Yakov Grigoryevich Blumkin (; 12 March 1900 – 3 November 1929) was a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, a Bolshevik, and an agent of the Cheka and the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU). Early life Blumkin was born into a Jewish shopkeeper's family, was orphaned early in his life, and was raised in Odessa. After four years in a Jewish school, he was sent to work running errands for shops and offices. In 1914 he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Cheka employee After the October Revolution in 1917, he became head of the Cheka's counter-espionage department working for Felix Dzerzhinsky. Terrorist Popov's Cheka detachment that included Blumkin, consisted of Left Socialist Revolutionaries rather than Bolsheviks. Since this party was opposed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Blumkin was ordered by its executive committee to assassinate Wilhelm von Mirbach, the German ambassador to Russia. They hoped by this action to incite a war with Germany. This event was timed to occur at the opening of the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. On the afternoon of 6 July 1918, Blumkin and Nikolai Andreev went to the German Embassy. Blumkin gained entrance to the embassy by presenting forged documents. With Mirbach was Dr. Rietzler, the Counsellor of the Embassy, and Lieutenant Moeller, a military attaché. Blumkin pulled a gun and fired at all three, while Andreev hurled a bomb. Both then fled through a window, where Blumkin broke his leg, but both made it back to the Pokrovsky Barracks, the location of the Socialist Revolutionary staff. The assassination was timed with the Left SR uprising, which was quickly quelled. The members of the Left SR party at the Bolshoi Theatre were arrested and the party was forcibly suppressed. Blumkin, however, escaped and went into hiding. He fled to Ukraine and helped reestablish the Soviet regime. On 16 May 1919, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee pardoned him. In Kyiv he organized an assassination attempt against the Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi and fought in the LSR insurrection against the government of Symon Petliura. In April 1919 Blumkin surrendered to the Bolsheviks, who still had a warrant for his arrest. Dzerzhinsky pardoned Blumkin, due to his voluntary surrender, and ordered him to return to Ukraine to assassinate Admiral Kolchak. While forming a combat group, Blumkin survived three assassination attempts made by his former LSR comrades. He joined the 13th Red Army as director of counter-espionage and