Operation RYAN

Operation RYAN
Russian	Операция РЯН
Romanization	Operation RYAN

Operation RYAN (or RYaN, and sometimes written as VRYAN,^[1] Russian: РЯН, IPA: [rʲæn]) was a Cold War military intelligence program run by the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, when they believed the United States was planning for an imminent first strike attack. The name is an acronym for Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie (Russian: Ракетно-ядерное нападение, "Nuclear Missile Attack"). The purpose of the operation was to collect intelligence on potential contingency plans of the Reagan administration to launch a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union.^[2]^[3]^[4] The program was initiated in May 1981 by Yuri Andropov, then chairman of the KGB.

Background

Andropov suffered from a "Hungarian complex" from his personal experience of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, according to the historian Christopher Andrew. Andropov had, as the Soviet ambassador to Hungary, "watched in horror from the windows of his embassy as officers of the hated Hungarian security service were strung up from lampposts". Andropov remained haunted for the rest of his life by the speed with which an apparently all-powerful Communist one-party state had begun to topple.^[5]

Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov, then Chairman of the KGB, justified the creation of Operation RYaN because, they claimed, the United States was "actively preparing for nuclear war" against the Soviet Union and its allies. According to a Stasi report released in the mid-2010s, the primary "Chekist work" discussed in the May 1981 meeting was the "demand to allow for 'no surprise.'"^[5]

Operation

The Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky divulged a top-secret KGB telegram sent to the London KGB residency in February 1983. It stated: "The objective of the assignment is to see that the Residency works systematically to uncover any plans in preparation by the main adversary [USA] for RYAN and to organize a continual watch to be kept for indications of a decision being taken to use nuclear weapons against the USSR or immediate preparations being made for a nuclear missile attack."^[5]

An attachment listed seven "immediate" and thirteen "prospective" tasks for the agents to complete and report. These included: the collection of data on potential places of evacuation and shelter, an appraisal of the level of blood held in blood banks, observation of places where nuclear decisions were made and where nuclear weapons were stored, observation of key nuclear decision makers, observation of lines of communication, reconnaissance of the heads of churches and banks, and surveillance of security services and military installations.^[5]

RYAN took on a new significance after the announcement of plans to deploy Pershing II W85-nuclear-armed missiles to West Germany.^[2] These missiles were designed to be launched from road-mobile vehicles, making the launch sites very hard to find. The flight time from West Germany to European Russia was only four to six minutes, with an approximate flying time from six to eight minutes from West Germany to Moscow, giving the Soviets little or no warning.

On 23 March 1983, Ronald Reagan publicly announced the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Soviet government felt that the purpose of SDI technology was to render the US invulnerable to Soviet attack, thereby allowing the US to launch missiles against the USSR without fear of retaliation. This concern about a surprise attack prompted the sudden expansion of the RYAN program. The level of concern reached its peak after the Soviets shot down KAL 007 near Moneron Island on 1 September 1983, and during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise Able Archer 83 in November. The Soviet Union believed that a United States first strike on the Soviet Union was imminent.^[2]

Although Andropov died in February 1984, RYAN continued to be maintained and developed under the direction of Victor Chebrikov. Consultations held in August 1984 between the Stasi's head of the Main Directorate of Reconnaissance, Markus Wolf, and KGB experts discussed the early detection of potential war preparations in adversaries, and indicated that the First Chief Directorate of the KGB was proposing to create a new division, to deal exclusively with RYAN. 300 positions within the KGB were earmarked for RYAN, of which 50 were reserved for the new division.^[6]

Operation RYAN continued to be maintained until at least April 1989.^[7]

Works

Deutschland 83

References

^ President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (15 February 1990). The Soviet "War Scare" (PDF) (Report). p. vi.
^ ^a ^b ^c Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Gardners Books. ISBN 0-14-028487-7.
^ [1] by Benjamin B. Fischer
^ Benjamin B. Fischer. "A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare — Appendix A: RYAN and the Decline of the KGB".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Forecasting Nuclear War". Wilson Center. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
^ "Deputy Minister Markus Wolf, Stasi Note on Meeting with KGB Experts on the RYAN Problem, 14 to 18 August 1984". Translated by Bernd Schaefer. History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. 24 August 1984.
^ Archive, Wilson Center Digital. "Wilson Center Digital Archive". digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org.

