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|birth_place = [[Chişinău]], [[Bessarabia]]
|birth_place = [[Chişinău]], [[Bessarabia]]
|death_date = 1970 <!-- {{death date and age}} -->
|death_date = 1970 <!-- {{death date and age}} -->
|death_place = Moscow (?)
|death_place = USSR
|death_cause =
|death_cause =
|burial_place =
|residence =
|nationality =
|nickname =
|alma_mater =
|occupation = Intelligence officer
|occupation = Intelligence officer
|spouse = [[Nadezhda Ulanovskaya]]
|spouse = [[Nadezhda Ulanovskaya]]
|children = [[Maya Ulanovskaya]]
|children = [[Maya Ulanovskaya]]
|parents =
|awards =
|allegiance = {{flag|Soviet Union|23px}}
|allegiance = {{flag|Soviet Union|23px}}
|service = [[Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye|GRU]]
|service = [[Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye|GRU]]
|serviceyears = 1923-1948
|serviceyears = 1923-1948
|codename = {{hlist|Ulrich|William Joseph Berman|Bill Berman|Felik|Long Man|Nathan Sherman}}
|rank =
|operation =
|codename1 = Ulrich
|codename2 = William Joseph Berman
|codename3 = Bill Berman
|codename4 = Felik
|codename5 = Long Man
|codename6 = Nathan Sherman
|codename7 = <!-- Up to codename9 -->
|codename8 = <!-- Up to codename9 -->
|codename9 = <!-- Up to codename9 -->
|other = Alexander Petrovich Ulanovsky
|module =
|module =
}}
}}
'''Alexander Ulanovsky''' (1891–1970) was the chief [[illegal "rezident"]] for Soviet Military Intelligence ([[GRU]]), who was [[rezident]] in the United States 1931–1932 with [[Nadezhda Ulanovskaya|his wife]] and was imprisoned in the 1950s with his family in the Soviet [[gulag]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}


'''Alexander Ulanovsky''' (1891–1970) was a Soviet [[resident spy]] in the United States in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Volodarsky |first1=Boris |title=Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
==Early life==

===Background===
Born '''Izrail Khaykelevich Ulanovsky''' to a [[Jewish]] family in [[Chişinău]], ([[Bessarabia]]), he joined the [[Anarchism|anarchists]] as a young man. In 1907, his family moved to [[Kerch]] ([[Crimea]]). Arrested for radical activity, he was deported to [[Siberia]], where he was confined to the same village as [[Joseph Stalin]]. While in exile, he made a daring escape and "on his way out" entered Stalin's flat and took his fur coat, as was customary among fellow-exiles in such a situation.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

===Russian Revolution===
[[File:Red Guard Vulkan factory.jpg|thumb|right|[[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guards]] unit of Vulkan factory]]
Following the [[October Revolution]], Ulanovsky returned to Russia and enlisted in the [[Red Army]]. He served as the deputy-commander of an armored train (under anarchist revolutionary [[Anatoli Zhelezniakov]]) and took part in fighting against [[White movement|White armies]] in [[Ukraine]] and [[Crimea]]. After the [[Russian Civil War]], he joined Soviet military intelligence and served as a secret agent in, among other places, [[Buenos Aires]] and [[Shanghai]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

==Espionage==

===America===
[[File: Whittaker Chambers.jpg|thumb|right| [[Whittaker Chambers]] reported to Ulanovsky in New York]]
Together with his wife Nadezhda, Ulanovsky came to America on the maiden voyage of the ''SS Bremen'' in 1931. His mission was to take over the GRU (military intelligence) apparatus assembled by his predecessor, [[Manfred Stern]], who was moving on to [[China]]. Some of the known members of the group were [[Lydia Stahl]], [[Robert Gordon Switz]], Leon Minster, Robert Osman, Joshua Tamer, and [[Whittaker Chambers]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In his memoirs, ''Witness'', Chambers provided an insider's view of the workings of the apparatus and a deferential portrait of Ulanovsky, whom he called "the only Russian who was ever to become my close friend." <ref>
{{Cite book
| last = Chambers
| first = Whittaker
| authorlink = Whittaker Chambers
| title = Witness
| publisher = Random House
| year = 1952
| pages = 290–300 and others
| isbn = 0-89526-571-0}}</ref>

The spy [[Hede Massing]] also knew Ulanovsky at this time under the alias "William Joseph Berman" ("Bill Berman"—also "Felik" and "the Long Man"). In her memoirs, she picked up on his anarchist tendencies without understanding where they came from. Thus, she describes him as a "nice enough man," a "simple man," and "one of the least ambitious and offensive" Russian agents she ever knew, but also "confused and inept." When Massing mentions that Ulanovsky had told her he was not her boss and that they were "both waiting for the boss", she implies that he ranked closely to her. However, Ulanovsky meant not that "the" (their) boss but that "her" boss was coming ([[Valentin Markin]]). Despite all this, she notes, "But one thing he did know expertly: This was conspiracy."<ref name=Deception>
{{Cite book
|last=Massing
|first=Hede
|authorlink= Hede Massing
|title=This Deception
|publisher=Duell, Sloan and Pearce
|year=1951
|location=New York
|pages=143–145 (description), 147–148, 158, 162
|doi=
|id=
|isbn= |lccn=51002483
}}</ref>

The group's principal activity was securing patent applications, blueprints, and technical manuals which they would pack into a large crate and ship to the Soviet Union. Ulanovsky returned to Europe after the failure of several GRU operations, notably a bungled scheme to counterfeit U.S. currency and the arrest of Robert Osman in [[Panama]] on espionage charges. An [[NKVD]] illegal, [[Valentin Markin]], came to America and took control of GRU operations in 1934.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

