People

Ivan Ivanovich Agayants leading intelligence officer of the KGB of the USSR

Ivan Ivanovich Agayants was a leading Soviet NKVD/KGB intelligence officer of Armenian origin.

Born the son of Hovhanes Agayants, priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in the town of Elizavetpol, in modern-day Azerbaijan on 28 August 1911, he followed two elder brothers into the secret police.

In 1930, he moved to Moscow to begin work in the OGPU economic department.

During his lifetime he was given many awards by the Soviet government, including the Order of Lenin, and his name is engraved in gold on the wall of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service headquarters in Moscow among the seventy or so leading intelligence officers.

by Mano Chil

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

“If I Hadn’t Acted, We Would All Be Dead”: The Shaki Attack and the Mother Who Fought Back

On October 1, 2026, an armed Azerbaijani soldier entered a family home in Syunik, Armenia.…

2 days ago

Written in Wool, Carved in Stone: The Khachkar, the Carpet, and the Struggle to Name Armenian Weaving

A 19th-century Baluch rug beside a 13th-century khachkar from Hovhannavank: a shared design logic, and…

3 days ago

An Armenian Bride from Kharberd: A Photograph from the Danish National Archives

A portrait from the Armenian highlands Two women stand before a painted studio backdrop of…

1 week ago

MPG/Gallup International Poll of September 25, 2026: Examining an Anomalous Jump in the Numbers

1. What Was Published on September 25 Aram Navasardyan, head of the Armenian branch of…

3 weeks ago

Russian Gas for Armenia: Facts, Hypotheses, and What Cannot Yet Be Claimed (as of September 26, 2026)

Why the topic is back in focus Over the past four months, the gas issue…

3 weeks ago

The Story of a Lie: How Azerbaijan Rewrote the History of Karabakh

It's often assumed that the "Albanization" of Armenian heritage — the policy of declaring medieval…

3 weeks ago