The Selling of the KGB

The Selling of the KGB The post-Cold War world is awash in tantalizing tales from the KGB archives. But the new literature on Soviet espionage may be much less revealing than it appears. by Amy Knight he fascination in the West with KGB operatives or presenting organiza- spy stories seems limitless. Tales tional charts of the KGB. They also tend Tproliferate about the Cambridge to cover much of the same ground. Time Five spy group (Kim Philby et al.), the and again the reader is told about various New Deal subversives whose Lenin’s Cheka, the assassination of treachery in giving away secrets to the Trotsky, and Soviet atomic espionage. Soviet Union went unnoticed for years, Despite the redundancy inherent in and the efforts of the KGB to subvert the genre, these books have found an Western democracies through propagan- eager audience in the West. To be sure, da and terrorism. But apparently readers there have been critical reviews and do not tire of the accounts, judging from complaints about inaccuracies. But for the recent sensational response to The the most part, the new KGB histories Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin have received much favorable attention, Archive, by Christopher Andrew, a history and some of them have reached the best- professor at Cambridge University, and seller list. They also have reopened Vasili Mitrokhin, a former KGB officer. debates among historians and the gener- The Sword and the Shield is the latest al public about key aspects of the Cold example of an emerging genre of spy his- War. Indeed, Andrew and Mitrokhin’s tories based on materials from the KGB recent book, replete with new names (or archives. For almost a decade now, code names) of Western traitors, set off a Western writers and current or former media frenzy in Britain and fueled Russian foreign intelligence officers impassioned political debates in several have been collaborating on books about European countries about what to do the KGB’s foreign operations during the with former spies. Soviet period. All of these volumes have Few would argue that the release of a similar style and format, with chapter new information on the KGB’s opera- headings such as “The Great Illegals,” tions abroad is anything but a positive “Love and Loyalties,” and “A Dangerous development. We should welcome the Game,” along with lengthy appendixes possibility of finding out what was hap- listing code names of secret agents and pening on the other side of the Cold War 16 WQ Winter 2000 Big catch? Information from the KGB archives recently showed that Melita Norwood, a former secretary in Britain who is now in her eighties, spied for Moscow in the 1940s. trenches and perhaps resolving some of have been lowered, or discarded alto- the questions that have puzzled gether. Historians and general readers researchers for decades. What really hap- alike seem to have forgotten the impor- pened to American prisoners of war tance of understanding where the infor- believed to have ended up in the Soviet mation in a book has come from and Union after World War II, Korea, and who is interpreting and presenting it. Vietnam? Do we know all there is to “Even the most tendentious historical know about the KGB and Lee Harvey views can gain credibility in part because Oswald? Even in cases that are closed the sources of history can be interpreted (such as that of convicted American in different ways—or sensationalized or spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), there falsified or used dishonestly or ignored,” is a thirst in the West for more details New York Times journalist Richard Bern- from the Soviet side. stein observed in criticizing a historian’s claims that Hitler did not know about ut in the excitement produced the extermination of the Jews. by the new revelations, many of Bernstein’s observation is particularly B the standards by which scholars apt in the case of the new KGB page- traditionally judge historical writings turners, given that the source of the rev- Selling of the KGB 17 elations is an organization with a long the late 1930s. Because the book would history of falsification and forgery direct- be aimed at Western markets, it was ed against the West. Have these books essential to have a Western co-author deepened our historical understanding with connections in the publishing or have they simply distorted the real world. Costello was an ideal candidate. picture and caused confusion? Have In mid-1991, a collaboration sanctioned people been reading facts or disinfor- at the highest levels of the KGB was for- matzia? A look at how these spy books mally initiated between Tsarev and came about suggests that we should, at Costello, with Crown, a division of the very least, be reading them with Random House, as publisher. more caution. Andrew’s