Matts Dumell: They made me a spy

By Jaakko Lyytinen
     
      In a corner table of a Helsinki café sits a gracefully greyed gentleman, who bears a remote resemblance to Marlon Brando. On the table he has a large latte and an afternoon paper.
      Before I get a chance to turn my tape recorder on, Matts Dumell, 57, has a question.
      “What do you want to know?”
      The whole story.
     
It begins in the early 1970s. Matts Dumell, who grew up in Porkkala and Tammisaari, had come to Helsinki to study political history. His studies went quite well, and on the side, Dumell managed to join the socialist student movement.
      The background of most of those in the movement was academic and bourgeois, as was the case with Dumell. In study circles, they would read about Marxism-Leninism, and occasionally they would infiltrate and take over other student organisations.
      Lurking in the background of the hard-line minority faction of the Finnish Communist Party was a sharp young guy, whose background gave him full street credibility. Jaakko Laakso had grown up in a left-wing working class home, and both of his parents were “red orphans” - with parents who had died in connection with the Finnish Civil War of 1918. Laakso had a direct line of communications both to the leadership of the minority faction of the Finnish communists, and to the Embassy of the Soviet Union.
      Laakso asked Dumell if he wanted to get to know some foreign diplomats. “Why not”, Domell answered.
      At that time, every businessman, politician, journalist, and influential person had to have a kotiryssä - a “home Russian”, or contact at the Soviet Embassy. At that time, there were plenty of agents of the KGB, Stasi, and Western intelligence agents in Helsinki.
     
In the spring of 1973 the Presidential term of Urho Kekkonen had been extended with the help of special legislation, and Finland was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Finnish-Soviet Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance.
      Nobody paid attention to the two men who would sit in restaurants, talking mainly about student politics.
      Soviet diplomat Viktor Taratynkin was a jovial fellow, who appreciated good food and drink. Dumell, for his part, was a young man who had just graduated from university, who had nothing against sitting in bars. Once Dumell, Laakso, and Taratynkin spent a weekend at a rented cottage in Bromarvik.
      “He was very jovial and completely harmless. It was just talk, and occasionally, some partying as well”, Dumell says.
      The meetings came to an end when Dumell did his military service, and Taratynkin went back to Moscow.
     
In the autumn of 1975 Taratynkin’s successor suggested a meeting. He was Ernst Russak, a former boxer, and a man of a different caliber than Taratynkin, who was interested in student organisations. Dumell felt that Russak was tedious and fanatical.
      “He had demands, but I said, no thanks. He was a very unpleasant person. He wanted to give orders”, Dumell says. There were reportedly only a few meetings between the two.
     
In late 1977 Dumell again ran into Jaakko Laakso, who had become a journalist with Tiedonantaja, the newspaper of the minority faction of the Finnish communists. Dumell, meanwhile, had become a financial journalist with the Swedish-language news service of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).
      Laakso asked if Dumell was still interested in meeting with Soviet diplomats. His memories of Russak rang alarm bells with Dumell. Laakso nevertheless was offering a useful contact for a financial journalist.
      Dumell became interested, and soon met Aleksei Savin, a new official of the Soviet commercial legation. He had lived in London and spoke excellent English. Savin said that he was touring the Nordic Countries, and organising commercial ties. He proved to be a good source of information. In return, Savin wanted to know unofficial news and gossip from Parliament and the business community.
      Already Russak, his previous kotiryssä, had asked Dumell to visit the Chinese Embassy in Finland. Savin repeated the request. Dumell went to the Embassy to watch film footage, which he thought he might use in a television programme. Savin also asked Dumell to receive letters from a female friend in who had lived in Denmark, because they would have been opened at the Embassy. Dumell agreed to the perform the service.
     
Dumell no longer maintained contact with the Russians in the early 1980s. Instead, he received a call from the Security Police (SUPO). In 1981 SUPO started to interview Savin’s Finnish acquaintances. “Can you help us”, a SUPO detective asked Dumell on the phone.
      “I believed in law and justice. I had no reason not to help”, Dumell says.
     
At SUPO, Dumell was shown about a dozen photographs. Dumell recognised three of his Soviet contacts. SUPO knew that Sumell had met only Savin, so Taratynkin and Russak came as a surprise.
      A SUPO detective asked him if he knew that all three were agents of the Soviet KGB. This came as a complete surprise to Dumell. He says that he never imagined that they were from the KGB.
      A SUPO detective asked for details on what he had spoken with the three Soviets - if he had given them documents, or accepted letters on their behalf. Dumell says that he had told them everything.
      “Later, one person told me that in a situation like this it is best to deny anything. I was really stupid and told everything.”
     
In the autumn of 1981 Finland was going through a strange period. President Kekkonen’s health was deteriorating, and the country was led by Mauno Koivisto who served as a caretaker president.
      SUPO, which was perceived to be the President’s police force, was also in a new situation. Kekkonen had governed SUPO with an iron grip, and named 30-year-old Seppo Tiitinen to lead it in 1978.
      A SUPO detective contacted Dumell again. This time he was also asked about China. The tone of the interview had taken on a more brusque quality. SUPO started to phone him about once a month.
     
