KOREAN WAR (1950–1953). According to Soviet-era documents, the
MGBplayed an important role in the creation of the communist
regime in North Korea. MGB officers helped established a North Ko-
rean security service. Moscow even provided film of the execution
of Polish officers at Katynas a training aid for their new ally.
During the Korean War, the MGB assigned intelligence and coun-
terintelligenceofficers to the Soviet military units assigned to fight
alongside the North Korean and Chinese forces. Joseph Stalinsent
fighter wings and antiaircraft regiments to bolster the war effort.
MGB intelligence officers recruited at least one important source,
George Blake, from among the soldiers and diplomats captured by
the North Koreans and Chinese forces. The MGB and the GRUalso
collected military intelligence from the battlefront. American jet air-
craft, shot down in the sky above Korea, were examined and in some
cases shipped to the Soviet Union. Captured American jet fighter pi-
lots were apparently interrogated by MGB officers. There is some ev-
idence that a few of these pilots were transported to Soviet prison
camps, where they were never heard from again.
A major MGB effort in the war was a massive peace campaign,
which it fashioned under the direction of the Communist Partylead-
ership. This active measurewas designed to paint the United States
as the aggressor in Korea, and it was largely successful. More than a
billion people—most of them living in the Soviet bloc—signed peti-
tions denouncing the United States for its use of biological weapons.
Stalin received MGB and GRU reporting about the course of the
war. Apparently, he ignored much of the information dealing with the
human cost of the struggle, insisting that the war continue regardless
of the costs to his Chinese and Korean allies. Stalin insisted that the
Chinese and North Koreans reject United Nations offers that allowed
disaffected prisoners to stay with the side that captured them. As in
the aftermath of World War IIwhen he demanded the return of So-
viet citizens and prisoners of warin Allied hands, Stalin insisted that
these prisoners would be used as agents against the communist world.KOROTKOV, ALEKSANDR MIKHAILOVICH (1909–1961). The
best-known of the World War IIand postwar illegalswas Aleksandr
Korotkov. Korotkov started his career as an elevator operator in the
Lubyanka; he joined foreign intelligence in 1933. His first posting136 •KOREAN WAR (1950–1953)06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 136