Anatoly Gurevich

Anatoly Markovich Gurevich (Анатолий Маркович Гуревич) (born 7 November 1913 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, died 2 January 2009 in Saint Petersburg) was a Jewish professional Soviet intelligence officer, known as a scout and who was a member of the GRU. Gurevich was a central figure in the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra in France and Belgium during World War II. Gurvich had a number of aliases that he used to disguise his day to day identity, including Vincente Sierra, Victor Sukolov, Arthus Barcza and Simon Urwith, as well as a number of code names including Kent, Fritz, Manolo, Dupuis and Lebrun that he used to disguise his identity in radio communications. Gurevich ran one of the seven groups of networks that were controlled by Leopold Trepper in France. Gurevich was second only to Trepper as the leading Soviet agent in Europe during the war years. Upon his return to the Soviet Union in 1945, Gurevich was sentenced for treason and spent 15 years in detention and was rehabilitated in 1990.

Life
Gurevich was born into a Jewish family in Kharkiv. Both his father and his mother were pharmacists. From 1929 to 1933, Gurevich was a member of the paramilitary sports organisation called OSOAVIAKHIM and was part of this was taking an air defense and later communication operator course, stretching wires between units.

In 1933 he enrolled at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport, and found he was gifted for languages and translation, learning German, French and English. On 1 September 1935 Gurevich was appointed to a course at the institute, specifically for training people using language translators from the Intourist travel agency, and included further translation courses. When the Spanish Civil War began, Gurevich volunteered and along with a large group travelled to Spain and arrived at Cartagena on 30 December 1937. Gurevich was appointed as an adjunct translator on submarine C-4 of the Second Spanish Republic, Spanish Republican Navy. In Autumn 1938 Gurevich returned to Moscow. In 1939, Gurevich underwent training in the intelligence school of the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow.

Soviet agent
On 15 April 1938, Gurevich was ordered by the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate to travel to France to commence his work as an agent. Disguised as a Mexican tourist he travelled through Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands, before finally arriving in France. In Paris, Gurevich changed his passport from Mexican tourist into a Uruguayan name. In the same month he carried out his first operation when he was instructed to travel to Berlin to contact the Luftwaffe officer Harro Schulze-Boysen. Sukolov was given the telephone number of Schulze-Boysen and had been ordered to phone him and make and arrange a meeting somewhere in the city. He was not to meet him at his home. When Gurevich phoned, Libertas Schulze-Boysen who was the wife of Harro Schulze-Boysen answered. A meeting was arranged.

In July 1939, Gurevich posing as the wealthy Vincente Sierra, arrived in Brussels while travelling on a Uruguayan passport that had been issued in New York City on 17 April 1936. The passport gave the holders date and place of birth as 3 July 1911 in Montevideo and his permanent address was Calle Colon 9, Montevideo. On 17 July 1939 Sukolov made contact with Leopold Trepper in Ghent, who at the time was head of the Soviet intelligence network in Belgium. It was arranged that Trepper would teach the operation of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company. To make contacts in different strata of society Gurevich started to familiarise himself with Belgium society and studied the country to enable the collection of economic knowledge. Gurevich took part in ballroom dancing and riding lessons and as he travelled between luxury hotels, mail bearing the stamps of Uruguay awaited his arrival. To improve his language skills in French, English and German, Gurevich enrolled at the Free University of Brussels.

Gurevich's cryptonym or code name was Kent. His colleagues in Brussels had no idea where the code name has came from, in fact it was the name of fictional British agent character in a book that Gurevich had read when he was a boy called Diary of a spy by N G Smirnov. Although he was industrious, he was generally disliked for a number of reasons, that included being arrogant and was considered a bit of a bluffer who was known for his socialising and profligate spending which included owning 40 luxury suits in his large apartment in Avenue AJ Sleggers. Trepper viewed both Gurevich and Michail Makarow as the Young Guard and considered both himself and his immediate colleagues including Hillel Katz, the Old Guard Sukolov had never been tested in battle.

Gurevich's original instructions were to establish an espionage network in Copenhagen, but in the months leading up to the war Trepper's plans changed with Sukolov having to be introduced into the Belgian network gradually, eventually ending up working as an assistant to Trepper and performing the normal bureaucratic operations of an espionage network including, as a cipher clerk, deciphering instructions from Soviet intelligence, preparing reports from information forwarded from a contact in the Soviet Trade Representation of Belgium.

In October 1939, Gurevich visited Daan Goulooze the director of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) as a contact to the CPN to build his network and to request assistance. Gurevich asked that a temporary wireless telegraphy link be established for his use and this was provided by Goulooze and used until January 1940. In July 1940, Gurevich again visited Goulooze to request the reserve code that he had received from Soviet intelligence the year before.

After the invasion of the Netherlands which ended on 14 May 1940, Gurevich anticipated no difficulties in travelling incognito as a Uruguayan student.

