MOSCOW, August 28 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SRV) this Sunday celebrates the centenary of famous spy Ivan Agayants, the man who managed to outright defeat Hitler's favourite and the Third Reich's recognized intelligence ace Otto Skorzeny.
SRV press bureau chief Sergei Ivanov told Itar-Tass that Agayants during World War II was the head of Soviet agents in Iran, where he displayed outstanding abilities in intelligence work.
In 1943, the meeting of the anti-Hitler coalition leaders -- Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill -- took place in Iran, the historic Tehran Conference. The Soviet intelligence service ahead of the time received information about the Nazi's plans to commit an act of terror against the Group of Three. By efforts of the operational staff of the agents and Agayants personally, the Nazi's network of agents controlled by Skorzeny was uncovered. The excellently conducted operation of the Soviet intelligence service resulted in the complete failure of the enemy's plans, the official said.
Agayants was born on August 28, 1911 in the city of Gyandzha in a teacher's family. In 1930, he moved to Moscow and was admitted to the economic department of the OGPU (State Political Department). Six years later, he was transferred to the foreign department -- the foreign intelligence service. With his faculty for languages, he learned French, Spanish, Persian and Turkish. Later, he learned English and Italian. In 1937, Agayants was sent for operational work to Paris. After the fall of the republican regime in Spain, he participated in the operation to take Spanish anti-fascist movement leaders to Moscow.
When World War II began, he was appointed an agent in Iran, and during the yeas of his work in the country, he carried out Moscow's assignments connected with operations against Nazi Germany in a number of North African and Middle East countries. The results of the agents' work in Tehran during the period were very highly praised by Soviet political leaders, who publicly noted that the important intelligence information received by Soviet agents in Iran played a significant role for the military command and the country’s leadership to take political and military strategic decisions.
Since 1948, Agayants worked at supervisory posts in the foreign intelligence service. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Labour Red Banner, the Great Patriotic War, two Red Star Orders, many medals and badges of an honoured security officer.
Many glorious names of outstanding intelligence agents, true patriots of the country and the service, are written down in the SRV history, and among them is Maj-Gen Ivan Agayants, Ivanov noted.