Artuzov (Fraucci), Arthur Khristyanovich (1891-1937)

One of the founders of the Soviet state security agencies (GB).

Artuzov was born in the village of Oustinovo, in the Kashin district of the Tverskaya Gubernia in Russia. His father was a Swiss cheesemaker of Italian descent named Fraucci, who had moved to Russia in 1881. After graduating cum laude from the Kashin gymnasium (the name for high schools in the Russian Empire), Artuzov entered the department of metallurgy at St. Petersburg Polytechnical Institute. While there, he took part in the student movement – and dreamed of a career as an opera singer. Graduating in 1916 with a diploma in metal engineering, Artuzov went to work as an engineer in Nizhny Tagil in the Urals. After the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917, he joined the RCP (b) in December of that year and got involved in revolutionary activity. In 1918, he was active in the Russian north during the Russian Civil War.

In December 1918 (or January 1919), Artuzov began his work at VChK (an acronym for the Russian name of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), an agency created the prior year as an arm of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” to combat counterrevolution and sabotage. In May 1919, Artuzov became an operative of the Cheka Special Department, where he supervised a number of daring counter-espionage operations. In 1921, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

From 1922 to 1927, Artuzov was the head of the GPU counter-espionage department commonly known as the KRO (a Russian acronym of its name, Kontrrazvedyvatel’nyi otdel), which organized state-of-the-art disinformation operations. Artuzov’s name is associated with such legendary operations as “Syndicate,” “Trust” and many others. Summarizing the achievements of his department in November 1924, he emphasized that it had “managed to organize its work in such a way that … 95% of the materials supplied to the military staffs of major foreign nations … were manufactured in KRO OGPU…” In addition , according to Artuzov, “a number of foreign intelligence services, particularly the Polish, Estonian and part of the Finnish,” were totally penetrated by the KRO and operated on its instructions.

From August 1931 to May 1935, Artuzov was the head of OGPU foreign intelligence (commonly known as INO), where he managed to amass political, military and technical intelligence data from major Western nations.

From May 1934 to 1937, Artuzov was also deputy head of the IV Directorate of the Staff of the RKKA – an early name for Soviet military intelligence, later known as the GRU). He held this position until early 1937. He was detailed to the IV Directorate following a May 25, 1934 decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VCP (b). His mandate was to carry out a sweeping reorganization, after a number of major failures of Soviet military intelligence in Europe. Artuzov was credited with significant improvements in the security of Soviet military intelligence operations and tradecraft.

COMING SOON – the translation of a once Top Secret report “on the state of the Directorate’s agent work and steps for its improvement,” which Arthur Artuzov submitted to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on June 23, 1934.

On January 11, 1937, in the wake of Stalinist repressions against the Soviet military, Artuzov was dismissed from his position as second in command of Soviet military intelligence.

ALSO COMING SOON- the translation of a letter Artuzov wrote to Stalin on January 17, 1937, summarizing his achievements in military intelligence from 1934 to 1937. This document contains an important revelation regarding the Hiss-Chambers case.

Artuzov was then sent back to his alma mater, which at that time was called the GUGB NKVD. For a short period, he was the head of its 8th (archival) department, where he began work on the history of Russian counter-intelligence. On May 13, 1937, however, Artuzov was arrested as part of the so-called “Plot of the Generals.” His investigative file in the central archive of the Russian FSB contains a note he wrote in a prison cell, in his own blood, saying “I am not a spy…” Artuzov was executed on August 21, 1937 but was rehabilitated in March, 1956. ¹