Vitaly Shlykov (russian: Виталий Васильевич Шлыков; 1934–2011) was a spymaster in the
GRU
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
, Russian deputy minister of defence and founder of the influential
Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.
Spying career
Shlykov was arrested in Switzerland in January 1983 following his betrayal by
Dieter Gerhardt
Dieter Felix Gerhardt (born 1 November 1935) is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a ...
under U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
interrogation. Gerhardt was a South African national who spied for the Soviet Union for 20 years before his position was compromised by the
Farewell Dossier
The Farewell Dossier was the collection of documents that Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB defector "en place" (code-named "Farewell"), gathered and gave to the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST) in 1981–82, during the Cold War.
...
. Shlykov was arrested when he travelled to Zurich under the false name Nikolaev Mikhail Vasilyevich to meet with Gerhardt's wife, Ruth, who acted as a courier. Despite not disclosing his real name or any other details to Swiss authorities, he was jailed for three years for spying for the Soviet Union.
After his release from prison in 1986, he started the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, an influential
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
that provides advice to the Kremlin on security issues.
He later rose to the position of deputy minister of defence in the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
under
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
.
Analysis of the demise of the Soviet Union
Shlykov argued with his superiors that the Soviet Union was basing its military and economic policies on faulty assumptions, inherited from the
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
era.
Namely, he posited that the Soviet war plans were based on the assumption that the upcoming military conflict between the USSR and
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
would strategically and technologically resemble
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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
To prepare for this contingency, it was planned to mobilize between 4 and 8 million soldiers and to continuously supply them with enormous quantities of material: tanks, cannon, planes etc., since it was expected that the materiel (and the soldiers) would be constantly
attritted at a high rate.
Therefore, most industrial plants in the USSR were required to set aside significant
production capacities during peacetime, in order to "mobilize" them when war broke out and to produce the requisite enormous quantities of war materiel. This had the effect of severely undermining the Soviet economy.
Shlykov argued that the assumption that World War III would resemble World War II was wrong and that the above-described approach was ruining the Soviet economy without actually preparing it for possible future conflicts. He pointed out that the Western powers opted out of the World War II-era approach and were actively developing "smart" weapons in order to counter the Soviet preponderance in manpower and classical materiel.
For his efforts he was summarily dismissed from the Soviet Army. He later published his arguments after the fall of the Soviet Union in the open press.
Further reading
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Footnotes
References
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External links
ObituaryIn military Reconnaissance Departed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shlykov, Vitaly
1934 births
2011 deaths
GRU officers
People convicted of spying for the Soviet Union
Soviet people imprisoned abroad
Russian generals
Soviet Cold War spymasters
1983 in international relations
Higher School of Economics faculty