v t e Soviet Union–United States relations
Diplomatic posts	Embassy of the Soviet Union, Washington, D.C. Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to the United States Soviet ambassador's residence Embassy of the United States, Moscow Ambassadors of the United States to the Soviet Union Spaso House Consulate-General of the Soviet Union, New York City John Henry Hammond House Consulate-General of the Soviet Union, San Francisco Elmcroft Estate Lothrop Mansion Pioneer Point Permanent Mission of the Soviet Union to the United Nations Killenworth Russian Soviet Government Bureau Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Diplomacy	Lend-Lease Lend-Lease Sherman tanks Moscow Conference (1941) Moscow Conference (1942) Moscow Conference (1943) Declaration of the Four Nations Moscow Conference (1944) Yalta Conference Potsdam Conference Tehran Conference Moscow Conference (1945) Stalin Note Berlin Conference (1954) Geneva Summit (1955) Lacy-Zarubin Agreement United States restitution to the Soviet Union State visit by Nikita Khrushchev to the United States United Nations Security Council Resolution 135 Dartmouth Conference Vienna summit Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament Moscow–Washington hotline Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Glassboro Summit Conference Détente Linkage Bion program Kosmos 782 Kosmos 936 Kosmos 1129 Kosmos 1514 Kosmos 1667 Kosmos 1887 Kosmos 2044 TOPAZ nuclear reactor Moscow Summit (1972) Washington Summit (1973) 1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions Geneva Conference (1973) Moscow Summit (1974) Vladivostok Summit Meeting on Arms Control NATO Double-Track Decision Zero Option Geneva Summit (1985) Reykjavík Summit Washington Summit (1987) Geneva Accords (1988) Moscow Summit (1988) Governors Island Summit US/USSR Joint Statement on Uniform Acceptance of Rules of International Law Governing Innocent Passage Malta Summit Helsinki Summit (1990) Madrid peace conference letter of invitation European Advisory Commission Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls Council for American–Soviet Trade Council of Foreign Ministers
Cold War	Origins Timeline 1947–1948 1948–1953 1953–1962 1962–1979 1979–1985 1985–1991 Espionage Cold War in Asia Cold War tensions and the polio vaccine Nuclear arms race Space Race Timeline United States war plans (1945–1950) U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation Active Measures Working Group Air-to-air combat losses between the Soviet Union and the United States CIA activities in the Soviet Union Containment Rollback Red Scare The Moscow rules Seven Days to the River Rhine Sheldon names Strategic Defense Initiative United States aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union Bomber gap Missile gap NSC 68 Smolensk Archive Soviet Military Power Operation Shocker Plan Totality Nitrophenyl pentadienal Venona project Operation Anadyr Operation Breakthrough Operation Cedar Operation Chrome Dome Operation Cyclone Operation Dropshot Operation Giant Lance Operation Gold Operation Denver Operation Ivy Bells Operation Keelhaul Operation Lincoln Operation Monopoly Operation RYAN Operation Safe Haven (1957) Operation Sunrise 7th Air Escadrille Project Azorian Project Coldfeet Project Dark Gene Project Genetrix Project Grab Bag Project HOMERUN Project Moby Dick Project Mogul Project Hula
Incidents	Sisson Documents Turkish Straits crisis Welles Declaration Gorin v. United States Atomic spies Baruch Plan Iran crisis of 1946 Niš incident Berlin Blockade Kasenkina Case Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. Hollow Nickel Case Moscow Signal Capture of the Tuapse We will bury you Kuzma's mother Sputnik crisis Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959 1958 C-130 shootdown incident 1960 U-2 incident 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident Transfermium Wars Arrest of Mark Kaminsky and Harvey Bennett Martin and Mitchell defection Shoe-banging incident Berlin Crisis of 1961 1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident Cuban Missile Crisis Crateology SS Metallurg Anosov Ich bin ein Berliner 1964 T-39 shootdown incident Pan Am Flight 708 Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair Aeroflot Flight 244 Gambell incident Project Azorian Soviet submarine K-129 (1960) Feodor Fedorenko Siberian Seven United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union 1980 Summer Olympics boycott Yellow rain Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline Evil Empire speech Korean Air Lines Flight 007 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident Able Archer 83 Autumn Forge 83 1984 Summer Olympics boycott We begin bombing in five minutes Arthur D. Nicholson John Anthony Walker 1986 Black Sea incident Soviet submarine K-219 Karl Linnas Tear down this wall! Yeniseysk-15 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Chicken Kiev speech
