10 WORST Things the KGB Has Done

10 WORST Things the KGB Has Done

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining our picks for the most terrible operations conducted by the Soviet Union’s security agency from 1954 until 1991. Of course, these are just the ones we know about!

Bugging a Whole Hotel

When you check into a hotel, you’re likely assuming that you’re not being secretly monitored in your room. Yet, if you were a guest at the Sokos Hotel Viru in Tallinn, Estonia, during the Soviet era, your deeds may have been recorded. The hotel’s 23rd floor held a secret KGB room that took note of the goings-on in 60 rooms and the restaurant with listening devices. The USSR had controlled Estonia since the year 1940, and the KGB didn’t leave the hotel until Estonia’s independence in 1991. In 1994, the secret listening room was discovered. Since then, the hotel has converted it into a museum where people can explore its espionage history.

Targeting Writers

The KGB targeted many writers for perceived dissidence, censoring their work and sending some to labor camps. Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel are well-known examples. Both were Soviet writers who published novels in the West under pseudonyms, shining a light on the harsh realities of life living in the USSR. After the KGB discovered their real identities, they arrested both in 1965, resulting in an infamous show trial as they were charged with anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Unlike similar trials at the time, Sinyavsky and Daniel both pleaded not guilty. However, both were sentenced to labor camps, with Sinyavsky getting seven years and Daniel receiving five years.

Sexpionage

During the Cold War, the KGB used sexpionage, deploying female "Swallows" and male "Ravens" to seduce targets. One notable case in the 1950s involved Maurice Dejean, French ambassador to the Soviet Union and a close ally of French President Charles de Gaulle. The KGB used actress Larisa Kronberg to seduce Dejean, luring him into a trap. Kronberg’s fake husband burst in, attacked him, and staged a scandal, leading Dejean to seek help from a Soviet friend … who secretly worked for the KGB. This gave the Soviets substantial leverage over him. In 1964, Dejean was fired after the British discovered the plan from defector Yuri Krotkov and informed the French.

The Assassination of Lev Rebet

Writer and politician Lev Rebet served as deputy prime minister and later acting prime minister of Ukraine. However, he was arrested in 1941 by the Gestapo and sent to a Nazi concentration camp. After the war, Rebet focussed on writing about Ukrainian nationalism and anti-communism, bringing him into conflict with the USSR, who occupied Ukraine at the time. In 1957, while in Munich, West Germany, Rebet was approached by KGB agent Bohdan Stashynsky, who sprayed the writer with a poison gas, killing him. In 1959, Stashynsky used the same method to assassinate Rebet’s friend, Stepan Bandera. The agent would later fall in love with an East German woman, leading to the KGB spying on him before he defected in 1961.

Infiltrating the FBI

Just three years into his FBI career, Robert Hanssen contacted the Soviet Union and offered to spy against the U.S.. From 1979 to 2001, with some breaks, he sold thousands of classified documents to the KGB and its successors, exposing U.S. intelligence operations and compromising agents. The FBI spent $7 million to acquire KGB files from defector Aleksandr Shcherbakov, ultimately leading to Hanssen’s arrest. In 2002, he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms. He died in 2023. Meanwhile, the KGB had also infiltrated the CIA with Aldrich Ames, who began spying for them in 1985. Aldrich was caught in 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Operation Cedar Preparations

While this covert mission thankfully never came to be, the scale at which this plan was coordinated and organized is undeniably terrifying. During the Cold War, the KGB plotted to interrupt the United States’ power supply through the destruction of key oil pipelines, major dams, and the Port of New York. The preparations for Operation Cedar were allegedly carried out over a span of thirteen years, from 1959 through 1972. The level and quantity of intelligence gathered for this operation exhibits just how dedicated the KGB had been to its follow-through – clearly, had it occurred, it would have been a massive calamity.

Crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist who worked as an informer for the NKVD secret police, a predecessor of the KGB. He later rose through the ranks of the Hungarian government, becoming Prime Minister in 1953. His attempts to reform Stalinist policies led to his ouster in 1955 under pressure from Soviet-aligned hardliners. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Nagy was reinstated, pledged to make democratic reforms, and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. In response, the Soviet Union invaded, crushing the revolution, with KGB support. Nagy sought asylum but was arrested, secretly tried, and executed for treason in 1958.

A Brutal Solution to a Hostage Crisis

During the Lebanese Civil War, 104 foreigners were taken hostage between 1982 and 1992. In 1985, four Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in Beirut by the Islamic Liberation Organization (ILO). Days later, one of the captives was killed. But a month later, the remaining three were unexpectedly released. According to reports, the release came after the KGB captured the relative of a Hezbollah leader, murdered him, and mailed parts of his body to the leader, with the message that other relatives would follow. This brutal response is believed to have pressured the kidnappers into freeing the diplomats. Though widely reported, the Soviet Union never officially confirmed the operation.

The Umbrella Gun Assassination

Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian writer and dissident who often found his works censored by the communist government. Markov managed to defect from Bulgaria in 1969, eventually relocating to London, where he worked for the BBC World Service and continued to criticize the Bulgarian regime. On September 7, 1978, on his way to work at the BBC, Markov felt a sting on his leg. When he turned, a man was picking up an umbrella before walking off. Just days later, the writer passed away. Many years later, former KGB general Oleg Kalugin claimed that the assassination had been a joint operation between the KGB and the Bulgarian Secret Service.

Operation PANDORA

In 1992, Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the UK, bringing with him a trove of KGB documents, later known as the Mitrokhin Archive, which became public in 1999. Among its revelations was Operation PANDORA, a KGB program in the 1970s aimed at stirring racial tensions in the US. The mission planned to send fake pamphlets and letters to various groups, including the Black Panthers, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jewish Defense League, to provoke a race war. The KGB was also going to bomb a historically Black college in New York City and blame the JDL. Fortunately, in the 1980s, US authorities dismantled a KGB spy spring, or the plan could well have been enacted.

What other terrible KGB incidents did we miss? The group’s involvement in Lithuania’s January Events in 1991? Attempting to overthrow the Soviet government in 1991? Or something else? Let us know below.