COPY OF A MEDIA ARTICLE FROM THE CURRENT, BOMBAY RE: LUMUMBA UNIVERSITY-A PERFECT COVER FOR TRAINING HARD-CORE SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000200170007-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2001
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: November 13, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

VC 6
Approved For Release 2002/01/10 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000200170007-5
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THE CUM ENT., Bombay
13 November 1971
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Largest
student 'contingent
they had been provided with
false passports to North Korea.
A 'CURRE iNT' Special
HEN it celebrated its tenth anniversary last year,
PATRICE LUDIUMI3A UNIVERSITY in Moscow,
also known as "Friendship University", boasted of
being "a centre of training for first class experts for the
liberated countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America".
But as a number of developing nations have found to their
cost, Lumumba graduates are often far more skilled in sub-
version, trouble-making and guerilla warfare than in
"friendly" skills likely to benefit their lhoniclands.
Under the convenient cover
of "the Leninist principle of
giving disinterested aid to the
pcopie of the liberated coun-
tries", Lumumba University has
trained thousands of sub.
versives who wrought havoc
after they went back home.
But like the KGB, many of
whose members are on its staff,
Lumumba University has also
had its share of fiascos. Here is
.a small sample of agents found
with their fingers in the pie.
Anthony Okotcha of Nigeria
revealed in 1961 that while
studying at Lumumba Univer-
sity he had been trained to
organise a plot to overthrow
the Nigerian Government so
that a pro-Soviet regime could
take over.
After receiving his basic
groundwork he had been pass-
ed on for final instructions to
three Soviets in London-
Leonid Rogov, a. Second Secre-
tary at the Embassy, Victor
Yarntskv. a Cultural Attache,
,(rd I)ozhdalev, also on
the Embassy staff.
-Ordered to
spark riots
JEAN-BATJSTE KABAMBA
of the CONGO said in 1962
that three Russians had roped
him in and ordered him to
spark riots through the leftist
Union of Nationalist Youth. In
1969, Ethiopia expelled MIN-
IL1IL NOVIKOV, VLADIAlIR
SIIARAYEV and VICTOR
MATV'EYEV, also for stirring
up student uprisings.
In Kenya, the Soviets sent
KGB's biggest
setbacks
One of the KGB's biggest set-
backs, even more disastrous be-
cause it involved the Soviet
Union in a really big way and
led to the expulsion of five
high-ranking KGB officers who
had been posing as diplomats,
took place in Mexico in March
this year.
The Soviet Embassy in
Mexico, one of the largest in
Latin America, has for , many
years been providing scholar-
ships to Mexican students, as
Soviet Embassies do elsewhere
in the world.
From the moment they
arrive in Moscow the students
are under surveillance by KGB
"spotters", who pick out suit-
able prospects for an "advanc-
ed course" that has nothing to
do with the degrees they came
These "special students" are
often given on-the-spot train-
ing In schools run by the KGB
in Moscow itself, or at obscure
"special academies" in the re-
publics.
When the true nature of these
institutions leaked out, the
Russians decided to use the
North Koreans as a front and
KIAI 11 SUNG of North Korea,
a firebrand who makes no
bones about his eagerness to
bring the world under Com-
munist domination, gladly
offered to provide training in
the lethal arts of underground
warfare to hand-picked youngs-
ters.
When the Mexican police
stumbled on a student plot
against the State, they found
that several of the ring-
leaders, while supposedly at'
Lumumba University, had in'
fact been attending courses
in subversion and sabotage
at the North Korean capital
of Pyongyang!
160 students to Moscow and
satellite universities behind the-
back of the authorities on the
recommendation of the leftist
Vice President, Oginga Oginga,
sipce thrown out of office by
the rtenyatta regime.
But pvcn after exposure the
Soviets did not learn to behave,
and in 1069 Mikhail Domogat
hikh
i
'
s
anq
V
ctor Eliseyev were To keep themselves com-
expelled for "undesirable acti- pletely in the clear, the Rus-
vities" mong students and sians teachers. shad first sent the youngs_
ters to East Berlin, from where
After Mexico smashed the
plot, Moscow's claim that it
knew nothing about Mexican
.students going to Pyongyang
sounded pretty weals, since the
plotters had flown to North
Korea from East Berlin via
Moscow, In planes belonging to
the Soviet state-owned Aeroflot
line.
Despite the pleas of in-
nocence, five Soviet diplomats
were booted out by Mexico, in-
cluding First Secretary Boris
Kolomyakov, Boris Voskoboini-
kov, one of the key men in the
project, and Alexander. Bolsha-
kov, a Second Secretary.
According to the Mexican
police, the plotters were among
fifty students who had gone to
Lumumba University between
19GS and 1970. After the Rus-
sians passed them on to Pyon-
gyang, they had been given
'training in political indoctrina.
tion, use of w"pons and ex-
plosives, and the strategy and
tactics of guerilla warfare, in
crash courses lasting from six
months to a year.
Before coming to grief, the
would-be revolutionaries had
quite a string of successes. To
,finance their revolution they
had robbed $84,000 from a
bank, murdering a guard in the
process, and had planned fur-
ther "jobs" of this sort.
The youngsters also ran a
full-fledged camp on military
lines. Among the articles seiz-
ed were automatic weapons,
uniforms, short-wave radios,
masses of propaganda Material,
and other tools of the subver-
sive trade.
