Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

World War II. According to a declassified CIA study, Meshik was

responsible for drafting German nuclear scientists for Moscow’s nu-

clear weapons program. He was promoted to lieutenant general of

state security at the end of the war. In 1945 he was transferred by

Moscow to the Ukraine as chief of the republic security service,

where he led the struggle against Ukrainian nationalists. He was ar-

rested in Kiev in June 1953 and tried for treason with Beria on 23 De-

cember 1953. He was shot the same evening. See also ENORMOZ.

METKA.Often referred to as “spy dust,” metkais a special chemical

that was applied by the KGBto the shoes of foreign intelligence of-

ficers to facilitate tracking by dogs. Its chemical composition was ni-

trophenyl pentadien (NPPD), which is potentially carcinogenic. The

secret was first revealed to the Central Intelligence Agency station in

Moscow in 1963 by Aleksandr Cherepanov, a KGB walk-in. In

1984 Sergei Vorontsov, a KGB officer working for Moscow station,

provided a sample of the substance. Vorontsov was later betrayed by

Aldrich Amesand executed. Metkaallowed the Seventh Directorate

of the KGB to track foreign intelligence officers in an urban setting,

and it led to some operational successes.

MGB (MINISTERSTO GOSUDARSTVENNOI BEZOPASNOSTI).

The Ministry of State Security, or the MGB, was created by Joseph

Stalinon 15 March 1946, when the Soviet government transformed

all “people’s commissariats” into ministries. Viktor Abakumovwas

the first minister, and he built a powerful organization out of the in-

telligence, counterintelligence, and security components of the

NKVDand NKGB. In 1954 the MGB was transformed into the

KGBby party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.

MIF.Operatsiya Mif(Operation Myth) was a Soviet active measure

designed by Joseph Stalinand his chief advisors to place blame on

the United States for the disappearance of Adolf Hitler at the end of

World War II. See alsoADOLF HITLER’S CORPSE.

MIKHOELS, SOLOMON MIKHAILOVICH (1890–1948). The

greatest Yiddish actor of his generation, Mikhoels was used by the

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