Francesco/who-killed-jfk huggingface dataset:
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 348]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)Comment: Komsomol dues were calculated on a sliding scale in which members earning 500 rubles monthly paid .5 percent, those earning 500 to 1500 rubles paid one percent, and those earning over 1500 rubles paid 1.5 percent.NOSENKO insisted that in 1953-1954 the maximum age for a Komsomol member was 26 years of age, and that he was a member until he became overage in October 1954, and that no special privilege was extended to him.Comment: According to Komsomol statutes at the time, the maximum age was twenty-five, a fact which would be known by a person who served as a Komsomol secretary at the time. NOSENKO would have thus been excluded from the Komsomol when he became overage in 1953, not in 1954 as he claimed.The March 1954 Komsomol Congress retained the 25 year age limit, but provided for two-year extensions in certain cases. Because of age at the time, and because of his claimed position as Komsomol secretary, the matter would have been of vital interest to NOSENKO if the facts he related were true.From the time he was dropped from the Komsomol because of age, until he was accepted as a candidate member of the Communist Party in January 1956, NOSENKO claimed that he was the only officer in the KGB who was a member of neither organization.340. Top SecretTS No. 197124Copy
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 349]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)Comment: NOSENKO is the only Soviet official known to CIA who claims to have occupied a position of trust and who claims he was not a Party member at the time.In the period following, "to show his eagerness" and "to improve himself", NOSENKO asked for Party assignments. For more than a year he ran errands and collected newspapers and performed other such tasks. He stated that he applied for Party membership in January 1956, was accepted as a candidate member in 1956, and that he was accepted as a full Party member in 1957.Conclusion:NOSENKO's claims about his Party activity do not sustain his claims to KGB service, and they suffer from identical discrepancies with respect to chronology, plausibility, and contradiction by independent sources. It is concluded that NOSENKO was never a Komsomol secretary and, if a member at all, was no longer a member after reaching his twenty-sixth birthday in October 1953. The period in which he had no Party status was twenty-eight months, not the fifteen he claimed, and it covers the period of his first tour in the Embassy Section as well as a portion of his initial Seventh Department assignment. An officer unqualified for Party membership is ineligible for KGB service. Consequently, the evidence provided by examination of NOSENKO's Party status indicates that he was not serving in the KGB through at least a portion of the 1953-1956 period.341Top Secret0001612TS No. 197124Copy 10
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 350]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)## Knowledge of Certain KGB Forms and ProceduresIn the course of his various interrogations, NOSENKO had occasion to comment generally on various KGB forms and procedures. Interrogation on these points, however, developed that while he was generally familiar with various aspects unexpectedly there were some of which he was ignorant. Some of these topics are described on page in connection with his KGB entry, and others which are described below.## KGB FormsNOSENKO was familiar with the _anketa_, the KGB Personal History Statement, including its appearance, the nature of the questions included, and the purpose of the document. However, he maintained that it was required to be completed in two copies, that it could be completed outside of KGB premises, and that it consisted of four to six pages.Comment:The _anketa_ is a detailed, sixteen page questionnaire. As a sensitive document, it is not taken from KGB premises. Defectors' describe its completion as "an experience not soon to be forgotten". If NOSENKO was a supervisor as he claimed, he would recall the form from reviewing personnel files in which the _anketa_ is a prominent basic document.NOSENKO maintained that he had never heard of the Communist Party Questionnaire, (_Lichny Listok po Uchetu Kadrov_). Shown an exemplar, NOSENKO stated that he had seen it in personnel files, but had never himself filled one out. Asked in whose personnel files he had seen the document, NOSENKO first said those of civilians (interpreters, etc), and finally expressed his belief that the KGB did not use the document.
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 351]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)Comment: The form is completed by every KGB officer, and while it is not of critical importance to the KGB itself, a copy is filed in every officer's personnel file, a fact known to any Komsomol secretary or supervisor responsible for reviewing KGB personnel files.NOSENKO was unfamiliar with the name of the KGB personnel action form, and said he did not know of it. When its purpose was described to him, he gave a superficial description of its content.Comment: A senior KGB officer would be familiar with the form, which he would see on every occasion in which one of his subordinates was promoted or transferred.NOSENKO was familiar with the Employment and Service Record (Posluzhnoy Spisok), but he claimed he filled it out only in "1958 or 1957".Comment: The Employment and Service Record is completed on entry on duty with the KGB. In citing 1957 or 1958, NOSENKO is claiming that he completed it only four or five years after entering the KGB.343# Top Secret0001614TS No. 197124Copy 10
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 352]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)## Visitor's Pass ProceduresNOSENKO has described procedures entailed in a non-KGB visitor's gaining access to a KGB installation, but he maintained that the interviewer's name did not appear on the visitor's pass. (See p. 70.)Comment: The interviewer's name does appear on the pass, a fact which a senior officer of more than a decade's KGB Headquarters service would recall, since he would have frequent occasion to admit visitors to KGB buildings.## Name Checks of KGB Central FilesNOSENKO on many occasions claimed that in connection with his direction of an operation he personally performed the check of the target's name against KGB files. Prominent among these cases were BURGI (see p.115) and ABIDIAN (p.205).Comment: NOSENKO could not describe specifically how he performed the name checks he claimed, and his description contained numerous errors of fact. Among these were assertions that the Militia retained court records of all Soviet citizens, and that the First Special Department holds its criminal index separate from political and security card indices. NOSENKO was unfamiliar with the KGB term *spetsproverka*, meaning a clearance check. Despite NOSENKO's claim that he performed name checks of American Embassy personnel, he pleaded ignorance of any aspect of the files held by the First Chief Directorate, where any KGB record on foreigners is kept.