Between March and April 1940, Gurevich made a three-week business trip to Switzerland to meet Alexander Radó, a Rote Drei agent to deliver $3000 to finance the Swiss network. During this period, Gurevich was passing intelligence from Schulze-Boysen through his WT station in Brussels.

Greta Barcza
In May 1940 Gurevich met Margaret "Greta" Barcza. During the invasion of Belgium when Brussels was being heavily bombed, Barcza met Gurevich while cowering in the cellars at 106 Avenue Émile de Beco in Brussels. Gurevich lived in the same building and one floor above Barcza. At the time Gurevich was still posing as Uruguayan Vincent Sierra and over several weeks they formed a relationship and eventually became lovers, becoming inseparable which eventually impacted Gurevich's espionage work. In Treppers view, Barcza was a bad influence on Gurevich.

In July 1940 when Trepper had to move to France to flee the German advance and start a new French network, he turned the Belgian network over to Gurevich. The network included Michail Makarov, a Wireless Telegraphy operator who also ran a branch of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company in Ostend, several couriers and subagents. Gurevich reorganised the network and from that point only referred to Trepper on points of policy. When the Raincoat Company was seized by German soldiers during the invasion into Belgium on 17 May 1940, Gurevich started work to create a replacement organisation, eventually called the Simexco company as cover for espionage work and had it established by autumn 1940. The firm was established as a genuine business and was even granted telephone and fax facilities by the German authorities providing a regular and privileged way to enable Trepper and Sukolov to communicate.

In 1941, among other assignments, Gurevich was ordered to contact the Harnack/Schulze-Boysen group to restore the connection between the Main Intelligence Directorate and the group. He was ordered to visit Hans Coppi that was the groups radio operator but was unable to repair the radio.

In 13 December 1941, the Gestapo arrested Gurevich's WT operator Anton Danilov in an apartment at 101 rue des Attrebates, Etterbeek in Brussels and Trepper happened to be in Brussels at the time, found out and warned Gurevich of the arrest. Gurevich's first concern was to arrange for Barcza to leave Belgium for France to ensure she was safe. Gurevich arranged travel documents with Abraham Rajchmann, a Polish career criminal who worked for the group. Barcza and her son Rene arrived in France in late December 1941. Gurevich himself hid in the house of Nazarin Drailly, an agent of the Sukolov group, to evade the Gestapo, while Gurvich made arrangements to transfer ownership of the Simexco espionage organisation to Drailly.

In the summer of 1942, Trepper evolved a plan to get Barcza to Switzerland and live out the rest of the war but it was rejected by Gurevich. At the same time Gurevich was increasingly finding himself in arguments with Trepper. By that point he was no longer part of the Soviet espionage network, was defeatist in his outlook and started to offer reasons why he was no longer using his transmitter. Trepper eventually had to call in two radio specialists to check the radio and found it in perfect working order. In January 1942, Trepper ordered Gurevich to travel to Marseilles and establish a new branch office of Simex to enable the recruitment of a new espionage network.

Arrest
On 9 November 1942, Gurevich was arrested with Margaret in his apartment at 75 Rue Abbé de l'Épée in Marseilles by the French police. Gurevich was handed over to German Police and then on the order of the person who was head of the Gestapo in France Karl Bömelburg, was fetched by a truck from Marseilles and taken to a house in Rue des Saussaies in Paris. He was subsequently moved to Fort Breendonk in Belgium then taken to be interrogated by the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Prince Albertstrasse, Berlin.

Playbacks
Gurevich told the Germans that he had not been active as a professional agent for some time and had tried to create a new life for himself and Margaret Barcza in Marseilles. He stated that he knew before his arrest that he was being surveilled at his Marseilles address and the reason that he had not fled was that no longer considered himself part of the Rote Kapelle. Although he showed a readiness to work for the Germans there was still a great distrust of Gurevich amongst his interrogators. However Gurevich was continually brought into the office of the Gestapo for further introgation, where over several days he managed to convince them that he was genuine. Gurevich laid out a plan to the Gestapo to get back in touch with the Russian intelligence service and enable playbacks to commence which the Gestapo accepted. Playbacks, the British term or the American term, G-V Game or Funkspiel as it was known in Germany was the transmission of controlled information over a captured agent's radio so that the agent's parent service had no knowledge that the agent had turned. Although Gurevich decided to cooperate on playbacks he refused to name any agents he had recruited. To initiate the playback, it is believed Gurevich sent a letter to the Red Army intelligence via the Soviet consulate in Sofia but it is not known how a reply was sent by the Soviets. Once he made contact with Red Army intelligence, the strict discipline under which he was held was relaxed and he was allowed visits by his wife Margaret.

