Russian Secret Police Part 7: Brezhnev's KGB

How Russia's top spy agency fought the Cold War

Welcome to Secret Police

Do you have a problem with authority? Because I do. My name is Jack and I’m on a mission to build a healthy skepticism towards those in power. I spend hours engaging with my morbid fascination with dictatorships and share with you the history and methods of the world’s most brutal secret police forces.

This article will cover events during Brezhnev’s leadership of the USSR. This period is often called the Era of Stagnation mostly due to lackluster economic growth. I heard a Russian Youtuber describe this period as an existence within the movie GroundHog Day -- nothing changed. Stagnation or not, the Cold War was an ever-looming presence. The Soviets couldn’t afford to let their guard down in the game of superpowers, and the KGB dealt in deception.

Let’s take a deep dive into the KGB’s web of infiltration and spying during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev. We’ll discover how Brezhnev rose from a typical family to the top of the Communist Party; uncover KGB disinformation campaigns, Soviet suppression of foreign dissidents, meet the new KGB chief with a taste for repression.

Korean Air Flight 007

It’s September the 1st, 1983 around 5am local time. You’re a passenger on a Boeing 747 flying 35,000 feet above the Pacific ocean. You stretch your aching back as much as you can, thinking about the comforts of home waiting for you in Seoul, South Korea. Only memories let you escape beyond this metal tube of which you’ve been confined since the stop-over in Anchorage, and before that, New York; these business trips eat up precious time you could otherwise spend with your family.

Somewhere on this flight is a passenger of note, Congressman Larry McDonald of Georgia’s 7th Congressional district, and a member of the famously anti-communist John Birch Society. You thought you caught a glimpse of him when you first boarded, but for now, you close your eyes and sink back into your seat.

Suddenly, there’s an explosion and the plane jolts from its course as if yanked by an invisible tether. Terrified screams and howling wind blast your ears. Your arms flail and your stomach twists with the wounded plane. The jet stabilizes momentarily then pitches down and tumbles towards the sea. Luggage erupts from overhead bins, people are thrown like rag dolls inside the cabin. Gravity grips the plane in a fatal embrace and feeds the ocean 269 human souls.

Let’s Recap Part 6

The Soviets crushed the German war machine in April 1945. Khrushchev spent much of his time in Kiev helping rebuild his native Ukraine. He knew tragedy from his first wife’s death. Destruction surrounded Khrushchev through his experiences in both the Russian Civil War and battles against Nazi Germany. After the war, he was recalled to Moscow to join Stalin’s inner circle at the Kremlin.

Following Stalin’s death, Khrushchev eliminated the notorious Lavrenti Beria. He later denounced Stalin’s terrors in a secret speech to the party congress. He wanted to steer the Soviet Union in a new direction. No Tsar or Bolshevik ever visited the United States. Khrushchev was the first Russian head to tour the United States, visit American friends, and meet ordinary Americans. The KGB also underwent significant reforms. Ivan Serov, the agency’s first chief, never held a position on the Central Committee. The Communist Party, not the political police, was the Soviet Union’s center of power.

The KGB turned its attention to external threats. They infiltrated foreign institutions across the world. The KGB field tested penetrating the Indian government and refined their methods for future missions.

The KGB deployed agents like Rudolph Abel whose real name was William August Fisher. He stole data on US nuclear secrets. Abel tinkered with photo techniques, shrinking paragraphs of text into a mere dot on the page. He hid messages in hollowed-out screws. Another KGB agent and encryption expert, Jack Barsky, explained how the KGB recruited new agents. The KGB found you; people didn’t apply to the agency.

The KGB communicated with Washington via back channels during the Cuban Missile Crisis. KGB agent Alexander Feklisov and ABC correspondent John Scali made an informal deal to remove Soviet missiles in Cuba in exchange for the removal of American missiles in Turkey. American and Soviet officials settled on this deal to avert nuclear war, but Khrushchev’s days in power were numbered.

In 1964, Leonid Brezhnev, with the help of the KGB, secured power for himself.

