Boris Bazarov
 | This article includes a Rossiyensky Uyezd, Kovno Governorate, Russia |
| Died | February 21, 1939 (aged 45) Moscow, Russia |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Espionage |
Boris Yakovlevich Bazarov (
Early life
Bazarov was born Boris Iakovlevich Shpak in 1893 in Kovno gubernia, Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire. In addition to Russian, he spoke German, Bulgarian, French, and Serbo-Croatian.
Career
Bazarov graduated from the Vilno Military Academy and joined the Imperial Russian Army 105th infantry regiment to take part in the First World War (1914, platoon leader, 1917 company leader). After the Russian Revolution, as a man with military experience, he volunteered for the Soviet secret police (OGPU). From 1921, he specialized on covert operations in the Balkans (Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in 1924). In 1924–1927 he was a Soviet representative in Austria as a member of the Soviet embassy in Vienna, where he supervised Austrian, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, and Romanian agents.
After 1927, Bazarov returned to
In 1935, Bazarov entered the United States illegally and stayed there until 1937. His agent team there at the time included Iskhak Akhmerov, Norman Borodin, and Helen Lowry.
Death and legacy
Bazarov was arrested on July 3, 1938 during the Great Purges on charges of espionage, sentenced to death on February 21, 1939, and shot on the same day. He was buried in the Donskoye Cemetery.
He was posthumously rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 22, 1956.
Awards
In 1930, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Cheka, he was awarded a personalized Browning.
References
- ^ "Лучший охотник за шифрами", Vpk-news.ru/articles/2085, archived from the original on 23 October 2020, retrieved 6 July 2020
Sources
- Hede Massing, This Deception (New York, NY: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951).
- Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era. New York: Random House, 1999.
- Nigel Westand Oleg Tsarev, The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives. London: HarperCollins, 1998; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
- (in Russian) Bazarov on the official site of the Russian Intelligence Service
- "Gorsky's List" Archived 2006-09-09 at the Wayback Machine, at The Alger Hiss Story.