To facilitate his application for U.S. citizenship, the CIA changed
his name to Igor Orlov because of a drunk driving charge and in
1957 sent him for further operational training to Washington, D.C.
Although Kopatzky returned to Germany and Austria on several
new assignments, suspicion about his KGB affiliation began to form
in the early 1960s, notably after the defection of Anatoli Golitsyn.
Despite dogged investigations by the CIA and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, no case was ever proven, and “Orlov” remained the
proprietor of a picture-framing gallery in Alexandria, Virginia, until
his death in 1982.KOPKOW, HORST (1910–1996). A Gestapo counterintelligence
specialist who later advised British intelligence on Soviet espionage,
Horst Kopkow was born in Ortelsburg (now Szcytno, Poland) on
29 November 1910, the son of a hotelier and merchant. Trained as
a pharmacist, he was attracted to the Nazi movement in his youth
and joined the SS in 1932. During World War II, he headed the an-
tisabotage section of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Department
IV A 2) and played a key role in the destruction of the Rote Kapelle
espionage network. The special commission formed to investigate
the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944 also
came under his command. While hiding in Flensburg, Kopkow was
captured by British forces on 29 May 1945, having been betrayed by
a Gestapo colleague, and was then interrogated at Bad Nenndorf.
Despite Kopkow’s responsibility for the torture and death of hun-
dreds of Allied agents, MI6 considered his exceptional knowledge
of Soviet espionage to outweigh questions of wartime criminality,
and further debriefings were conducted in London. Declared dead in
1948, he continued his undercover work for MI6, residing in Gelsen-
kirchen under the name Horst Cordes. He was also reunited with his
family as an “uncle” and found regular employment with a textile
manufacturer, eventually becoming the factory director. He died of
pneumonia on 13 October 1996 in Gelsenkirchen. Eight years later,
MI6 declassified parts of his file, prompting harsh criticism of its
postwar protection of Kopkow.
KÖSTRING, ERNST (1876–1953). A well-informed military attaché
stationed in the Soviet Union prior to World War II, Ernst Köstring
242 • KOPKOW, HORST