earlier book, KGB: The Inside he end product was Deadly Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin Illusions, published in 1993 with to Gorbachev (1990), began the new wave Ta great deal of fanfare because of of collaborative spy history. Andrew the book’s provocative thesis—that Orlov teamed up with a high-level defector from had never been a genuine defector but had the KGB named Oleg Gordievsky to write stayed loyal to the Soviet Union. He had, an extensive new history of the Soviet the authors asserted, pulled the wool over intelligence agency. Yet, while the book the eyes of the Americans, who thought all used information Gordievsky reportedly along that Orlov was giving them valuable gleaned from the KGB archives, the bulk information when, in fact, he was passing of the sources cited were secondary on “half-truths and trivialities.” The main (Western histories and memoirs), not KGB source for this extraordinary thesis was the documents. It was not until a year later, in so-called Orlov file, a top-secret KGB 1991, that the KGB actually sanctioned a dossier. But Costello, who did not read a book project based on its files. In the word of Russian, never actually saw the changed political climate created by Orlov file. Instead, he relied on Tsarev, Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of openness, assisted by a coterie of his colleagues at the KGB officials decided that it was time to Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (or have their story told to the West. Facing FIS, as it was renamed after the dissolution unprecedented criticism from the newly of the KGB in late 1991) to make “sum- emboldened Soviet press, the KGB set out maries” of the relevant documents in to improve its image at home by publiciz- English. ing its past successes. It also saw the possi- In an afterword to the book, Costello bility of earning some extra cash. admitted that this arrangement was not ideal, given that the KGB had a long track nter John Costello, a successful record of conspiracies against the West. British nonfiction writer, who But, he argued, “We had agreed from the E first attracted the attention of outset that this would not be an ‘as told to’ the KGB when he requested documents account because at least one of the co- for a book he was working on and was authors of this book has seen all the mate- encouraged to come to Moscow. There rial.” Overlooking the fact that his co- he met Oleg Tsarev, a seasoned intelli- author had spent years abroad as a KGB gence officer who spoke perfect English officer, engaging in the deception and dis- and was at the time deputy chief of the information for which the KGB was noto- KGB press department. Tsarev had been rious, Costello was full of praise for the commissioned by his superiors to write a Russians’ “new level of openness,” which book about Alexander Orlov, the Soviet marked a sharp contrast to the secretive- spy who defected to the United States in ness of the CIA and the FBI. But this > Amy Knight, a former Wilson Center Fellow, recently published her fourth book on Soviet and Russian affairs, Who Killed Kirov? The Kremlin’s Greatest Mystery. Copyright © 2000 by Amy Knight. 18 WQ Winter 2000 openness, it turns out, had distinct limits. that it was time to reap some profits from his Although Costello assured the reader that father’s memory bank before it was too late. “all substantive documentation relating to He approached the Schecters (Jerrold was the text will be declassified to coincide an American journalist and his wife a liter- with the publication of Deadly Illusions,” ary agent) with a plan for a book, but it did the Orlov documents, after seven years, are not fly. As the Schecters put it in their still inaccessible. introduction, “Sudoplatov’s first outline for Deadly Illusions was followed in 1994 the book was directed to a Russian audi- by a real blockbuster spy book, Special ence; we explained that most of the names Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted in the outline were unfamiliar to Western Witness—a Soviet Spymaster, by Pavel readers.” After the younger Sudoplatov Sudoplatov and went back to the Anatoli Sudoplatov drawing board and with Jerrold and came up with some Leona Schecter. As familiar names such American historian as Oppenheimer Thomas Powers ob- and Fermi, the served, “The book Schecters became has more authors excited, and a deal than a Hollywood was made. The movie with script Schecters began tap- trouble.” When ex- ing interviews with cerpts of Special the elder and infirm Tasks were pub- Sudoplatov, prod- lished in Time, and ded on during the the MacNeil/Lehr- sessions by son er News-Hour de- Anatoli, who must voted a large seg- have had dollar signs ment to its revela- in his eyes.

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