The Soviet defective testifies

The US National Archive published on its website a large amount of previously secret documents of the CIA and the FBI related to the murder of President Kennedy. The documents were subject to declassification no later than 25 years after the entry into force of the relevant law adopted in 1992. After this period, the US president must allow publication or ban it in the interests of national security. The law takes him six months to make a decision.

The 25-year term ends on October 26 this year, but neither the archive nor President Trump began to wait for this date.

The attempt on John Kennedy occurred on November 22, 1963 in Dallas. Li Harvey Oswald shot the president-a 24-year-old US citizen with a confused biography and left convictions. In October 1959, Oswald arrived on a tourist visa to the Soviet Union and asked for political asylum. He lived in Minsk for a year and a half, married, his daughter was born. And yet, in May 1961, Oswald asked back to the United States. On the second day after the attempt and arrest, Oswald was killed by the owner of the night club Jack Ruby, who declared his motives that he wanted to save the president’s widow of the need to testify in the trial.

The collection, published by the National Archive, includes 3810 storage units, including 17 audio files. A significant part of this array is the documents related to Yuri Nosenko , an officer of the KGB, who in February 1964 became a default. Presumably, these materials are now carefully studied in the relevant Russian departments. Nosenko told the CIA employees that Lee Harvey Oswald in the Soviet Union was directly related to the stay of Lee. This was the first certificate of the Soviet period of Oswald's life received by the American authorities. But this testimony was not believed.

Major of the Second Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR (counterintelligence) Yuri Nosenko proposed his cooperation between the CIA in June 1962 in Geneva, where he was part of the Soviet delegation at the International Conference on Control of Arms. The person who accepted him in a conspiratorial apartment, an employee of the Soviet department of the CIA Tennent Baigie, writes in the book "Spy Wars" that Nosenko explained his decision with embezzlement of state -owned funds. It was about an insignificant amount of $ 250 for the CIA.

In the first conversation, Nosenko demonstrated his awareness. At the same time, he immediately stated that although he was disappointed in the Soviet system, he has no intention to stay in the West: he loves his wife and two daughters and does not represent his life without them. However, in January 1964, he again arrived in Geneva and stated that he was being watched, so this time he decided not to return. An important, if not the main role in the fate of Nosenko was played by his message that he personally communicated with Lee Harvey Oswald in Moscow and saw his business.

Conversations with CIA employees in Geneva are presented in the collection in the form of audio recordings. Here is an excerpt in which Yuri Nosenko is asked about the reasons forcing him to become a defector, and about whether he should run so hastily. Questions are asked by the head of the Soviet department of the CIA, who specially flew to Geneva from Washington, David Murphy. Nosenko he introduced himself as Charles, and the pseudonym Nosenko - George. Murphy already has the sanction of the director of the Richard Helms department to move Nosenko to the United States. Employees of the Soviet department Tennent Bagly and George Kizevalter (the latter as a translator) participate in the conversation. All three have Russian, but Murphy prefers to speak English.

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Conversation of CIA employees with Yuri Nosenko

Murphy. There are two questions. The first applies to your transition to us. I am authorized by Mr. Helms to welcome you to <inextricably>, and he is extremely interested in your plans to promote our operations. He especially asked me to touch this issue deeper - how we will work now. And the second topic is the choice of time that we have not yet discussed. Mr. Helms asked me two or three questions that I could not answer and which I would like to clarify.

Nosenko. Please, I'm ready.

Murphy. For example, he asked me: "Why does George go to our side?" And I explained to him by George to the Soviet regime. He said: "Fine, he can do it now, but how fundament is the moment?" He perfectly understands your desire, but wants to know if a delay is possible. The information that George gives us is of great importance for the security of the United States.

Nosenko. I myself understand this, because I worked in the KGB.

Murphy. Well, this is what he wants to know: are we sure that the reasons that prompt George to escape right now are so good that he cannot stay in any way?

Nosenko. Transfer exactly what I will say. By the way, I expected this. I knew and foresaw this. I did not say this, but I foresaw this reaction. I foresaw this reaction in advance, even before the start of the conversation! I foresaw! Maybe I myself understand where it is more interesting and how interesting. <Negro -Gozhnikh.> I must directly say: I, perhaps, would also behave, if the situation was similar, but I would have led it, a scout or counterintelligence would come to me. And before Charles left I knew that this would be one of the questions. This is the main question, I expected him. But I thought that Charles would explain to him in detail what I said, that he would say what exactly led me and why right now.

Murphy. Well, I told him that after George returned, the possibility of leaving to the West may no longer introduce himself, so George wants to take the opportunity. This is right?

Nosenko. Right. Because then I will not go to the west. Then, I had enough time since our last meeting here, in Geneva, weigh everything and think over everything.

Murphy. Hence the question: did you really weigh everything before taking this irreversible step?

Nosenko. I am a little incomprehensible. When we cooperate on these matters, then everything is open and understandable. All I know, I say. And here there is some kind of ornecks. That is, what do I mean? The obscenity - so, the offender, as if we are diplomats at the committee of eighteen are sitting on the issue ( committee 18 of disarmament. It was in the work of this body that Nosenko participated in Geneva. - V.A. ).

Murphy. I do not want to enter the details of our long and <illegible.> Conversations with Mr. Helms. I don’t think I should tell George that I am on his side. Without a doubt, the transition can occur at least today. But complete clarity is needed, because I ask this question.

Nosenko. I don't know what other assurances are needed. The only thing I would like to know and I put as a question - I wanted to know what awaits me. You understand.

Murphy. As far as I understand, in the United States you would like to have a job and a secured future. As far as possible - work in the area that you know. Right?

Nosenko. Right.

