Valentin Markin

Valentin Markin ( "Arthur Walter") (1903 – 1934) was the chief illegal rezident and director of the espionage operations of the Soviet Union in the United States from 1933 to 1934. Markin headed the activities of both Soviet military intelligence and that of the Soviet secret police during this period.

Biography

Early years

Valentin Borisovich Markin was born in the city of Groznyi, part of the Russian Empire, in 1903. He studied at a business school as a young man.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) provided the authors Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev an unprecedented peek into their archives for the preparation of The Haunted Wood (1999). One of the startling revelations in the text was that Valentin Markin had a source inside the U.S. State Department, codenamed "Willi," who had access to "numerous ambassadorial, consular, and military attache reports from Europe and the Far East," and could "filch transcripts of recorded conversations Secretary of State Cordell Hull and his assistants had with foreign ambassadors."

The Soviets paid "Willi" the extraordinary sum of $15,000 per year for the documents, which he passed to Markin through an intermediary codenamed "Leo," subsequently identified as New York Post journalist Ludwig Lore.

Death and legacy

In August 1934, "Arthur Walter" (Markin) was found at the Luxor Baths of the Luxor Hotel (New York City) on 46th Street in New York City suffering from a serious head wound. Whittaker Chambers wrote that Markin was initially believed to have been attacked during a mugging while intoxicated.

Markin was replaced as chief illegal rezident by Boris Iakovlevich Bazarov.

Footnotes