In the middle of the twentieth century, illegal acquisition of technical information was called commercial espionage, which was typically used by competing companies operating in the private sector of the economy. But in the 1980s, when entire industries of rival powers took over technology theft, the term "industrial espionage" emerged.
Unlike economic intelligence, which mainly deals with open sources of information, industrial espionage involves obtaining information in traditional secret ways: through the recruitment of secretaries, computer program specialists, technical and maintenance personnel. As a rule, it is the employees of this category that often have the most direct access to the information of interest, and their low positions and low salaries give room for various manipulations on the part of recruiting officers from foreign special services.
WAR OF TECHNOLOGY
Authoritative experts of the secret services note that the line between economic intelligence and industrial espionage is very thin and arbitrary. What is economic intelligence for one country is industrial espionage for another. China, for example, keeps its economic statistics under such tight control that in the late 1980s it even announced restrictions on the flow of financial news into the country. In the Celestial Empire, it is traditionally believed that the unauthorized disclosure of any financial information is as serious a violation of safety standards and rules as the disclosure of military information.
The 1980s saw the peak of industrial espionage, and all Western intelligence services, primarily American ones, were concerned not only with traditional recruitment among the personnel of foreign industrial firms, but also with the creation of fictitious companies with fake licenses to purchase production equipment that could not be imported into the country legally.
In this illegal trade - industrial espionage - all engineering and technical workers are involved, and with the intensification of the "war of technologies" he also "got younger". Today, students of foreign educational institutions of various levels - especially in the traditions of the countries of Southeast Asia - are additionally instilled in the skills of espionage during their education.
At the University of Tokyo, students of any faculty who agree to spy on research institutes or industrial facilities in Western European countries are exempted from military service. Upon receiving higher education, they undergo special training, and then are hired free of charge as laboratory assistants to local scientists engaged in research in the field with which they will later have to deal in the country of destination.
In China, there is a technical college, which Western intelligence services have long dubbed the "forge of personnel" of industrial espionage. There, adherents are taught the basics of scientific and technical intelligence, then, to acquire practical intelligence experience through cultural exchange, they are sent to Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan, and the United States.
So, in 1982 in Paris, during a tour of the laboratory of the world-famous company "Kodak", Chinese students, performing the task of secret mentors from the special services, "accidentally" dipped the ends of their ties into chemical reagents in order to find out the contents of them upon returning home. Components.
In the 1980s, the special-mode USSR-GDR Vismut Joint Venture (JV) for the extraction and processing of uranium ore for the Soviet nuclear industry was the object of the top-priority intelligence aspirations of the NATO intelligence services.
The main production facilities for the enrichment of uranium ore were concentrated near the Ore Mountains, in the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt, and the Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany - BND - took the most active actions to infiltrate its agents into the structure of the joint venture. Attempts of undercover penetration were combined with recruiting approaches of West German intelligence officers to the employees of the enterprise.
RECRUITMENT IN THE LOB
On the morning of May 1980, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Kazachenko, taking over duty at the USSR KGB office in Berlin, received the applicant, who identified himself as Walter Giese. Following the job description, which prohibited accepting written statements from representatives of the titular nation, Oleg recommended that he contact the duty officer of the GDR MGB (popularly known as the "Stasi"). The visitor rejected the offer and said in good Russian that for a couple of hundred marks he was ready to tell his "older brothers" - the KGB officers - as a day earlier he was tried to recruit an intelligence officer from West Germany, a certain Gustav Weber.
Kazachenko took the visitor's words with distrust: during his service in counterintelligence, he had to deal with so many rogues and eccentrics that one would involuntarily doubt the decency and mental health of the entire human race! Noticing the doubt in Oleg's eyes, Giese presented his official certificate of engineer "Vismut" and added with a smile that not only the duty of the internationalist forced him to apply to the mission, but also the desire to "cut a little bit of money", and he could not wait for them from the little Stasi …
To find out more about the applicant, Kazachenko praised his Russian. The trick worked, and Giese told how in 1943 he, who served in the SS, was captured and, until 1955, restored the destroyed objects of the national economy of the Soviet Union, where he learned the language of Pushkin and Tolstoy.