A Short Biography of Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December the 19th, 1906 in Kamenskoye, now Kamianske, Ukraine, a small city on the Dnipro River in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Yakovlahvich Brezhnev, was a skilled metalworker, and his mother, Natalia Denisovna Mazalov, was an educated woman. The Brezhnev’s were working-class, but Ilya’s specialized skills afforded the family more than the average comforts. Leonid’s parents valued a good education. Natalia dreamt of her son becoming an engineer while Ilya imagined his son as a diplomat. The Brezhnev’s did well for themselves and Leonid spent summers swimming in the Dniper River.

The family’s fortunes eviscerated during the October Revolution in 1917. They were forced to leave Kamenskoye for Kursk where Leonid took up a job loading trucks. He went from having something to very little thanks to the Bolsheviks. The subsequent Russian Civil War exposed Leonid to suffering, violence, and famine.

The Bezhnev’s did their best to adapted to the situation. Leonid completed an education in land management and metallurgy and graduated from the Kamenskoye Metallurgical Technicum in 1935. He became an engineer in Ukraine’s iron and steel industry. His true passion was in the arts, specifically poetry.

Leonid joined the Communist Party Youth organization called Komsomol in 1923 and joined the Communist Party in 1929. He completed military service between 1935 and 1936 and became a political commissar at a tank factory.

Stalin’s purges encircled Leonid but how close he was to danger is unclear. Brezhnev’s career advanced as party positions became vacant. He directed a metallurgical technical college and became deputy director of the Kamenskoye city Soviet. In 1938, Leonid led the propaganda department of the Dnipropetrovsk regional Communist Party. He earned another promotion to regional Party Secretary in 1939. He started to build a power base as Party Secretary.

When Nazi Germany invaded in June 1941, Leonid mobilized with the Red Army. He helped evacuate the city of Dnipropetrovsk, modern day Dnipro. Brezhnev was assigned to his former army position of political commissar. He boosted troop morale among the troops. He embodied Stalin’s regime.

The Germans overran Ukraine in 1942 and Leonid transferred to the Red Army’s Transcaucasian Front. In 1943, he led the Political Department of 18th Army which later reorganized into 1st Ukrainian Front. Nikita Khrushchev was their senior political commissar. Khrushchev took Leonid as his protege before the war. Their connection proved critical to Brezhnev’s ascension to power. As the Soviets battled the German’s to Berlin, Brezhnev became chief political commissar of 4th Ukrainian Front. They liberated but then occupied Prague in May 1945.

From the late 1940s to the early 50s, Leonid advanced in the Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia Communist Parties. He was temporarily transferred to the Moldova Soviet Republic to work with future General Secretary, Konstantine Chernanko. Leonid met Stalin in 1952 and became a Presidium candidate, formerly the Politburo. Stalin died in March 1953 and Khrushchev jockeyed for power.

Leonid’s career prospered under Khrushchev’s regime. In 1954, he became second secretary of the Kazakh Soviet Republic, modern day Kazakhstan. He took charge of improving agricultural productivity but instead developed missile and nuclear arms programs at Baykonur Cosmodrome space port. Leonid’s career stumbled when crop yields failed to meet Moscow’s expectations. Moscow recalled Leonid in 1956. He avoided the perception of failure to improve harvests and alleviate food shortages. Despite the hiccup, Leonid continued to oversee space and defense programs and remained in Khrushchev’s inner circle.

According to Susanne Schattenberg, Brezhnev never saw combat. He brushed danger at times and witnessed the aftermath of battle. Brezhnev carried an aversion to violence from his experience in the war. His experience motivated him to avoid war with the West during his rule. Schattenberg says the Soviet propaganda machine exaggerated Brezhnev’s war contribution.

Brezhnev’s Rise to Power

To understand Brezhnev’s rise to power, we have to understand Khrushchev’s vulnerabilities. In 1957, Khrushchev crushed a coup attempt by Giorgi Malenkov thanks to the support of the Red Army. Malenkov was exiled to Kazakhstan and Khrushchev seized the opportunity to solidify his power. But the longer Khrushchev held power, the more he alienated key constituents.

