Viktor Suvorov - Inside soviet military intelligence

Col-General IZOTOV, S.I.: head of GRU Personnel Directorate.

Col-General SIDOROV, Y.I.

Lieutenant-Generals and Vice Admirals (approximately 20)

Lt-General DOLIN, G.I.: head of GRU Political Department.

Lt-General GURENKO, Vyacheslav Tikhonovich: head of the Illegals Training Centre.

Lt-General Aviation SHATALOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich: GRU representative at the Cosmonaut Training Centre.

Lt-General KOLODYAZHNY, Boris Gavrilovich: GRU deputy chief for Internal Security.

Lt-General MILSTEIN, Moshe: GRU deputy chief for Disinformation. A former illegal and author of top secret manual Honourable Service. Codename 'Tovarishch M', 'Mikhail M.'.

Lt-General KOSTIN P.T.: chief of GRU 3rd (?) Directorate.

Lt-General Engineer PALIY A.: chief of GRU 6th Directorate.

Lt-General GONTAR: chief of GRU 7th Directorate.

Lt-General DRACHEV I.M.

Lt-General KOZLOV M.: Chief of GRU llth (?) Directorate.

Lt-General BERKUTOV, S.: Information Service.

Vice Admiral ROZHKO, Gennadi Aleksandrovich.

Major-Generals and Rear Admirals (approximately 125)

Maj-General Aviation CHIZHOV, Mikhail Terentyevich.

Rear Admiral KALININ, Valeri Petrovich.

Maj-General Aviation KUCHUMOV, Aleksandr Mikhailovich.

Maj-General SHITOV.

Rear Admiral KLYUZOV, Serafim Timofeevich.

Maj-General BARANOV, Aleksandr Vasilievich.

Maj-General LYALIN, Mikhail Ammosovich.

Maj-General BEPPAEV S.U.: Chief of Intelligence of Group Soviet Forces in Germany.

Maj-General Artillery LYUBIMOV, Viktor Andreevich.

Maj-General GONCHAROV, Gennadi Grigorevich.

Maj-General KHOMYAKOV, Aleksandr Sergeevich.

Rear Admiral KOZLOV, Andrei Nikolaevich.

Maj-General MIKHAILOV, Boris Nikolaevich.

Maj-General ZIMIN, Valentin Yakovlevich.

Maj-General ANDRYANOV, V.: Spetsnaz.

Maj-General Aviation MIKRYUKOV, L.

Maj-General GLAZUNOV, N.

Rear Admiral SMIRNOV, M.

