Adolf Tolkachev

Adolf Georgiyevich Tolkachev (; 6 January 1927 – 24 September 1986) was a Soviet electronics engineer. He provided vital documents to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1979 to 1985. Working at the Soviet radar design bureau Phazotron as one of the chief designers, Adolf Tolkachev gave the CIA complete detailed information about projects such as the R-23, R-24, R-33, R-27, and R-60, S-300 missile systems; fighter-interceptor aircraft radars used on the MiG-29, MiG-31, and Su-27; and other avionics. The KGB executed him in Moscow for espionage in 1986.

Career Tolkachev said his distrust of the Soviet government arose from the persecution of his wife's parents under Joseph Stalin. He told the CIA he was inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov.

A story whose plausibility has been questioned tells how Tolkachev began his spy career. From January 1977 to February 1978, Tolkachev attempted to approach cars with U.S. diplomatic license plates in Moscow five times, coincidentally approaching the CIA Moscow bureau chief Gardner Hathaway at a gas station, but the CIA was wary of counterintelligence operations by the KGB. On his fifth attempt, the CIA assigned a Russian-speaking officer named John I. Guilsher

Tolkachev initially refused any payments for his service, knowing they would draw suspicion. He requested art supplies, music, and other items for his son. Because he would not take payments himself, token payments were deposited in an overseas account as a sign of gratitude. Tolkachev refused to leave the Soviet Union because his wife believed she would become homesick. He eventually requested that the interest from his accounts be paid to him in rubles so that he could attempt to bribe any coworkers who might discover his activity. In case he could not bribe his way out of a situation, Tolkachev requested a cyanide pill to commit suicide in case he was captured and to limit the information the KGB could acquire from interrogating him. The payments were made despite Tolkachev knowing that he would never be able to access the remaining funds. He went beyond anything required by his payment agreement and provided information any time it became available to him, not only when he was scheduled to receive compensation or care.

Legacy

A painting of Tolkachev by Kathy Krantz Fieramosca hangs in the CIA's Langley headquarters. Writer David E. Hoffman published The Billion Dollar Spy, about Tolkachev's life, in 2015.

Skepticism

Benjamin B. Fischer, the former chief historian of the CIA, has presented a contrary view of the Tolkachev case. He argues that: Since Tolkachev "made no less than six or seven attempts to contact the [CIA] Moscow Station," including senior CIA officials, it is implausible that the KGB did not detect him. This ignores that he only asked if agents were American, then dropped notes for them. Since Tolkachev claimed to be asking for documents that were outside his area of work or security clearance, then he would not be able to obtain them without arousing suspicion in the secure, KGB-guarded facility. This ignores that Tolkachev raised these concerns and that Tolkachev replaced the card used for keeping records of his book withdrawals, and that no system existed for the KGB to filter document withdrawals by subject. Historian Nicholas Dujmovic criticized Fischer's article as "speculative," saying that he makes "few factual statements". Hoffman rebutted Fischer's theory, reasserting that Tolkachev furnished genuine technical information. Fischer responded that the CIA had not released the intelligence provided by Tolkachev; that the Politburo transcript is "suspicious" and possibly falsified; and that the KGB, which ran other "dangles" providing intelligence on Soviet weapons technologies, was also in control of Tolkachev.