Yakov Davtyan – the Spy and the Ambassador
By Pavel Simonov, AIA Russian section
Axis Information and Analysis
30.06.2005
Yakov Davtyan (1888 – 1938) was one of the prominent representatives
of Soviet diplomacy and the intelligence community during the initial
stages of the history of the USSR. Beginning in autumn 1927 up to
the end of 1929 he served as the ambassador to Persia.
Armenian by origin, Davtyan was born in the Nakhichevan area (today
a part of Azerbaijan, that borders with Armenia and Iran).
Yakov’s father was a simple peasant. He died when his son was two
years old. Later Yakov’s mother sent him to live with his brother in
Tiflis (Modern Tbilisi – the capital of Georgia). Yakov studied in the
gymnasium there and joined the Bolshevik Party. Upon his graduation he
moved to the then capital of the Russian empire – Saint Petersburg. In
his new home Davtyan actively participated in the illegal propaganda
activity of the Bolsheviks, especially among the military. At the
end of 1907 the police arrested him for this activity. Some months
later he was released and left for Belgium. There he acquired higher
education in engineering, simultaneously participating in the activity
of the Belgian Socialist Party. In Belgium Davtyan got acquainted
with Inessa Armand – the mistress of the leader of the Bolsheviks,
Vladimir Lenin. After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 Armand promoted
Davtyan’s career.
When WW I started and Belgium was occupied by the German armies (1915),
Davtyan was arrested as a citizen of a hostile state (Russia was at
war with Germany). He was imprisoned for almost three years, most of
which he spent in a maximum-security camp and another eight months in
solitary confinement. In August 1918 the Germans released Davtyan at
the request of the Soviet authorities. By this time the civil war in
Russia between supporters and opponents of communism was raging. For
the next year and a half Davtyan carried out various special tasks
of the Bolshevik leadership in the Ukraine and the Caucasus.
In the Diplomatic Service
In March 1920 Yakov Davtyan started working in the Foreign Policy
Department. His first foreign business trip in his new position
was to Estonia, where he was appointed to be the first secretary of
the Soviet embassy. Later, Davtyan was the adviser and head of the
diplomatic missions of Soviet Russia in Lithuania (02-09.1922), China
(10.1922-04.1924), France (05.1925-09.1927), Persia (10.1927-12.1929),
Greece (04.1932-02.1934), and Poland (04.1934-10.1937).
In the early stages of his diplomatic career, Yakov Davtyan was
under the patronage of his fellow tribesmen, Lion Karahanyan (Deputy
Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1918-20), and Inessa Armand (she died
in September 1920).
The Founder of Intelligence
Yakov Davtyan was the founder and the first head of the Soviet
external intelligence – predecessor of the modern Service of External
Intelligence of Russia (SVR).
In December 1920, within the framework of the first secret service of
the Soviet regime (the All-Russia extraordinary commission – VChK)
the Department of External Intelligence was formed. It was named
“The Foreign Department ” (INO VChK). Following the recommendation
of Inessa Armand, Yakov Davtyan was chosen as the head of this new
division. He held this post for two periods of time: from December 1920
until January 1921 and again from April until August 1921. Davtyan
prepared the first documents defining the rules and methods of the
activity of the Soviet External Intelligence. He also defined its
structure and hired the first employees.
Consequently, when he came back to serve in the diplomatic department,
Davtyan continued to cooperate closely with the intelligence
services. Being in China as an adviser, and later as an ambassador
he likewise supervised the Soviet intelligence’s fixed-post spies in
all of the Far Eastern countries.
The Execution
At the end of the 1930s a mass wave of state terror started in the
Soviet Union, and millions of people became its victims. In particular,
the best representatives of army command, heads of intelligence and
leading diplomats were killed. In October 1937, Yakov Davtyan was
recalled from Warsaw where he headed the Soviet embassy. The following
month he was arrested. False charges were brought against Davtyan,
claiming his connection with Polish intelligence and establishment
of an “anti-soviet terrorist organization”. On July 28, 1938 Yakov
Davtyan was executed by shooting.