Legal residentura Vienna

Austria constituted for the USSR and Czechoslovakia a starting base for offensive actions against the "main enemy" – the USA and NATO. It served for handling agents and operations in third countries and structures of NATO, the UN, the infiltration of exile, and so on. In Austria, the Intelligence Service also carried out abductions (operation ALEX – the kidnapping of B. Laušman in 1953). Operatives were permanently planted in the UN in Vienna and the residentura ranked among the largest in Europe. It also conducted operations in cooperation with the KGB, the military counterintelligence service, Border Guard and Directorate II of the National Security Corps. An important part was scientific-technical espionage, buying embargoed devices and components and special imports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. A senior official of the Austrian Stapa Alfred Petrovič alias Fridolín Hechtl (Alpe, Duda, May, June, July, August, etc.) in 1962 at the direction of the KGB poisoned Hungarian defector Bela Lápusnyik with dimethyl sulphate supplied by the KGB. Agent Maximilan Mattese (Dax, Dofen), colonel of the Austrian secret service, after retirement passed information from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and was highly valued by the KGB. Ivo Šafář (Dior, Egon) was an agent deployed against Pavel Tigrid and until his death in 1980 was involved in "smuggling" dissident literature. His reports were forwarded to the KGB. Miroslava Mrázová (Sláva) was an agent given away by State Security agent Karel Zbytek and turned by the State Security. Originally she worked for the British secret service. She helped plant bugs in the Viennese apartment of Radomir Luže (operation Louka). Blažej Müller (Dore, Dub) was an agent – head of a Catholic charity in Vienna – who supplied information about the expatriate community in Austria. Other important agents included the former director of Österreichischer Rundfunk (the Austrian national public service broadcaster) Helmut Zilk (Holec) as well as Herman Rauscher (Günter), Franz Hrbek (Hacke), Bedřich Dočekal (Kozak) and others. According to documents published on the CIA's website in 2008, in 1959 that agency handled a high-ranking agent at the residentura in Vienna, who informed it about several agents of the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service. Residents: until 1953 First Lieutenant Miroslav Nacvalač "Kubeš", who "worked closely with the KGB" (bottom right), from 1953 – 1955 First Lieutenant Bohumil Molnár, "Drábek" (top right), from 1956 – 57 Major Jarmil Šindelář "Šustr", from 1957 – 1960 Captain Josef Kalina "Karhan", in January 1968 appointed Deputy Resident Major Věroslav Sobek "Šedivý (The Grey)" (Czechoslovak mission to the IAEA) from 1969 – 1972 the Resident was Lieutenant Colonel Vilém Koziorek "Pavliš", from 1972 – 1978 Lieutenant Colonel Josef Slunečko "Srba (The Serb)", from 1979 – 1981 Captain Vilém Václavek "Kainar", from 1983 – 87 the Resident was Colonol Karel Vodrážka "Budín" (top left). The last Resident was Lieutenant Colonel Oldřich Vaca "Drtina" (left) in 1989.