W WA
THi: NIT AT COVERS ill! WORLD*
By E. H. COOKRIDGE (Pseudonym)
Published by Henry Holt and Company, NewS
31S
The author, whose real name is Edward SPIKO, is by his ownspecial correspondent for British and American newspapers between the Kars."This book deals extensively with the functions of the First and Second Directorates of the HVD, and also presents accounts of individual Soviet espionage agent cases. The author appears to have taken much of his data from documents of unspecified origin as well as from the Canadian and Australian Royal
*Other editions:
British (original): SOVIET SPY NET, published by Frederick Mueller, ondon.p., index.
German: NTRALEIE MACHT BBS SOJJbTSCaEN CEHEIMDIEKSTES (Moscowhe Power of the Soviet Secretublished by Sponholtz, Hannover,ndex.
Spanish: El. SERVJCIO SECRETO SOVIET!CO (The Soviet Secretublished by Editorial AHR.p., index.
Commissionn tho GUZHNKO and PKTROV revelations. He also seems to have acquired considerable information from personal experience [unspecified]. He mentions two hundred and sixty-two persons as being connected,reater or lesser degree, with Soviet intelligence as staff members, agents, collaborators or targets.
In discussing the MVD directorates, the author says that the First Directorate is an intelligence organization in the Western sense. The Second Directorate funtionsore "sinister" sense, that is, kidnappings, assassinations and terrorism at home and abroad. In this connection so-called special centers, "Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, the "Avanposts" (outposts, says the author, a. spy ring comprising usually two or more networksnd the work of special inspectors are discussed. Attached to this memorandumreakdown of the organization and functions of the two directorates as4 as presented by the author. |
*Seendespectively.
One chapter is devotedear obsession of the Soviots with indexing, arid two chapers to the recruitment and training of agents, prinarily those slated to become staff members of the MVD. Commissars of the MVD exist in all government institutions to spot and recommend candidates who in turn undergo three different levels of training before being assigned to minor posts on the border for further' testing.
The so-called atomic espionage case in. (Dr. Allen NUNN-MAY, Klaus FUCHS, and Julius and Ethel ROSENBERG) is discussed from the point of view of Soviet intelligence operations. Also of interest is the author's account of the ruthless stalking and final assassination of Ignacc REISSfter RF.ISS had written an abusive letter to Stalin and had left the Cheka.
Throughout the book the author refers to the directorates of the MVI1 and to most of their predecessors as the Chcka for continuity and because their functions have remained basically the same in spite of aany reorganizations and changes of "title. Attached to this memorandumhronological list of these organizational changes .
nal)
P^tcctorate of Counterespionage
1. Foreign Division: Intelligence research, collection and dissemination. Controls secret agents, sets tasks and targets, and collates incoming reports from networks abroad.
Z. Operative Division: Organizes and directs operations of the secret service. Appoints resident directors, selects agents for work abroad, controls networks, looks after communications and takes measures in case of exposure.
Information Division: Studies every aspect of human activities outside the USSR. Scrutinizes newspapers, sifts rumors and gossip, monitors broadcastin, anddescriptive central index".
Secret Division: Has sepciinens of genuine documents from every part of the world. Produces forged documents, passports, and seals for secret agents and couriers. Invents aliases, codes, and ciphers, and arranges accommodation addresses and post office boxes.
Recruiting and Training: Responsible for all aspect of recruiting and training.
Communications Division: Carries out the routine business of maintaining communications with the networks and deals with any special transportation problems that arise, such as the escape of Soviet Gerhard EISLKR from.
The Second Directorate for Positive Stale SccurHy
Propaganda Division: Aims at Uie destruction of. capitalist countries. Maintains secret contact with Communist parties abroad, with the raain object of creating fifth columns.
Special Division: Responsible for the execution of individuals and groups at the order of the government. Includes "Section Nine" which is concerned with individual murders and kidnappings abroad.
