Builder of Soviet covert ops who kidnapped a White general in Paris, then tortured by his own service
Dressed in French police uniforms, they stopped Kutepov on the street on the pretext of questioning him and put him in a car. Kutepov resisted, and during the struggle he had a heart attack and died, Serebryansky told me. — Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks
Born to a Jewish family in Minsk, he was recruited by the OGPU in 1923 and built the first Soviet spy network in Palestine, eventually recruiting over 200 agents across Europe. In 1930 his team, disguised as French police, kidnapped White General Kutepov in Paris; he later stole Trotsky's archives and smuggled warplanes to Republican Spain as head of the NKVD Special Group for Special Tasks. Arrested in 1938 on Beria's orders, tortured by Abakumov into a false confession, and sentenced to death, he was amnestied at Sudoplatov's urging in 1941 and returned to wartime intelligence. Re-arrested after Beria's fall in 1953, he died under interrogation in Butyrka prison; rehabilitated 1971.
Career Timeline
- 1907–1917SR maximalist; jailed 1909; Imperial Army, severely wounded 1914; electrician Baku
- 1917–1923SR activist Baku Soviet; Persia; Cheka Moscow; arrested as SR
- 1923–1929OGPU illegal resident Palestine, Belgium, France; built 'Yasha's Group' network
- 1929–1934Head of OGPU Special Group; Kutepov kidnapping Paris 1930; recruited 200+ agents
- 1934–1938Head of SGO NKVD; Trotsky archive theft; arms to Spain; Senior Major GB
- 1938–1941Arrested, tortured, sentenced to death; amnestied after German invasion
- 1941–1946Wartime intelligence 4th NKVD Directorate; retired 1946
- 1953–1956Re-arrested after Beria's fall; died under interrogation, Butyrka