Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

of the Cold War, the KGB in Berlin was able to recruit and run agents

within the U.S. military such as James Hall. KGB/Stasi operations

paid dividends to the very end of the Cold War.

BERLIN TUNNEL. Faced with a lack of good human intelligence

from the Soviet bloc in the early 1950s, the United States and Great

Britain attacked the Soviet target with imaginative technical pro-

grams. In Vienna (Operation Silver) in the early 1950s and later in

Berlin, the Western allies dug tunnels to tap the Soviet land lines. The

Berlin Tunnel (Operation Gold), which was completed in February

1955, projected hundreds of meters into East Berlin and tapped the

major military phone lines between Moscow and the Soviet head-

quarters in East Berlin. The tunnel intercept operators recorded 28

telegraphic circuits and 121 voice circuits continuously.

TheKGBwas alerted to the building of the tunnel by George

Blakebut decided to allow it to operate to protect this key agent from

discovery. The KGB may have warned a few of its own communica-

tion personnel of the possible threat, but it allowed the Red Army as

well as its GRUcolleagues to continue to use the contaminated lines.

The tunnel was “discovered” after 11 months and 11 days of opera-

tions. Western intelligence services benefited tremendously from the

“take” from the Berlin Tunnel. According to a report by a CIA offi-

cer, more than 440,000 conversations were transcribed, which pro-

duced 1,750 classified intelligence reports. Also important was

RUMINT (rumor intelligence or gossip) about the leadership of the

Soviet Union and East Germany gathered from the talk of Soviet gen-

eral officers in Berlin with their colleagues and families in Moscow.

The tunnel also produced especially sensitive reports on the develop-

ment of Soviet nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

BERZIN, EDUARD PETROVICH (?–1937). A Latvian, Berzin was

one of a number of Balts who joined the Red Army and the Chekain

the winter of 1917–1918. Berzin was cleverly used as a political

pawn during the Lockhart Plot. Berzin played a disaffected and

greedy officer, willing to be corrupted. British agent Robert Bruce

Lockhart bought the story and incriminated himself. As a result, the

Cheka gained insight into the plot. Berzin had a second career man-

aging the gulagin the KolymaRiver valley. Berzin was sent to

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