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Anatoly Markovich Gurevich (; 7 November 1913 – 2 January 2009) was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was an officer in the
GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...
operating as "разведчик-нелегал" (''razvedchik-nelegal'', illegal
resident spy A resident spy in the world of espionage is an agent operating within a foreign country for extended periods of time. A base of operations within a foreign country with which a resident spy may liaise is known as a "station" in English and a (, 'r ...
) in Soviet intelligence parlance. Gurevich was a central figure in the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Gurevich had a number of aliases that he used to disguise his identity, including Vincente Sierra, Victor Sukolov, Arthus Barcza and Simon Urwith. He also used a number of code names for radio communications, including ''Kent'', ''Fritz'', ''Manolo'', ''Dupuis'' and ''Lebrun''. Gurevich ran one of the seven groups of networks, located in Belgium that were controlled by
Leopold Trepper Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 19 January 1982) was a Polish- Israeli Communist, career Soviet military intelligence officer of the Red Army Intelligence and resistance fighter. With the code name Otto, Trepper had worked wi ...
in France. He was the second leading Soviet agent in Europe during the war years. Upon his return to the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1945, Gurevich was sentenced for
treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
and spent 15 years in detention and was rehabilitated in 1990.


Life

Gurevich was born into a Jewish family in
Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
. Both his father and his mother were
pharmacists A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...
. From 1929 to 1933, he was a member of the paramilitary sports organisation called
OSOAVIAKHIM DOSAAF (), full name ''Volunteer Society for the Assistance to the Army, Aviation, and Navy'' (), was a paramilitary sport organization in the Soviet Union that was concerned mainly with weapons, automobiles and aviation. The society was establ ...
. After that, he was a part of the
air defence Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...
and later took a communication operator course. In 1933, he enrolled at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport where he displayed proficiency for learning languages and
translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...
. He learnt German, French, and English there. On 1 September 1935, he was appointed to a course for training people at the
Intourist Intourist (, a contraction of , "foreign tourist" also Goskomturist ()) was a Soviet Union, Soviet then Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tour ...
travel agency. When the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
began, Gurevich volunteered to help. Along with a large group he travelled to Spain and arrived at Cartagena on 30 December 1937. He was appointed as an adjunct translator on submarine C-4 of the
Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...
,
Spanish Republican Navy The Spanish Republican Navy was the naval arm of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic, the legally established government of Spain between 1931 and 1939. History In the same manner as the other two branches of the Spanish Republi ...
. In Autumn 1938, Gurevich returned to Moscow. In 1939, he 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 a Mexican tourist into a Uruguayan passport. 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. Gurevich was ordered to re-establish Shulze-Boysen as an intelligence source and arrange a courier service. Sukolov was given the telephone number of Schulze-Boysen and been ordered to phone him and arrange a meeting somewhere in the city. He was not to meet him at his home, however. When Gurevich phoned,
Libertas Schulze-Boysen Libertas Viktoria "Libs" Schulze-Boysen ( Haas-Heye; 20 November 1913 – 22 December 1942) was a German noblewoman and resistance fighter against the Nazis. From the early 1930s to 1940, she attempted to build a literary career, first as a pres ...
, the wife of Harro Schulze-Boysen answered. They met on the platform of an underground station, later moving to a cafe where Schulze-Boysen joined them later. In July 1939, Gurevich, posing as the wealthy Vincente Sierra, arrived in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
while travelling on a Uruguayan passport that had been issued in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on 17 April 1936. The passport gave the holders date and place of birth as 3 July 1911 in
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
and his permanent address was Calle Colon 9, Montevideo. On 17 July 1939, Sukolov made contact with
Leopold Trepper Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 19 January 1982) was a Polish- Israeli Communist, career Soviet military intelligence officer of the Red Army Intelligence and resistance fighter. With the code name Otto, Trepper had worked wi ...
in
Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...
, who at the time was head of the Soviet intelligence network in Belgium. Trepper planned to teach the operation of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company to Gurevich. To make contacts in different strata of society, Gurevich started to familiarize 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 come 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, which 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 Mikhail Makarov 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. He eventually ended up working as an assistant to Trepper and performed the normal bureaucratic operations of an espionage network as a cypher 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 The Communist Party of the Netherlands (, , CPN) was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (Netherlands), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the ...
(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 an Uruguayan student. Between March and April 1940, Gurevich made a three-week business trip to Switzerland to meet
Alexander Radó Alexander Radó (also ''Alexander Radolfi'', ''Sándor Kálmán Reich'', ''Alexander Rado''; born Sándor Radó, ; 5 November 1899 – 20 August 1981) was a Hungarian cartographer who later became a Soviet Union, Soviet military Intelligence (i ...
, 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 Margarete (or Marguerite) "Greta" Barcza, the daughter of a Czech millionaire. 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. Gurevich, operating from a safehouse located at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels, used Makarov as his wireless radio operator, Zofia Poznańska as his cipher clerk, Rita Arnould as a courier and housekeeper, and Isidor Springer, who worked as a courier between Gurevich and Trepper and as a recruiter. Gurevich reorganised the network and from that point only referred to Trepper on points of policy. When the Raincoat Company was sequestered by German soldiers during the invasion into Belgium on 17 May 1940 as Grossvogel was Jewish, Gurevich started work to create a replacement organisation. Known as Simexco, it was a joint-stock company to be used as a cover for espionage work and was established by March 1941. 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 Gurevich to communicate. In June 1941, Trepper sent Anton Danilov to assist Makarov with radio transmissions. In September or October 1941, Trepper ordered Abraham Rajchmann, a Polish career criminal and forger, to join Gurevich On 18 October 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 Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi (25 January 1916 – 22 December 1942) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo. Life ...
that was the groups' radio operator but was unable to repair the radio. On 13 December 1941, the Gestapo arrested Gurevich's WT operator Anton Danilov in an apartment at 101 rue des Attrebates,
Etterbeek Etterbeek (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the municipalities of Auderghem, the Cit ...
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 Rajchmann. 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 Gurevich group, to evade the Gestapo, while Gurevich 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
Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
and establish a new branch office of Simex.


