Leonid Nikolayevich Zariņš was born on 28 August 1927, in Priehule, Latvia.
Along with his family, Leonīd Zariņš arrived in Germany as a “displaced person” in 1944.
He graduated from the Ausekls Latvian Gymnasium in Augsburg, a Hochfeld Baltic refugee camp. After graduating (1947), Leonīd studied mechanics and electrical engineering at the Baltic University in Pinneberg. H received a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) scholarship to attend Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Zariņš received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1951.
He then joined the Bell Telephone Laboratory. In the same year, Leonīd sent a letter to U.S. President Truman based on a university course paper documenting the brutal actions of the Russian occupying power against the Baltics. He urged the United States to actively support anti-Soviet underground activities in the USSR, especially among non-Russian peoples. A copy of the letter somehow was sent to the CIA. The original spotting and preliminary CIA assessment began in the latter part of 1951 and continued through 1952. He entered CIA training at the end of 1952.
After about 20 weeks of intensive training in the USA and a short rest, Leonīds Zariņš was taken to West Germany in preparation for his dispatch to Latvia. After further training, on 16 May 1953, he was parachuted near Auce. On 22 May, Zariņš met CIA parachuted agent Edvin Ozolins at the corner of Lenin and Karl Marx Streets in Riga and handed over 25,000 rubles. After an overnight stay in the Ozolin apartment in the Arkadia Park area, Zariņš was arrested on the street the next day. After a trial in Moscow, Zariņš was sentenced to death on 3 August 1954 in Butirk Prison.
Ozolins was later identified as a double agent for the Soviets with the code name "Pilot." One CIA report concluded: “Zariņš was infiltrated into Latvian SSR in May 1953 by means of an air dispatch. No communication from him or information concerning him has ever been received and it is presumed that he met his death immediately subsequent to dispatch. His parents, who have moved to Norway, were informed of Zarin’s death, and his benefits and effects have been transmitted to them. An appropriate cover and legend was devised and utilized for their benefit: he died while employed at the Bell Laboratory.”
However, in 1977, Leonīd Zariņš was reported to be still imprisoned in a camp in Siberia. His sister, a physician in Berlin, Germany, heard about her brother periodically over the years and was the source of the information that he was still alive. One CIA officer wrote, “Zariņš appears to hold the sad record of having spent more time in prison than any other CIA agent. He certainly deserves consideration as a part of any exchange arrangement which may be proposed to the Soviets.
The top line of the Zariņš' memorial stone above is a quote from a Latvian patriotic poem, "The Trumpeter of Talava. It says, "My gold is my country." The hero proclaims it as he chooses death over the offer of a bribe of gold to betray a castle where the enemy who accosted him is heading. Before being killed, he just has time to blow a warning on his trumpet, and the castle is saved. The stone goes on:
To the Patriot
Leonīd Zariņš
Who parachuted into Kuzeme in 1953
Born 1927 in Priekule. Shot in 1954.
And to all those who came from the West
in the cause of Latvian freedom and perished
in the war against occupation.
The former staff of the Augsburg Latvian High School
