Roman Malinovsky

Roman Vatslavovich Malinovsky (Russian: Рома́н Вацлавович Малино́вский, 1876–1918) was a prominent Russian Bolshevik politician before the revolution, while at the same time working as the best paid agent for the Okhrana. They codenamed him 'Portnoi' (the tailor).

He was a brilliant orator, tall, red-haired, yellow-eyed and pockmarked.

Malinovsky was born in the Polish village of Gladova near Płock, at the time part of the Russian Empire. His parents were peasants, who died while he was still a child. He was jailed for several robberies from 1894 1899 and was also charged and imprisoned for rape. In 1902, he enlisted in the prestigious Izmaylovsky Regiment by impersonating a cousin with the same name. Malinovsky began as an Okhrana agent within the regiment, reporting on fellow soldiers and officers. He was discharged from the army at the end of the Russo-Japanese War and relocated to Saint Petersburg.

In 1906, he found a job as a lathe operator and joined the Petrograd Metalworkers' Union and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In 1910, Malinovsky was arrested by the Okhrana but soon released; he then became a tsarist spy and infiltrated the Bolshevik party. He was the best-paid agent, earning 8,000 rubles a year, 1,000 more than the Director of the Imperial Police.

In January 1912, he joined the Central Committee with Vladimir Lenin's support at the Prague Party Conference. On October 25, 1912, he was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Empire by the workers electoral college of Moscow Governorate. He led the six-member Bolshevik group (two of whom were Okhrana agents) and was deputy chairman of the Social Democrats in the Duma. As a secret agent, he helped send several important Bolsheviks (like Ordzhonikidze, Joseph Stalin, and Yakov Sverdlov) into Siberian exile.

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