Surits

Yakov Zakharovich Surits, like Maisky, joined the revolutionary movement in 1902. He was arrested and exiled first to Tobolsk and eventually to Berlin, where he studied political science. Recruited to NKID in 1918, he served as Soviet ambassador to Turkey, 1923–34, to Germany, 1934–37, and to France, 1937–40. Declared persona non grata by the French in March 1940, he was recalled to Moscow and consigned to the backstage of diplomacy until his retirement in 1948.

is down on his luck. Hitler kept him waiting for a fortnight without setting a date for the presentation of his credentials, while the secret police arrested a number of German communists who worked at the embassy right after his arrival in Berlin. The arrests were made on 20–21 October. When I arrived in Berlin on 22 October, on my way back from Moscow to London, there was no one to meet me at the station: the embassy chauffeur had been arrested. Bessonov

Sergei Alekseevich Bessonov, counsellor at the Soviet embassy in Berlin, 1933–35; subsequently provisional acting head of the second western department of NKID.

(councillor) sent a protest to the German Foreign Ministry the same day, but to no avail. It seems that Hitler was highly annoyed with Surits for excessively delaying his departure from Moscow, in the face of Germany’s insistent requests.