Mikhail Ivanovich Grigoryev

Mikhail Ivanovich Grigoryev was born in 1929 in the Kemerovo Oblast in Siberia. He was called into the Soviet Army in 1948 and studied in the Leningrad Military Communications Academy. He was commissioned as a signal officer probably in 1951 or 1952. He may have served an as MVD border guards communications officer.

He was posted to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in the early 1950s. In February 1954, he was listed as a senior lieutenant at a Soviet communications unit Köpenick, Germany, near Berlin.[1] At that time, he and his German girlfriend crossed the border from the Soviet Zone into the British Zone of Berlin and he turned himself over to British forces.[2]

Soon after his defection he provided details of the dispositions and sizes of border guard units along the Ukrainian-Polish border.[3] He was also knowledgeable of communication systems in general, and the U.S. National Security Agency expressed interest in his interrogation reports.[4]

[1] Telegram to DIRNSA, 20 March 1954, Document 41762059080119, William F. Friedman Collection of Official Papers, National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_207/41762059080119.pdf.
[2] “KGB Wanted List," Entry number 191, HIA, Vladislav Krasnov Writings file.
[3] MI6 debriefing report, 3 April 1954 and 24 August 1954, National Archives, Kew, London, KV 5/107, serials 80a and 109a.
[4] Telegram SUSLO London to DIRNSA, 28 April 1954, Document 41762159080129, William F. Friedman Collection of Official Papers, National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/reports-research/FOLDER_207/41762159080129.pdf.