All the way through the Chilly Conflict, many Soviets secretly became on Radio Liberty, a station funded by means of the USA and headquartered in Munich (then within the Federal Republic of Germany). There they listened to dissidents from the USSR who knowledgeable them about data unavailable of their nationwide media because of censorship. Any such reporters was once Oleg Tumanov. His spouse Etta taught Russian language to American infantrymen. However Oleg – in combination, in all probability, with Eta – in reality labored for the KGB…
The primary passion of undercover agent tales isn’t such a lot to ascertain details – nearly everybody lies – however to invite questions that assist to decipher different, extra fashionable circumstances.
Very apparently, the travels of Oleg Toumanov and his spouse had been recalled right through the exhibition entitled “Voices from Munich in the Cold War”, arranged on the Munich Town Museum from September 30, 2022 to March 5, 2023 and devoted to the Western radio stations Radio Loose Europe (RFE) (RFE)/Radio Liberty.
Oleg Toumanov (1944-1997) labored for Radio Liberte (RL), but in addition for the KGB. As for his spouse… the query stays advanced.
Radio Liberte, one of the vital western radio stations broadcasting to the USSR
The Chilly Conflict had slightly begun when the USA created two radio stations primarily based in Munich: Radio Loose Europe (RFE), which broadcast from 1950 to Soviet-controlled Central Eu nations; and Radio Sloboda which focused the USSR and which was once introduced on 1 March 1953 below the identify Radio Oslobođenje od Bolshevism, was in 1956 Radio Liberation after which in 1959 Radio Liberte (RL). Its techniques, like the ones of RSE, had been broadcast within the languages of doable listeners.
Lately we might communicate in regards to the “narrative war”: it was once about sending details about the West to the so-called “Eastern” societies, but in addition about their very own nations, for instance by means of studying dissident texts at the air, all accompanied by means of parts of Western and dissident tradition.
America believed that on this method they might weaken the USSR, and the latter additionally at a loss for words the Republic of Poland from its beginnings. For Mark Pomar, who was once hired there, RL and RSE had been the expression of émigrés who sought after to constitute their nation as it could be with out communists, whilst the Voice of The us, which gave the impression in February 1947, was once conceived because the authentic voice of the USA; Radio Liberte was once due to this fact, in Pomar’s eyes, “an all-Russian radio station that happened to be in Munich”, however whose investment got here from the CIA till 1971, then from the USA price range.
Oleg Toumanov, nice profession at Radio Liberty
Oleg Toumanov, who printed his “memoirs” in English in 1993 below the identify Confessions of a KGB Agent, labored for two decades at Radio Liberty.
Born in Moscow in 1944, he joined the Soviet Military in 1963. In November 1965, he left his boat to swim close to the Libyan coast; as soon as on land, he said that he sought after to be transferred to Westerners. On December 5, 1965, an American aircraft took him to the FRY, to an American refugee middle: there he was once interrogated, together with with the assistance of a lie detector. On April 14, 1966, he won an enduring place of dwelling allow in Germany. Quickly after, and no longer with out new exams, he was once recruited by means of Radio Liberte.
His profession there was once impressive: employed within the “news” division of the Russian provider, Toumanov temporarily went at the air and in 1967 signed an entire life contract with RL. A couple of years later, he was once appointed editor-in-chief of the Russian provider: the absolute best place a non-American can download.
Montage together with Toumanov’s press card and his photograph. Chilly Conflict Conversations, warfare historian Ian Sanders’ podcast web site
Ali Tumanov disappeared on February 26, 1986. He reappeared in Moscow on April 28, right through a press convention arranged by means of the Soviet Ministry of International Affairs, and denounced RL’s ties to the CIA. He would later give an explanation for that he risked publicity after the break out of 2 KGB officials. With the latter’s approval, he made it to East Berlin and was once interrogated there, sooner than taking a aircraft to Moscow. Gorbachev, in energy within the USSR for a 12 months, had simply introduced perestroika.
A adventure of questions
This go back and forth raises many questions. One considerations the instant when Tumanov was once recruited by means of the Soviet products and services: was once his “escape from the USSR” an operation deliberate by means of them, as Tumanov will declare in his memoirs? Or, as a few of his colleagues from RL will imagine, was once the younger guy recruited whilst he was once already within the West?
Moreover, what missions was once he liable for? He had, he wrote, to infiltrate emigrant circles, and to his sellers – whom he met in East Berlin, Vienna and Helsinki, however by no means within the FRY – he would move on details about the workers of Radio Liberty. Additionally it is rumored that, due to the paperwork passed over by means of Tumanov, the USSR came upon {that a} mole within the absolute best circles of the CPSU was once running for the American citizens.
Documentary “Prague in the Service of Moscow: Inside the Secrets of the Cold War”, Andrea Sedlachkova, 2024.
The previous marine could also be believed to have performed a key function in an operation designed to lie to the West. However, Tumanov was once more than likely no longer liable for the trade in Radio Liberta’s rhetoric: showing as a fierce opponent of Soviet energy was once one of the vital stipulations of his place…
Was once this an remoted case? No. Paperwork now to be had display that RL was once “one of the main targets” of the Jap secret products and services. The “narrative war” was once additionally on the middle of the Chilly Conflict.
