sponded positively to his Soviet handler and was later given the code
name max by the Abwehr.
In December 1941, pretending to be a deserter from the Red Army,
Dem’ianov crossed over on skis to German lines near Gzhatsk,
southwest of Moscow. Highly mistrustful of his story (he had un-
knowingly traversed a newly laid Soviet minefield completely un-
scathed), the Germans staged a mock execution, but he held fast to
his version and was transferred to an Abwehr camp in Smolensk. He
was given training in secret writing, radio operations, and general tra-
decraft and received the code name heine. Before paradropping him
deep behind Soviet lines near Arefino, the Abwehr tested him again
by having groups of Russian partisans visibly maltreated outside
his apartment in Minsk for three days. In the meantime, the Soviets
thoroughly briefed all of Dem’ianov’s relatives so that his bona fides
would appear all the more credible to the Abwehr.
Once in Moscow, he initiated a carefully prepared Funkspiel
(deceptive radio transmission) and refrained from making any re-
quests from the Abwehr for the following four months. Many of the
couriers dispatched to Dem’ianov were turned as well. In 1942 and
1943, he crossed German lines to meet with his Abwehr controllers,
despite the evident risk of detection. His main objective—the Soviets
dubbed his activity Operation monastery—was to underreport the
strength of the Red Army and to predict major offensives that were
in fact merely diversions. The effectiveness of this disinformation
was borne out on at least two occasions: just prior to the battle of
Stalingrad and during the battle of Kursk in May 1943. Soviet coun-
terintelligence also enlisted Dem’ianov for a key role in Operation
scherhorn the following year. The fact that in his postwar memoirs
Reinhard Gehlen, head of Fremde Heere Ost, wrote of Max as the
source of “genuine” information testifies to the expertise of Soviet
counterintelligence operations.DEUTSCH, ARNOLD (1904–1942). A highly successful operative of
the NKVD (Soviet People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) active
in Great Britain prior World War II and responsible for the recruit-
ment of the “Cambridge Five,” Arnold Deutsch was born in Vienna
on 21 August 1904, the son of a poor Slovakian trader. A brilliant
student conversant in several languages, he received a doctorate in
DEUTSCH, ARNOLD • 79