Peter Polack

By Peter Polack

Forty-seven Soviet personnel were expelled from France on 5 April 1983 for what was described as “a systematic search on French territory for technological and scientific information, particularly in the military area.”. A French Interior Ministry statement noted that the number of Soviet residents in France had increased by about 1,400 over a decade to 2,406 at the beginning of 1982. Of that group, about 700 were believed to hold official passports, an increase of about 500 over the 10 years. About one-third of the 700 were considered professional intelligence agents.

Konstantin Petrovich Monakhov expelled Argentina 7 April 1959, expelled again from Italy 6 August 1969, then exposed as Soviet spy in a U.S. Congress Sub-Committee on Trade and Commerce hearing Trade Embargo Cuba, 8 May 1975.

The zenith of complicity in Soviet espionage especially in NATO states was the April 1983 expulsion of Aleksandr Alekseyevich Avdeyev among 46 others expelled from France only to return as Ambassador in February 2002. This was repeated when Yuri Vladimirovich Dubinin Soviet Embassy France employee 1955 First Secretary then Counselor Soviet Embassy France at the time of the George Paques NATO espionage incident on 12 August 1963 became Ambassador to France in 1990.

The number of former or later Soviet or Russian Federation Ambassadors actually or previously expelled, exposed or recalled in several countries almost a badge of honor should disabuse any notion that these chief diplomats are above the fray of espionage and may in fact be leading it prior and post expulsion:

Nicolai Ivanovich Generalov recalled from Australia 4 April 1954.

Nikolai Andreyevich Belous expelled from Argentina 7 April 1959.

Mikhail Yevgennevich Timoshkin expelled from Liberia 14 April 1979.

Aleksandr Alekseyevich Avdeyev expelled from France 5 April 1983

The number of Soviet Ambassadors who died in office, are significant in number, perhaps poor planning, medical care, suspicion of defection, assassination or simply to retain secrets included Russian Federation Ambassador Jamaica, Igor Lebedev, died in Kingston in April 2006, after arriving the previous February.

Soviet Embassy Washington Counselor KGB resident, initial handler of CIA KGB double agent Aldrich Hazen Ames, Stanislav Andreevich Androsov, was declared persona non grata by the USA on 22 October 1986. Androsov’s son, Soviet Embassy France Third Secretary Andrei S. Androsov, was expelled on 5 April 1983, among 47 other Soviets.

Cultural and scientific exchanges have also exposed the West to espionage as Soviet pretenders trawl institutions for opportunities to steal state secrets. Such was the case of the failed efforts of Nikolay Sobolev with French laboratories in February 1980. Perhaps Vladimir Fedorovich Grenkov put it best during an August 1986 cultural exchange visit to the USA under President Reagan’s U.S.-Soviet Exchange Initiative that: ″As we say in Russian, these are three little birds; after these, we hope, will follow flocks″. Grenkov had been expelled from France on 5 April 1983.

© Peter Polack   All rights reserved  

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). Polack worked as a part-time reporter for Reuters News Agency in the Cayman Islands 2014-16. His work has been published in Small Wars Journal, Defence Procurement International, American Intelligence Journal, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center magazine, Military Times, Foreign Policy News, EU Today, Radio Free Europe, VOA Portuguese, South Africa Times, Africa Monitor, Folha de Sao Paulo, NODAL Cultura, Caribbean Life, Jamaque Paradis, History Cooperative, INews Cayman, Jamaica Gleaner, Miami Herald, Reuters and The New York Times. His latest book entitled Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 is published by McFarland. The book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with nearly five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide. In April 2021 he completed Only the Young Shall Die by with Jack McCain USNR about raising the age of military enlistment. He is currently doing research on a curated collection entitledWar In Pictures of almost 1,000 images throughout several conflicts over many centuries.

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