Alexander Gregory Barmine

Alexander Grigoryevich Barmin (, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Barmin; August 16, 1899 – December 25, 1987), most commonly Alexander Barmine, was an officer in the Soviet Army and diplomat who fled the purges of the Joseph Stalin era for France and then United States, where he served the US government (including the OSS, VOA, and USIA) and also testified before congressional committees (including the SISS). Background Alexander Grigoryevich Barmin was born on August 16, 1899, in Mogilev, Mogilev Government, Russian Empire (now Belarus). His father, whose surname was originally Graff, was a teacher and came from an ethnic German colonist family, while Alexander's mother was Ukrainian. Alexander attended a state gymnasium in Kiev, followed by St. Vladmir University also in Kiev, Infantry Officer's School in Minsk, M. V. Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, and the Oriental Languages Institute in Moscow. Career USSR government