1930s, when Pavel Sudoplatovwas tasked with organizing the as-
sassination of Leon Trotsky, Eitingon masterminded recruiting
agents to penetrate Trotsky’s inner circle and murder him. During
World War II, he served as the deputy chief of the NKVD’s partisan
directorate and took part in an attempted assassination of the German
ambassador to Turkey. He was promoted to general’s rank in 1945.
Following the war, Eitingon was purged by Joseph Stalinand
briefly imprisoned. In 1953 he was rearrested in a purge of Lavrenty
Beria’s subordinates and sentenced to 15 years in prison, of which he
served 12. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1992. Eitingon had
a legendary romantic life and an unusually ready wit. He was married
to several women, more than one at the same time. When he was
asked about survival during the purges, he told a subordinate the way
to stay out of jail was “Don’t be a Jew or a general of state security.”
Eitingon was both.ÉMIGRÉS. The initial priority for the Cheka’s foreign intelligence
component was to neutralize the threat from émigré “White” organi-
zations. Initially, rezidenturaswere ordered to organize “White
Lines,” and concentrate on the émigré target. Operations such as the
Syndicate and the Trustlured émigrés back into the country so they
could be jailed or executed. In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet foreign
intelligence penetrated Russian and Ukrainian émigré organizations
and assassinated their leaders with impunity. For example, in 1930
and 1936 the NKVDkidnapped and murdered two of the leaders of
the White Russian movement in Paris. Moscow also recruited agents
in communities from Berlin to Shanghai to report on the threat of
émigré political movements.
Moscow also recruited émigrés for sources of foreign intelligence.
Efforts were made to find émigrés who had access to their host coun-
tries’ policies and leaders. During World War II, agents such as
Olga Chekhovawere seen as important sources on foreign politics
and as potential assassins. In the United States, Canada, and Western
Europe, émigrés became important agents of NKVD andGRUrezi-
denturasin the collection of scientific and technical intelligence. Af-
ter the war, KGBand GRU case officers continued to target émigrés,
especially those in the Ukrainian and Baltic communities.76 •ÉMIGRÉS06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 76