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ABSTRACT
This article describes the Soviet illegals intelligence program that was established one hundred years ago. It offers a brief overview of the Soviet intelligence organizations involved in illegal intelligence, the essence of the illegal work, and the main phases of an illegal intelligence operation. In this context, Japan presents an interesting example to analyze as it has always been in the focus of Soviet intelligence. Three cases of the Soviet illegals, little known to the historians in the West, who operated in Japan from the mid-1950s till the mid-1990s, are looked into in bigger detail. The article shows that both the KGB and the GRU used a wide range of tools and methods to dispatch and run their operatives in Japan while showing a high degree of ingenuity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Richard Samuels, Special Duty. A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2019), 246
2 Stanislav Levchenko, On the Wrong Side: My Life in the KGB (Washington: Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1988), 89
3 TASS, “Serey Naryshkin: illegals – zolotoi fond vneshnei razvedki,” [Sergey Naryshkin: Illegals are the gold reserves of the foreign intelligence] TASS News Agency, 27 June 2017. https://tass.ru/interviews/4366965.
4 Rezidentura is sometimes translated as ‘field station’ which, in the author’s view, better describes a legal residency
5 Kontrrazvedovatel’nyi slovar‘, KGB SSSR, [The Counterintelligence Dictionary. The KGB of the USSR] Felix Dzerzhinsky KGB Academy, 1972, 176. http://genocid.lt/KGB/ci_dictionary.pdf
6 Since its inception in 1917, the KGB was renamed several times: VChK (1917–1922), OGPU (1923–1934); NKVD (1934–1943); NKGB-MGB (1943–1954); KGB (1954–1991). After 1991, the KGB’s First Chief Directorate was transferred into Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)
7 Richard Framingham, “Career trainee program, GRU style,” Studies in Intelligence 16 Fall (1966): 45–57, 45. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000609093.pdf.
8 About the structure of the KGB’s legal residency s. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The sword and the shield (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 571
9 Alexander Kouzminov, Biological espionage. Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West (London and Pennsylvania: Greenhill Books & Stackpole Books, 2005), 167–169, 185
10 Ibid, 111.
11 Vadim Kirpicheko, Razvedka: litsa i lichnosti, [Intelligence: Faces and Personalities] (Moscow: Geya, 1998), 81
12 Vladimir Kuzichkin, Inside the KGB, My life in Soviet Espionage (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990), 82–87; Alexander Kouzminov, Biological espionage, 88–99, 113–123; Gordon Corera, Russians Among Us, 24–39; and Nigel West, The Illegals. The double lives of the Cold War’s most secret agents (London: A John Curtis Book. Holder & Stoughton, 1993), 114–142:
13 Steve Kroft, “The Spy Among Us. Jack Barsky held a job at some of the top corporations in the U.S. and lived a seemingly normal life – all while spying for the Soviet Union.” CBS 60 Minutes, 10 May 2015. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-kgb-spy-jack-barsky-steve-kroft-60-minutes/.
14 Known as Fourth Directorate of the Red Army or Razvedupr. Richard Sorge also worked for the same organization.
15 Alexander Kulanov, Oshchepkov (Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya, 2017), 34–46, 136–145, 170–178, 264–270
16 Alexander Kulanov, Zorge (Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya, 2019); Gordon Prange, Target Tokyo. The story of the Sorge Spy Ring (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1984); Robert Whymant, Stalin’s Spy (London & New York: L.B. Tauris, 1996); Frederick Deakin and Richard Storry, The Case of Richard Sorge (London: Chatto & Windus, 1966); Owen Matthews, An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent (London: Bloomsbury, 2019)
17 Kulanov, Zorge, 402. This telegram was deciphered and translated in Moscow on the afternoon of 22 June 1941. Hence, the information it contained lost its value by this time, s. Kulanov, Zorge, 402
18 Kulanov, Zorge; Matthews, An Impeccable Spy
19 Victor Sebestyen, “An Impeccable Spy – thrilling biography of Stalin’s secret agent,” Financial Times, 22 March 2019 https://www.ft.com/content/fa11d17a-497d-11e9-bde6-79eaea5acb64.
20 Matt Wilce, “Journalist, Gymnast, Schoolboy, Spy,” The Ambassador. The Journal of the American School in Japan Fall (2017): 32–42, 37. https://issuu.com/asij/docs/1718_amb-f-resized__1_/3.
21 It is not just a figure of speech. Sorge’s house in Azabu district of Tokyo – demolished after the war – stood in the proximity to the Toriizaka police station which is still there, so that the policemen could virtually look through the windows of his house
22 Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki [The woman’s face of intelligence] (Moscow: OLMA-PRESS-Obrazovanies, 2002), 168
23 According to other sources in 1920, s. Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoy vneshnei razvedki [Documents on the history of the Russian foreign intelligence], vol. 6 (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2014), 216.
