12 Aug Anatoli Granovsky

Anatoli Granovsky authored the 1962 book I Was an NKVD Agent. It is the story of his life growing up in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Born in 1922, Granovsky’s family led a privileged life, primarily in Moscow.  His father built and managed factories. They vacationed in resorts alongside legendary Soviet leaders. and all was well until 1937. That year his father was arrested as an enemy of the state and sent to prison. According to Granovsky, a teenager at the time, the charges were totally unfounded and due to Stalin’s purge of current leadership.

So why on earth am I so interested in a Soviet spy? About a month ago I happened to be reading an online paper: Excerpts from McKay’s Notes on The Case of Raoul Wallenberg by C.G McKay. This historian wrote a book that has been important in my research: From Information to Intrigue: Studies in Secret Service Based on the Swedish Experience 1939-1945. McKay focuses on the Swedes and the Germans during WWII Sweden.

Toward the end of his Wallenberg notes, McKay brings up Anatoli Granovsky and writes about his meetings in Stockholm with a Captain Robb, assistant military air attache. It was right after the war, and the Soviet spy was trying to defect to the Allies. Wait a minute!  Captain Robb was my Dad’s best friend in Stockholm! (Since I wrote about Robb in 2010 I have found his daughter. On Facebook! I immediately emailed her what I had discovered.)

Granovsky’s book is an amazing story of how a Soviet spy was created. The young man was first recruited to report on his peers who were also children of “enemies of the state” and who might not have appropriately renounced their fathers. Then he went to a Special School for Spies and Saboteurs. A man named called Rasputin (no relation to that Rasputin I am sure) taught him how to sexually satisfy a woman, so much so that she would do anything for him. Women in the West, Rasputin explained, had much influence on national affairs. They couldn’t be tempted by money, parties or gifts but “a young, ardent and skilled lover is no ordinary gift.” Granovsky had no problem putting theory to practice.

There were so many fascinating chapters. The Poles who had relatives in the U.S. or Canada were forced to resettle there, leaving their families behind (as insurance) and become Soviet moles. The whole idea was to infiltrate the West for the future. Who cared that we were all on the same side? I could go on and on.

Captain Robert L. Robb
So where did Captain Robb come in? Granovsky got sick of a life over which he had no control. He yearned for freedom and to make a long story short, jumped ship when he happened to be in Stockholm. He asked a policeman on the street where he could find the Americans, and he was given the address of Captain Robb.

His book ends as Granovsky is leaving Sweden as a free man, thanks primarily to King Gustaf V. His first important destination was Berlin where he worked with the Americans and taught them about the Soviet operations there and in the surrounding countries. In 1950 at least one article about him was published in U.S. newspapers.

So what happened to Anatoli Granovsky? Did he gain the life of freedom that he wanted so badly? I found a blogpost about Granovsky, and the writer was wondering the same thing.  Someone commented and said that he had met Granovsky in the late 60s in Washington, D.C. In my Googling, I found indications that he had lived in New York and Rio de Janeiro.

If what he wrote was true, I can hardly believe that he anywhere lived for long under his true identity. The Soviet Secret Police never would have allowed it.

In the front of his book he gives credit to more than half a page of people including John Edgar Hoover (FBI), Allen W. Dulles (CIA), Douglas MacArthur, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. I’d like to think that after his book came out he was working with U.S. intelligence and finally given an identity that really was secret.

I hope so.

I Was an Nkvd Agent: A Top Soviet Spy Tells His Story at amazon.com
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