Émigrés

   The initial priority for the Cheka’s foreign intelligence component was to neutralize the threat from émigré “White” organizations. Initially, rezidenturas were ordered to organize “White Lines,” and concentrate on the émigré target. Operations such as the Syndicate and the Trust lured émigrés back into the country so they could be jailed or executed. In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet foreign intelligence penetrated Russian and Ukrainian émigré organizations and assassinated their leaders with impunity. For example, in 1930 and 1936 the NKVD kidnapped and murdered two of the leaders of the White Russian movement in Paris. Moscow also recruited agents in communities from Berlin to Shanghai to report on the threat of émigré political movements.

   Moscow also recruited émigrés for sources of foreign intelligence. Efforts were made to find émigrés who had access to their host countries’ policies and leaders. During World War II, agents such as Olga Chekhova were seen as important sources on foreign politics and as potential assassins. In the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, émigrés became important agents of NKVD and GRU rezidenturas in the collection of scientific and technical intelligence. After the war, KGB and GRU case officers continued to target émigrés, especially those in the Ukrainian and Baltic communities.