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Personal Details
- Russian Name
- Михаил Алексеевич Калугин
- Birth Date
- 19 July 1894
- Defection Date
- Fall 1941
- Death Date
- 19-Jun-53
Mikhail Alekseyevich Kalugin
Михаил Алексеевич Калугин
Service Details
Biography
Mikhail Alekseyevich Kalugin was born in 1894 in Šiauliai, then in Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire, now in modern Latvia. He graduated from the Oranienbaum Infantry Officers’ School near St. Petersburg in 1916 and served in the Imperial Army during World War I. He transitioned to the Red Army after the October Revolution and, like many experienced tsarist officers, began teaching combat skills, initially as chief of the Volokolamsk Machine Gun School near Moscow. He served in 1919 as a commissar in the Moscow Military Commissariat and in the Moscow military engineers school, and then commanded a machine-gun battalion of the Moscow Military district in 1920. He returned to military training in 1922, commanding the training regiment of the 48th Infantry Division and later the machine gun school of the 40th training regiment of the Moscow Military District.[i]
At the end of 1922 he reportedly transferred to GPU troops and he remained affiliated with state security until the summer of 1940. No firm documentation is available about his OGPU-NKVD career, although in 1936 he reportedly graduated from Frunze Military Academy and in 1938 was promoted to captain, probably meaning captain of state security, which was the equivalent of an Army colonel. In 1938-1939, he may have served as the chief of the OO of the North Caucasus Military District.
Kalugin participated in the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939-1940, probably with NKVD troops on the Northwest Front. This service apparently damaged his career prospects, similar to other officers in the ill-fated Soviet-Finnish war, because during the summer of 1940, he was transferred to the regular Red Army and assigned as a company commander in the Second Slutsk Infantry Regiment. In 1941, he was promoted to major, this time probably as a regular army officer, not a state security officer.
Kalugin was captured during the fall of 1941 and held in an officers’ POW camp in Suwałki, Poland. By 1942 he joined the Military Union of Russian Nationalists (Боевой Союз Русских Националистов; BSRN) and became a founding member of the Nazi SD-sponsored Druzhina Brigade, a special unit organized under the auspices of Operation Zeppelin, and led by Soviet Colonel Vladimir Vladimirovich Gil, who had taken the pseudonym I. G. Rodionov. Similar to both Bessonov’s and Vlasov’s organizations, the founders of the Druzhina Brigade envisioned a future Russia with a national government, private property rights, and religious freedom, all under German protection.[ii]
June 1943, at the request of Lieutenant General G. N. Zhilenkov, the ROA representative to the Druzhina Brigade, Kalugin was assigned to the Dabendorf ROA School. A month later he was placed on Vlasov’s personal staff given the assignment to organize the staff; he was one of he first officers on the staff of the ROA.[iii] From June to August 1944, he worked as a POW interrogator and conducted interrogations of captured Soviet command staff and officers.
In September 1944, Kalugin took on the task of forming a security department within the KONR, which in November was formally established as the Security Directorate, responsible for the personal security of KONR leadership. Kulagin was named first assistant to the chief, Nikolay Vasilyevich Tenzorov (V. N. Puzanov). In this position, Kuylagin led counterespionage investigations within the KONR, and he ordered that Rafail Ilych Bekker be removed from his position in KONR intelligence (see separate entry in this database).[iv] Kalugin was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the KONR in early 1945. In January 1945, he organized a KONR intelligence school in Marienbad, near the KONR headquarters in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia), but the school was short-lived, because in April, Kulagin was among the KONR staff that was evacuated to Füssen, Germany ahead of approaching Soviet forces.
The Security Directorate was disbanded on 25-26 April 1945, and Kulagin hid in the mountains around Füssen with a group of KONR members, thus allowing him to avoid forced repatriation. Later in 1945, he settled in the American occupation zone near Munich and became active in anti-Soviet émigré movements. In 1948, Kulagin was a founding member of the Antibolshevik Center of the Liberation Movement of the Peoples of Russia (Антибольшевистский Центр Освободительного Движения Народов России; ATsODNR) and the Union of the Andreyev Flag (Союз Андреевского Флага; SAF), which rejected not only Bolshevism but also the precepts of the February 1917 revolution, leaning toward pre-1917 monarchism. Kalugin participated in organizing meetings of members of the ATsODNR in July and August 1950 in the Schlachsheim Camp near Munich, which resulted in the creation of the Комитет Объединенных Власовцев (Committee of Unified Vlasovites; KOV), with Major General Anton Vasilyevich Turkul, a White Russian general who had commanded a KONR corps, as its leader. The KOV was founded on a blending of the KONR manifesto from 1944 with White émigré traditions. In August, Kalugin was elected as general leader of the KOV.
In September 1947, Boris Nikolaevsky asked Aleksandr Fedorovich Chikalov, another Soviet intelligence officer defector and associate Kalugin in the KONR, to arrange a meeting with Kalugin, who was using the name Paul Solomin. Kalugin had been trying to contact U.S. authorities to provide intelligence information. His association with anti-Bolshevik organizations probably put him in contact with U.S. intelligence. However, according to Chikalov, Nikolaevsky was disappointed with Kalugin’s information, and there is no indication that they corresponded further.[v]
On 19 July 1953, Kulagin died during a medical operation in Munich.
[i] Information about Kalugin’s career is derived from Kirill Mikhailovich Aleksandrov, Офицерский Корпус Армии Генерал-Лейтенанта Ал. Власова, 1944-1945 (Officer Corps of the Army of General Lieutenant Vlasov, 1944-1945) (Saint Petersburg: Русско-Балтийский информационный центр, «БЛИЦ», 2001), pp. 166-167.
