Josef Romualdowitsch Grigulewitsch

Tito and Grigulewitsch, 1953

Josef Romualdowitsch Grigulewitsch ( Russian Иосиф Ромуальдович Григулевич ; born May 5, 1913 near Vilnius , Russian Empire ; †  June 2, 1988 in Moscow ) was a Soviet agent in the 1930s and 1940s , later a diplomat and historian. He was a leader in the assassination of “left opposition” opponents of Josef Stalin , such as anarchists and Trotskyists .

Life

Grigulewitsch was a member of a long-established Jewish minority, more precisely the Karaimen . His parents emigrated to Argentina in his youth and later sent him to Europe to study. According to other Russian sources, only his father emigrated, while he stayed with his mother in Poland . He was a member of the " Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski " (KPRP, "Communist Workers' Party of Poland") and known to Edward Gierek . In fact, he did not reach Argentina before 1934, as he was still studying at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1933 . Grigulevich was recruited by the NKVD . In addition to Yiddish and Spanish, he also spoke English, French and Russian.

Around 1936 he was sent to the Second Spanish Republic , where he acted under the code names " Maks " and " Felipe " for Alexander Michailowitsch Orlow . Grigulewitsch founded so-called "mobile groups" that murdered various people, including Andrés Nin . To this end, he worked with Vittorio Vidali , the "Comandante Carlos J. Contreras" of the 5th regiment. In 1938 he was ordered back to Moscow and in 1940 sent to Mexico , where, again together with Vidali, he was involved in the first unsuccessful assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky under the cover name " Juzek " . During the Second World War he stayed in Argentina as " Artur " and organized anti-German sabotage actions . He married the Mexican Soviet agent Laura Arayo Aguar.

In 1949 he established an import and export business in Rome as " Teodoro B. Castro " (legend: wealthy son of a Costa Rican ) and maintained numerous professional contacts. In 1951 he was appointed Costa Rican ambassador for Italy and Yugoslavia . At the 6th UN General Assembly he was a member of the Costa Rican delegation. At the time, he secretly obtained Soviet citizenship and became a member of the CPSU .

In early 1953 he was tasked with organizing the murder of Josip Broz Tito , whom he met as a diplomat on various occasions. These plans were interrupted by the death of Stalin in March 1953, Grigulevich was recalled to the USSR and ended his career as an agent. The disappearance of the Costa Rican ambassador with his wife and daughter sparked speculation in Italy about possible criminal activities.

Without doing any work, he received a PhD in history. In his later years he was a respected historian specializing in Latin America and the Catholic Church . Grigulewitsch published 58 books, some of them under the pseudonym Josef Lavrezki (Лаврецкий). In 1979 he became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Some colleagues suspected the lack of biographical information and his refusal to be photographed. His NKVD career was only known after the end of the Soviet Union.

literature

von Grigulewitsch (selection):

• as editor: Josef Lawrezki: Ernesto Che Guevara. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1974.
• as editor: Josef Lawrezki: William Z. Foster . Organizer and propagandist of the American working class. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1978, DNB 780384113 .
• History of American Armed Intervention. (= Problems of the modern world. 36). 1981.
• Nicaragua: long road to victory. (= Latin America. Volume 1). Akad. D. Knowledge d. USSR, Moscow 1981, DNB 820319171 .
• as editor: Josef Lawrezki: José Martí : Soldier with pen and rifle. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1983, OCLC 17496189 .
• US economic expansion: Asia and Africa. USSR Academy of Sciences. Social Sciences Today Ed. Board, Moscow 1986, OCLC 491255981 .
• as publisher: Josef Lawrezki: Soul catcher without mercy: sects, cults and miracle workers in the capitalist world. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1987.
• Heretics - witches - inquisitors. (= Unwanted books on church history. Volume 1). 2nd Edition. Ahriman, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-89484-500-7 .

about Grigulevich  :

• C. Andrew, V. Mitrokhin : The Mitrokhin Archive : The KGB in Europe and the West. Penguin Books, London 1999.
• Marjorie Ross: El secreto encanto de la KGB: las cinco vidas de Iósif Griguliévich. editorial colors / Norma, Costa Rica 2004.
• Thomas Hugh: The Spanish Civil War. Harper and Row, New York Revised and enlarged edition 1997, ISBN 0-06-014278-2 .
• Jurij Paporov: Cekisty Stalina. Akademik Nelegal'nych nauk. Izdat. Dom Neva, Sankt-Peterburg, 2004, ISBN 5-7654-3443-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Josef Romualdowitsch Grigulewitsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Stalin's spy Josef Grigulewitsch: ambassador under the false flag