Life of a Soviet Spy-General Krivitsky-Samuel Ginzburg

Life of a Soviet Spy

(originally published in Monthly Globe January
2001)

A. H. Amin

January 2001

Man never foresees where destiny would lead

him! There are some things that men do by
internal motivation! There are other things
that they do because of force of
circumstances! Combine these factors
together and we arrive at an answer that
many term as Destiny ?.

Samuel Ginzburg was a Polish Jew by birth!

Galicia his place of birth was at the time of
his birth (before First World War) a part of
the Hapsburg dynasty ruled Austro-Hungarian
Empire! Being a Jew in Austro-Hungary at
that time was an unwritten crime! Jews were
persecuted officially as well as unofficially.
Samuel was a man of conviction and did not
resign himself to fate, as most men do! He
chose the honourable albeit more dangerous
path! He decided to be a Communist and to
overthrow the Austro-Hungarian Dynasty!
Since the Communist Party had its real roots
in Russia Samuel was associated with the
Russian Communist Party!
It was this association that added the alias of
Krivitsky to Samuels name. History knows
Samuel by the name of General Krivitsky
although Krivitsky never became a major
general.
Samuel was an idealist and thought that
communist revolution would eliminate all
man-made distinctions of class, caste,
religion or colour!
It was this idealism which brought men of
many religions and races including Muslims in
the Russian Communist Revolutionary
movement!
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was the
major turning point in Samuels life!
He became an intelligence officer of the GRU
(Glavnoye Gosudarstvenno Politcheskoye
Upravleni) i.e Soviet Military Intelligence.

Samuel was sent to Germany in 1923 to

create conditions for a revolution in Germany.
Later once the USSR and the German
government came closer Samuel was recalled
and assigned intelligence duties within the
Soviet General Staff. This lasted from 1924 to
1926. Later Samuel was appointed the chief
of the Third Section of Soviet Military
Intelligence.
In 1933 we find him in Vienna working along
with Ignace Reiss, a man of conviction and
great moral courage to defy his seniors (a
sterling quality very rare in 99% intelligence
operatives all over the world!) another Polish
Communist who was in the Soviet Military
Intelligence. Samuel was transferred from
Vienna to Holland as Resident Director of
Intelligence with liaison responsibilities for
many West European countries.
From 1933 to 1934 Samuel also worked as
Director of War Industries Institute for a
certain period of time.
1934 saw Samuel coming back to the military
intelligence. During the course of these duties
Samuels most important appointment was
that of Chief of Soviet Military Intelligence for
Western Europe.

Life took a fateful turn in 1937 for the man

who had become a revolutionary out of sheer
internal conviction.
Ignace Reiss who was a close friend of
Samuel rebelled against the egoistic and
opportunist policies of Stalin! Stalin who
ruled USSR from 1924 to 1953 was a highly
self-centered man and had decided to turn
USSR into a personal fiefdom!
Anyone who opposed Stalin was an enemy of
the Revolution! Reiss was one of the very few
men in USSRs history who rebelled open
against Stalin! Reiss then in Holland thus
wrote a letter to Stalin stating I cannot
stand it any longer. I take my freedom of
action.... ?!

Stalin was outraged and ordered the

execution of Reiss. Reiss escaped to
Switzerland with a Czech passport and left
his wife and child in Paris! In 1937 Soviet
Military Intelligence was an awesome
intelligence set up!
It was highly efficient, consisting of many
highly motivated and intelligent people and
could strike with perfect ease in any part of
the world! In September 1937 Reiss was
killed with a machine gun in Lausanne in
Switzerland while he was travelling in a car
to an unknown destination.

Reisss execution deeply disturbed Samuel! At

this point in time Samuel was operating in
Holland under cover of running a bookstore
and art gallery in The Hague! Samuel was
summoned to Moscow by cable!
Samuel knew what going back meant! The
bullet riddled body of his friend Reiss was like
writing on the wall! Samuel decided to defect
and escaped to France in September 1937.
Samuel was slightly luckier than Reiss. He
succeeded in reaching the USA where he
testified before the US Congress.
Samuel testified before the Martin Dies
Committee that there were 61 Soviet agents
in UK alone and only 6 out of these were
Soviet citizens with a legal diplomatic status.

That there were sixteen Britishers among

these agents out of whom three were
members of Labour Party, four trade union
officials, three British Foreign service people,
three in SIS or MI 5, two foreign
correspondents of British newspapers and
one independent politician!
Samuel also revealed that Soviet Intelligence
operations were partially financed by gold
and jewellery smuggling!

Samuel also wrote a book In Stalins Secret

Service: An Expose of Russias Secret policies
by the former Chief of Soviet Intelligence in
Western Europe ?
The readers may, however, note that Samuel
was never the chief in Western Europe but
only looked after Western Europe as part of a
team and that his military rank was that of a
captain.
The title was, however, coined by Samuels
co-author, an American author Isaac Don
Levine who changed some facts in order to
make the books title more attractive!
Needless to add the book was a best seller!

Samuels assessment while in USA that Hitler

and Stalin would arrive at a political
understanding was not accepted in the
Western World. History proved Samuel right
when Hitler and Stalin signed a non-
aggression pact in 1939 and divided Poland.

Stalin did not forget or forgive Samuel!

Samuel as a matter of fact predicted that
Stalin would get him. His friends dismissed
this fear as a phobia and as highly irrational!
The Soviet Military Intelligence made the
fatal strike on 9th February 1941! A hotel
maid found Samuels body in a Washington
DC Hotel!
The assassination was so perfect that the US
Police ruled it to be an act of suicide! As per
the police report Samuel had shot himself
dead!
 The journey from a small village in Austrian
ruled Poland to Russia and finally to Capitol
Hill was something that Samuel could never
have foreseen in the wildest of his dreams!
Samuel Ginzburg, famous in Intelligence
History as General Walter Krivitsky was an
idealist!
A revolutionary by choice! He participated in
a revolutionary movement that held hopes of
an ideal state! Instead Stalin a Georgian
hijacked the revolution! Samuels perceptions
changed with time! Samuels life is a lesson in
history!
In Pakistani history we have Sheikh Mujeeb
and Colonel Osmany who began their adult
lives as patriots and sincere Pakistanis!
These men were forced to change their
convictions when they realised that the dawn
of freedom for which they had worked was in
reality another type of exploitation in the
name of Islam!
Samuel Ginzburg only died as everyone does
finally! The harm that he inflicted on Soviet
Intelligence outlived his death by many
decades ! Human beings are much less
important than institutions!
However, when Institutions are hijacked by
men with totalitarian and dictatorial egos,
even one individual can damage whole
institutions and even divide countries!
Institutions must recognise talent and
sincerity in case a nation has to progress!
When merit is disregarded and sincerity and
solidity of conviction branded as disloyalty to
state, history destroys countries! Many
Empires have disappeared without much
trace after centuries of supremacy! What is
the Indo-Pak! Fifty years are nothing in
history! The countries of Indo-Pak must learn
from history so that they are not drowned in
the irresistible current of history! Some
psychiatric help is badly needed in the entire
region from the Oxus to Brahmaputra!