(EST PUB DATE) THE CLANDESTINE SERVICE HISTORICAL SERIES: THE ILLEGAL BORDER-CROSSING PROGRAM 1946 - 1959

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01356489
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: March 28, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-01655
• Publication Date: July 1, 1971

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Se6ret
A Internal Use Only
Access Controlled by DDP
CIA HISTORICAL STAFF
The Clandestine Service
Historical Series
THE ILLEGAL BORDER-CROSSING
PROGRAM
1946 - 1959
ret
S HP 098
Controlled by: SB
July 1971
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based personnel during 1947 and 1948.
The. Ryabov Case
Of interest, however, is one case which appar-
ently had no CI ramifications, and which was a har-
binger of the path Soviet operations were to take a
decade and more in the future. This involved a Soviet
political officer with the rank of major and the puta-
tive name of Vasiliy Nikolayevich Ryabov, and his
German girl friend.* Ryabov had been wounded in 1945
during the Soviet capture of Berlin and had been
brought back to health by a German nurse, who later
became his girl friend. In 1947 Ryabov was stationed
in Dresden. His girl friend resided in West BerliA,
where information on her attachment to the Soviet major
came to the attention of Captain Alexander Sogolow, an
S-2 officer in liaison with CIA's Berlin Base. George
Belie of the Berlin Base was thereupon put in contact
* Data on this case derive primarily from personal
interviews with case officers who were directly in-
volved. .The writer was unable to verify whether
Ryabov was the major's true name, nor was he able to
establish the nuK.se's identity. A thorough search of
various CS document repositories failed to unearth
operational files, personality dossiers, or other
vital data on this case. Neither RID/201, .RID/Cryptic
Reference, nor CI Staff was able to provide meaningful
information. A 201 file allegedly associated with
CARAVAN in fact refers to a person who has no con-
nection with the case.
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with Ryabov and the nurse, and from October 1947 to
December ,1949 Ryabov acted as the principal agent in
the CARAVAN operation, which for a time also
the designation DODGE. In 1948 the case was
over in Berlin by Boleslav A. Holtsman. The
carried
taken
German
girl acted as courier between the major in Dresden and
the Americans in West Berlin.- Ryabov had immediate
family members in Moscow, and he was
for an outright defection because of
relatives would undergo if he fled.
Soviet order of battle and on Soviet
the height of the Berlin Blockade in
unwilling to opt
the penalties his
His reporting on
intentions during
1948 was judged
of outstanding value. Operational planning included
the staging of an accident complete with a corpse from
the Berlin morgue provided
the body was that of Major
capabilities in the Soviet
with documents alleging that
Ryabov. CIA operational
Zone of Germany were lim-
ited, however, and in December 1949 Ryabov was trans-
ferred to Moscow for a tour of duty with the Soviet
Ministry of Defense. Prior to his departure, Ryabov
was briefed on plans to aid in his future exfiltration
via Finland or Iran. Although CIA obtained word of
his safe arrival in Moscow, the Agency was unable to
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flp
maintain a viable means of communication with an
agent in',the Soviet capital and ;contact with the
officer was lost. The German girl friend .was evac-
11/
uated by CIA to West Germany.
The Shift to Munich
By 1948 Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which
was entirely within the American Zone of Occupation,
became the main center of operational activity against
the Soviet target. Two factors contributed greatly to
this development Munich, unlike Berlin and Vienna,
was deep within the American Zone and therefore un-
encumbered with confrontations and juridical disputes
with the Soviet forces, who had no access or authority
in the American Zone. Secondly, most displaced persons
from the USSR were concentrated in the American Zone
and established their political, welfare, and cultural
centers in the Bavarian capital. New escapees from
Eastern Europe, such, as the wave of Czechs and Slovaks
who fled from their homeland after the February 1948
Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, tended to gravitate
toward Bavaria. Thus the Strategic Services Unit
(SSU)-CIG base in Munich early in the post-war years
was obliged by circumstances to keep abreast of Soviet
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organize an Assessment and Recruitment Section within
CSOB, Munich, to specialize in these matters..
The Assessment and Recruitment Section of CSOB
was organized in March 1952 with Sogolow as chief
Sogolow was also assigned liaison and coordi-
nation duties with the ZRELOPE paramilitary agent
recruitment program which was eventually placed under
the Assessment and Recruitment Section of CSOB for the
spotting, assessing, and recruiting of all ZRELOPE
32/
USSR agent candidates.
3. Recruitment
The recruitment of REDSOX agents of Soviet nation-
ality almost always was based on their ideologicel oppo-
sition to the Bolshevik dictatorship. In the case of
Soviet minority nationals such as the Ukrainians,
Baits, and Armenians, the ideological motivating factor
was that of opposition to Soviet Russian imperialism
and the possible liberation of their homelands. Finan-
cial remuneration played the dominant role only with
strictly mercenary agents who undertook to perform a
REDSOX mission in return for fixed fee. The border-
crossing missions undertaken on CIA's behalf by certain
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nationals are an example of the strictly cash-
for-services-rendered arrangement. Financial consid-
erations were also the primary motivations of the
air crews who undertook
"black" flights into the USSR on REDSOX agent-drop
missions.*
Upon. completion of the assessment package and
receipt of appropriate operational security clearance,
the recruitment "ceremony" usually included the signing
of a secrecy agreement and a contractual obligation on
the part of the Agency to establish a savings fund in
which the agent's
in escrow pending
Agency's name was
salary and any bonuses would be held
the completion of his mission. The
never used in the recruitment of
REDSOX agents. Agreements were usually made with the
US Government, the Department of Defense, or the US
Army. Undoubtedly, however, many agents guessed or
deduced that they were dealing with CIA.
In cases of REDSOX agents provided by the anti-
Soviet emigre groups, recruitment for penetration
missions was done by the emigre group concerned and a
* Ironically, these mercenaries were virtually the
only on to survive their missions. See Att. B.
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(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)