[104-10211-10001.pdf — page 82]
683. 3. Entry into the KGBa. EligibilityThe previous section discussed NOSENKO's eligibility for admission to the naval GRU and concluded with the remark that, on the basis of what NOSENKO has told CIA about his earlier life, he could not have been accepted for service in Naval Intelligence. According to information available to CIA from several knowledgeable sources, the KGB has more stringent entry requirements than any other Soviet organization. The candidate's family background, personal conduct. and Party or Komsomol record must be impeccable. NOSENKO Would have American Intelligence believe that in his case the KGB--specifically the officers responsible for signing their names to the approval--accepted a person whose record showed (as noted on pages 679-680 above) desertion from the armed forces, self-inflicted wound in wartime, drunkenness, venereal disease, previous marriage to the daughter of a state criminal, a bad academic record including failure of a course in Marxism-Leninism, and a prior rejection by the KGB itself. The only change since the carlier rejection had been, according to NOSENKO, two years of undistinguished military service in the Naval GRU.Moreover, during this naval duty NOSENKO said he had contracted tuberculosis, for which he was still under treatment at the time he entered the State Security Service. NOSENKO has indicated on separate occasions that his illness was a matter of record with the GRU, and that the reason he did not have to take a physical examination for entry into the KGB was the availability of GRU records. According to DERYABIN, however, KGB regulations at that time would have precluded admission to KGB ranks if there was a recent history of tuberculosis even though already arrested.b. Date of EntryNOSENKO has given a variety of dates for his entry on duty with the KGB and has provided several reasons for his changes of story (Pages 86-89). During his first meeting with CIA, when NOSENKO gave a brief personal and professional autobiography, he said that he had joined the KGB ir. February or March 1953. In 1964, however, first while still attached to the Soviet Disarmament Delegation and later when reviewing and signing a biographic history prepared by CIA on the basis of his own account, NOSENKO set this date back a year, to early 1952. During the interrogations of April 1964, after naming several other dates, NOSENKO returned to the original one, March 1953, and has remained with this version since that time. NOSENKO has given two different reasons for this change of dates (which, he said in October 1966, was conscious deception). In the April 1964 interrogations, he explained that he had failed his examination in Marxism-Leninism at the Institute of International Affairs, which forced him to take all his exams over again and delayed his career: This was "unpleasant," NOSENKO said, and he was attempting to conceal it from CIA. In the October 1956 interrogations, NOSENKO gave a new and different reason. He described how he had been rejected for employment by State Security while at the Institute and was trying to cover up for this because he thought CIA would not believe that he had first been rejected and then, later, accepted by the KGB.NOSENKO's change of story took place in 1964 while still in the relatively relaxed circumstances of an operational meeting in Geneva; he came back to his original account only during the April 1964 interrogations. NOSENKO's explanations of why he revised the story have been inconsistent and have forced him into