Rezident: The Espionage Odyssey of Soviet General Vasily Zarubin - Softcover

Baker, Robert K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1491742410 ISBN 13: 9781491742419

Publisher: iUniverse, 2015

Synopsis

Vasily Zarubin ranked as an important Soviet intelligence officer, but he has received little recognition in the history of intelligence in the United States. In Rezident, author Robert K. Baker, who worked with foreign counterintelligence matters for the FBI during a thirty-three-year career, presents the first English language biography of Zarubin, Stalin's principal intelligence officer in this country during World War Ii. Rezident recounts the exploits of Zarubin's work with Soviet intelligence during the twentieth century narrating how his odyssey extended from the Soviet Far East during the early years of Soviet Russia to deep cover assignments with his wife, Elizaveta, in France, Nazi Germany, and the United States. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin appointed Zarubin as his intelligence emissary to the United States to gather political, military, and technological information. Zarubin was successful in providing valuable information to the Soviet Union during the war years.
This biography of Zarubin's life and times provides a greater appreciation and understanding of the role of the security and intelligence services in the sphere of national security.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Rezident

The Espionage Odyssey of Soviet General Vasily Zarubin

By Robert K. Baker

iUniverse

Copyright © 2015 Robert K. Baker
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-4241-9

Contents

Preface, xi, 
Abbreviations and Acronyms, xv, 
Introduction, xix, 
Chapter 1 The Early Years, 1, 
Chapter 2 The Cheka, 18, 
Chapter 3 The Foreign Department, 35, 
Chapter 4 Finland, 55, 
Chapter 5 Comrade Liza, 63, 
Chapter 6 Illegal in Denmark, 101, 
Chapter 7 France, 111, 
Chapter 8 Germany, 169, 
Chapter 9 United States–1937, 285, 
Chapter 10 Period of Tribulation, 319, 
Chapter 11 Katyn, 339, 
Chapter 12 Travels with Liza, 356, 
Chapter 13 Assignments of Special Importance, 362, 
Chapter 14 Breitenbach, 395, 
Chapter 15 The American Citadel, 404, 
Chapter 16 The American Assignment, 412, 
Chapter 17 The FBI in War and Peace, 422, 
Chapter 18 The Zarubin Rezidentura in America, 428, 
Chapter 19 The End of the Odyssey, 546, 
Chapter 20 The Zarubin Legacy, 562, 
Afterword, 571, 
About the author, 575, 
Appendixes, 577, 
Appendix 1: Handwritten and signed Biografiya (Biography) of Vasily Mikhaylovich Zarubin, 578, 
Appendix 1a: Translation of Zarubin Biography, 580, 
Appendix 2: U.S. Passport Application dated February 10, 1934, in the name of Edward Joseph Herbert, 581, 
Appendix 3: Sworn Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America in support of a passport application signed by Edward Joseph Herbert and dated February 10, 1934. Stapled to the oath is a signed photgraph of Vasily M. Zarubin claiming to be Edward Joseph Herbert, 583, 
Appendix 4: Diplomatic note dated January 19, 1942, from the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. secretary of state informing of the arrival and appointment of Vassily M. Zubilin as third secretary to the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., 584, 
Appendix 5: "Biographical Sketch" for Vassily M. Zubilin as received at the U.S. State Department on April 9, 1942, 585, 
Appendix 6: Diplomatic note dated May 26, 1943, from the Soviet chargé d'affairs regarding the appointment of Vassili M. Zubilin as second secretary at the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. The note was received at the U.S. State Department on May 31, 1943, 586, 
Appendix 7: Anonymous letter written in Russian and directed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, received at FBI headquaters, Washington, D.C., on August 7, 1943, 587, 
Appendix 8: Diplomatic note from the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. secretary of state dated September 5, 1944, regarding the termination of duties and return to the Soviet Union of Second Secretary Vassili M. Zubilin, 591, 
Appendix 9: U.S. State Department note to the Soviet ambassador dated September 15, 1944, acknowledging receipt of notification of Vassili M. Zubilin's termination of duties as second secretary at the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., 592, 
Appendix 10: SPRAVKA [Certificate] dated March 1948 issued to Major General Vasily Mikhaylovich Zarubin, stating that by order of the MGB of the USSR dated January 27, 1948, he was being retired for health reasons (and) with the right of wearing military uniform with the insignia "Major-General retired", 593, 
Glossary of Soviet Intelligence Terminology, 595, 
Bibliography, 597, 
Index, 615, 

CHAPTER 1

The Early Years

May you live in interesting times.

