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Operation RYAN
Operation RYAN (or RYaN, and sometimes written as VRYAN, rus, РЯН, p=rʲæn) was a Cold War military intelligence program run by the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, when they believed the United States was planning for an imminent Pre-emptive nuclear strike, first strike attack. The name is an acronym for Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie (, "Nuclear Missile Attack"). The purpose of the operation was to collect intelligence on potential contingency plans of the Ronald Reagan, Reagan administration to launch a nuclear Pre-emptive nuclear strike, first strike against the Soviet Union.Christopher Andrew (historian), Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (2000). ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West.'' Gardners Books. . The program was initiated in May 1981 by Yuri Andropov, then chairman of the KGB. Background Andropov suffered from a "Hungarian complex" from his personal experience of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hungarian Revolution, according to the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term ''Cold war (term), cold war'' is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and Nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, Economic sanctions, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite state, satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky (; 10 October 1938 – 4 March 2025) was a colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (''rezident'') and bureau chief in London. Gordievsky was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1974 to 1985. After being recalled to Moscow under suspicion, he was exfiltrated from the Soviet Union in July 1985 under a plan code-named Operation Pimlico. The Soviet Union subsequently sentenced him to death ''in absentia''. Early life and education Gordievsky was born in 1938, the son of an officer of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police and precursor to the KGB). He proved an excellent student at school, where he learned to speak German. He studied at a prestigious Moscow University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and later undertook NKVD training, where in addition to espionage skills he mastered German and also learned to speak Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. Career On comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Markus Wolf
Markus Johannes Wolf (19 January 1923 – 9 November 2006), also known as Mischa, was a German spymaster who served as the head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (), the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for State Security (, , commonly known as the ). He was the Stasi's number two for 34 years, which spanned most of the Cold War. He is often regarded as one of the best-known spymasters during the Cold War. In the West he was known as "the man without a face" due to his elusiveness. Early life and education Wolf was born 19 January 1923, in Hechingen, Province of Hohenzollern (now Baden-Württemberg), to a German-Jewish father and a non-Jewish German mother. His father was the writer, communist activist and physician Friedrich Wolf (1888–1953) and his mother was the nursery teacher Else Wolf ( Dreibholz; 1898–1973). He had one brother, the film director Konrad Wolf (1925–1982). His father was a member of the Communist Party of Germany, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Main Directorate For Reconnaissance
The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (; , ) was the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security (''Stasi''), the main security agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1955 to 1990. The HVA was an integral part of the Stasi, responsible for operations outside of East Germany such as espionage, active measures, foreign intelligence gathering, and counterintelligence against NATO-aligned countries and their intelligence agencies. The Stasi was disbanded in January 1990 and the HVA's mode of operation was revealed to the public, including its internal structure, methods, and employees. The HVA became the subject of broad interest and intensive research under the responsibilities of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. The HVA is regarded by some as the most effective foreign intelligence service during the Cold War and the second largest after Soviet Union's intelligence forces. It provided up to 80 percent of all informatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Chebrikov
Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov (; 27 April 1923 – 2 July 1999) was a Soviet public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988.Montgomery, Isobel (7 July 1999)Viktor Chebrikov: KGB chief who favoured modest Soviet reforms.''The Guardian'' Life and career Born in the industrial city of Yekaterinoslav in eastern Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Dnipro, Ukraine) on 27 April 1923, he finished military school in 1942 and served in World War II as a battalion commander.New York Times, 5 July 1999 From July 1942, he commanded a platoon of a cadet rifle regiment in the 64th Army on the Stalingrad Front, but on August 14, 1942, he was seriously wounded. After his recovery, he was deputy platoon commander and commander of a mortar platoon in the 262nd Infantry Regiment of the 184th Infantry Division on the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts. From 1943 until the end of the war he fought in the ranks of the 575th Infantry Regiment of the 16 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Able Archer 83
Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of Exercise Able Archer, the annual Able Archer exercise. It Military simulation, simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, leading to concerns that it could have been mistaken for a real attack by the Soviet Union. The exercise is considered by some to be one of the Nuclear close call, closest moments the world came to nuclear war during the Cold War. The purpose of the exercise, like previous years, was to simulate a period of conflict escalation, culminating in the U.S. military attaining a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack. The five-day exercise, which involved NATO commands throughout Western Europe, was coordinated from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) headquarters in Casteau, Belgium. The 1983 exercise, which began on November 7, 1983, introduced several new elements not seen in previous years, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is . The organization's strategic concepts include deterrence. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium, while NATO's military headquarters are near Mons, Belgium. The a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moneron Island
Moneron Island, (, , , Ainu: ) is a small island off Sakhalin Island. It is a part of the Russian Federation. Description Moneron has an area of about and a highest point of . It is approximately long (N/S axis) by wide, and is located from Sakhalin's port of Nevelsk and about directly southwest of Sakhalin Island itself at the northeastern end of the Sea of Japan. It is the only landmass in the whole Tatar Straits and has no permanent population. On a clear day, the Japanese Rishiri Island is visible. History The island was known as ''Todomoshiri'' ("island of sea lions") by its original Ainu inhabitants. It came under the ''daimyō'' of Matsumae clan in the 18th century and was known as Ishiyokotan; it got its current European name from a visit of the French navigator La Perouse, who named it Moneron after Paul Mérault Monneron, the chief engineer of his expedition. Paul Monneron was tasked with mapping the island named after him. The first authentic map of M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)In aviation, two types of Airline codes, airline designators are used. The flight number KAL 007, with the ICAO code for Korean Air Lines, was used by air traffic control. In ticketing, however, IATA codes are used instead, so the flight was referred to as KE007 in the booking systems and on the passengers' tickets. was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15, Sukhoi Su-15TM Flagon-F interceptor aircraft. The Boeing 747-230B airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, the airliner drifted from its planned route and flew through Soviet airspace. The Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane, and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots. The South Korean airliner eventually crashed into the sea near ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan called for a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete, and to end the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a " suicide pact". Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 under the Space Development Agency (SDA). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. Advanced weapon concepts, including lasers, particle-beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with sensor, command and control, and computer systems needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the globe. The US held a significant advantage in advanced missile defense systems through decades ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents within the city limits, over 19.1 million residents in the urban area, and over 21.5 million residents in Moscow metropolitan area, its metropolitan area. The city covers an area of , while the urban area covers , and the metropolitan area covers over . Moscow is among the world's List of largest cities, largest cities, being the List of European cities by population within city limits, most populous city entirely in Europe, the largest List of urban areas in Europe, urban and List of metropolitan areas in Europe, metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent. First documented in 1147, Moscow became the capital of the Grand Principality of Moscow, which led the unification of the Russian lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Russia
European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia, encompassing the entire North Asia, northern region of the continent. The two parts of Russia are divided by the Ural Mountains and Ural (river), Ural river, bisecting the Eurasia, Eurasian supercontinent. European Russia covers the vast majority of Eastern Europe, and spans roughly 40% of Europe's total landmass, with over 15% of its total population, making Russia the List of European countries by area, largest and List of European countries by population, most populous country in Europe. The region is divided into five Federal districts of Russia, Federal districts. Area and demographics European Russia accounts for about 80% of Russia's total population. It covers an area of over , with a population of nearly 110 million—making R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