Spouse of Tumanov, Eta-Svetlana Katz-Toumanov
In 1978, Toumanov married Eta Katz (or Drits), whom he had met two weeks previous in London.
Photograph of Etta and Oleg Toumanov taken in Munich, in a while after their wedding ceremony. Fb account of Eta Tumanov (Svetlana Tumanova)
In an April 2023 interview, she stated she was once born in 1959 in Riga and got here from a “dissident Jewish family” that sought after to to migrate, which was once “almost impossible” on the time. However in 1970, about ten other people, most commonly Jews and grouped round Eduard Kuznetsov, attempted to hijack a aircraft to visit Israel. Their failed strive and their trial brought about a really perfect global mobilization: the combat of the Jews to depart the USSR was identified right through the sector. On this context, the Katzs had been ready to to migrate in June 1971, and Etta herself spoke of a “miracle”. In London, on the age of 16, she got to work as a secretary for the Russian provider of the BBC.
3 years later, she met Tumanov and adopted him to Munich. Per week or two later, he printed to her that he labored for the KGB. The younger lady would had been horrified, however two positions she later held solid doubt at the authenticity of this “shock.” First, she teaches Russian at the USA Military Institute, and her scholars are American officials making ready for missions within the USSR. Then in 1982, on the advice of the executive of Radio Liberty, she was the assistant director of this institute and labored on the American base.
Graphic novel, exhibition “Stimmen aus Munchen im Kalten Krieg” (“Voices of Munich during the Cold War”), Munchner Stadtmuseum, considered 3 March 2023. Equipped by means of the creator
This panel presentations the instant when Alexander, Oleg’s boss at Radio Liberty, provides Etta the activity of assistant director of the language institute, with get admission to to categorized data. Etta is gifted as a tender mom who hesitates to simply accept this type of place.
For the editors of the Munich exhibition, “her husband’s American employers expected Eta Tumanov to work for them”, which isn’t inconceivable.
Biographical sheet about Eta Toumanov, offered as a part of the exhibition. Equipped by means of the creator of Questions that elevate this marriage
Subsequently, new questions rise up. Is it imaginable to believe that Etta Tumanov carried out her two purposes in Bavaria with out cooperating with the Soviet secret products and services, as her husband claims in his “memoirs”? No. Additionally, she herself admits this cooperation as of late, even though she broadcasts that she is “forced” to take action by means of her marriage.
What data did she move on then? In step with what she advised Israeli newspapers, this integrated intelligence at the places, actions and guns of American troops, in addition to many non-public information about her American scholars. Did she additionally attempt to recruit a few of them? To steer them? What if Etta had labored for the KGB, or for different products and services, even sooner than his assembly with Tumanov? She denies it.
As different circumstances display, the Soviet Union infiltrated its collaborators in all waves of emigration and recruited brokers in every of those waves. And Etta’s adventure, like her husband’s, turns out to mock the paintings of Western secret products and services – on this case, American and German – liable for figuring out, amongst emigrants, the ones attached to the KGB. Arrested in 1987 by means of the German police, Etta Toumanov was once imprisoned – in step with her, for 6 months; greater than 9, in step with her husband. Accused of running for the GRU, the Soviet army secret provider, she was once sentenced to simply 5 years of probation.
Svetlana Tumanov in Moscow
Eta Tumanov left Munich for Moscow in 1993, took Russian citizenship and followed the identify Svetlana. In 2025, she nonetheless lives within the Russian capital the place Putin, the so-called crusader within the GDR, allegedly gave her an condo. On her Fb web page, she identifies herself as “retired from the foreign intelligence services of the Russian Federation” and on September 16, 2023, broadcasts herself “proud” to be one among 5 other people whose careers are highlighted within the Munich exhibition.
She publishes a lot of pictures, taken right through social occasions or ceremonies, incessantly within the corporate of descendants of “legendary Soviet secret agents”, high-ranking officials, even murderers, of the NKVD, as right here right through the tributes on the graves of those secret brokers, a tribute wherein, amongst others, Pavla Soudoplatov’s grandson, in addition to their granddaughter and daughter Naumrenchii take part Edoplatova; or right through a night with one of the vital members of the family of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the author of Cheka. However on December 22, 2024, she additionally paid tribute to Eduard Kuznetsov, who had simply died.
Radio Sloboda as of late
After the failed coup in August 1991, Yeltsin licensed RFE/RL to open an place of work in Moscow. 4 years later, those radio stations moved from Munich to Prague. The Chilly Conflict was once supposedly over.
Tumanov died in October 1997 in Moscow and was once buried there with army honors.
Radio Liberte was once some of the first media shops to be declared “foreign agents” by means of Russian government in December 2017, and its correspondents left Russia in March 2022, two weeks after the Russian assault on Ukraine.
On March 14, 2025, Donald Trump referred to as for investment for the USA Company for World Media (USAGM) and radio stations out of the country to be minimize to the felony most. RSE and RL nonetheless proceed to broadcast and put up, combating in contrast resolution in court docket.
