Oleg Danilovich Kalugin , (born September 6, 1934) is a former
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
generalA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
. He was a longtime head of KGB operations in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and later a critic of the agency.
Born in
LeningradSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
and son of an officer in the
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
, Kalugin attended
Leningrad State UniversitySaint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious universities in the country. It is made up of 19 specialized faculties, 13 research institutes, Canada College, Faculty of...
and, subsequently, was recruited by the KGB under the
aegisAegis , from Greek αιγίς, is a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority or, it is the holder of a protective shield signifying the same, such as a bag-like garment that contained a shield. Sometimes the garment and the shield are...
of the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence). After training he was sent to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he enrolled as a journalism student at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
on a
Fulbright scholarshipThe Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of grants for international educational exchange for scholars, educators, graduate students and professionals, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright....
in 1958, along with
Aleksandr YakovlevAlexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, Александр Николаевич Яковлев was a Russian economist who was a Soviet governmental official in the 1980s and a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
.
Oleg Danilovich Kalugin , (born September 6, 1934) is a former
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
generalA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
. He was a longtime head of KGB operations in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and later a critic of the agency.
Early life and the KGB career
Born in
LeningradSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
and son of an officer in the
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
, Kalugin attended
Leningrad State UniversitySaint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious universities in the country. It is made up of 19 specialized faculties, 13 research institutes, Canada College, Faculty of...
and, subsequently, was recruited by the KGB under the
aegisAegis , from Greek αιγίς, is a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority or, it is the holder of a protective shield signifying the same, such as a bag-like garment that contained a shield. Sometimes the garment and the shield are...
of the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence). After training he was sent to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he enrolled as a journalism student at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
on a
Fulbright scholarshipThe Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of grants for international educational exchange for scholars, educators, graduate students and professionals, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright....
in 1958, along with
Aleksandr YakovlevAlexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, Александр Николаевич Яковлев was a Russian economist who was a Soviet governmental official in the 1980s and a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
. He continued to pose as a journalist for a number of years, eventually serving as the
Radio MoscowVoice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company...
correspondentA correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign country. The term correspondent refers to the original practice of...
at the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
. In 1965 — after five years in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
— he returned to
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
to serve under the cover of press officer in the Soviet Foreign Ministry.
Kalugin was then assigned to
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, with the cover of deputy press officer for the Soviet Embassy. In reality he was deputy resident and acting chief of the Residency at the Soviet Embassy. Rising in the ranks he became one of the KGB's top officers operating out of the Soviet embassy in Washington: it led to his being promoted to general in 1974, the youngest in its history. He then returned to KGB headquarters to become head of the foreign counterintelligence or K branch of the
First Chief DirectorateThe First Chief Directorate of the Committee for State Security , was the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of covert agents, intelligence collection management, and the collection of political, scientific and...
. During this time he received high honors for assassination of Bulgarian writer
Georgi MarkovGeorgi Ivanov Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer.Markov originally worked as a novelist and playwright, but during 1969 he defected from Bulgaria, then a Stalinist state governed by President Todor Zhivkov...
, which had been accomplished on a request from
Todor ZhivkovTodor Hristov Zhivkov was a communist politician and leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from March 4, 1954 until November 10, 1989.- Early life :...
and ordered by the KGB chief
Yuri AndropovYuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
(But actually there's no real proof for this statement).
KGB criticism
In 1980 Kalugin was demoted to deputy head of the Leningrad KGB as a result of an intrigue initiated by
Vladimir KryuchkovVladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov was a former Soviet politician and Communist Party member, having been in the organization from 1944 until he was dismissed in 1991 for his role in the failed coup against Gorbachev...
who was at this time a close confidant of
Yuri AndropovYuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
and had been privately criticized by Kalugin. Kalugin was accused of recruiting an agent twenty years prior who was actually an American spy . This made Kalugin himself seem to be a security risk. He was suspected of working for the CIA, although there was no supporting evidence.
Vladimir KryuchkovVladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov was a former Soviet politician and Communist Party member, having been in the organization from 1944 until he was dismissed in 1991 for his role in the failed coup against Gorbachev...
, Chairman of the KGB and orchestrator of the
1991 coup plotThe 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup, was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
, alleged that in his time in counterintelligence he failed to discover a single American agent while his successor would allegedly find over a dozen. Former CIA
moleA mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
Karl KoecherKarel František Koecher is the only mole known to have penetrated the CIA. Born in Czechoslovakia, he became a radio comedy writer and was allegedly frequently scrutinized by the Communist security forces for his satire that mocked the regime...
made unsupported claims that Kalugin was responsible for Koecher's eventual arrest.
