Four. Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
1. Unless otherwise noted, Bystrolyotov’s experiences and quotes from his writings in this chapter refer to “Pir,” 1:392–430.
2. This is the last stanza of Baudelaire’s poem “A celle qui est trop gaie” (To She Who Is Too Gay).
3. “Pir,” 1:397.
4. Ibid., 430.
5. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
6. “Pir,” 1:134.
7. KGB2, 122–23.
8. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
9. Translated into English by the author.
10. See appendix to Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 585; see also http://www.law-order.ru/reference/ru_s/t64639.html.
11. For Bystrolyotov’s study record, see GARF. On the uselessness of the school program for a career as a lawyer in Czechoslovakia, see Andreyev and Savicky, Russia Abroad, 113.
12. Harville Hendrix, Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples (New York: Holt, 1988), 30.
Five. Marriage and Other Calamities
1. Unless otherwise noted, Bystrolyotov’s experiences and quotes from his writings in this chapter refer to “Pir,” 1:430–59, 469–86, 503.
2. The name of Marie-Eliane Aucouturier is rendered in Russian in Bystrolyotov’s handwritten memo to the KGB (KGB2, 123). This is the source cited in Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 578n12. Recruitment of a French Embassy secretary, without mentioning her name, is cited in other sources as well.
3. Although, referring to the KGB Bystrolyotov file, Mitrokhin cites 1898 as Aucouturier’s birth year, she was born in 1900; see a copy of her passport in CADN. This mistake is repeated in Degtiarev and Kolpakidi, 65.
4. Aucouturier’s birthplace is indicated in her passport. Her family background was given to the author by a consultant who prefers to remain anonymous.
5. For Schiller’s description of Count Fiesco in the list of his dramatis personae, see, for example, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6783/6783-h/6783-h.htm.
6. Gustave Aucouturier’s affiliation with the Havas Agency is indicated in his file (CADN). Roman Jakobson is listed as a member of the Soviet Trade Mission staff (as a correspondent) in 1924 (CSAstaff).
7. Quoted in Papchinsky and Tumshis, Shchit, raskolotyi mechom, 78.
8. Bystrolyotov erroneously attributes the phrase to King David.
9. “Pir,” 1:502.
10. This version of events was suggested by psychiatrist K. P. S. Kamath, M.D., in conversation with the author.
11. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
12. “Pir,” 1:473.
13. Translated from the Russian by the author. Quoting these lines from Blok’s poem “Z. Gippius,” Bystrolyotov substitutes the original “Irish rocks” with “treacherous rocks.”
14. Bystrolyotov’s Prague period code name, “Zh/32,” is indicated in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 125.
15. “Pir,” 1:542.
16. For the Schiller reference, see Fiesco (act 3, scene 8) (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6783/6783-h/6783-h.htm).
Six. Going Underground
1. KGB2, 142–43.
2. Kolpakidi and Prokhorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 2:229–31; see also Papchinsky and Tumshis, Shchit, raskolotyi mechom, 75–78. For Zhuravlyov’s picture, see http://svr.gov.ru/history/zur.html.
3. Papchinsky and Tumshis, Shchit, raskolotyi mechom, 78.
4. Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:235; “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 289–300.
5. Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:235.
6. On Leppin’s background, see Kolpakidi and Prokhorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 454–55; Hede Massing file, 45. On details of the Russian school operation, see “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 320–22.
7. See GARF.
8. Kolpakidi and Prokhorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 179. The authors erroneously cite Prague University, instead of the émigré Ukrainian Free University. During my interview with him, Milashov also mentioned Bystrolyotov’s specialization in law and economics of the world oil trade, but it’s not clear when and how he obtained it. On Bystrolyotov’s medical education and his thesis title, see Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 120.
9. The full text of these reports is in Grigoriev, Naiti i zaverbovat’, 52. Parts of the correspondence are also quoted in Snegirev, in Po dannym razvedki, 63.