— Chinese curse

Vasily Mikhaylovich Zarubin was born on February 4, 1894, in the Russian village of Panino, Moscow Province, which is located approximately forty miles southeast of Moscow. His father, Mikhail, was employed as a conductor and a coupler on freight trains for the Moscow-Kursk Railroad, and his mother, Praskovia, was a housewife and a mother of twelve children. Of the twelve, only six survived, the others having died in infancy.

In all likelihood, Mikhail Zarubin was recruited from the village by the Moscow-Kursk Railroad, since the majority of railroad workers during this period was obtained from the provinces. Although railroad work was dangerous, Mikhail Zarubin was undoubtedly attracted to the good salary, subsidized housing, health care, and schools that the railroad lines offered to their employees and family members. The Zarubin family may have later moved to Podolsk, a nearby industrial city on the Moscow-Kursk line and "center for the Zarubin clan." Still later, the family moved to Moscow since it had become the hub of Russian railroads for both state and privately owned lines. Specifically, the family relocated to the Taganka section of Moscow, where Vasily spent most of his youth. Taganka was (and remains) an industrial section situated in southeast Moscow and, at the turn of the century, numerous textile and garment factories were spread throughout this area. Also, the Moscow-Kursk Freight Station, where Mikhail Zarubin worked, was nearby. It is likely that the family lived in subsidized housing provided by the railroad. In many cases, this housing was substandard and seriously overcrowded, leading to unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases, and other health problems.

In Taganka, Vasily's mother worked as a charwoman, laundress, and worker in a candy factory as well as in various textile shops. She was a religious woman and an active member of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Vasily Zarubin was the second-oldest child in the family and began his education at the age of seven when he attended a "two-class school" run by the Ministry of Public Education for the Moscow-Kursk Railroad. This was an advanced elementary five-year school system that was called two-class because one teacher taught grades one through three in one classroom while a second teacher instructed the fourth and fifth grades in another. In addition, Vasily attended a church-run school for two years and reportedly sang in its choir. Based on this and his mother's active participation in the church, it is likely that Vasily was baptized as a child in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Regarding his education, Zarubin would later recall that when he attended Communist party conferences as a major general in Soviet state security, he would often be asked if he had mistakenly listed only elementary education under the category "higher education" on the registration forms. He would tell the inquiring registrar that it was correct, wryly adding that he even attended church school and sang in its choir.

Vasily Zarubin began working at the age of seven when he was employed as a candy-wrapper at the Lezhin Brothers candy factory. This was an odd job, and one that his mother obtained for him through her own work at that factory. At approximately the same time, he glued wrapping papers at the Gubkin-Kuznetsov tea-packing factory in Moscow. Later, he began formal employment at age thirteen as an apprentice for the Vladimir Lyzhin Company, a wholesale-cloth firm located on Bol'shoy Cherkassky, a lane located just east of the Kremlin. The exact nature of his work there is unknown; however, the apprenticeship system was in effect at that time in virtually all the artisanal trades. Oral contracts between shop owners and the parents of young children were often concluded wherein the children would remain under the control and supervision of the owner and older workers for a period of several years. Completion of the contract would then allow the apprentice to move on to adult work at the firm.

Life for the apprentice was often harsh: hours were long, and the apprentice ordinarily worked without pay. Often his duties had nothing to do with learning a trade or skill, but involved physical labor such as sweeping the floors, delivering packages, and unpacking goods. Health and working conditions were usually poor and of no concern to the owner. In any event, apprenticeship was the first step in preparing a young person for a lifetime of work in such trades in Moscow, and this appeared to be Zarubin's lot in life.

