Pitovranov, Yevgeny Petrovich

(1915–1999)

   A KGB\ officer whose experience spanned the years of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev, Pitovranov had a career with a series of sharp turns. In 1938 he was drafted out of the Communist Party higher school into the security service. Due to the purge of thousands of officers, his promotion was rapid, and within five years he was a major general involved in internal security and counterintelligence, first in Russia and then in Uzbekistan.

   In 1951 Pitovranov’s career further accelerated and he became chief of counterintelligence. But in 1952, as part of Stalin’s rolling purge of the MGB, he was arrested. He was quickly released from jail, however, and resumed his career as chief of foreign intelligence. He was apparently seen as too junior for this position and was transferred to Berlin as chief of the KGB in East Germany. He was notably successful in rebuilding the security service’s operations in Berlin. He later served as KGB rezident in China, and then as head of the KGB’s training school with the rank of lieutenant general. Following his retirement from the KGB, Pitovranov became the first chair of the Chamber of Commerce.