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This Day In May: Soviet spies worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 extracts

From Peter Polack

Argentina

Konstantin Petrovich Monakhov expelled Argentina 7 April 1959 expelled again Italy 6 August 1969 exposed as Soviet spy May 1975 in US Congress Sub-Committee on Trade and Commerce hearing Trade Embargo Cuba 8 May 1975.

Cuba

Vadim Aleksandrovich Bogoslovsky deployed Cuba 1972 United Nations Political Affairs Office 1959-65 New Times Moscow March 1968 Chief Mass Publications Division 1978 exposed as Soviet spy May 1975.

Sergei Mikhailovich Kudryavtsev deployed to Soviet Embassy Germany 1941 expelled from Soviet Embassy Canada June 1946 Soviet Ambassador Cuba 1960 expelled May 1962 Soviet Ambassador Cambodia 1967-71 Soviet representative UNESCO 1971-72.

Denmark

On 24 May 1984 the Danish Government announced the expulsions of two Soviet engineers attached to the commercial section of the Soviet Embassy in Copenhagen for engaging in espionage including Pyotr Naumov. The two had sought to purchase electronic and computer equipment known to be embargoed for export to the U.S.S.R. and had been under surveillance by Danish security authorities for some time before their arrest. 

Charge D’Affaires Sergei F. Zhuravlev was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to be told that the two diplomats had engaged in illegal espionage activities in Denmark. The Soviet Ambassador was Lev Isaakovich Mendelevich assistant to First Deputy Foreign Minister Soviet Union 1963 Deputy Head of the Soviet delegation to the United Nations 1968-70.

Egypt

May 1976 Soviet official Viktor Andreevich Telezhnikov expelled. On 14 March 1976 President Sadat terminated the Soviet-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and all Soviet military personnel departed. The Soviet Ambassador 1974-81 was Vladimir Profirevich Polyakov expelled 15 September 1981 Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief Middle East section of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs also Vice-Minister Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Finland

May 1978 Soviet official Anatoliy P. Grigoryev expelled Soviet Embassy Second Secretary Cambodia April 1959.

The Soviet Ambassador December 1973-June 1979 was Vladimir Sevastianovich Stepanov.

France

In September 1978 KGB Igor A. Kuznetsov a Soviet diplomat based in Paris under DST surveillance met Pierre-Charles Pathe. Kuznetsov worked undercover as UNESCO Paris Second Secretary of the Soviet delegation. Pathe was a journalist and Synthesis bulletin publisher who had been paid by the Soviets for twenty years to provide them with analyses, reports on political personalities, and lists of subscribers to his review since 1959. He used Soviet ideas and analyses in the bulletin. The biographies gave the KGB details of the social, moral, and psychological state of industrialists, journalists, and politicians. The analyses covered everything from French arms sales to China to the probable state of Franco-Soviet relations in the event of a political takeover by the left. Pathe also supplied the Russians with information about a member of France’s SDECE. Copies of his bulletin went to deputies of the French National Assembly. In June 1979 Kuznetsov and Pathe met when Pathe gave Kuznetsov an envelope whereupon the DST arrested them both. Pathe sentenced 5 years imprisonment 22 May 1980 because of his work over the years on behalf of nine successive KGB officers. The DST stated he was part of a Soviet disinformation plan aimed at discrediting the reputations of certain persons and institutions while shaping opinion in directions favored by the Soviet Union. Igor Kuznetsov Second Secretary Soviet mission UNESCO son of KGB First Chief Directorate head Aleksandr M. Sakharovskii expelled. Igor Kuznetsov Persian Gulf bureau chief Soviet Novosti News Agency 1996.The Soviet Ambassador was Stepan Vasilyevich Chervonenko.

Germany

23 May 1960 U.S. News and World Report revealed that 2, 787 spies were caught in Germany during 1959 with an estimated 17,000 Eastern Bloc spies operating in Germany. The Soviet Ambassador was Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov.

Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov

Iran

Eighteen Soviet diplomats were expelled for interference in the internal affairs of Iran on 7 May 1983. The Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza or TASS bureau was closed, Soviet banks and economic installations in Iran were nationalized while Soviet diplomats were told to restrict their activities and try not to leave their homes.

United Kingdom

Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Vasilyevich Pupyshev deployed Soviet Embassy Cairo Assistant Air Military Attache Soviet Embassy Canada Assistant Military Attache January 1948 expelled Soviet Embassy United Kingdom Military Attache 10 May 1954 for espionage with Major Andrei Fedorovich Gudkov.

© Peter Polack   All rights reserved  

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013)Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). Polack worked as a part-time reporter for Reuters News Agency in the Cayman Islands 2014-16. His work has been published in Small Wars Journal, Defence Procurement International, American Intelligence JournalU.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center magazine, Military Times, Foreign Policy News, EU Today, Radio Free Europe, VOA Portuguese, South Africa Times, Africa Monitor, Folha de Sao Paulo, NODAL Cultura, Caribbean Life, Jamaque Paradis, History Cooperative, INews Cayman, Jamaica Gleaner, Miami Herald, Reuters and The New York Times. His latest book entitled Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 is published by McFarland. The book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with nearly five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide. In April 2021 he completed Only the Young Shall Die by with Jack McCain USNR about raising the age of military enlistment. He is currently doing research on a curated collection entitledWar In Pictures of almost 1,000 images throughout several conflicts over many centuries.

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