Daughters of the KGB: Moscow's Secret Spies, Sleepers and Assassins of the Cold War

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Daughters of the KGB: Moscow's Secret Spies, Sleepers and Assassins of the Cold War Page 1

by Douglas Boyd




  This book is dedicated to all the political prisoners

  and others who suffered in the Stasi prison

  on the Lindenstrasse in Potsdam,

  and to our predecessors there under the KGB 1945–1952

  and under the Gestapo 1933–1945

  ‘Those who do not remember the past are compelled to repeat it.’

  George Santayana

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Despite the two and a half decades since the collapse of the USSR, a surprising number of people who assisted my research asked not to be mentioned as sources, some giving no reason and others pleading that there might be repercussions against family members still living in their countries of birth. Others still were helpful initially and then said, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help you any more.’ I never argued or tried to persuade them because it seemed this was not from personal guilt for anything, but rather that even thinking about those years will always be too painful for millions of people who lived through them. Who could blame them for that?

  Among those I can thank for their help are Stella Dvoraková, William Sirben and Jiri Dubnicka for insights into the Cold War period in Czechoslovakia; Nikolai Karailiev for reading the Bulgarian pages and Gabriele Schnell, whom I first met in the former Lindenstrasse prison in Potsdam, for the work she has done to document the experiences of the Stasi’s victims in the so-called German Democratic Republic.

  At The History Press, I can also thank commissioning editor Mark Beynon, project editor Rebecca Newton, designer Katie Beard and cover designer Martin Latham.

  CONTENTS

  Title

  Dedications

  Acknowledgements

  List of Abbreviations

  Part 1: Setting the Scene

  1 Through a Glass Darkly

  2 Life is a Game of Chess

  Part 2: The Stasi in German Democratic Republic

  3 Deutschland Unter Russland

  4 Creating a New Class of Criminals

  5 Fear as a Political Tool

  6 The New Class Enemy

  7 Lies, Spies and More Spies

  8 War on the West

  9 War in the Air

  10 HVA Versus MI5

  11 Death of the Stasi

  Part 3: State Terror in Central Europe

  12 The Polish UB – Crushing a Suffering Nation

  13 Betrayal, Beatings, Elections and Executions

  14 The Horizontal Spy

  15 The StB Versus the Czechs and Slovaks

  16 The ABC of Espionage – Agents, Blackmail, Codes

  17 The AVO and Bloodshed in Budapest

  18 Magyars on Mission Abroad

  Part 4: State Terror in Eastern Europe

  19 The KDS – Dimitrov’s Lethal Homecoming Present to Bulgaria

  20 A Different Umbrella in Bucharest

  21 Albania – From Serfdom to the Sigurimi Secret Police

  Author Note

  Plates

  By the Same Author

  Copyright

  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

  AAP

  Australian Associated Press news agency

  ABLT

  Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára (Hungarian state intelligence archives)

  ABW

  Agencja Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego (Polish counter-espionage service)

  AK

  Armia Krajowa (Polosh Home Army)

  AL

  Armia Ludowa (People’s Army)

  AVH

  Allamvédelmi Hatósag (second name of Hungarian secret police)

  AVO

  Allamvédelmi Osztálya (first name of Hungarian secret police)

  BA

  Belügyminisztérium Állambiztonsági (Hungarian intelligence agency)

  BfV

  Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Federal German security service)

  BIRN

  Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

  BIS

  Bezpecnostní Informacní Služba (Czech post-Communist security service)

  BKP

  Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partia (Bulgarian Communist Party)

  BND

  Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal German intelligence service)

  BStU

  Bundesbeauftragte der Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsministeriums der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Stasi archives)

  CIA

  Central Intelligence Agency

  CIC

  US Counter-Intelligence Corps

  CIO

  Anti-Communist Czech Intelligence Office

  CNSAS

  Conciliul National pentru Studearea Archivelor Securitâtii (Romanian post-Communist intelligence archives)

  CPGB

  Communist Party of Great Britain

  CSSR

  Ceskoslovenská Socialistická Republika (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic)

  DM

  Deutsche Mark (West German currency)

  DST

  Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (French security service)

  EAM/ELAS

  Left-wing Greek resistance

  FDJ

  Freie Deutsche Jugend (Communist equivalent of the Hitler Youth organisation)

  GCHQ

  Government Communications Headquarters

  GDR

  German Democratic Republic

  GRU

  Glavnoye Razvedatelnoye Upravleniye (Soviet military intelligence)

