The Russian-language Armenian diaspora newspaper Noyev Kovcheg
[Noah’s Ark] published an interview of Goar Vartanyan, a former KGB
illegal intelligence officer, in March 2016. Together with her husband Gevork, she was tasked with intelligence assignments in numerous countries for more than three
decades. Their identities were declassified by the SVR in 2000. Goar Vartanyan
died in November 2019 at the age of 93. Below is my English translation
of the interview available only on this blog.
Elena Knyazeva: Former Illegal
Intelligence Officer Goar Vartanyan - You Can Accomplish Anything You Want, The Main
Thing Is to Know Why You Are Doing It
Noyev Kovcheg March
16-31, 2016
February 17 marks the
90th anniversary of the birth of the legendary intelligence officer Gevork Andreyevich
Vartanyan, known mainly due to the Teheran operation, when, thanks to his
group, the assassination attempt on the heads of three Allied states - Stalin,
Roosevelt, and Churchill - was prevented. But this is only one of his many
exploits. It is said that when one of the top Soviet leaders read the
submission for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on Gevork Andreyevich,
he asked in amazement: “Did he really do all this?!”, the chairman of the KGB
of the USSR replied: “Of course, but not by himself! With his wife... “
[His wife] Goar
Levonovna was at that time awarded the Order of the Red Banner – one of the
highest [Soviet] state awards. Today she is our interlocutor. [The interview
was conducted by Elena Knyazeva].
Goar Levonovna, since
your name was declassified in 2000, many articles, interviews, and books have
been published about you and [even] a movie was made. And yet, let’s start from
the very beginning, with Tehran in the late 1930s. Was that when your family
moved there from Armenia?
- Yes, I was about six
years old, and Tehran became my hometown, the city of my childhood. There I
went to school, first to an Armenian school, I studied there for three years,
then it was closed. I wanted to go to a French school, but it was already
overcrowded, so I was sent to an Iranian school. I graduated from the 12th
grade [high school] and got a very good education.
- Did you study in Farsi?
And do you know the Iranian culture from the inside?
- Yes. Farsi became my
mother tongue. As for something specifically Iranian... Tehran was then a
completely European city, there were no veils. On the contrary, the shah prohibited
the veils. Nobody could board a bus or a trolley with a veil. And then they brought
them back again. I have the best memories of Iran and Iranians. They were very
respectful of us, Armenians, and of the people of any other nationality as well.
I had many Iranian friends, they are good people.
- And there, in
Tehran, you met your future husband ...
- There was really no
official acquaintance. One might say that we grew up together. They were just
friends of my older brother and he was one of them... I was 13, and he was 15. We
ran back and forth as a gang, around our courtyard, into the street.
- So, there was no
love at first sight?
- No, we were just
good friends. Then, when I was 15 or 16, a kind of romance began to take shape.
For birthdays, New Year’s Eve celebrations, other holidays, we would get
together with our whole company at home, we sang and danced. And gradually [romantic]
relations between us began to develop.
- At the age of 16, Gevork
Andreyevich already started working for [Soviet] intelligence, he organized a
group of his peers. Tell me, was this some kind of a romantic, teenage game, or
was it a serious matter, driven by conviction?
- It was very serious.
My brother was in that group, then I joined, too. I understood that we were
helping the Homeland. Because that was a tough time... When the war began and
our cities surrendered one by one, we listened to the radio reports with tears
in our eyes. We had a huge map, and we moved flags on it, and all the time
there were reports: surrender, surrender, surrender... And we felt as if we were
there where this was taking place. And then, when the course of the war
changed, when our cities began to be liberated, we moved our flags again. This
was how we lived. We were a part of it.
- And how did Gevork
decide to take you, a girl with pigtails, into a reconnaissance group?
- It didn’t happen
right away. He had his eye on me and first gave me small assignments. And then,
more serious ones. The guys worked a lot, much more than me. And, also, at that
time, in Iran, a girl couldn’t stay on the street alone for a long time,
especially in the evening. They protected me well, I was the only girl among
them. They were very kind, all from good families, they knew each other very
well and trusted each other - and this was very important. They were all physically
fit and worked well as a team. When you know that you are doing something
important, something that’s necessary, you already behave differently. You can
no longer live irresponsibly, you live for a goal.
- You were called the
“light cavalry” because you all rode bicycles...
- Yes, our chief,
intelligence officer Ivan Agayants, called us as a joke. After all, we had no
cars or motorcycles, only bicycles. And more often than not, this is exactly
how we conducted our reconnaissance [surveillance], because you couldn’t run
after the other side on foot. And being on bicycles was less suspicious. But
when necessary, we also went on foot.
