By Charles Meeking 

A veteran Australian journalist, Mr. 

Meeking has contributed several articles,. 

to this newspaper. 

ANB~RRA-Slowly but relentlessly, 

the evidence given to the Royal 

Commission on Espionage in Australia 

is building up, in jig-saw fashion, the pic· 

ture of Russian spying here since World 

War II and of MVD methods in general 

use in non-Communist ~ountries. It is 

still incomplete, because the Commission 

will sit for another two ·or three months, 

but the broad outline is clear. 

Pieces of the jig-saw already in place 

show how agents were recruited and in· 

formers were paid, the activities of Red 

Army officers, the spying by Tass journalists, the threatening visits to Russian 

immigrants settled in Australia. 

The Commission's proceedings, although mostly open to the press, are not 

televised, photographed or broadca&t. 

Consequently, many Australians still 

seem rather unimpressed with the extent and significance of the disclosures. 

Australia ha!f never had a political assassination, and so there was no stir even 

when it was stated that Russia had a directorate for training saboteurs for 

foreign duty-one of their tasks being to 

'kill leaders of anti-Soviet organizations 

abroad. 

Actual Leaks Are Few 

BUT THE EVIDENCE is being as· 

sessed elsewhere. In Djakarta, 

capital of Indonesia, an Indonesian official recently t(lld me, "We're watching 

closely Petrov's,~vidence on the activities 

of the Rus~.embassy people in Australia. Russla 15' about to establish an 

embassy herec and Communist China has 

one here alre~·."· • There has been little indication 

so far of mui;:h actual leakage of. military or atomic secrets or confidential 

documents, but the system for getting 

them was in full operation, even if it 

proved inefficient in some aspects. _ 

Evidence has been given mainly by 

the two former emplo;y-es of th~. Russian 

Embassy who sought sanctuary here several months ago, and more has yet to be 

given. 

Vladimir Petrov, unknown to his embassy colleagues, was a highly paid agent 

of the MVD, and bis wife, Evdokia 

Alexeevna Petrova,, was a trusted code 

REF ID:A484794 

clerk. They have produced documents 

and have described the intricacies of the 

Russian espionage abroad. 

Some of Petrov's information, not concerning Australia but described as "im· 

portant and interesting ... to the whole 

free world," will not be given to the Commission but has been sent elsewhere. 

Petrov gave a detailed outline on MVD 

(fo;-merly the' NKVD) organization, especially the information committee, which 

was concerned chiefly with f o r e i g n 

political policies. 

Functions of Agencies , 

THE MVD was organized into seven 

.I:'. directorates, Petrov said. The first 

dealt with Anglo-American · countries. 

Headed by a former counselor of the Russian Embassy in London, he c.Ontinued, 

it "had not been working recently." The 

second and third dealt respectively with 

the European continent and the Middle 

and Far East. 

The function of the four~h directorate 

was to arrange entry into foreign countries of trained agents, and the fifth 

collated information and controlled all 

MVD agents and secret organizations 

inside Russia. 

Atomic research espionage, technical 

advances and new inventions, such as 

VLADIMIR PETROV • . • at Royal Commissio' hearing. 

guided missiles, was the responsibility 

of the sixth directorate in MVD, while 

the seventh served to safeguard high 

government and Communist Party leaders in Russia. 

Petrov was also the chief in Australia 

of the MGB (Russian Ministry of State 

Security), which he said was first consolidated in 1948. One of his tasks in 

this capacity had been to watch embassy 

employes and Russian immigrants in 

Australia. 

The Russian head of the section concerned with emigrants, especially White 

Russian "traitors," had been a Colonel 

Gukasov, Petrov said, but as he had been 

a friend cif Beria, "something may have 

happened to him since 1951." 

The Soviet, he stat,ed, planted agents 

among Russian emigrants to Australia 

and to other countries. This had helped 

in recruiting agents among those who 

had been anti-Communist but later 

changed their minds. One former Russian is still being questioned by the Commission on his alleged activities after he 

had been contacted by Petrov. 

