Dr. Filip Kovacevic
IAFIE Intelligence Education Interview Series - Dr. Filip Kovacevic
Interviewer: IAFIE Volunteer
Table of Contents:
Question 1.) Let’s start with the basics. How would you like to present yourself to the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE)?
Question 2.) Can you share with our readers what inspired you to pursue the field of intelligence?
Question 3.) Dr. Kovacevic, you have extensive experience in the field, both professionally as a geopolitical analyst and academically as a professor. Can you share with our readers what makes a great analyst?
Question 4.) On the importance of documenting Russian and Soviet intelligence history, what role would you say these pieces play in modern-day intelligence studies?
Question 5.) Dr. Kovacevic, you have over twenty years of experience as an educator. How do you see the future of intelligence and analysis, and how should educators orient themselves? (for example, curriculum).
Question 6.) In your most recent publication, Resisting the KGB Mythmakers: Willy Fisher, Spy Fiction, and the Myth of Rudolf Abel (2024), you detail the life and myth surrounding Soviet intelligence officer Willy Fisher and the extensive efforts by the KGB to bury him under the name of Rudolf Abel. Can you share with our readers what your study reveals regarding the Soviet Union and its intelligence officers?
Question 7.) What work do you believe most represents your professional life, and what can future analysts, researchers, and intelligence practitioners learn from it? (For example: documenting Russian and Soviet Intelligence history, can you share the most valuable lessons you have learned from documenting these pieces of history? And what motivated you to create the Chekist Monitor?
Question 8.) What advice or suggestions would you give our readers/students who are interested in the field of intelligence? Where should they start?
Question 9.) Dr. Kovacevic, in your highly anticipated book KGB Literati: Spy Fiction and State Security in the Soviet Union (to be published in 2025). Can you share with our readers what lessons you hope they will take with them when reading your book?
Question 10.) Lastly, can you share with us five keywords that represent you?
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Interview Introduction: Known as one of the world’s leading research scholars in Russian and Soviet intelligence history, we are very honored to have Dr. Kovacevic in this month’s Intelligence Education Interview Series. In this compelling interview, Dr. Kovacevic discusses his professional and academic path providing insight into his expertise and journey of documenting Russian and Soviet Intelligence history, and his latest works including Resisting the KGB Mythmakers: Willy Fisher, Spy Fiction, and the Myth of Rudolf Abel (2024), and provides insight into his highly anticipated book for 2025, KGB Literati: Spy Fiction and State Security in the Soviet Union.
As an avid reader of Dr. Kovacevic’s various works, some of which are available on his website, The Chekist Monitor I was thrilled to attend his recent lecture,“Soviet/Russian State Security PR Projects from Lenin to Putin”, and am eager for him to share his area of expertise with our readers. Dr. Kovacevic, we thank you once again for participating in the Intelligence Education Interview Series and hope that your research impact in the field of intelligence studies will inspire our members, as you have inspired me and so many others in your more than two-decade-long university teaching career.
Question 1). Let’s start with the basics. How would you like to present yourself to the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE)?
As an innovative and meticulous researcher and a discoverer of the unknown about the little-known through open and archival sources of information, I am committed to bringing out the intentionally obscured and hidden voices from the past into our contemporary discourse in intelligence studies. We can learn so much from historical research because of the repetitive patterns in intelligence and counterintelligence practices and the unbroken continuities in intelligence cultures. My work is focused on revealing and writing about the up-until-now unknown operations and personnel from the KGB files. The details of such operations are jealously guarded by the current masters in the Kremlin – all former KGB officers – and so what I do is not without a certain amount of risk.
Question 2). Can you share with our readers what inspired you to pursue the field of intelligence?
I like to uncover secrets, and there are so many in the secret world of spies and counterspies. It’s like being an archeologist. Your focus is on documented stories rather than artifacts in the ground. However, you have to dig and dig and travel around the world to find all the clues to complete the puzzle. Every intelligence story is like a puzzle, and it’s rare that you can find all the missing pieces. However, some of the documents I uncovered have never been heard about before. For instance, I discovered the transcript of a meeting of KGB counterintelligence leadership in 1955. The top-ranking KGB generals, who were just names up to that point, began speaking in their own voice. You could even discern their character traits from the way they articulated certain things.
My analysis of this transcript was later published by the Wilson Center, and interested readers can find it here:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/inside-look-soviet-counterintelligence-mid-1950s.
Question 3). Dr. Kovacevic, you have extensive experience in the field, both professionally as a geopolitical analyst and academically as a professor. Can you share with our readers what makes a great analyst?
Intellectual curiosity and willingness to incorporate new insights into whatever you are analyzing. Ideological fixation is the death of all accurate analysis. You’ve got to be open for the unexpected. And you will be surprised. Things are rarely what they seem on the surface. Intelligence officers are excellent manipulators of the human mind, so you’ve got to be careful not to fall into their trap.
Question 4). On the importance of documenting Russian and Soviet intelligence history, what role would you say these pieces play in modern-day intelligence studies?
