REPORT ON ENCOUNTER WITH SOVIET SECRET POLICE INTRODUCTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000800090011-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 31
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2003
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: July 17, 1961
• Content Type: REPORT

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SECRET
Vienna, t.ustria, July 1'?, 1961.
RepVrt.on Encounter with Soviet Secret Police
Introduction
Between 1934 and 1959 I visited the Soviaat Union five times. ','hen I
entered the country on June 6, 1961, it was the first time that I was/ntorat-
velling either on a diplomatic passport or on official business. In vi.-.w
of my own long connection with Soviet affairs and the ,nown views of the
publication by which I am now employed I 25X1
anticipated the possibility of provocation and entered the Soviet Union
resolved not to give the Soviet authorities even the slightest cause for
complaint. I am familiar with the history of many cases of Americans who
have either been prosecuted in the Soviet Union or expelled from the coun-
try; the pretext was usually vodka, women, espionafc or come combination
of these factors. I was determined to avoid troablt~ oa any of these counts.
Potential provocatory acts began soon after my arrival. In the Intourist
dining room at Kiev I found myself alone at a table with a Russian who wanted
to treat me to vodka -- which he was consuming liberally -- and tell me his
troubles. I finished my meal and withdrew. On my first day in lIoscow -- a
Sundey --.I decided to take a walk in the Gorki Park of Culture and Pest.
As I left the park I was accosted by a not unattractive blonde of uncertain
age who attached herself to me and w lked with ;ae across the bridge as far
as the subway station. She declared she was a widow, was lonesome and liked
my type; surreptiously she pressed into my hand a slip of paper (already pre-
pared) with her name and telephone number, and iivited me to visit her. I
said I would be very busy in Moscow, left her, destroyed the slip of paper.
There were also the usual mysterious acid semi-mysterious telephone calls
to me in my hotel rooms; these could be brushed off without difficulty. Whe-
ther any of these incidents war; part of a delib,-~raa i o campaign of provocation
I cannot say; they are the stuff around which cases have been built in the
past. In view of what transpired subsequ.iently, I am inclined to believe
that they were.
On June 21, with everything proceeding smoothly and according to plan,
I left Moscow for the Caucasus and Central Asia. As I reconstruct the situa-
tion, whoever was handling my case must have decided that the time had come
for more direct ,taction. I had not nibbled on any of the usual bait and
time.was getting s, orter. Orders therefore went out to the security aut 'ori-
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ties in Uzbekistan to trap me.
After a pleasant and uneventful three days in Tbilisi, I flew to Tash-
kent on the afternoon of Saturday, June 24, arriving; at the hotel about
930 p.m. I had dinar at the restaurant on the hotel roof, then decided
to take a short exploratory walk, as is nn: custom on my first night in a
strange city. By this time it was, I should think, between 11.00 and 11.30
local time, which is two hours ahead of Tbilisi time. The streets in that
section of Tashkent are lined with trees and are not particularly well
lighted. I walked at random, intending to make a circle of a few blocks
and return to the hotel.
As I subsequently diccovered, I had turned away from, not toward, the
center of town. The streets along which I was walking; were practically de-
serted; but it was a warm, bc:.lfny evening and pleasant to be outdoors. bud-
denly a car drew up beside me and stopped. Two husky men in civilian clothes
jumped out and approached me, the driver remaining in the car with the motor
idling. Without a ward the men seized me b;- the arm and started to lead me
toward the car. Apparently they did not expect any resist:,nce; in any event
I was able to wrench away from them and took to my heels, ducking around a
corner, down a convenient alley, and into a c,'urt-yard, whore I stopped in
the shadow of a building. My .assailants obviously were not runners; I had
taken them by surprise when I slipped from their grasp, and r;oon outdist:-need
them. They quickly lost the trail. I h Bard theca rum U L ginf; around in the
alley, but they did not cater the court-y=ard where I was hidden. Apparently
,they had no flashlight; in any event, after a snort time their footsteps died
away, and soon afterward I heard a motor accelerating.
I remained in my hiding place and considered my next step. It seemed
most unlikely that this was a chance attack; if the motive were robbery, they
would have proceeded quite differently. I therefore concluded that I was
faced with a deliberate attempt to trap. If this were true, they would prob-
ably be waiting to intercept me on my way back to the hotel. After a goodly
~nterv:.:l, I crawled under a wooden gate -- ripping my shirt in the process --
and., doming out on the street, continued walking away from the hotel. l;y
this time it..was quite late; and coming on a large park, I decided to spend
the rest of the night on a bench. When morn:i nj; carne and people began to
circulate, I found. my way b'.,ck to the hotel., looking rL~thor the worse for wear.
I spent all that d.-,.y, Sunday, in Lite, hotel resting and c.atc,-in? up on
back work. The following morning;, June 26, T made a tour of the city with
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an Intourist guide, and was off that afternoon by plane for Samarkand. for
me this was the end of the line; and this time they would not miss.
The Trap
On the plane from Tashkent I shared a seat with a yound Uzbek who before
.we took off had co,nplained loudly because he could not got a seat with his
brother, who was travelling with him. As we approached Samarkand we hot
into conversation. It developed that he was a native of the town and lived
there with his family; he owned a cacr, he raid ("since six of us'are working"),
and offered to take me to the hotel and 1:1_ter s.ow me the si hts. I explained
to him that I was a tourist, that I expected to be met, and that Intouriict
would look after my sightseeing.