Individual Division: Supervises the reliability of Soviet citizens at home by prying into private mail and monitoring conversations by telephone taps. Surpervises the activities of all Soviets aborad, whether diplomats, officials, members of trade delegations, or individuals sent abroad for special purposes. Special agents watch ordinary state security staff members.
Allied Division: Deals with Soviet satellites and Communist countries. Plans state security officials in governments of such countries and attempts to control such countries* ministries of state security.
s
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES
December 20
February 11
November 15
(all Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combatting of Counterrevolution and Sabotage) hairman Feliks Edmundovich DZERZMINSKY)
GPU (State Political Administration)
Chairman DZKRZH1NSKY
Vice Chairman M. A. Till USER
Vice Chairman J. UNSHLIKHT
OGPU (United States .Political
Administration)
President DZERZHINSKY until
his death6 succeed by
Vyacheslav MENZHINSKIY until his
deathucceeded by
Genrikh YAGODA
July 10
October 8
(Peoples' Commissariat for Internal Affairs) Commissar YAGODA
KKVD nowpecial department for State Security. Commissar YAGODA until his arrest in June6
September 27
Commissar Nicolay YEZHOV until his disappearance in8
December 8
Lavrenty BERIYA appointed Peoples' Commissar for Interior and State Security
Februaryand NKGB
BER1YA in supreme control.
NKGB headed by Vsevolod MERKULOV
resumed "Ministries"
NKVD MVD Ministry of Interior NKGB KGB Ministry of State Security BERIYA"in supreme control MVD under Sergey KRUGLOV KGB under Vsevolod MERKULOV0
KGB under V. A. ABAKUMOV0
Marchand KGB merged into Ministry
of Internal Affairs and State Security underRUGLOV hs Minister and A. I. SEROV as Vice-Minister
execution of BERIYA, n
of State Security was
established to coordinate the internal security services under the chairmanship of A. I. SEROV. S. N. KRUGLOV remained in charge of MVD
ORLD'S GREATESTCharlesby Oldham Press,ondon,
The author presents fifteen short narratives about spies whor he considers to be the greatest in the world. Six of the narratives concern Soviet intelligence activities and primarily involve the following cases or persons: Ernest KOLLKEBUR, Richard SORGE, the Red Orchestra, atomic spies Dr. Allan NUNN MAY, Dr. Klaus FUCHS, and David GREENGLASS, the case regarding Colonel Rudolph ABEL and Lucy from Lucerne.*
s Cohr.ent: The author presents bizarre speculaVfoiis "about'TactV which are not contained in other sources. The speculations are discussed in each chapter, as pertinent. Kighton apparently used other books as source material.
Ernest KOUWEBER
h'OI.LWEBEReteran of undercover activities in Western Europe. He was bornS, the sonoor miner, and servedtoker in the German Navy from the time he was eighteen years old. 8 he took part in the mutiny of the High Seas Fleet at Kiel in the Baltic Sea. 0 he joined the German Communist Party in Hamburg. In thes, Dmitriy Zakharovichoviet member of the Comintern who was at that time visiting Germany, persuaded KOLUVEBER to go to Moscow for training in political studies at the henin Institute. WOLLWEBER did so, and after graduation received intelligence training in undercover operations abroad. He then became an agent of Soviet slate security. He returned to Germany and roseigh-ranking position in the Party. 8 he was elected to the Prussian Parliament and2ember of the Reichstag.
