On March 28, 2020, the Russian state TV (Rossiya 24) program “News on Saturday” aired a 12-minute report about the KGB illegal intelligence officer Vladimir Yosifovich Lokhov (1924-2002). The TV crew visited Lokhov’s family and reported on the recently declassified aspects of his biography. Below is my English translation of the report’s transcript available only on this website.
The “News on Saturday” program reveals one of the greatest secrets in the history of Soviet and Russian foreign intelligence. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) declassified the real name of Colonel “K” [in January 2020] and we were allowed to visit his family. However, the journey to his home as well as to [the discovery of] his true identity took a long time.
An icy road covered with snow. The footprints in the snow, our local guides joke, are probably made by Bigfoot. Then a village appears with a name that sounds wonderful for the Russian ear – Pichidzhyn. We see a male figure in the distance. When we get to him, we find out that the man’s name is Boris. He and his wife are now the only people living in the village. But it is in the tradition of the Caucasus region to know even the genealogy of the long-gone neighbors. They lead us to the cemetery. They show us the grave of the father of our hero. This place is very remote. It’s not just in the Caucasus, it’s not just in Ossetia, it’s in South Ossetia.
The separation between the people like our hero and their families formed the basis of the famous movie episode [from the 1970s TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring]. So, he is from South Ossetia. And where is she [the wife] from? Let’s get to know her. Let’s look at her facial features. She is from the natives: from those who, after the revolution, fled from the Bolsheviks to the south, to Baku, and then settled there. [They met] in Azerbaijan. He came to study at the university, at the law faculty, and from there, was recruited into the KGB security apparatus [before it was called the KGB]. Our hero - the future legend of Soviet illegal intelligence - was nine years older than the one to whom he proposed to become his wife. But since she was from the aristocracy, as a KGB officer, he needed a special permission to marry her. But soon ...
Soon, they were both asked to travel abroad as a pair of illegal intelligence officers. Well, finally, it's time to reveal his name. Colonel, not “K,” but Vladimir Iosifovich Lokhov. In the future, he was not only an illegal intelligence officer in the field, but also the head of the 1st Department of the entire Directorate of Illegal Intelligence [Directorate “S”]. By the way, it is interesting that, in addition to his native Ossetian, as a child, he easily mastered Georgian, Russian, and German, which, of course, was noticed by those who selected personnel for the special KGB assignments. It turns out that no good thing passes by unnoticed.
In Lokhovs’ home, there is still a Japanese radio tuned to the frequencies on which it was possible to receive encrypted messages from the Center. But, first, while still Soviet citizens, though with different family names, they were sent to that eastern country, whose natives they were to impersonate [in their intelligence work]. Much later, this turned out to a shocking surprise to their daughter who was born there.
“Here’s the story. I lost my birth certificate, which stated that I was born in Moscow. At that time, I intended to apply to a university and was preparing the relevant documentation. And then they said to me at the registry office: but you were born in ...”, explained Lokhov’s daughter. It is not by chance that we “beeped” the name of the city and the country where she was born. It is still a state secret, under the identity of a native of which country, Colonel “K” hunted for the secrets, as they said then, of the main enemy [U.S.].
I looked at the photos from the family album. There are deserts, and palm trees, and European cities. Under the guise of a native of the country in question, Lokhov worked all over the world.
Only there were no [covert] meetings with his wife as in the case of Stierlitz [a fictional character from Seventeen Moments of Spring]. Lokhov went to work across the “curtain,” but she was not allowed to join him due to the unfavorable conclusions of the medical board. He had to go by himself.
The children would receive greetings from their father in the form of postcards and gifts, which, as it turned out later, were often actually sent by their mother. And their neighbors would sometimes whisper: “No father.”
“Once when my father arrived, I went out, took his hand, and told everybody: here he is, my dad,” said Lokhov’s daughter.
It appears that the daughter resembles the mother, while the son Igor, who is stricter in character, resembles the father. But he begins his recollections with a funny story. What does the movie “Dog Barbos and Unusual Running Race” [1961] have to do with Soviet intelligence? The fact is that the cover for Colonel “K” was that of the owner of a cinema theater. And he, a risk-taker with a sense of humor, began to get ahead of the competition by making his film screenings longer and showing this [10-minute] film, among others, for free. “But his main feature film was ‘Cleopatra,’” recalls Igor Lokhov.
- So, he attracted the local audience with a Soviet film?
- The risk was justified. Who would have thought of the intelligence connection? Then he sent the money he earned back home, including to his so-called mother,” said Igor Lokhov.
Who’s that? Well, that is [another] amazing story! Remember the Ossetian Pichidzhyn, where our hero was born, and its modest inhabitants? Abroad, Lokhov’s cover was to impersonate a native of a similar village from that [unnamed] country: he used the identity of a real person who had died. But there was a moment when Lokhov had to prove that he was in fact that person. So, he told the Center that he would visit his alleged birthplace. The intelligence historian Nikolay Dolgopolov, who was the first to reveal this story in the press even before Lokhov’s identity was declassified, explains: “The risk was not just big, it was huge. I think it was so because the only one person who could prove his identity was “his” old mother who was still alive. And here the smallest thing could lead to failure. The woman was already blind. She got up and said: “My son is coming.” And then he fell at her feet. She felt his head, his eyes and said: “You came to me, you returned, you are my son.”
- Not everyone can keep his cool in the situation like this, not even a professional artist. And he was just a simple, ordinary person recall the Lokhovs.
- By the way, a professional artist has it easier. He goes on the stage, plays his part, returns to his dressing room, takes off his make-up, and is himself again. And here you have to play 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. “I said to him: wasn’t this a cruel deception?” “No,” he replied, “it actually had a very humane side.” Until the end of her days, Soviet intelligence sent money to the old woman’s account. Everyone was happy, they rebuilt her house, repaired the old roof. Maybe because of this, she lived to a ripe old age” concluded Nikolay Dolgopolov.
Lokhov was not as lucky. He died at 78 [1924-2002]. But he accomplished a lot during his illegal work abroad and when he returned to Moscow, he headed the 1st Department of the Illegal Intelligence Directorate.
- “Find a statement of the deputy head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in 1990 when he said, regarding one of our operations: “If Russian intelligence is behind this event, then they far outplayed us, this is a higher mastery. And, indeed, Russian intelligence was behind that event” said Lokhov.
“Russian [intelligence]”? Lokhov was Ossetian and his subordinates and closest friends, the husband and wife Vartanyan were, for example, Armenian. The husband [Gevork Vartanyan] is Hero of Russia, the one whom Igor Kostolevsky played in the film “Tehran-43” about how the [Soviet] intelligence officers prevented the Germans from assassinating Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. And after the war, the Vartanyans worked in other regions under the direction of Colonel “K.”
Also, for example, the illegal intelligence officer Konon Molody was of Russian-Even descent. Illegal intelligence officers are often recruited among those who, in addition to perfect linguistic skills, do not look Russian too much. Well, they are also recruited among those who approach their work as the priority number one.
- He was a very modest person. He was friends with all his subordinates. He was very attentive to the families of “his” illegal intelligence officers. He knew what it was like when they were leaving for their assignments, he lived through it all” Lokhov’s family members emphasized.
