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Secret Intelligence Service

Red Star

Soviet Military Intelligence

(Section II)

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Red Star

Soviet Military Intelligence II

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A certain Marcus Johannes Wolf came into this world on January 19, 1923 in Germany. His father, Friedrich Wolf, a Jewish Jew, an anti-fascist writer by conviction, after Hitler came to power in 1933, miraculously avoiding being shot, took refuge with his family in Switzerland. By order of Stalin, they were taken to Moscow by secret channels of the Comintern and settled in house No. 8 on Nizhny Kislovsky Lane.

In 1940, Marcus Johannes Wolf graduated with honours from high school No. 110 with advanced Spanish in the Presnensky district of the capital and entered the Moscow Aviation Institute without exams. When a year later the Nazis approached Moscow, he and his friends discussed what to do if they seized the capital. They decided to join the partisans. Partisanism did not happen, the enemy was thrown back, and the institute was sent to the deep rear – in Alma-Ata.

There, Marcus moonlighted on the set of movie studios evacuated from Moscow. He played as a stuntman or played dashing guys in episodes. The charming daredevil conquered the directors, and their assistants completely lost their heads, falling in love with the hero ‘Misha’ (height 190 cm), a living copy of the legendary Siegfried, from the German poem ‘Song of the Nibelung’.

The ‘screening’ ended in December 1941, when a lightning telegram came from the personnel department of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI): ‘Wolf. To get documents for departure to Ufa from the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Kazakhstan. ‘

‘The ambush regiment of Korotkov’

It was in November 1941, at the initiative of the head of the 1st (German) department of the First Directorate of the People’s Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) of the USSR A. Korotkov that The Special Purpose School organised a faculty for training illegal intelligence officers to work in satellite countries of Germany. 100 young men and women took part in the faculty’ Austrians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Poles, Romanians, French, Czechs – mainly fighters of inter-brigades who fought in Spain and then settled in Moscow. Marcus Johannes Wolf was very proud that the choice fell on him, an unfired student.

The Bashkir village of Kushnarenkovo ​​became the location of the faculty. The IKKI apparatus was also placed there, so the educational institution was coded without further ado : the ‘special school of the Comintern’. Since Korotkov A.M. He was her godfather and taught a number of disciplines; in the NKGB, the school was nicknamed, ‘Korotkov’s ambush regiment’.

As it should be in the intelligence school, everyone was given pseudonyms. Marcus became ‘Kurt Forster.’ It was strictly forbidden to disclose your true name, to communicate anything about yourself and your family. For the purpose of conspiracy, the cadets could not even correspond with their relatives. No dismissal. From entertainment – books of Russian classics of the nineteenth century, of course, in Russian and companionable evenings, where veterans of battles in Spain shared their memories.

Marcus settled along with the Spaniards and Italians. There is no better society for him, the owner of a rare linguistic gift; six months later he fluently spoke the native languages ​​of his roommates.

For 1.5 years of study, Marcus studied a short course in the history of the CPSU (B.), penetrated into dialectical and historical materialism, mastered all types of German and domestic small arms, as well as mine-explosive affairs.

A special place in the educational process was occupied by a practical course of clandestine activity; cryptographic work, ‘key’ work, recruitment of sources. The ‘Name Day of the Heart’ for Marcus was the seminars conducted by Korotkov.

Years later, Wolf uses the theses from his Code of Illegal Spy, instructing subordinates:

> there are no hopeless situations – there is a misunderstanding, because a really hopeless situation occurs only when your body is surrounded by chalk.

> there are no unsolvable problems – there are wrong solutions;

> do not trust strangers: distrust is the mother of intelligence and security;

During study, Marcus crush/obsession on a blue-eyed blonde named Uta. Using the methods of intelligence obtained at the School, he established that it was the pseudonym of Emma Stenzer, the daughter of a Reichstag deputy from the German Communist Party, tortured by the Nazis.

