The following article was translated from Russian by Robert Tilford on November 11, 2014.
Source material gathered from Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) website; http://svr.gov.ru/ :
“Born Michael Matveevich Baturin , (aka: Buchanan) a prominent Soviet spy during the war.
Baturin lived with his parents in the city of Baku, where he graduated from higher primary school. In the days of the Baku Commune volunteered for the Red Guard, served as envoys from PAJaparidze – Commissioner of Internal Affairs of People’s Commissars of the Baku. After the fall of the Soviet government and the execution of the Baku commissars employees he served as a clerk in the headquarters of the regiment.Then he was transferred to the Special Section of the *11th Army.
In January 1922 Baturin was seconded to work in a special compartment border border Lankaran district. From August 1927 to August 1929 – the listener is the main course of the Higher School of Frontier Troops. Then he served on the operational and command positions in the management division of the Transcaucasian border GPU. His office was awarded the badge “Honorary security officer” and inscribed with weapons of war.
In August 1937, Buturin was then sent to study at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the NN Narimanov, studied Turkish and French. In 1939 he was transferred to work in foreign intelligence, and after graduation in 1940, is aimed at long-term trips abroad in Turkey.
For seven years he worked fruitfully in this country, being the first resident in Ankara, then deputy resident in Istanbul, and from May 1942 – NKVD chief resident in Turkey. Buturin personally made significant recruitment results. During the period from May 1940 to March 1944 Baturin personally recruited nine valuable agents. With five of them Soviet intelligence continuing to work long after his departure from Turkey. After returning to Moscow, he worked as head of one of the departments of foreign intelligence, at the same time he headed the department of counterintelligence at the Graduate School of Intelligence. In August 1951, retired on superannuation.
For diligent and faithful services to the intelligence activities and the Motherland, Colonel Buturin was awarded 1 Order of Lenin.
The Order of Lenin (Russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Buturin was also awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, World War I level, Red Star, many medals, as well as the badge “Honorary Worker NKGB.”
Died quietly on February 13, 1978.”
* Note: The 11th Army (1st formation) of the Red Army was a unit of the then newly created Soviet armed forces. It was formed by the Bolsheviks on October 3, 1918 from the Red Northern Caucasus Army. In February 1919 it was dissolved and was again deployed in March 1919 as a subdivision of the Caspian-Caucasian Front. It took a prominent part in the sovietization of the three republics of the southern Caucasus in 1920-21, when Azerbaijan,Armenia, and Georgia were brought within the orbit of Soviet Russia. In 1939 the 11th Army (2nd formation) was formed in the Belarussian Special Military District (BSMD) from the former Minsk Army Group.