===Europe===
Ulanovsky resurfaced in [[Copenhagen]] in 1935, operating under the alias Nathan Sherman and acting as the head of a Soviet espionage ring that collected military information on [[Nazi Germany]]. The Danish police arrested Ulanovsky and two Americans, [[Leon Josephson]] and George Mink, following a search of their hotel room which turned up codes, money, and multiple passports. The motive for the search was a charge of rape against Mink by a chambermaid. Ulanovsky claimed they were Jewish anti-fascists acting on their own, but the police produced information, possibly obtained from the [[Gestapo]], that proved they were working for Soviet intelligence. The Danes held a secret trial and convicted Ulanovsky of spying and sentenced him to eighteen months in prison. He was later deported to the Soviet Union. (Josephson returned to America and worked as a lawyer representing Socialist clients of the [[Café Society]], owned by his brother [[Barney Josephson]]. Mink went to Spain where he served as an NKVD assassin during the [[Spanish Civil War|Civil War]], and then disappeared from the historical record.){{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

==Gulag==
[[File:Gulag Location Map.svg|right|thumb|Map of various Gulag prison-camps (1923–1961), based on data from [[Memorial (society)|Memorial]] ([[human rights group|human-rights group]])]]
Ulanovsky survived the [[Great Purge]]. In 1948, his wife Nadezhda was arrested. To no avail, he wrote Stalin a letter recalling their days in Tsarist exile, with assurances that his wife was a loyal Soviet citizen. He was arrested in 1949 as a former anarchist and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the [[Gulag]]. In 1951, their daughter Maya Ulanovskaya was arrested and the next year imprisoned. They were released under [[Nikita Khrushchev]]. In the 1960s they were close to [[dissident]] circles in Moscow. Maya married [[literary critic]] and dissident Anatoly Yakobson.

==Personal life and death==
[[File: MayaUl.jpg|thumb|right|Ulanovsky's daughter was Soviet dissident [[Maya Ulanovskaya]] (circa 1955)]]
By 1922, Ulanovsky married Esther Markova Fridgant (Party name [[Nadezhda Ulanovskaya]]). They had a son and a daughter named [[Maya Ulanovskaya]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In 1970, Ulanovsky died in the Soviet Union.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In 1983, wife Nadezhda, daughter Maya, son-in-law [[Anatoly Yakobson]], and grandson [[Alexander Yakobson]] emigrated to [[Israel]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}


==See also==
==See also==


* [[Nadezhda Ulanovskaya]]
* [[Maya Ulanovskaya]]
* [[Alexander Yakobson]]
* [[Alexander Yakobson]]
* [[Whittaker Chambers]]
* [[Whittaker Chambers]]
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{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


== Further reading ==
==External sources==


⚫
*{{cite book | last=Chambers | first=Whittaker | author-link =Whittaker Chambers | title = Witness | url=https://archive.org/details/witnesscham00cham | url-access=registration | publisher = Random House | year = 1952 | isbn = 0-89526-571-0}}
⚫
{{Soviet Spies}}

⚫
*{{cite book | last=Chambers | first=Whittaker | authorlink =Whittaker Chambers | title = Witness | url=https://archive.org/details/witnesscham00cham | url-access=registration | publisher = Random House | year = 1952 | isbn = 0-89526-571-0}}
*Hede Massing, ''This Deception'', Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1951.
*Hede Massing, ''This Deception'', Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1951.
*Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers'', Random House, 1997.
*Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers'', Random House, 1997.
Line 128: Line 49:
| last= Weinstein
| last= Weinstein
| first= Allen
| first= Allen
| authorlink = Allen Weinstein
| author-link = Allen Weinstein
| title = Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case
| title = Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case
| publisher = Ballantine Books
| publisher = Ballantine Books
| place = New York
| place = New York
| year = 1978
| year = 1978
| isbn = | lccn= 77075009
| lccn= 77075009
}}
}}
*Улановские Надежда и Майя: ''История одной семьи''. С.-Петербург : Инапресс, 2005.
*Улановские Надежда и Майя: ''История одной семьи''. С.-Петербург : Инапресс, 2005.

⚫
{{Soviet Spies}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulanovsky, Alexander}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulanovsky, Alexander}}
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[[Category:People convicted of spying for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:People convicted of spying for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:GRU officers]]
[[Category:GRU officers]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of death unknown]]

Latest revision as of 21:17, 24 August 2024

Alexander Ulanovsky
Alexander Ulanovsky
Born
Izrail Khaykelevich Ulanovsky

1891
Chişinău, Bessarabia
Died1970
USSR
OccupationIntelligence officer
SpouseNadezhda Ulanovskaya
ChildrenMaya Ulanovskaya
Espionage activity
Allegiance Soviet Union
Service branchGRU
Service years1923-1948
Codename
  • Ulrich
  • William Joseph Berman
  • Bill Berman
  • Felik
  • Long Man
  • Nathan Sherman

Alexander Ulanovsky (1891–1970) was a Soviet resident spy in the United States in the 1930s.[1]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Volodarsky, Boris (2015). Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov. Oxford University Press.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. Random House. ISBN 0-89526-571-0.
  • Hede Massing, This Deception, Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1951.
  • Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers, Random House, 1997.
  • Maya and Nadezhda Ulanovskaya, Istoriya Odnoi Semyi (One Family's Story), Chalidze Publications, 1982.
  • Louis Waldman, Labor Lawyer, E.P. Dutton, 1944.
  • Weinstein, Allen (1978). Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case. New York: Ballantine Books. LCCN 77075009.
  • Улановские Надежда и Майя: История одной семьи. С.-Петербург : Инапресс, 2005.
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