The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union for short, was a masterpiece of Marxism, which was shown as the only alternative to the capitalist system. Established as the opposite pole of capitalism, this first socialist state was the largest country in the world with an area of twenty-two million four hundred three thousand square kilometers. The superpower of the 20th century, the nightmare of the West and the United States. The unfinished song of the proletariat in a romantic phrase. A struggle of seventy-four years whose end was lost.
According to some, the failure of Marx’s theory in practice, according to others, only Lenin’s mistake. Communist party, politburo or temporary general secretaries. In fact, none of them has had as much influence on this country as the organization we will talk about shortly. The Soviet Union was actually ruled by this organization.
On the night of August 22, 1991, a crowd in Moscow began to tear down 14 solid bronze statues at wide crossroads. Years ago, this action would have cost them their lives. However, on this night, which is believed to have laid the foundations of democracy in the country, these statues were lost to history as a symbol of everything that went wrong for years. The statue of this man with a cold and insidious gaze was also among those destroyed. This man was Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, Vladimir Lenin’s right-hand man and founder of the first official Soviet secret service known as the CHEKA.
Established after the October 17 revolution, with the decision of the Council of Soviet People’s Commissars on December 20, 1919, the CHEKA has made a name for itself by ruthlessly suppressing any revolt against the communist regime since then. CHEKA officials were called Çekist. This cold word circulated among the people in whispers like a nightmare spewing disaster and death everywhere.
Western sources have not been able to obtain qualified information about the establishment period of the Cheka until today. Therefore, the information about the power of the Cheka at that time is limited. The organization was reorganized in 1922, when the Cheka’s oppression of the Soviet people soon gained a bad reputation. The State Political Directorate – GPU was established in its place. However, this development was just a kind of shell swapping, as the GPU was created from former Cheka members while the GPU was being set up. Josef Stalin, who came to power after Lenin’s death, turned the secret service into his personal tool to secure his dictatorship. First of all, he eliminated his political opponents one by one. Then it began to unleash a storm of terror, unprecedented in history, against ordinary Soviet citizens.
During the 1930s and 1940s, more than 10 million people perished at the bloody hands of Stalin’s new secret police organization, the NKVD. More were arrested, crippled, and lost their minds. This organization has created a deadly network around the world. The hitmen have continually slaughtered ideological dissidents from all over the world. The most famous of these was Leon Trotsky, who was killed in Mexico in 1940.
The Soviet secret service is also the most renamed agency. Soviet news coverage was burgeoning when he said Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD, GUGB, MGB. In the 1920s and early 1930s, many Western states were unable to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviets. This situation did not allow spies to infiltrate the Soviet embassies. So Soviet news began to do most of the work illegally. This development allowed the organization to become a complete secret service and gave great experience. The NKVD was trying to seize the national security information of hostile countries through covert operations. Most of these operations were aimed at obtaining all the secret military and national security secrets of the USA and England, especially the atomic weapons, down to the finest detail and handing them over to Soviet scientists.
After the Second World War, Soviet agents had infiltrated all the military and political institutions of the United States. By the 1950s, Soviet intelligence began to terrorize the Western world with its new name. In 1954, at a secret meeting held under the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a decision was made on the establishment of the State Security Committee. This new organization, whose Russian name is “Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti”, has become the most effective and most powerful intelligence agency in the world with the abbreviation KGB.
Many Western scientists and intellectuals were deeply grateful to the Soviet Union, which played a leading role in winning the war with Hitler and lost 20 million people for this cause. They felt that they owed their survival to the heavy bill paid by the Soviets and believed that despite its political structure, this country deserved to have the same military status as all other Western countries, especially the United States. It was precisely this mentality that allowed the KGB to access all the secrets of the West in the field of military and science.
Josef Stalin saw his brilliant victory in the Second World War as an opportunity to influence the entire west, and even the USA beyond. In response, the United States had prepared effective action plans against any emergency. In fact, one of these plans envisaged a nuclear attack on 20 major industrial cities of Russia, especially Moscow and Leningrad. However, the Warsaw Pact, signed by 8 socialist countries, including the Soviets, on May 14, 1955, caused this plan to be shelved. To the KGB, the United States was still the biggest enemy.
And the cold war began. After the Second World War, the USA started to establish military bases all over the world against the possible expansion plans of Russia. These bases were in a position and equipped to carry out nuclear attacks on the heart of Russia in case of any attack. But the Soviets were not unaware of these plans. A building in the Taganka district of old Moscow. This building is actually a trick that covers an invisible world. This is a huge bunker that Stalin built in high secrecy at a depth of 60 meters against possible US attacks. 1500 people were on duty in this shelter and they were working in three shifts. For 33 years, this underground bunker served as a Soviet military communications center under the code name GO-42.
