Ivan Tikhonovich Savchenko (; 9 March 1908 – 5 September 1999) was a Soviet Communist Party and

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 ...

executive. Savchenko made a career as a political officer in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during

World War II 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 ...

. A protégé of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

and

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

, Savchenko transferred to the Ministry of State Security (the predecessor to the KGB) in 1951.De Leeuw, Bergstra, p. 506. In 1952 he was promoted to the chief of the Special Services Department (GUSS, a

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

and

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

branch of the Central Committee), in 1953 to the Chief of the KGB's Eighth Chief Directorate. His record at the national Party and KGB levels was lackluster, and 1959 he was transferred from

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 with ...

to Chişinău as the head of the Moldavian SSR KGB. In 1967–1979 Savchenko represented the KGB in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Service in Moscow

In June 1951 Savchenko, who already earned special operations experience in the fight against Ukrainian nationalists, held an insignificant bureaucratic appointment in the national offices of the Central Committee in Moscow. In July 1951, after the fall of State Security chief

Viktor Abakumov Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high-level Soviet security official who from 1943 to 1946 was the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 of the Minister of St ...

, colonel Savchenko was hastily recruited to the Ministry of State Security (MGB).Kolpakidi, Seriakov p. 460. Savchenko temporarily held the post of the Deputy Chairman of the MGB, but apparently had not done anything notable in this office.Kolpakidi, Seriakov p. 461. One year later he was transferred back to the Central Committee, and appointed chief of its Special Services Department (GUSS), a

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

and

service. GUSS was created in 1942 by (then) major Ivan Shevelev. In 1949 the service was transferred from the

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 ...

control under direct management of the Central Committee. Shevelev, otherwise a capable SIGINT officer, was not able to overcome the shortage of qualified staff and the departmental rivalry with the stronger

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

force. In June 1952 Shevelev, now a Lieutenant General, was replaced by Savchenko.Kolpakidi, Seriakov p. 479. After the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

GUSS was reincorporated into the KGB as its Eighth Directorate, with Savchenko in command. Savchenko, a career

apparatchik __NOTOC__ An '' apparatchik'' () was a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the government of the Soviet Union, Soviet government ''apparat'' (Wiktionary:аппарат#Russian, аппарат, appar ...

without technical or intelligence background, "proved to be a major disappointment given his lack of understanding of the technical aspects ... and his well-advertised ambition to get promoted out of GUSS."

Service in Moldova

In 1959 Savchenko was transferred to Moldova and appointed chief of the State Committee of Security of

Moldavian SSR The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic or Moldavian SSR (, mo-Cyrl, Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ), also known as the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldovan SSR, Soviet Moldavia, Sovie ...

. He assumed control over Moldovan KGB at the time when its rights were limited and duties extended. The border guard troops, reporting to KGB general Iosif Mordovets, once subordinated to the Moldovan KGB, now reported directly to Moscow. Savchenko, a Party apparatchik tasked with increasing the Party influence in the KGB, established himself as a capable executive with good interpersonal communication skills. He refused to recruit anyone with less than a university degree, and willfully recruited Moldovan nationals. His rule in Moldova was marked by the food crisis of the 1960s and its consequence, the rise in black market trading which the KGB was never able to control. In line with Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign, Moldovan KGB actively repressed the church. Many churches and monasteries were closed, the remaining ones infiltrated by the KGB agents and directly regulated from the KGB offices. As the number of foreign tourists increased, Savchenko had to focus on this threat too. The Council of Ministers, concerned about foreign infiltration, installed tight controls over the contacts between foreigners and locals, particularly scientists and academic. Savchenko's influence was gradually diluted since 1962, with the rise of

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...

, an enemy of Khrushchev. In the late 1960s Major General Savchenko was relieved from his Moldovan appointment and transferred to less important foreign service in the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

. He died in

at the age of 91.

Footnotes

References

* Teodor Botnaru, Alexandru Ganenko. Istoria Serviciilor secrete. Breviar. Chişinău. Ed. Museum, 2004, pp. 93–94 * Karl de Leeuw, J. A. Bergstra (2007).
The history of information security: a comprehensive handbook
'. Elsevier. . * A. I. Kolpakidi, M. S. Seriakov (2002, in Russian).
Щит и меч (Schit i mech)
'. Olma Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Savchenko, Ivan 1908 births 1999 deaths People from Don Host Oblast Members of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Political history of Moldova Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour KGB officers Soviet lieutenant generals