CHIEF DIRECTORATE OF SOVIET PROPERTY ABROAD (GUSIMZ)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000400160002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2009
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 4, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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cu&~v1
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
. USSR
Chief Directorate of Soviet Property
Abroad (GUS=)
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
This is UNEVALUATED Information
This material contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the united states within the mean-
ing of the Espionage Laws, Title 18, U.B.C. Secs. 793
and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in
any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law.
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 4 October 1954
NO. OF PAGES 9
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVACUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
The fourth Washington Comment'.reifers to Lieutenant L. B. Vlodzimirskiy,
Correctl7 thi5 should rem utenant General L. B. VlodZimirskiy.
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
Chief Directorate of Soviet, Property
Abroad (GU3I1:IZ)
This is UNEVALUATED
Information
This material contains Information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the united States within the mean-
ing of the Espionage Laws, Title 18, U.S.O. Secs. 793
and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in
any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law.
REPORT
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT NO.
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR' KEY SEE REVERSE)
Comments
27 September 1954
9
RD
1. Adrilinistration, paragraph 1, should read Directorate.
2. Kaublov, paragraph 2, and Kabulov, paragraph 4, is Colonel General
Bogdan Zakharovich Kobulov.
3. Beria, paragraph 2, should read Beriya.
4. No Yantiovskiy was mentioned among those liquidated ':with I3eriya. However,
Lieutenant L.B. Vlodzi:: i.rskiy, one of the six executed as accomplices of
Beriya, had been a deputy chief of GUSIMZ and it is probably to hire
that source is referring.
5. Vasily., paragraphs 4 and 18,should read Vasiliy.
6. Jikoyan's correct title is Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
'1'L..; ministries mentioned are correctly the Ministry of Foreign Trade
and the Ministry of Internal Trade.
Wismuth, page 7, should read Wismut.
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STATE lX!' ARMY NAVY AIR FBI r AEC
25 YEAR RE-REVIEW dicated by "X"; Field distribution by "#"?)
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25X1
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COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT GUSIMZ
DATE OF INFORMATION
PLACE ACQUIRED
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
25X1
1. By authority of the Potsdam Agreement, all former Axis assets in the
areas of Ea9tern Europe, Finland, and the Far East liberated or
occupied by the Soviet army were put under Soviet administration.
During the initial period this administration was the responsibility
of the respective military commanders. At the end of 1946 an organi-
zation called Administration of Soviet Property Abroad (Upravleniye
Sovetskim imushchestvom zagranitsey) was created within the Foreign
Trade Ministry of the USSR and entrusted with the task of adminis-
tration of this property. In mid-1947, however, this organization
was divorced from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, given the name
Chief Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad, attached to the Council
of Ministers, USSR (Gilavnoye uprav~7.eniye Sovetskim imushchestvom
zagranitsey (GUSIMZ~pri sovete ministrov Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsial-
isticheskikh Respublik), and put on an administrative level with
USSR ministries. Thus, the head of GUSIMZ had a position, rights,
and responsibilities equivalent to a USSR minister. Except for the
Inspectorate of GUSIMZ, an office which was set up within GUSIMZ in
1953, the T/O of GUSIMZ remained unchanged from 1947 until 1953.
When, after the death of Stalin in 1953, a drive was undertaken to
reduce the number of existing:, ministries in the USSR, abolishing
some of them and merging others, GUSIMZ lost its independence and
was again subordinated to the Ministry of Foreign Trade. However,
GUSIMZ'sT/O was not changed and its director held the position and
rank of a deputy minister of Foreign Trade.
2. When GUSIMZ was organized, a part of its personnel was recruited
from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the other part, most probably,
from among MGB officials. It is significant that the first director
of GUSIMZ was the notorious MERKULOV. Another individual of similar
qualifications, KAUBLOV, eventually became the director of GUSIMZ.
At another time the deputy director of GUSIMZ was the infamous
DEKANOZOV;,all three were well-known MGB personalities. It may be
assumed that they recruited many of their people from MGB and brought
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NO. OF PAGES 8
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theih into `GUSIMZ No less . significant in . this respect - is the fact
tiat,among the' six Associates of'BERIA who were liquidated with
him, four of them were high officials of-GUSIMZ at one time or
another: MERKULOV, KABULOV, DEKANOZOV and YANKOVSKIY (?).
