Early CIA Cold War Foreign Intelligence Operations in Lithuania, Part Two ©

L-R, Sirvys, Luksa, Tumpys

Biographical sketches of the first three CIA penetration agents:

Juozas Lukša, (true name), aliases: Juozas Adomaitis, Adam Mickiewicz, and Skrajunas, the underground name assigned in October 1947, when he was about to depart to the west.

Lukša was born on August 10, 1921, in Veiveriai, Lithuania. On March 4, 1941, while an engineering student at the University of Kaunas, he was pledged into the Lithuanian Activist Front, an underground, clandestine anti- Soviet resistance movement. On May 6, 1941, he was arrested by the NKVD, but on June 23, 1941, he was set free by Lithuanian partisans as the Soviets retreated before the German advance. He allegedly was involved in a war-time atrocity in Kaunas on June 27, 1941.

In May 1945, the Lithuanian Partisan Movement was organized to unite all partisan activities in and south of Kaunas. He became Chief of the Documents Section. He was ordered to proceed south of Kaunas to contact independent partisan groups and unite them with the Lithuanian Partisan Movement (LPS). He failed in this mission since it was discovered that MKVD agents had penetrated the LPS. In September 1945, the LPS was reorganized and went underground. 

From January 1946-April 1947, Luksa commanded a partisan group and acted as Chief of Press and Information. In April 1947, he was sent to Poland to establish contact with Lithuanian organizations outside the Iron Curtain. Upon his return, he was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer for the underground in his district. In December 1947, Luksa left Lithuania on a mission through Poland and eventually arrived in Sweden.

Luksa wrote a memoir under the pseudonym Juozas Daumantas, with the original Lithuanian title Partizanai už geležinės uždangos, translated as "Partisans behind the Iron Curtain." It was first published in 1950 in the USA. The book was republished with "Fighters for Freedom, Lithuanian Partisans versus the USSR." 

Luksa was in communication with the CIA by wireless transmission between November 16, 1950, and the last message on December 8, 1950, and secret writing letters between November 1, 1950, and the last one on January 14, 1951. In September 1951, Luksa was betrayed by another CIA penetration agent and killed in an ambush by Lithuanian security forces.

Benediktas Trumpys (Rytis)

Trumpys (Trumpis) was born October 1, 1919, in Radoiliskis, Lithuania. He graduated from Siauliai high school in 1938. Subsequently, he was employed as a bookkeeper, railroad worker, and painter (in Pommern, Germany, from 1944 until Gcrany's capitulation). Until 1946, Trumpis was held in the Lubeck DP Camp. Between 1946 and 1949, he served with the 4204 Labor Service Company. Upon leaving the Labor Service Company, he was to inform his friends that clearance for his immigration to the US had come through, and he was taking free time before reporting to Bremerhaven. 

He was killed by Lithuanian security forces on May 20, 1951, in a bunker in the Altoniškės forest of Zapyškis area

Klemensas Sirvys (Sakalas, “Frank”)

Sirvys was born on February 4,  1926, in Kybartai, Lithuania. Until 1944 he was a high school student in Lithuania. Between 1944 and 1946 he was held in Hanau and Gunzen-Hausen DP camps. From 1946 until his recruitment by OSO, Sirvys served in the 4204 Labor Service Company in Bamberg, Germany. 

He was captured on July 24, 1952, put on trial, and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and five years of exile. He returned to Lithuania in 1970 and died in 2003 in Kybartai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early CIA Cold War Foreign Intelligence Operations in Lithuania, Part One ©

AEGEAN was the cryptonym for a joint Office of Policy Coordination (OPC)-Office of Special Operations (OSO) project that began in November 1948. It was created to support the “Lithuanian Resistance Group” (The Supreme Committee for Liberation of Lithuania –Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas (VLIK). OPC supported VLIK for political and psychological warfare (PP); OSO was responsible for foreign intelligence (FI) activities: 

1. Procure information from Lithuania and the Baltic generally. 
2. Procure information from other parts of the USSR. 
3. Use the Lithuanian facilities as a channel for two-way movement of personnel in OSO service and, as necessary, for the movement of equipment, documentary data, and instructions. 
4. Use the Lithuanian facilities for such intelligence activities of OSO interest as may become necessary, to which the Lithuanian facilities, in the West or in the homeland, will lend themselves. 

