Spymaster, page 50
I do not feel nostalgic about my homeland. I have no interest in ever going back. But I have not lost touch with Russia; part of my family, some of my good friends are still there. I am watching Russia from a distance and I am not indifferent to what is going on there or may happen in years to come. Russia’s future is not a matter of private interest. It may affect international stability and world peace; it may affect the global environment and even the existence of our planet. Russia is a nuclear power, and this should never be ignored. Current developments in Russia are highly disturbing, and that brings to my mind the prognostication of Russia’s future made by Zbigniew Brzezinski in the early 1990s, in his book Out of Control. “In Russia danger is unlikely to manifest itself in the shape of a resurrected communism but rather as a new form of fascism. . . . Fascism is effective in exploiting the irrational side of human nature appealing effectively to emotions that can be galvanized through national symbols, exploiting the attraction of national power and glory, responding to craving for discipline and uniformity. . . . Fascist nationalism becomes the only unifying ideological alternative. . . . Russian variant of fascism is unlikely to go quite as far as Nazism with its unique racial obsessions. Unlike Communism or Nazism, Russian fascism would express itself through chauvinism rather than totalitarianism, through statism rather than collectivism. It would be fascism as a practice: the combination of dictatorial rule, state domination over a partially private economy, chauvinism and emphasis on imperial myths and missions.”
As Russia entered the twenty-first century with Putin at the helm, she continues to live in the world of old suspicions and fears: vulnerability in the south, with Muslim separatist movements on the rise; threats from the west, with NATO approaching dangerously close to Russian borders; potential dangers in the east, with China looming as pretender to the vast territories conquered by Russia centuries ago. With her global power dramatically diminished, her economy dependent on energy sources, the old ideology destroyed, and a moral vacuum deepening, Russia faces a critical choice: to return to the old ways of ruthless dictatorship or surge forward toward truly democratic reforms. Her current ruler chooses neither. Putin prefers to stay adrift, tightening the screws wherever he can by silencing the opposition and the independent media, without resorting openly to Stalinist methods or declaring publicly his support for genuine democracy.
I do not know if Putin is familiar with the advice given to Napoleon two hundred years ago: “Talk about freedom but rule with bayonets, and remember that you cannot sit on them.”
These words hold particular significance for Kremlin rulers. The revolutionary upheavals in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan revealed that there are limits to tolerance and patience among the people of the former USSR. This applies to the people of Russia as well.
Fearful of internal turmoil, suspicious of both west and east, trying desperately to find its place in the rapidly changing world, Russia suffers from a sort of national schizophrenia. Putin’s response to the malady sits well with tested traditions of Soviet times: expand the security and intelligence services, boost their morale, and keep them proud of their glorious past. On December 20, 2003, in connection with the security services professional holiday, President Putin said, “For many generations of security professionals this day has become a symbol of courage, devotion to the cause and wholehearted service to the benefit of the motherland.”
Flanked by Vladimir Kryuchkov, former KGB chairman and mastermind of the failed anti-Gorbachev coup, and dozens of decorated veterans of the Soviet KGB, Putin felt elated. And so did his former colleagues. For them it was a signal to unleash a new campaign against “foreign spies” and their potential assets among liberal reformers, members or supporters of nongovernmental organizations, intellectuals, and businessmen who dare to disagree.
While making friendly gestures and references to the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, and Italy, Putin ordered Russian intelligence (SVR) to intensify its operations abroad, expand its espionage network in order to bolster Russia’s claims to great power status, improve her image in the eyes of the world, and transform Russia into a competitive force on the world markets—not in natural resources but in manufactured goods, services, and high technology.
Many people wonder how Russian intelligence can succeed if Russia’s standing is so low in so many ways, with a discredited ideology and an unattractive image. “No problem,” said the deputy chief of Russian intelligence a few weeks before the attack on the United States in September 2001. “We look for people who hate America. There are millions of them across the globe. We use money too. And we work with our former compatriots who are scattered around the world. Many of them feel nostalgic about their homeland and may be willing to contribute to Russia’s rebirth.”
When Putin came to power in 2000, he stated publicly, “Over the years we fell prey to an illusion that we had no enemies. We paid dearly for that.” That’s Putin. And those who believe that he converted to Western values are simply misled by Russian propaganda. Putin is a virtual democrat, just as he is a virtual Christian. He sees the world through his KGB prism and acts accordingly. Under him Russia will remain on the edge of the abyss, never quite tumbling in.
