ALL ABOUT ANDREI'S FATHER, VALENTIN BEREZHKOV, THE 'DIPLOMAT'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201090026-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: September 14, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000201090026-1
s a consequence of the esca-
pade of his teen-age son, the
first secretary of the Soviet
Embassy in Washington,
Valentin Berezhkov, was precipitately
recalled to the U.S.S.R. With his son,
Andrei, and his wife, Valeria, he left by
air on Aug. 18: His diplomatic career, it
was said, was ruined.
I should like your indulgence to say a
few words abourValentin Mikhaylovich
Berezhkov, my former colleague.
The press described 1!M. Berezhkov
as a professional diplomat. He is a pro-
fessional, all right. As I can testify from
persona] knowledge, Berezhkov is a vet-
eran spymaster, one who has spent over
40 years in the ranks of the Soviet secret
police, the KGB.
"Diplomat" is hardly the word for
this 6i-year-old tiger of the KGB, pro-
tege of Stalin, Molotov, Beria and
Dekanozov. His tasks in Washington
were sophisticated tasks for the KGB,
not for the So~?iet Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, which has plenty of young first
secretaries available.
- .: 1.
. When Soviet -`?mbassv st?~oiigitsen
paraded their captive . ~6-year-old
Andrei in front of American television
cameras, they offered a hint of the
staged trials of past decades and a chill-
ing reminder that fear and lies still gov-
ern the land the Soviets rule.
I never knew Berezhkov personally,
although we met without being ~intro-
duced, in the KGB in which we both
served. (Its earlier designations, in our
tame, were NKVD, MGB and MVD). He
worked mostly outside the precints of
the headquarters on Dzerzhinsky
Square.
But while managing KGB secret
work in Germany, I not only studied
files on his activities -and worked
under his old colleague there, KGB '
Gen. Aleksandr M. Korotkov -but I
have also read Soviet books, never
translated in the West, which describe
highlights of Berezhkov's career. This
old secret agent "wears a lon tail" as
g
-For example, he helped Stalin help
Hitler. Asa "technical engineer" in the
Soviet trade missior; in $erlin, he
helped negotiate the trade treaty signed
on Feb. 11, 1940, which made itpossible
for Hitler to circumvent the .British
blockade.
Stalin thus assured Hitler the essen-
tial supplies for Nazi conquest of
France, Belgium, Holland, Yugoslavia
.and Greece. He sent vast quantities of
oil from Baku, iron and chrome ores,
phosphate, grain from the Ukraine -
and safe_ passage over the ZYans-
Siberian Railway of rubber fmm he
Far East. .
Rt the sametime, Berezhkov was spy-
ing - using:his good command~of Ger-
man in secret. meetings wish spies in
Poland, Belgium and Holland during
travels.in 1940 "on trade matters" (as
his autobiography puts it). And in Ger-
many he was in contact with members
of the network later to become famous `
as "The Red Orchestra"
In the fall of 1940, Berezhkov -was
called back frnm' Berlin.to change his
cover from foreign trade to diplomacy
and to join Foreign" Minister Molotov
and some of Stalin's top spies -Deputy
State Security Chief Vsevolod Mer-
kulov and former head of the foreign
operations directorate, Vladimir : '
Dekanozov - in a mission to Berlin :to
.exploit Stalin's relations with Hitlerand
pave the way for bloody deportations ;
from Poland, Bessarabia and the Baltic
Dekanozov stayed on 'in -Berlin as "
Stalin's ambassador to Hitler, with
Berezhkov as his "first secretary."
Berezhkov was still spying, of course.
He c_Isims in his memoirs that he
even used his social contacts with
Americans to meet useful German~ttili-
tary .men. When Hitler invaded the
U.S.S.R. on June 22, 1941, the Soviet
mission was interned.
But Berezhkov (using the alias ".Kurt -
Huesker")bribed an'SS oberleutnant to
permit them .a last excursion to town.
There Yhey 'eluded him, took s subway
to meet and give final instructions and
a radio set to stt agent of the "Red
Orchestra;'-Greta Kuckhoff: '
After the intei~aed Soviet and Nazi
diplomatic missions were exchanged,
Berezhkov -worked in Moscow and
accompanied -the Soviet delegation to
the 1943 ~hran Conference as .an
lIltet'prCLGt: `~ :' - .
There -he ~winte in his memoirs, he
incurred .:Stalin's , displeasure when,
caught with his mouth full of juicy
steak, he .couldn't translate a question
..Churchill asked Stalin. "I sat there like
a~'ool, my face red as a lobster. Everyody
stared, then laughed. Stalin leaned over,
his eyes gleaming and said through grit-
ted teeth,'.. _this is disgraceful!' ^
But his presence at Thhran permitted
'him, many years later, to perpetuate a
famous Soviet lie: their alleged discov-
ery of a German plot to assassinate Roo-
sevel*. at Tbhraa. Although by the time
Berezhkov -wrote his memoirs, this
canard had long since been discrediud,
Berezhkov insisted that the NKVD had
uncovered the plot The fact is that Sta-
lin and the NKVD invented it w induce
Roosevelt .to move over to the Soviet
embassy - to Soviet microphones and
_ away_from Churchill_ ~ ~ _ _ _
Berezhkov came to the Uniud Statts
in 1944 ~ as "interpreter" for the .Dum-
barton Oaks Conference drafting .the
United Nations Charter - - -
After the war. Berezhkov'~agaia
changed hiscover - and entered a field
which has probably been his ~apecislty
to this day. He became a "journalist"
and used his "diplomatic" experience
and contacts for KGB tasks of secret
political influence. `
He was :assigned as special come-.
spondent and deputy editor of New
Times (Novoye Vremya)., s magazine
they say.
~ ~ ~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000201090026-1