Met I was, and after merely dro;)pin? -,?ny ba,, at the hotel (I had left the
bulk of my luggage in Tashkent), I started out with a guide on a strenuous
tour of the Samarkand mosques which continued until early evening;. I had
dinner and a bottle of the local wine at the hotel, siring a table with
an Uzbek with whom I exchanged only a few words. I teen decided to ta;;.,o a
stroll in the park which adjoins the hotel -- a kind of amusement park, well
lighted and full of people. It was then about 9 p.m. aand just getting dark.
As I rounded a corner in the park, I almost ran into my co.ananion from
.thh plane, his brother and a very attractive young giirl who was introduced as
the brother's fiancee. Nothing; would d,_> but that I cone home with them, meet
the family and spend the evening. I quickly weighed the pros and cjns,
decided the meeting had been too much of a. coincidence to be planned, and,
aware of the Uzbek tradition of hospitality, accepted.
They found a taxi -- while they had been in Tashkent, they explained, the
battery in their car had gone dead and they were without transportation. 'Vie
drove through so,te narrow streets in the old part of town, perhaps a mile
from the hotel and near one of the mosques I had vis5_ted in the afternoon,
and stopped before a rather forbidding-looking door. Alongside, under a
roof, was indeed the cor with the dead battery. Reassured, I stepped t trough
the door and into a pleasant court-yard with trees, flowers and a fountain.
k?n.a raised terrace next to tics house some twenty peorale, all middle-aged or
older, were eating around a long table. I was Introduced to the father and
mother of my hosts, and we went off to the older brotlic;r's room. I now
learned th,.t he had recently men rried; his wife, who was taking her exa mina-
tions in pharmacy and had already rotired, was r,,uLed out of bed; and in
short ordA6pPb edapgr fea '6' 09'/290, d BP6@Bi098V81400&d0#dM1?. sliced
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sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and stewed chicken -- remnants, I took it,
of the feast which was going on outside.
We sat around a table in the host's bedroom, eating and sar:rpling the
father's homemade wine. A powerful radiox was turned on and soon tuned in
to the Voice of America. They said trey liked to listen to the music but
were not interested in the rest of the program. At intervals variogs members
of the family made an appearance, were introduced, acrd after a short wile with-
drew; the father and his aged mother remained throughout the evening;, however,
and engaged me in lively conversation.
It was past midnight when I announced that it was time for me to be get-
t.irig back to my hotel. There were some polite prote.;ts; then the two brothers
insisted on seeing he home. They found a taxi, and we drove off amid the hood
wishes of the assembled guests. On the pretext that I wanted a little air be-
fore retiring, I suggested that they drop me alo:ignic:e the park, a short di.s-
ta.rce from, the hotel; actually I felt concern for them in case they should be
observed bringing me back.
I was dropped as requested about a block and a half from the hotel, and
they drove off. The street was a broad boulevard with several rows of trees;
.at this hour it was dark and apparently deserted. As I approacl-ed the corner
to turn into my street, three men suddenly jumped me from the shadows. This
time there was no escaping; they hit me fore and aft, and I was down in an
instant. They pummeled me, kicked me in the groin, and quickly rolled me into
me_ a wet, muddy, open concrete drain, a drop of a couple of feet. At
this point I apparently lost consciousness.
The Charge. - Some hours later, I awoke, we:,.k and stiff, but with no clerrly
defined aches or pains. I was lying caked on a hard, narrow bunk in a dingy
building which turned out to be a militia station. '.hen I was found to be
awake, I was given a relaxing warm bath and put back to bed. During the bath
I made an, inventory of my injuries: cuts about the f ce on my nose and fore-
head and on my left foot, various bruises on the body; apparently nothing
serious. The cut seemed to have been treated, but were unbandag;ed. I slept
a while longer, then was allowed to got up and was given a blanket. 1 sat
around far a while and passed the time 6f day with the militiamen on duty;
I was apparently their only client, and they seemed to have nothing else to
do. There were no questions, no mention of the events o.f the previous night
nor of what happened next. By this time my mind was perfectly clear and I
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recalled the whole course of the evening up to the point when I lost conscious-
ness. One thing was uppermost in my mind and dictated my subsequent course of
action -- the protection of my Uzbek friends.
The militiamen were friendly and attentive to nay wants, although they
provided no food. One of them, a Central Asian, surprised me by smiling and
giving me the Moslem greeting "Salaam aleikom" (Pe,?nce be with you) which I knew
from the Persian. In due course a t,!11, thin man, probably in his early thir-
ties, with a sharp face, receding hairline: and black-rimmed glasses, dressed
in civilian clothes, arrived and introduced himself as a representative of
Intourist. He was excited and considerably distressed.
- Why had I got myself into such a jam, he wanted to know. It wrts a
terrible thing for Intourist. Nothing like this had ever happened to them
before.
The Intourist man suggec-ted that he take me back to the hotel. The militia
chief was agreeable, but said 1 could scarcely appear on the street with my
clothes'-,in the state they were in. This was news to me, but when he produced
them I was convinced. Jy sports shirt was grimy but relatively intact, with
a couple of buttons missing; my trousers cle