Watching developments in Russia from afar, I remain intensely interested in what’s going on in my new homeland. In 2004, for the first time, I cast my vote in a U.S. presidential election. I did not support the military action in Iraq. As a veteran cold warrior, I prefer psychological warfare, covert actions, and back-channel negotiations—anything short of war. I have always subscribed to the ancient doctrine that to defeat the enemy without a single battle is the acme of excellence in political and military strategy. To me intelligence operations were always a battle of wits, wills, and spirits, and special operations by the intelligence agencies must be in the forefront of our defense policies. Since the end of the cold war U.S. intelligence has suffered serious setbacks, largely due to complacency in Washington. We were jolted back to reality by the tragic events of September 11. We must never repeat the same mistakes. Our intelligence services must operate at all times as the front line of defense. Millions spent on intelligence may save billions spent on war.
Since moving to America, I have had time to ponder the vicissitudes of human existence.
I was molded by Communist ideology, but I learned early in my youth that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple.” That came from Oscar Wilde, one of my favorite authors. In later years I put in my diary the words of German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Morality cuts the knot that a policy is unable to untie.”
In New York in the 1960s, I was fascinated by the words of Martin Luther King, leader of the civil rights movement: “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he is not fit to live. . . . Man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”
As the chief of Directorate K, I asked my senior representative in Washington to frame a quotation from Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister in the nineteenth century: “Justice is truth in action.” I put these inspiring words on the wall of my office in Moscow. Today they hang in my home office in Maryland.
As I look back over my seven-plus decades, I realize that I have changed enormously while remaining essentially the same. I lived an exciting, purposeful life, driven by a dream that never materialized.
Sometimes my mind wanders back to that summer, more than a half century ago, when I was vacationing in southern Ukraine. I chuckle when I see myself walk up to the doctor’s house and upbraid her. How I put the fear of God into her with my talk of good and evil and socialist justice!
Since those days, I have seen enough to make me a cynic. But I have not lost my faith. When I contemplate that summer day in Ukraine, I can thankfully say that the spirit of that crusading blond boy who marched into the doctor’s garden and shook her pear tree with all his might still lives within me.
Maryland
September 2008
INDEX
Abrasimov, Pyotr
Academy of Sciences. See under Moscow
Active measures. See also Dirty tricks
Aeroflot
Afanasiev, Yuri
Afghanistan
Africa
African Americans
Agee, Philip
AIDS
Akhmatova, Anna
Aleksei II (Patriarch)
Alexei (friend of Kalugin)
Alidin, Viktor
Allen, Charles
Allen, Richard
American Communist Party
Ames, Aldrich (Rick)
Amin, Hafizullah
Amsterdam
Anderson, Jack
Andrew, Christopher
Andronov, Iona
Andropov, Yuri
and Afghanistan
appointment as chairman of KGB
appointment as leader of Soviet Union
and Cook case
as critical of Kalugin
and disinformation/psychological warfare
and domestic issues
Andropov, Yuri (continued)
health/death of
and Hungarian uprising
as liberal
and Markov assassination
praise for Brezhnev
and unorthodox operations
Angleton, James Jesus
Angola
Anti-alcohol campaign
Anti-Semitism
Antonov, Sergei
Arabic language
Arab-Israeli conflict
Arafat, Yassir
Armenia
Arnoni, M. S.
Artamonov, Nikolai Fyodorovich
death of
Artists
art fraud
See also Hermitage Museum
Asahi Shimbun
Assassinations. See
Executions/assassinations
AT&T
Australia
Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC)
Australian Secret Intelligence Organization
Austria. See also Vienna, Austria
Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM)
Bakatin, Vadim
Baltic States
Bandera, Stepan
Banking systems
Barannikov, Viktor
Barkovsky, Vladimir
Barnett, David Henry
Barron, John
BBC
Bekhterev (General)
Berezovsky, Boris
Beria, Lavrenti P.
Berlin Wall. See also East Germany/East Berlin
Bethel (Lord)
Bird, Christopher
Bitov, Oleg
Black market
Blackmail
bureaucratic blackmail
Blake, George
Bleyer, Vladilen
Bobkov, Philip
Bolshoi Ballet
Bombs/bombings
Bonner, Yelena
Borisenko (Captain)
Borodin, Pavel
Borovik, Genrikh
Boyarov, Vitaly
Brandt, Willy
Brazil
Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich
death of
praised by Andropov
Bribery
Brookings Institution
Brzezinski, Zbigniew
Buckley, William
Bulgaria
Burgess, Guy
Burke, Sean
Bykov, Vladimir
Cameras/photographs . See also Microfilm
Canada
Canadian television (CBC)
double agent game in
expulsions from
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Carlos (terrorist)
Castro, Fidel
Catholic University (U.S.)
