POPOV -- SHORT FORM, DE-SENSITIZED

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00144079
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2022
• Case Number: F-2021-01586
• Publication Date: September 22, 1980

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Moscow
At GRU Headquarters in Moscow Popov was questioned.about several matters,
required to write a report on the Mili affair, and dismissed from GRU for mis-
conduct. His wife left Berlin on 17 December. Developments in his student
case, which was taken over by another GRU officer, do not make it clear wheth-
er it was a factor in his dismissal or not, but they show that later the
Soviets kept the case going to screen the_fate of Popov and to obtain a readJ1
ing on CIA awareness of his fate.
In accordance with the communication Ian, Popov signaled by a "wrong
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-9- (SOT
number" phone call on Z5 December for a meeting
Moscow at a children' ,fttheater.on 28 December. His failure to appearaossibly
because he could not obtain a ticket to the theater, automatically triggered
an alternate meeting at the Aragvi Restaurant on 4 January 1959. The meeting
was successful and in the men's room he passed an sliti message written in a
pocket notebook, containing information of good quality. The message also
what he thought was
advised that he had been dismissed from GRU for/a combination of reasons--
the Mili affair, the Illegal in New York) and some distrust of his student
case. He was in the. Reserves and awaiting reassignment, and he wished to
talk 11111411111111iMP A brief note passed to Popov instructed him to
write to his accommodation address in Berlin and explain what had happened.
Popov signaled for a second brush meeting at a bus stop on 21 January.
It was successful ba Popov passed no message.
Popov said that he
had mailed or would mail a letter, but no letter was received at the accom-
ed
modation address in Berlin. The message given to Popovcontainidescriptions
of new meeting sites and 'instructed Popov to use only the S/4 carbon which
he had received in the last meeting in Berlin and to destroy his old carbons.
It also asked what was meant by diStrust of his student case. A copy of
Ne
this message was prepared as an sik letter, which was to be mailed that
night to Popov's home in Kalinin by another CIA officer if the meeting did
not take place, so that Popov would receive it before he was posted away
from Moscow. The signal from Popov WAS misunderstood
ismunisr*
d the letter was mailed by mistake. Nosenko described
the KGB's observation of the mailing and the recovery of the letter from the
mailbox.
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e Cylinder Letter
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Along with the KGB-dictated S/4 notebook whiCh Popov passed in the Aragvi
Restaurant on 18 September,. he passed a secret message printed by pencil on
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eight small pieces of paper, which were rolled into a cylinder about the size
of a cigarette. (To distinguish the secret-writing message from the secret
message, the latter is called the "cylinder letter".) It was wrapped in a bit
cf cloth, tied with a string, ,and smelled of perfume.
In the cylinder letter, Popov reported that he had been arrested in Febru-
ary 1959 and that in the meetings thereafter he had been under KGB control and
wearing a microphone.,
The idea that Bopovcould write a message and smuggle it out of Lubyanka
Prison was considered preposterous. The message therefore was thought to be
a hoax and the content was treated with suspicion. One thing which strengthened
the suspicion was that Popov claimed to have gotten away with an incorrect and
incomplete confession.
Technical analysis determined that the cylinder letter was written on
more than one Piece of paper of the kind used in the Soviet Union at that time
for magazine wrappers, that the writer had access to either more than one
pencil or a means of sharpening a pencil, and that the hand-printing was
probably done by Popov. Analysis of the case with the possibility that this
was genuinely a secret message opened a window through which the foliOwing
could be seen:
In order to gain his cooperation, the KGB probably did not subject Popov
to hostile interrogation at first but obtained what it needed to know to run
a playback. Popov agreed to participate in the playback, hoping to earn a
light sentence and probably hoping to se his cunning against the KGB. After
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he had correctly carried-. Cut the firSt two controlled meetings, he was given
better prison conditions, possibly was held somewhere in KGB Headquarters
�..
rather than in Iubyanki Priiort may have been allowed a visit from his wife,
and had access to newly reoeiired-Magazines and writing supplies.
pated as a consultant in some but not all of the planning sessions for the
,
September and October meetings. JIB he demonstrated his cooperativeness,
the guard lonf.him was relaxed somewhat and he had some degree of privacy. By
18 September, probably his uniform WAS tossed to him; he was told to bathe,
shave,dress, and be ready by a given time; and no one watched him dress. The
scent on the message was probably from his shaving lotion. 1#11111111111111111111110.-
There is evidence in the content that the cylinder letter was genuine
and that the KGB did not know About it at the time. One item after another
was contrary to the ITIOs interest. Among other things, the letter revealed
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the extent of KGB knowledge of the Popov case, or lack thereof, including
what it knew from sources other than Popov's confession. It showed Where the
� 7.
He partici-
KGB had made some analytical errors. It outlined the KGB's plans for future
meetings in the playback. Host significantly: it mentioned that there was
high interest during Popov's interrogation in something to do with Marshal
Zhukov. This can be understood as the KGB's effort to determine..thatr,it-had
caught and stopped the right person, the source of the Zhukov speech report
fed back by Blake.
Finally, the letter was totally "Popov". Even his wild idea of appealing
to the American President to save him was understandable.. It came from the
"gallows psychology" of a man who had changed his allegiance and was trying to
stand up against the Soviet regime, as his brother had stood up and written to
President Kalinin. The KGB could not have thought this way or understood Popov's
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need to walk in Aleksandr's footsteps.
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