Family spy row
In 1960 – 1970, the penetration of Soviet intelligence into the higher echelons of power, intelligence and military foreign state structures was more successful in third world countries than in Western Europe or the United States. The only exception was the Federal Republic of Germany. The East German KGB partner, the General Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), led by Army General Marcus Wolf, managed to infiltrate into the German directives dozens of its agents and recruiting officers.The introduction into the political structures of the FRG was carried out at a higher level. Not one - dozens of high-ranking politicians from the SPD, the CDU and the CSU regularly provided information to their operators from the KGB, who worked under the "roof" of the Soviet embassy, trade mission or correspondent offices of the APN and TASS. Günther Guillaume and his wife Christelle, who managed to penetrate surrounded by Chancellor Willy Brandt (his real name is Herbert Karl Fram), were among the most dexterous and lucky officers of the GUR operating in the Federal Republic.
If Marcus Wolf was a Mozart of East German intelligence, then Guillaume was a talented performer of the intelligence compositions of his boss. They supplied the patron, and through it, the KGB leadership, with information on the development of Bonn’s eastern policy, Germany’s relations with the United States and with other NATO partners, information about the aspirations of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the plans of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (intelligence agencies and counterintelligence of Germany).
RUBIKON PASSED
1955 year. On the night of Christmas, in the apartment of the mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt rang the telephone. Brandt, not including the nightlight, so as not to wake the sleeping wife, flitted barefoot into the living room, picked up the phone. The old voice said in a patter:
- Herbert, my old friend, I congratulate you on Christmas ... We have not spoken 15 for years, so my voice seems unfamiliar to you. However, when you remember the empty beer barrel in the basement of my house, you will immediately understand who is calling you. Stop! Just do not call my name. Well, you understand ... I'm calling from the machine ...
After mentioning the barrel Brandt finally woke up and asked sympathetically:
- My lord, what do I owe to your call?
- Herbert, my son has problems. No, no, not criminal ... Political. He needs help, but no one here will provide it. I think you can help him ...
- I got it. What is the name of the son, and what can he do?
- Gunter is a reporter for a newspaper.
- Good. I will help.
- Thanks and goodbye, Herbert!
Having returned to the bedroom, the burgomaster could not fall asleep for a long time, again and again mentally returning to those distant and yet so close events of 1940, which Axel Guillaume reminded him of. That “kind Dr. Axel” who, risking his life, hid from the Gestapo and treated the young Herbert Fram in his house.
“Yes, I haven’t received such a congratulation on Christmas yet!” - Brandt thought, falling asleep.
... Willy Brandt kept his word. With his help, his wife Guillaume, Günther and Christelle, both officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the GDR, a month later found themselves in Frankfurt am Main, where they became members of the SPD and, rolling up their sleeves, set to work at a local party organization.
So began a new phase of their life, stretching almost 20 years, which they would later call "protracted hara-kiri."
WAY UP
"Monuments are not put on ingenious discoveries, but on patient asses." These words fully refer to intelligence spouses Guillaume.
Even the workaholic Marcus Wolf was amazed at the incredible diligence and dedication of the spouses Guillaume in carrying out reconnaissance missions. Thanks to their keen mind, analytical abilities and manic persistence, in a short time they advanced even to higher levels of the SPD party hierarchy than the head of the GUR and the leadership of the KGB had supposed.
“We warned them,” Wolf wrote later in his memoirs, “so that they do not come too close to power. It is like under the sun - you can get a tan, but you can also get incurable burns. However, Guillaume was the highest scout, four nines of the test, constantly aiming at success. For more than 10 years they stubbornly fought their way upstairs, while nothing was given to them by leap, not falling from the sky. They were titans of daily labor and, without fear of responsibility, worked, as they say, “backhand”. Over the 10 years, Guillaume mined and transported to the Center hundreds of documents classified as “Top Secret” and “Special Importance”, while they ensured that they did not have a single puncture. This was the main secret of their successful advancement into the closest circle of the German Chancellor, Willy Brandt ... "
Three years after the introduction of Giyomov, they received the rank of major ahead of time and were awarded orders of the German Democratic Republic.
