Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

Appendix J

Maskirovka: Deception on

Nuclear Weapons Programs

327

The Soviet security services played a critical role in building and pro-

tecting the Soviet nuclear weapons programs. Protection strategies

included maskirovka, the Soviet military and intelligence term for a

mixture of denial and deception measures. In 1944–1950 more than

100,000 prisoners were engaged in building secret facilities for the

Soviet atom bomb. Between 1946 and 1956, 10 secret cities were

built for nuclear weapons research and development, plutonium pro-

duction, and warhead assembly. These cities were surrounded by

barbed wire and never appeared in a Soviet atlas. The two most fa-

mous secret cities were Sarov, the Los Alamos of the Soviet weapons

program, which took the artificial name Arzamas-16, and Ozersk, the

first center of plutonium production, which was given the name

Chelyabinsk-40.

The NKVD, MGB, and KGB were also engaged in hiding these cities

from spies and technical intelligence. All papers leaving the cities were

classified; “free workers” were discouraged from leaving the cities even

on their vacations; freed prisoners were often exiled to the most distant

locations of the far north or Siberia. The security services also vetted all

employees, their families, and their contacts. In 1947 the MGB assigned

1,400 security officers to protect the facility at Sarov.

Maskirovkastrategies also included building facilities in tunnels to

hide the production of highly enriched uranium at Zheleznogorsk (Kras-

noyarsk-26); the movement of plants and cities to remote locations; and

the design of elaborate denial and deception plans to conceal facilities

from American satellites. The KGB insisted that all communications

between the cities and Moscow were to be conducted by landline, to

prevent the interception of radio communications.

06-313 z10 App J.qxd 7/27/06 8:06 AM Page 327