- Yes... Before the
interview I was walking to your place from our editorial office on the
Suvorovsky Square, along the Mir Prospect, to the Astrakhan Lane. And maybe,
who knows, someone was doing the surveillance... Or is it an outdated method at
today’s level of technological development?
- And why not? I think
that it is still being used. Are there alternatives? It has been like that in
all countries and it will continue being so. The intelligence officer is always
on the alert, but at the same time not to such an extent that you think that
you are always being watched. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do any work, and pretty
soon you’ll go crazy.
- The Tehran operation
was probably the most stressful time in your work in Iran?
- Yes, it was very stressful.
After all, they [the leaders] all gathered at the Soviet embassy. And we lived
right next to the embassy, in the very center of the city.
- I understand that
you can’t disclose to us all the details of your work. But can you still lift
the veil a little bit for us, the uninitiated? So, you received the assignment.
And…
- We received the assignment,
but I was not directly involved in the surveillance. I did the investigations,
it was easier for me to do that.
- And what do you mean
by investigations?
- An investigation
meant that you had to find out where the object [of interest] lived, what he
did and when, who he communicated with. You establish his daily routine, his habits...
You do this through neighbors, through acquaintances. You know, it was then in
Tehran, as in Armenia now, everyone knew each other. This was not Moscow.
There, if you wanted, you could find out a lot. But, let’s not go into details.
The work went on continuously. In two years, our group tracked down about four
hundred people associated with the German intelligence services.
- And during this time
Gevork Andreyevich managed to infiltrate the British intelligence school, ended
up in prison, you carried him parcels - this is described, in particular, in
the film Tehran-43: The True Story. Is the story from the film really true?
- Every film always
has a bit of poetic license. At the beginning of the film, there is a scene -
Gevork Andreyevich is running barefoot down the street. How could this be?! We
didn’t even have any acquaintances who would run barefoot down the street. Or,
my mother is at home with some kind of a headscarf. Nothing like that ever
happened. But these are just small details. In general, the film is good and
many of the events are presented accurately.
- After the war, in
1946, you and Gevork Andreyevich got married, and, according to your biography,
soon left for Yerevan?
- We wanted to leave
Tehran for Yerevan in 1946. But we were told – you need to stay for another five
years. So, we stayed. What else could we do? Indeed, for us, especially for
Zhora [Gevork], this was his life. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else. And,
in 1951, we left for Yerevan.
- And how did the Soviet
Yerevan appear to you after Tehran? Did you easily get accustomed to new
realities?
- We knew everything
about it. We received [Soviet] magazines and newspapers, we were aware of
everything. We were told: “Oh, you know, it’s hard even to get bread right now!”
And we answered: “What our people eat, we will eat, too.” Neither I nor my
family members saw anything bad [about moving there], we only saw the good. But
when we arrived at the Yerevan hotel - we first stopped there - we noticed that
the decanter on the table in the hotel room was empty; there was no water in it.
I called the hotel employee, he came, took the decanter and went to the toilet.
I was confused - why did he go there? Did he want to wash the decanter? But he
poured water into it, brought it, put it on the table [and said] “Here’s the water
for you. I said: “I don’t drink the water from the tap.” And [he said] “Here we
drink from the tap. The Yerevan water is the best!”
- And then you studied
five years at the Yerevan Institute of Foreign Languages?
- Yes, I majored in
French and George in English, but then I [also] switched to English, because we
met so little: his classes were in the morning, and mine in the afternoon. And
I wanted us to be together. We graduated from the institute among the best,
Zhora was the best student. He was a member of the trade union committee of the
Institute, he was well respected.
And it was like that in
every place [we lived] ...
- It was his
personality, probably, he attracted people, pulled them toward him?
- He was very relaxed.
With his actions, his attitude, his kindness, his modesty, he imperceptibly
attracted people to himself ... It’s not that he specifically wanted this. That
was how he was as a person. He was respected and people appreciated his
qualities.
- Well, if he hadn’t had
these qualities, he probably wouldn’t have become such a great intelligence
officer?
- These were his human
qualities. Even if he hadn’t been an intelligence officer, he would still have
been a good man. He loved his work and said: “If I were born again, I’d still
do the same thing.” These words are now written on his tombstone... He loved
his Homeland very much, he loved the Soviet Union, it’s not that he loved
Armenia or Russia - for him, they were the same. And he devoted his whole life
to this. He worked until the last minute. He was 88 years old when ... he died
within 20 days. It’s been two years since he is gone.
- How did he and you get
over the collapse of the USSR? Did you think that this might happen, or you
didn’t know anything about it?
- No. It was an
unexpected blow for everyone. We were on vacation outside the city during those
days. After Georgy received news about it [the Soviet breakup], he immediately
went to work. But let’s not talk about politics. See what is happening now all
over the world, both in America and in Europe. And what is happening in Ukraine…
- You graduated from
the institute - and a new stage of your life began?