Arrest

On 9 November 1942, Gurevich was arrested with Margaret in his apartment at 75 Rue Abbé de l'Épée in
Marseilles Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
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 The Rue des Saussaies is a short (50 m long) street in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that adjoins the Ministry of the Interior. It begins at the Place Beauvau and finishes at the Place Saussaies. At number 10 lived the comte de Ségur, Napoleon ...
in Paris. He was subsequently moved to
Fort Breendonk Fort Breendonk (, ) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, Belgium, which served as a Nazi prison camp (''Auffanglager'') during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Originally constructed between 1906 ...
in Belgium then taken to be interrogated by the
Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...
(RSHA) in Prince Albertstrasse, Berlin.


Funkspiel

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 interrogation, 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 the funkspiel, he refused to name any agents he had recruited. To initiate the funkspiel, it is believed Gurevich sent a letter to the Red Army intelligence via the Soviet consulate in
Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
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 to 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,'' possibly a book by the French novelist
Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, an import ...
who wrote a number of novellas set in
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
. 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 Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...
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 funkspiel, Gurevich received a message from Soviet intelligence that instructed him to activate a former Latvian general
Voldemārs Ozols Voldemārs Ozols (17 October 1884, Vidreja, Vitebsk Governorate – 12 July 1949) was a Latvian military commander, lieutenant colonel, honored with the Order of Lāčplēsis, one of the Latvian Riflemen, a military theorist, and a right wing ...
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 French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
. 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 captain who was chief of the Mithridate network that was located in the Marseilles region. Consequently, the Mithridate network was under the control of the Sonderkommando. Amongst the agents that Legendre recruited were
Maurice Viollette Maurice Viollette (3 September 1870 in Janville, Eure-et-Loir – 9 September 1960 in Dreux) was a French statesman. He was chief-of-staff for Alexandre Millerand in the Waldeck-Rousseau government in 1898, and was elected as a '' député'' ...
and the Mayor of
Dreux Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...
. Initially, the Germans used the Mithridate network to manipulate the French resistance and in particular the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
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

Gurevich continued to act as a proxy to Ozols and the Mithridate network until the summer of 1944. Around the same time Gurevich moved from Neuilly-sur-Seine into Pannwitz's villa, located close to the
Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...
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 The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
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. On 16 August 1944 Pannwitz took Gurevich 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 Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
to continue the playback operation. After Barcza gave birth to Gurevich's son in November 1944, Gurevich and Barcza were forced to separate by Pannwitz. Gurevich 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. In April 1945, Gurevich and Pannwitz were seen close to
Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...
. They continued the playbacks from various locations until May 1945.