However, bearing in mind the order of the head of the School, thus; ‘while you are adversary at the walls of your home, it’s not good to have novels for you, cadet.’ He delayed my rapprochement with the girl until graduation. Indeed, in the autumn of 1944 they got married.

On May 16, 1943, the bugler blew the ‘general gathering’, the cadets gathered on the parade ground, the head of the school announced the dissolution of the Comintern and the liquidation of the institution.

Wolf was distributed to Germany, but, arriving in Moscow for briefing, he contracted malaria.

From the certification of Marcus Wolf :

“… During the learning process, cadet Markus Wolf revealed outstanding intelligence, phenomenal memory, incredible performance.

Dominant, domineering, with pronounced leadership traits. In the behavior there is an unconditional orientation to success.

Has a taste for risk and making adventurous decisions. The style of action is characterised by assertiveness and rationality.

He thinks on a large scale, in solving problems he knows how to single out the main thing, has a rich imagination.

He is convincing in discussions and easily imposes his point of view on the opponent.

Owns acting skills, is able to make any impression.

Being very gambling, ihe can behave with restraint and caution.

Demanding on himself, self-critical.

Disadvantages; strongly attached to people, prone to empathy.

Conclusion on certification: ‘It is completely reliable. On political and special training, on personal and business qualities, he can be sent to Germany to conduct clandestine work. ‘

Head of the First Division of the NKGB of the USSR Major of State Security A. Korotkov May 19, 1943

When in 1952 the question arises of replacing the head of foreign intelligence of the GDR, Korotkov will act as guarantor of Wolf and will supplement the operative part of the certification with the following sentence:

“Given the outstanding personal and business qualities of Marcus Wolf, I would consider it appropriate to appoint him chief of national intelligence. Under his leadership, she will ensure that proactive information is obtained on all issues that are detrimental to the interests of the GDR and the socialist Commonwealth in their opposition to the NATO bloc.

“I feel Russian as a native”

Upon his recovery, Marcus was sent to the secret NII-205 at the Department of International Information of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which broadcast in 15 languages ​​and published secret bulletins about the situation in the occupied countries and about the resistance movement.

As a journalist and broadcaster, Wolf agreed with the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Germany, Wilhelm Peak. He introduced Marcus to his colleagues Anton Akkerman and Walter Ulbricht. They appreciated the young man’s inquiring mind and predicted a bright future for him.

Indeed, Marcus was extremely intelligent, but he did not flaunt his intellect for show, hid in irony, laughed off jokes or simply remained silent, for which he earned the respect of the leaders of the KKE.

On May 27, 1945, Marcus and his wife Emma arrived in Berlin on a Soviet military plane. He wrote to his father about his impressions, thus : “It was not the ruins that struck me, in Minsk I saw great ones, but the fact that everyone around spoke German. I caught myself thinking that I perceive German as a foreign language, because I feel Russian as a native … “

Walter Ulbricht invited Marcus to work on the radio, but he refused, saying, “Journalism is not my path.” Ulbricht issued a written order, and Wolf became editor of the main political news department.

In fact, back in March 1945, Moscow determined its fate. Ex-head of the Comintern Georgy Dimitrov and future chief of foreign intelligence of the USSR A.S. Panyushkin in a memorandum addressed to Stalin directly stated : “we recommend M. Wolf for work in the radio editor”.

During June 1949, Marcus, tired of journalism, went to the trick, he asked Ulbricht to let him go to Moscow to finish his studies at the Moscow Aviation Institute.

“More serious things are coming than aircraft construction,” was the answer.

What this meant, it became clear on October 7, when they proclaimed the German Democratic Republic.

Marcus Wolf came close to his main mission in life; intelligence. But first, he will hand over a Komsomol ticket, change his Soviet citizenship to German, and serve for two years in a diplomatic mission.
On the ‘high road’ – espionage.