Giese's story sounded convincing, his sincerity inspired confidence, and Kazachenko, an ambitious agent-officer, could not resist the temptation to acquire in the person of this cynical, but, as it seemed to Oleg, a reflexive small source of information. He effortlessly recruited the German, reassuring himself that the winners were not judged - after all, the mental model of the operation to compromise the officer of the West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), which Giese had reported, seemed to him a win-win.
Kazachenko's initiative was supported by his chief, Colonel Kozlov. Together they worked out a line of conduct for Giese, contributing to gaining the trust of the West German intelligence officer with the aim of subsequently exposing him and capturing him red-handed. But the head of the mission, Major General Belyaev, was categorically against the sole decision of the fate of the spy. His arguments were undeniable: "Bismut" is a joint venture, which means that work with Giese for the implementation of all measures must be carried out jointly with German comrades! " General Belyaev did not limit himself to this maxim and coordinated the operational development of the spy with the chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Markus Wolf. It turned out that General Wolf even before Weber appeared in Karl-Marx-Stadt had a puffy dossier on him, so all activities were carried out under the personal supervision of the head of the GUR.
SECRET OF THE AGENT "AMBER"
Walking with a basket of willow twigs through a pristine forest in the vicinity of Karl-Marx-Stadt and picking maroons - noble mushrooms that resemble ripe chestnuts in color and size - Gustav Weber, employee of the 1st Department of Atomic Physics, Chemistry and Bacteriology of the Scientific and Technical management of the BND, thought about his fate in approximately the following vein: “Monte Carlo, cabaret, stripper agents in the intervals between acts of love fit next to the Russian general and in bed carry out your task - they ask him about the operations of the Warsaw Pact Organization; instant - over a cocktail at diplomatic receptions and social events - recruiting ambassadors and ministersunfriendly countries; dashing attacks on couriers and kidnapping of enemy ransomware; packs of crisp banknotes in a diplomat and sexual orgies with long-legged blondes and busty mulattos … Wasn't this a picture 20 years ago dreamed of us, graduates of the intelligence school in Pullah? My God, how naive all this would be, if it were not so sad … However, I myself am to blame for my disappointments: I imagined myself a carefree journey filled with bright adventures, forgetting about the homely truth of being a scout, where the whole path is strewn with traps and mines, and not entertainment … Yes, a candidate for intelligence is akin to an applicant from the medical faculty: he does not even think that one day he will become a proctologist and will deal with hemorrhoids … Could I imagine 20 years ago that someday I will knead dirt in the wilds of the Ore Mountains and act as a mushroom picker? No, of course not!.. Stop, stop, Gustav, isn't it time to remember the wise advice of the mentors from the intelligence school: "Never do self-programming and never think badly of yourself!" You have already settled a debit with a loan, right? What's in the bottom line? Is there something positive there? Still would! Three months ago we managed to recruit Walter Giese, a secret carrier engineer from Bismuth!.. Thanks to Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, who managed to transport the card index of SS personnel to Munich before the Russians took Berlin in 1945. And I was not too lazy to go there and spent a week searching and thoroughly studying Giese's questionnaire. When we met, I reminded him of his Aryan roots, of the SS past and of the humiliations he had endured in captivity with the Russians. All this had a proper effect on him. In conclusion, I made him such an offer of cooperation, which he could not reject, and a day later he got in touch! Moreover, on the very first appearance he brought in information of such interest to the Scientific and Technical Department of the BND that in an instant he was issued by a particularly valuable source under the pseudonym Yantar. After that, however, it was necessary to rebuild "on the march" and cancel all personal meetings with him in the city gate, and use only caches for communication. There is nothing to be done - conspiracy is above all!.. At the last appearance, Amber conveyed a description of three caches. I have already processed the first one. Today is the turn of the second … Stop, in my opinion, I'm already at the goal!"
