As Civil War raged in Spain in the 1930s, the republicans were losing. Even the supposedly great help of the Soviet Union was not exactly helping. Fascist forces were nearing Madrid. The Spanish decided to save... the gold.

510 tonnes of gold, in fact, all to be sent to... the USSR, of course! Who will take care of the Spanish gold better than those friendly Soviets! Yeah, about that...

Enter Alexander Orlov. Well, not exactly Alexander Orlov. Leiba Feldbin? Lev Nikolsky? William Goldin? He had many names. The Soviet spy spent a decade all over Europe in various clandestine operations. He landed in Spain in 1936, helping organize guerilla warfare. Then Stalin put him in charge of getting the gold out.

Orlov did just that, as 73% of the Spanish gold reserve was put on a boat, eventually arriving in Moscow. "The Spanish will never see their gold again," said Stalin. They didn't.

As for Orlov... Now here you assume that he suffered the fate of so many of his compatriots. Not so! This was a clever one. He sniffed out potential trouble and got the hell out of Dodge... errr... Spain. Before Stalin had the chance to deal with him, Orlov defected, and, under a new name, Igor Berg, settled in...

Cleveland.