From the time of his return to Germany he began toaritime sabotage group under cover of the Communist-dominated International Seamen and Harbor Workers* Union. At the time Hitler came to power and the Party was outlawed, he began forming the nucleus of the underground Communist movement. He worked bothcmbei cf the Comintern in Western Europe andesident of Soviet state security in Germany. Hi? sabotage network was composed of Germans, Danes, Swedes, Dutchmen, Belgians, and one British subject and the organization expanded rapidly. The network's centers were in Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Riga. EBER barely escaped arrest by the Gestapo, at the time whenozen of his collaborators in Hamburg were seized
olice raid. He moved to Copenhagen and continued his work from there. fter the German occupation of Denmark, he established his headquarters in Stockholm. According1 report by RSHA (German Security Headquarters) chief Reinhard Hcydrich, KOLLKEBER's organization was responsible for the successful sabotageotal of twenty ships, of which sixteen were German, three Italian, and one Japanese.
esult of German diplomatic pressure, the Swedish authorities agreed to arrest WOhUVEBER and his accomplices. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The German authorities made the claim that WOLMv'EBBR,erman citizen, was wanted for numerous acts of sabotage against German shipping, and requested his extradition. The Soviets then intervened on his behalf, because his network was of high value to them. Through diplomatic channels the Soviets put forth the claim that KOU.KEBER,oviet citizen, was wanted in the USSR for the misappropriation of large sums of state funds. The Swedish Government yielded to the Soviets and released KOLWVfcBHR He was transported by air to Moscow.
After the war, NOU.KEBER, was appointed head of the shipping directorate for the Soviet zone of Germany . East Gernany). This assignment provided him with cover for further organization of sabotage activity. Some postwar acts of sabotage inrance Germany, and Canada have been attributed to his organization. the riots in East Germany, he succeeded ZA1SSER as Minister of East Germany's state security. According to the author, UI.BKICHT did not like him, and alnost irmediately ordered him fired, after threatening hin with arrest. Moscow intervened in the matter
however, and KOLLKRBER was able to retain his post and to carry on his maritime sabotage work. As2 he was still holding that post.
Richard SORGE
The author's account of the case of Richard SORGE appears to be based primarily on information in Mans Otto MEISSNER's book 'THE MAN WI'i'H THREE FACES. KIGHTON's account contains some allegedly new information and, at the same time, differs from other overt sources.
ommen_ts _pn__a_ comparisonHTGN's'bobk "with other sources:
WIGHTON repeats MEISSNER's conjecture that SOKGE may) be alive and says, "Some well informed Western experts believe that. If he is, then he is certainly one of the top figures of the Soviet espionage service." Chalmers A. JOHNSON, in his book, AK IUSTANCE OF TffiASQKj rejects this speculation.
KICHTON and JOHNSON cite the date of SORGE's departure fron Gernany for the USSR MMSSNT.R, who is customarily vague concerning dates, According to the Hearings before the
Commiitec on UN-American 'Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-Second Congress, First Session, August2. 3 entitled "Hearings on American Aspects of the Richard Sorgc Spy Case" the date
In describing SORGE's travelsomintern agent9 neither WIGHTON nor JOHNSON make mention of SORGE's stay in. MEISSNER maintains that he spent some time in Hollywood, California ca. The Hearings cite SORGE's confession as having been in the USA3
Both WIGHTON and MEISSNER misspell the names of Soviet Generals BERZIN and URITSKIY, which they give asnd ULITSKl.
According to WIGHTON, the clandestine radio operators assigned to SORGE were KEINGART in China and BERNHARDT ir. Japan during the first year. According to JOHNSON, BERNHARDT was the operate] during the entire period. MEISSNER makes no mention of either WEINGART or BERNHARDT.
According to WIGHTON, Agnes SMED1.EYRU agent. JOHNSON repudiates this assertion.
and MEISSNERMax KLAUSEN joined the SORGEChina. According to WIGHTON, KLAUSEN
wasoviet internment camp35 as punishment for inefficncy. He does not mention that SORGE was accused ofove affairhite Russian, anti-Soviet emigre. According tohAUSEN did not join the-SORGE group Other variations between sources in dates of KLAUSEN's activities are: MEISSNER cites'him as having been in Shanghai0 and as having been recalled to Moscowccording to the Hearings, KLAUSLN was in Canton1 and in Harbin
SORGE'sthe IrankfUrter Zeitung, WIGHTONSORGE was appointedthat newspaper with the, JOHNSON states, onhand, that SMEDLKY was firedFrankfurter Zeitung immediatelycame to power. Itunlikely that herhave been of assistanceot mention SMF.DLEYwithmployment
by the newspaper.
to WIGHTONSORGE applied forParty) membershipasGermany. JOHNSONSoviet press reports sayjoined NSDAP after hisJapan.
