SPY TRICKS TOLD BY RUSSIAN WRITER
Japanese Are Special Pest to Police of
U. S. S. R. ----- Execution of scores and alleged spies and Trotskyist conspirators in soviet Russia in recent weeks has caused much speculation about the background of this 'luidation' drive. An explanation from the inside is given here, in the first of a series of articles , by the chief of the Leningrad secret police, translated from a series appearing in Komsomolskaya Pravda, young communist publication in Mosow By LEONID ZAKOVSKY copyright 1937 by Spokesman-Review and North American Newspaper Alliance
LENINGRAD, Aug. 7.—It is
perfectly evident that the foreign
espionage services, the so-called
second sections of the general
staffs, use particularly subtle and
insidious methods when sending
and enlisting spies and diversionists (wreckers in industrial plants)
and in doing espionage work in
soviet Russia, the country of victorious socialism, toward which
the capitalist world, the fascist
countries, are filled with savage
malice and hatred.
Now, how do the foreign espionage services work, how do their
agents penetrate into our country?
The second sections of the general
staffs maintain permanent schools,
wherein for several years a spy
takes a definite course. He
studies the language, customs,
habits, geography, literature of the
particular country in which he will
have to work. He is trained in
all the horrible and insidious
methods of espionage which he
will have to use, from administering poison to acting as agent-
provocateur.
He is then sent to do his work,
particularly in the soviet union, in
the guise of an engineer, a technician, or under the pretense of being a political emigrant. Even certain diplomatic representatives are connected with espionage, diversions, spying and, at times, political murders. I shall cite some facts and methods from the work of the Japanese espionage services in the U.S.S.R. We know a case where the Japanese Intelligence service paid a considerable amount of money to a Japanese who had escaped from a jail in U.S.S.R. in return for being allowed to make a detailed study of his life and the crime he had committed. On the basis of this data, they created in the person of their own agent a double for the criminal. Later, when a railroad was being built in our Far East, a Korean presented himself at a construction camp. He gave his name and related that he had been arrested for a certain crime and had escaped. But this Korean aroused suspicion and, when his finger-prints were compared with those of the escaped Japanese , it was shown that he was a different person. The Korean later confessed, he was a Japanese spy who had received instructions to organize a group among Kulaks (rich peasants) and declass, who happened to near important constructions of the Far Eastern railroad. In case of war they were to blow up a number of important sections- tunnels, water towers and thus impede the advance of the red army. Case Is Cited. Still another fact: In 1936 agents of NKVD (secret police) arrested the Japanese spy A. He had worked as a mechanic in a Leningrad factory. What do you think came out? This Japanese, after being demobilized from the Japanese Army in 1912, took the special espionage course of the politial police in Nagasaki. In 1916, by direction of the Japanese intelligence, he was sent to Petrograd with the object of spying. How could he remain in Petrograd and why was no attention paid to him? He was traveling with a transit visa through Russia to England to obtain a technical education. In 1916, he arrived in Petrograd and 'just by chance' he found himself without money to continue his trip. He was detained, questioned. He got a job in an automobile repair shop, with the stated intention of earning enough money to continue his trip.
After the October socialist revolution and during the civil war he
refrained temporarily from espionage work; the Japanese intelligence
left him to himself. He was told
to stop working and to extend his
acquaintanceship, study Petrograd, interest himself in shipyards, etc.
Had Many Friends.
From 1916 to 1924, he made friends freely among workmen,
technicians and engineers of shipyards and was treated as one of
their own. In 1924 the Japanese intelligence established connection
with him. The spy "A" made contact through the intelligence agent
X, who arrived from Japan in the guise of a representative of a shipping agency. He also established
contact with two other Japanese spies, then in U. S. S. R. He had a considerable number of friends,
through whom he was able to obtain data concerning the Baltic fleet and the construction of war
vessels. He had information regarding the armament of the Leningard garrison. A few months ago he was detected, arrested.
In 1936 agents of the NKVD arrested another Japanese spy. About
10 years ago he had taken an espionage course in Japan. He had
then spent some time in Kharbin,
doing espionage work in the Far East. When he had become sufficiently familiar with this work,
he was sent to Novosibirsk. He posed as a rather giddy sort of person, who took dancing lessons, was
fond of sports, mixed with young
people—in a word, a gay young
man, who could not, seemingly, excite any suspicions of a political
character.
The Japanese worked in Siberia
a couple of years. Then there
came a day when he staged a quarrel with his consulate. He told
his friends that he wanted to be
done with his country and to break
all relations with it, because he
had become convinced that the soviet union pursued the right course.
Acquired Citizenship.
He went to Leningrad and entered the theatrical profession. He
showed a certain talent, became a
regular "soviet man," acquired an
extended circle of friends. He was
instructed by the Japanese intelligence service: "Do absolutely no
intelligence work in Leningrad for
two or three years. Live an average life and make friends."
With his theater he toured garrison towns, where he could have
done espionage work. But, as instructed by his general staff, he
did no intelligence work, because
they wanted to reserve him for
more important objects—diversions
and murders, and penetration into
the NKVD. Under the directions of
his general staff, he acquired soviet citizenship.- But he was later
arrested, and then everything came out.