  GZI

  Glowny Zarzad Informacji (Polish military intelligence)

  HVA

  Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (East German foreign intelligence service)

  IGM

  Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (International Association for Human Rights)

  IM

  inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (informer working for the Stasi)

  IWF

  Institut für wirtschaftliche Forschung (Institute for Scientific Research, a cover name for HVA)

  KDS

  Komitet za Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian Committee of State Security)

  KdSBP

  Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Committee for Public Security)

  KGB

  Komityet Gosudrarstvennoi Bezopacnosti (Committee of State Security of USSR)

  KgU

  Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (West German anti-Stasi group)

  KKE

  Kommunistikó Kómma Elládas (Greek Communist Party)

  KPD

  Kommunistiche Partei Deutschlands (German Communist Party)

  KSC

  Komunistická Strana Ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovakian Communist Party)

  LSK

  Luftstreitkräfte (East German air force)

  MBP

  Ministerstwo Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Ministry of Public Security)

  MDP

  Magyar Dolgozók Párt (Hungarian Workers’ Party, i.e. Communist Party)

  MfS

  Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry of State Security)

  MI5

  British Security Service

  MI6

  British Intelligence Service

  MIG

  Mikoyan i Gurevitch (names of two Soviet aircraft designers)

  MKP

  Magyar Komunista Párt (Hungarian Communist Party)

  MNVK2

  Magyar Néphadsereg Vezérkara 2 Csoportfonöksege (Hungarian military intelligence)

  MSW

  Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnetrznych (Polish Ministry
of Internal Affairs)

  MSzMP

  Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party)

  MVD

  Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Dyel (Soviet successor to NKVD)

  NICSMA

  NATO Integrated Systems Management Agency

  NKVD

  Narodny Komissariat Vnukhtrennikh Dyel (Soviet forerunner of KGB)

  NSA

  US National Security Agency

  NSDAP

  Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (full name of Hitler’s Nazi party)

  NVA

  Nazionale Volksarmee (East German army)

  OKW

  Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German General Staff in Second World War)

  OSI

  US Air Force Office of Special Investigations

  OSS

  US Office of Strategic Services (in Second World War)

  PCF

  Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)

  PCI

  Partito Comunista Italiano (Italian Communist Party)

  PCR

  Partidul Comunist Român (Romanian Communist Party)

  PKSh

  Partia Komuniste e Shqiperisë (Albanian Communist Party)

  PKWN

  Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (Polish Committee of National Liberation)

  POW

  Prisoner of war

  PPSh

  Partia e Punës e Shqipërisë (Albanian Workers’ Party)

  PSL

  Polski Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish Christian Democrat agrarian party)

  PZPR

  Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers’ Party, i.e. Communist Party)

  RAF

  Royal Air Force

  RBP

  Resort Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Department of Public Security)

  RHSA

  Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Chief Administration of Third Reich Security)

  RIAS

  Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor (US-financed propaganda station in West Berlin)

  RTRP

  Rzad Tymczasowy Rzeczyoospolitej Polskiej (Provisional Government of Poland)

  SB (MSW)

  Słuzba Bezpieczenstwa Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnetrznych (Polish Security Service of Ministry of Internal Affairs)

  SDECE

  Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionage (French intelligence service)

  SDP

  Sozialistische Demokratische Partei (German Social Democratic Party)

  SED

  Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (East German Communist Party)

  SHAPE

  Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers in Europe

  ShIK

  Shërbimi Informativ Kombëtar (Albanian successor to Sigurimi)

  ShISh

  Shërbimi Informativ Shtetëror (successor to ShIK)

  SIE

  Serviciul de Informatii Externe (Romanian post-Communist intelligence service)

  Sigint

  Signals intelligence (electronic eavesdropping)

  SIS

  Secret Intelligence Service

  SOE

  Special Operations Executive

  SRI

  Serviciul Rôman de Informatii (Romanian post-Communist security service)

  SSR

  Soviet socialist republic

  Stasi

  Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (East German Ministry of State Security)

  StB

  Státní Bezpecnost / Státna Bezpecnost (Czechoslovakian State Security service)

  SWT

  Sektor für Wissenschaft und Technik (HVA Section for technological espionage)

  TVO

  Trudovo-Vazpritatelni Obshchezhitiya (Bulgarian gulag)

  UB

  Urzad Bezpieczenstwa (Polish state security)

  UPA

  Ukraïnska Povstanska Armiya (Ukrainian underground army)

  ZAIG

  Zentrale Auswertungs und Informationsgruppe (evaluation department of HVA)

  PART 1

  SETTING THE SCENE

  1

  THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

  Each year, 3 October is a German national holiday known as der Tag der deutschen Einheit – the day of German Unity. It celebrates the reunification of the country in 1989 after forty-four years of being split in two by the front line of the Cold War. The date is not an exact anniversary of any particular event, but was carefully chosen to avoid reminding people of embarrassing events in recent German history.

