Max organization

Max organization, putative German Abwehr espionage network which was said to be based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Its leader was a German Jew, Richard Kauder (MAX KLATT), who worked with two White Russian émigrés, Anton Turkul and Ilya Lang. They claimed to have a network of radio agents among Red Army personnel who belonged to anti-Soviet families (see also Soviet exiles). Kauder told the Abwehr that their reports were collated in the USSR and then transmitted to Turkey from where they were sent on to Sofia by radio. The reports gave detailed and accurate information concerning Red Army troop movements and order of battle. German intelligence apparently relied heavily on the organization but post-war Allied investigations have identified Turkul, Lang, and Kauder as Soviet agents. Counter Intelligence Corps reports released in the 1980s under the US Freedom of Information Act indicate that Turkul was one of the Soviet Union's most effective agents and that one of his aims was to sabotage the use of Vlasov's army in the German–Soviet war. See also spies.