Economic stagnation

Moscow’s centrally planned economic policies failed to meet local industrial and agricultural demand. Soviet Gross National Product (GNP) grew a mere 6% between 1951 and 1955; US GNP grew 16% during that same period. Soviet economic growth slowed to 5.8% GNP between 1956 and 1960, and 5% GNP between 1961 and 1965. Their economy grew at a decreasing rate and lagged behind American economic might. If you’re supposedly the world’s counterweight superpower to the United States, why the lackluster growth? To be fair, Soviet planners constructed affordable housing or Khrushchevkas. Commie block apartments that dominate the urban east. Markets opened for new consumer goods like televisions and appliances.

Khrushchev Fumbles on the International Stage

Sino-Soviet relations hinged on a tenuous alliance. Stalin and Mao were not best comrades but Khrushchev strained the relationship. China unified in 1949 as the People’s Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party. Mao and Stalin’s ideologies split into two distinct iterations of Marxism. Stalinism meant authoritarian rule, forced industrialization and collectivization, and harsh punishment for those who deviated. Stalinism rejected exporting Communist revolution in favor of “socialism in one country.”

Maoism rejected industrial workers’ revolution in favor of agrarian peasant revolution. In theory, oppressed agricultural workers across the world would overthrow their western, imperial overlords. Mao also believed in rehabilitation instead of punishment. Detractors of Mao’s ideas could be reeducated instead of shot or exiled. Thus Stalinism and Maoism won separate spheres of influence.

Mao disliked Khrsuchev’s liberal reforms. He thought Khrushchev wrecked Communism’s image by crushing the Budapest Uprising. A strange criticism from a man who mass-murdered sparrows. Mao also thought that Khrushchev mishandled the Cuban Missile Crisis in a way that made the Soviet leader look weak. Thus Mao favored Communism’s true home in China.

Mao wasn’t the only one rattled by Khrushchev’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Communist Party elites soured over Khrushchev’s leadership. Khrushchev upset the economic well-being and security of the Party elite. To borrow terminology from the Dictator’s Handbook, Khrushchev lost the support of the influentials: people in the Communist Party who formed the foundation of his powerbase. They wanted him out.

The KGB Betrays Khrushchev

You know who else wanted him out? The KGB’s leadership: Alexander Shelepin and Vladimir Semichastny. As KGB chief, Semichastny warned Khrushchev of any attempts on the Premier’s power. But now the KGB plotted to remove Khrushchev. He was totally unaware of the power play while on vacation at a Black Sea resort.

Among the conspirators, a minority wanted only to remove Khrushchev from his job as First Secretary but remain Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Most, including Brezhnev, wanted Khrushchev removed from power and politics completely.

On October 14th, 1964, Brezhnev and comrade Nikolai Podgorny denounced Khrushchev before the Central Committee and the Presidium voted to remove Khrushchev from power. Some Party members wanted Khrushchev to face punishment but Brezhnev persuaded them otherwise. Semichastny called Khrushchev and ordered his immediate return to Moscow.

Brezhnev’s in Charge

Brezhnev won Communism and became General Secretary, but ruled as part of a troika or triumvirate alongside the Chairman of the Presidium, Nikolai Podgorny, and Premier, Alexei Kosygin. Why this arrangement? The Central Committee forbade any one person from holding multiple leadership positions between October 1964 and the mid-1970s. They feared somebody like Khrushchev concentrating their power.

But Brezhnev maneuvered to concentrate power. He forced Podgorny into retirement and Alexei Kosygin died in 1980. He had the USSR in his hands. Brezhnev preferred a less bombastic leadership style than Khrushchev’s. He listened to the opinions of his colleagues and waited to make major decisions until securing the support of close associates.

Less appealing was Brezhnev’s dive back to Stalinist-style repression. Brezhnev reversed many of Khrushchev’s liberalizing reforms and adopted a much more authoritarian form in politics and culture. In 1966, two Soviet dissidents, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinysky, were tried and found guilty of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda for satirizing Soviet life. The KGB surveilled them for years before making the arrests.

