Operation RYAN
| Operation RYAN | |
| Russian | Операция РЯН |
|---|---|
| Romanization | Operation RYAN |
Operation RYAN (or RYaN, and sometimes written as VRYAN,
Background
Andropov suffered from a "Hungarian complex" from his personal experience of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 according to the historian Christopher Andrew. Andropov had, as the Soviet ambassador to Hungary, "watched in horror from the windows of his embassy as officers of the hated Hungarian security service were strung up from lampposts". Andropov remained haunted for the rest of his life by the speed with which an apparently all-powerful Communist one-party state had begun to topple. Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov, then Chairman of the KGB, justified the creation of Operation RYaN because, they claimed, the United States was "actively preparing for nuclear war" against the Soviet Union and its allies. According to a Stasi report released in the mid-2010s, the primary "Chekist work" discussed in the May 1981 meeting was the "demand to allow for 'no surprise.'"[5]
Operation
The Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky divulged a top-secret KGB telegram sent to the London KGB residency in February 1983. It stated: "The objective of the assignment is to see that the Residency works systematically to uncover any plans in preparation by the main adversary [USA] for RYAN and to organize a continual watch to be kept for indications of a decision being taken to use nuclear weapons against the USSR or immediate preparations being made for a nuclear missile attack." An attachment listed seven "immediate" and thirteen "prospective" tasks for the agents to complete and report. These included: the collection of data on potential places of evacuation and shelter, an appraisal of the level of blood held in blood banks, observation of places where nuclear decisions were made and where nuclear weapons were stored, observation of key nuclear decision makers, observation of lines of communication, reconnaissance of the heads of churches and banks, and surveillance of security services and military installations.[5]
RYAN took on a new significance after the announcement of plans to deploy Pershing II W85-nuclear-armed missiles to West Germany.[2] These missiles were designed to be launched from road-mobile vehicles, making the launch sites very hard to find. The flight time from West Germany to European Russia was only four to six minutes (approximate flying time from six to eight minutes from West Germany to Moscow), giving the Soviets little or no warning.
On 23 March 1983,
Although Andropov died in February 1984, RYAN continued to be maintained and developed under the direction of Victor Chebrikov. Consultations held in August 1984 between the Stasi's head of the Main Directorate of Reconnaissance, Markus Wolf, and KGB experts discussed the early detection of potential war preparations in adversaries and indicated that the First Chief Directorate of the KGB was proposing to create a new division to deal exclusively with RYAN. 300 positions within the KGB were earmarked for RYAN of which 50 were reserved for the new division.[6]
Operation RYAN continued to be maintained until at least April 1989.[7]
See also
References
- ^ President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (15 February 1990). The Soviet "War Scare" (PDF) (Report). p. vi.
- ^ ISBN 0-14-028487-7.
- ^ [1] by Benjamin B. Fischer
- ^ Benjamin B. Fischer. "A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare — Appendix A: RYAN and the Decline of the KGB".
- ^ a b "Forecasting Nuclear War". Wilson Center. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. 24 August 1984.
- ^ Archive, Wilson Center Digital. "Wilson Center Digital Archive". digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org.
Further reading
- Books
- The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983, Marc Ambinder, Simon & Schuster, 2018. ISBN 1476760373
- 1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink, Taylor Downing, Da Capo, 2018. ISBN 0306921723
- War Scare, Peter Vincent Pry. Praeger, 1999. ISBN 0275966437
- Articles
- A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare, Benjamin B. Fischer.
- Able Archer 83 Sourcebook, Nate Jones. The National Security Archive.
- Stasi Documents Provide Details on Operation RYaN, the Soviet Plan to Predict and Preempt a Western Nuclear Strike; Show Uneasiness Over Degree of "Clear-Headedness About the Entire RYaN Complex.", Nate Jones. The National Security Archive.
- Nuclear War: Stasi/KGB Intelligence Cooperation Under Project RYAN, Bernd Schaefer, Nate Jones, and Benjamin B. Fischer. The Wilson Center.