Defector Case OFFICER George G. KISEVALTER

GEORGE GEORGIEVICH KISEVALTER
George was the descendant of imperial Russian courtiers born within the city of St. Petersburg during nineteen ten and was and only child of a Russian munitions engineer. Amidst the first World War, Kisevalter’s father went to the United States to manage a munitions plant in the Midwest and following the Russian revolution the family relocated within New York. The Kisevalter family became United States citizens and George attended primary and high school in the state of New York. He graduated in the class of nineteen thirty from Dartmouth College where George earned multiple degrees and subsequently decided to joined the US Army Corps of Engineers. Upon the commencement of WWII his ability to speak Russian earned him a liaison officer post in the Alaska Defense Command. Kisevalter later would be recruited by Army Intelligence (G-2) and post-WWII was sent to aide West German intelligence regarding the Soviet Army in Europe.

Following his discharge from the Army, Kisevalter undertook a years long stint in the American West farming but the call of intelligence would lead him to join the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency in the course of nineteen fifty-one. George was assigned to the CIA’s Soviet Division and earned a reputation for professionalism in dealing with Soviet defectors. Kisevalter spent the nineteen fifties and early sixties dealing with famous defectors that included GRU officers Pyotr Popov and Oleg Penkovsky. Kisevalter during that period also supported debriefing the controversial KGB officers Anatoliy Golitsyn and Yuriy Nosenko whose statements caused official ideological divisions. He was a Soviet Division case officer among several Agency employees caught up in the Counterintelligence Staff’s mole hunt.

Many Agency officers supporting defector Yuriy Nosenko’s claims were pitted against the Counterintelligence Staff’s Special Investigations Group (CISIG) favored defector Anatoliy Golitsyn accusations of a mole in the CIA. Despite that Kisevalter questioned Nosenko with Golitsyn’s claims as requested by CISIG he supported that Nosenko was a genuine defector. Further Kisevalter believed the operational ability of Soviet Division was compromised repeatedly by the unproven allegations James Angleton’s mole hunt created. George ended his award winning career amidst the 1970s training other CIA officers and did not waver from doubts about Golitsyn or the mole hunt. George Kisevalter was recognized with the Agency’s highest award for service and was honored as one its most notable officers amid nineteen ninety-six.