On August 6, 1951, Foreign Minister Anton Akkerman summoned Markus Wolf to an adviser to the GDR Embassy in Moscow. From the threshold, the minister burst into tirade :

“I have always believed, Marcus, that workers endowed with a rich imagination are rarely desirable in ordinary conditions, but in the intelligence service they are irreplaceable. Uniformity of action is a prerequisite for troops, and a flight of imagination, a game of imagination are commendable qualities for a spy (scout). I must admit, you have them.”

Staring at Wolf, Ackerman was waiting for a reaction. But the ex-soldier of the ‘ambush regiment’ did not even lead his ear, and the minister hastened to summarise; “In general, that’s it, Marcus. I offer you the post of deputy head of the foreign counterintelligence department in the foreign intelligence service … “

Wolf did not force himself to beg.

On August 16, according to the plan of Moscow, the Research Institute of Economic Problems, the code name for the foreign intelligence of the GDR, began work. It included four advisers from the Lubyanka and eight Germans with Akkerman at the head.

The Moscow Centre has set the following tasks for the department :

> political intelligence in West Berlin and West Germany    

> the introduction of East German agents and intelligence agents into the decision-making bodies of West Germany and West Berlin

> acquisition of sources in state institutions of West Germany and West Berlin that have information constituting state, economic, and military secrets

> conducting scientific and technical intelligence to obtain data on the appearance in the NATO countries of the latest types of weapons

> creating positions for the penetration of Soviet intelligence agents and their agents into Western states.

A year later, Marcus was summoned to the reception of the Secretary General of the SED Central Committee. Walter Ulbricht announced that Akkerman was relieved of his duties as chief of intelligence. With pathos, he added, “We, that is, the Politburo and Soviet comrades, believe that you should head the service …”

So Marcus Wolf at age 29 became the head of East German intelligence and led it for 33 years – an unprecedented case in the history of the secret services of the world.

Wolf began his work in a new capacity by studying the history of the world’s special services – he did not want to create intelligence from scratch, he was looking for traditions. But most of all he tried to learn from other people’s failures. I studied all the materials about the failure of Richard Sorge, tracked down and interviewed his radio operator Max Klausen and Ruth Werner, who worked with the legendary spy (scout) under the pseudonym ‘Sonya’.

As a result, Wolf decided not to involve the communists of those countries where he would send his people, because this was fraught with failure. Who, and on what basis, should be recruited? Found! – those who want the unification of Germany, to recruit, on an ideological and patriotic basis, those who collaborated with the Nazis – using incriminating evidence. Fortunately, 90% of the archives of the Third Reich remained in East Germany.

Not long music played, not long Alan Welsh Dulles rejoiced

Before World War II ended, the United States was already preparing a new one. Against the USSR and its allies in the socialist bloc. But it turned out that the US president did not have information about the situation in the economy and in the military industry of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland. CIA chief Alan Welsh Dulles, hoping for help from the Gehlen Organisation (in 1956 it was renamed the BND – the Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany), decided to fill the gap by sending illegal immigrants to these countries by air.

They were prepared at the American spy centre in Immenstadt (Germany). Then the U.S. Air Force aircraft delivered and dropped them by parachute.

In addition to the murders of party and public figures, spies (‘scouts’) had to obtain information regarding military units and industrial zones, create ‘dissatisfied cells’ for preparing riots, spread rumours that discredited government bodies, steal documents from government agencies, and to blow up industrial facilities and railways at the signal from the centre.

Music did not play for long, Dulles did not rejoice for long because in 1951-1954, 30 paratroopers were ‘neutralised’ in the USSR. In Czechoslovakia – 18, in Poland – 7.

CIA analysts found that the peak of failure occurred in 1953-1954, when Wolf became the head of intelligence. Dulles and Gelen suspected that he had introduced his agents into the administration of the centre.

On June 1, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR Otto Grotewohl, speaking in the People’s Chamber, said that a certain Horst Hesse had fled to East Germany. ‘As a gesture of goodwill,’ the prime minister quipped, ‘he brought with him 2 safes with documents from the American centre, which allowed us to arrest 137 agents in the German Democratic Republic, and to catch all the paratroopers spies from the Soviet, Czech and Polish counterintelligence.’

