PYREX: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting from Greece to Bulgaria in the early Cold War ©

 In September 1945, the Red Army invaded Bulgaria, and a reign of terror began under "Sovietization" of the country. Bulgarians, who took up armed resistance to the imposition of Communism, were known as the Goryani (Горяни -- also transliterated as Goriani), or “Man of the Forests" or "Ones of the Forest.” 

In January 1950, CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) “Plan of Operation for Bulgaria” was approved by the Assistant Director Policy Coordination (Frank Wisner), Director of Central Intelligence, and by the U.S. Department of State in February 1950. One of the approved lines of action was, “This will necessitate the immediate establishment of covert broadcasting facilities as near as possible to Bulgaria and simultaneous preparation for the distribution of printed material with the target area.” 

 

“Radio Goryanin” shortwave programs over the two mobile transmitters began April 1, 1951, with 30-minute broadcasts. The exact frequency was changed every few minutes to avoid jamming the transmissions. The programs opened with the militaristic, nationalist anthem "One Covenant" and ended similarly with the anthem "Shumi Maritsa." 

 

The Bulgarian Directorate of State Security (DS) reacted to “Radio Goryanin” by trying to locate the station. For example, on May 5, 1951, a DS report contained this passage: "There is still no accurate data on her whereabouts, and who has created and manages it. Intelligence suggests that it is located somewhere in the country, near the Greek border, or on a ship in the waters of the Mediterranean."   

 

1953 was an important year for “Radio Goryanin” broadcasts as the mobile stations were changed out to a recently installed high-powered transmitter near Athens. In June 1953, in addition to the standard broadcasts, CIA headquarters suggested that broadcasts make use of the recent disturbance in East Germany and Czechoslovakia - with emphasis on the spontaneity of the outbreaks, the defections of East German police, and the brutality of the reprisals -- but with warnings against premature action.  

 

In October 1953, a new program format was inaugurated to broadcast "nationalist-communist propaganda: “Hristo Botev.”. The new program eliminated the old recorded introductions and made references to the "Brotherhood for the Freedom of Bulgaria." 

 

In May 1954, the Bulgarian Intelligence Service DS created a special directorate, "Radiooko" (radiokontrarazuznavane) to clarify and work on signals for available illegal hostile radio stations." In one report, there was this comment: "The broadcasts of the radio station "Goryanin" in their goals and purpose are divided into two types. The first addressed the couriers of the radio station and the second - the population. Of course,, the ones addressed to the couriers have coded form." The following representative sample program attributed to “Radio Goryanin or “Hristo Botev” is taken from one DS Report. 

 

October 1, 1951: “The whip will deliver a message to one of the messengers of the Free Brotherhood. Warning! Speaking to the courier Stone. Stone, the sun rose. You have a new backpack. Watermill No 3. At 4, 8, 3, 4, 1. Cut branches up to 4, 2, 8, 6, 5. The pine trees. End.” 

 

 “Hristo Botev" last known broadcast was on July 30, 1962; on August 9, 1962, "Radio Goryanin" terminated its broadcasts. The scripts and tapes of both “Radio Goryanin” and “Hristo Botev” are presumably lost or not available publicly to research.

 

Details of both “Radio Goryanin” and “Hristo Botev” are included in:

PYREX: CIA Clandestine Station Nasha Rossiya (Our Russia) broadcast from Greece in the early Cold War ©

 In the 1950s, CIA's Soviet Russia (SR) Division project for clandestine radio broadcasting in Russian from Greece had CIA cryptonyms AECROAK and AEHANGOVER; the name of the radio station was Nasha Rossiya (Our Russia), which probably began shortwave broadcasting in 1954 – the exact date is not known. The 1955 book Broadcasting Stations of the World listed Nasha Rossiya as a clandestine station using the Russian language; the 1953 edition did not list it. 

The programs at first were tape recordings prepared by a CIA "panel" in the United States, air pouched to CIA station in Athens, Greece, and then sent directly to the PYREX transmitting site for broadcasting. The procedure was then changed in 1957, with the tapes sent to a local contact, who processed the tapes and then sent them to PYREX for airing. 

