Email this article Counterintelligence and political spying by the FBI at the beginning of the Cold War (the case of Elizabeth Bentley)
- Authors: Levin Y.A.1, Surzhik D.V.2
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Affiliations:
- Samara State Technical University
- Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Issue: No 2 (2025)
- Pages: 104-113
- Section: Политические исследования
- URL: https://bakhtiniada.ru/0869-0499/article/view/314627
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869049925020084
- EDN: https://elibrary.ru/jattmg
- ID: 314627
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Abstract
The complexity of modern international relations, the rivalry of intelligence and counterintelligence of different countries and the socio-political situation force experts to increasingly turn to historical examples. The purpose of this study is to analyze the case of intelligence officer Elizabeth Bentley, caught and overturned by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Based on materials of the FBI archive and scientific literature available to researchers on the topic, conclusions were drawn about the impact of this case, its course and consequences. After the capture and awareness of Bentley’s small potential for further opposition to the intelligence agencies of the USSR, federal agents decided to use the failed double agent for propaganda purposes, which contributed to reinforcement of the first accusations of radical conservatives in the US Congress known in historiography as “McCarthyists”. Parallels have been drawn with the current situation in US politics and society, where a much more dubious, from the point of view of facts, “Skripal’s case” gradually became the basis for the campaign “of Russian influence” on the elections and administration of President D. Trump, which became one of the tools of the inter-party struggle in the US.
Keywords
About the authors
Y. A. Levin
Samara State Technical University
Email: yaroslavlevin1992@mail.ru
Samara, Russia
D. V. Surzhik
Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Email: dimsu@inbox.ru
Moscow, Russia
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