Agent Validation: Professional and ‘Leftist’

Translated below are two agent validation reports on Yang. The template for reports like these resembled be the KGB‘s karakteristika agenta , which was meant to describe, among other things, a person’s ‘strong points and shortcomings … which have come to light while he was used for agent work, prospects for making further use of him, and an evaluation of his work over a particular period’. The first validation report (from 1953) assesses in depth Yang’s overall performance and potential as an operative, while the second report (from 1957) mainly highlights his performance during the Communist Party’s Hundred Flowers Campaign.