Peter Deriabin
Encyclopedia
Peter Deriabin was a Russian Communist Party member, World War II veteran, SMERSH
agent, and KGB
agent who later defected to the United States
. He started working for the Central Intelligence Agency
, went to graduate school, and wrote several books on the KGB. He died in 1992 at age 71.
He was a member of the Communist Party
. He went to Biysk Teachers College as well as the Institute for Marxism-Leninism. In World War II he was wounded four times and reassigned to the Soviet Navy's SMERSH
(military counterintelligence group). He was later an investigator in State Security. He eventually moved up to the KGB headquarters.
He worked on counterintelligence for the Soviets in Vienna. He defected in 1953. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
gave him a death sentence. He testified before the Senate and the HUAC in 1959, and cowrote a book about his time in the KGB
He also went to graduate school at the University of Michigan
and the University of Virginia
. He also joined the CIA.
He was involved in the Yuri Nosenko
case, a controversial defector who was treated harshly by the CIA (including solitary confinement
) and presumed to be a KGB plant for at least a year before he was released. Deriabin was one of the CIA officials who believed he was a plant. He claimed that the details of Nosenko's stories about his experiences in SMERSH and the KGB didn't match up with Deriabin's own experience in those agencies.
Deriabin retired from the CIA in 1981.
At the time of his death he was survived by family members whose names were kept secret by the CIA.
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
agent, and KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
agent who later defected to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He started working for the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, went to graduate school, and wrote several books on the KGB. He died in 1992 at age 71.
He was a member of the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
. He went to Biysk Teachers College as well as the Institute for Marxism-Leninism. In World War II he was wounded four times and reassigned to the Soviet Navy's SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
(military counterintelligence group). He was later an investigator in State Security. He eventually moved up to the KGB headquarters.
He worked on counterintelligence for the Soviets in Vienna. He defected in 1953. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created in 1924 to the Supreme Court of the USSR as a court for the higher military and political personnel of Red Army and Fleet...
gave him a death sentence. He testified before the Senate and the HUAC in 1959, and cowrote a book about his time in the KGB
He also went to graduate school at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. He also joined the CIA.
He was involved in the Yuri Nosenko
Yuri Nosenko
Lt. Col. Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko was a KGB defector and a figure of significant controversy within the U.S. intelligence community, since his claims contradicted another defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn, who believed he was a KGB plant...
case, a controversial defector who was treated harshly by the CIA (including solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
) and presumed to be a KGB plant for at least a year before he was released. Deriabin was one of the CIA officials who believed he was a plant. He claimed that the details of Nosenko's stories about his experiences in SMERSH and the KGB didn't match up with Deriabin's own experience in those agencies.
Deriabin retired from the CIA in 1981.
At the time of his death he was survived by family members whose names were kept secret by the CIA.
Books
He cowrote several books.- The Secret World, with Frank Gibney, DoubledayDoubleday-History:It was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, who had formed a partnership with magazine publisher Samuel McClure. One of their first bestsellers was The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W....
, 1959
- Watchdogs of Terror, 1984, University Publications of America.
- "KGB, Masters of the Soviet Union", with Tennent H. Bagley, Hippocrene Books, 1990
- The Spy Who Saved The World, with Jerrold L Schecter, Scribners, 1992
- Inside Stalin's Kremlin, Brasseys Publications, 1998
- Deriabin gave a detailed account of his views on the Nosenko case to Tennet H. Bagley, which were published in Bagley's book "Spy Wars", released in 2007.