Soviet Storm. WW2 in the East. Secret Intelligence of the Red Army. Episode 15. Russian History.

[Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] the 21st of june 1941 moscow an express train from berlin arrived at the bjela ruski terminal on board was mikhail varantsov naval attache at the soviet embassy in berlin he was taking no chances with his briefcase two days before varonsov had received a high priority telegram from moscow ordering his immediate return an escort arrived to meet him on the platform an official from the commissariat of foreign affairs accompanied by two officers of the nkvd secret police [Music] a government car pulled up outside varonsov was ushered onto the back seat between the two policemen he could relax for the first time since leaving berlin his precious briefcase was now someone else's concern mikhail alexandrovich varonsov fought with the bolsheviks in the russian civil war before joining the naval academy after graduation he was sent to the far east where he rose to become deputy chief of staff of the pacific fleet in 1939 he was sent to berlin as the soviet naval attache the driver stopped outside the spas kaya tower the entrance to the kremlin [Music] ten minutes later mikhail varonsov entered stalin's office amongst the documents he brought from berlin was a copy of a message he'd been given by the swedish naval attache the document was headed official inquiry from berlin regarding the roots of swedish ships and aircraft in the baltic sea after the 22nd of june 1941 to avoid engaging them during war with the ussr [Music] soviet intelligence work was carried out both legally by agents traveling under soviet passports and illegally by agents with forged documents foreign intelligence work was carried out by networks known as residencies each member of a residency whether working legally or illegally had a specialized role one agent recruited and managed local agents another was responsible for radio communications another acted as courier of secret or stolen documents and the resident himself oversaw all the groups operations in the early 1920s soviet intelligence began to establish legal and illegal residencies across europe after 1933 and hitler's rise to power in germany it became clear which country posed the greatest threat to the soviet union therefore many soviet agents were reassigned to nazi germany to gather information on the country's military potential and its intentions war broke out in 1939 the number of illegal soviet residencies in germany increased by 50 [Music] similar networks were active in belgium the uk the netherlands switzerland france japan bulgaria and yugoslavia military intelligence residencies worked legally in many of the same countries each agent had a cover job at the soviet embassy or with some other soviet delegation the agent might be a diplomatic official a chauffeur or a technical expert [Music] in june 1941 the military intelligence central office employed 914 people abroad 316 of whom worked as part of legal residencies and 598 of whom were illegal agents even stalin knew most of these men only by their code names he himself had enough experience of working in the underground to know that the more times an agent's name was mentioned the greater the danger he faced from the autumn of 1940 an increasing number of reports began to warn about the build-up of german forces along the nazi soviet frontier in poland soviet military intelligence desperately sought the answer to the questions would hitler attack and if so when the incoming reports offered many different dates for a german invasion of the ussr initially it was supposed to take place in march or april 1941 then new reports said it had been postponed to the summer but depended on britain's surrender then there was fresh information that it had been postponed until 1942 the situation was further complicated by the fact that only one person knew hitler's exact intentions adolf hitler himself he only signed the order authorizing operation barbarossa the invasion of the soviet union on the 10th of june 1941 12 days before it was launched on the 18th of june moscow began to receive reports from agents on the frontier that german military units were preparing for something big it was clearly no longer a matter of months or weeks but of days but despite the growing warnings soviet intelligence failed to produce anything even veronsoft swedish telegram that could persuade stalin that war was imminent in just a few weeks veronsoff would be promoted to chief of staff of naval intelligence and by september he would be its commander it was a job he would hold for more than ten years but he would inherit an intelligent service rendered blind and death by the sudden german invasion [Music] operation barbarossa had begun and despite all the warnings the soviet union was not prepared in the first days of the war all soviet legal residencies in germany in the countries of her allies and in countries occupied by the axis were terminated and all embassy workers were deported back to the soviet union soviet military intelligence lost contact with its agents in 11 european countries the agents themselves remained at large but if they couldn't contact moscow they were of little use [Music] a similar situation occurred with intelligence networks that had been established along the frontiers as the german army swept forwards contact with most of these agents was lost until the end of the war soviet agents working abroad did not have access to enough radio sets or skilled operators the