projects took the lives of hundreds of thousands of zeks(prisoners).
In 1942 and 1943, more than 20 percent of the camps’ population
perished: a total of 620,368 men and women. Pavlov received the
Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner. He was promoted
to colonel general in 1945, and he retired in 1949. He committed sui-
cide in 1957.PELTON, RONALD (1942– ). Pelton had worked for the U.S. Na-
tional Security Agency (NSA) for more than a decade when he sud-
denly resigned in 1979. Months later he initiated contact with the
KGB by walking into the Soviet mission in Washington. The KGB
ran Pelton in Washington through occasional personal meetings and
dead drops. He offered the KGB information on a top secret U.S.
Navy program, Ivy Bells. Pelton was arrested in 1985 following the
defection of Vitaliy Yurchenko, who provided U.S. intelligence with
enough information to identify him. Pelton was tried and sentenced
to life imprisonment in 1986.PENKOVSKIY, OLEG VLADIMIROVICH (1919–1963). As a sol-
dier in the Great Patriotic War, Penkovskiy was rapidly decorated
and promoted. A full colonel before he was 30, Penkovskiy joined
Soviet military intelligence, the GRU, and was posted to Turkey. He
apparently was a complete failure in Turkey; only his connections in
the military saved his career. Angry about being relegated to the side-
lines, Penkovskiy volunteered to the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in Moscow in
August 1960, passing a letter through American tourists to the CIA.
The letter read: “I ask you to consider me as your soldier. Henceforth,
the ranks of your armed forces are increased by one man.”
Over the next 22 months, Penkovskiy passed thousands of pages
of information about the Soviet military and intelligence services to
American and British handlers. The information, codenamed “Iron-
bark” by the CIA, provided President John F. Kennedy with critical
intelligence about the capabilities of Soviet weapons systems dur-
ing the Cuban Missile Crisisof October 1962. This information al-
lowed CIAanalyststo identify Soviet missiles in Cuba and provide
the president with accurate information about Soviet capabilities
and intentions.190 •PELTON, RONALD (1942– )06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 190