On June 10, the MGB held a press conference where the ‘defector’ announced how, following Wolf’s mission, he had infiltrated the American centre.

The embarrassment was so great that the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer gave the order to stop parachuting, and Gehlen declared the chief of GUR ‘a personal enemy.’ It was worth a lot to get such a stigma from the lips of the ex-chief of intelligence of the Hitler Wehrmacht – Wolf took him as the highest praise.

The introduction of an agent in a spy centre Wolf did not consider victory. And although this operation brought him the rank of general, he rated it as his start. Because he firmly adopted Korotkov’s thesis, “it is impossible to win once and for all – you have to win every day, only then you have the right to call yourself a winner.”

Superagents

The first operation of undercover deployment inspired Wolfe, and he began to withdraw to the Federal Republic of Germany for a long-term settlement of the reconnaissance tandem – the spouses Guillaume, HR personnel staff.

Marcus Wolf was not only a talented intelligence leader, but also a visionary politician. Analysing the domestic political situation in Germany and the actions of the ruling union CDU / CSU, he came to the conclusion that this alliance has exhausted its potential, and for the population of the Federal Republic the ideas of social democracy are becoming more attractive, which were announced by the SPD – the party of Willy Brandt, a candidate for chancellors. Therefore, the main goal of Guillaume was to penetrate into his inner circle and recruit the leaders of the SPD, who sought to draw closer to the countries of the Eastern bloc.

If General Wolf was the Mozart of East German Intelligence, then Guillaume was the talented performers of his ‘compositions.’ Due to their agility and industriousness, they occupied solid posts. Gunter, becoming Brandt’s referent, tracked financial receipts in the SPD. Kristel led the apparatus of Birkelbach, head of the socialist faction of the European Parliament. For 19 years, spies supplied Wolf, and through him the Moscow Centre, hundreds of secret documents on the eastern policy of Bonn, on the relations of Germany withNATO partners, on the plans of the BND and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (counterintelligence of Germany).

According to Wolf, the tandem brought the greatest benefit to GUR and the KGB in 1970-1972, during the preparation of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. By timely informing about the position of the European partners of the FRG and the USA, the spies helped the USSR and the Warsaw Treaty countries to defend their interests in developing the final version of the Conference Declaration.

To all this, Gunter obtained three documents of ‘Special Importance’ regarding the disagreements in the NATO camp. Wolf immediately informed them of the ‘elder brother’ – Yuri Andropov.

The ‘differences’ were used by the USSR, persuading the United States to sign the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense (ABM) and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (OSV-I) in May 1972.

‘The main calibre weapon’ was also BND leading analyst Gabriela Gast. Gisela (codename Gast) spent 21 years in personal contact with Wolf and provided GUR and the KGB with such valuable information that it is ‘unlikely to be declassified in the foreseeable future’.

In the 1950s, Wolf, in cooperation with Soviet foreign intelligence, carried out recruits at state institutions in Germany, and soon more than 500 sources worked for them in the military department and in political structures.

So, according to the unified plan of the KGB-GUR, Rear Admiral German Ludke was recruited by the Deputy Head of the NATO Logistics Service. By virtue of his official position, he possessed data on the locations of tactical nuclear weapons in Western Europe.

The head of the mobilisation department of the German Ministry of Defence, Colonel Johann Henk, and the Deputy Minister of Economics Hans Schenk collaborated fruitfully with the GUR.

For nine years, Major General Horst Wendland, Vice President of the BND, acted as a secret agent in favour of the GDR and the USSR.

After the exposure in 1968, their earthly path was interrupted by violent death, but not a single expert will argue that these were suicides.