radio equipment they did have was bulky and unreliable there was even a shortage of radio batteries [Music] the range of these radio sets was no more than 600 miles which meant their signal could only reach the western soviet union it wasn't strong enough to reach moscow let alone koi bishev where military intelligence headquarters had been moved to the codes and encryption keys used by soviet intelligence at the start of the war were complex and difficult to work with it took a long time to encode and decode even the simplest message radio transmissions could also be picked up by german counter intelligence who patrolled the cities with direction finding equipment to locate illegal transmitters direction finding used directional antennae to establish the source of a radio signal by the mid-1930s it was in use by most counter-intelligence services three vans equipped with mobile directional antenna would patrol a city looking for unusual radio transmissions they would triangulate their findings to pinpoint the exact location of the radio transmitter once the exact building was identified police units would surround it force their way in and arrest the operator [Music] german counter espionage made it almost impossible for soviet agents to communicate directly with moscow communication with most soviet pre-war agents was only re-established in 1945 as the red army advanced into eastern europe improvised lines of communication often using couriers were used to deliver the most important information [Music] but while couriers could move across europe with ease in peacetime during the war it was a different matter they not only ran the risk of being arrested by the gestapo but also of being killed in attacks on ships trains and roads [Music] in japan and china soviet agents remained active a few illegal residencies continued to operate in occupied france belgium and holland soviet intelligence remained highly effective in the usa the uk and in neutral sweden and switzerland [Music] july 1941 stockholm three weeks into the german soviet war from the outside the fish warehouse near the docks of the swedish capital looked like any other building in the area [Music] but this one harbored a secret it was the home of the code and cipher department of the general staff of the swedish armed forces [Music] a swedish war ministry courier was considered a master of his trade the general staff trusted him with their most urgent and important papers he was a stickler for the rules and would only ever hand his package to the exact person to whom it was addressed it annoyed a lot of people but the war minister was impressed by his punctilious career what none of the swedish authorities knew was that nearblood was a secret communist and soviet agent to make it easier for the couriers to get around town their bicycles carried special license plates this meant they wouldn't be stopped by the local police one day after receiving a package addressed to the general staff alan nieblod set off on his bike through the quiet stockholm streets but then took an unexpected turn down a deserted alley and dismounted after checking the coast was clear he took off his special license plate and replaced it with an ordinary one he arrived at a two-story house and went in [Music] [Music] worked officially for a russian tourist agency he also worked for soviet military intelligence [Music] semyon cosmic staristan codenamed kent joined soviet military intelligence in 1937 and was sent to scandinavia in 1939 his cover story included a job as director of the russian tourist agency in tourist in sweden norway and denmark as well as a representative of aeroflot the soviet state airline in november 1941 he returned to the ussr when one of his agents was captured [Music] when all the documents had been photographed staristan put the papers in a new envelope rubber stamps from numerous swedish institutions were at his disposal [Music] the value of this intelligence was enormous thanks to kent moscow received daily reports on enemy movements along the entire eastern front because the swedes were listening in on the germans and had broken their codes in 1940 sweden had suspected germany of planning to occupy the country stockholm set out to uncover hitler's intentions swedish maths professor arna burling working alone with just pad and pencil was able to crack german military and diplomatic ciphers in just two weeks it allowed the swedes to intercept and decode german cable traffic and what the swedes saw now also went to moscow in january 1942 knee blood was picked up by the swedes and sentenced to 12 years hard labor but by then moscow had information on how the swedes had broken the german encryption in june when the germans were tipped off that the swedes were listening in soviet cryptographers were able to decipher the new german codes themselves the 18th of october 1941 tokyo the japanese empire and the soviet union observed an uneasy piece but tension remained high at dawn japanese counter-espionage launched an operation to smash an illegal soviet spy network one of the men they arrested that morning was rickard zorgaid the group's resident [Music] as he was led away under heavy guard a thorough search was made of his flat the japanese found incriminating documents cameras and a photostat copying machine [Music] when they searched the house of max klausen the group's radio operator they found his transmitter and his codebox [Music] also known by codename santa schwarz ramsey and insan was born in czarist russia but as a boy moved with his