KGB Defector And CIA Adviser “YuRI” Nosenko
YURIY IVANOVICH NOSENKO
He was born in a port town during the fall of nineteen twenty seven and was the son of Ivan Nosenko the Soviet Minister of Shipbuilding under Nikita Khrushchev. Following his later recruitment into the Soviet Navy during WWII Nosenko would allegedly shoot himself in the leg to avoid wartime service. Despite this event he was later recruited into the Soviet GRU intelligence organization using Naval cover and later transferred to the KGB. During his time in the later Soviet intelligence group Nosenko approached United States intelligence officials to defect in Switzerland and he would become the nexus of a drama that lasted for years. His defection was disavowed by Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton, his staff, and the leaders of Soviet Russia Division but several other Agency officers deemed Nosenko credible.
Due to inconsistent details from some of Nosenko's claims and prior defector Anatoliy Golitsyn’s warning of false defectors, the Angleton faction believed that Nosenko was a fraud. Some in that group believed Nosenko’s defection was part of a larger Russian disinformation campaign to deceive Western intelligence groups. As turmoil and internal struggles gripped some in the Agency, Nosenko himself was sent imprisoned at the CIA's Camp Peary facility in Virginia for nearly five years. Constrained to a simple diet, sleep deprived, with a thin blanket, cot, and a single light bulb Nosenko faced endless days of repeated interrogation. Some years later CIA leaders overruled the Angleton faction's hold over the defector's case and Nosenko subsequently was released.
A Soveit File Photo Of Yuriy I. Nosenko
Following the ordeal, he was compensated and later became a contract agent for the Agency to perform intelligence lectures and assessments. Nevertheless, some modern research and evidence supports the claim of Nosenko being the false defector that James Angleton prior branded him. No matter his ultimate motivations, related allegations damaged the career of dozens of associated intelligence officers and demonstrated the difficulties handling an intelligence defector. Nosenko's story is a cautionary tale to both defectors and the groups dealing with them because the mere rumor of betrayal can incite a nearly permanent atmosphere of paranoia.
