Iosif Grigulevich

Iosif Grigulevich

Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich (Russian: Иосиф Ромуальдович Григулевич; May 5, 1913 – June 2, 1988) was one of the most remarkable Soviet illegal operatives (a spy acting without legitimate diplomatic cover) during the 1930s and 1940s, when he took a leading role in assassinating leftists who were not loyal to Joseph Stalin. Under a false identity as Teodoro B. Castro, a wealthy Costa Rican expatriate living in Rome, Grigulevich served as the ambassador of the Republic of Costa Rica to both Italy and Yugoslavia (1952–1954). His mission to assassinate Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito was aborted due to Stalin's death, after which Grigulevich settled in Moscow, where he worked as an expert on the history of Latin America and on the Roman Catholic Church. He was a member of Soviet Academy of Sciences, served as editor in chief of the magazine, Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost ("Social Sciences Today") and published many books and articles about Latin American subjects.