WHERE SPIES ARE SUPERSTARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706610008-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: June 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706610008-7
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011 Pt C L~_
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Nation " ''u"~' Iy~~
Where Spies Are Superstars
nderstandably enou h. the Walkers v scandal is an occasion for American
U self-examination and self-criticism. The revelations are being pondered or
what they say about how democracy sometimes allows human venality to thrive
and vital state secrets to perish. But there is another lesson in the whole shocking
sordid affair. It is a reminder that spying comes naturally to the Soviet Uruon in a
way that is di cult or Americans to tin erstan .
For most in the West notably including political leaders, spyin~s deemed
necessary largely because everyone does it, .but it is relegated to the shaaowy siae-
lines of the more legitimate enterprises of diplomacy and soldiering. Opening
each other's mail is a business gentlemen pursue only with a certain self-con-
sciousdistaste.
Even in fiction. espionage is treated as the dirty little secret of modern inter
national politics. James Bond is good escapist fun, but the world of John le Came
is recognized as the real thing. The bookish, perpetually cuckolded George Smi-
]ev is not a hero because he champions Western civilization; rather, he is the mel-
ancholyrationalist, penetrating the ingenuity of other people's deceit. He is more
honest, and braver in his honesty, than his colleagues. Yes, he fights Karla, his
Soviet countcrpan, but Smiley also does bat-
" tle against the corruption of his own organi-
I j nation and society.
`I No such dark brooding is in order in the
?~ Soviet Union. Spies are good guys, pure and
simple, as long as they are on the Soviet side
Even in czarist times. secret agents were re
garded as legitimate and indispensable pro
rectors of a sprawling empire that was sur-
rounded by hostile forces and infested with
political malcontents and agitators. Back
ward in so many other respects. Russia was
precocious in developing a police apparatus
That institution was ready-made for the
Bolsheviks. with their militant ideology and
their conspiratorial, secretive methods. Ac
cording to Marxism-Leninism, politics is a
continuation of war by other means. Spies
are in the front line of that war.
The concept of the security of the Sovie
state is sacrosanct in a way roughly compa-
rable to the concept of personal freedom in
I the West. In Russian, security is bezooas
Rudolph Abel being arraigned in 1957 nosy-the B in KGB. The word literally
means "the absence of danger." Asa profes-
sion. security means vigorously identifying and, whenever possible, eliminating
danger. ?
Hence in the Soviet Union. the mertality of the spy is pan and parcel of the
mentality of the commissar and. beyond that. o the citizen. T~ relauonsiu ~
tween an a ent an is source between a secret policeman and his informer. is
not only an honorable estate but an essential one.
ecret a ents. once their work is done, are lionized in the U.S.S.R. Richard
Sorge. a German who s led for Jose h Stalin in Ja an dunn World War . is
onore on a posta a stam . Rudol h Abel. one of the most notorious Sovie
agents o the Os, was awarded the Order of Lenin after he was traded for U-2 Pi-
lot rancis Gary Powers in 1962. KGB anniversaries are occasions for rallies and
testimonia s. ' e competent organs. ' a common euphemism for the intelli ence
services. ma a up a n o supere te. or years it was a sic tenet o e o-
ogica wis om t at t e head o the KGB was too much istruste by lus comrades
ever to come enera ecretarv o t e n ~. tin An ro v is rov t a
rule o thumb m 1 2. a persons ed the Soviet obsession with securit and rev-
erence or the guardians of security.
Anyone caught spying against the Soviet Union is worse than an enemy and
deservin? of a fate worse than mere execution. After Oleg enkovsk} . a colone
in military intelligence. was discovered to be workinrz or the C1A m 1962. he was
put to death The assumption at the time was that he had been shot. Subsequent-
ly. however, it was re ned that in fact he was hurled alive into a crematorium
urnace. hus. there is a brutal converse of the Soviet Union's adulation of s les
w o serve its cause around the world. -By Strobe Talbot
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/07 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706610008-7