Lydia Stahl (1885-?) was a Russian-born secret agent who worked for

Soviet Military Intelligence Main Intelligence Directorate ( rus, Главное разведывательное управление, Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə), abbreviated GRU ( rus, ГР ...

in New York and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life

Lydia Stahl was born Lydia Chkalova in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, in 1885.

Personal life

Lydia Stahl obtained her last name when she married Boris Stahl, a Russian nobleman (baron). He later divorced her and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

with his new wife.

Career

In 1921, while a refugee in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

she joined the Soviet secret service. Lydia Stahl had befriended the Finnish writer

Hella Wuolijoki Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886Hella Wuolijoki biography
, e ...

and was a regular visitor to her manor house Marlebäck in

Iitti Iitti (; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density ...

, Finland, which was a meeting place for leftist intellectuals and politicians. Through her relationship with Finnish communist politician

Otto Kuusinen Otto Wilhelm "Wille" Kuusinen (; ; 4 October 1881 – 17 May 1964) was a Finnish-born Soviet politician, literary historian, and poet. After the defeat of the Reds in the Finnish Civil War, he fled to the Soviet Union, where he worked unti ...

, she had also met the American radical, journalist John Reed, and maintained correspondence with him until Reed's death in 1920. During the 1920s, Lydia established a photography studio in Paris where she copied secret documents for

. In June 1928 she was transferred to New York City to help the Soviet Union's

Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Main Intelligence Directorate ( rus, Главное разведывательное управление, Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə), abbreviated GRU ( rus, ГР ...

''rezident'' Alfred Tilton. Her second trip to New York took place in December 1931. Then she returned to Paris to work for the network which included Robert Gordon Switz who led his own group. Lydia's ''ami'' was the French professor Louis Pierre Martin, codebreaker and translator for the Naval Ministry and member of the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

Arrest

In 1933, counterintelligence agencies uncovered an espionage network in Finland which included Tilton's wife Maria, Lydia's friend Ingrid Boström, and

Finnish-American Finnish Americans (, ) comprise Americans with ancestral roots in Finland, or Finnish people who immigrated to and reside in the United States. The Finnish-American population is around 650,000. Many Finnish people historically immigrated to ...

Arvid Jacobson Arvid Werner Jacobson (November 12, 1904 – April 1, 1976) was a Finnish-American communist who spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Biography Jacobson's parents were Finnish immigrants from Lapua, Ostrobotnia. Jacobson was born in Coving ...

. Boström provided information which led the French counterintelligence to Lydia. She was arrested in Paris in December 1933; other members of the network, including Switz and his wife, were arrested shortly afterward. Lydia Stahl was convicted of espionage in April 1935 and served a four-year sentence. She disappeared after her release from French prison. According to some unverified reports, she continued working for the Soviet intelligence and lived in Argentina after World War II.

References

Sources

''Golden Age in Soviet Espionage'' By Josh Lerner
Air Intelligence Agency * * Inserted statement of Nicholas Dozenberg, hearings 8 November 1949, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, 81st Cong., 1st and 2d session. *David Dallin, ''Soviet Espionage'', Yale University Press, 1955. * John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'', Yale University Press (1999), pgs. 380, 471. *Walter Krivitsky, ''In Stalin's Secret Service'', Enigma Books, 2000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stahl, Lydia 1885 births Year of death unknown People convicted of spying for the Soviet Union Foreign nationals imprisoned in France