Background
The post-World-War-Two Byelorussian emigration in Western Europe was split into two organizations:
· BZR/BCR (Beloruska Zentralna Rada or Byelorussian Central Council)
· BNR (Beloruska Nationalna Rada, Byelorussian National Council or Council of the Byelorussian Peoples Republic) based in Paris, France.
The BZR/BCR (CIA cryptonym AETOMAC-1), created during the World War Two German occupation of Byelorussia and supported by the Germans, was headed by Radislaw (Radoslav) Ostrowsky (AETOMAC-2).
The head of the BNR was Mykola Abramtchik, was also the head of the Paris-based Byelorussian Liberation Union. One CIA officer made this comment about BNR: ”As best as could be determined, BNR is not an official organization but a rather vague and loose association of individuals with nationalistic aspirations to a common homeland, who recognize Abramtchik as president of their government in exile. Abramtchik is President also of the Paris Bloc (a political center for non-Russian ethnic groups).
From 1951 to 1962, CIA financially supported and used the BNR in the United States and Europe. CIA Cryptonyms used for various projects involving Byelorussians were: AEACRE, AEDEPOT, AEPRIMER, AEQUOR, AEREADY, AECAMBISTA, CHAURUS, CAMBISTA, CAMPOSANTO. The number 1 after the cryptonym referred to the BNR itself, e.g., AECAMBISTA-1.
CIA operations against the BSSR began in the summer 1951, when CIA initiated a joint Office of Special Operations (OSO)-Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) Foreign Intelligence (FI) project (cryptonym AEQUOR). The project 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 (MOB) was the responsible field unit. OSO and OPC shared equally in all expenses related to the recruitment, training, compensation, equipment, and dispatch and exfiltration of agents into and out of Byelorussia
The first CIA penetration agent was Ivan Andreevich) Filistovich, who was parachuted into Belorussia in September 1951. The second penetration operation, consisting of a team of 4 agents (AEQUOR II), occurred on the night of 26-26 August 1952: Kalnitsky Mikhail, S.,Ostrikov, Tikoh. Kostyuk Gennady A., and Artyushevsky Mikhas P. (Their names have been transliterated from Russian). Their Agent Training in Bad Wörishofen, Germany, consisted of the following:
Communications Training
As part of their training, they will receive:
a) Radio theory.
b) Morse code and international Q signals.
c) Transmitting and sending procedure.
d) Basic maintenance and repair.
e) Ciphers.
f) Sites and antennae.
g) Operating security.
h) Indicators.
i) Behavoir under control.
To assure maximum communications security and to prepare for the contingency that a w/t operator may be controlled, an elaborate system of danger and control signals have been worked out to give the w/t operator before dispatch. The danger and control signal plan will be forwarded under a separate cover.
As part of their field craft and survival training, the trainees will receive:
a. Theoretical and practical survival instruction
1) Hunting and fishing techniques
2) Setting up base camp
3) Bunker building
4) Shelters
5) Snares, deadfalls and traps
b. Field topography
c. First-aid and hygiene
d. Weapons familiarization and firing
e. Unarmed defense
f. Caching, burial, and preservation techniques
g. Scouting and patrolling
Tradecraft Training
Individual security
a) cover, legends, alibis
b) self—discipline, policing possessions
c) evasion of security controls
d) evasion surveillance
e) emergency action
Clandestine Communications
a) basic principles
b) safety and danger signals
c) safehouses
d) live and dead drops
e) meetings
f) accommodation-addresses
cutt-outs
g) couriers
Observation and Reporting
a) Techniques of observation
b) Description aid sketching
c) Memory training
d) Reports writing (how not to report)
e) Personality reporting
Secret Writing: The technique will be given to all trainees since it will be used as an alternate means of communication. The basic principles will be given the trainees by the case officers but a high-grade S/W system will be given each trainee before dispatch.
Re-Sovietization
In order to prepare the trainees for the transition from Western cultural orientation to the controlled regime found in the Soviet Union, an ambitious program was initiated of re-Sovietization. To aid in furthering this program, the following outline is planned to make available to the trainees:
a) Current Soviet publications, newspapers, magazines, books,
b) Soviet radio broadcasts
c) Lectures on Soviet internal controls
d) Lectures on Soviet security forces and their operating techniques
e) Area study materials -- maps, books, etc.
f) Other Soviet data on communications, industry as will be available
