Who is the spy, who is the scout, or what the recruited Soviet agents were pierced on

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The effective propaganda of the USSR, aimed at noble goals, did a glorious job on the image of a Soviet intelligence officer. This concept was associated by the people exclusively with the heroic Stirlitz or Major Whirlwind. And, I must say, the experience of the agents introduced or recruited by the domestic special services was really rich. The reasons why the reverse side of the medals of the “knights of the cloak and dagger” was blurred are also understandable. The enchanting failures and ridiculous punctures of even seasoned specialists, of course, were not made public. Such episodes were hushed up no less carefully than the facts of treason or the history of going into the service of the enemy.

The FBI employee who was looking for himself

American Robert Hanssen, recruited by the Soviet Union in the seventies of the last century, was a staff member of the FBI. His official colleagues, of course, also did not sit idly by, filtering their own ranks in search of traitors. Once verified information came in about a "mole" in Hanssen's department. It only remained to narrow the circle down to one employee. Either the management guessed about something, or the banal irony of fate played, but Robert was instructed to establish the identity of the foreign agent. The latter, by the way, was known in the team as an exemplary employee.

Hanssen, as an experienced campaigner, did not panic and did not plan to escape. He began a leisurely and measured investigation in a mood of complete composure, while continuing his intelligence mission for the good and prosperity of the Land of the Soviets. And so, perhaps, it would have continued for a long time, but chance intervened. Hanssen, being an extraordinary and thoughtful person, had in his vocabulary several unusual words of his own "invention". It was not him that hunted specialists, too, not of a timid intellect, collecting parts and putting them into logical chains. Relaxing in a simple conversation with colleagues, the spy dropped one of his catchy expressions about the Japanese. The reaction of those present, familiar with the "handwriting" of the traitor to the intercepted denunciations, was a matter of technique. Hanssen was sentenced to several life sentences, which he is serving today.

Long female tongue

In the fall of 1945, Elizabeth Bentley managed to uncover a large American network of Soviet agents. She passed 150 names, including several dozen high-ranking officials of strategic departments. Elizabeth Bentley, who joined the Communist ranks of the Americans, at first did not know that the founder of the Communist Party, Yakov Golos, was a Soviet illegal. Soon a close relationship was struck between the young people, and Elizabeth became an agent of the NKVD with the call sign Clever. In 1943, her lover dies in Elizabeth's arms from a heart attack, and she does not find the strength to work further without the support of Voice and begins to drown her depression in alcohol.

The center, realizing the unstable mental state of Clever Girl, decides to take over the management of communist associations from her and deprives her of the right to participate in the agent network. Bentley is offered to move to the USSR, where the Order of the Red Star was already waiting for her, but the unstuck widow does not perceive what is happening as a worthy replacement for the former situation. In an insulted, drunken outburst, Elizabeth generously shares all available information with the FBI. And Soviet intelligence in the United States has been recovering from a powerful blow for several more years.

Lithuanian failures and the race for political career

A "wonderful" example from the area of intelligence failures is a case from neighboring Lithuania, which at that time was already not a very friendly country for Russia. In 1920, Vincas Griganavičius, an employee of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, barely carried his feet away from there. For the USSR, it is the communist Vikenty Griganovich and the loyal representative of the OGPU. Brilliantly infiltrating a foreign army and quickly making a career there, Griganovich turned off the wise path. Instead of cold, conspiratorial prudence and the proper supply of valuable information to the Center, the intelligence officer turned to politics.

Of course, the simpler the mechanism, the more reliable, and agents have repeatedly and successfully implemented primitive diversionary methods of reconnaissance. But Vincent went too far. He almost openly contacted the illegal communists there, almost holding clandestine meetings in his own apartment. Of course, "well-wishers" and vigilant neighbors soon showed up, informing where to go and what was supposed to be done. Local counterintelligence, dealing with illegal politicians, to their surprise came across a foreign spy. Griganovich managed to escape, but an important channel of information transmission was irretrievably lost.

Human factor

From the point of view of historians studying the once closed archives, one of the most painful intelligence failures during the war was the story of the Red Chapel. It is doubly painful that the tragedy occurred due to the banal negligence of one of the participants. The Red Chapel was an anti-Nazi intelligence network that had contact with the USSR and operated in European countries during World War II. Those in charge from Moscow sent two Wehrmacht antifascists who had surrendered on their own to restore communication with members of the Euroset.

One of them, barely reaching Berlin and not even docking with the agents from the "Red Chapel", went home. Upon learning that his spouse had been taken to the hospital, he made the second mistake, following him. The Gestapo worked properly, and the unfortunate man was arrested right there. Predictably, severe torture followed, under the pressure of which the agent betrayed everything he knew. He also "poured" his partner, but he, unlike his comrade, died silently under torture. The failed German operation gave birth to Swedish intelligence initiatives.

Moscow tried to establish contact with the "Capella" from Sweden, responsible for which was appointed a local merchant, who did not arouse suspicion in the Third Reich with his business trips to Berlin. But the Swede was not a professional and, as expected, got confused at the very last moment. Frightened by the heavy burden and possible consequences, the man simply threw the "parcel" into the nearest trash can. Instead of a landfill, information was put on the right table, as a result of which many German anti-fascists were arrested and tortured, and the broadest intelligence network was destroyed.

But in general, foreign intelligence services treated the capabilities of the Soviet special services with respect and fear. After all, there was a Soviet agent 007, who was nicknamed the black general.