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 353]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)## ConclusionNOSENKO's ignorance of the foregoing forms and procedures is evidence that he did not occupy the position nor perform the functions he claimed during his alleged KGB service.## Awards and DecorationsSince 1964 NOSENKO has claimed to have received various awards, commendations, and decorations for his KGB service. His assertions are material to any judgment of his general credibility and, as well of the validity of his claims to having occupied various KGB positions.In January 1964 NOSENKO mentioned that in 1962, shortly after meeting with CIA in Geneva, he received the Order of Lenin for ideas which he developed to "enlarge the experience and improve the quality" of Second Chief Directorate personnel in Moscow.In the April 1964 interrogations NOSENKO was asked about his awards, and he first said he received the Order of the Red Banner, then corrected himself to say he received first the Order of the Red Star. He confirmed that he received the Order of Lenin, in 1963. [Earlier he had said 1962, "just following visiting Geneva".] He claimed he received the Order of Lenin for his performance in his Seventh Department assignment, but when he was asked what recruitments justified his receipt of the award, he said the main task of the Seventh Department was not to make recruitments, but to counter the hostile intelligence service operations. [For his contradictory statements regarding the Seventh Department's mission, see pages 103 and 326.] The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration for which a KGB officer is eligible, NOSENKO said, and besides himself, the Chief and former Chief of the Seventh Department received it. NOSENKO said he received in 1962 the Order of the Red Star, he "thought" for his service in the Embassy Section in 1960-1961, not for Seventh Department service; no explanation accompanied that decoration.
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 354]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)The question of NOSENKO's awards, orders and decorations were of some interest to the interrogators since they might reflect the importance the KGB attached to particular operational activities in which NOSENKO engaged. However, before the April 1964 interrogations were suspended, NOSENKO retracted his claim. that he received the Order of Lenin, saying that it was just an idle boast. GRIBANOV, NOSENKO explained, had promised in 1963 that NOSENKO, CHELNOKOν, and KOVALENKO would receive the Order of Lenin "for creating the Central Operational Communications System of the Second Chief Directorate" within the Seventh Department, but the award had not materialized before NOSENKO left for Geneva in January 1964.Comment: Earlier NOSENKO claimed he received the Order for ideas he developed "to enlarge the experience and improve the quality of Second Chief Directorate personnel". Questioned, NOSENKO reverted to the earlier claim.In the April 1964 interrogations NOSENKO was asked to list the dates, reasons, and types of awards, decorations, and bonuses he had received in his KGB career. He replied that he received nothing from 1953 until 1956, when he received a commendation and one month's pay for the recruitment of BURGI [see p.115] by order of the KGB Chairman Serov. GRIBANOV informed him of the commendation, NOSENKO said, and NOSENKO saw his name on the list of recipients which was circulated. No written certificate accompanied the commendation, according to NOSENKO, but personnel recorded the event in each KGB recipient's personnel file. Almost every year after 1956, NOSENKO stated, he received something, "perhaps on the KGB anniversary, or May Day, or Army Day". In 1957 or 1958, NOSENKO did not recall exactly, he received "something" from GRIBANOV, "maybe on the anniversary of the Soviet Army": GRIBANOV's deputy, PERFILYEV, made the presentation at an assembly of officers in the KGB Headquarters auditorium. NOSENKO said he received in 1959 a second commendation and one month's pay from KGB Chairman Shelepin
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 355]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CARFER)for "several recruitments, including Americans MERTENS, DREW, 06 FRIPPED," and three British citizens whose names he could not recall. Along with a large group of KGB officers, NOSENKO received a commendation from GRIBANOV in 1960, he said, "for good work in general". He received in 1961 the Order of the Red Star, he stated, with a group of Second Chief Directorate case officers "for general good work"; IVASHUTIN made the presentation, which included a medal and a certificate which the officer may retain.Comment: A week later, NOSENKO said that he received this award in December 1962. He said he recalled that the presentation was planned for the KGB Anniversary on 20 December, but the presentation was delayed and not made until the end of the month.In 1962, NOSENKO claimed, he received another commendation from GRIBANOV for "general good work", and he also received the Unblemished Service Award for ten years' service.Comment: At this juncture his interrogators reminded NOSENKO that his most recently claimed date of entry to the KGB was March 1953, and that in 1962 he would only have had nine years' service. NOSENKO said that he could not understand why, but he was certain he received the service award after his return from Geneva in 1962. (The date is consistent with NOSENKO's earlier retracted claim that he entered the KGB in 1952.) The following day NOSENKO announced that he recalled why he received the medal in 1962 rather than in 1963; the medal was awarded to servicemen as well as to KGB officers, and prior military service is taken into account in computing KGB officers' time0001618347Top SecretTS No. 197124Copy 10
