Tyltyn’ (Shul’), Maria (Maria-Emma) Yurievna (1896-1938?)

A Soviet Red Army intelligence officer who worked in Europe and the United States from the 1920s to the early 1930s; also known as Ouspenskaya and Mary-Louise Martin.

Maria-Emma Tyltyn’ was born in 1896 as Mariya-Emma Sul’ [Shul'] in Doblen, Curlandskaya gubernia, then part of the Russian Empire (now Dobele, Latvia).  In 1919 she joined the Russian Communist Party (RCP (b)  and, in 1920, the Red Army intelligence service. From April 1921 to August 1922, she worked in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Rumania. From 1922 to 1923 she worked as a typist and cipher clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Czechoslovakia.  From 1923 to 1926 she was an assistant to the Red Army “illegal“ resident in Paris, who was also her husband, Alfred Tyltyn’. Together, they worked in Germany in 1926-1927 and in the United States from 1927 to 1930.

Returning to Moscow in 1930, Maria Tyltyn’ worked until February 1931 at the Red Army intelligence headquarters as a section head. Thereafter, she was sent as an “illegal” resident to Finland, where she ran a group of about 30 people.  In 1933, she was arrested in Finland along with members of her group.  Sentenced to eight years in prison, she died in prison confinement.  In 1933, however, following her arrest, Maria Tyltyn’ was awarded the Order of the Red Banner “for exceptional heroic deeds, personal heroism and courage.”  ¹