10. Grigoriev, Naiti i zaverbovat’, 53–54; Snegirev, in Po dannym razvedki, 63.
11. The Škoda engineer is mentioned in Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:235, and Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 66, and KGB v Anglii, 123.
12. The episode is described in detail, including the dialogue, in KGB2, 141–42.
13. Ibid., 142.
14. “Pir,” 1:486–87.
15. Ibid., 487.
16. Ibid.
17. KGB2, quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 122–23. Citing this operation, Primakov indicates that it took Bystrolyotov six months to recruit the agent. He doesn’t name the French Embassy as the target of the assault, calling it “an embassy of one of the major European countries.” Apparently, to conceal the fact that seduction was the main instrument of recruitment, he also doesn’t reveal either the name or gender of the recruited agent (Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:236).
18. “Pir,” 1:41, 396.
19. On Mikhail Trilisser’s background, see Kolpakidi and Prokhorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 98–99, and Mlechin, Istoriia vneshnei razvedki, 14 –26. The meeting of Trilisser and Bystrolyotov in Finland is cited in Listov, Chekisty rasskazyvaiut, 216–18.
20. On setbacks of Soviet spies in foreign countries, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 36–37; Duff, Time for Spies, 75; see also Papchinsky and Tumshis, Shchit, raskolotyi mechom, 269. On the Politburo decision, see Andrew and Mitrokin, The Sword and the Shield, 42; see also http://www.dosye.ru/archiv/vlast1911200-45_2.htm.
21. On romantic motives for Bystrolyotov’s involvement with Soviet intelligence, see Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 126.
22. KGB2, 130; Orlov, Handbook of Intelligence, 93.
23. On Soviet foreign intelligence assumptions about Western counterintelligence treatment of foreign spies caught in the act, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 47.
24. Orlov, Handbook of Intelligence, 79.
25. “Pir,” 1:38–39. (Translated from the Russian by the author.)
26. KGB2, 143; Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 125; Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:236.
27. KGB2, 144.
28. Ibid., 146–47; see also “Pir,” 3:365–88.
29. Bystrolyotov, in conversation with the author, September 11, 1973; see also KGB2, 145.
30. Snegirev, in Po dannym razvedki, 66.
31. Ibid., 68; “Pir,” 3:376–77.
32. “Pir,” 3:376–77; see also Kern, Walter G. Krivitsky, 156–57.
33. Snegirev, in Po dannym razvedki, 68.
34. “Pir,” 3:376–77; Kern, Walter G. Krivitsky, 157.
35. Although current sources list Boris Bazarov as ethnically Russian, it may well be that he was Jewish (perhaps baptized). Bystrolyotov indicates that he looked Jewish (“Shchedrye serdtsem,” 183); his colleagues called him Lyovushka (Little Leo), and later, with Hitler’s ascension to power, his looks became his liability. In 1934, he returned to Moscow and later went to the United States as the head of a network of Soviet spies (Vladimir Sergeev, “Da Vinchi sovetskoi vneshnei razvedki” [“Da Vinci of Soviet Foreign Intelligence”], http://www.chekist.ru/article/1270). For a picture of Bazarov, see http://svr.gov.ru/history/baz.html.
36. The rest of this chapter refers to “Pir,” 1:482–84.
Seven. Hunting Down a Man with a Red Nose
1. KGB2, 133–34; quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 133.
2. The details of the visit were later described by the former second secretary of the Soviet Embassy in
Paris, Gregori Bessedovsky, during his interrogation by the MI5 in February 1947; see UKNA, 81A. See also Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 45; Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 127; Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:242.
3. KGB2, 196; Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:242–43.
4. KGB2, ibid.; Primakov, ibid.
5. On the assumption of aristocratic background of Foreign Office employees, see also KGB2, 197, 203. (In British documents, Bystrolyotov’s alias is sometimes spelled “Pirelli.”) In West, Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage, his name is given as “Ladislas” (209), and in KGB2, 143, as “Ladislav.”
6. KGB2, 197; Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
7. “Pir,” 3:371–72.
8. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003; Bystrolyotov, in conversation with the author, September 11, 1973.
9. KGB2, 180–81. Parts of the memo are extensively quoted in Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:239–41. In digest form, it appears in Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 44–45. Slutsky’s career and his photo are posted at http://memo.ru/history/NKVD/kto/biogr/index.htm (go to “Slutskii”); see also Mlechin, Istoriia vneshnei razvedki, 50–57.
10. An abridged English translation of the book, originally published in Russian (Paris, 1930), appeared as Gregori Bessedovsky, Revelations of a Soviet Diplomat (London: Williams & Norgate, 1931). In his account of the operation, Primakov erroneously identifies the Soviet Embassy as located in Switzerland, not in France (Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:240).
11. “Pir,” 1:482–83; on the identity of Voinovich, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 578–79nn18–19.
12. “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 10; Duff, Time for Spies, 82.
13. For a short description of Leppin’s and Weinstein’s backgrounds, see appendix to Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 583. See also Duff, Time for Spies, 82; Kolpakidi and Prokhorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 454–55.
14. On Pieck’s background and activities, see Kern, Death in Washington, 233–36; Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 49; Kolpakidi and Prohkorov, Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii, 471.
15. “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 278.
16. Ibid., 288.
17. Ibid.
18. On ROSSI’s identity, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, Th e Sword and the Shield, 44.
19. This part of the operation is described in minute detail, including dialogues, in Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 268–81.
20. KGB2, 186–87; “Pir,” 3:384–85.
21. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
22. Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 279, 283.
23. KGB2, 186.
24. Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 279–80, 287.
25. “Pir,” 3:385; Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 46–47. For a rebuttal by three Italian historians of Ciano’s involvement in selling diplomatic ciphers, see http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1993/gennaio/16/Galeazzo_Ciano_una_spia_tirate_co_0_930116203.shtml.
26. “Pir,” 3:386; Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 46–47.
27. Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:240–41. In “Pir,” 3:384–85, Bystrolyotov gives another version of the circumstances of this encounter. Presumably, ROSSI lured him to go with him from Berlin to his mansion in Zurich, where he promised to introduce him to Mussolini’s daughter Edda and his sonin-law Count Ciano. After they drove all night through rain, ROSSI brought Dmitri to a big, dark mansion at Dolder Mountain.
28. Primakov, Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki, 2:240.
29. Ibid., 241.
30. KGB2, 187.
31. On Lemoine’s background, see Paul Paillole, Notre espion chez Hitler (Paris: Laffont, 1985), 28–29; Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 305–6.
32. Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 48.
33. On Lemoine, see ibid., 47.
34. On Poretsky, see ibid.; Duff, Time for Spies, 58; Kolpakidi and Prokhrov, KGB, 307–22; Papchinsky and Tumshis, Shchit, raskolotyi mechom, 347.
Eight. Handling “Charlie”
1. Unless otherwise noted, all details in this chapter related to Bystrolyotov’s interaction with Oldham are based on KGB2, 197–203. Some material is quoted and cited in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 132–52.
2. Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 173.
3. Ibid., 176.
4. Ibid., 187.
5. Writing more than thirty years after the events took place, Bystrolyotov misspells the name of the sanatorium (in Russian) and slightly misplaces it, calling it “Rendellsham Castle, near Ipswich” in Suffolk County. The place that Oldham went to was called “Rendlesham Hall”; a number of leading alcoholism specialists of that time worked there. It was located in the same county but near Woodbridge. Although the building was demolished in the late 1940s, judging by a surviving remnant, its architecture could have made Bystrolyotov think of it as a castle. (For the Rendlesham Hall picture before its demolition, see http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_suffolk_rendleshamhall_gallery.html.) A train ticket to Wickham Market, the closest railway station to Rendelsham, was found in Oldham’s possessions (cited by Edward Kershaw in e-mail to the author, November 11, 2009). For the episode in the cinema, see Kern, Walter G. Krivitsky, 163.
6. Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
7. On Lucy’s role in the Oldham affair, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 45–46; on Lucy’s background, see the copy of her marriage certificate in UKNA; for her income of six hundred British pounds a year and her inheritance from her deceased husband in the amount of twenty-two thousand British pounds, see UKNA, 38A (pointed out by Edward Kershaw in an e-mail message to the author September 12, 2008).
8. KGB1, 186; a letter from Bazarov (KIN) to the Center of July 27, 1932, is quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 134.
9. Vladimir Mayakovsky, “Stikhi o sovetskom passport” [Verses About the Soviet Passport], in Stikhotvoreniia. Poemy [Verses and Narrative Poems] (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1963), 347–50; Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 135.
10. Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 69. In this source, Franz von Papen is wrongly identified as the German foreign minister: from June 1, 1932, he assumed the post of chancellor of Germany. The reference to the “imminent” Lausanne conference is also a factual error: the conference began on June 16 and concluded on July 9, 1932.
11. In Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 69; the name of the German general is misspelled: instead of “Schleichen” it should read “Schleicher.”
12. See also Snegirev, in Po dannym razvedki, 71. Andrew and Mitrokhin date the award two months earlier, on September 17 of the same year (The Sword and the Shield, 580n37).
13. “Pir,” 1:524.
14. See also Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 580n38. Both the timing and circumstances of this turn of events are unclear even today. Citing a 1933 Foreign Office list, Andrew and Mitrokhin name September 30, 1932, as the day of Oldham’s resignation, in both Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels (70), and its Russian version, KGB v Anglii (139); citing Bystrolyotov’s report to the Center (KGB1, 175), Tsarev and West mention mid-October as the time of Oldham’s severance from the Foreign Office.
15. KGB1, 121–25; quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 151–52.
16. KGB1, 176; quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 140.
17. Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 46; Thurlow, “Soviet Spies and British Counter-Intelligence in the 1930s,” 618.
18. KGB1, 172; quoted in Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 7 1–72.
19. Unless otherwise noted, to the end of this chapter the source of material is “Pir,” 1:488–92.
20. This typical anxiety of a Soviet illegal operative abroad is described in Orlov, Handbook of Intelligence, 83.
21. Ibid., 160–61.
Nine. The End of “Charlie” and Other British Agents
1. KGB1, 145–46; quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 142, and cited in Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72.
2. Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 142–43; Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72.
3. KGB1, 145–46; KGB2, 204.
4. On Bystrolyotov’s remark about Lucy, see KGB2, 208; on the OGPU lack of information on ARNO’s true function in the Foreign Office, see Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 131. The discrepancies between Oldham’s statements and the facts not queried by the OGPU are observed by Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 46, 48. Although, apparently quoting the KGB source, accessed by Mitrokhin, the authors state that Oldham exaggerated the importance of his position at the Foreign Office (ibid., 46), both Bystrolyotov’s memoirs and his KGB files document that the whole purpose of the first phase of dealing with Oldham was to establish his true value, which he downplayed. The conversation between Lucy and Bystrolyotov about Montgomery is described in KGB2, 201. For the KGB account of these events, see Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 143–44; Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72, 351n20.
5. In both Crown Jewels and KGB v Anglii (143–44), Tsarev and West skip over this episode and attribute the order as coming after the next episode in Bystrolyotov’s operation.
6. KGB1, 145–46; cited in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 144, and Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72.
7. Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 143–45; Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72.
8. Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 143–45; Tsarev and West, Crown Jewels, 72; Bazarov’s report is quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 145; Andrew and Mitrokhin attributed the report to Mally (The Sword and the Shield, 48).
9. KGB2, 204–5; quoted in Tsarev and West, KGB v Anglii, 145.
10. At the time of the action, the Defense Security Service was renamed as the Security Service, but in the minutes of Oldham’s file, it is referred to by its old name.
11. UKNA, 6A. Thurlow, “Soviet Spies and British Counter-Intelligence in the 1930s,” 618; Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 53.
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