“An Ominous Talent”: Oleg Gribanov and KGB Counterintelligence

Abstract

Lieutenant General Oleg Gribanov was one of the most enigmatic and controversial leadership figures in the history of Soviet counterintelligence. Having joined the ranks of Soviet state security in the 1930s, he rose to prominence in the early 1950s and was the head of the Second Chief Directorate of the Committee for State Security (KGB) (counterintelligence) from 1956 until 1964, one of the most tumultuous historical periods in the relations between the Soviet Union and the West. Yet, in 1964, Gribanov was fired from his post, and the following year, stripped of all his medals and expelled from the Communist Party. He never held any leadership position in the Soviet nomenklatura again but continued to exercise a great deal of covert influence in the public sphere as a writer of popular spy fiction under the pseudonym Oleg Shmelyov. Based on little-known KGB archival documents and publications, this article presents Gribanov’s biography and focuses on his role in shaping KGB counterintelligence operations in the 1950s and beyond.