[ii] Chuev, Cursed Soldiers.
[iii] Aleksandrov, General and Officer Corps of the Armed Formations of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia 1943-1946), p. 352.
[iv] Aleksandrov, General Vlasov’s Army 1944-1945, p. 55.
[v] U.S. CIC memo titled “Operation HAGBERRY,” dated 24 December 1947, NARA, RG 319, Entry A1 314B, Boxes 810-811, Chikalov folder.
At the end of 1922 he reportedly transferred to GPU troops and he remained affiliated with state security until the summer of 1940. No firm documentation is available about his OGPU-NKVD career, although in 1936 he reportedly graduated from Frunze Military Academy and in 1938 was promoted to captain, probably meaning captain of state security, which was the equivalent of an Army colonel. In 1938-1939, he may have served as the chief of the OO of the North Caucasus Military District.
Kalugin participated in the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939-1940, probably with NKVD troops on the Northwest Front. This service apparently damaged his career prospects, similar to other officers in the ill-fated Soviet-Finnish war, because during the summer of 1940, he was transferred to the regular Red Army and assigned as a company commander in the Second Slutsk Infantry Regiment. In 1941, he was promoted to major, this time probably as a regular army officer, not a state security officer.
Kalugin was captured during the fall of 1941 and held in an officers’ POW camp in Suwałki, Poland. By 1942 he joined the Military Union of Russian Nationalists (Боевой Союз Русских Националистов; BSRN) and became a founding member of the Nazi SD-sponsored Druzhina Brigade, a special unit organized under the auspices of Operation Zeppelin, and led by Soviet Colonel Vladimir Vladimirovich Gil, who had taken the pseudonym I. G. Rodionov. Similar to both Bessonov’s and Vlasov’s organizations, the founders of the Druzhina Brigade envisioned a future Russia with a national government, private property rights, and religious freedom, all under German protection.[ii]
June 1943, at the request of Lieutenant General G. N. Zhilenkov, the ROA representative to the Druzhina Brigade, Kalugin was assigned to the Dabendorf ROA School. A month later he was placed on Vlasov’s personal staff given the assignment to organize the staff; he was one of he first officers on the staff of the ROA.[iii] From June to August 1944, he worked as a POW interrogator and conducted interrogations of captured Soviet command staff and officers.
In September 1944, Kalugin took on the task of forming a security department within the KONR, which in November was formally established as the Security Directorate, responsible for the personal security of KONR leadership. Kulagin was named first assistant to the chief, Nikolay Vasilyevich Tenzorov (V. N. Puzanov). In this position, Kuylagin led counterespionage investigations within the KONR, and he ordered that Rafail Ilych Bekker be removed from his position in KONR intelligence (see separate entry in this database).[iv] Kalugin was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the KONR in early 1945. In January 1945, he organized a KONR intelligence school in Marienbad, near the KONR headquarters in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia), but the school was short-lived, because in April, Kulagin was among the KONR staff that was evacuated to Füssen, Germany ahead of approaching Soviet forces.
The Security Directorate was disbanded on 25-26 April 1945, and Kulagin hid in the mountains around Füssen with a group of KONR members, thus allowing him to avoid forced repatriation. Later in 1945, he settled in the American occupation zone near Munich and became active in anti-Soviet émigré movements. In 1948, Kulagin was a founding member of the Antibolshevik Center of the Liberation Movement of the Peoples of Russia (Антибольшевистский Центр Освободительного Движения Народов России; ATsODNR) and the Union of the Andreyev Flag (Союз Андреевского Флага; SAF), which rejected not only Bolshevism but also the precepts of the February 1917 revolution, leaning toward pre-1917 monarchism. Kalugin participated in organizing meetings of members of the ATsODNR in July and August 1950 in the Schlachsheim Camp near Munich, which resulted in the creation of the Комитет Объединенных Власовцев (Committee of Unified Vlasovites; KOV), with Major General Anton Vasilyevich Turkul, a White Russian general who had commanded a KONR corps, as its leader. The KOV was founded on a blending of the KONR manifesto from 1944 with White émigré traditions. In August, Kalugin was elected as general leader of the KOV.
In September 1947, Boris Nikolaevsky asked Aleksandr Fedorovich Chikalov, another Soviet intelligence officer defector and associate Kalugin in the KONR, to arrange a meeting with Kalugin, who was using the name Paul Solomin. Kalugin had been trying to contact U.S. authorities to provide intelligence information. His association with anti-Bolshevik organizations probably put him in contact with U.S. intelligence. However, according to Chikalov, Nikolaevsky was disappointed with Kalugin’s information, and there is no indication that they corresponded further.[v]
On 19 July 1953, Kulagin died during a medical operation in Munich.
[i] Information about Kalugin’s career is derived from Kirill Mikhailovich Aleksandrov, Офицерский Корпус Армии Генерал-Лейтенанта Ал. Власова, 1944-1945 (Officer Corps of the Army of General Lieutenant Vlasov, 1944-1945) (Saint Petersburg: Русско-Балтийский информационный центр, «БЛИЦ», 2001), pp. 166-167.
[ii] Chuev, Cursed Soldiers.
[iii] Aleksandrov, General and Officer Corps of the Armed Formations of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia 1943-1946), p. 352.
[iv] Aleksandrov, General Vlasov’s Army 1944-1945, p. 55.
[v] U.S. CIC memo titled “Operation HAGBERRY,” dated 24 December 1947, NARA, RG 319, Entry A1 314B, Boxes 810-811, Chikalov folder.