24 Vitaly Golovachev “Pod chuzhim imenem,” [Under the false name] in KGB otkryvaet tainy, [The KGB opens its secrets] ed. M. Filimoshin (Moscow: Patriot, 1992), 33–68; and Rovel’ Kashapov, ‘Kak v Yaponii pod prikrytiem rabotali suprugi-razvedchiki iz RT,’ [How spies couple from the Republic of Tatarstan worked undercover in Japan] Argumenty I Fakty, 17 June 2014. https://kazan.aif.ru/culture/1187770
25 Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 217.
26 Vadim Kirpicheko, Razvedka: litsa i lichnosti, [Intelligence: Faces and Personalities] (Moscow: Geya, 1998), 81.
27 The Ministry of the State Security.
28 Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 223; Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 167.
29 There is a controversy about this date as different sources provide different years. For example, Primakov mentions 1955, s. Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 223. The author would rather agree with Pavlov’s view of early 1953 if one assumes that Shamil Khamzin arrived in Tianjin in 1952 and the couple landed in Kobe in 1954. s. Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 167.
30 Nail Zainullin and Sergey Krylov, ‘Nelegal Khalef iz Arkhangel’ska’[An illegal Khalef from Arkhangelsk] Pravda Severa, 18 March 2020 9. https://cdna.pravdasevera.ru/60b0a0dbb43ef52e7c67d085/doc.pdf. Interestingly enough, the NKVD/MGB and the KGB were very pragmatic in their recruiting policies often hiring people with ‘socially-alien’ backgrounds. Another example in this context that comes to mind is Ivan Agayants – the founder and the first head of the ‘Line A’ (Active Measures) whose father was a priest. His two elder brothers also worked in the NKVD.
31 Vladimir Antonov, “Bir and Khalef. V strane tsvetushchikh khrizantem” [Bir and Khalev. In the country of the blossoming chrysenes] Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie, 28 February 2014. https://nvo.ng.ru/spforces/2014-02-28/12_bir_halef.html?print=Y.
32 Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 226; Rovel’ Kashapov, “Kak v Yaponii pod prikrytiem rabotali suprugi-razvedchiki iz RT.”
33 Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 168.
34 Rovel’ Kashapov, “Kak v Yaponii pod prikrytiem rabotali suprugi-razvedchiki iz RT.”
35 Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 169.
36 Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 230.
37 Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 171; Igor Atamanenko, “Perevoploshchenie razvedchika. Rabota kak spectakl’ v vostochnykh dekoratsiyakh,” [Reincarnation of the spy. Work as a performance under the oriental sceneries] Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 26 July 2019. https://nvo.ng.ru/spforces/2019-07-26/14_1054_razvedka.html?print=Y
38 The Japan Times, 11 May 1963 11. The Japan Times Electronic Archives
39 Evgeny Primakov, Ocherki, 228; Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 169
40 Vitaly Pavlov, Zhenskoe litso razvedki, 175; Vladimir Antonov, “Bir and Khalef. V strane tsvetushchikh khrizantem”; Rovel’ Kashapov, “Kak v Yaponii pod prikrytiem rabotali suprugi-razvedchiki iz RT.”
41 Vitaliy Golovachev, “13 let pod chuzhim imenem.” [13 years under the different name] Trud, 23 April 2004. http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2005/04/trud20050423.htm
42 Vitaly Golovachev, “Pod chuzhim imenem,” [Under the false name] in KGB otkryvaet tainy, [The KGB opens its secrets] ed. M. Filimoshin (Moscow: Patriot, 1992), 33–68, 67
43 Unknown director, V sadu podvodnykh kamnei [In the garden of pitfalls], 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc1HZPKmHPQ; Unknown director, Mech samuraya. Bir i Khalef [Sword of Samurai. Bir and Khalef], 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-rYYnArds
44 Rovel’ Kashapov, “Kak v Yaponii pod prikrytiem rabotali suprugi-razvedchiki iz RT”.
45 Vitaliy Golovachev, “13 let pod chuzhim imenem.”
46 The Japan Times, 14 August 1963 11. The Japan Times Electronic Archives
47 The Japan Times, 24 March 1964 4; The Japan Times, 28 October 1965 4. The Japan Times Electronic Archives
48 Masaki Matsumoto, Soko Ni CIA Ga Iru [Beware of CIA] (Tokyo: OTA Bookstore, 1971)
49 Masaki Matsumoto, Soko Ni CIA Ga Iru; ED, City man believes spies use copy of his passport. Edmonton Journal, 30 August 1969 54. Accessed via Newspapers.com
