Spies & Spying Personality Profiling: Illegals - Non-Official Cover

From The Psychology of Spies and Spying by Adrian Furnham and John Taylor.

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The Russian SVR and its predecessors have run a program of ‘Illegals’ for many decades. These are intelligence officers, usually Handlers, who are trained to work overseas using false names and backgrounds. 

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Spies & Sleeper Agents

These are long-term operations lasting many years. They acquire access to intelligence through employment in a target area. They may also run other agents in the host country. When they begin their illegal career they will probably not know what their specific mission will be. If caught, they have no diplomatic immunity and will be tried for spying.

Their colleagues working out of an embassy enjoy diplomatic immunity and, if caught, will be persona non grata in their host country although Illegals, if caught, will go through the courts and may spend time in prison. They are often released as part of an exchange. 

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Spies & Spying Illegals: Psychological profile notes

The requirements for Illegals and NOCs are the same as for the Handler: interpersonal skills, sociability, and drive. 

But the emphasis is much more on drive.

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Spies & Spying essentials

They have to operate with very little guidance or contact from their superiors back in HQ. Their work is potentially more stressful because they have no one they can turn to and the risks are higher. 

We have, therefore, in the chart below shifted one of the Handler essentials from ‘sociability’ to ‘stability’.

The three essentials for an Illegal are:

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Spies & Illegals in film and books

It is curious that while this is the most secret of operations, there is rich literature on the subject from commentators and previous Illegals.

Oleg Gordievsky started his career in the Illegal section of the KGB. There are several books on some of the better-known cases on Konon Molody alias Gordon Lonsdale, Jack Barsky, and the notorious Anna Vasil'evna Kushchenko alias Anna Chapman, one of the ten Illegals arrested by the FBI in 2010. Gordon Corera’s book Russians Among Us (2020) provides an excellent account of the work they do. There is also rich fiction, particularly in film. The Fox series The Americans is one of the best acclaimed. 

The French series Le Bureau, while covering a wider range of intelligence activities, also covers an Illegal program. The film Bridge of Spies (2015) tells the true story of the exchange of Rudolph Abel and Gary Powers, an American U2 spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union.

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Spies & Illegals in podcasts

Amaryllis Fox, a CIA NOC (non-official cover) who resigned in 2010 wrote her revelatory memoirs Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA (2019). You can listen to her SPYSCAPE podcast below.

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Excerpt courtesy of The Psychology of Spies and Spying by Adrian Furnham and John Taylor.

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