The KGB
During the Cold War not much was known about the activities of the Russian state security organization by western intelligence agencies. However after the collapse of the Soviet Union, documents that have been smuggled out by KGB agents (Wilson 1) have allowed agents to see just how much this agency knew and how far the Soviets managed to penetrate into western society. The question is where the KGB operations during the Cold War successful or not? Before the KGB, there was the Vecheka or Cheka, which was started on December 20, 1917 (Crozier 11). The Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin created the Cheka, so they would be able to combat counter revolutionary forces in Russia after the Bolsheviks took power. The man who was chosen to lead the organization was Felix Dzerzhinky, also known as "Iron Felix", from Poland (11). Not long after the Cheka was founded, it sent a newspaper publisher, Aleksei Filippov, into Finland. Under cover as a journalist, he was sent on various intelligence assignments. This was the Soviets first attempt into international espionage (Andrew, Mitrokhin 24). After the end of the civil war, the Cheka was transferred to the control of the NKVD as the GPU (NKVD.org 1). During its time as the GPU, its mission
In conclusion, most of the intelligence and espionage of the Cold War turned out not to be worth the money that was put into it, because it was not being used properly or when the timing was right. While these were only a few of the many events that occurred during the Cold War, it can be said that while the Soviet Union lost the economic battle of the Cold War, the may have won the espionage war. After the failed invasion of Cuba, Khrushchev wanted to strike back at American for what Kennedy did. Khrushchev ordered a massive sabotage campaign on America. The targets included dams, pipelines and the New York Harbor (Wilson 2). The KGB used the large unprotected borders of Canada and Mexico to ship arms and men into the U.S. (Andrew and Mitrokhin 262). The Soviet government believed the sabotage campaign would cause citizens to rise up and attack their federal government after hearing news of the attacks (Wilson 3). The sabotage campaign was never started because when Yuri Andropov came to power, he didn't want the risk the KGB agents being discovered while sabotaging installations. He ordered the KGB to find out disgruntled Americans to do the job instead (4). The new plan was also abandoned because when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, he wanted to start major reforms in the government so the plan was abandoned (5). The international espionage operations that this organization had in the world were many. In the New Mexico desert, one of the most secret operations during World War II was going on; this project was the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan project was the researching and production of the first atomic bomb (Feifer 40). Security included watchtowers, guard dogs and U.S. Army agents to track the scientists when they left the compound and monitor their conversations (40). While the Germans never managed to infiltrate the nuclear research program, the Soviets did; they accomplished this by recruiting scientists who
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1308
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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