THE KGB
The Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopanosti of the Soviet Union,
also known as the KGB, was established in March 1954 in
Moscow. This organization was originally designed to be a state
security committee and was attached to the Council of Ministers.
However, it operated more independently than any of the other
bodies of government within the Soviet Union. The KGB was the
world’s largest spy and state-security machine, involved in all
aspects of life of everyday people in the Soviet Union. The KGB
was a secretive and secluded organization, and it has been said
that, “Its doors are shut tightly to the public.” The KGB was
divided into different departments, each run by a representative
whose purpose was to ensure the observations of the security
regulations. More than 500,000 people worked within the KGB
and there were thousands of agents abroad. The main duties of the
KGB were to gather intelligence in other nations, conduct
counterintelligence, maintain the secret police, the KGB military
corps and the border guards, suppress internal resistance, and
conduct electronic espionage. The KGB also enforced Soviet
morals and promoted Soviet ideology with propaganda. The agents
in this department made sure that only the information that should
be allowed in public was released.
Like most Soviet organizations, the KGB fell apart in the late
1980s. After Mikhail Gorbachev came to power he began to make
reforms within the KGB. Offices were open to the media and
interviews of the KGB officials were permitted. At the same time
most of the duties of the KGB were spun off in different directions.
The KGB was later renamed the Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service and continued to handle foreign intelligence.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
The passing of American nuclear secrets led to probably the bestknown spy case of the Cold War. FBI investigations in the late
1940s uncovered a chain of Soviet spies and paid informers within
the US. By 1950 the FBI was investigating Julius Rosenberg, a
civilian engineer formerly employed by the US Army. Rosenberg,
who had ties with an American communist group, was arrested in
1950 and accused of passing information to a Russian agent. When
he refused to confess or provide investigators with more names,
the FBI began targeting his wife, Ethel. Both were eventually
charged under the Espionage Act and sent for trial, where they
denied the charges and refused to testify or name associates. In
April 1951 they were sentenced to death in the electric chair. This
generated outrage and disbelief both in America and
internationally. Many thought the Rosenbergs were innocent, while
others believed they were little more than go-betweens,
undeserving of the death penalty. They were electrocuted in New
York in June 1953 – the only Americans to be executed for
espionage during the Cold War.
Famous Spies: Aldrich Ames, Soviet Union Spy
Source: NPR
Former CIA agent Aldrich Ames turned Soviet Union spy in 1985
after being stationed in Ankara, Turkey. He had originally been
sent to target Soviet intelligence officers for recruitment, but
instead offered up US secrets to the Soviets due to his own
financial and emotional woes. Assigned to the CIA’s European
office, Ames had access to the identities of CIA operatives in the
KGB and Soviet Military, and provided the Soviets with this intel.
This led to the compromise of about 100 CIA agents and the
execution of at least 10. It was Ames’ newly-acquired material
wealth that did him in. Ames passed two lie detector tests while
spying for the Soviet Union, but he couldn’t hide his Soviet-funded
half million dollar home, luxury sports car, or thousand dollar
phone bills from the CIA. He was eventually caught by the FBI
and in 1994 convicted to life in prison.
Famous Spies: Klaus Fuchs, Soviet Union
Source: Wikipedia
In the long list of Soviet spies we find the name of Klaus Fluchs, a
German-born physicist with the distinction of being responsible for
significant theoretical work on the first fission weapons and early
models of the hydrogen bomb. After fleeing Germany during the
Nazi regime, Fuchs worked on his PhD in England and made the
cut for the British atomic bomb project. In 1943, Fuchs also found
his way to Los Alamos, where he was an integral part of the
Manhattan project.
During his time in England, Fuchs turned spy and began giving
information to the Soviets, reasoning that they deserved to know
what the enemy was developing. This passing of information took
place over two years, as Fuchs continued to provide information to
the KGB on key products including theoretical plans for building a
hydrogen bomb, and data that Soviets used to determine the
number of bombs the US possessed. He was interrogated in 1946
by the British government and was sentenced to 14 years
imprisonment, but only served nine.
Cold War Spies
Instructions: In your notes, title this page, “Cold War Spies”. Use the 4
articles to answer the questions. Be sure to answer all of the following
questions in complete sentences.
1. Using your iPad, define the word ‘espionage’.
2. What were the main purposes of the KGB?
3. How did the KGB fall apart?
4. What information did Klaus Fuchs provide to the KGB?
5. Why did the FBI begin to investigate Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?
6. How did Americans feel about the executions of the Rosenbergs?
7. What intel was Soviet Spy Aldrich Ames able to provide to the
Soviets?
8. What gave away Aldrich Ames to the FBI?