Russian TV Report: The Story of Vladimir Lokhov, Veteran KGB Illegal Intelligence Officer

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 1^st 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 1^st 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.

 

RIA Novosti: Interview of Tamara Netyksa, Veteran KGB Illegal Intelligence Officer

On March 6, 2020, the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti published an interview of Tamara Netyksa who was declassified as a KGB/SVR illegal intelligence officer by the SVR director Sergey Naryshkin on January 28, 2020. Below is my English translation of the interview available only on this site.

Former Illegal Intelligence Officer Tamara Netyksa: While Undercover Abroad, They Would Declare Love to Me

RIA Novosti March 6, 2020

An unusual event in the history of Russian foreign intelligence took place in January of this year - the director of the SVR Sergey Naryshkin for the first time publicly named the names of seven illegal intelligence officers who made a great contribution to protecting the interests of Russia and ensuring its security. Among them - Hero of Russia, retired Major General Vitaly Vyacheslavovich Netyksa (1946-2011) and retired Colonel Tamara Ivanovna Netyksa (born in 1949). The Netyksa couple worked in Latin America from 1978 to 1998, in the countries with strict administrative and police regimes and under the conditions that involved a risk to life. While abroad, the couple had a son and a daughter. According to SVR, Tamara Netyksa “deliberately took justified risks in solving operational problems while working under intense pressure [and] provided effective assistance to her husband in intelligence activities under the special conditions.”

In this interview with RIA Novosti on the eve of International Women's Day on March 8, Netyksa explained how in the family of illegal intelligence officers the wife can assist the husband, why it is that the more the people in the foreign country know about you, the better, why one needs to know how to give gifts to the relevant people, and what is so special about the Russian borsch made in the Latin American manner.

- Tamara Ivanovna, intelligence experts have long known that being a female intelligence officer is by no means an auxiliary profession and that women in this matter are not only not inferior to men, but often perform much better. But it’s always interesting to hear what the women who have worked in intelligence themselves say about their special qualities and requirements, especially in the case of illegal officers.

- I’ll tell you what, in my opinion, the wife of an illegal officer should do if she is traveling to work with her husband on a long-term assignment. And it does not matter which country is involved.

There is nothing insignificant in our work, so the wife must be well-versed in all matters concerning illegal intelligence. If that is not so, then it is better for her not to go, [because] she will only create inconvenience to her husband.

The husband-wife couple is like a work-team, but the husband is always the leader. This is logical. My husband Talik would say, for example: "It is necessary to do so-and-so." And I would say: "I think we should do it like this." And he would answer: "You know, you're right." Or he would say: "No, we will do another way." He had the last word.

- What roles should a woman play in such a work-team?

- She must always bear in mind that the wife of an illegal intelligence officer will have to take responsibility for the birth and upbringing of children. Therefore, she must be in good health and be prepared for the birth of a child. For illegal intelligence officers, the presence of children is important, because the children “strengthen” the couple, make it, if I may say so, more real, make its position more grounded.

In addition, the wife of an illegal intelligence officer must be very well-versed in the means of keeping up the communication with the Center. Even if this part of the work is the responsibility of her husband, that’s important all the same - because at some point he might be busy, for example, he might go on a business trip, and you can’t remain without the communication channel. Therefore, the wife must know these things.

Another big issue concerns security. This issue is closely related to the work of the wife. [Here] the first component is security at home. A couple may have a household assistant - for example, a cleaning lady or, say, a nanny. And you have to be sure of the qualities of this person. This determination is made by the wife.

Secondly, every so often, intelligence officers need to conduct verification checks to be make sure that they did not attract the interest of the local counterintelligence. But the husband, as a rule, is very busy and, for example, he may not have the time to conduct a verification procedure. And, therefore, this is also the responsibility of the wife.

