19 Facts About Iosif Grigulevich

Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich was a Soviet secret police operative active between 1937 and 1953, when he played a role in assassination plots against Communist and Bolshevik individuals who were not loyal to Joseph Stalin.

Under the false identity of Teodoro B Castro, a wealthy Costa Rican expatriate living in Rome, Grigulevich served as the ambassador of Costa Rica to both Italy and Yugoslavia.

Iosif Grigulevich's mission was to assassinate Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito but the mission was aborted following Stalin's death in 1953.

Iosif Grigulevich was a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost, and published many books and articles about Latin American subjects.

Iosif Grigulevich was born in Vilnius, Russian Empire, to a family of Russian-speaking Crimean Karaites.

Iosif Grigulevich's parents emigrated to Argentina when he was young.

Iosif Grigulevich's father did well for himself and later sent Iosif to Europe to study.

Iosif Grigulevich was recruited by the NKVD and showed a gift for languages, soon picking up English, Spanish and French.

Iosif Grigulevich worked under NKVD general Alexander Orlov, using the code names MAKS and FELIPE, and organized so-called "mobile groups" that killed, among other actual and suspected Trotskyists, POUM leader Andres Nin.

Later, Iosif Grigulevich was sent to Argentina under the code name "Artur", where he remained during World War II and organized anti-Nazi sabotage operations.

Iosif Grigulevich married a Mexican woman named Laura Araujo Aguilar, who was a Soviet secret agent, operating under the code name LUIZA.

In 1948, Iosif Grigulevich's Mexican-born wife was taken hostage by Soviet bosses.

In 1949, with the help of Joaquin Gutierrez, a Costa Rican writer who harboured very pro-Soviet and Communist sympathies and who worked in his country's diplomatic corps, Iosif Grigulevich procured a false passport identifying him as Teodoro Castro Bonnefil, and settled in Rome.

Iosif Grigulevich successfully established an import-export business in Rome and made extensive personal contacts with business figures and prelates of the Catholic church.

Iosif Grigulevich became a friend and business partner of former Costa Rican president Jose Figueres and in 1951 "Teodoro B Castro" was appointed as charge d'affaires of the Costa Rican embassy in Rome, serving as advisor to the Costa Rican delegation to the sixth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in Paris.

For fear that his identity would be exposed, Iosif Grigulevich was eventually summoned back to Moscow, marking the end of his career as a Soviet secret agent.

In Moscow, Iosif Grigulevich settled into a new life as an academic.

Iosif Grigulevich was awarded a doctorate in history without having to defend a thesis and worked as an expert on Latin America and the Catholic Church.

Iosif Grigulevich was the author of 58 books, some of which were published under his mother's maiden surname, Lavretsky.