In May 1967, Yuri Andropov replaced Semichastny as KGB chairman. The KGB regained much of the power and extrajudicial status enjoyed by Stalin’s NKVD. They infiltrated anti-Soviet groups but both Brezhnev and Andropov restrained the level of violence allowed.

The KGB under Brezhnev

Domestic Repression

President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 caught the world’s attention including the KGB. They’re on the list of possible assassins. Chairman Semichastny ordered that Lee Harvey Oswald be investigated. Oswald lived in the USSR for a time; but, the KGB’s investigation found no evidence of espionage activities. An operation so secret would have no record.

The Soviet government glorified activities by previous spies. Members of the Cambridge Five, Richard Sorge, and Colonel Rudolf Abel captured Soviet fascinations. Semichastny honored Colonel Abel in Pravda in May 1965. The government hoped to boost public morale by bringing these spies to the forefront.

Semichastny plummeted from power when Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, defected to the United States. Her defection posed no security threat but tarnished the Soviet image. Semichastny ordered the KGB to kidnap Svetlana, nicknamed Kukushka or “cuckoo bird,” and return her to the Soviet Union. The plot was exposed, several KGB agents were arrested, and Semichastny’s days as KGB Chairman were numbered. In 1967, the Politburo voted to remove him and appointed Yuri Andropov. Svetlana lived in Richland Center, Wisconsin until her death in 2011.

Andropov led the KGB to familiar territory in the 1970s. According to historian Ronald Hingley, Andropov’s appointment meant losing his position on the central committee. Remember, KGB chairmen were banned from full membership to limit their power. Instead, Andropov earned candidate membership in the Presidium, the first since Beria. This re-invigorated security state incarcerated thousands of political and religious prisoners like in Stalin’s time.

The KGB surveilled Soviet citizens and foreign students, diplomats, or whomever they could blackmail in the future. Gadgets like cigarette boxes fitted with tiny cameras, briefcases with audio equipment, and radio bugs collected audio and video.

The government censored artistic and written expression. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a dissident Soviet writer, was imprisoned under Stalin’s regime, later exonerated by Khrushchev, but stalked by Brezhnev’s KGB. The KGB confiscated Solzhenitsyn’s draft of The First Circle. He wrote The Gulag Archipelago in secret. The book exposed an international audience to the Gulag’s horrors. In August 1971, the KGB attempted to poison Solzhenitsyn with ricin. He survived but suffered permanent illness until he died at age 89.

International Espionage

Race War

In the United States, the KGB’s failed to spark a race war. A mission dubbed Operation Pandora. Soviet defector, Vasili Nikitich Mirokhin, collected roughly 30 years worth of notes, documents, and other materials on KGB operations. Mitrokhin’s archive alleges that, in July 1971, the KGB head of the North America department, Anatoli Tikhonovich Kireyev, ordered spies to plant explosives in quote “the Negro section of New York [City].” In the ensuing chaos, KGB agents would call Black organizations and accuse the Jewish Defense League of the attack. US law enforcement arrested the plotters before the operation started.

Information Warfare

There are many other KGB operations mentioned by the Mitrokhin Archive. I’ll qualify each with an ‘allegedly’ and you draw your own conclusions. In 1957, the KGB blackmailed Tom Driberg, a British Member of Parliament (MP), of the Labour Party. Allegedly, Driberg interviewed Guy Burgess, one of the Cambridge Five. Driberg was forced to omit Burgess’ alcohol addiction. If the omission wasn’t made, the KGB threatened to release photos of Driberg having sex with a man . . . allegedly. Homosexuality was a criminal offense until 1967 in Great Britain.

The KGB tried to bug MI6 installations in the Middle East and Henry Kissinger’s office. According to the Mitrokhin archive, the KGB allegedly controlled several Indian news agencies. Reporters wrote thousands of articles, whether they knew their employer was the KGB or not. The KGB also allegedly provided financial assistance to Idira Gandhi.

