The Academy of Foreign Intelligence (alternatively known as the SVR Academy,[1] previously known as the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute and the Red Banner Institute)[2] is one of the primary espionage academies of Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, serving the KGB and its successor organization, the Foreign Intelligence Service. It was attended by future PresidentVladimir Putin during the 1980s.[3][4][5]
Location
The school is located north of Moscow, with a main facility north of Chelebityevo (Russian: Челобитьево) and a secondary facility at Yurlovo (Russian: Юрлово).[6][7]
History
An earlier iteration of the school was founded in 1938 and first called the Special Purpose School (Shkola osovogo naznacheniya, SHON) under NKVD.[8] It was renamed the Higher Intelligence School (VRSh) from 1948 to 1968.[9][10] It was alternatively known as School 1010 or the 101st School, and referred to as K1 or Gridnevka by students.[6][8][11]
^Weiss, Michael (December 27, 2017). "Revealed: The Secret KGB Manual for Recruiting Spies". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 2, 2018. The foreign arm is today known as the SVR, which is the actual successor of the First Chief Directorate; the Andropov Red Banner Institute, in fact, is now called the SVR Academy.
^Martin Ebon (1994). KGB: Death and Rebirth. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 185. ISBN978-0-275-94633-3. More specialized espionage instructions were provided by the Red Banner Institute, renamed in memory of former KGB chief Yuri Andropov and usually simply called the Andropov Institute.
^Chris Hutchins (2012). Putin. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 40. ISBN978-1-78088-114-0. But these were the honeymoon days and she was already expecting their first child when he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in September 1984 [...] At Red Banner students were given a nom de guerre beginning with the same letter as their surname. Thus Comrade Putin became Comrade Platov.
^Andrew Jack (15 December 2005). Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN978-0-19-029336-9. He returned to work in Leningrad's First Department for intelligence for four and a half years, and then attended the elite Andropov Red Banner Institute for intelligence training before his posting to the German Democratic Republic in 1985.
^Peter Truscott (2005). Putin's Progress: A Biography of Russia's Enigmatic President, Vladimir Putin. Pocket Books. p. 46. ISBN978-0-7434-9607-0. Four and a half years after joining the KGB's First Department in Leningrad, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which became the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. This was the KGB's elite school for foreign agents, where the USSR's top spies were trained. Located in woods outside Moscow, the Red Banner Institute is isolated and fenced-off with barbed wire.
^FBIS Daily Report: Central Eurasia. The Service. 1995. p. 3. After the war V.V. Gridnev served as director of the 101st School, which trained personnel for our foreign intelligence service. The future intelligence agents idolized their director and informally called the 101st School "Gridnevka." Later it became the higher training establishment of our intelligence service—the Yu.V. Andropov Red Banner Institute, was created on the basis of that school.
^Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter. Peter Isaacson. 1993. p. 27. The number of students at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which trains intelligence staff, has dropped from 300 to about 50.
^John Earl Haynes (August 2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. p. 393. ISBN978-0-300-12987-8. After the war he undertook numerous intelligence assignments and headed one of the schools of the KGB's Andropov Red Banner Institute for training of KGB personnel.