  On 3 October 2008 several thousand people were celebrating the reunification at what had been the border crossing-point between Marienborn in the so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Helmstedt in the Federal Republic when the country was divided roughly north to south by the Iron Curtain after the Second World War. Living conditions to the east of the ‘inner German frontier’ were so grim under the neo-Stalinist government implanted by, and controlled from, Moscow that a total of 3.5 million GDR citizens fled to the West between the end of the war in 1945 and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.1

  By 1952 the population haemorrhage threatened the economic survival of Stalin’s German puppet state and the green border was made increasingly escape-proof by barbed wire, watch-towers, minefields, searchlights, trip-wires connected to locked-off machine guns and SM-70 Claymore-type mines with a lethal range of 25m. There were also stretches where attack dogs roamed free and the foot patrols of border guards had orders to shoot to kill – the infamous Schiessbefehl that cost so many lives.

  ★★★

  To the many thousand troops of the Western Allies who drove along the autobahn to Berlin during the Cold War, the Marienborn–Helmstedt crossing was known as Checkpoint Able; Baker was at the other end of the autobahn, where it entered West Berlin; the more famous Checkpoint Charlie was on the line where the American sector of ‘the divided city’ confronted Communist East Berlin.

  On that sunny, rather windy, autumn afternoon in 2008 at Marienborn/Helmstedt family groups were picnicking on the grass and people of all ages queued to visit the small museum at this former flash-point where World War III might have begun. The motorway having been diverted once the checkpoint was redundant after the reunification of Germany, people wandered across the vehicle lanes that had often been clogged with Allied military convoys and commercial traffic deliberately delayed by Soviet troops or GDR border police. Others photographed a solitary watch-tower that had been left standing to remind visitors that Checkpoint Able had been one of the few tightly controlled gaps in the long internal German border stretching 866 miles from the shores of the Baltic all the way to the Czech frontier. Whereas two-thirds of escape attempts had previously taken place across this ‘green border’, the number of documented attempts there after the border was closed in 1952 plummeted to fewer than 100 per year, of which only about six were successful. 2 Many of the other would-be refugees paid with their lives.

  For most of the Germans present on that day in 2008, the occasion was a pleasant family day out. Doubtless, some of the older visitors had unhappy memories, having lived im Osten – to the east of the border – under the most repressive Communist regime in Europe. I shared their mixed feelings, walking with my wife away from the crowds towards a small, rather temporary-looking building to the left of the traffic lanes. For other visitors curious enough to peer through the grimy windows, there was no evidence of the crushing bureaucracy of which this had been the westernmost outpost, but looking through that glass darkly took me back nearly half a century.

  On 12 May 1959, aged 20, I was sitting in that office on a wooden chair facing an officer of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit – the Ministry of State Security, usually abbreviated to ‘Stasi’ – who had been interrogating me for six long weeks. Also present were his escort of two Stasi heavies in ill-fitting suits and a distinguished-looking English lady in the smart blue uniform of the International Red Cross, who had c
ome to escort me back to the free world. For twenty minutes, she fielded all attempts to get her to make any political remark by her ready stream of small talk about the weather, the pleasure of drinking tea as opposed to coffee and so on. As the clock on the wall showed the agreed handover time of midday, she rose to return to the Helmstedt side of the crossing, in what was then the British zone of occupied Germany.

  With nothing against him personally, I shook hands with my interrogator. It was the Cold War that had made us enemies. If he had sometimes had me hauled out of my cell for questioning in the middle of the night or very early in the morning, it was not often enough to constitute harassment, but it did make me wonder whatever sort of life he led, if those were his normal working hours.

  Walking with the Red Cross lady, whose name I never learned, out of the door and towards the western side of the checkpoint, time slowed down. It seemed a long walk, and I was frightened that this was a dream, a delusion or some kind of psychological trick that would end with a sudden shout of ‘Halt! Stehenbleiben!’ at which I would turn round to see a frontier guard with his machine pistol levelled at me – and raise my hands, waiting to be taken back to my cell.

 

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