The offices of GUSIMZ were located at Sadovoye K61'tso in Moscow,
in-two'buildings. The first building (known as Building #i)
housed, at the same time, some offices of GULAG (Glavnoye uprav-
l6hiye lageryami) of MVD and had MGB armed-guard service. The
second building, (known as Building #?) housed GUSIMZ's Adminis-
tration:Directorate, Central Accounting Office and all branch
directorates except the 8th (Wismut). All other directorates
of GUSIMZ were housed in Building #1. There was also a special
office called the Secretariat of GUSIMZ Director (Kantselyariya
nachal'nika GUSIMZa) in Building #1 whose head was an unidentified
The organization of GUSIMZwa.s. as follows:
Director Vasily (?) SERGEYEV, who had probably held. this position
since 1952, having succeeded-KABULOV who was sent to Germany
as director of USIG.
Five or six deputy directors. One was named LEBEDEV (in charge
of Austrian affairs);
and the following sections;
GUSIMZ's Inspectorate (Inspektsiya pri nachal'nike GUSIMZa)
Commercial Directorate (Kommereheskoye upravleniye)
Foreign Currency and Finance Directorate (Valyutno-finansovoye
upravleiye )
Administrative Directorate (Administrativno=khozyaystvennoye
upravleniye)
Legal Directorate (Dogovorno-pravovoye upravleniye)
Planning Directorate (Planovoye upravleniye)
Personnel Directorate (Upravleuiye kadrov)
Central Accounting Office (Tsentral'naya bukhgalteriya)
Secret Documents and Cipher Section (Sekretno-shifroval'nyy
otdel)
In addition to these general administrative offices, GUSIMZ had
several branch directorates (otraslevyye upravleniya) responsible
for administering Soviet property in various foreign countries.
These were:
lot Directorate (Eastern Germany)
2nd Directorate (Austria)
3rd Directorate (Hungary)
4th Directorate (Rumania)
5th Directorate (Bulgaria)
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6th Directorate
and.. ' (Responsible for Finland and the Far
7th Directorate Eastern countries)
8th Directorate (Wismut)
Oil Directorate (Neftyanoye upravleniye)
Directorate of River Steamship Companies (Upravl+niye.'rechnymi
parokhodstvami)
One, w o was at the same time chief of the
Personnel Directorate, was referred to as Deputy for Personnel.
The offices of GUSIMZ's director and dputy directors were equipped
with special telephones called "Vertus:hka" with direct lines to the
Kr"emlin. Conversations containing classified information were
authorized to be conducted by means of these phones.
similar to that of the former Minist
of State Control, o course of a smaller s al
In a ition to probable of or tasks,
all complaints, reports of irregularities, illegal proceedings,
and similar affairs directed against GUSIMZ organizations and person-
nel and their actions were handled by this inspectorate.
8. Commercial Directorate. POLKAV was director. The main responsi-
bility of this directorate was the coordination of commercial
activities of GUSIMZ' Branch Directorates Ziee paragraph 27.
9. The Foreign Currency and Finance, Directorate was charged with
establishing and enforcing policies of handling foreign currencies
and financing GUSIMZ operations. The Branch Directorates of
GUSIMZ appeared as foreign currency procurement agencies, selling
products manufactured by the Soviet-owned enterprises abroad on
the internal markets of the occupied countries and, through
middlemen, to the Western world.
10. Administrative Directorate. BALTADKIwas director. This directo-
rate was responsible for the admipi!tration of GUSIMZ headquarters,
living aecomodatlons of the persona and other routine adminis-
trative matters such as TDY, leave, per diem, etc.
11. Legal Directorate. Igor' L'vovieh KQVAN was director,. ROZHK?VSKIY
was deputy director. The directorate was composed of two sections:
Economic Liaison Section (Otdel ekonomicheskoy svyazi) with OORSHKOV
as section chief and the Legal Section (Yuridicheskiy otdel) of
which ROZHKOVSKIY was head until 1953. Main responsibilities of
both of these sections were the coordination of judicial activities
of branch directorates and supervision of conclusion and enforcement
of legal agreements; they also supplied legal advice to the director
of GUSIMZ. One of the less important but rather time-consuming
tasks of the Legal Directorate was the drafting of all types of
reports, memorandums and suggestions which were forwarded to the
Council of Ministers, USSR, by the QUSIMZ director:" It was a .
widespread practice in USSR governmental agencies to use lawyers
for drafting memos forwarded to higher-ups and although such '''
letters very often had nothing to do with the tasks of the Legal
Department, nevertheless its personnel were required; .-to do so.
