This Spy Was Literally Born Inside Soviet Secret Intelligence
Gevork Andreevich Vartanian was born in 1924 to Armenian parents near Rostov, in southern Russia. His father worked for the NKVD – predecessor of the KGB and today’s FSB and SVR. In 1930, his family moved to Iran. There, Vartanian’s father, under the guise of an Armenian businessman, spent the next two decades as a secret Soviet intelligence agent. The son followed in his father’s footsteps, and in 1940, sixteen-year-old Gevork was recruited by the senior Vartanian into the NKVD. Young Vartanian started off as a recruiter, and signed up Iranians and foreign residents as Soviet agents and assets. He proved an excellent recruiter, despite his youth.
In 1941, the USSR was thrust into WWII when the Germans launched a massive surprise attack, Operation Barbarossa, that nearly overwhelmed the Soviet Union. The Red Air Force was all but annihilated in the first few days of the onslaught, and Red Army formations along the USSR’s western border were shattered or bypassed, to be encircled and mopped up later. Within weeks, German armored columns had penetrated hundreds of miles into Soviet territory, and Soviets casualties rapidly rose into the millions.