When Dumell was called in for a third interview in April 19982, Koivisto had already been elected President.
      This also changed Dumell’s situation. An actual investigation had been initiated after the transition of power had occurred, and Koivisto had told Tiitinen that the Dumell case should be investigated.
      The third interview suddenly turned into an actual interrogation. This meant that the matter was moved to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for investigation, as SUPO at that time did not have the right to conduct preliminary investigation in criminal cases. Dumell was told that he was under suspicion for “illegal passing of information”. He was presented with a protocol comprising about 20 pages, which contained the content of the previous discussions. He was allowed to read only half of it, and to hear the rest read to him aloud.
     
However, there was no arrest at this stage.
      A month later, in May 1982, a meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund took place. It was covered by Dumell as part of his job as an economic journalist for TV-nytt, the Swedish-language news organisation of YLE.
      On Wednesday, May 12th, he was supposed to speak with the US Secretary of the Treasury. On the same day the NBI had called Dumell in for questioning. Having turned down a previous invitation, Dumell opted to stay at the Finlandia Hall, rather than to go to Police Headquarters.
     
This was too much for the police. When Dumell was going to the birthday celebration of a journalist friend, the NBI took him into a car. Dumell was taken to NBI headquarters at Ratakatu, and he was interrogated on suspicion of treason. The interrogators said that Dumell himself had signed the interrogation protocol, where he had said in his own words that he had collected information for three KGB lackeys. Dumell noted that he did not know that the men were working for the KGB.
      There were dozens of journalists at the birthday party, and the word had spread in an instant: Dumell had been nabbed by SUPO. When Dumell got out of jail on Friday, the news was in the papers. Several newspapers, including Helsingin Sanomat, also mentioned Dumell by name. The key words on the front pages of the late edition tabloids were “spy”, “KGB”, and “TV reporter”.
      “The headlines were deadly. And so was the TV news. It was worst for my children.” His ten-year-old daughter saw the newspapers, but his six-year-old son did not understand everything.
     
The trial began in the Helsinki court of Appeals in August 1982. The case was prosecuted according to treason legislation that was passed in 1939. Under the legislation, simply acquiring confidential information was punishable.
      Dumell feels that the trial involved farcical aspects. The lawyer for the prosecution admitted during a cigarette break that he had to press charges because all of the newspapers were writing about the case. One of the judges fell asleep during the session.
      “SUPO had no concrete evidence. Everything was based on what I had told voluntarily.”
     
After the first session of the trial, Dumell was interrogated again. The police indicated to him that the prestige of the NBI and SUPO were at stake, and that a conviction had to come one way or the other.
      The NBI had learned that when he worked for a publication of the Ministry of Labour, Dumell had acquired names and addresses of Finns who had emigrated. Dumell said that he did this in order to mail the publication to the emigrant Finns.
      The police suspected that Dumell had given the papers to the Russians, for whom the information may have been useful in the creation of false identities.
     
It took several weeks for the court to reach a decision. On January 27th, 1983 the sentence was announced: an eight months’ suspended sentence and 2,000 markka in compensation to the state for ill-gotten gains. Dumell had not been paid any money, but he did get vodka and whisky and cab fare.
      The court’s reasons for the sentence were declared a secret. Dumell was told not to speak about the trial. He did not comply, writing an account of the matter, which was published as a book, Minä vakooja (”I Spy”)
      “My only possibility was to tell my own version.”
     
In the book, Dumell described how SUPO had lured him into a trap. Only the names of the people had been changed. Filmmakers Jörn Donner and Anssi Mänttäri considered turning the story into a movie - a police farce.
      A suspended prison sentence was enough for the management of Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) to sack Dumell. Next to react was Dumell’s bank, which called in his debts; the family’s big apartment in Punavuori in the centre of Helsinki was sold by auction. Then came the divorce.
      “The pressure was terrible on my other family members.”
     
The controversial nature of the Dumell case was underscored by the fact that both Dumell and the prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court.
      In spite of being convicted for treason, Dumell still had influential people behind him. Jan-Magnus Jansson, Editor-in Chief of the Swedish-language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, who was the presidential candidate of the Swedish People’s Party in 1982, hired Dumell to work for his paper in the autumn of 1983. It was Jansson who hinted to Dumell before the decision by the Supreme Court, that he would probably be exonerated.
      This was not to be. The Supreme Court gave its decision in March 1984: the suspended sentence became a non-suspended sentence. In a 3-2 vote, the court convicted him of “deliberately undertaking to acquire information on behalf of a foreign power that could endanger Finnish relations with a foreign power”.
      One can imagine what might have happened behind the scenes”, Dumell says.
      In practice, the sentence came for gathering information on China, and on mail that Dumell had received. There was no evidence of anything else, and the reasons given for the decision were based on what Dumell had said himself.
      After the decision by the Court of Appeals, the sympathy of the media had turned on Dumell’s behalf. The ruling of the Court of Appeals had been the source of amazement in newspaper editorials.
     
