The Kazakh city of Aktyubinsk, where Adolf Georgievich Tolkachev was born on January 6, 1927, the future spy did not remember. Already at the age of two years his parents moved him to Moscow, where he lived his whole life. The exception was 1948-1954, when Tolkachev studied at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute. The young man became an engineer in the field of radar. The Soviet state appreciated such cadres and at the same time tightly regulated their activities. Tolkachev according to the order was sent to the Research Institute of Radio Engineering. Aktyubinsk, the hometown of the specialist, is forever in the past - years of work in closed enterprises awaited him.
Initiator
Adolf Tolkachev tried to establish his first contact with an American resident in 1977, when he was already 50 years old. In his specialty, he had access to important documents related to the Soviet “defense industry”. For foreign intelligence, such an informant could become a very valuable employee.
Adolf Tolkachev understood that it was extremely difficult to get in touch with the CIA in his position. Usually, the special services themselves organized the networks of their agents in the departments they needed. Tolkachev, on the other hand, was an “initiative” - a citizen of the USSR who voluntarily went to work with the Americans. He began looking for CIA officers near the embassy. Intelligence really had agents under diplomatic cover. Adolf Tolkachev left his first note to the Americans under a car wiper. It was easy to calculate the diplomat’s car - they drove foreign cars rare for Soviet roads.
Anonymous letter
The CIA was skeptical of the note left by the anonymous author. The author claimed that he had access to important military documents and was ready to cooperate with the Americans. However, intelligence did not believe that first note. Such an attempt to get in touch seemed too desperate. The CIA feared that the note might be a forgery of the KGB counterintelligence.
In the Soviet intelligence services there was no information about some American agents working undercover. The search for opponents continued every day, and KGB officers could well leave a false note for verification.
New scrapbook
Despite the first failure, Adolf Tolkachev was persistent. A few weeks later, he left another note. It already contained little information about some characteristics of the Soviet radar system. This was valuable information that Americans did not yet have access to. However, this paper did not convince the head of the CIA Stensfield Turner.
Tolkachev would never have been able to get in touch with foreign intelligence, if not for the initiative of resident Gardner Hathaway. He did not share the point of view of his superiors and feared that the CIA might miss an important shot for her. Therefore, after another note, Hathaway sent a categorical telegram to the headquarters in Langley, asking for permission to call the number indicated by the anonymous. After some doubt, Turner finally gave the go-ahead. Hathaway was lucky - just the day before the CIA received a memorandum from the Pentagon - the US Department of Defense expressed interest in any information about Soviet radio technology.
First contact
American residents phoned Tolkachev and left a package for him near the Institute of Radio Industry, which contained a list of questions about Soviet radars. Agents carefully watched from the windows of their car as a middle-aged and nondescript man at the appointed time took the package intended for him.
Week later. The anonymous author in the same way left his answer to the Americans. When the CIA analyzed the data, it became clear that there could no longer be any talk of a KGB trap. The new radar information was so valuable and fundamentally important that the “committee members” would never have risked it to identify the enemy spy network.
"Sphere"
In early 1979, Tolkachev finally met with an American resident. The newly-minted CIA agent received the call sign “Sphere” (this nickname was chosen due to the fact that in the letter the man talked about access to information about the development of a target destruction system in the lower hemisphere). Tolkachev also claimed that he would hand over the blueprints of the latest radar, which would soon be received by high-speed MiG-25s.
The value of the system described by the volunteer agent was tremendous. Such a Soviet radar allowed the aircraft to track high-flying equipment and enemy missiles at high altitude. Until now, the USSR aviation had nothing of the kind. The vulnerability of old Soviet radars made it possible for Americans to effectively use low-altitude bombers and advanced cruise missiles flying out of sight of enemy equipment.
Agent Intent
It is curious that Tolkachev himself in one of his first letters outlined a long-term plan for working with the CIA. He wanted to transfer secret documents for 12 years. All work was divided into seven stages. Tolkachev described in detail what papers and when he would hand them over to his contacts.
The agent’s plan showed the seriousness of his intentions. The engineer had been preparing for the first contact with the Americans for a long time. He wrote that he was going to cause the Soviet Union as much damage as possible. The transfer of secret drawings deprived him of the opportunity to turn back and forget about this story, but Tolkachev was not going to retreat.
CIA success
Today, historians of the special services believe that Tolkachev is the most valuable CIA agent for the entire existence of the American residency in the USSR. The importance of the documents handed over by the volunteer was also that with the help of the latter, the Americans managed to save huge amounts of money. Collaborating with the CIA, Tolkachev received cash in Soviet rubles. In addition, an account was opened in his name with an American bank on which about two million dollars were accumulated (it would be useful if the agent flew overseas). The sum is huge on the scale of one human life. However, for the US military budget, it was ridiculous compared to the money that could have been spent in the future on an arms race with the USSR aviation.
