munist PartyCentral Committee. During the first years of pere-
stroika, he became a trusted advisor of Gorbachev, and in December
1987 he accompanied the Communist Party general secretary on his
visit to Washington. In 1988 Gorbachev made Kryuchkov KGB chair
in a purge of party hardliners.
Gorbachev came quickly to regret his decision to promote
Kryuchkov. In 1990 Kryuchkov became one of Gorbachev’s princi-
pal critics from within the party and KGB, condemning many of Gor-
bachev’s allies as servants of Western intelligence. Kryuchkov was
the prime mover behind the August putsch of 1991, and more than
a dozen senior KGB officers took part in planning the abortive coup.
Following the failure of the August putsch, Kryuchkov was arrested,
but he was amnestied before being brought to trial. He has since writ-
ten his memoirs, which accuse many of Gorbachev’s allies of high
treason and responsiblity for the collapse of the Soviet Union.KUROPATY.One of the largest mass gravesin the former Soviet
Union is to be found at Kuropaty, in Byelorussia near Minsk. Ac-
cording to archeologists who examined the site, there are approxi-
mately 150,000 people buried there in more than 500 mass graves.
Other experts put the number of dead between 250,000 and 300,000.
The NKVDused Kuropaty as a place of executionand burial of
thousands of Poles and others considered enemies of the peoplewho
had been deportedto the Soviet Union following the Nazi-Soviet
Pact of 1939.KVASNIKOV, LEV ROMANOVICH (1905–1993).The founder of
Soviet scientific and technical intelligence was drafted into the
NKVDin 1938, following the purge of the foreign intelligence com-
ponent. Trained as an engineer, Kvasnikov was one of the first intel-
ligence officers to understand the potential of nuclear weapons, and
he personally convinced NKVD chief Lavrenty Beriain 1941–1943
that nuclear weapons were not British disinformation. Beria person-
ally threatened Kvasnikov with summary executionshould the in-
formation prove false.
In 1943 Kvasnikov was sent to New York to head up a small Line
X rezidenturato collect information on the Anglo-American nuclear
project—codenamed Enormoz by the Soviet service—as well asKVASNIKOV, LEV ROMANOVICH (1905–1993)• 14106-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 141