primarily on Russia’s Baltic provinces and the military districts of
Vilnius and St. Petersburg.
In 1913, Nicolai replaced Wilhelm Heye as head of Abteilung
IIIb. In this capacity, he obtained funds for an expanded service,
directing most of its attention toward France (Great Britain was
handled exclusively by naval intelligence, or “N”). Following the
outbreak of World War I, Nicolai’s responsibilities expanded to
include counterintelligence and sabotage as well as war propaganda
through his own press office. He was not, however, involved in the
government’s decision to provide subsidies to V. I. Lenin and the
Bolsheviks in order to destabilize Russia. Nor was he inclined to
heed the warnings of Franz von Papen concerning the likely entry
of the United States into the war. After becoming ill with influenza
during the revolutionary upheaval in Germany in November 1918, he
was informed that his services were no longer needed. His retirement
became official on 27 February 1920. Although he energetically at-
tempted to revive his intelligence career, no call ever came.
Believing that Nicolai possessed inside knowledge of the secret
services of the Third Reich, Soviet authorities captured him in Sep-
tember 1945 and brought him to Moscow for interrogation. After
these sessions proved futile, Nicolai wrote sketches of life that be-
came part of the comprehensive personal archives held by the Soviet
government and not accessible to researchers until 1996. He died on
4 May 1947 in a Moscow prison hospital under mysterious circum-
stances and was rehabilitated by the legal branch of the Russian army
in 1999.NIEDERMAYER, OSKAR VON (1885–1948). The military leader
of Germany’s mission to Afghanistan during World War I and
later the resident director of the Reichswehr’s secret liaison office
in the Soviet Union, Oscar von Niedermayer was born in Freising
(Bavaria) on 8 November 1885, the son of a government official.
Prior to 1914, he served in a Bavarian artillery regiment as a career
officer, traveled in Persia (Iran), and gained a fluency in the Persian
language (Farsi). These credentials led to his selection as second in
command to Wilhelm Wassmuss for an undercover mission to gain
the cooperation of Afghanistan against the British in the war. After
Wassmuss’s unexplained departure from the group in January 1915,
320 • NIEDERMAYER, OSKAR VON