In the United States, the KGB promoted false JFK assassination theories. They spread rumors about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s sexuality. They attempted to smear Martin Luther King Jr’s reputation.

Operation Infektion

The KGB launched Operation Infektion. The campaign spread the idea that Human Immunodeficiency virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDs) was created by the US government. It suggests that HIV was a bioweapon created at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Fort Detrick, by the way, houses military and civilian agencies like the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID). Defected KGB agent Ilya Dzerkvelov said Operation Infektion started in 1962 with an article for one of the KGB-owned Indian newspapers called Patriot. In July 1983, a letter to the editor was published by an anonymous and supposed anthropologist claiming the US military developed weaponized HIV.

According to this anonymous author, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent scientists to Africa and Latin America to collect dangerous viruses for analysis at Fort Detrick, and HIV developed from their research.

Soviet newspapers like Literaturnaya Gazeta, a KGB propaganda outlet, published stories about the AIDS panic in the west. The KGB’s secret weapon was constancy. They published roughly 40 stories in 1987 alone; pushed the narrative in 80 different countries and in 30 different languages. Tell somebody something enough times and eventually they believe it.

The scientific consensus is that HIV originated in Central Africa in certain Chimpanzees. According to a 1992 report by Thomas Boghart in Studies for Intelligence, 15% of Americans considered it definitely or probably true that quote "the AIDS virus was created deliberately in a government laboratory". In a 2005 study by the RAND Corporation and Oregon State University, nearly 50% of African Americans believed AIDS was man-made. Over 25% of the study sample believed AIDS was produced in a government lab, 12% believed it was created by the CIA, and 15% believed that AIDS was made to genocide black people.

The KGB’s narrative didn’t necessarily affect the global response to HIV. The narrative influenced how some people wanted to approach prevention and treatment. In a New Yorker article, Josh Yaffa cited several studies that showed people who believe the government created HIV were less likely to practice safe sex and less likely to take the recommended medications to treat HIV.

Operation Cedar

Operation Cedar was allegedly a KGB plot to disrupt US power and trade infrastructure. Power Plants like Hungry Horse Dam in Flathead County, Montana, were targeted for demolition. The KGB targeted oil refineries and pipelines that cross the US-Canadian border. They planned to detonate explosives in the Port of New York. Spies photographed oil refineries from different angles searching for weak points. Best entry and get-away routes points were plotted. The KGB worked for 13 years on these projects from 1959 to 1972, and none of which occurred.

Assassination

Georgi Markov was born in March 1929 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Markov contracted tuberculosis at age 19. Ever the nerd, tuberculosis did not diminish his intellectual pursuits and eventually studied chemical engineering. Markov visited various hospitals for treatment. During this time, he developed a love for writing.

He published a novel and a series of short stories in 1957 and 1961 respectively. Markov’s writing caught the attention of Bulgaria’s communist Head of State, Todor Zhivkov. The People’s Republic of Bulgaria allied with the Warsaw Pact during this time. Zhivkov was so impressed by Markov’s talent as a writer and playwright that Markov was approached to serve the regime.

One source claimed that Markov was so close to the dictator that he was invited on Zhivkov’s hunting trips. But for some reason, Markov suddenly fell out of favor with the Bulgarian government. He fled to Italy to visit family and wait for his relationship with the Bulgarian authorities to improve. While in Italy, the Bulgarian government refused to extend Markov’s passport and banned his books.

Markov relocated to London in 1969. He worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC World Service, Radio Free Europe, and later Deutsche Welle. He met his wife Annabel and they had one daughter.

Bulgaria’s Communist regime frowned at Markov’s repatriation to the west. His work was censored from libraries and bookstores. Any mention of the man was erased. He was unpersoned . . . to borrow from Orwell. Markov broadcasted critiques and criticism of Bulgaria’s regime and Zhivkov himself. Despite their best attempts to censor Markov’s broadcasts, the Bulgarian regime failed to jam radio signals. Bulgarian citizens heard Markov describe Zhivkov as an uneducated, C-tier dictator. Remember, Markov travelled with Zhivkov on hunting trips. I bet he heard all kinds of stuff. For Zhivkov, it was like having his Google search history leaked.

