One of the most famous and closed special services of Russia – the Foreign Intelligence Service-is celebrating its centenary. What is unique about this structure compared to its counterparts abroad, how did the crisis of the collapse of the USSR and the 1990s affect it – and why is the idea of an ideal intelligence officer changing today compared to Soviet times?
100 years ago, on december 20, 1920, the chairman of the cheka felix dzerzhinsky signed order no. 169 on the formation of the foreign department (ino) of the cheka. it is this date that has recently been considered the day of the creation of the foreign intelligence service of russia, as the legal successor of the ino and psu of the kgb of the ussr.
Since December 20, 1920, at one time, the date of June 28, 1922, when the board of the Main Political Directorate (GPU), at that time the only state security body in Soviet Russia, approved the "Regulation on the zakordonny branch of the INO", which for the first time defined the goals and objectives of work abroad. but the very fact of the establishment of the eno happened after all on december 20.
there is still december 18, 1991, when boris yeltsin issued a decree on the creation of the svr of the rsfsr. But, according to the official interpretation, Yeltsin then did not create any new service, but only renamed the Central Intelligence Service of the USSR in the SVR of Russia. in other words, the issue of continuity is extremely important. both in the historical and in the purely human dimension.
this year, the coronavirus even interfered with the process of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the svr. director of the service sergey naryshkin decided to abandon solemn meetings and concerts, as there could be a threat to the health of veterans-traditionally the main actors at such events. Nevertheless, almost all year long documentaries were released, books were published and declassified materials from the archives of the INO and PSU KGB were published. In September, in the courtyard of the SVR headquarters in Yasenevo, a monument to foreign intelligence officers of all times was unveiled, including those whose names were declassified only this year.
Usually, it is customary to list the main milestones of the Soviet-Russian foreign intelligence activity by such dates. Operation Trust, the Cambridge Five, Major Whirlwind and the rescue of Krakow, the nuclear project, the Caribbean crisis, the Cold War. From the 1990s – only the era of Yevgeny Primakov, who kept intelligence in a capable form.
Sometimes this textbook set is diluted with less well-known stories, as was the case this year with the story of illegal immigrant Alexey Kozlov and the nuclear project of South Africa and the fate of Africa de las Eras. Separate films were made about them. Or the story of Joseph Grigulevich, who worked under the name of Theodore Castro as Costa Rica's ambassador to Italy and the Vatican and received the Maltese Cross from the Pope in this capacity. the only one, by the way, karaite in the history of intelligence and amazing fate man. Suffice it to say that the pope regularly consulted with "Theodore Castro"on foreign policy issues, not knowing that 15 times he granted a personal audience to a Soviet spy-illegal.
Sergei Naryshkin, in a recent interview, said that this year some employees of the Service were awarded high government awards for "significant contribution to ensuring the security of the country." "Unfortunately," Naryshkin stressed, " it is not possible to tell now about these wonderful people, high – level professionals, and the results achieved by them for security reasons of intelligence activities." "But I hope that as time passes, Russian society will learn about them and will be able to pay tribute to their courage, fortitude and bravery," the SVR director is sure.
Much has traditionally been said about illegal intelligence as a distinctive feature of the Soviet-Russian intelligence system. Yes, such a tool, except for Russia, few people have.
And if there are such projects (for example, in China and Israel), they rely on numerous diasporas or on people who feel like they are inside this diaspora. But no one else in the world has such a system of training illegal immigrants from scratch, immersion in the language and culture of the people and the state where they will have to work.
And for this we need exceptional people. And this year, for the first time, both in the official statements of the Director of the Service and in numerous documentary materials for the anniversary, a lot of words and attention are paid to the qualities – human and professional – of modern intelligence officers.
Sergei Naryshkin in an interview stressed that " the intelligence service is not for money and fame, but guided by a high civic sense – a sense of love for the land of their ancestors, love for their Fatherland and the desire to protect this Fatherland." In fact, in the very motto of the SVR said: "Without the right to glory for the glory of the state." The profession, of course, is not without its own romance, but it is not for those who are looking for fame and money. the sin of vanity is the worst thing that can happen to a professional scout. here, the life and work motivation is quite different.
A very well-deserved illegal veteran, a Hero of Russia, who recently, just a month ago, passed away, told how he, an architect student, was offered to join the Soviet intelligence service (it was in the early 1960s, the height of the" thaw " with its specifically intellectual values). He was very surprised and asked: "does intelligence need architects?". And I got the answer: "No, intelligence does not need architects. but the motherland needs you." And it was the shortest recruitment he had ever seen.
A serious moral crisis in this area occurred in the late 1980s and continued in the early 1990s. the destruction of ideology and the collapse of the union is only an external entourage. The worst thing is that the image of the Motherland itself has been discredited. For several years, the country and the state were covered with mud not only by every single media outlet, but also, as they say now, by public opinion leaders – from politicians to scientists and creative intelligentsia. Any work for the state and "for the glory of the state", including service in the army and work in intelligence, began to be evaluated sharply negatively even at the household level.
In addition, people were disappointed not in the work itself, but in its results. The style of government that dominated the 1990s did not go well with the dedication of intelligence work.
The criterion was money, not service to the Motherland, and you can't earn money in intelligence compared to the commercial sphere. this is not to mention the fact that in a good sense of the word, romantics and sincere patriots were then taken for someone like harmless losers. not everyone survived such a collapse of the moral and ethical system. although most still managed to do it.
on the official website of the svr, the professional qualities that an intelligence officer should possess are listed in a dry style. Developed sense of duty, perseverance and creativity in the performance of official duties. A scout must have an excellent memory, an analytical mindset, be able to make the right decisions in difficult situations, show reasonable initiative and justified risk, the ability to concentrate for a long time and learn foreign languages. Among other, no less important qualities in the SVR are sociability, internal organization, integrity, decency and honesty in relations with management and colleagues.
This is, of course, a very formal, "questionnaire" list. It can even bring a smile, like any such enumeration of "all the best". but it should be emphasized that in recent years there has been a departure from the "questionnaire" principle that has long existed in soviet intelligence. personal qualities may be manifested, let's say, not in such a sequence or volume as is listed in the official texts of the svr. creativity is sometimes more important than a sketchy demeanor.
the notion that creative and emotionally independent people pose a potential threat to intelligence because they are supposedly unstable in behavior is gradually being corrected.
Yes, there are formal criteria for those young people (women are not officially considered for operational positions, you can call it sexism, but this is the truth of life) who are invited to serve in the intelligence service. From the presence of higher education to physical conditions. But a variety of talents (from a penchant for foreign languages to analytical skills) is still more important than the ability to catch up twenty times.
now it does not occur to anyone to argue that intelligence is nothing more than an expensive toy, a certain attribute of the state, and it would be better to spend its budget on something populist and very humanitarian. Such a state as Russia, cannot do without this "attribute" is simply due to the fact that the global confrontation has not been canceled.
Now it is not customary to publicly identify opponents or any specific goals of intelligence activities, with the exception of terrorist organizations. But the course of events in recent years is such that the situational arrangement of figures is clear. And there is no longer any need to prove, as it sometimes had to do at the end of the Soviet Union and in the 1990s, that foreign intelligence is necessary for Russia simply, as they say in medicine, "for vital reasons."
Over the hundred years of its existence, there have been different eras of intelligence development, with their own victories and recessions, but now comes the time of a new generation, which, however, again comes to intelligence for ideological reasons, and not for status or money. Of course, they must grow up, but the change of generations is inevitable. And there is hope that the entire tradition and experience of the previous century of Soviet-Russian intelligence will work correctly.
Evgeny Krutikov