So what does Dumell think about all of this now, a quarter of a century later?
      The man sitting in a Helsinki café seems pensive, as the subject of conversation moves to President Koivisto, who had a key role in the Dumell case, all the way to the end. In August 1984 Koivisto rejected Dumell’s appeal for clemency. In spite of everything, Dumell is not bitter toward Koivisto.
      “Suomi did not have foreign policy credibility. Everyone knew that there was a system here that leaked like a sieve. Finland was a class B democracy.”
      “The most important priority was to get the kotiryssä system cleaned away, and to get this black period of history wiped out in some manner. I understand it very well.”
     
Koivisto, who had fought in the war, naturally had a different background than Kekkonen, who was a former intelligence man. “Koivisto was very strongly in favour of Western democracy.”
      In that situation, SUPO was someone who took orders from the President. “The chief of SUPO was nothing but a lap dog of the President.”
      Dumell’s image of SUPO was quite different from the assessments of a small, but competent Security Police, which was the portrayal that came out in Kimmo Rentola’s history.
      “For SUPO, my case was a bull’s eye. They had to get someone. SUPO was a degenerate and politically corrupt ‘police’, which was despised within the police establishment itself. it was an opportunity to show their stuff”, Dumell says.
      According to Dumell, SUPO’s men were not considered to be “the sharpest” among the police establishment. “Plenty of older right-wing detectives had accumulated there. Although the war ended in 1944, they were still living the war.”
     
What about the kotiryssä system, which Dumell had mentioned in court? “Drawing lines was very hard in these kinds of situations. On the one hand, there was encouragement in Finland to maintain contact through the kotiryssäs. How is one supposed to maintain interest without going too far, and without giving too much? It is normal for a journalist to exchange information.”
      In any case, Dumell’s contact persons were in the heavyweight class of espionage. Savin operated in London in the 1960s in sabotage and “wet” cases - that is, in assassinations. Also in Finland, Savin apparently operated in the illegals department, which investigated spies who had operated under false identities. Dumell believes that SUPO got the information about Savin’s background from the US Central intelligence Agency.
     
Dumell’s view that he was made a scapegoat was strengthened in the 1990s. In 1993 Harri Nykänen wrote an article in Helsingin Sanomat that a high-ranking police official had said that SUPO made Dumell an example and a scapegoat. According to the story, the real villain in the matter was Jukka Laakso.
      So why wasn’t Laakso arrested? According to one theory, SUPO did not want to expose Laakso, because by following him it was easy to find out exactly whom KGB agents were meeting in Finland.
     
Dumell does not want to speculate on Laakso’s position. As far as his own position is concerned, Dumell leans on a statement by a high-ranking SUPO official about ten years ago.
      “He said that the way that my case was handled was shocking. I also heard from a very reliable source in Finnish military intelligence that they had discussed this, and noted that there was nothing there. I received confirmation that there had been pressure involved.”
     
In August 1984 Matts Dumell began to serve his sentence at the Kerava youth Prison. Sharing the cell with him was a major businessman who was serving time for tax evasion. In prison Dumell did metalwork and wrote another book about his case. The manuscript of the therapy book is still in his drawer.
      As a first-time offender, Dumell was released from prison after serving just four months. There was a memory linked with his release which clearly touches Dumell. When he stepped into Sea Horse, his regular bar in Helsinki, the entire room stood up and applauded.
      He also went back to work. At the first press conference that he attended, heads turned and everything went quiet when Dumell walked inside. “The spy is back” was the whisper.
      He got, and continues to get, shouted at on the streets, and there have even been some physical attacks. Some scandal magazines made allegations that Dumell is a multimillionaire and that he owns entire large buildings. “I didn’t try to correct the story. The less you open your mouth, the easier things go.”
     
In the mid-1980s Dumell was one of the people setting up Radio Ykkönen, one of Finland’s first commercial radio stations. At one point he returned to Hufvudstadsbladet.
      While covering Parliament in the early 1990s, he ran into Jaakko Laakso, who had become an MP. KGB code names Dick (Dumell) and Jan (Laakso) met in the Parliament’s café. Their relations were not especially warm. “We said hello.”
     
Laakso never expressed any regret to Dumell about what had happened. Laakso assured him that he had acted in good faith, as nothing more than a go-between and an introducer.
      Fifteen years ago Dumell became an entrepreneur and started making TV documentaries and reports. In 1997 the Rikosraportti (“Crime Report”) series began, making him a familiar face on television.
      In recent years he says he has been able to do exactly what he has always wanted: reports and documentaries on subjects of his own choosing.
      At the end of the interview, Matts Dumell still has one more concern.
      “I hope that this story doesn’t give the impression that I am bitter. I’m not. I don’t want to look back at old things. I want to look forward.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russian diplomat in Helsinki served as head of KGB assassination section (28.8.2009)
  Ex SUPO-chief denies Dumell espionage investigation was ordered by President Koivisto (7.9.2009)
  Security Police history: President decided whom to prosecute for espionage (28.8.2009)