GO-42, which stands for Gosudarstvenny Obyekt, or State Institution, and was hidden from above by a simple apartment building, was located 60 meters deep in the ground and consisted of four large blocks connected by a network of tunnels. The technical support systems were located in the third block. Generators, ventilation systems and materials. The fourth block consisted of a canteen, ward and infirmary. The first and second blocks were the heart of the operation. Communication offices and tools were located here. Stalin never had a shortage of workers to build this enormous underground city, which covers more than 7,000 square meters. Because millions of people convicted as enemies of the people and the system by the NKVD, which had almost become his personal police organization, were serving their sentences by working. A significant number of these people were employed in such secret projects that they did not even know what it was. Most of them could not stand the harsh working conditions and died. The dead were buried in their work areas.
One of these major projects was the Moscow metro, which is the largest metro in the world even now. This subway, which is also the deepest subway in the world, was probably specially designed to be used as a shelter during a US bombardment. The Moscow metro, the construction of which began at the same time as the GO-42, was an illusion set up to cover up Stalin’s secret world.
The bases that America established against the Soviet Union were mainly established in countries such as England, Italy and Turkey. Starting from 1946, the KGB started to work against the strategic military bases of the USA and the UK, which surrounded the Soviets. In fact, it had made plans to destroy them in a war environment. The organization had a large number of agents carefully selected from among the prisoners of war, trained and assigned. These agents were specially trained for these operations. In 1946, Stalin launched a large-scale operation against US influence within the Soviet Union. In this context, first of all, he cut off all ties of the country with unwanted Western countries. This was a new action plan against westernization with its new name.
Parallel to these screw tightening activities against foreign influence, an intense campaign was launched against the Soviet Jews, which was the result of the failure of the Middle East policies. From 1948 on, Stalin was working to make Israel the Soviet Union’s Middle East outpost. He even used Russian-born ex-Socialist Jews like Golda Meir, one of the Israeli leaders, for this cause. Stalin believed that the Jews of the world were grateful to the Soviet Union for their contribution to the victory over the Nazis. By order of Stalin, the Soviet secret service was supporting the Jews in Palestine against the British. The Soviet Union was also one of the first countries to vote for the United Nations on the creation of a Jewish state. But it was clear from the start that Israel did not intend a Soviet-style system. On the contrary, Israel saw the United States of America as its closest ally.
Recognizing this as a betrayal, Stalin turned Soviet Jews against Israel. From the most ordinary to the most elite. Solomon Mikhoels was a famous actor and director in the Soviet Union. He was performing and broadcasting Jewish anti-fascist comedy plays. In 1943, Stalin sent Mikhoels on a war support and donation tour to the United States. Successfully fulfilling his mission, Mikhoels returned to Moscow with support and large donations. After the war, Mikhoels was sent on a western tour, tasked with raising $10 million. These coins were to be used for the restructuring of the post-war Soviet Union. The failure in Middle East politics had changed everything. On January 13, 1948, Mikhoels allegedly died in an accident. He was run over by a truck climbing the barrier. Mikhoels was buried with a stately burial. But the Jews no longer felt very secure.
KGB is like water, it moves in accordance with the ground it is on. For this reason, the counter secret services, which have been fighting against him for years, could not take a full picture of the KGB. The data obtained from the KGB spies caught at the end of the KGB hunt, which lasted for many years, were brought together to form a realistic picture. During its 50 years of operation, the KGB has held thousands of secrets. Many of these we will not know forever. However, some documents that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 revealed the horrifying functioning of this organization to a large extent. Before we get into this, let’s see the general scheme of the KGB.
The second headquarters within the KGB is responsible for the control of the Soviet people and foreigners within the Soviet Union. The second general directorate consists of twelve directorates. These twelve directorships do double duty. It both hunts foreign diplomats and prevents unauthorized contact of foreigners with Soviet citizens. The task distribution of the departments is divided according to the countries. Department one is North and South America. The second department is the United Kingdom. The third department is Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. The fourth department is Western nations. Fifth department is developed non-European nations. The sixth department is the underdeveloped non-European nations. This unit consisted of some 60 high-ranking officers, hunters, dispatchers, reserve corps, 300 observers on temporary duty from the surveillance directorate. The second headquarters was in the same neighborhood as the US embassy. It was a 5-storey building with a warehouse exterior. However, there were many buildings allocated to this directorate in Moscow. Foreign nationals who thought they had met Soviet citizens by chance were hunting in these buildings. The typical job description of this unit is as follows.
As soon as a foreigner who wanted to come to the Soviet Union applied for a visa, this unit contacted all units of the KGB and gathered information about the foreigner. Who the visitor was, why he came, how long he would stay, how old he was and his health status were collected in the intelligence report. Then the visa application would be answered positively or negatively. From the moment this person landed at the airport, he would be monitored by this unit. The information was recorded in his file by watching the hotel he stayed and the tours he participated in. Even if this person spoke a single word to a citizen even while buying a newspaper, that citizen would be questioned by this unit. The intention of this person was tried to be understood from the content of the conversation. No tour operator in Moscow could change the tour program without the permission of this unit. Because the KGB had organized according to a certain program beforehand.
This unit also monitored the embassy employees and their contacts with Soviet citizens in the same way. All these operations are carried out by divisions of the second general directorate from one to six departments among themselves. Departments six through twelve deal with foreign students, academics, journalists, other print media, publishing houses, party houses, and bribery. However, only the 12th department is different from the others. Its job is simply to monitor the subversive activity from China. As can be understood from here, they see the import regime from China, not the West, as the closest danger to them.