CD-73
WIGM'ON suggests that SORGErotector in the Nazi heirarchy, but provides no name or identifying data. (Seearagrapheference to WERTMER.)
According to WiGllTON, German Ambassador OTT in Tokyo appointed SORGE to the post of Press Attache in the Embassy. JOHNSON says that the German Foreign Ministry offered the post to SORGE but that he refused to accept it on security grounds. Soviet news accounts state that SORGE was the Press Attache, but make no reference to the manner in which he procured the position The Soviet news accounts add that in that post he had had access to the Embassy's secret files.
KIGHTON's version of the detection and arrest of the SORGE group agrees in all detail with Chat of MEISSNER, and both state that the head of Japanese counterintelligenceeautiful nightclub dancer played the main roles in the denouement. JOHNSON, on the other hand, says that SORGl;'s downfall was precipitatedAGI. ormer landlady of MIYAGI's
2 in Eos Angeles and member of the Communist Party of the US, arrived in Japan inn arrested Japanese Communist |unnamcdj turned police informant and denounced the former landladyotmuniMpy. She was placed under surveillanceear and finally arrested. When
interrogated concerning Japanese nationals who had lived in the US and had returned to Japan, sheAGI, among others.ho wasolice list of persons associated with OZAKI and SORGE, was placed under surveillance and eventually arrested.
The Reid_Ore;hestra
WIGHTON appears to have depended uponLICK2'2 book, SPJONAOE GRUPPE ROTE(Espionage Group Red Orchestra) as his main source of information for this account, although in WIGHTON's condensed version key facts and persons involved in the case are omitted.
WIGHTON begins by recalling the background and says that7 GRU networks in Western Europe wet almost nonexistent. Most of the GRU's leading operatives were at that time recalled to Moscow and disappeared in the purges. Most of the agents in the German Coauaun1st Party were liquidated by the Gestapo. Moscow decided to revive the espionage system in Western Europe as quickly as ^sslblc and to direct operations from Belgium, Hollai.j, France, and Switzerland, border nations of the Third Reich.
According to WIGHTON, Leopold TREPPER, whose true name was IOMfc, was selected to be the GRU resident. He htd formerlyomintern agent with experience in Poland, Palestine, and France. He had transferred to the GRU, studied for two
years at the Lenin Institute in Moscow, and, aftor graduation, received thorough training in intelligence. In9 he went to Brussels and, assisted by scvc.al subordinates, immediately began toetwork. He expanded the net to Holland and France, where Leo GROSSVOGEL, his longtime friendormer Comintern agent, became his chief collaborator. TREPPER setover firm called the Sincx Company which, at the same time, carriedegitimate business and had branches in France, Belgium, Holland, and Sweden. Through this firm, his agents were able to penetrate the German occupation administration in France and Belgium, and also Todt, the Nazi construction combiie. Communications with the Moscow Center had already been arranged through the use of couriers and by clandestine radio. The radio communications channel was to be activated only on orders from Moscow. The order came in thes, at the time the Germans began the concentration of their forces on the Soviet border.
The net supplied the Soviet high conm?nd with information concerning strategic plans of the German high command, 3nd the operational plans of the German Air Force, including reports on the movement of German units and on bombing targets.
Several years before the German attack on the Soviet Union, the GRU operative in Berlin had organized an espionage network. Its key members were Arvid HARNACK,igh official in the German Ministry of Economy, and Harro SCHULZE-BOYSEN, an officer in the German Air Ministry. The group, which began to be expandedad an excellent potential and was of great interest to the Moscow Center. After the Russo-Gernan war began, the groupinto communication difficulties with Moscow. The Center ordered TKEPPER to detail an expert from Brussels
to Berlin to alleviate the situation, the radio messag- containing the instructions to TREPPHR included the names and addresses of HARNACK and SCHULZE-BOYSEN. The order was carried out, but the elementary violation of security committed in the cable was later to prove fatal to the. Berlin group.