family to germany after fighting for germany in the first world war sergey became an ardent communist and moved to moscow there he was recruited by soviet military intelligence and sent back to germany to build a cover story as a journalist and nazi sympathizer it served him well until october 1941 when he was arrested by the japanese they hanged him three years later in 1964 he was posthumously awarded the state's highest award the title hero of the soviet union sergey's network included 32 japanese agents four germans two yugoslavians and one britain they included german radio operator bruno vent and his successor max clarson manchester guardian journalist gunther stein yugoslavian journalist branko verkaillich japanese journalist miyagi yotoku and japanese journalist hotsumi ozaki an advisor to the japanese prime minister another valuable source for the group was organ art german ambassador to japan and confidant of rickard sokay [Music] sergey's arrest and the dismantling of his tokyo network was a bitter blow to soviet intelligence he had been an invaluable source on japanese and german intentions in the far east sergey's greatest coup had been to establish that japan did not intend to attack the soviet union in 1941 as stalin feared he sent a telegram from tokyo in september according to the secretary of the cabinet ozaki the japanese government has decided to take no action against the ussr this year but armed forces will remain stationed in manchuria for a possible attack next spring if the ussr is defeated by germany after the 15th of september the soviet far east can be considered safe from the threat of a japanese attack this vital information came as the germans made their final push on moscow it allowed the stafka high command to rush 32 divisions from siberia and the far east to help defend the capital on the 5th of december 1941 these divisions spearheaded a massive counter-attack that threw the germans back from the gates of moscow it was a crucial victory which owed much to ricarde soviet military intelligence also had its eyes and ears in washington from there too news reached moscow about japanese intentions in 1941 lev sergiev worked at the soviet embassy as the military attaches driver he was also an intelligence agent codenamed morris all that summer he sent messages to moscow stating that japan had no plans to attack the ussr 16th of july 1941 morris to moscow the attitude of japan towards the ussr is wait and observe [Music] february 1942 berlin the head of the german military intelligence service the abv was a man named admiral wilhelm canaris that spring he was in love spirits hitler blamed canaris for not providing accurate information on the size of soviet reserves and for allowing the wehrmacht to be caught off guard by the soviet counter-attack that winter this and the weather was how the german generals explained their failure [Music] admiral wilhelm canaris became head of the abv in 1933 he was a dedicated anti-communist which is why he initially gave his support to hitler and the nazis but by 1938 he'd become convinced that hitler would lead germany to ruin he began to actively conspire against the fuhrer and in 1942 established a secret line of communication to british intelligence the ss had its suspicions about canaris and he was dismissed from his post in february 1944 he was arrested following the july bomb plot against hitler and hanged in a concentration camp one month before the end of the war as an anti-communist canaris still had a vested interest in the war against the soviet union but the abv failed to provide the army high command with an accurate estimate of soviet military strength in the run-up to the german invasion they also failed to place any agents within the soviet high command [Music] the nkvd was extremely adept at exposing enemy agents numerous soviet prisoners of war were recruited as spies by the affair and smuggled back across the lines but almost all of them disappeared into the vast russian hinterland some turned themselves in some were picked up by the nkvd others simply went home [Music] very few of these agents made it back and their reports contained little of value [Music] canaris's mood improved in december 1941 when he received an unexpected report from the intelligence chief of army group center there exists in moscow an underground anti-soviet organization called the throne it is attempting to spread anti-soviet feeling amongst the people the leaders are sadovsky a royalist and poet and his wife a former lady in waiting to the tsarina one of its members demianov the grandson of a cossack chief and former noble risked his life crossing the front line to tell us about the existence of the throne during his interrogation demyanov claimed to have been in contact with german intelligence since 1940 his contact had been a man named stotz after his story was rigorously vetted demianov was given a codename max and sent back to the soviet union max's mission was to organize underground anti-soviet cells in major cities to orchestrate a campaign of sabotage and to establish a network for gathering information about the movement of red army forces most importantly max was to use his contacts in the soviet general staff and the ministry of transport to find out about military movements by rail [Music] at the end of the war rickard an officer of the abv was captured by the americans during one of his interrogations he told them that in 1942 and 43 max supplied valuable information that was often passed on to the vermont high command the