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 356]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)Comment: (Continued)in service. NOSENKO entered the Naval RU in 1950, he said, and should have received the medal in 1960, but did not because of some administrative mixup. (See p.56 for NOSENKO'S eventual claim that he entered the RU in 1951.)In 1963, NOSENKO said, he received another commendation from GRIBANOV for "general good work", and GRIBANOV told him that along with others he would receive the Order of Lenin "for inspiring the Seventh Department" on 20 December 1963, the KGD anniversary. NOSENKO said because he left for Geneva, he did not actually receive the medal. [NOSENKO arrived in Geneva on 19 January 1964.].Interrogated in August 1965 regarding his claim to having received a commendation from KGB Chairman Shelepin for his recruitment of the three Americans and three British citizens in 1959, NOSENKO said that he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner for these successful recruitments, but he did not receive it, probably because he transferred to the American Embassy Section at that timeComment: NOSENKO apparently is referring to the KGB practice of conferring decorations on KGB anniversary, 20 December. NOSENKO claims he transferred to the Embassy Section in January.When NOSENKO's claims to various KGB awards was reviewed with him during the October 1966 interrogations, he said that during his KGB service he had received only the Red Army anniversary medal and an award for satisfactory completion of ten years! service, and that he had received no KGB award, decoration, or commendation for his operational work.Top Secret
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 357]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)## ConclusionNOSENKO's claims to having been the recipient of various awards for KGB service are inextricably linked with his claimed operational successes, his rank, and GRIBANOV'S patronage, on all of which topics he had made virtually categoric retractions.## NOSENKO'S SourcingNOSENKO cited four general sources for KGB operations he has related, and in all four there have been inconsistencies, contradictions, and retractions. Three of these categories, each with an example typifying the difficulty of jüdging the validity of his sourcing, are personal participation (W.E. 06 JOHNSON, p. 268) cases learned in the course of specific Obofficial duties (*SHUBIN*), p. 296), and information obtained informally from KGB colleagues (Sgt. Robert Lee JOHNSON, p. 24). The fourth category of sourcing relates to the notes of KGB operations which he brought to CIA in Geneva in 1964.Regarding the notes, NOSENKO said he collected them at various opportunities in order to bring them to CIA. He kept them in a wall safe in the office which he occupied as Deputy Chief of the Seventh Department. [In this connection, NOSENKO admitted that not all offices had such wall safes, and not all offices of Deputy Chiefs of Departments, but asserted that his did.] Most of the notes are in NOSENKO's handwriting. Those that are not include the only copy of a typed top secret summary report from one of the Seventh Department section chiefs, a similar handwritten report by another Seventh Department officer, and a carbon copy of a KGB document which summarized the recruitment of an Austrian businessman. NOSENKO said he copied the date for the remaining notes from such sources as the "Special File", which was held ordinarily by the Seventh Department Chief. According to NOSENKO, he obtained access to it for various
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 358]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)reasons from time to time. The "Special File" contained no true names, however, and NOSENKO said he obtained such true names as were included in his notes by asking various case officers for them. Questioned on case after case which appeared in his notes, NOSENKO insisted that he had written everything he could learn, and could add nothing more.ConclusionNOSENKO's sourcing for many of the events he has related is not credible.## NOSENKO's KGB RankWhen he first met with CIA in Geneva in 1962, NOSENKO identified himself as a KGB officer holding the rank of major. He said at that time that he had served the requisite time in grade and expected to be promoted shortly to the rank of lieutenant colonel. On defecting in 1964 NOSENKO said that he was a lieutenant colonel. In the course of his career as he initially described it, his military rank pro- motions had generally parallelled his assumption of successively greater supervisory responsibilities, culminating in his becoming Deputy Chief of the Seventh Department. Under interrogation, however, questioning about his rank has evoked a series of inconsistent and contradictory state- ments leading to his eventual assertion that he had never advanced beyond the rank of captain. The matter of NOSENKO'S statements about his rank is significant with respect to his general credibility, to the fact that he brought to Geneva in 1964 a KGB document identifying him as a lieutenant colonel, and to the paradox that as a company grade officer he held supervisory positions in which KGB officers of significantly senior rank were his subordinates.