On 4 January 1943, Gurevich was returned Fresnes Prison in France where he began the playback operation. However he took up so much time enciphering and deciphering the messages that he was moved back to the house on Rue des Saussaies in Paris, where he was given a cell next to Trepper. The ciphering undertaken by Gurevich was checked at first by Gestapo officer Waldemar Lentz and then later by Hans Kurfess. The book that Gurevich used to cipher his messages was believed to be French novel containing stories about Corsica called Mérimée. This would possibly indicate a book by the French novelist Prosper Mérimée who wrote a number of novellas set in Corsica. During the playback operation, the Gestapo found that Gurevich was both praised and criticised by Soviet intelligence but although he was requested to provide military intelligence about the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo found it impossible to supply even the most innocuous material. By March 1943, Gurevich was effectively part of the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle, the RSHA counter-intelligence unit.

In July 1943 Gurevich and Margaret were moved to a new apartment at 40 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris. Trepper joined them at the apartment. They were allowed to walk about Paris without a guard.

Ozols
By early 1943, Red Army intelligence had little doubt that Gurevich had been arrested and was now a double agent. Surprisingly, on 14 March 1943, during the playback, Gurevich received a message that detailed a former Latvian general Waldemar Ozols who was a Red Army intelligence agent. Ozols was a principal agent in Gurevich's network and together were successful in penetrating French Resistance. The Soviets believed that Ozols would be able to furnish information about German troop movements,  so Ozols was reactivated by Sukolov in July 1943, by speaking a pre-arranged word. Ozols hadn't been active since July 1941 and wasn't informed that Gurevich was working for the Germans. Gurevich ordered Ozols to reassemble his network with the remnants of his old network and recruit new members where needed. By December 1943, Ozols had made contact with Paul Legendre, a reserve caption who was chief of the Mithridate network that was located in the Marseilles region. Consequently, the Mithridate network was under the command of the German Army. Amongst the agents that Legendre recruited were Maurice Viollette and the Mayor of Dreux.

Initially the Germans used the Mithridate network to manipulate the French resistance but in spring 1944, Pannwitz decided to use the network to communicate to Gestapo agents who were working behind enemy lines and use Gurevich as a proxy to pass information between the network and the Gestapo.

Retreat
Sukolov continued to act as a proxy to Ozols and the Mithridate network until the summer of 1944. Around the same time Sukolov moved from Neuilly-sur-Seine into Pannwitz's villa, located close to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. As a result of his successes with Ozols, Sukolov made increasing demands on the Germans. One of these was to send Greta Barcza's son to a school in Paris and the Sonderkommando to pay the school fees. After the Normandy landings and the subsequent retreat of German forced in autumn 1944, the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle of the RSHA was reduced in strength. Pannwitz took over the running of the Sonderkommando. In 16 August 1944 Pannwitz took Sukolov and Barcza away from Paris when the Sonderkommando was forced to withdraw. Gurevich continued his playbacks under the leadership of Pannwitz and a station was established somewhere in Alsace to continue the playback operation. After Barcza gave birth to Sukolov's son in November 1944, Sukolov and Barcza were forced to separate by Pannwitz. Sukolov was sent to Berlin to receive orders on whether to continue the playbacks with Pannwitz and this was the last time that Barcza saw him. As late as November 1944 Gurevich and Pannwitz were in Berlin to receive orders on whether to continue the playbacks.

In April 1945, Sukolov and Pannwitz were seen close to Lake Constance. They continued the playbacks from various locations until May 1945.

USSR
In April 1945, Gurevich was located in Bregenz. On 3 May 1945 Gurevich was captured by French forces in a hut on a mountain near Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria, along with Heinz Pannwitz. Gurevich and Pannwitz were taken to Paris for interrogation. Sukolov stated to the interrogators that he was an officer in the Russian Intelligence Service. On a flight organised by Colonel Novikov of the Soviet Military Mission on 7 June 1945, Gurevich along with Pannwitz, Gurevich's secretary Emma Kemp flew to Moscow. Gurevich took along a package of documents that constituted the archives that the Gestapo compiled on the Red Orchestra.

In Moscow all were immediately arrested and locked up in the Lubyanka. Gurevich was accused of high treason. He was questioned for a long time by Viktor Abakumov, who ransacked the records of the interrogations that Gurevich had reported.

By 1991 Gurevich was fully exonerated and released. It was established that Gurevich was imprisoned due to his marrying his mistress Marguerite Barcza without the permission of Russian intelligence. The accusation by Red Army Intelligence was that Gurevich had abandoned his mission in Marseille while becoming thoroughly au fait with western living that in turn had led to his supposed defection. Gurevich lost trace of his wife Marguerite and their young son Michael; to his questions the NKVD replied that they had died in a concentration camp during a bombing. Barcza searched for Gurevich after the war ended for a number of years.

Filmography
The following films were made where Gurevich was a character.


 * Verlorenes Leben - Hans Coppi und der letzte Agent der roten Kapelle was released in 1996. Hans Coppi Junior shot a documentary about Gurevich.
 * L'orchestre rouge by Jacques Rouffio was released in 1989. Martin Lamotte played Gurevich under the codename Kent.