The unsubstantiated accusations did not stop him from criticizing the agency's policies and methods, complaining about the fact that the KGB was overlooking corruption in the highest circles of Soviet society while terrorizing common people. His unbridled public criticism led to reassignment to Security Officers posts first in the Academy of Sciences in 1987, then at the Ministry of Electronics in 1988. His career at the KGB ended with his forced
retirementRetirement is the point where a person stops employment completely . A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours...
on February 26, 1990.
As the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
underwent changes under
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
, Kalugin became more vocal and public in his criticism of the KGB, denouncing Soviet security forces as "
StalinistStalinism was the political system and ideology of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1928–1953...
" domestic political police, although he never disputed the importance of espionage abroad. Finally, in 1990, Gorbachev signed a decree stripping Kalugin of his rank, decorations, and pension. In August 1991, Gorbachev returned his rank, decorations and pension to Kalugin. Despite opposition from the KGB, he was elected in September 1990 to the
Supreme SovietThe Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
as a People's Deputy for the
KrasnodarKrasnodar is a city in Southern Russia on the Kuban River. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai .-Name:It was founded on January 12, 1794 as Yekaterinodar...
region.
Countering the Soviet coup attempt
Kalugin became a firm supporter of
Boris YeltsinBoris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999....
, the president of the
Russian SFSRThe Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union and became the Russian...
. During the abortive
Soviet coup attempt of 1991The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup, was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
he led crowds to the Russian White House, center of anticoup efforts, and induced Yeltsin to address the crowds.
After the coup he became an unpaid adviser to the new KGB Chairman
Vadim BakatinVadim Viktorovich Bakatin was a Soviet politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He is the last surviving former chairman of this organization...
. While Bakatin succeeded in dismantling the old security apparatus, he did not have the time to reform it before being fired on November 1991. Ever vocal, Kalugin told the press that in the future, the KGB would have no political functions, no secret laboratories where they manufacture poisons and secret weapons.
Exile in the United States
According to Kalugin, he has never betrayed any Soviet agents except those who were already known to Western intelligence. He criticized intelligence defectors like
GordievskyOleg Antonovich Gordievsky , CMG , was a Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate and bureau chief in London, who was a secret agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985.-Early career:Oleg Gordievsky attended the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and on...
as "traitors."
Nevertheless, with what he considers the return to power of elements of the KGB, most notably
Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the second President of Russia and is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus...
, Kalugin was again accused of
treasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife...
. In 1995 he accepted a teaching position in
The Catholic University of AmericaThe Catholic University of America , located in Northeast Washington, D.C., is the national university of the Roman Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops...
and has remained in the United States ever since. Settling in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, he wrote a book about
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
espionage entitled
The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West and collaborated with former CIA Director
William ColbyWilliam Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September, 1973, to January, 1976....
and
ActivisionActivision, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600...
to produce
Spycraft: The Great GameSpycraft is an adventure CD-ROM game published by Activision in 1996. It details the attempted assassination of the President of the United States and the CIA and SVR attempts to save him...
, a
CD-ROMCD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback, the 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data. CD-ROMs are popularly used to...
game released in 1996. He has appeared frequently in the media and given
lecturethumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s at a number of universities. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on August 4, 2003.
In 2002 he was put on trial
in absentiaIn absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.-In absentia in common law legal systems:...
in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
and found guilty of spying for the West. He was sentenced to fifteen years in jail, but the United States has refused to extradite him.
Kalugin currently works for CI Centre, a counterintelligence consulting and training firm in the Washington, DC area. He is also an advisory director of the
International Spy MuseumThe International Spy Museum is a privately owned museum dedicated to the field of espionage located in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across the street from the Old Patent Office Building and one block south of the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station.The museum was built by...
. He remains a critic of Vladimir Putin, whom he called a "war criminal".
Books by Oleg Kalugin
- The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West by Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne. 1994.374 pages. St Martins Pr. ISBN 0-312-11426-5
- Spymaster: The Highest-ranking KGB Officer Ever to Break His Silence by Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne. 1995. Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85685-101-X
- (Russian) Proshchai, Lubianka! (XX vek glazami ochevidtsev) by Oleg Kalugin. 1995. 347 pages. "Olimp" ISBN 5-7390-0375-X
- Window of opportunity: Russia's role in the coalition against terror. An article from: Harvard International Review. September 22, 2002. Vol. 24 Issue 3 Page 56(5).
External links