Stalin’s gratitude; he was arrested in July 1937 as Nikolai Yezhov
cleansed the security service of enemies. On 1 August 1938, Agranov
was tried and immediately shot for treason. His trial was “private.”
He has not been rehabilitated, like so many of the Old Bolsheviks he
helped murder. See alsoMOSCOW TRIALS.AKHMEDOV, ISMAIL GUSSEYNOVICH (1904–?). Akhmedov, a
GRUofficer under press cover, was serving in Berlin when World
War IIbegan. Rather than being repatriated to Moscow with other
diplomats and intelligence officers, Moscow assigned him to Istan-
bul, again under press cover. On receiving orders to return to
Moscow a few years later, Akhmedov left the Soviet mission and re-
quested political asylum. He apparently feared arrest and execution
for operational failures. Akhmedov contacted the British after the
war. Unfortunately, the British intelligence station commander in
Turkey was Kim Philby, who made little effort to debrief this im-
portant defector. Akhmedov later wrote a good autobiography; his
information was not appreciated in the West until it was too late.AKHMEROV, ISHAK ABDULOVICH (1901–1975). A Tatar,
Akhmerov had a career in counterintelligence before he was dis-
patched to the United States by the NKVDas an illegal. He served
as deputy rezident(intelligence officer) and then “illegal rezident”
in the United States for over a decade. In the late 1930s, he re-
cruited and ran important sources within the U.S. government, in-
cluding Alger Hiss. Akhmerov worked closely with committed
U.S. Communist Party members, including American party boss
Earl Browder. One American who refused to spy for Moscow de-
scribed Akhmerov as “affable” with a good command of the Eng-
lish language. Akhmerov was recalled to Moscow in 1940 after be-
ing accused of treason. Miraculously, he escaped trial and
executionand returned to the United States during World War II
to run agents in Washington.
Akhmerov’s cover during his second tour was as the manager of a
clothing and fur store in Baltimore. (His father had been a furrier.)
Akhmerov’s cover was strengthened further when he married Helen
Lowry, the niece of Earl Browder. (Akhmerov was one of the few So-
viet intelligence officers permitted to marry a foreigner.) Lowry,AKHMEROV, ISHAK ABDULOVICH (1901–1975)•706-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:54 AM Page 7