Pyotr Semyonovich Popov

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Pyotr Semyonovich Popov (Russian: Пётр Семёнович Попов; July 1923 – January 1960) was a colonel in the Soviet military intelligence apparatus (GRU). He was the first GRU officer to offer his services to the Central Intelligence Agency after World War II. Between 1953 and 1958, he provided the United States government with large amounts of information concerning military capabilities and espionage operations. He was codenamed ATTIC for most of his time with the CIA, and his case officer was George Kisevalter. In 1953 Popov was a GRU officer stationed in Vienna, a case officer working against Yugoslav targets. Popov first made contact in 1953 by slipping a letter into the parked car of a United States diplomat in Vienna, offering to sell Soviet documents. He seemed to be motivated by a deep anger at what he felt was government exploitation of the peasants of Russia, including his own family. According to a report written by the CIA in 2013, he was motivated by money to be able to "maintain...

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