Zarubin remained with the Lyzhin firm until 1914, working his way from apprentice to assistant packer and finally to clerk. Older employees were paid more for their skills and experience; however, salaries for those with five-to-nine years of experience amounted to only five-to-eight rubles per month, a very low wage since the Russian ruble equaled approximately $.51 at that time. Also, an older salesclerk was reportedly valued for having a "knack," that is, knowing how to attract customers and sell goods at higher prices. The guiding principle in Russian business before the revolution was that if you didn't cheat, you wouldn't sell.

It was to be expected that with the introduction and expansion of the industrial revolution into the large cities of Russia by the end of the nineteenth century there would be serious abuses. In general, wages were low throughout the country, work hours were long, and little or no consideration was given to the worker's health or the possibility of serious accidents. There was a great deal of discontent and desperation, and many Russians were impoverished. Still, the aristocracy, industrialists, plant, and shop owners failed to recognize the pressing problems caused by industrialization. Labor strikes, while common in the West, had been declared illegal in Russia as early as 1870. The strike movement, however, would greatly increase by the end of the century, leading to destabilization of the government by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1894, there were sixty-eight strikes in the country, but by 1903 there were over five hundred, with nearly ninety thousand workers involved.

In Russian history, the year 1905 was to become one of storm and stress. The turmoil began on Sunday, January 9, when an Orthodox priest, Father Georgy Gapon, led a mass demonstration of workers and their families in St. Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar, seeking justice and redress from factory owners and plant managers. The demonstrators were met at the Winter Palace Square and attacked by the tsar's armed guards. Between 150 and 200 men, women, and children were killed, with many hundreds wounded; consequently, this infamous day became known in Russian history as "Bloody Sunday."

By the fall of 1905, the Russian Empire had come to a virtual standstill with millions of workers, most especially railroad men, on strike throughout the country. Finally, Tsar Nicholas II, on the recommendation of his advisors, was forced to issue the so-called "October Manifesto" that granted civil rights to all Russians. Perhaps most important, the manifesto created the Duma, or national assembly, which would have final approval of all laws.

Still, the general unrest had not ended. In December 1905, Moscow workers called a general strike that resulted in armed conflict between them and government troops. Shortly thereafter, radical workers and students set up barricades across major streets in Moscow, and the government responded with machine guns and artillery. Finally, the insurgents were forced back into Presnya, a district west of the center of the city and known for its many textile mills, including the large Trekhgornia cotton mill. In mid-December, government troops from the capital bombarded the positions held by workers, students, and revolutionaries with high-explosive and incendiary shells. Over nine hundred insurgents and one hundred government troops lost their lives in this battle that became known as "Red Presnya."

It is unlikely that the events of the "Revolution of 1905" had much effect on Zarubin since he was only eleven years old at that time. He would, however, undoubtedly been aware of his father's participation in the widespread railroad strike movement. While it is not believed that Mikhail was heavily involved in politics, he held liberal views that caused him to be ostracized by the management of the state-owned Moscow-Kursk Railroad. He was apparently attracted to the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDRP), although it is unlikely that he was a member. Founded in 1888, the RSDRP split into two factions in 1903 due to differences in political strategy: the Bolsheviks (majority) and the Mensheviks (minority). The Bolsheviks were led by Vladimir Lenin.

While a semblance of stability and order had returned to Russia by 1910, the country was still to experience continued labor unrest. By 1914, disgruntled Russian workers protested with demonstrations and numerous strikes throughout the empire. Then, on Sunday, June 28, 1914, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, precipitating Russia's eventual entrance into the Great War. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, since the latter had ordered a mobilization of its forces in order to prevent Germany's ally, Austria-Hungary, from destroying Serbia. Even though the Russian populace was beginning to lose its faith in Tsar Nicholas II because of his general incompetence and ineptitude in handling labor unrest and the country's disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in August 1905, a full, and perhaps astounding, 96 percent of all eligible draftees called up in the mobilization reported for military service. Vasily Zarubin, age twenty, was among those who answered the call, and his world was about to be turned upside down.