Newsmeii lmplicaied 

PETROV TESTIFIED that Tass news agency men were ordered to represent themselves as "ordinary journalists," to mix with journalists in Canberra 

. : and elsewhere (the parliamentary press 

g'allery has been mentioned frequently 

during the hearings), and to glean information that might be of use to the Soviet Union. 

The Commission's chairman, Mr. Justice Owen, asked Petrov whether it was 

the usual practice for Tass men in 

foreign countries to be MVD officers. 

Petrov replied, "Yes. If a Tass man is 

not a cadre worker, he is invariably 

called in to do that type of work." He 

said Tass men "in every country" were 

members of the MVD. 

It was disclosed that the last Tass reporter in Australia (who left with the 

embassy staff) had received and obeyed 

specific instructions in 1952. 

The instructions received by Petrov 

were: "Advise Antonov (the Tass man) 

to continue to extend his contacts in the 

first place among political correspondents and among Members of Parliament, 

ignoring any embarrassment through 

technical difficulties in the spoken 

language." 

Another letter from Moscow mentioned the names of many correspondents 

in the press gallery, adding that some of 

the information, said to have been provided by Fergan O'Sullivan, suggested 

that two of them were connected with 

Australian counterintelligence. 

O'Sullivan until recently was press 

secretary to the opposition leader, Dr. 

H. V. Evatt. He has admitted that, while 

he was a press gallery reporter in 1951, 

he wrote for a member of the Russian 

Embassy staff a document purporting 

to describe the beliefs, interests and behavior of his colleagues. Naturally, 

Moscow found O'Sullivan in l).is post 

with Dr. Evatt a person worth cultivating. 

In Case of War 

THERE also has been considerable 

evidence on the · work of GRU 

(Russian military intelligence). There 

were two GRU men in the Russian Embassy in Canberra while Petrov was 

tl'.lere, but they had their own private 

code, to which he hadn't the key. Under close questioning, Petrov said the 

men had an easy time. He did not know 

if they were experts on guided missiles, 

or if they had even visited South Australia (where the Woomera rocket 

range is situated). 

Petrov said that, under his own guidance, the Second Secretary of the embassy, F. V. Kislitsin, had planned "an 

illegal apparatus to operate in time of 

war." Continual instructions were received from Moscow by letter and cable. 

A Moscow letter in 1952 referred to 

'"an inevitable war in the near future." 

The .full instructions outlined general 

procedures in recruiting and dealing with 

agents. It said in part: 

"In the event of extraordinary circumstances, each agent should have con· 

crete .tasks allotted in advance ..• However, the cadre workers of the MVD section should carry out this work gradqally, and in such a manner that, when 

these or other questions are discussed 

with agents, no panic should spread 

among them, and so that they should not 

interpret our preparations as a sign of 

inevitable war in the near future." 

Evatt's Future at Stake 

MOSCOW CONTINUED to instruct 

up to the last. After Petrov had 

sought asylum, and while his wife was 

still in the Russian Embassy's custody, 

she was told how to reply to a letter 

Tearful Mrs. 'Vladimir Petrov, minus one shoe, was dragged by Ruuiar& 

guards to plane for Moscow in Sydney. Australian officials rescued her 11 

few minutes later. 

from him. The Ambassador told her 

she was to reply: "I cannot meet you 

because I am afraid of falling into a 

trap." 

Dr. Evatt's personal intervention in 

the inquiry has made the whole matter 

a still larger lump of political dynamite. 

Three members of his own staff were 

mentioned in the documents, and his appearance before the Commission must 

have a major impact on his own future 

as leader of the Labor Party and of the 

opposition in Parliament . 

It may consolidate his position, wea}f 

ened in his Labor Party and in publil 

· esteem by the recent electoral defea, 

on the plea that "he stuck to his men. 

But it is more likely to .strengthen Lib 

eral Party claims that, although DJ! 

Evatt himself is not a Communist, hJI 

association with Communist causes h• 

been extensive and frequent. 

The Labor Party may not be able ~ 

afford another attack on this expose 

flank, and. it may take action again 

Dr. Evatt accordingly.