Lydia Stahl: a secret life, 1885-?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lydia Stahl was a spy for the Soviet Union’s military intelligence service known as the GRU. A polyglot who spoke at least five languages, Stahl was active in Helsinki, New York, and Paris from the early l920s until December 1933. At this time, French security agents of the legendary Deuxieme Bureau arrested her in Paris as part of a large spy network that included a married American couple. Despite her denials the French Court of Corrections sentenced Stahl to five years in prison, subsequently reduced to four on appeal, and then, after serving her sentence she disappeared from the historical record. On the eve of World War II her disappearance coincided with Stalin’s wholesale purge of Soviet institutions and organizations, including officers of the Red Army and its GRU. This article reconstructs Stahl’s life mainly based on extensive files of the FBI that reveal details of her espionage activities in New York and Paris. Additionally, the article corrects many errors and myths that unfortunately have been taken at face value and perpetuated in espionage literature.