germans believed that demianov had infiltrated the soviet general staff as a junior signals officer cauder further claimed that the throne had set up several cells in moscow and gorky which communicated directly with the abv in berlin they did this using three transmitters supplied to them by the germans and all of this it seemed under the noses of the faint soviet counter-espionage services the germans did not discover until after the war that this underground anti-soviet organization had been created by the nkvd soviet intelligence had meticulously created plausible anti-soviet agents which they then used to infiltrate the adver these agents then fed the enemy misinformation it was called operation monastery since the 1930s the poet boris sadovsky had been used by the nkvd as bait to trick opponents of the regime into revealing their anti-soviet sentiments on three occasions the secret police had arrested his associates but the poet himself always remained free alexander demianov was a former noble who became an nkvd agent in 1929 he infiltrated german intelligence in 1942 and even received specialist training from the advair he was later awarded the order of the red star for his exceptional service in operation monastery meanwhile german intelligence continued its attempts to recruit soviet prisoners of war from the spring of 1942 canaris's agents brought him regular reports about the progress made with former soldiers of the red army german intelligence was well versed in techniques for turning soviet citizens against stalin and soviet communism the admiral hoped that these recruits would provide valuable intelligence but he would be disappointed once again [Music] october 1942 poltava occupied ukraine at the intelligence 102 former soviet soldiers were listening to a lecture on how to gather military secrets whilst operating behind enemy lines s is [Music] foreign what no one in the ab fair knew was that piotr priyadko former depot commander of the soviet fifth army had infiltrated german military intelligence under the orders of the nkvd all the information he was giving them was in fact misinformation prepared in moscow [Music] priyatko's role in ab fair group 102 was to forge papers for the students he always made small mistakes that would ensure the agent was arrested when his papers were properly examined his misinformation also succeeded in compromising several high-ranking german intelligence officers who were dismissed from their posts priyadko sent back information on 101 agents working for the germans and 24 members of the abv in december 1942 he rejoined the red army he was subsequently awarded the order of the red banner for his courage and heroism [Music] over the course of the war the abv was infiltrated by hundreds of soviet agents they gathered information about the enemy and planted false information about the red army and its intentions they had effectively succeeded in turning germany's own intelligence services into its high command's biggest source of enemy misinformation 13th of september 1943 paris a car carrying two passengers drove up to a pharmacist shop on rome street one man left the car and went in [Music] after a few moments the other man went in too [Music] the man on the run was leopold trevor a soviet agent who'd agreed to work for the germans two weeks before but now he'd given his up their handlers the slip the furious germans launched a city-wide manhunt [Music] as early as 1938 trepper had established a powerful soviet intelligence network across belgium the netherlands france and italy it had about three hundred members and trevor was its head until his arrest by the abv in november 1942 through his group the soviets also received intelligence from rudolf russell rudolph rusla codenamed lucy was one of the most valuable agents of the second world war a german refugee living in switzerland he began working for soviet intelligence for ideological reasons [Music] he supplied the soviets with vital information about the german kursk offensive of 1943 russell's own source codenamed virta remains a mystery at the nuremberg trials alfred yodel of the german armed forces high command said that information about the kursk offensive reached moscow before it reached his own desk after the war russler continued to feed the ussr information gathered in west germany leading to his arrest and a year in a swiss prison he died soon after his release in 1958 after trepper's arrest german counterintelligence succeeded in shutting down most of his networks [Music] in berlin they referred to soviet radio operators as pianists tripper's network involved at least 10 pianists hence the nickname the red orchestra [Music] german counter intelligence was able to force some of the red orchestras former radio operators including trepper himself to start feeding misinformation to moscow [Music] admiral canaris had made a breakthrough the soviets did not only believe the misinformation they asked for more [Music] after his escape trepper with the help of french communists managed to get word to moscow that his network had been compromised the information coming in from its former radio operators was finally seen for what it was [Music] november 1944 two soviet agents were conducting round-the-clock surveillance on the norwegian coast [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] twelve hours later a staff officer entered the office of the chief of naval intelligence mikhail varansovich [Music] [Music] the team seriousness them the tirpitz was one of the few remaining threats