Orlov, Vladimir Grigorievich (counterintelligence)

He received his primary education in Warsaw, in the First exemplary Apukhta gymnasium. At the same time , B.V.Savinkov and I.P. Kalyaev studied at the gymnasium. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw . Member of the Russo-Japanese War ^[6] .

After the war, he returned to Warsaw, where he became an investigator for political affairs - in particular, F.E.Dzerzhinsky was his investigator. In 1912, he was already a full-time state adviser and investigator on particularly important matters. With the outbreak of World War I, Orlov was transferred to counterintelligence ^[7] , and worked under the leadership of N. S. Batyushin . He was a member of the Supreme Investigative Commission for War Minister V. A. Sukhomlinov , Colonel S. N. Myasoedov , “sugar speculators” D. Rubinstein and A. Dobry, who were accused of transferring funds to Germany and Austria-Hungary ^[6] .

After the October Revolution, Orlov, on behalf of General M.V. Alekseev , was able to get into the Petrograd Cheka on forged documents (in the name of Boleslav Orlinsky). He was appointed to the post of chairman of the Central Criminal Investigation Commission, repeatedly personally communicated with F.E. Dzerzhinsky. He remembered Orlov, noting: “ It is very good, Orlov, that you are now on our side. We need qualified lawyers like you. If you ever need anything, contact me directly in Moscow.” Orlov managed to create a secret anti-Bolshevik network (about 80 agents) and get in touch with representatives of the Entente countries and the Central Powers ^[8] in Petrograd, to whom he was able to transmit some information about the Cheka ’s activities, and to organize the transfer of officers from Petrograd to the Volunteer Army . Orlov’s great success was the creation of a file cabinet with photographs and orientation to Bolshevik agents and agitators, which was also transferred to the Don . One of Orlov’s contacts was the English intelligence officer Sydney Reilly ^[6] , many of Orlov’s biographical data are given in Reilly’s biography ^[9] .

In September 1918, Orlov, because of the danger of failure, fled to Finland , from where he traveled south , reaching Odessa in February 1919. In Odessa, he was appointed head of the counterintelligence department of the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army of the Odessa region . The branch under the leadership of Orlov achieved major successes, which were attributed to the tireless zeal of his boss: in Odessa, the underground Bolshevik organization and the branch of the Foreign Collegium were defeated almost in full force. Sydney Reilly mentioned that Orlov in his work in Odessa did not follow a formal legal procedure - the cases of the Bolshevik agitators arrested by him were not always referred to the judiciary. Reilly described the manner of Orlov’s work during this period as “very decisive” ^[10] .

After the abandonment of Odessa in April 1919, Orlov arrived in Constantinople , where he was placed at the disposal of the Quartermaster General of the All - Union Socialist League . In May of that year he moved to Yekaterinodar , to the headquarters of A.I. Denikin. On December 2, 1919, Orlov assumed the post of head of the counterintelligence unit of the special branch of the General Staff of the Supreme Council of the South African Republic ^[6] . A little later, Orlov became the head of the Wrangel counterintelligence. In this post, he achieved a significant reorganization of the White Guard special services, consistently conducted counterintelligence work against the Cheka and the Comintern, moving it mainly outside the territory of the former Russian Empire. In May 1920, Orlov, with documents in the name of “Priest of Orbansky,” made a secret trip to Europe (Warsaw, Riga, Tallinn, Kaunas, Paris, London), where he tried to create intelligence groups. The status of Orlov as an enemy of the Soviet regime is emphasized by the fact of the creation in the Cheka of a separate intelligence business “against Orlov and Wrangel’s intelligence”.

After the defeat of the White Cause, Orlov from 1920 for a long time settled in Germany, continuing the struggle against Bolshevism. In Berlin, in particular, he came up with the idea of ​​creating the White International (an organization whose mission was to “register and carefully monitor agents leaving the Council of Deputies”), was hired by the Weimar Republic intelligence agency as an expert. During this time, he played a large role in exposing the so-called "German Cheka", which consisted of agents of the Comintern. In 1929, Orlov (according to Zdanovich, as part of the OGPU “Counterfeiter” operation) was put on trial for trying to sell incriminating evidence ^[1] to American senators (William Borah ^[2] , George Norris ^[3] ) who supported the recognition of the USSR.