 

In September 1957, shortwave broadcasts from PYREX to the USSR aired from 07:00 to 07:30 AM and Berlin from 9:30 to 10:00 PM. The total number of broadcast hours for the month was 784, with a total number of tape runs 1, 918.  Soviet jamming of the Nasha Rossiya broadcasts that had begun in 1954 was so reduced that in some cases, jamming started between 5 and 20 minutes after the broadcasts began or went off the air before the broadcasts ended. Many broadcasts were jammed by only one transmitter that meant the programs were audible in the target areas. The total jamming free broadcast time was 57 hours, 34 minutes.  

 

On September 12, 1957,  Nasha Rossiya began broadcasting "latest news and comments" programs locally prepared in Athens. The tapes were then sent to the CIA transmitting site for broadcasting Monday through Thursday. Locally prepared tapes were then sent on Friday for weekend broadcasts, as there were no delivery of tapes on Saturdays and Sundays.  

 

In February 1958, the broadcast scripts prepared in Athens included: 

 

·      U.S Sputnik “Alpha 58.” 
(5 ½ minutes)

·      Appeal to Soviet troops stationed in Romania in connection with peasants’ uprisings. 
(4 ½ minutes)

·      Opposition to Ulbricht in East Germany’s Communist Party. (3 ½ minutes) 


·      Khrushchev’s speech in Minsk. 
(10 ½ minutes)

·      Khrushchev’s grandiose plans covering the next 15 years. (3 minutes)


·      Soviet Army Day. (8 minutes) 10

 

By February 1958, Nasha Rossiya  broadcast an average of 760 times per month because "Headquarters post-Hungarian Revolution policy call for greater emphasis on Russian language propaganda directed to Great-Russian elements in the USSR."

 

According to a KGB May 1959 report, for April, "Programs of the radio station 'Nasha Rossiya'(Our Russia) were listened to primarily at night time from 22:35 - 04:45 ... in the suburbs of Kiev, Tbilisi and such cities as Kamensk-Uralsk, Serpukhov, Minsk, Borisov, Smolensk, Mozhaysk, Klin and others.”  

 

It is presumed that all broadcasts of Nasha Rossiya ceased in October 1959, or shortly after that, because Broadcast Stations of the World listed Nasha Rossiya as a clandestine station in Russian in the 1959 edition, but not in the 1960 edition. 

 

More details on Nasha Rossiya can be found here:

PYREX: Greece-based CIA clandestine radio broadcasts to Ukraine in the early Cold War ©

The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) clandestine broadcasts from Greece were initially via two or three mobile units close to the Bulgarian border. In Spring 1950, the Greek government gave CIA approval for the construction of a permanent communications installation near Athens for psychological warfare broadcasting -- the installation for transmitting and monitoring gained the cryptonym WEMCA, with a broadcasting operation of up to nine language units known as PYREX.  In addition to clandestine radio broadcasts, the PYREX site would also be used in balloon/propaganda leaflet operations against Albania and Bulgaria.

 

One example of the clandestine broadcasts from PYREX is that for Ukraine: Novaya Ukraina(New Ukraine). The objective of the clandestine radio project with the cryptonym RANTER were listed in a July 21, 1953 project outline: utilization of broadcast time available on the KUBARK (CIA) radio installation PYREX at Athens, Greece, for the broadcast of a series of programs to be directed to: 

 

·      Soviet officialdom, 


·      Soviet military forces stationed in the Ukraine, 


·      The indigenous civilian population of the Ukraine, 


·      Underground movement, 


·      Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). 

 

   The tasks of the project were to: 


 

·      Furnish evidence of outside sympathy and understanding for the Ukrainian peoples. 


·      Intensify anti-regime disaffection by encouraging resentment, bitterness, and distrust of the Soviet regime and its personalities. 


·      Maintain national consciousness among the Ukrainians and urge them to maintain pride in the individuality and heritage of their culture. 


·      Create dissatisfaction among Ukrainian military personnel within the Soviet armed forces stationed in Ukraine. 


