17 Facts About Pavel Sudoplatov

Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was a senior Soviet official in the intelligence services of the former Soviet Union whose career spanned over 34 years in the different intelligence branches of the Soviet Armed Forces.

Pavel Sudoplatov provided management of the Soviet espionage efforts which obtained information about the feasibility of the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project.

Pavel Sudoplatov was born in Melitopol, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire, to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father, and was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

Pavel Sudoplatov served in combat against both the White Army and the Ukrainian nationalist movement during the Russian Civil War.

Pavel Sudoplatov was recruited into the Cheka in 1921, at the age of 14, and was promoted to the Secret Political Department of the Ukrainian State Political Directorate in 1927.

Pavel Sudoplatov transferred to the Soviet OGPU in 1933, moved to Moscow and after became an "illegal", operating under cover in a number of European countries.

On May 23,1938 in Rotterdam, Pavel Sudoplatov assassinated Yevhen Konovalets, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, by giving him a box of chocolates containing a bomb.

Pavel Sudoplatov then walked to Rotterdam's railway station and boarded a train for Paris.

In March 1939, Stalin rehabilitated Pavel Sudoplatov, promoting him to deputy director of the Foreign Department, and placed him in charge of the assassination of Trotsky, which was carried out in August 1940.

In June 1941, Pavel Sudoplatov was placed in charge of the NKVD's Administration for Special Tasks, the principal task of which was to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines in wartime.

In late July 1941, under the orders of Lavrentiy Beria, Pavel Sudoplatov met with the ambassador of Axis-allied Bulgaria.

Pavel Sudoplatov asked the ambassador if Hitler would end the invasion of the Soviet Union in exchange for giving Germany a large amount of Soviet territory.

Pavel Sudoplatov later said that he understood the offer to be a ruse, although other evidence suggests that Stalin was open to a peace settlement.

Pavel Sudoplatov feigned madness to avoid being executed with Beria and so was tried only in 1958.

Pavel Sudoplatov was accused, among other things, of involvement with Grigory Mairanovsky's laboratory of death:.

Pavel Sudoplatov worked for some time as a German and Ukrainian translator and published, under the pen name "Anatoliy Andreev", three books based on his activities during World War II.

Pavel Sudoplatov died on September 24,1996 and was buried next to his wife in the New Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow.