View source for List of spymasters

{{Short description|none}}
{{For-multi|the Marvel supervillain|Spymaster (character)|the Romanian television series|Spy/Master}}A '''spymaster''' is a leader of a group of [[Spy|spies]] or an [[intelligence agency]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-21 |title=Definition of SPYMASTER |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spymaster |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref>

==List of spymasters==
{{Expand list|date=June 2018}}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" 
|-
!Name
!When
!Allegiance 
!Agency/Organization/Service
|-
|[[Akashi Motojiro|Motojiro Akashi]]
|1904
|{{JPN}}
|Akashi Kikan
|-
|[[Vera Atkins]]
|1944
|{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[Special Operations Executive]]
|-
|[[Lavrentiy Beria]]
|1938
|{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
|[[NKVD]]
|-
|[[Arturo Bocchini]]
|1927–1940
|{{flagicon|Kingdom of Italy}} [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]]
|[[OVRA]]
|-
|[[Wilhelm Canaris]]
|1935
|{{flag|Nazi Germany|1935}}
|[[Abwehr]]
|-
|[[Thomas Cromwell]]
|1533
|{{flag|Kingdom of England}}
|
|-
|[[William J. Donovan]]
|1941
|{{flag|United States|1912}}
|[[Office of Strategic Services]]
|-
|Armand Jean du Plessis ([[Cardinal Richelieu]])
|1616
|{{flag|Kingdom of France}}
|
|-
|[[Allen Dulles]]
|1953
|{{flag|United States}}
|[[Central Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[L. B. Moerdani|L.B. Moerdani]]
|1952–1988
|{{flag|Indonesia}}
|[[State Intelligence Agency (Indonesia)|State Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[Ali Murtopo]] 
|1945–1978 
|{{flag|Indonesia}}
|[[State Intelligence Agency (Indonesia)|State Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[Yoga Sugama]]
|1942–1989
|{{flag|Indonesia}}
|[[State Intelligence Agency (Indonesia)|State Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[Zhou Enlai]]
|1928–1932
|{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Chinese Communist Party (Pre-1996).svg}} [[Chinese Communist Party]]{{notetag|name=Chin|Years of service as a spymaster with the Chinese Communist Party predates the foundation of the [[People's Republic of China]] (1949)}}
|Special Service section of the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|Central Committee]]<br>Urban Work Committee of the Central Committee
|-
|Rafaat Gebril
|1973
|{{flag|Egypt}}
|[[General Intelligence Directorate (Egypt)]]
|-
|[[Ali Mamlouk]]
|2005–2024
|{{flag|Ba'athist Syria}}
|[[National Security Bureau of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|National Security Bureau]]<br>[[General Intelligence Directorate (Syria)]]
|-
|Sándor Goldberger (alias [[J. Peters]])
|1930–1948
|{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
|[[Communist Party USA]]
|-
|[[Sidney Gottlieb]]
|1951–1973
|{{Flag|United States}}
|[[Central Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[Hamid Gul]]
|1987–1989
|{{flag|Pakistan}}
|[[Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence]]
|-
|[[Javed Nasir]]
|1992-1993
|{{flag|Pakistan}}
|[[Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence]]
|-
|[[Faiz Hameed]]
|2019
|{{flag|Pakistan}}
|[[Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence]]
|-
|[[Isser Harel]]
|1952–1963
|{{flag|Israel}}
|[[Mossad]]
|-
|[[R. N. Kao]]
|1968–1977
|{{flag|India}}
|[[Research and Analysis Wing]]
|-
|[[Ronnie Kasrils]]
|1983–1989<br />2004–2008
|{{flag|South Africa}}<br />
|[[Umkhonto we Sizwe]]<br />[[Minister of State Security (South Africa)|Minister of Intelligence Services]]
|-
|[[David Kimche]]
|1953–1980
|{{flag|Israel}}
|[[Mossad]]
|-
|[[Ivone Kirkpatrick]]
|1918–1918
|{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[British Army]], Belgian resistance 
|-
|[[Maxwell Knight]]
|1924–1930
|{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[MI5]]
|-
|[[Leong Chee Woh|Chee Woh, Leong]]
|1971–1984
|{{Flag|Malaysia}}
|[[Special Branch (Malaysia)|Special Branch]]
|-
|[[Dai Li]]
|1928–1946
|{{flag|Republic of China}}
|[[National Revolutionary Army]]
|-
|[[Colin Hercules Mackenzie]]
|1940–1946
|{{Flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[Special Operations Executive]] – [[Force 136]]
|-
|[[Tengku Mahmood Mahyideen]]
|1942–1945
