"Viktor Suvorov. Inside soviet military intelligence (англ) " - читать интересную книгу автора

All GRU residents received book-length lists of foreign military
technology which they would have to steal in the near future. The lists
included equipment for bombers and fighters, anti-aircraft and anti-tank
guns, howitzers and mortars, submarines and torpedo boats, radio valves and
tank engines, the technology for the production of aluminium and equipment
for boring out gun barrels. Yet another GRU tradition first saw the light of
day in this period: that of stealing analogous kinds of armaments at the
same time in different countries and then studying them to select the best.
Thus, at the beginning of the 1930s, Soviet military intelligence succeeded
in stealing samples or plans of torpedoes in Italy, France, the United
States, Germany and Great Britain. It was hardly surprising that the Soviet
torpedo, manufactured in the shortest possible time, conformed to the
highest international standards. Sometimes Soviet copiers selected the best
assemblies and components and constructed out of them a new type which often
turned out to be the very best in the world. Luck too was on the side of
Soviet military intelligence. Nobody took very seriously the efforts of the
Soviet Union in the military sphere, and few countries went to great pains
to hide their secrets from it. Communists the world over were obsessed by
the idea of helping Soviet intelligence, Soviet residents were able to throw
their money round, and finally the great depression threw into the arms or
Soviet intelligence thousands of opportunists who feared losing their
factories, workshops or offices. Soviet intelligence, by the beginning of
the 1930s, had attained unprecedented heights of power. Within Soviet
territory the GRU had practically no political influence. In the
international sphere it did not very much seek to enter into the political
life of parties and states, but in the field of clean espionage the GRU
already clearly occupied the leading position in the world, having by far
overtaken the political intelligence work of the OGPU. At the beginning of
the 1930s the GRU budget was several times larger than the overseas budget
of the OGPU. This situation remains true today.
The system in use today of recruitment and running of agents had
already fully developed by the end of the 1920s. In agent organisations
directly subordinated to the GRU the recruitment and running of agents was
in the hands of 'illegals', that is, GRU officers posted abroad undercover
with forged documents and offices, posing as Soviet diplomats, consuls,
trade representatives, correspondents and so on. In agent organisations
subordinated to military districts and fleets the recruitments of agents was
carried out from the territory of the Soviet Union. Only rarely did certain
officers of the intelligence directorates of districts travel abroad with
forged documents for short periods. Before diplomatic recognition of the
Soviet Union, emphasis was concentrated on the activities of illegals, but
after its recognition, undercover residencies were added to the numerous
illegal residencies. The GRU illegals and undercover residencies acted
independently from each other but in the pre-war period the communications
of illegals from GRU residencies with the Centre were frequently
accomplished through the Soviet embassies. This was a very serious mistake.
With the beginning of the war when the embassies were closed or blockaded,
the communication with illegals was disrupted. The mistake was subsequently
rectified. Military district intelligence always operated independently of
the GRU illegals and Soviet embassies, and for this reason at the beginning