Murphy. Since you have already provided us with great help, we want you to gain confidence from the very beginning, and provide you with 50 thousand dollars at a time and a contract for 25 thousand dollars a year ...

Nosenko. How time is the contract?

Murphy. Unlimited. The contract will provide for pension provision and the possibility of career growth. Is this what you want?

Nosenko. I want to have a job, an interesting work, that work that I like as a profession, I will give all my knowledge, all my strength, all my strength.

But the fragment in which Nosenko claims that the KGB had the slightest attitude to the attempt on Kennedy.

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Yuri Nosenko about the reaction in Moscow to the murder of Kennedy

Nosenko. No need to thicken the colors so, wrong. I am your friend. I am completely and completely with you, I will work with you against the Soviet Union on all issues. But the truth should always be true. We must be people, but the truth should be true. No matter how I hate the leadership and no matter what, I do not want to lie against my beliefs and I will never lie. So, I am firm, I know absolutely to absolutely, and here I can sign in what I know, and I am responsible for these words. Do not tie the Soviet Union here. Because they were frightened to madness, everyone was raised to their feet: at least something was said to him, at least somehow he was processed? God forbid! Have you recruited it or not? No! What we allowed ourselves ... The only thing we allowed was through his wife’s uncle, Marina ... He is a lieutenant colonel of the police, by the way ... So he said that you are leaving - well, at least be people, you lived in the Soviet Union, so do not cheat, do not overwhelm, do not scold and do not express sharp anti -Soviet judgments. This is the only thing that was allowed to yourself. Why am I saying so firmly? I sat in this matter for several days when the misfortune with the president happened. To find out what the local organs did in Belarus, whether they allowed themselves something. Immediately check everything, raise everyone to your feet! I sent workers there on purpose, did not trust the papers. Check everything thoroughly ...

Archival film Radio Liberty about the stay of Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk

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Oswald in Minsk

On February 11, Yuri Nosenko arrived in the USA. However, the reception was far from cordial. The Historian of intelligence Phillip Knightley in the book "The second ancient profession" (in Russian it is published under the name "Spies of the XX century") says :

He was kept three and a half years in conditions close to those that existed in the Soviet Gulag. Nosenko was fed in the starvation, he was deprived of natural light, he was not given a blanket, a toothbrush and pasta, they did not allow to wash (only occasionally a shower was allowed) and perform physical exercises. He was subjected to gross interrogations. However, Nosenko did not admit anything, and at the end of the CIA path, it was not approached by the yota to establish the truth.

A copy of the letter from the KGB dossier to Lee Harvey Oswald. Dossier published by the US National Archive on August 5, 1999

Some earlier defectors convinced the high authorities that Nosenko was lying, that he was actually sent by Soviet intelligence for misinformation and introduction to the CIA. Nosenko’s information that received confirmation was considered insufficient evidence of his sincerity. Especially alarming was stubbornly denying Yuri Nosenko any connection between the KGB and Oswald.

One of the defectors who were hostile to Nosenko was Peter Deryabin, who remained in the West in 1954. Nosenko’s version contradicted his own. Immediately after the murder of Kennedy, Deryabin wrote a lengthy note in which he claimed that Oswald was recruited by the KGB and the attempt on the US president was a mission of Moscow.

Deryabin interrogated Nosenko, found out in detail the circumstances of his personal life and career career. The transcripts of these interrogations are now declassified and available to everyone. According to the results of interrogations, Deryabin wrote a sharply negative conclusion - it is also in the dossier of the national archive.

Nosenko seems exhausted at these interrogations, he is very nervous, behaves aggressively, and Deryabin stubbornly dug up to minor details and thereby annoys Nosenko even more. Here is a quote from the transcript of interrogation, which took place in July 1965.

Deryabin. We are talking to you for the third day, and I do not see any confirmation of what you call the truth.

Nosenko. I tell you only the truth, clean.

Deryabin. You forget that we just finished talking about the questionnaire, and you could not answer the simplest questions.

Nosenko. I say that I remember.

Deryabin. Okay, another question. What do you know about a personal sheet for personnel accounting?

Nosenko. What is such a personal sheet?

Deryabin. Personal sheet for personnel accounting. What is this document?

Nosenko. Don't know. I don't know any leaf. I have no idea.

Deryabin. For each member of the party or Komsomol member, working in the bodies, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or in the government, or not even a member of the party with high qualifications, in the KGB, or in the Council of Ministers, or in the Central Committee of the CPSU, a personal sheet for personnel accounting is started. It is like a questionnaire.

Nosenko. I don't know.

Deryabin. All fill it.

Nosenko. I have never filled. I don't know what it is.

Deryabin. How do you explain the fact that you do not remember the number of your party card?

Nosenko. I don’t remember, I don’t remember.

Deryabin. Each party member is obliged to remember the number of his party card. This is not in the charter, but it should be so, and the party organizer always asks when he charges contributions.

Nosenko. Do you remember your number?

Deryabin. I remember very well. He stayed in my memory. I do not remember the number of my Komsomol ticket, and I remember the party, although it was more than 30 years ago.

... You know, between us: in the two weeks that we communicate with, the only thing you showed in is the thieves' jargon. For example, I have never heard the words "bix".

Nosenko. Well, the youth knows him. My brother knows. It is even in the literature - read "One Day of Ivan Denisovich."

In a similar style, interrogations lasted for days, weeks, months. In the end, suspicions with Yuri Nosenko were removed. On March 1, 1969, he was released and received compensation for everything that he had undergone. The version of the KGB’s non -involvement in the murder of John Kennedy became the official position of the CIA. However, many, including the first curator of Nosenko Tennent Bagly, continued to believe that Nosenko was still a double agent sent in order to divert the attention of the CIA from the "mole", which has never been disclosed.