The American special services for a few pennies provided their army with an additional advantage over the enemy. Although the war between the USSR and the USA did not happen, the Pentagon radar and aircraft data was still useful. The Americans shared valuable secrets with the Israelis, who fought with the Arabs in the 80s, whose armies were equipped with Soviet equipment. After receiving strategically important information, the Allied air defense began to easily destroy planes received by their opponents from the USSR.
Curator Tolkacheva
Connected with the “Sphere” was John Gilsher, who at the time of their first meeting was 47 years old. His parents were Russian aristocrats, whose life was destroyed by the October Revolution. They emigrated to the United States, where John was born. He knew Russian well, although he spoke it with a Baltic accent. Before meeting Tolkachev, Gilsher had already taken part in two of the most important operations of the American intelligence services. He was involved in the emergence of the “Berlin tunnel” and the development of the spy Oleg Penkovsky.
In the KGB, Gilsher was watched with special care. There was wiretapping in his apartment. One day, Gilsher even noticed how his coat disappeared from the closet - the Russians took it to install the microphone, but they did it extremely awkwardly. Despite the interest of the Soviet special services in him, it was he who was chosen by the head of the Moscow residency as a liaison with Tolkachev.
Dangerous encounters
Engineer Tolkachev Adolf Georgievich met Gilcher dozens of times. The agent transmitted written materials and a huge amount of film. Thanks to his position, he had access to special literature in the library of the All-Union Research Institute. Tolkachev received for official use documents under the heading of "Special Importance" and "Top Secret", took them home and photographed there with a Pentax camera attached to a dining chair.
Gilsher was a master of reincarnation and did no less difficult work. In order to quietly get to the secret meeting place, he first came to the embassy for a dinner party, then left through the back door, got into a prepared car, where he dressed in typical clothes of the Soviet proletariat. Gilsher once put money and papers with encrypted information in a dirty construction mitten, which he hid in a telephone booth. Tolkachev quietly picked up the things left to him. The curator was constantly under the hood of the KGB. He could cancel a personal meeting if he realized that it was too dangerous because of the “outdoor hunting” that hunted him. Then Gilsher parked the hood in the agreed direction, indicating that the agent needed to leave. In the event of disclosure, everyone was threatened with a death sentence, so they had to communicate with utter caution.
Rock and Roll Cassettes and Imported Blades
Tolkachev understood that he could not spend too much money received from the Americans (although he received about 789 thousand rubles in cash rubles). Living in a big way was too dangerous - defiant behavior might have become interested in the KGB. Therefore, Tolkachev led a fairly modest lifestyle. He had his own car and cottage, but all this was due to him according to his high status at the research institute. The CIA also opposed the large cash flow. It was cash that most often caused agents to fail. Money intoxicated and led to carelessness. In addition, there was simply nothing to spend them in Moscow, which was suffering from a deficit.
Curious about other non-financial ways Americans pay their agent. The son of Adolf Tolkachev (in the early 80s he was a teenager) loved Western music, whose recordings in the USSR were extremely difficult to find. Learning about this, the residents began to transfer “Rock and Roll” cassettes to the “Sphere”. Tolkachev also requested rare books, medicines, imported razor blades in exchange for his information. Fearing for his safety, he demanded from the Americans a capsule with poison in case of a KGB raid. The CIA refused to give poison.
Arrest
In 1980, John Gilsher received a new appointment and left Moscow. Nevertheless, Tolkachev continued to collaborate with the CIA. But with the new liaison, he was extremely unlucky. It was Edward Lee Howard. In 1983, after a polygraph test, the CIA learned that he had used drugs before working in the security services. The scandal led to the dismissal. An embittered Howard contacted the KGB and gave the Committee the names of several spies who worked for the Americans. Among them was Adolf Tolkachev.
The documentary shot about his case in the framework of the “Traitors” project (moderated by Andrey Lugovoi) included several interviews with people involved in the arrest of an employee of the research institute. The detention took place in June 1985. Tolkachev, who did not receive poison from the CIA, could not commit suicide. The Alpha fighters who grabbed him in the car immediately cut the spy's clothes, looking for a hidden vial of poison there.
Court and execution
The arrested agent did not unlock and immediately admitted everything. He was threatened with execution in accordance with the provisions of the article on charges of "Treason to the Homeland". Tolkachev began to ask for pardon. A death sentence awaited him, and in these circumstances a spy would have been glad of any prison term.
The investigation and trial lasted more than a year. Art. 64 required the careful work of many bodies from intelligence to prosecutors. After the Sphere’s arrest, the KGB managed to cover most of that spy network. In particular, curator Paul Stroumbach was also arrested. The fate of the agent himself was actually decided at the time of his detention. According to Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR he was sentenced to capital punishment. The execution took place on September 24, 1986.