Among the first countries on the territory of which the Soviet Republic began to conduct intelligence activities were the countries of the Muslim East. In 1923, a legal residency was established in Persia [1].
The activities of the residencies in Persia were directed by the 5th (Eastern) sector of the Foreign Department of the OGPU. At the same time, the INO was working on sending its agents to Persia.
As a historical source, the "Notes of the Chekist" by the Soviet resident in the Middle East GS Agabekov [2], published in Russian [3] in Berlin in 1930, are of great importance. The Notes reflect in detail the political situation in the Middle East. East in 1923-1930, reveal the methods of work of the INO, characterize the direct organizers and participants of Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence activities in the named regions and describe the operations they carried out. Agabekov personally took part in the preparation of the destruction of the Turkish adventurer Enver Pasha [4], who became one of the leaders of the Basmachi. Later Agabekov led the creation of OGPU agent networks in Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey.
Most of the Soviet residencies in Persia had their own "specialization". The station in Tehran, in addition to the general coordination of intelligence work, operated through its point in Kermanshah (not to be confused with the city of Kerman) in Iraq [5].
“The threat of a global conflict with Britain was the reason for Moscow's insistent demands for the GPU to penetrate and gain a foothold in Iraq. According to the available information, the British were building two air bases in northern Iraq, from where their aviation could easily reach Baku, bomb the oil fields and return back. Therefore, intelligence began to work actively among the Iraqi Kurds, hoping, if necessary, to raise an anti-British uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan and to disable both the oil fields in Mosul and the airfields from which British aircraft could fly to bomb Baku”[6].
The Kermanshah residency worked against the white emigration and British authorities in Iraq. In Kermanshah, in the period from 1925 to 1928, under the guise of a secretary of the Soviet consulate, MA Allakhverdov showed himself as a talented intelligence officer [7], who in 1928 became a resident of the INO in Persia. Here he managed to organize penetration into White emigre circles, obtain information about German, Polish, Turkish and Japanese intelligence services working against the USSR from the territory of Persia, and also acquire valuable agents in the ruling circles of Persia. [eight]
The residency in Urmia [9] monitored the activities of the British in the surrounding territories (in Urmia, intelligence activities were started by the future diplomatic agent and consul general in Yemen, AB Dubson [10]). The tasks of the Tavriz [11] residency included the development of the Dashnaks [12], Musavatists [13] and White émigré circles. The Ardabil and Rasht residencies also worked not only against the Musavatists, but also against the white emigration. The Bender Bushehr station [14] monitored the situation in the area inhabited by the tribes of southern Persia, which were a kind of lever in the hands of the British for pressure on the Persian government, and also monitored the situation in the ports of the Persian Gulf.
The main task of the residency in Mashhad was to work against British “colleagues” [15] and their agents from among the local residents (in Mashhad in 1921, the future diplomatic agent and consul general in Yemen KA Khakimov [16] began his intelligence activities). In addition, she was engaged in identifying the connections of the British with the Basmachi gangs and the white emigration. In the late 1920s, Mashhad became the base of various White émigré organizations. It housed the branches of the "Russian All-Military Union", "Turkestan Insurgent Committee", "Uzbek Nationalist Movement", which carried out subversive work against the USSR in close contact with the British special services. [17] Employees of the OGPU in Mashhad were also engaged in identifying British agents operating in the strip of the Soviet-Persian border and in Turkestan.
The Mashhad station was particularly successful. Here in 1931-1936. Under the guise of an employee of the Soviet Consulate General, AM Otroshchenko [18] worked as an agent of the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for Central Asia, who since 1934 was in charge of the Mashhad station. He managed to obtain important information about the anti-Soviet activities of the White emigration, as well as the subversive activities of British and Japanese intelligence services against the USSR. [19]
Based on the current situation in this region, the state security organs decided to infiltrate the British intelligence station in Mashhad, intercept the channels for the transfer of agents to Soviet territory and, ultimately, paralyze its hostile activities. As a result of a number of successful operations carried out in the 30s, including with the participation of the Soviet legal residency in Mashhad, where the Soviet consulate general functioned, accomplices of the British resident from among the Russian emigrants were detained, and the channels for supplying weapons to the Turkmen-Yomut tribe were blocked, who raised an uprising against the Soviet regime. [twenty]
The information obtained by Soviet intelligence was also used to carry out measures to combat smuggling. Thus, “our station in Tehran established that Iranian merchants, using the agreement with Soviet Russia on border trade, were exporting from the USSR a large amount of gold, precious stones, and foreign currency.
The goods presented for inspection fully complied with the customs declarations. This went on for quite a long time, until V. Gridnev [21] noticed that the goods were transported by the Iranians in new woolen bags, on which patches were sewn here and there. The check showed that it was under these patches that jewelry and considerable amounts of foreign currency were hidden. The channel of foreign exchange smuggling was suppressed”[22].
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Thanks to the work experience gained by Soviet intelligence officers in the 1920s and 1930s in Persia, during the Second World War, it was possible to outplay German agents here, including ensuring the holding of the Tehran Conference in 1943.