·      Create and intensify dissatisfaction among the Ukrainian civil authorities to the Soviet regime. The submitting division gave the following as why the black broadcasts were necessary: This project is based upon the need to make a more significant propaganda impact on this strategic target audience. At present, the only PBPRIME (United States, i.e., Voice of America) and KUBARK (CIA) propaganda efforts directed to the target area consist of Voice of America broadcasts and the Radio Liberation effort to the Kiev area in the Russian language.

 

The July 1953 project outline also listed the method of preparing the broadcasts: 

·      Scripts and tapes to be prepared by a CIA covert operation in New York City: Prolog Research and Publishing Association, Inc (CIA Cryptonyms QRTENURE and AETENURE)

 

·      It is proposed that programs in the Ukrainian language be produced and recorded on magnetic tape in New York and flown to Athens for broadcast by personnel attached to PYREX. It is realized that programming from this distance is not as efficient and timely as it would be if located nearer the transmitter. However, this is the only means at present whereby immediate advantage can be taken of the PYREX facility. When future operation conditions permit the programming to be prepared closer to the transmitter site, this project's program activities will be transferred accordingly. At first three tapes a week for fifteen minutes each broadcast time will be prepared. With the increase in script output and availability of air time, the broadcasts can be expanded.

 

There were many difficulties in getting programs on the air. The first broadcast of radio Novaya Ukraina was made on September 25, 1955, with one 15-minute transmission daily. This later was increased to two scheduled broadcasts daily, which used two transmitter hours per day or 60 hours per month.  

 

Full details of CIA’s clandestine broadcasting to Ukraine and other countries from Greece can be found here:

 

 

·      Bulgaria (Chapter 4), 

·      Romania (Chapter 4), 

·      Albania (Chapter 5),

·      Ukraine (Chapter 7), and 

·      The Soviet Union, in Russian and some Caucasus languages (Chapter 8). 

Origins of early Cold War CIA clandestine or “black” radio broadcasts over Radio Nacional de España in Madrid, Spain, in Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian ©

The first psychological warfare project of CIA's Special Procedures Group (SPG) was UMPIRE, which provided for the production and dissemination of covert propaganda against the Soviet Union and East European countries behind the Iron Curtain using radio broadcasts and printed material. The Special Procedures Group became the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) in August 1948, taking over the SPG projects, including UMPIRE. The project designation was later changed on December 1, 1948, to EDUCATOR and then QKDEMON. 

In 1949, officers of the  Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) began discussing the use of Radio Nacional de España (RNE) as a tool in the psychological warfare campaign against the USSR. An “official dispatch” OPC message dated May 30, 1949, on the subject Radio Nacional Propaganda Broadcasts contained the outline of how to use RNE:

[W]e have studied the matter not only in regard to the immediate problem of applying background material but also relative to the larger, long range possibility of utilizing Radio Nacional as a channel for operational broadcasts, to which EDUCATOR creative personnel in Germany might contribute both program material as well as programs themselves, including possibly special recordings. 

Information here indicates that Madrid is heard reasonably well in satellite areas. If the Spanish Government, through proper covert arrangements, is willing to place the facilities and broadcast time of the station as the disposal of (redacted), this would clearly open up the possibility of using Madrid as an operational outlet for broadcasts, whether sponsored by or accordingly produced by the U.S. Government. 

Assuming the broadcasts can be heard satisfactorily in the target areas and time and facilities could be made available to (redacted), it would seem there are four problems to be met: 

a.     Cover for the operation. 


b.     Policy control. 


c.     Type of broadcasts in relation to audience reaction. 


d.     A competent production organization. 

In regard to (a) above, through negotiations with the proper Spanish Government levels, I should think a suitable operational cover could be arranged--as, for example, the Spanish Government, in its desire to oppose religious persecutions in satellite countries, has accorded broadcasting time to refugee Catholic groups in Spain in order to permit them to talk to their fellow countrymen. 

In regard to (b) above, periodic policy guidance from the home office, together with a close monitoring watch over the broadcasts, should provide adequate policy control, especially if the cover and security of the operation are well maintained and the U.S. Government is not linked in any way with the broadcasts.

CIA eventually supported and financed RNE broadcasts in Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian. More information and full details of CIA clandestine broadcasting over Radio Nacional de España can be found here: