Academy of Foreign Intelligence

Last updated
Academy of Foreign Intelligence
Академия внешней разведки имени Ю. В. Андропова (АВР)
AVR badge.jpg
Type Academy
Established1938
Location,
55°54′33.34″N37°38′43.18″E / 55.9092611°N 37.6453278°E / 55.9092611; 37.6453278
LanguageRussian
Website knutkt.com.ua

The Academy of Foreign Intelligence (alternatively known as the SVR Academy, [1] previously known as the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute and the Red Banner Institute) [2] is one of the primary espionage academies of Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, serving the KGB and its successor organization, the Foreign Intelligence Service. It was attended by future President Vladimir Putin during the 1980s. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Location

The school is located north of Moscow, with a main facility north of Chelebityevo (Russian : Челобитьево) and a secondary facility at Yurlovo (Russian : Юрлово). [6] [7]

History

An earlier iteration of the school was founded in 1938 and first called the Special Purpose School (Shkola osovogo naznacheniya, SHON) under NKVD. [8] It was renamed the Higher Intelligence School (VRSh) from 1948 to 1968. [9] [10] It was alternatively known as School 1010 or the 101st School, and referred to as K1 or Gridnevka by students. [6] [8] [11]

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, student enrollment dropped from approximately 300 to around 50. [6] [12]

Foreign students

The Institute trained Libyan intelligence officers for Muammar Gaddafi. [13]

Notable alumni

Notable staff

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuri Andropov</span> Leader of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician who was the sixth leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, taking office in late 1982 and serving until his death in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Security Service</span> Principal security agency of Russia

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yevgeny Primakov</span> Russian politician and diplomat (1929–2015)

Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov was a Russian politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Foreign Minister, Speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and chief of the intelligence service. Primakov was an academician (Arabist) and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)</span> Russias primary external intelligence agency

The Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation or FIS RF is Russia's external intelligence agency, focusing mainly on civilian affairs. The SVR RF succeeded the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB in December 1991. The SVR has its headquarters in the Yasenevo District of Moscow with its director reporting directly to the President of the Russian Federation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active measures</span> Political warfare conducted by the USSR & Russia

Active measures is a term used to describe political warfare conducted by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The term, which dates back to the 1920s, includes operations such as espionage, propaganda, sabotage and assassination, based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments. Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of Vladimir Putin.

Oleg Danilovich Kalugin is a former KGB general. He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of the agency. After being convicted of spying for the West in absentia during a trial in Moscow, he remained in the US and was sworn in as a citizen on 4 August 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Shelepin</span> Soviet politician and intelligence officer; Chairman of the KGB (1958–1961)

Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet politician and intelligence officer. A long-time member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he served as First Deputy Prime Minister, as a full member of the Politburo and as the chairman of the KGB from December 1958 to November 1961. He continued to maintain decisive influence in the KGB until 1967; his successor as chairman of the KGB, Vladimir Semichastny, was his client and protégé.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Kryuchkov</span> Soviet politician and chairman of the KGB (1924–2007)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Cohen (spy)</span> American-born Soviet spy

Morris Cohen, also known by his alias Peter Kroger, was an American convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union. His wife Lona was also an agent. They became spies because of their communist beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lona Cohen</span> American-born Soviet spy (1913–1992)

Lona Cohen, born Leontine Theresa Petka, also known as Helen Kroger, was an American who spied for the Soviet Union. She is known for her role in smuggling atomic bomb diagrams out of Los Alamos. She was a communist activist before marrying Morris Cohen. The couple became spies because of their communist beliefs.

As early as the 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its GRU, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals, as well as Communists of American origin, to perform espionage activities in the United States, forming various spy rings. Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow, such as information on the development of the atomic bomb. Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations, known as active measures, and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatoli Yatskov</span> Soviet diplomat (1913–1993)

Anatoly Antonovich Yatskov, also known as Anatoli Yatzkov – was a Soviet consul in New York as well as an NKVD foreign intelligence officer handling American agents and couriers linked to the U.S. Manhattan Project during WWII. His spy cover was eventually blown by the U.S. Army Venona Program which identified him as a key NKVD spymaster involved in the 1940s Atomic Spy Ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Chebrikov</span> Soviet politician (1923–1999)

Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov was a Soviet public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988.

Colonel Sergei Olegovich Tretyakov was a Russian SVR officer, who defected to the United States in October 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active reserve (KGB)</span> Member of the KGB undercover in the Soviet Union

The active reserve of the KGB are members of the organization who work undercover "either pretending to assume various jobs or using as cover professions in which they are actually trained". Active reserve KGB officers typically occupied such positions as deputy directors of scientific research or deans responsible for foreign relations in academic institutions of the Soviet Union, although these people were not scientists. Other officers were trained for certain civilian jobs, usually translators, journalists, telephone engineers, or doormen in hotels that served foreigners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterintelligence state</span> Form of government where state security services permeate society

A counterintelligence state is a state where the state security service penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, including the military. The term has been applied by historians and political commentators to the former Soviet Union, the former German Democratic Republic, Cuba after the 1959 revolution, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and post-Soviet Russia under Vladimir Putin, especially since 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KGB</span> Main Soviet security agency from 1954 to 1991

The Committee for State Security, abbreviated as KGB, was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, OGPU, and NKVD. Attached to the Council of Ministers, it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR, where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions.