The West German officialdom filed the case as if they all preferred to commit suicide rather than admit to being agents of the KGB or GUR and to be humiliated during interrogations and in court proceedings. However, most experts are convinced that they were removed by the CIA and the BND in order to avoid shame and prevent trials of them, as a result of which a shadow would fall on the federal institutions of Germany.

Gelen was made the scapegoat, they deprived the post of president of the BND.

In fairness, it should be added that all agents failed through their own fault. Believing in their invulnerability, they neglected the rules of conspiracy. At the same time, there are much more agents among officers and high-ranking officials who worked for the GUR and the KGB than those who ‘retired.’

Red Casanova

From the 1960s until the collapse of the Berlin Wall, activities were carried out under the patronage of Wolf that, after years of media in Western Europe, dubbed Operation Red Casanova. This was Wolf’s know-how, which the world of espionage owes to his pioneering genius.

As a result of this operation, many secretaries worked for the GUR and the KGB, who had access to documents constituting state, military, and economic secrets.

To draw them into the orbit of intelligence, as a rule, these were women of Balzac age with an unsettled personal life, seducing agents were sent from the German Democratic Republic to Germany under the guise of refugees. These contractor Romeo, professional recruiters, after a short courtship led the chosen ones down the aisle, so that later they could join the espionage industry.

In espionage war – not without losses. Among the convicted secretaries who, having married an East German agent, ‘dragged chestnuts from the fire’ for the GUR and the KGB, was Irena Schulz from the Ministry of Science; Gerda Schröter from the German Embassy in Warsaw; Ursula Schmidt of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution; Gudrun Brown and Leonora Sutterlein from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ingrid Garbe, referent of the Permanent Representative of Germany to NATO, in total – 16 people.

However, the vast majority of the ‘wives of the Wolf order’ escaped the fate of exposure.

Lebensborn or Operation Hello Mom

In 1935, the SS Reichsfuhrer Himmler consecrated the Lebensborn (Spring of Life) programme and the activities of the organisation of the same name, which owned a network of houses in Germany. They were not dating houses, as the uninitiated believe, but shelters for illegitimate children, whose fathers were SS soldiers. A mother who could not or did not want to raise a child alone had the right to leave him in a shelter. A year later, the baby was placed in SS families for education.

During the 1970s, Wolf made Lebensborn work for his intelligence. On his orders, a whole legion of agents went to the Federal Republic of Germany, who, according to the lists raised from the Nazi archives, searched for mothers who had surrendered their newborns to SS shelters.

With a cry, “Hello, mother, I am your son (daughter)” – the messengers threw themselves on the chest of these women and, presenting a document of blood relationship, remained with them. That was the most reliable way to legalise dozens of agents in West Germany. Wolf’s witty decision cannot be overestimated, for the legalisation of a spy (scout/agent) is the Achilles heel of all intelligence in the world at all times.

The operation ‘Red Casanova’, was ingenious in its simplicity, and a unique way of legalisation were included by all special services in their textbooks. And Wolf, the father of the win-win projects on which his winning strategy was based, gained a reputation as an innovator in spy art and established itself as an indisputable authority. And rightly so; each of dozens of its operations is a milestone, but a milestone – a monument to him on the battlefield of espionage war.

By the way, many of Marcus Wolf’s operations will never be declassified, because the persons involved were the heads of government and members of the august families of Western Europe.
Wolf didn’t betray anyone

In 1983, Colonel-General Wolf, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Deputy Minister of State Security, celebrating his 60th birthday, said, “Bayonet to the ground,” – and filed a report on his resignation. However, it was not possible to leave immediately, the transfer of affairs was extended until 1986.

Upon his resignation, Wolf, accustomed to living ‘on the rupture of the aorta’, did not stop his ebullient activity, he wrote several books. ‘Three’ (in the Russian translation of ‘Three of the 30s’) came out in the GDR and Germany. Western journalists exclaimed in chorus,  T’he intelligence of the German Democratic Republic lost its leader, but acquired a great writer. ‘The SED Central Committee considered the book ‘political audacity’ and, on the orders of the head of the Ministry of State Security, General Milke, Wolf’s apartment was taken for ‘wiretapping,’ and his outdoor tracked every step .