50 Edmonton Journal, 30 August 1969 54.
51 Masaki Matsumoto, TsRU sredi nas [CIA among us] (Moscow: Progress, 1972), 68–90. Translated by Yury Kh. Totrov.
52 The State Library of the Russian Federation. https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01007356734
53 Nigel West, The Illegals, 203.
54 Ibid.
55 A.L. Gramotin, “Integratsionnye protsessy v sfere razvedovatel’no-podryvnoi deyatel’nosti glavnogo protivnika protiv Sovetskogo Soyuza (na primere spetssluzhb SShA i Japonii).” [Integration processes in the field of reconnaissance and subversive activities of the main enemy against the Soviet Union (based on the example of the intelligence services of the United States and Japan)]. Trudy vysshei shkoly KGB, 44 (1988), 98–99. https://www.kgbdocuments.eu/assets/books/journals/tvs/tvs_44.pdf. The article is based on the PhD thesis of Lt. Colonel A. Gramotin that he defended at the KGB Academy in 1987. Trudy vysshei shkoly KGB, 44 (1988), 380
56 Masaki Matsumoto, TsRU sredi nas, 81.
57 Ibid, 86.
58 see note 53 above.
59 Donald A. Rollans died on 1 August 1997 at age 71. Edmonton Journal, 7 August 1997 18. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
60 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
61 Edmonton Journal, 30 August 1969 54. The RCMP investigation was probably suspended around 1969 after Matsumoto’s book had been published in Japan.
62 Ibid, 54.
63 The Japan Times, 2 March 1959 3. The Japan Times Electronic Archives.
64 The Japan Times, 11 April 1962 11. The same advertisement was printed on April 13 and on April 14. The Japan Times Electronic Archives.
65 Masaki Matsumoto, TsRU sredi nas, 72.
66 Ibid., 83.
67 Ibid, 76. Paul Aurell – military intelligence officer and linguist – was raised in Japan and was a son of a missionary K. E. Aurell. After the WWII, he worked as an insurance broker in Tokyo. s. McNaughton James, Nisei Linguists Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 2006), 84; AP, Officer sees long Jap war, describes life ‘Down Under’. Arizona Public, June 26, 1945, 11; The Japan Christian Yearbook 1956 (Tokyo: Christian Literature Society of Japan, 1956), 41.
68 Ibid, 68.
69 Victor Cherkashin, Spy handler: memoir of a KGB officer: the true story of the man who recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 226.
70 Nigel West, The Illegals, 203.
71 Masaki Matsumoto, TsRU sredi nas, 68.
72 David Martin, Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War’s Most Important Agents (New York: Skyhorse; Reprint Edition, 2018), 107–108.
73 Clarence Ashley, CIA Spymaster: The Agency’s Top Case Officer Who Handled Penkovsky and Popov (Gretna, Louisiana, 2004), 230.
74 Eva Dilon, Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, his Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship that Helped End the Cold War (New York: Harper, 2017); Milton Bearden, The Main Enemy (London: Century, 2003); and Tennent Bagley, “Ghosts of the Spy Wars: A Personal Reminder to Interested Parties,” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 28, no. 1 (2015): 1–37
75 The SVR’s website “Kim Evgeniy Ivanovich.” SVR’s official website, 28 January 2020. http://svr.gov.ru/history/person/kim.htm; TASS, “SVR rasskazala o semerykh rassekrechennykh razvedchikakh nelegalakh. Dvoe iz nikh stali Geroyami Sovetskogo Soyuza, dvoe – Geroyami Rossii,” [The SVR revealed seven declassified illegals. Two of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union, two – Heroes of Russia], TASS News Agency, 28 January 2020.
https://yandex.ru/turbo?text=https%3A%2F%2Ftass.ru%2Fobschestvo%2F7625985
76 About Nikolay Dolgopolov’s work and his relations with the SVR s. Filip Kovacevic, “Nikolay Dolgopolov: the storyteller of Soviet intelligence history,” Intelligence and National Security 36, no. 5 (2021): 745–753.
77 Nikolay Dolgopolov, “Oni skryvalis’ za Rodinu. Razvedchiki-nelegaly, kotorymi gorditsya strana,” [They went undercover for the Motherland. The Illegals whom the country is proud of], Argumenty i Fakty, 30 May 2017. https://aif.by/timefree/history/oni_skryvalis_za_rodinu_razvedchiki-nelegaly_kotorymi_gorditsya_strana.
78 TV Zvezda, “Na strazhe bezopasnosti: SVR rassekretila biografii semi vydayushchikhsya razvedchikov,” [Guarding security: The SVR declassified the biographies of seven prominent intelligence officers] TV Zvezda.ru, 28 January 2020. https://tvzvezda.ru/news/20201281515-p9GXX.html.
