14-00000 . 13-15 March 1953. In 1966, however, in a written s° he entered the: KGB in March 1953 .and he acknowledgec ¢t: ‘by the KGB. entry commission when he first applied in <i> one year, since his interrogators would not have believ: Fop Secret (KGB ENTRY) - | | Comment: NOSENKO's explanation takes no account <i => ~ -€act that he had already said (in 1962) tz2ar he joined the KGB in March 1953. KGB defectors describe the period irmeciat following Stalin's death in the KGB as 7"= ct extensive reorganization and uncertainty x which new candidates were not being accéertec. | Other evidence of the improbability of * entering the KGB in March 1953 is discuss== below. , j " WOSENKO repeated during 1965 interrogations the ¢caz he said he entered the KGB on 2 April 1953, but a weex in another signed statement, he said it was. the "“miccile March 1953". .. Oe In his final interrogation in October 1966 NOSENEO he had lied, and had known.at the time he was lying, when he had said he joined in 1952. Asked by his interregaéicrs _.why he. had lied, NOSENKO said, ‘phere was no sense.” He went on to explain that because he was only an averace student and a heavy drinker, he had been found unsuiterlis ay he. had tried to conceal this by adjusting his account ou a ty fee yt ea that he was eventually accepted by the KGB after an earlier rejection. | | So | The Role of General Bogdan -Zakizrovich KOBULOV In all of his accounts NOSENKO has attributed tc Ge s-eral KOBULOV's initiative and intervention his entry to <7 3GB.. “In. the account which he volunteered in. Geneva to CIA in 1962, NOSENKO said KOBULOV was a friend of the elder NCSENKO whom he met when the KGB General "dropped by" the NlS=N: dacha outside of Moscow, and KOBULOV at the time 1953") was First Deputy to Beriya, the Minister 0 theo 64 TS No. 197124 6001334 | Top Secret Copy
‘Top Secret . (KGB ENTRY) ., then-MVD,.  NOSENKO said that when KOBULOV learned of NOSENKO' ‘s ... +» dissatisfaction with the Naval > RU, KOBULOV encouraged him’ cic to. enter. counterintelligence. and invited him to visit the “o: General's office. : NOSENKO said he did not, but nevertheless. oa. ‘yeceived a wéek later a telephone call from the KGB Personnel. Office asking him to appear at the secretariat of General | _ KOBULOV and informing him that General KOBULOV. had» already o) arranged: for a _ building: pass. : re “NOSENKO gave. a ‘aifferent, ‘somewhat more detailed. account ae April 1964. In this ‘version, he first met KOBULOV, a _?. friend of the NOSENKO family, in February 1953. ~“ NOSENKO said ' KOBULOV had visited. his.father in the latter's office, and “i. . that evening ‘the: elder -NOSENKO ‘brought him to the NOSENKO oe . G@acha to spend the weekend... [NOSENKO had .just.before. been .. informed. by his interrogators that. KOBULOV was at that time” . posted in Germany ;. not in’ Moscow. ]. According | to NOSENKO,,... ‘KOBULOV was in Moscow on a short. visit from Germany. My father. invited-.him to. spend Saturday night and Sunday. -On! Sunday’ we were playing billiards and KOBULOV asked me .what- --I.was doing, and I told him I was at the disposal of: the - “Jy: (Naval RU)..Personnel. Department : and. that’ I didn't. want. to. . “. -return. to .the Baltic." . NOSENKO. said that KOBULOV. offered “to call the ‘KGB ‘Personnel’ Office and have them.""look ”* o =» NOSENKO. over" , and. NOSENKO assented, after which he twice” “-wisited the: Personnel. Office where he filed completed forms.: - + ‘NOSENKO asserted that. KOBULOV. did not forget, because “just - “. aS soon as STALIN. died, -KOBULOV immediately returned from - "Germany" after being. ' ‘summoned by Beriya or someone",.-and:: “on “maybe the 10th of :March" NOSENKO received a call. from es “) KOBULOV "s assistant. NOSENKO claimed he reported to KOBULOV's: * office; and although he waited two hours to see the. General,” .. .. the. latter was busy elsewhere. Instead: of seeing KOBULOV, «°° however, NOSENKO said he was finally. taken to the office: .° -. Of Second:Chie£ Diréctorate Deputy Chief: SHUBNYAKOV,.who ~~~ _ » assigned him. forthwith: to: ‘the _ Embassy Section of the American | _ ‘Department... os i . a = “In: April 1964 NOSENKO introduced a new variant. He. said. --that he met KOBULOV while. accompanying his parents on a’. -” visit in. January to KOBULOV's dacha [NOSENKO had’ previously . graphically described KOBULOV'S weekend visit at the elder “": NOSENKO's], KOBULOV intervened in- his behalf, and he was Called to the KGB Personnel Office to be interviewed and.to 6. 600335. ce TS No. 197124 _ Top Secret ae Copy 10