- We arrived in
Moscow, went through a short training there - in truth, we were already experienced
intelligence professionals - and left for the West. [And we stayed] for a long
time. We worked in different countries, changed citizenship several times,
participated in many operations, but the time has not come to talk about it
yet.
- And more than once
you had to change names, pretend to be other people ... Is it difficult to get
used to a new identity?
- No. It is very easy.
The more ordinary life you lead, the better your [intelligence] work fares. You
just need to live in an ordinary way and have around you ordinary people,
friends, have a pleasant environment. When your circle is stable
[well-established], then you can go further, and more influential people will be
ready to take you in. And then you can go wherever you want and make a contact
with those whom you need. There are people who live in isolation – from home to
work to home - and their day is over. We never lived like that, we lived openly
[surrounded by friends]. You need to be able to say a few words to everyone, to
a wide variety of people. This should come to you naturally. [For instance] You
just met me, and I invite you for a cup of coffee, and you come.
- Yes, but I know that
you are an intelligence officer (laughing).
- I’ve been like that
since childhood. We were open-hearted people, and in our house, it was like
that, too. If there was no ring at the door, my mother was surprised: no one came
by to see us today! What is going on? Here I am doing the same thing. When we
moved to this building, no one was friends with each other. And now we - four
or five neighbors - are as close as family members. I brought everyone together,
I can’t live without that, you know. Life’s meaning to help others, to say
something to them, to do something for them.
- Outwardly, your life
looked very ordinary, but [at the same time] you sent and received encrypted
messages, you were a radio operator, and, after all, your transmitter was
installed somewhere...
- Yes, that’s true.
The work went on all the time. But it wasn’t anything special... It was simply –
our work. Every day I would get up and think - what is today, with whom am I meeting?
We would come to Moscow on vacation, we studied [new] languages - both German
and Arabic. When necessary, you can do anything. The most important thing is to
know why. And if you don’t have that, then everything falls through, nothing
will work out. But if you love your country, your Homeland, you can do it. What
else do you need? When people don’t live abroad, they do not feel for the Homeland
like that. [They complain] “Oh, this is bad, and this is not so good…” Go see
how it is [abroad]. There they also complained. When it was difficult for us
here, I thought what are they complaining about? They have everything. I was even
angry. When we would come here, Georgy would take his wallet and go to the
store, as if we had never left. And for them [abroad] all that was unthinkable?!
Three people stand in line: “Oh. [This is too much]. Let’s go somewhere else.” Then
[compare] to the lines [in the USSR] ... But we were happy: that’s our country.
Our life! Of course, we wanted it to be better, it was unpleasant for us that
it was like that. Now there is everything, but...
- Yes, there is
everything, but something is still missing?
- Yes. But one must
hope and believe that everything will be alright. This is what you need to hold
on to. If it were not for my family, my friends, the Foreign Intelligence
Service (SVR) personnel, who supported me during these two years, I would not
have gotten back on my feet at all. I thought that I, too, would go soon after him,
and that it was all over... But they didn’t let me fall into despair. I am so lucky
to have such devoted people around me. Both here and in Yerevan.
- Do you visit Yerevan
often?
- I'm going there in
May to be at the unveiling of a memorial plaque at our Institute. They are
great! At first they wanted to place it on the house [where we lived], but then
they decided - no, it’s better there. Let students see and remember.
- Goar Levonovna, you
are still active, you meet with young people and share your experiences?
- Yes, just recently I
was at an event at the First Moscow Cadet Corps with the participation of the
Moscow Association of Suvorov and Nakhimov Military school graduates and
cadets. What wonderful guys they are! I talked to them, they attentively
listened to my every word and then they asked so many questions! One young man
asked, “What was the best day in your life?” I thought a bit and said: “When
Georgy Andreyevich said that he was in love with me.” Then everyone started to
applaud! They liked it so much! And I don't know why I said that.
- Did you live in
peace and harmony with Gevork Andreyevich?
- Very much so. I am a
lucky woman, there was such a great person next to me all my life. We were together
all the time. We lived together for 65 years and never quarreled once. Because
we discussed everything, talked it through. We loved and respected each other
since childhood. I have just returned from the cemetery, I am always so sad
when I return from there. There is a monument to him there, it is as if he is looking
at you. When you come, it is as if he is greeting you. And when you leave, it
is as if he is asking: “Are you leaving already?” It is very difficult for me
without him. And it’s difficult not only for me. Our colleagues in the SVR used to say: “Georgy
Andreyevich walked down the corridor – what a great day!” And now they have
lost Zhora, they miss him a lot. But, we must live on, we must believe in the
best, and never lose hope.
