Anatoly Gurevich

Gurevich was born into a Jewish family in Kharkov. Both his father and his mother were pharmacists. From 1929 to 1933, he was a member of the paramilitary sports organisation called OSOAVIAKHIM. After that, he was a part of the air defence 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. He learnt German, French, and English there. On 1 September 1935, he was appointed to a course for training people at the Intourist travel agency. When the Spanish Civil War 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, Spanish Republican Navy. 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. 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. 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. 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. Gurevich asked that a temporary wireless telegraphy link be established for his use and this was provided by Goulooze and used until January 1940. 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. 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. 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 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 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. 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. ==Arrest==

On 9 November 1942, Gurevich was arrested with Margaret in his apartment at 75 Rue Abbé de l'Épée in Marseille 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 Marseille 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 Security Main Office (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 Marseille. 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 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. 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 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 funkspiel, Gurevich received a message from Soviet intelligence that instructed him to activate a former Latvian general Voldemārs 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, 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 and in particular the French Communist Party 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 in Paris. 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. They continued the playbacks from various locations until May 1945. ==USSR==

In April 1945, Gurevich was located in Bregenz. 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). ==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. Gurevich lost trace of Barcza and their young son, Michael. The NKVD 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. ==Bibliography==

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 played Gurevich under the codename Kent. ==References==