Counterintelligence and political spying by the FBI at the beginning of the Cold War (the case of Elizabeth Bentley)

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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.

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About the authors

Yaroslav A. Levin

Samara State Technical University

Author for correspondence.
Email: yaroslavlevin1992@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8805-8220

Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Humanities

Russian Federation, 443100, 244, Molodogvardeyskaya St., Samara

Dmitry V. Surzhik

Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: dimsu@inbox.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4865-6821

Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Research Fellow

Russian Federation, 119334, 32a, Leninsky prosp., Moscow

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