|{{Flagicon image|Flag of the United Kingdom.svg}} [[British Malaya]]
|[[Special Operations Executive]] –
[[Force 136]] (Malayan region)
|-
|[[Yuri Modin]]
|1948–1951
|{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
|[[NKVD]]
|-
|[[Hugh Montgomery (diplomat)|Hugh Montgomery]]
|1953–1981 (CIA)
1981–1985 (INR)
1989–2014 (CIA)
|{{flag|United States}}
|[[Central Intelligence Agency]]
[[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]]
|-
|[[Bhola Nath Mullik]]
|1950–1964 
|{{flag|India}}
|[[Intelligence Bureau (India)|Intelligence Bureau]]
|-
|[[Donald Nichols (spy)|Donald Nichols]]
|1951
|{{flag|United States|1912}}
|[[6004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron]]
|-
|[[Manuel Piñeiro]]
|1961–1964
|{{flag|Cuba}}
|[[Dirección de Inteligencia]]
|-
|[[Allan Pinkerton]]
|1855–1861
|{{flag|United States|1861}}
|Union Intelligence Service
|-
|[[Wang Puchen]]
|1948–1949
|{{flag|Republic of China}}
|[[Bureau of Investigation and Statistics]]
|-
|[[Pyotr Rachkovsky]]
|1885–1902
|{{flag|Russian Empire|1858}}
|[[Okhrana]]
|-
|[[Alfred Redl]]
|1903–1913
|{{flag|Austria-Hungary}};<br>{{flag|Russian Empire}}{{notetag|Redl was appointed as the head of [[counterintelligence]] at the Evidenzbureau, the Austro-Hungarian military intelligence organization in 1907. However, Redl was already compromised by Russian agents {{circa|1900}}, and provided information to the Russian Empire until he was caught by Austro-Hungarian authorities in 1913.}}
|[[Evidenzbureau]]
|-
|[[Mao Renfeng]]
|1946–1956
|{{flag|Republic of China}}
|[[Bureau of Investigation and Statistics]]
|-
|[[Semyon Semyonov]]
|1937–1950
|{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
|[[NKVD]]
|-
|[[Kang Sheng]]
|1940s–1946
|{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Chinese Communist Party (Pre-1996).svg}} [[Chinese Communist Party]]{{notetag|name=Chin|Years of service as a spymaster with the Chinese Communist Party predates the foundation of the [[People's Republic of China]] (1949)}}
|[[Central Social Affairs Department]]
|-
|[[Hugh Sinclair]]
|1919–1939
|{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[Secret Intelligence Service]]
|-
|[[Mansfield Smith-Cumming]]
|1909–1923
|{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|[[Secret Intelligence Service]]
|-
|[[Richard Sorge]]
|1920–1941
|{{flag|Soviet Union|1924}}
|[[Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)|Main Intelligence Directorate]]
|-
|[[Sidney Souers]]
|1946–1946
|{{flag|United States|1912}}
|[[Director of the Central Intelligence Agency]]
|-
|[[Gustav Steinhauer]]
|1911–1914
|{{flag|Germany|1866}}
|[[Nachrichten-Abteilung]]
|-
|[[William Stephenson]]
|1940–1946
|{{flag|Canada|1921}}
|[[British Security Co-ordination]]
|-
|[[Emanuel Sueyro]]
|{{circa|1620}}–1629
|{{flag|Spain|1506}}
|
|-
|[[Benjamin Tallmadge]]
|1778–1783
|{{flag|United States|1777}}
|[[Culper Ring]]
|-
|[[John Thurloe]]
|1653
|{{flag|Commonwealth of England}}
|
|-
|[[Liam Tobin]]
|1919
|{{flag|Irish Republic}}
|[[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]]
|-
|[[Francis Walsingham]]
|1573–1590
|{{flag|Kingdom of England}}
|
|-
|[[George Washington]]
|1775
|{{flag|United States|1777}}
|[[Continental Army]]
|-
|[[William Wickham (1761–1840)|William Wickham]]
|1795–1801
|{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|
|-
|[[Markus Wolf]]
|1951–1986
|{{flag|East Germany}}
|[[Main Directorate for Reconnaissance]]
|-
|[[Shen Zui]]
|1934–1949
|{{flag|Republic of China}}
|[[Bureau of Investigation and Statistics]]
|-
|[[Kyrylo Budanov]]
|2020–present
|{{flag|Ukraine}}
|[[Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine)]]
|-
|[[Ajit Doval]]
|2014–present
|{{flag|India}}
|[[National Security Advisor (India)]]
|}

==See also==
* [[List of American spies]]
* [[List of British spies]]
* [[List of German spies]]
* [[List of fictional spymasters]]

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite book |first=Nitin|last=Gokhale |title=Gentleman Spymaster:R.N.Kao |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd |ISBN=978-9354358913}}

==Notes==
{{notefoot}}

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Spies by role|Spymasters]]
[[Category:Spymasters|*]]
[[Category:Lists of people by occupation|Spymasters]]
[[Category:Espionage-related lists|Spymasters]]