. Top Secret {KGB ENTRY) receive necessary forms. NOSENKO stated that he heard notning further until after Stalin's funeral, wnen he was summoned to KOBULOV's office and afterwards assigned to the Second Chief Directorate. During the July 1965 interrogations NOSENKO retracted his earlier claim that KOBULOV and his father had been close personal friends. He stated that his father's relationship with KOBULOV was not personal, and that KOBULOV had never visited the NOSENKOs. : In a biographic: statement written in April 1966, NOSENKO “said that he had met KOBULOV but twice, once on l January 1953 at the latter's dacha, and the second and last time in the elder NOSENKO's office as NOSENKO's father and KOBULOV were departing. to attend Stalin's funeral. On that latter - occasion, NOSENKO claimed, KOBULOV promised to concern him- Self with NOSENKO's entry into the KGB and it was several days later that NOSENKO was summoned to KOBULOV's office‘ oo and told ne was appointed to the KGB. _. Comment: General Bogdan Zakharovich KOBULOV was a career 7 _ security official, but from the immediate’ post- War period until after Stalin's death he was not assigned to KGB Headquarters. As of 1952, -he was posted to Germany with the Chief ; . Directorate of Soviet Properties Abroad, then me directly subordinate not to the MVD but to the Council of Ministers and latterly to the — ‘Ministry of Foreign Trade. Until he returned from Germany in March 1953 to assume the position of Beriya's deputy, he had no office in KGB Headquarters. KOBULOV was arrested with Beriya in June 1953, and also later executed. In light of the foregoing, it is improbable that KOBULOV was instrumental in NOSENKO's appointment to the KGB at the times NOSENKO_ ' claimed. If KOBULOV ever interceded in NOSENKO's behalf, it is probable that NOSENKO would later have been purged after KOBULOV's 66 6001336 .- - ‘TS No. 197124 | Top Secret Copy —____
Top Secret ' ; | and Beriya's arrest and execution. NOSENKO's © “eventual retraction of. his assertion that his: ~: ny 0 father and. KOBULOV were intimate acquaintances So oS. sss makes it the more unlikely that KOBULOV played: — Comment: . (Continued)... — . any role at any time in NOSENKO's appointment - te -:) to the KGB. 0 rare ‘Eligibility. _ Throughout: the various versions. NOSENKO has provided” ms about. his entry to the KGB, he has emphasized how influen-":- “tial was his father's prominent: position’ in the Soviet 99° °° ‘Government... a | : In the period 1953-1954, -during which NOSENKO- Claimed. he entered the KGB,.it.was. KGB poli¢gy..2. to avoid recruiting the children of senior: ::° Soviet officials... ’ . NOSENKO asserts’ that he was rejected for KGB appointment: _ oe “upon graduation: from ‘the Institute’ of International Relations... © + 8 _.RU, NOSENKO"“acknowledges that he was no more “eligible in 1953. for KGB. appointment than he G001337 67. oo | TS. No. 197124. _— ‘TopSecret. Copy 10
Top Secret (KGB ENTRY) NOSENKO states that in March 1953 he was already twenty- five and a half years old, a member of only the Komsomol, and that he had not been recommended for Party membership. He further claimed that on entry to the KGB he became secretary of the Second Chief Directorate Komsomol organi- zation. Comment: Eligibility for Party membership, if not membership itself, is a requisite for KGB appointment. By Komsomol statutes,of that time, twenty-five was at that time the maximum age. Thus, at the time of NOSENKO's claimed KGB appointment, he was within six months of being dropped by the Komsomol as well as still ‘lungqualified for Party membership. He could not. have been. secretary of the Second Chief... Directorate Komsomol organization, as discussed - on Pe 338. * NOSENKO has referred ‘Erequently to having contractéed “tuberculosis for’ which he was periodically hospitalized. Comment: According to KGB defectors familiar with the. a _ Standards -in- force at the time, no candidate ‘was accepted who had ever had tuberculosis. KGB Processing for Entry NOSENKO has stated (in chronological order) that at his initial. interview with a KGB personnel, it was not necessary for him to complete any forms or questionnaires since the KGB°had his Naval RU file; that he was told that the KGB would request the Naval RU file and meanwhile he was given three copies of a four to six-page biographic form to complete at home; and (at his last interrogation in 1966) that he 68 60013 7 , TS No. 197124 38 Top Secret Copy