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 359]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)In June 1962 NOSENKO volunteered that he was then a major, but that he would soon be promoted to lieutenant colonel.In 1964, in Frankfurt awaiting transportation to the United States, NOSENKO reviewed and approved a biographic statement which included the claim that he had been a senior lieutenant in the American Embassy Section from 1952 (sic) until 1955, that he was promoted to captain in 1956, to major in 1959, and to lieutenant colonel in November 1963.In the April 1964 interrogations NOSENKO claimed that at the end of 1953 or the beginning of 1954 [not in 1952] he was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant. When it was pointed out to him that that was less than a year after he entered the KGB, he asserted that his Naval RU service was taken into consideration.Asked in June 1964 to list his promotions, chronologically, NOSENKO asserted that he became a senior lieutenant in 1953, in 1956 a captain, in 1959 a major and, in October [in Geneva, just afterwards, he said November] 1963, he was advised by Personnel that he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and afterwards was personally congratulated by General GRIBANOV. NOSENKO did not recall the month of his earlier promotions.Comment: KGB defectors have commented that it would be unusual for a KGB officer not to recall his date of rank, from which he computes his seniority and time in grade towards his next promotion.In January 1965, while discussing his role as case officer for Embassy Security Officer John ABIDIAN, NOSENKO volunteered out of context that he had never been a major nor was he promoted to captain in 1956, as he had claimed earlier. He explained that he became eligible for captain in 1956, but his promotion was withheld as punishment because he had obtained treatment for a venereal disease under an alias,
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 360]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)with the use of KGB operational documents. He stated that thus he was a senior lieutenant still in 1959, and although GRIBANOV had promised him that he would be promoted directly to major at that time, an administrative error was made in the personnel office, and he was just promoted to captain. Instead of rectifying the mistake, NOSENKO said, GRIBANOV persuaded him to remain a captain until (if a major) in 1963 he became eligible for promotion to lieutenant colonel. In October 1963, he concluded, he was promoted directly to the rank of lieutenant colonel; he was never a major, and he had served as senior lieutenant from 1953 to 1959, and a captain from 1959 to 1963.Comment: According to this chronology, NOSENKO was merely a captain when he claimed to have been Deputy Chief of the American Embassy Section, and still a captain for much of the time that he was Deputy Chief of the Seventh Department.In August 1965 interrogations NOSENKO still claimed that he was proposed for advancement to captain in 1956, but he stated that he was not promoted because of shortcomings in his work. [He earlier had claimed he was being punished for misuse of operational documents.] In response to his interrogator's question, NOSENKO replied that he had claimed earlier in 1962 and 1964 to have been a major because he thought the truth would not have been believed.In a voluntary statement written in April 1966, NOSENKO alleged that he had been promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant in 1956 [he earlier. claimed 1953], to captain in December 1959 [he could not previously remember the month] and that at the end of 1963 he was recommended for the rank of major. Continuing, NOSENKO said he had never held the rank of lieutenant colonel, and the travel order [which he brought to Geneva in 1964] indicating his rank as lieutenant colonel, was filled out erroneously.352Top SecretTS No. 197124Copy
[104-10150-10136.pdf — page 361]
# Top Secret(OTHER ASPECTS OF NOSENKO'S KGB CAREER)NOSENKO said in October 1966 interrogations that he had lied when he had claimed in 1964 to be a lieutenant colonel, that actually he had been but a captain. Asked why he had claimed in 1962 that he had been a major, NOSENKO denied that he had ever even mentioned his rank to CIA in 1962.ConclusionNOSENKO has stated that he became a senior lieutenant in the KGB in 1952, April 1953, 1954, or 1956. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1956 or September/October/December 1959; a major in December 1958 or 1959; and a lieutenant colonel in October/November 1963. He brought to Geneva in 1964 an official KGB document dated November 1963 identifying him as a KGB lieutenant colonel. In retracting his claim that he was ever a major or lieutenant colonel, NOSENKO asserts that nevertheless as a captain, he held the position of First Deputy Chief of the Seventh Department.NOSENKO's contradictions and retractions with respect to his KGB rank parallel and are apparently related to his contradicted and retracted claims regarding Naval RU service, date of entry to the KGB, KGB assignments and positions held, and in short, to the totality of his claims regarding KGB service, few of which are credible.