79 Asya Khovanskaya, “Naryshing rassekretil imena semi vydayushchikhsya razvedchikov-nelegalov. Nekotorykh iz nikh – pri zhizni,” [Naryshkin has declassified the names of seven prominent illegals. Some of them during their lifetime] Komsomol’skaya Pravda, 28 January 2020. https://www.kp.ru/daily/27084/4156162/
80 Evgeniy Kim’s tombstone at the Moscow’s Troekurov Cemetry: https://koryo-saram.ru/v-chuzhoj-strane-zanyal-vysokij-post/
81 BBC New,s “‘My poyavlayemsya iz niotkuda’: kem byli rassekrecheny shpiony SSSR?” [‘We appear out of nowhere’: who declassified spies of the USSR?] BBC News/Russian Service, 29 January 2020.
82 The JT, “Police obtain arrest warrant for suspected Moscow spy,” The Japan Times, 31 July 1997 2. The Japan Times Electronic Archives
83 The JT, “State gets missing Russian spy’s case,” The Japan Times, 14 August 2008 2. The Japan Times Electronic Archives
84 Stanislav Lekarev, “Iz Tokyo skrylsya nelegal GRU,” [GRU illegal escaped from Tokyo] Argumenty Nedeli, 21 August 2008. https://argumenti.ru/espionage/n145/38373
85 The SVR’s website, “Kim Evgeniy Ivanovich.” SVR’s official website, 28 January 2020. http://svr.gov.ru/history/person/kim.htm
86 The Japan Times, 31 July 1997 2; The Japan Times, 14 August 2008 2; Stanislav Lekarev, “Iz Tokyo skrylsya nelegal GRU”
87 The role was similar to that of Shamil Khamzin.
88 The JT, “Police obtain arrest warrant for suspected Moscow spy,” The Japan Times, 31 July 1997 2. The Japan Times Electronic Archives.
89 Andrey Fesyun, Igry nevidimok [Games of the invisibles] (Moscow: Serebryanye niti, 2019), 367–373.
90 David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, The cult at the end of the world. The incredible story of Aum, (London: Arrow Books, 1996), 190, 193–194; and Yulia Mikhailova, “The Aum supreme truth sect in Russia,” Japanese Studies 16, no. 2–3 (1996): 15–34, 20–21.
91 David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, The cult at the end of the world, 193.
92 Kuranty, 20 February 1992 8. Cited in: Gordon Bennett, ‘The SVR. Russia’s Intelligence Service’ (The Conflict Studies Research Centre. Directorate General Development and Doctrine. Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, March, 2000). https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/96666/00_Mar_2.pdf
93 Alexander Kouzminov, Biological espionage, 46.
94 David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, The cult at the end of the world, 193–194.
95 Tainy Vekov, „Itiro Kuroba – Sovetskii razvedchik-nelegal v Tokio,” [Ichiro Kuroba – the Soviet illegal in Tokyo] Tainy Vekov, 30 September 2013. https://agesmystery.ru/rubriki/lica-razvedki/itiro-kuroba-sovetskij-razvedchik-nelegal-v-tokio/
96 The Japan Times, 14 August 2008 2.
97 The JT, ‘Former spy says Russia has slashed its agent presence in Japan by 75%,’ The Japan Times 22 October 1993 5. The Japan Times Electronic Archives.
98 Andrey Fesyun, Igry nevidimok [Games of the invisibles] (Moscow: Serebryanye niti, 2019), 367–373.
99 TASS, “Serey Naryshkin: illegals – zolotoi fond vneshnei razvedki.”
100 Mark Galeotti, “Operational situation,” Jane’s Intelligence Review 30, no. 10 (2018): 8–13, 10
101 C. D. Edbrook, “Principles of deep cover,” Studies in Intelligence 5 Summer (1961): 1–29, 28–29. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000608982.pdf.
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Grigorij Serscikov
Grigorij Serscikov is an independent researcher and consultant. As a management consultant with 15 years of experience, he provides strategic advice and analysis for the companies of the energy sector. In his Ph.D. thesis successfully defended at The Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law & Policy (CEPMLP) of the University of Dundee in 2011, Dr. Serscikov analyzed the choice of entry strategies for the oil service companies. In it, he has shown that political risk and surprise – often neglected in the entry choice analysis – are, indeed, the crucial elements that can make or break the entire undertaking. Master’s Degree in Crisis and Security Management gained at Leiden University has further sparked his interest in the concept of intelligence failure, strategic surprise, and, ultimately, intelligence history.