Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

rested in August 1953 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. His

sentence was reversed following the collapse of the Soviet Union,

and in 1992 he was officially rehabilitated.

Sudoplatov’s memoirs published soon after his rehabilitation

raised a firestorm in the West. His charges of NKVDrecruitment of

Western scientists, including Robert Oppenheimer, were rejected out

of hand by most scholars. Nevertheless, the book is now more highly

regarded and considered insightful about Stalin’s management and

use of foreign intelligence.

SUMBATOV [TOPURIDZE], YUVELYAN DAVIDOVICH (1889–

1960). After a career as a political agitator, Sumatov joined the Red

Army during the Russiancivil warand commanded an armored

train. He joined the Chekain 1920 and advanced in the Azerbaijan

Republic service. In the late 1930s he was transferred by his patron

Lavrenty Beriato work in the gulagprogram. In 1945 he was pro-

moted to lieutenant general, but two years later he left the security

service to work as deputy premier of the Azeri Republic. He fell

along with Beria and was arrested in July 1953. Sumbatov survived

trials for treason by pretending to be psychologically ill. He was in

and out of institutions several times before his death in 1960.

SURVEILLANCE.For the Russian and security services, physical and

technical surveillance was a critical tool. The Okhranaconducted

surveillance of dissidentsby intercepting mail and through close

physical surveillance of suspects and their associates. In St. Peters-

burg, the Okhranarecruited cab drivers because of their ability to

travel anywhere in the capital without raising suspicion. Surveillance

allowed the Okhranato keep careful and generally accurate files on

dissidents in both radical and moderate parties.

The Chekaexpanded surveillance of known and suspected ene-

mies of the infant Bolshevikregime. Along with mail interception

and physical surveillance, the service perfected the use of audio sur-

veillance. Joseph Stalinread reports of surveillance of both political

enemies and poets. He decided on Solomon Mikhoels’s murder

when he read in surveillance reports that the actor had made deni-

grating statements about the Communist Partyto Americans. When

Stalin read a detailed surveillance report on the great poet Anna

SURVEILLANCE • 259

06-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 259