They play a very important role because the current Russian intelligence culture is a close reflection of the Soviet KGB intelligence culture. The personnel names are different, but the anti-foreigner (not only anti-Western) orientation and conspiratorial mentality have remained the same. Many of the current SVR and FSB officers had their fathers and grandfathers (and sometimes even their mothers and grandmothers) employed in the KGB. So we have direct family lines going back into the past. In addition, the educational institutions and operational teaching materials created by the KGB have stayed basically unreformed in post-Soviet Russia, and that is why I am currently engaged in a significant investigative study of KGB educational practices. The Chekists – the collective self-designation of Soviet and Russian state security and intelligence officers - still aspire to change the world and model it in their own image, which is neither democratic nor liberal.
Question 5). Dr. Kovacevic, you have over twenty years of experience as an educator. How do you see the future of intelligence and analysis, and how should educators orient themselves? (for example, curriculum).
I am optimistic about the future of intelligence analysis in the West, but, of course, safeguards need to be put in place to prevent the corrosive influences of contemporary political polarizations from seeping into the intelligence community. Western intelligence and counterintelligence officers must be committed to seeking objective truth rather than to any political party affiliation. The same goes for intelligence educators. We need to be guiding lights for our students and teach them the importance of empathy and working together to confront both internal and external challenges. And it is likely that there will be many challenges in the years ahead. Not only violent conflicts and wars, but also potentially new diseases and catastrophic weather patterns leading to mass population displacements.
Question 6). In your most recent publication, Resisting the KGB Mythmakers: Willy Fisher, Spy Fiction, and the Myth of Rudolf Abel (2024), you detail the life and myth surrounding Soviet intelligence officer Willy Fisher and the extensive efforts by the KGB to bury him under the name of Rudolf Abel. Can you share with our readers what your study reveals regarding the Soviet Union and its intelligence officers?
One of the major insights from this study is that for Soviet and Russian intelligence officers, no matter how accomplished certain individuals may be (and Fisher-Abel was one of their most successful spies), they are still just cogs in the machinery of state security and must be forced to think of themselves as such. And if they want to voice their independence and assert their autonomy, even minimally, they get crushed by their colleagues. For instance, Willy Fisher was even buried under the false name of Rudolf Abel (the name of his Soviet intelligence colleague and friend who died earlier) and it was only after the desperate protests of his wife and daughter that the KGB chairman Yuri Andropov allowed the addition of his real name to the fake name on his tombstone.
Question 7). What work do you believe most represents your professional life, and what can future analysts, researchers, and intelligence practitioners learn from it? (For example: documenting Russian and Soviet Intelligence history, can you share the most valuable lessons you have learned from documenting these pieces of history? And what motivated you to create the Chekist Monitor?
I don’t think I can point to any work in particular but invite the readers to read all of my research works in their totality. What they will learn is that Russian intelligence and counterintelligence services are a serious and dangerous adversary, but also that they are not without their weaknesses. And their biggest weakness is their toxically hierarchical interpersonal relations. The respect for individual accomplishments is not emphasized, and the collective is put far above the individual. And they are brutal in dealing with dissent, both internally and externally.
The reason I created The Chekist Monitor was to share interesting vignettes and episodes from my ongoing archival research with my readers. I like to tell the secret tales from KGB archives and found this digital outlet to be the most convenient way to do so.
Question 8). What advice or suggestions would you give our readers/students who are interested in the field of intelligence? Where should they start?
My main suggestion is to start in the archive, in any archive of any intelligence service. There are digital archives with thousands of unexplored declassified documents—the CIA Crest, the FBI Vault, etc. Also, become an avid filer of the Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. Though my experience with FOIA is mixed, and sometimes it literally takes several years to get any documents from intelligence agencies, you never know what will come your way. Remember that primary sources are the sine qua non of any good research. Everything else is derived and dependent on somebody else’s interpretation. Be your own person in your investigations. Discover your own archival treasure.
Question 9). Dr. Kovacevic, in your highly anticipated book KGB Literati: Spy Fiction and State Security in the Soviet Union (to be published in 2025). Can you share with our readers what lessons you hope they will take with them when reading your book?
My book is about spy fiction written by KGB officers, and it is the first book on this subject matter in any language, including Russian (and I hope it will be translated worldwide). Why is the focus on spy fiction by intelligence officers so important? It is not just entertainment, but it can also illuminate the work of clandestine government organizations and their relations to the societies where they operate in very vivid and intricate ways. At this particular time, spy fiction written by KGB officers is especially relevant because it reflects KGB mentality, norms, and values –in other words, KGB culture – and the present-day Russia is run by former KGB officers. Therefore, analyzing KGB spy fiction can provide relevant insights into understanding the motivations and goals of contemporary Russian foreign and security policies and actions. KGB Literati will be published by the University of Toronto Press, and I invite readers of this interview to read it and send me their feedback.
Question 10). Lastly, can you share with us five keywords that represent you?
Curiosity, innovation, courage, persistence, and pedagogy.