Ørnulf Tofte (12 February 1922 – 26 August 2020) was a Norwegian police officer and a major figure in the Norwegian

intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

. He served as assistant chief of police and head of

counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

in the Police Surveillance Agency. Tofte uncovered several illegal Soviet spies and personally arrested

Asbjørn Sunde Asbjørn Edvin Sunde (12 December 1909 – 23 April 1985) was a Norwegian politician for the Communist Party of Norway, communist partisan during the Spanish Civil War, saboteur against the Nazi occupation of Norway during the Second World Wa ...

, Gunvor Galtung Haavik and

Arne Treholt Arne Treholt (born 13 December 1942) is a Norwegian-born, Russia-based convicted felon and former KGB agent who was convicted of treason and espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union against Norway during the Cold War and sentenced to 20 years i ...

.Norges største spionjeger

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

Tofte was widely recognized for his role during the Cold War, and received the

King's Medal of Merit in Gold The King's Medal of Merit (Norwegian: ''Kongens fortjenstmedalje'') is a Norwegian award. It was instituted in 1908 to reward meritorious achievements in the fields of art, science, business, and public service. It is divided in two classes: gold ...

in 1987. He published the biography ''Spaneren'' in the same year.

Personal life

Tofte was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population o ...

, a son of Tor and Gudrun Tofte. He was married to Odlaug Larsen. He died in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

on 26 August 2020, at the age of 98.

Career

Tofte graduated from the police academy in March 1940 and joined the police force as a constable. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he took part in the resistance during 1940. In 1942 he fled to Sweden and served in the Norwegian police troops in Sweden until the end of the war. In 1948, he joined the Police Surveillance Agency. He was promoted to sergeant in 1952 and inspector in 1954. He eventually rose to become Assistant Chief of Police and Head of Counter-Intelligence, reporting directly to the Director of the Police Surveillance Agency. Tofte was involved in the investigations of all the three major spy cases in Norway during the Cold War: The Sunde case, the Haavik case and the Treholt case. He personally arrested all three and headed the investigations of the Haavik and Treholt cases. He has said that "Treholt's abilities to manipulate people around him are the reason why the Treholt case is still kept alive". Tofte has stated that "for me there is a line from 9 April 1940, the German invasion, to the fight against communism. Both are about fighting for democracy, and against dictatorship." In 2016 interview, he stated that Norway and the West are in a New Cold War with Russia. In his last interview in April 2020 Tofte discussed the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and earlier crises he has experienced during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the

Biography

In 1987 he published his autobiography, ''Spaneren''.

Honours

He received the

upon his retirement in 1987.

Publications

*Ørnulf Tofte: ''Spaneren: Overvåkning for rikets sikkerhet'',

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS, commonly referred to as Gyldendal N.F. and in Norway often only as Gyldendal, is one of the largest Norwegian publishing houses. It was founded in 1925 after buying rights to publications from the Danish publishing ho ...

, 1987,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tofte, Oernulf 1922 births 2020 deaths Norwegian autobiographers Police officers from Oslo Recipients of the King's Medal of Merit in gold