Rachkovskiy, Petr

(c. 1850–?)

   One of the Okhrana’s most successful agent handlers was Petr Rachkovskiy, who headed the Okhrana’s Paris bureau from 1884 to 1902. Working with private detectives and the police in France and Switzerland, he disrupted the operations of socialist and anarchist groups. In 1886 Rachkovskiy’s agents blew up a Narodnaya volya printing plant in Switzerland, making it appear to be the work of disaffected revolutionaries. He also played an important role in Franco–Russian diplomacy. He became an important contact of French Foreign Minister Theophile Declasse, arranging the clandestine meetings between French and Russian diplomats that led to a treaty between the two countries. Rachkovskiy’s role in providing a clandestine diplomatic channel for his country was aped by the KGB in the 1960s and 1970s, when it provided back channels between Moscow and Bonn.