On September 7th, 1978, Markov strolled across London’s Waterloo Bridge. A twinge of pain, like a bee sting, radiated the back of his right leg. He heard a wooden object strike the ground. Markov swiveled his head. A stranger lifted an umbrella from the sidewalk and dashed across the street to a taxi. Markov watched the taxi shrink into a speck in the distance. The bus finally arrived. When Markov arrived at work, he examined the back of his leg and discovered a pimple. Markov developed a fever that evening and was admitted to St. James hospital. He’d struggle for a few more days until he died on September 11, 1978.

The Cause of Markov’s Death

Doctors tried to determine the cause of death. Markov’s symptoms indicated sepsis but he didn’t respond to antibiotics. During an autopsy, they focused on the pimple-like spot on Markov’s thigh. It needed to be biopsied because, if Markovs was poisoned, the police needed concrete evidence.

Dr. Rufus Crompton performed the autopsy. Parton Down, one of the British military’s biological and chemical weapons labs, analyzed tissue samples. David Gall, a Research Medical Officer, took cross sectional tissue slices and extracted a tiny ball bearing. It was about the size of a pen tip. An electron microscope revealed two holes in the bearings.

Parton Down determined that the bearing’s holes formed wells. A poison was sealed in the wells with a sugar coating, or another water soluble substance, that dissolved inside the body. A metal analysis revealed the bearing was composed of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. Platinum and iridium were likely selected because they are stable transition metals that the immune system doesn’t attack. But they didn’t know what substance killed Markov.

The breakthrough came from an identical attack in Paris a few weeks prior. Vladimir Kostov exited the Paris Metro when a stinging sensation radiated from his back. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw a man running in the opposite direction. Kostov developed a high fever, was admitted to the hospital but made a full recovery.

Kostov heard the news about Markov and made the connection. Doctors removed a pimple from Kostov’s back and the samples were sent to London. They found a pen-tip-sized ball bearing with two holes with traces of ricin. Derived from the Castor oil plant, just 1mg of ricin can kill a human adult. Ricin is a ribosome inhibiting protein or RIP for Rest in Pieces because ricin enters the cell and destroys an essential function of DNA.

How did Kostov survive the attack? Kostov wore a heavy sweater the day of the attack. The extra layers prevented the ball bearing from injecting too deep in the skin, restricting the poison’s access to capillaries or the lymph vessels. Kostov received a fraction of the dose needed to kill him. He got lucky.

Who Killed Markov?

Exactly who killed Markov was another mystery.

We know the Bulgarian government under Zhivkov had a motive to kill Markov. Sources indicate that Bulgarian industry couldn’t produce ricin, but the Soviets could due their long standing biological weapons program. Russia also has or had platinum deposits in the Urals and certain regions in Siberia but Bulgaria has no major deposits of platinum ore.

My read on the situation is that a Bulgarian agent, with KGB support, assassinated Georgi Markov. The assassin’s identity has not been determined. Investigators in post-Communist Bulgaria reopened the case in 1991. A file was discovered among archives, shedding light on the killer. An agent based in Copenhagen, code named PICCADILLY, under the assumed alias, Francesco Gullino, an Italian man recruited by Bulgarian intelligence. Police caught and interrogated Gullino but no compelling evidence was uncovered and he was released. But even if Gullino was the assassin, the statute of limitations, under Bulgarian law, expired in September 2008. Nobody’s been charged with Markov’s murder.

Cold War Battlefronts

Europe

The Soviets occupied Czechoslovakia after World War II. Czechoslovakia joined the Warsaw Pact in 1955 along with the Soviet Union, Romania, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Albania. Czechoslovakia’s standard of living declined. Resentment grew towards Moscow. Much of the resentment directed at Brezhnev.

Alexander Dubček was elected as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but he wasn’t the typical Communist. He enacted policies to decentralize the economy and usher in partial democratization. Dubček loosened restrictions on media, speech, and travel. He also presided over the country’s split into the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic.