The beginning of the end for the Red Orchestra group came in the second half Contributing factors were the perseverance of the radio detection surveillance mounted by the Germans, and the phenomenal number of security violations in the messages between the Center and the groups. The Gestapo raided the clandestine radio establishment in Brussels, arrested several accomplices, and seized sufficient material to decode some of the messages. Among the messages was the one concerning the Berlin group containing the names of HARNACK and SCHULZB-BOYSEN. The Berlin group was broken up immediately, and the Belgian and French groups were similarly dealt with The last member ofroup was arrested in Marseille.
TREPPER himself was arrested in Pariseull confession anderiod cooperated with the Germans. He eventually escaped from German internment, fought with the Maquis, and in5 was recalled to Moscow.
Jit
Atomic Spies *
This short narrative concerns Dr. Allan NUNN MAY, Dr. Klaus Julius FUCHS, and David GRKENGLASS. According to the. author, NUNNritish subject was probably recruited by Soviet intelligence7 when, after graduating from Cambridge University, he visited the Soviet Union and spent some time in Leningrad. Later, erofessor at the University of London. 2 he workedroup of physicists at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge. 3 he joined the first group of British scientists delegated to the United States to cooperate with American scientists on the atomic bomb project. 5 he spent some time at the Argonnc laboratory. esult of the revelations of Igor Scrgeycvichhe Soviet defector in Canada, suspicion fell on NUNN MAY as having possibly been the atomic scientist working for Soviet intelligence. NUNN MAY was watched by the Special Branch of Scotland Yard and was arrested He confessed to havingoviet agent, but refused to name other collaborators inr Canada. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
FUCHS was born in Germany where he grew up toember of the German Communist Party. t the age of twenty-two, he fled from Germany to England. He studied at universities in Bristol and Edinburgh. 0 he was put in an internment camp on the Isle of Mann with other German citizens and later transferredimilar camp in Canada.1 he was released, went briefly to Edinburgh, but soonob in Birmingham at the atomic research center ther. According to the author, it was during this period that he was recruited by
il
ember of Soviet military intelligence. From that time he delivered to the Sovietsegular basis valuable atomic energy data to which he had gained access in England and. 7 he managed to conceal his Party membership.
In August3 FUCHSaturalized British subject and, after successfullyoutine security check,ember of the tube alloys organization which had been set up to coordinate the vork of the British atomic energy research teams.3 he was selected toember of the British team of scientists visitinghere he remained untilpending most of his time at Eos Alamos. Before his trip the GRU had arranged for him to be contacted in.pecial operative who had been sent to. for that purpose. When FUCHS returned to England he became headepartment of theoretical physics at the new atomic energy center at Harwell, where he worked bothcientist and as an espionage agent until the last half
Ine was arrested and sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment. In thes, he was released and went to East Germany. 2 he was allegedly deputy director of the East German Nuclear Energy Research Center in Dresden,
GREENGI.ASS,RU agent at Los Alamos, is mentioned only briefly in the book, in the context of his also having had Harry COLD as his contact man. The ROSlNBFRG's are mentioned in this chaptcr only in connection with the fact that Ethel ROSENBERG was GKKEXGLASS' sister.
Colonel ABEL
Tho book contains comments aboutersonal and family background, but does not indicate the author's sources. The author says that spme [unspecified] sources have maintained that ABEL was born in the White Russian town of Minsk, the sonrinter. According, other sources have speculated that he was born in southern Russia ca. the sonealthy Jewish intellectual. ABEL's father had to flee from Russia to Switzerland6 because of his leftwing connections, and there he allegedly met Lenin. The family then moved to Germany and settled in Leipzig. After the Russian Revolution the family returned to Moscow.
