RUSSIA'S MASTER SPY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 77, 23 December 1937, Page 7

RUSSIA'S MASTER SPY

Fall of Karak /an in Soviet Purge LONDON, Dec. 20. 0 The Soviet executions caused a surprise, coming so soon after the elections. Nothing had been heard about the trial. M. Karakhan, aged 50, was an expert in Oriental languages, and was regarded as Russia-'s master spy in the East. He was one of the best-known and most outspoken of the Soviet diplomatists, fond of good clothea and tennis. He visited Wimbledon a few years ago. M. Shevaldiev was notorious for hia merciless deportation of Euban Cossacks in 1932 and his severity during the great famine of 1933. M. Yenukidze was formerly; an old friend of M. Stalin. M. Larin was a Jewish cripple, and an economie historian famous for hii campaign against alcohol.

M. Earakhan was born in 1889, and joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917, He was secretary to ,the delegation which concluded the Peace of BrestLitovsk, and in 1921 was Ambassadoi to Poland. In 1925-26 he was Ambaspador to China, and from 1928 to 1934 was Vice-Commissar of Foreign Affairs. Three years ago he was appointed Ambassador to Turkey. M. Orakhelashvili waa born in 1883, and joined the Bolshevik Party in 1903. He worked chiefiy in the Transcaucasian region, and was in St. Petersburg for the 1905 revolution. In 1906 he went abroad, and on his return was arrested. After the February revolution he worked in the North Caucasus, and from 1918 was engaged in the Transcaucasus. On the defeat of the Bolsheviks he was imprisoned in Georgia for 18 monfchs. In 1921 he was made a member of the Georgian Government, and became a member of .the Council of People 's Commissars, and, from 1926, of .the Central Executive of the Communist Party.