Memorandum from S.N. Mukha to Comrade V.V. Shcherbitsky, 'On Apprehension of S.V. Kirichenko, who Established a Criminal Connection with the US Clandestine Services'

State Security Committee (KGB) of the Ukrainian SSR

State Security Committee (KGB) of the Ukrainian SSR

May 19, 1983

City of Kiev                                                                                                    

No.121

                Classified Declassified[1]

                                                                                                                                                Copy No.1

24/2-3341

08/ 30/13

[Handwritten notes on the left side of the page][2]                                                                             

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF UKRAINE

to Comrade V.V.Shcherbitsky

Special report

On apprehension of S.V.Kirichenko,

Who established a criminal connection

with the US clandestine services

On November 12, 1982 a dead drop with espionage paraphernalia was discovered in Moscow. The container contained: an adapter for receiving secret radio communications, cipher pads, instructions on how to get in touch with the clandestine services, and letters and assignments for the agent. Based on the contents of the instructions we were able to infer that the agent transferred to the US clandestine services information related to the ballistic missile defense system of the country.

On November 23, 1982 the KGB of the USSR discovered a letter, sent from Moscow to Tula with a label “hold for pickup” and addressed to Sergey Vladimirovich Kirichenko. Inside the letter we discovered an encrypted text that contained the location of the dead drop in Moscow.

As a result of a manhunt conducted jointly with the KGB of the USSR in December 1982 we identified and detained for inquiry as a possible enemy agent, Sergey Vladimirovich Kirichenko, born in 1959 in Leningrad, Ukrainian, no party affiliation. While studying in the 5th year of the Zhitomir Higher Red Banner Military School of Radio Electronics for Air Defense, in May of 1982 he left the unit without leave. The military prosecutor’s office of the military unit No.77757 filed criminal charges against Kirichenko under Article 241, paragraph “a” of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR (“desertion”). On November 6, 1982 the charges were dismissed based on the findings that he was unfit for peacetime military service and that his actions posed no threat to society.

Since February 1983 Kirichenko has been working in the Scientific Research Institute of Otolaryngology of the Ministry of Health of the UkrSSR. He has been residing in Kiev with his parents: father – Vladimir Semyonovich Kirichenko, born in 1921 in Rostov-on-Don, Ukrainian, member of the CPSU, colonel in the Soviet Army Reserves, employed at the lab in Kiev Polytechnic Institute, and mother – Nina Georgievna Kirichenko, born in 1925 in Volgograd, Russian, no party affiliation, medical doctor at the maternity hospital No.1.

During the investigation of Mr. Kirichenko it was established that he was fully aware of the espionage letters sent to Tula for him by the American clandestine services, and that he indeed was the enemy agent who the authorities were looking for. During the period of his study at the military school and internship at classified military facilities he had access to information about missile defense systems and was noticed making libelous and biased statements towards the Soviet reality.

Taking into account grounded suspicions about espionage connections of Kirichenko with the US clandestine services, on May 11 of this year, with the sanction of the Chief Military Prosecutor of the USSR and based on Article 64, part 1 of the Criminal Code of the UkrSSR, he was arrested and on May 12 of this year was transferred to Moscow for further investigation by the KGB of the USSR. During his first interrogation Kirichenko provided a statement about his connection with the American clandestine services which he established on his own initiative.  

Kirichenko stepped on the path of treason against his Homeland as a result of his moral decay and worship of the western way of life.

This information is being reported to you for information purposes only.

Chairman of the State Security Committee

Of the Ukrainian SSR,

[signature] S.N.Mukha

[1] Translator’s note: Handwritten note in Ukrainian states: “Declassified on 08/30/2013”

[2] Translator’s note: Handwritten notes contain signatures of people who were shown this document under the seal of secrecy and dates when they viewed the document