USSR

In April 1945, Gurevich was located in
Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...
. On 3 May 1945, he was captured by French forces in a hut on a mountain near
Bludenz Bludenz (; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ''Bludaz'') is a town in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg with around 15,000 inhabitants. It is the administrative seat of the Bludenz District, which encompasses about half of Vorarlberg's territ ...
,
Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, along with Heinz Pannwitz. Gurevich and Pannwitz were taken to Paris for interrogation. Sukolov told 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 and Gurevich's secretary Emma Kemp, flew to Moscow. Gurevich took along a package of documents that constituted the archives that the Gestapo had compiled on the Red Orchestra. In Moscow, they were all arrested and locked up in the Lubyanka. Gurevich was accused of high treason. He was questioned for a long time by
Viktor Abakumov Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high-level Soviet security official who from 1943 to 1946 was the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 of the Minister of St ...
, who ransacked the records of the interrogations that Gurevich had reported. In January 1947, Gurevich was sentenced to 20 years jail for treason, under Article 58-1a, and was imprisoned in
Vorkutlag The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp (), commonly known as Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major Gulag labor camp in the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. ...
and Rechlag from January 1948 to October 1955. He worked in general work in the PGS camp, and then in the planning and production department (PPCh) of this camp, the camp at mine No. 18 and as a senior economist at PPCh at the 8th mine in Vorkutlag,''Астахов П. П.'' Зигзаги судьбы : Из жизни советского военнопленного и советского зэка. — М., 2005. — С. 225—447 later in Rechlag as an economist in the camp unit ('' lagotdelenie'') at mine No. 40 (until August 1951), in camp unit (''lagotdelenie'') No. 3 (SHU-2: mines No. 12, 14 and 16).''Гуревич А. М.'' Разведка — это не игра. Мемуары советского резидента Кента.
/ref> After the
Vorkuta uprising The Vorkuta Uprising was a major uprising of forced labor camp inmates at the Rechlag Gulag special labor camp in Vorkuta, Russian SFSR, USSR from 19 July (or 22 July) to 1 August 1953, shortly after the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria on 26 June 19 ...
in July-August 1953, he was transferred to a punishment camp for 3 months (the reasons for the punishment are unclear, since, according to Gurevich, he did not take an active part in the rebel). He was transferred to ''lagotdelenie'' No. 5 (at mine No. 40) from there, where he worked at the research permafrost station (VNIMS) of the Institute of Permafrost Science of the USSR Academy of Sciences since November 1953.''Гуревич А. М.'' Разведка — это не игра. Мемуары советского резидента Кента.
/ref>


Exonerated

By 1991, Gurevich was fully exonerated and released. It was established that Gurevich had been imprisoned because he had married his mistress, Margarete (or Marguerite) Barcza, without the permission of Russian intelligence. The accusation by Red Army Intelligence was that Gurevich had abandoned his mission in
Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
after becoming thoroughly influenced by western living, which had led to his supposed defection. Gurevich lost trace of Barcza and their young son, Michael. The
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
told him they had died in a concentration camp during a bombing raid. In fact, for a number of years after the war ended, Barcza had searched for Gurevich. On 29 November 1990, Gurevich learned that Barcza had survived the camp and died in 1985, and that his son was alive and living in Spain. In February 1991, Gurevich met his son and grandson in
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
.


Bibliography

* *


Filmography

The following films were made where Gurevich was a character. * Verlorenes Leben - Hans Coppi und der letzte Agent der Roten Kapelle (''Lost life - Hans Coppi and the last agent of the Red Orchestra'') was released in 1996. Hans Coppi Junior filmed a documentary about Gurevich. * L'orchestre Rouge (''The Red Orchestra'') by Jacques Rouffio was released in 1989.
Martin Lamotte Martin Lamotte (; born 2 June 1947) is a French actor, comedian and director. He participated in several films alongside Le Splendid. He is most known for his role on the TV Series "SoeurThérèse.com" and "Nos chers voisins". Filmography ...
played Gurevich under the codename ''Kent''.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurevich, Anatoly 1913 births 2009 deaths Red Orchestra (espionage) GRU officers World War II spies for the Soviet Union Communists in the German Resistance Soviet Jews in the military Participants in the Vorkuta uprising