Military relations	Allied Control Council Allied Kommandatura Allied technological cooperation during World War II ALSIB Arctic convoys of World War II Berlin Victory Parade of 1945 Elbe Day Four Policemen Four Power Naval Commission Four-Power Authorities GIUK gap Line of Contact Military liaison missions Northwest Staging Route Pacific Route Persian Corridor Persian Gulf Command Warsaw airlift Tripartite Naval Commission Eisenhower Doctrine Truman Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Stimson Doctrine Bell P-63 Kingcobra Belorussia-class cargo ship SS Dakotan SS Indigirka SS Iowan Tupolev Tu-4 Tupolev Tu-70 Tupolev Tu-80 USCGC Southwind USS West Bridge United States and the Russian Revolution American Expeditionary Force, North Russia American Expeditionary Force, Siberia North Russia intervention Siberian intervention
Legislation	Russian Famine Relief Act Executive Order 8484 Jackson–Vanik amendment Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991 Former Soviet Union Demilitarization Act of 1992 FRIENDSHIP Act of 1993
Treaties	Moscow Declarations Potsdam Agreement Wanfried agreement McCloy–Zorin Accords Outer Space Treaty Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space Four Power Agreement on Berlin Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War Threshold Test Ban Treaty Strategic Arms Limitation Talks National technical means of verification Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord USSR–USA Maritime Boundary Agreement Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany START I Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
Organizations	American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia Ark Project American National Exhibition Kitchen Debate American Peace Mobilization American Relief Administration American Russian Institute American University speech American–Soviet friendship movement American-Soviet Peace Walks Amerika (magazine) Amtorg Trading Corporation And you are lynching Negroes Androgynous Peripheral Attach System Anglo-American School of Moscow Anglo-American School of St. Petersburg Ansonia Clock Company Apollo–Soyuz Apollo-Soyuz (cigarette) Center for Citizen Initiatives Communist Party USA Dewey Commission Institute for US and Canadian Studies International Conference of Laser Applications International Cospas-Sarsat Programme International Publishers Kennan Institute Kersten Committee Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews Friends of Soviet Russia Foundation for Social Inventions Gennady Alferenko Friendship Flight '89 Friendship Flight (Alaska Airlines) Fund for Armenian Relief National Committee for a Free Europe National Council of American–Soviet Friendship Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia Russian-American Industrial Corporation Russian War Relief Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia Soviet Government Purchasing Commission in the U.S. U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine U.S. Peace Council
Related	Russian Empire–United States relations Russia–United States relations Russian Embassy School in Washington, D.C. 1972 Olympic men's basketball final 1976 Philadelphia Flyers–Red Army game 1989 visit by Boris Yeltsin to the United States Baltic Freedom Day Bush legs Captive Nations Captive Nations Week GAZ Goodwill Games Glasnost Bowl Little Joe Miracle on Ice New world order (politics) Pushinka Refusenik SAGE Self-propelled barge T-36 Shvetsov M-25 Super Series Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War Sovfoto Triangular diplomacy U.S.–Soviet Space Bridge US vs. USSR radio chess match 1945 USA–USSR Track and Field Dual Meet Series Uzel White Coke World Chess Championship 1972 X Article Yardymly Russian Life Soviet Interview Project Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Comparison of the AK-47 and M16 Bobby Fischer Georgi Bolshakov Samantha Smith Roswell Garst Suzanne Massie Who's Who in the CIA Eagles East The Admiral's Daughter Deep Black The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks Stalingrad Free to Be... a Family "In Soviet Georgia" Red Wave "Ordinary People"
Category:Soviet Union–United States relations

Background

Operation

Works

See also

References

Further reading

Operation RYAN
Russian	Операция РЯН
Romanization	Operation RYAN

Epstein Files Full PDF

Background

Operation

Works

See also

References

Further reading