Weber stopped at the edge of the clearing, put a basket of mushrooms at his feet, took a piece of paper from his waistcoat pocket and consulted a cheat sheet. In the center of a clearing overgrown with unmown grass, a dumpy oak rose. There was a hollow in the trunk, one and a half meters from the ground. The German winced: high! It would be better if the hollow was at the level of the grass - he bent down as if to cut a mushroom, but in fact he gutted the cache.
The scout walked around the perimeter of the clearing and, finding no one in the bushes, approached the oak tree. He thrust his hand into the hollow and immediately, with a yell, recoiled to the side: “Damn it! Amber did not take into account that I am two heads shorter than him, and my arms are correspondingly shorter, so I cannot reach the bottom of the hollow, where the container lies!"
Cursing and cursing the bruiser of Amber, short Weber once again examined the bushes in the area and, making sure that there was no one there, stopped in thought in front of an oak tree. Finally, having spurred himself on by crying: "The Aryans do not give up so easily!"
Breaking his nails on the mossy century-old bark, peeling off the skin from his palms, Weber began to slowly climb up. After 10 minutes of incredible effort, he managed to climb the lower branches. Spreading on them so that his buttocks were above his head, he again dipped his hand into the hollow and with his fingertips groped for the coveted container. Before reaching for it, he turned his head to make sure that no one was watching him, and saw only the roof of some building with a round attic window at the end. It was about a kilometer to the building.
Of course, Weber, an experienced intelligence officer, understood that for a telephoto lens this was not a distance, but he was so confident in the reliability of Amber that he did not attach any importance to what he saw. To a pain in his shoulder with one hand, he grabbed the branch and, leaning forward sharply, grabbed the container from the hollow and put it in the pocket of his vest.
Drenched in sweat, with broken nails and bloody palms, in tattered jeans, Weber jumped to the ground. He grabbed a basket of mushrooms - the genetic German neatness worked - and staggered to the "Trabant" left on the Autobahn, where he immediately found himself in the arms of police officers and people in civilian clothes. They took a container with microfilms out of their vest pocket and presented them to “conscientious German citizens” who accidentally passed by the scene.
GENERAL WOLF PASSED BY
Weber protested. Shaking the diplomatic passport of an employee of the West German Foreign Office, he swore that he had found a container while picking mushrooms and picked it up out of sheer curiosity. The people around him in civilian clothes and the police officers nodded their heads in agreement and, smiling, drew up a protocol. Conscious passers-by, reveling in their role of witnesses, were indignant at the treachery of the “mushroom-picking diplomat”.
Weber refused to sign the protocol. However, the signatures of the rest of the participants in the action were enough to declare him persona non grata and expel him from the country.
The procedure for drawing up the protocols for the arrest of Gustav Weber in connection with actions incompatible with his diplomatic status was coming to an end, when suddenly Kazachenko saw that from the window of a Mercedes that had approached … Marcus Wolf was looking out! He waved his hand to the capture group and, giving Weber one of his most captivating smiles, invited him to take a seat in the back seat. Then he demanded to hand over the container and protocols confiscated from the scout.
Passing Oleg, dressed in the uniform of a GDR policeman, Weber slashed him with a dagger glance and hissed: "Damn it, sometimes you think that Fortune smiled at you, and suddenly it turns out that you just made her laugh!"
- We will not see orders, Comrade Colonel, - Oleg said, watching the retreating Mercedes, - General Wolf drove into heaven on our backs, and we, naive, rolled out our lips, we were going to drill holes in our uniforms …
- Don't drift, Oleg Yurievich! - Kozlov patted Kazachenko on the shoulder. - This is called "work in contrast." You and I are bad uncles, and General Wolf is good. He plays the role of a savior who will surely help the failed scout to get out dry and clean from the sewage he got into.
- How?
- To begin with, General Wolf will show Weber a photo where he, lying upside down on an oak tree, is trying to "process the cache" - to get a container out of a hollow. He will explain that his photograph and lengthy commentary about a spy with a diplomatic passport, who was detained red-handed by conscientious citizens at the location of a special-mode facility, will appear in newspapers of all Warsaw Pact countries and in all Western European communist publications. There is no doubt that the publications with Weber's photos will first be discovered by the Information and Analytical Department of the BND, and then they will be on the table of its leadership … Further, General Wolf sympathetically complains that the path of each scout is strewn with banana peels, and often it lies on ice. Karl-Marx-Stadt is the very ice and the very rind on which Weber slipped and fell - well, it doesn't happen to anyone! the failure of the operation to obtain information about "Bismuth" on the amount of Weber's pension - after all, he lost his vigilance and did not recognize the setup in the person of the engineer Giese! And when General Wolff is convinced that his arguments have achieved their goal and Weber have been perceived positively, then he will begin to talk to him like a professional with a professional: he will make him such an offer that he cannot refuse …
- Namely?
- Offer to work at the power steering!
- Dashing!
- Girls dashingly dance, and people like Weber, risking their belly, plow …
"Cartridges" in the clip of the Stasi
Gustav Weber willingly accepted the offer to work for the Main Intelligence Directorate and became another "live cartridge in the clip" of Marcus Wolf. However, he was not alone.
According to the plan developed by the KGB and GUR, the deputy head of the NATO logistics service Rear Admiral Hermann Ludke was recruited at one time, who, due to his official position, knew all the bases of tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Western Europe.
The KGB and GUR also brought in Colonel Johann Henck, head of the mobilization department of the German Defense Ministry, and Major General Horst Wendland, deputy head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) of West Germany, to cooperate. For a number of years, Hans Schenck, head of the Department of the Ministry of Economy, worked fruitfully in favor of the GDR and the USSR.
It is noteworthy that the earthly path of the mentioned persons after exposure was interrupted by a violent death, but no expert would undertake to assert that these were suicides. The West German officialdom filed the case as if all the officials preferred to commit suicide rather than admit themselves to be agents of the KGB or GUR and feel humiliated during interrogations and during the trial. However, many historians of the secret services believe that they were removed by the CIA and the BND in order to avoid shame and prevent a trial over them, as a result of which a shadow would fall on the state institutions of the FRG. But be that as it may, we venture to suggest that there are much more undisclosed KGB agents from among the highest officers of the FRG and high-ranking officials, who to this day "drag chestnuts out of the fire" for the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation and for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, there are much more left. than those who left the race.
For reference. Markus Wolf was born in 1923 into a family of Jewish doctor Leiba Wolf. In 1933, after Hitler came to power, the whole family, narrowly escaping execution, fled to Switzerland, from where they were transported to Moscow via the Comintern, where they settled in the famous House on the Embankment. 10-year-old Markus, possessing phenomenal linguistic abilities, mastered not only Russian, but also, while studying at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, comprehended and fluently spoke six European languages. In 1952, having received a higher civil and Chekist education in the USSR, Markus was sent to the disposal of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the GDR, which he headed for almost 30 years - an unprecedented case in the history of world intelligence!
In 1989, already in a united Germany, a trial was held over Markus Wolf. The first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, publicly renounced Wolf. The help came from an unexpected direction: given Wolf's Jewish origin, Israel sent four of its best lawyers to Germany to defend him. After the acquittal, Israeli lawyers offered Markus Wolf the position of consultant to the head of MOSSAD. Wolff refused and with the help of his friends-associates from the KGB, hid in Moscow. The legendary head of the GDR foreign intelligence service died in 2006 in Germany.
Such was the ally of the Soviet intelligence. And a rival.
