In Search of a Lesser Evil: Anti-Soviet Nationalism and the Cold War

This dissertation explores Western intelligence services' early Cold War employment of former Nazi officers and collaborators who planned and participated in the wartime occupation of Soviet territories. In the early Cold War, Western intelligence agencies actively recruited individuals with clear records of hate-based politics, ethnic atrocities, and tendencies towards authoritarianism. This work explores the early Cold War relationship between western intelligence services and anti-Soviet nationalist émigrés, as well the use of ethnic hatred as a political weapon against communism. Its findings alter our current paradigm for understanding international and transnational support for nationalist, ethnic-based movements and the modern manipulation of ethnic hatred as a political tool.
This study draws upon archival materials released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998, including records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (RG 65), Immigrations and Naturalization Service (RG 85), Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263), and the records of the Army Staff (RG 319). It also includes declassified records of the British National Archives. These documents include the records of the Security Service (KV 2), records of the Foreign Office: Political Departments (FO 371), records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Northern Department and East European and Soviet Department (FCO 28), and the records of the War Office: Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence, and Directorate of Military Intelligence (WO 208).