Oleg Kalugin
Kalugin was recruited by the KGB for foreign intelligence work in the First Chief Directorate when he attended Leningrad State University.
Within his first two years of intelligence work for the KGB, Kalugin was sent to Columbia University to work undercover as a journalist.
Kalugin conducted espionage and influence operations while simultaneously earning a degree as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia's School of Journalism.
He later served as deputy resident at the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
Kalugin became the youngest general in the history of the KGB.
He was eventually appointed to head of Line KR, where he handled important espionage cases of the Seventies and Eighties.
Kalugin's internal criticism of arbitrary rule and cronyism within the KGB caused friction with the KGB leadership.
He was demoted to serve as deputy chief of internal security in Leningrad.
Kalugin was forced into retirement in 1989 because of his reformist political activities, including revelations of KGB wrongdoing.
His attacks on the KGB won him a public following, and in 1990 Kalugin ran successfully for the Supreme Soviet, or 'Parliament' of the USSR.
Following a 1991 putsch, Kalugin became an advisor to reformist KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin.
He later travelled to the US.
In September 1997 Kalugin said that his life was in danger if he returned to Russia because of false accusations that he was cooperating with the CIA.
"My reappearance back home today would be a boon to those
who hate and want to see me in the grave. That's the reason why I do not
feel like going back home today" Kalugin said in 1997.
Several retired CIA clandestine operatives were opposing Kalugin's effort to
obtain a "green card," which would make him a permanent legal resident of
the United States.
Opposition to Kalugin in the United States stems from an incident in which Soviet defector was killed in KGB custody. The 1975 KGB operation of kidnapping the defector had been led by Kalugin.
In 1994 Kalugin published his autobiography. He also collaborated with former CIA director William Colby to produce the CD-ROM game "Spycraft: The Great Game."
Kalugin is presently Chairman of Intercon International, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., which provides information services for businesses in the former Soviet Union.