13 Facts About Aleksandr Sakharovsky

Highly respected by both KGB staff and allied services such as those of East Germany, Aleksandr Sakharovsky had experience himself in performing intelligence missions.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky was born to a working-class family in Kostroma Oblast, on 3 September 1909.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky's family moved to Leningrad when he was a child, and he began his career as a welder at the Baltic Shipyard.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky joined the Communist Youth League in 1926, and was accepted as a full member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1930.

In February 1939, Aleksandr Sakharovsky was transferred to work in the state security bodies on the recommendation of the party.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky visited several countries of the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece and Italy.

The duties of Aleksandr Sakharovsky included the preparation of special groups to be sent behind enemy lines for sabotage and assassinations, as well as conducting defensive operations against German attempts at infiltration.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky was later chief of the second Information committee department, then MGB adviser during the establishment of the Securitate, the secret police agency of Communist Romania.

Apart from his work in building up the Romanian secret services, Aleksandr Sakharovsky was sent to perform intelligence missions in Finland, Greece and Turkey.

In May 1956 Aleksandr Sakharovsky was appointed head of First Chief Directorate of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of USSR, responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of the covert agents, intelligence collection management, and the collection of political, scientific and technical intelligence.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky was named "the father of international terrorism" by Ion Mihai Pacepa, due to his alleged approach to turning "grassroots" terrorism into a weapon weakening USSR's political enemies.

Pacepa claimed Aleksandr Sakharovsky organized trainings for Palestinian militants on hijacking and bombing civilian airplanes and published propaganda journals in Arabic, reprinting antisemitic fakes such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to fuel the Arabic-Israeli conflict.

Aleksandr Sakharovsky died 12 November 1983 and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.