Ceausescu, Nicolae
Censorship
Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies
Central Documentary Studio
Chakovsky, Alexander
Chaplygin, Nikolai
Chazov, Yevgeni
Chebotaryov (GRU officer)
Chebrikov, Viktor
Chechnya
Cheka
Chernenko, Constantin
Chernyayev, Rudolf
China
Chubais, Igor
CIA
agent volunteering to work for KBG
attempt to abduct officer of
attempt to recruit overseas officers of
CIA moles in Soviet Union (see also Moles)
disinformation concerning
KGB handbook concerning
See also Kalugin, Oleg: suspected of being a CIA agent
Code breaking
Colby, William
Cold war
rapprochement during
Collective farms
Columbia University
Committee for the State of Emergency
Communism
Communist Party
Central Committee
complex of buildings in Moscow for
corruption in
Politburo
regional Communist Party Committee in Leningrad (see also Leningrad: Communist Party bosses in)
Twenty-Third Party Conference
and Western European
Communist parties
Congress of People’s Deputies
Conspiracy Against Russia and Conspiracy Against Peace
Constitution
Cook, Anatoly
sister Louisa
wife Selena
Copenhagen, Denmark
Corruption . See also Bribery; Leningrad: corruption in Leningrad region
Cossacks
Costa Rica
Counterculture
Coup of 1991
arrests during
failure of
See also under Kryuchkov, Vladimir
Cronyism
Cuba
Cuban missile crisis
Cult of personality
Cunhal, Àlvaro
Cyanide pill
Czechoslovakia
Soviet invasion of
Dam at Gulf of Finland
Daoud, Mohammad
Dashnak Tsutyun
Dead drops
Deaths,
See also Executions/assassinations
Defections
assassination of defectors
improving lot of foreign defectors in Moscow
increase in KGB defectors
re-recruiting defectors
redefections
sportsmen as likely defectors
Democratic Platform of the Communist Party
Denmark
“Detection and Approaches to Psychologically Vulnerable Subjects of the Enemy” (CIA document)
Détente. See also Cold War: rapprochement during
Dirty tricks . See also Disinformation; Letters fabricated
Disinformation
Disraeli, Benjamin
Dissidents
Divorce
Djilas, Milovan
Dobrynin, Anatoly Fyodorovich
Doctors’ Plot
Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak)
Documents, doctoring of
Dorobantu, Viktor
Double agents
Soviet couple from Armenia as
Drozdov, Yuri
Drunkenness
Dubček, Alexander
Dulles, Allen
Dzerzhinsky, Felix
Eastern Europe . See also Warsaw Pact
East Germany/East Berlin
KGB in
Economy
economic reforms
Electronic surveillance. See also Listening devices
Émigré groups
KGB infiltration of
Ukrainian
Enger, Valdik
England
expulsion of Soviet officials from
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)
See also Philby, Kim
Esterbrook, Ted
Eurocommunism
Evgeny (KGB officer)
Executions/assassinations
assassination of defectors
disinformation about assassinations
See also Markov, Georgi
Extortion
Fascism
Fate of the Drummer, The
FBI
attempt to entrap Kalugin
surveillance by
Fedorchuk, Vitaly
Fedorovskaya, Marina
Feklisov, Alexander
Feoktistov, Mikhail
Finland
KGB troops at Finnish border
First Directorate, The (Kalugin)
Ford, Gerald
Foreign counterintelligence
KGB departments of
See also Kalugin, Oleg: as head/deputy chief of foreign counterintelligence
Foreign Ministry. See also under KGB
Foreign Travel Commission
France
moles in French intelligence
Fulbright Foundation
Gagarin, Yuri
Gaidar, Arkady and Yegor
Gandhi, Indira
Gatchina (town)
Generation of the Sixties
Georgia (republic)
Germany. See also East Germany/East Berlin; West Germany
Gladek, Milos
Glasnost
Golitsyn, Anatoly
Golubev, Sergei
Gorbachev, Mikhail
freed after coup of 1991
speech after coup of 1991
as timid reformer
See also Kalugin, Oleg: meetings with Gorbachev
Gordievsky, Oleg
Gorovoi (handler of John Walker)
Gorovoi, Nikolai
Grachev, Pavel
Granin, Daniil
Greece
Greenpeace
Grigorenko, Grigory
Gromyko, Andrei
GRU (military intelligence)
KGB operating in
Guillaume, Günther
Gulag Archipelago, (Solzhenitsyn)
Gulf of Finland
Guryanov, Oleg
Gusak, Gustav
Gusinsky, Vladimir
Hall, Gus
Hammarskjöld, Dag
