Alexander Orlov (Soviet defector)

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Alexander Orlov (Soviet defector)

Alexander Orlov was a high‑level Soviet secret police officer who defected to the West in 1938. Born Leiba Feldbin on August 21, 1895, in Bobruisk (then part of the Russian Empire, now Belarus), he came from an Orthodox Jewish family. He studied law in Moscow, joined the Red Army in 1918, and later worked for Soviet security services, including the OGPU and then the NKVD, in various overseas posts.

Overseas spy work and Spain
In 1924 Orlov joined Soviet intelligence and soon worked abroad under numerous names and covers. He operated in Paris and Berlin, later taking a London posting under the alias William Goldin. In 1936 he was sent to Madrid as the NKVD liaison to the Spanish Republic’s interior ministry during the Spanish Civil War. There, he organized guerrilla activities against Franco's forces and played a key role in the controversial transport of Spain’s gold reserves to the Soviet Union to pay for military aid to the Republic. The convoy moved thousands of kilograms of gold from the mountains to Cartagena and then by ship to the USSR. Orlov was awarded the Order of Lenin for his work.

In Spain he also oversaw harsh actions against anti‑Stalinist elements, including the arrest, kidnapping, and killings of several Republican opponents. As the Great Purge began in Moscow, Orlov’s position became dangerous, and in 1938 he realized he would likely be arrested. He fled with his wife and daughter to the West, effectively defecting from the Soviet Union.

Flight to the United States and life in hiding
After leaving Paris, Orlov used multiple aliases, and eventually settled in the United States under the name Alexander L. Berg (among others). He lived undercover for many years, studying and working while avoiding Soviet pursuers. In 1953, after Stalin’s death, he publicly revealed information about Soviet crimes in Life magazine and began speaking to Western intelligence services.

Publications and later years
Orlov published The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes in 1953, which drew attention to Soviet abuses and the purges. He later helped publish a handbook on counter‑intelligence and guerrilla warfare with the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies and worked as a researcher at the University of Michigan Law School. He lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where his wife died, and he passed away on March 25, 1973, at age 77.

Legacy and accuracy
Many of Orlov’s claims have been questioned by historians. He was not a general, as he sometimes claimed, but a major in the NKVD. He also exaggerated his role in recruiting members of the Cambridge Five spy ring and sometimes presented himself as central to events he did not fully control. Some researchers view his memoirs and statements as self‑serving or embellished, though his disclosures did contribute to understanding Soviet intelligence abroad.