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Soviet Union [USSR] Intelligence and Counterintelligence
KGB intelligence gathering in the West increased markedly after
the era of détente began in 1972. Détente permitted a vast influx
of Soviet and East European diplomatic, cultural, and commercial
officials into the United States and other Western countries. KGB
officers and their East European counterparts operated under
various guises, posing as diplomats, trade officials, journalists,
scientists, and students. The proportion of Soviet citizens abroad
who were engaged in intelligence gathering was estimated to range
from 30 to 40 percent in the United States to over 50 percent in
some Third World countries. In addition, many Soviet
representatives who were not intelligence officers were
nevertheless given some sort of assignment by the KGB.
Apparently, the First Chief Directorate had little trouble
recruiting personnel for its foreign operations. The high salaries,
military rank, access to foreign currency, and opportunity to live
abroad offered attractive enticements to young people choosing a
career. First Chief Directorate recruits were usually graduates of
prestigious higher education institutions and had knowledge of one
or more foreign languages. The KGB had a two-year postgraduate
training course for these recruits at its Higher Intelligence
School located near Moscow. The curriculum included the use of
ciphers, arms and sabotage training, history and economics
according to
Marxist-Leninist (see Glossary) theory, CPSU history,
law, and foreign languages.
The KGB was the primary agency responsible for supplying the
Kremlin with foreign intelligence. According to former Soviet
diplomat Arkady Shevchenko, Moscow cabled out questions on a daily
basis to KGB rezidenty abroad to guide them in their tasks.
In addition to political intelligence, KGB officers concentrated
increasingly on efforts to acquire advanced Western technology. The
KGB reportedly acted as a collector of militarily significant
Western technology (in the form of documents and hardware) on
behalf of the Military Industrial Commission of the Presidium of
the Council of Ministers. This commission coordinated the
development of all Soviet weapons systems, along with the program
to acquire Western technology, and it levied requirements among the
KGB, the
Main Intelligence Directorate (see Glossary), and several
other agencies, including those of East European intelligence
services. The KGB and the GRU increased their technical collection
efforts considerably in the early 1980s, when the number of
requirements levied on them by the Military Industrial Commission
rose by about 50 percent.
The Andropov era saw a greater orientation in the KGB toward
electronic espionage--communications intercepts and satellites--to
supplement intelligence gathered by agents. According to Robert
Campbell, the Soviet Union deployed at least three satellites for
intelligence collection. Some of the intelligence may have been
strictly military and therefore collected by the GRU, but the KGB
reportedly also made use of these satellites.
Data as of May 1989
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