Anatoly Antonovich Yatskov (; – 26 March 1993), also known as Anatoli Yatzkov ( alias in the U.S. Anatoly Yakovlev) – was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

as well as an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

foreign intelligence Intelligence assessment, is a specific phase of the intelligence cycle which oversees the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on wide ranges of available overt and cover ...

officer handling American agents and couriers linked to the U.S.

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

during

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His spy cover was eventually blown by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

Venona Program which identified him as a key

spymaster A spymaster is a leader of a group of spies or an intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforce ...

involved in the 1940s Atomic Spy Ring.

Career

In 1940 Yatskov had graduated the

intelligence school (

Special Academy, SHON) majoring in English and was assigned to

Department 5 (foreign operations) Section 5 (U.S. operations). In 1941 he was given his first overseas assignment in

as a case officer at the

station (''Rezidentura'') at the Soviet Consulate general under the alias name of Anatoly Yakovlev. His

operational alias at the time was JONNY. He was employed as a consular apprentice until 1943, being eventually promoted to Soviet vice-consul (ranking 3rd Secretary). In

station Yatskov was eventually assigned to most sensitive

operations concerning the allied

Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

(known in

as OPERATION ENORMOUS).

station was crucial for the Soviet Union in obtaining most sensitive data on the

Los Alamos nuclear facility and precise knowledge on development of the A-Bomb. Among other activities Yatskov recruited Harry Gold at the Pennsylvania Sugar Company, his

colleague

Alexander Feklisov Aleksandr Semyonovich Feklisov (Russian: Александр Семёнович Феклисов; 9 March 1914 – 26 October 2007) was a Soviet spy, the NKVD Case Officer who handled Julius Rosenberg and Klaus Fuchs, among others. Life and w ...

further employing Gold to liaise with Soviet agents in the U.S.

. Besides Gold, main

couriers between New York and

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

included the

Cohen Cohen () is a surname of Jewish, Samaritan and Biblical origins (see: Kohen). It is a very common Jewish surname (the most common in Israel). Cohen is one of the four Samaritan last names that exist in the modern day. Many Jewish immigrants ente ...

couple (known to NKVD as VOLUNTEERS). Being close with the Cohens, Yatskov was able to covertly communicate with chief atomic scientist

Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 – 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly a ...

directly involved in the

. Yatskov was rotated back from

back to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1946. Having left U.S. soil four years prior to the Rosenbergs' trial he was summoned in the indictment as one of Julius Rosenberg's

case officers but legal action was waived due to his

diplomatic immunity Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

. Returning to the Soviet Union, Yatskov was awarded the rank of NKVD colonel and held senior positions in the

foreign Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

scientific department. He was engaged in case handlings in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, in the 1950s being posted to Paris and Berlin as well as covertly living for some time in Iraq as a Canadian national. In the 1960s Yatskov was named the senior case officer in the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

scientific department (named Department T) responsible for assessing and recruiting foreign scientists on Soviet soil. In the 1970s Yatskov had left active posts and was named the scientific head of

Intelligence Academy (Red Banner Academy, known as KI). He retired from the

as a colonel in 1985, living in Moscow in his retirement and buried at Moscow Vagankov cemetery.

Honours

Yatskov was awarded Soviet medals for Orders of

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, Red Banner, and the

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. ...

, as well as the honorary

medal for "Distinguished Security Services". In 1996 his lifetime achievements for the Russian state were posthumously awarded the highest honour of

Hero of the Russian Federation Hero of the Russian Federation ( rus, Герой Российской Федерации, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ), also unofficially called Hero of Russia ( rus, Герой России, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲiɪ), is ...

. In his 1992 interview Yatskov mentioned that in the 1950s the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

had uncovered "less than the half of

U.S. network" publicly referring to an uncovered atomic source at that time still alive in the U.S. as

PERSEUS In Greek mythology, Perseus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

References

External links

Annotated Bibliography for Anatoli Yatskov from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yatskov, Anatoly 1913 births 1993 deaths 20th-century Russian diplomats NKVD officers Cold War spies Heroes of the Russian Federation Soviet diplomats Soviet spies against the United States KGB officers

Career

Honours

See also

References

Further reading

External links