Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

KUZNETSOV, PAVEL• 301

viet Consulate in Tehran in the summer of 1977 under diplomatic

cover as a Line N officer specializing in the handling illegals. Fluent

in Farsi and English, he ran a small network of KGB illegals, but in

September 1981 his two best agents, a husband and wife team operat-

ing on West German passports, were arrested in Switzerland. Not

long afterward, in May 1982, Kuzichkin realized that an undeveloped

roll of film, on which secret documents were routinely stored in the

referentura, had disappeared while in his care.

Faced with the extreme penalties for the loss of classified docu-

ments, Kuzichkin made contact with theSecret Intelligence Service

(SIS) and was exfiltrated early in June 1982. His motives only seem

to have become clear after he had been resettled in London for, as he

admitted:

I had never been pro-Western. I always thought that the West had its own

interests, and that it needed a strong Russia like a hole in the head, whether

it was a communist Russia or a free Russia. I believed that we, the Rus-

sians, had to solve our own problems, and that changes in the Soviet struc-

ture were possible only from within, and absolutely not from outside.

Interference from outside would always unite the people and only

strengthen the regime.

As well as identifying the complete KGB andGRUorder of battle

in Iran and the identities of those illegals he had handled personally,

Kuzichkin was to give SIS an authoritative account of the KGB’s role

in supporting the Tudeh party, then the subject of considerable re-

pression by the Ayatollah’s regime. Kuzichkin was resettled in Lon-

don, where he now lives with a new wife. His autobiography,Inside

the KGB, was published in 1990.

KUZNETSOV, PAVEL.A member of theKGBLondonrezidentura
in April 1952, working under third secretary diplomatic cover, Pavel
Kuznetsov was spotted by an off-dutyMI5watcher meetingWilliam
Marshallat a park in Kingston-upon-Thames. The result of this acci-
dental sighting was surveillance on Marshall, who was employed by
theDiplomatic Wireless Service. Kuznetsov was expelled, but he
was later identified as a diplomat posted to Belgrade and in 1972 was
promoted to ambassador in Indonesia.