Sakharovsky's 13-year right hand and the short-lived PGU chief of early détente
Someone tipped off a Swiss resident that his phone was being tapped. The trace led to one man: PGU chief Mortin himself. He left for vacation that year and never returned to the Lubyanka.
A Soviet intelligence general who rose from village schoolteacher and army political officer to serve 13 years as first deputy head of the KGB First Chief Directorate before becoming its chief in 1971. As Aleksandr Sakharovsky's right hand he ran the day-to-day machinery of Cold War foreign espionage; as chief he oversaw the PGU's move to the Yasenevo complex and the systematic expansion of scientific-technical intelligence. His tenure coincided with the early détente period and the secret channel to Willy Brandt's government, but it lasted only two and a half years: a single phone call tipping off a subordinate about a wiretap cost him his post and cleared the way for Vladimir Kryuchkov.
Career Timeline
- 1937–1939Physics and mathematics teacher at a rural school
- 1939–1940Secretary of the district Komsomol committee
- 1940–1941Director of the district high school
- 1941–1942Head of the organizational department, district party committee
- 1942–1945Political officer in the active army; participated in the defense of Leningrad
- 1945–1947Studied Chinese and English at the Military-Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Army
- 1947–1950Foreign intelligence officer on long-term posting abroad
- 1950–1954Worked in the CPSU Central Committee apparatus
- 1954–1958Deputy Head of the KGB First Chief Directorate (PGU)
- 1958–1971First Deputy Head of the KGB First Chief Directorate (PGU)
- 1966–1967Concurrently headed KGB School No. 101 (Higher Intelligence School)
- 1971–1974Head of the KGB First Chief Directorate (PGU)
- 1974–1975Head of the Directorate for Scientific-Technical Cooperation, State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR Council of Ministers
- 1975–1982Senior Consultant, Group of Consultants under the Chairman of the KGB
- 1982Retired by age