World War I

With its entry into the war, the Russian army in the field totaled 3.5 million soldiers and was described by the British press as the "Russian steam roller." It was anticipated that Russia would constitute a formidable force against the German war machine and, consequently, the war would be a short one. These considerations, however, would prove to be completely unfounded due to very serious problems that the army would encounter in a relatively short period of time. While the Russian army had some early successes in the autumn of 1914, by the end of that year it had suffered the loss of over one million soldiers killed or wounded in action. In addition, shortages in supplies, weapons, and munitions greatly affected the morale of the army. These losses and shortages were to continue throughout the various campaigns.

After three months of marching in a training battalion, Vasily Zarubin began his military service as a private and was assigned to the Thirty-third Yeletsky (variation of Eletsky, below) Regiment, Ninth Infantry Division, on the southwestern front.

While very little is known about Zarubin's military service, one writer, Bernard Pares, a roving Red Cross official, and later British historian embedded with Russian forces during World War I, wrote about his own encounter with the Yeletsky Regiment in battle against Austrian forces in Galicia in 1915 in his book, My Russian Memoirs:

This particular regiment, the Eletsky, while standing in these trenches, had suffered almost as many casualties as one might have in action, and no wonder. It held a long but very shallow bridgehead beyond the river. At one point, the Austrians were eight yards off. It was connected with our bank by three bridges, all of which were continuously under fire every day and at night the Austrians fired pretty frequently on chance. We got across in a lull, and I was round the works. At one point, they told me to look up just for a minute and then duck my head, and as I ducked it a bullet flew over it. One could look through the embrasures, but not direct as they were covered by the enemy with fixed rifles; the men had invented clever little mirrors for themselves, through which they could see sideways. Between the two lines lay a whole mass of Russian and Austrian dead, who had been there for many days and were bound to poison the air. A proposal from the Austrian side to remove them was refused from ours — a responsible enough decision, and later, after we had lost Galicia I heard that many of these corpses were dragged away for burial with hooks fixed into them because no one dared touch them. As we were going to sleep in my companion's shelter we heard the bullets thudding into the earth of our trenches, and it occurred to me to ask if our shelter was proof against shrapnel. "I don't know," said my young host casually, and on that we went to sleep.

Pares reported that some time later he again ran into the Eletsky Regiment and learned that only about eight or nine of the thirty or so officers whom he had previously met had survived.

Based on the above description of warfare on the southwestern front, it can be assumed that Zarubin had seen some intense and brutal fighting while assigned to that unit. In fact, during this assignment, he was wounded on the battlefield, probably in February 1915, and sent to a hospital in Voronezh, approximately ninety miles south of the city of Yelets. He was later assigned to the Fifty-eighth Reserve Infantry Regiment since, in all probability, those wounded soldiers who had recovered were placed in that unit.

Up until 1915, there is no indication that Zarubin had become involved in revolutionary or anti-government politics, either as a civilian or as a soldier. The war, however, was to have had a profound effect on him in this regard since it is reported that while serving in the army he became involved in carrying out "anti-war propaganda" and consequently was sent to a penal company. The exact period for this activity is not known but was probably in late 1916 or early 1917.

In the "biographical" novel, Reklamnoye byuro gospodina Kocheka (Mr. Kocek's Advertising Bureau), the fictional hero, Vasily Maksimov, who is identifiable with Vasily Zarubin, reminisces about his wartime experiences. In a flashback, he is assigned to an automobile company as a chauffeur and, when the officers are not around, he and others in the company are able to talk freely. One soldier, Zabrodin, a former participant in the insurgency connected with "Red Presnya" and who was then jailed for eight years for this activity, identifies himself to the others as a "Bolshevik." Maksimov recognizes that Zabrodin has seen and read a great deal and admires him for being the first person who has opened his eyes to the "true state of affairs." Maksimov doesn't know who the Bolsheviks are and is afraid to ask.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Rezident by Robert K. Baker. Copyright © 2015 Robert K. Baker. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1491742410
• ISBN 13: 9781491742419
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 650