Moscow hated Dubček’s attempts to decentralize Communist authority. The KGB launched Operation Progress. They infiltrated Charles University in Prague, the Socialist and Christian Democrat parties, and other political organizations. In August 1968, roughly half a million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Soviets estimated it would take 4 days to subdue the country. Eight months later, Dubček resigned and was removed from the party.

Vietnam

What level of involvement did the KGB have in the Vietnam War? In general, they assisted Vietnamese Intelligence with varying results. The KGB sent a team of radio interception specialists to train the North Vietnamese.

In January 1992, the New York Times reported that, according to sources in Hanoi, at least one American serviceman was interrogated by a KGB agent in 1973. KGB General Oleg Kalugin, testified before a Senate Committee that numerous American POWs were interviewed between 1975 and 1978. They gathered intel and tried to recruit additional spies. Additionally, Soviet Army Intelligence, the GRU, also interrogated American POWs. The GRU wanted to know how to compress radio transmissions before sending. That technique reduces the time in sending and receiving messages.

Sports

The battlefield wasn’t the only arena the KGB competed for supremacy.

Countries show off their power via their athleticism. The KGB helped Soviet athletes exude strength on the international playing field. In 1980, Yuri Andropov appointed three KGB agents to the Soviet Olympic Committee. They were Anatoly Gresko, who was banned from the UK for espionage; Semyon Nitkin, an associate of one of the Cambridge Five and another chap named Popov.

During the 1980 Olympic games, Soviet officers posed as International Olympic Committee anti-doping authorities. They altered drug tests to cover up illegal performance enhancement. A couple sources note that when Soviet teams traveled abroad a KGB agent monitored them. This was to ensure players or coaches weren’t too friendly with their Canadian or American counterparts. The United States boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

Why was the Soviet Union interested in Afghanistan? In 1973, Mohammed Daoud Khan seized power from his cousin in a coup. He declared himself president and prime minister in the newly formed Afghan Republic. At first he pushed for progressive policies but Afghanistan’s left wing and the traditionalists soared on his leadership. Khan reacted by restricting civil liberties.

In April 1978, a revolution toppled Mohammed Khan and ushered in the Communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan with Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin. The new government pushed for women’s rights, socialism, and equality which alienated Afghanistan’s rural, conservative class.

Disagree and you’d be thrown in prison or executed. The harsh treatment sparked riots and revolt. President Nur Mohammad Taraki requested Red Army assistance to quell the riots and coup the Prime Minister. Amin caught wind of the plot and, after some cloak and dagger maneuvering, Taraki visited the Almighty. Three assassins smothered Taraki to death with a pillow.

From Brezhnev’s point of view, unrest in Afghanistan could be exacerbated by the Islamic revolution in Iran. Revolution might spread across Muslim majority Soviet Republics like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan. They might break with the Soviet Union. In particular, Kazakhstan was the home of Baykonur Cosmodrome and nuclear test sites. Kazakhstan was about 12% of the Soviet Union’s landmass. When you look at a map of the Soviet Union, compare it to Russia, and realize Russia’s head used to be a lot bigger, well that’s because of Kazakhstan. On December 24th, 1979, Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan to stabilize their situation and prevent cascading effects.

Some sources I read indicate that the decision to invade Afghanistan may not have been decided upon with the full mental faculties of the General Secretary. Brezhnev’s health deteriorated through the 1970s. Job stress, heavy drinking and smoking took their toll. In 1975, Brezhnev suffered a stroke. Yuri Andropov, the KGB Chairman, and a handful of other ministers shared the duties Brezhnev struggled to perform.

The KGB tried to poison Hafizullah Amin by contaminating cans of Coca-Cola with a toxin. When staff served the drinks at a lunch gathering of Amin’s Party members some of them lost consciousness. Not long after the Coke poisoning, KGB Spetsnaz and GRU special forces stormed the presidential palace.

The invasion was initially successful. The Soviets captured or destroyed bridges, roads, and communication lines. Prime Minister Amin evaded capture until he died, allegedly, in the crossfire during the assault. Nobody really knows how he was killed.

