Vasily Zarubin

Who was Vasily Zarubin?

Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin Василий Михайлович Зарубин was a Soviet intelligence officer. In the United States, he used the cover name Vasily Zubilin and served as Soviet intelligence Rezident from 1941 to 1944. Zarubin's wife, Elizabeth Zubilin, served with him.

Zarubin was born in Moscow. He served with the Russian Imperial Army on the Eastern Front during World War I from 1914. For agitation against the war Zarubin served in a penal battalion. Zarubin was wounded in March 1917. He served in the Red Army and fought in the Russian Civil War from 1918-1920.

He joined the Cheka in 1920 and served in its internal security section. In 1923 he was appointed as the chief of economic division OGPU in Vladivostok and organized the fight with the smuggling of narcotics and weapons from Europe to China. In 1925 he transferred to foreign intelligence. In 23 years of service, 13 years were on the Illegal work in different countries.

He served as a legal officer in China, a legal officer in Finland, "Illegal" Rezident in Denmark and Germany posing as a Czechoslovak citizen Jaroslav Koček and his wife Liza, born Rosenzweig as Mariana Koček, an Illegal Rezident in France, and an Illegal Rezident in Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power. In 1937, Zarubin returned to the USSR for work with the KGB's central apparatus and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his work in creating the underground antifascist groups.