Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE was a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership.
17 Facts About Anatoliy Golitsyn
1.
2.
However, many of Anatoliy Golitsyn's claims were controversial, with MI5 historian Christopher Andrew describing him as an "unreliable conspiracy theorist".
3.
Anatoliy Golitsyn worked in the strategic planning department of the KGB in the rank of Major.
4.
Anatoliy Golitsyn defected with his wife and daughter to the Central Intelligence Agency via Helsinki on 15 December 1961.
5.
Anatoliy Golitsyn was interviewed by James Jesus Angleton, CIA counter-intelligence director.
6.
The KGB made significant efforts to discredit Anatoliy Golitsyn by promoting disinformation that he was involved in illegal smuggling operations.
7.
Anatoliy Golitsyn provided information about many famous Soviet agents including Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, John Vassall, double agent Aleksander Kopatzky who worked in Germany, and others.
8.
Anatoliy Golitsyn said that Harold Wilson was a KGB informer and an agent of influence.
9.
Anatoliy Golitsyn continued these relationships when Labour went into Opposition, and according to material from the Mitrokhin Archive, his insights into British politics were passed to and highly rated by the KGB.
10.
Anatoliy Golitsyn accused the KGB of poisoning Hugh Gaitskell, Wilson's predecessor as leader of the Labour Party, in order for Wilson to take over the party.
11.
Anatoliy Golitsyn said after his defection that the Note Crisis of 1961 was an operation masterminded by Finnish president Urho Kekkonen together with the Soviets to ensure Kekkonen's re-election.
12.
Anatoliy Golitsyn further said that Kekkonen had been a KGB agent codenamed "Timo" since 1947.
13.
Anatoliy Golitsyn had said from the very beginning that the KGB would send a false defector to the US to try to discredit him.
14.
Bagley had thought this strange, because Nosenko and Anatoliy Golitsyn had worked in different parts of the highly compartmentalized KGB and therefore would not have been privy to the same information.
15.
Angleton and Golitsyn reportedly sought the assistance of William F Buckley, Jr.
16.
Anatoliy Golitsyn's views are echoed by Czech dissident and politician Petr Cibulka, who has alleged that the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia was staged by the communist StB secret police.
17.
The 1996 American film Mission: Impossible featured a fictionalized character based on Anatoliy Golitsyn named Alexander Golitsyn, played by actor Marcel Iures.