posed by the german navy she'd played little direct part in the war so far but her presence in norway threatened the arctic convoys to the soviet union and tied down a significant number of british warships the sister ship of the bismarck she might still prove a formidable adversary on the 12th of november 1944 british lancaster bombers carrying five ton tall boy bombs set off for the norwegian field of tromso the germans had no warning of the raid the luftwaffe was nowhere to be seen [Music] two of the huge bombs hit the port side of the tirpitz blowing a massive hole in the ship's hull as water poured in she took on a heavy list and capsized [Music] the destruction of the tirpitz at tromso cost the lives of one thousand of her 1700 man crew it was a final nail in the coffin of hitler's navy [Music] since the summer of 1941 the soviets had had their spies in norway including units gathering intelligence for the soviet northern fleet they also recruited agents from the local population and worked with the norwegian resistance [Music] some norwegian agents were sent to a soviet training camp near mummansk where they were given basic instruction in radio communications and intelligence gathering [Music] the agents were then sent back to norway by submarine [Music] after nightfall they would be landed on a secluded stretch of coastline groups would also be resupplied and finally extracted by submarine [Music] the agent's orders were to observe german fortifications troop movements and military supply depots they were also ordered to find german warships hidden in the norwegian fjords and transmit this information back to mumansk soviet and british air forces were able to use this intelligence to make raids against valuable german targets in norway and finland [Music] following germany's surrender in may 1945 for most the celebrations could begin but there was no let up for the secret services it was clear that in washington and london the rise of soviet power aroused great mistrust mutual suspicion came to the fore now the common enemy had been defeated [Music] in april 1945 the british prime minister winston churchill ordered his military staff to investigate the feasibility of an attack against the soviet union codenamed operation unthinkable the study was conducted by the british armed forces joint planning staff their report envisaged a scenario in which 47 british and american divisions fighting alongside polish forces and 12 re-armed german divisions launched a surprise attack against the red army in northwest europe the planning staff concluded that britain would have to commit to a long and costly war and that even so the prospect of success was extremely doubtful [Music] in his comments on the plan churchill stated that it was a precautionary measure for a highly hypothetical situation [Music] on the 18th of may 1945 the soviet military attache in london major general ivan sklarov passed information on the top secret operation unthinkable to moscow [Music] scleros source was an agent x whose identity to this day remains a mystery over the next few weeks this same agent was able to pass clear off more details about operation unthinkable including the size of british and american forces involved in june 1945 marshal zhukov received details of the plan and immediately regrouped soviet forces in eastern germany he issued orders for the red army to strengthen its defenses and to closely observe the western allied forces [Music] churchill knew british and american forces were outnumbered by the red army more importantly he knew that there was neither the public nor political will for such a war in 1945 the americans were more interested in getting soviet help in the war against japan operation unthinkable remained just that in july 1945 during the potsdam conference american president harry truman as agreed with the british prime minister mentioned to stalin that the u.s had developed a new weapon of unusually destructive force truman was surprised by the reaction of the soviet leader a few minutes later as they waited for their cars churchill asked truman how it had gone he never asked a question replied the president [Music] the british and american leaders assumed simply that stalin had failed to understand the significance of what he was being told but they were mistaken since 1942 soviet intelligence had been gathering information on the allies atomic bomb programme more than 10 agents were feeding information to the soviets thanks to their efforts the ussr tested its first atomic bomb as early as 1949 in february 1945 in a letter to truman's predecessor president roosevelt joseph sterling had even hinted at the effectiveness of soviet intelligence as to my informers i assure you they are all very honest and modest people who carry out their duties carefully and without giving offense these people have proven themselves by their deeds many times [Music] you

Channel: Russian History. Films & Show

Views: 12,001

Keywords: Secret Intelligence of the Red Army, watch online with subtitles, movies, watch russian movies online with english subtitles, russian subtitles, russian movies with english subtitles, the best Russian movies, russian movies with english subtitles online, russian movies with russian subtitles, russian history, history, historical drama, military tv shows, military tv series, documentary, russia documentary, english subtitles, english translation, history of russia, Soviet Storm

Id: kN0ROgev9U4

Length: 44min 39sec (2679 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022