Grigulevich, Iosif Romualdovich

(c. 1905–?)

   A Lithuanian Jew, Grigulevich was recruited into the Soviet service as an illegal and operated for two decades in Latin America and Europe. In the late 1930s he established networks that supported the NKVD’s assassination of Leon Trotsky. During World War II, Grigulevich, who was stationed in Argentina, organized the sabotage of neutral ships carrying cargo to Germany. Following the war, he was naturalized as a Costa Rican citizen and was appointed that country’s ambassador to Italy and Yugoslavia. Joseph Stalin planned to use Grigulevich to murder Yugoslav leader Josef Broz Tito, but the plan apparently ended with Stalin’s death. In 1953 Grigulevich was recalled to Moscow and disappeared from the Costa Rican diplomatic service. He resurfaced in Moscow in the 1960s as an academician.