Georges Agabekov

Georges Agabekov (1896-1937?), was an Armenian Red Army soldier, Chekist, GPU Agent, OGPU Agent, Chief of OGPU Eastern Section, and defector.

Agabekov joined the Cheka at the end of 1920. He participated in the Red Terror at Ekaterinburg and in the suppression of a peasant revolt in Tyumen. Because he spoke Persian and Turkish, Agabekov was brought to Moscow in October 1921 to join the Oriental Section of the Cheka. In 1922 he was dispatched to Tashkent to work for Yakov Peters. Here he would play a role in the death of Enver Pasha.

During his ten year career with the Soviet secret service, Agabekov held various positions in Persia and Asia. He rose to Chief of the OGPU Eastern Section and became the chief illegal resident in Constantinople. He fell in love with a young Englishwoman in Turkey and this caused his defection.

It is believed that he was killed by Soviet agents in the Pyrenees in 1937.

Sources

* Georges Agabekov, "OGPU: The Russian Secret Terror," Brentanos, (1931).
* Gordon Brook-Shephard, "The Storm Petrels: Flight of the First Soviet Defectors," Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (1978).