The AEGEAN project was approved on June 21, 1949: "This project calls for the use at appropriate seasons (usually spring and autumn) of air and sea dispatch facilities. The necessary support equipment consists of wireless transmission equipment, secret writing supplies, personal arms, medical equipment, medical supplies, and negotiable items, such as watches, venereal drugs, and jewelry. Documentation needs will normally be taken care of by the project participants themselves. "

There were two objectives in the project plan that was under the control of the CIA's Munich Operational Base (MOB):  

 

1. Procurement of intelligence from the Baltic States and contiguous areas. 
2. Development of support base in the Lithuanian SSR as a transit point for agents to be dispatched into RSFR, Belorussian SSR, and Ukrainian SSR.

 

There were four targets: 

 

1.   Development of Special OSO-controlled morse code communications from the Lithuanian SSR to the American Zone in Germany and Sweden. 

2.   Development of sea, land, and/or air courier routes - between the American Zone in Germany and the Lithuanian SSR for the two-way movement of personnel, material, and information. 

3.   Development of safe areas, houses, and routes in the Lithuanian SSR to transit personnel, material, and information to and from RSFSR, Belorussian SSR, and Ukrainian SSR. 

 

The project operations were set to begin on July 1, 1949. The OPC project was approved by ADPC Frank Wisner. on July 23, 1949, under the cryptonym BGLAPIN. The project's first year was devoted primarily to the recruitment, training, and briefing of agent personnel. 

Lithuanian General Paulius Plechavicius then residing in the British zone of Germnay was to be the CIA contact person. Plechavicius was chief of the operating (military) section of VLIK. He had experiences in Lithuania during WWII in anti-Soviet activities. He was to move to Munich. The VLIK Operational Section personnel in Sweden was to be integrated into the project as were VLIK operational personnel assigned to the French intelligence service for the parachuting operations into Lithuania. 

 

On October 4, 1950, one team of three men was dropped by parachute into the area of Branischusen, Kaliningrad Oblast. The plane was an unmarked C-47 piloted by two Czech WWII veterans.

The first agents were Juozas Luksas, Benediktas Trumpys, and Klemensas Sirvys. French Intelligence had initially been selected for a mission in 1949, but the French decided to abandon the mission. CIA took it over. 

The mission of the first team was, "Establish wireless transmission as well as secret writing communications with the American Zone of Germany, and to reorganize the underground organization in LSSR into a support organization for American-controlled procurement activities." The three had been trained at a camp in Kaufbeurren, and learned Morse code, radio communications, and sabotage. For the operation, they were given weapons (Schmeisser MP-32 sub-machine gun), grenades, radios, cyanide tablets, ten watches, 3,000 rubles, 2,000 dollars, and food.

First CIA Foreign Intelligence Operation into Latvia in the early Cold War, Part Three ©

As we have seen In Part Two, Riekstens, Ozolins, and Balodis successfully parachuted into Latvia on August 26, 1952. But since Balodis left the airplane a few seconds later, he landed too far from the other agents to coordinate their next moves. 

Riekstens and Ozolins then proceeded according to plan on their journey to Tukums. Balodis headed off to Riga.

While underway, Riekstens and Ozolins were discovered by soldiers but could escape unharmed. But, reportedly, Ozolins dropped a map with the word "Dreimani” written on it. Dreimani was the name of the farm where Riekstens spent part of his childhood and was their goal.

Ozolins KGB Card

It turns out that Edvin Ozolins was a KGB agent with the cryptonym PILOT. He had walked into the Soviet Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, on or about December 10, 1950. He offered his services as an agent and was accepted by Moscow. 

After Riekstens and Ozolins reached the farmhouse on September 7, 1950. They were hidden in the barn. On September 11, 1950, soldiers surrounded the barn, and a firefight broke out. Riekstens did not give up and reportedly bit the hidden poison capsule sewn into his coat lapel. He died instantly. 

A later published account of his action had three KGB officers shooting Riekstens after he opened fire on them. Riekstens father was called in to identify his son but was refused permission to bury him. Rieskstns was eventually buried in an unmarked grave.

Ozolins surrendered to the soldiers and told him he was an agent named PILOT. The Latvian MGB eventually confirmed this with Moscow. Ozolins then participated in a Latvian MGB/KGB operational game METEOR used against the CIA to lure two American agents into Latvia: Leonids Zarins and Arturs Brombergs. They were captured and put on trial. This will be covered in a later posting.

Balodis KGB Card

As for Balodis, he reached his goal, but in August 1953, he was either captured or turned himself into the MGB and became agent CAPTAIN, with the alias Kārlis Krūmiņš. He became involved in an operational radio game by sending 48 MGB/KGB radio messages to CIA. The last message was received in December 1956. This radio game will also be covered in a later posting. 

Copies of the KGB cards are courtesy of the Latvian Centre for the Documentation of the Consequences of Totalitarianism (CDCT)