Christelle Guillaume (Anita’s operational pseudonym) was the first to succeed: in 1960, she became the head of the administration, Willy Birkelbach, an influential figure in German Social Democracy, a member of the party’s board, a Bundestag deputy, the chairman of the Socialist faction of the European Parliament and the State Secretary of the Hessen land government. NATO documents with the signature “Top Secret” and “Special Importance”, such as “The Picture of War” and materials related to plans for a state of emergency in wartime, regularly appeared on his desk. All of these documents Kristel re-took with the help of the Minox camera, and they immediately appeared on the table of Marcus Wolf, and then Yuri Andropov.
Gunther (the operational pseudonym "Hanzen") did not lag behind his wife. In 1961, Günter Guillaume became the organizational secretary of the Frankfurt district organization SPD, and three years later became the organizational secretary of the Social Democratic faction in the city assembly and his deputy.
The next, whose trust was won by Guillaume, was one Georg Leber, one of the leaders of the SPD. The latter, as a reward for winning the election, which Gunther provided for him, promised him a position in Bonn and found her.
At the end of 1965, Hanzen was appointed Senior Assistant to the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic, Walter Scheel, but continued to actively participate in the party affairs of the German Social Democracy.
Ways to communicate with the scouts were developed taking into account their habits and routes around the city. Hanzen and Anita were heavy smokers, so a visit to the tobacco shop wouldn’t cause any questions. The information obtained according to the assignment received from the GUR was converted into microfilms by the spouses, which were put into empty cigar sleeves and handed over to the agent who held the tobacco shop. The latter handed the liner to the courier, who visited Frankfurt every week under the guise of a traveling salesman.
In order to transmit instructions to the intelligence tandem, to correct their line of conduct and set new targets, the Center used one-sided radio broadcasts. The same “tobacco man” took them to his transistor receiver, which was no different from those that were on the open market, and then, having invested decoded radiograms into cigars, “sold” them to Guillaume.
CAR - MEANS RESCUE FROM INFLATION
At the beginning of 1966, the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, A.N. At the Politburo meeting, Kosygin once again raised the issue of building a car factory for the production of small cars in the country, since the number of Volga, Muscovites and Zaporozhtsevs produced could not satisfy the growing demand of the population. He stressed that although the technical capacities of the automotive industry are limited, but the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves make it possible to radically solve the problem. Brezhnev asked what the speaker meant.
- I, Leonid Ilyich, - answered Kosygin, - I suggest to buy a foreign automobile plant with a full production cycle. At the same time, all component parts will be manufactured not abroad, but domestically. Having acquired a foreign plant, we will become owners of new technologies that we will implement at our car plants. In addition, related industries: chemical, metallurgical, oil ...
- How much will such a purchase cost?
- According to estimates of Gosplan experts, about a billion dollars.
- Billion dollars ... Too much! - disappointedly said Brezhnev, a passionate car enthusiast, who had already presented himself behind the wheel of a foreign car.
“I beg your pardon, Leonid Ilyich,” Kosygin snapped, “I would like to remind you that during the last three years the Soviet Union has had 10 billion dollars annually from the export of oil, gold and furs! Add to them 9,5 billion, each year transferred to the State Bank by Arab countries for the supply of our weapons, and then the purchase of a car factory will be equal to the purchase of a bicycle.
- No, Alexey Nikolaevich, it will be necessary to delay the purchase of the plant.
However, Kosygin did not intend to surrender and laid out his last but the most weighty trump card on the table.- Leonid Ilyich! If we do not want to spin inflation, then the plant must be bought, and as soon as possible! After all, 80 – 90 billion rubles is in the hands of the population today, that is, at the official exchange rate of more than 100 billion dollars, and this is the cumulative annual budget of such countries as Belgium and Denmark ... And the savings of our citizens grow from year to year in an arithmetic progression, and people do not trust savings banks, and keep money in the "pods"! In order to have bills in circulation in 50 and 100 rubles, the Gosznak does not turn off the printing press for an hour. Someday, all this money supply will collapse in an avalanche and crush everyone ... In order to remove these billions from "beanbirds", it is necessary to throw not jewelry and imported consumer goods into the domestic market, as it is done today, but something more substantial. This "more significant" and will be our new domestic car, created on the basis of Western technologies!
- How did you calculate the money of our citizens? They are in the jugs!
- It's very simple, Leonid Ilyich! The amount of savings hidden in the “pods” has never been a secret behind the experts of the State Bank. Casket opens simply. At all times, people hid only the highest denomination banknotes. In our case, these are fifty and hundred rubles. Knowing the number of “fifty dollars” and “stolniki” put into circulation, bank employees, having counted the banknotes of this value returned at the end of the year, can say with exactness to one billion how much money remained in the hands of the population.
- Wow ... Sly! I would not have thought of it ... Well, Alexey Nikolayevich, convinced! Give instructions to your subordinates: the KGB chairman and the Minister of Vneshtorg to find out in which country it is possible to buy the plant cheaper ... And there, looking, having a bargain, we will lower the price ... Give you half a year ... Manage?
- I think yes.
YES DON'T GET AROUND THE VOLKHIV GIFTS
The first to learn about the landmark decision of the Politburo, without exaggeration, were the Americans. How? But simply: the Council of Ministers of the USSR, not to mention the Ministry of Foreign Trade, was like a leaky Swiss cheese, eaten through with CIA agents. Therefore, a month after the meeting of the Kremlin Areopagus, the American delegation headed by the owner of the automobile concern Henry Ford III arrived in Moscow.
And all because the CIA not only depended on the financial support of the US Military-Industrial Complex, but, more importantly, was associated with it by blood ties. Suffice it to say that CIA Director Allen Dulles, who was dismissed by President Kennedy during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ford Concern.
Having got an appointment with Alexei Kosygin, Henry Ford the Third, of course, without revealing his sources of information, proposed a plant for the production of small-class passenger cars. He added that his concern had developed two subcompact models: the Ford Capri and the Ford Taunus, which, unlike the traditional American models, correspond to the USSR cars in their class.
Pre-Council as an experienced diplomat and merchant, referring to the fact that the issue of buying a car factory is decided collectively by the Politburo, played the game "yes" and "no" not to say, not to call "black" and "white". In fact, Kosygin was waiting for information from the chairman of the KGB and the head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade who were given the task through their own channels to find out which of the Western European automobile concerns was ready to sell the car factory for a reasonable price for the USSR ...
Henry Ford-third in his own way assessed the evasiveness of the chairman of the Council of Ministers and, in order to neutralize the proposals of potential competitors, laid out his most weighty argument: if the USSR acquires its plant for 5 billion dollars, it is ready, using Canadian technology for building highways (Canada's climate is similar climate of the Russian Federation), free to build a highway from Moscow to Vladivostok.
For all history The Soviet Union has never received a better offer from foreign entrepreneurs. But ... purely political considerations prevailed, and the Politburo eventually rejected Henry Ford’s proposal, no matter how tempting it was ...
The clue was that in 1966, the United States began to lose its influence in Western European countries. Claiming a leading role in the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), the American administration, headed by President Lyndon Johnson, simply said, "it went too far." French President Charles de Gaulle was the first to rebel against US hegemony, leaving the military organization of NATO and leaving there only his observer. Demarche de Gaulle had a sobering effect on the leaders of other NATO member countries. Great Britain, Italy and Spain asked themselves a natural question: “Who is the boss in Western Europe? Americans, or we, Europeans ?! ”Among the members of NATO, confusion and vacillation began. The leadership of the USSR took advantage of the prevailing political situation and, in order to make the differences between the USA and its Western European partners irreversible, decided to buy a car factory in Western Europe. The question was who to buy cheaper.
FIRST BUSINESS FACILITIES
Marcus Wolf was not only a talented intelligence leader, but also a shrewd politician. Analyzing the internal political situation of the Federal Republic of Germany and the action of the ruling union of the CDU / CSU, the general came to the conclusion that this alliance had exhausted its potential, and the ideas of social democracy, which the SPD was herald, become more and more attractive for the population of the Federal Republic. Therefore, the main task of Hanzen and Anita was the search, study and recruitment of those SPD leaders who were interested in drawing closer to the countries of the Eastern Bloc. In addition, the spouses were required to promptly signal the threat of exacerbation of the international situation, which could lead to an open military conflict. However, the main thing does not mean the only thing. And at the beginning of 1966, Guillaume had to take a “step aside”: to take up the economic issue, although for the USSR it was not even a question - a problem. And both political and economic properties. It is difficult to say which component prevailed!
In a word, from their curator Marcus Wolf, the intelligence spouses were instructed to find out which of the Western European concerns it is more profitable for the Soviet Union to purchase a car factory.
From the report submitted by Hansen, it was more expedient for the Soviet Union to conclude a deal with the FIAT concern, since the latter acquires component parts from the West German automakers BMW and Mercedes RENO for the production of cars. Thus, according to Guillaume, the USSR has a unique opportunity to "kill three birds with one stone" - for a long time "bind" to itself the economies of the largest Western European powers: Italy, Germany and France. According to the intelligence officer, the strengthening of the economic ties of the USSR with these countries will also have political consequences - they will continue to pursue foreign policy without regard to the United States. Finally, Guillaume argued, given that the Italian automobile industry is in a state of stagnation, the owners of FIAT can be easily persuaded to conclude a deal on the terms of the Soviet side.
Markus Wolf, assessing the importance of the Hanzen report, immediately flew to Moscow, where he reported the information to the KGB Chairman, Yuri Andropov, and he introduced Alexey Kosygin to her. The latter fully agreed with the arguments of Hanzen and, commending the GUR’s efforts, put the question of encouraging German comrades to the Politburo. Marcus Wolf was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, Günter Guillaume was given the rank of Colonel GUR ahead of schedule.
Thus, the starting point for the conclusion in 1967 of the agreement between the Soviet Union and Italy on the construction of the Volga Automobile Plant (VAZ) was the analytical reference from Günter Guillaume. The deal cost the USSR an unprecedentedly small amount in world practice - only 550 million dollars! ..
LIFE TO TOP
October 1 1969 of the year Willy Brandt won the election and became Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. He remembered Guillaume's merit in promoting the leaders of the SPD of various levels to senior posts in local and federal government, and therefore instructed Horst Emke, head of his administration, to decide on the inclusion of Guillaume in his nearest orbit. After that, in 1970, Gunther Guillaume was entrusted with the creation of a government bureau for the congress of the SPD in Saarbrücken. Guillaume, being the head of this division of the Federal Chancellor’s Administration, personally communicated with senior officials of the BND, as a result of which, with the consent of the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution, he obtained access to classified information of the highest degree of secrecy, which immediately became known to the GUR and the KGB.
In 1973, Guillaume became the Chancellor’s personal reviewer in charge of financial income to the SPD, but was then transferred to the post of party affairs officer. Since then, he has participated both in the meetings of the Board of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and its factions, and in the meetings of the heads of departments of the party.
However, the HEN and KGB Khanzen were most useful in 1970 – 1972, during the preparation of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. By timely informing about the position of West European partners of Germany, as well as the United States regarding the final wording of the Declaration of the meeting, the intelligence officer helped the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries to develop an optimal course of action for successfully defending their interests.
In addition, Guillaume managed to get three particularly important documents.
The first was a letter from US President Richard Nixon, which he sent to 3 on July 1972, Willy Brandt, with a request to encourage the French leadership to sign the Atlantic Charter, according to which the Western European countries - members of NATO had to confirm the primary role of the United States.
The second is a detailed report on Brandt’s confidential negotiations with Nixon and the German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel with Secretary of State Kissinger. During the meetings, the American president frankly admitted that the Soviet Union had achieved such progress in the field of military equipment, at which the first nuclear strike by the United States was beyond the limits of the possible.
The third document was a memorandum of the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Egon Bar, in which he advised the chancellor not to succumb to the pressure of the Americans, putting on good relations both with NATO partners and the USSR.
All three documents testified that differences within NATO continue to escalate, which the Soviet Union was not slow to use, forcing the United States to sign the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SALT-1972) in May 1.
FAILED WITH POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES
In the autumn of 1972, during a meeting with his operator, one of the oldest GUR agents in the Federal Republic of Germany, an employee of the Eastern Bureau of German trade unions, Wilhelm Gronau, was arrested. This would not have led to the failure of Hanzen and Anita if the operator’s notebook didn’t have the name of Guillaume, but a more common German name, such as Mayer, Schmidt or Schulz. But ... Fate followed its implacable move, and one novice employee of the Federal Department for the Protection of the Constitution (Counterintelligence of the Federal Republic of Germany) began a thorough study of decoded, but not identified, radiograms captured in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, beginning in the middle of 1950's.
Eureka! Comparing the dates of the incoming telegrams with the birthdays of Guillaume, the meticulous detective was rewarded for his patience - he received documentary evidence that the Guillaume couple received encrypted radiograms from the Soviet intelligence center Karlshorst in East Germany for more than 10 years.
Following this, the leadership of the Federal Department for the Protection of the Constitution was concerned about two problems - immediately arrest Giyomov, in order to “get out of them” evidence of criminal activity as soon as possible, or leave them in their posts, so that, watching them, they would be caught in intelligence connections. with power steering. It was decided to choose the second method. At first, Christel was monitored, based on the assumption that the connection with the courier, and therefore with the Center, went through it. The counterintelligence officers hoped to grab it when they handed over the materials to the courier and, thus, to obtain the necessary evidentiary base of the spies' spying activities.
However, purely political motives, which were aimed at the removal of Willy Brandt from power, forced the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to postpone the terms of the arrest of Guillaume. What for? And in order for the Chancellor as deeply as possible to get stuck in his relationship with her husband, Guillaume, after which his resignation would be inevitable. And all because among the “hawks” of the Federal Republic and in its special services, closely connected with the CIA, there was growing discontent with the policy of the Chancellor, not in words but in deeds seeking to reconcile the two warring social systems ...
ABOUT DISTINGUISHED SCIENTISTS CLEAR THE WORD
The spouses were closely monitored for more than a year, but they did not manage to obtain evidence of their espionage activities, and it was decided to arrest Giyomov on April 24.
The proof of his connection with the intelligence services of the GDR was presented, or rather, announced by Gunther himself. Seeing a group of counterintelligence on the threshold of his apartment, he shouted from his voice with excitement: “Please consider that I am an officer of the GUR and a citizen of the GDR!”
This confession was the main evidence of Gunther Guillaume’s guilt. The one and only. The counterintelligence was not able to achieve more from him during the entire investigation. Kristel was silent too ...
Gunther Guillaume was convicted on 13 years, his wife - on 8 ...
Marcus Wolf tirelessly cruised between Berlin and Moscow, puzzling over what agents could be offered to the West for exchange. The resignation of Willy Brandt 6 on May 1974 of the year significantly complicated the position of the WTO, since the new Chancellor Helmut Schmidt categorically stated that Guillaume must serve his sentence until the last day. The case became truly “hot” after Fidel Castro refused to release in exchange the CIA resident Colonel James Hunt, and Brezhnev artificially delayed the release of Anatoly Sharansky ...
Finally, in March 1981, Christelle Guillaume was exchanged for two West German spies. Upon returning to the Federal Republic of Germany, one of them told in an interview with Spiegel magazine that Western intelligence officers, who had been languishing in prisons in the GDR for many years, would have welcomed any government action that would have made their fate easier. Helmut Schmidt had no choice but to meet the wishes of the liberated and ... the onslaught of the power steering.
October 1 1981, Günter Guillaume was exchanged for five West German spies and one American.
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