Boris Gudz | Veteran Soviet spy, 104

Boris Gudz, 104, a veteran of the Soviet secret police who helped track down British spy Sydney Reilly in the early 1920s, died Wednesday in Moscow. The cause of death was not announced.

Mr. Gudz joined the Bolshevik OGPU secret police in 1923. In 1925, he took part in its so-called Operation Trust, aimed at luring Reilly, a top British agent, to Russia to join an anti-Bolshevik organization that was in fact an OGPU trap. Reilly was arrested after crossing into Russia from Finland and executed shortly afterward.

Later in the 1920s, Mr. Gudz took part in security operations to disarm anti-Bolshevik fighters in Chechnya and Dagestan. In the 1930s, he became involved in coordinating espionage operations in the Pacific, and worked as a Soviet resident in Japan from 1934-36.

Upon his return to Moscow, Mr. Gudz handled a group led by Richard Sorge, a top Soviet spy in Japan.

After Mr. Gudz's sister was arrested in Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's purges, he was ousted from his job, was stripped of his Communist Party membership, and had to work as a bus driver. He later got back his party card and held administrative jobs.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Mr. Gudz consulted for Soviet film directors and writers on movies about the Soviet spy service. - AP