Stefan Lang Worked at the INO OGPU. Country: Austria

1. Biography of Stefan Lang
2. Involvement in Communist Party and Espionage
3. Return to Moscow and Work as a Scientist
4. Final Mission and Heroic Death

Biography of Stefan Lang

Stefan Grigorievich Lang, known as Deich Arnold Genrikhovich, was born in Vienna, Austria in 1904. He came from a family of teachers from Slovakia. Lang attended a gymnasium in Vienna from 1915 onwards. In 1923, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, studying physics and chemistry simultaneously. He successfully defended his dissertation in chemistry, graduating from the university in 1928 with a doctorate in philosophy and chemistry. Lang was fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, and Russian.

Involvement in Communist Party and Espionage

In 1924, Lang joined the Communist Party of Austria and worked in its Austrian section of the International Red Aid (MOPR), becoming a member of its Central Committee. He married Finni Kramer, a young communist who later became his assistant in espionage work. In 1928, Lang visited Moscow as part of an Austrian workers' delegation. After returning to Vienna, he worked as a chemical engineer in a textile factory. From December 1928 to October 1931, Lang worked as a staff member of the underground apparatus of the International Liaison Department of the Comintern in Vienna. Due to the failure of the Comintern's Vienna bureau, Lang relocated to Moscow in December 1931 and was transferred from the Communist Party of Austria to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Recommended by the Comintern, he was employed by the Foreign Intelligence Service of the OGPU.

In January 1933, Lang and his wife were sent for illegal work in Paris under the control of resident F.Ya. Karina. He initially served as a courier, assistant, and eventually deputy resident under the pseudonym "Otto." During this time, Lang also carried out special missions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany. In February 1934, he was reassigned to conduct illegal work in London under the pseudonym "Stefan." As a cover, Lang enrolled in the psychology department of the University of London. He recruited more than 20 agents, including members of the famous "Cambridge Five" spy ring such as Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. In 1935, Lang recruited the British Foreign Office cipher clerk Captain J. King ("Mag"), who provided access to British diplomatic secrets. Thanks to his efforts, the valuable sources of information known as "Bear," "Attila," and "Nakhfolger" ("Heir") were not uncovered by British counterintelligence. Lang worked under the guidance of illegal resident A.M. Orlov-Nikolsky in London from June to July 1935.

Return to Moscow and Work as a Scientist

In August 1935, Lang was recalled to the Soviet Union and became a member of Group G in the Foreign Intelligence Service. In November, he returned to London. From April 1936, Lang worked under the guidance of resident Theodore Malli ("Mann"). Together, they created a deeply concealed agent network known as the "Oxford Group." In 1936, Lang defended his doctorate in psychology at the University of London. In September 1937, he returned to Moscow but made multiple trips to London to preserve the agent network.

In 1938, Lang and his wife obtained Soviet citizenship and passports under the names Stefan Grigorievich Lang and Josephine Pavlovna. Lang worked as a research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and World Politics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He possessed diverse knowledge and registered four patents in England, including a flight simulator, which he sent to Moscow. He was also credited with the design of operational devices and sympathetic ink formulas.

Final Mission and Heroic Death

In December 1940, Pavel Fitin, the head of intelligence for the NKVD, proposed to Lavrentiy Beria, the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs, to send Lang as an illegal resident to the United States, posing as a Jewish refugee from the Baltic states. However, this plan was not realized. After the start of the Great Patriotic War in November 1941, Lang was sent as an illegal resident to Argentina with a reconnaissance group. Due to the war between the United States and Japan, their initial route through Iran, India, and Southeast Asian countries became dangerous, leading the group to return to Moscow. A new plan was made to travel via the North Atlantic route. Unfortunately, on November 7, 1942, the ship "Donbass" carrying Lang was sunk by a German cruiser. According to surviving witnesses, Lang heroically sacrificed himself to save the lives of others.