Alexander Orlov

Rocca and Dziak: "In 1925 the author was commander of OGPU frontier troops in Trancaucasia. There he first met Lavrenti Beria.... From his vantage point Orlov was in a position to observe the beginning of Beria's rise."

[Russia/Beria]

Orlov, Alexander. Handbook of Intelligence and Guerrilla Warfare. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.

Pforzheimer identifies Orlov as a NKVD Lieutenant General who defected in 1938. This is an "authoritative work" which represents a "recreation of an intelligence manual which Orlov had written in 1936. It is particularly important on the operational techniques of Soviet 'illegals.'" For Constantinides, the book "is a valuable, needed, and rare insight into an intelligence practice [the use of illegals] of which the Soviets have been masters and on which they have traditionally relied."

A Studies 8.1 (Winter 1964) reviewer finds that this work is really "a survey of Soviet intelligence practice, especially as it relates to the role of the 'illegal' or deep-cover agent, using [the author's] wide past experience to analyze current Soviet techniques.... The weakest section ... is the final chapter on guerrilla warfare; here the dated quality of Orlov's information is most clearly shown." Writing elsewhere in the same volume, Frank G. Wisner, Studies 8.1 (Winter 1964), calls Orlov's work "provocative and edifying."

[Russia/Sov/Defectors]

Orlov, Alexander. The March of Time: Reminiscences. London: St. Ermin's, 2004.

According to Hanyok, I&NS 20.2 (Jun. 2005), this manuscript was given to Edward P. Gazur, Orlov's last FBI "handler," shortly before the former NKVD general died in 1973. It was then locked away in the National Archives. The reviewer calls Orlov's memoirs "a corking read.... Sprinkled throughout the memoirs are some interesting, if unverifiable, anecdotes.... The book contains no historical commentary or review of the facts of these stories." And therein lies the problem. There are "large and obvious gaps in Orlov's memoirs.... The book simply does not advance our knowledge of Orlov's career or understanding of the man and his motives."

[Russia/Sov/Defectors]

Orlov, Alexander. "The Theory and Practice of Soviet Intelligence." Studies in Intelligence 7, no. 2 (Spring 1963): 45-65.

This is an excerpt from Orlov's Handbook of Intelligence and Guerrilla Warfare (1963).

[Russia/Sov/Defectors]

Orlov, Alexander. "The U-2 Program: A Russian Officer Remembers." Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1998-1999: 5-14.

The author is a retired Soviet colonel who spent much of his 46-year military career in the former USSR's Air Defense Forces.

[CIA/50s/U-2]

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