3 young ABELember of the Communist Party. He studied for three years in Berlin at the technical university. After graduation, he returned to Moscow and underwent intelligence training. Using the alias AVOLKIN, he was assigned to Berlin as an Assistant Commerical Attache in the Soviet Embassy. eriod he also posederman engineer in the Zeiss optical works in Jena. Afterditional intelligence training in Moscow, he was again sent to Germany to undertake an intelligence mission and operated in the Berlin-Drcsdcn-Leipzig area. Duo to the fact that he wasewish appearance, he did not blend into the Nazi environment, and was transferred first to Palestine and later to Switzerland. In Switzerland he allegedly met KADO, the local resident. At the end4 he was said to have been in Tehran. After the war he spent eight months in East Berlin engaged ineries of missions directed against West Germany, France, and, on occasion, England. He was then recalled to Moscow for the
purpose of preparing himself for an assignment to Canada and.
8 ABEL arrived in Montreal using the alias Andrew. He then moved to New York, where he assumed the identity of Emi1 R.hotographer.
KI Gil TON provides little data about ABEL'S intelligence activity in. He mentions only one contact with the COHEN couple0 in New York. The contact then stopped because the COHENS, who were part of the ROSENBERGS' ring, had to leave. in haste due to the fact that they had been compromised by the arrests and confessions of FUCHS, GOLD, and GREENGLASS.
WIGHT ON's condensed version ofetection through the defection of HAYHANEN, his deputy, and ABLL's arrest, sentence, and exchange for POWERS,lyer, agrees in detail with tho more ample version given by James Britt DONOVAN in his book, STRANGERS ON THE BRIDGE.
[ABEL died on On2 a Washington Post dispatch from Moscow reported that Western newsmen had stumbled across ABEL's grave markeroscow cemetery, engraved: "Fisher, Killian Genrykhovich-Abel, Rudolf Ivanovich." The dispatch also reportsreliable unofficial source" that he "was born and raised in England."]
This accountoviet espionage network in Switzerland during Worldalled by the Germans the Rote Drei (Red Three).* The main protagonist of the story is Rudolf ROESSLER, called Lucy, the most valuable member of the net. RADO, the resident director, and Alexander FOOTE, his deputy, play only minor roles.
According to WIGHTON, ROESSLER hadember of Czech intelligence before his arrival in Switzerland. He adds that ROESSLER probably fought with the Czech legions in Siberiand against the Hungarian Communists He maintains that Czech intelligence was in contact with Soviet intelligence beginning with the revolutionary period
WIGHTON speculates on the identity of KERTHER, Lucy's most valuable source within the German high command. He suggests two identities: one, the Catholic organization with access to the German military inner sanctum; orommunist in the highest echelon of the Nazi Party. WIGHTON suggests two possibilities if Lucy's sourceommunist at the top of the Nazi Party: one, that Richard SORGE hadrotector in Germany, and that
i'AnatJist'e Ibmcnl: It would appear that WI GHTON took the essentials, of his narrative from the book BAMWOOK FOR SPIES, by Alexander FOOTE, although in the first two editions of his book FOOTK mi si dentifics Lucy. He has added conjectures and speculation of his own. (Published by Museum Press,o indexee
that protector could be WERTIIER; and two, that if Martin BORMANN, Hitler's deputy,ommunist, as has been alleged by Rear Admiral Wilhclra CANARIS then BORMANN might have been KERTHER.
ersion of the uncovering of the Swiss net agrees with FOOTE's version in HASUiOOK FOH SPIES* althoughtory is inondensed form that it lacks discussion of direct or indirect reasons and causes behind the net's successes and downfall.
ROBSSLER was arrested4 and eventually releasedesult of the intervention of the Swiss General Staff, with whom, according to the author, he had cooperated closely. He was, however again arrested3 on suspicion of working for the Czech intelligence service. He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and died
Original document.
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