Artur Khristianovich Artuzov

Artuzov, Artur Khristianovich 

(pseudonym of A. K. Frauchi). Born February 1891 in the village of Usti-novo, Kashin District, Tver’ Province; died July 1943. Member of the Cheka. Member of the Communist Party after 1917.

Artuzov was an Italian of Swiss origin. He graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute (1917) and participated in the establishment of Soviet power in the north. In 1918 he was supply inspector of the northeast sector of the eastern front and also commissar and department head of the organs of counterintelligence of the Revolutionary Military Soviet of the Republic. From 1919 he held responsible posts in the central apparatus of the Cheka and GPU and was a member of their collegium. As one of the prominent directors of Soviet counterintelligence, Artuzov participated in the liquidation of the large counterrevolutionary and espionage organizations in the USSR and abroad (in particular, he supervised the liquidation of the Savinkov organization and the arrest of B. V. Savinkov). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.