After the Nazis came to power, Orlov had to hide. He fled to Belgium , where in 1939 he was detained and sent to a concentration camp , where he died in 1941 ^[6] .

According to another version, the numerous requests of the Soviet side to Germany to extradite Orlov were not satisfied, but in 1930, fearing extradition to the Soviet Union, he left with a recommendation from V. L. Burtsev to Belgium ^[11] , where he lived openly until the end of 1930- x years (that is, Orlov did not run away from the Nazis, although he had a strong dislike of Nazi ideology and even in 1932 was accused by the National Socialists of activities directed against the Nazi Party). According to this version, Orlov was arrested by the Gestapo ^[12] at the beginning of the German occupation of Belgium, that is, after May 1940 (mass arrests of Russians in Belgium took place in the autumn of 1940), and, according to Zdanovich ^[11] , was tortured. Despite conflicting reports of his being sent to a German concentration camp ^[11] or getting a “good job” in the Abwehr ^[13] ), there is no doubt that he was shot in the back of the head and his body was found in Berlin ( Tiergarten ) ^{[ 11] [13]} in January 1941 (although Natalie Grant mistakenly claimed that this happened in the summer of 1941 ^[13] ).

Orlov owns the words that characterize the meaning of his life in the context of the fate of Russia: “It will take a long time before the Russian people can eradicate the soulless and treacherous juggling of words with which the unprincipled villains in power are engaged. The consciousness of the people is awakening, it is necessary to put an end not only to the lie, but also to those who disseminate it. If you delve deeply into what is happening, you can fall into despair, because at the time when some commit all these monstrous crimes against humanity and the civilized world, others remain indifferent. ” ^[eleven]

• Wladimir Orloff. Mörder, Fälscher, Provokateure. Lebenskämpfe im unterirdischen Russland. / introduction Dr. Walter Jaffe. - 1st. - Berlin: Brückenverlag, 1929. - 268 p.
• Vladimir Orloff. Underworld and Soviet / translated by MH (Mona Heath). - 1st. - New York: Lincoln MacVeagh. The Dial Press., 1931. - 274 p.
• Vladimir Orloff. The Secret Dossier. My Memoirs of Russian Political Underworld / translated by MH (Mona Heath). - 1st. - London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1932. - 274 p.

Translating to Russian language:

• Vladimir G. Orlov. Double agent. Notes of the Russian counterintelligence. . - Moscow: Sovremennik, 1998 .-- 349 p. - (Cruel Age: Scouts and Spies). - ISBN 5270016273 , 9785270016272.

• Sydney Railay

• Natalie Grant ,. Murder in the Tiergarten: The Political Life of Vladimer Orlov, Intelligence Agent and Disinformer / Jack Dziak (Editor), Carole Dziak (Editor), Elena Siddall (Editor), Mary Riner (Editor). - Washington DC: The Nathan Hale Institute, 1997 .-- 61 p. - ISBN 0-935067-16-7 .
• Zdanovich, A.A.,. Friends and foes are intelligence intrigues . - Moscow: Olma-Press, 2002 .-- 320 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-224-03254-7 .
• Gill Bennett ,. Churchill's Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton And the World of Intelligence. - Washington DC: Taylor & Francis, 2006 .-- 404 p. - ISBN 0415394309 , 9780415394307.
• Keith Jeffery ,. MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949. - London: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (27 Sep 2011), 2011 .-- 810 p. - ISBN 978-1-101-44346-0 .
• Feitelberg-Blank, V.R., Savchenko, V.A. Odessa in the era of wars and revolutions. 1914-1920 . - 1st. - Odessa: Optimum, 2008 .-- S. 159. - 336 p. - ISBN 978-966-344-247-1 . Archived October 15, 2013. Archived October 15, 2013 on Wayback Machine

In Fiction

• Cherkasov-Georgievsky, V. G ,. Roulette Mr. Orlovsky. Novel. / Design by artist O. Radkevich .. - TERRA - Book Club, 2004. - 304 p. - ISBN 5-275-01120-2 .
• Cherkasov-Georgievsky, V. G ,. Oryol and the Cheka. Novel. / Design by artist O. Radkevich .. - TERRA - Book Club, 2004. - 300 p. - ISBN 5-275-01119-9 .