Anatoliy Golitsyn

Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn (Russian: Анатолий Михайлович Голицын; 25 August 1926 – 29 December 2008) was a Soviet KGB defector and author. Born in Soviet Ukraine, he became a major in the KGB before defecting in 1961. While most of Golitsyn's information was "tantalizingly imprecise", it nonetheless proved a "treasure trove" for Western intelligence agencies investigating KGB operations and infiltrations in the west. Golitsyn's information was particularly prized by CIA counterintelligence director James Angleton, with whom he formed a close, collaborative relationship.

Golitsyn's contention, developed in the years following his defection, that the KGB had thoroughly infiltrated the intelligence agencies and governments of Western countries and that various events such as the Sino-Soviet split were elaborate disinformation operations inspired Angleton to undertake a massive molehunt within the CIA, resulting in Golitsyn's gradual marginalization and Angleton's eventual downfall. From 1965 until his death, Golitsyn focused on writing books concerning Soviet strategy. In his book Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA (Knopf, 1994), Mark Riebling stated that of 194 predictions made in New Lies For Old, 139 had been fulfilled by 1993, 9 seemed 'clearly wrong', and the other 46 were 'not soon falsifiable', an accuracy rate of almost 94%.

Biography

Prior to Defection

Golitsyn was born to lower-class parents in Pyriatyn, Soviet Ukraine in 1926. As a cadet at the Odessa-based Frunze Artillery School during World War II, he assisted in trench-digging outside of Moscow and was awarded the medal "For the defense of Moscow". At fifteen, he joined the Komsomol, and at nineteen the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.