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https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33661| Title: | The Soviet intelligence illegals program in the face of counterintelligence pressure: the case of the United States and Canada |
| Authors: | Riehle, Kevin |
| Keywords: | KGB;GRU;intelligence illegals;HUMINT;counterintelligence |
| Issue Date: | 24-Jul-2026 |
| Publisher: | Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group) |
| Citation: | Riehle, K.P. (2026) 'The Soviet intelligence illegals program in the face of counterintelligence pressure: the case of the United States and Canada', Intelligence and National Security, 00 (0), pp. 1–22. doi: 10.1080/02684527.2026.2703595. |
| Abstract: | Post-World War II Soviet intelligence illegals operations in the United States and Canada started strong in the 1940s and 1950s. However, as they experienced increasing counterintelligence pressure through penetrations, defections, and double agents, it became harder for Soviet services to place illegals in both countries. Soviet services increasingly struggled to find suitable candidates to send as illegals to the United States and Canada. This article analyzes sixty-two illegals dispatched to or designated for the United States and Canada to show that the numbers of illegals dispatched to the United States and Canada after the 1960s decreased, with many being deterred by counterintelligence activities. |
| URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33661 |
| ISSN: | 0268-4527 |
| Appears in Collections: | Department of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers * |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FullText.pdf | Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. | 1.33 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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