the American ambassador in 1945. The seal, which was placed on the
wall behind the ambassador’s desk, contained a bugging device that
transmitted any conversations in the office. The device was discov-
ered in 1952 and was put on display at the United Nations several
years later during a debate on Soviet and American espionage.
Audio surveillance remained an important tool of the KGB to the
end of the Soviet regime, and it provided an immense amount of raw
information for security officers. In the months before the 1991 Au-
gust putsch, the KGB placed bugging devices in the offices of
Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife, and his wife’s hairdresser.SUVOROV, VIKTOR.SeeREZUN, VLADIMIR BOGDANOVICH.SVERDLOV, ANDREI YAKOVLEVICH (1911–1969). The son of
Yakov Sverdlov, first chief of the Soviet state and a close friend of
Vladimir Lenin, Andrei Sverdlov was security service interrogator
for several decades. He was recruited into the service and then almost
immediately arrested during the Yezhovshchina. He was again re-
cruited as an interrogator by Lavrenty Beria. Sverdlov was fre-
quently given important intellectuals to break and obtain confessions.
After Joseph Stalin’s death, Sverdlov retired and work in the Acad-
emy of Sciences as a researcher.SVR (SLUZHBA VNESHNEI REZVEDKI). The Foreign Intelligence
Service of the Russian Federation, the SVR, was created from the
KGB’s First Chief Directorate in December 1991, following the
failed August putsch. Laws on foreign intelligence passed by
the Duma in December 1991 made the service directly subordinate to
the president of the Russian Federation. The SVR headquarters are
located in Yasenevo outside Moscow, the former headquarters of the
First Chief Directorate.
Yevgeny Primakov, first director of the SVR, defined its duties in
post-Soviet Russia as intelligence collection and analysis, as well as
active measures. For Primakov and his subordinates, all veterans of
the First Chief Directorate, the critical targets are terrorist groups that
threaten the integrity of the Russian Federation. Other concerns are
the economic viability of Russia, problems from the narcotics trade,SVR(SLUZHBA VNESHNEI REZVEDKI)• 26106-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 261