Back in 1984, I drew the attention of Kurochkin to the “specific character” of the activity of PD ITR, and he promised to talk with Grigory Patrushev, who was then the director of GOSNIIOKhT. I wanted my knowledge and experience to be used for creating an experimental basis for that service. However, our conversation achieved nothing, although real changes were still possible at that time.
The conceited Sorochkin had wormed his way into Patrushev’s confidence, and he virtually became his main advisor on many important issues. Working with the new Deputy Director in charge of the Security Regime, Sorochkin managed to get the director to hold back some departmental specialists. Soon Sorochkin became the head of one of the key subdivisions of the institute – the Scientific and Technical Department (NTO). However, when Sorochkin started plotting against First Deputy Director Guskov, he obviously didn’t properly calculate his own power.
According to an administrative provision on executive personnel, the position of the head of a department is competitive and should be approved by secret voting at the Science Council of the institute. Usually this procedure is a simple formality, because few people dared to vote against him when the director of the institute recommended someone for a position. However, there are always exceptions in life. In fact, everything worked in an atypical manner at that time. In the end Sorochkin became an ignominious failure and was not approved for the position. After that, he decided not to push his luck any further, and he quickly retired from the institute.
After that, Sergei Stroganov, an elderly retired colonel, was appointed the chief of the PD ITR Department. By that time this service had acquired the status of a department. Before that, Stroganov had worked at the Ministry of Chemical Industry. He brought three more people with him, who were also retired military men, who had worked in the technical subdivisions of the KGB. This event coincided with the replacement of Duka, the Director of the Security Regime Department, by Aleksander Martynov, a young KGB major, who had graduated from the Mendeleev Chemical and Technological Institute and had been assigned to GOSNIIOKhT. However, the future KGB officer didn’t stay long there. Te was sent to study at the KGB Academy, becoming a Chekist officially.
This was the situation at the institute when an idea occurred to me… to become head of the PD ITR Department, myself. I went with my idea to Nikolai Maslov, a friend of mine, who was head of the Planning and Economic Department at the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Mineral Fertilizers. For a long time, he had worked at different positions in the leadership of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and at one point he had been the deputy chief of their Main Administration “Soyuzorgsynthesis”, which GOSNIIOKhT was a subsidiary of. That is why he knew the industry and the work of our institute reasonably well. I met Nikolai on holidays, along with some of our other colleagues, including Aleksander Ivanov. Later Ivanov started working in a section of the Chemistry Department at the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U., in charge of the military-chemical complex. When General Anatoly Kuntsevich was dismissed in 1994 in his capacity as the Chairman of Russia’s Committee for Problems of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions which answered to the president of Russia, Ivanov followed him a year later as the new chairman of that committee.
Nikolai Maslov liked my idea, and he immediately called Ivanov on a high-frequency communication channel. Ivanov quickly understood what we wanted and promised to talk it over with Victor Petrunin, Director of GOSNIIOKhT. This meant that the question was settled. A few days later, Petrunin called me and said that he had decided to appoint me to a very important position, as the head of the Foreign Technical Counterintelligence Department. He added that the formal agreement of the Ministry of Chemical Industry was required, and he hoped that it would succeed without any problems.
I felt that Guskov and Martynov, Deputy Director of the Department of the Security Regime, were not happy with the news about my appointment. Still KGB Major Martynov assured me that he would help out and give me the necessary support.
The next day, I was called to Ministry of Chemical Industry. It turned out that PD ITR answered to the Third Administration of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, in which Mikhael Milyutin, a KGB Lieutenant General, was the director. I was introduced to him by Ivan Tkachenko, head of the PD ITR Department, and a former commander of the division that served at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan.
The KGB general turned out to be a gray, slightly hunched elderly man with a slightly swarthy face imprinted with certain traces of intelligence. He was dressed in civilian clothes, and he seemed to be surrounded by an atmosphere of disappointment which was heightened by the backdrop of his huge gloomy office. There were models of ships, tanks, and some other armaments on one of the tables. These were gifts, and each model had an engraved silver plate.
The general asked me to sit down, and he sat opposite me, asking in a friendly way, “How are you feeling?” I said that I would be much better if I could find support for my plans for providing the department with the modern scientific equipment which I considered necessary for implementing the task at hand.
I briefly stated my understanding of our work, and the general answered that Tkachenko and Krasheninnikov would help me out. When we parted, General Milyutin asked me not to hesitate to contact him directly if I encountered any difficulties.
After this, I met Victor Krasheninnikov, a handsome young man with gray hair and a kind face, which contrasted with his responsibilities. He was the deputy head of the Third Administration, but he in turn answered to another deputy head of the same department, Elena Batova, a woman in her late 50s.
The amiable intelligent manner of Victor Ivanovich won people over, and it was difficult to imagine that he could hurt other people or let someone down. I liked him at once, and this impression lasted for a long time – I was never mistaken about Krasheninnikov. I think that he was a rare exception among the officials of such an odious department. To the end of my days on the job, I couldn’t imagine what his responsibilities were. Aside from monitoring the PD ITR at the ministry, he also arranged for the development of different industrial exhibitions. However, as far as I was concerned, his most important responsibility was connected with processing applications for imported equipment.
Scientific research institutes could buy new foreign scientific equipment, for the purpose of evaluating it. This was necessary so that recommendations could be made for its purchase on a large scale. A pretty woman collected these applications at the institutes, discussed them with Krasheninnikov, and decided whether or not they could be submitted for approval at the next meeting of the Military Industrial Commission (VPK) at the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.
Krasheninnikov was shrewd enough to understand my major objective in my new position. I was primarily interested in scientific activity, and the PD ITR was my second priority. Still, he did everything he could to support my plans.
The Ministry of Chemical Industry, along with the employees from the PD ITR Department, elaborated the one-year plan as well as the long-term plans. These plans included the evaluation of the institutions involved in the development of the “Foliant” project, from the standpoint of their vulnerability to foreign technical intelligence. The next step was the development of a plan to fix the weaknesses in the system. In order to do this, it was necessary to provide the PD ITR Department with a technical basis, and I knew that it was useless to rely on other GOSNIIOKhT departments in that area. Krasheninnikov liked the logic behind my reasoning and he promised to help.