Spycraft - Melton [69]
By publicizing the story, the Soviets intended to send a message to the CIA and FBI as well as to members of Soviet intelligence who might consider following Polyakov’s path. From another perspective, the Soviet account confirmed Polyakov’s status as, in the words of a case officer, “the most perfect agent one can reasonably imagine.”
Adolf Tolkachev waited patiently on a snowy street near a Moscow gas station in January 1977. The station was frequented by foreigners and when an American-appearing driver stopped, Tolkachev asked, in English, if he was from the United States. When the driver answered that he was, Tolkachev calmly dropped a folded sheet of paper on the car seat through the open window.
Since neither individual looked like what they were, it’s difficult to say which of them would have been more surprised to learn the truth. Tolkachev, a middle-aged, undistinguished Russian, was actually a top Soviet military engineer who had recently decided to become a spy. The young, casually dressed American in the car was the local CIA chief.12 Both were carrying their own secrets and wary of the KGB watchers.
Tolkachev, then a systems engineer in the NIIR (Scientific Research Institute of Radio) building was, by his own description, a “dissident at heart.” Inspired by writers like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, he was in a state of near anguish. In one of his letters about his decision to spy, he wrote:
Some inner worm started to torment me; something has to be done. I started to write short leaflets that I planned to mail out. But, later, having thought it out properly, I understood that this was a useless undertaking. To establish contact with dissident circles which have contact with foreign journalists seemed senseless to me due to the nature of my work. (I have a top-secret clearance.) Based on the slightest suspicion, I would be totally isolated or liquidated. Thus was born my plan of action to which I have resorted.13
Startled by the brief encounter, the chief read the note, which asked for a meeting with an appropriate American official for a confidential discussion and suggested a choice of discreet meeting places in either the car of the American or a Metro station entrance. It proposed a response signal to confirm the meeting involving a car parked at a specific location. The envelope contained precisely drawn sketches of the locations along with a diagram showing how the car should be parked to send the correct signal.
Tolkachev could hardly have picked a worse time for the contact. Although a few operations, like TRIGON, within Moscow were progressing, there remained a deep suspicion within the CIA of any Russian volunteer, especially in Moscow. That chance had brought the Agency’s Moscow chief face to face with Tolkachev on the initial contact attempt only amplified this distrust. What were the odds that a legitimate volunteer would hand a note to the highest-ranking American intelligence officer in Moscow? And the fact that Tolkachev’s approach should occur just before a scheduled diplomatic visit by Cyrus Vance on behalf of a newly elected President, Jimmy Carter, made it all the more suspicious.
On the other hand, many of the Agency’s most important agents, including Penkovsky, had volunteered in a similar manner. Penkovsky, for instance, had sent several messages in 1960 to two American students, a British businessman, and a Canadian businessman in an effort to establish a communications channel before the British followed up.14
However, if Tolkachev was a KGB “dangle,” responding to his approach could allow the Soviets to pinpoint agency personnel, identify agent-handling tradecraft, disrupt ongoing Moscow operations, and embarrass a newly elected President. 15 Added to this was the fact that Tolkachev’s notes failed to provide sufficient personal information to identify him or specifics about