The Soviets backed a more moderate leader, Babrak Karmal. Regional warlords retreated to the mountains as the Red Army advanced. These warlords united against their common enemy and formed the Mujahideen. They gave the Soviets hell with their guerilla tactics in the mountainous terrain. The United States funneled weapons through Pakistan to the Mujahideen. The call for Jihad or Holy War attracted foreign fighters and supporters, including a young Osama bin Laden.

As the war dragged on, the Mujahideen wore down the Red Army, killing nearly 15,000 Soviet soldiers. Of the KGB’s 90,000 border troops and other KGB detachments, about 570 died during the war. The Soviets withdrew in February 1989.

Brezhnev’s illness and Death

Brezhnev’s health further deteriorated between 1981 and 1982. He suffered an injury during a factory tour. November 7th, 1982 was his last public appearance at Lenin's Mausoleum. He suffered a heart attack and died November 10th, 1982.

Andropov & Chernenko

Yuri Andropov succeeded Brezhnev. Korean Airlines 007 was shot down during Andropov’s reign. KAL 007 drifted by mistake into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin Island. Radar monitors thought the airliner was a spy plane. The Soviet fighter pilot, Major Gennadiy Osipovich, thought the airliner was a spy plane configured to look like a passenger jet complete with navigation lights and two rows of windows. Osipovich attempted to warn the plane to leave Soviet airspace. For some reason, KAL 007 did not vacate nor realized they violated Soviet airspace. Osipovich shot down KAL 007 and returned to base.

This incident sparked fears of nuclear war. During Brezhnev’s leadership, the Red Army’s budget increased roughly 40% between 1965 and 1970. By 1983, the military consumed 12% of Soviet GNP. Western observers estimated Soviet forces somewhere between about 3 and 5 million total. Red Army ground forces could field about 3 million troops in preparation for war.

Andropov deregulated select industries in the USSR but the command economy model remained. He punished Brezhnev’s friends involved in corruption scandals. He continued the war in Afghanistan. He also increased the Red Army’s budget in response to President Ronald Reagan’s hawkish “Evil Empire” speech.

American culture exuded anti-Soviet sentiment in the 1980s. The original Red Dawn showed a hypothetical Soviet invasion of the US in 1984. The Day After hit audiences in 1979. Hunt for Red October released in 1990 but captured the nuclear stakes of the 1980s.

But Andropov only lasted about 15 months in power until he died on February 9th, 1984 of kidney failure. His deputy, Konstantine Chernenko, became General Secretary. Chernenko was already a sick and elderly man when he was appointed. He served 13 months he died on March 10th, 1985.

Let’s Recap

Leonid Brezhnev came from a fairly humble background. His parents encouraged him to pursue his interests and obtain an education. The Bolshevik revolution and civil war disrupted his family’s life for the worst. Brezhnev joined the Communist party and worked his way through regional administrations in the Ukraine SSR. Brezhnev served in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War and saw the aftermath but avoided combat. Aspects of his service were later exaggerated.

Brezhnev avoided Stalin’s purges and rode Khrushchev’s coattails into power. Khrushchev lost his power base and the Presidium voted to remove him from office. They elected Brezhnev, Alexei Kasygin, and Nikolai Podgorny as a leadership trifecta. Within the next 10 years, Brezhnev forced his colleagues into retirement to become more or less the Soviet Union’s sole leader.

Yuri Andropov became KGB Chairman and increased domestic repression. The KGB infiltrated both domestic dissident groups and foreign governments and aided in assassinations. The KGB assisted the North Vietnamese army in radio intelligence. They also laid the groundwork for the Afghanistan invasion. Fears of nuclear war resurged in the 1980s especially in the wake of downing Korean Air 007.

Brezhnev’s health suffered until his death in 1982. Yuri Andropov was elected General Secretary but died in February 1984. Chernenko took power but died in March of 1985.

In the next article we’ll look at the life and leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, the downfall of the KGB, the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and how the USSR unraveled.

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Agents dismissed.