Misc. I.S. School VOLKOV Academy Vincinity of Nevski Prospekt

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65-00756R000600510001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 26, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 1999/09/20 : CIA-RDP65-00756R00060510001-9
Misc. I.S. School
VOLKOV Academy
Vicinity of Nevski Prospekt
Source: Weekly Newspaper
Schweizerische Allgemeine
Volks-Zeitung
Published in Zofingen, Switzer-
land, 26 May 1951
25X1A8a
The Volkov Academy, the chief Soviet espionage school, is located
in Leningrad. on a narrow side street near Nevskiy Prospekt. The
building is in no way marked as an official installation; but those
wishing to enter are stopped by four men in civilian clothes and must
identify themselves. The doors are operated automatically.
Small windowless rooms illuminated by indirect lighting resemble
prison cells; each cell contains five to ten seats and two small desks.
Over the door is a loud-speaker, and in front%of the principal wall is a
microphone. These are the classrooms. Lectures on cryptography,
chemistry, political economy, languages, and weapons are presented
through the loud-speaker by invisible teachers. The student has to step
in front of the microphone and answer his question, but he will never
find out whe the r he gave the correct answer.
The espionage academy of Leningrad, officially known as the Academy
of information, was founded in 1943 when the numerous intelligence
schools scattered throughcr.t the Soviet Union had proved to be insuf-
ficient. It trains agents who will get a specific assignment abroad
after a 2-year course, as well as personnel who will be assigned to
army units.
The master of this building, to which only men are admitted, is a
gloomy-looking man of approximately 50 years of age, known as Comrade
Volkov. Although the academy bears his name, his own identity remains
a riddle over which the sharpest minds in vao rld espionage have brooded
in vain. According to one version, he is an Austrian Communist named 's
Hoerschbeck, who has been living in the Soviet Union since 1934. An-
other hypothesis designates him as a onetime Spanish major. Others
claim to recognize in him a onetime comrade in arms of Marshal Tito.
Acutally Comrade Volkov is typical of those peculiar Soviet animated
thought and will machines whose very uniformity makes "name and type"
a matter of indifference. he speaks Russian, German, English, Spanish,
Serbian, and French, but all w.th a limited vocabulary. No one has
ever seen him with a woman or even with a personnel friend. In "his"
academy he lives in a room which is not different from the classrooms,
except that it has a camp ')ed. He makes no ser- ice trips to Moscow;
his superiors, who are directly under Beriya and Stalin, come to
Leningrad when they wish to speak to himlipersonally.
Volkov requires of his teachers and students the same "superhuman"
attitude which he himself adopts. No member is permitted to learn the
identity of another; no personal friendship may be formed, nor may
students enter into any correspondence during the training period.
Private conversations are forbidden, and are, in fact, rendered
impossible by the presence of listening devices in all rooms and
corridors.
Approved For Release 1999/09/20 : CIA-RDP65-00756R000600510001-9
 Approved For Release 1999/09/20 : CIA-RDP65-00756R0006M10001-9
The class hours are officially from 0800 to 1200 and from 1400
to 1800 hours. However, students are repeatedly aroused at night by
telephone calls summoning them to the academy, where difficult
problems are submitted to them at the most improbable hours.
Course No 1 is the study of foreign languages and customs.
Special emphasis is placed on accent. Students do not learn merely a
language, such as French, but regional dialects, such as Provencal,
Breton, and Norman. They are taught how an American opens his pa)9M
of chewing gum, how an Lnglishman leans against the counter of his
"pub," and how the people of the. Rhineland behave trhile bowling.
Next in importance to linguistics, in which each :student naturally
specializes, are topography and cartography. Upon completion of 6
months' training in these fields, a student of the Volkov Academy
must be able to draw a map of a,region merely from a review of a
complete series of picture postcards. A knowledge of photographic
technique is similarly acquired. On trips in the vicinity of
Leningrad, students are confronted with complicated photographic and
topographic problems.
An entire quarter of the total training period is devoted to
weapons training. Models of the latest US submachine guns are
demonstrated. Types of planes are discussed in the mos t minute
mechanical detail. Explosives are chemically analyzed. In addition,
the curriculum includes a very detailed study of the organization of
foreign armies and of foreign insignia.
The only relatively "human" element, in a short course entitled
"Love as an enemy of the intelligence agent," comic films are pro-
jected to illustrate the misadventures of agents who were led astray
from t'cce path of duty by beautiful women. Authentic data on espionage
officers of both world wars to whose careers love proved fatal are
shownl
One fifth of the training period is devoted to general theoretical
subjects: an outline of modern atomic physics, political history,
economics, and folklore. Subsequently, the students are sent to a
similar school in Moscow for instruction in commando tactics, such as
parachute jumping, automobile driving, airplane piloting, jujitsu,
and prison breaking.
A significant peculiarity of the school is the discouraging of
lecture notes by students, as far as possible. The classification
of a student on the occasion of his examinations is made on the basis
of the amount of notes he has taken during the courses. Almost
superhuman memories are required of the students. The Volkov Academy
is the most strenuous training institutions in the world. Its dis-
cipline is stricter than that of the Frunze Academy (Soviet military
school).
Approved For Release 1999/09/20 : CIA-RDP65-00756R000600510001-9