This post will focus on exile broadcasts via Radio Nacional de España in Madrid to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) in the early Cold War. CIA not only unsupported these broadcasts, but also consistently rejected numerous requests for financial support for them, although CIA financially supported the exile group in its other activities.
There is some confusion as to the correct English spelling of Belarus and its language: according to the Wikipedia entry:
· Belarusian (also spelled Belarusan, Belarussian, Byelarussian) – derived from the name of the country Belarus, officially approved for use abroad by the Belarusian authorities and promoted since then.
· Byelorussian (also spelled Belorussian, Bielorussian ) – derived from the Russian name of the country “Byelorussia” (Белоруссия), used officially (in the Russian language) in the times of the USSR and, later, in Russia.
· White Ruthenian (and its equivalents in other languages) – literally, a word-by-word translation of the parts of the composite word Belarusian. The information below is based, in part, on a chapter in my upcoming book Cold War Frequencies: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The book is available for pre-ordering now, with publication in Autumn 2020.
The post-World-War-Two Byelorussian emigration in Western Europe was split into two organizations:
BZR/BCR (Beloruska Zentralna Rada or Byelorussian Central Council) and BNR (Beloruska Nationalna Rada, Byelorussian National Council or Council of the Byelorussian Peoples Republic).
From 1951 to 1962, CIA financially supported and used the BNR émigré/exile group in the United States and Europe. CIA operations against the BSSR began in summer 1951, when CIA initiated a Foreign Intelligence project (CIA cryptonym AEQUOR) that included agent infiltration operations in BSSR to establish contact with partisan groups and set up support bases for future operations.
CIA’s Munich Combined Soviet Operations Base (CSOB) was the responsible unit. CIA’s Office of Special Operations and Office of Policy Coordination shared equally in all expenses related to the recruitment, training, compensation, equipment, dispatch, and exfiltration of agents into and out of Byelorussia. Foreign Intelligence operations ceased in 1953, and psychological warfare operations became the main CIA focus.
Nationalism became a serious topic of discussion within CIA:
Despite the fact that Byelorussia has been recognized as a separate national and nationalistic entity by the Soviet government and by the United Nations, there is still some unexamined doubt lingering … concerning the identity of the Byelorussians as an ethnic-national group. This doubt would not be significant if there were persons … other than the case officers working on the AEQUOR project, at all familiar with historical developments in Byelorussia -- a subject which is not taught at any U. S. establishment.
Even among case officers who are willing to admit that a modicum of nationalist feeling probably exists, doubt persists as to the significance of Byelorussian nationalism. The question of nationalism in Byelorussia is no less important, and possibly considerably more important because of the strategic location of the BSSR, than is the same question in each of the other nationality areas in the USSR, including, of course, the RSFSR (Russia today). Considering that 8 to 10 million inhabitants in a relatively rural area speak the same language and have had a long and close association with freedom-loving Poles and Lithuanians, it would be abnormal indeed if no nationalism existed in Byelorussia.
On March 3, 1953, CIA sponsored Radio Liberation from Bolshevism began short-wave broadcasting in Russian to the USSR. Initially, the Byelorussian section of Radio Liberation consisted of five persons, who would make only one 15-minute broadcast daily: one announcer, one secretary, and/or translator and three researchers.
Voice of America Byelorussian language shortwave broadcasts were transmitted only from 1956 to 1957.
BNR Byelorussian language shortwave broadcasts over Radio Nacional de España began on January 1, 1959, to the BSSR and Byelorussian minority living in Poland. The renewal request of CIA psychological warfare project AEQUOR, dated July 16, 1959, included the following comments:
Byelorussian language broadcasts over Radio Madrid are directed to the BSSR and to the Byelorussian colonies in Poland. The technical reception of these broadcasts in Poland is known to be good. Various letters have been received from Poland proving that these Byelorussian broadcasts are listened to assiduously.
The BNR has been able to continue these broadcasts to the present day only by levying a tax on each gainfully employed member of the BER in Europe with the hope that CIA would see fit to continue this going and effective PP effort. CIA funds requested by the BNR for this effort have been in the modest sum of $4000 per year in order to pay the salaries of two BNR employees who devote their full time on these broadcasts and to cover all other costs of broadcasting.
It should be noted that there are no other Byelorussian nationalist broadcasts in the Byelorussian language in existence. (NOTE: The Byelorussian broadcasts over Radio Liberation are not nationalist in content and are strictly controlled to accord with a non-offensive policy toward the nationality issue.) The Spanish government is not currently censoring these broadcasts over Radio Madrid.
In the request for CIA projects renewal for FY 1960, the “analysis of effectiveness” of these early broadcasts read, in part:
Fifteen-minute programs are transmitted twice daily. Two BNR adherents prepare the programs under extremely primitive conditions, but reports from legal travelers indicate that the programs are received at least as far as the Byelorussian colonies in eastern Poland. It is likely that they are also heard in Byelorussia. Soviet jamming is said to be erratic and only moderately effective. The cost of the broadcasts is borne entirely by BNR, although CIA support has been requested … Many members of the group are regular employees of such organizations as Radio Liberty
CIA never did financially support the Madrid broadcasts to Byelorussia and decided in August 1961 to terminate project AEQUOR effective December 30, 1961, for the following reason:
The project is being terminated for lack of evidence that it is contributing significantly to the fulfillment of Agency objectives. The Field concurs in this judgment. That the project has had some effect in the Cold War is true, but it is not believed that its effectiveness merits continued investment of Agency funds.
Note: broadcasts to Belarus continues today from RFE/RL in Prague: “RFE/RL's Belarus Service is one of the leading providers of news and analysis to Belarusian audiences in their own language. It is a bulwark against pervasive Russian propaganda and defies the government’s virtual monopoly on domestic broadcast media.“
For more information on clandestine radio broadcasting: Cold War Frequencies: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
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