Leading GRU Officers

ABRAMOV, Vladimir Mikhailovich

BAYLIN, Vladimir Ivanovich

BELOUSOV, Mikolai Mikhailovich

BELOUSOV, Konstantin Nikolaevich

BLINOV, Boris Afanasyevich BARCHUGOV

BORISOV, Gennadi Alekseevich

BORODIN, Viktor Mikhailovich BUDENNY

BOROVINSKI, Petr Fedorovich

BUBNOV, Nikolai Ivanovich

BUTAKOV, Ilya Petrovich

DEMIN, Mikhail Alekseevich DENISOV

DORONKIN, Kirill Sergeevich

EGOROV, Anatoli Egorovich

ERMAKOV, Aleksandr Ivanovich

ERSHOV, Yuri Alekseevich

EVDOKIMOV, Sergei Vasilevich

FEKLENKO, Vladimir Nikolaevich

FILATOV, Anatoli

FILIPPOV, Anatoli Vasilevich

GENERALOV, Vsevolod Nikolaevich GERASIMOV

KAPALKIN, Sergei Vasilevich

KASHEVAROV, Evgeni Mikhailovich

KOZYPITSKI, Gleb Sergeevich

LOVCHIKOV, Vasili Dmitrievich

LAVROV, Valeri Alecseevich

LEMEKHOV, Dmitri Aleksandrovich

LOBANOV, Vitali Ilich

LOGINOV, Igor Konstantinovich

MOROZOV, Ivan Yakovlevich

MYAKISHEV, Aleksei Nikolaevich

NEDOZOROV, Valentin Viktorovich

NOSKOV, Nikolai Stepanovich

OSIPOV, Oleg Aleksandrovich

PAVLENKO, Yuri Kuzmich

PETROV, Nikolai Kirillovich

PIVOBAROV, Oleg Ivanovich

POLYAKOV, Boris Alekseevich

POPOV, Gennadi Fedorovich

POTAPENKO, Leonid Terentyevich

POTSELUEV, Evgeni Aleksandrovich

PUTILIN, Mikhail Semenovich

RATNIKOV, Valentin Mikhailovich

RADIONOV, Aleksandr Sergeevich

ROMANOV, Anatoli Aleksandrovich

RUBANOV, Aleksandr Nikolaevich

SALEKHOV, Yuri Nikolaevich

SAVIN, Viktor Grigorevich

SELUNSKI, Valentin Ivanovich

SEMENOV, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich

SERGEEV, Yuri Pavlovich

SHEPELEV, Viktor Petrovich

SHIPOV, Vladilen Nikolaevich

SOKOLOV, Viktor Aleksandrovich

STRELBITSKI, Vladimir Vasilevich

STUDENIKIN, Ivan Yakovlevich

SUKHAREV, Georgi Nikolaevich

SUVOROV, Georgi Borisovich

UMNOV, Valentin Aleksandrovich

VETROV, Yuri Pavlovich

VILKOV, Boris Nikolaevich

VINOGRADOV, Feliks Vasilevich

VOLNOV, Vladimir Grigorevich

VOLOKITIN, Vladimir Ivanovich

VOTRIN, Sergei Ivanovich

VYBORNOV, Ivan Yakovlevich

YAKUSHEV, Ivan Ivanovich

YURASOV, Viktor Vladimirovich

ZHELANNOV, Vladimir Mikhailovich

ZHEREBTSON, Aleksandr Vasilevich

ZHERNOV, Leonid Andreevich

ZHURAVLEV, Ivan Mikhailovich

ZOTOV, Viktor Nikolaevich

Rather than sprinkling the text with examples I have put together a representative sample of GRU officers uncovered in the course of operations abroad, as reported in the press. The number of GRU officers caught and expelled and the nature of their activities is indicative of the power and scale of the GRU.

In June 1980 the Canadians announced that they had requested the withdrawal of three Soviet officials from the Embassy, Captain Igor A. Bardeev, Colonel E.I. Aleksanjan and the chauffeur Sokolov. The case involved an unnamed individual employed in a sensitive position in the USA, who had been in contact with the Soviet Embassy and been given the task of obtaining information. Soviet officials had maintained clandestine contact with the American citizen over a period of some months.

In October 1979 the Naval and Air Attach6 of the Soviet Embassy in France, Vladimir Kulik, was expelled from the country. He was an officer of the GRU working in French military circles and had been in contact with firms specialising in military supplies. In 1979, at a reception in another embassy, he had met by chance a young Frenchman employed in the armaments department of an important organisation who was carrying out studies on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. Kulik sought to maintain contact with the Frenchman, and in due course offered him a large sum of money for documents from his place of work. He also sought to find out details about other staff at the organisation where the Frenchman worked. Kulik was arrested at the moment when he was about to receive from the Frenchman a document about a French weapon.

In February 1980 the Soviet Consul and No. 2 in Marseilles was withdrawn. He had been detained by the French authorities between Toulon and Marseilles with plans of the Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft in his briefcase. They had just been handed to him by an agent.

Travkov had arrived in 1977. The area of Marseilles and the Bouches du Rhone contains many installations and objects of defence interest. Travkov was officially concerned with 'scientific subjects connected with the port and airport', and these interests enabled him to meet people involved in the aeronautical field and to visit firms and installations. Travkov obtained copies of files on staff working on defence contracts and used the details thus revealed to build up a network of informers. Four Frenchmen were taken into custody at the time of Travkov's arrest. Travkov had also been interested in the twin-jet Mirage 4000 which used the same engine as the 2000.

The Soviet Press Attache declared the French action a 'provocation by the police' but the documents were, of course, genuine. A few days later Frolov, himself a KGB officer, was required to leave France too. He had been in Marseilles for two years and had earlier had a posting to Paris. His job, like Travkov's, had given him opportunities to meet all sorts of people and he had made the most of it. Both Travkov and Frolov were personable, charming individuals who made many friends.

Anatoliy Pavlovich Zotov, the Soviet Naval Attache in London, was expelled in December 1982 after trying to set up a network of agents to gather information about weapons systems and electronic hardware used by the Royal Navy during the Falklands campaign. His interests had also extended to the Royal Navy's nuclear submarines.