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Iosif Grigulevich
Topics: Argentine Jews Russian-Argentines
Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich (IOSIF ROMUALDOVICH GRIGULEVICH), also known with a pseudonym as Iosif Lavretzky (LAVRETSKII), (May 5 1913 June 2 1988) was one of the most remarkable Soviet illegal operatives (an agent without diplomatic cover) from the 1930s to 1950s. He took a leading role in assassinating leftists who were not loyal to Joseph Stalin, such as anarchists, real and alleged Trotskyists, etc. in the period leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War. He was also instrumental in Leon Trotsky's assassination in 1940 and planned to murder Josip Broz Tito.
Grigulevich was of Lithuanian karaim ethnicity and was born near Vilnius, which at that time was within the Russian Empire. His parents immigrated to Argentina when he was young and his mother tongues were Yiddish and Spanish. His father did well for himself and later sent Iosif to Europe to study. However, some Russian sources state that only his father immigrated to Argentina and he and his mother remained in Poland and that he became a member of the Polish Communist party and was an acquaintance of Edward Gierek, not arriving in Argentina until 1934. In any case, in 1933 he studied briefly at the Sorbonne. He was recruited by the NKVD and had a gift for languages, soon picking up English, French and Russian.
In the late 1930s Grigulevich was sent to Spain to disrupt the activities of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). Grigulevich worked under NKVD general Aleksandr Orlov using the code names MAKS and FELIPE and organized so-called "mobile groups" which physically eliminated various individuals including POUM leader Andres Nin done apparently in collaboration with "Comandante Carlos Contreras" Vittorio Vidale. He was summoned to Moscow in 1938 and then in January 1940 was sent to Mexico under the code name "Yuzek" to take part in the first, unsuccessful attempt on the life of Leon Trotsky again in collaboration with Vittorio Vidale. Later he was sent to Argentina under the code name "Artur", where he remained during World War II and organized anti-German sabotage operations. He married a fellow Soviet agent, a Mexican woman named Laura Arayo Aguar.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Iosif Grigulevich