Russian espionage in the United States has occurred since at least the Cold War, and likely well before. According to the United States government, by 2007 it had reached Cold War levels.

<i>Seventeen Moments of Spring</i> Soviet TV series (1973)

Seventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet twelve-part television series, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the novel of the same title by Yulian Semyonov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuri Drozdov (general)</span> Soviet KGB agent (1925–2017)

Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov was a Soviet security official. In 1979, he led Operation Storm-333, formally triggering the Soviet–Afghan War. Later, as a high-level agent of the KGB, he oversaw the execution of the "Illegals Program" in the United States from 1979 until 1991. Drozdov was a recipient of the Order of Lenin, which was conferred to him in 1981.

References

  1. Weiss, Michael (December 27, 2017). "Revealed: The Secret KGB Manual for Recruiting Spies". The Daily Beast . Retrieved January 2, 2018. The foreign arm is today known as the SVR, which is the actual successor of the First Chief Directorate; the Andropov Red Banner Institute, in fact, is now called the SVR Academy.
  2. Martin Ebon (1994). KGB: Death and Rebirth. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 185. ISBN   978-0-275-94633-3. More specialized espionage instructions were provided by the Red Banner Institute, renamed in memory of former KGB chief Yuri Andropov and usually simply called the Andropov Institute.
  3. Chris Hutchins (2012). Putin. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 40. ISBN   978-1-78088-114-0. But these were the honeymoon days and she was already expecting their first child when he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in September 1984 [...] At Red Banner students were given a nom de guerre beginning with the same letter as their surname. Thus Comrade Putin became Comrade Platov.
  4. Andrew Jack (15 December 2005). Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-19-029336-9. He returned to work in Leningrad's First Department for intelligence for four and a half years, and then attended the elite Andropov Red Banner Institute for intelligence training before his posting to the German Democratic Republic in 1985.
  5. Vladimir Putin; Nataliya Gevorkyan; Natalya Timakova; Andrei Kolesnikov (5 May 2000). First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin . PublicAffairs. pp.  53. ISBN   978-0-7867-2327-0. I worked there for about four and a half years, and then I went to Moscow for training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which is now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence.
  6. 1 2 3 Nigel West (26 January 2007). Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence. Scarecrow Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN   978-0-8108-6463-4.
  7. Peter Truscott (2005). Putin's Progress: A Biography of Russia's Enigmatic President, Vladimir Putin. Pocket Books. p. 46. ISBN   978-0-7434-9607-0. Four and a half years after joining the KGB's First Department in Leningrad, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which became the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. This was the KGB's elite school for foreign agents, where the USSR's top spies were trained. Located in woods outside Moscow, the Red Banner Institute is isolated and fenced-off with barbed wire.
  8. 1 2 Robert W. Pringle (29 July 2015). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-4422-5318-6.
  9. "Foreign Intelligence Service". Federation of American Scientists . Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  10. Jonathan Haslam (24 September 2015). Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence. OUP Oxford. p. 317. ISBN   978-0-19-101812-1. From 1943 it was called the Intelligence School (RaSh), then, from September 1948, the Higher Intelligence School (VRSh), also known as School 101.
  11. FBIS Daily Report: Central Eurasia. The Service. 1995. p. 3. After the war V.V. Gridnev served as director of the 101st School, which trained personnel for our foreign intelligence service. The future intelligence agents idolized their director and informally called the 101st School "Gridnevka." Later it became the higher training establishment of our intelligence service—the Yu.V. Andropov Red Banner Institute, was created on the basis of that school.
  12. Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter. Peter Isaacson. 1993. p. 27. The number of students at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which trains intelligence staff, has dropped from 300 to about 50.
  13. David C. Wills (26 October 2004). The First War on Terrorism: Counter-terrorism Policy during the Reagan Administration. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 168. ISBN   978-1-4175-0361-2. Additional intelligence showed that the KGB had trained Libyan intelligence officers at the Andropov Institute in Moscow, and regularly supplied Qaddafi with reports on American naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean.
  14. Biographic information submitted to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on 1 August 2012
  15. Oleg Nechiporenko (1993). Passport to Assassination: The Never-before-told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel who Knew Him . Carol Publishing Group. p.  339. ISBN   978-1-55972-210-0. Nechiporenko remained in Mexico until 1965 and returned again in 1967. From 1971 until 1985 he was dispatched on numerous special missions for the KGB throughout South and Central America and North Vietnam. From 1985 he taught at the Soviet Intelligence officer's college, the Andropov Institute. He retired with distinction in 1991.
  16. R. C. S. Trahair; Robert L. Miller (18 October 2013). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations. Enigma Books. p. 258. ISBN   978-1-936274-25-3. Until 1985 Nechiporenko served the Soviets in Central America and North Vietnam, and taught at Moscow's Andropov Institute.
  17. John Earl Haynes (August 2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. p. 393. ISBN   978-0-300-12987-8. After the war he undertook numerous intelligence assignments and headed one of the schools of the KGB's Andropov Red Banner Institute for training of KGB personnel.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Academy of the SVR of Russia at Wikimedia Commons