Academy of Foreign Intelligence

The Academy of Foreign Intelligence (alternatively known as the SVR Academy,[1] previously known as the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute and the Red Banner Institute)[2] is one of the primary espionage academies of Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, serving the KGB and its successor organization, the Foreign Intelligence Service. It was attended by future President Vladimir Putin during the 1980s.[3][4][5]

Location

The school is located near Moscow, with a main facility north of Chelebityevo and a secondary facility at Yurlovo.[6][7]

History

An earlier iteration of the school was founded in 1938 and first called the Special Purpose School (Shkola osovogo naznacheniya, SHON) under NKVD.[8] It was renamed the Higher Intelligence School (VRSh) from 1948-1968.[9][10] It was alternatively known as School 1010 or the 101st School, and referred to as K1 or Gridnevka by students.[6][8][11]

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, student enrollment dropped from approximately 300 to around 50.[6][12]

Foreign students

The Institute trained Libyan intelligence officers for Muammar Gaddafi.[13]

Notable alumni

• Vladimir Putin[14]
• Sergei Ivanov

Notable staff

• Anatoli Yatskov[15]
• Oleg Nechiporenko (1985 - 1991)[16][17]

See also

• Sparrow School

References

1. Weiss, Michael (December 27, 2017). "Revealed: The Secret KGB Manual for Recruiting Spies". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 2, 2018. The foreign arm is today known as the SVR, which is the actual successor of the First Chief Directorate; the Andropov Red Banner Institute, in fact, is now called the SVR Academy.
2. Martin Ebon (1994). KGB: Death and Rebirth. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-275-94633-3. More specialized espionage instructions were provided by the Red Banner Institute, renamed in memory of former KGB chief Yuri Andropov and usually simply called the Andropov Institute.
3. Chris Hutchins (2012). Putin. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-78088-114-0. But these were the honeymoon days and she was already expecting their first child when he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in September 1984 [...] At Red Banner students were given a nom de guerre beginning with the same letter as their surname. Thus Comrade Putin became Comrade Platov.
4. Andrew Jack (15 December 2005). Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-19-029336-9. He returned to work in Leningrad's First Department for intelligence for four and a half years, and then attended the elite Andropov Red Banner Institute for intelligence training before his posting to the German Democratic Republic in 1985.
5. Vladimir Putin; Nataliya Gevorkyan; Natalya Timakova; Andrei Kolesnikov (5 May 2000). First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin. PublicAffairs. pp. 53. ISBN 978-0-7867-2327-0. I worked there for about four and a half years, and then I went to Moscow for training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which is now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence.
6. Nigel West (26 January 2007). Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence. Scarecrow Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-8108-6463-4.
7. Peter Truscott (2005). Putin's Progress: A Biography of Russia's Enigmatic President, Vladimir Putin. Pocket Books. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-7434-9607-0. Four and a half years after joining the KGB's First Department in Leningrad, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which became the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. This was the KGB's elite school for foreign agents, where the USSR's top spies were trained. Located in woods outside Moscow, the Red Banner Institute is isolated and fenced-off with barbed wire.
8. Robert W. Pringle (29 July 2015). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4422-5318-6.
9. "Foreign Intelligence Service". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
10. Jonathan Haslam (24 September 2015). Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence. OUP Oxford. p. 317. ISBN 978-0-19-101812-1. From 1943 it was called the Intelligence School (RaSh), then, from September 1948, the Higher Intelligence School (VRSh), also known as School 101.
11. FBIS Daily Report: Central Eurasia. The Service. 1995. p. 3. After the war V.V. Gridnev served as director of the 101st School, which trained personnel for our foreign intelligence service. The future intelligence agents idolized their director and informally called the 101st School “Gridnevka.” Later it became the higher training establishment of our intelligence service—the Yu.V. Andropov Red Banner Institute, was created on the basis of that school.
12. Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter. Peter Isaacson. 1993. p. 27. The number of students at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which trains intelligence staff, has dropped from 300 to about 50.
13. David C. Wills (26 October 2004). The First War on Terrorism: Counter-terrorism Policy during the Reagan Administration. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-4175-0361-2. Additional intelligence showed that the KGB had trained Libyan intelligence officers at the Andropov Institute in Moscow, and regularly supplied Qaddafi with reports on American naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean.
14. Biographic information submitted to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on 1 August 2012
15. John Earl Haynes (August 2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-300-12987-8. After the war he undertook numerous intelligence assignments and headed one of the schools of the KGB's Andropov Red Banner Institute for training of KGB personnel.
16. Oleg Nechiporenko (1993). Passport to Assassination: The Never-before-told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel who Knew Him. Carol Publishing Group. p. 339. ISBN 978-1-55972-210-0. Nechiporenko remained in Mexico until 1965 and returned again in 1967. From 1971 until 1985 he was dispatched on numerous special missions for the KGB throughout South and Central America and North Vietnam. From 1985 he taught at the Soviet Intelligence officer's college, the Andropov Institute. He retired with distinction in 1991.
17. R. C. S. Trahair; Robert L. Miller (18 October 2013). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations. Enigma Books. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-936274-25-3. Until 1985 Nechiporenko served the Soviets in Central America and North Vietnam, and taught at Moscow's Andropov Institute.