Police investigation showed
that the scholarships for
Lumumba University had been
handed out through local Soviet
Mexican "friendship" fronts.
Adclina Zendejas Gomez,
head of the local Mexican Rus-
sian Institute, had wangled
these scholarships for Lumum-
ba University.' But the award
was only the final step in a
carefully worked out sequence.
Like our ISCUS in Bombay,
the Mexican Soviet Friendship
Society ran a language train-.
ing school and served as a cul-
tural centre where Russian
books and periodicals were
available, where film shows
were held, and where lectures
on Chess and other popular
Soviet pastimes were regularly
given.
From the large numbers of
guileless youngsters who
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and on Marxist dialectics.
As for stipends and holidays,
they discovered these were
"special perquisites" available
only to those prepared to serve
as Soviet stooges on "All-Africa
Day" and similar propaganda
stunts.
It is small wonder that with
such ambitious Intelligence
aims, the man in charge of the
University during its formative
stage was Pavel Dmimitrievich
Erzin, exposed by defector Col.
Oleg Penkovsky as a full-fledg-
ed General in the KGB.
RECTOR ERZIN, incidental-
ly, is an old "friend" of India.
During his stay in this country
he prepared a list of 50 "suit-
able" students who would pro-
fit from the Lumumba curricu-
lum. But the more dangerous
specimens chosen were not on
the list and were probably
smuggled out. This is far from
unusual; when the new Ambas-
sador from Cyprus arrived in
Moscow in 1963, he was asto-
nished to find 50 Cypriots at
Lumumba University who had
been smuggled in without any-
body in Cyprus being aware.
Even more serious than
Lumumba's educational draw-
backs is the fact that students
from abroad are generally re-
garded as pariahs by the Rus-
sians. Time and again there
have been instances of discrimi-
nation, leading to serious vio-
lence.
Students from Africa have
complained bitterly that the
Russians habitually refer to
them as "black monkeys" and
a few years ago resentment
came to a head after an Afri-
can student was found dead
in the snow a few days be-
fore he' was due to marry a
Russian girl.
The Soviet Government said
he had fallen off a train while
drunk and had died of exposure.
The African students charged,
however, that he had -been
savagely beaten to death.
Racial incidents of this kind
are common throughout the
East Bloc. In Bulgaria, hund-
reds of African students fought
pitched battles with the police
and insisted on returning home
rather than stand further in-
sults.
Contrary to the official line
on equality, there is evidence
that the Soviet government it-
self gives indirect encourar,e-
ment to racialism. Some years
ago IZVESTIA carried what
purported to be a factual report
about a Russian girl who bad
married an Arab student, re-
turned with him to his home-
land, and been made part of his
harem.
The obvious idea of the
story was to warn Russian
girls against having anything
to do with foreigners. The
article set off an uproar.
Arab students declared no
such incident had ever hap-
pened and challenged Izvestia
to name the student con-
cerned.
Several Middle Eastern gov-
ernments also expressed con-
cern at the report and pressed
the Soviets for a clarification.
Belatedly realising the whole
thing had back-fired miserably,
Izvestia came out with the lame
excuse that it was not a factual
report but merely a feuilletonl
Relations between foreign
students and the Russian autho-
rities have also been far from
pleasant. In one case a crowd
of several hundred Africans
stormed the American Embassy'
in Moscow, which of course
perfectly suited the Russians so
long as it was kept within
bounds.
Unfortunately, the riot got
out of hand and the students
began to clamber over the Em-
bassy walls. A strong contin-
gent of the Soviet militia was
on the scene, as usual, during
the demonstration, and when
the students deviated from the
!'plan", the militia stepped in.
Savagely bashed
Another incident involved
Chinese students in a hand to
hand scuffle with the militia.
The students were savagely
bashed up and delightedly
played up the racial aspects of
the affair when they returned
home.
If unpleasantness of this sort
is common, why do the Rus-
sians persist in keeping the
Lumumba University going?
The obvious reason is that it
provides a perfect cover for
training hard-core subversives.
Even if ninety students have
genuinely come for studies and
go back disappointed, there is
the ten per cent minority, c.ire-
fully hand-picked who come to
Lutnurriba University know.rg
full well how they will be used,
and who do not boti er about
academic benefits, since they
know they will get secure
"jobs" when they return home
either as top fiignt cadres of the
local Communist Party or as
part of the KGB's foreign appa-
ratus.
India is already familiar
with Soviet-inspired student
troubles. Back in 1968 Third
Secretary VENIAMIN JILIN,
NOVOSTI's VLADLMIR, SI-
MONOV, IiAMIZ hI3ItAIII-
MOV and ALEXANDER
TEREKIHIN, a KGB student
specialist, came to public no-
tice for fomenting student
disorders.
With increasing rapport be-
tween India and the Soviet
Union the KGB is by no means
casing off. Quite the opposite.
Mexico, Ceylon and a dozen
African nations have found out
the hard way how dangerous
Soviet "friendship" can be. We
need not-if we face the facts
and recognise fronts like
Lumumba University for the
dangerous things they are.
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2
Here is the item on Lumumba
University, Moscow, I mentioned
to you last week. This is a first-
3.
rate piece and I think ought to get
into the public record here. If
you can swing it on the hill we
4.
would be grateful. If you do, of
course, I would appreciate feed-
back. Tks
5.
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25
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