In addition, the wife should always look good, she should be very pretty. Illegal intelligence officers must take into consideration their numerous local acquaintances. Suppose you live in a house with a concierge and many neighbors. [And] on the street, there are a lot of shops. Everyone there knows each other, they constantly greet each other. And everyone knows you. And it is very important that everyone knows everything about you.

- And, in this way, to unwittingly support your cover?  So that there would be no blind spots regarding you and, as a result, no excessive interest in you or, God forbid, suspicions?

- Exactly! Ask our concierge there and she would tell absolutely everything about us. What kind of people we are, where we were born, what we do, what children we have, what we eat, how much we earn. If everyone knows everything about you, then you do not attract attention. And this is also the work of the wife.

Another very important issue is to know how to give gifts.

- Is that really very important?

- Of course! After all, you can give a person a gift and shock him by doing so.  

- And that is exactly what the intelligence officer should not do?

- Never. So, you need to be able to pick up an appropriate gift, maybe something made by yourself, so that the person likes it and does not wonder: "Why did they give it to me? Is there something behind it?"

Your home should be also very comfortable. It should always be in order. A guest can drop by at any moment, and he should feel welcome. The household issues - they are also the responsibility of the wife. But, of course, one must live modestly, without excesses.

- Tamara Ivanovna, you said that the wife of an illegal intelligence officer should be very pretty. But, looking at your photos with Vitaly Vyacheslavovich, I must say that you were not just an attractive, but also a truly beautiful couple.

- Well, it’s been a long time ago.

- It’d be difficult to find any representative of the “stronger sex” who would disagree. My question is this: Latin America is universally perceived as the place of hot-blooded romances, so how much did the local men come after you - well, they would definitely notice you, right? Did it interfere with your work?

- Of course, they were very attentive to me, there were even love declarations. But in no case did this interfere with my work. You must be able to control yourself.

- At one time, illegal intelligence officer Lyudmila Ivanovna Nuykina described how she and her husband celebrated our holidays abroad but were very carefully not to attract anyone's attention even with some unusual food aromas from the kitchen. For example, on March 8, she would delicately prepare dumplings [pelmeni]. Did you celebrate any holidays, and if so, how?

- We also celebrated our holidays. But I’ll say right away that I didn’t prepare dumplings. If I prepared a salad, for example, the Olivier salad [a very popular holiday dish in Russia], then I would do it in a different way. I had different ingredients abroad, [and] of course, I did not use any sausages. We didn’t have vodka, we never drank it there. We had champagne.

But, on the same floor [of the apartment building], there was a family of Russian descent, though they did not know a word of Russian. And the wife cooked borsch. Once she brought it to us to try. And it was completely cold!

- And she did not even suspect that in front of her, there was somebody who knew how a real borsch tasted?

- Yes. But we really liked that soup. And my daughter then asked me: "Make me that borscht." That's what she called it - “borscht.” I prepared it, but very rarely.

- At least in terms of that dish, you could, if need be, explain that you got the recipe from your neighbor.

- Of course. But there was never any need. We did not go beyond certain limits and did do anything risky. For all the years working abroad, Talik and I did not say a single word in Russian to each other.

But there was one such occasion. This was at the very beginning of our work when I spent some time with a local family. That was the only time in my life when before going to bed, instead of Spanish “buenos noches,” I said “good night” in Russian. But luckily no one noticed. And, probably, it was necessary for this to happen once so that I never made that mistake again.

- Tamara Ivanovna, what would you wish to say the girls who are recruited to serve in intelligence?

- The most important thing is patriotism. This is the foundation of everything and should be there, no matter what. It should be something deep in you. And I would also advise them to develop themselves in every way, to expand their horizons, their skills. They should know a lot and have many hobbies.

For an illegal intelligence officer, it is all the more necessary to know a lot, otherwise he will not do a good job. Just mastering the language perfectly is not enough – that’s like going abroad as a mere tourist.

Please understand, you must make people interested in you. This is the only way to establish contacts successfully. And [the only way] to keep your husband interested in you and proud of what you are doing.