Iosif R. Grigulevich
Friends in England have asked me about the main character of one of my books, a man I personally refer to as “my spy”. They want to read the story but, most of all, they wonder if what I wrote is pure fiction, or if there is some truth to it. Since there is no English edition of the book yet, I think this is a great place to answer their query.
Micro synopsis: Multi-talented Soviet KGB spy travels succesfully through five different lives, hit-man and Costa Rican Ambassador, intellectual and terrorist, always loyal to his oath of allegiance to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Secret Services and Comrade Stalin.
Iosif Grigulevich
“Third Man” in Trotsky’s Murder
Teodoro B. Castro, charming Costa Rican Special Envoy to Italy and Yugoslavia, dazzled government officials and post-war Roman political and social circles. He was a close friend to Prince Julio Pacelli -nephew of Pope Pious XII-, American Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce and many other celebrities of the time.
Shrewd bussinessman and diplomat, he was actually a veteran KGB spy, known in the Center (the Lubyanka, KGB’s headquarters) as Miguel, Juzik, Felipe, Padre, Artur, Daks, Maks, Jose Ocampo, I. P. Lavretsky, I. Grigoriev and Maximov. Until my book came out, his true identity, his missions and his involvement in key events of the 20th century had been some of the best kept secrets in the history of espionage. My book, El secreto encanto de la KGB (The Secret Charm of the KGB) told it all for the first time.
Born in Lituania in 1913 to a Jewish family, his real name was Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich Lavretsky. He joined the Bolcheviks when he was only a boy and was jailed in his hometown for subversive activities even before he finished highschool. He was still a teenager when he was accepted into the Cheka, the Bolshevik-Soviet organ responsible for state security.
A key figure in some of the most relevant episodes of Soviet espionage during the the 20th Century, Grigulevich’s real life story surpasses fiction.
As a member of General Aleksandr Orlov’s agentura, during the Spanish Civil war, he was one of the KGB spies sent by Stalin to exterminate trotskytes and other non-communist letfists. He played a key role in Operation Nikolai, Andreu Nin’s assassination. Nin was Leon Trotsky’s former secretary and leader of the independent Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM).
As “Felipe”, the so-called “third man”, the “French Jew” that both the Mexican police and the FBI failed to identify, the spy was one of the leaders in Operation Duck and Operation Mother, that resulted in Leon Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico in 1940.
Venona failed to identify him
During World War II, under the cover name “Artur”, Grigulevich built a powerful espionage, sabotage and desinformation network against the Axis, a support network operating from Argentina. He ran agents in South America, Spain and Italy. In three years, his spy-rings completed 150 successful sabotage operations against Nazi properties and vessels that carried cargo for Hitler’s army.
“Artur” was a great enigma for U.S. VENONA Project cryptanalysts, who decoded thousands of Soviet intelligence messages in the 1940’s. Even though several messages either sent by him or addressed to Grigulevich by his superiors were decrypted, the American code-breaking project failed to identify him or “Aleksandr”, Mexican Communist Leopoldo Arenal, his immediate collaborator.
Grigulevich was Chilean writer Pablo Neruda’s and Mexican painter José David Alfaro Siqueiros’ comrade and controller, and his spy-rings included several other renown artists and writers.
Belgrade. Iosif Grigulevich (second from the left) as Teodoro B. Castro, with other diplomats.
Costa Rican Ambassador and Hitman
In the Cold War years, when he infiltrated Costa Rica’s diplomatic service, Stalin and Beria personally gave him his last mission. He was to use his diplomatic cover as a means to get near Almiral Iosif Broz Tito, Yugoslavia’s ruler, and assassinate him. The plan was cancelled in 1953 after Stalin’s death. Later that year, his superiors in Moscow called him back to the Lubyanka, since his cover was thought to be in jeopardy and he was perceived as a security risk by Soviet espionage apparatchiki.
Iosif Grigulevich as Teodoro B. Castro,
Costa Rican Ambasasador, with Almiral Iosif Broz Tito, whom he planned to assassinate.
The agent suddenly dissapeared from Rome leaving no traces and surfaced a year later in Moscow under his mother’s maiden name, Lavrestky. His ties with Soviet espionage officially severed, he obtained a doctoral degree in World History in the sixties and became one of the best known Soviet experts in Latin American studies, and editor in chief of two Soviet magazines dealing with Latin American issues. As a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, he wrote several books on the Papacy, and the biographies of Simon Bolivar, Francisco de Miranda, Che Guevara and Salvador Allende. He died in 1988.
Incredible as it may seeem, every single line is true. And, yes, after ten years of spying on him for the book, I can rightfully call him “my spy”
Professor Laurence Whitehead’s Review
“The Cold War generated an entire literary genre, including many outstanding novels and thrillers about espionage, double agents, and conspiracies to eliminate political enemies.
But this true story surpasses the most successful fiction. It begins with the unexplained disappearance of an eminent Costa Rican diplomat.
The mystery is never resolved, and eventually forgotten. Except by one determined writer and investigator. Only after the collapse of the Soviet system was Marjorie Ross able to piece together the true identity and trajectory of this extraordinary Russian agent –even establishing his subsequent successful career as an academic specialist on Latin America, who eventually died peacefully in Moscow.
What a contrast between his fate and that of those he conspired against for over twenty years (both in Europe and in Latin America).
To reconstruct this hidden story required great expertise in the history of the Cold War and the international communist movement.
To uncover the truth behind so many famous episodes that have until now been misconstrued required the forensic skills and patience of a top quality investigative reporter –(one with an international vision and the ability to check obscure sources all over the world).
To tell the story so well required the talents of a fine writer.
Marjorie Ross has unraveled the secrets of one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary political agents.” Professor Laurence Whitehead (Nuffield College), Oxford University, England.
-Ross, Marjorie. “The Secret Charm of the KGB. The Five Lives of Iosif Grigulevich” (San José, Farben/Norma, 2004, edited in Spanish). Literary non-fiction
More pictures to follow very soon.
Read more about this book:
The KGB spy who was a coffee expert, by Carlos Alberto Montaner:
http://www.firmaspress.com/568.htm