In May 1990, the envoy of the CIA director and the head of the Berlin residency showed up at Wolf to the country with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. Offered to go to the USA. Marcus, fearing to be in a disenfranchised role, refused to travel as a private person. He called the condition, “Invite formally on behalf of the film company or publisher.” The guests explained that even the CIA director would not be able to do this.

In late August, an agent introduced into the Chancellor’s administration informed Wolf about the outcome of Helmut Kohl’s negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev in Zheleznovodsk on August 16.

Wolf was furious when he learned that Gorbachev had betrayed the GDR. He betrayed Europe, he threw it into the jaws of NATO, authorising the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany.

The Americans visited Wolf several times, urging him to go to the USA to work together. Gardner Gus Hathaway, chief of the CIA counterintelligence, bothered me most. He said, “As a professional, I will say frankly to a professional; since 1985 we have lost more than 30 of our people because of the ‘mole’ in our service. With your help, I would like to find him. “

Upon refusing, Hathaway, in the hope that Wolf would reciprocate his sincerity, revealed a secret, “On October 3, the GDR will formally become part of West Germany, after which the arrest warrant issued by the German Attorney General in March will be presented to you immediately” .

But even this did not make Wolf complaisant, Hathaway left with nothing. But Marcus received valuable information, and the next day, September 27, having deceived the ‘outside’ who was watching him, he disappeared from Berlin.

Wolf betrayed Old Square

For two months, he tried to settle in Austria, Bulgaria, Israel, seeking political asylum. But there they did not want to quarrel with Germany. Then Wolf dialed the Lubyanka number and uttered a passphrase. In Hungary, he was received by a KGB officer and taken to Moscow. ‘There she is, it is the promised land,’ Marcus thought, and was cruelly mistaken.

Wolf repeatedly met with Shebarshin, chief of foreign intelligence, and with Falin, secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for international affairs. But they did not offer help in obtaining political asylum in the USSR.

In August 1991, Marcus, tired of ‘staying in the conditions of operational uncertainty’, initiated a conversation about political asylum. Shebarshin refused him, ‘Misha, you have always been a true friend to us, but now we can do nothing for you. Leave with God.’

There was no point in contacting Falin, the August coup dared the CPSU, he could no longer help, and soon he left for permanent residence … in Germany.

Wolf, whose main principle of life was ‘never to give up and no matter what happens, always keep an eye on the maximum’, for the first time felt his own inability to turn the tide.

For the first time, he recognised himself as an abandoned ‘big brother’ – the USSR State Security Committee, which refused to protect him, a devoted knight of the Soviet system.

Wolf, the commander of espionage war, for which the definitions of ‘great’ and ‘ingenious’ look insufficient, only the epithet ‘from God’ is suitable for him, in one of his books he will depict the situation, ‘I fought like a wounded bird against glass … ‘

On September 24, 1991, Wolf was arrested on the Austro-German border as being accused of treason, but 11 days later he was released on bail. In December 1993, Wolf was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but the entry into force of the sentence was postponed. In the summer of 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court declared that all GUR employees were not subject to prosecution for treason.

Marcus Wolf died on November 9, 2006. More than one and a half thousand people, former colleagues, cultural figures, leaders of the left party, the Party of Democratic Socialism, escorted him to the last journey. Perhaps someone from Russia was also present?

Shortly before his death, when asked by a reporter of the Shchpigel magazine whether he regretted anything from the height of his 83 years, he uttered significant words :

‘I have nothing to regret. I have been helping Europe keep peace for thirty-three years. Although one question saddens my chest; can a system that has betrayed its heroes be considered great?’

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Secret Intelligence Service

Red Star

Soviet Military Intelligence (Section II. I of X)

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Adversitate. Custodi. Per Verum

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