Abstract

In 1952–1957, Soviet counterintelligence launched operation METEOR in Latvia, reacquired by the USSR during World War II. Based on a wide net of double agents in the local anti-Soviet resistance, that clandestine enterprise aimed at convincing Washington to halt its intelligence and influence activities on Latvian soil. The Russian, Latvian, and Western sources have expressed varied, at times polarly opposed, assessments of METEOR’s actual effectiveness. This article uses newly acquired relevant American and Soviet sources to create a balanced picture of the U.S.–Soviet clandestine encounter in Latvia in the 1950s. Especially highlighted is the implementation on Latvian soil of the Soviet theory of strategic counterintelligence and deception operations based on double agents. Encouraged by its ability to recover METEOR’s principal stages—successful evolvement, efficacy’s zenith, and subsequent decline—the article proposes future theoretical inquiry into the paradoxical logic of intelligence and counterintelligence victorious operations and particularly into the notion of those operations’ “culmination points.”

摘要

1952 年至 1957 年，苏联反情报部门在拉脱维亚发起了流星行动，该行动在二战期间被苏联重新收复。基于当地反苏抵抗运动中广泛的双重间谍网络，该秘密企业旨在说服华盛顿停止其在拉脱维亚领土上的情报和影响活动。俄罗斯、拉脱维亚和西方的消息来源表达了对 METEOR 实际有效性的各种评估，有时甚至是截然相反的评估。本文使用新获得的美国和苏联相关资料，平衡地描绘了 1950 年代美苏在拉脱维亚的秘密交锋。特别突出的是苏联基于双重间谍的战略反情报和欺骗行动理论在拉脱维亚土地上的实施。