 8 June 1937 he was recalled to Moscow and reappointed to his old post as head of military intelligence on 8 June 1937, after his successor

Semyon Uritsky Semyon Petrovich Uritsky (russian: Семён Петро́вич Ури́цкий; March 2, 1895 – August 1, 1938) was a Soviet General. He fought in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I before going over to the Bolsheviks. He was promo ...

had come under suspicion, but on 1 August 1937 he too was dismissed, and succeeded by A.M. Nikonov, who was also dismissed and arrested a few days later. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

as a part of the

Latvian Operation of the NKVD The ''Latvian Operation'' (russian: «Латышская операция», lv, „Latviešu operācija”) was a national operation of the NKVD against ethnic Latvians, Latvian nationals and persons otherwise affiliated with Latvia and/or ...

, Berzin was arrested by 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. ...

on 13 May 1938, and shot on 29 July 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1956.

Other details

On 14 December 1948

Alexander Barmine Alexander Grigoryevich Barmin (russian: Александр Григорьевич Бармин, ''Aleksandr Grigoryevich Barmin''; August 16, 1899 – December 25, 1987), most commonly Alexander Barmine, was an officer in the Soviet Army and dipl ...

, former chargé d'affaires at the Soviet embassy in Athens, Greece, advised

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

agents that Berzin informed him prior to Barmine's 1937 defection that

Owen Lattimore Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''Pacif ...

, head of the U.S. Office of War Information in the Pacific during World War II, was a Soviet agent. Berzin appears in the Venona decrypts under the code name "Starik" (russian: Старик – "Old man").

References

External links

Visvaldis Mangulis, ''Latvia in the Wars of the 20th Century'', Chapter VII
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berzin, Yan 1889 births 1938 deaths People from Cēsis Municipality People from Kreis Riga Bolsheviks Executive Committee of the Communist International Cheka officers Cheka GRU officers Russian military personnel of World War I Latvian people of the Spanish Civil War Soviet people of the Spanish Civil War Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Latvian Operation of the NKVD Great Purge victims from Latvia Soviet rehabilitations