Sometimes things don’t go as expected despite every detail being considered. For example, the 1956 operation is an important example of this. KGB analysts report a change of government in France. The cabinet will change and new names will take office. The KGB not only predicted which party would take the government in such a change, but also identified possible cabinet members. According to this report, it is analyzed that the second most influential man in the government would be the French ambassador in the Soviet Union at that time. The KGB headquarters asks its second headquarters to hunt this person down. The second general directorate immediately takes over and starts the operation. Everything goes well and the ambassador falls into the expected trap. Then the blackmail of the KGB begins. However, the ambassador cannot withstand these pressures and commits suicide. The inside of the event is revealed as a result of the confessions of a KGB agent who took refuge in the west. So how did the ambassador fall into this trap? Watch the KGB swallow and see the truth.
In the Soviet Union, common-law relations were considered immoral and the punishment was severe. But there were those who were exempt from these penalties. Nocturnal butterflies who surrender their bodies for secret official duties. The famous swallows of the KGB. They would blow your mind overnight. A nice dinner, romantic moments and bed. By the time he realized who he was sleeping with in the morning, it would be too late for anything. You are now in the hands of the KGB. Colonel Karapetian can still enter this hotel in the center of Yerevan like a boss. This building, which is a five-star hotel today, was once operating under the umbrella of the KGB under the name In Tourist. In the 1950s this hotel was attached to Moscow. Colonel Karapetian had personally set traps for some foreigners who came to the country. Operations throughout the Soviet Union. Sakinyan, a former KGB party committee and one of the ministers at the time, had made a list of all prostitutes and homosexuals in the country to be used in secret official duties. When necessary, the girls to be used in the operations were selected from this list. The most handsome boys and beautiful young girls. These organized love affairs could remain a state secret even today, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no point in keeping them.
It was in this hotel that the most scandalous operation of world intelligence was carried out. The wife of the Norwegian prime minister was seduced. This event happened in 1954. While the country was still closed to the world, the prime minister of Norway was very warmly received according to a western executive. Einar Gerhardsen considered the Soviet Union very close to himself. He was a social democrat, ex-worker and anti-fascist. His wife, a famous anti-fascist just like him, was treated much more privately. A very handsome young man named Belyakov was introduced to him as a representative of the anti-fascist organization. While the Prime Minister was with Khrushchev in the Kremlin, a separate program was organized for his wife. Red square, women representatives and a trip to Armenia.
Werna Gerhardsen was placed in luxury room 302 on the third floor. Lieutenant Commander Belyakov had only 48 hours to establish a close relationship with the prime minister’s wife. The senior lieutenant successfully fulfilled this responsible task. He was also his chauffeur, taking him to his room, opening the doors, serving him. He was handsome, careful, and quite gentle. The lieutenant was younger than Gerhardsen, who was unaware of everything. The atmosphere was so set that they were alone for a long time. They liked each other and ended up in bed that evening. Of course, this adventure ended with the KGB’s photo documentation. The photos were sent to the Norwegian embassy of the Soviet Union while the Norwegian prime minister and his wife were returning home. When the photos were shown to the wife of the Norwegian prime minister, her first words were: “I knew he was a Chekist, but I couldn’t understand that he was playing me because of his job”. Now she understood the game played to her. From then on, negotiations became routine. She could not afford to hear the event, as it would cause great shock to the public. Of course, emotions were no longer involved. The talks had turned into formal business meetings. Thanks to this operation, the KGB obtained very important confidential information, whether in the military or economic field.
The launch of the first satellite into space frightened the United States and other NATO countries. The danger of the third world war was discussed at the extraordinary summit of western countries held in Paris. Norway was the Soviet’s northern neighbor and also a NATO member. Moscow was worried that an atomic missile base would be built in Norway. Rune Gerhardsen still remembers him father preparing for the meeting in Paris. Before his father even reached the station, the house phone rang. Then his mother disappeared. His mother was given a letter written on it to the prime minister himself. The letter sent to the prime minister at the station contained the objection of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. Gerhardsen, who read the letter on the train, took out a pen and paper and changed the text of the speech he was going to make at the summit. At the NATO summit the next day, he declared that the Norwegian administration refused the deployment of NATO missiles on its territory and was in favor of disarmament.
Einar Gerhardsen was apparently too well-intentioned with the Soviets. However, even his close circle and family understood that the Soviets now wanted to take control of Norway’s security policies. Nevertheless, relations between the Soviets and Norway continued at a warm level for nearly 20 years after Einar Gerhardsen’s speech in Paris. After the Berlin wall was built, the crisis between the Soviet Union and the USA deepened even more. This led to the start of the cold war. The world is divided into two poles. On the one hand, the United States with its allies, and on the other, the Soviet Union with its allies. This war was not a military war. Both sides were using their great achievements in the field of atomic weapons and technology as intimidation against each other. Intelligence was the most powerful weapon of this war.
