Background
Akhmerov was born in Troitsk, located in modern Chelyabinsk Oblast, and came from a Tatar background.
Akhmerov was born in Troitsk, located in modern Chelyabinsk Oblast, and came from a Tatar background.
He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1919, and attended the Communist University of Toilers of the East and the First State University, where he graduated from the School of International Relations in 1930.
His name appears in the Venona decryptions over fifty times, often as signatory, and on his return to the Soviet Union in 1945/46, he rose to deputy chief of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security)"s "illegal" intelligence section. Background
Joint State Political Administration/People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs
Akhmerov joined the Joint State Political Administration/People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs in 1930 and participated in the suppression of anti-Soviet movements in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics"s Bukhara Republic between 1930 and 1931. In 1932 Akhmerov transferred to the foreign intelligence division of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and served as a "legal" intelligence officer under diplomatic cover in Turkey.
In 1934, he transferred to China, where he served as an "illegal" field officer
In 1935 he entered the United States with false identity papers and served until 1939, when he was transferred back to the Soviet Union. Akhmerov returned to the United States in 1942 and served as chief illegal resident during World World War World War II In late 1945 or early 1946 Akhmerov returned to the Soviet Union and became deputy chief of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security)"s "illegal" intelligence section (отдел нелегальной разведки).
Akhmerov is known to have used the cover names "William Grienke", "Michael Green", "Michael Adamec", and several others while in the United States. His code names in the Venona project decrypts of Soviet intelligence messages are MAYOR and ALBERT.
Akhmerov spoke Turkish, English and French.