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12, Planning Directorate. No information available.
13. Personnel Directorate was composed of the following sections:
a. Foreign Offices Personnel - Section (Otdel zagranichnykh kadrov)
was...respohsi'ble for processing A d documentation of personnel
assigned to duty in foreign countries.
b. Leading Personnel Section (Otdel rukovodyashchikh kadrov)
c. Operational Personnel Section (Otdel operativnykh.kadrov)
The-latter had nothing to do with intelligence activities
and, in'this respect, the title was really misleading. The
term."operativnyye kadry" meant "rank and file" personnel as
distinct from "leading" personnel.
14. The.Central Accounting Office performed the normal functions of
any accounting office. No details available.
15. Secret Documents and Cipher Section, The section chief was KOZLOV
in 1952 and he probably has remained in this position, until the
present time.. For the convenience of offices located in Building
#2, a sub-section of this section was organized there.
16.
he organization of the first seven
d rect?rates-vas'similar to the 2nd.
17. RYACHENKO''was. director of the 2nd Directorate in 1952. In mid-
1952`he.was replaced by AKOPOV who remained until the end of
1953. .. .AXOPOV' was' replaced by ? KUZMAZENKO The director of the
2ad.._Dii?ectorate had One. deputy. whose name is unknown. The directo-
rate had the following sections:
Commercial Section
Planning Section
Finance Section
Legal Section
Accounting Section
Production Section
18. The head of the Legal Section was Vasily Yefimovich IVANOV. Also
on duty was one senior legal advisor, a Soviet national, Arnold
SCHAPIRO. The main responsibilities of the Legal Department were
coordination and supervision of USIA's.legal activities.
19. The tasks and responsibilities of sections belonging to the-2nd
Directorate were similar to those described in this report for
GUS INZ .
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21. Anasta-s Ivamovic.h'MIKOYAN'a"s"a Deputy Minister President-dr USSR
is" respotas1ble for several ministries (i!ini.stry' of the'Fore
Trade, - Ministry of the Interior' Trade "afd probably some other.'' This
would mean that in a final line, through the Ministry of Foreign Trade,
GUSIMZ:s subordinate to MIKOYAN. In the period of 1951-1952 when
GUSIMZ was independent'from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the
influence of MIKOYAN on GUSIMZ's~. aftairs,was.quite noticeable and a
number of memorandums went daily from th
to MIKOYAN.
Enclosures: 2 charts
Enclosure A ORGANIZATION CHART GUSIMZ'
Enclosure B ORTANIZATION CHART OF A BRANCH DIRECTORATE GUSIMZ
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13 14 15 16
ORGANIZATION CHART GUSIMZ
17
11
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ORGANIZATION CHART GUSIMZ
LEGEND: to Enclosure A
1. Minister of Foreign Trade
GUSIMZ's Director, at the same time a Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade
Deputy Directors of GUSIMZ
4. GUSIMZ's Inspectorate
5. Commercial Directorate
6. Foreign Currency and Finance Directorate:
7. Administrative Directorate
8. Legal Directorate
9. Planning Directorate
10. Personnel Direct to V-Ot
11. Central Accounting Office
12. Secret Documents and Cipher Section
BRANCH DIRECTORATES:
13. First (Germany)
14. Second(Austria)
15. Third(Hungary)
a6. Fourth(Rumania)
17. Fifth(Bulgaria)
18. Sixth (One of these directorates was responsible for Finland
and
19. Seventh and the other for the Far Eastern countries)
20. Eighth (Wismuth A. G.)
21. 011 Directorate
22. Directorate of River Steamship Companies
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ORGANIZATION CHART OF A BRANCH DIRECTORATE GUSIMZ
Director
Deputy
Director
Deputy
Director
Commercial
section
Planning
Section
Fjn ee
Section
. Legal
Section
Accounting
Office
Production
Section
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