with information. Moreover, ambassadors and senior KGB officers
competed for the same sources. Another problem was the KGB rezi-
dents’counterintelligenceauthority. The KGB always had the power
to destroy the reputation of any diplomat, including an ambassador.
KGB informersinfiltrated every foreign mission, and any sense of
disloyalty or personal weakness guaranteed a diplomat a trip home.MIRONOV, NIKOLAI ROMANOVICH (1913–1964).Mironov be-
gan his career in Smersh during World War IIand served in the
1950s in Moscow and Leningrad as a senior counterintelligenceof-
ficer. In 1959 Nikita Khrushchevselected Mironov to head the Ad-
ministrative Organs Departmentof the Central Committee. As one
of Khrushchev’s key deputies, Mironov served as the party’s watch-
dog on intelligence and security matters. He wrote a number of arti-
cles in the press, emphasizing the party’s role in establishing a regime
of socialist legality. Mironov was reportedly feared by intelligence
professionals: Oleg Penkovskiy noted in his journal that “this
Mironov is tsar and God over us.” Mironov perished in an airplane
crash in Yugoslavia in October 1964, just a few days before the anti-
Khrushchev coup. His death limited Khrushchev’s control over the
KGB, which took an important role in the coup.MIRONOV LETTER.One of the most bizarre chapters of the espi-
onage war between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
NKVDbegan in August 1943 with the posting of letters to Joseph
Stalin and the FBI by Vasili Mironov, an NKVD lieutenant colonel
serving in the rezidenturain New York. The letter to Stalin accused
NKVD rezidentVasily Zarubinof being a German spy. The letter to
the FBI—addressed to “Mr. Guver”—identified several NKVD offi-
cers in the rezidenturaby name, noting their collection of political
and military intelligence. The letter to Stalin caused Zarubin to be re-
called to Moscow in 1944. The letter to the FBI led to greater sur-
veillanceof Soviet trade and diplomatic facilities.
Zarubin was acquitted on his recall to Moscow. But his removal
from the United States hurt Soviet intelligence. Mironov was recalled
to Moscow, tried by a special court, and placed in an asylum. His
later attempts to contact the American embassy earned him a death
sentence; he was shot.162 •MIRONOV, NIKOLAI ROMANOVICH (1913–1964)06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 162