On September 30, 1985, in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Arab militants captured four citizens of the USSR. One of them was killed, three were released a month later. This story was classified and therefore overgrown with speculation and legends - right up to allegations that the KGB agents acted with illegal methods, directly threatening the death of the relatives of the terrorists. What really happened that fall? And why did both sides consider the release of the hostages their victory?
All against all
Lebanon is a small Middle Eastern country with a population of 6 million. In the north and east, it borders with Syria, in the south - with Israel.
During the events described, the state was in a state of civil war - moreover, there were about a dozen armed formations that fought with each other: right-wing Christian units; Druze (Arabs professing one of the Shiite branches of Islam); militants of communist organizations; Syrian troops brought into the country at the request of the government; the Shiite radical movements Amal and Hezbollah; Palestinian formations Fatah ("Movement for the Liberation of Palestine"), which came to the country under the pretext of supporting the Druze and at the same time killed Christians and carried out military actions against Israel.
The groups controlled their zones, sometimes uniting, then at enmity with each other. Constant shootings and kidnappings were considered commonplace in the country.
The Soviet Union viewed Lebanon as its ally in the Middle East and supported the Palestinians in every possible way in the fight against Israel. And since weapons to the region mainly came from the USSR, the attitude to the world's first state of workers and peasants on the part of all armed formations was quite respectful.
Promotional video:
Monday is a hard day
The events of September 30, 1985 looked all the more incomprehensible. On that Monday, two cars of the Soviet embassy were captured almost simultaneously. In one of them were KGB officers Oleg Spirin and Valery Myrikov, working under diplomatic cover. At the other end of the city, during a similar operation, consular officer Arkady Katkov and doctor Nikolai Svirsky were captured. At the same time, Katkov tried to resist - and was wounded in the leg by an automatic round.
After some time, the correspondents of the Beirut bureau of the British Reuters received a message from the terrorists and photographs of the hostages. They were transferred to the Soviet embassy.
In the photographs, a pistol was held to the temples of each of the diplomats. The militants' demands were: Moscow must immediately influence Damascus and stop the actions of the Syrian army, which, helping the Lebanese government, joined the fight against Hezbollah and Palestinian militias in the region of Tripoli in the north of the country.
Otherwise, the hostages were threatened with death. The demand came from the previously unknown organization "Forces of Khaled bin al-Walid".
Shot in the back of the head
The terrorists' intentions looked extremely decisive. A few hours later, the Beirut police found the body of Arkady Katkov in the area of the bombed stadium. The diplomat was shot in the back of the head, with traces of previous bullet wounds on the thigh and lower leg.
Later it turned out that the wounded Katkov began gangrene. The militants did not provide him with medical assistance - they just drove him to a deserted place by car and shot him. This was done by the Lebanese who led the hostage-taking and the former bodyguard of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - Imad Mugniya, nicknamed Hyena (who would later become the most wanted terrorist in the world after Osama bin Laden).
Naturally, the events were reported to Moscow. Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev sent a personal message to Syrian President Hafez Assad (father of the current President Bashar Assad). Gorbachev asked to stop the hostilities against the Hezbollah and Palestinian militants of the Fatah organization, led by Yasser Arafat. Assad did not like this - the Syrian troops won a number of victories and had the opportunity to completely defeat the terrorists. But the authority of the Soviet Union was so high that the request of its leader was fulfilled. The militants have achieved what they wanted.
Cunning ally
KGB officers in Beirut worked with renewed vigor, analyzing information received from various agents. It was possible to establish that the organization "Forces of Khaled bin al-Walid" was just a screen behind which fundamentalists from Hezbollah and Fatah were hiding. Soviet resident, colonel of the foreign intelligence service (then called the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR) Yuri Perfilyev was instructed to negotiate with the leaders of the terrorists in order to free the hostages.
Yasser Arafat, who was considered an ally and even a friend in the USSR, publicly stated that he had reached an agreement with the kidnappers and even paid a ransom for them - the newspapers indicated figures from 100 thousand to 15 million dollars. But in fact, the head of the Palestinians gave instructions not to release the abducted diplomats under any circumstances. This telephone conversation was intercepted by Lebanese counterintelligence and transferred to the KGB.
The first success turned the heads of the terrorists. Arafat felt that much more could be bargained for to free the hostages. After the cessation of hostilities in the Tripoli area, the command of the Syrian forces intended to clear the suburbs of Beirut from the militants of the Fatah and Hezbollah groups. At the suggestion of Arafat, the terrorists demanded that this operation be canceled, otherwise the hostages would be executed.
Two versions of events
It became clear that the demands of the kidnappers would only grow. It was known that they were initially kept in a small garage. Then the prisoners were wrapped from head to foot with wide adhesive tape, leaving only small gaps for breathing, and in a secret container placed under the back of a truck, they were transported to an unknown village inland.
There are two versions of further events - official and unofficial.
According to the latter, the KGB agents colluded with the Druze group - and they delivered two relatives of Imad Mugniy to the Soviet intelligence officers. A few days later, the body of one of them with a cut throat and his own genitals in his mouth was found near the entrance to his house. In the pocket of the murdered man there was a note that the same fate would befall the second relative if the Soviet hostages were not released. In addition, the names of some of the militants involved in the seizure were listed, and it was announced that the same fate awaited them.
Unsurprisingly, the terrorists backed down.
The second version was expressed by Yuri Perfiliev himself in his book of memoirs. The Soviet intelligence officer claims that everything was decided by chance.
The very next day after the abduction, during a raid by the Lebanese authorities in Beirut, one of the kidnappers and the brother of another terrorist were killed in an accidental firefight. The militants were afraid that they had been identified, and the destruction of all those involved in this case began. Soviet intelligence officers were in no hurry to deny their involvement in these deaths - and received a moral advantage. Yuri Perfiliev now had the opportunity to negotiate with terrorists from a position of strength.
Random rocket flight
The colonel met with the spiritual leader of the Hezbollah movement, Sheikh Mohammed Fadlallah. This man enjoyed great prestige in the Arab world, the leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini himself, conferred the title of Ayatollah on him, making him an equal to himself (the Hezbollah movement advocated the creation of an Islamic state in Lebanon on the Iranian model and was closely associated with this country).
Perfiliev told the sheikh about the following: the USSR showed maximum patience, but if the situation is not resolved positively, the most serious measures will be taken - to the point that a Soviet missile may accidentally land in one of the Muslim shrines or residences of radical Islamic leaders. At the same time, the scout emphasized that the customers and perpetrators of the hostage-taking were known and their punishment was just a matter of time.
In addition, a group of KGB officers - specialists in solving special problems abroad - almost openly arrived from the Soviet Union in Lebanon, and the leader of Hezbollah knew about this. The Sheikh replied that he would pray for the hostages and hopes for their early release.
On October 30, 1985, a month after the capture, three unharmed Soviet diplomats were dropped from a car near the Soviet embassy.
Defector from the KGB
The situation was resolved in such a way that both sides considered the incident their victory. Syrian forces have stopped pursuing militants from Fatah and Hezbollah. Yasser Arafat remained a loyal friend of the USSR and in 1994 became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Yuri Perfiliev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his excellent work. The body of Arkady Katkov was transported to Moscow and buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
The three other former hostages continued to work abroad. Myrikov and Svirsky conscientiously performed their duty. But KGB Major Spirin five years later, being on a business trip in Kuwait, fled to England with his family, and from there he moved to the United States. Maybe he did it, remembering all the horrors experienced in captivity, and subconsciously not wanting something like this to happen to him again?
Margarita Kapskaya